๐'It is so natural for people to seek pleasure in eating and drinking that Saint Paul, teaching early Christians to perform all their actions for the love and glory of God, is obliged to mention eating and drinking specifically, for it is difficult to eat without offending God. Most people eat like animals to satisfy their appetite.'
๐ฎ St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle
๐ 'It is often thus, that when we begin with good intentions in the eyes of God, a secret tagalong yen for the praise of our fellow men comes along, taking hold of our intentions from the side of the road. We take food, for example, out of necessity, but while we are eating, a gluttonous spirit creeps in and we begin to take delight in the eating for its own sake; so often it happens that what began as nourishment to protect our health ends by becoming a pretext for our pleasures.'
๐ฎ Pope St. Gregory the Great
๐ 'If you have promised Christ to go by the strait and narrow way, restrain your stomach, because by pleasing and enlarging it, you break your contract. Attend and you will hear Him who says: "Spacious and broad is the way of the belly that leads to the perdition of fornication, and many there are who go in by it; because narrow is the gate and strait is the way of fasting that leads to the life of purity, and few there be that find it."'
๐ฎ St. John Climacus
๐ 'All that we can find everywhere is selfishness, ambition, gluttony, and luxury. Is not the greater portion of men defiled by the vice of impurity, and is not Saint John right in saying, "The whole world - if something so foul may be called - "is seated in wickedness?" I am not the one who is telling you; reason obliges you to believe that out of those who are living so badly, very few are saved.'
๐ฎ St. Leonard of Port Maurice
๐ 'Be followers of me brethren: and observe them that walk so as you have our form. For many walk whom often I told you of (and now weeping also I tell you) the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction: whose God, is the belly: and their glory is in their confusion, who mind worldly things.'
๐ฎ Philippians 3:17-19
๐ 'As long as the vice of gluttony has a hold on a man, all that he has done valiantly is forfeited by him: and as long as the belly is unrestrained, all virtue comes to naught.'
๐ฎ Pope St. Gregory the Great
๐ Do not be deceived: you will not be delivered from Pharaoh, and you will not see the Heavenly Passover, until you continually eat bitter herbs and unleavened bread. And bitter herbs -- this is the coercion and pain of fasting; and unleavened bread -- this is a mind that is not puffed up. Let this cleave to your breathing, the word of him who says: "But as for me, when demons troubled me, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer hath cleaved to the bosom of my soul."'
๐ฎ St. John Climacus
๐ Hunger and thirst and fatigue are chains of corruption that cannot be loosed except in that glory of immortality by which our mortality is transformed. We fill the body with food lest it grow weak and emaciated; then we weaken it with fasting lest it should be a trouble to us when filled.'
๐ฎ Pope St. Gregory the Great
๐ 'Love, self-restraint, contemplation and prayer accord with God's will, while gluttony, licentiousness and things that increase them pander to the flesh. That is why "they that are in the flesh cannot conform to God's will" (Rom. 8:8). But "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh together with the passions and desires." (Gal. 5:24)'
๐ฎ St. Maximos the Confessor
๐ 'Why do demons wish to excite in us gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, rancor and other passions? So that the mind, under their weight, should be unable to pray as it ought; for when the passions of our irrational part begin to act, they prevent the mind from acting rationally.'
๐ฎ St. Nilus of Sinai
๐ 'The mind of a faster prays soberly, but the mind of an intemperate person is filled with impure idols.'
๐ฎ St. John Climacus
๐ 'Do not imagine that the Almighty will, at the time of prayer, infuse his consolations into the souls of those who, like senseless beasts, seek delight in the indulgence of the appetite. "Divine consolation," says St. Bernard, "is not given to those that admit any other delight." : Celestial consolations are not bestowed on those that go in search of earthly pleasures.'
๐ฎ St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
'Take, even bread with moderation, lest a loaded stomach should make you weary of prayer.'
๐ฎ St. Bernard of Clairvaux
๐ 'He who lives in sin takes up the habits and the appearance of the beasts. The beast, which has not reason, knows nothing but its appetites. So the man who makes himself like the beasts loses his reason, and lets himself be guided by the inclinations of his body. He takes his pleasure in good eating and drinking, and in enjoying the vanities of the world, which pass away like the wind. I pity the poor wretches who run after that wind; they gain very little, they give a great deal for very little profit -- they give their eternity for the miserable smoke of the world.'
๐ฎ St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars
๐ 'Your new food is prudent abstinence from gluttony and from delicacies, as far as your natural constitution can endure it. Acts of abstinence that go beyond the capacity of nature are not to my liking, for I demand rationality and the taming of lusts.'
๐ฎ The Lord, to St. Bridget of Sweden
๐ 'Struggle with all your might against the stomach and restrain it with all sobriety. If you labour a little, the Lord will also soon work with you.'
