Monks Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos: Directions to Hesychasts — a method and rule, accomplished with God’s help, for those who wish to live the monastic life in stillness
A method and rule, accomplished with God’s help and attested by the saints: concerning those who wish to live the monastic life in stillness; concerning their testing and their manner of dwelling and their food; and concerning the reason for which, and how many, are the benefits of stillness for those who pass through it with understanding. This Discourse is divided into one hundred chapters.
Chapter 1. A preface to this discourse, set down as chapter one, which tells of the divine and supernatural gift and grace that the faithful have from the Holy Spirit.
It would befit us — whom God has taught, speaking through the divine words, that we bear in our hearts a new law brighter than a flame, which is guided by a good and upright Spirit, since we are children and heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ — to live in imitation of the angels, and to have no need of anyone to teach us this and to say to us: «Know the Lord» (Jer 31:34). But as things now stand, because of our youthful frailty we have departed from the good and have taken refuge in evil; and the enticement of the savage Belial and his implacable torment have made us stray far from the saving and godly commandments and wander over precipices that destroy the soul. And what is worst of all, he prompts us to be wise and to act against ourselves. That is why the divine words are fulfilled: «Is there anyone who understands or seeks God? All have turned aside, together they have become worthless» (Ps 14:2-3). And that is why we have become wholly carnal, and we lose the light-bearing and divine grace, and we need one another’s assistance and help in good works.
Chapter 2. That this Discourse was spoken in answer to a brother’s question, and also in order to keep the commandment of the fathers.
Since you, desiring according to the word of the Lord to search the divine and life-giving Scriptures and to learn the mysteries without error, have many times asked of us, the unworthy, words and a written rule for your own benefit — and perhaps also for the benefit of others, as you yourself said — we have resolved, though not before, yet even now, with God’s help, to fulfil your praiseworthy request as best we may. We set aside our own diffidence for the sake of your love and profit, commending you, most beloved spiritual child, for your zeal for good works and your long-standing love of labour; and above all we fear God’s condemnation, which threatens terribly the man who hides his talent, and besides this we are fulfilling the commandment of the fathers. For our fathers and spiritual teachers bequeathed to us that we should teach other lovers of God as our fathers taught us. May God — the Father of love and the generous Giver of all common goods — grant to us, who are slow and halting of speech, a timely word, so that we may open our mouths: God, who has often breathed words into speechless animals for the profit of those who listened (cf. Num 22). And do you, and all who honour the word, lend your ears to hear wisely and with understanding (cf. 2 Pt 2), and lead your life steadfastly as pleases Him. For without Him, as it is written, «we can do nothing» (Jn 15:5) that is useful and salutary; and «unless the Lord builds the house, in vain do the builders labour» (Ps 127:1). And so it is, as has been said.
Chapter 3. That intention precedes every work; and that the purpose of this Discourse is to teach what the foundation of the spiritual building in Christ ought to be.
Since intention precedes every deed, the intention of us both is this: mine, to set forth what lies within our power, so that it may serve for your spiritual conversion; and yours, to live sincerely according to what is said. First of all it is important to know for what we are building. Then, looking to Christ, let us lay a sound beginning of the foundation; and afterwards, when the time comes, having received generous help from on high, we shall put on the roof under the guidance of the Spirit.
Chapter 4. That the beginning of every act according to God is to live according to the commandments of the Saviour, and its end is the return of the grace of the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, first given to us in divine baptism.
The beginning of every act according to God consists, in short, in striving in every way and with all our strength to live according to the laws of all the God-fearing commandments of the Saviour; and its end lies in the keeping of the commandments and in the return of what was given to us freely from on high, from the very beginning, from the holy font: the complete restoration of the image and the return of grace. Or, to put it otherwise: to give back this gift and, casting off the old Adam with his deeds and lusts, to put on the new and spiritual man, who is Jesus Christ. As the divine apostle Paul says: «My children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you» (Gal 4:19). And also: «All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ» (Gal 3:27).
Chapter 5. What this grace is, and how we may receive it; and what causes it to be lost, and what restores it.
What this grace is, and how we may receive it, and why we lose it, Saint John Chrysostom will tell you — he who is brighter than all gold in soul and body — when he says: «What do these words mean: We all, with unveiled face, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into His image (2 Cor 3:18)? This was seen more plainly when the gifts of signs were at work; yet even now it is not so hard for one who has devout eyes to see it. When we receive baptism, the soul shines more than the sun, and from it we not only see the glory of God but also receive a certain radiance from it. As pure silver, lying in the sun, itself gives off light not only by its own nature but also by the light of the sun, so the soul, when it is purified, becomes brighter than all silver, receiving from Him the glory of the Spirit unto the glory that is within her, such as it pleases the Lord of the Spirit that she should have.»
A little later he continues: «Do you want me to show you this more clearly in the apostles? Remember Paul, whose garments healed; remember Peter, whose very shadow had power. Therefore, if they had not borne the royal image within themselves, their light would not have been unapproachable, and their garments and their shadow would not have had such power. Royal robes are terrible even to robbers. Do you wish to see how this image shines even in the body? And all who sat in the Sanhedrin, gazing intently at him [Stephen], saw his face like the face of an angel (Acts 6:15). But this is nothing compared with the glory that shines within. The apostles bore that glory in their souls, and more still: the radiance of Moses was perceptible to the senses, but this is bodiless. Just as fiery rays from luminous bodies radiate to the bodies nearest them and impart to them of their own light, so it is with the faithful. Therefore those who feel it are set free from the earth and feel as though they were in heaven. Alas! Here it is fitting to sigh bitterly, for although we may enjoy such nobility as this, we do not even fully understand what it is, but we destroy it and marvel at things perceived by the senses. This unutterable and awesome glory remains in us for a day or two, and then we quench it, raising a storm of worldly things and blocking its rays with thick clouds.»
And in another place he says the following: «The bodies of those who have pleased God will be clothed with such glory that it is impossible to look upon it with these eyes. And God has allowed us certain signs and inexpressible tokens of it, both in the Old and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the face of Moses shone with such glory that it was unbearable to the eyes of the Israelites; and in the New the face of Christ shone far more brightly.»
What, then, can darken and what can reveal this supernatural grace? The following things can darken it: the whirlwind of worldly affairs and the darkness born of the passions, which, like a storm or a raging torrent, rush over us and, flooding the soul, do not let it rest or look upon the true and blessed good for which it was created; embittering it, they darken it. But what is contrary to the passions — that is, what is born of the Lord’s commandments — comes to pass in those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For it is said: «Walk in the Spirit, and do not fulfil the lust of the flesh» (Gal 5:16). And this leads to the very summit, to the highest degree of love, which is God.
Chapter 6. That in the divine bosom, that is, in the holy font, we received divine grace; and that, though we hide it through misuse of temporal things, it may be recovered.
In the divine bosom, that is, in the holy font, we received divine grace. And if, through misuse of temporal things and worldly demands, we bury it under things and passions — oh, may it not be so! — it is possible for us, through repentance and the fulfilling of God’s commandments, to receive again such supernatural light as to see it clearly. Yet its manifestation happens according to the measure of each one’s efforts in faith, and most of all with the help and favour of the Lord Jesus Christ. «Christ, the perfect God, gave to the baptized the perfect grace of the Holy Spirit, which requires no addition from us, but is disclosed according to the fulfilling of the commandments and grants us the increase of faith, until we all attain to the unity of the faith… to the measure of the full stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13). When we can add anything from what is regenerated in Him, it is already from Him, and therefore it comes to be hidden within us.»
Chapter 7. That he who lives according to God should fulfil all the commandments, but devote the greater part of his effort to the keeping of the first commandments, which as it were give birth to the rest.
We have said that the beginning and root of such action is to live by the saving commandments, and its end and fruit is to return to the perfect grace of the Spirit that is present within us. God does not take His gifts from us; rather, the fulfilling of the commandments finds them again. It befits us to fulfil these commandments as swiftly as we can, so as to see them more clearly. «Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths» (Ps 119:105). And: «The commandment of the Lord is light, enlightening the eyes» (Ps 19:8). And: «Therefore I have followed all Your commandments» (Ps 119:128). And the apostle John, who leaned upon Christ’s breast, says: «Whoever keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him» (1 Jn 3:24). And he also says: «His commandments are not burdensome» (1 Jn 5:3). And the Saviour says: «He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him… If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. And he who does not love me does not keep my words» (Jn 14:21, 23-24). However, to the first and greatest of these commandments, as the mother of all the rest, should be devoted the greater part of our effort. Thus, with God, we shall attain without falling both our prior intention — that is, a good beginning — and we shall reach the end of our desire, that is, the manifestation of the Spirit.
Chapter 8. That the beginning of every godly act is the invocation with faith of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and concerning the peace and love that grow from this.
The beginning of all God-loving action is the invocation with faith of the saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as He Himself said: «Without me you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5). With this invocation peace flourishes — for, says the Apostle, it is good to pray «without anger and quarrelling» (1 Tim 2:8) — and love as well. «God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him» (1 Jn 4:16). And this peace and love together not only make prayer favourable, but are also born of prayer itself and become manifest, like inseparable divine rays, and grow and are made perfect.
Chapter 9. That through each of these three in particular, and through all of them together, every kind of benefit is abundantly bestowed upon us.
Through these three — through each in particular and through all of them together — every kind of good is given to us and poured out in abundance. By invoking with faith the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we hope to receive the mercy and true life hidden within it, calling purely in the heart upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, which pours out mercy and true life like a divine fountain that is always full. By the peace that surpasses all understanding and has no limit, we are reconciled with God and with one another. And by love, whose glory is beyond compare — since it is the end and foundation of the law and the prophets, and since God is called love — we are joined to God; and the righteousness of God cancels our sin and works gloriously in us for love’s sake through the sonship of grace. «Love», says the Apostle, «covers a multitude of sins» (1 Pt 4:8). Love «bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails» (1 Cor 13:7-8).
Chapter 10. That our Lord Jesus Christ, during His saving passion and again after the resurrection, left to His disciples invocation with faith, peace and love as His last commandments and a divine inheritance.
Therefore our most gracious and most sweet Lord Jesus Christ Himself — both when He was going to His voluntary passion for us, and when after the resurrection He appeared to those at table, and also when He was about to ascend to His Father by nature and ours by grace — left these things to all His own, as a sincere and child-loving Father leaves his last commandments, a kind and sweet consolation, a certain pledge, so to speak, and a God-given, inalienable inheritance. When His saving passion drew near, He disclosed it in the words spoken to His disciples: «Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it» (Jn 14:14). And again: «Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full» (Jn 16:23-24). And after the resurrection the Lord says again: «And these are the signs that will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues…» (Mk 16:17). In accordance with this, the apostle who leaned on the Saviour’s breast says: «Many other signs, which are not written in this book, Jesus did in the presence of His disciples. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name» (Jn 20:30-31). And the divine Paul says: «That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth» (Phil 2:10). And in the Acts of the Apostles it is written thus: «Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: …let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you well… And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved» (Acts 4:8, 10, 12). And the Saviour also said this: «All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me» (Mt 28:18).
The same may be seen from the words that the God-man spoke to the apostles before the crucifixion: «Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you» (Jn 14:27). And a little later He said: «I have told you this so that in me you may have peace» (Jn 16:33). And also: «This is my commandment, that you love one another» (Jn 15:12). And also: «By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another» (Jn 13:35). And also: «As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you» (Jn 15:9). «And you will abide in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love» (Jn 15:10). And even after the resurrection He gave peace, appearing at various times to His disciples and saying: «Peace be with you» (Jn 20:21). And to Peter, to whom He also gave the primacy among His disciples — showing that the care of His flock is the reward of ardent love for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself — He says three times: «If you love me, Peter, more than these, feed my sheep» (cf. Jn 21:17). And it may also be said, in accordance with this purpose, that through these three excellent activities three particular things are brought about in us: purification of the soul, illumination, and perfection.
Chapter 11. How the virtues are woven together out of these three.
When someone wishes to examine this carefully, he will see that upon this triple-plaited and inseparable cord hangs the woven crimson net of the virtues, which God has woven and adorned. For life according to God is like a precious bond and chain overlaid with gold, in which one virtue depends closely upon another, and all together form a single whole. For all of them accomplish one thing: that the person who lives by them is truly adorned. They enrich him with their connecting links — that is, with the saving invocation, with faith, and, if you will, with action and humility, of the most beloved name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and also with peace and love. And they constitute a truly divinely planted, three-trunked, life-giving tree: whoever touches it in due time and partakes of it as he ought will not receive death, as the first man did, but incorruptible and eternal life.
Chapter 12. That the gift and coming of the Holy Spirit is given to the faithful from God the Father for the sake of Christ Jesus and His holy name.
The gift and coming of the Holy Spirit is given to the faithful from the Father for the sake of Christ Jesus and His holy name, as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, divine before all and lover of souls, said to the apostles: «It is better for you that I go away. For if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you» (Jn 16:7). «When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father» (Jn 15:26). And also: «The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name» (Jn 14:26).
Chapter 13. That our holy fathers rightly laid down that we should pray in the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and ask mercy of Him.
Therefore our glorious guides and teachers, with the all-holy Spirit dwelling in them, teach everyone first of all good works and sound doctrine. And they teach those who wish to stand upon the ground of God-revering stillness, to dedicate themselves to God, to withdraw from the world and to become still in the intellect, to pray to the Lord and to ask mercy of Him without doubting; to have His most sweet name unceasingly in deed and in learning, in the heart and in the intellect, and always to keep it upon the lips; and in it and with it to breathe, and to live, and to sleep, and to rise, and to move, and to eat and to drink — in short, to urge themselves to do everything with Him. For when He is absent, then all evils gather together, so that nothing profitable remains in us; but when He is present within us, everything contrary is driven away, and no good thing is lacking in us, and there is nothing that cannot be set right. So our Lord Himself says: «He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; without me you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5). Therefore this work and this name are more honourable than all creation and surpass every work and every name; and we, unworthy as we are, having called upon Him with faith and spread upon Him in every way the sails of this Discourse, now begin to move forward.
Chapter 14. That he who wishes to pass his life in stillness in the Lord must walk without stumbling, and above all choose complete renunciation and complete obedience.
For the sake of the name of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who said: «I am the light, the truth and the life, the way and the door to the Father» (cf. Jn 8:12; 14:6; 10:9); and also: «Whoever enters through me will be saved; he will go in and out and find pasture» (Jn 10:9) — listen to what we say and sincerely counsel you.
First of all, choose for yourself, together with complete renunciation, an unfeigned and perfect obedience. Therefore hasten to find a guide and teacher who is beyond reproach; and let his integrity consist in giving proof of what he speaks about, so that his life agrees with the Holy Scriptures and with the words of spiritual men. Let him be lofty in mind and humble in thought, and kindly, and such as a teacher in Christ should be according to the words of God. And when you have come to know him, cleave to him as a loving son to his own father, and from that time be with him in body and spirit, following his instructions, looking upon him as upon Christ Himself and not as a man, casting from yourself all mistrust and doubt, and likewise your own reasoning and your own will with its desires. Be simple and without guile, following your teacher, and let your conscience be like a mirror, bearing witness to your undoubting and perfect obedience to him. And when the devil, the enemy of every good, sows anything contrary in your thoughts, flee from it within yourself as from fornication and fire, and answer wisely the tempter who casts such things at you: «It is not for the disciple to teach the teacher, but for the teacher to teach the disciple; I do not judge the elder, but he judges me; and I am not his judge, but he is mine» — as the author of the Ladder says (Step 4).
There is nothing better than such a life of obedience for one who wishes to tear up the record of his sins and be inscribed in the divine book of those who are saved. For according to the words of the blessed Paul, the Son of God and our God, the Lord Jesus, became as we are, and, ordering with all wisdom the good pleasure of the Father, He walked the way that we know, and through it He was counted worthy to be glorified by the Father for pleasing Him according to His human nature: «He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. Therefore God exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name» (Phil 2:8-9). Who, then, would dare — not to say senselessly — to hope to gain the glory of the Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ and praise from the Father, if he has not chosen the same road, to walk with our Guide and Teacher Jesus Christ? For it befits the disciple, when he strives to become like his teacher, to look steadfastly with all the strength of his soul upon the life of his teacher as upon the finest example and pattern, and to learn from him, and to try to imitate him every day. And of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself it is written: «And He was obedient to them» [to His Mother and Joseph] (Lk 2:51). And the Saviour Himself said: «The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve» (Mt 20:28).
And if a man wishes to live otherwise — that is, pleasing himself and following his own will, without having a guide — can we consider that he lives a divine life according to the word of God? By no means; for such a man does not walk but leaps upon dug-up ground. And the author of the Ladder says that just as one who has no guide easily goes astray, so one who lives by his own will in solitude easily perishes, even though he knows all the wisdom of this world. Therefore there are many — not to say all — who do not submit to obedience and live without seeking counsel, and who with toil and sweat sow much in their dreams, but in reality reap a very small harvest. And some, alas, gather chaff instead of wheat. These are they who live independently and think as pleases themselves. There is nothing worse than this, and the author of the Ladder bears witness to it, writing as follows: «All you who have gathered in the arena of confession under a rule; all you who wish to take the yoke of Christ upon your necks; all you who hasten to give yourselves into servitude that you may receive freedom in return; all you who are lifted up by the hands of others and who swim across this great abyss — know that you have undertaken to walk a short but hard road, on which there can be only one thing leading to temptation, namely self-will» (from Step 4).
He who has renounced self-direction in all things has already attained all that is good, both spiritual and desirable, even though he has not yet begun the struggle. For obedience consists in not trusting oneself in any good thing until the end of one’s life. So do you also, knowing and understanding this, and desiring to learn the good and inseparable portion of stillness which leads to heaven, keep well the laws laid down, as they have been shown to you; and first love obedience with joy, and then stillness. For as ascetic practice is the ascent to contemplation, so is obedience the ascent to stillness. «Do not remove the ancient landmarks which your fathers set» (Prov 22:28), says the Scripture. And also: «Woe to him who is alone» (Eccl 4:10). Thus, having begun by laying a good foundation, in due time you will also build a virtuous roof upon the building that the Spirit is raising in you. For if the foundations fail, as someone said, the whole building is useless; and conversely, if the beginning is good, everything is completed well and in its own order — although the opposite also happens. Yet this too depends on our intention and consent.
Chapter 15. What the signs of true obedience are, so that a true disciple, knowing them, may obey without stumbling.
Since much has been said about this way of life, and it is not easy to repeat it — and since those who undertake obedience undertake it in different ways — it is fitting to point out to you certain signs of obedience, by keeping which as a rule and a measuring line, such as carpenters use, you will live blamelessly. Let us say, then, that a true novice must, in our judgement, preserve the following five virtues.
The first is faith: he must have a pure and unshakeable faith in his superior, so much so that he sees Christ Himself in him and obeys him, according to the words of the Lord Jesus: «He who hears you hears me; and he who rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me rejects Him who sent me» (Lk 10:16). And it also says: «Everything that is not of faith is sin» (Rom 14:23).
The second is truth: he must be truthful in deed, in word, and in the complete confession of his thoughts. «The beginning of your words is truth», says the psalmist, «for the Lord seeks truth» (Ps 119:160; 31:23). And Christ says: «I am the truth» (Jn 14:6); that is why He is called Truth itself.
The third is not to do one’s own will. For it is ruinous for the disciple to do his own will; he must always cut it off willingly, that is, without his father having to compel him.
The fourth is not to contradict and not to argue, for contradicting and arguing is the work of the wicked. The most holy Paul wrote: «If anyone wishes to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God» (1 Cor 11:16). And if this is expressly forbidden to all Christians in general, how much more to monks, and above all to those who have promised complete obedience for the Lord’s sake. Contradiction and dispute come from the arrogance of those who live in unbelief and lofty self-opinion, as it is said: «A monk of lofty self-opinion contradicts much.» Conversely, when a man neither contradicts nor disputes, this comes from faith and humility of thought.
The fifth is to have complete and pure confession before the superior, concerning which we made a vow, standing before the fearful throne of Christ, before God and the holy angels, that the beginning and the end of all our vows and of our consent to the Lord would be the confession of the hidden thoughts of the heart. Blessed David also said: «I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my heart» (cf. Ps 32:5). And the author of the Ladder says: «He who uncovers his wounds will not let them fester further, but they will be healed» (from Step 4).
Whoever keeps these five virtues wisely and with understanding, let him know without doubt that through them, as through a pledge, he will receive the blessedness of the righteous. These are the signs, the root and the foundations of enduring obedience. Hear now what its branch and fruit are, and what safeguards them. «Through obedience», says the author of the Ladder again, «humility appears; through humility, discernment; through discernment, foresight; and through foresight, insight, which is the work of God alone and a special supernatural gift that God bestows on those whom He blessedly adorns» (from the same Step).
Besides what has been said, you must also know that in proportion to your tested obedience humility is cultivated in you, and immediately after humility discernment, and then all that follows. Strive, then, as far as possible, to walk the path of obedience without error, and you will advance without transgression. But if you limp even a little at the beginning of obedience, know that you will not finish well what you have begun — that is, life in Christ — and you will not be crowned with the crown given to the victor. Therefore let obedience, whose signs we have shown you, be like a guide to you. Sailors look at the compass so as not to lose their way; and you, obeying steadfastly, will be able to cross the great ocean of the virtues and reach the quiet harbour of dispassion. Even if it should happen that a storm overtakes you and high waves rise, so long as you obey, the true novice cannot be harmed even by the devil himself.
Before we set before you the honourable height of wondrous obedience, let us recall one more saying of the holy father. The brightest lamp of life in Christ and the new Bezalel of the heavenly ladder says the following: «The psalter is reckoned by the fathers as a weapon, and prayer as a wall; unstained tears are as a bath, and blessed obedience is esteemed as a confession, without which none of the passionate will see the Lord» (from Step 4). It seems to us that what has been said is enough to explain plainly and to praise the singular character of thrice-blessed obedience.
We can also understand and know it through experience, when we look back upon our former life and reflect on it. What was the cause of corruption and death, though we were not created so in the beginning? And what, on the contrary, was the cause of renewal and immortality? We find that the cause of the first — that is, of corruption — was the self-will of the first Adam, his self-satisfaction and disobedience, on account of which the divine commandment was rejected and transgressed. And the cause of the second — that is, of incorruption — was the accord of the second Adam, God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, with the Father, and His obedience to the Father, and through that accord and obedience the keeping of the Father’s commandments. «For I have not spoken on my own authority», says the Saviour; «the Father who sent me gave me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore what I say, I say as the Father has told me» (Jn 12:49-50). So, just as pride was the mother and root of all sorrows in the forefather Adam and in those who came after him, so in the new God-man Jesus Christ, and in those who wish to live as He did, humility is the beginning, the source and the foundation of all good things.
We see that this order and rank is preserved both by the sacred heavenly order of all the God-like angels and by our earthly Church. And whoever avoids such a way and stubbornly — not to say defiantly — wishes to live otherwise, turns away from God and from the heavenly inheritance of light; he tears himself away and separates himself from the catholic and apostolic Church and is consigned to the darkness and fire of Gehenna: this is what we have learned and what we believe. We say that the followers of the evil morning-star and the slanderers of every age, the notorious heretics, will suffer in this way, as is said in the divinely written words: they who for self-indulgence and pride were stripped, to their shame, of divine glory and delight, and excluded from the sacred assembly.
Some of the learned say that the contrary is healed by the contrary. Since the cause of every sorrow is disobedience and pride, and of all joy obedience and contrition, it truly befits a man to live without sinning if he is willing to obey an experienced and blameless father who through long struggles has gained the vision of divine things, and to receive his instructions and counsels as the voice of God and as God’s own counsel. «Salvation comes where there are many counsellors» (Prov 11:14). A man who takes no counsel is his own enemy. And if one of the glorious fathers attained godly stillness and perfection in God without first learning obedience, this could happen only by God’s revelation, and very rarely. And it is written that what happens rarely is not a law for the Church; for one swallow does not make a spring. Do you, then, believing that true obedience is the preparatory training for every good stillness, leave aside what happens only by exception and follow only the universally received traditions of the divine fathers — and so you will be honoured among those who live according to the law.
Well then: would anyone wish to walk an unknown road without a trustworthy guide? No one sets sail without an experienced helmsman, and no one takes up a craft or an art without a skilled teacher. Will anyone, then, dare to learn the craft above all crafts and the art above all arts — to follow the path that leads to God and to cross the measureless sea of the intellect, that is, the monastic life, which is like the life of an angel — and believe that he will bring it to a successful end without a guide, a helmsman, and a skilled and experienced teacher? Such a man, whoever he may be, builds himself up in his own mind and imagines himself built up before he has even begun, because he is not learning according to the law. And conversely, whoever obeys the ordinances of the fathers has already finished, though he has as yet begun nothing.
How can we know how we ought to fight against the flesh, or arm ourselves against the passions and the demons? As it is written, sins attach themselves to the virtues and become, as it were, their neighbours. How shall we learn to restrain the bodily senses and to tune the powers of the soul like strings on a harp? And how shall we be able to distinguish divine voices and revelations, divine consolations and visions, from the tricks and ambushes and diabolical delusions? In a word, how shall we attain communion with God and the divine sacred actions and mysteries without learning from a teacher of the true and enlightened mysteries? This is impossible — truly impossible. Even when we look at the chosen vessel, the most blessed Paul, initiate of things unutterable, mouth of Christ, light of the world, common sun, teacher of the whole world, we see that he goes to the apostles and sets before them the gospel he preaches. And why? So that he might be able to say of himself: «lest somehow I should be running, or had run, in vain» (Gal 2:2). Let us look also at the very Wisdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says of Himself: «I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me» (Jn 6:38). And it is said of the most holy and life-giving Spirit: «He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak» (Jn 16:13).
Seeing the benefit of this practice, which upholds both what is earthly and what is heavenly, we are seized with awe and dread and fear for our own weakness and diffidence, and for those who out of folly and pride choose a self-directed and disobedient life. Truly such an undertaking is fearful: the thieves are beyond counting, the ambushes of pirates beyond counting, and shipwrecks beyond measure, so that out of many only a few are saved. But let them walk as they wish, for it is written that «the fire will test each man’s work» (1 Cor 3:13). And also: «You will repay each one according to his deeds» (Ps 62:12). May the Lord grant understanding to everyone, so as to live not simply as they wish, but as they ought.
As for you and everyone who desires to live according to God: having grasped, in accordance with these words, the whole golden and spiritual meaning of what you have heard from the blessed ones, hasten, as has already been said, to find a blameless and perfect teacher. In the words of Paul who bore Christ within him: «Solid food is for the mature, whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil» (Heb 5:14). Seeking in this way, diligently and with faith, you will not go astray but will attain what you desire. «For everyone who asks», says the divine Scripture, «receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened» (Mt 7:8).
Such a teacher will teach you, in order and in the right manner, all that it is fitting for you to know and that is pleasing to God. And he will also direct you to God-pleasing and highly spiritual works, inaccessible to many, when he sees that you sincerely delight in moderation, simplicity and frugality in food and drink, in bedding and in clothing, and that you are content with what is necessary, modest and needful, rather than with what is excessive and self-indulgent — the sort of thing that, with its ornaments and glitter, puffs up those who live senselessly and raise the sword against themselves and their own salvation. As the great apostle Paul says: «Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content» (1 Tim 6:8).
But you seek and desire to learn and to hear from us what belongs to the beginning, the middle and the end of life in Christ. Though this request is praiseworthy, it is not easy to give an answer at once. Nevertheless, when Christ stretches out His right hand to you, we shall hasten to offer you our word, building upon honourable and perfect obedience, as upon a firm and unshakeable foundation, that renowned house of the spiritual building: godlike stillness. And let us speak thus, establishing ourselves upon the words of the fathers, spoken by the Spirit, as upon an immovable support.
Chapter 16. How he who wishes to be full of good works and to keep stillness for God should labour in the Orthodox faith; that faith is twofold; and how, together with it, a man of stillness should be peaceful, free from cares, without grief — that is, calm, silent, still, thankful in all things — should know his own weakness, bravely endure temptations, place his hope in God and await His help.
1. The Saviour says: «Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven» (Mt 7:21). So then, beloved, if you are concerned about God-creating stillness not in word only — that stillness through which those who truly pass through it receive within themselves even here the luminous manifestations of God’s Kingdom of Heaven, and in the age to come receive them perfectly — take care that, besides the Orthodox faith, you may also be full of good works. Be at peace with everyone as far as it lies with you: free from cares, silent, still, gracious in everything and aware of your own weakness; and keep watch over your eye attentively and soberly against all the temptations that come upon you each day, struggling with endurance against every disturbance and grief that befalls you. Concerning the first and the second — namely, that together with the Orthodox faith it is fitting for you to be adorned with good works — the teacher well known to you, the glorious brother of God, says: «Faith without works is dead, just as works without faith are dead: show me your faith without works» (Jas 2:26, 18). And still earlier the Guide and Teacher of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, said to His disciples: «Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you» (Mt 28:19-20). And the Theologian says that God wants three things from everyone who is baptized: right faith from the soul, purity from the body, and truth from the tongue.
On the twofold character of faith
2. It must be known that faith, according to the words of God, is twofold. The first is the common faith of all Orthodox Christians, in which we were first baptized and with which, God grant, we may depart this life. The second faith is given not to many, but to those who, fulfilling all the godly commandments, have come to the image and likeness of God and, thus enriched by the divine light of grace, have set all their hope in the Lord, and so worthily that, according to the word of the Lord, when they pray to God their hearts do not hesitate in the least concerning their requests, but they ask with faith and so receive what is profitable. These blessed ones acquired firm faith through true works, casting aside all reasoning and speculation, all doubts and hesitant petitions; and they were wholly filled with divine wonder, with faith in God, and with hope and love, and were also transformed by that better and blessed change wrought by the right hand of the Most High, as the divine David says. But there is no time to speak at length of the first faith, for it is time to speak of the second, which, like a divine fruit, blossoms from the first and is born of it. For this faith is like the root and the head of glorious, God-revering stillness. «How will you keep stillness», says the author of the Ladder, «without faith?» (from Step 27). And the divine David says: «I believed, therefore I spoke» (Ps 116:10). And the great apostle Paul: «Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen» (Heb 11:1). And also: «My righteous one shall live by faith» (Heb 10:38). And the Saviour said to the disciples when they asked Him to give them faith: «If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you» (Lk 17:6). And again: «If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea, it will be done. And whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive» (Mt 21:21-22). Saint Isaac also writes: «Faith is more subtle than knowledge, just as knowledge is more subtle than the things perceived by the senses» (Homily 28). All the saints who have been counted worthy to attain this way of life — reverence for God — enjoy that surpassing life by the power of faith. We are not speaking of the faith by which men believe in the distinction of the divine Hypostases and in the unique nature that belongs to the Godhead alone, and in the wondrous work of the Incarnation through the assumption of our nature — although that faith is very lofty — but of the faith that is kindled in the soul by the light of grace, which by the testimony of the intellect confirms the heart so that it does not doubt the assurance of hope; a faith far removed from all conceit, which shows itself not in the inclining of the ears but in the contemplation with spiritual eyes of the mysteries hidden in the soul, and of the secret and divine wealth concealed from the eyes of the sons of the flesh, which is revealed by the Spirit to those who feed at the table of Christ through constant study of His laws. As it is said: «If you keep my commandments… He» [the Father] «will give you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive… He will teach you all things» (Jn 14:15-17, 26). Until He comes who is the consummation of the mysteries, we shall not be granted their clear revelation. Through this faith God works with the saints mysteries beyond description, of which we shall have the enjoyment here as a betrothal, by the grace of Christ Himself, and there, in the Truth itself, in the Kingdom of Heaven, together with those who love God.
That one must be peaceful
3. Concerning the third point, that you must be peaceful, there is well-known counsel: the words of blessed David and of Paul who bore Christ, which call out more loudly than a trumpet. The counsel of the first: «Great peace have those who love Your law, and for them there is no stumbling» (Ps 119:165). And again: «With those who hated peace I was peaceable» (Ps 120:6). «Seek peace and pursue it» (Ps 34:14). And the counsel of the second: «Strive for peace with everyone, and for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord» (Heb 12:14). And again: «If possible, so far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men» (Rom 12:18).
That you must be free from cares
4. Concerning the fourth point, that it befits you to be free from cares, Saint Isaac will tell you, saying: «Since desires are the offspring of the senses, let those who wish to be busy with cares keep silent about guarding the peace of the intellect; and do you have no dealings with those full of cares.»
That you must be without grief and without anxiety
5. Concerning the fifth point, that you should be without grief and without anxiety over things good and bad alike, you are taught by the words that the Lord speaks in the Gospel: «Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?» (Mt 6:25-28). And a little later: «Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans strive after all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Do not be anxious, then, about tomorrow; tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble» (Mt 6:31-34). Saint Isaac also says: «If you have cares, you will find neither light in your soul, nor quiet and stillness in the calming of your senses» (from Homily 69). And the author of the Ladder: «A single hair troubles the eye, and a small care destroys stillness. Stillness is the laying aside of thoughts and the renunciation of even necessary cares» (from Step 27). He who has truly attained stillness does not worry about his own body, for He who promised to care for it speaks the truth.
That you must be silent
6. This word also compels us to speak of the sixth point, that one ought to keep silence. Saint Isaac speaks of this too: «He who forbids his mouth to speak evil of others guards his heart from the passions and beholds the Lord at all times» (from the beginning of Homily 8). And the same saint says again: «If you put all the works of this life on one scale and silence on the other, you will see that silence outweighs the works» (from Homily 41). And again: «Above all things love silence, for it brings you near to the fruit, which the tongue cannot express. At first you compel yourself to be silent, and then out of silence something is born in us that leads us into silence itself. May God grant you to feel what silence brings forth. And when you begin to live by it, I shall not be able to describe what light will dawn upon you.» And again: «Silence is the mystery of the age to come, but words are the instruments of this world» (from Homily 42). And to Saint Arsenios the divine voice commanded this in these words: «Arsenios, flee, be silent, keep stillness — and you will be saved.»2
That you must live in stillness
7. As to the seventh point, that you ought to live in stillness, Basil the Great and Saint Isaac will show you reliably. The first said: «Stillness is the beginning of the purification of the soul.» And the second: «The limit of stillness is complete silence» (from Homily 14). Basil in a few words indicated the beginning of silence, and Isaac its end. And in the Old Testament it is said: «Have you sinned? Be silent» (cf. Sir 21:1). And again: «Be still, and know that I am God» (Ps 46:10). The author of the Ladder also says: «Before stillness comes freedom from care about all things, whether good or not good» (from Step 27). For he who opens the door to good things will inevitably descend to bad ones. The second work that precedes stillness is prayer, and the third is the unpillaged activity of the heart. As it is impossible for one who does not know his letters to read books, so it is impossible for one who has not gained the first work to pass with understanding through the next two. And Saint Isaac says again: «The aspiration of stillness is the unceasing expectation of death» (from Homily 41). Whoever enters stillness without knowing this cannot grasp how we must endure and bear all things.
How one should give thanks for everything
8. So too concerning the eighth point, that you should give thanks for everything, a good teacher for you will be the divine apostle Paul, who says: «Give thanks in all circumstances» (1 Thess 5:18). And Saint Isaac: «The thanksgiving of the one who receives moves the giver to give gifts greater than the first» (from the beginning of Homily 2). He who does not give thanks for what is small is a liar and false in what is great also. A heart that moves a man to unceasing thanksgiving draws God’s gifts to him; but a murmuring thought that constantly stirs in the heart brings temptation to the soul. God blesses lips that always give thanks, and a heart that offers thanksgiving receives grace.
How one should know one’s own weakness
9. In the ninth place it is said how great a benefit is gained by the man who has attained the knowledge of his own weakness. You will understand this when you listen to the sixth psalm of the divine David, in which it is said: «Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak» (Ps 6:2). And in another place: «But I am a worm and not a man, the scorn of men and despised by the people» (Ps 22:6). And Saint Isaac: «Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, for this knowledge becomes for him the ground, the root and the beginning of every good thing. When a man grasps and truly feels his own weakness, then this raises the soul out of the feebleness that darkens such knowledge, and he acquires for himself a guard, like a treasure.» And again: «The man who has attained knowledge of the measure of his own weakness has attained perfect humility.»
That one should endure temptations steadfastly
10. The last section of this chapter, completing the number ten at which we have arrived, concerns enduring bravely and patiently, and resisting courageously, the temptations of various kinds that may befall you. Listen to what the Holy Scriptures say about this. Paul who bore the cross says: «For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places» (Eph 6:12). And also: «If you are left without discipline, in which all have shared, then you are illegitimate children and not sons» (Heb 12:8). And also: «Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives» (Heb 12:6). And the Lord’s brother says: «A man who has not been tempted is untried» (cf. Jas 1). And Saint Elias the Presbyter: «It befits every Christian who truly believes in God not to be without affliction, but always to await and expect temptation, so that when it comes he may not be terrified or confused, but may bear graciously the labour of affliction and understand the words he sings with the prophet: Test me, O Lord, and try me (Ps 26:2). And he does not say that the Lord’s chastening grieved him, but that it set him right in the end.» And do not seek the causes of temptation, whence it comes, but only pray to God to endure it graciously. As Saint Mark says: «When temptation comes, do not seek why or through whom it came, but bear it graciously and without resentment.» And also: «Since it is not easy to find anyone who pleases God without temptation, one should thank God for every occurrence.» And also: «Every affliction reveals the inclination of the will, whether it inclines to the right or to the left. Therefore every affliction that occurs is called a temptation, for it gives the one who undergoes it the taste of his hidden desires.» And Saint Isaac, among many other things, also says the following: «Temptation benefits every man. If it benefited the apostle Paul, then let every mouth be stopped and the whole world submit to God» (from Homily 37). Ascetics are tempted so that their riches may increase; the weak, so that they may be guarded from what harms them; the sleepy, so that they may be prepared for wakefulness; and those who are far away, so that they may draw nearer to God. His friends He treats as friends. No untrained son takes the wealth of his father’s house to use it. Therefore God first tests and afflicts, and then shows the gift. Glory to the Lord, who brings us sweet health by means of bitter medicines. There is no one who does not experience sorrow while being trained, and no one who does not find that time bitter when he must drink the poison of temptation. It is impossible to hold fast without temptations; but whether we endure them is not in our power alone. How can a vessel of clay withstand the flow of water unless it has been strengthened by God’s fire? If we submit, asking humbly with unceasing desire and in patience, we shall receive everything in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is said in the book of Jesus son of Sirach: «My son, when you begin to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptations. Be upright and steadfast in heart, and do not be dismayed in misfortune» (Sir 2:1-2). It is good to hope in God and to await benefits from Him. Whoever fixes the anchor of hope in God, who is able to save, may also hope for relief in temptations. For it is said: «No temptation has overtaken you that is beyond human strength. God… together with the temptation will make a way for you to overcome it» (1 Cor 10:13). And also: «Affliction produces endurance, endurance produces experience, and experience produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame» (Rom 5:3-5). And also: «He who endures to the end will be saved» (Mt 24:13). And: «By your endurance you will gain your souls» (Lk 21:19). And the Lord’s brother says this: «Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations. You know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance be followed by perfect work, so that you may be perfect and blameless, lacking in nothing… Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has been tested he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him» (Jas 1:2-4, 12). «The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us» (Rom 8:18). And it is also said: «I waited patiently for the Lord, and He looked upon me and heard my prayer. He brought me up out of the pit of misery and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and made my steps firm. And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God» (Ps 40:1-3). And blessed Symeon Metaphrastes writes: «The soul bound by bonds of love to God pays no heed to pain, but delights in patience and flourishes in the endurance of suffering. And when it endures nothing sorrowful for the sake of the One it loves, then it considers that it is suffering, and shuns consolation as though it were torment.»
Note 2: See the Menaion Reader for 8 May, folio 358 verso.
Chapter 17. That the fear of God is twofold: one belonging to beginners, the other to the perfect.
It would not be good to be negligent and pass over the twofold fear of God, since at the end of the ten sections above we necessarily mentioned perfect fear, but left off speaking of the working of the first fear. And the holy fathers place this fear immediately after faith.
On the first fear, or the fear of beginners
Know, most beloved, that the fear of God is twofold: one belongs to beginners, the other to the perfect. Of the first it is written thus: «The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord» (Ps 111:10). And also: «Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord» (Ps 34:11). By the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil, and where there is fear there is the keeping of the commandments. Saint Isaac also says: «The fear of God is the beginning of virtue» (Homily 1). It is said that faith is born and sown in the heart when the intellect is detached from the cares of this world, so as to gather its wandering thoughts into constant meditation upon the restoration to come. The beginning of a man’s true life is the fear of God, and it does not linger in the soul when the thoughts are wandering. See to it, then, that the fear of God becomes the foundation of your journey, and soon you will stand at the gates of the Kingdom without walking a long road.
On the second and perfect fear of God
Of the second, that is, the perfect fear of God, it is said: «Blessed is the man who fears the Lord; he will greatly love His commandments» (Ps 112:1). And also: «Blessed are all who fear the Lord and walk in His ways» (Ps 128:1). «Fear the Lord, all you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing» (Ps 34:9). «Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord» (Ps 128:4). «The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever and ever» (Ps 19:9). And Saint Peter of Damascus writes: «The sign of the first fear is to hate sin and be angry at it, as one bitten by a wild beast is angry at the beast. The sign of perfect fear is to love virtue and to fear one’s own changeableness» (from Book 2, Discourse 3). And he also says: «There are no unchangeable men, and in every circumstance of this life we should fear a fall.» Therefore, having heard this with understanding, hasten, together with all the virtues mentioned, to have the first fear within you without ceasing. For it is like treasures kept in a treasury, more sure than any good deed. When you gain it, then your feet will be directed to the fulfilling of all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ; and having travelled this road, you will find the perfect and pure fear that comes of longing for the virtues and of the mercy of our good God.
Chapter 18. That for the sake of the commandments and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, when such a time comes, it is good for us not to spare our life.
Besides what has been said, you also need to know this: for the sake of the life-giving commandments and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, when such a time comes, it befits us to lose our soul with joy — that is, not to spare even our own life. As the Lord Jesus Christ Himself says about this: «Whoever loses his soul for my sake and the gospel’s will save it» (Mk 8:35) — believing without doubt and without hesitation, since the resurrection and the life and all else that belongs to salvation is the same God-man Jesus the Saviour, as He Himself said: «I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even if he dies, shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die» (Jn 11:25-26). And also: «For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life» (Jn 3:16). «I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly» (Jn 10:10). Therefore, conducting yourself in this way, always «forgetting what lies behind and, as it is said, straining forward to what lies ahead» (cf. Phil 3:13), walk with Jesus Christ our Lord and do not turn aside from this path.
It seems to us good and altogether fitting to explain first what the most blessed and excellent Nikephoros says about entering into the heart by way of the breathing of the nostrils. This is an art that helps to gather the thoughts, so that with God’s help our salvation may be accomplished in good order. This divine man, having the confirmation of many others from the written testimonies of the holy fathers, says the following.
Chapter 19. On the natural art of entering into the heart through the breathing of the nostrils, and on the prayer that works in us at the same time, namely: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.
This art helps in some way to gather the thoughts. Do you know, brother, that we breathe air and draw it in for no other reason than for the sake of our heart? The heart is the cause of the body’s life and warmth. The heart draws in the breath so that, breathing out, it may release its heat and itself remain in good condition. The cause — or rather the servant — of such an arrangement is the lungs, which God created porous; like a bellows they draw in and expel the necessary air. Thus the heart, drawing in cool air and letting it out — the purpose for which it is arranged, so as to sustain life — keeps the established order intact.
So sit in silence in your cell and, concentrating your intellect, lead it in through the nostrils, by which the air passes to the heart, and make it enter the heart together with the air. When it enters there, you will not only be glad and joyful, but you will be like a man who has left his home and, on returning, cannot contain his joy at having come back to his wife and children. Such an intellect, when united with the soul, is filled with indescribable sweetness and joy. Therefore, brother, train your intellect not to leave there quickly, even though at first it is greatly wearied, feeling confined and oppressed within. But when it becomes accustomed, it is no longer drawn to wander outside. The Kingdom of God is within us. To him who looks upon it within and seeks it with pure prayer, everything outside appears vile and hateful.
And later he says: «It is well for you to understand that when your intellect is there, it should not remain silent and idle; but give it the words: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! Let this be its work and its study without ceasing, and let it never abandon them. This will keep the intellect from being scattered; through it the intellect is not overshadowed or mastered by hostile attachments; and day by day it builds up towards the divine longing of love.»
Thus this blessed father intends to teach the intellect this natural art, so that it may return from its habitual wandering, circling and captivity to attentiveness; and with attentiveness it may return to itself and so be joined with prayer; and from then on it may descend with that same prayer into the heart and abide there. And another of the wise, as though adding an explanation to what has been said, and himself having experience of such sacred activity, says the following.
Chapter 20. On the natural art of invoking the Lord Jesus Christ together with the breath.
This is what one who loves such instruction should do. When we train our intellect to enter in together with the breath, then we shall fully understand that the intellect will not begin to invoke the Lord Jesus until it has cast off every thought and remains alone and bare, holding nothing else in mind except the invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ. And conversely, when it leaves that place and takes up outward things, it lays hold of countless memories even against its will.
Chapter 21. That the divine Chrysostom, like the other ancient fathers, says that one should pray in the heart to our Lord Jesus Christ and say this prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!
The great Chrysostom also says: «I beg you, brothers, never to cease or to neglect the rule of this prayer.» And a little later he says: «Whether he is eating or drinking, sitting or working, travelling or doing anything else, let the monk call unceasingly: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!» And later still: «May the name of the Lord Jesus, descending into the depth of the heart, humble the serpent that has seized the pastures there, and save and quicken the soul. Therefore dwell unceasingly in the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart may absorb the Lord and the Lord the heart, and these two may become one.» And again: «Do not separate your heart from God, but endure and keep it always with the remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the Lord’s name is established within the heart; and think of nothing else, but only that Christ may be magnified in you.»
Chapter 22. More on the remembrance of Jesus, with attentiveness in the heart and with the breath.
The author of the Ladder writes: «Let the remembrance of Jesus be united with your breathing, and then you will know the benefit of stillness» (from Step 27). And Saint Hesychios: «If you truly wish to clothe your thoughts with shame, and to devote yourself to stillness, and to sober your heart with ease, let the Jesus Prayer cleave to your breath — and in a few days you will see how this comes about» (chapter 182).
Chapter 23. That those who wish to make the intellect sober — beginners especially — should sit during prayer in a quiet, unlit room, since this naturally helps the state and the thought to gather together.
To what has already been said — things that come from on high and were sanctioned by the holy fathers, according to the testimonies we have set out, about uniting the breath with the heart, and praying within the heart to our Lord Jesus Christ in His holy and saving name, and studying it, and being sober, and seeking mercy from Him — the following is added: that in stillness and at all times, and most of all at the hour appointed for prayer, one who is striving for sobriety in the heart under a rule, and above all a beginner, should sit in an unlit corner, as the divine fathers and teachers experienced in this all-blessed work have taught and bequeathed. For when the eyes look at visible things and consider them, the intellect is naturally distracted and scattered, becomes downcast and dispersed. But when the ascetic shuts himself in a quiet and dark room, then the thought ceases to soar about, because there is nothing for it to look at. Likewise the intellect, willingly or unwillingly, grows partly calm and begins to gather into itself, as Basil the Great says: «When the intellect is not scattered upon external things and does not pour itself out into the world through the senses, then it returns to itself.»
Chapter 24. That our Lord Jesus Christ grants salvation when the intellect with faith invokes the holy name of the Lord in the heart; and that the natural art of the heart through the breath, and sitting in stillness in an unlit place, and the like, are helps to this.
Before all this — or rather, before all struggles whatsoever — the intellect accomplishes such a feat with the help of divine grace, from the heartfelt, pure and unwavering invocation with faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not simply from the natural art explained above, by way of the breath or of sitting in a quiet and dark place. May that never be thought! This method was devised by the divine fathers for no other reason than to help gather the thought and bring it back from its habitual wandering to itself and to attentiveness, as we have already said. And from the return of the thought to itself and to attentiveness is born a constant, pure and unwavering prayer of the intellect, as Saint Neilos says: «He who seeks attentiveness in prayer finds prayer; we should care about prayer more than about anything else.» This is what we have been speaking of until now. And do you, my child, who love life and wish to see good days and to live in the body as though bodiless, live according to this rule and ordinance.
Chapter 25. How a man of stillness should live from evening until morning; and the beginning of a fuller teaching.
When the sun sets, call upon the all-good and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ for help; sit on a stool in a quiet and unlit cell and, gathering your intellect from its usual outward affairs and wanderings and leading it into your heart by way of the breath, say the prayer, that is: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! Join the words of the prayer to your breathing, as Saint Hesychios says: «Unite with your breathing sobriety and the name of Jesus and the unforgetting meditation on death and on humility; both the one and the other bring benefit» (chapter 159).
Together with prayer and all the other things we have told you of, remember also the judgement and the recompense for good and evil deeds; and with all your soul consider yourself more sinful than all men and more foul than the demons themselves; and think that you will be tormented for ever. And when any of these thoughts come to you with compunction, weep and shed tears, and remain in them until they pass of themselves. If you have not yet received the gift of tears, exert yourself and pray with humility of thought to obtain them. By tears we are cleansed from the passions and from defilements and become partakers of good and saving works, as the author of the Ladder says: «As fire devours a reed, so a pure tear washes away every defilement, visible and invisible» (from Step 7). And another father says: «Whoever wishes to destroy his sins destroys them by weeping, and whoever wishes to acquire the virtues acquires them by weeping. And when you have no compunction, know that vainglory is present, which does not allow the soul to feel compunction.»
Whenever tears come, sit and attend to these thoughts, with prayer, for one hour. Then, standing up, sing vespers attentively. And sitting down again, keep the prayer as far as you have strength — pure, without wandering, that is, free of every disturbance and every thought, and without any daydreaming at all. Sit thus for half an hour with great sobriety, without needless sighing and without food, remaining in prayer without any thoughts, since you wish to be present with the intellect alone. Then, signing yourself and your bed with the sign of the honourable and life-giving cross and sitting upon it, think over the delights and torments to come, the transience and deceitfulness of present things, and remember also our sudden common lot, that is, death, and the fearful examination before and after death of our words and of all in which we have sinned. Having briefly recalled all that you can, and fervently asked forgiveness for it, review exactly how the day has passed; and then, lying down, keep the prayer, in accordance with the words: «Let the remembrance of Jesus sleep with you.» Sleep five or six hours, and in general adjust the length of sleep to the length of the night.
Chapter 26. How to live from morning onwards.
On waking from sleep, glorify God and, calling upon Him as your Intercessor, begin the first work, that is, prayer of the heart, pure and without inner chatter, for about an hour: at this time the intellect is at its quietest and least troubled. That is why we are commanded to offer to God what is first and best, that is, to raise our first thoughts, as far as possible, steadfastly to our Lord Jesus Christ in pure prayer of the heart. As Saint Neilos says: «He prays truly who always brings his first thoughts wholly to God» (chapter 126).
After that, sing the midnight office — if you are not yet established in complete, enclosed stillness and therefore cannot begin as we have said, or perhaps for some other reason, which often happens to beginners in this work and more rarely to those who have already made some progress but have not yet reached perfection. The perfect are perfect because they can do all things in Christ, who strengthens them. Nevertheless, when you have risen from sleep, as far as you have strength, first sing the midnight office soberly, with full attention and understanding. Then, sitting down, pray in your heart purely and without hesitation, as we have said, for one hour, or better, for as long as the Giver of good things grants you. The author of the Ladder says: «At night give yourself more to prayer and less to psalmody; and in the daytime do your work according to your strength» (from Step 27). And if, having exerted yourself in this way, you still grow drowsy and doze, or your intellect is disturbed by some incident, then get up and urge yourself, as you know how, to hold to prayer. Then sit down and hasten to pray as has been written, always remembering that in pure prayer you are conversing with the pure God.
Then, standing up, sing with understanding the six psalms, Psalm 50, and whatever canon you wish. Then, sitting down and keeping watch, pray for half an hour with pure prayer; and standing up again, sing the praises, the customary hymn, the First Hour, and after that the dismissal. What you say with your mouth, say so quietly that only your own ears may hear it; for we are commanded to bring the fruit of our lips to God with all our soul and all our mind, giving thanks to the manly and wise Sustainer, our God, who out of His boundless mercy has made it easy for us to pass through the abyss of the past night and to see the bright spaces of this day. And pray fervently that He may grant us to pass unshaken through the gloomy and fierce storm of demons and passions, and may have mercy on us.
Chapter 27. How one should live from morning until midday.
From morning until midday too, as far as you are able, giving yourself wholly to God in everything and praying to Him with a humble and contrite heart for help — weak, slothful and feeble of will as you are — devote yourself to pure prayer of the heart without excess, and to reading. Stand while you read what is appointed for you from the Psalter, the Apostle and the Gospel, and do likewise for prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the most holy Mother of God. For all other reading you may sit. After that, sing with understanding the customary hours, which were established with great wisdom by the teachers of the Church, rejecting with all the strength of your soul idleness, the teacher of every sin, together with the passions and the causes of the passions, even though these seem trifling and harmless.
Chapter 28. On guarding against idleness, and that even the man of stillness should be protected by the tradition of the Church.
Saint Isaac says: «Beware, beloved, of idleness, for hidden death lies in it. Were it not for idleness, the monk would not fall into the hands of those who seek to take him captive» (from Homily 71). God will not judge us on that day because we ceased from psalmody and prayer, but because through their cessation an entrance was opened to the demons. And when they find a place and enter, and shut the door of our eyes, then they fill us, who have become their followers, with the raging things they bring against us. We become subject to them because we have abandoned those small observances for which we receive protection for Christ’s sake — as one of the wise once wrote: «He who does not submit his will to God submits it to the enemy.» Therefore what seems to you small turns out to be a wall against those who wish to enslave us. The performance of psalmody and prayer in the cell was wisely established by those who hold rank in the Church, as it was revealed to them in the Spirit, for the preservation of our life. To abandon these things is reckoned a trifle by the unwise, and they take no account of the desolation that follows from abandoning them. But for the unwise both the beginning of the road and its middle is unbounded freedom, which is the mother of the passions. It is better to struggle without abandoning these small things than to make room for sin by removing them. For such untimely freedom ends in cruel slavery.
And again: «Oh, how sweet are the causes of the passions! One may still put away the works of the passions, and when they are gone be at peace and rejoice that they are gone; but no one can rid himself of the causes of the passions. Therefore, even against our will, we are tempted. We grieve over passionate deeds, yet we love to keep the causes of the passions with us. We do not desire sins, yet we gladly accept what leads to them; and the latter are the causes of the former. He who loves the passions will not, even against his will, cease from sinning; and having confessed his sins he will not be weaned from sin, nor will he be forgiven until he confesses them. This is the cause of true humility, of that feeling which a shameless heart does not know. And again: there is no unforgivable sin — there is only unrepented sin» (from Homily 2).
So much for that. When you have sung the hours we have mentioned, take food, holding to the prayer while you eat, so that by doing so you may become accustomed, by the power of grace, to pray without ceasing according to the commandment. But let the word about the food that sustains the body according to the ineffable wisdom of the Creator wait a little; and let the word about the food that fills and nourishes the soul — that is, sacred and God-revering prayer, according to the fathers — begin first. And this is altogether fitting, since the soul is more honourable than the body.
Chapter 29. More about prayer, and how to pray continually.
«Just as our body, when the soul leaves it, becomes dead and foul-smelling, so the soul that does not undertake the labour of prayer becomes dead and wretched and foul-smelling. The worst of all deaths must be reckoned that in which a man is deprived of prayer — as the great prophet Daniel teaches us, who himself wished rather to die than to be deprived of prayer even for a short time» (cf. Dan 6).
The divine Chrysostom also teaches us: «Everyone who prays converses with God. Everyone knows what a great thing it is for a man to converse with God; but what an honour it is you cannot even imagine, for this honour surpasses even the beauty of the angels.» He also says the following: «Prayer is a work shared by angels and men. In prayer there is nothing intermediate between the one nature and the other. It separates you from the beasts and unites you with the angels. He who strives to practise prayer and the service of God all his life quickly becomes like the angels in life, in honour, in nobility and in wisdom.» And again: «When the devil sees a soul guarded by the virtues, he does not dare approach it, fearing the strength and the stronghold that prayers provide, which nourish the soul more than food nourishes the body.» And also: «Prayers are the sinews of the soul. As the body is held together by its sinews and through them moves and stands and lives and holds firm, and when the sinews are cut it collapses, so souls are strengthened and stand upright by holy prayers and move easily in the struggle of piety. When you deprive yourself of prayer, it is as if you took a fish out of water. As water is life to the fish, so prayer is to you. Through prayer you can fly through the air as through water, and ascend to heaven, and be near to God.» And also: «Prayer and supplication build the temples of God, that is, men. As gold and precious stones and marble build royal palaces, so prayer builds men into temples of Christ. What greater praise can there be for prayer than that it builds temples for God, and that He whom the heavens cannot contain enters the soul that lives by prayer?» And also: «From this you may see the power of holy prayers: that the apostle Paul passed through the whole earth as though flying on wings, and was in prison, and endured beatings, and wore chains, and lived in a tent in poverty, and cast out demons, and raised the dead, and healed sicknesses — yet in none of this did he place his hope of salvation, but he guarded his soul with prayers. And after signs and the raising of the dead he went to prayer as an athlete goes to the contest for the crown. For prayer was the giver both of the raising of the dead and of everything else. Such power as is given to trees is given to the saints.» And also: «Prayer is the cause of salvation, the cause of immortality, the firm support of the Church, an unbreakable fortress, terrible to demons and safe for us who are devout.» And also: «As a queen entering a city is followed by her riches, so following the prayer that has entered the soul, every honour enters with it.» And also: «What the foundation is to a house, prayer is to the soul. It must first be established in the soul like a root and carefully nurtured, and with it the whole company of the virtues, and care for the poor, and all the laws of Christ.» And also: «The light of the intellect and the soul is fervent prayer, a light unquenchable and eternal. Therefore the evil one casts countless thoughts into our soul, even things we have never thought of: he gathers them and pours them out upon our soul during prayer.» And also: «Prayer is a great weapon and a great confirmation.»
And Gregory the Theologian: «One should remember God more often than one breathes.» And Saint Isaac: «One cannot draw near to God without unceasing prayer; for when, having prayed, a man lays other cares upon himself, his thought is scattered.» And also: «Any prayer in which the body does not labour and the heart is not straitened is like an unborn child; such a prayer is without a soul» (from Homily 28). And the author of the Ladder says: «Prayer, in its own nature, is the communion and union of the soul with God; and in its effect it is the establishment of peace, reconciliation with God, the mother and at the same time the daughter of tears, the cleansing of sins, a bridge over temptations, a barrier against afflictions, the crushing of conflicts, the work of angels, the sustenance of all the bodiless powers, the joy to come, an unending activity, the source of virtue, the cause of gifts, invisible progress, the nourishment of the soul, the enlightenment of the intellect, an axe for despair, the confirmation of hope, release from sorrow, the wealth of monks, the treasure of those in stillness, the abating of anger, the beacon of progress, the manifestation of self-restraint, the indicator of one’s state, the disclosure of one’s future, the sign of glory. For one who truly prays, prayer is a court and a testing and the Lord’s judgement even before the judgement to come.» And also: «Prayer is nothing other than estrangement from the visible and the invisible world.» And Saint Neilos: «When you wish to pray, renounce everything, that you may inherit everything.» And also: «Prayer is the converse of the intellect with God.» And also: «If bread is food for the body and virtue for the soul, so spiritual prayer is food for the intellect.»
So, we have set all this forth. And now it is time to speak briefly of the rule for taking food, as to measure, quantity and manner.
Chapter 30. On the rule for taking food, that is, how the man of stillness should eat.
It is written: «Son of man… you shall eat your food by weight… and you shall drink water sparingly» (Ezek 4:1, 10-11). For those who struggle for God, what suffices for life is enough. If you do not give blood, as one of the fathers said, you will not receive the Spirit. The great apostle Paul says: «I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest I myself be found unfit» (1 Cor 9:27). And: «My knees are weak from fasting, and my flesh is changed for lack of oil» (Ps 109:24). And the Theologian: «You honour God with nothing so much as with suffering, and He rewards your love with nothing so much as with tears.» And Saint Isaac: «Blessed is he who has separated himself from all sensuality, which separates him from the One who created him» (from the beginning of Homily 75).
And again: «Whoever has been tempted for a long time on the right hand and on the left, and has tested himself many times in these two ways, and has received countless wounds from his adversaries, and has secretly received great protection — he has gained experience over many years, and through experience, by the grace of God, he has understood that the foundation of all benefits, the return of the soul from captivity to the enemy, and the road that leads to light and life, are contained in two things: to gather oneself in one place, and to fast at all times — that is, wisely and prudently to establish for oneself a rule of abstinence for the stomach, remaining constantly in one place and practising the contemplation of God. From this comes the subjection of the senses; from this, sobriety of the intellect; from this, the calming of the fierce passions that stir in the body; from this, gentleness of thoughts; from this, the movement of a bright mind; from this, the impulse toward the divine works of virtue; from this, high and subtle knowledge; from this, measureless tears that are ever present, and the remembrance of death; from this, that pure virtue entirely free of all daydreaming that tempts the mind; from this, keenness of vision and sharp understanding of things far off; from this, the deepest divine knowledge, which the mind grasps by the power of the divine words, and the deepest movements that exist in the soul, and the ability to distinguish spirits from holy powers and true visions from empty delusions. From this comes the fear on the ways and paths that cuts off despair and negligence in the abyss of thought; from this, the flame of zeal that burns up every trouble and overcomes every fear; from this, the watchfulness that despises every lust and blots it out. In short, from this comes the freedom of the soul, and resurrection, and peace with Christ. When someone neglects these two ways, he not only deprives himself of all that we have mentioned but also destroys the foundation of all the virtues. For they are the beginning and the ground of the divine activity in the soul. Whoever keeps them and labours in them will find Christ; but if he does not, he will arrive at the opposite — that is, at wandering of the body, at a lawless belly, and at all the rest.»
In another place (Homily 70) Saint Isaac writes: «Those who are weak at the beginning of the struggle are frightened and confused not only by these struggles but even by the rustling of leaves on the trees; the slightest need, or hunger, or a little weakness overcomes them, and they abandon the struggle and turn back. But the true and experienced do not even have their fill of wild herbs, nor do they eat anything until the appointed time for food comes, even when they are living on dry roots; exhausted by bodily labour they lie down on the ground and can scarcely see with their eyes. And even when such want brings them near to the hour of departing from the body, they will not consent to be defeated or to fall from their firm resolve. For they have already despised temporal life and everything in it. And when temptations come upon them, they rejoice the more, because through temptations we are made perfect. Nor do they doubt God’s love because of the labours that cause them to suffer; but until they depart this life they strive to accept the burden steadfastly and do not draw back, since through the burden they are made perfect.»
Bringing our life into accord with these and similar teachings, and heeding also Him who commanded us to walk in the royal way and not to turn aside to the right or to the left, we give you a rule and a moderate measure.
Chapter 31. How an ascetic should eat on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
On three days of the week, that is, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, always keep the ninth hour: that is, eat once a day, taking six ounces of bread, a little dry food and three or four cups of water when you wish. In this you follow the sixty-ninth canon of the holy apostles, which decrees: if a bishop, or a presbyter, or a chanter does not fast during holy Lent or on Wednesday and Friday, let him be deposed; and if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated (Canon 69 of the holy apostles).
Chapter 32. How one should eat on Tuesday and Thursday.
On the other two days, that is, on Tuesday and Thursday, eat twice a day. At the midday meal do not eat your fill of cooked food, and when you have need, take three or four cups; and of dry food or vegetables, nothing more; and wine mixed with water, at most two cups. Thirst is a great help toward tears, as the author of the Ladder says: «Thirst and vigil press upon the heart, and from a heart thus pressed tears flow.» Abstinence is the beginning of active virtue, the root and the foundation of every good. And one of the pagan sages says: «Choose the best life»; and Basil the Great says: «There is no hindrance to it.» And another of the godly men said: «The flower of active virtue is its beginning.»
Perhaps all that will be discussed hereafter seems to many not easy, and even impossible. But whoever looks at the fruit it brings and at the great glory it gives birth to will admit that it is easy; and with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ he will proclaim it both by word and by deed, and thus, as it were, will set his seal upon its possibility. For Saint Isaac says: «The simple bread of a pure table cleanses the soul of the one who partakes of it. From the table of those who fast and keep vigil and labour in the Lord receive the healing of your life and bring about the mortification of your passions. For the Beloved lies in their midst, sanctifying their food and turning the bitterness of their affliction into His own unutterable joy; and His spiritual and heavenly servants overshadow them» (from Homily 50). And he also says: «Their dishes are holy; the sweet fragrance of the ascetic and the meeting with him gladden the hearts of the prudent.» And also: «God loves the life of the abstinent.»
Chapter 33. How one should eat on Saturday; and on vigils, and how one should eat during vigils.
Every Saturday except Great Saturday you should eat twice, according to the rule for Tuesday and Thursday. You do so both because the holy canons prescribe it and because you must keep vigil on all the Sundays of the year except Cheesefare Sunday. When a vigil falls on one of the great feasts of the Lord or on the day of some great saint, keep that one and omit the Sunday vigil. But even when there is such a vigil, eat twice on Saturday. It is always profitable to urge oneself to complete the night vigil. Therefore even when a vigil falls in the middle of the week, it will be more profitable for you to keep the Sunday one; and then, as the Scripture says: «Your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily» (Is 58:8).
Saint Isaac also says: «The beginning of every struggle against sin and the flesh is the labour of vigil and fasting, especially for those who fight against the sin that is within us. This is the sign of hatred for sin and its lusts in those who struggle against the invisible army. Almost all the attachments of the passions are diminished by fasting; and that is why the night vigil helps in the struggle. He who joins fasting and vigil throughout his life is the friend of all. As rest of the stomach is the beginning of all evils, and the slackness of sleep kindles the desire for fornication, so fasting, vigil and alertness in the service of God are God’s holy path and the foundation of every virtue.» And again: «When the soul is enlightened by the remembrance of God and by not sleeping day or night, then the Lord raises a cloud over it, which covers it by day and shines with fiery light by night, and light shines out from the midst of its darkness.» And also: «Choose for yourself this sweet work: constant vigil at night, by which all the fathers put off the old man and were counted worthy of the renewal of the intellect. In these hours the soul feels the breath of immortal life, and feeling it, it casts off the darkness of the passions and is clothed with the Holy Spirit.» And also: «Honour the vigil, that you may find consolation for your soul.» And again: «Do not think, O man, that among all the labours of monks there is anything greater than the night vigil. Do not consider carnal the monk who keeps vigil with a prudent intellect, for vigil is the order of angels.» And also: «The soul that labours in the vigil of angels will have eyes like those of the cherubim, so as always to see and contemplate heavenly visions.»
Keep the vigil, then, in prayer, chanting and reading with a pure intellect, without strain and with compunction — either alone or with a loving brotherhood of like-minded men. After every vigil relax a little in food and drink at the meal, in view of the labour of the vigil: eat three ounces of bread and a little dry food, as much as you need, and drink three cups of water. But see that when a vigil falls on a day of the strict rule, you do not relax it for the sake of the vigil. For this must be done and that not left undone. Let the relaxation spoken of in this Discourse come after the vigil.
