Of the same, the second century of natural chapters on the purification of the intellect
1. The beginning of the love of God is contempt for visible and human things; the middle is the purification of the heart and of the intellect, through which comes the spiritual opening of the noetic eyes and the knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven hidden within us; and the end is an unrestrained longing for God’s supernatural gifts, a natural desire to be united with God, and the finding of rest in God.
2. Where there is longing for God, and the working of noetic things, and communion in the unapproachable light, there is peace among the powers of the soul, purification of the intellect, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity. For it is said: «If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We shall come to him and make Our dwelling with him» (Jn 14:23).
3. There are three ways of ordering one’s life: the bodily, the psychical and the spiritual. Each of them offers its own manner of living, distinct from the others and unlike them.
4. The bodily way of life is always and everywhere exercised in the sweetnesses and pleasures of the present life; it has in it nothing of the psychical or the spiritual way and acquires nothing from them. The psychical way is something in between sin and virtue. He who lives in the psychical way cares for the well-being of the body, for health and for human praise; at the same time he rejects the labours of virtue and flees the works of the flesh, caring neither for sin nor for virtue, since he finds in both much that is inconvenient for him: in virtue, harshness and difficulty; in sin, the loss of human praise. The spiritual way of life has in it nothing of these two ways and does not exercise itself in what is evil in either of them. It is free of the first and of the second, having flown over both on the wings of love and dispassion, doing nothing forbidden and avoiding all slothfulness.
5. Those who live according to the body and think according to the body cannot please God, for they themselves are fleshly. Their thoughts are dark, and they cannot become partakers of the rays of the divine light. The clouds of the passions that come upon them, like high walls, shut out the spiritual rays, and so they remain unenlightened. The senses of their souls are blind, and therefore they cannot look upon the noetic beauties of God, nor see the light of the true life, nor rise above visible things. They have become like cattle, filled with worldly perception; they regard human and worldly matters as most important and care only for what is visible and corruptible, quarrelling with one another over it. At times they even lay down their lives for property, glory and bodily pleasures, since they count the loss of these a great calamity. Fittingly is the prophetic word spoken of them in God’s name: «My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he also is flesh» (Gen 6:3).
6. Those who live psychically and are therefore called psychical are as it were half-formed, and their body is as though slackened. They do not labour to acquire the virtues and to fulfil God’s commandments with zeal, and they avoid the deeds by which human glory may be earned. Seized by self-love, which nourishes the destructive passions, they learn every remedy that brings health to the body and pleasure to the flesh, and they cast away from themselves every affliction, pain and endurance of suffering for the sake of virtue, pampering their enemy, the body. Living thus, they drag down the intellect, hardened by the passions, and do not receive the noetic and divine things that snatch the soul away from matter so that it abides in the noetic heavens. They suffer thus because they are still ruled by the earthly spirit, because they love their own souls and act according to their own will. The Holy Spirit and His gifts are not in them. Therefore you will see in them neither divine fruit, nor love for their neighbours, nor joy in poverty and afflictions, nor peace of soul, nor firm faith, nor perfect self-control, nor compunction, nor tears, nor humility and mercy: their whole soul is full of arrogance and pride. Therefore they have no strength to plunge into the depths of the Spirit, and there is no light in them to open the intellect and give it understanding of the Scriptures. Nor do they listen when others speak of these things. Fittingly did the Apostle say of such: «The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God; they are folly to him» (1 Cor 2:14); «and he is not able to understand that the law is spiritual and is discerned by the Spirit» (1 Cor 2:14; Rom 7:14).
7. Those who live by the Spirit and receive the spiritual life are pleasing to God, for they have consecrated themselves to Him like Nazirites. They constantly purify their souls with labours and keep the Lord’s commandments, shedding their blood for love of Him; they purify the body with fasts and vigils, refine the hardness of the heart with tears, mortify their members by the endurance of sufferings, fill the intellect with light and illumine it by prayer and study, and by renouncing their own will they tear their souls away from the passions of the body — and so they all become spiritual. Rightly, therefore, are they recognised as spiritual and called spiritual. Moving towards dispassion and love, they take wing towards the contemplation of created things, and from this they receive the contemplation of that which exists through the wisdom hidden in God, which is granted to those who have risen above the body. Having thus passed beyond all worldly perception and become, in enlightened thought, superior to the senses, they expound the word. And in the midst of God’s Church and the assembly of the many faithful they pour forth good words from a pure heart and become salt and light for men, as the Lord says to them: «You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world» (Mt 5:13-14).
8. «Be still, and know that I am God» (Ps 45:11). This is the voice of the divine Word, and those who desire it come to know Him in practice. For it is profitable for one who has renounced this exceedingly troublesome life and its fierce vanity to turn to himself with attentiveness in stillness from outward things, and to seek God within himself, and to know His Kingdom, which is within us. He who does this will, even after a long time, scarcely be able to wipe from his soul the imprints of malice and to preserve pure the ancient beauty.
9. Much poison of malice has gathered in us, and therefore we need the cleansing fire, and the tears of repentance, and voluntary ascetic labours. For from the defilements of sin we are cleansed either by voluntary labours or by involuntary afflictions. When there are voluntary labours, there is no need for involuntary afflictions to come. But when our labours do not serve to cleanse the inside of «the cup and the dish» (Mt 23:25), then involuntary afflictions act more strongly to restore our ancient state. Thus the Lord has ordained.
10. Those laugh at piety and are themselves derided by their deeds who have not made their renunciation as they ought and who from the very beginning have wished to have neither teacher nor guide, but have listened only to their own reasoning and have seemed «wise in their own eyes» (Is 5:21).
11. One cannot know exactly the causes and the treatments of bodily illnesses without medical knowledge and experience. Nor can one know the causes of the soul’s illnesses without having come to know them by experience. It is easy to err in diagnosing bodily illnesses, and few physicians are skilled in this; and one may err far more in determining the illnesses of the soul. For as much as the soul is higher than the body, so much harder is it to determine the diseases of the soul than those of the body, which is visible to all.
12. Together with man there were created the first and chief virtues, which govern all the rest. From them, as from four springs, the rivers of all the other virtues are filled with waters and water the city of God, that is, the heart cleansed and consoled by tears. He who does not allow the spirits of wickedness to shake them, or who after a fall restores them by the great labours of repentance, has built within himself a royal house and palace, in which the King of all will make His dwelling and will distribute His lofty gifts to those who have built Him a habitation.
13. Short is this life and long the age to come, and little is the measure of the present life allotted to us. Man is a creature both small and great at once, to whom little time is now given, and he is weak. The time is short, man is weak, and the struggle awaiting him is great, full of sharpness, and it leads to greater gentleness.
14. God does not wish the work of the zealous to remain untested; He wishes to test it well. Therefore He lets loose upon them the fire of temptations and for a time conceals the grace given them from on high, and allows the spirits of wickedness for a time to stir up the stillness of their thoughts, in order to see the inclination of the soul, whom it desires the more to serve: its Creator and Benefactor, or the perception of the world and the hunger for sweetness. And then He either doubles His grace for those who hasten towards His love, or strikes with temptations and afflictions those who incline towards the things of this world, until they come to hate visible goods because of their changeableness and the bitterness of the sweetness that comes from them, and drown them in tears.
15. When the spirits of wickedness disturb the peace of the thoughts, the hunters and the flesh-loving demons at once shoot their arrows at the intellect that is hastening to the heights. And when the intellect’s upward movement ceases, it begins to move about in disorder and helplessness, and then the flesh begins to rise up unruly against the spirit, dragging the intellect down with titillations and inflammations, wishing to bury it in the pit of sweetness. And if the Lord of Sabaoth had not shortened those days and granted His servants the strength of patience, no flesh would be saved, for it would not have kept itself from something worse.
16. The demon of unchastity is exceedingly nimble and exceedingly cunning. For some he becomes a fall and a deep pit; for others, a wound and a righteous rod; and for others still, a temptation and a faintness of soul. The first may be applied to beginners, who still drag the yoke of ascetic labour slowly and sluggishly; the second, to those who have passed half the road to the virtues and have begun to move more slowly. And the third, to those who have already stretched out the wing of the intellect towards contemplation and have well attained complete dispassion. To each one’s profit the Lord permits the assaults of the demons.
17. The demon of unchastity becomes a fall and a deep pit for those who fulfil the monastic life with every negligence. He inflames their members with the flame of unchastity and lust and resorts to various wiles to make them fulfil the lusts of the flesh without union with another body, of which it is shameful even to speak. Such monks defile the body and eat the fruits of a salty sweetness, become dark in appearance and are rightly deprived of blessings. They can be healed by the warmth of repentance, which gives birth to compunction with tears, helps one to turn aside from evil, cleanses the soul from defilements and makes it an heir of God’s mercy. Of this the wise Solomon also rightly says that «gentleness heals many offences» (Eccl 10:4).
18. This spirit becomes a scourge and a rod for those who have attained the first dispassion through the practical love of wisdom and are now moving further towards perfection. When listlessness weakens the strength of their ascetic labour and they turn a little towards an incautious worldly outlook and begin to desire human things, then God’s great goodness permits the spirit of unchastity to fall upon them, and he begins to strike them with thoughts of carnal lust, so that, being unable to endure them, they may return to their fortress of firm activity and attentiveness and take up more zealously the works by which they are saved. For God, the lover of the good, does not wish a soul that has attained such heights to return again to worldly perception, but that it should always advance and take up more zealously the more perfect works, so that the wound of malice may not come near its body.
19. According to divine providence this spirit becomes a temptation, a thorn and a faintness for those who have attained the second dispassion, so that they may remember their natural weakness when he vexes them, and not become proud of the revelations that come through contemplation. So that, seeing this law which wars against the law of their intellect, they may cast away even the subtlest recollection of sin, fearing lest from the memory of it they receive a harmful perception and lower the gaze of their intellect from the height of contemplation to the ground.
20. Only those can keep their intellect without strain from the subtle recollection of sin who have been counted worthy to receive in the Spirit from on high, into their body and thoughts, the life-giving deadness of the Lord. Their body is dead to sin, and their spirit they have enriched with life for the sake of the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus. And in those to whom the mind of Christ is given by the word of wisdom there will be found, in the knowledge of God, an unshakable and life-giving deadness.
21. Upon souls that are now being purified the spirit of lust and of anger is wont to come. Why? To shake off the fruits of the Holy Spirit that weigh heavy in them. And since the joy of freedom also spreads little by little in such souls, Wisdom, which arranges all things for our profit, desiring always to draw their thoughts to itself by its gifts, so that they may abide in unshaken humility of mind and not boast before others of their great freedom and the wealth of their gifts, nor imagine that by their own strength and reason they have gained this great palace of peace — Wisdom therefore permits these spirits to attack, and itself as it were conceals its action, so that, fearing a fall, they may preserve blessed humility of mind and, understanding that they depend on flesh and blood, may themselves seek their fortress, in which they can be safely guarded by the power of the Holy Spirit.
22. Temptations come according to the passionate malady that prevails in us and the rot of sin that lies within us, and the bitter cup of God’s judgments is mixed for us either more strongly or more weakly. When the matter of the sin lying within us comes from pleasure-loving or flesh-loving thoughts and is easy to treat, the Physician of our souls gives us a cup mixed with mercy, since this sin comes from human infirmities and we suffer through human weakness. But when our sin is not easy to treat and lies deep, and causes a deadly rot through thoughts of arrogance and pride, then an unmixed cup, full of wrath, is given us, so that together with the frequent fire of temptations it may refine and melt away the malady, that it may depart from our soul through humility, and that we may drown our salty thoughts in tears and appear pure in the light of humility before the Physician of our souls.
23. It is impossible for ascetics to escape frequent temptations unless they come to know their own weakness and consider themselves strangers to all righteousness and unworthy of all honour and all consolation. For it is the intention of God, the Physician of our souls, that we should always be humble and contrite, strangers to every man, and that we should imitate His Passion. He Himself was gentle and humble in heart, and He wishes us also to walk the road of His commandments in gentleness and humility of heart.
24. Humility is attained not by bowing the head, nor by leaving the hair unwashed, nor by going about ragged and tattered — many think that virtue consists in this — but by a contrite heart and a spirit of humility, according to David’s words: «A broken spirit, a broken and humbled heart God will not despise» (Ps 50:19).
25. Humble speech is one thing, humility another, and humility of mind yet another. Humble speech and humility ascetics acquire by the endurance of sufferings and by the outward labours of the virtues, for they depend on bodily activity and training. Humble speech and humility do not yet give the soul a firm constitution, and it is troubled when temptation comes. But humility of mind is a divine and lofty thing, granted through the coming of the Comforter to those who have passed the middle of the struggle, that is, who have traversed the hard road of the virtues in all humility.
26. When humility of mind enters the depths of the soul, it falls upon it heavily, like a stone, and so presses it down and constrains it with its power that all its strength is exhausted by an unrestrained torrent of tears; and the intellect is cleansed of the defilement of thoughts and enters into contemplation as happened with Isaiah, the prophet of God. And he may say together with the prophet: «Woe is me! I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts» (Is 6:5).
27. When humble speech enters the depths of your soul, then grandiloquence will depart from you. And when humility takes root in the depth of your heart, then superficial or deep humble speech will fall away from you. And when from on high you are enriched with humility of mind, then outward humility and the humble speech of the tongue will depart from you altogether, according to the words of the apostle Paul: «When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away» (1 Cor 13:10).
28. As far as the east is from the west, so far is true humble speech from true humility. And as much as heaven is greater than earth, and the soul than the body, so much is the perfect humility of mind granted by the Holy Spirit more perfect and greater than true humility.
