Let us impose restraint on all the senses, as all of them can lead to
sin. If, for example, you fast from food, but allow your sight to bring
adultery, curiosity, and envy into the depths of your soul, let your
hearing accept curses, immoral songs, and slander, and keep your
other senses free to receive harmful influences, then what is the
benefit of fasting? Of course, none. Because the evil you avoid
through one sense, you give entry to the soul through another. Since
humans are composed of both soul and body, and not only the body
but also the soul is multifaceted (because it has, in a way, the
nutritive, the appetitive, the irascible, and the rational as its parts),
true fasting is that which passes through all the senses and purifies
and heals the whole person, both body and soul.
Saint Gregory Palamas
Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou
