Bodily Ascesis

Nepsis – Sobriety

Fasting of the senses

– Chastity
It must be total and absolute. Of the body, of the eyes, of words and of thoughts.

– Austerity
In food, rest, hygiene and recreation.

– Poverty
To own nothing. Never to buy oneself anything. To make dispossession the only good.

Mental Ascesis

Apatheia – Impassibility

Fasting of the mind

– Truth
Never fail the truth, neither in words nor in gestures or attitudes.
Do not act according to the calculation of what is convenient. Do not speculate.

– Meekness
Accept everything as coming from God. Do not get angry. Do not complain, do not feel sorry for yourself.

– Humility
Do not seek to stand out in anything. Remain in silence. Serve others as you would serve God Himself.

The Spiritual Life

Hesychia – Silence

Peace of Heart

– Daily Eucharist
It is the most important thing that happens in life: to take Christ into ourselves, to offer Him our being. Never miss Holy Mass.

– Sacred Office
United to the whole mystical body of Christ, to take part in the redemption of the world. Pray all the Hours of the Divine Office with unction, reverence and love.

– Continual Prayer
Repeat the Jesus Prayer unceasingly, or pronounce His Holy Name without interruption, with the lips, the mind and the heart. Let remaining in His Presence be like breathing, a continuous act that cannot be renounced.

– Doubling the talents
Recognise your talent and offer it in the service of the Cause of Christ; give back abundantly what you have received. Serve the Church with devotion wherever you are most useful and needed.

Some Considerations

Fasting of the senses

– Every pleasure you allow the bodily senses will later be claimed from you in the form of an enslaving habit. You will live bound to the memories of, and the desire for, the pleasures you have experienced.

– But if you deny yourself, as time goes by you will be freed from the old and will be strengthened in the new man, alive in Christ. The life and customs of the righteous will become natural to you.

Chastity

– You must be uncompromising regarding the virtue of chastity, because just as there is no greater help for spiritual growth than the virtue of purity, neither is there a harsher slavery than that of lust. Be chaste at all costs; to achieve it, call upon the Lord Jesus Christ in the face of any temptation, and regard as a fault against purity a glance, a thought, an equivocal topic of conversation. Be strict in this and you will see the reward in a growing freedom from what dominates the world.

Austerity

– Eat moderately, without waiting for satiety.

– Do not eat meat of any kind; it leads you to lasciviousness and is opposed to attentive vigilance. It conspires against prayer and dulls the mind.

– Do not season your food; accept the flavour the Lord has given it in creation. Persevere and you will see that the natural flavour is pleasant and does not enchain the senses.

– Drink only water at meals, and at other times some drink typical of the place where you live, as long as it is not intoxicating and does not disturb the attention of your consciousness.

– Try not to sleep more than six hours and, if you can, divide them into two periods. Lie down on the floor, on some wood or covering that protects you from the cold but is not soft. Cover yourself with a blanket as needed, but do not indulge the body with excessive comfort. Time will also show you that sleeping while keeping vigil, without pleasure or pain, is possible and helps sustain unceasing prayer. Do not use a pillow, or rest your head on a simple log in imitation of the Desert Fathers.

– Keep your body clean, as much as you wish your mind and spirit to be clean. Always use cold water and reject every kind of cosmetic and affectation. Plain, simple soap will suffice.

– Reject all worldly amusements. If you feel saturated or stifled, walk, breathe deeply, change your spiritual reading, or talk about something edifying with some very close brother; apply yourself to some manual work or to the service of your neighbour, but do not watch television, a true instrument of perdition and of the brutalisation of people. If you turn to these technological means, let it be for edification (watching a Christian film) or for evangelisation (spreading the Good News on the internet), and only for that.

Poverty

– Do not possess what you use. Be content with a few books, the clothing indispensable for your work and daily life, one or two icons. Manage according to what is necessary (1) and do away with the superfluous. Beware of the «spiritual» sensuality that leads you to own many religious objects; it is the same old avarice, only disguised. Be poor as Christ was.

– When the Lord spoke of poverty He did so in both senses, material and spiritual. Beware of «convenient» interpretations that affirm the need for spiritual poverty while silencing the need for material poverty. Anyone who has more than is necessary to live, who hoards luxuries, or keeps property without placing it at the service of others (2), is not following the Gospel of Christ. Do not take him as an example.

– Remember, the only necessary thing is to serve Christ and His Church, to avoid sin at all costs and to internalise the Gospel teaching. Everything else is superfluous, or hides the weakness of the person who cannot do without it.

Fasting of the mind

Truth

– Besides following the commandments you know, strive not to manipulate reality according to your desires. Be especially wary of lying, an easy resource for accommodating events to your particular convenience. Never lie, even at the cost of your prestige. Refuse to answer if your conscience obliges you to, but do not fall into falsehood.

Meekness

– Anger is the door to hell and the foliage of pride, whose root, arrogance, chains one to the tempter. Never get angry. Remember that violence is the domain of the weak, of those who, having no truthful foundation, need to impose themselves by any means.

– Essence and its mode of manifestation are one and the same thing. Pass through, like the Lord in the midst of the crowd, trusting in Him and not in your own airs. Most often anger is born of vanity and conceit, and although there is a holy anger, like that of Our Lord with the merchants in the temple, examine your conscience carefully before exercising it, lest selfish motives be fuelling it.

Humility

– If we examine ourselves a little, the horror of our wretchedness is unveiled to us. Even in grace and in spiritual health, left to our own strength, we succumb.

– We know that unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain; therefore anchor yourself in this conviction and certainty, born of the awareness of sin and weakness.

– Do not feign humility. The humble one is not the one who lowers himself without feeling it, but the one who knows himself and does not forget that he is unable to add a millimetre to his stature.

Notes

(1) By necessary is meant what is indispensable for the continuity of life or of the activity in question: that which, if not done or not had, endangers integrity or continuity.

(2) Keeping property at the service of others does not mean miserable wages, servitude or taking advantage of others through exploitation in order to increase one’s own coffers. It means property from which, once what is necessary for its upkeep has been set aside, the yield is shared intelligently among those who need it (not the handout that leads nowhere, but the help that generates growing autonomy, such as creating work enterprises, etc.).

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