Philokalia of St. Paisiy Velichkovsky (with parallel text). Volume 3

Fifty conversations of Macarius (truly blessed) of Egypt, retold by Simeon Metaphrastes in 150 chapters The text of Macarius of Egypt is given from the manuscript of Paisius Velichkovsky; footnotes in the margins are placed in parentheses. The Russian translation is based on the pre-revolutionary edition of the 7 Words. Both translations were not truncated, but for ease of layout, the Slavic text is divided into paragraphs, and the Russian is re-divided into 150 chapters, in some places additionally translated. Paisiy Velichkovsky often wrote from more than one manuscript, so some parts of the chapters are not found either in the Greek Philokalia or in the Russian translation; we left them untouched. 1. About spiritual perfection By grace and the Divine gift of the Spirit, each of us acquires salvation; by faith and love, with the effort of free will, one can achieve the perfect measure of virtue, so that, as much as by grace, so much by truth, one can inherit eternal life, both being granted complete success not only by Divine power and grace without the addition of one’s own labors, so again achieving a perfect measure of freedom and purity not only by one’s diligence and strength without the assistance of God’s hand from above; because if it is not the Lord who builds the house and preserves the city, the watchman watches in vain, and likewise in vain the one who labors and builds (Ps. 127:1). 2. Question. What is the will of God, to the knowledge of which the Apostle ascends, calls and convinces each of us (see: Rom. 12:2)? Answer. Complete cleansing from sin, liberation from shameful passions and acquisition of the highest virtue, that is, cleansing and sanctification of the heart, undoubtedly accomplished by the communion of the perfect and God's Spirit. For it is said: blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8); and: be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). And it is also said: let my heart be blameless in Your statutes, so that I will not be ashamed (Ps. 119:80); and one more thing: then I would not be ashamed, looking at all Your commandments (Ps. 119:6). And also to the questioner: who will ascend the mountain of the Lord? - the answer is given: who has innocent hands and a pure heart (Ps. 23:3,4), and this signifies the complete destruction of sin both in deed and in thought. 3. The Holy Spirit, knowing how difficult it is to get rid of implicit and secret passions, and that they are, as it were, rooted in the soul, shows through David how cleansing from them should be accomplished. For it is said: cleanse me from my secrets (Ps. 18:13), that is, with the help of many prayers, faith and perfect aspiration to God, with the assistance of the Spirit, this can be accomplished by us; if, moreover, we strain our strength towards this and guard our hearts with all care. 4. And blessed Moses, showing in images that the soul should not follow two thoughts, good and bad, but one good, and that it is necessary to cultivate not two fruits, good and bad, but only good ones, says: “Do not harness different kinds of animals together on your threshing floor, for example, a bull and a donkey; but harness those who are of the same kind and thresh your harvest” (see: Deut. 22:10), so that in the threshing floor of our heart there will be work not of virtue and vice together, but of virtue alone. Clothes made of wool are not woven with linen, nor are they made of linen with wool (Deut. 22:11). Thou shalt not cultivate two fruits on the same piece of land (Deut. 22:9). Do not bring together a foreign animal with a foreign animal, but mate similar ones with similar ones (see: Lev.19:19). All this mysteriously makes it clear that, as has already been said, we should not cultivate both virtue and vice together, but give birth to only the fruits of virtue, and the soul should not be in communion with two spirits - with the Spirit of God and with the spirit of the world. For it is said: therefore I was guided by all Your commandments; I hated every way of unrighteousness (Ps. 119:128). 5. It is not only from obvious sins, such as fornication, murder, theft, gluttony, condemnation, lies, love of money, covetousness and the like, that a virgin soul - a virgin who desires to unite with God - must be pure, but much more, as we said above, from secret sins, that is, from lust, vanity, man-pleasing, hypocrisy, lust, flattery, malice, hatred, disbelief, envy, pride, arrogance and other similar things. For the Lord, as Scripture says, places these secret sins of the soul on a par with outwardly obvious sins. It is said: scattered the bones of people-pleasers (Ps. 52:6); and: the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and the flattering (Ps. 5:7), which shows that God equally abhors both flattery and murder. And it is also said: those who say: “Peace” to their neighbors, and so on (Ps. 27:3); and also: for in your hearts you create iniquity in the earth (Ps. 57:2); and: woe to you when people speak well of you (Luke 6:26), that is, when you have a desire to hear good things about yourself from people and you are attached to fame and human praise. For is it possible for those who do good to completely hide themselves? Moreover, the Lord Himself says: let your light shine before people (Matthew 5:16). However, as it is said, try to do good for the glory of God, and not for the sake of your own glory and not as those who love human praise, for the Lord called such unfaithful, saying: how can you believe when you receive glory from each other, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God (John 5:44)? Look how the Apostle commands to do everything, even eat and drink, for the glory of God; for he says: So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31); and the divine John, putting hatred on a par with murder, says: he who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). 6. Love covers everything, endures everything. Love never ends (1 Cor. 13:7,8). The words: never ends mean that those who have received the above-mentioned gifts of the Spirit, but have not been granted the highest freedom from passions for the most complete and effective spiritual love, have not yet come to safety; but, on the contrary, their work is still in danger and under fear from evil spirits. This measure, according to the instructions of the Apostle, is no longer subject to fall, and there is no other similar state; why angelic language, and prophecy, and all knowledge, and gifts of healing are nothing in comparison with love. 7. This Apostle indicated the goal of perfection, so that everyone, recognizing himself as impoverished from so much wealth, with a burning and tense spirit, hastens to this final limit and, thus, runs the spiritual race until he reaches it, according to what was said: so run to receive (1 Cor. 9:24). 8. Understand that to renounce oneself means to surrender oneself to brotherhood in everything, not to be led in anything by one’s own will and not to be the master of anything except a single robe, so that a person, having become completely independent, can joyfully adhere only to what is prescribed to him, and like a slave behave with everyone, and even more so with superiors, obeying Christ who said: whoever wants to be great among you, let him be a servant of all, and last, and a slave (Matthew 20:26,27), not seeking honor, glory, or praise, not just working for show, as a people-pleaser, but considering himself obligated to serve the brethren in everything in love and simplicity (cf. Col. 3:22). 9 . The superiors of the brotherhood, as those assigned to a great cause, must overcome the machinations of counter-devising malice, so that, through the passion of pride, ruling over the brethren as over subordinates, instead of doing great good, they do not harm themselves. On the contrary, as compassionate fathers, having dedicated themselves for the sake of God to serving the brotherhood both physically and spiritually, let them take care of the brethren and at all times exercise care for them, as children of God, where they need to reprove and where they should console, so that, under the pretext of humility and meekness, the monasteries do not fall into disarray, not observing the proper rank between abbots and subordinates. In the secret of the mind, let the superiors consider themselves unworthy slaves of all the brethren and, like mentors to whom spiritual children are entrusted, with all complacency and with the fear of God, let them try to guide everyone to all that is good, but not knowing that a great reward is observed for them, an inalienable reward that exceeds any work. 10. Just as those who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of being mentors of young people, even sometimes of their own masters, for the sake of education and good morals, do not find it difficult to deal blows to them with all their freedom, so the superiors, not out of the passion of anger and arrogance, not taking revenge for themselves, must punish the brethren who need some kind of admonition, but with all kindness, for the purpose of spiritual benefit, bring them to correction. 11. Anyone who wants to imagine such morals must first of all always have the fear of God and holy love, which is the first and greatest commandment (see Matt. 22:37,38). Let him constantly beg the Lord to give him this love in his heart; and so, with the constant memory of God, prospering day by day, he acquires and multiplies it by grace. Great zeal, and work, and care, and ascetic life lead us to the state of acquiring love for God, by the grace and gift of Christ imagined in us. After this commandment, it is not difficult to fulfill the second one - I mean the commandment about love for one’s neighbor. Prefer the first to everything else, and try harder for this than for the other; in this case, the first will be followed by the second. If someone, having neglected this great and first commandment, I mean the commandment of love for God, which is formed in us by our inner disposition, a good conscience, sound concepts of God, with the cooperation and God's help, only intends to devote himself to the second commandment, to the care of external service, then it will be impossible for him to fulfill this commandment healthily and purely. For insidious malice, as soon as it sees that the mind is deprived of remembrance of God, love and striving for Him, or presents the commandments of God as difficult to fulfill and difficult and arouses in the soul grumbling, sadness and complaints about serving the brethren, or seduces a person with conceit about his righteousness and convinces him to consider himself worthy, great and fully fulfilling the commandments. 12. When a person considers himself to be a keeper of the commandments, then he clearly sins and does not keep the commandments faithfully; because he pronounces judgment on himself and does not wait for the Giver of true judgment. When the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit, according to Paul’s saying (Rom. 8:16), then only we become truly worthy of Christ and children of God, and not when we justify ourselves in our own self-conceit. For it is said: he is not tested who testifies about himself, but he about whom the Lord assures (2 Cor. 10:18). When it turns out that a person has neither the remembrance of God nor the fear of God, then he has a great need to love glory and to catch the praise of those whom he serves. And the Lord called such an infidel, as this has already been explained; for it is said: how can you believe when you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God? (John 5:44). 13. One can succeed in the love of God, as has been said, with great struggle and labor of the mind through holy meditation and constant concern for all that is beautiful: because the enemy hinders our mind and does not allow it to be kept in Divine love by remembering all that is beautiful, but deceives the sense with earthly desires. Death and, so to speak, strangulation to the evil one, when it turns out that the mind remains undistracted in the love of God and in the remembrance of God. From here can flow sincere love for a brother, true simplicity; as well as meekness, humility, sincerity, kindness, prayer itself and the entire adorned crown of virtues through the one and only first commandment to God receive perfection. Therefore, great struggle, secret and hidden labor, testing of thoughts and teaching the exhausted feelings of our soul to reason about good and evil, strengthening the tired members of the soul and reviving them by careful aspiration of the mind towards God are required. For our mind, thus always clinging to God, according to Paul’s saying, becomes one spirit with the Lord (see: 1 Cor. 6:17). 14. Lovers of virtue must continually have this secret struggle, labor, and meditation as they begin to fulfill every commandment, whether they pray or serve, eat or drink, so that whatever good is done is done for the glory of God, and not for our glory. Every fulfillment of the commandments will be convenient and easy for us when the love of God makes them easier and resolves all their difficulty. All the effort, as has been explained, and the zeal of the enemy is to enable him to distract his mind from the remembrance of God, from the fear of God and from the love of God, turning him away from the truly good to the imaginary good with earthly seductions and lures. 15. And Patriarch Abraham brought the best of the spoils as a gift to the priest of God Melchizedek and, thus, received a blessing from him (see: Gen. 14:18,20). What else does the Spirit give us to understand conjecturally through this? Doesn’t it point to the highest speculation as the most excellent, and the very bones from the whole unification of our nature - that is, the very mind, the very conscience, the very disposition, the very thought, the very power of love in the soul, the firstfruits of our whole person, at all times devoting himself to the same remembrance and reflection on God - we must first of all always offer to God as a sacred sacrifice of the heart, as the most precious and best of good thoughts? And in this case, assisted by God’s grace, we will be able to grow and succeed daily, and the burden of the commandments of the required righteousness will seem light to us: because all the commandments, with the assistance of the Lord Himself, we will fulfill purely and blamelessly by our faith in Him. 16. The virtues are connected to one another and are supported by one another, like some kind of sacred chain in which one link hangs on the other. For example, prayer rests on love, love on joy, joy on meekness, meekness on humility, humility on service, service on hope, hope on faith, faith on obedience, obedience on simplicity; just as the vices that are contrary to them are connected one with another, for example, hatred with irritability, irritability with pride, pride with vanity, vanity with unbelief, unbelief with hardness of heart, hardness of heart with negligence, negligence with laziness, laziness with negligence, negligence with despondency, despondency with impatience, impatience with voluptuousness; and in the same way the other members of vice rest on one another. 17. It is desirable for the evil one to denigrate and defile every good deed, no matter what a person does, with an admixture of his seeds, such as vanity, conceit, and sometimes grumbling or something like that, so that the good done is done either not for the sake of God alone, or not with zeal. For it is written that Abel brought a sacrifice to God from fat and from firstborn sheep, and likewise Cain brought gifts, although from the fruits of the ground, but not from the firstborn; and therefore God looked upon the sacrifices of Abel, but did not pay attention to the gifts of Cain (Gen. 4:3-5). From this we can learn that something good can be done badly, such as: either carelessly, or carelessly, or for something else, and not for God; and from this it happens that even a good deed can be unpleasant to God. 18. The main thing in every good speech and the height of success is diligence in prayer, by which we acquire everything else, when the One called by us stretches out a helping hand to us: because through prayer in those who are worthy, a communication of mysterious effectiveness is accomplished, through unspeakable love for the Lord, a combination of a disposition towards holiness before God and the mind itself. For it is said: You have given joy to my heart (Ps. 4:8). And the Lord Himself says: The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). By the words: the Kingdom is within you, what else is meant but that the heavenly joy of the Spirit is clearly expressed in worthy souls? For worthy souls, through the effective communication of the Spirit, here still receive the guarantee and the firstfruits of that pleasure, that joy, that spiritual joy, of which the saints in the Kingdom of Christ will partake in eternal light. It is said: my heart and my flesh rejoice in the Living God (Ps. 83:3). The words: let my soul be filled with fatness and ointment (Ps. 63:6), and other sayings that agree with this lead to the same thought and make clear the effective joy and consolation given by the Spirit. 