Untitled Sermon (15)

Do not limit the benefit of fasting merely to abstinence from food, for a true fast means refraining from evil. Do not let your fasting lead to wrangling and strife. You do not eat meat, but you devour your brother; you abstain from wine, but not from insults. So all the labor of your fast is useless.

Ambrose of Milan

First, let fasting be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven.

John Wesley

By fasting, the body learns to obey the soul; by praying, the soul learns to command the body.

William Secker

The honor of fasting consists not in abstinence from food, but in withdrawing from sinful practices; since he who limits his fasting only to an abstinence from meats, is one who especially disparages it. Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works! Is it said by what kind of works? If you see a poor man, take pity on him! If you see an enemy, be reconciled to him! If you see a friend gaining honor, do not envy him! If you see a handsome woman, pass her by! For do not let only the mouth fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies.

John Chrysostom

The absence of fasting is the measure of our contentment with the absence of Christ.

John Piper