Practical devotion of the day: the pleasures of the gluttony

The intemperance. When one thinks of an Adam who, for a apple, got lost in fatal disobedience, to an Esau who, for a few lentils, sold his birthright, who does not feel compassion for them? Yet it is an ancient proverb that the throat kills more than the sword. Most diseases originate from the intemperance of the throat. And we, if we do not have to complain about serious faults in this, how many reads we will have to give an account to the Lord!

Uselessness of the pleasure of the throat. What is a bite of food? How quickly it devours! God complained for the Prophet, how was it possible that his people, for a bite of bread, offended him ... for such a small thing that, gulped down, they hardly remember the taste! Necessity degenerates into a vile outpouring of passion! Now think about how many delicacies and how many voracities you have given in to eat. Perhaps the very laws of the Church were violated for a meager morsel! Think if you have no reason to scold yourself.

Mortification of the throat. The wise eat to live: the foolish lives to eat. Vincent de 'Paoli used to say: The mortification of the throat is the abbiccì of perfection; whoever wants to satisfy the taste will never reach perfection. The Saints ate out of necessity, and often with repugnance; abstinence was continuous for them: so Luigi Gonzaga, Valfrè, Gherardo Maiella… You, at least, never engulf yourself in eating, observe the prescribed fasts and abstinences, sometimes deprived of some gluttony.

PRACTICE. - Does some abstinence in food.