Gluttony's Six Daughters

John Vianney
Thomas Aquinas
Gregory Great
Did you know that

Gluttony has Six
Daughters?
by Dr Taylor Marshall
I just got back from vacation in South Carolina. A beautiful place with lots of great
food (when you visit, be sure to order shrimp and grits). I ate a bit too much
gained a couple of pounds. So I was reading on the topic and heres what I found.
Did you know that the deadly sin of Gluttony is the proud mother of six? According
to Saint Gregory the Great (Moralia, 31, 45), the capital sin of gluttony (eating and
drinking too much) has six daughters. The daughters of gluttony are:
1. excessive joy
2. unseemly joy
3. scurrility (levity in behavior)
4. uncleanness (related to vomiting and sexual impurity)
5. loquaciousness
6. dullness of mind as regards the understanding
On this topic, Saint Thomas Aquinas reminds us of this verse: I thought in my heart to
withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind in wisdom (Ecc 2:3).
Time to go eat my salad for lunch
Those who love pleasure, keeping their appetites hot and humid, are indeed
sitting by the flesh-pots; for gluttony engenders love of pleasure and many other
passions as well. It is the root from which the rest of the passions spring up in
vigorous growth, little by little developing as suckers alongside the mother tree,
and putting out branches of evil that reach up to the sky. Avarice, anger and
dejection are all offshoots of gluttony. For the glutton needs money first of all, so
as to satisfy his ever-present desire even though it never can be satisfied. His
anger is inevitably aroused against those who obstruct his acquisition of
money For those who love pleasure, when deprived of it, grow angry and
embittered.
St. Neilos the Ascetic, Ascetic Discourse, The Philokalia, Vol. 1:
237-238.
Gluttony
Thirteenth in a Series on Catholic Morality
by
Fr. John H. Stapleton
Gula (Gluttony)
Hieronymus Bosch
Self-preservation is nature's first law, and the first and essential means of preserving one's existence is
the taking of food and drink sufficient to nourish the body, sustain its strength and repair the forces
thereof weakened by labor, fatigue or illness. God, as well as nature, obliges us to care for our bodily
health, in order that the spirit within may work out on earth the end of its being.
Being purely animal, this necessity is not the noblest and most elevating characteristic of our nature. Nor
is it, in its imperious and unrelenting requirements, far removed from a species of tyranny. A kind
Providence, however, by lending taste, savor and delectability to our aliments, makes us find pleasure in
what otherwise would be repugnant and insufferably monotonous.
An appetite is a good and excellent thing. To eat and drink with relish and satisfaction is a sign of good
health, one of the precious boons of nature. And the tendency to satisfy this appetite, far from being
sinful, is wholly in keeping with the divine plan, and is necessary for a fulsome benefiting of the
nourishment we take.
On the other hand, the digestive organism of the body is such a delicate and finely adjusted piece of
mechanism that any excess is liable to clog its workings and put it out of order. It is made for sufficiency
alone. Nature never intended man to be a glutton; and she seldom fails to retaliate and avenge excesses
by pain, disease and death.
This fact, coupled with the grossness of the vice of gluttony, makes it happily rare, at least in its most
repulsive form; for, be it said, it is here a question of the excessive use of ordinary food and drink, and not
of intoxicants to which latter form of gluttony we shall pay our respects later.
The rich are more liable than the poor to sin by gluttony; but gluttony is fatal to longevity, and they who
enjoy life best desire to live longest. 'Tis true, physicians claim that a large portion of diseases are due to
over-eating and over-drinking; but it must be admitted that this is through ignorance rather than malice.
So that this passion can hardly be said to be commonly yielded to, at least to the extent of grievous
offending.
Naturally, the degree of excess in eating and drinking is to be measured according to age, temperament,
condition of life, etc. The term gluttony is relative. What would be a sin for one person might be permitted
as lawful to another. One man might starve on what would constitute a sufficiency for more than one.
Then again, not only the quantity, but the quality, time and manner, enter for something in determining just
where excess begins. It is difficult therefore, and it is impossible, to lay down a general rule that will fit all
cases.
It is evident, however, that he is mortally guilty who is so far buried in the flesh as to make eating and
drinking the sole end of life, who makes a god of his stomach. Nor is it necessary to mention certain
unmentionable excesses such as were practiced by the degenerate Romans towards the fall of the
Empire. It would likewise be a grievous sin of gluttony to put the satisfaction of one's appetite before the
law of the Church and violate wantonly the precepts of fasting and abstinence.
And are there no sins of gluttony besides these? Yes, and three rules may be laid down, the application
of which to each particular case will reveal the malice of the individual. Overwrought attachment to
satisfactions of the palate, betrayed by constant thinking of viands and pleasures of the table, and by
avidity in taking nourishment, betokens a dangerous, if not a positively sinful, degree of sensuality. Then,
to continue eating or drinking after the appetite is appeased, is in itself an excess, and mortal sin may be
committed even without going to the last extreme. Lastly, it is easy to yield inordinately to this passion by
attaching undue importance to the quality of our victuals, seeking after delicacies that do not become our
rank, and catering to an over-refined palate. The evil of all this consists in that we seem to eat and drink,
if we do not in fact eat and drink, to satisfy our sensuality first, and to nourish our bodies afterwards; and
this is contrary to the law of nature.
We seemed to insist from the beginning that this is not a very dangerous or common practice. Yet there
must be a hidden and especial malice in it. Else why is fasting and abstinence - two correctives of
gluttony - so much in honor and so universally recommended and commanded in the Church? Counting
three weeks in Advent, seven in Lent and three Ember days four times a year, we have, without
mentioning fifty-two Fridays, thirteen weeks or one-fourth of the year by order devoted to a practical
warfare on gluttony. No other vice receives the honor of such systematic and uncompromising resistance.
The enemy must be worthy.
As a matter of fact, there lies under all this a great moral principle of Christian philosophy. This philosophy
sought out and found the cause and seat of all evil to be in the flesh. The forces of sin reside in the flesh
while the powers of righteousness - faith, reason and will - are in the spirit. The real issue of life is
between these forces contending for supremacy. The spirit should rule; that is the order of our being. But
the flesh revolts and, by ensnaring the will, endeavors to dominate over the spirit.
Now, it stands to reason that the only way for the superior part to succeed is to weaken the inferior part.
Just as prayer and the grace of the sacraments fortify the soul, so do food and drink nourish the animal;
and if the latter is cared for to the detriment of the soul, it waxes strong and formidable and becomes a
menace.
The only resource for the soul is then to cut off the supply that benefits the flesh and strengthen herself
thereby. She acts like a wise engineer who keeps the explosive and dangerous force of his locomotive
within the limit by reducing the quantity of food he throws into its stomach. Thus the passions being
weakened become docile, and are easily held under sway by the power that is destined to govern, and
sin is thus rendered morally impossible.
It is gluttony that furnishes the passion of the flesh with fuel by feeding the animal too well; and herein lies
the great danger and malice of this vice. The evil of a slight excess may not be great in itself; but that evil
is great in its consequences. Little over-indulgences imperceptibly, but none the less surely, strengthen
the flesh against the spirit, and when the temptation comes the spirit will be overcome. The ruse of the
saints was to starve the enemy.
Gluttony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Gluttony (disambiguation).
A woodcut representing Gluttony
Gluttony (Latin: gula, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow) means over-indulgence and
over-consumption of food, drink, or wealth items.
[1]
In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food causes it to be withheld from the needy. Some
Christian denominationsconsider gluttony as one of the seven deadly sins, a misplaced or inordinate desire for
food/drink.
Contents
[hide]
1. 1Etymology
2. 2In religion
a. 2.1Judaism
b. 2.2Catholicism
i. 2.2.1St. Gregory the Great
ii. 2.2.2St. Thomas Aquinas
iii. 2.2.3St. Alphonsus Liguori
3. 3In the Bible (King James Version)
4. 4In arts
5. 5See also
6. 6References
7. 7External links
Etymology[edit]
[2 ] [3]
In Deut 21:20 and Proverbs 23:21, it is . The Gesenius Entry (lower left word) has indications of
"squandering" and "profligacy" (waste).
[4] [5]
In Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34, it is ("phagos" transliterated character for character), The LSJ Entry is
tiny, and only refers to one external source, Zenobius Paroemiographus 1.73. The word could mean merely "an
eater", since means "eat".
In religion[edit]
Judaism[edit]
According to the list of 613 commandments that Jews must keep according to the Rambam, gluttony or excessive
eating or drinking is prohibited. It is listed as #169: "Not to eat or drink like a glutton or a drunkard (not to rebel
[6]
against father or mother)".
Catholicism[edit]
Gula - The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, by Hieronymus Bosch
Church leaders from the ascetic Middle Ages took a more expansive view of gluttony:
St. Gregory the Great[edit]
Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great), a doctor of the Church, described the following ways by which one can
[7][8][9]
commit sin of gluttony, and corresponding biblical examples for each of them:
1. Eating before the time of meals in order to satisfy the palate.
Biblical example: Jonathan eating a little honey, when his father Saul commanded no food to be taken before the
[1Sa 14:29]
evening. (Note that this text is only approximately illustrative, as in this account, Jonathan did not know
he was eating too.)
2. Seeking delicacies and better quality of food to gratify the "vile sense of taste."
Biblical example: When Israelites escaping from Egypt complained, "Who shall give us flesh to eat? We
remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks and the onions
[Num 11:4]
and the garlic," God rained fowls for them to eat but punished them 500 years later.
3. Seeking to stimulate the palate with overly or elaborately prepared food (e.g. with luxurious sauces and
seasonings).
Biblical example: Two sons of Eli the high priest made the sacrificial meat to be cooked in one manner rather than
[1Sa 4:11]
another. They were met with death.
4. Exceeding the necessary quantity of food.

