Evangelizo

Jesus said to his disciples: «Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

Saint Gregory the Great
Forty days in which to grow in love of God and neighbor

We who are beginning the forty days of Lent must consider why this fast is kept for forty days. Moses fasted forty days to receive the law for the second time (Ex 34,28); Elijah fasted forty days in the desert (1Kgs 19,8); and humankind's Creator, coming to humans, took no food at all for forty days (Mt 4,2). We too, as far as we can, try every year during Lent to afflict our bodies by fasting..., so that, in the words of Paul, he may become a «living sacrificial victim» (Rm 12,1). A sacrificial victim is in fact put to death, and lives (cf. Rv 5,6), when a person without leaving this life slays in himself his carnal desires.
A pleasure-loving body had drawn us to sin (Gn 3,6); let an afflicted one bring us to pardon. The author of our death, Adam, broke the commandments by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree of life. Let us who have fallen away from the joys of paradise through food, rise up to them again, as much as we can, through fasting.
But no one should believe that this fast alone can suffice for him, the Lord says through the prophet: «Is not this the fast I have chosen? To break your bread for the hungry, and bring the needy and the vagrants into your homes. If you see someone naked clothe him, and do not turn away from your own kin» (Is 58,6-7). Fast, then, by lifting up acts of almsgiving before God's eyes, by doing what you do with love of your neighbor, by being holy. What you take from yourself give to someone else so that your needy neighbor's body may be restored by the affliction of your own.

Homilies on the Gospels, no. 16, 5 (Migne) (trans. ©Cistercian Studies series, no.123)

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 6:1-6.16-18.