Symeon the New Theologian

RESPONSES OF DEMETRIUS SYNCELLUS, METROPOLITAN OF CYZICUS, CONCERNING PROHIBITED MARRIAGES.

See Patrologia, vol. CXIX, col. 1098-1115. We have already provided above, under Philippus Solitarius, the booklet concerning the heresy of the Jacobites, or on the affairs of Armenia, which some attribute to Demetrius. See vol. CXXVI.

SYMEON THE YOUNGER.

NOTITIA.

Symeon, prefect of the monastery of Saint Mamas at Xerocercus, is someone other than the Metaphrast. Regardless of how much Joseph of Methone and Gretser, as I have indicated above, confuse them, I pass over other matters and examine only the time in which the prefect of Saint Mamas lived. For whether he flourished in the year from the creation of the world 6200, as Pontanus translates in Symeon’s own oration 13: "The devil has been our enemy for now more than six thousand two hundred years," which was the year 692 of our salvation; or in the year 6600, that is, 1092 of Christ, as all the Greek manuscripts clearly have in that same oration: *Αὐτὸς δὲ ἐξακισχιλίοις καὶ ἐξακοσίοις, καὶ ἐπέκεινα τούτων ἔτεσι διαμείνας ἀεὶ πολέμιος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἄδηλος καὶ κρύφιος* — "For six thousand six hundred years and more, he has remained ever the enemy of men, unknown and hidden"—he is ^A very far removed from the age of Symeon Metaphrastes, who lived around the time of Leo, son of Basil, about the year of our Lord 886. And the things that are brought forward—that this Symeon lived in the very times of the iconoclasts, or certainly after they had lived, under Leo the Isaurian and Copronymus; or certainly under Leo the Armenian, Michael the Stammerer, and Theophilus, who all waged war against the images—are plainly trifles. Moreover, they are idle tales which, to prove the age of Symeon, refer from the Menologies of the Greeks on November 20th to Gregory the Decapolite as having endured many things: *Καὶ Συμεῶνα τὸν ὁμολογητὴν καὶ θεοφόρον ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁγίων εἰκόνων εὑρεῖν ἐγκεκλεισμένον*—"And to have found Symeon the Confessor and God-bearer imprisoned for the sake of the holy images." And nothing prevents that Symeon from having been visited by Gregory, whom we are seeking, since he himself testifies in two places that he was cast into exile; one in his *Orations*, the other in his *Commentaries*, although he remains silent regarding the cause. ^B He also speaks of the martyrdom of Stephen the Younger as if it were a matter plainly recent in his own era; for although one who lived under Justinian Rhinotmetus in the year of our Lord 692 could have been still alive when Leo the Isaurian seized the empire, twenty-five years after Rhinotmetus; and if he had also led a longer life, reaching Copronymus himself forty-nine years after the same Rhinotmetus, he could certainly not—unless we wish to be insane—have reached an age extending through Leo the Armenian, and Balbus, and Theophilus, prolonging his life to 137 years after Rhinotmetus, and remembering Stephen the Younger, who was killed for the defense of the holy images.

Wherefore, this first number having been exploded, we must most clearly return to that which the Greek codices represent. Namely, this Symeon [lived] in the year of the world 6600, that is, 1092 of Christ, [as is noted] even below by some others, lest that *ἐπέκεινα* (and more) be rashly cast [in place].

^A

NOTITIA

Regarding the claim that he lived, [some say] he was more recent than Metaphrastes, [living] for at least 200 years under Alexius Comnenus, who occupied the empire after Nicephorus Botoniates, before John and Manuel Comnenus. But if some room for conjecture is to be allowed in this matter, I would say that this writer was older than the years he himself recounts; that he used an integral number which he later tempered with that adverb, which is able to signify not only the following years, but also the preceding six hundred; since by the force of its meaning, it indicates both the earlier and the subsequent, and the sense of those words is that the devil had always and subtly been an adversary to men from the very foundation of the world until the year 6600, which was imminent. Hence I fix his age at the year 1051, or thereabouts, under Isaac Comnenus and Ducas. ^B

If one considers the years of Nicetas' life, [extending to] 58 years, and then when he was still living and flourishing while Symeon was writing, if you count the years of his further life to his death, we would have Nicetas being more than a centenarian when he wrote his preface; which, unless proved from elsewhere, I for one would not so easily believe. He is called the Younger Theologian, as Gretser and Possevinus note, so as to be distinguished from Gregory Nazianzen. Thus Stephen the Younger, martyr under Copronymus, is so called for the distinction from the protomartyr Stephen; [so too] Theodosius Junior, Valentinianus Junior, in respect to their predecessors of the same name. Regarding Saint Mamas, and Xerocercus (which they change to Xylocereum), and [his account] of the Hegumenos being falsely slandered by heretics as a leader, see the same authors. It does not seem worth the effort for me to examine every single minute detail. He wrote thirty-three orations on faith and morals, both Christian and monastic; also a book of divine loves, or sacred praises; and two hundred and twenty-eight moral chapters which are inscribed in Greek *Praktyka* and *Theological* [chapters]. Collected together from the Bavarian and Augustan libraries, Jacob Pontanus rendered them from Greek into Latin, and at Ingolstadt, with other works he had translated from Greek into Latin, he had them edited by Adam Sartorius in the year 1603. Jacob Gretser added Notes, and in them wrote a preface. There is also a *Dialogue of a Scholastic concerning God* addressed to the same Symeon. ^C

However, that I may satisfy the reader, I shall append here in their own order [the titles] that I have observed in various manuscript codices; noting what has been edited in Latin from the unedited, so that others, with me as a guide, may distinguish them without wider labor. Let us proceed, therefore:

I. Concerning love, and what are the ways and actions of spiritual men, and a beatitude for those who possess love in their hearts. P. Brothers and Fathers, I wish to speak to you concerning things that contribute to the profit of the soul.

II. Concerning how to flee the plagues and corrupting influences of men, and to cast away their words, and to arise to the work of virtue. And further, concerning the need to observe whether we possess the beatitudes of Christ within ourselves, and concerning tears and compunction. P. Whoever wishes to see God, let him deny himself.

III. Concerning that it is necessary to be well-submissive, and not to forget the covenants which we have made with God; and that one must not grumble at the all-night vigils of the morning. P. Remembering the commandments of God, thus saying: Judge not. ^D

IV. Concerning repentance and compunction, and by what works it is possible to acquire this, and that it is impossible to attain purity and impassibility without tears. P. Since, Fathers and brothers, [the writings] of our holy Father Symeon the Studite... [the rest] edited by Pontanus, no. 28.

labor of virtues in the time of fasting; and concerning silence, and how those who struggle in truth ought to conduct themselves throughout the fast. P. I, both in soul and in body, from a faulty and heavy-hearted purpose and disposition.

V. On repentance, and that the mere distribution of what one possesses, and the stripping away of one’s belongings, does not suffice for the cleansing of the soul unless we also acquire sorrow. And concerning the exile of Adam, and that if he had repented after transgressing, he would not have fallen from Paradise; and what a benefit his repentance wrought for him after his fall. And concerning the second coming of the Lord, and the judgment of sinners. And at the end, a reproof of those who live in wickedness and hypocrisy. P. Repentance is good, and the benefit derived from it.

VI. On spiritual labor, and what the labor of the ancient saints was; and how we can achieve this, that we might become partakers of the All-Holy Spirit, as they were. P. Since some, having high opinions of themselves, as if...

VII. On attachment to relatives, and what its deception is; and into what pit and bonds it brings those who are held by it; and concerning despair, and the difference therein; what is meant by, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." P. Would that I were able to keep silence, and lament my own evils.

VIII. On perfect love, and what its operation is; and that unless, through zeal, we already become partakers of the grace of the Spirit from this point forward, we can neither be believers and Christians, nor shall we be named sons and children of God. P. If he who feigns virtue for the sake of deceiving many...

IX. On almsgiving, and what it is, feeding one who is hungry for God, giving drink to one who is thirsty, and so on; and how this is achieved in one; and that if one does not also do these things in himself and thereby feed and give drink to Christ, he will be nothing benefited by merely doing these things for the poor, while neglecting his own self, trembling and naked, from the righteousness of Christ. P. I ought not to have dared to speak to you at all.

X. On partaking of the Holy Spirit, and holiness, and perfect impassibility; and that he who loves the glory that comes from men is nothing profited by the rest of the virtues, even if he has accomplished them all. P. Do you not see how those who stand before an earthly king consider themselves as having glory?

XI. That one should not zealously keep and embrace the benefit of the fast only in the first week of the fasts; but that it is necessary for those who are zealous to maintain the same and equal fervor throughout all the weeks of the fasts. P. We should have on the past Sunday what is now about to be kept.

XII. On abstinence and patience in labor, and how one ought in all the fast to conduct oneself ^B towards those who struggle in truth. P. I, indeed, both in soul and body, from a faulty and heavy-hearted purpose and disposition.

XIII. On the Resurrection of Christ, and what manner it is, or how the resurrection of Christ comes to be in us, and in it the resurrection of the soul; and what the mystery of this resurrection is. P. The Passover is now here, the joyful day, [the cause] of all gladness and cheer.

XIV. On repentance and the beginning of the monastic life, and how one, proceeding by road and order unto virtue, comes to perfection in the labor of the commandments. P. The man who has despised all visible things and his own soul itself...

XV. On an impassioned, faithless, and evil disposition; and what the union of God with the sons of light is, and in what manner it comes to be in them; and towards the end, a denunciation of those who unworthily dare to approach the priesthood. P. Darkness is always opposed to light ^C, and unbelief to faith.

XVI. On the operations of the Holy Spirit, and what the contemplation of its mysteries is, and how they are revealed to the pure in heart; and a narrative from the prologues, useful regarding a certain novice who received the Holy Spirit through the prayers of his spiritual Father. P. A certain youth narrated to me, saying that while being a novice to a venerable Father...

XVII. On contemplation and revelation, and the illumined soul, and how he who is seized by the love of God, and has reached the depth of humility, is operated upon by the Holy Spirit. P. Great is the condescension and philanthropy of God toward men; wherefore, being struck with wonder...

XVIII. On the methods of the evil one, which he suggests to the lighter-minded and those who love to be first, whenever a shepherd is made from among men. And that one should zealously hinder those who unworthily leap upon authority, but should support and cooperate with the spiritual and holy; and towards the end, regarding the shepherd. P. If you have been appointed to lead a people and a flock, consider [your duty] well.

XIX. That we should not trust in the words and promises of men alone, but should confirm the trustworthiness of their words by their deeds; and what the disposition of true teachers is, and their love for those who are being taught by them, and what their heart is, and their care, and how they intercede for them to God. P. Let each one know the beginning of your friendship toward me.

XX. On renunciation and the cutting off of the will ^D, for those who asked him to write to them how one ought to pass the ascetic life, and that it is good in this...

to use an experienced guide, that is, a spiritual Father, in order to learn the works of virtue ^A and the difficult labor of the ascetic craft. And on faith in the spiritual Fathers, and the contemplation of light, by which every soul that is illumined advances toward the love of God. R. My beloved and most desired brethren, you have often wished to hear a discourse for your benefit.

XXI. On the remembrance of death, and what a good end his thrice-blessed brother Anthony made, and at the end, a funeral oration for him. R. I pray to the God who has had mercy on me, for the salvation of all.

XXII. On faith and teaching, concerning those who say it is not possible to reach the perfection of the virtues in the midst of worldly life; and a narrative from the prologues that is very beneficial. R. It is good for us all to proclaim the mercy of God.

XXIII. On repentance and the fear of God, and what struggle of soul and pain of heart he who repents with a contrite body has, and what he says and prays toward the Lord. R. Hear my word, O my sons, in the latter days, my beloved, my most desired.

XXIV. On spiritual knowledge, and that the treasure of the Spirit hidden in the letter of holy Scripture is not clear to all, even those who wish for it, but only to those who have acquired the One who opens the mind to understand the Scriptures. R. Spiritual knowledge is like a house built between worldly and Greek knowledge. It is found among the published [works], number 19.

XXV. On the transformation of soul and body from the air, from the elements, from foods, and from the demons that arise in us. R. The monk ought not only to understand and perceive the transformations and changes that occur in the soul. It is found among the published [works], number 18.

XXVI. On the beginning of a beneficial and saving life that is fitting for those who have just renounced the world and those in the world, and those who are running toward the monastic life; and a teaching most profitable for beginners. R. Every man who has just renounced the world and all those who are in the world.

XXVII. On not being negligent regarding the work of God’s commandments, nor despising one single one of them, but striving to keep them all together, so that we may not, as despisers, be shut out of the bridal chamber; and on enduring ^D temptations courageously. R. Will you not hear the Lord and his apostles crying out? If anyone, he says, keeps the whole law.

XXVIII. On the life-giving death that occurs in those who struggle even before physical death, and that those who have come to be under grace, above the law, knowingly receive within themselves the grace of divine light; for those who have not already received this light in the present life, nor behold it, are under the shadow of the law, and they shall be judged by it. And what kind of person the priest ought to be, who has received from above the power to bind and loose, and that to him who truly performs the priestly office and is illumined by the divine light, all are manifest—both those who walk in the Spirit of God and those who have not yet put off the earthly man. R. See how you hear; for Christ and God says, Search the Scriptures; for what reason, he says?

XXIX. On the fact that one ought not to say that it is impossible now for one who wishes to do so to come to the height of virtue and to rival the saints of old; and that everyone who teaches a new heresy to those who are persuaded by the holy Scriptures teaches contrary things. R. Many say every day, whom we also hear saying [such things]. It is in the published [works] 30.

XXX. On repentance and the beginning of a praiseworthy life; how the one who is repenting ought to act each day, in which [discourse] there is also mention of demons and of compunction. R. Hear the power of my words, and accept them gladly, as being a piece of advice good for us.

XXXI. On how each person ought to examine himself and carefully search himself; and how one must compare one's own [deeds] with the commandments of Christ. R. In the preceding instruction, so as not to prolong the discourse too much, we left the things instructed at that time incomplete.

XXXII. On blasphemy, and that he who says that no one in the present generation can participate in the Holy Spirit, but also he who slanders the energies of the Spirit and attributes them to the opposite, revives a new heresy in the Church of God. R. Every sin, says the most sacred word of the Savior, shall be forgiven to men; but that against the Holy Spirit [shall not].

XXXIII. On participation in the Holy Spirit, and that it is impossible for the works of virtue to be confirmed except through the visitation of the Spirit, without whom no one is directed toward virtue, nor is able to benefit others, or to accept the thoughts of others. R. God is [Spirit], and this is [evident] from all the divinely inspired [Scripture].

XXXIV. That it is not without danger to bury the talent given to us by God. For it is necessary to make it public and demonstrate it to all, and gratefully to proclaim the benefits of God for the benefit of the hearers, even if some are displeased. R. Brethren and Fathers, and children in Christ, what did you suspect regarding the things taught by us in various discourses so often?

XXXV. Thanksgiving to God for the gifts of which we are deemed worthy, and an introduction on how God always appears to those who are purified in heart. And in what things and signs [this happens]. R. I give thanks and worship, and I fall before you, Lord of all, and all-holy King.

XXXVI. A certain partial natural philosophy on the creation of the world, and the fall of Adam. R. ^A

transgression and exile of Adam. R. And since He also gave them a law, commanding them not to eat of the tree alone. XXXVIII. On the incarnation of the Word, and in what manner He was incarnate for our sake. R. And when the summit of extreme wickedness was fulfilled. XXXIX. How the entire creation is again to be renewed, and to become a new heaven and a new earth according to the divine Apostle. R. But let us consider how the creation shall be renewed. XL. What the final splendor of the creation shall be; in which [we speak] also concerning angels and the soul. R. But after it had been stripped, it was transferred into corruption and bondage to vanity. XLI. How all the saints are united to Christ and God, and become with Him. R. Having therefore spoken sufficiently and adequately concerning these things. XLII. How it behooves the upper world to be filled, and what sort it is, and in what manner it shall be filled. R. But open to me your ears and the guiding mind, ^B where it did not ascend? And who, and how shall it be, and is the kingdom of God among us, and what is the energy of this within us? R. Since the Lord of all things expressly cries out, even day by day, through the Gospels. L. On impassibility, and the gifts and graces in it according to progress; and what is the perfection of spiritual maturity according to Christ. R. Just as one who desires to gaze upon the most brilliant sun must have pure [eyes]. LI. On those who imagine they possess the Holy Spirit within themselves, but are entirely unaware of His energy; and concerning those who say that it is not possible for any human to see His glory during the present life; and proofs by citations concerning this; and that there is no envy among the saints when we become equal to them through every virtuous zeal; and in what manner one sees God, from whence he is already initiated into the enjoyment to be given to the saints in the age to come, and that whatever such a person says, or does, or writes, it is not he himself, but the Holy Spirit speaking in him who says and writes these things; and he who sets aside or perverts his words sins against and blasphemes the Holy Spirit that is at work and speaking in him. R. Behold, I [speak] again to those who say they possess the Spirit of God unknowingly. LII. On impassibility and a virtuous life; and how one must cut off his own will, and ascend to a height of perfection, and concerning the conjunction of God to the soul and of the soul to the body, and the union of the three in a paradoxical way; and in addition to these, [concerning] spiritual healing; and how one must heal those who are sick in soul. R. Having often conversed with many who are in the world, and between certain discussions. LIII. ^C On those who serve God, who they are and of what kind and quality; and who it is that repents, and what is his work; and who it is that follows the ascetic life, and what is his work; and who is serving God, and what is his work; and if we do not acquire virtues, the mere riddance of passions will benefit us nothing. R. Since, so far as concerns holy baptism, we [call] ourselves Christians apart from works. LIV. On love and faith; and how one becomes pregnant with the love of God, and concerning the illumination and contemplation of light, and the mystical discourse of the Spirit. R. If it seems good, therefore, let us hear our Savior God clearly crying out and saying. LV. On true knowledge; ^D and that the knowledge of God comes not from lessons, but from purity and grace from above to the diligent. And that it is difficult to judge; and a rebuke of those who think they know the things of the Spirit without the Spirit; in which also [we speak] concerning the holiness of the Spirit. And what a good thing faith is, and what its fruit is, and how it increases; and that those who have possessed the treasure of the Spirit within themselves, and in others

^A they recognize. And what are the signs of the saints, and how and by whom they are recognized; and that he who is not born from above cannot see God, who has begotten him, nor recognize him whom through the Spirit he has reached. R. Now it is fitting to speak well with David, and thus to cry out more loudly.

On the fact that he is naked, having been brought forth from nothing.

LXI. On stillness, and the kind of labor to which he who perseveres bravely in it ought to hold fast. R. Desiring to say a few things about the more perfect of the virtues, I beg of you, open your ears to me.

LXII. On confession, to someone you are writing to, who is your spiritual child, and who therefore are those who have received the authority to bind and release sins. R. You have commanded our humility, Father.

LXIII. A multifaceted ascetic, moral word. R. Brother, consider this to be called a perfect withdrawal from the world, the complete mortification of one's own will.

LVI. On the fearful day of the Lord and the coming judgment; that even before death it is already being atoned for in us here through tears; and that he in whom it happens during the present life, will not meet it in the next. And what is the day of the Lord, and to whom it is suddenly revealed; and that faith in Christ is not able to save us alone, unless we also become consciously partakers of the Holy Spirit; and that not all who are baptized partake of Christ through baptism; and how one can know if he carries Christ within himself, and has become a partaker of the Holy Spirit; and an explanation, as if in passing, of the text, "In the beginning was the Word"; and a beatitude for those who, through struggles, have received the visitation of the Spirit. R. The word about judgment, beloved, is great for us, and difficult to interpret.

LVII. On the life-giving death of Jesus and God, which is always taking place insensibly in the perfect, and that the acquisition of the virtues is bought with blood; and what are the resting places of the virtues; and that he who does not ascend in order through the first step into the kingdom of heaven will by no means enter into it; and that in the perfect there is joy and exultation and not weeping, and in them the streams of theology gush forth; and towards the end, that one must not leap to authority without the grace that gives assurance to our hearts, which calls one to shepherd the people of God; and what is the work of those who preside, and what is the care for the rational sheep; and how these ought to be shepherded by the shepherds. R. The things of the life-giving death of Jesus and God, and of its wondrous energy. ^C

LVIII. On the statement of the Apostle which says: "The first man is earthly, from the earth; the second man is the Lord from heaven"; and how we put off the earthly man and put on Christ, having become his kinsmen and brothers. R. The blessed Paul has well feasted us in the former of the divine things.

LIX. On the statement of the Apostle which says: "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil"; and how one wisely redeems the time of the present life. R. Nothing is so useful to the soul, above all else, as the night and the day.

LX. On feasts; and how one ought to celebrate; and of what things the acts performed in the feasts are symbols, and against those who take pride in them; and concerning those who communicate worthily or unworthily, and what is the difference in these cases; and towards the end, how one is united to God through communion; and how one is not united.

LXIV. On repentance, and what are the things that a multitude of sins forbids one to do. R. Neither with regard to the multitude of sins should one ever despair.

LXV. To one of his disciples concerning the manner in which one can recognize a holy man, and how or by doing what he may find him, and after having attained such ones, how one ought to be disposed toward him. R. We have conceived you through teaching; we have distressed you through repentance; I have brought you forth through patience.

LXVI. On self-ordained teachers, and those who take to themselves the apostolic dignity without grace from above; and that it is not right, before being born of a spiritual Father and being enlightened, to lead others, or to teach at all. R. I wished that I too had been so dead to the world.

LXVII. That we must examine whether we have the things of the beatitudes of Christ in ourselves; for these are the sign of the seal of Christ, and the characteristics of his image; and that it is impossible for one not marked with the sign of Christ, and bearing his image within himself, to enter into his kingdom. R. As many as are unsealed by the sign of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. Edita Numer. xxi.

LXVIII. On that which arises from the Spirit in the faithful who are striving, and the life-giving death before death; and that those who have become in grace above the law receive the grace of divine light consciously within themselves. For those who have not yet received this light in the present life, and are not seeing it clearly, are still under the shadow of the law, and will be judged by it. And how the participation of the Holy Spirit in the faithful, and holiness, and perfect dispassion comes about. R. Search, said our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, so that in the first place, indeed, is salvation. In editis Num. xx.

LXIX. What is meant by, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned"; and what are the signs of love toward God, and toward one's neighbor; and concerning perfect love, and what is its energy, and that, if we do not with diligence become partakers of love and of the participation of the Holy Spirit here and now, we are not even Christians.

^A can we be? But neither shall we be called sons and children of God before the world is created; answer: God who made the world. But as unbelievers rather shall we be condemned in the day of judgment. R. The Lord and our God Jesus Christ, being the genuine Son of God and Father, is both consubstantial and of the same nature.

On stillness.

death also affects those more resolute in nature. R. I heard a thing strange and full of wonder.

XI. How God was seen by him, as [He was seen] by Stephen and Paul the apostles, here the Father relates in astonishment. R. What is the newness of the miracle, which even now is happening?

XII. Concerning the theology of the one in all things tri-hypostatic Deity, and through which, using humility, he speaks about Him, and turns away the conceit of those who think they are something. R. How is it that you appear again, living in me?

XIII. An exhortation to repentance, and how the will of the flesh, being united to the will of the Spirit, makes man God-like. R. I weep and am pricked [in heart], when the light shines upon me.

XIV. Thanksgiving to God for the gifts of which he was deemed worthy by Him, and that the dignity of priesthood and leadership is a fearful thing even to angels. R. If I even wish, Master, to speak, I have no strength.

XV. How, seeing the glory of God, this divine Father was energized by the Holy Spirit—and that the Divine is within all; but is also both graspable and ungraspable to the worthy; and that becoming many, Christ and our God is one and the same, and remaining undivided and unchangeable. R. As You are revealed, Master of all, and the glory of Your face.

XVI. That only the Divine is by nature desirable and to be longed for, of which he who partakes has become a partaker of all good things. R. Because the thing is hidden from every created essence.

XVII. That fear begets love; but love roots out fear from the soul, and remains alone in it, being divine and holy Spirit. R. How shall I hymn? How shall I glorify? How shall I worthily praise?

XVIII. Instruction with theology concerning the energies of holy love, that is, of the light of the Holy Spirit itself. R. Who will have the strength, Master, to tell of You?

XIX. Instruction with theology, in which also [one finds] concerning priesthood along with dispassionate contemplation. R. How shall I tell of your wonders and strange things, Master?

XX. Thanksgiving and confession with theology, and concerning the gift and participation of the Holy Spirit. R. He who exists before the ages as invisible was seen for my sake on earth from a virgin.

XXI. A letter to a monk who asked, "How do you separate the Son from the Father, by thought or by reality?" in which you will find a wealth of theology overthrowing his blasphemy. R. You shone forth, you manifested the light of glory.

XXII. Thanksgiving with theology; and concerning those things which the divine grace of the Spirit has named through the energies. ^C

XXIII. Precise theology concerning the incomprehensible and uncircumscribed Deity; and that this divine nature is uncircumscribed, neither inside nor outside the whole; but is both inside and outside as the cause of all things, and that the Divine is graspable to man only by the mind, in an ungraspable way, as the rays of the sun [are] to the eyes. R. O Trinity, the creation of all! O Monad, most foundational! ^B

XXIV. Through which, confessing in the present discourse, he shows the depth of his own humility, and going forward teaches it to him who has reached a measure of perfection, and who was deemed worthy of such revelations in theology, in this also imitating Paul the divine who called himself a sinner, and unworthy to be called an Apostle. R. Grant to me, Christ, to kiss Your feet.

XXV. Concerning the vision of divine light that occurred to him, and how the divine light is not overtaken by darkness, in which he also, being astonished because of the abundance of the revelations, remembers human weakness and condemns himself. R. How shall I describe, Master, the vision of Your face?

XXVI. That he who still lives in ignorance of God is a dead man among the living who are in the knowledge of God; and that for those who partake of the mysteries unworthily, the divine body and blood of Christ becomes ungraspable. R. Now among the living, as one dead, O Master, I exist.

XXVII. What kind of person the monk ought to be, and what is his work and progress and ascent. R. Make the house of your soul a palace for a dwelling for Christ.

XXVIII. Concerning the revelation of the energies of the divine light, and the intellectual and divine work of the virtuous life. R. Leave my cell to me alone, enclosed.

XXIX. That the things of divine matters are manifest only to those to whom, through the participation of the Holy Spirit, God has been united as whole to whole. R. From where do you come? How do you enter the inside of the cell, tell me.

XXX. That to souls purified through tears and repentance, the divine fire touches them beforehand, and cleanses them further, illuminating their parts darkened by sin, and healing their wounds, brings them to complete integration, so that they shine forth with divine beauty for them. R. For the divine is truly fire, which the Master said He came to cast.

XXXI. Concerning theology, and that the divine nature is unsearchable, and to men entirely incomprehensible. R. Lord our God, Father, Son, and Spirit, in form formless.

XXXII. That the glorious ones of the earth, and those haughty with wealth, are led astray concerning the shadow of things seen; but those who have despised present things become in [their] wandering-free participation of the divine Spirit. R. Seeing me, Master, reviled by believers.

XXXIII. Concerning theology, and that those who [possess] the one according to...

the image, preserving it, trample upon the wicked powers of the ruler of darkness; but the others, whose life is filled with passions, are ruled and reigned over by him. R. Light is the Father, Light is the Son, Light is the Holy Spirit. ^A XXXIV. That the union of the all-holy Spirit with purified souls takes place in clear sensation, that is, in knowledge, and in whomever it occurs, it renders them light-like, similar to itself, and light. R. The invisible is altogether distinct from visible things and creatures. XXXV. That all angels are illuminated by being shone upon, and behold the glory of God as it is lawful for human nature to see God. R. Look from above, my God, and be pleased to appear. XXXVI. Thanksgiving for the exile and the afflictions which he endured during the persecution against him. R. I thank thee, Lord; I thank thee, alone. XXXVII. Supplication and prayer of the same to God for His help. R. Master Christ, Master who saves the soul, Master of all. XXXVIII. Concerning theology; and that the mind, having been purified from the matter of the passions, beholds immaterially the immaterial and invisible. R. What path might I walk? What track might I avoid? XXXIX. That longing and love for God transcends every love and every human longing. And the mind, having been dyed by those who are being purified in the light of God, becomes entirely deified, and from thence is called the mind of Christ. R. How lovely is thy beauty, incomparable [is] the form. XL. Confession of the grace of God's gifts, and how this Father who writes was energized by the Holy Spirit, and the teaching spoken by God, making things there [be] a portion of the salvation of those being saved. R. Again the light shines upon me; again it is seen. XLI. Thanksgiving to God for the benefits received from Him, and a request to know for what sake those who have become perfect are permitted by demons to be tempted; and instruction concerning those renouncing the world, and an outlining spoken by God. R. Thou knowest my poverty; behold my orphanhood. XLII. That those who have already departed from here to God through participation in the Holy Spirit, having been united [to Him] upon departing this life, will be with Him forever from there. But if not, the opposite will happen to those who are otherwise here. R. The beginning of life [is] the end to me, and the end [is] the beginning. XLIII. That it is better to be well-shepherded than to shepherd those who do not wish to be shepherded. For there will be no profit for one who is zealous to save others, ^B but loses himself through the keeping of them. R. Say, Christ, to thy servant; say, O Light of the world. XLIV. What is the [man] according to the image, and how man is reasonably held to be the image of God; and that he who loves his enemies as benefactors is a follower of God. And having become a participant of the Holy Spirit from there, he becomes [so] by position and by grace, known only to those— ^C rooted, [by] those who are energized by the Holy Spirit. R. Glory, praise, grace to Him who made creation out of nothing. XLV. Concerning most exact theology, and that he who does not see the light of the glory of God turns out to be worse than the blind. R. O most compassionate my God, my Creator, shine more upon me. XLVI. Confession joined with prayer; and concerning the connection of the Holy Spirit, and dispassion. R. I have gone far away, O Lover of mankind; I have lodged in a desert. XLVII. Concerning the far-shining contemplation of the intelligible paradise; and concerning the tree of life in it. R. Blessed art thou, Lord; blessed art thou alone. XLVIII. That it is glory and honor for every man who is insulted and suffering evil for the sake of God’s commandment, [to suffer] the dishonor [inflicted] for the sake of the commandment of God itself; and a dialogue with his own soul, teaching the inexhaustible wealth of the Spirit. R. Give me the sensation, Christ, which thou once granted. XLIX. That there is a time when even through the care for one's neighbor and [his] correction, the teacher may be dragged down into the infirmity of the passion that is in the other. R. Have mercy on me, Lord; have mercy on me, alone. L. Concerning the contemplation of God and divine things, and the paradoxical energy of the Holy Spirit, and concerning the properties of the holy and consubstantial Trinity; and that he who has not attained to enter into the kingdom of heaven will be in no way benefited, even if he be outside the punishments of Hades. R. What have I done [worthy] of thee? LI. That when the Holy Spirit shines upon us, everything of the passions is put to flight, as darkness [is] by light; but when He withdraws His rays, we are struck by these and by wicked thoughts. R. Thy light shining upon me gives life, my Christ. LII. Concerning theology; and that to one not transformed by participation in the Holy Spirit, and not having become God by position in the knowledge [of Him], it is not permitted to teach divine things to men. R. Who shall comfort me in the pain of my heart? LIII. Concerning God’s manner of expression, and the Word of the Father of words, and how this divine Father, being illuminated by the Holy Spirit, conversed with God, and was initiated by Him into divine and human things. R. It is missing. LIV. That God has given to each of men the gift appropriately, and for the benefit, through the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of working—not as he himself wishes, but as was predestined by Him—so that the [body] of His Church might not be empty. Without beginning. But it begins from these verses: "Each possesses his own energy. But not having received it from himself, but from us he certainly [does]." LV. That for those who keep the holy baptism pure, the Holy Spirit remains; but from those who have polluted it, He departs. R. Thou knowest me, O Christ, as a worker of all lawlessness. LVI. Prayer to God, concerning what has happened for...

^A both an intercessory and a thanksgiving prayer. R. O Lord, give me understanding; O Lord, give me knowledge. LVII. That having desired God with my whole soul, I might hate the world. R. I am held in shadow, and I behold the truth. LVIII. A common teaching with reproof for all kings, high priests, priests, monks, and laymen, spoken and being spoken by the mouth of God. R. O Christ, grant me words of wisdom, words of divine knowledge. ^B

Prose orations; divine Praises, or Loves, are written in strict composition: for as they mostly consist of political, iambic, and Anacreontic verses, yet in such a way that no account is kept of the quantity of syllables, which the ancients observed most accurately; only their number and the accents are attended to. And this method of fashioning poems is not found to be in use now for the first time in that nation, but perhaps many centuries ago, having eventually grown weary of labor and with barbarism occupying all things (add also the ignorance of similar matters), as we see in the hemiambics or Anacreontics of Photius the Patriarch, of Christopher first of the secretaries, of Constantine the Reader, of the Emperor Manuel and others; of Psellus, Metaphrastes, Manasses, Philip the Solitary, Manuel Philes, Tzetzes in iambics and political verses: in which, however, the more recent authors have been more negligent in their composition. Just as the Anacreontic verses are not all concluded with the same number of syllables and feet, so these also are composed now with more, now with fewer syllables, yet according to their norm. In iambics, it is done otherwise: for whereas the ancients, by reason of the feet being longer or contracted, made verses which were sometimes richer in syllables and sometimes fewer, even though they always observed the number of feet, the more recent authors most religiously keep only the syllables, and those twelve in number. The same is observed in political verses, in which they never exceed fifteen syllables; and if any seem to be beyond this, they shorten and remove them by aphaeresis or synaloepha, which is more visible in the recent and vulgar Greek tongue, as well as in that of the Italians, among whom similar hiatuses are restricted to retain the number of syllables. They are called "political" because they are common to all citizens and adapted to their use; just as prostitutes and harlots, because they are compliant and peculiar to all, and serve a public servitude, are known by no other name added, but only by that one. They are purely Trochaic; for as those consist of seven feet and a syllable, so also do these: except that the verses of the ancients, by reason of the longer feet, sometimes exceed fifteen syllables, while the political ones never do, as was stated regarding the iambics. And as those of the ancients are integrated by two members and are divided in the middle, so also are these which are called political: let this be an example: Hear that I may tell you Sudden and harsh Where it happened once Between two young ones A mournful death And complainingly In a beautiful meadow, Where one was making merry. ^C And as for the kinds of these poems, let whatever others may say, lest we wander too long outside the subject, these suffice.

Gesner, from the Practical and Theological Chapters of Symeon, sets down only one hundred, to which he adds twenty-five. In the library of Bavaria, many more are provided under three titles: etc. 1. Pontanus reduced these to one body, and seeing in such a multitude a few scattered theological pieces, he deemed them "Practical" rather than, as in the greater number, "Moral," and published them in Latin with other works of Symeon. I have read his own in the Italian libraries in Greek.

I. Chapters practical and theological. R. Faith is to die for Christ for the sake of His commandment, and of His demons, from whom he [was cast] out of paradise. II. Practical and theological chapters. [The text continues, translating the remaining titles and catalog entries:] II. Practical and theological chapters. R. Faith is to die for Christ for the sake of His commandment. III. Chapters. R. How the devil found [it] with his own, after he was [cast] out of paradise. IV. Selections of certain theological [chapters] from the same. R. In what manner the intellectual orders of the higher powers [were created] by God. In the Vatican library, just as with many other things which we recounted above, there are besides his prayers. V. Beginning, O crystalline life, and bejeweled, and almighty right hand. VI. Beginning, O Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of all creation. VII. To the Holy Spirit. To Thee alone O Good, and to the all-holy and life-giving Spirit. VIII. Another. R. Lord almighty, immeasurable and ineffable.

In the library of Antonius Augustinus, codex 86, are contained his: Practical and theological chapters 101. Of theology other Chapters 25. Other theological and practical chapters 102. Codex 87. Sermons 35. Institutions on dilection or charity, and what the lives and actions of spiritual men ought to be. His Practical and theological chapters 100. On penitence, and what he who has recently confessed ought to do. To one of his disciples, how one can know a holy man. Codex 37: From Symeon the Theologian, excerpts concerning silence. In the library of the King of the Gauls: Of Symeon the Younger, provost of the monastery of Saint Mamas, Practical and theological chapters 101. His gnostic chapters 25. His Ethics, etc. His on the difference of attention and prayer. His precepts for the monastic life. His various chapters. His on penitence and the perfection of life.

^A In the Altempsian Library at Rome: Symeon the Younger’s 46 Orations, and Chapters, and On Prayer. In the Royal [library] of Saint Lawrence, Symeon the Younger the Theologian’s Historical Work, collected from various authors. On prayer and attention. On penance. Theological chapters pertaining to the knowledge of one’s neighbor and to theology. On charity and the beatitudes. How one ought to recognize a holy man. 100 practical and theological chapters. Gnostic and theological chapters of Constantinus Varinus: Symeon the Monk [the] New Theologian’s Exposition of the Holy Trinity.

He had his admirers, and most especially men of similar condition: Hierotheus, monk and presbyter, head of the monastery of the Beautiful ^B Fountain; Alexius the Philosopher, a great master; Nicetas, deacon of the Great Church; Basil, first of the Secretaries and founder of the monastery of Evergetis, Nicetas Stellatus, and others. Since their poems in honor of Symeon are not available to everyone, I shall not hesitate to transcribe them here:

Of Hierotheus, monk and presbyter of the monastery of the Beautiful Fountain

Of Alexius the philosopher, who became a great teacher

Of Nicetas, the God-beloved deacon of the Great Church of God

Of Basil, Chief Secretary and founder of the monastery of the Evergetis

Of the same

Of the Same.

And Symeon of Thessalonica mentions him not without praise in his Dialogue against heresies, among those who have written concerning prayer, placing him as the blessed Symeon the New Theologian, and the rest, worthily, because of the divine Spirit that was in them. Catholici also have extolled his piety and doctrine no less. This writer, they have shown to be deeply enamored of the integrity and innocence of all Christians, both high and low, and to be one who diligently excites and stimulates them in every way to cultivate this, so that he urges this common perfection and holiness vehemently; thus he commends the monastic life most frequently and accurately, and inflames them with the desire to pursue it, and most sharply rebukes the slothful and those walking according to the flesh: nor does he omit to admonish their superiors and governors explicitly concerning their duty. Hence, ^A a suitable and appropriate inscription was given to the work: *Orations on faith and morals, both Christian and monastic*, in the Holy Scriptures, and in the doctrine which is held to be proper to theologians, well-exercised and appearing safe. What is brought forward in the *Sacred Laudations* is piety, even the preeminent, and those blessed flowers with which the Bride desires to be supported, and those ointments which give off a scent, the odor of which is above all aromatics. Concerning God, not only most learnedly—but also most sweetly—although sometimes, as is also discussed above in the *Orations*: so also not a few precepts are interspersed, by which either the Christian or the monastic life is instituted and conformed to its own perfection. In the *Chapters*, Symeon is seen to be like himself, and with the same religion, piety, and doctrine he brought forth these other things; nor is Christian and monastic holiness less taught and inculcated in these than in the former, fitting similitudes being employed. Gretser, however, more cautiously [noted] that not only in this Symeon, but also in not a few other monastic and ascetic writers, there occur some things said rather harshly which need the file of judgment, the greater part of which he softened with his most learned notes, and endeavored to draw into a good sense. And indeed, these [interpreters], not having perceived everything, have brought into the open the piety and doctrine of this Symeon.

We, having treated of the proscenium, shall discuss the scene of the whole matter, and we will ingenuously untie the knot of the difficulty. C Whatever may be the case regarding the piety of this man, whether it was true or feigned—for I do not wish to detract anything from his glory. Certainly, concerning his doctrine, there is something that might be able to draw me to the other side, which even while he himself lived, or wrote, was obnoxious to the various accusations of others, which those who act as Symeon’s *Symmista* have endeavored to defend by word and writing. Nicetas Stethatos [in his] Preface to the *Sacred Laudations*: "For if these revelations and voices are not the voices of God, nor of a soul converted to God, and made outside all perception of the world, and all in accordance with the total holy [state], one could hardly show that any other of human things, and those performed by us with all diligence, would be acceptable to God and praiseworthy to men, which is not brought forward by the wisdom and knowledge of the highest God [as something] illustrious and bright." Therefore, for the sake of those who are overcome by envy toward good things, and by unbelief and ignorance, these things are added by us to the erotic and divine hymns of the teacher; so that, if upon a first encounter they receive them, they might at some time become better than themselves, and superior to envy and malice, and glorify as far as possible the One who in deed and word and contemplation has glorified God, and who has sanctified the name which is above every name in his own odes; or, as those untasted by good things, and entirely incapable of the high visions because of the grossness inherent in them, they might desist from the attempt and the curious examination of the things written here. "For these revelations and voices are not of voices, nor of a soul converted to God, and made outside all perception of the world, and entirely in accordance with..."

^A all its parts being holy, much less something human, and performed with the greatest diligence by the elders, will be shown to be acceptable to God and praiseworthy to men, provided that it does not also have, attached to it, glory from wisdom and the supreme knowledge of God. Therefore, these things have been set forth by us for the sake of those who attack good things and are besieged by envy, disbelief, and ignorance of the divine praises and the love of the master, so that those who offend in these matters at the very first encounter may eventually turn out to be better than themselves, and may repel envy and calumny, and praise as much as they are able Him who glorified God in action, word, and contemplation, and who sanctified the name above every name in His members; or, as if starving for good things and utterly incapable of sublime speculations because of their innate coarseness, they might abstain from the very approach and curious investigation of these writings. Indeed, they even strove to wash away the crimes opposed to the Master by publishing Orations, calling the attackers by no other name than that of the Hagiocategoroi [accusers of saints], as if one who accused Symeon were accusing holiness itself. Under this title, the same Nicetas published an Oration: "Let envy perish, which grudges good things, and let Symeon, worthy of all hymns and praises, be praised and glorified," just as we have explained more broadly with sacred usages in the speech against the Hagiocategoroi. Let envy, which always devours the good, perish. Let him who is worthy of praises and every kind of encomium, Symeon, be praised and exalted with sufficiently auspicious voices, just as we have explained at greater length in the Oration against the Hagiocategoroi, having cited the authorities of the saints.

^C When the crowds would not be quieted, Symeon was called to trial, and persisting in his opinion, he was condemned to prison, not because of the faith or because of the defended images, which no one was attacking at the time, but because of his ardent zeal with which he, fired up, quite freely criticized the emperor’s loose morals and license—which, indeed, he surely would never have kept quiet, whenever he remembered his imprisonment, since it turned to his own glory and that of the universal Church. Theodorus the Studite, in commemorating his own exiles, punishments, and imprisonments, did not conceal the cause for which he underwent similar things: to say nothing of Athanasius, Chrysostom, John Veccus, and others. He confesses the imprisonments, he makes the cause visible in such a great number of writers; it is not a laudable cause. He is himself suspected of wrongdoing. What end the imprisonments had is not clear to me; nevertheless, the silence of subsequent writers is an indication that his opinions were condemned and lay neglected in obscurity and in hiding. But being always dug up from the shadows by the new arrogance of those who dare all things, they obtained authority among the monks of Mount Athos, until Barlaam, as Cantacuzenus relates (Hist. lib. II), a monk from Calabria, a man sharp and perspicacious in wit, and most eloquent in language, imbued with the foreign doctrine of the philosophers and our own doctrine of the holy Fathers, arriving in Thessalonica and dealing with many matters of religion against the ^D Latins, was amply received, and became dear and intimate to them. Having gone to one of those who are called Hesychasts, he heard about the mode of solitary life and the precepts of obedience: then, in what way those who embark upon the solitary life, gradually and quietly intent on prayers, are suffused with exultation of soul and a certain divine and inexplicable pleasure, and behold with bodily eyes the light shining around them. Hearing this, Barlaam immediately began to attack the solitaries; he labeled them impostors, Massalians, Omphalopsychoi, corrupters of the dogmas of the Church of the fathers, and other similar marks, and disseminated publicly that their practice was to be shunned as one that both deceived and was deceived: for they were destroying the souls entrusted to them for the sake of the piety they displayed, by the greatest ruin of religion. Moved by these things, the Thessalonian solitaries, having interrupted their friends, asked that he desist from speaking such things against the Hesychasts; and that he should not, by the instruction of one poorly sane person, rashly invade and cut to pieces with curses their holy quiet. With this light, many, in times of persecution—the holy Antony also standing in the battle line against demons—were clothed in it: [they argued] that it is possible that someone may contemplate with bodily eyes the divine and uncreated Light. On Mount Tabor, men, even though still imperfect, were able to see the light shining around them and the uncreated Light: it is not to be wondered at if now the saints, illuminated from above by God, are said to behold this Light. Barlaam could not contain himself at such words, but exclaimed: "If that Light is neither a created thing nor the nature of God—for no one has ever seen God—you are serving two gods: one indeed the creator of all, whom all confess to be invisible, and another that falls under the gaze, the uncreated Light." He reasoned that [the Light] was not at all different or discrepant from the divine essence, which is why he accused them of ditheism, the worship of two gods. Steering his course to Byzantium, and trusting in his cause, he insisted that a synod be gathered: the monks of Thessalonica were summoned to judgment: and when the emperor tried to settle the disputes, and urged that an end be put to the altercations, as Barlaam would not rest, the matter was committed to a synod. Therefore, with the emperor and the patriarch presiding, and the remaining bishops, nobles, and senators sitting by, the synod was gathered in the temple of divine Wisdom. To Barlaam, as the actor, the first place of speaking was given, who offered the Fathers a pamphlet concerning these matters, added words to the proposed subject, and finally accused the monks, that they did not offer the prayer, which they said they celebrated, without defect and conveniently; but [asserted] that it was in need of an addition, which he himself supplied, so that he might complete what was lacking. Palamas responded on behalf of the monks, and refuted what was contrary according to the sayings of the saints and of men skilled in theology. He taught that the light on Tabor, by which the disciples were illuminated, was the glory of God without beginning, and His majesty, and the light of the Divinity and Deity, and natural and eternal...

and not created, nor was that light what is predicated by the theologians; and then, producing the Tomos composed by the monks living on Athos, he showed that he was in agreement with the saints, while the dogmas ^A of Barlaam were shown to be perverse. When, after a long dispute, victory inclined toward Gregory and the monks, Barlaam, seeing that he would not escape paying the penalty for his calumny and scurrility, approached the Grand Domestic, begging for his help and counsel so that he might escape the impending punishment. The Grand Domestic promised his services, and urged him not to await a grim verdict, but rather to confess his own previous ignorance and the truth he had recognized, to agree with the saints, and to set aside his enmities with the monks, so that he might live his life harmlessly, as a friend to the monks, who were not resisting him because of any invective poured out, but because of the perversity of an ecclesiastical doctrine. Barlaam affirmed that this seemed to be the best course of action for him, but he feared that after his confession he would be punished with some ignominy, since he had opposed himself to approved and accepted dogmas; therefore, if he were to suffer such things, it would be better to have borne the judgment in silence, so that he might be able to revoke the injury and judgment done to him in the future. When the Grand Domestic advised him not to fear any such thing in his presence, he, standing in the middle, confessed his past ignorance, asked pardon for his foolishly spoken words, and claimed that when he thought others were in error, he had applied diligence to amend their error, but that now he dissented from them in nothing, and that he believed and confessed that the light on Tabor was the glory of God, without beginning, and an eternal light. Now Gregory, with his assembly, embraced Barlaam, granted pardon for the past, and gave thanks to God for peace and concord. And in this manner the synod was dismissed. Not long after, when the emperor ^B had died, Barlaam stirred up the dispute again, and shouting that the judgment had been very lame, he fled to Italy. Gregory, later surnamed Acindynus, for a long time a disciple of Barlaam, attempting the same things, was condemned by all in a full synod gathered in the same temple, and sentence was passed against Barlaam and his followers as heretics unless they repented, and both were separated from the communion of the orthodox; and if any other in the future dared such things, and brought an accusation against Palamas and others as if they held ill-conceived views on religion, the Tomos—composed according to the ancient custom of the synods, to which Patriarch John and the bishops present at that time had subscribed, and which many others later agreed to and subscribed to—was handed over to Palamas and his companions so that they might defend themselves. And these things, indeed, Cantacuzenus repeats at greater length, whereas he repeats them more succinctly in the Prooemion which he prefixes to his contradictions against the hieromonk Prochorus Cydones, the mother of Demetrius, concerning the light of Tabor. Gregoras, in book 11, reports that nothing was done in that synod ^C because of the presence of the unskilled multitude, and so that the mysteries of theology would not be poured into the ears of the profane vulgar, and so that Palamas might not be convicted of a blasphemous doctrine while Barlaam was debating against him. And Barlaam was condemned not because he did not hold the same views as Palamas, but was convicted from his own other writings of malevolence and pertinacity, and above all of greed for glory. Let it be heard: "But this, and the lover of popular glory..." Then, so that Barlaam might not be made to pay the penalty for his inept garrulity and his mind, and Palamas might not seem to be guilty of a blasphemous and importunate theology—and so that from this, in place of the peace and good order that circumstances required, a tumult and enormous confusion might arise—the charges of prayer were first proposed. As for the matters concerning the Messalian heresy, and whatever other things were brought against Palamas, these were deferred for a few days; and had the sudden death of the emperor not followed soon after, the vehement attacks against the Palamite heresy would have been quickly concluded: that is, the root of what was to grow would have been extirpated then. And to omit what intervened, since Barlaam was not permitted—for the reasons we have mentioned—to demonstrate theological crimes, he was found guilty from his other writings and condemned for malevolence and pertinacity, and above all for his greed for popular glory. The cause of Barlaam, therefore, was his calumny and his forward aggression against the monks; Palamas, [was accused of] a blasphemous and importunate theology. Furthermore, I have to report to us from the Tomos of Patriarch John, who was present at the synod, which was dealing with another Tomos—which we have edited in Greek and Latin, in *The Consension of the Western and Eastern Church*, book 11, cap. 17: "It is indeed manifest from the Tomos... ^D that the judgment and the sentence were not made, as some might wish to interpret, with aversion, based only on those two chapters—that concerning the divine light in the Taborite discourse, and that concerning prayer, as we shall show as we proceed—and on those two very chapters Barlaam was condemned, and Barlaam was sent away, and the weight of the penalty placed in the Tomos was imposed *in defense*... because of these two chapters alone." It is clear from the Tomos itself, unless one out of envy or...

^A a desire to judge the matter wishes to be made a fool by the invocation of Jesus Christ, that it pursues and destroys this. From this point, the mind, harboring grudges against demons, stirs up anger according to nature, and pursuing, casts out the intellectual enemies. The rest you will learn with God, by keeping the Jesus of the mind in your heart. "For sit," he says, "in your cell, and this will teach you everything."

The Tomos was issued, having neither beginning nor end, doing nothing other than [setting forth] the two chapters contained therein, concerning the divine light of the Transfiguration, and prayer; for which chapters the sayings of the Fathers were also set forth. We have thus briefly explained the whole in this matter of truth, that the synodal inquiry took its end solely upon the two chapters in question, and no other.

The crimes therefore opposed to the monks by Barlaam, and while they thus see the divine light, and hold what Palamas asserts, they are manifestly convinced to be Massalians and Omphalopsychoi, and corruptors of the correct dogmas of the Church. However, the source and origin of similar errors and heresies was this Symeon, from whom those who were at first little cautious drank; later, for fear of infamy, they endeavored to defend them with all their might, both in word and writing. For in Homily 3, on prayer, or attention, he prescribes as follows for those praying so that they may see the light of God, and be illuminated by it: ^B "Before all things, three things you must acquire for yourself, and thus begin what you desire: freedom from care regarding both irrational and rational things—that is, the purity of a conscience kept from all things, so that it may be blameless to one’s own conscience—and detachment, having no inclination toward anything in this age, nor even your own body. Then, sitting in a quiet cell and in one corner alone, take care to do what I tell you. Having closed the door, lift up your mind from every vanity, that is, from any temporary thing, then fixing your chin upon your chest, moving the eye of sense along with the mind into the middle of the belly, that is, the navel. Restrain also the drawing in of breath through the nose, so as not to breathe freely, and search intellectually within your bowels to find the place of the heart, where all the faculties of the soul are accustomed to dwell. And at first you will find darkness, and an immovable density; but as you persist, and perform this work by night and by day, you will find, O miracle, ceaseless joy! For as soon as the mind finds the place of the heart, it sees immediately what it never knew; it sees the air in the middle of the heart, and itself all luminous, and full of discernment; and from that time, whenever a thought rises up before it can receive strength or form, it will be put to flight and vanish by the invocation of Jesus Christ. ^C Hence, the intellect, indignant at the demons, stirs up anger, which is according to nature; and pursuing, puts the intellectual adversaries to flight. The rest you will learn with God, by keeping Christ in your heart through the guarding of the mind. For 'Sit,' he says, 'in your cell, and it will teach you all things.' Do you see the origin of the Omphalopsychoi, and the dogma of the Massalians, conceived and propagated among these Hesychasts by this author? Indeed, all the heresies that later arose from Palamas and others were disseminated in the Church of the Greeks from no other source than this fountain."

Niphon the Hieromonk, or Demetrius Cydonius, concerning the heresies of Palamas: "But to run through the dogmas of Palamas in summary, taking our start from earlier times, we shall show briefly that Palamas did not first conceive the whole of the heresy, but many years before, among the so-called Hesychasts, the matters of this heresy were whispered as if in a mystery; and it is clear from the fact that a certain Symeon, the hegumen of the monastery called Xyloker- ^D kou—whom the mystics and mystagogues of such things have inscribed as the 'New Theologian'—wrote many profane and blasphemous things in his other writings; but especially in that concerning sobriety and attention, he sets forth such things: 'Sit in one corner,' and so forth."

among those who were called Hesychasts, as if in the hidden corners, this heresy was being whispered. That this is manifest from those things which a certain Symeon, prefect of the monastery of Xerocercus, whom the mystics and mystagogues of those like him also inscribed as "the younger theologian," set forth in his other writings, many of them blasphemous and profane, but most especially in his work ^A *On Sobriety and Attention*, where he has this: "Sit in one corner," etc. From this, this Symeon, on every page, more often and even to the point of nausea, inculcates divine illuminations, divine light, divine unions, essential unions with God, and six hundred other similar things. But who will bear those things with a calm mind, so that I may involve the remaining things in silence, which are held in oration 27: "O the wonder! That a human is united spiritually and bodily, if the soul is not separated from the mind, nor the body from the soul, but by the essential union he becomes tripersonal according to grace, and the human is a god by adoption, from body and soul and from that which he has partaken, the divine Spirit, and then is fulfilled what was said by the prophet David, 'I said, you are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High;' according to the image, that is, and according to the likeness of the Most High, divine offspring from the divine Spirit." O, miraculous thing! Man is united to God spiritually and bodily: since the soul is not separated from the mind, nor the body from the soul, and by an essential union man becomes even by grace one of the three hypostases, a god by adoption, consisting clearly of body and soul, and partaking in that of which he has become a participant, the divine Spirit, and then that which is of the Prophet David is fulfilled: "I said, you are gods, and children of the Most High all;" children of the Most High, that is, according to the image and likeness of the Almighty, divine offspring from the divine Spirit. ^B From this I deem it must be concluded that writings of this kind must be handled cautiously, lest readers slip into the most pernicious heresies—which lie hidden beneath them beneath the guise of piety and divine worship—and which can only with difficulty be torn from the soul, a thing which in the time of Palamas, to the greatest detriment of its religion, the entire Greek Church experienced; and not only because similar heresies had fixed their foothold especially among those who were the leaders of others to piety, but because, distracted into parties and factions, and conferring all their zeal on idle contentions and clearly futile things with more than diabolical cunning, it had lost the true doctrine regarding divine matters received from the Fathers. And it is truly a wonder, among so many dissensions and stubborn agitations of minds, that the fame of this Symeon was so protected that they seem to have been ignorant of the author of his opinions, whom they scarcely ever knew by name. And when mention of him necessarily had to be inculcated, they indicated the man by a silent name and other titles, "as one of the great ones," as one of the great men, speaking about him, Palamas says in his 2nd oration, which he himself inscribed *Patres* (Fathers). Epistle to Mena, "those initiated." Elsewhere, "Theologians," "Cantacuzenus," and similar things. But I think this happened lest, with the man's name indicated, people concerned with it might search for and examine his books, and since they would not find everything reported according to the rule of true doctrine as was fitting, they would condemn them, even forcing a synod, as was the custom, to condemn them, by which condemnation they themselves would also be brought into a crime as if they held and defended things ^C previously condemned by a synod.

Jacobus Pontanus' Preface.

The title of the orations is this: *Of our Holy Father Symeon the New Theologian*, or, as the inscription prefixed to the book of divine hymns has it, *Of the new one among theologians, presbyter and hegumen of the monastery of the holy great martyr Mamas of Xylocercus*. He seems to have been called Saint Father our Symeon (commonly Simeon with an iota, not with a upsilon) the Junior Theologian, so that he might be distinguished from Gregory Nazianzen, who obtained the name of "Theologian" among the Greeks; because, since this was also given to our Simeon, for that reason the word "the new" is added in the customary manner of the Greeks, so that no ^D one, hearing the name "Theologian" without any addition, might immediately conceive of Gregory Nazianzen in their mind; just as Stephen *the new* (Junior), a martyr under Copronymus, is distinguished from the protomartyr Stephen; just as Theodosius *the new*, Valentinian *the new*, with respect to predecessors of the same name: Presbyter and superior of the monastery of the holy and great martyr Mamas in Xylocercus. Concerning the holy martyr Mamant, the Latin Martyrologies treat of him on the 17th day of August, the Greek Menologies on the 2nd of September. He was most celebrated among the Greeks, as is clear both from other sources and from the oration with which Saint Basil adorned this martyr. Saint Gregory Nazianzen also says no few things about the same man, in his oration *on the New Sunday*. The *Miscella Historia* also mentions the martyr Mamas several times, for that author inflects the name of this martyr in this manner. In whose honor Pharasmanes (who under Justinian was prefect of the imperial bedchamber, as Nicephorus writes, lib. XVIII, cap. 441) founded a temple and monastery at Constantinople, near the wall which is named Xylocercus. And of this monastery was this Symeon of ours, the superior and presbyter. Nor was he only called *Xylocercus*; but also his...

monastery] derives its name from that specific gate, as noted by the author of the Pandect of Turkish History. For the builders constructing that gate, having found a great abundance of water in the foundation, drove many logs and piles into the water and placed stones upon them, and thus finally made a firm foundation for the building. Today it is named the Hagiobazari Gate, through which, clearly, the Hagiobazaritae, who live across the bay opposite this gate, enter the city. The name Hagiobazari signifies either "holy" or "holy market." And Symeon the Master, along with other Greeks, uses the word *emporion* (market) for a small town that is not closed by gates nor surrounded by walls. I should rather think it refers to the "holy market" in order to signify the market of Saint Mamas, which once possessed a notable monastery, an imperial palace most celebrated in histories, and finally a bridge no less noble, called Saint Mamas. For here those famous rivers of the ancients, the Cydaris and Barbyses—now the Machlena and Chartaricon—empty themselves into the far end of the Ceratine Gulf, and they are indeed joined to Saint Mamas by a bridge. The word Hagiobazariotai denotes the inhabitants of the market of Saint Mamas. So much for that.

Now, this Symeon of ours was not a Stylite; and those three Symeons lived before the times of the Iconoclasts; our Symeon lived either during those times or certainly after them. For he makes mention of Stephen the Younger, who was killed by Copronymus for the defense of the holy images. What, then, is his age? Indeed, one might think he lived under the Iconoclast emperors; under Leo, I say, the Isaurian, and Copronymus; ^B or certainly under Leo the Armenian, Michael Balbus, and Theophilus, who all waged war against the images. This may be confirmed by the testimony of Symeon himself, who says in his thirteenth oration: "The devil has been our enemy for now more than six thousand two hundred years, reckoning by the Greek calculation, from the foundation of the world." Lest anyone think a mistake has crept into the numbers, one must know that this number is not marked in the Greek manuscript with numerical signs, but is written out clearly in full words.

Furthermore, there was a famous Hippodrome at Saint Mamas, in which Copronymus killed the monk Andrew Calybites, as is recorded in the twenty-second book of the *Miscellanea*. Concerning the bridge at Saint Mamas, see Suidas under the word *Mamas*, and the *Constantinopolitan Origins*, Cod. M. His writings are now brought to light for the first time, which the epitome of the Gesnerian library also mentions. But it wrongly manufactures three men out of one Symeon. For Symeon the presbyter, and Symeon the Younger, or, as the Epitome says, the New Theologian, and Symeon head of Xerocercus, are one and the same Symeon, unless it ineptly calls him "head of Xerocercus" when he should have been called the warden or prelate of Saint Mamas at Xylocercus. For even if our codex also has *tes Xerokerkou*, I have no doubt that it should be read as *Xylokerkou*.

Moreover, besides those monuments of Symeon which now come to light, the Gesnerian Epitome mentions a book *On Prayer*, or on the three modes of praying, which we do not find in the Bavarian codices. Of the practical and theological chapters, it posits only one hundred, and to these, another twenty-five. But the most highly supplied library of the Bavarian prince provided us with far more, as you see; these are distinguished in codex 104 by three titles: 1. *Of our holy Father Symeon the New Theologian, Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Mamas of Xylocercus, Practical and Theological Chapters 101.* 2. *Chapters of the same, Gnostic and concerning Theology, 25.* 3. *Chapters of the same, Theological and Practical, 102.*

Concerning the time in which this Symeon flourished, I shall say not what I have found for certain, but what I have found probably. And in the first place, I do not think I need even advise that this Symeon of ours is different from Symeon the Elder the Stylite (whose life Theodoret committed to writing), and also from Symeon the Stylite the Younger (who flourished under Justin the Younger), and from Symeon the Stylite in ^C Cilicia, whom the *Spiritual Meadow* mentions in chapter 37.

Leo the Isaurian began his reign in the year of the creation of the world 6209, according to Cedrenus. Then, in the *Menologies* of the Greeks on the 20th of November, it is reported that Gregory Decapolites, having suffered many things from the Iconoclasts, came to Constantinople. "And that he found Symeon the Confessor and God-bearer, imprisoned for the sake of the holy images." But what prevents this Symeon, visited by Gregory, from being the same one we are looking for, when he himself testifies in two places that he was cast into exile—one in his orations, the other in his commentaries—though he is silent on the cause? He also seems to speak of the martyrdom of Stephen the Younger as of a matter clearly recent in his own age.

These and other things of this kind would not lack credibility if, in the Greek manuscript, "two hundred" were written explicitly and not "six hundred"—*but he himself, having remained for six thousand and six hundred years after these, has been always an enemy of men, hidden and secret*, etc. Six thousand six hundred and more years. Therefore, this Symeon is much younger, and his age falls into the reign of John or Manuel Comnenus; of which reign some novels exist, one of which, *On Voluntary Homicides*, was edited and published in the year of the creation of the world 6674, as was another of the same emperor, *On Diverse Causes and Negotiations*. Manuel began his reign in the year of Christ 1143, if Onuphrius in his *Chronicle* does not err; he ruled for thirty-eight years, less three months, as Nicetas testifies in book VII *On the affairs of Manuel*, near the end. Therefore, this Symeon flourished in the reign of the Comneni, John or Manuel, and wrote these orations. Wherefore, those things which were said in the annotation to the third oration concerning the age of Symeon must be corrected in accordance with the first opinion—which, however, collapses if we read not "two hundred" but "six hundred" with the Greek codex, as indeed it ought to be read, since the codex manifestly represents this writing [as such].

And although the Greek schism had already existed even then, all the passages in which Symeon mentions the procession of the Holy Spirit can, by a good reader, be accepted in a good sense, as can most other things, to some of which we have added brief notes; others we have left to the candor of the learned reader. For not only in this Symeon of ours, but also in many other monastic and ascetic writers, there occur certain somewhat harsh sayings which have need of a judge’s file. He who wishes to read the ascetic discourses of Abba Isaiah, John Climacus, Mark, Nilus, and others, will admit that I speak the truth. This is all we have of Symeon: to whom also the *Dialogue* of that Scholastic was written, which you will find after the moral chapters, which are nothing else than certain aphorisms and brief sentences adapted for rightly ordering one's life; chapters of a kind which others, too, have edited, as have Mark the Ascetic and Saint Nilus, which still exist. ^A

SYMEON JUNIOR PROVOST OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT MAMAS AT XYLOCERCUS THIRTY-THREE ORATIONS

ORATION FIRST. ARGUMENT. How man, driven from paradise, lost the truth which is the Word of God. Concerning the sin of the devil and of Adam. That every man is a sinner from his very conception: and in what manner he is regenerated through baptism in the Holy Spirit. What things many kings and prophets longed for before the times of Christ. That those not yet initiated, and who are sorrowful and confessing their sins, should not be subjected to canonical bonds and penalties, but should be instructed in the mysteries of the faith, and only then initiated. That every Christian needs divine transformation, in which perfection consists.

Adam, after he had given credence to the lying devil, and with that faith had eaten from the tree of knowledge, lost the truth; which human nature subsequently investigated for a long time and at great length, but could not find. ^B All the wise men of Greece are a testimony to this, who, amid such a diversity of human opinions, handed down by way of various disciplines and methods, and especially through many and long disputations on virtue and vice which they left behind, were unable to reduce them to simplicity and rectitude, or to bring them together and bind them harmoniously into one. But the truth is the Word of God, or the grace of Christ, which composed those many dissertations of words—which were contradictory to one another, and intricate, and twisted, proceeding from the meditations and reasonings of men—with one straight simplicity, as if by a natural, peaceful, and tranquil conjunction, and by its incomprehensible power, it demonstrated that all the rest of those doctrines were idle, vain, and useless; since, like blind men groping, they were unable to find the truth, which was deservedly hidden from our eyes. For as soon as man of his own accord, and by no impulse, embraced the lie, he fell into such a penalty, that he indeed searches for the truth, yet does not become possessed of it; he pursues, but does not grasp it. For that which had been snatched from our eyes by the lie given to faith is, by faith entrusted to the truth, found again and restored. He believed the open and manifest lie: we believe in the great and manifest mystery, namely, God clothed in a human body. That was incredible because of God’s command: this is rendered credible because of God speaking to us. That which was believed was found to be false (for it precipitated the believer into destruction and death*); this which is believed is found to be the truth, since it recalls from destruction and death him who had lent faith to the lie, taking away his sin, and bestowing upon him that he may fare well and happily: and from the result, both are perceived, the lie, that is, and the truth. Therefore, one is sin, and one is justice. ^C

Adam, after he had given credence to the lying devil, and with that faith had eaten from the tree of knowledge, lost the truth; which human nature subsequently investigated for a long time and at great length, but could not find. To this all the wise men of Greece are witnesses, who, amid such a diversity of human opinions, handed down by way and reason of various disciplines, and especially through many and long disputations on virtue and vice which they left behind, were unable to reduce them to simplicity and rectitude, or to bring them together and bind them harmoniously into one. But the truth is the Word of God, or the grace of Christ, which composed those many dissertations of words—which were contradictory to one another, and intricate, and twisted, arising from the cogitations and reasonings of men—with one straight simplicity, as if by a natural, peaceful, and tranquil conjunction, and by its incomprehensible power it showed all the remaining sermons of doctrines to be one and all idle, vain, and useless; whereas, like blind men groping, they sought the truth—rightfully kept from our eyes—and could not find it. For as soon as man, of his own accord and by no compulsion, ^D took hold of the lie, he fell into the punishment of searching for the truth without possessing it, pursuing it without apprehending it. For that which had been snatched from our eyes by the lie applied by faith is, by faith rendered to the truth, found again and restored. He believed a manifest and open lie: we believe a great and manifest mystery: God, namely, made flesh. That was incredible because of the command of God: this is made credible because of God addressing us. That, once believed, was discovered to be false (for it plunged the believer into perdition and death*); this, once believed, is found to be truth, since it calls back from perdition and death him who had trusted in the lie, taking away his sin, and granting him that it may be well and happily with him: and by the outcome, both—the lie, that is, and the truth—are discerned. Thus there is one sin, and one justice.

See what the devil did, consider what sin Adam committed, and you will find nothing other than an admiration of himself and pride. Indeed, they behaved thus because of the excellence of their glory. For they did not exalt themselves having obtained glory from humility: but since they did not yet know humility, and were ignorant of the ignominy and humiliation that would follow from their fall, for that reason they feared nothing, and did not hesitate to exalt themselves so much. Observe, on the contrary, how Jesus was justified. Though He was God, He humbled Himself even to the cross (which was the punishment of criminals)*. Therefore, there is one sin: an inflated opinion of oneself; and one justice: extreme humility. But now, who would exalt himself unless he were completely foolish? For no one in this life is endowed with such divine power that he can procure for himself the highest glory: nor can he...

*1 Tim. iii, 15. *Gen. iii, 6. *Phil. ii, 7, 8.

^A be, for he who is first created is in paradise under the intellect, and acts as its guardian: let him perform the commandments of Jesus Christ, by whom he is renewed, and let him guard the grace he has received from the Holy Spirit, being washed in the divine font, and let him confess and say: "His virtue (the grace, I say) which is in me, works the commandments of Christ with me"* [Col. i, 29]. For this is the guarding. For just as a building cannot stand or be raised without a foundation, so the soul believing in Christ, unless it has laid the foundation of the grace of the Holy Spirit, can by no means take up a life and manners pleasing to God; and its fasts, vigils, sleeping on the ground, other bodily afflictions, poverty, tears, and prayers are to be deemed of no moment. For thus did those who denied Christ after many torments deny Him. "He who confesses me," He says [Luc. xii, 8]. In Him we confess, in Him we adore, in Him we are saved. For the Holy Spirit renews the soul, just as it does the body.

But whoever is born into this light is immediately inglorious, and step by step proceeds at length toward glory. Who therefore, remembering his former vileness, exalts himself, how can he not be foolish and blind? For what is said, "No one is without sin, except God alone, nor an infant whose life is of one day"* [Job xiv, 4, 5 sec. LXX], is not said of those who have sinned; for how could an infant born for a single day commit sin? But this lies in the mystery, that human nature is sinful from its very conception. And God indeed fashioned man not as a sinner, but pure and holy. But after that first-formed man, having been stripped of the robe of sanctity by the sole sting of pride, became subject to corruption and ruin, from that time also conception, birth, and all things thereafter were subject to sin. And in general, whoever is numbered as a man, even if he has not sinned, is nonetheless a sinner. Wherefore another condition of birth comes, and another formation, by which indeed man is born again from the sacrosanct font of baptism in the Holy Spirit, and is again mixed in a certain way with the divine nature, just as it was when the divine hands fashioned him, and just as if from the first elements, all the powers of his soul are informed, and restored, renewed, into that state in which the head and prince of our race was before the transgression; and in this way he is instructed and prepared for the kingdom of God, into which he who is not yet cleansed by the saving water can neither enter, nor behold it, nor understand it. So that each baptized person [1] is now such as he ^B was first created, in paradise under the intellect, and acts as its guardian: let him perform the commandments of Jesus Christ, by whom he is renewed, and let him guard the grace he has received from the Holy Spirit, being washed in the divine font, and let him confess and say: "His virtue (the grace, I say) which is in me, works the commandments of Christ with me." For this is the guarding. For just as a building cannot stand or be raised without a foundation, so the soul believing in Christ, unless it has laid the foundation of the grace of the Holy Spirit, can by no means take up a life and manners pleasing to God; and its fasts, vigils, sleeping on the ground, other bodily afflictions, poverty, tears, and prayers are to be deemed of no moment. For thus did those who denied Christ after many torments deny Him. "He who confesses me," He says. In Him we confess, in Him we adore, in Him we are saved. For the Holy Spirit renews the soul, just as it does the body.

A great mystery, which the whole world rightly venerates. In it is contained the sacrifice of praise, namely a pure heart, which is a contrite and humble heart* [Ps. l, 19]. For it knows that it has nothing of its own, and how shall it be exalted? Furthermore, it is itself an argument and material for humility. But if this is the truth, it is not ambition, but a sacrifice of praise to God, and in His sight he is not a sinner (for who is without sin?), but every man with a proud heart is held to be unclean, while he who is humble of heart is justified, has performed his duty, or has conducted himself as he ought. Justification is the gift of the Holy Spirit. He who is governed by the Holy Spirit is glorified; ^C but and how very pleasant it will be; I wish that not only our Simeon, but also any other, were immune from every error. Meanwhile these are the voices of truth: that one who is truly and legitimately baptized can sin again, if he wills. For to the baptized tends that exhortation of Saint Paul [Rom. xi, 20]: "Stand by faith; do not be haughty, but fear." And to the Hebrews [vi, 4]: "For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have nevertheless tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and have fallen away, to be renewed again unto penance," etc. Where the Apostle manifestly indicates that he who is truly baptized and has become a partaker of divine grace can fall again into sins, and therefore is not made impeccable through baptism, which must be applied much more to the profession of a religious life. Which, as baptism makes one neither "immovable" nor "difficult to move" to sin, and if a baptized person can be said to be "difficult to move" in some sense, it is because, having already obtained the grace of God through baptism, he has much greater and more valid defenses for repelling the allurements of vices than before the initiation of baptism, provided he wishes to use them legitimately: for if he refuses to use them, and through the liberty of the will again declines to the filth of sin, he is equally able to do so as before: and it happens to him, as ^D Saint Peter says [II Pet. ii, 22], that true proverb: "The dog is returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire." Let the reader consult Cardinal Bellarmine in his book *On Baptism*, chapter 14, where he copiously shows against the heretics that men are not made impeccable through baptism.

^A who is glorified, has been sanctified; without sanctification no one shall see God. Let the impious be taken away, lest he see the glory of the Lord. Who is the impious one? Surely the proud man, and he is as much impious as he is proud. Who is humble of heart? Not the prudent, not the wise, not the intelligent, not the crafty, nor one taught and knowing from himself; but one communicating with the Holy Spirit, in whom prudence and wisdom, and intelligence, erudition and knowledge are purged in the soul itself, living and pleasing to God. For this reason the Word and Son of God put on man, and bore death, and gave Himself as a price for the freeing of the whole human race. Truly, however, for the pious who had fallen asleep before, He became a great and august sacrifice, and therefore one that knew no rejection, since after Adam’s fall no just person could attain salvation, as all were subject to the sin of the first parent, and to death and destruction: because no one existed whom that fiery blade, the guardian of paradise, after the protoplast was cast out from there, would easily admit, so that he might enter into the undefiled, and from all sin clean, and holy tabernacles, and remain in the atria of the Holy of Holies (since, as the Apostle also says, corruption shall not inherit incorruption) and it was necessary for the incorruptible Word of God, having offered His mortal flesh as a sacrifice, to rescue the just from corruption. For it was not in their power to be restored to that incorruption in which the first man had been created, and from which he had fallen: but it looked toward this great economy, undertaken in judgment and justice. But indeed for those who lived afterward, both sacrifice and communion is named; because clearly through the taking of it He mingles Himself with the one who receives, and by that commingling and union He forms him anew, and by the inexplicable power of the artificer of His divinity leads the united one unto Himself, so that he may genuinely coalesce with Him. Just as fire, although it may be received by harder bodies, by that very conjunction makes them fire, nor overturns their nature: nevertheless, as long as they are coupled with the fire, they are even themselves fire. And this is what once many prophets, kings, and just men desired, when they foresaw those who were to be flesh of the flesh of the Word of God and bone of His bones, and understood that they were estranged from so great a good.

Therefore, for those who are instructed, and scholarly, and have attained the knowledge of the great mystery of Christianity, and are initiated faithful, if afterward on account of human weakness, and because they are still surrounded by dust, they fall into guilt, good will be the spiritual medicine, if canonical bonds are imposed upon them when they confess, by which they may be loosed from the knots of sin, and salutary remedies applied, since they, having been trained in the initiations they deserve, had tasted the power of Christ, in whom they ought to have trusted and avoided sin, according to that of the Apostle: For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace ^B of Christ. For unless they had rejected the grace of Christ, which they had known, that grace would not have permitted them to sin. And they themselves made themselves guilty of the blood of Christ, who cleansed their conscience from dead works, to serve the living and true God: and again, through labors, that is, sweats, groans, and tears, they ought to be cleansed, so that they may say to God: Look upon my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins. But perfect remission is once again a participation in grace, not that God needs the fatigues and labors of the penitent: but lest the penitent, reconciled without labor, contemn divine grace as he did before, and needing a third purgation, be rejected, and cast into everlasting fire to be purged, which, since it always burns, cannot purge the one it burns.

But now, to those who are ignorant of the mysteries of the Christian religion (for there are, there are, I say, many who are indeed affected by baptism, and therefore called Christians: but truly imbued with no catechism and unlearned, and to speak briefly, profane, and ignorant of this illustrious mystery), to such, I say, their sins, committed after holy baptism, when confessed, offer no utility through bonds and medical aid. For because they do not know the mystery of Christ, they could never have the sense and understanding of spiritual bonds and remedies. And since they believed without understanding, they have sinned without understanding: and because they have sinned without reason, they cannot recognize the medicine, which is perceived by the soul. Wherefore, as the mysteries of Christianity are for those who know and hold them in memory, according to the measure of their knowledge, and the bonds of their error, a medicine, cautery, affliction, and punishment; so for those who are rude, and not yet instructed, there is need of instruction, faith, and initiation, not bonds. For to bind and to burn that which lacks sense is absurd; and to apply a cure to the dead is a useless and foolish business. But whoever have sinned in the law, that is, with knowledge, shall be judged through the law, according to the norm and prescription of the sacred canons, clearly. But those who have sinned without the law, that is, it not being known, shall also perish without the law, surely in vain excusing their ignorance, when it has been said by the Lord: This Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations. It follows hence, if condemnation awaits the heathens, much more are they to be condemned who, in the midst of Christ's Church, remain ignorant of the first rudiments, and are guests and strangers in the accounts of divine piety, contemners of this admirable work of the Word of God, for whose sake He clothed Himself in human limbs, though He was God, and was treated contumeliously, and was delivered to death no differently than for their own crimes. Now that some of these profane persons claim to sit on the throne of glory ^{C D}

^A of the kingdom of Christ, things they have not learned, and teach others—in defiance of the patience of God, or rather to the contrary, provoking great wrath and abandonment—since they are impostors who govern, together with the deceitful, the impudent, and those who, having a bad conscience, are unbelievers, especially those who glory in their own idols—that is to say, in the learned words of human wisdom, for which they are afforded equal praise and admiration by their own profane hearers.

It is good to believe in Christ, since without faith in Him one cannot be saved. Yet it is also necessary to grasp the knowledge of the truth. It is good to be taught the truth, since it is also necessary; indeed, to be cleansed by baptism in the name of the life-giving Trinity, so that the soul may attain life. It is good to be baptized, but one must also grasp the meaning of this mystical life, or spiritual light, in the mind. It is good to recognize that meaning which falls into the mind, or illumination, but deeds of light are also required. For it is fitting that he who sees purely and most clearly should also perform the deeds of God. It is good to perform works of light, but it is likewise fitting to put on the humility and meekness of Christ: that he who believes in Christ may bear the character and insignia of Christ, and having been changed into a meek and humble nature, may be received into the kingdom of heaven to the joys of his Lord. Furthermore, those who walk the way of God according to this order, if they are hindered by the natural condition of dying, will not be repelled from the mercy of the Most High, nor will they be barred from the entrance of the heavenly kingdom. Those who do not walk in this path, their faith and progress are vain. ^B

ORATION II. ARGUMENT.

For how can it happen that the seed, full of thorns and tribulations, receives the pure grain, and that this same seed is not choked? Wherefore they will never bring forth fruit who, contrary to nature, and contrary to order, assault those who are still infirm in the usefulness of reason: for by reason all things are produced, and are held together, and are led to their end. For the divine baptism of Christ has the efficacy to render those not yet washed, and who are apt to be bent toward vice, invincible to sin once they are washed. If not, at least when the opportunity offers itself, they are rendered resistant to that which declares its power and strength. But they are inclined toward virtue and honesty, like angels, powerful in virtue, doing the will of God. For this reason, Christ has bestowed his own sacrosanct blood upon those who believe in Him, so that through the consumption and communion of it, the faithful, having been made partakers of the divine nature (for it is the blood of God), and having already attained the strength of divine and heavenly virtue, might also institute their way of life in accordance with the perfect law of Christ: so that, powerful in virtue, they fulfill His will. Furthermore, let every one of the faithful, and those who confess Christ, consider within himself whether, girded with this strength, he has scorned to obey the laws of Christ when he was able to obey them, and has not composed his life and morals according to the nod of God; let him know that he has denied Christ, and has, according to the opinion of the Apostle, trampled underfoot the Son of God and has counted the blood of the covenant as unclean. ^C

If anyone says to another, “Do this, and do not do that,” he is clearly saying it as if the person he is commanding were able to do it or leave it undone. But he who says this to one who cannot, does he not say it in vain? The Lord says to His disciples: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Lo, the purgation and power of holy baptism are placed in the first rank. What then? “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” Whoever, therefore, is not confirmed beforehand by this strength, labors in vain in observing the commandments of God; whoever gives such precepts to a man, let him be held for a blind and foolish man, although the matter demands that he first receive the grace of Christ—which is perceived by the mind and purges—and thereby confirm the soul, and so finally [be given] laws to prescribe. ^D

But if, having been cleansed by the saving waters, and having been made partakers of the divine body and blood, they are not yet powerful in virtue to fulfill the will of God, but are still easily moved toward vices and sins, just as if water had been poured over dead bodies: it is because they have not yet believed in Christ. And so it is necessary for such men to go to the bishops and priests, to be taught the formula of faith, to believe in Christ, the foundation being safely laid beforehand—by penance, I say, for this madness, and by the laying on of hands, and the anointing of the sacred chrism. And when the Gospel of justice has been revealed to them, and they have drawn in the new sense of the intelligible grace of Christ, which has touched their souls and creates a contrite and humbled heart within them, and builds up a chaste fear of God (for these are the beginnings for Christians of a good way of life to be lived according to the prescription of Christ), then they are also deservedly considered worthy of partaking of His immaculate body and blood: so that when they have become partakers of the divine nature and have been sanctified, sin may not dominate them as it did before. For sanctification is situated in this: that a Christian might become powerful in virtue to perform the will of God, by which a confirmed and faithful Christian is named, who has received the grace of Christ, and to whom faith is attributed, and who, in the Holy Spirit, might govern the course of his life. For thus, and in no other way, is it granted for anyone to become and to be a Christian. But the former person, by heavy punishments

and castigations, ought to compensate for the sins committed, and pour forth tears to the font of baptism, and furthermore pray to God that he may be granted to spend his life until the end of his cure, lest he be snatched away before his healing and, being condemned, be tormented in Gehenna as he has deserved. For who shall guarantee that, as long as he is being cured, he will remain alive? Here bonds are needed, here excommunications, here long-lasting tears, here genuflections, and here a rare and difficult meeting with the faithful. And such a judgment is not at all unjust. For why did he who had known and received the divine mystery not take heed? One cannot call this fall less than the fall of Adam. For if he had known that God was within him, he would not have tasted of the fruit of transgression. And although he did not know himself before, when he was deprived of God, yet he later knew Him in his state [of fallenness]. But here, through holy baptism, he had put on Christ, whom he had known, as it is written by the Apostle: *Whosoever of you have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ* 26. For every soul that is a partaker of mind and counsel is understood to obtain the grace of Christ from baptism itself: for Christ is immediately formed within it. Furthermore, the sanctification of baptism is not felt by infants who are baptized, because of their ignorance; for it is an intellectual perception. But, gradually, as time passes, a change also occurs. And in some it is completely extinguished; in others, certain embers remain, and through faith, instruction, and hope, this mercy is again kindled. For in ^C those who have hoped and believed, it gradually awakens that fire and makes it manifest to their intelligence. Then, with joy, as the sparks are cast upon [the fuel of] humility and mercy, the flame flashes out and illuminates their neighbors: of the former, because the mercy is not from us, but from God; of the latter, because it befits one who has obtained mercy to be clearly merciful. But if those who have received a second baptism through the angelic habit do not understand what they have received, they do not participate in the divine and omnipotent virtue of the Holy Spirit, the grace flying away just as that which was conferred through the water of baptism: and because of their dullness, they are still prone to evil as before; their faith is vain, and the second baptism also is empty, since these sacred vestments have been imposed upon those who are without perception and are dead. For there is one knowledge of salvation, because the truth is also one, to the intelligent mind and to the intelligent soul endowed through faith with the intellectual knowledge of the supernal grace of the most holy Spirit. For they are deemed worthy of such grace who, when they were baptized, believed in Christ; some indeed so that they might also perform signs; the majority so that they might be immovable toward evil, but, on the contrary, very ready toward good, and so that whatever is pleasing to God, they may pursue it in life eagerly and exultantly. This is their order, who have believed in Christ, ^A whether they be ecclesiastics, or priests, or bishops, and are masters of souls; and let the dregs of the wrath of God * come upon us, if there be no one who may instruct and teach the ignorant, and refashion them with a power more divine and surpassing human comprehension. For it is lawful for no one to ascend the magisterial chair of the Holy Spirit, if I may so speak, unless he first be a partaker of the divine nature; otherwise he will stir up the anger of God against himself. For this very reason, many who were wise in word became authors and leaders of heresy; others were caught by the sermons of heretics. Yet, since they did not understand—as if they had been instructed from the divine baptism as from first principles—having entered first through repentance and knowledge, as we said above, they might, through the laying on of ^B hands by the arbiters and stewards of this great mystery and those expert in sacred science, obtain instruction from the beginning, and the species and form of their spiritual and mystical habits; so that, being confirmed, they may labor in the vineyard of God, lest their faith and confession be in vain, and their faith and adoration of Christ profit them nothing. For God was not made man, as someone might perhaps say, so that He might be believed and adored as God-man simply like that; but so that we might become partakers of the divine nature, just as He had made Himself a partaker of human nature, and that those who had attained this communion might recognize the power of the mystery and give thanks. And as many as are knowledgeable of this communion, and judge rightly concerning it, these are friends of Christ; to these this mystery has been entrusted, and they will imitate the life of Christ. But those who have been made participants, or "consorts," of His nature, but, when they had been made so, were ignorant of the matter, these are His enemies: because everyone who has nothing in common with the divine nature is carnal, and cannot please God: *For the wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God* **, and *flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God* 27. For corruption shall not possess incorruption; but he shall hear at some time: *Even that which he seems to have shall be taken away from him*. For *to him that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance* 28, because of the grace which is immense, inexhaustible, superabundant, and which cannot be diminished or consumed. For let us suppose someone to live a thousand years, and for as many years to be daily bathed in divine grace; that grace will surely place him somehow above Christ, since it fills [him] completely (inasmuch as He Himself was progressing in age and grace), yet it will remain whole, and not in the least diminished. Nevertheless, it is not absolutely necessary that it should overflow, or be diminished, or gradually failing, leave him entirely empty who is despoiled of it, and—when it has as it were secretly departed—leave him no sense of this departure. But one must watch, lest at any time, beyond the present order ^D

ORATION III. ARGUMENT.

^A understood as proceeding from the Father, and likewise as being [the Spirit] of the Son, by union and ineffable distinction.

It is necessary, therefore, to know only this: that God is; but to investigate what He is, is not only rash, but also exceedingly foolish. For a potter fashioning vessels from clay, and out of that same substance of which he himself consists (for he too, indeed, is fashioned from clay), has never heard a vessel which he has formed with his own hands speak to him about the artisan himself. Now, if a potter differs so greatly from an earthen vessel, to which his substance is similar, how greatly does God differ from man? For if God is none of those things which are either seen, or named, or thought of, whoever desires to investigate His essence, or to perceive it with his mind, is less endowed with reason than a potsherd. Since this is so, the one God, whom no man has seen nor can see, must be venerated and adored in silence, and one must believe in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one nature and three hypostatic properties, and the great mystery of the economy: that the Word of God, and Son, begotten in the Father and subsisting [there], not separated from the same, was enclosed in the womb of Mary, before birth and after the birth of the virgin, and was made flesh, having perfectly assumed human nature in Himself, and remained God immutable, and was born as man from her, one in two perfect natures, and [these] mingled without confusion, and united without division. Likewise, that He willingly and gladly suffered torments, was willingly killed by men, was willingly buried, His Deity being in no way separated through death, neither from His soul, nor from His body which He had taken. Then, also, He rose again from the dead on the third day, and after forty days was taken up into heaven as man, and sits on the throne of His divinity with His flesh, and is celebrated with praises by all the orders of the heavenly hosts together with His Father and the Holy Spirit. And it must be believed that these things were done so that, by the Holy Spirit, with whom Adam the first-formed had been clothed and was stripped by transgression, those who believed in Christ Himself might be clothed, and become partakers of the Holy Spirit, then to perform by Him the divine commandments, as formerly the saints ^D under the Emperor Michael at Constantinople and Pope Nicholas of Rome, Photius began to extend his arms against the Roman Church; who, among other failings with which he infected, or rather ruined, Greece, also afflicted the Eastern Church with this [notion] regarding the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father alone, to the incredible slaughter of so many souls. Nor does our Simeon say here, or elsewhere, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone; but from the Father. Therefore, just as Christ in John 15:26, by those words: "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father," did not exclude the Son, that is, Himself, so neither do the ancient writers, who use this formula of speaking, exclude the Son. See Cardinal Bellarmine, book II, *On Christ*, especially chapter 27. And the reader ought to be mindful of this annotation when he arrives at the fifteenth oration, and similar passages concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit.

through faith, they might be able to overcome the devil and the invisible demons. For without the Holy Spirit, we can neither be free from sins, nor can we repel the power of demons against us, or their forces.

It is also necessary to be baptized in the consubstantial Trinity, in whom we also believe, just as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded, when he thus instructed the apostles: *Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things whatsoever I have commanded you*. If we keep these, we show our love toward him, and we are held worthy of those who remain in it; as it is written: *If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love: as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do abide in his love*. If we do not keep them, we are convicted of not loving him: *For he who does not love me*, says the Lord, *does not keep my words*. And again: *He who has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is who loves me*. Wherefore, he who believes in Christ has no other priority by which to show and prove his faith than to flee what he has forbidden and do what he has ordered.

^B It is excellent to believe in Christ, but it is also necessary to believe Christ. For he who does not believe Christ gains nothing from believing in Christ. We must indeed believe in Christ as in God, consubstantial with God and the Father, made man for our sake, as it has been said. But we must also believe him in all things which he has spoken, namely, in the good things and rewards which he has promised, and in the punishments which he has threatened. For the martyrs, who believed in him—having believed him who said: *He who denies me, I will deny him also in turn: and he who shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved*—on this account endured torments even unto death. Otherwise, how could they have cast away their lives if they had not had faith in him regarding these things? And all who have spent their life in holiness and lived so ^C holily and justly have done so on account of those divine promises, exhortations, threats, and terrors. But he who believes in Christ and professes to believe in him, yet neither turns away from wicked deeds nor applies himself to virtue, is an infidel; he denies Christ, dishonoring God through the transgression of the law, as we read in the Apostle. But if he affirms that he does indeed believe Christ because he believes in him, but lies in saying he cannot labor in virtues (that is, keep his commandments) due to infirmity, he is wrong. For all things commanded by Christ God to the apostles are likewise commanded to us, and while we tarry in this life, we can indeed keep them; but because we are weak in our love for Christ, we do not wish to. For to what end, otherwise, did those words of the Apostle concerning Christ apply: *Who is made unto us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and ^A redemption*? For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. It is clear, therefore, that he has not communicated to this man. For the virtue of Christ is twofold for believers: when he himself, although he is one according to his hypostasis, is yet twofold. And as he is like us in substance and our brother by nature, he first bestows upon our hearts such a state as he who is truly man ought to have. For he makes the one who has communion with him, and who is contrite and humbled by repentance, sober and compunctious, so that when he has made him such, he does not despise the suppliant: just as the Prophet also says: *A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise*. For he who does not ask with a contrite and humbled heart is despised.

When, therefore, a Christian has shown himself to be such, then Christ grants virtues also to him who prays and asks; for since he is already meek and ready to be taught the ways of the Lord (for the meek alone are taught them), he renders him chaste, temperate, just, strong in temptations, skilled in divine things, merciful, sensitive to the troubles of others, humane, a good Christian, a bearer of Christ's insignia, and faithful. For there is believed to be in him the grace of his most holy Spirit, through whom, and in whom, he has acquired these things (for virtues are supplied to men by God alone), and he becomes like his heavenly Father, just as the divine apostle John the Theologian says: *Little children, it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him*, that is, to Christ God, the Son of God. For the kingdom of heaven admits such as bear the likeness of the Son of God, which the accomplished keeping of God's commandments brings about, and that itself proceeds from love toward Christ: *He who loves me*, says the Lord, *will keep my commandments*. And he who keeps Christ's commandments obtains his likeness: for Christ is formed in him, according to that word of the Apostle: *My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you*. For unless Christ be found formed in every Christian, the kingdom of heaven will not be opened to him.

Therefore, let no Christian deceive himself, thinking he has a part with Christ while not obeying Christ: *For not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven*. And again: *I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, the Father*. Yet the will of the Father and of the Son is the same. If, therefore, the Lord himself speaks these things, in what way will he be counted among Christians who does his own will, and looks upon Christ, as it were, with askance eyes? Or with what hope, pray, does he confess Christ to be Lord? Who, I ask, confesses him to be his Lord whom he serves, and yet does not obey him? Demons do not obey Christ, yet they nonetheless confess him, and dread

^A them so much, thus they testify to their faith by their works, since they confess him with words; because they fear the God whom they confess.

But to fear God is nothing other than to commit no wicked deed when no one sees. Many, indeed, because of the fear of men, because of shame, or for the sake of favor, refrain from vice; which is the same as if they were performing it. Just as, on the other hand, those who, moved by these motives, perform something praiseworthy, are in the same state as those who do not perform it, because whoever in right actions hunts for the favor and applause of men, or undertakes them out of some other affection, is reprobate before God. True, in every work, word, and thought, the end proposed ought to be that you please God and honor him, in agreement with the apostolic sentiment: Whether you eat or whether you do anything else, do all to the glory of God. For if this word is true and certain, as it is (for it is the word of the King, and the Judge, and the omnipotent Lord Jesus), namely: Unless your justice abounds more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, what reward will those report above the Scribes and Pharisees who have abounded in injustice? For if they, though they were outside of grace, were endowed with justice, and those who have put on Christ, that is to say God, are rather accumulated with injustice, will they not be most worthy to be sent away from the kingdom of heaven as if into exile?

ORATION IV.

ARGUMENT.

Most Christians, partly those who walk in the monastic life, and partly those who apply themselves to piety in the worldly life, deem themselves to perceive spiritual fruit when they have sung the Davidic psalms and other canticles, only because they have chanted them, and thus they imagine they are glorifying God; not knowing that they are both provoking him, and besides the fact that they obtain no gain, they are also entangled by this in no light sin. For every word is not simply a word, but a word of some thing. For if someone is hungry and thirsty, and is naked, if he has asked for bread and wine and clothing, is it enough for him simply to speak; or, if he has obtained nothing, is he not just as hungry, thirsty, and naked as he was before, and has the word conferred nothing upon him? The same thing happens in all canticles. For those things which are chanted are either petitions or acts of thanksgiving of those who obtain what they request. Whoever, therefore, says to God: Thy kingdom come, unless he has learned the way of the kingdom, how

^A can he come? Or if he understands the manner in which he comes, yet is not subject to Him who calls for the kingdom, what profit will he derive from what he says? For the Lord says in the Gospel: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Why, then, has God—who produces all things from nothing, who fills all things, and who is everywhere and rules all things—why, I say, have He and His kingdom now departed? Certainly, if He had not departed and then returned, He would not have said: "For it is at hand." He did not depart, but we separated ourselves from Him; for from Adam himself He was joined to us. After he was deceived by fraud and bound himself in wickedness, the kingdom of God, which is the Holy Spirit, was shut off from us. For God, who is good and holy, cannot have communion with wickedness. Furthermore, since we could not of ourselves return to goodness (just as a torn garment, defiled with mud and rot, cannot be washed clean by itself and without water), for this reason He Himself came again, who is able to wash us, that He might first wash us with water mixed and tempered with the Holy Spirit; then, having cleansed us, He might Himself reign over us, that by reigning over us, He might bring His own will into action through us. For unless He Himself holds the command over us, it is impossible for what pleases Him to be done by us. Wherefore, whoever has not possessed the kingdom of God within himself beforehand, nor perceives according to the intellect that God is fulfilling His will within him through Christ, labors in vain, lives in vain, and continues to suffer the kingdom of the impostor, ^B nor does he notice it. For unless the intellective soul has received an intellectual sense of the kingdom of God, by which it has been touched, no hope of salvation remains. Moreover, it behooves the soul that uses reason, which is ruled, to understand the benefits of the reigning Divinity and the manifold efficacy of the Holy Spirit: charity, joy, peace, long-suffering, and the rest. For where God is king, there is no service to the devil: but every ministry is directed toward God.

Again, those who pray to God thus: "Deliver us from the evil one," unless they know who that evil one is, and how they are possessed by the evil one, and what his chains are, and what power he has over those who are subjugated, how will God deliver them? But if these things are not hidden from them, yet they are not delivered from the evil one, what does it profit them to cry out persistently: "But deliver us from the evil one"? For the devil is the evil one who has wrapped human nature in the law of sin: as long as we worship him with actions combined with wickedness, that good One is not our portion, nor are we worthy of God's kingdom, since we call Him God and Father falsely, while we have the devil as prince, father, lord, and god, whose character we bear within us through the works of our life, just as the Lord objects to the Jews in some place: "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father" ^C (as it is written: "From whom a man is overcome, of the same he is the slave"). Just as every son is like his father (for a son exists only from the nature of his father), so also the Christian must put on the likeness of his Father, Christ, through the virtues of the Spirit, not the likeness of evil through the affections of sin. Wherefore, the tyranny of that evil one must be known, and with what craft and deceit he exercises it: and by what way it is to be overthrown and destroyed, so that, having learned the kingdom of Christ and received knowledge of it, we may desire it to come in truth and to be freed and delivered from the snares of desires and the slavery of the evil one. Verily, however, the kingdom of God comes only to those who have known Him; and in whom He reigns, He makes them fellow-citizens of the angels. For from the disobedience of the first man, the human race was bound to a curse; following the curse came corruption, and after corruption followed destruction. Conversely, from the obedience of the second man—that is, Christ—blessing comes to us, from blessing incorruption, from incorruption immortality, from immortality life, and as of old, life from God. For where God is, from there the devil and the demons flee. Thus, liberation from the wicked one and his demons ^D and redemption for the human race has been produced through Christ; before which liberation, let no one consider himself a man. For it would be better for him if he had not been born.

Furthermore, there are two faults in those who do not know what to ask for: ignorance and stupidity. And the one who is ignorant does not see what he is saying; the one who is stupid does not know what he is asking. But what prince is accustomed to grant mercy to one who asks for mercy, and yet who is ignorant of the mercy being granted to him, or does not understand what he is saying, and who brings it forth from his lips only simply and as if from habit alone, like sounding brass or a clanging cymbal? On account of this, the kingdom of the devil and his power against Christians prevails and is stabilized. And hence, both monks and secular Christians are found to be liars, slanderers, accusers, perjurers, jealous, envious, querulous, detractors, greedy, rapacious, unjust, hypocrites, fornicators, adulterers, lascivious, immoral, proud, and law-breakers. And they glory in being called and being Christians—a foolish, unwise, disobedient, ungrateful people, without affection, without a covenant, a hater of men, a hater of brothers, a hater of fathers, a hater of children, a hater of friends, odious to God. Woe to such when they sing praises to God; woe when they give alms; woe when they offer gifts to God; woe when they adore God; woe when they pour out prayers to Him. For the ways of the wicked are abominable before God; and the prayer of an angry and malevolent man is a most foul odor; the alms of the proud are a holocaust of a dog, and the beneficence of the lustful is the wages of a prostitute; the gift of the greedy is an unclean sacrifice, and their blood is defiled. But someone may perhaps ask: "What, then, should these people do?" Let each of them do what becomes him. Whoever has perceived his own unworthiness, let him, with the priest...

draw near to the assembly; he shall be taught the reason for truth, to the extent that the Gospel of righteousness has been revealed to him, and then he shall grasp the way of life appropriate and suitable to a Christian man.

For he still moves among the dead, and has not drawn from God the dew which is perceived by the understanding and imparts health to the dead. Indeed, the resurrection and glory of Christ is our own resurrection—those of us who lie buried beneath—which comes about in us through His resurrection, is shown, and appears, as it is in the most holy response which we utter daily: "Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is free from all sin." For since He has never committed any sin, as it is written, nor suffered any change of His own glory in any way—He who shall arise one day and be glorified, who has been glorified beyond measure and above every principality and power, and remains so—but the resurrection and glory of Christ is our glory, as we have said, which comes about in us, clearly, through His resurrection and is seen in us. For because He once took upon Himself our nature, the things which He Himself works in us He ascribes to Himself. And just as Christ Himself, our God, suspended on the cross, when He had nailed to the cross the sins of the world in His own person, had tasted death, and had descended into the lowest depths of hell, then arose again and returned to His immaculate body—from which, when He descended into it, His divinity was in no way dissociated—and immediately rose from the dead, and then ascended into heaven with power and great glory: so, indeed, now also, as we depart from the world and undergo, in a certain imitation of His passion, a kind of monument of repentance and humility, He Himself, descending from heaven, enters our body as a sepulchre and, being united to our souls, fittingly raises them from death.

It must be learned, therefore, first what it means: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." ^A What is this "good will"? What is that: "God is the Lord, and has appeared to us"? What is the meaning of "to shine forth"? For any Christian who does not glorify God by putting His commands into practice and keeping His precepts differs in nothing from those who do not believe in God, unless he be even worse than they: "If I am a Father," He says, "where is My honor? And if I am a Lord, where is My fear?" It pleased God and the Father to reconcile to Himself the human nature which had turned away from the divine life through sin ^B and had taken on enmities, and to join it once again with the divine life, as the Apostle writes: "Having been justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God through our conversation in Christ." For He Himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the middle wall of the partition, the enmities in His flesh, and has pacified through the blood of His cross those things which are in heaven and those which are on earth. And though we were at one time alienated and enemies in mind through evil works, now He has reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death, and has presented us holy, and immaculate, and irreproachable before Himself; if you continue in the faith, founded and stable and ^C immovable from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard, which has been preached to every creature which is under heaven, of which I, Paul, have been made a minister. For a Christian who resists Christ through the transgression of the commands of the Gospel and carries on war with God is an enemy to himself and to God, and can by no means have peace with Him. For we are enemies and foes of God so long as we desire to serve the passions of shame, even though we wish ourselves to be called by the name of the faithful: "The grace of God and our Savior has appeared," he says, "to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live piously and soberly and justly in this world." Therefore, he who does not live piously is impious. And he who does not conduct his life soberly and justly is far ^D from having the grace of God the Savior appear to him. And how is he to be reckoned in the order and place of Christians? If he enters the temple of the Lord, what will he say? Will he give thanks, or will he petition? If the former, he deceives himself, inasmuch as he has nothing, since he has not received, and is giving thanks in vain. If the latter, with what petition? One which he does not know, and which he is ignorant of? Such a person is of no value and is useless, as an unbeliever, and dead, and an atheist: an unbeliever, because he has not received the resurrection of Christ, lying exceedingly when in the canticle he says: "Having beheld the resurrection of Christ," etc.

The resurrection of the soul, moreover, is its conjunction with life. For just as a dead body, unless it receives a living soul into itself and is mingled with it without confusion, is not called and cannot be said to live; so the soul, being by itself, cannot live by itself, unless it is associated and united—in some inexplicable way, devoid of confusion—with God, who is truly eternal life. But being united to God, it immediately grants to him who has thus risen with Christ the faculty of beholding the glory of his own mystical resurrection. Hence we say: "God is the Lord, and has appeared to us." And according to those who signify His advent, we add: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." He who has not clearly seen this resurrection (as an unbeliever, impious, and dead) cannot worship Christ Jesus as holy and Lord: "For no one," He says, "can say: Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit." And elsewhere: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth"; that is, in the Holy Spirit and in His only-begotten Son. This man, however, is an infidel who does not demonstrate his faith through his works, when faith...

^A with regard to the Apostle James is "dead in itself, as are also works without faith." It is dead, moreover, because he does not possess in himself the life-giving God; since he who said, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and I and the Father will come through the Spirit, and we will make our dwelling with him," is not possessed by him who, by His presence, might raise him from the dead and give him life, and then grant him to behold, both in himself and in the one who raises him, the life-giver. For when He is in us through the Spirit, He raises our souls from the dead and gifts them with life, granting us to see that He Himself, who is immortal and immune to destruction, lives within us. Indeed, the soul, before it knows, sees, and feels itself united to God, although it is intelligent and by nature immortal, is nonetheless dead, blind, and without sense. He is an atheist, for if he believed in the coming judgment and eternal punishments, he would not spend his life in vanities. Now, to see these men rush headlong into destruction, such as not even the Gentiles do, over whom the name of God has not been invoked, is unworthy. And they walk bowed down, nor do the wretches look to their ancestors. These are not Christians—let them not deceive themselves—they are not! But they are impious, without God, and infidels; especially if they are monks or priests, oh, the sorrow! But if they be bishops—O Christ, for thy patience and long-suffering, that the earth does not split open and swallow them up!

If someone suffers from such a plague, how, I beg you, will he enter into the temple, and especially into the Holy of Holies? For the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, cries out: "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God." For he who has been washed, and sanctified, and justified, is either utterly immovable toward such things, or moved only with difficulty. But if he is driven by a light impulse ^C to be contaminated again, and stripped of the washing of grace, and despoiled of justice, and therefore is removed from the Church of Christ, it is clear that he is unworthy of the threshold and entry into the temple of the Lord. Whoever, therefore, perceives such a character in himself, let him look to his own salvation, knowing for certain that he is outside of Christianity and that Christ will profit him nothing: but that he will depart with the devil into the fire prepared for him. Unless ^A he has recognized the mysteries of the Christians one by one, namely, that through the intelligible power of Christ, he must be fused anew and refashioned, and transformed into a divine man, and become a new creature and a new man, to which faith and baptism refer, he usurps the name of Christian in vain. For whoever is saved, or redeemed, or liberated, or exalted in honor, or affected by a benefit, or accumulated with wealth by another, attains none of these things from himself. Furthermore, everyone who has fallen and is crushed is raised up and carried by another, since he cannot raise himself. Nevertheless, if he senses his fall, he seeks from whom he may be raised, and once found, he asks and beseeches him. And once restored to342 health, he gives thanks and praises him by whom he was raised, lifted up, and healed. Likewise, any Christian, before his healing, prays to Him by whose works he is to be healed, but rather gives thanks to the physician for the health received. Unless this happens, all things are empty, and with them also psalmodies—whether few or many—are empty and vain.