Chapter 34. How one should eat on Sunday, and on other matters, and also on labour and humility.
On all Sundays eat twice a day, as on Saturdays. Let this rule always be kept, except in case of infirmity. Do the same on the days appointed by the holy fathers, or when custom permits, or for some divine or contrary reason. On those days we eat more than once, and do not confine ourselves to dry food, but take every kind of wholesome and harmless food — yet sparingly and in the prescribed measure. It is always better to restrain oneself in everything. In bodily infirmity, as we have already said, it is proper to take without embarrassment everything that is needful and useful for the body, for the divine fathers taught us to be slayers of the passions, not slayers of the body. It befits you also to take a little at a time of everything the disciples are permitted to take, to the glory of God and with thanksgiving, and so as not to fall into the snare of self-conceit. Turn away from excess. «Lack of things», says Saint Isaac, «teaches a man restraint, even against his will.» But when we have an abundance of them and are comforted by them, then we cannot restrain ourselves. Do not love the comforting of the body. «For the soul that loves God», as Saint Isaac says again, «finds comfort in God alone.» Together with labour and restraint choose humility. «Labour and humility», says one of the saints, «gain Jesus.»
Chapter 35. How one should eat during the holy fasts and how to keep them, and in particular concerning Great Lent.
We do not think it necessary to speak separately and in detail about the rules of food during the holy fasts. As it is prescribed for you to do on days of the strict rule, so it will be right to do during the holy fasts, except on Saturdays and Sundays. And when you can, keep stricter fasts and greater sobriety, especially during the holy and great forty days — that season which honours those who conquer in Christ Jesus by their struggles on the divine and light-bearing day of the Resurrection.
Chapter 36. A little about discernment, that measured activity is beyond price, and about obedience.
It befits you to pass through this struggle and the others with vigilant discernment, for the sake of the stability of your life and its peaceful ordering. «A house is built by wisdom and made firm by understanding; by knowledge its storerooms are filled with every precious and beautiful possession» (Prov 24:3-4). And the divine Thalassios writes: «Rational strictness and poverty are the king’s way; therefore senseless exhaustion or unreasonable indulgence are alike useless, since they happen without reason.» Saint Isaac says: «After the weakening of the body come frenzy and confusion of thoughts; after immoderate effort, despondency; and after despondency, frenzy. But the first frenzy differs from the second, for the first is followed by the warfare of fornication, and the second by the abandonment of stillness and moving from place to place. Therefore measured labour is beyond price: to lessen it increases sweetness, while excess brings frenzy» (from Homily 71). And the great Maximos says: «Let not all your care be for the body; assign it occupations according to your strength, and turn your whole mind to what is within» (chapter 63 of the fourth century). «Bodily exercise is of some use, but godliness is useful for everything» (1 Tim 4:8).
When the yoke of the flesh drags and torments and burdens the soul, inclining it to idle and soul-destroying movements — as it is written: «The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh» (Gal 5:17) — then restrain it with the fetters of abstinence and mortify it until, even against its will, it submits to you and yields to what is better; remembering the great apostle Paul, who says: «Though our outer man is decaying, our inner man is renewed day by day» (2 Cor 4:16). And the words of Saint Isaac: «Let yourself die in the struggle rather than live in negligence. Martyrs are not only those who accepted death for faith in Christ, but also those who die for the keeping of His commandments.» And also: «It is better for us to die in our struggles than to live in sins.» And again: «Labour, having taken counsel with your spiritual father in the Lord, so that by the grace of Christ even unbearable and impossible hardships may become easy, and it will seem to you as though you were hastening along level ground.» But it is time for us to return to where we began.
Chapter 37. How an ascetic should spend the time after the meal until sunset, and how he should believe that divine gifts are given to us according to our labours and their measure.
After the meal, as befits an ascetic, according to the command of the divine Paul — «Every athlete exercises self-control in all things» (1 Cor 9:25) — sit and read at length the writings of the fathers, especially those on sobriety. Then sleep for one hour, if the days are long; and when you get up, work a little while holding to the prayer. After that pray as has been indicated, and read and study, so that you may humble yourself and consider yourself less than all men. For «everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted» (Lk 18:14). And it is also said: «Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall» (1 Cor 10:12). And also: «God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble» (Jas 4:6). And also: «The beginning of man’s pride is departure from the Lord» (Sir 10:12). And also: «The proud have transgressed the law utterly» (Ps 119:51). And also: «Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly» (Rom 12:16).
And the divine Chrysostom says: «He knows himself best who considers himself to be nothing; and there is nothing so dear to God as counting oneself among the last.» Saint Isaac says: «The mysteries are revealed to the humble and wise.» And also: «Whence humility flows, thence also flows the glory of God.» And also: «As humility comes before grace, so pride comes before punishment.» And Saint Barsanuphios says: «If you truly wish to be saved, show your obedience by deeds: lift your feet from the earth and raise your intellect to heaven, and there study day and night; and as far as you have strength, consider yourself of no account, striving to see yourself as lower than every man. This is the true way, and there is no other for him who wishes to be saved in Christ, who strengthens him. Run, so that I may testify before the living God that He wishes to give eternal life to everyone who is willing to receive it.» And the author of the Ladder says: «I did not fast, I did not keep vigil, I did not lie upon the ground, but I humbled myself — and the Lord speedily saved me» (from Step 25). «Above all, consider yourself as nothing», says Saint Barsanuphios, «for whoever lives without concern for any kind of thing has come near to the city; whoever considers himself nothing before men will settle in the city; and whoever has died to every man will inherit the city and its treasures. So, if you wish to be saved, consider yourself as nothing and press on.» And «to consider oneself as nothing», according to Saint John, the disciple of Saint Barsanuphios, «means not to compare oneself with anyone and not to say of a good deed: I did it.»
After this, pray pure prayer without self-praise until evening comes; then sing vespers as usual and make the dismissal, believing with all your heart that according to our labours and pains, by which we acquire virtue, and according to the measure of our works, gifts and honours and consolation are given to us by God. As the divine psalmist says: «Lord, when the sorrows in my heart increased, Your consolations gladdened my soul» (Ps 94:19). And the Saviour says: «Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest» (Mt 11:28). And the great Paul: «We suffer with Him» [Christ], «that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us» (Rom 8:17-18). Maximos, wise in divine things, also says: «They say that the cause of the distribution of divine blessings is the measure of each man’s faith. The more we believe, the more zeal for action is given us. He who works according to the measure of his action shows the measure of his faith, receiving grace in proportion to his faith. And he who has no action shows by the measure of his inaction the measure of his unbelief, and for unbelief he is deprived of grace. Therefore the envious man does evil when he envies those who advance; for it lies in his own power, and not in another’s, to choose to believe and to act and to receive grace according to the measure of faith.»
Ask with all your heart to pass the time of your life in repentance, and for a painless, blameless and peaceful end to your Christian life, and thereafter a good defence when we stand at the fearful judgement seat of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Chapter 38. That pure prayer is greater than every activity.
Besides what has been said, know also, brother, that every skill and every rule, and in general the various forms of activity, are determined and established precisely because we are not yet able to pray purely and without wavering in the heart. So when this is accomplished in us by the grace and good pleasure of our Lord Jesus Christ, then we shall leave behind the many different things that divide us and be united with the One, and the Only, and the Unifying, who is beyond all words. As the renowned theologian said: «When God is united with gods» [that is, with men made godlike] «and is known by them, then the Holy Spirit truly illumines the heart»; and this illumination is generated by that pure and unwavering prayer of which we have spoken.
This happens rarely; scarcely one man in a thousand will be found who has been granted by Christ’s grace to reach such a state. And as for passing through this and being counted worthy of spiritual prayer and receiving the revelation of the mysteries of the age to come — such men are very few, hardly to be found in whole generations, by the favour of grace. As Saint Isaac says: «Just as out of a thousand there is one who has fulfilled the commandments and all that the law prescribes and has attained purity of soul, so out of a thousand there is one who with great care has been counted worthy to reach pure prayer, to cross that boundary and to receive such a mystery. And since pure prayer has been granted to few, you will scarcely find those who by the grace of Christ have reached the mystery that comes after prayer, and higher still.» And later he says again: «And if few pray with pure prayer, what shall we say of spiritual prayer?» According to him, all spiritual prayer is free of movement, and the prayer that is in movement is inferior to spiritual prayer.
Therefore do you also, if you wish to grasp these new mysteries in practice — that is, to be counted worthy of them by experience in Christ Jesus — strive at every time and every hour and in every work of yours to pray purely in your heart, without concealment, so that from an infant you may grow into a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and with the faithful and wise steward receive blessedness and praise, as one who «orders his words with judgement» — that is, lives according to reason, and therefore is not shaken for ever (cf. Ps 112:5). Saint Philemon writes of this thus: «Brother, whether by day or by night, if God grants you to pray purely and without distraction with your intellect, pay no heed to your rule, but as far as you have strength strive to cleave to God — and He will enlighten your heart in spiritual activity.» And one of the godly sages also said: «If you wish to serve God while remaining in the body as though bodiless, gather unceasing prayer in your heart — and your soul will become like an angel even before your death.»
Saint Isaac agrees with them. When someone asked him what was the chief thing in the labours of this work, that is, of stillness, he answered: «When a man is counted worthy of unceasing prayer. When he attains it, he will attain the fulfilment of all the virtues and become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. If a man has not received the grace of the Comforter with certainty, he cannot joyfully perform unceasing prayer. But when the Holy Spirit dwells in a man, then prayer does not cease in him, for the Spirit Himself always prays. This prayer does not cease in the soul, whether it sleeps or is at work, even when it is deep asleep. Such prayer does not depart from a man but continues all the time; and that is why some of the bearers of the cross call the silence of the pure prayer, since their thoughts are divine movements, and the movements and thoughts of a pure heart are gentle voices that sing secretly to Him who is hidden.» And many other God-bearing men, having learned by experience through grace, have told of many such wonders, which we shall pass over because words are inadequate to them.
Chapter 39. How many prostrations should be made in a day.
As to the number of prostrations, we know that the holy fathers set it at three hundred. This is how we should make them, night and day, on five days of the week. For on every Saturday and Sunday, as well as on other days according to custom, and sometimes even during the week for certain hidden and unknown reasons, we are commanded to cease making prostrations. There are, however, some who exceed this number and some who reduce it: each does as much as he has strength and desire for. So do what you can. Truly, then, blessed and thrice-blessed is he who always urges himself on to everything that is according to God. «The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and the violent seize it» (Mt 11:12).
Chapter 40. That divine gifts are given not only, as has been said, according to the struggle and measure of our activity, but also according to our habit of life and our conduct, and our faith, and our natural disposition.
Concerning this too we must know that divine gifts are given to us not only according to the struggle and measure of our activity, as we have already said, but also according to the habit of our life and our conduct, and according to our faith concerning things to come, and according to our natural disposition. Saint Maximos says: «The intellect is the instrument of wisdom, and reason the instrument of knowledge. Both the first and the second are supported by faith; and the gift of healings is a natural gift of eternal love. For every divine gift has its own instrument in us: as a power, or a habit, or an inclination. This is to be understood thus: he who has cleansed his intellect of all sensory imaginings receives wisdom; he who has subjected the inborn passions — the incensive power and desire — to reason receives knowledge; he who has unshakeable certainty about divine things receives the faith that can do all things; and he who has utterly slain self-love receives the gift of healings» — and so with the rest.
Pray earnestly for us, who are unworthy, who speak and do not do what is good, that we may be counted worthy first of all to do what is pleasing to God and only then to speak and counsel others. «Whoever does them» [the commandments] «and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven» (Mt 5:19). And may the all-knowing and all-seeing Lord strengthen you and help you to hear all this with understanding and to do it with all your desire. «For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God», says the divine apostle Paul, «but the doers of the law» (Rom 2:13). And may He direct you to every good and saving work and lead you by the Spirit to the sacred activity done under a rule, through the prayers of the saints. Amen.
Since we have hitherto said very little about active discernment, it is now time to speak as briefly as possible about full and perfect discernment; for it is greater than all the virtues, according to the testimony of our glorious fathers.
Chapter 41. On universal and most perfect discernment; and on him who lives according to the flesh and contrary to nature, on him who lives according to nature and according to the soul, and on him who lives supernaturally and according to the spirit.
Whoever lives according to the flesh and contrary to nature has utterly lost his discernment. But he who has turned away from evil and begun to do good — as it is written: «Turn away from evil and do good» (Ps 34:14) — such a man, as a beginner who lends his ear to instruction, gradually approaches the sense of discernment that befits a beginner. He who lives according to nature and according to the soul, that is, according to thought and reason, is called intermediate; and he sees and judges himself and those like him according to his own measure. But he who lives supernaturally and according to the spirit has passed beyond the state and the limits of the beginner and of the intermediate, and by the grace of Christ has reached perfection — that is, the true enlightenment of his nature and the most perfect discernment. For he sees himself clearly and judges himself, and therefore he sees everyone and judges them clearly; while no one, though he sees him, judges him or puts him to the test, since he is truly spiritual, not by ink written on paper but by grace. As the divine apostle says: «The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one» (1 Cor 2:15).
Chapter 42. More on discernment, by way of comparisons.
The first of these men is like someone walking on a dark, moonless night. Wandering in impenetrable darkness and gloom, he neither sees himself nor understands himself, nor does he know the road he should take, as the Saviour says: «He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going» (Jn 12:35).
The second is like one who walks on a clear, starlit night. The faint starlight barely lights his way, and he goes slowly, often stumbling on the stone of indiscretion and falling. Such a man sees and understands himself a little, as though in shadow, as it is written: «Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light» (Eph 5:14).
The third is like one who walks on a calm night when the full moon shines. He walks in the moonlight without straying and makes progress. He sees and understands himself as in a mirror, and likewise those who walk with him, as it is written: «You do well» — that is, when you pay attention to the word — «as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts» (2 Pt 1:19).
The fourth is like one who walks in the full rays of the sun. Such a man sees himself well in the sunlight and understands himself, and, in the words of the divine apostle, «judges all things» (1 Cor 2:15), whatever they may be and whatever befalls him. He himself walks without straying, and leads those who follow him unhindered to the true light and life and truth. Of such men it is written: «You are the light of the world» (Mt 5:14). The divine Paul also says: «God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, so that the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ might shine forth in them» (2 Cor 4:6). And blessed David says: «The light of Your countenance has been marked upon us, O Lord» (Ps 4:6). And also: «In Your light we shall see light» (Ps 36:9). And the Lord says: «I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life» (Jn 8:12).
Chapter 43. On the transformations and changes that happen to every man, and on the surpassing glory of humility.
We want you to know that even those who have attained perfection through purification and illumination, so far as they had strength — for in this imperfect age perfection cannot be complete, but only partial — even they do not always remain unchanged. Because of natural weakness and because of the pride that creeps in, they undergo changes and are robbed as a test, and again receive great protection. And that which is contrary to this the fathers call the portion of wolves. Inviolability and immutability will be preserved in the age to come; but in this age there is a time of purity, peace and divine consolation, and then a time of changes, storms and frailty. This happens to everyone according to the measure of his life and struggles, as God Himself knows, so that we may notice our own weakness. Someone said: blessed is he who knows his weakness, so that we, as the apostle Paul says, may «rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead» (2 Cor 1:9), and may always return to God with humility, repentance and confession. As Saint Isaac says: «Some men fall repeatedly and very often, and heal their souls with repentance — and grace receives them» (from Homily 46).
Every rational being undergoes changes without number, and every man undergoes change at all times. A prudent man will see many such changes and understand them. And the trials that come to him daily can make him wise, if he is sober. Let him watch in his intellect and see how greatly his thought inclines each day to gentleness and quiet, and how it suddenly passes from this peace to bewilderment, even when there is no definite cause, and how it finds itself in great and unspeakable trouble.
This is what blessed Makarios wrote, with care and concern for the remembrance of the brethren and for their instruction, so that they might not despair when the opposite change comes; for even those who belong to the order of the pure fall, just as the air grows cold; and it is not because they are careless or slothful, nor only then but also when they live as they ought, that falls happen to them contrary to their intention. And then he writes: «Changes happen in every man, just as in the air. Understand that this is so in every man, for the nature is the same in all.» So do not think that he speaks only of the lesser and weaker, as though the perfect were free of change and stood steadfastly in their rank without passionate thoughts, as the Euchites3 say. That is why Makarios emphasized that changes happen in every man.
How is this, O Makarios? You say that first comes frost, then heat, and then hail — and at last fair weather. So it happens in our practice: first warfare, and then the coming of grace; for a time the soul falls into a storm and furious waves rise upon it; then grace comes again and fills the heart with joy and peace from God and with virtuous and peaceful thoughts. Makarios here mentions thoughts of purity, indicating that they were preceded by animal and impure thoughts, and he counsels us, saying: «When after these virtuous and gentle thoughts an invasion comes, let us not be sad and not despair; and when peace and grace come, let us not boast; and when there is joy, let us expect sorrow.» And a little further on he says: «Remember that all the saints have gone through this. As long as we live in this world, and as much as we live in the midst of sorrows, a secret joy comes to us. For every day and every hour we are required to prove our love for God in struggle and in wrestling with temptations. And our way is not to grieve and not to despair in the struggle. But whoever wishes to turn aside from this or to avoid it, his portion will be with the wolves.»
O what a wondrous saint! How he explained in a brief word how this comes about, and showed that it is not without meaning, and banished every doubt from the reader’s mind. «He», he says, «who does not wish to walk this way or who avoids it, his portion is with the wolves. Such a man has resolved on this and wishes to follow a separate path that was not laid down by the fathers.»
A little later this saint says: «Humility obtains forgiveness of many sins even without works; but works without humility, on the contrary, are of no use.» And further: «What salt is to food, humility is to every virtue; it can blot out the strength of many sins. Therefore we must labour for it unceasingly. When its glory is shown, it will make us sons of God and present us to God even without good works. But without it all our works and all our virtues and all our activity are in vain. God desires a change of mind, and through a change of mind we become better. Humility alone suffices to stand before God and to intercede for us.» And he also told the following: «One of the saints said: When a thought of pride comes upon you, saying, Remember your virtues, say to it: Look, old man, at your fornication.»
Note 3: The Euchites were sectarians who believed that salvation is possible only through constant inner prayer, and who rejected all the institutions of the visible Church.
Chapter 44. On repentance, purity and perfection.
The completeness of our whole life is disclosed in three things: repentance, purity and perfection. What is repentance? To leave one’s former life and to grieve over it. What is purity? A heart merciful to all creation. And what is perfection? The depth of humility, that is, the setting aside of everything visible, or sensory, and invisible, or mental, without anxiety over them. Or, more briefly: «Repentance is a special voluntary mortification with respect to all things. A merciful heart is the burning of the heart for every creature: for men, and birds, and animals, and demons, and for all creation.» And again: «As long as we live in this world and remain in the body, even if we should be lifted up to the firmament, we cannot be without works and labours and freedom from anxiety. This is perfection — forgive me. Higher than this is meditation, that is, prayer without thoughts.»
Saint Maximos says: «Diligence in virtue produces dispassion of the will, not of nature; and after it, that is, after dispassion of the will, comes the state of the grace of divine sweetness.» And also: «He who has experienced both sorrow and carnal pleasure may be called experienced, since through experience he has learned the pleasantness and the unpleasantness of the works of the flesh. He who has overcome both the sweetness of the flesh and its pain by the power of the word may be called perfect. And a complete man is one who has kept his habits in action and in contemplation unchanged, extending them firmly toward God.» That is why discernment is called the highest of all virtues: because those to whom it comes by God’s favour, enlightened by the divine light, can reflect upon divine and human things, test and distinguish them, and discern mysterious and hidden contemplations.
But the time has come to tell you in detail, as far as possible and as we promised earlier, about the beginning of God-revering stillness. May God guide us in what we ought to say.
Chapter 45. On the five works of the first, or introductory, stillness of beginners: prayer, chanting, reading, meditation and handiwork.
Let the beginner spend the day in stillness in the five works by which we serve God. That is, first, in prayer — in other words, in the remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he unceasingly draws in through the breath into the heart and sends out again the same way, with his mouth closed, free of every thought and daydream; which he achieves by restraint of the stomach, of sleep and of the other senses, sitting in his cell with true humility. Besides this, he should spend time in chanting; in reading the holy Psalter, the apostolic epistles and the holy Gospels, the writings of the holy and godly fathers — especially the chapters on attentiveness, prayer and sobriety — and also other divine words of the Spirit; and in meditation, remembering his sins with pain of heart and thinking on the judgement of God, or on the torments, or on the enjoyment of eternal blessings. And let him have some light handiwork to guard him from despondency, and from the handiwork let him return again to prayer. Handiwork is necessary until the intellect grows accustomed to lay aside easily its greeting to the Lord Jesus Christ and its constant remembrance — that is, until it grows accustomed to the inner dwelling, the secret place of the heart, and to constant self-reproach.
Saint Isaac writes: «Hasten to enter the chamber within you, and you will see the heavenly dwelling. They are one and the same: having entered the one, you will see the other also.» And Saint Maximos says: «The heart has authority over all the organs, and when grace overshadows all the valleys of the heart, it reigns over all the thoughts and members. For there are the intellect and all the thoughts of the soul; and therefore it is there that one must look to see whether grace has written the laws of the all-holy Spirit. Where exactly? On the organ that has authority, on the throne of grace, where the intellect and all the thoughts of the soul are — that is, on the heart.»
Chapter 46. Where those who wish to keep stillness with understanding should begin; and what is the beginning of this, and its growth, and its progress, and its perfection.
This is the first and introductory work of novice monks who wish to keep stillness with understanding. They begin with the fear of God and with the fulfilling of all the godly commandments to the best of their ability, seeking neither necessary nor unnecessary things; and above all they begin from faith and from complete withdrawal from what is contrary, and from pure detachment from things, as has already been said. They grow by unshakeable hope, and they enter into the increase of the fullness of Christ that is within them, which comes from heartfelt, pure and unwavering prayer with all divine and fervent zeal. And thus they become perfect by immovable and unshakeable spiritual prayer, and by that rapture which comes from perfect love toward the one God; and also by the rapture and union of the utmost longing, which is free from error; and by directness and swiftness in passing from action to contemplation. The forefather David received this too, and being changed by the divine change, he cried out: «And I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar» (Ps 116:11). And another of those who searched the New Testament says: «What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man, God has prepared for those who love Him» — and he adds: «But God has revealed it to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God» (1 Cor 2:9-10).
