What is needed is direction in spiritual growth. We hear of the lives of the saints, but very little on how to get there. We are told to pray, but not how to pray. How do we internalize Jesus Christ in our everyday lives. To make Him apart of us and to abandon ourselves to Him. To work as the early Church did in healings and loving one another. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the staples of the Church and is still practiced in the Eastern Church. The “Jesus Prayer,” fasting on Wednesday and Fridays, and of course love of neighbor (almsgiving). Fasting is no longer a part of the Western Church, except maybe a little during Lent. What is needed is a return to our roots as Christians.
Michael Martonick