Stations And Fasting

Intellexisse vos credo, fratres, cur haec nostra jejunia illis mansionibus comparaverim, in quibus populus Israel tanquam in procinctu quodam positus, Pharaonem regem quotidiano labore superavit, et ab inimicis suis quasi quibusdam castris mansionum sese statione defenderit; ita ut quicumque ex illo comitantium numero diurnae stationis spatia non confecit, aut Pharao illum occupaverit, aut solitduo pervaserit. Sic ergo et nos propositum nobis quadraginta dierum iter debemus omni labore conficere, et quibusdam quasi castris nos jejuniorum devotione munire. Castra enim nobis sunt nostra jejunia, quae nos a diabolica oppugnatione defendunt. Denique stationes vocantur, quod stantes et commorantes in eis inimicos insidiantes repellamus. Castra plane sunt jejunia Christianis, a quibus si quis aberraverit, a spirituali Pharaone invaditur, aut peccatorum solitudine devoratur. Peccatorum autem solitudinem patitur, qui deseritur societate sanctorum. Murus igitur quidam est Christiano jejunium, inexpugnabilis diabolo, intransgressibilis inimico. Quis enim unquam Christianorum jejunavit, et captus est? Quis sobrius mansit et victus? Temulentum aggreditur diabolus, luxuriosum oppugnat inimicus. Ubi autem jejunium viderit, inedia, infirmitate prosternitur: prosternitur, inquam, infirmitate, quia Christiana infirmitas fortitudo est. Unde ait Apostolus: Cum infirmor, tunc fortior sum. Sed requirit aliquis, quemadmodum sit fortis infirmitas? Tunc est fortis infirmitas, quando caro tabescit jejuniis; anima puritate pinguescit. Quantum enim illi ciborum succus subtrahiter; tantum huic justitiae virtus augetur. Tunc igitur homo imbecillis quidem est ad saecularia, sed fortis est ad divina opera. Tunc enim magis de Deo cogitat, tunc judicium metuit, tunc voncit inimicum. Sanctus Maximus Taurinensis, Homilia XL Source: Migne PL 57.313b-314b

I believe you have understood, brothers, why I have compared our fast to the stations which the people of Israel established to be ready for battle, 1 they who the Pharaoh strove to overcome every day, and stopping at the stationary camps they made defence against their enemy, and whoever of their number did not take a place in that daily camping, either the Pharoah seized him, or he was devoured by the desert. So, then, even we should make the vow of our way of the forty days with every labour, and wall the camps of our fasting with devotion. For to us the fast is our camp, which defends us from the assaults of the devil. And they are called a station, because standing and watching in them we repel the plots of the enemy. So the camps are the fasting of Christians, from which if we wander, we are seized by the spiritual Pharaoh, or the wasteland of sin devours us. He suffers the wasteland of sin, who forsakes the society of the holy. The fast, then, is a wall for the Christian, insurmountable by the devil, impassable to the enemy. For who of the Christians who has fasted, has been seized? Who remains sober and is conquered? Drunkeness summons the devil, the enemy attacks amid luxury. But when he sees fasting, the absence of eating, he is prostrated by weakness. He is prostrated, I say, by weakness, because Christian weakness is strength. So the Apostle says, 'When I am weak, then I am strong.' 2 But someone may ask: how is strength weakness? Weakness is strong when the flesh withers in fasting and the soul strengthens in purity. As much as the taste of bread is withdrawn, so much does the virtue of righteousness grow. Thus a man is made weak by worldly things, but strong by Divine works. Then indeed the more he thinks of God, then the more he fears judgement, and then the more he tramples down the enemy. Saint Maximus of Turin, from Homily 40 1 Numbers 33 2 1 Cor 12.10