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Look, poor man, how little food your stomach needs, and be ashamed of the immoderation of your worries about satiating it! Those angels have nothing of the kind; both these and all other lusts are dead. They eat food not for satiety and pleasure, but to satisfy a natural need. There are no bird catchers or fishermen between them. They are content with bread and water. Confusion, noise and disturbance, all this is completely expelled from there, and both in their dwellings and in their bodies there is great silence; on the contrary, sensualists have a disorder in everything. Imagine the inside of their stomach, and you will see a lot of rubbish, a stream of sewage, a drowned coffin; and what happens after that, I’m ashamed to even talk about - disgusting belching, vomiting, eruptions from below and above!.. But you will see not only these desires killed there, but also others, even stronger ones, arising from them, that is, voluptuous ones. You will see that they are all defeated along with their horses and all their baggage. And the convoy, weapons and horses of shameful deeds are shameful words. But here the horse, and this rider, and the weapons lie in the dust. On the contrary, you will see something completely different among the slaves of voluptuousness, and their souls will be dead and defeated. And not only over gluttony did those holy men win a brilliant victory, but also over other passions: covetousness, love of glory, envy, and in general over all illnesses (mental). Now don’t you see that these soldiers are stronger than the soldiers of the king of the earth and that their meal is better than those? Who would contradict this? No one, not even the gluttons themselves, no matter how crazy one of them may be. Truly, the meal of holy men leads to heaven, but the meal of sensualists leads to Gehenna. This one is prepared by the devil, and that one by Christ. For this one, voluptuousness and unbridled luxury give the rules, and for that one, love of wisdom and chastity. Here is Christ, and there is the devil. Where there is drunkenness, there is the devil; Where there is obscenity and satiety, there the demons rejoice. The rich man mentioned in the Gospel had such a meal; but for that [after death] he was not given even one drop of water (7). Abstain not from food, but from voluptuousness. We need food, not corruption; We need food, and not the cause of illness, illness, both mental and physical; We need food that brings sweetness, and not voluptuousness filled with bitterness; this is useful, and this is harmful; this is pleasant, and this is unpleasant; this is natural, and this is unnatural. Tell me: if someone gave you poison to drink, wouldn’t it be unnatural? If someone [provided] wood and stones, would you not turn away? Of course, because it is unnatural. Such is voluptuousness (10). You might be interested in: