but John the sixth? Mark speaks of the hour A in which the sentence of the cross was determined; for judges are said to punish from the time they have pronounced the sentence, because they possess the power of punishment and death in their tongues. For this reason Mark says he was crucified at the third hour, from which time Pilate pronounced the sentence. John, however, since Mark had already spoken of the time of the sentence, declared the hour in which they actually nailed Jesus to the cross. For one needs to consider how many things happened between the sentence concerning the cross issued by Pilate, and the hour itself in which the Lord ascended the cross. For John has written these things. For after Pilate had released Barabbas, and had scourged Jesus, and delivered B him to be crucified—after these things, I say, the soldiers plaiting a crown of thorns, placed it upon him, and doing other things mocked him. Furthermore, Pilate also brought him out crowned with thorns, and clothed in a purple garment, and said: Behold the man. It is added also that the Jews shouted: Crucify, crucify him; and that when they had answered: We have a law, etc., Pilate entering in again, examined the case of Jesus anew, wishing to release him by a repeated investigation, and all the things which follow, until he again makes another judgment concerning him in the Lithostrotos. Therefore, all those things were sufficient to consume time from the third hour until the sixth; and since John had set forth those things, as one who had been present at all of them, he necessarily had to mention the sixth hour, at which Pilate had C finally delivered him to be crucified, no longer scourging him with rods; for he had already been scourged when he had previously delivered him to be crucified by the sentence. Now, however, he ordered this to be done by the act itself; wherefore he remembers none of the things that happened subsequent to this, but only his being led away to the cross. And if anyone should ask, for what reason—when he had once pronounced the sentence—he wished to release him again? We reply, first indeed because he had pronounced the sentence under the compulsion of force by the multitude; afterwards, however, he was moved by the dream of his wife. For she had sent word, as Matthew says: Have nothing to do with that just man, etc. D
Ⅲ.
Of Hesychius the priest of Jerusalem, the theologian, concerning the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the Evangelists in no way contradict one another, although they have recorded in diverse ways the things that happened at the Resurrection of Emmanuel.
Although almost all, beloved, so to speak, accept...
A IV.
Homily of Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem, on the Holy Mary, the Theotokos.
Every memory of the righteous is surely to be celebrated with all our vows, and every solemnity of the friends of God is glorious. For all have acted bravely for the sake of religion, all have endured labors for the sake of true confession; all, as if led by a divine influence, have cast themselves into dangers, so that they might obtain the crowns of truth. But this feast day which is now being celebrated surpasses every glory, inasmuch as it contains the solemnity of the Virgin, who excels all others to such a degree that she was able to receive the Word of God Himself, who willed it, and she contained Him without any narrowness of place. To her, before all else, Gabriel the archangel first cried out: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." For "behold, you shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Emmanuel."
The tidings from Gabriel were immediately the beginning of joy for her. For since the first virgin was enclosed in sorrows by the condemnatory sentence inflicted because of the transgression, and many groanings went up from her, and every woman for her sake was established in pain, and every birth suffered bitterness on her account—the second virgin, even by the angelic designation, repelled every misery of the female sex, and obstructed every source of sadness which is wont to be present during childbirth, and dissipated the cloud of desperation by which women are oppressed in childbirth; and she caused the lights of joy to shine forth among her kindred. B And so, when she heard from Gabriel, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you," she did not receive the salutation with a tranquil mind. But when she had heard such a voice, and had unexpectedly beheld the archangel Gabriel at her home, and was disturbed in her thought by the voice concerning childbearing, she threw back at the archangel such words as these (as is reasonable): “I see today,” she said, “everything beyond expectation and strange in you. And this: how did you dare to approach, unabashedly, a virgin not yet wedded, and proclaim incredible words? For you say that I shall bear a child without seed; you said that I should conceive without marriage, and that the vessel of the womb should bring forth fruit without the coming together and converse of a man. What? Look, who has heard, one skilled in the nature of fertile fields, of an untilled field having previously sprouted an ear of grain, C or land not planted having germinated a grape, wine without a vine, or a river flowing without a spring? What no one of the first ages either heard with their ears or beheld with their eyes as having happened. How shall I believe you, who mocks me?” D
A What then did Gabriel say to her as she doubted? I spoke that which I learned; I say that which I heard: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God;” as if existing as the one from whom, and as the one to whom, all of creation belongs; as Creator and Maker of all, as Father of the ages, as Begetter of the world, as Maker of the All, as older than the heavens, as creator of the angels, as former of humanity, as finally the Savior of those who would otherwise have perished: I have no power to announce anything beyond this. For, O Virgin, I have not been commanded to say how, but to serve as a minister of those things which pertain to the auspicious message to you. Wonder, therefore, with me at the mystery, and without hesitation B receive the good tidings. She says: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.” We, therefore, instructed in the Lord’s birth by the archangelic words of Gabriel, let us follow in his footsteps. As he, I recognize and deem the divine power of the birth without curious investigation: we have learned from the Magi, or rather we have been instructed, that we should reverence that event religiously. For when they were seeking the infant, with the star as their guide, they did not say to those they interrogated, "How is the conception divine? How is the womb without seed? How is the birth incorrupt? How is the mother a virgin after the birth? How is he who is prior to the years subjected to years? How is he who is before the ages in time? How could the nature of the womb contain Him who is incomprehensible? How has He who is incorporeal become flesh without change? How has God the Word, emptying Himself in the virginal womb, though He was distinguished and glorious, become incarnate in an ineffable manner from it in the form of a servant? C How can that which is perfect be an infant? How does He who nourishes suck milk? How is He who covers and embraces the universe contained in arms? How is the Father of the age to come an infant? How is He above and below? How is He who is in the heavens also on earth? How is He who is the charioteer of the Cherubic chariots wrapped in swaddling clothes? How does He who is in the bosom of the Father lie in a manger? How is He who brings out those who are bound in strength bound with swaddling clothes? And all the other things, which it is even terrible to speak of—but having arrived at the stable in silence, after their inquiry, they offered fitting worship to the King and God with gifts, desiring to return with joy to their own region, D since they were declared to be the first-fruits of divine knowledge towards the nations: whom the nations indeed emulated, but the Jews, being inflexible, or rather stiff-necked, did not learn to imitate those who had come from distant regions through the ministry of the star, so that they might be able to know the Sun
A of justice appearing in its own place. I, however, most beloved, observing the readiness of your mind to hear the divine oracles, and your intimate love toward their interpreters, being overcome by your zeal for hearing, am stirred to a desire for teaching, delighted by the congratulation of your charity. For you continually receive with applause those who speak the sermon, just as disciples receive the narrators of many things; you yourselves compose for the pilot the oars and the steering-oars, and you hold the helm of the tongue with your prayers. Who can recount your zeal as it deserves? Who will express in words your hatred against the infidel Greeks? Who will manifest your spirited confidence against the heretics? Who can recount your enmity toward the Jews? For truly, with the others, the Jews are execrable, who forever thirst and hunger for nothing but the slaughter of the innocent, finding pleasure in nothing more than casting the prophets into pits, dragging them along the ground, stoning the just, drawing swords against the heralds of religion, cutting them into pieces with saws, amputating the members of the hands and feet of pious men, and holding in their bloodied hands instruments suitable for torment, while they drench their palms in blood by the continuous slaughter of the just; who indeed have driven their own boldness B against our Savior to such a pitch of impiety that they would impudently cry out to Him in His presence: "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from." Oh, acts of such boldness! Oh, hatred toward the Jews which does not permit me to turn away! For as often as I desire to flee from the abomination of them, so often do they openly confront me, either slandering the words of the prophets, or being insulting toward the syllables of the law, or confounding the books of our adorable Gospels, such that the divine pages have brought forth before us a new cause for suspicion, that those very impudent men have cast these voices against the Lord of all, and have C boldly said what you have heard: "God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from." Oh, the manifest impudence! Oh, the uncovered insolence of the robbers! Oh, the blind contradiction of their words! For when Herod inquired of them, "Where is the Christ to be born?" they said with confidence, "In Bethlehem of Judea," and they displayed the utterance of the prophecy, and they brought forward the holy interpreter attesting to them with these words: "A great prophet has been raised up in Israel." And now they cry out with a veiled face: "God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from." Without doubt they did not know nor understand; they walk in darkness. Truly this people is foolish D and not wise. Fittingly did Christ cry out against them: "We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have lamented to you, and you have not mourned." Who will set himself against their opinion, which is so ungrateful? Who will refute their contentious enmity? Christ poured forth so many miraculous works among them, curing those paralyzed in their nerves, cleansing the lepers, healing those who were suffering, curing the demon-possessed, opening the lids of their eyes, raising their dead from the tombs, transforming water into wine, and providing ten thousand other things that are difficult to speak of; and yet, there is nowhere even a small amount of faith among them. Let it be, O Jew, that you are not persuaded by us; read the sacred interpreters, unfold the pages that lie before you; do not treat Peter as dry, nor Paul, nor the evangelists as objects of suspicion. Hear, then, also from Moses. What
did he write beforehand in the law? "The Lord God will raise up a prophet from your brethren, like me; you shall hear him." Behold what Isaiah cries out, prophesying: "Behold the virgin shall have a child in the womb, and will bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." Hear Jeremiah crying out great things: "This is our God, no other will be thought of beside Him; and," he says, "after these things he was seen on earth, and conversed with men." Look again at what Zechariah signified: "Behold a man, his name is the Sun of Righteousness, and healing is in his wings." And the woman who, laboring with an issue of blood for many years, was healed, confirmed this word together with others, and set the seal upon it, receiving healing by merely touching the hem of his garment. What more? Read Ezechiel thoughtfully, and the man of desires [Daniel]. See how the one said: "This is the gate of the Lord, and the Lord shall enter through it and go out, and the gate shall be shut." B And Daniel says, "I was watching, and behold, on the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of man coming." Stand by Jacob, and learn what he says regarding the blessings: "A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes who is appointed, and he is the expectation of the nations." Pluck the lyre of the Holy Spirit, and see what David accurately sang: "Mother Sion shall say: A man, and man was born in her, and the Most High Himself founded her." For the mother is a virgin, and after the birth she remained, the seal of virginity which nature implanted remaining unshaken. Again, look at what David says: "Righteousness shall rise in his days," and following this: "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth." Did any of our teachers announce these things beforehand? Did any of the disciples of the Savior write these things down on tablets or scrolls? C Were not all those who preached about him beforehand children of the circumcision who foretold these things? Perhaps you are not pleased to believe them; respect the demons crying out in these words: "What have we to do with you, Son of the living God?" Respect the confession of angels, of men, and of demons, and together of all creation concerning Christ the Lord. But if you turn away even from these, receive the testimony of the Father, thundering from above for his sake: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." D To Him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.
V. By the same, on the same.
Every grateful tongue surely greets the Virgin.
A And she acts like the Mother of God, and imitates Gabriel, the prince of the angels, in power. And the one says to her, "Hail," while the other proclaims, "The Lord is from thee," on account of the Lord who was born of her and appeared in the flesh to the human race. This one names her Mother of Light; that one, Star of Life; another calls her the Throne of God; another, a Temple greater than heaven; another, a Seat no lower than the cherubic seat; another, in turn, an unsown, fertile, and uncultivated Garden, a vine fruitful in grapes, flourishing, and untouched; a pure turtledove, an unpolluted dove, a cloud holding within it pure rains; a vessel whose pearl is more splendid than the sun; a mine from which comes forth the stone that covers the whole earth, though no one quarries it; a ship laden with cargo and needing no pilot, B a wealth-making treasure. Others similarly call her a lamp without a mouth, which burns of itself continuously; an Ark broader, longer, and more glorious than that of Noah. The one was an ark of animals, but this one is the Ark of Life; the one of corruptible animals, but this one indeed of incorruptible life; the one carried Noah himself, but this one carried the Maker of Noah; the one possessed two stories and three stories, but this one the whole fullness of the Trinity. For the Spirit was present, and the Father overshadowed, and the Son was dwelling within, being carried in the womb. "For the Holy Spirit," He says, "will come upon thee, and the power of the Most High will overshadow thee. Therefore also the Holy One who is to be born shall be called the Son of God." C Do you see how great and how significant is the dignity of the Virgin Mother of God? For the only-begotten Son of God, the Creator of the world, was carried by her as an infant, and He refashioned Adam, and sanctified Eve, and rendered the dragon ineffective, and opened paradise, and kept the seal of the womb secure. Both fittingly and for good reason—in both respects. For He opened paradise because He was about to bring the thief into it, and to guide all the heirs of the kingdom into it. He kept the seal of the womb secure, because He who was assuming flesh, being God and the Word, was in no way in need of doors for the sake of entering or leaving. To you, therefore, O Virgin, the prophets attribute praises, and everyone who has had faith in the mysteries of these miracles calls you Mother of God. D And one calls you the rod of Jesse, so that he may hint at the unwounded and unbent nature of your virginity. Another compares you to the burning bush, which yet is not consumed, so that he may hint at the flesh of the Only-Begotten and at the Virgin Mother of God. For it was indeed burning, and yet was not consumed, because she gave birth and did not open the womb; she conceived and did not corrupt the matrix; she brought forth the infant and left the womb sealed; she supplied milk, yet kept the breasts untouched; she carried the child, and did not recognize the father of the child; she became a mother,
yet she did not suffer the things that mothers suffer. You gave birth as a woman, and yet you were not corrupted as a woman; you carried in your womb according to the law of nature, for you awaited the appointed time of birth-pains. But indeed, you also conceived beyond the law of nature. Someone called you a "closed gate," situated in the east, which brought in the King of whom the gates were closed; and thus he also called you a gate that sends forth, since you became a door of the present life for the Only-Begotten; a gate situated in the east, because the true Light, which illumines every man coming into the world, came forth from your womb as if from a royal bridal chamber. You brought in the King of the closed gates, and again you brought him out. For neither when he was being conceived, nor when he was once and for all being born, did the King of glory open the doors of your womb, nor did he loosen the bonds of virginity. He called you "a garden enclosed," and a "fountain sealed," as he who arose from you, the Bridegroom, predicted in the Canticles. A garden enclosed, because the sickle of corruption or the vintage did not touch you; but the flower, which from the root of Jesse is purely exhibited to the human race, was cultivated for you by the pure and immaculate Spirit alone. A fountain sealed, because the river of life proceeding from you filled the world, yet the marriage branch did not in any way exhaust your fountain. David never ceases to celebrate with his lyre the one born of you: "Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you and the ark of your holiness." Arise: from where? From the bosom of the Father, not in order to be separated from the Father (for this B it is impious either to think or to say), but in order to fulfill the dispensation, or something that was ordained for you from above before the ages and before all generations. Arise, that you might lift up those who have fallen, that you might make those who limp walk straight, that you might receive your possession, which until this time is tyrannically occupied by the enemy. Arise, O Lord, into your rest, which you ordained upon the earth, and appointed in Bethlehem, namely the stable, the manger, and the swaddling clothes; for in heaven you have no need of rest. You yourself are the rest of all creation. But on earth, for our sake, you suffer the things that pertain to the flesh. For the hunger or thirst that you had was not real; rather, being hungry, you are the bread of life, and being thirsty, you yourself are the consolation of those laboring under thirst, since you are the river of incorruption; and while you were wearied by walking upon the earth, you treaded the waves of the sea with your feet without toil. Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you and the ark of your holiness, which is C without doubt the Virgin Mother of God. For if you are the pearl, then she is deservedly the ark. And because you are the Sun, necessarily the Virgin will be called the heaven. Since you are the unfading flower, truly the Virgin will be the plant of incorruption, and the paradise of immortality: into which Isaiah...
A properly cried out beforehand, saying: "Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel." Behold the Virgin; what kind? The elect among women, the choice among virgins, the venerable ornament of our nature, the glory of our clay, who delivered Eve from shame and Adam from the threat, and who cut off the boldness of the dragon; whom the smoke of concupiscence did not touch, nor did the worm of voluptuousness harm her. "Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb"—from whence, O prophet? "I do not say," he declares. "For this is reserved for Gabriel." Many strive to declare separately the miracles of the Theotokos, yet many of them are omitted; nevertheless, I maintain my faith regarding the birth of the ever-Virgin: Micah [testifies to] the region and place where the miracle was performed; David [testifies to] the time. For he himself inserted into the prophecy of the Psalms B this: "From the womb before the morning star I have begotten you." Gabriel, therefore, shall speak of the "whence." For he descends from heaven; he is sent for this very purpose to the Virgin; he is present at the time of the birth, and is believed to have necessarily explained the substance of the birth. But if you wish to learn from me as well, run through the things that follow in the prophecy: "And she shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel." And what is Emmanuel? "God with us." Is God, then, being conceived from marriage and corruption, and can He be born or incarnate from a man and coitus? By no means, but by the operation of God, by the planting of the Most High, by the presence of the Spirit. For why, then, when the Virgin said to Gabriel, "How shall this be to me, seeing I know not a man?" C—this is to say: "The miracle terrifies me, the word amazes me, and the messenger's announcement casts the Virgin into a trance. You speak of wondrous things, but they are suspicious to me because they are foreign. I fear the newness of the annunciation; I am troubled at things said by you that are utterly unusual. How shall this be to me, seeing I know not a man? By what reason shall I be a mother, who have not been a bride? The flower of my budding age is not corrupted, the girdle of virginity I have not loosed, the bonds of the womb I have not relaxed, the seal of the belly I have not broken." The angel immediately rejoined: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you"; D that is to say: "If you had known a man, you would not have brought forth God, who willed to take the form of a servant from you for your sake without corruption; you would not have become the instrument of the incarnation of Him who brought all things into existence. But since you happen to be pure from marital coitus, since you have kept your temple incorrupt and the tabernacle free from all filth, both the Father is hosted within you, and the Spirit overshadows you, and the Only-Begotten is born of you in the flesh. Do not, therefore, in any way hesitate concerning the remaining mysteries; do not hesitate if you are giving birth in a cave to the Creator of the whole of creation; do not hesitate if you seat in a manger Him who sits upon the shoulders
A of the Cherubim, having no place in the inn; and the Mother of the King of things above and below is found in lowly estate. For He becomes poor for your sake of His own will, so that He might bridle the rich and become for the poor a warrant of patience and a teacher of thanksgiving. He is placed in the manger of His own will, so that those of brutish nature might hasten, and find the Word seated upon the manger, so that they might receive from Him their rational dignity, so that they might find grain who were expecting chaff, so that, like beasts, they might hasten—thinking to find sheaves of barley upon the manger—and eat the true bread, the food of life, the banquet of light, the meat of joy, the sweetness of incorruption, from which arises the knowledge of the kingdom, the earnest of adoption as sons, the inheritance of the heavens, the communion with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
VI. Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem, on the Presentation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
This festival B is called the Purification, and one would not err in calling it the festival of festivals, the Sabbath of Sabbaths, the holy of holies. For the whole mystery of the incarnation of Christ is gathered up, and the whole mystery of the Only-begotten Lord is described; in it the boy Christ was carried, and was confessed to be God, and was presented in the arms—as if on a throne—of the Creator of our nature, who was sitting there; and He offered to Simeon and Anna a pair of rational turtledoves. But let us, if it please you, abide by the evangelical words; for there we shall behold the manifestation of God. Thus, then, Luke has set forth the story of the festival for us: *And when the days of their purification were fulfilled according to the law of Moses, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, that every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord; and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.* It behooved Him who for our sake became a servant to offer a purification for us, He who did not spare His own blood, not to spare a pair of turtledoves; behold, therefore, how He acts according to the law, yet as a Lawgiver above the law; and though He grants the freedom of the Spirit, He does not at the same time reject the servitude of the letter; He does not abrogate Moses, so that he may be found a trustworthy witness in due time.
C *And when the days of their purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses.* Whose days? For Joseph was neither His father, nor under obligation to the purification, nor was Mary, nor was the child in need of purification; for it is said thus: *If a woman receive seed and give birth to a male, she shall be unclean for seven days.* But Mary did not receive seed; therefore she did not need purification. *A woman who, having received seed, shall give birth to a male, shall be unclean for seven days.* Why? Because she brought a second Adam into life.
A For what reason did He establish here a double number of days? Because Eve is again born from Eve; a fragile instrument, a weak vessel, a crushed potsherd, the guide of disobedience, the advisor of the serpent. But just as you heard the woman’s accusations, come and learn also the achievement that came from her. A woman brought virginity into the world; she contained in her womb God, whom creation cannot contain; she gave birth in the flesh to Him who refashioned our race; she was the first to receive Jesus freed from the dead; she was the first to begin the proclamation of the resurrection; she was the first to announce joy to the disciples. *A woman, it says, who shall have conceived seed.* But the Theotokos, though she was a woman, did not undergo the things of women; for the womb did not receive the seed of a man, nor did the plow of Mary’s field see the share, the virginal vineyard did not endure the mattock, so that the offering was not for herself, but was made for the whole race. For Christ is circumcised for our sake, for our sake He is baptized, and for our sake the purifications of the law are fulfilled. If He weeps, He washes the nature; if He is struck, He frees us from our captivity; if He carries the cross, He lightens us from the yoke of sin; if He is spat upon, He delivers Adam from the spittle of the curse.
On the purification of Christ
*When the days of their purification were fulfilled, they brought Him to Jerusalem, as it is written in the law of the Lord, that every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.* Such things the law holds. But Christ, as we have said, as the lawgiver fulfilled His own law above the law. For He did not open, but left the gate of the Virgin closed; He did not break the seal of nature; He did not deflower the one who gave Him birth; for He left to her the integrity of her virginity unharmed. But if you do not believe, learn from Ezekiel: *And he brought me back toward the gate of the outer sanctuary which looked toward the east, and it was shut. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no one shall pass through it; because the Lord God of Israel has entered and come out through it, and it shall be shut* (Ezech. XLIV, 2). *Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord*; but this One is not only holy; for just as He excels in holiness, so He exceeds in birth, and abundantly fulfills the precepts of the law. In this, however: *To give an offering, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons*: does Luke not curtail the law? Not seized by ignorance, but guided by wisdom, he set it forth. For the law says a lamb and a dove; but if he who offers is not rich, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, and he shall add fine flour. But Luke omitted the offering of the rich man, and commemorated the humility of Him who voluntarily humbled Himself for our sake. There was no place for Him, it is said, where He might lay His head, so whence could He have procured a lamb? In the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes—
whence could He offer up a sheep? Or rather, He had no need of a lamb; for He Himself was the Lamb of God, the true sheep; He Himself was being sacrificed for the world. For this reason, what the Law commanded, He proclaimed, and what Christ performs, He signified.
Then follows: A *And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ* [25, 26]. Great is the wealth of Simeon, manifold the armor of the leader; the tree abounds in fruits, the vine abounds in clusters. He was not only man, but was also called Simeon; furthermore, just, but also devout; he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him; and having received a revelation, he existed not to see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Behold, a man. Where? In Jerusalem. This saying carries astonishment; this word is full of wonder: in Jerusalem, a man regarding whom the prophet Sophonias brings in God Himself saying: *I will search Jerusalem with a lamp, and will not find* 12. And does light have need of a lamp? No, he says; but he calls the Law a lamp. *And behold, a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.* And what is the interpretation of the name declared? "Obedience of God;" so that he obtained a name befitting his conduct from the dispensation of the Spirit; for where the obedience of God is, there is altogether obedience to the Law, observance of the commandments, a course of good life, C the goal of salvation persevering to the end; in these is depicted the true man to whom these things that have been spoken are attributed.
*And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.* This is a just purpose: not to seek one's own, but the things of another and of the many; to expend care on the common salvation, not on one's own private deliverance. The Holy Spirit, he says, was upon him; Simeon had become the seat of the Lord, the throne of God, and for this reason he received into his arms the King of the ages. *And it had been revealed to him that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ.* Certainly, the revelation was to pass from life to life, to walk from light to light, to leap from day to day; not to grow old, but to be renewed, to receive regeneration in the time of consummation. He came in the Spirit into the temple; the Fountain led the thirsty one to the Fountain. *And when His parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him according to what was customary for Him, he also received Him into his arms.* He carried in his hands Him who holds the world and the deserts in His hand, D Him who weighs the waters with His hand, and the heaven with the span, and all the earth with his fist. How did Simeon offer a sacrifice which did not pertain to him? For he was not a priest; indeed, this is not said; nor a Levite, nor—
a temple-servant; since the liturgical duty had been assigned solely to the tribe of Levi. He was not a priest, but he was a righteous man; and righteousness has the priesthood under its feet. He was not a Levite, but he was a devout man; and indeed, the devout man possesses the unction from himself.
And carrying the infant, he said: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.” Now lettest thou depart; for the time of dismissal has come. The redemption of the captives, the forgiveness of debts, has met them. A King is born, freeing those in prisons, loosing those in chains, calling back to life those in death, lightening the tribute of the earth. “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart.” How do you know? “I see the Lord,” he says, “clothed in the form of a servant.” B Being Lord, he would not have assumed the form of a servant, had he not intended to clothe the servant in the form of the Lord. He would never have changed the order, nor would the High One have been humbled, had he not wished to raise the humble to the heights. But how do you dismiss him? “According to thy word in peace.” For if you brought forth creation by a word, you will plainly free the head of creation by a word. In peace: what peace? The peace of the cross; for that is the sword which cut off the tyrant’s head, and gave peace to those who battle with Christ. “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared.” They saw what many longed to see and did not see: God in the flesh, the sun radiant in a cloud. “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation”: that is, they saw your incarnation, through which you arranged the salvation of men. For they did not see the naked divinity, since no man shall see God as he is in his substance. C “For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” The good things are common to the Jews and the Gentiles, and undivided. Therefore, let not the Jew be envious, nor the Pharisee be distressed, nor the Scribe be tempted; let not Herod be fearful for his own kingdom, nor Annas and Caiaphas fear for the priesthood; he who has come gives to all, and receives from none; he is bounteously magnificent, he bestows gifts without measure.
But Joseph and his mother, hearing the things spoken by Simeon, D wondered how Christ deigned to become the son of man. Mary wondered how a woman’s womb contained God, how the handmaid gave birth to the One who frees creation. And he says: “This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” For the fall of those who persist in unbelief, and for the rising of those who are translated from unbelief to faith. Christ was a stone set for a foundation, but the blind, wandering in their eyes, stumbled. Therefore, one ought to attribute to him not the fall of those who have fallen, but the resurrection; for if they had only fallen, and not also risen, you would justly suspect the cause of their faith; but if, of those who fell through weakness, those who will...
A to rise again, the fall of the weak becomes the resurrection of Christ. Did not Judas fall, and Peter at the same time? The former by saying, "What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver him to you?" The latter by saying, "I will lay down my life for you." For he ought to have known that a mortal does not give his life for immortality; and again, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you"; it was possible for him to say, "If you sustain me, I will not deny you; if you strengthen me, I, being weak, do not fear shipwreck; if you are an ally in battle, I do not fear death." But the one sinned in his tongue, the other in his heart; for this reason, Peter, having fallen, rose again, and became a guide for others who had fallen. But Judas, led from abyss to abyss, cast down the silver, and taking a rope, hanged himself.
B A sign that shall be contradicted is the cross; for as the Jews were crucifying him, the sun retreated, and the Synagogue uttered slanders, and the earth was shaken; the people were shouting, "Crucify him," but the rocks, not enduring the weight of the blasphemy, were being rent. The priests and scribes were saying, "We remember that that deceiver said while yet alive, 'After three days I will rise again'"; but the centurion cried out, "Truly this was the Son of God." But even until now, the word of the cross is indeed to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to us who are called by Christ, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. "And a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, that thoughts may be revealed out of many hearts." A sword is said to mean dissension, because just as a sword cuts and divides bodies, C so also it divides souls through hesitation brought on by contradiction; for although she was a virgin, she was yet a woman; although she was Theotokos, she was yet fashioned from our clay. The sword, therefore, pierced her soul, that thoughts might be revealed out of many hearts: the dissensions concerning Christ in the time of the passion; at one time not acknowledging him as prophet, and at another not as the Savior of Israel, and in these matters holding many different opinions, by reason of the agitation arising from the passion itself; so that even the disciples traveling with Cleopas said to him, "Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which have happened in these days?" And then, being asked, "What things?" they added, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a man, a prophet," and the rest. D Therefore, as they had sentiments about a prophet and the Savior of Israel, yet because of the passion they began to cast doubt upon this very notion, that he was the one who would redeem Israel; this did not happen in vain, but to show that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men." For in the passion of the cross all were sifted and agitated, not only the simple disciples, but also the elect and his mother, and this passion confirmed the entire world, in Christ Jesus our Lord, by whom and with whom to the Father
A be glory, with the Holy Spirit, now and always and for all ages of ages. Amen.
VII. From the Encomium of Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem, on the Holy Andrew
That sacred trumpet, Andrew, the first-fruit of the choir of the apostles, the primary pillar of the Church, a rock before Peter, the foundation of the foundation, the beginning of the beginning, who called before he was called, who brought [others] before he was brought, summoned us to perform this solemn assembly. B He preached the Gospel to those who did not yet believe; and before he knew it himself, he revealed Life to his brother. Such great riches did that question bring him: "Where do you dwell?" Although the response held something great, just as Andrew, immersing his mind, perceived it. "Come," he says, "and see." How did you become a prophet? Whence so suddenly full of God? Why do you disturb the ears of Peter? Why do you hasten to overtake him whom you cannot comprehend? Him who is everywhere, how can he be found? But Andrew knew what he said: "We have found him whom Adam lost, whom C Eve squandered, whom a cloud of sin hid from our eyes, whom disobedience alienated from us, whom David sought: 'In the day of my trouble I sought God' (Ps. LXXVI, 2). And Sophonias cries: 'Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth' (Soph. II, 3). God struck us when he condemned Adam to death and a laborious life; but he healed [us], and by striking, he restored us: when, having been crucified for the sake of the race, by his stripe, according to Isaiah (Isa. LIII, 6), and by his resurrection he healed all. Naked on the cross hung Christ; being sinless, he did not need a garment. He was blameless, and D ought not to have been hidden. There was nothing unseemly about him; for he himself shows our unseemly things as look seemly. The myrrh-bearing women found what they had lost through Eve; she who had given the cause of the loss found the gain. 'He will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth' (Osee VI, 3). Behold, therefore, the Lord after the resurrection appearing early to the women, and in the evening to the apostles. Early indeed to the women [he said], 'Rejoice'; in the evening in the city of Sion he announced peace to the disciples: to the former, that he might wipe away the sorrow; to the latter, that he might dissolve the enmity which the serpent brought in. 'You shall be called Cephas': before the confession, the reward; before you worked in the vineyard, you received the denarius; before you touched the altar, God accepted the sacrifice; before you preached, you were crowned. Christ chose beggars and the unlearned. Wisdom itself seeks not patrons, but ministers. No one
[the unlearned; for wisdom has no need of advocates, but of ministers; for no one gives anything to it, but from it we all receive everything.]
[VIII.]
Hesychii Hierosolymitani Presbyteri, in Jacobum fratrem Domini, et Davidem Christi patrem.
Had not the Savior humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death for us, we should not have been called His relatives, nor would the Father be called a potter. A In Sion I greet Bethlehem as present; in the daughter I see the mother. In thee one torch-bearing star shone forth; in this one, many. That one led the Magi; this one illuminated the Parthians and Medes and Elamites and all nations from the Gentiles with the brilliance of light. Thou drawest milk from virginal breasts; this one draws the Spirit from the paternal bosom. Thou fermentedst the bread, but Sion displayed the supper. Thou didst feed the calf in the manger, but Sion led it to the altar. Thou didst wrap Jesus in swaddling clothes; this one uncovered the side for Thomas, who wished to touch it. Thou hast a virgin giving birth, with the organs of nature closed; this one has the bridegroom within, while the doors are closed, B both receiving and holding him. How shall I praise the servant and brother of Christ, the supreme commander of the new Jerusalem, the prince of priests, the head of the apostles, the summit among heads, the one shining brightly amidst the lamps and most illustrious among the stars? Peter preaches, but James decrees, and a few words compressed the magnitude of the question: "I judge that those who turn to God from the Gentiles should not be troubled," etc. I judge him whose judgment it is not permitted to abrogate, nor to pervert his decrees. For in me the Judge of all, of the living and the dead, speaks through my instrument; but the Artisan is above me. I offer the tongue, but the Creator Word provides the discourse. Heed not the pen, but the one writing. Let obedience succeed to the hearing.
C
Hesychii Presbyteri ad Theodulum sermo compendiosus animae perutilis, de Temperantia et Virtute: quae dicuntur ἀντιῤῥητικὰ καὶ εὐκτικά, hoc est, de ratione reluctandi atque precandi.
CENTURY I.
1. Temperance is a method of spirituality which, whether one delays or proceeds eagerly, utterly delivers the person, with God, from thoughts and words and wicked deeds full of passions, D and...
A grants a secure knowledge of the incomprehensible God, as far as is attainable, and provides secretly the solution to divine and hidden mysteries. It is sufficient for performing every commandment of God, both in the Old and New Testaments, and makes one capable of every good thing in the age to come. This, properly speaking, is the purity of the heart, which, because of its greatness and beauty—or, to speak more accurately, because of our own inattention and negligence—is truly rare among monks today. This is what Christ makes blessed, saying: *Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.* B Being such a thing, it is bought at a great price. Watchfulness (nepsis), when it dwells in a man, becomes a guide for a right and God-pleasing life. It is the stepping-stone to this, and it teaches us to move our contemplation and the tripartite power of the soul justly, it keeps the senses securely, and it increases the four general virtues in those who partake of it day by day.
2. The great lawgiver Moses, or rather the Holy Spirit, pointing out the blameless, pure, comprehensive, and lofty nature of this virtue, and teaching us how we must begin and complete it, says: *Take heed to thyself*, naming the single thought of some evil thing that is hateful to God a “hidden word.” This is what the Fathers also call a “suggestion,” which is brought to your heart by the devil, followed immediately by our own thoughts, which, as soon as it appears to the mind, converse with it in a passionate way. C
3. Watchfulness is the way to every virtue and commandment of God; it is heart and stillness, and when perfected, it is the imageless guardianship of the mind.
4. He who is born blind does not see the light of the sun; likewise, he who does not walk with watchfulness does not see the rich rays of grace from above. Nor will he be delivered from evil deeds, words, and thoughts hateful to God, nor will he pass by the rulers of darkness in a free manner at the time of his departure. D
5. Attention is a continual stillness of the heart, free from every thought, breathing only Christ Jesus, the Son of God and God, always, eternally, and unceasingly; calling upon Him, battling courageously against the enemies with Him, and confessing to Him who alone has the power to forgive sins. For as the soul constantly embraces Christ through secret invocations—to Him alone who examines hearts—attempting in every way for its sweetness and internal struggle to remain unknown to all men, neither will the wicked one, by sneaking in, be able to promote evil, nor will he destroy the most excellent work.
6. Watchfulness is the persistent fixing of the mind and its standing at the gate of the heart, so that those who come
A to the doors of the heart, he may perceive and hear what they say, and what the deadly thoughts are that creep in by stealth, and what sort of form is being carved or imprinted by the demons, and strives by itself to dissolve the mind through images. For if we are diligent, these things very skillfully teach us the experience of the intellectual war, if we so desire.
7. When we are forsaken by God, temptations also occur that are apt for instruction; this twofold fear is wont to produce in the mind of man the persistence which is the teacher of attention, for he who tries to block the fountain of evil thoughts and works is the one who experiences this. Hence also, desertions and unexpected temptations from God come to us for the amendment of our life, especially to those of us who have tasted the refreshment of this good, and yet neglect it. But persistence begets habit; habit, a certain natural frequency of watchfulness; and this, according to the quality of the matter, gradually produces the contemplation of the war: which the persevering prayer to Jesus receives, a sweet tranquility of soul empty of images, and a stability founded in Jesus.
8. B A constant soul, which calls upon Christ against its enemies and takes refuge in Him, is like a certain wild beast surrounded by many dogs, which places itself in a safe position. But when it perceives from afar with its mind the intellectual snares of the invisible enemies, because it continually stands with the peaceful Jesus against them, it remains unharmed by them.
9. If you are permitted and it is given to you, in the time of the morning hours, to stand and to be watched, it is indeed granted that you should also be a spectator. But if not, watch, and you shall attain it.
10. The systems of the seas are as much water; but the system and fortress of watchfulness, and sobriety, and of C profound stillness of soul, and the abyss of contemplations both [hidden] and ineffable, and of discerning humility, and of rectitude and love, is supreme temperance and the prayer of Jesus Christ devoid of thoughts: and this with frequent sighs and continuous labor, yet without offense to oneself.
11. "Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven," he says, "but he who does the will of my Father." D But the will of His Father is this, namely: "You who love the Lord, hate evil." Therefore, with the prayer of Jesus Christ, let us hate evil thoughts, and behold, we have done the will of God.
12. As the prototype and pattern of every virtue for the human race, and the recovery from the ancient fall, our Master and God, having become incarnate, set before us the life which He passed in the flesh, shining with every kind of virtue. In addition to all the good things which He showed us, after His baptism, returning into the desert, when He had fasted, He began to engage in intellectual combat with the devil, approaching him as a man in his own naked nature, and through...
A that way of victory He taught even us, His useless servants, how to wage the struggle against the spirits of wickedness—that is, in humility, and fasting, and prayer, and watchfulness; to all of which He, being God and God of gods, had no need.
13. But as to how many ways there are, as far as I am concerned, of watchfulness, to cleanse the mind little by little from passionate thoughts, behold, I shall show you in unadorned and simple speech; nor will I hesitate, for I did not judge it right, as in accounts of war, to hide in this discourse the usefulness beneath a veneer of words, especially for the simpler folk. But you, son Theodulus, pay attention to what you read.
14. One way of watchfulness, then, is to scrutinize the imagination frequently, that is to say the suggestion, because Satan cannot, without imagination, fabricate thoughts, or present them to the mind for B the sake of deception with falsehoods.
15. Another is to keep the heart deeply silent and at rest from every word at all times, and to pray.
16. Another is to call upon Jesus continuously for help in humility, without ceasing in the soul.
17. Another way is to keep the memory of death always in the soul.
18. All these operations, beloved, like gatekeepers, are accustomed to ward off evil thoughts. But as to the significance of looking toward heaven and earth and accounting the things of earth as nothing, along with the rest, God granting the power of speech, I shall explain it more fully elsewhere. C
19. If for a little time we cut off the causes of the passions and begin to busy ourselves with spiritual contemplations, but do not dwell in them—devoting our labor to the same—we easily relapse again to the passions of the flesh, referring no other fruit from that than the total darkening of the mind and a turning toward material things.
20. One who is struggling within must possess at every moment of time these four things: humility, extreme attention, resistance, and prayer. Humility, because this struggle is against proud demons, the adversaries of humility, so that he may have D the help of Christ in the hand of his heart, since the Lord hates the proud. Attention, so that he may always keep his own heart immune from thoughts, even those which seem to present themselves under the guise of goodness. Resistance, so that when he quickly recognizes the one who has come, he may immediately and with indignation contradict the wicked one. "And I shall answer," he says, "those who reproach me with evils: Shall not my soul be subject to God?" Prayer, so that after the resistance, he may immediately from the depths of the heart cry out to Christ with an unutterable groan; and then he who was struggling will see the enemy being dissolved by the holy and adorable name of Jesus, like dust before the wind, or like smoke vanishing with his imagination.
21. A He who does not possess a prayer purged of thoughts, lacks weapons for war. By prayer I mean that which is ever-active in the depths of the soul, so that by the invocation of Jesus Christ the hidden war may be scourged, and the enemy be burned up.
22. You must indeed look forth with a sharp and intense gaze of the mind, so as to perceive the thoughts that enter; and when you have recognized them, straightway by contradiction crush the head of the serpent, and at the same time with a sigh call upon Christ. And thus you will experience divine and invisible assistance, and then you shall see clearly the uprightness of the heart.
23. B As one who holds a mirror in his hand, if he happens to be standing in the midst of many people and gazing into the mirror, sees what his own face is like, but sees also the countenances of others who are peering into the same mirror: so he who altogether pours himself into his own heart sees his own state within it, and sees also the black faces of the intelligible Ethiopians.
24. C But the mind cannot conquer the illusion of the demons by itself alone, lest it put too much confidence in this. For since they are crafty, they even pretend to be defeated, while they trip one up from another quarter through vainglory. But when Jesus is invoked, they cannot stand or deceive you even for an hour.
25. C Observe, lest you be led astray like the Israelite people of old and be delivered to the intelligible enemies. For he, having been delivered from Egypt by the grace of God, the author of all, devised for himself a molten idol to bring him help.
26. C By the molten idol you should understand our weak mind, which, as long as it implores Jesus Christ against the spirits of wickedness, easily puts them to flight; and with skillful knowledge it repels the invisible military forces of the Enemy. But if it should imprudently place its confidence in itself, it will be overturned like the bird that is called "swift-winged." *In God*, he says, *my heart trusted, and I was helped; and my flesh flourished again* (Ps. XXVII, 7). And, *Who, besides the Lord, shall rise up with me, or stand with me against numberless evil thoughts* (Ps. XCIII, 16)? But he who trusts in himself and not in God will fall with a most grievous fall.
27. D This is the type and order of the stillness of the heart. If you wish to struggle, set before yourself as a model the tiny little animal, the spider; if not, you do not yet possess a soul as tranquil as is becoming. That creature indeed hunts tiny flies. But if you, by its example, labor to acquire stillness of soul, you will unrelentingly slay the Babylonian children; by which kind of slaughter you are called blessed by the Holy Spirit through David.
28. D As it is impossible for the Red Sea to be seen in the firmament among the stars; and as it is impossible for a man walking upon the earth not to breathe this air: so it is impossible to cleanse our heart from passionate thoughts and to drive away
A the enemies therefrom without the frequent invocation of Jesus.
29. If with humility of mind and memory of death, and with self-reproach, and contradiction, and the invocation of Jesus Christ, you always make your dwelling in your heart; and if you walk soberly day by day along this narrow, yet joyful and delightful way of the mind, equipped with these weapons, you will arrive at the holy contemplations of the saints, and you will be enlightened with deep mysteries by Christ. In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. For you will perceive toward Jesus that the Holy Spirit has leaped upon your soul, by whom the mind of men is illuminated to see with unveiled face. No one, he says, calls Jesus Lord, except in the Holy Spirit, B confirming, that is, mystically him who seeks.
30. Furthermore, this also those who are eager to learn ought to know: that envious demons often hide and withdraw from us the intelligible warfare, begrudging us, the wretched ones, the benefit and knowledge gained from the war, and the ascent toward God, so that if we become careless, they may suddenly snatch away the mind again, and make us once more inattentive in our thoughts (for their unceasing goal and struggle is to ensure that we do not attend to our heart at all), knowing the wealth that is gathered in the soul through daily attention. But we, then, mindful of our Lord Jesus Christ, are stretched forth toward spiritual contemplations, and the war again returns to the mind, only with the counsel, so to speak, of the Lord himself, and we do all things with great humility.
31. For we who live in a community must, C with willing choice and ready heart, cut off all our own will, since God is present in the superior; we ourselves thus become cheap in our own eyes and devoid of will. Here it is fitting to have the skill for these things, so that we may not be disturbed by bile and move our irascible faculty unreasonably and against nature, and for the future be found cowardly in the invisible war. For if our will is not cut off by us voluntarily, it is natural that we should become angry at those who attempt to cut it off from us involuntarily. And from this, therefore, the irascible faculty, stirred up and barking badly, destroys the knowledge of the struggle which it was barely able to acquire with much labor. For anger is by nature destructive. If, then, it is moved against D demonic thoughts, it destroys and dissipates them. But if, on the contrary, it is moved against men, it likewise destroys the human thoughts within us. Yet I see that anger is destructive of thoughts of all kinds, whether evil, or, if it so happens, good. For as a weapon and a bow given to us by God against the demons, if they are not held in both cases, although they have a different effect, they [become] pernicious.
for I have seen even a dog, bold perhaps against the wolves, also destroying the sheep.
B 32. Thus one must flee from familiarity as from the venom of an asp, and avoid many encounters as from serpents and vipers' broods, since these are able to cast the soul swiftly into a deep forgetfulness of the inward war, and to bring it down from the high joy which it conceives from purity of heart. The accursed forgetfulness is opposed to attention as water is to fire, and it happens to be its enemy at every hour; for from forgetfulness we fall into negligence, and from negligence into contempt and sloth and absurd desires; and thus we return again to the things behind, in the manner of a dog to its own vomit. Let us therefore flee familiarity, as a deadly poison. But the ruinous harm of forgetfulness, and the things that arise from it, is healed by a very diligent guarding of the mind, and the most assiduous invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ: for without Him we can do nothing.
33. It is not possible, nor is it conceivable, to appease a serpent and carry it in one’s bosom; nor is it possible to coddle and soothe the body with various flatteries, and not minister to it those things which are necessary and useful, and also to take care of the heavenly virtue. For the former is naturally wont to wound the one who warms it, and the latter to defile the one who pampers it in pleasures. Therefore, according to the measure of the fault, let it be beaten most severely with scourges and fists, like a runaway slave full of must, C with its back exposed to the lash, lest it treat the master as a common innkeeper; lest the corruptible clay and dark handmaid be ignorant of her mistress, who is free from corruption. Unto death, do not trust your flesh. For the wisdom of the flesh, he says, is hostile to God; for it is not subject to the law of God. And: The flesh lusts against the spirit. But those who are in the flesh cannot please God. We, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
34. The task of prudence is to move the irascible faculty always toward the struggle of the inward battle, and toward self-reproach; that of wisdom, to move the rational faculty toward an accurate and constant sobriety, and toward spiritual contemplation; that of justice, to direct the desiderative faculty toward virtue and God; that of fortitude, to govern and restrain the five senses, so that the inner man, which is the heart, may not be defiled through them; nor the outer man, which is the body.
D 35. On Israel is his magnificence: in mind perceiving the beauty, as is possible, of the glory of God himself. And his power is in the clouds: that is, in the shining friends, who intentively gaze into the morning dawn, that is, into him who sits at the right hand of the Father, shedding splendors upon them, just as the sun, penetrating the pure clouds with its rays, shows forth what is lovable.
36. One who sins, says the divine Scripture, [reproaches...]
loses many good things, and the mind that sins loses the ambrosial foods and drinks declared in the aforementioned chapter. A
37. We are not stronger than Samson, not wiser than Solomon, not more knowing of divine things than David, not loving God more than Peter, the chief of the apostles. Let us not, therefore, trust in ourselves; for the Scripture says: He who trusts in himself shall fall by a most grievous fall.
38. Let us learn humility from Christ, and subjection from David, and from Peter to weep over the things that befall us, but not to despair, as did Samson, and Judas, and the most wise Solomon. B
39. For the devil, prowling about like a lion, seeks whom he may devour with all his powers. Therefore, may your inward attention, and watchfulness, and contradiction, and prayer toward Christ Jesus our God, never grow lax; for besides Jesus, you shall find no more excellent aid in all your life. For the Lord alone, as God, knows the wiles, and strategies, and deceits of the demons.
40. Therefore let the soul trust in Christ, and beseech Him, and not be afraid at all. For it does not fight alone, but is aided by the fearful King, Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things that exist, both incorporeal and corporeal, that is, visible and invisible. C
41. For just as rain, the more it pours down upon the earth, the more it softens it; so too the holy name of Christ, being invoked by us without wandering thoughts, the more frequently we call upon it, the more it softens the earth of our heart, and makes it joyful, and gladdens it.
42. It is also good for the inexperienced to know this, that we have enemies who are incorporeal and invisible and malicious, and clever at doing harm, and agile, and swift, and experienced in war, from the years of Adam even unto these times; who weigh us down—we who are dense, in both body and mind—toward the earth. There is no other way possible to overcome them than through the perpetual watchfulness of the mind and the invocation of Jesus Christ, our God and Creator. D Therefore, for the uninitiated, let these be an exhortation according to the measure and the best teacher—the prayer of Jesus Christ, for the proving and knowing of what is right. But for the experienced, let there be the practice, and the testing, and the rest which arises from what is right and good.
43. Just as a child, small that is and innocent, seeing some trickster, is delighted and follows the deceiver out of simplicity; so too our soul, being simple and good—having been created in this manner by its good Master—is delighted by the fantastical suggestions of the devil and, being deceived, runs toward what is worse, embracing it as if it were good, not otherwise than the dove toward one who lies in wait for its own chicks. And in this way it mingles its own thoughts with the illusion of the diabolic suggestion. If it happens to be the face of a beautiful woman, or something else apart from the commandments of Christ, in every way...
it seeks, as it were, to devise with them some artificial means, so that it may be able to bring to effect what seems beautiful to it. Then, when it has come to consent, it performs the iniquity represented to it in the intellect by the ministry of the body in the very deed, to its own condemnation.
44. This is the art of the Evil One, and with these B arrows he poisons every soul. And for this reason, it is not safe, before the mind has acquired much experience in military conflict, to allow thoughts to enter into our heart, especially in the beginning, when our soul still takes pleasure in the demonic suggestions, and rejoices, and follows them. But rather, such thoughts must be watched, and immediately cut off and repelled as soon as they have been presented. But when the mind has lingered in this admirable work and has been exercised, and has understood, and has acquired the unhurtful habit of war, so as to truly discern them, and (as the prophet says) can easily catch the little foxes, then it may skillfully permit them to enter, that it may defeat them by the help of Christ, convict them, and lead them away captive.
45. As it is impossible for fire and water to pass through one pipe at the same time, so it is impossible for sin to enter into the heart, unless it has first knocked at the door of the heart through the illusion of an evil suggestion.
46. It is first a suggestion; second, a coupling—namely, when our thoughts are mixed C with the malign thoughts of the demons; third, consent—by which pact the soul conducts itself between the two evilly-counseled thoughts; fourth, in the fourth place, is the sensible operation itself, namely sin. If, therefore, the temperate mind is attentive, and by contradicting and invoking the Lord Jesus puts to flight and repels the imagination of the evil suggestion, the things which they devise thereafter remain useless. For since the evil spirit is an incorporeal mind, it cannot seduce souls by any other means than by illusions of thoughts. Moreover, concerning the suggestion, David says, *In the morning I slew* [Ps. C, 8]; and what follows. But the great Moses says concerning consent: *And you shall not consent to them.*
47. The mind fights invisibly with the mind: for the mind of the demon is indeed against our mind. And for this reason D there is need to cry out from the depths at the very moment of battle to Christ, that He may drive away the demonic mind, and, as a lover of men, may grant the rewards of victory.
48. Whoever holds a mirror and looks steadfastly into it, let this be to you a pattern of the quiet of the heart: and then you will perceive what things are intellectually inscribed in the heart, both evil and good.
49. Watch always that you do not keep any thought in your heart, whether irrational or following reason, so that in this way you may easily recognize...
the aliens, the first-born sons, that is, of the Egyptians. A
50. How good, delectable, pleasant, bright, and altogether beautiful, and resplendent, and lovely is the virtue of temperance: which is directed by thee, Christ God, and is led forward vigilantly with the greatest humiliation of the human mind! For it extends its branches as far as the sea and the abyss of contemplations, and as far as the rivers of delightful and divine mysteries it extends its offshoots, and it waters the intellect which had long been parched by impiety due to the brine of wicked spiritual thoughts and the unfriendly disposition of the flesh, which is death. A
51. Temperance is like Jacob’s ladder, upon which God rests, and the angels ascend; for it takes away every vice from us; for it cuts off talkativeness, railing, backbiting, and the whole catalog of the senses' evils, not enduring for these reasons even for a little while to be deprived of its own sweetness. B
52. Let us eagerly desire, brothers, to become partakers of this, and by flying in its contemplations with a pure mind together with Christ Jesus, let us stir up the contemplation of our sins and of our former life, so that being crushed and humbled by the remembrance of our sins, we may have the help of the Lord Jesus Christ unbroken within us for waging the invisible war; for, deprived of the help of Jesus through pride, or human love, or vainglory, we were deprived of purity of heart, through which God is known to man; for the former is the cause of the latter, as he himself promises. C
53. An intellect that does not neglect its own hidden work will, along with the other good things it will find from the continuous practice of watchfulness, also show the five senses of the body to be idle of external evils. For by wholly applying itself to its own virtue and watchfulness, and desiring to delight in good thoughts, it does not allow itself to be robbed through the five senses by material and vain thoughts coming toward it, but having recognized their deceitful nature, it gathers them together within itself for the most part and restrains them. C
54. Remain in your contemplation, and you will not suffer weariness in temptations; but if you depart from it, endure the things that come upon you. D
55. Just as wormwood is beneficial to those with poor appetites, so it is useful for those of wicked habits to suffer adversity. D
56. If you do not wish to suffer evil, do not wish to do evil, because this inevitably follows that; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Therefore, since we sow wicked things voluntarily, and reap them involuntarily, we ought to admire the justice of God. D
57. The intellect is blinded by these three passions, I mean: greed, vainglory, and pleasure.
58. Knowledge and faith are the companions of our nature; for no other reason than for these have they been blunted.
59. Fury, wrath, wars, slaughter, and the whole remaining catalogue of evils, were powerfully strengthened among men by these.
60. He who does not know the truth cannot truly believe; for knowledge naturally precedes faith. The sayings of Scripture, indeed, were written not merely that we might understand them, but that we might fulfill them in deed.
61. Let us begin, then, from the work; for by advancing consistently in this way, we shall find that not only hope in God, but also firm faith, interior knowledge, liberation from temptations, the gifts of charisms, confession of the heart, and earnest tears, come to the faithful through the benefit of prayer. And not only these, but also patience in coming tribulations, sincere forgiveness toward one’s neighbor, knowledge of the spiritual law, the attainment of divine justice, the inpouring of the Holy Spirit, the bestowal of spiritual treasures, and all things that God has promised to grant to faithful men, both in this age and in the one to come. And to speak in summary, B you cannot, O soul, bear before you the image of God, except by the gratuitous gift of God and by the faith of the man who perseveres from the heart in supreme humility and unfaltering prayer.
62. It is truly a great good, as we have learned by experience, for one who desires to purge his own heart to invoke the Lord Jesus continuously against spiritual enemies. Observe how that which I have said, having tested it by experience, accords with the testimonies of Scripture. "Prepare yourself," it says, "O Israel, to invoke the name of the Lord your God." And the Apostle says: "Pray without ceasing." And our Lord says: "Without me you can do nothing; he who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit." And again: "If anyone does not abide in me, he shall be cast out as a branch." C Prayer is a great good, a good I say that provides all things, and cleanses the heart, in which God is beheld by the faithful.
63. The gift of humility, since it is by nature exalting, and most pleasing to God, and consumes almost all the vices within us that are hateful to God, is therefore naturally difficult to acquire. And so, in one and the same man, it is not difficult to find certain partial actions of many other virtues; but if you seek in him the scent of humility, you will scarcely find it. For this reason, there is need of much vigilance in order to acquire this gift. For Scripture calls even the devil "unclean," since from the beginning he rejected this very good of humility and loved pride; therefore, he is called in all of Scripture an unclean spirit. D For what corporeal uncleanness can be committed by that which is entirely devoid of body and flesh, and is not situated in any place, and lacks blood—such as Satan was from the beginning and is now—so that he should be called unclean on account of these? It is clear that he was called unclean because of pride, and that from a pure and luminous angel [he became...]
defiled and unclean. Moreover, before the Lord, whoever is proud of heart is held as unclean; for the first sin, he says, is pride. And in this manner also the proud Pharaoh was saying: "Your God," he says, "I do not know, and Israel I will not let go."
64. There are many actions of the mind which can procure for us the good gift of humility, provided we are not neglectful of our salvation; that is to say, the remembrance of sins which we commit in word, deed, and thought, and many other things which, collected by contemplation, are very useful to us for humility. True humility is also produced by this: if someone greatly extols in himself the affairs of his neighbors that are daily prospering, as well as other natural advantages which nature provides them, and their possessions, and having made a comparison of their affairs with his own, thus contemplates in his mind his own insignificance. Seeing how far he is from their perfection, he considers himself earth and ashes, and not a man, but a certain dog, as the lowest and most inferior of all rational men dwelling on earth in every respect.
65. The mouth of Christ, the pillar of the Church, our great father Basil, says that it contributes greatly to avoiding sin, and so that we do not fall into the same crimes on the following day, if, after the day is ended, we examine ourselves in our conscience: what we have sinned, and what good work we have performed. Job used to do this for himself and for his children; for those things which are daily subjected to an account make clear what has been done and what must be done at each hour. And again, the same Basil says: Every measure is the best.
66. And again, another of those wise in divine matters said: The beginning of fruitfulness is the flower, and the beginning of practical [life] is continence. Therefore, let us be continent, and this with measure and balance, as the Fathers teach; and let us pass the whole day of twelve hours in the preservation of the mind; for by doing so, we shall be able, with God leading, to quench and diminish vice by a certain force; for the life dedicated to virtues is violent, by which the kingdom of heaven is given.
67. The way that leads to knowledge is dispassion and humility, without which no one will see the Lord.
68. He who incessantly occupies himself with inner things is prudent. And he does not only do this, but he also contemplates, and theologizes, and prays. And this is what the Apostle says: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
69. He who does not know how to travel the spiritual path does not make any provision against passionate thoughts, but is entirely concerned with the flesh; and he either gluttonizes and is intemper->
intemperate, or is sorrowful and angry, and harbors grudges; and thence he darkens the mind, or uses immoderate asceticism, and muddies his understanding. A
70. He who has renounced things, for example his wife, possessions, and the rest, has made the outer man a monk, but not yet the inner man. But he who has renounced the thoughts that are affected by these things has made the inner man—that is, the mind—a monk. And it is easy for anyone to make the outer man a monk, if only they wish it, but it is no small task to make the inner man a monk. B
71. Who then in this generation is he who has been entirely delivered from passionate thoughts and has been deemed worthy of pure and immaterial prayer at all times—which is the sign of the inner monk?
72. Not a few passions are hidden in our souls; but they are then revealed when their causes appear.
73. Do not apply all your labor to caring for the flesh, but exercise it only at the appointed time according to your strength, and turn your whole mind to the inner things. For bodily exercise is of little profit; but godliness is profitable for all things.
74. When passions cease to attack, arrogance occurs, either because the causes are not being cut away, or because the demons are deceitfully withdrawing. C
75. Humility and affliction deliver a man from every sin: the former cuts away the passions of the soul, the latter those of the body. For this reason the Lord says: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"—Him, I say, and the treasures stored up in Him, when they have cleansed themselves through charity and continence. And they shall see them all the more fully, the more thoroughly they have cleansed themselves.
76. The intent of all words concerning virtue is that the mind might be kept whole, just as the target of David of old foreshadowed the circumcision of the heart.
77. Just as we are harmed when we see harmful things with our senses, so it happens to the mind.
78. Just as he who wounded the heart of a plant caused it to dry up entirely, so must you understand regarding the human heart, and must pay attention to that very moment. Since thieves D never rest.
79. When the Lord wished to show that we are bound to fulfill every command, and that the adoption of sons was given to men by His own blood, He says: "When you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done what we were bound to do." For this reason, the kingdom of heaven is not a wage for works, but the grace of the Master prepared for faithful servants. The servant does not demand freedom as a wage; but he gives thanks as a debtor, and, as though receiving a free gift, accepts it.
A 80. For He died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and to those who serve Him well, He freely bestows freedom. For He says: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord." But that servant is not yet faithful who relies on mere knowledge; rather, it is he who through obedience believes in Christ who gives the command, honors the Master, and performs what is commanded. But he who errs and does not obey must perforce bear the consequences as his own. Therefore, be eager to learn and to work, for mere knowledge "puffs up" the man.
81. Temptations which happen to us unexpectedly, by divine dispensation teach us that we ought to walk in constant labor.
B 82. It is natural for a star to have light about it, but the characteristic of a God-fearing man who fears God is simplicity and humility; for there is no other mark that is more natural or a clearer sign of the disciples of Christ than a humble mind and a simple manner of life. And all four Gospels cry this out; but he who does not live so humbly falls away from the portion of Him who voluntarily humbled Himself even to the cross and death, the very Lawgiver of the divine Gospels.
83. "You who thirst," He says, "go to the water"; but you who thirst for God, go with purity of mind. Yet he who flies on high by means of it must also look toward the earth of his own lowliness; for no one is higher than the humble man. C For as, when light is absent, all things are murky and dark, so too if humility is lacking, all our pursuits which we expend in the worship of God are vain and frivolous.
84. Hear the end of the matter: "Fear God, and keep His commandments," both spiritually and sensibly; for if you force yourself to keep them spiritually, you will seldom have need to struggle with the sensible towards them. For David says: "I have willed to do Thy will and Thy law in the midst of my bowels." Unless a man does the will and the law of God in the midst of the bowels—that is, in the midst of the heart—he cannot easily perform it outwardly. D And the man who is undisciplined and wandering will say to God these words, "I do not wish to know thy ways," certainly due to a lack of divine illumination; he who is a partaker of which is not uncertain, but will be sufficiently steadfast and settled in divine matters.
85. For just as sensible salt seasons both bread and every dish, and preserves some things that require it from corruption and keeps them lasting, and dissipates every foul odor; so also regarding the guarding of the mind, understand it as a mental seasoning and a wondrous work. For it imparts a divine sweetness both to the inward and the outward man, and having driven away the foulness of evil thoughts, it keeps us persevering in good things.
A 86. From a suggestion, many thoughts arise, and from these, the evil, perceptible act follows. But he who, aided by divine help, immediately extinguishes the first of these, escapes the subsequent ones and will become enriched with a sweet, divine knowledge, through which he will find God, who is everywhere present. In him the mirror of the mind is continuously illuminated by reflection, not unlike a clear glass by the sensible sun. And then the soul rests from every other contemplation it had conceived, as if reaching the goal of all desirable goods.
87. Since every thought enters into the heart through the imagination of certain sensible things, then the blessed light of the Godhead radiates upon it, when the heart has become entirely at leisure from all things, and has become free from such forms—if it is true that that brightness appears to the pure mind through the deprivation of all conceptions.
88. The more strictly you observe the thoughts of your mind, with the greater desire will you pray to Jesus. But on the contrary, the more carelessly you examine them, the further you will recoil from Jesus. And just as the former wonderfully illuminates the air of the mind, so, if anyone were to be destitute of temperance and the sweet invocation of Jesus, he would be completely enveloped in darkness. And you will learn by experience that the matter is by nature as we have said, and not otherwise, when you have tested it by the deed itself; since that pleasant virtue, being endowed with the faculty of illuminating, is not accustomed to be perceived in any other way than by experience.
89. To invoke Jesus continuously with a desire full of sweetness and joy makes the air of the mind full of gladness and tranquility, on account of the supreme observance of oneself. But the cause of the heart being B purified to the uttermost is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God, the author and creator of all good things. "For I," he says, "am God, who makes peace." 85
90. The soul, which has been benefited and sweetened by Jesus, with a certain exultation and love, repays the benefactor through confession, giving thanks and invoking with delight of soul its peacemaker; or, at that time, when it sees him in its midst dissolving, by intellectual reasoning, the illusions of the spirits of wickedness.
91. "And my eye," says the intellectual David, "has looked down on my enemies. And on those who rise up against me shall my ear hear." 86 And I saw the retribution of sinners taking place from God within me.
92. When there are no imaginations of any kind in the heart, the mind stands in its natural state, being ready to be moved into every pleasant, spiritual, and God-pleasing contemplation.
93. Thus, therefore, as I have said, temperance and the prayer of Jesus are by nature accustomed to be mutually strengthening; the one C
A providing extreme attentiveness to continuous prayer, while prayer again provides the guardian of extreme watchfulness and attention.
A 94. A good pedagogue for both the body and the soul is the irreproachable memory of death, and the act of always overlooking everything that lies in the middle, and instead constantly anticipating the deathbed where we shall hereafter lie in our final struggle, and so on.
95. It is not possible, brothers, for someone who wishes to remain unharmed at all times to take sleep; one of two things is necessary: either to fall and perish by being stripped of the virtues, or to remain always armed in the mind; for the enemy always stands with his own array.
B 96. A certain divine state comes into our mind from the continuous memory and continuous invocation of our Lord, provided we are not neglectful of frequent prayer to Christ according to the mind, and of constant watchfulness and this prevailing work. But we should also make this a work that is always and similarly fulfilled, the invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ, rather calling out with a burning heart, so as to partake of the holy name of Jesus; for continuity—both in virtue and in vice—is the mother of habit; and habit, henceforth, prevails as nature. And when the mind has come into such a state, it seeks out the enemies, just as a Laconian hound seeks the hare in the thickets. For thus, too, does the mind search out evil thoughts; but the one [seeks] to devour, while the other to destroy.
C 97. Whenever and as often as it happens that evil thoughts multiply within us, let us cast the invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ into the middle of them; and we shall see them immediately dissolving like smoke in the air, as experience has taught. And if the mind alone is overtaken by them, then let us begin again the start of continuous watchfulness and invocation. And as often as we are troubled again by some such trial, let us do this same thing.
98. For just as it is impossible for someone who has entered into battle with a naked body, or to swim a great sea with clothes on, or to live without breathing, so it is impossible without humility and continuous supplication toward Christ to learn the intelligible and hidden war, and to skillfully pursue and strike D these [thoughts].
99. The great and most practical David says: "My strength will I keep toward Thee," speaking to the Lord, so that the strength of the heart’s intellectual stillness, from which all virtues are born, might be kept within us, which comes about through our being helped by the Lord—who has both given the commandments and drives away from us the impure forgetfulness, as we continuously cry out against it, which is especially destructive to the heart's stillness, as water is to fire; wherefore, O monk, do not sleep unto death through negligence, but strike the enemies with the name of Jesus; and, as
death; but lash the enemies with the name of Jesus, and as a certain wise man has said, "Let the name of Jesus cling to your breath and to all your life, and then you shall know the fruit of stillness."