[Eze 16:49]
Biblical example: One of the sins of Sodom was "fullness of bread."
5. Taking food with too much eagerness, even when eating the proper amount, and even if the food is not luxurious.
Biblical example: Esau selling his birthright for ordinary food of bread and pottage of lentils. His punishment was
that of the "profane person . . . who, for a morsel of meat sold his birthright," : we learn that "he found no place for
[Gen 25:30]
repentance, though he sought it carefully, with tears."
The fifth way is worse than all others, said St. Gregory, because it shows attachment to pleasure most clearly. To
recapitulate, St Gregory the Great said that one may succumb to the sin of gluttony by: 1. Time (when); 2. Quality; 3.
Stimulants; 4. Quantity; 5. Eagerness. He asserts that the irregular desire is the sin, not the food: "For it is not the
[10]
food, but the desire that is in fault".
St. Thomas Aquinas[edit]
In his Summa Theologica (Part 2-2, Question 148, Article 4), St. Thomas Aquinas reiterated the list of five ways to
[11]
commit gluttony:
Laute - eating food that is too luxurious, exotic, or costly

Studiose - eating food that is excessive in quality (too daintily or elaborately prepared)
Nimis - eating food that is excessive in quantity (too much)
Praepropere - eating hastily (too soon or at an inappropriate time)
Ardenter - eating greedily (too eagerly)
St. Aquinas concludes that "gluttony denotes inordinate concupiscence in eating"; the first three ways are related to
[11]
the food itself, while the last two related to the manner of eating. He says that abstinence from food and drink
[12] [13]:A2
overcome the sin of gluttony, and the act of abstinence is fasting. (see: Fasting and abstinence in the
[13]:A6
Roman Catholic Church) In general, fasting is useful to restrain concupiscence of the flesh.
St. Alphonsus Liguori[edit]
St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote the following when explaining gluttony:
"Pope Innocent XI has condemned the proposition which asserts that it is not a sin to eat or to drink from the sole
motive of satisfying the palate. However, it is not a fault to feel pleasure in eating: for it is, generally speaking,
impossible to eat without experiencing the delight which food naturally produces. But it is a defect to eat, like beasts,
through the sole motive of sensual gratification, and without any reasonable object. Hence, the most delicious meats
may be eaten without sin, if the motive be good and worthy of a rational creature; and, in taking the coarsest food
[14]
through attachment to pleasure, there may be a fault."
In the Bible (King James Version)[edit]
Deuteronomy 21:20 - "And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and
rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
Proverbs 23:20-21 - "Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and
the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags."
Proverbs 23:2 - "When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee. And put a
knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite."
Proverbs 25:16 - "Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled
therewith, and vomit it."
Luke 7:33-35 (and parallel account in Matthew 11:18-19) - "For John the Baptist came neither eating
bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and
ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is
justified of all her children."
In arts[edit]
Callimachus the famous Greek poet states, "All that I have given to my stomach has disappeared, and I have
[15]
retained all the fodder that I gave to my spirit."
[16]
Popular quote "Eat to live, not live to eat" is commonly attributed to Socrates. A quotation from Rhetorica ad
[17]
Herennium IV.28 : "Effe oportet ut vivas; non vivere ut edas" ("It is necessary to eat in order to live, not to live in
[18] [19]
order to eat") is credited by the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs to Cicero.
See also[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations
related to: Gluttony
Hunger (1974 film)

The Seven Deadly Sins (1952 film)
The Seven Deadly Sins (1919 film) (it) (1919 film)
Seven (1995 film)
Mr. Creosote
Obesity
Fat fetishism
References[edit]
Jump up^ Okholm, Dennis. "Rx for Gluttony". Christianity Today, Vol. 44, No. 10, September 11,
2000, p.62
Jump up^ "Strong's Search: H2151". Newjerusalem.org. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
Jump up^ "Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon by Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius". Tyndalearchive.com.
Retrieved 2014-08-27.
Jump up^ "Strong's Search: G5314". Newjerusalem.org. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
Jump up^ "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ".
Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
Jump up^ "List of 613 Commandments". List of 613 Commandments. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
Jump up^ Shipley, Orby. A Theory About Sin, London (1875) pg. 268-278. Books.google.com.
Retrieved 2014-08-27.
Jump up^ Susan E. Hill (2007). "The Ooze of Gluttony". In Richard Newhauser. The Seven Deadly
Sins: From Communities to Individuals. BRILL. p. 64. ISBN 9789004157859.
Jump up^ Lori Barcliff Baptista (2012). "Gluttony". In Carl A. Zimring, William L. Rathje.
Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage. SAGE Publications. p.
324. ISBN 9781452266671.
Jump up^ St. Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXX, 60, Lectionary Central
ab
^ Jump up to: St. Thomas Aquinas. "The Summa Theologica II-II.Q148.A4" (1920, Second and
Revised ed.). New Advent.
Jump up^ St. Thomas Aquinas, "Question 146. Abstinence", The Summa Theologica II-II, A2 (1920,
Second and Revised ed.), New Advent
ab
^ Jump up to: St. Thomas Aquinas, "Question 147. Fasting", The Summa Theologica II-II (1920,
Second and Revised ed.), New Advent
Jump up^ St. Alphonsus Liguori. ''The True Spouse of Jesus Christ''; trans. from Italian. Dublin
(1835), p. 282. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
Jump up^ Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Gluttony." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert
Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Sean Takats. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing,
University of Michigan Library, 2006. Web.
Jump up^ George Alexander Kennedy (2008). The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World. Wipf and
Stock Publishers. p. 133. ISBN 9781556359798.
Jump up^ M. Tullius Cicero, Rhetoricorum (in Latin) (1773 ed.), J. Manfr (from Montserrat Abbey
Library), p. 335
Jump up^ Giambattista Vico (1996). Giorgio A. Pinton, Arthur W. Shippee, ed. The Art of Rhetoric.
Rodopi. p. 181. ISBN 9789051839289.
Jump up^ Jennifer Speake, ed. (2015). Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. OUP Oxford. p. 89. ISBN
9780191059599.
GLUTTONY
Definition
Inordinate desire for the pleasure connected with food or drink. This desire may
become sinful in various ways: by eating or drinking far more than a person needs to
maintain bodily strength; by glutting one's taste for certain kinds of food with known
detriment to health; by indulging the appetite for exquisite food or drink, especially when
these are beyond one's ability to afford a luxurious diet; by eating or drinking too avidly,
i.e., ravenously; by consuming alcoholic beverages to the point of losing full control on
one's reasoning powers. Intoxication that ends in complete loss of reason is a mortal sin
if brought on without justification, e.g., for medical reasons. (Etym. Latin glutire, to
devour.)
Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton
will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. -Proverbs 23:20-21
Gluttony is one of the seven capital sins. The word gluttony is derived from the Latin gluttire,
which means to gulp down or swallow. It means extravagant or wasteful overindulgence of
food, drink, or other items of wealth. Its corresponding virtue is Temperance.
It is my personal opinion that there is a strong correlation between lust and gluttony. I think that many of the persons
who struggle with lust exercise little restraint on what they eat and drink. Gluttony, of course, is the immoderate intake
of food and drink; lust, the immoderate desire of sexual pleasure. Both vices are connected, because immoderation
with regards to food tends to enslave us to our basic instincts. When we once find ourselves giving in to our base
instincts with regards to the bodily pleasure that we get from eating food, it is very difficult to avoid giving in to the
pleasure of other bodily desires as well.
I am not saying all people who struggle with lust are gluttons; nor am I speculating as to how much food or drink one
needs to consume to be a glutton. I am merely pointing out that issues of temperance tend to stand or fall together;
one is either a temperate person, or one is not. The ancient authors, both pagan and Christian, have noted this
specific connection between gluttony and lust. St. Jerome said, The eating of flesh, and drinking of wine, and
fullness of stomach, is the seed-plot of lust.[3] St. John Climacus said, To be gluttonous, yet expect to be chaste, is
to wish to extinguish fire with oil.[4] It matters not whether the object of our desire is food or sexual pleasure: when we
do not mortify our bodily instincts, we become immoderate people and fail in any struggle that requires temperance.
Because it is generally easier to moderate our intake of food than to break habits of sexual sin, it is my opinion that
any serious attempt to break free from the vice of lust should begin with a general resolution to be moderate in all
things pertaining to the body, especially food and drink. Spiritual power is unleashed when we mortify our desires and
bring our prayers to the Lord when fasting. Besides the grace given us through fasting, it teaches us to practice bodily
discipline and subject the desires of our body to the dictates of reason. He who is moderate in food and drink and
practices regular fasting will grow in grace, cultivate the virtue of temperance, and find himself much better equipped
to enter into combat against lust. There will still be a struggle, but the constant failures and setbacks that
characterized earlier efforts will now give way to real and enduring victories.
For those in pastoral ministries, it is important to not only preach against the common vices of masturbation and
pornography, but to preach and exemplify a mortified life, encouraging parishioners to fast and do penance. Trying to
encourage people to chastity without teaching them mortification will be fruitless; those who have not developed the
virtue of temperance will always be too spiritually weakened to fight lust, which is a very powerful enemy.
This is the way of the saints and fathers moderation in all things, especially food and drink, lead to moderation of
sexual desire. Immoderation in food and drink leads to immoderation in our sexual desires.
St. John Damascene: These eight passions should be destroyed

as follows . . .
These eight passions should be destroyed as follows: gluttony by self-control;

unchastity by desire for God and longing for the blessings held in store; avarice by compassion for the
poor; anger by goodwill and love for all men; worldly dejection by spiritual joy; listlessness by patience,
perseverance and offering thanks to God; self-esteem by doing good in secret and by praying constantly
with a contrite heart; and pride by not judging or despising anyone in the manner of the boastful Pharisee
(cf. Luke 18 : 1112), and by considering oneself the least of all men. When the intellect has been freed in
this way from the passions we have described and been raised up to God, it will henceforth live the life of
blessedness, receiving the pledge of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 1 : 22). And when it departs this life,
dispassionate and full of true knowledge, it will stand before the light of the Holy Trinity and with the divine
angels will shine in glory through all eternity.
+ St. John Damascene, On the Virtues and the Vices from The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol.
St. Seraphim of Sarov: One should not think about the doings of
God when . . .
One should not think about the doings of God when ones stomach is
full; on a full stomach there can be no vision of the Divine mysteries.
+ St. Seraphim of Sarov, The Spiritual Instructions to Laymen and Monks, printed in Little Russian
Philokalia: St. Seraphim of Sarov
Devils take great delight in fullness, and drunkenness and bodily comfort. Fasting possesses great power
and it works glorious things. To fast is to banquet with angels.
+ St. Athanasius the Great
Gluttony
Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an
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(From Lat. gluttire, to swallow, to gulp down), the excessive indulgence in

food and drink. The moral deformity discernible in this vice lies in its
defiance of the order postulated by reason, which prescribes necessity as the
measure of indulgence in eating and drinking. This deordination, according
to the teaching of the Angelic Doctor, may happen in five ways which are set
forth in the scholastic verse: "Prae-propere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose"
or, according to the apt rendering of Father Joseph Rickably: too soon, too
expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily. Clearly one who uses food
or drink in such a way as to injure his health or impair the mentalequipment
needed for the discharge of his duties, is guilty of the sin of gluttony. It is
incontrovertible that to eat or drink for the mere pleasure of the experience,
and for that exclusively, is likewise to commit the sin of gluttony. Such a
temper of soul is equivalently the direct and positive shutting out of that
reference to our last end which must be found, at least implicitly, in all our
actions. At the same time it must be noted that there is no obligation to
formerly and explicitly have before one's mind a motive which will
immediately relate our actions to God. It is enough that such an intention
should be implied in the apprehension of the thing as lawful with a
consequent virtual submission to Almighty God. Gluttony is in general a
venial sin in so far forth as it is an undue indulgence in a thing which is in
itself neither good nor bad. Of course it is obvious that a different estimate
would have to be given of one so wedded to the pleasures of the table as to
absolutely and without qualification live merely to eat and drink, so minded
as to be of the number of those, described by the Apostle St. Paul, "whose
god is their belly" (Philippians 3:19). Such a one would be guilty of mortal
sin. Likewise a person who, by excesses in eating and drinking, would have
greatly impaired his health, or unfitted himself for duties for the
performance of which he has a grave obligation, would be justly chargeable
with mortal sin. St. John of the Cross, in his work "The Dark Night of the
Soul" (I, vi), dissects what he calls spiritual gluttony. He explains that it is
the disposition of those who, in prayer and other acts of religion, are always
in search of sensible sweetness; they are those who "will feel and taste God,
as if he were palpable and accessible to them not only in Communion but in
all their other acts of devotion." This he declares is a very great imperfection
and productive of great evils.
Origin of Gluttony
When we think of Gluttony we are more likely to think of someone who eats way too much, a
pig. However, during the ascetic Middle Ages, church leaders including Pope Gregory I had an
expansive and more in-depth view of gluttony. Pope Gregory described the following ways by
which one can be gluttonous, and provided corresponding biblical verses to support them.
1. Time. Eating before meal time in order to appease the palate. In 1 Samuel 14:24-27
Jonathan ate honey even though his father Saul commanded that no food should be eaten
before the evening.
2. Quality. Seeking delicacies to satisfy taste. When the Israelites were escaping Egypt, they
asked, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely;
the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, (Num 11:4,5) Even
though God had provided them manna (bread) to eat, they wanted better food. For this God
later punished them.
3. Stimulant. Stimulating the palate with sauces and seasonings. Two of Eli the high priests
sons made the sacrificial meat in a way contrary to the proper method.
4. Quantity. Eating or hoarding an excessive amount of food. In Ezekiel 16:49, Behold, this
was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in
her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
5. Eagerness. Being too eager to eat, even when eating the proper amount. Esau, son of Adam
and Eve and brother to Jacob sold his birthright for a pot of soup.
During Pope Gregorys times gluttony was considered to be the least serious of the seven sins,
with pride being the most serious. However, it is still a capital sin that, as was believed, would
have serious punishments.
Around AD 1308, roughly 600 years after the time of Pope Gregory I, a man named Dante
Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy. In the first part, The Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil visit
the gluttonous during their journey through Hell. This circle is flush with trash and it perpetually
rains polluted, nasty rain with hailstones. Here the lustful and gluttonous, whose sins involved
an obsession with bodily pleasure, are punished in a way that is
image: https://www.themonastery.org/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/dante_virgil_and_cerberus-300x233.jpg
appropriate to their sin. They

excessively pursued pleasure in life and now wallow in an overabundance of that which disgusts.
Among these sinners lurks fearsome Cerberus, the monstrous three-headed dog of the
underworld. Dante and Virgil escape by slinging mud into the dogs mouth, who, being a glutton
as well, eats it and grows quiet.
Modern Day Gluttony
Today the term gluttony takes on a more specific and singular meaning: overeating. As you can
tell, Pope Gregory Is view was an ultra-conservative definition of what it means to be
gluttonous. By these standards it would be difficult to not be gluttonous, especially in todays
world. Are we really being gluttonous if we have a snack before dinner time? Or cook with
spices and seasonings?
While Pope Gregory Is view seems out dated, it may still have some relevance. After all, if you
look at the obesity rates in our country, gluttony certainly is a problem. Perhaps we could use a
little medieval motivation.
The True Problem

The medieval definition of Gluttony is broad, and the contemporary one is narrow. So what,
really, is gluttony? What is the problem behind it? Coming from the Christian perspective, we
should turn to Scripture for answers. With gluttony, the real problem isnt food or a lack of
willpower, but the affection of our hearts. In Genesis 3:4-6, we see that the root of all sin is a
disaffection for God:
You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat
from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and
also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her
husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
image: https://www.themonastery.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/adamandeve-
300x300.jpg
Satan used the fruit of the tree as a way to drive a
wedge between man and God. He tricked Eve into thinking that eating the fruit would bring them into a
greater identity and existence other than being a child of God. Satan bid them eat and become gods
themselves. Even though they had plenty of food in the garden of Eden, it wasnt enough.
Gluttony is based on the lie that food is more pleasurable than God. Therefore, when we
look to food for pleasure instead of God, or when we think that eating good food can be more
pleasurable than a relationship with God, we are being gluttonous. Gluttony is not a lack of
willpower, but is itself religious in nature. It is the service, devotion, and worship of the pleasure
of food instead of God.
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on
earthly things -Phil. 3:19
Read more at https://www.themonastery.org/blog/2014/02/gluttony/#xQWjJbePl9jCXdPD.99

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100 Bible Verses about Gluttony

Philippians 3:19 ESV / 688 helpful votes
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds
set on earthly things.
Proverbs 23:20-21 ESV / 575 helpful votes
Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the
glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.
Proverbs 23:2 ESV / 441 helpful votes

And put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ESV / 383 helpful votes

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone
destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that
temple.

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.

For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with
rags.
Psalm 78:18 ESV / 272 helpful votes

They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.
1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 247 helpful votes

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Philippians 3:18-19 ESV / 243 helpful votes

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies
of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their
shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Deuteronomy 21:20 ESV / 202 helpful votes

And they shall say to the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will
not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.
Romans 13:14 ESV / 197 helpful votes

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat,
Galatians 5:16-26 ESV / 168 helpful votes
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires
of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for
these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if
you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident:
sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of
anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ...

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have
from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your
body.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be enslaved by anything.
Matthew 11:19 ESV / 125 helpful votes

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look at him! A glutton and a
drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Matthew 6:25-34 ESV / 102 helpful votes

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body
more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And
which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you
anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor
spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have
from God? You are not your own,
James 4:7 ESV / 85 helpful votes
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Galatians 5:24 ESV / 73 helpful votes

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Ecclesiastes 10:17 ESV / 71 helpful votes

Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at
the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
comes from the mouth of God.

But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power
of Christ may rest upon me.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV / 69 helpful votes

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of
food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did
an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For
the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows
to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,
drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those
who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Titus 1:12 ESV / 59 helpful votes

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy
gluttons.
Amos 6:4-7 ESV / 59 helpful votes
Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat
lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the
sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink
wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of
Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of
those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.
Luke 7:34 ESV / 56 helpful votes

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Look at him! A glutton and a
drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!
John 4:34 ESV / 55 helpful votes

Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his
work.

The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons
shames his father.

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of
body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
Hebrews 12:16 ESV / 52 helpful votes

That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single
meal.
1 John 2:16 ESV / 46 helpful votes

For all that is in the worldthe desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in
possessionsis not from the Father but is from the world.
Colossians 3:5 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil
desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not
raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness
and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.
1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour.
Deuteronomy 21:20-21 ESV / 40 helpful votes

And they shall say to the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will
not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of the city shall stone
him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall
hear, and fear.
Isaiah 22:13 ESV / 39 helpful votes

And behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking
wine. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice
homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by
testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 13:11-14 ESV / 36 helpful votes

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For
salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is
at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us
walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality
and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make
no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

But if that servant says to himself, My master is delayed in coming, and begins to beat the
male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and
approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is
wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or
drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
Isaiah 55:1-13 ESV / 32 helpful votes

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy
and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend
your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline
your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an
everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to
the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that
you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord
your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. ...
Numbers 11:33 ESV / 32 helpful votes

While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord
was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great
plague.

Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and
drink and rose up to play.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he
will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Luke 6:35-38 ESV / 30 helpful votes

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward
will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the
evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged;
condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it
will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be
put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 29 helpful votes
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Matthew 6:30-34 ESV / 28 helpful votes

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into
the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be
anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For
the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need
them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will
be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be
anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.
Exodus 16:21 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew
hot, it melted.

For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Ecclesiastes 6:9 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a
striving after wind.

One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.
Genesis 25:30-34 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted! (Therefore
his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, Sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I am
about to die; of what use is a birthright to me? Jacob said, Swear to me now. So he
swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew,
and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
Luke 20:46-47 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the
marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who
devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater
condemnation.

Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with
the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? or
lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
Leviticus 25:35-38 ESV / 20 helpful votes

If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him
as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest
from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not
lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your
God.
Ephesians 5:18-20 ESV / 18 helpful votes

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Leviticus 19:9-10 ESV / 18 helpful votes

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge,
neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your
vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave
them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
Genesis 4:7 ESV / 18 helpful votes

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the
door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Haggai 1:6 ESV / 16 helpful votes
You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink,
but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns
wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.
1 Samuel 2:12-17 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the
priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would
come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would
thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest
would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man
who was sacrificing, Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat
from you but only raw. And if the man said to him, Let them burn the fat first, and then
take as much as you wish, he would say, No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take
it by force. ...
James 2:14-24 ESV / 14 helpful votes

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can
that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one
of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things
needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is
dead. But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart
from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ...
Isaiah 9:20 ESV / 14 helpful votes

They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not
satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm,

Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Be not among drunkards or
among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and slumber will clothe them with rags.

A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.
Isaiah 58:13-14 ESV / 13 helpful votes
If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and
call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going
your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in
the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the
heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

And put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for
they are deceptive food.

When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, and put a knife
to your throat if you are given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are
deceptive food.
Psalm 50:16-17 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But to the wicked God says: What right have you to recite my statutes or take my
covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality,
passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
John 6:1-71 ESV / 11 helpful votes

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of
Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was
doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing
that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy
bread, so that these people may eat? ...
Exodus 32:6 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace
offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy
priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
Hebrews 12:16-17 ESV / 10 helpful votes

That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single
meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
1 Timothy 4:8 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds
promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1 Timothy 1:1-2 Timothy 4:22 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our
hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at
Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to
devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather
than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues
from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ...
Philippians 4:5 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself
should be disqualified.
Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they
arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those
in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily
to see if these things were so.
And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat,
drink, be merry.

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. A good man
obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns. No one is established
by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. An excellent wife is the
crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. The
thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. ...
Judges 3:17-22 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And
when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the
tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, I have a secret
message for you, O king. And he commanded, Silence. And all his attendants went out
from his presence. And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber.
And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat. And Ehud
reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his
belly. ...
James 1:1-27 ESV / 9 helpful votes

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know
that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full
effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks
wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given
him. ...

Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is
wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or
drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
Evagrius considered gluttony a sort of gateway sin - indulge in this and
all the other sins will follow. When the intellect is blunted by satiety, he
wrote, it does not receive the knowledge of God. Fun fact: Evagrius
also considered gluttony the mother of fornication. Thomas Aquinas,
in his Summa Theologica - still an influence on Christian thought -
named pride as the gateway sin because it places man before God. Still,
he was no fan of gluttony, either, concluding, It is the inordinate desire
of food that defiles a man spiritually.
Chapter 39: The

Proper Amount
of Food
Date: January 4, 2015Author: Andrew14 Comments
Benedict in this chapter takes again the path of the wise spiritual guide in re-emphasising
the middle way. This time it is in our relationship with food. In monastic spirituality our
relationship with food is one of practicality and moderation. The choice, preparation, and
consumption of food are not to be statements of status or a product of egoism. The
extremes of this relationship with food, which could be seen today in the pervasiveness of
both anorexia and obesity, are to be avoided. Benedictine Christianity is not about
unchecked asceticism nor does it promote the consumption of food as a way of life. Food
serves life and life serves God.
The great Islamic theologian, jurist, and mystic Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111) is
another spiritual guide to embrace the wisdom of this middle way. In his On Disciplining
the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires one of the two desires treated is gluttony (the
other is sexual desire). Al-Ghazali names gluttony as foundational to all disordered
desiring; if gluttony is moderated, al-Ghazali maintains, then it follows that all other
desires can be as well.
John Cassian (360-430s), when speaking of gluttony in The Institutes, also highlights its
foundational nature:
The stomach that has been fed with all kinds of food begets the seeds of lasciviousness,
and the mind that is suffocated and weighed down by food cannot be guided by the
governance of discretionToo much food of any kind makes it stagger and sway and
robs it of every possibility of integrity and purity. (120)
The scripture passage used in this chapter comes from the Gospel of Luke (21:34). It is in
the context of staying awake and being alert for the return of the Son of Man:Be on
guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and
the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly (NRSV).
This chapter from the Rule can be taken more broadly as guidance for all aspects of life
that are prone to overindulgence. To follow the lead of al-Ghazali and Cassian, and
indeed the words of Jesus in Luke, to be in a state of moderation regarding food is to be
more aware of how overindulgence can pervade life. How many of us overindulge
worries, confusing worry with love?
With our minds and hearts captured by other things, we can miss the moments in which
Divine Love is drawing us into being people of now the only occasion for love and
loving. It is interesting that the New Jerusalem translation of Luke 21:34 uses the word
coarsened rather than the words weighed down. A heart coarsened by the over
indulgences of life is a heart that is roughened and hardened by these things. It is a heart
that is not growing in the openness and suppleness that the experience of love and
divinity in the moment can bring. The way we treat our bodies affects our hearts.
This chapter shows us, as the Rule in general keeps showing us, that Spirituality is not an
aside to life, something split from the everyday of people and activities. The spiritual
life itself is the practice and development of balance, of harmony in the human life, in all
the ways that this practice and development can healthily happen. The Rule of Benedict is
practical and compassionate guidance in the art of moderation and harmony within the
context of God-seeking community (wherever this community may be found).
How then, can this invitation to moderation be relevant for us today? Where, in the
practical of our lives, do we overindulge? Perhaps we justify a lot of TV time as a way of
relaxing and unwinding from the stress of each day. We may then, in time, discover that
at least some of this time could be spent with partner, children, friends (our community).
We could also be meditating.
It could also be that we find ourselves overindulging the company of others (the extravert
bias) or perhaps the company of ourselves (the introvert bias). Often overindulgence in
something is an avoidance of something else. The extravert avoids the anxiety of facing
the inner life, while the introvert avoids the anxiety of the social group. The middle way
invites the development of a balance between the inner and outer of life.
In his Lenten message, Pope Benedict XVI teaches that fasting began in
Paradise, when God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil.
Jesus Himself fasted 40 days in the desert, revealing the true interior nature of
fasting. The Holy Father says, Jesus "Himself sets the example, answering
Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that "man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Mt4,4).
The true fast is thus directed to eating the 'true food,' which is to do the Father's
will (cf. Jn 4, 34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord's command . . . the
believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His
goodness and mercy.'
Fasting is the Church's answer to the glutton's disordered relationship with food.
It restores the proper order to all aspects of creation, including the way we use its
fruitfulness for the nourishment and gladness of our bodies.
Our meals are directed toward Communion, promote fellowship with one another
and incorporate all of bodily life into life with God. St. Augustine once said of the
Eucharist that 'we become what we eat.' Let us respond, 'Amen,' and keep food
in its proper place.
luttony
Continuing the excellent sermon
series on the Seven Deadly Sins, the following sermon on Gluttony was
delivered today by Canon Michael K. Wiener, Rector of St. Francis de
Sales Oratory:
Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth
from the mouth of God.
Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of
thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions
of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to
Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away.
Since the 6th century St. Benedicts monasteries established Catholic
culture on the ruins of the crumbling empires of paganism. St. Benedict
gave his monks detailed instructions to lead a life that is centered around
the celebrations of the sacred liturgy and based on the precepts of
charity: his rule allows a life in the harmony of nature and grace and
that is why it has survived until today.
St. Benedicts rule includes all aspects of the life as a monk, even
instructions of what to eat, how much to eat, how often to eat and how
to eat with guests who had to be received as Christ Himself.
We believe that for the daily meal, both at the sixth and the ninth
hour, two kinds of cooked food are sufficient at all meals And if there
be fruit or fresh vegetables, a third may be added. Let a pound of bread
be sufficient for the day If, however, the work hath been especially
hard, it is left to the discretion and power of the Abbot to add something,
if he think fit, barring above all things every excess For nothing is so
contrary to Christians as excess
The capital sin of gluttony is an inordinate love of the pleasures

attached to the eating of food.
St. Thomas explains that in matters of eating food, the appetite is
twofold. There is the natural appetite, which belongs to the powers of
the vegetal soul. On these powers virtue and vice are impossible, since
they cannot be subject to reason Besides this there is another, the
sensitive appetite, and it is in the concupiscence of this appetite that the
vice of gluttony consists.
Eating as a natural desire has two elements, St. Thomas calls them
appetites: The desire to eat at all and the desire of the pleasures
attached to the eating of food.
The first desire, the natural appetite, can not be controlled by us, since
our body needs a certain amount of food to continue to live. The second
desire, or sensitive appetite St. Thomas calls it also here concupiscence
- is what gives us pleasure in tasting food, what satisfies our palate and
makes us like to eat.
Both desires belong necessarily together, but only the second appetite
can be and must be subject to our reason. It is in this part that we
exercise virtue by controlling the concupiscence of our senses by acts of
moderation.
Protestant and Jansenist error teaches that the concupiscence which
remains after baptism is a true and proper sin, which is simply not
reckoned for punishment.
Catholic teaching guides us to understand that there is no sin in us after

baptism, and what we know as mans desires often inordinate ones
which are called concupiscence, is left in us for our moral betterment
and proving.
St. Benedicts monks were given two choices each day, they were not
forced against their will to eat like animals are forced to eat by nature.
____________________________________________________
The Church teaches that there are different ways to commit the sin of
gluttony:
- Eating when there is no need, eating between meals and for no other
reason than that of indulging food.
- Seeking delicacies or daintily prepared meats
- Going beyond either appetite or need, with danger to health.
- Eating with greed, after the manner of animals

Gluttony is a capital sin because it generates, so to say, easily other sins,
especially sins related to the body. He who eats too much, easily lets his
guard down and falls into other weaknesses. If these weaknesses are
grave sins, even gluttony can be a mortal sin.
On the other hand, says St. Thomas, if the inordinate concupiscence in

the vice of gluttony be found to affect only such things as are directed to
the end, for instance when a man has too great a desire for the pleasures
of the palate, yet would not for their sake do anything contrary to God's
law, it is a venial sin.
____________________________________________________
Who teaches us how to eat?
As in all other aspects of our life our ability to master our desires and to
protect them from being inordinate depends on the health of our soul.
Fasting is instituted by the Church in order to bridle concupiscence, yet
so as to safeguard nature, explains St. Thomas. To eat well our soul
needs strength and health fasting well helps us to eat well.
The Church teaches us everything, even how to eat:

St. Alphonsus Liguori says:
It is not a fault to feel pleasure in eating: for it is, generally speaking,

impossible to eat without experiencing the delight which food naturally
produces. But it is a defect to eat, like beasts, through the sole motive of
sensual gratification, and without any reasonable object. Hence, the
most delicious meats may be eaten without sin, if the motive be good and
worthy of a rational creature; and, in taking the simplest food through
attachment to pleasure, there may be a fault."
Wouldnt it help all of us to avoid the sin of gluttony better if we eat

carefully, well prepared food, food that is healthy, food that is able to
sustain us well without making us eating more and more of it?
The culture of the table this includes all aspects of eating as man, not
as a beast. Modern ways to eat do not make our efforts easier, but then:
why shouldn't this aspect of our lives eating also be counter-cultural?
We dont need to be green or environmentalists to understand that we
need to be virtuous in all parts of our lives also while eating - to be
Catholic.
Eating just bread and butter at table is better than eating caviar standing
over the sink. Having at least one meal together as a family is better than
sitting in front of a TV eating frozen dinners. Receiving guests regularly -
even if we live alone that seems to be possible once in a while - helps us
to elevate our taking meals on the level on which it belongs.
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all
to the glory of God. Gods grace allows us to return to virtue and
strength which alone allows us to eat as Christians - and that is as truly
human beings.
Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth
from the mouth of God.
On Gluttony, by Saint
John Vianney
Gluttony is an inordinate love of eating and drinking.

