St. Seraphim of Sarov on Fasting

Once there came to him a mother who was concerned about how she might arrange the best possible marriage for her young daughter. When she came to Saint Seraphim for advice, he said to her: “Before all else, ensure that he, whom your daughter chooses as her companion for life, keeps the fasts. If he does not, then he is not a Christian, whatever he may consider himself to be.”

— From a sermon of Metropolitan Philaret, quoted in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, pub. Holy Transfiguration Monastery, pg.xxxiii.