Would you really like to be closer to Christ? You're in luck, it's not complicated. It's actually pretty simple: 1. Prayer. 2. Fasting. 3. Almsgiving.
However, these aren't things that'll make you rich and famous so most people don't think of them, let alone do them. But do think of it this way: even if you are the only one in the whole wide World doing it (which you might be) then you will be the only one in the whole wide World to get the blessings they confer.
And to these we can add another: self-mortification. Deny yourself something... every day.
"Something" doesn't even need to be that much. Forego that fourth plateful of spaghetti and meatballs, or that second helping of ice cream that you really want. Leave the casino before blowing the rent money on slot machines. Don't kill the box of chocolates your sweetheart bought you in one sitting. Only pop the top of one cold beer. Take a cold shower, or a cold rinse. Throw an extra ten or twenty into the collection plate at church. Go out of your way to do something nice for someone... even though there's nothing in it for you. The point is to deny yourself
something... every... day. But the qualifier is this: you must do it for the love of God... not yourself.
Protestants get part of this. The praying and tithing parts. But not the fasting or self denial parts. They don't think along those lines for some reason. There are exceptions I'm sure, but as a rule... no, they don't. Self-denial just isn't on their radar. Which might help explain the epidemic of obesity in America today.
To be fair, self denial doesn't come up on most Catholics radar's either. I've heard the Orthodox understand the value of fasting better than anyone else. Muslims too have their yearly, month long fast of Ramadan. No easy feat that. Respect to them both. But most Christians recoil at the mere mention of fasting... like you'd offered them a booger.
The thing is
you don't have to starve yourself to fast. Skip a meal - if only once a week. At least that's
something. You don't have to do a full 24 hour fast if you can't. Do a bread and water fast. Or a bread and milk fast. Or a fluids only fast. The point is to do it for the love of God. He evidently likes it when we fast. Taming the beast of our appetites so they say.
A great many saints have recommended the importance of fasting as a way of making spiritual progress.
But don't just take my word for it:
"Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly." - Philippians 3:19
“Where there is no prayer and fasting there are the demons.” - St. Theophan the Recluse
“For the Ninevites fasted and won the favor of God. The Jews fasted too, but profited nothing. Nay, they departed with blame.” – Saint John Chrysostom
"To fast is to change every part of our life; because the real sacrifice of the fast is not in the abstaining but in the distancing from sin." - St. John Chrysostom
"As long as the vice of gluttony has a hold on a man, all that he has done valiantly is forfeited by him. And as long as the belly is untamed, all virtue comes to naught." - Pope St. Gregory the Great
“Fasting gives birth to prophets and strengthens the powerful; fasting makes lawgivers wise. Fasting is a good safeguard for the soul, a steadfast companion for the body, a weapon for the valiant, and a gymnasium for athletes. Fasting repels temptations, anoints unto piety; it is the comrade of watchfulness and the enabler of chastity. In war it fights bravely, in peace it teaches stillness." - Saint Basil the Great
"Fasting and self control form a double wall of defense; and whoever lives within them enjoys great peace." - St. Gregory Palamas
"Do not neglect to fast; it constitutes an imitation of Christ's way of life." - St. Anthony the Great
"Prayer, mercy and fasting: These three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer; mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have one of them, but not all together, you have nothing." - St Peter Chrysologus
"The scripture is full of places that prove fasting to be not the invention of man but the institution of God; and to have many profits. And that the fasting of one man may do good unto another. Our Saviour sayeth Himself that some kind of devils cannot be cast out 'without prayer and fasting.'” - St. Thomas More
"Take, even your bread with moderation, lest a full stomach make you weary of prayer." - St. Bernard of Clairvaux
"The minds of fasters are sober, but the minds of intemperate persons are filled with impure thoughts." - St. John Climacus
"For you already know that if prayer is to be genuine, it must be helped by fasting, discipline and silence. Prayer and the comfortable life are incompatible." - St. Teresa of Avila
“He who gratifies his taste will readily indulge the other senses; for, having lost the spirit of recollection, he will easily commit faults, by indecent words and by unbecoming gestures. But the greatest evil of intemperance, is that it exposes chastity to great danger.” - St. Alphonsus De Ligouri
“Without mortifying the appetite, it is impossible to preserve innocence, since it was by the indulgence of his appetite that Adam fell.” - St. Catharine of Sienna
“Although we may be able to do but little, the enemy nevertheless stands more in awe of those whom he knows can fast.” - St. Francis De Sales
"A capital vice denotes one from which other vices originate: wherefore through desiring that end men are incited to sin in other ways as well. The vice of gluttony, being about pleasure of the senses is fittingly reckoned among the capital vices." - St. Thomas Aquinas
I can go on a while citing saints about the great importance of fasting and the great need to tame our appetites my friends, but I'm sure you get the point.
I'll add too that while it's good to fast, it must be done properly: with discipline and with the right disposition - as St. John Chrysostom observed concerning the Ninevites and the Jews.
Fitz
