EXPOSITIONES ET DOCTRINAE DIVERSAE

1612OF DOROTHEUS: VARIOUS INSTRUCTIONS PROFITABLE TO THE SOUL.

ANONYMOUS PROLOGUE.

It should be known that there have been two Dorotheuses and two Barsanuphiuses: the one pair sick with the errors of Severus, the other having embraced orthodoxy and perfect asceticism. And it is these last who are carried in this book; so we hold it acceptable, and full of virtue, and profitable to the soul as much as anything, being in truth the work of the blessed Dorotheus, who showed himself orthodox and eminent among the Fathers, and not of the other, the man of other mind and perverse. Just as our father and confessor of Christ Theodore, who showed himself the all-wise hegumen of the Studios, taught very well in his testament to his own disciples, after he had set down the mind of his own faith and summarily renounced the godless heretics, saying further these words: "And I accept every divinely inspired book of the Old and New Testament; and moreover the lives and the divine writings of all the holy and inspired Fathers, both teachers and ascetics.

This I have said because of Pamphilus, manifestly harmful, who came from the East and slandered these holy men, I mean Mark, Isaiah, Barsanuphius, Dorotheus and Hesychius; not the Barsanuphius Βασανούφιον and Isaiah and Dorotheus who are fellow-headless with the Acephali, and fellow-sworn-horned with those called λογομένους Decakeratae, and anathematized by Sophronius, now among the saints, in his libellus; for these are plainly others, besides the aforesaid 1613men; whom I accept as handed down from the fathers, through inquiry of Tarasius the most holy patriarch, who has already held the high priesthood, and of other trustworthy persons, both natives and Easterners. And because τὰ τὸ the icon of Barsanuphius stands on the divine altar-covering of the Great Church with the holy Fathers, Antony, Ephrem and others; and since I have found no impiety in their teachings, but on the contrary much profit for the soul." See then: our great father Theodore distinguished the repute of the two Dorotheuses, and declared the teaching of the one carried here to be most profitable; as indeed it truly is, very profitable to the soul. Whoever orders his own life exactly by it will drive on to the perfect measure of virtue in Christ; and having arrived, he will be adorned with the crown of dispassion, and will be deemed worthy of eternal life with the saints.

Letter to the brother who asked that the discourses of our holy Father Dorotheus which had been found be sent to him.

1. I praise thy purpose; I call blessed thy blessed and truly beauty-loving soul for its zeal for the good, most longed-for brother. For so laboriously to search out and so genuinely to praise the things concerning our truly blessed and God-worthy father, who bears the name of God's gift: that is to praise virtue, and what follows upon so blessed a man, and to love God, and to take thought for the true life. For, according to the blessed Gregory, praise procures zeal; and zeal, virtue; and virtue, blessedness. So one may rejoice, and truly rejoice with thee, at such progress of thine; for thou seemest to follow the tracks of that man, the imitator of the meek and lowly of heart; who, having contemplated the spiritual renunciation of Peter and those with him, so stripped himself of attachment to things seen, so gave himself over to his own affairs according to God, that with boldness, I know well, he too could say to the Saviour, Behold, we have left all and followed thee. Matth. xix, 27. Whence, made perfect in a short time with God, he fulfilled long years; not dwelling in deserts and mountains of sense, nor setting great store by ruling body-devouring beasts; but embracing the desert of the soul, and longing to draw near to the eternal mountains, knowing wonderfully how to give light, and how to tread on the heads of soul-killing serpents and scorpions.

All this he was deemed worthy to attain swiftly, by the co-working of Christ, through the athlete's slaying of his own will; which procured for him the unerring road of the fathers; which showed him the blessed burden light, and showed the saving and kindly yoke to be kindly indeed.

16162. From it he learned the best road to height, lowliness; and receiving "Be merciful and meek" in deed, and according to the word of the holy elders, he was adorned through these with all the virtues. Hence the blessed man always had on his lips that saying of the Gerontikon: "He who has come to cutting off his own will," he would say, "has come to the place of rest." For since he found, as he worthily sought, that self-love is the root of all the passions, and that it is compounded with our bittersweet will, he used this potent medicine and withers, root and all, the evil shoots too; and he becomes a pure husbandman of immortal things, and bears as fruit the true life, having gained the treasure hidden in the field, well sought and found by him, and become truly rich in the things that are not emptied. I could wish I were sufficient in tongue and mind to be found worthy to set out his holy life in detail, for the common profit and as a most exact pattern of virtue; and how that blessed man ran the road that is narrow and spacious and beyond expectation. Narrow, because it is unerring and undissipated, and guards against the precipitous straying to either side: for so the friend of God, the truly great Basil, defines the narrowness of the afflicted and saving road. And spacious, because of its freedom from attachment and its liberality toward those who lead along it to God, and most of all because of the loftiness of lowliness, which alone, according to the great Antony, is above all the snares of the devil. Wherefore in him truly was fulfilled, Thy commandment is exceeding broad. Psal. cxviii, 96.

3. But this, as a thing impossible for me, I shall pass over. For I know, besides all the blessed man's good things, these too: the sayings of the so-called outside philosophers, which he gathered like the truly wise bee, and where he found them to carry something useful he would put them forward without hesitation for teaching, in season; such as Nothing in excess, Know thyself, and the like. To passing over all this, if not a willing choice, yet the necessity of my weakness, as was said, drives me. But what your zealous and beauty-loving soul commanded me, this I have boldly done, both dreading the weight of disobedience and fearing the penalty of sloth. And so with the present letter I have sent to you, the prudent bankers with God, the idle talent that lay with me: I mean the blessed man's teachings that have been found, which he himself was deemed worthy to receive from his own fathers, and which he handed on to his own disciples, doing and teaching after our first and true Master and Saviour.

And if we have not been able to find all his holy discourses, but very few, and these gathered here and there by certain zealous persons by the providence of God, yet it will be enough 1617for thy dexterity that even the little be presented, according to the saying, Give a wise man occasion, and he will be wiser. Prov. ix, 9.

But first, more briefly, the things concerning the blessed Dositheus, who became the first disciple of the blessed abba Dorotheus while he was still in the monastery of abba Seridos and accomplishing the contest of subjection according to Christ.

OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS, ABBA DOROTHEUS: INSTRUCTION I

On renunciation.

1. In the beginning, when God made man, he set him in paradise (as the divine Holy Scripture says), Gen. ii, 15. having adorned him with every virtue, and gave him the commandment not to eat of the tree that was in the midst of paradise. And he was in the delight of paradise, in prayer, in contemplation, in the midst of glory and honour, with his senses sound, and being in the state that is according to nature, just as he had been created. For God made man according to the image of God, that is, immortal, master of himself, adorned with every virtue.

But when he transgressed the commandment and ate of the tree of which God had commanded him not to eat, then he was cast out of paradise, and fell out of what is according to nature, and was in what is contrary to 1620nature, that is, in sin, in love of glory, in love of the pleasures of this life, and in the other passions, being lorded over by them; for he had made himself their slave through the transgression. Then, little by little, wickedness increased and death reigned. Nowhere was there reverence for God, but everywhere ignorance of God. Only a few, as I said, the fathers, moved by the natural law, knew God: such were Abraham and the other patriarchs, and Noah, and Jacob; and, to put it simply, a few; those who knew God were very rare indeed. For then the enemy spread out all his wickedness, since sin reigned; then began idolatry, polytheism, sorcery, murders, and the rest of the devil's wickedness. Then the good God, having pity on his creature, gave the written law through Moses, in which he forbade some things and prescribed others, saying, as it were, "Do this; do not do that." He gave a commandment, and at once he says, "The Lord thy God is one Lord," Deut. vi, 4. so as for the time being to draw their mind away from polytheism. And, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul and with all thy mind." ibid. 5. Everywhere thou shalt proclaim that God is one and there is no other. For in saying, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," he showed that God is one, and that there is one Lord. And again, in the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and by his name shalt thou swear." ibid. 13. Then he adds, "Thou shalt have no other gods, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath." For they worshipped all created things.

2. So the good God gave the law as a help, for turning back, for the correction of wickedness; and yet it was not corrected. He sent prophets, and they too could do nothing. For wickedness prevailed, as Isaiah says: "Neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore: it is not possible to apply a plaster, nor oil, nor bandages"; Isa. i, 6. as if to say, the wickedness is not partial, nor in one place, but in the whole body; it surrounds the whole soul, it holds all its powers in its grip; "it is not possible to apply a plaster," and so on: that is, everything has been enslaved to sin, everything is held fast by it. And Jeremiah too says, "We healed Babylon, and she was not healed"; that is: we made thy name manifest, we proclaimed thy commandments, the benefits, the promises, we foretold the risings of enemies, and yet she was not healed; that is, she did not repent, she did not fear, she did not turn back from her wickedness. As he says elsewhere too, "They did not receive correction," Jerem. ii, 30. that is, admonition, teaching.

And in the psalm he says, "Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near unto the gates of death." Psal. cvi, 18.

3. 1621Then at last the good and man-loving God sends his only-begotten Son. For it belonged to God alone to heal and to overcome such a disease; and the prophets were not ignorant of this. Hence David too said plainly, "Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, show thyself; stir up thy might and come to save us." Psal. lxxix, 2, 3. And, "Lord, bow the heavens and come down," Psal. cxliii, 5. and all such sayings. And the other prophets too, each of them, certainly cried out many things in various ways, some begging that he would come down, others fully assured that he was certainly coming down. So our Lord came, having become man for our sake, so that, as holy Gregory says, he might heal like by like: soul by soul, flesh by flesh. For he becomes man in every respect apart from sin. He took our very substance, the first-fruits of our lump, and becomes a new Adam, according to the image of him who formed him. For he renews what is according to nature, and makes the senses sound again, as they were from the beginning. Having become man, he renewed the man who had fallen; he set free the one who had been enslaved to sin, who was held by it by force. For man was led by the enemy by force and tyranny, and almost even those who did not want to sin were sinning by force; as the Apostle says, speaking in our person, "For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do." Rom. vii, 19.

4. So God, having become man for our sake, freed man from the tyranny of the enemy. For he cast down all his power, crushed his very strength, and delivered us from being under his hand, from being enslaved to him, unless indeed we ourselves willingly choose to sin. For he gave us authority, as he said, to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy, Luc. x, 19. having cleansed us from every sin through holy baptism. For holy baptism forgives every sin and wipes it out. But again the good God, knowing our weakness and foreseeing that even after holy baptism we would sin again (as it is written, "For the heart of man is diligently set upon evil things from his youth" Gen. viii, 21.), gave us, according to his goodness, holy commandments that cleanse us, so that, if we will, we may be cleansed again through keeping the commandments, not only from our sins but also from the passions themselves. For the passions are one thing, and the sins another. The passions are anger, vainglory, love of pleasure, hatred, evil desire, and the like; while the sins are the very acting-out of the passions, when someone actually does them, when he carries out through the body those deeds which the passions suggest to him.

Of course, it is possible for someone to have the passions and yet not act on them.

5. 1624So, as I said, he gave us commandments that cleanse us even from our passions themselves, from the very evil dispositions of our inner man. For he conveys to him the discernment of good and evil, he wakes him up, he shows him the causes from which he comes to sin; and he says, "The law said, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say, Do not even desire. The law said, Thou shalt not kill; but I say, Do not even be angry." ibid. 22. For if thou desirest, even if thou dost not commit adultery today, yet the desire will not stop troubling thee within until it throws thee into the act as well. If thou art angry and provokest thyself against thy brother, then at some point thou fallest into speaking ill of him, and then into plotting against him; and so, going on little by little, thou comest at last even to murder. Again the law says, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," and so on; but he urges us not only to receive with long-suffering the blow of one who strikes us, but also to turn the other cheek to him with humility. For then the aim of the law was to teach us not to do what we do not wish to suffer; so it held us back from doing evil through fear of suffering it. Now what is sought, as I said, is to cast out the hatred itself, the love of pleasure itself, the love of glory itself, and the other passions.

6. The aim of our Master Christ now, to put it simply, is to teach us whence we came into all these sins, whence we fell into all these evil days. First, then, he freed us, as I have already said, through holy baptism, giving us the forgiveness of sins; and he gave us authority to do good if we will, and no longer to be dragged, as one might say, by force into evil. For the one who is enslaved to sins is weighed down and dragged by them, as it says, "Every one is bound fast with the cords of his own sins." Prov. v, 22. Then he teaches us through the holy commandments how to be cleansed even from the passions themselves, so that we may not through them fall again into the same sins. Then he shows us the cause from which one comes to contempt and disobedience even of the commandments of God themselves; and so he furnishes us with the cure for this too, that we may be able to obey and be saved. What then is this cure, and what is the cause of the contempt? Hear what our Lord himself says: "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matth. xi, 29. See, here in brief, in a single word, he taught us the root and cause of all evils, and its cure, the root of all good things. He showed that self-exaltation cast us down, and that it is impossible to find mercy otherwise than through its opposite, which is humility.

For self-exaltation begets contempt and ruinous disobedience, just as humility begets 1625obedience and the salvation of souls. I mean the humility that is real: not the lowliness that is in word only, or in outward bearing, but a disposition made truly lowly in the heart itself.

7. So whoever wishes to find true lowliness and rest for his soul, let him learn humility, and let him see that in it is all joy and all glory and all rest, just as in pride is everything opposite. For whence did we come into all these afflictions? Is it not through our pride? Is it not through our folly? Is it not through our indulging our own evil choice? Is it not through letting the bitterness of our will prevail? But whence else? Was not man created in all delight, in all joy, in all rest, in all glory? Was he not in paradise? He was commanded, "Do not do this"; and he did it. Dost thou see pride? Dost thou see the stiff neck? Dost thou see insubordination? So God, seeing that shamelessness, says, "This one is a fool; this one does not know how to be glad. Unless he has some bad days, he is off, he is utterly lost. For if he does not learn what affliction is, he does not learn what rest is." Then he gave him what he deserved, and cast him out of paradise. So he was handed over to his own self-love and his own wills, that he might break his bones, that he might learn not to follow himself but the commandment of God, that the very misery of disobedience might teach him the rest of obedience; as it says in the prophet, "Thy apostasy shall chasten thee." Jerem. ii, 19. Yet the goodness of God, as I have often said, did not overlook his own creature, but again he exhorts, again he calls: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"; Matth. xi, 28. as if to say: See, you have laboured; see, you have suffered misery; see, you have tasted the evil of your insubordination. Come, then, turn back; come, know your helplessness, that you may come to your rest and your glory. Come, live through humility, you who were put to death through high-mindedness. "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." ibid. 29.

8. Alas, my brethren, what pride does! Alas, what humility can do! What need was there for all these roundabout ways? For if from the beginning he had humbled himself, and obeyed God, and kept the commandment, he would not have fallen. Again, after he had disgraced himself, God gave him an opening to repent and find mercy, and his neck stayed high. For he came saying to him, "Adam, where art thou?" Gen. iii, 9. in place of, "From what glory to what shame hast thou come?" And then he asks him, "Why didst thou sin?

Why didst thou 1628transgress?", prompting him particularly to say, "Forgive." Nowhere humility. And where is the "Forgive"? Nowhere repentance, but the opposite. He contradicts and answers back: "The woman whom thou gavest me." ibid. 13. He does not say, "My wife made a fool of me," but, "The woman whom thou gavest me," as one might say, "The calamity thou broughtest down upon my head." For so it is, brethren: when a man does not hold to blaming himself, he does not shrink from accusing even God himself. Then he comes to her and says to her, "Why didst thou too not keep the commandment?", as though saying particularly, "At least say 'Forgive,' that thy soul may be humbled and thou mayest find mercy." And again, nowhere the "Forgive." For she too answers, saying, "The serpent deceived me"; as if to say, "If he sinned, what is that to me?" What are you doing, wretches? Make one prostration, acknowledge your fault, have pity on your nakedness! And not one of them thought fit to blame himself; not one was found with even a little humility.

9. And so, see now, simply, where our state has come; see into what kinds and how many evils it has brought us: justifying ourselves, holding to our own will, following ourselves. These are the children of pride, God's enemy; just as the children of humility are blaming oneself, not trusting one's own understanding, hating one's own will. For by these one is counted worthy to recover oneself and to return to what is according to nature, through the cleansing of the holy commandments of Christ. For without humility one cannot submit to the commandments, nor come to any good at all, as abba Mark said: "Without contrition of heart it is impossible to be rid of wickedness and to acquire virtue." So [?] through contrition of heart a man accepts the commandments, is rid of wickedness, acquires the virtues, and so returns to his own rest. All the saints knew this, and hastened by every lowly way of life to unite themselves to God. For there were some lovers of God who after holy baptism not only cut off the acting-out of the passions, but wished to conquer the passions themselves and to become free of passion: such were holy Antony, and Pachomius, and the other God-bearing Fathers.

10. Since, then, they had the aim of cleansing themselves, as the Apostle says, "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," they knew that it is through keeping the commandments, as we have already said, that the soul is cleansed, and, so to speak, the mind is cleansed too, and recovers its sight, and comes to what is according to nature ("for the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, enlightening the eyes" Psal. xviii, 9.).

They perceived that, being in the world, they could not easily achieve virtue, and they devised for themselves a strange life, a strange way of living, I mean the solitary 1629life; and they began to flee the world and to dwell in the deserts, in fasts and sleeping on the ground and vigils and the rest of hardship, and in renunciation of all homeland and kin, money and possessions; and, simply, they crucified themselves to the world. And not only did they keep the commandments; they also offered gifts to God. And I will tell you how. The commandments were given to all Christians, and every Christian is bound to keep them: they are, as one might say, the dues owed to the emperor. Who says, "I am not paying the emperor his dues," and escapes punishment? But there are great and illustrious men in the world who not only pay their dues to the emperor but also offer him gifts; and these are counted worthy of great honour, of great rewards and dignities. So too the Fathers not only kept the commandments but also offered gifts to God. And the gifts are virginity and poverty. These are not commandments; they are gifts. For nowhere is it written, "Do not take a wife, do not beget children." Nor again did Christ give a commandment, saying, "Sell what thou hast." Indeed, when the lawyer came to him saying, "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?", he answered, "Thou knowest the commandments: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour," Matth. xix, 16-21. and so on. And when the man said, "All these have I kept from my youth," he adds, "If thou wilt be perfect, sell what thou hast and give to the poor," and so on. See, he did not say "Sell what thou hast" as one commanding, but as one counselling. For to say, "If thou wilt," is not the word of one commanding, but of one counselling.

11. As we said, then, the Fathers offered to God, besides the other virtues, the gifts of virginity and poverty; and, as we said before, they crucified the world to themselves, and then strove that they might also crucify themselves to the world, as the Apostle says, "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galat. vi, 14. What then is the difference? The world is crucified to a man when the man renounces the world and becomes a monk, and leaves parents, money, possessions, business, buying and selling: then the world is crucified to him, for he has left it. And this is what the Apostle says: "The world is crucified unto me." Then he adds, "and I unto the world." How then is a man crucified to the world?

When, after being rid of outward things, he struggles against the pleasures themselves, against the very desires for things, and against his own wills, and puts his passions to death; then he too is crucified to the world, and is counted worthy to say with the Apostle, "The 1632world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Our Fathers, as we said, having crucified the world to themselves, strove through struggles and crucified themselves to the world as well. We, for our part, think we have crucified the world to ourselves, because we left it and came to the monastery; but we will not crucify ourselves to the world. For we still have its pleasures, we still have its attachments; we are attached to its glory, we are attached to food, to clothes. If there is a good tool, we are attached to it, and we let that little tool do in us [?], as abba Zosimas said. We think we have gone out of the world and left its things, and we come to the monastery, and through paltry things we satisfy our attachment to it. And this befalls us from great folly: that having left great and precious things, we satisfy our passions over the merest trifles. For each of us left what he had: the one who had great things left the great things, and the one who had whatever it might be, he too left what he had, each according to his means; and we come to the monastery and, as I said, through paltry and worthless things we satisfy our attachment. We ought not to do so. But as we renounced the world and its things, so we ought also to renounce the very attachment to material things, and to know what this renunciation is, and why we came to the monastery, and what the habit is that we receive, and to fit ourselves to it, and to struggle after the manner of our fathers.

12. The habit we wear is a colobion, which has no sleeves, a leather belt, an analavos, and a cowl. These are symbols, and we ought to learn what the symbols of our habit signify to us. Why do we wear a colobion that has no sleeves? All the others have sleeves; why do we not? The sleeves are symbols of the hands, and the hands are taken to mean the practical life. So when a thought comes to do something through the hands of the old man, say, to steal or to strike, or simply to commit any sin whatever through the hands, we ought to attend to our habit and learn that we have no sleeves; that is, we have no hands to do anything of the old man. And our colobion also has a purple mark of some kind. What does the purple mark mean? Every man who serves as a soldier of the emperor has purple on his cloak. For since the emperor wears purple, all who serve him as soldiers put purple on their cloaks, that is, the imperial garment, so as to show by this that they are the emperor's and serve under him. So we too take the purple mark on our colobion, showing that we have enlisted under Christ and are bound to endure all his sufferings, all that he endured for us.

For when our Master suffered, he wore the 1633purple: first, as King, for he is the King of those who reign and Lord of those who rule; Apoc. xix, 16. and then, as one mocked by those impious men. So we too, having the purple mark, profess, as I said, to bear all his sufferings. And as the soldier does not leave his service and go off to become a farmer or a merchant, since he then falls from his rank, as the Apostle says, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him"; II Tim. ii, 4. so we too ought to contend and to be free of care for all the things of this world, and to give ourselves to God alone, as it says, "that there may be a virgin waiting well, and undistracted." I. Cor. vii, 34.

13. We also have a belt. Why do we wear it? The belt we wear is a symbol, first, that we are ready for work. For everyone who wants to work first girds himself, and so begins the work, as it says, "Let your loins be girded about." And again, that just as the belt is made from a dead body, so we too may put our desire to death. For the belt is about our loins, and there are the kidneys, in which the desiring part of the soul is said to be. And this is what the Apostle says: "Mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness," Coloss. iii, 5. and so on. We also have an analavos. The analavos is laid crosswise over our shoulders; that is, we carry the symbol of the cross on our shoulders, as it says, "Take up thy cross and follow me." Matth. xvi, 24, Marc. viii, 34, Luc. ix, 23. And what is the cross but perfect mortification, which is accomplished in us through faith in Christ? For faith, as it says again in the Gerontikon, always holds in check what hinders, and makes unhindered for us the work that brings us to such perfect mortification: that is, that a man should put himself to death to all the things of this world; and if he has left parents, that he should struggle against his attachment to them as well; likewise with money or possessions; and every thing that one renounces, that he should want to renounce his very attachment to it too, as we have already said. And this is perfect renunciation. And we receive a cowl, and this is a symbol of humility. For little innocent children wear cowls, but a grown man does not wear a cowl. So we wear it for this reason, that we may be children in malice, as the Apostle says, "Be not children in understanding, but in malice be ye children." I Cor. xiv, 20. And what is it to be a child in malice? The child that has no malice, if it is dishonoured, is not angry; and if it is honoured, it is not vainglorious; if someone takes its things, it is not grieved. For it is a child in malice: it does not avenge an injury, it does not lay claim to glory. Again, the cowl is a symbol of the grace of God.

For as the cowl covers and warms the child's head, so the 1636grace of God covers our mind, as it says in the Gerontikon: that the cowl is a symbol of the grace of our Saviour God, covering our ruling faculty and sheltering our infancy in Christ, because of the demons who are always trying to strike and wound us. See, we have the belt on our loins, which is the mortification of irrational desire; and the analavos over our shoulders, which is the cross. See also the cowl, which is a sign of guilelessness and of infancy in Christ.

14. So let us live in keeping with the habit, as the Fathers said, so as not to wear a habit that is not our own. But as we have left the great things, so let us leave the small ones too: we have left the world; let us leave its attachments too. For attachments, as I said, even through small things, not worth a word, bind us again to the world, and we do not notice. If then we want to be perfectly rid of them and set free, let us learn to cut off our wills, and so, little by little, with God, we make progress and come to freedom from attachment. For nothing so profits men as cutting off one's own will; truly, by this practice a man advances almost beyond every virtue. And just as a man walking along a road, finding a short cut on it and taking it, by that short cut gains a long stretch of that road, so it is with one who walks this road of cutting off the will. For by cutting off his own will a man acquires freedom from attachment, and from freedom from attachment he comes, with God, to perfect dispassion. And one can cut off ten wills in a short space. And how? A man walks a short way and sees something, and his thought says to him, "Look over there," and he says to his thought, "Indeed I will not look," and he cuts off his will and does not look. Again he finds some people speaking ill of others, and his thought says to him, "Thou too say this word," and he cuts off his will and does not say it. Again his thought says to him, "Go and ask the cook what he is cooking," and he does not go, and cuts off his will. He sees something, and his thought says to him, "Ask who brought it," and he cuts off his will and does not ask. And so, by cutting off, he comes into the habit of cutting off, and from the little things he begins to cut off the great ones too with ease; and so at last he begins to have no will at all, but whatever happens contents him, as though it were his own. And though he does not wish to do his own will, he is found always doing it. For one who has nothing of his own, everything that happens is his own. And so he is found, as we said, without attachment, and from freedom from attachment, as I said, he comes to dispassion.

15. See, little by little, to what progress cutting off one's own will brings a man. Such was that blessed Dositheus.

From what a life, from what luxury, from what softness: a man who had never even heard a word of God; and yet you heard to what measures holding to obedience and cutting off his own will brought him in a short time; and how God glorified him, and did not let 1637such virtue of his pass into forgetfulness, but revealed it to the holy elder, and he saw him among all those saints, enjoying their blessedness. I will tell you another thing likewise, which happened in my own time, that you may learn that obedience, and not having one's own will, rescue a man even from death. Once when I was at abba Seridos', a disciple of a great elder came there from the parts of Ascalon on some errand from his abba. He had an order from the elder to return to his own cell by evening. Meanwhile a very violent storm came on, and rains, and the nearby torrent was in full flood. Then he wanted to go away, because of the elder's word. We begged him to stay, saying that it was impossible for him to come out of the river alive. But he would not be persuaded by us to stay. At last we say, "Let us go with him as far as the river; for when he sees it, he will turn back of his own accord." So we went with him, and when we reached the river, he takes off his clothes and binds them on his head, girds on his maphorion, and throws himself into the river, into all that fearful current. We stood there amazed and trembling lest he die; but he kept on swimming, and in a moment is found on the other side, and puts on his clothes, and makes us a prostration from there, and takes his leave, and goes off running. We stayed marvelling and astonished at the power of the virtue: that we could scarcely look on, and that with fear, while he crossed without danger because of his obedience. And that brother whom his abba sent on their business to their agent in the village: how, when he saw himself being dragged by the man's daughter into a shameful union, he had only to say, "O God of my father, deliver me," and at once he was found on the road to Scetis, going to his father.

16. See the power of the virtue! See the efficacy of a word, how great a help there is even in calling on the prayers of one's father: so that he said, "O God, through the prayers of my father, deliver me," and at once was found on the road. And consider the humility and reverence of both. They were in straits, and the elder wanted to send the brother to the man who acted as their agent, and he did not say to him, "Go," but said to him, "Wilt thou go?" Likewise the brother did not say, "I am going," but said to him, "As thou wilt, I do." For he was afraid both of the occasions of sin and of disobeying his father. Then, as they were in still greater straits, the elder says to him, "Get up, go." And he did not say to him, "I hope in my God that he will protect thee," but he says, "I hope in the prayers of my father that they will protect thee με."

Likewise the brother, when he was tempted, did not say, "O my God, deliver me," 1640but, "O God, through the prayers of my father, deliver me." And each of them hoped in the prayers of his father. See how they yoked obedience to humility. For as a chariot is yoked, and one horse cannot get ahead of the other, it is held back; so obedience needs to have humility yoked together with it. And how can anyone be counted worthy of this grace unless, as I said, he forces himself to cut off his own wills, and gives himself up, after God, to his own father, hesitating in nothing, but doing all things, as unto him, with full assurance, as one who is obeying God? [?] Such a one is worthy to find mercy; such a one is worthy to be saved.

17. A story is told that once holy Basil, passing through his coenobia, says to one of the superiors, "Hast thou anyone among those who are being saved?" The abba says to him, "Through thy prayers, master, we all wish to be saved." Holy Basil says to him again, "Hast thou anyone among those who are being saved?" He understood that saying (for he too was a spiritual man) and says, "Yes." When the brother had come, the saint says to him, "Give me water, that I may wash." He goes and brings him water to wash. And after holy Basil had washed, the saint himself takes the water too and says to the brother, "Take it, and wash thyself too." So he takes the water from the saint without questioning. Then, having tested him in this, he says to him again, "When I go into the sanctuary, come and remind me, so that I may ordain thee." Again he obeys without questioning. And when he saw holy Basil inside the sanctuary, he goes and reminds him, and he ordains him and takes him away with him. For with whom did it befit such a blessed brother to be, if not with that holy and God-bearing man? You have no experience of unquestioning obedience, nor do you know its rest. I once asked an elder, abba John, the disciple of abba Barsanuphius, and said, "Master, since the Scripture says that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven, and I see that I have not a single tribulation, what ought I to do, lest I lose my soul?", for I had not a single tribulation or care. For if it happened that I had a thought, I would take my tablet and write to the elder (for I used to ask him too by letter, before I served him), and before I had finished writing I felt the benefit and the relief: so great was the freedom from care and the rest. And I, not knowing the power of the virtue, and hearing that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven, was afraid because I had no tribulation. So when I made it known to the elder, he makes this known to me: "Do not be troubled; this is no concern of thine. For everyone who gives himself over to the obedience of the Fathers has this freedom from care and this rest."

Instruction II. On humility.

1. One of the elders said: Before everything we need humility, being ready at every word we hear to say, "Forgive." For through humility all the works of the enemy and adversary are destroyed.

Let us inquire what the force of the 1641elder's saying is. Why does he say, Before everything we need humility, and not rather, Before everything we need self-control? For the Apostle says: Everyone who strives is self-controlled in all things. Or why does he not say, Before everything we need the fear of God? For Scripture says: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; Psal. cx, 9. and again: By the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil. Prov. xvi, 6. Why does he not say, Before everything we need almsgiving, or faith? For it says: By alms and faiths sins are purged away; and the Apostle says: Without faith it is impossible to please God. Hebr. xi, 6. If then it is impossible to please God without faith, and by alms and faiths sins are purged away, and by the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil, and the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and he who strives is self-controlled in all things, how then does he say, Before everything we need humility, and leave aside all these things that are so necessary? The elder wants to show us that neither the fear of God itself, nor almsgiving, nor faith, nor self-control, nor any other one of the virtues can be accomplished without humility. That is why he says, Before everything we need humility, being ready at every word we hear to say, "Forgive"; for through humility all the works of the enemy and adversary are destroyed.

2. See, brethren, how great is the power of humility. See what force there is in saying, "Forgive." And why is the devil called not only enemy but also adversary? He is called enemy because he is a hater of men, a hater of good, a plotter; and he is called adversary because he sets himself to hinder ἐμποδίσας every good deed. Does someone want to pray? He stands against him, hindering him through evil imaginings, through captivity of mind, through acedia. Does someone want to give alms? He hinders him through love of money, through sloth. Does someone want to keep vigil? He hinders him through sloth, through slackness; and so he sets himself against us in every good thing we undertake. That is why he is called not only enemy but also adversary. So through humility all the works of the enemy and adversary are destroyed.

For humility is truly great, and each of the saints travelled by way of humility itself, and through toil cut the journey short; as it says: Look upon my lowliness and my toil, and forgive all my sins; Psal. xxiv, 18. and, I was brought low, and the Lord saved me. Psal. cxiv, 6. Humility alone can indeed bring us in, as the elder abba John used to say, but more slowly. So let us too humble ourselves a little, and we are saved; even if we cannot toil, being weak, let us be eager to humble ourselves. And I trust in the mercy of God that, if this very little is done with lowliness, we too shall find ourselves in the place of the saints, there with those who toiled much and served God.

Yes, we are weak and cannot 1644toil; can we not humble ourselves?

Blessed, brethren, is he who has humility. Great is humility. That saint marked out well the man who has true humility; that is why he said: Humility is not angry, and angers no one. And the thing seems strange; for humility is opposed to vainglory alone, and guards a man, as it seems, from that. Yet a man grows angry over money and over food; how then does he say that humility is not angry and angers no one? Humility is great, as we said, and is able to draw the grace of God into the soul. And then that grace of God, when it comes, shelters the soul from these two other heavy passions; for what is heavier than to be angry and to provoke one's neighbour to anger, as someone said? Anger is utterly foreign to monks; truly, if such a man is not quickly sheltered by humility, little by little he comes into the state of a demon, troubling and troubled.

3. That is why he says that humility is not angry, and angers no one. But why do I say that it shelters from the two passions? It shelters the soul from every passion; from every temptation humility shelters the soul. When saint Antony saw all the snares of the devil spread out, and groaning asked God who could pass through them, what did God answer him? "Humility passes through them." And what other marvel did he add? "And they do not even touch it." Dost thou see the power, sir? Dost thou see the grace of the virtue? Truly, nothing is stronger than humility. If anything grievous befalls the humble man, at once he turns upon himself, at once he condemns himself as deserving it; he will not bear to blame anyone, he will not bear to lay the blame on others; and so he passes through untroubled, unafflicted, in all rest. That is why he is neither angry nor angers anyone. That is why the saint said well, Before all things we need humility.

4. There are two humilities, as there are also two prides. The first pride is when someone despises his brother, when he belittles him as being nothing, and himself as above him. Such a man, if he does not quickly come to his senses and take pains, little by little comes into the second pride as well, so as to be proud even against God; and he ascribes his good deeds to himself and not to God. Truly, my brethren, I once saw someone come into this pitiable state. At first, if one of the brethren said anything to him, he despised every one of them, and said, "Who is that? There is no one but Zosimas and those with him."

Then he began to belittle these too, and to say, "There is no one but Macarius"; and after a little he began to say, "Who 1645is Macarius? No one but Basil and Gregory." Then after a little he began to belittle these too, saying, "Who is Basil, and who is Gregory? No one but Paul and Peter." I say to him, "Truly, brother, thou art going to despise these too." ἔχει Believe me, after a short time he began to say, "Who is Peter, and who is Paul? No one but the Holy Trinity." So in the end he grew proud against God himself, and so he lost his mind. That is why we ought to struggle, my brethren, against the first pride, so that we do not little by little fall into complete pride as well.

5. There is also a worldly pride, and a monastic. Worldly pride is when someone is proud against his brother as being richer, or handsomer than he, or as dressing better than he, or as nobler than he. So when we see ourselves vainglorious over these things, or that our monastery is bigger or better off, or that we have many brethren, we ought to know that we are still in worldly pride. Sometimes too a man is vainglorious over natural gifts. I mean something like this: a man is vainglorious that he has a fine voice and chants well, or that he is capable and serves neatly. These are more respectable than the first; yet they too belong to worldly pride. Monastic pride is when a man is vainglorious as keeping vigil, as fasting, as devout, as a man of good conduct, πολιτείας as zealous. And sometimes one humbles himself for the sake of glory. These belong to monastic pride. It is possible for us not to be proud at all; but if we are, let it at least be in monastic things and not in worldly ones. See, we have said what the first pride is and what the second; likewise we have said εἴπωμεν what the worldly is and what the monastic pride is. Let us learn then what the two humilities are as well.

6. The first humility is to hold one's brother more understanding than oneself, and above oneself in everything; and simply, as that saint said, to put oneself beneath all. The second humility is to ascribe one's good deeds to God. This is the perfect humility, the humility of the saints. It comes about naturally φυσικῶν in the soul from the working of the commandments. For as with trees: when they bear much fruit, the fruit itself bends the branches down and draws them down, while the branch that bears no fruit rises upward and grows straight; and there are some trees that, as long as their branch goes upward, bear no fruit; but if someone takes a stone and hangs it on the branch and draws it down, then it makes fruit: so it is also with the soul. When it is humbled, then it bears fruit, and the more fruit it makes, the more it is humbled. For the nearer the saints draw to God, the more they see themselves sinners.

I remember that we were once speaking about humility, and one of the notables of Gaza, hearing us say this, that the nearer a man draws to God, the more he sees himself 1648a sinner, was astonished, and said, "How can this be?" He did not understand, and wanted to learn the meaning. I say to him, "Sir, first man of the city, tell me, what dost thou hold thyself to be in thy city?" He says, "I hold myself great, and first in the city." I say to him, "And if thou goest to Caesarea, what dost thou hold thyself there?" He says, "I hold myself lower than the great men there." I say to him, "And if thou goest to Antioch, what dost thou hold thyself?" He says to me, "I hold myself as one of the common folk." I say to him, "And if thou goest to Constantinople, near the emperor, what dost thou hold thyself there?" He says to me, "I hold myself a pauper." Then I say to him, "See, so are the saints: the nearer they draw to God, the more they see themselves sinners. For Abraham, when he saw the Lord, called himself earth and ashes; and Isaiah said, O wretched and unclean am I. Isa. vi, 5. Likewise Daniel too: when he was in the pit with the lions, and Habakkuk came with the bread, saying to him, Take the dinner which God has sent thee, he answered, saying, Has God then remembered me? Dan. xiv, 36. What lowliness his heart had! He was in the pit with the lions, and they did not harm him, and not once only but a second time; and after all this he marvelled, saying, Has God then remembered me?"

7. You see the lowliness of the saints, how their hearts are disposed? Nay, even when they were sent by God for the help of men, they would not accept, out of lowliness, fleeing from being glorified. For as a man clothed in pure silk, if a filthy rag is thrown on him, flees, so that his precious garment may not be soiled, so too the saints, clothed with the virtues, flee human glory, so that they may not be soiled by it. But those who want glory are like a naked man, who is always wanting to find a little rag or anything at all to cover his shame. So too the man naked of virtues seeks the glory of men. So the saints, when they were sent by God for the help of men, would not accept, out of lowliness. Moses said: I pray thee, appoint another who is able; for I am thin of voice and slow of tongue. And Jeremiah said: I am too young. Jerem. i, 6. And simply, each of the saints acquired this lowliness from working the commandments, as we said. This humility no one can tell in words, what it is or how it comes to be in the soul, unless a man learns it from experience; by word no one can learn it. Once abba Zosimas was speaking about humility, and a certain sophist who happened to be there, hearing what he said and wanting to learn it exactly, said to him, "Tell me, how dost thou hold thyself a sinner? Dost thou not know that thou art holy, dost thou not know that thou hast virtues? Look, thou seest how thou workest the commandments; how, doing such things, dost thou hold that thou art a sinner?" And the elder could not find how to put the answer to him, but said to him, "I do not know how to tell thee, but so I hold." So the sophist pressed against him, wanting to learn how it is.

But the 1649elder, not finding how to present the matter to him, began to say with his holy simplicity, "Do not twist me; I for my part hold so." So when I saw the elder at a loss how to answer, I say to him, "Is it not like sophistry and medicine? When a man learns it well and practises it, little by little, from practising it, a kind of habit forms in the physician or the sophist; and he cannot say, nor does he know how to tell, how he came into the habit of the thing; little by little, as I said, imperceptibly, the soul took it on, from practising the art. So it is to be found also with humility: from the working of the commandments a kind of humble habit comes about, and it cannot be told in words." So when abba Zosimas heard this, he rejoiced, and at once embraced me, and says to me, "Thou hast found the matter; it is as thou saidst." And the sophist too was satisfied on hearing it, and he too accepted the word.

8. For the elders too have said things that make us understand humility; but the disposition itself, as it comes to be in us, what it is, no one has found how to tell. So, when abba Agathon was about to die, the brethren said to him, "Art thou too afraid, Father?" He said, "I have done what I could to keep the commandments; but I am a man. How do I know whether my work has pleased God? For the judgment of God is one thing, and that of men another." See, he opened our eyes to understand it, and showed us a road to grasp it. But how it comes into the soul, as I have often said, no one has found how to tell, nor been able to grasp it in words, unless μήτε it be the soul that has been deemed worthy to learn it from works. But what it is that brings it, the Fathers have said. For it says in the Gerontikon that a brother asked an elder, saying: What is humility? And the elder said: Humility is a great and divine work; and the road of humility is bodily toils done with knowledge, and thy putting thyself beneath all: this is the road of humility. But humility itself is divine and incomprehensible. And why does he say that bodily toils bring the soul to humility? In what sense are bodily toils virtues of the soul? Putting oneself beneath all, as we said above, is opposed to the first pride. For how can a man hold himself greater than his brother, or be exalted in anything, or blame or despise anyone, if he holds himself beneath all? Likewise praying continually is plainly there because it is opposed to the second pride. For it is evident that the humble man, the devout man, knowing that no good can be accomplished in the soul without the help and shelter of God, does not cease entreating God unceasingly to show mercy to him.

And indeed the man who entreats God in everything, if ever he is deemed worthy to accomplish anything, ἔτι δ᾿ ἂν knows from where he accomplished it, and cannot be exalted, nor ascribe it to his own power, but ascribes all his good deeds to God, and 1652always thanks him, and always beseeches him, trembling lest he fall away from such help and his weakness and powerlessness be laid bare. And so through humility he prays, and through prayer he is humbled; and the more οἷον he does well, the more he is humbled; and the more he is humbled, the more he is helped, and makes progress προκόπτοι through humility.

9. Why then does he say that bodily toils bring humility? What has bodily toil to do with the disposition of the soul? I tell you. When the soul fell away from the commandment into transgression, it was handed over, as saint Gregory says, to love of pleasure and to the self-rule of error; and it loved bodily things, and in a manner was found to be one thing with the body, and became wholly flesh, as it says: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh. Gen. vi, 3. And the wretched soul suffers with, and is disposed with, what happens to the body. That is why the elder said that bodily toil too leads to humility. For the soul of a man in health is disposed one way, and of a sick man another, and of a hungry man another, and of a full man another; likewise again, the soul of a man sitting on a horse is disposed one way, and of one sitting on a throne another, and of one sitting on the ground another; of one wearing fine clothes one way, and of one wearing rotten clothes another. Toil then humbles the body; and when the body is humbled, the soul is humbled with it. So he said well that bodily toil too leads to humility. Therefore, when Evagrius was warred upon by blasphemy, being a man who had knowledge, and knowing that blasphemy comes from pride, and that when the body is humbled the soul is humbled with it, he spent forty days without going under a roof, so that his body, as the writer says, put out ticks, κρότον like the wild beasts. So the toil was undertaken not for the blasphemy but for humility. The elder said well, then, that bodily toils lead to humility. May the good God grant us humility, for it rescues a man from many evils, and shelters him from great temptations.

Instruction III. On conscience.

1. When God made man, he sowed in him something divine, like a thought, warmer and bright, with the nature of a spark, enlightening the mind and showing it the good from the evil. This is called conscience, which is the natural law. This is the wells which Jacob dug, as the Fathers have said, and which the Philistines filled up. Gen. xxvi, 14, 13.

That is, it was by attending to this conscience 1653that εἴαντες the patriarchs and all the saints before the written law pleased God. When it was buried and trampled by men through the advance of sin, we needed the written law, we needed the holy prophets, we needed the very coming of our Master Jesus Christ, to uncover it and raise it up, to rekindle that buried spark through the keeping of his holy commandments. It is in our hands now, then, either to bury it again, or to let it shine out and enlighten us, if we obey it. For when conscience tells us to do this thing, τόδε ἔτι and we despise it, and it speaks again, and we do not do it, but go on trampling it, then we bury it, and it can no longer speak to us clearly for the weight lying on it. But like a lamp behind window-panes, so it begins to show us things more dimly, as it were more darkly; and so, little by little, as in water muddied by much earth no one can make out his own face, so we find ourselves not perceiving what our conscience tells us, so that we think we almost do not have it. But there is no one who does not have it; for it is something divine, as we said already, and it never perishes, but always reminds us of what we owe; but we do not perceive it, because, as I said, we despise and trample it. That is why the prophet mourns Ephraim, and says: Ephraim overpowered his adversary, and trampled judgment. He calls conscience the adversary. Hence in the Gospel too it says: Be well-disposed to thine adversary while thou art in the way with him; lest he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge to the officers, and they cast thee into prison. Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not come out thence until thou hast paid the last farthing. Matth. v, 25, 26. And why does he call conscience adversary? It is called adversary because it always opposes our evil will, and tells us of what we ought to do and do not do; and again, of what we ought not to do and do; and it accuses us. That is why he calls it adversary, and commands, saying, Be well-disposed to thine adversary while thou art in the way with him. The way, as saint Basil says, is this world.

2. So let us be eager, brethren, to keep our conscience while we are in this world, not letting it convict us in any matter, not trampling on it in anything at all, even if it be the least thing. For know that from these small things, cheap by nature, we come to despising the great. For when someone begins to say, "What does it matter if I speak this word? What does it matter if I eat this little thing?

What does it matter if I look into this matter?", from this "What is this?" and "What is that?" one contracts an evil and bitter canker, and begins to despise the great and weightier things too, and

1656to trample on his own conscience; and so then, advancing by degrees, he is in danger of falling into complete insensibility. Therefore see, brethren, that we do not neglect small things; see that we do not despise them as of no account. They are not small: it is a canker, it is a bad habit. Let us be watchful, let us take care of the light things while they are light, so that they do not become heavy. Both doing right and sinning begin from small things and lead to great ones, either good or evil. Therefore the Lord charges us to keep our conscience, as though bearing solemn witness to each one in particular and saying to him, "See what thou art doing, wretch; be watchful: Be well disposed to thine adversary while thou art in the way with him." And he adds the fear and the danger of the matter, saying, "Lest at any time he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge to the officers, and they cast thee into prison." And what then? "Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not come out thence until thou hast paid the last farthing." For conscience convicts us, as I said, as to the good and the evil, and shows us what to do and what not to do. And it accuses us again in the age to come as well; therefore he says, "Lest at any time he deliver thee to the judge," and the rest.

3. Keeping conscience has many distinctions. For one must keep conscience toward God, toward the neighbour, and toward things. Toward God: that one not despise his commandments, but that even in what no man sees him do, and in what no one requires of him, he keep conscience to God in secret. I mean, for example: he neglected prayer; an impassioned thought rose into his heart, and he was not watchful and did not hold himself tight, but assented. He saw Οἶδεν his neighbour saying or doing something, and, as may happen, suspected and condemned him. In short, all that happens in secret, which no one knows but God and our conscience, we need to keep watch over. And this is conscience toward God. Conscience toward the neighbour is that one do nothing whatever in which he sees that it afflicts or wounds the neighbour, whether by deed, or by word, or by gesture, or by look. For there is a gesture too, as I always say, that wounds the neighbour; there is a look that can wound; and in short, whatever a man knows he does on purpose to give his neighbour a thought, his conscience itself is defiled, knowing that he contrives it in order to harm or afflict; and this is keeping conscience toward the neighbour. Keeping it toward things is that one not misuse a thing; that he not let a thing be spoiled or thrown away; but if he sees ἤδη something lying thrown down, he should not overlook it, even if it is cheap, but pick it up and put it in its proper place. That he not misuse his own clothes. For it happens, suppose, that one could wear his garment another week or two, and he goes and straightaway washes it before its time and beats it, and instead of its serving him another five months or more, he wears it out with washing and makes it useless; and this is against conscience.

Likewise with bedding: often one could meet his need with one pillow, and he looks for

1657a big mattress; at times he has a hair one, and wants to change it and get another, new or handsome, out of vanity or out of acedia. One could be content with one patchwork blanket, and he looks for a rug, and perhaps even quarrels if he does not get it. And if he begins also to look at his brother and say, "Why does this one have that, and I do not?", such a one is not making progress. Again, he spreads his garment or his covering in the sun, and neglects to take it in, and lets it spoil; and this too is against conscience. Likewise with food: one could meet his need with a little vegetable or pulse, or a few olives, and he will not bear to do so, but looks for other food, sweeter or more costly; all these are against conscience. The Fathers say that a monk ought never to let his conscience weigh him down in any matter whatever. So we need, brethren, to be watchful always and to guard ourselves from all these things, that we may not fall into the danger. For the Lord himself forewarned us, as we said above. God grant us to hear and keep these things, that the words of our Fathers may not become a judgment to us.

Instruction IV. On the fear of God.

1. Saint John says in the Catholic Epistles, "Perfect love casts out fear." What then does the saint wish to signify to us by this? What love does he speak of to us, and what fear? For the Prophet says in the psalm, "Fear the Lord, all ye his saints"; Psal. xxxiii, 10. and we find countless other such things in the holy Scriptures. If then the saints too, loving the Lord as they do, fear him, how does he say, "Love casts out fear"? The saint wishes to show us that there are two fears, one introductory and one perfect; and that the one belongs to beginners, to the devout, as one might say, and the other to the saints who have been perfected, who have reached the measure of love. I mean, for example: someone does the will of God through fear of punishments; this one, as we said, is still a beginner; he does not yet do the good for its own sake, but for fear of the strokes. Another does the will of God loving God himself, loving him in particular so as to be well-pleasing to God. This one knows what the good itself is; this one has come to know what it is to be with God. See, this is the one who has the true love, which the saint calls perfect; and this love brings him to the perfect fear. For such a one fears and keeps the will of God no longer because of the strokes, no longer so as not to be punished, but, as we said, because he has tasted the very sweetness of being with God; he fears lest he fall from it, he fears lest he be deprived of it.

So this

1660perfect fear, which comes from this love, casts out the introductory fear. And that is why he says that perfect love casts out fear. But it is impossible to come to the perfect fear except through the introductory.

2. For there are three dispositions, as Saint Gregory says, through which we can please God. Either we please him fearing punishment, and we are in the state of the slave; or, pursuing the gains of the wage, we fulfil what is commanded for the sake of our own benefit, and in this we are like hirelings; or we do it for the good itself, and we are in the state of the son. For the son, when he comes to understanding, does his father's will, not fearing to be beaten, nor in order to get a wage from him, but loving him, keeping toward him in particular the very love and honour due a father; and he is persuaded that all that his father has is his. Such a one is counted worthy to hear, "Thou art no longer a slave but a son, and an heir of God through Christ." Such a one no longer fears God, as we said, plainly with that introductory fear, but loves him, as Saint Antony says: "I no longer fear God." And when the Lord says to Abraham, after he had offered his son, "Now I know that thou fearest God," Gen. xxii, 12. he signifies the perfect fear which comes from love. For how could he say, "Now I know"? Abraham had shown mercy, he had done so much, he had obeyed God and left all his own, and sojourned in a strange land and among an idolatrous nation, where there was not even a trace of godliness; and on top of these he bore that terrible trial of the sacrifice of his son; and after these things he said to him, "Now I know that thou fearest God." Plainly he meant the perfect fear, that of the saints. For they no longer do the will of God for fear of punishment or to receive a wage, but because they love, as we have often said, fearing to do anything against the will of the beloved. And that is why he says, "Love casts out fear." For they no longer act from fear, but fear because they love.

3. This is the perfect fear; but it is not possible to come to the perfect, as we said before, unless one first has the introductory fear. For it says, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord"; Prov. i, 7; ix, 10; xxii, 4. and again it says, "Beginning and end is the fear of God." By beginning he means the introductory fear, after which comes the perfect, that of the saints.

So the introductory fear belongs to our state;

1661it guards the soul from all evil, as tinning guards a vessel. For it says, "By the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil." Prov. xv, 27. If then one turns aside from evil through fear of punishment, like the slave who fears his master, he comes by degrees to doing the good as well, and little by little he begins to hope for some reward for working the good, like the hireling. When then he persists in fleeing evil through fear, as we said, like a slave, and again in doing the good through hope, like the hireling, abiding χερονίζων with God in the good, and joined to God in proportion, he tastes then and comes to some perception of the truly good itself, and no longer wants to be parted from it. For who can any longer part him, as the Apostle said, from the love of Christ? Rom. viii, 35. Then he reaches the measure of the son, and loves the good for its own sake, and fears because he loves. And this is the great and perfect fear. Therefore the Prophet too, teaching us the difference, said of this fear: "Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Psal. xxxiii, 13. Set your mind on each phrase of the Prophet, how each word of his has force. First he says, "Come to me," calling us to virtue. He adds also "children": the saints call children those who are transformed through their word from evil to virtue, as the Apostle says, "My little children, of whom I travail again until Christ be formed in you." Galat. iv, 19. Then, after calling us and urging us to such a transformation, he says, "I will teach you the fear of the Lord." See the boldness of the saint. We, when we want to say something good, always say, "Do you want us to talk a little and exercise ourselves about the fear of God, or about some other virtue?" But not so the saint; with boldness he said, "Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there that desires life, that loves to see good days?" Then, as though someone answered, "I do; teach me how to live and to see good days," he teaches him and says, "Stop thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." See, he first cuts off the working of evil through the fear of God. "Stop thy tongue from evil" is not to wound the neighbour's conscience by anything, not to speak ill of him, not to provoke him; and "Thy lips from speaking guile" is not to deceive the neighbour. Then he goes on, "Turn aside from evil." He first named certain particular sins, speaking ill and deceit, and so he went on to speak comprehensively of all evil: "Turn aside from evil," that is, flee simply every evil, turn aside from everything that brings sin.

Nor again did he say only this

1664and fall silent, but added, "And do good." For sometimes one does no evil, yet does no good either; again sometimes one does no wrong, yet shows no mercy; sometimes one does not hate, yet does not love. Well then did the Prophet say, "Turn aside from evil, and do good." See, he shows us that sequence of the three states which we spoke of before: how through the fear of God he has led us by the hand to turning aside from evil, and so urges us on to set foot on the good as well. For if one is counted worthy to be idle from evil and to flee from it, then naturally he works the good, guided by the saints. Having said this, he very finely and fittingly adds, "Seek peace and pursue it." And he did not say "seek" only, but pursue it at a run, that thou mayest overtake it.

4. Set your mind well on this saying, and see the precision of the saint. When one is counted worthy to turn aside from evil, and is eager then, with God, to work the good as well, at once the wars of the enemy come upon him. Then he struggles, labours, is crushed, not only fearing to turn back again to evil, as we said of the slave, but also hoping, as we said before, for the wage of the good, like a hireling. So while he is warred upon, and wars and boxes with the enemy, he does the good, but with much affliction, with much crushing. But when help comes to him from God, and he begins then to be in a certain habit regarding the good, then he sees rest, then he comes within reach of peace, then he perceives what the affliction of war is, and what the joy and gladness of peace. Then he seeks it; then he is eager and runs in pursuit, that he may overtake it, that he may possess it perfectly, that he may make it dwell in himself. And what then is more blessed than the soul counted worthy of this measure? Such a one, as we have often said, is in the measure of the son. For truly "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Who makes that soul do the good any longer for anything else but the enjoyment of the good itself? Who knows that joy, but the one who has experience of it? Then such a one comes to know the perfect fear as well, as we have often said. See, we have heard what the perfect fear of the saints is, and what the introductory fear is, the fear of our state, and from what one flees and where one comes through the fear of God. Now we want to learn also how the fear of God comes; we want to say what the things are that separate us from the fear of God.

5. The Fathers said that a man acquires the fear of God from keeping the remembrance of death and the remembrance of punishments, and from examining himself each evening how he passed the day, and again each morning how he passed the night, and from not being bold, and from cleaving to a man who fears God. For it is said that a brother asked one of the elders, "What shall I do, Father, to fear God?" And the elder says to him, "Go, cleave to a man who fears God, and from his fearing God he will teach thee too to fear God."

And we drive the fear

1665of God away from us by doing the opposite of these: by having no remembrance of death or of punishments, by not attending to ourselves, by not examining how we have passed our time, but living indifferently and keeping company with the indifferent; by being bold. This is worse than all; this is utter destruction. For what drives the fear of God from the soul so much as boldness? So when abba Agathon was asked about boldness, he said that it is like a great burning wind: when it comes, everyone flees before its face, and it ruins the fruit of the trees. Seest thou, sir, the power of the passion? Seest thou its onrush? ὀργήν And being asked again, "Yes, is boldness so grievous?", he says, "There is no passion more grievous than boldness; for it is the mother of all the passions," since it drives the fear of God from the soul. For if "by the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil," surely where there is no fear of God, there is every passion. God deliver our souls from the deadly passion of boldness.

6. Boldness takes many forms. One is bold by word, by touch, and by look. From boldness one comes to idle talk, to talking of worldly things, to making jokes and stirring up unseemly laughter. It is boldness too to touch someone without need; to stretch out a hand at someone who is laughing, to push someone, or snatch something from him, to stare at someone shamelessly. All these come from there being no fear of God in the soul; and from these one comes little by little to complete contempt. That is why, when God was giving the commandments of the law, he said, "Make the sons of Israel reverent." For without reverence one does not honour even God himself, nor attend even once to any commandment whatever. That is why nothing is more terrible than boldness; that is why it is the mother of all the passions: since it casts out reverence, since it drives away the fear of God, since it begets contempt. From our having boldness with one another and being shameless toward one another, you also speak evil to one another and wound one another. And if one of you sees something unprofitable, he goes off and babbles about it, and puts it into the heart of another brother of his; and not only is he himself harmed, but he harms his brother as well, putting evil poison into his heart. And often the brother had his mind on prayer or on some other good thing, and that one comes and gives him something to chatter about, and not only hinders his profit but brings temptation upon him. And nothing is heavier than this, nor more ruinous, than for someone to harm not only himself but his neighbour too.

7.

That is why it is good that we have reverence, brethren; that we fear harming ourselves and one another, that we honour one another, and that we are eager

1668not to toss our heads, nor ⟨to stare⟩ into one another's faces. For this too, as one of the elders said, is a form of boldness. And if it happens that someone sees his brother sinning, let him neither despise him, keeping silent and letting him perish, nor again revile him, nor speak ill of him, but with compassion and the fear of God let him tell someone who is able to correct him; or let him speak to him himself with love and lowliness, saying, "Forgive. My brother, as a heedless man I see that perhaps we are not doing this thing well." And if he does not listen, tell another in whom thou seest he has confidence, or tell his superior or the abba, according to the weight of the fault, and be free of care. But, as we said, let him speak with the aim that his brother be corrected, and not by way of chatter, not speaking ill of him, not setting him at nought, not wanting, as it says, to make an example of him, not condemning him, not putting on the appearance of correction while inwardly holding any of the things I have named. For truly, even to his own abba, if one speaks, and does not speak for the correction of the neighbour, or because of harm to himself, it is sin; for it is speaking ill. But let him feel out his own heart, whether he has some impassioned motion, and then let him not speak. But if he examines himself with precision and sees that he wants to speak out of compassion and for profit, yet some impassioned thought troubles him within, let him report to the abba with lowliness, telling both his own part and his neighbour's, and saying, "My conscience bears me witness that I want to speak for correction, but I perceive that there is some thought mixed in within. Whether because I once had something against the brother, I do not know; whether it is a false accusation that wants to hinder me from speaking and from correction taking place, I do not know." And then the abba tells him whether he ought to speak or not. But sometimes one speaks neither for his brother's profit nor because of harm to himself, nor out of some rancour, but just recounting it, as in idle talk. And what need is there of this chatter? Often too the brother learns that he spoke about him, and is thrown into turmoil, and affliction comes of it, and another addition of harm comes too. For when one speaks for profit alone, as we said, God does not allow turmoil to arise; he does not let affliction or harm follow.

