JOHN OF CARPATHIOS TO THE MONKS IN INDIA, AT THEIR REQUEST, EXHORTATORY HEADS, OR XCVII SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS.
(Bibliotheca Patrum Lugdun., vol. XII, p. 535.)
Beggars who offer spring flowers to the kings of the earth are often not only not repulsed, but receive certain gifts in return. For this reason, I too—having borrowed a century of pious thoughts from somewhere at your request, and offering them to you who have your citizenship in heaven—hope that I may be accepted and in turn obtain the reward of your prayers. A And he will know, he says, that I the Lord have spoken and will do it.
I. However little any beginning or end of its kingdom any part of the whole universe may have, just so much more fruitful is the study of those who have undertaken to labor for its sake and for the sake of the grace of virtues. For the honors of this life, though very splendid, finish entirely together with the life itself. But those which are granted by God to the worthy, being bestowed with immortality, endure completely. My spirit therefore urges me to consider you among the blessed, to whom God is the object of love. B
II. That blessed David sings a hymn and praises to God through all creatures, and remembers the angels and all invisible powers; and descending even to the earth, he does not pass over wild beasts, nor cattle, nor reptiles, since he considered even from these a pleasant and acceptable praise for the Creator, for He who wills that all things founded by Him should pay their tribute to Him. Since this is so, who, then, is the monk who could not be compared to the gold of Ophir, who could ever be sluggish or lazy in rendering hymnody to God?
III. The moon, by the increase and decrease of its light, expresses and indicates the condition of man: who is sometimes upright, sometimes wicked: sometimes returning through repentance to ways directed by the rule of virtue. And so the mind of him who falls into sin is not destroyed and utterly lost, as some here think: but as the body of the moon is indeed diminished in light, yet receives it back, so too man, with repentance helping him, recovers his own splendor entirely: as the moon, I say, deprived of its light, is clothed in it again. For he who believes in Christ our God, and the Lord of glory, even if he has died, will live C and he will know, he says, that I the Lord have spoken and will do it.
IV. If you are overcome by a multitude of impure images breaking into your mind, know that for a time you have been separated from divine grace: hence, you have been handed over to the hands of sin by a just judgment. Strive, therefore, that you may not at any time, through negligence, be deserted by grace even for a moment. But if, after a major fall, you are able to cross the wall of turbulent thoughts, and to despise the redoubled impressions of the sagacious enemies, do not ignore this gift given to you from above. For the Apostle says, "But not I alone, but the grace of God which is with me," realized this trophy, and kept it unharmed from the wicked thoughts rising up against me. He, therefore, who led me out of the land of Egypt, that is, from the world where souls perish, fighting for me with a hidden hand, struck Amalek, and the Lord made us hope that He would utterly destroy the remaining nations of wicked impulses from our face. This God of ours will give you wisdom and virtue. For some have received wisdom, but not the virtue of the spirit to defeat enemies. "He will exalt your head over your enemies." And He will give you wings like a dove, and flying you will rest with God. The Lord will place your arms as a brazen bow, rendering you strong, acute, and robust against the adversary, ensnaring all your attackers under you with traps. Give thanks, therefore, to God for your chastity, since He did not shut you up in the hands of the lusts of the flesh and blood, and in the power of the pernicious and impure spirits of these things, but shielded you with His right hand. Build Him an altar after the routing of Amalek. "Therefore I will confess You among the nations, O Lord, and I will sing to Your name." I will magnify Your power, for You have delivered my soul from perdition, and snatched me from the snares and nets of the one who circles us, and from multiform and ancient sin.
V. Wicked demons awaken, renew, inflame, and multiply impure affections in us. But the meditations of the Word of God, especially when received with purifying tears, these, however long-standing...
A they kill and destroy: and little by little they minimize the sins of soul and body, and reduce them to nothing; provided that we do not cease to fatigue the Lord constantly with intent and earnest prayer, and with hope.
VI. Why is it that Christ perfects praise from the mouth of babes? Is it entirely so that through this praise He might destroy the enemy and the avenger—the enemy of virtues, and the avenger, the devil, who is the author of wickedness? Therefore, let us also, praising the Lord with simplicity, crush and destroy the enemy’s machinations. "For in the multitude of thy glory thou hast crushed the wars, and them that oppose us."
VII. If anyone appears as one born out of due time, he is said to devour half of his flesh now, and the other half in the future age. "For everyone will eat the fruit of his own path."
VIII. The monk ought to choose the finest fasting: namely, not to serve the perverse impulses of the mind, and always to cultivate the highest tranquility of soul.
IX. The demons, who burn with hatred for our souls, incite certain people to offer us praise, as a sort of lethal poison. Then they urge us to spread it abroad, and to be dissolved by it. When we have thus been puffed up in our opinion of ourselves, and have given a place to vainglory, our enemies have achieved their goal; nor do they strive further to make us captive.
X. Embrace a caviller more than a flatterer, who differs in no way from one who curses, as it is written by Plutarch. B
XI. If you are a practitioner of virtue who, due to bodily infirmity, cannot attain to fasting, and you turn with a contrite heart to offer thanks to the provider and judge of all, this very act of thanksgiving will be reckoned to you by God unto mercy: provided only that you have always shown yourself humble before the Lord and have never put yourself before anyone.
XII. The enemy, knowing that prayer is a defender for us but an adversary to him, and striving to draw us away from it, goads our minds toward an appetite for the Greek disciplines, which we have abandoned, and exhorts us to spend time on them. Let us beware of obeying him, lest when we have strayed from the orbit and path of our culture, we reap thorns and thistles instead of figs and grapes. For the wisdom of this world is reckoned as foolishness before God.
XIII. "Behold," He says, "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be for all the people," not for a part of the people. And, "Let all the earth adore thee, and sing to thee," not merely a part of the earth. Moreover, to sing is not the act of those praying suppliantly, but of those rejoicing greatly. Since this is so, the spirit must not be cast down; rather, this life is to be lived with joy, and we must think on that eternal joy and gladness. Nevertheless, let us temper our joy with godly fear, as David says, "Serve the Lord with fear." For Mary ran from the sepulcher with fear and trembling and great joy. C Let us too, therefore, finally break forth with fear and joy regarding the sepulcher which is perceived by the mind. For I marvel how one can be without fear, since there is no one who is without sin, whether you speak of Moses or of the apostle Peter. Nevertheless, in these the divine charity is victorious, and at the time of departure casts out fear.
XIV. Even if one is entangled in vicious impulses, if he believes with his whole heart and humbles himself, he will attain the grace of apathy. Scripture testifies to this: "Today you will be with me in paradise." And, "Your faith has made you safe, go in peace." And whatever else is of this kind. And "in autumn the grape ripens," and "according to your faith it shall be done for you."
XV. When we hate the impulses of the soul that are alien to right reason, and are more sharply harassed by the demons with lustful thoughts, then we are the more strengthened in the faith of Christ, and we behold a firmer hope for the expectation of eternal goods, which the demons strive to keep us from and exclude us from through envy. For were those goods not the greatest by far, they would not be so inflamed with envy as to keep hurling sordid thoughts into us, thinking in this way both to satisfy their own madness, and to drive us to despair through much and intolerable vexation.
XVI. Some think that the absolute truth of knowledge is practice. Therefore, strive to show both your faith and your knowledge by works themselves. For he who is inflated by knowledge alone will hear that "they profess to know God, but in their works they deny him."
XVII. For the most part, during the time of feast days and holy synaxes, and especially when one must approach the mystical table, the demons strive to pollute the ascetic with odious and impure phantasms, and with the emission of semen. But they will neither break nor enervate him with this, because he is accustomed to bear all things patiently and with a noble spirit. Let them not, therefore, exult against us, whether we are armed or unarmed.
XVIII. Take care that our enemies do not blunt your alacrity, scourging your soul with various and hidden temptations. For out of many and inexplicable tribulations a crown is woven for you: D and "in weakness the power of Christ is perfected," and in a sadder state, the grace of the spirit flourishes and shines. "For a light has risen for the Gentiles in darkness": if indeed we have retained the confidence and glorying of our hope stable even unto the end.
Nothing is so apt to destroy virtue as scurrility, and ludic and idle gossip. Again, for renewing an inveterate soul and joining it to God, nothing contributes as much as the fear of God and diligent attention, and the assiduous meditation of divine utterances, and prayer with which one provides oneself as if with armor, and the pursuit of vigils as if it were some profit.
XIX. It is most convenient and at the same time most useful for the soul, however much tribulation, whether brought by men or by demons, may constantly...
be borne. And it must be clearly understood that affliction is due to us, and that no one else but ourselves must be perpetually accused. For whoever accuses another in his tribulations has wandered from the rectitude of a judgment that pertains to himself.
XX. Sometimes a man, even if he be a follower of virtue, is displaced from his right position, having been cast down from his order by multiplied temptations, namely, because, as the Scripture speaks: "All his wisdom and art is devoured" A: that we may not be confident in ourselves, and that Israel may not boast, saying, "My hand has saved me." Nevertheless, do not be disturbed by this, as if some new thing were happening; but hope that you will be restored to that former and most beautiful state, when the malignant one, who incites us to look at and hear all things not without emotion, and urges us to commit sins, has failed and been driven away by divine command. But when he has blunted the mind, as though it were dull and coarse, he makes it feel an incredible heaviness and mass; and the inherent reason, which is simple and not at all feigned, he renders, after the likeness of newly-born infants, various and most experienced, where he has poisoned it with all kinds of sins, and overthrown it by enticements.
XXI. It is a great thing, man growing within, and having attained to greatness in virtues. But this great man fears sin, as an elephant fears a mouse, lest perhaps, having preached to others, he himself might be found reprobate.
