A Fast of the Heart

Support us, O Lord, with your gracious favor through the

fast we have begun; that as we observe it by bodily

self-denial, so we may fulfill it with inner sincerity of heart;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

"...Fasting is not a mere matter of diet. It is moral as well as physical. True fasting is to be converted in heart and will; it is to return to God, to come home like the Prodigal to our Father's house. In the words of St John Chysostom, it means 'abstinence not only from food but from sins.'" (Kallistos Ware, The Lenten Triodion)