St. John Climacus
๐ 'A Christian regards food as a remedy; he heeds neither the promptings of greed, nor of sensuality; he avoids delicacies, and the search after anything that flatters the senses; in a word, he thinks only of imitating Jesus Christ, who chose to subject himself to this humiliating action, in order to leave us a model; he has always before his mind that salutary advice which our Lord himself has given us: "Watch carefully over yourselves, that your hearts be not weighed down by the excess of meat and of wine, and that the day of the Lord may not take you by surprise."
๐ The most efficacious means of keeping in mind the rules of temperance, and obtaining strength to follow them, is to say, piously, the prayer before and after meals. By this we shall draw down upon ourselves the blessing of God, and obtain the grace not to offend Him.'
๐ฎ St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle
๐ 'Let us then take care not to be conquered by this brutal vice. St. Augustine says, that food is necessary for the support of life; but, like medicine, it should be taken only through necessity. Intemperance is very injurious to the body as well as to the soul.'
๐ฎ St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
๐ 'The inordinate concupiscence may be considered in two ways.
First, with regard to the food consumed: and thus, as regards the substance or species of food a man seeks "sumptuous" -- i.e. costly food; as regards its quality, he seeks food prepared too nicely -- i.e. "daintily"; and as regards quantity, he exceeds by eating "too much."
๐ Secondly, the inordinate concupiscence is considered as to the consumption of food: either because one forestalls the proper time for eating, which is to eat "hastily," or one fails to observe the due manner of eating, by eating "greedily."'
๐ฎ St. Thomas Aquinas
๐ 'The vice of gluttony tempts us in five ways. Sometimes it forestalls the hour of need; sometimes it seeks costly meats; sometimes it requires the food to be daintily cooked; sometimes it exceeds the measure of refreshment by taking too much; sometimes we sin by the very heat of an immoderate appetite."
๐ฎ Pope St. Gregory the Great
๐ 'Hastily, sumptuously, too much, greedily, daintily.'
๐ฎ St. Thomas Aquinas
๐ 'To abstain from sinful actions is not sufficient for the fulfillment of God's law. The very desire of what is forbidden is evil.'
๐ฎ St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle
๐ 'The passion of self-love suggests to the monk that he should have pity on his body and in the name of its proper care and governance should take food more often than is fitting; for in this way self-love will lead him on step by step to fall into the pit of self-indulgence. On the other hand, self-love prompts those who are not monks to fulfill the body's desires at once.'
๐ฎ St. Maximos the Confessor
๐ 'If it be the duty of a Christian to pray to God before meals, he is not less bound to thank him after having made use of the gifts which came from his bountiful hand. It is, therefore, necessary to make, after every meal, a short but fervent act of thanksgiving.'
๐ฎ St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle
๐ 'All the labour of man is in his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled.'
๐ฎ Ecclesiasties 6:7
๐ 'Who is it, Lord, that does not eat a little more than necessary?'
๐ฎ St. Augustine
๐ 'Fasting is the coercion of nature and the cutting out of everything that delights the palate, the excision of lust, the uprooting of bad thoughts, deliverance from incontinence in dreams, purity of prayer, the light of the soul, the guarding of the mind, deliverance from blindness, the door of compunction, humble sighing, glad contrition, a cessation of chatter, a cause of stillness, a guard of obedience, lightening of sleep, health of body, agent of dispassion, remission of sins, the gate of Paradise and its delight.'
๐ฎ St. John Climacus
๐ 'If we no longer fulfill the desires of the flesh, then with the Lord's help the evils within us will easily be eliminated.'
๐ฎ St. Mark the Ascetic
๐ 'Son in thy life prove thy soul: & if it be wicked, give it not power: for all things are not expedient for all, and every kind pleaseth not every soul. Be not greedy in all feasting, and pour not out thy self upon all meat: for in many meats there shall be infirmity, and greediness shall approach even to choler. Because of surfeit many have died: but he that is abstinent, shall add life.'
๐ฎ Ecclesiasticus 37:30-34
๐ 'When sitting at a table laden with food, remember death and judgement, for even so you will only check the passion slightly. In taking drink do not cease to bring to mind the vinegar and gall of your Lord. And you will certainly either be abstinent, or you will sigh and humble your mind.'
๐ฎ St. John Climacus
๐ 'It is not food that is evil but gluttony, not the begetting of children but unchastity, not material things but avarice, not esteem but self-esteem. This being so, it is only the misuse of things that is evil, and such misuse occurs when the intellect fails to cultivate its natural powers.'
๐ฎ St. Maximos the Confessor
๐ 'A certain great Prior was sent forth by his superiors: and he, a wolf disguised in sheep's clothing, was admitted into the sheepfold. He attracts, he allures, he flatters; the preacher of a new Gospel, he commends drunkenness, condemns frugality; voluntary poverty he calls misery; fasts, vigils, silence, the labour of the hands, he styles folly; but, on the contrary, sloth he names contemplation; gluttony, loquacity, inquisitiveness, in short, every kind of excess, he calls discretion. What, he says, does God delight in our sufferings? Where does Scripture bid anyone to slay himself? What sort of religion is it to dig the earth, to cut wood, to carry manure? Is it not the declaration of the Truth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice (S. Matt. ix. 13, Ezek. xxxiii. ii, S. Matt. v. 7). Why has God created food if it is not permitted to eat it? or given us bodies if we must not sustain them? And then, He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good (Ecclus. xiv. 5). What wise man ever hated his own flesh? (Eph. v. 29). Thus with such pleadings a too credulous youth is seduced. . .'
