What Does “Fasting” Mean in the Bible?
Eating less, or not eating, for a time, to pray better and draw closer to God.
Today
The Church asks us to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Before Communion, we eat nothing for one hour.
Where it appears in the Bible
Matthew 4:2; Jonah 3:5
What the Bible says
Matthew 4:2
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.
Jonah 3:5
And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catechism 1434 and 2043; Matthew 6:16-18