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
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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) -
we do not “drink,” but consume immoderate quantities of tea and coffee instead.
—Tito Colliander, Way of the Ascetics: The Ancient Tradition of Discipline and Inner Growth -
And in the morning there is another sacrifice to your belly ready in the shape of a dainty breakfast. You get up, pray, of course not with your whole heart—since with our whole heart we can only eat and drink…and thus you pray, out of habit, carelessly…and then you hurry again to food and drink.
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ -
Satiety drives away faith and the fear of God from the heart. A satiated man does not feel the presence of God in his heart; heartfelt, fervent prayer is far from him.
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ -
Take a look at our life, at what motivates the majority of people in our world. Ask yourself, what is the main interest of the majority? And strange as it may seem to us who are used to hiding our true interests and presenting false and artificial ones, the main interest of the majority of people in our times is to please the taste, the pleasure of food. Beginning with the poor and on to the richest classes in society, gluttony is, I think, the main goal, the main pleasure of our life. The poor, working man is the exception only to the extent that poverty hinders him from indulging in this passion. As soon as he has enough time and means, he will emulate the upper classes and get himself the tastiest and sweetest foods… And look at the life of educated people, listen to their conversations. They are as if completely occupied with such lofty subjects: philosophy, science, art, and poetry, as well as the distribution of wealth, the people’s well-being, the education of youth. But for an enormous majority this is all a lie, all something they do in between things, in between the real business—breakfast and lunch, until the stomach is full and they can’t eat any more. The lively interest, the true interest of the majority is food. How to eat, what to eat, when, and where. Not a single festivity, not a single joy, not a single opening no matter what it is can happen without food. People pretend that dinner, that food is a matter of indifference to them; but this is a lie. Just try to replace their expected refined dishes with, I won’t say bread and water, but porridge and noodles, and you’ll see what a tempest it will arouse. And it becomes clear that in gathering together, these people’s main interest is not at all what they are trying to present, but in fact, it’s food.
—Leo Tolstoy, The First Step -
It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table. Yet perhaps this may be done. The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will poison you. It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery. Most men would feel shame if caught preparing with their own hands precisely such a dinner, whether of animal or vegetable food, as is every day prepared for them by others. Yet till this is otherwise we are not civilized, and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not true men and women. This certainly suggests what change is to be made. It may be vain to ask why the imagination will not be reconciled to flesh and fat. I am satisfied that it is not. Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals; but this is a miserable way, — as any one who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn, — and he will be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.
—Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Higher Laws -
You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts.
—St. Basil, Homilies on the Holy Spirit
