From the Same Venerable Cassian, to Abbot Leontius: On the Holy Fathers of Skete and on Discernment
A discourse full of great profit.
The coming to Abba Moses
Saint Germanus and I — he who had been my spiritual friend from childhood, in our education, in the army and in the rest of our life — came to the desert of Skete, where the most experienced fathers lived, and there we met Abba Moses, a holy man who shone not only with the active virtues but also with spiritual contemplation of God. With tears we begged him to give us a word of instruction by which we might attain perfection.
When we had entreated him for a long time, he said: «Children, every virtue and every undertaking has its own end. Those who set that end before them and direct themselves towards it reach the goal they desire. The farmer works the land diligently, in heat and in cold, because he wishes to keep his fields free of thorns and weeds, and the end of his labour is the enjoyment of the harvest. The merchant fears no hardship, neither at sea nor on land, and trades diligently, for his aim is to gain profit, and the end of his trading is the enjoyment of that profit. Soldiers count as nothing the weight of battle nor the length of the march, for their measure is to show courage and to gain military honours.
«Our vow too has its own end, and for its sake no labour or struggle weighs us down: we abstain from food, we sweeten the labour of the senses, we love to read and to learn from the Scriptures, to perform every labour and obedience, to stand apart from all earthly things and to dwell in this desert. And you, who have despised your homeland, your family and the whole world, and have set out on a journey and come to us, rude and unlearned men — tell me, what is your aim, and for what end have you done all this?»
We answered, saying: «For the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.» At this Abba Moses said: «You have spoken well about the end. But you have not said what aim we must keep in view in order to reach the Kingdom of Heaven without turning aside from the right path.»
The aim is purity of heart
And when we were silent, not knowing what to say, the elder explained: «The end of our vow, as we have said, is the Kingdom of God; but the aim is purity of heart, without which it is impossible to reach that end. Let our intellect be always fixed upon this aim; and when the heart happens to turn aside from the straight path, let us at once correct it, as a builder corrects his line. Blessed Paul knew this, and therefore said: ‘Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God’ (Phil. 3:13-14).
«For this we do everything and despise everything — homeland, family, wealth and the whole world — in order to gain purity of heart. When we forget our aim, we walk as in darkness, and, having strayed from the right path, we stumble often and wander often. It has happened to many that, having begun their renunciation, they despised wealth and money and the whole world, yet immediately grew angry and furious over a spade, a needle, a reed pen or a book. They would not have suffered this if they had remembered the aim for which they despised all things.
«We despise wealth for the sake of love of our neighbours, so that we may not fall away from love by reaching after riches and by increasing the passion of anger. If we grow angry with our brother even over small things, we thereby depart from our aim, and our renunciation profits us nothing. The blessed Apostle knew this too, and therefore said: ‘If I give my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing’ (1 Cor. 13:3).
«Let us remember, then, that perfection does not come immediately when we speak of renunciation and turn away from things, but when we show love; and the Apostle writes of its signs thus: love does not envy, does not boast, is not puffed up, does not seek its own, is not quick to anger, does not devise evil (cf. 1 Cor. 13:4-5). All these signs build up purity of heart. For its sake it is good to do everything: to despise wealth, and to endure fasting and vigil with joy, in reading and in psalmody.
«Yet do not neglect love for the sake of these labours, when you must give up your customary fast for the sake of some work necessary for the Lord. There is not so much gain in fasting as there is loss in anger; nor is there so much profit in a rebuke as there is harm when you despise your brother and grieve him. For fasting, and vigil, and study of the Scriptures, and the abandoning of wealth, and the renunciation of the whole world are not perfection, as has already been said, but the means of attaining perfection; because perfection does not reside in them, but is acquired through them. In vain, then, do we boast of fasting, vigil, poverty and the reading of the Scriptures, if we have not acquired love for God and for our neighbour. He who has acquired love has God within himself, and his intellect is always with God.»
How God may be contemplated
To this Germanus said: «And who, being joined to this body, is able to keep his intellect always in God, so as to think of nothing else — neither of visiting the sick, nor of receiving strangers, nor of handiwork, nor of the other constant needs of the body? And in the end, how can the human intellect always contemplate the immeasurable and invisible God and never depart from that contemplation?»
