Regarding meals, gluttony, and lust.

Extracts from St. John Climacus, 'The Ladder of Divine Ascent'

As we are about to speak concerning the stomach, as in everything else, we propose to philosophize against ourselves.  For I wonder if anyone has been liberated of this mistress before settling in the grave.

Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when it is glutted, it complains of scarcity; and when it is loaded and bursting, it cries out that it is hungry.  Gluttony is a deviser of seasonings, a source of sweet dishes.  You stop one spout, and it spurts up elsewhere; you plug this too, and you open another.

Gluttony deludes the eyes of others; while appearing to receive in moderation, it intends to devour everything at once.

Satiety in food is the father of fornication, but  affliction of the stomach is an agent of purity.  He who fondles a lion often tames it, but he who coddles the body makes it still wilder.

. . .

Often vanity proves an enemy of gluttony, and between themselves they quarrel over the wretched monk as a purchased slave.  The one urges him to relax, while the other proposes that he should make his virtue triumph.  The wise monk will shun both, at the right time shaking off each passion by the other.

. . .

The heart of gluttons dreams only of food and eatables, but the heart of those who weep dreams of judgment and castigation.  Master your stomach before it masters you; and then you are sure to control yourself with the aid of shame.  Those who have fallen into the horrible gulf know what I have said; but men who are eunuchs have not experienced this.

Let us curb the stomach by thought of the future fire.  For some who were slaves of their stomachs have cut their members right off, and died a double death.  If we go into the matter, we shall find that it is the stomach alone that is the cause of all human shipwreck.

The mind of a faster prays soberly, but the mind of an intemperate person is filled with impure idols.  Satiety of the stomach dries the real springs, but the stomach when dried produces these waters.

He who cherishes his stomach and hopes to overcome the spirit of fornication, is like one who tries to put out a fire with oil.

. . .

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, this unclean spirit goes away and sends against us the spirit of fornication, telling him of our condition and saying: ‘Catch, catch, hound him; for when the stomach is full, he will not resist much.’  With a smile the spirit of fornication comes, and having bound us hand and foot by sleep, does with us all he pleases, defiling soul and body with its impurities, dreams, and emissions.

It is amazing to see the bodiless mind defiled and darkened by the body, and likewise the immaterial spirit purified and refined through clay.

If you have promised Christ to go by the straight and narrow way, restrain your stomach, because by pleasing it 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.’

. . .

When sitting at a table laden with food, remember death and judgment, 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.

Do not be deceived: you will not be delivered from Pharaoh, and you will not see the Heavenly Passover, unless you continually eat bitter herbs and unleavened bread.  And bitter herbs – this is the coercion of pain and fasting;  and unleavened bread – this is a mind that is not puffed up.  Let us cleave to your breathing, the word of him who says: ‘But as for me, when demons trouble me, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer hath cleaved to the bosom of my soul.’

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 guardian of the mind, deliverance from blindness, the door of compunction, humble sighing, a guard of obedience, lightening of sleep, health of body, agent of dispassion, remission of sins, the gate of Paradise and its delight.

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 whom is she born?  Who are her offspring?  Who crushes her?  And who finally destroys her?

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?

And gluttony, annoyed by these insults, raving with fury against us and foaming, replies:  ‘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 learn at least the names of my first-born and beloved children.  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 to 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.  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.’

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.

- St. John Climacus, 'The Ladder'

'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.'

St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle

'. . . 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.'

St. Thomas Aquinas


'If we no longer fulfill the desires of the flesh, then with the Lord's help the evils within us will easily be eliminated.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

'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.'

Philippians 3:17-19

See Further:

Selections - Meals

Don't be scrupulous, shin.

You are posting words of the saints. They thought them fit for "mixed company"; nothing obscene was mentioned.

I read over the post, and don't see what part you found to be "too much detail". Seriously; I'm at a loss. Whatever part you're talking about can't be very serious, since I've read the whole thing.

Be at peace.

:dancing-banana:
Hmmmm!  Any thoughts from female saints?  It seems we women should stay away from gluttonous men.  As a woman, I don't see the connection between overeating and lust.  At least I've never experienced it.

Oh, it's a pretty clear-cut connection.

Being hungry or fasting tends to curb lust, and eating plenty tends to promote it. We're talking about a near-universal here.

And speaking of near-universal, almost all the spiritual authors make this connection as well.