ORATION V. ARGUMENT.

The doctrine of the Fathers is that just as a nobleman ^D and wealthy man, if he leaves the beaten and direct path and, walking through wastes and wilderness, falls among robbers, is stripped of his elegant garment, and covered in a vile, worn-out tunic smelling of flesh and blood, and becomes occupied with the thieves themselves in gluttony, and drunkenness, and vile things, and robbery, and, because he is experienced in and delighted by that indulgence, the drinking, and the filth of licentiousness, is finally so hardened by the habit of living like the robbers, and forgets his whole lineage, and his former honorable, illustrious, and orderly life, because the love of gravity and honesty is deeply cold in him, just as if he remained oblivious; in like manner, a Christian, if he abandons the path consistent with Christians and proceeds along the path of the devil, that is, if he thinks little of toil, the frugality of life, and the gravity of morals, and holds those vanities in affection, falling into injustice, avarice, rapine, and from these into filth, fornication, and wantonness, and so prepared, pursues the glory which is given by men, after he has come into the hands of demons through such a way, he is at some point even stripped of holy baptism itself, and of its badge and insignia.

^A For he affirms that he is utterly unable to bid farewell to his wickedness and petulance, unless he has first had his fill of the most filthy matters; most especially if he has not hesitated to receive the immaculate body of Christ and His precious blood. Woe to him who offers it, and then to him who receives it! As for the latter, because the greater the wickedness with which he receives it, the more he is subjected—due to his imprudence and audacity—to diabolical power, abandoned by God, as we read written in the holy Gospel concerning Judas, when the Lord at that divine supper had offered him the dipped morsel, and he had accepted it, that Satan had immediately entered into him. Woe, because he is counted worthy of the pure body and blood of the Lord, he, a man who was not worthy even to place his foot in His temple; with whom, moreover, it is forbidden for any Christian to take food: "For if," says the Apostle, "any man is called a brother, and is either a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one, no, not to eat." Do you see how he is not even a brother, except in name alone? And that he is a condemned traitor, since he has rendered man, by sinning and turning aside from the path as one who strays, a perfect enemy of God. But such a one is to be gently entreated, and the memory of the future and horrible punishments decreed for sinners is to be renewed and recalled to him, or he is to be led by the hand like a blind man (for we do not punish the blind, but we lead them by the hand), or he is to be pitied as one who is insane, as one who is vexed by the devil, so that, with his ears opened to him by the Lord God, he may at some time recognize his impiety, and once again through repentance be gathered into the assembly of the brothers. For such a one rushes into impiety, who, if he had honored Christ in a holy manner and had recognized that He is God, who does not desire iniquity, according to that word: "The wicked shall not dwell with you, neither shall the unrighteous remain before your eyes." And: "The Lord hates all those who work iniquity," he would have shrunk away in dread and fear, and would not have dared to touch His body, lest he perish, struck by the angelic sword.

^B Consequently, that he should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh: that he may be tossed and mangled in his body by diseases, and inconveniences, and pains, and stripes, and almost incurable wounds, and various and manifold infirmities, just as the devil struck Job with a most grievous ulcer from his feet to his crown: that on account of the contrition of the body, although reluctantly, they may come to their senses, and perform with groans and torture those things which, when healthy, they shunned. For God, when the soul sins, calls the body to punishment. Now, the holiness of the divine communion has the strength and valid power to dispel sins, and to purge the soul from the affection and impulse toward them. And just as in one vessel fire and water cannot exist together, so neither can the most pure body of Christ and detestable sin in one and the same Christian. But if, ensnared by the love of sin, while he partakes of the holy flesh and undefiled blood of Christ, he does not die immediately, he is nonetheless stored up where the worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished. Wherefore, if such a one can endure fire with the devil for all eternity, let him partake fearlessly. But if not, it is expedient for him for a time to be barred from holy communion and to repent, likewise for a while to indulge in tears and, as far as concerns him, to sweat a little, to restrain himself somewhat, and to keep his lusts subdued, and then at last to partake without fear of danger, to expel the Satan who has entered and who tyrannically incites him to lasciviousness and other impurities. For he who is intensely delighted by base things does not do this of himself, but acts under the impulse of the devil himself, by whom, having been ensnared, he has opened the door to his own voluptuous appetite, that from there he might put forth his head. And now, having gradually entered, he clearly reposes upon the bed of the heart like those who are agitated by demons, who often with pleasure devour filth. This he ought to ponder within himself, whom, on account of the abundant mercy of God, the ancient serpent permits even to know a little of his visitation, and to flee to Christ, who alone is able both to drive away demons and to dispel both the diseases of the soul and of the body.

^C But in truth, because not a few of this kind are in the world, ashamed before men (lest they appear unworthy), they do not fear to partake of the divine mysteries; and if anyone deters them from that audacity, he seems troublesome and receives insults. For they do not understand that they are doing the very thing of which they are ashamed; but when they are prohibited from the immaculate communion, they are incited all the more to cast themselves headlong into madness, extreme contempt, despair, and perdition, and they do not give thanks to the one calling them back from so great a danger—a danger than which none is greater, nor has ever been (for they indeed become guilty of the body and blood of Christ through an unworthy communion). But what is more intolerable than to incur the punishment of the cross, such as those will suffer who drove Christ to the cross? Because, I say, there are many such, it is necessary to treat them accordingly. The multitude of the brothers must be gathered, and God must be invoked over them with tears.

^D It should be known that five types of men are excluded from holy communion by the holy Fathers. The first are the catechumens, as not yet cleansed by baptism. The second are those who have indeed been baptized, but who have begun to love filth and sins: for these are called deserters of a holy life, and apostates. The third are those who are possessed and occupied by evil spirits that are hostile to the human race. The fourth are those who have indeed turned away from a life of crime, but are still doing penance. The fifth are those who have not consecrated their entire life to God, nor do they live in Christ blamelessly in every way. There are, indeed, four, worthy, unworthy, worthily in unworthily, unworthily in worthily. Unworthy altogether, from food...

and drink, he is rejected. But he who is worthy—if he has approached worthily—is worthy; if unworthily, he eats and drinks judgment upon himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. For five orders are set forth as excluded from the Church: catechumens, as not yet baptized; fornicators and adulterers, those who rave over males, the corrupt, murderers, the avaricious, extortioners, the unjust, the proud, the wicked, those impenitent in these crimes; those possessed by demons; those who have come forward for penance and confession and have been punished to remain outside for a definite time; and finally, those who have not yet completed the prescribed period of penance. These five orders, therefore, are manifestly unworthy ^A. But the one worthy in body and blood of Christ is pure and blameless. However, when someone who is worthy is reproved for some error, as a man, such a person receives unworthily if he does not shake off and cast away that for which he is reproved. Thus, he too eats and drinks unworthily who, although he is worthy, yet does not approach worthily.

ORATION VI

ARGUMENT

Since the second [category] Simeon rejects from this heavenly table are sinners—manifestly, that is, and publicly known: fornicators, adulterers, extortioners, and others of this kind, as Simeon himself explains (see St. Thomas, p. 3, q. 67, art. 6, and there Franc. Suar., sect. 2 and 5).

Third, he excludes the energumens, or those obsessed by a demon. St. Dionysius the Areopagite (chap. 3, On the Heavenly Hierarchy, part 11) also excludes them; for he places them outside the temple at the time when the divine service is performed, among the catechumens and public penitents; which St. Thomas (in p. 3, q. 69, art. 9) interprets as referring to energumens not yet baptized, in whom, that is, the power of the demon is not yet extinguished, which is vigorous in them through original sin. With those energumens who have been washed by the wave of baptism, St. Thomas says the same must be observed as with the rest of the insane: namely, if they are able to communicate without the danger of irreverence, and have intervals, the Eucharist is not to be denied to them; for by its power and help, either the demon will be expelled, if that conduces to the salvation of the man, or at all events, he will be strengthened to endure that hardship with a generous spirit. This doctrine St. Thomas confirms with the testimony of Cassian, whose words these are (Collat. 7, c. 30): "But we do not recall that communion was ever forbidden to them (the obsessed) by our elders: nay rather, if it were possible, they would deem that it ought to be imparted to them every day." A little later he adds: "For in this way we recently saw the Abbot Andronicus cured, and many others. For the enemy insults the obsessed person more and more when he sees him separated from the heavenly medicine, and will attack him more harshly and frequently the further he senses him to be alienated from the spiritual remedy." These are the words of Serenus in Cassian. Thus also Timothy the Alexandrian bishop, in his Responses, wills that energumens receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at stated times, even if not daily. The same is taught by Balsamon in his scholia to the Responses of Timothy: see Francise. Suarez, vol. III, d. 69, sect. 2, at the end. Questions of certain monks exist, and responses to them, where it is asked whether a demoniac ought to communicate in the sacraments, for holy Timothy said one thing, and the holy apostles another. The answer is: that one who is truly a demoniac is by no means to be deemed worthy of the sacraments. This, however, is not approved by Balsamon in his scholia to his Response, if we speak of that demoniac who is sometimes in control of his mind and has some rest at times from the agitation of the demon.

Fourth, Simeon excludes from the Eucharist those who are in public and solemn penance ^C. For to these, the Eucharist was not given during the time of penance, unless life was in danger; which is clear both from other sources and from the canons in Gratian, 25, q. 6, and from the code regarding penitents in *de consecrat.*, d. 3. Let the "Penitential" epistles, so to speak, of Dionysius of Alexandria, St. Athanasius, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Basil, and others be read, together with the commentaries of Balsamon.

Fifth, he rejects those from the holy Synaxis, "who have not dedicated their whole life to God, and living in Christ without blame in every way." Here Simeon does not seem to speak of those who, either after baptism or after a completed confession, sin again, but of those who repeatedly fall into the same mortal sin, who are commonly called "recidivists." Concerning whom, Nestenta says in his *Nomocanon*: "For there are many," he says, "who through habit fall back again and fall into sins. These, therefore, must always confess as often as they have fallen, even if they have completed the enjoined penances which they received from the one who bound them, yet they must never communicate. But if you have compassion on them at all, they used to communicate; care must be taken, however, that they do not communicate until they have cut off the sin. For by the grace of mercy they are thus also held to be worthy."

^A to flee, even though it has flapped its wings much, for it is in need of assistance, and of a more sublime virtue. These, of course, are the firm nets of the devil, through which man is brought into his power, and sometimes is retained by him even after death. For whoever is overcome by anyone, he is also his slave. These three things, of course, possess a powerful force, in that they are visible, fruitful, and seduce the appetite with their sweetness, and anticipate it: then, having preoccupied the man, they persuade him that he has seen this light alone. And although he has not been obsessed and conquered by these three, he cannot, however, keep himself unconquered; but a little later he is captured alive by the same. For the devil takes arms from us, by which he secretly subjugates us. Wherefore, we must endeavor to anticipate him, and to put on the armor of God, which is manifold, various, and diverse, and is entirely Christ alone. That is to say, his conjunction, which we perceive with the soul, and the virtue from his fullness; I speak of the virtue which is the life-giver of every soul; without which to live, and to see, is very difficult, and indeed altogether impossible. For as many as have been baptized have put on Christ, that they may live in him, and living may see, and least of all be captured by these three. For those things which are genuine goods are revealed to them, for the sake of which they have emerged into the shores of this light. But he who has been overcome must intensely pray to Christ, and it is necessary even through supplications to entreat him—not that his sins may be remitted for him, but that Christ may liberate and dismiss him from the slavery and dominion of them, since he cannot liberate himself, however much he may wish; so that, having been liberated, he may then seek and obtain the remission of sins, and through the commerce of divine virtue may not commit them for the remainder of his life. For a canon is handed down in these words: "Whoever shall say that the grace of God, by which we are justified through Jesus Christ our Lord, avails only for the remission of sins already perpetrated, and does not provide help besides, so that others may not be perpetrated, let him be anathema."

In what, furthermore, does the power consist of these three things in occupying and possessing us? It consists in a certain secret and clandestine force of Satan, by which he allures us to these things, as if they were good things to be desired, keeping the soul as if in [a state of] rest and joy, and in a vacancy from pain and affliction. Which, unless the soul is first enlightened by God, it cannot easily understand the attack and impulse of the assailant; just as we see a woman carrying a womb desiring certain sordid things, and viewing them alone as pleasant, and eating them. For what the devil always plots is this: that we may not recognize that it is he who engineers such things, secretly baiting and turning away the one who suffers through them, and the one ignorant of the mystery of Christianity. For this mystery is that which, through faith and not through works, is in the souls of the baptized—the virtue of the divinity of Jesus, which the understanding perceives, ^B and shows to them how it is not through themselves that they are led by the desire of money, glory, and pleasures, and by love. Furthermore, for souls after holy baptism that have been tamed by these three, such grace cannot flow in by any other way than through the restoring goods, through which alone salvation is conferred: as through the draught of sanctifications, through the anointing of blessed olives, and the ointments of the saints, and the perception of their fragrance: since through these Christ bestows the power of sanctifying, and by these the soul is purged and the wicked spirit, which reconciles this necessity and friendship in man contrary to the nature of the soul, [them]—through these things which touch the senses and are grasped by the eyes—they do not bear the advent of the Holy Spirit, which the mind perceives, and flee. And then, at last, the Christian understands the freedom which Christ is accustomed to bestow on those who take refuge in him, and does not cease to give thanks, saying: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin; but the slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains. If, therefore, the Son has liberated you, truly you will be free."

What more? He who in this knowledge participates in the divine body and blood of Christ becomes one with him, bone from his bones and flesh from his flesh: and from the time he has been sanctified, if he has money, he has it as if he had it not: he estimates it for what its nature is. If glory has flowed around him, he is no otherwise affected by it than if he lacked it. And: "Those who have wives," says the Apostle, "as if they had none; and those who use this world, as if they did not use it." Of the same [Apostle] also is this: "But for me, far be it to glory, except in the cross of my Lord, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!" That ("through whom") implies this: unless Christ had come and offered himself as a sacrifice for me, and I had been filled with his sanctification, I would have perished, since salvation is not to be hoped for from elsewhere. He who does not say these things is ignorant: and he who expressly rejects them, in vain has believed in Christ, in vain bears the name of Christian, and Christ will profit him nothing: and having become worse than a sinner, he yields more strength to the devil against himself. The fasting of such a one is for nothing: for the affections of sin rise up more against him. If he should sing psalms or perform prayers, the devil—as if he were standing by him with contempt—draws him away with greater power (for he cannot stand [there] with a pious and understanding fear), and causes the mind to imagine certain unspeakable and most impure things, and to attend more to them before God than to what is being said. If he gives alms, he loses them. For whoever is munificent toward the needy, unless he knows that his own soul is released and unencumbered of these chains of avarice, vain glory, and pleasure, whatever he has given, he has lost. He who bestows alms, God in turn deems him worthy of great mercy, that is, of the health of the mind, which health is itself from these three.

^A Since it is only those pure souls who emigrate from here that the kingdom of heaven admits—for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality—this life is a medical workshop for a nature subject to sickness and the necessity of perturbations, and here the roots of the heavenly kingdom are propagated below. For unless Christ reigns here in the soul, it will nowhere obtain salvation. Here man is first born again, and then finally is able to see the kingdom of God. But he who does not yet experience the kingdom of Christ within himself has not yet been born again. Yet it is absolutely necessary to be born, that one may be permitted to see the kingdom of God here.

Now, consider for me also the distinction between these three tyrannical affections, one of which resides in the pursuit of money and riches, another in honor and glory, and the third in pleasures. For it is possible to find among men one who is a lover and greedy for coin, another for reputation, and another for the sweet motions of the body; but you cannot find one and the same person who is simultaneously a great thirster for money, a seeker of much glory, and an absolute desirer of pleasure, for he who is devoted chiefly to one rests content in the mediocrity of the others. But to whomsoever any of these clearly commands and dominates, he despises the other two. The lover of money, for its sake, scorns both glory and pleasure. The former, because he does not fear shame and disgrace to win a penny; nay, even rejoices to gather absurd profit from unjust, abject, and dishonest things, since his mind is entirely in gain, lest he spend and exhaust the money he loves. The ambitious man, by the desire for glory, despises both coin and the blandishments of pleasures; he squanders the former recklessly to obtain praise and honor, ^B while he repels the latter, lest he incur ignominy and reproach. The voluptuary holds both money and glory in the least regard, while he dissipates his wealth through luxury, and, neglecting any honor, rushes headlong into every kind of disgrace for the sake of enjoying carnal joys and obscene pleasures. And from these neither the fear of punishments nor the love of the heavenly kingdom can draw back any one of them; but he mocks the former and vilifies the latter. What besides? The miser makes sport of the voluptuary and the ambitious man: the former, because he does not think it worthy, as he himself does, to capture little profits from vile and despicable things; the latter, because he consumes his household goods and riches for the sake of the pleasure sought from filth. Similarly, the ambitious man derides the miser and the voluptuary: the former because he seeks gains from sordid and despised things, the latter because he labors under disgrace and infamy. The voluptuary hangs both of them—the one, because he forces himself toward chastity as with a bridle for the sake of reputation, lest he be criticized by anyone; the other, because he is continent and content with little to avoid enduring expense. And each of these is urged by his own demon ^C to pass judgment upon the other: so that they are guilty on both counts, both for their sickness and for the condemnation of eternal damnation. Wherefore, let us think only of Christ as our hope, that He may release us from these three bonds and sanctify our senses; that we may be able to hear the divine oracles; that we may be able to use our sight with a tranquil mind; that in place of curses and condemnation, we may speak words of repentance and benediction; that we may touch and handle things in a salutary way. For unless we have healed our souls from these maladies, faith is vain, piety is vain, the worship of God is vain, fasting is vain, prayer is vain, alms-giving is vain: for all these things are contributed for the sake of recalling us from vices and healing us. But if we are not healthy and whole, we believe in Christ without fruit. For he who believes in Christ has eternal life, which is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, he who believes in Christ but has not eternal life, believes in Him in vain. Let him therefore seek and receive that eternal life, that he may be known to believe in Christ. Since he who lacks the Spirit of Christ, the devil claims him for himself as an unbeliever; for there is surely no middle ground. And as eternal life is from faith, so faith is known by eternal life, which may we, through the mercy of Christ in whom we believe, attain now from hence even unto the ages of ages!

ORATION VII. ARGUMENTUM.

^D Regarding spiritual labor, and in what things the holy ancients labored. How we may correctly perform the same, and be able to become partakers of the most holy Spirit like them. Regarding the perfect vacation from the motions that are averse to reason, and regarding holiness. What is the absolute withdrawal from the world. Those who love the glory of men, although they may have duly progressed in all other virtues, obtain no fruit.

Since some, contrary to what they ought, thinking magnificently of themselves, deem themselves similar to the ancient saints and the God-beloved Fathers in the action, contemplation, and perfection of their life, and think themselves endowed with the same spirit by which they lived and were moved, while seeking commendation from words alone without deeds, and have wandered from their path in a spirit of arrogance, we set out to discourse regarding such holy men, and we strive to walk in their footsteps, having accepted these things as attested and with full faith, if we cannot meanwhile overtake them. But having drawn the principle from higher up, let us gradually descend to our own level.

Therefore, the great Antony sitting in a tomb, what was he doing, even though he did not yet fully know spiritual actions? Did he not enclose himself therein as if dead, bringing in nothing worldly, nor anxious about any matter? Was he not wholly dead to the world, and lurking in the tomb, inquiring for God who makes one to revive and rise again? Was he not content with bread alone and water? Was he not... from the demons many...

heavy trials, and lay half-dead from the intolerable blows? When he was carried into the church as if lifeless, did he not, as soon as his senses recovered, return of his own accord to launch into the fray? For if he had not returned to his adversaries, but had remained in the world, and if he had not fought bravely even to the end, and offered himself with a ready will to death, he would not have been deemed worthy of the most longed-for sight of his Lord, nor would he have heard that sweet voice. But ^A he sought with his whole heart, he knocked tirelessly, he endured to the very end, and he received the reward he deserved. For having died in will for Christ, he lay like one dead, until He arrived who restores the dead to life, and raised him from the underworld—from the darkness, I mean, of his soul—and led him into that marvelous light of His countenance, which, having seen, and being freed from his troubles, and wonderfully refreshed, he said: "Lord, where were You until now?" The word, therefore, "until now," is entirely that of one who did not know where He was. But "until now" declares the appearance, and the sense, and the awareness of the Lord’s presence. If, therefore, we do not wish to bid farewell to these things, and if we are resolved to persevere and endure as he did, might we be worthy to see God in the Holy Spirit, as he did, and be filled with exultation? Ah, by no means.

But let us turn to another also, if you please. What did the great Arsenius do from the beginning of his renunciation? Did he not leave behind emperors with their palace and courtly silks, and leave behind also servants and all his riches, and come unattended to the monastery as a pauper and a beggar, and flee the glory and ^B praise of men, so that he might be glorified by God, and strive to be unknown to all who knew him? What, then? Was he satisfied merely to have done this? In no way. But ^C he who did not wish to rank himself even among lowly men, esteemed himself as a dog. For when a piece of bread was thrown to him by the superior, and it had fallen to the ground, he imitated a quadruped in moving, and ate the bread picked up, not with his hand, but with his teeth, like a dog. Sitting in his cell, he not only labored, but consumed for his own use much less than he earned by the labor of his hands, drinking turbid and foul water willingly. Moreover, while working and praying, he continuously watered his face with tears; and when he began in the evening, he would continue his prayers standing until the morning; and he persevered in extreme poverty and lowliness even until his death. Why this? That he might suffer absolutely, and that he might see also what the great Anthony was deemed worthy to suffer and see. How, then, is it not similarly recorded in letters about him that he saw the Lord? Did he undertake labors, and did he as it were pave the way, yet did not merit to see Him? Nothing of the sort; but he himself also, even if his historian did not so openly declare this, was deemed worthy to see the Lord. But if you wish to learn accurately, unfold the life of Arsenius that has been written, whence you will know that this man also saw God. Wherefore, those who, by their own work and labor, ^D have expressed the same grace by imitation, truly attain it not undeservedly. And if anyone is unwilling to imitate the humility and patience of these men, why does he, in addition, deny that it can happen?

Furthermore, who could narrate the deeds of Euthymius, and Sabas, and the rest of the saints who succeeded them, which are greater than words can tell? For whether before receiving the grace of the Spirit, or after receiving it, no one has overcome the darkness of the soul, nor contemplated the light of the most holy Spirit, without troubles, without great sweat, without violence, anguish, and tribulation. For the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force [*], because it is necessary that through many tribulations we enter into the kingdom of God [**]. For the kingdom of heaven is the participation of the Holy Spirit. This is indeed what is said: The kingdom of heaven is within you [***], that we might strive to receive and have the Holy Spirit within us. Let those who do not make violence for themselves, who are not daily in straits, in penury of things, and in afflictions, refrain, therefore, from saying that we have the Holy Spirit within us. For without the exercise of virtue, without sweat and labors, this reward happens to no one. Wherefore, that proverb in the mouth of the vulgar pleases me well: Show your works, and then ask for a reward. I know a man who, before he gave himself to labor, in order to urge himself more sharply, had applied himself with a right and simple mind to the Scriptures, and for a few days and nights, I might say, he kept watch without weariness, and frequented his prayers, and was so illuminated by supernal grace that he seemed to be outside the body, outside his dwelling, and indeed outside the whole world. It was night, and he shone with divine clarity. But because he had received riches while idle, he suddenly thought little of them and neglected them; whence he lost them all at once, to such an extent that he did not even remember that he had ever seen such glory. Wherefore, I confess that I wonder how those to whom it never happened to receive or see this glory, even in any small part, by their own merit, can presume that they hold it all within themselves. But oh, the blindness! Oh, the darkness! Oh, the stupidity and arrogance of opinion concerning themselves! Where, then, have they learned this, or from which of the Scriptures? Truly, they have become vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart is darkened, and in Egypt—that is, in the darkness of their own perturbations and pleasures—they have remained. For those who have desired to see the land of promise, which the eyes of the meek, the humble, and the poor are worthy to see, submit—though it be through anguish, tribulation, and rejection—to abstain vehemently from all and every kind of bodily pleasure, honor, indulgence, and rest: and not only this, but they also avoid the company and familiarity of any person, whether commoner or primary, fleeing them without hatred, that they may be deemed worthy to attain this before the brevity of this life interrupts their course. For those who humble themselves

for themselves, and for the wicked, and for those who have committed many offenses, possessing it from the heart; nay, even counting themselves enemies and transgressors of divine laws, they lead a mournful life, desiring to know what they must do to recover the grace of Christ the Lord. Therefore the Lord grants to them, not only that they may understand what they ought to do, but also the strength and patience, so that when they have fulfilled all things which it is their interest to know, and have possessed God who is over all and in all, then they may also live as if in heaven and dwell there; and whether they spend their time in caves, or in mountains, or in cells, or dwell in the midst of cities, they may still serve Him always in joy, and hilarity, and exultation such as cannot be told.

This, then, is now the labor of the saints, this is the action of those who are led by the Spirit of God: such as appeared in our own times, the pious, holy, and most blessed Simeon, who shone like the sun in the midst of that monastery, famous for its renown, which is called Studium. While he was once in the midst of the world, he renounced fading things, friends, kindred, and furthermore the cares, anxieties, and pleasures of life, so entirely that he blotted out their memory from his heart, and cast it far away from himself. Among many monks, he uttered that blessed voice: "Brothers, consider this as the perfect renunciation of the world, the mortification of one's own will." O holy voice, or rather, O holy soul, which deserved to become such, and to be separated from the whole world! And the same, again, said: "A monk ought to live in the monastery as if he were and were not, and not appear; or rather, as one who is not known," which he explained in this way: "As if he were, in body; as if he were not, in spirit. Not appearing, except to those who are pure in heart through the Holy Spirit. Not known, so that he may have no business with anyone." O divine utterance, through which his life is proclaimed more excellent than human, and angelic; through which, in comparison of conversation in the heavens, he bears witness to himself through the Holy Spirit. Through which he may spend his life with God for us, while he says: "Have no business with anyone!" which indeed no one can rightly perform, or truly say, unless he has been in every way and entirely united to God. If he says it otherwise, he mocks himself. For he who says he does not sin is blind, having his eyes closed. But he who possesses God cannot sin, because His seed remains in him 87, as that most theological thunder of the apostles, John, affirms. And because Simeon had God entirely within himself, hence both living he said, and dead by his handwriting he cries out as if with a loud voice: "Acquire God as your friend, and you will not need the help of men." Again: "Possess God, and you will have no need of a book." This holy Father of ours labored in such a way that he surpassed many of the holy Fathers of old.

^A He bore so many hardships and temptations that he could be compared with many more illustrious martyrs. Because of this, he obtained glory from God and a most tranquil state of mind, and having received the Paraclete within himself, he attained to holiness. For just as a cistern receives flowing water, so he received from the fullness of Christ our Lord, and was filled with the grace of His Spirit, which is living water 88, as this same John the Evangelist relates: nay, truly it is the Son and Word of the living God Himself, from whom also John obtained the riches of his discourse: "Everyone who drinks from this water (assuming it is visible) will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I shall give him will not thirst forever: but it will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life 89." Which the Evangelist interprets in these words: "But this he said of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive 90."

^B And the Apostle: "We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things that are given to us by God, which also we speak 91." For through water of this kind, the corruption of the soul is washed away like filth, without which he who has done many things will accomplish nothing. Wherefore the Lord says: "Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill 92." But the fullness of the law is this, that no one should defend himself in anything, nor maintain his own cause, nor avenge himself. For this is the perfect renunciation of the world, the entire mortification of one's own will. Whatever affliction some may bring upon him, he is not moved at all, nor does he contradict in a perturbed state: but he presents himself in all things to all, like a dead man, resolving to live, move, and act only in those commands which look toward God, and to keep His precepts; like a lion, or some giant Samson, or if any other was or is stronger than he: "He who has my commandments," He says, "and keeps them, he it is who loves me: and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father 93." And: "I, and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him 94." With these and suchlike things the Lord said: "You are not of this world: but I have chosen you out of the world 95." "Come to me, and I will refresh you 96." For those who walk otherwise, namely in their own wills in any manner, or only in things which in their opinion are considered good, will by no means see the life which those who have been cut off and divided from the age, and are already dead to their own will, see.

^D If then I am unwilling to be humbled and subjected, to be pressed, to be afflicted with ignominy, to be despised, to be torn by reproaches, and I do not endure to be as one of the obscure, the senseless, and the abject, and the mentally deranged; but neither to be disdained by those I meet, and to be reputed like a madman or a beggar through the streets and lanes of the city, tell me, by what other reason shall I die to my own will? For if God has commanded that these things which happen by way of trial and test be borne patiently by all of us: nay, indeed, if not for trial and test, but for the purging of our souls—

^A—if we are unwilling to suffer these things, and that will of the flesh—that earthly prudence—lives in us, how, I ask, shall we escape? In no way shall we escape. But if we do not die to the world and to the things that are in the world, how, then, shall we live hidden in Christ, as those who were created for God's sake, but have died to the world?

Let us imitate Christ our God; let us ourselves also suffer for our salvation as He suffered for us—He whom they called possessed by a demon, a seducer, a glutton, and a drinker of wine. For thus they used to say: "You have a demon." And again, "Behold a gluttonous man and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners." We hear also how he was called a murderer and a sorcerer, how he was bound, dragged, and exhibited to Pilate as a vile little man, struck on the face by a servant, thrust into prison—and led out from prison, taken by the lictors, and handed over to the people by Pilate, when he said: "Take him you, and crucify him." Let us consider, therefore, how He who is above all the heavens and who holds all things in His own hand stood in their midst, pushed, repulsed, struck with fists and slaps, mocked, and brought into the praetorium—He whom no created nature, not even the Seraphim themselves, can behold—stripped of His garments, bound to a column, and receiving more than forty stripes (which indicated that the accused had been condemned by a final sentence to death). What then? Clothed in scarlet purple for mockery, struck on the head with a reed, and questioned: "Who is it that struck you?" crowned with thorns, worshipped and mocked, spit upon, and hearing with derision: "Hail, King of the Jews." Again, He was clothed in His own garments, His neck bound with a rope, and He was led out to His death. Afterward, He was so burdened with His cross ^B and led to the place of Calvary, seeing it being fixed in the ground, and left alone by His friends and disciples. Again stripped, suspended on high, His hands and feet fastened with nails by the soldiers, and permitted to hang there, given vinegar to drink, wounded by a lance, lacerated by the reproach of the thief, derided, and forced to hear: "Vah! You who destroy the temple of God and in three days rebuild it, save yourself and come down from the cross." And again: "If He is the Son of God, let Him come down now from the cross and we will believe in Him." And so, after He had suffered all these things, giving thanks, praying for His killers, and commending His spirit into the hands of His Father, do all these things, my brothers, not suffice for our imitation? But we are ashamed to suffer these things. By what other works, then, or in what way shall we be glorified with Him? For whoever, He says, shall be ashamed of me and my words, I also will be ashamed of him before my Father who is in heaven. And so the voice of Paul is also: If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him. But if, for shame, we are unwilling to imitate and to suffer those things which He suffered for us, as He suffered, it is manifest that we shall not be sharers in His glory; for thus we are not ^C faithful in deed, but only in word: and faith without works is dead. If faith is dead without works, then neither is there faith with evil works. For that which is dead, if it is recent, is called dead just as if it were newly lifeless. But if it is of many days now, it is called not merely dead, but putrid, corrupt, and foul. Since, therefore, there are two kinds of works—those pleasing to God and those hateful—if faith without works is dead, as we read in the scriptures (that is, without those works which are pleasing to God), what name shall be given to that faith which not only lacks works acceptable to God, but also has works detestable to God? Dead? Nay, rather it ought to be called putrid and corrupt; or, to speak more truly, unbelief and impiety. Concerning which the prophet Isaiah also seems to speak: "The impious shall not see the glory of God."

Therefore I affirm, and repeating it again and again I will affirm, that those who have not imitated the passions of Christ through repentance and obedience, and have not been made partakers of His death, as we have subtly taught above, neither become partakers of His spiritual resurrection, nor do they obtain the Holy Spirit, through whom the resurrection of all is accustomed to be brought about. I do not mean that resurrection of bodies at the consummation of the age—for the angel's trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise—but that which takes place daily in a spiritual manner, ^D the spiritual regeneration and resurrection of dead souls, which He who once died and rose again bestows, rising through all and in all who live as is fitting, and awakening by the most holy Spirit those souls that were dead to Him by will and by faith, and from this, granting them the kingdom of heaven. Wherefore do not refuse to give faith to me, brothers, as I say these things. But know this: if we exercise ourselves in every kind of virtue; if we perform miracles; if we omit not even a small or a great commandment, but seek only human glory, and look to it in any way in our pursuits, and hasten to catch it, we have already lost the reward of all other things, and, admitting the glory of men and not judging the glory of God to be superior, we are condemned as infidels and idolaters, serving the creature more than the Creator, just as the Lord Himself objects to such people: "How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that is from God alone?" Furthermore, he who embraces with joy and pleasure the earthly glory that comes to him, and boasts of it, and delights in it in his very marrow, will be condemned as a fornicator. For he is like a man who determines to keep his virginity, renounces the company and congress of women for himself, and neither visits them nor desires to live with them; but when some woman approaches him, he soon receives her gladly and freely, and...

satisfies his desire without any necessity, or infirmity, or reasonable occasion, but only from the ^A contempt of the commandment, against Him who fashioned him from the earth, and finds the wickedness, ingratitude, and apostasy (into which that devil first fell of his own accord and by his own will). Wherefore every man ought to know that pride increases in everyone with age, conceived in the mind from madness, which madness an inflated opinion of oneself generates. Hence, before all things, it is necessary that everyone, while still in the darkness of his infancy, be taught the knowledge of himself; for he is sown from corruption and saliva, but he grows like grass, and being composed of many parts that easily flag, he is easily dissolved and dissipated. And he lives subject to daily putrefaction: *And his inward parts*, according to the prophet, *have even boiled before death*. For he who does not know himself, sinking little by little into pride and arrogance, becomes foolish. For what is so stupid as a leper, defiled in his whole body, if he should by chance wear a golden collar and be clothed in splendid garments, while being himself deformed and full of filth? But when he has lost his mind, he is called an instrument and tool of the demon in all the habit of his life, and becomes an enemy of God. Now what is more miserable than he who has separated himself from God as an enemy? For to whom it is ill in the body, he, feeling his disease, rushes to physicians. He who is sick in his soul lacks the sense of his sickness: and the more dangerously he is sick, the less he feels it; and therefore he does not wish to go to spiritual physicians either. When, therefore, you see anyone behaving proudly, judge the stupidity of his soul in proportion to the pride and the proud man. For whoever does not feel that he is sick is not far from death. And this is a sin unto death, the proud man being destitute of the sense of his own disease. For he who leads a life in sins, and teaches and warns others, being near to death, does not require a physician.

Therefore it must be done thoroughly, so that every man may know himself, so that he may be able to think humbly of himself: for humility is ^D a certain hidden prudence. For as every proud man is unwise and foolish, so every humble man is prudent and intelligent. And because stupidity and blindness are a great and many-fold adjunct of pride to men, therefore God, being good, has mingled painful and sad things with pleasant ones, that we might not be exalted. Of which thing the apostle Paul, who was in the excellent glory of the Divinity and performed wonderful works, the *thorn in the flesh, and Satan buffeting him*, will afford proof: so that therefore we ought to give thanks for every tribulation no less than for the remission and indulgence of sins, whereby, just as we deserve grace in pleasant things, so also we may deserve it in sad things. It is necessary, therefore, that every mortal should know that he is nothing, and that from him who walks adorned with a diadem, down to the naked and beggar. Because God Almighty, not knowing himself,

^A to be anything—although he wills to save—cannot save. Even if someone were to give the whole world to God, which cannot happen, but still did not persuade himself that he is nothing, he could never be saved. What then shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Certainly not his knowing that he is nothing; but in the fact that he knows himself to be nothing, perhaps [he finds] recognition, and through that prudent recognition, a contrite and humbled heart, which alone is the proper sacrifice of the pious man, from him who is clothed in purple down to him who begs for alms along the streets: which alone God will not despise, for He knows that there is nothing else proper for man to offer Him as a sacrifice. David is witness: "For if thou hadst desired sacrifice," he says, "I would indeed have given it: with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted. Sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit." This sacrifice is contained in a contrite and humbled heart. Kings, princes, nobles, wise men, rustics, the rich, the poor, beggars, robbers, the greedy, the injurious, those who violate the law, the unchaste, murderers, and whoever has gone through every kind of wickedness—by measuring out this precious sacrifice, they have been saved and shall be saved. Indeed, even the saints and the just and those of a pure heart become participants of salvation through this one sacrifice. Furthermore, alms, faith, flight from the world, and that great struggle itself, martyrdom, give light under the ashes of the embers of this sacrifice. And this is the sacrifice without sin, which wins over the gracious God. Only this sacrifice do diseases, tribulations, distresses, sins of the soul, and affections of the body demand, so that one may piously worship God through it. He who possesses this, even if he were beneath everything, yet he could not fall from anywhere. For there is no other reason why God descended to earth and humbled himself even unto death, except to create in those who believe in Him a contrite and humbled heart.

There are, therefore, two sacrifices which God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ accepts, and for which He has mercy upon everyone, and indeed upon the whole world. One is the Lord Himself and our Jesus Christ, who is also the Son of God, as God incarnate: the other is the contrite and humbled heart of each one of us. For the rest, if someone should distribute all his possessions to the poor, and if someone should fast, keep vigil, and if someone should weary God with prayers night and day, and yet a contrite and humbled heart has not been created in him—since every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights—such a person performs his work in vain. Therefore, that [way] alone is to be sought, by which a contrite and humbled heart may be created and born. For in whom such a heart shall be created, he will walk upon the earth as if in the kingdom of heaven; ^B since even when a man has come to the final breath to be given up, he is found rejoicing and exulting, ^C which is the common sign of the sanctified: or contrite and humbled, which is held to be the argument of grace received. For every believer, if he has done anything for Christ’s sake, receives in turn a contrite and humbled heart—a divine and incomparable gift, the basis and foundation of miracles, signs, and wonders, the resurrection of souls in the present age, before the general resurrection, the redemption for which God gave His Son: "That everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life." And that while living he may know the only true God, and Him whom He sent, Jesus Christ. For knowledge of divine piety generates the habit of humility, and humility a habit of gentleness; these two habits make [one] approach God. For these two virtues, since they are coupled, indicate a religious [disposition] toward God as a sort of sign and mark, and demonstrate that one has approached God by reason of His greatness: just as the vices that are contrary to humility and gentleness, namely pride and wrath, show how far someone is from Him. For this reason our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the most high, humbled Himself even unto death, and the death of the cross, so that those believing in Him, and initiated by baptism, eating His body and drinking His blood (in which is their incorruption and life), may also have this humility. For this immaculate and powerful communion of Jesus Christ works these three things: life, incorruption, and humility. Life and incorruption are because of humility; humility is the same humility as both the first and the third from life and incorruption. The first indeed, as the occasion of the two; the third, as that which encompasses them. Wherefore if any Christian does not have humility as if ingrained and innate, which he has received from Christ, he has nothing else from Christ, nor will Christ profit him; for such a man labors in ignorance of both God and himself. For if he had known that he could never do anything good or salutary without Christ, he would both have humbled himself and clearly put on the humility of Christ, as a royal diploma in which Christian kings are, through it ruling over both the disturbances of the mind and demons. For according to the ^D measure of sincere humility, there is also in the heart a measure of salvation, because the mother of humility is the mind illuminated by the grace of Christ, clearly perceiving its own infirmity in the divine light; just as the parent of pride is the mind contemplating itself in the darkness of folly.

ORATION IX.

ARGUMENT.

these are common things, but each of them has something peculiar. The lawless is one who is outside the laws; the violator of the law is one who acts against the laws to which he is subject; the sinner is one who, through a certain frustration, does not act well; the impious is one who sins against God, inasmuch as he worships either no God ^A or many. Furthermore, in the Holy Scripture, the sinner, the adulterer, the miser, the lover of money, the seeker of vain glory, and those who have surrendered themselves to vices of this kind are called by the name of impious. Knowing that God, who fashioned the eye, sees all things, they arrange their lives as if God did not see. For if they worshipped God, who is present everywhere and beholds all things, they would by no limit despise Him as though He were not looking. For those who love the glory of men more than that of God, and who wallow in every kind of depravity, and imagine that they deceive an eye that never sleeps, when indeed they worship God—whom even inanimate creation trembles at! David therefore says: "You shall destroy all those who speak a lie" (Ps. v, 7). And a little later: "According to the multitude of their impieties, cast them out" (Ps. v, 11), calling sins impieties, which caused them to swerve from the commandments of God, though not from faith. The same man again, regarding the adultery committed with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, says: "I said, I will confess my injustice against myself to the Lord, and You did forgive the impiety of my heart" (Ps. xxx, 5). Behold, the heart of David acted impiously on account of injustice; and a Christian sinning without fear, becoming an opprobrium of Christ, is impious. Even this, someone inspired by God ^B explains, when he addresses Him thus: "We have committed impiety, because we have become an opprobrium to your beloved." And another endowed with divine wisdom says: what use is it to be devout in faith but impious in life? Let us posit that someone is a miser, a traitor, a savage, and yet holds the right faith: what benefit will this person receive if he possesses nothing of those things that befit a Christian? If he has done nothing of those things that manifest piety, but has even surpassed heathens in vices? If he has harmed those near to him? If he has blasphemed God? If he has disgraced the venerable dogmas of religion through his works? For the Son of God was manifested for this reason, according to the evangelist John the Theologian, "that He might dissolve the works of the devil" (I Joan. iii, 8). Whoever therefore has received the manifested Son of God, if he is still held bound by the works of the devil, which this Son of God manifested in order to dissolve, he is worse than the infidels themselves and more impious than the atheists.

For when you hear that God was made man, He who made ^C the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things in their midst, and things subject to the eyes, and things that are not—understand that He was made man for no other cause except that God might be able to die through human nature. Do not seek more, but only desire the cause and necessity of this condescension and patience being undertaken.

Then, when you hear John the Baptist saying: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Joan. i, 29), of whom Isaiah prophesied many ages before, calling Him the sheep and the lamb led to the slaughter (Isa. liii, 7), learn that He died because of sin; so that those who had received Him, having been affected by death and having received Him alive on the third day, might be able no longer to sin through Him; for those who sin have not received Him, however much they may persuade themselves. For if they had received Him, He would have given them the power to become children of God, who cannot sin; since it is written: "Everyone who sins does not see Him, nor has known Him" (I Joan. iii, 6). And: "He who does injustice is of the devil" (I Joan. iii, 8). And: "In this are the children of God and the children of the devil manifest. And: Everyone who does not do justice is not of God" (I Joan. iii, 10). But if he who does not do justice is not of God, then he who does injustice, whence is he? "For this," he says, "the Son of God was manifested, that He might dissolve the works of the devil" (I Joan. iii, 8); and if these are not dissolved, no benefit is to be hoped for. Many, therefore, of the Christian race think it profits them to be called Christians; not knowing that it is paternal and maternal, and entirely common along with their country and region: who, if they have ordered their life by the laws of Christ, then they will both be named Christians and be said to believe in Christ; otherwise, it would have been better not to believe in Christ, and even better not to have been born. For they could not not believe in Christ: but they will be punished more atrociously than infidels. But those from other races, who did not receive from their ancestors the right to be named Christians, if they have believed in Christ, will prepare for themselves great benefits; whereas those of the Christian race, through the transgression of the law of Christ, dishonor Christ and defile their ancestral and true piety.

ORATION X. ARGUMENT.

That not God, but demons rather are the authors of human servitude. On anger and greed, in which there is no reason. And whence the soul is affected by these. Just as the bodily vision needs an uninjured organ of perception, likewise movement, interval in proper proportion, and pure air, and the light of the sun: so also the vision of the soul ^D needs these in a certain way, which is perceived by the intelligence.

In the present age, that is, in this life, there is a father and a son; a slave and a hired worker were not created; for neither the first parent, nor his first son were slaves or hired workers. For to whom could they have been subjected as slaves and hired workers? Servitude and hired works are later: servitude indeed from those who were consorts in nature because of mutual depravity; but mercenary works from indigence, because of those who, being of the same race as others, greedily desired to have more. Behold, both the slave and the hired worker came into existence from the subsequent vice of men; for their existence, the sole necessity of indigence was the cause. And just as the slave and the hired worker do not do just anything, but those [things which]

that please their masters and heirs; similarly the devil (understanding that evil power) who fell away from God, and who fashioned human wickedness and persuaded mortals of his love, draws them into his own servitude: to whom (as we see in soul and thought) they obey in a servile manner in pleasures, rapine, avarice, and all wickednesses. And when they are such, he renders them shameless, prouder, and foolish; so that they can neither defend themselves, nor do they wish to be freed by another into liberty. All such persons, therefore, whether they be Gentiles and ignorant of God, or infidels, or believing Christians and orthodox, belonging to the devil and serving him, pertain to his party, for he is the one who dominates them, and being cast out by God, they cannot remain in His house for eternity. ^B Great force is needed for them to be rescued from the hands of him who imposed servitude upon them. But another way neither has been found, nor could be found, nor is there any, except Christ the power of God. If, therefore, He shall have set one free, then at last he will be free who has been liberated by Him. For he will be chaste, sober, good, just, religious, humane, pious, merciful, patient, humble, mild, grieving for the evils of others, continent; this is to be truly human. Those who lack these things are either cattle or demons, even if they have been Christians and orthodox, and these will be brought into a more severe examination, nor will their protector and vindicator, Christ, profit them at all, because, as is clear, they did not wish for His redemption alone, this sole liberty, greater than every human virtue, on account of which God deemed it worthy to be born man, and for whose sake alone He willingly endured death. For as to what some think, that perturbations—such as anger and desire—are innate in human nature, it is truly not so. But truly, anger and desire are innate in our nature from God; they are not perturbations, but are good, and man received them from that supreme Good ^C as, in a certain way, characteristics of his intelligent nature: which, although they are present in brute animals as well, are not present in this way: for although that is indeed flesh, yet the same flesh is in no way like that of beasts and cattle.

Truly, anger and desire are implanted in man, but so also is the mind, which, as long as it retained its health, kept these within the terms and limits of its own nature; desire [was] looking toward the goods of God which are understood, and anger [was] incited, encouraging desire itself toward capturing those things more generously, and toward ascending, and approaching God more and more. But after the mind was weakened, and despoiled of the health by which it was guarded, it deflected to lower things alone, as if corrupted, and therefore it foolishly desires things that do not concern it, and without reason, it becomes angry like wild beasts and cattle. A Christian, therefore, with health recovered from the fellowship of Christ, again desires only those things for the sake of which anger and desire were implanted in nature. He who does otherwise is not yet a Christian. Therefore, it is not the case that anger and ^D desire are perturbations, but rather the privation of the soul’s health, on account of which reason lacks anger, and desire is insane; that, I say, imposes the image of perturbations upon them. For the soul is one thing: and it is simple, and admits no partition, being as it were something intellectual; nor is there any composition or coagulation, on account of which it is compelled to suffer, just as a body, concreted from four elements, is necessarily acted upon by one of these, if it either abounds or is deficient. For everything that is acted upon must be acted upon by something. Since, therefore, the soul has nothing by which it might suffer, and it is established that it is itself simple, uncompounded, exempt from division, and intelligent, how does it suffer from desires and anger that lack reason, since everything that suffers must be acted upon by another? Therefore, there is found another intelligent nature, that of demons, rushing into it—which we can understand—and causing business and molestation in its natural motions by which it is always stirred, and having cast some darkness upon it, not allowing it to perceive properly those things which are right, true, and which have no mere imagination, shadow, or error. For the natural habits of human nature have deflected from the line since the fall of the first man—the mind, thought, opinion, the imaginative faculty, the senses, and those in which the tripartite soul is perceived—namely, that part in which reason and counsel reside; and another, in which irascibility; and the last, in which desires and lusts are contained. And therefore man can indeed reason: but he is weak at reasoning correctly. He can indeed desire, but foolishly. He can indeed be angry, but he is angry rashly: and therefore sensations, ruminations, opinions, imaginations, and perceptions are stubborn, distorted, unstable, and slippery. Wherefore the holy, undefiled, and omnipotent nature of Jesus God corrects, confirms, and corroborates these habits according to nature, and for this reason the law and rules were given divinely, so that the soul—a participant in intelligence, and always mobile—might be tempered in its legitimate motions by divine canons: so that, walking constantly in them, it might discern what is right and becoming to it: and, exercised in this contemplation, it might compel the tormentor to flee from it, and when it has emerged more perfect in the comprehension of all truth, it might direct its study and labor only toward true things: so that in this way it might draw that Legislator Himself to rest upon it, and that which was said by the Lord might be fulfilled in it: He who loves me will keep my words, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him. And I and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him.

This mystery of the soul all the wisdom of this age has ignored: which wisdom is on that account also called destitute of reason: for this mystery of the soul alone is conjoined with reason. One—

^A must know God, oneself, and the demons. The first, as Lord, and the only one who can save. Oneself, as unarmed against an enemy whom we see with the mind. The demons, as invisible enemies who, what is marvelous, continually attack us through ourselves. For just as outward sight, beside the light of the sun, requires four things for the clear and evident discernment of objects—a sound eye, measured motion, measured distance, and pure air—so too the inward sight requires a perfect mind, the measured motion of contemplation (which the fear of God moderates as if with a bridle), and a certain intelligible purity of air, being illuminated by the Light that illuminates every man coming into the world. But although this light cannot be hidden, as it is intercepted or hindered by no partition or cloud, yet it is not seen by infidel souls, but only by those who have believed in Christ. Furthermore, they are faithful souls in truth who, after the regeneration of the divine and holy baptism, in no way at all transgress the commandment of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; but with holy David they desire to say: *I was directed unto all thy commandments. I hated every way of iniquity, because all thy commandments are justice.* For *every one who doeth justice,* writes that beloved John, *is born of God; but he who doeth sin is of the devil.* The commandments, therefore, distinguish the faithful from the infidel. For as faith and the confession of Christ are exercised in the fulfilling of every commandment of Christ, so in the violation of each one of his commandments, infidelity and denial are found. In souls, therefore, that believe in Christ and are determined to keep his commands and laws, according to the measure of the faith and obedience which they afford Christ, it is granted to them also to see; and this sight is the knowledge of those things which are properly good and which are not, and which things should be held and which should not, so that we do not look upon destruction as salvation, or salvation as destruction: but just as ^B when we see scattered gold we run to gather it, and seeing a precipice we do not cast ourselves from it, so, discerning the will of God, we are moved promptly toward it; and seeing sin, we are careful lest we fall headlong into it and our bones be broken, and we be able to stand neither for temperance nor for justice, but rather, just as those who lie in bed as paralytics, we wish to lie in impurities and avarice, and rejoice rather in some kind of offenses, being affected by no vexation or pain on that account. For as every body subject to the eyes continually needs the light that is perceived by sense, that it may be seen, in the same way any nature coming under the understanding always needs a certain intellectual light, so that it may be grasped by the mind. For there are two lights: one here, the sun, which moves the sense and is perceived by sight—which is ^C called the intellectual light, Christ God, who gives to the intelligible aspects so that they may look upon the incorporeal creature intellectually. Unless the sun, which the sense touches, has risen, no one sees the level and straight places, the pure paths, and those void of filth; so unless the sun which we recognize by the mind has risen, no one perceives the precipices of vices, the direct path of justice, and the beauty of divine commandments. If, therefore, a Christian is found who enters upon the way of wickedness, either wholly or in part, he is not yet a Christian. For a Christian is filled with divine light from the very secret knowledge of God, with which he is imbued through holy baptism, and is called and is illuminated. And yet, everyone who walks in the light sees the pits and the stumbling blocks. If he does not see, he does not have the light. How then is he a Christian? But if he affirms that he sees, and nevertheless is taken by the lures of delights, he speaks a lie. For he sees just as those do who lack the light—that is, the infidels—and they indeed distinguish between good and evil, yet they do not turn away from evil; for the reason that they do not see purely and clearly what properly is good or evil. But a Christian, so long as he does not perceive evil clearly and limpidly, has not yet been a Christian. He will strive, however, the struggle with groans, and tears, and fasts, that the true and perfect light may shine upon him, ^D which *illuminates every man coming into this world,* and may amend the natural habits of the soul and illustrate them, and render them firm and strong, so that he may see the will of God—good, well-pleasing, and perfect—and may embrace the same greedily and ardently. For those who have not sensed the heavenly power from the pool of baptism—which power is called regeneration and renewal, and, as it truly is, the reformation of the whole man—for them, after these things, there is need of instruction and the imposition of venerable hands by the holy and illuminated. For unless the habits born in every Christian by nature have been previously corrected, transmuted, and thoroughly purged of the filth obscuring them, and have been solidly established, it is very difficult, nay, impossible, for any soul to obey divine wills. For first, that which is weak and sick having been healed and strengthened, thus at last it is lawful to approach the ministry, which is beneficial to everyone to whom one ministers. For that which is still morbid is useless to any master. From this ignorance many ascetics are weak and invalid, labor in vain, and many sleep, whom, consequently, that eternal fire will burn.

ORATION XI

the end they do not lead to spiritual health, they are vain, and therefore spiritual diseases ought to be cured. ^A And how, voluntarily or involuntarily, does one sin? To abide in tears and sorrow, and to entreat God for mercy upon one's own transgressions, and to ask for pardon for previous offenses and errors, is good and praiseworthy; but that will profit no one, unless Christ has provided medicine for his weaknesses, to which it must be ascribed that he is even able not to sin. Therefore, the penitent will strive in every way to obtain strength from Christ, so that he may utterly and thoroughly destroy turbulent passions, whereby, being now sanctified, he may become fit and suitable for doing the will of God and performing the commands of Christ. For indeed before sanctification, that is, before the emptiness of perturbations is attained, one who is sometimes defiled by sin out of inborn weakness, and sometimes forces himself to keep Christ's commandments, what fruit does he finally gather? Certainly, he is like one who builds and then tears down what was built. Therefore, it is necessary that the weakness of nature be healed by Christ, who alone came as a physician to remove our infirmities, among which is that one from which we are accustomed to fall into sin. For this is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, which is the infirmity of our corrupted nature. ^B For after Adam was cast out of paradise because of the crime of disobedience, every human being was rendered sick, weak, and infirm. Moreover, these infirmities are wonderful things, interceding between nature and will: so that sometimes they seem to be referred to nature, and sometimes to discretion and will. They are these: every man is more or less infirm regarding sincere charity. Infirm in not envying. Infirm in not slandering. Infirm in not rebuking. Infirm in not mocking. Infirm in not lying. Infirm in not being angry. Infirm in not coveting the pleasant things he sees. Infirm regarding temperance. Infirm in avoiding vain glory. Infirm in fleeing from avarice. Infirm in that he does not want others and his equals to be either wiser, or more prudent, or more robust, or more famous, or more worthy of honor than himself. Infirm regarding compassion, mercy, sharing, persistently offering thanks to God, abstaining from every evil, and pursuing every good: so that, as was said above, now through the way of free will, now through the tyranny of nature, he appears infirm and weak.

Since this is so, it is necessary to cure these infirmities and languors; but it is more necessary to seek the physician by whom they may be cured. Therefore, our elders prescribed for us Christians a suppliant prayer, that we should always say to God, in contrition of heart: "Visit and heal our infirmities for the sake of ^C thy name; that is, freely, as thou hast a glorious name, as thou art merciful, and a benefactor, and the only physician." Whoever, therefore, has attained the cure has even become a Christian, and does not boast in himself, but in the physician, to whom he gives thanks day and night, and humbles himself from the heart. For unless a man is found healed, he is not yet healed, being moved by ignorance, or rather thoughtlessness, as one who does not know what to say to God, and what infirmities he desires to have healed. But if he dies unhealed and unpurged, he will be purged, burning for all eternity in the flames of Gehenna. It is, indeed, a truly miserable spectacle when Christian men cry out day and night: "Visit and heal our infirmities, O Lord," and the Lord cannot heal them, since they do not know what their own infirmities are (which are so great, so many, and so various). This is the reason why Christians perish—from beggars and the poor, from citizens and soldiers, from monks, clerics, deacons, priests, bishops, princes, and kings. Their infirmities are cured commonly and at once by one certain medicine, namely, communion with the divine nature. ^D For unless every Christian participates in the divine nature according to the capacity of his own faith, whether he be keeping vigil, or lying in bed, or singing psalms and fasting day and night, and frequenting prayers, if he remains unhealed, he remains outside the part of Christ, just like the infidels. For every human being, wise or foolish, intelligent or obtuse, prudent or imprudent, learned or unlearned, cultured or rustic, rich or poor, to whom what he has suffices and who earns his living by labor, whatever he may have done in this life with toil, weariness, and misery, unless he confers it to this end alone, that his soul may be freed from infirmities and be safe, all things are vain and superfluous, and cause him to be left outside the kingdom of heaven, which admits only souls that are unharmed and safe. Furthermore, every soul that is held bound by the aforementioned diseases, and by the cupidities of things connected with the body, and by the appetites of earthly and worldly things, and by the desires of glory, can never be cured and healed either by itself or by men: but only by the Lord and our God Jesus Christ, concerning whom it stands written, "That he himself took our sins, and carried our infirmities." For if the souls of men, not only of atheists and ethnic people, but even of the believing Hebrews themselves, could have easily despised worldly cupidities and carnal appetites, and thus have avoided the prince of the world, the devil, who has the empire of death through them, it would have been entirely unnecessary for the good, merciful, and kind God to become man, to be afflicted with insults and torments, and to descend through death into the lower parts of the earth. For to despise the world, and the things that are in the world, and those things that pertain to the flesh, occurs only through the participation of the divine virtue of Jesus.

^A And whosoever believes in Christ, unless they first utterly despise worldly and fleshly things by the aid of His virtue, shall never be able to perform His commandments, as we read: "Turn away from evil, and do good." From which it follows that he who believes in Christ must before all else entreat the virtue, grace, and mercy of Christ, that he may detest the world, worldly things, and fleshly concupiscences, and may strive in faith to attain the mortification of them—which is of God alone—according to the Apostle, who says: "For I carry about the mortification of Jesus in my body." These are the prayers pleasing to God, concerning which John the Theologian says: "Whatever we ask according to the will of God, He will do for us." For God wishes humans to ask only for those things from Him which are specifically accommodated to their eternal salvation. Therefore, as long as life is granted to anyone, let him not waste his study and occupation on anything else; rather, let him labor in this all the days of his life, so that his soul, at that supreme day when he shall breathe his last, may be found well-disposed, and free and unencumbered by any affection of the flesh or the world. It is necessary, therefore, for the soul to be sound and powerful, so that it may serve Christ as one sound, and be a doer of His holy and divine precepts, so that when he stands before His tribunal, he may not be ashamed. But if this has not been done, it is at least necessary that it be found safe, lest the fire of Gehenna, in its furnace which is never extinguished, seize its diseases and burn them without any end. For the nature of the sentence of Gehenna can only touch those whose souls have departed to that future age devoid of soundness. For sin proceeds from the voluntary and the involuntary; from both, I say. It seems, therefore, that sin is a kind of bait, to which, when the mind has inclined itself in an intelligible way, the tyrant of souls, whom we behold with the mind and not with the eyes, urges it from behind, so that it may gorge itself on that bait, whereby sin is found to be consumed through the involuntary arising from the voluntary. Therefore Christ, the Wisdom of God, crushes the principles of sins, so that we neither desire nor look upon them. For when the soul is in the desire and contemplation of sin, it can with difficulty turn itself away, because demons, swifter than the blink of an eye, drive it on. And every soul must necessarily flee from an approach to these. But there is no other flight than that you do not covet.

ORATION XII. ARGUMENT.

are recalled to salvation and restored) should not count the days of his fast, nor look to the measure of his alms, nor to the labor of his vigils and prayers, nor to how much he has fasted, how kind he has been to the poor, or how abundant he has been in prayers, ^A but whether the Lord has attended. If He has attended, grace from heaven has been sent to him, which, if he has received, he will find himself contrite and humbled, penitent and pierced with grief; and through this state he will see his own infirmity and his own sins as deformed, filthy, bestial, and unworthy of a soul participating in reason, and far removed from a man endowed with a mind. For such is the first illumination of the soul that comes from God. Consequently, it hates and execrates these sights as worthy of hatred. If one does not recognize that it is so constituted, he has lost his fasts, his alms, and his prayers. For there is one sacrifice to God from any man, a spirit that is contrite [*]; and because of such a sacrifice, sins are remitted; just as it is for the sake of this very sacrifice that fasting, alms, and prayer are instituted. This is the mystery of the Christian, and it is right to act in this way. For fasting, vigils, sleeping on the ground, almsgiving, prayers, psalmody, voluntary poverty, and everything else that a man does, he does to appease God for himself. But if He is not reconciled with him, what profit is there finally in these things? For the soul, having been reconciled to God, becomes humble and meek, and stands before God, as it stands before God, and does not turn itself hither and thither. Thus, if it is not yet such, it does not yet have God as a friend; but whether it sings psalms or prays, it is still under the power of the evil one, and it is necessary to seek this reconciliation before the psalms and prayers; otherwise, no hope of salvation remains. They err who, before they are reconciled to God, sing and chant psalms, and cast their voices into the air in vain, and provoke God to anger. For He turns His face away from them. And while they sing with the mouth, they are occupied in the mind and thought with diabolical things. Therefore, fasts, prayers, and alms alone do not beget holiness and freedom, but before these is faith and the knowledge of Him who is able to liberate, and the communion of the divine mysteries, namely, the immaculate body and blood of the Lord Jesus, and of God Almighty, who says to those who are bound: "Go forth: and to those who are in darkness, be revealed" [*]; when he who communicates is joined and mingled with Him in soul and body, and is changed into the divine nature. It is impossible for the faithful to be saved, to receive the remission of sins, and to obtain the heavenly kingdom by any other way, unless he becomes a participant of the body and blood of Christ with fear and trembling. But how can God be a slave, or impure, or with any capacity for sinning? For in these things to default is the loss of holiness; but the loss is from arrogance; arrogance is from forgetfulness; forgetfulness is from contempt; ^B when he who has once been sanctified forgets his sanctifier; for who is it that, having sanctified him, might contain sanctification within him, and through continuous thanksgiving, keep a humble spirit? For he who has been extracted by someone from the depth of the sea [*], and has been raised as if from the dead, what and how great a sense of humility will he have? For in our humility the Lord was mindful of us [*]; for the bowing of the soul is strictly psalmody, and all things that we do look to this. What, moreover, is it to humble the soul, or to think of oneself submissively and humbly? It is to know human weakness, which knowledge is an illumination sent down from heaven by God to those who believe in Him; otherwise, no man can know himself. Wherefore the proud man discerns nothing, but is blind, as the Fathers say. He who is not dipped in baptism is not illuminated. But as one cannot see with his eyes without light, so the soul not mystically illuminated by Christ cannot behold its own weakness. But what things pertain to this illumination? To the unbelievers, indeed, faith in Christ and divine baptism, as we have said; but to those who, after baptism, grow blind and therefore are proud, and commit themselves to illegal acts ("For the proud," he says, "were acting altogether" [*]. And: "God resists the proud" [*]. And: "The beginning of all sin is pride" [*]. And: "The beginning of sin, not to know the Lord" [*]), to such, I say, before other things, is the instruction of the mysteries of the Christian faith, so that when they have believed, they may be illuminated. For if they had held the first faith, they would certainly not have been blind. And after they have been instructed and have believed, they will see absolutely, and will repent with their whole affection, fearing the judgment of God, and looking at those things which they have committed that are either shameful or perverse, and persuading themselves that they have deserved a thousand punishments. Shameful things, such as pleasures and lusts; perverse things, such as avarice, injustice, deceit. And because every penitent is humbled, God gives grace to him, as to one who is humble, so that he may hate both pleasures and depravities, and may always recognize his own weakness, that he may grieve for the condition of those who similarly labor under vicious affections, and may bear a soul that feels the troubles of others, and not condemn those who offend, and may be meek and patient, and may find the rest of his soul, and thus may sing to the Lord a new canticle, a song to our God [*], which is a thanksgiving from a pure and contrite heart. For a contrite and humbled heart is a pure heart; and if this is lacking, all other psalmody is of no value. For he who does not sing psalms to God in this way cannot sing psalms, even if he has sweated much; but the tongue speaks, while the mind revolves those things that irritate God and kindle His wrath against him. Wherefore, just as any visible creature always requires light in order to be seen, so every creature that is open to the intellect always requires light that does not fall under the sense.

^A And just as one cannot say, concerning many clear misdeeds and actions, that I have done them at night, without light: so neither will he who has led a life pleasing to God be able to say that he has done it without that light which falls under the understanding. If he dares to say so, he is a liar and a son of the devil; for he has never contemplated himself, nor has he walked in the way of God at all. Hence it is written: Let him who glories, glory in the Lord.

Furthermore, you must take care, O you who are illuminated from above by Christ, lest the illumination coming from thence escape your notice, since it is hidden, and you ascribe it to yourself as if it were your own, and born of you; and for that reason, being taken from your eyes, it may again leave you in darkness. For God, who does not come under the view, illuminates with a certain light that is not seen; and that illumination (as God likewise) is invisible, and is perceived by its effects. If you experience yourself to be humble and contrite, you are as illuminated as you are humble. For the soul makes progress if it makes progress in humility; and the knowledge of humility and meekness is the knowledge of oneself and of God, as the leaders of divine wisdom have affirmed. The soul that has attained the visitation of God, or divine illumination, and serenity, is peaceful and is troubled by no disturbances. Inhumanity, judging one’s brother, and being tenacious in the memory of injuries extinguish such illumination. For he who has been saved by the mercy and humanity of God will guard his salvation for himself through mercy and humanity, according to the divine and royal voice sounding thus: With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged in return; and with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you. Therefore, let mercy go before, and let mercy follow. For he who has been freed from a grave and incurable disease of the soul by the visitation of God alone, and has been restored to health, will rejoice and exult; and he who has had mercy on him and granted him health will give thanks to God with all his soul and all his mind, and he will be meek and gentle, admiring the mercy, kindness, and piety of God toward him; and, being wholly poured out into kindness and the bowels of compassion, he will have pity on those subject to similar things, lifting his eyebrow against no one, but humbly submitting himself to all. ^C Thus, indeed, shall every sinner, when he has been freed by Christ from turbulent movements, rejoice and exult in His salvation. But if, after being healed, he becomes puffed up, the tyrant devil is near, and with him the instruments of those movements that are not obedient to reason. The grace of Christ will withdraw, and the demon, having become closer, with the mind shaken, will make his state through the body worse than the former ones.

ORATION XIII. ARGUMENT.

and has macerated the body through continence, has been liberal to the poor, grieving for the plight of others and kind, these are indeed good, and rightly so. Yet let him take diligent heed, lest he lose his labors and his reward. For even if these works are good, yet there is ^A besides them another good thing, through which those who obtain salvation through these things are saved: since they are instruments and manifestations of two great things, namely, of propitiation and of thanksgiving, and it is necessary that they be done in due proportion. For that beloved John says: "He who sins has not seen God, nor known Him." If, therefore, anyone, having acknowledged his sins, has received the light of penitence and has begun to repent, he will undertake such works that the Lord may see his contrition, humility, and eager pursuit, and, having mercy upon him, be reconciled to him. The proofs of reconciliation, however, are: the calming of turbulent passions, hatred of sin, a perpetual fear of God who is everywhere present, compunction, religion, and the soul’s attention in sacred chants, readings, and the hearing of the Scriptures inspired by God. For absolutely no one attains any of these things before the grace of God has been recovered. For the grace of God touches the soul in a certain way, being reconciled to it in an unobservable manner, and that which was hitherto unstable and wandering begins to be confirmed and settled. Behold one great and admirable thing, for which thanks are due to God. But having attained mercy, soundness, and strength, if he does these works so as to give thanks for what he has received—for his reconciliation, I say, with God—he will also thus act in accordance with reason, so that he may obtain perfect redemption and become ^C worthy of the divine knowledge of the hidden goods of God (whose beauty is hidden not only from the non-penitent, but even from the penitent). Whosoever, therefore, performs such actions simply as good ones, and not for these reasons [of propitiation and thanksgiving], is not void of guilt, and though they live in voluntary poverty, fasting, and bestowing alms, they die as sinners. And this is lamentable, that they have not placed themselves in grace before such a placable God, nor, clearly, have they worked out their reconciliation according to reason, nor fittingly. I say "fittingly," because if anyone who is already reconciled is still devoted to these same things in order to obtain reconciliation, he turns God against himself, just as he would if he were to perform these things for thanksgiving before the reconciliation. For man, as a being endowed with intelligence and mind, has the faculty of perceiving, and all things are to be done by him with reason and knowledge: just as he is accustomed to do toward other men. For he who seeks to propitiate a king for an offense does not give thanks before he has been restored to his friendship, but endeavors first to have him appeased, and only then performs the act of thanksgiving. Otherwise, the ^D rational [mentis compotem] Word [mens] of God the Father, and Son, and sole Savior, does not wish to save [anyone] irrationally [sine mente seu temere]. But as a just man, he justly demands that the one in whom there is reason and intelligence should also conduct himself toward God in the way he conducts himself toward men, and should fear Him as we are accustomed to fear men. For if we weaken and diminish the dignity and excellence which reason brings to us, He cannot weaken and diminish it Himself: but He wills that the law, which has been imparted by Him to each according to their nature, should be held in all things.

Who, then, desires to be saved, even though all profess to desire it? All wish to be enriched with an abundance of things, and to possess gold and silver, precious stones, and pearls without labor, weariness, trouble, or anxiety, which cannot be. Who, therefore, say: "We wish to be saved," and yet set out to undergo no fatigue of soul and body for the sake of acquiring salvation, who can finally be saved? When even those who are ready to labor for the sake of salvation, and seek it with their whole soul, word, and deed, cannot themselves be saved. For as those who, while they labor not, yet desire to be saved, do not wish [truly] to be saved, since salvation does not consist without labor: so those who, by their own capability and prudence, set out for labors to obtain salvation, are therefore unable to possess it, because it is not established in the virtue of him who desires to be saved, but in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. For one is he who is saved, and another is he who saves. "Without me there is no savior," says God. And the apostle Paul: "To will the good lies in me, but to perform it I do not find." What then, Paul? Tell us, in what way is it allowed to be saved? "I give thanks to my God," he replies, "through Jesus Christ, because the law of the spirit of life in Christ has freed me from the law of sin and death." And let there be thanks to the kind God, who out of His immense love for men has coupled the very willing with infirmity, so that man, though willing, cannot do good, even with much labor, and may not decline into any trace of arrogance, which was the first sin, and the fountain of crimes, and the cause of a fallen and weakened nature. For with God alone providing the strength, even our very will is purged of every stain of arrogance toward His will.

But perhaps someone may say, what then is left proper to him who follows after salvation? For if his very will also stands in need of a more sublime virtue, how is he who wills saved? This is what is left to him: that he should hear of salvation, burn with desire for it, and know Him who can save: that he should ask from the bottom of his heart, with all doubt removed, that the rest be given to him by Him who can save, preserve, and restore him to his original state, having taken the beginning from receiving the will to will, which is of God and of salvation, until he attains it, and his desire is at rest. For the first gift of God is for someone to happen upon those who speak of salvation; for heralds are sent to the ignorant: and this gift is clearly of the one who sends. The second...

^A gift, which is inherent in human nature, is to lend an ear to what is said. For that reason, He also threatens most severely those who do not listen, with these words of Christ: "If they will not receive you, nor hear you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for them." The third gift of God is a certain light, which is perceived by the intellect and which is greatly bestowed upon those recently enlightened by baptism. For whoever has heard of salvation, and has given attention to the one teaching, has desired it indeed, but has not yet seen its elegance and beauty; and he has a mystical need for the divine light to overshadow him from above. This light, illuminating the eyes of the soul, shows these two things: beauty and foulness—the beauty of salvation, but the foulness of one who is being saved.

What more? After the desire first assumes the motion of the soul, and has found the will still feeble, hesitant, and powerless for salvation, and the soul has sensed the misery of its will, it begs for strength from on high, so that the will may be confirmed and may desire salvation in its entirety. After these things begins prayer, laborious to know and, by adverse spirits, shaken like a reed. Here, this confirmed will will labor and sweat much, asking to receive from heaven the divine gift of prayer, so that prayer may be made in the Holy Spirit. For the soul cannot call Jesus its Lord—that is, the one who commands it—nor know Him assuredly, except in the Holy Spirit ^B, as the Holy Spirit himself, when He has dwelt in the soul, may intercede for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, crying "Abba Father," whereby his voice becomes the property of the glorified; and through gracious and acceptable prayer, the soul may bring forth the fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. This is the order of those who are saved. If not, whoever does not follow this order will wander in the mountains, and deserts, and places that the Lord does not visit. For to keep no order is an indication of license and contumacy. Moreover, the beginning of this is slippery, the end is useless, and one who occupies himself with salvation will be worn out by laboring and will grow weary in vain study. For almost all salvation is placed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, He is called both King and Lord, because He reigns over each one who believes in Him, through the Holy Spirit, and as King and Lord of his faithful, He himself operates through them what is pleasing before Him. For in those in whom He reigns, He becomes a guide of the way, a governor, a master, a steward, a ruler, an assistant, a redeemer from all sin. And so if some, apart from Christ, seem to do something good, they are a lie. But then they become truth when Christ reigns over them, to whom Pilate was saying: "Are you then a king?" And He responded to him: "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." ^C Then he asked what truth was; but the Lord was silent, because he knew that Pilate could not grasp this hidden mystery. For since it is necessary that He reign over every man, because otherwise the rational characters of human nature can in no way shine forth in each one; and [because it is necessary] that irrationality, which entered into the human race outside of nature through sin and was so strengthened that it is considered according to nature, be obscured and blotted out. For we cannot, I say, we cannot be set free from irrationality unless Christ, who is the Word (Logos), reigns over us. And this is that truth to which Christ came to bear witness. For unless He himself is our King, we shall never be able to perform what is pleasing before Him, but we shall be ruled by the impostor and enemy of the human race, nor shall we notice. For where God reigns, there is no service to the devil, but every ministry is carried over into God.

For who is ignorant that God is the creator of heaven and earth and of every creature, both that which is perceived by thought and that which is subjected to sight? Also that He is the King of those things which were produced from nothing so that they might exist, since all things were ^D created by Him at once? For God, the Father of His Word and Son, of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, through whom He made all things, even reigns over all things in His Holy Spirit. This, therefore, is the one Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which in three subsistences, coeternal, sharing the same principle, consubstantial, rules the heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, the air, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, and angels, and men whether they want it or not, because the Lord is one. Moreover, since it is a property of royal power to provide for all over whom the kingdom is, God also declares His providence and care for all these things. But because every created nature, except those endowed with reason—namely, angels and men—cannot grasp knowledge and awareness, for this very reason that it lacks reason, God also provides for it in a simple way, as if for the ignorant; while He bears constant care for the angels and men, whose knowledge there is. But He wants these, as natures adorned with intelligence, to know their maker, provider, and Savior, God. For this reason, indeed, they have been created so that, as participants of nature, counsel, and mind, and possessing innate knowledge, they might perpetually celebrate their creator, and thank Him both for themselves and for the universe. Whence, although God is King of all, He wishes to be King of men and angels only if they are willing; of the unwilling, by no means, so as not to take away from them the freedom of the will. For who, using reason, would be a nature, if he lacked will? Wherefore also our Lord Jesus Christ, born a man similar to us, and a master—as he lay hidden and was ignored—persuades his fellow kin and brothers, while he so teaches and says: "Seek the kingdom of God, and his justice," so that He may rule over us who are willing. For at the same time, nature

^A is capable of reason, it attains the kingdom of God, and at the same time it accumulates all justice within it. Hence we pray to God daily thus: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." For He desires this, and for this very reason He put on a human body; and this first publication of it was also the beginning of the Gospel. For what is said: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," this is what it means. For unless the soul, understanding in an intelligible way, receives the sense of the kingdom of God that has touched it, the hope of salvation falls into vanity. Furthermore, it is necessary to know the benefits and operations of the One who reigns in the soul in which God reigns. For where the King is present, there also the marks and signs of the kingdom are clearly found: equity, meekness, truth, humility (which refers to that humility of the King), goodness, justice, and all piety. Moreover, patience, humanity, compassion, love without simulation, ^B long-suffering, tolerance, and endurance. And the opposites of these are perceived in those in whom God does not reign, and they are known from that, regarding whom the Lord commanded His armies: "Those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me." For those who heard and learned in many ways through what deeds and commandments they might obtain the kingdom of heaven from Christ, and yet despised them, preferring earthly and perishable things and temporal glory, shall be severely punished, even worse than the infidels, because they did not want to receive Christ when He was made known. For he who has refused that work, for the sake of which Christ came into the world born of the holy Virgin, it is manifest that he does not receive Christ, even if he appears to have received Him. But those who truly believed in Christ and received Him: "He gave them the power to become the sons of God." For as soon as they believed, His divinity is entrusted to them, so that just as He is God-man, he who believes may be man-God.

ORATION XIV. ARGUMENT.

We read in David: "Who is the man who shall live and not see death, and shall deliver his soul from the hand of the netherworld?" If, therefore, that is impossible for anyone anywhere, but is possible to Christ alone, for which reason He even came upon the earth—that is, became God-man—no one would use force for any other thing except for this alone, that is, that He might liberate all who are willing, and force Him who forces to be liberated. For King Jesus is indeed compelled, willing this not for His own sake, but because the matter is arduous and we are ignorant of the magnitude of salvation, He wishes to be compelled by us and to sustain a force almost tyrannical, so that, in part from those things which we suffer, being gravely beset by sin, we might understand into what necessity we have come, not of our own accord:

^A But in truth, when we have obtained freedom from sin, let us give magnificent thanks to the Deliverer, as for a mighty thing and one altogether impossible for anyone. On account of this, there is need of supplications and fastings, and distribution of alms, and contrition, and other afflictions. For Christ does not want to grant this gratuitously to those who are idle and without labor; but after He has made every one in the immersion of baptism, infants who could not recognize the great and pre-eminent grace, it was necessary that this be acquired again through labor, with the grace received again—which has this property, that it does not persist in anyone who is ignorant of it, but flies away on account of that ignorance. Whoever, therefore, is a Christian not yet brought to the point of doing the will of God through the divine power of Christ due to weakness, let him go, and through faith and the imposition of hands ^B of the ministers of grace, let him be confirmed first (which grace is given by faith, not by works) so that, having been clothed with power from on high first, he may finally be able to lead a life worthy of a Christian: lest, being found naked of the grace of Christ, he be cast out from the portion of Christ; for he who obtained it does not depart so much on account of sin, as on account of ignorance. For this is what it is for every man to will to come to the knowledge of the truth: because there is nothing else that is truth, other than the grace of Christ, and it is on account of that grace that Christ came and was slain: who, although He is God, Lord, and Heir of all creation created through Himself, and has power over the things which He created, he does not however have the power of freely giving this grace to men: "For the Lord is just, and He loved justice." For it was unjust that he who was willing, and compelled by no necessity, and who through deceitful lying had only stripped himself of it and was stained by wickedness, should be clothed with it again without great force being used in resisting. Therefore, a noble compensation was made, God Himself born man, being given as a sacrifice for it. Whence also Christ after the resurrection says: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Hence also His name is with Isaiah, ^C *Exousiastēs* (Power-possessor), not as God, but as *Theanthrōpos*, God and man. For as God, how would He not have power over those things which He had fashioned? But as man, when He offered Himself of His own will for redemption as a sacrifice, He received power from the very nature of the work that He was performing. For if God was spent as the price of redemption, it is clear that there was no gift more excellent than this, which was offered to the Divinity for the blotting out of Adam's transgression. For Adam, having fallen, was stripped of the intelligible grace of God which he enjoyed, which anyone now, sprinkled with the salutary water, puts on again. For whoever have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.

^A And so, things human which are felt and seen are certain forms and images of things human that are only understood and do not come under the eyes. For example, man is born naked, a child and infant, who cannot help himself in any way as long as he is nourished by maternal milk and cared for by it alone; but when he has begun to use his reason, and to be instructed, and to make progress, so that he is able to bring aid to himself, then surely he can seek and ask. In like manner, the soul is created naked of all virtue; and when it has approached regeneration, it puts on Christ, is nourished by Christ, is instructed, and learns to seek and ask. Thereafter, unless it asks, Christ bestows nothing upon it. And it will ask for things that are profitable. First, indeed, for light, that it may see. It will see, however, all the misery within itself, and immediately it will be humbled, and being humbled it will become gentle, and being made gentle it will be mystically taught the ways of the Lord: *He teaches the meek His ways* [*]. Truly, whoever has not previously put on the grace of Christ, and in this state gives himself to the life and customs of Christians, loses his labor. For whatever evils he may have endured, or good things he may have done, not yet being clothed with the grace of Christ, he will derive no utility from it, just like the Jews and Gentiles who do not know God; since there is no one in the world so impious who has never done something joined with virtue by the urging of nature. Therefore, one must first contend, as we taught above, that through faith, through penance, and through the imposition of the hands of a presbyter, he might obtain grace; without which, for those who lost it after baptism, it does not return. But if it comes to some even without the imposition of hands, certainly their number is small, perhaps two or three, and rarity does not establish the law of the Church. And so, to have sinned is not necessarily committing a sin: just as neither for a blind man is it a sin to strike his foot while walking, nor is blindness itself a sin, nor for a sick man is it a sin to have an appetite for food that is harmful to his stomach: but not to participate in the divine nature of Him who hung for us on the cross, God Jesus Christ, this is sin. For it is by far too difficult, and indeed impossible, that he who has no communion with Jesus should not sin. This also is justice, to participate and commune with Jesus. He who does not commune with Him will never be cleansed from sin. To him, however, who communes with Him, sin will not hold dominion. For in Him Christians live, and move, and have their being [*]. And that ^B I will say briefly, he in vain bears the name of Christian, who in the knowledge of Jesus has no communion with Him. Such a person, furthermore, is recognized by his confidence and boldness against divine and sacred things, by his irascible, stubborn, and arrogant spirit; just as another, on the contrary, is known by his reverence and piety toward divine and sacred things, and by the highest sweetness of character and submission of soul. For as the former does not know, so the latter knows that he has done nothing praiseworthy except in communion with the good Jesus, who so tempered Himself to us that He took on the form and substance similar to our own, so that through kinship and communion with Him, we might find a way of life responding to man.

There are, however, some on earth who are even in the body emulating the life of angels, when the whole nature of soul and body has been thoroughly mingled with Jesus who communes with them, and has become one with Him, so that a man of this kind can usurp this saying: *And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me* [*]. For there are two things united without confusion: yet they are sometimes separated, and that in us ourselves, and these things are called carnal and spiritual: when the same man at times savors carnal things, at times spiritual. He, therefore, who savors and does spiritual things is faithful, and is so named; for unless he had in himself the grace of the most holy Spirit, entrusted to him, he would not perform spiritual functions. But he who both savors and does things akin to the flesh is unfaithful and of no value. Which, if it were not so, would never, empty of the grace of Christ and suffering the incursions of the devil, continue to do carnal things: because *everyone who does evil is of the wicked one* [*]. Therefore, it is certain that those who do evil are impelled by demons, having the prince of iniquity, who is known to dwell within them. For the wicked spirit is also known to the understanding, and it spiritually breathes upon those who are unfaithful and deserted by divine grace. Wherefore, gifted with reason and dignified by free will, they are seen to be subject to a foreign will as if to a king, unknown to themselves, and thinking that they commit evil out of that liberty of theirs. Which opinion we know to be the great strength of the architect of wickedness: whose whole zeal is expended so that, with him urging it, those who do evil might think that they themselves are doing it.

^C What then? will someone say, has the freedom of the will perished? Indeed, but not entirely. For there remains in us ^D [remainder [alt-version omitted]].

^A only the knowledge that we are evil: just as it is possible for a sick man lying in bed to know that he is sick. He wishes indeed to rise, but cannot. He is able, however, to will, and according to his own judgment, to seek a physician. The same thing happens here. Therefore the Lord says: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin; and the slave does not remain in the house forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be truly free." Since, therefore, the freedom of our will has arrived at this point, that we must only seek a physician, let us approach Christ, who may deliver us from the dominion of the devil. No one, therefore, who is working evil should think or say: "I have no demon"; for in proportion to his wickedness he has either a small one, or a great one, or even many demons: just as a spiritual man, according to the measure of his virtue, obtains either a little or much grace, or is even full of the grace of Christ. For the divine Scripture is accustomed to call the diverse charisms by the name of the spirit of those endowed with virtue.

All virtues, therefore, are a certain good; but it is necessary that there be a head and feet for all, for a body cannot exist without a head and feet. The feet of the virtues are humility, the head is charity. Without these two virtues, every other virtue is vain and empty. For all virtues ^B can be compared to a column, the base of which is humility, the head charity, bearing God. For under charity there are, in a certain order, pity, compassion, almsgiving, fellowship, patience, long-suffering, beneficence, and kindness, which makes men like God. And around humility, as if around the basin of the column, revolve obedience, tolerance, knowledge, prudence, the knowledge of human weakness and of the divine height, thanksgiving for God's benefits, who does good on the right and on the left, through ignominy and good report. Now, where there is thanksgiving towards God, there also God is seen. But whoever beholds the beauty of God, how will he not love Him as by far the most beautiful, and the origin of all beauty? Now he who loves God will also keep His commandments, whose commandment it is that we love one another. But he who does not love his brother whom he sees, the Scripture says, how can he love God whom he does not see? Indeed, through thanksgiving and charity the vision of God is acquired. Humility, therefore, sustains charity, and charity strengthens humility. These are like feet, which sustain the body itself and the head through the middle; but charity, like a cherubic throne bearing God, through the intermediate body from the... [Text continues to notes and commentary blocks]

^C ...to be hindered. See Saint Thomas, I-II, q. 85, art. 1 and 2, and ibid. Gregory of Valencia, q. 15, part II; otherwise, it is certain and established from the Catholic faith that man has free will for all civil or external, and moral, and even supernatural actions; yet with this distinction, that free will by its own natural powers is not sufficient for all actions, but is in need of certain supernatural aids of grace, of which sort are primarily those actions that pertain to piety and salvation—about which Bellarmine discourses most copiously, bk. IV, V, and VI, *De gratia et libero arbitrio*.

...q. and art. cit., who also in the next following article beautifully teaches how a demon can be the cause of sin by inciting from within to sin; that is, by moving the imagination and the sensitive appetite. Nor does this either harm or help our and true judgment of Simeon's sentiment; that he who sins is made a slave of sin. For this servitude is also contracted voluntarily, when anyone through sin freely subjects himself to the demon, and also serves freely, when man, aided by divine grace, can freely desert it and pass to the freedom of the children of God; and whatever evil is done, while one remains in the servitude of the demon, it is done freely by the man himself, although the devil is urging and inciting—which incitement, however, does not bring necessity to the freedom of the will. Nor does the concept of a slave exclude the freedom of the will; because, although a slave is an instrument of the Master, he is not, however, a natural or inanimate instrument, but an animate one; nor is he just any animate thing, but one endowed with reason. Wherefore, into whatever servitude he may fall, whatever he does as a man, he does freely, even though commanded and impelled by the Master; for a slave, even when perpetrating a murder by the command of his master, perpetrates it freely; for who would compel him, if he were unwilling? The same reasoning applies in our argument.

What Simeon adds, that the freedom of the will has perished, but not entirely, ought also to be tempered by a benign interpretation; for it can be understood of the diminished natural inclination of the faculties of the soul toward the good, which theologians commonly teach to have arisen from sin: which, however, is not to be understood absolutely, as if the soul itself or the power had lost some part of its inclination, but it is to be understood on the side of the object, so that the sense is that sin, by removing justice, and thus corrupting nature, has prevented the powers (and in these the free will itself) from being moved promptly and without sin toward the good; which would be signified more plainly if we were to say the inclination of the powers was...

^D ...for the explanation of the words of Simeon, whose mind you will perhaps have touched more certainly if you say that he placed the loss of free will, although not of the whole, only in this: that man, having fallen into sin, cannot any longer rise by free will alone, and return into grace with God, which is true, although the mode of speaking be harsher; for it should not therefore be said that [freedom] is lost in part; for although man cannot rise from sins by the powers of free will alone; he can however rise through the free will excited, corroborated, and aided by the grace of God, so that he may freely cooperate with the one aiding. Therefore, when man loses the grace of God through sin, he loses nothing of free will, speaking simply and properly, but he loses only a certain use of free will, which is to exercise supernatural actions which free will cannot exercise without the aid of grace, since they far exceed the natural power and faculty of free will. Yet the lost grace, with grace itself divinely aiding, the free will can freely acquire again. And recover the friendship of God; just as a sick person (which is Simeon's example) by the effort and benefit of a physician can be freely healed; although he cannot obtain health by his own powers alone.

humility, as if supported by the feet. Poverty, fasting, continence, anger, the tongue, and every desire are under the yoke of justice, which befits a pious and religious man, so that he may not be unjust, nor judge another, but rather judge himself before others. For to possess more than necessity requires, or even if it is necessary, to possess things that are more luxurious, is injustice: just as it is injustice to give the belly more than its allotted food. ^A To loosen the reins of anger is folly; to speak insolently is stupidity; to indulge in worldly desires is madness. For it is not virtue to have abstained from evil: even if one who has not done evil will not be beaten, like one who, of course, has done so. But if he does commit it, he will certainly also be punished. But to him who has done good, good shall be done: not indeed according to the standard of justice, but out of the humanity and goodness of God. For there is a certain saying of Christ, in which it is said: *He who knew the will of his Lord, and did not do it, will be beaten with many stripes*. Another: *When you have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants: for we have done what we ought to have done*.

ORATION XV.

ARGUMENTUM. THAT TO HOLD, OR OBSERVE, WHAT IS READ IN THE DIVINE SCRIPTURES IS ENTIRELY A GIFT OF GOD. CONCERNING PRAYER, AND READING, AND HOW A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO PSALMODIZE.

He who is taught, unless he retains in his mind what he has been taught, has profited nothing. He who knows letters, reads, but unless he understands what he reads, he is in a way illiterate. He who reads and understands, unless he is able to preserve what he has understood, it profits him nothing. Reading the Divine Scriptures, unless one thinks he understands what he has read, is in us, and yet is not. In us is the study: to understand depends on the grace of God. But to hold, or to put into practice, what is understood, that must be referred entirely to supreme grace. Wherefore there are few who perform these things; just as few are those who are saved. There are, therefore, two things, prayer and reading, of which the latter is the way by which we arrive at God; it teaches, and makes a man divine: the former moves God, that He may illuminate the mind of the reader, so that he may both understand and observe what is read. For other writings can be grasped and known by those who read; but whatsoever things are divine and salutary cannot be comprehended and preserved without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. And indeed, he who has been taught how he ought to pray will not have such great need of reading, as divine grace fills his soul with divine light, and changes it into a certain more divine state. But he who makes more of continuous reading, before he has learned how to pray as he ought, errs, and leads himself away from divine salvation: nay rather, he is entirely devoid of sense, even if he professes that he is practiced in the whole of Holy Scripture and able to recite it from memory. For just as without the heat of the sun, fruit cannot come forth, but is born indeed in winter, and begins to ripen in spring, but if the cold ^B persists it does not reach maturity, but becomes useless: so he who has not subjected himself to the heat of that sun which we perceive through intelligence, through the excellence of prayer, will never be able to bring forth mature fruit through reading: since it also requires much time and labor—of the soul more than of the body—to learn first how prayer is to be established, so that when you have learned it, you may also be able to pray. For which reason the Apostle also exhorts us to sing and psalmodize to God in the heart, not in the lips. But since *out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks*, it is necessary that prayer also be brought forth from his abundance, when the heart itself has first been created pure, and then has been renewed by the divine Spirit of truth: after it has tasted the joy of the saving God, which exists from the fellowship and communion of Christ: then the grace of the principal Spirit has acquired steadfastness, so that the spiritual wickednesses, which are discerned by thought, can in no way shake and shatter its motions and thoughts with their breath. And then, being free for divine prayers, through the mystical rays born through prayer upon the one praying, he can bring the things known and acknowledged to mature fruit: otherwise he is a fool and stupid.

Psalmodizing to God, therefore, is good, because in the first place it is fruitful. For if it is a singular thing to converse with a terrestrial king, how much more singular to converse with the heavenly King? Who dares to approach nearer, and to interrupt the conversation of anyone with a king? Thus, neither do demons dare to approach him who is speaking with God. Not to psalmodize to God is a great loss: for the soul of one who does not psalmodize is deprived of divine light, of divine virtue, and of the quiet from the assaults of demons, and every petulance, every uncleanness, every wickedness and injustice, every pride, ostentation, and arrogance is brought into it by them. For just as bodies need the atmosphere of the heavens, so every soul is absolutely in need of the perpetual memory of God. But indeed, to psalmodize to God simply and perfunctorily, and without the fear which is necessary for one standing before God, whom the Cherubim tremble before, is so far from being of any advantage that it brings incomparable harm; because it provokes God, and turns Him away from us, and casts us out from Him as if into exile. ^C Truly, just as with contempt the attendants of a king seize one standing before the king and cast him out of his sight, and the king does not at all blame this: so the angels of God cast out from the divine visitation the mind of one standing contemptuously before God, which being seized by demons, they (since it is as if from a brothel or a tavern) imperiously lead it wherever they will with greater authority and license, whether to base and unspeakable things, or to wicked things, or to vain and empty things: and neither does the one who suffers it take heed, nor does God deliver him, because He Himself has been spurned and held in contempt. For the Law has strictly decreed: *Serve the Lord in fear, and exult*

^A with trembling. Wherefore, for such a man, it would have been much better not to chant the psalms at all. For demons cannot dominate the soul in other sins as much as they can in this contempt of God. Even an earthly king suffers those who are in his debt and those who have sinned against him, but he severely punishes those who show him contempt. Therefore, to chant with contempt is the greatest of all sins. For since God is separate from the body and is not seen by these eyes, He is worshipped in an incorporeal and invisible manner, even now. To worship Him in a bodily way, and in such a way that He might be seen, is less suitable and proper for Him, just as it is says in David: *For if You had desired sacrifice, I would have given it; You will not take pleasure in burnt offerings* ^B. Therefore, *a broken and humble heart God will not despise*. But ^C contrition of heart takes place in the mind and in meditation. Our mind and meditation—that is, the soul itself—do not touch the sense of the eyes. This mind, therefore, I say, and this meditation must be given to God, who is understood and not seen. For in this consists His worship: that the invisible things be subjected to the invisible, the intelligible to the intelligible, and that even bodily things, together with the soul, be subjected to worship God, who is worshipped by human hands. However, it should be known that He does not reject the things that fall under the senses, provided that they are offered with a pure and sincere mind.

For every prayer and psalmody of Divine Scripture is a reconciliation with God. For it is either a petition for those things which God is accustomed to grant to men through grace, as befits Him; or they are songs of thanksgiving to God for His creation, who brought the universe forth from no underlying matter; or we commemorate throughout the ages His wondrous works, prodigies, and signs shown for His glory, for the salvation of men, and for the vengeance of the wicked and ungodly; or they are about the more secret reasons of His divinely administered providence; or they are about the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God—how He, whom the compass of the universe could not contain, was held in the womb of the immaculate Virgin, was born, was raised, taught and showed the heavenly norm of living, suffered a saving death, rose from the dead, granted the hope of resurrection and eternal life to the human race, and was taken up into heaven as man, in order to send the Holy Spirit, proceeding from God His Father, to those who believed in Him—which the first man, Adam, possessed from the beginning and lost through unbelief. For this is the end of the entire economy: that those who believe in Him as God and man, in two natures neither separated nor confused, might receive the same Christ, the Holy Spirit, into their souls as if it were a soul, and thus be named faithful, and be as it were created anew, fashioned from the beginning, informed from the start, and reformed through holy baptism; and, made anew, to become as the first man was in mind, conscience, and all senses ^D that they might be sanctified, so that they may no longer possess in themselves a corrupt life that can draw the soul’s appetite toward carnal and worldly desires and lusts.

He, therefore, who speaks to God of these and similar things by day and by night and in the long stretches of time, yet with his tongue speaks while his mind knows not what it says—does he not seem to be babbling? Such a one is not yet truly faithful, nor reconciled to God. For he is, and is called, faithful to whom the gift of the Holy Spirit has been entrusted, and who possesses that gift which at the same time illuminates the very mind of those who receive it and contains it, gathering and preserving the understanding of these two things, to whom it is said and what is said. It is necessary, therefore, first to believe and to be reconciled to God, and then to chant to Him as one who has resolved to chant, having first sought forgiveness for sins committed in word, work, action, and thought. But when the soul is reconciled to God, it becomes meek, humble, and contrite, which is the proof of reconciliation with God. For these are the chief gifts and charisms of God: meekness and humility. Demons cannot again attack a meek and humble soul with bodily pleasures, or avarice, or vain glory, as they did before. And in these two gifts of Christ, the soul finds relief and rest from such necessities. Wherefore we ought to chant a little, with fear and understanding. Yet this is utterly impossible for any worldly person, monk, anchorite, cleric, deacon, priest, or bishop, unless the soul of each one of them, according to the measure of his own faith in Christ, becomes a partaker of the Holy Spirit. For *no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except in the Holy Spirit*. And because *it is the Spirit in whom we adore* and offer prayers. And because *where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty*, and that liberty is security from demons, who arouse hatred, sadness, perturbation, pusillanimity, depravity of morals, iniquity, unbelief, anger, and intemperance in the soul. Those who are constrained by these—whether fasting, pursuing a solitary and quiet life, lacking possessions, chanting much, explaining Divine Scriptures, writing orthodox dogmas, or being teachers of the Churches, or being the holiest and most just and most religious,—cannot have a part with Christ, the true light, who illuminates every man who comes into the true world of virtues of his own accord: *For there is no association of light with darkness*.

ORATION XVI

ARGUMENT

^A and from the unavoidable bonds of indigence, wanting to teach the giving of thanks. For the cause of this thing—that sin, disease, and death existed—God, after the fall, fenced man about with many fears and misfortunes of every kind, as though with a wall, and caused him to be attacked and buffeted on every side by disturbances and terrors, and to be oppressed by himself within himself. The cause of this thing is admirable and filled with every kindness and goodness. For just as a father—some man, rich and fortunate in all good things—if he had a son much beloved to him, and because of the vehemence of his love for this true and beloved son, wanted him to receive neither food, nor drink, nor clothing, nor shoes, nor any other comfort or recreation except only from himself, the father, so that for this reason he might never depart from his father's side and might rest upon his knees; but if ^B it happened that he became estranged from his father, and wished that the necessary things for his own use be provided to him by others, not by his parent, or if he did not find them, or indeed, if he found them but received them in sweat, labor, and affliction—which had been very seriously commanded to all who served the father—the father, sending away such a son, repelling him, and afflicting him with troubles in every way when they saw him living outside his father's sight, so that, finding no rest elsewhere, he would be driven by necessity, and unwillingly, to return to the father who had loved him incredibly and more than everyone, and might find rest in Him: in the same way did God act with man, so that, finding no rest in this life and the things of the world (since all these things are vanity), he might return to the good God, Lord, Master, Father, Guardian, Provider, Redeemer, Savior, and might remain continually with Him, and might find rest himself, while the Father and God might enjoy him and rejoice over him. For it was the case that, when man was overflowing with all supplies and, because of that abundance, was in peace and pleasure, and was free from affliction and sickness, rejoicing and exulting, he was altogether ignorant of what sickness was. From negligence, therefore, because of his abundance, he gave birth to a desire for those things that were above him, and which he could not attain, and which, when he had touched them, as seemed to him, since he was cast down from that very supply and abundance, he was reduced to the penury of many, indeed certainly of all, constituted in such great need that the highest indigence was opposed to the highest abundance ^C directly and diametrically; laying claim, that is to say, to arrogance, whence that bold crime had originated, by which he had been insolent toward the abundance granted to him out of satiety. Since, however, he came into penury, he is heaped with many hardships, labors, and fatigues on account of it, and, his penury not being filled, he is saddened, afflicted, and despairs: and he struggles greatly, wanting in this life to lack nothing. Hence, whether secretly or openly and impudently, he becomes an invader of others' property, greedy, unjust, rapacious, is stirred by zeal, envies, quarrels, lies, swears falsely, plots, slanders, speaks evil, fights, gets angry, makes war, takes revenge, kills, even despising God Himself in a certain way, He who willed that indigence be in this life as a sort of temporary punishment, which the transgression of the first-formed brought upon the generation of mortals, and declares enmity against God, and for that reason, preparing supplies for himself, becomes from that moment boastful, proud, and arrogant. What then? The Lord resists the proud, ^D and finally his extremes fall into the same damnation as the deserter of God, the devil. Therefore, it is permitted to know that indigence is a just punishment from God, and one to be borne with a grateful spirit, so that in this way we may excite the compassion, mercy, and providence of God toward us. For this reason, *Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth*, removing him far from pride on account of indigence: *He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth*, joining him to Himself through various diseases and infirmities, while he gives thanks and is patient, and carrying off adoption as a crown for such contests. For the first-formed did not violate the commandment for any other reason than that he lacked absolutely nothing and was, without labor, rich in all good things. Wherefore, he who flees from indigence, which he will never be able to flee, seems to oppose God and to try, as it were, to overturn the judgment pronounced by Him and established in place of nature, namely, by which He commands that *in the sweat of our face we eat our bread, until we return unto the ground, from whence we were taken*. Since, therefore, indigence is a natural penalty for every man in this age, both small and great, whoever seeks to flee this will fall into everlasting punishments. For it is not given to satisfy present indigence otherwise than through avarice, injustice, and rapine. But a supply of goods is wont to generate pride, whence is the beginning and head of sins. That being laid low, the will to design base things invades the proud and arrogant man, which is produced from madness and departure from right reason. And so every Christian who labors to flee indigence also flees true Christianity. For it is impossible to be a Christian and to lack nothing. For God, having become like us among us, so that He might restore human nature from the beginning, did not more indicate His decrees, which He made for the damnation of the transgressor of His commandment—of our first parent, I say—to wit, corruption and death, when He said: *In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread* (6): And: *Thou art earth, and into earth thou shalt return, and into dust thou shalt return*. And that to Eve: *In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children*; but signifying the penalty by which God changed the first parents and their descendants. Therefore, he who gives effort by lawful means so that he...

^A returns to the earth, does not take it so lightly. Behold, for sweat remains for the acquiring of bread; and we return to the earth from which we were taken. But because He makes [men] participants of His own virtue, as of divine virtue, and of His own wisdom, as of divine wisdom, those who have believed in His incarnation, He to that extent invalidates His law; He himself first became an example to us, by enduring many sorrows and afflictions even unto the ignominious death of the cross. Similarly, the apostles and all the faithful, well-strengthened by Christ, endure sweats and temptations with joy, and in much patience bring forth fruit. For this reason, too, the martyrs and ascetics, although they were not relieved of punishments and torments, did not cast off their ascetic labors, but prayed that excellent endurance might be supplied to them, struggling with the proposed contest through patience, in order that they might receive the reward for their labor in the future age. Whence God is called the God of patience and long-suffering. Therefore, for everyone, anguish and every sadness is necessary, because before every temptation no one gains knowledge of temptations. But when one has been delivered from the temptations that rush upon him, he renders thanks to his deliverer, whether God or man. Since, therefore, man is kept immune from temptations, he is sluggish and lazy in rendering thanks to God for that reason. But having fallen into temptations, and having been snatched away, he renders thanks to Him exceedingly. For if one even always renders thanks to God, he does not render them so, nor so abundantly, nor so readily as he is accustomed to render them when freed from temptations and tribulations. So that, therefore, he may render thanks from the heart, and with the whole mind, and with all his strength, it is necessary to fall into temptations and afflictions, and anguishes, and sadnesses, so that he may recognize the virtue of God. Otherwise, remission and idleness bring forth two not insignificant evils, namely, that the whole soul is not thankful to God, and that the mind is occupied with empty cares. If Adam had given thanks to God in that quietude and inexplicable tranquility of his, he would not have been deceived; nor would he have accepted that evil counsel, nor would he have desired to become God^. Wherefore, just as we have need of the inspiration of air, so do we [have need] of the offering of thanks to God, if we have fallen into temptations, afflictions, anguishes, and sorrows, which we ought to desire.

ORATION XVII. ARGUMENTUM.

