Alphonsus Ligouri: Temperance

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And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness. 2 Peter 1:5-6

“He that gratifies the taste will readily indulge the other senses; for, having lost the spirit of recollection, he will easily commit faults, by indecent words and by unbecoming gestures. But the greatest evil of intemperance, is that it exposes chastity to great danger… The intemperate cannot expect to be free from temptations against purity. To preserve chastity, the saints practiced the most rigorous mortifications of appetite.”

Alphonsus Ligouri (1696-1787) in The True Spouse of Jesus Christ (Dublin: John Coyne, 1835) 272.

Ligouri helps us see how fasting protects us. In plain terms, it teaches us to say “No!” to ungodliness and worldly passions (Titus 2:11-13). Think of the temptation of Eve in the garden to taste the fruit of the tree that was forbidden: it was good for food and pleasing to the eye” (Genesis 3:6).

Part of the reason that almsgiving and prayer are combined with fasting throughout church history, is that we learn to say “No!” to taste and intemperance so we can say “Yes!” to the things of God. It’s also part of the reason Jesus wants us to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth.

When we focus on preserving comfort rather than following Christ, we can’t help but use God’s money to serve the flesh and we become a slave to our own appetites. Don’t let it happen to you. Fast in order to teach yourself to say “No!” so that you can say “Yes!” the the things of God.