29. Do not count in your heart as humble the man who behaves and dresses humbly, nor as proud the man who speaks loftily and grandly, full of arrogance and pride, until you have tested them. You will recognise them by their fruits.
30. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, mercy, long-suffering, kindness, faith, gentleness, self-control. But the fruits of the evil spirit are hatred, worldly sorrow, disquiet of soul, confusion of heart, guile, curious speculation, exhaustion, anger, unbelief, envy, gluttony, drunkenness, importunity, condemnation, the lust of the eyes, arrogance and pride of soul. By these fruits you will know what tree stands before you, and by them you will know of what spirit is the one who converses with you. The word of the Lord suggests to you still clearer signs: «The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil» (Mt 12:35).
31. In whomever the fruits of the Holy Spirit are present and manifest, in him God dwells. From them comes the untroubled spring of speech with wisdom and knowledge, whether they speak humbly or of lofty things. But those in whom the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit are not manifest, but rather those of the opposing spirit, in them there is the darkness of ignorance of God and an accumulation of passions, and in them dwell the adversary spirits. It makes no difference whether such people speak and behave humbly, or discourse grandly on lofty matters with an ostentatious show of honesty.
32. Truth is not described by persons, by outward appearance or by words, nor does God abide in these. He rests in contrite hearts and humble spirits, and in souls enlightened by the contemplation of God. Sometimes a man in words counts himself lower than others and speaks humbly of himself in order to hear praise from men, while inwardly he is full of guile and hatred and rancour towards his neighbours. And sometimes a man fights for the truth with lofty and wise words and rises against falsehood and the violation of divine laws, and looks only to the truth, while inwardly he is full of humility of mind, of lowliness and of love for his neighbour, and at times he even boasts in the Lord, repeating after the apostle Paul, who also boasted in the Lord: «I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses» (2 Cor 12:9).
33. God looks not at the outward appearance of what we say or do, but at the desires of our souls and at the intention for which we either perform some visible deed or speak of noetic things. So too those men who have more understanding than others look at the force of the words and the intention of the deed, and by this they assess a man without error. For it is said: «Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart» (1 Sam 16:7).
34. God has so ordained that from generation to generation the Holy Spirit should prepare prophets and friends of God for the perfecting of His Church. For if the ancient serpent does not cease to pour the poison of sin into human ears, through which the destruction of the soul comes, shall not He who alone fashioned our hearts raise up the poor man from the earth of humility and from the dung of the passions, giving to His heirs the spiritual power that is the Word of God as their help? And indeed, those who begin with humility come out onto the height of contemplation, and from on high the word of wisdom is given them by the power of God, as to those who proclaim salvation to His Church.
35. He who has come to know himself has also true humility, which teaches him to be humble-minded, breaks his heart and moves him to practise and to guard it. If you have not yet come to know yourself, you do not know what humility is, and you have not arrived at true practice and guarding. It is for this that we practise the virtues: to come to know ourselves.
36. He who from purity has passed to the contemplation of created things has come to know himself, according to the saying «Know yourself». But he who has not attained the contemplation and understanding of created things, and of things divine and human, has come to know what is around him and outside him, but has not come to know himself.
37. What is upon me is not I; what is upon me is not what concerns me; and what concerns me is not what is outside me: these are all different things. I am the image of God, manifested in a soul that is noetic, immortal and rational, for the intellect has within itself the Word of the Father and is consubstantial with and inseparable from the soul. And what is upon me is royal, ruling, rational and self-governing. And what concerns me depends on my choice: whether I wish to be a farmer, or a merchant, or a teacher, or a philosopher. And what is outside me is what pertains to the ambition of life and to lower nobility: wealth, glory, honours, prosperity and high rank; or, on the contrary, poverty, obscurity, dishonour and misfortune.
38. Everyone who has come to know himself has rested from all his works according to God, and has entered into the sanctuary of God, the noetic service of the Spirit, and the haven of divine dispassion and humility. But he who has not yet come to know himself through humility of mind and contemplation still passes through this life in labours and sweat. Of this David reminded us when he said: «This was too hard for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God» (Ps 72:16).
39. When a man comes to know himself — and for this he must guard himself from outward things, withdraw from worldly affairs and examine his conscience — then at once a certain divine humility descends upon his soul, bringing contrition to the heart and tears of compunction to the soul. Feeling their action, a man thinks of himself as earth and ashes and a worm, and not as a man; he counts himself unworthy even of this animal life because of so lofty a gift of God. He who has been counted worthy to abide in this is filled with a kind of unspeakable intoxication in compunction, enters the depth of humility of mind and, going out of himself, despises all outward things — food, drink, clothing — not exaggerating the needs of the body, for he has been changed by the good change of the right hand of the Most High.
40. A great thing among the virtues is humility. When one enters into it with pure repentance, taking prayer and self-control as companions, it at once frees one from servitude to the passions, gives peace to the powers of the soul, cleanses the heart with tears and fills it with the stillness of the coming of the Holy Spirit. When ascetics thus receive the pledge, the word of the knowledge of God is made clear to them and they pass over to the contemplation of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and to the understanding of created things. The further they enter into the depths of the Spirit, the deeper they are plunged into the depth of humility of mind. Through this the knowledge of their own measure grows in them, they come to know the weakness of human nature, love for God and for their neighbours is multiplied in them, and they think that they are sanctified merely by greeting and drawing near to those who converse with them.
41. Nothing so gives the soul wings to love God and men as humility of mind, compunction and pure prayer. For humility of mind breaks the spirit, distils drops of tears and lets a man see his weakness through the limits of the human measure. Compunction cleanses the intellect from matter, illumines the eye of the heart and makes the soul wholly radiant. Pure prayer unites the whole man with God, settles him among the angels and lets him taste the sweetness of God’s eternal blessings and of the treasures of great mysteries: kindling him with great love, it teaches him to lay down his soul for his friends, for it has already risen above the body.
42. Preserve the good pledge of God-making humility, in which are kept the hidden treasures of love and the pearls of compunction, and in which Christ the King, our God, as it were reposes on a gilded throne, distributing the gifts of His Holy Spirit to His nurslings, and grants them His great dignities: the word of His contemplation, His ineffable wisdom, insight into human affairs, the life-giving deadness in dispassion and union with Him, that they may reign with Him in the Kingdom of God the Father, for which He Himself prayed to Him, saying: «Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me where I am» (Jn 17:24).
43. When someone labours diligently in fulfilling the commandments, he will suddenly stand in an unspeakable and inexpressible joy, for he will be changed by a wondrous change beyond all words, will cast off the heaviness of the body and forget about food, sleep and other natural needs; for this joy is God’s coming to him, which works in ascetics a life-giving deadness and grants them even now such a state as that of the bodiless powers. The cause of such a blessed life is humility; its nurse and mother is holy compunction; its companion and sister is the contemplation of the divine light; its throne is dispassion; and its consummation is the Holy Trinity, God.