19. Just as the work of prayer is higher than others, so one who is diligent in prayer must have great care, so that malice does not rob him in an inconspicuous way. For whoever cares about a greater good is subjected to greater temptation by the evil one; why a lot of sobriety will be needed so that the fruits of love, humility, simplicity, goodness and prudence daily increase in the one who remains in prayer, and just as in himself they produce clear progress and growth in the Divine, so others are called to equal zeal. 20. Both the divine Apostle himself (see: 1 Thessalonians 5:17) and what the Lord said: how much more will God protect those who call on Him day and night (Luke 18:7); and one more thing: watch and pray (Matthew 26:41). Therefore, it is fitting to always pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). But just as someone who is constantly in prayer has chosen the most important thing of all for himself, so he must remain in great feat and unremitting tension, because he will encounter many obstacles presented by malice to diligence in prayer: sleep, despondency, heaviness in the body, predominance of thoughts, fickleness of mind, relaxation and other beginnings of malice, and then sorrows and uprisings of the evil spirits themselves, who stubbornly fight with us, and opposing us, and not allowing us to bring the soul closer to Christ, which truly incessantly seeks God. 21. With all diligence, with sobriety, with patience, with mental struggle and bodily exertion, the guardian must take courage, so as not to weaken in spirit, giving in to absent-mindedness, or too much sleep, or despondency, relaxation, embarrassment, and engaging in noisy and obscene speeches, or turning his thoughts to something similar, being satisfied with just constant standing and kneeling, and allowing the mind wander somewhere far from what is happening outwardly. For if someone does not prepare himself with strict sobriety, resisting many unnecessary thoughts, subjecting each of them to testing and analysis and always desiring the Lord, then nothing will prevent him from either being caught in imperceptibly in various ways by malice, or he himself exalting himself above those who cannot yet constantly remain in prayer. And as a result of such tricks of malice, he will spoil the beautiful work and betray it to the evil demon. 22. If humility and love, simplicity and goodness are not closely connected in us with prayer, then prayer itself, or better yet, this guise of prayer, can bring us very little benefit. And we affirm this not about prayer alone, but also about every feat and work: virginity, or fasting, or vigil, or psalmody, or service, or about any kind of work performed for the sake of virtue. If we do not see in ourselves the fruits of love, peace, joy, meekness, adding humility, simplicity, sincerity, faith, as much as we should, generosity, friendliness, then we have worked without benefit: because for this we undertake labor in order to benefit from the fruits; and when the fruits of love do not appear in us, then, without a doubt, the work is in vain. Why are they no different from the five holy fools, who, because they did not yet have spiritual oil in their hearts, that is, the spiritual effectiveness of the virtues counted above, were called holy fools and were pitifully left outside the royal bridal chamber, having benefited nothing from the feat of virginity (see: Matt. 25: 1-12). Just as when cultivating a vineyard, all care and all labor are applied in the hope of fruit, and if there is no fruit, the work turns out to be in vain, so if we do not see in ourselves, through the action of the Spirit, the fruits of love, peace, joy, and everything else listed by the Apostle (see: Gal. 5:22), and we are not able to recognize them in ourselves with all certainty and from a spiritual feeling, then the feat of virginity, prayer, psalmody will turn out to be unnecessary, fasting and vigil. For these labors and exploits of soul and body must be performed, as we said, in the hope of spiritual fruits; and the fruitfulness of virtues is the spiritual pleasure of uncorrupted pleasure, inexpressibly produced by the Spirit in the hearts of the faithful and humble. Why should labors and exploits be revered, as they really are, as labors and exploits, and fruits as fruits? But if someone, due to the poverty of knowledge, considers his work and feat to be the fruits of the Spirit, then it turns out that he is clearly deceived, deceiving himself and with such an opinion depriving himself of the truly great fruits of the Spirit. 23. Just as one who has completely given himself over to sin with pleasure and pleasure, as something in accordance with nature, assimilates unnatural shameful passions, that is: debauchery, fornication, covetousness, hatred, flattery and other vicious endeavors, so one who truly and in perfect Christianity, with great pleasure and with spiritual pleasure, without labor and easily, as something natural, acquires all the virtues and all the supernatural spiritual fruits, then there is: love, peace, patience, faith, humility and other truly golden virtues of every kind, no longer fought by harmful passions: because he was completely delivered from them by the Lord and from the Good Spirit received in his heart the complete peace of Christ and joy. He clung to the Lord and became one spirit with Him. 24. Those who, due to spiritual infancy, cannot fully devote themselves to spiritual love, should take upon themselves the service of the brethren with reverence, with faith and with the fear of God and serve as God’s commandments and as a spiritual matter, and not expect rewards, or honor, or gratitude from people, and not at all give room for grumbling, or arrogance, or negligence and laziness, so that this good thing is not desecrated and damaged the matter, but it was all the more pleasing to God because of our reverence, fear and joy. 25. With such philanthropy and goodness (divine mercy is truly great!) the Lord condescends to people, taking care not to leave anyone without a reward for a good deed, but to raise everyone from small virtues to great ones and not to deprive them of reward for a cup of cold water. For he said: whoever gives a cup of cold water to drink only in the name of a disciple, truly I tell you, will not lose his reward (Matthew 10:42); and again: having done for one of them, you have done for Me (Matthew 25:40). Let only what is done be done according to God, and not for glory; for he added: only in the name of the disciple, that is, with fear, out of the love of Christ. And those who do good for show, the Lord reproaches and, confirming the word with a decisive sentence, adds to them: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward (Matthew 6:5). 26. First of all, let simplicity, and sincerity, and mutual love, and joy, and humility, in all ways, be laid as a kind of foundation in brotherhood, so as not to make our feat useless, exalting ourselves before each other and grumbling against each other. And let him who constantly remains in prayer not exalt himself over those who are still incapable of doing the same. And whoever devotes himself to service, let him not murmur against those who remain in prayer. If the brethren deal with each other with such simplicity and with such disposition, then the excesses of those who remain in prayer will compensate for the shortcomings of those who serve, and vice versa, the excesses of those who remain in prayer will make up for the shortcomings of those who remain in prayer. And thus, equality will be best observed, according to what has been said: whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no shortage (Ex. 16:18). 27. Then the will of God happens, as it does in heaven and on earth, when, as it is said: we are not proud of each other, when not only without jealousy, but also in the communion of simplicity, love, peace and joy, we are united with each other, considering the success of our neighbor as our own, as much as we should, and imputing his deprivation as loss to ourselves. 28. Whoever is lazy in prayer and in serving the brethren and in any other work done for the sake of God, behaves lazily and carelessly, the Apostle, directly calling him an idle person, declares him unworthy of bread itself; for he said: Let not the idle eat (2 Thess. 3:10). And once it is said: “God hates the idle”; and: “An idle person cannot even be faithful.” And wisdom said: Idleness has taught much evil (Sir.33:28). Therefore, it is necessary that everyone bear fruit in any work done for the sake of God, and at least be zealously disposed towards something good; otherwise, turning out to be completely fruitless, he will be completely uninvolved in eternal blessings. 29. Those who claim that it is impossible to achieve perfection and complete liberation from passions, even if someone has been granted communion and filling with the Good Spirit, must present evidence from the Divine Scriptures and prove that they know the matter poorly and speak falsely, and at the same time with danger to themselves. The Lord says: therefore, you too be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), meaning by this perfect purity. And: I want them to be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory (Pn. 17:24). These are the words of Rex: heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35). What the Apostle said also leads to the same thought: to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28); and: until we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13). And thus, those who have perfection in mind achieve two wonderful acquisitions: in intense and continuous feat they strive towards the end in the hope of reaching this measure, and I will even add: in the hope of ascent; and are not caught up in arrogance, but think modestly about themselves and recognize themselves as small, as having not yet achieved perfection. 30. Those who affirm the above cause very great harm to the soul in three ways: firstly, they turn out to be non-believers of the Divine Scriptures. Secondly, without imagining the highest and perfect goal of Christianity and without striving to achieve it, they cannot have labor and zeal, hunger and thirst for truth; but, being satisfied with external images and customs and some small merits, they are deprived of blessed hope, and perfection, and complete purification from all passions. Thirdly, thinking about themselves that they have achieved the very top through success in small, as they say, virtues and not striving for perfection, not only are they least likely to have humility, poverty and heartfelt contrition, but, justifying themselves as having already achieved the goal, they are not capable of daily success and growth. 31. The Apostle clearly likens those who consider this progress, which is accomplished in people by the Spirit and which is a new creation of a pure heart, impossible, to those who, for unbelief, were not worthy to enter the land of promise and whose bones fell for this in the wilderness (Heb. 3:17). For what is there, apparently, is the land of promise, here, according to a mysterious sign, is deliverance from passions, which, according to the instructions of the Apostle, is the end of every commandment. And this is the true land of promise; It is for her sake that all this is presented in images. For this reason, the godly wise Paul, caring for the safety of the disciples, so that no one would be caught in the wisdom of unbelief, says: See to it, my brothers, that none of you have an evil and unbelieving heart and depart from the Living God (Heb. 3:12). He used the word retreat to mean not renunciation, but disbelief in God’s promises. And precisely, allegorically describing what happened to the Jews in a representative manner and applying this to the truth itself, he continues: for some who heard Him were indignant, but not all who came out of Egypt with Moses. With whom was He indignant for forty years? Is it not on those who sinned, whose bones fell in the wilderness? Against whom did he swear that they would not enter His rest, if not against the disobedient? So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. ( Heb. 3:16–19 ). And he also adds: Therefore let us be afraid, lest, while the promise of entering into His rest remains, any of you be found to be late. For it was announced to us as well as to those; but the word they heard did not benefit them, not being mixed with the faith of those who heard it. And we who believe (Heb.4:1-3) enter into rest. And a little lower he continues: let us try to enter into this rest, so that no one, following the same example, falls into disobedience (Heb. 4:11). What other rest for Christians is there except deliverance from sinful passions, the most complete and effective infusion of the Good Spirit in a pure heart? Therefore, leading them again to faith, he says: let us draw near with a sincere heart, with full faith, having cleansed our hearts from an evil conscience by sprinkling (Heb. 10:22); and again: how much more will the blood of Jesus cleanse your conscience from dead works, to serve the living and true God (Heb. 9:14). Therefore, it behooves us, as grateful servants, to confess the immeasurable goodness of God towards people promised in these sayings, and to recognize these promises as true and firm, so that if, due to inactivity and weakness of will, we imperfectly devoted ourselves to the Creator and did not strive to achieve high and perfect degrees of virtue, then at least we could receive at least some mercy for a right and unchanging image thoughts and for sound faith. 32. The work of prayer and serving the word, done properly, is above all virtue and commandment. And the Lord Himself is witness to this. For when he came to the house of Martha and Mary and Martha was busy serving, and Mary sat at His feet and enjoyed the sweetness of His Divine lips, but her sister reproached her for not helping her, and therefore approached Christ with a complaint - then, giving priority to the most important things over the secondary ones, the Lord said: Martha, Martha, you are worrying and fussing about many things, but only one thing is needed; Mary chose the good part, which will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:41–42). He said this, as we have already noticed, not condemning the work of ministry, but giving, without a doubt, preference to the greater over the lesser. Otherwise, would He have allowed this service? Why does He Himself turn out to be the performer of this, having washed the feet of the disciples? But the Lord is so far from intending to prohibit ministry that he commands his disciples to do the same with each other (see: John 13:5-14). And you can also see that the Apostles themselves, who first served at meals, preferred this higher work, I mean prayer and service to the word. For they said: “It is unfair for us to leave the word of God and serve tables. But, having prayed, we will appoint men filled with the Holy Spirit over this service; but we will continue continually in prayer and in the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:2–4). You see how they preferred the first to the second, although they knew that both were branches of the same good root. 3. On patience and discernment 33. Those who want to obey God's word and produce good fruit are accompanied by the following signs: groaning, lamentation, downcast gaze, silence, anointing the head, prayer, silence, staying in one place, painful crying, pain of the heart for godliness, and works: vigil, fasting, abstinence, meekness, generosity, continuous prayer, teaching in the Divine Scriptures, faith, humility, brotherly love, obedience, work, suffering, love, goodness, honesty and complete light, that is, the Lord. The signs of those who do not produce the fruit of life are the following: despondency, arrogance, wandering eyes, inattention, murmuring, lack of understanding, and their deeds: gluttony, anger, irritability, desire to second-guess, arrogance, untimely talkativeness, unbelief, inconstancy, forgetfulness, confusion, covetousness, love of money, jealousy, sneakiness, contempt, idle talk, untimely laughter, self-will and all darkness, that is, Satan. 34. According to God’s providence, the evil one was not immediately sent to Gehenna, which he had inherited, but was left to tempt and test man, so that he, reluctantly, through patience, could make the saints more righteous and be the cause of greater glory for them; and by your stubbornness near and by your intentions to prepare for the saints the most righteous punishment: so that, as the divine Apostle says, sin through the commandment becomes extremely sinful (Rom. 7:13). 35. The enemy, having seduced Adam and thus dominated him, took away his power and himself was called the prince of this age. In the beginning, the Lord made man the prince of this age and the ruler of what is visible. Neither fire overcame him, nor water drowned him, nor the beast harmed him, nor the poison-bearing animal could have any effect on him. But after he yielded to the seduction, he also betrayed his superiors to the seducer. Therefore, the magicians and sorcerers, through the action of a resistive force, with God's permission, turn out to be miracle workers, have power over poisonous animals, boldly go into fire and water, like Jannes and Jambres, who resisted Moses (see: 2 Tim. 3:8), and like Simon entering into competition with the chief Peter. 36. I think that the enemy, seeing on the face of Moses the shining glory, similar to the first glory of Adam himself, was quite amazed, concluding from this that his kingdom was ruined. Nothing prevents us from including here the Apostolic saying: death reigned from Adam to Moses and over those who had not sinned (Rom. 5:14). For, in my opinion, the glorified face of Moses contains in itself the image and likeness of the first man created by the hands of God. And death, that is, the culprit of death, the devil, as then, seeing this, already guessed about the fall of his kingdom, so he really suffered this from the Lord. Why do true Christians clothe themselves in this glory even now, and they internally bring death into inaction, or shameful passions that no longer have power over them, when the spiritual glory perceptibly and with all certainty shines in their souls. 37. The enemy, having deceived Adam through his wife, as through something similar, took away from him the glory with which he was invested. And thus the man appeared naked and recognized his ugliness, which he had not seen before, because his thought was delighted with the heavenly beauties; for, as a result of his crime, his thoughts became earthly and reptiles, the simple and good wisdom in him was mixed with carnal and vicious wisdom. And that paradise is concluded and the Cherubim was commanded with a flaming sword to prevent man from entering it, we believe that in a visible way it really happened as it is written (see: Gen. 3:24), and together we find that this is happening mysteriously in every soul. For the heart is wrapped around in a veil of darkness (by darkness I mean the fire of the worldly spirit), and it does not allow the mind to stand before God, nor does the soul, of its own free will, either pray, or believe, or love the Lord. In all this, experience serves as a teacher for those who have sincerely devoted themselves to the Lord, both through unceasing prayer and intense focus on the fighting enemy. 38. The prince of this age is a rod of admonition and a scourge that inflicts wounds on those who are infant in spirit; and for them, as was said before, he prepares great glory and great honor through these sorrows and temptations, because as a result of them people become more perfect, but he prepares for himself a greater and more severe punishment. For in general, through it, a certain very great economy is built, and as it is said nowhere, the evil one, through his evil will, contributes to good: because for souls who are good and have a good will, and apparently sorrowful things are finally turned into good, which is the meaning of what the Apostle said: to those who love God, all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28). 39. This rod of admonition was left for this purpose, so that through it, like vessels heated in a fiery furnace, those who stood the test turned out to be stronger, and those who did not stand the test were convicted of their fragility, because they did not endure the fiery kindling. However, the devil, as a slave and creature of the Master, does not tempt as much as he pleases and, not to the extent that he himself wants, brings sorrow, but as much as by His permission the Master's beck allows him. God, knowing exactly the condition of everyone, how much strength each has, allows to be subjected to temptation to the same extent, as the Apostle also thinks about this, for he says: God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability, but with temptation will also give relief, so that you can endure it (1 Cor. 10:13) 40. He who seeks and knocks on the door and asks to the end, according to the Lord’s word, will receive what he asks (see: Matthew 7:7–8); only let him have the boldness to continually strive for this with both thought and lips and unremittingly remain in bodily service, without binding himself to worldly affairs and not enjoying harmful passions. For He who said: whatever you ask in prayer in faith, you will receive (Matthew 21:22). And those who claim that if someone does everything commanded, but does not receive the expected grace, then in this age there will be no benefit - they know the matter poorly and speak in disagreement with the Divine Scriptures, because there is no unrighteousness with God; and if we have done what is due, then He will not neglect what is from Him. Just be careful that at the time when your soul is detached from this poor body, you appear to be struggling, hastening, waiting for the promise, firm, believing, seeking with prudence; and I tell you, be sure that you will go away with joy, you will have boldness and you will appear worthy of the Kingdom. And such (I say this in weakness through faith and zeal) is already in communion with God. Just as someone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28); and although he did not desecrate the body, he is nevertheless accused of fornication - so, whoever has turned his heart away from the evil one and cleaves to the Lord with desire and seeking, that is, persistent abiding and a God-loving disposition, is already in communion with God, and from now on has from God a great gift - the very thing that persistently remains in prayer with good zeal and virtuous living. If the giving of a cup of cold water does not go unrewarded, then all the more does God grant the promise to those who are devoted to Him and who ask day and night. 41. Those who say in bewilderment: “What is this? There isn’t a day when I don’t have hatred for my brother or recognize something else evil in myself, to which I sometimes even involuntarily expose myself?” - we must say the following: this is the whole feat, this is all the zeal of a person, to resist the evil one and evil thoughts. But it is impossible for the darkness of passions and death, hidden in carnal wisdom, not to secretly or openly bear some fruit of their own, that is, vice. Like an ulcer on the body, until it is completely healed, it is impossible not to become at least somewhat covered with pus, even with all the care for it, when nothing necessary for its healing is denied; an ulcer, left in negligence, sometimes produces rottenness and destruction in the whole body - so imagine spiritual passions. And with great diligence they continue to smolder with inner fire; however, with prolonged care, by the grace and cooperation of Christ, they receive complete healing. For there is some kind of hidden defilement and some kind of excessive darkness of passions, which through the crime of Adam came into all of humanity contrary to the pure nature of man, and this darkens and defiles both body and soul. But just as iron is purified through heating and forging, or gold mixed with copper and iron is separated by one fire, so the soul, through the most pure suffering of the Savior, kindled and crushed by the Good Spirit, is cleansed from all passion and from all sin. 42. Just as many lamps, filled with the same oil and kindled with the same fire, often do not emit the radiance of fire to the same extent, so gifts, according to the difference in good deeds, also have a different radiance of the Good Spirit. Or how in a city, of the many inhabitants who inhabit it and use one bread and one water, some are men, others are infants, others are children, and others are elders, and there is great dissimilarity and difference between them; or as wheat, sown in the same field, produces different ears of itself, then is collected on one threshing floor and poured into one granary - so imagine that at the resurrection of the dead, those resurrected will be glorified and distinguished with different glory, according to the merits of their merits, according to the participation of the Spirit of God still dwelling in them. And this means: star differs from star in glory (1 Cor. 15:41). 43. Even if there are stars smaller than others, they nevertheless shine with the same light. This image is obvious. Let this alone be the subject of care - so that a person, having been reborn by the Holy Spirit, may become sober from the sin living in him: because this rebirth by the Holy Spirit to some extent has the image of perfection, in form and in members, but not in strength, or in mind, or in courage. For one who has reached adulthood is perfect and, as he grows older, usually leaves behind the characteristics of infancy. And this means what the Apostle said: if tongues are silent, prophecies also cease (1 Cor. 13:8). Just as one who has become a man does not tolerate food or words befitting a youth, but already looks at this with displeasure because he has entered into a different way of life, so one who grows to the perfection of the Gospel virtues also raises his infancy to perfection: when he became a man, says the divine Apostle, he left his infancy (1 Cor. 13:11). 44. He who is born of the Spirit, as we have said, is, in a certain sense, perfect; just as we call a child perfect because he keeps all his members intact. Moreover, God does not give the Spirit and grace so that a person will fall into sins; but people themselves are the culprits of their own bad deeds, not being guided by grace and therefore being caught up in evil. A person can also crawl from his own natural thoughts if he is careless, or negligent, or driven by conceit. For listen to what Paul says: So that I would not become arrogant, I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan (2 Cor. 12:7). Do you see that even those who have reached such degrees need to be careful? Moreover, if a person himself had not given Satan a reason, then Satan would not have dominated him by force. Therefore, this deed is not ranked either as part of Christ or as part of the enemy, but he who remains faithful to grace to the end becomes part of Christ’s part; and whoever is not like that, even if he was born of the Spirit, that is, became a partaker of the Holy Spirit, will have the power to follow the will of Satan. And if the Lord Himself, and even Satan, had taken power by force, then man would not have been to blame for the fact that he falls into Gehenna or receives the Kingdom. 45. A lover of virtue must take care of great prudence, so as not to be deceived in distinguishing between good and evil and to enter into the investigation of the manifold intrigues of the evil one, who is in the habit of deceiving many with plausible ideas; at least understand that everything safe is useful. Like someone who wants to experience the chastity of his wife, disguises himself as a stranger at night and when he sees that he is being driven away, he rejoices at her inaccessibility and caution. Likewise, we must be careful when intelligent forces visit us. Even if you drive away the heavenly powers, they will be delighted by this, and will help you to receive even more grace and fill you with spiritual pleasure, convinced of your love for the Lord. Therefore, do not succumb lightly and quickly, to your seduction, to the suggestions of spiritual forces, even if they were the heavenly Angels themselves; but be slow, putting this to the most careful test, appropriating the beautiful and weeding out the evil. For the effects of grace are not hidden; and sin cannot produce them, even if it takes on the guise of good. If, according to the word of the Apostle, Satan knows how to transform himself into an Angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) in order to deceive, then even though he presents bright visions, he will not be able, as it is said, to produce a good action, which is its exact sign. It cannot produce love for God or neighbor, meekness, humility, joy, peace, improvement of thoughts, hatred of the world, spiritual peace, lust for heavenly fruits, nor pacify passions and voluptuousness; all this is clearly a work of grace. For it is said: spiritual fruit is love, joy, peace, etc. (Gal. 5:22). Most likely, Satan is able and powerful to instill arrogance and arrogance. So, let the spiritual light that shines in your soul be recognized by its effectiveness, whether it is from God or from Satan. However, even to the soul itself, if it has sound prudence, this difference soon becomes clear through spiritual feeling. Just as vinegar and wine look the same, but the larynx, through the sense of taste, distinguishes the properties of both - so the soul, by its very spiritual sensation and effectiveness, can distinguish between the gifts of the Spirit and the dreams of someone else. 46. The soul most of all needs to keep in mind and provide for it, so that even for the shortest time it will not be caught by the power of the enemy. Just as an animal, when even one of its members becomes entangled in a net, of necessity everything loses its freedom and is given into the hands of hunters, so the soul usually suffers something similar from its enemies. And the prophet clearly represents this when he says: they have prepared a snare for my feet and have oppressed my soul (Ps. 56:7). 47. Whoever intends to enter the house of a strong man by a narrow path and plunder his vessels must not be content with physical health, but be strengthened by the Good Spirit, keeping in mind who said: flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). How should one be strengthened by the Spirit? We must heed the Apostle, who says that the wisdom of God is counted as foolishness by men (1 Cor. 1:23). And the prophet says: “I saw the Son of man, and His appearance was dishonored, more debased than all the sons of men” (Is. 53:3). Therefore, whoever wants to become a son of God must first of all, like the Lord, humble himself, endure when he is considered crazy and dishonest, not turn his face away from spitting, not chase after glory, the beauty of this age and anything like that, not have anywhere to lay his head, endure reproach and humiliation, be despised and trampled upon by everyone, be subjected to open and secret attacks and confront them with your mind. And then the Son of God Himself, Who Himself said: I will dwell in you and walk (2 Cor. 6:16), will be manifest to his heart; and he will receive strength and strength to bind the strong man and plunder his vessels, to tread on the asp and basilisk, on the serpent and on the scorpion. 48. A considerable feat lies ahead of us to crush death. For it is said: The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). And in some way, the one who is at war with us and captivates us turns out to be within us. Therefore, let the soul never weaken until it lays down the one who takes it captive dead. And then all sickness, sorrow and sighing will flee, because water will open in a thirsty land, and the desert will be turned into many waters (Is. 35:6). Because the Lord promised to fill the desert of the heart with living water, speaking first through the Prophet Isaiah: I will give water to [quench] the thirst of those who walk in the waterless [desert] (Is. 44:3); and then He Himself says: whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst (John 4:14). 49. The soul, overwhelmed by despondency, is clearly obsessed with unbelief - and therefore puts off day after day, not accepting the saving word; Often he deceives himself with dreams, not noticing the inner battle within himself, being overwhelmed by conceit. And conceit is the blinding of the soul, which in no way allows it to recognize its own weakness. 50. Just as a newborn baby retains within itself the image of a perfect husband, so the soul is a certain image of the God who created it. And just as a child, gradually growing up, gradually recognizes his father; and when he comes of age, then agreement is established between father and son and between son and father, and the father’s treasure is revealed to the son; so the soul, before disobedience, had to prosper and become a perfect man (Eph. 4:13). By disobedience, the soul was immersed in the sea of ​​oblivion and in the depths of delusion, and began to dwell in the gates of hell, and, as if having moved away from God at a great distance, could not approach Him and completely know the Creator. But God initially, through the prophets, turned the soul to Himself, called and attracted it to the knowledge of Him. Finally, He Himself came, took away oblivion, took away delusion, and then, having crushed the gates of hell, He entered the lost soul, offering Himself to it as a model, so that through this it would be possible for it to reach the measure of age, the perfection of the Spirit. Therefore, according to the economy, the Word of God is tempted by the evil one, then endures reproach, humiliation, insults and strangulation at the hands of daring people, and finally - the death of the Cross itself, showing this, as we said, what kind of disposition should have towards those who revile us, humiliate us or threaten us with death, so that for those who are deaf, man himself becomes mute and does not open his mouth, so that, seeing the action and the subtlety of wickedness, as if pierced by nails on the cross, with a strong cry cried out to Him who was able to save him from death (Heb. 5:7) and said: Cleanse me from my secrets (Ps. 18:13), and: if they do not prevail over me, then I will be blameless (Ps. 19:14). Then, having become blameless, he finds Him who put all things in subjection to Him (1 Cor. 15:27), reigns and rests with Christ. For the soul, as a result of disobedience, was absorbed in material and impure thoughts, and became, as it were, unreasonable; why it requires considerable work to emerge from such a substance, to understand the subtlety of wickedness and to free itself from it in order to come into dissolution with the beginningless Mind. 51. If you, man, want to enter into yourself and regain the glory that you had before, and which was lost through disobedience, then, as before, having neglected the commandments of God, you heeded the commands and advice of the enemy, so now, having retreated from the one you obeyed, turn to the Lord. However, know that with great labor and with the sweat of your face, as it is said (Gen. 3:19), you will acquire your wealth: because the effortless acquisition of goods is not useful for you. For, having received without difficulty, you have lost what you received and handed over your inheritance to the enemy. Therefore, let each of us know what and when he lost; and let us lament with the prophet: truly our inheritance has passed to strangers, and our houses to foreigners (Lam. 5:2); because we disobeyed the commandment, gave in to our desires, began to delight in unclean and earthly thoughts; why did our soul then move a great distance away from God and we became like orphans without a father. Therefore, whoever cares about the soul should try, as much as he can, to put away evil thoughts and all exaltation that rebels against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5). And when we make such efforts to keep the church of God undefiled, then He who has promised to dwell and walk in us will come (see: 2 Cor. 6:16). Then the soul will accept its inheritance and be worthy to be the church of God. For He Himself, having driven out the evil one by His army, will already reign in us. 52. What the Creator told Cain in the literal meaning of the word: you will groan and shake and be in trouble on earth (Gen. 4:12), then in the mysterious meaning it was a kind of sign and image of all sinners. For the race of Adam, having departed from the commandment and become guilty of sins, is in the same way shaken by fickle thoughts, filled with fear, apprehension and confusion; while the enemy himself overwhelms every soul that has not been reborn from God with desires and various pleasures and shakes it like wheat in some sieve. Yes, and the Lord Himself said to those who follow the desires of the evil one, showing that they observe in themselves the image of Cain’s wickedness, in reproof of them: you want to fulfill the lusts of your father, the murderer. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth (John 8:44). 53. One must imagine how desirable and attractive it is for people to see the king of the earth, and for everyone who comes to the city where the king resides, it is desirable to see at least his precious and magnificent clothes; and perhaps those who live spiritually do not care about this and do not value it highly, because they are wounded by other beauty and desire another glory. If the sight of a mortal king is so desired by carnal people, is not the sight of the immortal King much more gratifying to those on whom a certain drop of the Good Spirit has fallen and whose heart has been wounded by Divine love? That is why they renounce all affection in the world, so that they can constantly have this Divine love in their hearts and not have any other preferable to it. However, there are very few who would add the same ending to a good beginning and remain stumbling-free to the end. Many come into contrition, many become partakers of heavenly grace and are wounded by Divine love; but, unable to endure the labors and temptations encountered, which the evil one builds with his many different and varied intrigues, they remain in the world, plunging into its depths, due to delicacy and weakness of the spirit or due to addiction to earthly things. And those who intend to complete the course to the end in safety do not tolerate other commitments and other loves being mixed with this heavenly love. 54. Just as great and inscrutable are the blessings promised by God, just as many labors and exploits are required, performed with hope and faith. And this is clear from the following: if anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Matthew 16:24). And again: if anyone does not hate his father and mother, and brothers, and wife, and children, and also his own soul, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26). The majority of people are so unreasonable that they want to receive the Kingdom, inherit eternal life, reign forever with Christ (which is very high and above any concept), but they live according to their own desires and will follow them, or rather, they will follow the one who sows such vain and obviously harmful thoughts in them. 55. Those who unfalteringly complete the course to the end, who have completely hated all worldly desires, themselves, all distraction and pleasure in the world and the pursuit of worldly affairs. For this means to deny oneself. Therefore, everyone is expelled from the Kingdom by his own will, by the fact that he does not take on labors according to the truth itself, and renounces himself, but with this Divine love he wants to enjoy something in this age and does not devote the entire aspiration of his will to God. One example will explain the case we are considering. Everyone clearly discerns and it is not hidden from him that whatever work he seeks to do is inconsistent with anything. For first, doubt is expressed within his heart. The scales and the scale arrow in his conscience first show within himself a clear preponderance of either love for God or for the world; and then the same thing is revealed in external reasoning, because, as has been said, everyone discerns this well. For example, if you happen to quarrel with your brother, then the person argues with himself and first makes objections to himself: “Should I tell me? No; I won't tell. Should I respond to this reproach made to me? No; I’d better keep quiet.” We adhere to God’s commandments, but we do not put aside our own glory. No one dares to completely deny himself. If the inclination of love for the world even slightly tugs the scales in the heart, immediately an evil word comes even to the lips. And then the mind, as if drawing a bow inside, shoots its neighbor with its tongue, and evil reaches the hands, and sometimes to wounds, and even to murder itself. From this one can see how, once it began, to what horrors this short-term movement of the soul extends. Therefore, understand that the same thing happens with every sin and undertaking. Vice caresses and beckons the spiritual will with worldly desires and carnal pleasures. This is how fornication is prepared, this is how theft is prepared, this is how covetousness is prepared, this is how vanity is prepared, this is how every evil deed of any kind is prepared. 56. And the best enterprises are often carried out for the sake of empty glory; and God condemns this on a par with theft, despondency and other great sins. For it is said: God scattered the bones of people-pleasers (Ps. 52:6). Thus, the enemy wants people to serve and please him with the kindest deeds; because he is a deceiver, varied and cunning in his intrigues. 57. What a person has loved in this present world, that is what burdens his thought, as if dragging and pushing him down and not allowing him to rise up. Such people have balance, inclination, and predominance of the will of the heart, as if depending on this; and this turns into a test for the entire human race, whether Christians live in cities, or in the mountains, or in monasteries, or in fields, and in desert places: because whoever is voluntarily captured by what he loves, he has clearly not yet fully devoted his love to God. For example, one happened to love property, another gold, another loved to serve the belly or please carnal lusts, and another loved much-taught wisdom for the sake of quick-to-perish glory, and some - the authorities, some - honors from people, some - anger and vexation; It seems to him that he is proving his devotion to his friends. Another loves to talk about unnecessary things; others simply love to be distracted, or to listen to idle talk, or to be a teacher, and then for human glory. Who indulges in bliss and negligence; who delights in the decoration of clothes; this one is a dream, and that one is a wit; another is attached to something small or great in the world and is possessed by it, and this does not allow him to gather his strength. For whatever passion a person does not fight courageously, does not resist it with all measures and delights in it, it attracts him and holds him, as it were, with some kind of bonds, and he, bent, cannot raise his thoughts to God and serve Him alone. But a soul that has truly directed its desire to the Lord turns all its desires to Him, renounces itself and does not follow the desires of its own mind. 58. An example can teach how a person dies of his own free will. For out of love for something in the world he throws himself into fire, plunges into the sea, gives himself into captivity. Imagine that someone's house or village caught fire. Therefore, whoever wanted to save himself, as soon as he felt the fire, ran naked, not caring about anything except his soul; and the other, since the idea came to him to save some of the household things from the fire, remained to take them, and while he wanted to take them, the fire had already embraced the whole house and captured and burned him. You see how, of his own free will, out of attachment to temporary things, which, apparently, he loved more than himself, he died by fire. Still others are caught in a shipwreck: whoever wants to save himself undresses and throws himself naked into the water; and thus it becomes possible for him to save his soul; and whoever wanted to save some of the clothes with him drowned in the water and for the sake of small self-interest (what a disaster!) he destroyed himself. Imagine also that news of some kind of enemy invasion spread; and one, as soon as he heard it, immediately ran as fast as he could in his legs, not caring about anything; the other did not believe the rumor, wanted to take some of the things with him, then slowed down and was captured by the entering enemies. You see that a person, of his own free will, both from negligence and from attachment to something worldly, is subject to the death of body and soul. 59. The few who have fully acquired perfect love for God regard all worldly pleasures and desires as nothing and generously endure the temptations of the evil one. However, one should not, therefore, despair and carelessly abandon good hope. Although many ships are wrecked, there are, without a doubt, those that cross the sea and enter the harbour. Therefore, we need a lot of faith, patience, attentiveness and deeds; moreover, we need to hunger and thirst for good with great prudence and great prudence, and we also need fervor and persistence in asking. For many of the people, as we said before, want to receive the Kingdom without labor and sweat. And they please the holy men, desire their glory and talents, but do not want to have fellowship with them in equal sorrows, labors and sufferings. But everyone desires this - harlots, publicans, and every person. And temptations and trials are coming in order for those who truly loved the Lord to become evident. And they, in fairness, will receive the Kingdom of Heaven. 60. Understand that in sorrows, in suffering, in patience and in faith, the promises, the very glory and acceptance of heavenly blessings, are hidden. And a grain of wheat thrown into the ground, or a tree, I mean grafted, must first be subjected to decay and dishonor, and then it receives the multiple fruits of its splendid attire. And if they had not gone through this decay and through this, as it were, dishonor, they would not have been clothed in this final splendor and this beautiful appearance. The Apostle has the same thought. For he says: through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). And the Lord says: through your patience save your souls (Luke 21:19); and: in the world you will have tribulation (John 16:33). 61. To the extent that each of you, for your faith and diligence, has been deemed worthy to become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, in the same way on that day his body will be glorified. For whatever treasure he has now collected internally in his soul, the same will be revealed externally - in his body. We see an example of this in trees. When winter has passed, the sun began to shine brighter and with greater strength, and the winds blew as they should, then the trees sprout outside of themselves and, like clothes, are clothed with leaves, flowers and fruits. In the same way, the flowers on the grass at this time emerge from the depths of the earth, and the earth is covered with them and clothed, as it were, with a splendid veil. The Word of God speaks about this: even Solomon in all his glory did not dress like any of them (Matthew 6:29). All these images, examples, instructions show the reward for those saved during the resurrection. For all God-loving souls, that is, true Christians, the power of resurrection will appear in the first flower-bearing month - April. For the divine Scripture says: let this month be the first among you among the months of the year (Exodus 12:2). This month will clothe bare trees with the glory previously hidden in them. So the bodies will be glorified by that ineffable light, by that power of the Spirit that now resides in them. This will then be for them clothing, food, drink, amusement, joy, peace and everything - eternal life. 62. Blessed Moses, in that glory of the Spirit that shone on his face and which no man could look at, presented to us an image of how, at the resurrection of the righteous, the bodies of the saints will be glorified with the same glory that the faithful souls of the saints are still vouchsafed to have in the inner man. For it is said: with open face, that is, in the inner man, [as in a mirror], we behold the glory of the Lord, being transformed into His image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). It is also written about Moses that for forty nights and the same number of days he did not remember either food or drink; and this is not characteristic of human nature, unless Moses partook of spiritual food - the same food that holy souls still partake of from the Spirit. 63. The glory with which the souls of the saints are still enriched here will, at the resurrection, cover and clothe naked bodies and take them to heaven; and then they will together, body and soul, ceaselessly rest in the Kingdom of God. God, having created Adam, did not give him bodily wings, like birds, because after the resurrection he intended to give him spiritual wings, so that he would soar on them and be admired, no doubt, wherever the Spirit would delight. These intelligent wings are still given to the souls of the saints, and they delight the saints to heavenly wisdom: because Christians have a different world, different attire, a different meal, a different pleasure. For we know that Christ will come from heaven to resurrect those who have fallen asleep since the beginning of the age, as the Divine Scriptures teach, and that He will divide those resurrected into two parts (see: John 6:39; Matthew 25:31–35). Those who bear His sign, which is the seal of the Holy Spirit, He will place on the right side and will speak to them (see Matthew 25:32-34). For He said: My sheep know my voice and Me (cf. John 10:14). And then their bodies will be clothed in divine glory, which is from their good deeds and the glory of the Spirit; which the souls of the Saints received [still] here (Αγίων 1). And so, glorified by the divine light and caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord, they will always be with the Lord (cf. 1 Thess. 4:17). 64. Those who are in charge of succeeding as perfectly as possible in the Christian life should especially take care with all diligence of the meaning, reason and the sovereign power of the soul, so that, having accurately distinguished between good and bad and having separated from pure nature the passions that have arisen contrary to nature, they can live without stumbling, using reason as an eye, and be able not to agree to the impulses to vice. For in the soul there is a desire to keep the bodily members clean from the corruption of feelings, to protect oneself from the reproaches of their entertainment, to protect the heart so that its thoughts do not scatter throughout the entire space of the world, but collect them from everywhere and keep them from earthly cares and pleasures. Therefore, the Lord, when he sees that a person lives in this way, behaves with such severity and is ready to serve Him with fear and trembling, then gives him the help of His grace. But what would God do with someone who voluntarily gives himself up to the world and follows its pleasures? 65. These five sober virgins, who took into the vessels of their hearts oil unusual for their nature, that is, the grace of the Spirit, were able to enter with the Bridegroom into the bridal chamber (see: Matt. 25: 1–12). Others, foolish and evil virgins, being satisfied with their own nature, did not become sober and did not strive to take into their hearts the same oil of joy, but seemed to have given themselves over to sleep because of negligence, laziness and conceit about their righteousness; why is the palace of the Kingdom closed for them. For it is clear that they were delayed by some worldly ties and worldly affections, and therefore did not show their perfect love and commitment to the Heavenly Bridegroom. And the souls who have sought this holiness of the Spirit, unusual for their nature, and who have clinged to Christ with all their love, walk there, pray there, reason there, reflect there, moving away from everything else. For the five spiritual senses: understanding, knowledge, prudence, patience, mercy, if they receive grace from above and the holiness of the Spirit, will become truly wise virgins. If they remain with their nature, then they truly become holy fools and turn out to be children of the World. 66. Just as vice is something strange for our nature - it crept into us as a result of the crime of the first man, and we accepted it, and over time it became for us, as it were, nature - so with this extraordinary thing for our nature (I mean the gift of the Heavenly Spirit), we must again expel vice from our nature and restore ourselves to primitive purity. Why, if we do not achieve this through many prayers, faith, attentiveness and aversion from worldly things, and if our nature, defiled by vice, is not sanctified by this love, that is, by the Lord, and we do not remain unstumbling to the end, fulfilling His Divine commandments, then we will not be able to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. 67. I intend, if possible, to expound some subtle and profound teaching. The infinite and incorporeal Lord, through infinite goodness, embodies Himself; The Great and All-Essential, as another would say, diminishes in order to become able to merge with His intelligent creatures - souls, I mean saints and Angels, so that it becomes possible for them to partake of the immortal life of His Divinity; because every creature, angel, soul, and demon, by its own nature, is a body. For although they are refined, nevertheless in their essence and in their distinctive features and in their image, according to the refinement of their nature, they are a subtle body, while this body in its essence is fat. So the soul, being a subtle body, was clothed and clothed with the members of this body, clothed with the eye with which it looks, clothed with this ear with which it hears, and with a hand, and with nostrils - and in one word, the soul clothed itself with all the members of the body and merged with them; as a result of which she performs all the functions that lie before her in life. In the same way, the unspeakable and unthinkable goodness of Christ diminishes, embodies itself, merges with the souls that are faithful and loving Christ, embraces them and, according to Paul’s saying, there is one spirit with them (1 Cor. 6:17) - soul, so to speak, into soul and hypostasis into hypostasis, so that such a soul can live His Divinity, achieve immortal life and enjoy uncorrupted pleasure and unspeakable glory. 68. For such a soul, the Lord, when He pleases, becomes a fire, consuming in it everything that is worthless and has come from outside, just as the prophet says: Our God is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24); and sometimes it brings indescribable peace, sometimes it warms and envelops the soul with joy and peace. She must only make an effort to love Him and please Him with good morals - and in the very experience, for the very feeling, she will see in a tactile way those indescribable blessings, which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9) and which only the Spirit of the Lord brings, now for repose, now for joy and enjoyment and life for the soul that has proven worthy of Him: because He embodies Himself both in spiritual food, and in a robe and in inscrutable moulds, in order to thus fill the soul with spiritual joy. For he says: I am living bread (John 6:51), and: whoever drinks the water that I will give him will become in him a source of water flowing into eternal life (John 4:14). 69. So God appeared to each of the priests and saints, as His will was and how useful it was for him who was granted the vision; for example: otherwise he appeared to Abraham, otherwise to Isaac, otherwise to Jacob, Noah, Daniel, Moses, David and each of the prophets, diminishing and fleshing Himself out, as it is said, being transformed, and thereby to those who loved Him, according to the great and unthinkable love that He had for them, allowing Himself to be seen, not what He Himself is in Himself, because God is incontainable, but according to their capacity and strength. 70. The soul, worthy to contain within itself the power from above and this Divine fire, having in its members the dissolved love of the Heavenly Good Spirit, completely renounces the bonds of vice. Just as iron or lead, gold and silver, put into fire, dissolve and change the hardness of their nature into softness and, while they are in the fire, from the power of fire they become stubborn, compliant, putting aside their natural hardness - so the soul, having accepted the Heavenly fire of spiritual love, is eliminated from all attachment to the spirit of the world, freed from the bonds of vice, putting aside its natural sinful rigidity, considering everything worldly small and unworthy of respect. I say that if she has extremely beloved brothers and begin to hinder her in this love, then the soul, captivated by such love, will renounce them too. For if carnal love separates those entering into a marriage union from their father, mother, and brothers, and if someone loves one of them, he does not love much, yet he directs all affection and all affection towards his partner, and if carnal love so separates from any other worldly affection, then those who have given themselves up to this dispassionate love can hardly be delayed by anything worldly. 71. God, as a good and philanthropic person, is long-suffering and greatly expects repentance from each of those who sin, counting the conversion of the repentant as a heavenly holiday. For He Himself says: There will be greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7). But if anyone, seeing this kindness and long-suffering, seeing that God does not punish for every sin, expecting, as we said, repentance, despises the commandment and goodness itself - alas! - turns into a reason for negligence, adding sin to sin, building on one sin from another, adding laziness to laziness - then he will fulfill the measure of sins and will already be caught in such a sin from which it is impossible for him to rise, and he perishes, vainly fleeing from contrition and completely betrayed by the evil one. So it was with the Sodomites: they fulfilled, even exceeded, the measure of sins; and when there was no spark of repentance left in them, so to speak, according to the judgment of God they became prey to fire. This is how it was with Noah. Indulging in unbridled desires for vice, without showing any repentance, people accumulated such a burden of sins for themselves that they completely corrupted the entire earth. So to the Egyptians, who sinned a lot and offended the people of God, God was kind, did not betray them to complete destruction, but led them to repentance with various executions. When, having barely turned to God, they returned to vice again, indulged in their former unbelief, and finally pursued God’s persecuted people—then God’s judgment destroyed and completely destroyed them. Thus, when Israel sinned a lot and killed the prophets of God, God maintained His usual long-suffering. But when the Israelites became so successful in their malice that they were not ashamed of the dignity of the Lord, but laid murderous hands on it, then they were forever rejected and cast down; prophecy, and the priesthood, and worship were taken away from them and given to the believing pagans. 72. Let us earnestly flock to the calling Christ, pouring out our hearts before Him, and let us not persistently despair of our salvation. For this is also the trick of the evil one – to drive people to despair by reminding them of past sins. But we must imagine that if the Lord, having come, was a doctor and healer of the blind, paralytic and deaf, and resurrected the dead who had already undergone decay, then how much more will He heal the blindness of the mind, the relaxation of the soul and the deafness of the careless heart: because it is not another one, but He Himself, who created the body, created the soul. And if he was so kind and merciful to that which is being destroyed and dying, then wouldn’t he all the more philanthropically heal the immortal soul that was possessed by the illness of vice and ignorance, and then flows to Him and asks Him? For this is His word: “Will not My Father in heaven protect His chosen ones who cry to Him day and night? To her I tell you that she will give them protection quickly” (Luke 18:7–8). And also: ask, and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7); also: even if he does not give it to him because of his friendship with him, then, because of his persistence, he will rise up and give him everything he needs (Luke 11:8). And by this He convinces us to ask relentlessly and constantly: because for the sake of sinners He came to convert them to Himself. Only we, having retreated from previous bad deeds, will surrender to the Lord - and He will not despise, but will be ready to give us His help. 73. Just as in the reasoning of those possessed by illness and infirmity, when their body is no longer able to accept food and drink, this leads to despair and serves as a sign of death - why friends and relatives begin to cry at this - so God and the Angels recognize those souls who are not able to feed on heavenly food as worthy of great sorrow and tears. Therefore, if you have become the throne of God and God sits in you, if your soul has become all spiritual eye, all light, saturated with the food of the Spirit, filled with living water, spiritual wine, gladdening the heart, if you have clothed your soul in the robe of ineffable light, if your inner man has experienced and undoubtedly learned all this, then you are already living eternal life, and now resting in Christ. If you have not received this and have not entered into this possession, then shed hot tears and weep that you do not yet have such wealth, and may you have both concern and unceasing prayer for your poverty. And oh, if only the feeling of his wretchedness would appear in the one who dwells in it, and he would not behave carelessly, as if he were satiated with Divine wealth! For it is said: everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds (Matthew 7:8). 74. If this compound oil also has so much power that those anointed with it already enter into royal glory, then how much more so will those whose minds and inner man are anointed with the sanctifying oil of joy, and who have received the pledge of the Good Spirit, will ascend to the measure of perfection, that is, the Kingdom and sonship of Christ, becoming co-secretaries of the King Himself, at any time, having the right to enter the Father and proceed from Him. For although they did not receive the perfect inheritance, being still burdened with the burden of the flesh, nevertheless, because of the pledge of the Spirit, the hope for them is certain, and that they will reign with Christ and will be in the abundance and fullness of the Spirit, they do not doubt this, because, while still in the flesh, they have already experienced this power and this pleasure. For descending grace, through the cleansing of the inner man and mind, completely takes away the veil of Satan, imposed on people by disobedience, and tears away from the soul every filth and every unclean thought, with the goal that the soul becomes pure and, having accepted its own nature, with clear eyes and without restraint looks at the glory of the true light. And those here are still delighted in this age and contemplate the beauties and wonders there. Just as the bodily eye, when it does not suffer from anything and is healthy, boldly looks at the sun’s rays, so they, having an enlightened and pure mind, at all times contemplate the impregnable radiance of the Lord. 75. But such a degree is not easily achieved by people; on the contrary, this requires long labor, innumerable feats and sweat. For there are many in whom active grace is present and from whom the vice hidden in them has not retreated in the least; on the contrary, two spirits - the spirit of light and the spirit of darkness - act in one and the same heart. And what was said: what does light have in common with darkness? (2 Cor.6:14), and: light shines in darkness, etc. (John 1:5), must be taken in various respects, and not in a one-sided manner. Others rest in the grace of God to such an extent that they can control themselves and not yield victory over themselves to the sin that lives in them. And it happens that sometimes, while remaining in diligent prayer, they are at peace, and then are subject to the action of unclean thoughts and are robbed by sin, although grace itself abides in them. Why did frivolous people, who did not comprehend exactly how much Divine grace operates in them, think that sin had been completely destroyed in them? those who have prudence and intelligence will not deny that when God’s grace dwells in them, they are shaken by nasty and inappropriate thoughts. 76. We often saw that some of the brethren received rich grace and, over the course of five or six years of action, their lusts completely withered and faded away, and then, when they thought that they had reached a haven and silence, vice, as if emerging from an ambush, attacked them with such hostility and ferocity that it brought them into amazement and bewilderment. Therefore, none of the people of insightful reason dared to say about themselves: “Since grace remains with me, then I am already free from sin”; because, as has been said above, there are two spirits at work in the same mind. And although frivolous and ignorant people, having some subtle spiritual thread in themselves, already say: “We have won!”, however, it seems to me that in reality this is what happens. When the sun shines purely, the suddenly darkened air or fog darkens its beautiful light. In almost the same position there are those who have been honored with the grace of God, but have not completely purified themselves and are still possessed by sin in their depths; why it really takes a lot of judgment to believe this is the most perfect experience. 77. Just as without eyes, tongue, ears and legs it is impossible to see or speak, hear or walk, so without God and the effectiveness given by Him, it is equally impossible to become a partaker of the Divine mysteries and to know God’s wisdom, or to be enriched in spirit. The wise among the Hellenes study verbal sciences and diligently spend time in verbal debates, and the servants of God, although they are not familiar with verbal sciences, are perfected by Divine knowledge and God's grace. 78. I say with confidence that these very Apostles, filled with the Good Comforter, were not completely free from worries, but after joy and inexpressible joy there was a certain fear as a result of grace itself, and not because they gave an excuse for evil to act in them. For grace itself placed them in safety from even the slightest deviation from the right path. Just as a child, throwing a small stone at a wall, will not do anything to it, or just as a weak arrow will not in the least damage strong armor, so any part of vice, having attacked them, turned out to be ineffective and futile: because they were well protected by the power of Christ. However, even with all the perfection, there was freedom of arbitrariness in them. And some foolishly say that after grace there is renunciation and liberation from worries. The Lord also seeks from the perfect the spiritual will to serve the Spirit, so that there is mutual agreement. For the Apostle says: Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19). 79. It is possible and convenient for anyone to convey the matter in simple words. So, let's say for example, it is easy for anyone to say that bread is made from wheat; but not everyone has enough knowledge to describe its preparation in detail, and only experienced people can do this. Similarly, to speak simply about dispassion and perfection is not difficult and convenient, but to find out the matter by experience means the same thing as to comprehend by deed and in truth how perfection is acquired. 80. I liken those who offer spiritual teaching without tasting or experiencing it to a man who, in the summer, at midday, walks along a deserted and waterless plain, then, with a strong and burning thirst, imagines in his mind that near him there is a cool spring with sweet and clear water, and imagines that without any obstacle he enjoys the water to the full; or, I liken it to a person who has not tasted even a drop of honey, but is trying to explain to others what its sweetness is. For such are truly those who, without actually knowing and from their own confirmation what perfection, holiness and dispassion are, want to explain it to others. Therefore, if God allows them to gain even a little awareness of what they are discussing, then, without a doubt, they will learn that the truth and the matter itself are not similar to their interpretation, but are very different. For Christianity suffers, leaving the beautiful path and coming [mind] to godlessness. And thus Christianity is like a kind of food and drink: the more a person tries, the more he wants more, and his mind becomes restless and uncontrollable. It is as if someone served a sweet drink to someone who wanted it, not only out of the need to quench his thirst, but also because of the pleasure that makes him drink again and again. But this, as we have already said, is not reasoned with words alone, but with the mind through the action of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament, and so (έτσι) they say (λέγονται). 81. The Gospel decisively commands every person to do one thing and not do another in order to become pleasing to the man-loving King. For he says: “Do not be angry, do not covet; If someone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). The Apostle, gradually explaining what was commanded, instructs how little by little the work of purification should be accomplished, namely, with patience and generosity, and first nourishes with milk, like infants, then leads to growth and finally to perfection. And, to put it this way as an example, the Gospel prescribed: “Make a perfect tunic out of a wave.” The Apostle perfectly explained how to spin a wave, weave and prepare a tunic. 82. Others abstain from obvious fornication, theft, covetousness and similar bad deeds and therefore place themselves among the saints; but they lack much to become saints in reality and truly: because vice often still hides in the mind, lives and creeps, and never moves away from them. A saint is one who has sanctified and completely purified the inner man. One of the brethren, praying together with other brethren, was captivated by Divine power and in admiration saw the mountain city of Jerusalem, the bright dwellings there, the boundless and ineffable light, and heard a voice that said: “This is the resting place of the righteous!” Then, having become arrogant and having a high opinion of himself, he fell into the depths of sin and subsequently became the prey of great evils. If this was the case with him, then is it possible for a simple person to say: “Since I fast, lead a wandering life, give away my property, and have kept myself from the aforementioned bad deeds, then there is nothing left for me to be a saint?” Abstaining from visible bad deeds is not yet perfection, as it is said; but purification of the mind is perfection! 83. You, who assume this, with vigilant supervision over your thoughts, enter your mind, the captive and slave of sin, and consider what is at the bottom of it, in the depths of your thoughts - this, I mean, the serpent nesting in the so-called recesses of your soul and killing you in the most important members of your soul. For the heart truly is an immense abyss. Therefore, if you have killed this serpent, if you have cleansed yourself from all lawlessness, cast out sin from yourself, then boast in God about your purity; Otherwise, having humbled yourself as a meager and a sinner, come to Christ, praying for your secrets. For all the Old and New Scripture seems to talk about purity; and every person, Jew and Greek, desires the word about purity, although it is not effective in everyone. To achieve this, that is, purity of heart, is possible only through Jesus alone. For He is the hypostatic and existent Truth, and without this Truth it is impossible both to know the truth and to achieve salvation. 84. Just as in relation to this visible thing you renounced the external man, dividing and wasting your property, so you need to renounce your former morals. And if you have studied carnal wisdom, or the knowledge of things, renounce this too. If you relied on the works of carnal truth, give up on them, humbling and humiliating yourself. For in this way you will be able to learn the madness of preaching (1 Cor. 1:21), and with it you will gain true wisdom, which consists not in beautiful words, but in the power of the Cross, in the being possessed by these who are worthy to acquire it; because “The Cross of Christ,” says Paul, “is a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Gentiles, but for us who are being saved, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23,18,24). 85. Even if you received a heavenly taste, even if you became a partaker of this wisdom and already had peace in your soul - and in this case, do not be arrogant and do not be arrogant, as if you have already comprehended and understood the whole truth, so that you too do not hear: you are already fed up, you have already become rich, you have begun to reign without us. Oh, that you might indeed reign, so that we too might reign (1 Cor. 4:8). On the contrary, even having tasted Christianity, think of yourself as if you had never touched it. And let this not be a superficial thought in your mind, but something, as it were, always implanted and established in your mind. 86. Just as a rich man, although he collects many thousands, is not satisfied with it, but his desire becomes all the more unsatisfied, or as someone who is still deprived of a sweet drink, before he is satisfied with it, becomes more inflamed with thirst, so the tasting of God’s sweetness is higher than all satiety. On the contrary, the more someone enriches himself with this wealth, the more he imagines himself to be poor. Such Christians themselves do not highly value their souls, but remain extremely humble before God and consider themselves slaves of every person. In such a soul, because of its humility, the Lord rejoices greatly and rests in it. Therefore, even if a person has anything, let him not think about himself, what he means or has anything: because conceit is an abomination to the Lord. It initially drove man out of paradise, when, having heard what was said: you will be like gods (Gen. 3:5), he trustingly surrendered to this vain hope. Know how your God, and the King, and the Son of God made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7), how He became poor, how He was imputed with the dishonorable, how He suffered. And if He is God, are you, a man made of blood and flesh, earth and ashes and - alas! - not at all involved in anything good, but sheer uncleanness, do you think highly of yourself and are arrogant? If you are reasonable, and about the very thing that you received from God, all the more say: “This property is not mine, having received it from another, I have this, and when He pleases, without a doubt, what He has given me will be taken away from me.” Thus, attribute everything good to the Lord, and everything bad to your weakness. 87. By the treasure of which the Apostle speaks, that it is in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7), we mean the sanctifying power of the Spirit, which the Apostle was vouchsafed to receive while still in the flesh. For he also says in another place: Who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Whoever has found and has this heavenly treasure of the Spirit can accomplish all the righteousness required by the commandments, and fulfill all the commandments not only purely and blamelessly, but even without labor and fatigue, which before, without labor, it was not possible to do: because even if a person wanted to, he cannot truly cultivate the spiritual fruit until the communion of the Good Spirit. But, however, everyone, completing the course with patience and faith, constantly forces himself and fervently prays to Christ to receive this heavenly treasure. And then about Him and through Him it will be possible to fulfill all truth purely and completely, and I add, easily and comfortably. 88. Those who have within themselves the Divine wealth of the Spirit, when they communicate spiritual words to others, teach them as if taken from their own treasure. And those who have not collected into the heart’s treasuries this wealth, which exudes from itself the goodness of Divine thoughts, and mysteries, and the highest verbs, those, having collected several flowers from the Scriptures of both Testaments, wear them on the end of their tongues, or, having become listeners of spiritual men, boast of their teaching, offering it as their own and appropriating for themselves the work of others. And they give others easy pleasure in what they teach, but they themselves, after their conversation, turn out to be like beggars: because each of their words, as it were, is returned to the property of those from whom it was taken, but they themselves have not acquired their own treasure, so that they could first enjoy it themselves, and then communicate it to others with benefit. Therefore, we must first ask God so that this true wealth is already in us, and then it will be convenient for us to come to a state and benefit others and teach them spiritual and mysterious teachings. For the goodness of God was pleased to dwell in everyone who believes. The Lord says: whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and appear to him Myself (John 14:21); and in another place: I and the Father will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). 89. Those who have been deemed worthy to become children of God and have within them Christ who enlightens them, are governed by the Spirit in different and varied ways, and grace warms them in the innermost parts of their hearts. But it is best to present some of the visible worldly pleasures on Wednesday in order to liken them to the Divine consolations of grace in the soul. For those who have been granted these consolations sometimes have fun as if at some kind of royal supper and rejoice in some kind of inexpressible and ineffable joy: sometimes they enjoy themselves spiritually, like a bride and groom, sometimes like some disembodied Angels, they feel such ease and lightness in the body that they do not consider themselves even clothed in a body; sometimes they are brought into joy as if by some kind of drink and are intoxicated with the inexpressible rapture of spiritual mysteries; sometimes, in weeping and lamentation, they tearfully pray for the salvation of all people: because, burning with Divine spiritual love for all people, they take upon themselves the cry of the whole Adam; and sometimes, with a delight of the spirit, indescribable by words, they are kindled with such love that, if it were possible, they would compassionately shelter every person in their own bosom, without making any distinction between bad and good; sometimes they humiliate themselves so much that they cannot even imagine a person who would be lower than them, but they consider themselves to be the last of all; then they are absorbed by the unspeakable joy of the Spirit, then, like some strong man, putting on the whole armor of the king, he went into battle and put those who resisted to flight, and they, in the same way, protecting themselves with spiritual weapons, go out against invisible enemies and lay them at their feet; at other times great silence and silence surround them, the world is at peace, and they are enveloped in wonderful pleasure; at other times, by understanding, Divine wisdom and the unsearchable knowledge of the Spirit, by the grace of Christ, they manage to do what no tongue can express; and there is a time when you see them no different in appearance from any of the people. Thus, Divine grace, which changes and diversifies itself in many different ways, seems to want to educate and exercise the soul in order to present it perfect and immaculate and the purest to the Heavenly Spirit. 90. The actions of the Spirit counted here occur in those that stand at high levels and are very close to perfection. These various consolations of grace are produced in them by the Spirit, although in different ways, but continuously, so that one action of the Spirit is followed by another. When a person comes to the perfection of the spirit, having completely cleansed himself of all passions and, through ineffable communion, having completely entered into unity with the Comforter Spirit, when the soul itself, as if dissolved by the Spirit, is worthy to become the Spirit, then everything in it becomes light, everything becomes joy, everything becomes peace, everything becomes joy, everything becomes love, everything becomes mercy, everything becomes goodness, everything becomes kindness, and as if it is immersed in the virtue of the power of the Good Spirit, like a stone, surrounded from everywhere by the waters in the abyss of the sea. In this way, having united in every possible way with God’s Spirit, such people become like Christ Himself, having in themselves the immutable virtues of the Spirit and showing such fruits to everyone. The Spirit made them internally immaculate and pure, therefore it is impossible for them to bear the fruits of vice outside themselves; on the contrary, the fruits of the Spirit always shine in them in everything. Such is the progress of spiritual perfection, the fullness of Christ, which the Apostle advises us to achieve, saying: so that you may be filled with all the fullness of Christ (Eph. 3:19); and again: until we all come to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). 91. Sometimes a person comes in to bend his knee, and his heart becomes full of Divine activity; his soul, as has already been explained, rejoices with the Lord like a bride rejoicing over the groom. The great Isaiah speaks about this: as the groom rejoices over the bride, so the Lord will rejoice over you (Is. 62:5). It also happens that such a person is busy for whole days, but for one hour he turns to prayer; and then the inner man is delighted with prayer, and is embraced by the infinite depth of this age, and he feels such an inexpressible pleasure that his soaring and enraptured mind is completely delighted, and oblivion of this earthly wisdom occurs in his thoughts: because, as has been said, his thoughts are filled with it and, like captives, are taken away into the boundless and incomprehensible; why does it happen to a person at this hour that, through his prayer, his soul departs along with the prayer. 92. And to those who propose the question whether a person has the strength to always remain in such a state, the following should be answered. There is no time when grace does not exist and is not rooted in a person; and in whom it resides, it becomes, as it were, something natural and inalienable; Being one, she, in various ways, as she pleases, builds an economy in a person for his own benefit. Sometimes the fire ignites in him stronger, and sometimes weaker; and the light sometimes shines to a greater extent, and sometimes it diminishes and dims, no doubt, according to Divine vision; and although the lamp burns unquenchably, sometimes it becomes clearer, and then a person celebrates, as if in greater rapture of God’s love, and sometimes the very light that appears in the heart opens the door to an even inner and deepest light, so that a person, completely absorbed in its sweetness and contemplation, is already beside himself and seems to the world wild and harmful because of the new charms of love and pleasure and the depth of the secrets of which he honored. And it often happens that at this time a person reaches perfect measure and becomes free from all sin and blameless; after this, grace is diminished in some way, and a veil of resistive force descends on the person. 93. So reason about the actions of grace: suppose that ascending to the twelfth degree is perfection, and such a measure is sometimes available; but grace again begins to act weaker; and, having descended to one degree, stops, so to speak, at the eleventh. These miracles were revealed to him, and man experienced them experimentally. And if this always continued in the same way, then it would be impossible for him to take upon himself the management and burden of the word, he would not be able to hear or speak about anything or would not take care of anything, even for the shortest time, but would only lie, cast down in one corner, overwhelmed with delight, soaring up and intoxicated. That is why the perfect measure is not given to a person so that he has time to take care of the brethren and serve the word. 94. Hearing the word about the Kingdom and being brought to tears, let us not dwell on these tears and consider ourselves satisfied either with our ears, as those who have heard well, or with our eyes, as those who have seen well; because there are other ears, and other eyes, and other tears, as well as another understanding, and another soul, that is, this Divine and Heavenly Spirit, which hears, and cries, and prays, and knows, and actually does the will of God. For even to the Apostles, promising the highest gift of the Spirit, the Lord said: “I am coming. But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things” (John 14:26); and one more thing: I have much to tell you; but now you cannot contain it. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth (John 16:12-13). He will pray, He will cry. For we do not know what to pray for as we should, says the divine Apostle, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be expressed (Rom. 8:26); because God’s will is revealed only to the Spirit Himself. It is said: No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11). And on the day of Pentecost, when, according to the promise, the Comforter descended and the power of the Good Spirit dwelt in the souls of the Apostles (see: Acts 2), the veil of sin was completely removed from them, the passions were brought into inaction, the eyes of their hearts were opened; and then, having been filled with wisdom and raised to perfection by the Spirit through the same Spirit, who became sovereign and royal in their souls, they learned to do the will of God and were guided by Him into all truth. Therefore, when it happens to us that, hearing God’s word, we begin to cry, let us beg Christ with undoubted faith, so that the Spirit may come to us, who truly hope, hearing and praying in accordance with His will. 95. Imagine it this way: some force, like thin air, lies and covers a light mind. Although the lamp, as it has been said, always burns and shines, yet on this light there lies, as it were, a kind of veil. Therefore, such a person cannot deny that he is still imperfect and not completely free from sin. One can say that he is both free and unfree. But this, of course, does not happen without God, but according to God’s will. And sometimes this mediastinum of the fence is ruined and crushed, and sometimes it is not ruined at all. And such a prayerful state is not always the same; but it happens that sometimes grace ignites more, and comforts, and reassures, and sometimes it becomes less bright and weak, as grace itself builds this for the benefit of man. However, at other times I came to perfect measure, tasted and experienced this age, but I have not yet seen a single Christianity that is perfect or completely free. Although another rests in grace, becomes a partaker of mysteries and revelations, and reaches a feeling of great grace-filled sweetness, however, sin also remains in him. Such, because of the abundant grace and the light that shone in them, and I will say, due to inexperience, thought of themselves that they were perfect and free. But, as I said, I have not yet seen one that is completely free. Since at other times I also happened to partially come, as it was said, to this measure, then, taught by experience, I know what a perfect person is. 96. When you happen to hear about the communication between the bride and groom, about the parties, the festivities, do not imagine anything material or earthly: because this is taken in relation, only as an example. since all this is inexpressibly spiritual and inviolable for carnal eyes, but becomes understandable to a faithful and holy soul - and the very communion of the Holy Spirit, and heavenly treasures, and the faces and celebrations of the holy Angels are visible only to those who have experienced this, and it is completely impossible for the uninitiated to even imagine it in their minds - then listen to this reverently, until you yourself, by faith, are worthy to achieve such knowledge - and then by experience itself You will see with your soul’s eyes what blessings Christian souls can still partake of here. For in the resurrection the body itself will be able to become a participant in such blessings, and see them, and, as it were, possess them, when the body also becomes spiritual. 97. Your own spiritual beauties and good fruits, such as prayer, love, faith, vigil, fasting and other virtuous endeavors, when they are in unity and communion with the Spirit, then they themselves, like incense put into the fire, will emit a rich fragrance; and it will be easy for us to lead a life in accordance with God’s will, because without the Holy Spirit, as has already been said, it is impossible for anyone to understand the will of God. For just as a wife entering into marriage with her husband, before marriage, is led by her own disposition and acts according to her own will; when she is united with him, then, ceasing to pay attention to herself, she begins to live completely under his leadership - so the soul, although it has its own will, its own laws and its own affairs, but as soon as it becomes worthy to be united with the Heavenly Husband - Christ, it submits to the law of the Husband and no longer follows its own will, but the will of its Bridegroom - Christ. 98. Under the wedding robe understand the grace of the Holy Spirit. He who has not become worthy to put on it will not be a participant in the heavenly marriage and spiritual supper. 99. Let us make an effort to taste this spiritual and Divine wine and become drunk with this sober rapture, so that, just as those who have drunk wine when they are full become talkative, so we, being filled with this spiritual wine, can speak the Divine mysteries. For David says: Your cup, which gives me drink, is so strong (Ps. 22:5) 100. That soul is poor in spirit, which recognizes its ulcers, recognizes the darkness of passions surrounding it, and always asks for deliverance from the Lord, endures toils, but does not rejoice in any earthly good, relying only on the wonderful Physician and His healing. How can this ulcerated soul be beautiful, comely, worthy of cohabitation with Christ? Not otherwise, unless attention is paid to how she was originally created and how clearly she recognizes her ulcers and her poverty. If she does not enjoy those ulcers and scabs of passions that she has on herself, and does not excuse her sins, then the Lord will not impute the disgrace to her, but, having come, will heal and heal her and return her dispassion and imperishable beauty; If only she, as it was said, did not enter into communication with her will with what the passions require, and did not deign to do what they produce, but cried out to the Lord with all her might, so that from His Good Spirit she would be granted liberation from all passions. Therefore blessed is this soul. But woe to that soul that is not aware of its ulcers and, due to its great and immeasurable depravity, does not think that it has any vice: the good Doctor does not visit or heal it, because it does not care about its ulcers, considering itself unharmed and healthy. It is not the healthy, it is said, who need a doctor, but the sick (Matthew 9:12). 101. Truly blessed and worthy of wonder, both in life and in supernatural pleasure, are all those who, driven by an ardent love for virtue, have experimentally and tangibly acquired knowledge of the heavenly mysteries of the Spirit and have their residence in heaven. They are superior to all people, and here is clear proof of that. Which of the strong, or wise, or prudent people, while still on earth, ascended to heaven and there performed spiritual deeds, contemplated the delights of the Spirit? And now some outwardly beggar, extremely poor, and humiliated, and even completely unknown to his neighbors, prostrates himself on his face before the Lord and, guided by the Spirit, ascends to heaven and with undoubted confidence in his soul enjoys the miracles there, acts there, has a life there, according to the word of the divine Apostle. For it is said: our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20); and one more thing: what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). Then the Apostle adds: but He revealed this to us by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10). They are truly wise and strong people; They are noble and prudent people. 102. However, judging the saints not by their heavenly gifts, but also by their real talents, you will not doubt to say that they are higher than all people. Think about it this way: Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned in Babylon, once gathered all the peoples under his control to worship the image he had carved; According to the all-wise dispensation of God, this served to ensure that the virtue of the youths became known to everyone and everyone knew that there is one true God who lives in heaven. Three youths, moreover captives and deprived of freedom, had boldness before the king, and when everyone in great fear worshiped the image and did not dare to disobey, but were drawn like almost silent cattle, they not only do not agree to act like the others, but do not even want to leave their piety unknown, do not tolerate it being hidden, and say out loud to everyone: we do not serve your gods and the idol We do not bow down to the golden one that you set up (Dan.3:18). Although this terrible cave took them into itself for punishment, it did not exert its effect on them, but, as if it had reverenced them, it kept them from suffering no evil. Everyone, including the king himself, came to know the true God through them. Not only those on earth, but also the heavenly hosts were amazed at them. And that the heavenly ones are not far away during the valiant deeds of the saints, but look at them, this is shown to us by the divine Apostle, for he says: we have become a spectacle for both Angels and people (1 Cor. 4:9). You can see something similar to this in the example of Elijah: he alone overcame very many by bringing down heavenly fire. And Moses overcame the whole of Egypt and the tormentor of Pharaoh. You will see the same in the example of Lot, Noah and many others; Apparently they were in great disrespect from people, but they prevailed over many noble and powerful ones. 103. It is common for every visible thing, unless another extraneous nature comes to its aid, to remain inactive and unsettled in itself: because the ineffable wisdom of God in visible things shows us secrets and images, just as human nature itself cannot show the perfect beauty of virtues and the spiritual splendor of a shrine, unless God’s hand assists it. For example, land left to itself, unless farmers take care of it, and the rain and sun do not contribute, is good for nothing and is least capable of fertility. And every house has a need for this sunlight, which is not of the same nature as the house, and without light it will be full of darkness and uninhabitable. And you will see many other things about which something similar to this should be said. Likewise, human nature itself does not have the ability to perfectly bear the fruits of virtues, but has a need for the spiritual Farmer of our souls, that is, the Spirit of Christ, Who is truly unusual for our nature: because we are a creature, and He is not created; and He, having cultivated the hearts with His art - I mean the faithful who have given themselves up to this Worker with all their will - prepares them for the growth of the perfect fruits of the Spirit and His light shines in the house of our soul darkened by passions. 104. Christians are faced with a double battle and a double struggle: firstly, with things that are visible with this eye, because they irritate, touch and cause the soul to become addicted to them and enjoy them; and secondly - with the principles and powers of the terrible ruler of the world. 105. The glory that Moses had on his face was an image of the true glory of the All-Holy Spirit. Just as no one there could look at the face of Moses, so now the darkness of passions cannot bear this glory that illuminates the Christian soul, but flees, driven by its rays. 106. To the lover of truth and the lover of God, who has tasted heavenly sweetness, has grace implanted and dissolved in his soul, and has completely devoted himself to the will of grace, everything in this age is hateful, because he is placed above everything that is in the world. Whether you call it gold, or silver, or honors and glory, or pleasures and praises, he cannot be caught by anything like that: because he has experienced other wealth, another honor, another glory, feeds the soul with uncorrupted pleasure, has a feeling and full assurance of the communication of the Spirit. He is as different from people in understanding, knowledge and prudence as a reasonable shepherd is different from dumb sheep: because he participates in another Spirit, another mind, another understanding and another wisdom, different from the wisdom of this World. It is said: but we speak of wisdom among those who are perfect, but the wisdom is not of this age, the princes of this age are doomed to be abolished, but we speak of the wisdom of God in mystery (1 Cor. 2:6-7). Therefore, such a one, as it is said, is different in everything from all people who have the spirit of the world - both reasonable and wise - and, according to what is written, he judges everything (1 Cor. 2:15). He knows about everyone, where he says what he got from, what he stopped at and where he is; no one who has the spirit of the world can know it and judge about it, but only one who has a similar Spirit of the Divine can, according to the word of the divine Apostle: expounding spiritual things spiritually. But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, because they seem foolish to him; but he who is spiritual judges all things, and no one can judge him (1 Cor. 2:13–15). 107. It is impossible to receive this All-Holy Spirit otherwise, unless someone, having withdrawn from everything that is in this age, devotes himself to seeking the love of Christ, so that the mind, freed from all worries about material things, is directed towards this only one goal and thus is deemed worthy to be one Spirit with Christ, as the Apostle says: he who is united with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). A soul that is completely attached and addicted to something in this age, for example, to wealth, or to fame, or to worldly affection, will be impossible to avoid and bypass the darkness of evil forces. 108. Truth-loving and God-loving souls do not tolerate even the slightest weakening in their love for the Lord, but, fully and completely nailed to His Cross, they are aware of the feeling of spiritual progress revealed in them. Why are those wounded by this love and, so to speak, hungry for the truth of virtues and illumination from the Good Spirit, although they are worthy of the Divine mysteries, although they are made partakers of heavenly joy and grace, they are not confident in themselves and do not think that they mean anything; but to the extent that they are worthy of spiritual gifts, to such an extent, and with even greater insatiability and with great effort, they seek the heavenly; and the more they feel spiritual progress within themselves, the more hungrily they desire to partake of these gifts; and the spiritually rich, as much as depends on them, are likened to the poor, in accordance with Divine Scripture. For it is said: those who eat me will still hunger, and those who drink me will still thirst (Sir.24:23). Such souls are granted freedom from passions in all respects and perfectly accept the illumination and communication of the Divine Spirit in the fullness of grace. Lazy souls, who do not tolerate labor and, since they are still in the body, who do not try with constant patience and generosity, not partly, but completely here, to accept the sacred things of the heart, do not hope with full feeling and assurance to enter into communion with the Comforter Spirit, and through Him to free themselves from harmful passions. Although they are worthy of Divine grace, they, robbed by vice, abandon all concern for themselves, as those who have already received grace, comforted by it and enjoying spiritual sweetness; and therefore they are very prone to conceit, do not have a contrite heart, are unhumble in their way of thinking, do not feel thirst, do not strive for a perfect measure of dispassion, but are content with this small consolation of grace, succeed in exaltation, and not in humility, and sometimes they are most likely deprived of the grace with which they were vouchsafed. For a truly God-loving soul, as the word has shown, even if it has performed thousands of righteous deeds, even if it has exhausted the body with strict vigils, has been granted various gifts of the Spirit, revelations and mysteries, it behaves so modestly, as if it had not yet begun life according to God, and has not acquired anything good: because with commitment and insatiability it is disposed towards the love of Christ. 109. It is not possible for anyone to come to this measure suddenly or easily, but after many previous labors and exploits, with many years of diligence, through testing and various temptations, it is possible to achieve the measure of perfect dispassion. Only in this way is the true person in all labor and self-exhaustion, having complacently endured all the temptations into which malice leads, a person is finally awarded great honors, spiritual gifts and Divine wealth - and then becomes the heir of the Heavenly Kingdom. 110. The soul that does not have the above-mentioned severity in life and has not yet accepted the feeling of sacredness in the heart, let it cry and fervently ask the Lord to be worthy of this good and the effectiveness of the Spirit, which is revealed in the mind by ineffable contemplations. How, according to church law, those convicted of carnal sins are first excommunicated by the priest, and then, having demonstrated their repentance in due measure, are allowed into fellowship; and those who lived without stumbling and purely, those ascend to the priesthood and from those who stood outside are brought inside the altar and receive rank in order to remain sacred and present to the Lord - so let us talk about the mysterious communion of the Spirit, about which the Apostle says: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:13). And here you will see that consistency is observed. For the Divine Trinity dwells in the soul, which, with the assistance of Divine goodness, keeps itself pure; it dwells not as It is in Itself, because it is inconceivable for every creature, but according to the ability and acceptability of man. How quickly a person deviates in any way from a life in accordance with the will of God and offends the Divine Spirit - his mind is cast out and separated from spiritual joy: because Divine grace, and love, and every good action of the Spirit are diminished in him, while he himself indulges in sorrows, temptations and evil spirits, until the soul begins to walk again in the right way, to please the Spirit. Then, having demonstrated his repentance in all confession and humility, he is again finally granted a visitation of grace, and receives heavenly joy to a greater extent than before. If the soul does not offend the Spirit in any way, but lives pleasingly, resisting all evil thoughts and constantly clinging to the Lord, then such a soul will succeed in justice and in proportion to this, will be honored with unspeakable gifts, will pass from glory to glory, from one rest to the most perfect rest, and then, having achieved the perfect measure of Christianity, will be counted among the perfect workers and blameless priests of Christ in the eternal Kingdom of Christ. 111. In all this visible, imagine the images and shadows of the hidden: in the visible church - the image of the church of the heart, in the priest - the image of the true Priest of Christ's grace, and so on. As in this visible church, if readings, psalmody and other rites of the church are not preceded first, then the priest should not perform the Divine Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; Also, if all the church rules are fulfilled, but the sacramental Eucharist was not performed by the priest and there was no communion of the Body of Christ, then according to the church charter the sacred act is not completed and the service of the Sacrament is not enough - understand this about Christianity. If he has succeeded in fasting, in vigil, in psalmody, in every feat and in every virtue, but on the altar of his heart the mysterious action of the Spirit has not yet been accomplished by grace, with full sensation and spiritual repose - then all such rites of asceticism are not perfect and are almost useless, because a person does not have the spiritual joy that is mysteriously produced in the heart. 112. A wonderful thing is fasting, a wonderful thing is vigil, and an equally wonderful thing is asceticism and a wandering life; and these are the beginnings of the life of a God-loving man. But it is completely unreasonable to rely confidently on such things alone. It sometimes happens that we participate in some grace, but the vice hidden within us, as has already been said, is contrived and voluntarily gives way, does not act in its own way, but, on the contrary, makes a person consider his mind to have achieved purity and thereby leads to conceit about his perfection, then attacks the person robberly and casts him into the underworld. People often, having spent twenty years as robbers or in military service, know how to plot intrigues against enemies: they hide, deliberately set up ambushes, go behind enemy lines and, accidentally surrounding them, kill. How much more sin, which has been in the world for thousands of years and considers the most important thing for itself to be the destruction of souls, knows how to deliberately make such ambushes in the secrets of the heart, is capable of hiding for a while and not acting in order to draw the soul into the conceit of its perfection. The basis of Christianity is this: if someone fulfills all the works of righteousness, do not rest on them, do not rely on them too much and do not think that something great has been done; If anyone becomes a partaker of grace, do not consider yourself to have reached the goal and to be satiated, but even then to hunger and thirst, to cry and shed tears, to have a completely contrite heart. 