fasting

Fasting is about repentance and change. The triad of spiritual disciplines we heard on Ash Wednesday - giving to those in need, praying, and fasting - were considered in Jesus' day, a way back to God (that's right, all together, a way - not three alternative ways...). As I noted in "The Restoration Project," Jesus wasn't saying if you can't fast rightly don't worry about it (Matthew 6). He was saying, yes, observe the fasts, and do so with all your heart. Seek God in it, to meet your Father, and engage him and know him, that your Father may truly be your reward. I found this reference to fasting from one the early church fathers:

Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the fast.
(John Chrystostom)

text of Fasting sermon by John Chrystostom