A monk is one who, having professed before God and the angels that he has renounced the world and those things that are in the world, and has gathered himself to Christ, has been mystically deemed worthy of divine grace, which is conceived in the mind, and has drawn a certain intelligible sense of that grace. For by it he detests all the allurements of the flesh and the world, and through it he dies, and becomes unable and unfit for all those things. And then with highest joy and fervent desire he becomes energetic toward the divine commandments of Christ, and is known as a man alien to every pleasure and the pursuit of money and goods (as one who lives outside the flesh and the world), and most closely joined to the Holy Spirit, always joyful and chanting: "But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Saviour^." In no other way can anyone be entered into the roll of monks. For there are three things: pleasure, money, glory. A monk who still submits himself to pleasures is not yet a monk, but is still a slave of sin and of Satan. A monk whom the love of money still rules is not yet a monk, but is an idolater. A monk who is still ambitious is not yet a monk, but is a most approved soldier of the prince of this world. Therefore, whoever is possessed either by these three in part, or by one of these three entirely, whether he fasts, or keeps vigil, or prays, or chants, or sleeps on the ground, and undergoes any other burdens, labors, and molests, and knows all knowledge, he has no fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For it is necessary that this man first obtain the freedom which is seen by the mind from the Son of God, who says: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin: but the slave of sin does not remain in the house of God forever^." And the house of God is His kingdom. Do you hear the formidable sentence? If therefore the son frees ^D you, or if he avoids the indigence of the part of riches, he does not sin more against the commandment of God than if he puts forth effort to avoid diseases; and even death, if he does not always avoid it, he certainly delays. Therefore, when Symeon says: "He who strives to flee indigence, flees also true Christianity," and if anything else of this kind occurs in this oration, it must be understood of that person who considers poverty an unendurable and most grave evil, and tolerates what is sent to him with an unwilling and inequitable mind: forgetful of his Saviour, who placed this before all riches, and unmindful of that primal punishment which God established for mortals, that, clearly, they should eat their bread in the sweat of their brow, and spend their life among various miseries and the inconveniences of poverty, which ought to be endured with patience when it is inflicted by God, even though he himself is neither bound, nor ordered, to afflict himself with it. And if anyone should exist, or had ever existed, whom that sweat of the brow had never touched, and who had spent a life void of all indigence, ready to bear if anything were sent to him by God: such a one had on that account committed nothing against any commandment of God—although who was there ever who could entirely exclude indigence from his threshold, and was not sprinkled with this sweat? Nay, the more avaricious anyone is, the more needy he is. Truly the poet [says]: The avaricious man is always in need.

^A For if anyone has been liberated from these three [vices], then at last, as having now become a Christian and a servant of Christ, he ought to sing psalms and pray. For, certainly, he who is subjugated by either these three tyrannical affections, or by one of them, is unable to claim his liberty for himself, even if he wishes to. For to the Son of God alone, and to the King Jesus Christ, according to the power which He received from the Father on account of the death He endured, has it been granted to bestow this liberty; He who, after His resurrection, says: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." ^B We must therefore flee to the Liberator, with whom alone resides this authority. And that we may omit nothing so that we might be liberated by Him from these three tyrants, let us macerate ourselves for this [end] with fasting, and distribute alms, so that He who desires mercy may see us laying hold of liberty. Moreover, the sign of achieved liberty is a perfect hatred of those things; and those from whose necks this servile yoke has been cast off, let them even detest these things, as most foul monsters which, according to the curse of Solomon, can never be satisfied. Therefore, it is good to sing psalms to God, to pray, to fast, to keep vigil, to exercise mercy, and to be in need for Christ's sake. It is good to humble oneself; but we see in these things, brothers, that many either have run or are running in vain, and laboring uselessly. The cause is clear. For whatever is done, is done for some end. But because the entire nature of men after the Fall began to be corruptible and mortal, and therefore weak and miserable, and capable of all vices and folly, how could it ever have liberated itself by its own power? How, then, shall it be liberated? If one has frequented fasts, vigils, and prayers, and has labored, and has distributed one’s wealth to the poor, so that one might be liberated from a corrupt will by a more divine power, through Him who alone liberates, and who came to take away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ and God. He who for this reason fasts, keeps vigil, and does other things, and labors, shall obtain his desire, and shall know, and shall give thanks, and shall be humbled under the mighty hand of God. But he who in the conduct of his life does not have this purpose set before him, shall labor to no avail, and as an unhappy and wretched Christian, he will be transmitted to the future age.

^C It must be understood, however, that all the effort of the devil and the demons against Christians is directed toward this: that they might diffuse this ignorance through the minds of all. And for that reason, the demons offer themselves as ministers to fasts, vigils, lying on the ground, and other ascetic practices here mentioned, so that those who bind themselves, when they think they have acted rightly, might not at all find themselves healed by Jesus. For the law established by Christ is inviolable, lest anyone who is ignorant of the perturbations and his own maladies, and of their Physician, and of the healing itself, be able to be cured: which things, indeed, the apostles first, and after them their disciples, taught. But that one is not taught and [does not] know health is impossible. ^D For someone might draw a likeness from a sick mind. For a person suffering from some disease, who was previously in good health, ponders his state in which he was healthy. But [one who is] sick by nature from his very conception, let alone from his birth and exit into the light, how can he know what health is? And he who even hears about health, not only will he not embrace the doctrine, but he will even count as trifles what is said, because of his own incredulity, considering all things—namely, fasts and their companions—as incredible, and for iron chains, [he considers] the sorrow over his own sins and those of his brothers, and weeping with those who weep, so that he may even rejoice with those who rejoice. But all these good, admirable, and praise-worthy things come to naught if he who pursues them does not become a participant in the sanctification of God; for all things tend together toward this, as the Apostle says concerning those whom God deigns to instruct as sons, because He instructs them in that which is useful for receiving His sanctification. Unless this happens, the labor is vain, the faith is vain.

Therefore, in the first place, you cannot legitimately practice these things without the power of Jesus and of God; and "he is not crowned, who does not strive lawfully." Furthermore, the law in these matters is one: that they be done secretly and most cautiously, before the eyes of God alone, so very diligently that "our left hand does not know what our right hand is doing." But what is the left, and what is the right? The right is that which hears Christ saying: "When you have done all things, say that we are unprofitable servants, because we have done what we ought to do." But, indeed, who is he who has done all, which he ought to do? But if someone has at some point done everything, or at least something, who was able to do this, had he not first received the mystical power of Christ? But if he has done so without Christ, woe to him, and to his work. The left is when someone, having performed a duty, thinks that honor is owed to him by God. Such a person, after so much struggle and labor and fatigue, is never granted the sanctification of Christ. And woe to him after he has migrated from this light. And what are at last the signs of his reception? What are they? Not to be angry, to be clean from the filth which the love of impure pleasure creates; likewise, gentleness, and the firmest foundation of these, humility, the tolerance of evils, and compassion, not otherwise than a right hand supporting a golden globe—shining and sparkling, simple, immaculate (through a good conscience, that is), and that which never fails, kindly charity: the left [hand holding] faith, as most solid armor. For he believed in God without doubt, and it was imputed to him for justice: otherwise he will do all things, willy-nilly, so that he may be glorified by men. For where Christ is, there the demons are not; but where the demons are, there one is deflected from the course of right reason. For as bats fly about and feed at night, so also do the demons, together with their prince, those who understand the nature [of men], and who are loose and free [to roam] in the miserable and lost life of men, traverse the earth and the aerial regions as if by night.

^A Let anyone bring forth a resemblance from our own mind. For we are accustomed to use things that we contend and quarrel over. For whenever one has known these things, however far removed they may be, in a moment and point of time it traverses them, even while still constrained by the bonds of its own body. Hence, it is not easy for a true Christian to raise up and lift his soul toward God and the perception of divine things, and to converse with that supreme good, and through most holy notions to become a participant of the light shed round about there, unless he has first been marked as if with a seal by the Holy Spirit. For when the devil sees the soul, stripped of divine grace, attempting to penetrate the aerial region in a certain spiritual manner and to conceive of God and remember its own errors, he audaciously blocks the way and in a certain manner cries out: "Whither do you, unhappy one, go through my domain? I am the prince of darkness. I have been called the prince of those who savor the world. I am Satan, the lord and arbiter of the corrupt air. You have not yet been transferred from my power (as the Apostle says of those whom Christ has transferred from the power of Satan to God). You are still subject to my rule; look back at what is mine. For mine is the wantonness, the insolence, the injustice, the wickedness, which I taught you before as something very good. You have seen, you have tasted, you have been delighted; stay below." Therefore it is written: "And no one can say 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit." ^B Therefore, no Christian should stand to sing psalms and divine hymns who has not first had his mind marked by the Holy Spirit; lest, standing before God, he be understood to act as a minister of Satan, and for this reason, being more defiled by filth and more grievously filled with the evils of anger and carnal desire, he be subverted. For whoever has entered a pharmacy and has rubbed his wounds and welts more roughly, it would have been better had that man never entered it. Therefore, with much study and precision, the mind of every Christian must be corrected first, lest by this very thing he becomes worse, because he sings psalms and performs hymns and prayers before correction. For an impure soul cannot stand before God, however much the body may stand; because it is not the individual himself, but the grace of Christ which overshadows each one, that is the thing which blesses God, and praises Him in itself, and admits that admirable mystery. Therefore, all men who gather together know what they are saying and recognize what things they are discussing with one another. Those, however, who listen are not ignorant of what is being said to them; and it is manifest folly for those conversing together not to listen to one another. But since, when standing before God and addressing Him, we do not attend to Him in our soul like the imprudent and the foolish, whence do we trust that we shall obtain salvation? Especially if we have done this for a long time—that is, singing psalms night and day without understanding, and thinking that we will please God. For it is necessary, when speaking with God, to provide at least as much attention as we do during the [concerns] of this life. ^C From this it is perceived in what manner the devil leads the mind of a man involved in such a grave evil. And all spiritual medicine and healing must be experienced, and Jesus, the physician of souls and bodies, must heal this disease. If not, the whole psalmody and the habit of speech toward God is empty and vanishes. Wherefore, he who sings foolishly and without understanding ought to groan and weep, and not think that he has sung psalms. But if he does not grieve for this reason, what salvation does he hope for? For that saying: "Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner," is not written concerning some atheist or infidel (for none of them praises the God whom he does not know), but concerning him who knows God and believes in Him, yet by his evil deeds is impious and by sin is an enemy and foe of God. For just as some beautiful and elegant thing is pleasant and contains beauty and elegance, and is very delightful to the view, and therefore even draws the gaze of the eyes to itself; while on the contrary, that which is deformed is hateful and turns the eyes of those looking away from itself; so the praise of a sinner repels the divine eyes from itself. For he utters it only with his lips, but speaks in his heart with the sins that have preoccupied it; by which he is held as a sure and certain possession. For no one can sing to God and meanwhile harbor unspeakable things in his breast, unless he has first reconciled Him to himself through repentance and confession; which reconciliation is a certain overshadowing of the soul, which is perceived by the intellect. The proof of which overshadowing is a soul imbued with a certain fear and reverence in divine praises, good order, and attention to those things which are sung: "For no one can say 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit." Those who do not praise in this way, whether they be priests or those higher than these—interpreters and intercessors for others before God—are still far removed from the divine sight. But if they are enemies of Him before whom they perform this office, what will they do, who have sought such interpreters and agents for their own cause? But indeed, if the sun, being hot, is accustomed to warm those basking in its rays: how does God, while being holy, not sanctify all who act with Him through prayer? Because there the sun brings a sense to those who are warmed, for they indeed feel themselves being warmed and for this very reason know they are sitting in the sun; but these men who pour out prayers to God do not know what they are asking, which is what Christ said to the mother of the sons of Zebedee and to her sons themselves. To such, even if they consume a hundred years in praying, God gives nothing. Because, therefore, they labor in vain, they who sing psalms and pray, and are not sanctified, let them first go to masters loved by God and be taught what they ought to pray for. Unless they do this, whether they be wise or foolish, they will die profane and impure. For as to what they ask, not knowing, God knows not how to answer. ^D

ORATION XVIII. ARGUMENTum. Concerning the transformation of the soul and body from those things which happen to us both from the air and other elements, and from food and drink, and even from demons.

^A Not only should a monk know and understand the conversions and mutations that exist in the soul, but also what their causes are, what sort they are, and whence they befall them. For sometimes, sudden joy seizes the soul; sometimes, unexpected sadness occupies it and weighs upon it like a burden. And now it is easily compuncted; now it is so hardened and stubborn toward sorrow for sins, that it seems entirely like stone. Sometimes it becomes meek and humble; a little later it puffs itself up, and, excited by anger and fury, it rages and goes mad against all the brothers. There is a time when it is relaxed and sluggish, torpid toward every good work; there is a time when it is aroused and watchful, and eager for all obedience, so that it might joke with its companions and acquaintances and stir them to seize virtue. Sometimes it is contracted by fear, and looks all around; sometimes it impudently pours itself out. At times it willingly remembers triflers and jesters, and summons them to itself; at times it cannot bear to look upon them or its own housemates. Sometimes it is so pressed and constricted within itself that it grows weary even of this light; at other times it is so expanded and exults so magnificently that, even with great effort, it cannot repress or restrain itself. And these things are accustomed to happen concerning the natural motions of the soul when it girds itself for the struggle to practice virtue and to observe the commandments. But just as the soul is changed and varied, so too is our mind. For at one time it is unencumbered for understanding and swifter to run through and discern those things which it understands or perceives; at other times it is sluggish and slow for both. Sometimes the same mind becomes as if witless, mute, and deaf; sometimes it thrives and is eloquent, and is able to hear and comprehend. Sometimes blind, sometimes sighted, it struggles to enter into the depth and height of contemplation above the grasp of human nature; at other times, inept for all contemplation and void of it, it remembers all its past sins universally, while inventing nothing at all like them; sometimes it thinks of various things, as if not having done them, and imagining them—acting wickedly—and like a flame in damp wood smothered by smoke, it becomes malignant, fabricating vain and false things within itself, not only about the present but often about certain absent persons. And when the heart is greatly saddened, and does not agree with the mind in such matters, it can still make no progress whatever, nor turn it away from empty thoughts. And let this be said thus far concerning the mutations of the mind and of our intelligent soul, and of the divine.

What, moreover, are the varieties that attain to the body, even if they seem to be judged and easily known with little trouble, yet the matter is otherwise. For in this most especially, change occurs very frequently. For the soul is in its nature and essence immutable: likewise the mind, co-created with it by the Creator. Alone they are governed by counsel, and by their own will, laying hold of virtue or vices, they are established as allies and heirs of light or darkness forever; the soul, I say, and the mind, adhering of their own accord to the counsel and will of one of these, as has been said, are called good if to the good, or evil if to the evil. But in truth, the body is also by its own nature mutable, because it is composite and of a flowing essence; namely, from matter subject to decay and falling away, mixed or joined together from contraries. For its essence is fused from hot and cold (as the philosophers teach, and the truth itself testifies), from dry and moist. Yet, in itself, it lacks discretion and will, and even, if it must be said, motion: unless one should say that the constant flux of this towards destruction is a natural motion of its hypostasis, in which nothing of reason is perceived. Since this is so, it is certain that sin does not exist in it, nor is it condemned by God. And deservedly so. For that which accompanies nature does not deserve damnation. But the heat and appetite for marriage, the sexual conjunction of bodies, pleasure, gluttony, voracity, sleepiness, laziness, the adornment of garments, and all other things which the common people suppose the body requires—not the body (no more than when it lies lifeless), but the soul requires through it—the soul, I say, once placed in this mire, rejoicing, and like a pig in filth, desiring in these things, and affecting the pleasures of the flesh associated with it. Wherefore let no one think that he is compelled and forced by his own body to these things, which is false. But hear and understand how. God fashioned man from a clod of earth. Behold, I have already shown you the body. You, in turn, show what excitements and turbulent motions are in it—which you will be completely unable to do. What then? *And God breathed into its face, and man became a living soul* 4. And aroused from the dust, with the spirit which was in him (the breath of life, that is) moving the body, he walked about; the heat, or agitation of lust, or the brute insanity of the belly, and the immoderate appetite for food appeared nowhere yet, and life was being passed tranquilly and without molestation. Let us see, therefore, whether perhaps because there was no woman, or because food was not being supplied, to incite desire, for that reason man was moved neither to the desire for intercourse, nor to gluttony. What therefore does it say? *And the Lord God brought forth from the earth every tree that is beautiful to the sight* 13. *And Adam and Eve were naked in paradise, and they were not ashamed* 14. You perceive: neither because Eve was a woman, nor because both were naked, was there any harm to either one of them.

^A But after the sin, and the transgression, and after they were driven from paradise, and stripped of God, and fell from His divine glory, then, as it is written: “Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore” (Gen. IV, 1). Therefore, beloved, if you too love God sincerely, and remain in His love, no movement of the mind alien to reason will ever dominate you, nor will it oppress you by some tyranny of bodily necessity. For just as the body can be moved to nothing without the soul, so an soul joined to God through charity cannot be brought down to the pleasures of the belly or of lust, nor to certain other desires of things visible or invisible in which perturbation has a place, since the appetite of its heart, or rather the entire inclination of its will, is bound fast with the sweet love of God. ^B Being, therefore, linked to its Creator, as we have said, tell me, how can it be inflamed or moved or completely fulfill its own desires by the body?

The mutations following nature and existing in the body itself are manifest; for they happen to everyone, even to the holy. For sometimes it is said to be healthy when those things of which it is concreted and composed are not in conflict. Sometimes it is compelled to feel disease, when one of the four elements has risen up against the others either more sharply or more weakly, or rather, has been overcome and oppressed by them. Hence arise distillations, mutilations of the extreme parts of the body, and sometimes the ruin and destruction of the whole animal, without injury to our soul, since most of these are generated from intemperance of living. The mutation of some bodies, however, must be ascribed to the winds and the air. ^C For because the air is cold, it offends and weakens a body that has acquired a cold nature, as it is, evidently, too much refrigerated. Others, because they are warmer by constitution, are rendered more temperate and stronger in a colder climate. On the contrary, when the air warms up, cold things are cherished in some way and revive: as flies and other insects, warmed by the solar rays, become stronger and more agile. But those for whom the constitution is warm are inflamed most vehemently, and for any action and motion they become similarly languid and weak; and one and all, according to its own temperament, admits a mutation in the mutation of air and winds also in due proportion. Moreover, without these, an alteration follows separately from food, and immoderate drink, and from intemperance. Furthermore, from much sleep, and labor, or bodily sloth. Again, there is another thing, because from the very concretion of the body and natural heat, a smoky fire is produced, as from coals extinguished by water, which sometimes seeks the head alone, sometimes spreads itself through the whole body ^D and pours forth. Finally, another thing remains, which, with the connivance of God and our Lord, according to the economic institution for our humility, is brought upon us as temptation from the demons. What is this? This very thing itself: the burden of our body, which, although for no other reason than for vainglory alone, or elation of mind, or through the condemnation of another as negligent, or for many other causes too, is handed over to the demon for the destruction of the flesh and the contrition of the soul; but for the probation and more ample exercise of the same, and that when we have learned the bowels of piety and the mercy of God toward us, we may transfer the whole affection of our love to Him, and be carried toward Him with our whole desire. Wherefore not everyone knows all these things: but the alterations of the soul and the mutations of the body are each in part known by those who are moderately affected toward virtue, if by chance something of this kind happens to them: for we do not care for those who are clearly overwhelmed by darkness.

But the conversions and mutations which the mind undergoes, of which we have spoken, only those who are free from turbid affections, and are perfect, pure, and free in soul and mind, recognize. And indeed, not even they of themselves. For they are not of themselves, but of another, by whom they are also instructed about these things. Sometimes, indeed, from these diversities occurring to the mind, the soul is constrained and saddened when it has lost something of present joy. Nevertheless, it virilely rouses the mind. Sometimes the mind itself suffers along with the things which the soul suffers, and although it is urged to exist in night, it does not yield: but it strives to remain in the light, and perhaps even illuminates the soul. At other times again, both are vehemently pressed by the inconstant and unequal habit of the body. Sometimes they are burdened from without, and feel a weight; and yet they are in peace. Sometimes they are troubled from within and moved, and are generally subjected to perturbations, so that he who suffers cannot hope for a former condition of tranquility. Thus, therefore, the soul and the mind have what they sin by from the body, the mind from the soul itself, and the soul finally from the mind and body. Nor are these two, soul and mind, always troubled: but of these it is when the soul suffers alone, and the mind questions and says, "What is the matter with you?" and consoles it. Sometimes the mind is blinded and covered, and the soul, while it is free, by the virtue of its own fire pursues the darkness, and with the veil removed, makes the mind see. Wherefore, my fathers and brothers, we must understand not only the mutations, conversions, and alterations that happen to us, but also from where they happen, and how, and by whom, and what winds of thoughts are blowing, and from what sources the rivers of depraved affections and temptations descend or supervene, so that we may safely strengthen the house of our soul, and steer the rudder of our little ship well, lest, unskilled in the art and unstable by nature, we overturn it: the knowledge of which, life studiously—

^A supply according to the rule constantly. For it behooves a monk to set for himself a limit and a pattern, and to know how each day must be passed, so that he may be able to run the course of virtue readily, and that his course may not be hindered by ignorance. Thus he will also smooth out for himself the rough and laborious path of virtue: since, once he has acquired the habit and custom of doing good, and growing, and arranging ascents in his heart, and lifting himself from small things to greater and more perfect ones, he will please God, and will have the knowledge of all things spoken by us, and will be heard as a master to many others, illuminating those who will associate with him in word and in the innocence of his morals, as one who is also himself illuminated from above; and he will reveal deep things to those who with desire seek to learn the deep things of the Spirit, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to whom be glory and empire with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen.

Oration XIX

ARGUMENT

Spiritual knowledge, brothers, is like to some house built in the midst of worldly and gentile knowledge: in which house, as if it were a solid and fortified casket, is the knowledge of the divinely inspired Scriptures, and the riches which are inexplicable in it lie hidden like a treasure: which those who enter the house cannot see, unless the casket is thoroughly unlocked for them; which, however, human wisdom will ^C never be able to unlock. Wherefore, the riches of the Spirit stored in it remain unknown to all mortals. And just as, although one may carry the casket itself, placed on his own shoulders, he is ignorant of the treasure located in it: so, even if one should read all the Scriptures, and store them in his heart, and be able to recite them from memory as if they were a single psalm, he nonetheless is ignorant of the gift of the Holy Spirit hidden in the casket. For neither through the casket do the things which are in the casket become known, nor through the Scripture do those things which are in the Scripture. Hear by what reason. You see a small ark, well closed on all sides, and from its weight and exterior elegance you gather (or perhaps you have also heard from others) and you believe that a treasure lies within: whereupon, having also taken it up, you walk hurriedly. Tell me then, what will it profit, if you carry it about all your life, sealed and closed as it is, and neither open it, nor ever look upon the treasure stored therein? if you do not see the brilliance of the stones, the clarity of the pearls, and the flashing splendor of the gold within it? What fruit is there, if you are not worthy to take away even a little from them, and thence obtain some profit for food or clothing, ^D pious man; but as for the casket, you carry it about, as we have said, sealed and filled with opulent treasure, as long as you dwell in this life, while you yourself meanwhile are tormented by hunger, thirst, or nakedness? I think clearly none. Consider these things, my brother, also regarding spiritual matters, and by the name of the casket understand the Gospel of Christ, and the other Scriptures, having in themselves contained and sealed eternal life, and with it those things which are in it, which are not to be expressed in words, and the eternal goods which are not seen by the eyes of the body, according to the voice of the Lord: *Search the Scriptures, for in them is eternal life*. Moreover, let the man who has lifted the casket upon his shoulders be he who is able to render all the Scriptures from memory, and has them always in his mouth. Therefore, let him bring them into the memorial casket of the soul, containing the commandments of God like certain precious stones, in which is eternal life (for Christ’s words are life and light, as he himself says, and he who does not believe in the Son of God will not see life). But with the commandments [he brings] the virtues, as certain pearls, for from commandments come the virtues, in which is the revelation of the mysteries latent in the letter and veiled. For by doing the commandments, virtues are exercised: by exercising the virtues, the commandments are fulfilled. And thus through these the gate of knowledge is opened to us; nay, indeed, not through these, but through him who said: *He who loves me, will keep my commandments, and my Father will love him, and I will manifest myself to him*.

If, therefore, God has dwelt and walked among us, and he himself has clearly manifested himself to us, then we shall see, by understanding, the mysteries that were hidden in the casket, that is to say, in the divine Scriptures; otherwise it is not right. Let no one be deceived, as if the casket of knowledge were open to him, and he were enjoying the goods that are within it; or be a participant of them, and look upon them. Of what kind, I pray, and of whose are these? Of perfect charity towards God and one’s neighbor. [And of] the contemplation of all things that are seen; [and] of the mortification of the flesh and its members, which are upon the earth, even to the level of evil desire: so that just as a dead man neither thinks nor feels anything at all, so we also might never conceive any thought of evil desire, or sense combined with perturbation; or experience the evil of tyrannical disturbance, and that we be mindful only of the commandments of the Savior. Furthermore, as concerns immortality, incorruption, eternal glory, everlasting life, the kingdom of heaven, adoption through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and that through adoption we may become gods, and be called heirs of God, yet co-heirs of Christ, and together with these possess the service of Christ, through whom we may see and know God and Christ himself according to his divinity dwelling and walking among us. Therefore, the commandments of God, hearing which...

and keeping them, and performing them, they are judged worthy of the open Ark of which we have spoken—that is, through the revelation of the intellectual eyes, they are deemed worthy of the contemplation of those things lying hidden within the divine Scripture, and they enjoy them abundantly. The rest, not knowing what is written through their own incompetence, have not tasted their sweetness which embraces eternal life; resting only on the doctrine of the Scriptures, which at the end will judge and condemn them more than those who have not heard them at all. For from among these, some erring ones pervert all the divine Scriptures, interpreting them according to their own base desires, wishing to commend themselves—as if, forsooth, they could attain salvation even without the accurate observation of the commandments of Christ, fundamentally denying the virtue of the holy letters. And with justice. For those things which are sealed and closed, which have been neither seen nor known by any mortal, but are unlocked by the Holy Spirit alone, and thus revealed to us and made visible and exposed for us to know—how, then, can those who say they have never known the arrival of the Holy Spirit, his illumination, his illustration, his indwelling within themselves, be able to know, or recognize, or at least to some extent ponder in their minds? By what means could they attain such mysteries, they who have never perceived themselves to be entirely fashioned again, renovated, changed, and regenerated by the same spirit? But if they have not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit, how can they know the change in those who are baptized? ^B How, I ask, can they see the glory of those who are born again (as the Lord says) of God, and enrolled among the children of God? Those who have not wished this to happen to them, but have gone along neglecting this glory—(for they had received the power to become such)—tell me, with what cognition can they perceive, or at least in any way inform their thought as to what kind of people they are called?

God is Spirit, who does not come under the aspect [of the senses], immortal, inaccessible, incomprehensible; and he makes those born of him like his Father, from whom they were generated, comprehensible and visible by the body alone, while the rest is known only to God, and they know God alone, or rather, they wish to be known by God alone, towards whom they always desire both to look and to be looked upon by him. Furthermore, just as those who are ignorant of letters, in the same way as those who know them, cannot read books: so neither can those who have not wished to walk in the deeds commanded by Christ, just as those who have watched over them, and fulfilled them, and for their sake have poured out their blood, be deemed worthy of the revelation of the Holy Spirit, as those will be. For as a man with a book received closed and sealed cannot see what is written in it, or think what kind of writing it is, as long as the book is closed and sealed, however much of the world's wisdom he may have learned: so neither can he who has the whole of Sacred Scripture on his lips, as we were saying, know and perceive the mystical and divine glory, and the virtue covered within them, unless he has, as it were, traversed all the commandments of God by keeping them, and the Paraclete has revealed to him, as upon an opened book, the glory ^C that is in them, mystically demonstrating it. Nor this alone, but also the hidden and eternal good things of God, with the Deity himself who pours out these very things, revealing them—things which are to all who despise and neglect them in every way covered and dark. And not without cause. For because they have affixed all their own senses to the vanities of the world, and are affected by the pleasures of life and the beauty of bodies, carrying around a dimmed faculty of sight for the soul, they cannot behold the elegances of the ineffable good things towards which the intelligence is penetrated. And how can someone whose edge of the eyes is dull, and who cannot even slightly look upon the purer ray of the sun, but if he directs his eyes into it, immediately loses the vision he held, not fall in the same way as one who has the eyes of his soul and the senses themselves rendered subject to turbulent motions, or [how can he] fail to look upon the grace and elegance of bodies without emotion and without damage? But even the peace of thoughts and the tranquility from base desires which he possessed before that time, he loses, dwelling in the meditation of his own affection. Hence, such a person can in no way perceive his own weakness. For if he had persuaded himself that he was entirely sick, he might have believed that others were well, and perhaps at some time he might have accused himself, and said that he himself was the cause of his disease, and might have pondered in his mind what things pertain to recovering health. But as it is, such a man, imagining that all are given over to passions, equates himself with them, and assumes that it is in no way possible for him to be the only one who is unconquered and superior to all. What is this? That he might perish miserably together with his base affection, fleeing from being liberated from this evil. For if he had wished to be liberated, he could have been, being one who had received the power from God. For whoever among us have been washed in the baptism of his name, we have received from him the authority to cast off the past ignobility of corruption, as an old garment, and to put on Christ, and to be called children of God. But God forbid, brethren, that we should become like those who are captives and earthly, affected in such a way and having such thoughts. But may it fall to us to follow Christ, who died for our sake and rose again, and who has exalted us with him into heaven, and to always insist on his footsteps, having been purified through repentance from the stain of sin, and having put on the lucid tunic of the incorruption of the spirit, in Christ our God himself, to whom belongs glory and empire with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and always, and unto all the ages of ages. Amen.

ORATION XX. ARGUMENT.

Concerning the life-giving death, or mortification, which is in the Spirit for the faithful who are struggling even before death: and that those who are already in grace above the law receive the grace of the divine light in themselves. That those who have not yet attained this in this life, and do not clearly discern it, are still under the shadow of the law, and are to be judged by it. How the faithful may attain the Holy Spirit, holiness, and freedom from perturbations.

"Scrutinize the Scriptures," says the Lord and God...

29 our Lord Jesus Christ, so that before all things we may be taught the way of salvation. Then also, having walked in his commandments without turning aside, we may arrive at that very salvation of our souls. What, then, is our salvation? It is Jesus Christ, that which the angel also, standing by the shepherds, was proclaiming: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people, for there is born to you this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David [*]." Let us hasten, therefore, beloved; let us run contendedly, carrying with us no burden, either pertaining to this life or heavy to bear, lest on account of it we be forced to walk more slowly and be unable to reach the city of David and enter it. I beseech you, by the grace working within us, let us not hold our salvation in ^B too little regard: but as if awakened from the sleep of perverse arrogance and slothfulness, let us not stand, nor sit, until we are outside this world with our whole soul, and having found our Savior and Lord, we fall down and worship him there. And let us not even stand then, but [let us wait] until he says to us: "You are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of the world 27." But who is it that arrives at such a point, that he is not of this world? He who has crucified himself to the world and the world to himself, as Paul says: "The world is crucified to me, and I to the world 25." And how do these words agree with those? The words, he says, are different, but the force of both is one and the same. For just as one who is outside a house does not see those shut within, so one who is crucified to the world, or dead, has no sense of worldly things. Again, ^C just as a dead body neither feels the living nor the dead bodies lying with it in any way, so neither can the one who is outside the world in the Spirit of God, and is with God, be affected by the world or by worldly things. And thus, brothers, even before death, there occurs a resurrection of souls before the resurrection of bodies, by action, by virtue, by experience, and by truth. For with mortal thought deleted and destroyed by immortal sense, and with mortality put to flight by life, the soul then sees itself as if raised from the dead (as those who have risen from sleep perceive themselves) and recognizes God by whom it has been awakened; understanding whom, it gives thanks, worships, and praises his immense goodness. But indeed the body has no desire, or any inspiration, or motion, or thought for its own appetites: but it is wholly dead and lifeless in these ^D matters. Sometimes, indeed often, it even forgets those things which are according to nature, on account of the soul's assiduous mental occupation and study in things which are above nature. And rightly so, for he says: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh 29." The flesh, therefore, as has been said, having been made dead through the advent of the Spirit, will henceforth leave you unperturbed and without hindrance to live—for where the Spirit of the Lord is, he says, there is liberty 30, liberty from subjection under the law in all things. For the Law is a guide of the way, and a pedagogue, and a leader by the hand, and a teacher of justice, when it says: "This and this you shall do." But grace and truth are not so: but how? "And you will do all things, and you will speak according to what has been given to you, and according to the grace speaking within you," as it is written: "And they shall all be taught of God 31"; not learning what is good through the marks of letters and signs, but taught this in the Holy Spirit; not in the word alone, but initiated through the lumination of the Word of light mystically into divine things. For then, he says, you will be teachers to yourselves and to your neighbors, and not only that, but also "the light of the world 32" and "the salt of the earth 33." They, therefore, before grace were as if they were under the law, and were sitting in its shadow. We, however, after grace, as if established in the light and in the day, have been freed from the shadow or servitude of the law, having become superior to it, having been raised as if by certain steps of the evangelical life into the height, and living with the legislator, or rather, even being ourselves legislators or guardians of the law.

Is there, then, anyone who has ears to hear, so that he might perceive by hearing the force of those things which are said by the Spirit? Is there also anyone who has the mind of Christ, so that he might rightly and conveniently for God understand what has been written by him? Will there also be found anyone, having Christ speaking within himself, so that he might well expound what mysteries are covered by words? "For we speak wisdom," he says, "not of this world, which is brought to nothing, but wisdom in a mystery, which has been hidden 34 from many, but to us it has been truly revealed and made known, who in the fear of God have been instructed as if by elements, and we always look to him. For we do not speak what we do not know; but we testify to what we know, because the light now shines in the darkness 35, and in the night, and in the day, and within, and without. Within, indeed, in our hearts; but without, in the mind, circumradiating us without evening, without change, without variety, without figure, speaking, acting, living, and vivifying, and making us return with light. We testify that God is light, and those who have been held worthy to see him, all saw him as light, and those who received him, received him as light. For the light of his glory precedes before him, and he cannot appear without light: and those who have not seen his light, have not seen him either, because he himself is light. And those who have not received the light, have not yet received grace. For those who have received grace have received the light of God and God, just as the light itself, Christ, says: "I will dwell and walk in them 36." But to those to whom this has not yet happened, and who have not been held worthy to obtain it, all these are reckoned under the law before grace, servants and disciples of servants. And hearers of the law, still around the shadow and the type...

^A and will be filled on every side with every ignominy. Nor is this the case only for these, but every act of anyone at all, whether good or evil, every word, every thought, and meditation—from the very birth of each, that is, down to the last breath—will there appear collectively in every human being. And what ignominy, I ask, brothers, shall we then compare with this, which is truly the only ignominy? Or what punishment is greater than that fear and shame, when, as it is said, they are found to be so darkened, and without the illuminating Spirit? What life, moreover, or what delight will a man have, who sits in darkness and fears lest, by a sudden illumination of light, the stains of some thought or action be found within him? ^B Whether they be emperors, or patriarchs, or bishops, or priests, or princes, or subjects, whether profane or monks, or ascetics, or superiors, whether poor or rich, whether sick or healthy. For all those who sit in darkness and are unwilling to repent are numbered as children of darkness. For repentance is, indeed, the gate that leads out of darkness and leads to the light. Whoever, therefore, has not entered into the light has not passed through the gate of repentance well. For if he had passed through, he would have come to the light. But whoever does not repent, sins, because he does not repent. For, to him who knows what is good, he says, and does not do it, it is sin. Now whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, and hates the light, and does not come to the light, so that his works may not be reproved. For now, we are reproved and judged of our own accord and by our own will, having entered into the light through repentance; but we undergo this judgment mystically and hiddenly, in the inner chamber of our souls, for the purification and remission of our sins, through the mercy and kindness of God, with God alone of course knowing and beholding our affairs. Whoever, therefore, has been judged here by such a brilliant judgment will not fear another torment or examination, nor will he dread the temptations that are about to come upon him. But then, that is, at the coming of the Lord, for those who now do not wish to come to the light and be judged and purified by it, but hate it, what is now hidden light shall be revealed, and all their hidden things ^C will be manifested. And such as we each are now, hiding ourselves and unwilling to make ourselves manifest through repentance, we shall then be manifest and open from the light to God and to all; and the magnitude of the shame and disgrace will be a spectacle there.

For just as in a house that has its doors locked from within, if one of us, as if outside and seen by no one, should sin profusely—committing adultery, that is, or engaging in same-sex acts, or performing other detestable things—and then should suddenly be caught in the act itself, he incurs great infamy; or (to give another example), if one should meditate treachery against a king and write them out for him, or if he should say that some evil deed is to be enacted, lingering entirely within the house, as has been said, and afterward the king arrives with his whole senate and his customary retinue and surrounds the house, and immediately, everything being overturned, he himself and all his designs appear, and he sustains great punishment and condemnation; in the same way, then, shall it be for all who are in the world. And night, indeed, shall be illuminated like the day, but the whole house, and the cave, and the very heaven and earth shall be taken away, and all who have not put on Christ, or who have not received the light, as we have been teaching above, and who were not in Him before and were not light, shall appear naked, ^D and will be filled on every side with every ignominy. Wherefore, let us strive, my brothers, to enter now through repentance into the narrow gate, and to behold the light that is within. Also, I pray, let us not cease knocking, seeking, and asking until we are heard, and it is opened, and it is given to us: moreover, until we obtain the entered light, and have it inextinguishable in our hearts. Do not err, therefore, brothers. He who lives in darkness is outside the door. But he who thinks he has entered, and has not entered through the door, he too is outside the fold. For if the light of the world, and the door, is Christ, it is a completely luminous door, not a simple door. And he who is in it is in the light of the world. But the light of the world is not that which the sense of the eyes perceives, but that which the mind sees and contemplates. For the sun here, which sense reaches, only illuminates the bodies of humans, beasts, and birds; but the sun that falls under [the scope of] intelligence, which has shone upon the world, knows how to illuminate only those gifted with reason, and not even all of these without distinction, nor does it know how to illuminate the unworthy. For it is not inanimate, or, to speak better, it is not an animal, nor a servant, or a creature constituted to minister to others, just as indeed is this sun that we see, which rises over the just and the unjust, the good and the bad alike. But although it is called light and sun, yet it is also above light, and above the sun, and as it is the creator and Lord of light and sun, it is life, life-giving, truth, justice, and sanctification, simple, free from all composition, and every good, and better than every good. As, therefore, it is and is called truth, it becomes truth truly to those who turn to it. As it is justice, it is justice to those who have abstained from all injustice. As it is sanctification, it is [to those] cleansed and purified by tears. As it is simple, to those who bear no perversity or wickedness within their inner hearts. As it is non-composite, to those having no duplicity, or ambiguity, or incredulity of spirit. As it is good, to those who, by the spiritual works of repentance, do not introduce into [the soul] cares and anxieties pertaining to the body or this life, by which they might mix and confuse them; but [do so] with a sincere will, and an application of mind to evils.

^A patient to those approaching him; approving of their sincerity, he heaps every good upon them in a short time, and, as he is revealed to them and appears to those who are overcoming their way of thinking and understanding of [earthly] goods, he immediately makes them partakers of himself. For if the good things which the eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him [1 Cor. 2:9], exceed the grasp of human nature and surpass all visible goods, how much more does God himself, who prepared these things—and not only he, but also those who have been counted worthy to see him, to attend upon him, and to dwell with him, and having been made sharers and partakers of his divinity and glory—surpass entirely the goods themselves prepared by God, inasmuch as they have ended up possessing the Lord himself, who prepared those goods as an inheritance?

That they have indeed ended up as such, and do so even now—I do not say only after death, but while still living—the whole divinely inspired Scripture teaches, and all who have attained holiness through their life and character bear witness. Moreover, the praise and blessedness of all the saints consist in these two things: orthodox faith and a praiseworthy life. Furthermore, to the gift of the Holy Spirit and his charismata, the third thing is added by these two. For when anyone has led an exemplary life, and one with the love of God, and has been gifted with an orthodox understanding and the grace of the Holy Spirit and has been glorified by God, praise accompanies him, and he is proclaimed blessed by the entire Church of the faithful and by all her teachers.

But for faith and works not to be perfectly combined, and for an inhabitant of the divine and adorable Scripture to receive its gift, is impossible for any man; just as the holy James also says: "What will it profit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have the works of faith? Can faith save him? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead [Jas. 2:14, 26]." And again: "If a brother or sister are naked and lack daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ but you do not give them the things necessary for the body, what will it profit? So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself [Jas. 2:15-17]." These things also the apostle John [says]: "Little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth [1 John 3:18]." And: "By this we know that we are of the truth, and shall persuade our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask, we will receive, because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight [1 John 3:19-22]." And: "This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment [1 John 3:23]." And: "He who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us [1 John 3:24]." ^B For if the Holy Spirit has not come into a man, and is not known to dwell in him, it is alien for anyone to be called spiritual. But he who is not yet spiritual, how shall he be holy? And he who has not yet been made holy, by what other works and actions shall he become blessed?

Blessing is God, of whom he who is not a partaker, or rather, he who does not have him wholly within himself, in what way is he blessed? In no way, as it seems to me. Shall the sun be called a sun without light? And shall a man who is devoid of the Holy Spirit be called holy? "Be holy," says the Lord, "for I am holy [Lev. 11:44]." By which words he exhorts us, having known us to be sinners, to imitation through works of mercy; as if he were to say: "Desist from wicked things, and apply yourselves to all uprightness, and pursue every kind of virtue to the measure of your strength, and as much as you are able, become holy, if indeed you desire to have communion with me. For I am holy, that is, pure, undefiled, and that by nature. But you, while abstaining from the defilements of sins in fulfilling my commandments, and having been made partakers of me by the grace of my Spirit, shall also be holy." For this is what "Be" implies. Therefore, man becomes holy by fleeing evil and doing good: not as if he were sanctified entirely by the works of the law (for "by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified" [Gal. 2:16]), but because he attaches himself to the holy God through such frequent exercises of action, and conciliates him to himself.

Moreover, I think this applies also to those who have already received the grace of the Spirit, and refers even more so to the Lord. For he seems to command that one should not trust in the gift and, through sloth, return to vices and sins, and in a way [he uses] these words: "Hark, you spiritual one, do not give yourself over to idleness, you who have received the grace of the Holy Spirit, and through him, me. For idleness generates wickedness, and wickedness breeds every kind of vice. Therefore, be holy by keeping the commandments daily, if indeed you wish me to be in you, and with you, and you in me, and with me." For nothing is so inconstant and changeable among all things as the human mind, which then finally finds consistency when, having rejected all that is fleeting and created and all that is visible, it has passed beyond the darkness with which it is surrounded. ^D

Since these things are so, and the mind is a thing that is always in motion, never able to rest, it ought to be anxious and studious of divine laws, since otherwise all human life is full of anxieties and cares, and from nothing else can it find quiet, although many have striven [to do so] beyond their powers and capabilities. Nay, from the beginning man was created on this condition. For Adam was commanded to work and keep the garden, and while we are moved toward honesty, we work by nature. Whoever, therefore, have given themselves over to idleness and sloth, whoever they may have been—even though they were otherwise holy and spiritual—cast themselves into affections of nature that are hardly consistent [with their state].

^A For if a fountain springing forth perennial water should cease for even a little time, it is dried up and is no longer a fountain, but rather a pit; so too he who always purifies himself by the performance of the commandments, and has been purified and sanctified by God, if he deviates a little from their execution, he deviates in proportion also from holiness. But he who is knowingly carried away by even one single sin, slips entirely out of purity; just as a vessel full of water is entirely defiled by a little mire. And I mean not only the sin that is committed through the body, but also other vices which are performed within us by us, and are not seen: vanity, the striving to please men, pride, haughtiness, boasting, hypocrisy, the love of dominion, deceit, malice, hatred, perfidy, envy, elation, zeal, self-complacency, self-love, contention, foolishness, and all the remaining shameful passions that work within the soul, from which the prophet David, desiring to be delivered, besought God in this manner: "Cleanse me from my secret faults, and spare thy servant from the faults of others. If they do not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless, and I shall be cleansed from the greatest transgression." And: "Let my heart be blameless in thy statutes, that I may not be ashamed." And again: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within my bowels." And: "Confirm me with thy principal Spirit." For what utility, brothers, is there in bodily labors if the inner work is postponed? Do we not hear Paul saying: "Bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things"? And again: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." The same thing holy Peter also cries out in these words: "Girding up the loins of your mind, be sober perfectly, and hope in the grace that is offered to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ, as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves to the former desires of your ignorance, but according to him who called you, who is holy, and be you also holy in all your conversation, and sanctify the Lord Jesus in your hearts." Therefore it is written: "Be holy, for I am holy." And: "If you call upon the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to the work of each one, walk in fear during the time of your sojourn, knowing that you were redeemed from your vain conversation of paternal tradition, not with corruptible gold or silver, but with the precious blood as of an unblemished lamb, Christ." Let us therefore also desire with our whole soul, and let it be a fixed resolution, not to be deceived, or ensnared and bound by any perturbation of body or soul, lest through a single transgression, whether small or great, we fall from the way that leads to heaven. But when we have walked, and have not looked back, let us hasten to forestall Jesus who goes before us, and having become possessors of his examples, let us fall down before him, and weep before his goodness, ^B and pray diligently, that he may not at all separate us from him, nor allow us to go astray from the way, who is himself the way, and the resurrection, and the life. Him therefore let us seek, him let us strive to forestall, that we may also hold him. For if this is done, and we have instituted our life according to his example, not only when we have migrated from here, but now also we shall ascend with him into heaven, and be assumed together: or rather, he himself will lift us up with himself, and will glorify us, and will grant us to enjoy eternal happiness.

ORATION XXI.

ARGUMENT.

We must see whether we possess in ourselves the beatitudes of which Christ has spoken; for these are the indication of the seal, and the properties of his character. He who is not sealed with the sign of Christ, and does not bear his character in himself, cannot by any means enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever of us are not sealed with the sign of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, let us run that we may be sealed. Whoever we are not marked, let us hasten to be marked with the mark of the Spirit. For death does not have dominion over the souls of the first-born through the blood of Christ and the grace of the most holy Spirit: nor does the wolf, who is perceived by the mind, dare to look against the seal of the prince of pastors, Christ, with which he is accustomed to seal his sheep. Therefore, faithful brothers, and those desirous of divine things, let us hasten, doing and performing all things that are pleasing to Christ, that we also may be sealed by him, so that we may henceforth live without fear: nay rather, that we may receive mercy from his hand, and be held worthy to know the mystery of Christ. But I understand knowledge not that which is handed down merely by word and hearing: but that which shines forth in the work and action itself. Hear therefore how the knowledge of the mysteries of God may be discerned in us through work and action. Christ our God through his Gospel cries out daily in the open: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." As often as we hear this, we ought to consider and diligently examine ourselves, whether we are in truth poor in such a way that the kingdom of heaven is also ours; so that we may perceive with a quiet mind that we possess riches, and thus experience without doubt that we are in it, and be delighted by its goods and pleasures. For the Lord himself announced that it is within us. Furthermore, the proofs by which it is demonstrated to be within us are these: to covet nothing of those things which are submitted to the eyes and perish; I mean the things and delights of this life, neither riches, nor glory, nor pleasures, nor lastly any other thing of the present life, or bodily enjoyment; but to abstain from all these, and so to abhor them in judgment and will, that we might...

^A be like those who pass by a dump. And just as those who are clothed in pure and clean garments, and are anointed with sweet-smelling ointments, avert their nostrils from foul odors and mud. For whoever turns himself to one of the things named, that one neither sees the kingdom of heaven, nor smells it, nor tastes of its sweetness and delight. Next: *Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.* Let us now see again, and inquire into ourselves, whether we have this mourning in us, and what this consolation is, which is said to be the companion of this mourning. First, indeed, He affirmed the poor in spirit to be blessed, as being those whose the kingdom of heaven is. But the poor, as we have taught, are not altogether caught by these present things, nor do they join and attach their soul to them in such a way as to be beguiled by even the smallest pleasure. In what manner, then, and for what cause will he mourn, who has detested the whole world, and is as far from it in heart as he approaches it in body? Who is held by no love of visible things, what is it, I beseech you, that he should give himself over to sadness or joy? And how will he mourn, and be soothed by consolations, who has the kingdom of heaven, and rejoices in it assiduously?

^B There also, there are tears flowing unceasingly, which cleanse this loving soul and render it utterly luminous. Through these, therefore, the soul looks upward, and recognizing its Lord, begins diligently to bring forth the remaining virtues for itself and for Christ. And not without cause. For irrigated and fattened continually by tears, and extinguishing within itself the anger of the soul, it becomes entirely meek and immobile toward anger. Yet it desires and hungers, and at the same time thirsts to learn the justifications of God. In these things, indeed, it becomes both merciful and grieving for the discomforts of others: so that from all these things, the purity of its heart may be perfected, and that it may see God itself, and clearly contemplate His glory according to the promise. Those who have prepared their souls in this way are peacemakers in truth, and are called children of the Most High, who both purely recognize their Father and Lord, and love Him with their whole soul; enduring every labor, that is to say, and sustaining every affliction for His sake, vexed by injuries, assaulted by insults, and distressed on account of His just commandment—which He commanded us also to keep—suffering patiently reproaches, persecutions, and every evil word falsely spoken against them for His name’s sake, rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer ignominy from men for His love. Have you noticed, brothers, the expressed image of the seal of Christ? Have you recognized, faithful ones, the properties of His character? One seal, in truth, is the illumination of the Spirit, even though there are many forms of the operations of this illumination, and many proofs of its virtues, the first and most necessary of which, and as it were the beginning and foundation, is humility: *For to whom shall I look,* He says, *but to the humble and quiet, and to him that trembleth at my words?*

Attend, O minds, I beseech you, to the things I shall say, and you shall receive the reason for the question along with its solution. A faithful man, who persists diligently in exhausting the commands of God, when he has kept all things, and has entered into the pinnacle of these—that is, into an unblameable life and purity—then, measuring himself by his own standard, he will find himself weak, and one who cannot reach that height of the commandments: but even poor, first of all, or rather unworthy to receive God, and to render thanks and praises to Him, as one who has never possessed anything proper and of his own that is good. He who considers these things within himself with the perception of his mind will altogether mourn with a truly most blessed mourning, which is both relieved by the promised consolation and renders the soul meek: for the consolation produced from mourning is indeed a pledge of the kingdom of heaven. *For faith,* according to the Apostle, *is the substance of things to be hoped for.* Furthermore, the consolation which the illumination of the Spirit brings to mourning souls is the advent of God, giving them as a reward for the struggle that humility which is called both seed and talent. ^C For being increased and multiplied in the souls of those who struggle, it brings forth for God a fruit, partly thirtyfold, partly sixtyfold, partly an hundredfold, a holy fruit of charisms and gifts of the Spirit. For where there is a mind that is not feigned but truly humble and lowly, there also is the foundation of humility. And where there is humility, there is the illumination of the Spirit. Where there is the illumination of the Spirit, there is a wealth of divine light, and God in the wisdom and knowledge of His mysteries. But where these are, there is the kingdom of heaven, and the knowledge of the kingdom, and the hidden treasures of the knowledge of God, in which also the poverty of spirit is revealed. But where poverty of spirit is, there too is a mourning in which joy is mingled.

Another mourning is the fountain of tears, concerning which, when I wish to discourse copiously, I am destitute of words to explain the senses. It is a wondrous thing, and one which the tongue cannot utter. They are felt to flow through the eyes, and are understood to wash away the mud of sins from the soul: and falling to the ground, they burn and prostrate the demons, and draw the soul out from the invisible bonds of sin. O tears springing from ^D divine illumination, opening heaven itself, and producing divine consolations for me: again, indeed, and more often, I say it with the same sweetness and desire. Where there is a wealth of tears, brothers, with true knowledge, there also is the splendor of divine light; where the splendor of this light is, there all goods are supplied, and the seal of the Holy Spirit is planted in the heart, from which also all the fruits of life arise. Hence, meekness is produced for Christ, peace, almsgiving, compassion, kindness, goodness, faith, temperance. Hence flows the love for enemies and praying for them, rejoicing in temptations, glorying in tribulations, leading the lapses of others to be one’s own, and weeping for them as if they were one’s own,

offering the soul promptly to death for the brethren. ^A Listen therefore, I beseech you, Christian brothers, and look around and see whether the light has shone in your hearts; whether you have beheld that great light of knowledge; whether the Orient from on high has visited you, shining upon you who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. For God, since He is in need of nothing and is full of all good things, requires nothing from us except our own salvation; and it is not permitted to obtain this in any other way unless our mind be changed by divine power, so that it becomes *enthea*—that is, divinely inspired, moved by God, or free from all perturbation, and holy. For the *enthea* mind is that which has God within itself. Such a state, however, cannot come about by itself. Now, he who is joined to God through faith, and knows Him through the observance of the commandments, is also altogether worthy to behold Him through contemplation. For, through sure faith, Christ dwells in him, and the mind becomes *enthea*. Furthermore, it is maintained as *enthea* from the fact that it always practices things pertaining to Christ and attends to His laws. From this it comes about that it also keeps His commandments, just as, from the fact that it has a mind divinely inspired, it is brought about that it both thinks on and carries out the commands of Christ: for individual commands both restrain and embrace what is near, and are themselves restrained by Him, and are contained and contain. Let us strive, therefore, to execute the precepts of God (through which the divine light is accustomed to appear more fully and to be amplified) and to nourish the divine fire more abundantly in ourselves. For just as with us the fire that falls under the senses is seen in wood, and a tiny spark, if it has caught the material, ignites a great torch, and, with fuel applied, rouses a huge flame: so it is with that spiritual fire in those things which are open to the intellect alone. Therefore, what wood is to corporal fire, the soul possessing the faculty of reason and the commandments is to the fire of the Divinity. For the Divinity is not perceived according to Itself, if it does not encounter that which is a participant in reason and counsel. But just as this fire of ours behaves in those things to which sense extends, so does the intelligible fire in those things which look to the intellect. And just as sensible fire is not seen unless it has been stirred up in material, so neither is the intelligible [fire seen] in intelligible things, unless it has existed in the material of the commandments, as if in wood. ^B *He who loves me*, says the Lord, *will keep my commandments, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him.* The fire which we perceive by sense, before it flashes forth, lies hidden in sensible things: and the divine light, before it shines forth, is hidden in those things which belong to the intellect. The beginning of fire is not comprehended, and it is hidden in sensible things: and the beginning of the intellectual fire is hidden in things that look to the intellect. Truly, sensible fire is similar in substance to sensible things: but intelligible fire is dissimilar in substance to intelligible things, because the Creator is not the same as His creation. ^A Much therefore is the intelligible fire more hidden and more arcane in intelligible things than sensible fire is in sensible things.

Proinde inspiciamus, brethren, and let us strictly examine ourselves, and let us know our souls, whether the seal of Christ is in us. Let us learn whether Christ is in us, from the indications and signs which we have set forth. But if we have not yet received Christ, or His seal, and do not acknowledge the stated signs in ourselves: but rather, on the contrary, the deceitful world lives in us, and we live wretchedly in it, thinking temporal things to be great, and we fall into tribulations, and are tormented on account of ignominies and losses, while, on the other hand, we rejoice and exult in honors, riches, and delights—oh the harm, oh the ignorance, oh the blindness, oh the misery and the stupor, by which, being subdued, we are trodden into the earth! Truly, we are miserable and extremely unhappy, and are strangers to eternal life itself and to the kingdom of heaven, no longer possessing Christ in ourselves, but having the world living in us, inasmuch as we live in it and are wise in earthly things. He who is thus minded is an open enemy of God. For affection toward the world is an enemy to God, according to that of the Apostle: *Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world.* Because no one can serve God and live according to man. Truly, there is nothing better, brothers, in the world than to have nothing of the world, and to desire nothing beyond those things which are necessary for the body. But this necessity, if we listen to reason, is bread and water, clothing and shelter, according to the divine Apostle: *Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.* But if we need anything else, He surely will provide it for us who believe and hope, He who has bestowed greater things, and *fills every living thing with blessing*, provided that we relinquish all other things of this fleeting and decaying life: such as vain glory, envy, mutual contention, grief, murmuring, quarrels, lying, perjury, injustice, avarice, contumely, slander, cursing, conflict, detraction, accusation, pride, hatred of men, wickedness, and all other things which the devil has taught the human race. For it is because of these things that we have been ordered not to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. Not that we should persecute the creatures of God with hatred without any discrimination: but that we may cut off the occasions of evil. On account of these things, therefore, I deem that we should flee the world and all things that turn one away from God and lead to the danger of the soul. For who, being avid for glory and human honor, will ever repute himself to be the lowest and most vile of all, or become humble in spirit, or contrite of heart, or ever be able to mourn at all? And who, moreover, loving riches, and ruined by the greed for money and possessions, [will be able to be] generous to others?

merciful, and grieving for the misfortunes of others, and instead be found more savage and cruel than any beast? Who that is enslaved to vainglory and possessed by arrogance will ever depart from envy and detraction? And he who has lowered himself to partake even of bodily pleasures and wallows in the mire of lusts, when will he finally become pure in heart, or when and how will he see God, his Creator?

As to how he who has alienated himself from God is to become a peacemaker, neither listening to him who says: "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: be reconciled to God." For whoever wages war against God through the violation of the commandments, even if he has reconciled everyone among themselves, is an enemy of God; since he does not do it so that they, among whom he mediates peace, might be pleasing to God. For since he himself is primarily an enemy to his own self and to God, those also who embrace peace through such a one are enemies of God. For absolutely anyone who bears a hostile spirit against anyone is unable to persuade others from his heart to love and teach them to do what the enemy himself views and finds pleasing, since he proceeds by another path and one contrary to that will. Therefore, beloved brethren, let us hate the world and the things that are in the world. For what have we to do with the world and with the men who live in the world? Let us, on the contrary, desire from the depths of our soul what God commands us to love: poverty of spirit, which divine speech calls humility; and perpetual mourning day and night, from which, as from a fountain, the joy of the soul and consolation flow hourly to those who love God. From this, in those who struggle in truth, there advances also ^C gentleness, as well as righteousness for those who hunger and thirst, and the kingdom of God, which exceeds all human understanding, for those who seek it. And not only this, but also that one becomes merciful, and pure in heart, full of peace, and a peacemaker, and contrary to temptations, courageous and manly; this is from daily mourning, that is to say. From this also, hatred of sins is born in us. From this, divine zeal is kindled in the soul, which in no way allows it to remain at rest or to incline with the wicked toward wickedness: but it fills it with manliness and virtue, so that it may persevere in adverse things to the end. Let us run, let us pursue, until we grasp what is permanent and not flowing away. All present things perish, and pass away like dreams, and nothing among those things which we behold with our eyes is firm and stable. The sun, the stars, the sky, and the earth, all pass away; man alone of all things remains. What, then, will be able to profit us from all visible things when the necessity of dying arrives? When we shall depart from here to that rest of the other world, and shall leave behind these fleeing things? But if these visible things have not yet passed away, what profit is it to us, having departed from this world by death and having left the lifeless body here? For from the moment the soul has deserted its own body, it can no longer see ^D through it, nor be seen by another; but thereafter it is affected only by invisible things, and no sense or care for these things which are with us remains for it, since there it has a double life and a twofold struggle, either of the heavenly kingdom and eternal glory, or of Gehenna and the punishment of fire. For one of these things it receives from God as an inheritance for all eternity according to its merits. Therefore, let us shun the fallacy of this life and its supposed joy, because of these things, and let us hasten, I beseech you, to Christ alone, the Savior of souls. Let us strive to find Him who is present everywhere, and having found Him, let us hold Him, and prostrating ourselves at His feet, let us fervently embrace them. Come, I beseech you, let us strive while we yet live to see and behold Him. For if we are deemed worthy to see Him here with an active sense, we shall not die, "death will not have dominion over us." Let us not wait to see Him in the future, but let us hasten to see Him now, since John the Theologian says thus: "And we know that we have God in our hearts, from the Spirit whom we have received from Him." Whoever, therefore, has shown a faith in Him that is unbroken and stable through works, and as you judge the things that have been said by us from the beginning accurately and well, beware, lest while you think you have Christ within you, you do not notice that you have nothing, and you be withdrawn from life with empty hands, and hear (which God avert) that horrible voice: "Take what the wicked servant seems to have, and give it to the one who has more." Then for all eternity you will weep, and lament, and be sad.

ORATION XXII. ARGUMENT.

What is the meaning of that: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved: but he who does not believe will be condemned." What are the proofs of charity toward God and neighbor. Concerning perfect and consummate charity and its efficacy. That unless we labor to become partakers of this charity and of the most holy Spirit, we can neither be faithful, nor be called Christians, nor be children of God: but rather for infidels we shall be condemned in the day of judgment.

Our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the true Son of God the Father, of the same substance, nature, and glory with Him, sitting on the same throne, and a companion of the throne, remaining in the Father, just as the Father abides in Him, having looked upon our misery and affliction, and even the servitude to which, being seduced by the enemy through sin, we were enslaved to the same enemy, having had mercy on us with a kindness that cannot be told, and wishing to deliver us from servitude and the most shameful seduction, He Himself descended, not leaving the paternal bosom, as He Himself knows, and existing on earth, He appeared to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, being covered with human limbs by the Holy Spirit and the ever-virgin Mary. And when He had walked, and had conversed among us men and sinners, and had demonstrated the divine manner of living and our way…

^A of life, and had delivered the saving precepts to His holy disciples, He ascended again to His Father with glory, having given the same command—namely this: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things. Not this or that, but all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. Since, however, He said, "All things," He passed over nothing which He did not command to be kept. What more? "He who believes," He says, "and is baptized, shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned." Do you therefore know, most beloved brothers, what this is which He says: "He who believes and is baptized"? And then again: "He who does not believe"? I think that what has been said is plain and easy to understand. Yet it has in some places deeply hidden meanings. He speaks here of faith, not this alone—that Christ is God—but that faith, most of all, which embraces all that is said concerning His holy mandates, and which contains within itself all His divine commands, and believes that nothing in them, down to the last point, is idle; but that all things, down to one iota, reconcile us to life, and to eternal life. Therefore, if anyone believes that they are so, and has been enrolled through holy baptism to keep all these things, and to do them without omission, he shall be saved. He who truly does not believe His words, even to one point or one iota, as has been said, shall be condemned no differently than if he had denied the whole. And rightly so. For if he believed in Him in great things—in the fact that, being God, He was without change made man; that He was led to the cross; that He died; that He returned from the dead; that, living again, He entered through closed doors and showed Himself to His disciples; that, having proceeded to heaven, He sits at the right hand of God the Father; that He is to come to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his works, having restored to life first all of us, the descendants of Adam, who shall be born until that last day—if, I say, he truly believed in Him in these things, but yet does not believe Him when He says: "Amen, I say to you, that men shall render an account even for an idle word in the day of judgment," if, I say, he does not believe Him in this, who will finally be faithful, and be numbered among the faithful? If, therefore, one believes in Christ, who is indeed beyond all mental and human thought, and bears a mind that is obedient to Him and agrees with the things done and to be done by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, yet does not believe Him when he hears from Him: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." And: "He who loves father and mother, and brothers, and sisters, and wife, and children, and moreover even his own soul more than me, cannot be my disciple." And: "He who shall break one of these least commandments shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." How is this man faithful, and how does he ^B not believe? By no means, certainly. Let no one therefore seduce you, brothers. For everything which Christ God commanded the apostles, He commanded us also to keep in like manner, things which indeed we are able to keep in this world. But that is clearly not resolved for us, because we are weak in faith and love toward Christ. And all confirm this to be true, who before the law, and in the law, and after the Savior’s advent, pleased God with their children and spouses, and with the cares and solicitudes of all things required for life, while with their will and affection, by which they adhered to them, they did so more as faithless or even worse than the infidel shall he be judged; for while he confesses that he believes in Christ in greater matters, he contemns Him in the least, who is the God and Lord of all: and while professing that he believes in others as in God, he denies faith just as much to Him as to some commoner and vulgar person, saying that men shall render an account for an idle word in the day of judgment; and he thinks that he can be saved while laughing, and chattering obscene and vain things, when He affirms the miserable to be those who laugh, but the blessed to be those who weep. Nay, even he who does not deny himself, nor carry his cross, in enduring with alacrity the assault of all temptations even unto death, how does he imagine that he follows Him who was crucified for his sake? And he who loves parents and relatives more than Him, how does he deem himself from the heart a worthy disciple of Christ? And those who do not deny their own soul, but love themselves rather, and follow their own wills more than they obey God, trust in vain that they are His disciples. And those who in hours do not break one and the least of the commandments, but many and the principal ones—that they commit nothing at all unlawful, or rather that they do not commit [what he allows?]—nay, being thus constituted, they think they shall be great in the kingdom of heaven. And what is the head of all evils, they imagine that they do not violate the commandments at all in these ways, and they foolishly endeavor to induce us, who receive the patronage of the truth, to think the same.

There are, in fact, two kinds of evil: one, when someone having fallen into a multitude of sins despairs of his own salvation; the other, when he considers evil in the place of good, and firmly persuades himself that by perpetrating evils he is doing good. And indeed the former, if he has learned, instructed concerning the repentance and kindness of God, that there is no multitude of sins so great that repentance does not efface it: "And where sin abounded, grace did there superabound"; likewise that word: "There is joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance," perhaps collecting himself, and compunctious, shall eventually desire to be freed from sins, and having fervently embraced repentance shall arise, and shall be relieved from the intolerable weight of conscience. The latter is more difficult to call back; he utterly refuses to be cured by such remedies. For who would admit a cure, who does not ^D even believe that he is in a disease, or that he lies fallen?

^A they who have lived more illustriously in the mountains and caves, conspicuous in faith and morals through charity toward God. For the first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,” as the Lord himself and the ancient law says. The second is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But the signs and proofs of one who loves God are to observe the commandments of Christ, and to endure hard things for Him even unto death: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” And the Apostle: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, Because for thy sake (that is, for thy just commandment) we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” ^B For they who transcend all the thoughts of this life, and think of nothing else save the sole will of God, so that they may arrive at the perfect charity of Christ, die daily. The blessed Paul, likewise desiring this, said: “I press toward the mark, if by any means I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ,” that is, that I may love Him in whom I have been loved by Christ, indicating by such words a perfected charity.

Furthermore, a proof of not loving God and His Christ is not to obey His commandments, which the Lord Himself testifies to when He says: “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.” Therefore, brethren, let there be for us one common way, namely, the commandments of Christ, which lead us to heaven and to God. For although sacred Scripture prescribes various ways, it is not according to their nature that they are different; but rather, they are said to be varied into many things according to the capacity, counsel, and objective of each one, when, beginning from many and diverse works and actions, as if setting out from different places and many cities, we strive to arrive at one hostelry, namely, the kingdom of heaven. But these actions and the spiritual virtues of godly men are to be understood as paths. For every virtue is a command of God. Otherwise, the action of a command is one thing, and the action of a virtue is another, even though they receive from each other the occasions for good things. The action of a command is to do what is just; the action of virtue is that what is done should be pleasing to the truth. For he ^D who complies with the commandment, and yet openly serves a vicious affection and obscures and destroys a good action with depraved thoughts. Whoever, therefore, begins to walk in the commandments of Christ, they ought to run toward one goal, so that from diverse regions and places they may assemble into one city (consider the kingdom of heaven), as we have said above, and they shall be deemed worthy to reign together with Christ. Understand here one city for me, not many—the holy and indivisible trinity of virtues; or rather, the first of the rest, which they also call the last, as the end of goods and greater than all, I mean charity, from which and in which all faith is founded and hope is built, and without which nothing of those things that are exists, or has been constructed and established, nor will it be established at all. For all virtues without this are considered withered and useless. And they who are destitute of charity, even if in the meantime they lack no virtue, will be found naked of divine glory on the day of judgment. For a body is dead without the head, and is void of spirit. Furthermore, there are many names of charity, many actions, many signs, many and various divine properties, yet one nature, and it is altogether ineffable to all equally, both to angels and to men, and to every other creature (which perhaps is unknown to us), incomprehensible in reason, inaccessible in glory, unsearchable in counsel, eternal because it is also without time, not falling under sight, and which is perceived indeed, yet not comprehended. Great is the beauty and elegance of this unmanufactured and holy Sion, which one who has begun to behold takes no delight in other spectacles that stir the senses; he no longer clings to the glory of this world.

O most desirable charity, blessed is he who has embraced you, since after this earthly beauty he will not be embraced by a turbulent affection. Blessed is he who is entwined with you by the love of God: he will surely renounce the whole world, and while conversing more familiarly with any man whatsoever, he will in no wise be defiled. Blessed is he who has kissed your beauty, and in the infinite longing for you has had his delights in you: for he shall be sanctified in soul by the water and blood purely distilling from you. Blessed is he who has greedily drawn you to himself, because he will be changed by a beautiful transformation, and will rejoice in spirit and mind, for you are an inexplicable joy. Blessed is he who has acquired you, because he will account the treasures of the world as nothing. You are truly inexhaustible opulence. Blessed is the man, and thrice blessed, whom you have taken unto yourself. For he will be, in the abjection that is seen, more glorious than all the glorious, and more honored and more august than all the honored.

^A Laudable is he who seeks you, more laudable he who finds you. Most blessed is he who has been received by you, who has been taught by you, who has dwelt in you, who has been nourished by your food, Christ, who is immortal. O divine charity, where do you contain Christ? Where do you hide him? Why, after having seized the Savior of the world, have you withdrawn so far from us? Open, I pray, even to us the unworthy, your little door, that we too may see him—I mean Christ, who suffered for our sake—and believe in his mercy, so that, by gazing upon him, we may die no more. Open to us, you who have become his gateway, so that he might appear in the flesh; you who compelled the wide and uncontainable bowels of our Lord to bear the sins and infirmities of all. Do not cast us away, saying: *I do not know you.* Be with us, that you may know us; for we are unknown to you. Dwell in us, so that, because of you, the Lord—when you meet him—may also visit us who are humble (for we are at once and together unworthy), that he may tarry and speak with you a little while, and may even allow us sinners to fall at his immaculate feet; and speak good things on our behalf, and entreat that the debts of our sins may be remitted for us, so that we ourselves, through you, may again be worthy to serve the Lord, and that he may provide food for us. For to be in debt is nothing, but to die of hunger from such poverty brings the punishment of torment. Through you, holy charity, may we obtain pardon. Through you may we enjoy the goods of our Lord, the sweetness of which no one will taste except through you. For he who has not loved you as he ought, and who has not been loved by you as he deserved, may indeed run, but he does not overtake. Now, everyone who runs is uncertain of the prize ^B before the course is finished. But he who has overtaken you, or who has been overtaken by you, is entirely certain, since you are the end of the law. For you are the teacher of the prophets, the companion of the apostolic course, the virtue of the martyrs, the inspiration of the Fathers and doctors.

Let us then also run, brothers, as much as we can, and let us pursue it with faith and the observance of all of Christ’s commandments. For they who have merited to overtake this have never at any time fallen from their hope. Indeed, let us endeavor, just as we do in all things, so also through mutual charity to worship God. For every pursuit and every exercise, joined with many labors, if it does not tend toward charity with a contrite spirit, is vain and ends in nothing fruitful. For the disciples of Christ are recognized by their mutual love, just like a token: nor can anyone be recognized as a disciple of Christ through any other virtue or observance of the Lord’s mandate: *By this*, he says, *everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.* Which the blessed Paul also indicates, ^C in that he embraces five excellent gifts ^D and teaches that, without charity, they are useless and dangerous: those of tongues, prophecy, faith, almsgiving, and martyrdom: *If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,* he says, *and if I have prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so that I move mountains; and if I distribute all my goods for the food of the poor; and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing.* But he who is truly endowed with it, clearly declaring it by his works, says: *Charity is patient, is kind; charity does not envy, does not act perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, does not seek her own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; all things she endures, all things she believes, all things she hopes, all things she sustains. Charity never fails.* Because of this, the Word was also made flesh and dwelt among us. Because of which the man who became the Son of God voluntarily and willingly endured all vivifying torments, so that he might gather his own creation—human nature, dissected and torn into many parts by the devil—into one, through true faith and spiritual charity, and might take it up, liberated and recovered from the chains of hell, into heaven. Because of this, the apostles also ran that restless course, and when they had enclosed the whole world with the net and drag of the Word, they drew it safe from the depth of idol-mania to the shore of the kingdom of heaven. Because of this, the martyrs of Christ shed their blood, lest they should lose Christ. Because of this, our divine Fathers and teachers of the world did not unwillingly cast away their souls for the catholic and apostolic Church. Because of charity, all the saints resisted sin even to the blood, making no account of the present life, and endured various kinds of death, so that they might be gathered from the world to themselves and to God, and might unite the words of nature within themselves. For this is the true and blameless wisdom of God, whose end is that good, and truth; for the good is humanity, and truth is the love of God according to faith; the proofs of charity, joining men to God and to one another, and therefore having a stable persistence of goods. This is the door and the way which the Word of God called himself, and by proceeding in it, he presents us to God and the Father pure from every stirred-up and sinister motion.

I have seen a man, brothers, who put his effort into this, and experienced various ways so that he might draw those brothers with whom he lived familiarly away from vicious actions and thoughts—one by discourse, another by gifts, another by some other occasion. And I have seen such a man now indeed weeping…

for his own sake—yet at times his face would be lamenting for the sake of another, and beating his own breast on behalf of another who had offended by word or deed; taking upon himself that person’s character, that is, and considering himself the very one who had sinned, confessing to God, and prostrating himself before Him in supplication, and lamenting vehemently. I have seen another rejoicing so greatly over those who were struggling and victorious, and approving their progress in virtue, that it seemed he rather than they would receive the rewards of virtue and labor. On account of those, however, who would offend by word or deed and persist in their sins, he was so sad and mournful that you would think that he alone, in truth, was to be called to account for all of them and delivered over to punishment. And I have seen another burning with such great desire for the salvation of his brothers that he would often, with hot tears, with his whole heart, and with a divine and Mosaic zeal, pray to the benign God that either salvation be given to them, or that he himself also be condemned along with them. For by holy charity, he was bound to them spiritually in the Holy Spirit, so that he did not wish to enter into the kingdom of heaven itself if he were to be separated from them. ^A

It is for this reason that he knows the misery of those whom they dominate so clearly. Therefore, to evaluate someone as a Christian, this is the beginning. But as for those who have not yet known or examined such a good, nor have sought it out with much perseverance, lamentations, and tears, so that, being cleansed through such actions, they might attain it and, perfectly united to Him, have communion with Him—how, tell me, can they be simply and absolutely called spiritual? For they are not what they ought to be. For if *that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit*, he who has been begotten according to the body and has reached man's estate, but has neither reflected on the need to be born spiritually, nor believed, nor ever striven for how he might eventually become spiritual and be numbered among spiritual things—unless, secretly, like one who puts on filthy garments, he inserts himself among the saints who are splendidly adorned, and reclining at the royal table with them, he be cast out, *bound hand and foot*, not as a son of light, but of flesh and blood, and be *cast into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels*. ^B

O holy bond, O ineffable power, O soul meditating on heavenly things, or rather, moved by divine inspiration, and excellently perfected in the charity of God and neighbor! Whoever, therefore, has not yet arrived at this charity, nor seen a trace of it in his own soul, nor felt its presence in any way, still lies on the earth and in earthly things—nay, under the earth, like a mole, blind, indeed, like that little beast, and only by the sense of hearing listening to those speaking on the earth. O calamity, that although born of God and gifted with immortality, participants of the heavenly calling, and heirs of God, and co-heirs of Christ, and having become citizens of the heavens, we have not yet drawn in the sense of such great goods: but without sense, so to speak, just as iron is cast into the fire, or as an inanimate hide is dyed with purple color, yet feels nothing—so we also still remain and dwell in so many of God’s goods, confessing ourselves to be in them without being affected by any sense, and we carry ourselves as if we were already saved and inscribed among the saints, and, veiled like actors in a theater, we simulate holiness like performers, leading a wretched life; like mimes and harlots who, lacking natural beauty, are believed to foolishly adorn themselves with rubbed-on makeup and exotic pigments. But the characters of the saints who are born again are not of this kind. Moreover, it must be known that as an infant who has come forth from the maternal womb feels the air (which he does not perceive) and immediately, by no one’s impulse, shifts to weeping and wailing: so also, he who has been born again, and having emerged from this world as from a dark womb, and entering into the heavenly light which is perceived by the mind, as soon as he has looked into it even a little, is immediately filled with incredible joy, and sheds tears without pain, reflecting as is appropriate on what kind of darkness he has been freed from, and in what kind of light he has been judged worthy to dwell. For he who is brought out of the darkness, this man ^C

Let us therefore run, O faithful, with all our strength; let us hasten, though sluggish in the patience of labors; let us arise from the dead, that we may obtain, or rather that we may become participants of, charity, and so, departing with it from these things, let us stand before the Creator and Lord, established with it outside of visible creatures and united to the unseeable, uncreated, and beginningless God, that we may be united with Him in the unseeable and incorruptible. *For the form of this world passes away, and heaven and earth will pass away with a great sound, but the elements, being on fire in the middle, will be dissolved*. And those who at that time shall be void of charity will be found with visible creatures as creatures left behind, in fire and horrible torments; for charity is God and not a creature: *And he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him*, as that beloved John says. But perhaps someone may foolishly ask, how is there no other place of salvation or rest besides the bridal chamber and the kingdom and the choir of the righteous? O foolish one, do you not hear the holy Scripture saying that God is the place of all those who are saved? *Be to me*, he says, *a protecting God, and a place of refuge, that you may make me safe*. But salvation is that which shall be given by God to the worthy, the most full grace of deification, which he who has faithfully kept the grace received in holy baptism, and through many evils that he has suffered, has preserved the adoption of sons through the Holy Spirit whole and untouched in this world, shall attain with difficulty. For there are few, indeed, who are not tossed by the tenth-wave, as it were, of life, nor choked by its thorns, and ensnared and enslaved by its pleasures. But the house of God, the bridal chamber, and the kingdom, which embraces all things with its reach, is His divinity, inaccessible only to demons and sinners. It seems, indeed, to be closed to all, but to the faithful and to us alone it lies open. ^D

If, therefore, God is light, once separated from the light, how shall we flee the darkness? If we are found outside the bridal chamber, how shall we rejoice even a little? If we are deprived of grace, how shall we be free from sorrow? If we fall from the kingdom—from the sight, I say, and contemplation of Christ and our God—what other salvation or consolation shall we expect, or in what other place can we take delight? Nowhere, certainly. For place signifies position with circumscription; but God is not in a place, but above all things, as He who cannot be grasped or contained, in whom is the seat of all who are saved. What place, then, is there for those who lose His kingdom? Do we not hear that our first parent Adam, having transgressed one commandment in paradise, was stripped of the divine glory, he and Eve alike, and was immediately cast out of paradise? Thus, think also of the terrible day of judgment for me. Whoever shall be found stripped of the divine glory of virtues and charity, as he was, will be expelled from the celestial bridal chamber and the kingdom of God, even if he does not have sin, hearing from the just Judge: "I do not know you: who are you?" And: "How did you enter here, not having a wedding garment?" For he who has received the power in this age to become a son of God, and an heir of the kingdom of God and of the goods of eternal life; he who has learned in many ways through which works and commandments he ought to be raised to this honor and glory, and treats all these as nothing, and has preferred earthly and fleeting things, and has chosen the life of swine, and has deemed temporal glory more precious than eternal—how shall he not justly be excluded by all the faithful, and be condemned with the infidels and with the devil himself? For in this, the Scripture says: "Manifest are the children of God and the children of the devil, because everyone who does justice is born of God: he, however, who does sin, is of the devil." Just as the Lord Himself testifies among the unbelieving Jews: "You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father."

Therefore I ask, fathers and brothers, while there is time and we are numbered among the living, let us zealously strive so that we may be called children of God and of light, which is what regeneration provides for us. For as our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed: "Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." So again He affirmed: "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And again: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." For this is the seed of Christ, through which we mortals acquire kinship with Him. Let us therefore hate the world, and the things that are in the world. Let us hate the flesh, and the evil motions that sprout from it. Let us hate every wicked desire, and greed from its roots. We shall be able to do this if we contemplate the magnitude of the glory, the joy, and the delights that await us. What, therefore, I ask, is greater in heaven and on earth than to become a son of God, and an heir, and a co-heir of Christ? Nothing, certainly. For whoever have believed, and in truth received Him, He gave them to become sons of God, who cannot sin, as it is written: "Everyone who is born of God, does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God, and keeps His commandments." And: "He who keeps the commandments of God, remains in God, and God in him, and the evil one does not touch him." But we, because we prefer earthly things, and those which are at hand, and because we do not seek the goods stored up in heaven, nor depend on the desire for them, first of all give a clear indication to those who look on that we are oppressed by the disease of infidelity, just as we read: "How can you believe, you who receive glory from one another, and the glory which is from God alone, you do not seek?" Then, being slaves to our own perturbations, we are attached to the earth and to earthly things, nor do we in any way wish to lift our faces to heaven toward God, but in the foolishness of our mind, by rejecting His commandments, we act so that we cannot be adopted by Him.

For he who believes that God exists conceives some great things about Him: he knows that He alone is the Master, the Creator, and the Lord of all, inexplicable and immortal, and that His kingdom will never have an end. Therefore, who knows that God is such, why would he not love Him? How would he not also attempt to surrender his own soul to death for the love of Him, so that he might be worthy, I will not say of being His son and heir, but at least to be one of His faithful servants standing closer to Him? If, however, everyone who struggles in the contest keeps the commandments of God, so that he does not turn aside from them; and, having been made a son of God, is born again, and is recognized by all as a truly faithful Christian; while we indeed despise His commandments and spurn the law of God (whom, when He comes again with glory and terrible power, He will subject to punishments), in our faith we show ourselves unfaithful by our very works, but in our lack of faith we are faithful in words alone. Do not be deceived; without works, faith alone will profit us nothing; for it is dead, and the dead do not attain life, unless they have first sought this through the execution of the commandments. In which execution, as if fruit with usury, there is produced in you charity, almsgiving toward one's neighbor, compassion, gentleness, humility, tears, patience in temptations, chastity, and purity of heart, through which we are counted worthy of the vision of God; and in which the arrival and illumination of the Holy Spirit is situated, which generates us anew, and makes us children of God, and clothes us with Christ, and lights the lamp of the soul, and makes us children of light, and dispels the darkness from our soul, and makes us henceforth partakers of eternal life, which we know. Wherefore, let us not despise this obedience to the commandments of God, trusting in certain other actions—I mean, in fasts, vigils, and other bodily afflictions—as if we could be saved through them without this. For this cannot happen; it cannot, I say, happen, and that for...

the reason—as the foolish virgins and those who performed many signs and wonders could be persuaded—that they did not have charity within them or the grace of the most holy Spirit. They heard from the Lord: *Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; for I know not whence ye are* (Luc. XIII, 27). And not only these people, but also many others besides them, were indeed baptized by the holy apostles and ^A their successors, yet they lacked the grace of the Holy Spirit on account of the magnitude of their wickedness. Nor did they lead a life consonant with the calling by which they were called, nor were they called sons of God, but remained flesh and blood; nor did they believe that the Holy Spirit existed at all, nor did they seek Him, nor did they expect to receive Him. Hence, such men can never seize control of the desires of the flesh or of turbulent affections, nor will they provide any excellent proof of virtue, since the Lord says: *Without me ye can do nothing* (Joan. XV, 5). But let us labor, I beseech you, fathers and brothers, and as much as is in us, so that hereafter we may merit the communion of charity and the Holy Spirit, by which we may attain both present and future goods, through the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

ORATIO XXIII. On the abnegation and destruction of one’s own will. By what manner the ascetic life is to be cultivated; in which it is expedient to have a guide, that is, a spiritual Father, from whose works you may learn virtue and the very difficult task of the ascetic art. On faith in spiritual Fathers, and the vision of the light, by which every soul illuminated progresses in charity toward God.

When you have placed yourself in a monastery, brother, do not oppose the father by whom you have been shorn, even if you see him given to debauchery or drink, or in your opinion poorly administering the affairs of the monastery, and even if you are afflicted by him with beatings and ignominy and many other vexations. Do not sit with those who hurl reproaches at him; nor walk with those who plot evil against him. But whatever you see him doing that is praiseworthy, store it in your heart and strive to remember only that. But the indecencies and wicked things you have noticed him doing or saying, ascribe to yourself, count them among your own sins, and perform penance with tears; hold him to be a holy man, and implore his prayers. But if you do not live in a monastery, pray earnestly to God that He may show you a man who can appropriately guide you; and whomsoever He may show you, either secretly by Himself or openly through one of His servants, seek him out and venerate him in no other way than if you were looking upon and speaking to Christ. For you must obey his will no differently than you would God Himself, so that you may be taught by him the things which are for your own benefit, and whatever he tells you, put into practice without any hesitation, even if they seem to you not good, but harmful. ^B It is better, indeed, to be called a disciple’s disciple than to regulate one’s life according to one’s own numbers, and to pluck the useless fruits of one’s own will. When, therefore, you hear from him, "Go out from the land of your will, and from the kindred of your own judgment," do not delay, nor blush, overcome by vainglory, so to speak. If he says: "Come, move into the land of obedience, which I will show you," run, my brother, as much as you can; do not give sleep to your eyes, lest, dissolved by laziness or sloth, you draw in your knees. For perhaps God will appear to you there, who is to make you the father of many sons, and is to give you the land of promise, which only the righteous shall inherit. If he leads you up onto a mountain, climb up readily. For I well know that you will see Christ transfigured, shining with divine light more brightly than the sun, and, not being able to endure gazing upon what you have never seen, you will perhaps fall prostrate, and you will hear the voice of the Father from above, and ^C you will see the cloud overshadowing, and the prophets standing by and confirming that He is the Lord of the living and the dead (Matth. XVII, 1 seqq.). If he invites you to follow him, walk confidently with him through the towns, intending to reap the greatest fruit from it if you look only at him. If you see him eating with fornicators and publicans (Matth. IX, 10, 11), do not be moved in the least, nor think anything human, but think of everything as lacking an evil affection and as holy concerning him. Recall also that passage: *I have become all things to all men, that I might save all* (I Cor. IX, 22), as you observe him attuning himself to human affections. But do not believe even if you see something with your own eyes, universally and plainly; for even they are deceived, a fact that I have learned by experience. Following him, and listening to that word, do not consider your companions and associates, nor say concerning any one: *Lord, and what of this man?* (Joan. XXI, 21); but always attend to yourself, and place death before your eyes, and weigh with yourself by what virtue you may glorify God.

Do not raise your eyebrows on account of your teacher if you are honored by your superiors; not that you should have many obeying you because of his reputation, but rather rejoice if your name is written in the heaven of humility (Luc. X, 20). But if you should even see your own shadow formidable to demons, do not ^D attribute this to yourself, but to the prayers of your father, and they will fear you all the more. If he invites you to sit at the table and to sit closer, acknowledge the grace and accept it, and observe and honor him silently and holily, and do not touch any of the things set before you, unless they are offered by his own prayers; nor reach for anything to give to another without his order and will; nor dare to prefer anyone to another. But if he calls you after all the others, beware of saying: "I will sit on the right or the left," since you are not unaware that this is prepared for others, and you have heard: *Whoever wants to be the first of all, let him be the last of all* (Matth. XX, 27). Embrace the lowest position as the reconciler of the first, and love the teacher, inasmuch as he skillfully labors to lift you up through vile and abject things to greater ones.

^A But do not, out of arrogance, dip your hand into the dish with him when he is first; for it does not escape you whose audacity that is. If he wishes to wash your feet, revere him as Lord and Master, and resist him. But if he says: "If I do not wash your feet, you will have no part with me," then ready your whole body to be washed with alacrity; so that from these things which are done for you, you may understand the sublimity and the greatness of humility—which also makes gods—and derive from it a greater utility, than if you had washed the feet of your own father. If he says while reclining: "One of you will betray me," or "scandalizes me," do not conceal the deception; but if you are conscious of it, confess it; if not, prostrate on your face at his feet, ask with tears: "Is it I, Lord?" For we offend in many things, and through ignorance. ^B Furthermore, it is not expedient for you to recline on the Father's breast. For even if John, because of his great love for Christ, dealt freely with him as with a man, nevertheless he himself, after having done all things, was commanded to call himself an unprofitable servant. If you see your leader performing wonders beyond the custom of nature, and becoming famous, believe and rejoice, and give thanks to God that you have been granted such a teacher. But do not let the envious cause you to stumble, when you see him perhaps being punished by them with ignominies, and struck with blows, and dragged about; rather, as that fervent Peter, seize the sword, and cut off not only the ear, but also the hand and the tongue of him who does not fear to babble against your father, or to lay hands on him. Even if you are later to be reprimanded, as he was, you will nonetheless be more highly praised for your signal faith and charity. If, as a man, terrified you say: "I do not know the man," then weep with love over this, and do not be absorbed by desperation. If you do this, I am convinced that he will be the first to draw you to himself. If you see him being afflicted like a criminal for the cross, and dying for the wicked, if you are able, suffer with him; or at least do not join yourself to the wicked as a base person and a traitor, nor participate with them in innocent blood; but as one who, out of timidity and brokenness of spirit, has forsaken the shepherd for a little while, guard your faith in him anew. If he is freed from bonds and let go, approach him again, and honor him all the more as a martyr. But if in temptations he surrenders his soul, seek his body without fear, and honor it much more than when he was living and present, and anoint it with ointment, and bury it sumptuously. For although not after three days, on the last day he will surely rise with all. But believe that he stands before God with confidence, even though his body lies in the tomb buried by you, and without doubt implore his prayers, and he will assist you here, and in all adversities he will protect you, and will receive you as you depart from the body, and will prepare an eternal mansion for you. If after all that we have said, ^C see therefore, brother, lest perhaps contrary to your will you follow those who are worse. For he who possesses discernment will distinguish the wolf from the sheep, the thief from the shepherd: just as indeed our Lord and God himself affirmed: "Beware," he says, "of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them." For as a tree is known by its fruit, so a man is known by his speech and his work: but he is known by those in whom reason is sound and the senses of the soul are firm. For other men are stupid and foolish even in discerning the works themselves. They see someone seeking popular acclaim through fasting and they commend him, and condemn him who eats with humility. Others hold him who abstains from food in humility to be a hypocrite; conversely, they consider him who is addicted to gluttony to be simple and not at all meticulous in his banquets—he who delights in reclining often, consoling his vicious affections thereby. And what is more, pretending to be harmless, and babbling forth witty trivialities inappropriately, and causing laughter in others with indecent gestures, as if by studies of this kind—gestures and speeches—they are trying to read their own virtue (and [Greek word: ἀπάθεια/apathy]), while they judge those who live their lives with religion, with virtue, and with simplicity of heart—the truly holy ones—as if they were some of the dregs of the rabble, [seeking to deceive them] with false reasonings.

Furthermore, some consider the loquacious and ostentatious, those ready to teach, to be spiritual, while they pronounce the taciturn, who carefully avoid idle words, to be rustic and mute. Others reject those who speak in the Holy Spirit and savor high things, deeming them proud; they are more astonished by their words than pricked to the heart. Yet those who—whether by nature or from skill in the disciplines—discourse with a rounded mouth, even if they lie against their own salvation, are praised and approved beyond measure. And so there is no one among them who can see and judge the matter rightly, as it truly is. For rare are those, especially in these times, who know how to rule souls well and skillfully cure their maladies. For many have perhaps feigned fasts, vigils, and a pretense of piety, or have even exercised them in act; nor are many able to easily bring forth much from their heart and teach by their words. But very few are found who, with tears, cut away those who are moved and turned from reason, and who possess comprehensive virtues in such a way that they cannot be despoiled of them. We call comprehensive virtues humility—the slayer of vicious affections and the reconciler of heavenly and angelic apathy—as well as love, which never stands still, nor falls, but always adds to what came before, heaping desire upon desire, and love upon love. From this, discernment arises, which leads both itself and those who follow it aright, and, in well proceeding and advancing, crosses the sea which is perceived by the mind alone; which you also must ask of God, ^B now especially, so that you may discern and judge your affairs according to his good pleasure, and so strive in your labors that you may find Christ to be both your helper in this life and the one who abundantly imparts to you the enjoyment of his clarity in the future. And follow not the wolf as your shepherd, nor mix yourself with a diseased flock, nor be found alone and apart, so that you are not seen captured by the wolf, the destroyer of souls, or by a beast, or, ailing with this or that disease, perish according to the soul; or, if you should fall alone, that the Woe may apply to you. For he who has surrendered himself to a good teacher will heed none of these things, but, free from anxiety, with his life completed, will be saved in Christ Jesus our Lord.

ORATION XXIV. ARGUMENT.

The leader of the flock of Christ, endowed with reason, must first carefully consider and examine himself; for he must always learn and execute the will of God, and only then teach this same thing to others, so that the speech of his doctrine may be joined with action and prove pleasing to the hearers. Otherwise, let him care for his own salvation, lest he create ruin and destruction both for himself and for those over whom he is set. Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaims happy not only the one who teaches, but also the one who has done [it] before he taught: "Blessed," he says, "is he who has done and taught; he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

^B And the holy Fathers, the lights and masters of the Church, committed nothing to writing, nor taught by word, which they had not first performed by deed; and where they did perform it, the matter succeeded for them according to their intention. For the disciples, bestowing their labor upon such a master, are incited to his imitation; nor do they profit as much from his sermons as they are inflamed to take hold of virtue by his brilliant actions and example, and are compelled to walk in the same footsteps. But, woe to us, brothers, when we fall into such confidence and into these shadows, we monks, that we might dare to pasture the sheep of Christ without Christ, and for the sake of pleasure and the comforts of the body, and to acquire money and honor from men (woe to the abject and miserable me), we strive by all means to assume the apostolic dignity, and buy their power with gold, neither fearing God nor regarding men. And yet, no one dares to ascend the throne of a king if he is unwilling. But neither does one dare to occupy the place of a grammarian or a rhetorician if he is unlearned, nor to recite the Scriptures before a listening people if he does not know his letters; yet we, meanwhile, seek the magnitude of the apostolic office, or do not reject it even when it is offered, we who have not yet received the grace of the apostles nor seen its fruits harvested in ourselves. And how, brothers, do we not fear to conceive such a magnitude of audacity? Tell me, beloved, if this frequent and ample city were to call upon1 anyone and say: "We shall make you the overseer and the protovestiary of the emperor; do you yourself go up to the palace, and having entered, plead our cause before the emperor, and beseech him that he provide this or that for us." If he had never entered the palace, and were unknown to all the courtiers as well as to the emperor, would he ever dare to do this, or to sustain that dignity? We shall all, without doubt, confess that no one would be so abandoned, but that everyone would reproach and mock those who urged him as insane and madmen, and he would reject the dignity as a source of disgrace and punishment, not of honor. If, therefore, in human affairs it is a sacrilege to commit these and similar things, is it not horrible and does it not seem so, brothers, to take upon oneself the apostolic dignity inconsiderately, and to approach the inaccessible light, and to become mediators and interpreters of God and men? Do we consider the attempt of this thing a light and despicable matter? Woe is me, brothers, for, as I fear, we have devolved into a certain totality of shadows, and therefore we do not see what an audacious crime we have bound ourselves with. For if we did see it, we would never have proceeded to such arrogance and confidence, that we should insult divine things, and honor and fear the earthly king more than the immortal king, Christ. Therefore, it is necessary that we shake and examine ourselves, and that we turn away by every means those who are striving to ascend to this office unworthily, and their...

^A counsel, but let us strive with all our might to restrain them from an appetite not in accordance with reason, so that we may free them from damnation and we ourselves may lead a more secure life.

Furthermore, he who diligently examines himself, and finds himself freed from every desire for glory, and finds not a single trace of pleasure or bodily cupidity, and is cleansed of avarice and malevolence on account of injury inflicted, and is perfectly meek and knows not how to be angry, so that at the mere hearing of the name of Christ he is kindled with love and desire for Him, and is filled with tears, and furthermore mourns for the sake of his neighbors, and esteems other people’s sins as his own, and from his heart considers himself a greater sinner than all others; and finally, if he sees that the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit shines in him like a sun and perfects the interior of his heart, and where he notes the miracle being manifestly performed in himself—that he indeed burns in what is united to the inaccessible fire, but is not consumed, in that his soul is free from any turbulent movement—furthermore, if he is so humbled that he deems himself unsuitable and unworthy, knowing the infirmity of human nature, but trusts in the supernal grace and aptitude which that grants, and at its demand eagerly takes up the task, repelling every human reasoning and exposing his soul to death for the brothers for the sake of the commandment of God alone and the charity of his neighbor: if furthermore he has a mind immune to every worldly thought, and is covered with the clear tunic of humility, so that he is not even slightly affected toward his assistants, but is toward all with equal goodness, candor, and innocence of heart; not even then let him dare to undertake the office without the counsel and will of his father: but let him humble himself, and perform it with his father’s prayer and command, and let him accept the prefecture for the sole salvation of the brothers. Truly, if he knows his spiritual father to be a partaker of the same spirit and gifted with the same knowledge and gift, let him not speak to him those things which are contrary to the divine will, but things which are pleasing to God according to that very gift and measure and which are conducive to his soul, lest he be found obedient not to God but to man, and be stripped of his glory and the gift bestowed upon him. For if he finds a good assistant and spiritual counselor, he will undertake that office more safely, and will feel more humbly about himself. Therefore, if one seeing sees all these things and more, he will truly find and perceive it by himself, or rather, he will learn from the Sun of Righteousness, if perchance he ever fixes his eyes upon the sun. But if the things which are set forth are such and so difficult, and it is not easy to understand how they are done according to God, how much more laborious will be the aggression and administration of the thing itself, and the patience to endure temptations, and the most subtle discernment in wars of such a kind. Therefore, O spiritual father, examine your heart again and again, and wash the eye of your mind more and more always, and keep it pure and clean, through which you will be able to perceive both your own heart and ^B that of the sheep committed to you, or rather of your fathers and brothers, knowing them well and governing them as is fitting. For the Church, or the assembly and congregation of monks, is a certain body, as you hear from Paul regarding the Church of the Christians, and its head is the superior. Now, just as the other members of the body each have their own proper function apart, such as the foot for walking and the hand for holding and working, while the head is like the whole, inasmuch as all the senses, and the mind, and the reason dwell in it; so also in a monastery, not all brothers do all things, but one is accustomed to perform one thing and another another, and to serve in this or that way. Whence in a group of those living under the obedience of one, you will scarce find one or two virtues in the same person. Nor is it a wonder, for the members are distributed; but the presiding officer, or superior, is required to have all virtues; and not only those which are subjected in the soul, but also those which are in the body: and furthermore, along with virtues, the mystical and great charisms themselves. For just as the head of a man, from its external formation and graceful appearance, presents an elegance worthy of honor: yet if the mind does not flourish in it, and it does not have sound and intact senses, it is judged useless, and is scorned by all: so indeed also is the prefect. For he ought not only to be adorned and to shine with the gifts of soul and body, but also to be more honored by spiritual charisms: since virtue is one thing, and a charism is another. For we rightly perform virtues by our own study and diligence, and they are acquired by our own labors: but spiritual charisms are gifts which are given by God to those striving. For instance, fasting and chastity are virtues, for they render pleasures withered and suppress the fires of the body: which indeed are works of our own will and choice. But truly to exercise these without affliction and labor, and to arrive at chastity and total vacancy from perturbations, this is a gift of God and a supreme charism. Again, to command anger and indignation is a matter of great struggle, and of no mediocre labor. But to arrive at the point where you feel no movement from these, and possess the tranquility of the heart and perfect meekness, is the work of God alone, and the change of His right hand ^C. Again, to scatter and distribute all faculties to the poor, and to become a beggar, and to collect alms, is of our purpose and decision. But to covet nothing, and furthermore to endure with joy and pleasure the most harsh inconveniences of begging, is a certain mystical and divine operation. Thus, any action good and honest, undertaken according to God’s law, is called a virtue: however, just as the farmer labors only by plowing, digging, and burying seeds in the soil, but it is the gift of God that these same seeds grasp and bear fruit, early and late: so also in spiritual matters you will find it comes to pass completely. It is ours ^D

^A to avoid no action, and with labor and sweat to perform the sowing of virtues: but it is the gift and mercy of God alone, as it were a shower of His kindness, that even irrigates the soil of our hearts and makes it fruitful from being sterile: so that if the grain of the Word, which has fallen into our souls, receives the moisture of divine clemency, it may spring up, and grow, and increase into a tall tree, that is, into the virile perfection of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

You, therefore, as the shepherd of the sheep of Christ, ought to be conspicuous in every virtue, as we have said, both of spirit and of body, as the head of the remaining body; namely that of the Israelite Church which is under you: so that the brothers, looking upon you as an archetype of goodness, may themselves also ^B inscribe upon themselves, as much as possible, these good and royal characters. Let not the trumpet, therefore, ever cease to resound in you: but announce beforehand to others the sword that will come upon the disobedient and the stubborn: so that if you are not obeyed, you may at least save your own soul from the terrible wrath of God. Admonish, teach, and entreat others. If any should at times be in need of rebukes and reproofs, be urgent in season and out of season, argue, rebuke, endeavor to suppress their inclination toward evil, as the divine Apostle commands you. Open your bowels to all your brothers equally, and love the whole community, and render to each honor according to his dignity (as much, that is, as his virtue deserves), not even preferring him who is endowed with spiritual virtue over one whom you have as a leader in the ministries of your flock. For those who minister shadow forth the dignity and office of the seven deacons, of whom there is mention in the Acts of the Apostles; who also are as it were the ministering spirits, sent into ministry, and serving sincerely, as they did, faithfully, and for the sake of no base gain, they receive a reward deservedly and greatly both here and there. But those who are instant in prayer, rest, and the ministry of the Word, in the patience of the exercise of most excellent works, represent with you the eminence of the apostles themselves and the coryphaei; whom you will also have as your helpers in the spiritual doctrine of your flock, bearing the burdens of the brothers, and relieving you by their labors, ^C moving in the midst of the rest like precious stones. In this duty there is for you no rest of body, no pleasure. You will spend nights just as days in the care of the souls entrusted to you, lest any of them be snatched away by a beast; or devoured by the bear of concupiscence, or absorbed by the dragon of wrath, or torn apart by the griffins of arrogant thoughts, and by the diversities of one or another of this kind be distracted and dissipated, and result in many ills: but that you may preserve your flock unharmed, fertile, entirely fruit-bearing with many virtues, enlightened by divine knowledge, not mangy, not shorn of its ears, or indeed lame, for the Prince of Shepherds. For thus you will save many, and by perfect works ^D rendering them perfect, yielding to no one in anything, offering them wholly chaste and pure from sordid works to your Christ; and you will render yourself worthy of great and heavenly rewards, having become a companion of the apostles and pastors of Christ, and destined to reign together with the Son of God Himself throughout infinite ages.

Let your life be blameless and upright, proposed in the midst of your brothers and your fathers as a canon or rule, by which the crookedness and twistings of others may be straightened. Be not a lover of the vanities of the world, nor of glory, nor of pleasure, nor of banquets, nor of wine. Be not a trifler, or scurrilous, or avaricious; not angry, not desirous of vain glory, not contumelious, not mindful of injury, and rendering evil for evil: but be rather poor, having in hatred glory and every pleasure of this life and the delights of the flesh, low-minded, frugal, easy to compunction, placid, gentle; devoid of anger, not avaricious, careless of things, quiet, decently dressed, patient, faithful, continent, without solicitude, vigilant, diligent, an emulator, bearing the care of the souls committed to you no otherwise than of your own limbs; and, if the matter demands, laying down even your own soul for each one of them, preferring nothing worldly to charity toward them. For since you have been set over others to feed and rule the flock of the Lord and your God, which is possessed of reason, it behooves you, according to His word, in your spirit and humility according to God, to be the last of all, so that as one strong you may support the infirmities of the weak; but as a physician according to the soul you may cure the diseases and affections of the sick; that as a shepherd you may lead back to the path that which wanders, and render that which is well and healthy fertile in virtues, but that which is covered with mange and incurable, you may cut off from your flock, lest it infect your healthy sheep also with the plague. Labor to increase the flock of your Lord. Do not turn aside to relaxations or the pleasures of the body, nor consume the wool and fat of the sheep of Christ wrongly, hoarding the wealth of the monastery into a treasury for your own pleasures rather than for your brothers. Do not, for the sake of human glory, do or correct anything pertaining to your monastery. Do not love to go out frequently on mules splendidly caparisoned, with a great retinue of preceding and following servants. Let it suffice for you to go out abroad even once in a month, and to transact the business of greater moment for your flock. The rest will be taken care of by those who minister, who are never distracted from your ministry of the Word and the care of the brothers, being intent upon prayers. Do not prepare for yourself sumptuous feasts, but prepare what is cast off, plebeian, and unrefined: but let there be a common table, without any danger of disease, and without the invitation of friends, for you with your other brothers, whose sense is the same as yours, whose institute of life is the same, whether from cooked greens and legumes, or from fish once a week, on the Lord's Day, and on a feast day...

^A is commonly provided by the cellarer. Where there is nothing that brings danger to the soul, you shall take care not to rise up in anger and clamor against your brothers and your sons; but with gentle speech and address you shall teach them how it behooves each one to walk and conduct himself in the midst of the brothers. You shall warn those who are juniors and not yet confirmed to spare themselves and other brothers, lest by their gait, manners, and uncomposed studies they be a stumbling block to those watching. Those who have lived longer in the religious state, you shall instruct with prudent prayer to patience amidst temptations coming from the enemy, to humility, contrition of heart, compunction, tears, diligence, the fulfilling of prayers, blessed mourning, and to being useful to others in word and deed. You shall teach the priests piety, quiet, meditation on the divine Scriptures, accurate knowledge of the apostolic canons and traditions, sincerity of dogmas, purity of heart, constancy and compunction in prayers, standing in fear and trembling before the throne of God, the mystery of the sacrifice, and the revelation of the mysteries of God, since according to the word of the Lord, it is given to them to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, so that they may become divine salt and light to the whole multitude of brothers and to outsiders, containing the word of life within themselves. But if it is necessary for you to be angry at times with reason, with rod and staff, against the turbulent and the disorderly, in order to prevent some evil and to repress the pestiferous contagion among them, so that the evil work and vicious affection not spread for the worse, this is not judged alien to the apostolic ^B Constitutions and the divine Fathers. For every motion and action of ours that represses and pursues wickedness, while championing justice and virtue, is praiseworthy and pleases God, and is approved most of all by all just men. Jesus is witness, who struck with a whip the stubborn Jews making the house of prayer a house of trade, and overturned the tables of the money-changers. Do not therefore, under the pretext of gentleness, for the sake of mere human praise, neglect anything whatsoever admitted against the commandment of God to the subversion of the apostolic canons and constitutions, and to the insult of the evangelical life and the monastic state; but imitating Jesus and your Lord, indignant, and agitating yourself without turmoil, avenge the commands of God and the canons prescribed by His apostles. With all these things, also diligently investigate the thoughts of each one, so that you know who among them are to be admitted to the assembly of those praying together and communicating, and who have need of excommunication and penance with tears, and the station of the penitents, lest you, knowingly or unknowingly, make the Church—instead of a holy temple—a den of thieves, or a brothel, while through an affection to which ^A you are attached, you do not escape impending and therefore horrendous divine judgment. For know that for each such person there is a place convenient and rightfully destined by those who were spectators and disciples of the sermon, on whose canons and constitutions it is necessary for you to apply yourself to reading so that you do not remain ignorant of what mysteries hidden in Christ belong to believers, and do not sin while you behave in a way little consistent with piety toward God. Render your spiritual sons religious according to the Scriptures, and teach them to abstain from holy and divine places, as well as the vessels of the temple of God, and His ministry, since it is written: *Blessed is the man who always acts in fear*, ^B since it is to those who are consecrated, and who have been purified through struggles and penance by many tears, and are partakers of the immaculate mysteries of Christ, and to the holy and most religious ministers of the monks that the ministry of such things and their handling has been dedicated by the Fathers and apostles. Do not permit entry to the divine tabernacle to everyone, or to anyone who wishes, but only, as has been said, to the consecrated and holy, and to your most religious brothers and fathers. To the rest, and to those walking inordinately (see what is said to you), you shall close it. For many, believe me, are removed from the present life on account of the contempt for such things. And plainly, if you will disregard this precept, the blood of those removed from this life will be required from your hands.

These are the things, and more than these, O pastor of Christ’s sheep, which you must know perfectly and do studiously for the custody of your flock. Therefore, if you know that you have progressed to such sufficiency, and have happily obtained such charisms, rege and guide the sheep of Christ confidently with the light of good works shining from you alone, and with divine wisdom and knowledge, in order to illuminate all who familiarly approach you, your own and strangers, with the learned discourse of the grace granted to you, and with the action of virtue according to the mode and law given to you before from above; and feed His lambs in the salutary pastures ^C of His commandments, until they grow and attain unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and thence receive the reward, when you will sit and dwell with the apostles. But if not, be solicitous with yourself concerning your own salvation, if you believe me at all: since our God is a consuming fire, to whom is due all glory, honor, and adoration for ages. Amen.

ORATION XXV. ARGUMENT

Concerning the beginnings of life that are most fruitful and salutary, for those who, having recently renounced the world and worldly things, have fled to the solitary life, and teaching most useful for tyros, or novices.

Whoever, brothers, has recently renounced the world and all things that are in the world, and has betaken himself to the life ^D of solitary struggles and the [monastic] institute, if he has truly [renounced]...

^A for the sake of God, and has determined to learn this art of arts, and desires that his departure from the world should not be in vain, he ought from the very beginning to be untiring, and with most ardent will and purpose to devote himself to works of virtue. And so that we may hand down certain elements and principles of the science of sciences—I mean of our religious institute—to those who have recently come from the world to it as to a school, we prescribe these things to them, and to those who will follow them, in a rough and summary way in the first place. Therefore, it is necessary to know that he who has now, with his own prudence, stripped off the earthly man through those things which appear, and has clothed himself in the heavenly by means of the monastic habit, ought to arise at midnight, before the dawn, to pour forth the prescribed prayer and thus, at last, to gather together with everyone for the doxology, and to perform it considerately and vigilantly, so that he may be vehemently attentive at the beginning of the hymnody, whether at the hexapsalmos, at the versicles, or at the reading, without any laziness; not with a relaxed body, and placing foot before foot, or leaning himself against walls or columns. He should keep his hands constantly joined, his feet equally planted on the ground, not shaking his head here and there, or bending it forward, not wandering in mind, nor thinking curious thoughts, nor being led away from his undertaking by more negligent brothers or by those chatting and whispering among themselves: but rather, ^C he should hold neither his eyes nor his mind on high, and should render himself as attentive as possible to the psalmody alone, and to the reading, and to the power of those things which are chanted and read from the divine Scriptures, so that nothing may pass him by unobserved: but rather, his soul becoming sated from all things, he may attain to compunction, humility, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. ^B And I also prescribe this rule to you: do not ever go out of the synaxis without great necessity, or to relieve your body: but persevere in your station, as it has been said: for he who shall have persevered unto the end, the same, as it stands written, shall be saved. Not this alone; but he will receive help first indeed secretly, so that he may not perceive it: then also so that he may perceive it, and a little later, in illumination from the almighty God. Once the morning doxology is finished, immediately departing, do not begin to hang upon the mouth of this one or that one, and to speak idle words. But after you have paid your accustomed and long prayer in private in your cell, with tears and much adoration, set yourself to some corporeal work, and immediately run to it; whether it is a ministry, go to the ministry; whether it is manual labor, to manual labor; whether it is reading, to reading. Furthermore, do not wish to remain altogether idle in the cell, lest, which is forbidden to say: Idleness may teach you much malice. But neither roam the monastery, curiously observing those who are working or those who are ministering. Keep silence, however, and abstain from the familiarity and association of all, which is true pilgrimage. Pay attention only to yourself and to the work of your hands, whatever it may be. Do not enter the cell of another, unless you have been sent by your spiritual father or by the overseer of the monastery. When you have come thither, take care neither to say nor to hear anything beyond that which the matter requires for which you were sent: but when you have briefly replied, return. But if on the way you see a brother alone, or sitting with another and chattering at an unseasonable time, pass by in silence with your head bowed more deeply. Do not approach and sit down with them, mindful of that from the Psalm: Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence. For the pestilential are of this sort, as Paul also says: Evil communications corrupt good manners. Now if there is some pestilence, it is the same as corruption. Wherefore, beloved, do not sit with those who chatter idly; nor say: I will hear, too, what you are saying; but as I was just saying, with head bowed reverently, pass by. Wherefore, I beseech you all as one, my fathers, brothers, and sons, and I command this as a salutary law, that each of you make such a beginning to the work of virtue, or rather indeed to the work of God (through which we receive a reward corresponding to our labors, as if from Him who loves the good), that if it can be done, none of us should approach the office and reading without tears. For if, my brother, you accustom yourself to this work, in a short time you will effect progress, and will meet in a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ. For pressing upon yourself, that you may not run through the prescribed office of the Church or of the congregation without tears, you will gain the habit of this good, and in the very stichology and troparia which you chant, your mind is nourished while it receives their divine senses into itself, and through those things which are spoken, the mind is advanced toward those things which are understood, and distilling with sweet weeping, you live in the gathering of the brothers as if in heaven with the blessed minds. Therefore, bear ^D silence and the standing and condition of a pilgrim. Silence, while you say to yourself in silence, what good can I, who am all mud and a fool, pronounce? Nay, even a guest and unworthy, that I should speak, or listen, or be numbered among men. But pilgrimage, and the flight from every association, while you think these things and sing to yourself, placing your sins before your eyes, and not just with the tips of your lips, but saying from the heart: Who am I, abject and vile, ignoble and a beggar, that I should enter the cell of another? Will he not, when he sees me, turn away as if from a monster? Will he not say, why has this execrable one come to me, that he might defile my little cell? And although from the beginning these things [you have] with yourself

^A you have not been able to speak, nevertheless, little by little, you will also attain to this, with grace cooperating with you. Only listen to me, a humble man; only make a beginning of these things, brother, and begin to do, and to act, and to speak these things, and God will not forsake you: for He loves you wondrously, and desires that you come to the acknowledgement of the truth, and be saved.

When you have passed the time in this way until the hour of the liturgy, or the mass, go again with great zeal and alacrity to the synaxis. Stand in the form which we prescribed for you in the morning doxology, and do not by any means forget your mourning. Stand with trembling, as one who sees the Son of God being sacrificed for your sake, and if you are worthy, and cleansed for this, approach in fear and joy to be a partaker of the ineffable goods. After the concluding prayers, having gone out, go to take your seat with everyone, and do not separate yourself from your brothers. And if indeed you are ordered to serve, stand as if serving Christ, not men, with a sincere affection, and out of charity to all, as to holy men, or rather, as we were saying, as if serving Christ Himself: embracing each one in your mind, and dedicating yourself entirely through charity to them by your intention and will, and confirming yourself from that ministry to receive the fruit of holiness.

But if you too have reclined at the table with the others, see here what I commit to you, as to a beloved father and brother. Do not be hasty and headlong in extending your hand to the prepared feast before the elders among the brothers begin to eat, and before the blessing has been recited from on high by the priest. And when you have begun to refresh your body with food together with your brothers and fathers, attend to yourself, sitting as decorously and silently as possible, speaking with no one at all, fixed in reading, and as you feed the body, so also feed the soul from the divine oracles of the Holy Spirit. For it is necessary that you, since you are dual—composed, I say, of soul and body—use ^B fittingly dual food and table. And since your body is earthly, which is perceived by sense, but the soul, which is grasped by reason alone, is divine, it is necessary to nourish the former with sensible foods born from the earth, and the latter with the intellectual and divine feasts of the Scriptures. Therefore, do not curiously inspect the portions placed on the table, whether they happen to be larger or smaller: but eat that which has been offered to you with all thanksgiving, and that temperately, in all things fleeing satiety; counting your own self unworthy of the table of the brothers, and revolving such things with yourself: "Who am I, abject and of no value, that I should sit with these holy men, and take food together with them?" Speaking thus with yourself, from your whole heart account yourself the only sinner. Just as some beggar, covered in rags, if he should happen upon a group of princes and wealthy men, splendidly and sumptuously dressed, blushes, and is suffused with fear, so that he does not even dare to approach or to draw near to any of them with freedom, behave yourself similarly toward everyone, always choosing the last place, and suffusing your face with shame when you see anyone at all sitting before you; just as if all those wealthy men were filled with virtues, but you were a beggar, and naked, and, living among them, were most unworthy to behold their countenances.

Furthermore, being about to touch the food, again reflecting on those sins of yours, you will think: "Will it not turn to judgment and condemnation if I touch anything of the things set before me? For I have been disobedient from my infancy to God, who created these things and granted them to us to eat, and I have not kept His holy laws. And how can I, unworthy and a guilty servant, partake of His goods just as these holy Fathers do? With what countenance, before the eyes of my Lord, can I, a wicked and disobedient and ungrateful servant, before I have repented of my sins and perfectly received pardon from His kindness, eat and drink and rejoice with the holy ones as those who have not sinned, or who, when they had sinned, obtained pardon through repentance? By no means; but I will use only food and drink, lest I succumb in life, and I will macerate, crucify, and condemn myself, so that God, looking down from above, and beholding my hardships and voluntary affliction, may have mercy, and forgive me my many sins." Therefore ponder these things, and keep them in mind again and again.

Moreover, command yourself to eat so many morsels that satiety does not follow, certainly many fewer than necessity requires and than you could digest. Item: take one or two cups, and that at the hour of the day appointed. When you eat, do not yield to the thought ^C that comes upon you, that you should choose something from what is set before you: but beware lest you eat anything that has seemed tasty to you: eat only the things that are before you. Moreover, even if by chance there should be some fruit or some other delicacies, and one certain thing has smiled upon you, and a silent thought has said: "That thing is beautiful," take it and eat it; but strive not to be conquered, nor touch it; since Adam was cast out of paradise for nothing else than because the fruit of the tree appeared beautiful and good to him to eat, and he ate of it, and therefore was cast out and expelled, and condemned to death and corruption. Those, therefore, who wish to return into that paradise, or rather into the kingdom of heaven, ought to observe continence without any transgression even in these things, so that little by little they may run toward greater things, and ^D toward those that destroy harmful desires. If the brothers reclining with you urge you to eat or drink more, you will respond with nothing else except that, rising a little with joined hands and inclined head, you will say in a gentle voice: "Forgive me." Thus always respond in all things. And do not honor anyone with your leftovers, nor accept anything from others. If you do not drink wine, do not ask for it; but neither offer it to any other of the brothers, unless perhaps he is a stranger, and has come to you for the sake of somebody's use. Do not ever taste anything with anyone before the time, nor eat or drink in the evening, or dine a second time; for from this all evil proceeds.

And these are the traps and snares of the devil, which, although they have the appearance of good, yet conceal deadly poison. Whoever believes us will flee these, and whoever obeys my words, with God assisting and the grace of the Holy Spirit, will bring back no wound or detriment from them. Others do not know how to pursue the mundane life under the habit of a monk, nor do they feel themselves falling into chasms and precipices.

^B You, therefore, most beloved brother, must desire to observe these things, even if you have to die; otherwise, you will not be able to escape the demon of gluttony, or greed. If you observe them, know that the devil, not bearing the sight of you, will excite all the slothful and lazy against you, who will tear you with insults, mock you, envy you, ridicule you, and harass you a thousand times, so that they may divert you from good counsel and salutary actions: which, if you endure with an even mind, you will obtain great help and consolation from God and our Savior. Consequently, when others are sitting and eating at supper, but you are not—but either serving or doing something else—do not forget to sing this silently to yourself: "If I had sufficiently repented, and my sins had also been forgiven me, I too would rejoice and recline with my brethren. But since I, miserable one, have rendered myself unworthy through my foul deeds, I receive here according to my works." Say these things to yourself, and control your belly as much as you can. Never desire the first places of reclining; but hate them from the heart, as matter for pride. For your humility will exalt you; and to be the lowest of all will make you the first; because it is written: "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. xxiii, 12). ^C When you have risen from the table with all the brethren, and have given thanks to God, and have been dismissed by the priest, hasten in silence to your cell; and having closed the door, grab a book, and after a brief reading, if indeed the days are summertime, reclining on your mat, take a short sleep. For, avoiding satiety and using slight nourishment—namely bread and water by measure, and greens or legumes—you will sleep less and rise more quickly. If it should be winter, after you have read a little, apply yourself to the work of your hands, and persevere in it until the wood calls you to the evening hymnody. Then, again having entered the synaxis, stand with fear and attention ^D before God, singing to Him, and confessing, and being in no way negligent. The evening office having been completed, if you can abstain from food and drink entirely, and have decided to take food once a day, you will find benefit in carrying out your evening office, and in nocturnal prayer and vigil, not in a common way. But if, however, you are content with one piece of bread and one cup of water, outside of any health condition or stomach ailment, be content with this. Having rendered evening prayers to God with your brethren, fall down at the feet of the superior just as you would before the feet of Christ Himself, and having received a blessing from him, and having greeted the holy brethren, depart in silence to your cell, making a word to no one; and having bolted the door, take up the codex first, and having attentively read about three pages, stand to pray, chant the psalms, and worship God quietly, so that you are heard by no one. Stand, however, honestly; do not let your thoughts wander rashly elsewhere, but gather them. Join your hands, join your feet equally and immovably, with feet side by side. Close your eyes, so they do not look at anything else and distract the mind. Furthermore, elevate your mind itself and your whole heart into heaven toward God, imploring mercy from there with groans and tears. Have the psalms appointed for you by your spiritual Father, which naturally contain words of repentance and compunction, and as many as suffice for your strength and will. For it is necessary that you demand of your strength and your vigor the psalmody and the frequency of genuflection and the time of the station, lest your conscience, rebuking you, say: "You could have stood longer, offered hymns, and confessed to God." Furthermore, let there also be definite prayers for you, containing morning and evening confession to God. Having finished your prayers, read again for a little while. Then take up the work of your hands, and do this until the first watch is finished—that is, until the third hour of the night. When you have risen in this way, and have done the *amomon* (it is a type of psalmody), with your whole body signed, lie down on your mat, and having taken sleep until midnight, thereafter do as we have handed down the form to you from the beginning. Furthermore, indicate the thoughts of your heart to your spiritual Father at the hours, if possible; if not, do not pass by one evening, beloved, but after the morning, having discussed all things that have happened to you, explain them to him, and have undoubted faith toward him, and even if the whole world speaks against him and slanders him, and we have accepted it. In the Scriptures it is told that Emperor Constantine said: "Nicolaus the first Pontiff says in his epistle to the Emperor Louis, and it is related by Gratian, dist. 96: 'Truly, if I had seen with my own eyes a priest of God, or any of those who are clothed in the monastic habit, sinning, I would strip off my royal cloak and cover him, so that he might not be seen by anyone.'" These things are said concerning Constantine by Pope Nicolaus, and before him by Rufinus and Theodoret.

^A even though you yourself see with your eyes one committing fornication, do not be scandalized, nor diminish your faith in him, obeying the one who says: "Judge not, that you be not judged." By doing so, and striving daily, God will not delay to visit you from above, but will send help from his holy habitation, and the grace of his most holy Spirit will overshadow you; and in a short time, you will make progress in your chosen path and increase in spiritual age: and you will meet into a perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, illuminated, and in the light of knowledge you will be living familiarly with all, and conferring speech with them, illuminating like the sun, and glorifying God, who has given the gift of his holy and life-giving Spirit, in morals and in prayer; to whom is due all glory, honor, and adoration now and always, and into the eternity of all ages. Amen.

ORATION XXVI

ARGUMENT

He who has despised all things subject to the eyes, and furthermore his own soul, so that he might be able to provide true and legitimate repentance according to the commandment of God, and has begun that work, does not think that it is to be spoken of by himself: but when he has applied himself to a skilled artificer of the man, with much fear and trembling, and with earnest prayers, submitting himself to the same, he is taught and receives the discipline and exercise of actions conjoined with virtue, and what things must be done by the penitent, from him. But I ask that fear and trembling be understood by him, lest he be frustrated of such a good, and as a reprobate executor of God's commandments, he be condemned to eternal fire. For he deems his words to proceed as if from the mouth of God, and as if eternal life were turned upon the keeping or despising of them, he keeps them accurately. And thus when he has begun with indubitable faith, hanging upon the promises of God, he prospers daily according to God, and proceeding on the path, he grows in spiritual age, and turns out a perfect man in Christ God. From which promises, therefore? Hear intelligently what things our Lord Jesus Christ promises us: "Amen, amen I say to you, that there will be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance." And again: "Him that cometh to me (namely by such a journey) I will not cast out." And again: "If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink." And: "He that believeth in me, shall not taste death for ever." And elsewhere: "Turn you to me, and I will turn to you." And: "Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." And in another place: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. But he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I ^B will love him, and will manifest myself to him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him." And: "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give the good spirit to them that ask him!" In these, therefore, relying on the promises of God, with faith not doubting, as we have said, with much alacrity, most greedily and zealously he observes all his commandments; of which this is the first: "Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And again: "Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." After these, God wishing to teach us how, and with what words, or works, one ought to ask, says: "He that will be the first among you, shall be the last of all, and the servant of all, and the minister of all." For "everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled: but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

These things and similar ones, he who constantly revolves in his mind, and is occupied in them by day and by night, and understanding and feeling them ponders them, and studiously does them, little by little forgets the world, the things of the world, the things of this life, of kinsmen, and finally of his own things, and takes on the habit of spiritual things in proportion. And thus proceeding from day to day, he experiences and perceives how the thoughts of former, or anticipated, opinions gradually recede. Then in what manner those very opinions and sentiments are diminished, and the softened heart embraces humility: and how afterwards the heart itself ^C produces thoughts generating humility.

But he who experiences these things, is with difficulty brought to compunction and tears, but yet is brought by many tribulations, and is more humbled, more pricked. For humility breeds mourning, mourning feeds its mother, and makes it grow. But the very observance of the commandments through humility (O wonderful thing) washes away all filth from the soul. It even expels every affection acting against reason, and evil concupiscence, I say, bodily, and pertaining to this life. By which reason man is asserted and freed according to the soul from all earthly cupidity; not only from bodily chains, but similarly as if someone, having put off his garment, should become wholly naked. And rightly so. For the soul is first absolved from the stupor, which the Apostle calls a veil, which occupies the hearts of the incredulous Jews. Indeed, even now, everyone who does not obey with a fervent mind the commandments of the new grace as much as he can and is able, has this veil laid over the intelligent part of his soul, and cannot be lifted to the sublimity of the knowledge of the Son of God. Just as, moreover, he who is stripped according to the body sees the wounds in his body, so this man clearly perceives the vicious affections possessing his soul then (for example, love of glory, avarice, memory of injuries ^D

[ORATIO XXVI.]

^A hatred of brothers, envy, zeal, contention, and a brilliant estimate of oneself, and subsequently ^B the commandments as medicines, temptations as the cautery or surgical iron; applying these, [the soul], humbled and mourning, and ardently seeking divine aid, sees the grace of the Holy Spirit coming and plucking out and destroying each one, until at last it renders its soul perfectly free from all these things. For the Paraclete does not wish to liberate it in part, but wholly and purely, being present. For when those aforementioned affections—whatever there is of sadness, whatever of negligence, whatever of sloth, ignorance, forgetfulness, gluttony, and the pursuit of pleasure—are named, He puts all these to flight, I say, and so renews and restores man, both in soul and body, that he seems no longer subject to destruction, nor heavy and gross, but spiritual, devoid of matter, and already fit to carry a body that may be caught up into heaven. Nor does the grace of the Spirit perform only this in him; but it does not even allow him to contemplate any of the sensible things; or rather, it makes him behold these things as if he were not beholding them. For when the mind has surrendered itself to those things which are understood, it departs entirely from those things which fall to the senses, even if it is thought to see and perceive them. Thus, therefore, abiding in these things—namely, those which are perceived by the intellect alone—according to the saint whose voice it is: "But our conversation is in heaven, not contemplating the things which are seen, but those which are not seen," it is detained there, illuminated, growing in perpetual spiritual age, and with the senses of infancy emptied out, progressing into manly perfection. Therefore, according to the measure of this age of his, he is changed according to the powers and functions of the soul, and becomes stronger and more powerful to carry out the commands of God. Fulfilling them daily, in proportion to his execution of them, he is further purified, shines, is illuminated, and deserves the revelation of great mysteries, the depth of which no one of those who did not strive to be raised to that same purity has ever seen, or can see.

But I speak of mysteries which, although they are seen by all, are not nonetheless understood. For the mind, illuminated by the innovating Spirit, acquires also new eyes, and likewise new ears, and no longer as a man [sees] sensible things sensibly, but as one already superior to man, beholds sensible and corporeal things spiritually, and as likenesses of invisible things, and their forms as shapeless and devoid of outward appearance; and it hears, not as someone might say, the voice or voices of men, but that of the sole and living Word, when He exerts Himself through a human voice. For this, and this alone, the soul receives through the ears as known and friendly to it, and grants it access, and willingly embraces the reception of it; as the Lord says: "My sheep hear my voice," and others they do not hear. The soul indeed hears the sermons of all others, but it does not admit them, nor does it allow them to penetrate to it; but, having turned away from them, it dismisses them empty. Sometimes it does not even perceive the approach or the pulse of them: but even though it hears, it conducts itself toward them like a deaf man who does not hear. Hence, when it has escaped such things, God immediately inhabits it, and there come to be in it whatever things He has desired, and even more than it has desired. For God, since He is every good, fills the soul, in which He has placed His seat, with every good, as much as our nature is able to be filled; for God, indeed, is not captured or sustained by any created thing. But those goods I understand as: "Which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and have not ascended into the heart of man," that is, of him who has not yet existed as such. Wherefore God, inhabiting such a man, also teaches him concerning future and present things; not by word, but by work, experience, and the very reality, revealing his intellectual eyes and showing whatsoever He wills and whatsoever is profitable to him. ^C He does not persuade him to investigate, nor to seek, nor to curiously scrutinize other things; since not even the things which God Himself reveals and shows can he behold and contemplate without reverence and freely: but, looking as if through a lattice into the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, he soon grows hot and is struck, looking at himself, and thinking who he is, and to what things to be beheld he has been deemed worthy. For considering the greatness of the kindness of God, and being astonished, and judging himself with his whole heart unworthy of the spectacle of such goods, he does not wish to look openly at them, nor to know them fully: but, constrained by fear and trembling and reverence, he exclaims: "Who am I, O Lord, and what is the house of my father," since Thou hast not hesitated to commit such mysteries to an unworthy person, and hast wonderfully made me not only a spectator but also a participant and partaker of Thy so great goods? Such a one, therefore, who has already raised himself above every creature, does not wish to turn back and concern himself with curiously inquiring into the things that are of the creature. For when he possesses the Lord of the angels, he abhors investigating the essence and nature of the angels ministering to Him, since he knows that it does not please God for a man to investigate through curiosity things which are above man. For if we have been ordered not to discuss divine Scriptures curiously, much more are we by no means to be curious about things which are above what is written. Such a one sees God, as much as is possible and as much as it pleases God Himself, and he always desires to see Him, and prays continuously to see Him after death, and, content with His vision alone, requires nothing more. Whence he does not desire to abandon God and his Lord—by whom he is filled with light, and from whom he has the pleasure of a sincere and incorrupt life—and to look back to his own chains. Such is the vision; either illuminated from above by God, and he himself the preeminent [manifestation] of His

glory being seen, just as it might be seen by others in what kind and how great ^A a glory it is, this can never enter into his mind. For every holy soul is devoid of all craving for glory; since, adorned by the royal and most lucid tunic of the Spirit, and filled with the immense glory of God, it not only considers human glory as nothing, but does not even turn itself at all to that which is offered to it. For being seen by God, and in turn seeing Him, it will never desire to see any other man, or to be seen by another.

Wherefore I beseech you, brothers in Christ, let us not wish to learn ineffable things with words alone, which is equally impossible for both teachers and hearers. For neither can those who teach what is perceived by the intellect alone, and which are divine, demonstrate them with manifest examples clearly, and represent their truth, as if they were skilled in some trade, and experienced: nor can those who are taught learn the evidence of the things spoken by words alone: but let us dare to comprehend and contemplate them in action, in labors, and in sweat: that if we have been taught the reasons for these things as if they were sacred mysteries, God may be glorified, as we possess them, and we through the knowledge of them may glorify Him, and He may glorify us in Christ Himself our God; to whom is due all glory, honor, and adoration with the Father, and the most holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ORATION XXVII. ARGUMENT.

Always, and at every time, brothers, light and darkness, faith and infidelity, knowledge and ignorance, charity and hatred are opposites to one another. For when God had said at the beginning, "Let there be light," and it had come into existence, immediately the darkness vanished. With the light setting, night at once returned. Adam, however, fortified and safe by faith in God, was surrounded by immortal glory, and was in paradise. But having been turned by the enemy to infidelity, he was condemned to death, and driven out of paradise, and in place of divine and spiritual knowledge, he received carnal knowledge. For being blinded in the eyes of his soul, and despoiled of eternal life, he began to look with his bodily eyes, and by those sensible and visible things added by [sensory] movement, he knew Eve his wife, who conceived and bore Cain. Yet such knowledge is truly ignorance of every good. For unless he had first lost divine knowledge and vision, he would never have devolved into this knowledge. So then also his son Cain, had he not first burned with hatred and envy toward his brother Abel, would not have brought death upon him. As many, therefore, as ^B are besieged by the darkness from their birth, and do not wish to lower their gaze to the light which is perceived by the mind and in thought—which that first father of ours lost—these, when they see those born in that very light, and discussing the things that belong to the light, are struck by their speech and consider them enemies and adversaries to themselves. For just as a ray of the sun, when it has entered some dark house, penetrates and cuts through the darkness like a dart: so the prayer of a spiritual and holy man, inspired by God, like a two-edged sword wounds the heart of a carnal man, and excites it to contradiction and hatred, on account of ignorance and infidelity: "But he who thinks he knows something, when he knows nothing," even if he were to see an angel descending from heaven to him, he opposes him as an evil demon: and although he may abhor the Apostle, although he may abhor a prophet of God, even him, just like some other Simon Magus; and which is of extreme stupidity, the blind man leads the seeing man as if he were blind, and he who is himself truly a babbler considers the other's words as babblings. And just as a blind man, if some should frequently assert at night that the sun is shining, joins his faith to them, and again at noon does not believe those saying that there is light, suspecting that he is being deceived by both: and whether they preach to him light in the day, or darkness in the night, he rejects them in doubt: so those who sit in the darkness of the perturbations of the soul, and have their sense blinded by ignorance, or rather, who do not have the sense of Christ, consider him who has His sense as if he were devoid of it, and him who does not have it as if he were a possessor of it. About whom the prophet David well says: "The foolish and unwise shall perish." Wherefore such men deprave the whole divine Scripture according to their own concupiscences, and corrupt it in place of their vicious affections, which they do not find in it, but suffer by adulterating it. ^C Tell me then, those who judge wrongly of things, and do not allow themselves to be taught on account of arrogance, and are blind—will they ever rightly know by themselves the sense of the light? Being caught in the eyes, and not beholding the light, who will finally read letters in the light? But he who is blind in sense, and does not have the sense of Christ in himself, how can he see and weigh the senses stored and hidden in the light of Christ? Such a man, although he may read a thousand times the things that move the sense with exterior eyes, never, I suppose, can see the spiritual things, and those devoid of matter, and similar to light, in a nocturnal and dark place. Let no one therefore seduce you. God is light, and to those with whom He has been joined, He communicates His own brightness according to the degree of their purity. And then the lamp of the soul being extinguished, that is, the mind, it recognizes that it has been enveloped by and rekindled with the divine fire. ^D O wonderful thing, man is united to God spiritually and corporeally: since the soul is not separated from the mind, nor the body from the soul, but by an essential union it comes to pass...

that man, by grace, becomes a trihypostatic being, and man becomes god by adoption, consisting of body, soul, and—of which he is made a participant—the divine Spirit, and thus that saying of the prophet David is fulfilled: "I said: Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High" ^A (Ps. LXXXI, 6). Children of the Most High, that is, according to the image and likeness of the Most High; divine offspring from the divine Spirit. To whom the Lord justly said, and always says: "Abide in me, and I in you, that ye may bring forth much fruit" (John XV, 4, 8). By fruit, he understands the abundance of those who are saved through him. A branch, he says, unless it abides in the vine, withers and is cast into the fire. "Abide therefore in me, and I in you" (John XV, 4). How then he abides in us, and how we in turn abide in him, the Lord himself taught with those words: "Thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, and they in me, and I in them" ^B (John XVII, 21). And wishing to confirm this, he says again: "They in me, and I in them, even as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" (John XVII, 21, 23). Furthermore, to instill full and certain faith in the hearers, he adds this: "As thou hast loved me, I also have loved them... that they may be one, even as we are one" (John XVII, 23, 22). It is clear, therefore, that just as the Father abides in his Son, and the Son in the bosom of the Father, according to nature: so too those who have believed in truth, and have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and have been made brothers of Christ and children of God by his gift, and gods by adoption, abide ^C in God through grace, and God in them.

For which reason, how do those who have not attained such a state, nor been transformed in action, cognition, and contemplation, not fear to call themselves Christians? How do they dare open their mouths and speak shamelessly of the hidden mysteries, lying there carelessly as if upon a couch? How are they not ashamed to count themselves among Christians and spiritual men? How do they not shudder to be assessors of the priests and ministers of the sacrifice of the Lord's body and blood? I can scarcely wonder enough. But, naturally, the blindness of the mind, and its companions—stupor and folly—and the arrogance born ^D of them, make them trample upon such gold, the most precious stone itself, our Lord Jesus Christ, as if it were mud. O horrible audacity, by the impulse of which they ascend as if to a high degree, so that standing there, excelling the lowly multitude and becoming visible to them. Who then will call these men Christians?

But thus far we have taught against those who attempt to know and say everything, and think they are something when they are nothing, just like those in the stocks, what sort of Christians they are: that by comparing themselves with the archetype, they may understand how far they are from being genuine Christians. But to you, servants of Christ, and to those desiring to learn, and prepared to listen, the Lord of all cries out through his holy Gospels: "While ye have the light, believe in the light, that the darkness may not overtake you" (John XII, 35, 36). Run through repentance in the way of his commandments, run. Run while his illumination lasts, before the night of death overtakes you and you are sent away into eternal darkness. Run, seek, knock, so that the gate of the kingdom of heaven may be opened to you, and you may be inside it, and possess it within yourselves. For those who departed this life before they had acquired this, where at last, having gone to the dead, will they find it? Here, therefore, we are commanded to seek, and to ask, and to knock in repentance and tears; and the Lord has promised that he will give it to those who do so. If we refuse to do this and to obey Christ the Lord, so that we might hasten to receive his kingdom within us while we are still among the living, when we have departed there, shall we not rightly hear him saying to us, "What now do you seek, which you refused to receive when offered to you by me?" Did I not frequently urge you to labor, and you refused to receive it from me, and despised it, and preferred the pleasure of fleeting and earthly things? By what deeds then, or by what prayer will you be able to find it hereafter? Wherefore, my fathers and brothers, I beseech you, let us keep the commandments of our God with all diligence, that we may attain eternal life and the kingdom; and may we not hear now: "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John III, 36); and in the future age: "I know not whence you are," but may we rather receive that blessed voice: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you" (Matth. XXV, 34), "for were you hungry and fed me by the observance of my commandments, and gave me to drink, and clothed me, and visited me?" Purge your hearts from every stain and the filth of sin. For the rest, enjoy my good things together.

Concerning this, I say that what must be done is according to the oration of Symeon. For that trihypostatic being does not refer to God nor to grace. (For neither is a just man united with God or with grace essentially.) But it refers only to the conjunction of body and soul, which is, in any case, essential; and because the body, soul, and grace are three things in the same composite, thus it happens that man becomes by grace a trihypostatic god. Where the word trihypostatic ought to be taken improperly and according to likeness; as Symeon himself declares sufficiently and more than sufficiently.

^A And, weighed down by some burden, he thinks he is enduring violence—to use a single word—and tyranny; and therefore he performs these things unwillingly, lest he be understood to have escaped from the hands of the devil, but rather to be still subject to the empire of the wicked tyrant. But when he recognizes that he is praying and chanting with joy and gladness of soul, and that his mind is execrating all the allurements of this life and whatever it holds in value, only then let him believe that he has succeeded to the kingdom of Christ. This is a manifest argument of the redemption and liberty of which the Apostle wrote: *In the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, stand fast.* Therefore, let everyone hasten to attain this liberty, and let him seek it from Christ. But if he bears the customary synaxis with difficulty, and is wearied and broken by the length of the hymns that are sung to God, he surely does not know: *How sweet are thy words to my throat! more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth to them that know thee*; but he is entirely flesh—that is, he is endued with a carnal mind, and more so with a carnal sense—he cannot spiritually taste the benefits which have been given to us by God, but all divine things seem bitter to him; and he is ignorant of that: *Taste, and see that the Lord is sweet*. He who does not clearly know this is a stranger to the charity and sweetness of God. Moreover, he who is devoid of the taste for these things, oh sorrow! is an enemy of God and a stranger and a pilgrim from the kingdom of heaven. For I ask, what other hope will he have, or whose other love will he be entangled in, or from whom will he find consolation, either here or after death? On the day of judgment, what will he answer, when Christ comes to render ^B to everyone according to his works: when he requires from the monks, who gathered themselves to him before many witnesses, the pacts which they pledged before the holy altar and before his holy angels that they would perform and keep.

ORATION XXVIII.

ARGUMENT.

Whosoever desires to find God, let him deny himself, and let him not spare his soul: but let him place [the enemies] among themselves, and all those who walk according to the flesh, lest, incited by the hortatory discourses of any of these, he be turned back. Let him not sit in the chair with them; nor weave evil conversations with them, through which poison is infused into the soul, and he himself is compelled to dwell on his former wicked counsels and thoughts. O man, beware of the bait with the hook; hear me, and depart far from them, lest you lead your soul again to the underworld. Fix your mind, and make it stable, and do not allow it to wander after vain and empty things to be heard. Do not retreat. Do not be lazy, nor be weighed down and oppressed by sloth. Give not sleep to your eyes, nor coax your throat with the sweetness of any food, until you see for what, and for what reason we are called, and whither you are hastening according to your goal. To machinations of this kind, when they steal upon you, you shall give no place. What need have you of labor and this importune exhaustion? You have already filled the time, doing these things twice and thrice, and yet you have perceived no fruit from them. Do not, my brother, be entangled in this snare, nor betray your salvation; but rather apply yourself more intently and generously to the work of virtue, and do not distrust the discourses and institutions of your Fathers according to God. Resolve, therefore, in your mind, to depart from life sooner than from this vital inquiry. And if you had done so from the beginning, without hesitation, the benign God would not have disregarded you, and would certainly have granted you the fruit of your desire.

Rising at midnight, remember him who said: *At midnight I arose to give praise to thee, for the judgments of thy justification*. And give thanks to God, who roused you from sleep to sing his praises; rejoice, and exult, because you have been held worthy to celebrate God with the holy angels. For a Christian sinner, grieving for the sins of his past life, and instituting a life pleasing to God, unless he shows to the divine synaxes, and sacred psalmodies, and prayers, a joy, an alacrity, and such study and attention, as great and of such a kind as he formerly showed to pleasures and the wickedness of life; but as one laboring ^C and as one still weighed down by some burden, he thinks he is enduring violence—to use a single word—and tyranny; and therefore he performs these things unwillingly, lest he be understood to have escaped from the hands of the devil, but rather to be still subject to the empire of the wicked tyrant. But when he recognizes that he is praying and chanting with joy and gladness of soul, and that his mind is execrating all the allurements of this life and whatever it holds in value, only then let him believe that he has succeeded to the kingdom of Christ. This is a manifest argument of the redemption and liberty of which the Apostle wrote: *In the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, stand fast.* Therefore, let everyone hasten to attain this liberty, and let him seek it from Christ. But if he bears the customary synaxis with difficulty, and is wearied and broken by the length of the hymns that are sung to God, he surely does not know: *How sweet are thy words to my throat! more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth to them that know thee*; but he is entirely flesh—that is, he is endued with a carnal mind, and more so with a carnal sense—he cannot spiritually taste the benefits which have been given to us by God, but all divine things seem bitter to him; and he is ignorant of that: *Taste, and see that the Lord is sweet*. He who does not clearly know this is a stranger to the charity and sweetness of God. Moreover, he who is devoid of the taste for these things, oh sorrow! is an enemy of God and a stranger and a pilgrim from the kingdom of heaven. For I ask, what other hope will he have, or whose other love will he be entangled in, or from whom will he find consolation, either here or after death? On the day of judgment, what will he answer, when Christ comes to render ^D to everyone according to his works: when he requires from the monks, who gathered themselves to him before many witnesses, the pacts which they pledged before the holy altar and before his holy angels that they would perform and keep.

For what do we answer when questioned? Are we not saying that we approached, desiring to follow the monastic life and the angelic way of life, at the holy altar and at this sacred assembly? For what do we refer to in individual cases? Is it not that: "Yes, venerable Father"? But the priest, what does he say to us again? Know, brothers, that you have come to be numbered among the soldiers and servants of Christ the celestial king, and therefore prepare yourselves for temptations. For you will see, even from now, the enemy trying all his arts against you more fervently. It will, therefore, be necessary to hunger, and to thirst, and to be cold, to receive ignominy, to be spat upon, to be struck with blows, to be mocked, and to endure whatever is sad for the sake of God. What do we say then to these things? Do we not promise that we are going to suffer and tolerate everything, and do we not announce that solemn: "Yes, reverend Father," to every question, through the patience of enduring hardships? Do we not promise to keep continence, vigils, and obedience even unto death, before the superior, and the whole college of the brethren

and before the angels? For what reason, then, do ^A we desire to be enlisted as soldiers and warriors of Christ? Are we not to fight against enemies who do not come under our sight, and to wage war against the agitated motions of the soul? And yet now, we behave as if no one were going to demand an accounting of our agreements, and we live loosed from the fear of God and despising His commandments. For my part, it comes to mind to wonder how we have plunged into such darkness, and do everything to the detriment of our own souls; and when we are killing ourselves, we do not care, as though we were living and survivors; and when we ourselves bind ourselves with the chains of sins, we even make merry, and commit all the things that God hates—those things which cast our souls into the fire of Gehenna—and those who remove these chains from us, we attempt to devour as if they were wild, savage beasts. For if we are hindered by anyone from doing something against our own souls, we bay at him like mad dogs and assail him with insults, nor do we stop until, the deed being accomplished, we have brought ruin upon our souls. Afterward, having become accustomed to such perversity, we become naturally perverse and wicked, and it no longer pleases us to lift our heads to heaven. Where, since the memory of man, has a similar scheme been heard of? What demon will devise a mode of destruction greater than this against our souls? Or rather, indeed, what more than this will the demons be able to find against us with all their care and solicitude? We promised we would be monks, and instead we have bound ourselves to worldly wickedness. We are enrolled to endure hunger, thirst, and affliction, as we were saying before, and yet, for a single crust of bread (which we perhaps seek at a time determined for eating), we are not ashamed to bicker with words and cast reproaches. We have come to renounce everything that is in the world—parents, I say, brothers, and friends—and yet we do not cease to feed them rather from the bread of the monastery. We flee the world as an enemy, and meanwhile, we love worldly people and the things of the world more than Christ Himself.

Whoever wishes to attain what he desires and longs for—namely, the goods of God—and to pass from a man into a terrestrial angel, will love the affliction of the body, will embrace the suffering of evils, and will not spurn temptations, as they are the reconcilers of every good for him. For just as gold infected with much rust cannot be purged and restored to its original brightness unless it is cast into live coals and beaten with hammers, so too the soul, covered with the rust of sin and rendered completely useless, cannot be purged by another way and recover its ancient beauty unless it is tossed by temptations and undergoes the smelting of tribulations. For our Lord also indicates this word: "Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and take up your cross, and come follow me" ^B. He intimates the hardships and tribulations by the name of the cross. To give away everything, however—money and possessions—but yet not to resist the incursions of the remaining bitter and troublesome temptations with a lofty spirit, seems to me the mark of a sluggish soul that does not understand its own interests. For it is of no benefit to merely cast away and defer money and other things, and to flee to the solitary life, unless you persevere to the end in temptations and tribulations and hardships according to God. For Christ our God did not affirm that we would possess our souls in the throwing away of our things, but in our patience [Luke XXI, 19]. It is certain that the distribution of wealth to the poor and flight from the world are good and useful; nevertheless, these alone, of themselves and without the endurance of temptations, cannot render a man perfect according to God. That you may believe this is how it stands, and that it pleases God thus, hear His own words to the rich man: "If you wish to be perfect, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and take up your cross, and come follow me" [Matth. XIX, 21]. By the term "cross," as has been said, He signifies tribulations and temptations more obscurely. For since "the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" [Matth. XI, 12], and the faithful person can in no other way enter into it except through the narrow gate of tribulations and temptations, the divine Scripture rightly commands: "Strive to enter by the narrow gate" [Matth. VII, 13]. And again: "In your patience you shall possess your souls" [Luke XXI, 19]. And: "Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven" [Act. XIV, 21], as Scripture testifies elsewhere also. "Son, when you approach the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation. Depress your heart and endure" [Eccli. II, 1, 2]. And the Apostle: "But if you are outside of discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are adulterers, and not sons" [Hebr. XII, 8]. And in another place: "Take as good things all that are brought upon you, knowing that nothing happens without God." For he who departs from the world and its things by having conferred his own fortunes upon the needy, bears consciousness with much hope of reward and pleasure. And sometimes vainglory steals the reward. But he who, after he has given everything to the poor, also sustains troublesome things, and gives thanks, and patiently endures adversities—in this he indeed perceives the greatest bitterness, labor, and pain; but he has a present and future reward and a huge retribution for his refuge; for he imitates the passions of Christ, and in the days of temptations and incoming adversities, he sustains ^C and expects Him. Therefore, I pray you, brothers in Christ, let us exert ourselves according to the voice of the Lord, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, that after we have said farewell to the world and to the things that are in the world, we may enter through the narrow gate, which is the cutting off of our carnal sense and will, and the flight [from it]. For unless we die to the flesh, to its concupiscences, and to its wills, remission, absolu^D

and freedom from evils, and the consolation that follows from the Holy Spirit, we shall not be able to obtain; for unless this supervenes, no one shall see the Lord, neither in this age nor in the world to come. For that you have done right, when you distributed all your faculties to the poor (if indeed you reserved nothing for yourself by the example of that Ananias), and have furthermore renounced the world and those things that are in the world, and having deserted the cares of this life you have run to the harbor of eternal life, clothed in the appearance and figure of piety, I also do not deny, and I praise you for this zeal: but it is necessary, in addition, to divest yourself of the prudence of the flesh as if it were a tunic, and, according to the second garment which you have put on through Christ, to possess the manners of the soul and spiritual prudence itself; and not only this, but also through repentance to put on a bright tunic, which is the Holy Spirit Himself; which cannot happen except through the constant observance of the commandments and the endurance of tribulations. For the soul, pressed by temptations, is moved to tears; tears, purifying the heart, make it a temple and a lodging for the Holy Spirit. For it is not enough for our salvation and perfection that we have only the clothing and the exterior decoration of the statue: but just as we adorn the exterior, so we must adorn our inner man with the mantle of the Spirit, and offer ourselves whole and entire, with soul and body, to God. And we ought to assume bodily exercise for the sake of the labors of virtue, so that we may become excellently accustomed to sufferings according to God, and bear with nobility the bitterness of fasting, the difficulty of continence, the necessity of vigils, and every kind of affliction; ^B but by the piety of the Spirit, we must train the soul to understand what is fitting to understand, and always to meditate on eternal life, to be humble, meek, contrite, compunctious, mourning assiduously, and by prayers drawing to itself the light of the Spirit, which has been accustomed to be present with it through most fervent repentance, purified by abundant tears—without which it is permitted neither to cleanse its tunic nor to ascend to the heights of contemplation. For as a garment, if it be defiled in any way from mire and dung, is not cleansed unless it be washed with much water and often trodden upon by the feet: so the garment of the soul, defiled by the mire and dung of sinful affections, is not washed of its filth except through profusely flowing tears and the endurance of temptations and tribulations. For since two fluxes naturally exist from the substance of our body—one superior, of tears, and the other inferior, from the genital faculty—if the latter be performed in a way contrary to nature and the laws ordained, it contaminates the soul; but the former, if it proceeds from repentance, purifies it. Those who, ^C by a tumultuous motion of the heart combined with sin, have inscribed upon themselves the forms of alien cupidities, and have thus stained the soul, must be cleansed by many tears, and must acquire most pure tunic of the soul. Otherwise, to see God, that very light which illuminates the heart of anyone coming to Him through repentance, is impossible: for the pure in heart see God.

Let us therefore, fathers, brothers, and my children, strive through diligence in morals and the constant confession of hidden thoughts to obtain a pure heart. For this confession, which is made by us frequently and daily, if it proceeds from a repentant mind, works in us a change of heart and sorrow for what has been done or meditated, which calls forth tears from the innermost parts of the soul; tears purify the soul and blot out great sins; these being blotted out, the soul is comforted by the consolations of the Holy Spirit, is irrigated by a certain sweetness flowing from compunction, whence daily, in such a way that intelligence is perceived, it grows fat, and nourishes the fruits of the Spirit; these it offers in due time, like grain with much interest, to be nourished unto itself in light immortal and eternal, without any consumption. When one has reached this point with his zeal, he becomes familiar to God, and he emerges as a ^D dwelling-place and habitation of the most holy Trinity, purely beholding God his maker; and living with Him daily, he escapes from the body and the world and this air, and lifted by virtues and the wings of charity by God, he ascends into heaven, and with all the saints he rests from his labors, and is in infinite and divine light, where the orders of the apostles of Christ, of the martyrs, of the saints, and of all the supernal virtues indulge together in choirs. This state, therefore, brothers in Christ, let us also embrace, lest we be inferior to our holy Fathers: but that through the exercise of honest things and through obedience to the commandments of Christ, we may emerge into a perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. For nothing prohibits it, if we desire. Thus we shall both glorify God in ourselves, and God will be affected with joy by us, and departing from this life we shall find Him who will receive and cherish us as the great bosom of Abraham in the kingdom of heaven. And those who are in the midst of tumult and noise, and those who are in monasteries, and those who are on the mountains and in pits, and who live conformably to the mandates of Christ, are saved, and are deemed worthy of great gifts from God: For He will do the will of them that fear Him, and He will hear their prayer, and will save them. Where there is fear, says divine Gregory, there is the keeping of commandments; where there is the keeping of commandments, there is the purification of the flesh; namely, of the cloud darkening the soul and not permitting it to see the divine ray clearly. Where there is purification, there is illumination. But illumination is the fulfillment of desire for those who seek the greatest things, or the greatest thing, or that which is more than great. Therefore, when he said this, he signified that the end is not the end of the illumination of the Spirit for every soul, which whosoever has attained, he indeed grasps the end and the extremity of all sensible things, but finds the beginning of the knowledge of spiritual things. Wherefore, I pray that you run your course of the commandments of Christ by laboring patiently, and

^A constantly knocking, [f]he opens the gates of His kingdom, and gives the Holy Spirit—most righteous and most holy—to him who asks; nor is it possible that a soul seeking with its whole self should not find and grow rich in the wealth of His gifts. Thus, too, we, in the midst of His ineffable good things, now indeed in part, with understanding and knowledge of better things; but in the future age, perfectly and consummately with all the saints, we shall have our delights. For the eternal good things are given to the elect and to those to be saved, partly even now as pledges, set before them, revealed, appearing, and seen, and partly they occur after death and the resurrection.

Learn, therefore, beloved brothers, that the inexplicable treasure—above every principality and power, whose inheritance the just are about to enter—is set before you, not only in the future age, but already in a certain way before your eyes, and hands, and feet; which we, blinded and covered as if by a certain mist by ignorance, unbelief, and the sense of perturbations, do not see. Come, believe that this treasure which I preach to you is the light of the world: "I am the resurrection and the life." "I am a grain of mustard seed," which is hidden in the earth. "I am the pearl," which is bought by the faithful. "I am the kingdom of heaven," which lies hidden within you. And just as I am perceived by those who have now sought and found me, so shall I shine in them, even while sitting above all the heavens. I, who even here by nature am not contained by you and appear invisible, do not show myself as I am, although I remain wholly what I am while I am seen; but rather as the nature and virtue of those who see me are able to contain. I am the leaven, which the soul, having received, has cast into its three parts, and it is itself fermented and becomes wholly similar to me. For such as the leaven is, so also does the flour become, which is mixed with water and salt. For He says, "Whoever is with me," my connatural Father and His Spirit are by nature suited to be instead of water and salt. I have been made an intelligible paradise for my servants instead of a sensible one, in which I place all who believe in me and have been regenerated by the Spirit: who can no longer sin, nor does the prince of this world have any power against them. For I am in them, and they are in me, and they conquer the world, because they are outside the world, and they have with them me, the strongest of all. I am the bright immortal fountain for those who flow and for the rivers, in which, not after death but hour by hour, those who love me with their whole heart are washed by the water flowing from me, and they purge their body and soul from that stain, and they shine wholly like a lamp and in the likeness of a ray of the sun. I am He who arises hour by hour, as in the morning, in them, and am seen as the sun through the intellect; just as I once also manifested myself in the prophets, and those who saw me praised ^B and called upon me always. "In the morning," says David, "hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before thee and see." And another: "Then thy light shall break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily," when you yourself, that is, shall have kept my commandments. And what is the use of recounting everything which God, thirsting for our salvation, speaks to us? Unless, indeed, that you may know and believe through all things that those sitting in darkness must see the brilliance of the great light, if they see anything at all. And let none of you think that it has shone indeed, but that men who are still in the body cannot see Him. For if this could not happen, why has He shone, and does He still shine, while He is not perceived by them? Nay, rather, the light always was, and always shone, and shines in those who are purified, and "it appeared in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." And now it shines, and the darkness does not comprehend it, or rather, does not touch it. But what He said, that it has arisen to the "people sitting in darkness," that is, it has now pleased Him to be revealed to those in whom He is also manifested. For others, wandering in darkness, do not comprehend it. For He who is invisible was then indeed seen through the flesh by all who beheld Him, both believers and non-believers. Even the light of His divinity was known and revealed only to those faithful through works, who even said to Him: "Behold, we have left all, and followed thee." That He says "all" encompasses, by that word, money, possessions, wills, contempt for this life, and ^C its abhorrence, on account of the taste of the life that subsists in us and that eternal life. For this is clearly sweeter, and to be preferred to all things, which is God Himself. These, my brothers, are the wonders of God. Let us therefore have mercy on ourselves, I pray, and strive to become partakers of this life, which is the light of God, the Holy Spirit Himself, sanctifying His partakers and making them gods by adoption. Let us believe with our whole soul in God, let us abandon the earth and all passing things, let us approach Him, and let us cling to Him; because yet a little while, and heaven and earth shall pass away, and outside Him there is no standing, nor term, nor can it be comprehended where sinners fall away. For God cannot be taken, nor comprehended by the intellect. What place then is there, tell me, for those falling from His kingdom?

Learn, therefore, beloved brothers, the inexplicable treasure, above every principality and power, whose inheritance the just are about to enter, not only in the future age but already in a certain way set before our eyes, and hands, and feet; which we, blinded and covered as if by a certain mist by ignorance, unbelief, and the sense of perturbations, do not see. ^D I am compelled to lament, and I eat my heart, and I am consumed, when I think of the Lord, so munificent and humane, that on account of faith in Himself alone, He lavishes upon us such things as surpass the mind, the hearing, and the thought, and have never ascended into the heart of man; yet [men] prefer to Him, like beasts, the earth alone, and earthly things, granted to us out of great mercy for the sufficient use of the body, so that we might be nourished from these moderately and in proportion, and our soul might proceed without impediment toward heavenly things, being itself also nourished by intellectual food from the Spirit, according to the me-

asure of its purification and its ascent. For this is what a human being is, and for this end we were created, and for this reason we were brought into the world: so that while here, having been touched by a few benefits, through thanksgiving and pious affection toward God, we might there enjoy greater and eternal ones. But alas! we are not at all anxious about the future; we are even ungrateful for the things we have in our hands, we imitate the demons, or, if the truth must be told, we are even worse than the demons. And for this reason, a more severe punishment is due to us, in proportion as we have been heaped with more excellent benefits, and we recognize that God became like us, sin alone excepted, in order to free us from error and sin. But why is there need to speak of these things one by one? In truth, we believe in word only, but we deny him in our deeds, as blessed Paul also says, rebuking faithlessness: They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds, being abominable and disobedient and unfit for any good work (Tit. 1. 16). Is the name of Christ not invoked everywhere? In cities, in villages, in monasteries, in the mountains. Search, if you please, and investigate diligently whether they keep his commandments, and you will scarcely find one in a thousand, as that beloved disciple John says: Everyone who sins has not seen God, nor known him (1 John 3. 6). And again: Everyone who does sin is of the devil (Ibid. 8). Where, then, are we to have hope, when we abandon the good things that are in our hands and are devoted and attached to empty and fleeting things? ^B

Further, to address the word to those of you who cling to vanity, come tell me: how do you say that you know all these things—that I am mortal, that things seen are but a shadow, that death is unexpected, that the glory of the just is eternal, and that the confusion of sinners has no end—and yet, in the interval, you do not cease from wickedness? If you see, how is it that you stumble like a blind man, having blackened your whole body and your whole soul? If you know the better things, how is it that, as if devoid of sense, you pursue the worse? If you know that all things are shadow and that everything seen passes away, are you not ashamed to play with a shadow and to gather fleeting things instead of treasure? Do you not notice yourself like a child, drawing water into a broken vase, and yet you think yourself most beloved of yourself? It is truly absurd and grave to think and to exist; for through these things, existence is taken away. O man, do you believe that Christ is God? If you believe, fear him and keep his commandments. If you do not believe, then at least question the demons themselves, whom perhaps you consider more worthy of faith. Learn from those to whom you have been reduced to servitude and whom you follow, that there is no other God except him, to whom no one is likened, nor can he be compared; for he is the Lord of all, the king of all, the creator of light, and the arbiter of life. He is that ineffable, inaccessible light, who alone is. ^C He, at his coming, shall scatter from before his face his enemies who did not obey his commandments, just as the rising sun dispels the darkness of night. It will be that God alone, who cannot be grasped among those things that are not grasped, and who is incomprehensible among those that are incomprehensible, shall appear to the worthy according to the measure of faith in him. But sinners shall be as if covered in light and surrounded by darkness, blushing in joy and wasting away in gladness, and burning horribly, and being tortured by the various kinds of their own affections: just as, of course, the just also appeared illuminated by light and adorned with various virtues. For God, who by his nature is and is called Love, does not hate the damned, being naturally free from all such affection, nor is he rightly hated by the damned; but those with whom we, of our own will and judgment in this age, have chosen the society of evil pursuits—with these we shall justly and necessarily be condemned in the future age, even though we be unwilling. For as each one is affected and disposed, God is united to all at the end of the ages, as he himself knows, and provides to each the sense of how he has been formed by him. Thus, to the worthy, he is united by grace beyond nature, and it is his habit to be a pleasure that surpasses divine things and all thought. But to the unworthy, he is united beyond grace—constituted beyond nature according to the deprivation of this grace—and it is his habit to cause ineffable pain, as the great Gregory the Theologian also says: O Trinity, who at some time hast been known to all, to some by illumination, to others by vocation. ^D

Thus, therefore, I have found these things placed in the divinely inspired Scriptures, and I have been spiritually instructed by the Spirit, and I have written them down, withholding nothing from the great charity with which I am to fully instruct you, as told to me, declared, and commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, through his adorable and holy Spirit, concerning the sublime gifts and charisms of the God without beginning and his Father. That those who seek him with labor may be partakers of these, he who is our good God and benefactor always grants them through faith, even now. Behold, I have announced everything to you, and I have not hidden the talent. Therefore, each of you shall now choose what he wants: for as far as you are concerned, I am free from blame, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and empire with the Father without beginning and the holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen.

ORATION XXIX

ORATION XXIX

Now, consider with care for me the force of these words. Form in your mind a well-trodden path, as long as it is, consisting of the footsteps of those who have gone before. From here and there, conceive of mountains, forests, high cliffs, crags, and valleys. Along with these, nonetheless, conceive of fields, gardens, pleasant and shaded places, and places most agreeable and abounding in all kinds of fruits. Then, a not insignificant multitude of wild beasts, and bands of robbers and assassins hidden throughout those places. With things being thus, none of these places will entrap us or disturb our sense, or be able to harm us, provided we follow the saints who have gone before us and walk along the same path by which they walked. ^C For as we proceed along the way of the commandments of God and our Lord, and pass by without regard for all those things behind that you have heard, no one, neither of those robbers nor of the beasts, openly and insolently insults or dares to approach us. Yet, some wait for us further away, others nearer; some threaten us and look at us with bloodthirsty eyes; others offer us, through certain definitions, flatteries, and friendly conversations, a change and a respite, and they show us the delights of the regions and the most beautiful appearance of the fruits, and they urge us, by resting a little, to console our labor of the journey, and they persuade us to eat of the fruits, promising more pleasure than the sight of them affords. Moreover, they craftily devise many snares for us, and various occasions for capturing us; and they attack us not only while we are awake, but also while we are asleep; sometimes indeed with titillations and entreaties; sometimes with the taste of forbidden foods; ^D sometimes with torches, lamps, and swords, like robbers, and in the manner of robbers they invade us, and inflict the terror of death. They strike at us, thinking they will even turn us away from the right path. And some of them indeed warn that it is impossible that, as long as we live, we should sustain the difficulties of this way. Others say that these things are unfruitful, and can yield no utility to those who labor. Others say that there is not and never will be an end to this way, on the argument that for some, things turn out little fortunately.

^A And it is chiefly for this reason: that those who have spent a great deal of time in this manner of life have reaped no fruit from so long a duration, because they thought they were running the course of God's commandments, and that not according to knowledge and with sound judgment, but according to numbers which they invented for themselves, and according to an opinion which they foolishly held about themselves. To whom, rightly, their steps are also cut off from the way according to God, as they are deceived and turn back to the things that are behind, and through negligence hand themselves over to the malignant one, that he may fulfill his own will in them.

But why do I discuss these things with you, my spiritual brothers? Because the deceits and snares of our adversary the devil, and of his malignant spirits, exceed in number. Let us consider ourselves on the way of which we have spoken—whether we have only recently entered upon it or have been journeying in it for a longer time—and [let us consider] that we have suffered many things from all those beasts and robbers that have been mentioned, as we have recounted. But, by the grace of Christ, we have not been deceived by flatteries, nor have we been secretly led away by the elegance of things appearing to the senses toward pleasure, nor have we been bent by fear or threats to turn aside from the straight way or to desist from our progress, nor indeed have we turned back; but rather, we have run even more earnestly. Has Satan, then, rested from attacking us in such a state and condition of ours? And will he perhaps eventually rest? Never, certainly. Therefore, God must always be implored by us with the greatest desire and with our whole mind, that He may never allow us to be ensnared by the malignant one or to be deceived. We have discussed these few points out of many struggles.

^C But that I may also make what I say credible by an example, I will ask you: If someone engages in a fight with ten or twelve men, and when he joins battle with them, if at the first onset he puts their leaders and strongest men to flight, wounds and prostrates the others, but then sees one or two of the more despicable and infirm ones, who were left behind, coming toward him timidly and with flatteries, and if he does not meet them and seize them, and bind their hands behind them or kill them, will he not be savagely slaughtered by them himself? For if, out of pride and arrogance, he throws down his arms and lies down, and in his contempt for them sleeps on his back, has he not knowingly and willingly handed himself over into slavery to those wretched ones? And will not the two of them—or even just one of them—who have come upon him, hold him bound in his thrall and lead him away as a slave? Or, if he even slaughters him with the sword, will he not make him a laughingstock to all mortals? Furthermore, will not everyone rightly say that he was slain because he was negligent and over-confident, and indeed insane and stupid? For he will certainly not be as praiseworthy for that first fight and victory against stronger men as he will be blamable, abominable, and worthy to be despised, whether he be a slave or dead—to speak freely—because he was conquered by that single one. Thus, therefore, my most beloved brothers, it will profit us nothing if, having overcome greater perturbations, we then remain in the power of lesser ones. For example (for I will say the same thing again, and I shall not cease to say it): if we avoid the defilements of the flesh, if we refrain from envy and thefts of great importance, if we refrain from the nefarious loves of boys and perverse lust, if we temper ourselves from softness and every other petulance, yet if we are subjected, like slaves and scourged ones, to the vice of the belly, or to much wine, or sleep, or inertness, or sloth, or contradiction, or disobedience, or murmuring—what, I ask, fruit shall we obtain from the abstaining from wicked deeds alone? If we secretly snatch fragments of bread and eat them, or gather anything else from here and there, and do so without the permission of our prefect, who shall pronounce us immune from sin? If we are absent from the synaxis without great bodily weakness or some necessity, of our own accord? If, watching the fruits, we do not [keep] them from our own gluttony against him, ^D not to murmur, not to mock, not to deride, and in judgment never to contend about a small or great matter. Therefore, have the most certain persuasion, my beloved brothers, that nothing will so easily secure salvation for you as performing the divine commands of the Savior. Nevertheless, there is need for us to have many tears, much fear, great patience, and perseverance in prayers, so that at least the virtue of one word of the Lord may be revealed to us, so that we may know that a mystery is hidden in His small discourses, so that we may not hesitate to lay down our souls for one iota of the commandments of Christ. For the word of God is armed, and as a sword with two edges, and he by whom anyone is conquered is also his servant.

As for those, moreover, who go on this way and life without any discrimination and holding all things as nothing, what shall I say? Since, like stupid birds, they are ensnared by the traps of the devil of every kind, giving and enslaving themselves to every affection, and always exposing themselves as prey to the malignant one, who goes about and roars like a lion, seeking whom he may devour, and they prefer to die rather than be pulled from his most cruel teeth and jaws. Therefore, I exhort and wish all who are prayed for in Christ Jesus to attend to themselves, and let each one think not more than he ought, but to sobriety, and walk in the straight way, which is God and Christ (to whom also it will be necessary to render an account, as to a just Judge, and one who cannot be circumscribed), not declining to the right nor to the left: but perpetually pressing upon His footsteps, to be guarded in keeping all His commandments without any omission, so that you may be saved like a doe from the snares, and a sparrow from the net. For the first commandment is to love the Lord God, and to keep His commandments, as He Himself says: He who loves me, keeps my commandments. The second is to love one another, as God Himself loved the world. But true love is known by these signs: not to be puffed up against a brother, nor to be arrogant, nor to envy him, but to emulate the good: not to act perversely, not to be bold.

^A Shall we have continued? For what else cast Adam out of paradise, and surrendered him to death? What advantage shall we gain from the avoidance of those graver sins? For no man who is lacerated over his whole body, and then, after being healed of many medications except for one small wound, can be called sound, if he still carries around the small remains of his wound, like the eye of a needle: but he who also has removed the scars of his wounds, if he can, he shall be proclaimed healed by all. Let us not, therefore, look lightly upon these things: but because we hear of others being punished and vehemently condemned on their account, because the damage remains there for us, let us flee with all our might. And let no one, most beloved, remain in any of these, or in any other turbulent and vicious affection henceforth; but having already routed it from here, let him make a beginning of repentance, and let him not cease to confess that he has been conquered, until the enemy, the instigator, put to shame, shall depart from warring against him. Let not envy dominate us, nor anger, nor fury and clamor, out of which base speech and insults are accustomed to be born. Let not vain glory, pride, and self-admiration, ruling over us, drag us into the depths of hell: but with all these things far exterminated, let virtues appear in their place. ^B But perhaps someone might object, since there are so many and almost innumerable motions that have been recounted and placed under reproach, who can examine all of them, and be able to guard himself against them all, so that he is not occupied by even one? Who? I, with Christ as my assistant, will teach you. He who keeps his sins ^C always before his eyes, and constantly looks toward the future judgment, and burns with repentance, and pours forth bitter tears, he rises above, and by far conquers all things at once, carried by repentance into the sublime, so that not even one, and alone of the said motions, can reach him, or touch his soul moving, as it were, through heavenly regions. For the fervor of repentance and of tears emitted from the depths of the heart, like fire, melts and consumes the filth of sin, and purges the contaminated soul. Is that all? Nay, it also magnificently infuses a broad light into it, through the coming of the Holy Spirit, so that it may abound in mercy and good fruits from then on. Which, unless our soul, by repentance and tears, and the humility which is born in it from these, is lifted up as if on acquired wings to the excelsa ^D, we shall be able to be freed from none of these passions which we have mentioned: but now we shall be wounded by one, now by another, and we shall be devoured no differently than by cruel beasts, and after death, excluded on that account from the kingdom of heaven, we shall pay penalties for all eternity. Wherefore I beseech you all, my spiritual brothers, and I shall not cease to beseech your charity, that each one should not despise his own salvation; but by all means let him strive to lift himself a little from the earth. This miracle, which has struck you with amazement, to be suspended, I say, from the dust into the air, if it shall have been done, you will wish to do so in the future. By the earthly, moreover, I understand the carnal, by the air, the spiritual sense and thoughts. For if the mind, freed from perverse thoughts and motions, shall have provided for itself the liberty of looking up, which Christ God has granted to us, we shall no longer endure to descend to the former slavery of sin and carnal senses: but, according to the Lord’s word, we shall not cease to watch and pray, until, lifted up to that blessedness, we might possess the promised goods, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and always, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ORATION XXX. ARGUMENT.

Many people daily, my Fathers and brothers, we hear saying, that if we had lived in the times of the apostles, and had been worthy to see Christ with these eyes just as they did, we too would have been saved just like them. While they keep saying these things, they are ignorant that it is the same one who then spoke, and who now speaks to the world. For if He is not now the same who was once, equally God over all things both in doing and in effects, how is it seen that the Father is always speaking in the Son, and the Son in the Father through the Spirit saying these things: *My Father works until now, and I work*? But perhaps someone will object, it is not the same, to have seen that same one then with bodily eyes as a body, and today to hear only His words, and to be taught things that pertain to Him and the kingdom of heaven. I confess also, that it is not altogether the same now and then: but that which is now is, I say, far greater, and leads us much more easily to a fuller faith and a more certain persuasion, than if it had befallen us then to see and hear Him in the human body. For then, to the wicked Jews, He appeared as a man of no value; but now He is preached to us as true God. Then He associated with publicans and sinners, and took food through the body: now He sits at the right hand of God, and of His Father, from whom He is never and nowhere separated; He is believed to sustain the entire world, without whom we say nothing is done. And, if we believe, He was then despised by the basest little men, those notably reproaching Him, *Is not this the son of Mary and of Joseph the carpenter?* Now by kings and princes, as the true Son of God, and as true God Himself, He is adored and glorified, and He will glorify those who adore Him in spirit and truth (although He often punishes them for sinning), since He has made them iron over all the nations that are under the heavens, for earthen ones, indeed. Then as one of the rest of men, he was reckoned subject to destruction.

and it was a great thing that in a human body, God—lacking any variation or change of form, not coming under inspection, endowed with a form that appeared as nothing more than a human being, having nothing beyond other mortals in those things which are perceived by sight—was to be recognized and believed to be God, who had created heaven and earth and all that is in them. ^A Wherefore the Lord also affirmed that Peter was blessed on account of that utterance: *Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God*. Blessed art thou, He says, Simon Bar Jona; because flesh and blood did not reveal to thee, to see and say these things, but My Father who is in heaven. Therefore, he who now hears Him crying out daily in the holy Gospel, and announcing the will of His blessed Father, and does not obey Him with fear and trembling, nor perform His commands, would not even then have been able to clearly believe in Him, had he personally beheld Him present and listened to Him teaching. Rather, it is to be feared that, not believing in the least, and reckoning Him not as the true God but as an adversary of God, he would have blasphemed.

And these are certainly for those who are duller and more stupid than the rest. But what is more grievous than these? "If we had existed," they say, "in the age of the holy Fathers, we too would have striven. For by observing their good institutions of life and their struggle, we would have been kindled with a zeal to imitate them." But now, since we live among the slothful and negligent, we are carried along together with them and perish against our will. ^B But these also, as is credible, are ignorant that we navigate in a harbor more than they did. In the age of our fathers (let those men prick up their ears!), many heresies flourished; there were many antichrists, many trafficking in Christ, many pseudoteachers who wandered freely and scattered the tares of wickedness, and dragged away not a few, having enticed them into deceit ^C with their discourses, and sent their souls unto destruction; a fact which you find to be true from the lives of the Fathers Antony, Euthymius, and Sabbas. For it has been committed to writing that Antony, having then put on a garment more splendid than his custom, ascended to a high place to exhibit and show himself, so that, being manifest and conspicuous, he might entirely be apprehended by the heretics and given over to death. Certainly, had not the persecution been raging, he would not have done this. But that tranquility was granted by God to the Churches in the times of our holy Father Euthymius, does it not exist in writings? For at that time, of course, persecutions and heresies had calmed down. And our holy father Sabbas, when he was superior—do you not know how greatly he fought for the Churches against the heresies of that time, and how many monks were then seduced by heretics? What of what happened under Stephen the Younger? Did they not have a most heavy and most bitter persecution? ^D Are they mindful of what a storm, what a force of tempest then tossed the monks in the sea? But why do I hasten to recount everything? For when I remember what happened before these things under Basil the Great, as the great Gregory narrates, and what happened under John Chrysostom, who poured forth the golden river of eloquence, and the Fathers who followed them, I both judge myself a wretch, and I pity those who do not weigh these things. For they do not know well enough that all past time was more mournful and openly filled with the tares of the malignant one.

Nevertheless, however sad and adverse were the things of the past, there are, notwithstanding, many heretics in this time as well; many wolves, asps, and serpents among our sides; but they can do nothing against us, and they act as if they were in a certain night of their own malignancy. And indeed, to those who come to them, and to those wrapped in their own darkness, they seize and devour them. But to those walking in the light of the divine Scriptures and proceeding on the way of God’s commandments, they do not even dare to approach: but when they discern them passing by, they flee from their sight just as from a flame. Whom, then, do you suspect I mean by heretics? Is it those who deny the Son of God? Those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit and despoil Him of divinity? Those who assert that the Father is greater than the Son? Those who confound the Trinity into a unity, or divide the one God into three gods? Those who call Christ the Son of God, yet do not believe that the same One assumed a body from a woman? Those who prattle that He assumed a body, but without a soul? Those who, while they contend that it was animated in such a way that He was an entire human being, not one called the Son of God and Mary according to one hypostasis, yet divide the one Christ into two sons? Or finally, those who circumscribe the Father, who is without beginning, with a beginning, and do not fear to say, "There was when the Father was not"—that is, that He was not once the Father? Or those who perversely both feel and teach that the Father indeed lacks a beginning of paternity, but that the Son, as one generated from Him, received a beginning after some time, like a creature? For "there was," they say, "sometime the Father, when the Son was not with Him." And who, then, will be called Father, who is without a Son? Or perhaps they assert that He who suffered is one, and He who rose from the dead is another? Away with it! I do not speak to you of any of those impious ones and atheists, nor of any of the other heresies which, like darkness that emerged, were dispelled and dissipated by the Fathers who shone at that time like light. For to such a degree did the grace of the Holy Spirit shine through them, and drive away the darkness of the aforementioned heresies, that even today, the volumes composed by them under God’s guidance shine more brightly than the light of the sun, and no one dares to contradict them.

But I am speaking of those, and I designate them as heretics, who teach that there is no one in our current age, and in our midst, who is able to provide for the observance of the evangelical commands and to conform himself to the model of the holy Fathers.

^A That he may first of all be a believer and devoted to action—for faith is shown by works, just as the likeness of a face is demonstrated through a mirror—and then that he may excel in contemplation, and behold God, inasmuch as being illuminated by Him and increased by the Holy Spirit, he knows the Father through the same Son as well. Those, therefore, who reason that this cannot happen, are not nurturing some particular heresy, but, if it can be said, all of them; since this mindset exceeds and includes all others in the magnitude of its impiety and blasphemy. That denier overturns the divine Scriptures all at once. In vain, I think, does the fool say that it is necessary to read the Gospel: he testifies that the writings of the great Basil and our other holy priests and Fathers are read in vain or are counterfeit. If, therefore, all the things that God says and all the things the saints performed in their deeds were written for our admonition, and it is impossible for us to perform them in practice so that nothing is omitted, why is it that they consecrated those things with so much labor in letters, and why are they read even now in the Church? Those who say these things shut the heaven that was opened for us by Christ as He descended, and they obstruct the ascent into it, which He Himself restored for us. For when He, who is God above all, stands above as if at the gate of heaven and looks down, and is beheld by the faithful, and calls out through the holy Gospel: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt. XI, 28), these enemies of God—or rather, Antichrist’s heralds—say: "This cannot be done; that cannot be done." To whom the Lord rightly replies with a loud voice: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! Woe to you, ^B blind guides of the blind, because you do not enter into the kingdom of heaven, and you hinder those who wish to enter" (Matt. XXIII, 13, 24).

O the astonishment, and the mouth that is too impudent and unrestrained, uttering wicked words against the most high God, and casting Christ’s sheep out to be seized by wild beasts, for whom the only-begotten Son of God truly poured out His blood! Well did the divine father David prophesy concerning such men: "Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword" (Ps. LVI, 5). For why, tell me, is that impossible? And for what other purpose have the saints shone forth on earth? And why have they existed as beacons of the world? If it were impossible, neither would they have ever been able to do rightly, since they also were men like us, and possessed nothing more than we do, except a certain and deliberate purpose of doing good, zeal, patience, humility, and the love of God. Do you possess these things likewise, and your stony heart will now become a fountain of tears for you. But if you refuse to suffer tribulations and hardships, at least do not affirm that it is something greater than human capacity. For he who says this denies purification. Indeed, it has never been heard since humans were born that a soul, which after baptism had defiled itself with sin, was purified from those filthinesses without tears. For through baptism God took away every tear from the face of the earth, when He poured out His Holy Spirit in abundance. But as I have learned from holy Scripture, even in baptism itself some who were baptized simultaneously were pricked by the coming of the Spirit and wept. They do not have the pain of those in labor, nor are the tears laborious; but by the efficiency and the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are sweeter than honey, which He derives through the eyes without labor, without clamor.

(13) Our Simeon might be seen as attributing too much to tears, especially in Oration 32, if indeed he is speaking of bodily tears, as he certainly seems to be. For although tears flowing from internal sorrow of the heart contribute much to cleansing the stains of sin, they are not, however, so necessary that if they are absent, the stains contracted after baptism cannot be expiated; since they are not in the power of man. And sometimes a man may weep unwillingly, and sometimes he cannot weep when he wishes, as Durandus rightly said (IV, d. 47, q. 4). Which, I conjecture, Simeon also acknowledged, because in Oration 32 he advises that if anyone lacks tears, he should nevertheless desire them with his whole strength and soul. Which indicates that he would be content not only with tears, but also with the desire for tears, although this is not absolutely necessary to be had explicitly; but implicitly and tacitly, every person who has true contrition has this desire; by this very fact, that he is prepared to do and endure anything for the sake of appeasing God. Furthermore, it is so far from the case that this bodily weeping of itself is simply necessary for obtaining the remission of sins, that sometimes the greatest contrition could exist in the soul without this external weeping; because tears are not immediately and of themselves the effect of the internal pain ^C by which the will is affected; but only mediately and indirectly. "As the lower powers are moved from the overflowing of the higher," says Durandus, "which does not happen as effectively as when they are moved by their own objects." Even though they do not follow necessarily even mediately for internal pain. And because these bodily movements follow immediately upon the passions of the sensitive part, it happens that tears follow more quickly from sensible pain, or even from sensible fear, than from the spiritual pain of contrition, as Saint Thomas rightly teaches (in Supplem. III, p. quaest. 3, art. 1). He says "more quickly," however, because if they do follow more quickly, other things being equal, they follow from sensible pain rather than from spiritual; although it is not necessary that they should always exist even from sensible [pain]; since it is evident from experience that some are tormented by the most grievous bodily pains, and yet do not emit even one tiny tear.

Let Cassian be read (Collat. 9, ch. 27, 28, 29, and 30), where he discourses beautifully on tears; among other things he writes thus: "From those who already transfer themselves into the affection of virtues; in no way should the profusion of tears be extorted by such means, nor should the weeping of the exterior man be greatly sought after; for even if they be produced in some way, they will never be able to reach that abundance of spontaneous tears." Holy, therefore, are the tears that proceed from the love of God and the detestation of sins, and thus they are to be sought from God with assiduous prayers; but they are not simply necessary either for obtaining or for retaining salvation. ^D Let the reader see, if he pleases, the book on the contempt of the world by Isaac the monk and priest, and the 107th homily of Antiochus, which is inscribed *concerning compunction*.

Wherefore, those to whom it has been granted to experience these tears will recognize what I have said, and will give testimony that it is true, just as that voice of the Theologian also confirms me. Let someone offer it: this person says one thing, that person another; and with many things enumerated in the midst, he adds in the end: all things are tears, all things are purification, all things are ascent, and stretching forth to the things that are before. Did he therefore distinguish in this, or did he separate some, and say that those ones could do this, but these ones could not? Did he, as you foolishly assert—you, I say, uncircumcised in heart and ears (I shall touch you as you deserve)—because some have been allotted a harder nature, who are unable to be pricked at any time and to shed tears, as the great Gregory also adds? Far be it! For human nature is not so fashioned that, if it were not rather the case that griefs and tears are innate in it—nor did this saint, or any other of the saints, say or write this. But that weeping is inherent in us by nature, let infants themselves teach you when they are born: for as soon as they have issued from the womb, they wail, and by that evidence they show their mothers and the midwives that they are alive. For an infant, unless it wails, is not even said to live. If it wails, it immediately demonstrates that grief and tears are companions to its nature from its very birth. And our holy father Simeon the Studite also confirmed this, that a man ought to pass this life with such tears, and with, etc. (A page is missing in both copies at this place.) ^B By force, although you are unwilling to hear it, even though the divine Scripture daily cries out clearly: *For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.* Since this will happen to us all shortly, where then will the precious garment be that covers and adorns our bodies? Where the conspicuous shoulder-pieces? Where the shining and translucent robes? Where those beautiful, solid sandals that press the ground? Where the straps, similar to women's girdles? Where the meeting of princes of men? Where being greeted honorably before others? Where the contentions about the first seat? Where the sumptuous tables? Where (so that I may also say this) to anticipate one's brother, and to take more and better things from what is set before us? which I, the first, and those who are like me, have been accustomed to do, vain and foolish as we are. Where then will our pride and haughtiness be, to command and to be commanded? Where the wide cells, elegantly decorated in the manner of a bridal chamber? Where the prerogatives of those who serve and those who are served in those things in which we think we ought to surpass others? Where the immoderate and unseemly laughter? Where long and most elaborate suppers, and amidst these, untimely conversations? Where then are the great names? ^C Where is the holiness which we now think we possess, or which we think even others possess? Where are the flatterers and deceivers, who now call us saints, and fear to tread in our footsteps? Where are the high thrones, and those who, sitting upon them, appear more illustrious than the rest? Where the rushing about and diligence for the sake of possessing something, or of acquiring a greater position? Where the contradiction, and stubbornness, and the refusal to be seen as behind others? Where the affection of kinsmen toward us? Where the pride of worldly and noble men who used to visit us? Through whom I, wretched that I am, imagine and persuade myself that I attain brilliance above the rest. Where the knowledge of those who are renowned in the wisdom of this world? Where the magnificent opinion of one's self, and the thinking that we are something, when we are nothing? Where then is the slippery tongue, and the speech flowing as if from a fountain? Where then, or rather where now, is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the seeker of this age, so that he may return, and we may resolve together, and consult concerning that terrible day and that hour, and move in ourselves all that is said to be gnawing, and in the divine Scriptures, and by searching accurately may be taught from them, and may learn what can profit us then, and may choose that most eagerly? Thus, my beloved brothers, as all Scripture openly cries out, there is a great necessity, a great fear and trembling in that hour, just as it will seize me, the idle, the dissolute, and the slothful. But blessed, brothers, is he who now, being subject to every creature, mourns, and weeps night and day before the Lord, for he shall be placed standing at His right hand, clothed in a stole. Blessed is he who hears these things, and not only groaning, nor putting off from day to day, lets the time of his life run out without fruit: but who, as soon as he receives the Lord's voice: *Repent*, immediately sets his hand to the work. For such a one, as an obedient and good servant, will obtain mercy, and will not be condemned with the disobedient. And in this life, indeed, he will be freed from all vicious movements of the soul, and will turn out a proven cultivator of all virtues: but in the life to come, he will delight in the good things of God which no tongue can express, with all those who have pleased Him from the age; which may we all attain, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the holy Spirit, be glory, empire, honor, and adoration now and always, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

ORATION XXXI.

ARGUMENT

As for what Simeon might have been looking to with these words—words, I say: 'But as I have heard from the divine Scripture, and in baptism itself they were...'—where, indeed, do we read in the sacred Letters that those of that same age, or those baptized simultaneously, burst into tears at the very moment of baptism?

ORATION XXXI

^A possess [these gifts], bearing injuries and contempt in time of temptation with joy and ineffable cheerfulness of spirit; and they love those by whom they are so treated with a sincere affection, even as those who deserve well of them. But he who, in time of temptation, does not calmly endure spittings, slaps, and insolently inflicted injuries, or who, agitated in spirit, utters an unseemly word, or finally, by his outward demeanor, shows himself fervent with anger and rises up with contumelious words, or does anything else for the sake of taking revenge—how will he dare to call himself, in any part, a servant and imitator of his Lord, and not rather [the Lord’s] enemy? For he who resists the one striking him, and strikes back in turn, dishonors God, who says: *He who strikes you on one cheek, offer him also the other.*

^B Furthermore, those who defend themselves in this way, saying, "In quarrels and strife we are moved to anger and heat like other men; sometimes we even avenge ourselves on our brothers by word and deed, but afterwards we harbor no ill-will toward them, but forgive everything, especially if we have mutually granted pardon," seem to me like clean tablets. Upon these, the enemy and foe, having seized the opportunity, writes his own perverse doctrines through these people themselves; and when they, in turn, erase what they had written under the devil’s prompting, they refuse to write the doctrines of Christ in their place, so that when the adversary returns, he finds their hearts’ tablets written over, and departs defeated in shame. But each of them, out of sloth and negligence, leaves these tablets blank, and when the Lord commands that His laws be written on any of them, they immediately and readily write the laws of the enemy, and, admitting the bitter and deadly, they repel the life-giving, which are sweeter than honey.

Therefore, Jesus our Lord and God, who committed no sin, was struck, so that by His example sinners might not only receive the remission of sins but also, through obedience, become partakers of His divinity. And whoever does not admit this in the humility of his heart, as if ashamed to imitate the Lord's sufferings, Christ will be ashamed of him before His angels and His heavenly Father.

What I mean is this: When He was God, for our sake He put on human nature, was struck with slaps, spat upon, and nailed to the cross, teaching and saying in a way to each of us through the things He suffered (He who, insofar as He is God, could not suffer): "If you wish to be god, O man, and to attain eternal life to live with me—which the father of your race, having craved it wrongly, did not attain—humble yourself as I have humbled myself for your sake, and, having put aside arrogance and pride (in which the diabolical spirit resides), receive slaps, spittings, and blows. Endure these even unto death, and do not be ashamed. If, however, you are ashamed to suffer for my commands, after I, being God, have suffered for you, then I, too, when I come with majesty, will be ashamed to have you with me, and I will say to my angels: 'This man was ashamed of my humility, ^C and as he did not sustain [the effort] to imitate me, he did not sustain expressing my image. Now, when he is stripped of fleeting glory, and I have been glorified in the immortal glory of my Father, I am ashamed even to look upon him. Therefore, let him be cast out—let the impious one be taken away, so that he may not see my glory.'"

Let those who think they observe all the Lord's commandments hear these words, yet because of shame and reproach among men, they do not endure injuries, ignominies, and curses inflicted by them, nor do they tolerate slaps, blows, and inflicted wounds. Shudder and tremble, you mortals, and even you, with joy, suffer the injuries which God endured for your salvation. God is struck on the face by a most impure servant—as an example to you—and do you, a man subject to the same affections, shrink from suffering this? Are you ashamed to be an imitator of God? And in what way will you reign with Him, and be glorified with Him in the kingdom of heaven, if you have endured nothing with Him? For if He, so far as it concerned Him, had been ashamed to be born a man for your sake, and had left you hitherto lying in the lapse of transgression, would you not, O wretched one, have remained in the recesses of hell with the infidels and the impious? "Do you believe," you ask, "that Christ is God?" I believe, you say. If, therefore, you believe that He is God who created heaven and earth, and who—without [losing] His divinity—was emptied from the bosom of the Father, who descended from the immense height of His divinity and His inexplicable glory, and for your sake became an abject and poor man—you, who are mud, ash, and dust, cannot bring yourself to descend from your high throne and humble yourself to your brother, who indeed seems to stand below you, but perhaps surpasses you in virtues? Why do you cast aside the garment that is splendid in your judgment, made of the hairs of that one, and [refuse to] reverence his humility? Why do you despise all things which are truly a game, and coverings, and a mask of filth rather than of glorious splendor? Why, through all things, do you not show yourself like to your Maker and God, humbling yourself with Him before your brothers? If you do not wish to be made like Him, you make yourself greater and more glorious than Him, I know not how, and you show yourself to us as another Annas, or Caiaphas, or the tyrant Pilate, desiring that the Maker of the universe stand before you, not as an assessor, but as one of the damned.

These things are said to the rich and the princes and the leaders of others, and to those who lift up their eyebrows with arrogance. What shall we now say to those who, having left everything, have reduced themselves to poverty for the sake of the kingdom of heaven? What, I say, shall we say? Behold, brother, you have become a beggar and have imitated the Lord Christ and God. Consider therefore this [Lord] now joined to you and living with you, who is above all the heavens. Behold, you proceed together, the two of you. Someone meets you on the road and gives the Lord slaps; he gives slaps to you likewise. The Lord does not contradict, and do you rush to counter?

^A For He said to the one striking Him: “If I have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?” He did not utter this to contradict, as you think, but because He Himself had committed no sin whatsoever, nor was guile found in His mouth. Furthermore, lest he who had said, “Do you answer the high priest so?” should be thought to have stricken Him justly, as if He had sinned, He spoke thus, wishing to declare Himself innocent. But we, bound by many crimes, are very far removed from that innocence. For afterwards, the Lord, although He had received many things more unworthy than this, uttered not a single word; nay, what is fully established, He prayed even for His crucifiers. He is mocked and is not indignant, and do you take it ill? He endures spittle, blows, and scourges, and are you unable to hear even a harsh word? He accepts the cross, ^B and an ignominious death, and the pains of the nails, and do you refuse to perform more humble services? And how can you be a partaker of His glory, if you refuse to become a partaker of His death? You have surely renounced riches in vain, if you are unwilling to take up the cross in truth as He commanded: “Sell what you have, and give to the poor, and take up your cross, and follow me,” the Christ commanded the young man, and us with him. Yet you, having distributed your goods, while dreading to take up the cross—which, as we have said, is nothing else than to endure and suffer the impression of all temptations with a cheerful spirit—have been left in the way of this life, and have been torn from your most sweet Lord. But, I beseech you, fathers and brothers, let us keep all the commandments of Christ, let us endure the temptations that come upon us even unto death for the love of the heavenly kingdom, so that we may become both companions of the glory of Jesus, and partakers of eternal life, and heirs of goods to which no speech is equal, by the grace and kindness of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, power, and honor, with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for all eternity. Amen.

ORATION XXXII.

ARGUMENT.

Since, fathers and brothers, the divine monuments of the sublime actions of our holy Father the Studite have been read to us, which, inspired by the heavenly Spirit, he published for the benefit of many, along with other things done by him in an extraordinary manner, he also wrote this message, clearly and precisely as he had constantly observed it in his entire life, in these words: “Brother, you will never communicate without tears.” When those who were present (and many were present, not only laymen, but also monks of the great name and fame, on account of their virtue) heard this, they were astonished at the saying, and looking at one another, and smiling together, they said with one voice: “Henceforth let us never communicate, but remain without communion.” I, finding myself miserable and unhappy, pondering these things with myself, and taking them indignantly, wept bitterly in the sorrow of my heart, questioning myself in my soul: “Have they truly been affected this way in this matter, and do they feel just as the words sound, and did they say what they said, seriously considering it impossible? Or rather, did they mock it with a mere word, thinking it a task neither small nor easy to weep at the time of communion?” Indeed, unless someone is occupied in weeping before Christ God day and night, and wishes to partake of the divine mysteries, how will he be able to mourn or weep and drop tears according to God? For how? Unless perhaps by some secret economy, or by chance due to some cause, it happens rarely to someone, which does not seem wonderful to me, since many have even wept at the exit of their soul from the body. I opine, however, that here they are not many, but very few, and their number can easily be counted. But if they think it absolutely impossible that anyone should partake of the divine mysteries with tears daily, such words are spoken out of ignorance, sloth, and blindness. For if they had judged themselves, they would not be judged by their own words. If they were studious of repentance, they would not have uttered this as an impossibility. If they were busy with fruitful works, they would have some taste of such a good and great liberality of Christ. If there were in them the fear of God, they would attest that someone could mourn and weep not only at the time of the communion of the divine mysteries, but also almost every hour. Wherefore, wishing to instruct your charity more certainly about this, and addressing those who spoke in this way as if they were present, I decided that an inquiry must be made. “Tell me, good men, why can this not be done?” “Because,” they say, “some are indeed prone and easy toward compunction, others have a hard, others a stony heart, who even when pricked are not pricked.” Who then are so disposed? Who will be able to weep and mourn, and always communicate with tears? Moreover, do not the priests themselves, who perform the divine and unbloody sacrifice, pour forth tears? This very thing, then—to be hard, as you said, and difficult to move to compunction—whence does it happen to them? Tell me, if you know. If you are ignorant, humbly lowering your highness, without shame, and kindly inclining your ear, do not be grieved to learn from me, the lowest. For it is written: “If, however, anything has been revealed to the last, let the first be silent.” ^D Whence, therefore, do you say, is one man hard, and another soft toward compunction? Listen. From purpose and will, one is good, the other evil; and from thoughts, this man is indeed wicked, but the other is of a different sort: and from actions, this one is a sign of divine love, the other of its opposite. And if you please, consider, and you will see that all men, from the beginning of the ages, through these three things alone, have partly become many good men from bad, and partly many bad men from good. For as from the beginning

ORATION XXXII.

^A If we were to enumerate them from the beginning, whence did the fall of Lucifer arise? Was it not because he consented to a perverse will and thought? Whence comes the fratricide Cain? Was it not from a depraved will, when he had preferred himself to the Creator and had left room for wicked thoughts, that he became subject to envy and perpetrated murder? Whence did Saul seek to capture and kill David, whom he had previously valued as much as himself, and whom he loved greatly as one who served him well? Was it from nature or from a corrupted will? It is clear: from a vicious and depraved will. For by nature, no one is evil, since God is the author and effector of good works, not of evil ones. Indeed, everyone is rather good by nature and truth, and this not by acquisition or choice, but by nature and truth. To these points, whence did one of the thieves crucified with the Lord Jesus say: "If thou be the Son of God, save thyself and us," while the other, reproving him, replied: "Neither dost thou fear God, seeing we are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done no evil." I ask you to tell me, whence did the one speak these things, and the other those, and why one was justified while the other was condemned? Was it not from the will and thoughts of each—one, indeed, through good intentions, and the other, contrariwise, through evil? For from these, the one became an unbeliever, while the other became a believer, saying: "Remember me, Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom."

^B To pass over many others in silence, from these you have perceived and learned what I intend: that everyone, by the liberty of his own will, is either inclined to compunction and humility, or becomes hard-hearted and proud. And deservedly so. For when two men renounce this life—being of the same craft, kinsmen, of the same age, sometimes even brothers, in harmony, living in the same manner, being, I say, wicked, harsh, devoid of mercy, cruel, desirous of the flesh and money, and equally practiced in every kind of perversity—and enter together into the stadium of a holy life consecrated to the worship of God, one of them happily treads the path of all virtues, cutting off all vices with fervor in their execution; the other becomes worse than he was before his renunciation. What, then, is the reason that they do not equally discharge the duty of virtue, just as they had equally attained the fullness of vices? Is it not because one, by the counsel and will of a good soul, endures all sorrows according to God, and furthermore, from the very beginning of his entry and renunciation, wisely gives himself to the divine Scriptures, and of himself and by his own will chooses approved actions, proposing to himself the life and manners of religious men to imitate, and contends with them in fasts, in prayers, in observances, in silence, in compunction, and in tears, in abstinence from delicate foods and untimely conversations, in fleeing from heat, anger, and clamor, patiently enduring injuries, tribulations, and straits, voluntarily undertaking the meaner and more abject tasks, neither speaking back nor murmuring when he ^C is commanded: but promptly performing each thing, and, finally, ever seeking the lowest place, and, to speak briefly, performing with knowledge all things taught to us by the divine Scriptures, having obtained the forgiveness of past sins and mercy, he finds confidence before God? But he who commits all things contrary to these—namely, bad things by the prompting of a bad mind—remains wicked, the very thing he was even before his renunciation: not to say that he becomes even more wicked than he was. Thus, it is not by nature, as some opine, but by a will voluntarily assumed, that any man becomes either humble and inclined to compunction, or hard-hearted and blinded, and a stranger to compunction.

For in what way, I pray you, will he conceive sorrow of mind and shed tears, who wanders here and there for almost the entire day, and is touched by no care for prayer, silence, reading, or rest; but sometimes chatters with neighbors in assemblies, depriving not only himself but also his companions of profit; sometimes attacks religious brothers with calumnies and reproaches, and sometimes the superior himself? Whence will he acquire compunction who curiously examines and investigates all the affairs of the monastery, and not only of the monastery, but even the manners of each individual? And sometimes, addressing certain brothers, he says, "I heard this and that yesterday." Sometimes, "Do you know what has happened to that poor man?" And again, "Have you heard of that man's calamity?" When will a man of this sort ever remember his own sins, that he might grieve and go into tears? Furthermore, he who even when he has left the Synaxis—while the divine Scriptures are being read there—sits far away or nearby and mixes in conversation with some people, bringing forward here and there certain events without profit, and to those saying, "Do you know what the superior did to that brother?" he replies in this way: "If I tell you how he treated that unhappy man, what will you say?" Thus chattering such things and worse than these, and hindering others on account of such trifles, and being hindered himself, when will he descend into the conscience of his own sins and weep for himself? For he who does not attend to divinely inspired sermons, nor has "set a door before his lips," nor turned his ears away from vain hearing, nor recalls that final answer and the terrible judgment seat of Christ—how we must all stand naked before Him, dragged as if by a twisted neck, and render an account of the things transacted in life—who, I ask, does not remember the hour, how, I pray, if he were to live more than a hundred years in the monastic habit, would he acquire tears and fervently mourn for himself? How will he who affects the first place in the station of the Church and at the table, and over these things is always contending and quarreling, ever be saddened for his own soul and be dissolved into bitter tears before God? But he who makes excuses in sins, ^D and...

^A objects his bodily weakness to standing in the church, although he is robust and has a full, youthful body, and compares himself to the more religious monks and brethren, who have labored long in the profession of the monastic life, saying: Do I yield anything to this man, or to that, because he stands and leans? and he goes away and makes himself equal to them by standing and leaning, he who is perhaps unworthy even of a lower place, when he ought to acknowledge his own infirmity, that he might groan from his soul, be pricked in his heart, and weep with his eyes? For vain glory delivers him as a slave to sloth, nor does it allow him to persevere any longer in anything with patience. And thenceforth such a person lives in idleness and negligence, and at every Synaxis, to those approaching him and desiring to hear, he tells vain and old wives' fables. And thus, without sense, or, to speak better, without sorrow for his sins, he comes to the divine synaxes with men who are sanctifying themselves to God, and he departs thence without fruit, experiencing within himself no incitement and impulse toward better things—such as God is accustomed to send to those striving and laboring through compunction—and he thinks it sufficient for his own progress in virtue and for his reaching the perfection of the perfect in the age of Christ, only that he is not absent from the accustomed and prescribed synaxes; for example, in the morning, and the evening, and the hours at which they sing the psalms. I know, in fact, some caught by this fallacy, who take pains not to fall into any carnal sin, if they have joined body to body; but as for the things that are done by them in secret, or the things that are rolled about and thought of in the hiding-places of the heart, they take no account, and they suppose that they will be saved without any other work (understand: of prayers, silence, vigils, continence, poverty of spirit, humility) with only the simple coming together for the synaxes. But the matter is otherwise. For God, brethren, does not look at the face, nor at the mere outward modesty of manners, but at the heart that is contrite, and humbled, and quiet, and full of the fear of God: Upon whom, he says, shall I look, except upon him who is meek, and quiet, and trembles at my words ^B?

What, moreover, shall I say of those who, which is shameful, go to their superiors and lay petitions before them? And whoever gives attention only to exterior religion and piety, or rather, who thirst only for gain, glory, and present things. Are we not, they say, worthy also, venerable Father, to minister to the monastery and the brethren? Is this one here and there the only person suitable for this ministry, and did he learn to manage and administer matters better than we do? Make a trial, if you please, upon us also, and you will find that the business of the monastery is conducted more rightly by us than by them. Others, indeed, although they have arrived from the world only the day before yesterday, and have given themselves from the very moment of their renunciation to sloth, idleness, and countless sins ^C, gradually then, desiring to meddle in any other business, they feign exterior piety, and a modest habit, and they studiously run to the friends of others, and to the illustrious men coming into the monastery, and they go more frequently to those to whom the brethren come, so that they may come to their notice, pretending as a reason that they might receive utility from their (the brethren's, that is) conversations and the explanations of divine Scripture. What follows, therefore, is that they begin to run about through the monastery, and to visit from cell to cell, and say to each one: Believe me, brother, I love you so much that I do not think I have lived on the day I have not seen you. But if any of those to whom he comes saying these things fears God, he answers him with these words: May God be mindful of your charity, brother. For what good do you see in me? Then he, But what good do you not have? Who is so meek, pious, wise, learned, candid, and—which is greater than all—bearing fatherly bowels, and humane toward everyone? He says these things for this end, that he might eat from his plate at the same time. The spiritual brother, however, according to the grace given to him, deals with him concerning the salvation of his soul, and as much as is in him, rejects his praise and corrects the brother. But if such a one is not found, but on the contrary, a carnal, unstable man is found, he is inflated by the praises, and receives them, and says, O father, and brother, what is greater than charity? Certainly nothing. Blessed is he who possesses it, and at length he knows those other things which the flatterer willingly hears and incites others to praise ^D. Afterwards, such a one, as if soothed by the feigned praises and puffed up by the lightness of his mind, if a supply is available, soon does not even allow this encomiast of his to leave, but asks that he feast with him, and receiving him with food, he receives the airy praises, which are dissipated like smoke into the air, but which bring no moderate detriment to his soul. But if not, he says to him after long and useless chatter: Do not hold it as a fault against me, brother; charity itself knows I have nothing worthy that I might set before you. But because you love me, abject as I am, we must in the future commu

communicate ^A of what God will have provided for food, and rejoice together. Thenceforth, therefore, each of these is troubled by perpetual anxiety, nor do they cease to seek out ways by which they might have sufficiency, whereby, through various and many foods, they might seem to establish charity. Thus, when by a show of affection, or rather by fraud, he has bound himself to everyone, now he invites another, now he is invited by each of the others. Wherefore, the table and the festivity, in the delights of food, do not fail him until he is sated, and thus he becomes a swine, is constricted by his pleasures, and constantly serves his belly; for I fear even to say, what follows under the belly. Wherefore, ^B being gluttonously stuffed in all his members, daily when the evening comes, departing after his service from supper to his cell, he says to his servant: "Hey, you rogue, I am parched with thirst, but prepare [me] a hot drink, and give me to drink, and quench my thirst." The servant, as one who is used to the custom, is found at once benevolent and most prompt to act, since he himself also feasts with him. Then he drinks and swallows pure wine, with the darkness hiding him. And after he has once drunk, he is again excited to crave food, and by the sweetness of the banquet, as if secretly stolen away from himself, he does not feel himself sated, and renders his belly obese, and intractable, and rebellious to the appetite of the soul. Then a thought suggests to him: "Dismiss the servant, and standing, pour out your accustomed prayers." Another thought answers to this: "But how will you stand when you are so weighed down? Sleep a little, and help nature to digest what you have eaten, and rise before the synaxis; then, with a lighter body, you will pray conveniently." He listens to the thought, and lying down he sleeps, and once eased by sleep he does not arise: "But," he says, "it is not yet time, I will sleep a little nap more." Thus, putting it off, the morning synaxis overtakes him. Then rising, he approaches the Synaxis, feeling his conscience ^C accusing him of his negligence and sloth. As therefore we said before, he keeps this custom, so that he visits the cells of friends and dear Fathers more frequently, until finally he sits down, sups with them, drinks, chats, and thus returned to his cell, he becomes unfit not only for the evening prayer, but also for the morning Synaxis, unable to think or to do anything spiritual at all. Nay, even in his own cell, if another has approached, he similarly draws out the conversation into the night, and sometimes carps at and judges the life of others, and in such a state he persists in all his age, before the time destroying himself through drunkenness, surfeiting, and unworthy anxieties.

But why have I discussed all these things? That I might teach you, brothers, that he who leads such a life can never draw a tear from his eyes. For who could draw one, he who always serves his own belly, and is anxious from day to day, like the heathens, as to what he shall eat or what he shall drink, and is subject to the pleasure of gluttony as to a mistress? ^D But let us suppose, nevertheless, that he abstains from those things which we have named, and neither goes to another's cell, nor admits another to his cell, nor has time for distending his belly, or for drinking, or for idle talk, but with his door closed remains entirely within his cell; what profit is it to him if spiritual action with understanding is lacking, but he sits covering something to bring forth at the time of the synaxis, or even during the arrival or presence of friends, so that he may appear knowing and skilled? But let us grant that he does not do this for that end and purpose, but for the sake of utility, and so that he may listen to the word of God, [and] read the divine Scriptures; then to rise, and to stand to pray, and let his prayer be two psalms, or three, ten, or a hundred, and let him perform genuflections as many as you wish. Afterward, with all these things completed, he commands his body to sleep, nothing more. What then is the fruit for him, I ask, while he does this and only this, nor does the fruit of prayers, of reading, flourish in his soul through the tears of penitence? Which fruit, indeed, is the voiding of perturbations, the accession of humility and meekness, and knowledge with wisdom. For anyone who out of spiritual knowledge performs the work of the commandments of God, in proportion to his laborious action, acquires what has been said. If, however, to one thinking he is laboring and working, what has been said does not flourish, his action is not according to God, but merely to please men, and deservedly he does not attain better things. Who therefore lives such a life continually, among those of whom we have spoken, will he ever be able, as from the beginning of his renunciation, to expose himself wholly to enduring and suffering all things troublesome according to God, as we have said above, to obtain tears or compunction; or to cast away the vices, and wickedness, and hardness of heart that adhere to him from the world, and to possess humility? By no means. He deceives himself whoever thinks thus, or lays this law for himself. For as iron that is not ignited cannot glow just as that which is ignited, or be reduced by some other mechanism to softness, and be forged, and be molded into an instrument accommodated for use: so neither is it possible for the negligent and slothful person, and one living a life so harmful, as we have taught, [to be] one who from the beginning has been impressed and signed with spiritual forms as with excellent patterns by subjection to the Fathers, and has attained a life adorned with virtues to be equal [to them], and to enjoy the same gifts and charisms of the Spirit. Nor without cause. For he who is humble of heart, and bears submissive thoughts and a contrite soul, and has determined to obey the divine Scriptures more studiously, and although he sustains tribulation, endures every kind of temptation, and furthermore counts himself among all the more abject—deeming these his actions to be sins—and daily is reproving himself, and considering himself as a sinner, in a short time, helped by the grace of God, he progresses, who was once held in such delights, of whom Lipsius [writes in] lib. II Elect. cap. 4.

^A And he who has no man by whom he may be taught what pertains to salvation, gradually cuts away from his soul the depravities and wickedness which cling to it from this world, and in their place introduces virtues. But he who is full of filth and looks upon himself with pride, and is unwilling to humble himself under the powerful hand of God, and to reveal the wickedness of his heart to a spiritual father, and to cling to him, and to do and suffer all things which conduct to virtue and God with discretion, and who does not wish to perfect himself according to His will, becomes worse than he was in the world, the worldly spirit having returned and dwelling in him, along with seven other wicked spirits. And thus that other ^B man so far outstrips or overcomes his brother who has entered upon the stadium, as he who runs free and unencumbered overcomes one who is impeded by chains and iron shackles: while this man, being defeated, remains in his former evils, or even in worse ones, unwilling to perform good deeds by seeking, of his own accord, the contests of virtue.

