“True fasting lies in rejecting evil, holding one’s tongue, suppressing one’s hatred, and banishing one’s lust, evil words, lying, and betrayal of vows.”
Saint Basil the Great
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“Fasting appears gloomy until one steps into its arena. But begin and you will see what light it brings after darkness, what freedom from bonds, what release after a burdensome life.”
Saint Theophan the Recluse
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“Food is not evil, but gluttony is. Childbearing is not evil, but fornication is. Money is not evil, but avarice is. Glory is not evil, but vainglory is. Indeed, there is no evil in existing things, but only in their misuse.”
Saint Maximos the Confessor
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“Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show him mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! Love your neighbour.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“During the time that the body of one fasting becomes thin and light, the Spiritual life attains to perfection and reveals itself through Miraculous manifestations. The spirit then performs its actions as if in a bodiless body. External feelings are as shut out, and the mind, renouncing the worldly, ascends to the Heavenly and becomes completely immersed in the contemplation of the Spiritual world. Yet not everyone can take upon himself strict rules of abstinence from everything, nor deprive himself completely of all that serves to relieve infirmities: “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:12).”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“He who keeps watch over the words he is about to say, also keeps watch over the deeds he is about to do.”
Saint Nektarios of Aegina
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“Fasting is wonderful, because it tramples our sins like a dirty weed, while it cultivates and raises truth like a flower.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“To fast is to banquet with Angels.”
Saint Athanasios the Great
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“Let us fast, my children, do not listen to those who say that fasting is nothing, and that this is something from Monks. This is not from Monks, my children, forgive me, God says this. The first Commandment of God is fasting, and our Christ fasted.”
Saint Iakovos Tsalikis of Evia
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“When I abstain from food I am better able to understand the Soul of man.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“If fasting was all about food, then cows would be Saints.”
Saint John of Damascus
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“Fasting and self-control are a double wall of defense and whoever lives within them enjoys great peace.”
Saint Gregory Palamas
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“To fast is to do violence to nature. It is to do away with whatever pleases the palate. Fasting ends lust, roots out bad thoughts, frees one from evil dreams. Fasting makes for purity of Prayer, an enlightened Soul, a watchful mind, a deliverance from blindness.”
Saint John Climacus
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“Once, someone came to me and said: “My Priest, they told me that fasting doesn’t exist.” “And who told you that there was no fasting? Go tell the Priest to open the Bible and see that which discusses fasting: ‘without Prayer and fasting’ (Matthew 17:21, Mark 9:29), which our Christ says, and other things.’ And the demons, and sicknesses, and all the passions are cast out with fasting. The Holy Forerunner, what did he eat in the desert? What did the Venerable David eat? With an Antidoron, he passed the whole week in his Cell of Asceticism.”
Saint Iakovos Tsalikis of Evia
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