100. When we, who are otherwise unworthy, are deemed worthy of the divine and immaculate mysteries of Christ, our God and great King, we must approach not without dread, and then show forth a greater and more accurate temperance and custody of the mind, so that the divine fire, that is, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, may consume our sins and our stains, both great and small. For as soon as it enters into us, it drives the wicked spirits of malice out of the heart immediately, forgives the sins that have arisen in us, and the soul is left empty of the disturbance of wicked thoughts. And if, afterward, standing at the doors of our heart, we diligently keep the soul, when we again are counted worthy of these mysteries, the divine body bathes the mind in still greater, I say, even greater splendor, and renders it like a star.
SECOND CENTURY
1. Forgetfulness is accustomed to extinguish the custody of the mind, just as water extinguishes fire. But continuous prayer toward Jesus, joined with intense temperance, eventually consumes it from the mind. For prayer has need of temperance, no otherwise than a small lamp has need of the light of a candle.
2. We must labor in keeping those things that are precious; for those things are truly precious which preserve us from every vice, both of body and of soul. And these are the custody of the mind, having annexed to it the invocation of Jesus Christ; to look always into the depth of the heart; to keep the mind perpetually at rest, if I may so speak, and to be found even from those thoughts which seem upright, that the thieves may not lie hidden; and although it is laborious to remain in guarding the heart, yet the consolation is near.
3. For the heart, when it is kept without intermission—and yet is permitted to receive the forms, images, and illusions of dark and wicked spirits—is accustomed to conceive luminous thoughts from them. For as a coal produces flame, much more does God, dwelling in the heart from holy baptism, if He finds the air of our intellect pure from the spirits of malice and kept well under the custody of the mind, kindle our intellectual faculty to contemplation, just as a flame kindles wax.
4. Just as lightning is accustomed to roll in the air of the firmament, so it is necessary that the name of Jesus Christ perpetually move in the area of our heart. This those know exactly who have experienced the danger of the mind and of the internal war. Thus we wage intellectual war as in a battle line. First, we use attention; then, when we have known how to strike the enemy with thought, we strike him ourselves in the mind with words of cursing, with holy anger; third, in the order immediately following, turning the heart, invoking Jesus Christ, we pray to Him that He may as soon as possible dissolve
A the demonic image, so that the mind may not follow the fantasy, like a child being led astray by some illusionist.
5. Let us labor as did David, crying out, "Jesus Christ, let not our throats become hoarse, and let not our intellectual eyes fail from hoping in the Lord our God," B always mindful of the parable of the judge of iniquity which the Lord spoke, concerning the need for us to pray always and not to grow weary, and we shall find the profit and the vengeance.
6. Just as it is impossible for one gazing steadily at the sun not to have his vision amply illuminated, so it is impossible for one who always inclines toward the air of his own heart not to be illuminated.
7. As it is impossible to live the present life without eating and drinking, so it is impossible without the guarding of the mind and purity of heart, which is also called sobriety (nipsis), for the soul to reach anything spiritual and pleasing to God, or to be freed from sin according to its thought, even if one forces oneself for fear of punishment not to sin. B
8. Nevertheless, even those who abstain from acting on sin by a certain force are blessed before God, and angels, and men, because they are found to be violent toward the kingdom of heaven, and seize it.
9. This is the wondrous thing about the benefit of the stillness of the mind: C that all sins first knock at the mind only in thoughts; so that if they are admitted by the intellect, they become sensible and gross. Practical virtue cuts away all sins in our inner man, not allowing them to be carried out into evil deeds, by the inclination and support of our Lord Jesus Christ.
10. The Old Testament is an image of the outer and sensible and bodily exercise; but the holy Gospel, which is the New, is an image of attention, that is, of purity of heart. And just as the Old neither perfected nor assured the inner man in divine worship (for "the law," says the Apostle, "perfected nothing"), but only prevented grosser sins (for to prevent the plucking out of one's neighbor's eye and tooth is a lesser thing for the purity of the soul than to cut off thoughts from the heart, which is the command of the Gospel, and evil reflections), D so too, in regard to bodily justice and exercise—I mean fasting, abstinence, sleeping on the ground, vigils, standing, and the rest that naturally pertain to the body—it makes the passionate part of the body to be still from sin in action; these, as I said concerning the Old [Testament], are also good things. For they are a discipline for our outer man, and a guard against evils in action, but yet they are not preventative of sins according to thought, such as freeing us, with God, entirely from envy, anger, and the rest.
A 11. But the purity of the heart, that is to say the keeping and guarding of the mind, whose archetype is the New Testament, if it is observed by us as it ought to be, roots out and cuts away all passions and all evils from the heart, and introduces in their stead joy, good hope, contrition, mourning, tears, knowledge of ourselves and of our sins, memory of death, true humility, love infinite both toward God and men, and a divine love seated in the heart.
12. As it is impossible for one walking on the earth not to divide the air, so it is impossible for the human heart not to be assailed perpetually by demons, or to be worked upon secretly by them, even if one occupies himself in frequent bodily exercise.
13. If you wish, in the Lord, not only to seem to be a good, fair, and gentle monk, always united to God, but also to be such in truth and in deed, pursue with all your power the virtue of attentiveness, which is the guard of the mind, the keeping of the intellect, the perfection of interior sweetness, freedom from fantasies, a blessed state of the soul—a thing found among few. B
14. For these things are spoken to the mind by philosophy. And walk this way with much tribulation and ardent desire, with humble and frequent prayer to Jesus Christ, with the silence of lips, both sensible and intellectual, with abstinence from food and drink, and from every sinful thing. Walk this way, with the intellect as your guide, wisely and prudently; and this, with the help of God, will teach you, make things clear, enlighten you, grant you understanding, preserve you, and instruct you in things you could not previously grasp in your mind while you were walking in the darkness of the passions, and were wrapped in the abyss of forgetfulness and confusion, not knowing what the work of darkness was. C
15. Just as valleys make corn abundant, so this way makes every good thing abound in the heart. Or rather, our Lord Jesus Christ, without whom we can do nothing, will provide these things to you. And first you will find it as a ladder; then as a book that is being read; afterwards, as you make progress, you will find it to be the heavenly Jerusalem itself, and you will clearly behold Christ, the King of the powers of Israel, in your intellect.
16. Through fantasy and deceit, the demons lead us into sin. For through the fantasy of love of money and gain, they prepared the wretched Judas to betray the Lord and God of all. D But through false and worthless bodily relaxation, and through the honors, gains, and fame they dangled before him, they brought him to the noose, and procured for him eternal death; and in return, the wretches, for their own fantasy—I mean, the suggestion—paid him back with the exact opposite.
17. See how, through fantasy and deceit and empty promises, the enemies of our salvation cause us to fall. In the same way, Satan himself was cast down from his heights like lightning, when—
A he imagined himself to be equal to God. By the same reasoning, Adam fell away from God, since he wished, by a certain imagination, to arrogate the divine majesty to himself. And thus the lying and deceitful enemy is accustomed to circumvent all those who sin.
18. A We are embittered in our heart by evil thoughts when, through neglect of attention and the prayer to Jesus, we are led astray by forgetfulness. But, on the other hand, we become sweet again, through the perception and a certain sweetness of blessed exultation, when we carry out what was said before, constantly, alacritously, and studiously in the workshop of the mind, guided by divine love. For then, for no other reason do we desire to live with a quiet heart, than for the sake of the sweet pleasure and delectation of that [love] in the soul.
19. There is a science of sciences, and an art of arts, and that is the art against evil thoughts. The best method and art regarding them, therefore, is to behold the fantasy of the suggestion while looking to the Lord, and to guard the mind as we guard the physical eye; and with it we keenly see [the suggestion] coming by chance to strike it, and with all our might we ward off every splinter from it.
20. Just as snow will not beget flame, nor water fire, nor a bramble a fig, B so the heart of any man will not be delivered from demonic thoughts, and works, and words, if it has not purged its interior; nor will attention, joined to the prayer of Jesus, ignite temperance, which directs the humility and quiet of the soul, so that the heart may be led forth and walk most alacritously. But an soul that does not attend necessarily turns out to be sterile of all good and perfect intelligence, like a useless mule, which has no understanding of spiritual wisdom. Indeed, peace is the sweet thing and name of the soul, and an emptying of thoughts given over to passions.
21. When the soul wickedly agrees with the body, then both build a city of vainglory and pride, and the impious thoughts inhabiting them. But the Lord, by the fear of Gehenna, confounds and divides their concord, compelling the soul that holds the mastery to think and speak things alien and contrary to the body. From this fear, division arises for them, C because the carnal mind is hostile to God and is not subject to the law of God.
22. We ought to weigh and observe our daily works hour by hour, and, as much as possible, lighten those that are heavy in the evening through repentance, if indeed, with God’s favor, we wish to overcome vice. It must also be observed whether all our external works are done before God and for Him alone, D so that we may not be irrationally stolen away by the senses.
23. If we daily gain something with God from our watchfulness, we ought not to conduct ourselves indiscriminately and suffer loss through many hazardous acquaintances, but rather take heed of the
A sweetness and pleasant gain and beauty of virtue.
24. We must move the threefold faculty of the soul according to its nature, just as it was created by God. Indeed, let us move the irascible power against our external man and against the serpent Satan. *Be angry*, he says, *against sin*, that is, among other things, against the devil himself. *Be angry*, he says, *that ye sin not against God*. But it is fitting to move the desiring faculty toward God and virtue. We shall place the rational part of the soul in such an order that it may wisely and discreetly command, rebuke, and punish both of these, and nonetheless rule, as a king rules over servants. And the reason which flourishes in us according to God governs these things. And if the passions rebel against reason and strive to lord it over our intellect, we shall place reason in command over them. For the brother of the Lord says, *If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man*, B and so forth; since, to speak the truth, all iniquity and sin is accomplished through these three, and all virtue and justice, in turn, is accomplished through these same three.
25. Then the mind is darkened and remains fruitless when it utters worldly words, or when, having accepted them into the intellect, it converses with them, or when the body together with the mind is occupied in vain with certain sensible things, or when the monk abandons himself to vanities. For immediately, even while he is doing these things, he loses fervor, compunction, and his free confidence and knowledge in God. For the more diligently we observe the mind, the more we are enlightened; and the less we attend to it, the more we are overwhelmed by darkness.
26. For he who each day follows and seeks the peace and quiet of the mind, he will easily C despise every sensible thing, so that he may not labor in vain. But if he deceives his own conscience, he will sleep bitterly the death-bearing sleep of forgetfulness; from which the holy David prays that he may not fall asleep. For the Apostle says, *To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin*.
27. But the mind returns from negligence to its own order and watchfulness again, if it obtains the benefit of diligence, and if we set our active faculty of the mind once more in fervent study.
28. A mill-donkey shall not progress beyond the circle in which it is bound. Nor shall the mind, which does not chastise its interior parts, make progress in the virtue that perfects; D but, being perpetually blinded in its internal eyes, it cannot behold virtue, nor Jesus shining with light.
29. A fierce and proud horse leaps up when it receives a rider; but the mind, having been delighted, shall be delighted in the light of the Lord, entering into the first concepts, being freed from its former passions; it shall progress from the power of the contemplative mind, renewing itself in the active one
A to the hidden power, which contemplates both the hidden things and the virtues. And when one has received into his heart the high depth of the infinite divine concepts, the God of gods shall be seen, as far as it is possible for the heart; and the mind, struck with awe, lovingly glorifies God, both seen and seeing, and for this reason, He saves him who gazes steadily upon both.
30. A heart that has attained stillness will knowingly perceive a high depth, and wonderful things shall be heard from God by those who possess stillness. B
31. A traveler who has begun to traverse a long, difficult, and laborious road, fearing that he might wander in his return, sets up certain signs as guides in his journey, which procure for him an easy return to his own things. But the man who walks soberly will note the things he has heard, observing them himself as well.
32. Now for the traveler, the return to where he set forth is a cause of joy; but for the sober man, the return to what he has left behind is the death of the rational soul, and a sign of falling away from deeds, words, and thoughts that are pleasing to God. And so, in the time of a soul's lethal sleep, he will have thoughts that rouse him like goads, with the memory of the heavy stupor and the sloth that befell him through negligence.
33. When we encounter tribulations, and states of despair, and hopelessness, we must fulfill in ourselves the word of David: to pour out our heart before God, and as it is, to declare our prayer and our affliction to the Lord. For we confess to God, as to One who can wisely govern our affairs, and can make trial light to our advantage, and can deliver us from destruction and corruptible sorrow. C
34. For anger that is moved against men contrary to nature, and sadness not according to God, and listlessness, alike produce a corruption of good and contemplative thoughts; but the Lord, through confession, scatters these and brings forth joy.
35. The prayer of Jesus, made with watchfulness from the deep concepts of the heart, is accustomed to erase thoughts that fix themselves and take root in the heart against our will.
36. We shall find relief and joy in the trial of many irrational thoughts when we truly, and without attachment, blame ourselves; or by declaring everything to the Lord as if to a man. And in any case, by these two ways, we shall find rest from everything, for there is no other way. But if we think that we handle the cause of events as if with our hand, and we pay back with a clenched fist, we shall recognize that saying: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," says the Lord. D
37. The legislator Moses is taken by the fathers as an image of the mind, he who sees God in the bush, and his face is glorified, and he is appointed as God to Pharaoh by the God of gods, he scourges Egypt, and
leads out Israel, and gives the law; which things, taken tropically, are operations and prerogatives according to the spirit of the mind.
