Try window-shopping instead If you struggle with covetousness, Asterius of Amasea has some surprising but practical advice for you. Instead of accumulating everything, just enjoy the sights in the market without buying. It would be better to get rid of your cov­etousness altogether, but at least a little window-shopping won’t take anything away from anyone else. I beg you, if you are covetous, do not undergo these infinite hardships. For the covetous man who lives in luxury is deserving of... Read more

Don’t look for more than what belongs to you Covetousness has a broad definition,says Asterius of Amasea. It’s not just want­ing material things: it’s wanting more than you deserve in everything you do. Covetousness, then, is not simply being mad for money and other posses­sions, wishing to add what you have no right to have to what you already have. To speak more broadly, it is the desire to have in every transaction more than is due or belongs to... Read more

Rip out covetousness by the roots Most other sins have natural limits, says Asterius of Amasea. But covetousness strangles us like a vine strangling a tree. You can’t get rid of it unless you take an axe to it. But now, leaving ancient history, let us look at our own daily lives, and learn what sort of thing covetousness is in our own experience, and how hard it is to get rid of; for no matter whom it seizes, ever... Read more