There is an empty space in many of us that gnaws at our ribs and cannot be filled by any amount of food. There is a hunger for something, and we never know quite what it is, only that it is a hunger, so we eat.
—Marya Hornbacher, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
Category: FOOD
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Fasting is about much more than food. In fact, you might even say that food is merely the icon: in fasting from food we learn to fast from needless speaking, from coarse jesting, from time-wasting and often sin-enticing entertainments. Abstaining from food manifests outwardly an inner abstention from selfish thoughts, fantasies, self pity, and the judging of others.
—Archpriest Michael Gillis, Spiritual Disciplines -
He talks about healing a wound, and does not stop irritating it. He complains of sickness, and does not stop eating what is harmful. He prays against it, and immediately goes and does it. And when he has done it, he is angry with himself; and the wretched man is not ashamed of his own words. “I am doing wrong,” he cries, and eagerly continues to do so. His mouth prays against his passion, and his body struggles for it. He philosophizes about death, but he behaves as if he were immortal. He groans over the separation of soul and body, but drowses along as if he were eternal. He talks of temperance and self-control, but he lives for gluttony. He reads about the judgment and begins to smile. He reads about vainglory, and is vainglorious while actually reading. He repeats what he has learned about vigil, and drops asleep on the spot. He praises prayer, but runs from it as from the plague. He blesses obedience, but he is the first to disobey. He praises detachment, but he is not ashamed to be spiteful and to fight for a rag. When angered he gets bitter, and he is angered again at his bitterness; and he does not feel that after one defeat he is suffering another. Having overeaten he repents, and a little later again gives way to it. He blesses silence, and praises it with a spate of words. He teaches meekness, and during the actual teaching frequently gets angry. Having woken from passion he sighs, and shaking his head, he again yields to passion. He condemns laughter, and lectures on mourning with a smile on his face. Before others he blames himself for being vainglorious, and in blaming himself is only angling for glory for himself. He looks people in the face with passion, and talks about chastity. While frequenting the world, he praises the solitary life, without realizing that he shames himself. He extols almsgivers, and reviles beggars. All the time he is his own accuser, and he does not want to come to his senses—I will not say cannot.
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent -
Let your reclining in bed be for you an image of your declining into your grave—and you will sleep less. Let your refreshment at table be for you a reminder of the grim table of those worms—and you will be less luxurious. And in drinking water, do not forget the thirst of that flame—and you will certainly refuse your nature all it wants.
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent -
“Food is necessary to life, but we have made it more necessary than God. How often have we neglected to remember God’s presence when we would never consider neglecting to eat?”
—Lynne M. Baab, Fasting: Spiritual Freedom Beyond Our Appetities
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“On that day you fast, eat nothing but bread and water. And from your food, which you would have eaten, calculate the amount of money you would have spent and give it to a widow, orphan, or someone else in need.”
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It is remarkable that, however much we trouble about our health, however much care we take of ourselves, whatever wholesome and pleasant food and drink we take, however much we walk in the fresh air, still, notwithstanding all this, in the end we sicken and corrupt; whilst the saints, who despise the flesh, and mortify it by continual abstinence and fasting, by lying on the bare earth, by watchfulness, labours, unceasing prayer, make both their souls and bodies immortal. Our well-fed bodies decay and after death emit an offensive odour, whilst theirs remain fragrant and flourishing both in life and after death. It is a remarkable thing: we, by building up our body, destroy it, whilst they, by destroying theirs, build it up – by caring only for the fragrance of their souls before God, they obtain fragrance of the body also.
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ -
We Christians nowadays often do the exact opposite of the saints who ate in public and fasted in secret. We tend to fast in public and to eat in private. When our churches have functions during Lent, or when we visit or invite friends who are fasting, then we fast ourselves. But when we are alone, we eat. And we generally fabricate good reasons for ourselves to justify our actions.
—Thomas Hopko, The Lenten Spring -
Bodily purity is primarily attained through fasting, and through bodily purity comes spiritual purity. Abstinence from food, according to the words of that son of grace, St. Ephraim the Syrian, means: ‘Not to desire or demand much food, either sweet or costly; to eat nothing outside the stated times; not to give oneself over to gratification of the appetite; not to stir up hunger in oneself by looking at good food; and not to desire one or another sort of food.’
SO GOOD QUOTES 