What’s the use of being pale and weakened from fasting if our heart is filled with hatred?
What’s the use for our body to be deprived of food if our soul is filled with sins? What’s the use of being pale and weakened from fasting if our heart is filled with hatred?
We need to pray and ask God to save our souls, because he will, as Christ said: “Ask and it shall be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). Because the prayer done with the heart enters to heaven and gets to God’s ears […]
What’s the use of our body to be deprived of food if our soul is filled with sins? What’s the use of being pale and weakened from fasting if our heart is filled with hatred? What’s the use of not drinking wine but being drunk with the poison of pride? What’s the use of not eating meat if our words rip the flesh of our neighbours? What’s the use of abstaining yourself from food if you cannot abstain from others? Because God appreciates and loves those who protect themselves from those that are prohibited.
(Translated from Arhimandrit Ioanichie Bălan, Patericul Românesc, Editura Episcopiei Dunării de Jos, 1998, pp. 246-247)
