It cannot be constantly pleasant : for necessity and want makes the appetite, and the appetite makes the pleasure; and men are infinitely mistaken when they despise the poor man’s table, and wonder how he can endure that life, that is maintained without the exercise of pleasure, and that he can suffer his day’s labour, and recompense it with unsavoury herbs, and potent garlic, with water-cresses, and bread coloured like the ashes that gave it hardness : he hath a hunger that gives it deliciousness.
—Rev. Jeremy Taylor, The House of Feasting .The Whole Works of the Rt. Rev. Jeremy Taylor, Volume 1
Category: FOOD
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He that feasts every day, feasts no day. And however you treat yourselves, sometimes you will need to be refreshed beyond it; but what will you have for a festival, if you wear crowns every day even a perpetual fulness will make you glad to beg pleasure from emptiness, and variety from poverty or a humble table.
—Rev. Jeremy Taylor, The House of Feasting .The Whole Works of the Rt. Rev. Jeremy Taylor, Volume 1 -
“I feed sweetly upon bread and water, those sweet and easy provisions of the body, and I defy the pleasures of costly provisions;” —Epicurus and the man was so confident that he had the advantage over wealthy tables, that he thought himself happy as the immortal gods, for these provisions are easy, they are to be gotten without amazing cares ; no man needs to flatter if he can live as nature did intend.
—Rev. Jeremy Taylor, The House of Feasting .The Whole Works of the Rt. Rev. Jeremy Taylor, Volume 1 -
If you settle down and ask yourself, ‘I’m not really hungry, but there are so many nice things one can eat, what would I fancy?’ In five minutes’ time you will have projected tentacles over a variety of things…Once you have allowed your imagination full sway, things are much more difficult. In that respect we must be sober and we must fight for freedom. There is a great deal of difference between attachment and love, between hunger and greed, between a live interest and curiosity, and so forth. Every one of our natural propensities has got a counterpart which is marked by evil and which is one of the ways in which we get enslaved. This is what I meant by withdrawing tentacles. To begin with, say ‘no’. If you haven’t said ‘no’ in time, you are in for a fight. But then be ruthless about it, because reason and detachment are more precious than what you get as a slave in terms of enjoyment.
—Met. Anthony Bloom, Beginning To Pray -
Your firmness, your self-control in that which concerns eating and sleeping-if someone wished to describe these things, how would he find words to do so? Moreover, you have not permitted anyone, so to speak, to refer to your self-control and firmness using these terms, for your virtues are so much greater that we must search for other names for them. Because in referring to someone’s self-control and firmness, we speak of one who, being tormented by a passion, controls it. But you, you have nothing to control, for from the beginning you have possessed great ardor against the flesh…
—Saint John Chrysostom, Letters to Saint Olympia -
Thou never forgettest us, and wilt never forget us, for Thou Thyself hast said: “Can a woman forget her suckling child? . . . . yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee;” that is, “I will not cease to feed, preserve, protect, deliver, and save thee.” Also Thou Thyself hast said: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Why, then, are we anxious about our food? Why are we so greedy? Why do we surfeit and delight ourselves with dainties? Why do we grudge to share with our neighbor? O impiety! O blindness! O filthy self-love! O want of love for God and our neighbor! For God dwells in the person of our neighbor, and therefore we grudge His own gifts to God Himself. Remember how generously the spirit-bearing Prophet Elisha rewarded the Shunamite woman who received him in her house and entertained him in the simplicity of her heart! He implored God to give her a son, and afterwards, when this son died, he raised him from the dead.
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ -
If you greedily eat and drink much, then you will be flesh; whilst if you fast and pray, then you will be spirit. “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.” Fast and pray, and you shall accomplish great things. The satiated man is incapable of great works. Have simplicity of faith, and you shall accomplish great things; ” for all things are possible to him that believeth.” Be watchful and zealous, and you shall do great things.
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ -
One should not eat to the point of satiation but only a little. For if one eats to the point of satiation, even from a food that is beneficial, one is harmed.
—“Other Old Man” John, Letters From The Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)
SO GOOD QUOTES 