Fasting During Lent

“We have the days of Lent devoted to fasting.

And the Christian is free to fast at any time, not out of superstition but in voluntary detachment.

How could anyone in fact study the Holy Scriptures, or devote oneself to knowledge and wisdom, if they were not master of their own mouth and their own belly? But there is another reason, also spiritual, that some apostles have praised in their letters.

Blessed are they that fast for the sake of feeding the poor.”

Origen, 3^rd Century Alexandria.