The First Book of Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Peter of Damascus

The First Book of Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Peter of Damascus

The beginning of this book, with God, of our venerable and God-bearing father, the hieromartyr Peter of Damascus.

Introduction. Why this book was written.

So many and such great gifts have I, wretched man, received by grace from God, having done nothing good, that I grew afraid: through sloth and dullness of heart I might forget these gifts and such benefactions of God, and might not stand before God as one prudent and thankful stands before his Benefactor. That is why I wrote these instructions as a reproach to my miserable soul, and I named all those Scriptures, Lives and Discourses of the holy fathers that I read, so that I might remember at least a little of what they taught.

Since I never owned books and never tried to buy any, I borrowed from the love of Christ what my soul needed, as others borrow what they need for the body. And having read a borrowed book with care, I gave it back to the one who lent it. These were the books of the Old and New Testaments. From the Old Testament: Exodus, Kings, Chronicles, the Psalms and the books of the prophets. From the New: the holy Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and besides these the commentaries on all these books. And of the fathers, the books of Dionysios, Athanasios, Basil, Gregory the Theologian, Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Antony, Arsenios, Makarios, Neilos, Ephrem, Isaac, Mark, John of Damascus, John the bishop, Maximos, Dorotheos, Philemon and other saints, and the Lives and Discourses.

And it pleased me, unworthy as I am, to test everything with hope and effort, searching out the beginning of a man’s salvation and of his destruction. I asked whether every act and every deed saves a man or not; and what it is that all men seek; and how God was served in ancient times and how He is served now; and how men lived in wealth and in poverty, among a multitude of sinners and in the desert, in marriage and in virginity. In a word, I asked how in every place and in every undertaking we find life and death, salvation and destruction. And not only this, for we monks have various rules of life: obedience to a father with body and soul; the silence that cleanses the soul; spiritual counsel instead of obedience; the office of abbot and the office of bishop. And in all of them alike we find those who are saved and those who perish.

And I marvelled not only at them, but also at that ancient angel in heaven who was spiritual by nature, who had wisdom and every virtue, and who suddenly became the devil, darkness and ignorance, the beginning and the end of all sin and wickedness. I marvelled also at Adam, who was held in such honour, who enjoyed good things and lived with God, adorned with wisdom and virtue in paradise, one with Eve — and who was cast out in a moment, became subject to passion and death, and laboured in toil and burdens, in sweat and great sorrow. And Cain and Abel were born to him, the only brothers on earth; and I was astonished that one of them was overcome by envy and cunning and committed murder, and brought upon himself a curse and unrest. I marvelled too at the men descended from them, who perished in the flood because of their many sins. But God in His love for mankind saved those who were in the ark; and among them was Ham, whose son Canaan fell under the curse — for the righteous Noah, so as not to turn away God’s blessing, cursed the son and not the father.

Then I marvelled at those who built the tower of Babel, and at the Sodomites, and at the Israelites, and at Solomon, and at the Ninevites, and at Gehazi, and at Judas, and at all who were good and became evil. I was astonished, too, that God, who is all-good and most merciful, who is Goodness itself, allowed such great and numerous sorrows and temptations to exist in the world. Some He appoints Himself: the labours of repentance, thirst, hunger, weeping, the lack of every necessity, abstinence from pleasures, the weakening of the body in ascetic struggle, vigils, toil, pains, many bitter tears, sighing, the fear of death and of judgement, the trial and the company of demons in hell, the fearful day of judgement, the shame that will be ours before all creation, trembling, the bitter exposure of our deeds and words and thoughts, threats and wrath, torments of many kinds and without end, useless weeping, unceasing tears, endless darkness, fear, suffering, distraction, sadness, anguish and torment of the soul both in this age and in the age to come; and the misfortunes that happen in the world, shipwrecks, countless diseases, lightning, thunder, hail, earthquakes, famine, flood, untimely deaths — in a word, all the evils that come upon us by God’s permission.

Others God does not appoint, but we ourselves want them and the demons bring them: warfare, passions, the many sins that will be named in the next Discourse, from madness to despair and utter ruin; the assaults of demons, battles, torment from the passions, abandonment, cares and the changes of life, anger, slander and every insult that we voluntarily inflict on ourselves and on one another. God wills none of these. And I marvelled also at this: that in the midst of so many evils many were saved and nothing harmed them, while others perished against God’s will.

Learning all this and much more from the divine Scriptures, I was crushed in soul and «poured out like water» (Ps 22:14), and often grew faint, because I could not feel even a little of what I was speaking about. For if I had felt it, I could not have gone on living a life full of sin and disobedience to God, through which all evil, past and future, has come about.

On the beginning of every good: natural knowledge and consent to God’s will.

Yet, having received from grace the desire to search, I found the following reflections of the holy fathers. The beginning of every good is the natural knowledge that God gave to man, or that man learned from the divine Scriptures, or from the guardian angel given to us at holy baptism to guard the soul of every believer — we call this conscience — and which reminds us of the divine commandments of Christ, since by them the grace of the Holy Spirit is preserved in the baptized, whenever he wishes to preserve it.

After knowledge comes consent, and this is the beginning of salvation: a man forsakes his own will and his own understanding and acts according to the will and understanding of God. And when the soul manages to do this, then among all created things there will be found no thing, no act and no place that could prevent it from becoming what God intended from the beginning — according to His image and likeness, and, by grace, in the state of a god: dispassionate, righteous, good and wise, whether in wealth or in poverty, in virginity or in marriage, in authority or in freedom, in submission or in slavery — in a word, at every time, in every place and in every thing.

This is why there were many righteous men before the law, and under the law, and under grace: because they set the knowledge of God and His will before their own will and understanding. And we see many who perished in the same times and in the same circumstances, because they set their own knowledge and desires before God’s. So it has always been.

There are different kinds of knowledge and of deeds. Let each man acquire discernment, either humbly by the wisdom given him by God, or by asking those who have the gift of discernment. For without it what we do will not be good, even though in our ignorance we think it good. By discernment a man learns his own strength and the nature of the work he wishes to undertake, and so begins to serve God by his deeds. In everything, however, he must be ready to renounce his own desires, as we have said, in order to understand God’s intention — that is, what works God wants of us. And if he does not do this, he will not be able to save himself.

That after the transgression we grow up in the passions, and need the labour of repentance.

After Adam’s transgression we all grow up in the passions and, having become accustomed to them, we do not want what is good with joy; we do not seek the knowledge of God and do not act on it with love, as the dispassionate do. Instead we love the passions and cunning, and we do not want the good at all, except out of necessity, fearing torment — this is how those act who receive the word of God with firm faith; while others do not even fear the torment. Although we know about the sorrows of this life and the torment to come, we serve our passions with all our soul; and some, not feeling their bitterness, work at the virtues only under compulsion and unwillingly. Because of our folly we desire that which deserves hatred.

As the sick need their wounds to be lanced and cauterized in order to be healed, so we need temptations and the labour of repentance, and the fear of death and of torment, in order to recover the original health of the soul and to be rid of the disease our madness has brought upon us. And whatever voluntary or involuntary labour the Physician of our souls gives us, we should be grateful for His love for mankind and receive it with joy. In His care for us He has increased voluntary sorrows through repentance and involuntary sorrows through temptations and trials, so that those who are willing to suffer voluntarily may be cured of their sickness and delivered from past torments — and perhaps from present ones as well.

That God does not compel anyone, but enlightens all.

Let the foolish, then, be healed by the grace of the Physician, through fear of torment and of every kind of trial. Those who love their sickness and remain in it are rightly handed over to eternal torment, for they resemble the demons and will suffer with them the eternal torment prepared for the demons, since they wished to be with them and were not thankful to their Benefactor.

We do not all receive God’s kindness in the same way. Some receive the fire of the Lord, that is, His word, and by its action their hearts grow soft as wax; others, through idleness, grow hard as dry ground, and their hearts turn to stone. But the Lord compels none of us to receive. The sun sends out its rays and lights the whole world; whoever wishes to see, sees, and whoever does not wish to see is not forced. No one is to blame for a man’s being deprived of light except the man himself, if he did not want it. God created the sun and the eye, and it is in a man’s power to see or not to see. So it is here also.

God enlightens everyone with knowledge as with rays, and besides knowledge He also gives faith as an eye. Whoever wishes to receive true knowledge through faith preserves it in his memory by his deeds, and God grants him greater watchfulness, knowledge and strength. Whoever has natural knowledge, because he wished to have it, from that knowledge watchfulness is born; from watchfulness, the power to act; from action, the preservation of memory; from memory, a more careful activity, through which a higher knowledge is given; and from this knowledge, which is called wisdom, is born restraint from the passions and the bearing of sorrows; and from these, labour for God and the knowledge of God’s gifts and of one’s own sins. From this is born good understanding, and through it the fear of God; from the fear of God, the keeping of the commandments, that is, weeping, meekness and humility, which give birth to discernment; and from discernment comes foresight — that is, foreseeing future sins and cutting them off in time with the help of experience and memory, since by purity of intellect we remember both what we once did and what we do now, and what was done in secret. Foreseeing sins and cutting them off gives birth to hope, and from hope come dispassion and perfect love.

Such a man no longer wants anything except the will of God; and he leaves this temporal life for the love of God and of his neighbour with joy, so that with wisdom and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and sonship he may be crucified, buried and raised, and may ascend spiritually with Christ, imitating Him, that is, imitating His life on earth. And he simply receives the pledge of the blessedness to come, as the theologian says in the Discourse on the Eight Thoughts: a man has God within himself and becomes dispassionate, righteous, good and wise, because — as Christ Himself says — he keeps the commandments (cf. Jn 14:21), beginning with the first and going on to all the rest. Later I shall say how this order should be kept.

On the order of the passions, from folly to destruction.

And as we have spoken of the knowledge of the virtues, let us speak also of the passions. Knowledge enlightens us like the sun, but the fool covers his own eyes; that is, instead of consent there is unbelief and sloth, and at once forgetfulness, born of idleness and dullness, overcomes knowledge. So from folly comes dullness, and from dullness idleness, and from idleness forgetfulness, and from forgetfulness self-love, when a man loves his own will and his own desires; and this is called love of pleasure and love of glory. From these comes love of money, the root of all evils; and from it, preoccupation with worldly things; and from that, complete ignorance of God’s gifts and of one’s own sins. Because of this the other eight chief passions are implanted in a man: I mean gluttony, and through it unchastity; through them love of money, and from it anger, when a man does not get what he wants, that is, what his own will desires. From this comes sadness, and because of it dullness of heart. Then vainglory, and from it pride. And from these eight come all evil, passion and sin. Because of them a man falls into despair and utter ruin and falls away from God and, as we have said, becomes like the demons.

A man stands between these two roads, that is, between the road of truth and the road of sin, and he sets out on whichever he wishes and walks along it. And the road he has set out on, and those who lead him along it — whether angels and men of God, or demons and evil men — bring him to the end of the road, even if he no longer wants it.¹ The righteous go to God and the Kingdom of Heaven, and sinners to the devil and eternal torment. But the cause of ruin is nothing other than one’s own will, while the cause of salvation is God, who after simple existence bestows also good existence, knowledge and strength. A man cannot have this without the grace of God.

And the devil can do nothing for our destruction: he cannot tear consent out of us, nor bring us to exhaustion or to involuntary ignorance, nor do anything else to compel a man; he only puts the memory of evil into him. Therefore whoever does good, let him thank God, who has given us everything together with our existence; and whoever has chosen and does the opposite, let him blame himself alone. For no one can compel him by force: God created him free, so that he might be praised for choosing the good by his own desire, as befits a rational being created by God, and not by compulsion, like creatures without reason and without soul. We do evil by our own will and our own thoughts, having learned it from the inventor of evil. And God, who is all-good, does not force us, so that we may not incur a greater condemnation by disobeying under compulsion; nor does He take away from us the free will that He Himself gave us.

Whoever wishes to do good, let him ask God in prayer, and knowledge and strength will be given him at once, so that the righteous grace sent by God may be made manifest. He would give without prayer what He gives through prayer; but if a man to whom air is given for life, and who knows he cannot live without it, still fails to give thanks, how much more ought he to thank the One who created him and gave him breath and health to breathe and to live. So we should be greatly thankful to God, who by His grace created prayer, and knowledge, and strength, and the virtues, and us, and everything that is for our sake. And He not only created, but does not cease to care for us, so as to overcome our malice and our enemies, the demons.

For even the devil himself, having lost the knowledge given him by God, became darkened involuntarily through ignorance and pride, and therefore cannot know of himself what he would like to do; instead he watches closely what God does for our salvation and learns from it, acting cunningly and treacherously for our ruin. That is why he hates God; and since he cannot fight against Him, he fights against us, who are created in the image of God, thinking that in this way he takes vengeance on God. And he sees that we listen to him, as the Golden Mouth says.

He saw how God created Eve to be Adam’s helper, and made her his helper in transgression and disobedience. God gave the commandment so that Adam, by keeping it, might keep the memory of the great gifts and give thanks to God; and the devil made that commandment the cause of disobedience and death. Instead of prophets he raised up false prophets; instead of apostles, false apostles; instead of the law he brought in lawlessness; instead of virtues, sins; instead of commandments, transgressions; instead of all truth, every sin; and instead of true dogmas, vile heresies. And again, seeing Christ, who with the greatest kindness comes to the holy martyrs and the holy fathers, whether Himself, or through angels, or by some other indescribable providence, the devil too began to display many kinds of delusion for our destruction. That is why the fathers of discernment wrote that these delusions must not be accepted, whether it be a shape, or light, or fire, or any other delusion.

The devil tries to tempt us at least through dreams or through the senses. And if we accept none of this, then he suggests to the intellect, through arrogance and extreme ignorance, that it should imagine certain images or appearances, so that we may think this is a vision from God or from an angel. He often shows demons in dreams and through the senses as though they were defeated; and when someone submits to him, he devises every kind of trick for that man’s destruction. And sometimes he does all this and his hope is not fulfilled.

Note 1: It is said here that demons lead a man to the end of the road even though he does not want it. This means that his good intention is bound within him, and is itself weak and inactive, because the inclination to evil prevails in him.

That during prayer the intellect must be kept free of every form and image.

This is why the holy fathers say that during prayer the intellect should be kept free of every form, without images or notions, and should accept nothing — neither light, nor fire, nor anything else — but should hold its thought only in the words it utters. For whoever prays with the mouth alone prays to the air and not to God; God listens to the intellect, not to words, as men do. «Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth» (Jn 4:24), says Christ. And: «I would rather speak five words with my mind than ten thousand words in a tongue» (1 Cor 14:19).

Then the devil, not understanding what is happening, puts into us the thought of despair: that in other times there were other men, and through them God worked miracles for the sake of faith, but that now is not the time for such things. We are all Christians and all baptized, and Scripture says: «Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved» (Mk 16:16) — so what more is needed? But if we listen to this and stop here, we shall lose everything and shall be called Christians in name only, for we shall not know that whoever has believed and been baptized must keep all the commandments of Christ; and when he has fulfilled them all, let him say: «I am an unprofitable servant» (cf. Lk 17:10). As the Lord says to the apostles: «Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you» (Mt 28:20).

For everyone who receives baptism says: «I renounce Satan and all his works; I unite myself to Christ and to all His commandments.» Where then is our renunciation, if we do not reject every temptation and every sin that the devil brings us? Let us hate sin with our whole soul and love Christ, keeping His commandments. And how can we keep His commandments if we do not renounce our own will and our own understanding — that is, the desire and the understanding that contradict God’s commandment?

There are many who by nature or by habit love what is good in certain matters and hate what is evil. There are also good understandings that are confirmed by the divine Scriptures; but these need to be examined by experienced men. For what we consider good will not be good until experienced men have judged it, since it may be untimely, or altogether unnecessary and inappropriate, or we may have misunderstood what was said. And not only with the Scriptures: any question at all, when both the one who asks and the one who is asked are inattentive, strays far from the sense of what was said and inevitably causes harm. I have suffered this more than once, both when I was asked and when I asked. When I later understood correctly what had been said, I wondered how similar the words were and how differently they could be understood. So in everything else too we must consider how we ought to act, so that we may act according to God’s will.

That God ordained what is according to our nature, and that above nature there are virginity, non-possession and humility.

God knows our nature best, as the Creator of all, and He has appointed and given as law what is useful for us: not what is foreign to our nature, but what belongs to it and serves only for the perfecting of those who of their own free will wish to rise above nature toward Him — namely virginity, non-possession and humility, but not prudence, since prudence is natural. Humility is above nature, because every virtue is performed humbly by the wise man; and although he is guilty of nothing, he feels himself a debtor and lower than everyone. A prudent man has a debt and acknowledges it: when he does good, he does it out of what he has, and therefore he does not rise above nature as the man of non-possession does. And the married man cannot be like the virgin, for this gift too is above nature. Thus one man is saved when he abandons his own desires and fulfils the will of God, while the other receives from God the crown of patience and glory, because he not only abandoned what the commandments forbid but also, with God’s help, conquered his own nature, and supernaturally loved God with all his soul, and to the best of his strength imitated God’s dispassion.

And because we do not understand ourselves, nor all that happens for our sake, nor why it happens, nor what it is that we all seek, the divine Scriptures and the words of the holy men of old — the prophets, and the righteous, and the holy fathers of the New Covenant — seem to us inconsistent; and those who now wish to be saved are also inconsistent with one another, which ought not to be. From a few words and from the nature of things we know that when a man wishes to be saved, nothing will stand in his way: neither time, nor place, nor circumstance. He need only do everything necessary for salvation, in the way that is pleasing to God, judging with discernment and not forgetting God’s intention. For it is not what we do that matters, but the purpose for which we do it.

That we do not sin involuntarily unless we first consent.

We shall not sin involuntarily if we do not first agree with the thought and are not captured by it. Then the thought brings down the man whom it has captured unawares. In the same way, unconscious transgressions become conscious through transgression. For whoever does not get drunk with wine or with lust does not have his consciousness darkened. But the intellect is darkened by drunkenness, and when it is darkened it sins, and when it sins it dies. So death does not come unawares; it is truer to say that conscious drunkenness brings unconscious death. And it often happens that we pass from voluntary thoughts to involuntary ones, and from conscious ones to unconscious; and since the first seem to us light and easy, we move on to the others involuntarily and without noticing.

For if we had wished from the very beginning to keep the commandments and to remain as we were after baptism, we would not have come to such evil and would not have needed the labour and pain of repentance. Yet if we wish, the second grace of God, that is, repentance, can restore us to our first beauty. And if we do not seek it, then, like the unrepentant demons, we shall go to eternal torment, whether we want it or not. God did not create us in order to be angry with us, but in order to give us salvation, so that, having enjoyed His benefits, we might be grateful and well disposed toward our Benefactor. But our carelessness in recognizing His gifts has brought us to despair. And despair cast us into forgetfulness, and because of it ignorance reigned in us.

When we want to make a beginning, to return to the place from which we fell, much labour is needed, because we do not want to leave our own desires; we think that together with God’s will we may also do our own — but this is impossible. For the Lord Himself says: «I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me», that is, of the Father (Jn 6:38) — although the will of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, since they have one indivisible nature. But this is said for our sake, and about the desires of the flesh. When the flesh is not mortified and a man is not guided by the Spirit of God alone, he will not be able to do God’s will without compulsion. But when the grace of the Holy Spirit reigns in us, then there will no longer be any will of our own, and everything that happens will be according to God’s will. Then we shall have peace within ourselves, and those who love God’s will, like the Son of God and God, will be called sons of God.

That folly gives birth to pleasure and pain, and knowledge to self-restraint and patience.

And no one will be able to understand this unless he keeps the commandments, by which he cuts off every kind of pleasure — that is, his own desires — and endures all the pain that comes with this. Folly gives birth to pleasure and pain, as we have said, and these two give birth to every sin; for the fool becomes a lover of self and can be neither a lover of his brother nor a lover of God, and he does not restrain himself from the passions, that is, from his own desires, nor does he bear sorrows. Sometimes he succeeds in acting according to his will, and then the passions and pride multiply in him; sometimes he does not succeed, and he grieves over it and falls into despondency and depression of soul — the beginning of Gehenna.

But knowledge, that is, wisdom, gives birth to self-restraint and patience. For the wise man restrains his desires and at the same time endures pain; and, considering himself unworthy of pleasure, he is reasonable and grateful to his Benefactor, fearing that because of the good things God has given him in this age he may lose them in the age to come. He practises abstinence and the other virtues, considering himself a debtor in everything. And he finds nothing, not even the smallest thing, with which he might repay his Benefactor; he considers the virtues themselves a great debt, since he receives and does not give. Even the fact that he is permitted to thank God, and that God accepts his thanks, he considers a great debt; and he gives thanks always, doing good deeds and always remaining humble, and considers himself the greatest of debtors and the least of all. Rejoicing in God who does him good, and rejoicing with awe, and humbly drawing near to God’s unchanging love, he accepts sorrows as his due.

That humility comes from knowledge, and knowledge from temptation.

And when still greater sorrows come upon him, he believes that he deserves them and rejoices that it is better for him to suffer in this present age, so that the torments prepared for the age to come may be lightened. In this he recognizes his own weakness and is not proud. And whoever has the grace to know this and by God’s grace to endure it begins to love God. Humility comes from knowledge, and knowledge from temptation. To him who knows himself, knowledge of everything is given; and whoever obeys God will find that all fleshly wisdom obeys him, and afterwards — when humility reigns in all his members — everything will obey him.

«Whoever knows himself», say Saints Gregory and Basil, «dwells at once in greatness and in humility, for he has a rational soul and a mortal body of earth; therefore he is never proud and never despairs, but, being ashamed before his rational soul, he turns away from everything shameful, and, knowing his weakness, he flees from all pride.» Whoever through many bodily temptations and passions of soul has understood his own weakness knows the infinite power of God, and how God saves the humble who call upon Him with the painful prayer of the heart. And then prayer becomes still sweeter to him. Knowing that he can do nothing without God, and fearing to fall, he dares to cling to God, and marvels as he considers how God has delivered him from so many temptations and passions; he gives thanks to the One who is able to deliver him, and gratefully accepts humility and love, and does not dare to judge anyone at all, knowing that as God has helped him, so He can help everyone else, when He wills, as Saint Maximos says.

Perhaps he sees someone struggling with many passions and overcoming them, and considers himself weak; and therefore God will soon help him, so that his soul may not perish. And knowing still greater things, and thinking of his own weakness, he does not give way to sin. But this is impossible for anyone who has not endured many temptations of soul and body. When the power of God strengthens him in patience, he will learn from experience. Such a man does not dare to follow his own desires without asking the experienced, nor to put forward his own understanding. And why should he, if what he wishes to think or to do is not for the life of the body or the salvation of the soul?

How to test a desire or a thought.

When someone does not know which desire or which understanding should be rejected, let him test every thing and every thought by distancing himself from it and abstaining. And when, not having something, he is troubled, and when he obtains it he feels pleasure, and when it is forbidden him he feels discontent, then that thing leads to evil. We must despise it before it settles in us, and strive to overcome it as soon as we feel harm from it. I say this about every thing and every thought without which we can live in the flesh and serve God well. For when a habit lingers, it grows strong and becomes second nature; but when you do not indulge it, it weakens and slowly dies. Both a good habit and a bad one are fed as fire is fed by firewood. That is why we should be eager to learn the good and to do the good with all our strength, so that it may become a habit and be done without effort, as the fathers were able to do great things as though they were small.

Whoever does not want to have even what is necessary for the body, and renounces it in order to walk the narrow and painful path, will not fall into covetousness. For covetousness is not only the acquiring of many things, but also attachment to some one thing, or keeping it by us without need or beyond need. Many of the ancient fathers, though they had great possessions — such as Abraham, Job, David and many others — had no passion for them; they looked on all things as God’s, and that is why they pleased God. And the Lord, the highest perfection and Wisdom itself, cut off the very root of this passion, for He commanded those who follow Him — the highest virtue — to possess not only no property and wealth, but not even their own soul, that is, their own will and understanding.

On the four ways of monastic life.

Knowing this, the fathers fled from the world, since it hinders perfection; and not only from the world, but also from their own will, for none of them ever acted according to it. Some of them lived in bodily obedience and had, instead of Christ, a spiritual father to whom they surrendered their understanding. Others, in the desert and completely cut off from people, had God Himself as their teacher, and for His sake were willing of their own accord to suffer death. Others followed the middle path: keeping silence and living in twos and threes, they became good counsellors to one another in how to please God. And some, having learned obedience, were set as elders over the brethren at their father’s command, and continued to live as though under obedience, keeping the traditions of the fathers themselves; and every act of theirs was good.

But now, because we do not want to leave our own desires — whether we live under obedience or are set in authority over others — no one makes progress. There remained also the withdrawal from people and from the affairs of daily life, so as to walk the middle path and keep silence with one or two brothers, and to study the commandments of Christ and the Holy Scriptures day and night, so that the Scriptures and conscience might rebuke the ascetic, and so that through careful reading and prayer he might understand the first commandment, that is, the fear of God, which comes from faith and from the teaching of the divine Scriptures. And through fear he came to weeping, and through weeping to the other commandments, which the apostle named: faith, hope and love.

Whoever believes in the Lord fears the torment; and fearing the torment, he keeps the commandments; keeping the commandments, he endures sorrows; enduring sorrows, he acquires hope in God; and hope detaches the intellect from every passion; and an intellect detached from passion will have love for God. Whoever wishes to do this, wherever he may be, will be saved.

That stillness is the beginning of the purification of the soul.

Stillness is the beginning of the purification of the soul: in it one learns without difficulty to fulfil all the commandments. «Flee, be silent and keep stillness», one great father was told, «for these are the roots of sinlessness.»² And again: «Flee from men and you will be saved; for conversations do not allow a man to see his own sins, nor the tricks of the demons, so that he might guard himself, nor God’s good deeds and providence, so that through them he might acquire the knowledge of God and humility.»

Therefore, when someone wishes to go to Christ by the short road — that is, through dispassion and knowledge — and to reach perfection with joy, let him not turn aside anywhere, neither to the right nor to the left, but let him carefully walk the middle path, fleeing both excess and slackening in his labours, since both the one and the other are harmful. He must not cloud his intellect with excessive talk or blind it with a multitude of requests, nor confuse it with immoderate fasting and vigil. Rather, the seven bodily activities must be performed with patience, so that one may climb as though on a ladder, fulfilling these seven without ceasing and passing on to moral activity, through which, by the grace of God, discernment is given to the believer, as the Lord says. «All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable» (2 Tim 3:16).

Nothing will hinder the one who wishes to be saved, and nothing has power over us except God alone, who is ready to help us and to protect from every temptation those who cry to Him and wish to do His holy will. Without Him no one can do good, nor suffer evil against his will, unless God permits it for the chastisement of the sinner and for the salvation of his soul. Evil deeds come from us and are done through our sloth and the co-operation of the demons. But all knowledge, virtue and steadfastness are the grace of God, as is everything else. By grace we are given «the right to become children of God» (Jn 1:12), by keeping His commandments. These commandments protect us all the more, and they too are God’s grace, for we cannot keep them without His grace. And we can return nothing to Him except faith and consent.

In a word: keeping all the true dogmas of the faith that we have received, it is good to begin in order, as though learning at school, to perform the seven activities mentioned and to grow accustomed to them by the acts themselves.

A detailed account of the seven bodily activities. The first activity.

These seven activities are as follows. The first activity is stillness, that is, a life free of care, far removed from all the anxieties of life, so that a man, having withdrawn from people and from cares, may escape the noise and the enemy who, like a roaring lion, prowls about seeking whom he may devour by means of conversations and worldly worries.

Note 2: See the Menaion for 8 May, in the life of Arsenios the Great.

Let the soul have one care only: how to please God and to prepare itself uncondemned for the hour of death. With all watchfulness let it learn how the demons rob us, and learn its own sins, which are more numerous than the sand of the sea — sins as fine as dust, and therefore unknown to most. And, weeping always, let it grieve over human nature; and God will comfort it as one that is prudent, and it will rejoice at being able to see what it never expected to see, because it never leaves its cell. And, knowing its own weakness and God’s power, let it be afraid and yet hope, so that it may not grow presumptuous and fall through ignorance, nor forget God’s love for mankind, nor fall into despair when something happens to it.

The second activity.

The second activity is moderate fasting: to eat once a day, and not to the full. To eat some simple dish, easily prepared, one which the soul does not crave — unless there is nothing else — in order to overcome greed and gluttony and lust and to remain dispassionate; and at the same time not to abstain from any kind of food altogether, since it is foolish to reject what God created very good. Let him not eat everything at once, without restraint and greedily, but let him take a little of everything sparingly, once a day, for the glory of God, turning away from nothing, as the accursed heretics do. Wine is useful in its season: in old age and in weakness, and when it is cold, it is very useful; but even then not much should be drunk. In youth, and when it is warm, and in health, it is best to drink water — and even that very little, for thirst is more profitable than all other bodily works.

The third activity.

The third is moderate vigil: to sleep half the night and to spend the other half in psalmody, prayer, sighing and weeping. Thus, through moderate fasting and vigil, the body obeys the soul, is healthy and ready for every good work, while the soul has courage and enlightenment, so that it sees what must be done and does it.

The fourth activity.

The fourth is psalmody, that is, bodily prayer, performed by chanting the psalms and by bending the knees, so that the body may grow tired and the soul be humbled, and our demons flee and our guardian angels draw near — and then a man will know from where his help comes. For if he did not know this, he might grow proud, thinking that he performs his works by himself; and then God would withdraw from him, so that he might learn his own weakness.

The fifth activity.

The fifth is spiritual prayer, which takes place in the intellect when it is free of all thoughts; when the intellect dwells within the words of the prayer and, falling down before God with unspeakable sorrow, asks Him for one thing only: that the will of God may be in all his undertakings and understandings. Let him accept no thoughts, no images, no appearances, no fire, no light — nothing at all; but let him remain without sight, seeing no images and imagining nothing — for it is thus that God beholds him and converses with him. This is pure prayer, which is fitting for the active man; but for the one who contemplates with the intellect there awaits something else, higher than this.

The sixth activity.

The sixth is the reading of the Discourses and Lives of the holy fathers, paying no attention to strange teachings of any kind, still less to heretical dogmas; so that from the divine Scriptures and from the reflections of the fathers a man may learn how to overcome the passions and acquire the virtues, and so that his intellect may be filled with the words of the Holy Spirit and forget the former, alien words and notions he heard outside the cell, and so that by long recitation of prayer and by meditation he may come to good thoughts. Prayer is helped by reading in stillness, and reading is helped by pure prayer, when a man is not too slothful to read or to chant, even though because of the darkening caused by the passions he cannot understand the full force of what he reads.

Arrogance leads to ruin, especially those who consider themselves wise with the wisdom of this world, not knowing that active knowledge is needed for understanding, and that hearing alone will not help us to know God. For hearing is one thing, and doing quite another. He who only listens cannot become a craftsman; he must see, and work, and make mistakes, and be corrected by the experienced, and endure, and cut off his own desires — and when he has laboured hard, he will become a good craftsman. In the same way spiritual knowledge does not come by learning alone; it is given by grace from God to the humble and the wise.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that a man who reads the Scriptures thinks he knows at least something, especially if he is active. But he has not yet known God; he has only heard the words of those who have known God. Many of those who wrote had the knowledge of God, but this man does not yet have it. So what I have written I have gathered from the divine Scriptures; I was not counted worthy to hear it from the Holy Spirit, but heard it from those who heard from the Holy Spirit — as people sometimes hear about a city or a person from those who know that city or that person.

The seventh activity.

The seventh is to ask experienced men about every word and every undertaking, so that through inexperience or self-will a man may not think or do what he should not, as the apostle says: «If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know» (1 Cor 8:2).

Besides these seven bodily activities, a man should have patience in everything that happens, which God allows for our instruction and experience, so that we may see our weakness and be neither presumptuous nor despairing, whatever comes upon us, good or bad. He should turn away from every daydream and every empty word and deed, and should repeat the name of God more often than he breathes, at every time, in every place and in every work, falling down before Him with his whole soul, detaching the intellect from all worldly thoughts and seeking only the will of God. And then the intellect begins to see all its sins like the sand of the sea. This is the beginning of the soul’s enlightenment and a sign of its health. In a word, the soul becomes contrite, the heart is humbled by this, and it truly considers itself lower than everyone; and it begins to know God’s benefits, both those given to all and those given to itself, of which the divine Scriptures speak, and it knows its own sins.

That the commandments are a ladder, and that one must begin with the fear of God.

And he keeps the commandments with understanding, from the first to the last. For the Lord set them up like a ladder, and no one can step over a rung and pass to the next. Going as though by degrees, he passes from the first to the second, and from the second to the third, until they make a man a god, since He who gave them by grace so willed it. Whoever wishes to keep the commandments, let him begin with the fear of God, so that he may not slip and fall into the abyss. Whoever wishes to make progress, let him labour at these commandments and at nothing else; otherwise he will slip and fall into the abyss. As with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, where no one attains the rest unless he begins with the first, so it is with the Lord’s beatitudes. «The beginning of wisdom», says David, «is the fear of the Lord» (Ps 111:10). And another prophet, uttering words from on high, says: «The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord» (Is 11:2-3). Indeed, the Lord began His teaching with fear when He said: «Blessed are the poor in spirit» (Mt 5:3) — that is, let everyone be filled with the fear of God and with unspeakable sorrow of soul. The Lord laid this commandment as a foundation, because He knew that without it a man, even if he lived in heaven, would gain nothing because of pride, through which the devil and Adam and many others fell.

On what one should reflect in order to preserve the fear of God.

Therefore whoever wishes to preserve the first commandment, that is, fear, let him ponder carefully those events of life about which we have written, and the immeasurable and unsearchable benefits of God, and all that God has created and creates for us through the visible and invisible world: commandments and dogmas, prohibitions and promises; how He protects, nourishes, provides for and gives life; how He delivers from visible and invisible enemies by the prayers and intercession of His saints; how He heals the ills that come upon us through our lawlessness; how He always bears patiently with our lawlessness, wickedness and sins, and with all that we have done and are doing and will yet do — may His grace preserve us from it — and with the times when we anger Him in word, deed and thought. And He not only bears with us, but does us still more good, Himself and through angels, through the Scriptures, through the righteous, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the teachers and the venerable fathers.

And as we look upon the sufferings of some and the struggles of others, and marvel at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, at His life in this world, His pure passion, the cross, the death, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and at the indescribable miracles that take place always and every day; at paradise, at the crowns, at the sonship of which He has counted us worthy, and at everything of which the divine Scripture speaks — then, pondering all this, we are amazed. Looking at God’s love for mankind, we tremble and marvel at His long-suffering and at His descent to us; and we lament the loss our nature has suffered — angelic dispassion, paradise and all the good things from which we have fallen — and all the evil into which we have fallen, that is, demons, passions and sins; and we grieve in soul, thinking how much evil has come about through our sin and through the cunning of the demons.

On the second commandment, and that fear gives birth to weeping.

Then God gives the ascetic the second commandment: blessed weeping. «Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted» (Mt 5:4) — that is, those who weep for themselves and for their neighbours out of love and compassion. The man who weeps over himself as over one dead does so because he understands with fear what happens after death and before it; he weeps, sighing from the depths of his heart, with many bitter and painful tears and unspeakable sobbing. He cares nothing for honour or dishonour; he even despises life itself, and often forgets to eat because of the pain of his heart and his unceasing weeping.

On the third commandment: meekness.

Then the grace of God, the common mother of all, gives him meekness and the beginning of the imitation of Jesus Christ, that is, the third commandment, as the Lord says: «Blessed are the meek.» And he becomes firm as a stone, and neither wind nor the waves of life shake him; he remains unmoved in abundance and in want, in prosperity and in adversity, in honour and in dishonour — in a word, at all times. Having judged every matter, he knows that everything passes away, both the pleasant and the sorrowful, and that this whole life is a road into the age to come; and that, whether we want it or not, what must happen to us will happen, and that we trouble ourselves in vain, losing the crown of patience and resisting God. For everything that God does is very good, and we do not know it. «He will teach the humble His judgement» (cf. Ps 25:9), says the Scripture — and He will teach them discernment still more.

Even in a time of trouble such a man is not dismayed but rejoices, for he finds in the trouble profit and the love of wisdom, reflecting that the temptation has not come without cause: he has wronged either God, or his brother, or someone else, in ignorance or knowingly, and now a reason has been found for forgiving that person, so that for the sake of his patience he may receive forgiveness of his own many evils. For if he does not forgive his brother his trespasses, neither will the heavenly Father forgive him his own; and there is no shorter road to virtue than this, the commandment about the forgiveness of sins. «Forgive», says the Scripture, «and you will be forgiven» (Lk 6:37). And because he has been counted worthy to know this and to imitate Christ, he has become meek through the grace of the commandment.

He grieves that the common enemy tempts his brother through sins, so that by this his own weakness may be healed. For God permits every temptation as a medicine for the ailing soul: it grants forgiveness of past and present sins and restrains those to come. Yet neither the devil deserves praise, nor the one who tempts, nor the one who is tempted. The devil, as the author of evil, deserves hatred, for he cares for nothing when he does evil. The one who tempts deserves pity from the one he tempts — not because he acts out of love, but as one who is himself compelled and oppressed. And the one who is tempted endures sorrows for his own trespasses and not for another’s, and so he too is not worthy of praise; for he is not sinless — and if he were sinless, which is impossible, he would endure in hope of reward and in fear of torment. So it is with them. But God, who possesses all things and turns all things to our profit, deserves thanksgiving, for He patiently bears with the devil and with human malice, rewarding every good both before sin and when men repent after sinning.

Whoever has attained discernment has been counted worthy to fulfil the third commandment. And so that the demons may not mock him, whether he knows it or not, he receives the gift of humility and considers himself as nothing. The beginning of humility is meekness; humility is the door to dispassion; and through dispassion a man acquires unswerving and perfect love — the man who has come to know his own nature, what he was before his birth and what he will be after death. For man is nothing but a little stench that quickly passes away, worse than any other creature; since no other creature, living or lifeless, has ever broken God’s counsel, but only man, who, having received so many benefits from God, has always angered God greatly.

On the fourth commandment: hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The ascetic is counted worthy also of the fourth commandment, that is, the desire to acquire the virtues. «Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness» (Mt 5:6), says the Scripture; and there are those who desire and strive for all righteousness, that is, for the bodily virtues and for the moral, which are spiritual. «When a man does not recognize something, he does not know what he is losing», says Basil the Great; but once he has learned, he seeks it eagerly. So too whoever has tasted the sweetness of some of the commandments, and knows that the commandments lead him step by step to follow Christ, longs eagerly to acquire the other commandments as well, and for their sake despises even death. Having felt something of God’s mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures, he longs eagerly to understand them; and the more knowledge he gains, the more he thirsts for it and burns, as though drinking flame; and because divine things are not clear to all, he always remains thirsty. What health and sickness are to the body, virtue and sin are to the soul, and knowledge and ignorance to the intellect.

On the fifth commandment: mercy.

And as much as a man seeks godliness, that is, action, so much is the intellect enlightened by knowledge; and so he is graced with mercy through the fifth commandment, as the Lord says: «Blessed are the merciful» (Mt 5:7). The merciful man is the one who shows mercy to his neighbour with what he himself has received from God, whether it be property, or food, or strength, or a helpful word, or prayer. And when he is able to show mercy to one who asks, he considers himself a debtor, because he has received more than was asked of him: it is as though it has pleased Christ to call him merciful, like God, in the present age and in the age to come before all creatures. Through his brother it is as though God Himself asks him and becomes his debtor. The poor man can live without what he asks for, but the one who is asked cannot live or be saved without showing mercy. For if he does not want to have mercy on one who shares his own nature, how can he ask God to have mercy on him?

Reflecting on this and on much else, the man who has been counted worthy of the commandments gives not only what he has but also his own soul for his neighbour. This is perfect mercy, for Christ too suffered death for us, showing everyone the way and the example of how to die for one another and, when necessary, even for one’s enemies. One does not need to possess anything special in order to show mercy; here we can find no excuse. Even the man who has nothing to give can be merciful to everyone and can help those in need, becoming dispassionate toward worldly things and compassionate toward people. But it is not good to teach out of vainglory, without first showing the thing in action, lest the one who heals souls prove weaker than those who need healing. For every work needs its time and discernment, so that nothing may be done untimely or unnecessarily. It is better for a poor man to keep his distance from everything, and poverty is far better than almsgiving.

On the sixth, seventh and eighth commandments.

Through dispassion the ascetic comes to the sixth commandment, according to the Lord’s words: «Blessed are the pure in heart» (Mt 5:8) — that is, those who have performed every virtue with holy thoughts and have reached the point of seeing the nature of things, and so gain peace in their thoughts. «Blessed», says the Scripture, «are the peacemakers» (Mt 5:9) — that is, those who make peace between soul and body, so that the flesh may be subject to the spirit and may not rise up against it, and so that the grace of the Holy Spirit may reign in the soul and guide it as it wills, granting divine knowledge. Thanks to this such a man endures persecution, insult and reproach for the sake of righteousness, and rejoices, because his reward is great in heaven. All the beatitudes are given by God’s grace to the man who has become meek, who thirsts for all righteousness, who is merciful, dispassionate and a peacemaker, and who endures all pain with joy for the love of God and of his neighbour.

That all these are gifts of God, and on the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of the intellect with Christ.

All these, then, are gifts of God, and we ought to thank Him greatly for them and for the reward prepared for us: the Kingdom of Heaven in the age to come and joy here; the fullness of all goodness and generosity from God; the revealing of the divine mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures and in all His creatures; the great reward in heaven and the imitation of Christ on earth; and the blessedness of every commandment, that is, the highest good and the fulfilment of all desire. For, according to the apostle’s words, God alone is blessed, «who dwells in unapproachable light» (1 Tim 6:16); and it remains for us to keep the commandments — or rather, they keep us — and God, who loves mankind, gives a reward both here and there to the one who believes in Him according to the commandment.

Through all this, which comes about through blessed weeping, the intellect finds relief from the passions. It makes peace with God for its sins by bitter and abundant tears, and it is crucified with Christ in the mind by moral activity, by the fulfilling of the commandments, as we have said, and by guarding the five senses, so as to do nothing unnecessary. Restraining its rational impulses, the intellect begins to subdue the passions within it, that is, the incensive power and desire. Sometimes it calms fierce anger with the gentleness of desire, and sometimes it calms desire with the firmness of anger. Coming to itself, the intellect recognizes its own dignity, because it is free, and begins to see things according to their nature. The left eye, which the devil had blinded by the force of the passions, is opened in him, and a man is counted worthy to be buried in the mind with Christ, away from the things of this world; and their outward beauty no longer robs him.

When such a soul looks upon gold and silver and precious stones, it sees that they come from the earth, like all other soulless things, stones and trees. In the same way it looks upon a man and sees a body that will decay, a handful of dust in the grave after death. Counting all worldly things as nothing, always seeing how they change, with the great counsel that comes from knowledge, the soul becomes dead to the world and the world dead to it, and it no longer drives itself on, but has calm and dispassion.

Thus, through the purity of the soul, the intellect is made able to rise in the mind with Christ, and has the power to look dispassionately upon the outward beauty of things and, recognizing it, to glorify the One who created all; seeing in sensible creatures God’s power and providence, goodness and wisdom, as the apostle says. And contemplating the mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures, the intellect, ascending with Christ, comes to the vision of intelligible creatures, that is, to the knowledge of the spiritual powers; and knowing this knowledge and rejoicing with many tears, it guesses at the invisible through the visible and at the eternal through the temporal. For if this temporal world, which is called the exile and condemnation of those who transgressed God’s commandment, is so beautiful, how beautiful must be the eternal and inconceivable good things that God has prepared for those who love Him? And if those good things are immeasurable in their greatness, how immeasurable is God, who created all things out of nothing.

On the reading and the tears proper to each stage.

When a man frees himself from everything and gives himself to bodily and spiritual activity, which the fathers call godliness, he will not trust any sense or any understanding of his own that is not confirmed by the Scriptures, and he will avoid all idle talk, so as neither to hear nor to read anything empty, still less anything heretical. Then the tears of knowledge and of joy will multiply in him, so that he will drink of their abundance and will come to another prayer, the pure prayer that is fitting for one who contemplates. For as before he needed a different kind of reading and different tears, so he needs different ones now. Since the intellect has attained spiritual visions, from then on it should read all the divine Scriptures, not fearing those words of Scripture that are hard to understand, as the active and the weak fear them through ignorance.

Continuing in his labours, in bodily and spiritual works, he was crucified with Christ and buried with Him, knowing the nature and the changeableness of things; and he rose again with Him through dispassion and the knowledge of the divine mysteries revealed in God’s sensible creatures; and because of this he descends with Christ into the further knowledge of the intelligible mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures. From fear comes godliness to the ascetic; from godliness, knowledge; from knowledge, joy, that is, discernment; from discernment, strength; from strength, understanding; and through understanding, wisdom.

By all the activities and contemplations we have named, the ascetic is granted pure and perfect prayer, which comes through the peace and love of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is what is called «having God within oneself» and «the manifestation and indwelling of God», as the Golden Mouth said. Let the body and the soul be, as far as possible, like the body and soul of Christ, without sin, so that our intellect may think as Christ thought, according to the grace of the Spirit and according to wisdom, which is the understanding of things divine and human.

On the four virtues of the soul.

There are four kinds of virtue. Wisdom, that is, the knowledge of what may be done and what may not, and quickness of intellect. Temperance, that is, that our thoughts be whole and that we refrain from deeds, words and thoughts displeasing to God. Courage, that is, steadfastness and patience in labours for God and in temptations. Righteousness, that is, the distribution that gives its due equally to each of these three virtues.

These four chief virtues are generated from three powers of the soul: from the rational power, that is, the intellect, come two virtues, wisdom and righteousness, that is, discernment; from the desiring power comes temperance; and from the incensive power comes courage. Each of them stands between two unnatural passions. Wisdom is above cunning and below folly; temperance is above insensibility and below unchastity; courage is above insolence and below cowardice; righteousness is above want and below greed. And these four are the image of the heavenly, while those eight are the image of the earthly. Only God knows all this with certainty: He knows the past, the present and the future. And he who by God’s grace has learned from Him and strives to become according to His image and likeness knows in part. But whoever says that he knows this from hearing alone deceives himself. The human intellect cannot ascend to heaven without a guide; and if it does not go there and see, it cannot speak of what it has not seen. When a man has heard something from the Scriptures, let him speak of it with gratitude, as one who has heard it, and let him say where the word came from, as Basil the Great says.

On false knowledge and on active knowledge.

«He who thinks he has knowledge is worse than an ignorant man, for such an opinion does not allow him to doubt his knowledge», says Saint Maximos. «Ignorance can be praised when a man wisely knows that he has no knowledge», says the Golden Mouth. There is no ignorance worse than this: when a man does not know that he has no knowledge. There is also a false knowledge, of which the apostle says: «If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know» (1 Cor 8:2).

There is true knowledge and there is complete ignorance; but best of all is active knowledge. For what use is it to a man if he has all knowledge, and even received it from God by grace, like Solomon, than whom there will never be another, and yet goes to eternal torment because he did not confirm it by works and firm faith — that is, by the testimony of a conscience delivered from future torment, since it does not reproach him for having neglected anything necessary that he could have done? As Saint John the Theologian says: «If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God» (1 Jn 3:21).

However, as Saint Neilos says, sometimes conscience itself is deceived, when it is despised and darkened by the passions, as the author of the Ladder says. «When even one sin darkens the intellect», says Basil the Great, «and blinds the thought and keeps it from doing what it intends, what then shall we say of those who serve the passions constantly?» Do they imagine that they have a clear conscience? They know how it was with the holy apostle Paul, who had Christ within him in word and deed, and who said: «I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby justified» (1 Cor 4:4). Many, out of great insensibility, think themselves to be something when in truth they are nothing. That is why the apostle says: «When they say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them» (1 Thess 5:3). For they did not have peace, but out of great insensibility they thought they had it, says the Golden Mouth. And James, the brother of the Lord, says of such men that they are «forgetful hearers» (Jas 1:25) with regard to their own sins.

Why this collection was written.

«Many proud men do not know themselves», says the author of the Ladder, «and therefore they think themselves dispassionate.» And I, trembling before the three demonic giants of which Saint Mark the Ascetic wrote — dullness of heart, forgetfulness and ignorance — always held fast by them and fearing lest I forget my own measure and stray from the right path, as Saint Isaac says, have written this collection. «He who does not accept reproof shows that he has been overcome by the passion of pride», says the author of the Ladder, «while he who accepts it frees himself from the bonds of passion.» And Solomon says that he who, not knowing, asks about wisdom «is counted wise» (cf. Prov 17:28).

Therefore I first gave the names of the books and the names of the saints, so that I might not have to lengthen this Discourse by saying whose each saying is. The holy fathers often quote the words of the divine Scriptures as they stand: so did Gregory the Theologian, when he set out the words of Solomon, and so did others. And Symeon Metaphrastes, the author of the Discourses, says of Chrysostom: «It would be wrong to leave out his words and speak my own, even if I could.» For they all received the Holy Spirit from one and the same source. Some name the author of a saying, adorning themselves with it out of humility and giving preference to the words of Scripture; others leave many sayings without the author’s name, so that the Discourse may not drag on too long.

That the bodily virtues are instruments of the soul.

These are not my words but those of the Holy Scriptures, and the thoughts are not mine but those of men of God. John of Damascus says that the bodily virtues, as instruments of the soul, are needed when a man passes through them with humility and spiritual knowledge; for without them there are no spiritual virtues. But if a man passes through them without humility, they bring no benefit, like plants without fruit. For without practice and willingness no one becomes a good and skilful craftsman.

Therefore before action we need knowledge; and for everything we need withdrawal from all things in God and the study of the divine Scriptures, without which no one will ever acquire virtue. Whoever is able to withdraw perfectly and always will receive the highest good; and whoever cannot, let him at least not neglect it. Blessed are those who are perfectly trained either in obedience to someone who is active and wisely silent, or in stillness and freedom from all care, submitting to God’s will exactly and with the counsel of those experienced in every undertaking concerning words and thoughts — those who wish easily to lay hold of dispassion and spiritual knowledge, and who withdraw perfectly from everything for God’s sake, as He Himself says through the prophet: «Be still, and know that I am God» (Ps 46:10).

Let ordinary people, that is, those in the world — but monks still more — withdraw at least in part, like the righteous men of old, in order to examine the wretched soul while there is still time before death, and to find for it correction or humility, rather than final ruin through complete ignorance and through sins committed knowingly and unknowingly. King David watered his bed every night with tears (cf. Ps 6:6), feeling the divine fear of which Job spoke: «The hair of my flesh stood up» (Job 4:15). Let us also withdraw at least for some part of the day and night, as men of the world do, and consider what answer we shall give to the righteous Judge on the fearful day of judgement. Let us be anxious about what is necessary, fearing eternal torment, rather than about how the poor man will live and how the lover of silver will grow rich. «Let us not be anxious, O foolish ones, about the affairs of daily life alone», says the divine Golden Mouth. We must work, but not fight and worry about many things, as the Lord said to Martha (cf. Lk 10:41). Everyday cares do not allow us to care for the soul or to know its condition, as the man who practises and watches over himself knows; as it is said in the law: «Take heed lest such a sin arise in your heart» (cf. Deut 15:9). Basil the Great wrote a wonderful Discourse on this, full of all wisdom.

That it is impossible to be saved except by sobriety and by guarding the intellect.

Without attentiveness and alertness of the intellect it is impossible for us to be saved and to escape the devil, who prowls like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, as John of Damascus says. That is why the Lord often said to His disciples: «Watch and pray» (Mk 14:38), showing by these words that we must remember death, so that we may be ready to give a good answer — which comes from deeds and from attentiveness. «For the demons», says Saint Hilarion, «are insensible and sleepless, and care for nothing but to attack us and destroy our souls in word, deed and thought.» But we are not like that: we are anxious about pleasures and fleeting glory, and about the affairs of daily life, and about many other things, and we do not want to examine our life, nor to train the intellect to watch over itself — although Solomon warns: «You walk in the midst of many snares.» The Golden Mouth wrote about these snares most accurately and with perfect precision, explaining what kind of snares they are.

And the Lord, wishing to take away all our troubles, commanded us to despise both food and clothing and to have one care only — how to be saved, as a gazelle escapes from the hunter and a bird from the snare — so that with freedom from care we may attain the watchfulness of the gazelle’s sight and the height of the bird’s flight. And it is remarkable that Solomon said this while he was king, and that his father spoke and acted in the same way. Yet with such attentiveness and such great labours, possessing all wisdom and virtue, with such gifts and manifestations from God, sin overcame them both. For the one lamented both adultery and murder (cf. 2 Sam 11:4, 15), and the other fell into most terrible deeds (cf. 1 Kgs 11:1-8). Will not those who have reason be filled with fear and trembling at this, as the author of the Ladder and Philemon the Faster say? How can we not be terrified and flee from the troubles of daily life, since through our weakness we are nothing and are insensible, like the creatures without speech? Oh, if only I had preserved my nature as they preserve theirs! The dog is better than I am.

That we come to know ourselves through withdrawal, obedience and stillness.

Those who wish to see themselves and their true condition will achieve it only by withdrawing from their own desires through obedience and stillness — and this applies above all to those who are enslaved by the passions. When we wish to see ourselves and the deadly state we are in, let us flee from our own desires and from worldly things, let us keep our distance from everything and labour in that blessed remoteness for God, each one seeking instruction for his soul in the divine Scriptures, whether in complete obedience of soul and body or in the glorious, angelic state of silence. This is said above all for those who are subject to the passions and cannot restrain their desires, small or great. «Sit in your cell, and it will teach you everything.» And also: «Silence is the beginning of the purification of the soul», says Basil the Great. And Solomon says: «This is an unhappy business that God has given to men to be busy with» (Eccl 1:13) — that is, to be busy with vain things, so that out of empty and passionate idleness they may not fall into something worse.

Whoever by the grace of God has escaped these two abysses and has been counted worthy to be a monk, wearing the angelic monastic habit, let him imitate the one God as much as he can, in deed and word, as Saint Dionysios says. «Should he not always train and watch his intellect in all things and have constant instruction concerning the things of God and the state he has reached?» say the holy fathers, Ephrem and others, to the newly tonsured. Let one keep a psalm on his lips, another a single verse, and others keep a watchful intellect in psalms and troparia, since they have not yet come to any understanding, that is, to knowledge; so that there may be no one who, whether working, travelling or resting, remains without some instruction. When a man has fulfilled the rule entrusted to him, let him at once enclose his intellect in some teaching, so that he may not fail to notice his enemy when he ceases to remember God, and so that he may not add his own evil to the enemy’s. This is said for everyone in general.

But when a man is able, through many labours and through the virtues of body and soul, to descend wisely by the grace of Christ into spiritual, that is, mental activity — weeping for his soul — then he should guard, as the apple of his eye, the thought that brings painful tears, as the author of the Ladder says, until fire and water pass away after the harvest, that is, until the ascent. Fire is the pain of the heart and warm faith, and water is tears. «These are not given to everyone», says the great Athanasios, «but to those who have been granted to see the disaster that comes before and after death, and who keep it in memory for ever, remaining silent.» As Isaiah says: «The ear of the silent hears strange things.» And again it is said: «Be still and know» (Ps 46:10).

This alone gives rise in us to the knowledge of God, as the thing most able to help the passionate and the weak: a life free of care and withdrawal from people and from conversations that darken the intellect, and from troubles — not only the great troubles of life but also the small ones that seem to be sinless. For the author of the Ladder says: «A tiny eyelash irritates the eye», and so forth. And Saint Isaac says: «Do not think that love of silver exists only when you have gold and silver; it exists also when the thought is attached to something.» And the Lord says: «Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also» (Mt 6:21) — whether in divine things and thoughts or in earthly ones.

Therefore let everyone strive to acquire freedom from care and peace of intellect in God: those in the world little by little, so that they may slowly come to spiritual wisdom and knowledge; while those who can withdraw from everything completely should be concerned only with pleasing God, so that God, seeing their good will, may grant them peace through spiritual knowledge and teach them by the first revelation, so that they may acquire an unspeakable contrition of soul and become poor in spirit. And thus, raising them little by little to the other insights, He will bring them to keep the beatitudes until they reach the peace of thoughts, which is the place of God, as Saint Neilos teaches, taking these words from the Psalter: «His place is in peace» (cf. Ps 76:2).

On the eight spiritual gifts.

I think that there are eight spiritual gifts. Seven of them belong to the present age, and the eighth is the work of the age to come, as Saint Isaac says.

The first is the knowledge of the sorrows and temptations of this life, as Saint Dorotheos says, and grief over all that human nature has suffered through sin. The second is the knowledge of one’s own sins and of God’s benefits, as the author of the Ladder, Saint Isaac and many other fathers say. The third is the knowledge of the calamity that comes before death and after death, as it is written in the divine Scriptures. The fourth is the knowledge of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world, of the life of His disciples and of the other saints, of the deeds and words of the martyrs and of the venerable fathers. The fifth is the knowledge of the nature of things and of their changeableness, as the holy fathers Gregory and John of Damascus say. The sixth is the contemplation of visible creation. The seventh is the understanding of God’s spiritual creatures. The eighth is the knowledge of God, which is called theology.

Of these eight kinds of knowledge, three are suited to the active ascetic, so that with many bitter tears he may cleanse his soul of all passions and receive the others from God by grace. And five belong to the contemplative, that is, to the one who has knowledge, because he took good care and always performed the bodily and moral — that is, spiritual — activities, and is therefore able to perceive them clearly and with the intellect. Active knowledge begins with the first kind of knowledge; and the harder a man labours and learns from the insights given him and advances in them, the more familiar they become to him, so that the next knowledge comes to mind, and all the rest follow it.

But so that what I am speaking of may be clear, I shall say a little — though I am unable to speak of it — about each of these insights: how they are to be understood and how they may be described. This is so that we may know ourselves and what we should do when grace begins to open the eyes of the soul; so that we may understand and be amazed at what we have understood, and be moved by words that can instil fear in us, that is, the contrition of the soul.

On the first knowledge, and what it begins with.

The first knowledge is that for the sake of which all the others are given to the man of good will. Whoever is counted worthy to attain it, let him sit facing east, as Adam once did, and think in this way: how Adam sat facing the sweetness of paradise and wept, striking his face with his hands and saying: «Merciful One, have mercy on me who have fallen!» And let him repeat in his mind that other verse: how Adam saw the angel who drove him out and shut the door of the divine garden, and sighed deeply and said: «Merciful One, have mercy on me who have fallen!»

Then, considering his present condition, let him begin his weeping, sighing with all his soul and shaking his head, and let him say with pain in his heart: Woe is me, a sinner! What have I lost! Woe is me! What was I, and what have I become! Woe is me! What have I lost, and what have I found! Instead of paradise, this corruptible world; instead of God and the company of angels, the devil and unclean demons; instead of rest, toil; instead of pleasures and joys, worldly sorrow and sadness; instead of peace and constant gladness, fear and bitter tears; instead of virtue and truth, deceit and passion; instead of wisdom and nearness to God, ignorance and exile; instead of freedom from care and liberty, a troubled life and bitter slavery.

Woe, woe! I was created as a king, and through my folly I have become a slave of my own passions. Woe is me, wretched man! How did I, by disobedience, draw death upon myself instead of life? Woe is me! Woe is me! What have I suffered, wretched as I am, through my own folly? What shall I do? On this side is battle, on that confusion; on this side pains, on that temptations; on this side misfortunes, on that shipwreck; on this side fears, on that sins — and from every side distress! Where shall I flee? «I am hemmed in on every side» (Dan 13:22), said Susanna.

I do not know what to seek. When I ask for life, I am afraid of the temptations of life and of its changes and events. I see the angel who at first shone like the day and became the devil; I see the first man banished; Cain a fratricide; Canaan cursed; the Sodomites burned with fire; Esau an apostate; the Israelites who fell under wrath; Gehazi and Judas, who fell away, sick with the love of money; a great prophet and king weeping over two sins; Solomon, who with such wisdom fell away; one of the seven deacons who fell away, and one of the forty martyrs who fell away. Basil the Great says of them: «Rejoicing, the evil leader stole the wretched Judas from among the twelve, and one man from Eden, and one from the forty martyrs.» And lamenting such a man, the same saint says: «Wise and worthy of mourning is he who has lost both the one life and the other: he melted before the fire of conscience and went into the fire that is unquenchable.»

Many have fallen, and they are beyond number — and not only the unbelievers, but many even of the fathers fell after many labours. Who then am I, the worst of all, the most hard-hearted, the weakest? What can I say of myself? For Abraham called himself «earth and dust» (Gen 18:27); David, «a dead dog and a flea in Israel» (cf. 1 Sam 24:14); Solomon, «a child who does not know how to go out or come in» (cf. 1 Kgs 3:7); the three youths said that they were covered with «shame and disgrace» (cf. Dan 3:33); the prophet Isaiah said: «Woe is me, for I am undone» (Is 6:5); the prophet Jeremiah declared that he was a child; the chief of the apostles called himself a sinner; and all the others said of themselves that they were nothing.

What shall I do? Where shall I hide from my many sins? What will become of me? I myself am nothing, and worse than nothing; for nothing has never sinned, nor received such grace as I have. Alas! How shall I live the rest of my life? How shall I escape the snares of the devil? The demons are sleepless and insensible, death is near, and I am weak. Lord, help me. Do not let Your creature perish, for You care for me, wretched as I am. «Show me, Lord, the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul» (Ps 143:8). «Do not forsake me, O Lord my God, do not depart from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord of my salvation!» (Ps 38:21-22).

With such words the soul will be brought to contrition, if there is even a little sense in it. And the intellect, repeating these words and growing accustomed to the fear of God, begins to know and understand the words of the second revelation.

On the second revelation.

Woe is me, wretched man! What shall I do? What will become of me? I have sinned much, I have received great grace, and my weakness is great. Temptations have been many, and dullness of heart has overtaken me. Forgetfulness darkens me and keeps me from seeing myself and the multitude of my evils. Ignorance is an evil, and transgression when one has knowledge is worse still. It is not easy to attain integrity. The passions are many, the demons are evil, sin is easy, death is near, and the examination of our words will be bitter.

Woe is me! What shall I do? How shall I escape from myself? For I am the cause of my own ruin: I have been honoured with free will, and no one can compel me. I have sinned and I sin continually, and I take no care for any good work, and there is no one to force me. Whom shall I blame? God is good and loves mankind, and always wills that I should turn to Him and repent. The angels love me and protect me. Men too wish me well. The demons can compel no one to perish who does not himself wish it, whether through carelessness or through despair. Who then is to blame for me, if not I myself, wretched man?

Here I know a little how my soul is perishing, and yet I do not want to begin a godly life. Why, my soul, do you not take care of yourself? Why, when you sin, are you not ashamed before God and His angels as you are ashamed before men? Woe is me, wretched man! Woe is me! For I am not ashamed before my Creator and Lord as I am before a man. Only in front of a man am I unable to sin; and I am cunning in every way to make it seem that I am doing what is right. But standing before God I think wickedly, and I am ashamed to say much. O my folly! I am not afraid to do evil before God, who sees it; yet I cannot bring myself to tell any man anything about myself, so that he might guide me.

Woe is me! For I know that there is torment, and yet I do not want to repent. I love the Kingdom of Heaven, and yet I do not honour the virtues. I believe that God exists, and I break His commandments continually. I hate the devil, and yet I do not stop doing what pleases him. When I pray, I am inattentive and remain as though insensible. When I fast, I grow proud and become still more blameworthy. When I listen, I think I am achieving something, and even that does me no good. When I read, I fall insensibly into one of two evils: either I read in order to know much out of vainglory, and become more darkened; or I know and no longer act, and for this I receive condemnation.

Though by God’s grace I cease to sin in deeds, I do not cease at any time to sin in words; and when grace delivers me from this too, I, wretched man, always anger God with my thoughts. Alas! What shall I do? Wherever I go, I find sins. Demons are everywhere. Despair is worst of all. I have angered God and grieved the angels; I have done much harm to men and led them astray. I would wish to wash away the record of my sins with tears, Lord, and to please You with repentance for the rest of my life; but the enemy tempts me and overcomes my soul. Lord, save me before I perish utterly. I have sinned against You, Saviour, like the prodigal son; receive me, Father, for I repent, and have mercy on me, O God. I cry out to You, Christ the Saviour, as the publican cried; cleanse me as You cleansed him, and have mercy on me, O God.

What will happen at the last hour, and what will happen afterwards? Woe is me, wretched man! Who will give my head water and my eyes a fountain of tears? Who will be able to mourn me as I deserve? For I cannot do it myself. Come, mountains, cover me, wretched as I am. Woe, woe! What can I say? How many good things God has made for me — He alone knows — and how much evil my ignorance has brought forth! In word, thought and deed I always anger my Benefactor. And as long-suffering as He is, so careless am I, wretched man, harder than lifeless stones. Yet I will not despair, but will know Your love for mankind. I have gathered no repentance and no tears; therefore I beg You, Saviour, to turn me back before my end has come, and to save me from torment.

Lord my God, do not forsake me. I, who am as nothing before You, am wholly sinful; how can I know the multitude of my sins? Even the fact that I do no good is a great condemnation for me. Heaven and earth were created for me; for me the four elements and everything that comes from them, as the theologian says. Of all the rest I am silent, for I am not worthy to say anything because of the multitude of my evils. Who can grasp the immeasurable benefits given to me, even if he had the mind of an angel? And through my impenitence I shall fall away from them all.

Reflecting in this way, after some time a man comes to the third revelation, and, weeping continually, says the following.

On the third revelation.

Woe is me! What a struggle the soul goes through when it is separated from the body. How it weeps, and no one has mercy on it. It lifts its eyes to the angels and pleads in vain; it stretches out its hands to men, and no one will help it. I weep and sob when I think of death, and see how our beauty, created in the image of God, lies in the grave — now without form, without glory, without comeliness. O wonder! What mystery has befallen us? How did we fall under the power of corruption? How were we joined to death? Truly by God’s command, as it is written.

Alas! What shall I do, most wretched of all, in the hour of death, when the demons surround my miserable soul, holding the record of all my sins, both those I knew of and those I did not, in word, deed and thought, and demanding payment for them? But woe is me! For even without those sins I am condemned, because I did not keep the commandments worthily.

O my wretched soul! Tell me now: where are the promises of baptism? Where is the union with Christ and the renunciation of Satan? Where is the keeping of God’s commandments and the imitation of Christ by the virtues of soul and body, for the sake of which I am called a Christian? And when you excuse yourself by bodily weakness, then where is the faith that lays all its grief upon God, the faith with which you could move mountains if you had it as a grain of mustard seed? Where is the complete repentance that turns away from every evil word and deed? Where is the contrition of soul and the most perfect weeping, the meekness, the mercy, the purity of heart from evil thoughts? Where is the full self-restraint that holds in check every member of the body and every thought and desire that troubles it, except what is necessary for the salvation of the soul and the life of the body? Where is the patience that endures many sorrows for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and gives thanks for everything? Where is unceasing prayer, sorrow at the thought of death, the tears of grief — since I have not yet reached the tears of love? Where is the divine wisdom that guards the soul from the snares of the enemy and from adversaries? Where is the temperance that keeps a man far from everything that is not God, or that comes with thoughts? Where is the courage that endures evil and stands firm against the enemy? Where is the righteousness that gives everyone his due? Where is the boldness of the humble man, who knows his own weakness and his own ignorance and God’s love for mankind, so that his soul may avoid all the tricks of the enemy? Where is dispassion and purest love? Where is the peace that surpasses all understanding, for the sake of which I am called a son of God?

All this can be had by whoever wants it, even when he has no bodily strength. What can I say to this? What shall I do, wretched man? I am afraid because of my uncertainty, for I have utterly neglected what I could have done by my own strength; I shall end in hell, as Athanasios the Great says. Woe to my misfortune! What have I done to myself — not only by the sins I committed, but still more by my unwillingness to repent of them. If I had repented like the prodigal son, the Father who loves His children would have accepted my return; and if I had been prudent like the publican, judging only myself and no one else, I would have received from God the forgiveness of sins — and likewise if I had prayed with all my heart as he did. But now I see that I am not such a man, and so I am afraid of being in hell with the demons, and of the judgement to come.

For a river of fire is flowing there, thrones are set and books are opened; angels go before, and every human being comes forward, all naked and unable to hide, before the fearful and righteous Judge. Woe is me! How shall I endure the revelation and the wrath of that fearful and unbending Judge, the gathering of countless angels, the trial with its dreadful sentence, the unchangeable judgement, the unceasing weeping, the useless tears, the lightless darkness, the worm that does not die, the unquenchable fire and the torments without end; the falling away from the Kingdom and separation from the saints, estrangement from the angels and estrangement from God, faint-heartedness and eternal death, fear, pain, sorrow and shame and the pangs of conscience?

Woe is me, a sinner! What have I lost! Why am I dying so senselessly? There is still time for repentance. The Lord is calling me — shall I turn away? How long, my soul, will you remain in sins? How long will you put off repentance? Remember the judgement to come, and cry out to Christ God: «You who see the heart, I have sinned; before You condemn me, have mercy on me.» Let us not hear at Your fearful coming, O Christ: «I do not know you.» For we have put our trust in You, Saviour, even though through carelessness we have not fulfilled Your commandments; and we beg You to have mercy on our souls.

Woe is me, Lord! For I have grieved You and have not even felt Your grace, and so I do not understand. Shall I be able to weep bitterly in this life? Or, having wept for a little while, shall I feel nothing? Without humility there will be no profit in it. Shall I only sing with my lips and read? But the passions have darkened my intellect, and I cannot grasp the force of the words I utter. Shall I fall down before You, Giver of good things? I have no boldness. My life is without light; I have destroyed my own soul. Lord, help me! Receive me as You received the publican!

Like the prodigal son, I have sinned against heaven and before You; and like the harlot of whom it is written — she who lived in darkness and was known for her ways — I come to You, crying out: Do not reject me, You who were born of a Virgin; do not despise my tears, but receive me, for I repent. And so I, wretched man, am in despair because of the multitude of my sins.

Yet Your unspeakable love for mankind has known me, and You have plunged the despair of my soul into the immeasurable depth of Your generosity. So I dare to gather my intellect in Your holy remembrance and, rising up, I make my prayer with great fear and trembling: that I too, unworthy as I am, may be counted worthy to be Your servant, and may have by grace an intellect free of images, without notions, unmoved by insults; and that I may fall down before You, God and Creator of all, as Daniel once fell down before Your angel (cf. Dan 8:17), to give You thanks first and then to make confession.

A prayer of thanksgiving and confession.

So I, wretched man, begin to ask for Your all-holy will, giving thanks to You for all the benefits You have given me, though I am dust and ashes. I fear You with my whole intellect, though I am wholly of the earth; and thinking that You see me, I cry out with all my soul and say: Lord, rich in mercy! I thank You, I praise You, I sing to You and worship You, because You have granted me, unworthy as I am, at this time to give You thanks and to hear of some of Your wonders and works, which You have made and by grace still do for us — spiritual and bodily, infinite and unsearchable, visible and invisible, those we know and those we do not.

I confess Your grace, I do not hide Your good deeds; I confess to You, my God, with all my heart, and I glorify Your name for ever, for Your mercy toward me is great, and Your descent to us and Your long-suffering are indescribable, in the face of my many iniquities and sins and of all the tricks the enemy has worked and always works and might yet work. Your grace has saved me from them, and from sins committed knowingly and unknowingly, in word, deed and thought — sins that You know, O Searcher of hearts, from my birth to the end of my life, and that I, wretched man, dare to confess before You.

I have sinned, I have committed iniquity and wickedness, I have done evil before You, and I am not worthy to look up and see the height of heaven. But trusting in Your unspeakable love for mankind, and in Your goodness and mercy which surpass all understanding, I fall down and pray to You: have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; forgive me the multitude of my sins; and do not let me sin again, or turn aside from Your right path, or offend or grieve anyone. Curb all my malice, and my evil habits, and the irrational passions of soul and body, and anger and lust, and teach me to do Your will.

Have mercy on my brothers and fathers, and on all monks; on my parents, brothers and kinsmen; on those who serve us and have served us; on those who pray for us and have asked us to pray for them; on those who hate us and those who love us; on those whom I have wronged or grieved, and on all who have wronged me or might have wronged me; and on all who believe in You. Forgive us every sin, voluntary and involuntary, and keep our life and our departure from this world safe from unclean spirits and from every temptation, from every sin and cunning, from imagination and despair, from unbelief and folly, from pride and fear, from delusion and torment, from theft and from the snare of the devil. And grant our souls what is profitable both in the present age and in the age to come, as Your eternal love is pleased to give.

Grant rest also to our fathers and brothers who have already departed; and by the prayers of all, grant to my wretchedness that You have mercy on me, so that I may not perish. You see my weakness in everything: set right my life and my death, and make me what You wish and how You wish, whether I want it or not, only let me not be separated from those who stand at Your right hand on the day of judgement, Lord Jesus Christ my God, even though I be the last of all Your servants who are saved. Grant peace to Your world and have mercy on all, as You know how. And let me partake of Your most pure Body and Your precious Blood for the forgiveness of sins, for communion with Your Holy Spirit, and as the pledge of eternal life which is in You, with Your chosen ones: I pray this by Your most pure Mother, Your saints, the heavenly powers and all Your saints, for You are blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Holy Lady Theotokos, all the heavenly powers of the holy angels and archangels, and all the saints, pray for me, a sinner. Lord God, Father Almighty; Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and Holy Spirit — and so forth.

On the order of psalmody and prayer.

Then at once he says to his thoughts: «Come, let us worship and fall down before the King, our God», and repeats this three times. Then he begins the psalms, making a threefold holy antiphon each time, and keeps his intellect in the words he utters; and at the end he says «Lord, have mercy» forty times. Making a prayer at each antiphon, he says to himself as he bows: «I have sinned, Lord, forgive me.» Then, rising and lifting his hands, he says once: «God, cleanse me, a sinner.» And when he has prayed, let him say the second prayer, «Come, let us worship», three times, and do the same with the second antiphon.

However, as far as grace moves him, he should keep his intellect within those thoughts that move him. When the mouth is set free from chanting and the intellect is taken captive by a good captivity, as Saint Isaac says, then it is the time to gather, not the time to sow. That is why it is good to remain in such thoughts, so that the heart may be moved still more and may bear fruit, that is, tears for God. «When some word of the prayer moves you», says the author of the Ladder, «remain in it.»

For every bodily work — whether fasting and vigil, or chanting and reading, or stillness and the rest — exists for the purification of the intellect. And the intellect cannot be purified without weeping, so that it may be joined to God through pure prayer, which takes it captive from all thoughts and makes it free of sight and of images. All these things are good in themselves when they are done well — and the reverse is also true. For every work needs discernment if it is to be done well, and without discernment we do not know the nature of things.

On the apparent differences between what the fathers said and did.

Perhaps we are often confused by the differences between what the holy fathers said and did. Thus the Church has received the custom of chanting the troparia with many hymns and refrains. Yet the author of the Ladder praises those who weep for God, saying that they will not call themselves to hymns. And Saint Isaac says of those who pray purely: «It often happens that when an ascetic gathers his intellect in prayer, he suddenly and without prompting falls to the ground on his knees, as the prophet Daniel once did, with his hands stretched out and his eyes contemplating the cross of Christ; his thoughts are changed and his limbs grow slack from the new thoughts that come to his mind.» And many of the holy fathers write similar things about the ascetics: that some, in the rapture of the intellect, went beyond not only hymns and psalms but even forgot the intellect itself, as Saint Neilos says.

The Church received hymns and troparia in a good and God-pleasing way because of the weakness of our intellect, so that we, foolish as we are, might praise God with sweet song even when we do not want to. And those who, after considering what has been said, acquire knowledge are moved, and climb as though on a ladder to good thoughts, as John of Damascus says. The more we grow used to divine thoughts, the more the divine longing draws us to understand, to know and to worship the Father «in spirit and in truth» (Jn 4:24), as the Lord says. And the apostle adds: «I would rather speak five words with my mind than ten thousand words in a tongue» (1 Cor 14:19). And also: «I desire, then, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarrelling» (1 Tim 2:8). The first serves to heal our weakness, and the second to perfect the intellect. This is how we explain these differences. Everything that is done in its own time is good; and what is not done in its time seems out of place to those who do not know the time of each thing, as Solomon says: «For everything there is a season» (Eccl 3:1).

That good thoughts must be guarded, and that their loss teaches humility.

When a man has attained good thoughts, let him take care not to lose these insights through carelessness or pride, as Saint Isaac says. For when thoughts of God multiply in a man’s soul and move him to compunction and humility, he should always be thankful and should confess the grace of God, which has granted his soul such insights, considering himself unworthy of them. And when they cease and the mind is darkened again and loses fear and weeping, then he must lament for a long time and humble himself in word and deed, since grace has already left the soul. Let him know his weakness and gain humility, and hasten to correct himself, as Basil the Great says. For if a man had not neglected to weep for God, he would not have lost his tears when he wished to have them.

It is good for us, then, always to see both our own weakness and the grace of God, and neither to despair when something happens to us, nor to become presumptuous as though we were somebody special, but always to trust humbly in God. Such tears are very fitting for the man who seeks in word and deed, since he was granted such grace but failed to keep God’s gifts of insight through present or future negligence or pride. And for one who of his own free will has abandoned such gifts — weeping, tears and luminous thoughts — what remains but sorrow? For there is no one in the whole world more senseless than he who has tasted things above nature, that is, the tears of knowledge and love, and yet, for the sake of a few worthless things or of confused thoughts and his own desires, returns again to his brute stupidity, as a dog returns to its vomit.

But when he is willing once more to withdraw for God’s sake into the reading of the divine Scriptures, with attentiveness and the remembrance of death, and to keep the intellect of prayer, so far as he can, free from vain thoughts, then he will find again what he had lost. So too, when a man is angry with no one, even though he suffers many great evils at another’s hands, and does not turn away from anyone who has grieved him but does his best to heal him by word and deed, then the intellect rejoices all the more, being freed from the cares of anger. And he becomes accustomed never to plead his own cause, fearing that he may be abandoned again; and out of this fear he does not allow himself to fall, but always keeps the tears of repentance and mourning, until he is raised up to the tears of joy and love, and from them, by the blessing of Christ, passes to the peace of thoughts. So it comes about.

But we are still subject to the passions and heavy of heart, and so we should always be glad to learn the words of mourning and to examine ourselves every day — before the appointed rule, in the middle of it, and at its end. It is good to examine ourselves even while we work, since we are still too weak to withdraw from everything for God’s sake, as Saint Isaac says; and also when we simply sit still, when our eyes do not sleep and our thoughts are sober, as the author of the Ladder says: «Consider what your progress will be, so that your soul may be broken»; and «shed tears», as Saint Dorotheos says.

All this we have said about the three revelations already mentioned, so that we may now pass on to the fourth.

On the fourth revelation.

«When we come to understand the descent of our sweet Saviour Jesus Christ and His sojourn in the world, then little by little we forget about food», says Basil the Great. So we hear of blessed David that he forgot to eat his bread (cf. Ps 102:4), «when his thoughts were caught up», says the author of the Ladder, to the wonders of God, with great awe and amazement at the gift, as the same Basil says: «What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has given us?»

For our sake God dwelt among men; for the sake of our corruptible nature the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Benefactor came to the ungrateful, the Redeemer to the captives, the Sun of righteousness to those who sat in darkness; upon the cross, the One who is beyond suffering; in hell, light; in death, life; resurrection for the sake of the fallen. To Him let us cry: «Our God, glory to You!»

And John of Damascus says: «The heavens were astonished and the ends of the earth were amazed, because God appeared to men in the flesh, and your womb became more spacious than the heavens; therefore, O Theotokos, angels and men together glorify you.» And again: «All hearing was struck with awe at the ineffable coming of God, for the Most High of His own will came down to the flesh and became man from a virgin’s womb; therefore we, the faithful, glorify the immaculate Mother of God.»

Come, let us men ascend the holy and heavenly mountain and bow down; let us stand in mind in the city of the living God and behold with the intellect the ineffable Godhead of the Father and the Spirit shining forth in the only-begotten Son. You have made me sweet with love, O Christ, and have changed me by Your divine providence; but consume my sins with immaterial fire and grant me to be filled with delight in You, so that, rejoicing, I may magnify Your two comings, O Good One. You are all sweetness, O Saviour; You are all desire and love, truly insatiable; You are beauty beyond description.

Whoever has come to know this through the virtues of soul and body, and has learned the mysteries hidden in the words of holy men and in the divine Scriptures, and above all in the holy Gospels, does not check the longing and the abundant tears that come to him without any compulsion. And we, who hear of it only from the Scriptures, must always practise and study, so that over a long time the longing for God may be imprinted in our hearts, as Saint Maximos says, and as the fathers did until they received self-acting knowledge.

All the longing of the martyrs reached out to the Lord alone, and they were united with Him in love and in song. So John of Damascus says of the three young men: «For the sake of their fathers’ laws the blessed youths in Babylon endured danger, despised the senseless command of the king, and, though joined together, were not burnt by the fire, but sang a song worthy of the Master.» And rightly so: when a man learns the wonders of God, he becomes, as it were, beside himself and forgets this temporal life, because he knows the divine Scriptures, says Saint Isaac. Not like us, who are barely moved by the Scriptures, darkened by boredom, forgetfulness and ignorance, and grown insensible to the passions.

He who has cleansed himself of the passions through weeping knows the mysteries hidden in all the Scriptures, and is moved by everything, but most of all by the holy Gospel, by the deeds recorded in it and by its words: how the wisdom of God made the unmeasurable measurable; how God gradually makes a man good and teaches him to love his enemies (cf. Mt 5:44), and to be merciful because the heavenly Father is merciful, and dispassionate because God is dispassionate and possesses every virtue, and perfect because the Father is perfect (cf. Mt 5:48). In a word, this sacred book teaches man what is pleasing to God, so that he may become a god by adoption.

That the Gospel gives rest both in this age and in the age to come.

Who would not marvel at the working of the holy Gospel, which for a mere desire grants rest in the present age and in the age to come, together with all honour, as the Lord says: «Whoever humbles himself will be exalted» (Lk 18:14)? Peter bears witness to this: while he was still alive he received the keys of heaven, and so did the other apostles. Each of them left the little that he had and conquered the whole world in this present age, and in the age to come received what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. And this happened not only with the apostles: to this day it happens with everyone who wishes it, as one of the fathers said — that although they laboured in the desert, they had great rest, that is, an undisturbed and carefree life.

Who, then, would seem to us to have more rest: the man who exercises himself in divine things and minds his own affairs, or the man immersed in cares, in lawsuits, in the troubles of life? He who always converses with God through the study of the divine Scriptures, or he who toils and lies in wait for plunder and lawless deeds, and, having gained nothing from them, is left with nothing but labour and sheer death? We endure death with great labour and dishonour even when there is nothing to be gained. Some have suffered great loss and perished: robbers and pirates, fornicators and quarrelsome men, who did not wish to be saved with honour, peace and their own possessions. Alas! What blindness! We accept death for the sake of death, and love neither salvation nor life.

When death awaits us for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, shall we do anything more than the thief, the robber or the soldier does, who for the sake of bread alone suffers death both in this age and in the age to come? Our advantage is this: that we mean to accept death for Christ’s sake, through whom the Kingdom of Heaven is given to those who in the present age are willing to despise everything with their intellect and to subject it to themselves — to rule not only over things but over the body, which they despise, and over death itself, by the boldness of faith; and in the age to come to reign for ever with Christ by the grace of the common resurrection.

Both the sinner and the righteous man die, but they die in different ways. Both die because they are mortal, and there is nothing strange in that. But the one remains without reward and may be condemned, while the other is blessed both in this age and in the age to come. What is so great about merely leaving one’s possessions, when a man has to leave them in any case — while he only imagines that he possesses them — and often not at the hour of death alone, but even before it, with great shame, toil and pain?

Or again, because of their estates some have met death after countless trials brought on by wealth — with fear, troubles, constant sadness and embarrassment, willing and unwilling alike. God’s commandment frees a man from all this and gives him complete freedom from care and from fear, and an indescribable cheerfulness — above all to those who most love non-possession. What is sweeter than this: to be dispassionate, not at all held captive by anger or by desire for worldly things, counting as nothing what so many crave, and, having risen above everything, to live as though in paradise, or rather in heaven, lifted above all need through freedom from care and detachment for God’s sake?

When a man accepts with joy everything that happens, then everything gives him rest. When he loves everyone, everyone loves him. When he despises everything, he becomes greater than everything — and likewise when he does not wish to possess the thing over which another man quarrels and grieves when he fails to obtain it, and is condemned when he does obtain it. Whoever desires nothing is set free by the commandment from all things in the present age, and in the age to come from bitter torments. For not to want what you do not have is worth more than all rest and wealth; and to want what you do not have is an immense torment even before the torment to come. Such a man is a slave, though he thinks himself a king and rich.

Where, then, is the harshness of the Lord’s commandments, which we do not diligently fulfil? Whoever has understood the grace of the holy Gospel and grasped even a little of what it is about — the Lord’s work and teaching, His commandments, prohibitions and promises — knows what an inexhaustible treasure he will find, even though he cannot confess it as he would wish, since heavenly things are beyond description.

Christ is hidden in the Gospel, and whoever wants to find Him must first sell all that he has and buy the Gospel, so that he may not only find Him through reading but also receive Him within himself, imitating His life in the world. «He who seeks Christ», says Saint Maximos, «should seek Him not outwardly but within himself; that is, he should be like Christ in body and soul — sinless so far as that is possible — and should guard the witness of conscience with all his strength, so as to reign over his own will and overcome it by contempt for it, even though in the world he is poor and without family.» For what use is it to a man to think himself a king while anger and desire torment him in this age, and in the age to come he finds eternal torment, since he does not keep God’s commandments?

What madness this is! Why are we unwilling to receive great and eternal goods through small and temporary ones? We reject what is good and desire the opposite. What is easier than to offer a cup of cold water or a piece of bread, or to restrain our own will and our scrap of knowledge? And for this the Kingdom of Heaven awaits us, by the grace of Him who said: «The Kingdom of God is within you» (Lk 17:21). «It is not somewhere far away», says John of Damascus, «nor outside, but within.» Only be willing to conquer the passions, and you will have it within yourself through a life pleasing to God. And if you are unwilling, you will have nothing; for the Kingdom of God, say the fathers, means a life pleasing to God, and also the first coming of the Lord and the second. Of the second we have already written in the words on mourning; and let him who by grace has understood the first say with all his soul, in great awe:

A prayer of wonder at the Lord’s coming in the flesh.

You are great, Lord, and Your works are marvellous, and no words are enough to sing Your wonders as they deserve. See, my sweetest Lord: Your servant stands before You, voiceless and motionless, awaiting enlightenment from You. For You said, Lord: «Without Me you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5). Teach me, then, about Yourself. That is why I have dared to sit at Your pure feet, like the sister of Lazarus, Your friend, so that I too might hear something with my intellect — if not of Your immeasurable Godhead, then of Your bodily presence in the world — and might feel at least a little of that grace of Yours of which the holy Gospel speaks: how You were among us, meek and humble in heart, and what Your most holy mouth spoke, so that we too might learn this from You.

In such poverty You were rich in mercy, in labour and in voluntary thirst, that You gave living water to the Samaritan woman, as You said, Lord: «If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink» (Jn 7:37) — for You are the fountain of healing. Who can sing of Your sojourn in the world? And since You have granted me — earth, dust and ashes, a transgressor and a destroyer of my own soul, who have sinned much before You and sin still — to understand something of Your deeds and words, I have dared to ask You about them, since by faith I think that I see You, who are invisible to all creation.

Forgive me my boldness, for You know, Lord and Searcher of hearts, that I do not ask out of curiosity; I want to learn, believing that I shall profit from You who truly are, from the knowledge You will give me as You give it to those who love You, O Lover of mankind, and as far as I have strength for it, so that I may imitate Your life in the body, through which I am called a Christian by grace. No one, it is true, can accept death for his enemies as Your disciples did, or grow rich with Your poverty and theirs and with their virtue; but each of us can do a little, according to his desire. Even if a man were to die for You again and again, he could not free himself from his own sins. For You, Lord, perfect God and perfect man, lived sinlessly in this world and endured everything for the sake of all; but if we suffer anything, we suffer it for our own sins.

Who would not marvel, considering Your indescribable condescension? For You, the unmeasurable, almighty God who governs all things, who is borne upon the cherubim, who is called the fullness of wisdom, humbled Yourself for our sake — for us who from the beginning and through all time have so greatly angered You — and accepted birth and upbringing. They drove You out and threw stones at You, mocked and derided You, pushed and struck You, shamed You and spat upon You. You accepted the cross, the nails, the sponge, the reed, the vinegar and the gall — things I am not even worthy to hear of. Your incorruptible side was pierced, and from it You poured out for us eternal life, Your precious blood and water.

I sing of Your Nativity and of her who bore You, whom You kept a Virgin after childbirth as she was before it. I worship You who lay in the cave and the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. I praise You who went down to Egypt with the Virgin, Your most pure Mother, who lived in Nazareth and was obedient to Your parents in the flesh — Your reputed father and Your true mother. I praise You, Lord, who were baptized in the Jordan by Your Forerunner and received the witness of the Father, while the Holy Spirit made You and Your baptism manifest, and John the Baptist, Your prophet and servant, bore witness.

I glorify You who fasted for our sake and willingly submitted to temptation, and defeated the enemy in the body You took from us, and by Your unspeakable wisdom gave us victory over him; who were with Your disciples, cleansed the lepers, made the crooked straight, gave light to the blind, speech and hearing to the deaf and dumb, blessed the loaves, and walked on the sea as on dry land; who taught men about the works and the visions that proclaim the Father and the Holy Spirit, and prophesied about the prohibitions and promises to come and about all that serves our salvation; who forestalled the enemy and utterly uprooted the passions by Your all-wise teaching, and made the foolish wise and, by Your infinite wisdom, made the crafty foolish; who raised the dead by Your indescribable power and cast out demons with authority, as God of all — and who not only did these things Yourself but gave Your servants power to do still greater ones, so that we might marvel the more, as You said, Lord. Great is Your name, for Your saints work wonders through You.

Lord, Lord, Jesus Christ, Son and Word of God! Sweetest name of our salvation! Great is Your glory, great are Your works, wonderful are Your words and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Glory to You, Lord, glory to You! Who can praise and glorify Your condescension, Your goodness, Your power, Your wisdom, Your presence in the world and Your teaching? How natural are Your holy commandments, and how easily they teach a virtuous life, as You said, Lord: «Forgive, and you will be forgiven» (Lk 6:37); «Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you»; «Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do so to them» (Mt 7:7, 12). Who, having felt the force of Your commandments and Your other words, would not marvel, considering Your infinite wisdom?

O God, dear to me, Life of all, joy of the angels, unspeakable Light, resurrection of the dead, Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep! I sing of Your transfiguration, Your crucifixion, death and resurrection, Your ascension and Your sitting at the right hand of the Father, the descent of the Holy Spirit and Your second coming with power and with glory great and beyond understanding.

I grow weary, my Lord, of gazing at Your wonders, and I want to fall silent in amazement; yet I do not know what to do. When I keep silence, I am overwhelmed; when I dare to say something, I am astonished and carried away. I think that I am worthy neither of heaven nor of earth, but only of every torment — not so much for the sins I have committed as for this: that having received grace, I am ungrateful and wretched. You have filled my soul with every good thing, most kind Lord; I have understood a little of Your works and my intellect has been taken captive. This is in no way my own doing; I only see You, Lord, and not through my knowledge or my deeds, but through Your grace. Therefore I lay my finger on my mouth, as Job once did, and I turn to the saints, for I, wretched man, am lost in wonder.

To the most holy Theotokos.

Blessed Lady of the world! You know that we sinners have no boldness before the God whom you bore; but trusting in you, your servants, we fall down through you before the Lord, for you have boldness before Him as your Son and our God. In this hope I too, unworthy, beg you, Lady: may I be granted to perceive your gifts and those of the other saints. How did you show forth such virtues? The very fact that you bore the Son of God set you above every living being, for He judged you worthy to dwell in you — He who knew all things before the world came to be, as the Creator of all. No one will dare to ask anything about you, for you surpass nature, intellect and understanding.

In truth we confess you Theotokos, we who are saved through you, O pure Virgin, and we glorify you together with the choirs of the bodiless powers. For it is impossible for men to see God, and even the ranks of angels do not dare to look upon Him; yet through you, all-pure one, the incarnate Word appeared to men, and glorifying Him with the heavenly host we glorify you. What shall we call you, O full of grace? Heaven — because… and so on. Mother of God, you are the true vine that has borne for us the fruit of life; we pray you, Lady, intercede with all the saints, that mercy may be shown to us who confess you as Theotokos in the true faith and glorify you, most blessed, as you yourself foretold, Lady. For all generations call you blessed, the only Theotokos, more honourable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious… and so on. But I cannot grasp even what little I know of you; and so, still wondering, I will speak of the other saints.

To the Forerunner and the apostles.

How were you in the desert, Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord? And what shall we call you? Prophet, or angel, or apostle, or martyr? An angel, because you lived like one without a body; an apostle, because you drew men to Him; a martyr, because your head was cut off for Christ’s sake. Pray to Him that our souls may be saved. Solomon says that we praise the memory of the righteous; but for you the Lord’s own testimony suffices, O Forerunner, for you truly showed yourself… and so on.

Holy apostles and disciples of the Saviour, eyewitnesses of the mysteries, you preached the Invisible One who has no beginning, saying: «In the beginning was the Word.» You were not taught beforehand by angels, nor did you learn from men, but from the wisdom of heaven; therefore, having boldness, pray for our souls, we beseech you. I marvel at your love for God, as the ancient troparia say: Lord, the apostles loved You with a pure love upon earth; they set everything aside to gain You alone, and for You they gave their bodies over to wounds; for this they were glorified, and they pray for our souls.

How was it that you, being human like us and clothed in a corruptible body, showed such virtues as to accept death for those who killed you? How, being so few, did you conquer the whole world? And you did this unarmed and naked, and so defeated the invisible demons, though you were poor and burdened with the weakness of the flesh. What is this power, if not faith, through which you received the power of the Holy Spirit?

To the martyrs and to the three youths.

You holy martyrs, who suffered well and were crowned, pray to the Lord to have mercy on our souls. Apostles, martyrs and prophets, holy ones, and so on. Who would not marvel, holy martyrs, seeing the good work you accomplished? How did you, being flesh, defeat the bodiless enemy, confessing Christ and arming yourselves with the cross? Therefore you are rightly the expellers of demons and the adversaries of our foes; pray without ceasing for the salvation of our souls.

Even before you, the three holy youths endured their trial not in hope of reward but out of love for God, as they themselves said: «Even if God does not save us, we will not turn away from Him as from one who does not save.» I marvel at your supreme humility, holy youths: standing in the fire, you hesitated over how to give thanks to the Lord, and said: «See, at this time we have neither ruler, nor leader, nor prophet… but may You accept us for a broken heart and a humble spirit» (Dan 3:38-39). And I marvel too at the power of God that was in you and in Elijah the prophet, as John of Damascus says: «You made dew out of the flame for the saints, and burned up the righteous man’s sacrifice with water; for You do all things, Christ, as You will.»

But what shall I consider first? The holy Gospel or the Acts of the holy apostles? The sufferings of the holy martyrs or the labours of the holy fathers? The holy men and women of old or those of recent times? Their lives and words, or the interpretation of them? I am amazed and delighted. But I pray to You, Lord who love mankind: do not let the knowledge of Your mysteries, which You revealed to Your saints and through them to me, Your sinful and unworthy servant, become my condemnation because of my unworthiness and my ungrateful disposition.

Since, then, Your servant, stripped of everything before You and voiceless as a dead man, does not dare to say anything more or to look up shamelessly, he cries out as usual from the depth of his soul, saying: «Lord, rich in mercy»… and the rest of the prayer. He should labour also in the other prayers and psalms, keeping the customary discipline of soul and body, so as to grow accustomed to understanding divine things, to perceiving with deep feeling all the mysteries and marvels contained in the divine Scriptures, and, wondering at the divine gifts, to learn to love God alone and to suffer for Him with joy, as all the saints did. For Solomon says that the divine Scriptures are full of every kind of wonder.

On the manna, and on God’s providence in all things.

I marvel also at other wonders and at the power of God’s manna: that it did not keep until morning but grew foul and bred worms (cf. Ex 16:20), so that the unbelieving would not be anxious for the morrow; yet in the ark that stood in the temple the manna never spoiled. And when they baked it on the fire it did not burn, but it melted in the rays of the sun, so that the gluttonous should not gather more than they needed (cf. Ex 16:21). What a wonder! How God works man’s salvation in every place! As the Lord says of God’s providence: «My Father is working still, and I am working» (Jn 5:17).

Whoever practises this for God’s sake learns with the senses from the divine Scriptures, and with the intellect from God’s providence. He begins to see the nature of things, as Gregory of Nyssa and John of Damascus say, and he is no longer robbed by the outward beauty of the things of this world — beauty, wealth, glory and the like — nor is he seduced by their corruptibility, as the passionate man is seduced.

On the fifth gift.

From this fifth gift, which the prophet calls «counsel», the ascetic learns, as is said at the end of the beatitudes, the nature and the mutability of sensible creatures: that they are taken from the earth and return to the earth, according to the words of Ecclesiastes, «Vanity of vanities, all is vanity» (Eccl 1:2). So too John of Damascus: «All human things are vanity, all that does not remain after death. Riches do not remain, glory does not go with us; when death comes, all this perishes.» And again: «Truly all is vanity, and life is a shadow and a dream, for in vain does every man born of earth trouble himself; as the Scripture says, when we have gained the world, then we shall dwell in the grave, where kings and beggars lie together.»

On the sixth gift.

When the ascetic has grown accustomed to dispassion, the sixth gift is given him, which is called «strength» (cf. Ps 29:11), and he begins to look upon the beauty of sensible creatures dispassionately. For all thoughts are of three kinds: human, demonic and angelic.

A thought is human when some notion of created things comes into the heart — of a man, of gold, or of anything else among sensible creatures. A demonic thought is made up of a notion together with a passion: it prompts a man either to an irrational friendship, that is, to love another for a reason other than God, or to unchastity, or to senseless hatred, that is, to malice and condemnation. In the case of gold, it leads him to avarice, or to theft and robbery, or to something of the sort, or else to hatred and blasphemy against God, so as to bring him to ruin by one means or another. «If we love things in a way we should not, and set them before the love of God, then we differ in nothing from idolaters», says Saint Maximos; and again: «When we foolishly hate them, we anger God.»

An angelic thought is a dispassionate view of things, that is, true knowledge, which is the middle way between two chasms. It guards the intellect and keeps its right intention apart from the six snares of the devil that surround it: the snare above and the snare below, the one on the right and the one on the left, the one that presses inward upon the right intention and the one that draws it outward. True knowledge is like a pillar standing in the middle of these six snares; and those who have died to the world learn true knowledge from the angels, so that the intellect may become dispassionate and may see things as it ought — so that it may not be lifted up above the right intention, imagining that it has grasped something by its own wisdom, nor sink down in ignorance as though it were incapable of perfection; so that it may not turn to the right through contempt and hatred of things, nor to the left through irrational love, that is, passion; and so that it may neither stay within the right intention in total ignorance and idleness, nor stray outside it into constant experiments and irrational exertions through negligence or cunning. Rather let it receive knowledge patiently and humbly out of firm faith, so that the man who has grasped a little may attribute it to divine care, and the man who has knowledge but, being confused, is unaware of it, may acquire humility and, through long-suffering hope and faith, receive what he longed for in his intention.

How the dispassionate man looks upon creation.

Such a man will feel no hatred for anything as though it were evil, nor, on the other hand, any irrational love. He will look at a man and marvel that his intellect is a boundless image of the invisible God, though enclosed within the body, as Basil the Great says, and that it reaches to the end of all that the image contains, like God who governs the world. For the intellect takes the form of every thing and is drawn out according to the appearance of what it perceives; and when it is pleased to abide in God, who is without form and without image, then it too becomes formless and imageless.

Then he marvels how the intellect can hold every thought, and how the later thoughts cannot displace the earlier ones, nor the earlier ones prevent the later, but the mind holds them all like a treasury and forgets nothing. And when the intellect wishes, the tongue expresses what it thinks — not only what is new, but what has long lain hidden in the treasury of the mind; and words keep coming forth, yet the intellect remains inexhaustible.

He marvels too as he looks at the body: how the eyes, the ears and the tongue receive things from outside at the soul’s bidding, one through light, another through air, and how no sense hinders another or acts against the soul; and how the mortal body was joined by God’s command to the spiritual and rational soul, which the Holy Spirit works with and inspires, as John of Damascus says — though some are ignorant of this and think that the soul comes from the eternal Godhead, which is impossible. Chrysostom says: «Let no man’s intellect imagine that it is God; God has placed in him forgetfulness and ignorance, so that through them he may acquire humility.»

And again: when the Creator wills to dissolve this natural bond, the rational soul goes either upward, that is, to heaven, or — alas! — downward to hell, as the author of the Ladder says, and departs; and the earthly body returns to the earth from which it was taken. And again: by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, at His second coming what has been separated will be joined again, so that each of us may receive according to his works.

What a wonder! Who would not be filled with awe on understanding even a little of this mystery? The Lord raises man again from the earth after all the evil he has done and after he has despised His commandments, and grants him again the immortality he had at the beginning — the immortality he lost because he did not keep the commandments that would have shielded him from death and corruption, but grew proud and brought death upon himself. Marvelling at all this concerning man, and at much else besides, the man who is taught inwardly by the works of the angels is filled with awe.

Again he looks at the beauty of gold and at its uses, and marvels that such a thing was created out of the earth for our sake: so that the weak, by giving alms, might be freed from hoarding, acquisitiveness and the desire to grow rich; and so that those unwilling to give it away might be helped against their will through trials, and so be saved themselves when they endure afflictions with thanksgiving. Thus both the one and the other are saved. Those who set no store by acquisition are crowned as men who do something beyond nature, like those who struggle in virginity; and so are those who do not prefer perishable, earthly things to God’s commandments, but look upon them as God’s creation, necessary for life in the body and for salvation, deserving not hatred but temperance and love.

In a word, enlightened by dispassion he looks at the beauty of each thing and at its use, and loves the Creator. Considering all nature, the heavenly creatures and those of earth — sky, sun, moon, clouds, rain, snow, hail, and the cold by which water freezes; and then thunder, lightning, winds, the air and its changes, the seasons, years, days, nights, hours, moments; earth, sea, countless living creatures, four-footed animals, beasts and reptiles, the many kinds of birds, springs and rivers, the innumerable kinds of plants and herbs, cultivated and wild — in all of them he sees order and arrangement, majesty, goodness, number, unity, harmony, usefulness, likeness, variety, beauty, rest, movement, colours, forms, appearances, the return of each thing to itself, permanence within corruption; and, remembering all that creation is in its nature, he marvels at the Creator: how by a single command He brought forth the four elements, that is, earth, water, fire and air, and how these, though opposed to one another, do each other no harm through the wisdom of God; and how out of them He made all things for our sake. And all this is very little compared with Christ’s condescension and goodness, as the Theologian says.

He considers the goodness and wisdom of God, His power and providence hidden within creation, of which the Lord Himself spoke to Job (cf. Job 38) and of which the writings of the fathers tell. He marvels that so many mysteries have been revealed to us in the divine Scriptures through drops of lifeless ink; he marvels that the holy prophets and apostles gained so great a good through much labour and love, while we learn it simply by reading. For the Scriptures, endowed as they are with the word, tell us of the most glorious things; and whoever knows this believes that there is nothing superfluous in creation — that even what seems evil and happens against our will is necessary, since God transforms it wonderfully into good.

It was not God’s will that the devil should fall, yet his fall has worked to the benefit of those who are being saved. God allows the devil to tempt those who wish to be saved, each according to his strength, as Saint Isaac says, so that he may be put to shame by men who are the equals of angels — and not only by men, but also by many women who, with patience and with faith in Him who upholds them, overcome him with God’s help and receive from Him the crowns of incorruption through His grace and His love for mankind; for it is He who defeated and still defeats the shameless serpent, the man-slayer.

He who has received the gift of spiritual knowledge knows that all created things are «very good». And he who has received only the beginning of the understanding of God should know in his conscience that he does not yet know everything, and should say, «I do not know», as Chrysostom says: «If someone were to ask me about the height of heaven, what it is, and I were to say, ‘I do not know’, I would be telling the truth.» And the apostle says: «If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know» (1 Cor 8:2).

That is why we must believe firmly and question those with experience, and so receive the dogmas of the Church and the reflections of the teachers concerning the divine Scriptures and concerning sensible and intelligible creatures, so that we do not quickly fall through relying on our own reasoning alone, as Saint Dorotheos says. In everything we must discover our own ignorance, so that the man who searches without trusting his own understanding may be willing to learn and, wondering at the greatness of knowledge, may see his own ignorance beside the great wisdom of God. «The spiritual intellect perceives every sensation spiritually, when it purifies itself before God», says the Theologian. «Yet we need knowledge in order to have greater fear, lest some evil dogma lie hidden in the soul, which could kill it even without any other sin», says Basil the Great.

Therefore we should not rush prematurely into this revelation out of laziness or vainglory. We must fulfil the commandments of Christ and pass through the revelations already described in their order, without haste. And when we have washed the soul with patience and with many tears of fear and mourning, and have begun to see the nature of things and to grow accustomed to it, then, once the intellect has entered this knowledge, the angels themselves will teach it spiritually. But if someone is presumptuous and wants to enter the second stage before the first, let him know that not only will he fail to have an intention pleasing to God, but he will also bring many assaults upon himself, especially concerning the knowledge of man, as we have heard in the case of Adam.

There is no profit when men still subject to the passions begin to do the works of the dispassionate or to think as they think. Solid food does not benefit infants, however beneficial it is for the perfect. They should desire and refuse with discernment, as those who are unworthy: neither turning away from grace in despondency and despair when it comes, nor seeking anything prematurely out of presumption. «Let them not look prematurely for what comes in its own time», says the author of the Ladder, «lest they fail to receive it when the time comes.»

It may happen that, having gone astray, we receive correction neither through a man nor through the Scriptures. But when a man directs his intention toward God and, humbly enduring the temptations he meets, begins to look for their causes even while he is being led astray, then God will help him; and so with great shame and joy he turns back and seeks out the paths of the fathers. «For what is done for God’s sake and not for any other reason», says the author of the Ladder, «grace will reckon to us as good, even if it is not altogether good.» But if it is not done for God’s sake, without endurance and humility, then many will come to harm, as many have already come to harm and perished through their own folly, because they trusted their own understanding and thought they would do well even without a guide, and without the experience that comes through patience and humility.

