The Fathers never speak of fasting alone. It comes always joined to prayer and to almsgiving · three strands of one cord. Fasting without prayer is only a diet; fasting without mercy, the Fathers warn, God does not receive.
So let the hunger of the fast turn you toward prayer, and let what you save be given to someone in need. St. John Chrysostom says plainly that the fast of the mouth profits little if the eyes, the tongue, and the hands do not fast too · from anger, from gossip, from grasping. This is the fasting God desires: the whole person turned toward Him and toward his neighbor.