FLOWER-GATHERING: Advice of Zealous Lovers of Wisdom, compiled by Elias the Ekdikos
FLOWER-GATHERING: Advice of Zealous Lovers of Wisdom, compiled by Elias the Ekdikos
FLOWER-GATHERING Advice of Zealous Lovers of Wisdom. Elias, the most humble presbyter who is called the Ekdikos, loved wisdom and compiled them. When you read everything in order, you will find here a spring that pours out the dew of instructive words
1 It behooves every Christian who rightly believes in God not to be carefree, but always to expect and hope for temptation. So that when temptation comes, he will not be terrified or confused, but thankfully endure labor and sorrow, and understand that, singing with the prophet, he says: “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me” (Ps. 25:2). And he does not say: “Thy instruction has destroyed me,” but says: “This instruction of Thine will teach me to the end.”
2 The beginning of good is the fear of God, and the end is love for God.
3 The beginning of all good is an active mind and a wise action, therefore neither will action be good without the mind, nor will the mind succeed without action.
4 The action of the body is fasting and vigil, the action of the lips is singing, prayer, and silence, which is more valuable than words. The action of the hands is what the hands do without grumbling, and the action of the feet is where they go at the first word.
5 All these actions are preceded by mercy and truth, the beginning of which is humility, and from it, as the fathers say, comes discretion—without which neither the first nor the second will reach its completion. When action neglects the mind, it wanders here and there in useless things, like some girl who is lost in the neighborhood. And when the mind rejects the honorable garments of active virtue, it loses its beauty, although it tries not to show it.
6 A courageous soul, like a wise wife, preserves all her life action and contemplation, like two lit lamps, and does what is proper. A soul relaxed by sweetness does the opposite.
7 In order to be completely freed from sins, voluntary endurance of evil is not enough for the soul if it is also scorched by the involuntary. If the soul does not pass, like a sword, through fire and water, that is, through voluntary and involuntary suffering, it will not endure when faced with sorrows.
8 There are three main causes of voluntary temptations: health, wealth, and glory; there are also three causes of involuntary ones: losses, troubles, and infirmities. For some they are for edification, and for others for a fall.
9 Desire and sorrow flatter the soul, and sweetness and sickness flatter the body. Sweetness is the cause of sickness. Wishing to avoid the feeling of pain in sickness, we resort to sweetness; to avoid sorrow, we resort to desire.
10 He who is truly virtuous has good embedded in himself; the vain person only thinks about good. But the zealot of virtue reveals evil outwardly, while the pleasure-lover keeps it deep inside.
11 The action of the soul consists in moderation by simplicity, and the soul achieves simplicity through moderation.
12 The action of the mind is mental prayer, and prayer brings knowledge.
13 He who hates evil and avoids it meets sin rarely and briefly; he who approaches the causes of sin meets it frequently and more closely.
14 Those who are not inclined to repent sin more often. For those who are not inclined to sin, it is easier to repent, and the reason to repent is rare.
15 Let sense and conscience accompany every spoken word, so that the peaceful and Divine Word may not be ashamed to dwell between them because of excessive audacity or immoderation of what is said.
16 He who has not harmed his soul with evil deeds cannot yet be said not to have defiled it with words. And he who keeps it clean from words cannot be said to have kept it undefiled from thoughts. For he who sins can sin in three ways: in deeds, words, and thoughts.
17 You will not be able to see the face of virtue as long as you look with pleasure at the appearance of sin. You will only hate the appearance of sin when you desire to feel the pleasure of virtue and turn away from the appearance of sin.
18 Demons initially fight against the soul with thoughts, not deeds, and only then move on to deeds. The cause of deeds is hearing and sight, and the cause of thoughts is habit and demons.
19 We see that the soul can sin in three ways: in deeds, words, and thoughts. And to preserve the beauty of sinlessness, it is necessary to keep the five senses and every spoken word free from sin. “If anyone does not offend in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the [other parts of the soul]” (Jas. 3:2).
20 The wordless power of the soul is divided into six parts: the five senses and the spoken word. When the word is dispassionate, it cleanses all other parts, dwelling inseparably with them; when it is passionate, it defiles the other parts as well.
21 The body will not be cleansed without fasting and vigil, and the soul—without mercy and truth, and the mind will not be cleansed without conversation with God and contemplation of God. The most important of them all is the contemplation of God.
22 The soul, protected by these virtues, will preserve its city, that is, patience, unshaken in temptations. “In your patience you will gain your souls” [Luke 21:19 – quoted from the translation of R. Turkonya], says the Word. And if the soul is like an unprotected city, then, hearing noise from afar, it will tremble with fear.
23 Not all who are wise in word are wise in spiritual things. But those who are wise in spiritual things are wise also in external senses. Although sense looks at everyone as subjects, not all give it the same tribute. Some, because of their simplicity, even respect it, but they do not know how it tortures them.
24 Wisdom, inseparable by its nature, is divided, or cut, into different parts. To one it is given more, to another—less, until the active virtue grows and, uniting with the initial virtues, complements the good inherent in each. In many, when the active life ended, wisdom also ended.
25 Few will be found wise regarding things proper to nature, but regarding natural things—many. Because of the fear regarding them, they leave all-natural reasoning. They more often reason a little regarding inappropriate things, things not according to nature, and things unpraiseworthy.
26 Time and measure are the table companions of good-speaking silence, and its table is truth. Thanks to truth, the father of lies finds nothing when he comes to the soul that has distanced itself from everything.
27 Truly merciful is not he who gives away the surplus, but he who gives away even what is necessary.
28 Some by the wealth of things acquire spiritual wealth; others by spiritual wealth alienate themselves from the wealth of things, because they anticipate the infinite good.
29 Everyone is pleased to grow rich in good things; it is grievous to him who grew rich by God’s providence and cannot long enjoy wealth.
30 Outwardly it seems that the soul is healthy, but its disease usually hides in the depth of the senses. It is fitting to cut down the disease with a rebuke from without, and to establish health within by the renewal of the mind. Foolish is he who turns away from rebukes; do not be ashamed to lie in the hospital where you will gain health.
31 Do not be angry with him who directed you against your will. Look at the defilement that came out of you, and rebuke yourself. Praise him who, by God’s providence, became the cause of such benefit to you.
32 Do not despair because of your fierce disease, but by the active medicine of laboriousness distance yourself from it and care for your health.
33 Do not be sad when you are rebuked in a timely manner. Approach him who rebukes you, and he will show you if indeed that sense is good which burns you so. Then you will eat your food, sweet to you because you are healthy, after that which is rejected for bitterness is destroyed.
34 The greater pain you feel, the more thank him who, rebuking, shows you your soul’s sickness. He becomes the cause of your complete cleansing; without him the mind cannot stand on a clean prayerful place.
35 When you are rebuked, either keep silent or answer gently. Answer not to put forward your own way, but to correct the rebuker if he has erred in something through ignorance.
36 When someone has rightly grieved you and then invited you to his place, see to it that you do not violate politeness in any way. And if he grieved you after the meal, then thanks to the hospitality, only half of the reward will be credited to him. But whether he grieved before the meal or after it, never withdraw from the assembly of the brethren because of sadness. He who sees his transgressions in everything adds to his reward.
37 Neither the high-minded knows his faults, nor the humble-minded—his good deeds. The faults of the first are covered by evil folly, and the good deeds of the second—by god-pleasing humility.
38 The proud does not want to equal the virtuous in good, but in the opposite and in that in which he has advantage, he adds his pride and thereby increases his faults.
39 Rebuke makes the soul strong, and praise—relaxed and slower to good.
40 Rich is he who has gold, and virtuous—he who has humility. He who loses gold becomes poor, although this is not visible from the outside. So also the ascetic, when he does not have humility, will not become virtuous.
41 A merchant without gold is not a merchant, although very capable of trade. So also the ascetic, when he does not have humility of mind, will not gather the sweet fruits of virtue, although he will trust much in his wisdom.
42 He who desires humility of mind is lower than his elevation. He who does not seek humility of mind is higher than his elevation and does not want to equal the lowest: by this he shows sadness for former banquets.
43 It is good when the ascetic reasons less and works more, and works beyond his fear. Then he will be honorable before men, and before God—a blameless worker.
44 He who fears to appear a stranger in the wedding chamber must either strive to fulfill all God’s commandments, or learn humility of mind.
45 To simplicity add moderation, with humility of mind combine truth—and you will become a table companion of righteousness. At its table all other virtues love to gather.
46 Truth without humility of mind is blind, therefore it takes dispute as its guide and, though it labors, has nothing on which to establish itself.
47 Good habit testifies to the beauty of virtue, the good condition of the body—to a peaceful soul.
48 The first good is not to sin at all; the second is not to cover one’s transgression with shame and not to be proud of it, but on the contrary—to humble oneself when rebuked, and to rebuke oneself and gladly accept penance. Without this, there is no power in our offerings to God.
49 Besides voluntary endurances, it is fitting to accept involuntary ones, that is, those that come from the devil—losses and infirmities. He who does not accept them and complains is like one who wants to eat his bread only with honey and without salt. Bread with salt does not always accompany passion, but satiety always has passion for a neighbor.
50 Being a master, he takes the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7) who washes the torn garment of his neighbor with divine words or sews it with alms. When he does so, let him watch out lest he fall into vanity and stop doing this as a servant, for then he will lose both the reward and the dignity of authority.
51 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1), wisdom—the assurance of the growth of the soul, humility—the assurance of virtues. And it is strange how the self-perfect could be imperfect.
52 “The Lord will preserve thy coming in and thy going out from this time forth and even forevermore” (Ps. 121:8) by moderation regarding food and talk. He who is moderate regarding food, which enters, and regarding words—they go out, avoids the lust of the eyes and calms the anger that comes from pride. Concerning this it most behooves the ascetic to care, to avoid lust and to calm anger. Thanks to this, action flourishes and contemplation is established.
53 Some ascetics are very careful regarding the consumption of food, but negligent regarding spoken words. Such do not know how to remove anger from the heart and lust from the body, as Ecclesiastes says (Eccl. 11:10), with which the Renewer Spirit builds a clean heart in man.
54 If we prepare simple food, there will be no excess of dishes; when we learn good silence, then words will be innocent.
55 Let your belly be kindled by moderation in food, and let the heart be compressed by moderation in words. Then the desiring and irascible power will serve you for good.
56 The pleasure-loving of the lower parts decreases in ascetics when the body grows old. The pleasure-loving of the throat still remains in him who has not managed to destroy it in time. It is fitting to erase the shame of that in which you are still guilty, so that you do not appear a stranger in the moderation of virtue and do not put on shame.
57 The faster must know when and with what dishes it is fitting to feed the body as an enemy, and when to comfort it as a friend, and when to comfort it as weak, so as not to give the food intended for the enemy to the friend, and the food for the friend—to the enemy. If you irritate it so, in time of temptation it may side with the enemy.
58 When someone consumes food for nourishment and not for pleasure, then the grace of tears comes to him and begins to comfort him. He then forgets all other pleasures, because the sweetness of tears completely captivates him.
59 He who widens his way, his tears dry up; and he who loves the narrow way, in him they flow abundantly.
60 Neither the sinner nor the righteous is without sorrow. But in the sinner there is sorrow because he has not yet departed from sins, and in the righteous—because he has not yet touched perfection.
61 Prayer and silence are virtues within our power. And those that are not within our power, but depend on the structure of the body, are fasting and vigil. What is easier for the ascetic, let him practice it.
62 Patience is the house of the soul, she dwells in it; her property is humility, she feeds on it.
63 If you do not endure in labors, you will not hear praise; if you foresee pain from sweetness, you will avoid it.
64 Do not bind yourself with the small, and you will not have to serve the great. Great evil never comes before the small.
65 If you look at the greater, you will be fearsome to the lesser; the lesser will despise you if you reject the greater.
66 You will not be able to attain greater virtues if you do not gain those within your power.
67 In whom mercy and truth prevail, in him prevails all that is well-pleasing to God. Mercy judges no one without mercy, truth shows philanthropy to no one without truth.
68 Combining moderation with simplicity, you will feel the bliss of that place.
69 You will not see the passions that fight against you at all when you stop plowing the land from which they feed.
70 Some try to cleanse only the defilement of the body, and others—of the soul. Some fight only against sin, others—against passion, and very few—against lust.
71 Evil is this thing—the inclination of the body to passion, the pleasure-loving of the soul, and the passions of the mind. Deserving of blame is the touch of the body, the sense of the soul, and the contrary action of the mind.
72 The pleasure-lover is close to the passionate, and the passionate to the pleasure-lover; far from them both is the dispassionate.
73 Inclined to passion is he whose urge to sin is stronger than thought, although he does not yet sin. A pleasure-lover is he in whom the action of sin is weaker than thought, although internally he suffers. Passionate is he who of his own free will inclines to both. And dispassionate is he who knows no difference between all these.
74 Inclination to passion dies in the soul through fasting and prayer. Pleasure-loving—through vigil and silence. Passionateness—through stillness and attentiveness. Dispassionateness is built by the remembrance of God.
75 From dispassionate lips the words of eternal life drop like honey (Song of Sol. 4:11). Whoever would be worthy to touch the lips of the dispassionate, to settle on his breast, and to smell the sweet fragrance of his garments, would enjoy the laws of virtues, the fragrance of which surpasses all fragrances known to us.
76 The garment of self-love, though there is much of it, makes one naked; the garment of those who love to adorn themselves is tight; the garment of vanity is called the last; and he who is completely naked is dispassionate.
77 Every soul will be freed from this visible body, but few will be those who will be freed from the sinful life here.
78 All the living will one day become dead in body; those who truly hate sin will become dead to sin.
79 Who is such a one that even before bodily death saw himself free from sin, and who is such a one that knew himself and his nature, what it is, even before the coming glorification?
On Prayer
80 When the rational soul stands between the sensible and the intelligible light, then the sensible light helps it to do bodily things, and the intelligible—spiritual things. But since the intelligible light has darkened in it, and the sensible has cleared up due to old habit, then if it is not with the intelligible light in prayer, it will not be able to contemplate divine things. The soul will have to remain between light and darkness: in darkness—by habit, and in light—by imagination.
81 The passionate mind cannot enter the narrow gates of prayer until it leaves the cares to which it is accustomed. It suffers pain, working incessantly in the shadow of this care.
82 Let prayer dwell together with the mind, as rays dwell with the sun. Without prayer, cares about sensible things, flying around like waterless clouds, darken the brightness of the mind.
83 The power of prayer leads to the voluntary endurance of hunger. But it does not lead to not seeing and hearing the hunger of those who are in the world. He who does not think of them has not strengthened the building of fasting and has destroyed the building of prayer.
84 If the mind does not depart from all that is sensible, it will not be able to ascend and know its dignity.
85 Fasting is a sign of the day, because it is obvious, and prayer is a sign of the night, because it is hidden. He who rightly practices both the first and the second will reach the designated city, from which pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled.
86 Spiritual work can also be built without bodily labors. Blessed is he who instead of bodily labors chose spiritual ones. By this he supplemented the lack of deeds, lived a hidden life of prayer, manifest to God.
87 The apostle asks us to be “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12), so that a good joy may dwell in us. If so, then he who does not endure has no faith; he who does not rejoice has no good hope; such a one has rejected prayer—the cause of joy—and does not continue in it.
88 The mind, dwelling from the very beginning in worldly thoughts, loved them so much that it does not love even frequent prayer as much. For it is said: in what it lingers, in that it grows.
89 The mind once left its home, therefore it forgot the brightness of that place. It needs to forget about all earthly things and ascend to its dwelling by prayer.
90 What empty mother’s breasts are to an infant, that is prayer to the mind when it cannot comfort it. But when prayer comforts the mind, it is like an infant sweetly falling asleep in its mother’s arms.
91 It is said in the Scripture about the bed of weeping, that is, about the bed of virtuous life. According to the words of the Song of Songs, the bride—prayer—could say to her beloved: “I will give my breasts to thee (Song of Sol. 6:11 – quoted from the Slavonic Bible), if thou wilt remain with me forever.”
92 He who has not renounced all earthly things cannot love prayer.
93 If you want to be in mind with the One, then be always in prayer, staying outside all other things.
94 The testimony of a God-loving mind is mental prayer and timely word, and let the free sense have a wise thought. It is said that in these three powers the soul flourishes.
95 The nature of him who prays must become smooth and soft, like that of children. According to their nature, his nature also will receive enlightenment from prayer. Therefore, let him who wants to unite with it care diligently.
96 Not all have the same intention in prayer, but one has this intention, and another—another. One prays that, if possible, prayer may always remain in his heart; another—to surpass this; and still another—that thoughts may not interrupt his prayer. But all pray to be preserved in good or not to be destroyed by evil.
97 Everyone becomes humble from prayer, for when he prays, he is contrite with humility. He who is arrogant inside does not pray humbly.
98 When you pray, remember the widow who forced the severe judge to show justice (Luke 18:3), and you will not tire of waiting for the fulfillment of good promises.
99 Prayer will not remain with you if you linger internally in thoughts and externally in conversations. But it soon returns to him who rejects many things for its sake.
100 If the words of prayer do not enter inside the soul, tears will not be allowed to shed down the cheeks.
101 The farmer will not gather sheaves if he does not sow seed in the ground. Tears will not flow in a monk if he utters the words of prayer without labor.
102 Prayer is the key to the Heavenly Kingdom. He who holds prayer as is proper sees in it the goods promised to its friends. He who sees only the present does not yet have boldness for it.
103 During prayer, the mind cannot speak with boldness to God: “Thou hast broken my bonds, I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Ps. 115:7-8), if it does not desire the better and does not cast away from itself fear and despondency, long sleep and sweet foods, because of which it sins.
104 He who is inattentive in prayer stands before the first veil, but he who prays attentively dwells within. And only he enters the Holy of Holies who, after the pacification of natural thoughts and movements, abides with Him Who is beyond all mind, and is deemed worthy of some theophany from Him.
105 When the soul, having distanced itself from external things, unites with prayer, then a kind of flame surrounds it and makes it heated, as iron is heated by fire. Then no one can touch the soul, just as no one can touch red-hot iron.
106 Blessed is he who in his life was deemed worthy of contemplation and saw his human form, corruptible by nature, as fiery in grace.
107 For beginners the law of prayer is heavy, and for the experienced—it is like hunger to a hungry person who hastens to a generous banquet.
108 In those who practice active virtue well, prayer now overshadows them like a cloud and drives away the thoughts that burn them, now, watering them with drops of tears, shows them spiritual visions.
109 A sweet joy is felt within, as if someone were playing the harp. And the soul that does not harmonize with it in prayer with the mystical invitation of the Spirit is not in good contrition. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26) – but the Spirit teaches the one who prays.