The Benefits of Fasting for Soul and Body

Man is a composite being, consisting of a visible body and a rational and incorporeal soul.

Of these two previously mentioned things, the nature and the value are not equal; for the one the body was created as an instrument to move according to the economy of the ruling soul, but the other was appointed to rule and to reign as superior to the inferior.

Having received discernment from the intellect and the logos, and finding the difference between the good and the not-such, it the soul recognizes God as Creator and Maker of the things in these senses, and not only these, but also of the invisible things, which the incorporeal mind, through imagination, sees.

Practicing justice and virtue as a friend of God, it the soul pursues philosophy and, obeying its laws and commands, leads itself to something greater than the fleshly desires, and draws near to God with whatever power belongs to the good.

The most important and predominant part of this holy philosophy turns toward what is called self-control; for from this point the mind remains unpolluted, receiving no mixture of the filths from the stomach or of other impurities, and it has unhindered activity and the contemplation of heavenly and kindred things.

Therefore, you who are nourished by philosophy, lovers of the high things, and disciples of the Word, love this present time and the holy forty days; receive it as a teacher of temperance and a mother of virtue, a nourisher of the sons of God, a pedagogue of the unruly, a calm of souls, a stability of life, and a peace that is both a pledge and undisturbed.

For this strict and solemn passion puts to sleep the impulses and the tempers, and it cools and restrains all the turbulence sought by gluttony. And just as in the summer, when the sun...

Just as the north wind benefits the things being warmed by the glowing lamp of the earth, driving away the suffocation with gentle breezes, so also fasting grants benefit, having driven away the burning of the bodies from gluttony.

Doing so much for the soul, it benefits the body no less. For it thins the thicknesses and the bulk of the material elements, it unloads the weight of the body, and it brings down the veins bursting from the abundance of blood and gives a little room to the narrowness, so that they may not suffer the passion of the vessels. For even those, when much and immoderate water is held back beyond the capacity, they burst from the volume being forced in by violence, not containing it.

And it has a gentle head and one stilled in its posture, neither the arteries throbbing nor the brain being darkened by the rising of vapors. And of the stomach, self-control is freedom. For then it is released from the necessary slavery and from boiling like a cauldron, exhausting the entrails. Eyes see clearly and without scrutiny, all the film being removed, which the boy is accustomed to pouring over the eyes, and the base of the feet is firm, and the activity of the hands is unshakeable.

Breath is orderly and moderate, by none of the spirits that crowd from within rushing forth. The word of the faster is clear and well-structured, the mind is pure and then truly possesses the god-like, when as in an incorporeal state it performs its own activity in the flesh, painless and without disturbance. Sleeps are painless and without phantasms; and so that I may say many things by passing over much, fasting is a common peace of soul and body, an undisturbed life, a stable constitution, a life pleasing to God and grieving the enemy.

For just as the enemy, when he sees the opponent alert and sober, arming himself with care and practicing courage, considers his love of battle to be a lesser thing, so also the attacker of our salvation considers all our precision according to virtue as a threat to himself.