Today the Fathers of the Church will tell you how to defeat the beginning of all passions and maintain health. Some important advice from spiritual warfare professionals is in our text today.
What is gluttony and why is it dangerous?
It seems to us that gluttony is not about us. It seems like we eat food in moderation. But the insidiousness of passion is that in our days its understanding is completely simplified and underestimated. The Holy Fathers place gluttony in third (!) place after pride and fornication. In general, many of the beginnings of other sins lie in the habit of eating deliciously, the inability to limit oneself in food during fasting, and intemperance in general.
The Church does not limit a person: you need to eat, but you don’t have to overeat, you can drink, but you don’t get drunk, it’s better to know moderation in everything.
The Holy Fathers said that gluttony lulls the mind and will. Gluttony in food and addiction to exquisite dishes reveals the passions of pride and lust. The inability to get the desired treat makes a person angry and irritable. At first glance, it is very difficult to understand what the sin is here. After all, the desire to eat food is the most natural need.
But it turns out that it all begins with her. Look at the capricious children who suddenly didn’t get a treat. It seems to us that this is just a child's prank. In fact, parents, without wanting it themselves, at a young age, through delicacies, teach their children to sin. The most striking consequences of gluttony are clearly manifested in a person: from excessive consumption of food, you can become obese, undermine your health through poor nutrition (which is usually based on an addiction to sweets, fried or starchy foods), and also become dependent (for example, on alcohol).
And we can talk about one more extreme here. As strange as it may seem, a passion for dieting can also be considered a type of sin of gluttony. Any excessive pickiness in what we eat, attachment to certain foods distract a person’s thoughts from the main thing in life. By putting food first, we move away from God. Surely everyone around them has zealous followers of certain diets and nutrition theories; look with what arrogance they treat those who do not share their views. It turns out that from gluttony anger, pride, and vanity can be born.
Direct speech: the holy fathers on the fight against gluttony
“Whoever indulges greedily in food undermines the strength of the body, as well as reduces and weakens the strength of the soul.”
“...Adam was driven out of paradise by gluttony; in the time of Noah it was the reason for the pursuit; it also brought down fire on the Sodomites. Although their crime was voluptuousness, the root of both executions came from gluttony...”
Saint John Chrysostom
“Gluttony is divided into three types: one type encourages eating before a certain hour; another loves only to be satiated with any kind of food; the third wants tasty food. Against this, a Christian must have threefold caution: wait for a certain time for eating; don't get fed up; be content with all the humblest food"
John Cassian the Roman
“...If you own your belly, you will begin to dwell in paradise; and if you do not master it, you will become the prey of death.”
Saint Basil the Great
“I told you and I tell you: eat your fill, but not to the point of satiety. You're full, put down a spoon. And others are already full, but still eat and eat, their eyes are not full - this is a sin.”
Barsanuphius Optinsky (Plikhankov)
“...Avoiding immoderation in pleasure, the goal of eating should be not pleasure, but the need for food for life; for to be servile to pleasure means nothing more than to make one’s belly a god.”
Basil the Great
By fasting and prayer: how to overcome the passion of gluttony?
It is difficult to overcome the habit of gluttony through willpower alone.
“Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:1)
The Lord tells us from the pages of the Gospel. It turns out that the first step on the path to victory over your first passion is to resort to prayer:
Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon
Righteous John of Kronstadt
Blessed Matrona of Moscow
Why does the Church judge increased need so strictly? human body in nutrition? If God gives food and drink to maintain the health of the body, the temple of God, and a person takes food with thanksgiving to the Almighty, then why is gluttony a sin? More on this later in the article.
Historical aspect
Pleasing the flesh demonstrates the victory of the flesh over spirituality, allowing all passions to flourish in the Christian body.
What the Church says about the passion of gluttony
It was passions that destroyed the earth before the flood, when the Creator did not see God’s reflection in people, He destroyed His creation. Gluttony makes a person ugly, disfiguring the temple of God, which is a great sin. A filled belly becomes a heavy weight for the spiritual soul, constantly pulling it down towards passions.
In Ancient Rome, the top of the nobility was so mired in pleasing their flesh that through gluttony they did not even remember the things above. In some cases, the worship of the stomach reached the point of absurdity, when the body could no longer take food, and the throat demanded the continuation of the banquet, gluttons induced vomiting with special feathers and continued to stuff themselves with food.
What is the difference between regular eating and gluttony?
By eating healthy food every day, in accordance with the fasts and restrictions established by the Church, and even doing this with family and friends, we strengthen not only physically, but also mentally. Some priests call the eating of food by Christians in joint prayer of thanksgiving as a continuation of the Liturgy.
prayers for meals)Secret prayer for those who eat immoderately
(read orally after
I also pray to You, Lord, deliver me from satiety and lust and grant me in peace of mind to reverently accept Your generous gifts, so that by tasting them, I will receive strengthening of my mental and physical strength to serve You, Lord, in the short remainder of my life on earth.
Prayer of St. John of Kronstadt
Lord, our sweetest Feast, which never perishes, but arrives in the eternal belly: cleanse Thy servant from the filth of gluttony, all that is made flesh and alien to Thy Spirit, and grant him to know the sweetness of Thy life-giving spiritual Feast, which is Thy Flesh and Blood and the holy, living and Thy Word is efficacious.
St. Alexy, man of God
O servant of Christ, holy man of God Alexy! Look mercifully upon us, servant of God (names), and stretch out your honorable hands in prayer to the Lord God, and ask us from Him for forgiveness of our voluntary and involuntary sins, a peaceful and Christian death and a good answer at the Last Judgment of Christ. To her, servant of God, do not disgrace our trust, which we place in you, according to God and the Mother of God; but be our helper and protector for salvation; and through your prayers, having received grace and mercy from the Lord, let us glorify the love of mankind of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and your holy intercession, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
O great and wonderful servant of Christ, Holy Hierarch Father Ignatius! Graciously accept our prayers offered to you with love and gratitude! Hear us, the orphaned and helpless (names), who fall to you with faith and love and your warm intercession for us before the Throne of the Lord of Glory of those asking. We know that the prayer of a righteous man can do much, propitiating the Lord. From the years of infancy you have passionately loved the Lord, and having desired to serve Him alone, you have considered all the red of this world as nothing. You have denied yourself and, having taken up your cross, you have followed Christ. You chose the narrow and regrettable path of monastic life for yourself, and on this path you acquired great virtues. With your writings you filled the hearts of people with the deepest reverence and humility before the Almighty Creator, and with your wise words you taught sinners who had fallen in the consciousness of their insignificance and their sinfulness, in repentance and humility to resort to God, encouraging them with trust in His mercy. You rejected none of those who came to you, but you were a loving father and a good shepherd to all. And now do not leave us, who fervently pray to you and ask for your help and intercession. Ask us from our Humane-loving Lord for mental and physical health, confirm our faith, strengthen our strength, exhausted in the temptations and sorrows of this age, warm our cold hearts with the fire of prayer and help us, who through repentance have cleansed the Christian death of this life, receive and enter the palace of the Savior adorned with all the elect and there with you we will worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
We should not forget that man was taken from dust and will be transformed into it, while the food in the stomach is constantly transformed into excrement.
You must learn to hate that fetid load that is decomposing in your own body.
When putting food on a plate, you should gradually remove a fourth, third, and then half portion from it each time, which can be eaten in 2-3 hours if hunger arises, but it does not arise so quickly.
The devil will whisper in your ear that limited food intake is harmful to health, but this is only his lie.
Advice! Household and close people should support the glutton in his struggle by switching with him to proper nutrition.
Principles for achieving victory
- Minimize the use of spices, herbs, salts, and especially seasonings containing monosodium glutamate.
- Completely give up sweets and sugar, replacing it with honey and natural sweeteners.
- Boycott fatty foods.
- Chew food thoroughly, eating in silence, without watching TV or reading. Being distracted by extraneous information makes it difficult to control the amount of food eaten.
- While chewing your food, you should read prayers, which you can write down on a piece of paper, until they are imprinted on your mind.