Chapter 47. On the practice of stillness in beginners.
A beginner, as we have said, should not leave his cell often; he should avoid conversation and meetings with everyone, and speak only out of great necessity, carefully and with restraint, and rarely. As the divine Isaac says: «Remember this in all things: the help that comes from attending to yourself is better than the help that comes from deeds.» And not only for beginners but also for those who have already made some progress, conversations and meetings become a cause of ruin, as Saint Isaac himself says: «Rest of the body harms only the young, but licence harms young and old alike.» And also: «Stillness deadens the outward senses but raises up the inward movements. Outward association does the opposite: it raises up the outward senses but deadens the inward. If you walk the path of stillness well, its working will show itself in the soul.» The author of the Ladder, in Step 27, teaches him who does good and walks in good paths as follows: «A man of stillness is one who keeps what is bodiless within the house of the body; this is a glorious work.» A man of stillness is one who says: «I sleep, but my heart is awake» (Song 5:2). He is the one who shuts the door of his cell against the body, the door of his tongue against conversations, and the inner door of his soul against the cunning of the spirits.
Chapter 48. On prayer of the heart, and on practising it with attentiveness and sobriety.
Prayer is performed with attentiveness and sobriety in the heart, without any other thought or any daydreaming. With the words «Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God» the intellect reaches out imperceptibly, inexpressibly and wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. With the words «have mercy on me» it turns and moves back toward itself, since it cannot but pray for itself. But whoever has attained love by experience reaches out with his intellect to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, being clearly assured of the second thing, that is, of forgiveness.
Chapter 49. How the divine fathers taught us to say the prayer, why they did so in different ways, and what this prayer is.
The divine fathers did not always teach us to say the whole prayer. One taught the whole of it, another half, another a part, and another in some other way, according to the strength and state of the one praying. The divine Chrysostom teaches how to say it in full and writes thus: «I beg you, brothers, never to neglect or disregard this rule of prayer. I once heard the fathers say: What kind of monk is he who neglects or disregards prayer? Whether he eats or drinks, sits or works, travels or does anything else, let him call unceasingly: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. May the remembrance of the Lord Jesus rise up in him against the enemy; and the soul that struggles may learn thereby what is good and what is evil. This remembrance can rouse the serpent, and this same remembrance can destroy it. This remembrance can stir up all the enemy’s power in the heart, and this same remembrance can gradually conquer and uproot it. For when the name of the Lord Jesus descends into the depth of the heart, it humbles the serpent that occupies the valleys of the heart, and saves and quickens the soul. Therefore dwell unceasingly in the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart may absorb the Lord and the Lord the heart, and these two may become one — whether in a day or two, or in years and a long time. Much time and much labour are needed until you drive out the enemy, and Christ takes up His dwelling in your heart.»
And he also says: «It befits us to establish and govern the intellect, and to settle it and every thought, and to trample down every evil work by calling upon our Lord Jesus Christ. And where the body stands, there let the intellect be also, so that between God and the heart there may be nothing, no partition or barrier to overshadow the heart and separate the intellect from God. And if anything should ever seize the intellect, let it not linger in those thoughts, lest on the day of judgement the consent given to the thoughts should be reckoned against us before the Lord, when the Lord judges the hidden deeds of every man. So always exercise yourself and abide in the Lord our God, while He has mercy on you. And seek nothing from the Lord of glory except mercy; and seek mercy with a humble and contrite heart, and cry out for it from morning until evening, and if possible all night: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.» This work requires great effort, for «narrow is the way that leads to life, and the violent take it by force» (Mt 7:14; 11:12). And: «Do not separate your hearts from God, but abide with Him and guard your hearts always with the remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the name of the Lord is established in the heart; and let the heart think of nothing else but that the Lord may be magnified in you.»
The holy apostle Paul wrote of this before Chrysostom, saying: «If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation» (Rom 10:9-10). And also: «No one can say, Lord Jesus, except by the Holy Spirit» (1 Cor 12:3) — that is, when the heart receives the action of the Holy Spirit, in which it prays; and this happens to those who have gathered Christ within themselves.
In accordance with this, Saint Diadochos also says: «The intellect torments us when we block all its exits with the remembrance of God; it needs some work to bring its running to a halt. It befits us, therefore, to give it the invocation of the Lord Jesus, so that this alone may be what it turns to. For it is said that no one can say, Lord Jesus, except by the Holy Spirit. Let the intellect itself always behold this word in its own depths, and let it not turn aside to any daydreams. Those who unceasingly remember this glorious name will be able to see the light of their own intellect, for it is said: Our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29). When this glorious and greatly desired name remains in the remembrance of the intellect in the warmth of the heart, we shall grow accustomed to loving His goodness, and nothing will hinder us in this. It is the pearl of great price, for which men sell all their possessions, and having acquired it they have joy unspeakable» (chapter 59).
And Saint Hesychios writes this about Jesus Christ: «When after death the soul flies up through the air to the gates of heaven and has Jesus within it, who will intercede for it (chapter 149), then it will not be put to shame there before its enemies, but will speak boldly to them at the gates, as it does now. Only let it not be slothful, until its death, in crying out day and night to Christ Jesus — and He will speedily avenge it, according to His unerring and divine promise, as He says concerning the unrighteous judge. Yes, I tell you, He will do this for the soul both in this life and after it leaves the body.»
The author of the Ladder says only this about Jesus: «Strike your adversaries with the name of Jesus, for there is no stronger weapon in heaven or on earth» (from Step 21), and adds nothing further. And in another place he says: «Let the remembrance of Jesus be united with your breathing, and then you will know the benefit of stillness.»
Chapter 50. That words about sacred and God-creating prayer, given by the Holy Spirit, may be found not only in the holy fathers but also in the chief apostles Peter, Paul and John.
Words of instruction about sacred and God-creating prayer may be found not only in the God-wise fathers mentioned above and those like them, but even before them in the chief apostles Peter, Paul and John. One of them says, as has already been mentioned: «No one can say, Lord Jesus, except by the Holy Spirit» (1 Cor 12:3). Another says: «Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ» (Jn 1:17). And also: «Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God» (1 Jn 4:2). And the disciple of Christ chosen from among the rest, when the Saviour and Teacher Himself asked the apostles, «Who do men say that the Son of Man is?», gave that blessed confession and answered: «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God» (Mt 16:13, 16).
Therefore those who came after them, our glorious guides, and especially those who lived a celibate, solitary and still life, gathered such sayings, in whole and in part — sayings proclaimed by the three pillars of the holy Church as by a divine voice, sanctioned by the revelation of the Holy Spirit and often confirmed by three trustworthy witnesses, since it is said that every word is established by three witnesses — and, composing them together with the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they called this the pillar of prayer, handed it down to their successors and taught them to hold and keep it.
Here both the order and the rule are wonderful, with a wisdom that is from above. Thus one invokes «Lord Jesus», another «Jesus Christ», and another «Christ, Son of God», as though they follow one another and come close to each other in the agreement and joining of these divine words. You may notice that the last word of the first invocation becomes, as it were, the beginning of the second, and the last word of the second the beginning of the third. And the joining of these invocations is a sign of the Spirit. For blessed Paul said: «No one can say, Lord Jesus, except by the Holy Spirit.» And the apostle John used these words as an ending and as a beginning, saying: «Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God» (1 Jn 4:2). And they set this before everyone not of themselves but moved by the hand of the Holy Spirit. For the confession of the divine Paul after his revelation was likewise brought about by the Holy Spirit. The apostle says that «all these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one as He wills» (1 Cor 12:11). In this way a threefold and indissoluble weaving of prayer to God was formed, wisely and skilfully woven and sewn together, and it is handed on equally guarded.
And the words «have mercy on me» are an addition that the divine fathers later joined to the saving words of the prayer, that is, to «Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God», for the sake of those who are younger in virtue, that is, beginners and the imperfect. Those who have made progress and are perfect in Christ are content with only some of the divine words, namely: «Lord Jesus»; «Jesus Christ»; «Christ, Son of God». Or they are content with the word «Jesus» alone, and they hold and kiss this word as the whole prayer, for through it they are filled with indescribable sweetness and with a joy that surpasses all understanding, all sight and all hearing. And thus, being outside the flesh and the world, having joined their senses to the divine gift and grace poured into them, they are seized with rapture, and are blessedly purified and enlightened and perfected, contemplating even now the supernatural, beginningless and uncreated grace of the supra-essential Godhead, as a betrothal, indistinctly, as in a mirror; and, as we have said, they content themselves in remembrance and study with only some of the words by which the God-man is named. The Spirit fills them unspeakably with rapture and union and revelation and communion, and they are exalted by unutterable revelations.
Proclaiming this and assuring us — He whose preaching is His work, and whose words are spirit and life, our most sweet and soul-loving Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God — said the following: «Without me you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5). And also: «Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it» (Jn 14:13-14).
Chapter 51. That beginners too may pray with all the words of the prayer, and afterwards with only some, provided it be in the heart and at all times; and that one should not change the words of the prayer often.
Beginners too may pray with all the words of the prayer, and afterwards with only some of them, provided it be in the heart and at all times. Saint Diadochos says: «He who always enters within his heart departs from all the beauties of the world, because he who walks in the Spirit does not fulfil the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). Such a man walks surrounded by the virtues, and the virtues themselves stand as gatekeepers of his purity. Therefore even the devil’s tricks do not reach him» (chapter 57). Saint Isaac also writes: «He who visits his own soul at all times, his heart rejoices in revelation» (from Homily 50). And also: «He who gathers the contemplation of his intellect sees within himself the spiritual dawn. He who has forsaken all wandering sees his Lord within his own heart.» It is not proper to change the words of the prayer often, lest the intellect grow accustomed to inconstancy and evasion through frequent changes and shifts of attention, and remain unestablished and barren, like trees that are often transplanted.
Chapter 52. That the fruit of prayer of the heart requires much time, effort and self-compulsion; and that in general every good thing is obtained with much labour and over a long time.
To pray in the heart, and to attain what is higher than this, is no easy thing. And if it happens that someone obtains it in a short time and with little labour — which occurs rarely — this comes to some by an ineffable providence. Otherwise it requires much time and labour, and no small struggle of soul and body, and long and great self-compulsion. In proportion to the high measure of the gift and grace we hope to partake of, it is fitting that our struggles should be of equal strength and that the times should be measured accordingly. This, as the godly teachers say, is the driving out of the enemy from the valleys of the heart and the indwelling of Christ within it.
Saint Isaac says: «Whoever wishes to see the Lord, let him diligently cleanse his heart with the unceasing remembrance of God, and then with the light of his intellect he will see the Lord for ever» (from Homily 50). And Saint Barsanuphios says the following: «If the inner work with God does not help a man, it is in vain that he labours outwardly. Inner work with pain of heart brings purity; purity brings true silence of the heart; silence brings humility; and humility makes a man the dwelling place of God. And when the Lord dwells in a man, then the demons are driven out of him together with the passions, and the man becomes a temple of God, full of sanctification, full of enlightenment, purity and grace. Blessed is he who sees his Lord in the depth of his heart as in a mirror, pouring out his prayer with tears before His goodness.» Saint John, bishop of Karpathos, also says: «Much time and effort are needed in prayer, until in an unshakeable state of the intellect we find the heaven of the heart, where Christ dwells, according to the words of the apostle: Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail the test (2 Cor 13:5).» And the great Chrysostom, in his Discourse to the abbot, says: «Persevere in the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart may absorb the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two may become one. But this work is not the matter of a day or two; it takes many years and much time, many struggles and much labour, until the enemy is driven out and Christ dwells within.»
And for now let this suffice on that subject; let us turn our discourse to what should follow.
Chapter 53. On the prayer of an impure heart, and how to pass to pure prayer without exasperation.
When a man is constantly engaged in the practice described above — prayer of the heart, pure and without wandering — even though at times it is impure and wandering because of injuries and thoughts, the ascetic will grow accustomed to praying without prompting, without wandering of the intellect, purely and truly. That is, the intellect will be in the heart and there will be no need to lead it in there by suggestion through the breath, from which it immediately flees; on the contrary, it will always turn to itself, remain with love in the heart, and pray unceasingly.
Saint Hesychios says: «He who does not have pure prayer has no weapons for the battle — prayers that would work unceasingly in the soul and, invoking Jesus Christ, would strike and scorch the enemy who attacks in secret» (chapter 21). And again: «Truly blessed is he who cleaves in his intellect to Jesus in prayer and calls upon Him unceasingly in his heart, as the air cleaves to our body or the flame to the candle» (chapter 196). And again: «The sun passing over the earth makes the day; and the holy and honourable name of the Lord Jesus, shining often, gives rise to countless thoughts that shine like the sun.»
Chapter 54. On pure prayer of the heart and the warmth it generates.
Prayer of the heart gives birth to warmth, according to the words of the psalmist: «My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire was kindled» (Ps 39:3). This is the fire that the Lord Jesus Christ came to cast upon the ground of our hearts. Before, grace bore thorns; now it bears the Spirit, as our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says: «I came to cast fire upon the earth — and how I long that it were already kindled» (Lk 12:49). This same fire, warming and kindling Kleopas and his companion, moved them to exclaim to one another in astonishment: «Did not our hearts burn within us while He spoke to us on the road?» (Lk 24:32). And the wondrous John of Damascus writes in one troparion of his hymns to the Mother of God: «The fire of my heart draws me to sing of maidenly love.»
Saint Isaac also writes: «From right activity is born a measureless warmth, which is kindled in the heart by warm thoughts, and these in turn enter the intellect. These activities and this attentiveness refine the intellect by the warmth of their thoughts and grant it contemplation» (from Homily 59). And further: «And from this ardour that follows the grace of contemplation, frequent tears are generated.» And further still: «And from unceasing tears there comes peace of thoughts to the soul, and it rises to purity of intellect; and through purity of intellect a man attains the contemplation of God’s mysteries.» And further: «After this the intellect apprehends such revelations as the prophet Ezekiel saw.» And from Homily 69: «Tears and striking the head in prayer, and falling zealously to the ground, give rise to a feeling of sweet warmth in the heart; and in praiseworthy rapture the heart soars to God and cries: My soul thirsts for the living God. When shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Ps 42:2).»
And the author of the Ladder says: «When the divine fire comes into the heart, it raises up prayer; and when prayer has been raised up and ascends to heaven, the fire descends into the upper chamber of the soul» (from Step 28). And again: «Who is that faithful and wise monk who has kept his warmth unquenched, and until his very end adds daily fire to fire, longing to longing, zeal to zeal, vigil to vigil?» And Saint Elias the Presbyter: «When the soul, turning away from outward things, is joined with prayer, then prayer surrounds it like a flame and makes it all glowing, as fire makes iron glow. The soul remains the same, yet nothing outward can touch it, just as one cannot touch red-hot iron» (chapter 105). And also: «Blessed is he who in this life has been counted worthy to see himself — his human likeness, perishable by nature — enveloped in the fire of grace.»
Chapter 55. That this warmth comes from different sources, and that the true warmth is that which comes from pure prayer of the heart.
Know that such warmth also arises within us from quite different sources. This is clear from the words of the saints, though we cannot say the same from the experience of the thing itself. The truest warmth is that which comes from pure prayer of the heart; and with it there always comes and grows and abides true enlightenment — that is, whether a man, according to the testimony of the fathers, is truly enlightened.
Chapter 56. On the effect of the warmth of the heart.
This warmth drives away everything that hinders pure prayer from being performed. Our God is a fire, a fire that consumes the malice of the demons and our own passions. Saint Diadochos says (chapter 97): «When the heart receives the devil’s arrows within itself with burning pain, so that the one struck thinks he actually feels the arrows, then the soul hates the passion with pain; and this is the beginning of its purification. When a man does not feel great pain at the shamelessness of sin, he cannot rejoice with great joy at the goodness of righteousness. Whoever wishes to cleanse his heart, let him keep it burning with the constant remembrance of Jesus Christ, having this alone as his work and his study. Those who wish to cast off their corruption must not pray at one time and not at another; they must exercise the intellect in prayer at all times, even when far from the church. When a goldsmith wishes to purify gold and leaves the furnace unattended even for a moment, the gold hardens again. So too the man who at one time remembers God and at another does not loses through his slackness all that he thinks he has gained by prayer. It is the mark of a virtuous man to destroy the earthiness of the heart by the remembrance of God, so that the fire of that remembrance may gradually consume the evil, and the soul may return wholly to its natural — and more than natural — brightness.» The same saint says that when the intellect is in the heart, then it prays purely and without error: «Prayer is true and free from error when the heart, as it prays, guards the intellect.» And Saint Hesychios writes: «He who is sober in his heart» (chapter 159).
Chapter 57. On the attentiveness and prayer, the longing and zeal, that are born of this warmth.
From this same warmth and from attentive — that is, pure — prayer come the longing for the Lord Jesus Christ in one who always remembers Him in prayer, and divine zeal and love, as it is written: «The maidens have loved you and drawn you to themselves… I am faint with love» (Song 1:3; 2:5). Saint Maximos also says: «All the virtues contribute to the state of divine zeal, but the greatest of them is pure prayer. Whomever it raises to God, he finds himself beyond all things.»
Chapter 58. On the tears of the heart, and also on divine longing and zeal.
From such a heart flow many tears, which cleanse and enrich the one who is rich in them through love, and do not dry him up or exhaust him. And this comes from a divine longing, and that longing from a divine zeal, because of the great and unrestrainable desire for the Lord Jesus Christ of whom we have spoken. The soul cries out with fervour: «You have wounded me with longing, O Christ, and transformed me with Your divine zeal. You, O Saviour, are all sweetness, all yearning and desire, wholly insatiable, wholly incomprehensible goodness.» And it also cries out with Paul, the herald of Christ: «Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?… For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord» (Rom 8:35, 38-39).
Chapter 59. Counsel not to seek what is beyond measure, but always to hold the remembrance of our Lord Jesus in the heart.
Let the ascetic be content with whatever follows in due course. For it is said: «Do not seek before its time what has its own time.» And Saint Mark says: «It is useless to seek to see the second thing before you have done the first. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1 Cor 8:1).» It befits a man to hasten and to struggle continually, as we have said, and to keep the remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ within — indeed, in the depth of the heart, and not outside the heart or on its surface. As the same blessed Mark says of this: «If what is innermost and hidden and pure in our heart is not disclosed to us by our first hope under the rule, we cannot know Him who dwells within, nor see whether our rational sacrifices are accepted or not.»
Chapter 60. On warm zeal, on the divine manifestation within us, and on the true grace of enlightenment.
In this way, as it is written — «Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfil the desires of the flesh» (Gal 5:16) — it becomes easy to escape not only from cunning deeds but also from passionate thoughts and unnatural imaginings. And he will turn away from every such thought and imagining who by his zeal, burning in virtue, burns up and destroys every evil work operating in him, whether through the senses or in the mind, together with the leaders of all evil, the malicious demons. As Saint Isaac says: «Fearful to the demons and dear to God and His angels is he who with warm zeal uproots the thorns the enemy has sown in him» (from Homily 8). He will attain such progress that he will receive the assurance of love and a clear manifestation, and the inbreathing of what is true, and the divine enlightenment of grace. We may say that he will return with great joy to his former nobility and spiritual sonship, which he received through grace and holy baptism. And Saint Isaac says again (in the same Homily): «This Jerusalem and Kingdom of God is hidden within us. This land is the shadow of God’s glory, into which only the pure in heart will enter to see the face of their Master.» Only let him not seek the manifestation of God itself, lest he receive as light what is in fact darkness.
Chapter 61. On the working of God and of God’s adversary.
When the intellect, without seeking the light, sees it, let it not accept it; for Saint Mark says: «There is the work of grace and there is the work of Satan, unrecognized by infants. It is good neither to gaze upon such light, since it may be a temptation, nor to curse it, since it may be true, but to entrust everything with hope to God: He knows what benefit lies in each. And one may ask someone who has grace and power from God to teach and to judge.»
Chapter 62. On the enlightened teacher who is free from error.
And if you find someone who can teach — not only because he has learned of it from the divine Scriptures, but because he himself has experienced divine illumination — then glory be to God for this. But if not, it is better not to accept such light, but to turn humbly to God, sincerely considering and calling ourselves unworthy of such dignity and vision; as we have learned by the grace of Christ from unerring lips moved by the Holy Spirit, from the God-inspired Scriptures, and from experience.
Chapter 63. On true and deceptive enlightenment, that is, on divine light and the light of delusion.
In some of their writings our glorious fathers explain the signs of enlightenment that is free from error and of enlightenment that deceives. So did Paul of Latros. When his disciple asked him, he answered: «The light of the adversary power is like natural fire with smoke. When a purified soul, in which the passions have subsided, sees it, it takes no pleasure in looking at it and turns away. But the divine light is pure and brings joy. When it comes, it enlightens and fills the soul with joy, light and gladness, and makes it gentle and courageous.» Others say the same. However, as you have heard the teachings that came before, so you will hear about this in due time; but now is not the time.
Chapter 64. On unfitting and good imagining, and what should be thought about it.
Since we mentioned imagining a little earlier, and also unfitting imagining, it will be useful to say a few words about it, and about imagining in general, so far as we are able — the more so because it hinders pure prayer of the heart and the single, simple activity of the intellect. That is why the divine fathers speak much and often about it and against it. It can be as varied as the fabled Daedalus and as many-headed as the hydra. The saints call imagining the devil’s bridge. Over it the wicked murderers walk and cross; through it they converse with the soul and enter it, making it a hive full of drones and a dwelling of barren, passionate thoughts. Such imagining must be rejected utterly, even when you do not wish to, by means of repentance and contrition, weeping and humility of thought. To these add study and contemplation and good imagining — and fight against unfitting imagining, and overthrow it as dishonourable and shameless, and gain the victory over it. Doing so, you will not only suffer no loss but will gain riches, for you will judge your actions prudently and without error, and will defeat bad imagining by good imagining, and with the weapons of your adversaries you will inflict mortal wounds upon them, and even slay them, as the divine David once slew Goliath (1 Kgdms 17:49).
Chapter 65. That the saints counselled us, in pure prayer and in the simple and single activity of the intellect, to reject both unfitting imaginings and favourable thoughts.
This is the struggle of infants, that is, of beginners. But whoever makes progress in due time will reject completely both unfitting and good imagining and will give it no access to himself. Like wax melting before the face of fire, it will fade and perish for the sake of pure prayer, for the sake of the unadorned renunciation of the intellect and its liberation from all things in its striving toward God — and, if you will, for the sake of receiving the single and imageless union.