XXII. The devil will not only speak words against the Most High at the impending consummation of the world; B but even now, meanwhile, he sends into heaven itself grave blasphemies against our thoughts, and casts insults against the Most High, and his creatures, and the holy mysteries of Christ. But let us, having ascended the rock of reflection above these things, neither be struck dumb nor admire his pernicious audacity. But having used faith and a more fervent hope, and having obtained heavenly help, we will repulse the enemy.
XXIII. With reproach and audacity, the enemy flies upon the soul as it departs from the body, and bitterly and horribly accuses it for the faults it has committed. But it is then possible to see a soul dear to God and most faithful, even though previously wounded by many sins, not frightened by his attack and threats; but rather strengthened in the Lord, confirmed in joy, and filled with confidence by the sacred virtues leading it, and surrounded by the light of faith, and with much freedom protesting against the malignant one: "What is there between us and you, you who are alienated from God? What do you have to do with us, you fugitive from heaven, and you wicked servant? You have no power over us. For we, and all, are in the power of Christ; we have sinned ourselves, we ourselves will answer, having a pledge of his mercy toward us, and his precious cross for our salvation. C But you, begone far from us, plague and destruction; you have nothing to do with the servants of Christ." With this said, the soul, with confidence, thereupon puts the devil to flight, who cries out and laments that he could not prevail against the name of Christ. And the soul, having become superior to the enemy, buffets him, just as the raven is said by its swift flight to be superior to the kite. Afterward, it is transported in exultation by divine angels into the place defined for it, according to its state and condition.
XXIV. By indulging even a small temptation, he who is desirous of virtue is hindered in his progress. Let that tiny little fish, the echeneis, which stops a huge merchant ship with a single touch, and completely checks its course, make faith for you. You see a very great thing hindered by a very small one, and you remember him who says: "I Paul (what a man!) once and again wanted to come to you; but Satan hindered us." However, do not be disturbed by this, but contend the more through patience, and you will obtain grace.
XXV. For him to whom it is well and blessedly with virtues, if he has turned aside from his duty through sloth, the wicked sons of the east will ascend D against him from Amalek, and especially from Midian, the force of meretricious love, along with their camels; that is, with turbulent imaginations, of which there is no number, and they will destroy all the fruits of the land, that is, of excellent action and habit. Then Israel is in need, and is of small spirit, and is compelled to cry to the Lord, and thus a good thought is sent down from heaven, imitating Gideon with much faith and humility. "My family," he says, "is weak in Manasseh," so that I might array a host against such great multitudes with three hundred weak men, and set up wonderful trophies without the aid of grace.
XXVI. You will not be able to walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and what follows, unless you obtain from God, through many and suppliant prayers, angels who may lift you up with their hands, and make you superior when your mind is immersed in mud.
XXVII. When someone who is strenuously struggling has been defeated, let him by no means despair in his soul; but, roused, let him rejoice in the words of Isaiah, singing such things: "Be strengthened, wicked demons, and be conquered. For if you are strengthened again, you will be conquered again; and if you form counsels, the Lord will dissipate them, because God is with us, who raises up the broken, and makes our enemies mourn, if we repent."
XXVIII. It is impossible for him who is being instructed to escape the vexations of temptations. But such men are afterwards filled with much joy, and sweet tears, and divine senses, who indeed sought out pain and tribulation in their hearts.
XXIX. Isaac, wishing to bless, and Esau running of old that he might obtain the blessing, both were frustrated, God having mercy, and reserving that blessing for Jacob. But if we often see this, it is not what we ourselves entirely wished, but what God, before He fashioned him, destined for service...
we shall in no wise be troubled; nor let us envy, when one sees certain brothers who were rejected and infirm promoted to authority. For we have heard the Lord saying, "Give to this one a place, that you may sit higher" (Luke 14:9). But let us rather marvel in these things that the Judge and Provider has wisely and mysteriously decreed that the least and last should be first and the leader of others, while we, who preceded him in training and time, should be the last. As God has granted to every man, so let us walk: "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit" (Gal. 5:25), as it is written.
XXX. Never allow him who lives under your authority to say to you, "Grant me power for a time, so that I may test this or that for the sake of virtue, and thus behave myself rightly in the future." For he who speaks thus, clearly obeys his own will and invalidates the bonds of the best subjection.
XXXI. The perturbations of flesh and soul, however immoderate, will vanish when it seems fitting to time and the divine will; but the mercy of Christ shall never cease: "For the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, upon them that fear him" (Ps. 102:17).
XXXII. The treasuries of kings are built with gold; but the treasuries of monks, who are truly monks, shall be filled with the knowledge of intellectual things.
XXXIII. Sometimes the master is given over to ignominy on account of those for whom he has spiritually labored, enduring temptations. "For we," he says, "are fools and are buffeted, and we are weak: but you are strong and noble in Christ" (1 Cor. 4:10).
XXXIV. The source and foundation of corruption through the flesh is a thought implicated with affection, which a provident and vigilant man, through repentance, exterminates from his soul after a fall, or even before a fall. For it is good that you have grieved rather that there might be removed from your midst the wicked and impious thought that urged the performance of this work. Therefore, mourning is opposed to the spirits of corruption.
XXXV. Supposing the Lord says to you at some time, "I have taken away from you such and such a charism, in which you thought your soul was secure and resting; but in their stead I have given other charisms, which are just as valuable." But you, thinking only of what was taken away, and not looking at what was given in their place, are saddened, grieve, and waste away with sickness. But you delight me when you are saddened on my account. For I sadden you for your benefit, desiring to save rather than to lose him whom I have adopted into the number of my children.
XXXVI. Order yourself not to eat fish, and you will see the enemy press you sharply with the desire for eating fish, and again you will rush insanely to enjoy what you had forbidden yourself: so that you may learn what happened to Adam in figure. For he, when he had heard, "Of this tree only do not eat," turned himself most covetously to that alone A which was forbidden him.
XXXVII. Our God saves one through knowledge, and another through sincerity and simplicity.
XXXVIII. Whoever applies himself more intensely to prayer, these are not overcome by horrible and atrocious temptations.
XXXIX. If you have decided to put on the detachment of affections, do not be empty of solicitude; but try to attain it according to your strength. For we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: that not only corporally after the consummation of the age, but even now spiritually according to the earnest money, that which is mortal may be swallowed up by life. "For death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor. 15:54). And all the Egyptians pressing upon us will be swallowed up, and those pursuing us in the waves with the power sent to us from heaven.
XL. If you have forgotten Him who says, "I fear, lest having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Cor. 9:27), and, "He that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12), and, "You who are spiritual, consider yourself, lest you also be tempted" (Gal. 6:1), and if you are unmindful of Solomon, who after such great grace declined into iniquity; and if the memory of the great Peter's unexpected denial has slipped away, you boast of your faith, and knowledge, and science, and conduct, and your long labors in the monastic life, and you indulge in pride. B But take care, brother, that you are not in any way cast down: but as long as you draw breath, fear, even if you have reached the age of Moses; and pray, and say: "Lord, do not cast me away from your face, and in the time of old age, when my strength fails, do not forsake me, O God my Savior, for my song is always in you" (Ps. 70:19).
XLI. The Lord says to you, as to Matthew, "Follow me" (Matt. 9:9). You, therefore, eagerly following your most beloved Lord, if you stumble in the way of this life against the stone of vicious affection with your foot, and unwittingly have fallen into sin; or if you have even found muddy places, because you have fallen against your will, and have collapsed, as often as it happens that you slip, so often afflict your body, and rising, follow your Lord with the same alacrity, until you attain Him. Thus in holy thought I appeared to you, that I might see your power and glory saving me: "And in your name, Lord Jesus, I will wash my hands" (Ps. 25:6), "and I will think and deem that I am filled with fatness and richness, and my lips shall exult when I sing to you." For it is a great thing for me that I have been called a Christian: just as great is the Lord to me, as Isaiah says: "For it is a great thing for you to call my servant" (Isa. 40).
XLII. Somewhere the Lord says, "The Father will give good things to those asking Him" (Matt. 7:7); elsewhere again, "The Holy Spirit, to those asking Him" (Luke 11). By which words we understand, not only the remission of sins, but also heavenly...
A gifts bestowed upon those who pray to God, and confirmed by a sentence of this sort. For the Lord does not promise such good things to the just, but to sinners. For if you, He says, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him? Ask therefore fervently, and do not doubt, even if you are base and completely infirm regarding a life positioned in virtue, and you shall receive great things above your dignity.
XLIII. How might the incredulous, or one of little faith, induce himself to believe? Let him believe that an ant flies, and that some winged worm is seen, and very many other things which occur in creatures wondrously and beyond opinion. So that, at least by the disease of incredulity and diffidence thus cured, he might gain a nature that is henceforth volatile, B and might put forth a thought and knowledge worthy of being proclaimed like an excellent tree. For I, He says, am the one who makes the dry wood flourish, and makes dry bones come to life.
