Why does the Church so strictly judge the increased need of the human body for nutrition? If God gives food and drink to maintain the health of the body, the temple of God, and a person with thanksgiving to the Almighty takes food, then why is gluttony a sin? More on this later in the article.
Historical aspect
Pleasing the flesh testifies to the victory of the flesh over spirituality, allowing all passions to flourish in the Christian body.
What the Church Says About the Passion of Gluttony
It was the passions that destroyed the earth before the flood, when the Creator did not see God's reflection in people, He destroyed His creation. Gluttony makes a person ugly, disfiguring the temple of God, which is big sin. The filled womb becomes a heavy weight for the spiritual soul, pulling it constantly downward, towards the passions.
AT Ancient Rome the top of the nobility was so mired in pleasing their flesh that through gluttony they did not even remember about the mountain. In some cases, the worship of the stomach reached the point of absurdity, when the body could no longer take food, and the throat demanded the continuation of the banquet, gluttons caused vomiting with special feathers and continued to stuff themselves with food.
What is the difference between normal eating and gluttony
Taking healthy food every day, in accordance with the fasts and restrictions established by the Church, and even doing this with family and friends, we are strengthened not only physically, but also mentally. Some priests call the eating of food by Christians in a joint prayer of thanksgiving a continuation of the Liturgy.
Secret prayer for the immoderate in nutrition
(read orally afterprayers for eating)
I also pray to You, Lord, deliver me from satiety, voluptuousness and grant me in the peace of my soul to reverently accept Your generous gifts, so that by eating them, I will receive strengthening of my spiritual and bodily strength to serve You, Lord, in the little rest of my life on earth.
Prayer of St. John of Kronstadt
Lord, our sweetest Brasno, who never perishes, but arrives in the eternal belly: cleanse Your servant from the filth of gluttony, all flesh created and alien to Your Spirit, and grant him to know the sweetness of Your life-giving spiritual brush, which is Your Flesh and Blood and the holy, living and your effective word.
St. Alexy, man of God
O saint of Christ, holy man of God Alexis! Look mercifully upon us, servant of God (names), and prayerfully stretch out your honest hands to the Lord God, and ask Him for forgiveness of our voluntary and involuntary sins, a peaceful and Christian life, and a good answer at the Last Judgment of Christ. She, the servant of God, do not disgrace our hope, hedgehog, according to God and the Mother of God, we place; but be our helper and patron for salvation; yes, having received grace and mercy from the Lord through your prayers, let us glorify the philanthropy of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and your holy intercession, now and forever and forever and ever.
Saint Ignatius Bryanchaninov
O great and wonderful saint of Christ, Father Ignatius! Graciously accept our prayers with love and gratitude brought to you! Hear us, orphans and helpless (names), falling to you with faith and love and your warm intercession for us before the Throne of the Lord of Glory asking. Vema, as the prayer of the righteous can do a lot, propitiating the Lord. From the years of your infancy, you have passionately loved the Lord, and having desired to serve Him alone, you have imputed all the red of this world to nothing. You denied yourself and, taking up your cross, you followed Christ. You have chosen the path of a narrow and regrettable life of a monastic will, and on this path you have acquired great virtues. You, with the writings of your hearts, filled people with the deepest reverence and humility before the Almighty Creator, while sinners who fell wise with your words in the consciousness of their insignificance and their sinfulness, in repentance and humility, resort to God, instructed you, encouraging them with hope in His mercy. You did not reject those who came to you, but you were a loving father to all and a good shepherd. And now do not leave us, fervently praying to you and asking for your help and intercession. Ask us from our Human-loving Lord our spiritual and bodily health, affirm our faith, strengthen our strength, exhausted in the temptations and sorrows of this age, warm the chilled heart with the fire of prayer and help us, who have cleansed the Christian death of this belly with repentance, and get into the chamber of the Savior, embellished with all the elect and there with you bow down to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
It should not be forgotten that a person is taken from the dust and will turn into it, while the food in the stomach is constantly transformed into stool.
It is necessary to learn to hate that fetid cargo that decomposes in one's own body.
When putting food on a plate, each time you should gradually remove the fourth, third, and then half of the portion from it, which can be eaten after 2-3 hours if hunger arises, but it does not arise so quickly.
The devil will whisper in his ear that restricted food intake is injurious to health, but this is only his lie.
Advice! Home and close people should support the glutton in his struggle, going with him to proper nutrition.
Principles for achieving victory
- Minimize the use of spices, spices, salts and especially seasonings containing monosodium glutamate.
- Completely abandon sweets and sugar, replacing it with honey and natural sweeteners.
- Boycott fatty foods.
- Chew food thoroughly, eating in silence, without watching TV or reading. Being distracted by extraneous information, it is difficult to control the amount of portions eaten.
- While chewing food, one should read prayers that can be written down on a piece of paper until they are imprinted in the mind.
Archpriest A. Tkachev on the sin of gluttony
AT modern time a large number of people are overweight and many of them seek to lose weight through diets, separate meals, fasting, exhausting physical training.
Some succeed, while others try to lose excess weight remain unsuccessful, and the third, in combination with diets and sports activities, prayer for weight loss is used.
- gluttony is the consumption of food in large quantities;
- gluttony - immoderation in food, overeating.
Both of these concepts mean a mortal sin, the consequences of which entail the loss of spirituality and health. Baser instincts take over the will of a person and turn him into an animal, which is only interested in the satisfaction of baser instincts, and spiritual development becomes alien.
The body is the temple of God, it is gradually destroyed, shortness of breath develops, metabolism and heart rhythm are disturbed, changes in blood vessels and parts of the heart muscle occur. A person becomes an object of ridicule, he loses his attractiveness.
Excess weight is sent so that a person can cope with weaknesses, get to know himself and the surrounding spiritual world. In this case, it is necessary to pacify the gluttonous womb, pray and sincerely ask the Lord to deliver from gluttony.
First you need to get a blessing from the priest, confess, take communion and begin prayer work.
What prayers to read for weight loss and gluttony
The request must be sincere and come from the depths of the soul. The clergy agree that it is not at all necessary to turn to God with memorized texts, often ordinary words coming from the heart are much more effective.
They can be "clumsy", but sincere.
Having made a decision to lose weight, you must adhere to Orthodox posts and weekly fast days (Wednesday, Friday). It is they who will teach to restrain the irresistible desire to eat tasty and a lot, besides, fasting will favorably affect the figure.
You do not need to ask the Almighty for external attractiveness - you need to pray to Him for the gift of strength to endure the test, to support in the confrontation with harmful addiction.
Prayer to Jesus Christ
I pray Thee, Lord, deliver me from satiety, voluptuousness and grant me in the peace of my soul to reverently accept Your generous gifts, so that by eating them, I will receive strengthening of my spiritual and bodily strength to serve You, Lord, in the little rest of my life on earth.
Prayer of St. John of Kronstadt
Lord, our sweetest Brasno, never perishing, but arriving in the eternal belly.
Cleanse Your servant from the filth of gluttony, all flesh created and alien to Your Spirit, and grant him to know the sweetness of Your life-giving spiritual brush, which is Your Flesh and Blood and Your holy, living and active Word.
Prayer to Irinarch
Oh, Great servant of God and glorious miracle worker, reverend Father Irinarsha! Look at us sinners, in our sorrows and circumstances, zealously crying out to you, and on thee, according to Bose, all our hope is placed. We ask you with tenderness to many: by your intercession to the Lord God, ask us for peace, long life, brotherly love, fruitful land, good air, good rains, and blessings from above on all our good undertakings.
Deliver us all with your holy prayers from all troubles: gladness, hail, flood, fire, sword, harmful worm, noxious winds, deadly ulcers and vain death. And in all our sorrows, be our comforter and helper, saving us from the falls of sin and making us heirs to be the Kingdom of Heaven. May we glorify together with you all the good Giver, the Triune God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Amen!
Prayer to Saint Alexis the Man of God
O saint of Christ, holy man of God Alexis!
Look mercifully upon us, servant of God (names), and prayerfully stretch out your honest hands to the Lord God, and ask Him for forgiveness of our voluntary and involuntary sins, a peaceful and Christian life, and a good answer at the Last Judgment of Christ.
She, the servant of God, do not disgrace our hope, hedgehog, according to God and the Mother of God, we place; but be our helper and patron for salvation; yes, having received grace and mercy from the Lord through your prayers, let us glorify the philanthropy of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and your holy intercession, now and forever and forever and ever.
Signs of the disease:
- constant overeating at every meal and snack;
- the impossibility of controlling the volume of the portion eaten;
- after eating a depressed state due to heaviness in the stomach;
- watching TV, using gadgets during a meal, thereby uncontrollability of the amount of food eaten;
- constant snacking, including nighttime;
- the impossibility of mental work without a plate of food.
- It is necessary to set a goal and clearly formulate it: write it down, draw it and hang it on the refrigerator door, in general, make it so that it is always in sight.
- It is advisable to contact a nutritionist to develop an individual weight loss line.
- In the process of weight loss, it is necessary to take into account your mental and physical condition, spiritual and medical components.
- It will be good if no one knows about the beginning of losing weight and praying to God. Yes, and upon reaching the final goal, you should not tell curious friends and acquaintances how you managed to find an attractive figure.
- Useful during weight loss physical exercises and a light diet. If the diet is difficult to follow, then you should at least try not to overeat.
- Of particular importance is the belief that the desired goal will certainly be achieved. This requires a positive attitude.
- You can't be jealous of people who have beautiful figure envy is also a sin contrary to God.
About overeating:
It should be remembered that a prayer read by itself will not help. It is necessary to independently take any actions for active weight loss. For example, if you pray before dinner, and then eat “to satiety” without limiting the amount of food eaten, then turning to the Lord and His saints is unlikely to help.
In addition, many believe that prayer is a kind of magic spell, but this is fundamentally wrong.
You should not read a prayer for weight loss until a violent appetite is curbed. Only when the glutton refuses delicacies, flour, fried, smoked, sweet and comes to simple low-calorie food (vegetables, fruits, cereals, fish, dietary meat), you can start prayer work and ask the Heavenly Father for help.
As in any story, you should start from the very beginning - what and where it came from and how it developed.
Since childhood, I was taught to eat, to put it mildly, wrong. These were the 90s, when a variety of food “joys” were just beginning to be imported into the country: packaged juice concentrates, all kinds of chips, chemical sweets and other junk food. All this was consumed by adults and was not limited in any way for me, a little one. On the contrary, some achievements were followed by a sweet reward. My pocket money all went to buy sweets at the school cafeteria, eat noodles at home fast food- The usual thing.
Don't think I was fat - not at all. Until the age of eleven, she was a very thin little girl, later she gained a little weight, but this was due to a sedentary lifestyle and improved material prosperity in the family. In general, then I didn’t follow the weight at all, periodically I gained weight, lost weight, but didn’t overeat, I just ate frankly harmful foods, not constantly, but very often and didn’t even notice it, health allowed.
But by the age of 15, I had accumulated about 10 kilograms of excess weight, problems with the gastrointestinal tract began - gastritis, duodenitis. Here it must be noted that real reason and the starting point of my many illnesses is the interaction with fallen angels and witchcraft, which is described in detail in my article “Confessions of a Former Witch”, here I will try to draw a parallel and more deeply reveal my fall in the sin of gluttony, which ran like a red thread through all subsequent years as one of the main passions that tormented me. I really hope that the above experience will strengthen and support someone in the fight against this insidious sin.
So, the main reason for the sudden deterioration in my health was precisely my then occultism, but where it is thin, it breaks there. And there is a suspicion that it was my malnutrition since childhood that formed the very “subtlety”, which resulted in enough serious problems. With the beginning of witchcraft experiments, I began to be tormented by a terrible hunger, which I attributed to banal gastritis with hyperacidity- everything seems to be logical. The mucous membranes are inflamed, they secrete too much gastric juice, so you want to eat. Of course, I turned to doctors who prescribed various pills, herbs and oils to overcome inflammatory process. For a while it really helped. But it was still very difficult to restrict myself in food, and if earlier I could eat a little and go about my business, now even after a hearty meal, after a while, hunger overtook again, and the stomach desperately demanded more. Many harmful foods gradually began to leave my diet, causing pain and inflammation, which was undoubtedly a blessing, although it was perceived by the teenage mind as sheer torture.
Gradually, through trial and error, after countless articles read on the Internet, a more or less normal diet has developed. But my willpower was very weak, and I constantly succumbed to the temptation to eat something harmful, which caused pain and caused a feeling of deep remorse, as well as a misunderstanding of one simple thing: because I know that this is not allowed and this is why I continue to break down when will it end?
And even better - heal and eat again as before, tasty and harmful, like everyone else. Envy and misunderstanding often overcame why people around absolutely allow themselves everything without problems, and I suffer from restrictions and continue to get sick more and more, some deep resentment and a sense of injustice owned my heart.