Saint Hesychios says: «Every thought is an imagining in the intellect of some object of sense. For the Assyrian himself is an intellect, and he tempts us only with the sensory things familiar to us» (chapter 180). And also: «Since every thought enters the heart through the imagining of something sensory, the blessed light of the Godhead shines in the heart when it is wholly freed from everything and holds no representations within itself; for light appears in a pure intellect when it abandons all thoughts» (chapter 99). And Basil the Great says: «Just as the Lord does not dwell in temples made by hands, so He does not dwell in any images or mental representations. These stand before a corrupted soul and surround it, because it cannot look clearly upon the truth while clinging to images and thoughts.» And the divine Evagrios says: «God reveals Himself where men wish to know Him; that is why a pure intellect is called the throne of God. The knowledge of God does not lie in thoughts that bring images to the intellect, but in thoughts free of images. Therefore the man of prayer must distance himself entirely from thoughts that bring images to the intellect. Then the intellect will be ordered otherwise: seeing itself, it will acquire a different order, beholding its own rational nature.» Therefore spiritual knowledge separates the intellect from thoughts that bring images and, teaching it without images, brings it before God.
And Saint Maximos, explaining the great Dionysios, says: «Imagining is one thing, and thought or reflection another. They come from different powers and move in different ways. Thought is an action and creation of the intellect, while imagining is a passive state and a representation of something sensory, or of something that seems sensory. Sense perception apprehends everything that exists through immediate representation, while the intellect touches everything that exists, that is, apprehends it in another way than sense perception does. Moreover, whether in body or in spirit — as we said at the beginning — the senses present representations and images to the soul and the intellect, and these reason and reflect upon them. With this rational power the soul must restrain the imaginative power. The imaginative power is divided into three parts: the first is that which forms understanding, and especially the understanding of the senses; the second is the representation of something that does not embrace the understanding of the sensory and has no images fixed upon anything, and this is properly called the imaginative power; the third is that in which affliction produces every kind of pleasure and imagining about supposed good or evil. That is why they say that God cannot be imagined in any way, since God is above all thought and, in general, above everything.»
Basil the Great also says: «When the intellect is not distracted by external things and the senses do not lead it about the world, it returns to itself, ascends of itself to the knowledge of God, and, illumined and made bright by God’s beauty, forgets even its own nature» (from Book 3, Letter 2).
Knowing this, then, urge yourself always to be with God without imaginings and images, and to pray with a pure intellect and a pure heart, as Saint Maximos says.
Chapter 66. On the pure intellect, the perfect intellect and the perfect heart.
On the pure intellect. A pure intellect is one that has attained knowledge and is enlightened by divine light: it is that which holds the remembrance of God without images and is ready to receive images only from God, in which He will manifest Himself within it.
On the perfect intellect. A perfect intellect is one that contemplates the Invisible and sees all His creations, and has received from God a comprehensive understanding of providence and judgement, as far as a man can contain it.
On the perfect heart. A perfect heart is one that has no natural movement toward anything or any image; and upon such a heart, says Saint Diadochos, God writes His laws.
Saint Neilos says: «If a man wishes to see how his intellect is disposed, let him rid himself of all thoughts, and then he will see that it is like sapphire, and not of a demonic hue.» And again: «When a man puts off the old man and puts on the new man of grace, then he will see his own purity, like the heavens, which the elders of Israel called the place of God when God appeared to them on the mountain» (at the end of Homily 16).
For if you do as has been said, that is, if you pray purely, without imaginings and images, you will be an imitator of the saints. But if not, then you will be no man of stillness but a dreamer, and instead of grapes you will gather thorns. Oh, may that never happen to you!
Chapter 67. How the prophets saw their visions.
If some consider the visions, images and revelations of the prophets to be imaginings and something natural, let them know that they are far from true knowledge and from the truth. For the prophets and those initiated into the mysteries in their time saw and beheld not according to any natural order or manner, but divinely and supernaturally, in the intellect, by the indescribable power and grace of the Holy Spirit. Basil the Great says that a certain incomprehensible power granted vision to their still and pure state, and the word of God seemed to speak within them. And also: «The prophets saw with their intellect as the Spirit showed them» (Discourse for Pentecost, folio 107 verso). And Gregory the Theologian: «He, that is, the Holy Spirit, acted first in the angelic and heavenly powers.» And further: «And also in the patriarchs and prophets. Some of them saw God or understood Him, and others foretold the future, when their intellect received from the Spirit such images through which the future became for them like the present.»
Chapter 68. More on imagining and on numerous and varied visions.
If someone still doubts and thinks it permissible to accept imaginings and to have numerous and varied visions, and contradicts us, supposing that in this he imitates the saints, let us say to him in the words of Gregory the Theologian: «The intellect can indeed describe God in an image, but it describes not what is in God but what is around Him, when several representations are gathered into a single image» (Discourse for the Nativity of Christ). We may also say, in the words of the divine Maximos: «The intellect cannot become dispassionate from activity itself unless it receives numerous and varied visions.» Other saints speak similarly. But whoever appeals to this should know that these blessed men were not speaking of the activity that follows reception, nor of the grace of knowledge and contemplation which unites a man with God through experience itself, but of the vision that comes after contemplation — that is, of the vision gathered from the wisdom and proportion of created beings and from the harmony that is in the thought of God. This is obscure, yet for many — and in the end for all — it is worth accepting and pondering. He who has studied the words of the saints with understanding will grasp well the words of the Scripture: «For from the greatness and beauty of created things one may come by analogy to the knowledge of their Creator» (Wis 13:5) — and not through worldly nonsense and vain cunning teaching, which prides itself, like a dishonourable slave, on knowledge, sophistry and proofs, not being taught by the faith of the Gospel, and which with humility and true concord is driven away from sacred things.
But the discourse now before us concerns the perfect and true radiance, which the chosen apostles received when they went up with Jesus to Mount Tabor and were truly transformed by a blessed change and were counted worthy to behold the invisible Kingdom and Godhead with bodily eyes that had undergone a divine change — that is, that had become spiritual through the right hand of the Holy Spirit. As far as the east is from the west, and as far as the soul surpasses the body, so far does the activity that follows reception, and grace, surpass the vision that comes after contemplation. For the vision that comes after contemplation, as we have said, occurs when representations from outside gather actively and coherently one after another into a single true image and reach up to God by faith. But the other — that is, what follows reception — happens within the heart directly from God Himself, and sometimes from outside as well; and by its radiance and divine enlightenment it clearly grants to the body, beyond all understanding, that the heart should undergo supernaturally the uncreated deification that is not created, as Saint Maximos says. This is what that saint says: «Uncreated deification is the true radiance of the Godhead, which has no existence of its own, but appears inconceivably in those who are worthy.»
Saint Dionysios also agrees with what has been said: «It is good to know that our intellect has one power by which it reasons and sees intelligible things, and a second by which it sees a union that surpasses the nature of the intellect — and by this it is joined to what is above it.» And Saint Isaac says: «The fathers say that we have two spiritual eyes that see differently. With one eye we see the things hidden in creation, that is, God’s power, His wisdom and His providence for us, which we understand from the greatness of His care for us. With the second eye we see the glory of His holy being, when God is pleased to lead us into spiritual mysteries» (from Homily 92).
The divine Diadochos says: «The Holy Spirit alone gives the divine gifts — wisdom and knowledge, and all the divine gifts, each of which has its own operation (cf. Wis 9:5).» «For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit» (1 Cor 12:8), as the apostle testifies. Knowledge through experience itself unites a man with God without prompting the soul to reason about things. Therefore some of those who devote themselves to the other life are enlightened by this knowledge in their senses, yet do not come to the understanding of the meaning of the divine words. And if together with this knowledge wisdom is given to someone in fear, it rarely happens that the operations of knowledge appear in love. For knowledge is wont to shine through action, and wisdom through words. Knowledge is given by prayer and stillness in complete freedom from care, and wisdom is given through untroubled study of the words of the Spirit, and above all by the grace of the God who gives.
Saint Maximos also says of this in his explanation: «Jacob’s well is the Scriptures, and the water is the knowledge contained in the Scriptures; the depth is the indescribable contemplation of what the Scriptures speak of; and the bucket is the written divine word, which the Lord did not have, since He is Himself the Word and gives knowledge to the faithful not through teaching and instruction but through ever-flowing spiritual grace, granting the worthy an ever-flowing wisdom that never dries up. The bucket is learning which, having received the smallest part of knowledge, leaves all the rest and does not hold back any word of it. But the knowledge that comes by grace has all the wisdom that a man who refines it according to his needs can grasp.»
Saint Diadochos also says: «Our intellect endures much in prayer because of the great narrowness and concentration in the heart that the virtue of prayer requires; therefore it turns with joy to theology, for the sake of the space and freedom of divine contemplation» (chapter 68). Let us not give it that freedom in numerous conversations, and let us not allow it to be carried away with delight, but let us exercise it in many prayers and in psalmody and in the reading of the Holy Scriptures. Nor let us neglect what eloquent men contemplated, whose faith is known from their words — so that in doing this we may not allow our own words to be mixed with the words of grace, nor allow our state to be carried away by great delight and tempted by many words springing from vainglory. And even when there is no imagining during contemplation, let us take care of the intellect and give it almost all our thoughts, together with tears. Rest at the time of stillness, and the savouring of the sweetness of prayer, come not only for the reasons mentioned but are often renewed so that one may quickly and without much labour reach divine contemplations, and at the same time attain prudent knowledge with great humility.
However, it must be known that prayer is higher than all space, and belongs only to those who are filled with holy grace in every sense and manifestation. Did you hear? It is said that prayer is higher than all space, and belongs only to those who in every feeling and revelation — that is, within the heart, inaudibly and supernaturally — are filled with the divine enlightenment of grace. Saint Isaac calls this unmarked remembrance, that is, remembrance without representations, without images, and simple.
Chapter 69. On the five powers of the soul, and also on the imagining proper to the soul and the intellect; and that in pure prayer and in the simple, single activity of the intellect one must avoid entirely all imaginings and likenesses and images and representations.
As we have already said, the soul imagines not only under the influence of demons but also of itself, since it has five powers: intellect, reason, opinion, imagination and sense perception. Likewise the body has five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Among the powers of the soul there is one, imagination, through which the soul imagines. It befits the soul, when it wishes to order and finely tune its powers — and most of all those powers that unite it with God both in this age and in the age to come — to give them wings and strive to raise them to God; and to attend to all the rest as need requires, using what is necessary and doing so. We must study what the holy fathers say about this and act accordingly.
Saint Maximos says: «Since the soul in itself, that is, in its essence, is rational, intelligent and self-subsistent, it must act by itself according to nature, both by itself and with the body, thinking and reflecting according to nature and never departing from its natural powers of thought. It is present as an entity in that which exists; as long as it exists and subsists, it is inseparable from it. The soul has existed ever since it was created, and existing in hypostasis — for God created it such — it always thinks and reflects and knows itself, and itself together with the body, and its own nature.» We know and learn from the saints that in the present age and in the age to come the intellect and reason move and act around God, while the other powers act only in the present age, as belonging to it. It befits the soul, therefore, as a wise steward that naturally has authority over these powers and wishes to act not only in the present age but also in the age to come, to strive in every way to extend the intellect and reason upward to God, and to move and unite them during pure prayer and the regulated, unified, simple activity, and to detach them from imagining and from the other powers.
Saint Neilos says: «The disposition of prayer is a dispassionate habit that seizes the all-wise and spiritual intellect with the greatest vigilance and holds it at a spiritual height. For the soul, when it acts thus, will also preserve the honourable dignity that befits it» (chapter 52).
Chapter 70. More about the intellect.
Thus the state of the intellect itself — as an indivisible, simple, self-complete, pure and luminous entity — must guard itself and keep watch over itself, uninvolved with and separated from everything, that is, from imagining. It has the natural power for this within itself, so that, lingering nowhere, it may turn and move. Such is the disposition of the intellect that comes to it from divine grace: only the Holy Spirit can hold the intellect; the soul moves it, and hence it is so called. And it is full of its own simple and whole power. When by nature the intellect is always inclined toward the soul and its powers, then it is itself a power, and man is then called a being of soul. But when it receives its natural and simple true dignity and lightness — undivided, whole and sovereign, that is, when it is freed from bodily and psychic properties and movements, and when what in the intellect is mere potentiality becomes actual, so that it is worthy to be called intellect, that is, when a man becomes supernatural and spiritual — then it truly returns always to itself and, wholly detached from all things, ascends to the knowledge of God, who is invisible, unseen and simple. Basil the Great says: «When the intellect is not distracted by external things and does not pour itself out into the world through the senses, then it gathers into itself, ascends to the knowledge of God and, illumined and made bright by God’s beauty, forgets even its own nature.»4
That which is according to the image and likeness of God, being itself thought, is joined to the divine Intellect, that is, is united and joined to God. This activity is a movement in a circle, that is, the return of the intellect to itself, and its turning to God, and its union with Him, which alone is without delusion and sin, unrestrained and immediate — a union above all understanding and a contemplation above all contemplation. For the great Dionysios says: «The movement of the soul is a movement in a circle: it enters into itself from its external and intelligible powers, the one place to which it can return; for it goes as though in a circle, and therefore does not go astray. This movement turns it away and leads it back from many external things, uniting it, as something of one form, with the united powers, and so brings it to the good and the blessed that is above all beings, one and the same, without beginning and without end.»5 The soul also moves in a straight line, in so far as the divine understanding proper to it enlightens it not in an intellectual and stable manner but discursively and transiently, and as it were in mixed and passing activities. It moves straight forward when it does not enter into itself and move only by intellection — that is, in a circle, as I have said — but looks also at what happens around it and at all external things, as at certain signs, simple and joined to one another.
Saint Maximos says: «The intellect, having received immediate union with God, has as unoccupied by nature that power by which it reasons and understands. But when it breaks this union, thinking of something not according to God, it is divided, for it has severed the union that is above all understanding. While it was united by that union with God, who is above nature, it was itself god by participation; but now the natural law of the intellect becomes for it like an immovable mountain.» And again: «The pure intellect, which by union with the Cause has received a unity above all understanding and by it has held the manifold within what belongs to the Cause — its own natural movement and unity — holds inexplicably to the One, having reached the ineffable harbour of most blessed silence, which cannot be described in word or thought. But the experience of those counted worthy, one by participation, is a delight higher than every known delight, whose signs are easy to recognize and are plain to all: namely, the soul’s insensibility to this age and its remoteness from it. When the intellect does not co-operate with the soul in always moving toward God, and does not of itself perform and do what is proper to it — that is, to return to itself and ascend unrestrainedly to the thought that is according to God — then it has no fruit, but, joining itself to imagining, becomes something else and is estranged from God.»
Chapter 71. More on pure prayer.
Saint Neilos spoke thus: «Strive that your intellect during prayer may be deaf and dumb — only then will you be able to pray.»6 And again: «I shall say what I said to the younger ones: blessed is the intellect that during prayer has no images whatsoever.»7 And Saint Philotheos: «Rarely can one find those who keep stillness with the intellect. Only those attain it who succeed, through stillness, in having divine joy and consolation always within themselves.»8 And Basil the Great: «Good prayer is that which makes divine knowledge manifest in the soul. The indwelling of God is the constant remembrance of God, which earthly cares do not interrupt, while the intellect is not troubled by sudden passions but, turning away from all things, returns to God as a lover of God.»9
Chapter 72. That dispassion of the intellect is one thing, and pure prayer another and greater thing.
It must also be known that although, as Saint Maximos says, «the intellect cannot become dispassionate from activity alone unless it receives numerous and varied contemplations», the divine Neilos says the opposite: «One may be dispassionate and yet not pray truly, and be far from God.» This holy father speaks thus of such a man: «Though the intellect may be above bodily things, it will still not be able to see the place of God; it may still reason about thoughts and busy itself with various things.»10 And again: «He who has gained dispassion does not always pray truly; he may still have simple thoughts and reflect upon them — and be far from God.»11 And again: «If the intellect does not linger over simple thoughts about things, this does not yet mean that it has reached the place of prayer; it may still think about various matters, and although these are insignificant, they bring various representations into the intellect and lead it far from God.»12
The author of the Ladder also says: «Those ascetics who have learned to pray truly converse with the Lord face to face, as royal officials speak in person with the king.» Looking at this, you may understand the difference between the two ways of life, and the incomparable comparison between what comes after receiving from on high and what comes from one’s own understanding. The work of the first is study and numerous and varied visions; the work of the second is true prayer. Moreover, dispassion of the intellect is one thing, and true prayer another. And again: «He who has true prayer, according to the testimony of the saints, necessarily has also a dispassionate intellect; but he who has only a dispassionate intellect may still not have true prayer.» So it is.
But let us continue our Discourse. Since not only the things already spoken of, but the very remembrance of what is good and of what is contrary, unexpectedly brings images into the intellect and leads to imagining, it befits us to say a little about this also.
Note 4: Book 3, Letter 2. — Note 5: On the Divine Names, chapter 4, section 8. — Note 6: Chapter 11, section 8. — Note 7: Chapter 117, section 8. — Note 8: Chapter 3, section 8. — Note 9: Book 3, Letter 2, folio 55 verso. — Note 10: Chapter 57, section 8. — Note 11: Chapter 55, section 8. — Note 12: Chapter 56, section 8.
Chapter 73. More on imaginings and images in the intellect, and on the signs of delusion and of truth.
What are the signs of delusion. When you are keeping stillness and wish to be alone with God, never accept anything you may see, whether sensory or intelligible, within you or outside you — even if it appears to be Christ, or an angel, or some saint, or an image of light appearing in the intellect. Do not believe it, and be displeased with it, even if it seems something good, until you have asked those who are experienced. For this is more profitable and dearer to God, and more pleasing. Therefore always keep your intellect free of images, of representations, of appearance and form, of quality and quantity, attending only to the words of the prayer and to study, and reflecting inwardly in the movement of the heart. According to the author of the Ladder: «The beginning of prayer is to drive away at once whatever intrudes; the middle of prayer is when the intellect is joined to the words we speak or think; and the perfection of prayer is rapture to the Lord» (from Step 28).
Saint Neilos says the following: «There is a highest prayer of the perfect — the rapture of the intellect and its complete release from everything sensory, when the Spirit intercedes before God, who sees the state of the heart as though in the palm of His hand, and discloses His will by indescribable signs» (from the Discourse to the deaconess of Ankyra, chapters 27 and 28). Thus the apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven, not knowing «whether in the body or out of the body» (2 Cor 12:2). Thus the apostle Peter, when he went up to the roof to pray, saw in a vision a sheet with all kinds of unclean creatures (Acts 10:9ff.). After the first there is a second prayer, when the intellect follows the words of the prayer with compunction, knowing to whom this prayer is addressed. But when prayer is cut across and mixed with bodily concerns, it withdraws from the one praying. So abide in this and accept nothing else, until the passions have subsided and you have taken counsel with those who are experienced. This, in brief, is what may be said of the signs of delusion.
See now what the signs of truth are. The signs of truth and of the good and life-giving Spirit are these: «love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control» — so says the divine apostle, naming the fruits of the divine Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). He also says: «Walk as children of light. The fruit of light is in all that is good and just and true» (Eph 5:8-9). Everything contrary to this is a sign of temptation.
And one of the wise men, when he was asked, said the following: «Concerning the road to salvation free of straying, of which you speak, beloved: there are many paths that lead to life, and many that lead to death.» And then the same God-wise man said: «There is one path that leads to life: the keeping of Christ’s commandments. In these commandments you will find the various virtues, and especially these three: humility, love and mercy; without them no one will see the Lord.» And further: «These three are an invincible weapon against the devil, given to us by the Holy Trinity — humility, love and mercy — upon which the whole multitude of demons cannot even look. For there is not a trace of humility in them, since they are darkened by pride and eternal fire is prepared for them. Where is there love in them, or a shadow of mercy, when they are irreconcilably at enmity with the human race and do not cease day or night to make war upon it? Let us arm ourselves, then, with this weapon, for those who wear it do not parley with the enemy.» And later still: «This triple-plaited cord, which the Holy Trinity wove and fashioned — we see all three of them together: three in name, and if you will in hypostases, yet one in power and activity and in their approach to God, and in vision, and in appropriation.» Of these the Lord says: «My yoke is easy and my burden is light» (Mt 11:30). And the beloved disciple says: «His commandments are not burdensome» (1 Jn 5:3). And a little later: «Therefore the soul that has been united with God through purity of life and the keeping of the commandments has put on God Himself and in a certain manner becomes god, mercy and love. It passes beyond the duality of the senses and rises above the foundation of the law, and out of love it is joined to the pre-existent and life-giving Trinity, conversing with Her directly; it receives light within light and rejoices in imperishable and eternal grace.»
But enough of that. Now that we have mentioned the signs and fruits of temptation and of truth, and what lies behind the fruits — from which, as the divine Paul says, one may tell what spirit they breathe — it befits us to speak in the words of the fathers about the two consolations: the divine, which comes from true grace, and the counterfeit, which comes from the adversary. This is how the divine Diadochos speaks of it.
Chapter 74. On divine consolation and counterfeit consolation.
«When our intellect begins to feel the consolation of the Holy Spirit, then Satan too comes with a certain sweet feeling in the stillness of the night, when the soul is about to fall asleep. But when the intellect keeps the name of the Lord Jesus in warm remembrance and uses that most holy and most glorious name as a weapon against temptation, that flatterer departs and kindles instead a sensual warfare against the soul. Therefore, when the intellect is alert and recognizes the deceiver, it gains experience in discerning such things» (Diadochos, chapter 31). And also: «Blessed is that consolation of the body which comes when a man wakes or falls asleep with the warm remembrance of God, as though cleaving to His love. But consolation from delusion comes to the ascetic when he falls into an unsteady, shallow sleep and does not remember God well» (chapter 32).
The first consolation, since it is from God, inclines the souls of those who struggle in piety toward the love of God with great spiritual joy. The second, as though with the wind of delusion, blows upon the soul and, through the sleep of the body, attempts to steal away the experienced perception of a healthy intellect, especially when the intellect is in the warm remembrance of God. But when at that moment the intellect remembers the Lord Jesus Christ with all its vigilance, it will scatter that seemingly sweet breath of the enemy and will rise gladly to battle against him, having, besides grace, another weapon: its own experience.
And also: «If the soul is set aflame with an unquestioning and imageless movement toward the depth of that indescribable love, whether waking or falling asleep in the manner we have described, by the action of holy grace, thinking of nothing else except that toward which it is directed — then one must know that this is the working of the Holy Spirit. For the soul, enjoying that indescribable delight, cannot think of anything else, but rejoices with unceasing joy» (chapter 33). But when the intellect receives a doubt or some impure thought, which operates even while the intellect invokes the holy name of God so as to drive away the evil, and not out of love for God alone, one must know that such supposed joy comes from the flatterer. Such joy is not good and not fruitful, for the enemy wishes to lead the soul into adultery. When the enemy sees that the intellect has already gained experience of its own perceptions, he draws the soul to himself, captivated by that slack and moist sweetness. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of delusion. However, it is impossible to know divine grace in the intellect until you are assured of it; for grace dwells in the depth of the intellect, while the demons are in the region around the heart. And the demons do not want a man to know this, lest the intellect, seeing it, should arm itself with the remembrance of God. Now you know about this — and be content with that. For the Scripture says: «Eat as much as you need, and take care not to eat to excess, lest you vomit it up» (cf. Prov 25:16).
Chapter 75. On the divine sweetness that pours forth from the heart.
The time has come to say fittingly: «Who can say whether honey is sweet until he has tasted it?» Even less is it possible to explain the divine sweetness and the supernatural, life-giving joy that flows from pure and true prayer of the heart, and flows always, as the God-man Jesus says: «Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst» (Jn 4:14). And also: «If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water» (Jn 7:37-38). The same apostle who leaned on the Lord’s breast says this about the Holy Spirit, whom those who believe in Him were to receive. And the great Paul says: «God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father» (Gal 4:6).
Chapter 76. That this spiritual sweetness has many signs but has no name.
This spiritual, supernatural and life-giving sweetness is at once true radiance, and a darkness beyond light, and beauty unutterable, and the highest longing, and the contemplation and vision of God, and a mysterious deification that cannot be spoken of; when it somehow appears, it remains unknown, and when one somehow manages to understand it, it remains incomprehensible. As the great Dionysios says: «We pray to enter into this shadow that surpasses light, and through not seeing and not understanding to see and to understand Him who is beyond sight and understanding. By this very fact, that we do not see and do not understand, we truly see and understand; and, setting all things aside, we praise abundantly the Supra-essential One.» And also: «The divine shadow is the unapproachable light in which God dwells as the Invisible, because of a brightness beyond all brightness, and as the Inaccessible, because He pours out from Himself the supra-essential light. Everyone who tries to see and to know God falls into this shadow. By that very fact that he does not see and does not understand, he rises above sight and understanding, and understands that which is above all sensory states.»
Basil the Great says: «Indescribable are the infinite and unutterable radiance of divine beauty. You cannot express it in words, and the ears cannot contain it. Whether you speak of the brightness of the morning sun, or the brightness of the moon, or the light of the sun, none of these reflects the glory of God; compared with the true light they are further from it than deep night and darkness are from the light of noon. This beauty is invisible to bodily eyes; it can be grasped only by the soul and the mind, and when it shines upon one of the saints, it leaves in them an unbearable sting of love, so that, complaining of this life, they say: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged (Ps 120:5). And also: My soul thirsts for the living God (Ps 42:2). I desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better (Phil 1:23). And also: Now, Lord, You may let Your servant depart in peace according to Your word (Lk 2:29). The saints regarded the present life as a prison. They could not be satisfied with the vision of divine beauty, and so they prayed that the vision of the Lord’s unceasing light might be theirs in eternal life.»
Gregory the Theologian also says: «Where there is fear, there is the keeping of the commandments; and where there is the keeping of the commandments, there is the purification of the flesh and liberation from the cloud that envelops the soul and does not let it see the pure rays of the Lord. And where there is purification, there is illumination; and illumination is the fulfilment of the greatest desires — or the greatest desire, or that which surpasses the greatest desires.» The divine Gregory of Nyssa says: «When by a vigilant life you cleanse away the filth that has gathered on your heart, then godlike beauty will shine in you again — as happens with iron: when the rust is cleaned from it on the whetstone, what was black begins to glitter in the sun and shine. So too our inner man, whom the Lord calls the heart: when he scrapes off the rust that has cunningly grown and festered over our eyes, he will once more take on the likeness of the first image, and be good; and in the footsteps of goodness every good will follow him.» And Saint Neilos says: «Blessed is he who has grasped the incomprehensibility that is inseparable from prayer.» And the author of the Ladder: «The abyss of mourning leads to consolation; purity of heart receives illumination; and illumination is an ineffable activity, visible and at the same time invisible, understood and at the same time incomprehensible» (from Step 27).
Therefore thrice blessed are those who, like Mary of old, have chosen this good portion and a spiritual and undivided life, and are conformed to such a godlike portion that with great joy and rapture, as happened to the divine Paul, they can be amazed and cry out: «But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Saviour appeared, He saved us, not for the sake of works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, justified by His grace, we might become heirs of eternal life according to hope» (Tit 3:4-7). And also: «He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who has also sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts» (2 Cor 1:21-22). And also: «But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it may be seen that the surpassing greatness of the power is from God and not from us» (2 Cor 4:7). Grant, O God, that through their prayers, which incline the Lord toward us, we may become even a little like them, through mercy and grace.
Chapter 77. That he who wishes to keep stillness should be gentle.
You, my child, should understand this first of all and together with all else. As he who wishes to learn to shoot well draws his bow with a target before him, so let him who wishes to learn stillness have as his target always to keep a gentle heart. Saint Isidore says: «It is not enough to learn virtue; one must also be gentle in learning it. When, while practising the labour of gentleness, we interrupt it with some anxiety, this will be no more than wishing for salvation while doing nothing for salvation.» And even before this saint, the divine David said: «He will guide the gentle in judgement; He will teach the meek His ways» (Ps 25:9). And besides him, Jesus son of Sirach: «He reveals His mysteries to the humble» (Sir 3:19). And the most sweet Jesus says: «Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls» (Mt 11:29). And again: «But this is the one to whom I will look: the poor and contrite in spirit, and he who trembles at my word» (Is 66:2). And also: «Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth» (Mt 5:5) — that is, the heart that bears the fruits of grace thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold, according to the manner of beginners, of the intermediate and of the perfect. Never be dismayed by anything, and never be disturbed when something comes from any source other than piety.
Chapter 78. How we may learn to be gentle; and on the three powers of the soul: the incensive, the desiring and the rational.
You would easily learn gentleness if you cast everything from yourself and urged your soul toward love, keeping greater silence, taking food in moderation and praying always. As the fathers said: «Bring in the incensive power of the soul with love, dry up the desiring power with abstinence, and guard the rational power with prayer — then the light of the intellect will never grow dim.» And also: «The bridle for anger is timely silence; for irrational desire, moderate food; for unbridled thought, single-minded prayer.» And again: «There are three virtues that always shed light on one’s state: not to look at another man’s cunning; to endure everything that happens without being dismayed; and to do good to those who do evil. These three virtues give birth to three others greater than themselves: from not looking at another man’s cunning love is born; from enduring everything that happens without dismay, gentleness; and from doing good to those who do evil one acquires peace.» And also: «There are three chief moral states for monks: the first is not to sin in deed; the second is not to retain passionate thoughts in the soul; and the third is to look dispassionately upon the faces of women and of those who have grieved you.»
Chapter 79. That it is good to repent quickly when we fall, and thereafter to stand wisely.
If you should ever be disturbed by something, or if you fall and sin, you must at once make peace with the one who grieved you or whom you grieved, and repent from the heart, and weep, and shed tears, and reproach yourself, and thereafter take care to stand firm. The Lord Jesus teaches most wisely: «If, therefore, you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar; go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift» (Mt 5:23-24). And the apostle: «Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be removed from among you, together with all malice. Instead, be kind to one another and merciful, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you» (Eph 4:31-32). And also: «Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun set on your anger» (Eph 4:26). And also: «Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but leave room for wrath… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good» (Rom 12:19, 21). So much for reconciliation with one another.
Chapter 80. On falling and on repentance.
Saint Isaac says concerning falling: «Let us not grieve when we fall; let us grieve when we remain fallen. Falling happens often even to the perfect» (from Homily 90). But to remain in it is complete death for us. And the grief with which we grieve over our falls is reckoned to us by grace in place of a pure deed. Whoever falls a second time in the hope that he will repent is deceiving God: death comes upon such a man suddenly, and he does not live to the time he hoped for, to complete the works of virtue. And also: «It befits us to remember at all times that we need repentance during all twenty-four hours, day and night» (from Homily 87). The word «repentance», as we have seen in practice, means zealous and constant prayer, full of compunction, approaching God with a plea for the forgiveness of past sins and with concern for protection in the future. And also: «Repentance is a grace given to men after grace» [that is, after baptism] (from Homily 83). Repentance is a second birth from God. By faith we have received the promise of the second birth, and by repentance we await its being granted to us. Repentance is a door of mercy opened to those who seek it; through this door we enter into divine mercy, and unless we enter it we shall not find mercy. «For all have sinned», says the divine Scripture, «and are justified by the gift of His grace» (Rom 3:23-24). Repentance is the second grace, and it is born in the heart through faith and fear. Fear is a father’s rod that guides us until we reach the spiritual paradise; and when we reach it, it leaves us there and returns. Paradise is the love of God, in which is the enjoyment of all good things (in the same Homily). And also: «Just as it is impossible to cross the wide sea without a boat and a ship, so it is impossible to pass over to love without fear. Between us and the noetic paradise lies a foul-smelling sea, which we can cross in the ship of repentance, having fear for our oarsmen. And if the oarsmen — that is, fear — do not steer the ship of repentance in which we cross the sea of this world toward God, then we shall drown in that foul sea.»
Chapter 81. More on repentance, love, mourning, tears and self-reproach.
«Repentance is the ship, fear its helmsman, and divine love the harbour» (Isaac, Homily 83). Fear places us on the ship of repentance, carries us across the foul sea of the world and leads us to the divine harbour, that is, to love. And when we reach love, we reach God; our voyage will be over, and we shall come to that island which lies far from the world, where the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are.
The Saviour Himself speaks of mourning for God: «Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted» (Mt 5:4). Isaac also writes about tears: «The tears that come during prayer are a sign of God’s mercy, which the soul receives when it repents; they are a confirmation that the prayer has been accepted, and that the soul with its tears has begun to enter the field of purity» (from Homily 30). If the ascetic does not cast off thoughts of transient things, and does not cease hoping in the world and despise it, and does not begin to prepare for himself the good road of his own death, and if thoughts of what will be there do not begin to stir in the soul, then his eyes will not be able to shed tears. Tears multiply and increase from pure, unceasing prayer without inner chatter; from many and frequent reflections; and from the remembrance of subtle things that arise in the intellect and grieve the heart by their remembrance.
And the author of the Ladder: «As fire devours straw, so a pure tear washes away every defilement, visible and known» (from Step 7). And again: «Let us acquire pure and unstained tears, remembering how our soul will leave the body; in such tears there is no theft and no self-exaltation, but only purification and love for God, and the washing away of sins, and dispassion.» And also: «Do not trust those fountains of tears until you are completely cleansed; wine just drawn from the vat is not to be relied on.» And again: «Tears that come from fear guard the soul by themselves; but those that come from love are sometimes stolen from some, unless a great fire of remembrance is kindled in the heart during the work. And it is surprising that what is humbler proves in time to be the firmer.» And also: «Tears over death give birth to fear; when fear gives birth to courage, then joy comes; and when measureless joy subsides, then the flower of holy love blossoms» (from the same Step).
On self-reproach. From the writings of Antony the Great: the great Antony says of self-reproach: «This is a great thing for a man, that he should set his sins before himself in God’s presence and expect temptation until his last breath» (in the sayings of the fathers, on humility). And another holy father, when he was asked, «Father, what is the greatest thing you have gained on this path?», answered: «To reproach myself in everything.» And the one who had asked praised this answer, saying: «There is no other way but this.» And Abba Poimen confirmed it: «All the virtues have entered into this world. Take one virtue, and without it a man can scarcely hold on.» And they asked him: «Which is this honourable virtue?» And he answered: «That a man should always reproach himself.» And he also said: «Whoever reproaches himself, whatever happens to him — whether it be some loss, or dishonour, or some affliction — thinks beforehand that he deserved it, and is never dismayed» (in the book of Abba Dorotheos, page 52).
Chapter 82. On attentiveness and on establishing oneself wisely.
Similarly the divine Paul writes about attentiveness and steadfastness: «Consider carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil» (Eph 5:15-16). And Saint Isaac: «O wisdom, how wise you are and how you foresee everything in advance! Whoever buys freedom from great passions at a small price — that is, at the cost of some possession — does well. And this too is wisdom: always to be sober both in small things and in the smallest, for then great peace of soul is obtained; and the ascetic does not sleep, lest something contrary befall him, but cuts off the causes beforehand and in small things suffers a small sorrow, thereby overcoming a great one» (from Homily 75). And further: «That is why the wise man says: be alert and sober in your life, for the sleep of the intellect is an image of true death» (ibid.). Saint Basil also says: «Whoever is slothful in small matters, do not believe that he will accomplish anything great.»
Chapter 83. That one must attend to everything that has been said, and above all be modest and still, and strive to invoke the Lord Jesus Christ silently within the heart.
Attend, therefore, to everything that has been said, and above all to invoking the Lord Jesus Christ in the depth of your heart, silently, submissively and with a clear conscience, as we have said. When you do this, divine grace rests upon your soul. And the author of the Ladder says: «Let no one full of anger and self-exaltation, of arrogant and malicious countenance, dare to approach stillness, lest he fall into frenzy» (from Step 27). When a man is clean of these things, he will profit more from stillness; but not the former sort. And then grace will not only rest upon your soul but will also give the soul complete rest from the demons and passions that oppressed it at first. And even if these still press upon it, they will have no power over it, since the soul no longer inclines toward them or seeks pleasure from them.
Chapter 84. On good vigilance in rapture, and on divine beauty.
All the longing of such a man, and the vigilance of his heart in rapture, and his whole striving are directed toward that most gracious and blessed beauty which the fathers called the end of all desires. Basil the Great says: «When the desire for piety enters the soul, it laughs at every struggle, and all the blows it receives, because of this desire, bring it pleasure and cause it no wounds.» And again: «Is there anything more beautiful than divine beauty? What thought is more joyful than the thought of God’s great beauty? What desire of the soul is so strong and irresistible as that which comes from God in a soul cleansed of sin, which says with assurance: I am faint with love (Song 2:5)?»
Chapter 85. On warfare, on instructive permission, and on abandonment following a turning away.
The ascetic also experiences warfare because of instructive permission, not because of abandonment following a turning away. And why? So that his intellect may not be exalted because of the good he has gained, but that, undergoing warfare and receiving instruction, he may always keep humility, and with it may not only defeat those who fight against him but also receive greater gifts, advancing as far as is possible for human nature which, bound and weighed down by the inescapable chains and burdens of the flesh, presses on toward perfection in Christ and dispassion.
Saint Diadochos says: «The Lord Himself says that Satan fell like lightning from heaven (Lk 10:18)» (chapter 86), so that he, the evil one, might not look upon the dwelling of the holy angels. How then can he, who has nothing in common with the good servants of God, share a dwelling with God, that is, the human intellect? To say that this happens by accident means nothing; for the soul is not deprived of the divine light when such permission is given — only grace hides its presence from the intellect, as though to cast the soul into the bitterness the devil brings, so that with all fear and great humility it may seek help from God, gradually coming to know the malice of its enemy. It is like a mother who for a while takes a mischievous child from her arms, so that, frightened by hostile people around him or by some animals, he may return to his mother’s arms with fear and tears. But the abandonment that follows a turning away hands the soul over to the demons as one that does not wish to know God. But we are not children of that fear — may this never happen to us! We believe that we are infants of the true grace of God, nourished like milk by small chastisements and frequent joys, so that by His grace it may be given us to reach «mature manhood, to the measure of the full stature of the fullness of Christ» (Eph 4:13).
And again: «The instructive permission brings great sadness and humility and measured discouragement to the soul, so that its glory-loving and reckless power may be wondrously turned toward humility. It brings with it at once the fear of God, and tears of confession, and a great longing for complete silence. But when God turns away from the soul, it is filled with despair and at the same time with unbelief, and anger, and pride.» It befits us to know what these two permissions are like, and accordingly to give thanks to God, so that He may teach us restraint and, like a good Father, may teach us to distinguish virtue from sin. It must be remembered that when the soul contends with Satan during instructive permission, grace does not manifest itself openly, but supports the soul with invisible help, to show its enemies that the soul itself has won the victory.
Saint Isaac also says: «It is impossible for a man to gain experience in the spiritual battle, and to know his Maker, and to understand his God, and to be firmly established in faith in Him, except by the power of the experience he has acquired» (from Homily 49) — that is, through the temptations that come upon him. And when grace sees that even a little self-exaltation has begun in a man’s thought and that he has begun to think arrogantly of himself, it immediately allows temptations to rise up against him and to press upon him, until he understands his weakness and flees and clings humbly to God. This is how a man reaches the stature of a perfect man who believes in the Son of God and trusts in Him and grows in love. God’s love for man is revealed in a wondrous way: sometimes it is found in the very things that limit a man’s hopes, and there God shows the power of salvation that is in Him. And sometimes a man finds the power of God in peace and spaciousness; and it happens that God shows His power perceptibly only in the land of stillness and in the desert, and in places where there are no meetings with people and no bustle.
Chapter 86. On dispassion, and what human dispassion is.
To all this we must add a brief word about dispassion and perfection, and with this end our writing. Basil the Great says the following: «Whoever loves God and His dispassion, and wishes to retain even a small part of it, and also wishes to know the spiritual sanctuary, and stillness, and freedom from care, and gentleness, and gladness, and the joy these generate, hastens to turn his thoughts away from every passion that confuses the soul, and contemplates divine things with a pure and unclouded eye, satisfying himself insatiably with the light that is there. Having trained the soul to be in such a disposition and order, as far as possible, he becomes like God and is loved and desired by Him, because he has endured a great and difficult struggle and, while remaining in his own nature, has been able to converse with God with a pure intellect divorced from bodily passions.» This is what can be said about dispassion.
Saint Isaac writes about what human dispassion is: «Dispassion is not the absence of any feeling of the passions, but the not accepting of them. When an ascetic has acquired numerous and varied virtues, both manifest and hidden, the passions in him cannot and will not be able to rise up in his soul, and there is no need for him to watch over them with his intellect. His thought can then be filled at all times with the finest images from his study and from the conversations that stir in his intellect» (from Homily 48). And when the passions begin to stir and trouble him and thoughts draw near, he is suddenly seized by some heavenly image that has entered his intellect, and the passions remain inactive. This is what blessed Mark also says: «The intellect by God’s grace fulfils the virtues and, when it comes close to contemplation, scarcely feels the sin and folly of the soul» (in the same Homily). For contemplation carries it to a height and estranges it from everything in the world.
In ascetics, because of their purity and subtlety and lightness and the keenness of their intellect, and because of their labours, the intellect is purified and becomes transparent, since their body has been dried out by exercise in stillness and by long abiding in it. Therefore they are easily and swiftly drawn to contemplate what is within them and to be filled with awe at it; and because of this their thoughts are multiplied, and they are never without those visions that bring them spiritual fruit. In their hearts, through long habit, the memories of the passions that trouble the soul are weakened; and their petitions concern quite other things, so that the power of the claws of passion cannot possess their spiritual senses.
Blessed Diadochos says: «Dispassion does not mean that we shall not be attacked by demons (chapter 88), for then we should have to go out of this world (1 Cor 5:10), according to the apostle; it means that when they attack, they will not defeat us. For armoured warriors too are shot at by the enemy, and hear the noise of the shots, and see the arrows aimed at them, yet suffer no wounds, because their armour protects them. Just as they, protected by iron, remain invulnerable when attacked, so we, armed with the light of holy armour and wearing the helmet of salvation and equipped with all good works, will scatter the regiments of dark demons. For purity is not only that we do not do evil, but that we reject evil through good vigilance.»
Saint Maximos divides dispassion into four kinds: «The first dispassion is when the bodily impulse toward sin is not acted upon. The second dispassion is the complete rejection of passionate thoughts in the soul, through which the movement of the passions withers away in the first dispassion, since there are no passionate thoughts to kindle them. The third dispassion is complete unmovedness with regard to the passions of desire, which likewise arises from the second dispassion, through purity of thoughts. And the fourth dispassion is the complete rejection in the intellect of all sensory imaginings, which gives rise to the third, since there are no sensory imaginings to give birth to the images of the passions.» And also: «Dispassion is a peaceful state of the soul, in which it does not incline toward sin.»
Chapter 87. More on dispassion and perfection.
Saint Ephrem says this about dispassion and perfection: «The dispassionate move irresistibly toward the end of all desires, making perfection imperfect, since there is no end to the eternal good. Perfection can be measured by the limit of human strength, while imperfection is that which can always be surpassed by daily struggles and constant ascent toward God.» Similarly Saint Neilos speaks of perfection: «It must be known that there are two perfections, one temporal and the other eternal — of which the apostle Paul makes mention: When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away (1 Cor 13:10). The words when the perfect comes mean that here we cannot even contain divine perfection.» And also: «The divine Paul knows two perfections and knows that one and the same man can be both perfect and imperfect — perfect with regard to the present life and imperfect with regard to the life to come. That is why he says: Not that I have already attained the goal or am already perfect, but I press on to see whether I may attain it; and a little later: Let those of us who are perfect think in this way (Phil 3:12, 15).»
Chapter 88. On desire, on sensuality, on passion and on dispassion.
Saint Elias the Presbyter also says: «Desire of the body, sensuality of the soul, and passion of the intellect — all these are evils. The first is disclosed through touch, the others through the remaining senses. And what is opposed to them, that is, dispassion, is disclosed through the opposite of touch and of the senses.» And also: «The sensual man is close to the man of desire, and the passionate man is close to the sensual, while the dispassionate man is furthest from them both» (chapters 71 and 72).
Chapter 89. What the man of desire, the sensual man, the passionate man and the dispassionate man are; and the remedy for each of them.
«A passionate man is one who has an inclination toward sin, even though he does not sin openly.» «Desire dies in the soul through fasting and prayer; sensuality through vigil and stillness; passion through silence and attentiveness; and dispassion comes from the remembrance of God» (chapter 74).
Chapter 90. On faith, hope and love.
Since faith, hope and love are the beginning, middle and end of every good — and we may say that this triple-plaited, God-woven cord is the giver and steward of every good, and most of all love, since God is called Love and is Love — it would be wrong not to add a word about them to what this writing still lacks. Saint Isaac also says: «Only then will a man receive the fullness of the many fruits of the Holy Spirit, when he is granted perfect love.» Let us therefore speak of it.
The holy author of the Ladder says: «After the explanation of all that has been said, there remain these three, which bind and hold all the rest together: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of them all is love, since God too is called Love. It seems to me that the first is like a ray, the second like light, and the third like the sun; yet all three form one radiance and one brightness. The first can create and build everything; the second is surrounded by God’s mercy and does not allow it to falter; and the third never falls and does not pass away, and whomever it strikes it will not let rest from that blessed wounding» (from Step 30). And again: «The angels know love by the working of illumination. God is love, and whoever wishes to define what this love is, is like a blind man wishing to count the grains of sand in the depth of the sea. Love in its qualities is likened to God, as far as a man can grasp; in its working it is the intoxication of the soul; and in its properties it is the source of faith, an abyss of long-suffering, a sea of humility. Love is marked by the rejection of every contrary thought, for love intends no evil. Love, dispassion and sonship differ only in name. As light and fire and flame are close in their working, so understand these three.»
Saint Diadochos says: «Every spiritual vision, brothers, should be preceded by faith, hope and love, and most of all love. The first two teach us to despise visible goods, while love unites the soul with the virtues of God, knowing the invisible God through the senses that are under rule» (chapter 30). And again: «One kind of love is the soul’s natural love, and another is that which comes to the soul from the Holy Spirit. The first is disturbed by our own will, and therefore is easily stolen by evil spirits when we do not govern our desires. But the second so inflames the soul with love for God that all the powers of the soul then cleave to the ineffable goodness of the divine longing in a measureless simplicity of disposition. Then the intellect, as though filled with spiritual activity, draws from the fountain of love and joy» (chapter 34).
And Saint Isaac: «Love for certain things is like a small lamp that shines while fed with oil, or like a stream filled by rainwater which flows only while the rains fall. But the love that comes from God is like a spring flowing from the earth that never dries up, for God Himself is its source and nourishes it» (Homily 30). And when they asked him what the end of the many fruits of the Spirit is, he answered: «When someone is counted worthy of God’s perfect love.» And when he was asked how a man can know whether he has attained such love, he answered: «When the remembrance of God is stirred in his intellect, his heart is immediately moved to the love of God, and his eyes shed many tears. For it is the custom of love to bring forth tears at the mention of the one we love. Such a man is never without tears, since he never lacks that which reminds him of God. Therefore he converses with God even in his sleep, for love is wont to bring about such things. And this is perfection for a man in this life» (from Homily 21).
And also: «The love of God is warm by nature, and when it is found in someone beyond measure, it leads the soul to rapture. Therefore the heart of the man who feels it cannot contain it or bear it, and according to the degree of love he begins to be strangely changed. These are its visible signs: the face grows red and joyful, and the body is set aflame; fear and shyness withdraw from him, and the man becomes as though beside himself; the power of gathering the intellect flees from him, and he becomes as though astonished. He looks upon fearful death as a joy; and when his intellect contemplates heavenly things, there are no obstacles for it. Though absent, he converses as though present, although no one can see him. Knowledge and contemplation come to him naturally, and he does not perceive his own movements when he moves among things. When he does something, he does not feel it, because his intellect is in lofty contemplation and his thoughts seem to be conversing with another. With such spiritual intoxication were the apostles and martyrs once intoxicated. The first went through the whole world, labouring and suffering insults; the second were cut down and poured out their blood like water, and enduring the worst torments they did not despair, but bravely endured and were wise, though they were counted mad. And others wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the earth, remaining devout amid disorder. May the Lord grant us such madness» (from Homily 73).
Chapter 91. On Holy Communion, and on the reasons why frequent communion with a clear conscience is good.
Truly, nothing so helps and contributes to the purification of the soul, the enlightenment of the intellect and the sanctification of the body — to the divine transformation and immortality of both, and to the driving out of the passions and the demons, or rather to supernatural union with God — as to partake, as often as possible and with a pure heart, of the holy, immortal and life-giving Mysteries, the most honourable Body and Blood of the Lord and God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Therefore we must speak of this as fully as we can, and labour so as to conclude and complete this Discourse.
That one ought to partake often of the Holy Mysteries is known not only from what the saints say, but still more from the words of Life itself and Truth itself. For He says: «I am the bread of life. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that whoever eats it may not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world… Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you… He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever» (Jn 6:48-51, 53, 56-58).
And Paul, who bore Christ within him, says the following: «Brothers, I pass on to you what I received from the Lord: that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread and, giving thanks, broke it and said: This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also the cup after supper, saying: This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore let each one examine himself, and so eat of this bread and drink of this cup. For he who eats and drinks without discerning the Lord’s body eats and drinks judgement upon himself. That is why many among you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves, the Lord would correct us so that we should not be condemned with the world» (1 Cor 11:23-32).
Chapter 92. What we must learn concerning the wonder of the Holy Mysteries: what they are, why they are given to us, and what benefit comes from them.
Chrysostom writes: «We must know what the wonder of the Holy Mysteries is, what they are, why they are given to us and what benefit comes from them. We are all one body, and members of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His bones. Let those initiated into the mysteries listen carefully to these words. Let us be so united not only in love, but let us be joined with Him in the flesh through this mystery. This mystery becomes the food that the Lord gave us, showing His great love for us. Therefore He mingled Himself with us and His body with ours, so that we might be as a body united with its Head; for so do those who love greatly. Job also bears witness to this, recalling the servants who said to him out of great love: Who will give us of his flesh, that we may be filled? (Job 31:31). That is why Christ did this, drawing us into greater love and showing His love for us, allowing those who wish not only to see Him but to touch Him, and to consume Him, and to be united with Him, and to fulfil every longing» (Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily 46). And also: «Those who partake of the most holy Body and pure Blood stand with angels and archangels and the heavenly powers, clothed in Christ’s royal robe and holding spiritual weapons. But I have not said anything great: they clothe themselves in the King Himself» (same Homily 46).
Great and fearful and wondrous as this mystery is, in the same measure — if you come to it purely — you come to salvation; but if with an evil conscience, then to torment and punishment. For it is said: «He who eats and drinks without discerning the Lord’s body eats and drinks judgement upon himself» (1 Cor 11:29). If those who defile or tear the royal purple are punished, then undoubtedly those who receive this Body with impure thoughts are punished too. They will suffer the same torment as those who pierced this Body with nails. Listen to the fearful torment of which the apostle Paul speaks: «Anyone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will he deserve who has trampled the Son of God underfoot and counted as common the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified?» (Heb 10:28-29). Let all of us who partake of this Body and consume this Blood consider that we are consuming the Body of Him who sits in heaven and whom the angels worship. Woe is me! How many roads to salvation there are for us! He made us His Body, He gave us His Body — and still we do not turn away from evil (Homily 3 on the Epistle to the Ephesians, folio 194). And also: «A certain wondrous elder told me that he had been granted to see and hear that when someone before death partakes of the Holy Mysteries with a clear conscience, then for the sake of that holy Communion angels accompany him and take him hence.»
The divine John of Damascus also says: «Since we are twofold and composite, it is fitting that our birth should be twofold and our nourishment composite. We are born of water and the Spirit, and our nourishment is the bread of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven. As in baptism He joined the grace of the Holy Spirit to oil and water, because it is customary for men to be washed with water and anointed with oil, and made this the laver of new birth, so, because it is usual for man to eat bread and to drink water and wine, He joined His divinity to these and made them His Body and His Blood, so that through ordinary and natural things we might attain what is supernatural. The body born of the Holy Virgin does not come down from heaven after the ascension, but the bread and wine are changed into God’s Body and Blood. It is enough for you to hear that this happens by the Holy Spirit, as it did with the holy Mother of God. We know nothing more; we know only that the Word of God is true and effective and all-powerful, and that the manner of its working is unsearchable. For those who receive communion worthily it is for the forgiveness of sins and for the healing of soul and body; and for those who receive unworthily, for condemnation and torment. And this bread and wine are not a symbol of the Body of Christ, but the deified Body of Christ Himself and His Blood: My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The Body of Christ and His Blood give growth to our soul and body; they are not consumed, are not subject to corruption, are not cast out, but are united with our nature and guard it from all defilement. For even when gold contains impurities, it is purified by fire, so that we may not be condemned together with the world. Having been cleansed, we become the Body of Christ. This bread is the bread of the age to come, for it is preserved for us in the coming age. The body of the Lord is life-giving Spirit, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit — I say this not to deny the body, but to show its vitality and its divinity. The Body and Blood of Christ are called figures of what is to come, not because they are not truly the Body and Blood of Christ, but because through them we now partake of the divinity of Christ, while in the age to come we shall partake of the very contemplation of Him.»
The divine Mark says: «Just as wine spreads through the whole body of the one who drinks it, and the wine is in him and he in the wine, so it is with him who drinks the Blood of Christ: he is filled with the Spirit of the Godhead, which is dissolved into the perfected soul and the soul into it; and being thus sanctified, he becomes worthy of the Lord. For we have all been made to drink of one Spirit; and those who truly partake of the Eucharistic bread are granted to become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and thus worthy souls can live for ever. As the body does not live of itself, but its life comes from outside, that is, from the earth, so with regard to the soul God willed that it should have its food and drink and clothing not from its own nature but from the divinity and from God’s Spirit and light, which are the true life of the soul. The divine nature also has the bread of life, which said: I am the bread of life (Jn 6:48), and living water, and wine that gladdens, and the oil of joy.»
Saint Isidore says: «The communion of the Divine Mysteries is called union, because it gives us union with Christ and makes us partakers of His Kingdom.» Saint Neilos says: «It is impossible for the faithful to be saved in any other way, and to receive forgiveness of sins and to gain the Kingdom of Heaven, than by partaking of the most pure Mysteries of the Body and Blood with fear, faith and love.» Saint Basil also writes similarly in his letter to the noblewoman Caesaria: «To receive communion every day and to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ is good and very profitable, since the Saviour Himself says clearly: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (Jn 6:54). Who can doubt that to partake often of Life means nothing other than to live abundantly? We receive communion four times a week: on Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and on other days if the commemoration of a saint falls then» (from Book 3, Letter 90). I think that on these days this saint celebrated the Divine Liturgy; he could not do so every day, burdened as he was with so many cares.
Abba Apollo also said that a monk should, if possible, partake of the Mysteries of Christ every day; for he who partakes of them often partakes of the Saviour, who says: «He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me» (Jn 6:56). Therefore it is profitable for us always to be worthy to receive the holy Mysteries, for in this way we also receive forgiveness of sins. The author of the Ladder also says: «If a body touching another body is changed by that action, how shall he not be changed who touches the Body of God with undefiled hands?» (from Step 28).
And so it is written in the Gerontikon: «John of Bostra, a holy man who had power over unclean spirits, asked the demons dwelling in possessed girls and working evil in them: Why are you afraid of Christians? And they answered: You have three truly great things. The first is what you wear around your neck. The second is that with which you are washed in church. And the third is that which you consume at the assembly. He asked further: And of these three, which do you fear most? They answered: If you kept well that of which you receive communion, none of us would be able to harm a Christian. Therefore our enemies fear most of all the cross, baptism and holy Communion.»
Chapter 93. The conclusion of all the reasons set out at length, and particular counsel to him who asked for them.
Behold, most beloved child, with God’s help your request has been fulfilled. Whether it has been fulfilled according to your desire and hope we do not know; but it was beyond our power, and God loves what is done beyond one’s power. See that you do not stop here in study and diligence, but be watchful and love to learn. For the glorious brother of the Lord says: «My beloved brothers, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For he who only hears the word and does not act on it is like a man who looks in a mirror at the face he has by nature: he glances at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what he was like. But he who looks carefully into the law of freedom and abides in it — not as a forgetful hearer but as a doer — will be blessed in what he does» (Jas 1:22-25).
Chapter 94. How you should listen to and understand the spiritual words of the fathers.
First of all, you must understand and listen to the divine and spiritual instructions of the fathers with due reverence. Saint Makarios says: «Spiritual things are beyond the reach of the inexperienced. And in order for a holy and faithful soul to grasp them, the communion of the Holy Spirit comes to its aid. Then the heavenly treasures of the Spirit are shown to those who receive them by experience, while those who have not gained such experience are wholly unable to receive or understand them. Therefore listen to them with reverence, until you yourself, believing, are granted to receive them. Then with experienced spiritual eyes you will see what blessings and mysteries Christian souls may partake of even here.» When you are in this state, you will quickly reap the fruit and benefit of what has been written and what you have heard. And when you learn, and put into practice what you learn, then you will also teach others from your own experience and instruct them in mysterious things. May this be so for you, established on the almighty palm of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
And since an excess of words is wearisome to the body, it is best for us, who avoid excess and welcome moderation, to dwell only a little longer upon this writing.
Chapter 95. That the chief thing is prayer; and on the divine power.
To this end: whoever wishes to be soberly wise, let him always, drawing in air through the nostrils and leading it to his heart, which lies beneath the left breast, make the effort to pray purely and without hesitation, attending only to the words he prays, and studying and meditating upon them, that is, upon the words: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me — until the intellect within the heart is enlightened. As Saint Diadochos says: «Those who unceasingly study the glorious and greatly desired name of Jesus Christ in the depth of their heart may one day see the light of their own intellect» (chapter 59).
When by God’s help this comes about, from then on we shall walk the path of our life following God as in the light, for we shall become sons of light, neither straying nor stumbling, as the Giver of light, Jesus, says: «While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light» (Jn 12:36). And He also says: «I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life» (Jn 8:12). And David cries out to the Lord: «In Your light we shall see light» (Ps 36:9). And the divine Paul: «God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts» (2 Cor 4:6).
God, like an unquenchable and all-luminous lamp, guides the faithful; through Him they raise their eyes to the highest heights, and because they have pure hearts the heavenly doors of a life and order equal to the angels’ are opened to them. God shines upon them like the sun, so that they may search out, reason, see and foresee. Through God the unknown is made manifest to them and the revelation of mysteries shines forth; through the Spirit they are filled with supernatural and divine power, and thanks to this supernatural power their bodies are lightened, or rather the burden of their flesh is refined and soars upward.
By this enlightening power of the Holy Spirit some holy fathers, while still in the body, crossed impassable rivers and seas on which ships sail without wetting their feet, as though they were beings without sense or reason; they covered long journeys of many days in an instant, and did other wonderful things — in the sky, on earth, in the sun, on the sea, in deserts, in cities, in various regions and directions, with wild beasts and reptiles, with animals and with growing things, with lifeless stone and with all creation and all the elements — and in all this they were glorified. And when they stood at prayer, their honourable bodies were lifted from the ground as though they had gained wings, because the divine and supernaturally blessed fire burned away the hardness and heaviness of the body; and it seemed — O wonder! — that strength and grace had settled in them after their nature had been changed and as it were reforged by God’s hand. After death the honourable bodies of some of them remained incorrupt, showing clearly that in them, and in all who believe as they did, supernatural grace and power dwell.
And after the general resurrection this same enlightening power of the Holy Spirit will give them wings and take them up in the clouds, into the air, to meet the Lord, as the divine initiate Paul says: «And so they will be with the Lord for ever» (1 Thess 4:17). The spiritual David also sings of this: «They shall walk in the light of Your countenance, and in Your name they shall rejoice all the day, and in Your righteousness they shall be exalted. For You are the glory of their strength, and by Your favour our strength shall be lifted up» (Ps 89:15-17). And also: «For the mighty ones of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted» (Ps 47:9). And the great Isaiah says the following: «Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength like the eagle; they shall lift up their wings, they shall run and not grow weary» (Is 40:31).
And Saint Makarios: «Every soul that by faith and vigilance in the virtues has been counted worthy to put on Christ in power and full assurance, and has been united with the heavenly light of the incorruptible image, is granted to contemplate the heavenly mysteries always and truly. And on the day of resurrection the body too will be glorified with the soul in the same heavenly manner; the Spirit will take it up to heaven, into the air, to meet the Lord, and it will be counted worthy to become such as the body of His glory; and thus for ever the body will reign together with the soul.»
Chapter 96. More on the chief thing.
The beginning and mother of these new words, which is above all words, is stillness with complete freedom from care, together with attentiveness and prayer. And a firm foundation and invincible protection for them is the fulfilling of all the God-revering commandments. From these four — freedom from care, stillness, attentiveness and prayer — comes movement and warmth in the heart, which burns up the passions and the demons and purifies the heart as in a crucible. From this comes longing for our Lord Jesus Christ and unceasing vigilance. From vigilance sweet tears often flow from the heart as from a spring, by which the soul and body are cleansed as with hyssop — tears of repentance, of love, of thanksgiving and of confession — and are made tender. And from these comes silence and peace of thoughts, which has no limit, since it surpasses every mind. And from these comes enlightenment, white as snow; and finally dispassion in a man and the resurrection of the soul before the resurrection of the body; and moreover, by activity and contemplation, by faith, hope and love, the restoration of the image and likeness, the return and complete uplifting to God, direct union with Him, rapture and rest in Him — standing in the present age as in a mirror, in hope and as a pledge, and in the age to come face to face, in full communion with God and unfailing delight.
Chapter 97. That this is truly the life according to God, free of delusion and true, handed down by the fathers — that is, stillness after obedience, which the holy fathers rightly called the hidden life in Christ.
This path and spiritual life according to God, and the sacred work of true Christians, is a life in Christ free of delusion, true, pure and hidden. The Man of God walked this path and taught us to walk it, the most sweet Jesus; the divine apostles walked it too, and those who came after them, our glorious guides and teachers, who from the first coming of Christ upon the earth until this day shine like lamps in the world with the enlightenment of the words of life and with glorious deeds. They handed on to one another this good seed, this sacred leaven, holy beginning, unstealable pledge and grace, power from on high, pearl of great price, divine portion of the fathers, treasure hidden in a field, betrothal of the Spirit, royal sign, living and flowing water, divine fire, precious salt, anointing, seal and light — so that all this might continue to be handed on, passing mysteriously from generation to generation until the second coming of Christ. He spoke truly who promised: «And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age» (Mt 28:20).
Chapter 98. That there are other paths of salvation, but that this path is the chosen and royal one and leads to sonship.
Although there are other paths and ways of life, and, if you will, good works too have guided and given rest to those who passed through them; and although there are still paths that lead to the condition of a servant or of a hireling; and although in the house of the Heavenly Father there are many mansions — yet this path is royal and chosen, and higher than all other activities, as the soul is higher than the body. This path renews the man who passes through it as he ought, from earth and ashes to God’s sonship, and makes him glorious in spirit, like a god. Basil the Great also says: «The Holy Spirit came to the soul of man and gave it life, gave it immortality, and raised it up when it lay fallen. That which the Holy Spirit always raised by an essential movement became living and holy. And when the Holy Spirit dwelt in a man, he took on the dignity of an apostle, of an angel and of a god — he who at first was earth and ashes.»
Chapter 99. That because of the height of this activity, this life is called by various names.
That is why the divine fathers call it by various glorious names. This way of which we have spoken has been called praiseworthy activity and right contemplation, prayer above all space, sobriety of the intellect, activity under a rule, the work of the age to come, the angelic life, the heavenly life, the divine ordeal, the land of the living, mysterious contemplation, the spiritual feast, the God-given paradise, heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, a darkness beyond light, the hidden life in Christ, the contemplation of God, and a deification that is beyond all nature.
Imitating these divine fathers, we who live «among clay and brick» (cf. Ex 1:14), cunning and impure in thought, word and deed, have tried, beloved, to fulfil your request. Truly we were not slothful in doing as you asked, and beyond our own measure, for the sake of your love and of the commandment of the fathers, as we said at the beginning of this Discourse. The teacher of this life equal to the angels is the new and indescribable work of the Word and Son of God, and His incarnation by the good pleasure of the Father who has no beginning and the co-operation of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 100. Exhortation.
With God’s help and grace it befits us to try and strive as much as we can, so that we may be betrothed from now on to these supernatural and majestic gifts, and that it may not happen that we fail to possess them because of a little despondency. Since such blessings await us, beloved — not only in hope and in promises for the age to come — let us truly labour now, while we have time. Let us go and take up the struggle, so that we too may be counted worthy of them, by a small and temporary effort and a short labour, and above all by God’s gift and grace. «The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us» (Rom 8:18), according to the words of Paul, the divine herald. Let us labour from now on so that, according to his own testimony, we may receive «the first fruits of the Spirit» (Rom 8:23; cf. 2 Cor 1:22).
When a man succeeds in becoming related to a royal family, he does everything possible to maintain that connection — in deeds, in words, in thoughts, even holding his own life of no account for the sake of such glory and honour, which is passing and temporary, and often attaining thereby complete ruin rather than benefit. How much more, then, does it befit us to labour and strive, when God calls us to fellowship, to a wedding and to union with Himself — God, the King of all kings and the Creator, one and everlasting, who grants to His own people good and lasting glory and honour. And not only this, but He also gives them to become children of God; for the Scripture says: «But to those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name» (Jn 1:12). He gives the right; He does not compel by force against our will. For compulsion always provokes resistance against the one who compels, so as to answer evil with evil. Thus He honours our right of free choice, so that when a good work is done by His good pleasure and grace, our own effort and diligence may be added to it.
So He, God and Master, has done all that is His. He created us all equal, and died for all, so as to save all equally. And it remains for us to approach Him, to believe in Him, to become His own, and with fear and diligence and love to serve Him, the Master who loves mankind and cares for us, who so loved us that He delivered us from the tyranny of the devil, our enemy and the author of evil, and reconciled us with the Father and God, and made us heirs of God and joint heirs with Himself — which is the most glorious and most blessed thing of all. Let it not happen, then, that by a little despondency and negligence and false satisfaction we deprive ourselves of such great blessings and honour and delight. Let us do everything and labour, and if there should be need, let us not spare even our own life for Him, just as He did not spare His own life for us, though He is God — so that in this way we may be counted worthy of the gifts and crowns both of the present and of the age to come.
May this be granted to us all by the good pleasure and grace of the most good and merciful Lord, our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who so humbled Himself for our sake and by such humility bestows richly from now on His supernatural and beneficent grace. To Him belongs all glory, honour and worship, together with His Father who is without beginning and most pure, and with His co-eternal, most holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the endless ages of ages. Amen.
Note: Evagrios, a most wise and learned man, flourished about the year 318. Basil the Great appointed him a reader, and Basil’s brother, Gregory of Nyssa, ordained him deacon. Gregory the Theologian taught him the sacred words, and he was Gregory’s archdeacon when Gregory governed the Church of Constantinople, as Nikephoros Kallistos testifies in Book 11, chapter 42. At the last, renouncing everything in the world, he entered the monastic life. Having a subtle understanding of spiritual matters and being well able to express his thoughts, he composed numerous writings, of which we have decided to present in this book the Discourse to Hesychasts and the chapters on the discrimination of the passions and thoughts, as being greatly needed and useful.