44. He who has attained this fortress is not held by the bonds of the senses. He does not see the beauty of this life, nor does he distinguish between the venerable and the unvenerable. As God sends sun and rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous, upon the evil and the good, so such a man shines with love and stretches out its rays to all, and there is no narrowness in his heart; he is weighed down with love for all and feels narrowness only when he cannot do good to the extent that he wishes. From him, as from Eden, springs the fountain of compunction, and it divides into four streams — humility of mind, purity, dispassion, and the height of silent prayer — and waters all God’s noetic creation.
45. Those who have not tasted the sweetness of the tears of compunction and do not know its grace and action think that they differ in no way from the tears shed over the dead; they invent many suppositions and draw useless conclusions. But all this is natural to us. When the pride of the intellect bends towards humility, then the soul also turns its gaze away from the beauty of the visible world and raises it to the contemplation of the immaterial and primordial light, casting off from itself all the senses of this world, and receives from on high the consolation of the Holy Spirit. And at once tears flow from it like water from a spring and delight its senses, filling its thought with all gladness and divine light. And not only this: they also break the heart and make the intellect humble in the contemplation of what is better. None of this happens in those who weep and lament in any other way.
46. It is impossible for the fountain of tears to be opened where there is not the deepest humility of mind; and conversely, it is impossible to be humble-minded when there is no compunction within, which appears with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Compunction gives birth by the Holy Spirit to humility of mind, and humility of mind by the same Spirit gives birth to compunction. They hold to one another like the links of a chain, bound only by grace, and have between them an unbreakable union in the Holy Spirit.
47. The light that comes into the soul from the divine Spirit quietly departs through listlessness, negligence and inattentiveness with regard to words and foods. And inattentiveness with regard to food, and its richness, and unbridledness of tongue, and immodesty of glance drive the light from the soul and make it dark. And when we are filled with darkness, all the beasts of the field of our heart and the lions — the passionate thoughts — move about in it, roaring and seeking food for the passions, and try to steal away the treasure of the Spirit that is kept in us. But truly lovely self-control and angel-making prayer do not permit them all to roam about the soul; they keep the radiance of the Spirit unquenched in the intellect, make the heart quiet and pure, distil divine compunction, widen the soul to the love of God and unite it wholly with Christ in gladness and virginity.
48. Nothing is so proper to the word as purity and chastity of soul. Their mother is all-embracing and honourable self-control, and its father is fear. And fear, transformed into longing for God and joined with the desire for divine things, makes the soul fearless and full of the love of God and the mother of the divine word.
49. At first fear joins itself to the soul and through repentance reminds it of the judgment. Then the torments of hell draw near to it, and sighs and pains with lamentations exhaust the heart, as it ponders the future recompense for sins. Then with abundant tears and pains it conceives in the womb of the intellect and gives birth to the spirit of salvation on the earth of its heart, and is freed from the pains and sighs of the judgment of hell; then the desire and joy of the good things to come come upon it, and purity meets it with chastity and unites it to God by love. And the soul, being thus united, feels an unspeakable sweetness and through it with delight and pleasure sheds tears of compunction and goes out beyond all worldly perception. Abiding as it were in rapture, it follows after its Bridegroom and calls out with an unspeakable voice: «I run after Thee; the fragrance of Thy perfumes is most sweet… Tell me, O Thou whom my heart loves, where Thou pasturest Thy flock, where Thou makest it lie down at noon [of pure contemplation], that I may not wander aimlessly beside the flocks of Thy companions [the righteous]» (Song 1:3, 7). For with Thee is the radiance of the great mysteries. And the Bridegroom leads the soul into the dwelling of His hidden mysteries and gives it to contemplate with wisdom the nature of created things.
50. Do not say in your heart: «It is impossible for me to attain the purity of virginity, for I fall under the corruption and frenzy of the body.» Where there are the pains of repentance with the endurance of sufferings and the warmth of the soul, and where rivers of tears flow from compunction, there all the strongholds of sin are destroyed and the fire of the passions is quenched, and with the coming of the Comforter birth from on high is accomplished, and the soul becomes a palace of purity and virginity. God, who is above all nature, descending into it with light and unspeakable joy and sitting on the height of its intellect as on a throne of glory, gives peace to the powers of the soul, saying: «Peace be to you from the opposing passions. My peace I give you, that you may act according to nature; My peace I leave with you, that you may be perfected above nature.» Having given peace three times, He healed its three powers and raised it to a threefold perfection and, uniting it to Himself, makes it a good and beautiful virgin, fragrant with the myrrh of purity, and says to it: «Arise, my love! Come, my fair one [in practical philosophy]! For lo, the winter [of the passions] is past, the rains [of pleasure-loving thoughts] are over and gone. The flowers [of the virtues with their fragrance] appear on the earth [of your heart]… Arise, come, my love [into rational contemplation]! Come, my dove [into the covering and darkness of hidden theology and the firm rock of faith in Me, God]» (Song 2:10-14).
51. Among those counted worthy of the good change and ascent, blessed are they who by practical philosophy have overcome the wall of passionate habits, and thence on the silvered wings of dispassion in contemplation have flown into the noetic expanse of the contemplation of created things, and from there have entered the darkness of theology and rested from all their works in a blessed life in God. He who has become an earthly angel and a heavenly man has glorified God in himself, and God has glorified him.
52. «Great peace have those who love Thy law, and nothing causes them to stumble» (Ps 118:165). For not everything that pleases men pleases God as well. And that which is thought to be not good is by its very nature exceedingly good for him who knows the essence of what has been and what shall be.
53. It is good to die to the world and to live for Christ; otherwise it is impossible to be born from on high, according to the Lord’s word. And if a man is not born from on high, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And this birth comes about through obedience to spiritual fathers. If we do not first receive into the womb the seed of the word through the teaching of the fathers, and thereby become sons of God, we cannot be born from on high. So the twelve apostles were born of Christ, and the seventy apostles of the twelve, and they became sons of God the Father, according to the Lord’s words: «You are sons of My Father who is in heaven.» Therefore Paul also says to us: «For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for I became your father… I urge you, then, be imitators of me» (1 Cor 4:15-16).
54. Not to obey one’s spiritual father as the Son obeyed the heavenly Father even to the cross and death means not to be born from on high. If the beloved Son of the good Father had not been born from on high of the Word and the Spirit, He could not Himself have been the father of good sons, nor would He have begotten good children like their father. And if it is otherwise, then such as the tree is, such is the fruit.
55. An evil thing is unbelief, the most cunning offspring of wicked avarice and envy. And if unbelief is an evil thing, how much more evil is that which begets it, since it makes the love of gold in men more important than the love of Christ, and the Creator less to them than matter, and teaches them to serve matter more than God — to serve the creature rather than the Creator and to change God’s truth into a lie. And if this malady is so great an evil — and its other name is idolatry — to what evil does the soul that suffers from it come!
56. If you wish to be a friend of Christ, hate gold and the insatiable friendship with gold, for it draws to itself the attention of the one who loves it and turns it away from the most sweet love of Christ, which is manifested not in words but in the fulfilment of His commandments. And if you desire gold — O woe! — you will find it when you hide it, if you count the love of gold a gain and not the greatest loss, honouring gold above Christ; know then that you will lose and forfeit Christ, and will lose God as well, without whom men have neither life nor salvation.
57. If you love gold, you do not love Christ. And if you do not love Christ but love gold, look to whom this tyrant urges you to become like: to a disciple, but an unfaithful one, who was a friend and became a betrayer and did great evil to our Master, and wretchedly fell away from faith in Christ and from love for Him, and sank into the depth of despair. Fearing his example, listen to me and flee from gold and from the love of it, that you may gain Christ and that He may love you. If not, you know what place he took who fell away from God.
58. Without a calling from on high do not seek to obtain a position of authority, neither by means of gold, nor by means of men, nor by entreaties, even though you may see that you could bring profit to souls. For three calamities will meet you, and one of them will strike you. Either indignation from God and wrath will come upon you through various accidents and circumstances, and not only men but all creation will rise against you, and this life will become bitter to you; or with great dishonour those who prove stronger than you will cast you out of office; or you will die before your time, cut off from this life.
59. It is impossible to despise glory and dishonour and to rise above pains and pleasures without looking at the end of all things. But he who sees that all glory and pleasure, all delights and riches pass away and come to nothing, since death receives and destroys them, will understand the manifest vanity of all human things and will turn his senses to that in which divine things end, and will hold to what is eternal and indestructible. And, growing accustomed to this, he becomes superior to pains and sweetnesses, will overcome the love of glory and the avarice of the soul, and will reject sweetness as a perception of this world. Whether he is honoured or despised, it is all one to him; whether his body experiences pain or satisfaction, he gives thanks to God for everything, and thoughts do not drag him down.
60. A zealous man can understand from his dreams the movements and dispositions of his soul and can take care of his state. On the disposition of the inner man and his cares depend the movements of the body and the fantasies of the intellect. He whose soul loves things and pleasures dreams of an abundance of goods and money, of women’s faces and passionate embraces, from which his clothing is soiled and his body defiled. He who is greedy and avaricious sees gold in his sleep and strives after it, and multiplies it by usury, and lays it up in treasuries — and receives condemnation as one without mercy. He who is irascible and envious is pursued in his dreams by wild beasts and venomous serpents, and by fear and dread. He who dreams of vain glory dreams of speeches and meetings with people; he dreams of offices, pre-eminence and power, and desires what does not exist or what may come to be. He who is proud and full of arrogance rides in his sleep in splendid chariots, sometimes flies through the air on wings and sees everyone trembling before his authority. But the God-loving man, zealous in fulfilling the virtues and righteous in the struggles of piety, sees with a pure soul in his dreams the things to come and revelations of awesome mysteries; and awaking from sleep, he finds himself always at prayer in compunction, with a peaceful disposition of soul and body; tears run down his cheeks, and on his lips is converse with God.
61. According to what appears in them, all dreams may be divided into three kinds: the dream, the vision and the revelation. A dream is that which does not remain unchanged in the imagination of the intellect; it is mixed and often passes from one thing to another. From it there is no profit for the one who sees it, and after waking the dream disappears. All the zealous should despise such dreams.
A vision is that which is unchanging, which is not transformed from one thing into another, but remains unchanged in the intellect and is not forgotten for many years. Visions show things to come and bring profit to the soul through compunction and awesome images; they make the one who sees them thoughtful and trembling through the constant contemplation of awesome images. Let the zealous count visions a great thing.
And a revelation is the vision of a pure and enlightened soul, which occurs beyond all the senses and has in itself the power of certain wondrous divine things and understandings; revelations teach secretly of God’s hidden mysteries, show the accomplishment of great works and the general changes in worldly and human affairs.
62. From what has been said one may understand that the dream belongs to men who are hardened and flesh-loving, whose god is the belly and satiety, whose intellect is darkened by a careless life torn by the passions; the demons mock them and cast their own fantasies upon them. The vision belongs to the zealous, who purify the senses of the soul, attain through visible things to divine ones and multiply their ascents. And revelations belong to the perfect, in whom the divine Spirit works and who are united with God by a theological soul.
63. Not all visions that occur in dreams are true, and they are not reflected in the ruling part of the intellect in all men, but only in those whose intellect is purified and whose senses of the soul are made clear, and who have attained the contemplation of created things. Such men do not busy themselves with the affairs of daily life, and no cares of this life trouble them; their long fasts have become perfect self-control, and their struggles and labours for God have found a dwelling in the sanctuary of God, that is, in the contemplation of created things with a higher wisdom; their angelic life and manner of living are now hidden in God, and their progress in sacred stillness has brought them to the throne of the prophets of God’s Church. Of such as these God spoke in the book of Numbers: «If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make Myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream» (Num 12:6). And in the book of the prophet Joel: «And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions» (Joel 3:1).
64. Stillness is the unshaken state of the intellect, the quiet of a free and rejoicing soul, the untroubled and unshaken standing of the heart in God, the contemplation of light, the knowledge of God’s mysteries, the word of wisdom from a pure thought, the abyss of the understandings of God, the rapture of the intellect, converse with God, the unsleeping eye, the prayer of the intellect, great rest without toil amid toils, and, in the end, union and mingling with God.
65. So long as the soul is in revolt within itself, and its powers move in disorder, and the divine rays cannot yet enter it, and it has not been freed from servitude to the wisdom of the flesh, and has not enjoyed the peace that comes when the struggle with the unbridled passions ceases — so long must its lips keep much silence, that it may be able to say with David: «I was like a deaf man who does not hear, and like a mute who does not open his mouth» (Ps 37:14). It is always fitting for it to sigh and to walk the road of Christ’s commandments when the enemy wrongs it, and to await the coming of the Comforter, who will grant it, moved to compunction and washed with tears, true freedom.
66. When he who in stillness gathers the honey of the virtues rises through the labours of the love of wisdom above the body, and the powers of his soul return to their natural state, since the wisdom of the flesh has been cast down and the soul can contain the rays of the Spirit, then he, cleansed by tears, will be clothed in the incorruption of the life-giving deadness of Christ and, sitting in the Comforter’s upper room of stillness, will receive the Comforter in tongues of fire. Then let him speak boldly of God’s greatness and in the great Church proclaim the righteousness of God, for he has received into himself the law of the Spirit — lest he be cast into eternal fire like the wicked servant who buried his master’s talent. So David too, having washed away his sin by repentance, received the gift of prophecy and, unable to conceal this benefaction, said to God: «Behold, I will not restrain my lips; O Lord, Thou hast known my righteousness. I have not hidden Thy truth within my heart, and I have declared Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy mercy and Thy truth from the great congregation» (Ps 39:10-11).
67. The intellect, cleansed of all silt, becomes for the soul a heaven with clear and most radiant understanding, for in it shines the Sun of righteousness and sends forth in peace the rays of theology; it becomes pure knowledge from the depth of wisdom and draws out from it the simple and unmixed forms of things and the understandings of hidden mysteries, that it may comprehend what is the depth and the height and the breadth of the knowledge of God. Having thus naturally introduced them, it explains in words the depths of the Spirit to all who have the divine Spirit within them, and exposes the wiles of the demons, and tells of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.
68. Bodily lusts and the turmoil of the flesh are quieted by self-control, fasting and spiritual struggles. The inflammation of the soul and the swelling of the heart are cooled by the reading of the divine Scriptures and humbled by unceasing prayer, while compunction anoints the soul as with oil.
69. Nothing else makes a man a companion of God’s converse as does pure spiritual prayer; it unites with God the one who prays to Him in stillness, cleanses his soul with tears, delights it with the sweetness of compunction and illumines it with the radiance of the Spirit.
70. Quantity in prayer brings more profit when it is preceded by endurance and attentiveness. But it is the quality of prayer that quickens the soul and becomes the cause of fruits. Quality in psalmody and prayer means that one must pray with the spirit and with the intellect. He prays with the intellect who, while praying and singing, considers the knowledge contained in the divine Scriptures and from them receives in his heart an ascent in understanding through thoughts befitting God. These noetically snatch the soul away into the expanse of light, where it is illumined and greatly purified, and is wholly directed towards the heavens and contemplates the beauty of the blessings prepared for the saints. It is kindled with desire for them and at once manifests the fruit of prayer: a stream of tears from the light-creating action of the Holy Spirit. These tears are so sweet that, having tasted them, one may forget bodily food. This is the fruit of prayer which grows in the souls of those who pray, through the quality of their psalmody.
71. Where this fruit of the Spirit may be found, there is also quality of prayer. And where there is quality, there the quantity of psalmody also increases. But when no fruit is seen, quality becomes dry. And where it is dry, quantity becomes futile, and though it causes bodily toil, it brings no profit.
72. When you pray and sing psalms to the Lord, watch out for the wiles of the evil one. For the demons, stealing into the senses of the soul, either prompt us to utter, instead of the psalms, some other words, thereby blaspheming the psalms, since we say with our lips what is not fitting; or, when we have begun a psalm, we add at the end some words of our own; or we repeat the same verse over and over and cannot finish the psalm because of forgetfulness, for they erase all the lines from our memory, so that we forget what we have sung with our lips and cannot recall it and repeat it. They do this in order to bring us to faint-heartedness and listlessness and to destroy the fruits of our prayer, so that we may pray no further. But do you stand against them and take up the psalms more zealously, so that you may understand the profit of prayer through the contemplation of the verses and be enriched by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, which comes into the souls of those who pray.
73. When something of this kind happens to you as you try to sing with understanding, do not sink faint-heartedly into listlessness and do not seek the rest of the body more than the profit of the soul, for it is already late. Stop when you notice that your intellect has fallen into demonic captivity. If this happens at the end of a psalm, return to the beginning and start it again — and do so even if your intellect falls captive several times in an hour. If you act thus, the demons will not endure your patience, your perseverance and the strength of your zeal, and, filled with shame, they will flee from you.
74. Know that unceasing prayer is that which does not cease in the soul either by day or by night. It is manifested not in the stretching out of the hands, nor in the standing of the body, nor in words spoken, but in the noetic study of the intellect’s activity and in lasting compunction in the remembrance of God.
75. Only he can pray unceasingly who gathers all his thoughts under the rule of the intellect, reaching with peace and great reverence into the depths of God and seeking whence to draw the most sweet water of contemplation. Without such peace there can be no unceasing prayer. In him whose powers of soul have been reconciled with the intellect, unceasing prayer is wrought.
76. When you are singing to God the song of prayer and a brother knocks at your door, do not honour the work of prayer above the work of love, and do not disdain your brother who knocks at your door, for this is not pleasing to God. For God desires the mercy of love, not the sacrifice of prayer. Therefore, leaving the gift of prayer, give your brother the converse of love and comfort him. And then return and offer to the Father of spirits your gift with tears and a contrite heart, and a right spirit will be renewed within you.
77. The mystery of prayer is not accomplished at a fixed time or in a fixed place. But when you appoint a time and an hour and a place for prayer, then all the rest of your time is spent on vain things. The measure of prayer is the constant movement of the intellect towards God. The work of prayer is the soul’s abiding in divine things. The result of prayer is to cleave to God with the intellect and to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor 6:17), according to the Apostle’s words.
78. If your bodily members have been mortified and your soul has been quickened by the Spirit, and you have been counted worthy by God of supernatural gifts, do not let the noetic power of your soul grow slack, but teach it to remember your former transgressions and to think of the torments of hell, and look upon yourself as one condemned. Turn your intellect to this, and, seeing yourself thus, you will preserve a contrite spirit and will have a fountain distilling streams of the compunction of divine grace. And God will look upon you and will give His Spirit for the strengthening of your heart.
79. When discerning fasting takes as its companions vigil with study and prayer, it will swiftly bring the ascetic to the borders of dispassion, if his soul too, through great humility, is washed with tears and kindled with the love of God. When the ascetic reaches this, he will be brought into the spiritual peace that surpasses all understanding, and with love he will praise God.
80. A king does not think so highly of his glory and his kingdom, nor boast, rejoicing in his power, as a monk rejoices in dispassion of soul and in the tears of compunction. The king’s thinking will wither together with his kingdom, but blessed dispassion will pass over with the monk into eternal life and will abide there for endless ages. The monk abides among men like a wheel: by its nature it touches the earth and what is on it only a little. He is wholly like a circle, noetically rising into the expanse, carrying his beginning to his end and all his gifts, carved in the crown of humility. For him a table is prepared — the contemplation of all that exists — and his drink, his cup of wisdom and his rest is God.
81. He who has willingly taken up the labours of the virtues and zealously fulfils the monastic struggle is counted worthy of great gifts from God. Coming thus to the middle of the struggle, he attains divine revelations and contemplations. And he becomes as radiant and as wise as the labour of his struggles reaches. But the higher he ascends to the heights of contemplation, the greater is the envy he raises against himself from the destructive demons, for they cannot bear to see a man whose nature becomes like that of an angel, and therefore they secretly shoot into him the sharp arrow of pride. And if the monk understands the enemy’s wile and flees from it into the stronghold of humility, he will escape destruction by pride and will enter the haven of salvation. But if not, he will lose the power that comes from on high and will be handed over to involuntary punishment by the spirits who demand him, since he did not test himself. And these spirits are pleasure-loving and flesh-loving, cunning and irascible; they humble him with fierce assaults until he comes to know his weakness and, weeping, says with David: «It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me, that I might learn Thy statutes» (Ps 118:71).
82. God does not wish us always to be humbled by the passions and hunted like hares, but that we should seek the rock as our refuge, for He has said: «I said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High» (Ps 81:6). He wishes that we, like deer, should run out onto the high mountains of His commandments and thirst for the life-giving waters of the Spirit. As deer, which by nature eat serpents, when heated by long running, wondrously turn the serpent’s poison into food so that it does no harm to them at all, so we too, having received into the womb of our thought every passionate thought, kindled by the fulfilment of God’s commandments and by the power of the Spirit, shall transform passion into a fragrant and saving working of virtue, taking «every thought captive to the obedience of Christ» (2 Cor 10:5). For the world above wishes to be filled not with fleshly and imperfect men, but with such as have attained «to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ» (Eph 4:13).
83. He who all the time treads in one place and does not wish to advance is like a mule that goes round the threshing floor in the same spot. For he who only fights with the flesh and exercises only his body in the endurance of sufferings does not know how great are the things he is losing, since he has not attained the knowledge of the divine will. For the apostle Paul says that «bodily training is of some value» (1 Tim 4:8), until the corruptible wisdom of the flesh is swallowed up by the streams of the tears of repentance, until the spiritual and life-giving mortification of the body is accomplished and the law of the Spirit reigns in our mortal flesh. But the piety of the soul is profitable through the knowledge of all that exists and through the immortal gardens of divine thoughts; it is visible as the tree of life in the noetic working of the intellect and is profitable always and in everything, for it makes the heart pure and brings peace to the powers of the soul, gives illumination of the intellect, purity of body, chastity, all-embracing self-control, humility of mind, compunction, love, sanctification, the understanding of heavenly things, wisdom of word and the contemplation of God. He who after many struggles has attained such perfection in piety has passed through the Red Sea of the passions and entered the promised land, from which flow the honey and milk of the knowledge of God and the unending joy of the saints.
84. He who does not wish to pass from things of little profit to things wholly profitable still eats bread made of bran in the sweat of his brow, according to the word of God spoken at the very beginning. Therefore his soul does not desire the noetic manna nor the honey that flowed for Israel from the cleft rock. But he who has heard the words «Rise, let us go hence» (Jn 14:31), and at the voice of the Teacher has risen from painful activity and ceased to eat the bread of pain, has cast off perception and tasted from the cup of God’s wisdom — he has known how good the Lord is, for he has fulfilled the law of the commandments by the ministry of the word and has entered the upper room of the coming, awaiting the Comforter.
85. It behoves us to advance in order and by degrees of the philosophic life and to press zealously towards what is on the heights, always striving towards what is according to God, and not to cease from doing good works. Through this and through practical training we shall pass to the contemplation of the nature of created things, and from it it behoves us to ascend to the mystical words of theology and to rest in it from all the works of bodily training, for we shall already have risen above bodily works and shall have received the discerning knowledge of the true distinction of things. If we do not yet have such knowledge, then we do not know how to advance and to move towards a more perfect life; we are still worse than the men of the world, who know neither the limit of success in a given rank nor the halts in the ascent, until they reach a rank higher than others and set their desire at rest in it.
86. The soul that is zealously purified by labours is illumined by the divine light and begins little by little to see the natural beauty that God gave it from the beginning, and it is drawn to the love of Him who created it. The more the rays of the Sun of righteousness are made clear to it through its purification, and the more it begins to see and know its natural beauty, the more it multiplies the labours of training for its further purification, so that, being purified, it may understand the glory of the gift of which it has been counted worthy, may receive its ancient nobility and may bring to the Creator an image pure and without admixture. It does not give itself any relaxation until it is cleansed of every impurity and defilement and becomes worthy of the contemplation of God and of converse with Him.
87. «Open my eyes, and I shall understand the wonders of Thy law» (Ps 118:18) — so cries out to God the one who is still covered by the mist of earthly wisdom. The ignorance of the earthly intellect, like fog and deep darkness, covers the knowledge of the soul and makes it dark and unable to understand things divine and human, to look upon the rays of the divine light, or to delight in those blessings which «eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived» (1 Cor 2:9). But when its eyes are opened through repentance, it will see all this clearly, will hear it in the intellect and will understand it noetically. And not only this, but in its heart it will begin its ascent in these understandings. Having felt their sweetness, it will know with the mind and will tell all, with the word of God’s wisdom, of the wonders of God and of the blessings which God has prepared for those who love Him, and will urge all to come to these blessings through many struggles and tears.
88. There are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The word of God names them, beginning with wisdom and ending with the divine fear. «The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,» it says, «the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and piety and of the fear of the Lord» (Is 11:2-3). But it behoves us to begin from the fear of torments, which purifies us, so that through it we may withdraw from evil, may be cleansed by repentance from the defilement of sin, and may attain to pure fear, walking towards it by the good road and setting the working of the virtues at rest in it.
89. He who has begun from the fear of judgment and by the tears of repentance has attained purity of heart is first filled with wisdom, for it is said that fear is its beginning. Then he is filled with understanding and counsel, for he loves to counsel himself in what is profitable and to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Attaining this by the fulfilment of the commandments, he ascends to the knowledge of what exists and receives a sure contemplation of things divine and human. Through this he becomes wholly a dwelling of piety and, having ascended to the summits of love, becomes perfect and at once receives the pure spirit of fear, in order to guard the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven laid up in him. This fear, exceedingly saving, brings to trembling the one who has come out onto the summit of love. He fears lest he fall away from such a height of God’s love and be cast again into the fear of the torments of hell.
90. For those who are only beginning the life of piety there is one profit from the reading of the Scriptures, for those who have already reached the middle another, and for those who are drawing near to perfection yet another. For the first, the reading of Holy Scripture is the bread of God’s table, which strengthens their hearts in the sacred struggles of virtue, gives them strength to fight against the active passions and the spirits, and makes them brave soldiers against the demons; therefore they may say: «Thou hast prepared a table before me in the presence of my oppressors» (Ps 22:5).
For the second, the reading of Holy Scripture is like the wine of God’s cup, which gladdens their hearts and strikes them with the power of understandings. Reading draws their intellect away from what is written, leads it, testing it, into the depths of the Spirit and makes it able to bring forth and discover understandings; therefore they may say: «And Thy cup, which inebriates me, how excellent it is» (Ps 22:5).
And for the third, it is the oil of the divine Spirit, which anoints their souls and calms and humbles them by the abundance of divine illuminations, and makes the whole soul far higher than the body; therefore such a soul may sing: «Thou hast anointed my head with oil… and Thy mercy shall follow after me» (Ps 22:5-6).
91. So long as we, labouring in practical philosophy, move towards God in the sweat of our brow, diminishing the passions of the body, so long does the Lord feed with us on the daily bread which is grown by the working of the virtues, and strengthens the heart of man at the table of His gifts. But when His name is hallowed in us by dispassion and He Himself reigns in the powers of our soul, subduing and reconciling what was estranged from itself — that is, the worse thought with the better — and His will is done in us as it is in heaven, then He drinks with us the new drink of the Word of wisdom, drawn from compunction and from the understanding of great mysteries, in His Kingdom which is within us. And when we are in communion with the Holy Spirit and are changed by the good change in the renewal of our intellect, then God will be with us as with gods, receiving us as immortal.
92. When the coming of the Holy Spirit restrains the stormy torrent of the intellect’s passionate thoughts, and self-control and reflection on death bridle the salty abyss of unseemly thoughts and reasonings, then the divine breath of repentance blows, and the waters of compunction flow, which God and Master has poured into the basin, and He washes our noetic feet, making them worthy to walk in the courts of His Kingdom.
93. The Word of God became flesh, took upon Himself our nature and became perfect man without sin. And, being perfect God, He renewed our nature and deified it. And since He is the Word of the first Intellect and God, He united Himself with the rational power of our nature and gave it wings, that it might rise to divine wisdom and thoughts. He is fire, and therefore with the natural and divine fire He directed the incensive power against the opposing passions and the demons. He is the desire of every rational creature and the rest of desires, and therefore He widened the desiring power, commanding it love, towards the longing to partake of the blessings of eternal life. Having thus renewed the whole man, He made the old new, without a single word of reproach to the Creator for the renewal.
94. God the Word, performing in Himself the sacred work of our renewal, offered Himself as a sacrifice for us through the cross and death, and constantly gives His most pure Body as a sacrifice and offers it to us every day as a soul-saving banquet. So that we, eating and drinking Him, may become better in the senses of the soul through this communion, being united with Him, becoming from worse to better and one with the twofold Body and rational soul, as with God incarnate and consubstantial with us according to the flesh; so that we belong no longer to ourselves, but to Him who by His immortal table has made us one with Him and by adoption has made us such as He Himself is by nature.
95. When we, tested by the labours of the virtues and cleansed beforehand by tears, approach and eat this bread and drink from this cup, the Word by His two natural powers is doubly joined to us in gentleness and transforms us into Himself, as one incarnate and consubstantial with us according to human nature, and deifies us all by the word of knowledge, and makes us His own, as those alike in image and as brothers, being God and consubstantial with the Father. But when we approach Him mingled with passions and defiled by the filth of sin, then He, drawing near to us with the natural fire that destroys all malice, scorches and burns us all and cuts short our life — not by the will of His goodness, but compelled by our insensibility.
96. To all who through practical philosophy have begun to walk the paths of Christ’s commandments the Lord draws near invisibly and walks together with them, for their thinking is still imperfect and their souls still doubt concerning the words of the virtues. Rightly are the eyes of their souls held, lest they perceive their own progress, while the Lord walks with them, helps them to be freed from the passions and gives them a helping hand for the accomplishment of every virtue. But when they attain success in the struggles of piety and through humility draw near to dispassion, then the Word does not wish them to stop, wearied by the labours of the virtues, but that they should go further and ascend to contemplation. Therefore He feeds them abundantly with the bread of tears, blesses them with the light of compunction and opens their intellect, that they may understand the depth of the divine Scriptures and thereby begin to see the nature of created things. He hides Himself from them, that they may rise up and strive more zealously to learn the knowledge of all that exists and what it means to rise above all this. And when, having sought zealously, they find Him, they ascend to the higher ministry of the Word and preach to all the resurrection of the Word, which they have come to know through action and contemplation.
97. Rightly does the Word reproach the slowness of those who linger over the labours of practical training and have no wish at all to leave them and pass to higher contemplation; therefore He says to them: «O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe the Word, which can reveal the depths of the Spirit to those who walk after the Spirit.» Not to wish to pass from the initial struggles to the more perfect ones, and from the words of divine Scripture to its deeper understanding, is the mark of a sluggish soul, which does not feel spiritual profit and fiercely envies its own progress. It will hear not only the words «Go and buy oil for yourselves from those who sell», as the foolish virgins heard, but also what was said when the chamber was shut: «Go away, I do not know you.»
98. When the Word of God comes to a fallen soul, as He once came to the town of Bethany, raising up its intellect which has died of sin and is buried under corruptible passions, then wisdom and righteousness, grieved by the death of the intellect, meet the Lord and say: «If Thou hadst been here with us, guarded and watched over, our brother the intellect would not have died of sin.» Then righteousness hastens to entertain the Word with much busyness and with the working of the virtues and to set before Him a varied table of the endurance of sufferings. But wisdom, disregarding all busyness and the hard endurance of sufferings, chooses to sit beside the noetic activity and the noetic movements of the Word and to listen to His contemplative understandings. The Lord accepts the first, who has laboured well to entertain Him honourably with the table of manifold and practical philosophy, but reproaches her for her great busyness and for exercising herself little in what is profitable. For there is only one thing needful in order to serve the Lord: to subject the worse thought to the better and to translate the earthly wisdom of the soul into the spiritual struggles of virtue. And the second the Lord praises, for she has chosen the good portion of spiritual knowledge, by which she rises above human affairs and enters the divine depths, and there finds the pearls of the Word, and contemplates the treasures of the Spirit hidden there, and feels an unspeakable joy which shall not be taken from her.
99. The intellect, put to death by the passions and quickened by the coming of God the Word, casts away the stone of insensibility, and the spiritual servants of God the Word — that is, the fear of torments and the labours of the virtues — free it from the fetters of sin and from destructive thoughts; and it, having delighted in the light of the life to come, passes over to dispassion. Having passed over to it, it sits on the throne of the senses and, purely performing the sacred mystery of contemplation, becomes a table-companion of the Word and, departing with Him from earth to heaven, reigns with Christ in the Kingdom of God the Father, having set all its desires at rest.
100. The state of the life to come, which will begin after the death of the body, becomes manifest and comprehensible to everyone who labours zealously in God’s law and fills up the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ through the announcement and action of the Holy Spirit. The blessedness of that rest is eternal joy in the ever-existing light. Unceasing joy embraces those who here struggle in God’s law, and the gladness of the Holy Spirit greets them, which, according to the Lord’s word, shall not be taken from them. He who has been counted worthy of the coming of the Comforter, and, cultivating the field of the virtues, has delighted in its fruits and has been enriched with His divine gifts, is filled with joy and love, for every fear has fled from him. With joy he is freed from the bonds of the body and with joy departs from all things visible, to which he had already forgotten every perception while still alive, and rests in the unspeakable joy of the light, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice — though the body often suffers pain when the soul goes out of it, as women suffer pain in hard labour.