XLIV. Far be it from us to be worn out by anxieties concerning things pertaining to the body; rather, let us believe in God with our whole soul, just as a certain good man once said, "Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be secure" (II Par. xx, 20). And, as blessed Peter says, "Be sober, and watch in prayers, casting all your care upon Him, for He has care of you" (I Pet. v, 7). But if you still doubt and are diffident that He takes any care of you, so that He might nourish you, look at the spider, and know how much man differs from a spider; from the spider, I say, than which nothing is more infirm and invalid. This creature, I say, since it neither possesses property, nor undertakes sea voyages, nor gathers into barns, nor contends in judgment, nor grows angry, but spends its life in all meekness, and fragility, and supreme quiet, and does not curiously scrutinize its neighbors, but only does its own business, and contains itself in its proper work, obtains a tranquil and peaceful state, C almost calling out to the friends of leisure and laziness with this voice: whoever wishes to be idle, let him not eat. And it is so silent, that it excellently surpasses that Pythagoras, whom the Greeks, on account of his restraint of speech, admire above all philosophers. Pythagoras therefore, although he did not speak before everyone, nevertheless, upon certain fixed times, would discourse privately with his most intimate friends, and quite often, making speeches to oxen and eagles, he would babble and rant. As for wine, abstaining completely, he drank water. But indeed this creature, by the silence it has from nature, has overcome Pythagorean taciturnity, and has despised even the drink of water along with wine. In such, therefore, a quiet state, the spider—an imbecile and humble creature, and one never enduring to walk outside, nor to wander hither and thither through mere imagination, nor to be exhausted by innumerable labors—dwells in high places, and looks down on D humble things, for the Lord (but the spider, even until that point, extends His providence and His care, and daily sends it a little morsel, when He makes certain small flying insects fall into its net near its little tabernacle).
XLV. But someone perhaps from these slaves of their belly and gluttony will say, "I am a great eater: and because I consume much, it is necessary for me to be involved in a thousand labors of life." But let him also consider here, that great whales, which are fed in the Atlantic Ocean, are nourished abundantly by God, and never experience hunger. For each one of these fish devours as much food as some populous city could not consume in one day. "All things expect from You," He says, "that You give them food in due season" (Ps. ciii, 27). Therefore God is the one who feeds both the ample and the sparing eater. Having heard these things, you too, who have a wide and broad belly, henceforth commit and consecrate your whole self to God and to faith, having shaken off the multiform distractions of the world and the anxieties of the mind: and do not be incredulous any longer, but believe plainly.
XLVI. If, however, we wish to please God and to be loved by His most blessed friendship, let us offer our mind bare to Him, taking nothing with us from this world, no meditation, no clever invention, no knowledge of law, no other thing, even if we have learned all the wisdom of the world. For God indeed rejects those approaching with a slight conceit of themselves, and those who are fed on empty glory and swell with pride. And rightly do some of the wise say that a vain opinion of oneself is a bellows and a bladder.
XLVII. In what way can we conquer sin, which has already established dominion over us? There is need of force. For it is said, "The laboring man labors, and averts ruin from himself," always struggling to bear his thoughts upward, and to repel force with force, as is said in the laws. We therefore should apply some force, however infirm, and then wait, sitting in Jerusalem, for the virtue to come upon us from on high, that is, in perpetual prayers and other virtues, until the powerful virtue comes to us. For it was fitting that a certain virtue be named—not some very weak one, working similarly to our own, but one which could not be uttered by corporeal lips, which with great power would conquer and tame most wicked morals and the malice of the devil, and also conquer the dishonest motions of the body. For it occurred, He says, suddenly from heaven a sound as of a mighty wind (Acts ii, 2), so that it might expel the vice that is always pushing us toward worse things.
XLVIII. As the enemy demon lies in wait for the sheepfold like a lion, hiding the snares and shackles of impure and wicked thoughts, so we too, unless we sleep, shall be able to place greater and more troublesome snares for him. For prayer, and psalmody, and vigils, and humility, and service to our neighbors...
and mercy, and the giving of thanks, and the reading of divine scriptures—these, I say, are snares, pits, traps, and torments to the enemy. A XLIX. Divine David, when he was well advanced in years, giving thanks to God by whom he had been chosen, said at the end: "For now your servant has found his heart so that he might pray to You with this prayer." This was said so that we might learn that contention and time are required for prayer, so that we may at last find an imperturbable state of soul, that is, another heaven of the heart, in which Christ dwells: just as the Apostle says, "Do you not know that Christ Jesus dwells in you?"
L. If Christ has been made for us righteousness and wisdom from God the Father, it is certain that He has also been made for us rest. For He says: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." It is therefore well said that the sabbath, that is, rest, was made for man: for in Him, and in Christ alone—certainly in the only-begotten Son of God—will the human race obtain rest.
LI. Just as there is a cup of falling and a chalice of wrath, so there is also a cup of infirmity, which, when taken from us, the Lord delivers in due time into the hands of our enemies, so that in the future it is not we, but the demons, who may be weakened and fall.
LII. Just as in external matters there are money-changers, weavers, hunters, soldiers, builders: so in interior matters (in our thoughts, of course) imagine there to be gamblers, sorcerers, pirates, hunters, sodomites, murderers, and the like, to whom one must immediately deny access through pious contradiction and prayer, especially to the sodomites, lest they profane the holy place and defile the man of God.
LIII. Not only is the Lord captured by the tongue, so that He may save, as happened in the case of the thief who cried out from the cross, but also by thought. For she said within herself (we have it written concerning the woman who suffered from a flow of blood) and what follows. And the servant of Abraham spoke of Rebecca silently within himself before the Lord.
LIV. Almost the sin itself drives the penitent to God, when he feels its stench, weight, and madness. But it does not force the one who is unwilling to give himself to repentance to God: rather, it binds him with its own indissoluble chains, making him, from then on, more vehement and bitter in his desires for perdition.
LV. Sometimes at a banquet an arrogant thought rushes out to speak at an unseasonable time. But angelic thoughts seriously warn one to cast out such a trifling and importunate thought. If, therefore, you have not repressed it with good silence, but, puffed up with pride, have allowed it to come out, you will afterward pay the penalty, either by being handed over to divine retribution along with a great sin, or by heavy bodily pains, or by not-insignificant offenses of the brethren, or by the punishments of the age to come.
LVI. Whoever are tempted by pleasure, anger, vainglory, or a similar vice, these are said to be burned by the sun during the day, and by the moon during the night. Be covered, therefore, by the divine and dew-bearing cloud, so that you may escape the fire brought upon you by the enemies.
LVII. By no means grant license to yourself among the satellites of drunkenness and the companions of a luxurious table, nor to those who chatter about things that are not very honest, even if they hold status, and even if they have led a solitary life for a long time, lest, according to Scripture, rottenness cover you, and you be taken away with the unclean and the uncircumcised in heart.
LVIII. First the keys are entrusted to Peter: then he is allowed to slip into denial, so that in that case the providence of his soul might be chastened. And you, therefore, if, when you have received the key of knowledge, you fall into various temptations, do not marvel: but glorify the Lord, who alone is wise: who restrains the arrogance that mixes itself with the knowledge of divine things through afflictions. For temptations are a bridle, and by God's providence, they can bridle and restrain the spirits of men.
LIX. If the Lord has often taken good things from us, as He did the riches of Job, let us say, "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away"; surely He will take away the evils which He has brought upon us; for "Good and evil are from God," he says. And He who brought evils upon us, the same will bring eternal joy with eternal glory upon us. "For just as I watched over them, to root up and to afflict: so will I watch over them, to build, and not to destroy, to plant, and not to pluck up," says the Lord. Let the popular proverb therefore be silent: From evil, no longer good. For He who changed things for the worse can suddenly restore them all to a more splendid condition.
LX. Whoever assails demons more vehemently and with greater contention, whether through continence, or through prayer, or through every kind of virtue, will receive heavier wounds from them: until, captured by weariness, and finding in his soul the response of an intellectual death, he can say, "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" For I am forced, even against my will, to be subject to the laws of the adversary.
LXI. It is not written in vain that some once said among themselves: "Arise, and let us ascend to the people confident in hope, and resting." And again: "Come let us ascend, and let us converse with them in the crafty, intelligible tongue, and let us turn them away from the truth toward us." For the savage demons have been accustomed, against those who have chosen a monastic state dedicated to quiet and silence, to sharpen the swords of temptations throughout their whole life, and to attack more furiously those who are more addicted to religion and divine piety, with fists...
A pushing them toward the commission of sin by their deeds, if by chance they might be able to turn them away and divert them from faith in Christ and from the desire of prayer and good hope upon being assailed in this manner. But we, says David, do not depart from thee, until you command the tempters to depart from us, and we are quickened through patience and solid and firm apathia (freedom from passion). For temptation is the life of man: and the judge of the contest, though winking, often leaves him lying prostrate under the feet of his enemies for an appointed time. But it is for a great and lofty soul not to be broken by despair in calamities.
LXII. If a demon has such power that, when a man departs from the good state of nature, he can change him into another character, and even against his will transfer him to his own destruction, how much more will an angel, once he has received the command of God at the appointed time, be able to bend the whole of a man's disposition toward better things? If the very cold north wind has been so strong as to change the soft nature of waters to the hardness of stone, what will not the very hot south wind do, if it makes the air, which was severely chilled, recede in all directions? For before the face of his cold, who shall stand? And how will heat not summon all things to itself? I believe, therefore, that the cold and black coal of our mind will, sooner or later, become hot and bright once the most divine fire has breathed upon it.
LXIII. There is also in the present life a certain status that is a testimony and sign of Joseph placed in our innermost being, because of apathia, according to which a mind that has departed from Egypt B withdraws from the mill of passions and from bondage in the most impure basket. It no longer hears the tongue it had not moved, namely, the tongue of demons, filthy and corruptive of a right mind: but it receives the holy, light-bringing tongue of the angels, who transform the soul from corporeal to incorporeal, a tongue illuminative of the soul that receives it.