Archpriest A. Tkachev on the sin of gluttony
The introduction of the larva into the biofield occurs in different ways:
Larvae penetrate the astral body, and over time can move into the physical human body. When the larva of gluttony is introduced, a person becomes dependent on food. He often has a strong desire to eat something, no matter what, they constantly want to chew something.
The larvae of gluttony most often cling to envious people who often experience anger, but try to hide it. A storm of passions and angry thoughts boils inside a person. The only thing that can calm her down is constant chewing of something; the more he eats, the faster he calms down and balances out.
The localization of the larva of gluttony is the area of the 4th chakra, its lair is in the stomach. The shape and size of this entity can be completely different. In most cases it looks like a snake or leech and has several suckers. People call them “bastards.”
Signs of the presence of the larva of gluttony in a person
- Severe addiction to food. The person is addicted to food. He eats when he doesn’t even want to and doesn’t enjoy food, but he can’t give up the habit of eating.
- Increased mental irritability, aggressiveness, if he is hungry, mood swings, frequent depressive states.
- Frequent pain in the abdomen, lower back, disturbances in the functioning of the stomach, liver colic.
Why is the larva of gluttony dangerous?
Over time, the entity grows, gains strength, it completely subjugates the person to itself. He stops receiving joy from life, quickly gets tired, and becomes apathetic.
The functioning of the digestive organs deteriorates. The digestive system is in disharmony. At the initial stage, the stomach suffers, then the gastrointestinal tract, then a failure occurs in the pancreas, which in turn leads to metabolic and hormonal system disorders.
After the ritual, a feeling of chills or, conversely, warmth should appear. The wave can travel throughout the body. There may be a sensation of trembling in the abdomen. There will be a feeling of lightness and liberation. Sometimes vomiting or nausea occurs after the ritual. Don't keep negativity inside, let it out. Gradually, a person will return to a good mood, bad dreams will go away, and control over appetite and the process of eating will return.
Adam's sin, passed down from generation to generation, contains the potential of all human sins. The Holy Fathers, who went through many years of experience in asceticism, saw the depths of the human soul - this hiding place where thoughts and desires arise. From a complex mosaic of sins, they identified and described eight main passions - eight ulcers of the soul, eight rivers of dead water flowing from hell, from which other sins originate like rivulets and streams. The beds of these rivers, like meridians, encircle the earth, and their sources and mouths connect in the underworld.The eight passions are connected to each other like links in a chain with which the devil binds people and drags them along with him as a conqueror of captives. These are the eight heads of the hydra with which every Christian must contend; This is an invisible net in which Satan has been trying to catch the globe like a trapper for the eighth millennium.
The first link in this chain is gluttony. To many people it seems like an innocent weakness that does not inspire much concern, especially since the consequences of this sin, like the scabs of leprosy, do not appear immediately, but after years. But we must remember that after the Fall of Adam, the harmony between the soul and body of man was disrupted. The body - an instrument of the soul and an organic part of the human personality - has become a substrate of passions and lust. The body is a slave of the spirit. This slave, being kindled by her soul, wanted to command her. She, like Adam's Eve, seduces the mind with the imaginary sweetness of passions, and captivates the heart with the dark mystery of sin, the way a rebel rebels against the spirit, trying to overthrow him from the throne and herself become the queen of the human trimerium - spirit, soul and body.
The body is an evil friend and a good enemy. Without a body, a human personality is not formed. Without a body, the spirit and soul cannot express themselves outwardly through words and deeds. The evil flesh is always ready to betray the soul to the devil for copper pennies of base pleasures - just as Judas sold his Teacher to death for thirty pieces of silver. The body is an insidious companion of the soul on the thorny path to the heavenly kingdom, which either obediently follows it, or tries to entice it onto the wide, stone-lined road leading to eternal death. You can compare the soul and body with a rider and a wild horse: if the rider loosens the bit, then the horse will rush wherever its eyes look, and both will fall into the pit.
Gluttony is the victory of the body over the spirit; it is a wide field in which all passions grow vigorously; this is the first step of a steep, slippery staircase leading to the underworld. In the biblical Book of Genesis it is written that God looked at the earth and saw that all people were flesh, and His Spirit could not dwell in them. Antediluvian humanity did not fulfill its destiny: the carnal principle defeated the spiritual, as if swallowing it up. It was a triumph of the flesh that was the beginning of the end. Humanity has not only plunged into the swamp of materiality, but has forgotten God; Having become earthly dust, it erected idols for itself from the dust - new dead gods. Idolatry, sorcery, sorcery, debauchery and cannibalism began to spread like a plague throughout the land. The cult of the flesh has turned human history into an endless orgy. Already before the Flood, humanity perished spiritually in the flood of its passions. The Flood, just like a gravedigger, dug a common grave for the dead and made the ocean floor a cemetery for all flesh. The bodies of the gluttons were swallowed up by the belly of the sea, and the souls of the demon-pleasers were swallowed up by the insatiable belly of the underworld.
History repeats itself. The Lord compared the times of Noah to the end times. Again, the flesh begins to triumph over the spirit, and the demon - over the flesh, corrupting, corrupting it, and mocking it in every possible way.
Gluttony deforms a person. When you see a glutton, you involuntarily recall a market where bloody carcasses of animals brought from the slaughterhouse hang. It seems that the glutton's body hangs from his bones, like flayed carcasses on iron hooks.
The belly, heavy with food, plunges the mind into a gloomy slumber, making it lazy and dull. A glutton cannot think deeply and reason about spiritual things. His belly, like a lead weight, pulls the earthed soul down. Such a person feels his weakness especially acutely during prayer. The mind cannot enter into prayer words, like a dull knife cannot cut bread. In this sense, gluttony is a constant betrayal of one's prayer.
It should be noted that gluttony also darkens a person’s intellectual and creative powers. Almost none of the outstanding poets and artists were distinguished by gluttony and did not have a body resembling a beer barrel. As an exception, one can point to the poet Apukhtin, who resembles the painting of Gargantua. One day, a child, seeing Apukhtin among the guests in his house, shouted in surprise: “Mom, what kind of humanoid creature is this!”
Often a glutton, tired of the weight of his own body, leading to shortness of breath and exhaustion, and of the need to constantly overcome the size of his own stomach as an obstacle, when it is necessary to bend down to pick up something from the floor or tie shoelaces, decides to declare war on the demon of gluttony and destroy it as an enemy own fat. He copies diets from magazines, and announces to his loved ones that soon his figure will resemble not a Flemish painting, but a statue of Apollo. However, such a glutton who has gone on a diet most often finds himself in the role of a gladiator who, without weapons, entered into a fight with a wild beast: at first he still resists, but then falls, torn to pieces by the claws and fangs of the predator. At first, the glutton adheres to a strict diet and looks at those around him victoriously, like Hercules after another feat, but then, unable to withstand the gnawing pain in his stomach, he pounces on food, as if he wants to make up for lost time.
In gluttony, two passions can be distinguished: gluttony and laryngeal madness. Gluttony is an insatiable desire for food, it is an aggression of the body against the soul, a constant harassment of the belly, which, like a cruel publican, demands an exorbitant tribute from a person, this is the madness of the belly, which indiscriminately absorbs food, like a hungry hyena prey. The stomach of such a person is like a bag into which a stingy owner stuffs things indiscriminately when preparing for a long journey, and then drags with difficulty the unnecessary cargo.
Laryngeal madness is a constant desire for tasty and refined food, this is the voluptuousness of the larynx. A person must eat to live, but here he lives to eat. He plans the menu in advance with such a preoccupied look, as if he is solving a puzzle or a mathematical problem. He spends all his money on treats, just like a gambler loses his fortune in excitement.
There are also other types of gluttony, these are: secret eating - the desire to hide one's vice; early eating - when a person, having barely woken up, starts eating without yet experiencing the feeling of hunger; hasty eating - a person tries to quickly fill his belly and swallows food without chewing, like a turkey; non-observance of fasts, consumption of foods harmful to health due to lust of the larynx. Ancient ascetics also considered excessive drinking of water to be gluttony.
How to get rid of gluttony? Here are some tips. Before the meal, one must secretly pray that the Lord will give abstinence and help put a limit to the desires of the belly and larynx; remember that our body, greedy for food, will sooner or later itself become food for worms, taken from the earth - a handful of earthly dust; imagine what food turns into in the belly. You need to mentally determine for yourself the amount of food that you would like to eat, and then take away a quarter of it and put it aside. At first, a person will experience a feeling of hunger, but when the body gets used to it, then one-fourth of the food must be taken away again - this is what St. Dorotheos advises in his teachings. Here is the principle of gradually reducing food to the amount necessary for life. Often the demon tempts a person, scaring him that from lack of food he will become weak and sick, will not be able to work and will become a burden to others. The family will also worry and look anxiously at his plate, persistently urging him to eat more.
The Holy Fathers advise first limiting the consumption of spicy and irritating foods, then sweet foods that delight the larynx, then fatty foods that fatten the body. You should eat slowly - this way you will feel full more quickly. You need to get up from the meal when your first hunger is satisfied, but you still want to eat. In the old days there was a custom to eat in silence. Extraneous conversations distract attention, and a person, carried away by the conversation, can automatically eat everything that is on the table. The elders also advised reading the Jesus Prayer during meals.
Regarding the measure of water consumption, it should be remembered that thirst can be natural and false. To distinguish between them, you need to hold a little water in your mouth without swallowing it: if the thirst is false, then it goes away, and if it remains, then it is natural.
All passions are related to each other; their combination looks like a colored mosaic or fancy carpet patterns. Thus gluttony can be combined with the passion of anger. Some people, in a state of anger, and in general excitement and anxiety, have a desire to chew something in order to distract their thoughts; and since an angry person is almost always excited, he gets used to constantly putting food in his mouth. Gluttons justify their passion by their mental state - the desire to get out of stress. But as a result, they gain not peace of mind, but extra pounds.
Gluttony is sometimes combined with stinginess. Such a person is ready to eat spoiled, moldy food rather than throw it away. Stingy gluttons store food as heirlooms, glad that they have supplies for a long time. Only when the food begins to deteriorate and rot do they decide to use it for food. Misers, when treating guests, in their hearts hate them as invaders, and experience torment for every piece they eat. But they themselves love to go to their friends for lunch, and even make a schedule - when and to whom to go.
Gluttony combined with vanity gives rise to secret eating. A vain person is afraid of appearing to be a glutton. He eats abstinently in front of people, but when he is alone, he hurries to satisfy his passion. He has a treasured place where he hides food from prying eyes. Looking around and making sure that no one is there, he approaches the closet, like a stingy knight approaches a treasure chest, takes out food and quickly devours it. It must be said that the Slavic word “devour” means “to make a sacrifice.” The glutton sacrifices to his belly like a pagan to an idol.
There are sins akin to gluttony, such as eating without prayer, grumbling about food, drinking too much alcohol, making obscene jokes, using foul language, swearing, arguing and quarreling during meals. Demons flock to such feasts like flies to honey and desecrate the food with invisible impurities.
We can say that the sin of gluttony represents the gradual consumption of the soul by the body, as a result of which the heavenly, spiritual principle in a person fades, and he becomes blind flesh.
The first link in the sinful chain is gluttony. To many it seems only a weakness that does not inspire much fear, and even that the consequences of this sin, like scabs from leprosy, do not appear immediately, but after several years. It must be remembered that after Adam committed sin, the harmony of the soul with the body in man was disrupted. After all, the body is only an instrument of the soul, and also an organic part of the human personality. And it turned into a substrate for passions with lust. The body must be a slave of the spirit. But in no case should the body control a person, his soul. Ideally, there should be a balance between spirit, soul and body.
What is the human body
The body can be called an evil friend and a good enemy. Without a body, a person’s personality will not be formed. Without a body, the spirit and soul will not be able to express themselves to the outside world through words and deeds. The evil flesh is ready at any moment to betray the soul to the Devil in order to receive base pleasures. It’s as if Judas sold his Teacher to death for three dozen pieces of silver. The body is a very insidious companion of the soul on its difficult path to the kingdom of heaven. It either obediently follows the spirit, or, on the contrary, tries to drag it onto a wide road paved with stones, which leads to eternal death. Alternatively, you can even compare the soul and body to a certain rider on a wild horse. And as soon as the rider slightly loosens the bit, the horse rushes to where his eyes are looking, as a result of which both will fall into the nearest hole.
