True Life in God discussion list

[Satoru]

Hi, I just finished the hard fasting for three days.
Vassula asked us to fast meats and fishes from today.
But I am not quite sure what is meat or fish, so I need your advise.

Is egg a kind of meat in this case? How about shrimps or lobsters? and crabs?

I appreciate your answers.

In Christ,
Satoru

[David]

Dear Saturo,

I can only offer my own response to questions of this kind. I just think that these things are entirely up to you. The purpose of Vassula's suggestions was just to offer ways of making sacrifices for the Lord. It clearly is not a sacrifice to eat lobster instead of haddock! The Lord is not a legalist and we should try to avoid becoming one...

Let's just focus on doing things to please the Lord.

David

[stephen]

Well I've given up smoking and went on the patch. I was off them for 2 years without aid of a patch and then went on them again. Now with the baby on the way I've decided it is important to get off them again. Although I am worried that if that is pleasing to the Lord as a proper sacrifice. Because I often wonder if I'm doing it for my own health or for the Lord. And then start thinking if the previous wonderings of mine are just a temptation. and then I get confused and decide to stop thinking about it and have a cup of tea instead.

I thought we had to give up meat for 6 days so I tried that. Went well for three days. Then this morning I was not feeling well and very drousy ( dont know if it is because of the ciggerettes ) and then I was horribly hungry and my wife handed me a HAM sandwich. I ate it without knowing there was ham in it or realising my fast and then an hour later said to myself...ah nooooo there was ham in that sandwich.

With regards to eating fish it always reminds me of the story about Blessed Fr.Solanus. Before Vatican II came along we all had to eat fish on a friday. As Blessed Fr.Solanus was in the suburbs speaking with this lady her husband opened the boot of the car and let out a mighty scream. Fr.Solanus ran to see what was the matter. The Husband cried ''Look'' pointing towards the trunk of the car. and at the bottom of the picnic trunk floating in the water was a hot dog and it being fish friday. Fr.Solanus took one look at it and said: ''just call it a fish and eat it''.

Pax Christi
Stephen

[Satoru]

>Stephen

It's not your fault, since God sees our intentions you don't have to mind so much if you unawarely had a ham.

>David

I just would like to know the coverage of "fish" of "meat" in this case to put in practice. I have never thought it is a kind of legalistic matter since we are not Pharisees!

So I answer to my question, egg is a kind of meat and crustaceans are a kind of fish. This time I prefer to avoid them. Thank you.

In Christ,
Satoru

[karnala]

When you posted about not being legalistic, it reminded me of the UNIFY, FOR MY SAKE, THE FEAST OF EASTER message:

tell them that the Heart of the Lord is Love and that the Heart of the Law is based on Love; tell My people that I do not want administrators in My House, they will not be justified in My Day; because it is these very ones who have industrialised My House;

When I converted to Catholicism, I was told that if you can't fast from food there are plenty of other things we can offer to Our Lord - fasting from tv; fasting from coffee and biscuits/cakes are some of things I do. I'm a single mum with four children and the first time I fasted strictly on bread and water, I got really bad headaches and other health issues. So its important for parent/s to fast the best way that suits their families.

[Satoru]

Maybe I had written my first question without measuring the words well. Sorry for my poor english, the words in the first question gave an impression like I was trying to push others to do the same way. So I have rewritten the first post (I hope it doesn't sound like pushing).

Actually it was clearly mentioned in Vassula's letter about that there were many other ways to fast, depending on each situation. And also it was mentioned the fasting should be done based on Love. I thought it was like a "common sense" when we talk about fasting and no need to mention in my question again.

Now I am staying in a hospital everyday with my wife, since the beginning of this year, for our daughter who had a brain infarction (thank God and thank you for your prayers, she has been recovering and her life is not in danger now!) .

Actually in our case, I didn't think my wife should fast with bread and water for three days like Vassula said, in the hospital. That's natural! she had already been fasting everything of her usual life to help our daughter. But I felt I myself could exactly follow Vassula's suggestion and I felt I MUST do so, for the recovery of our daughter's and Jesus' body.

Then I thought, what the fish and meat meant actually? how about eggs and how about crustaceas? So I would like someone's advise about what they meant in this case.

But following David's advise I decided by myself, to include eggs and crustaceans in my NG list.
So now my question has been cleared!

In Christ,
Satoru

[karnala]

PRAISE BE JESUS & MARY that your daughter is recovering !!

It definitely is suggested to follow Vassula's fasting and she didn't even have cake for her birthday. What's important is our intentions, that I'm offering a sacrifice that I can really notice. Others wouldn't even notice that I'm fasting if I sacrifice not having pepper on my meals, or no butter on sandwiches .... someone said once to have mayonnaise instead of butter but that would still be something that I'd like to have and therefore not a sacrifice.

I was unsure what to do on Sunday, as its the Lord's day and not a day for fasting I would think. So I just kept sacrificing certain things, but wanted to stop fasting on other things just because it was Sunday. So I hope I haven't disappointed Our Lord and that my fasting will still be efficacious for TLIG intentions.