Today I am fasting.
It is the transferred observance of the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the day when the Church remembers the children killed by Herod as he sought to secure his position and protect his power. Liturgically, it is a feast day. But this year, I am keeping it instead as a day of penitence and fasting.
There are many reasons to fast right now.
Across the world, people in positions of power continue to treat innocent lives as expendable; collateral damage in the pursuit of control, security, or empire. We see it in the Holy Land, where cycles of violence and retaliation feel endlessly self-justifying. We see it in Ukraine, in Sudan, and in parts of Southeast Asia, even now, in the midst of Christmastide. The names and contexts differ, but the pattern is painfully familiar. It is even happening in our own country.
Why fast?
There are many faithful people working through political, diplomatic, and humanitarian means to end violence and protect the vulnerable. I give thanks for that work, and I support it. But I am a person of faith, and a bishop of the Church. I believe that the conflicts we see are not only political or economic or strategic. They are also spiritual. Scripture names this plainly: there are forces at work that distort our loves, harden our hearts, and tempt us to preserve ourselves at the cost of others.
And people of faith have tools to meet that reality.
Prayer matters. Fasting matters. Not because they are symbolic gestures, but because they are ways of aligning ourselves with the purposes of God. They interrupt our habits, unsettle our certainties, and remind us that the world does not ultimately belong to the powerful. They have power to change us, and in ways we may never fully see, they have power to change others.
So today, in a season marked by feasting and celebration, I am fasting. And I invite you, if you are able, to join me.
Let us fast for the innocent, the Holy Innocents of every age, who continue to perish when fear outweighs mercy and power eclipses love. Let us respond in a way the world may not fully understand, but which God surely does.
+Nicholas
You have given me the best explanation/description of fasting I have ever heard. Thank you. I am now diabetic so I don’t know how I should fast, but I can certainly be in prayer.
There are many forms of fast – I think of it as taking a break from something routine. A fast from something that gives you a small pleasure for the day can mean something different for everybody.
Even taking on a the discipline of reading the office today, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer can be a sort of fast.
But prayer by itself is powerful. Thank you for joining me in this today.
Thank you, Bishop Nick!