Shorten Diet and Fasting

This is an abstract of a blog of Msgr. Charles Pope, a priest of Archdiocese Washington. http://blog.adw.org/2012/02/the-key-to-true-fasting-2/

1. Required fasting is almost non-exist in the Catholic Church today (absolutely in Protestants, my note). A simple will power can pull off a fast, especially the mitigate one.

2. In the Gospel Matt 9:14-15, Jesus ask this question as a reply for the disciples, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

3. The wedding feast, Jesus’ time with the disciples, was a time of satiation.

4. So, if you want to have the capacity to fast spiritually and truly you have to experience the wedding feast of the Lamb of God. We were and are to encounter him and feast abundantly on his Word, his Body and Blood in:

a) Prayer

b) Scripture

c) Liturgy

d) And wherever and whenever our life is blooming. (my note)

It is not the end. More information was documented in

http://blog.adw.org/2012/02/the-key-to-true-fasting-2/.

Original of the Lent

It is the first Lent season of my service career for our congregations. The following is quoted from Catholic Encyclopedia. May their work blessed. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm

Origin of the custom

Some of the Fathers as early as the fifth century supported the view that this forty days' fast was of Apostolic institution. For example, St. Leo (d. 461) exhorts his hearers to abstain that they may "fulfill with their fasts the Apostolic institution of the forty days" — ut apostolica institutio quadraginta dierum jejuniis impleatur (P.L., LIV, 633), and the historian Socrates (d. 433) and St. Jerome (d. 420) use similar language (P.G., LXVII, 633; P.L., XXII, 475).

[早期教父在3世紀的時候，曾經提到過四十天禁食是使徒的習俗，如利奧，教會史學家蘇格拉底，聖師耶柔米。但這看法卻遭到現代學者幾乎一致的拒絕，因為還有許多3世紀不同的復活節前禁食活動記載。]

But the best modern scholars are almost unanimous in rejecting this view, for in the existing remains of the first three centuries we find both considerable diversity of practice regarding the fast before Easter and also a gradual process of development in the matter of its duration. The passage of primary importance is one quoted by Eusebius (Church History V.24) from a letter of St. Irenaeus to Pope Victor in connection with the Easter controversy. There Irenaeus says that there is not only a controversy about the time of keeping Easter but also regarding the preliminary fast. "For", he continues, "some think they ought to fast for one day, others for two days, and others even for several, while others reckon forty hours both of day and night to their fast". He also urges that this variety of usage is of ancient date, which implies that there could have been no Apostolic tradition on the subject. Rufinus, who translated Eusebius into Latin towards the close of the fourth century, seems so to have punctuated this passage as to make Irenaeus say that some people fasted for forty days. Formerly some difference of opinion existed as to the proper reading, but modern criticism (e.g., in the edition of Schwartz commissioned by the Berlin Academy) pronounces strongly in favor of the text translated above. We may then fairly conclude that Irenaeus about the year 190 knew nothing of any Easterfast of forty days.

The same inference must be drawn from the language of Tertullian only a few years later. When writing as a Montanist, he contrasts the very slender term of fasting observed by the Catholics (i.e., "the days on which the bridegroom was taken away", probably meaning the Friday and Saturday of Holy Week) with the longer but still restricted period of a fortnight which was kept by the Montanists. No doubt he was referring to fasting of a very strict kind (xerophagiæ — dry fasts), but there is no indication in his works, though he wrote an entire treatise "De Jejunio", and often touches upon the subject elsewhere, that he was acquainted with any period of forty days consecrated to more or less continuous fasting (see Tertullian, On Fasting 2 and 14; cf.On Prayer 18; etc.).

And there is the same silence observable in all the pre-Nicene Fathers, though many had occasion to mention such an Apostolicinstitution if it had existed. We may note for example that there is no mention of Lent in St. Dionysius of Alexandria (ed. Feltoe, 94 sqq.) or in the "Didascalia", which Funk attributes to about the yearkú yet both speak diffusely of the paschal fast.