8. Be eager, as we said, to guard your tongue as well, that no one speak evil to his neighbour, nor wound anyone, either by word or deed or gesture or in any way whatever; and do not be touchy, so that when one of you hears a word from his brother, he is stung at once, or even answers him evilly, or stays aggrieved against him. These are not the ways of those who want to be saved; these are not the ways of those who struggle. Acquire the fear of God, and see that you meet one another with reverence, each bowing his head before his brother, as we said, each humbling himself before God and before his brother, and cutting off his will for him.

Truly it is a good thing if one does something, and

1669gives way to his brother and prefers him; the one who gave way profits more than the other. I do not know that I ever did a good thing. But if I have been sheltered at all, I know that I was sheltered by this: that I never ranked myself above my brother, but always put my brother before me.

9. Once, when I was still in abba Seridos's monastery, the attendant of the elder abba John, the companion of abba Barsanuphius, fell sick, and the abba charged me with attending the elder. And I used to kiss the door of his cell from outside, as one venerates the precious cross; how much more serving him! For who would not have wished to be counted worthy of such a saint? He had a wonderful word besides, and each day, always after I had finished my service to him, I made him a prostration to receive his leave and withdraw, and he would always say something to me. For the elder had four sayings, and, as I said, each evening as I was about to withdraw, he would always say one of the four to me; and he spoke thus: "Says he, once": for it was the elder's habit to say this before every saying. "Says he, once, brother: God preserve love. The Fathers said, Keeping the neighbour's conscience begets humility." Again, the next evening he said to me: "Says he, once, brother: God preserve love. The Fathers said, I never set my will before my brother's." Another time again he said: "Says he, once, brother: God preserve love. The Fathers said, Flee human things and thou art saved." Again he said: "Says he, once, brother: God preserve love. The Fathers said, Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Always the elder had one charge to give me from these four, as I withdrew each evening, like someone handing another provisions for the road. And so I kept them as a safeguard for my whole life. And yet, though I had such confidence in the saint and was so disposed toward his service, I had only to perceive that one of the brethren was grieved, wanting to serve him himself, and I went to the abba and entreated him, saying, "It is more fitting for this brother, if thou thinkest well, sir." And neither the abba nor the elder himself allowed me. Yet for my part I did all in my power to prefer the brother. And in the nine years I spent there, I do not know that I spoke a rotten word to anyone; and yet I had a service, lest anyone say I had none.

10.

And believe me, I know that a brother once walked behind me from the infirmary to the church insulting me, and I went on before him without uttering a single word to him; and moreover, when the abba learned of it, I do not know who told him, and wanted to rebuke him, I stayed holding his feet, saying, "No, for the Lord's sake: it is I who

1672erred; the brother has done nothing." And another again, whether from temptation or from simplicity, God knows from what, spent a year making his water by night at my head, so that my very bedding was soaked. Likewise some others of the brethren came daily and shook out their mats in front of my cell, and I saw such a multitude of bugs coming into my cell that I could not keep up with killing them; for they were countless because of the heat. Then when I went off to sleep, all of them gathered on me; and sleep did come, from my great weariness, but when I woke from sleep, I found my whole body eaten. And I never said to any of them, "Do not do so," or, "Why doest thou so?" Nor do I know myself, as I said, ever to have spoken a word that wounded or grieved anyone. Learn you too to bear one another's burdens; learn to reverence one another. And if one of you hears a word from someone that displeases him, or suffers something against his will, let him not at once lose heart, not at once be stung, not be found, in a time of struggle and profit, with a heart slack, unpractised, without strength, unable to take any assault whatever: as with the melon, if a little splinter touches it, at once it makes a wound and it rots. But rather have a firm heart, have long-suffering, that your love for one another may conquer all that befalls. And if one has a service, or if one of you is found to have any business whatever, whether with the gardener or with the cellarer or with the cook or simply with any one of those who serve with you, let both the one who comes on the business and the server who supplies it be eager before everything to keep his own state, and never let himself, whether through turmoil or antipathy or attachment or any will of his own, turn aside from the commandment of God; but whatever the matter turns out to be, small or great, let him ⟨not⟩ despise it and neglect it; for indifference is a bad thing. Nor again let him rank it above his own state, so as to harm his own soul, if so it falls out, for the sake of getting the matter done. For whatever matter you find yourselves in, even if it is very pressing and important, I do not want you ever to do anything with contentiousness or with turmoil; but be fully assured that every work you do, whether great, as we said, or small, is one eighth of the thing sought; while keeping your own state, even if it happens that you fail in the service because of it, is three and a half eighths. See how great the difference is.

11.

So when you do a thing, if you want to do it perfect and whole, be eager both to do the thing itself, which is as the eighth,

1673and to keep your own state unharmed, which is the three and a half eighths. But if there follows the necessity of being swept along and going out of the commandment, and of being harmed or harming, so that the need of the service may be met, it is not good that one should lose the three and a half eighths to keep the one eighth. Since if you know that someone does this, such a one does not do his service ⟨with⟩ knowledge. For either from vainglory or from man-pleasing he persists in contending, punishing both himself and his neighbour, so as to hear afterwards that no one could beat him. Bravo! a great feat of valour! This is not victory, brethren; this is loss, this is ruin. See, I tell you: if I send one of you on any errand whatever, and he sees turmoil rising up, or any other harm whatever, let him cut it off; and never harm yourselves or one another; but let the errand go and not be done, only do not trouble one another. Since, as I said, you lose the three and a half eighths; and this is plain folly. I say these things to you, not so that you at once lose heart and cut tasks off, or that you be indifferent and throw things away straightaway, ἀφρῇ and trample your conscience, wanting to be free of care; nor again that you disobey, and each of you say, "I cannot do this; I am harmed; it does not suit me." For on that reckoning you will never do any service whatever, nor can you ever fulfil a commandment of God. But give all your strength to doing each service of yours with love, submitting to one another with humility, honouring, entreating. Nothing is stronger than humility. But if one sees ἤδη his neighbour afflicted at the moment, or himself, cut it off, give way to one another, do not persist until harm follows as well. For it is better, see, I have said it ten thousand times, that the need not be done as you wish, but as it meets the necessity, and not out of obstinacy or out of self-justification, however plausible it looks, ⟨than⟩ to trouble yourselves or afflict one another and lose the three and a half eighths. For great is the difference in the loss. And it often happens that one loses even the eighth itself and does nothing at all. For such are the ways of contentiousness. At the very outset, all the works we do, we do in order to profit from them; [and what profit is there, if we do not humble ourselves to one another?] but on the contrary we trouble and afflict one another. And you know that someone says in the Gerontikon that from the neighbour come life and death. Meditate on these things always by yourselves, brethren; exercise yourselves in the words of the holy elders; be eager with love and the fear of God to seek your own profit and one another's. So you can profit from all that happens, and make progress by the help of God.

May God himself, as the lover of mankind, grant us

1676his fear. For it says, "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is required of every man." Eccle. xii, 13.

Instruction V. That one ought not to follow one's own understanding.

1. In the Proverbs it says, "Those who have no guidance fall like leaves; but salvation is in much counsel." Prov. xi, 14. See the force of the word, brethren. See what holy Scripture teaches us: it makes us safe, that we may not follow ourselves, that we may not hold ourselves wise, that we may not believe that we can govern ourselves. We need help; we need those who steer us, after God. Nothing is more wretched, nothing more easily taken, than those who have no one to guide them on the way of God. For what does it say? "Those who have no guidance fall like leaves." The leaf at first is always green, flourishing, pleasant; then little by little it dries and falls; and then it is disregarded and trampled on. So too is the man who is not steered by anyone. At first he always has fervour for fasting, for vigil, for stillness, for obedience, for other good things; then after a little, that fervour being quenched, and he not having anyone to steer him, to feed and kindle his fervour, he dries up so, without perceiving it, and falls, and then becomes subject to the enemies, and they do with him whatever they will. But of those who disclose their affairs and do everything with counsel, it says, "Salvation is in much counsel." It does not say "much counsel" meaning that one should take counsel with everyone; plainly, with the one in whom he ought to have confidence; and not to keep silent on some things and tell others, but to disclose everything and take counsel on everything. For to such a one, exactly, salvation is in much counsel. For if a man does not lay all his affairs before another, and especially if he is found to come from a bad habit or even a bad upbringing, the devil finds in him one will or one self-justification, and through it throws him down. For when the devil sees someone who does not want to sin, he is not so untalented at doing evil as to suggest to him straight off ἀφαιρῇ τις one of the manifest sins; he does not say to him, "Go, fornicate," nor, "Go, steal." For he knows that we do not want these things, and he does not trouble to tell us what we do not want; but he finds us having, as I said, one will or one self-justification, and through that, with a show of reason too, he harms us. Whence again it says, "The wicked one does evil when he mingles self-justification." ibid. 15 sec. LXX. The wicked one is the devil; and he does evil κακοποιῆσαι when he mingles self-justification, that is, with our self-justification. For then he is strongest, then he harms most, then he works most. For when we hold on to what is our own and follow our self-justifications, then, as though doing a good thing, we plot against ourselves, and do not even know how we are being destroyed.

For how can

1677we know the will of God, or seek it at all, trusting ourselves and holding on to our own will?

2. That is why abba Poemen said that the will is a bronze wall between man and God. See the force of the word. And again he added, saying, "It is a rock that strikes back": that is, opposing and striking against the will of God. "If then a man forsakes it, he too says, In my God I shall leap over a wall. My God, his way is blameless." Psal. xvii, 30, 31. Very wonderfully he said it. For then one sees the way of God to be without blemish, when he forsakes his own will; but when he indulges his own will, he does not see the way of God to be blameless. But whatever he hears about safety, at once he finds fault with it, spits on it, turns away, strikes against it. For how can he bear with anyone, or be persuaded by any counsel whatever, who holds on to his own will? Then the elder speaks of self-justification too: "And if self-justification works together with the will, the man is not easily brought round." Bravo! what sequence the words of the Fathers have! It is death in particular for self-justification to be found together with the will: great danger, great fear. Then the wretch falls utterly. For who persuades such a one to believe that another man has seen what is profitable for him better than he? Then he gives himself over utterly to follow his own will and his own thought; and then, as the enemy wishes, he brings him down. That is why it says, "The wicked one does evil when he mingles self-justification." "And he hates the sound εἶχον of safety." It says so because the wicked one not only hates safety, but cannot even hear its voice; he hates the very sound of safety, that is, the very speaking of anything about safety. I mean, for example: before the one who asks about his profit has acted on anything, before the enemy knows whether he keeps what he hears or does not keep what he hears, he hates altogether the very asking of someone and the hearing of something profitable; the voice itself, the very sound of such words, he hates and turns away from. And shall I tell you why? He knows that his villainy is already being found out through the asking διὰ αὐτοῦ and the exercising of a word about profit; and there is nothing he so hates and fears as being known, since he no longer finds a way to plot as he wants. For if the soul makes itself safe by reporting everything and hearing from someone who knows, "Do this; do not do this; this is good; this is not good; this is self-justification; this is will"; and again it hears, "It is not the time for this thing"; and another time it hears, "Now is the time": the devil does not find on what pretext to harm the man, nor how to throw the soul down, since it is always, as I said, steered, and made safe on every side, and in him is fulfilled, "Salvation is Ὑπάρχεται in much counsel." But the wicked one does not want this; he hates it. For he wants to do evil, and rejoices rather in those who have no guidance. Why?

Because they fall like leaves.

16803. See that brother whom the evil one loved, about whom he said to abba Macarius, "I have one brother who, whenever he sees me, spins like a top." Such men he loves, in such men he always rejoices: those without a pilot, who do not refer themselves to one who, after God, is able to help them and give them a hand. For did not that demon go [?] to all the brethren, when the saint saw him carrying all those tastes in the little flasks? Did he not offer them to all? But each of them, perceiving his plot, ran and laid open his own thoughts, and found help in the time of temptation, and so then the evil one had no strength against them. Only that wretched one did he find guided by himself and having help from no one, and he had him for a plaything, and went off thanking him and cursing the others. Indeed, when he told abba Macarius the matter and the brother's name, and the saint ran to him, he found that this was the cause of his ruin: he found him unwilling to confess, he found him without the habit of disclosing; for this is why the enemy turned him about wherever he wished. For when the saint asked him, "How are things with thee, brother?" he said, "Well, by thy prayers." And when he said again, "Do the thoughts not war against thee?" he answered, "So far I am well," and would confess nothing, until the saint, with skill, persuaded him to tell out how it stood with him; and having spoken the word of God to him, he made him safe and went back. So the enemy came again, as was his habit, wanting to throw him down, and was put to shame. For he found him established, he found him no longer made sport of. So then he went off having done nothing; he went off put to shame by him as well. That is why, when the saint asked him again, "How is that brother, thy friend?" ἐκεῖνο; he no longer called him friend but enemy, and cursed him, saying, "He too has been turned aside, and he too will not obey me; he has become wilder than all of them."

4. See why the enemy hates the sound of safety: ἔχοντα because he always wants our ruin. See why he loves those who are guided by themselves: because they work with the devil, plotting against themselves. I know no other fall for a monk than from trusting his own heart. Some say, "A man falls because of this, or because of that." But I, as I said, know no other fall that comes to anyone except from this. Hast thou seen someone fallen? Know that he was guided by himself. Nothing is heavier than to be guided by oneself, nothing more deadly than this. God has sheltered me, and I have always feared this danger.

When I was 1681in the coenobium, I referred everything to the elder, abba John; for, as I said, I never brought myself to do anything without his judgement. And sometimes my thought would say to me, "Will not the one who answers tell thee just this? Why wouldst thou trouble him?" And I would say to the thought, "Anathema to thee, and to thy discernment, and to thy understanding, and to thy prudence, and to thy knowledge; for what thou knowest, thou knowest from the demons." So I would go and ask the elder, and it would happen that sometimes he answered me with the very word I had thought of; and then my thought would say to me, "Well then? See, it is just what I said: didst thou not trouble the elder for nothing?" And I would say to the thought, "But now it is good, now it is from the Holy Spirit. For what is thine is evil, it is from the demons, it is from a passionate state." And so I never let myself be persuaded by the thought on my own without asking; and believe me, brethren, I was in great rest, in great freedom from care, so that I was even uneasy about it, as I know I have told you at another time. For I used to hear that Through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of God, Act. xiv, 21. and I saw myself without any affliction at all, and I was afraid and at a loss, not knowing the cause of such rest, until the elder made it plain to me: "Be not grieved. For everyone who puts himself under the obedience of the Fathers has this rest and freedom from care."

5. You too, brethren, be eager to ask, and not to be guided by yourselves; learn what freedom from care the thing holds, what joy, what rest. But since I said that I was never afflicted, hear also what happened to me then in this regard. While I was still there in the coenobium, there came on me once a great and unspeakable grief, and I was in such toil and straitness that I was nearly ready to give up my very soul. That affliction came from a plot of the demons; and such a temptation, brought on by the envy of the demons, is very heavy but short: heavy, dark, comfortless, having no rest at all, but straitness on every side, choking on every side. But the grace of God comes quickly to the soul, since no one could bear it. I was, as I said, in such a temptation and such distress. So one day, as I stand in the court of the monastery, disheartened and calling on God about this, suddenly I look inside into the church and see someone in the habit of a bishop, wearing [?], going into the sanctuary.

Now I never went near a stranger without need or leave; but something seemed to draw me then, and I go in after him, and he stays standing a good while, with 1684his hands stretched out to heaven, and I stood behind him, praying with much fear; for great dread came on me at the sight of him. When he had finished his prayer, he turns and comes toward me, and the nearer he came to me, the more I felt the grief and the dread withdrawing. Then, when he stood before me, he stretches out his hand and touches my breast and strikes my breast with his fingers, saying: Waiting I waited for the Lord, and he heeded me, and heard me, my prayer, and brought me up out of the pit of misery and from the mud of the mire. And he set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps, and put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God. Psal. xxxix, 2-4. And he says all the verses three times, striking my breast, as I said, and so he goes out. And at once there came into my heart light, joy, comfort, sweetness, and I found myself another man. So I went out running after him, wanting to find him, and I did not find him; he had vanished. From that hour, through the mercies of God, I have not known myself troubled again, either by grief or by dread; but the Lord has sheltered me until now, through the prayers of those holy elders.

6. I have told you these things so that you may know how much rest and freedom from care, with all safety besides, there is in a man's not being guided by himself, but casting his affairs on God and on those who are able, after God, to guide him. So you too, brethren, learn to ask; learn not to be guided by yourselves; it is a good thing. It is lowliness, it is rest, it is joy. What need is there for anyone to wear himself out in vain? It is not possible for anyone to be saved otherwise than so. But perhaps someone thinks, "If a man has no one to ask, what is he to do?" Truly, if anyone in truth wants the will of God with all his heart, God never leaves him, but surely guides him according to his will. Truly, if anyone directs his heart toward the will of God, God enlightens a little child to tell him his will. But if anyone does not truly want the will of God, even if he goes to a prophet, God, according to his crooked heart, gives it to the prophet's heart to answer him, as Scripture says: If the prophet is deceived and speaks, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. Therefore we ought with all our strength to direct ourselves toward the will of God, and not trust our own heart. Even if a thing is good, and we hear from some saint that it is good, we ought to hold that it is good, but not trust ourselves that we are already doing it well, and as it rightly ought to be done.

We ought to do what is in our power, but then again to refer even how we are doing it, and learn whether we did it well; and after that not even so be free from care, but wait as well for the judgement of God, as 1685that holy Agathon said when he was asked, "Art thou too afraid, Father?" He answered, "So far I have done what was in my power; but I do not know whether my work has pleased God. For the judgement of God is one thing, and that of men another." May God shelter us from the danger of those who are guided by themselves, and count us worthy to hold to the way of our fathers who were well pleasing to his name.

Instruction VI. On not judging one's neighbour.

1. If we remembered, brethren, the words of the holy elders, if we meditated on them always, we would hardly neglect ourselves. For if, as they said, we did not despise the small things, the things that seem to us of no account, we would not fall into the great and heavy ones. I am always telling you that from these trifles, from saying, "What does this matter? What does that matter?" a bad habit forms in the soul, and it begins to despise great things too. Dost thou know what a heavy sin it is to judge one's neighbour? For what is heavier than this? What does God so hate and turn from, as the Fathers too said, that nothing is worse than judging? And yet from these things, he says, that seem trivial, a man comes to so great an evil. For from admitting a small suspicion against one's neighbour, from saying, "What does it matter if I too say this one word? What does it matter if I see what this brother is saying, or what that stranger is doing?" the mind begins to let go of its own sins and to chatter about its neighbour's. And then from this comes condemning, speaking ill, despising; and from this a man falls into the very things he condemns. For from not caring about his own evils, nor weeping, as the Fathers said, over his own dead, he cannot set himself right in anything, but is always busy with his neighbour. And nothing so provokes God, and nothing so strips a man bare and brings him to lose all understanding, as speaking ill of, or condemning, or despising one's neighbour.

2. For it is one thing to speak ill, and another to condemn, and another to despise. To speak ill is to say against someone, "So-and-so lied," or "He got angry," or "He committed fornication," or something of the kind. For he has already spoken ill of him, that is, he has spoken against him, with passion, of his sin. But to condemn is to say, "So-and-so is a liar, he is irascible, he is a fornicator." For see, he has condemned the very disposition of his soul, and pronounced against his whole life, saying that he is such a man, and has condemned him as such. And this is a heavy thing. For it is one thing to say, "He got angry," and another to say that he is irascible and to pronounce, as I said, against his whole life.

And condemning is so much heavier than every sin that Christ himself says: Hypocrite, first cast out 1688the beam that is in thine eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote from thy brother's eye. And he likened his neighbour's sin to the mote, and condemning to the beam; so hard a thing is condemning, beyond almost every sin. And that Pharisee too, praying and giving thanks to God for his good deeds, did not lie but spoke the truth; and it was not for this that he was condemned. For we are bound to give thanks to God whenever we are counted worthy to do some good, since he has worked with us and helped us. So, as I said, he was not condemned for saying, I am not like the rest of men; but when he turned to the publican and said, Nor even like this publican, Luc. xviii, 11. then he was condemned; for he condemned the man's very person, the very disposition of his soul, and, in a word, his whole life. That is why the publican went down justified rather than he.

3. For nothing, as I often say, is heavier, nothing harder, than to condemn or despise one's neighbour. Why do we not rather condemn ourselves, and our own evils, which we know exactly, and about which we are to give account to God? Why do we snatch at the judgement of God? What do we want with his creature? Ought we not to tremble when we hear what happened to that great elder, who heard of a brother who had fallen into fornication and said, "Oh, he did wrong"? Do you not know what a dreadful thing the Gerontikon tells about him? That the holy angel brought the soul of the one who had sinned to him, and says to him, "See, the one thou didst judge has fallen asleep. Where then dost thou order me to put him, into the kingdom or into punishment?" Is there anything more fearful than this weight? What else is the angel's word to the elder but this: "Since thou art the judge of the righteous and of sinners, say what thou orderest concerning this poor soul. Dost thou have mercy on it? Dost thou punish it?" So that the holy elder, utterly stricken, remained the whole rest of his time with groans, with tears, with countless labours, begging God to forgive him that sin; and this after he had fallen on his face at the angel's feet and received forgiveness. For the angel's saying, "See, God has shown thee what a weight judging is; do it no more," was the act of one who had forgiven; and yet the elder's soul would not at all be comforted from that mourning until he died.

4. So what do we want, we too, with our neighbour? What do we want with another's burden? We have something to care about, brethren: let each look to himself and to his own evils.

It belongs to God alone to justify and to condemn, who knows the state of each, and his strength, and his upbringing, and his gifts, and his temperament, and his aptitude, judging each one of these as he 1689alone knows. For God judges the affairs of a bishop one way, and those of a ruler another; he judges the affairs of a superior one way, and those of a disciple another; those of an elder one way, and those of a younger man another; those of the sick one way, and those of the healthy another. And who can know these judgements, except he alone who made all things, who also formed all things and knows all things? I remember hearing that once such a thing as this happened. A ship of slaves put in at a certain city. Now there was in that city a holy virgin who took great heed to herself. When she learned that that ship had put in, she was glad; for she wanted to buy herself one very little girl. For she reckoned, "I will take her and bring her up as I wish, so that she may know nothing of the wickedness of this world." And she sends and summons the captain of that ship, and finds that he has two very little girls, just such as the virgin wanted; and at once, with joy, she pays the price and takes one girl to herself. So when the captain had gone down from that holy woman's place, he had only walked a little way when an actress, utterly depraved, meets him, and sees the other girl with him, and wanted to take her, and takes her: she strikes the bargain, pays the price, and goes off. See the mystery of God! See the judgement! What, can anyone give an account of this? So the holy virgin takes that little one and brings her up in the fear of God, shaping her in every good work, teaching her the whole monastic way of life and, in a word, all the fragrance of God's holy commandments. And the actress, taking that wretched girl, made her an instrument of the devil. For what else had that fury to teach her but the ruin of her soul? What then can we say about this fearful judgement? The two were little, the two were sold, neither knowing where she was going; and the one was found in the hands of God, and the other fell into the hands of the devil. Can it then be said that God requires of the one what he requires also of the other? How could that be? If the two fall into fornication or some other transgression, can it be said that both have the same judgement, even if the same fault befalls both? How is that possible? The one learned about the judgement, learned about the kingdom of God, day and night in the words of God; that wretched girl never knew or heard anything good, but the opposite, all things shameful, all things devilish; and how can the same strictness be required of both?

5. So no man can know anything of the judgements of God; he alone is the one who comprehends all things and is able to judge each case, as he alone understands. Truly it happens that a brother does certain things in simplicity, but has one thing that pleases God more than thy whole life; and thou sittest condemning him and punishing thy own soul?

And even if it happens that he turns away, ἀπυστραφῆναι how dost thou know how much he struggled, and how much of his blood he sweated before he did it, so that his fault is found almost as righteousness 1692before God? For God sees his toil and the affliction he had, as I said, before he did it, and has mercy on him: and dost thou know it? God has mercy on him, but thou condemnest him and destroyest thy own soul? And how dost thou know how many tears he shed before God over it? Thou knowest the sin, but the repentance thou knowest not. Sometimes we not only condemn but also despise. μόνον ὅτι οὐ κατακρίνομεν For it is one thing, as I said, to condemn, and another to despise. Despising is when a man not only condemns but also sets at nought; that is, he loathes his neighbour, sickens at him as at something disgusting; and this is worse than condemning, and far more deadly.

6. But those who want to be saved do not even heed their neighbour's shortcoming, but always their own, and they make progress. προσκόπτουσιν Such was that one who saw his brother sinning, and groaned and said, "Woe is me: as he today, so surely I tomorrow." Seest thou the safety? Seest thou the readiness of soul? How he found the way at once to escape condemning his brother! For by saying, "Surely I too tomorrow," he gave himself fear and anxiety about the sins he was likely to commit, and so he escaped condemning his neighbour. And he was not content with that, but also put himself beneath him, saying, "And he repents of his sin like this, but I surely do not repent, I surely do not get there in time, I surely have not the strength to repent." Seest thou the illumination of a godly soul, that he was not only able to escape condemning his neighbour, but also put himself beneath him? And we wretches condemn without distinction, sicken, despise, whatever we may see or hear or suspect; and what is worse, we do not stop at our own harm, but we meet another brother and at once say to him, "This and that happened," and we harm him too, casting sin into his heart. And we do not fear him who said, Woe to him who gives his neighbour a muddied overthrow to drink; Habac. ii, 15. but we do the demons' work, and do not care. For what else has a demon to do but trouble and harm? And we are found working with the demons for our own ruin and our neighbour's. For he who harms a soul works with the demons and helps them, just as he who benefits one works with the holy angels.

7. And where do we suffer this from, if not from our not having love? For if we had love, with compassion and toil, we would not trouble to look at our neighbour's shortcomings, as it says: Love covers a multitude of sins; Jac. v, 10; I Petr. iv, 8. and again: Love thinks no evil, bears all things, and so on. I Cor. xiii, 5.

So we too, as I said, if we had love, that very love would have covered every thing, just as the saints do, seeing the faults of men. 1693For are the saints blind, that they do not see sins? And who hates sin as the saints do? And yet they do not hate the sinner, nor condemn him, nor turn away from him, but suffer with him, admonish, comfort, tend him as a sick member; they do everything to save him. Just as fishermen, when they cast a hook into the sea and catch a great fish and feel it struggling and thrashing, do not pull it at once and roughly, or the line breaks and it is lost altogether; but they let out the line skilfully and let it, as the saying is, go where it wants; and when they learn that it has tired and calmed from its rush, then they begin again to draw it in little by little: so the saints too, by long-suffering and love, draw the brother, and do not kick away from him, nor sicken at him; but as a mother, if she has a misshapen son, does not sicken at him nor turn from him, but even gladly adorns him and does whatever she can to make him pleasing, so they always cover him, adorn him, take his part, so that they may both set right the one who stumbles in due time, and let no one else be harmed by him, and that they themselves may advance the more in the love of Christ. What did holy Ammonas do, when those brethren came to him in agitation and said to him, "Come and see, abba: there is a woman in this brother's cell"? What tender mercy he showed! What love that holy soul had! Knowing that the brother had hidden the woman under the jar, he went and sat on it, and told them to search the whole cell. And when they did not find her, he says to them, "God forgive you." And, it says, he shamed them, and cried out to them too, that they should not readily believe things against their neighbour. And he brought that one to his senses as well, not only by covering him, under God, but also by correcting him when he found the fitting time. For when, after he had put them all out, he took hold of his hand alone and said to him, "Look to thyself, brother," at once the brother was abashed and pierced to the heart; at once the kindness and compassion of the elder worked in his soul.

8. So we too, let us acquire love, let us acquire tender mercy toward our neighbour, so that we may be kept from the terrible evil of speaking ill, and from condemning or despising anyone. Let us help one another as our own members. Who, having a wound on his hand or on his foot or on any one of his other members, sickens at himself, or cuts off his own member, even if it festers, and does not rather cleanse it, wash it, put plasters on it, seal it with the cross, apply holy water, pray, and ask the saints to pray for it, as abba Zosimas used to say? In a word, he does not give it up, does not turn away from his own member or from its stench, but does everything that it may be healed. So we too ought to suffer with one another, to give help, by ourselves, by others more able, and to devise and do everything to help both ourselves and others.

For we are members of one another, as 1696the Apostle says: For if we are all one body, and each one members of one another, and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Rom. xii, 5. What do the coenobia seem to us to be? Do they not seem to us to be one body and members of one another? Those who govern διηκονιῶντες are the head; those who watch over and correct are the eyes; those who help by word are the mouth; the ears are those who obey; the hands are those who work; the feet are the agents and those who hold the services. Art thou the head? Govern. Art thou an eye? Watch, consider. Art thou a mouth? Speak, help. Art thou an ear? Obey. Art thou a hand? Work. Art thou a foot? Serve. Let each one serve the body according to his strength; and be eager always to help one another, whether by teaching and putting the word of God into a brother's heart, or by comforting him in a time of affliction, or by giving him a hand in his work and helping. In a word, each according to his strength, as I said, be eager to be united with one another; for the more one is united to his neighbour, the more he is united to God.

9. And I tell you an example from the Fathers, so that you may understand the force of what is said. Suppose there is a circle on the ground, that is, a round line drawn with a compass from a centre. The very middle of the circle, as far as the centre, is what is properly called its centre. Set your mind on what is said. Think of this circle as the world, the very middle of the circle as God, and the straight lines from the circle to the middle as the ways, that is, the ways of life, of men. So, in so far as the saints go inward, longing to draw near to God, in proportion to their going in they come near to God and to one another; and the more they draw near to God, the more they draw near to one another; and the more they draw near to one another, the more they draw near to God. Understand separation in the same way. For when they stand away from God and turn outward, it is plain that the more they go out and withdraw from God, the more they withdraw from one another; and the more they withdraw from one another, the more they withdraw from God. See, such is the nature of love. In so far as we are outside and do not love God, so far each of us stands apart from his neighbour; but if we love God, the nearer we come to God through our love for him, the more we are united in love to our neighbour; and the more we are united to our neighbour, the more we are united to God. May God count us worthy to hear what is profitable to us, and to do it. For the more we take thought and are eager to put into practice what we hear, the more God always enlightens us and teaches us his will.

Instruction VII. On accusing oneself.

1. Let us seek, brethren, why it is that sometimes a man hears a grievous word and lets it pass untroubled, as if he had hardly heard it, and sometimes he hears it and is troubled at once. What is the cause of such a difference?

And has the matter a single difference 1697of cause of this kind, or several? I see that it has many causes, but there is one that begets, so to say, all the many causes; and I tell you how. First, it happens that a man comes from prayer, or from a good sitting in his cell, and finds himself, so to say, in a good state, and he bears with his brother and lets it pass untroubled. Again, it happens that a man finds himself with an attachment to someone, and so bears without affliction what that person brings upon him. Again, there are times when a man despises the one who wants to harm him, as though making light of what comes from him, and not even heeding him as a man, nor taking any account of him over what he says. And I tell you something of this sort, so that you may marvel. There was a brother in the coenobium before I left there, and I saw that he was never troubled or afflicted with anyone, though I saw many of the brethren insulting and vexing him in various ways; yet that young man bore what came from each of them as if no one at all were troubling him. So I always marvelled at the excess of his forbearance, and wanted to learn where he had acquired this virtue. And once I take him aside privately and make a prostration to him, begging him to tell me what thought he always has in his heart, when he is insulted or suffers any harshness from someone, that he shows such long-suffering. And he answers quite naturally, with disdain, and says to me: "But am I to heed these good-for-nothings, or take what comes from them, as fine dogs take what comes from men?" Hearing this, I lowered my ears and said in myself, "This brother has found the way." And signing myself, I went away praying that God would shelter both me and him.

2. So it happens, as I said, that a man is also not troubled out of contempt; and this is manifest perdition. But for a man to be troubled with a brother who afflicts him comes either from his not being found in a good state at that hour, or from his having some dislike for him. There are many other causes of this too, which have been spoken of variously. But the cause of all trouble, if we seek it with exactness, is not accusing ourselves. From this comes all this crushing of ours; from this we never find rest. And it is no wonder, for we hear from all the saints that there is no other way but this; and we see that no one ever travelled another way and found rest; and we expect to have rest, or to keep a straight road at all, never bearing to accuse ourselves! Truly: if a man practises ten thousand ways of life but does ⟨not⟩ keep this way, he will never cease afflicting and being afflicted, and losing all his labours.

But what 1700joy, what rest has he not, wherever he goes, he who accuses himself, as abba Poemen also said? For if anything befalls him, whether loss, or dishonour, or any affliction whatever, he has already reckoned himself deserving of it, and is never troubled. Is there anything freer from care than this?

3. But someone says, "And if my brother afflicts me, and I search myself and find that I gave him no occasion whatever, how can I accuse myself?" Truly, if a man searches himself with the fear of God, he finds that he certainly gave cause, whether by deed, or by word, or by manner. And even if he sees himself, as he says, to have given no cause at all in any of these at present, very likely he afflicted him at another time, either in this same matter or in another; very likely he afflicted another brother and ought to suffer for that, or often for some other sin too. So if, as I said, a man searches himself with the fear of God and probes his own conscience exactly, he finds himself certainly to blame. Again, there are times when a man sees himself as sitting in peace and quiet, and when a brother says a word to him that grieves him, he is troubled, and so thinks he is reasonably afflicted by it, saying against him, "If he had not come and spoken to me and troubled me, I would not have sinned." This too is mockery, and this too is false reasoning. For did the one who said the word to him put the passion into him? He showed him the one that was in him, so that, if he will, he may repent of it. For this man is like a loaf of clean fine wheat, lovely on the outside, but inside something [?]; and when someone breaks it, then its filth appears. So too this man sat in peace, as he thought, but he had the passion within him and did not know it. His brother said one word to him, and it brought out the filth hidden within. So if he wants to obtain mercy, let him repent, and be cleansed, and make progress, and he sees that he ought rather to thank his brother, as having become for him the cause of so great a benefit. For temptations no longer weigh on him as before; but the more he makes progress, the lighter he finds them. For the more the soul makes progress, the stronger it becomes, and able to bear what comes upon it. Just as, if there is a strong animal and someone loads it with a burden, it carries it with ease; and if it does happen to stumble, it gets up at once, and they hardly even notice that it stumbled; but if it is a poor wretched animal, anything at all weighs it down, and if it falls it needs much help to get it up: so it is with the soul too. The more it practises sin, the more wretched it is made by it. For if sin makes a man wretched and rots the one who has it, then whatever happens weighs on him; but if a man makes progress, the things that once weighed on him become lighter to him by degrees.

So it benefits us greatly, and brings us into much rest and progress, to count ourselves, and no one else, in what befalls us 1701to blame, above all since nothing can happen to us without the providence of God.

4. So even if someone says, "How can I not be upset, if I need a thing and do not get it? For look, I need it, and need it of necessity," not even this man has any reason to blame anyone or to be upset with anyone. But if he really needs a thing, as he says, and does not get it, he ought to say, "Christ knows better than I whether I ought to be relieved; and he himself becomes for me instead of this thing, or instead of this food." The sons of Israel ate the manna in the desert forty years. And the manna was of one kind; but to each it became as he needed: for the one who needed something salty it became salty; for the one who needed something sweet it became sweet; and to each, simply, it so became, suited to his constitution. So then, if someone needs an egg and gets nothing but vegetables, let him say to his thought, "If it were good for me, God would surely have sent it to me; besides, he can make these very vegetables like an egg for me"; and let him trust God that it is counted to him as a martyrdom. For if someone is in truth worthy of relief, [?] καρδίᾳ σαρωθῆναι God moves someone to show him mercy according to his need; but if he is not worthy of relief, or it is not good for him, even if he were to make a new heaven and a new earth, he does not find relief. Indeed, sometimes a man finds relief even beyond his need, and sometimes not even his need. And sometimes he provides for someone according to his need καὶ ὑπὲρ τὴν χρείαν, since God, being merciful, supplies each one his need. And sometimes he provides for someone even beyond the need, showing him the abundance of his love for man and teaching him thanksgiving. But when he does not supply him his need, he works by his word the effect of the thing he needs, and teaches him patience. So in everything we ought to look upward: whether we suffer good or ill from anyone, to look upward and give thanks for what befalls us, always carrying the blame ourselves, and saying, as the Fathers said, that if some good thing ever happens, it is God's providence, and if something bad, it is on account of our sins. For in truth, whatever we suffer, we suffer from our sins. For the saints, if they suffer, suffer for the name of God, or so that their virtue may be shown forth for the benefit of many, or so that their reward from God may be multiplied. But we wretches, how can we say this of ourselves? Sinning like this every day and taking the part of our passions, we have left the straight road the Fathers spoke of, to blame oneself, and we walk the crooked road of blaming our neighbour; and each of us is eager in every matter to put the fault on his brother and throw the burden on him.

Each one is careless and keeps nothing, and we demand the commandments from our neighbour.

17045. Two brethren once came to me, upset with each other. The elder said of the younger, "I give him an order, and he is upset, and I am upset too, thinking that if he had faith and love toward me he would accept what I say with full assurance." And the younger said, "Forgive, sir; perhaps ταχέως he does not speak to me with the fear of God, but as one who wants to command me; and I think that is why my heart has no assurance, as the Fathers say." Put your minds to how the two blamed each other, and neither of them blamed himself. Rather, the two, still upset with each other and making prostrations to each other, remained without assurance. The one said, "He did not make prostration to me from the heart, and that is why I had no assurance; for so the Fathers said." And the other said, "Since he was not disposed in love toward me before I made prostration to him, that is why I too had no assurance." Seest thou the mockery, sir? Seest thou the twisting of thought? God knows, I am astonished that we take even the sayings of the Fathers to serve our evil wills and the ruin of our souls. Each of them should have put the blame on himself: the one should have said, "I did not make prostration to my brother from the heart, and that is why God did not give him assurance"; and the other should have said, "I was not disposed in love toward my brother before he made prostration to me, and that is why God did not give him assurance." The others too, the ones before these, should have done likewise: ἤδη the first ought to have said, "I speak with self-will, and that is why God does not give my brother assurance"; and the other ought to have reasoned, "My brother gives me orders with lowliness and love, but I am unsubmissive and have no fear of God." Neither of them found the way and blamed himself; but each laid the weight on his neighbour.

6. Look, this is why we find no progress, this is why we find no benefit in anything, but we spend all our time against one another, wearing ourselves down. Because each one justifies himself; each one lets himself go, as I said before, keeping nothing, and we demand the commandments from our neighbour. That is why we do not grow used even to the good: because if we get a little light, at once we demand it from our neighbour, blaming him and saying, "He ought to have done this," and "Why did he not do it so?" Why do we not rather demand the commandments from ourselves and blame ourselves, as not keeping them? Where is that elder who was asked, "What more hast thou found on this way, Father?" And he answered and said, "To blame oneself in everything." And the one who asked praised it, and says to him, "There is no other way but this."

Likewise abba Poemen said with a groan, 1705"All the virtues have come into this house except one virtue, and without it a man stands only with toil." And they asked him which it was, and he says, "That a man should blame himself." And saint Antony said that this is the great work of a man: to lay his fault upon himself before God, and to expect temptation to his last breath. And everywhere we find that the Fathers, keeping this and referring everything to God, even the smallest things, were at rest. Such was that holy elder: when he was sick, the brother put into his food, instead of honey, the oil pressed from linseed, which is very harmful; and yet the elder said nothing, but ate in silence the first dish, and then the second, taking what he needed, not blaming the brother in his heart by saying that he had slighted him. And not only did he not say this; he did not grieve him by a word either. When the brother learned what he had done and began to be distressed, saying, "I have killed thee, abba, and thou hast laid the sin on me by keeping silent," how gently he answered him, saying, "Do not be distressed, child: had God wanted me to eat honey, thou wouldst have put in honey." And at once he referred the matter to God. What has God to do with it, good elder? The brother made a mistake, and thou sayest, "If God had wanted"? What has that to do with the matter? And he says, "Yes: had God wanted me to eat honey, the brother would have had honey." And this, though the elder was so sick that for so many days he could take no food; and yet he was not upset with the brother, but referred the matter to God. And the elder spoke well: had God wanted him to eat honey, he would have turned even the stinking oil into honey. But we, in every matter, go at our neighbour with accusations, blaming him as one who slights us and acts against his conscience; and if we hear a word, at once we twist it, saying, "If he had not wanted to wound me, he would not have said it." Where is that saint who said of Shimei, "Let him curse, for the Lord told him to curse David"? Did God speak to a murderer, that he should curse the prophet? How then did God tell him? But the prophet, having knowledge, and knowing that nothing brings God's mercy upon the soul so much as temptations, especially those brought on and added in a time of affliction and straits, said, "Let him curse David, for the Lord told him." Why? "So that God may see my lowliness and return good to me instead of his curse." Seest thou how the prophet acted with knowledge? That is why he rounded on those who wanted to avenge themselves on the one who cursed, saying, "What have I to do with you, sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse; the Lord told him."

But we cannot bear to say of our brother, "The Lord told him"; but if we hear a word, 1708at once we do what the dog does. Someone throws a stone at it, and it leaves the one who threw it and goes and bites the stone. So we too do: we leave God, who permits the blows to be brought on us for the cleansing of our sins, and go after our neighbour, saying, "Why did he say this to me? And what has he done to me?" And though we could profit greatly from such things, we plot the opposite against ourselves, not knowing that everything happens by God's providence for the good of each one. May God give us understanding, by the prayers of the saints. Amen.

Instruction VIII. On rancour.

1. The Fathers said that to be angry is foreign to monks, and likewise to grieve anyone. And again: if anyone has mastered anger, he has mastered the demons; but if anyone is overcome by this passion, he is altogether a stranger to the monastic life; and so on. What then ought we to say of ourselves, who do not stop even at anger and wrath, but sometimes drive ourselves on even to rancour? What else but mourn this pitiable and inhuman state of ours? So let us be watchful, brethren, and help ourselves with God, that we may be delivered from the bitterness of this ruinous passion. For sometimes a man makes a prostration to his brother when agitation, as may happen, or affliction has fallen between them, and even after the prostration he remains grieved and has thoughts against him. Such a man ought not to disregard them, but cut them off quickly. For it is rancour, and there is need of much watchfulness, as I said, so that he does not linger in them and come into danger. For when he made the prostration, he made it as for the commandment's sake, and he cured his wrath for the present, but against rancour he did not yet struggle; οὔτω and that is why he remained grieved against his brother. For rancour is one thing, wrath another, anger another, and agitation another.

2. And I tell you an illustration, so that you may understand. A man lighting a fire first has a little ember: that is the word of a brother who has hurt you; see, it is still only a little ember. For what is thy brother's word? If thou bear it, thou hast quenched the ember. But if thou go on thinking, "And why did he say it to me? I too can say something to him. And if he had not wanted to hurt me, he would not have said it; and believe me, I too can hurt him," see, thou hast put on little sticks, or whatever it may be, like the man lighting the fire, and thou hast made smoke, which is agitation. And agitation is this very movement and clash of thoughts, which rouses and emboldens the heart. And insolence is the retaliating uprising against the one who grieved us, which also becomes audacity, as the blessed abba Mark said: "Malice dwelt on in the thoughts emboldens the heart; but destroyed by prayer and hope, it breaks it."

For if thou hadst borne the small word of thy brother, thou couldst have quenched, as I said, even that little ember 1709before the agitation came. Yet even this, if thou wilt, thou canst easily quench while it is fresh, by silence, by prayer, by a single prostration from the heart. But if thou go on smoking, that is, emboldening and rousing thy heart by thinking, "Why did he say it to me? I can say something to him," then out of this very clash, so to speak, and winding together of the thoughts, as the heart is chafed and heated, there comes the kindling of anger. For anger is the boiling of the blood about the heart, as saint Basil says. See, anger has come: this is what they call quick temper. So if thou wilt, thou canst quench even this before it becomes wrath; but if thou go on troubling and being troubled, thou art like the man who puts wood on the hearth and makes the fire burn the more, and so then there come live coals, which is wrath.

3. And this is what abba Zosimas said when he was asked what the saying means, "Where there is no anger, strife is quiet." For if at the beginning of the agitation, when it begins, as we said, to smoke and throw out some sparks, a man forestalls it and blames himself and makes a prostration before it is kindled and becomes anger, he is at peace. Again, after anger has come, if he does not grow quiet but goes on being troubled and emboldened, he is, as we said, like the man feeding wood to the fire, and it goes on burning until it makes great live coals. And just as live coals become charcoal and are put away, and last ever so many years without decaying, and even if someone pours water on them they do not rot, so wrath too, if it lingers, becomes rancour; and then, unless a man sheds his blood, he is not rid of it. See, I have told you the difference; understand it. See, you have heard what the first agitation is, and what anger is, and what wrath is, and what rancour is. Do you see how from one word it came to so great an evil? For if from the beginning he had put the blame on himself and borne his brother's word, and had not wanted to avenge himself and say two words for one, or even five, and return evil for evil, he could have escaped all these evils. That is why I always tell you: while the passions are fresh, cut them out before they harden against you, or you will suffer for it. For it is one thing to pull up a small plant, and another to uproot a great tree. Nothing surprises me more than that we do not even know what we sing. Every day we sing, and curse ourselves, and do not understand. Ought we not to know what we sing? For we are always saying, "If I have repaid those who repay me evil, may I then fall empty before my enemies." ἀποπέσῃ μοι What is "may I fall"? As long as a man stands, he has strength to resist his enemy: he strikes, he is struck, he wins, he loses; for he is still standing. But if he once falls, how can he still wrestle with his enemy while he lies on the ground?

And we pray against ourselves, 1712not only that we may fall before our enemies, but that we may fall empty as well.

4. Let us say what it is for a man to fall empty before his enemies. To fall is to have no more strength to rise, but to lie on the ground. And empty is ⟨to have⟩ no good at all, by which one might at least be able to rise. For the one who rises can take care of himself again, and at some time comes again to the fight. Then we say, "May the enemy then pursue my soul and overtake it": not only pursue but overtake, so that we are in his hands, so that we are beaten in everything, in every matter; and may he throw us down, if we repay those who repay us evil. And not only do we pray this, but also that he trample our life into the earth. What is our life? Our life is the virtues; and we pray that our life be trampled into the earth, so that a man becomes wholly earthly, having all his mind down on the earth. "And may he make my glory dwell in the dust." And what is our glory, but the knowledge that comes into the soul through keeping the holy commandments? So this is what we say: that he may make our glory, as the Apostle says, in our shame, Philipp. iii, 19. that he may lay it in the dust, and make our life and our glory earthly, so that we think nothing according to God, but all things bodily, all things fleshly, like those of whom God said, "My spirit shall not abide in these men, because they are flesh." Gen. vi, 3 See, singing all this, we curse ourselves if we return evil for evil; and how much evil we return for evil, and it does not trouble us, but we are indifferent!

5. Now one may return evil for evil not only in deed but in word and in bearing. And a man may seem not to return evil in deed, yet is found, as I said, returning it in word or in bearing. For sometimes a man makes a gesture, or a movement, or a look, and troubles his brother. For one can wound one's brother even by a look or a movement; and this too is returning evil for evil. Another is careful to return evil for evil neither in deed nor in word nor in bearing or movement; but he has grief in his heart toward his brother, and is upset against him. See how great a difference of state! Another has no grief at all toward his brother; but if he hears that someone has hurt him, or that anyone at all grumbled against him or reviled him, he always enjoys hearing it; and so he too is found returning evil for evil in his heart.

Another neither holds malice nor rejoices to hear reviling against the one who hurt him, but even grieves if he is hurt; yet he is not glad that he should fare well either; but if he sees him honoured or at rest, 1713he is upset; and this too is a kind of rancour, though a lighter one. But a man should rather rejoice in his brother's rest, and do everything for his care, and devise each thing for his care and rest. Now we said at the beginning of the talk that there is someone who makes a prostration and still remains grieved against him; and we say that by making the prostration he cured his wrath, but against rancour he had not yet struggled. And there is another who, if it happens that someone hurts him, and they make prostrations and are reconciled to each other, is at peace with him and keeps no evil memory of him in his heart; but if it happens that after some days the other says something to him that hurts him, he begins to remember the first things too, and to be troubled not only about the second but about the first as well. This man is like someone who has a wound and puts a plaster on it, and for the time, by the plaster, he has healed the wound and it has closed over; but the place is still weaker, and whenever someone throws a stone at him, that place more than the whole body is easily struck, and at once begins to bleed. So it happened to him too: he had a wound and put on a plaster, which is the prostration, and for the time he healed the wound, as the first man did, that is, the wrath; he began to take care of the rancour too, by being careful to keep no evil memory in his heart; for this is the closing over of the wound. But he has not yet wiped it out completely, but still has a remnant of rancour, which is the scar, from which the whole wound τραῦμα σῶμα is easily torn open again when it takes a small blow. So he ought to struggle to wipe out the scar completely as well, so that the hair grows over the place and no disfigurement is left, nor can it be seen at all that there was a wound in that place. How can he achieve this? By praying with his whole heart for the one who grieved him, and saying, "O God, help my brother, and me through his prayers." And so he is found praying for his brother, which is a token of compassion and love, and humbling himself by asking for help through his prayers. And where there is compassion and love and lowliness, what power has anger, or any other passion? As abba Zosimas said, "If the devil sets in motion all the engines of his malice, with all his demons, all his schemes are idle and are crushed by the lowliness of Christ's commandment." And another elder says, "He who prays for his enemies will be free of rancour." Work, and understand well what you hear. For truly, unless you work at these things, ⟨you cannot⟩ take them in by word. What man who wants to learn a craft takes it in by word alone? Surely he first keeps at it, making and spoiling, making and destroying, and so, little by little, toiling and enduring, he learns the craft, God seeing his toil and his purpose and working with him.

But we want to take in the craft of crafts by word, 1716not setting our hand to the work? And how can that be? So let us attend to ourselves, brethren, and work with zeal while we still have time. May God grant us to remember and keep what we hear, so that it may not be to our judgment on the day of judgment.

Instruction IX. On lying.

1. I want to remind you a little, brethren, about lying. For I see that you are not very careful to guard your tongue, and from this we are easily dragged into many things. See, my brethren, that in every matter, as I always tell you, there is habit, both toward the good and toward the bad. So there is need of much watchfulness, so that we are not robbed by lying. For no one who lies is united with God; lying is foreign to God. For it is written that lying is of the evil one; and again, that he is a liar, and the father of it. Joan. viii, 44. See, he calls the devil the father of lying; but God is the truth. For he himself says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." Joan. xiv, 6. See from what we separate ourselves, and to whom τίνι τρόπῳ we cleave through lying: plainly, to the evil one. So if we truly want to be saved, we ought with all zeal to love the truth and to guard ourselves from every lie, so that it does not separate us from the truth and from the life. Now there are three kinds of lying: there is the one who lies in his mind; and there is the one who lies in word; and there is also the one who lies with his very life. The one who lies in his mind is the one who entertains suspicions. If he sees someone talking with his brother, he suspects, and says, "They are talking about me." And if they break off the conversation, again he suspects that they broke it off because of him. If someone says a word, he suspects that he said it to hurt him; and in short, in every matter he speaks so of his neighbour, saying, "He did this because of me, he said this because of me; he did this for that reason." This is the one who lies in his mind. For he says nothing true, but everything is suspicion. From this, then, come meddling, backbiting, eavesdropping, quarrelling, judging. And sometimes he suspects a thing, and from the event it turns out true; and so, he says, wanting to correct himself, he meddles, reasoning, "If someone speaks against me, I see what fault of mine he is accusing me of, and I correct myself." Well, first, this beginning is from the evil one; for he began ἤρξατε through lying: not knowing, he suspected what he did not know. How then can a bad tree bear good fruit? But if he really wants to correct himself, when a brother says to him, "Do not do this," or "Why didst thou do this?" let him not be troubled, but make a prostration and thank him; then he will be corrected. And if God sees that such is his purpose, he will never let him go astray, but will surely send the one who is to correct him.

But to say, "So as to be corrected, I trust my suspicions," 1717and then to eavesdrop and meddle, is the devil's own justification, when he wants to lay snares.

2. Once when I was in the coenobium, I was tempted to grasp a man's state from his movements. And such a thing befell me: once, as I was standing, a woman passed by carrying a jar of water, and I do not know how I was carried away, and I looked at her eyes; and at once my thought suggests to me that she is a harlot. When the thought had suggested this, I was much distressed, and I make it known to the elder, abba John, thus: "Master, if I see someone's movement without wanting to, and my thought suggests to me his state, what ought I to do?" And the elder makes answer to me thus: "What then? Is it not sometimes the case that a man has a natural defect and by struggle sets it right? One cannot learn a man's state κατάττασίν from this. So never believe thy suspicions; for a crooked rule makes even straight things crooked. Suspicions are false, and they do harm." From then on, if my thought told me of the sun that it is the sun, or of darkness that it is darkness, I did not believe it. Nothing is worse than suspicions; they are so harmful that, when they linger in us, they begin to persuade us that we actually see things that neither exist nor are happening. And I tell you a wonderful thing about this, which I witnessed when I was still in the coenobium. We had a brother there much troubled by this passion, and he so believed his own suspicions that he was fully convinced, of each suspicion of his, that it was certainly as his thought drew it for him and could not be otherwise. So, as the evil advanced with time, the demons persuaded him so far into delusion that once he went into the garden spying. For he was keeping watch and eavesdropping; and he thought he saw one of the brethren stealing figs and eating them. It was a Friday, and not yet even the second hour. When then it had persuaded him that he had seen the thing himself, in truth, he hides himself, he says, and goes out in silence, and watches again at the hour of the synaxis, to see what the brother would do at communion, the one who had, so he thought, stolen the figs and eaten them. And when he saw him washing his hands to go in and communicate, he runs and says to the abba, "So-and-so, the brother: see, he is going in to share in holy communion with the brethren; but give orders that it not be given to him. For I know he was stealing figs from the garden this morning and eating them." Meanwhile that brother goes in with much compunction to the holy offering; for he was one of the devout. When the abba saw him, he calls him before he comes near the priest who was giving communion, and takes him aside, and says to him, "Tell me, brother, what is it thou hast done today?" He was taken aback, and says to him, "Where, master?"

The 1720abba says to him, "When thou wentest into the garden this morning, what wast thou doing there?" Again the brother says, as one astonished, "Master, I have not even seen the garden today, nor was I here in the coenobium this morning; see, I have only just come in from the road. For straight after the vigil was dismissed, the steward sent me on such-and-such an errand." Now the errand he spoke of was many miles away, and the brother had arrived just at the hour of the synaxis. The abba sends for the steward and says to him, "Where didst thou send this brother?" The steward answers just as the brother had said, "I sent him to such-and-such a village"; and he makes a prostration, saying, "Forgive, sir: thou wast resting after the vigil, and that is why I did not bring him to receive leave from thee." When the abba was assured, he dismissed them to go and communicate. And he calls the brother who had the suspicions, and rebukes him, and excludes him from holy communion; and not only this, but he called all the monks after the synaxis and told them with tears what had happened, and exposed the brother before them all, aiming at three things by this: that the devil be put to shame and the sower of suspicions be made an example; that the brother's sin be forgiven through that disgrace and he receive help from God for the future; and to make the brethren more careful never to allow ourselves to trust our own suspicions. And having admonished us and the brother much about this, he said that nothing is more harmful than suspicions, and he showed it by the example that had happened.

3. And the Fathers said other such things in various ways, to make us safe against the harm of suspicions. So let us strive with all our strength never to believe our own suspicions. Nothing so draws a man away from God, away from heeding his own sins, and makes him always meddle in what does not concern him; and from this comes nothing good, and from this come countless afflictions, and from this a man never has leisure to acquire the fear of God. And if evil suspicions are sown in us through our malice, let us at once turn them into good thoughts, and they will not harm us. For suspicions are evil, and never let the soul be at peace. See, this is lying in the mind. And the one who lies in word is he who, suppose, is too lazy to rise for the vigil, and does not say, "Forgive me, for I was lazy about rising," but says, "I had a fever, I was dizzy, I could not get up, I had no strength," and says ten false words so as not to make one prostration and be humbled. And if someone blames him in some matter, he keeps changing his words and dressing them up so as not to bear the blame. Likewise, if it happens that he has words with his brother, he does not stop justifying himself and saying, "But thou saidst, but thou didst, but I did not say it, but he said it, but this, but that," just so as not to be humbled.

Again, if he desires something, he cannot bear to say, "I desire this," but keeps twisting his words, saying, "I suffer from this, and I need that," or "I was told to do this," and tells ever so many lies until he 1721satisfies his desire. For every sin comes about either through love of pleasure, or through love of money, or love of glory. Likewise lying too comes about through these three: a man lies either so as not to be blamed and humbled, or to carry out a will, or to gain something; and he does not stop twisting this way, twisting that way, contriving whatever he can say until he accomplishes his aim. Such a man is never believed: even if he says a true word, no one can believe him; even what is true in him is found doubtful. But sometimes a necessity arises in a matter, and unless one conceals a little, πικρὸν the matter comes to greater trouble and affliction. When then such a circumstance arises, and a man sees himself forced on this account to alter a word, so that there may not be, as I said, greater trouble and affliction, or danger: as abba Alonius said to abba Agatho, "Look, two men committed a murder in thy presence, and one of them fled into thy cell; and look, the magistrate seeks him and asks thee, saying, 'Was a murder done in thy presence?' Unless thou use discretion, thou deliverest the man to death." So when some great necessity arises, one should not even so be unconcerned, but repent and weep before God, and hold such a moment as a time of temptation; and not this often, but once in a long while. For just as with theriac and a purgative, taken often they harm, but if one takes λάθῃ them once in a while out of great need they help him, so one ought to treat this matter: that even if out of necessity he wants to alter a word, not often, but perhaps once in a long while, if he sees, as I said, great necessity; and even that once in a while, showing to God with fear and trembling both his purpose and the necessity; and he is sheltered; for otherwise he is harmed even by this.

4. See, we have said who it is that lies in his mind, and who it is that lies in word; now we want to say who it is that lies in his very life. He lies in his life when someone who is dissolute pretends to self-control, or is covetous and talks about almsgiving and praises compassion, or is proud and admires humility; and he does not admire it because he wishes to praise virtue. For if he spoke with this aim, he would first confess his own weakness with lowliness, saying, "Woe is me, wretch that I am, for I have been made void of every good!" And after confessing his own weakness, then he could admire and praise virtue. Nor again does he extol virtue with the aim of not scandalizing anyone. For he ought to reason this way too: "Yes, I am wretched and full of passions; why should I scandalize another as well? why should I harm another soul too, and bring on myself another's burden as well?" And so, even if he was sinning against himself, he would at least have laid hold of the good.

For it belongs to lowliness to call oneself wretched, and to compassion 1724to spare one's neighbour. But such a man does not admire virtue in any of the ways mentioned, as I said; rather, either he takes up the name of virtue to cover his own disgrace, and talks about it as though he too were such a man; or, often, to harm and to entice someone. For no vice, nor any heresy, nor the devil himself can deceive anyone except by putting on the look of virtue, as the Apostle says that the devil himself is transformed into an angel of light: It is no great thing then if his ministers also are transformed as ministers of righteousness. II Cor. xi, 14, 15. So too, then, the liar, whether he fears shame so as not to be humbled, or, as we said, wishes to entice and deceive someone, talks about the virtues and praises and admires them, as if he had made them his own and had experience of them. This is the one who lies in his very life. This man is not a simple man but double: he is one thing inside and another outside; his life is double and wholly a mockery. See, we have spoken about lying, that it is from the evil one; we have spoken also about truth, that the truth is God. Let us flee lying then, brethren, so that we may be delivered from the portion of the enemy, and let us strive to acquire the truth, so that we may be united to him who said, I am the truth. Joan. xiv, 6. May God make us worthy of his truth.

Instruction X. On travelling the way of God with an aim and with watchfulness.

1. Let us take care of ourselves, brethren; let us be watchful. Who will give us this time back if we lose it? Truly we shall seek these days and not find them. Abba Arsenius used always to say to himself, "Arsenius, for what didst thou come out?" διὸ But we are in such perdition and negligence that we do not know why we came out, nor do we know what it is we wanted; and that is why not only do we make no progress, but we are also afflicted always. This happens to us from not keeping attention in our heart. And truly, if we were willing to strive a little, we would not be afflicted for long or toil. For even if at the beginning someone forces himself, yet by striving he makes progress little by little, and then he does it with rest; for God sees that he forces himself, and grants him help. So let us too force ourselves, let us make a good beginning, let us for now at least will the good. For we are not yet in perfection. But the very willing is the beginning of salvation for us: for from willing we come, with God, to striving as well, and from striving one is helped to acquire the virtues.

That is why one of the Fathers says: Give blood and receive spirit; that is, strive, and thou shalt come into the habit of virtue.

17252. When I was reading for secular learning, at the start I toiled very much, and when I came to take up the book I was like someone going to touch a wild beast. So as I kept forcing myself, God helped, and I came into such a habit of the thing that I did not know what I was eating or drinking or how I was sleeping, from the burning ardour of the reading. And I was never drawn away to a meal with any of my friends; I would not even come into conversation with one of them in the time of reading, although I was sociable and loved my companions. So when the sophist dismissed us, I would wash ἐλεώμην (for I needed to be moistened every day, since I was dried out by the excess of reading), and go back to where I was staying, not even knowing whether I had anything to eat; for I could not spare the time even to give orders about my food. But I had someone faithful, and he would prepare me whatever I wanted. So I took whatever I found he had made, keeping my book beside me on the couch too, and little by little I would bend over it; and when I slept, likewise I had it near me on my stool, and as soon as I snatched a little sleep I would at once leap up to the reading. Again in the evening, when I came back after the lamp-lighting office, I would light the lamp and go on reading until midnight; and I was such that I felt no sweetness of any kind except from the reading. So when I came to the monastery, I said to myself, "If in secular study such a passion and such fervour came about, so that from applying oneself to reading one came into the habit of it, how much more in the case of virtue?" And I drew great strength from the thing. So, if someone wishes to acquire virtue, he must not be careless nor distracted. For just as someone who wishes to learn carpentry does not attend to another craft, so it is with those who wish to acquire spiritual work. They must not attend to any other thing, but meditate on it night and day, how they may be able to acquire it. Those who do not come to the thing in this way not only make no progress but are even broken, carried about so aimlessly. For if someone is not watchful and does not strive, he easily falls into the deviations from the virtues.

3. For the virtues are in the middle: that is the royal road, of which that holy elder said, "Travel by the royal road, and count the miles." The virtues then, as I said, are in the middle between excesses and deficiencies. That is why it is written: Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left, but travel by the royal road. And holy Basil says: He is upright in heart whose thought does not lean toward excess or deficiency, but is directed toward the mean of virtue.

For example: evil in itself 1728is nothing. For it is neither some substance, nor does it have any subsistence; God forbid. But the soul, inclining away from virtue, becomes passionate and brings about evil; ἀποτελοῦσι and therefore it is also punished by it, finding no natural rest in it. Take wood, for instance. It does not have a worm inside it; but it makes a little rot, and from that rot the worm comes into being, and so the worm itself eats the wood. Likewise copper itself makes the rust, and is itself in turn consumed by the rust. And garments themselves make the moth, and the moth that comes from them destroys them. So too, then, the soul itself makes evil, which before this was nothing and has, as I said, no subsistence, and the soul itself is punished by the evil. And well did holy Gregory say: "For fire, offspring of matter, also consumes the matter, as evil does the wicked." As one can find in sick bodies too: when someone lives disorderly and does not manage himself in health, there comes either excess or deficiency, and then from this he is out of balance. So that before this there was no sickness anywhere, nor was it anything; and again, once the body is healthy, the sickness is not found at all, nor was it ever anything. Likewise evil too is a sickness of the soul deprived of its own natural health, which is virtue.

4. That is why we said that the virtues are in the middle. For instance, courage is in the middle between cowardice and rashness; humility is in the middle between pride and men-pleasing; likewise reverence is in the middle between bashfulness and shamelessness; and so by analogy the other virtues too. If then a man is found who has been made worthy of these virtues, such a one is found honourable before God; and to be sure he always appears eating and drinking and sleeping like the rest of men, but such a one is honourable for the virtues he has. But if someone is not watchful and does not guard himself, he easily turns aside from the road, either to the right or to the left, that is, into excess or deficiency, and brings about the sickness which is evil. See, this is the royal road on which all the saints have travelled; and the miles are the different states which one must measure always, and see where he is, what mile he has reached, in what state he is. For example: we are all like people who have the aim of travelling to the holy city. Having set out from one city, some travelled five miles and stopped; others travelled ten; others even as far as half the way; others did not travel at all, but went out of the city and stayed outside the gates in its stench; others, though on the road, sometimes travel two miles and go astray and go back over them, or make two and go back five; others travelled as far as the city itself, but stayed outside and did not go into the city. See, so it is with us too. For there are some of us who left the world and came to the monastery with the aim of acquiring the virtues.

And some achieved 1729a little and stopped there; others a little more; others even up to half the matter, and stood still; others achieved nothing at all, but seemed indeed to have come out of the world, yet stayed in the passions of the world and in its stench; others achieve a little good and undo it again. And there are some who undo even more than they achieved. οὐ Others achieved the virtues but had pride and contempt for their neighbours, and stayed outside the city and did not go in; and so these too did not reach their aim; for even though they reached the gate of the city, they stayed outside, so that they too fell from their own aim.

⟨5.⟩ Let each of us then learn where he is: whether he has gone out of his own city but stayed outside the gate in the stench of the city; or advanced a little, or much, or reached the half of the road; whether he makes two miles and undoes the two; whether he makes two and undoes five; whether he travelled as far as the city and entered into Jerusalem; ⟨or⟩ reached the city indeed but could not get inside. Let each learn his own state, where he is. There are three states in a man: there is the one who acts out the passion, and there is the one who checks it, and there is the one who uproots it. The one who acts out the passion is the one who does it, who champions it. The one who checks the passion is the one who neither acts it out nor cuts it off, but reasons wisely about it and passes it by, κατερχόμενος yet has the passion within himself. The one who uproots the passion is the one who strives and does the opposite of the passion. These three states have great breadth. For example, tell me: do you want us to take a passion and lay it bare? Do you want us to speak about pride? do you want us to speak about fornication? or would you rather we speak about vainglory? Someone cannot bear to hear a word from his brother. There is one who at times hears a single word and is troubled, and says five words or even ten for the one word, and fights and is troubled; and after he has stopped fighting he goes on thinking against the one who said that word to him, and bearing him rancour, and grieving that he did not say more than he said; and he prepares for himself still harsher words to say to him, and keeps saying, "Why did I not say this to him? And I have this to say to him!" and he rages continually. See, that is one state: this is the one that has the evil in habit. God deliver us from such a state; for such a state is altogether liable to punishment, since all sin in act is under Hades. And even if such a one should wish to repent, he does not have the strength alone to overcome the passion, unless he also has help from some saints, as the Fathers too have said. That is why I always tell you: be eager to cut off the passions before you come to be in the habit of them. There is another who hears a word and is troubled, and he too says five words, or even ten for one, and is afflicted that he did not say others three times worse; and he grieves and bears rancour.

But he spends 1732a few days at it, and comes round. Another spends a week in these things, and comes round. Another spends one day, and comes round. Another insults, fights, is troubled, troubles others, and at once comes round. See how many differences of states there are; and yet all these are under Hades so long as they act it out.

6. Let us speak also about those who check the passion. There is one who at times hears a word and is afflicted within himself; but he grieves, not because he was insulted, but because he did not bear it. This one belongs to the state of those who strive; he is of those who check the passion. Another strives and toils, but afterwards is defeated, because he is weighed down by the passion. Another does not want to answer badly, but is carried away by custom. Another strives not to say anything bad at all, but grieves that he was insulted; yet he blames himself for grieving, and repents of it. Another does not grieve that he was insulted, but does not rejoice either. See, all these are the ones who check the passion. But among themselves the two differ from the rest: the one who is defeated in striving, and the one who is carried away by custom, and the one who blames himself that he did not bear the insult with thanksgiving. The rest are in fear of the danger of those who act it out. And I have said that they are of those who check the passion, for in their disposition they have checked the passion, and they do not want to act it out, but even grieve as they strive. And the Fathers said that every thing the soul does not want is short-lived. But they ought to probe themselves, lest, even if not the passion itself, they champion one of the causes of the passion, and for that reason are defeated or carried away. And there are some, he says, who strive to check the passion, but by way of a passion. For one keeps silence out of vainglory, another out of men-pleasing, or out of some other passion of whatever kind. These cure evil with evil. And abba Poemen said that wickedness in no way removes wickedness. These are with those who act it out, even if they scoff at it.

7. Now we want to speak also about those who uproot the passion. There is one who rejoices when he is insulted, but because he has a reward. This one is of those who uproot the passion, but not with knowledge. Another rejoices when insulted, and holds that he deserves to be insulted, since he himself gave the cause. This one uproots the passion with knowledge; for when someone is insulted, to bring the cause back upon himself, and to accept what comes upon him as his own, is a matter of knowledge. For everyone who prays to God, "Lord, give me lowliness," ought to know that this is what he is asking: that God send him someone to insult him.

When he is insulted by someone, he ought himself also to insult himself and to despise himself in his own 1733thought, so that the other humbles him from outside, and he himself from inside. There is another who not only rejoices when insulted and blames himself, but also grieves over the trouble of the one who insulted him. God bring us to such a state! See how much breadth there is in the three states. So let each of us, as I said, learn of which state he is: whether he still willingly acts out the passion and champions it; or does not do it willingly, but being defeated, or carried away by custom, acts it out, and after acting it out is afflicted and repents that he acted it out; or strives to check the passion with knowledge; or strives by way of another passion, as we said. There are times when someone keeps silence out of vainglory or out of men-pleasing, or, simply put, out of some human thought; and whether he has begun to uproot the passion, and whether he uproots it with knowledge and does the opposite of the passion. Let each learn where he is, at what mile he is. εἰ᾿ For we ought to search ourselves not only every day, but also every season and every month and every week, and to say, "The first week I was weighed down in such and such a way by this passion; how am I now?" Likewise every season to say, "Last year I was overcome in such and such a way by this passion; how do I stand now?" And so each day to exercise ourselves, whether we have progressed a little, or are in the same place, or have got worse. God will give us strength, so that for now, even if we do not uproot the passion, at least we do not act it out, but check it. For truly it is a heavy thing to act out the passion and not to check it. And I give you an illustration of what the one who acts out the passion and champions it is like. He is like a man shot with arrows by his enemy, who takes the arrows in his hands and drives them into his own heart. The one who checks the passion is like the man shot with arrows by his enemy who has put on a breastplate and does not take the arrow in. The one who uproots the passion is like a man shot with arrows who takes the arrows and breaks them, or turns them back into his enemy's heart, as it says in the psalm: Let their sword enter into their own hearts, and let their bows be broken. Psal. xxxvi, 15. So let us too be eager, brethren: even if we cannot yet turn their sword back into their hearts, at least let us not take the arrows and drive them into our hearts; but let us also put on breastplates, so that we are not wounded by them. May the good God shelter us from them, and give us watchfulness, and guide us into his way.

Instruction XI. On striving to cut off the passions quickly, before the soul comes into an evil habit.

1.

Set your minds to things, brethren, 1736and see that you do not neglect yourselves; for even a little negligence brings us into great dangers. I visited a brother once, and found him in a way recovering from a sickness; and as we talked λαβεῖν I learned that he had had a fever for only seven days, and see, he has had another forty days and still cannot regain his strength. See, brethren, what a misery it is for someone to fall into a disordered condition. One always despises a little disorder, and does not know that if his body comes to be a little ill-treated, and especially if he is rather weak, there is very great need of both toil and time before it is set right. This poor man had a fever for seven days, and see, so many days, and he finds no rest, nor can he regain his strength. So it is with the soul too: someone sins a little, and he spends how long dripping his blood before he sets himself right! And in bodily sickness we find various causes: either the medicines, being old, do not work; or the doctor is inexperienced and gives one medicine instead of another; or the sick man is disorderly and does not keep what is ordered him by the doctor. But with the soul it is not so. For we cannot say that the doctor, being inexperienced, did not give the fitting medicines. For Christ is the doctor of souls, and he knows all things, and has provided for each passion its fitting medicine as well. For example: for vainglory the commandments about humility, for love of pleasure those about self-control, for love of money those about almsgiving; and in a word each passion has as its medicine the commandment fitting to it. So the doctor is not inexperienced. Nor again do the medicines fail to work because they are old. For the commandments of Christ never grow old; but the more they are put into practice, the more they are renewed. So there is nothing hindering the health of the soul except only its own disorder.

2. Let us attend to ourselves then, brethren; let us be watchful ⟨while we have⟩ time. Why do we neglect ourselves? Let us do some good, so that we may find help in the time of temptation. Why are we wasting our life? We hear so much, and we do not care, but despise it. We see our brethren snatched from our midst, and we are not watchful, though we know that little by little we too are drawing near to death. See, from the time we sat down to talk until now, we have spent two or three hours of our time and come nearer to death; and we see that we are losing the time, and are not afraid. How is it we do not remember the saying of that elder who said: "If someone loses gold or silver, he can find other in its place; but if we lose time, living idly and slothfully, we cannot find another. Truly we shall seek a single hour of this time, and not find it." How many long to hear the word of God and do not find it? And we hear so much and despise it, and are not roused?

God knows, I am amazed at the 1737insensibility of our souls: that we can be saved, and do not want to. For while our passions are young we can cut them off, and we do not care; but we let them harden against us, so that we make the evil greater, to the uttermost. For it is one thing, as I have often told you, to uproot a plant, which comes away at once, and another to uproot a great tree.

3. A great elder was spending some leisure with his disciples in a place where there were various cypresses, small and large. And the elder says to one of his disciples, "Pull up this cypress." Now it was very small, and at once the brother pulled it up with one hand. Then the elder shows him another, bigger than the first, and says to him, "Pull this one up too." And he shook it with both hands and pulled that up too. Again the elder shows him another, bigger still; and he pulled that one up too, with more toil. Then he shows him yet another, bigger again; and he, with more toil, after shaking it hard and toiling and sweating, got that one out too. Then the elder shows him one still bigger; and though he toiled hard and sweated, he could not get it out. So when the elder saw that he could not, he told another brother to get up and help him, and so the two of them together were able to pull it up. Then the elder says to those brethren, "See, so it is with the passions too, brethren. As long as they are small, if we wish, we can cut them off with ease. But if we neglect them as small things, they harden; and the more they harden, the more toil they need. And if they grow up to full strength against us, then not even with toil can we cut them off from ourselves, unless we also have the help of some saints who take our part, after God." See how much power the things said by the holy elders have. And the Prophet likewise teaches us about this in the psalm, where he says: O wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed is he who shall repay thee the repayment which thou didst repay us; blessed is he who shall seize and dash thy little ones against the rock. Psal. cxxxvi, 8, 9.

4. But let us probe what is said, in order. He calls confusion Babylon; for so it is interpreted, from Babel, which is Sychem. He calls enmity the daughter of Babylon. For first the soul is confused, and so it brings about the sin. And he calls it wretched since (as I have told you at other times too) evil is without being and without subsistence: it comes to consist out of what is not through our negligence, and again through our right doing it is destroyed and passes into what is not. So the saint says, as if to it: Blessed is he who shall repay thee the repayment which thou didst repay us. Let us learn what we gave, and what we received in return, and what we want to repay.

We gave our will, and received 1740sin in return. So the word calls blessed those who repay it this; and to repay it is to do it no more. Then he adds: Blessed is he who shall seize and dash thy little ones against the rock. As if to say: Blessed is he who does not give the things born of thee, that is, the evil thoughts, room even at the outset for the evil to grow in him and be acted out; but quickly, while they are still infants, before they are fed and grow strong against him, seizes them and dashes them against the rock, which is Christ, and destroys them by fleeing to Christ.

5. See how both the elders and holy Scripture all agree and call blessed those who strive to cut off the passions while they are young, before experiencing their pain and bitterness. Let us be eager then, brethren, that we may obtain mercy. Let us toil a little and we shall find much rest. The Fathers said how one ought to cleanse oneself in detail: every evening one should examine oneself, how one passed the day, and again in the morning, how one passed the night, and repent to God for whatever one has sinned in, as is likely. But truly we, since we sin much, need, because of our forgetfulness, to search ourselves every six hours as well: how we have passed the time and in what we have sinned. And each of us should say to himself: "Did I perhaps speak and wound my brother? Did I perhaps see him doing things, and condemn him, or despise him, or speak ill of him? Did I ask the cellarer for something, and he did not give it me, and I murmured against him? Was the food not well cooked, μὴ, τὸ ἔψη τὸ καλῶς and I said a word and shamed the cook and afflicted him? Or, being fussy, did I murmur to myself?" For if someone murmurs to himself, it is a sin. Again he says, "Did the canonarch say a word to me, or another of the brethren, and I did not bear it, but opposed him?" So every day we ought to probe ourselves, how we passed the day. Likewise one ought to search oneself how one passed the night as well: whether one rose with eagerness for the vigil, or whether one made light of the one who woke him, or murmured against him. For one ought to know that the one who wakes him for the vigil does him great good and becomes the procurer of great goods for him, waking him to pray to God for his sins and to be enlightened. How ought one not to thank such a one?

Truly one ought to hold that it is almost through him that one's salvation comes.

17416. And I tell you a wonderful thing about this, which I heard about a great clear-sighted elder: standing in the church, as the brethren were beginning to chant, he saw someone in shining raiment come out of the sanctuary, holding as it were a little bowl containing holy water, and a spatula; μύλην and he dipped that spatula into the bowl and went round all the brethren, sealing each of them. And of the places of those who were not present, some he sealed and others he passed by. Again, when they were about to be dismissed, he saw him ἔβλεπον coming out of the sanctuary and doing the same thing likewise. So one day the elder held him, and throws himself at his feet, begging to learn what he was doing and who he was. And that one in shining raiment says to him, "I am an angel of God, and I have been charged at the synaxis to give this seal to those who are found in the church at the beginning of the psalmody, and to those who stay until the dismissal, because of their eagerness and zeal and their good purpose." The elder says to him, "And how is it that thou sealest the places of some who are not present?" The holy angel answers him, saying, "Those of the brethren who are zealous and good in purpose, but are absent through some unavoidable sickness with the blessing of the Fathers, or again are occupied by some commandment under obedience, and for that reason are not present, these receive their seal even when absent, since in disposition they are with those who chant. Only to those who can be present and through negligence are not present have I been charged not to give the seal, since they have made themselves unworthy." See, look what a gift he procures for his brother who rouses him to the rule of the vigil. Be eager then, brethren, never to be deprived of the seal of the holy angel. And if it happens that someone is distracted, and another reminds him, he ought not to be indignant, but attending to the good, he should thank the one who reminds him, whoever he may be.

7. When I was in the coenobium, the abba made me guestmaster with the consent of the elders. I was also just up from a great sickness. So guests would come, and I would spend the evening with them; and then camel-drivers, and I would see to their needs. And often, after I had gone off to sleep, another need would come up again and wake me. Meanwhile the hour of the vigil would arrive, and as soon as I snatched a little sleep, see, the canonarch would wake me.

So I found myself, whether from the toil or from the sickness (for I was still being stolen upon by little fevers), undone, 1744like a man not in possession of himself. So I answered him, borne down by sleep: "Very good, sir. May God remember thy charity μνησθείη ἡ ἀγάπη ὁ Θεὸς and give thee the reward. Thou hast bidden: I am coming, sir." Then, when he went off, I would fall asleep again; and I was very much afflicted that I was slow to get up for church. And since I could see no way to keep up with him, I asked two of the brethren, one to wake me, and the other not to let me doze at the vigil. And believe me, brethren, I revered them as though my salvation were through them, and I almost venerated them. So you too ought to be so disposed toward those who rouse you to the rule of the church and to every good thing. So, as we were saying, one ought to search how he passed the day and the night: whether he stood at the psalmody with watchfulness; and whether at prayer he was taken captive by passionate thoughts; or whether he listened attentively to the divine readings; or whether he left the psalmody and went out of the church in distraction. If someone searches himself in this way every day, and is eager to repent for what he has sinned and to correct himself, he begins to lessen his evil; and if he used to do nine, he does eight; and so, progressing little by little with God, he does not let the passions grow firm against him. For it is a great danger for someone to fall into the habit of a passion; since, as we said, not even if such a man wishes is he able alone to overcome the passion, unless he also has help from some saints.

8. Do you want me to tell you about someone who had a passion in habit? Hear a thing worthy of much weeping. When I was in the coenobium, I do not know how, the brethren simply took it, half in jest, to lay their thoughts before me. The abba too said so, and with the consent of the elders entrusted me with the care of this part. So one day one of the brethren comes and says to me, "Forgive me, and pray for me, for I steal and eat." I say to him, "Why? Art thou hungry?" And he says to me, "Yes: I am not satisfied by the brethren's table, and I cannot ask." I say to him, "Why dost thou not go and lay it before the abba?" He says, "I am ashamed." I say to him, "And dost thou want me to go?" And he says to me, "As thou biddest, sir." So I went off and told the abba, and he says to me, "Of thy charity, take care of him, as thou knowest how." Then I take him, and say to the cellarer in his presence, "Of thy charity, at whatever hour this brother comes to thee, give him whatever he wants, and refuse him nothing." Hearing this, the cellarer says to me, "Thou hast bidden; so I do." That brother does so for a few days; and then he comes saying to me, "Forgive me, sir, for I have begun to steal again." I say to him, "Why? Does the cellarer not give thee whatever thou wantest?" "Yes.

Forgive me: he gives me whatever I want. 1745But I am ashamed before him." I say to him, "Thou art not ashamed before me, art thou?" He says to me, "No." I say to him, "Then if thou wantest anything, come and take it from me, and do not steal." For at that time I had the service of the infirmary. So he would come to me and take as much as he wanted. Then, after some days, he began to steal again, and comes afflicted and says to me, "See, I am stealing again." I say to him, "Why, my brother? Do I not give thee whatever thou wantest?" He says, "Yes." I say to him, "Then why dost thou steal?" He says to me, "Forgive me, I do not know why; I just steal, like that." Then I say to him, "Tell me truly, what dost thou do with the things thou stealest?" He says to me, "I give them to the donkey." And it was found that that brother was stealing morsels of bread, dates, figs, onions , simply whatever he found, and hiding them, some under his bedding and some elsewhere. And at last, not finding what to do with them, when he saw them spoiling, he would go and throw them away, or put them before the beasts.

9. See, do you see what it is to have a passion in habit? Do you see what wretchedness, what misery? He knew that it was bad, he knew that he was doing badly; he was afflicted, he wept; and yet the poor wretch was dragged along by the bad custom he had made for himself through his earlier negligence. And well did abba Nisthero say: if someone is dragged down by a passion, he has become the slave of the passion. May the good God deliver us from evil habit, lest he say to us too: What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption? Psal. xxix, 10. I have told you in various ways also how someone falls into a habit. For he who is angry once is not yet called irascible; nor is he who fornicates once called a fornicator; nor is he who shows mercy once called merciful. But both virtue and vice, from being practised continually, produce a certain habit in the soul; and then that very habit either punishes it or gives it rest. And how virtue gives the soul rest, and how vice punishes it, we have said in various ways: that virtue is natural and is in us. For the seeds of virtue cannot be blotted out. So I said that the more we do good things, the more we come to be in the habit of virtue; that is, we take up again our own habit, we return to our own health, as from ophthalmia to our proper light, or from any other sickness whatever to our own and natural health. But with vice it is not so: rather, through the practice of evil we take on a foreign habit, contrary to nature. It is as if we come into the habit of some pestilential sickness, so that we can no longer be healed without many tears, which are able to move the compassions of Christ upon us.

Just as we find in bodily things too. 1748There are some foods that produce, say, a melancholic humour. For example, cabbage is melancholic, and lentils, and some other such things. So it is not from eating cabbage or lentils or one of such things once or twice οἱ that a melancholic humour arises against a man; but if he does it often, then, the humour increasing, it stirs up fevers, and they burn the one who has them; and it brings a man into countless other troubles as well. So too with the soul: if someone keeps on sinning, an evil habit arises in the soul, and it is this that punishes it.

3. But see this too: there are times when a soul is found inclined toward a passion, and if it falls only once into the act of that passion, it is in danger of coming straight into a habit. The same thing happens in bodily things too. A man is found to be of a rather melancholic temperament from some earlier neglect, and a single food of that kind can almost at once stir up and inflame the humour against him. So there is need of much watchfulness and diligence and fear, so that one may not fall into a bad habit. Believe me, brethren, that one passion [?]: if a man has ten good works and one evil in habit, that one, coming from bad habit, prevails over the ten good ones. For it is like the eagle: if it has got wholly out of the snare, and only its claw is found caught, by that little thing all its strength is brought down. For even if it is found wholly outside, and only its claw is held, is it not in the snare? Can the fowler not bring it down at whatever hour he likes? So it is with the soul too: if it has only one passion in habit, the enemy brings it down at whatever hour he pleases, for through that passion he has it in his hand. That is why I always tell you: Do not let a passion become a habit in you. Rather let us strive, begging God night and day not to fall into temptation. And if we are overcome, being men, and slip into a fault, let us make haste to rise at once; let us repent of it; let us weep before the goodness of God; let us watch, let us strive. And God, seeing our purpose and our lowliness and our contrition, gives us a hand and works his mercy with us. Amen.

Instruction XII. On the fear of the punishment to come, and that he who wishes to be saved must never be free from care about his own salvation.

1.

When my feet were aching and I was ill from them, some of the brethren who had come up to visit me asked me to tell them the cause of the sickness, aiming, as I think, at two things: 1749to comfort me and draw me a little away from the pain, and to give me an occasion to say something profitable to them. But since the pain did not allow me to say to you then what I wished, it is needful now to hear about it; for the telling of an affliction is pleasant after the affliction. At sea too, when a storm rises, everyone is always afflicted; once the storm has passed, they always tell one another with joy, and with delight, what happened. And it is good, brethren, as I always tell you, to refer each thing to God and to say that nothing happens apart from God; but surely God knew that it was good and profitable so, and so he did it, even if the thing has some outward cause. For example: I could have said that because I ate with guests and forced myself a little with them to put them at their ease, my stomach grew heavy, and a flux ran down into my foot, and from that I got rheumatism; or other various causes, for they are never lacking to one who wants them. But the more exact and profitable thing is rather this: that God knew it was profitable to my soul so, and so it came about. For there is nothing of what God does that is not good; rather all things are very good. Gen. i, 31. So no one should lose heart at what befalls him; but, as I said, he should refer all to the providence of God and be at rest. There are some who are so weighed down by the afflictions that befall them that they renounce life itself and would gladly die, so as to be rid of them that way. A man suffers this from smallness of soul and great ignorance, not knowing the fearful necessity that comes after the soul's departure from the body.

2. It is a great love for mankind on God's part, brethren, that we are in this world; but we, not knowing the things there, see the things here as heavy. And it is not so. Do you not know what it says in the Gerontikon? That a brother, a great worker, asked an elder, saying, "My soul desires death." And the elder says to him, "That is because thou fleest affliction; and thou dost not know that the affliction to come is far worse than the one here?" And another likewise asked an elder, saying, "Why do I suffer acedia sitting in my cell?" And the elder says to him, "Because thou hast not yet seen either the rest that is hoped for or the punishment that is to be. For if thou didst see these exactly, then even if thy cell were full of worms, so that thou wert sunk among them up to the neck, thou wouldst endure it without acedia." But we want to be saved while we sleep, and that is why we grow faint in afflictions, when we ought rather to give thanks to God and call ourselves blessed that we are counted worthy at all to be afflicted a little here, so that there we may find a little rest.

Evagrius too used to say that a man who is passionate and prays that his 1752departure may come sooner is like a man who begs the carpenter to break up the sick man's bed quickly. For through this body the soul is drawn away from its passions and is comforted: it eats, drinks, sleeps, meets people, goes about with friends. But when it leaves the body, it is left alone, it and its passions, and then it is punished by them continually, brooding on them, burning with their harassment and torn apart by them, so that it cannot even remember God. For the very remembrance of God comforts the soul, as it says in the psalm too: I remembered God and was glad; Psal. LXXVI, 4. and yet the passions do not allow it even this. Do you want to learn by an example what I am saying? Let one of you go and shut himself into a dark cell, and not eat for only three days, and not drink, and not sleep, not meet anyone, not sing psalms, not pray, nor remember God at all; and let him learn what the passions do to him. And if this happens while he is still here, how much more after the soul has gone out of the body, and been handed over to them, and left alone with them?

3. What, then, the wretched soul has to suffer from them at that time, one can understand somehow from the things here, that affliction too. For when someone has a fever, what is it that burns him? What fire, or what wood, makes that burning? And if someone is found to have a melancholic, ill-tempered body, does not his very ill temper burn him, and trouble him always, and afflict his life? So too the passionate soul is always punished, the wretch, by its own bad habit, always having the bitter memory and the painful brooding of the passions, which always burn and consume it. And besides this, who can describe, brethren, those fearful places, those punishing bodies that serve the souls in such great pain and are not destroyed, that unspeakable fire, the darkness, those severe avenging powers, the countless other torments, all that the divine Scriptures speak of in various places and in various ways, ἄλλην ἄλλως all answering to the evil deeds of the souls and to their very evil intentions? Just as the saints receive certain places of light and an angelic gladness answering to their good deeds, so sinners too receive dark and gloomy places full of horror and dread, as the saints say. For what is more fearful or more pitiable than those places to which the demons are sent? What more bitter than the punishment to which they are condemned? And yet sinners too are punished with the demons themselves, as it says: Depart into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Matth. xxv, 41.

But most fearful of all is what the holy John Chrysostom says: that even if no river of fire were flowing, 1753nor fearful angels stood by, but only, as men were called, some were praised and glorified while others were sent away in dishonour, so as not to see the glory of God, ἐπαινοῦντες would not the punishment of that shame and that dishonour, and the pain of falling from such good things, be more bitter than any gehenna? For then the very reproof of conscience, and the very memory of what was done, as we said above, is worse than countless unspeakable torments. For the souls remember everything from here, as the Fathers say, words and deeds and intentions, and they cannot forget any of them. And what it says in the psalm, On that day their reasonings shall perish, Psal. CXLV, 4. it says of the reasonings of this age: for instance of building, of lands, of parents, of children, of all buying and selling. These the soul loses as soon as it goes out of the body, and it remembers or cares for none of them. But what it did according to virtue or according to passion, these it remembers, and loses nothing of them. Rather, if one helped someone, or was himself helped by someone, he always remembers both the one helped by him and the one who helped him; likewise if he was harmed by someone, or himself harmed someone, he always remembers both the one who harmed him and the one harmed by him. And, as I said, the soul loses nothing of what it did in this world, but remembers everything after leaving the body; and that more clearly still and more plainly, as being freed from this earthly body.

4. Once we were talking with a great elder about this, and the elder himself said that after leaving the body the soul remembers the passion it acted out, and the sin, and the person with whom it committed it. But I said to him, "Perhaps not so; but perhaps it will have the habit that came to be in it from the working of the sin, and that is what it remembers." And we kept on a long while disputing about this question, wanting to learn. And the elder was not persuaded, saying that it remembers the very form of the sin, and the very place, and the very person who sinned with it. And truly, if it is so, we shall have an even worse end for ourselves. κάκην That is why I always tell you, take pains to cultivate good thoughts, so that you may find them there. For whatever a man has here goes out with him, and that is what he will have there. Let us take care to be delivered from such a necessity, brethren; let us make haste, and God works his mercy with us. For he is the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the sea. παρὰ τῶν Those at the ends of the earth are those in complete wickedness; those far off on the sea are those in utter ignorance; and yet Christ is the hope of such as these. There is need of a little toil; let us toil, that we may find mercy. If a man has a field and neglects it and it runs to waste, is it not filled with thorns and thistles in the measure that he neglects it?

And when he comes to clear it, will not his hands bleed the more, the fuller it is, as he tries to pull up that bad weed 1756which he let come up in the time of his neglect? For it is impossible for a man not to reap what he sowed. And he who wants to clear his field must first of all root out all the weeds well. For if he does not pull up all their roots well, but only cuts them off at the top, they grow again. So one must pull up the very roots, as I said; and after cleaning it well of the weeds and thorns and the like, he must turn the soil well and break up the clods, and so plough it; and then at last he must sow it with good seed. For if, after he has given it so much tending, he leaves it idle, the weeds come up and find the earth soft and good from the tending, and they send their roots down deep, and grow stronger and multiply in it.

5. So it is with the soul as well. First one must cut away every old attachment and the bad customs. And the holy Basil says: "This is no small struggle, for us to get the better of custom. For a habit confirmed over a long time takes on, for the most part, the strength of nature." So one must struggle, Λέγει as I said, against the bad customs and against the passions, and not only ⟨against these, but also⟩ against their causes, which are roots. And if the roots are not thrown out, the thorns are bound to grow again. For there are some passions that have no strength if one cuts off their causes: for instance, envy in itself is nothing, but it has certain causes, and love of glory is one of them. For a man who wants to be glorified envies the one who is glorified, or preferred before him. Likewise anger too arises from other causes, and above all from love of pleasure. Evagrius too mentions this, speaking of a certain saint who used to say: For this reason I forgo pleasures, ἐπέρω to cut away the occasions of wrath. And all the Fathers say that every passion is born from these three: love of glory, love of money, and love of pleasure, as I have told you in various ways. So one must cut off not only the passions but their causes too, and so tend one's character well, through repentance and weeping, and then begin to sow the good seed, which is good works.

For just as we said of the field, that if one does not put in good seed, the weeds come up and find the earth good and soft from the tending, and root more deeply in it, so it is with a man too: if, after tending his character and repenting of his former deeds, he neglects to do good works and acquire the virtues, it happens to him as the Gospel says: When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding it, then it says: I will return to 1757my house from which I came out. And when it comes it finds it unoccupied, empty, that is, of all virtue, and swept and adorned. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Luc. xi, 24-27. For it is impossible for the soul to stay in the same state; it is always moving on, either for the better or for the worse. That is why each one who wants to be saved needs not only not to do evil, but also to do good, as it says in the psalm: Turn from evil and do good. It did not say "Turn from evil" only, but also "Do good." For example: if someone was used to doing wrong, he must not only stop doing wrong but also act justly. If he was profligate, he must not only stop being profligate but also be self-controlled. If he was irascible, he must not only not be angry but also acquire meekness. If someone was insolent, he must not only stop being insolent but also humble himself. And this is turning from evil and doing good. For each passion has its contrary virtue: pride has humility, love of money has almsgiving, profligacy self-control, faintheartedness has patience, anger meekness, hatred love. In short, every passion, as I said, has its contrary virtue.

6. I have often told you these things. So just as we drove out the virtues and brought in their passions, so we must toil not only to drive out the passions but also to bring in the virtues and set them in their own place. For we have the virtues by nature, given us by God. For as soon as God made man, he sowed the virtues in him, as he says: Let us make man after our image and after our likeness. Gen. i, 26. "After our image" he said, because God made the soul incorruptible and free to choose; "after our likeness" he says with respect to virtue. For he says: Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful. Be holy, for I am holy. ibid. Levit. xi, 44; I Petr. i, 16. And again the Apostle says: Be kind to one another. Ephes. iv, 32. And the psalm says: The Lord is good to those who wait for him; Thren. iii, 25. and all such sayings. This is what "after our likeness" means. So God gave us the virtues by nature; but the passions we do not have by nature; for they have no substance or subsistence at all, but just as darkness has no subsistence of its own being, but is a condition of the air, as the great Basil says, that comes about through the privation of light, so it is with the passions too. The soul, turning aside from the virtues through love of pleasure, built up the passions and made them firm against itself. So we need, as I said, just as with the field, after doing all the tending, to sow the good seed at once, so that it may bear good fruit in return.

Again, the one who sows his field must, as soon as he puts the seed in, hide it and bury it in the earth; otherwise the birds come and snatch it away, and 1760it is lost. And after he has hidden it, he waits for the mercy of God, until he sends the rain and the seed grows. For if the farmer toils endlessly, cleaning and tending, and then sowing, unless God rains on his seed, all his toil comes to nothing. So we too must do: even if we do some good, we must cover it with humility, and cast our weakness upon God, begging him to look favourably on our toil, otherwise it comes to nothing. Again, there are times when, even after it has rained and the seed has sprouted, the rain does not come down again in its season, and the shoot withers and is lost. For the seed needs rain, and the shoot likewise as it grows, until it is made firm; and not even so can one be free from care. For sometimes, even after it has grown and put out the ear, locusts come, or hail, or something of that kind, and destroy the fruit. So it is with the soul too. When a man has toiled and cleansed it from all the passions we spoke of, and been diligent in all the virtues, he must always look to the mercy of God and to his shelter, so that they may not forsake it and it be lost. For just as we said of the seed too, that even after it has sprouted and grown and borne fruit, unless the rain comes down again as it grows, it withers and is lost, so it is with man. If after he has done so much God lifts his shelter from him a little and forsakes him, he is lost. And forsaking comes upon a man when he does something against his own state. For example: if someone is reverent and comes to indifference, or lowly and comes to insolence. And God does not forsake the indifferent man so much when he is indifferent, nor the insolent man when he is insolent, as he forsakes the reverent man if he becomes indifferent, and the lowly man if he becomes insolent. This is what it is to sin against one's own state; from this comes forsaking.

7. That is why the holy Basil judges the sin of the reverent man one way and that of the indifferent man another. διαφόρου And when a man guards himself from this too, he must take care that if he does some little thing, he does not do it with vainglory, or to please men, or according to some human thought, and so lose that very little he was doing, as we said of the locust and the hail and the like. Again, on the land, even when the fruit suffers no harm but is kept safe until harvest, not even so can the farmer be free from care; for there are times when, even after a man has harvested the field and done all his toil, a wicked man comes with hatred and sets fire to that crop, and destroys the whole crop and that man's toil. Until he sees that he has cleaned it well and put it in the barn, he cannot be free from care. Likewise a man too, when he has been able to escape all these things we spoke of, must not even so be free from care.

For it happens 1761that after all this the devil finds a way to lead him astray, either through self-justifications, or through pride, or by casting in thoughts of unbelief or of evil heresy; and not only does he destroy all his toils, but he also separates him from God. And whatever he could not do to him through the deed, he does to him through a single thought. For there are times when even a thought can separate a man from God, if he accepts it and consents to it. So he who wills ⟨to be saved⟩ in truth ought not to be free from care until his last breath. There is need, then, of toil and much care, and of praying to God continually, that he himself may shelter and save us by his goodness, to the glory of his holy name.

Instruction XIII. On bearing temptations without disturbance and with thanksgiving.

1. Abba Poemen said well that the mark of the monk shows in temptations. For the monk who comes in truth to serve the Lord ought, according to Wisdom, Eccli ii. 1. to prepare his soul for temptations, so that he may never be taken aback or troubled by what befalls him, believing that nothing happens without the providence of God. And where there is God's providence, what happens is wholly good and for the profit of the soul. For all that God does with us he does for our good, loving us and sparing us. And we ought, as the Apostle said, in everything to give thanks to his goodness, Ephes. v. 20; I Thess. v, 18. and never lose heart or be small of soul at what befalls us, but receive without disturbance what comes upon us, with humility and with hope in God, μετὰ Θεὸν persuaded, as I said, that all that God does with us he does in goodness, and does loving us, and does well. And they cannot turn out well otherwise, except as God has thus shown mercy. If a man has a friend and is fully assured that he loves him, whatever he suffers from him, even if it is grievous, he holds that he did it in love, and never believes of his friend that he means to harm him. How much more ought we to hold of God, who formed us, and brought us from not being into being, and for our sake became man, and died for us, that he does all things with us in goodness and does them loving us?

2. And in the case of a friend one may reason that he does it loving me and sparing me; but he does not necessarily also have the understanding to manage my affairs, and so, as is likely, he harms me even without wishing to. But with God we cannot say this. For he is the fountain of wisdom, and knows all that is profitable to us, and manages our affairs toward it, down to the most trivial.

Again, one can say of a friend that he loves, and spares, and has understanding to manage my 1764affairs, but he does not also have the power to help me in what he thinks would profit me. Nor can we say this of God. For all things are possible to him, and nothing is impossible before him. So then we know of God that he loves and spares his own creature, and that he is the fountain of wisdom and knows how to manage our affairs, and that nothing is impossible to him, but all things serve his will; and we ought to know that all he does he does for our good, and to receive it with thanksgiving, as we said before, as from a benefactor and good Master, even if the things are grievous. For all things come about by just judgment, and God, being so merciful, does not overlook even the slightest affliction of ours. ψυχοῦσαν But often someone wavers within himself, saying, "And what if a man sins, from affliction, in the things brought upon him? How can he hold that they are for his good?"

3. We do not sin in the things brought upon us except because we are lovers of ease, and unwilling to bear a little affliction or to suffer anything unlooked-for; since God does not allow anything beyond our strength to be brought upon us, as the Apostle said: God is faithful, who will not let us be tempted beyond what we are able. I Cor. x, 13. But it is we who have no patience, who will not toil even a little, nor bear to receive anything with lowliness; that is why we are crushed, and the more we strive to escape temptations, the more we weigh ourselves down, and grow faint, and cannot even get free. There are some who swim in the sea out of need, and if they know the art of swimming, when the wave comes against them, ⟨they stoop⟩ under it until it passes, ὑπὸ and then they go on swimming unharmed. But if they choose to oppose the wave, it pushes them out and hurls them a long way. Again, as they begin to swim, another wave comes over them; if again they oppose it, again it pushes them out, and they only wear themselves out, achieving nothing. But if, as I said, they stoop to the wave and humble themselves under it, it passes, harming them in nothing, and they go on swimming as long as they like, and doing their work. So too with temptations: if a man bears the temptation with patience and lowliness, it passes harmlessly; but if he keeps on being afflicted, troubled, blaming everyone, he punishes himself, making the temptation heavier against himself, so that instead of profiting he is harmed. For temptations greatly profit the one who bears them without disturbance.

4. And if a passion troubles us, we ought not to be disturbed at that either.

For a man to be disturbed when troubled by a passion comes of ignorance 1765and pride, and of not knowing his own state, and of fleeing toil, as the Fathers said. That is why we do not advance: because we do not know our own measures, nor have patience in the work we begin, but want to acquire virtue without toil. ἀρχὴν For why is the passionate man taken aback when troubled by a passion? Why is he disturbed when he has acted it out? Thou hast it, and art thou disturbed? Thou hast its pledges, and dost thou say, "Why does it trouble me?" Rather endure, struggle, call upon God. For it is impossible for one who has fallen into the working of the passions not to have the affliction of them. Their vessels, as abba Sisoes said, are within thee; give them their pledge, and they go away. By the vessels he meant the causes. So as long as we have loved these and acted them out, it is not possible for us not to be taken captive by the passionate thoughts, which force us even against our will to act out the passions, since we betrayed ourselves willingly into their hands. This is what the prophet says of Ephraim, τὴν τοῦ Ἐφραῒμ who overpowered his adversary, that is, his own conscience, and trampled down judgment, because he sought Egypt, and was taken by force among the Assyrians. Osee v, 13. Egypt, say the Fathers, is the will of the flesh that inclines us toward bodily rest and teaches the mind to be more self-indulgent; and the Assyrians are the passionate thoughts that trouble and confuse the mind and fill it with unclean idols, and carry it off by force, even unwilling, into sin in act.

5. So if a man gives himself up willingly to the self-indulgence of the body, he is compelled, even unwilling, to be carried off by force to the Assyrians and to serve Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet, knowing this, was in anguish, and said to them: Do not go down into Egypt. What are you doing, wretches? Humble yourselves a little; bend your shoulder and serve the king of Babylon, and dwell in the land of your fathers. Again he rouses them, saying: Do not be afraid before his face, for God is with us to deliver us from his hands. Then he foretells also the affliction coming upon them if they disobey God. For if, he says, you go into Egypt, you will become a desolation, and subject, and a curse, and a reproach. And they in their turn say to him: We will not stay in this land, for we will go into Egypt, and we shall see no war, and shall not hear the sound of the trumpet, and shall not hunger for bread. So they went down and served Pharaoh willingly.

Then they were carried off by force to the Assyrians, and served them even unwilling.

17686. Set your minds on what is said. Before a man acts out the passion, even if the thoughts march against him, he is still in his own city, and he has God helping him too. So if he humbles himself before God and bears the yoke of affliction and temptation with thanksgiving, and struggles a little, the help of God delivers him. But if he flees the toil and goes down into the self-indulgence of the body, then he is carried off by force and necessity into the land of the Assyrians, and serves them even unwilling. Then, at last, the prophet says to them: Pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, for his life is your salvation. Baruch. i, 11, 12. Nebuchadnezzar is this: for a man not to grow faint at the affliction of the temptation that befalls him, nor to kick against it, but to bear it with lowliness, as one who owes the suffering, and to hold that he is not worthy even to be rid of the burden, but rather that the temptation should last and be made firm against him, whether he knows the cause in himself or, for the present, does not, believing that with God nothing is without judgment or unjust. As that brother said, grieving and weeping κλέων when God took away the temptation: "Lord, am I not worthy to be afflicted a little?" Again, it is written that the disciple of a great elder was warred upon by fornication. And the elder, seeing him toiling, says to him, "Wilt thou have me beseech God, and he will lighten the war from thee?" And he said, "Though I toil, abba, yet I see fruit for myself from the labour. Rather beseech God for this, that he give me patience."

7. See: Εἶδον these are truly the ones who want to be saved; this is bearing the yoke with humility and praying for the life of Nebuchadnezzar. That is why the prophet says: For in his life is your salvation. For the brother to say, "I see fruit for myself from the toil," is like saying, "In his life is my salvation." As the elder too shows him: "Today I know that thou art making progress, and thou surpassest me." For when a man struggles against sin in act, and begins to fight, and against the passionate thoughts in the mind he humbles himself, is crushed, struggles, then through the affliction of the struggles he is cleansed little by little and returns to what is according to nature. So, as we said, it is from ignorance and pride that a man is disturbed when troubled by a passion; rather he ought with humility to know his own measures, and to endure, praying, until God works his mercy with him. For if a man is not tempted and does not see the affliction of the passions, he never even struggles to be cleansed.

And the psalm says about this: 1769When the sinners sprang up like grass, and all who work peered out, that they may be destroyed for ever and ever. The sinners springing up like grass are the passionate thoughts. For grass is weak and has no strength. So when the passionate thoughts spring up in the soul, then all who work iniquity peer out, that is, show themselves, and these are the passions, that they may be destroyed for ever and ever. For when the passions show themselves to the one who struggles, then they are destroyed by him. τοῖς λεγομένοις

8. Mark the order of the word. First the passionate thoughts spring up, then the passions peer out, and so they are destroyed. All this belongs to those who struggle. But we, doing sin in act and always championing the passions, do not know when the passionate thoughts spring up, nor when the passions peer out, so as to struggle against them; but we are still down in Egypt, at Pharaoh's pitiable brickmaking. And who will grant us even to come to a sense of our bitter slavery, so that we may be humbled and make haste to find mercy? When the sons of Israel were in Egypt serving Pharaoh, they did the brickwork; and those who work at bricks are always bent down, looking at the ground. κεκαυμένοι So too the soul, if it is mastered by the devil and does sin in act, he tramples down its mind, and makes it think nothing spiritual, but always both think and do earthly things. Then they built him, from the bricks they had made, three strong cities: Pithom and Raamses and On, that is, Heliopolis. And these are love of pleasure, love of glory, and love of money, of which all sin is made up. And when God sent Moses to bring them out of Egypt and out of slavery to Pharaoh, Pharaoh made their works heavier, and said to them: Idlers you are, you are idle; that is why you say, Let us go and serve the Lord our God. Exod. v, 17. Likewise the devil, when God has already nodded to have mercy on a soul and lighten it of the passions through his Word, or through one of his servants, then he too weighs the passions more heavily upon it, and fights it more fiercely.

9. But the Fathers, knowing this, strengthen a man through their teaching and do not let him be afraid. One says: "Hast thou fallen? Get up. And if thou hast fallen again, get up. And again, and so on." Another again says: "The strength of those who want to acquire the virtues is this: that if they fall, they do not lose heart, but take care again." And so each of them, simply, in his own way: this one, thus, gives a hand to those who struggle and are afflicted by the enemy.

For they too received it so from the divine Scripture, which says: 1772Shall he who falls not rise? Or he who turns away not turn back? Jerem. viii, 4. Turn to me, children, and I will heal your bruises, says the Lord; Jerem. iii, 22. and all such sayings. And when the hand of God weighed heavy on Pharaoh and on his servants, and he was willing to send away the sons of Israel, he says to Moses: Go, serve the Lord your God; only leave your sheep and your oxen behind; Exod. x, 24. and these signify the thoughts in the mind, which Pharaoh wanted to master, hoping through them to draw the sons of Israel back to himself. And Moses says to him there: No; but thou too shalt give us sacrifices and whole burnt offerings, which we shall offer to the Lord our God, and our cattle shall go with us, and we shall not leave behind even a hoof. ibid. 25, 26. And when Moses brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, he took them across the Red Sea; and God, wishing to bring them to the seventy palm trunks and the twelve springs of water, first ⟨led⟩ them to Marah, and the people were afflicted, finding nothing to drink ποιεῖν because the water was bitter; and through Marah he brought them to the place of the seventy palms and the twelve springs of water. So too the soul, when it ceases from sin in act and crosses the sea of the mind, must first toil, struggling and being much afflicted, and so through afflictions enter into the holy rest. For through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of heaven. Act. xiv, 21. For afflictions move the mercy of God toward the soul, as the winds move the rain. And just as the rain, coming down for long, rots the shoot if it is still tender, and its fruit is lost, while the winds little by little dry it out and make it firm, so it is with the soul too. Slackness ἄνευσις and freedom from care and rest make it soft and dissolve it; but temptations brace it and unite it to God, as the prophet says: Lord, in affliction we remembered thee. Isa. xxvi, 16. So, as we said, we must not be disturbed nor fall into acedia in temptations, but endure and give thanks in afflictions, and beseech God continually in lowliness to work mercy with our weakness and shelter us from every temptation, to his glory. Amen.

Instruction XIV. On the building and fitting-together of the virtues of the soul.

1. Scripture says of those midwives who kept the male children of the Israelites alive, that because the midwives feared God, they made houses for themselves. Exod. i, 21. Is it speaking of houses we can see? And what sense is there in such houses being built because of the fear of God?

On the contrary, we are taught to leave the 1773houses we have, when the time comes, for the fear of God. So it is not speaking of a visible house, but of the house of the soul, which a man builds for himself by keeping the commandments of God. By this Scripture teaches us that the fear of God prepares the soul to keep the commandments, and through the commandments the house of the soul is built. Let us too take heed to ourselves, brethren; let us too fear God; let us build houses for ourselves, so that we may find shelter for ourselves in the time of winter, in the time of rains and lightnings and thunders; for winter is a great hardship to him who has no house. How the house of the soul is built we can learn exactly from the visible house. For he who wants to build this house must make it secure on every side, and raise the building from all four sides, and not take care of one part and despise the others; since that profits nothing, but makes his aim and his expenses and his toil, all of it, in vain. So it is with the soul too. A man must neglect no part of his building, but raise it evenly and fittingly. This is what abba John says: "I want a man to take a little from each virtue, and not do as some do, who take hold of one virtue and stay in it and work at it alone, αὐτὸν and neglect the rest." Perhaps they even have some advantage in that very virtue, and because of this they are not weighed down by the passion opposed to it; but then they are robbed by the other passions, and weighed down by them, and it does not trouble them; they think they have something great. These are like a man who builds one wall and raises it as high as he can, and attends to the height of that wall, and thinks he has done something great, and has not seen that one wind, if it comes, throws it down; for it stands alone, without the bond of the other walls. Nor can anyone make himself a shelter from one wall, for it lies bare on all the other sides. That is not how one should do it; rather, he who wants to build his house and make himself a shelter must build it from every side and make it secure all round.

2. And I will tell you how. First he must lay the foundation, which is faith; for without faith, as the Apostle says, it is impossible to please God; Hebr. xi, 6. and so build on this foundation in due proportion. Obedience has come his way? He must lay one stone of obedience. A brother's provocation happens? He must lay one stone of long-suffering. Self-control has come his way? He must lay one stone of self-control. So from each virtue that comes his way he must lay one stone in the building, and so raise it all round: one stone of compassion, one stone of cutting off the will, one stone of meekness, and the like.

And in all these he must take care 1776for patience and for courage; for these are the corners, and through them the building is bound tight and wall is joined to wall, and the walls neither lean nor break away from one another. For without these no one has the strength to perfect any virtue at all. If a man has no courage in his soul, he does not endure either; and if there is no patience, no one can achieve anything whatever. That is why it says: In your patience you shall possess your souls. Luc. xxi, 19. Likewise the builder must set each stone in mortar; for if he sets stone upon stone without mortar, the stones crack and the house falls. The mortar is lowliness, since it is of the earth and is under the feet of all. For every virtue done without lowliness is not virtue, as it says in the Gerontikon too: As a ship cannot be made without nails, so it is impossible to be saved without humility. So whatever good a man does, he must do it with lowliness, so that through lowliness what has been done may be kept safe. The house also needs what are called tie-beams, and these are discernment, which strengthens the house and joins stone to stone and binds the building tight, besides giving the house much comeliness. The roof is love, which is the perfection of the virtues, as the roof was of the house. Then after the roof, the parapet that crowns the housetop. What is the parapet of the housetop? In the law too it is written: If you build yourselves a house and make it a housetop, make a parapet for the housetop, so that your children do not fall from the housetop. Deut. xxii, 8. The crown is lowliness. For it is lowliness that crowns and guards all the virtues. And just as each virtue must be done with lowliness, in the way we said that each stone is set in mortar, so the perfection of virtue also needs lowliness; or again, because the saints, as they advance, come naturally to lowliness; as I always tell you, the nearer a man comes to God, the more he sees himself a sinner. ὅτε And what are the children of whom the law spoke, so that they do not fall from the housetop? The children are the thoughts that arise in the soul, which must be guarded by lowliness, so that they do not fall from the very housetop. It is finished: it has the tie-beams, it has the roof of the virtues; see, the house, which we said is the perfection; see too the parapet; and, in a word, the house is completed.

3. Is anything then lacking to it? We have left out one thing more. And what is this? That the builder too should be a craftsman. For if he is not a craftsman, he puts the building askew, and sooner or later the house falls. The craftsman is he who acts with knowledge. For it happens that a man takes toil over a virtue, and from not acting with knowledge he undoes it, or stays at it without ever gathering it together, and does not manage to finish the work; but lays one stone and lifts it off again. And there is another who lays one and lifts off two.

What I mean is this: see, thy 1777brother comes and says a word to thee that afflicts thee or wounds thee, and thou keepest silent and makest a prostration: see, thou hast laid one stone. Then thou goest off and sayest to another brother: "So-and-so insulted me; he said this and that to me; and I not only kept silent, but made him a prostration as well." See, thou didst lay one stone and lift off two. Again, someone makes a prostration wanting to be glorified, and it turns out to be lowliness with vainglory. That is laying one stone and lifting it off. But he who makes a prostration with knowledge persuades himself exactly that it was he who was at fault, and assures himself that he himself is the cause. That is making a prostration with knowledge. Another practises silence, but not with knowledge; for such a man holds that he is doing a virtue, and he does nothing. But he who keeps silent with knowledge holds that he is unworthy to speak, as the Fathers said; and this is silence with knowledge. Again, someone does not measure himself, and thinks he is doing something great and that he is humbling himself, and does not know that he has nothing, since he does not act with knowledge. But to measure oneself with knowledge is this: to hold oneself as nothing, and not worthy even to be counted among men, as abba Moses said to himself: "Ash-skin, black one, thou who art no man, why comest thou among men?" Again, someone serves a sick man, but he serves him to have a reward, and neither is this with knowledge. And then, if anything distressing befalls him, he readily cuts himself off from his good work and does not get as far as finishing it, since he does not act with knowledge. But he who serves with knowledge serves to acquire compassion, serves to acquire bowels of mercies. For he who has this aim, whatever befalls him, whether affliction from outside or the sick man himself slighting him, bears it without agitation, attending to his own aim, and knowing that the sick man does him more good than he does the sick man. Believe me, he who serves a sick man with knowledge is relieved both of passions and of warfare. For I know a brother who was warred on by shameful desire, and through serving a sick man who had dysentery, with knowledge, he was set free from the warfare. And Evagrius tells of a certain great elder that he freed one of the brethren, who was troubled in the nights, from such things by ordering him to serve the sick with fasting. And being asked the reason for doing this, τὸν ποιεῖν τούτου λόγον he said that nothing quenches κατασβέννυται such passions so well as mercy. Again, if someone practises asceticism either for vainglory or holding that he is doing a virtue, such a man does not practise asceticism with knowledge; and then from this he begins to despise his brother, holding himself to be something; and he is found not only laying one stone and lifting off two, but in danger of throwing down the whole wall through judging his neighbour.

