By Pope St Leo the Great – Sermon 46, Posted by The Catholic Herald - A reflection from Pope St Leo the Great – Sermon 46: The right practise of abstinence is needful not only to the mortification of the flesh but also to the purification of the mind; we desire your observance to be so complete that, as you cut down the pleasures that belong to the lusts of the flesh, so you should banish the errors that proceed from the imaginations of the heart... For he whose heart is polluted with no misbelief prepares himself with true and reasonable purification for the Paschal Feast, in which all the mysteries of our religion meet together. ...