A GRATEFUL READER writes:

I was struck by a paragraph that appeared to me with force on the eve of Ash Wednesday. The book, A Landscape with Dragons, The Battle for Your Child’s Mind by Michael D. O’Brian, discusses the dangers of Gnosticism and the Occult in literature for children. Below, I have placed in bold the phrase which struck me. Addressing the parent of a child who has been severely bent in the wrong direction by reading bad books, O’Brian writes:

“Then he should pray for the specific grace to meet this particular crisis. He should ask God for the extraordinary wisdom, for the right words to say, and for the spirit in which to say them to help ensure their effectiveness. He should ask God for the force of love and peace to be in his heart as he speaks to an errant or misled child. no mountain is more difficult to move than the human will when it is determined to cling to a vice. No amount of lecturing, cajoling, or reasoning can free a child who a come to believe (in the inverted logic of sin) that his addiction is life itself. I have found that in such difficult situations, where my prayers seem to be having little or no effect (usually because sin, habits of self-indulgence, or a spirit of rebellion is involved), fasting is also necessary. Fasting is not easy. I’m not very good at it, but I have learned through personal experience that it can move mountains.”

I have been keeping the fasts for years, but I either considered the fasting to be a basic obedience, or else, I used it to help me toward my own change of heart. It never occurred to me that I should or could direct my fasting toward the salvation of someone else’s soul, although I knew that the Apostles did so. I never thought we ordinary hobbits were capable of Gandalfian achievements; but Gandalf knew that the most ordinary of hobbits could do the most extraordinary things.  Imagine how heroic the challenge NOT to eat that cookie becomes when the salvation of someone’s soul rests on your self-discipline; it is positively Chestertonian.  My childhood friend has recently become a nun. I have thus handed her the task of praying for my relatives whose souls were in danger, but it only now occurred to me that she directs both her prayer and her fasting to their salvation. It is good to have help; let us pray and fast together for the salvation of souls.

May your Lenten journey bear much fruit.

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