|
A MONK therefore who wants to proceed to the struggle of interior
conflicts should lay down this as a precaution for himself to begin with:
viz.: that he will not in any case allow himself to be overcome by any
delicacies, or take anything to eat or drink before the fast is over and
the proper hour for refreshment has come, outside meal times; nor, when
the meal is over, will he allow himself to take a morsel however small; and
likewise that he will observe the canonical time and measure of sleep. For
that self- indulgence must be cut off in the same way that the sin of
unchastity has to be rooted out. For if a man is unable to check the
unnecessary desires of the appetite how will he be able to extinguish the
fire of carnal lust? And if a man is not able to control passions, which
are openly manifest and are but small, how will he be able with temperate
discretion to fight against those which are secret, and excite him, when
none are there to see? And therefore strength of mind is tested in separate
impulses and in any sort of passion: and if it is overcome in the case of
very small and manifest desires, how it will endure in those that are
really great and powerful and hidden, each man's conscience must witness
for himself.
|
|