dried lentils
salt and pepper
carrot, onion, celery

A wise elder gives the following advice to monks and youth alike: “Avoid eating foods which are to your liking, but, preferably, eat the simplest foods, and be thankful to God, Who also sends you these.” -- Sayings of the Desert Fathers

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Fill a pot with water. Then put in the carrot, onion, and celery. Boil, covered, for about two hours. This will leave you with a nice vegetable broth. Remove the onion, carrot, and celery from the water and set it aside. Put the lentils into the water and boil them until cooked. Once the lentils are cooked, drain them. Chop up the boiled carrot, onion, and celery used in the making of the broth and mix it in with the lentils. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove one cup of the lentils and blend it in a food processor. Then add it back in to the other lentils and mix together. This will give it a creamy texture. Serve hot, with bread.

To make this more of a soup or stew, save some of the water used to boil the lentils. Then at the end, add it back to the lentil mixture.

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Abba John the Short, advising the young brothers to love fasting, told them frequently: “The good soldier, undertaking to capture a strongly fortified, enemy city, blockades food and water. In this way the resistance of the enemy is weakened and he finally surrenders. Something similar happens with carnal impulses, which severely war against a person in his youth. Blessed fasting subdues the passions and the demons and ultimately removes them far from the combatant.” -- Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Submitted by: Br. Anthony, O.S.B. (Benedictine Monk)