Important!!!
Gluttony is essentially a victory of the body over the spirit. This is a kind of wide field where different passions run wild. You can talk about it as the first step of a steep and slippery staircase that leads straight to the underworld.
The belly, as soon as it becomes heavy with food, begins to plunge the mind into a kind of dark abyss of slumber, making it lazy and even dull. A glutton loses the ability to think deeply and accurately or reason about anything spiritual. His belly, like a huge lead weight, begins to pull the earthed soul straight down. Such a person especially acutely feels his weakness during prayer. The mind cannot penetrate into the holy words, as if a dull knife does not cut bread. In this sense, gluttony can be considered a constant betrayal of one's prayer.
Important!!!
It should also be noted that gluttony, like any sin, darkens the intellectual and even creative powers of the one who indulges in it. Almost none of the outstanding people, be they poets or artists, were distinguished by gluttony in their time, or even had a body that resembled a beer barrel.
It often happens that a glutton, who is already very tired of the burden of his own body, which leads him to shortness of breath and exhaustion, decides to lose weight. He is exhausted by the need to constantly overcome the obstacle of the size of his own belly, for example, when he needs to bend down and pick up something from the floor or even simply tie his shoelaces. Then it is logical that he decides to declare war and defeat the demon of gluttony by destroying his own fat as an enemy. Such a person will subscribe to diets from fashion magazines, and even announce to all his friends and relatives that soon his figure will noticeably decrease in size. But such a glutton, as soon as he goes on a diet, finds himself in the role of a gladiator who, unarmed, entered into a fight with a huge, wild beast. At first, for the first minutes, he resists, but then falls, torn to shreds by the claws or fangs of a terrible predator. At first, the glutton will adhere to a strict diet and look at others almost victoriously, but then the desire to absorb food will take its toll and he will, as before, zealously eat.
Are there certain types of this sin or its directions?
In gluttony, two addictions can be conventionally distinguished: gluttony and laryngeal madness.
Gluttony is essentially an insatiable desire for food, a kind of aggression of the body directed against the soul. That is, constant harassment from the womb, which every now and then requires a person to constantly consume food. This can be compared to the madness of the belly, which absorbs any food indiscriminately. The stomach of such a person will be like a bag into which a stingy owner shoves all things indiscriminately, after which he can barely drag the unnecessary load behind him.
Laryngopharynxia is a constant desire for tasty or refined food, that is, it is voluptuousness of the larynx. Simply put, a person must eat to be able to live, but this person lives in order to eat. He plans his menu in advance, paying too much attention to the dishes and choosing them carefully. He spends almost all his money on treats, as if a gambler is losing his fortune in excitement.
There are other types of gluttony, such as secret eating - this is the desire to hide one's vice. Wound eating is that a person, as soon as he wakes up, immediately starts eating, even before he begins to feel hungry. Hasty eating is also vicious, in which a person tries to fill his stomach very quickly and swallows food without even chewing it, like a turkey. It is considered sinful to fail to observe fasts, as well as to consume various harmful foods out of lust. Ancient ascetics generally considered even excessive drinking of water to be a sin of gluttony.
How to rid yourself of gluttony?
The Holy Fathers recommend that you first limit yourself to eating spicy or irritating foods. Then limit yourself to sweet and laryngeal-stimulating foods. Then you can already give up fatty and fatty foods. You need to eat slowly, this way you will feel full more quickly.
Advice
One must get up after a meal in a state where the first hunger has already been satisfied, but the person still feels thirsty for food. Previously, there was even a custom of eating in silence. Any extraneous conversations will distract attention, and a person who is carried away by the conversation will most likely automatically eat everything that is on the table. It would also be good to read a prayer to yourself while eating.
Conclusion:
We can say that the sin of gluttony is the gradual consumption of the body of the soul, and the result of this is that the heavenly and spiritual principle gradually fades in a person, and he turns into blind flesh. To get rid of gluttony, you need to give up spicy and irritating foods and limit your consumption of sweets. And remember one rule - you need to get up from the table with a slight feeling of hunger, then gluttony is not scary.
About gluttony