"My brothers and sisters, it is through three things that faith stands firm, that piety exists, and that virtue remains, namely, prayer, fasting, and mercy. What prayer requests through unrelenting petition, fasting obtains, and mercy accepts. Prayer, mercy, fasting: these three are one; these three invigorate one another. Fasting is the soul of prayer; mercy gives life to fasting. May no one divide these three; they are not to be separated. A person who has only one of them or does not have all three of them together has none of them. And so the person who prays is to fast. Whoever fasts is to show mercy"
- Sermon from St. Peter Chrysologus (c.380 - c.450)
image from the 'Public domain' via wikimedia commons. St. Peter Chrysologus
