How do we weaken the body and strengthen the soul? | PadreCast Seventh Sunday Ordinary Time

This particular Church Father said you have to start tying up the "strong dog" (your body) and starving him, giving most of the food to the weaker one (your soul) so he becomes stronger and can fight back.

We do this primarily through acts of fasting. Since it is our body that's our enemy on some level - and we're not trying to kill the "bad dog", just trying to get him to submit - fasting forces that dog to become weaker. And then we can strengthen the spiritual side of us.

We're coming up on Lent, a time all about fasting. I really encourage you to choose for yourself some type of discipline that has to do strictly with the desires of your body. Deny your body something.

 

Lv 19:1-2, 17-18,  Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13,  1Cor 3:16-23,  Mt 5:38-48