How to Seek Discernment

So we ought to strive with all our might for the virtue of discernment through the power of humility, since it will keep us unharmed by either extreme. For there is an old saying, “extremes meet.” Excessive fasting and gluttony come to the same thing, and an unlimited continuation of vigils is just as harmful to a monk as the stupor of a deep sleep. For when a man is weakened by excessive abstinence, he is sure to fall back into the same condition as a man held down by carelessness and negligence. So we have often seen those who could not be deceived by gluttony destroyed by excessive fasting, and through weakness laid open to the very passion they had overcome before. Unreasonable vigils and night watches have also been the ruin of some whom sleep could not get the better of. That is why, as the apostle says, “with the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,” we pass on with due moderation and walk between the two extremes under the guidance of discernment. So we will neither consent to be led away from the path of self-control marked out for us, nor fall through undue carelessness into the pleasures of the palate and the belly. [a]