But he who is self-controlled with knowledge does not hold that he is doing a virtue, nor does he want to be praised as an ascetic; but holds that through self-control he acquires temperance, and through it comes to 1780lowliness; as the Fathers say, the way of lowliness is bodily toils with knowledge, and the rest. And in a word, a man must do each virtue in such a way as to acquire it and come into the habit of it. And so he is found, as we said, the good craftsman-builder, able to build his own house in safety.

4. So he who wants, with God, to come to so fair a state must not say, "The virtues are great, and I cannot reach them." For this belongs either to one who does not hope in the help of God, or to one too sluggish to set his hand to anything good. For take whatever virtue you like and let us exercise ourselves in it, and you will see that achieving it too is in our power. See, it says: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Levit. xix, 18; Matth. v, 43; Marc. xii, 31; Jac. ii, 8. Do not look at how far thou art from the virtue, and begin ἄρξηται to lose heart and say: "How can I love my neighbour as myself? How can I care for his afflictions as for my own, and above all those hidden in his heart, which I neither see nor know, as I do my own?" Do not busy thyself with reckoning these things, and do not think the virtue too heavy and hard to achieve; but for now make a beginning, trusting God. Show him thy purpose and thy zeal, and thou wilt see the help he gives thee to achieve it. What I mean is: suppose there are two ladders, the one going up to heaven, and the other going down to Hades, and thou standest on the earth between the two ladders. Do not set thyself to reckon and say: "How can I fly up from the earth and find myself all at once up at the top of the ladder?" For that is not possible, nor does God require it. ἀπαιτῆσαι But for now guard thyself against going down: do not harm thy neighbour, do not strike him, do not speak ill of him, do not revile him, do not despise him; and so then begin also to do a little good, by tending thy brother with a word, by διὰ τοῦτο suffering with him, and if he needs χρήσῃ anything, by giving it to him; and so, climbing one rung, thou reachest, φθάνει with God, even the top of the ladder. For by helping thy neighbour little by little, thou comest also to want what profits him as what profits thyself, ὡς τὸ σοὶ, συμφέρον σοι and his benefit as thine own. And this is: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. If we seek, we find; and if we ask God, he enlightens us. For he says in the Gospel: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Matth. vii, 7; Luc. ii, 9.

Ask, he says, that is, that we 1781entreat him through prayer. And "Seek" is that we search out how this virtue comes: what it is that brings it, what we must do to acquire it. To search like this about each one is: Seek, and ye shall find. And to knock is to carry out the commandments. For everyone who knocks knocks with his hands; and the hands are taken for the practical life. So we need not only to ask, but also to seek with zeal, and to do, so as to be, as the Apostle said, fitted out for every good work. II Cor. ix, 8; II Tim. iii, 17. What is "fitted out"? When a man wants to build a ship, he first prepares everything the ship needs, down to little nails, and a little pitch, and a little tow; likewise, if a woman wants to set up a little loom, she prepares down to a little thread. This is called fitting out: having everything the thing needs prepared.

5. So then, that we too may be fitted out for every good work, having all our preparation made, to do the will of God with knowledge, as he wills and as is pleasing to him. What is it that the Apostle says: The will of God, good and well-pleasing and perfect? Rom. xii, 2. All that happens comes about either by God's permission or by his good pleasure, as he says in the prophet: I am the Lord who makes light and creates darkness; Isa. XLV, 7. and again: There is no evil in a city which the Lord has not done. Amos iii, 6. By evil he means all that does harm, that is, the afflictions that come to correct us because of our evil: famine, earthquake, drought, diseases, wars. These do not come by God's good pleasure but by his permission, God permitting them to be brought upon us for our profit. These, then, God does not want us to want, nor to run along with him in them. What I mean is this: it is God's will, by permission as we said, that a city be overthrown. Does he then want us, since it is God's will that it be overthrown, to set fire to it ourselves and burn it, or to take axes and pull it down? Again, there is a permission of God that someone be afflicted or fall sick; is it, then, since it is his will that he be afflicted, that he wants us to afflict him, or that we should say, since it is God's will that he be sick, let us not have mercy on him? That God does not want; he does not want us to serve that will of his. He wants us to be so good that what he himself does, he does not want us to want. But what does he want? He wants us to want his good will, the will that comes about, as I said, by good pleasure. And this is all that is done by commandment: loving one another, suffering with one another, giving alms, and all such things. There is the good will of God. And what is the well-pleasing? For it is not the case that whoever does good always does it in a well-pleasing way. Let me tell you how.

It happens that someone 1784finds a poor orphan girl who is beautiful, and he is pleased by her beauty, and takes her and brings her up, so that he seems to do it for her as a poor orphan, a beautiful one. See, it is God's will and it is good, but it is not well-pleasing. The well-pleasing is when a man gives alms not for some human thought, but for the good itself, for compassion: this is well-pleasing to God. And the perfect is when a man gives alms not stingily, nor sluggishly, nor carelessly, but with all his strength and all his purpose, giving as though he himself were receiving, doing good as though he himself were the one done good to; and then it becomes perfect. And so a man is found doing the will of God, as the Apostle says, the good and well-pleasing and perfect. See, this is acting with knowledge.

6. For one needs to know the very good of almsgiving, its very grace, how great it is: that it can even forgive sins, as the prophet says: A man's ransom is his own wealth. Prov. xiii, 8. And again elsewhere he says: Redeem thy sins with alms. Dan. iv, 24. And the Lord himself said: Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful. Luc. vi, 36. He did not say: Fast, as your heavenly Father fasts. Nor did he say: Be poor, as your heavenly Father is poor. But what does he say? Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful. For this virtue in a special way imitates God; it bears his stamp. So there is need, as we said, to attend always to this aim, and to act with knowledge. For there is great difference also in the aim of almsgiving. There is one who gives alms so that his field may be blessed, and God blesses his field; another gives alms for his ship, and God saves his ship; another gives for his children, and God saves and keeps his children; another gives to be glorified, and God glorifies him; and God rejects no one. But what each wants he grants him, provided his soul is not harmed by it. But these all have their reward; for they have laid up nothing for themselves with God, since the aim they set before them was not for the benefit of their souls. Thou didst give so that thy field might be blessed: God blessed thy field. Thou didst give for thy children: God kept thy children. Thou didst give to be glorified: God glorified thee. What then does God owe thee? He has paid thee the reward for what thou didst. And there is another who gives alms to be delivered from the punishment to come; see, this man does it for his soul; this man does it according to God; but still it is not as God wants. For he is still in the slave's state. The slave does not do his master's will because he wants to, but for fear of being beaten.

Likewise this man does it to be delivered from punishment, and 1785God delivers him from it. Another gives alms to receive a reward. This is higher than the first; but neither is it yet as God wants. For he is not yet in the son's disposition; but as the hireling does the will of the master to receive the master's reward and make a gain, so this man too does it to make a gain and have a reward.

For there are three dispositions through which we ought to do good, as saint Gregory says; I have told you this at other times too. Either we do good fearing punishment, and we are in the slave's state; or to receive the reward, and we are in the hireling's disposition; or for the good itself, and we are in the son's disposition. For the son does not do his father's will from fear, nor as wanting to receive a reward from him, but wanting to serve him, wanting to honour him and give him rest. So we too ought to give alms in this way, for the good itself, suffering with one another as with our own members; tending another in such a way as though we ourselves were tended through him; giving as though we ourselves were receiving. And this is almsgiving with knowledge; so we are found in the son's disposition, as we said. No one can say: I am poor, and have nothing to show mercy with. For even if thou canst not give as those rich men who gave their gifts into the treasury, give two mites, like the poor widow; Marc. xii, 42; Luc. xxi, 1. and God accepts them from thee above those gifts. Hast thou not even this? But thou hast strength, and canst show mercy to the sick through service. Canst thou not even do this? τούτῳ Thou canst comfort thy brother with a word. Have mercy Ἐλοῦ on him then by word, and hear him who says: A good word is better than gifts. Eccli. xviii, 17. Suppose thou canst not help even with a word: thou canst, if thy brother is provoked against thee, show mercy to him and bear with him in the time of his agitation, seeing him abused by the common enemy; and instead of saying one word to him αὐτὸν and agitating him further, keep silent and have mercy on him and on his soul, snatching him away from the enemy. Again, if thy brother sins against thee, thou canst have mercy on him and forgive him his sin, so that thou too mayest receive forgiveness from God. For he says: Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you; Luc. vi, 37. and thou art found showing mercy to thy brother's soul, forgiving him what he sinned against thee. For God has given us power, if we will, to forgive one another the trespasses done against us too. And if thou hast no means of showing mercy to the body, thou showest mercy to his soul; and what mercy is great like mercy to the soul?

For as the soul is more precious than the body, so too mercy done to the soul is greater than that 1788done to the body. So no one can say: I cannot show mercy. Each one can show mercy according to his power and according to the state of his soul; only let each be zealous to do whatever good he does with knowledge, as we said of each virtue. For we said that he who acts with knowledge is the proven man and the craftsman, who builds his own house in safety. Of him the Gospel too says that the prudent man builds his house upon the rock, and none of the adversaries can shake it. Matth. vii, 24. May God, the lover of mankind, grant us to hear, and to do what we hear, so that these words may not become a judgement on us on the day of judgement; for to him be the glory unto the ages. Amen.

Instruction XV. On the holy fasts.

1. In the law God commanded the sons of Israel to tithe every year all that they acquired; and doing so they were blessed in all their works. Knowing this, the holy apostles took counsel, for the help and benefit of our souls, to hand this on to us in a greater and loftier way: to tithe the very days of our life and, as it were, to dedicate them to God, so that in this way we too may be blessed in our works, and may each year make atonement for the sins of the whole year. And having reckoned it up, they hallowed for us, out of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, these seven weeks of the fasts; for so they set apart seven weeks. But the Fathers in time saw fit to add to them one week more, partly to train beforehand and, as it were, smooth the way for those who are about to enter on the toil of the fasts, and partly also honouring the fasts with the number of the holy Forty Days which our Lord fasted. For eight ἑπτὰ weeks, taking away the Saturdays and the Sundays, make forty days, the fast of holy Saturday being honoured on its own, because it is the most sacred and the only fast among all the Saturdays of the year. But the seven weeks, without the Saturdays and the Sundays, make thirty-five days; then, adding the Great Saturday and half of the bright and light-bringing night, they are thirty-six and a half days; which is the tenth of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, with great exactness. For of three hundred the tenth is thirty, and of sixty the tenth is six, and of five, the half. See: thirty-six and a half days, as we said.

This is the tithe, as one 1789might say, of the whole year, which the holy apostles hallowed ὑγείασαν for us for repentance, being a cleansing of the sins, as I said, of the whole year. So whoever keeps himself well and as he ought in these holy days is blessed, brethren. For even if it happened that he, being a man, sinned, whether from weakness or from negligence: see, God has given these holy days, so that if a man is zealous with watchfulness and humility to take care of himself and to repent in them, he is cleansed of the sins of the whole year; and then his soul has rest from the burden, and so he comes purely to the holy day of the Resurrection, and partakes without condemnation of the holy mysteries, made a new man through the repentance of these holy fasts; and he abides in spiritual joy and gladness, keeping feast with God the whole of holy Pentecost. For Pentecost is the resurrection of the soul, as it says; and this is also the symbol of it, that we do not bend the knee in the holy church the whole of Pentecost.

2. So each one who wants to be cleansed from his sins of the whole year through these days must first guard himself from indifference about foods. For indifference about foods, as the Fathers say, begets every evil in a man. Then he must likewise take care not to break the fast without great necessity, not to go after pleasant foods, not to weigh himself down with a surfeit of foods or of drinks. For there are two kinds of gluttony. Sometimes a man is warred on in the matter of sweetness, and does not always want to eat much, but wants what he eats to be pleasant. And it happens that such a man eats a food that pleases him, and is so overcome by his pleasure in it that he keeps that food in his mouth, chewing it a good while, and has not the heart to swallow it because of the pleasure. This is called laimargia, throat-madness. Another is warred on in the matter of surfeit, and does not want good foods, nor does he care about sweetness; but whether they are good or bad, he wants only to eat, whatever they may be; he cares about nothing but filling his belly. This is called gastrimargia, belly-madness. And I will tell you the reason for these names as well. Among the outsiders, margainein is said for being mad, and the madman is called margos. So when that disease and madness comes upon a man for filling the belly, it is called gastrimargia, from margainein, that is, to be mad in the belly. When the pleasure is about the throat alone, it is called laimargia, from being mad in the throat. These things, then, he who wants to be cleansed from his sins must guard against and flee with all watchfulness. For they are not according to the body's need but according to passion; and if he puts up with them, they become sin for him.

It is as with living lawfully in marriage and committing fornication: the act is the same, but it is the aim that makes the difference in the 1792matter. For the one comes together for the begetting of children, the other to satisfy his own love of pleasure. So too one can find with eating: eating out of need and eating for pleasure are one and the same act, but it is the aim that makes the sin. Eating out of need is when a man fixes for himself how much to take in the day, and watches whether what he fixed weighs on him, and he needs to take off a little from it, and he takes it off; or whether it did not weigh on him, but his body was not sustained by it, and he needs to add a little more, and he adds a little; and so he tests his need well, and then keeps to what he has fixed, and not for pleasure but with the aim of keeping up the strength of his body. And what he does take, he should take with prayer, and condemn himself in his thought as unworthy of any comfort whatever; and not look to it if some, for some need, as is likely, or necessity, are given care, so that he too does not seek rest, or think that resting is a light thing for the soul.

3. Once when I was in the coenobium, I went to visit one of the elders (for there were many great elders there), and I find the brother who served him eating with him, and I say to him privately: "Dost thou know, brother, that these elders whom thou seest eating and having a little care are like men who got a purse, and kept working and putting into that purse until they filled it; and after sealing it, they worked again and gathered for themselves another thousand coins or so, so that in time of need they might have something to draw on and keep what was in the purse safe. So these too kept working and treasuring up for themselves, and after sealing σφαγίσαι their treasures, they worked a little more, and they have it for the time of sickness or of old age, so as to draw on it, while they keep the rest treasured up. But we, who have not even got the purse, what do we spend from?" That is why, as I said, even if we take something for need, we ought to condemn ourselves and reckon ourselves unworthy of every kind of care, and even of the monastic life itself, and not take it with an easy mind. And so it does not become condemnation for us. And so much for self-control of the belly.

4. But we need not only to keep our diet, but also to abstain from every other sin, so that as we fast with the belly, so we may fast with the tongue too, abstaining from speaking ill, from lying, from idle talk, from reviling, from wrath, in a word from every sin done through the tongue; likewise to fast with the eyes: not to look at vain things, not to be bold with the eyes, not to stare at anyone shamelessly.

Likewise to hold back the hands and the feet from every evil 1793deed. And so fasting, as saint Basil says, an acceptable fast, abstaining from every evil worked through all our senses, let us come to the holy day of the Resurrection, as we have already said, new and pure and worthy of partaking of the holy mysteries; having first gone out to meet our Lord, and received him with palms and olive branches, sitting on a colt and entering the holy city. What does his sitting on a colt mean? He sat on a colt so that, as the Word of God, λόγον he might turn back the soul that had become irrational, says the prophet, and been made like the senseless beasts, and subject it to his own divinity. And what is meeting him with palms and olive branches? When a man goes out to war against the adversary and comes back victorious, each of his own people meets him with palms, as a victor. For the palm is the symbol of victory. Again, when a man is wronged by someone and wants to go to one who is able to give him justice, he carries olive branches, crying out and asking to be shown mercy and to get help; for olives are the symbol of mercy. That is why we too meet our Master Christ with palms, as a victor, for he conquered the enemy for us; and with olive branches, asking mercy from him, so that we too may conquer through him, asking, and may be found carrying his prizes of victory, not only for the victory which he won for us, but also for that which we too won through him, by the prayers of all the saints. Amen.

Instruction XVI. To some cell-dwellers who asked him about visiting.

1. The Fathers say that sitting in the cell is half, and visiting elders is half. The saying means that both in the cell and outside the cell watchfulness is needed alike, and a man's knowing why he ought to keep stillness by himself, and why he ought to visit Fathers and brethren. For if a man is watchful over this aim, he is zealous to do as the Fathers said. When he sits in the cell, he prays, meditates, does a little handiwork, takes care of his thoughts as far as he can; and when again he goes visiting at any time, he considers and looks at his state, whether he is helped by meeting the brethren or not, and whether he can go back to his cell unharmed; ἀνακάμψει and if he sees himself harmed in anything, he learns μανθάνειν his own weakness; he learns that he has as yet acquired nothing from stillness, and goes back humbled to his own cell, weeping, repenting, entreating God for his weakness; and so then he sits attending to himself.

Then again he comes among men, and sees whether he has remained overcome 1796in the same things as before, or in others; and so again he goes back to his cell, doing the same things likewise, weeping, repenting, beseeching God about his state. For the cell lifts up, and men test. So the Fathers said well that sitting in the cell is half, and visiting elders is half.

2. So you too, when you visit one another, ought to know why you are going out of the cell, and never go off at random. For he who travels without an aim, as the Fathers said, will toil in vain. So everyone who does a thing ought by all means to have an aim, and to know why he is doing it. What then is the aim we ought to have when we go off to one another? First, for the sake of love; for it says, "Thou hast seen thy brother; thou hast seen the Lord thy God." Second, for the sake of hearing the word of God; for in a gathering the word of God is surely stirred up more: what this one often does not know, another asks. Then also, as I said before, for the sake of learning one's own state. I mean something like this. Suppose someone goes off to eat with those who are gathered there: he should consider himself and see, if a fine food is set before him παραποθῇ and pleases him, whether he can be self-controlled and not take of it; or whether he strives not to get the better of his brother and take more than him; or, if anything is set out in portions, whether he strives not to take the bigger portion, and to leave himself the smaller. For there are times when a man is not even ashamed to stretch out his hand and set the small one in front of his brother, and take the big one in front of himself. What, after all, can the difference be between the bigger portion and the smaller? How much is there between the two portions, that for such cheap things he is found getting the better of his brother, and sinning? Again, he takes heed whether he can keep himself from many foods, and does not, as might be expected when he finds various foods, give himself up to surfeit; whether he guards himself from boldness; whether he sees his brother preferred, or given more rest than himself, and is not affected; whether he sees another being bold with someone, or talking much, or behaving in some disorderly way, and pays no attention to him, nor condemns him, but rather attends to the most reverent, and strives to do as it says of abba Antony: that when he went off to people, whatever good he saw each of them have, that he took and held fast, from one meekness, πρᾶγμα from another lowliness, from another stillness; and he found himself having what was each one's within himself.

3.

See, so we ought to do, and for these reasons visit one another; and when we return to our cells, we ought to search ourselves and learn in what we were 1797helped, or in what we were harmed. And as soon as we find that we were sheltered, let us give thanks to God, who sheltered us so that we came through unharmed; and for the things in which we slipped, let us repent, weep, and mourn our own state. For each is harmed or helped οὐκ ὠφελεῖται by his own state, since no one harms anyone. But if we are harmed, it is from our own state, as I said, that we are harmed. For we can, as I always tell you, be both helped and harmed by every thing, if we want. And I tell you an example, so that you may learn that it is so. It happens that someone is standing at night in some place (I do not mean a monk, but anyone at all in the city), and three men pass by him. And the first thinks to himself that he is waiting for someone, so that he may go off and they may commit fornication; the second thinks that he is a thief; the third thinks that he has called some friend of his from the house nearby, and is waiting for him to come down so that they may go off together to prayer. See, all three saw the same man, and in the same place, and yet the three did not think the same thought about him; but one supposed this, another that, another something else, each plainly according to his own state. For just as there are melancholic bodies, with bad humours, which turn every food they take into bad humour, even if the food is wholesome (and the cause is not in the food, but the body itself, as I said, is ill-tempered, and so of necessity it works on the foods and alters them according to its own temper): so too the soul that has a bad habit is harmed by every thing; even if the thing is profitable to it, it is harmed. Suppose for me that there is a jar of honey, and someone puts a little wormwood into it: does not that little spoil the whole jar, and make all the honey bitter? So we too do: we throw out a little of our bitterness and spoil our neighbour's good, seeing it according to the bad habit that is in us. But those who have a good habit are found to be like someone who has a body with good humours: even if he eats something harmful, he turns it into good humour according to the temper of his body, and that bad food does him no wrong; since, as I said, his body has good humours, and works on the nourishment according to its own temper. And just as we said of the first, that according to his ill temper he changes even the good food into bad humour, so this one, according to his well-tempered body, changes even the bad food into good humour. And I tell you an example, so that you may understand. ποιήσητε The pig has a body with very good humours. Its food is carob pods, and date stones, and mire; and yet, since it has a body with good humours, such food as it has it changes into good humour. So we too, if we have a good habit and a good state, can, as I said before, be helped by every thing, even if the thing is not profitable. And well does the Proverb say, "He who looks gently will be shown mercy." λίαν And elsewhere it says, "All things are contrary to a foolish man." Prov. xiv, 7 sec. LXX.

4.

I heard about a certain brother that when he visited 1800one of the brethren, if he saw his cell in disorder and untidy, he would say to himself: "Blessed is this brother: how he has become free of care about many things, or rather about all earthly things, and has so taken his whole mind up on high that he has no leisure even to set his cell in order." Again, if he went off to another and saw his cell set in order, clean, tidy, he would say again to himself: "As the soul of this brother is clean, so his cell too is clean; and the state of his cell matches the state of his soul." And he never said of anyone, "This one is disorderly," or "This one is vain"; but from his own good state he was helped by each. May the good God give us a good state, so that we too may be able to be helped by each, and never to perceive our neighbour's wickedness. And if we do perceive it, or even suspect it, from our own wickedness, let us at once turn our thought around to thinking well. For not knowing our neighbour's wickedness begets, with God, a goodness through which God is pleased; for to him be glory to the ages. Amen.

Instruction XVII. To overseers and disciples in monasteries: how one must oversee brethren, and how one must be subject to those who oversee.

1. If thou art an overseer of brethren, take care of them with sternness of heart and with bowels of mercy, teaching them by deed and word what is to be done, but more by deed; since examples are more effective. If thou art able, shape them also in bodily things; but if thou art weak, by the good state of the soul, and by the fruits of the Spirit numbered by the Apostle: Gal. v, 22, 23. love, long-suffering, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control against all the passions. And at the faults that happen, do not be greatly vexed, but show without agitation the harm too that comes from the fault; and if thou must rebuke, keep regard for the person and for a fitting time. And do not be exacting over the small faults either, as though thou wert thyself strict in justice, nor reprove continually; for this is burdensome, and through the custom of reproof it leads to insensibility and contempt. Do not give orders imperiously, but take counsel with the brother with lowliness; for such speech is persuasive, and convinces more, and gives the neighbour rest.

And in a time of agitation, when a brother opposes thee, guard thy tongue from saying anything at all in wrath, and do not let thy heart be lifted up against him; but remember that thy brother is both a member in Christ 1801and an image of God, being abused by our common enemy; and have pity on it, lest the devil take it captive by the wound of anger and put it to death in rancour, and a soul perish through our heedlessness, a soul for which Christ died. And remember that thou too art subject to the same judgment of wrath, and from thine own weakness have compassion on thy brother; and give thanks that thou hast found an occasion to forgive, so that thou too mayest be forgiven greater and more things by God. For "Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you." Luc. vi, 37. But dost thou think that thy brother is harmed by thy long-suffering? But the Apostle commands us to overcome evil with good, and not good with evil. Rom. xii, 21.

2. And the Fathers too say: "If in rebuking another thou art moved to wrath, thou hast fulfilled thine own passion"; and no man of sense pulls down his own house to build his neighbour's. And if the agitation persists, force thy heart and pray, saying thus: "O God, lover of men and lover of souls, who by thine unspeakable goodness made us from nothing to share in thy good things, and when we had departed from thy commandments called us back through the blood of thine only-begotten Son, our Saviour: now too stand by our weakness, and as once thou didst rebuke the sea in its billows, so now rebuke the agitation of our heart; and be not bereaved in one hour of us both, put to death by sin; and do not say to us, 'What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption?' διαφοράν and, 'Amen I say to you, ἡμῖν I know you not,' Matth. xxv, 13. because your lamps have gone out for want of oil." And after this prayer, when thy heart has been made gentle, thou canst then, with understanding of heart, according to the apostolic command, reprove and rebuke, and with compassion heal and set him right as a weak member. For then the brother too accepts the correction with assurance, blaming himself for his harshness; and through peace thou wilt bring peace to his heart. So let nothing separate thee from the holy tradition of Christ: "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." Matth. xi, 29. For one must first take care for a peaceful state, so as not to trouble the heart even on just pretexts, or supposedly for the sake of a commandment, being persuaded that we practise all the commandments for the sake of love and purity of heart.

Directing thy brother thus, thou wilt hear the voice that says: "If thou bring forth 1804the precious from the worthless, thou shalt be as my mouth."

3. And being in subjection, never trust thy heart; for it is blinded by its old attachments. And do not be guided in anything by thine own judgment, and do not settle anything with thyself without asking and counsel; and do not reckon or think thine own views more reasonable and more just than those of him who directs thee, nor become an examiner of his works, and, led astray, often put him to the test. For this is a deceit of the evil one, to hinder subjection in all things with faith, and the safe salvation that goes with it; and so thou art subject with rest, and walkest the road of the Fathers without danger and without straying. Force thyself in everything, and cut off thy will; and by the grace of Christ, having come through custom into the habit of cutting it off, thou dost it from then on without forcing and without affliction, so that it falls out that thine is always done as thou wilt; rather, thou willest as it is done, and art at peace with all. These things, however, hold in matters where there is no transgression of a commandment of God or of the Fathers. Strive to find in everything how to accuse thyself, and hold fast, with knowledge, to counting thyself for nothing. And believe that our affairs, even down to the most trifling, are under the providence of God, and thou wilt bear without agitation whatever comes upon thee. Believe that dishonours and insults are healing medicines for the pride of thy soul, and pray for those who revile thee as for true physicians; being persuaded that he who hates dishonour hates lowliness, and he who flees those who provoke him flees meekness. Do not wish to know thy neighbour's wickedness, and do not admit suspicions against him; and if they are sown through our wickedness, strive to change them into thinking well. And in everything give thanks, and acquire κατὰ goodness and holy love. And before all things let us all keep our conscience in everything: in things towards God and towards our neighbour, and in material things. And before saying or doing anything, let us examine whether it is according to the will of God; and so, having prayed, let us speak or act, and cast our weakness down before God; and his goodness will go with us in all things.

Instruction XVIII. On the one who has the service of the cellar.

Dost thou wish not to fall into anger and rancour?

Have no attachment at all to material things, and lay claim to no vessel of any kind; nor again despise it as the least of things; but if anyone wants something from thee, give it; and if through disorderliness or contempt it is 1805broken, or lost, do not be anxious. Thou oughtest to do this not as one who despises the vessels of the monastery (for thou art bound to take care of them with all thy strength and all diligence), but as one who wishes to keep himself free of agitation and turmoil, always showing God what is in thy power. And thou wilt be able to achieve this if thou dost not treat οἰκῇς the things as thine own, but as dedicated to God, and thyself as entrusted only with the care of them. For the one prepares thee not to be attached, as I said, and the other not to despise. But if thou hast not this aim, be assured, thou wilt never cease being agitated and agitating others.

Question.

Since my thought rejoices in these words and wants to be so, why am I not found ready at the hour of the deed?

Answer.

Because thou dost not meditate on them always. If thou wilt have them at the right time, meditate on them always, and be in them; and I trust in God that thou wilt make progress. Join prayer with meditation. Tend the sick: first, so that thou mayest acquire compassion from it, as I have often said; and then, so that when thou too fallest sick at some time, God may raise up one to tend thee. For "with what measure," it says, "ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Matth. vii, 2. If thou art eager to do a thing with conscience, as far as thy strength goes, thou oughtest to know and assure thyself that thou dost not yet know the true way; and thou oughtest to receive it without agitation, without affliction and with joy, when thou hearest that thou hast slipped in the thing thou thoughtest to do with conscience. For by the judgment of thy companions either what is lacking is surely set right, or what is done well is made safer. Strive to make progress, so that if affliction befalls thee, either in body or in spirit, thou mayest be able to bear it without being afflicted, without heaviness, and with patience. If thou hearest that thou didst a thing which thou didst not do, do not be troubled at all, nor burn; but at once make a prostration to him who told thee, saying to him with lowliness, "Forgive me, and pray for me," and keep silence after that, as the Fathers said. But if thou art asked by him whether the thing is true or not, then make a prostration with lowliness, τοπεινώσεως telling with truth how the thing was. And after telling it, make a prostration again with lowliness, saying, "Forgive me, and pray for me." μένοι

Question.

What shall I do, since I do not have the same state when I meet the brethren?

Answer.

The same state when meeting the 1808brethren thou canst not yet have; but meanwhile strive not to be scandalized in anything, nor to condemn anyone, nor to speak ill of anyone, nor to pay attention to a word or deed or movement of the brethren that does not profit thee; but rather strive in everything to build thyself up, and do not wish to show off in word or deed and be vainglorious. Acquire freedom in thy diet and in thy speech, down to the slightest thing. Know that if anyone is warred on, or afflicted by some passionate thought, and acts it out, ἐξαγορεύῃ he strengthens it against himself, giving it, as it were, power to war on him and afflict him the more. But if again he struggles, and opposes his thought, and does the things contrary to it, as we have often said, the passion grows weak and becomes powerless to war on him and afflict him; and so, struggling little by little and helped by God, he overcomes even the passion itself. God will shelter us through the prayers of all the saints. Amen.

