How Should We Conduct Ourselves During Meals?
Chapter 6 from How to Live a Holy Life
by Metropolitan Gregory of St. Petersburg (1784-1860)
Never begin lunch or dinner, or
finish them, without fervent prayer to the Lord God
as, unfortunately, very many Christians of our time do.
One cannot but marvel at how these Christians have
reached such a condition of soul that they can both
start a meal and finish it without a fervent prayer to
the Lord God. For it is precisely the Lord God Who
supplies us with all our food. Granted, we ourselves
also worked to obtain our food, but what would all
our work amount to if the Lord God did not give
us His blessing—if, for example, He did not bestow
the proper warmth, moisture, wind and sun on the
fields and gardens that we have cultivated and sown?
Absolutely nothing, as, of course, everyone knows.
Besides, it is precisely the Lord God Who furnishes
our food with nourishing properties, and our bodies
with an ability to use these nourishing properties for
our bodily health. What would happen to us if the
Lord God had not given nutritional quality to our
food? Then no matter how much of even the most
nutritious food we consumed, we would not gain
bodily strength, and therefore would be able neither
to carry out our daily bodily functions nor to continue
life itself. Then none of us would remain alive.
On the other hand, what would happen to us if the
Lord God took away from our stomachs the power of
digestion, if only for two weeks? Then even the most
nourishing food would not nourish us, but exhaust us
and lead us into illness or deprive us of life itself. For
experience bears witness that sometimes the healthiest
food can be harmful.
Our meals should always be moderate. All the
saints, who customarily watched strictly after themselves,
say with one voice: 1) that very little is needed
for satisfaction of our bodies; 2) that our bellies by
themselves almost never know moderation; 3) that
our bellies sometimes demand food even when they
have had more than enough, and 4) that therefore to
maintain moderation it is best to cease consumption
of food when the urge to eat has still not completely
subsided. St. John Chrysostom gave an excellent rule
for observing necessary moderation in food: "Eat just
enough to alleviate your hunger." Another holy teacher
said "You should not eat whatever you want , but
eat what you have, and in a way that after eating and
drinking, you still feel an urge for food."
Speaking of food, the saints very forcefully
observed that lay people should consume very little,
and that for monks, widowers, and widows it is best
to completely avoid foods that are filling, stimulating,
indigestible, good-tasting, or sweet. Good-tasting
or sweet foods because we very easily overindulge in
such, and nutritious, stimulating, or indigestible foods
because these in particular stir up the bad tendencies
of our fl esh, and because while using them it is almost
impossible to restrain and destroy these tendencies.
Food is, however, necessary for the body. We
should not refuse the body necessary food. On the
one hand, we need to satisfy the natural demand of
nature that we support our health and bodily powers,
which are necessary for satisfaction of various needs
of body and soul. On the other hand, while lacking
food necessary for the body, we may stir up against
ourselves an enemy, who perhaps otherwise would
not even think of being our enemy.
At meals, especially dinner, never consume food
immoderately or to excess. Our food is a gift from
God, and all gifts of God, being divine, should be
received reverently, decorously, with the fear of God,
and consumed only for the purpose for which they
are given. Our food is given to us for not for satiety,
but for satisfaction.
Satiety is extremely harmful for our body, because
stomach disorder, corruption of the blood, various
diseases of the body, and premature death are in great
part a result of excess or intemperance. Doctors, experience,
and the Spirit of God attest to this. For excess
of meats bringeth sickness. . . by surfeiting have many
perished, says the Wise One (Ecclus 37:33,34).
Satiety is extremely harmful for the soul. Whoever
overindulges in food or drink is incapable of spiritual
exercises and can neither pray nor refl ect on anything
divine, because excess in food draws a person
into laziness, sleepiness, idleness, idle talk, ludicrous
behavior, and a great multitude of impure thoughts
and desires. And for infl ammation of anger and love
of pleasure it often plays the same role as oil poured
onto fi re. In general, whoever overeats does not have
the true God, but his own fl esh and its desires. Therefore,
whoever overeats is capable of violating even
the holiest obligations and is prepared to commit the
most vile acts. Whoever has observed himself and
those close to him to any extent needs no proof in
this regard.
During lunch and dinner never say anything sinful.
Because to insult God at the same time as you
are eating His gifts, when it is especially necessary to
feel and show gratitude to God, is the vilest ingratitude.
But unfortunately, during lunch and dinner
many carry on the most impious conversations: they
defame, condemn, mock each other, especially absent
neighbors, tell suggestive jokes, give themselves up to
ludicrous behavior, speak disrespectfully of the faith,
of various sacred subjects relating to the faith, and so
on. Such conduct over lunch and dinner is extreme
ingratitude to the Lord God. Guard against it in
every way possible.
During lunch and dinner one should say or listen
to something edifying: from sacred history, from
the lives of the saints, from natural history revealing
God’s wisdom and goodness, from spiritual teachings,
and so on. Because at the table a person becomes
somewhat sluggish and sleepy from food, true
Christians try during meals principally to remember
death and the dread judgement more vividly in order
to keep themselves in a God-pleasing spirit, inaccesible
to any depravity. Because it often happens
that poorly cooked food may be served, the saints, to
keep themselves in such a case from off ending, usually
imagined immediately that all of us, by our sins
and by our constant insult to God, are unworthy not
only of what is now being offered, but even of pigs’
swill. And then they consumed a certain amount of
the food off ered as if it had been cooked properly.
Whoever consumes his lunch and dinner thus,
that is, moderately and with gratitude to the Lord
God, is acting as duty demands, in a righteous and
God-pleasing manner. Perhaps in his home there will
not be abundance, but at the same time there will
never be complete poverty. The Holy Prophet David
says, I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not
seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
On the contrary, the righteous man often finds himself
even in such a position that He is ever merciful, and
lendeth (Ps. 37:25,26), that is, every day he sustains
the poor and provides them with something.
And so, whoever does not have his daily bread
should examine himself attentively and dispassionately
to determine whether he prays for his daily bread
to the Lord God before his lunch and dinner and
whether he labors for his daily bread. Whoever either
does not pray to the Lord God or does not labor
should not be surprised if he does not have his daily
bread: he will reap what he has sown. If any would not
work, neither should he eat, the Apostle Paul says (II
Thess. 3:10).
From How to Live a Holy Life, by Metropolitan Gregory of
St. Petersburg (1784-1860), pp. 86-89. Published by the Printshop of St. Job of Pochaev,
Holy Trinity Monastery, 2005. Excerpt posted with permission. Purchase today
from Uncut Mountain Supply!
Posted on 10 Mar, 2006 (n.s.).
Other chapter topics include: How Should We Conduct Ourselves in the Morning? In Relation to the Lord God? In relationship to other people?
In Some of the Most Common Situations of Life?: Happiness, Misfortune, Wealth, Poverty, When People Praise Us,
When People Speak Evil of Us, In Illness, etc. How to Protect Ourselves from the Harmful Effect of Bad Example.
How Should We Conduct Ourselves in Our Daily Work? During Rest After Lunch? In the Evening?
Before Sleep? During Sleeplessness at Night? The Most Important Thing Concerning Prayer. How Should We Spend
Sundays?
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