We are gluttonous, my children, when we take food in excess, more than is required for the
support of our poor body; when we drink beyond what is necessary, so as even to lose our
senses and our reason. . . . Oh, how shameful is this vice! How it degrades us! See, it puts
us below the brutes: the animals never drink more than to satisfy their thirst: they content
themselves with eating enough; and we, when we have satisfied our appetite, when our
body can bear no more, we still have recourse to all sorts of little delicacies; we take wine
and liquors to repletion! Is it not pitiful? We can no longer keep upon our legs; we fall, we
roll into the ditch and into the mud, we become the laughing stock of everyone, even the
sport of little children. . . .
If death were to surprise us in this state, my children, we should not have time to recollect
ourselves; we should fall in that state into the hands of the good God. What a misfortune,
my children! How would our soul be surprised! How would it be astonished! We should
shudder with horror at seeing the lost who are in Hell. . . . Do not let us be led by our
appetite; we shall ruin our health, we shall lose our soul. . . . See, my children,
intemperance and debauchery are the support of doctors; that lets them live, and gives
them a great deal of practice. . . . We hear every day, such a one was drunk, and falling
down he broke his leg; another, passing a river on a plank, fell into the water and was
drowned. . . . Intemperance and drunkenness are the companions of the wicked rich
man. . . . A moment of pleasure in this world will cost us very dear in the other. There they
will be tormented by a raging hunger and a devouring thirst; they will not even have a drop
of water to refresh themselves; their tongue and their body will be consumed by the flames
for a whole eternity. . . .
O my children! we do not think about it; and yet that will not fail to happen to some
amongst us, perhaps even before the end of the year! Saint Paul said that those who give
themselves to excess in eating and drinking shall not possess the kingdom of God. Let us
reflect on these words! Look at the saints: they pass their life in penance, and we would
pass ours in the midst of enjoyments and pleasures. Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal,
fasted all Advent, and also from Saint John Baptists day to the Assumption. Soon after, she
began another Lent, which lasted till the feast of Saint Michael. She lived upon bread and
water only on Fridays and Saturdays, and on the vigils of the feasts of the Blessed Virgin
and of the Apostles. They say that Saint Bernard drank oil for wine. Saint Isidore never ate
without shedding tears! If we were good Christians, we should do as the saints have done.
We should gain a great deal for Heaven at our meals; we should deprive ourselves of many
little things which, without being hurtful to our body, would be very pleasing to the good
God; but we choose rather to satisfy our taste than to please God; we drown, we stifle our
soul in wine and food. My children, God will not say to us at the Day of Judgment, Give Me
an account of thy body; but, Give Me an account of thy soul; what hast thou done with
it? . . . What shall we answer Him? Do we take as much care of our soul as of our body? O
my children! let us no longer live for the pleasure of eating; let us live as the saints have
done; let us mortify ourselves as they were mortified. The saints never indulged themselves
in the pleasures of good cheer. Their pleasure was to feed on Jesus Christ! Let us follow
their footsteps on this earth, and we shall gain the crown which they have in Heaven.
Pope: Don't let
meatless Fridays
be selfish and
soulless, a
seafood splurge
Feb 20, 2015
by Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY Real fasting isn't just restricting food choices. It must also include cleansing the
heart of all selfishness and making room in one's life for those in need and those who have sinned and
need healing, Pope Francis said.
Faith without concrete acts of charity is not only hypocritical, "it is dead. What good is it?" he asked,
criticizing those who hide behind a veil of piety while unjustly treating others, such as denying workers
fair wages, a pension and health care.
Being generous toward the church but selfish and unjust toward others "is a very serious sin: It is using
God to cover up injustice," he said Friday during his homily in a morning Mass celebrated in the chapel
of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.
The pope's homily was based on the day's reading from the Book of Isaiah in which God tells his people
he does not care for those who observe penance passively -- bowed "like a reed," lying quietly in a
"sackcloth and ashes."
Instead, God says he desires to see his people crying out "full-throated and unsparingly" against injustice
and sin, "setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering
the oppressed and the homeless." In the reading, God also points out the hypocrisy of the faithful who fast
but treat their workers badly and fight and quarrel with others.
Help fund independent Catholic journalism. Donate now.
Pope Francis said Lent is about fulfilling all commandments both toward God and others, according to
reports from Vatican Radio and the Vatican newspaper.
Lent is not about the formal observance of "doing a little whatever" and not eating meat on Fridays while
giving oneself free reign to "grow in selfishness, exploit others and ignore the poor," he said.
There might be someone who thinks, "Today is Friday, I can't eat meat, but I'm going to have a nice plate
of seafood, a real banquet," which, while appearing to be an abstinence from meat, is the sin of gluttony,
the pope said.
Another person might say: "I am a great Catholic, Father, I like it a lot. I always go to Mass every Sunday,
I receive Communion," to which, the pope said he would reply, "Great, and how is your relationship with
your workers? Do you pay them under the table? Do you give them a fair wage? Do you contribute
toward their pension? To their health insurance and social services?"
Some people may regularly make financial contributions to the church, but, the pope asked, how generous
are they toward their loved ones and their dependents? Are they generous and just to them, too, he asked.
People cannot "make offerings to the church on the back of injustice," he said. "It is not a good Christian
who doesn't do justice to the people who depend on him" and who does not "deprive himself of
something essential for him in order to give it to another who is in need."
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"This is the distinction between formal and real," he said, which Jesus underlined, too, when he
condemned the Pharisees and doctors of the law, who adhered to "many external observances but without
the truth of the heart."
Unfortunately, he said, many "men and women have faith but they separate the tablets of law," that is,
they obey the first commandments and obligations to God while ignoring or being selective about the rest
of the commandments concerning others.
"They are united: Love toward God and love to your neighbor are one, and if you want to practice real,
not formal, penance, you have to do it before God and also with your brother and sister, your neighbor,"
he said.
The pope asked that during Lent, people think about what they can do for people who are in very difficult
situations, for example, to help "children and the elderly who don't have the possibility of being seen by a
doctor."
Perhaps they have to wait "eight hours to be seen and then they give them an appointment for the week
after," he said.
"What will you do for these people? What will your Lent be like?"
He also asked people to make room in their hearts for those who have sinned, those who "have made
mistakes and are in jail."
To those who may protest about associating with people who have been imprisoned, the pope said, "He is
in jail, but you -- if you are not in jail, it is because the Lord helped you to not fall." Pray for them, he
said, so that the Lord may help them turn their lives around.
Gluttony the most widespread deadly
sin Eating too much is only one way this vice
turns our focus away from God Mary
Eberstadt OSV Newsweekly
1/6/2010
It would be quite satisfying to begin our reflection on todays deadly sin,

gluttony, by invoking it to explain the ongoing global economic mess. In
fact, Googling the terms gluttony and financial crisis shows that
thousands of people have been making just that connection since the
recession started.
And why not, given how this capital vice has come to be construed? Isnt
gluttony just some atavistic subset of greed? Doesnt it figuratively describe
the financial and other marketplaces lately that is, the process of taking
in more than you need or is good for you?
The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is no which is exactly why the modern

temptation to sugarcoat gluttony demands resistance. Gluttony is almost
always used metaphorically today, when, in fact, it is perhaps the most
literal of all the Deadlies, beginning with the word itself (from the Latin
gluttire, to gulp down or swallow). Perhaps the lengths to which we go to
tart up our gluttony, that is, to dress it figuratively rather than literally, tells
us something meaningful: This capital vice, in our age of plenty, may be
both the most ubiquitous of all the Deadlies and the one to which many
of us wrongly believe ourselves immune.
So lets take gluttony here literally instead, to see what results. A little more
than a year ago, in a movement others are joining, California became the
first state to require chain restaurants to post calorie counts. The reason
why is obvious. Many things will someday pass away, but the fat we
moderns have will apparently always be with us.
And not just Americans, either. The same day as California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzeneggers announcement, a continent and an ocean away,
Glasgow University, in Scotland, announced the beginning of one of the
largest studies of child obesity ever conducted in Europe, which will last
five years and examine the diet and lifestyle of more than 17,000 children
from 10 countries. Similar news items demonstrate gluttonys ubiquity.
Obesity, unlike so many stocks right now, remains a growth industry.
A pitiful, if amusing, feature of our nonjudgmental times is that throughout

the enormous literature on the phenomenon, many authorities in the field of
obesity assure us that the G-word has nothing to do with our plight. We
should dismiss those century-old preconceptions about the penalties of
gluttony and sloth, writes Gary Taube in his popular book Good Calories,
Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and
Health (Anchor, $16.95). If youre fat, its not your fault, says Dr. Barry
The Zone Sears.
Nothing could be further from the truth. This is one deadly sin with a public
face and backside thats hard to miss. We all know that eating and
drinking have something to do with our personal enlargement, for a simple
reason: the more we eat or gulp, the bigger we get. And when we dont, we
dont.
Disputes about which dietary culprits are most in need of public flogging
dairy, meat, refined sugars and flours, trans fat may be fascinating, even
relevant to public health; but they miss the moral point.
If youve read this far and still feel comfortable meaning that you are
among the minority of adults who are not overweight or obese please
read on. If youve been reading and feel uncomfortable, read on too, for the
comfortable are about to get their comeuppance. Many people who are not
fat stop thinking about gluttony right there shaking their unjowled heads
at their more self-indulgent brethren. And this is where the comfortable
themselves go wrong.
Both St. Gregory the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, laid
down rules about what constituted gluttony. Only one was what we
commonly associate with the sin eating or drinking too much. The other
four concerned the loss of self-control over food and drink, or different ways
of putting things rather than people first: eating too soon, too expensively,
too eagerly and too daintily. In other words, one can be a glutton not only
by excess, but also by spending too much time and savor in either doing so
or not doing so including, to update the examples, priding oneself on
ones virtue in only eating from healthy or correct sources. How many
shoppers at Whole Foods or other gastronomically correct stores feel
entitled to gorge in the evening because their daytime buys have all been
of the healthy variety?
And heres one more spiritual step that many of us, whether comfortable or
uncomfortable, should take. Gluttony in an age of cheap food means that
Christians should be entertaining other unwanted ideas, too like the
possibility that our plenty imposes obligations on us that our ancestors
didnt have.
For example, being proper stewards of the earth today when our
nutritional needs are easily fulfilled without animal flesh means that we
should rethink not only how much we eat, but also what. Matthew Scully, in
his 2003 book Dominion (St. Martins Griffin, $16.99), makes just that call
with his subtitle: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals and the Call
to Mercy. Vegans call this absence of animal products a cruelty-free diet;
just because theyre making the claim doesnt necessarily make it wrong.
Why shouldnt a meditation on gluttony in our own day and age lead us to
ask whether vegetarianism is right?
All of which is to say that however we take our gluttony with a shovel or
a mother of pearl spoon, in a 64-ounce supersized cup or (one personal
favorite) in Sancerre by the case odds are that today, were all taking it
somewhere.
Contrary to what those of us who are surrounded by it have come to
believe, gluttony can be, and is, many insidious things. A metaphor is
probably the least illuminating of them.
Mary Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, contributing

writer to First Things and author of The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of
Life, Death, and Atheism, forthcoming from Ignatius Press. This column
was adapted from a series that originally appeared on The Catholic
Thing(www.thecatholicthing.org).
A glut of quotes (sidebar)
The vice of gluttony tempts us in five ways. Sometimes it forestalls the

hour of need; sometimes it seeks costly meats; sometimes it requires the
food to be daintily cooked; sometimes it exceeds the measure of
refreshment by taking too much; sometimes we sin by the very heat of an
immoderate appetite.
St. Gregory the Great
Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess; for
the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in
rags.
Proverbs 23:20-21
To kindle and blow the fire of lechery, that is annexed unto gluttony.
Sir Geoffrey Chaucer in The Pardoners Tale
An overfed belly will not study willingly.
Medieval maxim
Six Daughters of Gluttony (sidebar)
Excessive joy
Unseemly joy
Scurrility
Uncleanness
Loquaciousness
Dullness of mind as regards the understanding
Temperance and the Art of Eating

EDWARD P. SRI
Self-discipline is crucial for both the athlete and the Christian, especially when it
comes to food.
St. Paul once likened the Christian way to a race for which
athletes discipline themselves in order to win a prize: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners
compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-
control in all things" (1 Cor. 9:24-25).
Indeed, self-discipline is crucial for both the athlete and the Christian, especially when it comes to food.
Just as athletes must watch their diet and practice self-control in eating, so human beings cannot eat
whatever they want, whenever they want, and however much they want if they are going to live a
successful life.
As discussed in our last reflection, temperance is the virtue that moderates our desire for pleasure
especially the pleasure attached to food, drink, and sex. Temperance also moderates the sorrow and
frustration we might experience when we have to go without those pleasures and our appetites are left
unsatisfied.
Without temperance, we tend to become grumpy, angry, or short with others because our desire for
pleasure is not being fulfilled. Without temperance, we become slaves to our appetites and find ourselves
easily distracted from the good we should be doing (it's hard to stay focused on a task when we can't stop
thinking about that cake in the office lounge or that fresh bag of Doritos in the cabinet). A lack of
temperance also makes us selfish, by putting our own desire for pleasure over the good of others (I'm not
as attentive to others' needs when I can only think of filling my stomach or quenching my thirst).
Me . . . A Glutton?
Gregory the Great described gluttony as "an enemy within us" which must be tamed before other spiritual
battles can be successfully fought. He said, "As long as the belly is unrestrained, all virtue comes to
naught."
Gluttony is an inordinate desire for food and drink. Some people who are not overweight, however, might
think they do not have to worry about this vice. Yet slender people who do not eat a lot of food might
actually be more gluttonous than someone who is obese. There are many ways one can fall into gluttony
other than overeating. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that to avoid the trappings of gluttony, one must be
concerned not only about how much one eats, but also, what, how, and how often one eats.
How much I eat.