Experience contains no sorrow, no temptation, and perhaps not even assaults. And when a small assault is permitted, this temptation becomes for the experienced man a cause of great joy and profit, since God permits it so that the ascetic may gain experience and stand bravely against the enemy. The sign of this is tears and brokenness of soul before God, silent recourse to Him with patience, careful study of the Scriptures, and faithful seeking of God’s will in due measure. The sign of the opposite is this: to doubt God’s help, to be ashamed to ask humbly, to avoid stillness and reading, to love disturbance and conversations in the hope of finding rest in them — which is impossible. On the contrary, at such a time the passions take root and stronger temptations come; there is a certain suffocation, and ingratitude and boredom multiply through great ignorance.

For some temptations are sent to sons, to chastise and instruct them, and others to enemies, for their destruction — especially when a man is mocked by pride, since «God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble» (Prov 3:34). Every sorrow, when borne with patience, is good and profitable; sorrow without patience is a turning away from God, and it brings no profit until it is healed by humility and wisdom, for there is no other remedy. For the humble man blames and reproaches himself, not another, when sorrow comes; and so he endures, seeking relief from his sorrow in God, and when he finds it he rejoices and endures with thanksgiving. Thus, gaining experience in patience, he gains knowledge. Recognizing his weakness and ignorance, he seeks the physician with all his strength; and while seeking, he finds healing (cf. Mt 7:8), as Christ Himself says. Having received it, he loves; and the more he loves, the more he himself is loved; and so, purifying himself as far as he can, he strives to prepare a place for the one he loves. And He, finding a place, takes up His dwelling, as the elders said; and when He dwells there and guards what is His own, the man begins to be enlightened. «And when he is enlightened, he receives knowledge; and when he has knowledge, he is himself the better known», says John of Damascus.

All this, and what was said before, each man should keep and practise as far as he can. «What he cannot comprehend, let him give thanks for in silence», says Saint Isaac, «and let him not think to enter shamelessly.» Saint Isaac says again, repeating the words of the son of Sirach: «You have found honey; eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit it up» (cf. Prov 25:16). And as the Theologian says, unbridled knowledge can sometimes drag a man into the abyss — that is, when he seeks knowledge beyond his measure and is unwilling to say: «God knows this, but who am I?» We must believe that «He who created the mountains and the great whales also fashioned the sting of the bee», as Basil the Great says.

He who has passed from servitude to knowledge distinguishes the intelligible from the sensible, and the invisible and eternal from the temporal and visible. By grace he learns about the powers on high, and that the whole world is not worthy of one righteous man. «Consider closely», says Chrysostom, «how many peoples and tribes the righteous man surpasses.» An angel is always greater than a mortal; it is enough to see a single angel to be filled with awe — and even Daniel, that man like an angel, cried out when he saw the angel (cf. Dan 8:17).

On the seventh revelation.

Whoever is counted worthy of the seventh revelation marvels at the multitude of the bodiless powers: authorities, thrones, dominions, seraphim, cherubim, the nine orders of which all the divine Scriptures speak. He marvels at their nature, their strength and the other good things he is able to see in them, and that they behold God the Creator and stand before Him. The heavenly hosts have other dignities too, of which Chrysostom says: «‘Lord of Sabaoth’ means Lord of the hosts, of the powers; and the powers enlighten one another. The angels», he says, «enlighten men, and themselves receive enlightenment from the archangels, and these from the principalities; and so each order receives enlightenment and knowledge from another.» And again: «What is said of the human race? That it is the one sheep which God did not destroy but which destroyed itself, while the angels are the ninety-nine sheep.»

Considering the wisdom and power of the Creator, a man wants to ask how He created such a multitude of things by a single command. «First of all», says the Theologian, «one must understand the angelic powers and the rest»; and when the intellect has entered the temple, that is, gone behind the veil, it becomes insensible to all else, as Saint Isaac says. «The outer temple is a figure of this world, the veil — the door of the temple — is a figure of the firmament of heaven, and the holy of holies is a figure of the higher worlds, where the bodiless and supernatural powers praise God without ceasing and pray to Him for us», says Athanasius the Great. So too John of Damascus speaks of the Scriptures: the divine veil of the temple was torn when the Creator was crucified on the cross, revealing the truth hidden in the Scriptures; let those who cry out believe them: «Blessed are You, God of our fathers!» And as Saint Kosmas the hymnographer says: «The first-formed man ate of the tree and became a slave of corruption; condemned as most dishonoured, he was cast out from life, and as a perishable body he passed on to the whole human race a kind of sickness and harm. But we, having found salvation through the tree of the cross, cry out: Glory to You, God of our fathers, blessed are You.»

On the eighth revelation.

From the seventh revelation the ascetic ascends to the revelation in God by means of the second and pure prayer, as befits one who has been granted it. For even while the prayer continues, divine love takes the intellect captive, and it no longer knows anything of this world, as Maximos and John of Damascus say. «The intellect forgets not only everything else, but even itself», says Saint Neilos. For as long as the intellect still knows itself, it is not in God alone but also in itself. «Then it receives»…

…the Gospel from God, says Saint Maximos, and becomes a theologian, having received the descent of the Holy Spirit.

That God is beyond every definition.

When we hear about God, let no one in ignorance suppose that God is in Himself what we perceive of Him — goodness, grace, truth, sanctification, light, fire, essence, being, power, wisdom and the like, as the great Dionysios says. He is not what the intellect can define, for the Godhead is boundless and indescribable, and these words speak not of what is in Him but about Him, as the great Dionysios explained to Saint Timothy, citing the testimony of Saint Hierotheos. It would be most fitting to say that God is immeasurable, unfathomable, beyond measure, incapable of definition, since He is beyond intellect and thought; and He alone knows Himself, the one God in three hypostases, without beginning, without end, surpassing all, worthy of all praise. What is said of Him in the divine Scriptures is said out of wonder, so that we may know what God is like, not who He is, for He is beyond measure for every rational and spiritual nature.

One should marvel also at the incarnation of the Son of God and at the union according to hypostasis, as Saint Cyril says, and at how the flesh He took from us is held within His Godhead, as Basil the Great says. For as iron is joined with fire, so is this union — so that we may know what Christ is in His two natures, as John of Damascus says to the Mother of God: «One hypostasis in two natures: you gave birth to God incarnate, to whom we all sing, Blessed are You, O God.» And again: «The Boundless One remained unmeasured, yet was joined to a body according to hypostasis, as the Benefactor, within you, O holy one, the only blessed one.»

That there are no contradictions in the divine Scriptures.

When a man who is even a little enlightened examines any reading or psalm, he finds in it revelations and theology, and he notices that the content of one Scripture confirms the content of another. But the man whose intellect is not yet enlightened thinks that there are contradictions in the divine Scriptures. In fact there are no contradictions in them — God forbid. Some passages of the divine Scriptures are attested in other passages; and for others the occasion was a particular time or a particular person. Everything said in the Scriptures is therefore infallible; it is our own lack of understanding that is at fault.

Let no one, then, treat the Scriptures with contempt, but let him with all his strength keep them as they are and not as he would like them to be. This is what the Greeks and the Jews did: because they were unwilling to say «I do not know what this means», in their arrogance and self-satisfaction they despised the Scriptures and their content and understood them as they saw fit, and not according to God’s will — and so they were led astray and gave themselves up to every kind of evil. Whoever searches out what the Scriptures actually say will never devise an interpretation of his own, whether good or bad, but — as Basil the Great and Chrysostom said — will take the divine Scriptures as his guide, and not the teachings of this world.

«When God places something in a pure heart without any deliberation on our part, it may be accepted if there is testimony to it in the divine Scriptures», taught Anthony the Great. «When divine thoughts come to a man of their own accord, without his deliberating, they may be accepted», says Saint Isaac; but to test and weigh them is to follow one’s own will and self-flattery. «Above all», says Chrysostom, «when a man forces the Scriptures like a thief so as to interpret them otherwise, he does not enter through the door of humility but breaks in from outside.» For when a man twists the meaning of Scripture or finds fault with it in order to confirm his own knowledge — that is, his ignorance — he is the most senseless man in the world. What sort of knowledge is it, to explain the Scriptures by changing their words at will? True understanding belongs to the man who regards the words as inviolable and penetrates by the wisdom of the Spirit into the deep mysteries to which the divine Scripture bears witness. Such were the three great luminaries, Basil, Chrysostom and Gregory, who found their evidence either in the very same passages or in other sayings of the Scriptures. And whoever wishes to argue against them will not be able to keep silent, since they took their testimony not from other books, so that one might say «this is their own understanding», but from those same words or from other words of the Scriptures. Truly it was from the Holy Spirit that they learned to understand and to speak as was fitting.

Anything for which there is no evidence that it is good, but only doubt, should neither be done nor entertained in thought. What need is there to leave aside a plain thing, for which there is evidence that it is good and pleasing to God, and to do something else without knowing whether it is good or not — unless it be out of passion? So it is.

How one should pray in the appointed offices.

We should know about the eight offices that in four of them we must say what is prescribed for each, while in the others we should say only «Lord, have mercy», as is recorded of Saint Philemon, so that the intellect may take unending delight in understanding. This is how the watchful man should live: sometimes keeping the intellect in the contemplation of sensible things, sometimes in the knowledge of intelligible and invisible things; sometimes in the thought of some passage of Scripture, sometimes in pure prayer. And as for the body: sometimes in reading, sometimes in prayer, sometimes in tears for himself or for another out of compassion for God’s sake; and also in helping someone who is weak in soul or body, so as to do continually the works of the holy angels, without troubling himself about anything in this world.

And God, who has chosen the solitary and set him apart to be His companion, and who has given him such a state and freedom from care, will Himself care for him and feed him in soul and body. «Cast your care upon the Lord», says the Scripture, «and He will nourish you» (Ps 55:22). And in the measure that a man places his hope in God for everything concerning soul and body, in that measure God cares for him. Therefore the ascetic sees himself as worse than all creation, since he has received many gifts of God, manifest and hidden, spiritual and bodily; feeling himself a debtor, he is ashamed and cannot become proud, because he sees God’s benefactions. And in the measure that he gives thanks to God and strives to spur himself on to love of Him, in that measure God draws near to him with His gifts and wishes to give him rest, and to make him love stillness and non-possession above all earthly goods, to say nothing of the reward in the age to come.

The holy martyrs suffered and received wounds from their enemies, but their longing for the Kingdom and their love for God overcame the pain; and the very fact that they had the power to defeat their enemies they took as a great consolation and as a debt they owed — to be counted worthy to suffer death for Christ — and so they often became insensible to their sufferings. In the same way the holy fathers at first often burdened themselves with various labours and struggles which they undertook because of the cunning of the spirits; yet their longing and hope for dispassion prevailed. For after labour the man who is free from care becomes dispassionate, having conquered the passions. The man subject to the passions thinks that all is well with him, but he thinks so because of his blindness. Only the man who is truly called an ascetic strives and struggles, because he wants to conquer the passions and his weaknesses.

Sometimes God allows the ascetic to be defeated by those who fight against him, so that he may acquire humility. It is good, then, to see one’s own weakness, so as to keep firmly away from what is harmful and to forget one’s former habits. For unless a man first withdraws from disturbance and acquires complete stillness, he cannot come to possess anything dispassionately, or to speak only what is good and brief. In everything the first requirement is complete flight from disturbance, so as not to draw the old habits back again. Yet let no one, through misunderstanding, hear about humility and dispassion and the like and imagine that he already possesses them. Let him rather look for the signs of each of these virtues and see whether they are present in him.

On humility of thought.

The signs of humility of thought are these. The man who possesses every virtue of soul and body considers himself all the more a debtor before God, because he has received much through grace though he is unworthy of it. And when some temptation comes upon him, whether through demons or through men, he thinks that he deserves this temptation and even greater ones, so as to be freed little by little from his debt and to find relief from the punishment awaiting him at the judgement. When he cannot bear it, he grieves greatly and looks for something with which to burden himself. And when he receives relief again, as a gift from God, then he humbles himself, since he can make no return to his Benefactor. So he labours on and always considers himself a debtor.

On dispassion.

The signs of dispassion are these: not to be disturbed, and to remain fearless in every situation, like those who have received from God the grace to «do all things», according to the apostle’s words (Phil 4:13); not to be anxious about the body in any way, but so far as possible to burden oneself, and, having gained the habit of rest, to give thanks and then burden oneself with something else, so as to be always in the struggle and to conquer through humility. That is a man’s progress. «What happens without effort is not an achievement but a gift», says Saint Isaac. If rest came after the first labour, that is the reward of victory, and there is still nothing to boast about; for men praise not those who receive a reward but those who force themselves to labour and receive nothing.

And what is there to say here? However much we do, however much we thank our Benefactor, we owe Him that much and far more; for He is inexhaustible and demands nothing, and we can do no good thing without Him. He who is granted to praise God gains still more, since he receives a great and wonderful gift; and the more he sings, the more he becomes a debtor, finding no end or limit to the knowledge of God, or to thanksgiving, or to humility, or to love. These things do not belong to this age, that there should be an end to them, but to that other, infinite age which has no end — in which, on the contrary, knowledge and giving keep growing. Whoever is granted this in word and deed is set free from all the passions.

Whoever wishes to receive it must abide in God, take no thought at all for this present age, and fear no temptation, since through temptation he will be led to greater progress and a higher degree. He should not be disturbed by dreams, whether evil or seemingly good; nor by any thought, evil or good; nor by sadness, nor by supposed joy; nor by fantasy, nor by despair; nor by exaltation, nor by depression; nor by abandonment, nor by some help and strength; nor by freedom from care, nor by gains; nor by hopelessness, nor by zeal; nor by apparent dispassion, nor by violent passion. Rather he should keep a still and carefree life with humility, believing that no one can do us any harm unless we ourselves consent.

Evil is allowed to come upon us only because of pride, and when we do not always turn to God — that is, when we do not bow before Him, asking that His will be done in everything, and saying to every thought that comes to us: «I do not know who you are; God knows whether you are good or not. I have given myself into His hands and give myself still, and He cares for me. As He created me out of nothing, so He will save me by grace as it pleases Him. Only may His holy will be done in this age and in the age to come, as He wills and when He wills. I know only that I have sinned much and have received many gifts. And in spite of all this, He wills and is able to save me as He wills. How can I, a man, know whether this is what He wants or not? Out of fear I have sinned even here; and because of my many sins and many weaknesses I sit idle in my cell like a prisoner, awaiting the Lord’s year.»

And when the ascetic sees himself inert and dead, let him not be afraid, for his soul will be stirred and tears of pain will come, if only he does not leave his cell. And when he is filled with great zeal for every spiritual work and with tears, let him not rejoice at it, but expect to be robbed and prepare for battle. In a word, let him disregard everything, whether good or bad, so as to remain undisturbed in all things and free from argument, striving as best he can and carrying out what he has undertaken, if he has an adviser. If not, let him take Christ as his counsellor, so that in every undertaking and every thought he asks Him humbly with pure prayer from the heart, not even daring to think himself an experienced monk until he sees Christ in the age to come, as the author of the Ladder and Abba Agathon say.

And if his intention is to please God, then God Himself teaches him His will, or makes it known to him spiritually through a man or through the Scriptures. And when he cuts off his own desires for God’s sake, God Himself will bring it about with indescribable joy that he attains perfection, though he will not know how. Seeing this, he will marvel greatly at how joy and understanding begin to flow to him from every side, how he profits from everything, and how God reigns in him as in one who has no will of his own, since he obeys the holy will of God. He becomes like a king: whatever he sets his mind on, he receives without difficulty from God, who cares for him. This is the faith of which the Lord says: «If you have faith…» (Mt 17:20), and upon this faith the other virtues are built, as the apostle says (cf. Jude 20).

That is why the enemy uses every trick to make a man abandon this freedom from argument and fall into passion, and become unfaithful in at least some respect, relying on his own strength and wisdom, whether wholly or in part. Then the enemy will always find occasion to defeat the wretched soul and take it captive.

He who has come to know this leaves behind all the sweetness of the world and its rest as worthless, and cares only for freedom from care: either in obedience, having a guide in Christ’s place and entrusting himself to him with full understanding in word and deed, so as to possess nothing whatever; or in stillness, withdrawing from everything in firm faith and having Christ in place of everyone, so that He becomes all things to him, as Chrysostom and John of Damascus say, in the present age and in the age to come — feeding, clothing, delighting, consoling, gladdening, giving rest, teaching, enlightening; in short, He cares for His disciples and for him alike. Though such a man has not laboured as much as they did, he has firm faith; and having it, he does not worry about himself as other men do. But fearing the spirits, as the apostles once feared the Jews, he sits in his cell awaiting his Master, so that by true revelation — that is, by the knowledge of His creatures — He may raise his intellect with Himself from the passions and grant him peace, as He did to the apostles when He entered through the closed door, as Saint Maximos says.

On the precise keeping of the seven bodily works.

What was written at the beginning about the seven bodily and moral works should be kept at all times, neither diminished nor exaggerated — except at a time of bodily struggle in youth or when strength abounds, when the greatest possible effort is called for; or again in sickness, when a little relaxation is needed. Yet they cannot be abandoned altogether, since that can harm even those who are free from passion, as Saint Isaac says. If relaxation is necessary, let it be like medicine for an illness; and let not the soul, having once found an excuse for it, wish to slacken its hold. Slackness will come when a man wants rest with his whole soul; and rest, say the saints, harms the young and the healthy.

The holy fathers Basil and Maximos say that to satisfy hunger and thirst only bread and water are needed, and that everything else was given us by God for the health and strength of the body. And so that one and the same food should not weary a sick man, it is useful to eat now one thing, now another. For both the refusal of food and immoderation bring on illnesses, while temperance and a daily change of dishes help a man to recover, so that the body is preserved without overeating and without sickness and has the strength to acquire virtue.

This is said for those who are engaged in the struggle. The dispassionate, like infants in Christ, often go several days without eating, forgetting the body — like Saint Sisoes, who, having already eaten, wished to receive the holy Mysteries, since he was caught up in divine rapture. As the apostle says for the benefit of many: «If we are beside ourselves, it is for God; and if we are in our right mind, it is for you» (2 Cor 5:13). And as Basil the Great and others with him say of certain men: even when they had eaten a great deal of food they did not notice it, but felt as though they had eaten nothing; for the intellect of such men was not in the body, to feel either the body’s rest or its pain. Many holy fathers and holy martyrs bore witness to this, and it was shown also in the case of one saint about whom Saint Neilos writes. There was, he says, an elder praying in the desert. By God’s permission, for his own benefit and that of many others, the demons seized him by the hands and feet and threw him into the air, and so that his body should not be broken when he fell from such a height they caught him on a mat. They kept doing this for a long time, tempting him to see whether his intellect would come down from heaven; and they could not achieve it. Will such a man feel the need for food or drink, or any other bodily need?

Again, Saint Ephraim, having by the grace of Christ overcome all the passions of anger and desire, asked that the grace of dispassion be taken from him, so as not to be free from the enemy’s assaults and thus fall under condemnation — such was his thought, because of his indescribable humility. And John of the Egyptians wrote to him that there are men more dispassionate than the dispassionate, and so forth.

On discernment.

In every undertaking, then, we need discernment, so that we may weigh each action in its due time. Discernment is the light that shows the man who has it a person’s state, his strength of soul, his age, his bodily power, his eagerness, his zeal, his contrition, his skill or lack of it, his habits, the place, the manner of life, his upbringing, his faith, his disposition, his intention, his joy, his knowledge, his natural wisdom, his diligence, his cheerfulness and the like. So it is in the Gospel of John: when the Greeks came to see the Lord, He said, «The hour has come…» (Jn 12:23), indicating that the time had come for the calling of the Gentiles — and this was the sign. Discernment explains all this, and not only this but also the intentions of the fathers; for we look not at what a man does, but at why he does it.

«He who does something without knowing what has been said about it will labour hard and yet accomplish nothing», say Anthony the Great and Saint Isaac, speaking of those who labour at the bodily virtues but pay no attention to the state in which they do them — which is precisely what they ought to be seeking. Saint Maximos says: «Give the body work according to its strength, and turn all your effort to the intellect.» For the man who labours only bodily is overcome by gluttony and drowsiness, and then passion and talkativeness darken his intellect; while the man who labours diligently with his intellect reflects, prays, and is able to accomplish everything. The wise man strives, as far as possible, to have fewer troubles and to keep the commandments: «Do not be anxious about your life…» (cf. Mt 6:25, 34). «When troubles are many, the ascetic does not even see himself — how then will he see the enemy’s tricks, prepared long in advance?» says Chrysostom. Were it otherwise, we should not fall so easily into his net; but, according to the word of God, «those who are saved will be few» (cf. Lk 13:23).

For when the enemy wants to draw us into something great, he first urges us not to be watchful in small and unnoticed things. Thus before adultery come frequent lustful glances; before murder, a little anger; before the darkening of the intellect, a little passion; and before that, the small needs of the body. Therefore the Lord, who foreknows all things, being the wisdom of the Father, forestalls the devil’s cunning and commands men beforehand to cut off the occasions of sin, so that we may not think small sins easily forgiven and so fall into great and grievous ones. And He says: «You have heard that it was said to the men of old» — that is, to those under the Law — «but I say to you…» (cf. Mt 5:21, 27).

Whoever has learned from the holy Gospel, let him be watchful and do as the Saviour teaches, so as to be free from the enemy’s snares; and let the commandments be for him like generous gifts and great benefactions, since with great wisdom they are able to save the soul. Knowledge is a gift from God; and truly «every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above» (Jas 1:17), as the brother of God says. So too John of Damascus: «You, Christ, have given us as an intercessor who is never put to shame her who bore You; through her intercession grant us the Spirit, who serves to bestow the goodness that proceeds through You from the Father.»

Those who have received the gift of attention to the divine Scriptures, as the fathers say, find in these Scriptures every hidden good; therefore the Lord says: «Every scribe instructed about the Kingdom of Heaven…» (cf. Mt 13:52) — that is, trained to withdraw for God’s sake and to read the divine Scriptures. For the Scriptures disclose themselves in one way to those in the world, even if they think they know them, and in another way to those who have withdrawn in order to pray without ceasing, that is, to have the thought of God in place of breathing in everything — even if such a man lives in the world and is unlearned and untrained in human studies, as Basil the Great says. «God most often appears to simplicity and humility», says the author of the Ladder, «and not to toil and empty wisdom.» From such wisdom God turns away, because it has no humility. The apostle says that he is «unskilled in speech, but not in knowledge» (2 Cor 11:6); for spiritual knowledge is a gift, whereas the art of speech is a human science like all the other sciences of this world, and helps no one to save his soul. This is plain from the case of the Greeks.

Reading serves to remind those who know by experience and to teach the inexperienced. «When the Lord finds a heart clean of all worldly things and sciences», says Basil the Great, «then, as in a clean book, He writes His own doctrines in it.» I say this so that no one may read what does not serve to please God; and if he does read something against his will, let him hasten to make up for it in his memory by reading the divine Scriptures spiritually, and those books that serve the salvation of his soul according to the state he has reached. When he is in the active life, let him read the lives and sayings of the fathers; and when grace has raised him to divine knowledge, let him read all the divine Scriptures, which are able, as the apostle says, to destroy «every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God» (2 Cor 10:5), and to remove all disobedience and transgression through the practice and the true knowledge of the divine commandments and of the dogmas of Christ. Apart from these let him read nothing. Are we to receive an unclean spirit in place of the Holy Spirit? For whoever occupies himself with a certain kind of word takes on the quality of that word, even if the thing does not seem evil to him, as those with experience can see.

On reading in God.

Let reading in God be such that the intellect does not wander; this is the beginning of salvation. «He who hates the giving of pledges is secure» (cf. Prov 11:15), says Solomon; and wandering thoughts are the beginning of sins, says Saint Isaac. Whoever wants to avoid this entirely, let him practise much in his cell. And when he is weighed down by boredom, let him work a little — whether he is dispassionate or still subject to thoughts — for the benefit of many and to help the weak, as the great fathers did, coming down and making themselves like those subject to the passions out of humility and wisdom, since they were able to have God within them everywhere, practising the knowledge of God even at their handiwork and in the market place. As Basil the Great says of the perfect: even in a crowd of people they always seem to be within themselves and in God.

But whoever does not yet have this and wishes to drive away boredom, let him set aside all conversation with people and excessive sleep, and let him allow boredom to wear out his body and soul until it departs, seeing his patience in constant meditation on God, in reading and in pure prayer. For every enemy, when he sees that he can achieve something, brings up his army; but when he cannot, he withdraws, either for good or for a time. Therefore let him who wishes to defeat the enemy be patient: «He who endures to the end will be saved» (Mt 10:22). «It is just before God», says the apostle, «to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest to you who are afflicted» (2 Thess 1:6-7). No work done in God with humility will turn out badly; but there is a difference between works and undertakings.

That things are not evil in themselves, but their misuse.

Everything done without necessity becomes an obstacle for the man who wants to be saved — that is, everything that serves neither the salvation of the soul nor the life of the body. For it is not food that is evil but gluttony; not possessions but attachment to them; not words but idle talk; not the good things of the world but intemperance; not love for one’s own kin but the neglect of God’s good pleasure that comes from it; not clothing that merely covers the body and protects from cold and heat, but what is superfluous and costly; not houses that protect us from robbers, from beasts and from men, but houses of two and three storeys, large and crowded. It is not the possession of a thing that is harmful, but possessing it for the wrong need. There is no evil in a poor man having books; the evil is in not having the books that profit the soul. There is no evil in having a wife, but in adultery; no evil in wine, but in drunkenness; none in natural anger, which is given us to fight against sin, but in using it against those who are like us; none in authority, but in the love of authority; none in glory, but in the love of glory and in the vainglory that is worse still; none in the acquisition of virtue, but in imagining that one has it; none in knowledge, but in imagining that one has it and — worse — not noticing that one has none. The world is not evil, but the world held with passion; not nature, but what is against nature; not agreement, but agreement applied to doing evil instead of to the salvation of the soul; not the members of the body, but their misuse.

For our eyes are given us not to look lustfully, but to look upon creation and glorify the Creator in it, and our feet to walk well for the good of soul and body. Our ears are given not for listening to slander and empty words, but for hearing the word of God and every sound we hear from men, from birds and from other creatures, and for glorifying the Creator because of them. The nose was not given us to relax the soul and weaken its strength with perfumes, as the Theologian says, but so that we might breathe and take in the air God has given us, and praise God for it; for no one can live without it, neither man nor beast.

And I marvel at the wisdom of the Benefactor, that everyone can have what is necessary — air, fire, water and earth. God created not only these things but also what can save the soul; and this is easier to come by than anything else, whereas what can destroy the soul is not easy at all. Poverty commonly saves the soul, while wealth is an obstacle to many; and everyone can find poverty, but wealth does not lie within our will. So too with dishonour, humility, patience, obedience, self-abasement, temperance, fasting, vigil, the cutting off of one’s own will, those weaknesses that make us slack, thanksgiving for all of it, temptations, contempt, the lack of the barest necessities, the avoidance of pleasures, nakedness, long-suffering — in a word, all the undertakings that are for God’s sake are easily accomplished, and they are allowed us, and no one is angry with us for them; on the contrary, whoever wants them is permitted to have them, whether he finds them willingly or unwillingly.

