“Don’t you think that our desire to eat together is an expression of our even deeper desire to be food for one another?”

—Henri Nouwen, The Life of the Beloved

“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

“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.”

—The Sheperd of Hermas 3[56]:7



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.’

3 Helpful Principles of Fasting

“Those who do not allow their appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird that lacks no feathers.”

—St. John of the Cross

I have seen many people like this hear about death and the terrible judgment and shed tears, and with the tears still in their eyes they eagerly go to a meal. And I was amazed how this tyrant, this stinkpot of gluttony, by complete indifference, can grow so strong as to turn the tables even on mourning.

—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

It is impossible to overcome these passions unless we can rise above attachment to food and possessions, to self-esteem and even to our very body, because it is through the body that the demons often attempt to attack us. It is essential, then, to imitate people who are in danger at sea and throw things overboard because of the violence of the winds and the threatening waves.

—Evagrios the Solitary, Texts on Discrimination in Respect of Passions and Thoughts