There are two questions we should ask ourselves along these lines: First, do I eat too greedily more
than my share such that others at table or at the social event are not able to receive as much? As the
Book of Sirach reminds us, "Do not reach out your hand for everything you see, and do not crowd your
neighbor at the dish" (Sir. 31:14).
Second, do I eat more than I need? It is not wrong to satisfy one's hunger to a point and receive proper
nourishment. But am I easily able to leave the table not completely stuffed? Frequently filling my stomach
to maximum capacity is a sign of my overattachment
What I eat.
Do I tend to eat only costly, elegant kinds of foods? Am I a picky eater? Do I only eat certain kinds of
foods or brands or do I always want my meals prepared a certain way? When I am served food that is not
my preference ("It's not organic!", "It's a strange foreign food I've never tasted before!", "Oh no . . . lots of
vegetables!"), do I try to eat it cheerfully and express gratitude to the people who prepared it? Or do I
complain about the food at the cafeteria or on the table at home? Even if I do not say anything aloud, do I
find myself whining interiorly that this is not the kind of food I like?
Without temperance, we tend to become grumpy, angry, or short with others because
our desire for pleasure is not being fulfilled.
If I answered "yes" to any of these questions, it is probably a sign that I am too attached to certain kinds
of food and that the vice of gluttony has a hold on my soul.
Of course, some people have special dietary needs. Someone with a heart condition, for example, should
avoid high-cholesterol foods. And the person with an anaphylactic peanut allergy sometimes needs to let
his hosts know about his life-threatening condition. But when it comes to my own personal tastes, am I
willing to die to myself on certain occasions for the sake of giving others preference or for the sake of
honoring those serving me?
Think about how other people feel when they perceive our picky attitudes. When our spouse, our parents,
or a host is preparing a meal for us, if they sense our "high maintenance" tastes, it may make them feel
awkward or uncomfortable. They may feel stress as they try to accommodate our fastidiousness. Our
pickiness may even make them feel bad that they do not have the same "high standards" about food as
we do.
How I Eat.
Do I eat too quickly? From a Catholic perspective, a meal is more than an opportunity to satisfy our
hunger and nourish our bodies. A meal is a time to share life with others and to have conversation. When
people eat too hastily, however, they are so focused on filling their stomachs that they are not easily
attentive to other people. On a basic level, they do not think about the needs of others at the table.
Instead of kindly anticipating other people's desires for more water, wine, or bread, the gluttonous man is
more concerned about getting what he wants on his own plate. Even more, when someone is so focused
on stuffing his mouth, it is difficult for him to have conversation with the people at table. Dinner for such a
person becomes more a time for gratifying his own appetite than a setting for communion with others.
Instead of truly sharing a meal and sharing a life together at table as human beings are meant to do,
some people eat like animals who merely happen to be occupying the same feeding trough, staring down
at their food, filling their mouths, and never making eye contact with each other.
Furthermore, when a person eats too quickly, he does not even enjoy the food itself as much. God put
pleasure in good food; we should eat our meals slowly so that we can actually enjoy them! The person
who always rushes his meals is not able truly to take delight in the pleasure of good food.
When I Eat.
Do I always have to eat whenever I sense hunger? In our family, our toddlers each went through a difficult
period while they were learning to express properly their desire for something to eat or drink. In these
transitional months, as soon as they experienced the slightest bit of hunger or thirst, they used to shout
out with a painful voice as if it were a major crisis: "I'm so hungry!" or "Juuuuice! Juuuuice!" And, of
course, they expected to have their hunger and thirst satisfied immediately.
Similarly, when we leave our appetites unbridled, they become like a little child inside us screaming, "I
want chocolate!" or "I need my Starbucks latte!" or "I must have McDonald's French fries, right now!" And
like an undisciplined toddler, we let our appetites control us. We may snack throughout the day because a
little bit of hunger would be too painful. Or we may eat before others get to the table. Or we may suddenly
find ourselves taking a spontaneous 10-minute break from work, or getting off the highway to hit the drive-
through, or paying money for things we did not plan all in order to satiate that incessant, demanding
voice of our appetite.
Fasting
Fasting is the virtue we need to free our will from slavery to our appetites. Aquinas says fasting bridles the
lusts of the flesh. By abstaining from food and drink on some regular basis, we give our wills practice at
saying "no" to our hunger and thirst. As a result, our wills become strengthened and we are less likely to
be controlled by our appetites or become frustrated when they are not immediately satiated.
When we refuse to give in to our appetites for little things such as chocolate during Lent or meat on
Friday, we gain greater self-control. This is one reason why the Church designates certain times like Lent
and Fridays as special days of penance: so that we have regular opportunities to practice self-control and
thus grow in temperance.
Drunkenness and Sobriety
Drinking alcohol itself is not immoral, but drunkenness is. In fact, drunkenness
drinking to the point that hinders the use of reason and causes loss of control is a
mortal sin, according to Aquinas.
Finally, a note about drunkenness and sobriety: Sobriety is the virtue that moderates our consumption of
alcohol. Drinking alcohol itself is not immoral, but drunkenness is. In fact, drunkenness drinking to the
point that hinders the use of reason and causes loss of control is a mortal sin, according to Aquinas.
St. Paul lists drunkenness as one of the sins that keeps one out of the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10; Gal.
5:21).
Aquinas explains that when a man is aware that his drinking is immoderate and intoxicating but wants to
be inebriated rather than stop drinking, his drunkenness is a mortal sin because he "willingly and
knowingly deprives himself of the use of reason whereby he performs virtuous deeds and avoids sin, and
thus he sins mortally by running the risk of falling into sin."[1]
As a former student once said in class, "It's hard enough trying to be a good Christian when we're sober!"
Indeed, pursuing virtue is difficult when we have full use of our reason. To willingly put ourselves in a
condition that hinders our use of reason as happens when we become drunk compromises our
ability to do the good and resist sin even more.
Endnote
[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II, Q. 150, Art. 2.
The almost forgotten, always

misunderstood, all-consuming
sin of gluttony
By ERLC
"I cant stop eating. I havent been hungry in, like, 12 years, jokes comedian Jim
Gaffigan. You ever see medication that says never eat on an empty stomach? Never a
concern of mine.
Listening to Gaffigans hilarious routines about our propensity to overeat is always funny.
But what is sad is that its also the closest many of us Christians will ever come to
hearing a sermon about gluttony.
While many churchgoers have heard their pastors warn against the dangers of indulging
in sin we almost never hear about the sin of indulgence. This wasnt always the case, for
gluttony was once listed among the Seven Deadly Sins. The book of Proverbs even tells
us to, Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony (23:2). Yet how many
Christians today would even consider gluttony to be a sin at all?
Part of the problem is that gluttony is frequently mistaken for obesity. Not all who are fat
are gluttons, just as not all gluttons are fat. Gluttonya term derived from the Latin word
meaning to gulp downis usually used in reference to over-consumption of food or
drink. But from a Christian perspective, it applies more broadly. Thomas Aquinas said
that, "Gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire . . .
leaving the order of reason, wherein the good of moral virtue consists." And Chris
Donato explains,
Two mistakes accompany most discussions on gluttony. The first is that it only
pertains to those with a less than shapely waistline; the second is that it always
involves food. In reality, it can apply to toys, television, entertainment, sex, or
relationships. It is about an excess of anything.
The true danger of gluttony is not that it will lead to flabby waistlines but that it will lead
to flabby souls. Too often we separate the physical from the spiritual, forgetting that the
habits of our body can have profound effects on the sanctification of our spirit. Physical
appetites are an analogy of our ability to control ourselves, says S. Michael Houdmann.
If we are unable to control our eating habits, we are probably also unable to control
other habits, such as those of the mind (lust, covetousness, anger) and unable to keep our
mouths from gossip or strife.
In my own life I can see myriad ways in which gluttony has become an idol. I have an
almost worshipful relationship with food. I eat when Im in-between meals. I eat when
Im in my car. I eat when Im bored. I eat when Im restless, when Im frustrated, when
Im watching TV, when Im on the computer. I eat constantly for no other reason than
that I can eat almost anytime I want for any reason, or for no reason at all.
But I also starve my soul by other forms of overconsumption. I binge watch Downton
Abbey (31 hours) and Battlestar Galactica (57 hours) even though Ive already seen
every episode. I stay up too late gorging on Facebook and Twitter. I play countless hours
of video games, like Angry Birds or Civilization 5.
I turn to Netflix instead of turning to prayer. I pause to check Facebook instead of
pausing to meditate on Scripture. I seek out a piece of fried bread instead of seeking the
Bread of Life. I fill my life with comfort food and comfort games, with must-see TV and
must-engage social media, in order to avoid filling my time and my life with God and his
holy Word.
Their end is destruction, the Apostle Paul warned, for those for whom their god is the
belly. We worship this false idolthe god of our bellywhenever we succumb to the
sin of gluttony. We replace the focus on the Lord with a focus on our own indulgences.
We make a god of our belly and allow our souls to turn softer than the creme filling in our
Twinkies.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution: increasing our appetite for Jesus. To cure our
gluttony we need to constantly ask God to, Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing
love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (Ps. 90:14) As John Piper
frequently says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him."
Since we can never get enough of Gods love, we can feast freely without fearing we will
become overfull. If we are to be gluttons, let us gorge on the gospel and Gods glory. Let
our desire be for God alonefor that alone is the only desire for which we can never
overindulge.
Gluttony is one of the seven

deadly sins most overlooked in
our times February 11, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, catachesis, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Grace, Holy
suffering, Interior Life, Liturgical Year, mortification, Saints, sanctity, Society, Tradition, true
leadership, Virtue.
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I posted a few quotes from early desert fathers yesterday, and it was apparent from those quotes how
great a danger these great ascetics saw in gluttony. Here we are speaking of traditional gluttony for
food, not some other gluttony (for power, etc). A commenter rightly noted that we just dont hear
much about gluttony anymore as a grave evil. Now, those in traditional parishes might hear a good
deal about the need for fasting/mortification, but thats a bit different. While fasting should be a
regular part of our faith life (for those who can do so), avoiding binge eating or other tendencies
towards gluttony are just as important.
There is a good resource here for avoiding gluttony and overcoming chronic overeating. Certainly,
gluttony and the attendant health problems have gone beyond epidemic proportions in the United
States and most of the West. In fact, the greatest health threat to the poor on government
assistance is not starvation, but obesity! Even young children under the age of 10 are developing
coronary artery disease, type II diabetes, and other disastrous effects of being morbidly overweight.
The Church has always counseled against all sins of worldly excess, including gluttony. The basis for
this counsel is, of course, Sacred Scripture, wherein there are numerous warnings against gluttony
and all bodily lusts:
Proverbs 23: 20-21: Be not among winebibbers or among gluttonous eaters of

meat; for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will
clothe a man with rags.
Sirach 23:6: Let neither gluttony nor lust overcome me, and do not surrender me to
a shameless soul.
Sirach 37:30-31: for overeating brings sickness, and gluttony leads to nausea.
Many have died of gluttony, but he who is careful to avoid it prolongs his life.
Matthew 11:19: the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Behold, a
glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! Yet wisdom is
justified by her deeds.
Philippians 3:18-19:For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you
even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction,
their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly
things.
Gluttony can be a venial or mortal sin depending on the degree of excess involved. Here is a good
review of St. Thomas Aquinas analysis of the matter.
Aquinas actually defines five ways to commit gluttony:

