FOOD AND SPIRITUALITY



"You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day" (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam ate and (spiritually) died. "We are what we eat" (L. Feuerbach). Food, whatever it is, affects our spirituality.

We will see in this book how this mysterious thing happens.



CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
1. Belly & Heart
2. Cuisine And The Banquet

SECTION I
MAN & ANIMAL
1. The Difference
2. Our Mind is Our Manager
3. When Our Mind Follows Our Passions

SECTION II
OUR BODY & SPIRITUAL LIFE
1. Our Body is a Holy Temple
2. Body of Death
3. The Three Storey House

SECTION ΙΙΙ
GLUTΤONY
1. Meat & Wine
2. Gluttony * Health * Deprivation
3. Gluttony & Orthodox Spirituality
4. Gluttony * Sexuality * Devil

SECTION IV
HOW WE FAST
1. Fasting: An Undesirable Thing
2. Fasting in The Tradition
3. Pious Fast and More

SECTION V
WHEN DO WE FAST ?
1. All Day Fasts
2. Great Lent
3. Holy Week
4. Other Fasts
5. Fasting for Special Circumstances

SECTION VI
FASTING & HOLY COMMUNION
1. Great Lent & Holy Communion
2. The Pan-Orthodox Tradition
3. Our Elders and Holy Communion
4. Holy Communion Without Fasting
5. The Opposing Views

SECTION VII
THE BENEFITS OF FASTING
1. Fasting: The Mother of Health
2. Fasting: The Queen of Virtues
3. Fasting: Victory Over the demons
4. Fasting and Forgiveness of Sin
5. "By Purifying Our Heart"
6. Priest & Fasting

SECTION VIII
WHEN WE BREAK THE FAST
1. Consumption of Oil and Fish
2. Consumption of Everything
3. The Sick
4. The widow's Two Copper Coins

SECTION IX
WHEN WE FAST
1. "That Applies to Monks"
2. Fasting in Our Times


SECTION Ι
MAN & ANIMAL

1. The Difference (pg. 15-17)

(....) Both man and animal have the same bodily instincts: Hungry, thirst, sleep and sexual reproduction, which are all, for the same purpose: the survival and the propagation of the species (...).

However, the instincts of man are under the control of his mind. In other words, logic intervenes between the personality of man and his instincts. On the contrary, animals are identified by their instincts. This difference makes man a man and the animal an animal.

For man this means inaction. E.g. today he must not eat before a medical examination. As the hours pass, the instinct of hunger calls out that it wants to be satisfied. Man however used his mind to control the instinct and doesn't eat, in spite of all the wonderful food that is brought to him. On the contrary, as soon as the instinct of hunger calls for food the animal runs out of food. The same applies to the sexual instinct. As soon as it calls for satisfaction, it runs out, precisely because it has no mind to control its instinct.

Furthermore: Animals do not have passions, malice and hatred, only instincts. So they move guided by their instincts. For example:
If you beat your dog in a moment of anger the dog will ‘forget’ and will soon fall at your feet, moved by its instinct. On the contrary, if you beat your fellow-human, he may even sever all relations with you! Since man is governed by passions and logic, if he doesn't struggle against his passions, he then acts on their basis using his logic. This does not apply to animals, since they don’t have any logic. This is why man is more dangerous than an animal, no matter how wild that animal may be...!

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