fasting and mercy

Sowing and harvesting seem to be a big theme for me today. I just read in the Gospel of St. Mark the parable of the sower and the seed. It talks about producing fruit thirty-, sixty-, and a hundred-fold.

Then I read one of the Lenten non-biblical readings for the Office of Readings from Peter Chrysologus in which he discusses prayer, fasting, and mercy. This is the pay-quote:

When you fast, if your mercy is thin your harvest will be thin; when you fast, what you pour out in mercy overflows into your barn. Therefore, do not lose by saving, but gather in by scattering. Give to the poor, and you give to yourself. You will not be allowed to keep what you have refused to give to others. 

Ouch.
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