Why Fast Anyway?

When I gave birth to my seventh child, I was told that if I had any more children, I would probably die.
I believed my doctor, because despite his youthful age, he was the person that for a time held my life, and my family’s in his hands.
There may only be two non-relatives in the world who have that kind of influence over your life. One is your doctor; the other is the parish priest. One has the potential to ruin your body, the other your soul. If you happen to have one that is too lax, Poof! It can all be over in a flash.
For instance, I think my doctor missed delivering my fifth child and extracted my brain instead. I haven’t had a cogent thought, or said a two syllable word since then. I like Tide. Soap is great.
If your priest is too lax, and even fails to deliver the REAL message to you and your kids, it is easy for your spiritual life, and theirs to die. Kids have an innate ability to know when they are hearing something hokey. They don’t say much, but at the age of 18, they just stop going to church.
This is not the problem in my parish. Our priest, while just a few years older than I, commands a great deal of respect. That is why when I am supposed to be fasting and I blow it, I don’t want him to know about it. I know that he fasts, and I mean FASTS.
“In my last Parish, people used to hide from me in the grocery store. I am not the fasting police! This is a self-imposed fast!” he told us when we brought up the roast beef sandwich incident.
So far, I haven’t been able to hide it anyway. (Remember, I have no brain.) Once I brought him a Venti Chai from Starbucks, on a Friday. I offered the Deacon a beer on a strict fast day. And then there was the egg dish during the summer fast. Why does it matter? Because I have seen how fasting “turbo charges” prayer.
Despite being told that I could die if I had another child, I listened to my doctors advice about as well as I fast. At age forty late, another baybins was on the way. And I was scared, and sure my time was up. My mom and my sister in law were diagnosed with breast cancer, and my very good friend, a priest was struggling terribly. I asked Father to pray for me and for them. EVERY morning, every evening, and every Liturgy, father prays for them by name this has been going on for nearly a year. The fruit of his prayer has been just short of miraculous. My mom and sister-in-law are almost completely recovered. My priest friend is on the mend. And I have Patrick Giovanni.
Father in his humility did not take his prayer and fasting for granted. He drove 60 miles to the hospital to be with us the day of Patrick's delivery.
That is why I want to fast.
I want my prayer to cause miracles, and I want Father to see that his example has taken root in me.