LXIV. I hear some brothers, who are physically weaker and unable to fast, saying to me: "In what way, without fasting, can we be freed from the devil and from perverse affections?" To whom it must be answered that not only through the abstinence of foods, but also through the cry of the heart, evils and the suggestors of evils can be shaken off and exterminated. For some cried out to the Lord when they were in tribulation, and He delivered them. And again it is written, "From the belly of hell you heard the voice of my cry, and my life shall ascend from corruption." Therefore, "Until iniquity pass away," that is, the disturbance of sin, "I will cry," he says, "unto God the Most High," that, heaping upon me the greatest benefit, He may check the onset of sin by His power, and blot out the images of the mind tied to vicious affections, and make our Athens, dedicated to idols, void of idols. If, therefore, you have not received the grace of continence, know that He wants C God to hear you through prayer and the hope of one praying. Since you know, therefore, the judgment of the Lord, take care not to succumb to despair, because you cannot exert yourself: but apply yourself rather to be liberated from the enemy through prayer and patience with thanksgiving. If, therefore, thoughts of weakness and labors have pursued you, flee from the city of fasting into another, that is, to prayer and thanksgiving.
LXV. Pharaoh, supplicating, says, "Let God take away from me this death," and he was heard. Similarly, the demons asked the Lord not to be sent into the abyss, and they obtained it. How much more will a Christian man, praying that he might be liberated from the death that falls under the intellect, obtain his request?
LXVI. Whoever, having for some time been illuminated by divine grace, rests in it, and having fallen into the distractions of the mind and pollutions, murmurs on that account, and does not put on a manly spirit or strive to recover that salutary fullness of prayers, but takes it ill and grows angry, is like a beggar who, having received alms from the palace, takes it badly that he was not let in to dine with the emperor.
LXVII. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. How blessed are those who, with grace withdrawn, not finding consolation in themselves, but rather looking upon present afflictions and dense darkness, do not despair; but, confirmed by faith, they imagine that they see Him who is not seen, and manfully endure their evil.
LXVIII. That humility which, by grace, in its own time and after many struggles, pain, and tears, is given from heaven to those who seek it, is in many parts stronger and greater than that humiliation which usually occurs when virtue is lost. Those who are deemed worthy of that higher grace are truly perfect men, and are safe from the troubles of temptations.
LXIX. When the devil left the Lord, then angels came and ministered unto Him. It must be known, therefore, that just as it is not recorded that angels were present while He was being tempted, so also while we are being tempted, for a time the angels of God, though not far off, withdraw themselves. When those who were tempting have receded, they return to us, ministering to us divine thoughts, healings, firmaments, illuminations, compunction, consolation, patience, sweetness, and whatsoever pertains to saving, strengthening, and refreshing the weary soul. For He says to Nathanael, "You shall see the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man," that is, upon all the race of the pious, the ministry and help of angels will be poured forth abundantly.
LXX. Remember that priest at whose right hand the devil stood, that he might oppose every right thought, word, and deed, lest you be struck by the outcome of events and be stunned.
LXXI. It is fitting for a monk to know what is infirmity—
according to that which is written, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am infirm"—and what is apostasy from God, which is indeed the disease of the devil and his angels. B
LXXII. Just as the conjunction of fire makes iron unyielding, so frequent prayers render the mind stronger for entering into conflict with enemies. Therefore, they strive with all their might to instill in us a certain horror of constant prayer, since they know that it is a source of ambush for them, but a defensive weapon for the soul.
LXXIII. David had a ready mind for those who had gone forth with him to Siceleg against the enemies, even though they were faint with strength and remained by the brook Besor. But when he returned to them after the victory over the barbarians had been won, and heard some saying that nothing of the spoils should be shared with those who, out of exhaustion, had sat down by the brook, the most humane David defended them, blushing and silencing [their detractors], saying that because they had sat down by the baggage and the equipment, and had guarded it, for that reason it was right that they should receive an equal share with the brave and magnanimous warriors. Consider, therefore, whether in any brother who at the beginning showed himself fervent, but afterward succumbed to a certain sloth, the vessels or baggage of salvation might be understood as faith, repentance, humility, tears, patience, hope, long-suffering, and the other virtues, by which the weak man, sitting by the action and persistently occupying himself in expectation in Christ, as is fitting, might obtain some everlasting gift.
LXXIV. Levites and priests are indeed called those who have consecrated themselves wholly to God in all things, by action and contemplation, I mean; but those are called the beasts of burden of the Levites who, being free from the perturbations of the soul, cannot follow in their footsteps, yet are desirous of virtue and study it according to their capacity, and seek it daily, even if, enervated by vices, they are often frustrated. Moreover, it is just that sometimes these too should receive the charism of apathy, by the sole kindness of God: "For the Lord has heard the desire of the poor."
LXXV. We see the wounds which the enemy inflicts upon us, either openly or secretly, but we do not see—so God willing—the tortures and pains which, while we perform the office of virtue, or repent of our sins, or patiently bear and tolerate those things which happen against our will, or pray, or do other things diligently, those things on account of which he [the enemy] is shattered, and tormented, and weeps, and laments. For "It is just," he says, "before God to repay tribulation to those who trouble you."
LXXVI. If an old log, whether on a plain or a mountain, irrigated by water, grows green again as if newly planted, it is fitting that we also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, C should cause those who are roused to sprout forth into incorruption, which we received according to nature, and to grow green like a new shoot in summer, even though we have put on the old man.
LXXVII. To the soul that is displeased with itself because of the magnitude of temptations and the multitude of sins, and says, "Our hope has perished, we have perished," it has been said by God, who does not despair of our salvation, "You shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord." But to the soul that doubts how it can bring forth Christ through great virtues, it is said, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you." But when the Holy Spirit is present, do not you think any longer about nature and custom: for the adorable Spirit can do all things, and produces for you things that are not, so that you are struck dumb. Nay, even the mind previously defeated He now makes victorious. For the Paraclete who comes from heaven upon us for the sake of mercy is above all: for He is superior to all, both to the motions of nature and to the passions excited by the devil.
LXXVIII. Strive to guard intact the radiance and light in that part of your soul to which the primacy is granted by nature. But if you begin to look with perturbation, the Lord has darkened you and sent a bridle before your face; or the light of your eyes is not with you. But however these things may be, do not fail, nor grow weary. But pray with holy David, "Send forth your light and your truth to me, who enter in saddened; the salvation of my countenance, and my God." For "You shall send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth."
LXXIX. Blessed is he who in this life insatiably eats and drinks prayers and psalms by night and day, and strengthens himself with the reading of the excellent Scriptures. For such use will produce a perfect and consummate joy of the soul in the future age.
LXXX. With all your might take care not to fall: for it does not befit a strong athlete to fall. But if it should happen that you fall, rise up immediately, and stand again for the struggle, even if it happens a thousand times due to the frailty of the flesh. For it is written, "The just man falls seven times," that is, in all his life, "and shall rise again seven times." As long as you hold the weapons of the holy habit, with tears you join yourself as a suppliant to God to those who are standing, even though you have often fallen. As long as you remain a monk, as long as you, a generous warrior, receive wounds against your adversaries, for which you shall rather be praised, because you have not endured to yield or fail when struck. But if you desert the order of monks, from then on you are wounded in the back, as a fugitive, as one puffed up, as a deserter of orders, as one who does not dare to appear intrepid.
LXXXI. It is more grievous to despair than to sin. Judas the traitor was pusillanimous and unskilled in war: wherefore the enemy, pursuing him in his despair, brought him to a hanging. But Peter, that firm rock, though oppressed by a horrible fall, did not turn from the path, nor, with a broken spirit D
did he despair; but he lifted himself up and from a contrite heart offered most bitter tears, and shedding them from his eyes like the hottest flames, he recoiled, fleeing far away, and bitterly bewailing.
LXXXII. Against these three things especially should a monk wage implacable war: namely, against the insane craving of the belly and gluttony, against vain and useless glory, and against avarice, which is the service of idols.
LXXXIII. A certain king of the Israelites defeated the Troglodytes and other barbarians with psalms, hymns, and other spiritual canticles, in speech and on Davidic instruments. Do you also defeat the barbarian Troglodytes—the demons, that is—who enter into your senses and members, agitation your flesh through temptation, exciting smoke through titillations, and making you, not without affect, to smell, to hear, and to have eyes full of adultery, and to be confounded within and without by a Babylonian confusion, and to pour forth immoderate words. Therefore, in the same way, you also should devote care and work to exterminating these Troglodytes, the artificers of evil things within you, by great faith and by psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles.
LXXXIV. Just as God desires man to be saved through the agency of man, so Satan desires man to be destroyed through man. Therefore, do not associate familiarly with a man who is a contemner of others, crafty, and loquacious, lest you go with him into punishment: for hardly anyone, living with a just man, attains salvation. But if association with a wicked man has happened to someone, and he has not guarded himself as against a plague or leprosy, he will easily meet with shipwreck. For who, furthermore, would have mercy on one who dwells amicably and cheerfully with a dragon? Flee, therefore, from those who are unskilled in the use of the tongue, and who are authors of contentions, and who are restless in their external and internal members.
LXXXV. Who, being wise and intelligent and desiring to be called a friend of God, would not strive to present his soul to Christ as he received it from Him, namely, pure, without a wound, and entirely without spot, and for this reason be crowned in the heavens and be preached blessed by the angels?
LXXXVI. One good word introduced that wretched thief into the divine paradise; and one indecorous word shut the land of promise against holy Moses. Let us not, therefore, think that the disease of the tongue should be despised. For revilers and babblers exclude themselves from the kingdom of heaven. Wherefore, a loquacious man, even if he is directed here, will not be directed there, but rather will be supplanted, and evils will apprehend him unto perdition. It is aptly said by a certain wise man, that it is better to fall from a height onto the pavement, than to fall by the tongue. One must, therefore, believe James the Apostle who writes: *Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak* (Jac. 1, 19).
