{"id":66224,"date":"2024-02-27T11:41:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T16:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=66224"},"modified":"2024-03-21T23:20:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T03:20:46","slug":"66224","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/66224\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

From Medjugorje USA:<\/em><\/p>\n

Testimony of Andy\/Lavalle’s Fasting Breads
\n<\/u>by\u00a0Andy LaVallee<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people go through an entire life not knowing their purpose or why God has given them the gifts he has. Up until June of 2010 I was a secure, self employed business man (LaVallee Bakery), married for 35 years, with two adult children as partners in our enterprise.\u00a0 My priorities were golf, business, family, and God in that order.<\/p>\n

I met Jim Caviezel at the Catholics Men\u2019s conference in 2010, and he invited me to Medjugorje. At the time, Medjugorje was not on my radar; in fact I could not even spell it or know where it was. After the invite, I boldly told Jim, \u201cdo not get your hopes up; I am not flying fifteen hours to say a Rosary.\u201d Today I pray the rosary not say the rosary.<\/p>\n

Our Lady has a way of showing us a different path, and she certainly did with me. I am forever grateful to her love, and the direction she used to bring me back to her Son. While in Medjugorje for the first time, I experienced a life confession, behind Saint James church, that was full of love, forgiveness, and continuous tears. After two and a half hours, my shirt was soaked. This single experience of the sacrament has made the biggest impact on my life. Soon after returning\u00a0home, I started to\u00a0passionately live the five\u00a0stones\u00a0of Medjugorje, and reading the messages.\u00a0I am now a daily Mass participant, a daily scripture reader, I pray the Rosary daily, go\u00a0to\u00a0Confession weekly, and fast\u00a0on bread\u00a0and water\u00a0on Wednesdays and Fridays. Personally, Medjugorje and Our Lady have transformed my life. Now I know why she is called Queen of Peace.<\/p>\n

During this\u00a0trip\u00a0to\u00a0Medjugorje, I started reading all\u00a0the books\u00a0of Father Slavko Barbaric, but I was especially\u00a0intrigued by his fasting books. Fasting is the one tool that Our Lord has given us, and we are not using it. It is rarely practiced, and seldom taught in our church today. Yet, in biblical times fasting was a way of life. Should it be a way of life today? I believe so!<\/p>\n

Until we are able to detach ourselves from the worldly things I do not believe we are able to get closer to God. Our prayer intentions are sent to God by way of snail mail, and with fasting it becomes a FEDEX to Our Lord. In fact, I often like to say to my friends, \u201cOur Lady is the FedEx to her Son, Jesus. How would you like all your prayer intentions to come back with a confirmation from Our Lord?\u201d I can say this because I am sure that my full conversion could not have been possible without fasting.<\/p>\n

Here is an example of how God answers the prayers of those who fast. LaVallee\u2019s\u00a0Fasting Breads\u00a0was founded\u00a0in early 2012\u00a0and we launched a pilot program during the Lenten\u00a0season\u00a0of\u00a0that year.\u00a0The Lenten\u00a0fasting challenge\u00a0had over two hundred and fifty people\u00a0sign up and commit to deepening\u00a0their prayer\u00a0and fasting\u00a0during the Lenten\u00a0season.\u00a0While at Easter Mass in\u00a02012, I had returned\u00a0from receiving the Holy Eucharist, and prayed to\u00a0God about the possibility\u00a0of\u00a0a year\u00a0round fasting program.\u00a0I specifically asked Our Lord\u00a0to\u00a0give me a direct\u00a0message\u00a0that I could understand if He wanted\u00a0to continue this\u00a0project year round.\u00a0Our Lord\u00a0didn\u2019t waste any\u00a0time. On that same night, I received\u00a0a\u00a0phone call at home.\u00a0The\u00a0caller was my Dad\u2019s best friend\u2014 a man that I had not spoken\u00a0to\u00a0or seen in\u00a0over thirty-five\u00a0years.\u00a0The last time I\u00a0saw him was at my father\u2019s funeral in\u00a01975.\u00a0Mr.\u00a0Bill Toland was\u00a0reading an article\u00a0on LaVallee Fasting Breads in the Boston\u00a0Pilot\u00a0Newspaper\u00a0and opened\u00a0the conversation by saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t know what prompts an 86\u00a0year old\u00a0man to call someone that\u00a0he hasn\u2019t\u00a0seen in 35 years, but I\u00a0am reading\u00a0the Pilot and this article\u00a0on you and the fasting breads.\u00a0I\u00a0want you to know that if your Dad were alive\u00a0today, he would\u00a0be very\u00a0proud of this project and I\u00a0also want you to know\u00a0that you\u00a0need to continue this \u2013\u00a0the\u00a0Church\u00a0needs fasting.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You see, in one phone call Our Lord answered my prayer and defined to me what he had planned for me when I was created by him. The gift of forty years of experience in the bakery business allowed me to learn how to create the proper fasting breads, and help answer his Mother\u2019s call to prayer and fasting. Father Svet once said to me \u201cAndrew if you do not do this, no one will. Our Lord has saved this task for your life.\u201d\u00a0 I agree with him, and with great love and devotion to Our Lady we have created Live the Fast, a full time year round fasting movement focused on the benefits of prayer and fasting<\/p>\n

Our Lady of Medjugorje has called each of us. I encourage you to prayerfully consider deepening your spiritual life through fervent prayer and fasting and allow yourself to be fully transformed in the light of Our Lady and her most precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

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From Medjugorje USA: Testimony of Andy\/Lavalle’s Fasting Breads by\u00a0Andy LaVallee \u00a0 Some people go through an entire life not knowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-66224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}