Nikitas Stethatos, Venerable Monk and Presbyter of the Most Holy Monastery of Stoudios: First Century of Practical Texts
1. I think there are four causes that move us to write about things that save the soul. The first is freedom, that is, the soul’s dispassion, which through practice and labour has attained the natural contemplation of created things and has from then on entered the depth of theology. The second is purity of intellect, gained by tears and prayer, from which is born the word of grace and from which flow streams of saving knowledge. The third is the indwelling of the Holy Trinity in us, from which comes the outpouring of the Spirit’s light for the benefit of everyone who is being purified, for the disclosing of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and the revelation of God’s treasures hidden in the soul. The fourth is the obligation laid upon everyone who has received the talent of the «word of knowledge», an obligation of which the Lord reminds us when He says sternly: «You wicked and slothful servant! You ought to have given my money to the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest» (Mt 25:26-27). For the same reason David says: «Behold, I will not restrain my lips; O Lord, You have known my righteousness. I have not hidden Your truth within my heart, and I have declared Your salvation. I have not concealed Your mercy and Your truth from the great congregation» (Ps 39:10-11).
2. The beginning of life in God is complete withdrawal from the world. And this withdrawal is the rejection of the soul’s desires and the setting aside of earthly wisdom, whereby, ascending to divine wisdom, we become spiritual instead of bodily, dying to the body and to the world and coming alive in the soul in Christ and the Holy Spirit.
3. True knowledge of God, deep and firm faith, contempt for all visible things and the doing of good works without any self-love — this is the «threefold cord» which, as Solomon says, «is not quickly broken» (Eccl 4:12).
4. By faith we hope to receive a reward for our labours, and therefore we bear easily the labours of good works. And since the Holy Spirit gives us assurance of this, we fly up to God on the wings of love.
5. We do not become numbered among those who do evil deeds when we suffer the provocations of unclean thoughts, but when zeal for the good grows weak in the soul and the intellect, through careless and disorderly conduct, begins to turn about in confused fantasies that darken it, and when the labours of the virtues cease through slothfulness in the contemplation of God and in prayer. Then, though we do nothing evil, we are numbered with those who of their own will wallow in the mire of unclean pleasures.
6. When the reins of the ruling senses slacken, the passions rise up at once and the servile senses are stirred. For it is the way of these irrational senses, once freed from the bonds of self-control, to rush upon whatever excites their passions and to graze there as in deadly valleys; and the longer they delight in them, the more insatiable they become. For once free of their bonds they cannot hold back from that towards which their nature drives them.
7. Some senses — sight and hearing — are rational and more given to wisdom and more sovereign than the rest; while the others — taste, smell and touch — are irrational and animal, appointed to serve the rational ones. For first we see and hear, and then, as our thought prompts us, we touch a certain thing, then smell it, and only then taste it. These last three senses, then, are more animal and undoubtedly more servile than the first two. Domestic animals and wild beasts, being more insatiable and more lustful, strive constantly to satisfy them, either by stuffing themselves insatiably with food or by ceaselessly seeking to mate.
8. He who replaces the working of the outer senses with the working of the inner — sight with the intellect’s advance towards the vision of the light of life; hearing with attentiveness of soul; taste with spiritual discernment; smell with the intellect’s perception; touch with the wakeful sobriety of the heart — such a man lives an angelic life upon earth. To men he is a man, and men see him so; but to the angels he is an angel, and the angels see him so.
9. By the intellect’s sight we perceive the divine light, the knowledge of God’s hidden mysteries; by attentiveness of soul we examine how thoughts arise in the heart and distinguish the good from the bad; by spiritual discernment, as by taste, we recognise the kinds of thoughts, and those which grow from a bitter root we either transform into food sweet for the soul or reject altogether, while those that grow from good and fruitful plants we receive and «take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ» (2 Cor 10:5); by the intellect’s perception we smell the fragrance of the noetic myrrh of the Holy Spirit’s grace, being filled with gladness and joy of heart; by the wakeful sobriety of the heart we perceive with understanding how the Holy Spirit bedews from on high the flame of our good longings or warms our powers grown cold from the chill of the passions.
10. As there are five senses in our body — sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch — so there are five in the soul: intellect, word, the intellect’s perception, contemplation and knowledge. The soul’s senses are expressed in three activities of the soul: in the intellect, in the word and in perception. With the intellect we receive our reflections, with the word what is spoken, and with perception the breath of divine knowledge and contemplation.
11. The intellect examines thoughts and distinguishes good from evil and receives pure divine knowledge. The word explains the natural movements of all visible creatures and the causes of all that exists. The intellect’s perception lays hold of heavenly wisdom and the contemplation of knowledge, and when the Sun of righteousness shines upon it, it rises above perception and delights in the sweetness of things unseen.
12. There are four chief powers of the intellect: knowledge, keenness of mind, apprehension and assurance. He who has added to these the foremost virtues of the soul — who has joined chastity of soul to the intellect’s knowledge, wisdom to keenness of mind, righteousness to apprehension, and courage to assurance — will build himself a chariot of fire in which to ride to heaven. Against the first three virtues and powers these passions rise up: love of money, love of pleasure and love of glory.
13. He who has conquered avarice by attaining lawful righteousness, that is, compassion towards those like himself; who has overcome the love of pleasure by prudent chastity, that is, by complete self-control; who has mastered the love of glory as something powerless, by keenness of mind and wisdom, that is, by the prudent examination of things divine and human, and has trampled it underfoot with strong feet as worth nothing — such a man has subdued the wisdom of the flesh to the degree that the law of the Spirit of life permits him; he has been freed from the law of the body, that tormentor, and can say: «Thanks be to God! For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death» (Rom 7:25; 8:2).
14. He who at any price seeks glory from men — and it is nothing — who welcomes the love of pleasure with insatiable soul and willingly gives himself to avarice, such a man through presumption and pride is turned into a demon, or becomes like the beasts, since he is a slave to the lusts of the belly and of the parts beneath it; or he becomes a wild beast towards his neighbours through insatiable and inhuman avarice. Such a man, according to the Lord’s word, falls away from faith in God, for he «receives glory from men»; he turns away from chastity and purity, for by his insatiability he inflames the parts beneath the belly and submits to their shameful urges; he is cut off from love, for he cares only for himself and shares nothing of his goods with his neighbours in their need. Through all this he becomes a kind of monster composed of many contradictions, hateful to God, to men and to beasts.