Further, there seems much to suggest that the Church in the Apostolic Age designed to commemorate the Resurrection of Christ, not by an annual, but by a weekly celebration (see "The Month", April 1910, 337 sqq.). If this be so, the Sunday liturgyconstituted the weekly memorial of the Resurrection, and the Friday fast that of the Death of Christ. Such a theory offers a natural explanation of the wide divergence which we find existing in the latter part of the second century regarding both the proper time for keeping Easter, and also the manner of the paschal fast. Christians were at one regarding the weekly observance of the Sunday and the Friday, which was primitive, but the annual Easter festival was something superimposed by a process of natural development, and it was largely influenced by the conditions locally existing in the different Churches of the East andWest. Moreover, with the Easter festival there seems also to have established itself a preliminary fast, not as yet anywhere exceeding a week in duration, but very severe in character, which commemorated the Passion, or more generally, "the days on which the bridegroom was taken away".

Be this as it may, we find in the early years of the fourth century the first mention of the term tessarakoste. It occurs in the fifth canon of the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), where there is only question of the proper time for celebrating a synod, and it is conceivable that it may refer not to a period but to a definite festival, e.g., the Feast of the Ascension, or the Purification, which Ætheria calls quadragesimæ de Epiphania. But we have to remember that the older word, pentekoste (Pentecost) from meaning the fiftieth day, had come to denote the whole of the period (which we should call Paschal Time) between Easter Sunday and Whit-Sunday (cf. Tertullian, On Idolatry 14, — "pentecosten implere non poterunt"). In any case it is certain from the "Festal Letters" of St. Athanasius that in 331 the saint enjoined upon his flock a period of forty days of fasting preliminary to, but not inclusive of, the stricter fast of Holy Week, and secondly that in 339 the same Father, after having traveled to Rome and over the greater part of Europe, wrote in the strongest terms to urge this observance upon the people of Alexandria as one that was universally practiced, "to the end that while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing-stock as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in those days". Although Funk formerly maintained that a Lent of forty days was not known in the West before the time of St. Ambrose, this is evidence which cannot be set aside.

100 questions Jesus asked and you ought to answer

http://blog.adw.org/2012/02/100-questions-jesus-asked-and-you-ought-to-answer/

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

One of the bigger mistakes people make in reading Scripture is that they read it as a spectator. For them Scripture is a collection of stories and events that took place thousands of years ago. True enough, we are reading historical accounts.

But, truth be told these ancient stories are our stories. We are in the narrative. You are Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Deborah, Jeremiah, Ruth, Peter, Paul, Magdalene, Mother Mary, and, if you are prepared to accept it, you are also Jesus. As the narrative we read unfolds, we are in the story. We cannot simply watch what others say or do or answer. For what Peter and Magdalene and others did, we do. Peter denied and ran. So do we. Magdalene loved and never gave up, should should we. Magdalene had a sinful past and a promising future, so do we. Peter was passionate and had a temper so do we. But Peter also loved the Lord and ultimately gave his life for the Lord. So can we. Jesus suffered and died but rose again and ascended to glory. So have we and so will we.

The scriptures are our own story. We are in it. To read scripture as a mere spectator looking on is to miss the keynote. Scripture is our story.

In the light of this keynote there emerges another very important and powerful key to unlocking the text. The key is simply this: Answer the Question! Among the many things Jesus did, he asked a lot of questions! And whenever you read the Gospels and Jesus asks a question, answer it! Do not wait to see what Peter or Magdalene, or the Pharisees or the crowd say for an answer. You answer the question, in your own words. This brings Scripture powerfully alive.

So twenty years ago Bishop John Marshall, Bishop of Burlington VT., and later Springfield Mass compiled a book: But Who Do You Say That I Am? In the book he collected and listed all the questions Jesus asked in the Gospels. And he encourages us to answer the question. Bishop Marshall, in listing the question, gives extra verses for context and adds brief commentaries. However, I would like to list just the raw questions.

I will give the verse reference so you can look it up. But, unless you really think it necessary, avoid looking it up at first. Just let the question meet you where you are right now. The question may mean something for you that is very different that its original context. But that is OK. Just pick a question, read it, consider it and answer it, by talking to the Lord.

Read the list slowly, perhaps over days or weeks, often taking just one question at a time. I have attached a PDF version of the List here: 100 Questions that Jesus asked and YOU must answer. Again, ponder each question. Answer each question prayerfully and reflectively. This is not the complete list of questions but it is surely food for thought. Now, answer the questions:

100 Questions that Jesus asked and YOU must answer:

And if you greet your brethren only, what is unusual about that? Do not the unbelievers do the same? (Matt 5:47)
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan? Matt 6:27
Why are you anxious about clothes? Matt 6:28
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye yet fail to perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? (Matt 7:2)
Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? (Matt 7:16)
Why are you terrified? (Matt 8:26)
Why do you harbor evil thoughts? (Matt 9:4)
Can the wedding guests mourn so long as the Bridegroom is with them? (Matt 9:15)
Do you believe I can do this? (Matt 9:28)
What did you go out to the desert to see? (Matt 11:8)
To what shall I compare this generation? (Matt 11:6)
Which of you who has a sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out? (Matt 12:11)
How can anyone enter a strong man’s house and take hold of his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? (Matt 12:29)
You brood of vipers! How can you say god things when you are evil? (Matt 12:34)
Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? (Matt 12:48)
Why did you doubt? (Matt 14:31)
And why do you break the commandments of God for the sake of your tradition? (Matt 15:3)
How many loaves do you have? (Matt 15:34)
Do you not yet understand? (Matt 16:8)
Who do people say the Son of Man is? (Matt 16:13)
But who do you say that I am? (Matt 16:15)
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life and what can one give in exchange for his life? (Matt 16:26)
O faithless and perverse generation how long must I endure you? (Matt 17:17)
Why do you ask me about what is good? (Matt 19:16)
Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink? (Matt 20:22)
What do you want me to do for you? (Matt 20:32)
Did you never read the scriptures? (Matt 21:42)
Why are you testing me? (Matt 22:18)
Blind fools, which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred….the gift of the altar that makes the gift sacred? (Matt 23:17-19)
How are you to avoid being sentenced to hell? (Matt 23:33)
Why do you make trouble for the woman? (Matt 26:10)
Could you not watch for me one brief hour? (Matt 26:40)
Do you think I cannot call upon my Father and he will not provide me at this moment with more than 12 legions of angels? (Matt 26:53)
Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to seize me? (Matt 26:53)
My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me? (Matt 27:46)
Why are you thinking such things in your heart? (Mark 2:8)
Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed rather than on a lamp stand? (Mark 4:21)
Who has touched my clothes? (Mark 5:30)
Why this commotion and weeping? (Mark 5:39)
Are even you likewise without understanding? (Mark 7:18)
Why does this generation seek a sign? (Mark 8:12)
Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and still not see? Ears and not hear? (Mark 8:17-18)
How many wicker baskets full of leftover fragments did you pick up? (Mark 8:19)
[To the Blind man] Do you see anything? (Mark 8:23)
What were arguing about on the way? (Mark 9:33)
Salt is good, but what if salt becomes flat? (Mark 9:50)
What did Moses command you? (Mark 10:3)
Do you see these great buildings? They will all be thrown down. (Mark 13:2)
Simon, are you asleep? (Mark 14:37)
Why were you looking for me? (Luke 2:49)
What are you thinking in your hearts? (Luke 5:22)
Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do what I command? (Luke 6:46)
Where is your faith (Luke 8:25)
What is your name? (Luke 8:30)
Who touched me? (Luke 8:45)
Will you be exalted to heaven? (Luke 10:15)
What is written in the law? How do you read it? (Luke 10:26)
Which of these three in your opinion was neighbor to the robber’s victim? (Luke 10:36)
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? (Luke 11:40)
Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbiter? (Luke 12:14)
If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest? (Luke 12:26)
Why do you not judge for yourself what is right? (Luke 12:57)
What king, marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king marching upon him with twenty thousand troops? (Luke 14:31)
If therefore you are not trustworthy with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? (Luke 16:11)
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God? (Luke 17:18)
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? (Luke 18:7)
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth? (Luke 18:8)
For who is greater, the one seated a table or the one who serves? (Luke 22:27)
Why are you sleeping? (Luke 22:46)
For if these things are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? (Luke 23:31)
What are you discussing as you walk along? (Luke 24:17)
Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter his glory? (Luke 24:26)
Have you anything here to eat? (Luke 24:41)
What are you looking for? (John 1:38)
How does this concern of your affect me? (John 2:4)
You are a teacher in Israel and you do not understand this? (John 3: 10)
If I tell you about earthly things and you will not believe, how will you believe when I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3: 12)
Do you want to be well? (John 5:6)
How is it that you seek praise from one another and not seek the praise that comes from God? (John 5:44)
If you do not believe Moses’ writings how will you believe me? (John 5:47)
Where can we buy enough food for them to eat? (John 6:5)
Does this (teaching of the Eucharist) shock you? (John 6:61)
Do you also want to leave me? (John 6:67)
Why are you trying to kill me? (John 7:19)
Woman where are they, has no one condemned you? (John 8:10)
Why do you not understand what I am saying? (John 8:43)
Can any of you charge me with sin? (John 8:46)
If I am telling you the truth, why do you not believe me? (John 8:46)
Are there not twelve hours in a day? (John 11:9)
Do you believe this? (John 11:26)
Do you realize what I have done for you? (John 13:12)
Have I been with you for so long and still you do not know me? (John 14:9)
Whom are you looking for? (John 18:4)
Shall I not drink the cup the Father gave me? (John 18:11)
If I have spoken rightly, why did you strike me? (John 18:23)
Do you say [what you say about me] on your own or have others been telling you about me? (John 18:34)
Have you come to believe because you have seen me? (John 20:29)
Do you love me? (John 21:16)
What if I want John to remain until I come? (John 21:22)
What concern is it of yours? (John 21:22)

After all this you might have a few questions for God:

中國特色characteristics of China

@作业本：何为中国特色？答：保护性拆除、休假式治疗、临时性强奸、轻度型追尾、和谐式维稳、幻想型自由、试探性自杀、合约式宰客、政策性调控、倒退性改革、疯狗式贪污、挽救性枪毙、正确性错误、保护性销毁、礼节性受贿、政策性提价、钓鱼式执法、确认性选举、临时性员工…普遍性无耻，习惯性装逼。

Mother Teresa’s Humility List

Mother Teresa’s Humility List

1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.
2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.
3. Avoid curiosity.
4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.
5. Accept small irritations with good humor.
6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.
7. Accept censures even if unmerited.
8. Give in to the will of others.
9. Accept insults and injuries.
10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.
11. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone.
12. Do not seek to be admired and loved.
13. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity.
14. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.
15. Choose always the more difficult task.

http://truthandcharity.net/the-humble-pie-challenge/

教會的自潔機制

和一位牧師走進會議室的時候，裡頭已經有三個人了。其中一個以前見過面，那時候他與他們修院的修生一起組團來我們學校打球。後來聽說他去香港加入了耶穌會。難道他回來了？他旁邊是一位年齡大一點的神父，他們緊挨著坐在窗戶下面的椅子上。那一排得有十多來把做工拙劣十分厚實的高背椅子，像我們隨處可見的任何行政機關的東西一樣，雖然極盡修飾之能事，但難以掩飾短淺的見識和湊合著過的自卑。這些椅子如同這個龐大的利益集團所有的附庸者一樣，垂首恭候，隨時準備服侍那些被皇恩波及但只能圍繞在會議桌外圍的另一個階層的附庸。會議室另外一位是個老者。坐在會議桌前，擰著身子跟兩位神父談話。

