I don’t think I ever fully fasted as in no food or water for 24 hours. As a kid I remember being in trouble for trying to sneak a slice of bread because I was hungry. I soon learned to stash away crackers and potato chips in anticipation of that horrible starvation day. Even later I would find something to eat to avoid the growling stomach and pangs of hunger.

When the deacons came around with their blue fasting offering envelope, I would put a couple of dollars in it instead of what it would have cost to feed a family for two meals.

Did you ever fully fast on fast Sunday? That means no food or water at all, for 24 hours. Not even brushing your teeth for fear of accidentally swallowing a tiny bit of water.

Did you pay a full fast offering? The cost of the food you would have eaten or the drink you would have drank for 24 hours.

Since failure to drink is a recipe for disaster I would not try to do that. However, I have gone 24 hours without eating. I ended up with a killer migraine. FYI am not now and have never been Mormon. The 24 hours not eating was more of an accident.

Growing up at my house we'd always just have a light snack for Saturday dinner. Then we'd skip breakfast, go to meetings then have to wait for dad to get home from all his Sunday leadership meetings before we could eat. Sometimes it would be afternoonish, sometimes later to end the fast.

One good thing about COVID, the deacons finally quit coming door to door collecting.(or maybe coincidentally they finally got a clue) I hadn't attended for years and these poor kids would stop by every fast Sunday. Felt like just taking the envelope and not giving it back so I wouldn't be on their route anymore. I used to give a fair amount because I'd heard that fast offerings stayed local to help struggling people. Then they changed the donation slips to say it became church money to use as they wanted. I started donating to the local food bank instead.

An honorable choice.

When I was a child, I remember the custom in the Roman Catholic church was to fast on any Sunday morning that you expected to receive communion. I remember resenting that. Children need to eat. I personally don't believe in fasting, unless under a doctor's order to do so.

After church my parents would often stop to get fresh baked Kaiser rolls and deli meats for lunch. Sunday suppers were simple -- my mom considered it her day off from cooking duties.

My mom told me that her mother, also Catholic, would normally stay home from church on Sundays while my grandpa took the kids. She would cook a large, traditional Sunday dinner that was probably served mid-afternoon. I chucked when she told me this, and wondered if grandma secretly enjoyed some time off from church.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2023 05:45PM by summer.

Not just time off from church Summer :) She got a nice break from everyone else too!

Mom tells me that grandma also liked to spend time in her garden, probably for the same reason. :)

I think Grandma and I would have gotten along right fine. :)

I love your story, Summer.

I wanted my kids to be happy with religion, and to love God, so I never made them fast, or force them to go to church if they were sick or too tired. Well, they all left the church, anyway, a few months before I did--but we all still love God!

When my TBM husband abandoned us, I had to work extra hard to make enough money to support us, and to keep our house, so I rested on Sunday, and ate pizza or fast food for Sunday dinner, as a rebellion. My kids got jobs, when they were in high school, and sometimes had to work on Sundays. We were too overloaded to worry about fasting. We usually just forgot.

Gone are the days when Mormon women worked hard all week (paid & unpaid labor), then spent Saturdays "getting ready for Sunday" and preparing Sunday school lessons, practicing the organ, rehearsing musical performances, or whatever. Sunday was coaxing and bribing reluctant kids to take a bath, put on undomfortable clothes, and sit still for a 3-hour meeting; then cooking a full Sunday dinner of meat, potatoes & gravy, side dishes, several desserts, and cleanup.

Asking any laborer to starve, and still perform the tasks--is just cruel!

When I was new to the Mormon church as a 12 year old I was told that the correct way to fast was to abstain from eating or drinking for 24 hours. Since I wanted to be an obedient morgbot, that's how I did it.

I remember my first 24 hour fast. I gorged on food before fasting, thinking that all the food I ate would sustain me for 24 hours. Wrong. By dinner time I was really hungry and thirsty. I went to bed really hungry and woke up weak and hungry. I was weak, hungry and thirsty throughout Sunday school. I didn't feel spiritual - my thoughts were focused on when I would eat again and what I would eat. I remember looking at the clock and waiting till the exact time the 24 hours were up before taking a bite of food. Jeez.

When I finally ate lunch after completing my first 24 hour fast, I was proud of myself. I didn't feel spiritual - just obedient. I had endured to the end.

I kept up the 24 hour fast Sunday fast during much of my active membership in the Mormon church. On my mission my comp and I did a 24 hour fast every week for a month so we would find investigators. It was difficult tracting while hungry/thirsty. I don't recall that we found more than one or two new people to teach.

I don't recall that fasting was ever a spiritual experience for me or that it brought me comfort or answered a prayer. It was mostly about obedience and enduring to the end.

For years after I stopped attending church I always knew when it was fast Sunday. Every first Sunday of the month I had a momentary panic attack thinking I couldn't eat or drink. It took years before I finally didn't associate the first Sunday of the month with fasting/hunger/misery.

We never did a 24 hour thing.

In fact I have multiple sunday school and priesthood manuals that state skipping only two meals, breakfast and lunch on Sunday and no mention of skipping water.

It further states that the cost of two neals be donated.

In our house though the fast ended after fast and testimony meeting.