15. When the incensive power, desire and the rational power of the intellect abide and work in their natural state, they make the whole man as it were divine and godlike, so that he always behaves soberly and does not turn aside from the life natural to him. But when, contrary to nature, they turn aside from their proper way of working and move or turn in a direction not proper to their nature, then they make a man, as has already been said, a kind of monster composed of many contradictions.
16. The incensive power stands between desire and the rational power of the soul, serving as a weapon for each of these powers, whether they act according to nature or against it. When the soul’s desiring and rational powers act according to nature, striving towards divine things, then anger serves each of them as a weapon of righteousness against the serpent of evil, who whispers to them to taste bodily pleasures and to delight in glory from men. But when they turn aside from their natural movement and turn to what is against nature, labouring not over divine things but over human ones, then anger serves them as a weapon of unrighteousness, with which they fight and war against all who hinder their wishes and impulses. Thus a man in the Church of the faithful is either practical, contemplative and theological when he acts according to nature, or he becomes like cattle, resembling beasts and demons, when he turns aside to what is against nature.
17. Unless a man first transforms the powers of his soul by painful repentance and strong ascetic labours and makes them such as God gave them to Adam in the beginning — when, having created Adam, He breathed into him the breath of life — he will never be able to know himself, nor to acquire a ruling thought over the passions: a thought free from arrogance, free from idle curiosity, free from guile, simple, humble, without envy and without slander, by taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Nor will his soul ever burn and blaze with love for God. His soul will overstep the bounds of self-control, will not be content with what it has, and will not desire to rest with the saints. And if he does not acquire this ruling thought, his heart will never be gentle, humble, free from anger, kind, unpresumptuous, full of mercy and joy; for then it so attacks itself and so disorders its powers that it becomes unable to contain the rays of the Holy Spirit’s grace.
18. He who does not in this way restore in himself the original beauty and re-form the proper features of the image of Him who in the beginning created man according to His own image — how will he ever be able to be united with Him from whom he has grown distant through unlikeness of features? How will he who has quenched the light and drawn darkness to himself be united with the Light that Is? And if he is not united with Him from whom he received the beginning of being, and from non-being became being, and received authority over the things that are, then where will he be cast, being unlike the One who created him, when he is cut off from Him? This is plain to those who see, and I shall say no more.
19. As long as the causes of the passions remain in us and we cherish them of our own will, having no intention of casting them out, so long does their power rule over us, having authority over us from ourselves. But when we cast them from us and cleanse the heart with tears of repentance, hating even the times when visible things lead us astray, then we become partakers of the visitation of the Spirit, the Comforter; then we shall see God and He will see us.
20. Those who have been freed from the bonds of attachment to the world are free from all slavery to the senses, for in them the one Spirit lives and converses with them. He guides them, and through Him they are united both with the Father and with the Word who are of one essence with Him — in the words of the holy apostle Paul, «becoming one spirit with them». Such men become not only elusive to the demons but terrible to them, as partakers of the divine fire who have themselves become fire.
21. Touch is not a separate sense acting in some one part of the body, but a general sense spread throughout the whole body. Therefore, when it is still passionately drawn to things soft and delicate and touches something without need, it shakes the intellect with passionate thoughts. But when it has already been torn away from all softness and has overcome sensuality, and touches something out of necessity and natural need, then it does not shake the senses of the soul.
22. When the intellect has migrated to things beyond the senses, then the senses, being in their proper rank, touch the objects of passion dispassionately, investigating only their cause and nature and rightly determining their action and properties, having no passion for them and not inclining desire towards them contrary to nature.
23. Ascetic struggles and spiritual labours give birth to joy of soul, which is preceded by the pacifying of the passions. As a result, the things that are hard and unpleasant for people subject to sensuality are light and exceedingly sweet for the soul that abides in spiritual labours, gathering love for God by its sacred sweat and wounded with love for divine knowledge. For the former — those who give their body rest and delight in sensual pleasures — the labours and struggles of virtue are unpleasant and harsh, for they have never had to wash away with streams of tears the salty aftertaste of those pleasures. But for the soul that serves God they are desirable and sweet. And since it despises the pleasures that bring it harm, and has rejected all attachment to them and all self-loving indulgence of the body, only one thing grieves it: rest from labours and the ceasing of its struggles. Therefore what serves the former for the body’s pleasure brings pain to the soul inclined to all that is divine; and what brings the soul spiritual joy is for them a cause of sighing and torment.
24. To all who are beginning spiritual struggles, labours at first seem a cause of pain. But to those who take care to increase the virtues and have already gone half the way, they are a cause of delight and wondrous consolation. And when the deathly wisdom of the body is swallowed up by the immortal life given through the coming of the Holy Spirit to those who by their labours draw near to the perfection of the virtues, then they are filled with unspeakable joy and gladness, for through this a fountain of tears is opened in them and from on high a sweet stream of compunction rains down upon them.
25. If you wish to reach the highest limit of the virtues and surely to find the road that leads to God, give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, nor rest to your temples, until by great labours and tears you find in your afflicted soul the place of dispassion, and enter the sanctuary of the contemplation of God, and with His hypostatic wisdom look with your intellect upon how human affairs end, and, despising what is below, set out with the greatest longing for the high mountains of contemplation.
26. A swift road to virtue for beginners is silence of the lips, closing of the eyes and deafness of the ears. When these are inactive, the intellect closes its entrances and begins to examine itself and its own movements. And at once it examines what memories are floating in the noetic sea of thoughts and what ideas are being laid in the crucible of its understanding: whether they are pure, without any admixture of bitter seed, and come from the angel of Light, or whether they are mixed with rubbish and chaff and come from the adversaries of the Light. And so it stands in the middle like a sovereign ruler, distinguishing between ideas and separating the better thoughts from the worse. The first it lays up in the noetic granaries like loaves baked in the fire of the Holy Spirit and kneaded with divine water; on these it feeds, gains strength and is filled with light. The second it consigns to the depths of forgetfulness, shaking off their bitterness. This can be done only by one who has set out in his intellect upon the road that leads unerringly to heaven and to God, and has cast off the dark garments of the passions.