Therefore, as I have taught above, and as the divinely inspired Scripture testifies everywhere, compunction is the fruit of action, and the conciliatrix of fruits, nay rather, the producer and mother and architect of all virtues. Hence, it is necessary for him who desires to cut away turbulent affections or to possess virtues, to strive for this above all good things and diligently with all virtues, without which he will never see his soul pure, and thus will not at all acquire purity of the body. For it is not given to wash a soiled garment without water: and much less can the soul be washed and purified from stains and defilements without tears. ^C Let us not make vain and noxious excuses for the soul, or, to speak more truly, entirely false and destructive ones; but let us seek this queen of virtues with our whole heart. For he who does this with all his soul finds it: or rather, it itself comes and finds him who seeks it with labor: and whether the heart be harder than bronze, or iron, or adamant, as soon as it arrives, it renders it softer than any wax. For it is a certain divine fire, dissolving mountains and rocks, and smoothing all things, and turning them into gardens, and making the souls that receive it different from what they were. For in the midst of them is made a fountain, whence the water of life is always springing, and shining forth, irrigates them generously, and as if from a vessel it flows down upon those who are near and those who are far, and abundantly fills the souls which receive the sacred words with faith. It washes away first the stains of those who have defiled themselves: afterwards, it together washes away and routs the affections entangled in vice, plucking them off like the scabs of wounds, such as wickedness, envy, vainglory, and all other things which follow them. Nor only that, but also like a certain flame surrounding them, it gradually abolishes them, and hour by hour burns them up like thorns, and consumes them: which indeed is the first ^D of this perfect liberty and purity. Then it generates in those who love Him a desire for the goods promised and reserved by God. All these things the divine fire of compunction works with tears, or rather through tears. Without tears, however, as we have said (16), nothing of these things has ever happened in us ourselves or in others, nor will it happen. For no one, as can be proved from the divine Scriptures, without tears and perpetual compunction, will ever have been purified, or found holiness, or received the Holy Spirit, or seen God, or felt Him dwelling in himself, or ever at all possessed this inhabitant of the heart, without repentance, I say, and compunction preceding, and tears as if from a fountain always flowing; overflowing, to be sure, and washing the dwelling of the soul, and irrigating and cooling it when it is occupied and burning from the unapproachable fire.

He, therefore, who deems it not possible to weep day and night shows himself stripped of every virtue. For if our holy Fathers have asserted thus, and have said that he who wishes to cut away perturbations cuts them away by weeping, and he who wishes to acquire virtues acquires them by weeping, it is manifest that he who does not shed tears daily neither cuts away perturbations nor properly acquires virtues, even if he thinks that he is giving himself to the work. For what, I ask you, are the instruments of an art if the craftsman is not present who knows how to handle the material and form a suitable vessel from it? And what does it profit the gardener if he has tilled the whole garden and sown and planted every kind of vegetable in it, if heaven’s rain has not descended upon them, or if they have not been irrigated with water? Nothing at all. Thus, neither will he who labors in other virtues and pursues them accomplish anything worth the effort without that blessed and holy mistress and architect of all virtues. For as an emperor without his army is weak, and can come into the power of anyone, and does not appear as an emperor but is like other men: so, in turn, a numerous army and camps deprived of their emperor or supreme leader are easily scattered by a small effort and are destroyed by adversaries. In the same way, think of mourning in relation to the remaining virtues. For consider the army collected into one, and all the introductory and as it were precursor virtues, as the emperor, and the leader of these as that blessed mourning and weeping, through which all the forces are marshaled into battle, and are ordered, incited, corroborated, and taught by a certain law where, how, and when, and what, and against whom, and against what kind of adversary, and on what occasion they ought to take up weapons. Moreover, who should be sent as scouts, what sentries should be set, what and when answer should be made to the envoys of the enemy. For it is permitted by a single command to put them all to flight. Sometimes even in [interpretare.]

^A tears spring forth from a pained heart. Anyone who cares to read his book—that which he discusses further regarding these things—will find out.

Now, if you also, with your whole heart, in humility and faith, were to perform throughout your entire life, omitting nothing, the things you hear read daily, either in the scriptures or in the psalms, I proclaim to you good news of great joy. For if you persist in doing these things—thirsting, keeping vigil, subjecting yourself even unto death, and obeying your superior without judgment, sustaining every tribulation, injury, insults, slanders, and not only these, but even the lashes and blows from your lowliest brothers with all thanksgiving—so disposing your affection toward them that you do not remember the evils brought upon you by them, but pray for them, then rejoice and exult with ineffable joy. For not only in the evening, morning, and at noon, but even while you are eating and drinking, and most often while conversing with others, chanting psalms, reading, praying, and lying upon your bed, that inexplicable gift of God itself will come and ^B deign to be with you all the days of your life, and will accompany you on the road, and when you turn aside, it will turn aside with you, and it will minister with you while you are ministering, consoling and refreshing the hardships and pains of your labors.

And then you will understand how well and fittingly holy Simeon said that no one should be communicated without tears, and that this can happen, and truly ought to be observed by all. For it is not he, but the Holy Spirit who spoke and wrote through him. For if there is no one without sin, not even an infant whose life is but a single day, and no one can possess a pure heart, it is clear that man ought not, as far as it lies within him, to pass even one single day in his entire life without repentance and tears. For even though he may lack tears, nevertheless, he ought to desire them with all his might and soul, since otherwise, he cannot be pure of sin and chaste of heart.

And therefore, with all and before all, let this be your work, brothers: repentance, and the lamentation conjoined to it, and tears, the companions of lamentation. For there is no lamentation without repentance, nor tears without lamentation; but these three are linked one to another, and one cannot appear without the other. Let no one, therefore, say that it is impossible to weep daily; for he who says this says also that it is impossible to repent daily, and he subverts the whole of Holy Writ, not to mention the very command of God, by which it is said: *Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand* (Matt. IV, 17). And again: *Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you* (Luc. XI, 10). For if you say it is impossible to repent, and to lament, and to weep daily, to humble oneself, always to rejoice, and to pray without ceasing (I Thess. V, 17), and furthermore, to keep one’s own heart free from all disturbances and thoughts so as to look toward God—will you ever say that it is possible for a mortal man, and that these things can be rightly performed by him? You will not say it. And so you put yourself in the number of the unbelievers, not the believers. For if God said that these things can be performed by us, and commanded it, and constantly cries it out, but you affirm the contrary—namely, that they are impossible for us—you plainly differ in no way from an infidel. Do you wish, then, never to receive the Eucharist without tears? Do what is chanted and read by you, and then you will be able to perform this too. Hear the Apostle: *For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified* (Rom. II, 13). What then are these things? Are you perhaps ignorant of them from the ground up? But so that we may not proceed too long in our discourse, we suggest to you the very words of David: If I shall ascend, he says, *above the bed of my couch, if I give sleep unto mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob* (Ps. CXXXI, 3-5). And again: *There is no peace in my bones because of my sins, for my iniquities have passed over my head, and as a heavy burden they have weighed upon me. My scars have putrefied and corrupted, because of my foolishness. I have labored, and have been bowed down even to the end: I went sorrowing all the day long. I am afflicted and humbled exceedingly: I have roared with the groaning of my heart* (Ps. XXXVII, 4-9). *And I am become like a pelican in the wilderness: I have watched, and am become as a sparrow alone upon the house top. For I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping* (Ps. CI, 7-10). *I have labored in my groaning. I will wash my bed through every night: I will water my couch with my tears* (Ps. VI, 7). Furthermore, the author of the *Ladder*, holy John, says: Thirst and vigil press the heart, ^C tears pour forth from a pained heart. And as for what he discusses further regarding these things, anyone who cares to read his book will find out.

Jam si et tu, which you read and chant daily, or hear from others who are reading, omitting nothing, with your whole heart, in humility and faith, were to perform throughout your entire life, I proclaim to you good news of great joy. For if you were to persist in doing these things, yearning, keeping vigil, subjecting yourself even unto death, and obeying your superior without distinction, sustaining every tribulation, injury, reviling, slander—and not only these, but even the lashes and blows from your lowlier brothers—with all thanksgiving, so disposing your affection toward them that you do not remember the evils brought upon you by them, but pray for them, then rejoice and exult with ineffable joy, because not only in the evening, morning, and at noon, but even while you are eating and drinking, and most often while you are conversing with others, chanting, reading, praying, and lying upon your bed, that inexplicable gift of God itself will come and will deign to be with you all the days of your life, and will accompany you on the road, and when you turn aside, it will turn aside with you, and it will minister when you are ministering, consoling and refreshing the annoyances and pains of your labors. And then you will understand how well and fittingly holy Simeon said that no one should be communicated without tears, and that this can be done, and indeed is truly fitting for everyone. For it is not he, but the Holy Spirit who spoke and wrote through him. For if there is no man without sin, not even an infant whose life is one day (Job XIV, 4 sec. LXX), and no one can possess a pure heart, it is clear that a man ought not, as far as he is able, to spend even one single day in his entire life without repentance and tears. For even if he lacks tears, nevertheless he ought to desire them with all his might and soul, since otherwise he cannot be pure of sin and chaste of heart.

But if anyone, weighing within himself the multitude and gravity of his transgressions, does not wish to lie upon the ground and keep vigil, and because of negligence and contempt does not sustain the correcting of the rotting and putrid scars, the appetites liable to evil affections, and the anticipatory opinions which have led him into this stupor—which is true folly—how will he ^D grasp the judgment prepared for sinners and the condemnation, and weep in the sorrow of his heart? Thus he refuses to be troubled by labors and the enduring of hardships, while he is bowed down even to the ground, and goes about sorrowing all the day long, while he is afflicted and humbled exceedingly, roars from the groaning of his heart, and becomes as a sparrow alone upon the house top, and is likened to a pelican in the wilderness, while in affection of soul he becomes a guest and a pilgrim to all things that are in the monastery and in the world, and in small things just as in great things, nothing is permitted to him, while he labors in groaning, and eats ashes like bread, and his drink with...

tears he mingles; how is it ever possible, my brothers, ^A either to wash his bed every night, or to bedew his couch with tears? Surely it is impossible. Not only will he not see these things brought to pass in himself, but he will not even find them in his prayers, nor will he have prepared a place for the Lord, nor a tabernacle worthy of the God of Jacob, who is Christ the Lord, our Savior and God. And if he does not first prepare these things well, he will not, at least in the way one ought, neither with tears nor worthily, receive into himself as his partner and companion God and King, even if he does this only once a year. These people say, "Holy things to the holy," daily, and others sing it out in a loud voice—would that they would sing it to themselves as well! You hear others saying those words. What then? Is he who is not holy also unworthy? Not at all; but he who does not confess the secrets of his heart day by day; he who does not perform worthy penance for these things and for what he has sinned in ignorance; he who does not always mourn, and go about in sorrow, and ^B follow with diligence what we have mentioned above, he is unworthy. But he who performs all these things, and spends the span of his life in groaning and tears, he is indeed, not only on a feast day but daily, from the very beginning of his penance and conversion, most worthy to become a partaker of these divine mysteries. For the Father will find him, as he persists to the very end in these and similar works, walking in humility and contrition of heart. For while he acts thus, he is enlightened in his mind and gaineth help and assistance daily from the participation of the holy things, and he is soon brought to perfect purity and holiness. In no other way can our unclean vessel and filthy dwelling be washed and thoroughly purged. I have learned nothing further than this from the divine Scriptures, nor have I been able to discover and perceive it by my own industry. For let us hear the Apostle saying: *Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself*. And again: *He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, not discerning the Lord's body*. But if he who does not show forth fruits worthy of penance is rebuked as ^D unworthy by the whole of divine Scripture, tell me, how can anyone be purged without tears, and according to his own strength worthily participate in the mysteries? For these are the first fruits of penance. And just as that flow from the body, and the commingling of the heart with every affection, as if it were something voluntary and lustful, is offered by us to the devil like a sacrifice: so the tears that in turn flow from this, from the heart, I say, are offered by us as a grateful and acceptable sacrifice to the Lord, and they wash away the filth of that raging pleasure. Signifying this, David said: *A sacrifice to God is a spirit of* [492 A] *contrition: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise*. And rightly so. For our soul, standing in such a state, and thus humbled, does not pass a single day without tears, according to that word of David: *I will wash my bed with my tears, and I will water my couch with my tears*.

Therefore I ask you, my Fathers and Brothers, that each one should zealously exercise his soul in these and similar things, so that, having been pricked to the heart and gradually changed, it may become a fountain, bubbling up with the streams of tears and compunction. If we do not struggle to be purified in this way, but wish to continue in looseness, sloth, and the swelling of pride, I shall say nothing more offensive, sparing your charity, except this: that even if it happens that someone perhaps communicates with tears, either before the liturgy, ^B or in the divine liturgy itself, or in the very moment of participating in the divine mysteries bestows tears, but does not strive to do the same on the remaining days and nights, no profit will result to him from that single weeping. For this alone does not immediately purge us and make us worthy: but to be occupied in mourning day by day, and without cessation until the supreme light, is what the Lord himself commanded us to do: *Do penance*, he says; *Ask, seek, knock*. Until when? Until ye receive, he says, and find, and it is opened to you. What? The kingdom of heaven, undoubtedly. For this is penance, and it is in such a way without cessation, as we were saying, until death, consumed with labor and tribulation, that it makes us little by little shed tears bitter to us, through which it purges and wipes away the filth and defilements of the soul. Afterward, it implants in us pure penance, and changes bitter tears into sweet ones, and ^C awakens in our hearts an everlasting joy, and prepares for us a way to see the inaccessible light: which light, unless we strive with every zeal to apprehend, my spiritual fathers and brothers, we shall never be able to be freed from all perturbations to the nail; we shall never acquire all virtues; we shall never be able worthily, or with tears according to God, to daily partake of the divine mysteries, or to behold the divine light which is in them. But neither shall we ever have a pure heart: nor shall we recognize the Holy Spirit to be dwelling in us: nor shall we be judged worthy to see God, as the saints do, neither while we are here, nor there, as it seems to me, since we shall have departed from here blind. For according to the opinion of Gregory the Theologian, we shall fall short of the vision of Him in proportion as we have deprived ^D ourselves while in this life of His light, according to the measure of the dullness of our eyes. But would that it might happen to all of us to be purified, and, being purified, to be held worthy to see God! For those who depart from mortal things outside of these two are uncertain of the final judgment to be pronounced upon themselves. That which...

^A is brought into the middle, the parable of the five foolish virgins, demonstrates to us all, and proclaims, that purity of body is of no advantage to us if we are destitute of the remaining virtues. For they, having oil in their vessels little by little—that is, being partakers of certain virtues, and of outward right actions, and of certain charisms (wherefore their lamps also burned for a time)—through negligence, ignorance, and sloth, were condemned to the outer fire. For they did not take care of the internal motions stirred up within them by malignant spirits, nor did they exactly understand them; but by the instigations of the adversaries their minds were corrupted in the consent of their thoughts; they were ensnared by them and defeated, and secretly communing with them in envy, rivalry, contention, strife, hatred, anger, wickedness, malevolence, vain glory, the desire to please men, self-complacence, avarice, the concupiscence of the flesh—working pleasure in their thoughts—incredulity, fear of emptiness, timidity, sloth, sadness, contradiction, pride, sleep, self-opinion, [false] justice, elation, arrogance, greed, luxury, avarice, desperation, and the remaining subtle effects of wickedness. ^B Even the blessed Apostle Paul himself, agreeing with the Lord, cries out: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God.” Why did he use the word “follow”? Because it is impossible for us to become and be holy in one hour. For from a small beginning, one must proceed gradually to holiness and purity, and because, even if we were to remain in this life for a thousand years, we could never reach its perfection, but we ought always, daily, as if laying a foundation and beginning, to strive in it. Which same thing he again indicated when he wrote thus: “I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus.”

Wherefore I pray you, attend to these words, and “Come, let us worship and fall down before the good and benign God. Let us prevent his face with confession, and weep before him who made us; for he is the Lord our God: and we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” And he shall not turn his face from us, if only we repent of our sins from the innermost heart, and if we cast away from us not only our evil deeds, but also cast out the very evil and unclean thoughts of our heart, as it is written: “Rend your hearts, and not your garments.” For what profit is there, I beseech you, if after distributing all our fortunes to the poor, we have not abstained from sin, nor hated it? What then, further, if in the thing itself and in actual deed we do not commit bodily sin, but in our mind we have commerce with foul and unclean thoughts, and in secret conceive sin, and…

led by unbridled affections, we suffer a certain tyranny? For, with our possessions, let us cast away, I pray, the customary servitude of the evils we have already mentioned, and let us not stop here, but let us also diligently wash away their filth with tears of repentance. For just as the emperor himself, who wears the diadem and purple, the symbols of imperial power, who possesses immense treasures of gold and silver, and sits on a high and lofty throne, if from somewhere he should take up mud and soot, and with his own hands smear his entire face and cover all the senses, so that he can neither hear nor smell: then, repenting of the deed and seeking to free himself from this evil, if he does not quickly enter his chamber and with much ^A water wash away that mud and soot, and so return, cleansed as before, to his seat—to his throne, I say—of his kingdom, but only in place of this distributes all his treasures to the needy and gives away all his movable and immovable goods to them, nothing will profit him unless he has washed away the mud and soot with water; nay, he will even move those who see him to laughter, appearing in the midst of his attendants and nobles like a phantom or a ghost: so neither will anyone else collect any gain for himself if, having poured out all his wealth to the poor, and although he has accepted poverty and beggary, he nevertheless has not ceased to sin, nor cleansed his soul by repentance and tears. For whoever, having sinned like me, a man condemned, has covered the senses of his soul with the filth of pleasures, though he has given away all his property to the poor, and relinquished all the glory of dignities, beautifully built houses, noble horses, flocks, herds, servants, his entire family, and relatives, and, needy and destitute, has donned the monastic habit, yet, as if needing something for the necessities of his life, he lacks the tears of repentance with which to wash away the filth of his sins, and all the more so if still, like me, he carries about the soot and filth of his many transgressions not only on his face and hands, but completely over his whole body. For the mere distribution of one's faculties is not enough for the pure state of the soul for us, brothers, unless we also lament and weep from the heart.

I truly deem that, unless I cleanse myself with all diligence from the stains of my sins by shedding tears, and instead finish my life so defiled, I will be rightly mocked by God and His angels, and cast down with the demons into eternal fire. And in truth it is so, brothers; for we brought nothing into this world, that when we have sinned, we might pay this very thing to God as the price to redeem our sins: For what shall a man give to God, says the Apostle, and it will be returned to him? This is the true judgment, this is just and true humility; just as the ^B Spirit through the prophet David says: I will not take calves from thy house, nor he-goats from thy flocks, for all things are mine, and what follows. And again: If thou hadst desired, I would have given sacrifice; with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit: a contrite and humble heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Since the Lord knew this, He said: Do not think that I am come to violate the law or the prophets. I am not come to violate, but to fulfill. For He could not dispel the unseen disease of turbulent motions from the soul by earthly remedies, that is, by the bodily observances of gifts, sacrifices, burnt offerings, and other such things. Hence John also says: Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. And again Paul: For the law of the spirit of life (which is the Gospel) hath freed us from the law of sin and death. But it is pleasing to learn how Christ fulfills the law and the prophets. The law says: Thou shalt not kill; Christ, Thou shalt not be angry. The law, Thou shalt not commit adultery; Christ, Thou shalt not covet. The law, Thou shalt not swear falsely; Christ, Thou shalt not swear at all. He therefore who is not angry, who will eventually kill? He who does not covet, how will he commit adultery? He who does not swear at all, how will he commit perjury? For the Savior digs up the roots of sins from that soul through the law of His Spirit. And this is the fullness of the law, that a man should be, and should live in His commandments alone, that he should serve and perform only His commands. For all the commandments of Christ have been given to us against all sins, and a man must live and ^C work in these alone who desires to obtain eternal life: in all other things he should be as one dead, lacking every function: If my words shall abide in you, says the Lord, whatsoever you shall ask, it shall be done to you. Let us therefore follow the Word diligently, until we arrive at the place where Christ Himself is: for He draws those who follow Him thither, and introduces them into the Holy of Holies, as the great high priest who, as far as we are concerned, has entered as our Forerunner, as He Himself says: No man cometh to the Father, but by me. For I am the way, and the truth, and the life. And in another place: I will, Father, that those whom thou hast given me, may be where I am, and they may be with me, that they may see my glory which thou hast given me. Since, therefore, we are crucified with Him, let us die with Him through the endurance of all temptations that invade us, so that we may also live with Him. With Him, let us walk with pure minds in the way leading to heaven. For as we walk through the way of the commandments of the Lord our God, and follow Him, and do not turn our foot backward, nothing will be able to harm the enemy, especially if we have walked with a faithful leader and with good companions. Let us fear the example of the accursed fig tree on account of its unfruitfulness, and let us offer to Christ fruits worthy of repentance: lest, dozing through the sloth of our soul, our lamp ^D goes out.

^A merit expelled, and condemned to exile, he died.

I will tell you a thing, which in my judgment no one has yet sufficiently explained. What is it, therefore? Attend to the divine Scripture. And God said to Adam, after the transgression, to wit: Adam, where art thou? What does the Creator of all things intend by these words? Entirely, wishing to lead him to a sense of his fall, and to provoke him to repentance, he says: Adam, where art thou? Consider thyself and weigh thy nakedness. See of what garment, of what glory thou hast been deprived. Adam, where art thou? As if he were urging him and saying: Hey, come to thy senses, miserable one, hey, come forth from where thou hast hidden thyself. Dost thou think thou canst be hidden from me? Say, I have sinned. But he does not say this, or rather, I, the unhappy one, do not say it, for this is my own evil. But what does he answer? I heard thy voice, walking in paradise, and I feared, because I was naked, and I hid myself. What then does God say? And who told thee that thou wast naked, unless thou hast eaten of the tree of which I had commanded ^B thee that thou shouldst not eat of it alone? Dost thou see, beloved, the long-suffering of God? When he himself said to Adam, Where art thou? and he did not immediately confess his sin, but answered, I heard thy voice, and I feared, because I was naked, and I hid myself, he is not angered, he is not suddenly turned away; but he deigns to question him a second time, and says: Who then told thee that thou wast naked, unless thou hast eaten of the tree, of which I had commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat of it alone? Understand the depth of the words of the wisdom of God. What sayest thou? Because I was naked, he says. Dost thou hide thy sin? Or dost thou think that I see only thy body, but do not perceive thy heart and thy thoughts? For the deluded Adam was hoping that God was ignorant of his sin, and thus he was, in a way, speaking with himself. If I say that I am naked, God, not knowing, will ask why I am naked. Then it will be permitted to me to deny, and to say, I do not know, and I can be hidden from him, and receive again the first stole. If not, even so he will not cast me out, even so he will not send me into exile. While he was turning these things over to himself (as many also do now, and I first of all, hiding their own sins), God, not wishing to multiply judgment and condemnation against them, says: And whence knowest thou that thou art naked, unless because thou hast eaten of the tree, from which I had commanded thee not to eat? ^C as if he were saying: And dost thou think that thou canst be entirely hidden from me? Do I not know what thou hast done? Wilt thou not say, I have sinned? Say, miserable one, also, in truth, I have transgressed thy commandment. I heard the counsel of the woman, and I fell, I was deceived vehemently, obeying her, and disobedient to thee. Have mercy on me. And yet he does not say that, he is not humbled, he is not bent: A neck of iron, the stubbornness of his heart, as if, indeed, I myself were also miserable. If he had uttered this word, he would have remained in paradise, and all that span of infinite evils, which he underwent having been cast out, and so many centuries, in which

^A he lay hidden in the underworld, he could have escaped with this one word.

This, then, is what I promised to tell you. Hear the rest, and you will know that what I said is true, without any falsehood. God said to Adam: "In the day that you eat of the tree of which I have commanded you not to eat, you shall die," [*] meaning the death of the soul, which did indeed happen at that very hour, and for that reason he lost the robe of immortality. God foretold nothing more, and nothing else happened beyond that. For God, as God, foreknowing that Adam could sin, and wishing to forgive him if he repented, pronounced nothing more against him beforehand, as has been said. But after he denied his sin and, not being chided, conceived no repentance, for he says: "The woman whom you gave to me, she deceived me." "Whom you gave to me"—O soul so little attentive, and as if saying to God: "You are the one who offended: the woman whom you gave to me, she deceived me," which even now comes to me, cast out and unhappy. For I do not ever want to be humbled and to say from the heart, "I am the cause of my own ruin," but I say, "She incited me to these things, to say this and do that. She persuaded me to do and commit this and that." O unhappy soul, pouring forth words full of sin! O impudent and wicked prayer of an impudent soul! Therefore, when Adam had brought this forward, God says to him: "In labor and sweat you shall eat your bread, and the earth shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you." And finally: "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." I was saying, he says, that you might repent and retain your former way of life. But since you are so stubborn, away with you from here, and your banishment shall be sufficient for your discipline: "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." See, therefore, you have learned that after his transgression, because he did not repent—nor did he say, "I have sinned"—he was cast out; and he was commanded to live his life in labor and sweat, and condemned to return to the earth from which he was taken, which it is evident came to pass from those things that follow in Scripture.

Accordingly, having sent him away, He came to Eve, wishing to show that, since she also was unwilling to repent, she would justly be cast out along with him, and says: "Why have you done this?" so that she might also reply, "I have sinned." For what need had God, I ask, to address her with such words, if not for this sole reason, that she might say: "In my folly, Lord, I did this; I am of no worth, and I, a wretched woman, did not obey you, my Lord; have mercy on me." But she did not say this. What then? "The serpent deceived me." Oh, the stupor! Did you really have dealings with the serpent, exchanging words against the Lord, and did you prefer him to God your Creator, and consider his counsel more excellent and truer than the command of the Lord? Since, therefore, He did not find even her saying, "I have sinned," they are cast out from delights, from paradise, and are expelled from God.

^B But behold the depth of the mysteries of God, and learn, and teach from it, that they would not have been cast out if they had repented of their wickedness; they would not have been condemned, the sentence would not have been passed that they should return to the earth from which they had been taken. Hear how. After they were cast out, they immediately fell into labors and sweats, and began to hunger and thirst, and to shiver from cold, and to tremble, and to suffer such inconveniences as we today suffer, and even more, we who have received the knowledge of this calamity and fall; and not that alone, but also of their very folly and the ineffable mercy of God.

Therefore, wandering and sitting outside paradise, they repented, wept, lamented, smote their brows, and tore their hair, deploring their own stubbornness. Nor did they do this for one, or two, or ten days, but, believe me, for as long as their age allowed. For how could they not continually and at all times pour forth tears, when they remembered that Lord who was so gentle, those delights which speech cannot declare, that ineffable beauty of the flowers, that life void of every worry and labor, and the descents and ascents of the angels to them? For just as those who are chosen as servants by any of the princes of this world, to provide ministry before him, as long as they offer reverence and honor and the duty of service sincerely to their Lord, and love Him and their fellow servants, enjoy also freedom toward Him, and with much leisure, joy, and delight, bask in His benevolence and love. But if, on the contrary, they turn to insane insolence against their Lord, and with stiff necks mistreat their fellow servants, and exalt themselves above those who were enjoying freedom, benevolence, and love before Him, they lose all those things, and are banished to a far-off region from Him, and by His command are subjected to countless struggles and temptations, and understand more and more the rest they were enjoying and the loss of the goods they have misplaced. It happened in the same way to our first parents, who, while living in paradise, were overflowing with those goods, but were then excluded and cast out from them; when they felt they had lost them, they always lamented, always wept, imploring the mercy of their Lord.

What does He do, who is rich in mercy and slow to punish? When He saw them humbled, He immediately revokes the sentence that had been passed, though He had indeed pronounced it for the sake of correction and so that no one should oppose himself to the Creator of the universe. For since He, as God, foreknew both man's fall and his repentance, before He set creation in motion, He defined by a most secret judgment, and by one unsearchable to all spirits, both the opportunity, and the time, and how, and when He would lead him back from exile. For if these things had been revealed to some and they had wished to write them, time would not have sufficed them, nor paper, nor ink.

^A As, therefore, He had compassionately determined and foretold, so He also ^B truly did: and those whom He had cast out from Paradise, as was fitting, because of their impudence, their impenitent heart, and their obstinate will, He, after they had performed penance and had been humbled as they ought—and after weeping and lamentation—He Himself, the only-begotten Son alone from the Father alone, and the Word of His Father, who was before every beginning, when He had descended, as you all know, not only became man like them, but was even dragged off to a violent and disgraceful death, just as they had not refused to die; and descending into the depths of ^B hell, He rescued them even from there. Who, then, having endured so many things for their sake, as you hear daily, in order to recall them from that distant exile, would not have had compassion on them if they had repented in Paradise? What then of Him who is kind, and for that reason had created man, that he might enjoy His good things in Paradise and glorify his benefactor? Surely, as I think, brothers, it would have been so.

But in order that you may learn the rest, and that my words may have greater credibility with you, hear the remainder. If they had repented while still dwelling in Paradise, they would have received back that very Paradise, and nothing more. But because they were cast out due to their impenitence, and afterwards, repenting vehemently, they shed tears and were afflicted—things which, as I said, they would not have suffered if they had repented in Paradise—the Lord God, wishing to honor them and glorify them for these labors, sweats, and troubles, and for their good penance, and not only that, but also to bring to them a forgetting of all those evils, what does He do? Consider for me the magnitude of His kindness. He descended into hell, and after having led them back from there, He did not restore them to the Paradise which they had lost, but He raised them up into that heaven of heavens. And when He had sat down at the right hand of God His Father, who is without beginning, what do you say He has done for him—for Adam, I mean, his servant indeed by nature, but who had been called his father by grace? See to what height, because of his penance, humility, lamentations, and tears, the Lord has lifted him up. O the power of tears and penance! O the sea of immense kindness and inscrutable mercy, brothers! For He has honored and glorified not him alone, but also his entire seed—us, in a word, his children—who have imitated his confession, penance, ^C lamentations, and tears, and the other things I mentioned above, just as He did him; and to those who do so now, and to those who will do so henceforth, whether they be worldly people or monks, He will grant the same honor and glory. Amen. The truthful God said, "I will never abandon them, but I will render them as my brothers, and friends, fathers, mothers, kinsmen, my co-heirs; and I have glorified, and I will glorify them, both in heaven above and on earth below; and their life, their joy, and their glory will be circumscribed by no end."

What then, my brother, did the manner of life of our first ancestors in Paradise, ignorant of labor and cares, profit them, when ^D they were slothful through their own unbelief and violated His commandment? For if they had believed, Adam would not have considered the serpent more trustworthy, nor Eve, than Him. But it was necessary to be wary, lest they eat from the forbidden tree. Where they ate, they were cast out. Again, the exile was no loss to them, but it brought them most ample good things, and led to the salvation of us all. For our Lord, having descended from heaven, by His own death destroyed our death, and thoroughly removed the condemnation that followed the transgression of our first parent; and regenerating and remaking us through holy baptism, and perfectly liberating us from those things, He settles us in this world as entirely free and not subject to the tyranny of the enemy. But, honoring us with the primordial liberty of choice, He rather ministers strength against him, so that those who wish may overcome without any trouble, more happily than all the holy ones who lived before the coming of Christ. And having completed their own day, they are not led, like them, to hell, but to heaven, and to those delights and pleasures. And now, to be sure, they rejoice moderately; but after the return of the bodies to life, they will be granted eternal joy to the fullest extent. Let those, therefore, who wish, seek no excuse, nor say: "It is clearly because of Adam's transgression that we are agitated by desires and lusts, and are drawn from there to sin." Those who think and speak this way suppose that the arrival of our Lord and God was fruitless and vain, which is the opinion of heretics, not of the faithful, as it is wont to be said. For why did He descend, or why did He endure death, if not entirely for this purpose: to take away the condemnation of sin as a reward, and to liberate our race from the servitude and operation of Satan the enemy? For this is true liberty, to endure no one's domination in any way whatsoever.

For we, having been propagated from a sinner as sinners, from a transgressor as transgressors, and as servant of sin, were ourselves also servants of sin, from one accursed and dead, accursed and dead; from him who, having been turned aside by the persuasion of the evil one and reduced to his chattel, had lost his own right and power; so that as his children, with the same evil one working in us and oppressing us with his power, we obeyed his tyrannical empire. But God came down from heaven, put on flesh, was born like us, without sin, took away sin, sanctified conception and procreation, and, growing up gradually, blessed the whole of life. And having reached manhood, He began to preach, teaching us not to outstrip the hoary-headed in prudence and virtue, nor, especially as young men, to wish to anticipate them in anything. He took up our [burdens] for us, and having kept all the commandments of His Father, He freed us from transgression, and vindicated the transgressors from condemnation. Taking the form of a servant, He became a servant, and restored us servants to the ancient dignity of masters, and made the masters of the old tyrant. Of whose...

^A witnesses are the saints, who even after death had already been undergone, repel and put to flight Him and His ministers as being languid and feeble. He was made a curse, being nailed to the cross (for, says Scripture, "Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree" [Deut. xxi, 23; Galat. iii, 13]), and He removed from us the whole curse of Adam. He died, and by His death destroyed death. He rose again, and the enemy, who through death and sin exercised power over us, was robbed of his strength and operation. For into the deadly poison and virus of sin, there was injected the ineffable efficacy of His divinity and His life-giving flesh, and He delivered the human race from the operation of the enemy in every way. But through holy baptism, and the communion of His undefiled mysteries, namely of His precious body and blood, ^B cleansing us and giving us life, He renders us holy and pure from sin. Yet He permits us to be adorned again with the liberty of choice, so that we may appear to serve the Lord not by compulsion, but of our own will: and just as Adam was free in Paradise from the beginning, and outside of force and sin he obeyed the enemy of his own free and unconstrained will, by whom he was deceived and violated the commandment of God: so also are we, regenerated from holy baptism, the yoke of servitude cast off from us, rendered masters of ourselves and free: and unless we wish to obey the enemy of our own accord, he has no power to plot anything against us. For if before the law and the advent of Christ, those who lacked these aids were many—nay, innumerable—and were pleasing to God and lived without blame (of whom He honored righteous Enoch by translation, and Elijah he assumed into heaven as if by a chariot ^C of fire), what shall we answer, who after grace, and such and so great a benefit, after the destruction of death and sin, after the regeneration of baptism, and the guardianship of the holy angels, and the very overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and His advent upon us, are found not equal even to those who were before grace, but corrupted by sloth, we despise and pass over the commands of God? Furthermore, that we shall be punished more severely than those who sinned under the law if we remain in our sins, holy Paul indicated in these words: "For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" [Hebr. ii, 2, 3].

Let no one of us, therefore, accuse or blame Adam, but himself, into whatever sin he may have fallen; and if he wishes to attain life eternal in the Lord, let him show repentance, as he [Adam] showed it, weeping in the sorrow of his heart, and in the acknowledgment of himself crying to the omnipotent Lord: "Behold, ^D You see, O Lord (and what is it that You do not see?), I am the work of Your hands; I have not done the works of Your commandments: but through folly I have bound myself to every wickedness. You, therefore, are a good Lord, but I did not know You. Now I have heard of You, and I feared, and I do not know what I shall do. I have understood Your judgment, and no defense is found in my mouth."

For I have done nothing upon the earth which could compensate for a single idle word of my mouth. For if a man should perform all righteousness, he would merely be doing what he was bound to do as a servant and a debtor, but he would find no compensation for sin. For mercy is from You alone, and sin is death. And who among those dying through it can rise again even by himself? No one at all. You alone, having died, rose again, because You did not admit sin, nor was deceit found in Your mouth [1 Petr. ii, 22]. But now, who will die in his sins and not be overtaken by repentance? Yet it will do him no good. Thus also I, O omnipotent Lord, do indeed repent of the evils I have committed, but my repentance does not suffice for my righteousness: for it is only an acknowledgment of sin. And now You see all things, Inspector of all, O Lord, to whom there is no occasion of salvation left for me, but the abyss has swallowed me alive. But You alone can bring me back and heal the pain of my heart, because Your hand is potent for all things, and penetrating to the ends of the abyss, and working all things according to Your will. I do not dare to say, "Have mercy on me," for I am unworthy of mercy. But You, O Lord, know all things, and, as Your kindness knows, act in me, who am unworthy even of life itself.

Thus it will be, brethren, for one who has sinned before almighty God and, fearing the judgment and the aversion of God from him, receives a sense of mind. For the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of His retribution so liquefies the flesh and crushes the bones that, just as a stone suspended from a machine in a winepress crushes grapes, it vehemently presses out the wine from them. For those who tread the grapes first, afterwards press them with a stone placed upon them, and draw out from them all the juice of the wine. But to the man who has entered into the fear of God, that very fear makes him present himself to be trampled by all. And when it has perfectly crushed and destroyed pride and the thoughts of the flesh, and the desire for vain glory, then holy humility, that stone which is perceived by the mind, most light and most useful, having fallen from above, after it has pressed out all the juice of carnal pleasures and affections, shows the soul thus pressed not to be empty: but when it has bathed it with a flood of tears, it makes living water gush forth, and heals the wounds inflicted by sin, and washes away their pus and ulcers, and renders that man entirely whiter than snow: provided that no one approaches God with a doubtful and wavering heart. For the doubt of the heart is to reason, or to think plainly within oneself: "Will God have mercy on me, or will He not have mercy?" That "or" is of incredulity. But if you do not believe that He wills to have mercy on you beyond what you expect, why do you approach and ask Him? But it is of a wavering heart not to surrender oneself entirely to death for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but to be solicitous about those things which pertain to the flesh. For he who performs a laborious repentance ought to take care of this alone, lest he himself...

extinguishes it, and becomes a murderer of himself: by the grace of the Word, either by throwing himself down from on high, or by strangling, or by bringing upon himself some other thing against nature. Regarding other things, through which the body knows how to be nourished and to live, let him not care: according to that oracle of the saints: *Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things (namely, those things necessary for the use of the body) shall be added unto you.* For it is possible for someone who leads a life in the struggle and lives according to the prescription of the Gospel, to be nourished daily with bread and water, and to live, and be in better condition than those who sit down to more delicate tables. Wherefore also Paul, cognizant of this thing, was saying and always says: *Having food and clothing, let us be content with these.* And again: *That we have the answer of death within ourselves, not trusting in ourselves, but in God, who raiseth the dead.* ^B

Behold, beloved brothers, we have taught how we must approach God and what kind of repentance is to be exhibited to Him. Let us not, therefore, desist from it until our final breath, nor let forgetfulness of this good counsel seize us. For if, with God aiding us, we have applied ourselves to these things and to this work of repentance, we ourselves little by little understand greater mysteries, taught by that supernal grace: and not only will a fountain of tears be granted to us, but also a horror and alienation from all evil affections through such actions. For to always seek out repentance and compunction, and to examine what things avail for mourning, for weeping, for grieving, and to perform those things earnestly, and in nothing to defer to oneself, or in any part to comply with the flesh, leads a man by a certain shortcut to perfection, and to purity, and to a vacancy of the affections, and makes him a partaker of the Holy Spirit. And these things indeed, if we have loved repentance and contrition. But if we decide not to, and have not labored in those things which have been said without intermission, let no one however speak impiously, and say that it is impossible: nor, because I have brought these things forward, that I abound with much leisure, nor let him recount to me how much gold and silver he has distributed and scattered: nor let him say, I have clothed so many of the naked from my wealth, I have fed the hungry, I have given drink to the thirsty, I have given away all my own, I came to this mountain, I entered this cave, I approached the sepulcher of the Lord, I ascended the mount of Olives, and now I have hidden myself in this monastery, and am now tonsured, or was even tonsured before, and I sit in a cell, pouring forth such a number of prayers, will I be saved with these, and it is enough for me. ^D

Do not act to deceive yourself, whoever you are, brother, nor foolishly console yourself with vain thoughts. For all these things are good, and very good, but know that they are only a seed. See therefore (for example's sake), you have renewed a field, spread manure, pulled up thorns, you have sown. Have you then, from the herb of the earth, perceived the seed to show itself? Have you found it to have grown? Have you seen the ears coming forth, have you seen the white crops of your soul, and fit for harvest? Have you gathered the ears [506 A] with your hands, that you might behold the fruit of your labors brought to fruition? But having looked at that, have you perceived whether you are grown having an appetite for satisfaction, and having become robust in strength? If you are certain of these things, I adore your feet and the footprints of your feet, and I kiss them, for I am not worthy to kiss your face. Triumph and exult, gathering with joy that which you have sown with labor and weariness. But if you do not know even those things which are said by me, and you do not know whether it has been sown in your land, in the field, I say, of your heart, with better fruits, tell me, since you have gone to the extreme ends of the earth and have traversed the ultimate spaces of the sea, what have you accomplished? Nothing at all. For if I should give the whole world to alms, yet not of my own, but let it be, of my own, but I have left myself naked and destitute, and have died in want of goods, and am to stand before the terrible tribunal of Christ, what does it profit me? It is necessary to depart from the body clothed and adorned, if only we wish to sit down at the marriage feast of the King together with his friends. What further is there, that I and all his friends ought to put on, lest we appear naked? Christ and God, brothers. But if I should have traversed the whole world that is under heaven, and should have passed over no region, or city, or church, into which I do not enter to worship, and should have thoroughly surveyed them, and accurately known them, but should have fallen away from the kingdom of heaven, what would it not be better if I had never been born, nor fallen onto the earth, or had drawn this spirit and looked upon the sun with these eyes? ^C Truly, this would be better for me. What therefore shall I do, lest I be deprived of this kingdom? If I have performed all the works of repentance, I will have received the Holy Spirit. For that is indeed the seed of Christ, through which we poor and mortal ones are enrolled as his kinsmen. But if it shall have fallen into good ground, it bears fruit, some thirty-fold, and some sixty-fold, and some a hundred-fold. And this very thing is the kingdom of heaven: all other things have no profit without this. For unless, brothers, we have pity on ourselves, and through repentance have found our souls purified, and full of light, nothing else will help us, as our Lord and God says: *What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the detriment of his soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?* And again: *He who shall have lost his soul, or made it dead and without sense to the world, or to those who are in the world, on my account, shall find it.* But he who shall have found it in any will of the flesh, shall lose it. If therefore we have not so lost our souls for the sake of Christ and found them again, when we live the eternal life with Christ, what will all the rest give us of profit? They will be of no profit at all, beloved servants of Christ, nor will they save us from eternal flames. Therefore, leaving all things and all people, let us look to ourselves alone, and to our own [acts] perpetually, until

those things which are the worse—that is, those pertaining to the body—having been conquered ^A and subdued, and having subjected them to the better part, namely reason and the soul, and having thus thoroughly enjoyed the peace of the Spirit, let us be freed from the tumult of the earthly spirit, and let us enter into the harbor of our blessed rest. Blessed, therefore, is he who hears with faith the things we have spoken, and executes them to the letter, and imitates this true image and description of penitence, which our practice first fulfilled, and only afterward did Scripture commit to words. For when it finds the intellect—which surpasses thought and speech—to be good, it will declare blessed this wretched hand of mine which wrote this, and it will proclaim the Lord in his mercy and loving-kindness, who, through a filthy and unclean tongue and an impure mouth, recorded these writings as an example of conversion and penitence, and as a straight and most true path for those who desire from their whole soul to be healed, and who are destined to enter into the kingdom and that immortal and heavenly life for an inheritance. Therefore, I ask you, brothers in Christ, let us cast away from us all turbulent affection, ^B and every anxiety of this life. Let us hate the pleasures of the flesh, the delights, allurements, and leisure of the body, through which that which is worse prevails over the better, and act, and let us embrace a sincere faith toward God, and toward those who are according to God, our fathers and brothers. Let us possess a contrite heart and a spirit humbled in soul, and through repentance and tears, a heart cleansed from every stain and vice of sin, so that we may also be able to arrive at length at the compendious measure of spiritual age, and to see and enjoy ineffable goods, and thence divine light, although not perfectly, but in part, and according to our capacity, in proportion to our purity and innocence. For thus we shall also be united to God, and God will be united to us, and to those who use our custom we shall be a light and a sun, for their great benefit in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom befit all glory, honor, and adoration, with the Father and the most holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

EPILOGUE TO THE READER

Let God be praised, who has brought this labor to an end. But you, reader, who have chanced upon this book, with a mind free from all the care of this world (as is fitting), apply yourself ^C to these discourses, which the venerable and renowned Father Symeon, who presided over the monastery at Xylocercum, composed with his study and labor. And when you see them to be thirty-three in number—the same number of years that our Lord, clothed in human flesh, lived among us on earth as a mortal—reflect upon this. And, keeping this in your mind, hasten, so that by the spiritual growth which this book sets forth and declares, you may quickly match the years of His life—by those discourses, I say, which are not obscure—and the same number of those of this Father. And when you have read and perceived them, you will know how your life ought to be ordered according to God, and living with Christ, you will increase the age of your soul beyond the cycles of the phoenix, until, already a perfect man, you reach the measure of the age at which it is established that the Lord lived. When you have thus lived with Christ from the heart, and spiritually, united to Him as much as is permitted, even when you have been raised up by Him from the earth, you will arrive at the place where He dwells. For He draws into the Holy of Holies all who wish to set their footsteps in His paths, in which He previously walked for our sake, as Mediator, of course, and as our great Pontiff. For no one comes to the Father except through Him, as He Himself affirmed. His word is also this: *Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me* ^D*.

*John XVII, 24.

OF THE SAME SYMEON THE PRESBYTER, A SINGULAR BOOK OF DIVINE LOVES, OR SACRED COMMENTARIES

CHAPTER ONE

A mystical prayer, by which the Holy Spirit is invoked.

Come, true Light. Come, eternal life. Come, hidden mystery. Come, Treasure nameless. Come, ineffable thing. Come, person fleeing human understanding. Come, perennial exultation. Come, Light never setting. Come, true expectation of all who are to be saved. Come,

^A resurrection of the dead. Come, O Power, who performest, changest, and variest all things by Thy will alone. Come, O wholly unseeable, untouchable, impalpable one. Come, O Thou who ever remainest immobile, and yet art entirely transported hour by hour, and comest to us who lie in the depths, though Thou dwellest above all the heavens. Come, O Name most longed for and most celebrated, concerning whom it is utterly denied to us to speak of what Thou art, or to know what kind or what sort Thou art. Come, eternal joy. Come, unfading crown. Come, purple cloak of our great God and King. Come, girdle ^B as clear as crystal and variegated with gems. Come, unapproachable refuge. Come, royal purple and right hand of august majesty. Come, Thou whom my wretched soul has desired and desires. Come, O Sun, to the solitary one, for I am alone, as Thou seest. Come, Thou who didst separate me and make me to be alone on the earth. Come, Thou who hast become my desire, and hast made me to desire Thee, to whom no one can aspire. Come, my breath and my life. Come, consolation of my despicable soul. Come, my constant joy, my glory, and my delight. I give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast become one spirit with me, without confusion, change, or conversion; Thou who, being God above all, hast become all things to me in all. O ineffable nourishment, which can in no way be consumed, and which Thou pourest into the lips of my soul, ^C and art poured forth abundantly in the fountain of my heart. O radiant garment that burns away the demons. O cleansing, through the continuous and holy tears which Thy presence—to whom Thou comest—bestows, washing me clean. I give thanks to Thee, because Thou hast become for me a day without sunset, and a sun beyond setting: Thou who hast nowhere to hide Thyself, and who fillest all things with Thy glory. Thou hast never hidden Thyself from anyone, but we always hide ourselves from Thee, while we refuse to come to Thee. For where wouldst Thou hide, when there is no place for Thee to rest? Or why wouldst Thou hide, who abhorrest none of all Thy creatures, and hast respect of no one? Now, therefore, pious Lord, fix Thy tabernacle in me, and dwell in me, and do not be torn away ^D nor separated from me, Thy servant, until my death, so that I, both at my departure and after my departure, may be found in Thee, and may reign with Thee, who reignest as God over all. Remain, Lord, and do not leave me alone, so that when my enemies come, who continually seek to devour my soul, they may find Thee remaining within me, and may flee away deeply, deeply afraid, and may not prevail against me, when they see Thee—who art stronger than all—residing within the dwelling-place of my humble soul. Truly, just as Thou wert mindful of me, Lord, when I was in the world, and without my knowing it didst choose me Thyself, and remove me from the world, and place me before the face of Thy glory: so also, now that Thou hast established me within, keep me forever immobile, on account of Thy dwelling in me, that as I look upon Thee daily, I, a dead man, may live, and possessing Thee, I, a poor man, may ever be rich.

Thus shall I be more opulent than any kings; and eating and drinking Thee, and putting Thee on hour by hour, I shall enjoy the ineffable delights of good things. For Thou art every good, and every beauty, and every delight, and glory becomes Thee, the holy and consubstantial Trinity, who is honored, recognized, adored, and worshipped by the totality of the faithful now and ever, and through the infinity of ages. Amen.

Chapter II

If this is so, what is this venerable mystery being accomplished in me? It is something that neither the tongue can utter nor an infirm hand can write down in letters, to the praise and glory of Him to whom alone true praise and prayer can be found. But if the things that are now happening in me, wretched as I am, are ineffable and inexplicable, by what reckoning, then, will He who grants and effects such things have need of our praises and proclamations? Certainly, He who is glorified will not be glorified further, just as the sun which we see shining in the heaven will neither be illuminated nor receive light from us. It illuminates, and is not illuminated; it pours forth light, and does not receive it. It possesses, indeed, what the Creator bestowed upon it from the beginning. If, therefore, God, the Creator of all, who made the sun, made it in such a way that it shines with abundant light and has no need in any way to seek anything greater from elsewhere, how will the fabricator of the sun receive glory from me, who am vile and abject, He who has need of nothing at all, and who, by His will and desire (for He alone is powerful), fills all things with all good things? Meanwhile, my tongue labors under a vast poverty of words, and my mind sees indeed the things that are happening in me, but is not able to explain them. It looks, and wishes to speak, but finds no language in which to do so. For it gazes upon things unseeable, completely lacking any figure, entirely simple, not composite, and of infinite magnitude. For it perceives no beginning, nor does it discern any end, and it is plainly ignorant of the middle, nor does it know who or what it is that it sees. It is, I think, a certain summation, and yet not its very essence, but it is seen by participation. For you light a fire from fire, and you take the whole that is fire, yet the nature of the fire itself does not grow less, and remains undivided, as it was before. Nevertheless, that which is communicated is separated from the first, and because it is a material thing, it is split into many lamps. But that which is spiritual admits of absolutely no division, section, or separation. For it is not the case that because it is communicated, it is therefore separated into many, but it perseveres undivided, and it is in me, and within me in my wretched heart like a sun, or the disk of this sun, round and like to light.

^A (for it is also light) it arises. I do not know, as I said, what I should say about it. And I wished to be silent—would that I could have been!—but the miracle, full of veneration, disturbs the mind and unseals my impure mouth; he who has brought forth an arising within my dark heart now compels me, even against my own will, to speak and to write.

He who showed to me wonders that eyes have not seen, who humbled himself to *me*, the last and lowest of all. He who rendered them apostles, disciples, and sons. In me, I say, whom the horrible dragon, the slayer of men, held fast—formerly a minister and worker of all iniquity. That Sun, who existed before the origin of the ages, who shone even among the dead, and who finally, having illuminated my soul which had been covered in darkness, bestowed upon me a day that knows no evening. O you who have showered my poverty with every good thing, grant me speech, and suggest words to me so that I may declare to all your wondrous works, which you manifest even today toward us your servants; so that even those who sleep in the darkness of sloth, asserting that sinners cannot be saved—and that even Peter and the other holy and just apostles were able to attain mercy, and that this was and will be easy for your goodness—may know and understand. And those who imagine they possess you, the light of the world, and yet say they do not see you, do not live in the light, are not illuminated, and do not perceive you, may they recognize, my Savior, that you have not shone in their minds nor dwelt in their sordid hearts, and that they rejoice in vain with an empty hope, while they expect to see your light after the end of this life. For the pledge, and the seal, or the token, has been clearly given here for placing the sheep on the right hand. For if each one carries death enclosed within himself, and after death the opportunity for acting will be lacking to all equally, and no one will be able to do anything of good or evil, then everyone will certainly be such as he was found to be at that time. This, Lord, is what strikes terror and trembling into me. This is what weakens all my senses. Just as a man born blind, who is transported there without ever having experienced the sun with his senses—even if he should return to life and receive his sight—so too, the one who departs this life with a blinded mind will not behold you, the Sun, the Father of the sun of the intellect, O my God, but will depart from darkness to dwell in darkness, and for all eternity will be separated from you. No man, Lord, among those who believe in you, no one who has been baptized in your name, will endure this great and horror-filled burden: to be separated from you. For that tribulation is dire, dire and intolerable, and it is eternal sorrow. For what, my Savior, can be worse than to be torn away and separated from you? What is more agonizing than, being cut off from Life, to live there like a mortal, and being deprived of Life, to be simultaneously deprived of all goods? For whoever is separated from you incurs the loss of every good.

^A For it will not be as it is now on earth, so it will be then. For indeed, those who do not know you now, and who spend their youth here in luxuries and bodily pleasures, who rejoice here and caper about like brute animals—they hold for themselves those things you gave for the use and convenience of living out one's life, and fixed only upon them, they think that after their departure from this light, the state of the soul will be the same. But they conjecture badly, they think poorly, who assume that they will be in rest without you; for whom—O, the madness!—they establish for themselves a certain place outside your kingdom and bridal chamber, far removed from the punishment of Gehenna and fire, and not luminous, but devoid of darkness, to which those wretched ones desire to arrive, thinking that they will not need your eternal glory or the kingdom of heaven, but will be at rest. O the blindness of these men! O the ignorance! O the misery and the empty hopes! Nowhere does this script exist, nowhere will this be: for the true state is the light of happiness for those who have acted in a holy and divine manner, but for those who have been workers of iniquity, there will be the darkness of punishments. But in the middle is a formidable chasm, separating both, just as you yourself, Lord, have taught (Luke xvi, 26), who have prepared these things. For the one falling into it, this interval will be more grievous than any torment and punishment; it will be a falling and rushing headlong into the abyss of punishments, into a chaos of perdition, from which it is difficult for those tossed in that torture to ascend and pass over to the land of the just. They would, indeed, rather be consumed to ash with bitterness in the fire than cast themselves into that horrific chaos. Therefore, those who desire to be there after death are worthy of many tears and laments; because, as beasts lacking reason, they understand absolutely nothing; they pray for pestilence upon themselves, they seduce themselves.

You are the kingdom of heaven, Christ, you are the land of the meek. You are the verdant paradise. You are the divine and ineffable bridal chamber. You are the common table of all. You are the bread of life. You are the most unique drink. You are the cup of water, you are the water of life. You are the inextinguishable lamp of each of the saints. You are both garment and crown, and the distributor of crowns. You are joy and rest. You are glory and luxury. You are exultation. You are the delight of souls. And the grace of your Holy Spirit, my God, will shine like the sun in all your saints. And you will shine in their midst, the unapproachable Sun, and all will be illuminated from your Spirit, according to the proportion of their faith, works, hope, charity, purity, and illustration. Being long-suffering as the sun, and the judge of all, you will measure their brightness according to the measure of their charity, and the measure of your vision will be their portion of magnificence, honor, delights, and glory, according to the distributions of houses and admirable mansions. These are the diverse tabernacles, these are the many mansions, these are the most splendid robes of many dignities, and the distinct crowns, the precious stones, the pearls, and the immortal flowers, a new…

^A nature, in every way possessing form—this bed, these woven garments, the table, the thrones, and whatever is most pleasurable for enjoyment—all were, are, and will be: only to behold You. If, therefore, as we said above, those who do not see Your light, and are not seen by You, but are separated—deprived of the vision of You that encompasses all good things—where will they find rest, where will they find a place free from pain? Where will they dwell, if they have not been upright? For "The upright shall dwell with Your countenance." For You have been formed in their upright heart, and they dwell with Your form in You, my Christ.

^B O wondrous thing, O gift of goodness beyond expectation, that men should be in the form of God, and be formed within those whom no one can grasp, in God, whose nature is invariable and immutable, who wills to dwell in all who are worthy of Him, so that each one may have within himself the whole King, the kingdom itself, and all that pertains to that kingdom, and may shine as my redivivus God shone, more than the rays of this sun which we see! And when they have stood before Him who has thus glorified them, they remain struck with wonder at the magnitude of the glory and the constant increase of the divine brightness. For there will be no end to this progress in any ages: since a station or a cessation of increase would limit that which cannot be limited, and would bring about a satiety of that which is totally incomprehensible and of which no one can be sated: but His plenitude and the abyss of the light of His glory will be a beginning without end. And just as those who have Christ formed within them, stand nevertheless before Him, though He shines in such a way that He cannot be approached: so the end in them is the beginning of glory. And that I may explain my sense and mind to you more clearly, in the end they shall have a beginning, and in the beginning an end. Understand for me that this is more than full, lacking nothing of increase, and that those who run do not outstrip the end of the infinite. For if that heaven which we see, and the earth, and all things that are therein, should pass away (conjecture what I have said), there will be a comprehension of place where you will find an end—I do not say corporeal, but you will be able to comprehend by the mind the plenitude of the incorporeal world. But it is not a world, nor air, as before: nor is it air, but an ineffable abyss (which they call the universe), lacking an end entirely, equal on all sides and in all parts. This whole is filled with divinity. Who then, being participants of it and dwelling in it, how could they encompass the whole, so that they might also be satisfied? Or how, tell me, will they attain the end of the infinite? It is plainly most difficult and impossible. For neither here, while the saints dwell in the body, nor there, when they are translated into God, can such a thought enter in at all. For they are covered by the light of the divine glory, they are illuminated, and they shine, and they are delighted in these things, and they know truly, and with full faith, that the perfection of these things will be infinite. But as for those cast away by God, I wonder where they will remain, being far separated from Him who is everywhere. And truly, brothers, it is a miracle to be dreaded, and one for the understanding of which a mind illuminated is necessary, so that you may not fall into the heresy of, as it were, a divine spirit being incredulous. In every way, even these will exist, but in reality, they will be outside the divine light, and God Himself. As the blind, with the sun shining and being entirely circumfused with light, are nevertheless outside the light, separated from it in knowledge and sight: so it is in all the divine light of the Trinity, and the sinners are in the midst, hindered by darkness from seeing, or having any notion or sense of the Divinity: but burning, and condemned by their own conscience, they will sustain inexplicable affliction and ineffable pain for eternal ages.

CAPUT III

How the Father, here changed and purified, is most closely joined with God, and what sort of person he has become from what sort, his words in this chapter, full of love for God, demonstrate. At the end, he discourses theologically concerning the angels. At the beginning of the prayer, according to the custom of the righteous, he is his own accuser.

What is this, my Savior, what is this immense mercy of Yours? How did You will for me, impure, me, lost, me, a fornicator, to be Your member? How did You clothe me with a most lucid robe, coruscating with the splendor of immortality, making all my members lucid? For Your body, immaculate and divine, is unmixed, and ineffably mixed, and the whole of it flashes with the fire of divinity. And this also You have gifted to me, my God. For God, Your most uncontaminated body, is united to this sordid tabernacle of mine, which is subject to decay, and my blood is mingled with Your blood; well I know, it is united also to Your divinity, and I have become Your most pure body, a shining member, a member truly holy, a member glowing, pellucid, and resplendent. I see the beauty, I see the splendor; in the mirror of Your grace I behold the light, and I am struck with wonder at the inexplicable brightness, and I go out of my mind when I note what I was, and what I have been made, miraculously: and I fear, and I revere myself, and as I revere and fear You, I am perplexed, and I fear altogether where I may sit, to whom I may draw near, and where I may recline Your members, and to what works, to what actions I ought finally to use such venerable and divine members. Grant to me, I say, both to speak and to do, O my Artificer and Creator. For if I do not perform in deeds what I speak, I have become bronze, resounding, and clanging in vain, and feeling nothing of the pulses of the vibrations. But do not You dismiss me, do not leave me: nor let me wander, my Savior, me, I say, miserable, a beggar, and a stranger, and a debtor to You of ten thousand talents; but just as You did of old, so do now. For then You separated me, a sinner and more vile than all these, from my heritage, and from my whole native land, from father, brothers, mother, relatives, strangers, and all my kin, and from my friends, and You embraced me with Your most pure arms, I who had shown myself ungrateful against Your benefits: so also now, You, merciful, merciful...

^A grant me this, I say—nay, I say truly more than this—O my God, and have mercy on me, and keep me, and restrain the unruly impulses of my mind, and make me fit to bear patiently all the temptations and tribulations of this life, and whatever I foolishly create for myself, and those in which the envious nature of demons tempts me, and those which these weak brothers of mine bring upon me by word and deed. Woe is me, for my members consume me and wear me out, and because of them I again suffer and am dragged by my feet, I who was allotted the place of the head. I walk with bare feet, and I am pierced by thorns, and I am cruelly tormented, nor do I bear the torture. One of my feet moves forward, while the other turns back; they drag and seize me hither and thither; I am tripped, and fall headlong. It is not possible, therefore, for me to follow. To lie down is an evil, and to walk thus unthinkingly is worse than to lie down, for it surpasses all other calamities. Lord, grant me mourning and compunction, and deign that I may serve You, worship You, and keep Your holy commandments in the darkness of this life, and in this world, which is a place of sadness. I give You thanks, since You have granted me life, and bestowed upon me that I might know and adore You, my God. For this is life: to know You, the only God, the creator and maker of all things, unbegotten, uncreated, alone without beginning, and the Son, begotten of You, and the most holy Spirit, proceeding from both—the Trinity in unity to be pursued with all praises, whom to adore and piously worship surpasses any other glory, whether earthly or heavenly ^B.

For what is the glory of the Angels, the Archangels, the Dominations, the Cherubim and Seraphim, and of all other heavenly legions, if not the light of immortality, if not joy, if not the illumination of life purified of all the dregs of human affairs? If not the one light of the holy Trinity, divided indivisibly in a threefold manner, which is one in three characters, known as much as it wills in an unknown way? For neither can the creature know the Creator in His entirety, as He knows Himself according to His own nature; but through grace, all the angels and the entire created nature see and understand Him. They do not comprehend, but they understand, in so far as the light wills to be manifested to the blind, or even to those who see clearly, and to be known by them. For the eye without light does not see, but it receives from the light that it may see, being itself also fashioned by the same light. Whether corporeal or incorporeal, God made all things that are in the heavens, and that are on the earth, and that are in the depths. And for all these, one life and glory, one desire, one kingdom, riches, joy, crown, victory, peace, and every beauty is none other than the knowledge of the principle and cause whence all things were produced and arose. This is the conjunction of things above and below. This is the order of all that is perceived by the intelligence ^C.

Chapter III

Thus the angels had the firmness of their state, when, seeing that Satan and his associates, seduced by the pride they had of themselves, fell from heaven, they were increased in knowledge and fear. For those who were only forgetful of this, fell by voluntary elation. On the contrary, those who knew this, adhering to fear and charity, were exalted. Whence the knowledge of the Lord’s power also amplified charity, since more of them saw the coruscating splendor of the Trinity more manifestly, and this in turn excluded every other thought, and made them immutable who had from the beginning received a mutable nature, remaining in the sublimity of the heavenly ones.

Chapter 4

Of the true monk and his office. To what height of contemplation he himself has ascended.

Whoever is a monk does not mix with the world, and dwells perpetually with God alone. He sees and is seen, he loves and is loved: he becomes light, shining more than can be declared in words. Though preached, he considers himself more of a beggar, and with the friendship of many gained, he is like a guest and a stranger. Truly a new thing, and a miracle that you cannot sufficiently express. In the midst of immense riches, I am poor: and when I possess many things, I think I have nothing, and in the abundance of waters, I confess that I thirst. And who will provide for me, I who abound? And where shall I find Him whom I see daily? And how shall I possess Him who is in me and outside the world? For He is altogether not seen. He who has ears to hear, let him hear, rightly understanding the words of the illiterate.

Chapter V

Doctrine for monks who have recently renounced the world and those things that are in the world. What faith each ought to bear toward his spiritual Father.

Abandon the whole world and the men of this world, and assume only blessed mourning, and lament only the sins committed by you: for these have stripped you of Christ, the creator of all, and of the society of His saints. Beyond these, let nothing be your care. Moreover, consider your own body as unknown and a stranger, and, like one condemned and proceeding to meet death, cast your eyes toward the ground. Draw sighs from your inmost breast constantly, and bathe your face with tears only; and do not wish to wash with water your feet, which ran to evil, at any time. Indeed, keep your hands contracted, and do not stretch them impudently toward God, those which you have often stretched out toward sin. Restrain your slippery tongue as much as you are able: for it is itself easy to commit sin, and through it alone, many, even great men, wandering from the right path, have lost the kingdom of heaven. But before all, hedge your ears so that they may hear nothing base or vain: then

perhaps you will command even this. Obey the admonition of your father ^A only, answer him humbly, and conceal nothing of the thoughts of your mind from him, just as you would from God; defer to his first motions, begin nothing without his will, nor sleep, nor eat, nor drink against his will. When you have performed these things for a time, do not judge that you have achieved anything exceptional. You have indeed sown in sweat and weariness, but you have not yet gathered the fruit of your labors. Do not be deceived, therefore, or believe that you have found what you seek before you have acquired spiritual eyes, and have cleansed your heart's ears with your tears—the filth washed away therefrom—and begin to see and hear spiritually, and to be inwardly transformed in your senses. For you will see many things that cannot be uttered, and you will hear far more, and such great things, that your tongue will not be able to express them. Therefore, it is a matter of wonder and worthy of all veneration to hear spiritually and also to see spiritually; it is the greatest of miracles. Such a man never thinks anything connected with the flesh, and he treads upon the earth as if he were walking through the air; he discerns all things down to the lowest depths of Tartarus, and perceives all things that have been done. He knows God, is struck with fear, and as for the Creator, he venerates and glorifies Him with prayers. Moreover, it is a great thing to know how widely and what kind of empire His is; which, although all think they know, yet very many err—do not doubt it. Only the enlightened know this; the rest of the universe (O foul ignorance!) lives in even greater darkness than the demons themselves.

Furthermore, O Lord and Architect of all, who created me, a mortal animal, from the earth, and honored me with immortal grace, and gave me to live, to speak, to move, and to celebrate Your praises, Lord of all, grant me, a miserable man, to prostrate myself before You and to ask for what is expedient. For how I was brought into this world, and what these things are which men think to be so, I do not know. What my vision is, O my God, what these things are that are looked upon, I cannot say. Why do we men all assume such folly, and why do we judge things so perversely? Yesterday I came for the first time, tomorrow I shall depart, and yet I think myself immortal here. I confess openly that I have You as God, but by my deeds I deny You daily. I teach that You are the author of all, yet I strive to think I possess all things without You. You rule over the things above and the things below, yet I alone do not shudder to resist You and to oppose You. Grant to a destitute, to a most miserable man, to cast away all the wickedness of his soul, which pride and vain elation of mind, alas, at once crush and grind me. Offer humility, offer a helping hand, wipe away the stains of my soul, and grant me tears of repentance. I desire tears, tears of salvation, tears washing away the soot of my soul, making me clear and lucid again, wanting to see You, the Light of the world, the light of my eyes—my eyes, I say, miserable man that I am, who am filled ^B with many evils and discomforts of this life, and for whom they gave a certain tragedy in my exile: or, to speak more truly, those who deserve well, my lords, and truly my friends. To whom, my Christ, repay for evils, divine and eternal goods, which You have ordained for those who love You and desire You from the heart in the ages of ages.

CAPUT VI.

Begin from Christ, and by a principle led by fervent faith, so depart from the world, and flee your kinsmen along with your friends (for this is helpful to beginners), and naked of worldly and material things, betake yourself to Him who is free from matter, from whom you will find no greater help. Repel all pusillanimity from yourself; for you have fled to a powerful Lord. Rather, carry the light yoke of the Lord, who also takes care of the sparrows, with an unshaken hope conceived within you: for a great reward awaits us in the future. He saves all of us mortals freely, inasmuch as we have been bought by His own most holy blood. And that yoke, by the virtue of Him who calls, makes us gods. For the incarnation of the Lord willed this: that by the work you might know the outcome of works. Which is in every way more wonderful than the things that are seen, the cutting off of your own wills, from which you may know yourself to be a martyr. Do what your father commands you in words; for they lead you by the way without stumbling ^C as far as death. Great is this sublimity, and it is evident that God also did this for your sake. Consider yourself to be the vilest of all, which will reconcile the first places in the kingdom of heaven to you. Account yourself a pilgrim, a beggar, and more abject than others. These are of great moment if you perform them rightly. Be entirely an imitator of the Lord, than whom nothing better can be conceived. All things proceed well with daily mourning, and it is sweeter than food and drink, and teaches the knowledge of things flowing and things standing. For it separates one from the whole world, and exercises the silence of the goods of which we spoke. It plucks up the roots of all manner of evil affections as if they were useless. It keeps the memory of death constant. It is the same as the effector of humility. Purgated and illuminated in heart by these (a wonderful thing), you will be worthy to see the divine light which is sought by all, and which you may clearly see. For it is an immaterial weapon from an immaterial source. But Christ is perfect love, and he who is endowed with it is God by adoption. And it illuminates the souls that seek it, which alone live, so that no one wanders (O charity, God, and deify- ^D ing!): which matter has in it a sense of stupor, and is difficult to investigate.

CHAPTER VII.

you make men gods, you render darkness light, you bring them back from the netherworld, you endow the dead with immortality? as you bring darkness into light, you enclose the night in your fist, you shine around my heart, and change me entirely? as you join yourself to men, you make them sons of God, you inflame them with love for you, by your adoption and your grace, through your Spirit, O God, how marvelously you unite what is distant! ^A I suspect that I am absent from myself, thinking that I have nothing, for I do not feel the riches clearly given to me; nor do I consider it to be the fact that I behold the sun. In what way? Hear, and believe. What I behold is the sun, whose sense is to me more pleasant than can be told, and it draws my soul with a wonderful and divine love. Seeing it, the soul itself is scorched and burns with love, and desires to have within itself all that appears; and since it cannot, for that reason it is saddened, and judges it not to be a good thing to see and to survey it. When, therefore, he who is seen, and can be grasped by no one, and truly is inaccessible, has willed to have pity on my afflicted and humbled soul, suddenly—such as he is seen by me shining before my eyes—so is he seen to flash within me entirely, and he fills my humble self with all joy, all desire, and the sweetness of vision. This sudden change is strange, this variation is foreign, nor can that which is wrought within me be described in words. For if anyone were to see this sun, which we all behold, having descended into his own heart, inhabiting it entirely and shining equally, would he not be astonished by the miracle, and almost breathless, and would not all who saw him be struck with wonder? Now, he who sees the creator of the sun shining, working, and speaking within himself like this luminary, how will he not be struck with wonder at the sight? How will he not be drenched in religious awe? How will he not love the one from whom he received life? ^B Men love men who are like themselves, when they seem to provide some benefit to others. But the creator of all, the only immortal, powerful in every way—who, having seen him, will not love him? Many, having faith from hearing alone, have loved him, and the saints have laid down their lives for his sake, and yet they live nonetheless. But those who have been made participants in his vision and light, known by him, and who have known him—how will they not love him, I ask? How will they not mourn for him perpetually? How will they not despise the world, and the things that are in the world? How will they not scorn every honor and glory, they who, being greater than all earthly glory and all honor, have found him who is outside the earth and outside all visible things, nay rather, who created all visible things, and have received immortal glory, and have all good things from thence without defect? ^C Nay, they have even drawn from the same ever-living fountain all appetite, all desire for everlasting blessings and divine things, as if they were drawing riches: which do you, O Lord, grant that we too may be abundantly satisfied with, along with all who love and seek you from the heart, so that we ourselves, with your saints, may be delighted in eternal happiness for all the spaces of the ages. Amen. ^D CAPUT IX. That one who is possessed of the Holy Spirit, being caught up by his light, is carried above all perturbations, and is not harmed by contact with them. Alas! Alas! Almighty Lord, who [could describe] your

^A inaspectable beauty, and be satisfied? Who could be filled with your incomprehensibility? Who, having walked in your commandments as is fitting for him, could even behold the light of your countenance? A great and admirable thing, exceeding the power of all intelligence, is to be taken from this heavy and dark world while still living in the world with the body. O, an unheard-of mystery! Who has passed through the wall of his flesh? Who has traversed the gloom of corruption, and, deserting the whole world, has lain hidden? Alas, how easy is this knowledge, and not a subtle discourse! Where has he hidden, he who traversed the world and raised himself outside all that he saw? Tell me, O wisdom of the wise rejected—not to say made foolish by God, as Paul says, and as any servant of God knows—this is a man desiring [only] the Spirit. Even while approaching body with body, he is able to be holy in spirit. For outside the world and these bodies, there is no appetite for carnal affection, but a void of passions; and whosoever has loved this, and has garnered life from such love, even if you see him behaving unseemly, or conducting himself as a deserter to such an action, know that his body is dead. I do not mean a body without a soul—which brings it movement—but without evil desire. For the pleasure of noble apathy, and the light that from this in an incredible way loves me, seizing and carrying off my whole mind, and holding it naked in an immaterial hand, does not permit me to fall from its radiance or to contemplate anything conjoined with a vicious impulse. But it holds me steadfastly, and love burns my soul, and there is no other sense in me. For just as the purest bread is more precious and sweeter than dung, so much more—and incomparably more—do heavenly things surpass earthly things for those who have tasted them well. Let the wisdom of the wise, bereft of true knowledge, blush. For the simplicity of our sermons possesses in reality a legitimate wisdom, which, enjoying divine custom, worships Him from whom all wisdom is given in this life, through which I am refashioned, or even rendered divine.

CHAPTER X. SADNESS FROM THE DEATH OF LOVED ONES EVEN AFFECTS THE MORE ROBUST.

I have heard of a new and astonishing thing. That nature which has nothing to do with passing things, the stone called adamant, could suffer something more solid. That stone, though it softens neither by fire nor iron, when entwined with lead, becomes softer than wax. I lately believed that drops falling upon a stone over a long period of time could hollow it out. And indeed, nothing in life is immutable. Let no one judge me by my encounter. Woe to him who gazes upon the fleeting goods of this life as if they were firm and lasting, and rejoices in them. The same things will happen to them that happen to miserable me. Night has separated me from my sweetest brother, his undivided light of charity interrupted. ^{B C D}

CHAPTER XI. HE COMMEMORATES WITH STUPOR HOW GOD IS SEEN BY HIMSELF AS HE WAS SEEN BY PAUL AND STEPHEN THE APOSTLES.

What is the novelty of this miracle, that which is performed even now? God even today wishes to be seen by sinners, He who long ago ascended and sits hidden on the Father’s throne in the heavens. For He withdrew Himself from the eyes of the holy apostles, as we have heard, and only later did Stephen see the heavens opened and say: "I see the Son standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55). And for this reason, stoned by the doctors of the law themselves, according to the condition of nature he dies, and lives in eternal age. Nevertheless, he was an apostle, and he was sanctified, and everywhere full of the most holy Spirit. But in the beginning, the Gospel was promulgated to the multitude of the infidel, who, believing in Christ through the works of the apostles, also received the gift of the grace of faith. But what, then, does this new thing which happens to me now mean? Why am I so astonished at these things that are perpetrated in me? What is this mode of kindness that I experience? New riches of goodness, another fountain of mercy, pouring forth much more than of old. For to many, mercy has been granted out of the kindness of God; nevertheless, they themselves brought something proper to it, namely faith, along with other virtues and proven actions. But I perceive that I lack all these things, and I know—and cannot bear—what is done in me from my mother’s womb by God, who created every nature by His word, things which I fear to even cogitate in my mind, let alone dare to write down. For what hand could serve this thing? What reed could transcribe it? What speech could utter it? What tongue will report it? What lips will express what I see happening in me, and being perfected all the day long? For indeed, even in the very night and in the very darkness, with trembling I see Christ opening the heavens to me, and Himself looking forth, peering down at me, with the Father and the Spirit, in thrice-holy light. Therefore, the light itself is clearly one in three, and in the one, three; and one light is three, which irradiates my soul more than the sun, and illuminates my mind shrouded in darkness. For if my mind had seen it, it would have seen it from the beginning. But I was blind—believe me—and I did not see, and therefore the miracle stuns me more, when it opens the eye of the mind and gives it, in a way, to see—and it is the very thing which is seen. For He, light, appears in the light to those who see, and those who see in the light see Him again; for they who see, see in the light of the Spirit, and seeing in this, they perceive the Son. But he who is accounted worthy to see the Son, sees the Father also. Moreover, seeing the Father, he sees Him entirely with the Son, just as even now, as it is said, it happens in me. And I understand in some measure things that are not intelligible; and now, because of the inaccessible light, because of the glory that cannot be endured, I gaze from afar upon beauties that cannot be contemplated.

^A I am struck with violent astonishment and seized with trembling, for though I see but one drop from the abyss, yet the universality of the waters is demonstrated in the drop, ^B as to what quality and species it possesses: just as the whole fabric may be known from its fringe, and, as they say, the lion from its claw. Thus, embracing all in the small, I see and adore that very Christ, my God. I was comforted, however, not a little that I was not devoured, that I was not consumed like wax before the face of the fire, as the Prophet said, because I remained far from the inaccessible light and stood in the midst of darkness. Hidden by these, and looking as if through a small opening, I suffered dizziness. While I live in these things and hold my mind fast—thinking that I am looking into heaven—I fear that, having drawn nearer to me, He might blow upon me; I have found that very One whom Stephen saw with opened heavens, and whom Paul, after he had seen Him, was struck blind, ^C truly so that the fire might be in the midst of my heart. Wherefore, struck with terror at the miracle, and very trembling, and with my strength loosened, I departed from my mind, standing entirely in hesitation. Not bearing such immense glory, I fled in the night of these perceptions, turned away, and covered with thoughts; entered as if into a monument in these; and, being covered by this most thick body placed over me like a stone, I was hidden and concealed by my own estimation from Him who is present everywhere, who once raised me when I was dead and buried. For trembling, and unable to behold His glory, I chose rather to submit and to remain in the sepulcher and dwell with the dead, living myself in the sepulcher, than to be utterly consumed and perish by that fire. There, while I sat in despair, it behooved me to lament and weep without end, because, frustrated of the desired One, I now lurk in a monument. Yet, while living though dead under the earth and covered by the stone, I found the life who is God Himself, who gave life, to whom be glory and honor forever.

CAPUT XII.

Concerning the omnimode unity of the Trihypostatic Deity; and in what things one might claim to be something, humbling oneself by this confession and putting arrogance to shame.

How is it, my God, that things which You once destroyed in me now revive, and torment me, and create darkness for me? Perturbations, I say, angers, and inflammations—whence vapor and gloom invade my head—and the eyes of my intelligence are blinded. For they are forced, as it were, to blink and be closed, and I am despoiled of Your light; which, although there is no one who does not desire it, few nevertheless seek. Indeed, even those whom You have deigned to favor with Your mysteries, and have admitted to a material communion with the non-material sense of Your ineffable and awesome mysteries—and have given to them to know the invisible glory in visible things, and a new mystery in the world (though I know well that there are very few who have clearly contemplated these things in their minds) ^D from Him who is in the beginning, before all ages, from the Father, with the Holy Spirit, the Son and Word of God. (A page is perhaps missing in both manuscripts) ... and they produce beasts in me, and dragons are born in me, and reptiles, and serpents, always vexing the members of my soul. For vain and empty glory bites me, and fixes its teeth in my heart, out of which, since I am now infirm and utterly broken, ferocious dogs and a multitude of wild beasts have risen against me. And when they had found me lying there, they devoured me. For human delights and praises have taken the marrow from and unnerved my soul, and have taken away my strength and alacrity. Woe is me! Who shall write all these things? But through a magnificent opinion of myself, sloth, pleasure, and the care of pleasing men—as if these were robbers imposed upon me, dragging me on both sides—they have distracted me. And these things, indeed, were taken away by sobriety and temperance; but these goods works, and actions according to God, by showing them as if they proceeded from myself, have rendered me dead. Tell me, I beg, is it not miserable and most worthy of commiseration, when so many affections and turbulent impulses have suddenly rushed upon me, and have killed me, despoiled and stripped of every virtue; and again I do not know myself, and recognizing nothing of those things which have happened to me, I establish myself as greater than all, and free from perturbations, and a holy man, and wise, and an excellent theologian, and one rightfully to be venerated by all mortals. But also, when I am praised, as if I were worthy of praise, calling everyone to me, I strive to collect the testimonial of honor from them. For when those are gathered, I swell even more, and frequently look around, lest by chance anyone be absent who does not see me. But if by chance someone has looked at me with oblique eyes, I am malicious, and I berate, and I disparage him, so that he himself, having heard these things, might come, impatient of my reproaches, and greet me, and appear unworthy of my faith, and my prayers, and my charity. This I say regarding all the rest. Another comes, and brings back my blessing, and listens to my sermons and doctrine. O, my foolishness! How do I not perceive my nakedness and misery, and not feel my wounds, not mourn, not weep, nor seek healing, lying in the infirmary? Nor do I call for physicians, showing my welts and revealing to them even the hidden sicknesses of my soul, so that they might apply dry and cauterizing plasters, which I might endure for the sake of recovering health? But rather, I add wounds daily. But You, O my God, have mercy on me, who have been deceived and have erred; and insert Your fear into my heart, that according to Your commandments I may flee the world, and hate it, and wisely draw myself together in healthy fear. Do not allow, Christ, that I wander and stray in the midst of it; for I love You alone, though hitherto You have not been loved, and I trust that I shall serve Your precepts alone, I who am entirely in vices, nor have I known...

^A You. For who has known You, and desires the glory of the world? Or who loves You, and seeks anything other than You? Truly, that he may invite all to praise and admire himself; or that he may flatter some; or that he may strive to win for himself the friendships of all. None of Your genuine servants has done this; and this is what tortures me, and brings me into sadness, my God, because I see myself subjected to servitude in these things, and I can neither be persuaded to the other side, nor humbled, nor do I endeavor to seek Your glory alone, through which I might be shown to be a faithful servant of Yours, and through which (especially in vileness and poverty, and labors) I might be able to become more exalted not only than the powerful, but even than kings. Bend, therefore, O God, Maker of all, toward granting mercy to my soul, You who gave me to exist well, and grant me true knowledge, that I may know and prudently cling to Your eternal and sole goods, and may love and seek Your glory from my heart, and not at all care for human and earthly things; that I may be joined to You now, and after death, and may deserve to reign with You, who for my sake suffered an ignominious death, and fulfilled the entire economy. Then I shall be more illustrious than all mortals. Amen. So be it, Lord, now and unto the ages.

CHAPTER XIII.

I weep and am stung with compunction, when the light shines upon me, and I see my poverty, and I know where I am, and what sort of world I inhabit, namely, a mortal [inhabiting] a mortal and perishing world. But I take pleasure and rejoice, as often as I perceive my state and the glory granted to me by God, and I consider myself as an angel of the Lord entirely adorned in a non-material garment. The joy, therefore, of God, who bestows and changes me, ^B awakens desire within me; desire draws forth streams of tears, and illuminates me more abundantly. Listen, you who [are] in God, as I [am], to your sins; labor and hasten in good works, that you may apprehend and embrace the matter of the light which lacks matter (when I say matter, I signify the divine nature to you) and may ignite the intellectual lamp of the soul, that you may become suns shining in the world and by no means seen by those who are in the world; that you may be as gods, possessing the entire glory of God within you, in two essences, in two natures entirely, with a double function, a double will, as Paul proclaims. For one is the will of the fleeting flesh, another [is that] of the spirit and of my soul: yet I am not triple, but double, as a man. My soul is bound to my body by an inexplicable bond. Nevertheless, each one of them seeks its own in a fitting manner; the body, to eat, to drink, to sleep; which I also call the desires of the earthly flesh. After which it has been separated from the soul, it desires nothing of this sort: but ^C I think it is one dead will deprived of sense, like to mud. Whoever, therefore, has joined his own [will] to the divine Spirit, has become like to God; with Christ accepted into his breast, he is a Christian from Christ, holding Christ formed within himself, incomprehensible, alone, and truly inaccessible indeed to all created natures in Himself. But, O undefiled nature, hidden essence, goodness unknown to most men, mercy which is not seen by those living foolishly, O invariant, indivisible, thrice-holy essence, simple light, and lacking form, not at all composite, incorporeal, and You who are able to be captured and comprehended by no nature, how, O King, are You set before human eyes as I [am], known by those who are in the world, carried by the hands of Your holy Mother, bound as a murderer, suffered as a malefactor, while You desire to save me utterly, and to lead [me] back again into the paradise of glory. This is Your economy, this is the cause of Your advent, this is the mercy and Your humanity, exhibited to us all as mortals, to the faithful, to the infidel, to the ethnic sinners, and to the saints. For Your appearance in the flesh has been made the common salvation and redemption of all the living and the dead.

What, moreover, has been perfected in me, lost as I am, in secret and apart, and in an ignorance [that is] knowable to me certainly, but not to others—what tongue will speak [of it]? What mind will interpret [it]? What speech will declare, that my hand may write it in letters? For it is truly ^D tremendous, tremendous, I say, and cannot be sufficiently told, that a light is seen by me, which this world does not have. And He who is not in this world loves me. And I in the midst of my cell see Him, who is outside the world. I sit upon my bed, and I am versed outside the world. I see Him, however, who always is, and yet is generated, who when I speak, I also dare to say, I love, because He loves me. His contemplation alone is to me excellent riches and nutriment; and united to Him I climb above the heavens. And this I know to be true and certain. But where this body may be, I know not. I know that He who is immobile descends. I know that He who by nature is invisible is seen by me. I know that [He] who is far distant from every creature is received by me, and hidden between His arms, and then I am found outside the whole world. Conversely I, a mortal, and small and insignificant in this world, behold the Creator of the world entirely within me: and while I am within life, and I embrace the entire life flourishing and thriving within me, I know that I shall not die. He is in my heart, and He is not absent in heaven: here and there He is seen by me as equally shining. By what way, however, shall I sufficiently attain by my intelligence, in what manner these things happen? Or how shall I be able to tell you what I understand and see? For they are indeed impossible to be uttered, and altogether ineffable, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and [which] have not ascended into the carnal heart. Grace

having persuaded me, I plucked insatiable joy from your grace, and was sustained by a solid hope. But what shall I say of those two extremes which, O my King, it has pleased you to bring upon me, which bring privation to soul and mind, and impede all functions and intellects? Nay, even by the magnitude of your glory they weigh me down, and almost move me to cease, so that I speak nothing, do nothing, attain nothing of these matters.

I give thanks to you, Lord, for you have had mercy upon me, that you might save me. Having this in certain faith, I give thanks to you, Lord, that you have granted me to see these things, and to write them down, and to proclaim your kindness to my posterity; so that even now the peoples, tribes, and tongues may be imbued with this sacred doctrine, that you show mercy to all who fervently repent; just as you have had mercy on your apostles and all your saints. You do good to them, you honor and glorify them, my God; so that seeking you with much desire and fear, and turned only to you, the maker of the world, whom glory, honor, dominion, and majesty befit as King and God and Lord of the universe, now and for the innumerable ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XIV. Thanksgiving to God for the gifts with which I have been deemed worthy. That the dignity of the prelacy and the priesthood is venerable and to be feared by the very angels themselves.

I, Lord, even though I wish to speak, I cannot. For what indeed can I say, when I am unclean in counsels, actions, and in all my thoughts? Nevertheless, my soul is wounded, and I burn within, desiring to address you at least a little, my God. For I see myself, which you know, and I see how I have defiled all the members of my body and soul from my very birth, [and that I am] wholly sin. ^B I consider your mercy, kindness, and the many good things which you have worked in me, and I become mute, and almost despair, and am afflicted continually, and I am sad, unhappy, because I am unworthy of all your good gifts. Furthermore, when I descend into myself and consider the multitude of my sins before my soul, and think with myself that I have not taken up even one good work in my life, and that instead of the punishments which I ought to have sustained from your just wrath, as one who had offended you very often, I have been humanely overwhelmed by you with very many benefits, I am brought to despair, since I still daily add errors to errors; and I fear lest you turn your great compassion and kindness into a greater punishment for me to impose: for the more merits I am adorned with by you, ^C the more ungrateful I am to you, I, the wicked servant of a good Lord. All other inconveniences, therefore, Lord, were to me for patience, suggesting the hope of eternal life; for which cause I often rejoiced, which you alone know, trusting in your clemency and mercy. For it is for this that you chose me from the whole world, and separated me from friends and kinsmen.

^D I am astounded, and in my admiration I am saddened, that I have given myself to such things, to such sacrosanct things, that I, a wretch, should serve and perform the liturgy in those matters which the angels fear to gaze upon freely; which the prophets acknowledged with fear, and at the same time heard concerning the glorious and incomprehensible economy; [which] the apostles, the martyrs, and the choir of doctors cry out and vociferate, proclaiming themselves unworthy in public. But I, lost as I am, a fornicator, how am I a ruler of the brethren, and a priest of divine mysteries, and a minister of the immaculate Trinity? For when the bread is placed, and wine is drawn to be consecrated into your body and blood, O Word, you yourself are present there, my God, and these truly become your body and blood, through the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Highest, and we dare to touch the inaccessible God, or rather the light that dwells in the inaccessible—not only for this human nature, which is subject to corruption, but even for all the legions of angels which are understood by reason. Therefore, this mystery, this work above nature, and this action, to the fulfillment of which I have been chosen, persuades me that I should set death before my eyes. Whence, putting aside joy, I am shaken with trembling, since I know that neither I, nor anyone else, can according to its dignity perform the sacrifice (λετουργεῖν) and carry out a life so angelic, nay, more than angelic, in the body: so that, as reason teaches and truth holds, one becomes more familiar to God than the angels themselves; insofar as he handles with his hands and consumes with his mouth that which they venerate with awe, and stand round about with trembling.

But the judgment of the brethren, over whose ruling I am set—what soul will bear it? What mind will suffice to govern each one's soul without just reproach, and to confer all that belongs to one's office without failure, and to rescue oneself from their censures? This seems to me in no way possible for anyone. I have therefore brought it into my mind, and I prefer...

^A to be a disciple, and to be subjected under the will and judgment of one person, and to accept the commands of one, and to render an account to this one alone, than to serve the morals and wills of many, and to probe their minds, to discover their counsels, and to investigate their actions and thoughts more deeply; especially since judgment awaits me, and I am to answer for those who have sinned, for whose governance I have been chosen alone by the secret counsel of God. For each person will be judged by himself, and will render a full account of those things which he has done, whether good or evil. But for each one, I shall render an account alone. And who shall I be, to be saved, or how shall I obtain mercy, I who cannot show any work performed in any way for salvation for my one and miserable soul, by which I might escape the eternal fires? But, O kind Savior, merciful and compassionate: bestow divine power upon me, an outcast, so that I may rule with prudence those brothers whom you have entrusted to my faith, and lead them to the pastures of your divine laws, and restore them to the mansions of the celestial kingdom safe, unharmed, splendid in the beauty of virtues, worthy worshipers before your terrible tribunal. And count me also, who have been taken from the world, though burned with many marks of sins, yet a priest and your useless servant, in the judgment which you know, among the choirs of the elect with my disciples; so that together we may all see your divine glory, and be delighted by your ineffable goods. For you are the joy, the delights, and the beauty of those who love you ardently, unto everlasting ages.

CHAPTER XV

^A ...I am struck, and from that consideration, I cry out in my mind: Who then am I, O God, and author of all things? And what, finally, have I done laudable in my life; or what commandment of yours have I fulfilled, since you glorify me, a despicable person, with such glory? And whence, and for what cause, have you deigned to flood me, a miserable one, with such light by day and by night? Have I at any time sought you, my King, thirsting? Have I been wearied and afflicted by the labors of your commandments? Have I endured temptations and scourges, as all the saints after the memory of [your] names have patiently endured these things, so that you would want me, enumerated among them, to be saved? Although you are wonderfully humane and kind, as the parent and creator of all, yet I hear James saying, «faith without works is dead», and I dread the punishments which, for certain, await me there, a vile little man. By what means, therefore, shall I trust, O Lord, that I am to be gathered into the number of those—as a faithful one—who have served you heretofore, when I myself have not kept even one of your commandments? But I know that you can do all things, that you do all things as you wish, and you give to the last even as to the first, and—what is very wonderful—you give first to the last before the first. ^B When I say these things to you—to you, I say, the creator of this world—who before appeared above and again hid yourself, and afterward enveloped me entirely in rays, suddenly I perceive that you have arisen wholly within me, you who before seemed to be above, and had again hidden yourself, just as the sun is covered by thinner clouds with contracted rays. Just as that [sun] is then apparent to sight, and is then better perceived by men: so you too are accessible to me, hiding within me, though otherwise inaccessible to my eyes—which the intellect knows to be a vision, as you know—gradually increasing, and diffusing greater light, and shining more brightly. At other times, you are again inaccessible to me. Wherefore, because you cannot be comprehended, for that reason I celebrate you, and with great voices I proclaim your goodness, and I glorify our nature which is glorifying [you].

While you reveal yourself, O Lord of the universe, and show more manifestly the glory of your countenance, I tremble all over, looking at you from above, as much as I can for my humble and abject nature, and corrected by fear and astonishment, I say: All your things exceed my grasp, my God. For I am unclean, and unworthy in every way to behold you, the pure and holy Lord, whom the angels revere, and whom they serve with trembling; by whose face every creature is shaken and trembles. When I have said these things, I close my eyes—that is, I turn my mind to the infernal depths—because I cannot bear to see and perceive the majesty of your Deity. And then I lament, deprived of your beauty, nor do I bear to be separated from you, who alone are kind. You indeed, to me thus lamenting and weeping, ^C wholly, O Father, shine around; and I am stunned, and my tears flow more abundantly while I admire your mercy toward me, a lost one. Then the many foulnesses of my body, and of my miserable soul...

...Gloria, O Word, to your immense condescension. Glory to your mercy. Glory to your power. Glory to you, because immutable and invariable remaining, you are wholly immovable, while you are always moved; you are wholly outside the creature and wholly in the creature; you wholly fill all things and are wholly outside all things. You are above all things, O Lord, above every principle, above every essence, above the nature of nature, above all ages, above every light, above the natures of the intelligent blessed minds: for even they are your work, or rather the work of your thought. For you are none of the things that are, and you are superior to all. For you are the cause of those that exist, as the creator of all, and therefore you are separated and stand apart from all things, and you are understood to be eminent above all things that are, escaping the gaze of the eyes, inaccessible, incomprehensible, intangible, ^D not intelligible, immutable, wholly simple, and yet wholly various...

and in every way my mind is unable to perceive the elegance of your glory. Therefore, you who are nothing from all things, how then are you above all things? You who are outside all things and are the God of all, avoiding every observation, access, intellect, and touch, the same you became mortal and entered into the world, and by assuming a human body, you appeared accessible to all. You are known even by the faithful with the glory of your divinity, and are grasped by those who are themselves entirely incomprehensible, and you are seen by them fully; though you are invisible to all, they saw the majesty of your sacrosanct divinity. The faithful alone see; but all the unfaithful, even when you are seen as the light of the world, remain blind. The faithful, therefore, both then and now, always see you and hold you with them, the Maker of the universe, moving and dwelling with them ^B in the shadows of this life, as an inaccessible sun, as an inextinguishable lamp, being yourself not at all grasped by the darkness, and you always illuminate those who see you. Because, therefore, you are, as we have said, outside all things, you also make those illuminated by you to be outside those things that move the sense of the eyes, and you are above with your Father. And just as you, while being there, are fully with us without interval, so you lead us, your servants, who are dwelling in the midst of things subject to the gaze of the senses, and you lift us up entirely with you, illustrated by your light, and you render us immortal from mortal, and while we remain what we are, by your grace we turn into sons, similar to you, gods seeing God. Who, therefore, would not run to you, who alone are benign? Who would not follow you? Who would not say out of charity: Behold, having cast aside all things, we follow you, the compassionate, gentle, and merciful Lord, constantly awaiting our conversion, not wishing for the destruction of those who have offended you, you who now perform in us stupendous things, which we, once hearing of what would happen in the house of David, wonder what they would be. We are the house of David, as his kin. For you yourself are the Creator of all, you have been made his son, and we are your sons by grace. You are our kin by flesh, we [are kin] of your divinity. For having clothed yourself in a body, you gave us the Holy Spirit, and we have all become together one house of David, because we are your own and your kin. Therefore, Lord David, you are [so] in spirit, and we ^C are the sons of David, your divine seed, all of us. But we gather into one house; that is, we are all brothers, all your kin. And how is it not a thing to be admired, how is it not stupendous to anyone thinking on this, and weighing it, that you are with us now and unto the ages, and you make each one a house, and you dwell in all, and you yourself are a house to all, and each one of us dwells in you, fully with the fully, and [the fact] that you are in turn with each one, and alone with the alone, and alone above us, and you are whole? Now, therefore, you perform August things in us. What August things? I shall say a few things out of many. And although what has been said so far is all more than astounding, nevertheless, receive now things even more astounding than those.

We are members of Christ, and Christ is our members. And my hand, O miserable one, and my foot is Christ. And I, the least, am the hand of Christ and the hope of Christ. Do I move my hand? It is even Christ, for it is entirely my hand: for you must understand the Deity as indivisible. Do I move my foot? And behold, it shines as He does. Beware of saying that I blaspheme, but approve these things, and adore Christ, who makes you such. For you also, if you wish, become his member. And thus all the members of each of us will become members of Christ, and Christ will become our member, and He will render all things unseemly and deformed [as] beautiful and seemly, adorning them with the beauty, that is to say, and the glory of His own divinity; and we shall together become gods, familiarly joined with God, seeing no stain in our body, but having attained the likeness of the whole body of Christ, each of us shall have the whole Christ as our member. For the one, having been made many, remains one and indivisible; but each part is the whole Christ (19). If, therefore, you are clothed in the disgrace of your own flesh, and have not yet stripped your mind and soul, and are covered in darkness, and [yet] were able to see the light, what shall I do for you? How can I show you [things] full of veneration? How, alas the pain, shall I introduce you into the house of David? For it cannot be approached by the lazy, as I am: nor [can it be] seen by the blind, like me; and it stands clearly far off from the unfaithful and the lazy, far off from all the wicked, from all lovers of the world, from those covetous of vain glory. Thus ^D those things are, and they come to be, and "they have been done," which I cannot honorably express with a free mouth. Nor because something has been attributed to us by nature, ought it not to be hidden by the covering of the tongue and garments. Nor do those considerations of spiritual things seem to me sufficiently pious or decent, which do not lift the mind too much above these—if I may say so—physical things. Nor does one who hides what nature wished to be hidden, therefore not put on Christ. But if there were any who would think that everything in a Christian, who puts on Christ both in deed and in name, should be in plain view; he could not unjustly be deemed fuller of cynicism than of Christianity. But enough of these.

^A And it differs beyond comparison, as if it were above the height of heaven or below the depth of the abyss! For who, or by what means, will eventually ascend into heaven? Or how, by descending beneath the earth, will he search out the abysses? And how could he find it, seeking the pearl, or the smallest mustard seed? But, O children, gather together, mothers be present, O fathers hasten, before death forestalls, and lament with me, and weep all of you, because although we received God as little ones in baptism, or rather became infants of God, yet when we had sinned, we were shortly cast out of the dwelling of David, and we did not perceive it. But let us run through repentance; for it is indeed through it that all who have been cast out return; otherwise it is not permitted to return, lest you err, nor to behold the things that are perfect in Him, which are perfected for infinite ages in Christ my God, to whom befits all glory, honor, and adoration forever.

CHAPTER XVI.

O what thing is this, so venerable to every creature? What is this light falling under the understanding, which is seen by all? What are these great riches, which no mortal has been able to find or possess at all? For they are incomprehensible to all, and cannot be grasped by the world; they are most desirable above the orb of the earth; they are as desirable as their Creator excels visible things. And therefore I am wounded by His charity. But in that I do not grasp Him, I am consumed in mind and pine away, and I groan with an ardent heart, and walking here and there and circling about, inflamed, I seek, and nowhere do I find Him whom my soul loves. I look around frequently, if I might see Him whom I desire. But He, as if ^C unseeable, does not appear at all. But when I begin to lament as if in despair, then He offers Himself to be seen by me, and He looks upon me, He who looks upon all things. I marvel, and I am stunned by His remarkable beauty; and as if the Creator looked down from the open heaven, and showed me a new and ineffable glory. And while I think thus with myself, who will eventually be His heir? Or by what reason will he be elevated into the height of the infinite? He is present within me, and flashes in my miserable heart, clothing me on all sides with immortal splendor, and radiating all my members, embracing my whole self, He imparts a kiss, and gives Himself entirely to me, the unworthy, and I am satisfied by His charity and beauty, and filled with the pleasure and sweetness of the divinity. I become a partaker of the light, a partaker of ^D glory, and my face shines just as His, who is my desire, and all my members grow bright, and then I become more beautiful than the beautiful, richer than the rich, more powerful than all the powerful, and I am greater than kings, and far more honorable than any visible things, not only on earth and of those things that are on the earth, but also of heaven and of all things that are in the heavens, having with me the Maker of all, to whom befits glory and honor now and through the ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XVII.

How shall I chant with hymns, how shall I glorify, how shall I worthily preach my God who has hidden so many of my sins? How shall I lift up my eyes, how shall I open my mouth, my Savior, how shall I move my lips, how shall I stretch forth my hands to the sublime heaven, what speech shall I find, what words shall I use, how shall I dare to speak, how shall I beg for mercy for so many errors, for so many innumerable sins? Surely I have committed crimes unworthy of all pardon? You know what I say. I have crossed all the boundaries of nature, having committed crimes against nature; I have become worse than brute animals; I was truly worse than all marine, all terrestrial, cattle, reptiles, and wild beasts, when I violated Your commands. Who, therefore, have so contaminated my body and sullied my soul, how shall I appear to You, how shall I look upon You, how shall I even dare to stand, a wretch, before Your sight? How shall I not flee from Your glory and the lightning-flash of Your holy Spirit? How shall I alone not go to the darkness, and not separate myself from the gatherings of the saints, I who have performed the works of darkness? How shall I sustain Your voice, I who from these deeds of mine bear my damnation with me? I shudder all over, I tremble all over, and all turned to fear and stupor I cry out to You. I know, Savior, that no one has sinned against You as I have, nor has anyone involved himself in such great crimes as I have; I have even been the author of perdition to others. But against this, I know, I am persuaded of this, my God, that neither the magnitude of transgressions, nor the multitude of sins, nor the baseness of actions, could ever exceed Your kindness, and your great—or rather more than great, and which no reason, no mind can comprehend—mercy, which You pour out copiously upon sinners, while they perform penance, and You cleanse them, and make them participants of light, and consorts of Your divinity, and You dwell and converse with them no differently than with sincere friends. O infinite clemency, O ineffable charity! For that reason I fall on my knees before You, and call upon You with great love: just as You received the prodigal and the harlot coming to You into grace, so receive me, merciful Savior, repenting from my soul, and do not spurn my tears, which are continually dropping like from a fountain; wash through them the stains of my soul, wash those of my body which I have contracted from actions not worthy. Wash also my heart from all wickedness. For that is the root and fountain of sins.

The wickedness of the evil sower germinates the evil seed there, and growing on high, produces many branches of impiety and vice. Root them out entirely, my Christ, and purge the little field of my soul and heart, and sow your fear in them, and grant that it may take root and sprout again, and that it may grow on high by the keeping of your commandments, while you add to it every hour and increase it with my tears, which flow from the springs: that receiving irrigation from thence, it may gain the greatest increment, and as much as it is strengthened and lifted up, so much in proportion may humility grow with it, to which all turbulent movements yield, and with them the phalanx of demons is repelled, which all the virtues, as if around a queen, are seen to surround, and to accompany the mistress as guardians, and friends, and handmaids. ^A With these gathered and linked together, in their midst like a tree planted by the streams of waters, your fear flowers, and gradually shows me a new flower. I said new, since every nature produces according to its kind, and the seed of all trees is within each one according to its kind. But your fear shows both a flower of a certain new nature, and a fruit likewise new, and foreign to itself. For fear by its own nature is full of sadness, and makes those occupied by it to walk always with a mournful countenance and knit brows, as if they were servants, as if worthy of many stripes, as if expecting every hour to be cut off from death; seeing its sickle, but ignorant of the moment; and having neither hope nor full faith of perfect pardon; but trembling at the end and the sentence of that judgment, as if carrying it about in their minds and memory as uncertain. Since, therefore, the flower which it offers is of an inexplicable ^B appearance; but yet its knot can be less explained. For while it breaks forth it is seen; but immediately it is hidden, which is neither natural nor consequent, but surpasses the nature and condition of nature, and transcends all nature. For a little while this flower is seen as beautiful as can be declared by no words, and it snatches my mind to contemplate itself, nor does it allow me to remember anything of those things which fear suggests, but then induces an oblivion of all things in me, and acts and flies away. Thus the tree of fear is again destitute of its flower, and I, given over to sadness, groan, and crying out intensely to you, I see the flower again on the branches, and with my eyes, O my Christ, fixed on it alone, not then do I see the tree, but more frequently I gaze upon the flower shining forth and drawing me to itself with all my desire, which at length is consumed and ends in the fruit of charity. Furthermore, this fruit does not permit itself to be carried by the tree of fear; ^C but when now well ripened, it is seen without the tree: for in no way is fear found in charity, and again without fear it is not produced in the soul, and this fruit.

Truly it is something more wonderful than you can attain by thought, let alone by speech, for a tree cultivated by labor to flower, and to bear fruit, but for the fruit to uproot the whole tree entirely, and for the fruit alone to remain. By what means the fruit can exist without the tree, I am altogether unable to explain. Yet charity remains, and is charity without fear, from which it has flowed as from a parent. Charity, therefore, truly contains all gladness in itself, and accumulates the one who possesses it with joy and delight, and causes him to feel himself to be outside the world, which faculty by no means falls into fear. For since it is within those things which are perceived by sight and the other senses, how, I pray, will it be able to separate the one who fears far from these, and to join and bind his sense in any way to invisible things? But as for the flower and the fruit which fear generates—charity, I mean—whether this is powerful, I would wish you to know clearly. These things cannot be expressed, as I affirmed: nevertheless, apply your mind, and I will teach you. ^D

The Divine Spirit is charity, a light operating and illuminating all things. Nevertheless, it is not from the world, nor in any way anything of the world, nor a creature, because it is uncreated, and outside all creatures, and separated from all, uncreated in the midst of created things. Understand, son, what I say: this uncreated thing can never be created. Yet if it wills, it can even do this, namely, that a creature should exist. For the Word, with the Spirit cooperating, and the Father so willing, having suffered no mutation of Himself, put on man, and He who was by nature uncreated God, in an ineffable way was made a creature, and by that which He assumed, having deified it, He shows me a double miracle by both operations, and by the wills likewise, visible and invisible, who can be held and yet cannot be held: and who appeared as a creature in the midst of all creatures, so that He did not disappear as a creature, as those thought. But in fact He by no means vanished; but the Word, existing in the midst of all sensible creatures, with that which He had assumed, was not seen as a creature. But while He was hiding the creature which He had assumed, or lifting it to the heights, into His own glory, which exceeds our intelligence, He was straightway hidden; this they said: the Lord has vanished; but measuring the thing from themselves plainly. For the Creator of all, who can be grasped by no one, and, as God, fills all things, how could He otherwise be hidden? Will you say that the Lord was translated from place to place, and thus removed from the eyes of the apostles? Away, lest out of ignorance you fall into blasphemy. Hear now the effects of charity, if it pleases, and how it is greater than all things, you shall know.

