By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer  In his 2009 Lenten Message, Pope Benedict XVI says that the ultimate goal of fasting is not only to strengthen us in our efforts to avoid sin but to help us make the complete gift of self to God. “In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterised by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one's body,” the Pope said. “Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical wellbeing, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a 'therapy' to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God.” His message outlines the long tradition of fasting beginning with the book of Genesis where Adam and Eve were commanded to abstain from the fruit of the tree of life to when Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert. “Fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age,” he said. “ St. Peter Chrysologus writes: 'Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God's ear to yourself.’” Jesus brought the true meaning of fasting to light in the New Testament when he condemned the Pharisees who fasted simply because the law required it while their hearts remained far from God. “True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father . . . .  (T)he believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.” The pope called fasting “an important ascetic practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person.” He concluded by saying “the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God.” © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly/Women of Grace. http://www.womenofgrace.com