Fasting is the companion of sobriety and the craftsman of self-control.
—St. Basil the Great, On Fasting and Feasts
-
If you have the urge to drink two cups of coffee, drink only one.
—Tito Colliander, Way of the Ascetics
-
We overcome after a fashion, perhaps, our serious and danger vices, but there it stops. The small desires we freely let grow as they will. We neither embezzle nor steal, but delight in gossiping; we do not “drink,” but consume immoderate quantities of tea and coffee instead.
—Tito Colliander, Way of the Ascetics
-
Therefore, my son, refine the youthful impulses of your flesh, and through the virtues we have described strengthen your immortal soul and renew your intellect with the help of the Spirit. For the flesh of youth, gorged with food and wine, is like a pig ready for slaughter. The flames of sensual pleasure kill the soul, while the intellect is made a prisoner by the fierce heat of evil desire and cannot then resist such pleasure. For when the blood is heated the spirit is cooled.
-
Beware also of looking with too much attention at rich food and drink, remembering our ancestress Eve, who looked with evil eyes at the fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden of Eden, desired it, plucked and ate it and so subjected to death herself and all her descendants.
—Lorenzo Scupoli, Unseen Warfare -
“It is just as impossible for the person who nourishes and panders to his flesh to fly to heaven as it is for an overfed bird.”
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
-
Abba Silvanus and his disciple Zacharias visited a monastery. The monks invited them to share a small meal before they continued their journey. Departing, Zacharias saw a pond by the road and desired a drink of water. Silvanus reminded him that they were observing a fast that day.
Zacharius protested, “But, Abba, we have already broken our fast today.”
Silvanus replied, “We ate with them because we love them. Now that we are on our own, let’s keep our fast, my son.”
By Way of the Desert: 365 Daily Readings -
Struggle with your flesh until it is humbled. Once it is used to this modest and rough environment, it will become your mute slave. Humility of the flesh will be granted at last. You should always keep this in sight and strive for it as a reward for your labors. Physical podvigs [spiritual struggles] foster physical virtues: solitude, silence, endurance, vigilance, labor, patience in deprivations, purity, and virginity.
You should remember that this friend of yours will end up in the grave. They say: Do not trust the flesh—it is deceitful. When you come to believe it is humbled, you relax, and it immediately grabs you and conquers you. This war with it continues to the grave, but it is much harder at first. Later it gets easier and easier until finally there remains only attention to its behavior with occasional light sensations of fleshly upsurge.
—St. Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation -
“Are you hungry or empty?”
—Jonice Webb PhD -
“Eat less food and you’ll get more done.”
—Robin Sharma