^A Does that saying of the Apostle escape you, in which he says that it is better to have charity than to speak with the tongues of angels, and to have all faith of all men, so that you might move mountains, know all knowledge, and the most hidden mysteries, distribute all your possessions, and even become a beggar yourself, and even deliver your own body to be burned for the sake of Christ? And truly charity is so much greater than these, because these, whether taken singly or all together, without charity bring no benefit whatsoever to those who possess them. Wherefore, whoever is naked both of charity and of all these enumerated things, tell me, where will he appear? What will he do? How will he dare to answer those who inquire of him whether he is faithful? We must therefore be attentive to one who speaks thus of charity. I sit in my cell by night or by day; charity is present, even though it does not appear and is not perceived. And though it is outside all creatures, yet it is also with all; it is fire, it is radiance, it becomes a cloud of light, and finally, it becomes the sun. As fire, it warms the soul and inflames my heart, and rouses it to desire and love the Creator. But when it has inflamed me abundantly and makes my spirit burn, it surrounds me entirely like a luminous splendor, and casts its flashing rays into my soul; and by illuminating my mind and making it clear-sighted, it makes it fit for the sublimity of contemplation. And yet this was what I said above was the flower of fear. But when I saw this splendor and was filled with an incredible joy, I did not rejoice because I had seen it. But when it had filled me with heavenly joy, it flew away, and with it, it took away my mind, my sense, and all desire for worldly things. And my seeking mind desired to grasp the radiance it had seen: but it did not find it to be a creature, nor did it find it pleasant to depart from creatures, so that it might grasp that radiance of the uncreated and incomprehensible. Nevertheless, it went about all things and strove to see it. It scrutinized the air, it traversed the heaven, it wandered through the abysses, and searched and examined, as it seemed, the ends of the world; but it found nothing in all these things, for all things are created. And I lamented, and I mourned, and I burned to the marrow, and I lived as if bereft of my mind. It came, therefore, after it had willed, and rushing in the form of a luminous cloud, it seemed to settle upon my entire head, so that, astonished, I cried out. But the light flew away again and left me alone; and when I sought it with labor, I learned that it had suddenly been found in me again, and in the midst of my heart it appeared like a light in the likeness of the round sun. When it had appeared thus, and I had recognized it and accepted it, it turned the host of demons to flight, ^B and drove away cowardice, and clothed me in intellectual sense, stripping me of worldly sense. It cut me off from those things which are seen, and bound me to those which are not seen; it granted me to see the uncreated, and to rejoice that I had been separated from created, visible, and briefly perishing things, and joined with the uncreated, with the immortal, and with Him who lacks beginning and can be seen by no one. For this is charity. Let us quicken our course, O faithful ones; let us labor to hasten, we who are sluggish; let us be awakened, we who are slothful, so that, having attained charity, we may become more its participants, and thus, departing from these things and being led by it away from visible things, we may stand before the Lord: lest otherwise, without charity, we be found in these things that fall under the sense of sight, and be left in these creatures as creatures [are left], in the Tartarean fire and horrible torments. But if it is permitted even to be saved, oh good Christ, how indeed is it permitted? If we are separated from the light, how shall we escape the darkness? If we are deprived of joy, from what shall we be delivered from sadness? Prohibited from entering the bridal chamber, how shall we rejoice? Excluded from the kingdom, I ask, Savior, what other salvation or what consolation, or in what other place finally can we find it? Truly nowhere at all, even if it might seem so to some in their folly: for he who says this is a fool. ^C But someone will perhaps object: how will there not be another place of salvation or rest outside the kingdom of heaven, outside the bridal chamber, and the host of the just? You are a fool, says charity, have you not heard that your first father Adam, having transgressed the one commandment in paradise, was stripped of divine glory, and that Eve with him was soon after ejected into exile, receiving for the reward of pleasure, alas, miserable death, and a life full of sweat and labors, oh sorrow! with the times of living and dying justly appointed by God? Think that it will be thus when judgment is exercised. For he who shall be found as he truly was, stripped of divine glory, will be driven away instantly from paradise, and certainly from the kingdom of heaven and the celestial bridal chamber, even if he has not had sin, but has stood empty of virtues. Moreover, charity is certainly the first, queen, and mistress of all virtues. It is the head, and the garment, and the glory of all. But without the head, the body is dead and without spirit. And how is a body without a garment not naked? Virtues without charity are withered and useless: and he who is not endowed with charity is naked of the glory of God; and although he may be possessed of all virtues, he stands naked, and not bearing his nakedness, he wishes to be hidden. For since he has such disgrace and shame, ^D and cannot hide it? Therefore, when Christ vanished from the sight of those present, He was not moved as God was localized, even though He was locally moved as He was man; which Simeon testifies, when concerning the vanishing Christ he writes thus: But hiding the assumed creature (namely His humanity) or [taking it] on high into His glory, etc., [as he] vanished, He was immediately hidden away.

has condemnation, and hears from the judge of all, "I do not know you." The Creator came into this world, assumed body and soul, and gave us the divine Spirit, which is charity. If, therefore, you wish and it pleases you to ^A obtain the divine Spirit, believe in God perfectly, and deny yourself perfectly in the same way; take up your cross without hesitation upon your shoulders, and in purpose and will die, O son, that you may gain immortal life. Let not impostors deceive you with their fallacious words, that those who die after death receive life, lest you act negligently through credulity, and in no way become a participant of life.

Hear the words of God, hear the apostles, hear the teachers of the Church. What does Christ cry out at all times? "Rivers of living water will flow from the belly of those who believe in me." What other water does he mean, if not the grace of the Holy Spirit? Calling the pure in heart blessed, he says that they will see God here. The apostles and teachers, indeed, all cry out as one: that here the Holy Spirit and Christ are to be received, if we are to attain salvation. Listen to the voice of the Lord, hear the word of the Word, how he signifies that the kingdom of heaven is to be received even now by men. "It is like," he says, "a precious pearl." When you hear of a pearl, what do you think? Do you learn that it is a kind of stone? Or one that can be held at all, or seen to some degree? Away with your blasphemy; this pearl is perceived by the intellect alone. But explain now by what method the merchant who finds it, found it. If it is not such that it can be touched by the hand or seen, where then did he find it, how did he see it? I would like you to tell me. How also did he buy, by selling all things, that which he did not find, which he did not see, which he did not have in his hands, nor place in his bosom? You will answer me, that by faith alone and hope he was so affected, as if he possessed it. Yet the Lord did not say that you or I should think that he sold his goods by the hope of finding or the hope of receiving. Why do you err? Why do you strive with vain hope, and while believing in vain, construct destruction for others and great punishment for yourselves? But it urges you that you first find the pearl, and when you have contemplated it as excessively and immensly precious, then, having sold all things, you buy it. You, on the contrary, say, "in hope," and show that you are unwilling to seek, unwilling to find, unwilling to sell your fortunes, so as to acquire the kingdom of heaven, which the Lord affirmed to be within you, if you so desire.

But perhaps you are in poverty, and have neither gold, nor possessions, nor riches; and hearing that I bought that inestimable pearl by the distribution of all my faculties, you say, "I, who have no wealth, by what way then shall I be able to acquire this divine and beautiful pearl?" I urge you, therefore, that you listen to me wisely concerning this. If you had the whole world, and the things that are in the world, and were to scatter and distribute them to orphans, widows, beggars, and the needy, ^B even if you yourself were to become a beggar, and you were to think that you had given a price, and were to say: "Give the pearl to me, for I have given all my things," immediately you would hear from the Lord, "What are these things of yours that you speak of? You came naked from your mother's womb, and you will return naked into the grave altogether; what then do you boast to be your own?" You are utterly foolish, you do not understand, nor will you receive the pearl, nor will the kingdom be yours. But if you consider whatever goods you may have, and you find that you are the poorest of all, and approaching him you address him thus: "Look now, Savior, upon my contrite heart and soul, severely chastised and vehemently inflamed. Behold, Lord, that I am naked; see that I am needy, alienated from every virtue, and suffering under the highest scarcity of these; possessing nothing with which I may buy from you; look, and have mercy on me, O my God, patient alone. For what in this world can I find worthy, which I may give as a price for you, who have made all things? For what did the harlot pay back? What did the thief count out? The prodigal, however, my Christ, what wealth did he offer you?" If, I say, you have said these things, you will hear in turn, or rather, they offered wealth, and having given what they had, they received a pearl more excellent than the whole world. This you too, if you wish, bring to me, and you will receive the very same. With these, approach me, and soon I will show you the pearl which they obtained: and if you were to give your very soul, you will consider that you have given nothing worthy. Whatever, in short, for a price you pay, you will consider that you have paid nothing. I, if you approach me ^C like that harlot, possess power, I possess pearls, which if the world were to receive, and with this world myriads of other worlds, not one pearl would be missing from my treasury, and I will gift you, just as I gifted her. Thus God will address and teach you how the thief and the harlot approached him, who are celebrated by fame throughout the world; how also the prodigal son was received, as soon as he returned. By faith, moreover, the thief was saved, who was bound by many crimes; and not undeservedly, since he alone, while all were denying me, while all were suffering scandal, confessed me, hanging on the cross, as God and King, and cried out in his spirit that I was immortal; for this reason he attained the kingdom even before all others. But the harlot's ^D love, what speech can follow that? Which, of course, she carried in her heart, when approaching me as God and Lord of visible and invisible things, she offered it abundantly to me, as no one had before. Which, seeing, I approved, nor did I accept that love; but the pearl having been given to her, I left the love to her as well, or rather I inflamed it more within her, and excited it into huge flames, and dismissed her more honest and more venerable than the virgins. For suddenly, having crossed over the whole law like a wall, or as if by stairs having been lifted above all virtues, she arrived at the end of the law, which is charity, and departed, conserving that charity intact until death. Similarly the prodigal

^A returned from his whole heart, repented sincerely, and when he was formerly my son, he did not come to me as a son, but asked to be made as one of my hired servants. Nor did he speak with his tongue only, but also with his soul; and what he said in words, he demonstrated by his deeds. His humility moved me to mercy, whom I presently enriched and immediately exalted with glory, since I saw that he had turned to me from his heart, when he by no means (as many are wont to do) turned his mind away from me. In this way, whoever shall have come to me, and shall have sincerely prostrated himself before me (let all mortals listen), I will immediately receive him. But whoever wishes to obtain my grace through deceit, and shall come to me with hypocrisy or dissimulation, either hiding his wickedness, or trusting in his own works, or being constrained by pride or envy, this person will have no part with me. These things God proclaims to thee, and to all through us, hour by hour. ^B Here I am for thee a pearl, here I am the price. Here I am wheat, and as it were a grain of mustard seed. Here I am leaven for thee, and I leaven thy mass. Here I am water and a sweet fire for thee. Here I am both clothing and food, and every kind of drink for thee, if only thou willest. The Lord says these things. If therefore thou shalt have known me thus in these perishable things, and as such, even there thou shalt have me as such, so that by an ineffable reason I may become all things to thee. But if thou emigratest from here, ignorant of what my grace accomplishes, there thou shalt find me only an inexorable judge. O my Christ and my God, do not condemn me then, nor subject me to punishments, I who have offended thee with many sins, but receive me as one of thy lowest hired servants; and deign to allow me henceforth to serve thee, my Savior, and to receive thy Holy Spirit, the pledge of the kingdom, and there to enjoy the glory of thy bridal chamber, seeing thee, my God, for all eternity. Amen.

CHAPTER XVIII. What a monk ought to be, what his action is, and what his ascent.

And if it pleases thee that I make it clear elsewhere, also here thou must understand the whole kingdom of heaven, if after death thou desirest to enter into it. Listen again to Him speaking in parables. "To what shall I liken the kingdom of heaven? Attend. It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his garden, and he comprehends it, and in truth it grew into a great tree." ^C Tell me now, thou who hearest these things, who is that grain? What dost thou think that thing is? Speak freely, otherwise I will speak, and I will declare the truth. It is certain that He has called the kingdom of heaven a grain. But this grain is the grace of the divine Spirit, the garden is the heart of each man; where, he who has received the Spirit, sows it and covers it, and hides it in the innermost bowels, so that no one may see, and he guards it with all diligence, so that it may germinate, and becoming a tree, it may raise itself to heaven. If thou affirmest, not here, but that all who fervently love God will receive the kingdom of God after death, thou subvertest the words of God and of our Savior. For unless thou hast received the grain of mustard seed, of which He spoke, unless thou hast sown it in thy garden, thou remainest entirely without seed. But if thou also hast cast that seed, and either hast suffocated it with thorns, or hast surrendered it to be snatched away by birds, or through thy negligence hast not watered the garden, and the grain has not emerged through the broken earth, has not germinated, has not borne fruit, come now, tell me what utility will result to thee from this sowing? ^D When, and at what other time if not here, dost thou receive the seed? After death, thou sayest. But thou errest from that which is consonant with reason. I ask thee, why dost thou hide that grain in the garden of the earth then? With what labor dost thou cultivate it, so that the greenness sprouting from it may be drawn forth? Truly, my brother, thou art deceived, and full of error. For this time is for works, the future is for crowns. Here do thou receive the earnest-money or pledge, said the Lord; here receive the seal or mark; already now kindle the lamp of thy soul, before it grows dark, before the doors of the works to be performed are closed. If thou art wise, here, alas for me, he is by no means a monk: but he is *monos* (only/alone), separated from God and detached, evidently. Furthermore, even each of us who are of this mind, we are entirely dissociated from other men, and we are all orphans and desolate, although we seem to be joined by habitation, and to be mingled together by the gathering of many. For in mind and body we are separated, which death shows to be true, tearing everyone away from friends and kinsfolk, and bringing oblivion to all those who are now loved. Thus also night, and sleep, and the actions of life, dissolve the association of many, as is consonant. But he who through virtue has made his cell a heaven, and in it sitting, contemplates the Creator of heaven and earth, and

^A sees and smells, and is always with the inaccessible light, light without sunset, light without evening, from which he is not torn away, and from which he is not removed far at all, not by day, not by night, not in food, not in drink, but neither in sleep, or in travel, or in a change of place; but as he is alive, so is he dead, or rather, to speak more clearly, his soul is present with Him forever. For how could a spouse be separated from a spouse, or a man from a wife, to whom he is once bound? Will he, I ask, not keep the law of the Legislator? He who said, And they shall be two in one flesh, how shall he not be one spirit with her? For in the man is the woman, and in the woman the man, and the soul is united in God, and God in the soul, and is known in all the saints.

^B Thus are they united to God who, through repentance, purging their souls in this life, become monks, removed from others, and who receive the sense of Christ—whose mouth and tongue they also are, foreign to falsehood, with which they invoke the almighty Father and cry out always: O Father, O King, and Creator of all. For these, the cell is heaven, and the sun and the light within them never sets, and is divine, which also illuminates every man coming into this world, who is reborn through the Holy Spirit. For there is no night in them, nor can I say in what manner this happens. For I shudder while I write these things to you, and I tremble in my very thought; but I teach you how, and by what reason, they live who serve God, and who, having sought Him above all things, have found Him alone, and have loved Him alone; how, united ^C alone through the monastic state, they are alone with the Alone, although they live in a crowded populace, being as it were left behind. For these are truly monks, and the only "monastics," who with the only God and in the only God—stripped of thoughts and all manner of agitations of the soul—look only upon God according to their soul, thinking, and yet not thinking, being as it were fixed in the light, just as a spear in a wall, or a star in the sky, or I know not in what other manner. Nevertheless, they inhabit their cells as if a certain bright bridal chamber, and they deem that they live in heaven. But consider whether they truly dwell there, and have faith. For they are not on earth, although they are held by the earth; but they live in the light of the coming age, in which angels dwell and walk, by which Principalities and Powers are caught up, and all Thrones and Dominations are confirmed. And although God rests in his saints, yet in God the saints live and move, walking in the light as if upon a floor. A wondrous thing, that they will be as angels, and sons of the Most High after death, gods living with God, ^D with Him who is so by nature, they who through adoption have been made like to Him. This much only do they yield to them, that they are held bound by the body, and by it, alas, they are veiled and covered, like those who are kept bound in prisons, who indeed perceive the sun and its rays entering through a hole, but to see it entirely and to gaze upon it, having exited from the custody, they cannot, nor can they enjoy the sight with unburdened head under the open heaven. And that is what anguishes and saddens them, that they do not see Christ entirely, although they do see Him entirely; nor can they free themselves from the bonds of the body, even if they are empty of perturbations and every affection of things: but being free and loosened from many things, they are held by one. For another man is bound by many fetters, and does not hope to be loosened from those many. But he who has been able to break many bonds, and is still hindered by one, suffers more than the others, and from that one also he gives himself zealously to labor that he may appear free, that he may walk rejoicing, and that he may proceed with speed to Him whom he has desired, for whose sake he likewise contends to be loosened from his bonds.

Therefore, let us each seek the Only One, who can relieve us of these bonds; let us desire Him, Him whose beauty causes every thought and mind to be stupefied, and which wounds every soul, and lifts it up by certain wings toward charity, and in God for all ages associates and conglutinates it.

Come, my brothers, run to this in your actions. Come, friends, arise. Do not wish to be behind. Do not, loving yourselves too much, speak against us. Do not affirm that it is impossible to be seen receiving the Holy Spirit. Do not say that without Him salvation can be given. Do not say that anyone is a participant of this unknowingly. Do not say that God is not seen by men. Do not say that men do not see the divine light; or that this cannot happen in these times. It is by no means so, friends; rather, for those who are willing it is even easy: but for those who lead a life empty of the tumults of perturbations and a calmed one, and to whom the eyes of the mind are pure. In others, the filth of sins brings forth blindness, which will deprive them of the divine light both here and there, and, believe me, will send them into fire and darkness. See, friends, how, how beautiful the Lord is. Come, do not let your minds blink, looking down to the earth. Come, do not be occupied with the cares of earthly business and riches, and with the desire for glory, so that you relinquish this light of eternal life. Act, come, friends, with me, and together, not indeed with the body, but in soul and heart let us be lifted up, in humility crying out to the good Lord, to the merciful and only benign God, and He will altogether hear, He will altogether have mercy, and will altogether be revealed, and will altogether manifest Himself, and will show His bright light to us. Why are you burdened, O miserable ones, why are you sluggish? Why do you prefer bodily rest, and inglorious and dishonorable, empty and vain glory? Why do you say that a life given to virtue is idle, and that it is empty of care? It is not so, brothers, it is not, do not be deceived. But just as those who lead a secular life, and have wives, and children, and riches, and seek temporal glory, apply study and hurry so that they satisfy their own opinion: so also every penitent, and he who serves God, ought to hasten and be engaged in continuous care, how his repentance...

may become acceptable, perfect, and pleasing to God, and serve Him. Then he becomes intimately familiar with God, and is completely united to Him, and contemplates Him before his eyes; and as much as he strives to conform to His will, so much confidence and liberty does he acquire before Him—which I pray that we may deserve to do, and to obtain His mercy, along with all the saints, as much as it is permitted to attain in this life; but in the next, that we may attain Christ in His fullness, and the whole Spirit in the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.

Chapter XIX

On the intellectual revelation of the functions of the divine light, and concerning the divine life, and the action perceived by the soul, which is performed with virtue.

Suffer me alone, enclosed in my cell; dismiss me to God, who alone is kind; stand back, remove yourselves further away; suffer me alone to die before God, who fashioned me. Let no one knock at the door; let no one send forth a voice; let no one of my relatives and friends visit me; let no one drag my mind away from the contemplation ^B of the Lord who is beautiful; let no one offer me food; let no one bring drink: it will be sufficient for me to die in the sight of my God, the God of mercy, the God of kindness, who descended upon the earth that He might call sinners and lead them with Him into the heavenly life. I do not desire the light of this world, nor the sun, nor the things that are in the world, to see them any more. For I see my Lord, I see the King, I see the true light, and the Creator of every light. I see the fountain of every good. I see the Author and the cause of all things. I see the Principle devoid of principle, from whom all things have been produced, and through whom all things live and are filled with sustenance; and by whose will all things grow weak and cease. How then, having deserted Him, shall I go out of my cell? Suffer me, and I shall lament, and I shall weep for the nights and days which I lost, while I gaze upon this world, gaze upon the sun, gaze upon this light of the world falling ^C under the senses, and dark, which does not at all illuminate the soul, besides which even those deprived of sight live, and when they have departed from here by death, will be equal to those who now see; in which I, too, a wanderer, rejoiced altogether, and I thought that it was absolutely no other light, and that it was life, as we have said, and the cause of existence altogether, both of that which is and that which will be: I was like a fool, when I was ignorant of my God. But now, after it has pleased His ineffable mercy to be seen by me and revealed to me, unworthy as I am, I have seen and truly recognized the very God of the universe to be the God of all things that are in the world, whom no man has seen; for He is outside the world, outside light and darkness, outside air, outside mind and all sense. Wherefore I, too, seeing Him, have departed from the senses. Therefore, as for you who are ruled by the senses, make me as one who does not exist, and suffer me to close my cell alone, and to sit within; but if even then I hide myself in the excavated earth, and live there a life entirely outside the world, and gazing upon the immortal Creator and Lord, I shall wish to die from love of Him, knowing that I shall certainly not die. What profit, therefore, has the world brought me? And what gain do they now report, who dwell in the world? Truly nothing; but they dwell naked in tombs, and they will rise naked, and all will be judged; because they have left true life, the light of the world—Christ, I say—and have chosen to walk in darkness, all who have not received the light which was in the world, which the world does not grasp, nor can it see. Wherefore leave me, suffer me alone, I beseech you, that I may weep and seek Him, so that He may be granted to me and may be seen by me abundantly. For He is not only seen, He is not only contemplated; but He is also communicated, and He dwells, and remains, and is as a treasure hidden in the bosom: he who carries Him feels pleasure, and he who sees Him exults with joy and thinks that He, however hidden, is seen by all. But plainly He is not seen, nor touched by all. No thief, no robber can steal and carry Him off, however much he may have slaughtered the one who carries Him. If he should wish to seize Him, and by searching should shake out his purse, inspect his tunic, undo his belt, and examine him freely; if he should even slit open his belly and rummage through his entrails, he will in no way be able to find and remove Him. For He escapes the gaze of the eyes, and is not held by the hands. And while He is entirely touchable, at the same time He is untouchable. Yet He is held by the hands of those who are worthy of this (let the unworthy depart from this), and there lies in the hand something, O miracle! and yet not something, for it has no name. Astonished, therefore, and desiring to retain this, clenching my hand, I seemed to hold and have it, and saw again in it that which was before, O ineffable miracle! O unusual mystery!

Why are all troubled in vain, why are we deceived, why do we gape for this light which is subjected to the sense, we who are adorned with the intellectual sense, namely with reason? Why do we look to the perishable and dying things of this life, we who are endowed with an incorporeal and immortal soul? Why do we admire these things, we who are utterly stupid, and, like the blind, prefer the weight of iron and this large cake to a little gold or a precious pearl, as a thing greater in value; and we do not seek the small grain of mustard, which is greater and more excellent than all things that are used by the eyes and that do not come under the aspect? Why do we not give everything and acquire that? And why do we wish to remain in this life destitute of it? Believe me, if it were permitted to die even more often, that we might acquire that small grain, the condition would not be to be refused. Woe to them who have it not sown in the bosom of their soul; they will surely suffer great hunger. Woe to those who bear it...

^A not, as trees stripped of their leaves, they shall stand. Woe to those who do not grant faith to the words of the Lord, that they might be like this tree and put forth branches, and take care daily with a studious and attentive mind for the growth of this small grain; for they shall cause detriment to its efficacy, like the servant who foolishly hid his talent. Of whose number I also am, negligent and ceasing constantly.

But, O indivisible Trinity, O inconfused unity, O light unnamed as altogether lacking a name, yet again of many names as working all things, O one glory, principle, power, kingdom, O light, one will, intent, nod, force and virtue, piously pity me, who am afflicted. For how shall I not be afflicted, how shall I not conceive sorrow, who have despised so great a goodness and thy compassion, who have walked the way of thy commandments so sluggishly and remissly, and wickedly, miserable man that I am? But even now let thy bowels be moved, and even now have mercy on me, and kindle anew the heat of my heart, my Christ, whom the dissolution of my miserable flesh has extinguished, and sleep, and fullness of the belly, and the swilling of wine; these have extinguished the whole flame of my soul, and have dried up the fountain, that is to say, the spring of tears. For heat generates fire, and fire in turn heat, and from both a flame is kindled, and a fountain of tears. The flame produces streams; the streams in turn ^B the flame, in which the meditation on the divine commandments has fostered me. Again, the observance of the precepts, taking repentance as its helper, set me in the midst of things present and future. Whence suddenly caught away from visible things, I was seized by fear, perceiving whence I had been saved. But I saw the future as most distant, and for me desiring to comprehend those things, a fire of love was kindled, which little by little was seen in an inexplicable manner as a flame, first indeed in my mind, but afterwards also in my heart, and that flame of divine desire pressed out tears, and with them provided me with incredible sweetness. Confiding, therefore, in myself, that it was not by any means to be extinguished (for "it burns beautifully," I said), and giving myself to sloth, I was foolishly subjugated by sleep and satiety, and living more remissly, and using wine liberally, not indeed so as to be drunk, but as I could, yet instantly I felt that wonderful and venerable desire of my heart extinguished, that flame, which reached unto heaven and did indeed burn in me vehemently: yet it did not burn up the substance within my bowels; but—wonderful to say!—it was transforming the whole into flame, and the hay touched by the fire did not burn at all. Nay, the fire, grasping the hay, was united to it, and kept it all unconsumed.

O virtue of the divine fire, O new efficacy! Who dissolvest stones and hills ^C just from fear, and from thy face, O Christ my God, how art thou mixed with hay, thou who art clearly divine essence, who in the light dwellest immutable, and art altogether inaccessible, dost thou so guard the substance of the hay that it is not consumed? And remaining, the hay is light, but the light is not hay; but to the hay thou, light, art united without confusion, and the hay becomes as light, changed immutably. I cannot cover these thy wonders in silence: I cannot not speak of thy economy, which thou hast made with me, who am a prodigal and a fornicator, and I cannot fail to recount to all the inexhaustible treasure of thy goodness, my Redeemer. For I desire the whole world to receive light from this, and that no one at all be left empty of it. Yet shine in me first, O King of all; inhabit and illumine my abject soul, show me openly the face of thy Deity, and appear to me, my God, altogether invisibly. For in no way art thou seen by me, yet altogether appear to me. Thou who canst not be grasped by the universe, you become indeed for me in a way small in my hands, and on my lips as a shining breast, and sweetness, and thou residest and sparklest, O new mystery, so even now give thyself to me, that I may be sated with thee, that I may kiss and embrace thy ^D ineffable glory, the light of thy countenance, and be filled, and communicate it to all others, and having finished my death, all glorified, I may come to thee. From thy light, I also having become light, will stand by thee, and then freed from the cares of many evils, I shall also be liberated from fear, lest I be changed again. Even so, Lord, give this to me; even so grant me this, who hast given to me, unworthy, all other things freely. For this is the work most of all, and in this are all things. For even if thou art now seen by me, and even if thou now also hast mercy, and even if thou now dost illumine me, and mystically teachest, and with thy potent hand dost protect and guard, and art present, and puttest demons to flight, and subjest all things to me, and suppliest all things to me, and fillest me with all good things, my God, yet I profit nothing from all these, unless thou hast given to me without shame to pass through the gates of death: unless the prince of darkness, coming, sees thy glory present with me, and is ashamed, scorched by thy inaccessible light, and all adverse powers, seeing the mark of thy seal, are turned to flight with him, and I, having trusted in thy grace, shall pass through intrepid, and will approach thee, and fall down before thee, what fruit shall I derive from these things which now are in me? In truth none, but they shall kindle the fire in me more. For one who trusts that I shall be a partaker of thy good things and of thine eternal glory, and thy servant and friend, if I be deprived at once of all these, and of thee thyself, my Christ, how shall I not be more gravely tormented than the infidels, who have not known thee, neither have seen the splendor of thy light, nor been saturated with thy sweetness? But if it shall chance for me to attain the pledge of these things, this pension, and to obtain these rewards, which thou hast promised to those believing in thee, then I also shall be blessed, and I will praise

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one true God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XX

Whence dost thou come, and who art thou that enterest into a cell closed on all sides? This is some new thing, which can neither be sufficiently expressed in words nor thought of: that thou art within me, and that thou suddenly shinest forth entire, and art seen as light, giving me to see the whole moon luminous—this snatches from me both mind and tongue, my Christ. I know it is thou who hast come to enlighten those sitting in darkness (Luke 1:79), and I am struck with amazement; I am not myself, nor can I speak, since I behold a new miracle which surpasses every creature, every nature, and every discourse. Nevertheless, I will now speak to all, as thou hast granted me to speak.

^B O all you mortals, kings, princes, rich and poor, monastics, men of the world, every nation of earth-born men, give me your ears for a moment, while I recount the magnitude of the kindness of my God. I have sinned against him as no other man in the world has. And let no one think I say this from humility of spirit. I have sinned more than all mortals, in every kind of sin, to use one word, and I have bound myself with crimes. Yet he called me, and he heard me immediately, which I know. But whither hadst thou suspected I was called by him? Was it to worldly glory, or delights, or remission and holidays? Was it to riches, or the friendship of princes, or to any of those things ^C which are in this life? Cease to speak wickedly. He called me to repentance, I say, and I followed him immediately as he called, and followed as a hound follows a hare running and fleeing. But as the Savior was distant from me, and hidden, I did not take despair into my counsel, nor did I turn back as though I had lost him: but in the place where I was sitting, I lamented, I wept, and I recalled the Lord who had been taken from my sight. While I was thus being tossed and crying out, he rendered himself to my eyes and drew very near to me. Beholding him, I sprang up, and leaped forward to lay hold of him. But he quickly withdrew himself. I ran more eagerly, and often laid hold of his garment. He would stop a little; I would rejoice wonderfully. He flies off again, I follow again. And when he who had come had thus departed, and he who had appeared had hidden himself, I did not turn back, nor did it cause me the slightest regret, nor did I slacken in my course, nor did I think I had been deceived or tempted by him in any way; but whom I no longer saw, I began to seek with all the strength I had and all my power, searching through paths and hedges, if perchance he might appear. But as tears welled up, I was filled with them, and I questioned all who had ever seen him. And whom, pray, do you think I mean by this? The wise men of this world, and those polished in the sciences? ^D Least of all; but the prophets, the apostles, and the Fathers who are truly wise, possessing that very wisdom itself, which is Christ, the very wisdom of God. Therefore, with the incredible sorrow of my heart, I asked these, weeping, that they might tell me where at last they had seen him, or in what place, or how, and in what manner. Being made more certain by them, I ran as much as I could, and, entirely excluding sleep, I pressed on myself. Whence it happened that I saw the one I desired, but only moderately, and recognizing him, I followed with a swift course, as I said before. Therefore, after he saw me counting all things in the world as naught, and that I acted as if the world itself and the men of this world did not exist, repenting from my soul and separated from the world, in this my affection he showed himself in his fullness to me entirely, he joined himself entirely to me—he who is outside the world, and carries it with all that is in it, and by his hand alone holds all things that are seen and that are not seen. Therefore, hear this: when he met me, he found me; whence he came, I know not. For how could I have known, since no man has ever known whence he comes, nor where he is, where he grazes, where he rests? For he is utterly unseen, utterly not understood, and he inhabits unapproachable light, and he is light in a triple hypostasis, in a manner inexplicable, in places uncircumscribed, included by no ends or limits, and yet my God is circumscribed: one Father, likewise one Son with the Holy Spirit, one three, and three one God ineffably. For discourse cannot express those to whom no words are equal, and which the mind barely attains.

Certainly, what is in us, I can scarcely explain to thee even in some small measure: but these divine things, neither I, nor any other, can explain in any way: namely, in what manner God, separated from all in essence, nature, power, and glory, yet dwells everywhere in all things, but singularly in the saints, and constitutes a tabernacle for himself in them, so that they may know him himself, and [that he dwells] essentially, he who entirely exceeds every essence: in what manner he is contained by human bowels, he who himself contains every creature: in what manner he shines in a carnal and gross heart: how he is within that, how he is outside all things, and yet fills all things. By day and by night he shines, and is not seen. All these things, tell me, will the human mind penetrate, or will it be able to explain to thee? Assuredly, not an angel, not an archangel, will be able to set forth and declare in words these things, which the divine Spirit alone knows, alone understands: for, the companion of his nature and throne, and one with the Father and the Son, lacking a beginning. To those on whom he has shone, and with whom he has been abundantly united, to them he shows all things in very deed, in a manner that cannot be told. For just as a blind man, if he should see, first sees the light, then in the light—wondrous to tell—every creature: so the soul, illumined by the heavenly Spirit, immediately participates in the light, and sees the light, the light of God, and

^A attains those very things which it desired, and desires, and in its desire it darkens and dulls the desire itself. And when I have heard, at times, that desire kindles desire, and that fire feeds the flame, I do not experience this within myself: but I know not how the magnitude of love extinguishes my own love.

I will not say how much I would wish to say, and I think that I have by no means acquired the love of God. But while I strive insatiably to love as much as I wish, I even—miraculous thing—lose the love of God which I already possessed. Just as a greedy man who has a treasure, because he does not have everything, thinks that he has absolutely nothing, even though he has a great deal of gold: so indeed in my own case, I, a wretch, think it happens. Because I do not love as I wish, and clearly not as much as I wish, I do not judge myself to love even a little. Therefore, to love as much as I wish is a love above love, and I compel my nature to love above nature. Yet my weak nature is stripped of the strength it once possessed, and my love, which miraculously lives, dies; for then it truly comes to life, and blossoms within me. To declare to you how it blossoms, I lack examples. Take only this: that no one can express this in words. May God alone, who is the true provider of such goods, grant to all who seek these things through repentance, weeping, and lamenting—and who are well-purged—to attain them, and with joyful sense to enjoy them, and for those who complete their pilgrimage with these, and rest in them, to take possession of eternal life, and to be found through these as partakers of ineffable glory. ^{B C}

CHAPTER XXI

To a certain disciple. When the divine fire of the Holy Spirit has breathed upon souls purified by repentance and tears, it embraces them and purges them more fully; it illumines their parts that were darkened on account of sin, and by healing brings their wounds to a perfect scar, so that they may glisten with divine beauty beyond measure.

Truly, the Divinity is fire, as was said by the Lord, who for this reason came to cast it upon the earth. But upon what earth? Tell me. Upon all men who savor earthly things, whom He wished, and wishes, to burn in all [of them]. Hear, my son, and know the height of the divine mysteries. What kind of thing do you judge this heavenly fire to be? Is it visible and created, or perceived by the intellect? Not at all, for you are now being taught about it and initiated into it, and you know for certain that it is uncontained, uncreated, foreign to all sight, without beginning, free from all concretion, immutable, and circumscribed by absolutely nothing; inextinguishable, immortal, entirely incomprehensible, [existing] outside all creatures consisting of matter, ^D and separated from matter, whether visible [or] invisible, corporeal [or] incorporeal, terrestrial [and] celestial—outside all these, I say, it is, according to nature and essence, and indeed even according to power. Into what matter, therefore, tell me, will this be inserted? Into souls, at any rate, that have oil

^A abundantly, and possess faith both before this and with this, and works confirming that faith. Into these as a lamp, full of oil and wick, the Lord sends fire, which the world has not seen, nor can see. I say the world, those who are in the world, and favor worldly things. For just as the lamp or light that we see is lit when fire is applied to it, so understand spiritually that the divine fire touches souls and inflames them. How will it inflame, before it touches? How will it touch, before it is sent? Assuredly not at all. But if that burning lamp, which shines brightly for all, should run out of oil, would it not be extinguished?

Observe something else, greater, which terrifies me more than all. Regarding my lamp, clearly, when with a supply of infused oil and plenty of wick, a mouse, or some other little creature crawling up, either overturns it, or little by little licks up and consumes the oil, and eats the wick, and thus puts out the lamp. More wonderfully, however, because the whole wick (which they call the *ellychnium*) having fallen into the oil, suddenly extinguishes the fire, and my lamp is entirely dark to me, nor does it appear. He understands the lamp or light as the soul, the oil as the virtues, the mind itself as the wick, and in it the divine fire shining and making the soul bright, ^B and the whole dwelling of my body, and whatever thoughts and agitations of the mind are in it. But when this is not shining, if envy, or malevolence, or love of glory, or some other desire for pleasure, or finally some other disturbance has stirred itself and overturned the lamp—that is, the goal and purpose of my will—or has drained the oil, or otherwise devoured and consumed all the virtues, or the wick itself (namely my mind, which, as I said, holds the light shining brightly within itself) with depraved thoughts, or even submerges it all in the oil—while it clearly recollects and revolves the actions of its virtues, and from this thinking magnificently of itself grows blind—if it should happen that my lamp is extinguished from this or elsewhere, where will you say the fire is then, or what will become of me? Does it remain with the lamp, or is it excluded and separated from it? O the madness! O the insanity! In what way can a lamp be lit without fire, or fire remain in a lamp without matter? For fire always ^C seeks matter by which it may be fed. But it is our task clearly to prepare ourselves for this, and promptly to show ourselves as lamps, full of oil—that is, adorned with all kinds of virtues. And to bring forth the wick of the mind erect, so that, touched by the fire, it may little by little conceive a flame. Thus it remains with those who have acquired it. Otherwise, lest anyone deceive himself, it is not seen, it is not held, it is not kept within at all. For it is, as I mentioned above, outside this nature of things, and it is captured by an ineffable union in such a way that it nevertheless cannot be captured, and in the same way it is circumscribed, yet it is not circumscribed. Furthermore, do not investigate these things at all with words or thoughts, but ask to receive the fire, which ^D teaches these things more clearly, and shows them to those by whom it is held. Hear, if you please, my son. When it has shone, as I said, and has driven out the examination of motions repugnant to reason, and has purged the house of your soul, it is mixed with it without mixture, and in an inexplicable way it is united essentially, wholly to the whole, and little by little makes it bright, inflames and illuminates it so that it cannot be explained by me. One thing is made from two, from the soul and the Creator, and in the soul is the Creator alone with one alone, wholly. He who holds every creature in His hand, do not doubt, here is held wholly with the Father and the Holy Spirit as one soul, and encompasses the soul wholly within Himself. Understand, see, weigh these things: for I have told you that the soul contains within itself a light intolerable and inaccessible to the angels, and in turn that that very light dwells within the soul, and by no means burns it. You have known a profound mystery; man, a small thing among those things which are subject to sight, a shadow and dust, in his midst contains God wholly, from whose finger hangs the creature, and from whom each thing has its essence, life, and motion. Every mind, soul, and reason, by the reason of what has been said, is from this; and in the same way the intelligence of animals lacking reason, and altogether of all beings that both reason and only feel, flows from this. He who has this—whoever will have it—and carries it within himself, and contemplates its beauty, how will he bear the flame of desire? How will he withstand the fire of love? How will he not shed hot tears from his heart? How will he speak of those admirable things? How will he enumerate what is in him? How will he be silent, when he is compelled to speak? He even sees himself in the infernal regions, after the illustration of the light, I say. For no one sitting there before the illumination of the divine light knows himself; but they are held obsessed in the ignorance of darkness, and of corruption, and of death. Nevertheless, he sees where that soul shines, and understands that he himself is entirely in densest darkness, and in the safest guard of most profound ignorance. Then he discerns where he is closed in, that the whole place is nothing but mire, full of foul, poisonous, and serpent-like things; and that he himself is bound, and his hands and feet constrained with chains, and squalid, and filthy, and wounded by the bites of serpents at the same time, and that he carries his own flesh swollen, and swarming with worms. He who sees these things, how will he not shudder? How will he not weep? How will he not cry out and fervently repent, and ask that he be freed from the most terrible chains? Assuredly, whoever has truly seen these things, both will groan and will lament, and with the one who poured forth the light, with Christ, I say, will wish to be. Therefore, while I am doing these things that I have said, and falling on my knees before the shining one (consider well what I say), He touches my wounds and chains with His hands. And when His hand or finger touches me

^A moving, the chains break immediately, the worms die, the edges of the wounds are drawn together into one, the filth and stains of my flesh fall away, and a contraction into a scar happens so suddenly that in that place no scar at all appears, but rather it becomes as sparkling as the divine hand itself. My flesh is a miraculous and new thing. The essence of my soul, and indeed even of my body, having attained divine glory, casts forth a divine radiance. Seeing this part of my body perfect, how shall I not desire and beseech that my whole body be freed from evils, and similarly attain the health and glory I have mentioned? Nevertheless, as I was doing this, and indeed even more fervently, and being stunned by the proportion of the miracles, the good Lord, moving His hand, wiped away the rest of my body; and I perceive these, in the way I have related, purged and clothed in divine glory. Soon, therefore, purged and freed from my chains, He reaches out His divine hand to me, lifts me up from the mire, embraces me, and falls upon my neck (woe is me, who am I to endure these things?) and kisses me repeatedly. Then, as I am failing entirely and now receiving strength (alas! how shall I commit these things to writing?), He lifts me onto His shoulders—o charity, o goodness—and having led me out from the netherworld, from the mire, and from the darkness, He brings me into another world, or rather, another atmosphere, for I cannot express the thing at all; I only know that I am being carried and contained by the light, and led to the great light, the vast wondrousness of which not even the angels, I suppose, could explain to one another. When I was already there, He showed me other things that were in the light, or rather, things that were of the light. He gave me to understand a new reformation, by which He Himself reformed me, created me anew, freed me from corruption, and, as I felt, entirely absolved me from death, granted me immortal life, and sequestered me from this perishing world and from all things that are in it, and clothed me in a garment not material, but shining. He also brought footwear, a ring, and a crown; immortal, everlasting, everything new by comparison with things seen here. He made me—o novelty—untouchable, impalpable, and moreover invisible, united to those things which do not fall under the sense of sight. ^B After the Creator had made me in this way and such as this, He brought me into the sensible, bodily tabernacle and enclosed me in it, and applied a fortress against me, and having brought me down into the world which we sense and behold, He commanded me to propagate life in it again. And when He had commanded me to have intercourse with those who dwell in darkness, having been freed from the darkness, and to be included with those who dwell in the mire, or rather to instruct them, to lead them to the acknowledgement of the wounds with which they are everywhere afflicted, and the chains by which they are held: when He had commanded these things, I say, He went away. Having been left, therefore, alone in the former darkness, I was not content with the ineffable goods I mentioned before that were given to me, that He had renewed me alone, had made me entirely immortal, had deified me completely, and had made me Christ. ^C But the privation of all these goods brought forgetfulness to me, so that I considered myself needy and destitute. Wherefore, as I was still wrapped in my old evils, I was tormented and, sitting in the midst of the tabernacle as if enclosed in a little house or a vessel, I wept and lamented vehemently, not looking out at all. For I was seeking Him, Him whom I desired, whom I loved, by the elegance of whose form I was wounded. I was inflamed, I burned, I became entirely afire. Thus, therefore, as I was living, weeping, wasting away, and cruelly scourged, and crying out for pain, having heard my clamor and looking out from the immense and incalculable height, when He saw me, He had mercy and deigned to be seen again according to human capacity, when I was included in a dwelling and enclosed in a vessel, and in the middle of darkness—in the middle of heaven and earth, I say. For I call sensible things the darkness that spreads over all men and their souls mingling themselves with sensible things. In these, I say, abiding in sensible things, they are pressed by them and darkened in a wondrous way. ^D (III) Furthermore, when I was in this state, I saw with a mind that was before, and now is, outside all things: and I was astonished—believe me—and I was stunned, I feared, and I exulted with joy. And considering the miracle, how He who has nothing in common with the nature of things, and is outside of all things, is nevertheless in all things, I see Him alone who sees me, not knowing where He is, how great, of what sort, and of what kind He is whom I see, or how I see, or what I see. Yet, seeing what I saw, I lament because I cannot know this mode, nor can I in any way think or perceive even in part how He sees me, whom I see. I saw Him again suddenly have manifested Himself within my house and within this vessel, and have united me to Himself ineffably, have coupled me inarticulately, and, without mixture, to have been sent into me like fire into iron, like light into glass. And He rendered me similar to fire, similar to glass, and I escaped that which I saw before and looked upon from afar; and in what way I might explain that admirable mode to you, I find no words. For I could not know, nor do I now know at all, how He entered into me, how He was united with me. United further with Him, how shall I explain to you who He is, to whom I am in turn united? I shudder and fear, lest perhaps, if I speak, you do not believe, and by lapsing from ignorance into blasphemy, my brother, you lose your soul. But whom shall I call Him with whom I am united? God, twin by nature, one in hypostasis; for He made me double, and, as you perceive, even bestowed a twin name upon me. Behold the distinction: I am man by nature, God by grace. See what sort of grace I speak of: union, to be sure, with Him, sensibly and intellectually, spiritually and essentially. I have explained the intellectual union to you in diverse and various ways; but I say that the sensible union is that which occurs in the mystery. For purged entirely...

and having flowed with tears, and having been made ^A a participant of the deified body of God in the holy Eucharist, I myself truly become God through an ineffable union. See and observe the mystery. Therefore, the soul and the body—that we may repeat the same from incredible joy—are one in two substances. Since, therefore, these are one and two, where they have received the body of Christ and drunk his blood, being united to my God by both substances and natures, they become God in a similar way by a certain participation, and I am called and honored by the name of Him of whom I have been made a substantial participant. Tell me, therefore, how do charcoal and dark iron appear to be ignited by fire? Let them be called what they appear: they appear as fire, they are named as fire. If you do not perceive yourself to be of this kind, do not at least deny faith to those who discourse to you about such things, but seek with your whole heart, and you will receive the pearl, or the drop, or the grain of mustard seed, the divine seed as a spark.

But in what way will you seek what I say to you? Listen, and do it diligently, and you will soon find. Take a clear image, or likeness, of a stone and iron; for in these the nature of fire is altogether one and the same, even though it is clearly not seen, I say, as fire. But if they are struck together, and have grasped the material, a small spark leaping out from the collision of these, and joining itself more deeply, gradually ignites the same, and sends the flame on high, and having dispelled the darkness, illuminates the house, and sets all who are in the house in view. Have you seen a wonderful thing? Tell me then, I pray, before they are struck together more frequently, how will they emit sparks? But without a spark, how will the material be ignited by itself? If it is not ignited first, how will it dispel the darkness? How will it illuminate the dwelling? How will it give you the faculty of seeing? You will surely answer that this can in no way happen. Therefore, you should also strive to do so, and you will receive. What will you receive? The spark of the divine nature, which the Creator has compared to a precious pearl and a grain of mustard. But what is it that I tell you must be performed? Listen patiently, my son. Let your body and soul be as iron and stone, your mind as the empress and mistress of the affections, exercising itself in actions joined with virtue, and in thoughts pleasing to God; and holding the body indeed as the stone, but the soul as the iron, let it draw it with the hands that are perceived by the intelligence, and impel it to action: for the kingdom of heaven suffers violence [*]. But what actions do you understand? What? Vigils, fasts, fervent repentance, showers of tears, mourning, ^B constant memory of death, assiduous prayers, the patience of every kind of temptation rushing upon you. Before all these, silence, and profound humility, perfect obedience, the abnegation of one's own will. To these, and things similar to these, the soul being vacant, and always intent, first provides sparks to your mind, which are quickly extinguished: since it is not yet so thinned that it is immediately ignited. But when the divine dart of the heart has been ignited, then it illuminates the soul itself, and cleanses the mind, and carries it on high, and lifts it into heaven, and joins it with the divine light.

Before you do these things, which you have heard from me, I ask how will you be purged? But before you are purged, in what way will your mind receive the divine sparks? And how, I beseech you, and if from elsewhere, from whence will the divine fire flowing into your heart be ignited, and ignite and inflame and unite and couple it, and make the creature inseparable from the Creator? And you will say that this is not possible for anyone of all those who are now, and who will be in years to come for others. What follows after this, do not ask. For if you have been united to the light, He Himself will teach you all things, and will reveal all things to you, and will show and suggest whatever it will be in your interest to learn: for otherwise it is not possible that things which are there can be perceived in human words. To God be glory, now and unto the ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XXII

^C That all the enlightened saints are illuminated, and see the glory of God, insofar as it is lawful for it to be seen by human nature.

Look down from on high, my God, and may it please you that you appear to me, and converse with a beggar. Open heaven, and reveal to me your light: or rather open my mind, and even now enter into me, and discourse through my impure tongue as of old, and refute those who say thus, that there is no one today who has known himself to see God, nor that there was before this time, outside the apostles. But they say that not even they clearly saw God, your Father, teaching that He can be known and seen by no one; and opposing the word of John, your most beloved disciple: No one has ever seen God [**]. Come, my Christ, tell me to act, lest I be seen to speak nonsense to the imprudent. Write, He says, what I say, fear nothing. I am God before all days, hours, and times, indeed before all ages, before all visible and invisible creatures, above every understanding, word, and thought at all, alone with the alone, and nothing ^D of those things that are seen; but neither of those things that are not seen. I was in truth, before I was born. I alone am uncreated with the Father, and the Holy Spirit. I alone without beginning from my Father, who likewise has no beginning. No one of the angels ever, nor of the archangels, nor of the other orders has seen my nature, nor me the Creator totally, such as I am, but they see and contemplate only a ray of glory, and a certain outpouring of my light. For just as a mirror struck by solar rays, and as a crystalline stone illuminated at midday; so they receive all the rays of my deity. But to see me totally, not even yet has anyone, either of the angels,

^A or of men, or of holy virtues, merited to do. For I am beyond all things, and invisible to any eyes. Nor indeed do I grudge them the sight of me, nor do I hide myself so that I might not appear as deformed; but because no one has been found worthy of my deity: nor could a creature be equal to the Creator. Nor is it expedient for them that they should see me. Yet, seeing a small radiance from me, they are initiated, whence they know truly that I am, and they recognize that I am God, who created them, and with trembling and fear they celebrate and worship me. For God could not produce another who might equal the Creator in power, nor be a sharer of his nature. Nor by any reason can that which is created be consubstantial with the Creator. For how could a creature ever be likened to the uncreated? And that you may admit this, you will not deny that, from him who always is, who knows no beginning, and is not created, created things are inferior; and differ from him as much as a chariot and a saw differ from their maker. How, therefore, could a chariot understand its maker, or a saw recognize him who moves it, unless he who prepared them gives them knowledge, unless he infuses into them the sense of seeing? which for all created things is impossible. Therefore, absolutely no man, no angel, has received the power to give to others spirit or to furnish life. But the Lord, with whom alone is the power and potential of all things, as the fountain of life, produces living beings, such as he wills, and bestows upon each as an artificer, as Lord according to his will and good pleasure, to whom be glory, and empire, now and forever, and for ages everlasting. Amen.

Chapter XXIII.

Thanksgiving for exile and afflictions endured in his persecution.

I give thanks to you, O Lord, I give thanks to you alone, knower of hearts, just and most merciful King, who descended to the earth and put on flesh, my God, and became what you were not, a man like me, without change, without flux, and without any sin: so that you, who could not suffer, might suffer unjustly at the hands of the unjust, and grant to me, who had been condemned, a vacation from all passions, while I would imitate your passions. Just, therefore, is your judgment, and your commandment likewise, which you ordered us to keep, which is truly an imitation of your humility: so that just as you suffered, who were free of sin, so we who have sinned might suffer all things—for instance, temptations, persecutions, scourges, tribulations, and at last even death itself brought upon us by the wicked. For you were called a demoniac, ^B and were considered a seducer, and an adversary of God, and a transgressor of the law. You were seized as a criminal, bound, and led away, while all your disciples and friends deserted you. You were led to the judge as one condemned, and you received the sentence which he pronounced against you. You spoke, you endured a blow from a servant, and, remaining silent, you were forthwith condemned to death: for your words were like a sword to the wicked. Therefore, those unjust ones, not bearing to look upon you, the only Just One, delivered you to a most shameful death. Hence, beaten upon the head, crowned with thorns, clothed in a scarlet robe, your face spat upon—woe is me—and you were mocked, and you heard in mockery: Hail, King of the Jews. You carried the cross upon your shoulders, and, fixed to it, you were lifted on high, my God. You were pierced through the hands and feet, given vinegar to drink, and your side was pierced with a spear. This earth, indignant, trembled, and those dead whom it contained, the tombs being opened, it quickly gave up. The sun, looking upon you, was then turned to blood, and the moon was covered in darkness; the veil of the temple, moreover, was rent in two parts from the top to the bottom. And none of these things did those wicked men understand at all: but they even set guards over the lying monument, and sealed the stone, thinking thus they would retain you. But you, O Lord, by your own power rose again, and left those locks ^C intact and whole for the transgressors. But the angel, arriving, rolled back the stone, and stunned those guards with fear. Nor even then, though willing to understand something, did they remain, but they were blind, and kept their mind and heart hardened unto death. What, then, is a great thing that I do, if I also suffer these things, which you also suffered, who were without sin, so that you might save the world? I, I say, who from my early age have sinned many things, and provoked you to anger by words and deeds. This is to me a great thing indeed, and greater than all glory, that you make me a participant in your ineffable glory, the communion of sufferings, and the imitation of your works; and your humility, to those who know how to pursue it, conciliates divinity. I give thanks to you, O Lord, when I suffer unjustly. When, however, I suffer justly, let this be to me in compensation for sins, and for the purgation of my innumerable offenses. I beseech you, O Lord, do not ever permit labors or temptations or afflictions to be brought upon me beyond my strength; but grant me always a way out and the strength to endure. For you are the giver of good things from the beginning, to those who fall as suppliants from the heart before your power, bestowing the charisms of faith, works, and good hope, and all the gifts of your divine and adorable Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Suppliant prayer to God for the obtaining of help.

Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Savior of souls, O God, Lord of all powers that are subjected to sight and that are not subjected, as creator of all things that are in heaven and above the heavens, of the heavens and all the heavens, likewise of all things that are on earth and under the earth. You are God, and the Lord and Ruler. You include every creature in your hand, since you yourself contain all things. Your hand, O Lord, is that great power, which, fulfilling the Father's will, fabricates, works, creates, and administers our affairs in an unutterable manner. This hand, therefore, even now produced me, and when I was not, made me to be. Who also, having been born, was so in this world, that I was altogether ignorant of you, the good Lord, my creator, my maker, and I was like a blind man, and as ἄθεος, when

[A n]o ^D I did not know my God. You therefore, having had mercy on me, visited me, and converted me, when you had shone upon me in the darkness, and drew me to yourself, and having led me out from the deepest pit, and from the darkness of vices, from the deepest darkness of the concupiscences and pleasures of this life, you showed me the way, and assigned a guide to me, who might lead me to keep your commands, whom following, I lived always freed from care, and I rejoiced with an inexplicable joy, seeing him following your footsteps, and conversing with you quite often. Indeed, also seeing you, the pious Lord, dwelling more familiarly with my guide and spiritual Father, I conceived an immense love and desire for you, beyond faith and hope; and I said, "I see future things, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the good things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard have echoed, I behold before my face, and I have them myself; and what more do I hope for? Or in what other things shall I demonstrate my faith? For there will be nothing greater than these." When I was in these, and had my delights in these, you took away my father from the earth; you took away my guide from my eyes, and left me alone, clearly an orphan, clearly deserted, and destitute of all help whatsoever: and woe is me, deprived indeed of the prefect and shepherd of the flock, of my ruler and guardian, a stranger, as you yourself by your judgment have ordained. Wherefore I now suppliantly beseech you, I cry out to you prostrate, do not oppose me, nor forsake, nor desert me alone, Lord. You know the way is difficult to traverse; you know the madness of the robbers lying in wait for us; you know the multitude of evil beasts; ^C you know my weakness and ignorance, which as a man I am held by. Nevertheless, I do not consider myself a man at all, but far below men. For indeed, according to all things, I am the last and the least of all men. Grant to me, my King, and my God, I beseech you, your great mercy, which may supply my defects and negligences, and may make a man whole, perfect, and entire, lacking nothing that is necessary; and thus place me before you as your servant, uncondemned, beyond all reproach, and proclaiming your praises for ever and ever. Amen.

CHAPTER XXV

What way shall I walk, what path shall I follow, what gate shall I enter, what door shall I open, into what chamber, into what or what kind of house shall I find, who holds all things by his hand? What mountain shall I ascend, from what side, and what cave shall I reach there, or what marsh passing through, shall I, a wretch, deserve to see and attain the one everywhere present, and incomprehensible, and invisible? Into what hell shall I descend, into what heaven shall I ascend, and whose sea shall I seek the ends of, so that I might find ^A the altogether inaccessible, the altogether uncircumscribed, the altogether impalpable? In material things immaterial, in corruptible things incorruptible, in creatures uncreated, tell me how shall I find him? Who am in the world, how shall I be outside the world? Who am entangled in matter, how shall I be associated with the immaterial? Who am entirely subject to corruption, how shall I be linked with him who is exempt from all destruction? Who am in death, how then shall I approach life? I who am dead, how shall I become nearer to the immortal? Who am entirely hay, how shall I dare to touch fire? Nevertheless, now hear the dissolution of the mysteries.

Before heaven and earth were created, God was Trinity, alone without companion, light without beginning, uncreated light, light altogether ineffable, true God, alone interminable, perpetual, everlasting, by far the best. Rightly understand God alone, in the beginning the Trinity more than without beginning, and above every beginning, whom no one can imagine, whose height, depth, breadth no one can measure, and which has no end or degree of magnitude and light. There was not air as now, there were no shadows of any kind, no light, no water, no ether, no other thing of things. But God was alone, a most lucid spirit, omnipotent, and free from all concretion. He created the Angels, Principalities, and Powers, Cherubim, and Seraphim, Dominations, Thrones, and the nameless orders, assisting and ministering to him with fear and trembling. Afterward he produced the heaven as a chamber, consisting of corporeal nature, sensible, thick, and visible, and as he alone knows, in an eye's blink he extended it, and at the same time the earth, the waters, and all the abysses in the middle of its embrace, by his will alone he made such things as we now see; and that immaterial light remained in these, participating in none of them. The heaven extended, and subject to sense, as I said, I did not shake off any sparks from the immaterial light. For when he is in those which consist of matter, he is nevertheless entirely outside them, not indeed in place, but in nature and essence; for he is separated from material things, who is very far removed from matter, not having a place proper to himself, since he is not circumscribed. He himself by his Word produces all things in himself, and in nature is separated from all created things, and bearing all things in himself, he is outside all things. For just as walls and doors do not keep the mind and the angel from the house, nor contain them within: so the creator of these is by no means outside, nor inside the heaven, nor in another place, but God is everywhere entirely, segregated from all things joined with matter, and from things created. Therefore, the heaven was made, and nature, as has been said, fell away from the immaterial light, and remained like a dark house without light: for which the Lord of the universe kindled the sun and the moon, so that the sensible things themselves might shine for those who were to use their senses. He gave also into our hands a genus of light, which

at night might shine, struck wonderfully from iron and flint. But He himself has nothing in common with any light, being more luminous than all light and far more splendid than anything any creature can bear. For as the stars do not appear when the sun radiates, so if the Lord of the sun wills to shine, no living being will be able to endure his rising. Therefore, He conjoined the mind to dust, to corporeal matter, and placed us, all mankind, in material things, so that through constant faith and the observance of commandments, we might purge again the mind—which is void of matter, but which we have confused and contaminated in the mist of transgression with material concupiscences and, indeed, the taste of pleasures—and immaterially behold in material things that light which I said is God, who is more than without beginning, invisible to these bodily eyes and inaccessible to the intellectual eyes of the heart. For I marvel at how the soul, while it is wholly removed from matter and possesses the intellectual eye of the mind, using bodily eyes sensibly as if they were two windows, sees through them all that can be seen, and, having turned back, sees immaterially all things that fall under the intellect and are free from matter—yet, while being held in a certain singular way in the midst of those perishing and those remaining, is dragged by them toward pleasures and vices; whereas from them, on the other hand, it is carried up as if on wings toward heaven and strives to stand there; yet it is pulled away, and again it ardently studies to fly back up, desiring to walk through heaven and to discern all things that are perceived by sight beneath it. For since all things that are in the world appear to be snares ^B itself, the soul greatly fears to enter and settle on the earth, lest it be caught and held by these snares and become food for cruel beasts. Such is the life of the pious, the faithful, and all the saints, which it behooves all to imitate, so that even with them they may stand innocent before Christ God, the Judge of all, and become partakers of his same kingdom and glory for all ages.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Incredible is your beauty, Lord Jesus, incomparable your appearance, ineffable your elegance; you surpass speech and opinion. Your ways, your goodness, and your meekness exceed the thoughts of all mortals. And therefore, the desire for you, and love toward you, surpasses every love and desire of men by many degrees. For by as much as you excel visible things, by so much greater is the love for you, and it obscures every love that exists among men, overturns all loves of corporeal pleasures, and straightway repels all evil cravings. For truly concupiscences are darkness, and the performance of sins is a deep and foul night; but love and charity toward you is light, which, when it arises in souls that love God, immediately dispels the darkness of perturbations and pleasures, and diffuses the day of the ^C marvelous and ineffable work of the most high God. O virtue of the mysteries which are performed in secret! You give us both passing things and eternal. You join earthly things with heavenly, present with future, as the Maker of all, as one having power over celestial and terrestrial things. Why, therefore, do we wretched men love you less than we love ourselves, and why do we serve those others more miserably, so that we may receive from them a meager and fleeting reward, to whom we bind our souls and bodies, that they might be abused by them as if they were vile and abject vessels? And though we are your members, O Lord of the universe—sanctified, I say, members of the holy Lord, whose power depends on no one else—why do we not tremble to expose them of our own accord to perverse demons for the sake of most foul sinning? Who, therefore, of your faithful servants will refrain from tears? Who will not lament such arrogant boldness? Who will not venerate such patience of yours, O God? Who will not tremble at the retribution of divine judgment? That is to say, the intolerable fire of hell, which shall be extinguished by no ages, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and sorrow that cannot be consoled, and inexplicable torment.

^D But, O Sun, Creator of the sun which we see, and of the moon, and of all the stars, and of light, and of the whole nature of things, hide me from these in your light, that in it I might look only upon you, and not see the world and the things that are in the world: but even while seeing, may I be as if I did not see, and while hearing, as if I did not hear. And which is the case for those sitting in the darkness of this life, by which they are covered—of pleasures, I say, and of vain glory—they see and yet do not see your celestial glory, and though they hear your mandates and precepts, they absolutely do not understand them; the same will happen to me in your light, when I will not see the world, nor what the world contains. For who, when you have been seen and he feels himself illuminated by your glory and divine light, has not had his mind, soul, and heart changed, and has not merited to see and hear in a different way with a great difference? For the mind is indeed immersed in your light, and it perfectly attains a light similar to your glory, and such a mind is called yours, when you have deemed it worthy to become and to have your mind or sense, and it is united to you by an indissoluble bond. And how will it not see and hear all things imperturbably, just as you do? How, having followed the divinity, will it seek anything that is perceived by sense? How will it seek anything labile and subject to corruption, or vain glory, which is greater than all things and all glory that is seen? For he who, having spurned all these things that rush into the eyes, has insinuated himself into the familiarity of God, or rather himself is also called God—who at length will want to seek any glory or delights from things lying below him? For these things are indeed for him a cause of shame and disgrace, of insult, contempt, and infamy. But his glory, and delight, and riches are God the Trinity, and the things that are of God, and are divine; to whom befits all glory, honor, and power, always, and now, and for all ages. Amen.

Chapter XXVII.

Confession of the gifts of God's grace, and how the Holy Spirit has worked in the Father while writing these things. Also, an exhortation from God as to what must be done to obtain salvation.

^A Again the light shines on me. Again I clearly behold the light. Again it opens the heaven and puts night to flight. Again it reveals and shows all things. Again it is seen alone. Again it leads me away from all visible things, and likewise from all things pertaining to the senses, father, it separates me. Again, He who is above all heavens, whom no man has ever seen, not opening heaven, not parting the night, not dividing the air, not breaking the roof of the house, no thing whatsoever being penetrated, He dwells within me, a wretched man, within my cell, within my mind, and into the midst of my heart (O venerable mystery), while all things remain as they are, the light descends upon me and lifts me above all; and while I am in the midst of all things, I become outside all things, I know not if even outside the body. Now I am there in truth, where there is light only, and simple; looking at which, I become simple in innocence. These are, O Christ, the miracles of Thy wonders; these are the works of Thy power and kindness, which Thou showest to us, the unworthy. For that reason I fear and tremble, and I am afflicted with constant anxiety, and I am severely tormented, as to what I shall render to Thee for such great and innumerable gifts conferred upon me out of such great mercy, or what I shall offer Thee, finding nothing in myself, since nothing is mine in life, but all things serve Thee, all things are the works of Thy hands; I am suffused with a greater shame, and I am deeply tortured, and I desire eagerly to learn what must be done so that I may worship Thee, so that I may please Thee, so that in the presence of Thy terrible tribunal on the day of judgment I may escape damnation.

Hear what thou shalt do, whosoever is to be saved, or rather, thou before all others, who ask me. Today consider that thou art dead; today that thou hast renounced; today that thou hast left the whole world entirely; today, abandoning friends, kinsmen, and all vain glory, lay aside at the same time the care of inferior things, and, having taken up thy cross, fasten it tightly to thy shoulders, and carry it even to the end of thy life. Receive the labors of temptations, the pains of tribulations, and the nails of troubles with the greatest joy, as a crown of glory. Pierced for hours by the spears of injuries, and having been most bitterly stoned by every kind of ignominy, with tears poured out instead of blood, thou shalt be a martyr, and bearing illusions and slaps with a most grateful spirit, thou shalt become a participant in my divinity and glory. And if thou makest thyself the last of all, and a servant, and a minister, afterwards I will make thee the first of all, just as I promised. If thou hast loved thy enemies and all who hate thee, and hast prayed for those who have injured thee, and hast benefited them according to thy power, thou hast truly become like thy most high Father; and having obtained a pure heart from this, ^B in Him thou shalt see God, whom no one has ever seen. But if it should even happen that thou shouldst suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness, exult, since the kingdom of heaven has become thine. And what is greater than this? Do these things, and more than these, which I have commanded, and teach others, and one another among yourselves, you who believe in me, if you desire salvation, and wish to dwell with me for everlasting ages. If you refuse, and are indignant, and interpret it as a disgrace to suffer these things, and to be despised, and to lay down your souls for my commandments, why then do you seek to learn how you ought to be saved, and by what actions you may be reconciled to me? Why, moreover, do you call me your God? Why also do you imagine foolishly that you believe in me? For I indeed, for the sake of you, willingly and of my own accord endured these things,, having been crucified, I underwent the death of the wicked; and the glory of the world, life, splendor, the resurrection of the dead, the pride of all who believe in me, the garment of immortality, and the deification of my reproaches and my ignominious death have been made. Wherefore, those who imitate my venerable passions, will also become partners of my divinity, and heirs of my kingdom, and companions of goods that no tongue can tell or express, and they will be with me forever. Whom would one not deplore among the rest? Who would not mourn? Who would not shed tears out of compassion of heart? Who would not lament their great stupidity? Since, having deserted life, they have betrayed themselves to death, unhappily cut off from God; from whose part deliver me, O Lord of all, and do not despise me, being abject and the last of Thy servants, to become a participant in Thy immaculate sufferings, so that also, as Thou hast said, I may become a participant of Thy glory and the sweetness of Thy goods; now indeed as in an enigma, and in a figure, and in a mirror: then truly I shall know, even as I have been known.

Chapter XXVIII.

Thanksgiving to God for the benefits received from Him; and the question posed, why the perfect are permitted to be tempted by demons. A description of those who renounce the world, and an institution, in the person of God.

Thou knowest my poverty, Thou knowest my orphanage, Thou knowest my solitude, Thou discernest my weakness and my impotence, Thou who didst form me, my God; I say, Thou dost not ignore, but Thou beholdest, Thou knowest all things. Behold a heart humbled, behold one contrite, behold how one desperate approaches Thee, and give from on high Thy grace; give Thy divine Spirit; give, O Savior, the Paraclete; send as Thou hast promised, send even now the same to one sitting in the upper room, in truth, to me, eminent above earthly things and above the whole world, and to one seeking Thee, and awaiting Thy Spirit. Do not therefore delay, O Merciful One, do not despise, O compassionate One, do not forget one seeking Thee with a thirsty soul, and do not exclude this unworthy one from glory, nor abominate me, nor desert me. Thy bowels are...

^A moved by compassion, and I bring before Thee Thy mercy as my interpreter and reconciler. I have not labored, I have not performed works of righteousness, I have never kept any of Thy commandments; but I have squandered my whole life in luxury and ruin. Yet Thou hast not despised me; but hast found me when I was seeking, and hast led me when I was wandering from the way of error. And when, having had mercy on me, Thou hadst placed me upon Thy immaculate shoulders by the light of Thy grace, Thou didst carry me, nor didst Thou suffer me to feel any exhaustion; but as if I were resting in a carriage or a vehicle, Thou gavest me to travel gently through rough paths, until Thou didst restore me to the fold of Thy sheep, and didst aggregate me to Thy servants. I proclaim Thy mercy, I praise Thy compassion, I give thanks, and I marvel at the riches of Thy goodness. Since, moreover, I have rested in Thee, as I have recounted, even now I am with Thee, as I think, entirely Thy servant, and attached to the light, and glued to Thee, and overcome by the desire for Thee, and shackled by love, I cling, I am stunned, and I am unable to perceive why tribulation should touch my miserable soul; why sadness should enter in, why it should perturb me entirely; why Thou, O God, shouldst deprive me of Thy sweetness, and take me away from the joy and affliction of earthly things.

Do Thou, good Christ, desert me—to the point that I am so greatly fallen and bound by sin, or because I have provoked Thee more gravely to anger—so that I am more saddened than before, when my soul was serving turbulent affections? Tell me, and teach me now Thy profound judgments. Tell me, and do not detest me for speaking, however unworthy I am to speak, Thou who once didst enter into feasts with sinners and harlots, and didst dine with the profligate and the publicans.

To these things, my Lord replied in this manner:

Thou knowest how I carried thee, taken up from the world and as an infant in my arms. I wrapped thee entirely in swaddling clothes and nourished thee with milk, to which no food or drink can be compared; for My affairs are altogether inscrutable and inexplicable. I commended thee to a tutor (thou knowest whom I mean) who took beautiful care of thee as a small boy growing through the hours, and educated thee as was fitting. Afterward, thou becamest a youth, and didst even enter adolescence, nor art thou unaware how I was always with thee, and grew up with thee, and shielded thee on every side, until thou didst conveniently pass through all the stages of age. Now, therefore, that thou hast ceased to be an adolescent, and art a perfect man, and art even tending toward old age, how is it that thou still demandest to be carried and borne around between my arms like a little boy? How dost thou desire to be wrapped again in swaddling clothes, and to be carried? How dost thou desire to be educated with milk and to live under a tutor? I ask thee, art thou not ashamed to say these things? Since thou passest a manly age, minister to others, educate others; and provide for and take care of everything that pertains to their increase. Resist enemies, and having been struck, strike back. Thou understandest, I suppose, of which enemies I speak. Invade the set ranks of the demons, and strike; spare nothing; rising when thou fallest, and instantly send back weapons against the weapons of the adversaries: ^B and when they attempt to wound thee with inflowing pusillanimity—and despair—let them be wounded as if by missiles shot at them by thy hope. Let anger, as if pugilists fighting against thee and driving thee into fury, receive slaps in their faces from thy meekness, and be cast far away outside thy house. For art thou, as I have said, an infant or a tiny boy? Does imbecility of mind still hold thee? Is thy mind even now infirm for resisting? Thou knowest how to flee enemies, and again to conquer them. For in fighting thou hast Me as helper and defender, and in taking flight, thou hast Me as a strong and safe covering. And what, I pray, brings thee the sadness of these earthly things? Gold, or silver, or precious stones? And what stone is more brilliant than I, or what shines more clearly? And yet, what stone is, as I am, in no estimation at all? Or does the loss of fields, or the poverty of food, or a deficiency of wine truly distress thee? And what other paradise is like to Me? Or what equal thing do these lower and perishable earthly things possess? What bread, moreover, in the world is such, or what wine can be compared with My grace, with the divine spirit, with the bread of life which I give, namely My body and blood, for those eating and drinking with a pure heart and indubitable faith, with fear and trembling, whether by intellect or by sense? What delights, what joy, what glory, I ask, is greater on earth than to behold Me alone, to contemplate Me alone through a mirror in an enigma? And to look upon the brilliance of My glory alone, and through it to be taught these and more things than these, and to know and understand perfectly that I am God, the creator of all, that a man sitting in the deepest pit, restored to grace with Me, and without an interval conversing with a friend as a friend, exempt from the order of mercenaries, free from servile fear, serving Me without labor, worshipping Me with charity, might attain my familiarity by the obedience of commandments?

Come now, briefly record in writing the actions of those who serve Me not for wages, and not coming to Me servilely, but as friends and acquaintances and children of Mine: To consider oneself viler than all mortals. To consider oneself worse than the Gentiles not only in worldly affairs and in life shared among religious companions, but also ^C from the heart; to consider a small transgression of even the least commandment to be the loss of eternal life; to regard small boys, no differently than men of constant age, and to honor and revere them as honored ones; to attribute honor also to the blind; inasmuch as I, from on high, inspect all the deeds of men. To do these things also on account of Me, which write down likewise: To have against anyone at all in one's heart not even a tenuous agitation or a slight suspicion; to perform prayers with all one's soul with sorrow of heart; out of commiseration to pray with tears for all those sinning against thee, and likewise offending Me, so that they may be converted from these things; to bless those who curse, and to praise those who revile out of envy; and to endure inconveniences...

and to number them among the beneficent. But as for the refractory, and those who do not obey you, ^A treat them entirely as those who deny Me, their Lord; lament, and weep over them constantly, and do not cease to admonish them. For "He who receives you," I said, "receives Me; and he who hears you, hears Me absolutely." But he who does not receive your words and admonitions with fear, and does not comply with them even unto death, he shall not be a partaker of My eternal glory; he shall not be placed with Me, who bore the cross and was obedient to the Father even unto death; he shall not be set at the right hand, nor shall he be a co-heir of those who have crucified themselves.

For the rest, do not cease to admonish, do not stop weeping, do not intermit in seeking their salvation; so that if they hear you and are converted, you may have them as brothers, having gained your own members, and you may offer them to Me as kindred and compliant, so that I too may receive them through you, and glorify them, and bestow upon them a place in My Father’s kingdom together with you. If they have not renounced their own wills; if they have not despised their own souls, as I have said; if they have not been dead to their own wills, and have not accommodated their life and customs to your will, fulfilling My will through your will, you shall not lose your reward, nor shall you be despoiled of it; rather, in place of what is simple, I shall pay you back twofold, because although you were not heard, you did not cease to speak, and you preferred to undergo their hatreds, alienations, and execrations, just as I, too, was once an object of hatred, and am now—through such men as these and their like.

I wish ^B to be pleased by works of this kind. Strive to be pleasing to Me through such things and those similar to them; for I greatly rejoice in these. Do not be idle when you do evil, and do not prefer anything in the world to the benefit of your soul in any way. For what fruit will he gain, who wins the world, or instructs and teaches all who are in it, and saves everyone, if he is not saved himself? Who, therefore, is that man, or in what way, wretch that he is, while saving others, does he not save his own soul, but loses it? He who breaks one commandment of the Lord of all, and in a way walks by trampling upon it, and transgresses My laws, and leaps over My edicts. He who is outside the fold and the fences of My commandments, even if he has saved all mortals and the whole world, will be unknown and a stranger to Me, and most remote from My sheep. But most of all, because he has broken the fence of the fold, and has opened to beasts an exit from the sheep and an iniquitous entrance, not through the door, he shall suffer a judgment more severe than can be spoken, because of the sheep, and he shall be divided, and, delivered to the tartarean fire, that most miserable man shall be food for the worms. For the Father said this through the Son, and the Spirit, who is the mouth of the Lord, has spoken; the angels have approved it with unceasing voices, and the just, hearing the judgment, have added their own, and have said: "Thy judgment is incorrupt, the sentence is not suspect, Thou hast judged without passion, O most merciful God." For how, he who does not strip himself of his own will, and his—I mean, the one who brings and sustains your person, as your own, who are the Lord—has not put it aside for himself in his zeal, and has not kept it whole, as you yourself kept the will of your Father, will he be your co-heir and consort? Especially when he has bargained, for as long as he shall have survived, that he would never obey his own will: that he would not cling to blood, nor prefer the flesh—that is, kinship and the bond of nature, that natural love which in this life draws men again to those things which they had renounced and turns them entirely to the things which are behind.

The martyrs cried out: "Truly the judgment is just." For just as he who has offered himself readily to endure martyrdom, when kinsmen and children approach him with complaints and lamentations of this sort: "Do you not pity your children? O pitiless one, does the widowhood of your wife move you not? Are you not moved to compassion by their poverty? Do you not think of their destruction—and do you not soften? Are you then, abandoning a widowed wife and making your children orphans, strangers, and beggars, preferring to save yourself alone? How will you not be condemned more as a murderer, when you abandon us all who are to be lost, and strive to save your soul alone?" If, I say, they come with such lamentations, one ought not to endure their voices at all, not for a moment's time; nor loan them ears even the least bit, and either with gifts and price dismiss them from chains and prison [or] release yourself, O Christ, from being denied by them; but as one already dead, [one ought] to persist in tortures, to persevere in confinement, to endure in hunger and thirst, unmindful of one's own property and possessions; and, if it be possible, thinking of nothing else outside the confinement, even as if through a lattice; but to look only to Thee, Lord of the universe, and fix his mind perpetually upon Thee in contemplation, and thus even until death to endure hardship only for the love of Thee; nor ought he to care if some turn away, if some deny Thee and return to their former vomit, to their pristine actions, to the solicitudes of earthly things, and of wife and children; nor to be entangled by them under any pretext, for he is no longer the master of his own soul. Wherefore, many of your servants, when [the] prisons were opened by You, and the chains of their bodies were plainly loosed, ^D absolutely refused to go out and flee: but as they were, they remained in bonds.

So, therefore, even those who are now in the world, by their own will, first and above all have no power over themselves at all. But although they are not prohibited by their superiors from using these things, it is necessary, however, that they observe the agreements entered into with You. For they have promised not to men, but to God, that they would keep obedience and subjection to their superiors, and to all the brothers with whom they pursue religious institutes in monasteries. Therefore, they ought to inhabit a monastery, like some island alone in the midst of the sea, and to consider the whole world as altogether impassable to themselves,

as if a high moat surrounding a fortified monastery, so that neither can those in the world pass into the monastery, nor can those living on the island reach those who are outside, or gaze upon them with affection, or engage their memory in their minds; but rather, they must be disposed toward the dead as the dead are, and, being sentient, must not sense them, in which way they truly, of their own will, become slaughtered sheep.

Because of these most holy words of the saints, full of longing and highest love, when the Cherubim heard them, they praised the Lord and in fear said: "Glory to you, O Lord; glory to you, most merciful one, who in the world manifested martyrs without tyrants and persecutors, by your love alone, hourly giving testimony to you." Again, the Father said through the Son. And the Spirit added: "Truly, those who love God with their whole heart and persist in his love alone, and hourly die to their own will, these are my genuine friends, these are my co-heirs, and even without the tearing of hooks, without suspensions, fires and cauldrons, without consuming flames and cutting swords, they are martyrs by the mere denial of their own will." To these things the supramundane legions all together, rejoicing, exclaimed: "Just is your judgment ^A, O most merciful one. Let it be written, let it be sealed forevermore."

CHAPTER XXIX

That those who through communion with the Holy Spirit have already been joined to God, depart from this light to live with Him there for all eternity. It will be otherwise for those who have ordered their lives differently.

The beginning of my life is my end, and the end is my beginning. From where I came I know not; where I am, I do not know; nor do I know where I, a wretch, am to go. From earth I am born of earth; body from body; from that which is subject to corruption, I am corruptible and clearly mortal. For a brief time I dwell on earth, living in flesh, and I am extinguished; and departing from this life, I begin to live another. I leave the body covered in earth, to be recovered one day, and I shall live for an age that will end in no conclusion. Now, therefore, look upon me, O God, you alone; now bestow upon me your piety; now let your pity for me take hold. Behold, my strength has failed; I have approached old age, that is, the threshold of death. The prince of the world comes, about to search out my vile and abominable works; executioners stand by, gazing at me fiercely, and awaiting the command to seize my wretched soul and drag it down into the abyss of hell. Wherefore you, who by nature are merciful and alone kind, who are the most clement Lord, have mercy on me then; and do not remember the injury I have done you; do not abandon me; do not give place against me to my deceitful enemy, who hourly threatens me, and roars against me, and gnashes his teeth, and says: "In whom do you trust? How do you hope to escape my hands; seeing that, having mocked my precepts, and having left me, you have betaken yourself to Christ ^B? You will absolutely never slip away from me; I who drove Adam and Eve from paradise; I who made Cain a fratricide; I who deceived all mortals, ensnared by my deceits to the very end, and cast the human race into a horrible flood; I who was the instigator for David to adultery and slaughter; I who waged war against all the saints, and brought death to many; I, such as I am, how do you expect to be able to escape me, when you are most weak?" Hearing this, O Lord, and God, and creator, and fashioner, and my judge, who hold power over my soul and my body, as the shaper of both, I, a wretch, shudder and tremble in all my limbs. The crafty one also objects to me and says: "Behold, you do not watch; behold, you do not exercise continence; behold, you do not frequent prayers, nor adorations; you do not exercise the labors which you once entered upon; and for these reasons alone I shall snatch you, drawn away from Christ, along with me into the fire that is not extinguished." I, however, as you know, O Lord, never founded my salvation upon the works or actions of my soul; but I fled to your mercy and kindness; trusting that, because you are supremely merciful, I shall be saved by you gratuitously; and you will have mercy on me as God; just as you once had mercy on the harlot and the prodigal son, after he said: "I have sinned." With this faith I have run; with this confidence I have come; with this hope, O Lord, I have approached you. And now, I beseech you, let him not glory against me, your servant; let him not say: "Where is your Christ, where is your protector? Did he not himself surrender you into my hands?" For if he shall have subverted me by fraud, and led me captive, he will not ascribe it to my will, nor to my sloth, but to you entirely, who abandoned me, saying: "See in whom you trusted; see to whom you betook yourself; see whom you thought to be with you in love and charity; whom you boasted to be in the place of brother, friend, son, and heir. How has he deserted you, and handed you over into the hands of me, your enemy, and, having unexpectedly become estranged, suddenly begun to hate you?"

Having heard these things, therefore, do not desert me, do not allow me to become your reproach, my God; do not, O King, do not, O Lord, who once led me out of darkness, and out of his hands, and from his jaws, and placed me free in your light. For when I see you, the inner parts of my heart are wounded, and I cannot look, and yet I cannot bear not to see you. For your beauty is inaccessible, your appearance inimitable, your glory incomparable. Has anyone ever seen you? Or who will be able to see you in your entirety, my God? For what eye will be able to behold the whole, or the universe? But he who is above the universe, what mind will be able to comprehend him, or embrace him, or extend itself entirely according to the whole, and discern him who contains all things, is outside all things, and is the whole itself, and fills all things, and yet remains outside all things in an ineffable way? Nevertheless, I behold you as the sun, and I look upon you as a star, and as a lamp in its vessel ^{C D}

burning, and in my bosom I carry you as a pearl. ^A And the fact that you do not expand, that you do not make me entirely light, and do not show yourself to me entirely such as you are, and as great as you are, I clearly do not think I have you as my life: but I lament, as one who is a beggar from being rich, dishonored from being illustrious, and struggling with despair. My enemy perceiving this, says to me: "You shall not be saved. For behold, you are frustrated of your hope, and have wandered from the mark; since you do not have the confidence and freedom that you once had toward God." To which speech I do not deign to respond; but I blow, and it immediately vanishes. Thus I pray, O Lord, thus I beseech you, grant mercy even then to me, when my soul shall depart from this body, so that by the sole breath of your Spirit I may be able to make ashamed those who will beset me, your servant, and guarded by the light of your Spirit, pass through unharmed, and stand before your tribunal, having with me your most holy grace, covering me, and presenting me unburdened by any shame. For who indeed would dare to appear before you, unless he were clothed in you yourself? Unless he holds you within, and is illuminated by you, how will anyone at all be able to see that intolerable glory of God? ^B For who, finally, will see the glory of God, and the nature of the divinity, being the humble and abject nature of man? For God is uncreated, we are all created. He knows no corruption; we are corruptible and are but dust. He is spirit, nobler than every spirit, as the Creator of spirits and Lord; we are earthly flesh, and earthly substance. He is the Author of all, without beginning, incomprehensible; we are worms, and mud, and ashes. And who of us by his own virtue, or action, will ever be able to see Him, unless He Himself sends forth His divine Spirit, and through Him supplies strength, power, and virtue to the weak nature, and makes man fit to see His glory? For otherwise he will not see, nor will anyone be able to see man coming in glory. And thus the unjust shall be separated from the just, and sinners shall be overwhelmed by darkness, and whoever have not brought the light with them from here. But those who of the things which they have done here have been coupled to Him, they even then shall be mystically and genuinely coupled to God, and shall never be torn away from His communion. Furthermore, those who have departed from here sundered from His light, how or by what reason they shall then be united to Him, I desire to learn from you, or rather to teach you.

God having been made man, has been associated with men. He has communicated with us in human nature, and in turn has communicated His divinity to all who believe in Him and show their faith by their works. ^C He affirmed, therefore, that these were to be saved, not regarding just any sinners, but the excommunicated. For other sinners, however enormous, whether manifest or hidden, are truly in the Church; ^D provided, however, that they do not cast away the faith.

For the rest, as for those who are [to be] only participants of His divinity; just as He Himself is a consort of our nature, the effector of all things, as Paul testifies, that Christ’s Church would be one body, dominical and divine, without spot, irreprehensible, without any wrinkle, those who shall be the faithful; but Christ is the head. If therefore it shall be thus, just as it also is, who among the sordid would dare to touch Him, or who unworthy would be agglutinated to Him? For if even today sinners are cast out of the Church, and excluded entirely from the communion of others, and are moreover deprived of the sight of divine things, they who are not holy, pray, how then shall they be joined to Him with an incorruptible body, and become members of Christ, when they are contaminated and sordid?

It is not permitted, brethren, it will not happen at all. But those who are separated from the divine body, that is, the Church, and from the choir of the elect, tell me, where will they go? To what kingdom? In what place, I ask, do they hope for a dwelling? For plainly both paradise, and the bosom of Abraham, and every place of rest is of those who are saved. But indeed those who are saved are all together wholly holy, as divine Scripture teaches everywhere and testifies. For there are indeed many mansions, but inside the Wedding Chamber. For just as one is the heaven, and in it are the stars, differing in honor and brightness: so likewise one is the wedding chamber, and the kingdom. Moreover, the paradise, and the holy city, and every place of rest, is God alone. And as man has no rest in life who does not remain in God, and God in him: so even after death outside that One, there will not be, I think, any rest, no place free from sadness, from groaning, from tribulation.

Wherefore let us strive, brethren, let us strive before our end to coalesce with God the Author of all, who for the sake of us wretches inclined the heavens and descended to the earths; who lay hidden from the angels, and dwelt in the womb of the holy Virgin, from whom He assumed a body, in an ineffable manner, and without mutation of Himself, and thence proceeded to work out the salvation of us all. Our salvation, moreover, is this precisely, which we have often said, and now again will say, not indeed from ourselves, but from the divine mouth. The great light of the future age has appeared, the kingdom of the heavens has descended to the earths; nay rather, the King of those above and below, and of all, has come, and has willed to become like to us, so that all of us kindled by Him as by light, might emerge like to the first; and might become consorts of the heavenly kingdom, participants of glory, and not less heirs of eternal goods, which no one has ever seen. These however are, as I believe, and persuade myself and maintain, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one Trinity. This is the fount of goods; this is life.

^A of existing things; these are delights and rest; this is the robe and glory; this is the ineffable joy and salvation of all who have become participants in His inexplicable illumination, and who feel that they have communion with Him. For this reason, hear, He is named Savior, because He gives salvation to all with whom He has been united. Salvation, moreover, is the repulsion of all evils, and in the same [act] is the eternal finding of all goods, bestowing from death life, from darkness light, and from the servitude of vicious affections and most disgraceful actions a perfect liberty to all those who are joined and bound with Christ, the Savior of all, who then possess every joy without the danger of losing it, and every exultation and gladness. But those who are wholly separated from Him, who do not seek Him, nor have they shaken off the yoke of the movements of the mind that are adverse to reason, nor are they liberated from death, whether they be kings, or princes, or men of the highest rank—even if they think themselves to be dwelling in delights, in hilarities, and in pleasures, and in the enjoyment of goods—they will never acquire such gladness as the servants of Christ, immune from all illegitimate desires for glory and pleasures, perceive; which [gladness] is indeed so great that prayer cannot attain it, and no one of those who have not sincerely and fruitfully adhered to Christ, and who have not been restricted and entwined in that union which cannot be explained, will ever know, understand, or see it; to whom belong glory and honor, praise and every proclamation from every creature and spirit into the ages. Amen.

CAPUT XXX.

It is better to be ruled well than to rule the unwilling. For no profit is gained if one strives to save others, and through the charge of them goes to one's own ruin.

Tell me, Christ, to your servant, tell me, O light of the world, tell me, O knowledge of the whole universe, tell me, O Word of wisdom, You who foresee all things, know all things beforehand, and teach us what is conducive to us without envy; tell me and teach me also the salutary ways of Your will and of Your divine commandments. Tell me, and do not despise me, nor hide from Your unworthy servant, my God, Your good pleasure, and open to me kindly, O Savior, which of two things is better in Your sight and more pleasing to You: to concern myself with the affairs of the monastery, and candidly to provide for the needs of the bodies, and to defend everyone even to the point of being hated; or to be always dedicated to solitude alone, and to keep the mind serene and imperturbed, and to receive the sparks of Your grace, and according to the sense of the soul to be continually illuminated, and to perceive divine discourses secretly, and to teach others mildly, and to be taught similarly? For he who teaches others says the same things to himself, and he ought first of all to display these things in his deeds. Therefore, from these two things, tell me, O my Fashioner and my God, which is profitable for me, which is pleasing and perfect to You? Come, do not deny this to me, You whose sum is mercy.

^B

Hear what you are inquiring about, and commit to letters what you have heard. I am God before every beginning, I am by nature Lord, king of those above and below, whose servants all are accounted, even those who do not wish it. I am indeed the Creator of all, the Judge and Lord, and I am now, and I shall be into the ages of ages. But I never force anyone against his will. For I desire that those who serve Me, and who are obedient to My word, should serve Me freely, from the choice of their own mind, with fear and charity. Such I desire my servants to be, such to be those who dwell near Me, such to be my friends. Others I have not yet known, nor have I been known by them. Wherefore they call Me harsh, and one who is not moved by compassion, and they, the children of iniquity, call Me unjust. They, therefore, who treat Me with contumely, who say insults to Me, who load Me with reproaches, how could they subject themselves to you, or how could they admit you as a master? How will wolves regard you as a shepherd? Or how will they follow your voice, when they are fierce wild beasts? Go out, flee, and withdraw yourself from their midst. Let it be enough for you if you save your own self. But if you save the world, and lose yourself, what will the world profit you, saved by your labors? I do not want you to rule anyone unwilling: a thing which you may see that I Myself have done in the world. I am the ruler and Lord of the willing; of the rest, although I am their creator and Lord by nature, I am not in any way king, nor leader, nor president, who do not take up their cross and follow Me: for they are children of the devil and vessels [of dishonor]. See the horrible mystery, see the stupidity, and follow them with lamentations ^C if you can, even hour by hour. For called from darkness to the light that does not set, from death to life, from hell to heaven, from temporal and perishing things to eternal glory, they become enraged, and they rave against their masters, and they devise all kinds of snares against them, and they prefer to die rather than to depart from darkness and the works of darkness, and to follow Me. In what way, then, will you govern these? How will you preside over them; how will you lead them, come tell me, who of their own accord flee to the fire, adhering to the enemy, and with him diligently devising things contrary to My precepts? How will you feed them as sheep; how, I ask, will you lead them to the pastures of My commandments, to the water of My will? How will you lead them out to the mountains, which are seen by the mind, to the visions of the mystical glory of My ineffable self, through which they who behold it despise this lower glory, and, forgetting all things that affect the senses, deem all these things as shadow and smoke? Tell me how you will have an adversary as a patron in a pleaded cause? How will you lead a hostile enemy to love you? For it is easier, a small occasion being found, for enemies to be made from friends. But enemies with difficulty join in friendship, although they may be touched by benefits, and adorned with noble and great gifts. They carry a closed poison in their breast, which, when opportunity is offered, they soon vomit forth, and they do not fear to kill impiously and cruelly those who have deserved well of them. O extreme fury. These are the imitators of Cain; these are more wicked than Lamech; these are similar in their morals to Saul, followers ^D

of the Jews, emulators of Judas, and heirs of his snare. ^A If you seek to preside over them, consider whither you are coming: for they will not convert to where you might wish, but they will compel you to walk that same way, and first, to fall into pestilence and ruin before them, and to descend into a deep pit beneath them, that you may have them entirely as companions at your back. But if you refuse to be assimilated to them and refuse to be carried away and led off by their counsels and thoughts, nor to communicate in their evil works, you will have faction, strife, and implacable war. Then what will become of you? What will happen? I will say, if you listen, what gain you are to make, and I will say it in few words. Above all, you will by no means be able to be my servant. For I do not at all wish my servant to fight. They will foster irreconcilable hatred in their hearts against you, and they will plot murder against you openly and secretly, and you will answer for them when you are called to judgment. For your death will profit others nothing, just as my ^B death brought life to the world. Nay, you will be the cause of condemnation to them, and you will depart from here in such a way that you cannot freely defend yourself. It is better, therefore, by all means to rule, not to rule such as these, but to take care of your own affairs most of all, and to pray for them and for all men, that all may be converted and arrive at the knowledge of themselves; and to teach those of them who are willing, and to imbue them with the rudiments of piety. But truly do not force them to do what you teach; but recite my sayings to them, and exhort them to carry them out in practice as conciliators of eternal life. These very words will set them before me, and will judge each one ^C according to his merits. You will not be liable to give an account, and you will remain plainly unindicted, since you did not hide the silver of my words, but as much as you yourself received, you have spent it on all. This is pleasing to me; this was the work of my apostles and disciples, which I commanded, namely to proclaim me as God throughout the world, and to teach my will and commandments, and to leave them written down for the human race. So do you also labor to do and to teach. But to those who are unwilling to hear my words, answer what I answered to some who said: "This is a hard saying, and who can hear it?" I said, therefore, "If you do not wish it so, go, and let everyone do what he pleases"; and I committed the whole of them to their own power and choice, that they might choose either death or life. For no one ever became good without his will and the inclination of his mind; nor will an infidel be a believer if he does not wish it; nor will a friend of the world be a friend of God. Never will a fool, against his will, with his mind unchanged, become upright. For no one is made wicked by nature, but by counsel and the resolve of the mind: so, conversely, from a perverse and wicked man, by intention and choice, if he pleases, he becomes upright and whole: but if he does not wish it, he will by no means be such voluntarily. No one in this world will perform the office of virtue against his will. No one is saved unwilling: do not ask of this anymore. Take care to save yourself and those who hear you, if perhaps among the land of men ^D there is found one who has ears to hear and obeys what he hears.

I will do that, Lord, as Thou hast commanded me. Nevertheless, grant Your aid and Your grace to me, Your unworthy servant, my God, that I may always glorify You and celebrate Your power with perennial voices into the infinity of all ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XXXI

What is that: "According to the image," and how it is deservedly understood that man is the likeness of the prototype, or is the image. To love one's enemies, as if they had deserved well, is to imitate God, and hence to become a participant of the Holy Spirit, to become God by adoption and grace, and to be known only by those who are led by the same Spirit.

Glory, praise, hymn, grace to the God of the universe, who created this whole work of the nature of things from nothing by His word and His will alone, and who is adored in the trinity of hypostases and in one essence. The one God is the holy Trinity, a supersubstantial substance, one in three persons, and in three subsistences, inseparable and indivisible, one nature, one glory, one virtue, one will. She alone is the creator of all things. She formed me entirely from the clay, and having placed a soul in it, set me on the earth, and gave me light, in which I might see and behold all things, namely this world exposed to the senses, the sun, moon, stars, sky, earth, sea, and whatsoever are in the midst of these. He gave also mind and reason. I would like you to attend. Therefore, according to the image, the Word was given to us, the *logos*, that is, reason; for from the *logos* are the rational, that is, from reason are the rational [beings], from the *Logos*, who is without beginning, uncreated, incomprehensible, void of matter. Thus according to the image, the soul of each man is a rational image of the *Logos*. In what way? Teach me. Attend to my words. From God is God the Word, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In the same way also [is] my soul, by a certain likeness of Him. For having mind and reason, it has these according to essence, undivided and unconfused, similarly consubstantial, these three are one unitedly, and three divisibly, which are always both united and divided: for they are united unconfusedly, and are separated indivisibly. If you take away one of these, you have taken away all. The soul without reason and mind is something similar to the brutes: without the soul, however, reason cannot subsist. Thus, therefore, understand the prototype from the image. Without the Spirit, neither the Father nor His Word will exist. The Father is Spirit, and His Son is Spirit, even if He put on flesh, and again the Spirit is God—for both are one by nature, and essence, as are mind, soul, and reason. But the Father indeed begat the Word from Himself ineffably. But as my reason is from my soul, or rather in my soul; so from the Father [is] the Spirit, or rather it remains in the Father, and proceeds in an inexplicable way. How again my mind always generates reason, and produces, and emits, and makes it known to all, yet not...

in any way separated from the Father; but it is discerned in the Son, and the Son remains in it.

Though this image is obscure, yet our discourse has described and formed it accurately; which you will never see, nor understand, unless you first have cleansed and washed your own image from stain, unless you have first rooted out what is overwhelmed by depraved affections, and have perfectly wiped it clean, and made it white as snow. When you have performed this, and have properly purified it, and it has become a perfect image; you will not see or understand the prototype, unless it is revealed to you through the Holy Spirit: for the Spirit teaches all things, shining in an ineffable light. Insofar as intelligible things are understood, He will demonstrate everything to you, as much as you are able to see, as much as man is able to attain, according to the proportion of your purified soul; and by diligent imitation of works you will be assimilated to God, in temperance, fortitude, humanity, endurance of temptations, and charity toward enemies. For this is the nature of humanity, that you do good to enemies, and love them as friends and benefactors, and pray for those who persecute you, and move with charity equally toward all, the good and the bad, and daily lay down your soul for all—for the salvation, I say, of one, or if possible, of all.

These things, my son, will make you an imitator of the Lord and will render you a true image of the Creator: an imitator of divine perfection in all things. But then, pay attention to the mind, you will receive the divine Spirit sent to you—not another soul than the one you had, but a spirit from God—and He will breathe, and reside, and substantially dwell within, and will illuminate, and clarify, and again will fuse you, and will make you, corruptible as you are, incorruptible, and will renovate the ancient home of your soul. With this, your body alone will put on incorruption. Indeed, He will make you a god by grace, similar to the prototype. Incredible to say, and truly marvelous and unknown to all who are held captive by the passions: unknown to the lovers of the world, unknown to the greedy for glory, unknown to the proud, unknown to the irascible, unknown to those who do not forget an injury, unknown to the lovers of the flesh, unknown to the avaricious, ^D unknown to the envious, unknown to all who speak evil, unknown to hypocrites, unknown to gluttons, unknown to those who eat in secret, to the drunkards and fornicators, unknown to the idle gossips, unknown to those who speak vile things, unknown to the slothful, unknown to those who neglect penance even for an hour, unknown to those who do not mourn daily and unceasingly, unknown to the rebellious, unknown to the contentious, unknown to those living according to their own pleasure and whims, unknown to those who think they are something when they are nothing, unknown to those who boast and rejoice in the tallness of their body, or strength, or beauty, or any other ornament; ^A unknown to those who have not acquired purity of heart, unknown to those who do not eagerly seek the divine Spirit in order to receive Him, unknown to those who do not believe, even if they ask to be given the Holy Spirit in some way: for unbelief constrains and repels the divine Spirit. He who does not believe does not ask; he who does not ask does not receive; he who does not receive is dead; and yet who would not weep for the dead, since while he is dead, he thinks he is alive? Truly, the dead can neither see nor lament the dead: but the living, seeing them, lament. For they see a new monster, the dead alive; and indeed walking about; thinking that those who are blind can see, and truly thinking that those who are deaf can hear. They live indeed, and hear, and see as animals; so that not understanding, they do not understand, in a deadened sense, in a dead life. For indeed it is permitted for a non-living person to live, and for a non-seeing person to see, and for a non-hearing person to hear. How, tell me, tell me at once, how can those who live according to the flesh, whoever admire the things of this world, who listen only to carnal matters, listen to divine and heavenly sermons? All these are deaf, blind, and dead according to the spirit. For they are absolutely not from God, so as to live; they have neither received nor seen the divine light. Which, since it has not been done in the least, they have remained completely deaf. But now, as for such people, why be called Christians? Hear the divine Paul ^B clearly signifying these things to you; or rather hear Christ speaking: *The first man is of the earth, earthly: the second man is from heaven* (1 Cor. xv, 48). Apply yourself to these words. What kind, therefore, is the first, the earthly that is, such are those also who are born from him, all earthly. But what kind Christ is, the heavenly Lord, such are all the heavenly, who have believed in Him, born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit. What kind is He who begat, God truly, such are those begotten from Him, from God by adoption, and all children of the Most High, as the divine mouth says. Have you heard the words of God? Have you heard how He separates the faithful from others? How He gave His servants a sign and a mark, so that they might not be seduced by the sermons of alien teachers? The first, he says, is of the earth, because he was created earthly. But the second man, that Lord of all, descended from heaven. The first brought death and destruction upon all men by his transgression. The second bestowed upon the world, and now bestows upon all the faithful, light, life, and incorruption. Have you heard what the interpreter of heavenly things said to you? Have you heard Christ speaking through him and teaching men what kind of people those are, who have believed in Him, and persevere in showing faith by their works? Henceforth, do not doubt at all: what kind Christ is, the heavenly one, you also ought to be such. But if you are not such, how will you usurp the name of Christians? For if, what kind the Lord is, heavenly indeed, He says that they also are such who have believed in Him.

^A And will you, who are about to enter into heavenly things and to reign with the King and Lord of all, remain such? Let us all run, then, with diligence, that we may be deemed worthy to reign in the heavens with Christ, the Lord of all, to whom belongs all glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Theological subtleties. That he who does not see the light of the glory of God is more miserable than the blind.

You who are so prone to show mercy, my God, my Creator, shine upon me more abundantly with Your unapproachable light, so that You may fill my heart with joy: and do not be angry, nor abandon me! But illuminate my soul with Your light; for You Yourself are your light, my God. For although You are called by many and diverse names, yet You are One. And this One is unknown, invisible, and inexplicable to every nature, for it is indicated by comparison with whatever name. Therefore, this One is in nature ^B tri-hypostatic, one deity, one kingdom, one power; for the Trinity is one. The Trinity is one, my God, not three. But nevertheless, that one is three, according to the subsistences, in nature mutually co-equal, and consubstantial in every way, without confusion, a unity beyond human grasp, and yet divided without division: three in the one, as it were, and one in the three. For He who created all things is One: Jesus Christ, with the Father, who is without beginning, and with the Holy Spirit, who has no beginning co-equal to Him.

There is, as it were, a certain pool, most clear in divine light, and it embraces all things. Those whom the divine Spirit finds worthy, it receives within itself (with what words shall I speak, with what shall I declare, with what shall I expound according to its dignity the things that are? Give me words, You who have given me a soul, my God). The divine Spirit, then, since He is God, completely refashions, completely renews, and wonderfully restores those whom He receives within Himself: nor is He defiled by their filth. ^C And just as fire does not draw darkness from iron, and imparts to it whatever qualities it has: in the same way, the divine Spirit, since He is incorruptible and immortal, imparts incorruption and immortality. And since He is a light that never sets, He makes all whom He inhabits light. And since He is life, He bestows life on all. As a sharer in the nature of Christ, and consubstantial, and a partaker of the same glory, and united to Him, He renders these also most similar to Christ. For the Lord does not envy mortal men that they become like Him by divine grace; nor does He disdain for His servants to bear His own likeness; rather, He rejoices and is glad when He sees us, born of men, made such by grace, as He Himself is begotten, and is by nature. For since He is a benefactor, He wishes us to be such as He Himself is. ^D For if we are not of such a kind, perfectly, I say, similar, how shall we be united to Him, as He said? How also shall we remain in Him? And how shall He Himself remain in us, if we are dissimilar to Him? Therefore, since you know this clearly, strive to receive the Spirit who is from God, and who is divine, so that you may become such as we have taught, heavenly and divine, such as the Lord said, so that you may also attain to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom for ever. If you are not such, either here, you do not become heavenly, as I said, how do you imagine that you will in any way inhabit heaven with Him? How do you imagine you will enter into the kingdom with Him who is to enter into heavenly things, and to reign, and to be one with those who are to reign with the King and Lord of all?

