Our Lady in Medjugorje tells us how to do real fasting

 

Message dated December 8, 1981
In addition to food, it would be good to give up television, because after watching television programs, you are distracted and you cannot pray. You could also give up alcohol, cigarettes and other pleasures. You know for yourself what you should do.
Some passages from the Bible that can help us understand this message.
Isaiah 58,1-14
She screams at the top of her mind, have no regard; like a trumpet, raise your voice; he declares his crimes to my people, his sins to the house of Jacob. They seek me out every day, yearning to know my ways, like a people who practice justice and have not abandoned the right of their God; they ask me for just judgments, they crave the closeness of God: "Why fast, if you don't see it, mortify us, if you don't know it?". Behold, on the day of your fast you take care of your affairs, torment all your workers. Here, you fast between quarrels and altercations and hitting with unfair punches. Do not fast any more as you do today, so that your noise can be heard high up. Is the fasting that I crave like this the day on which man mortifies himself? To bend one's head like a rush, to use sackcloth and ashes for the bed, perhaps you would like to call fasting and a day pleasing to the Lord?

Isn't this the fast I want: to untie the unfair chains, remove the bonds of the yoke, put the oppressed free and break every yoke? Does it not consist in sharing bread with the hungry, in introducing the poor, homeless into the house, in dressing someone you see naked, without taking your eyes off those of your flesh? Then your light will rise like the dawn, your wound will heal soon. Your righteousness will walk before you, the glory of the Lord will follow you. Then you will call on him and the Lord will answer you; you will beg for help and he will say, "Here I am!" If you take away the oppression, the pointing of the finger and the ungodly speaking from among you, if you offer the bread to the hungry, if you satisfy the fast, then your light will shine in the darkness, your darkness will be like the noon. The Lord will always guide you, he will satisfy you in arid soils, he will reinvigorate your bones; you will be like an irrigated garden and a spring whose waters do not dry up. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins, you will rebuild the foundations of distant times. They will call you breccia repairman, restorer of ruined houses to live in. If you refrain from violating the Sabbath, from carrying out business on the day sacred to me, if you will call the Sabbath delight and venerating the holy day to the Lord, if you will honor it by avoiding to set off, to do business and to bargain, then you will find the delight in the Lord. I will make you tread the heights of the earth, I will make you taste the legacy of Jacob your father, since the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Tobias 12,8-12
Good thing is prayer with fasting and almsgiving with justice. Better the little with justice than wealth with injustice. It is better to give alms than to put aside gold. Begging saves from death and purifies from all sin. Those who give alms will enjoy long life. Those who commit sin and injustice are enemies of their lives. I want to show you the whole truth, without hiding anything: I have already taught you that it is good to hide the king's secret, while it is glorious to reveal the works of God. Know therefore that, when you and Sara were in prayer, I would present the witness of your prayer before the glory of the Lord. So even when you buried the dead.
Proverbs 15,25-33
The Lord tears down the house of the proud and makes the widow's boundaries firm. Evil thoughts are abominable to the Lord, but benevolent words are appreciated. Whoever is greedy for dishonest earnings upsets his home; but whoever detests gifts will live. The mind of the righteous meditates before answering, the mouth of the wicked expresses wickedness. The Lord is far from the wicked, but he listens to the prayers of the righteous. A luminous look gladdens the heart; happy news revives the bones. The ear that listens to a salutary rebuke will have its home in the midst of the wise. Whoever refuses the correction despises himself, who listens to the rebuke acquires sense. Fear of God is a school of wisdom, before glory there is humility.
Proverbs 28,1-10
The wicked flees even if no one pursues him, while the righteous is as sure as a young lion. For the crimes of a country many are his tyrants, but with an intelligent and wise man the order is maintained. An ungodly man who oppresses the poor is a torrential rain that does not bring bread. Those who violate the law praise the wicked, but those who observe the law wage war on him. The wicked do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand everything. A poor man with an intact conduct is better than one with perverse customs, even if he is rich. He who observes the law is an intelligent son, who attends the crapulons dishonors his father. Whoever increases the patrimony with usury and interest accumulates it for those who have pity on the poor. Whoever turns his ear elsewhere so as not to listen to the law, even his prayer is abominable. Various maxims Whoever causes righteous men to be led astray by a bad path, will himself fall into the pit, while intact