So Slow the Fast

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"If the appetite alone hath sinned, let it alone fast, and
it sufficeth. But if the other members also have sinned, why
should they not fast, too?

... Let the eye fast from strange
sights and from every wantonness, so that that which roamed in
freedom in fault-doing may, abundantly humbled, be checked by
penitence.

Let the ear, blameably eager to listen, fast from tales and rumours, and from whatsoever is of idle import, and tendeth least to salvation.

Let the tongue fast from slanders and murmurings, and from useless, vain, and scurrilous words,
and sometimes also, in the seriousness of silence, even from
things which may seem of essential import.

Let the hand abstain from ... all toils which are not imperatively necessary.

But also let the soul herself abstain from all evils and from
acting out her own will.

For without such abstinence the other
things find no favour with the Lord".

St. Bernard of Clairvaux
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