我盯著這為舊時看了可能不到一秒鐘，伸手快步走過去。他也站起來了。很顯然，他跟我一樣，也忘掉了對方的名字。寒暄了幾句，我和我的同伴就坐下來了。我來的時候，帶了本楊勇先生校箋的《世說新語》，有一搭沒一搭地跟同行的牧師聊天，偶爾也能聽見先到的三位羅馬公教會的追隨者在說些梵蒂岡什麼的話。很明顯，他們談起本篤十六教宗，刻意地，也許是習慣性地保持著讓我不安的中立態度，至少從他們談話時後的情緒上是這樣的。

我們坐的位置和他們隔了好幾張椅子。弟兄二人吵架以至於勢不兩立。時日長了，當初為之相互燒殺的原因已經不大能激起同樣強烈的情緒了，甚至還有點不絕如縷的惺惺相惜。但要說到一起過日子就會發現，分開的日子太久，那一點祖宗留下的血緣，還不足以染紅尼羅河。

我們是來參加區政府，也許是區委，他們兩家即使你有智慧能夠分清楚，也會因為多此一舉而有點害臊，我們是來參加他們民族宗教部門的一次會議，至少通知是這麼說的。到了預定時間，我們的人已經來齊了，除了一位參加交通法規考試的。我們對面的弟兄突然一下子多了起來。他們是一起開車來的，跟兩個領導好像是一起進來的。我記得不大清楚。一個更大的領導端著茶杯，坐在遼闊的會議桌的北頭，大聲地招呼我們往前坐，就是坐在會議桌前的正座上。對面的弟兄們坐下後，大聲地談我們所在的這個碩大無朋的城市的交通狀況。有一個神父身材十分，怎麼說呢，說臃腫，似乎有點貶斥的意思，這是我不願意有的；說健碩，似乎多了一點肌肉發達孔武有力的意思，這不符合實際情況。我也認識他，跟認識那位早來的神父的機會一樣。不過這位大個子當是是場上中鋒，那位早來的神父是場下拉拉隊員。很誠實地說，我與我當時的中鋒位置很不相稱，我在此前摸過籃球的時間可能不超過10小時，但也有了跟這個大個子神父相互衝撞的機會。這也是我的弟兄們交給我的唯一場上任務。他還是跟那時一樣，是身邊人話題的發起者和主導者，偶爾還兼職插科打諢。這位神父快人快語，聲音洪亮，擠兌著同行的另外一位小弟兄。還有一些奇怪的人。問了我們同行的人，才知道那是天主教堂管理委員會的，或者是愛國會的頭頭們。說句他們也許覺得不恭敬，但我認為很確切的話，前者像善於迎來送往的熱心人，後者在氣質上更接近坐在遙遠的會議桌北頭的人。後來的神父們被大個子帶動的，似乎有一點天不怕地不怕的壞小子味道。我們這邊有點過於安靜，像憋著壞的狗頭軍師。當然你要說我們像謙謙君子，我覺得也還算貼切。我們這撥人確實沒有對面弟兄如此棱角分明，成分複雜。

小的領導開始說話：介紹正在晃動著腦袋嘬著嘴吹杯子裡的茶葉末的大一點的領導，說明開會的來意。與我的直覺類似，他們要安排一次午飯，算是給轄區內基督教界頭頭們拜年。大領導隨後誇獎了我們去年一年很好，支持他的工作，意思是沒有給他添太多麻煩，表明了對來年的期望和對大家的祝賀後，他就忙別的事情去了——他就是這麼解釋他的離席的。

我們準備出發去午餐地點之前，每人都得到了新年禮物：一個電飯鍋。

到了飯店，全然不能看書了。我們坐在靠近房間窗戶的位置。像很多設備一樣，那個窗戶不能打開，所以叫他窗戶似乎有點對不起彼此；叫天井，位置也不對。坐在這裡，主要是要安慰自己，對面桌子中飄過來的支流煙可以被稀釋掉。

他也講到他的一些經歷，或者見聞。從不斷爆發出的笑聲看，他很有感染力。說道一個在他看來十分狂妄的傢伙自陳是天津來的，他說他當時回到，“天津怎麼了，天津來的怎麼了，我還以為你天堂來的！”這對習慣於溫文爾雅的做派又有點無知的驕傲的基督徒來說，實在是一個很到位的刺激。

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