Christian Students Sacrifice Sugar for 40 Days During Lent
By Matt V.
Lenten time at The Family Foundation School is unique, not only are students preparing themselves to celebrate a baptismal ceremony, but some also participate in a sugar fast.
The students who participate in the fast agree not to eat any sugar from the beginning of Lent until Easter. This means that the students need to find an alternative way to keep up sugar intake, such as eating fruit and drinking breakfast juices like apple and orange juice. “Any kind of fasting creates a kind of void…and the hope is that we come to realize that in the end, it’s God alone that fills our real emptiness,” said Father Stephen Morris, FFS Dean of Students.
Keeping the fast is not easy. Students receive cakes for their birthdays and they are shared with the family. Students bring candy back from visits, and are given juice for lunch. The fasters have to avoid eating and drinking these things. Hopefully, the sugar fast will create a sense of discipline for them. Father Stephen puts it this way, “If I can’t manage ‘no sugar’ for 40 days, it’s not likely that I’ll manage a lifetime without marijuana, cocaine, or whatever my thing is.”
“Although I had some trouble with it in the beginning, I am grateful that I stuck with it.” “It’s not easy to not eat candy when everyone else is… but I know that it’s for a good cause and it’s helping me to have more self-control,” agreed two of the fasters.
The sugar fast has a more spiritual meaning as well. “Easter is supposed to be the feast of the rising of Jesus. You don’t come to a feast without a previous fast. I mean if you’re going to a fabulous restaurant in the evening, you eat less during the day in anticipation,” said Father Stephen. When Easter comes, a donation is made to Smile Train. This is a way of translating the fast into a more material thing: fixing a baby’s cleft pallet.
