Fasting:

The practice of fasting is rich with mean­ing. Many of the Holy Fathers throughout the history of the Church have written about the significance of fasting. Saint Basil, for exam­ple, tells us that fasting is not simply abstain­ing from food; it is, more importantly, the avoidance of sin. The Church in her hymnol­ogy describes fasting as the mother of chas­tity and prudence, as the accuser of sin and as the advocate of repentance, the life wor­thy of angels and the salvation of humans. Fasting becomes all of these when observed in the proper spirit.