Your medieval grandmother fasted harder than you do.

Your medieval grandmother fasted harder than you do.

By: Fr. Ian Kinney

Do I have your attention? Outstanding. She knew the scriptures better than you. She prayed more than you. She fasted harder than you. Which means she was more of a man than you. Something is wrong with that.

There is a time for everything and now is the time to fix that. Now is the time to fast. Our Lord has called us to fasting—especially while the bridegroom has ascended to heaven (Matt 6:16-18; Mark 9:29; Luke 5:35). Our prophets have called us to repent with fasting and to do so in the right spirit (Joel 2; Is. 58). Fr. Eckardt has taught us about the Lenten fast. Fr. Petersen has taught us about the Advent fast. Fr. Braden has taught us about the Ember Days Fast. The Apology has taught us that “We should undertake these exercises not because they are devotional exercises that justify but as restraints on our flesh, lest satiety overcome us and render us complacent and lazy. And that haec diligentia debet esse perpetua” (AP XV.47). Many of you have reached out to me with such interest after Father Braaten and I discussed fasting in 2023.  And even some among us have eloquently broken into the Lutheran Witness on this matter. You know the stats, the data, the verses, the Confessions. Good. But let us not just fast in word and talk. Let us fast in deed and truth.

Welcome to Memento. The only men’s year-round ascetic discipline devotional. This is not Portals of Prayer©. This is not Daily Bread™. This is not a diet that you’ll quit in March. This is not a fad you learned on Joe Rogan or the Liver King that will eventually go away. This is the repristination of the ancient Christian disciplines that all of us have forgotten. Memento is the only men’s 365 devotional outlined by the historic fasting and feasting rhythms of the Church. We will be with you in Advent, Ember Days, and of course in Lent. Memento will kick off starting with the 70 days leading up to Easter. In which, you will fast, you will pray, you will read the New Testament, you will pray the psalms, you will pray Matins and Vespers, you will hurt, you will grow, you will be uncomfortable, you will reclaim the man whom God wants you to be. You will learn what you love more than God. You will find out where you run to when you are scared. You will put to death what is earthly in you. You will mortify your flesh as Christians always have.

Brothers and Fathers, by God’s grace, our hope is that this will start the movement to reclaim masculinity in our churches. Imagine the ripple effect in our churches when the men band together, build each other up, and engage in these disciplines.

These ancient disciplines are our heritage. They are your birthright and now is the time to remember them and reclaim them. Fr. Ben Ball, Jeff Hemmer, Gifford Grobien, Willie Grills, Heath Curtis, David Petersen, Adam Koontz, David Buchs, Jacob Benson, Daniel Broaddus, Jason Braaten, and Stefan Gramenz will be your teachers. These are the men from whom you will learn in these 70 days. The men whom you look up to, who taught you to pray, who teach you the Faith—they are ones who will be teaching you during Memento. Join us.

Here is what you do. Sign up, check out Memento70.com, check out the video, gather a group of men around you, commit, and begin. Our preparatory devotionals will start January 1 and the Fast begins February 1. I am praying for you. Memento mori, brothers.