{"id":912,"date":"2009-03-18T05:43:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T05:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html"},"modified":"2009-03-18T05:43:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T05:43:00","slug":"48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html","title":{"rendered":"48 days without food: one priest&#8217;s Lenten fast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Think giving up chocolate is enough? <\/p>\n<p>From Canada comes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicregister.org\/content\/view\/2855\/849\/\">this story<\/a> of a priest who is doing something truly counter-cultural &#8212; and daunting &#8212; for Lent: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p> <a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/ScDDwlkP3wI\/AAAAAAAAFR4\/6t_ztz38bFs\/s1600-h\/FrJohnMcCarthy.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 240px;height: 240px\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/ScDDwlkP3wI\/AAAAAAAAFR4\/6t_ztz38bFs\/s320\/FrJohnMcCarthy.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Eleven days into a 48-day fast, Jesuit Father John McCarthy was feeling pretty good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t noticed anything yet, other than a bit of weight loss,\u201d McCarthy told The Catholic Register from Corner Brook, Nfld. \u201cBut in terms of energy level and everything else \u2014 well, it\u2019s only 11 days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is 11 days living on nothing but water and juice. McCarthy never liked V8 juice, but he\u2019s acquiring a taste for the low-sodium variety. The most substantial thing he drinks is Sunkist strawberry and banana smoothies. He\u2019s going through a fair amount of cranberry juice. He doesn\u2019t have a blender.<\/p>\n<p>From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, McCarthy will go 48 days without solid food this Lent. Why?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s God\u2019s creation and my love of nature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy first thought about fasting for Lent while he was working on his PhD in forestry ecology at the University of British Columbia six years ago. While it\u2019s important to him that the fast remains a spiritual exercise, it\u2019s also a public witness. He\u2019s fasting in solidarity with God\u2019s creation, in penance for all we have done to diminish the forests, wetlands, wildlife and ecosystems God called good through six days of creation in the Book of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>A water-and-juice fast through Lent is probably not medically dangerous, said University of Toronto professor of nutritional science Dr. Thomas Wolever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not something you would necessarily be advising the general public to be doing, but it\u2019s not absolute craziness,\u201d Wolever said. \u201cI\u2019m a Christian myself, so I understand about Lent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without doubt, McCarthy will lose weight. He may also suffer some vitamin B deficiencies at the end. But a healthy person can go three months without eating, providing they continue a good intake of fluids, according to Wolever.<\/p>\n<p>McCarthy is keeping in touch with a doctor friend and promises he will stop the fast if it endangers his health.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> You can find out more about his reasons behind the fast at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicregister.org\/content\/view\/2855\/849\/\">the link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Think giving up chocolate is enough? From Canada comes this story of a priest who is doing something truly counter-cultural &#8212; and daunting &#8212; for Lent: Eleven days into a 48-day fast, Jesuit Father John McCarthy was feeling pretty good. \u201cI haven\u2019t noticed anything yet, other than a bit of weight loss,\u201d McCarthy told The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>48 days without food: one priest&#039;s Lenten fast - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"48 days without food: one priest&#039;s Lenten fast - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Think giving up chocolate is enough? From Canada comes this story of a priest who is doing something truly counter-cultural &#8212; and daunting &#8212; for Lent: Eleven days into a 48-day fast, Jesuit Father John McCarthy was feeling pretty good. \u201cI haven\u2019t noticed anything yet, other than a bit of weight loss,\u201d McCarthy told The&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-18T05:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/ScDDwlkP3wI\/AAAAAAAAFR4\/6t_ztz38bFs\/s320\/FrJohnMcCarthy.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"48 days without food: one priest's Lenten fast - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"48 days without food: one priest's Lenten fast - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"Think giving up chocolate is enough? From Canada comes this story of a priest who is doing something truly counter-cultural &#8212; and daunting &#8212; for Lent: Eleven days into a 48-day fast, Jesuit Father John McCarthy was feeling pretty good. \u201cI haven\u2019t noticed anything yet, other than a bit of weight loss,\u201d McCarthy told The&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon&#039;s Bench","article_published_time":"2009-03-18T05:43:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/ScDDwlkP3wI\/AAAAAAAAFR4\/6t_ztz38bFs\/s320\/FrJohnMcCarthy.jpg"}],"author":"deacon greg kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/48-days-without-food-one-priests-lenten-fast.html","name":"48 days without food: one priest's Lenten fast - 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