Therefore, the Trinity is one, absolutely indivisible. Yet in the One are three, and conversely in the three is one, or rather these three are one, and conversely, three are one. Understand, adore, believe now and for ever. For this One, when It has appeared, when It has shone, when It has been partaken of and shared, illuminates, and is every good. For which reason It receives not one, but many names from us: light, peace, joy, life, food, drink, clothing, raiment, tabernacle, divine habitation, orient, resurrection, rest, washing, fire, water, river, fountain of life, stream, bread and wine, a new and exquisite condiment for the faithful, a sumptuous banquet, nourishment of mystical delights. This sun never sets, but is a star ever shining, a lamp shining within the domicile of the soul. This One is manifold, destroying and building. This One at once produced all things by His Word, and contains all these things by the virtue of His Spirit. This One created heaven and earth from nothing, bestowed essence, and ineffably joined them together. This One created the sun, the moon, the stars (a wonderful, new, and unusual thing) by His will alone. This One ordered quadrupeds, reptiles, and beasts, and every kind of bird, and the fish of the sea, as we see, to exist. Finally, He fashioned me, as a king, and subjected all these things to my service; so that, in the manner of servants...

they might satisfy my needs. And indeed, all the rest have kept, and still keep, the commandment of this one—of God, I say, the universe’s—while I alone, a wretch, appeared ungrateful and wicked and disobedient to God, my Creator, who liberally provided all these good things for me. Having violated the commandment, I became useless, and appeared inferior and worse than beasts of burden, wild beasts, cattle, reptiles, and birds. Having wandered from the straight path, I, an unhappy man, lost the glory given to me, and was despoiled of my shining, divine garment; born in darkness, I now lie in darkness, and, deprived of light, I do not know it. Behold, I say, the sun illuminates the day, which I see perish as the night supervenes. Then, so that I may see, I light candles and a lamp. And what does another man have more than I? For so men see in the world, and no one sees otherwise or more. When I say these things, I lie and mock myself, I deceive myself, and I boast against myself, while I do not want to acknowledge that I am blind, while I do not want to toil, do not want to look upward, and, condemned, do not want to acknowledge my blindness.

But I say, who has seen God, the light of the world? And while I say this, I do not at all feel or understand, Lord, that I think and speak evilly. For whoever does not see Your light and affirms that he sees, nay, truly says that it is impossible to see the light of Your glory—he denies all the Scriptures and sermons of the prophets and apostles, and Your economy, O Jesus. For if You shone from on high and appeared in darkness, and came into the world, wishing to converse humanly with men in our manner, and said without vanity that You Yourself are the light of the world, and yet we do not see You, are we not utterly blind, and more miserable than the blind? We are most truly dead and blind, since we do not discern You, the life-giving light. The blind do not see this corporeal sun, yet they live, and are moved by motions in whatever way; for it does not grant life, but exists only so that you may see. But You, since You are all good things, always give all things to Your servants who see: to those who see, I say, Your light. And since You are life, along with all other good things, which You Yourself are, You also grant life. For he who possesses You truly possesses all things in You. Do not let me be deprived of You, Lord, do not, O Creator, let me be deprived of You, lest I be deprived, O merciful One, of myself, [who am] humble and a stranger. For I have become a stranger and a sojourner here, as it pleased You, not by my will, nor by my own volition: but by Your grace I recognized myself as a guest among these visible things, intellectually illuminated by Your light, and, having perceived [that You] transfer [men] to the immaterial and invisible world, and there cause the human race to dwell, marking out and distributing to each his dwelling according to his merits, according, namely, to the extent that he kept Your commandments. Therefore I pray that You place me with You, even though I have sinned much more than all mortals, and am worthy of punishment and vengeance ^A. But as You took to Yourself the publican and the harlot who prayed, so receive me, Lord. Even if I do not likewise weep; even if I do not similarly wash Your feet with my hair; even if I do not similarly moan and lament, nevertheless You emanate mercy, and gush forth compassion, and pour out goodness as if from a fountain, through which have mercy on me. Come, You who are fixed to the cross in Your hands and feet, and whose side was opened by a lance, O most merciful One, have mercy on me, and save me from eternal fire, and make me worthy, that for the remainder I may serve You acceptably, and then stand blameless before You, and be received within Your bridal chamber, where I shall rejoice with You, the good Lord, unto all ages. Amen.

CAPUT XXXIII. Confession joined to prayer, and concerning the union of the Holy Spirit with the freedom from perturbations.

I wandered, O kind One, I remained in solitude, and hid myself from You, sweet Lord. Surrounded by the night of the anxieties of this life, I sustained from it many bites and wounds: I bear many stripes returned upon my soul, and I cry out in the torment and pain of my heart: Have mercy on me, a transgressor, have mercy, O Physician, who loves souls, and who alone most willingly shows mercy. You who heal the sick and wounded gratuitously, heal my scars and wounds. Distill the mercy of Your grace, my God, blot out my stripes, and my ulcers, draw them into one, and bind my evilly dissolved limbs, and blot out all my scars, and make me whole again perfectly, as I was before, when no stain defiled me, no scar, nor swelling plaga or spot: but with me was tranquility, joy, peace, gentleness, holy humility, and long-suffering, the clarity of patience and good works, tolerance, and a thoroughly invincible virtue, from which daily and sweetest tears, from which exultation in my heart gushed forth like a fountain, and flowed continuously, and there was a honeyed stream, ^B and a drink of joy constantly turning in the mouth of my mind; from which [came] all health, from which [came] purity, from which [came] the sedation of evil affections, and the casting away of vain thoughts, from which *apatheia* in a certain way was present for me, and lived with me (spiritually understand, you who run through these things by reading, lest you be filthily defiled), bringing to me an immense pleasure of communion, and an infinite desire for the divine nuptial conjunction; from which I also, changed, was loosed from perturbations, inflamed by pleasure, and incensed by a desire for it, and [became] a partaker of light, nay, I even became light myself, superior to every passion, removed from all wickedness. For passion does not reach the light of *apatheia*, just as shade or nocturnal darkness does not reach the sun. Having been such, however, I was puffed up with pride, trusting in myself, and having been withdrawn ^C from the solicitude of sensible things and the cares of life, I fell, unhappy man, and being cooled I put on the blackness of iron ^D

^A and for a long time I succumbed, and furthermore seized the poison. Therefore, I cry out to you, O Good One, and I entreat that I be purified again and raised up to my former beauty, and that I might enjoy your light, now and always, and through all the spaces of the ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

A splendid commentary on the intelligible paradise, and on the tree of life in it.

Blessed art thou, O Lord, blessed art thou alone, blessed art thou who art merciful, and more than blessed, who hast given into my heart the light of thy commandments, and hast planted within me the tree of life, and hast made me another paradise among things visible, intellectual indeed in sensible things, but sensible in things intellectual; and another spirit, indeed thy Holy Spirit, thou hast joined to my soul, and hast made it to dwell within my bowels. Plainly this is the unique tree of life. This, in whatever soil it might be planted, namely in the soul of man, and if it might take root in the heart, it renders it a paradise, and it soon adorns it most splendidly with beautiful stems, trees, and diverse fruits, and various flowers, and lilies breathing forth ointments, which are humility, peace, joy, gentleness, condolence, mourning, showers of tears, and an unusual delight in them, the splendor of thy grace shining upon all who dwell in the paradise. Thou art the crater pouring out for me thy vital streams, and abundantly ministering the words of divine contemplation. But if thou wert unwilling, and on the contrary wert to demolish these, I would be mad, and dull like a stone. As a trumpet will never sound without breath, so also I without thee am as one inanimate; for without a soul it cannot be that a body might do anything, and a soul cannot be moved without thy Spirit, nor obey thy commands, nor see thee, nor stand before thee, nor sing thy glory intelligently. Therefore I cry out, therefore I vociferate to thee, who art above with the Father, and below with us; not, as some reason, by operation alone; nor, as many think, by will alone, nor by thy power alone, but also by essence: since it is right to usurp this word concerning thee, or to understand it, who alone art immortal and super-essential. For if thou art truly ^B altogether ineffable, what shall we call thee? how shall we even name thy essence, and what at last and what manner of being shall we dare to call thee? Truly thou art none of those things which exist in the nature of things, my God; but all thy works are produced from nothing; thou alone art uncreated and without beginning, the holy and adorable Trinity, God of the universe. And thou hast shown to us the light of thy uncontaminated glory; grant that even now I may be provided with it without interval: grant me through it to behold thee perpetually as in a mirror, and to contemplate thee the Word, and to perceive and understand thy immense beauty; which, since it is in every way unintelligible, stupefies beyond measure and strikes my mind, and ^C in my heart it kindles the fire of charity toward thee; which, when it erupts into a flame of divine desire, shows me more clearly thy glory; adoring which, I pray thee, O Son of God, cause that I may obtain it now and in the future age without vicissitude, and through it see thee, God, through eternal times. Do not grant me, Lord, the vain glory of the world, nor perishing riches, nor talents of gold, nor a sublime throne, nor in this fleeting life, principality: join me to the humble, the poor, and the meek; that I too might be humble and meek. Although I may not perform my ministry usefully, and according to thy good pleasure and worship, let it please thee that, cast away from it, I might only weep for my sins, and be solicitous only about thy just judgment, and how I may answer ^D thee, who have many times provoked thy anger.

O Pastor, whom the misfortunes of others move, good and gentle Pastor, who desirest that all who believe in thee be saved, have pity, and hear this my prayer; be not angry, nor turn thy face from me, but teach me to fulfill thy will. For I do not study to perform my own will, but thine, that I might cherish thee. I adjure thee, have pity on me, who art by nature merciful, and do what is conducive to my wretched soul; since thou alone art the benign and humane God, uncreated, never failing, omnipotent, the life and light of all who love thee and are vehemently loved by thee. Mayest thou number me among them, and grant me a companion of thy divine glory, and a co-heir! For to thee belongs glory, to the Father with the Son, together devoid of beginning, and to the sacrosanct Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

CHAPTER XXXV.

To any man who is injuredly and contumeliously treated for the sake of divine laws, that that very ignominy is an honor and an ornament. Also a dissertation to his own soul, by which the inexhaustible riches of the Spirit are explained.

Give me sense, Christ, whom thou once gavest; cover me with it, Savior, and in it hide me entirely, and do not allow the sense of the world to approach me, lest it enter into me, and do not allow it at all to injure me, thy humble servant, to whom thou alone art merciful. For when the worldly sense suddenly pushes itself in, commending itself to care and solicitude, it immediately stirs up wicked desires in my miserable soul. For it suggests glory, it reminds me of riches, it invites me to court the acquaintance of kings, and leads this into great happiness. Therefore, from such thoughts, just as a skin swells from the wind, and fire is kindled into a flame: so the inflated soul swells, and is vehemently distended by the desire for glory, for wealth, and for lazy holidays, by which it is dragged downward. In glory and admiration, it desires to be with those who live in glory; to seem illustrious with the illustrious: to possess riches with the rich. Whom thou hast glorified with thy ineffable light, whom thou hast clothed with thy inexplicable glory, whom thou hast ex-

- ^A hibited as a sign of clarity and splendor, earthly sense captivates as a prisoner, showing it kings, proposing honors, suggesting the riches of the present life, and turning its thought toward these things.

O darkness, O blindness, O vain thoughts, O sordid goal, O stupid mind; since, having abandoned the Ineffable and the Immortal, I think of and revolve in my mind earthly things. Shall not a king die? shall not glory vanish? shall not riches be scattered like dust by the wind? shall not bodies rot in their tombs? and will not these fleeting fortunes have other masters, then others, and after this others again? And whose, tell me, my soul, were these faculties and abundances? But who in this life could make even a small gain, which he might take away with him when dying? I will name none to thee, nor canst thou point any out, save the merciful ones who, having distributed everything into the hands of the poor, have left nothing for themselves. For they safely retain what they gave, since they gave it into the hands of the Lord. All others are like beggars, and more wretched than beggars, who have their riches stored up without use; for naked, as if from a dug-out trench back into a trench, so are they cast into their tombs, and in this age they are wretched, and in the future, guests and pilgrims. What, therefore, my soul, seeing these things, art thou delighted? what of these things dost thou deem worth desiring? Thou hast nothing at all to say, nothing to answer.

Woe to those who have accumulated riches. Woe to those who wish to receive glory from men. Woe to those who have attached themselves to the rich, and do not desire the glory of God and His riches, and to be and to live with Him alone. For the world is vain, and the things that are in the world are vanities, and all is vanity: but God alone is eternal, immortal, ever remaining, and with Him shall be those who now seek Him, who have loved Him alone above all things. Woe then to those who now love the world; because on account of it they will be sentenced to eternal punishments. Woe to those who thirst for the glory of men; because then they shall be deprived of the glory of God. Woe, soul, to those who have gathered riches, because there they will desire to obtain a drop of water. Woe, soul, to those who place their hope in man; because he shall die, and with him his hope, and then they shall be found lacking in their hope and frustrated. Woe, soul, to those who have their consolation here; because there they are destined to have eternal tribulation.

Tell me, soul, why art thou saddened? what things of this life dost thou desire? Tell me, and I will teach thee the necessity and use of each one. Do thou understand and learn what good there is in any of them. What dost thou say? Thou desirest to be raised by honors, thou desirest to be heralded? Hear, therefore, what honor is, what ignominy. Honor is indeed to honor all men; but God before all, and to compare His commandments to oneself as riches, and for their sake to endure injuries, cursings, and every kind of reproach. For when, O soul, thou shalt have undertaken some business for the honor and glory of God, and on account of it shalt have been affected by contempt and injuries, ^B then thou hast obtained honor and stable glory: for the glory of God will come to thee entirely. Then also all the angels will praise thee because thou hast honored God, whom they themselves praise. Dost thou wish, my soul, to possess garments and riches? Listen, I will now demonstrate eternal riches to thee. Perform penance in tears; despise all things; be poor in spirit; be destitute of money; be a stranger to the world; be hostile to thy sinister desires, and acquiesce in the will of thy Lord alone, and strive to tread in His footsteps: then that One, walking slowly, will be overtaken by thee, O wretched one; whom when thou seest, raise a great cry. He Himself, having turned, will look upon thee with a placid countenance, and will offer Himself a little to be viewed by thee, and again being taken away from thy eyes He will leave thee. Then thou shalt lament, poor little soul, then thou shalt weep sorrowfully, and impatient of thy grief thou shalt invoke death, not bearing to be separated from so sweet a Lord. But the good Lord, when He sees thee destitute of counsel, and in weeping and sadness most constant, will suddenly appear to thee again; He will illuminate thee again; He will again demonstrate to thee inexhaustible riches, the glory of His paternal countenance, and He will gladden thee, and fill thee with joy as before, and thus will leave thee full of joy. Furthermore, worldly joy, which thou didst perceive in words and thoughts, will gradually fail thee, and be changed into sadness. Thus again, as before, thou shalt lament greatly, and with groaning pouring forth voices, thou shalt seek Him, the proclaimer of joy, the bestower of gladness, Him in whom are truly stable riches always. ^C In Him thus exploring thy will and purpose, take care that thou dost not grow weary, soul, that thou dost not turn back, that thou dost not say, "How long until I lay hold of thee?" Do not say, "Why, appearing, is He suddenly hidden again? and how long finally does He give me troubles, not mercy?" Do not say, "Who is He that I should be wearied even unto death?" And so be burdened to seek the Lord; but as one who has offered and consecrated thyself once to death, do not touch upon rest and remission, do not pursue glory, nor the delights of the body, nor the friendship of kinsmen. Neither to the right nor to the left look about in any way, but, as thou hast begun, or rather running more quickly, strive always to attain, and to apprehend the Lord with thy hand. And if a thousand times He shall have hidden Himself, and as often shall have appeared to thee, and could not be apprehended, by this way He will be held by thee. A thousand times, nay rather as long as thou breathest, promptly and eagerly seek Him, and hasten to Him. For He will not desert thee, He will not fail thee; but little by little more and more He will appear, and will be with thee more frequently, and at length, having purified thee by the illustration of His light, He will come and dwell entirely within thee, and He who made the world will remain with thee, and thou shalt have true riches, which the world does not have; but heaven and those who have been written in the book therein. If this should befall thee, ^D calling to mind, what more dost thou desire?

Say, O ungrateful soul; say, O foolish soul; say, O my vile soul, what is greater than these things, whether in the heavens or on the earth, that thou shouldst pursue it? The Fabricator of the heavens, and

of all that is in the heavens, and of all that is in the world, the Judge, and the King alone, dwells within thee, manifesting all things to thee, illuminating all with His own light, and showing thee the beauty of His countenance, that thou mayest see Him more clearly, and making thee a partaker of His glory. Say, what is more excellent than this? Thou wilt answer, nothing at all. Hear further. Endowed with such honor, O my soul, why dost thou still pant after the earth? Why art thou deluded by these things? Why dost thou cling to perishable things, when thou hast received immortal ones? Why dost thou linger in present things, when thou hast found things to come? Strive to possess those latter things continuously; fasten thyself wholly to them, my soul, so that even after death thou mayest be found in those eternal goods which thou hast here acquired, and with them mayest stand before the Creator and Lord, and with Him rejoice for innumerable ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XXXVI

With the Holy Spirit shining within us, all the unrighteous motions of the soul are yoked; and by His withdrawing His rays, we are safeguarded from them and from evil thoughts.

^B Thy light, O Christ, shining around me, gives me life; for to see Thee is to revive and to rise from the dead. What Thy light effects, I cannot describe. Nevertheless, I have known and I do know this by experience: whether I am held by sickness, or by afflictions, or by sorrows, or by chains, or by hunger, or by imprisonment, or am pressed by more serious troubles, upon the shining of Thy light, all things are as if dissipated and dispelled like shadows, and I am suddenly established in rest, in light, and in the enjoyment of the light through Thy divine Spirit. I know that tribulations are called smoke, evil thoughts shadows, temptations darts, anxieties darkness, and passions are called wild beasts, from which Thou didst formerly deliver and rescue me; and shining little by little upon me with Thy light, even now, in the midst of these things, Thou guardest me unharmed, protecting me with Thy light. But because I sin very ^C often, and sin every hour, because, I say, I exalt myself against Thee, because I provoke Thee, I am in need of Thy merciful chastisement, which I feel vehemently applied in me by the recession of the divine light which covered me. For as, when the sun sets, night and darkness encroach, and all the wild beasts come out to feed, so when Thy light has deserted me, immediately the darkness of this life and the sea of restless thoughts overwhelm me, and the wild beasts of turbulent motions devour me, and I am wounded by the darts of various thoughts. When again, moved by pity, Thou hast had mercy on me, and hast heard my tearful lamentations, and hast perceived my groans, and hast admitted my tears, and hast been willing to look upon my humility—I, who have sinned beyond expiation—Thou art seen like a star rising, and gradually Thou ^D expandest (not that Thou Thyself sufferest this, but opening the mind of Thy servant to see), until, little by little, Thou art seen greater, and like the sun. For as the darkness flees and vanishes, I believe that Thou comest, who art everywhere present. O current state, where all things, as before, surrounded and covered me, I am delivered from evils, from darkness, from temptations, from motions warring against reason, and I am snatched away from all evil thoughts, and I am filled with goodness, with gladness, with joy, with incredible pleasure of soul, beholding ^A tremendous mysteries, and certain new wonders; beholding things which the human eye does not see, nor can see, nor ear can hear, nor have they ascended into the heart of man [a 1 Cor. 11, 9]. In which I am vehemently astonished, and depart from my power, and am universally alienated from all earthly things, continuously praising Thee, and perceiving within myself a new mutation, and the manner of the help of the omnipotent hand, how by the splendor and apparition of one of Thy lights Thou hast removed all sadness from me, and, snatched from the world and united to Thee by a secret loan, Thou hast returned me straightway to heaven, where there is no sickness, no groans, no tears, no serpent biting the heel, and it is shown that the way is by no means laborious and troublesome, which otherwise is contrary, narrow, ^B difficult to all mortals, or, to speak more truly, impassable. For what man has been able, or will be able, I ask, to be in heaven with a body, or without a body, with what wings will he fly thither? Elias was caught up on high in a fiery chariot, and before him Enoch, but not into heaven, but into some other place, not indeed by himself, but yet he was translated. What are these things to those which are done in us? What comparison have shadows with truth, or what comparison have ministering and serving spirits with the divine and Lordly Spirit, the Maker of all things, and the Spirit confirming and strengthening every created nature? These are other creatures; the Creator alone is Himself, as being inseparable from the Father and the Son. God is these three, for the Trinity is one God. He Himself bestowed upon all, or the universe, that it might exist; He Himself produced all; ^C He Himself created the Word and Son of the Father in the world according to the flesh for our salvation, inseparable from the Father and the Holy Spirit. But truly, by the supervention of the Spirit, He is incarnate and becomes what He was not, a man like me, if you except all sin and iniquity, God and man at once, having to be seen by all the divine Spirit, who is naturally present to Him, with whom He brought back the dead to life, and opened the eyes of the blind, cleansed lepers, and expelled demons from human bodies. The same suffered the cross and death, rose in the Spirit, and was assumed in glory, and repaired the path to heaven for all who believe in Him with certain and firm faith; and He has abundantly poured out the most holy Spirit upon all who prove their faith by works; ^D and now also He pours the same out abundantly upon such, so that through Him He suddenly makes them gods, to whom He has been coupled; and He immutably changes them from men, and makes them sons of God, brothers of the Savior, and indeed heirs of God, but co-heirs of Christ, gods dwelling with God in the Holy Spirit, bound

only by the flesh, but free in spirit; who easily ascended into heaven with Christ, and acquired there the whole manner of living well, in the vision of good things which eye has not seen. ^A

What then is the fiery chariot that carried off Elias? What is the translation of Enoch? Regarding these, I conclude that just as the sea was once divided by a rod, and manna falling from heaven were but types and certain symbols—the sea of baptism, the manna of the Savior—in the same way, those things were shadows and certain symbols of these; symbols, I say, of those endowed with incomparable excellence and glory, in that the uncreated surpasses the created by nature. For the manna, which is called the bread and nourishment of angels, which the Hebrews ate in the desert, failed, perished, and all who ate of it died, ^B and those who partook of it did not thereby attain life. But the flesh of my Lord, since it is deified and full of life, makes all who eat of it partakers of life and increases them in immortality. Furthermore, it does not require them to cross a high sea, nor does it lead them from Egypt into another region which might again bring forth perishable fruits for men; nor does the Redeemer of the world command us to walk for forty years, so that we may arrive at the promised land; but He immediately lifts those baptized with unwavering faith, and made partakers of His body and blood, out of destruction into life, from darkness into light, from earth into heaven at once. ^C First, having stripped me of corruption and death, He asserted me—all that I have known and felt—into liberty; and then, which is a novelty more to be wondered at, He made me heaven, and the Author of all dwelt within me; which benefit no one of the ancients attained. For of old He spoke through the Holy Spirit, and by His power accomplished works above nature and the state of things: yet God was in no way substantially joined to anyone before Christ, my God, took upon Himself human limbs. For having assumed a body, He gave His Holy Spirit, and through Him is substantially united to all the faithful: and this union is unbroken and indissoluble.

Alas! (for I am compelled to groan ^D bitterly at the error of men) how is it that we do not believe in Christ? How is it that we do not follow Him? How is it that we do not desire life? How is it that we do not covet His indestructible and immortal riches, His glory that does not fade, and the age to be spent with Him? How is it that, fixed on perishable things, we trust that we shall be saved, we who do not love Christ more than the things we see, nor hope that we shall be with Him after death, but use even less sense than wood and stones? Deliver me, Christ, from this voluntary madness, and teach me to love Thee, the life of all the faithful. For to Thee always, as King, glory, honor, and praise are due, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Certain theological matters. Item, that it is not granted to one who has not been changed through communion with the Holy Spirit, nor known God by adoption, to teach men about divine things.

Who will console the pain of my heart? When I spoke of pain, I signified desire for the Savior. But this desire and ardor is the effect of the Spirit, or rather His essential presence, a light [ἐνυπόστατος] seen within me. It is, moreover, an incomparable light, and one absolutely ineffable. Who will separate and disjoin me from the things that move the senses, from which I was once delivered, and became hidden, when I had the world under my feet? Who will give me tranquility and rest from all things, so that I may be satisfied by His beauty and vision; whom, because I cannot understand, I am therefore inflamed with love? But as much as can be comprehended and understood, He is substantive love. For charity is not a name, but a divine substance, participable, and absolutely incomprehensible and divine. What is participated in can be comprehended; this can no longer be [comprehended]. Therefore I said to you that love is comprehensible, and it itself [ἐνυπόστατος], is participable and comprehensible. For everything that can be comprehended and participated in is surely an [ἐνυπόστατος] essence that is participable, and similarly comprehensible; for what is without essence is nothing, and is called nothing. But the divine nature is uncreated, and superessential, as it transcends the essence of all created things. It is called superessential [ὑπερούσιος], and yet it is [ἐνούσιος], it is [ἐνυπόστατος] above every essence, and it is understood to be in no way comparable with a created hypostasis, for its nature is entirely uncircumscribed. What is not circumscribed, how will you call a hypostasis? That which does not subsist is nothing, and how is it communicable to me?

If you do not believe, I will produce Paul as a witness, confirming to you that both are credible. For when he says that he has Christ speaking within him, and that he speaks in the Holy Spirit, he declares a communicable and circumscribable divinity, which was present to him in such a way that it could not, however, be circumscribed or comprehended. But when he introduces Him as dwelling in unapproachable light, and testifies that He was never seen by man, he then shows Him as uncircumscribed and incomprehensible. For that which no man has ever seen, how could he have been a partaker of it, or touched it in any way? You will by no means say so, I know for certain, nor will you contend with me. When he says to you again: *God who said light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts*, what other God do you suppose is implied for you to understand, except Him who inhabits the light that no one for its brightness can bear, and whom no man has ever seen? He Himself, being superessential, and prior to that uncreated, assumed flesh, and has been seen by me as created, altogether...

^A miraculously deifying what He assumed. Do you believe this? Speak, come, and do you by no means doubt? If, therefore, God became man, as you believe, and deified me, the man whom He assumed, I behold as God by adoption Him who is God by nature; namely, Him whom no mortal was ever able to see, nor is able to see in any way. Those who have received God through the works of faith, and are reborn in the Spirit, are called gods; they see that very Father of theirs, who always inhabits the inaccessible light, having Him Himself as a dweller within them, and they, in turn, dwell in Him who is inaccessible.

This is true faith, this is the work of God, this is the seal of Christians, this is the divine communication, this is the participation, and the divine pledge; this is life, this is the kingdom, this is the garment, this is the tunic of Christ, which those who are baptized put on in faith. Not by ignorance, not by astonishment, but through faith, with knowledge and sense; so that I may not simply say, "I believe that I have put on Christ." I do not say: "believe this"; but have the work of faith, and the confirmation of faith, and the token of faith, and faith perfected without hesitation, from the fact that you, feeling and knowing it, have put on Christ, who is shining, coruscating, and in most clear light wholly transforming you, remaining immutable, twofold from both sources: God by adoption, to be sure, and by nature nothing but a man. When you have turned out to be such, as you have heard from me, then come, my brother, and stand with us upon the mountain of divine knowledge and vision, and we shall simultaneously perceive the paternal voice.

Alas! how distant are we from divine dignity? How far are we from eternal life? How far does heaven distance itself from the places below, and from those who have long been detained there? We are equally or more separated from the excellence of the divinity, and from its contemplation, even if we say that we dwell—which is admirable—with Him, and that we have Him as the indwelling light, inaccessible, remaining wholly within us, and we wish, while sitting beneath the earth, to philosophize about those things which are above the earth, and in heaven, and above heaven, as if perfectly knowing those things, and to preach to all, and to be called Gnostics (that is, endowed with the power or faculty of knowing), and excellent theologians, and teachers of arcane things; which is clearly an argument of stupidity. For the wretch, born in subterranean places, and dwelling in the dense darkness of the present age, who has not seen the light of the future age—which shone upon the earth and always shines—yet affirming that he knows and senses celestial things, and discerns all things that are there, and instructs others about them, is he not stupid, and if anything more severe than this can be said? For just as a blind man, disputing with those who see, and asserting, "This coin is bronze," or "This is the seal of another," and "The letters engraved on it are these, and they signify these things," is a wondrous monster to those who hear and see the golden and highly refined coin, and the true sign of the king, representing his image in no way adulterated, and the letters expressing his name: thus ^B and we fear no one, neither the celestial beings themselves nor the angels, who look down upon our affairs: but the word of the Lord is fulfilled in us, *Seeing they do not see*. And though they hear spiritual things, they rather obstruct their ears, and do not wish to hear the words of the Spirit. And indeed they hear with their bodily ears; but they have the spiritual ears of their heart closed, and cannot at all hear God. For they cannot take away from themselves the veil of elation and stupor, which they have imposed upon themselves by their own will, and willingly cover their eyes and ears, and hence think themselves to see and hear. But if anyone says to them, "Hear, my children, and take away the veil from your hearts," they grow fierce at these very words, because he called them not fathers, but children, and they conceive all the more hatred against him, nor can they feel the sickness from which they suffer, or rather the sicknesses, which envelop their mind in darkness, and separate them from God, having already been assumed by Him. Reduced to servitude by an estimation of themselves and by pride, and summoned of their own accord as slaves to these vices, they perpetually satisfy their own will, and having abandoned the laws of God, they make laws for themselves; and they serve not God, but themselves, most audacious men; and, coveting glory for themselves instead of for God, they strive to establish it by works and by all means. The glory of Christ, therefore, is the cross, and the torments, which He endured for our sake, in order to affect us with glory. These, however, they refuse to endure, just as He suffered; and, O shameful crime! they prefer glory from men, and choose voluntary separation from God. But You, my Christ, free those trusting in You from the impure pursuit of empty glory, and from pride, and make us participants of Your passions and of Your glory, and deign that we be Yours inseparably, now and in the future ages of ages. Amen.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Give me, Lord, understanding, give me knowledge, teach me to perform Your commandments. Although I have sinned as a man, and more than a man, as You know, nevertheless, You, O God, in Your accustomed mercy, have had pity on me, a poor and orphaned one in this world, and have done what You alone know. From my father, and brothers, and kinsmen, and friends, from my native home as if from dark Egypt, as if from the recesses of hell (for so You have given to me, Your abject servant, to think of these things, and not to speak foolishly), you have separated, and assumed, and taken me by Your terrible hand, and led me to him whom it pleased You that he should be my father on earth, and you have deposited me at his feet and arms: he who offered me to Your Father, my Christ, and to You through the Spirit, O Trinity, O my God. And although I was like the prodigal, and would fall down as a suppliant before You (as You Yourself know, because You taught me), You also have not disdained to call me Your son. O unworthy, O

unclean lips! O words of a needy tongue, laboring in poverty to recount Your praises, the giving of thanks, and Your benefits, which You willed to bestow upon me, a pupil and a stranger! For strangers in this world are Yours. But the things that are Yours and Your people’s, the eyes do not see, the tongue cannot utter, nor can the world contain them. Therefore, Lord, the world hates us, pursues, curses, envies, rages, and kills; when it lights upon such as these, it dares everything. But we, as it has pleased You, Your humble servants, are powerful in infirmity, grow rich in poverty, and rejoice in every tribulation, as if placed outside the world. We are with You, Lord, for the world retains our bodies. As for the rest, the blind man wanders, clutching at clay only, which will not even profit him; for You will give, as You have promised, at the last trumpet ^A a spiritual place, and to this one alone, he will gain for himself his own evils, along with the blind who consent with him, and the lovers of the world.

Chapter XXXIX.

Who desires God, hates the world.

I am held by a shadow, and I perceive the truth, that nothing is, save solid hope. What then is this hope? That which eyes have not seen. For this life, which all desire—but what else is that life than God, the creator of all? Love Him, and you will hate the world. The world is death: for what does it have that is not fleeting and transitory?

CAPUT XL.

Thanksgiving to God for benefits received. Wherein also spiritual prayer, and progress therein, and divine illumination, and non-false vision, and charity toward God are discussed.

Bless, Father, Ruler, Lord of heaven and earth, who before the foundation of the world ordained that I should be born from nothing: I give thanks to You, since, before the day and hour arrived in which You commanded that I proceed into this light, You, ^B alone immortal, alone omnipotent, alone good and humane, when You had descended from Your high sanctuary—not departing from the Father’s bosom, and being incarnated and born of the holy Virgin Mary—fashioned me, and gave me life, and liberated me from the fall of the first parent, and prepared for me an ascent into heaven. Then, when I was born and grew little by little, You refashioned me with Your holy baptism, and renewed me, and adorned me with the Holy Spirit. You assigned an angel of light as my guardian, and guarded me unscathed from evil works and the snares of the enemy, up to my perfect and full age. But because You deemed it equal and just to save us not by force and against our will, but by will and judgment inclining toward this, You permitted me also to be honored with the freedom of choice, that by the voluntary observance of Your commandments I might show my charity toward You. But I, wicked, ungrateful, and a contemner, like a horse ^C not considering the dignity and excellence of such free will and power, rebounding from your dominion and empire, cast myself down headlong, and You did not turn away from me lying there, and wallowing in body without sense, and worn down vehemently; You did not suffer me to lie there and be defiled with mud; but because of the bowels of Your mercy You sent, and thence You lifted me up, and honored me more illustriously. From kings and princes, who desired to use me as a vessel of ignominy for the ministry of their cupidity, You redeemed me by Your ineffable judgments. Gifts of gold and silver, although the avaricious would desire money, You did not allow me to accept. Glory, the brightness of life, which was offered to me in place of a price to sell Your sanctification, You gave to me to execrate and detest.

But I confess to You, Lord God of heaven and earth, that notwithstanding all these things, I again reduced myself to nothing, and voluntarily fell miserably into a ditch and deep mud of foul thoughts and actions, and came into the hands of robbers lurking there, from whom not only I alone, but all mortals gathered together could not extract me and liberate me from their hands. Nevertheless, while I was miserably coerced by them and infamously dragged hither and thither, compressed and mocked, You, ^D the merciful and benign Lord, did not despise me, did not abhor my perverse will, did not long permit me to suffer the tyranny of those robbers of my own accord; but although I, senseless, was led away by them and rejoiced, You, not bearing that I should be so foully turned about and dragged, moved in Your bowels and taken by mercy for me, did not send an angel or man to me, a miserable sinner; but You Yourself, incited by the heart of Your goodness, cast Yourself into the deepest ditch, and stretched out Your undefiled right hand to me lying below, and sitting in the deep vortex of mud, and me—not seeing You (for how could I, or how could I have looked up, who was wholly immersed and suffocated in mud)—You seized by the hair of my head, and thence dragged me out by force; although I indeed felt the pain and the frequent pulls upward, and the ascent, yet I was utterly ignorant from whence I was led on high, or who it was at length who was grasping me and leading me out. Furthermore, having been led up and placed on the ground, You handed me over to Your servant and disciple, totally defiled, with my eyes, ears, and mouth obstructed with mud, and so could not even then see You, who You were; except for this alone that he indicated, whoever You were, that You were good and humane, who had snatched me from the deep ditch and mud. Therefore, the command having been given to me to take heart and to adhere to this man, and to follow him, for this man will wash you, having been led away—and having granted me firm faith in him, You departed. Where therefore You were, I do not know; I, the leader prescribed to me by You, most holy Lord, followed without turning; and when he [arrived] at the springs and fountains, that is, the Scriptures,

and the many commands with weariness and labor, he led me, the blind, and pulled me by the hand of faith given to me by You, compelling me to follow, I recovered my strength of foot. He crossed through stony places, through trenches, through obstacles, and overcame them all; but it happened that I stumbled and fell into these, and had to endure and suffer much labor, many vexations, and afflictions. And he, indeed, washed himself by his own power at every spring and fountain, and cleansed himself; I, because I did not see these things, passed by many. And had he not grabbed me by the hand and placed me at the fountain, and guided the feet of my soul as a leader, I could never have found the bubbling water. But when he showed me those springs, and allowed me to wash myself more often with the pure water, perhaps I sometimes even drew forth mud with my hand while it was lying on the edge of the fountain, and washing my face with it, I soiled it. Nay, even quite often, wanting to find the spring by feeling around, I dragged up the dust at the same time and clouded the water again; and since I saw nothing clearly, staining my face with mud, I thought I was washing it with pure water.

^B But in what way shall I recount what necessity and force then seized me again? How, moreover, some frequently testified and sang this song to me daily: "Why do you foolishly undertake a vain labor, and follow this deceiver and impostor, and rely in vain and uselessly on recovering your sight? For it cannot happen now. Why do you follow, wounding your feet and making them bleed? Why do you not rather listen to merciful men, who exhort you to indulge in rest, and serve your body with food and drink and the rest of your care? For you cannot be freed from the leprosy of your soul; nor will you ever see in these times. Whence did this impostor, a worker of miracles, suddenly appear, who promises you what is impossible for all men of this age? Woe to you, since you will both lose the healing offered by Christ and the lovers of the brothers, and—feeling the ills of others as your own—you will endure in vain hope the inconveniences and afflictions which you suffer; and you will by no means obtain what is promised to you by that deceiver and sycophant. What? Do you not reason, and do you not consider with yourself how, without us, you can do nothing? What? Do we not all see? Or, as that deceiver himself keeps telling you, are we blind?" We all truly see, and lest you be in vain, our power of sight is no less than this. But yet, truly, from ^C all these beyond contradiction—deceivers and impostors who try to circumvent and subvert their neighbor by deceit—do You, merciful and kind, deliver me, through the faith and hope which You bestowed upon me; through which You also strengthened me to endure what I have said, and many other things.

However, when I had endured in all these things, and had not failed, and was washing myself thus by feeling, and being cleansed daily in the murky water, acting according to my opinion, as your apostle and disciple taught, since you had previously dragged me from the mire, you appeared to me again, and then for the first time you illuminated my infirm eyes with the stainless splendor of your face, and I lost that which I seemed to have as light, so that I could not recognize you. And how could I have, since I could neither see the brightness of your face, nor understand, nor perceive, nor know who you finally were? From then on, as I stayed more frequently at the fountain, you, who are free from all pride, did not deign to descend, to come to me, to take my head, and to immerse it into the waters themselves, and to cause that I might see the light of your face more purely. You soon took yourself away, since you had not allowed me to think who you were who did these things; or whence you had come, or whither you had gone. You did not, I say, grant this to me, nor when you came for a time did you disappear soon, but little by little you appeared more and more, and you sprinkled me with water, and you granted that I might see you more clearly with greater light. ^D While you did this for a long time, you deigned to show me the vision of a certain venerable mystery. For when you arrived, and, as I thought, were washing me with the waters and immersing me often, I beheld the brilliance surrounding me, and the rays of your face in the midst of the waters, and I was vehemently struck with awe, as I saw myself being washed by the light-bearing water; and where he was and who this provider of this thing was, I did not know: I only rejoiced that I was being washed, being increased in faith, being carried as if on wings by hope; and ascending even into heaven. But those deceivers, persuading me of words of fallacy and lies, and suggesting much, I utterly hated, and pitying the erring, I avoided their assembly, custom, and sight as harmful: but my companion and helper, your holy disciple I say, and apostle, even as yourself, my maker, I revered, honored, and loved with all my heart: I lay at his feet nights and days, praying that, if he could, he might help me; being certain that whatever he wished, he would obtain from you.

Thus, when I had persevered for a long time through your grace, I saw another wonderful mystery again. For when I had been seized and was ascending into heaven with you, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know; you alone know, who did this. When I had spent an hour with you there, and was struck by the greatness and majesty of the glory (whose it was, or what it was, I know not), and amazed by the immense altitude, I trembled all over. Again, you left me alone where I had stood before, and I was found lamenting my unhappiness with astonishment. Not long after, when I was below, you deigned to show me your face such as the sun—formless—above in the opened heavens, and even then you did not will that I should know who you were. For why? Since you did not address me, but immediately hid yourself. I, however, walked around looking for you, whom I did not know, and I desired to see your form, and by knowing, to know who you were. Wherefore, because of an incredible ardor of charity toward you, I was continually crying because I did not know who you were, you who produced me from nothing so that I might exist, and from the mud.

^A After I had frequently and many times seen you in this way, and had often been addressed by you, you vanished, and although you were no longer clearly visible to me, seeing the brilliance and splendor of your face reflected again in the waters, as if surrounding me, and being unable to behold it directly, I remembered the time when I had once seen you in the heavens. And foolishly suspecting you to be some other being, I sought to see you again with tears and when my soul had failed me and my strength had departed, and I had withdrawn—for who am I, a miserable wretch, O Lord, or what have I, a little man, done that you should deem me worthy of such goods, and should establish me as a companion and heir of such glory?—and when I had thought that this glory and this joy exceeded my mind, you, O Lord, as a friend conversing with a friend, answered me through your Spirit speaking within me: "I gave these things for the sake of the sole purpose, plan, and faith I have bestowed upon you, and shall still bestow. For what else do you possess, or have you ever possessed (being born naked of me), that I might receive it and repay you with these things? And unless you are loosed from the bonds of this body, you will not see what is perfect, nor will you be able to enjoy it fully." When I then submitted: "But what is greater or more splendid than this? For now, it suffices me to be even so, even after death," you replied: "How small and narrow is your soul, that you should be content with these things? Compared to the future, these are like a painting of the heavens on a sheet of paper held in the hand for inspection. For by as much as this is inferior to the true heavens, by so much greater and incomparably greater will the future glory be revealed."

^B When I was therefore tormenting and afflicting myself, and was forgetful of my whole self and of the whole world and of the things that are in the world, and thought neither of a shadow nor of anything else, indeed not even that any of visible things existed at all, you appeared, invisible, intangible, and incomprehensible to all, and you seemed to me to purify my mind, and to increase the power of my soul's vision, and to offer your glory to be seen more fully and abundantly, because you waxed greater and, shining forth, dilated yourself more. I even perceived you coming from the recess of the darkness and approaching; a thing that does not happen to us once in sensible matters. For when the moon appears, and the clouds seem to pass, it seems to run very swiftly, while it adds nothing to its accustomed course, nor changes the path it has kept from the beginning. Similarly, you were seen to come, you who are immovable, and you who are immutable, to increase and become larger, and to take on a form, though you are not capable of form. For just as in a blind man when he begins to see ^C and perceives a mark, or an indication, or the figure of a man, and gradually recognizes who it is, not that the mark or figure is changed or transformed by the vision; but the power of seeing which is in his eyes is purified, perceives the figure and the form as it is, with its whole likeness as if impressed upon the faculty of sight, penetrating it, clarified in it, and as it were engraved upon the tablet of the soul in the part where it understands and remembers: so also you yourself were seen clearly by the light of the holy Spirit, and you purified my mind entirely; as it saw more clearly and purely, you seemed to me to emerge from somewhere and to appear more luminous, and you granted me to see the character of a form without form, and then you led me outside the world and, as I deem it lawful to say, even outside the body; for you did not grant me to know precisely how that was. Beyond measure, therefore, you illuminated me, and, as it seemed, you appeared to me who was clearly seeing beautifully. And when I asked you, "Lord, who are you?", then for the first time you deigned to answer me, who had been undone, struck, astonished, and trembling, and who was reflecting lightly in my mind and saying, "What does this glory mean, and what is the magnitude of this splendor? How or whence do I deserve such goods?", you addressed me gently and calmly in this manner: "I am God, who for your sake became man. And since you have sought me with your whole soul, from now on, behold, you shall be my brother, and co-heir, and friend."

Adoring this speech, and ^D having spoken these things, you remained silent, and gradually, O good and sweet Lord, you were removed from my sight. Whether because I was withdrawing from you, or because you were hiding from me, it is not clear to me. Then again, I was completely beside myself, thinking I had come from somewhere; and I entered my previous tabernacle, and thence returning to the memory of the beauty of your glory, and of your words, walking, sitting, eating, drinking, praying, I wept, and lived in ineffable joy, when I had recognized you, the Maker of all. For how could I not rejoice? But again sorrowful, and desiring in that manner to see you again, as I went to the image of your immaculate Parent, to salute her herself, and fell upon my knees, you, before I could rise, appeared to me in my abject heart, perfecting it as a light. And then I knew for certain that you were in me. From that time, I loved you not because I was mindful of you and of the things that are yours, but I believed that I truly possessed you, the subsisting charity, within me. For you are truly God, who are charity. Therefore, the hope that was embedded in faith, and having taken root after it was watered by repentance and tears, and illuminated by your light, and having been well increased, then you yourself, the good Artificer and Author, arriving, by the sword of temptations—by humility, I say—pruning the useless branches of thoughts grown into great height, you have sown your holy charity into hope alone, as into the single root of a tree. Thus, seeing it grow with constant increase, and becoming accustomed and familiar to me, or rather, seeing you yourself teaching and illuminating me through it, as I am now superior to all faith and hope, I am affected as Paul also says, crying out: "For what a man sees, why does he hope for it?" [* Rom. viii, 24.] If, therefore, I have you, what else do I hope for?

Listen to this: Just as you see the sun in the water, but by no means do you see the sun itself, no matter how much you bend downward, understand that something similar happens within you; and instruct yourself, and study always, to gaze upon me within yourself purely and clearly, as the sun in clear water. I wish that you might deserve to see me thus, as I have said, even after death. Otherwise, this whole world of your works and labors and words will profit you nothing; or will it profit? Nay, these things will rather condemn you and prepare for you a greater tribulation; for, as you hear, "the mighty shall be mightily tormented." For poverty is not so much a shame to the poor man from his birth, nor is its companion sadness so much a torment to him, as it is to one who has lived in wealth and glory and at an exalted level, used to the familiarity of kings, and then, having lost all those things, has been cast down to the depths of beggary. Although the matter does not stand thus in earthly things, and those which fall under the eyes, as it does in heavenly things, and those which do not at all come under sight. For those who for a certain cause have been deprived of the friendship and service of an earthly king are not forbidden to be masters of their own fortunes, and to enjoy them and live. But if anyone falls from my charity and friendship, he cannot live at all; for I am his life; but he is immediately stripped and despoiled of everything, and is allowed to be captured by my enemies and his own. And when he is seized, they insult him more furiously for his former love and benevolence toward me, and they inflict punishments with mockery and derision.

Indeed it is so, most holy King. Indeed, I also believe in you, my God, and suppliant and prostrate I ask you, ^A keep me a sinner, and unworthy of the mercy bestowed upon me, and by your power strengthen the shoot of your love, which you have grafted into the tree of my hope, so that it may not be shaken by the wind, nor shattered by a storm, nor uprooted by any enemy, nor scorched by heat through my negligence, nor withered through my sloth and pride, nor perish entirely through the desire for vain glory at the last. For you know, since you have given this to me and have worked it in me, that you have thereby called me apart from all mortals, from the whole world; and you have also bodily separated me from myself, my helper and assistant, but your own apostle according to your will. You know my infirmity, you are not ignorant of my misery, and my weakness in all things. Therefore, have mercy on me further, you who abound with the bowels of mercy. I cast myself upon you with all my heart; do not allow me to follow my own will, you who have done so many good things for me, but stabilize my soul in your charity, and make it safely propagate its roots within that same charity: so that, according to your undefiled, holy, and truth-telling promise, you may be with me in me, and I in turn in you, and I may be covered by it, and I may cover and guard it within myself. And may you indeed see me in it. Lord, ^C but may I myself deserve to see you through it—now indeed as in a mirror and in an enigma, as you have said, but then in total charity, you who are entirely charity, and have deigned to be called so. For to you is due all thanksgiving, glory, power, honor, and adoration, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and always, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

OF OUR HOLY FATHER SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN, PRACTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL CHAPTERS 228

1. Faith is, because of Christ, to die for his commandment, and to believe that this death is the beginning of life. ^A

(1) The following chapters precede [these] according to Jac. Pontanus:

God is nowhere to be seen by the eyes of the body, for He evades every sense of sight. Yet to those who look with the mind and understanding, He is everywhere. For while He is in all things, and in the universe of things, He is also outside of everything. "He is near to those who fear Him" (Ps. 84:10), and "His salvation is far from sinners" (Ps. 118:155).

The memory of Christ illuminates the mind and puts demons to flight. The light of the Holy Trinity, shining in a pure heart, separates a man from the whole world and already, from this point, makes him a participant in future glory—to the extent that he is able to grasp it, if he be governed by heavenly grace and still detained in the custody of the body.

If God alone remains and will remain for all things that are passing away and perishing, which are perceived by the sense of sight, those who are already fully possessed of His grace, even though they dwell on earth, are nonetheless already in the greatest part fitted for and joined to the future age, and they groan in this shadow, oppressed by the burden of the body as if by a heavy load.

Our Lord affirms that they are not blessed ^B who merely teach (Matt. 5:19), but those who have first been deemed worthy through obedience to the commandments to look upon heavenly things, and who have seen the illuminating light of the Spirit sparkling within themselves, and in the true vision of the same have learned through Him both in knowledge and in action the things which they discuss for the sake of teaching others. Therefore, it is necessary that those who set out to teach be first lifted up and carried aloft as we have said, lest if they teach what they do not know, they lead both themselves and those who believe them into deceit and destruction.

He who does not fear God does not believe that God exists, for he is a fool (Ps. 13:1). But he who believes this, fears Him. "Moreover, he who says he fears God, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar" (1 John 2:4), and the fear of God is not in him; for where there is fear, says the Scripture (Ps. 110:1), there is the keeping of the commandments. But if we are lacking in the fear of God and do not obey the divine laws, we differ in nothing from the heathens and the ^C infidels.

Faith, the fear of God, and the observance of His commandments procure a reward in proportion to one's purification. The more we are purified, the more we are raised from fear to the love of God, and, by progressing, we pass in a certain way from fear to the love of God, hearing from Him: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me" (John 14:21). And thus let us add struggle to struggle, and let us strive always more and more to demonstrate love through our works. If this is done, He Himself, as He promised, will love us. If Christ loves us, His Father will likewise hold us dear, and the Spirit will surely pave the way and prepare a dwelling, so that we may become a mansion and habitation of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in one meeting of the hypostases or persons.

The reception of Godhead having the three hypostases in a perfect dwelling, which the same [saints] have known and perceived most excellently, does not satiate their desire, but rather is the beginning and cause of a greater and more ardent desire. For it grants no part of rest to the recipient of these guests; rather, it causes him, as if always kindled and inflamed by fire, to reach out to the flame of a certain more divine desire. For since the mind cannot comprehend or trace the end of what it desires, it cannot set an end or goal to its desire and love: but striving to attain and comprehend Him with an infinite end, it bears within itself a desire always immense and infinite, and an insatiable love.

He who has proceeded to this goal does not yet consider that he has found in himself the beginning of the desire or love of God, but feels this way about himself, as if he did not love God at all, since he has not been able to attain to the fullness of love. Hence, reckoning himself the last of all those who fear God, he deems himself unworthy to attain salvation with the faithful.

^A to believe poverty to be the cause of riches; to reckon lowliness and contempt as true glory and splendor; and in having nothing, to believe that one possesses all things; or rather, to be in possession of the unsearchable riches of the knowledge of Christ, and to regard all things that are seen as mud or smoke.

^B 2. Faith in Christ is not only to despise the pleasures of this life, but also to endure and sustain every temptation that comes upon one in sorrows, and tribulations, and calamities, until such time as God shall will and shall visit us. For it says: "Patiently I waited for the Lord, and He heeded me."

^C 3. Those who in any matter prefer their own parents to the commandment of God do not possess faith in Christ. For they are entirely judged by their own conscience, if indeed they have a conscience that is alive regarding their unbelief. For this is the mark of the faithful: in no thing and in no way to violate the commandment of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

^D 4. Faith in Christ, the true God, begets a desire for good things and a fear of punishments. But the desire for better things and the fear of punishments bring about an exact keeping of the commandments. And the exact keeping of the commandments teaches men their own weakness. And the awareness of our true weakness begets the remembrance of death. And he who has acquired this as his companion will labor to learn diligently what shall be his state after the departure and exit from this life. But he who strives to know about the things to come must first deprive himself of things present. For he who is held by an attachment to these things, even to some small trifle, cannot attain to the perfect knowledge of those. But if, by the economy of God, he should even taste of this, unless he quickly abandons those things by which and in which he is held by attachment, and entirely gives himself to the pursuit of such knowledge, not willingly consenting to think of anything else outside of it, even the knowledge which he seems to have will be taken away from him.

5. Renunciation of the world and total withdrawal, taking up a pilgrimage from all the vanities of this life, and customs, and opinions, and persons, and an abnegation of the body and of one's own will, becomes the cause of great benefit in a short time to him who has thus fervently renounced it.

6. You who flee the world, take care not to consign your soul to consolation at the beginning by dwelling within it; even if all your relatives and friends compel you to do this. For the demons suggest this to them, in order that they may extinguish your fervor. For, so that they may not altogether [impair your purpose...]

they nonetheless render it laxer and entirely weak.

7. When you are found courageous and unperturbed by all the pleasant things of life, then the demons, having ostensibly turned your relatives to pity, cause them to weep and lament before your face for your sake. And you shall know that this is true when you, remaining steadfast and persistent in this state of rejection, see them suddenly inflamed with madness and hatred toward you, and turning away from you as if you were an enemy, not even wishing to look upon you.

8. Seeing the tribulation that is caused for your sake by parents, brothers, and friends, laugh at the demon ^B who, through their promptings, brings these various things to occur against you; and with fear and much haste ^C withdraw; and beseech God fervently that you may quickly arrive at the harbor of a good Father, in which you may be able to refresh and restore your soul, which is laden and burdened. For the sea of this life contains many things that serve to bring about dangers and ultimate ruin.

9. He who wishes to hate the world must possess love for God from the depths of his soul, and a perennial remembrance of Him. For nothing else causes one to abandon all things with joy and to regard them as refuse as these do.

10. By all means, remain in the world only for causes that are probable (or indeed, even improbable and little in accordance with reason). But when you are called, obey promptly. For in nothing else does God so rejoice, as in our swiftness in obedience. Since obedience which is prompt and accompanied by poverty is better than delay accompanied by an abundance of wealth.

11. If the world and all things that are in the world are passing away, and God is incorruptible and immortal, rejoice, you who for His sake have abandoned corruptible things. Corruptible, however, are not only wealth and money, but also every pleasure and the enjoyment of sin, which is corruption. Only the commandments of God are light and life; and this is proclaimed by all.

12. If you have received the flame, brother, and after running ^D you have arrived at a monastery or at a spiritual father, and for this reason, if you are urged by him, or by the brethren who are practicing asceticism with you, to make use of baths, or foods, or other ministrations for the sake of bodily relief or relaxation of mind, do not accept this; but be always prepared for fasting, for enduring hardships, for the utmost continence; so that if you should be urged by your father in the Lord to partake of some consolation, you may be found obedient to him—doing not even in this your own will—but if not, you may endure with joy what you had desired to do voluntarily, being benefited in your soul. For by keeping this, you shall always be in all things as one fasting, and practicing continence, and in everything subordinated to your own will. And not only this, but also

you shall preserve an inextinguishable flame in your breast, which will urge you to the contempt of all things.

^A 13. When demons have done everything in their power, and are unable to shake or impede our aim toward God, then they insinuate themselves into those who feign piety, and through them they try to hinder those who are struggling. And first of all, as if moved by love and sympathy for their misery, they counsel them to go and refresh their bodies with them, saying that otherwise the body might grow weak and fall into acedia. Then they call them away to fruitless conversations, in which they make them consume their days. If any of the earnest ones obeys and becomes like them, they turn and laugh at his ruin. But if he is not led away by their words, but keeps himself a stranger to all, and absorbed in contemplation, and reserved, they are moved to envy, and do and practice everything until they drive him from the monastery; for vain glory, being dishonored, cannot endure to see humility praised in its stead.

14. The vainglorious man is distressed when he sees one who is humble shedding tears, and benefiting in two ways: propitiating God through them, and ^B attracting men to praise him, though he does not wish it.

15. From the moment you entrust yourself entirely to your spiritual father, know that you are like a stranger and a guest in all matters you are placed over—I mean towards men, affairs, and possessions—without whose authority you should wish to do nothing. But do not even ask him to entrust any small or great thing to you, unless he himself of his own will and command orders you to take it, or he himself hands it to you with his own ^C hand.

16. Do not give alms from the money you have offered without the commandment of your father in God; nor should you wish that anyone receive any of these things from him through some intermediary. For it is better for you to be and to be called a beggar and a stranger, than to scatter money and give it to the poor, being yet a beginner. It is a sign of pure faith to entrust everything to the will of your spiritual father just as one would to the hands of God.

17. Do not even ask to drink water, even if you are burning with thirst, ^D until your spiritual father, moved of his own accord, encourages you to drink. Control yourself, and exert force upon yourself in all things, persuading and saying to your own reasoning: "If God wills, and if you are worthy to drink, He will certainly reveal it to your Father and he will say to you: 'Drink.'" And then you shall drink with a clear conscience, even if it be outside of the customary time or hour.

^A 18. He who has experienced spiritual profit and has acquired an unfeigned faith, putting forward God as the witness of the truth, said: "I have set this purpose within myself, not to ask to eat or drink at any time from my spiritual Father, nor to partake of anything at all apart from him, until God shall convince him and ordain it for me." And having lived in this way, he says, I have never missed my goal.

19. He who has acquired a clear faith toward his father in God, as he looks upon him, considers that he is looking upon Christ himself; and he believes firmly that in being with him, or following him, he is with Christ and is following Him. Such a person will never desire to speak with anyone else, and he will not prioritize any of the world's affairs over the memory of that father, together with love for him. For what is greater, or more profitable in this present life and in the life to come, than to be with Christ? Or what is more beautiful or sweeter than the sight of Him? And if he is also deemed worthy of converse with him, he certainly draws eternal life from it.

20. He who from a good disposition loves those who insult him, or treat him unjustly, or deprive him, and prays for them, rises very quickly to great progress. For when this happens with a consciousness of the heart, it carries the thinking mind into the abyss of humility and into fountains of tears, in which the tripartite power and faculty of the soul is submerged. But it raises the mind to the heaven of dispassion and makes it ^C contemplative. And by the taste of the goodness found therein, it makes him consider all things of the present life as refuse, and he does not admit even food and drink with self-indulgence or very frequently.

D. In this edition, seven chapters are inserted which are not read in the Philocalia. He clearly shows the most certain faith who reveres as holy the place where his leader and father resides, and who sprinkles the dust of his feet, or his footprints, upon his own head with great piety, and applies it to his heart as a medicinal remedy for the passions arising therefrom, and a certain purgation of sins. But he himself does not dare to approach, nor even to touch his garment or his covering without his command. And when he handles anything of his with his hands, he handles it with fear and reverence, judging himself unworthy not only to see him and minister to him, but even to dwell in the same cell with him.

* Many renounce this life and perishable things, but few renounce their own wills: concerning whom the divine Scripture says: "Many are called, but few are chosen." (Matt. xx, 16.) When you recline at the table with the college of the brethren, and in your mind describe everything as a shadow to your eyes, and represent it to yourself, and have not sensed the sweetness of the food, but have sensed your whole soul astonished by the miracle...

^C and able to worthily survey the spectacles.

As in the nighttime we see with our bodily eyes only in the place where we have lit a lamp, while for the rest of the world it is night for us: so to those walking in the night of sin, the good Lord becomes a certain small light, though He is God, whom no one comprehends, being indulgent to our weakness, clearly. Then the man, suddenly looking up and contemplating the nature of things, which he has never contemplated before, is astonished and, without pain, pours forth voluntary tears, by which he is purified and washed as if by a second baptism; of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel: "Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he will not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (John 3:5). And again: "You must be born again" (Ibid. 7), where by the word "again" ^D He indicates the generation by the Spirit.

The first baptism has water and adumbrates, or prefigures, tears. It has the ointment of chrism, by which it subjects to our consideration the ointment of the Spirit, which is seen only by the soul. But the second baptism is no longer a figure of the truth, but the truth itself.>

21. It is not only necessary to abstain from evil actions, but the ascetic must also strive to be free from contrary thoughts and notions; and he must always occupy himself with soul-benefiting and spiritual meditations, so that he may thus remain free from care regarding the things of this life. ^A

22. Just as he who has stripped his whole body, if he has his eyes covered by some veil, and is unwilling to lift it and cast it away, cannot see the light merely from the nakedness of the rest of his body: so also he who has despised all other things and wealth, and has been freed from the passions themselves, if he does not also liberate the eye of his soul from worldly concerns and evil thoughts, will never see ^B the intellectual light, our Lord and God Jesus Christ.

23. Just as a veil placed over the eyes, so worldly thoughts and concerns of this life become a veil in the mind, that is, in the eye of the soul. As long, therefore, as they are left there, we see nothing. But when they are removed by the remembrance of death, then we see clearly the true light, which illuminates every man coming into that upper world.

24. He who is blind from birth will neither know nor believe the power of what is written. But he who has at some time been deemed worthy to see, will testify that what is said is true.

25. He who sees with the senses of his eyes knows when it is night and when it is day. But the blind man knows neither. And he who sees spiritually, and uses the eyes of his intellect, having beheld the true and unfading light, if because of sloth he is turned back to his former blindness and is deprived of the light, he sensitively perceives that deprivation and does not ignore from whence it happened. But he who remains blind from birth knows nothing of these things by experience or action, unless perhaps he has heard something by hearsay and speaks of things he has never seen, and tells others of what he has heard.

^C And they know not of what matters they are discoursing with one another.

26. It is impossible to glut the flesh with a satiety of foods, and at the same time and in a spiritual manner enjoy mental and divine goodness. For in as much as one gratifies the belly, by so much does he deprive himself of that [goodness]. But in as much as one mortifies and compresses the body, by so much the more shall he be filled with spiritual sustenance and consolation.

27. Let us leave behind all things that are upon the earth; let us not only relinquish wealth, and gold, and the other goods of life, but let us also completely drive from our souls the desire for them. Let us hate not only the pleasures of the body, but also its irrational motions, and let us strive to mortify it through labors; for through this the things of desire are active and are brought into action. And while it is alive, it is an absolute necessity that our soul remain dead, and sluggish toward every divine commandment, or even altogether motionless.

28. Just as the flame of fire always rises to a height, and all the more if you turn the material from which it is kindled, so too the heart of the vainglorious man cannot be humbled; but however much you may tell him things for his own benefit, he is raised up more and more. For when he is rebuked or even admonished, he contradicts vehemently; but when he is praised or entreated, he is puffed up in a wicked way. ^B

29. A man who has practiced contradicting is a two-edged sword, unwittingly slaying his own soul and rendering it a stranger to eternal life.

30. He who contradicts is like one who voluntarily makes himself a slave to the king's enemies; for contradiction is a rapacious hook, having a bait of self-justification. Through it we are deceived and swallow the hook of sin, by which the wretched soul is accustomed to be snatched—as if by the tongue and the throat—by the spirits of wickedness; and at one time it is lifted up to the height of pride, at another it is plunged into the chaos of the abyss of sins, and is condemned along with those who have fallen from heaven.

31. He who is dishonored or insulted, and feels great pain in his heart, let him know from this that he carries the ancient serpent in his bosom. If therefore he bears it with silence, or answers with great humility, he has made it weak and infirm. But if he answers back with bitterness, or speaks with boldness, he has given strength to the serpent to pour out its poison into his heart and to cruelly devour his inward parts; so that thenceforth, becoming stronger every day, it consumes what [the man] had well corrected in his habits and [devours] the strength of his wretched soul; and he [the man] himself from that time forth is dead to righteousness, but alive to sin. ^D

32. If you wish to renounce [the world] and be taught the evangelical way of life, beware of an inexperienced and...

^A perturbed master, lest instead of the evangelical way you be taught a diabolical manner of living. For the teachings of good masters are good, and those of evil ones are evil; and from wicked seeds, the crops are entirely wicked.

33. Entreat God with prayers and tears to send you a guide who is dispassionate and holy. Examine also the divine Scriptures yourself, and especially the practical writings of the holy Fathers; so that, by comparing with these the things taught and practiced by your master and superior, you may be able to see and discern them as if in a mirror. Embrace and hold fast in your mind what is in harmony with the Scriptures; but discern and reject what is spurious and alien, that you may not be led astray. For know that many deceivers and false teachers have appeared in these days.

34. Whoever, not seeing himself, promises to guide others, is a deceiver, and puts those who follow him into the pit of destruction, according to the word of the Lord: "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the pit."

35. He who is blind to the One is totally blind to all things. But he who sees in the One is in the contemplation of all things. He refrains from the contemplation of all things, and is in the contemplation of all things, and is outside the things contemplated. Being thus in the One, he sees all things; and being in all, he sees nothing of all. He who sees in the One, through the One both himself and all things and all people sees; and being hidden in Him, he sees nothing of all things. ^B

36. He who has not perceptibly and knowingly put on in his rational and intellectual man the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly Man and God, is but flesh and blood, unable to receive through the word the perception of spiritual glory; just as those blind from birth cannot know the light of the sun by means of words alone.

37. He who hears and thus sees and perceives knows the power of what is said, as one who has already put on the image of the heavenly [Man], and has come to a perfect man of the fullness of Christ. Being in such a state, he is able also to lead well the flock of God in the way of God’s commandments. But he who does not know, and is otherwise, it is manifest that he does not possess the senses of the soul cleared and healthy. For this reason, it is more advantageous for him to be led than to lead dangerously.

38. He who looks upon his master and guide as upon God cannot contradict him. If, however, he thinks he has both, let him know he is deceived. For he is ignorant of what disposition those who belong to God have ^C toward God.

^B And the ignorance of these things generates the contradiction which is the agent of intelligible and eternal death.

40. Before the sentence of condemnation is passed upon a convict, room is given him to plead his case before the judge. But when the facts are already plainly established and manifest, and the judge’s sentence has been pronounced, it is not lawful for those who are to be tortured to contradict or resist, neither much nor little.

41. Before a monk enters into this tribunal and the things that lie hidden in his heart are made manifest, perhaps it is permissible for him to contradict, partly out of ignorance, and partly because he thinks he can hide his own affairs. But after the revelation of his thoughts and a sincere confession, it is never lawful, even unto death, to oppose the judge who acts according to God, and one's own superior. For a monk who has entered this tribunal from the beginning, and has laid bare the secrets of his heart, is convinced from the outset, if he possesses even a modicum of knowledge, that he is deserving of ten thousand deaths; and he believes that through his obedience and humility—if indeed he truly understands the nature of this mystery—he is delivered from every punishment and penalty.

42. He who keeps these things indelible in his mind will never be moved in his heart when he is admonished, or warned, or rebuked. For he who falls into such evils—I mean into contradiction and faithlessness toward his spiritual father and teacher—while still alive, is wretchedly cast down into the pit and the abyss of Hades, and becomes a dwelling-place for Satan and all his unclean power, as one who is disobedient and a son of perdition. ^C

43. I exhort you, O son of obedience, to ponder these things constantly in your mind, and to strive with all diligence not to fall into the aforementioned evils of Hades; but rather to pray to God fervently each day, and say: "O God and Lord of all, who hast power over every spirit and soul, who alone art able to heal me, hear me, miserable as I am, and destroy and vanish the dragon lurking within me by the visitation of Thy most holy Spirit; and as for me, poor and naked of every virtue, grant that I may fall at the feet of my holy Father with tears, ^D and draw his holy soul to take pity on my plight; and grant, O Lord, humility to my heart, and thoughts appropriate to a sinner who has covenanted with Thee to repent; and do not abandon unto the end a soul that has once burdened itself for Thy sake, and has confessed Thee, and has chosen and preferred Thee before the whole world. For Thou knowest, O Lord, that I wish to be saved, even though I am held back and hindered by evil habit; but all things are possible to Thee, Lord, even things that are impossible with men."

44. Those who have laid a good foundation of faith and hope in the court of piety, with fear and trembling, and have placed the feet of their obedience upon the rock of the spiritual Fathers—

^A they have established them unshaken, and hearing their commands as if they had proceeded from the mouth of God, and building them up upon this foundation of obedience without hesitation in the humility of their souls, they forthwith accomplish them rightly. And by this they fulfill that great and primary achievement, that of denying themselves; for to fulfill another’s will, and not one’s own, causes not only the denial of one’s own soul, but also a death to the whole world.

45. Devils rejoice in one who contradicts his own Father, but angels admire him who humbles himself even unto death. For such a one performs the work of God, being made like the Son of God, who was made ^B obedient to His Father even to death, even the death of the cross (Phil. II, 8).

46. Excessive and untimely contrition of heart darkens and confuses the mind, and it causes pure prayer and compunction to vanish from the soul; but it generates a pain of heart. From this comes hardness and infinite blindness; and through these, the demons plot the despair of spiritual life.

47. When these things occur to you, O monk, and you perceive in your soul a great zeal and desire for perfection, so that you long to fulfill every commandment of God and not to transgress or sin even by an idle word, and you desire to fall behind none of the saints of old in action, knowledge, and contemplation; but you see yourself hindered by him who sows the tares of despondency (Matt. XIII, 25), not allowing you to reach such a height of holiness, while he suggests to you thoughts of despondency and says: "It is impossible for you to be saved in the midst of the world and to keep all the commandments of God without fail"—then you, sitting alone in some corner, pull yourself together, and give good and proven counsel to your soul, saying these words: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why dost thou disquiet me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him" (Ps. XLI, 15, 16). For the salvation of my countenance is not my own good deeds, but God. For who shall be justified by the works of the law? "For in Thy sight shall no man living be justified" (Ps. CXLII, 2). But I hope to be saved by faith in my God Himself, freely, on account of His ineffable mercy. ^D Get thee behind me, Satan; I worship the Lord my God, and Him I serve from my youth (Matt. IV, 10), who alone can save me by His mercy. Begone, therefore: God, who made me in His own image and likeness, He Himself shall destroy you.

48. God seeks nothing else from us men, but that we should not sin, and nothing more. Furthermore, God requires of us that we keep His commandments (Matt. XIX, 17): "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments"—but this in reality is nothing other than that we do not sin; for by sinning we do not keep the commandments, and by keeping the commandments we do not sin. Therefore, He who merely commands that we keep the commandments, He also merely commands that we do not sin. And he who merely commands that we do not sin, he also merely commands that we keep the commandments.

^A It is not then a work of the law, but the inviolable keeping of the image, and of our dignity from above: in which, standing according to nature, and wearing the shining garment of the Spirit, we abide in God, and He in us; being named gods by adoption and sons of God, and being marked in the light of the knowledge of God.

49. Torpor, and labor, or the burden of the body, and sloth, and negligence, when they slip into the soul, call it away and lead it off from its accustomed canon, or order, and rule of proceeding, and bring darkness to the mind, and despair, so that from this, thoughts of timidity and blasphemy arise in the heart. ^B And he who is tempted by the demon of acedia is unable to enter even into the accustomed place of prayer, but even flees from it; and he thinks absurd things against the Creator of all. Having known, therefore, the cause, and whence these things came to you, zealously enter your accustomed place of prayer, and falling on your knees before the benevolent God, be a suppliant to Him with groanings of heart, in pain and tears, asking for the removal of the burden of acedia and of evil thoughts; and to you, knocking painfully and persevering, the freedom from these will quickly be given.

50. He who has acquired a pure heart, he has conquered timidity. But he who is still being purged, sometimes strikes it, and sometimes is struck by it. But he who struggles not at all, either is entirely insensible, and while he is a friend of vicious passions and demons, he suffers also from vainglory and conceit, thinking himself to be something when he is nothing: or he is a slave and bondman of timidity, trembling like a child in his mind, and fearing a fear where there is no fear, nor is there timidity for those who fear the Lord.

51. He who fears the Lord does not fear the onsets of demons, nor their weak incursions, nor does he fear the threats of wicked men. ^C But just as a certain flame, or fire, being wholly light, in inaccessible and dark places, going about by night and day, puts to flight the demons: who flee from him more than he from them, lest they be burned by the flame-like ray of divine fire sent forth from him.

52. He who walks in the fear of God, he, living and conversing in the midst of wicked men, does not fear; having his fear within, and being instructed with the inexpugnable weapons of faith, with which he is strong and can do all things, even those which to the many seem difficult, and impossible to do. ^D But as some giant in the midst of apes, or a lion roaring in the midst of dogs and foxes dwells, and with firmness and constancy of mind smites them, and terrifies their minds, as a rod of iron, bringing upon them the word in wisdom (5).

(5) The following seven chapters are inserted in the work of Pontanus: ‘Do not marvel if, occupied by timidity, you fear and tremble at these things. For you are still imperfect, and invalid, and like a little child, you fear phantoms: for timidity is a childish, and for the soul following after vainglory, a laughable affection. Against this demon, therefore, do not wish to speak words, or to contradict.

For the words of a trembling soul, agitated in a tumultuous manner, do not profit. Setting these aside, humble your soul as much as you are able, and you will soon know that timidity has been routed.

^B Whoever is oppressed by acedia has a relaxed mind, clouded with darkness, and a soul that is loose, so that from this, mourning almost fails from his heart, and the flame of the spirit is extinguished within him, and the whole house of his body is filled with smoke. Indeed, even a torpor of the limbs is aroused in him, and from sloth it plunges him into the deepest sleep, so that he necessarily ceases from his accustomed *acolouthia*, or his ordered function. By resisting these through self-control and vigils, his heart is immediately puffed up with arrogance because of the sleep that he has overcome, and, failing in mourning, he is seized by timidity. When he experiences this again in himself, he goes out of his cell at an unusual time and betakes himself to a gloomy and dark place, and standing there with hands raised to heaven and expressing the sign of the cross upon himself, with eyes lifted to God, once he has humbled his soul a little, the demon of timidity immediately retreats from him somewhat. But that enemy is more powerful and formidable, who solicits vainglory; stealing that thought away, he wants to tear him apart and again deliver him to the demon of faint-heartedness, or timidity. When he understands this, he marvels and prays fervently to God that He might guard his soul from such snares of the devil.

For many—and, I think, for all—the conflict of these demons, and their wickedness, and the way and method they use, is difficult to understand. For they know that the demon of faint-heartedness comes and conspires with the demon of acedia, and that the latter brings help to the former. And the former, indeed, begets that fear in the soul with stubbornness, while the latter introduces darkness and remission, and besides these, ^C blindness of soul and intellect, and despair. But for those struggling, acedia is a trial and a sort of probing, and it wins humility for them.

Those who have made progress in prayer, or who are led by a zeal for it, the demon of acedia is accustomed to harass and attack most frequently. For no other of the demons has any power against these—whether that other has power against them by a certain economic permission of God, or (what I more readily believe) whether it takes strength against us from the inequality and perturbation of our bodily temperament. What I say is of this kind: if I have burdened my stomach with much food, and am sunk in sleep because of excessive satiety, a reprehensible affection has dominated my mind, and I am overcome. Then, again, if I have abstained from food immoderately, I have darkened my mind and rendered it almost immobile, and again I fell into the same affection later. Sometimes, I know not how, such things happen to those struggling due to the temperament of the air and the foggy density of a humid wind.

^D Acedia is the death of the mind and soul; had God permitted it to range against us as much as it is able, no one among those struggling in the spiritual contest would ever have attained salvation. But it is our duty to resist it with all our might, while it is God’s to rouse us by some secret reason and openly manifest us as victors. Moreover, it is impossible for anyone to receive the vital light without the help of Him who raised Himself from the dead.

If by some theft, or through a subreption, the mind has arrived at arrogance and a magnificent opinion of itself, and has proceeded too far in it, so as to think itself to be something in the spiritual contest, then the grace which was illuminating it flies away, nor was it discerned. And when it has shortly deserted the empty soul, its weakness is immediately in the open, with perturbations rushing in upon it like savage dogs, and striving to devour it. And while they roar, and it knows not whither it may turn, nor has any place to which it may flee, nor from whom it may seek salvation and conservation, it finally flees to the Lord, who can save it.

Whoever has removed himself from the whole world sees himself to be as if in an impassable wilderness, and one full of wild beasts; whence, with incredible fear and the greatest trembling, he cries out to the Lord, as Jonah (Jon. ii, 1 seqq.) did from the whale and the sea of this life; ^C as Daniel (Dan. vi, 1 seqq.; xiv, 28, 1 seqq.) from the den of passions, that is to say, of lions; as the three youths from the furnace of fire (Dan. iii, 1 seqq.)—that is, from the concupiscence innate in us and burning; as Manasseh (II Paral. xxxiii, 1 seqq.) from the chains of this muddy and corruption-subject body. Whom also the Lord, hearing, delivers from the deep of ignorance and the friendship of this world, just as He did that prophet from the whale, so that he might not return to these things. He delivers him, just as He did Daniel, from the den of evil thoughts—concupiscence, which ravishes and devours the souls of men. From previously conceived opinions, full of vicious affections, He keeps him unburnt by that fire which burns and devastates his soul and compels and draws it to nefarious actions, and, bedewing his soul with the Holy Spirit—as He did those Israelite youths—and keeping it unhumbled by this iron-hard and heavy flesh, which is very much prone to motions averted from reason, and keeping him without a fall, He makes him a son of light, and grants him even now a taste of immortality.

An anima so dwelling in this abject body that it uses it familiarly and is affected by its pleasures and devoted to human glory—or, taking no account of these but sensing the sweetness of the light of this life—is sluggish toward every virtue and the commandment of God, and is not at all eager, burdened as it were by the aforementioned evils as by tight shackles. But when, having been aroused by the labors of affliction and the tears of repentance, it has shaken off the weight of the flesh, washed away the saltiness of the earthly sense with great weeping, transcended the humility of the things which are seen, and enjoys the pure light, and has earned to be liberated from the domination of the tyrannical passions of the soul, soon it, too, exclaims with the Prophet: "You have torn my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my glory may sing to you, and I may not be pricked" (Ps. xxix, 12).

Sacred Scripture indicates three places in which the mind is accustomed to dwell willingly. But I say that there are rather two—not that I teach things contrary to Scripture, God forbid!—but that I do not count the middle between the beginning and the end. For example, he who has migrated from city to city, and from one region to another, will not call the journey itself upon which he set out a city or a region, even though he may have seen many and admirable things in it. For he who has migrated from Egypt into the land of promise and has taken up his seat in it, remembers indeed all the things that happened in between, and narrates them to all; yet he does not say that he walked from the first to the second, and from the second to the third city or region: but rather how he migrated from servitude to liberty, from darkness to light, from the condition of a captive to his homeland: so also from affections to their vacancy, from their servitude to the liberty of the spirit: and from opinions anticipated against the nature of the mind (which the spiritual law calls a kind of captivity) to a return above nature: from the sea and waves of this life to a state of tranquility for those who have nothing to do with this world: from the bitterness of anxieties and tribulations because of perishable things to an ineffable sweetness, and ease from the cares of earthly things entirely: from manifold cupidity, and distraction, and tumult to one sole and universal suitability.

^A A man, even he who serves, ought to be free from care: that is, without doubt, he ought to be free and unencumbered by all the business of this life. For if we are agitated by anxieties, we are found to be transgressors of that command of God which says: "Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, or what you shall wear; for the Gentiles seek after all these things." And again: "Take heed lest your hearts be burdened with dissipation, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life."

54. If affairs and the anxieties of this life lay hold of a man, he is not free. For indeed, because of the anxiety and restless care of these things, he casts himself down and submits to the yoke of servitude, whether he be anxious for his own sake or for others. But he who is free from these things will be anxious about nothing in a worldly way, neither for himself nor for others, whether he happens to be a bishop, a superior, or a deacon. Yet he will not be idle at any time, nor will he despise anything, even of the smallest and most contemptible matters; but doing and performing all things in a manner pleasing to God, he will remain free from anxiety in all things and in his whole life.

55. When you contemplate building your neighbor's house, take care that you do not tear down your own. For see how laborious and difficult this task is, lest while you are attempting and deliberating upon this, you throw your own down, and are in no way able to rebuild his.

56. Unless you are so disposed that you are not moved by the obstacles of worldly things and riches, do not desire that the administration of affairs be entrusted to you; lest, being caught in these, instead of receiving the reward for your ministry, you undergo the condemnation of a thief and a sacrilegious person. But if you are compelled to this task by a superior, conduct yourself as if you were handling burning fire with your hands; and restraining the impulse of thought through confession and repentance, you will be kept unharmed by the prayer of the superior.

57. He who has not become passionless does not even know that passionlessness exists; he does not even believe that such a person exists on earth. For how could he who has not first denied himself, and willingly poured out his blood for the truth…

^D ...of human nature, and how the mind is wont to transpose charity.

On the transition of the mind

The transition of the mind from those things which are seen to those which are not seen, and its migration from sensible things to those which are above the senses, creates a delightful forgetfulness of all things that are behind, in the contemplation of those. This, therefore, I call true rest and the region and place of rest: into which he who has merited to ascend does not descend again—in the manner of Moses, who spent forty days and nights on the mountain—but wherever he finds it good to be there, he will by no means return to lower things. Made here a house of the Trinity, he himself will dwell within the Trinity as if in the kingdom of heaven, with charity surely sustaining him and not permitting him to fall.

...a certain anxiety that is free from action, and an action that is free from anxiety: as, on the contrary, a freedom from anxiety that is laborious, and an idleness that is anxious, which the Lord also expressed in these words; the former when He said: "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John v, 17). And again: "Labor for the food which does not perish, but which remains into eternal life" (John vi, 27), not forbidding us to work, but teaching us to work without anxiety; the latter when He says: "Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?" (Matt. vi, 27), removing, of course, the idle anxiety to which action is lacking. But regarding that which has joined to it action, He speaks thus: "Why are you anxious about clothing or food? Consider the lilies of the field, and the birds of the sky, how they grow and are fed" (Ibid. 28). Thus, removing one while confirming the other, the Lord instructs us how we ought to work anxiously—without being anxious—and how, being free from anxiety, we ought to abstain from works and labors that do not pertain to us.

^A has denied it in the first place, and then, for this truly blessed life, has not poured out his blood readily, will suspect that another has performed these things to acquire dispassion? Thus also, he who thinks he has the Holy Spirit, while he has nothing, never believes that His operations are ever recognized, hearing of them in those who possess the Holy Spirit. And that there is one in this generation equal to the apostles of Christ, and to the saints who have flourished since the beginning, being moved and stirred by the divine Spirit, or that, in a vision, he has known and perceived Him—for each person, from his own state, judges those of his neighbor, as he himself is, whether he speaks of virtue or of vice.

58. It is one thing for the soul to be dispassionate, and another for the body to be dispassionate. For the former even sanctifies the body with its own brightness and the outpouring of the Spirit; ^B but the latter, by itself, is able to profit him who has acquired it in nothing.

Furthermore, regarding those who pretend to be friends outwardly while doing the same things secretly, they do not remain hidden. But it is in my judgment an incomparably more excellent manner if someone has erased with eternal oblivion all the things he has suffered, and remembers no injury from those by whom he was vexed, whether they are absent or present, and embraces them in meetings and invitations to feasts without any thought of those things which happened.

* It is not the same thing to remember God as it is to love God; nor is it the same thing to fear Him as it is to keep His commandments. They differ among themselves, although both belong to those who are perfect and delivered from perturbations.

* It is one thing not to sin, and another to perform the commandments of God. The latter is for those who are struggling ^C and living by the Gospel; the former is merely the beginning for those who have attained dispassion.

* It is one thing to speak humbly, and another to think humbly; and it is one thing to have humility, and another to have the flower of humility; and it is one thing to have its fruit, and the beauty of this fruit, and the sweetness of that beauty, and furthermore, it is another thing to have the operations that spring from this fruit. Some of these are in our power, others are not. It is in our power to think all things, to feel all things, to consider, to say, and to do all things that lead us toward humility. But holy humility and its other properties, its charisms and its sanctions, are not our gifts but God’s, for which no one will ever be counted worthy unless he has first, as much as in him lies, sown the seeds well.

* It is one thing not to be angry in the face of contempts, injuries, temptations, and tribulations; it is another to acquiesce in them; another to pray for those who inflict these upon us; another to love them from the heart; and another, besides these, to carry the image of each of these things engraved upon one's mind, and to embrace them in the tears of sincere charity as true friends without rancor; so that, indeed, no trace of unpleasant feeling or any annoyance may be found in the soul. Furthermore, greater than all that we have said is if someone, even in the actual time of temptations, feels just as this in the same manner, and similarly, without change toward those who curse, slander, and inflict injury to his face, and who spit upon him.

* If there is such a thing as spare time and leisure, it is not immediately the same as quiet; nor if there is quiet, is it therefore silence. There is a difference between these; they are one thing and another. Leisure and inertia belong to those who wish to know what the communion of God’s goods is, but do not endure to do any good work. These things belong to those who are always at leisure to acquire the knowledge of God, and to those who sit listening to the wisdom implanted in their discourse, and who scrutinize the deep and new mysteries of the Spirit while being initiated by God. The third, namely silence, belongs to those who perform the function of the intellect with careful attention to thoughts and reasonings.

* It is not the same thing to go into seclusion—that is, to pass from place to place—as it is to practice the truest pilgrimage, or estrangement. The former is for those still, as it were, at grips like combatants, and those who, through negligence or inconstancy, transfer their mind elsewhere; or for those desiring yet more notable struggles because of the magnitude of their fervor. The latter, however, truly belongs to those who have been crucified to the world, and to the things that are in the world, and who desire to be always with God alone and the angels, and not to refer their foot to human things in any way.

* It is one thing to resist and attack enemies; another to defeat them perfectly, to subdue them, and to slay them. The former is for athletes and those noble in religious exercise; the latter is for the free and the perfect, who have been liberated from blameworthy passions.

* These are all the actions of the saints walking in the light of dispassion. But those who have perceived that they are strangers to these things should know not to be seduced by anyone, and not to deceive their own souls, but to know that they are walking in vain in darkness.

* Many, assuredly, have been drawn to these things, some for one reason and others for another; but very few, indeed, with an internal fear and love of God, have set themselves to perform them.

^A Just as one who, having been brought from extreme poverty to the wealth of a king and to illustrious dignity, is clothed by him in a brilliant robe and commanded to stand before his face, both gazes upon the king himself with longing and loves him exceedingly as a benefactor, and clearly perceives the robe with which he has been clothed, and recognizes the dignity and understands the wealth given to him: so too the monk, who has truly departed from the world and the things in the world, and has approached Christ, and having been called with deep perception, and raised up to the height of spiritual contemplation through the observance of the commandments, sees God himself without deception, and clearly perceives the change that has taken place in himself. For he always sees the grace of the Spirit shining around him, which is called an indumentum and royal purple—or rather, it is Christ himself, since those who believe in him are clothed with him.

Those who, with the help of the grace of God from above, have successfully progressed in virtue in a short time, extend themselves to the things of which we have spoken. But others are allowed to wander as if on impassable paths; they do not walk on the way to which they were sent, but according to the desires of their own hearts in their pursuits.

Whoever has experienced these things with the utmost diligence will understand what I say. He who has not, will indeed perceive, according to the sense I have spoken, but of those things which are spiritual and according to intelligence, he will have only light and meager notions; and he will rather fashion certain false things in his soul and, being vehemently deceived and frustrated, will miss the truth of the words by a long way.

^B When you have subdued and subjugated your vile and abject body with your labors and sweat, and have stripped yourself of its necessities, and have rendered it light and already, in a certain sense, spiritual, so that it feels neither labor nor hunger nor thirst, then you will see him who is above the capacity of the mind more clearly than in a mirror, and with opened eyes, and you will see—with tears—him whom no one has ever seen; and your soul, wounded by his love, will mingle its lamentations with weeping. Then remember me, and pray for me, the unworthy one, so that I, who am joined with God, may find even the boldness before him not to be put to shame.

Nor is it fitting for one philosophizing about God and divine things to dispute about penance, nor for one doing penance to dispute or philosophize about God. For as far as the east is distant from the west, by so much does theology surpass penance in sublimity. For as a man is affected by diseases and sorrow, or is a pauper covered in rags, and asking for alms with a cry: so is he who dwells in penance and is said to truly perform the works of penance. But he who is busied in theological matters can be compared to one living in the palaces of kings, covered in the most refined and royal garments, and, as a friend of the king, speaks with him very often, and is clearly taught by him from hour to hour what he and others must do.

It brings an increase of divine knowledge; so that we may not know all other things—or even God himself—and the magnitude of his illumination is perfect blindness, and the most perfect sense above sense, and an insensibility to everything that is outside of this sense. For as to what it is, and of what kind, and where, and what, and how, and in what things it exists, one is ignorant; and how can one know or understand these things, when they are knowledge, and not rather beyond knowledge? And the mind, in the knowledge of its own infirmity, understanding nothing, will be found in those things which are above the intellect. ^C For since ‹eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man› (1 Cor. 2:9), how can they be subject to knowledge?

The Lord, who bestows upon us those things which are above intelligence, gives us also, through his Spirit, another intelligence above intelligence, by which we may understand his gifts, which are above intelligence, marvelously, clearly, and purely.

Just as he who is insensible to one is insensible to all, so he who is sensible to the One senses all things, and is outside the sense of all things. In intelligence, there is the knowledge of all things, and he is not hindered from the knowledge of them.

He who is deaf to speech is deaf to every voice: so too he who hears speech hears all things. This man is deaf to every voice. He hears all things, and hears nothing, unless those who speak in the Word alone, and not even them; but the Word alone, which sounds in the voice without voice.

He who hears and sees and feels in this way, it does not escape him what we desire. He who does not know this, it is certain that he does not have the senses of his soul illuminated and healthy. While he is in that state, he has not yet known that he was founded as a spectator of the visible creation, and a mystic and interpreter of the intelligible; but when he was in honor, he was compared and assimilated to brute beasts and pack animals, and he remains in that likeness still, not having returned, not recalled, or reduced to his ancient dignity, according to the gift of the economy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, of God.

^D He who is below, let him not inquire into things above, before he is among those on high. Do not curiously scrutinize things below, lest, having fallen, you lose both: or rather, remain kept shut up in things below.

He who is enriched with heavenly riches—with the presence, I say, and indwelling of him who said: ‹I and the Father will come, and we will make our home with him› (John 14:23)—knows in his soul how great a benefit of grace and fruit he has perceived, and how great and what kind of blessedness he carries in the royal palace of his heart. For just as a friend conversing with a friend, he stands freely before the face of God, ‹who dwells in inaccessible light› (1 Tim. 6:16).

Blessed is he who has added faith to this. Thrice blessed is he who, through action and holy struggles, hastens to comprehend the knowledge of the things spoken by me. He is an angel, not to say more, who through knowledge and contemplation has reached the loftiness of this state, and has become a domestic of God, as a son.

^A Many, indeed, read the divine Scriptures, and many hear them read; but few are they who rightly possess the power and the mind, or the understanding, of what is read. Some declare that the things set forth by the divine Scriptures are impossible; others deem them altogether incredible, or interpret them wrongly by allegory. And those things which are spoken of the present time, they judge as if they were to come to pass in the future, while those spoken of the future, they take as if they had already happened and were happening daily. And thus, there is no right judgment in them, nor true discernment in divine and human matters.

As he who stands near the shore of the sea catches sight of the immensity of the waters of the deep, yet cannot define their extremity with his vision, but sees only a certain part: so he who contemplates the sea of divine glory, and has attained to see it and search it out by his intelligence, does not see how wide and vast it is, but rather how far the eyes of his soul carry their gaze.

As one standing near the sea can not only look upon it, but also enter into its waters as much as he pleases: so spiritual men who wish it attain the fullness of seeing and knowing God, according to the measure of their desire.

As one standing on the seashore, so long as he is outside the water, sees all things and understands the depth of the sea—but once he begins to enter into the waves themselves and to be immersed in them, the further he descends, the more he is removed from the sight of those things which are outside: so it is with those who have become participants of the divine light; the more they progress in the knowledge of the divinity, the more they begin, in proportion, to be ignorant of all other things.

As one who is in the water of the sea, up to his knees or his loins, sees all things outside the water clearly; but if he descends into the deep and is entirely under the wave, he can no longer see any of the things that are outside the water, and he knows only this: that he is entirely, as much as he is, in the depths of the sea: so it happens to those who grow by spiritual progress and ascend to the perfection of knowledge and vision.

When those who progress in spiritual perfection are illuminated in part, or only their mind is illuminated, then they behold the glory of God in their intelligence as in a mirror, and are mystically imbued by the grace from above, through knowledge more and more, and through the revelation of mysteries; being lifted, that is to say, from the speculation of things that are, to the knowledge of Him who is above all things that are. ^B

Those who approach perfection, and as yet see only as in part, are struck with awe, understanding the inexperience and the comprehensibility of the things they see. For the more they enter into the light of divine knowledge, the more they recognize their own ignorance. But when that which the intelligence grasps, and which appears to them more obscurely, and is shown as if in a mirror, and illuminates them in part, desires to be seen more expressively and more kindly, and to be united to the one illuminated by this communication, and to embrace him entirely in itself, and he himself is enclosed and intercepted in the deep of the spirit, as in the midst of an abyss of immense, shining waters, then he emerges into perfect ignorance in an ineffable way, as one who has transcended all knowledge.

A simple mind, or rather, a mind undulating with every notion, and having entirely entered into the simplicity of the divine light and been covered by it, has nothing else to find in which it might be, so as to be moved toward that knowledge; but remaining in the depth of the divine light, it is not permitted at all to look outward. And this is that which is said: God is light, and supreme light, and to those who have become partakers of Him, there is rest and cessation from all vision.

Then the mind, accustomed to move with continuous motion, becomes motionless and gives pause to every thought, when indeed it has been entirely covered by the divine darkness and light. Nevertheless, it looks, feels, and enjoys the goods in which it dwells. For the depth of the Holy Spirit is not as the depth of the waves of the sea, but is living water of eternal life (John iv, 10). Furthermore, everything there can neither be understood, nor grasped, nor explained; in these things the mind, passing by all things that are visible and fall under the intellect, lingers, and in those things alone moves and turns motionlessly, living a life above life, itself light in the light, light not by itself—for it does not then see itself, but Him who is above it—and from that glory, with its thoughts changed, it is ignorant of itself. ^C

Dead, yet not dead, is he who, when he has reached the measure of perfection, lives in God, in whom he is, as if he were not living in himself. Blind, as if by nature, when he has been made superior to all natural vision, insofar as he has received new eyes, and those incomparably more excellent than natural ones, and discerns beyond the power of nature. Void of work and motionless, as one who has fulfilled and completed all his function. Without thought, as one who has attained a union superior to all thought, and finding rest where there is no activity of the mind, nor other movement to think, or to reason, or to conceive. For he cannot understand or know those things which are impossible to the intellect; and in a certain way he rests in these, in that rest of blessed, motionless insensibility, settling himself in the sense of the inexhaustible delights of goods, with curiosity placed aside.

He who has not deserved to come to this mode of perfection and to obtain such goods, let him condemn himself alone, and let him not put forward any excuse that it is an impossible thing: or that perfection does not happen, but rather recognize from the divine Scriptures, most certainly, that it is a possible and true thing, and that it comes to pass in the very deed, and in such a way, indeed, that it is known to be coming to pass. Through omission, however, and sloth in obeying the commandments, each one deprives himself of these goods in proportion. ^D

(7) ...God created two worlds, the visible and the invisible: one, however, as king of those things which are perceived by the sense of the eyes; and bearing the character, or mark, of both worlds in itself, the visible, to be sure, and that which pertains to the intelligence. Consonant with these, two suns also shine: one sensible, the other intelligible; and as what the sun is in visible things and those which fall under the sense, God is this in those things which are only understood. For He is called the Sun of Justice (Malach. iv, 2). You have, therefore, according to these two suns, one subject to the eyes, the other to the mind and reason; just as there are also two worlds, as we have said. And the other of these, that is, the one which...

61. We who are faithful ought to look upon all the faithful as one, and think that Christ is in each one of them; and we should be so disposed in our love toward Him that we are ready to lay down our own souls for Him. For we ought not to speak of, nor to consider, any person as wicked, but to regard everyone as good, as we have said. Even if you see someone troubled by vicious impulses, do not hate the brother, but hate the passions that are fighting against him; and if he is tyrannized by desires and prejudices, have compassion on him all the more, lest you yourself be tempted, ^A seeing that you are endowed with a mutable nature, and one that can easily be struck by adversities.

62. If someone is branded as a hypocrite, or is deserving of reproach for his deeds, or has been broken for a short time by some passion, or is found to be partially deficient due to some negligence, he is not numbered among those who are whole, but is cast aside as useless and reprobate, so that in a time of tension he may not cause the bond of the chain to break, and bring about division among those who are not divided, and suffering for both parties—for those in front, on account of those behind, and for the latter, on account of the separation from those going before. ^B

[...This] moves the sense, along with everything it embraces, [and] is illuminated by this sensible and visible sun. The other, however, whether intellectual or that which is in it, receives light and brightness from the intellectual Sun of justice. Sensible things, therefore, are illuminated by the sensible sun, and intelligible things by the intelligible Sun, in a divided manner, having absolutely no conjunction, association, or communion among themselves—neither intelligible things with sensible ones, nor sensible with intelligible.

Man alone, out of all things that are visible and those that are perceived only by the mind, is dual, or twofold, created by God; possessing a body built up from the four primary bodies, or elements, along with sense ^C and spirit, through which he is a participant in these principles and lives in them; but possessing a soul that is capable of intelligence and counsel, free from matter and body, or at least not corporeal, coupled to these things in an inscrutable and inexplicable way, and mingled without mixture or confusion. Moreover, these—the one man—are together a mortal and immortal animal, which can be seen and not seen, felt and understood, in whom exists the faculty of looking at the visible creature and understanding the invisible one. Therefore, just as the efficiency in the two worlds differs and separates the two suns, in the same way, in one man, the one illuminates his body and the other his soul; and each communicates of its own light to the one illuminated, ^D more abundantly or more sparingly, according to his capacity.

The sensible sun is seen, but does not see; the intellectual sun is seen by those who are worthy, and it sees everyone; and it sees even more clearly those who see it. The sensible sun does not speak, nor does it grant anyone to speak; the intellectual sun both speaks with its friends and grants to all that they may speak. The sensible sun, shining in a sensible garden, by the heat of its rays dries only the moisture of the earth, but it does not make plants and seeds more fruitful; the intellectual sun, shining in the soul, accomplishes both: it dries up the moisture of vices and purges the sterility born of them, and inserts into the soul a richness which we can understand, by which, like irrigated plants, the virtues gradually come forth into the air and grow.

The sensible sun rises and clothes this world with its light, and everything contained within it—men, wild beasts, cattle, and other things upon which the light spreads itself equally; and by setting again, it leaves the place which it had illuminated filled with darkness. The intellectual Sun shines, and has always shone, as a whole in the whole entirely, in such a way that it cannot be grasped. It is distinguished from its creatures, and it stands apart from them as a whole, without distance; and it is whole in the whole, yet is nowhere. It is in all visible creatures as a whole, and again it is distinct from them as a whole. It is whole in visible things, and whole in invisible things, and it is present everywhere as a whole, and yet it is not in any place at all.

Christ is the beginning, the middle, and the end, or consummation, in all things, since He is in the first, also in the middle, and in the last, just as He is in the first; for as far as this is concerned, there is no distinction in Him, just as there is neither Barbarian, nor Scythian, nor Greek in Him, but all things, and in all things Christ (Gal. iii, 28).

The Holy Trinity, dwelling through all, from the first to the last, as from a head down to the feet, joins together, composes, glues, unites, and binds to itself, and in this way makes those who are thus bound and gathered firm and unbreakable; and in each of them one and the same knowledge is manifest, which is God, in whom the last become first, and the first as the last (Matth. xx, 16).

...reason by which those orders of the heavenly virtues are orderly illuminated by God, from the prince and the first of all the orders down to the second, and from this to the third, and subsequently from this to another, and finally to all, with divine light penetrating them. In the same way, they too, illuminated by divine angels and bound and united by the bond of the spirit, become in honor their equals and peers.

CAPITULA PRACTICA

^A 63. Just as a fire in a furnace is extinguished if one throws dust upon it, so the anxieties of this life and every mode of affection for base and trivial things extinguish the fervor of the heart that had been kindled in the beginning.

64. He who is pregnant with the fear of death will loathe all eating, drinking, and the decoration of clothing, nor will he eat bread or drink water with pleasure. He will provide only what is necessary for the body, as much as is enough for living. He will deny all his own will, and he will become a servant of all in the discernment of the things commanded.

^A 65. He who has given himself as a servant to his fathers according to God, for the sake of the fear of punishment, will choose not those things that lighten the pain of his heart, which are commanded, or those things that loosen the bond of fear, nor to those ^B who act toward such things in a friendly or flattering manner, but rather will prefer those things that increase it, and…

For indeed, those who from that time forth proceed through the distinct ages in the commandments of the Lord, cultivate the sanctity of life and adhere to them, just as they themselves are illuminated by the grace of God communicated to them; they are like a golden chain, in which each individual forms one link, while each one connects to the preceding in faith, works, and charity. Because of this connection, as we have said, they are a certain single chain in God, which cannot be quickly broken.

Whoever does not seek union with the last of all the saints with charity, humility, and vehement desire, but is held by a certain perverse infidelity toward him, will never be fully united to him, nor will he be inscribed with him among the first and preceding saints as if in a military order, even if he seems to have all faith and charity toward God and all the saints. For he will be cast out from them, as one who did not accept through humility the place constituted for him, and which was defined for him by God before the ages to adhere to Him.

Humility precedes mourning according to God, and joy and ineffable gladness follow it. Furthermore, the hope of salvation is recognized in humility according to God. For the more anyone considers himself from the heart to be worse than all sinners, the more his hope increases together with humility, and it flourishes in his heart, and it makes him certain that through this he will attain salvation.

The more deeply anyone descends into humility and judges himself more unworthy to be saved, the more bitterly he mourns and the more he indulges in tears; to which, in proportion, responds the spiritual pleasure which wells up in his heart, by which hope also, as if from a fountain, wells up and grows at the same time, and renders the persuasion of attaining salvation more certain and more confirmed.

Everyone ought to examine himself and understand that one must not trust in hope alone without mourning according to God and spiritual humility, nor in humility and tears without hope and their companions, spiritual joy.

There is a humility which is thought to be such, but which is produced from negligence, sloth, and vehement condemnation of conscience. But it is nothing, since it does not have joyful mourning joined to it.

There is a certain mourning that lacks spiritual humility, in which those who mourn think that their sins are being purged; in this they are in error. For they are deprived of the sweetness of the Spirit which is born mystically in the intellectual chamber of the soul, and they do not taste the goodness of God at all.

Therefore, such people are easily inflamed by anger and cannot perfectly despise the world and the things that are seen in the world. Indeed, he who has not despised these things in every way, and has not hated them from the heart, will never be able to have a firm and undoubted hope of his own salvation; but since he has not cast his foundation upon the rock, he will be tossed here and there, uncertain and doubtful.

Mourning has a double effect. For it quenches all the flame of vicious affections like water through tears, and cleanses the soul from the stains and filth born therefrom; and it brings to life, kindles, inflames, warms, and impels the heart to love and desire God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

See and perceive what humility and mourning accomplish in you, and inquire which of them you perceive hourly as the fruit of utility; which for novices and beginners is the casting aside of all worldly care, no affection toward parents, relatives, and friends, and the renunciation of them; a mind free from the solicitude of all things and faculties, their disregard, not only to the point of the spirit, but even to the body itself.

He has renounced outward things, and men, and finally all things of this life, with an integral sense of the heart, and with joy, and has forgotten them, and has crossed over affection as a wall; he is a guest and pilgrim in the world and in those things that are in the world, gathering his mind into himself, and occupied in one memory of death, and reflection. Wherefore he is always anxious also about the final judgment and retribution, and in these he is clearly held as if a captive, and from such reflections and meditations he is struck with a fear greater than can be told.

He is like some condemned man, and one burdened with chains in the theater of this life, who, heavily weighed down by the fear of judgment, seems to be seized by the same as if by some executioner, and led to death: revolving nothing else with himself than the pain and tortures which he is about to suffer from eternal punishment. But since he can never cast this fear from his heart, it happens that from thence another fear is generated, which permits him not to be touched by any care for human things. For he lives perpetually, as if fixed to a cross with nails, and vehemently urged to death by pains; nor would he be allowed to turn his eyes into anyone’s face; nor would he take any account of the ignominy created by men. For because he himself considers himself from his heart worthy of all ignominy and contempt, he makes nothing of the injuries which they hurl at him.

^A He will obey those who compel him in this way, but rather he will prefer what increases this state within him; he will desire what tightens the bond, and will love the executioner who strengthens him; and he will remain in these things, with no expectation at all of ever receiving release from them. For the hope of release produces a lighter pain, which is unhelpful for one who is fervently repenting.

66. For everyone beginning to live according to God, the fear of punishment and the pain born from it are beneficial. But he who imagines that he can lay a foundation without this pain, without this bond, and without this executioner, not only places the foundation of his own actions upon sand, but also thinks he can construct his house in the air without a foundation—which is utterly impossible. For this pain brings forth every joy, and this bond breaks the fetters of all sins and passions; and this executioner does not bring death, but procures eternal life.

67. Whoever does not wish to spring away and flee from the pain that is born of the fear of eternal punishment, but with the intent of his heart follows it, and tightens its bonds upon himself accordingly, will journey more briefly, and will stand before the face of the King of kings. When this has come to pass, and he has clearly beheld His glory, immediately the bonds will be loosed. And the executioner, fear, will flee far from him; and the pain in his heart will be turned into joy, and a spring will be born, flowing with tears unceasingly by way of sense, like a river, and by way of intellect with tranquility, ^B gentleness, and ineffable sweetness; and furthermore with courage, and with a will ready for every obedience, and a free and unhindered course in the way of the commandments of God. ^C This is for the time being impossible for beginners and those who are first being introduced to the religious life, but it is proper to those who have already ascended by progress to the middle of this path; whereas for those who are perfect and have reached the end, this spring becomes light, as the heart is suddenly altered and changed.

68. He who has within him the light of the all-holy Spirit, not bearing to behold it, falls upon his face and cries out and shouts in amazement and with great fear, as if having seen and suffered something beyond nature, beyond words, and beyond conception. And he becomes like a man whose inwards have been set ablaze by fire, ^D by which he is consumed, and not being able to bear the burning of the flame, he exists as one beside himself, and is in no way able to be in control of himself. But being drenched by tears unceasingly, and being cooled by them, he ignites the fire of desire more vehemently. Hence he pours forth tears more abundantly, and being washed by their outpouring, he flashes more brilliantly. When at last he is entirely ignited and becomes like light, then is fulfilled what is said: "God is united and known to gods," and perhaps to the extent that He has already been united to those joined to Him, and has been revealed to those who have known Him.

