What is in common between a hamburger speed-eating contestant who stuffs fifty buns with a cutlet into himself in ten minutes, and a "phytonyash" who drinks vitamin mixtures strictly on schedule? Between a smoker out of boredom and a gamer who spends 6-8 hours a day behind a monitor? All these people are united by the sin of gluttony, no matter how strange it may sound.
What is gluttony?
How to resist this destructive passion? First you need to understand what gluttony is. This sin includes not only gluttony to the point of unconsciousness, but also any pleasing of the flesh. For example, computer games without restrictions, instead of work that is useful for society and the person himself, lying down for a long time on weekends or doing nothing on vacation. Trying too hard to improve your body by exercising.
There is nothing wrong with sports, but when a girl or a young guysculpt their body in the hall for 6-8 hours a day, they are blind to the state of their soul. They notice only the degree of pumping up of one or another muscle group, while they do not have time to go to the temple for Sunday service.
The Optina elders, who left a huge spiritual legacy to the living, said that there is sin where there is too much. For example, nutrition to maintain vitality in the required amount does not carry harm. Gluttony is already a sin. Physical activity for muscle tone is necessary, but "sculpting" the figure is the same addiction. An addiction one cannot live without.
The same definition applies to smoking, and to drinking, and to the endless running around beauty salons and plastic surgeons. The sin of gluttony affects almost all people on Earth. The only exceptions are monastics, and even then not all.
What does gluttony lead to?
The problem of obesity is known to everyone these days. Diseases of the heart, digestive organs, shortness of breath - faithful companions of the addiction to overeat. Doctors recommend following a diet, sticking to a certain food culture: having dinner a couple of hours before going to bed, avoiding an abundance of hot spices and sauces, and not eating monotonous dishes.
Even schoolchildren know about any addiction, the dangers of drunkenness, the use of intoxicants, smoking and obsession with the beauty of their own body, but a person is fully aware of the problem that torments him - in old age. It is in old age that people understand what "mortal sin" is and that it leads directly to the edge of the abyss.
How to get rid of bad habits?
From the point of view of Orthodox culture, you can save yourself from sin if you constantly remember about the soul and not give free rein to passions. The ancient desert dwellers passed on to us the experience of accustoming themselves to a certain amount of food, this is how they raised their students.
On the first day, the elder gave the novice free will to eat as much as he wanted. At the same time, the student was given some task, feasible physical labor. In the second - the portion eaten the day before, the hermit divided in half. The work and the prayer circle remained the same. On the third day, the student ate half of the measure of the second day. If a person felt unwell, hungry, could not withstand the measure, the elder made indulgence and for some time the novice stopped at the portion that was acceptable to him.
Then again I tried to accustom the student's body to smaller portions of food, but without compromising he alth. Such requirements were due to the fact that there is traditionally little food in the cells of hermits, and the elder sought to instill in the novice the ability to get by with a small fraction. This experience is quite applicable to our lives, you only need self-control and a strong desire. Prayers for gluttony and gluttony, Orthodox rules from the monastery charter, will help to withstand the test of food. Starting the fight, you must remember that excessive asceticism can be harmful to he alth.
Prayer for gluttony and gluttony: who to ask for help?
Starting the fight against any sin, you need to ask God's help. First Prayer - to JesusChrist:
I pray Thee, Lord, deliver me from satiety, voluptuousness and grant me in the peace of my soul with reverence to accept Your generous gifts, so that by eating them, I will receive strengthening of my spiritual and bodily strength to serve You, Lord, in a little remnant of my life on earth.
Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov tells how to properly evaluate works:
Often, priests are asked what prayers for gluttony and gluttony are the most working. As is clear from the video, first of all, you need to evaluate the result that has been achieved. You can read the entire prayer book, but achieve nothing. And to another person it is enough sincerely, with feeling to ask - and his desire begins to come true.
God does not judge the number of words a person says. He sees the heart and soul, the readiness to follow the intended path, to endure difficulties with dignity. If a person sincerely desires and asks for help, God will surely give strength. The Orthodox Church remembers several saints who have the power to help in this trouble:
- Reverend Irinarch.
- Alexy, God's Man.
- St. Ignatius Brianchaninov.
Without faith, reading prayers from gluttony and gluttony will not bring results.
Rev. Irinarch
The saint is known for his deeds. For 38 years the ascetic spent shackled in chains, wearing chains, avoiding temptations in every possible way. It was this elder who inspired and blessed Prince Dmitry Pozharsky to go to battle with the Lithuanians in Moscow. The saint is asked to be strengthened in the fight against passions.
Prayer from gluttony and gluttony to the Reverend Irinarkh, Rostov recluse:
Oh, great servant of God and glorious miracle worker, our reverend Father Irinarsha! Look down on us, sinners, in our sorrows and circumstances, zealously crying out to you and placing all our hope on you, according to God. We ask you with tenderness by many: by your intercession to the Lord God, ask us for peace, long life, brotherly love, fruitful land, good air, good rains and blessings from above on all our good undertakings. Deliver us all with your holy prayers from all troubles: gladness, hail, flood, fire, sword, harmful worm, noxious winds, deadly ulcers and vain death, and in all our sorrows be our comforter and helper from other sinful deigning the heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven to be, let us glorify together with you all the good Giver, the Triune God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
Alexy, God's Man
A righteous man was born in Rome from pious we althy people. When they decided to marry Alexy, he did not resist and went to the altar, but on the very first night he fled from his newly-made wife to Edessa. There, dressed in poor shabby clothes, he begged for alms at the church of the Most Holy Theotokos. Relatives who were looking for the young man did not recognize their son and husband in the beggar. The saint ate only bread and water, and prayed at night.
Prayer from gluttony and gluttony to Reverend Alexy:
Oh, great saint of Christ, holy man of God Alexis, stand with your soul in Heaven before the Throne of the Lord, on the earth given to you from above by grace perform various miracles! Look graciously on the upcoming holy icon of your people, tenderly praying and asking you for help and intercession. Crap prayerly to the god of honesty of Thy little one and ask us from him the remaining of the sin of the people who are nasty and non -hazard, in the aim of the suffering, attacked by the intercourse, which will be pursued by the pursuance of the same and the abundance of the same abundant and the belonging of the Minor and the honor of the painful and the most honors and the painful things and the pains and the pains and the pains and the painful and the painful and the pains and the people who are painful and Christ. Hey, Holy Hierarch, do not disgrace our hope, we put it on you according to God and the Mother of God, but be our helper and patron for salvation, but by your prayers, having received grace and mercy from the Lord, let us glorify the love of mankind of the Father and Sygona the Duma, and the Holy and the worshiped God, and your holy intercession now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen.
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov
Zealot of truth, sensitive to injustice and not subject to pernicious influences, the Bishop of Stavropol and the Caucasus lived in the nineteenth century. From childhood, Ignatius was distinguished from his peers by his "internal compass". Having lived for a quarter of a century, he became a monk and, thanks to the prudence and obvious chosenness of God, quickly rose to the rank of bishop. Creations of the saint - desktop bookmany monks and laity, include prayer for gluttony and gluttony. Orthodoxy reveres Ignatius Bryanchaninov as a lamp of faith, a wonderful teacher for the fragile minds of modern seminarians. The saint always helps those who turn to him with faith and hope.
Prayer from gluttony and gluttony to Ignatius Brianchaninov:
Oh, great and marvelous saint of Christ, St. Father Ignatius! Graciously accept our prayers, brought to you with love and thanksgiving! Hear us orphans and helpless ones, falling to you with faith and love and your warm intercession for us before the Throne of the Lord of Glory asking. Vemy, how much can the prayer of the righteous, propitiating the Lord. From the years of infancy, you have passionately loved the Lord and serve Him alone, having desired, all the red of this world has imputed you to nothing. You denied yourself and take up your cross, you followed Christ. You chose the narrow and sorrowful path of a monastic life by will, and on this path you acquired great virtues. You are writing the heart of men of deep reverence and submission before the omnipotent creative, you performed, the sinners who have fallen with your worse verbia in their consciousness and their sinfulness, in repentance and to be a mention of their own. You rejected no one who came to you, but you were a loving father to all and a good shepherd. And now don't leave usearnestly praying to you and your help and intercession asking. I ask us from a man -loving state of he alth, the heartbreaking and telephone, approving to the faith, strengthen the sibs, exhausting in the temptations and mournfulness of this, and the firing of prayer, helping, helping us, who repented, reproaching us, repented, repented, repenting the repentance of the repentance of the repentance of enter with all the elect and there together with you bow down to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
Remember, only sincere prayer will help to cope with addiction.
