My children… at the start of this blessed season of Lent… I’m going to go against the current and tell you what not to fast from:
– Don’t fast from love: nothing keeps you going except love…
– Don’t fast from missing people: it’s the most beautiful feeling, the one that makes us feel we’re still alive…
– Don’t fast from doing good: through goodness God protects us, and protects our children and our families…
– Don’t fast from pain: we won’t be purified without groaning and without pain…
– Don’t fast from selfishness: be selfish and greedy for the love of everyone around you; it may be the last time you see them…
– Don’t fast from late nights: twelve hours aren’t enough to fulfil our dreams.
– Don’t fast from crying: a day may come when you can’t cry any more because you’ve cried so much…
– Don’t fast from smiling: it could change the lives of those around you…
– Don’t fast from meeting, and meeting, and meeting again: the next meeting may be a long way off…
– Don’t fast from spoiling your children: life and work may take them to faraway places…
– Don’t fast from asking: sometimes a question changes many answers…
– Don’t fast from music: you may one day dance to the tune of pain with no music…
– Don’t fast from colours: an accident could steal the brightness of colour from your eyes…
– Don’t fast from Mass: there you meet everyone you love…
– Don’t fast from perfume: it is the memory, the imprint and the place…
– Don’t fast from Jesus: he is the beginning, the one who said there is no end…
– Don’t fast from giving… our Lord is far more generous… Have a blessed Lent…
Fr. Majdi Allawi, servant of the Saadet el Sama association
