Catholics often fast and abstain from certain foods during Lent, but also throughout the year, such as on Fridays every week.
While fasting from food can have some physical benefits, it is meant to remind us of the need to “fast from sin.”
Here is a Collect from Ember Wednesday, a day which was traditionally a day of fasting in the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar.
Grant to your servants who humbly pray to Thee, O Lord, that while abstaining from food for our bodies, we may likewise abstain from sin in our souls.