And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. - Genesis 1:29
The greatest of
virtues is prayer; the foundation of prayer is fasting. – St Ignatius
Brianchaninov, Collected Works Vol I: "On Fasting"
An
integral part of monastic life, as in any Christian life, is fasting. As monastics, who seek to live the paradisical life, our diet mostly consists of vegetable food, which has always been the
best kind of food for both body and soul. Every year we cultivate a little
garden, which, in spite of the short growing season here in the mountains,
usually provides us with at least a modest amount of our own home-grown
vegetables.