Moses answered: «To contemplate God always and never depart from Him in the way you imagine is impossible for a man clothed in flesh and burdened with infirmities. But God may be contemplated in another way; indeed, the contemplation of God may be grasped in many ways. For it is possible to know God not only in His blessed and immeasurable nature — this will be granted in the age to come, and only to His saints. You may know Him from the greatness and beauty of His creatures, and from His order and providence which is at work every day, and from His righteousness and from the wonders which He works among every kind of His saints.
«When we think of His immeasurable power and of His never-sleeping eye, which sees the secrets of hearts and from which nothing is hidden, then, overcome with fear, we marvel and worship Him. When we think that He knows the number of the raindrops, of the sands of the sea and of the stars of heaven, then we marvel at the greatness of His being and of His wisdom. When we think of His unutterable and indescribable wisdom, and of His love for mankind, and of His inexhaustible long-suffering, which bears with the countless iniquities of sinners, we glorify Him.
«When we think of His great love for us — that for us, who have done nothing good, He, being God, deigned to become man in order to save us from delusion — our love for Him grows. When we think that He Himself conquers within us the devil, our enemy, if only we have the desire and the inclination towards good, and that He gives us eternal life, we worship Him. And there are countless other ways of contemplating God, which are born in us according to our deeds and our purification, and through which we can contemplate and know God.»
On thoughts and the mill of the intellect
Germanus asked further: «Why does it happen that often, even against our will, we are troubled by numerous thoughts and evil imaginings? They are subtle and come in secretly, and not only can we not prevent them, but it is very hard for us even to recognise them. If it were possible, we should like to learn how our thoughts might be free from them and undisturbed by them.»
Moses answered: «It is impossible for such thoughts not to trouble the intellect. But to accept them and dwell in them, or to reject them, is possible for anyone who makes the effort. It does not depend on us whether thoughts come, but it is in our power to drive them away; and likewise the changing of our thoughts depends on our watchfulness. When we study God’s law intelligently and often, when we recite psalms and hymns, when we keep fasts and vigils and often remember the things to come — the Kingdom of Heaven, the fire of Gehenna and all the works of God — then evil thoughts diminish and find no place for themselves. But when we are taken up with worldly affairs and bodily things and give ourselves to vain and empty conversations, then evil thoughts multiply within us.
«A watermill cannot stop its own turning, but it depends on the miller whether he grinds wheat or chaff. In the same way our intellect, which is always in motion, cannot rid itself of thoughts; but it depends on us whether we give it spiritual instruction or bodily preoccupation.»
Discernment, the queen of the virtues
The elder, seeing that we were astonished and amazed at this and insatiably eager to hear his words, was silent for a while and then continued: «Since your love has listened to so long a discourse and still wishes to listen, I think you truly desire to learn about perfection. I wish to speak to you of the chief virtue, that is, discernment, which stands among the other virtues like a queen upon a mountain; and to show its excellence, its height and its profit not only with our own words, but also with the ancient thoughts of the fathers, as the Lord shall grant grace to the speaker according to the desire and worthiness of the hearers.
«This is no small virtue; it comes from the most special gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which the Apostle speaks: ‘To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the discernment of spirits’ (1 Cor. 12:8-10). And having named all the gifts, the Apostle adds: ‘And all these are the work of one and the same Spirit.’ You see, then, that discernment is neither an earthly nor a small gift, but the greatest gift of God’s grace.
«If a monk does not pursue it with all his strength and watchfulness, and if he does not learn to judge with a firm intellect the spirits that come to him, he will be like one who has lost his way in the night: he will not only fall into the worst pits of sin, but will stumble even on level and straight ground.»
The council of the elders with Saint Anthony
«I remember how, in my youth, in the Thebaid where blessed Anthony lived, the elders gathered to him and discussed with him which was the greatest virtue, able to keep a monk unharmed by the snares and temptations of the devil. Each said what he thought. Some said: fasting and vigil, because through them the thoughts are refined, and through purity it is easier to draw near to God. Others: freedom from possessions and contempt for one’s property, because this frees the intellect from the tangled ropes of worldly pursuits, and then it more easily approaches God. Others preferred the virtue of almsgiving, since the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food’ (Matt. 25:34-35). And while each said what in his opinion was the virtue that brings a man nearest to God, almost the whole night passed.
«At last blessed Anthony said: ‘All that you have said is necessary and useful for those who seek God and wish to come to Him. But we may not give the first place to any of these virtues, because we have seen many who walked in fasting and vigils, and withdrew into the desert, and lived in extreme poverty, so that they did not even keep back their daily food, and gave alms so abundantly that they no longer had property to give away — and yet they fell away from virtue and went astray. And this was because, in my opinion, they did not have the gift of discernment.
‘Discernment teaches a man to keep to the royal middle way and does not allow us to be plundered on the right hand, nor to fall on the left into carelessness and slackness. Discernment is like the eye and the lamp of the soul, according to the saying of the Gospel: “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be in darkness” (cf. Matt. 6:22-23). This is what discernment does: it tests all the thoughts and deeds of a man, and separates and sets apart every evil work displeasing to God, and drives every temptation away from him.
‘Anyone may learn this from the Divine Scriptures, which speak of it. Saul was the first to become king of Israel, and because his eye was without discernment his intellect was darkened, and he was unable to judge that his sacrifice was not acceptable to God, as Saint Samuel had commanded (cf. 1 Kgdms. 10:1). He angered God by the very thing with which he wished to please Him, and therefore he lost the kingdom (cf. 1 Kgdms. 15:19, 23). He would not have suffered this if the light of discernment had been in him. Of anger it is written: “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Eph. 4:26).
‘Discernment governs our life, as it is written: “Where there is no wise guidance, the people fall” (Prov. 11:14). The Scriptures call discernment counsel, and from the Scriptures we learn to do nothing without discernment. Even the spiritual wine that gladdens the heart of man should not be drunk without discernment, as it is said: “Drink your wine with a merry heart” (Eccles. 9:7), and: “It is not for kings to drink wine” (Prov. 31:4); and again it is said: “Like a city broken down and without walls is a man who does not rule his own spirit” (Prov. 25:28).
‘This is wisdom, this is knowledge and understanding, without which we cannot build our inner house or gather spiritual wealth, as it is said: “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the storerooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches” (Prov. 24:3-4). Discernment is also called the solid food of those whose senses are trained by long practice to distinguish between good and evil (cf. Heb. 5:14). From this it is clearly seen that no virtue can be acquired or held firm to the end without discernment. Discernment is the mother and the guardian of all the virtues.’»
Examples of those who fell for lack of discernment
«Such were the convictions and opinions of Saint Anthony, and many fathers agreed with him. We can confirm his opinion by the teaching of later fathers and of our own contemporaries.
«Remember the elder Heron and the wretched fall which he suffered a few days ago before your very eyes. Why did this happen? The devil, mocking him, dragged him down from so high a life into the depths of death. We remember how he lived in the desert for fifty years, having acquired austerity and great self-restraint, and dwelt in the remotest desert and loved solitude. And after so many labours and struggles the devil laughed at him, and the elder fell with a heavy fall, which brought all the fathers and brethren of the desert to inconsolable tears. This would not have happened to him if he had been fortified with the virtue of discernment, which would have taught him not to listen to his own opinion but to obey the counsel of his fathers and brethren.
«He followed his own opinion so far, wishing to fast and to keep away from people, that even on the feast of Holy Pascha he would not go to table with the fathers and brethren, lest he should have to eat vegetables with them and whatever was served at the meal, and so break his own intention and rule. In the end he was so far deceived by his own will that he received an angel of Satan and worshipped him as an angel of light; and that angel commanded him to throw himself at midnight into the deepest well, so that he might learn by experience that, because of his great virtues and God-pleasing labours, he had nothing more to fear from any danger. The brethren discovered what had happened and with great difficulty drew him out alive. He lived two days more and died on the third, leaving his brother Paphnutius inconsolable. The elder Paphnutius, out of great love for mankind, remembered the many labours of the elder Heron and the many years he had spent in the desert, and did not exclude him from commemoration and from the offerings for the dead, not reckoning him among those who die by their own hand.
«And what of those two brothers who lived on the far side of the Thebaid desert, where blessed Anthony sometimes stayed? An indiscreet thought urged them to go into the inner desert, vast and deserted, and they resolved to accept no food from men, so that the Lord might work a miracle and Himself give them food. And when they were wandering in the desert and dying of hunger, they were seen from afar by the Mazices — a tribe wilder and crueller than all the wild tribes — and divine providence turned their cruelty into love for mankind, and they came to the brothers with bread. One of the brothers, because discernment had touched him, received the bread gladly and with thanksgiving, considering that so cruel and wild a tribe, always glad of human blood, would not have had compassion on them or brought them food, had God not inspired it to do so. The other refused the food, because it was brought to him by men, and, holding to his rash opinion, he died, worn out by hunger. Although from the very beginning both had planned something very bad, having adopted a foolish and harmful opinion, yet the one, when discernment touched him, rightly corrected what he had presumptuously and foolishly conceived; while the other held to his foolish plan and, turning away from discernment, brought upon himself the death which the Lord wished to avert.
«What shall I say of that other man — whose name I do not wish to mention, because he is still alive — who often received a demon as an angel, received revelations from him and often saw a clear light in his cell? In the end the devil commanded him to sacrifice to God his son, who was with him in the monastery, so that he might have an equal portion with the patriarch Abraham. And he was so seduced by the demon’s suggestion that he would have killed his son, had the boy not seen his father sharpening a knife, which he had never done before, and preparing ropes to bind him as a sacrificial offering — and so run away.
«Much could be said of the delusion of that man from Mesopotamia, who lived in such abstinence and remained for many years enclosed in his cell, and whom the devil mocked with such revelations and dreams that after so many labours and virtues, in which he surpassed all the monks there, he fell into Judaism and into circumcision. For the devil, wishing to deceive him, often showed him true dreams, so that later he might accept delusion. And at last the devil showed him one night the whole Christian people, with the apostles and the martyrs, darkened and full of every shame, in sorrow and weeping; and the Jewish people, with Moses and the prophets, illumined by a great light, in joy and gladness. And the tempter told him that whoever wishes to share the blessedness and joy of the Jewish people must be circumcised. And so the monk did. From all that has been said it is clear that these men would not have been subjected to such mockery and derision if they had possessed the gift of discernment.»
How true discernment is acquired
To this Germanus said: «From the accounts of recent men and from the teaching of the ancient fathers it is clear that discernment is the source, the root, the head and the safeguard of all the virtues. But we should like to learn how it is to be acquired, and how we may know whether it is true discernment from God or false and counterfeit discernment from the devil.»
Then Abba Moses said: «True discernment comes when there is true humility: when we disclose to our fathers not only what we do but also what we think, and put no trust in any of our own thoughts, but in everything follow the word of the elder, and hold that to be good which the elders approve. This practice not only keeps the monk on the right path with true discernment, but also protects him from the snares of the devil. Whoever orders his life according to the wisdom and counsel of the perfect cannot fall through the devil’s delusion; for even before he himself receives the gift of discernment, the very act of uncovering and revealing his evil thoughts to the fathers weakens and diminishes them. As a snake dragged from its dark hole into the light tries to flee and hide, so evil thoughts, when they are brought to light, try to escape from a man.
The confession of Abba Serapion
«And so that you may see this virtue still more clearly, I shall tell you about Abba Serapion, as he himself told it to those who came to him for counsel. He spoke as follows:
«‘When I was young, I lived with my abba. After the meal I would rise from the table and, under the influence of the devil, steal a rusk and eat it secretly from my abba. I did this for a long time, and as this passion took hold of me I could not overcome it; only my conscience condemned me, and I was ashamed to tell the elder.
«‘It happened by the providence of God, who loves mankind, that some brothers came to the elder for his counsel and asked him about their thoughts. The elder answered: “Nothing harms a monk so much as hiding his thoughts from his spiritual fathers.” When I heard this I came to myself and thought that God had revealed my sins to the elder; and I began to weep, and I brought out the rusk which I had already grown accustomed to steal. And throwing myself on the ground, I asked forgiveness for my past sins and strength for the future.
«‘Then the elder said: “Child, your confession has set you free. Until now you allowed the devil, who tormented you through your silence, to possess you, because you did not contradict him and did not expose him. He will have no place in you any longer, since you have brought him out of your heart and made him manifest.” Before the elder had finished his words, it became visible how a flame like a candle came out of my inward parts and filled the house with a stench, so that those present thought a great quantity of sulphur was burning. Then the elder said: “Behold, the Lord has confirmed my words and your deliverance by this sign.” And so, through confession, the passion of gluttony and that diabolical working departed from me, and afterwards such a desire did not even enter my mind.’
«So, from what Abba Serapion has told us, we learn that the gift of true discernment comes to us when we trust not the judgement of our own thoughts, but the teaching and instruction of the fathers. For it is by no other vice than this that the devil drags the monk down into the abyss: by making him reject the counsel of the fathers and follow his own opinion and his own will.
«We may understand this by looking at the secular sciences and crafts. Although we can take them in our hands, see them with our eyes and hear them with our ears, we still cannot learn them by ourselves and need a good teacher. Would it not then be madness to think that the spiritual art — the most difficult of all arts, since it is invisible and hidden, and only the heart perceives it — can be learned without a teacher? Where this art is lacking, what is born is not some temporary trouble, but the destruction of the soul and eternal death.»
To whom thoughts should be revealed
Germanus said: «The reason we hide our thoughts is shame; and we have also heard that the fathers, when they listened to thoughts, sometimes not only failed to heal their brothers but even rebuked them and drove them to despair. We ourselves saw this happen in certain places in Syria. A brother there revealed his thoughts to an elder with all simplicity and sincerity, and without shame disclosed the secret of his heart. And the elder, as soon as he heard, grew angry and indignant with the brother, reproaching him for accepting such thoughts. Many who heard of this were afraid to reveal their thoughts to the elders.»
Abba Moses answered: «It is good, as I have said, not to hide one’s thoughts from the fathers; yet they should not be told to just anyone, but to spiritual elders who themselves possess discernment — and not merely to those who have grown grey with years. For many, looking only at age and disclosing their thoughts, received despair instead of medicine, through the inexperience of the one who listened.
Abba Apollos and the despairing brother
«There was a certain very zealous brother who was troubled by the demon of unchastity. He came to an elder and told him his thoughts. The elder heard him and, being inexperienced, called the brother wretched and unworthy of anything but insult, because he had accepted such thoughts. Hearing this, the brother fell into despair, left his cell and set out for the world.
«By God’s providence Abba Apollos, the most experienced of the elders, met him and, seeing him confused and deeply sorrowful, asked him: ‘Child, what is the cause of your sadness?’ At first, because of his great anguish, he answered nothing. But afterwards, when the elder had questioned him for a long time, he told him what had happened, saying: ‘Thoughts often trouble me, and I went to tell them to an elder, and according to his word I have no hope of salvation. I am in despair, and now I am going out into the world.’
«Hearing this, the elder Apollos prayed much and entreated the brother, saying: ‘Do not be astonished, child, and do not despair. I am already so old and grey, and such thoughts still burn me greatly. Do not despair at such a burning, which is healed not so much by human zeal as by God’s love for mankind. Only listen to me now and return to your cell.’ And the brother did so.
«Abba Apollos, having left him, went to the cell of the elder who had been angry with his brother, and standing near the cell he prayed with tears, saying: ‘Lord, who sendest temptations for our profit, turn that brother’s struggle upon this elder, that he may learn by experience in his old age what he has not learned in all this long time: how to attend to those who are struggling.’
«He finished his prayer and saw an Ethiopian standing not far from the cell and shooting arrows at the elder. Struck by them, the elder turned this way and that as though drunk and, unable to bear it, left his cell and set out for the world along the same road as the younger man. Abba Apollos, knowing what was happening to him, met him and asked: ‘Where are you going? What is the cause of your confusion?’ The elder understood that the saint knew what had befallen him, and out of shame he remained silent.
«Abba Apollos said to him: ‘Return to your cell and know your own weakness. Do not let the devil take notice of you, or you will be despised by him, since you were not even worth his battle. And why do I speak of battle? You could not repel even one of his assaults. And this has happened to you because you received a younger brother who had been overcome by our common enemy, and instead of encouraging him to the struggle you cast him into despair, forgetting the wise commandment which says: “Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and redeem those appointed for execution” (cf. Prov. 24:11). You did not remember the parable of our Saviour, which says: “A bruised reed He will not break, and a smouldering wick He will not quench” (Matt. 12:20). No one could withstand the assaults of the enemy or quench the natural burning of the flesh, were not God’s grace protecting us. Now that His saving providence has been fulfilled in us, let us pray to God to take away the chastisement sent upon you. For He wounds, and His hands heal; He humbles and exalts; He brings down to hell and brings up again.’
