Food

“Virtues and vices are the food of the soul, which can feed on either one, turning to whichever one it wants to. If it is bent toward moral excellence, it will be fed by virtue—by righteousness, temperance, meekness, endurance. In other words, it’s just as St. Paul says, “being nourished by the word of truth.” That’s the way it was with our Lord, who said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.” (St. Athanasius)

“The mind should seek spiritual food. This consists of reading the Divine Scriptures, the acquisition of the virtues, the fulfilling of the Lord’s commandments, sacred prayer...As bread is food for the body and virtue is food for the soul, so spiritual prayer is food for the mind…Do not forsake prayer, for just as the body becomes weak when it is deprived of food, so also the soul when it is deprived of prayer draws nigh to weakness and noetic death.” (St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, St. Nilus of Mt. Sinai, Saint Gennadius of Constantinople)

“When we are busy or distracted, it is easy to fall back on eating overly processed “convenience” foods. Their empty calories do little to strengthen our bodies and may indeed create unhealthy appetites or increase our vulnerability to clinical depression. Similarly, when feeding our souls we dare not substitute surface attraction—that which is effortlessly appreciated and soon exhausted of virtue—for true beauty. Instead we need to cultivate an appetite for the best soul food, whole and unprocessed, requiring time to absorb and digest.” (Makoto Fujimura)

“Food is a primary connection and means of communion with God. It’s a daily sign that God cares and provides for us. For this reason, when we eat it is to be accompanied with thanksgiving. Gluttony, however, is a distorted relationship with food. It deceptively promises that we can find fulfillment, and not just sustenance, in food.” (Kevin Scherer)

“Misleading religions are products of the human imagination meant to earn God’s favor even though He has already given us His grace in Christ. All of them promise to free us from our ties to this world. Yet their rules do the opposite. For example, their prescriptions of special drink and food make one concentrate even more on what one eats and drinks, not less. When religion is a matter of keeping the rules, we spend our lives making sure we “do not touch,” “do not taste,” “do not handle,” and so on (Colossians 2:21)…Now if a man abstains from food and drink, but becomes incensed to wrath because of evil thoughts, he is like a ship sailing the open sea with a demon for a pilot." (Fr. Basil, Evagrios the Solitary)

#StAthanasius #StNicodemostheHagiorite #StNilusofMtSinai #SaintGennadiusofConstantinople #MakotoFujimura #KevinScherer #FrBasil #EvagriostheSolitary