LXXXVII. Lest we be deceived by the senses regarding vanities, and be carried away in our minds, it is expedient to listen to Him who says: Go A my people, enter into your chamber, or the closet of your heart, a house hidden and secret from every thought of sensible things, free from images or idols, resplendent with stillness and the shadowing of heavenly grace: close the door to all visible things, for a little while, and for a short moment, for the whole course of human life is short—and then say, *Until Thy wrath pass* (Psal. cvii, 4), as another said, *Until iniquity passes* (cf. Job xiv, 13). For perhaps on account of the wrath of the Lord, demons provoke us to vicious affections and sins, just as Isaiah says, addressing God, *Behold, Thou art angry, and we have sinned* (Isa. LXIV, 5). He escapes this wrath who constantly applies himself in his heart to making peace, and strives to keep himself within the inner sanctuary. And *draw*, he says, *wisdom upon the inner parts* (cf. Psal. XLIV, 14). *For the glory*, he says, *of the king's daughter is from within* (cf. ibid.). But I labor until the innermost part, until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and into the mountain of inheritance, he says, unto Thy prepared dwelling, which Thou hast prepared, O Lord.
LXXXVIII. He who wishes from his heart to renounce perishable things should imitate the blessed prophet Elisha, who, burning with much and ardent love toward God, left nothing for himself. Distribute, therefore, all that you possess among the poor and the monks. And thus, having taken up the cross of Christ, hasten with will and purpose toward a voluntary death, which may procure for you eternal life.
LXXXIX. When you feel that the Amorite has grown strong in you like an oak-tree, pray to God continually, that He may dry up its fruit from above: that is, the sin in action and the roots below, that is, impure thoughts: and that He may exterminate the Amorite from your face.
XC. You ought not to be surprised if you see your stillness held in mockery by those who cannot themselves be still. Rather, instead, sing psalms against them, yet do not think of vengeance, but oppose to them a greater subjection toward God, crying out in hymns, *But be thou subject to God, O my soul* (Psal. LXI, 2). *For the things that they loved me, they spoke against me* (Psal. LXXII, 17): but I, in turn, pray suppliantly for my and their salvation.
XCI. Just as in the sea, when a violent wind does not blow, the waves are not raised, so when the demon is not present, neither our soul nor our body is tossed by perturbations as by a storm.
XCII. If you have constantly burned with prayer and divine grace, and your garment has been hot; Scripture will say to you, to put on the armor of light: *For your enemies are covered with confusion and terror as with a cloak* (cf. Psal. cvii, 4).
XCIII. While you remember your sins, do not be weary of beating your breast: so that by such blows you may cut through your heart, which has hardened like stone, and, having found gold, such as that publican had, you may exceedingly rejoice over spiritual riches.
XCIV. The fire of prayers to God, and sacred meditation
of the words of the Spirit shall always burn upon the altar of your soul.
XCV. If you always strive to have your feet shod in preparation for the Gospel of peace, you will plainly build up your own house and that of your neighbor. But if sloth takes hold of you, it will be pulled down, so that you do not see it, and according to the law, you will inherit the name of one who has had his sandal removed. A
XCVI. Do not ever wish to prefer to a monk a man of the world who has a wife and children, who rejoices in beneficence toward many, in generous alms, and in temptations which he suffers not at all from demons, thinking that you please God less than he does. Do not lament for yourself, as if you had already perished. I do not say that by persevering among monks you live a life free from all reproach; but however great a sinner you may be, the tribulation of your soul and your affliction is worth more before God than the virtue of a worldly life, however excellent it may be: I mean your immense sadness, dejection of spirit, groaning, incredible anguish, tears, stings of conscience, anxieties of thought, the accusation of the mind, the lamentation and weeping of the soul, the crying of the heart, contrition, confusion, toil, misery, and contempt. All these things, and others like them, which frequently happen to those sent into the iron furnace of temptations, are B far more excellent and acceptable than the good works of a worldly man. Beware, therefore, lest you be a participant in that complaint spoken of in holy Scripture, in the person of your soul: "What has it profited us that we have walked in sadness before the face of the Lord Almighty, and have remained always in his house?" For it is certain that every servant, even one familiar to the head of a household, is sometimes also afflicted with blows, and that he who approaches the Lord receives buffetings. But those who are outside, as long as they are far from blows, are reputed as strangers, or bastards, or neglected ones. "What fruit, therefore," it is said, "do we reap, who are subjected to tribulations in soul and body, who pray and sing psalms perpetually? Contrast this with those who neither frequent prayer, nor rejoice and delight in vigils; they prosper, they pass their lives merrily, and as the prophet says: 'Behold, the houses of strangers are built, and we call the aliens blessed.'" And presently he subjoins: "These things spoke those who feared the Lord, each one to his neighbor." C Nevertheless, it must be held that those who are troubled and afflicted in diverse ways, sustaining the yoke of their Lord through many temptations, suffer nothing new. For they have heard Him in the Gospel saying: "Amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, you who are My loved ones, but the world shall rejoice." And "a little while, and I will visit you through the Paraclete, and I will banish your sadness, and I will refresh you with heavenly thoughts of life and rest, and with sweet tears of which you were deprived for a few days while you were being tempted. And I will give you, moreover, the breasts of grace, as a mother does to an infant D wailing from the cradle. And I will corroborate among you, by heavenly virtue, those who had been weakened in battle; and I will refresh you with sweetness, you who had been filled with bitterness, as Jeremiah says in Lamentations regarding you, O Jerusalem, in secret. For you also have been oppressed with bitterness. But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice through a hidden visitation, and your tribulation shall be turned into joy, and no one shall be able to take your joy away."
XCVII. Let us not, therefore, close our eyes, nor become blind, applauding those of the world above ourselves. But knowing the difference between legitimate and spurious sons, let us rather embrace the affliction and labor customary for monks, the end of which terminates in life eternal; and let us draw to ourselves the unfading crown of the glory of God, even of those ascetics who are considered sinners—not to mention the labors of the just—and that it is an abject thing to be in the house of God, that is, in the order of those who are continually serving Christ, and not to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners, or to live with those of the world, however just they may be, not in a common way. For your heavenly Father says to you, O monk, He who loves you in the highest degree, and troubles you, and wearies you with various temptations: "Know, O afflicted monk, that just as I have spoken through the prophet: 'I will be your chastiser,' and I will meet you on the way of Egypt, exercising you with tribulations, and I will hedge up your blameworthy ways with the stakes of My providence, pricking you with unforeseen calamities, and impeding you so that whatever you aim for with an unwise heart, you may not bring to completion at all. And I will hedge up the sea of your passions with the gates of My mercies; and I will be to you as a panther, devouring you with thoughts of reproach, of desperation, of repentance, in the conscience of things unknown to you." Moreover, all these afflictions are the greatest grace of God. And not only will I be a panther, but also a goad to you, pricking you with thoughts of compunction and with the sorrows of your heart. And sorrow will not fail to be in your house—that is, in your soul and your body—as the sweetness of God’s pains truly and usefully strikes you, and they are truly honey-sweet.
The end of the pain, and of the labors, and of the perturbation, and of the confusion, and of the fears, and of the despairs, which are accustomed to occur to those preparing themselves for exercise—the end of all these things, so sad, is heavenly joy, and inexplicable delights, and ineffable glory, and never-ceasing exultation. For it is for this reason that I have troubled you, He says, that I may feed you with the manna of knowledge; I have tormented you with hunger, that in your final extremities I might treat you well and introduce you into the supernal kingdom. For then you shall skip for joy, O humble monks, like tender calves released from bonds—from the tribulations, indeed, of the flesh and the temptation of the enemies. And then you shall trample upon the wicked demons who now trample upon you, and they shall be dust under your feet. For if you are pious and humble, not puffed up by vain pride, nor rash, but, with a broken heart, yourself
A considering yourself a useless servant, and humble in spirit; if you are thus humble, I say, your sin, O monk, is better than the righteousness of worldly people, and your defilement is more precious than the great purity of those who serve this life. For what is it that makes you grieve? It is merely a stain. But see a man whose hands are smeared with pitch, yet he is cleansed with a little oil. Much more, surely, will you be able to be cleansed by the mercy of God. For just as it is not difficult for you to wash this garment, so much more is it not difficult for the Lord to wash you from every stain, even if daily, as is likely, something may arise from the necessity of temptations. For while it is said, "I have sinned against the Lord," the answer is returned: "Your sins are forgiven you." I am He who blots them out, and I will not remember them. For as far as the east is distant from the west, so far has He removed your iniquities from you. A father has compassion on his children; provided only that you do not fail, nor recoil from chanting and praying, but rather adhere to your life, and He himself cleanses by his own will; God cleanses by his own volition, and not even if the great Apostle himself were there could he render one impure or condemn him. For it was said to him: "What God has cleansed, you must not call common." For if it is God who has justified us by his kindness, who is there to condemn us? For to us who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our conscience is easily cleansed, and there is no distinction between us and the prophets and the other saints. For God has not set us for wrath, but for the acquisition of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake in virtue, or asleep by some chance, as is consistent with certain imperfections, we might live together with him, looking toward him with great groans, and lamenting, and ourselves confessing, and calling upon him without end, and breathing him. Let us therefore put on the breastplate of faith, and have the helmet of the hope of salvation, lest the members of despair and diffidence find an entrance.
