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I exclaim louder than the trumpet, not in order to deceive the ear with pleasure, but to drown out pleasure with the word of truth, to stop the passion of the stomach, and to cause the action of fasting. Fasting brings heavenly benefits, and voluptuousness brings harm subject to punishment. Whoever indulges in food and satisfies the passion of the stomach loses the spiritual fruit of the soul; and whoever dries up the flesh by fasting and avoids gluttony, lays up for himself, like a treasure, the hope of something better. Fasting teaches chastity and makes one strong; fasting prepares for piety and exercises for patience; fasting creates angelic life and improves the spiritual body; fasting is the protection of the soul and the invincible weapon of the body. He does not allow insidious pleasure to come to him and overcomes rebellious passion. Fasting elevates thought to heaven and inspires it to immortal nature. So, let us fast, beloved, not going through the days of fasting with a sad face, but spending them with a bright soul, like servants of Christ. If you approached fasting by choice, then do not be gloomy, but rejoice: it cleanses your soul from poison. Do not fast on something good, the taste of which is sweet; but be patient in waiting for sweeter teachings. That is why you abstain from food, so that the Spirit may nourish you; and you withdraw from bodily foods in order to be filled with spiritual offerings. Fasting is a medicine that destroys sin, and a gentle ointment for the soul, cleansing for the purpose of piety. Just as in the worst diseases, bodily pus is eliminated when powders are made from something very sharp and constricting, in the same way the mold of sin that has penetrated into the soul dries up the constricting fast, gradually softening it; (then) having completely cleansed it, he destroys (it). Therefore, although fasting is difficult, it is useful and easily accessible. Do not fast sadly, lest you lose your labor; Do not complain that you are slowing down a little, lest you be punished for everything because of a small thing. To the extent that fasting tightens the body, so much is the benefit from fasting. Turn to the lives of the righteous, and you will find that they are glorified most of all through fasting. First of all, after fasting, Moses entered darkness and through fasting became an interlocutor with God. Having added (another) forty-day fast, he became a legislator - he neither ate bread nor drank wine; he was content with (the) food that he learned the law from the lawgiver. In order for you to know how beneficial fasting is, and how harmful drunkenness, which rebels against fasting, is, notice what Moses does, and what is happening among the people, and you will find the power of fasting. Above, Moses received the law; below, the people rejected the law. Saddened, Moses broke the law, considering it unreasonable to entrust the law to the drunken and to convey the sayings to souls weighed down with wine. Look how unfair drunkenness is in rebellion against fasting! And fasting again, having corrected so much evil in those same days, renewed the law, leaving it for us as a monument to a safe life. Perhaps this incident expresses some mystery, that the first law will be abolished, (as) crushed by the unbelief of the first people, and the second will be effective everywhere, since the second people with faith accepts the second law and preserves it. And Elijah, after fasting for forty days and passing through the desert with one (meal) of food, did not feel tired: the fast carried him, making his work easier; and after fasting he contemplated God, as far as human nature can. He did not contemplate the incorporeal with his bodily eyes, but with his heart he contemplated the invisible, with the purity of his soul: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Thus, after fasting, he concluded heaven against the unbridled and spending their lives on pleasure, so that, what they did not choose of their own free will, they would be brought up in this hunger of fasting, and would learn how useful fasting is, and (that) expresses its effectiveness even during pleasure. Daniel, having fasted for three weeks and not having tasted the bread of the passions, went into the lions' den through the envy of the unbridled, and taught even the lions there to fast. The wild animals were ashamed of the faster, became meeker than the rational animals and closed their mouths, not daring to touch the holy body. Having dressed his body with fasting, as if with a weapon, and having become completely strengthened with it, he distracted the eyes of the lions - he appeared to them not in a human body, but in an angelic one. And three youths in Babylon, who did not want to partake of the royal lawless meal, but (who wanted) to follow the lawful fast, entered into the kindled oven, extinguished the flame, and made the oven dewy instead of fiery by fasting; it (the fire) retreated from those accustomed to fasting, not being able to touch their bodies; and against those who did not know the fast, the fire dared - it destroyed all the surrounding Chaldeans. There was nothing material in the body (of the youths), since through the action of fasting it became spiritual. Likewise, the Ninevites repelled death by fasting: after remaining in continuous fasting for three days, they abolished eternal punishment for a few days, leaving eternal praise for the world. See, beloved, how powerful fasting is when done with prayer and deeds! Fasting and prayer deliver from death; and the truth is higher than both of them. Fasting is both the destruction of death and liberation from anger; fasting is a purification of thought, a cohabitant of abstinence, an exercise in piety, the yoke of truth. Fasting has the ability to make the poor rich: it does not allow spending at the wrong time, it gives independence of measure; he knows how to make the rich the ruler of his own property, not allowing him to fearlessly absorb it; fasting also knows the color of youth. He teaches restraint in food, imparts abstinence and wisely leads to piety and chastity. He knows how to make elders wise and keep the eye of thought pure. Fasting also keeps the body in greater health: not being burdened with food, it does not accept the substance of disease, but, becoming lighter, it is strengthened to accept gifts. Therefore, let us fast, beloved, in order to attain spiritual gifts. He who fasts (he) educates his soul for piety: he, using the image of bodily abstinence to care for the soul, also removes himself from vicious thoughts entering the soul, just as he removes himself from food coming from outside: “If the anger of the ruler flares up against you, you will not leave your place; how healing will take away sins” (Eccl. 10:4). Just as you now move away from food by not eating anything, so move away from sins by changing yourself. You fast without taking wine; fast, abstaining from vice; wickedness knows how to produce even greater intoxication in the soul. You fast without touching meat; fast, refraining from slander, so that through it you do not eat the meat of your brothers, and do not taste their bodies. Fasting is true abstinence from sins. Listen to the words of the prophet: “Is this the fast that I have chosen, the day on which a man languishes his soul” (“I have not chosen this fast, and the day that a man should mortify his soul”) (Is. 58:5) - but what? – “Loose the chains of unrighteousness, untie the bonds of the yoke, and set the oppressed free, and break every yoke; divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the wandering poor into your home; When you see a naked man, clothe him” (Isa. 58:6–7). This, beloved, is true fasting, acceptable to God, saving for man and pleasing to everyone. Following him comes the possession of heaven, with the true promise of the Lord. Look what he adds: “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly increase, and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will follow you. Then you will call, and the Lord will hear; You will cry out, and He will say: Here I am, next to you” (Isa. 58:8-9). You see how many gifts there are in fasting, and with what piety it is associated! He inclines God himself to descend into human nature. So, fast, remain in prayer, communication, instruction, without leaving the meeting, as is usual for some; (spend) not in troubles or courts the whole day to collect money that you have to squander, or to oppose your brother whom you have to serve. You came to the evening, or the ninth hour, not to fulfill the purpose of fasting, but to satisfy the desire of the womb. And do not think of yourself as a teetotaler, avoiding wine, but as a drunk, because you are full of vice, so that you do not hear: “Woe to the wreath of pride of the drunk!” ("woe..., drinking without wine") (Is. 28:1). Drunkenness is not a companion to fasting, but an enemy and adversary. Let us hasten to the hope of resurrection prepared for us, there enjoying the appointed blessings, and here rejoicing in anticipation, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria.