I just don't understand why if I fast at a time specified by another, how that really ever relates to me or my personal communication with God.
Perhaps just because it's better than never fasting at all?
The significance of Fridays, of course, is in commemoration of the Passion.
We live and die by the hierarchy.
If I did not have a priest telling me what to and when, I think I would just freak out.
I can't be bothered with any "personal relationship with Christ" business.
If my priest can't do it for me, I am not interested.
I myself am a weak-willed person --- poorly disciplined ---and I find it difficult to fast. In fact, just thinking of fasting makes me visualize tacos, barbecued pork ribs, creamy vanilla ice-cream with Hershey's chocolate syrup, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting: you see the problem.
I have always found it a little easier (not easy, but a little easier) to fast when:
(1) It's obligatory. I can't so easily weasel out of it by saying, "Oh, I'll fast tomorrow. Besides, my Atkins diet counts as a fast. Besides, I fasted this morning and I felt a little weird, so I NEED that ham & cheddar hot pocket..." Obligatory helps.
(2) Other people are fasting at the same time. When you're not eating meat, it really helps if nobody in your family is nuking hotdogs in the microwave. The solidarity (and relative lack of temptation) when everbody in the household is on the same page, spiritual-discipline-wise, counts for a lot to a shilly-shallying sinner like me.
OF COURSE you've gotta be praying when you're fasting. Think about Christ fasting. Good Lord, if even He had to fast ---- He who was perfect ---
No doubt there are other "medicines" besides fasting which can help you focus your mind of repentance and prayer--- but it's always a good idea to find out what medicine your Doctor takes...
Your relationship with God is as part of a community, not as an atomistic individual. You came to God because members of the Church brought His message to you, and you joined them in their belief and became their spiritual brother. Now this community is a supernatural community, since it is both the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. And since it is a community, the comunity does supernatural things together at the same time as a group - for example, penitential acts on Friday and corporate divine worship on Sunday - just as a natural community has certain things they do as a group, such as celebrating Independence Day, or a family community eats dinner together at night.
We do it together because that is when Jesus Christ Himself promised to be in our midst. "For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (St. Matthew 18.20)