But I, you say, grow angry, and my vitals are rent, when I see that worldly people are not tempted. Know, beloved, that Satan has no need to tempt those who tempt themselves, and who are always dragged to the earth by futile affairs and businesses. This too I would have you know, that for the tempted, prizes and crowns are reserved. For the worldly who have no concern for God, nor are lying supine and snoring, are not neglected. For "I," says the Lord, "was wounded, but through internal desolation I shall heal." B Can a woman forget so as to have no compassion for the son of her womb? Even so I will not forget you, says the Lord. For if the bowels of a bird are poured out over her chicks, and in the hour she visits them, and calls them, and inserts food into their mouths, much more are my mercies poured out over my creatures; much more are my bowels poured out over you, and I will visit you secretly, and I will speak with you in your spirit, and I will cast sustenance to your gaping mind, like a swallow’s chick. For I provide for you the food of the fear of God, and the food of celestial love, and the food of the consolations of groaning, and the food of compunction, and the food of melody, and the food of higher knowledge, and the food of certain divine mysteries, and the rest in succession. If I lie, speaking to you as your Lord and Father, refute me, and I shall endure it.
These things the Lord speaks to our minds always. I, for my part, know well that I have exceeded the limit with such a long piece of writing; but you exhorted me to do this, and to set forth a hundred ascetic chapters, and to linger longer on the hundredth, for the raising up of the fallen, and for the confirming of those who, through negligence, were nearing the danger of falling. Because it was found among you in India, as you wrote to me, that some brothers were, beyond expectation, greatly entangled in temptations, so that they were even weary of this life and of the monastic institution—those who said that it was narrow and full of a thousand perils, and proclaimed the worldly to be blessed, cursing the day when they had put on the habit. That is the cause which compelled me to produce this hundredth chapter, and in unstudied words, so that even an uneducated and illiterate person could understand what is read. Therefore I have brought forward more, so that in the future, monks may not judge worldly people, but only themselves, to be blessed—those who, beyond all controversy, are greater and more renowned and more glorious than emperors who wear a diadem upon their heads on earth, insofar as they are always clinging to God. But I, who have written these things, ask your charity that you might remember me constantly in your prayers, so that I, miserable, may become worthy of the grace of Christ, and may finish the span of my life with a good and most excellent end. May the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, give you eternal consolation, and a good hope in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and empire for ages of ages. Amen. D
OTHER CHAPTERS OF THE SAME, NUM. XCIV.
I. All things that have come to be are good from the Good, nor could anything evil exist in the nature of things: since from that which is good according to essence, nothing of evil could come to exist.
II. That which is good by essence, it properly is, and it is always, and it is in like manner: which is the beginning of all, without beginning, an ineffable unity, and a triple subsistence. The Father from himself, not flowing from elsewhere, and eternal, the begetter of the Son essentially, the fountain of the Holy Spirit.
III. All things that are, have existed from non-existents, having obtained being, namely, by the will of Him who is.
For if that which has been brought into being is not, but only that which is is, then those things which have been brought into being are said not to be, but rather to borrow being from that which is. But if they have obtained an acquired being, they do not exist from eternity together with Him; for they have their beginning and end in God, whereas God has neither beginning nor end, since He Himself is the cause and end of all. A
IV. That which is not born is infinite; but that which is born is finite. How then can that which is finite coexist from eternity with the infinite? For the mind, considering that which is born, as that which has begun to be—because it is born—passes beyond it, and arriving at the Ungenerate, the beginning that is without beginning, finds beyond that point no [ἀσυνύπαρκτον] (incoexistence), with the Deity Itself self-begotten, or rather pre-existing these; so that our intellect cannot grasp it, and cannot understand how those things which possess no being receive it from the One who grants it. Wherefore, if you contract and limit yourself, you should restrain your thought from that incomprehensible contemplation of how things produced can coexist with God, and allow Him—who is primarily born from Him—to know how they have been produced.
V. Let him who keeps the laws know the reasons of the [τῶν ἐκ μὴ ὄντων] (things from non-being). But he who has understood the reasons of the [τῶν ἐκ μὴ ὄντων] proceeds to the knowledge of the [τοῦ ὄντος] (Him who is).
VI. Just as the sun, falling under the senses, shows to healthy eyes the elegance of visible things: so the Sun that is comprehended by the intelligence shows their reasons purely. B
VII. Those who are subject to the same perturbations are deprived of concord; but those who cultivate the same virtue enjoy peace. For a choleric man living with a choleric man, or a greedy man with a greedy man, or a glutton with a glutton, will have disturbances and sadness between himself and the one with whom he acts, with self-love always intervening and persuading him that he should wish to be in a better situation in the acquisition of desired things. From which follows the other state, a deprivation in the comparison of pleasant things, through which sadness and anger are accustomed to be stirred up, by which the good of union is lost. But those who cultivate the same virtues are led by the very goods that are loved by both to the peace which surpasses all sense*. For the continent person corresponds to the continent, the modest to the modest, he who has contempt for money to the one who is gentle, and, to speak briefly, whoever is adorned with these and other types of virtue dwells with one gifted with the same habits without modesty and dissension. For only the good is friendly to itself, but evil is inimical to itself. C
VIII. If nothing in the nature of things is adverse to itself, but wickedness fights with itself, how does it have subsistence?
IX. If the first good, that is, that which is proper to being, is rightly spoken of, then evil is not being; seeing that that which is good in its essence does not sustain having any opposite or contrary. But if it is demonstrated that evil is not-being (for to have something of being D without that which is, is in no way possible, and since it is alien to that which is good in essence to exist as evil), then it is shown that evil has no subsistence, since it has no being from the One who is, without whom it is impossible to have being.
X. Just as darkness, which is perceived, does not subsist by its own nature, but light is by its own nature (for darkness is nothing else than the shadow of a body, darkening the place circumfused from the opposition of the body from which it comes. This is what the action of the bodily eyes clearly declares. For dwelling inside the eyelids, if it closes itself, it has darkness touching it due to the separation from light; again, with the eyelids opened, the darkness which had come from their shadow, because it does not subsist, vanishes at once, while the light, being subject and subsisting by nature, is received again), so therefore also wickedness must be thought to have something of itself (of which the darkness, of which we spoke, is a symbol and sign), which exists at the same time from the turning away from the good, since it is not by its own nature. For if we wish to have faith in ourselves, as is right, we will easily perceive that evil is a turning away of the mind from the good, without which it will not be, since by nature it is nothing; but it is born from that which is, through the deprivation of that which is shaded, which is what is not. The whole, however, vanishes, returned to the union of that from which it existed.
XI. They say that there are various species of progress, but not of perfection: for it lacks variety, having as its end a uniform knowledge, which is entirely the infinite end of action and contemplation.
XII. Since there are three knowledges and sciences, most universal, I mean: practical, physiological, and theological: of the first, men can become teachers and masters; of the second, angels (and the end of this is more accommodated to their nature than the first); the third the substantial Word Himself initiates us into.
XIII. He who thinks himself to be something because of existence has not yet arrived at the point where he really is something. For to think to be that which now is not, does not allow one to go forth to be as it is.
XIV. A proud opinion concerning one's own knowledge deprives one of knowledge and generates its contrary, ignorance.
XV. If lilies rather grow in valleys, then also the soul that has approached these in humility will germinate lilies. For the book of the Bridegroom says, "I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys*."
XVI. Humility is the knowledge of one's own infirmity and indigence, when the mind contemplates the defect and poverty in its own essence. Since when it was not, receiving being by the will of Him who is, it is not sufficient for being of itself; but it is contained by the will of its Creator, so that it may always remain, and that it may be well, it acquires it by the communion of the One who is. For of that whose nature has being from another, its natural prerogatives also proceed from thence.
XVII. Everything that is not [ἀγέννητον] (unbegotten), that is,
those that have their origin from another, stands in need of aid; and the human mind is reckoned among those things that have an origin: therefore it is not sufficient for itself. Wherefore it stands in need of the aid of God, its Creator, without whom it cannot perform any good thing. Wherefore it behooves him who does well to refer his good deed to the Provider of strength, and to say: "He gives strength and virtue for the doing." And: "The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he has become my salvation." And: "Not I did these or those good things, but the grace of God with me."
XVIII. By the Lord, through Paul, the man who ascribes to himself the cause of his good deeds and sets himself up above his brethren, as though they were lukewarm and languid, is rebuked: "For what have you that you did not receive? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" Behold, "your house is left to you desolate" by my care and providence.
XIX. The meek and humble man is a holy dwelling-place for God. "For upon whom," he says, "shall I rest, if not upon the meek, and humble, and quiet, and him who trembles at my words?"
XX. When the fear implanted in us fears "that which is," that is to say God, religion is born. But when it fears that which "is not," it turns into timidity: the cause of why it may progress to better things is knowledge, and the memory of death, and the justice of the inevitable judgment to come. But a fall into worse things is the love of the body, and of the world, and the habit of anger that is stirred up from thence.
XXI. When the natural affections that are in me are moved according to nature, they become good. But when they are moved contrary to nature, they become evil.
XXII. God is the essential life, the beginning and the end of all rational beings and of those who come into being from life, far removed from the death that happens: for it did not have its being from Him who is, in such a way that it should still remain dependent upon Him who is; for "God did not make death, nor does He delight in the destruction of the living."
XXIII. The fear of the Lord is the father of prudence; but from prudence comes the sincere observance of the commandments, which draws in its train apathia, the mother of wisdom, and it enters into the soul, and there comes the knowledge of divine and human things, and of their causes.
XXIV. He who fears the One will not fear the many; nay, rather, on account of the One, many will fear him. "For if you fear the Lord your God," he says, "and hear his voice, no one shall stand against you, but your fear and terror shall be upon all the nations."
XXV. Wisdom is wont to be obtained through the observance of the commandments. For God does not impart it to the idle, according to what one who was wise in piety said: "If you desire wisdom, keep justice, and the Lord will provide her to you."
XXVI. He who wishes to consume the riches of wisdom in the pleasure of vain glory will not have God assenting to this, even though he should offer a thousand prayers. For God does not sustain the desire to grant to those who ask evilly, as James, the disciple of Christ, says: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask evilly, so that you may spend it on your lusts."
XXVII. When the desiring part of the soul, agitated by the goad of divine fear, is moved to love better things, then the reason becomes prudent against the artifices of wickedness, and having investigated the deceitful villainies of the demons, hands them over to that part in which anger resides, so that with more potent threats it may repel them further, opportunely whetting the soul itself to anger: which is what David also exhorts: "Be angry," he says, "and do not sin."
XXVIII. Then the soul is defiled in its irascible part, when it has fallen into the pleasures of the world and contends for them. And this incites it, and sorrow and malice are present, always urging it on, and sharpening its anger against those of its own nature; nor does it consider whether its faculty of anger, passing beyond the permitted bounds through a movement contrary to nature, has suffered an impairment of its natural strength, which it received from the Creator Himself to use against the demons and vicious motions. "Cursed be their fury," he says, "because it is stubborn, and their indignation, because it is harsh."
XXIX. Even if the devil is called the tempter in the Gospel, yet the pre-notions of the knowledge of our thoughts are wanting to him. For, says one of the learned Fathers, only God, who created us, knows the mind. Therefore, it is with good reason that the things which are in our souls are hidden from the devil and his satellites, since their essence is not knowledge, and they are far distant from Him who is this.
XXX. If the principles of those things which were created are in the storehouses of wisdom, they are unknown to those to whom wisdom itself is essentially unknown. Hence the sages of the Greeks have rattled forth falsehoods, boasting that they know the essences of things.
XXXI. He who flees the imitation of evil, and does not at the same time flee speaking evil of him, does not notice that he has thereby made himself similar to him whom he censures.
XXXII. Do not condemn the fornicator, if you are chaste; but flee the action itself, do not rebuke the agent. For He who said: "You shall not commit adultery," also said: "You shall not judge." But if you, being one who does not commit adultery, condemn one who fells into it, you are equally transgressing the law.
XXXIII. He who exercises himself in true humility, always an inquirer of his own works, stands before God and the Judge with religious fear, and draws His mercy upon himself. Moreover, he most decently leaves the judgment of all to Him. For he fears to sit in judgment with Him who is by nature Judge, being himself of the same nature as those who are judged, while he is an unjust arbiter of that communion of nature.
XXXIV. When a thought carries you away to judge or condemn the deeds of your neighbor, then to yourself
turn and examine your own actions exactly; lest perhaps, while you rigidly judge the lighter faults of your neighbor, you incur graver ones without knowing it; and lest something happen to you like that which befell the Pharisee, who, by looking upon the faults of the Publican and neglecting his own transgressions, finds that he is being judged by the very person he condemns. For by comparison with the Publican, God condemned the Pharisee, since pride is accustomed to be condemned by humility.
XXXV. He who brings an accusation against one from whom he has suffered an injury in word or deed, is found to be overcome by sin and weak just like the other, and to be a fool along with the one who did him injury. For he has returned evil for evil, and, just like the other, he has become a transgressor of the law in having committed evil. For it is said: "Do not return evil for evil, nor a curse for a curse."
XXXVI. If faith, according to James, is dead without works, and that which is dead is numbered among things that do not exist, then he errs who thinks he possesses faith while destitute of virtues; and he is an infidel, even if he assumes that he has faith in God.
XXXVII. The just worshipper of God is called Job, because he rightly rendered piety toward God through works. For he did not worship God with naked words while spurning His commandments in his deeds. But the unjust one shall hear: "Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?"
XXXVIII. A faithful man is one who is benevolent and keeps what has been entrusted to him by God honestly, without transgression.
XXXIX. He whom the world keeps or contains does not have freedom in time; but he whom the world does not contain, does not fall under time. This is evident from the elders, of whom we read in the history of Susanna, and from the adolescent Joseph. For the former, in their advanced age, showed their own lust; while the latter demonstrated the hoary manners of chastity in his youthful years.
XL. The hands of the soul are the virtues situated in action, with which man, having finished his work, fills his hands and becomes a priest, who is able to offer to God in Christ Jesus the sacrifice of praise: "For praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner."
XLI. Praise is the celebration which is offered to God for the dignity of His creation. Otherwise, praise is the act of thanksgiving and glorification which is said to God for the revelation of mysteries, as Daniel says: "He reveals deep and hidden things, and knows what is in the darkness, and the light is with Him. To Thee, O God of our fathers, I confess, and I praise Thee, because Thou hast given me wisdom and strength, and now Thou hast shown me what we asked of Thee," and what follows.
XLII. To fear death is not according to nature, since no one dares anything against it. But now, by all who lead a life according to virtue, it is despised. A sullied conscience, therefore, brings the fear of death. Hence Paul, after he had fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith, expecting the crown of justice, desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. And that which many flee from greatly—to be separated from the body—this was in his prayers.
XLIII. He who is dead to the death of sin in this age, and for whom life according to the flesh is something better, does not unreasonably fear the separation of the flesh, by which he is disjoined from the life he holds in his hands. But the just man, before the separation of the flesh, B according to the law and the precept of virtue, is already separated from the flesh, considering life in the flesh to be death, as the blessed Paul says: "Unhappy man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?" He, advancing toward the true life, justly deems sensible death worthy of being embraced, as it is that by which he is transmitted to the true life.
XLIV. Everyone hastens to be there where he has his possessions and goods, or where he offers himself as a captive to his own greed. Therefore, those who covet celestial possessions, as if going into their own country, desire to depart from the body. But indeed, to those who are destitute of better things, the emigration from the body is terrible, which strips them of their own goods and what they opine to be pleasant.
XLV. When the irascible part of the soul and the concupiscible part conspire in evil, sadness, anger, envy, wicked hatred, the memory of injuries, and whatever is similar to these, are born. But if the mind, through better reflection, separates these said faculties, and the irascible part strives to protect and defend whatever divine fear suggests are better things, it draws back its impulses from the concupiscence which is averse to reason, and moves the soul to be justly angry, lest it sin, being inclined toward the concupiscence of evil. And this is: "Be angry, and do not sin."
XLVI. The duties of the practical life sustain the reason of seeds, the irreproachable operation of which, when brought to maturity, produces knowledge responding to the practice. "For sow for yourselves unto justice, reap for yourselves unto the fruit of life, illuminate for yourselves the light of knowledge."
XLVII. In seeds, each produces its own kind, but in the seeds of virtue, the matter is not so. For the same thing often produces the fruit of two, or three, C or many seeds, and makes one person a servant of God through knowledge, another an friend, another a son. The diversity of the sprouts of one seed is caused by the senses by which they are moved, who cast the seeds of actions. For the good, when sown from the sense of the fear of God, generates a servant of God. But that which proceeds from introductory charity, makes a son of God.
XLVIII. For the soul, in order to do and establish the good, three struggles must be undergone. The first indeed is when it institutes to do something conjoined with virtue, against the things that prohibit it. The second...
A struggle is to prevent the good from yielding to booty, while the thought repels those things that flow to us from outside. The third is that which is undertaken against one’s own complacency and arrogant opinion of oneself.
XLIX. If all nations have been bidden to praise the Lord, because His mercy has been confirmed over us, it is indeed prudent that he who sang for the eighth, declared that no one in hell confesses to God: *In hell, who will confess to Thee?* he says, meaning: No one will confess.
L. If the Lord is merciful and just, and our God has mercy, therefore, since He created us in goodness, He chastises us in justice, and when we have departed from Him, He receives us in mercy.
LI. If you flee the imitation of evils, flee also from detracting from them: for detraction denies charity and despises fear.
LII. He who serves the Lord from fear of punishments will not be entirely unshaken in the presence of temptations that deprive him of the pleasant things of life. For one must fear lest the affection toward perishable things, which is within him, should cast out fear, since charity casts out fear. But he who, out of charity toward God, gives himself to virtue, no weight of impending evils will be able to draw away from his habitual love toward virtue. *For who,* he says, *shall separate us from the charity of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or the sword?* and what follows. If therefore the perfection of service is according to fear, it is the working of good according to charity; before perfection, that which is imperfect is neither safe nor firm. C
LIII. When we permit God to do His own will through faith, let us refrain from figuring out how it will come to pass. For nothing is difficult to accomplish for the omnipotent will of God, who is above all things. Rather, the end of what He wills concurs with His will, and for Him, to will and to accomplish are the same.
LIV. If, according to John, God is charity, he who loves, abides in God, and God in him. But he who hates his neighbor, it is certain that he is separated from charity and substitutes hatred. Whoever therefore hates one who shares his nature is distant from God: since God is charity, and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him.
LV. He who in truth repents of his sins both reproaches himself and patiently bears insults from others; but he who makes light of repentance, being unmindful of the sins he has committed, is indignant when God allows anything to be said or done against him for his own utility, and he asks with boldness, "What have I done?" Whom, accusing him, God says through the prophet Jeremiah: *There is no one who does penance for his sin, saying: What have I done?*
LVI. If the knowledge of God’s commandments is of itself obvious and easy to understand for all, why is it that D the Prophet prays that understanding be given to him, so that he may be able to learn these things: *Give me understanding,* he says, *that I may learn Thy commandments.*
LIX. He who enters upon ascetic labors for the sake of obtaining indifferent things does not know how to exchange worse for better. Similarly, he who struggles in cultivating virtue, not that he may be able to exercise these things for God freely without a struggle, but that he may obtain wonderful gifts, is ignorant of God’s judgment and providence.