Laute eating food that is too luxurious, exotic, or costly
Nimis eating food that is excessive in quantity
Studiose eating food that is too daintily or elaborately prepared
Praepropere eating too soon, or at an inappropriate time
Ardenter eating too eagerly.
Pope St. Gregory the Great proposed a list that corresponds exactly to Aquinas, as well but 600
years earlier! So maybe the credit goes to him.
Many great Saints have provided counsel on the evils of gluttony:
Nothing created by God is evil. It is not food that is evil but gluttony, not the begetting of children
but unchastity, not material things but avarice, not esteem but self-esteem. It is only the misuse of
things that is evil, not the things themselves.
St. Maximos the Confessor
Devils take great delight in fullness, and drunkenness and bodily comfort. Fasting possesses great
power and it works glorious things. To fast is to banquet with angels.
St. Athanasius the Great
Why do demons wish to excite in us gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, rancor and other passions?
So that the mind, under their weight, should be unable to pray as it ought; for when the passions of
our irrational part begin to act, they prevent the mind from acting rationally.
St. Nilus of Sinai
All that we can find everywhere is selfishness, ambition, gluttony, and luxury. Is not the greater
portion of men defiled by the vice of impurity, and is not Saint John right in saying, The whole world
if something so foul may be called is seated in wickedness? I am not the one who is telling you;
reason obliges you to believe that out of those who are living so badly, very few are saved.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice
As long as the vice of gluttony has a hold on a man, all that he has done valiantly is forfeited by
him: and as long as the belly is unrestrained, all virtue comes to naught.
Pope St. Gregory the Great
Love, self-restraint, contemplation and prayer accord with Gods will, while gluttony, licentiousness
and things that increase them pander to the flesh. That is why they that are in the flesh cannot
conform to Gods will (Rom. 8:8). But they that are Christs have crucified the flesh together with
the passions and desires. (Gal. 5:24)
I shall speak first about control of the stomach, the opposite to gluttony, and about how to fast and
what and how much to eat. I shall say nothing on my own account, but only what I have received
from the Holy Fathers. They have not given us only a single rule for fasting or a single standard and
measure for eating, because not everyone has the same strength; age, illness or delicacy of body
create differences. But they have given us all a single goal: to avoid over-eating and the filling of our
bellies. . . A clear rule for self-control handed down by the Fathers is this: stop eating while still
hungry and do not continue until you are satisfied.
St. John Cassian
. . A capital vice denotes one from which, considered as final cause, i.e. as having a most desirable
end, other vices originate: wherefore through desiring that end men are incited to sin in many
ways. . . the vice of gluttony, being about pleasures of touch which stand foremost among other
pleasures, is fittingly reckoned among the capital vices.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Overeating and gluttony cause licentiousness. Avarice and self-esteem cause one to hate ones
neighbor. Self-love, the mother of vices, is the cause of all these things.
The three most common forms of desire have their origin in the passion of self-love. These three
forms are gluttony, self-esteem and avarice. All other impassioned thoughts follow in their wake,
though they do not all follow each of them.
St. Thalassios the Libyan
On Gluttony/Drunkeness by St. John of Kronstadt

Be firmly assured that the evil is kindled in your heart by the enemy; he chiefly assaults the heart through
a full stomach. This is from experience.
Excerpts from the diary of St. John of Kronstadt Gluttony
and Drunkenness
Sin is foolish and destructive. For instance, a drunkard, from the excessive use of spirituous liquors,
becomes ill, and indulges in various dissipations and shameful acts, which he himself is ashamed to think
of and remember afterwards. And yet he continues to give himself up to drink. A glutton, after excessive
eating, feels a heaviness, his capabilities become obscured, his tongue is bound, and he himself sees that
he has become like an animal or bestial in nature, because he often breathes malice and spite against
those who live with him, or who daily ask alms of him. He is subjected to oppression and affliction; he is
deprived of peace and tranquillity; he becomes incapable of meditating upon heavenly things, or of being
a true Christian, of living for the highest purpose of existence. And yet he continues to be greedy after
dainties and eating.
...Having lost their strength and health in dissipation and drunkenness, they become prematurely aged,
decrepit, dull, fall ill and die.
If you wish to live long on the earth, do not hurry to live in a carnal manner, to satiate yourself, to get
drunk, to smoke, to commit fornication, to live in luxury, to indulge yourself. The carnal way of life
constitutes death, and therefore, in the Holy Scripture, our flesh is called mortal, or, " the old man, which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts."[1381] If you wish to live long, live through the spirit; for life
consists in the spirit: "If ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,"[1382] both
here on earth and there in heaven. Observe temperance and simplicity in food and drink; preserve
chastity; do not foolishly squander the balsam of your life; do not seek after riches, after luxury; strive to
be contented with little; keep peace with all, and do not envy anyone respect and love all; and, above all,
strive ever to bear Christ in your heart, and you shall live in peace and felicity for many years.
And how a man lowers himself by gluttony and drunkenness! He perverts his nature, created after the
image of God, and becomes like unto the beast, and even worse. O, woe unto us for our attachments, for
our iniquitous habits! They hinder us from loving God and our neighbours, and from fulfilling God's
commandments; they implant in us criminal carnal self-love, the end of which is everlasting destruction.
Thus the drunkard does not grudge money for the sake of gratifying his flesh and stupefying himself,
while he grudges giving a few pence to the poor...
When your heart is struck by avarice, say to yourself: "My life is Christ, the Beloved of all. He is my
inexhaustible wealth, my inexhaustible food, my inexhaustible drink. Our blind flesh dreams of finding
life in food and in money, and bears ill-will against those who deprive it of these material means of life.
But be firmly persuaded that your life is not money and food, but mutual love for the sake of love for God.
Remember that God is Love, uniting all things animated by the laws of love, and bringing forth life from
the union of love.
Take care; do not forget, Christian; never lose hearty faith in Him Who is your invisible Life, your Peace,
your Light, your Strength, your Breath; that is, in Jesus Christ. Do not believe your heart when it becomes
gross, darkened, unbelieving, and cold from plenteousness of food and drink, from worldly distractions,
or finally when you live by the intellect, and not by the heart; that is, when you exercise the intellect and
neglect the heart, or, when you enlarge and adorn the net, leaving the fisherman himself in poverty and
need; for the heart, comparatively speaking, is the hunter or fisherman whilst the intellect is the
fisherman's net.
Do not rejoice when your countenance is bright from pleasant food and drink, because then the inward
face of your soul is hideous and deadly, and at that time the words of the Saviour Christ are applicable to
you: "For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which, indeed, appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones"[520] that is, of hypocrisy and iniquity.
You must pay most strict and active attention to this your daily action of eating and drinking, for from
food and drink, from their quality and quantity, your spiritual, social, and family activity very greatly
depends: " Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and
drunkenness."[715] Tea and coffee also pertain to drunkenness if indulged in unseasonably and to excess.
O, woe unto us who are full now, and frequently look neglectfully upon God's gifts.
The incorporeal enemy enters the heart of man through satiety and drunkenness this can be felt by
anyone who is observant. This is the reason why, with the growth of drunkenness, the inclination to
drunkenness increases so terribly (because the power of the enemy over the man increases) this is why
you notice in drunkards a power involuntarily drawing them to satisfy their passion or their inward
craving for wine. The enemy is in the hearts of these unhappy people. How can the demon of drunkenness
be driven out? By prayer and fasting. The enemy enters the hearts of men because they have given
themselves up to a carnal mode of life to gluttony, and because they do not pray. It is, therefore, natural
that he can be driven out from them by opposite means that is, by prayer and fasting.
The Word of God says, "Be not drunk with wine"; [1350] whilst you builders of public-houses say, "Get
drunk with wine," and have built thousands of public-houses to tempt your brethren. And yet you go to
church and pray in your homes.
Those who go to attend the Divine service after having eaten much, voluntarily lay upon themselves an
unnecessary and injurious burden, and deaden their hearts beforehand to prayer, obstructing the access
of holy thoughts and feelings to it. We must be most careful not to eat before Divine service. We must
remember that "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink,"[1214] that is, that God cannot reign in the
heart that is overburdened with surfeiting and drunkenness.
If you see a drunken man, say in your heart: "Lord, look mercifully upon Thy servant, allured by the
flattery of the belly and by carnal merriment; make him understand the sweetness of temperance and
fasting, and of the fruit of the spirit arising therefrom." When you see a man passionately fond of eating,
and finding all his happiness in this, say: "Lord, Thou art our sweetest Food, that never perishes, but leads
us unto life eternal! Purify Thy servant from the filthiness of gluttony, so carnal and so far from Thy Spirit,
and grant that he may know the sweetness of Thy Life-giving, spiritual food, which is Thy Flesh and
Blood, and Thy holy, living, and acting word. "In this or in a similar manner pray for all who sin, and do
not dare to despise anyone for his sin, nor be vindictive, as through this you would only aggravate the
wounds of those who sin; but rather correct them by means of such advice, threats, and punishments as
may tend to stop or restrain the evil within the limits of moderation.
Do not believe, brethren, in the enemy's enticements, not for one single moment, when the matter
concerns food and drink, however plausible they may apparently be.
By feeding largely, one becomes a carnal man, having no spirit, or soulless flesh; while by fasting, one
attracts the Holy Spirit and becomes spiritual. When cotton is not wetted with water it is light, and if in a
small quantity flies up in the air; but if it is wetted, it becomes heavy and at once falls to the ground. It is
the same with the soul. O, how important it is to preserve it by fasting!
Unfortunate is he who is passionately fond of eating and drinking, cares for surfeiting and enjoyments: he
will indeed find, when he begins to labour for the Lord, that food and drink, if we set our heart upon them,
are a heavy burden for the body, affliction and destruction for the spirit, and that man can be really
satisfied with very, very little and simple food.
One cannot eat and drink and smoke continually. One cannot turn human life into constant eating,
drinking, and smoking (although there are men who do eat, drink, and smoke almost uninterruptedly);
and thus the spirit of evil has turned life into smoking, and made the mouth, which ought to be employed
in thanking and praising the Lord, into a smoking furnace. The less and lighter the food and drink you
take, the lighter and more refined your spirit will become.
When during prayer the enemy suggests within you a craving for food, despise this material, nervous
irritation, strengthen your heart more powerfully by prayer, inflame it by faith and love, and say to the
tempter the following words of the Lord: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God."[328] Prayer is my best food, fortifying and enlightening both the
soul and the body.
Do not let the enemy shame you for laying your hopes upon such earthly dust as money and food, more
than upon God, but shame him himself by your firm trust in God and in His Holy Word. For "man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."[463] Mark; "by every
word." For every word of the Lord Creator can support your life, just as every word can create and
transform thousands of creatures. "For He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast."[464]
We amuse ourselves with food and drink, gratifying ourselves by them, instead of only using them for the
necessary nourishment of our body and the support of our bodily life.
What infinite nothingness our food and drink represent on the one side, and what infinite grandeur the
man himself who is fed by them represents on the other side! Is it not the greatest insanity for man, for his
image of God, for this partaker of the divine nature, for whom God may be all "God may be all in
all"[446] to grudge food, drink, clothing, dwelling, and anything else earthly! Let the dust be dust but
let the immortal image of the immortal God be always exalted and preferred before everything earthly,
corruptible and transitory! Therefore, do not let us be sparing of anything for our neighbour! O, what a
great honour it is to feed, to clothe, to give rest to the image of God! Most-gracious and Most-bountiful
God! fill our hearts with mercy and bountifulness!
The corrupted man continually wishes to eat and drink, to continually satisfy his sight, hearing, smell, and
feeling; carnal men satisfy themselves with dainty food and drink, fine sights, music, smoking,
magnificent edifices, and outward splendour.
O, how fearful it is to use food and drink for amusement, to eat and drink in excess! A full stomach makes
a man lose faith and the fear of God, and makes him unfeeling in prayer, thanksgiving, and praise to God.
A satiated heart turns away from the Lord, and becomes as hard and unfeeling as a stone. This is why the
Saviour carefully warns us against surfeiting and drunkenness: "And so that day come upon you
unawares,"[873] because of the wrath of the Lord upon us for heedlessly and idly spending the time in
eating and drinking.
Food and drink must only be used for strengthening our powers, and not as dainties, and we must not eat
when nature does not require it. Many of us (and I myself the first), if we do not repent and correct
ourselves, will be condemned for having eaten and drunk unseasonably, and thus for having lived, having
understanding, like the brutes that have no understanding, and for having darkened our foolish hearts.
You have amused yourselves with food and drink, and have often eaten and drunk when there was no
need for you to eat and drink: "Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger."[713] "Ye have lived in
pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter."[714]
The Devil takes captive and conquers man in this world by excessively exciting his natural spiritual and
bodily needs, such as: the need of food and drink (and as everything has to be bought with money,
therefore of money, too), the need of clothing, the need of pleasures, the need of honours or fame, and of a
good name. All these and other similar requirements of man, which God has put into the very nature of
man, are continually perverted by the Devil, who carries them to extremes, sometimes quite needlessly
(for instance, with eating and drinking), and thus ruins both soul and body, and diverts the soul from God
through its attachment to material things, and through its falling into sensuality and into the passions of
malice, pride, envy, despondency, slothfulness, gluttony, fornication, drunkenness, covetousness,
ambition, and so forth. And therefore fasting, chastity, disinterestedness, kindness, meekness, humility,
faith, hope and love, prayer and meditation, are necessary.
Health and the belly, these are the two idols especially with men of the present age, of whom I myself, a
great sinner, am one for which we live, and which we continually serve, even to the neglect of the duties
of our Christian calling for instance, to the neglect of the reading of the Word of God, which is sweeter
than honey and honey-comb; to the neglect of prayer, that sweetest converse with God, and of the
preaching of the Word of God. To walk a great deal for health, and to incite the appetite, to eat with
appetite such are the objects of the desires and aspirations of many of us. But through our frequent
walks, through our fondness for food and drink, we shall find that one thing has been neglected, and
another irrevocably missed, whilst others have not even entered into our minds; for can the time after a
good dinner or supper be really a good time for any serious work! Even if we would like to occupy
ourselves with work, the belly, full of food and drink, draws us away from it, and constrains us to rest, so
that we begin to slumber over our work. What sort of work can it be? Indeed, there is nothing left, if it is
after dinner, but to lie down and rest, and if it is after supper, after having prayed somehow or other (for a
satiated man cannot even pray as he should), to go to bed and sleep the miserable consequence of an
overloaded stomach until the next morning. And in the morning there is another sacrifice to your belly
ready in the shape of a dainty breakfast. You get up, pray, of course not with your whole heart since
with our whole heart we can only eat and drink, walk, read novels, go to theatres, dance at evening parties,
dress elegantly and thus you pray, out of habit, carelessly, to save appearances, only as a form, without
the essence of the prayer, without lively faith, without power, without any fervour in your petitions,
praises, and thanks to the Lord God for His uncountable mercies, and then you hurry again to food and
drink. At last, when you have eaten and drunk so much that now, scarcely able to move, you are ready to
begin work, if it really is work, and not rather inactivity such, for instance, as trading with some worldly
vanities, accompanied by an abundance of swearing, lying, and cheating. In such or a similar way, with
many and many of us, our present life passes away, and our days consume in vanity, [1361] whilst we care
little for that which is the most important matter on earth the salvation of our soul. Thus our life is
spent mainly in the worship of two brittle idols health and the belly and then dress; so much so that
many, by worshipping fashion, sacrifice even their health and food, thus going to the other extreme...
Christian! it is not for your health, belly, dress, and money that you must care; you must strive after love
for God and your neighbour, for these are God's two greatest commandments. "He that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God and God in him."[1362]
Do not fear bodily privations, but fear spiritual privations. Do not fear, do not be faint-hearted, do not be
irritated when you are deprived of money, food, drink, enjoyments, clothes, dwelling, even of your body
itself; but fear when the enemy deprives your soul of faith, of trust, and love for God and your neighbour;
when he sows hatred, enmity, attachment to earthly things, pride, and other sins in your heart. "Fear not
them [men] which, will kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." [470]
O, how low has our nature fallen through our passion for eating! O, thrice accursed Satan, who has
precipitated us, and still precipitates us, through food, into thousands of evils! O, food and drink, that so
powerfully tempt us! How long shall we be allured by you and place our life in you? When shall we
engrave deeply upon our hearts the Saviour's words: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,"[474] and bring these words into our life and actions? How long
will our greediness, self-indulgence, surfeiting, and drunkenness continue? How long will our abominable
avarice and love of money continue? How long will our pride, animosity and malice against our
neighbour, through money, dress, houses, food, and drink last? Thousands of Satan's deceits, by means of
food, dress, and money, disclose themselves to our spiritual vision, and yet we still continue to be allured
by his enticements as though by something real, useful to us, whilst in fact we are caring for neither more
nor less than destructive illusions, and for that which is most pernicious both spiritually and bodily to our
own selves. Do not believe, brethren, in the enemy's enticements, not for one single moment, when the
matter concerns food and drink, however plausible they may apparently be. "Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."[475] "I spake not to you
concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which is
hypocrisy,"[476] in matters of faith and piety. Pay the utmost attention to faith and piety. "Labour not for
the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man
shall give unto you."[477] Give away even the last that you have, if there is need of it, remembering the
words of the Saviour: "If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak
also"[478] that is, give away the last that you have.
When hungry, do not throw yourself upon food else you will overload your heart and body. Eat slowly,
without avidity, with reflection to the glory of God, remembering the God Who feeds us, and above all His
incorruptible food, His Body and Blood, that out of love He has given Himself to us in food and drink,
remembering also the holy word of the Gospel.
The heart is refined, spiritual, and heavenly by nature guard it; do not overburden it, do not make it
earthly, be temperate to the utmost in food and drink, and in general in bodily pleasures. The heart is
the temple of God. "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy."[690]
Do not hasten to eat and drink, but rather hasten to perform God's service; and when performing God's
service, do not think of food and drink. Think well before Whom you stand, with Whom you are
conversing, to Whom you are singing praises; be wholly in God, belong wholly to Him alone, pray with all
your heart, sing with all your heart, serve for your neighbour as you would serve for yourself, gladly,
heartily, not with a divided heart and thoughts. Lord! help us; for without Thee we can do nothing. [710]
Footnotes
[328] St. Matthew iv. 4.
[446] 1 Corinthians xv. 28.
[464] Psalm xxxii 9.
[470] St. Matthew x. 28.
[475] St. Matthew vi. 33.
[476] St. Matthew xvi. 11; St. Luke xii. 1.