^A 69. Before mourning and tears, let no one deceive us with empty words, nor let us deceive ourselves. There is no repentance in us, nor true remorse, nor the fear of God in our hearts, nor have we judged ourselves, nor has our soul felt the coming judgment and eternal torments. For if it had prepared itself for these things, and had dwelt upon them, it would soon have shed tears. Without these, indeed, our hard heart can never be softened, nor can our soul attain the humility of the spirit, nor can we become humble. But he who has not become so cannot be united to the Holy Spirit. And he who has not been purified beforehand and thus united to Him, will neither be able to behold and know God, nor is he worthy to be taught the mystical virtues of humility.

70. Those who feign virtue, appearing outwardly in the guise of the habit as one thing, while being something else according to the inner man—perhaps filled with every iniquity, full of zeal, and strife, and the stench of obscene pleasures—the majority, who have not a purified eye, and are unable to recognize them by their fruits, honor and reverence as if they were holy and not slaves to any vice. Conversely, they mock men who are genuinely outstanding in piety, virtue, and simplicity of heart, and who are truly holy, as if they were common folk, and they pass them by with contempt, regarding them as nothing.

71. Such people deem the talkative and showy man to be rather apt for teaching and spiritual; but they call the man who loves silence and is diligent in guarding himself against idle speech, a rustic and a mute.

72. Those who are proud and suffer from the devil's arrogance shun him who speaks in the Holy Spirit as one who is proud and arrogant, being stung by his words rather than pricked to compunction. But they wonderfully approve of and accept one who speaks roundedly and eloquently from his belly or from mere learning, and who lies to their own destruction; and thus, among such people, there is no one able to discern and see the matter rightly and as it really is.

73. "Blessed," says God, "are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." ^B But the impure heart does not ^C see Him, and they will be swallowed up in despair.

When those over whom vicious impulses still rule and hold sway hear a man who is perfect according to God judging himself to be more unclean than any man, any living creature, or any beast—rejoicing in being treated with disgrace, praying well for those who assail him with curses, enduring persecution, and supplicating God with tears and pain of heart for his enemies—at first they do not believe it, attempting to make them like themselves. Then, being refuted by the divine Scriptures and overturned and prostrated by the saints who have demonstrated these things in their deeds, they confess that they cannot attain to such things. But when they hear that, without these things being achieved, they will in no way be saved, then naturally, being unwilling to excise their own viciousness and to do penance for sins committed, they abandon themselves to despair. ^D

^A one virtue, nor two, nor ten are naturally able to perform, but all together, as one might say, as if they were one, and brought to the highest perfection. And not even thus are they alone able to make the heart pure, apart from the energy and presence of the Holy Spirit. For just as the blacksmith shows his skill through his tools, but apart from the energy of fire is able to fashion nothing at all into a work, so indeed man performs all things, and uses the virtues as tools, but without the presence of the spiritual fire they remain ineffective and useless, not cleansing the filth and the ichor of the soul.

Where there is deep humility, there also is abundance of tears; where these are, there also is the presence of the Holy and prayerful Spirit, whence all purity and holiness are reconciled to him in whom He works, and God is seen by him, and he sees God. For upon whom, He says, shall I look, except upon the humble, and the quiet, and him who trembles at my words? (Isa. LXVI, 2.)

Man can indeed combat perturbations and the passions joined with vice, but he cannot eradicate them and pluck them out by the root. And although he has received command not to commit evil, he has nevertheless not received the command not even to dwell upon them in thought. Furthermore, it is of piety not only to do good, but also not to think evil. Therefore, he who thinks evil cannot possess a pure heart, since by this it is defiled like a mirror by mud.

I consider this to be the purity of the heart: not only to be stirred by no passion, but also to revolve in the mind nothing wicked or pertaining to this life whenever one pleases; and only to converse with the immense love of God in memory. For in pure light the eye sees God purely, when between that vision and God nothing else interposes itself.

This I affirm to be *apatheia*, not only to abhor the deeds to which we are driven by the passions, but also to be alienated from their concupiscence, and furthermore to be stripped of the very thought of them in the mind: so that when we wish, we may be above the heavens, outside all things that are seen and felt, as if our senses were closed, and the mind entering into those things which surpass sense, carrying with it the virtue or faculty of feeling, as an eagle carries its wings.

The mind does not exert its actions and functions without the senses, nor do the senses perform their offices in any way without the mind. ^D That is called a pure heart, which discerns in itself no thought or reasoning of temporal things: and which is so attached to God, and so united with Him, that it remembers neither the troublesome and sad, nor the joyous and pleasant things of this life; but thus it lives, that by contemplating it is caught up into the third heaven, and into paradise, and beholds the pledges of the goods promised to the saints, and from thence conjectures the eternal goods themselves according to the capacity of human nature. And this is the true sign and certain proof of a pure heart, in which one knows the measure of purity, and contemplates himself as in a mirror.

As he who is outside the house does not see those shut inside, so he who is crucified to the world, or dead, feels nothing of the world’s affairs. As the breathless body performs no sensation toward living things, nor toward those lying lifeless with it, so he who has departed from the world by the Spirit, and is with God, can have no sensation of the world, nor sufficient strength to concern himself with its needs.

Anima ante mortem moritur, et ante resurrectionem corporum resurgit, opere, virtute, experientia, veritate. For the soul, with its mortal sense cast off by an immortal mind, and with mortality expelled by life, exists as if from the dead, and sees itself constantly (as those who have risen from sleep see themselves), and knows God who raised it; whom, perceiving—and as it were giving thanks—it is alienated from the senses and from the whole world, filled with ineffable pleasure, and in Him composes all its intellectual motion.

Some things are conferred by us, some are supplied to us by God from heaven. For as much as we are cleansed through sacred labors and sweats, so much do we shine through the light of compunction; and as much as we shine through the light, so much are we cleansed by tears, of which the former we spend voluntarily and through ourselves, the latter we receive in turn given from above.

Many offering their own things do not receive the divine things in the accustomed manner, which is evident from the examples of Cain and Esau. For unless one offers his own with right thought, or sincere counsel, and pious affection, and ardent faith, and great humility, God will not look upon him, nor will He accept the things offered. Unless this is done, God will not in turn contribute His own to one offering in this way.

The world is dead, and they who are of the world are opposed to the saints. Hence, seeing their good works, they do not see; and hearing divine words uttered in the Holy Spirit, they are altogether unable to understand. Oppositely, neither can those who are spiritual sustain seeing the perverse works of those devoted to the world and the wicked, nor do they grasp their words flowing from the passions of the soul: but they themselves, also seeing what is in the world, do not see, and hearing the voices of the worldly, they are so affected in sense as if they did not hear them. And thus, no communion or society remains between the former and the latter—I mean, between spiritual men and the others.

Just as the distinction between light and darkness is manifest, and their conjunction cannot be made (For what partnership has light with darkness? he says, or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? [2 Cor. VI, 15]), so between those who have the Spirit and those who do not, there is the greatest distance and disjunction. For the conversation of the former is in the heavens, since they have already become angels from men; the latter sit still in ancestral darkness, and in the shadow of death, fixed to the earth and to earthly things, the former under the intelligence of light falling, and knowing no setting: the latter are only illuminated by this sensible light. The former see themselves and their neighbors dying; the latter, seeing themselves and their neighbors dying in soul every day, are ignorant that they are men, and that as men they are owed to death, and being ignorant of this, neither judgment to come nor resurrection,

and the reward which is to be paid to each person according to what one has deserved while living in this life, do they believe. If you are a partaker of the Holy Spirit, you will know from those things which are brought to pass in you by Him, which the Apostle wrote about Him, when he says: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. III, 17). And: "The body indeed is dead because of sin: but the spirit is life because of righteousness" (Rom. VIII, 10). And: "They that are Christ's having crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts" (Galat. V, 24). For whosoever are baptized in the Holy Spirit, have put on the whole of Christ (Galat. III, 27): and they are the children of light, and walk in the day that has no sunset (Luc. XV, 8): and seeing they do not see the world: and hearing the things that are of the world, they do not hear (Luc. VIII, 10). For as it is handed down in letters concerning carnal men, that seeing they do not see, and hearing divine matters they do not understand, nor are they able to grasp the things that are of the Spirit, for foolishness it is unto them (I Cor. II, 14): thus think also in my regard of those who contain the Holy Spirit within themselves. They carry indeed a body, but they are not in the flesh: "For ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. VIII, 9). They are dead to the world, and the world to them. "For to me," he says, "the world is crucified, and I unto the world" (Galat. VI, 14). He who knows these signs and wonders to be wrought in himself, truly carries God and the signs in himself, since he has God, that is, the very most holy Spirit, as an inhabitant, speaking and working in him the things which were said by Paul. But he who has not yet recognized these things in himself, let him not deceive himself; he is still flesh and blood, being covered by the darkness of the desires of the flesh, namely: "For flesh and blood," (that is, which is not of the Spirit) "shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (I Cor. XV, 50).

^A 74. Through holy baptism we receive the remission of sins, and are freed from the ancient curse, and by the coming of the Holy Spirit we are sanctified: but perfect grace, according to the saying: "I will dwell in them and walk among them" (Levit. XXVI, 12; II Cor. VI, 16), we do not obtain then; for this belongs to those of steadfast faith who show this by their works. For after we have been baptized, if we incline toward wicked and shameful deeds, we utterly cast away the sanctification itself. But through repentance, and confession, and tears, according to our proportion, we obtain the remission of prior transgressions, and thus finally we receive sanctification with grace from above.

75. By repentance the stains and defilements of shameful deeds are washed away; after this, however, there follows the participation of the Holy Spirit; not simply, but according to the faith, the disposition, and the humility of those who repent with their whole soul. Not only this, but we also receive the perfect remission of sins from the Father, and through the surety. ^B For this reason it is good to repent daily, because of the commandment that enjoins it. For that which is said: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matth. III, 2), indicates to us an indefinite time for the doing of this work.

76. The grace of the Most Holy Spirit is given as a pledge to souls espoused to Christ; and just as without a pledge a woman has no certainty that her union with her husband will ever be firmly established, so neither does a soul obtain a certain assurance that it will ever be joined for all ages to its Master and God, or to be joined to Him in a mystical and ineffable manner, and to enjoy His inaccessible beauty, ^C unless it receives the pledge of His grace and possesses it knowingly within itself.

77. Just as written deeds of agreement, if they do not receive the signatures of credible witnesses, have no force of a firm and certain pledge, so neither, before the practice of the commandments and the acquisition of the virtues, does the certain illumination of grace occur. For as the witnesses are in contracts and covenants, so in the spiritual pledge, the practice of the commandments and the ^D

virtues are established; for through these, every one of those who are to be saved obtains the perfect pledge.

78. First, the covenants are, as it were, written through the practice of the commandments; then they are sealed and signed by the virtues. And at that time the bridegroom, Christ, gives the ring to the soul—his bride—which is the pledge of the Spirit.

79. Just as a bride before the wedding receives only the pledge from the bridegroom, but awaits the receipt of the promised dowry and the gifts pledged in it after the wedding; so too the Church of the faithful, and the soul of each one of us, first receives from Christ the Bridegroom only the pledge of the Spirit; but it awaits the receipt of the eternal goods and the kingdom of heaven after the departure from this life, being fully assured through the pledge, which indicates these things to it as in a mirror, and confirms the things agreed upon with its Master and God. ^B

80. Just as if a bridegroom is delayed by being abroad or occupied in other affairs, and meanwhile prolongs the time of the wedding, if the bride, becoming angry, scorns his love and either erases or tears up the document of the pledge, she is immediately frustrated of the hopes she expected from the bridegroom. It is the custom for this to happen in the soul as well. For when someone among those who are struggling says, "How long must I endure afflictions?" and makes light of the ascetic labors and struggles, and through the neglect of the commandments and the abandonment of constant repentance, as it were, erases and tears up the covenants, he immediately loses both the pledge and his hope toward God entirely. ^C

81. Just as a bride, if she transfers her love to someone other than the bridegroom betrothed to her, and consorts with him either secretly or openly, will not only hope for none of the gifts promised by the bridegroom, but rather—and not unjustly—will expect accusation and punishment according to the laws; so it is the custom for this to happen with us. For if anyone transfers the love of the bridegroom, Christ, to the desire of some other thing, whether openly or secretly, and his heart is captivated by it, his soul is hateful to the bridegroom, and loathsome, and unworthy of union with him; for he has said, "I love those who love me" (Prov. VIII, 17). ^D

(14) The passage that follows in Pontanus: "The pledge in those who have acquired it is incomprehensible, it is not understood and yet is understood, it is not held and yet is held, it is not seen and yet is seen; it lives, speaks, moves, and moves the one who possesses it. It flies out of the little box in which it is shut up under a seal, and again is found therein beyond expectation; so that the possessor deems that it neither remains constantly, nor departs without returning, and he who does not have it is as one who has it, and he who has it is as one who has it not, and so he perceives it. Just as if someone is in a house at night, and with the doors of the rooms closed on all sides, if he opens one little door or window, and a flashing lightning suddenly shines around him—he, not bearing such brightness with his eyes, presently draws back, shuts his lights, and is afraid. Thus also, the soul enclosed in sensible things, if at any time it looks out beyond these as if through a window with its mind, being illuminated by the brightness of the pledge that is in it—by the Holy Spirit, I say—not being able to endure the clarity of the light, is suddenly struck in its mind, and entirely shrinks back, trembling, into itself, as if taking refuge in a house among sensible and human things."

^B

82. Everyone ought to examine themselves by such signs, to see whether they have received the earnest of the Spirit from the Bridegroom and Lord Christ. If they have received it, let them strive to keep it. If they have not yet been deemed worthy to receive it, let them strive through good works, pious actions, and most fervent repentance to receive it again, and having received it, let them keep it by the working of the commandments and the acquisition of the virtues.

83. Just as the roof of any house stands by means of the foundations, and the rest of the structure standing in turn relies on the foundations as useful and necessary for supporting the roof—and neither is a roof accustomed to be built without foundations, nor do foundations without a roof have any use or convenience in life—so too is the grace of the Spirit preserved by the performance of the commandments, and the actions of the commandments are laid as foundations on account of the gift of God. And neither is the grace of the Spirit accustomed to remain in us without the performance of the commandments, nor is the performance of the commandments useful and profitable without the grace of God.

84. In the way that a house without a roof, having been left thus through the negligence of its builder, is not only useless, but also makes the builder a laughingstock, so also he who lays the foundations of the performance of the commandments and raises walls of lofty virtues, if he does not also receive the grace of the Holy Spirit in the contemplation and knowledge of his soul, is imperfect and is pitied by the perfect. For he is entirely deprived of this for one of these two reasons: either he has neglected repentance, or, in the gathering of the virtues, as if exhausted by an infinite task, he has failed in some things that seem to us the least, but are necessary for the completion of the house of the virtues, so that without them it is impossible for it to be covered by the grace of the Spirit.

85. If for this reason the Son of God, who is God, descended to earth, that through himself he might reconcile us, who were enemies, to his own Father, and might bind us knowledgeably to himself through his holy and consubstantial Spirit, what other grace will he obtain who falls from this one? He has certainly not been reconciled to the Father, nor has he had communion with him, through the participation of the Spirit, nor has he been joined and united to the Son. ^D

86. He who has partaken of the Divine Spirit is delivered from passionate desires and pleasures; yet he cannot help but serve the necessities of his natural body. But as one freed from the bonds of the passionate appetite, and united to the immortal glory and sweetness, he strives ceaselessly to be above and to dwell with God, and not to depart for even a moment from the contemplation of him and his insatiable delight. But as he cebit, et Divinitatis ipse quoque radios emittet, secundum analogiam purgationis, et communicati ignis videlicet: puritatem enim communio, communionem illuminatio sequitur. Sic homo plane Deus per gratiam evadit.

^A Since he is entangled with the mortal body as with shackles, he is dragged and pulled by it, and turned toward earthly things; and he experiences at that time as much grief over these things, as I suppose any sinner’s soul does when it is being separated from the body.

87. Just as for the lover of the body and the lover of life, for the lover of pleasure and the lover of the world, separation from these things is death, so for the lover of purity and the lover of God, for the lover of struggle and the lover of virtue, even a small withdrawal of the mind from such things is death in very truth. For if someone who watches the perceptible light, should he close his eyes for a little while, or should they be covered by someone else, is troubled and grieved, and is quite unable to bear this—and especially if he was observing things that were necessary and wonderful—how much more will he be grieved and afflicted if he, being illuminated in the holy Spirit and seeing those good things in reality and intellectually, both waking and sleeping—things which “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. II, 9), into which even angels desire to look (1 Pet. I, 12)—is pulled away from the contemplation of such things by someone? For this appears to him as death, and rightly as an alienation from eternal life. ^B

88. Many count the eremitic life as blessed; others count the mixed life, that is, the cenobitic, as blessed; and others count the life of presiding over the people, admonishing and teaching and establishing churches. From these, different ways of being nourished both bodily and soulishly have naturally arisen. But I would not prefer either one of these to the other, nor would I call one of them worthy of praise and the other of blame, but in total, and in all works and actions, the life lived for God and according to God is all-blessed. ^C

89. Just as human life is constructed from different professions and crafts of life—one person clearly working at one thing and contributing it, and thus they share with one another and receive from one another, and humans live providing for the body’s needs by nature—so it is possible to see this also in spiritual things. For while some zealously pursue one virtue, and others walk by another path of life, ^D (16) Pontanus adds three chapters: “Since man is bipartite, composed of body and soul, the world also was created suitably for him, visible, and the works and cares suited to the work and appropriate to each of these were distributed. This they also considered to be true regarding visions and dreams. For in those things in which the waking mind is occupied or revolves, in those same things it plays vainly or philosophizes during sleep. For whether it is anxious about human affairs, it dreams of futile business, or if it meditates on divine and celestial things, it contemplates visions and reflects in them according to the prophet’s word: 'And your young men shall see visions' (Joel II, 28), not deceived, but intent on truths, and confirmed by revelations for belief.

“When that part of the soul in which cupidities and lusts are fastened, and [the mind] is irritated unto the commingling of bodies, delights, and pleasures of this life, the soul sees similar things in sleep. If the irascible part is roused against citizens and tribesmen in the manner of a beast, it dreams of the incursions of wild beasts and serpents, and wars and battles; and when it has an argument with anyone, it struggles with them as if before tribunals. But if that part in which reason thrives is raised by arrogance and pride, then it imagines in sleep flights into the air, sublime thrones, the leadership of peoples, and riding in chariots, outstripping some and being followed by others.

“Only the dreams of those are true (which should not be called dreams, but visions and apparitions) whose mind has found simplicity from the advent of the holy Spirit, and freedom from all turbulence and the servitude of the passions; whose complete leisure and time is consumed in meditating on and weighing divine things and the future rewards of merits and punishments; whose life surpasses the life of others, being free from distraction and anxiety, quiet, pure, full of mercy, and of the cognition of celestial things and good fruits, which the cultivation of the holy Spirit has produced. As for those who enter upon another path, all their things are false, confused, and universally nothing other than a manifest deception.”

^A And all men from both these paths run toward one and the same goal.

90. The goal and purpose of all who contend according to God is to be pleasing to Christ our God, and through the participation of the holy Spirit to receive the grace of the Father, and through the same to secure and acquire their own salvation; for in this the salvation of every soul and every human being is situated. Which, if it does not come to pass, our labor is empty and our work is vain; and every way of life is unprofitable, if it does not bring the one running in it to this.

91. Whoever has left the whole world and has withdrawn to the mountain as if for the sake of quiet, and from there writes ostentatiously to those in the world, blessing some, while flattering and praising others, is like someone who, having been separated from a harlot, ^B dishevelled and utterly wretched woman, and having traveled to a far country in order to escape her company and even the memory of her, then forgets the goal for which he came to the mountain, and eagerly writes to those who are consorting with that harlot and, so to speak, being polluted along with her, and extols them as blessed. Such a one, even if not with his body, yet surely with his mind and heart, suffers along with them, and by his intention accepts such people, in a way approving of their connection with her.

92. ^C As much as those who live in the midst of the world and purify their senses, and their hearts from every wicked desire, are to be praised and accounted blessed, so much are those who dwell in mountains and caves, if they covet the praises and commendations of men, to be blamed and rejected; for in the eyes of God who searches our hearts they will be like adulterers. For whoever desires his life, and name, and conduct to be talked about in the world, commits fornication away from God, like the ancient people of the Jews, as David says.

93. Whoever by an unwavering faith toward God has renounced the world and things in the world, believes that the Lord is merciful and compassionate, and receives those who approach him in repentance, knowing that through dishonor he honors his servants, and through extreme poverty enriches them, and through insults and humiliations glorifies them, and through death makes them partakers and heirs of eternal life. He hastens like a thirsty deer toward the immortal fountain through these things, and ascends what is arduous in them as if by a ladder, through which angels ^D ascend and descend, for the help of those who are ascending. Above, however, God sits, waiting for our intention and zeal to the extent of our power; not that he takes pleasure in seeing us toil, but as a benefactor wishing to bestow the rewards upon us as a debt.

94. God does not allow those who approach him without wavering to fall at all; but seeing them weak, he collaborates and helps, reaching out to those

^A from above with a hand of power, and draws them back to himself. He assists them openly at once and in secret, unknowingly and knowingly, until they have climbed the whole ladder, until they draw near to him, and are joined as a whole to the Whole, and forget all earthly things, abiding with him there—whether in the body, or out of the body, I do not know—and living as citizens in his company, and enjoying the ineffable good things.

95. It is right first to place our necks under the yoke of Christ's commandments, and not to shy away as if stung by a gadfly, nor to turn back, ^B but to walk uprightly and eagerly in them until death, and to renew ourselves, the truly new paradise of God; until the Son, along with the Father, enters through the Holy Spirit and dwells within us. And then, when we have gained him entirely as an indweller and teacher, whatever he may command of us, and whatever ministry he may entrust to us, we shall be put in charge of it, and we shall perform it eagerly according to his will. But it is not allowed to seek this out before the time, nor to accept it when given by men; rather, one must remain in the commandments of our Lord and God, and await his mandate.

96. After we have been entrusted with a ministry of divine things, and have distinguished ourselves in it, if we are directed by the Spirit ^C to move to another ministry, or task, or action, we must not resist. For God wishes us to be neither idle, nor to remain until the end of life in one and the same work in which we began, but to be always advancing and in constant motion toward the attainment of better things—that is, in the divine, and not following our own will.

97. He who strives to mortify his own will must do the will of God, and instead of his own will, introduce the will of God into himself, and plant and graft this into his heart. Furthermore, he must examine ^D precisely whether what is planted and grafted is such that part of it takes root in the depths and grows, while part is scarred over and united, and becomes a tree; if they have sprouted, blossomed, and produced beautiful and sweet fruit, so that he himself is unaware of the earth that first received the seed, and the root into which it has been grafted...

[alt-version omitted]

(17) Pontanus adds: "He who has throttled his own will, is altogether stripped of the use of will: that lacks nothing of those things in which life and motion exist. For in those things in which there is no sensation, even if they move and grow, like plants, we do not say they are driven or moved by natural will, nor that they grow—for they are inanimate. But all animate creatures have a natural will. He, therefore, who by religious exercises and his own diligence has mortified his own will, and has in a way killed it, and is—without the use of his will—chosen, has altogether departed from his own nature; and because he does not have 'the will,' he can perform nothing of good or evil." (*)

(*) These things must be taken in a healthy sense; for he who has mortified his will can do nothing evil, since his will has, through the love of God, been mortified and crucified with Christ, and as such, no evil can proceed from it. But whoever does anything evil, by this very fact shows that he has not yet mortified his will: because if he had mortified it, he would certainly have mortified it with respect to evil, and thus would not commit evil. What he commits, he demonstrates that he still possesses a will alive for evil. But as for what he says: "that such a person can no longer do any good," he says this because the will of such a man is the will of the superior to whom he has subjected himself, or rather of God, instead of his own. Wherefore, just as the Apostle said: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20); so he who ascends to this degree of perfection can say: "I will, now not I; the superior, or God, wills in me," and thus whatever good he does, he ascribes it to him by whose nod and governance he is ruled, just as if he himself were performing absolutely nothing.

llbracketA the earth that received the seed, and the root upon which that incomprehensible, unspeakable, and life-giving plant was grafted.

98. He who cuts away his own will for the sake of the fear of God, to him—I know not how—God grants His own will, even without the man’s knowing it; He keeps it indelible in his heart, opens the eyes of his understanding to recognize it, and provides the strength to fulfill it. This grace is wrought by the Holy Spirit, without whom nothing is done.

99. If you have received forgiveness for all your sins, whether through confession or the putting on of the holy and angelic habit, how great a cause for love, thanksgiving, and humility will this be for you? For though you were worthy of thousands of punishments, you have not only escaped them, but have been deemed worthy of adoption as a son of God, of glory, and of the kingdom of heaven. Turning these things over in your mind and constantly pondering them, be ready and prepared not to dishonor Him who created and honored you and forgave your thousand transgressions, but rather honor and glorify Him in all your works, so that He in turn may glorify you even more—He who has honored you above all visible creation and has called you His own genuine friend.

100. By as much as the soul is more precious than the body, by so much does the rational man surpass the whole world. Do not, O man, look to the size of the things created within it and therefore think them more precious than yourself; rather, looking to the grace given to you and discerning the worth of your intellectual and rational soul, praise God, who has honored you more than all that is seen.

101. Let us consider how we are to glorify God; for He is glorified by us in no other way than how He was glorified by the Son. For by those means through which He glorified His own Father, the Son was also glorified by the Father. Let us, then, eagerly practice those same things, so that through them we may glorify our Father who has deigned to be called our Father in heaven, and may be glorified by Him with the glory of the Son, which He had with Him before the world existed. And what are these? The cross, that is to say, the mortification of the whole world; the afflictions, ^D

and whatever else belongs to the sufferings of Christ; which, while we bear with much patience, we imitate the sufferings of Christ, and through them we glorify our Father and God, as His sons by grace, and coheirs of Christ.

102. A soul that has not been perfectly and sensibly severed from attachment and affection for the things that are seen, cannot bear the painful events that happen to it, nor the assaults coming upon it ^A from demons and men, without sadness; but being bound and, as it were, fettered by the inclination toward human affairs, it is stung by the loss of money, is grieved by the deprivation of goods, and is tormented in the highest degree by blows inflicted upon its body.

103. If anyone has detached his soul from the affection and desire for objects moved by the senses, and has bound it to God, he will not only despise money and his possessions, and, having lost them, will be disposed without grief, as if he had lost things that were alien and pertaining nothing to his own self, but he will also endure with joy and with the becoming thanksgiving the bitter things inflicted upon his body, ^B always seeing, according to the divine Apostle, the outer man perishing, yet the inner one being renewed day by day. Otherwise, tribulations according to God cannot be borne joyfully and with a glad mind. For in these, perfect knowledge and spiritual wisdom are exercised: he who lacks these walks perpetually in the darkness of ignorance and distrust, and cannot in any way perceive the light of patience and consolation.

104. Everyone who thinks himself wise by reason of human learning will never be deemed worthy to look into and know the mysteries of God, until he is willing to be humbled first, and to become a fool, having cast away the conceit ^C and knowledge he possesses. For he who does this, and wisely follows after divine things with unhesitating faith, and is led by them, enters with them into the city of the living God; and being both led and illuminated by the divine Spirit, he sees and learns things which no other man can ever see and learn, and at that point he becomes taught by God.

105. Those taught by God are considered fools by the disciples of the wise men of this world; while they themselves are in truth fools, quick and sharp in earthly and foolish wisdom, which God has rendered foolish, according to the divine Apostle, and which the theological voice declares to be earthly, ^D animal, diabolical, and full of contention and envy. For because these men are outside the divine light and cannot see the wonders that are in it, they consider those who abide in the light, and who behold and teach the things that are in it, to be deluded; while they themselves are the ones who are deluded, and have never tasted the ineffable good things of God.

106. That even now there are those who are dispassionate, and holy, and filled with the divine light, living in

^A our midst, having so mortified their members which are upon the earth, from all uncleanness and passionate desire, that they not only do not think of doing any evil by themselves, nor are they incited to it by others, but even when solicited to do so, they know not how to change in any part the quiet state of their soul, because they keep in mind the divine oracles which they daily read and chant. These people have no faith in those who, in the wisdom of the Spirit, teach concerning divine things, regarding them as foolish. For if they had attained to a perfect knowledge of the divine Scripture, they would have believed the words spoken by God and the good things granted to us; but since they are destitute of such things, through their own conceit and negligence of the good, they, being themselves unbelievers, slander both those who have partaken of these things and those who teach about them. ^B

107. For this reason only, do those who are filled with the grace of God, and perfected in the knowledge and wisdom from above, wish to approach and see those who are in the world, so that they may procure some reward for them through a reminder of the commandments of God and through good works, if perchance they will hear, if perchance they will understand and be persuaded. For those who are not led by the Spirit of God walk in darkness and know not whither they are going, nor in what commandments they are making progress. ^C Perhaps, one day, having recovered themselves from the conceit that surrounds them, they will receive the true teaching of the Holy Spirit, and hearing the will of God unadulterated and without guile, they will repent, and having done it, will partake of some spiritual gift. But if they are not able to be the occasion of such benefit to them, they, mourning the hardening of their hearts, return to their cells, praying night and day for their salvation. For those who are unceasingly with God and overflowing with every good thing will never be troubled for the sake of any other thing. ^D

108. What is the goal of the incarnate economy of the Word of God, which is proclaimed in all divine Scripture, and is read by us, but not understood? Is it not altogether that, having partaken of our nature, He might make us partakers of His own? For the Son of God for this reason became Son of man, that He might make us humans sons of God; that which He is by nature, He might elevate our race to be by grace, begetting us anew in the Holy Spirit, and immediately leading us into the kingdom of the heavens; or rather, granting us to have the kingdom of the heavens within us, so that we might not be in expectations of entering into it, but being in possession of it, we might cry out: "Our life is hidden with Christ in God."

109. Baptism does not take away our free will and self-determination, but it grants us freedom, so that the devil can no longer tyrannize over us against our will; but it is in our power, after baptism...

either to be willing to keep the commandments of the Lord in whom we were baptized, and to walk in the way of his precepts, or to deviate from this straight path and fall back toward our adversary and enemy, the devil.

110. Those who, after holy baptism, yield to the desires of the evil one and perform the things he has counseled, alienate themselves from the holy womb of holy baptism, according to that which was said by David; for not one of us is altered, nor does he depart from the nature with which he was created, but having been created good by God (for God did not make evil), he is immutable by nature, as he was created and as he is in his essence, but according to his voluntary resolve, whatever he chooses and wills, he also performs, whether it be good or evil. For just as a sword, whether one uses it for an evil purpose or a good one, does not depart from its own nature, but remains iron, so also for man: he works and acts, as has been said, what he wills, but he does not depart from his own nature. ^B

111. It is not that to show mercy to one [person] saves you, but to despise one [person] sends you off to the fire. For "I was hungry and I gave you to drink" is not spoken for just once, nor for one day, but signifies the time of the whole life; and so the feeding of Christ, the giving of drink, the clothing, and whatever else accompanies these, are not for once, but always and in all [cases], which our Lord and God confessed that he receives from his servants. ^C

112. He who has given alms to one hundred, yet being also able to give to others, and to give drink and food to many who are begging and crying out to him, dismisses them, he will be judged by Christ as one who did not feed Him; since He is in all of them, He who is also being fed by us in each one of the least of these.

113. He who has provided everything necessary for the body to all [people] today, but being able to do the same tomorrow for certain brethren, yet allows them to perish from hunger, thirst, or cold, has despised him who is dying, and has despised Him who said: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me." ^D

114. Therefore, He willed to take on the face of every indigent person, and likened Himself to every poor person, so that no one of those who believe in Him might be lifted up against his brother, but that each one, looking upon the

^A brother and the neighbor as his own God, might consider himself less than his brother, as he would consider Him who made him, and might receive and honor him as such, and might empty out all his possessions for his service, just as Christ and our God emptied out His own blood for our salvation.

115. He who is commanded to have his neighbor as himself is obligated to have him so not for one day only, but through his whole life; and he who is commanded to give to everyone who asks is commanded to do this throughout his whole life; and he who desires that other good things be done for him by others will be required to do the same for others.

116. Just as therefore he who has his neighbor as himself does not endure to have anything more than his neighbor, but if he has and does not distribute liberally until he himself becomes poor and is made equal to his neighbors, he is not found to be a fulfiller of the commandment of the Lord; nor is he who, wishing to give to all who ask, if he has come down to an obol or a crust of bread, sends away empty any of those asking him; nor is he who does not do for his neighbor whatever he wishes that another should do for him. So also he who has fed, given drink to, clothed every poor and least person, and has performed all other services for him, but has despised only one and overlooked him, will be judged as having despised Christ who is God, hungry and thirsty.

117. These things will perhaps appear burdensome ^C to all, and therefore they will think it reasonable to say among themselves: "Who then can do all these things, so as to serve all, and feed them, and overlook none of them in any way?" But let them hear Paul crying out clearly: "For the love of Christ urges us, because we judge this: that if one died for all, then all have died."

118. Just as general commandments contain within themselves all the particular commandments, so also the general virtues contain within themselves the particular virtues. For he who has sold his possessions and distributed them to the poor, and has once and for all become poor, has fulfilled all the particular commandments at once; for he no longer has need to give to one who asks, or not to turn away one who wishes to borrow from him. So also he who prays without ceasing has enclosed everything in this, and he has no longer under necessity to praise the Lord seven times a day, or evening, and morning, and at midday; as one who has already fulfilled everything which [is required].

canonically, and at set times and hours, and we sing psalms. So also, he who knows that God dwells in him—from whom knowledge has been given to men—traverses the entire divine Scripture and reaps all the benefit from that reading, and will no longer be compelled to read volumes. For why would he be compelled, when he has within himself as a companion the One who inspired the holy Scriptures for the writers, and is being taught by Him the secrets of the hidden mysteries? Indeed, he himself shall be a book inspired by God for others, bearing both new and old mysteries, written by the finger of God in him, as one who has finished all things and rested in God (who is supreme perfection) from all his works (21). ^B

119. Nocturnal pollution is wont to arise from many causes: from gluttony, from pride, and from the envy of the demons. It arises also from long vigils, when the body slips into sleep, and from the fear that this might happen. Or if a priest is about to celebrate the divine Liturgy or the holy communion, and while thinking of this he simultaneously fears that he might suffer that in his bed, he suffers it while lying down: which also happens by the envy of the demons. And there is indeed another way: if someone has seen a comely face in the day, then representing this to himself in his imagination, he falls asleep amidst lubricious thoughts, and not repelling them through sloth, he dreams just as if he were awake while lying in bed. In another way it happens: there are some who are slothful (in my judgment), sitting and talking about lewd matters, for the purpose of inciting lust or otherwise; then, going to bed and recalling these things to mind, and falling asleep with them, they experience that through sleep. Likewise, one may suffer harm from the very speech of another. Therefore, one must watch over oneself with all care and meditate on these words of the Prophet: ^C "I foresaw the Lord always before my face, that he is at my right hand, that I might not be moved" (Ps. CXVII, 20), and to fortify one's ears against such discourse. Often, too, some, ceasing from prayer, have been impelled into carnal movements, as we showed in the chapter on prayer.

120. Brother, as soon as you have renounced the world, strive to plant beautiful virtues in yourself, so that you may be useful to the common good, and the Lord may magnify you above the lower ones. Never seek familiarity with a superior, as we have said elsewhere, nor desire to be honored by him; do not seek to catch the friendship of superiors, nor go around their cells, knowing that therefore it is not only ^D

(21) Pontanus adds the following two chapters: "What is first, and greatest, and how are these accustomed to happen in order? The first is prayer, then illumination, afterwards illustration, and from this is generated the vision of things that are in the light. For how can anyone be illustrated when the sun is not shining? Or, he who does not have eyes perfectly illuminated, how can he see anyone?" "Monastic rest is an imperturbable state of soul, a serenity of a free and exulting soul, a foundation of the heart, agitated by no crowds, flooded by no waves, contemplation of light, mystical knowledge of God, discourse of wisdom, an abyss of God's counsels, a rapture of the mind, a pure conversation with God, a watch-eyed gaze, intellectual adoration, union and copulation with God, the end, Deification, and in the great labors of the ascetic life, rest without labor."

^A in this way, not only will the vice of vainglory begin to take root in you, but you will also become odious to your superior—but let one who has understanding, understand this. Rather, sit quietly in your cell, whatever it may be like, and if someone wishes to speak with you, do not turn him away on account of piety, but by speaking with him with fatherly benevolence, you will suffer no harm, even if he happens to be your enemy; but if you do not judge this to be useful, you should remain within the bounds of utility.

121. One must always have the fear of God and examine oneself every day as to what good and what evil one has done. As for the good things, you ought to forget them, lest you fall into the vice of vainglory; but for the bad things, you must use tears with confession and constant prayer. Let the examination be as follows: when the day is finished and evening has fallen, reflect within yourself: "Have I, perhaps, by the help of God, passed the day? Did I condemn anyone, or speak abusively, or scandalize anyone, or look at someone's face with passion, or disobey the one in charge of the service and neglect the duty itself, or get angry at someone, or while standing in the assembly, occupy my mind with useless things, or out of sloth, stay away from the Church and the liturgical canon?" And when you find yourself blameless in all these things (which is impossible, for no one is pure from defilement, not even for a single day of his life, and no one will boast that he has a clean heart), then cry to God with many tears: "Lord, forgive me whatever I have sinned in deed, word, and thought, and in ignorance; for we trespass in many things and do not know it."

122. One must confess every thought daily to one's spiritual Father, and accept what is said to you by him as if from the mouth of God with all confidence, and not reveal these things to anyone else—as if to say, for example: "Regarding this and that which I asked the Father, this is what he answered me," or whether he explained the matter well or not, or "What, then, ought I to do to satisfy him?" For these words are full of distrust toward the Father and harmful to the soul, as is wont to happen to novices.

123. One must view everyone in the cenobium as saints, and consider only oneself a sinner and the last of all, so that while all are being saved, one alone will be punished on that day. And when standing in the assembly, thinking these things, do not cease to weep fervently in compunction, taking no account of those who are scandalized by this or who mock. If, however, you see yourself slipping from this into vainglory, upon leaving the Church, do this in secret, and then quickly return to your own place. This is indeed very good for novices, especially during the hexapsalm, the stichology, the reading, and the divine Liturgy. Be careful, however, not to judge anyone, but place this in your mind: "As many as see me lamenting thus, thinking me to be a great sinner, are praying for my salvation." And by always thinking this, and acting incessantly...

you will be greatly profited, and will draw down to yourself the grace of God, and become a partaker ^A of divine blessedness.

124. Do not approach the cell of anyone, except that of the superior, and even this rarely. And if you wish to ask him for any counsel, do this in the church. From the synaxis, withdraw immediately to your cell; and thereafter to your duty. But after supper, having performed a prostration outside the cell of the superior and asked for a prayer, return again, bowing your head, in silence to your cell; for it is better to say one Trisagion with attention before sleeping than to keep a vigil of four hours in useless conversations; where, however, there is compunction and spiritual mourning, there is also divine illumination: and by the presence of this, sloth and illness are driven away.

125. Do not form a private friendship with any person, especially with a novice, even if you think he leads the best of lives, and not a suspect one. For often it will incite you from spiritual things to carnal ones, as usually happens, and you will fall into vain anxieties: for this especially tends to happen to those who are athletes of virtue. Nevertheless, humility and persistent prayer will teach you this; for this is not the place to discuss these things in minute detail: he who has understanding, let him understand.

126. You must hold yourself as a stranger ^B to every brother in the cenobium, and even more so to those whom you knew in the world; but love everyone equally; and regard the pious and those who are struggling as saints; but pray fervently for those who are negligent, in my judgment. However, as we have said above, holding all as saints, hasten through mourning to be purified of the passions, so that, illuminated by grace, you may regard all equally, and attain in your heart the blessedness of the pure.

127. And consider this, brother, to be the perfect fleeing from the world: the complete mortification of your own will; then the indifference and renunciation of parents, relatives, and friends.

128. Only then in the same way be stripped of all things you possess, distributing them to the poor, according to Him who said: "Sell what you have, and give to the poor" ^C; and forget all those whom you loved with attachment, whether corporeally or spiritually.

129. Reveal all the hidden things of your heart which you have committed from infancy up to this very hour to your spiritual Father, or to your superior, as to God Himself who searches hearts and reins ^D, knowing that John was baptizing with a baptism of repentance, and all were coming to him confessing their sins [Matth. III, 6]; for from this, great joy and relief of conscience come to the soul, according to that prophetic word: "Tell you your sins first, that you may be justified." [Isa. XLIII, 26]

130. Be persuaded in your mind that, after your entry into the cenobium, all your parents and

^A friends are to be disregarded; consider only God and your superior as father and mother. Never ask anything of them for the sake of bodily need. If, however, they should send you something out of foresight, accept it and pray for their welfare, but hand over the gift that was sent to the guest-house or the infirmary. Do this with humility; for this is not a practice for the perfect, but for the least among us.

131. Do every good work with humility, keeping in mind the one who said: "When you have done everything, say: We are useless servants; we have done what we were obligated to do."

^B 132. Beware of ever receiving communion while you have something against your neighbor, even if it is merely the offense of a passing thought, until you have brought about reconciliation through repentance. But you will learn even this from prayer.

133. Be ready each day to receive every affliction, considering it to be an absolution from many debts, and give thanks to the holy God; for from these, one acquires boldness that leads to no shame, according to the great Apostle. For "affliction produces endurance, and endurance proves character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint." For those things "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man," these remain, according to the most certain promise, for those who, through the patient endurance of afflictions, and with the aid of grace—for without grace nothing good can be done—have been ^C proven.

134. Possess nothing material in your cell, not even a needle, except for a sleeping mat, a sheepskin, a cloak, and the clothes you are wearing; if it is possible, not even a footstool; for there is a word concerning these things also, yet "he who understands, let him understand."

135. Do not demand anything of the superior for your needs, other than what has been designated, and that only when he himself calls you and provides it. Do not at all be persuaded by a thought that suggests you exchange anything of the things provided, but whatever they are, receive them as if from God with thanksgiving, and be content with them. It is not permitted to buy anything else; but when your garment is soiled, you must wash it twice a year, asking for another brother's outer garment with all humility, as if you were a beggar and a stranger, until your own, once washed, is dried by the sun. Then, afterward, return it with ^D thanksgiving; the same applies to the cloak and anything else.

136. Labor according to your ability in your manual task, but in your cell persevere in prayer, with compunction, and attention, and constant tears. Do not put it in your mind to say, "Because I have labored excessively today, I will subtract something from my prayer on account of bodily exhaustion." I say to you that, however much someone may force himself in his work, if he is deprived of his prayer, he should consider that he has suffered a great loss; for that is the truth.

137. Above all, go to the ecclesiastical

^A assemblies, and depart last, except in case of great necessity; but rather in the morning service and at the Divine Liturgy.

158. Render all obedience to your superior, from whom you received the tonsure, and fulfill without question whatever he commands even unto death, even if they seem impossible to you; for in this you imitate Him who became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross. And it is necessary to obey not only the superior, but also all the brethren and those entrusted with ^B ministries in all things. But if what is commanded of you exceeds your strength, express your distress and ask for a release. If he denies this, saying: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force," use violence upon yourself.

139. When one falls with a contrite heart at the feet of all the brethren, he appears obscure and inglorious, but he is by no means so. For having thus returned to life, and (I dare say) having become clear-sighted, he prophesies many things, with the help of grace. A man of this kind mourns for the failings of others, and remains unmoved by any affection for material things, because spiritual and divine love does not allow him to stumble in these matters. It is not surprising that he prophesies, since it often happens that this also comes from the demons themselves; ^C nevertheless, he who is understanding will understand. Yet if someone begins to receive revelations, he will perhaps be deprived of them, as he is busy scrutinizing the thoughts of others. But if, out of great humility, he desists from this curiosity—namely, from speaking and hearing—he is restored to his former state. But of such things God alone has knowledge; I, restrained by fear, do not dare to speak of such things.

140. Keep your mind always intent upon God, in sleep and in waking, at meals and in conversation, in manual labor ^D and in every other action, according to the prophetic oracle: "I beheld the Lord before me always." Consider yourself as the greatest sinner among all men. For through the persistence of this remembrance, there usually comes to the mind an illumination, like a ray; and as much as you seek this with great diligence, constant heart, tenacious labor, and tears, so much the more brilliantly does it shine. Being radiant, it is loved; being loved, it purifies; and as it purifies, it renders one like unto God, illuminating and teaching one to discern the good from the bad. Furthermore, brother, it is necessary to labor much with God, so that it may perfectly dwell in your soul and illuminate you as the moon illuminates the darkness of the night. You must also be on guard against the offenses of thoughts, of vainglory and presumption, and not condemn anyone you see doing something improper. For the demons, seeing the soul liberated from passions and temptations through the indwelling of grace and the peaceful state, cast such things before it. Nevertheless, help will come from God. Let your mourning be continuous, and may there be no satiety of tears.

^A Beware, however, lest you suffer any detriment from intense joy and compunction, or attribute these things to your own labor and not to divine grace, lest they be taken from you, and you seek much in prayer and find nothing; and you shall know what a gift you have lost. But may we never, O Lord, be deprived of your grace! Nevertheless, brother, if this happens to you, cast your weakness upon God, and rising, with hands outstretched, pray, saying thus: "O Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner, weak and miserable, and send down upon me your grace, not allowing me to be tempted beyond what I can bear. Behold, O Lord, to what despondency and thoughts my many sins have led me. I, O Lord, even if I should wish it, am not able to estimate the deprivation of your consolation, due to the demons and my own presumption; for you know that those who fervently follow your will must battle against these very adversaries. I, however, doing their will daily, how shall I withstand their temptations? I am tempted, alas, always by my own sins! And now, my Lord, O Lord, if it be your will and for my benefit, may your grace return to your servant, that seeing it, I may rejoice in compunction and weeping, illumined by its ever-shining light; shielded from impure thoughts, and from every evil thing, and from those falling to me daily in knowledge and ignorance, in word and deed; receiving assurance of my boldness in you, O Lord, from the daily afflictions that fall upon your servant, both from demons and men, and from the cutting off of my own will, ^B mindful also of the good things remaining for those who love you, O Lord. For you said, O Lord, that "He who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened" (Matt. VII, 8). Furthermore, brother, continue to ask persistently for whatever other things God suggests to your mind, not becoming slack through sloth, and the good God will not abandon you.

141. The cell which you received from the superior at the beginning, retain until the end. But if, due to antiquity or some accidental ruin of it, you are disturbed in your mind, expressing your sorrow, humbly explain the matter to the superior. If he hears you, rejoice; if not, nevertheless give thanks, mindful of your Lord, who had nowhere to lay his head (Matt. VIII, 20). ^C For if you bother your superior twice, or three, or four times regarding this, excessive familiarity is born, then distrust, and at last, contempt. If, therefore, you wish to lead a calm and quiet life, do not demand any bodily comforts at all from the superior; for indeed, you did not promise this at the beginning, but rather that you would bear being despised and disparaged by all, in accordance with the command of the Lord, and would bear it nobly. If, therefore, you wish to preserve faith and love toward him, and to view him as a holy man, guard these three things: do not demand what pertains to the care of the body, do not have excessive familiarity, and...

do not frequent him as some do, ostensibly seeking medicine from him; for this is not monastic, but human. I do not, however, condemn the practice of not hiding from him any thought that enters your mind. For if you observe these things, you will cross the sea of life without turbulence, and you will consider your Father holy, whatever he may be. But if, having approached the church to consult your Father regarding a thought, you should find another having preceded you for the same purpose or some other, and on this account you are delayed for a little while, do not be annoyed, nor think anything contrary; but stand apart with your hands joined until he has finished and you are summoned. For the Fathers are accustomed to act toward us in this way, perhaps even intentionally, for our testing and for the expiation of previous sins. ^B 142. Perform the three fasts—the Great Fast double—as for a great feast: except for Saturday and Sunday; and during the other two, every other day. On the remaining days of the year, eat once a day, except for Saturday, Sunday, and feast days, but not to satiety. 143. Strive to be an example of benefit to the whole brotherhood, in every virtue, humility and meekness, mercy and obedience even toward the lowest, temperance from anger and concupiscence, poverty and compunction, goodness and simplicity, candor of character, ^C separation from all men, visitation of the sick, and consolation of the afflicted. Turn away no one in need of your help, that you may become intimate with God; for love is better than prayers. Be compassionate toward all, without vainglory, without excessive boldness, not loving to rebuke, asking nothing of a superior or any of your inferiors; preserve reverence toward all presbyters, attentiveness in prayer, an unaffected demeanor, and show benevolence toward all. Do not, for the sake of glory, exert yourself to search curiously into the Scriptures. For prayer with tears, and the illumination that comes from grace, will teach you all these things. Therefore, when asked about some duty, with great humility teach the lessons of divine actions—drawn from your own life, as though from another’s, with grace assisting—with a mind free from vainglory, seeking the benefit of whoever it may be. Do not turn away someone seeking benefit from you regarding a thought, but receive his faults, whatever they may be, pouring out tears and prayers for him; for these are signs of love and perfect compassion. And do not fear to turn away one coming to you, lest the hearing of such faults harm you; for with grace assisting, you will suffer no harm. Otherwise (lest many be hurt, it is necessary to say this in a secret place), even if you should perhaps fall into an offense of thought, being human (for if grace is helping you, this will not happen to you), have we not been taught to seek not what is our own, but what concerns others, so that they may be saved? As we said before, ^D keep your life tranquil and poor, and yourself...

a life free from distraction and property; and count yourself at that time to be acting under the benefit of grace, when you truly consider yourself the greatest sinner of all mankind. How this comes about, I cannot say; God knows.

^B 144. As for the hours of your vigil, you ought to read for two hours, and pray for two with compunction and tears, while reciting whatever canonical office you wish, and the psalms, if you desire, the twelve, and the *Amomos*, and the prayer of Saint Eustratius. Do these things during long nights. During short ones, however, let the office be shorter, according to the strength provided to you by God; for without Him nothing good is accomplished, as the Prophet says: "The steps of a man are directed by the Lord" (Ps. xxxvi, 23); and as the Savior Himself said: "Without me ye can do nothing" (John xv, 5). ^C Never approach communion without tears.

145. Eat whatever is set before you, as it is. In like manner, drink wine with temperance and without murmuring. If you are sitting alone because of infirmity, eat raw herbs with oil. If any of the brethren sends you something edible, receive it with gratitude and humility as a stranger, and partake of it, whatever it may be, and send the remainder to another brother who is poor and pious. If anyone invites you to a meal, partake of all that is set before you, but only a little, observing temperance according to the commandment. Rising, and offering a prostration in the manner of a stranger and a beggar, ^D render thanks to him, saying: "God, holy brother, give you the reward." Be careful not to speak anything, even if it might perchance be useful.

146. If any of the brethren is distressed, whether by the superior, or the steward, or anyone else, and comes to you, console him thus: "Believe, brother, that this has come to you for your testing; for it happened to me in various ways, and I was saddened by small-mindedness; but when I was convinced that these things were for my testing, I bear them with gratitude. So you, too, do likewise, and rather rejoice in such tribulations." And if he turns to insults, do not for that reason turn away, but as grace grants you, console him. For there are many discernments, and as you perceive the state of the brother and his thoughts, accommodate yourself to him, and do not let him depart unhealed.

147. If it happens to you that you have not visited a sick brother for a long time, you must send something ahead, declaring this: "Believe, holy brother, that I learned of your illness today, and I ask for pardon." Then, having gone and offered a prayer with reverence, say to him: "How has God helped you, holy brother?" and, sitting with folded hands, be silent. If others are also present for the sake of a visit, take care not to hold conversation, either about letters or natural science, especially if you are not asked, so that you may not be distressed later. For this most often happens to the simpler brethren.

148. ^A If it happens that you dine with pious brethren, you ought to partake indiscriminately of what is set before you, whatever it may be. But if you have an instruction from someone, either not to partake of fish or something else, and these things are set before you, if the one who gave the instruction is present, go and persuade him to allow you to partake. If he is not present, or if you know that he will not permit you, and again you do not wish to scandalize them, after the meal disclose the matter to him, asking for forgiveness. But if you do not desire either course, it is better for you not to go to them; for you will gain two things: you will flee the demon of vainglory, and you will deliver them from scandal and distress. If the foods are richer, observe the Rule; yet it is better even in all these things to partake of a little. Likewise, when you are invited somewhere, according to the precept of the Apostle, eat of all things that are set before you, asking no questions for conscience' sake.

149. ^B If, while you are performing prayer in your cell, someone knocks at the door, open to him. And sitting down, converse with humility, if he proposes anything that contributes to edification; and if he is weighed down by distress, strive to heal him either by word or by deed. And when he departs, close the door, and resuming the prayer, finish it. For the care of those who come for reconciliation is likewise an act of healing. But you must not act in this way towards secular people; rather, wait until you finish the prayer, and only then speak to him.

150. ^C While you are praying, if some terror or noise or flash as of light, or anything else happens, do not be shaken, but rather persevere in prayer more intensely; for a demonic disturbance arises, and fear, and ecstasy, so that, having become relaxed, you abandon the prayer; and thereafter, once this has become a habit, they hold you captive under their hand. ^D If, however, while you are performing the prayer, another light shines upon you, which I am unable to describe, and your soul becomes full of joy, and a desire for higher things arises, and an effusion of tears with compunction, recognize this as a divine visitation and help; and if it persists for a long time, humble yourself nonetheless, because you have achieved nothing from this continuity of tears, which is meant to lead your mind to something carnal. But beware of abandoning prayer for fear of the enemies; but just as a child, frightened by certain hobgoblins, flees into the arms of his mother or father and pushes away the fear of them, so you too, by means of prayer, running to God, will escape fear of this kind.

151. If, while you are sitting in your cell, any brother comes and asks you about the carnal struggle, do not turn such a one away, but with compunction, from what the grace of God will suggest to you, and what you have learned from your own experience, communicate these things to him for his benefit, and thus set him free. And when he is departing, bowing in repentance to him,

say: “Have confidence, brother, I hope in the mercy of God that such a battle will flee from you, only do not give way or grow faint.” And when he has gone out, stand and, representing his battle to yourself, lift up your hands with tears to God in groans and pray for the brother, saying: “Lord God, who dost not desire the death of the sinner, as Thou knowest what is beneficial for this brother, so dispose.” And God, knowing his faith in you, and your compassion from love and your sincere prayer for him, will lighten his battle. ^B

152. All these things are useful, brother, for compunction; and one must perform them with a contrite heart, patience, and thanksgiving, for they are causes of tears and purifiers of the passions, and they are what grant the kingdom of heaven. For the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For if you accomplish these things, you will completely strip off the old man, even the very offenses of the thought; for darkness is accustomed to retreat before light, and shadow before the sun. But if anyone neglects these things at the beginning, becoming curious with a lax mind, he is deprived of grace, and then falling into the passions of evil, he recognizes his own weakness, filled with fear. Yet he who successfully accomplishes these things must not attribute this to his own labor, but only to divine grace; and he must purify himself, according to Him who said: “One must be purified first, then converse with the Pure.” For when the mind is purified by many tears and receives the illumination of the divine light—which, even if the whole world were to receive from it, would not be diminished—it spiritually dwells in the things to come, and [lives] in affection in the future life.

Asked one day, this holy and blessed Symeon, what a priest ought to be like, he answered, saying: “I, for my part, am not worthy to be a priest; yet what kind of person he who is to perform the sacred rites for God ought to be, I know for certain. In the first place, he must be pure not only in body, but also in soul; and in addition to this, he must be free from every sin. Secondly, he must be humble both in outward manner and in the inward disposition of his soul. Then, when he stands ^C at the sacred and holy table, he ought to contemplate the Godhead intellectually, and with his senses see without doubt the sacred gifts laid out; furthermore, he is bound to possess even Him who is invisibly present in the gifts, dwelling in his own heart knowingly; so that he may thus be able to offer up his supplications with boldness, and as a friend converses with a friend, so to say: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,’ ^D the prayer declaring that he who is by nature the Son of God has Him dwelling within himself, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Such presbyters have I seen, forgive me, Fathers and brothers.”

He also used to say this, as if about someone else, concealing himself and fleeing from the glory of men, but compelled by his own philanthropy, he revealed himself. “I heard,” he says, “from a certain monk who was a priest,

^A that he has never offered the sacrifice without seeing the Holy Spirit, just as he saw Him descending upon himself when his hands were being extended over him, and the metropolitan was reciting the prayer of priestly consecration, and the Euchologion was being placed upon my wretched head.” Being asked, therefore, by me how he saw Him at that time and in what form, he ^B replied: “He was simple, and could not be seen except as light; and as I marveled at first, seeing what I had never before seen, and was wondering within myself what this might be, He said to me mystically, as one who knows the tongue: ‘Thus do I visit all the prophets and apostles, and now the elect of God, and the saints; for I am the Holy Spirit of God.’ To Him be glory and power unto the ages. Amen.”

OF OUR HOLY FATHER SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN, ABBOT OF THE MONASTERY OF ST. MAMAS IN XEROCERCUS, ON THE ALTERATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY, WHICH ARE WONT TO ARISE IN US FROM THE VARIETY OF THE HEAVENS OR THE AIR, AND FROM THE ELEMENTS, FROM FOODS, AND SOMETIMES EVEN FROM DEMONS. A DISSERTATION.

(Translated by Peter Possinus, priest of the Society of Jesus.)

Fratres et Patres, a monk ought not only to know and understand the alterations and changes that occur in the soul, but also what their causes are, of what nature they finally are, and from where they arise within him. For sometimes a sudden joy of soul arises, and sometimes in a similar way sadness invades it, and a heavy listlessness. And sometimes, indeed, it is very easy to the movement and sense of compunction; at other times it becomes callous, and stiffens to the hardness of a stone. At other times, again, it is gentle and humble, but a little later, with a wandering mind and scattered thoughts, it becomes irritable and raging at all the brethren. And now it is lax and languid, and sluggish toward every good work; at other times it is alert and watchful, and prompt to every obedience, so that it provokes those standing by or those it meets, and as if by rebukes excites them to act rightly. Sometimes, again, it is gathered into itself and devout; anon it is poured out everywhere; then it becomes somewhat contumacious and impudent. Sometimes it remembers everyone benevolently and with charity, and invites them to itself; at other times it cannot bear to look upon them, nor upon those who are present before it. Sometimes, finally, it is crushed into itself on every side ^B and, as it were, suffocated in straits, suffering so great a pressure that it even refuses life. At other times, it dilates itself to such a degree that the force of joy as if overflows within it, so that it cannot contain itself, however much it may strive to do so.

Such is the condition of nature that this happens regarding the natural innovations of soul and body, while we strive with all our might in the exercise of virtue and the fulfillment of the commandments. But just as the soul is altered in this way, so also is our mind, and it is changed with this same vicissitude and according to the same reasoning. For sometimes it is sharp for understanding: it is sharper and more brilliant as it traverses and discerns with speed the things which the intellect revolves within itself. Sometimes it is slow and sluggish toward both tasks. And sometimes indeed it becomes like a madman, and mute, and deaf, while at other times it is clever and eloquent, attentive and prudent, and of ready counsel; and then again sometime it is blind, and sometimes sharp-sighted, with the sight of the eye so sharp and vivid that it penetrates even to the depth and height of mysteries by contemplating them, almost beyond what is lawful for a man to reach, opening a way for itself by a certain force. Sometimes it is simple and toward every movement of contemplation

^A prepared and free. And with the same soul closed and drawn into itself, not even heeding the allurements of evils that present themselves before it, nor taking any thought of them, it survives as if they did not exist at all. Sometimes, however, framing various images of pleasures, turning and reciprocating with an alternating tide, and clothing itself in every form of wickedness, or rather, like a flame in green wood suffering a certain suffocation from much smoke, it voluntarily designs most nefarious things, not only those to which it is invited by the objects of present occasions, but also summoning certain things from far away in their absence, and bringing to itself foolish and fallacious idols of mendacious thoughts that it fashions within itself. In which turn of events the heart, although groaning much and struggling and anxiously protesting that it does not acquiesce, nevertheless accomplishes nothing toward calming the storm and leading the mind away from insane thoughts. And these things indeed thus far concerning the alterations of our intellectual and divine soul. But those inequalities which happen to the body, although they appear significant to discern and easy for us to understand, are not, however, of such a nature. For almost every change of this part is from nature. For our soul is by nature immutable in substance. Likewise also, the mind, in the same manner and condition of nature, was produced by the Creator together with it. Both, indeed, are moved by their own judgment and free impulse of will, partaking of virtue or vice. This is what is accustomed to be said in other words, that they are the common lords and possessors and, as it were, heirs, configured ^B to participate in light or darkness according to the judgment of their own choice. The soul, I say, and the mind are attached to one of these, as has been said, by the judgment of their choice and the voluntary adhesion of free affection; if they are attached to the good, they become good; but if to evil, they turn out evil. But the body and nature are mutable, being composite and of a fleeting substance, as consisting of corruptible and fleeting matter, fashioned by the commixture or tempering of things contrary to one another. For its substance is from hot and cold, as those expert in such matters truly say, and from dry and moist. Furthermore, it is of itself empty of choice and judgment, nay, if it must be said, even of movement, unless one might say that its decay and flux into corruption is a certain natural movement of its substance, which is indeed irrational. But if it is irrational, it is also without blame, and not subject to the judgment of God. But the incentive, concupiscence, lust, pleasure, gluttony, intemperance, somnolence, sloth, luxury of clothing, and all similar things, which most people impute to the body, as if it were carried away into these, are nevertheless not its own; which is apparent in death, when, with the soul removed, the body desires none of these. These movements, therefore, are of the soul through the organs of the body. These, it indulges for itself; these, it desires, defined by the necessity of the flesh ^C from the place where it has once been agglutinated and hardened. Wishing, in its filth, to plunge itself into and wallow in its own obscene joys. Let no one, therefore, think that he is driven and dragged to these things by his own body. It is not so. What then? God fashioned man, taking him from the dust of the earth, a mind that is attentive to conveniences. Behold, I have shown you the body; do you now show me what and what sort of perturbations and cravings are in it—you certainly cannot show any. What then? *And God the Lord breathed into his face, and man became a living soul; and he rose up from the earth, and he walked in the spirit, namely, which was already in him, according to the power and his own judgment moving the body; but the incentive—the irrational and undeliberated movement of the secret parts—fury, I say, and that lust were not yet in him, but there was in him a life in harmony, tranquil from internal dissensions and a happy state of indivisible union. Let us see, therefore, whether, because woman was not there, or because an abundance of food provoking salivation was not at hand, man was therefore not moved toward lust or gluttony. When, therefore, God brought forth from the ground trees of every kind, fruitful, ^D beautiful to behold and sweet to the taste? When, truly, Adam and Eve were together naked in paradise and were not ashamed? You see that neither because Eve was a woman, nor because both were naked, was any loss of temperance offered to either of them. But although naked, they lacked the experience of mutual touch. And they were not tempted by any perturbation of shame, nor by any sting of itching natural to bodies. But after the sin and transgression, with both cast out of paradise and stripped by God, and excluded from His divine glory, then at length, as it is written, Adam knew his wife, who conceived and bore. Therefore, beloved, if you have sincerely loved God, and you remain in His love, no perturbation will ever rule over you, nor will any tyranny of bodily necessity ever reduce you under its subjection. For just as the body can be moved to nothing without the soul, so also the soul united to God through charity cannot be led away by any force to bodily pleasures or desires. But neither is it held to other concupiscences of any visible or invisible things or vices, for its heart’s impulse is held bound by the sweet charity of God. That heart, therefore, constrained by its embrace of the Creator, as has been said, by what manner could it ever be seized by the flame of bodily incentive, or in any way pledge its consent to the affection of any carnal lust? In no certain manner. But as for those changes which necessarily exist in the body from its natural condition, those are indeed manifest, for they fall upon all, even the saints; for example, it is said that one is well when the primary qualities are at truce, and sometimes one is drawn into illness, as often as some one of the four elements either exceeds

its measure of temperament, or fails in its own remnants, since naturally it either prevails above the others or, lacking the strength to resist those rising up against it, it succumbs. From these conditions, distillations and fluxions arise, and at times the necessity of excising terminal parts, and indeed sometimes the corruption of the whole animal, while our soul receives no detriment from these. Since most of these come from the intemperance of food and drink, and from their indigestible, poorly mixed, and congested quantity. Some, however, take their origin from the change of winds and the air, which, being by nature cold, and more frequently than usual taking on a cold greater than what is customary, cause those things which are of a colder nature to become, of course, feebler. Those, however, which are of a warm temperament become more robust and vigorous. But when, in turn, the air grows incandescent with a more vehement heat, those things that are cold are revived ^A and as it were brought back to life: as we see with flies in the sun, and insects of that kind, flourishing and flying about, illuminated and warmed by its vital heat, now capable and nimble for every quick movement. In contrast, however, those which have a warmer concretion are utterly inflamed and, being liquefied, are dissolved, and become equally feeble and languid for every action and movement. And so, in general, every thing, according to the proportion of its own temperament, undergoes change in the change of the air and winds. Furthermore, besides these things we have mentioned, there is also a change peculiar to living creatures, which arises either from excessive food and drink, or from extreme fasting. And not only from these, but even from much sleep or much watching, from labor or bodily sloth, there occurs also another kind of change in us. Again, another arises from the material existing in the body and the natural warmth within us, the movement of a smoky fire evaporating upward, as happens when water poured over burning coals is extinguished, which vapor sometimes spreads into the head, and sometimes throughout the whole body. Above all these things, however, there is yet another, by the permission of our good God and Lord, a temptation attacking us from demons for our instruction and salutary correction. Just as this is indeed: a heaviness of the body itself and especially from the more earthy and thick dregs of it, a torpor of sadness gradually settling in. When also, without any apparent new cause, as a punishment for the tickling of some vain vainglory, to which we have perhaps granted consent, or voluntary titillations, or because we have been puffed up with pride, or because we have rashly passed judgment on others—which is a daily fall for many—or for many other causes, we are handed over to this demon for the destruction of the flesh, but for the contrition ^D of the soul, and for trial, and for a fuller exercise of it, and then to capture in the meantime an experiment of the most merciful compassion of God towards us, so that we may transfer our whole love, all our desires, and our hopes fixed in Him, with a sincere preparation of soul, and have these made ready and hanging upon Him. But truly not all understand these things. Yet the alterations and mutations of the body which have progressed somewhat beyond the principles upon the way of virtue, these each one perceives through the parts of them, according as it happens that something occurs in them. For as to those who still lie entirely in darkness, we have no discourse. But the mutations and vicissitudes which exist in the mind, as we have said, only the victors of perturbations and the perfect and pure, clear of the vices of the soul and having attained liberty by virtue, have clearly perceived. Nor do they have this of themselves, but instructed by the institution of Him whose they are, and who cares for them as His own. For sometimes, indeed, from the inequalities which from time to time disturb the mind, the soul is constricted and becomes sad, suddenly deprived of the joy that was flowing in a little before. Nevertheless, using virtue and straining its effort, it emerges and raises up the mind. Conversely, sometimes from those things which the soul suffers, a compassion is propagated into the mind, which is itself also involved in the sense of its evils and, as if oppressed at nightfall, is forced to succumb to the darkness; yet it does not acquiesce, but with all its strength seeks the light that has been lost, or holds onto it as it eludes its grasp: from which sometimes, victorious, it also sends an auxiliary ray into the soul. At other times, on the other hand, from a fresh unequal vicissitude of the body's condition, both are vexed and are as if subjugated under a heavy tyranny. Sometimes, although besieged and attacked from every side outwardly, they hear indeed the roar of battle, yet they finish with it by an easy perception and repulsion, with their state of blessed peace safe within, which they enjoy meanwhile in their heart. At other times, conversely, a civil war of perturbed affections and a seditious tumult carries and drives everything within, with a sad aspect of things and miserable labor, so that to the one suffering those extremes no hope remains of tranquility returning. Thus these things infest one another, while the soul and the mind are infested by the body, and the mind is again infested by the soul: and the soul, in turn, receives discomfort from the mind and body. And indeed the soul and mind are not always troubled indivisibly; for sometimes the soul alone suffers, while the mind consoles it as if by a duty of natural friendship. Sometimes the mind is blinded and overcome, while the soul, remaining free by the virtue of divine fire, drives away the darkness and lifts the veil, and restores vision to the mind. Therefore I said, O Fathers and Brethren, that it behooves us not only to know the varieties and mutations and the alterations accustomed to happen in us, but to know also besides from where they themselves come, and how, and from whom, and what kind of winds of thoughts breathe, and from what fountains the rivers of perturbations and temptations flow and overflow, so that we may both establish the house of the soul for firm resistance and safely steer the rudder of our ship, and not handle it ignorantly and slothfully. But the constant use and experience of a long life provides the knowledge of these things, with the exaction of a life passed within the observance of an inviolate discipline. Truly it is a work...

that a monk should set before himself a goal and an end daily, and should continually see his purpose as if in a pattern, by which it behooves him to pass each day: so that he may be strenuous in the exercise of virtue, and not be retarded by any impediment of ignorance from this course. For thus, even if the way of discipline is rough and laborious, custom and the habit of doing well will, as it were, equalize it. And thus he will please God, continually progressing and arranging ascents in his heart, running from small things to greater and more perfect ones. By which he will also attain this: that he may obtain perfect knowledge of all those things of which we have spoken, and eventually become a skilled teacher of many others: illuminating those who live with him both by the doctrine of the word and by the example of his life, inasmuch as he himself is illuminated from above, and revealing deep things to those who, while they desire, seek to speak the deep things of the Spirit. In Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. ^A

OF OUR HOLY AND GOD-BEARING FATHER SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN, DISCOURSE ON FAITH AND TEACHING, ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO SAY:

“That it is not possible for those who dwell in the world and have worldly cares to attain to the perfection of virtue.” And a narrative regarding this at the beginning, which is very useful; being translated into the simple tongue, that every one may understand it.

My dearly beloved brothers and Fathers, since faith is a good gift and a thing most beneficial to the soul, we ought to proclaim to all in common the great and infinite mercy of our all-good and most merciful God, and to reveal to all our brothers ^B who are Christians the unsearchable abyss of the compassion and goodness that God has toward us. I, therefore, as you see, my brothers, and as you know very well, have performed neither many nor excessive fasts, nor vigils, nor sleeping on the ground, nor other such excessive bodily hardships; but I recognized my unworthiness, I reflected on my sins, I accused myself, and I humbled myself, and the most compassionate and all-good Lord saved me with this, as the divine David also says: “I was humbled, and He saved me.” And to tell you this in a few words, I believed only in the words of God, and my Lord and God received me with this faith; because although one who tries to obtain humility finds many obstacles that hinder him, yet to find faith and to believe in the words of God, there is no obstacle that can hinder a man; for if we should wish with all our soul to find faith, immediately without any labor ^C we find it. Since faith is a gift of the all-good God, who gave it to us naturally to have in our own power, and whenever we wish to have it. Therefore we see that even the Tatars and the barbarians and all nations have faith naturally, and one believes in the words of another, and they show faith among themselves. And so that I may prove to you what I say by deed, and not by words alone, hear the following narrative: A certain George by name, a young man, about twenty years of age, was dwelling in Constantinople, in these our own times; he was very handsome in his appearance, and he walked about with such outward vanity that many had a low opinion of him, especially those who are accustomed to look only at the outward appearance of a man, and without knowing the hidden things of each one, they condemn him, and become uncritical judges of others. This young man ^D made the acquaintance of a monk, a most holy man, who was dwelling in a monastery in Constantinople, and revealing to him all the hidden things of his heart, he told him also that he was seeking the salvation of his soul, and had a great desire to depart from the world, and to—

^A become a monk. That honorable elder, who had encouraged him for that purpose, counseled him as was fitting, and also gave him the book of Saint Mark the Ascetic to read, which wrote concerning the spiritual law. The young man took it with such longing and reverence, as though it had been sent from God, and he had such faith in it, hoping that he would receive most great benefit. And going to his dwelling, he immediately began to read it with great attention, and he read it all with much reverence, three and four times, and he did not take it out of his hands, and as he hoped, he was greatly benefited by that book. However, he chose three chapters and imprinted them within his heart, and he made a decision with himself to put them into practice, and to keep them with every care. The one chapter said this: "If you seek to find healing for your soul, it is necessary that you have great diligence and concern to keep your conscience well, so that it may not reprove you in any matter; and whatever good works your conscience tells you to do, do not be weighed down, but do them, and you will find great benefit." The other chapter said this: "Whoever seeks to acquire the gifts of the Holy Spirit, before he performs the commandments of God, is like that slave who seeks from his master his certificate of freedom, at the very hour when he produces the money to buy it." And the third chapter said this: "He who prays with his mouth, and has not yet acquired spiritual knowledge, nor does he know how to pray in his mind, he is like that blind man who was crying out, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' But he who has acquired spiritual knowledge, and prays in his mind, ^B and has opened the eyes of his soul, resembles that same blind man, when the Lord healed him from his blindness, when he received the light of his eyes and saw the Lord, and no longer called Him Son of David, but confessed Him Son of God, and worshipped Him as was fitting." These three chapters pleased that young man greatly, and he admired them much, and he received assurance into his soul, and he believed without wavering that he would find great benefit, if he took good heed of his conscience, as Saint Mark says; and that he would enjoy the gifts of the Holy Spirit and His energy, if he kept the commandments of God; and the third, that by the grace of the Holy Spirit he would be judged worthy to open the eyes of his soul, and to see the Lord in his mind. Wherefore, hoping that he would have that ineffable beauty of the Lord, he was wounded in his heart by this desire and love, and he had a great longing for this. However, he did nothing else, as he had promised with an oath, except that every night when he went to his bed to sleep, he performed first the prayer and those prostrations which that holy elder had commanded him, and then he would sleep. Then, a short time passing, and he noticing well his conscience, there where he was performing for him the canon of the elder—one evening, his conscience said to him to do also another prayer and other prostrations, and to say also the "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" more times, because he was able to do it. And he obeyed that which his conscience told him with great zeal, and began without any hesitation immediately to do it, believing that those things which he did, the same God was saying them to him; and from then on, he no longer fell into his bed to sleep, if he did not first do that which his conscience was telling him, that he might do it. And in such a way, he obeying his conscience, and it increasing always, and telling him to do more, in a short time the prayer which he did increased greatly, as we said, every evening. Because even during the day he had no opportunity to pray, because he had the entire oversight of a great nobleman's household, and he had many cares and affairs, and he was going every day to the royal palace, and there was no time left for him during the day to pray, but every evening when he went to sleep he prayed, as we said, and his heart began to be warmed, and compunction came to him, and tears flowed from his eyes ^C profusely, and he was making frequent prostrations, and saying also other prayers to the Theotokos with sighs and with pain of heart; and it seemed to him that he was standing before the Lord bodily, and he was falling at His immaculate feet, and he was begging him with tears to have mercy on him like the blind man of whom the holy Gospel speaks, and to grant him the light of the eyes of his soul. And from day to day his prayer, which he performed every evening, increased so much that it lasted until midnight; and at the time that he was praying standing, he stood like a pillar, and he would not move at all, neither his feet, nor any other part of his body; nor did he turn his eyes one way or the other to look, but he stood with great fear and trembling without being drowsy, or for despondency or sloth to ever come to him. Then one evening, at the time that he was praying, and was saying in his mind with his intellect the "O God, be merciful to me a sinner," suddenly a divine light shone upon him, and the whole place was filled with that light, and that blessed young man, I mean George, remained in ecstasy, and forgot his own self, as if he were inside a house, because he saw light all around, as if he were outside; and he did not even realize then whether he was treading on the ground, or standing in the air; but neither did he have ^D any bodily or worldly care at all in his mind, but he forgot completely all or even an un-

the world, and was united wholly, and became one with that divine light, and it appeared to him as if he himself had become light, and he was completely full of tears, and of an ineffable joy; and after this, his mind ascended to the heavens, and there he saw another light, more brilliant, and near that light it seemed to him that ^A that holy elder was standing who had given him, as we said, the book of Abba Mark, and the canon that he made. I, therefore, as I heard these things from the young man, wondered how the intercession of the holy elder had contributed much to this, and thus God had arranged it to show the young man to what height of virtue that holy elder had arrived, since he saw him standing near that light. Then that young man, as soon as this vision passed, and he came again to himself, was full, as he said, of joy and wonder, and tears flowed from his heart, and together with those tears followed also an excessive sweetness. Finally, he fell onto the bed to sleep a little, and at that same hour the cock crowed, and not much time passed, and the churches sounded for the orthros, and the young man rose to read the orthros according to his custom, and that night he neither slept completely, nor did the thought of sleep come to him at all. These things the young man related to me as they happened to him. He who did nothing else, as he assured me himself, except for these things that you heard, although he had unwavering faith and hope, and for this reason he was deemed worthy to see such a vision. And let no one tell me that he did these things in order to test, because he, as he said to me, neither put it with his own thought to test [God] at any time, but he had unwavering faith, from which he rejected from himself every other fleshly and worldly thought, and placed so much great care to guard his conscience, and to correct those things that his conscience told him, ^B that as for all other things of this world he was as if senseless, and did not perceive them at all. But neither did he have any appetite to eat or drink, so that he frequently remained fasting. Listen, my beloved brothers, what kind of things faith accomplishes, and what power it has when it is strengthened by good works! You have known that neither does our youth harm us at all, nor does old age profit us, if the fear of God is wanting to us; have you learned now that neither does the world and our daily life hinder us from keeping the commandments of God, if we have readiness of mind; nor again do the withdrawal from the world and solitude profit us, if we find ourselves in sloth and negligence? All of us hear David, how with so many cares and royal affairs, he had his mind completely dedicated to God, and we wonder at this, and we say, how did one David become, or was there another? And see how to this young man [George] it followed more than to David. Because David received the testimony from God Himself, he was anointed both a prophet and a king, and received the grace of the Holy Spirit. If, therefore, at a time when he fell into sin against God, and lost the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the dignity of prophecy, and withdrew from the communion of God, if, I say, he came afterwards to a realization, and remembered the good things that he once had and had lost, and sought again to acquire them, what is wonderful? The wonderful thing is to be praised, that a young man of twenty years, who is wholly and utterly attached to worldly things, and to these ^C fleeting things has his mind, and outside of these thinks of nothing higher, nor is it that a similar desire ever comes to his mind, and yet, merely because he heard a few things from that holy elder, and read those three chapters of Abba Mark, he immediately believed without doubting in the written things, and put them into practice with unhesitating hope, and with that little work that he performed, was deemed worthy to raise his mind up to the heaven, and to induce the Theotokos to show compassion to him, and through her intercession to God, to reconcile him so much with Him, that He might send to him from heaven His divine illumination, and the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, which might strengthen him to reach up to the heaven, and to enjoy that light, which many desire, but few attain. With all this, this young man and blessed George, who neither fasted for many years, nor kept vigil, nor performed other ascetic struggles; but never did he sleep on the ground, nor wore rough garments, nor became a monk, nor departed from the world physically; but only through the little vigil and prayer that he performed, he became an earthly angel and a heavenly man; a man in appearance, and a bodiless one in the realm of the intellect; bound, and unbound; seen by all, and yet alone, finding himself with only God who knows all things. For this reason he was deemed worthy to see that most sweet light of the intelligible Sun of righteousness. And rightly so, because the love and the yearning that he had for God, made him become spiritually outside the world, and to forget both world, and flesh, and all the vain things of the world, and to be attached wholly and utterly to God, and thus to become entirely spiritual, and entirely light, and to see such a vision, and to enjoy such an enjoyment; and especially since he resided within the city, and in such a way of life, and dwelt also in the royal palaces, and had oversight over a great noble, with so many slaves, and other many servants, and services, and great and many affairs. But enough is that which we have said and ^D

^A of the praise of that young man, and for your exhortation, that you might come and have such a desire for this, and that you might imitate him, so that you might be counted worthy to receive a similar grace from God. Or do you wish that I tell you also of other things greater than these which I have told you? But what else is greater than the fear of God, as the Theologian Gregory says? How, namely, that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God? Because where there is the fear of God, there is also the keeping of the commandments; and where there is the keeping of the commandments, there is the cleansing of the flesh, which is as a thick cloud before the soul, and does not let it see clearly the divine brightness. And again, where there is the cleansing of the flesh, there is divine illumination; and where there is divine illumination, there is the perfection of divine desire. So that the divine illumination and the light of the Holy Spirit is the endless end of every virtue, and whoever comes to this end, has finished with all things sensible, and has begun to come to the knowledge of spiritual things.

These, my brethren, are the wonders of the holy God. Therefore, the all-wise God reveals his hidden saints, either so that others might imitate them and they themselves might adopt their way of life, or, if they do not imitate them, that they might remain without excuse and have no pretext to speak. Because even those who are found in the midst of distractions and disturbances, if only they live as they ought, are saved, and are accounted worthy to receive from God great blessings, for the sake of the faith alone which they have in Him. Therefore, have pity on your souls, brethren, and believe with all your heart, without doubting, in our Lord, and in his words, and hate these false things of the world, and leave them, as they are temporary, and come to God, and cleave to Him. For without God, there is nothing in the world. All things are nothing when God is absent. Therefore I weep, and lament, and am grieved exceedingly, when I consider how we have such a master, rich in gifts and philanthropic, who, for the sake of only the faith which we show in his words, and in his promises with action, grants us such gifts, as we have heard and as we have seen. And we, thoughtlessly, like brute animals, prefer the earth, and earthly and perishable things, which the all-good God, for the sake of his extreme compassion, gives us in abundance for the needs of the body, so that it may be governed by these moderately, as much as is necessary for it to live. And that the soul should have no obstacle, but should have its own concern, and should live itself as it ought, and should be nourished also with spiritual food, and with the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the human being was made for this in this world, to find a cause from these worldly things to glorify ^B God who gave them to him, and to recognize his benefactor, and his well-wisher, and to love him, and to thank him, and with thanksgiving of word, and with thanksgiving of God-pleasing actions, and thus to be counted worthy to receive and other benefits from God, and gifts greater and eternal. But we, alas! completely do not care for those things to come; we are only given to the present, and for those things we take thought, and we are diligent as to how we might acquire them, how we might increase them, and for Him who gave them all to us, we do not care, but we show also great ingratitude toward Him, and we become similar to the demons, or even worse, if one must say the truth. And for this reason, we must be punished more than those, because we have received more benefits. Since we were born Christians, we have received so many mysteries, so many spiritual gifts, and we believe in one God who became for us human, and suffered so many torments, and finally death on the cross in order to free us from the deception of the devil, and from sin. And with all these, we believe in him with words only, and with our works we deny him completely.

Is the name of Christ not proclaimed today ^C everywhere, and in the cities, and in the villages, and in the monasteries, and in the deserts? But, if you love, examine accurately to learn how many Christians keep his commandments; and with difficulty, among so many, you will find one who is truly a Christian both in words and in works. Did not our Lord say in the holy Gospel: "Whoever believes in me, he will do also the works that I do, and even greater ones"? Now who among us dares to say, "I do the works of Christ, and believe rightly in him"? See, brethren, that we are about to be found unfaithful on that terrible day of judgment, and we are about to be punished worse than those who do not strictly know Christ, nor believe in him; because it is necessary, either that we be condemned as unbelievers, or that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Truth itself, be proven a liar, which is impossible. And I have written these things, my brethren, not with the purpose to hinder Christians from withdrawal and silence, preferring the worldly life (may this never happen!), but my purpose is to inform all those who read the present narrative, that he who wishes and desires with all his soul and heart to do good and virtue, has received power from the all-powerful God to be able to do it in every place, and to be counted worthy ^D to receive also spiritual gifts, and divine contemplation, just as this young man, the blessed one, I mean George. Whom, as I had him as an acquaintance, and my dear friend, I questioned him, and he recounted to me, just as I have written them. For this reason, my brethren in Christ...

I wrote. Therefore, my brothers in Christ, I exhort you, let us also acquire eagerness and longing in our heart to do what is good, and let us run with unwavering faith and hope, so that we may accomplish the commandments of God, for faithful and most truthful is our Lord: “Our faces shall not be put to shame.” Most certainly, we shall be able to accomplish every good thing, in whichever place we may happen to be—whether in cities, or in villages, or in monasteries, or in deserts. For the all-good God, according to His promise, opens the doors of His kingdom to everyone who knocks ceaselessly; and He gives the grace of the all-holy Spirit to everyone who seeks. And that way that seeks with all its soul—not to find the wealth of God’s gifts—does not exist. To Him be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. ^{A B}

OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN: A DISCOURSE ON THE THREE MODES OF PRAYER

*Translated into the more common dialect, and placed here for the easier understanding of the simpler.*

There are three modes of attention and prayer, through which the soul is either lifted up and advances, or is cast down and perishes. And if one employs these three modes at the appropriate time, as is fitting, he advances; but if he employs them unwisely and at the wrong time, he is cast down. Thus, attention must be so bound and inseparable from prayer, just as the body is bound and inseparable from the soul, and one cannot subsist without the other. And attention must go ahead and watch over the enemies, like a sentinel, and it must first fight against sin and stand against the evil thoughts that come into the soul. And after attention, prayer should follow, which immediately destroys and kills all those evil thoughts that attention had fought beforehand, because attention alone cannot kill them. And upon this battle of attention and prayer hangs the life and death of the soul; for if we guard prayer pure with attention, we advance, but if we do not take care to guard it pure, but leave it unguarded, and it is defiled by evil thoughts, we become useless and make no progress. Since, therefore, as we have said, the modes of attention and prayer are three, we must also state the properties of each one, so that he who loves his salvation may choose the better, and not the worse. ^C

*On the first mode of attention and prayer.*

The properties of the first mode are these: When someone stands for prayer, he raises his hands to heaven, and his eyes, and his mind, and he imagines with his mind divine concepts, and the goods of heaven, and the ranks of the holy angels, and the dwellings of the saints, and in short, everything he has heard from the Holy Scriptures he gathers into his mind, and reflects upon them then at the time of prayer, and looks toward heaven, and urges his soul with these, as if toward divine longing and love. And sometimes he brings forth tears and weeps; and in this way, little by little, his heart becomes proud, without him realizing it, and it seems to him that these things which he does are from divine grace for his consolation, and he asks God to deem him worthy always to be engaged in such work. These are signs of delusion, for the good is not good when it is not done in a good way, and as is fitting. So that such a man, if he should practice extreme stillness, it is impossible that he not lose his senses and become mad; and even if it happens that he does not lose his senses, nonetheless it is never possible for him to come to knowledge and to understand the virtues, or dispassion. ^D By this way those also were led astray who see light and radiance with these eyes of their body, and perceive fragrances with their sense of smell, and hear voices with their ears, and other such things. And some of them became demonized, and wander out of their minds from place to place; others again received the demon who transformed himself and appeared to them as an angel of light and were led astray, and remained uncorrected until the end, without listening to advice from anyone.

^A Others among them were incited by the devil and murdered their own monastics; still others were cast down from heights; some were hanged. And who can recount the various delusions of the devil with which he leads them astray, which are beyond description? Yet, from what we have said, every prudent person can understand what kind of loss results from this first method of attention and prayer. But if it happens that someone who practices this method does not suffer any of the evils we have mentioned—because he is in the company of brethren (for these evils are suffered primarily by the hermits who are alone)—he nevertheless spends his whole life without making progress.

Concerning the second method.

The second method of attention and prayer is this: When a person draws his mind within himself, pulling it out from all sensory objects, and guards his senses, and gathers his thoughts so that they do not wander into the vain things of this world; and at one time he examines his thoughts, at another he attends to the words of the prayer he is saying; and another time he turns back his thoughts that have been taken captive by the devil and dragged into evil and vain things; and at yet another time, with much labor and force, he returns to himself where he was mastered and defeated by some passion. And in having this struggle and war within himself, it is impossible for him ever to have peace, nor to find the time to work the virtues and receive the crown of righteousness. For such a person resembles one who fights with his enemies at night in the darkness; he hears the voices of the enemies and receives their wounds, but he cannot see clearly who they are, from where they came, and how and why they wound him. Because the darkness that is in his mind, and the dizziness he has in his thoughts, cause him this ruin, and it is impossible for him ever to escape from the enemy demons ^B so that they do not crush him. And the unfortunate man endures the labor in vain, because he loses his reward, since he is mastered by vainglory without realizing it, and it seems to him that he is being watchful. And many times, out of his pride, he despises others and accuses them, and promotes himself, imagining in his own conceit that he is worthy to become a shepherd of sheep and to lead others; and he resembles that blind man who promises to lead other blind men. This is the second method, and it is necessary for anyone who desires his salvation to know the harm it causes to his soul, and to watch well. However, this second method is better than the first, just as the night that has moonlight is better than the night that is dark and also lacks moonlight.

Concerning the third method.

The third method is truly a paradoxical thing, and difficult to interpret; and to those who do not know it, it is not only difficult to grasp, but it seems almost unbelievable to them, and they do not believe such a thing can happen, since in these times this method of life is not found in many, but in very few. And as I reckon it, this good thing has fled from us along with obedience. For the obedience that everyone gives to his spiritual Father makes him free from care in all things, since he has cast his anxiety upon his spiritual Father, and is far removed from the striving of this world, and is a very eager and tireless worker of this third method; if, indeed, he has found a teacher and a spiritual Father who is true and unerring, without any delusion. For he who dedicates himself and all his anxiety to God and to his spiritual Father, and through true obedience no longer lives a life of his own, in which he would do his own will, but has died to every ^C striving of the world and of his own body—from what temporal thing can such a person be defeated and enslaved? Or what anxiety and care can such a man have? From this method, then, which is combined with obedience, all the arts of the demons, and all the methods they have devised to drag the mind into many and various thoughts, are completely wiped out and dissolved. And then the mind of that man remains free from all things, and with great freedom and opportunity it examines the thoughts that the demons bring to him, and with great skill drives them away, and with a pure heart offers his prayers to God. This is the beginning of the true life, and those who do not make such a beginning toil in vain, and do not know it. And the beginning of this third method is not for one to look to heaven and raise his hands on high and keep his mind on heavenly things and seek help from there—for these, as we have said, are features of the first method and are of delusion. Nor, again, for one to guard his senses with his mind and attend wholly to this; nor to not see the internal battles of the soul which the enemies wage against him, nor to not watch out for them—for these are features of the second method, and whoever employs them gets wounded by the demons, but does not wound; he is struck and does not know it; he is enslaved and subjugated, and cannot ^D take revenge upon those who have

enslaved him. But at all times the enemies ^A both openly and secretly wage war upon him, and make him vain and prideful.

But you, beloved, if you desire your salvation, you must make a beginning of this third method from here: After the perfect obedience which we said previously you must observe toward your spiritual Father, it is necessary that you perform all your works with a pure conscience, as if you were before the face of God. For without obedience, there is no way for the conscience ever to be pure. And you must keep your conscience pure in three things: first, toward God; second, toward your spiritual Father; and third, toward other men ^B and the things of the world.

For toward God, you have the duty to keep your conscience pure—that is to say, not to do those things you know do not rest the Lord, nor please Him. Again, toward your spiritual Father, you must do everything he commands you, and neither above that nor below that are you to act, but according to his purpose and according to his will, you must proceed. And toward other men, you must keep a pure conscience by not doing to them what you hate and do not want them to do to you. And toward the things of the world, again you have the duty to guard yourself against misuse—that is, that you use them all as you ought, whether food, drink, or clothing; and in short, you must do everything as if you were before God, and in none of your works should your conscience rebuke you or sting you, [saying] that you have not done it well. And thus, employ the true and unerring path of the third method of attention and prayer, which is this:

^C That is, the mind must guard the heart at the time when it prays, and must always circulate within it, and from there within, from the depths of the heart, offer up prayers to God. And after it has tasted from within the heart that the Lord is good, and it has been sweetened, the mind will no longer wish to depart from the place of the heart; and then it will be able to say the same words which the Apostle Peter said: "It is good for us to be here." And it will always wish to look within the heart and circulate there, in a manner of speaking, pushing away and driving out all the thoughts that are sown in there by the enemy, the devil. However, for those who do not have any knowledge of this saving work and do not know it, it appears most of the time that it is very laborious and restrictive. But those who have tasted the sweetness that it holds, and have enjoyed the pleasure within the depths of their hearts, they cry out with the divine Paul and say: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" etc.

^D For our holy Fathers, hearing our Lord say in the holy Gospel, how from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, and how these are what defile a man; and again hearing Him in another part of the Gospel command us to cleanse the inside of the cup, so that the outside may also become clean, they left every other spiritual work and contended with all their might in this one work, that is, in the guard of the heart, being convinced that along with this work they would easily acquire every other virtue; but without this, it is not possible for any virtue to be acquired or to remain. This work, some of our Fathers called it "cardiac stillness"; others called it "attention"; others, "watchfulness" and "contradiction"; others, "investigation of thoughts" and "guard of the mind." For everyone was occupied with this, and by this they were deemed worthy of divine gifts. And for this reason, the Ecclesiastes also says: "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart blameless and pure, and distance your heart from evil thoughts." And for the same reason the Proverbialist also says: "If the assault of the devil comes upon you, do not allow it to enter your place," and by the place he means the heart. And our Lord also says in the holy Gospel: "Be not of doubtful mind," that is, do not scatter your mind here and there. And in another part again He says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," that is to say, blessed are those who have not acquired within their hearts any care for this world, but are poor of every worldly thought. And all our holy Fathers have written much about this, and whoever wishes may read their writings to see them. And all that the ascetic Mark wrote, and all that the holy John of the Ladder said, and the venerable Hesychius, and Philotheus of Sinai, and Abba Isaiah, and the great Barsanuphius, and many others.

And in short, whoever does not pay attention to guarding his mind, it is not possible for him to become pure in heart so as to be deemed worthy to see God. Whoever does not pay attention cannot become poor in spirit, nor can he mourn and weep, or become meek and gentle, or hunger and thirst for righteousness, or become merciful, or a peacemaker, or persecuted for the sake of justice. And to speak generally, it is not possible for anyone to acquire the other virtues by any other means than by this attention. For this reason, you must be more diligent in this than in all things, so that by experience you may understand these things of which I speak. But if you wish to learn also the method of how to do it, I will tell you also about this according to my ability, and pay close attention.

There are three things you need to observe before all others: first, freedom from care regarding every...

matter, as much as is reasonable and unreasonable alike—that is, a mortification from all things; second, a clean conscience in all things, as we said, so that your conscience may not rebuke you in any matter; and third, perfect detachment, without your inclination turning toward any worldly thing. Then sit in a secluded and quiet place, all alone in a corner, close the door, and gather your intellect from every transient and vain thing. And then rest your lower jaw upon your chest, that is, your chin, so that you may watch in this way within yourself, both with your intellect and with your physical eyes. And hold your breath for a little while, in order to keep your intellect there, and search with your intellect to find the place where your heart is, and let your whole intellect be there entirely. And in the beginning you will find inside a darkness, and much hardness and calloused insensitivity. After you have labored at this work of attentiveness night and day, you will find—O miracle!—a ceaseless joy. For the intellect, struggling at this, will attain the place of the heart, and then immediately it sees inside those things which it never saw before, nor knew. For it sees that air which is found inside the heart, and itself all luminous and filled with every understanding and discernment. And from that time forward, from whatever quarter a thought may arise and appear, even before it can enter and be reflected upon, or be formed, it immediately drives it away from there and annihilates it with the name of Jesus; that is, with, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” And from this point the intellect of the man begins to feel resentment and passion against the demons, and a ceaseless war, and it raises up against them the natural anger, and pursues them, and strikes them, and annihilates them. But the other things which follow to happen then, you will learn, God willing, yourself through experience, through means of the attentiveness of your intellect, and by keeping Jesus in your heart, that is, the prayer of, “Lord Jesus Christ, etc.” For a Father also says: “Sit in your cell, and this will teach you all things.”

Question. Why can the first and second ways that we mentioned not achieve these things? Answer. Because we do not employ them as we ought. For Saint John of the Ladder likens these ways to a ladder with four rungs, and says: “Others are those who humble themselves and diminish the passions; and others are those who chant, that is, pray with their mouth; and others are those who occupy themselves with mental prayer; and others are those who come to contemplation.” So, those who wish to ascend these four rungs do not start from the top ones to come to the bottom, but from the bottom they go to the top; and they ascend the first rung, and then the second, and then the third, and ^A afterward the fourth; and in this way one can be lifted up from the earth, and ascend to heaven. And first and as a beginning, it is necessary to contend as to how to put to rest and diminish the passions; and second, to occupy oneself with psalmody, that is, to pray with the mouth. For after the passions are diminished, then prayer naturally causes pleasure and sweetness in the tongue, and is considered acceptable to God. And third, to pray mentally; and fourth, to ascend to contemplation. And the first is for beginners; the second, for those who are growing in progress; the third, for those who have come to the perfection of progress; and the fourth is for the perfect.

So the beginning is nothing other than the attenuation of the passions, which do not diminish from the soul in any other way ^B except through the guarding and attentiveness of the heart. For from the heart proceed, as our Master says, the evil thoughts which defile the man, and there the guarding and the attentiveness are needed. And after the passions have been put to rest and diminished by the war and the opposition which the heart makes against them, then the intellect comes to desire and seeks how to be reconciled with God, and thus it increases the prayer and occupies itself with this. And from this longing and prayer, the intellect is strengthened and drives away all the thoughts that circle around to enter into the heart, striking them with the prayer. And then a war occurs, and the evil demons oppose with great disturbance, and by means of the passions cause confusion and dizziness inside the heart; however, with the name of Jesus Christ they are annihilated and melt away like wax in the fire. And again, after they have been driven out and ^C come out from the heart, they do not remain quiet, but disturb the intellect externally through the senses, and for this reason the intellect very quickly perceives the tranquility and stillness which occur within it, because they do not have the power to disturb the heart in its depths, but only on the surface of the intellect. But to be delivered completely from the war, and not to be warred upon by these evil spirits, is impossible. For this is the portion of the perfect and those who have withdrawn completely from all things, and occupy themselves perpetually with the attentiveness of the heart. Therefore, whoever employs these in order at their proper time, each one, he is able, after his heart has been cleansed of the passions, to give himself entirely to psalmody, and to fight against the thoughts, and to look at heaven with his physical eyes (when ^D there is ever a need), and with the mental eyes

of the soul so that it may behold Him, and that one may pray ^A and a second way do not advance man purely in truth as is meet.

However, as to looking up to heaven, one must do this very rarely, because of the fear of the wicked spirits that dwell in the air, and for this reason they are called aerial spirits, who excite many and various deceits in the air; and we must be on our guard. Since God seeks only this from us, that our heart be purified by watchfulness and attention. And if the root is holy, as the Apostle says, it is evident that the branches also are holy, and the fruit. ^B Without the method, however, which we have mentioned, whoever lifts up his eyes and his mind to heaven, and wants to imagine certain intelligible things, he beholds phantasies and false things, and not true ones, because his heart is impure. And as we have said many times, the first and the second way do not advance man.

For just as when we wish to build a house, we do not place the roof first, and then the foundation, because this is impossible; but we place the foundation first, and then we build the house, and then we place the roof; so also must we do in spiritual matters: let us first place the foundation, that is to say, let us guard the heart and diminish the passions from it, and then let us build the spiritual house; that is to say, let us drive away the turbulence of the wicked spirits that war against us with the senses; and let us flee as quickly as possible from their warfare, and then let us place the roof; that is to say, let us withdraw completely from all things, and let us be at peace as is meet, and let us give ourselves wholly and entirely to God. And thus we complete the spiritual house in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

APPENDIX

DIALOGUE OF A CERTAIN SCHOLASTIC ON GOD, TO SYMEON THE THEOLOGIAN

INTERROGATION. What was in the world before it existed? RESPONSE. God, the parent and builder of the world itself. INT. Since the world did not yet exist, in what manner did He exist in the world? RESP. Because the world, even before it was made, ^C plainly existed in God just as if it had been made; just as men also, not yet born into this light, exist as if already born with God. For He established all things in Himself, even those not yet created, although that escapes the imbecility of our understanding. INT. If, therefore, God was in the world before He built the world, as you say, what became of it where He brought it forth? Did He withdraw from it, or does He still remain in it? RESP. God, the creator, is indeed not separated from His creatures by space. For whither, I ask, would He remove Himself, who is present everywhere, and by His divinity fills the universe, and by nature, and essence, and subsistence, and by other properties exceeds all created nature, and is separated from it by an immense and incomprehensible distinction. INT. By what reason, since He is not distant by space, but is nevertheless present, as you have asserted, is He separated from all things? RESP. This question has a difficult understanding, but not a difficult explanation. To God, however, nothing is impossible. And so He is able to give you full faith regarding this matter also. Come, listen intelligently. Just as the human mind is neither held by walls, ^D nor circumscribed by space: but the body only is included in a small house, and is bound by chains, while the mind itself wanders freely everywhere outside the body: and it is meanwhile not separated from the body, nor is it far distant from its domicile, but while in a way absent, it is present to them, and stays with them while absent, joining presence with absence: so God is everywhere, and in all things, and outside all things, and nowhere in nature, essence, and glory, because He cannot be circumscribed by limits. INT. Who, therefore, is not circumscribed, how does He fill all things? He who fills all things, how is He uncircumscribed, and nowhere? RESP. Certainly it is conceded by all that God is everywhere; and though He fills all things, He is not at all mixed with those things we see: but is separated in the manner which I have stated. But He is "nowhere" insofar as our grasp is concerned. For no one knows, not even the angels

^A indeed, where God is. For even if you hear that they attend Him, yet [it is] at the throne of glory; and since they cannot look directly upon the radiance proceeding from it, they veil their faces in fear, and struck with stupor, they sing the divine hymn without ever ceasing. For, struck by an intolerable majesty, they can neither conceive nor comprehend where the Lord is, or what He is. For if they are unable to fix their eyes upon that flashing splendor, how could they presumptuously inquire curiously? Therefore, that God exists, and is everywhere, and fills all things, both the angels and the saints—who have purified themselves, and have been illuminated and enlightened by the divine Spirit—know; but where, or how, or what He is, no one at all knows: but the Father knows the Son, and the Son the Father, and the Holy Spirit the Father and the Son, as Being consubstantial and coeternal with them. Since these three are one, and they know themselves, and are known by each other, because He is God by nature, as the Son of God has declared: "No one knows the Father," He says, "except the Son, nor does anyone know the Son, except the Father." And again the Apostle: "For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of a man which is in him?" So, too, no one knows the things of God or the divine, except the Spirit of God.

INT. What then is that which Christ says: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for their angels always see the face of my Father"? And elsewhere: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they themselves shall see God." Do you not think even the angels know what God is, or where He is?

RESP. Just as when the sun is shining at midday, we clearly and manifestly see the light emitted from it, [yet] we are unable in any way to see or know the sun itself, and yet we are not falsely saying that we see it: in the same way, the angels and the saints, ^B looking upon the glory of the Spirit flashing like lightning, perceive in it both the Son and the Father.

Not so sinners and the unclean. For they are like the blind and those who perceive nothing. For as the blind do not see the light of this sensible sun shining, so they do not in the least behold the divine light which always shines, nor do they feel its warmth.

INT. What then do the pure in heart and mind see?

RESP. Because God is light, and the supreme and most noble light, those who see Him see nothing but light: which is evident from the testimony of those who saw His face shine like the sun, and His garments become white as snow. And [also] from the testimony of the Apostle Paul, who saw God as light, and was converted to the acknowledgment of Him; and from a thousand other saints.

INT. Why then, since God is eternal light and always shines, is He not seen by all?

RESP. Because from the beginning God instituted the matter such that darkness should have no communion with light, nor the impure and profane with the pure and holy. Wherefore, ^C like a great chasm and wall, our sins separate us from God; especially perverse thoughts and vain and useless reasonings become a high wall for us, and dissociate and seclude us from the light of life. For God is light and life: those who are deprived of this are dead according to their soul, to whom, with the others, the inheritance and society of eternal fire is owed.

INT. Is salvation to be despaired of for one who does not reach this goal?

RESP. Since the Lord says: "In my Father's house there are many mansions," it becomes clear that there are also many ways of salvation, all of which are finished in the one way of repentance, and through abstinence from sin; whether by almsgiving, or pilgrimage, or any other kind of holiness by which we strive for those eternal things, you might name to me.

YEAR OF OUR LORD MLV. NICETAS CHARTOPHYLAX NICÆNUS. NOTICE

(From Leo Allatius in his *Diatriba de Nicetis*, no. VII.)

Nicetas the Byzantine is followed, not long after, by Nicetas of Nicaea, the chartophylax. His short *Tractatus* is read: *At what times, and for what causes, the Roman Church was severed from us.* As the Royal Parisian codex reads, or as does the Vatican: *How often, and when, and for what causes, dissensions have arisen between the Greek and Latin Churches.* ^A First under the Emperor Gratian, on account of Paulinus, leader of the Eustathians. Claudius Saravius, a most kind man, sent to me, transcribed in his own hand for my sake from a manuscript codex of the library of the most Christian King, this tract. In the Royal Escurial manuscript codex, there is held by the same author *de schismate et Romana Ecclesia*. Is it the same as the former, or different? Or are they diverse, one *On Schism* and the other *On the Roman Church*? It is not clear to me. That it is clear, however, that the Greeks impiously foster dissension with the Roman Church; since the contention born between the Churches has arisen not from a variety of dogmas and a rational cause, but because of ambition and pride.

NICETAS CHARTOPHYLAX OF NICAEA ON THE TIMES AND FOR WHAT ACCUSATIONS THE CHURCH OF THE ROMANS SEPARATED FROM THE CHURCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

OF NICETAS CHARTOPHYLAX OF NICAEA AT WHAT TIMES AND FOR WHAT ACCUSATIONS THE CHURCH OF ROME SEPARATED ITSELF FROM THE CHURCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

α'. ^B 1. Under the Emperor Gratian, because of Paulinus, ^A leader of the Eustathians; for this man, not obeying the monition of the great Meletius, but hastening to take the see of Antioch, and being overlooked—Flavian having been preferred—that overlooking of Paulinus produced for the Church of the Romans ^B confusion and schism.