LX. Faith in Him in whom one believes is, as it were, a certain prelude to the charity that will follow, which, when it comes, makes the initiate henceforth a friend of Him in whom he believed. This is clearly demonstrated by the most certain faith of Abraham in God, through which, having religiously revered Him in whom he believed, he came into the knowledge of Him, from which he proceeded into the love of Him, through the flourishing of which he received the knowledge of the things created by God, and was called and became the friend of God. For the Lord God said: *Shall I be able to hide from my servant Abraham what I am about to do?*
LXI. A Christian ought first to take vengeance in himself, and then finally in others. For Moses, meek and unmindful of injury, was rightly and naturally angry at those who had sinned against God—not indeed incited by hatred or any evil perturbation, but on behalf of those very people against whom it seemed he was acting.
LXII. He who considers returning like for like to one who afflicts him or injures him, or brings any annoying and bitter thing upon him at all, harms the mercy already bestowed on him by God, not measuring back with the same measure with which the Lord has measured to him. How then will zeal for God be acceptable to God Himself, if you readily avenge God in another, while in yourself you allow Him to be treated injuriously?
LXIII. Just as, without art or an artisan, tools and materials cannot prepare a house or a ship, so the goal of a life according to virtue cannot be reached without continence, patience, humility, and prayer. Therefore, continence indeed restrains the soul from worldly pleasures and curbs it from every evil deed; patience teaches it to bear labors and to tolerate external temptations invading it against continence. Humility, however, teaches one to exercise judgment of oneself and to be a judge not of others, but to leave judgment alone, as is worthy, to the Lord, who well knows the deeds of each, whether they be good or bad, and from this to transfer the mind to meekness and a peaceful state. And it teaches one to exercise true quiet, and to be in oneself, and because of this, in God. Constant and persevering prayer, however, because of the conversation with God, draws the mind away from worldly thoughts, presents it to God, and because of the approach to God, fills it with gentleness and piety.
LXIV. That prayer is the virtue of virtues,
A fixed upon fleeting and perishable things, is so much the more deficient and distanced from God.
LXXIV. A monk is not said to do that which is convenient for him to do through the body, but rather if he acts in such a way that the soul performs it through the body. For it is allowed to do the same thing in many ways: to fast out of fear, lest the flesh rise up, not out of a hatred for delicacies. And again, out of fear of violating the law, which has been ordained for monks regarding abstinence from food; not out of a desire for virtue by which anyone might refresh himself with modest food, or out of a flight from indulging in pleasures. For food must necessarily be taken to sustain nature, but one must not flatter the body by eating with a vicious appetite for what is set before one.
LXXV. To desire exquisitely seasoned dishes allowed to the monk is a testimony that fasts are undertaken under a certain human constraint. This argues for an immoderate love of the body, not a desire for religious exercise. B
LXXVI. It is fasting not only to sit down to meals late and at a late hour, but also to finish the meal quickly. Nor is it of the monastic institution to eat only to appease great hunger, but to use no variety of foods. For it is ascetic when, with uniform food and a short time at the table, one avoids the relaxation of the mind toward every kind of food as something unpleasant and disagreeable.
LXXVII. A fast is little in accord with reason if it indeed awaits the legitimate and appointed time, but then rushes to the table with a certain unbridled impulse at the hour of taking food, and binds the mind together with the flesh to the pleasure of those things which are set before it.
LXXVIII. The Apostle called carnal affections flesh and blood, and the wisdom of the flesh that which provokes the mind toward these things, when he said: *Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God*. And: *The wisdom of the flesh is death* C. The flesh itself, therefore, is a certain nourishment for demons. *While the guilty draw near against me*, he says, *to eat my flesh*. He, therefore, who by virtue macerates and withers these "fleshes," of which we speak, kills the demons with hunger, and renders them weaker to bring weapons against himself.
LXXIX. If we recognize what we have made ourselves through the sins which we have committed, then we shall understand what God made us according to nature.
LXXX. The mind, knowing what its own nature is, because of the evils which it suffers or undergoes from without, accuses no one of the crime. For if it had not first suffered something from someone, it would not now be suffering from someone.
LXXXI. Continence is a bridle, restraining the impulse of desire for food, possessions, or glory. D
LXXXII. Obedience is a persuasion by which, without discernment, without sadness, and without reasoning, the commanded...
is fulfilled. Otherwise: Obedience is perfect subjection, stripped of one’s own will, and impelled to action by the mere nod of one’s superior without disturbance.
LXVI. No one who is attacked by an evil demon will ever be overcome, unless he has first been divided in himself, and slowly yielding to the sinful desires of his flesh that are in opposition to reason, has allowed himself to be conquered by them. Because, having seized upon this as a handle, the devil is strengthened, accomplishes the same movements to the destruction of the soul, and makes them difficult to root out.
LXVII. Without general continence, it is impossible for one who is struggling to satisfy his Christian duty and to proceed toward the attainment of the blessedness proposed to us, since the Apostle says: "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things" (1 Cor. IX, 25). Where the word "all things" perhaps signifies always. And we must abstain from all thoughts and actions that do not agree with reason. For on the part where the effort of continence will languish, on that part the power of sin will grow; and thus victory over the soul will befall the demon by your own consent.
LXVIII. Sensible continence is a turning away from all actions which are performed through the flesh and which fight against reason.
LXIX. Intellectual continence is a turning away from the pleasure of thoughts which are not without passion. Yet the former turning does not proceed correctly unless it so meditates on and observes the latter soul that it does not allow it to be torn away from itself.
LXX. The perfection of the contempt of this life consists in two most general functions: in continence, I say, and patience. And of these, indeed, continence is in our power, while patience is among those things which are not. And the former is confirmed by fear, the latter acquires strength from charity. For charity, he says, "bears all things, endures all things, hopes all things, charity never faileth." A
ANNOT. He seems to affirm that patience is not in our power, because of the matter of patience, which for the most part proceeds from external causes. He says that continence is in our power, because anyone can be continent, if, aided by divine grace which is at hand for all, he wishes to be continent: nor does he require anything else, speaking simply of continence, except divine help and his own will. Nor—because this author asserts that continence is in our power—does he therefore deny that heavenly help is necessarily required for it. For he was not ignorant of that saying of the Wise Man, Wisd. VIII: "And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, and this also was wisdom, to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord, and besought him," etc.
LXXI. The sign of true humility is not to speak insultingly of oneself, but to bear manfully the insults cast by others.
LXXII. He who, B while repelling the glory coming from men, speaks against himself, but is nonetheless wounded and grieves at the reproaches which are cast upon him from without, does not perceive that he is deceiving himself and that he speaks ill of himself more from a desire to please men than for the sake of virtue.
LXXIII. He who desires to possess something better does not bear those things by which he is prevented from attaining the thing desired: but he acts studiously, and strives for all things, so that he may be able to possess what he desires. For example’s sake, he who wishes to attain stable temperance does not labor over delicacies and drinks: nor does he seek the adornment of soft clothing: nor does he trifle with his lips in a way that might gradually loosen and dissolve the intent and vigor of his religion: nor does he weave free conversations full of laughter with young men or girls: nor does he attempt anything else of this kind: but rather he exerts himself in the opposites of these—namely, in continence, in vile clothing, in gravity, in religion, in quietude, in humility, which is the base and foundation of all virtues: upon which the Lord, having rejoiced, bestows the good sought from us, and guards it.
LXXIV. No good can be compared without patience and general continence. "In your patience," he says, "you shall possess your souls" (Luc. XXI, 19). And: "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things." Moreover, continence is not well performed without assiduous prayer. For it says: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. V, 17). C Nor indeed is prayer pleasing to God without humility, since it is written: "He has looked to the prayer of the humble, and has not despised their supplications" (Ps. CI, 18). Therefore, if we wish to obtain virtues, let us frequent continence, patience, and humility, and above all these, assiduous prayer, by which prayer we may easily obtain what we strive to attain.
LXXV. Of all our right actions, nothing so terrifies the demon as constant and persevering prayer. For it makes the one who prays worthy of divine approach (for the Lord is near to all who call upon Him) and makes him difficult to be invaded by enemies.
LXXVI. Meditation on the oracles of the Holy Spirit removes and takes away the filth of evil thoughts, generating in us an intellectual fire, which warming our soul, makes it watchful for prayers, quickens it, and presents its petitions made with understanding to God.
LXXVII. He who labors in the commentary of the divine Scriptures for the sake of knowledge alone opens D the door of vain glory to himself. But he who exercises himself in the discipline of the sacred Letters with religious caution and piously, to the end that he may know the will of God and do it, he draws the power of the Holy Spirit to himself: which, when known to him, imparts strength and vigor to confer grace on his work, and furthermore makes him learned in those divine mysteries which are not written.
LXXVIII. Then, when someone in the meditation of the oracles
of God is rightly and legitimately engaged, A it engenders in us the fear of God. For it says: "And you shall meditate upon them" (namely, upon the words of God), "sitting in your house, and walking on the journey, and sleeping and rising up; and they shall be and shall move before your eyes, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God." And when a temptation invades, he draws forth the discourses he has learned from his memory no differently than one draws arrows from a quiver, and he launches them against the demons and depraved affections: and thus he dismisses the evil thoughts, which had been suggested against the fervor of virtue, with the design unaccomplished.
LXXIX. Just as the noble valor of soldiers in the midst of battle shows how often and how diligently they practiced the bow in time of peace, so an undaunted soul in temptations gives witness to the monk’s use and exercise of the Scriptures according to the good pleasure of God.
LXXX. Meditation, when attentive together with compunction, B truly demonstrates that a man is rightly and legitimately engaged in the works of God.
LXXXI. Let the angels and the demons behold your fervor and promptness in the habitual worship of God: that the former, gladdened, may remain with you, while the latter, scourged, may flee away.
LXXXII. A Christian is the dogma of Christ our Savior, composed from the mandates prescribed by God, which those who follow them as is fitting adorn with the image and likeness of God.