๐ฎ St. Bernard of Clairvaux
๐ 'I shall speak first about control of the stomach, the opposite to gluttony, and about how to fast and what and how much to eat. I shall say nothing on my own account, but only what I have received from the Holy Fathers. They have not given us only a single rule for fasting or a single standard and measure for eating, because not everyone has the same strength; age, illness or delicacy of body create differences. But they have given us all a single goal: to avoid over-eating and the filling of our bellies. . . A clear rule for self-control handed down by the Fathers is this: stop eating while still hungry and do not continue until you are satisfied.'
๐ฎ St. John Cassian
๐ '. . . A capital vice denotes one from which, considered as final cause, i.e. as having a most desirable end, other vices originate: wherefore through desiring that end men are incited to sin in many ways. . . the vice of gluttony, being about pleasures of touch which stand foremost among other pleasures, is fittingly reckoned among the capital vices.'
๐ฎ St. Thomas Aquinas
๐ 'We should know which virtue comes first, and which second or third; which passions attack the soul and which the body, and also which virtues concern the soul and which the body. We should know which virtue pride uses in order to assault the intellect, and which virtue leads to vainglory, wrath or gluttony. For we ought to purify our thoughts from "all the self-esteem that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." (2 Cor. 10:5)'
๐ฎ St. Isaiah the Solitary
๐ 'The three most common forms of desire have their origin in the passion of self-love. These three forms are gluttony, self-esteem and avarice. All other impassioned thoughts follow in their wake, though they do not all follow each of them.'
๐ฎ St. Thalassios the Libyan
๐ 'Overeating and gluttony cause licentiousness. Avarice and self-esteem cause one to hate one's neighbor. Self-love, the mother of vices, is the cause of all these things.'
๐ฎ St. Maximos the Confessor
๐ 'The thought of unchastity follows that of gluttony; of pride, that of self-esteem. The others all follow the three most common forms.'
๐ฎ St. Thalassios the Libyan
๐ 'Know that often a devil settles in the belly, and does not let the man be satisfied, even though he has devoured a whole Egypt and drunk a River Nile. But after one has taken food, the unclean spirit goes away and sends against us the spirit of fornication, telling him our condition and saying, "Catch, catch, hound him; for when the stomach is full, he will not resist much."'
๐ฎ St. John Climacus
๐ 'And I fell down before the Lord as before, forty days and nights neither eating bread, nor drinking water, for all your sins, which you had committed against the Lord, and had provoked him to wrath: For I feared his indignation and anger, wherewith being moved against you, he would have destroyed you.'
๐ฎ Deuteronomy 9:18-19
๐ 'Let us ask this foe, or rather this supreme chief of our misfortunes, this door of passions, this fall of Adam, this ruin of Esau, this destruction of the Israelites, this laying naked of Noah's shame, this betrayer of Gomorrah, this reproach of Lot, this perdition of the sons of Eli, this guide to impurity -- let us ask her: From whence is she born? Who are her offspring? Who crushes her? And who finally destroys her?
๐ "Tell us, tyrant of all mortals, you who have bought all with the gold of greed: How did you get access to us? And what do you usually produce after your coming? And what is the manner of your departure from us?"
๐ And gluttony, annoyed by these insults, raving with fury against us foaming, replies:
๐ "Why are you, who are my underlings, overwhelming me with reproaches? Why are you trying to escape from me? I am bound to you by nature. The door for me is the nature of foods. The cause of my insatiability is habit. The foundation of my passion is repeated habit, insensibility of soul, and forgetfulness of death. How do you seek to learn the names of my offspring? If I count them, they will be more in number than the sand. But at least learn the names of my first-born and beloved children.
๐ My first born son is a minister of fornication, the second after him is hardness of heart, and the third is sleepiness. From me proceed a sea of bad thoughts, waves of filth, depths of unknown and unnamed impurities. My daughters are laziness, talkativeness, familiarity in speech, jesting, facetiousness, contradiction, a stiff neck, obstinacy, disobedience, insensibility, captivity, conceit, audacity, love of adornment, after which follows impure prayer, wandering of thoughts, and often unexpected and sudden misfortunes, with which is closely bound despair, the most evil of all my daughters.
๐ The remembrance of falls resists me but does not conquer me. The thought of death is always hostile to me, but there is nothing within men that destroys me completely. He who has received the Comforter prays to Him against me; and the Comforter, when appealed to, does not allow me to act passionately. But those who have not tasted His gift inevitably seek their pleasure in my sweetness."
๐ The victory [over this vice] is a courageous one. He who is able, let him hasten to dispassion and to the highest degree of chastity.'
๐ฎ St. John Climacus