But what leads to ruin is not easy to acquire: wealth, fame, pride, deceit, contempt for authority, the lust for power, intemperance, overeating, verbosity, self-will, health and bodily strength, a comfortable life, possessions, the hoarding of everything we desire, the satisfaction of pleasures, the piling up of clothes and coverings, many and costly, and the like — for which there is great toil, small and temporary profit, and great sorrow, and that a bitter one. All this becomes a sorrow not only to those who have it but also to those who wish to have it — though, as we have said, there is no evil in the proper use of these things.

For we have hands and feet not to steal and rob, nor to raise a hand against one another, but to do every work for God: to give generously to the poor, to build up those who are weak in soul, to help those in need; and, for those stronger in soul and body, to gain patience, to imitate Christ and His holy disciples, to glorify God and to marvel at His hidden wisdom, which is revealed even in the parts of our body — as in these hands and small fingers, ready for every skill and work, for writing and for every undertaking according to God’s providence, from which come the knowledge of countless crafts and of writing, wisdom and healing medicines, languages and various scripts. In a word, everything that has been, that is and that will be was given to us out of the greatest kindness, and is always given for the life of the body and the salvation of the soul, provided we use it all according to God’s purpose. If not, we fall away and perish, and everything that exists becomes a sorrow to us in the present age — and not only in the present age, for in the age to come it becomes eternal torment for us, as has already been said.

On true discernment.

Whoever has received the gift of discernment by the grace of God must guard it with all his strength, doing nothing at all without discernment, so that he may not sin knowingly through negligence and bring on himself a greater condemnation. And whoever has not yet received this gift must have no opinion of his own and must neither say nor do anything without asking, and without firm faith and pure prayer, apart from which he cannot judge the truth. Discernment is born of humility of thought; and in the man who has it, insight is born, so that, as Moses and the Ladder say, he can foresee the enemy’s hidden schemes and cut off their causes in advance, according to David’s words: «And my eye has looked down upon my enemies» (Ps 92:11).

The signs of discernment are these: the true recognition of good and of its opposite; seeing God’s will in every matter; insight; knowing one’s sins before they become deeds, and those that come about after being robbed by the demons; and after this, the knowledge of the mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures and in sensible creatures. The mother of all this is humility, whose signs have already been described. It may be recognized in this: that when a man is humble and wise, he must possess every virtue, and still more must he consider himself the worst of all creation and truly believe it. If he is not like this, then it means that he is indeed worse than all creation, even if he seems to live like an angel. For even a real angel, though he has so many virtues and so much wisdom, cannot please God without humility. What then shall we say of the man who considers himself an angel but has no humility, the cause of all that is good?

From humility discernment is born, which enlightens the ends of the earth; and without it everything is dark. Discernment is light and is called light; and so we need this light more than any word or undertaking, so that we may marvel at everything else. We marvel at God, that on the first day, the Lord’s day, He first created light, so that what was created afterwards should not be invisible, as though it did not exist, says John of Damascus. So light, as we have said, is discernment; and the insight born from it is the most necessary of all gifts. What is more necessary than to see the wiles of the devil and to guard one’s soul with the cooperation of grace? And purity of conscience is the most necessary of all works, as Saint Isaac says, together with the holiness «without which no one will see the Lord» (Heb 12:14), as the apostle says.

That we should not despair, even when we sin much.

We must not despair when we are not what we ought to be. It is bad, man, that you have sinned; but why do you anger God and, because of your anger, count Him powerless? Can He who created the world you see before you not save your soul? And if you say that this will be your condemnation, as well as His condescension, then repent, and He will accept your repentance, as He accepted the repentance of the publican and the harlot. And if you cannot repent, but sin out of habit even against your will, be humble like the publican (cf. Lk 18:13), and this will be enough for your salvation. For whoever sins without repenting and yet does not despair must of necessity consider himself the worst of all creatures, and he does not dare to condemn or rebuke anyone, but only marvels at God’s love for mankind, gives thanks to his Benefactor, and can still acquire many blessings. Though he has obeyed the devil in his sins, he will not submit to the enemy through the fear of God, which drives him away from despair.

And so he becomes a portion of God, because he has understanding, thanksgiving, patience and the fear of God, so as not to judge and not to be judged — which is very necessary.

Chrysostom says of Gehenna that it plainly benefits us, even more than the Kingdom of Heaven, since many enter the Kingdom of Heaven through it, and few enter for the Kingdom’s sake alone; but greater still is God’s love for mankind. Gehenna urges us on by fear, and the Kingdom receives us, and by both of these we are saved through the grace of Christ. If those overcome by many passions of soul and body endure, and do not abandon their self-control through negligence or fall into despair, they receive crowns. But he who has acquired dispassion with calm and ease falls away at once if he does not always confess grace and refrain from condemning anyone; and when he dares to condemn, he shows that he thinks he acquired this wealth by his own power, says Saint Maximos.

And just as it is a great disaster when a man still subject to the passions and without a share in the light of knowledge has authority over another, as Saint John of Damascus says, so it is when a man who has received dispassion and spiritual knowledge from God does not benefit other souls. Nothing is so beneficial for the weak as withdrawal into stillness, and for those subject to passion and ignorance as obedience within stillness. There is nothing better than to see one’s own weakness and ignorance, and nothing worse than not to see it. There is no passion more hateful than pride and none more ridiculous than the love of money, which is the root of all evils. Men suffer great pains to make coins of silver out of the metal of the earth, and then lay them back idle in the ground. That is why the Lord says: «Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…», and again: «For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also» (Mt 6:19, 21). For when a man’s intellect is rooted in something, habit draws his desire either to earthly things and the passions, or to heavenly and eternal goods; and habit, once rooted, becomes as strong as nature, says Basil the Great.

When a man is sick, he should listen to the testimony of his conscience, so as to free his soul from all condemnation, lest the end of his life come and he have to repent in vain and weep for ever. He who cannot endure death in the flesh for Christ, as Christ endured it, must endure it inwardly of his own free will and become a martyr of conscience, refusing to submit to the demons or to the desires that would conquer him, but overcoming them, like the holy martyrs and the venerable fathers — some of whom were martyrs in the flesh, others in the intellect. He who forced himself a little has defeated the enemy; and he who neglected himself a little and was darkened has perished.

A short teaching on acquiring the virtues and withdrawing from the passions.

Nothing darkens the thoughts like cunning, and nothing enlightens the intellect like reading in stillness, says Basil the Great. Nothing brings the soul so quickly to compunction as the thought of death; nothing leads to hidden progress like self-reproach and the cutting off of one’s own desires; nothing leads to hidden ruin like fantasy and self-satisfaction; nothing so surely causes God to turn away and men to be punished as complaining; nothing leads more easily to sin than begging and much conversation; nothing so helps the gathering of virtues as seclusion and sighing; nothing leads to right understanding and thanksgiving like the remembrance of God’s gifts and of our own sins; nothing brings back blessings like giving praise for them; and nothing produces salvation against our will like temptations.

There is no shorter road to Christ — that is, to dispassion and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit — than the middle way, which avoids excess and deficiency in everything. No other virtue grasps God’s will like humility and the setting aside of one’s own understanding and one’s own will. Nothing so furthers every good work as pure prayer, and nothing is so harmful to the acquisition of virtue as passion and a haughty thought, however slight.

In the measure that a man has purity, in that measure he sees that he sins; and in the measure that he sins, in that measure he is darkened, even though it seems to him that he has purity. So too, the more a man thinks he has knowledge, the more he knows nothing; and the more the ascetic endures sorrows, the more he will defeat the enemy. And however much a man strives to do some good in a day, he should strive in the same way every day of his life, says Saint Mark — for otherwise he supposes that it is done by his own strength and watchfulness. But if it is by the grace of God, and it happens when grace comes, then what praise belongs to him? For he thinks that he can do some good thing, and wrongly condemns those who cannot.

Whoever demands something from his neighbour must demand still more from himself. And just as those who sin feel themselves debtors because they anger God, so those who are covered by His grace should tremble the more, since because of their weakness and their nearness to falling they are even greater debtors. Ignorance of the Scriptures is a great disaster, says Saint Epiphanios; but a greater evil is transgression when there is knowledge.

A word does the soul more good than prayer. And when a man bears with his neighbour, let him not take offence at the one who insults him; and when he restrains his own will, however embarrassed he may be, says Saint Dorotheos, he shows mercy to his own soul, bearing his neighbour’s burden and praying for him, wishing him salvation and every good of soul and body. This is pure innocence, which purifies the soul and leads it to God; for to heal a man is better than all works and virtues. Few virtues are greater or more perfect than love for one’s neighbour. Its sign is not merely to keep for oneself nothing that another needs, but to accept death for him with joy, according to the Lord’s commandment, and to regard this as one’s duty and as a great dignity; for we must love our neighbour not only according to nature but also because of the pure blood shed for us by Him who commanded it, Christ (cf. Jn 15:13).

«Do not be a lover of self», says Saint Maximos, «and you will be a lover of God; do not be self-indulgent, and you will be a lover of your brother.» Love for one’s brother is born through hope, and hope is the unquestioning faith, with all the soul, that we shall receive what we hope for. Hope comes through firm faith, so that a man is anxious neither about his life nor about his death, but hands over all his cares to God, as has been said of the man who wishes to receive the signs of dispassion, whose foundation is faith. Let him who has faith consider that God, who out of His supreme goodness created all things and us with them out of nothing, will also arrange everything for all flesh as He Himself knows best.

How one may acquire true faith.

Faith is the foundation of all blessings and the door to God’s mysteries; without effort it grants victory over the enemy; it is more necessary than any virtue, the wing of prayer, and the indwelling of God in the soul. Whoever wishes to acquire it must endure every trial with which his enemies tempt him, and the many and varied thoughts of which no one could know anything, or speak, or invent, except the author of malice, the devil. But let such a man not be afraid; for when with great effort he overcomes the temptations that come upon him and keeps his intellect from being weakened by the thought born in his heart, then he will overcome all the passions at a single stroke — because it will not be he who overcomes them, but Christ, who enters into him through faith. Of such men the Lord says: «If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed…» (Mt 17:20).

But when the thought fails and gives way a little, let the ascetic not be afraid or despair, and let him not ascribe to his own soul what the leader of evil says; rather let him patiently and diligently guard virtue and fulfil the commandments in stillness and in withdrawal for God’s sake from everything about which he is tempted to reason on his own. Then the enemy, hurling at him every kind of trick and fantasy day and night, will see that he is not troubled in the least by these raving devices or by all the thoughts with which he tried to frighten him — that is, by presenting false delusions as truth — and he will be dismayed and depart. And the ascetic, having gained experience in the commandments of Christ, is not afraid of the enemy’s feebleness nor terrified by his cunning, but does with joy in God all that he wills and desires, held captive and strengthened by faith in the God in whom he believed. And the Lord Himself says: «All things are possible to him who believes» (Mk 9:23). For it is not he who wages the war against the enemy, but God who cares for him because of his faith, as the prophet says: «I have made the Most High my refuge»…

…(Ps 91:9). Such a man is anxious about nothing, knowing that «the horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory is from the Lord» (Prov 21:31), as Solomon says. And therefore he dares everything, as Saint Isaac says: «Acquire faith within yourself, so as to trample down your enemies.» For such a man lives not according to his own will but like an animal led by the will of God, according to the words of the prophet: «I became like a beast before You; yet I am always with You» (Ps 73:22-23).

The prayer of one who has surrendered himself to God.

If You wish to give me rest through knowledge, I shall not object; and if You wish to allow me to be tempted for the sake of my humility, then too I shall be with You, for I can do nothing of myself. Without You I would not have come out of nothing, and so without You I cannot live or be saved. Do with Your creature whatever You will. I believe that You are good and will arrange what is good for me, even if for my profit I do not know it; and I do not ask to understand it in order to gain relief, if that is not profitable for me. I do not dare to ask that my struggle be eased, though I am weak and burdened by everything, because I do not know what is good for me. You know all things; do as You know, only let me not sin, whatever may happen. Whether I will it or not, save me, if it pleases You. I have no care for that. I am as one without a soul before You; I place my soul in the purity of Your hands, in this age and in the age to come. For You can do all things and know all things, and You desire all good for all men and always desire my salvation. This is plain from all Your benefactions, which You have done and always do for us by grace, openly and hiddenly, those we know and those we do not, and from Your coming down to us, beyond all understanding, O Son and Word of God.

Who am I, that I should dare to turn to You, Searcher of hearts? Yet I say it so that it may be known to me and to my enemies that I flee to You, my refuge and my salvation. From Your grace I have come to know that You are my God, and therefore I do not dare to say much; I only wish to set before You my intellect, inert, deaf and dumb. Not I, but Your grace does everything. I cannot remember doing anything good; I can only show You a great deal of evil, as I fall down before You, since You have granted me to repent, and I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid. Do not abandon me, my Lord, my Master, Jesus Christ my God, that I may not do or say or think what You do not want. My former sins are enough for me; but if You will, have mercy on me. I have sinned; have mercy on me, as You know how. I believe, Lord, that You will hear my voice as I cry out to You; help my unbelief, You who gave me being and made me a Christian.

«It is a great thing for me», says John of Karpathos, «that I am called a monk and a Christian.» And so You said, Lord, to one of Your servants that it is a great thing to be called by Your name. For me this is more than all the kingdoms of earth and heaven — that I should never cease to be called by Your sweetest name. Lord, rich in mercy, I thank You… and so on, as it is written.

On the two kinds of faith.

Just as different readings suit the man in the active life, and different words and tears and prayers, so this faith differs from the first, which gives rise to freedom from argument. The one is faith from hearing, the other faith from revelation, as Saint Isaac says; and revelation is more certain than hearing. From natural knowledge is born the first and common faith, true and glorious, from which comes withdrawal for God’s sake — that is, fasting, vigil, reading, psalmody, prayer, the questioning of those with experience. From all this the spiritual virtues are born, that is, the keeping of the commandments and the guarding and ordering of one’s habits; and from these come great faith, hope and perfect love, which takes the intellect captive to God, as has been said, in prayer, when a man is united inwardly with God, as Saint Neilos says.

The words of the prayer are written once for all, so that the man who wishes to set his intellect undisturbed before the holy and life-giving Trinity, as though seeing her — although in reality he can see nothing — should always pray the same prayer. But let the intellect be free of sight and of concepts, without images, untroubled, dispassionate, unmoved, insensible to all else, thinking of nothing and considering nothing that belongs to creation, but conversing with God in deep peace and complete stillness and remembering Him alone, until it comes to the rapture of the intellect; after which it is fitting to say, as he is granted, the final prayer, that is, «Our Father», as Saint Philemon did with the holy apostles, martyrs and monks. Whatever goes beyond this is delusion arising from imagination. The Godhead is boundless and indescribable, and the intellect that has come to itself must be the same, if it is to be worthy of the grace of the descent of the Holy Spirit. «For we walk by faith, not by sight», says the apostle.

That is why we need to spend a long time in ascetic labour, so that over a long period the intellect may grow accustomed to reach diligently toward the divine. For even if the intellect finds nothing greater than sensible things, it will still no longer reach out for them, and will leave behind what it had grown used to over a long time. Men who are lovers of God and dispassionate are not greatly harmed by worldly things, since they are well ordered toward them; nor are those who have received great gifts, since they see perfection in God.

That stillness is most useful for those subject to the passions.

Stillness and withdrawal from things and from people are useful for everyone, but most of all for those subject to the passions and for the weak. For the intellect cannot become dispassionate through outward actions alone, unless it receives many spiritual gifts. Both caring for someone and having authority over someone are not without harm for the man who has not first acquired dispassion through withdrawal; and the troubles and bustle of life harm even the perfect and the dispassionate.

«There is no profit in human action», says Chrysostom, «without favour from heaven»; and favour from heaven does not come to those who do not want it. We need both the one and the other: God’s part and man’s, action and knowledge, fear and hope, weeping and joy, awe and humility, discernment and love. For it is said that everything in this life is twofold: day and night, light and darkness, health and sickness, virtue and sin, prosperity and misfortune, life and death — so that through the first of each pair we, who are weak, might serve God in the field of this life, and through the second might flee from sin, fearing temptations. And being strong in everything, men loved God as a Father, seeing that He arranges all good things very well and profitably; they abstained from pleasures and desired hardships, knowing that through these our bodies live to the glory of the Creator and help our souls to be saved by God’s unspeakable mercy.

On the three kinds of men.

There are three kinds of men: slaves, hirelings and sons. Slaves do not love the good, but flee from evil out of fear of punishment. «This is good», says Saint Dorotheos, «but not pleasing.» Hirelings love the good and hate the evil because they hope for a reward. But the sons, being perfect, keep away from evil not because they fear punishment but because they hate it deeply, and they do good not because they hope for a reward but because they regard it as their duty. They love dispassion as an imitation of God and as the reason why He dwells in them; and because of this they keep away from every sin, even where there is no prohibition.

For as long as the ascetic has not become dispassionate, the most kind God does not send the All-Holy Spirit upon him, lest habit drag him back to the passions and he become guilty toward the Holy Spirit who has descended upon him and receive a greater condemnation. But when, being accustomed to virtue, he has no fellowship with the enemy and is not dragged along by his passionate habit, then he receives grace and is not condemned when he receives the gift. «That is why», says the author of the Ladder, «God does not reveal His will to us: because if we did not understand it we would not obey Him and would receive a greater condemnation — although we, like infants, do not know His immeasurable mercy toward us who are ungrateful. Whoever wishes to understand God’s will», he says, «must die in all things to the whole world and to his own will in everything.»

Therefore, when there is doubt about a thing, do not do it and do not consider it good, unless you cannot live or be saved without it. The ascetic must question those with experience, and then, through firm faith and prayer, certainty about the matter comes, leading to complete dispassion, which makes the intellect unyielding and unconquerable in every good work; and though the struggle is great, the man is not harmed.

«My power is made perfect in weakness» (2 Cor 12:9), the Lord says to the apostle; and he answers: «When I am weak, then I am strong» (2 Cor 12:10). It is not always a good sign to be free of passion, for the demons often withdraw for many reasons — whether out of cunning or to create a fantasy, so as to stir up in us a high opinion of ourselves, or pride, or some other evil, so that this may take the place of the other passions.

Some of the fathers, among the great elders, kept the commandments; others after them wrote this down; and we put what is written on the shelf — and even when we do read it, we do not practise understanding what was said and doing it. Either we do not read what we should, or else we imagine that we are doing something great and are lifted up, not seeing that we shall be condemned all the more when we fail to do it, as Chrysostom says: «He who knows his master’s will…» (cf. Lk 12:47). Reading and knowledge, then, are good for us when they lead to greater humility.

The same holds for counsel, when we listen to it without scrutinizing the life of the one who teaches, as the Theologian says: «Do not look for the credentials of the one who teaches or preaches to you.» And the Lord says: «Do and observe everything they tell you…» (cf. Mt 23:3). There is no harm in asking one’s teacher, but there is no profit if one does not do what he says. «Each of us will give an account of himself» (cf. Rom 14:12): the teacher for his words, the disciple for the deeds of his obedience. What goes beyond this is unnatural and deserves condemnation.

«God is good and just», says Saint Eustratios, «and out of His goodness He gives us good things when we receive them with thanksgiving, as from a just inheritance.» And when we become ungrateful, God’s justice deprives us of the good. So God’s goodness and His truth give us every good thing by nature, and eternal torment for the misuse of it.

That true repentance is a great good.

Whenever a man wishes, he may begin to repent again. If you have fallen, rise; and if you have fallen again, rise again; and do not despair of your salvation, whatever happens, and do not give yourself over to the enemy of your own free will. This patience together with self-reproach is enough for your salvation. «We too were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to the passions…» (cf. Tit 3:3).

Do not despair at all if you do not see God’s help. He can send help whenever He wills; you need only trust Him, and He will do something. He will arrange your correction either through some temptations or in some other way that He knows; or He will accept your patience and humility in place of works; or in some other way unknown to you He will act with love toward mankind upon your trust, and will save your fearful soul. Only do not leave the Physician, or you will suffer a double death for your ignorance of God’s hidden purpose.

On the six snares that surround every work.

As we spoke about knowledge, so we will now speak about action. Every work of soul and body lies within the middle of six snares. The snares on the right and on the left are excess and deficiency of labour; those above and below are arrogance and despair; those within and without are fear and audacity — and audacity, as the Theologian says, is far from courage, though the names are similar. In the middle of these six snares is moderate action with humility and patience.

One can only marvel at the human intellect, at how it transforms at will everything within it, even though it remains unchanged in itself and remains the same in others. That is why we do not all have the same intention regarding things, but each uses them as he wills, whether well or badly: sensible things by deed, intelligible things by word or thought.

All men, according to the Theologian, belong to four states and dispositions. Some fare well both here and in the age to come — such were all the saints and the dispassionate. Others fare well only here, since, having no gratitude toward the Benefactor, they proved unworthy of the benefits of soul and body — such was the rich man of the parable and others like him. Others suffer here for a long time, as though seized by a lasting illness, like the paralysed: their thought is tried, but they are in favour with God. And others are tormented both here and there, because they are tried by their own desires — like Judas and those like him.

Men also have four standards in regard to sensible things. Some hate God’s works, like the demons, and do evil out of an evil will. Others seem to love the good, but do so passionately, like brute beasts, caring nothing for natural devotion and thanksgiving. Others are natural men, with spiritual knowledge and gratitude, who use everything as they should. And others are above nature, like the angels: they look at everything for the glory of the Creator, consuming nothing beyond what is necessary for life, according to the apostle (cf. 1 Tim 6:8).

On the general and the particular gifts of God.

Therefore all of us should always thank God for His benefactions, general and particular, of soul and of body. The general gifts are the four elements and all that comes from them, and all that the divine Scriptures tell of the strange and wonderful works of God. The particular gifts of God are those He has given to each person: whether wealth, so as to give alms; or poverty, so as to bear it thankfully; or the power to do justice, so as to establish virtue by it; or subjection and servitude, for a certain salvation of the soul; or health, so as to help the needy; or chastity and strength of soul, so as to encourage virtue; or weakness and lack of knowledge, so as to withdraw humbly and without argument from things; or the involuntary loss of possessions, for the sake of a salvation that becomes voluntary, and to help those who cannot come to complete renunciation or even to almsgiving; or peace and prosperity, so that the will may grow and labour in the virtues, in order to become dispassionate and to save other souls; or temptations and calamities, so that those who cannot resist their own desires may be saved against their will, or for the sake of the perfect, who can endure them with joy.

Everything said here, even where one thing seems to contradict another, is very good when it is necessary; and when there is no need for it, it harms both soul and body. And the best of all that has been said is the bearing of sorrows. Let him who has received this great gift thank God, for he has been granted the greatest of graces: this is the imitation of Christ, of His apostles, martyrs and monks. For he receives great strength and knowledge from God who of his own will turns away from pleasures and, cutting off his desire, seeks still greater sorrows; and, rejecting his own understanding when it is contrary to God’s will, always thinks and does what is pleasing to God.

He who has been granted to use things only when he needs them should thank God greatly with deep humility, since by God’s grace he has been freed from what is contrary to nature and from the transgression of the commandments. And we who are still subject to the passions and do not use things well — which is contrary to nature — ought to tremble and give many thanks to the Benefactor with all discernment, marvelling at His indescribable long-suffering: for although we transgress His commandments and use things badly and turn away from His gifts, He bears with our folly and does not cease doing us good, and waits until our last breath for us to turn and repent.

So all of us should give Him thanks, as it is said: «Give thanks in all circumstances» — and from this follow the apostle’s other words: «Pray without ceasing» (1 Thess 5:17-18), that is, remember God at all times, in every place and in everything. When you do anything, remember the Creator: when you see the light, do not forget the One who gave it to you; when you see the sky, the earth, the sea and all created things, marvel and glorify the Creator; when you put on clothing, know that it is a gift, and praise the One who guides your life. In short, let everything you do become an occasion for glorifying God — and so you will pray without ceasing. And let the soul always rejoice in this, as the apostle says (cf. 1 Thess 5:16), for the remembrance of God makes it glad, says Saint Dorotheos, calling David as witness: «I remembered God, and I was glad» (Ps 77:3).

That God created everything for our benefit.

Since God created all that exists for our benefit, and the angels guard and teach us while the demons tempt us, let us humble ourselves and turn to God; and by this we shall be saved and freed from pride and from carelessness, and be on our guard against temptations.

Again: the pleasant things of the world — health, prosperity, security, peace, joy, light, knowledge, wealth, success in everything, rest, delight, honour, power, abundance and all the supposed goods of this life — lead us to thanksgiving and to a right understanding of the Benefactor, and to love Him and do good according to our strength, holding this as a natural duty and wanting to repay His gifts to the full by our deeds — which, though impossible, remains a great debt. And the supposed evils — sicknesses, misfortunes, labours, weaknesses, involuntary sorrows, darkness, ignorance, poverty, failure in everything, fear, losses, dishonour, oppression, exhaustion and all the burdens already mentioned — lead us to patience, humility and good hope, and become a great consolation to us not only in the age to come but in the present one. So God has arranged everything well for us with indescribable kindness.

Whoever wants to understand this rightly should strive to gather the virtues, should receive everything mentioned with thanksgiving — both the good and its opposite — and should be undisturbed in everything. And not only in this: when the demons throw at him a thought of pride, so that he may be exalted, let him remember everything shameful that has been said about them, and trample this thought down and move toward humility. And when the demons put some vile thought before him, let him remember the proud thought and trample down this new one; and so through such remembrance let the thoughts trample one another with the cooperation of grace, so that he may not fall into despair because of the vile thoughts, nor into arrogance because of the proud ones. When his enemies exalt his intellect, let him take refuge in humility; and when his intellect is brought low, let him be lifted up by hope in God — so that being bold he may not fall, and being frightened he may not spend the rest of his life in despair.

This is a great work of the monk, the elders say: when the enemy suggests one thing, the monk takes up another; and when the enemy suggests that other, the monk turns his gaze back to the first, knowing that nothing in this life is permanent. «But he who endures to the end will be saved» (Mt 10:22). He who wants everything to turn out as he imagines does not himself know what he wants. He is like a blind man in the wind: whatever comes his way, he leans toward it; like a slave he fears sorrows, and like a slave he gives in to fantasy, imagining with senseless joy that he knows something he has never seen, not knowing what it is or where it comes from. And when he says that he sees, then he is blinder still.

This is what happens when a man does not reproach himself; from it comes self-satisfaction and unnoticed ruin, as Saint Maximos says in his chapters about the monk who died after seeing the Jerusalem on high while he was praying with the brethren and his intellect was caught up — because he imagined he had achieved something and did not consider the greater debt he owed. Thus those subject to the passions, because of the darkness of their passions, do not see what is obvious to many, while the dispassionate, because of the purity of their intellect, see what others do not.

That the word of God is not many words.

«The word of God», says Saint Maximos, «is not many words.» All of us talk a great deal, yet we have not fulfilled even one of God’s words — and God said: «You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…» (cf. Mt 22:37). How much the fathers have already said and written, and still say and write, and we have not fulfilled a single one of these words. «With all your soul», says Saint Basil, «means to love nothing at all except God; and when a man loves his own soul, he loves God not with his whole soul but with half of it.» If we love ourselves and many other things besides, how can we love God, or dare to say that we do?

So too with love for our neighbour. If we do not disregard the present life — and perhaps the life to come as well — for the sake of love for our neighbour, as Moses and the apostle Paul did, how can we say that we love our neighbour? For Moses says to God concerning the people: «If You will forgive their sin — forgive it; but if not, blot me out of Your book which You have written» (Ex 32:32). And the apostle: «I could wish that I myself were cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren» — above all for those who wanted to kill Him — «for they are Israelites» (cf. Rom 9:3-4).

Such are the souls of the saints: they love their enemies more than themselves. Therefore both in the present age and in the age to come they give their neighbour preference in everything, even when he is their enemy by his own evil will. They seek no reward from those they love; but giving others all they have, they rejoice as though they were the ones receiving, so as to please the Benefactor and to imitate His love for mankind as far as they can — for He is kind to the ungrateful and the sinful.

And when a man is granted such gifts, he should consider himself a debtor to God, who raised him from the earth and brought it about that dust should imitate, even a little, its Creator and God. For to bear wrongs with joy and without malice, to do good to enemies, and to lay down one’s life for one’s neighbour are gifts of God, given to those who are eager to receive them, so that they may «till them and keep them» (cf. Gen 2:15), as was said to Adam, and so that the gifts may be a cause of thanksgiving to the Benefactor. For no good thing has come from us; every good is given us by God through grace, just as existing things came out of nothing. «What have you that you did not receive?» says the apostle — that is, you received it as a gift from God. «And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?» (1 Cor 4:7) — as though you yourself had done the impossible; for the Lord said: «Without Me you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5).

That it is impossible to be saved without humility of thought.

I do not know whether a man, so greatly darkened by the passions, reaches such madness that he sometimes considers himself the equal of the angels, or even greater, since he thinks that he will be saved without humility of thought. The morning star, having lost humility, became darkness even without any other sin. What then does he suffer who has no humility — a mortal man and dust, not to say a sinner? Unless his soul is blind and does not believe that it is sinful.

«Certainly», says Chrysostom, «the perfect man will be equal to the angels in the age to come, as the Lord said — that is, in the resurrection of the dead, and not in the present age.» But even then men will not be angels but equal to angels; for they cannot change their nature. Yet they will be unchanging by grace and free from every need, having power over themselves, and unceasing joy, and love for God, which no eye has seen… and so on. Meanwhile no one can be perfect; he can only receive the pledge of the promised blessings.

Let those who have no gifts humble themselves as the poor do; and let those who have gifts, since they received them from God, not be condemned as fools. And just as the rich should thank God for His gifts, so those who are enriched with virtues should thank Him too; and the poor should thank God and love the rich who do them good, while the rich should love the poor still more, since both in the present and in the age to come they are saved through God’s providence by means of almsgiving. For without the poor, souls would find no salvation and would not escape the temptations of wealth. And as disciples should love their teachers, so teachers should love their disciples; and each should thank God for giving us knowledge and every good thing, for which it is fitting to thank Him at all times — and all the more because we have received the power to renew holy baptism through repentance, without which no one can be saved.

For the Lord says: «Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do what I say?» (Lk 6:46). Let no one be so foolish as to hear this and think that if he kneels and calls upon the Lord he will bear no guilt; on the contrary, he will be condemned all the more, as the Lord says: «If they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?» (Lk 23:31). «If the righteous man is scarcely saved», says Solomon, «what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?» (cf. Prov 11:31). And when a man sees how the divine commandments press upon him from every side, let him not despair, lest he be condemned worse than one who takes his own life; rather let him marvel the more at the divine commandments and Scriptures, which everywhere urge man toward perfection, so that he may not look for a way to escape from the good and find an excuse for the worse.

Whenever he is tempted to do such a thing, seeing all this evil before him, let him turn to the good God, who works strange wonders out of His love for mankind, so that every man becomes perfect in some way even against his will, though he has power within himself. And the wise, being all the more ashamed of the benefits they have received, undertake the struggle like those who crossed the river in a dream, as Saint Ephraim says.

«Therefore», says Saint Isaac, «God has multiplied temptations, so that men, fearing them, might run to Him.» Whoever does not understand this, but through evil greed condemns such a gift, has killed and destroyed himself: having taken up arms against his enemies, he has turned them against himself. Basil the Great says: «God, being good, wants to make everyone good; and so the devil, being evil, wants — though he cannot — to draw everyone into his own malice.» And just as parents who love their children forbid them foolish things and so turn them back, moved by love, so God permits temptations as something bitter that turns the worthy away from the devil’s evil counsels. «He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him chastens him early» (Prov 13:24).

Therefore we, who love pleasure and ourselves, should expect trouble from every side: for those who love God it may be for salvation, that is, the temptations God permits us; but for those who fall through pride and because they are not with God, it leads to ruin. It is better for us, then, as sons who receive chastisement and not death, to choose what is lighter. It is better to run to God when one finds patience than, fearing trouble, to fall away from Him and into the hands of the devil — and so to fall away for ever and bring torment upon oneself. For one of two things awaits us: either we shall endure the first and temporary trouble, or the second and eternal one.

The righteous are touched by neither of these two troubles, for they accept with joy everything that seems to us a calamity; and when temptations come they receive them as a time of gain and are not harmed by them. For it is not the man who was shot at and missed who dies, but the man who was mortally wounded. Did his wound harm Job? On the contrary, it crowned him. Were the apostles and martyrs ever terrified? It is said that they «rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name of Jesus» (Acts 5:41). And in the measure that the victor has known the battle, in that measure he is crowned and takes great joy in it. Such a man, when he hears the sound of the trumpet, is not afraid of it as though it announced a wound, but rejoices, because it announces the crown of his reward.

Nothing conquers without labour like good courage joined to firm faith, and nothing brings defeat so quickly as self-love and fear, which comes from unbelief. There is no better guide to courage than watchfulness and experience, nor to subtlety of thought than reading in stillness. Nothing causes forgetfulness like idleness, and nothing helps a man be rid of sins so quickly as freedom from indolence; nothing brings reconciliation after sins like repentance and the cutting off of evil. There is no faster way to spiritual progress than cutting off one’s own desires and one’s own understanding. There is nothing greater than for the ascetic to fall down day and night before God and pray that His will be done in everything; and nothing worse than to love licence and freedom of soul or body.

For we who love the good out of fear of torment and temptation gain nothing at all from freedom. What is useful for us is to guard ourselves and to withdraw from things, so that by keeping away from what harms our weakness we may fight against the thoughts. The ruling spirits are overcome by dispassionate superiors, as by those who have already conquered the shameful passions; while those who are still under a father’s obedience overcome the subordinate demons. Saint Makarios and Abba Kronios say that there are ruling demons and subordinate ones. The ruling demons are vainglory, pride and the like; the subordinate ones are gluttony, unchastity and the like.

Those who have attained perfect love rule over them, for they do good without compulsion and rejoice in doing it and do not want to leave it; and when some obstacle prevents them from doing good, it becomes a torment for them. Moved by the divine longing, they at once escape into stillness and action — and this is for them a delight and a way of life. Such fathers advise: pray a little, read a little, meditate a little, work a little, watch over your intellect a little, and pass your time in this way. They say this because they themselves are dispassionate and are enslaved to no desire except what pleases them; they hold their intellect where they wish and command their body like a servant. But we need to be under law and rule, so as to do good as a duty, even unwillingly and against our inclination. For we love the passions and pleasures more — that is, the body’s ease and our own desires — and this leads our intellect wherever it wills. So the body has disordered impulses: whatever it wants, it does without a word. And truly, where the intellect does not rule, everything is irrational and happens against nature — unlike what happens with true Israelites, as the Lord says of Simon the Zealot, the Canaanite: «Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile» (Jn 1:47), proclaiming his virtue.

The name Nathanael means «zeal for God». His real name was Simon; he was called the Canaanite because he came from Cana of Galilee, and he was called Nathanael because of his virtues, and also an Israelite, that is, an intellect that sees God without any flattery. «The divine Scriptures», says Basil the Great, «have the custom of naming a man from his virtue and not from his birth.» Take the chief apostles Peter and Paul: the one was called Simon, and the Lord, because of his firmness, called him Peter; the other was Saul, which means «disturbance», and God afterwards changed his name to Paul, that is, «calming» or «peace». And indeed, as much as he had at first disturbed the faithful, so much did he afterwards bring peace to all souls by deed and word, as Chrysostom says of him: «See the reverence of the apostle: he remembered God and did not begin to teach until he had given God due thanks and prayer, showing that he has his knowledge and strength from Him.» And indeed he teaches with prayer.

The divine Luke did not finish the Acts of the Apostles — not out of negligence or for any other such reason, but because he was going to the Lord. But when we leave something unfinished, we do so out of carelessness or inattention. For we do not build God’s works diligently and do not truly love them, but despise them as unnecessary and difficult; and so either we make no progress or we often turn back, like those who «drew back and no longer walked with Him» (Jn 6:66). «Not that His word was hard, as they supposed», says Chrysostom, «but they were being told about dogmas at the time.» Where there is no desire and no watchfulness, what is easy becomes hard, and the reverse is also true.

How the soul is built up by the virtues.

Basil the Great says that every man needs patience above all. And the apostle says that a man needs patience «like rain upon the earth» (cf. Heb 6:7), so as to lay a foundation on it, that is, faith, and slowly to build with discernment. This is how the master builder constructs the house of the soul: first he takes clay from the earth of humility to bind stone to stone, that is, virtue to virtue, until he lays the roof, which is perfect love. And then the master of the house comes and settles in the soul, if there are good gatekeepers who always keep their weapons — that is, luminous thoughts and deeds pleasing to God, which will not disturb the King — and not a woman gatekeeper with her needlework in her hands, as Saint Neilos says in explaining the ancient stories. «Therefore», he says, «the patriarch Abraham did not appoint a woman as gatekeeper, but a strong and firm thought», which bears weapons, as the apostle and others say, «and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God» (Eph 6:17), either to kill or to drive away those who come. And standing there without slumbering, killing alien thoughts by acts of resistance and by words of refusal, it repels everything that tries to enter the heart outside God’s purpose, despising and rejecting it, so that the enlightened intellect may not leave the contemplation of God and divine thoughts. «What I am speaking of», he says, «is nonsense.» And elsewhere we read that Saint Neilos, citing the divine Scriptures, explains that passion is the cause of the intellect’s darkening. And so it is.

Note 6: His discourse on this is given in the Prologue for the first of November.

If the intellect were not held in on every side, like water in a pipe, the thought would not gather itself so as to come down to God. And how can a man easily despise the things to come if he has not lost his own mind to them and has tasted nothing of the better things? Therefore we must run with faith, according to the apostle, and with patience, thinking only of how to please God. In time those who run well see this and can grasp it in part; and they will see it all in the age to come, when the perishable mirror of this life is shattered, where the soul no longer stands against the body nor the body against the spirit (cf. Gal 5:17), and where boredom can no longer bring forgetfulness.

Forgetfulness is ignorance, and many of us suffer from it now; so we must write things down as reminders. Often a thought comes of its own accord, and you write it down so as not to forget it; and in time of assault it can become a help, or a relief, or a cause of thanksgiving, when it has been confirmed by the divine Scriptures. Had a man neglected such thoughts, he would have had nothing to turn to at need, and would have lost the benefit of them through all-consuming forgetfulness.

We must therefore learn the virtues not by words but by deeds, so that, having grown used to them, we may keep the memory of the good. «For the Kingdom of God», says the apostle, «does not consist in talk but in power» (1 Cor 4:20). He who seeks by deeds knows in secret the loss and the gain that come in the search, and such a man can give counsel to others, because he has suffered much and learned by experience, says Saint Isaac. For there are things that seem good but in fact bring loss, and others that outwardly seem evil but in fact bring great gain. That is why Saint Isaac says: «Not everyone can give good counsel to one who seeks it» — but only the man who has received the gift of discernment from God and has acquired an enlightened intellect through long struggle, as Saint Maximos says.

Counsel must be given with great humility, and not to everyone, but to those who ask of their own free will; and what is asked under compulsion must be answered as though the one answering were himself still a disciple, so that the answer may be impressed on the soul of the questioner by the humility of the one who speaks and by the freedom of his own request. He will be warmed by faith when he sees a good counsellor, like that «wonderful counsellor» of whom the prophet Isaiah says: «Mighty God, Prince of Peace» (Is 9:6) — that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to the Jew who accused his brother: «Who made Me a judge or arbitrator over you?» Although He says that «the Father has given all judgement to the Son» (Jn 5:22), yet here as in everything else, showing us the way of salvation by His holy humility, He does not compel, but says: «If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself… and follow Me» (Mt 16:24). That is: let him take no thought for his own life; and as I do, and as I endure a death of the senses willingly for the sake of all, so let him imitate Me in deed and word, like the apostles and martyrs. And if he cannot imitate Me in this way, let him at least suffer that death by consent.

So too He says to that rich young man: «If you would be perfect, go, sell what you have…» (cf. Mt 19:21). Basil the Great says of this young man that he was lying when he said he had kept the commandments; for if he had kept them, he would not have amassed great property, since the very first commandment of the Law says: «You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul» (Deut 6:5). The words «with all your soul» do not allow the one who loves God to love anything else, and the man who is anxious about something already contradicts them. And again: «You shall love your neighbour as yourself» (Lev 19:18) — meaning every man. How can he say that he kept the commandments, when others had nothing to eat while he had piled up great estates and was, moreover, attached to them? If he had managed those estates as Abraham, Job and the other righteous did, treating them as God’s property, he would not have gone away sorrowful. Chrysostom says the same: «He believed that the Lord’s words spoken to him were true, and that is why he went away sorrowful — because he was too weak to do such a thing.» There are many who believe the words of the Scriptures but are too weak to fulfil what is written.

That love and counsel given with humility are a great good.

The Lord counsels us in this way and in ways still greater. The apostles wrote in the same manner: «Beloved, do this and that.» We do not undertake to console those who seek help in any other way, so that, seeing how we humble ourselves and honour them, they may listen with joy and receive assurance, since we speak the word of holy Scripture with great love and humility. And because of the respect and love they see in us, they will hurry to take up their burdens, like the holy apostle Peter. He heard many times of the cross and of death and rejoiced, as though he had never heard anything like it, out of love for the Master. He was not concerned with miracles at all, as unbelievers are, but said to the Lord: «You have the words of eternal life» (Jn 6:68). It was not so with Judas, who died twice: he hanged himself and did not die, but lived on unrepentant, fell gravely ill, and «burst asunder» (Acts 1:18), as the apostle Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles.

The holy apostle Paul, writing to the brethren, sometimes says: «Out of our deep affection for you we were glad to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our own selves» (1 Thess 2:8); and sometimes: «We are your servants for Jesus’ sake» (2 Cor 4:5). And writing to Timothy he taught: «Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as a father, and younger men as brothers» (1 Tim 5:1). Who can grasp the humility of the saints and their burning love for the Lord and for their neighbours?

Yet we must be careful not only in this but also in what we say and what we write. For whoever wants to teach another, or to give him counsel or instruction, must first, as the Ladder says, purify himself of the passions, so that he may truly understand God’s purpose and the state of the one who asks him for a word; for the same medicine does not suit everyone, even for the same illness. Then he must ascertain about the one who asks for counsel whether he is obedient to him in soul and body, or asks of his own desire with warm faith and seeks a word without scrutinizing the teacher, or whether some other need compels him to pretend that he wants to hear a word — so that both may not fall into deception and idle talk, cunning and all the rest. For then the disciple is forced to speak against his will, being pressed by the teacher, and out of embarrassment he lies and dissembles, though he wants to do good; while the teacher deceives and speaks gently with the disciple in order to learn his secret, that is, his thoughts — in short, he resorts to every kind of trick and idle talk, as Solomon says: «In much speaking sin will not be lacking» (Prov 10:19). Basil the Great also wrote about the sins that come of this.

We have said this not in order to refuse teaching to those who come under our obedience with firm faith — above all when we are dispassionate — but so that we may not teach presumptuously and with vainglory, while we are still subject to the passions, those who are unwilling to listen either to works or to warm faith; and so that we may not do this as men who have authority. Rather let us do as the fathers say: «It is not good to speak to anyone without asking the brethren» — that is, to use counsel, so that every good may come from willingness; and in teaching let us behave as the apostle says: «Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock» (1 Pet 5:3). And the apostle says to Saint Timothy: «It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops» (2 Tim 2:6) — and the farmer is the man who is fit to teach. And again: «Let no one look down on your youth» (1 Tim 4:12), that is, do nothing that belongs to youth, but be perfect in Christ.

Likewise it is said of the elders that the fathers did not speak about the salvation of the soul without first asking the brethren, but considered such speech mere folly. And so it truly is: when we think we know more than another, we begin to speak on our own authority. For the more enslaved we are, the freer we imagine ourselves to be. It is the opposite with the saints: the closer they come to God, the more they see themselves as sinners, as Saint Dorotheos says. And those who have received knowledge from God are amazed and remain in amazement; and the angels, out of endless joy and wonder, are never satisfied with words of praise.

And those who have been granted to praise the Lord in this way praise Him without end, «astonished at what He does», as Chrysostom says, and «coming to know Him more and more», as the Theologian says. So it is with all the saints in the present age and in the age to come.

And just as the spiritual powers give enlightenment to one another, so men learn words from one another. Some, having experience of the divine Scriptures, teach those below them; and others, taught spiritually by the Holy Spirit, pass on their knowledge to others in writing. That is why everyone must humble himself before God, and before Him also before one another, as men who have received their existence and everything else from God, and through Him their knowledge from one another. He who has humility becomes more enlightened, and he who is unwilling to humble himself remains in darkness — like the morning star, who then became the devil. For at first he belonged to the highest order of the spiritual powers, standing before the fearful throne, and was first among those set over the earth; and because of his pride he became not only lower than the nine orders but lower than us who dwell on earth, together with those who listened to him, and was cast down into Tartarus for his ignorance. That is why it has been said many times that pride alone, without any other sin, is able to destroy the soul.

«Whoever thinks his sins are small», says Isaac the Syrian, «is allowed to fall into greater ones.» And «whoever has received a gift from God and been ungrateful loses it», says Basil the Great; whereas thanksgiving intercedes for us. Yet let our thanksgiving not be like that of the Pharisee, who condemned others and justified himself, but like that of the greatest of debtors, who gives thanks in his poverty and marvels at God’s indescribable long-suffering. And not only that: we should also marvel that God, who is praised by all and is inexhaustible, accepts thanksgiving from us even while we constantly annoy and offend Him, despite so many of His benefactions, general and particular, of which Gregory the Theologian and the other fathers wrote — benefactions not only of the body but also of the soul, of every kind and beyond number.

One of these benefactions is that some passages of the divine Scriptures are clear and easy to understand, while others are hidden and hard to grasp: so that by the first we may draw the careless to faith and win back those who are losing it, and by the second we may not fall into despair and unbelief through our inability to understand. These hidden passages protect us from falling under a greater condemnation such as we would incur through plain words; they lead us to labour willingly and, «desiring to understand the unknown through action, to have praise for it», as Chrysostom says.

That frequent repetition in the divine Scriptures is not verbosity.

The divine Scriptures often repeat the same word, yet this is not verbosity. It is done in order to remind even the very lazy by frequent reminders and to bring them, in a strange and loving way, to understand what is said. Though the words are short and quickly read, they will not fly past the ear — especially when we are occupied with everyday things and know almost nothing. That is why Chrysostom says: «A little is not the whole part; it is a part of a part.» Such knowledge will pass away, but it will not be destroyed or become nothing; for if we had no knowledge we would not be men. What is partial will pass away, because we shall see fully, «face to face», just as the child passes away when the child becomes a man, as the apostle himself explains, taking the child as an example (cf. 1 Cor 13:10-11). Or, as Chrysostom says again: «Now we know that there is a heaven, but we do not know what it is like; and then the lesser will pass away because of the greater, that is, our knowledge, and we shall know what it is like — and so our knowledge grows.»

For many mysteries are hidden in the divine Scriptures, and we do not know God’s purpose in what is said. «But do not be proud of your ignorance», says the Theologian, censuring what we have described and urging discernment. «It is irrational and senseless to attend not to the force of the intention but to the words alone», says the great Dionysios. When a man seeks with blessed weeping, then he will find; for this is a work of fear, through which the revelation of mysteries comes.

The prophet Isaiah says: «The dead shall not live» (Is 26:14), and then he says: «The dead shall rise.» But this is not a contradiction, as those who do not know the intention suppose, as has been said about the contemplation of the divine Scriptures. The first is said of the idols of the pagans, which shall not come to life because they are without soul; and the second, «the dead shall rise», is said of the general resurrection and the joy of the righteous — and not only of that, but also of the resurrection of the dead together with our Saviour Jesus Christ.

In the same way, in the holy Gospel the evangelists speak of the Lord’s transfiguration: one says «after six days» (Mk 9:2), the other «about eight days after these sayings» (Lk 9:28), counting the days on which the Lord worked wonders and taught. The one counts while leaving out the first and last day, and so speaks of six days; the other adds the first and last day, and so speaks of eight.

And John the Theologian in his holy Gospel speaks differently in two places. In the first he says: «Many other signs, which are not written in this book, Jesus did in the presence of His disciples» (Jn 20:30); and in the second: «There are also many other things that Jesus did» — and here he no longer says that these were done in the presence of the disciples. Saint Prochoros mentions this, and he wrote of both passages: that the evangelist recalled the miracles the Lord performed but did not describe them in detail, since the other evangelists had already done so, and therefore he simply adds the words «in the presence of His disciples»; while his second statement refers to the creation of the world, when the Word of God was bodiless and together with the Father made everything out of nothing, saying «Let there be», and «so it was» (cf. Gen 1). «But if I alone were to write everything down…» (cf. Jn 21:25), says the Theologian.

This means that every Scripture, and every word of God or of some saint, has within it a hidden intention concerning sensible or intelligible creatures — and the same is true of human speech. No one knows the meaning of a given statement except by revelation, as the Lord says of the wind: «The wind blows where it wills…» (cf. Jn 3:8). Chrysostom says of this: «Christ does not mean that the air has the power to blow wherever it wills; but in view of Nikodemos’ weakness the Lord took the wind as an example so that Nikodemos might understand what He was speaking about. He spoke of the Holy Spirit in a parable drawn from the air, saying: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit» — that is, the words spoken to Nikodemos and to certain others are words about spiritual things and not about what you suppose; I am not speaking of bodily things, since it is bodily things that you understand.

«Therefore», says John of Damascus, «when you have not heard from the one whose word it is what the intention of the word is, you cannot say that you know his intention.» How then does anyone dare to say that he knows the intention of God hidden in the Holy Scriptures, without the revelation of the Son of God? Christ Himself says: «To whom the Son chooses to reveal Him» (Mt 11:27) — that is, to the man who desires to receive the divine teachings from Him. And whoever says that he knows without them merely thinks that he has received knowledge from God, says the author of the Ladder; the Theologian addresses such a man as «you scribe», condemning the self-exaltation that makes him think he possesses something. But what he thinks he has will be taken from him, because he was unwilling to say, as all the saints did, «I do not know», so that it might be given him through humility — like those who, though they knew, said that they did not. For the apostle did not say «he does not know», but that he did not know «as he ought to know» (1 Cor 8:2): so that even if he knows, it is not as he should.

False knowledge is when a man thinks he knows something that he has never known. And this is worse than complete ignorance, says Chrysostom, because he considers his worst ignorance to be good. Therefore the fathers say that we should study what is said in the Scriptures with humility and with counsel, and learn more by deed than by word. And as for what the Scriptures do not pass over in silence, Anthony the Great speaks of those who try to foretell the future as engaged in an unworthy work — although the future may indeed become known through God’s providence (cf. Dan.)

…4) and, in ancient times, through Balaam (cf. Num 22), for the common good, even when such men were unworthy, and not through demons — particularly when such foretellings come in dreams or visions. But this is not said so that we should study the Scriptures by bodily and moral works alone and find «eternal life» according to the Lord’s commandment (cf. Jn 5:39); rather it is said so that we may not search by words only and imagine that we understand something, especially what is hidden from us. Let it serve for our greater humility, so that we may not be condemned as men who possess knowledge. For when an intellect that has been counted worthy to receive knowledge does not strive to exercise itself much and attentively, with humility and the fear of God, in the teaching of the divine Scriptures and in the knowledge given it, then it is deprived of that knowledge as unworthy of the gift, «as Saul lost his kingdom», says Saint Maximos.

Those who exercise themselves and struggle must, like David, always pray (cf. 1 Sam 13) and say: «Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me» (Ps 51:10), so as to be counted worthy of the descent of the Holy Spirit, like the apostles, who once received grace at the third hour of the day (cf. Acts 2:15), as it is said in the Acts, «for it is only the third hour of the day» — and that day was a Sunday, as the divine Luke says.

Pentecost is the seventh Sunday after the Sunday on which the feast falls that is called in Hebrew «Pascha» and is translated in Greek as «passing over» or «freedom». And the Sunday that comes after fifty days is called Pentecost, as the completion of the days that lie between, and as the Passover of the fifty days appointed by the Law. So John the Theologian says in his Gospel: «On the last, the great day of the feast», for then was the dedication of the paschal feast. Threefold grace was inherited from those hours, as John of Damascus says, and so forth: that is, at the third hour, on the Lord’s day alone, to teach us to reckon three hypostases in the simplicity of one power, that is, one Godhead. For Sunday is the one day of the week, and not the first day of the week, says Chrysostom.

The divine Scripture sets this day apart from the others, and in the prophecies of the Old Testament it is not called second in order like the other days. If Scripture did not set this day apart, it would call it the first; but because it does set it apart, it calls it «the first after the Sabbath», that is, the first of the week. And in the new grace this day is called holy Sunday, because on this day the special and greatest acts of God’s authority were accomplished: the Annunciation, the Lord’s Nativity and the Lord’s Resurrection; and on a Sunday will come the general resurrection of the dead. «On Sunday», says John of Damascus, «God created natural light, and on Sunday the coming of the Lord will take place, so that this day, the one and only day, will last for endless ages, beyond these seven ages that have days and nights.»

Why the names of books and of the saints are mentioned in this work.

