Cassian Continued . . .

My reading progresses. Here is a peak at Cassian's Institutes.

The second half of this book contains advice on how to overcome eight major sins. I've just finished the chapter on sadness. He are top quotes from the first few chapters:

Gluttony:
"The stomach that has been fed with all kinds of food begets the seeds of lasciviousness, and the mind that is suffocated and weighed down by food cannot be guided by the governance of discretion. It is not an excess of wine alone that ordinarily inebriates the mind. Too much food of any kind makes it stagger and sway and robs it of every possibility of integrity and purity."

Fornication:
"Some strong words of Saint Basil, the bishop of Caesarea, are apropos. He said: "I do not know woman, but I am not a virgin." Well indeed did he understand that the incorrupation of the flesh consists not so much in abstainng from woman as it does in integrity of heart. . . "

Avarice:
"The [madness of greed] is stopped not with wealth, but poverty."

Anger:
"The sum total of our improvement and tranquillity . . . must not be made to depend on someone else's willing, which will never be subject to our sway; it comes, rather, under our own power. And so our not getting angry must derive not from someone else's perfection but from our own virtue."

Sadness: (easily the weakest so far . . . I suspect monks in the 4th and 5th century weren't very good at grieving)
"Sadness is to be judged beneficial for us in one instance alone--when we conceive it out of repentance for our sins and are inflamed by a desire for perfection, and by the contemplation of future blessedness. Of this the blessed Apostle [Paul] himself says: "The sadness that is in accordance with God works repentance unto lasting salvation, but the world's sadness works death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)

There's a brief look at the work of Cassian. More will follow.