Rules for Eating

1. 1.Going without delicacies

   We should hold back most from delicate foods, because appetite is more easily disordered by them and the temptation is greater.

2. 2.Mastering the appetite

   If a disordered appetite pushes me to eat more, I should eat less; if it pushes me toward delicacies, I should eat ordinary food.

3. 3.How to eat

   Consider how Christ our Lord ate with his apostles, how he drank, looked and spoke, and try to imitate him, so that the greater part of the mind is taken up with God and the lesser with bodily food.

4. 4.Amount and timing

   Decide calmly, when not hungry, how much food is right, and at the meal do not go beyond it for any craving or temptation; rather, to master the appetite, take a little less than decided.

Adapted from the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola (1548).