Since I didn’t even think about giving up occult experiments, without linking my problems with my passion for mysticism, the situation developed. Already at the institute, terrible hunger pursued me everywhere and everywhere, it was a real black hole in my stomach, my stomach sometimes grumbled loudly for the whole audience. I then lost a lot of weight on hormonal pills (they were prescribed due to big problems with skin), plus the lifestyle has become more than mobile. I ate at that time not to say that it was ideal, but quite simple. Many unhealthy foods still remained in the diet occasionally (chocolate, buns, glazed curds), but mostly they were cereals, stewed vegetables and meat, cottage cheese.
I began to try to eat according to the glycemic index (GI). This is such a table of products for diabetics, which displays the rate of rise in blood sugar after any product, it is quite large, but it learns well when your skin and body as a whole immediately reacts to food with a high GI. Carbohydrate foods with a small amount of fiber began to disappear from my table, or enriched with fiber specifically to lower the GI. Firstly, it made it possible to restrain disgrace on the skin, and secondly, articles on the Internet assured that "wolf hunger" allows you to restrain precisely a stable level of sugar in the blood, since then there are no sharp spikes in insulin. Indeed, it helped, but only partly. If the cause really lay solely in the neglect of food hygiene, this would solve the problem. But the process continued to go on, the sinful ulcer of my soul expanded rapidly and engulfed my soul, and grace retreated further and further, allowing the demons to roam properly.
Attacks of real gluttony began, while infrequent, but strong enough. Looking at me, 160 cm tall and 41 kg in weight, it’s hard to imagine, people sincerely think that I eat like a bird and say “I need to eat up”, and I’m ashamed to say that I just can’t stop when I eat. I had to do my best to restrain myself and follow a strict diet. For myself, I called this thing bulimia, although doctors understand this word somewhat differently: that the reason is in the human psyche and that after an attack of severe uncontrolled overeating, a person causes vomiting, unable to cope with guilt for what he has eaten. It didn’t come to that, but the feeling of guilt was really colossal, as well as confusion, self-loathing, irritation at one’s own weak will. Harmful and delicious foods were as disgusting as they were coveted. It was generally impossible to go to the grocery store without a serious effort of will, the smell of chocolate drove me crazy. After another bout of bulimia, when food just started to make me sick and my stomach couldn’t physically hold more, I followed a strict vegetable diet, strong self-restraint, increased physical activity, because it was completely unbearable to see my body swollen, bloated in the wrong places. Excess weight periodically appeared, but in small quantities.
"The body just rebelled against its master"
Hunger took over more and more thoughts, it was difficult to concentrate on studies, and indeed any other activities. The will was more and more inclined towards sin, something completely incomprehensible and bringing to tears happened, and during life without God it was completely strange, driving one into despair, because the body simply rebelled against its owner. I continued to blame myself, my weak-willedness and write off “wolf hunger” for ordinary diseases, that is, purely physical phenomena, not even knowing such a thing as “sin”.
At that time, due to a number of circumstances, I had already left the institute, for some time I lived alone. The ration of foods I tolerated was increasingly reduced, the body began to react badly even to a piece of bread or a tiny amount of spices, a sip of tea. Hypersensitivity developed, serious damage to all organs, thinning of mucous membranes, including internal organs.
And then the sin of gluttony took a predictable path. Consciousness found, as it seemed to him, a normal way out of the situation, and I began to allow myself “conscious” breakdowns on seemingly harmless products, but also in huge quantities. These were nuts, dried fruits, various natural sweets, the high glycemic index of which was compensated raw vegetables. At that time, I could afford various natural delights that were not cheap, I ordered rare organic products from abroad, not seeing anything reprehensible in this at all, calmly spending quite a decent amount on food.