27. The soul that has cast off the guile and idle curiosity of fierce pride and has been enriched with a simple and guileless heart by the coming of the Comforter finds itself at once in God and in itself. And whatever it hears and sees it holds to be true and genuine, for it has already passed the fierce abysses of unbelief and has risen above the hell of envy.
28. Firm faith goes before all the virtues, when the soul brings undoubting counsel and rejects self-love. Nothing hinders the fulfilment of the commandments in one who has set out to struggle so much as all-evil self-love. It hinders the diligent from advancing. It throws upon them illnesses and passions of the body that are not easily healed, and by these it cools the warmth of the soul and prompts it to refuse to bear sufferings in order to gain virtue, on the grounds that sufferings hinder a peaceful life. Self-love is an irrational love for the body; it makes the monk self-loving, that is, loving his own soul and his own body, and it estranges him from God and from God’s Kingdom, according to the words of the Gospel: «He who loves his life will lose it» (Jn 12:25).
29. He who has begun with labours to fulfil God’s commandments and with diligent zeal has taken upon his neck the light yoke of the monastic life does not spare his bodily health, does not grow weary at the hardness of the works of virtue, is not grieved in his labours, looks at no one else, does not think of the struggle with complacency and negligence; but with fervent love, bearing sufferings, he ploughs the furrow of the virtues, looking only at himself and at God’s commandments, and daily sows his seed in the land of the living, until there sprouts in him the shoot of dispassion, and it grows into the stalk of divine contemplation, and bears an ear that yields the grain of the word and the riches of its righteousness.
30. I think that by nothing else does the soul so advance as by faith. Not by that faith with which we believe in God and His only-begotten Son, but by that firm faith with which we believe in the truth of all Christ’s promises, which He promised and prepared for all those who love Him, and in the truth of the threats and hellish torments prepared for the devil and all his angels. Such faith upholds the soul, so that in its struggle it may hope to receive the same state as the saints, that is, their blessed dispassion, and to rise to the height of their holiness, and together with them to inherit the Kingdom of God. Assured of this, it diligently sets about fulfilling the commandments, not doubting concerning itself, and imitating the labours of the saints, and by similar struggles it hastens to attain their perfection.
31. A man’s outward appearance changes as the inner state of his soul changes. As his spiritual movements act, so his face reveals his disposition to those who look at him. Having taken counsel with the thoughts at work within it and having been changed by them, the soul becomes now bright in the face, when the heart rejoices at the rising of good thoughts and reflections in God, and now dark and gloomy, oppressed by unseemly thoughts. Therefore a thought will not be hidden from those who are experienced in the senses of the soul. Thus is revealed the change of the right hand of the Most High. Those who through it have been born from on high of the Spirit become for their neighbours light and salt, or else a stirring up of powers and confusion. What a man becomes is seen from how far he rejects the thoughts and bears in himself the light of the imprint of the image of the Son of God through divine gifts.
32. Inner activity brings the soul either crowns or torment and suffering. When it is turned towards divine things and lovingly tills the fields of humility, it is bedewed with tears from on high and nurtures love for God and faith and compassion towards the neighbour. By these the soul, being transfigured into the beauty of Christ’s image, becomes a light for men, draws their gaze to itself by the rays of the virtues and moves all to glorify God. But when inner activity is busy with things below and human, stirring up the depths and kindling sin, having beneath it an evil stench and gloom, it grows hatred and turning away from the good, whereby the soul is transfigured into the earthy and disfigured image of the old man; it becomes darkness to those who come near it, corrupts simple and unestablished souls by evil deeds and unwholesome talk, and raises up blasphemy against God. And in whichever of these states death finds the soul, according to that state will it receive its reward.
33. He who cherishes evil thoughts becomes gloomy and sluggish in appearance, his tongue becomes voiceless for divine songs, and he himself is unpleasant in conversation. But he who cherishes the good and immortal gardens of the heart has an enlightened gaze and a joyful face; his tongue sings sweetly in supplication, and he himself is pleasant in conversation. From this those who see well distinguish who still serves the unclean passions and remains under the law of earthly wisdom, and who has been freed from that servitude by the law of the Spirit, as the wise Solomon says: «A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken» (Prov 15:13).
34. The passions are brought to completion by deeds, and by deeds they are also healed. Lack of self-control, indulgence and overeating, a careless and slothful life, breed in the soul the habit of passion and lead it to evil deeds. But austerity and self-control, labours and spiritual struggles make it dispassionate and lead it from passion to dispassion.
35. When someone through painful and hard struggles is counted worthy by his humility of great gifts from God, and then stumbles and slips downward, and is handed over to the passions and the demons, let him know then that he had exalted himself above others, had a high opinion of himself and rose up against others. In no other way will he find healing and deliverance from the passions and the demons that hold him, than by returning through repentance to his former order and asking for that good defender, humility and the knowledge of his own measure, thanks to which everyone who stands well upon the foundation of the virtues sees himself as less than all creation.
36. It is an equal evil before God and before men who live in God, both when someone is passionate and unrestrained in his deeds, and when he is proud because he possesses virtues. The deeds of the first and what he does in secret are shameful even to speak of; and likewise the pride of the second’s heart is abominable before God. The first is contrary to God, for he is fleshly, according to the divine word, and God cannot rest in him; and the second is unclean before the Lord, for he is proud.
37. It is not the case that where there is passion, sin is immediately committed. Passion is one thing and sin another. Further, passion is what moves in the soul, and the deed of sin is what is seen in the body. That is, love of pleasure, love of money and love of glory are fierce passions of the soul; while unchastity, usury and injustice are sinful deeds of the body. Desire, the incensive power and pride are passions of the soul, arising when its powers move contrary to nature; while adultery and murder, robbery and drunkenness, and whatever else the body commits, are sinful deeds of the flesh.
38. There are three passions that are chief over all, and three virtues that fight against them, and three kinds of men who overcome them and cast them down. These are the beginner, the intermediate and the perfect, who overcome the three-headed serpent: love of pleasure, love of money and love of glory.
39. These three do not undergo the same struggle against the three chief passions and by the power of the spirit that prevails. It is one thing for a man to fight alone against a single passion, and another for one who watches his struggle and naturally arms himself with righteous anger.
40. He who has only now set out upon the struggles of piety and is beginning to war against the passions will direct his whole battle against the spirit of the love of pleasure and will fight hard against it, bearing every kind of suffering. He will make his body thin with fasting, sleeping on the ground, vigils and all-night supplications, crushing his soul with the remembrance of the torments of hell and with reflection on death, and with tears of repentance he will cleanse his heart of defilement, of provocations and of the joining of thoughts.
41. He who has passed the beginning of the struggle and reached the middle, and after the battle with the pleasure-loving spirit has been wiped clean with the sponge of dispassion, and whose eyes have now been opened so that he begins to see the nature of things — such a man takes into his hands the weapon of faith against the faithless spirit of avarice. He raises his intellect by the understanding of divine things, and with the word he touches the understanding of created things and the explanation of their nature. By faith he raises the soul from visible things to the heights of the invisible, and believes that God Himself, who brought all things from non-being into being, cares for him; and so he places on God his hope for the divine life.
42. He who by contemplation and dispassion has passed the middle of the struggle and has left behind the delusions of worldly perception, and has now entered by the word of knowledge and by God’s hypostatic wisdom into the darkness of theology, will raise by the power of humility the weapon against the spirit of the love of glory, stirring his soul with sacred revelations and shedding tears without pain. His own wisdom he will overcome by the remembrance of human weakness, and he will exalt it by the understanding of divine knowledge.
43. By fasts, vigils and prayers, by lying on the ground, by bodily labours and by cutting off our own will, we bring to a halt the working of the spirit of the love of pleasure. We seize it with tears of repentance and, leading it to the prison of self-control, we make it motionless and unable to do anything — but this is possible only when we belong to the ranks of the zealous strugglers.
44. By the weapon of faith and by the spiritual sword, which is the word of God, we overcome the spirit of avarice and slay it; and then by the word of wisdom we pass over to the contemplation of that which exists, and by the word of knowledge we rise above all that is visible and rest in the royal halls of love with the rich treasures of hope in God.
45. Soaring on the wings of dispassion and humility in the air of mystical theology, and entering with the divine Spirit into the upper heights of contemplation, we burn up the spirit of the love of glory with the lightning of divine doctrines and understandings. And with showers of tears and rivers of compunction, looking upon the end of human affairs, we drown its horsemen — the demons who war against us with fantasies, pride and vainglory.
46. He who has hated with his whole soul and renounced the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life — those worldly untruths by loving which we become enemies of God — such a man has crucified himself to the world, and the world has become crucified to him. He has torn down the partition that was in his body between God and the soul, and has made peace in both. For, having cast off the wisdom of the flesh, he has died, has been reconciled with God, and has killed his enmity with the world by putting to death its sweetness and by a life crucified to the world and by love with Jesus. Such a man will no longer be an enemy of God and a friend of the world; he becomes a friend of God, for he has been crucified to the world, and he can say: «The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world» (Gal 6:14).
47. It has happened to all who struggle that they have fallen into vainglory, into judging their neighbour and into pride because of their virtues. When any of this is found in the soul of one who struggles, it becomes a cause of God’s abandoning him. And he will not escape a righteous sentence for his fall until he casts away the cause of the fall and takes refuge in the temple of humility.
48. Unclean is not the man who has passionate thoughts — that is merely impurity of heart and defilement of soul — but the man who is proud of his successes, who thinks much of himself, supposing that he has come to know God’s wisdom, and who reproaches slothful and negligent brothers. This is clear from the parable of the publican and the Pharisee.
49. Do not think that the passions will grow weak and that you will escape the defilement of passionate thoughts while you think proudly and boast of your virtues. You will not see the house of peace in the kindness of your thoughts, nor enter the temple of love with all goodness and stillness of heart, so long as you rely on yourself and on your own deeds.
50. When your soul is passionately attracted by the beauty of bodies, and afterwards is tormented by the passionate thoughts supposedly born in you from this, do not think that this is the cause of your confusion and of the movements of passion. Know that the cause is hidden in the depths of your soul. It is your soul that, by the force of passionate habit and evil custom, draws to itself harm from the beauty of bodies, as a magnet draws iron. For all God’s creatures are exceedingly good, according to the word of God, and have nothing in them for which God’s creation could be reproached.
51. He who crosses the sea and falls ill with seasickness suffers not because such is the nature of the sea, but because there are foul humours within him. So too the soul suffers not on account of persons, but because in its depths lies hidden a habit of evil; and therefore it endures the movements and confusion of passion.
52. According to the inner disposition of the soul, the very nature of things seems to change. When the intellect’s senses are gathered in it according to nature and the intellect, without wandering, examines the nature of created things, explaining how they live and move, then the soul sees both things and persons as they are by nature; it sees also the nature of things beyond the senses and suffers no harm or injury, for there is no hidden cause for this. But when its powers move contrary to nature, slandering themselves, then the soul sees things distorted, contrary to their nature; they do not lead it by their natural beauty to the knowledge of the Creator, but, through its passionate habits, drag it down into the depth of perdition.
53. When grace has left you and you have fallen through the flesh, or the tongue, or a thought — you who until now lived in labours and self-control — do not let your fall astonish you. It comes from you, and its cause is in you. For if you had not thought something new about yourself, full of arrogance, which ought not to be, or had not been proud before someone with haughty reasoning, or had not judged someone in the weakness of human nature, you would not have been abandoned by God’s righteous judgment, and you would have come to know your weakness. But now this has happened to you so that you may learn not to judge, and not to think more highly than one ought to think, and to exalt yourself over no one.
54. If you fall into the depth of evils, do not despair of getting out of it, even if you have fallen into the deepest depth of hellish malice. For if by the practical virtues the foundation of piety has been preserved in you, then, though the house of piety which you built out of the stones of the virtues has been shaken by your fall and ruined down to its foundations, down to the passionate earth of sin, God will not forget your former labours and struggles, if your heart, crushed by your falls, remembers the former days and, sighing, calls to God concerning its falls. Looking down, He will soon look upon you as you tremble at His words, and invisibly to your eyes He will touch your sorrowing heart, and set it upon the foundation of the virtues which you laid with labour, and give you a strength better and more perfect than before, with the warmth of the flaming Spirit, so that once again you may patiently restore the works of virtue destroyed by the hatred of the evil one, and in a spirit of humility build a house finer than the former, that there may be your rest for ever and ever, as it is written (Ps 131:14).
55. Every dishonour that comes upon us, whether through men or through demons, comes by God’s righteous providence, in order to humble the vain arrogance of our soul. God, the pilot of our life, intends to teach us humility, so that we may «not think more highly than we ought to think, but think soberly, according to the measure of faith» (Rom 12:3). So that we may not have a high opinion of ourselves, but may look to Him and, so far as we are able, imitate His blessed humility. For He Himself was humble and gentle of heart, and therefore desires that we too should become such — we for whom He endured an unrighteous and dishonourable death. Nothing else so pleases Him, nor is so proper to every virtue, nor can so lift a man out of the dung of the passions, as gentleness, humility and love for the neighbour. But when we practise the virtues and yet have no humility, gentleness and love for the neighbour, then all our deeds are vain and all our ascetic labours are useless and unacceptable.
56. Those who begin the life of virtue are moved by the fear of torments to fulfil the commandments and to avoid sin. But those who by the virtues have attained the contemplation of God’s glory are accompanied by another fear, exceedingly fearful to them because of their love for God — a pure fear, which helps them to stand unshaken in God’s love, for they are afraid of falling from it. When the first fall, repent and rise again, they are accompanied by the first fear and by good hopes. But when these others, through the envy of the adversary, sin by falling from the height of the contemplation of God, then they are accompanied at once not by the second fear, but by a kind of mist and palpable darkness, full of sorrow, and pain, and bitterness, together with the first fear of torments. And if the Lord of Sabaoth had not shortened those days of unbearable pain, none of those who fell from there would be saved.
57. When the passionate thoughts that assail the soul grow weak, and the flame that torments the body is quenched, know that this has happened through the coming of the Holy Spirit to us; He announces that our transgressions have been forgiven and that dispassion has been granted us. But so long as the soul smells the stench of thoughts through their frequent assaults, and the body below is inflamed, know that the fragrance of the Holy Spirit is far from it, and that the passions and the senses hold it in strong bonds.
58. «I have seen under the sun», says the wise man, «a man who thinks himself wise» (cf. Prov 26:12). I too have seen such a man: in his life he relied on his own deeds and thought much of human wisdom, both earthly and psychical. And because of it he exalted himself not only above simple people but even laughed at Christian teachers who abode in divine stillness, and mocked their plain speech, and the fact that they were unwilling to follow the refined words of outward learning and took no care for an elegant exposition of their written teachings. Of him, who did not understand that what matters to God is not refined words or melodious voices but a good repute, better than fine understandings, I will say this proverb: «Better a living dog than a dead lion» (Eccl 9:4); and again: «Better a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take advice» (Eccl 4:13).
59. The passion of blasphemy is fierce, and it is not easily overcome. Its cause is the proud thoughts of Satan, which trouble all who live virtuously in God, and often those who have advanced in prayer and in the contemplation of divine things. Therefore we must carefully guard all our senses and reverence all the dread mysteries of God, the sacred images and words, and be on our guard when this spirit comes. It sits beside us when we sing or pray, and if we are inattentive, it casts through our lips curses upon ourselves and unseemly blasphemy against God on high, adding them to the verses of the psalms and the words of the prayers. We ought to turn the word of Christ against it when it puts something of the sort into our mouths or sows it in our minds. Let us say to it: «Get away from me, Satan, full of every foul stench and worthy of eternal fire. Upon your own head be your blasphemy.» And at once let us turn the intellect to some divine or human matter, or else raise it with tears to heaven and to God — and so, with God’s help, we shall be freed from the burden of blasphemy.
60. Dejection is a passion that corrupts soul and body and touches even the marrow itself. Such is the sorrow of this world, which falls upon men through temporal misfortunes and sometimes becomes a cause of death. But the sorrow that is according to God is saving and exceedingly useful; it helps a man to endure illnesses and temptations, it widens the fountain of compunction for the ascetic and for the man who longs for God’s righteousness, and it feeds his heart with tears. So that David’s words are fulfilled when he says: «You feed us with the bread of tears and give us tears to drink in full measure» (Ps 79:6).
61. The powers of the soul that have fallen through the doing of evil are greatly restored by the sorrow that is according to God, and it returns them to their natural state. With tears it thins out the winter of the passions and the clouds of sin and drives them from the noetic expanse of the soul, so that fair weather sets in at once in our intellect, and stillness in the noetic sea, and gladness in our hearts, and change in our countenance. And he who looks at it and knows how to see well may cry out with David: «This is the change of the right hand of the Most High» (Ps 76:11).
62. Do not accept the thoughts that the evil one sows in you against your neighbour. They are false and ruinous and lead to delusion. Know that the demons try through them to cast into the abyss of perdition those souls that have already advanced in the virtues. For they cannot otherwise cast one who struggles into the depth of condemnation and sin, until they compel him to accept an evil suspicion concerning his neighbour’s outward habits and disposition. Thus they lead him to fall into sin and under judgment, so that he may be condemned along with this world, according to the word of Scripture: «If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened, so that we may not be condemned with the world» (1 Cor 11:31-32).
63. If through listlessness we allow the demons to whisper suspicions in our ear against our brethren, and do not guard the movements of our eyes, then they will teach us to judge even those who are perfect in the virtues. A man with a cheerful gaze and a smiling face, easy to talk to, may seem to you inclined to the love of pleasure and other passions; while a man who is frowning and sluggish will seem to you irascible and proud. But we ought not to judge by outward appearance, for such judgment will be mistaken. People differ greatly among themselves in natural traits and habits and in bodily constitution, and only those can judge them rightly who through great compunction have gained a pure eye of the soul and have as their fellow-dweller the unending light of the divine life. To such it is given to see the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.
64. When of our own will we do evil bodily deeds, by that very fact we serve unnatural desire and the soul’s incensive power; for we defile the body with evil sinful emissions and darken the soul with the bitterness of anger, and estrange ourselves from the Son of God. We ought to cleanse the body’s foul emissions with streams of tears, so that when sweetness defiles the body with a natural emission, the pain of sorrow may cleanse it with the natural stream of tears. And the darkness of the soul that has come through the bitterness of anger we ought to drive away with the light of compunction and the sweetness of love for God, and so be joined again to Him from whom we became estranged through evil bodily deeds.
65. As the defilement that comes through sweetness is preceded by a satanic zeal urging to sin, so the cleansing that comes from painful sorrow is preceded by a fervent repentance urging to weeping and tears. And this is the providence of God’s goodness towards us, that with painful labours we may repel the labour of sweetness, and with streams of tears the shameful emissions of the flesh, and may cleanse the evil images in the intellect, driving them from the soul and making it more beautiful with its natural beauty.
66. As under the action of the evil spirit a man commits unchastity and receives bodily pleasure as his reward, and the end of that evil is defilement, so he who is under the action of the Holy Spirit receives joy of soul as his reward, and the end of it is good: purification and rebirth through tears and union with God.
67. There are in us two natural streams: the stream of seed and the stream of tears. With the first we defile the garment of the soul, and with the second we cleanse it. We must cleanse the defilement that comes from ourselves with tears that also come from ourselves. For otherwise it is impossible to cleanse a defilement that comes from nature.
68. The state of the soul that sins, driven by evil habits, is destroyed by the short pleasure that comes from labours. Every soul that is being cleansed of evil habits and states extends its labours into a long delight of gladness. O wonder! Delight quells sweetness and sweetens the pains that come from sweetness.
69. Sometimes from the stream of tears bitterness and pain flow to the spiritual sense of the heart, and sometimes gladness and joy. When by repentance we are cleansed of the rust of sin, and by the warmth of fire from the defilement of sin, then we have tears which the divine fire kindles; and so, as though hammers were striking our thoughts, we sigh heavily from the depth of the heart and feel bitterness and pain both in the intellect and in the senses. But when we have been sufficiently cleansed by these tears and have attained freedom from the passions, then the divine Spirit consoles us, for we have gained a quiet and pure heart, and we are filled with unspeakable joy and delight from the joyful tears of compunction.
70. Some tears are shed through repentance, and others through divine compunction. The first drown and wash away all the strongholds of sin; the second come like rain upon young grass and like snow upon the green shoots, causing the ear of knowledge to grow and making it full of grain and fruitful.
71. Where there are tears, it does not follow that there is at once compunction; there is a great difference between them. Tears come from repentance for one’s habits and from the recollection of the soul’s past falls, so that, as with fire and hot water, the heart may be cleansed. But compunction comes down from on high into the soul from the divine dew of the Holy Spirit, into a soul that has again entered the depth of humility and delights in the contemplation of the unapproachable light, and calls out to God with joy, as David did: «We went through fire and water, and You brought us out into a place of rest» (Ps 65:12).
72. I have heard some say: «It is impossible to become accustomed to practising the virtues unless you go far from men and flee into the desert» — and I marvelled that they should define by place what cannot be defined. For to become accustomed to virtue means to restore the ancient nobility of the soul’s powers and the union of the chief virtues, so that they may act according to their nature. And this does not come to us as it were from outside, but abides with us from our creation. Through them and with them, moved by their nature, we enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within us, according to the Lord’s word. Therefore the desert is superfluous for us, for we enter it in any case by repentance and by keeping God’s commandments, which can be done in every place of His dominion, as the divine David says: «Bless the Lord, O my soul, in every place of His dominion» (Ps 102:22).
73. How will a man who is in the king’s army under commanders and generals, protected and appointed for battle, and who in battle against the enemy has been unable to show his courage or to overcome even one enemy — how will such a man war alone against many thousands of enemies, when he is untried in battle? If this is impossible in ordinary war, how much more in spiritual war. Who, having fled into the desert, will be able to discern the assaults of demons and the onsets of the passions, or know how to resist them, if he has not first learned well to cut off his own will while living with the brethren and having an experienced general in such warfare, which is truly invisible and noetic? And if this is impossible, then it is altogether impossible that such a man should overcome others or teach anyone to overcome the invisible enemies.
74. Cast from yourself the disgrace of negligence and the neglect of God’s commandments; cast away self-love and deal ruthlessly with your body; seek the Lord’s law and His testimonies; despise glory and dishonour; hate the pleasure-loving lusts of the body; avoid satiety, through which the parts beneath the belly are inflamed; welcome poverty and the bearing of evil; stand against the passions; turn your senses inward into the soul; look within and learn to do good; be deaf to human affairs; direct all your strength to the fulfilling of the commandments; weep, lie on the ground, fast, endure with patience, keep stillness; know at last not what is around you but your own self; rise above visible things; direct the eye of your intellect to the contemplation of God, and through the beauty of created things you will see the sweetness of the Lord. And having come down from there, tell your brethren of the mysteries of eternal life and of the Kingdom of God. And this — the flight from men with complete zeal — is the very work for the sake of which we go into the desert.
75. If you wish to see the good things that God has prepared for those who love Him, abide in the desert of renouncing your own will and flee from the world. From what world? From the lust of the eyes, of the flesh, from the pride of thoughts and from the deception of visible things. When you flee from such a world, «then your light shall break forth like the dawn» (Is 58:8), for you will see the divine life and the healing of your soul. I tell you that tears will soon spring up and you will be changed by the change of the right hand of the Most High (Ps 76:11), and the wound of the passions will not come near your body. So, abiding in the midst of the world and of men, you will be like one who lives in the desert and sees no man. But if you do not flee from the world in this way, mere distance from visible things will add nothing to your perfecting of the virtues and your union with God.
76. To be a monk does not mean to be apart from men and from the world; it means to learn to be apart from the lusts of the flesh and to go into the desert of the passions. And if it was said even to a great ascetic, «Flee from men, and you will be saved», this must be understood precisely in that sense. For when he had fled the world, he afterwards lived among men and came into their villages and dwelt with disciples, yet by a noetic flight he fled swiftly from things of sense, and therefore association with men did him no harm. So too another cried out as he came from the divine service: «Flee, brethren» — and when they asked from what they should flee, he pointed to his lips.
77. Life in community is safer than life in solitude. Of the need for life in community the sacred word of Jesus and God bears witness: «Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them» (Mt 18:20). And of the difficulty of life in solitude Solomon says: «Woe to him who is alone when he falls, and there is no one to lift him up» (Eccl 4:10). And David praises those who sing to God in love and concord, saying: «Blessed are the people who know the festal shout» (Ps 88:16). And again he praises the common life, saying: «Behold, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together!» (Ps 132:1). And the Lord’s disciples were «of one heart and one soul» (Acts 4:32). And God’s descent upon them was not in the desert but in the city among sinful men. Therefore concord and the common life are needful, while solitude is dangerous and full of misfortunes.
78. «It must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man through whom the offence comes!» (Mt 18:7). He who has lost reverence and abides carelessly and without the fear of God in the midst of the assembly of the brethren leads many simple brothers astray. Whether by his deeds, his appearance and evil habits, or by his words and harmful talk, he corrupts souls and good habits.
79. He who keeps God’s commandments does not become a stumbling block for men, and there is no offence in him — «great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble» (Ps 118:165) — and such men are the light of the world and the salt of life, according to the Lord’s word: «You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world» (Mt 5:13-14). Such a man is light, because he lives virtuously and is clear in word and wise in intellect. And he is salt, because he is rich in divine knowledge and strong in God’s wisdom. And he is life, because by his words he gives life to those put to death by the passions, and raises them from the hell of despair, and by the light of his righteous deeds shines before men and enlightens them. By the sweetness and warmth of his words he raises them from slackness and frees them from the rot of the passions. By the life of his words he gives life to souls that sin had put to death.
80. The passion of vainglory is a thistle with three thorns, which the demons heat and forge with vainglory, presumption and pride. But those who dwell in the house of the heavenly God see it and break off its thorns, and themselves fly upward by humility and rest in the garden of life.
81. When this unclean and exceedingly cunning demon casts his provocations at you who are advancing in the virtues, and offers you high seats, reminding you of your deeds and praising them as better than the deeds of others, and advises you that you are fit to guide souls — then hold him fast in your mind and do not let him escape, if you have the strength from on high to do so. And having caught him, pass in thought and memory to some evil deed you once committed, and, showing it to him, ask: «Are those who do such things worthy to ascend on high before God? Are they really fit to guide souls and lead them to Christ in salvation? You speak, and I will be silent.» He will have nothing to say, and will melt away like smoke and trouble you no more. But if there is in you no evil deed or word, because of your life above the world, then look at the Lord’s commandments and the Lord’s Passion, and you will see that you are as far from perfection as a woodland pool is from the sea. For human righteousness is as much less than God’s righteousness as the earth is less than heaven, and a gnat less than a lion.
82. He who has been deeply wounded by love for God does not have strength enough to answer it. He is insatiable in the labours and sweat of ascetic struggle. He is like a man burning with thirst that cannot be quenched: zealous struggles do not satisfy him; he longs to labour day and night, but his strength fails him. I think that Christ’s martyrs too were seized by this natural passion, and therefore did not feel the pain of their torments and were not satisfied with them. They overcame themselves by their great zeal for God, and the measure of their sufferings was always less than what they were ready to receive.
83. He who in any way compares himself with ascetics or with the brethren among whom he lives deceives himself and grows distant from God. Such a man either has not come to know himself, or has strayed from the road that leads to heaven. Along that road walk those who have cast down their own wisdom; by this they fly over the enemy’s nets on the wings of dispassion, enter the noetic expanse and pass their spring in places of light, adorned with humility.
84. He who is arrogant and lifts himself up, exalting himself in his intellect, will never receive in the light of compunction the grace of humility, through which the light of God’s wisdom is granted to the one whose heart is crushed, as it is written: «In Your light we shall see light.» He will be covered by the night of the passions, in which walk all the forest beasts of human nature, and the lions of presumption and vainglory, and the demon of unchastity, who, roaring, seek whom they may devour and cast into the belly of despair.
85. For the man who lives in a merely human way and yields to the working of the spirit of presumption, this life becomes a sea of evils, which waters the noetic power of his soul with the salt water of pleasures and beats its three powers with the fierce waves of the passions, for the spirits of wickedness raise them up against it. Over him spreads the fierce astonishment of exceeding sorrow, when his ship and the rudder of his soul are shattered by the passions of the body, and the helmsman, that is, the intellect, perishes in the depth of sin by noetic death — until the sea of evils quiets its waves in the abyss of humility and stillness, and the saltiness of pleasures is turned into streams of tears and becomes the light-filled sweetness of compunction.
86. He who has served the body’s sweetness and its deeds to the full, let him labour to the full in ascetic struggle and in the bearing of hardships, so as to repel satiety with satiety, sweetness with pain, slackness with bodily labours, and to find abundant gladness and joy in tranquillity. So you will delight in the sweet fragrance of purity and chastity and taste the unspeakable sweetness of immortal spiritual fruits. In the same way we are accustomed to put cleansing herbs into soiled clothing to cleanse it, when it has become so soiled that it can no longer be worn.
87. Illnesses are useful for those who are beginning the life of virtue; they are given us for the thinning down and humbling of the inflamed body. They make the strength of the flesh weak, thin out the earthly wisdom of the soul, and make its power stronger and firmer, as the divine Apostle says: «For when I am weak, then I am strong» (2 Cor 12:10). But as useful as illnesses are for beginners, so harmful are they for those who have laboured successfully in the virtues, have risen above the senses and have entered into the contemplation of heavenly things. They do not let such ascetics exercise themselves in divine things, and they weigh down the noetic power of the soul with pains, wrap it in a cloud of sorrow and dry up compunction with pains. The apostle Paul, who watched himself well, knew this and spoke according to the law of discernment: «I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself should become disqualified» (1 Cor 9:27).
88. When there is no ordered rule for the table, various illnesses arise in many people: when a man now all but stops eating and takes up the labours of virtue without discernment and beyond measure, and now, on the contrary, his body drives him to overeating and satiety. Both those who are beginning the struggle of the virtues need self-control, and those who have passed the middle of the struggle need it for a perfect ascent to contemplation. For it is the mother of health, the companion of purity and the fellow-dweller of humility.
89. Know that dispassion is twofold and appears in the zealous in two ways. First, when the zealous reach the end of practical philosophy, there comes to them the first dispassion, which through many successful labours in the struggle puts the passions to death, and makes the impulses of the body inactive, and moves the powers of the soul to act according to nature, and brings the intellect to the study of divine things. Then, with the beginnings of natural contemplation, comes the second and perfect dispassion, by which the intellect, when the thoughts fall silent, passes into a state of peace and begins to see more and to look ahead. It sees divine things better, both in the contemplation of what is higher and in the revelation of God’s mysteries; and it foresees human affairs that have not yet come to pass and will come one day. And in both the seeing and the foreseeing one and the same Spirit acts, who in the first dispassion holds and restrains, and in the second sets free unto eternal life, as the apostle Paul says (Rom 6:22).
90. He who has drawn near to the borders of dispassion has a true vision of God and of the nature of all that exists. According to the measure of his purity he passes from the beauty of created things to the Creator and receives the outpouring of the Spirit’s light. Having a good opinion of all, he always treats all well. He sees all as holy and pure and judges rightly of things divine and human. He cares nothing for all those things that men of the world so value. Having gone out in his intellect from worldly perception, he rises to the heavens and to God, pure from every stain and free from every servitude, and is wholly among the noetic good things of God in the one Spirit; and he sees the divine beauty and abides in a manner befitting God in the divine places of the blessed glory of God, in unspeakable silence and joy. All his senses are changed, and he is spiritual, like an angel, and in an earthly body he converses with men.
91. The intellect knows five senses and disciplines: vigil, study, prayer, self-control and stillness. He who joins to these senses his own — sight to vigil, hearing to study, smell to prayer, taste to self-control and touch to stillness — will swiftly cleanse the intellect of his soul, and, having thinned it down by these, will make it dispassionate and clear-sighted.
92. The intellect becomes dispassionate when it has overcome the passions and rises above joy and sorrow. It does not grow sluggish from sorrow when afflictions come, nor is it dissipated by the joy that comes with good fortune. In afflictions the soul rejoices, and when something good comes it holds itself in check and does not go beyond its measure.
93. Often the demons fall furiously upon those who are advancing in contemplation, both by day and by night. They remain beside the ascetics and send fierce temptations upon them: they make a din to frighten them, and attack them in their sleep, envying their joy, and grieve them in various ways, though they cannot harm those who have cleaved to God. And if the angel of the Lord Almighty did not guard them, they would not escape the demons’ assaults and the snares of death.
94. As you struggle in the practical philosophy of virtue, guard yourself well against the ruinous assaults of the demons. The further you enter into the high virtues, and the more the divine light increases in your prayers, and the nearer you draw in spirit to revelations and unspeakable contemplations, the more they, seeing you going up to heaven, gnash their teeth and diligently stretch out the thick nets of their malice across the noetic expanse. The lustful, the irascible, the flesh-loving and the bestial demons will not only breathe upon you but will rise against you with the bitter envy of blasphemy. And flying to them visibly and invisibly, the principalities and powers of the air, taking on strange and dreadful shapes, will rise against you to injure you as far as they can. But if you exercise the wakeful eye of your intellect in the noetic work of prayer, and learn from God’s creation by the thoughts of natural contemplation, you will not fear their arrow that flies by day, and they will not be able to come near your body, for the light that is in you will drive them away like darkness, and the divine fire will burn them up.
95. The evil spirits greatly fear the grace of the divine Spirit, and most of all when it comes abundantly upon us as we are cleansed by study and pure prayer. They do not dare to draw near to bodies illumined by grace, and therefore they try to frighten and confuse the ascetics with apparitions, and dreadful noise, and wild voices, and to draw them away from the works of vigil and prayer. Even when the ascetics lie down on the ground to rest, they envy their brief repose and pull at them, to drive sleep from their eyes and so make their life, already full of pains and labours, still harder.
96. It seems that the spirits of darkness take on certain subtle bodies, as experience testifies — whether they merely suggest such an idea of themselves, or whether they are truly condemned to this because of their ancient fall. But they try to war against the ascetic’s soul when the body inclines to sleep. It seems to me that this is a testing of the soul, which already stands above the body, to see how far its incensive power and courage will rise against them as they threaten it furiously with great rage. The soul that is wounded with love for God and filled with the chief virtues not only resists with righteous anger but even strikes them down — if indeed they have any feeling, as it seems they have, who have become like earthly beings, having fallen from the first and divine light.
97. Before the battle and the victory the demons often trouble the senses of the soul and drive sleep from the eyelids. But the soul filled with the courage and manliness of the Holy Spirit despises their assaults and bitter fury. By the life-giving image and the invocation of Jesus and God it destroys their fantasies and puts them to flight.
98. If practical philosophy urges you to go out and take away the spoils of the adversary spirits, look carefully and be watchful, arming yourself with spiritual weapons. For know whose vessels you have set out to seize: the vessels of noetic and bodiless enemies; and you, still in the body, are fighting for the King of spirits and God. Know, then, that they will begin to attack you still more fiercely and will come at you with many wiles, until, winning back their spoil, they take you captive as well, and fill your soul with great bitterness, or bring upon you evil and painful temptations, in order to oppress and injure your body.
99. Waters that are muddy and foul with worldly things cannot flow from a good spring. And a heart that is still outside the Kingdom of Heaven cannot pour forth streams of the divine life, spreading the fragrances of the noetic myrrh. For it is said: «Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both sweet water and bitter?» (Jas 3:11). Do olives grow on a thorn bush, or acorns on an olive tree? So too one spring, the heart, cannot bring forth at the same time both evil and good thoughts; but «the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil» (Lk 6:45).
100. As it is impossible for a lamp to burn without oil and fire and to give light to those in the house, so the soul cannot without the divine Spirit and fire speak plainly of divine things and enlighten men. For every perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights, and He distributes it to every soul that loves God. «With Him there is no shadow of turning or change», says the Scripture.