A 38. Aaron, however, the brother of the lawgiver, was an image of the outward man. Let us therefore, bringing forward angry expostulations, as Moses did to Aaron when he sinned, say: What injury did Israel do to you, that you were so quick to lead them away from the living and omnipotent Lord God?
39. For the Lord showed us, among all other good things, this also, when he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead: that one must restrain, by severe threatening, the soft and effusive nature of the soul and embrace a constant habit of mind. In this way, indeed, if we are indignant with ourselves, it will come to pass that the soul is freed from self-love, vainglory, and pride.
40. Just as it is impossible to cross the deep sea without a large ship, so it is impossible to expel the assault of an evil thought without the invocation of Jesus Christ.
41. Contradiction silences, but invocation drives thoughts from the heart; for the assault, having been formed in the imagination by a sensible thing in the soul—such as the face of the one who offended us, or the imagination of female beauty, or of gold or silver—if any one of these is conceived in our understanding, those thoughts which have caused the vision of resentment, fornication, and avarice in our soul are immediately detected. And if our mind be experienced and learned, having prepared a habit of guarding itself and of seeing clearly and in a serene state the blandishing illusions and snares of the wicked, it immediately and easily extinguishes the fiery darts of the devil by repulse, contradiction, and the prayer of Jesus Christ, not allowing the impassioned imagination to be conformed in a passionate way to our thoughts, joined together with it, neither to converse B familiarly, nor to contract long delay of mind and consent, to which evil works necessarily follow, just as nights follow days.
42. But if our mind is inexperienced in vigilant sobriety, it immediately mingles with the thing imagined in it passionately, whatever it may be, and converses with it, receiving wicked inquiries and giving answers; and then our thoughts become mixed with the demonic illusion, itself growing and multiplying all the more, so that it may appear amiable, beautiful, and pleasing to the mind receiving it and being plundered by it. And the same thing then happens to the mind as when a dog appears in a certain field where there happen to be lambs, newborn, innocent, and small; they frequently run to it, whom they have caught sight of, as if to their own mother, gaining nothing from their approach to the dog but only to receive its filth and bad odor. C In the same way, our thoughts run forward naively to all the demonic illusions entering the mind; and when they have become mixed with them, as I said, it is possible to see both of them desiring to destroy the city of Ilium, as
Thus also they crave to bring into action through the body that which appeared to them beautiful and sweet from deception through the onset of the demon; and thus indeed, the sins of the soul are subsequently fashioned within, and it is necessary thereafter to bring them out from the interior of the heart.
43. B The mind is an easy and guileless thing, easily following after imaginations, and hard to restrain from lawless fantasies, unless it has that which perpetually hinders it and bridles the intellect that is sovereign over thoughts and passions.
44. Contemplation and knowledge are by nature guides and authors of an exact life; for by their help the mind is uplifted, so that it first learns to despise pleasures and other things of the world that attract the senses, as being worthless.
45. A life attentive in Christ Jesus, which assumes Him as father, becomes the father of contemplation and knowledge. Again, it is a progenitor of divine ascents and of the most wise concepts, being joined as a yoke-mate to humility, as the divine prophet Isaiah says: "For they that wait upon the Lord shall change their strength, they shall grow wings and shall fly by the Lord," he says.
46. C It appears hard and difficult for men to dwell in the soul, undisturbed by every thought. And it is, indeed, truly laborious and burdensome; for it is onerous not only to those uninitiated in the war, who know not how to enclose and limit the incorporeal within the body, but also to those who have had experience of the internal and incorporeal battle. But he who has embraced the Lord Jesus through constant prayer will not grow weary in following Him, according to the Prophet. And one who is thus captive to the beauty and sweetness of Jesus will not await the day of man; he will not fear his enemies, the impious demons walking about in the circuit, but will speak to them at the gates of the heart, and, with Jesus helping, will drive them out from behind.
47. D The soul that passes through death into the air, at the heavenly gates, having Jesus with it and above it, will not fear its enemies there; but, with boldness as now, so then will it speak to them at the gates, provided only that until its departure it does not grow weary crying to Christ Jesus day and night. And He, acting, will surely execute his vengeance quickly, according to His true and divine promise, which He spoke concerning the unjust judge: "Yes, I say to you, He will execute vengeance quickly," both in this life and after the departure from the body.
48. Sailing the intellectual sea, have confidence in Jesus; for He sounds within thy heart mysteriously, saying: "Fear not, My child Jacob, little Israel; fear not, worm Israel, I will fight for thee." If therefore God
A be for us, who is against us? For did not He who called the pure in heart blessed, ordain that the sweet Jesus should purely, alone, and divinely enter into and dwell within clean hearts? Wherefore let us not flag, according to the divine Paul, exercising the mind toward piety; for truly piety is well said to pluck up by the roots the seeds of the Wicked One; this piety is this path (oimos) of the Logos, that is to say, the way of the rational faculty, or rather the way of logic; for according to the propriety of the Greek language, *oimos* and *keleuthos* are what we call a path, which is logic.
49. "He shall delight in the multitude of peace," according to David, he who accepts not the person of a man, nor judges unjustly in his heart: that is, he who does not receive the forms offered by the malign spirits, whence he might conceive sin, nor thinks or judges evil in the land of his heart, by rendering just dues to sin. For the great and knowledgeable Fathers in their writings have called the demons themselves "men" on account of the B power of the thoughts they sow. Of which kind is the Gospel, in which the Lord says: "An enemy man hath done this," and mixed tares with the wheat. And because we do not immediately resist those who commit such wickedness, therefore we are consumed by thoughts.
50. If we begin to live with attention of mind, if we join to temperate humility, and add prayer to our resistance, we shall walk the way of the intellect aright, adorning and decorating our heart—the house of our heart—and purging it of wickedness, by adoring and using the holy name of Jesus Christ as a lamp of light. But if we trust only in our own temperance and vigilance, as soon as we are pushed by the enemies, we shall fall, overturned, and those most crafty deceivers will conquer us; and lacking the powerful lance, the name of Jesus Christ, we shall be more easily and vehemently bound and sealed by their nets, namely, by their malign reasonings. For C that holy sword alone—the name, I say, of Jesus—revolved often in a stable heart, can twist and cut them off, and burn them, I say, and force them into their hiding places, like fire consuming stubble. Furthermore, with the matter set clearly before our eyes, it makes the mind of the one struggling—the most experienced—sure that the assistant and cleanser of every diabolical illusion is God, to whom all yield and all are subject.
51. The work of watchfulness, however, is the unceasing and great gain and profit of the soul, to see immediately the images of thoughts as they are being D formed in the mind. The work of resistance, on the other hand, is to expose and declare the thought that is attempting to enter into the air of our mind through the imagination of some sensible thing. But there is nothing that so quickly extinguishes and dissolves every conception of the adversaries, every word, every vision, every statue, every idol, and every evil pillar, as the invocation of the Lord. For we ourselves, in our minds, see…
A the defeat of them by the power of Jesus, our great God, and the vengeance taken upon them for us who are humble, lowly, and uncultivated.
52. We are ignorant, for the most part, that all thoughts are nothing other than mere imaginations of sensible and worldly things. But if we persevere in constant prayer, prayer strips the mind of every gross imagination of impure thoughts; it also reveals the devices of the adversaries, and makes clear the great gain that arises from prayer and sobriety. *Yet with thine eyes thou shalt behold, and see the reward of spiritual sinners; and thou shalt understand*, says David, the divine psalmist.
53. Let us keep in memory, if possible, B death without ceasing. Through this memory, the putting away of cares and all vanities is born in us, as well as the guarding of the mind, and assiduous prayer. From it also comes detachment from the body, the execration of sin, and, if one must speak the truth, every virtue flows forth from it. Therefore, let us use it, if possible, as our very own breath.
54. A heart estranged from imaginations will give birth to conceptions that are full of divine and mysterious things, which leap within the center of it, just as fish leap and dolphins gambol in a calm sea. And the sea is fanned by a light breeze, but the abyss of the heart by the Holy Spirit. *But because ye are sons*, he says, *God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.* C
55. Every monk will be in doubt and discord regarding spiritual work before he has attained to sobriety, either because he does not know its beauty, or because, even if he knows it, he is unable to practice it through negligence. Yet he will undoubtedly be delivered from this doubt when he has applied himself to the guarding of the mind, which is and is called the active philosophy of the mind, as He who said, *I am the way, and the resurrection, and the life*, has also called Himself the way.
56. Again, he will be in doubt, seeing an abyss of thoughts and a multitude of Babylonian infants, but Christ solves this doubt if we continuously stand firm upon Him as the foundation of our mind. And all those Babylonian infants we dash against this rock, as if against a pavement, fulfilling, according to the scripture, D our desire from them. *For he who keeps the commandment*, he says, *will not experience any evil.* For *without me*, he said, *you can do nothing.*
57. This is the true monk in reality, who achieves sobriety; and this is the true sober one, who is a monk in his heart.
58. The life of men is extended through years, through months, through weeks, through days,
and nights, and moments—by these, therefore, we too ought to extend our virtuous labors: I mean sobriety and prayer, and the sweetness of the heart in diligent stillness until our departure.
59. For the fearful hour of death shall come upon us; it shall come, and it is impossible to escape. And if the prince of the world and the air comes at that time, may he find our transgressions small and trifling, that he may not convict us in truth, and we be A brought to useless weeping. For that servant who knew the will of his master and did not perform according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes, he says.
60. Woe to those who have lost their heart, he says. And what will they do when the Lord begins to visit? Therefore, brothers, we must strive.
61. Simple and, as it were, passionless thoughts are followed by those full of passions, as we have found through long experience and observation—just as a snake follows a dove B coming to its own nest. As I suppose, the former thoughts become the entrance for the latter, and the passionless for those that are passionate.
62. For in truth a man must be divided in two; he must be divided in will and in most wise intention, as I said. And he who is an enemy to these, it is truly fitting that he be the irreconcilable foe of the man himself. When, therefore, someone has an disposition at all times towards some man who has terribly and frequently afflicted and wronged him—in this way, or even C much more, if we wish to succeed in the great and first commandment—I mean the conversation of Christ, the blessed humility, the life of God in the flesh? Whence the Apostle says, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? For it is not subject to the law of God. But showing that to subject the body to the will of God is among the things that are in our power, he said, For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged; but being judged, we are disciplined by the Lord.
63. The beginning of bearing fruit is the flower; but the beginning of keeping the mind D is temperance from foods and drinks, and the denial and abstinence from all manner of thoughts, and the stillness of the heart.
64. When we are being strengthened in Christ Jesus, and have begun to be nurtured under the protection of temperance, it appears to us in the mind first like a lamp, which, as if held by us in the hand of the mind, directs for us the paths of the intellect; then, like a full-shining moon, it revolves in the firmament of the heart; afterwards, however, Jesus appears to us as the sun, casting forth justice like solar rays, evidently showing himself as he is, and his own glorious lights—those of the contemplations.
A 65. This is mystically revealed to the mind that obeys His precept, which says, "And you shall circumcise," it says, "the hardness of your heart." Temperance, when diligently practiced by a man, also teaches sublime insights, as it is written: for the Divine does not accept any person. Hence the Lord says: "Hear me, and understand. For to him who has, it shall be given and he shall have abundance; but to him who does not have, even what he seems to have shall be taken away from him." And, "To those who love God, all things work together for good." Much more, therefore, will the virtues work together for him.
66. A ship will not travel many miles without water, and the guarding of the mind will not progress at all without sober watchfulness joined to humility and the constant prayer of Jesus Christ.
B 67. If there be a foundation and stones of a house, then of this virtue,, the foundation, and the roof, is the worshipful and holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as a foolish captain will easily suffer shipwreck in time of storm, having driven away the sailors and thrown the oars and sails into the sea, while he himself sleeps; so much more easily will a soul be submerged by demons if it neglects sober watchfulness and does not care to invoke the name of Jesus Christ at the start of their assaults.
68. What we know, we write; and what we have seen, as we traverse the way, we testify to those who desire it, if indeed you wish to receive what has been said. For He himself has said, "If anyone does not abide in me, he shall be cast out as a branch; and they gather it, and cast it into the fire, and it is burned. But he who abides in me, and I in him." For just as it is impossible for the sun to shine without light, so it is impossible for the heart to be cleansed from the filth of pernicious thoughts without the invocation of Christ, which we should use as our own very breath. For indeed, that is light; but these are darkness. And that is God and Master; C but these are handmaidens of the demons.
69. Let the guardianship of the mind be aptly and appropriately called Light-bearing, Lightning-bearing, Light-emitting, and Fire-bringing; for it surpasses, to speak truly, countless bodily things and most virtues. For this reason, this virtue must be called by glorious names, because of the resplendent lights that are born from it, through the love of which those who have been gripped can, through Jesus Christ, change from sinners, useless, defiled, ignorant, senseless, and unjust persons into righteous, useful, pure, holy, and wise ones; and not only this, but it will also come to pass that they behold mystical things, and D having become contemplative, they will be transported by the most pure and infinite light, and be sharpened by ineffable sharpenings from Him; and they dwell and live with Him, because they have tasted that the Lord is sweet, so that in such as these, the words of the divine David are clearly fulfilled: "Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name, and the upright shall dwell with your countenance." For in very truth, these alone sincerely invoke and confess God, with whom those who love Him desire to converse.
70. Woe to the inner man from the outer; for the inner man shall be greatly grieved by the outward senses. And being thus grieved, he shall use scourges against the outer senses. He who has carried out what the letter contains, already knows what is contained in the contemplation. A
71. If our inner man is temperate according to the Fathers, he is able to guard the outer as well, except that we and the workers of evil, the demons, commit sins together. And they, indeed, form sin within the mind by thoughts alone, or by imaginative depictions, just as they wish; but we, both by thoughts within and by the deeds themselves without. For since the demons lack the density of bodies, they rely upon thoughts alone, and upon craftiness and deception, and in doing so, they procure punishment for us just as they do for themselves. For if those destructive ones were not devoid of bodily mass, they would not cease to sin by deeds themselves, as they always preserve in themselves a readiness to act wickedly. B
72. But prayer, consisting of a single thought, kills and burns to ashes their deceits, when Jesus, who is God and the Son of God, is continuously and unhesitatingly invoked by us; He who in no way permits them to show either the beginning of their incursion (which they also call an "impression"), or to manifest a form to the mind in the mirror of the intellect, or, indeed, to speak any words to the heart. For a demonic form, if it does not penetrate into the heart—and, as we have said, is void of thoughts—cannot communicate with the soul by means of thoughts, for it is accustomed to whispering secretly and teaching its vileness. C
73. Therefore, as a result of constant prayer, the air of the mind is purged of dark clouds and of the winds of the most wicked spirits. And when the air of the heart has been purged, it is impossible, he says, for the divine light of Jesus not to shine upon it, provided we are not puffed up by vainglory, pride, and ostentation, becoming too light-headed as we reach for things that are incomprehensible, and thus find ourselves unworthy of Jesus' help, inasmuch as Christ, the judge of humility, hates those vices. D
74. Let us, then, hold fast to prayer and humility—these two, which, when applied with sobriety, are armed against the demons like a flaming sword. For as long as we act in this way, we can, day by day and hour by hour, keep a mystical feast in our hearts.
75. The eight most general thoughts of wickedness, in which every thought is contained and from which all have their origin (just as from Jove and Juno, in their myths, comes every accursed demon, the god of the Greeks), all come to the gates of the soul. And when they find the mind destitute of a guard, they enter one by one, each at its own proper time. For whichever of the eight thoughts rises up into the heart and enters, it brings with it an army—that is, a herd of obscene thoughts—and in this way, having darkened the mind, it incites the body, turning it to the performance of shameful deeds.
A 76. Therefore, he who has observed the serpent’s head and, by struggling with passionate and stinging words, has struck the foe with a clenched fist in the face (in which manner another was laboring), ought to be the first to partake of the fruits, as it pleases Paul. He, therefore, who crushes the head avoids many wicked thoughts and even worse deeds. It happens then that the mind remains tranquil; God approves of its excitation against these thoughts and, for the sake of rewarding it, teaches it how it may be able to overcome those who fight against it, and by what method it ought gradually to cleanse the heart from the thoughts that stain and defile the inner man, as the Lord says: *From the heart come evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications; and these are things which defile the man.*
77. In this way, then, the soul is able to retain its own comeliness, beauty, and uprightness in the Lord, just as it was created from the beginning by God, exceedingly fair and upright, as the great servant of the Lord, Anthony, says, for the intellect of the soul, when it is governed according to nature, consists in virtue. And again he said: "For the soul to be upright, this is for it to possess the intellect according to nature, as it was created." And shortly after he says again: "Let us purify the mind. For I believe that the soul, having been purified from every side and standing according to nature, can, having become perceptive, see more and further than the demons, having the Lord who reveals [things] to it." These things the renowned Anthony says, according to the great Athanasius in the *Life of Anthony*.
78. Every thought is a phantasm in the mind from a sensory perception of some object; for the Assyrian, being a spirit, cannot deceive in any other way than by using those things that are familiar to our senses and habits.
79. As we, being humans, cannot pursue birds that are winged in the air, or fly as they do, since this our nature does not possess, so it is impossible to overcome automatic B demonic thoughts without frequent, watchful prayer, or an exceedingly intent gazing of the eye of the mind toward God. If not, you will strike the earth.
80. Therefore, if you truly wish to put your thoughts to shame, and to rest peacefully, and to be watchful in your heart with ease, let the prayer of Jesus cling to your breath, and in a few days you will see this come to pass.
81. For just as letters cannot be written in the air—for it is necessary for them to be set upon some body so that they might be preserved and endure—so by our laborious watchfulness let us cling to the prayer of Jesus Christ, so that the most excellent virtue of temperance may abide and remain lasting with Him, and through Him be kept for us unto eternity, imperishable.
82. Roll thy works upon the Lord, and you will find...
grace, he says. A Lest it be said of us also by the prophet: “You are near, O Lord, to their mouth, but far from their kidneys.” No one other than Jesus will render your heart peaceful and tranquil from the passions, except Jesus Christ, who joins together those things that are far apart.
83. B Likewise, both of these things—the mental conversations of thoughts and external dealings and idle talk—are observed by the soul. One who wishes to avoid the damage of the mind according to God ought to show displeasure toward both men and thoughts that pursue idle words, for a most reasonable cause according to God, so that the mind, being darkened, may not lose its sobriety. For through forgetfulness, we, being darkened, lose the mind.
84. For he who with all diligence always preserves the purity of the heart will have as his teacher Christ, the lawgiver of this purity, mystically speaking to him His will. “I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me,” says David, declaring this; and in explaining the accurate reflection of the soul within itself regarding the spiritual warfare and God’s protective assistance, he said: “And man will say: Will there be fruit for the just?” Then, as if drawing forth the counsel gathered from this reflection on both sides, he says: “Truly there is a God judging them on the earth,” C meaning the wicked demons on the earth of our heart. And elsewhere he says: “Man will draw near to a deep heart, and God will be exalted.” Then their plagues will be reckoned to us as the arrows of little children.
85. From the sentiment of the holy Psalmist, let us always live with our heart bound to sobriety, breathing in Jesus Christ, the very power of God the Father and the wisdom of God. And if, through some circumstance, we becoming more remiss have neglected the actions of the mind, at the following morning hour let us again fittingly gird the loins of the mind, and again grasp the work itself, not unaware that there is no excuse for us who know what is good, unless we perform it.
86. D Just as hurtful foods recently introduced into the body disturb it, yet he who has eaten, as soon as he senses the damage, by quickly applying some vomitory medicine remains unharmed, thus also the mind, whenever it has received and swallowed or devoured evil thoughts, senses their bitterness. The prayer of Jesus Christ, effectively working from the depths of the heart, easily vomits these out and utterly casts them away, just as, with God, the struggle and the experience have taught those who are sober the lesson concerning what is set before them.
87. Endeavor to unite temperance with the breath of your nostrils, and also the name of Jesus with the meditation on death, in humility; for they know well that both are of great benefit.
88. The Lord said: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
89. The Lord said: “Whoever shall humble himself...”
he shall be exalted; but he who exalts himself shall be humbled.” A “Learn from me,” He says. You see that humility is a discipline. Therefore, he who is not humble has slipped from life, and evidently will be found to be an adversary.
90. Since, therefore, all virtue is created by the ministry of the soul and body—but both the soul and the body, by whose works virtue, as I have said, consists, are creatures of God—how can we not be intolerably insane, boasting of the borrowed ornaments of body and soul? Elated and puffed up by vainglory, we lean upon pride as if upon a reed staff; and by our excessive iniquity and folly, we provoke our most dreadful God, who is of infinite greatness. “God resists the proud.” And when we ought to imitate the Lord in humility, we reconcile ourselves in friendship to the proud demon, the enemy of the Lord, out of a vainglorious and arrogant opinion. For this reason, the Apostle said: “For what do you have that you did not receive from God? Did you create yourself?” But if you received from God the body and soul, from which, in which, and through which all virtue consists, B why do you boast as if you had not received it? For it is the Lord who has gifted these things to you.
91. There is no other way to purify the heart, by which both humility and every good thing is found to descend upon us from above, than by not allowing the thoughts that are emerging to enter at all.
92. For the guarding of the mind, with God and through God alone, when it persists in the soul, provides wisdom to the ruling faculty in the struggles to be engaged in by the will of God, and grants C no small ability to the participant in managing deeds and words in judgment, as is acceptable to the Lord.
93. The ornaments of the priest, which were manifest in the Old Testament, were figures of a pure heart; so that we also might observe the plate of our heart, lest it be blackened by sin, and so that we might wipe it clean with tears, repentance, and prayer. For the mind is a slippery thing, and difficult to restrain from lawless thoughts, and it easily pursues both evil and good logical fantasies alike.
94. Truly blessed is he to whom the prayer of Jesus is thus stuck in his mind, and who calls upon Him unceasingly in his heart, just as air is united to our bodies, or as flame to wax. And just as the sun passing over the earth creates the day, D so the holy and reverend name of the Lord Jesus, shining in the mind with continuity, will generate innumerable sun-like thoughts.
95. And when the clouds have been scattered, the air appears clear. But the fantasies, having been scattered and smoothed out by the Sun of righteousness, Jesus Christ, are naturally accustomed to produce, from the whole air of the heart having been illuminated through Jesus, brilliant and star-like concepts. For Ecclesiastes says: “Those who have trust in...” [alt-version omitted]
...Lord, and those who are faithful in love shall abide in him A. To whom be glory forever. Amen.
45. In the preceding discourses, which we had in the first and second centuries, we described how much effort must be put forth to acquire the sacred quiet of the mind; not merely as a cultivation of my own intellect, but as those things which the divinely wise Fathers teach us through divine words concerning the purity of the mind. Now, having said a little to show the profit that arises from the preservation of the mind, we shall bring our discourse to a close.
46. Come then, from here on follow me B toward the attainment of the blessed preservation of the mind, whoever you may be, and you who desire in spirit to see good days; and in the Lord I shall teach you the visible operation and manner of life of the intellectual powers.
47. For angels shall not be sated in praising the Creator, nor the mind in contending; and just as they, being devoid of bodies, are not concerned about food, so neither do these, though endowed with a body, care for it, provided only that the mind enters into the tranquil heaven.
48. Therefore, just as the powers above are not concerned with money or possessions, so those who have purified the perceptive faculty of the soul, having acquired the habit of virtue, are not anxious about how they are sorely tormented by the most wicked spirits. And just as for them the wealth of progress toward God is manifest, so too for such people is the manifest love toward God, and the tension and ascent of love toward the Divine C Being. Furthermore, dilated by an amorous and insatiable ascent, because of a divine taste and an excess of longing, they shall not stop until they reach the Seraphim; nor shall they grow weary of the diligent observation of the mind and most dear exaltation, until they become angels through Jesus Christ our Lord.
49. There is no venom worse than the venom of the asp and the basilisk, and there is no vice that conquers the vice of self-love. You have the fruits of self-love fluttering about, which are these: hidden praises in the heart, discontent with all things, gluttony, fornication, vainglory, and the summit of all, pride; which knows how to cast down D not only men, but even angels from the heavens, and to drape them in darkness instead of light. These things I write to you, Theodulus, I who am named Hesychius, even if I have feigned the operation itself—though perhaps not entirely, insofar as God has granted.
Who, in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is praised and glorified by rational nature, both angels and men, and by all creation which the hidden Trinity, the one God, has fashioned. May we too attain to His glorious kingdom, by the prayers of the most pure Mother of God, and the prayers of our holy Fathers; to which incomprehensible God be eternal glory. Amen.
MARTYRDOM OF SAINT LONGINUS THE CENTURION
A Of the same Hesychius, the martyrdom of the holy and glorious martyr of Christ, Longinus the centurion, who was present at the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the two soldiers with him.
1. Many and various are the histories of the martyrs. For just as the works of painters represent certain images of cities, and the heights of towers, and the forms of men and women—sometimes presenting them as old or royal, sometimes as young or plebeian, sometimes sad, and sometimes serene and joyful—so too must those who record the accounts of the martyrs' contests manifest to their hearers the manly virtue and strength of soul of those who exhibit themselves fearless and confident in hard and rugged times. They must make manifest the presence of Christ contending with His athletes, showing itself sometimes through a multitude of signs, and sometimes through an abundance of grace in their words. But as for the history of Longinus, being both wise and noble, and especially his illustrious testimony concerning Christ—with which he began his confession—how shall I be able to narrate it worthily?
2. For when, confused by fear, the entire choir of the apostles had denied or deserted Him; and when the lame whom He had raised, the blind whom He had made to see, the lepers whom He had cleansed from the foulness and decaying fragments of their flesh, and others whose sufferings He had stilled and whose diseases He had eased—those who knew Him best—were all struck silent by the spectacle of the cross, and, as if driven by a tempest against the rocks, suffered the shipwreck of their faith: then, the confession of this venerable and devout centurion rang in the ears of the vain and deceitful synagogue of the Jews, when he said, "Truly this is the Son of God." B Indeed, he neither stood in awe of Pilate, who had been bribed against the innocence of Christ, nor did he fear the crowd of such a great multitude, nor did he grow numb at the sight of those infinite myriads. Why, therefore, should his most beautiful struggle not be praised and written down—that which those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning narrated and handed down to the next generation, and from that generation it has come down continuously until us, the accounts of Longinus' martyrdom, like C pearls... D