«Having said this and prayed, he at once freed him from that assault, and counselled him to ask God to give him a word of instruction, so that he might understand at what time a word should be spoken.
Follow the fathers, not your own judgement
«From all that has been said we may see that there is no other way of salvation by which we shall pass without stumbling than to open our thoughts to the most discerning fathers, so that they may direct us to virtue, and not to follow our own thoughts and our own judgement. And if it happens that a man is with a single simple elder, or with several inexperienced ones, it is good for him to go elsewhere and reveal his thoughts to experienced fathers, and not to despise the traditions of his predecessors; for they handed down their riches to those who came after them not of themselves, but from God and from the Divine Scriptures, so that we might question our elders.
«This may be learned from many places in the Divine Scriptures, and especially from the story of Saint Samuel, whom his mother dedicated to God as a child. He was counted worthy to converse with God; yet when God called him the first time and the second, he went to the elder Eli, and Eli taught him and instructed him how to answer God. He whom God had called and counted worthy of Himself had still to listen to the elder and learn from him — that is, in this way he had to come to humility.
«And Christ Himself, when He called the Apostle Paul and spoke with him, although He could have opened his eyes and shown him the way to perfection, sent him instead to Ananias and commanded him to learn from him the way of truth, saying: ‘Rise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do’ (Acts 9:6). By this Christ teaches us to follow the guidance of those who have already made some progress in the spiritual life, lest what is well said of Paul be badly interpreted and become an excuse for self-will, with everyone wishing to be guided into the truth directly by God, as Paul was, and not by the fathers.
«And that this is so may be learned not only from what has been said, but also from what this Apostle shows by his actions; for he writes of himself thus: ‘I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and James, and I set before them the Gospel which I preach, lest somehow I should be running, or had run, in vain’ (cf. Gal. 1:18; 2:2) — although from the power of the signs and wonders which he worked it is clear that the grace of the Holy Spirit accompanied him. Who then will be so proud and arrogant as to follow his own opinion and understanding, when the Apostle Paul, the chosen vessel, seeks counsel from those who became apostles before him, and himself admits it? From this it is clear that the Lord does not open the way of perfection to anyone by Himself alone, but that spiritual fathers guide everyone. So the prophet says: ‘Ask your father, and he will tell you; ask the elders, and they will declare to you’ (Deut. 32:7).
Against every excess
«Therefore we must acquire the good gift of discernment with all our strength and zeal, and it will protect us from every excess. For the fathers say that all extremes are equally harmful: excessive fasting and a full stomach, immoderate vigil and excessive sleep, and every other excess. We have seen men who were not overcome by gluttony but were overpowered by excessive fasting, and who afterwards turned to gluttony themselves, having exhausted their strength by fasting.
«And I myself, I remember, experienced something of the kind. I abstained from food so far that I felt no desire to eat at all: I ate nothing for two or three days, and would have wanted no food whatever, had others not compelled me to eat. And by the devil’s suggestion sleep so departed from my eyes that for many nights I did not sleep at all, and I begged the Lord to let me sleep at least a little. I suffered more from being unable to eat and to sleep than from filling my stomach and sleeping long.»
With such abundant teachings did Saint Moses entertain us, so that we, profiting by them, might glorify the Lord, who gives such wisdom to those who fear Him. To Him belong honour and dominion for ever. Amen.
Note: In the printed collection there follows an editorial remark introducing the next author of the Philokalia, Saint Nilus. Constantinople was a city worthy of the venerable Nilus, and the divine Chrysostom was his instructor. The year of his repose is given as 442. He came of a good family and was appointed prefect in his city; but, coming to Mount Sinai, he left behind him numerous writings full of spiritual wisdom and indescribable grace, among them the work of his ascetic labour divided into one hundred and fifty-three chapters. We offer this Discourse to our readers as a honeycomb: it truly distils the sweetness of honey, of ambrosia and of nectar, and brings forth most profitable fruit. The wise Photius mentions this as well in the two hundred and first reading, on page 266, saying: «One hundred and fifty-three chapters, in which this divine man explains the way of prayer.» And there is much else that testifies to his outstanding perfection in deeds and his power in words.