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Are you not afraid, man, to look with the same eyes both at the stage in the theater, where the vile acts of adultery are presented, and at this sacred meal, where terrible sacraments are performed? Do you listen with the same ears to both the foul-mouthed harlot and the prophet and apostle teaching you? With the same heart accept both deadly poison and a terrible and holy sacrifice? Is this not where the corruption of life, the breakdown of marriages, discord and quarrels in families come from? In fact, when you, excited by the spectacle there, having become more voluptuous and lustful and a complete enemy of chastity, return home and see your wife, you will be completely unpleasant to look at her, no matter what she may be. Inflamed by lust at the sights and captivated by someone else's seductive face, you do not value your chaste and modest wife, the friend of your whole life, you insult her, shower her with a thousand reproaches - not because you have anything to blame her for, but because it is embarrassing to express passion and show the wound with which you returned home from there; you weave other excuses, looking for crazy reasons for a quarrel; You look at everyone at home with disgust, completely indulging in that vile and unclean lust with which you are wounded, and, carrying in your soul the sound of a voice, a step, a look, movements and all the images of prodigalness that has sunk into it, you do not look at anything at home with pleasure. And what am I saying about my wife and home? You will look at the Church itself with great displeasure, and listen to words about chastity and purity with annoyance; they are not a lesson for you, but a condemnation; Having fallen little by little into denial, you will finally move completely away from this generally beneficial teaching. Therefore, I ask all of you that you yourself avoid a disastrous stay at the spectacles and distract those who attend from them. After all, everything that happens there does not bring entertainment, but death, torment and condemnation. What is the use of this short-term pleasure when constant sorrow comes from it, and you, wounded by lust day and night, become painful and unpleasant to everyone? Look at yourself, what you are like when you return from church and what you are like when you leave the theater; compare both of these days - and you will not need our words (1). Just as someone who is tormented by an incessant thirst, even if there are thousands of sources before him, does not derive any benefit from it, not being able to quench his illness, so it happens with a person who constantly lives in lusts. But if you limit yourself to what is necessary, you will never be subjected to such fever, but you will be freed from all this - both from drunkenness and from debauchery. Therefore, eat as much as you need to satisfy your hunger, dress so that you are only covered, do not dress your flesh in clothes, so as not to destroy it, because through excessive bliss you will make it weaker, upset its health and bring it to complete exhaustion. So, so that your flesh can be a beautiful chariot of the soul, so that the helmsman sits safely at the helm, so that the warrior can easily wield weapons, observe orderliness in everything. Not the one who has a lot, but the one who is satisfied with a little, is invincible. The first, even if he has not been offended, is afraid, and the last, even if he has been offended, will remain in a better mood than the one who was not offended, and therefore will be more complacent. Therefore, we will not strive to ensure that no one offends us, but to ensure that even those who want to do so cannot offend us. And this can only be achieved by limiting oneself to what is necessary and not wanting more (11). You might be interested in: