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The head of virtues is prayer; their basis is fasting. Fasting is constant moderation in food with prudent pickiness in it. Proud man! you dream so much and so highly about your mind, but it is in complete and continuous dependence on your stomach. The law of fasting, while outwardly a law for the belly, is in essence a law for the mind. The mind, this king in man, if it wants to enter into the rights of its autocracy and preserve them, must first of all submit to the law of fasting. Only then will he be constantly cheerful and bright; only then can he rule over the desires of the heart and body; only with constant sobriety can he study the commandments of the Gospel and follow them. The basis of virtues is fasting. The newly created man, introduced into paradise, was given a single commandment, the commandment of fasting. Of course, one commandment was given because it was sufficient to preserve the primordial man in his integrity. The commandment did not speak about the quantity of food, but only forbade the quality. Let those who recognize fasting only in the quantity of food, and not in quality, remain silent. By delving deeper into the experiential study of fasting, they will see the importance of food quality. The commandment of fasting, announced by God to man in paradise, is so important that, along with the commandment, a threat of execution was pronounced for violating the commandment. The execution consisted of defeating people with eternal death. And now sinful death continues to strike violators of the holy commandment of fasting. He who does not observe moderation and proper discernment in food cannot preserve either virginity or chastity, cannot curb anger, indulges in laziness, despondency and sadness, becomes a slave of vanity, the home of pride, which his carnal state introduces into a person, which is most evident from a luxurious and well-fed meal. The commandment of fasting is renewed or confirmed by the Gospel. “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness” (Luke 21:34), commanded the Lord. Overeating and drunkenness impart fatness not only to the body, but to the mind and heart, i.e. They bring a person’s soul and body into a carnal state. On the contrary, fasting puts a Christian into a spiritual state. Purified by fasting, he is humble in spirit, chaste, modest, silent, subtle in his heartfelt feelings and thoughts, light in body, capable of spiritual achievements and speculation, capable of receiving Divine grace. The carnal man is completely immersed in sinful pleasures. He is voluptuous in body, heart, and mind; he is incapable not only of spiritual pleasure and the acceptance of Divine grace, but also of repentance. He is generally incapable of spiritual pursuits: he is nailed to the ground, drowned in materiality, alive - dead in soul. “Woe to you who are now full: for you will hunger!” (Luke 6:25). This is the saying of the Word of God to those who violate the commandment of holy fasting. What will you eat in eternity, when here you have learned only to be satiated with material indulgences and material pleasures that are not in heaven? What will you eat in eternity, when you have not tasted a single heavenly good? How can you eat and enjoy heavenly blessings when you have not acquired any sympathy for them, and have acquired disgust? The daily bread of Christians is Christ. Insatiable satiation with this bread is satiety and saving pleasure, to which all Christians are invited. Feast insatiably on the Word of God; be insatiably satisfied with the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ; be insatiably satisfied with the meal “prepared to resist those who are cold for you,” and drink in the “cup of the mighty” (Ps. 22:5). Where should we begin, says Saint Macarius the Great, 29 who have never studied our hearts? Standing outside, let us knock by prayer and fasting, as the Lord commanded: “Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). This feat, which one of the greatest teachers of monasticism offers us, was the feat of the holy apostles. From among him they were privileged to hear the broadcasts of the Spirit. “To those who serve the Lord,” says the writer of their deeds, “and to those who fast, the Holy Spirit said: Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work that they called upon. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on her, she sent them away” (Acts 13:2-3). From the midst of the feat, in which fasting and prayer were combined, the command of the Spirit was heard to call the pagans to Christianity. A wonderful combination of fasting and prayer! Prayer is powerless if it is not based on fasting, and fasting is fruitless if prayer is not created on it 30. Fasting removes a person from carnal passions, and prayer fights spiritual passions and, having defeated them, penetrates the entire makeup of a person and purifies him; She introduces God into the purified verbal church. Whoever sows the land without cultivating it destroys the grain and reaps thorns instead of wheat. Likewise, if we sow the seeds of prayer without thinning our flesh, then instead of truth we will bear fruit in sin. Prayer will be destroyed and plundered by various vain and vicious thoughts and dreams, desecrated by voluptuous sensations. Our flesh comes from the earth, and unless it is cultivated like the earth, it can never bear the fruit of righteousness 31 . On the contrary, if someone cultivates the land with great care and expense, but leaves it unsown, then it will be thickly covered with tares. So, when the body is weakened by fasting, and the soul is not nourished by prayer, reading, and humility: then fasting becomes the parent of numerous tares - spiritual passions: arrogance, vanity, contempt 32. What is the passion of gluttony and drunkenness? The natural desire for food and drink, which has lost its correctness, requires a much greater quantity and varied quality of them than is needed to maintain life and bodily strength, on which excessive nutrition acts opposite to its natural purpose, acts harmfully, weakening and destroying them. The desire for food is corrected by a simple meal and abstinence from satiety and enjoyment of food. First, satiety and pleasure must be abandoned: this is how the desire for food is refined and receives correctness. When the desire becomes correct, then it is satisfied with simple food. On the contrary, the desire for food, satisfied by satiety and pleasure, is dulled. To excite him, we resort to a variety of tasty foods and drinks. The desire at first appears to be satisfied; then it becomes more whimsical, and finally turns into a painful passion, seeking constant pleasure and satiety, constantly remaining unsatisfied. Intending to devote ourselves to serving God, let us make fasting the basis of our endeavor. The essential quality of any foundation must be unshakable firmness: otherwise it is impossible for a building to stand on it, no matter how strong the building itself is. And we will never, never, under any pretext, allow ourselves to break our fast through satiety, especially drunkenness. The Holy Fathers recognize that the best fasting is eating food once a day without being full. Such a fast does not weaken the body by prolonged abstinence and does not burden it with excess food, and moreover preserves it capable of soul-saving activities. Such a fast does not represent any striking feature, and therefore the fasting person has no reason for the exaltation to which a person is so inclined regarding virtue itself, especially when it is sharply exposed. Whoever is busy with bodily labor or is so weak in body that he cannot be content with eating food once a day: he must eat twice. Fasting is for man, not man for fasting. But with any consumption of food, both rare and frequent, satiety is strictly prohibited: it makes a person incapable of spiritual achievements, and opens the door to other carnal passions. Immoderate fasting, i.e. prolonged excessive abstinence in food is not approved by the Holy Fathers: from immeasurable abstinence and the exhaustion that results from it, a person becomes incapable of spiritual achievements, often turns to gluttony, and often falls into the passion of exaltation and pride. The quality of food is very important. The forbidden fruit of paradise, although it was beautiful to look at and tasty, it had a detrimental effect on the soul: it imparted to it the knowledge of good and evil, and thereby destroyed the purity in which our forefathers were created. And now food continues to have a strong effect on the soul, which is especially noticeable when drinking wine. This effect of food is based on its varied effect on flesh and blood, and on the fact that its vapors and gases from the stomach rise to the brain and have an effect on the mind. For this reason, all intoxicating drinks, especially bread drinks, are forbidden to the ascetic, as they deprive the mind of sobriety, and thus victory in mental warfare. A defeated mind, especially by voluptuous thoughts, having delighted in them, is deprived of spiritual grace; what has been acquired through many and long labors is lost in a few hours, in a few minutes. A monk should not drink wine at all, said the Monk Pimen the Great 33. This rule should be followed by every pious Christian who wants to preserve his virginity and chastity. The Holy Fathers followed this rule, and if they drank wine, it was very rarely and with the greatest moderation. Hot food should be excluded from the abstinent meal, as it excites bodily passions. These are pepper, ginger and other spices. The most natural food is that which is assigned to man by the Creator immediately after creation - food from the plant kingdom: God said to our forefathers: “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb that is on the top of the whole earth; and every tree that has seed in itself will be for you to eat” (Gen. 1:29). After the flood, eating meat was allowed (Gen.9:3). Plant food is the best for an ascetic. It warms the blood the least, fattens the flesh the least; vapors and gases that separate from it and ascend to the brain have the least effect on it; finally, it is the healthiest, as it produces the least mucus in the stomach. For these reasons, when using it, the purity and vigor of the mind is especially conveniently preserved, and with them its power over the whole person; when using it, passions are less active, and a person is more capable of engaging in deeds of piety. Fish dishes, especially those prepared from large sea fish, have a completely different effect: they have a more noticeable effect on the brain, fatten the body, warm the blood, and fill the stomach with harmful mucus, especially with frequent and constant use. These effects are incomparably stronger from eating meat food: it extremely fattens the flesh, giving it special plumpness, and heats the blood; its vapors and gases greatly burden the brain. For this reason it is not used at all by monks; it belongs to people living in the middle of the world, always busy with intense bodily labor. But for them, constant use of it is harmful. How! The imaginary wise men will exclaim here: meat food is allowed to man by God, and do you forbid its consumption? – We respond to this with the words of the Apostle: “All are to fly (that is, everything is permitted to me), but not all are for good: all are to fly, but not all are to edify” (1 Cor. 10:23). We shy away from eating meats not because we consider them unclean, but because they produce special fatness in our entire composition and interfere with spiritual success. The Holy Church, by its wise institutions and decrees, having allowed Christians living in the middle of the world to eat meat, did not allow their constant consumption, but divided the times of meat-eating into times of abstinence from meat, times during which a Christian sobers up from his meat-eating. Anyone who observes them can experience this fruit of fasting. For monastics, the consumption of meat is prohibited; the consumption of dairy foods and eggs is allowed during times of meat-eating. At certain times and days they are allowed to eat fish. But most of the time they can eat only one plant food. Plant foods are almost exclusively consumed by the most zealous ascetics of piety, who have especially felt the walking of the Spirit of God within themselves (2 Cor. 6:17), due to the above-mentioned convenience of this food and its cheapness. For drinking, they use only water, avoiding not only hot and intoxicating drinks, but also nutritious drinks, which are all bread drinks 34. The rules of fasting were established by the Church with the aim of helping her children, as a guide for the entire Christian society. At the same time, everyone is instructed to consider himself with the help of an experienced and prudent spiritual father, and not to impose on himself a fast that exceeds his strength: because, we repeat, fasting is for man, and not man for fasting; food given to support the body should not destroy it. “If you hold your belly,” said Saint Basil the Great, then you will ascend to heaven; if you do not restrain, then you will be a victim of death” 35. The name of paradise here should mean a grace-filled prayerful state, and the name of death a passionate state. A person’s state of grace during his stay on earth serves as a guarantee of his eternal bliss in heavenly Eden; the descent into the power of sin and into a state of spiritual deadness serves as a guarantee of the descent into the hellish abyss for eternal torment. Amen. Venerable Mark the Ascetic. Word 8, about fasting and humility. Ladder. Word 14, ch. XII. Venerable Nilus of Sorsky. Word 5. Thought of gluttony. 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