On Fasting
by St. Paisy of Neamt
The third virtue
is fasting. Fasting I call the eating of a little bit once a day.
Getting up from the table when one is still hungry, having his
food, bread, and salt, and his drink-water, which the springs
themselves bring forth. Behold the royal way of receiving food;
that is, many have been saved by this path, so the Holy Fathers
have said. To refrain from food for a day, or two days, three,
four, five, or a week, a man cannot do always. But, so as every
day to eat bread and drink, one can always do this; only, having
eaten, one should be a little hungry, so that the body will be
submissive to the spirit and capable of labors and sensitive to
mental movements, and so the bodily passions will be conquered.
Complete fasting cannot mortify the bodily passions as well as
poor food mortifies them. Some fast for a time and then give
themselves over to delicious foods, for many begin fasting beyond
their strength and also other severe labors, and then they grow
weak from the lack of measure and unevenness of this labor, and
they seek tasty foods and repose for the strengthening of the
body. To act in this way means to build and then again destroy,
since the body through thinness from fasting is yearning for
sweet things and seeks consolation, and the sweet foods ignite
the passions. But if someone establishes for himself a definite
measure as to how much poor food to eat in a day, he will receive
great profit. However, concerning the quantity of food, one must
establish a rule that it be as much as is necessary for the
strengthening of oneself. Such a one can perform every kind of
spiritual work. But if someone fasts beyond this, at another time
he will give himself up to repose. Ascetic labor according to
measure is priceless. For certain of the Great Fathers also took
food in measure, and in everything they used it in its right
time, and everything had measure—in ascetic labors, in
bodily needs, in cell possessions, and in everything they used it
in its right time, and everything according to a definite,
moderate rule. Therefore, the Holy Fathers do not command one to
begin to fast above one's power and to make oneself weak. Take as
your rule to eat every day; thus one may refrain in a more firm
way; but if one fasts more than this, how will he refrain later
from eating to the full and overeating? In no way will he be able
to. Such an immoderate beginning comes either from vainglory or
lack of understanding, while continence is one of the virtues
which aids in the subjugating of the flesh. Hunger and thirst are
given to man for the purification of the body, for the
preservation from unclean thoughts and lustful passions. Every
day to eat poorly is a means to perfection, as certain ones have
said, and one who eats every day at a definite hour in no way is
lowered morally nor undergoes any harm of soul. Saint Theodore
the Studite praises such ones in his instruction on the Friday of
the first week of the Great Fast, where he cites in confirmation
of his words the Holy God-bearing Fathers and the Lord Himself.
Thus we also should act.
The Lord endured a
lengthy fast, as did Moses and Elias, but only once. And certain
other ones sometimes when entreating something from the Creator,
laid upon themselves a certain time of fasting, but in accordance
with natural laws and the teaching of the Divine Scripture. From
the activity of the Saints, from the Life of our Savior, and from
the rules of those who have lived in good order, it is evident
that it is splendid and profitable always to be ready and to be
found in ascetic labor, in work, and in endurance; however, not
to weaken oneself by immoderate fasting and not to bring the body
into a state of inactivity. If the flesh is inflamed because of
youth, one must refrain a great deal; but if it is infirm, one
must take much or little. Look and judge according to your own
infirmity as to how much you can do. To each one there is a
measure, and the inward teacher is one's conscience; not everyone
can have the same rule and same ascetic labor, because some are
strong and others are weak. Some are like iron, others are like
copper, while others are like wax. And thus correctly discovering
one's own measure, take food once each day, apart from Saturdays,
Sundays, and Great Feasts of the Lord. A moderate and sensible
fast is the foundation and chief of all virtues. One should fight
evil as one fights a lion and a fierce serpent—in the
infirmity of the body and spiritual poverty. He who wishes his
mind to be firm against defiled thoughts should make his body
refined through fasting.
It is not
possible, without fasting, to serve as a Priest. As it is
indispensible to breathe, so also is it to fast. Fasting once
having entered into the soul, kills to the depths the sin which
lies therein.
Ch. VIII from Field Flowers.
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