Instruction XIX. Various sayings of the same, in brief.

Abba Dorotheus used to say that it is impossible for one who has his own understanding, or his own thought, to submit and to follow his neighbour's good.

He said again that, being subject to passion, we ought not to trust our own heart at all; for a crooked rule makes even straight things crooked.

He said again that it is no great thing not to judge, or even to have compassion on one who is in affliction and who submits to thee; but the great thing is not to judge, or trample back on, the one who contradicts thee through his own passion, nor to join in agreement with one who has judged him; and to rejoice with one who is preferred before thee.

He said again that he who does not despise all material things, and glory, and bodily rest, and moreover his self-justifications too, cannot cut off his 1809wills, nor is he freed from wrath and grief, nor does he give his neighbour rest.

Again he said: Do not demand love from thy neighbour. For he who demands it is agitated if it does not come back to him; but rather do thou show love to thy neighbour, and give him rest, ἀναπαύει and so thou bringest thy neighbour too to love.

Again he said that if anyone does a thing according to God, temptation is sure to come to him; for every good thing is either preceded or followed by temptation; nor is what is done according to God made firm unless it is tested by temptation.

Again he said: Nothing makes for union so much as rejoicing in the same things and thinking the same things.

Again he said: Not to despise one's neighbour's kindness belongs to humility; for one must receive it with thanksgiving, even if it is small and the least.

And again he said: I, if a matter befalls me, would gladly have it done by my neighbour's counsel, and fare badly by his counsel if so it turns out, rather than be guided by my own counsel and fare well.

Again he said: It is good in every matter to practise for ourselves a little short of our need. For it does not profit anyone to take his rest in everything.

Again he said: In every matter that has befallen me I have never wanted to get round it for myself by human prudence; but I always do the little that is in my power, in whatever it may be, and leave the whole to God.

Again he said: He who has no will of his own always does his own; for he has nothing of his own besides. Whatever happens, it gives him rest, and he is found always doing his own. For he does not want things to happen as he wills, but wills them as they happen.

Again he said: One ought not, at the very time when the brother sins, to correct him then and there, κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ nor yet at another time for the sake of one's own vindication.

He said again that love according to God is stronger even than natural love.

He said again: No evil, not even in jest. It happens that at first a man does evil with laughter, but afterwards, even against his will, he becomes fixed in it.

He said again that one must not want to be freed from a passion as wanting to escape its affliction, but as hating it thoroughly, as it says: "I hated them with a perfect hatred; they became enemies to me." Psal CXXXVIII, 22.

He said again that it is impossible for anyone to be angry against his neighbour unless first his heart is lifted up against him, and he despises him, and holds himself superior to him.

He said again: It is a sign that a man acts out a passion willingly when, being reproved or corrected about it, he is agitated.

But to bear without agitation the 1812reproof about it, that is, correction, is a sign that he acted it out being overcome, or in ignorance.

Instruction XX. A letter of the saint to a brother who asked him about insensibility of soul and about the cooling of love.

1. For insensibility of soul, brother, continual reading of the divine Scriptures helps, with the compunctive sayings of the God-bearing Fathers; and the remembrance of the fearful judgments of God, and of the ⟨going forth⟩ of the soul from the body, and of the fearful powers that are to meet it, with whom it wrought wickedness in this brief and pitiable life. And further, of being about to stand before the dread and impartial judgment seat of Christ, and to be required to give account not only for deeds but also for words and thoughts, before God and all his angels and, in a word, the whole creation. Remember continually also that sentence which the fearful and just Judge will speak to those on the left: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matth. xxv, 41. It is good also to remember the great afflictions of men; for hardly so is the hard and insensible soul softened, and comes to a sense of its own evil state. And thy weakness in love for the brethren comes to thee from thy accepting thoughts of suspicion ὑποψυχίας and trusting thine own heart, and from wanting to suffer nothing of thine own purpose. Dost thou wish, then, to be helped by God? βοηθούμενος First of all, do not trust thine own suspicions at all, and strive with all thy strength to humble thyself to the brethren, cutting off thine own will for them. If one of them insults thee or afflicts thee in some other way, pray for him, as the Fathers said, as for one who does thee great benefits, as for the physician of thy love of pleasure. From this thine anger is lessened, since according to the holy Fathers love is a bridle of anger. And before all, beseech God to give thee watchfulness and understanding to know what is his good and acceptable and perfect will, Rom. xii, 2. and further strength to be made perfect for every good work.

Question and Answer of the same abba Dorotheus.

To the great elder, the holy Barsanuphius, and to his disciple, abba John, called the Prophet for the gift of clear sight which he had from God.

Question 1. Of abba Dorotheus to abba John.

Instruction XXI.

Question 1.

How shall I be able to cut out boldness, and master my tongue?

1813Answer.

By mourning.

Question 2.

And how can I keep mourning while going in and out among men and doing services? And is there mourning without tears?

Answer.

Mourning is not through tears, but tears are through mourning. He who is among men, if he cuts off his own will, and does not pay attention to men's faults, acquires mourning. For from this his thoughts are gathered together, συνάγοντες and being gathered they beget godly grief in the heart, and the grief, tears.

Question 3.

What does bearing dishonour contribute to stillness?

Answer.

A man's debtor, if he does not pay the debt, is a debtor wherever he goes, and has no freedom to sit anywhere at rest. But if first he is wearied by men's reproaches, he is ashamed, and then pays the debt. And when he is freed, then with confidence and much boldness he can go about in public, and sit wherever he wants. So too a man, if he does what is in his power to bear insults, dishonours, losses, for the sins he has committed, learns lowliness and toil, and through these his sins are forgiven, as it is written: "See my lowliness and my toil," and the rest. Psal. xxiv, 18. And consider how many insults and reproaches our Master Christ endured before the cross, πρὸς τοῦ σταυροῦ and after these he came to the cross. So no one can come into perfect, fruitful stillness and into the holy repose of perfection unless first he suffers with Christ and bears all his sufferings, remembering the Apostle who says, "If we suffer with him, we are also glorified with him." Rom. viii, 17. So do not be led astray; for there is no other way of salvation but this. May the Lord go with thee according to his wills, so that he may well lay the foundation of thy building upon the rock, which is Christ. I Cor. x, 4.

Question 4.

Which way saves more, the one through toils or the one through lowliness? Tell me, master; and about forgetfulness, and close ties with certain people, and the guarding of the eyes.

Answer.

True toil is not apart from lowliness. 1816For toil by itself is in vain, and is counted for nothing. For it says, "See my lowliness and my toil, and forgive all my sins." So he who has this arrives quickly; and he who has lowliness with contempt, ταπείνωσίν μου he too has the like. Contempt holds the place of toil. But he who has lowliness by itself enters indeed, but more slowly. And if anyone wants to hold fast true lowliness, let him not count himself for anything in any matter at all; and this is true lowliness. He who receives the fire which the Lord came to cast upon the earth Luc. xii, 49. does not receive forgetfulness and captivity, since he always has the sense of the fire. Take then an example. If a man is found at the point of death, and fire comes near him, at once he feels it from the pain; and into whatever matter a man is taken captive, let a coal of fire fall on him. [?] the fire does not stay in the captivity, brother, but is quenched; for then it is no longer even fire. If thou wouldst be freed from captivity too, thou canst not otherwise, unless thou acquire for thyself this fatherly fire; for by its heat those things vanish. And one acquires κτᾶσαι this fire by longing according to God. Not to have much friendship with someone of thine own age is good; for such custom does not let mourning come. Nor have friendship with anyone else who takes mourning away from thee; for it does not profit thee, but rather even harms. No one can acquire any good thing except in much toil. So train thine eyes not to look at anyone, and they do not fill thy heart with dreadful boldness, which brings the monk's toils utterly to ruin. All these things, brother, unless the heart does them, seeking the Lord night and day, a man cannot make progress. If thou art at leisure for these things, thou comest to them; for it says, "Be at leisure," and the rest. Psal. XLV, 11. The Lord grant thee to understand these things.

Question.

What is contempt compared with lowliness? And what again is contrition of heart? And if one acquires κτᾶσαί contempt, humbling himself in his heart, is there need also of the reproaches and insults from men outside, and of meaner deeds? Further, ought the humble-minded to practise lowly things, or also to use lowly speech?

Answer.

Contempt has two modes: one from the heart, and the other brought upon one by men. The contempt from men is greater than that from the heart. For that from the heart has not so much toil as that from men.

For the heart labours greatly at the contempt brought 1817upon it from outside. But to run of oneself to mean deeds does not bring one to progress, but perhaps rather to vainglory; whereas to be commanded and not to contradict, but to do it with obedience, this makes for progress, and for acquiring contempt. Contrition of heart is not letting it wander with alien thoughts. Lowliness is not counting oneself for anything in any matter at all, and cutting off one's own will in everything; so that to be subject to all, and to bear without agitation what comes from others, this is true lowliness, in which vainglory finds no place.

But using lowly speech brings vainglory, and is rather harmful than profitable; it is enough to say, "Forgive, and pray for me."

Question 6.

Should one cut off the will in good things, or in indifferent things, or even in those where transgression of a commandment comes in? And if a command laid on me turns out to be beyond my state, ought I to decline it, so as not to bring on grief and agitation later? And further, if someone turns out to have need of the abba, to ask him something, and tells me to help him in the matter, should I consent, or not, εἰ μὴ φέρει since it brings me honour, in that I count myself something at all? And further, if someone asks me to make a prayer, shall I be willing to set my hand to it and help someone? How far must one decline, or contend, where there is transgression of a commandment?

Answer.

Brother, he who wishes to be [?] ought not to have a will at all in anything; and teaching this the Lord said, "I came into the world not to do my own will," and the rest. Joan. vi, 38. For he who wants to do this and that, the things for which he begs off, either shows himself more discerning than the one who commands him, or is mocked by demons; both of which are evil and devilish. So thou oughtest to obey in everything. For thy abba who commands thee bears thy judgment, as one who will be required to give account for thee. If what is commanded seems heavy to thee, ask him, and leave the matter to his discernment. But if it is brethren who have given the command, and thou seest or thinkest that the matter has harm in it, or is beyond thy strength, again ask the abba, and what he tells thee, do; for if thou wilt judge not only the matters but also the men, thou wilt draw affliction on thyself. But where the matter seems to be good, there show obedience to the brethren; and where the thought hesitates, or it is beyond thy strength, or has harm, lay it before thy abba, and what he discerns, do.

For he knows what he is doing, and how he cares for thy 1820soul; and be at rest. Believe then that whatever he says to thee is according to God; and everything according to God is profitable, and brings no grief or agitation. For from good no evil comes forth: "For every good tree brings forth good fruits." Matth. vii. 17. And as for someone's asking thy help with the abba, do it as fulfilling a commandment which thou hast heard from the abba to do. For if he sets thee as door-keeper, saying, "Tell me of every man who comes," dost thou count thyself something of thyself, or fulfil an order? If the abba says to tell him, or not to tell, thou hast nothing to do with it. And as for when thou goest into a brother's cell, or he himself tells thee to pray: up to the third time say, "Forgive," and if after the third he persists, then do it with lowliness; and do thou too say it to someone three times, and if he does not want to, stop in peace, and do not afflict him. And this is the true way of God, in which take heed to thyself to work without hypocrisy, in a pure heart, God giving thee his hand and helping thee by his grace.

Question 7.

Ought one to condescend to the body in the matter of diet when one has not yet entirely broken down? And if someone is in poor habit with regard to the usual food; and if someone, suffering nothing, declines this food as producing this passion, does he do well?

Answer.

If a man sees himself not troubled by passion, nor warred on, he ought to condescend a little to the body; but if he is warred on, no. For it is plain that this apparent weakness too is from the demons. For in true weakness, the kind that is from God, the warfare too slackens. So, where there is warfare, it is profitable to wear the body down, even if it falls into sickness; for it brings the soul out. But if the cause of the irregularity is plain, and if perhaps from a journey, or from severe wounds, the body is sick, one ought to condescend, but with gravity and not beyond what is needed; since the demons too are busy at their own. As for poor habit, there are times when one can compel the thought a little; but if one cannot, one condescends a little. For this too is a weakness. But if anyone learns that this food produces passion, he ought not to eat of it; for it is found to be a defeat for him, and he ought to be on his guard. Strive not to cast this into forgetfulness, and believe that with those who are helped and saved by God thou art being saved.

Question 8.

If, eating with the brethren, I have taken what I need sooner, is it good that I rise, or should I stay until all rise? And if I measure out the portion of my bread over all the relishes, do I do better?

Answer.

Sitting at table, if thou seest that thy need 1821is met, and thou canst not sit without eating, rise. But to sit and not eat is greater than that. And to make thy morsel stretch ἀπεκτεῖναι over all the cooked dishes is better than both.

Question 9.

What shall I do, since I fear the shame of dishonour; and if I fall into conversation with certain people, I am drawn into it greatly and taken captive, so as almost to forget myself; and always too I am, as it were, ashamed to leave them?

Answer.

If it tends to edification, and there is no cutting off of a more necessary matter, stay while it is being discussed; but if it is unprofitable, say, "Forgive; I am still weak." And as for shame, consider the shame before all the people which will be in the Lord's presence for sinners, and count the temporary one as nothing.

Instruction XXII. Of the same holy Dorotheus: an interpretation of some sayings of St Gregory which are sung with troparia at holy Pascha.

1. I would gladly speak to you a little about the psalms we sing, so that you may not drift off after the tune, ἀπομετεωρίζεσθαι but so that your mind itself may also be set on fire, in its measure, by the power of the words. What did we sing just now? Day of resurrection: let us offer ourselves as fruit. Since in old times the sons of Israel, at feasts or at festal gatherings, brought gifts to the Lord according to the law, such as sacrifices, whole burnt offerings, first-fruits and all such things, St Gregory urges you to keep the feast to the Lord as they did, and he exhorts you, saying: Day of resurrection; that is, instead of saying, the day of the holy feast, the day of the divine festival, the day of the Pascha of Christ. What is the Pascha of Christ? The sons of Israel kept the Phasekh when they came out of Egypt; but the Pascha which St Gregory now urges us to keep is kept by the soul which comes out of the spiritual Egypt, that is, out of sin. For when the soul passes over from sin to virtue, then it keeps the Phasekh to the Lord, as Evagrius said: The Pascha of the Lord is a passing over from evil. So today is the Pascha of the Lord, the day of a bright feast, the day of the resurrection of Christ, who crucified sin, and died for us and rose again. So let us too bring gifts to the Lord, sacrifices, whole burnt offerings, not of irrational animals, which Christ does not want; for sacrifice and offering of irrational beasts he did not wish, and whole burnt offerings of calves and sheep he took no pleasure in. And Isaiah says: What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord, Isa. i, 11. and so on.

But since the Lamb of God was sacrificed for us, according to the Apostle, who says: For indeed our Pascha has been sacrificed, 1824Christ, I Cor. v, 7. that he might take away the sin of the world; and: He became a curse for us, as it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, Galat. iii, 13. that he might redeem us from the curse of the law; and: that we might receive the adoption of sons: Galat. iv, 5. then we too ought to bring him something pleasing as our gift.

2. Δʹ What gift, then, or what sacrifice ought we to bring to Christ on the day of the resurrection, so as to please him, since he does not want sacrifices of irrational animals? The saint himself teaches us this too; for having said, Day of resurrection, he added, let us offer ourselves as fruit; as the Apostle too says: Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to the Lord, your reasonable worship. Rom. xii, 1. How then ought we to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy to God? By no longer doing the wills of the flesh and of our minds, but walking by the Spirit and not fulfilling the desire of the flesh. Galat. v, 16. For this is to put to death the members that are on the earth. Coloss. iii, 5. This is called a living sacrifice; since the irrational animal that is led away for sacrifice is sacrificed at once ἐνιαυτῷ and dies. The saints, offering themselves as fruit to God, sacrifice themselves to God while living, every day, as David says: For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we were counted as sheep for slaughter. Psal. XLIII, 22; Rom. viii, 36. This is what St Gregory says: Let us offer ourselves as fruit; that is, let us sacrifice ourselves, let us put ourselves to death all the day long, as all the saints too did, for the sake of Christ our God, for the sake of him who died for us. And how did they put themselves to death? By not loving the world nor the things in the world, as it says in the Catholic Epistles, but by renouncing the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of life, I Joan. ii, 15. that is, love of pleasure, love of money, vainglory; and by taking up the cross and following Christ, and crucifying the world to themselves, and themselves to the world. Of these the Apostle says: And those who are Christ Jesus' have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galat. v, 24. See, this is how the saints put themselves to death.

3. And how did they offer themselves as fruit? By not living for themselves, but making themselves slaves to the commandments of God, and leaving their own wills for the commandment and the love of God and of neighbour; as St Peter said: See, we have left everything and followed thee. Matth. xix, 27 What did he leave? He had no money, did he, or possessions, or gold, or silver?

He had a net, and an old one at that, as St John Chrysostom said; and he left, as he said, all his own wills, every attachment to this age; so that it is plain that if he had had money 1825or property, he would have despised that too; and taking up the cross he followed Christ, according to the saying: I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. Galat. ii, 20. See, this is how the saints offered themselves as fruit, putting themselves to death, as we said, to every attachment and to their own will, and living for Christ alone and for his commandments. So let us too offer ourselves as fruit, as St Gregory teaches; for he wants us, God's most precious possession. Truly, man is more precious than all the visible creatures. For those the Creator brought forth by a word, saying: Let this be, and it was; and again: Let the earth bring forth this, and it was; and: Let the waters bring forth, Gen. i, 3. and all such things. But man he formed and adorned with his own hands, and all those things he appointed for the service and rest of man, and man himself he set up as king over all of them, and made him enjoy the delight of paradise. And what is more wonderful: when he had fallen from there through his own sin, he called him back again through the blood of his only-begotten Son; so that of all visible things man is God's most precious possession; and not only most precious, as the saint said, but also most his own. For: Let us make man according to our image and according to likeness. And again: God made man; in the image of God he made him; and he breathed into his face the breath of life. ibid. 26. And our Lord himself, coming to dwell among us, took the form of a man, the flesh of a man, of a new man; and, to put it simply, he becomes everything that man is, except sin.

4. And so we have made man closely our own, so to speak, appropriated him [read προσῳκειώσατο … ἰδιοποιήσατο, "he made man closely his own … appropriated him"]. Well and fittingly then the saint said: Man is the most precious possession; then he adds still more plainly: Let us render to the image what is according to the image. How is this too? Let us learn from the Apostle, who says: Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit. II Cor. vii, 1. Let us make our image pure, as we received it; let us wipe it clean ἀποσμύξωμεν of the filth of sin, so that its beauty may show through the virtues. For this beauty David prays, saying: Lord, in thy will grant power to my beauty. Psal. xxix, 8. So let us cleanse what in us is according to the image; for God wants it αὐτῷ from us, and he gave it having no spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind.

Let us render to the image what is according to the image. τῷ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα Let us know our dignity; let us learn of what great goods we have been counted worthy; let us learn in whose image we have been made; let us not be ignorant of the great things given us by him, through his goodness alone, not through our own worth; 1828let us know that we have been made according to the image of God who made us. Let us honour the archetype. Let us not insult the image of God according to which we were made. Who, wanting to paint an image of the emperor, dares to put a rotten colour in the image, and to dishonour the emperor and be punished? Rather, he puts in all colours that are precious and bright and worthy of the emperor's image. And sometimes gold leaf too is set into the images of emperors, and the painter takes pains to set into the image, as far as he can, all the emperor's garments, αἰσθητὰς so that one who sees the image containing the whole imperial likeness may think that he is almost seeing the emperor himself, the archetype itself. For the image is glorious and bright. So let us too not dishonour our archetype: we have been made according to the image of God; but let us make our own image pure and precious, and worthy of the archetype. For if one who dishonours the image of an emperor who can be seen and is of the same kind as himself is punished, what ought we to suffer, who despise the divine image within us and do not render the image pure, as the saint said?

5. So let us honour the archetype; let us know the power of the mystery, and for what Christ died. The power of the mystery of the death of Christ is this: since we had blotted out what in us is according to the image through sin, and so had been put to death, as the Apostle says, by trespasses and sins, God, who made us according to his own image, having pity on his own creature and his own image, became man for our sakes and accepted death on behalf of all, so that he might bring us, who had been put to death, back up to the life from which we had fallen through disobedience. For he himself went up on his holy cross and crucified sin, the sin for which we were also cast out of paradise, and led captivity captive, Psal. LXVII, 19; Ephes. iv, 8. as it is written. What is led captivity captive? That from the transgression of Adam the enemy had taken us captive and held us under his hand. So then the souls of men, going out of the body, went off to Hades; for paradise had been shut. So Christ, going up to the height of the holy and life-giving cross, delivered us by his own blood from the captivity into which the enemy had taken us captive through the transgression; that is, he snatched us back out of the hand of the enemy, and, as it were, took us captive in his turn, having conquered and overthrown the one who had taken us captive. That is why it is said, to take captivity captive. This is the power of the mystery; for this Christ died for us, that he might bring us, who had been put to death, back up to life, as the saint said. So we have been delivered from Hades through the love of Christ for mankind, and it lies with us to go into paradise. For he no longer tyrannizes as before, nor holds us enslaved.

6.

Only let us take care, brethren, and guard 1829ourselves from sin in act. For I have told you often before that every sin in act puts us under his hand again, since of our own will we cast ourselves down and enslave ourselves. καταδηλοῦμεν For is it not a shame and great wretchedness, after he has redeemed us from Hades by his own blood, and after we hear these things, if we take ourselves off into Hades again? Are we not worthy of a still worse and more pitiable punishment? May God, who loves mankind, have mercy on us, and give us watchfulness to understand and to help ourselves, so that we may find a little mercy.

Instruction XXIII. An interpretation of the sayings of St Gregory that are sung for the holy martyrs.

1. It is good to sing from the words of the holy God-bearing fathers for this reason: that everywhere they are always eager to teach us all that tends to the enlightening of our souls; and in them it is set before us always to learn, from the very words fitted to the day, the power of the commemoration being kept, whether it is a feast of the Lord, or of holy martyrs, or simply of fathers, whatever holy and notable day it may be. So we too ought to sing with watchfulness, and to set our mind on the power of the words of the saints; so that not only the mouth, as it says in the Gerontikon, but our heart too may sing with the mouth. Now we learned from the former psalm a few things, according to our power, about the holy Pascha; let us see again what St Gregory wants to teach us about the holy martyrs too. For the psalm about them which we said just now, from his words, says: Living victims, rational whole burnt offerings, and so on. What is living victims? A victim is anything dedicated for sacrifice to God: suppose a sheep, or an ox, or anything of the kind. Why then does he say of the holy martyrs, living victims? Because the sheep that is brought for sacrifice is first slaughtered and dies; and then it is divided and cut in pieces for God. But the holy martyrs were cut in their flesh while living, being scraped, tortured, dismembered. For sometimes the executioners cut off their hands too, and feet and tongues, and gouged out their eyes, and besides this ἐπὶ τὸ τούτων scraped their sides, so that the very structure and arrangement of their inward parts could be seen. All this, as I said, the saints endured while living, still having their souls; and that is why they are called living victims. And rational whole burnt offerings: why? Because a sacrifice is one thing ⟨and a whole burnt offering another⟩.

Sometimes they do not offer the whole sheep, but only its first-fruits, as it says in the law: The right arm, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, Levit. iii, 3, 4. and things like these; those who offered these were bringing sacrifices; they were offering, as it were, the first-fruits; and this is 1832called a sacrifice. But it is a whole burnt offering when they burn the whole sheep or the ox, or whatever is offered, all of it, as it says there: The head with the feet and the entrails; Levit. iv, 11. and sometimes the hide too and the dung, and, in a word, they burn up the whole of it entirely. This is called a whole burning. In this way the sons of Israel performed both the sacrifices and the whole burnings according to the law.

2. Now those sacrifices and whole burnings were symbols of the souls that wish to be saved and to offer themselves to God. And I tell you a few things about these too, from what the Fathers said, so that when you read them you may lift up your understanding a little, and your soul ἡμῶν may be fattened. The arm, they say, is the practical life; and the hands are taken to mean this, as we have also said on various occasions. The arm is the strength of the hand. So they offered the strength of the right hand, that is, of good works; for they take the right to mean the good; and all the other things that we said, such as the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat from them, and the loins, and the fat on the thighs, and the heart, and the breast, and all such things. These too are likewise symbols. For all these things, as the Apostle says, happened to them as types; and they were written for our admonition. I Cor. x, 11. And I tell you how the soul, as St Gregory says, is threefold. For it has the desiring part, and the irascible part, and the rational part. So they offered the lobe of the liver. The Fathers take the liver to mean desire; and the lobe of the liver is its tip. So they offered, in symbol, the tip of the desiring part, that is, its first-fruits, its finest and more precious part; which signifies loving nothing before God, preferring nothing out of all things desired to the desire for God. For we said that they offered him the more precious part; and the kidneys too, and the fat from them, and the loins, and the fat on the thighs, signify the same by a certain analogy; for there, they say, desire is. See, these are the symbols of the desiring part. And the symbol of the irascible part is the heart; for there, they say, anger is; and St Basil signifies this too, saying: "Anger is a boiling of the blood around the heart." And the breast is the symbol of the rational part; for they take the chest to mean this. That is why they say that Moses, when clothing Aaron in the high-priestly vestment, ἄνθυμα put the oracle on his breast, according to God's command. So all these things, as we said, are symbols of the soul which through the practical life, with God, cleanses itself and returns ἐπανεχομένης to what is according to nature.

For Evagrius says that a rational soul acts according to nature when its desiring part longs for virtue, its irascible part fights for it, and its rational part applies itself to the contemplation of the things that have come to be.

3. 1833So when they offered a sheep, or an ox, or any other such thing for sacrifices, the sons of Israel took these parts from what was offered and laid them on the altar before the Lord, and it is called a sacrifice. But it is a whole burnt offering when they offered the victim whole and entire, and burned it up just as it was, sound, complete, perfect; as we said above too, this is the symbol of the perfect; this belongs to those who say: See, we have left everything and followed thee. Matth. xix, 27. To this measure the Lord urged that man to come who said to him, All these I have kept from my youth. For he answered him, saying: "One thing thou lackest." What? This: Take up thy cross, and come, follow me. ibid. 20, 21. So the holy martyrs in this way offered themselves whole to God, and not only themselves, but also what was theirs and what was about them. For we are one thing, as St Basil says, and what is ours is another, and what is about us another; I have told you this on other occasions too. We are the mind and the soul; ours is the body; and what is about us is possessions and the rest of material things. So the saints offered themselves to God with all their heart, all their soul, all their strength, as it is written: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Matth. xxii, 37; Marc. xii, 30; Luc. x, 27. For they despised not only children and wives and glory and money and all the rest of their property, but even their own bodies; and that is why they are called whole burnt offerings. And rational, since man is a rational living being, and they are perfect victims to God. Then what follows: Sheep that know God and are known by God. How knowing God? As the Lord himself showed and taught, saying: My sheep hear my voice, and I know mine, and am known by mine. Why did he say, My sheep hear my voice? Instead of saying: They obey my word and keep my commandments, and so they know me. For through keeping the commandments the saints draw near to God, and the more they draw near to him, the more they know him and are known by him. Since God knows all things, the hidden things too, and the deep things, and the things that are not, why then does he say of the saints, known by God? Because, as I said, drawing near to him through the commandments, they know him and are known by him. For when someone turns away and puts himself far from another, to that extent he is said not to know ⟨him and not to be known by him; and⟩ drawing near, he is likewise said to know and to be known. In this sense, then, God too is said not to know sinners, in so far as they put themselves far from him. That is why the Lord himself says to such: Amen I say to you, I do not know you. Matth. xxv, 12.

So the saints, as I have often said, the more they acquire the virtues through the commandments, the more they are made God's own; and the more they are made his own, the more they know him and are known by him. Whose 1836fold is not to be trodden by wolves. A fold is the name for a fenced place, where the shepherd gathers the sheep and guards them, so that they may not be torn to pieces by wolves or plundered by robbers. But if the fold is somewhat rotten in any part, it is found easy to get into, and is readily plotted against both by the wolves and by the robbers. The fold of the saints, then, is made safe and guarded on every side, as the Lord said, where thieves do not break through, Matth. vi, 20. nor can any other harmful thing plot against it. So let us pray, brethren, that we too may be counted worthy to be shepherded together with them, and to be found also in the place of that blessed delight and of their rest. For even if we have not reached the state of the saints, even if we are not worthy to be in their glory, still we can avoid falling from paradise, if we are watchful and do ourselves a little violence; as St Clement too says: even if one is not crowned, let him yet strive to be found not far from those who are crowned. For just as in the palace there are great and splendid ranks (suppose the senate, the patricians, the generals, the prefects, the silentiaries: for these are ranks of high honour), and there are also some others serving in the same palace for a few gold pieces; yet they too are said to serve the emperor, and they are inside the palace, even if they do not have the glory of the great; still, for the present they are there. And it happens that they too, advancing little by little, attain great ranks and splendid dignities. So let us too strive to escape sin in act, so that for the present we may get clear of Hades; and so, through God's love for mankind, we can attain even the very entrance into paradise, by the prayers of all the saints. Amen.