fasting and prayer

¹⁶And when you fast, do not choose to become gloomy, like the hypocrites. For they alter their faces, so that their fasting may be apparent to men. Amen I say to you, that they have received their reward. ¹⁷But as for you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that your fasting will not be apparent to men, but to your Father, who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.

²³And traveling by way of Pisidia, they arrived in Pamphylia.

¹²Now, therefore, the Lord says: “Be converted to me with your whole heart, in fasting and weeping and mourning.”

²⁹And setting out from there, they passed through Galilee. And he intended that no one know about it.

¹⁶“Go and gather together all the Jews whom you will find in Susa, and pray for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days and three nights, and I will fast with my handmaids similarly, and then I will go in to the king, doing what is against the law, not having been called, and so expose myself to mortal danger.”

²Now as they were ministering for the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them: “Separate Saul and Barnabas for me, for the work for which I have selected them.”

³Then, fasting and praying and imposing their hands upon them, they sent them away.

⁶Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.

¹⁴Sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God. And cry out to the Lord:

³⁷And then she was a widow, even to her eighty-fourth year. And without departing from the temple, she was a servant to fasting and prayer, night and day.

⁵So, do not fail in your obligations to one another, except perhaps by consent, for a limited time, so that you may empty yourselves for prayer. And then, return together again, lest Satan tempt you by means of your abstinence.

²¹And I proclaimed a fast in that place, beside the river Ahava, so that we might afflict ourselves in the sight of the Lord our God, and so that we might request of him the right way for us, and for our sons, and for all our substance. ²²For I was ashamed to petition the king for assistance and for horsemen, who would defend us from the enemy along the way. For we had said to the king: “The hand of our God is over all those who seek him in goodness. And his authority, and his strength and fury, is over all those who forsake him.” ²³And so we fasted and begged our God for this; and as a result, we prospered.

⁴And when I had heard this manner of words, I sat down, and I wept and mourned for many days. I fasted and prayed before the face of the God of heaven.

²³And so we fasted and begged our God for this; and as a result, we prospered.

¹Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins. ²For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God. ³“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors. ⁴Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high. ⁵Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? ⁶Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.

³I ate no desirable bread, and neither meat, nor wine, entered my mouth, neither was I anointed with ointment, until the three weeks of days were completed.

¹⁸so that your fasting will not be apparent to men, but to your Father, who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.

¹⁴Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.