What we have been granted to learn from the saints about the purpose of such works, we shall learn also from above concerning the purpose of every undertaking of which this discourse speaks. It mentions from time to time the titles of books and the names of the saints, so that we may always remember their words and the zeal of their lives, as Basil the Great says; so that those who know may be reminded, and those who do not know may look for the right book. Besides this, the name of a saint or of his writings is set down so that they may be remembered more often, and so that from their brief sayings we may more often call to mind their deeds and words and better understand the words of the divine Scriptures contained in the sayings of the saints, who are teachers of discernment and good counsel. And also so that men may remember that these are not my words but those of the divine Scriptures; and that they may marvel and consider God’s unspeakable love for mankind — how through paper and ink God cared for the salvation of our souls and gave us such Scriptures and such teachers of the Orthodox faith. And how I, ignorant and careless as I am, was granted to read so many writings, though I had neither a book of my own nor anything else, but was always a stranger and poor, and yet lived always in complete peace and freedom from care, with great bodily ease.

Some of the discourses remain without a title; this is due to my carelessness, and also so that the discourse should not become too long. The questions and answers about general matters are given for the sake of knowledge, and in thanksgiving to Him who gave our holy fathers knowledge and discernment, and through them gave it to us who are unworthy, and to reproach us who are weak and foolish.

Something was said also about the righteous who were saved in ancient times, having great wealth and living among sinners and unbelievers. They had the same nature as we, who are unwilling to reach the measure of perfection; and though they gained great experience and knowledge of good and evil, they learned what they knew, and even this knowledge of the Scriptures was counted worthy of greater grace.

Mention was made also of our monastic work, so that we may know that we can be saved everywhere when we abandon our own desires. If we do not do so, we shall have no peace and shall be unable to know and fulfil the divine will. For our own will is the barrier that separates us from God; and until the barrier is destroyed, we cannot know or do what God says, but shall remain outside it, and our enemies will do violence to us even against our will.

And since freedom from argument is higher than all else, without it we cannot be purified, nor understand our own weakness and the wiles of the demons, nor grasp God’s power and providence from the divine words that we chant and read. All men should practise stillness, whether partial or complete; without it no one can attain spiritual knowledge and humility of thought, through which one may understand all the mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures and in all God’s works. And one should use neither things, nor words, nor undertakings, nor thoughts beyond what is necessary for the soul, for salvation and for the life of the body. Without discernment, what seems good is in fact displeasing to God; and doing good without a true intention benefits no one.

The troparia were written out earlier so that they might be understood together with the Scriptures, and so that those whose intellect is still weak might be moved to compunction, as the author of the Ladder says. «For a song», says Basil the Great, «draws a man’s mind wherever it will: to weeping, or to love, or to sadness, or to joy.» And we must study the Scriptures, according to the Lord’s commandment, in order to find eternal life in them (cf. Jn 5:39), and be attentive to the content of the psalms and troparia so as to learn from their deep meaning about things we do not know. «For», says Basil the Great, «until a man acquires knowledge, he does not know what he is losing.»

Why it was written how the virtues and the passions are born.

What was written about how the virtues and the passions are born was written for the sake of knowledge and understanding, so that everyone, knowing where they come from, may struggle to gain the former and be rid of the latter, and may overcome the passions by the opposite action. Bodily works must always be protected, like plants, by works of perfection; we must always attend to the virtues of the soul and learn how to acquire each virtue — learning this from the divine Scriptures and from holy men, and guarding it diligently, with pain of soul, as a treasure, until we gain a settled habit in that virtue. And then we should begin diligently to acquire another virtue, as Basil the Great says, so that we are not exhausted by taking on all the virtues at once. Let us begin by enduring the sorrows that come upon us, and then with good strength we shall pass on to the others with all zeal, intending to please God.

All of us must keep the commandments as Christians; for we do not need bodily labour to acquire the virtues of the soul, but only the desire and the zeal to receive the gift, as Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and others say. Yet it is easier to acquire them through bodily works, especially for those living in stillness, dispassionately and free from care; for a man cannot correct his habits unless he is free from disturbance and attends to this. Therefore the ascetic must first of all acquire dispassion by withdrawing from things and from people; and when the time comes, he will have authority over others and will arrange everything without condemnation and without harm to himself, passing from settled habit to complete dispassion — especially if he has received a call from God, as John of Damascus says, like Moses, Samuel, the prophets and the holy apostles, for the salvation of many. And he must be ready not only to accept such a call but also to decline it, like Moses, Habakkuk, Gregory the Theologian and others. And as Saint Prochoros says of Saint John the Theologian: although he did not wish to leave the stillness he loved, it was his duty not to remain silent but to preach as an apostle.

And he did not go into stillness because he was subject to the passions — let no one say that of so dispassionate a man — but because he did not wish to be drawn away from the contemplation of God and to lose the sweetness of freedom from argument. Others, who were dispassionate, fled into the inner deserts out of humility, fearing vainglory, like Sisoes the Great. When his disciple invited him to a place of rest, he would not listen, but said: «Let us go where there are no people.» He had attained such dispassion that he was held captive by the love of God, and apart from it felt nothing at all; he did not even know whether he had eaten or not.

In a word, all these men surrendered their own wishes in complete stillness. Some received ordination as disciples from their teacher, to teach others, to receive their thoughts and to bear with them, whether as a bishop or as an abbot, having received the seal of the descent of the Holy Spirit in the perception of the intellect, like the holy apostles and those before them, Aaron, Melchizedek and the rest. And John of Damascus says: «He who presumptuously dares to descend to such a rank is condemned.» For those who shamelessly enter some office without a royal command are severely condemned; how much greater condemnation, then, awaits those who dare to take up God’s gifts without God’s command. And it is worse still when, through ignorance and pride, they think they will not be condemned for this fearful undertaking, or suppose that by it they will gain honour and ease, rather than boundless humility and the occasion to go to death for friends and for enemies when the time comes, as the holy apostles did when they taught others, being themselves dispassionate and wise. When we do not know that we are feeble and weak — and this must be said — pride and ignorance blind those who are unwilling to see their own weakness and their own ignorance from afar.

The elders say that the monk’s cell is the Babylonian furnace where the three youths found the Son of God. And again: «Sit in your cell, and it will teach you everything.» And the Lord says: «Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them» (Mt 18:20). The author of the Ladder reminds us that Solomon advises: «Do not turn to the right or to the left» (Prov 4:27), but walk the middle way — that is, keep stillness with one or two companions, being neither alone in the desert nor in a large community; the middle between these two is useful for many. And again: fasting humbles the body, vigil enlightens the intellect, stillness brings weeping, and purifies a man, and washes the soul, and makes it free from sin.

At the end, therefore, the names of all the virtues and passions are given, so that we may know how many virtues we have to acquire and how many sins to mourn. For there is no purification without weeping, and there is no weeping without unceasing entreaty. Without purification of the soul there is no assurance, and without assurance it is hard for the soul to leave the body, since «what is unknown», says the author of the Ladder, «may also be wrong».

The eight contemplations already mentioned are not our own works but rewards for our virtues, and we cannot acquire them merely by reading — even if in our proud zeal, as the author of the Ladder says, we rush toward the most perfect of them, that is, the last four; for these are heavenly, and an impure intellect cannot contain them. Let all our zeal be directed to the virtues of body and soul, and so the first commandment, that is, the fear of God, will be born in us. And when we abide in it, weeping will be born; and in the measure that we grow accustomed to abide in one contemplation, says Saint Isaac, in that measure God’s grace — the mother of all contemplations — will give us more than this, until we acquire the seven contemplations within ourselves; and the eighth contemplation, which is the activity of the age to come, will belong to those who practise the virtues diligently with the true intention of pleasing God.

When a thought comes of itself from God, whether it be the first or some unexpected one, even though we do not recognize it, we must at once set aside all the cares of life, even the rule of prayer, and guard the spiritual knowledge and compunction that has come as the apple of our eye, until it departs by God’s providence. And then, from the writing of these words, let us always learn fear and weeping, both before the rule and after it, and when we are free by day and by night, or while we work — for we are still weak and prone to sleep and boredom, or else idle, and we may weep without ceasing, and the words spoken can take hold of us, and this brings tears. That is why these words were written: so that inexperienced men like me, learning what is said here and attending to it, may draw the intellect out of boredom. The man who has zeal and experience, who is used to doing good works, knows far more than what is said here, and most of all at the time when grace moves of itself; for such a time gives us far more power than the stirring of our own actions.

Yet let no one think that he himself is the author of such gifts. Since he has received above his worth, let him give thanks and be afraid, lest he suffer a greater condemnation because of them, as one who did nothing and yet was counted worthy of the work of angels. Knowledge and strength of soul are given to spur the intellect on to keep the commandments and practise the virtues, and so that we may know how and why we do so, and what we ought to do and what to avoid, so that we may not be judged; and so that, given wings by knowledge, we may act with joy and gain still more knowledge and strength for action and gladness. And when this happens, let us give thanks to the Giver, knowing from whom we received such benefits. And He to whom we give thanks will grant us greater benefits; and we, having received the gifts, will love Him still more, and with love we shall lay hold of the wisdom of God, whose beginning is «the fear of the Lord» (Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7). «And the work of fear is repentance, through which the mysteries are bought back», says Saint Isaac.

How to keep the evening rule with fear.

In order to understand fear rightly, one should do as follows. After the evening rule one must say the Creed, the Our Father, and «Lord, have mercy» many times; and then sit facing the east, as one weeping over the dead, shaking one’s head with pain of soul and sighing from the heart, and go over the words written above, which must be known, beginning from the first and continuing to the prayer; and then fall down before God with indescribable awe and pray — first with thanksgiving, then with confession and the other words of the prayer, as has already been said. For Saint Athanasios says: «We must confess even the sins we are unaware of, and those from which God’s grace has saved us, so that we may not be tormented for them at the hour of death. And we must also pray for one another, according to the commandment of the Lord and the apostles.»

The intentions of the prayer should be these. We give thanks for the thanksgiving of this present hour, acknowledging that it is insufficient and that at other times we are careless, and that this hour itself is God’s grace. In confessing, we acknowledge that His gifts are without number and that it is impossible to grasp or see them all, but only to hear of them — and not of all, but of some; and that we constantly receive His benefactions, openly and hiddenly, and that His patience with the multitude of our sins is beyond description; and that I am not worthy even to lift up my eyes, as the publican was not, and that, hoping for nothing but God’s unspeakable love for mankind, I fall down like Daniel before the angel of God, and with all my soul, like the apostles and the other fathers — and even that is bold of me, since I am not worthy to do so.

I confess briefly all the kinds of my sins, so that by remembering them I may weep over them. «I would rather boast gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me» (2 Cor 12:9), says the apostle — and so that the multitude of my sins may be forgiven; for I do not dare to ask for all of them, but only for the multitude. And I ask that all my malice and every evil habit may be curbed; and since I cannot resist them, I ask the Almighty to stop the flood of the passions and not to let me sin before Him or before man, so that even through this I may receive salvation by grace. And through the confession of sins I gain pain of soul and learn to pray for others, as the apostle teaches (cf. Jas 5:16), and acquire love for everyone; and listing the kinds of passions that do violence to us, I run to the Lord with compunction.

I pray also for those who have wronged me, and I grieve about the future, because I do not wish to keep even a trace of malice, and I fear that in my weakness I shall not be able at that time to endure patiently and to pray for them, according to the Lord’s commandment (cf. Mt 5:44; Lk 6:28). And for this I anticipate the time, as Saint Isaac says — calling the physician before I fall ill, and praying before the temptation comes. I pray too for those who have already departed, that they may receive salvation, and so remember my own death.

To pray for everyone is a sign of love, since I myself need everyone’s prayers. And I pray that God may guide me, that I may be as He wills, and that He may join me with others, so that I may be favoured by their prayers, seeing them in every way superior to myself. I do not dare at this moment to ask forgiveness for any sin of mine, lest by putting myself first I make others unworthy of pardon. And as one who knows nothing and can do nothing, I run to Him and ask that it may happen to me as His love for mankind wills. I fear His justice, as a sinner; and I say only this: «Let me not lose my place at Your right hand, even as the last of all those who are saved, since I see that I am not worthy of them.»

I pray also for the whole world, as the Church teaches us, and that I may receive divine Communion as is fitting; that in praying I may find a helper for myself when I wish to communicate; that I may remember the most pure passion of the Saviour and come to love its remembrance; and that Communion may be for me a union with the Holy Spirit. For the Comforter Himself consoles those who weep for God, in the present age and in the age to come, when with their whole soul and with many tears they pray to Him and say: «Heavenly King…» And let the Communion of the holy Mysteries be a pledge of eternal life, which is in Christ, through the prayers of His most pure Mother and of all the saints. And I bow down before all the saints and beg them to make prayer for me, since they can bring prayers to the Lady.

And so, as usual, I begin the prayer of Basil the Great, which contains a wondrous theology, wishing only to ask for the will of God and to bless Him. And after that I say at once to my thoughts, with great force and attention: «Come, let us worship…» three times, and all the rest as it is written, so that through heartfelt prayer and the teaching of the divine Scriptures the intellect may be purified and begin to see the mysteries hidden in the divine Scriptures.

That the soul must be free of malice, especially in prayer.

Let the soul be free of all malice, and above all free of malice during prayer, as the Lord says (cf. Mk 11:25; Eph 4:31; 1 Tim 2:8). That is why Basil the Great, punishing contradiction as the father of malice, advises the abbot to give the man who contradicts many prostrations, about a thousand. And in naming the number of prostrations he says: «Either a thousand, or one» — that is, the contentious man should make a whole series of prostrations before God, or a single one before the abbot, saying: «Forgive me, father.» With that one prostration he will be released from his bonds, cutting off the passion of arguing. «Contentiousness has no place in the Christian life», says Saint Isaac, having learned this from the apostle, who says: «If anyone is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no such practice, nor do the churches of God» (1 Cor 11:16) — so that everyone may know that when he argues he places himself outside all the churches and outside God.

He needs only that one wonder-working prostration; and if he does not make it, then even a thousand will not help him, because he has not repented. «Repentance is the putting away of evil», says Chrysostom; and the prostrations mentioned are simply the bending of the knees, which signify that a man takes on the form of a servant when, without rising, he falls before God and before men after sinning in something. Otherwise the soul finds something with which to justify itself. But let it not contradict at all, nor try to justify itself like the Pharisee; rather let it imitate the publican, considering itself the worst of all and unworthy to lift up its eyes. If the soul thinks that it has repented and yet dares to contradict the one who judges it, whether in words or without words, then it is not worthy of the forgiveness that comes by grace, since it seeks judgements and excuses and thinks it is acting rightly. Such an attitude is foreign to God’s commandments.

And truly, where a man seeks to justify his words there is justice but not love for mankind, and grace does not work — that grace which justifies the ungodly apart from works of righteousness, by simple discernment and by the patient bearing of reproaches with thanksgiving, even from those who rebuke with complete insolence, so that his prayer may be pure and his repentance valid. In the measure that a man prays for those who slander and revile him, in that measure God discloses to him those who are hostile toward him, and gives him peace with pure and unceasing prayer.

And how those who most desire to be with Him watchfully multiply their words, giving Him thanks or confessing to Him for such great benefactions of His, and do so with force — as Chrysostom says of blessed David, that it is not idle talk or verbosity to repeat the same or a similar saying many times. The prophet was encouraging love, and wanted the word of prayer to be imprinted in the mind of the one who prays or reads. God knows everything before it is done and has no need to listen to long speeches; but we need to know what we are asking and what we are praying for, so that we may gain understanding and approach God with our requests. Otherwise, overcome by our thoughts, we shall be defeated by our enemies, because we shall cease to remember God. But with the help of prayer and of the divine Scriptures we shall acquire the virtues about which the holy fathers, each in his own place, wrote by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And I, having read and understood them, will now name the order of the virtues as far as I am able, though not all of them will be included, since I cannot remember them all.

A list of the virtues.

Wisdom, fortitude, courage, truth, faith, hope, love, fear, piety, knowledge, counsel, strength, understanding, prudence, contrition, weeping, meekness, the study of the divine Scriptures, almsgiving, purity of heart, peace, patience, self-control, endurance, good agreement, right intention, perception, diligence, God’s approval, ardour, cheerfulness, warmth of spirit, instruction, industry, sobriety, remembrance, concentration of thoughts, reverence, shame, modesty, repentance, turning away from sins, penitence, turning to God, union with Christ, renunciation of the devil, the fulfilment of the commandments, the guarding of the soul or a clear conscience, the remembrance of death, pain of soul, good works, labour, ascetic struggle, a life of austerity, fasting, vigil, hunger, thirst, few needs, contentment with what one has, kindness, decency, honesty, godliness, disregard for property, freedom from love of money, turning away from worldly cares, submission, obedience, ready compliance, poverty, non-possession, withdrawal from the world, the cutting off of self-will, self-denial, counsel, generosity, withdrawal for God’s sake, stillness, instruction, sleeping on the ground, going unwashed, serving others, attentiveness, dry food, going without adornment, wearing down the body, seclusion, the hermit’s life, silence, contentment, boldness, courage, divine zeal, fervour, progress, folly for Christ’s sake, the guarding of the intellect, the ordering of one’s habits, holiness, virginity, sanctification, purity of body, reading for Christ’s sake, divine petition, knowledge, learning, truth, disinterestedness, refusal to judge, the forgiveness of debts, good stewardship, hospitality, discernment, moderation, the right use of things, understanding, insight, experience, psalmody, prayer, thanksgiving, confession, kneeling, entreaty, supplication, intercession, hymnody, doxology, acknowledgement, sorrow, mourning, sobbing, sighing, weeping, tears of pain, compunction, silence, the search for God, the cry of lament, freedom from care about everything, unselfishness, freedom from vainglory, disinterestedness, simplicity of soul, compassion, the refusal to make a show, works according to nature, works above nature, brotherly love, concord, speaking of God, sweetness, a spiritual disposition, quietness, honesty, integrity, simplicity, worthy praise, kind words, consolation, giving preference to one’s neighbour, love of God, skill in virtue, constancy, unceasing diligence, discernment, humility, dispassion, magnanimity, long-suffering, kindness, benevolence, prudence, approachability, welcome, freedom from anxiety, contemplation, guidance, steadfastness, insight, dispassion, spiritual joy, awe, tears of the intellect, tears of the soul, longing for God, generosity, mercy, love for mankind, purity of soul, purity of intellect, discernment, pure prayer, an unconquered mind, firmness, the strengthening of soul and body, enlightenment, the renewal of the soul, hatred of this life, right teaching, a good desire to die, childlikeness in Christ, confirmation, gentle and moderate admonition, praiseworthy change, wonder at God, perfection in Christ, true enlightenment, rapture of the intellect, the indwelling of God, the love of God, inner wisdom, theology, confession, contempt of death, holiness, correction, the complete health of the soul, praise from God, grace, the kingdom, sonship — two hundred and twenty-eight in all (cf. Ps 82:6; Jn 10:30). Through sonship man becomes a god.

By His grace the Lord has given us victory over the passions, which are named as follows.

A list of the passions.

Anger, cunning, craftiness, evil thinking, irrationality, licentiousness, dissipation, rudeness, ignorance, idleness, coldness, hardness of heart, flattery, stupidity, empty speech, the darkening of the intellect, hatred, bad manners, insolence, fear, bitterness, sloth toward the good, sinning, usury, poverty caused by laziness, lack of knowledge, folly, false knowledge, forgetfulness, imprudence, insensibility, untruth, ill will, lack of conscience, procrastination, talkativeness, distraction, transgression, sin, iniquity, lawlessness, passion, captivity, cunning assent, irrational assent, the devil’s suggestion, torpor, untimely ease of the body, malice, falling, sickness of soul, impotence, feebleness of mind, indolence, laziness, evil sorrow, contempt of God, ruin, transgression, unfaithfulness, mistrust, superstition, little faith, heresy, association with heresy, polytheism, idolatry, ignorance of God, impiety, spells, divination, sorcery, conjuring, denial of the faith, the worship of idols, intemperance, gluttony, love of glory, carelessness, self-love, inattention, failure, delusion, error, futility, poisoning, defilement, eating what is defiled, pleasure-seeking, unchastity, greed, unchastity of the body, love of money, anger, sadness, boredom, vainglory, pride, imagination, self-exaltation, arrogance, madness, shamelessness, satiety, softness, drunkenness, gluttony, indulgence, insatiability, eating in secret, overeating, eating alone, negligence, self-indulgence, self-help, helplessness, self-satisfaction, seeking to please men, inability to do good, lack of instruction, ignorance, frivolity, foolish simplicity, exclusion, denial, contentiousness, backbiting, shouting, confusion, quarrelsomeness, rage, irrational desire, anger, irritation, giving offence, enmity, meddling, slander, bitterness, defamation, reproach, calumny, condemnation, accusation, hatred, abuse, annoyance, dishonouring, fury, frenzy, cruelty, evil plotting, breaking of oaths, cursing, lack of mercy, hatred of one’s brother, partiality, parricide, matricide, dissoluteness, laxity, the taking of bribes, robbery, theft, plundering, disorder, envy, contentiousness, shaming, mockery, contempt, vexation, ridicule, bribery, violence, contempt of one’s neighbour, beating with a stick, abuse, strangling, lovelessness, refusal to be reconciled, discord, imprudence, harshness, shamelessness, effrontery, captivity of thoughts, darkening, blindness, dullness, attachment to temporary things, vanity, disobedience, heaviness of the head, drowsiness of soul, excessive sleep, day-dreaming, heavy drinking, drunkenness, indecency, slackening, irrational pleasure, voluptuousness, unchastity, slander, effeminacy, incitement, fornication, the seduction of women, adultery, lewdness, bestial passion, depravity, impurity of soul, incest, uncleanness, defilement, particular friendships, laughter, games, dancing, clapping, indecent songs, revelry, piping, insolence, excess, disobedience, inconstancy, evil consent, treachery, murder, robbery, sacrilege, dishonest gain, usury, flattery, the plundering of graves, hardness of heart, evil intentions, complaining, blasphemy, ingratitude, evil counsel, ill temper, faint-heartedness, compromise, lying, chatter, foolish words, foolish joy, flattery, unwise friendship, nonsense, wild talk, verbosity, the condemnation of what is good, avarice, anger, dislike, indignation, the accumulation of many things, malice, abuse, evil habits, love of this life, insolence, arrogance, adultery, hypocrisy, mockery, gossip, derision, the desire to win, satanic envy, meddling curiosity, attachment, lack of the fear of God, disobedience, ignorance, high-mindedness, boasting, arrogance, the humiliation of one’s neighbour, lack of charity, insensibility, carelessness, hopelessness, hatred of God, despair, self-destruction, complete falling away from God and complete ruin — two hundred and ninety-eight in all.

These passions I found mentioned in the divine Scriptures and gathered together, as I did with the books at the beginning of this discourse. I could not, and did not dare, to arrange them in order, since that is beyond my power. The author of the Ladder says: «Look for knowledge in evil and you will not find it; for everything demonic is without order and has one and the same intention, so that in it even what is equal becomes unequal and unworthy of honour — namely, to destroy the souls that accept their evil counsel. And even if they become the cause of crowns for some men, they are always defeated by those who trust in the Lord with faith and patience, who do good works and resist the thoughts that fight against them.»

On the difference between thoughts and suggestions.

Thoughts differ from one another in every way, since some of them are without sin and others are not. The thought that is called a suggestion — that is, the simple thought of some object — deserves neither reward nor condemnation. Next comes what is called coupling, that is, conversing with the thought and either agreeing with it or driving it away; and this serves for praise when it is pleasing to God, and for a small reproach when it is evil. Then comes what is called wrestling, which ends either in victory or in defeat, when the intellect prevails; and it becomes the cause of a crown, or the cause of torment when it turns into action. Then comes assent, that is, the soul’s pleasurable inclination toward what has appeared; and from this comes captivity, which of necessity and against one’s will draws the heart into action. And when a passionate thought lingers long in the heart, it becomes what is called passion, since it draws the soul to itself as a habit and forces it to act.

«Such passion undoubtedly falls in every case either under moderate repentance or under future torment», says the author of the Ladder, «because of impenitence and not because of the struggle; for if it were because of the struggle, then many would not be able to receive absolution without having attained complete dispassion.» And the same author of the Ladder says that not everyone can be dispassionate, but everyone can be saved and reconciled with God.

The wise man rejects the deceitful suggestion, the mother of all evils, so as to cut off all evil at once; and the good man readily returns to his work, so that body and soul may become accustomed to virtue and be freed from the passions by the grace of Christ. For there is nothing in us that we have not received from Him, and nothing that we can bring to Him, except an evil will; and if we do not have it, we shall find neither the strength nor the knowledge to do good. This is the work of God’s love for mankind, so that we may not receive condemnation for idleness; for «many evils are learned through idleness» (cf. Sir 33:28).

And not only that: even good deeds require discernment, say the elders. For that virgin who fasted for six weeks and constantly studied the Old and the New Testaments, and who had neither sorrowful nor pleasant works — she ought to have gathered the fruits of dispassion from so many fruits, and yet she did not, because good is not good when it is not done according to God’s will. Many times we may find in the divine Scriptures that God is angry with someone who does what seems good to everyone, and, on the contrary, accepts another who has done a supposed evil. A witness to this is the disciple of the prophet who told his companion to strike him; and when the man refused, he said that a beast would devour him for not doing good (cf. 1 Kgs 20:35-36). And Peter, thinking he was doing something good, refused to let the Lord wash his feet, and for this he was rebuked (cf. Jn 13:8). Therefore we must seek and do God’s will with all our strength, even when it does not seem good to us. And this is why there is no good deed without effort: so that we may not lose our praise because we acted under compulsion.

On the mysteries of the Church.

In a word, everything that God builds is wonderful beyond intellect and thought; for the intellect must marvel not only at what is done in the Orthodox Church but also at its symbols. Thus by holy baptism we become sons by grace (cf. Jn 1:12; Gal 3:26), having done nothing before it and nothing after it except to keep the commandments. And these awesome things, that is, holy baptism and holy Communion, do not take place without the priesthood, says Chrysostom; for in this the authority given to the chief apostle Peter is revealed. When the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven are not opened by the sacrament, says the Lord, no one can enter: «Unless one is born of water and the Spirit…» (cf. Jn 3:5). And again: «Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you» (Jn 6:53).

And as the ancient temple was outwardly a symbol of this world, in which the priests offered sacrifices, so within it was the Holy of Holies, where incense of four kinds was offered: frankincense, myrrh, stacte and cassia. These four kinds are symbols of the four principal virtues.

What took place outside was a symbol of God’s condescension, so that the Jews, having the mind of infants, might not fall away from God through their songs and their inclination toward idolatry. But the new Church is a symbol of the age to come, and therefore everything that takes place in it is heavenly and spiritual. And just as there are nine orders in heaven, so there are in the Church: patriarchs, metropolitans, bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, readers, chanters and monks.

Even by the sign of the precious and life-giving cross the demons and many sicknesses are driven away. It is altogether simple and easy to make — and who can recount its praises?

Everything that has been said from the beginning of this discourse will bring no benefit without true faith, just as faith brings no benefit without works. Many holy fathers have written about faith and works; and I, recalling them, will say only briefly that works must be in us as they are written, each in its own order, and that the Orthodox faith must be that which we have received from the saints mentioned here — so that together with them we may enter into the eternal blessings by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs all glory, honour and worship, together with His Father who is without beginning and with the Holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.