Note: When most people hear the word “fasting” I think they hear “total abstinence.” That’s fasting in the sense of preparing for bloodwork at your annual physical. But it’s not always religious or spiritual fasting. This fasting can be viewed as a kind of anti-gluttony; as chastity of the digestive tract; as poverty of the plate. This may make religious fasting easier for some people to practice. It may make some of those stories about the early desert monks easier to understand.

Quote:
“Camaldolese practice for fasting expects the monk to eat something every day, according to personal needs, but to eat only what is necessary–like the Israelites with their manna in the desert (Exod 16).”

Source: Barban, Alessandro. “Lectio Divina and Monastic Theology in Camaldolese Life” in Belisle, Peter-Damian, editor. The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2002.(p. 55)