"…we shall not fail to observe the fasts, disciplines and periods of silence which the Order commands;

for, as you know, if prayer is to be genuine it must be reinforced with these things;

prayer cannot be accompanied by self-indulgence.

This body of ours has one fault: the more you indulge it, the more things it discovers to be essential to it."

St Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection 

Help me O Lord to gain the mastery over my body and to conquer it completely; so that I may attain that magnificent liberty of spirit which allows the soul to devote itself undisturbed to the exercise of a deep interior life.    - Divine Intimacy