Friday, September 3 : Saint John Cassian

We had left Syria for the province of Egypt, anxious to learn there the teachings of the old monks, and were astonished by the great warmth with which we were received. Contrary to what we had been taught in the monasteries of Palestine, they did not observe the rule of waiting for the hour appointed for the meal but, except on Wednesday and Fridays, wherever we went the fast was broken. One of the elders, from whom we asked why the daily fasts were so easily set aside among them, replied: “My fast is always with me but you, whom I shall shortly be refreshing, I cannot keep with me unceasingly. So the fast, although useful and necessary, is nevertheless the voluntary offering of a gift, whereas the fulfilment of a work of charity is the absolute demand of the precept. That is why, receiving Christ in you, it is He whom I sustain and, having given you refreshment, I shall be able by a stricter fast to pay back in myself the humanity that I have shown you for Christ’s sake. In fact “the friends of the bridegroom cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them,” but when he has departed, then they can do so.”

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team