[477] St. John vi. 27.
[478] St. Matthew v. 40.
[520] St. Matthew xxiii. 27, 28.
[690] 1 Corinthians iii. 17.
[710] St. John xv. 5.
[713] St. Luke vi. 25.
[714] James v. 5.
[715] St. Luke xxi. 34.
[873] St. Luke xxi. 34.
[1214] Romans xiv. 17.
[1350] Ephesians v. 18.
[1361] Psalm lxxviii. 33.
[1362] 1 John iv. 16.
[1381] Ephesians iv. 22.
[1382] Romans viii. 13.
Excerpts compiled from: My Life in Christ or Moments of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of Earnest
Self-Amendment, and of Peace in God, St. John of Kronstadt.

Gluttony's Six Daughters

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John Vianney

Did you know that

Time to go eat my salad for lunch

anger is inevitably aroused against those who obstruct his acquisition of

St. Neilos the Ascetic, Ascetic Discourse, The Philokalia, Vol. 1:

Fr. John H. Stapleton

For other uses, see Gluttony (disambiguation).

A woodcut representing Gluttony

St. Gregory the Great[edit]

1. Eating before the time of meals in order to satisfy the palate.

4. Exceeding the necessary quantity of food.

St. Thomas Aquinas[edit]

Laute - eating food that is too luxurious, exotic, or costly

St. Alphonsus Liguori[edit]

St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote the following when explaining gluttony:

Hunger (1974 film)

St. John Damascene: These eight passions should be destroyed

These eight passions should be destroyed as follows: gluttony by self-control;

(From Lat. gluttire, to swallow, to gulp down), the excessive indulgence in

appropriate to their sin. They

The True Problem

Read more at https://www.themonastery.org/blog/2014/02/gluttony/#xQWjJbePl9jCXdPD.99

100 Bible Verses about Gluttony

Proverbs 23:2 ESV / 441 helpful votes

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ESV / 383 helpful votes

Proverbs 25:16 ESV / 374 helpful votes

Proverbs 23:21 ESV / 341 helpful votes

Psalm 78:18 ESV / 272 helpful votes

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 247 helpful votes

Philippians 3:18-19 ESV / 243 helpful votes

Deuteronomy 21:20 ESV / 202 helpful votes

Romans 13:14 ESV / 197 helpful votes

Proverbs 23:20 ESV / 181 helpful votes

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 163 helpful votes

1 Corinthians 6:12 ESV / 146 helpful votes

Matthew 11:19 ESV / 125 helpful votes

Romans 12:1 ESV / 124 helpful votes

Matthew 6:25-34 ESV / 102 helpful votes

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 95 helpful votes

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV / 93 helpful votes

Galatians 5:24 ESV / 73 helpful votes

Ecclesiastes 10:17 ESV / 71 helpful votes

Matthew 4:4 ESV / 70 helpful votes

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV / 69 helpful votes

Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV / 69 helpful votes

Galatians 6:7-8 ESV / 66 helpful votes

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 65 helpful votes

Titus 1:12 ESV / 59 helpful votes

Luke 7:34 ESV / 56 helpful votes

John 4:34 ESV / 55 helpful votes

Proverbs 28:7 ESV / 55 helpful votes

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 53 helpful votes

Hebrews 12:16 ESV / 52 helpful votes

1 John 2:16 ESV / 46 helpful votes

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 43 helpful votes

1 Corinthians 15:32 ESV / 42 helpful votes

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Deuteronomy 21:20-21 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Isaiah 22:13 ESV / 39 helpful votes

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Romans 12:2 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Romans 13:11-14 ESV / 36 helpful votes

Luke 12:45 ESV / 34 helpful votes