Over time, the allowable budget began to shrink, and the passion did not even think to recede. I again began to break down already on unnatural, but cheap products, ordinary chocolate and all kinds of cookies, experiencing wild pain in my entire stomach after that, I could eat a whole small loaf of bread. In the end (at that time I had already moved in with my mother), “wolf hunger” began to come not only during the day, but also at night. Before that, I “only” ran to the kitchen first thing in the morning to literally sink my teeth into something, in order to calm the tormenting “black hole” in my stomach. Night hunger began to come not suddenly, but as if gradually, that is, I woke up in the morning, at 5 o'clock, and could no longer fall asleep until I had eaten properly. All the advice written on the Internet about “drink a glass of water, breathe, get distracted and try to sleep” definitely didn’t work - the hunger was so strong that I wanted to cry, as if I hadn’t eaten for a week, and again, I didn’t want anything, but sweet - floury - harmful. Over time, this developed into regular rises in the middle of the night and real forays into the kitchen. It has become normal for the family to see me in the middle of the night at an odd meal. I tried to re-introduce the practice of “conscious breakdowns” to the harmless, that is, to satisfy my passion for overeating through honey, bread, porridge, I tried to kill hunger with protein foods, large quantity water - it was useless. Moreover, gluttony began to gain momentum, I began to get up completely unconscious EVERY night just to eat a huge amount of honey at once, to wild nausea and even a headache in the morning, like a hangover. During the day I could not resist buying another kilogram of honey, and at night - from ugly overeating, which led to despair and tears, apathy and a general breakdown due to constant lack of sleep.
This went on for a year and a half, it was real slavery. I tried to become a raw-food vegan at that time, but I stayed on veganism for a little less than a year, connected what was happening with my stupid experiments on nutrition, but with the return to the usual meat and high-calorie diet, nothing changed, but it got worse.
Once, when there was about a year left before my arrival in the church, I began to fervently pray to God for abstinence in food in order to defeat this carbohydrate addiction, and with great difficulty I managed to overcome the temptation to simply buy new portions of honey and begin to block the “wolf hunger” something neutral, not leading to obesity and a state of "hangover" in the morning.
By the way, I did not continue to weigh very much, all this time the weight was around 45 kilograms, which, with my constitution, still gave out excess weight, but in general, active dancing compensated for the excess calories. But the night hunger completely ruined my life, during the day I felt completely disgusting. The increasingly deteriorating state of health against the background of occult practices also influenced.
“On the day after Communion, as they say, it covered my head”
I came to church in January 2018, when I was already regularly visited by spirits of malice in the heavenly person, and at first the priest did not allow me to take Communion. So just all these terrible things did not recede, followed by a hard struggle, which was waged on all fronts and manifested itself, in particular, in a serious gluttony. From the end of January, I nevertheless begged to begin to partake of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, since the condition was difficult. Night climbs continued. On the day after Communion, as they say, I was “covered with my head”, that is, immediately after the Liturgy, I went home and gave myself over to the sin of overeating with desperate force, so turned off my brain. Quite quickly, I discovered that I manage to sleep normally until the morning, if I anoint myself at night with the oil left after the Unction, and anointed myself strictly before going to bed every evening, although the evil spirits still tried to attack very actively, bouts of hunger brought me to tears. And of course, every time after sinning, the grace just received in the sacraments evaporated.
As time went on, I persistently prayed for liberation from the rabies of the digestive organs. And sometime in June, after a regular church life ( prayer rule, every week strictly in the temple, regular Confession, Communion, holy water every day, commemoration in the monastery on the Indestructible Psalter and much, much more) this began to recede. According to the advice of the holy fathers, when temptation came, I was baptized and asked for God's help. When in the morning the demons attacked with hungry spasms, I recited Psalms 50 and 90 by heart - often this was enough, and I fell asleep again, but if the attack continued, I read all the previously learned prayers.
During the day, breakdowns still occurred from time to time, I even repented at Confession with the back thought that everything was useless: I know that I will sin again in the near future, and indeed I sinned. But at some point, an understanding came, a clear image of a huge viper sitting inside me, which cannot be fed in any way, downright evangelical indestructible worm. This gave me the determination to hate sin, to reject it with all my soul, and not to make compromises like “the most important thing is not to break loose before Communion and immediately after it.”
Today, my diet is a very strict diet (completely complete according to BJU), from sweets only fruits, because everything else stubbornly introduces me into a strong temptation, from which I have not yet recovered, or my health does not allow (demonic power has seriously depleted). Even prosphora was excluded as a flour product. You have to carefully monitor the weight so as not to lose too much weight. To some, this may seem extreme and odd, but in general, everything always seems very simple. But I felt incredibly deeply that I was in a state of very fragile balance, and my own body was ready to pounce on me at any moment and enslave me, therefore severe measures must be applied.
God bless everyone on this difficult journey!
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