On Excessive Fasts and Vigils

For I remember that I had so often resisted the desire for food that, after going without any for two or three days, my mind was not troubled even by the memory of anything to eat. And by the attacks of the devil, sleep was driven so far from my eyes that for several days and nights I used to pray the Lord to grant a little sleep to my eyes. Then I felt that I was in greater danger from the lack of food and sleep than from struggling against sloth and gluttony. So, just as we ought to be careful not to fall into a dangerous softness through desire for bodily comfort, and not to indulge ourselves by eating before the proper time or by taking too much, so also we ought to refresh ourselves with food and sleep at the proper time, even if we dislike it. For the struggle in each case is caused by the schemes of the enemy, and excessive abstinence does us even more harm than careless overindulgence. From overindulgence the intervention of a healthy, heartfelt sorrow will raise us to the right measure of strictness, but from excessive abstinence it will not.