113. So imagine your spiritual state. Suppose that there is some kind of royal house, and with it there are various courtyards and several vestibules and other external premises, and then again in order there are internal churches, in which purple and treasures are usually stored, and behind them there is also an internal church with all the amenities for the royal stay; and just as the one who, having entered the outer courtyards and dwellings, thinks that he has reached the inner churches is mistaken, so, accordingly, it happens in the spiritual. If those who struggle with their belly and with sleep constantly remain in psalmody and prayer, then let them not think that they have already reached the end and rest. Why? Because they are still located at the entrances and in the courtyards, and not where the purple and royal treasures are kept. If they have been granted some spiritual grace, then let this also not deceive them into thinking that they have reached the end. Therefore, you should test: have you found treasure in this meager (clay) vessel? Have you put on the purple of the Spirit? Did you see the Tsar and calm down? For imagine also that the soul has some depth and many members, that sin that has entered occupies all the components and thoughts of the heart, and then, when a person has sought the grace of the Spirit, it comes and occupies, perhaps, two members of the soul. Therefore, the inexperienced, comforted by this grace, falls into the thought that all members of the soul are occupied by grace and sin is completely eradicated; and yet he does not know that most of the soul still possesses sin. For, as has been explained many times, it is possible for grace to continually act, just as the eye acts in the body, and yet there can be vice that robs the mind. Therefore, someone who does not know how to judge, as if having already received something great, thinks highly of himself and becomes arrogant, as if he has reached the extreme degree of purification. But much more is required for the truth to justify him in this. For, as the previous word showed, this is one of the wiles of Satan - at other times to voluntarily give up one’s place and stop one’s usual actions in order to arouse in ascetics conceit about their perfection. But whoever plants a vineyard does not at the same time gather the fruit; and whoever sows seeds in the ground does not immediately produce a harvest. So what? Is it possible that a newborn baby immediately achieves perfection? Look to Jesus. Christ, the Son of God and God, from what glory and what suffering he descended upon, what humiliation and the Cross! And for this humility He was exalted again and sat down at the right hand of the Father! The evil serpent, from the first desire sown in Adam to become God, reduced him to such dishonor with this conceit! Therefore, imagining this in your mind, protect yourself as much as possible, and try to always humble yourself and have a contrite heart. 114. When you hear that Christ, having descended into hell, delivered the souls held there, do not consider this to be far from what is happening now. Imagine that the heart is a coffin, that both thoughts and mind are buried there, enveloped in heavy darkness. Therefore, the Lord comes to the souls crying out to Him in hell, that is, He comes to the depths of the heart, and there, commanding death, He says: “Release the imprisoned souls who have sought Me, Who am able to deliver them.” Then, having rolled away the heavy stone lying on the soul, he opens the coffin, resurrects a truly dead soul, and frees the one imprisoned in a prison devoid of all light. 115. It often happens that Satan, instructing you, rants in your heart and says: “Confess how much bad you have done; your soul is filled with iniquities, burdened with many and the most serious sins.” Let it not be unknown to you who in this case is acting and, under the pretext of humility, is trying to plunge you into despair. From the very time sin entered into you through crime, Satan has daily access, like man to man, to converse with the soul and instill in it absurd thoughts. Therefore, you answer him: “I have evidence in the Scripture; God says: I do not want the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should turn to repentance and live” (Ezek. 33:11). For what purpose did His descent have, if not to save sinners, to enlighten those in darkness, to revive the dead? 116. Both the resistive force and the grace of God turn out to be motivating, and not compelling, so that freedom and arbitrariness are fully preserved in us. Therefore, for those bad deeds that a person does at the instigation of Satan, it is no longer Satan, but a person who is punished: because a person is not forcibly involved in vice, but is prompted to it by his own will. And similarly, in a good deed, grace does not attribute to itself what was done, but to the person and therefore assigns glory to him because he himself became the author of good. For grace does not make his will indispensable, binding, as it is said, with an involuntary force, but, remaining in a person, it gives room to arbitrariness, so that it becomes clear whether his will is inclined towards virtue or towards vice. For the law is not given to nature, but to free will, which can bend to both good and bad. 117. We must guard our souls and warn them against conversing with nasty and evil thoughts. Just as the body becomes defiled by coming together for uncleanness with another body, so the soul becomes corrupted by becoming friends with evil and nasty thoughts, agreeing to them and deigning not only to evil, but also to every vice, such as: unbelief, deception, vanity, anger, envy and discord. This is what it means to cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). For reason like this: there is corruption and fornication committed by obscene thoughts in the recesses of the soul. And just as, according to the word of the great Apostle, whoever destroys God’s church, that is, the body, God will destroy him (1 Cor. 3:17), so the one who corrupts the soul and mind, deigning to do something indecent, is subject to punishment. Therefore, it is necessary to preserve both the body from visible sin and the soul from obscene thoughts, because she is the bride of Christ, for I have betrothed you to One Husband, in order to present you to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Cor. 11:2). Listen to what the Scripture says: Guard your heart with all care; because from here are the sources of life (Proverbs 4:23). And also listen to what the Divine Scripture teaches: for evil thoughts drive away from God (Wis. 1:3). 118. Having interrogated and tested his soul, let everyone demand an answer from it: what is it disposed towards? And if it happens to see that the heart does not agree with the laws of God, then with all its might it will try to keep both the body and the mind uncorrupted and not deigning to have evil thoughts, if it only wants God, according to the promise, to dwell in its pure soul. For He promised to dwell and walk (2 Cor. 6:16), without a doubt, in pure and love-loving souls. 119. Just as a farmer who takes care of his own land first renews it and destroys the thorns on it, and then throws seeds into it, so he who expects from God to receive the seed of grace must first cleanse the land of his heart, so that the seed of the Spirit that falls on it will bear perfect and abundant fruit. But if this is not done first and a person does not cleanse himself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, then he is still flesh and blood and is far removed from life. 120. One must look with all discernment to see if there is any deception, cunning, or villainy from the enemy on any side. Just as the Holy Spirit, through Paul, serves all things to all men in order to win all (see: 1 Cor. 9:22), so the evil one strengthens to be all things to all, in order to bring everyone down to destruction. Namely, he pretends to be praying together with those praying, with the aim of seducing, under the pretext of prayer, deceiving him into conceit; He fasts with those who are fasting, intending to deceive them with self-conceit; He does the same with those who have knowledge of the Scriptures, desiring that, under the guise of knowledge, they should fall into error; to those who are worthy of the light of revelation, he himself appears to be the same, for it is said that Satan also takes the form of an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14), in order to deceive by the appearance of such light, to attract to himself; in a word, he takes on all kinds of appearances for everyone, so that, subjugating himself by this likeness, under a plausible pretext he prepares destruction. 121. It is said: We cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:4-5). Do you see to what extent this arrogant one extends the audacity of his intention to bring down even those who truly know God? Therefore, with all guarding, we must guard our hearts and ask God for much understanding, so that he will give us the opportunity to discover the machinations of evil. It is also necessary to constantly exercise and cultivate the mind and thoughts with understanding and agree them with the will of God. There is no other work as high and honorable, for it is said: praise and splendor are His work (Ps. 111:3). 122. A God-loving soul, even if it does all good, usually attributes each deed not to itself, but to God. Therefore, God, for His part, seeing the sound and right understanding and knowledge of the soul, imputes every matter to it; and as if she herself worked and produced everything by herself, the reward is proportionate. And if it pleased Him to enter into court with us, then nothing would be found that in true truth belongs to man; because both the property and all the imaginary benefits on earth with which a person can do good, and the earth and everything that is on it, the very body and the very soul belong to Him. And not only everything else, but also man’s very existence is by grace. Therefore, what property does he have left that he could rightfully boast of or justify? However, God accepts what people bring as the greatest gift, and of all that is brought, it is most pleasing to Him if the soul, knowing well the relationships of things, everything that does good, in which it works for God, that it understands and knows, imputes everything to Him and ascribes everything to Him. 123. When a woman comes to cohabitation and communion with a man, then everything that everyone has becomes common. They share one house, one property, movable (κινητή) and immovable (ακίνητη). And a woman owns not only a person’s property, but also the body itself. As the divine Apostle says: the husband has no power over his own body, but the wife does (1 Cor. 7:4). Similar to this is the true and ineffable (μυστική) communion of the soul with Christ, clinging to Whom it becomes one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). From this it inevitably follows that since the soul became His bride, it also became the mistress of all His ineffable treasures. For there is no doubt that when God unites with the soul, everything also becomes its property, be it the world, or life, or death, or Angels, or Principalities, or the future or the present (cf. Rom. 8:38). 124. How Israel, while he pleased the Master - although not to the extent that he should have, nevertheless, apparently, had to some extent sound faith in Him - was preceded by a pillar of fire and cloud, and the sea parted before him, and many other miracles were performed for him; and as soon as he retreated from loyalty to God, he was betrayed to his enemies and burdened with bitter slavery, so imagine the soul that, by grace, knew God and was first cleansed from many impurities, and then became worthy of grace-filled gifts, but, not retaining to the end due fidelity to the Heavenly Husband, lost the life that it had already participated in. For it is possible for an opponent to rebel against those who have reached such a level. Therefore, as much as we have, we should try to take care of our lives with fear and trembling, especially those who have become partakers of the Spirit of Christ: we should not do anything small or great with negligence, so as not to offend the Spirit of the Lord. 125. Just as, according to the word of Truth Itself, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10), so there is sadness over one soul deprived of eternal life. 126. When the soul has been granted grace, then knowledge, understanding and prudence are most useful to it; and this very thing is given to her by God, at her request, so that she may serve pleasingly the Spirit, Whom she was honored to receive, not be robbed by malice and not be stumbling through ignorance, not be seduced by negligence and an ungodly life, and not do anything against the Master’s will. 127. Just as the effectiveness of the passions, that is, the worldly spirit of flattery and sinful darkness, dwells in such a person who is filled with carnal wisdom, and vice versa, the effectiveness and power of the luminous Spirit dwells in a sanctified person, according to the word of the one who said: or are you looking for evidence as to whether Christ speaks in me (2 Cor. 13:3); and again: it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20); and: as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal.3:27). And the Lord says: I and My Father will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). And not secretly, not inactively, but in power and truth, this is accomplished in those who are worthy. For before the law edified people with a non-hypostatic word, imposed a heavy and unbearable yoke on them and was not able to give them any help, and precisely because it was not able to communicate the power of the Spirit, for it is said: due to the impossibility of the law, powerless through the fault of the flesh, and so on (Rom. 8:3). Since the time of Christ's Coming, the door of grace has been opened to those who truly believe, and God's power and the effectiveness of the Spirit are given to them. 128. since Christ, the first and natural goodness, sent down the gift of the Spirit to the Divine disciples, from that time on this Divine power, overshadowing all believers and dwelling in their souls, began to heal them from sinful passions, deliver them from darkness and deadness: because until that time the soul was ulcerated, imprisoned and possessed by sinful darkness. Of course, even now a soul remains in darkness, which has not yet been granted the Lord to dwell in it and so that the power of the Good Spirit will overshadow it effectively, with all strength and certainty; in those whom the grace of the Divine Spirit has visited, having settled in the very depths of their mind, the Lord becomes, as it were, a soul, for, says the divine Apostle, one spirit united with the Lord will be with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). And the Lord Himself says: just as I and You are one, so may they also be one in Us (John 17:22,21). What kindness, what kindness to human nature, humiliated by so many vices! However, since the soul, indulging in corrupt passions, was, as it were, one with them, and although it had its own will, it could not do what it wanted, about which Paul says: I do not do what I want (Rom. 7:15), then how much more so, when the power of God comes to the aid of the soul, sanctified and made worthy of it, the will of man will be one with God. For the soul, truly, then becomes like the soul of the Lord - because it voluntarily and with all its disposition surrenders to the power of the Good Spirit so that it reigns in it, and no longer walks according to its own will; so it is said: who will separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35)? That is, who will separate when the soul is in unity with the Holy Spirit? 129. Therefore, anyone who intends to become like Christ, so that he himself can be called a son of God, born of the Spirit, must first endure the sorrows that he encounters complacently and patiently, whether they be physical illnesses, or insults and reproaches from people, or also intrigues from invisible enemies. For, according to God’s vision, the testing of souls through various sorrows is allowed, so that the souls who sincerely love the Lord will undoubtedly become evident. The proof of this is that from the beginning of the century, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs walked the close path of temptation and sorrow and thereby pleased God. For the Scripture says: my son, if you begin to serve God, then prepare your soul for temptation: guide your heart and be strong (Sir. 2:1-2). And in another place: “And accept everything that is dealt to you for good, knowing that nothing happens without God” (Sir.2:4). Therefore, a soul that intends to please God must, more than anything else, be stocked with patience and hope. For malice always has the same trick - to plunge us into despondency during sorrow in order to deprive us of hope in the Lord. But God never allows a soul that trusts in Him to be so exhausted by temptations as to reach despair: for, says the Apostle, God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation will also give you relief, so that you can endure it (1 Cor. 10:13). And the evil one grieves the soul not to the extent that he has desires, but to the extent that God allows him to do so. If people know what burden a mule can bear, what a donkey can bear, and what a camel can bear, and they impose on them what they can; and if the scavenger knows how long the vessels should be kept in the fire so that, remaining longer than necessary, they do not develop cracks and also, when taken out before sufficient burning, they do not turn out to be unfit for use - if, I say, a person has so much understanding, then isn’t it even more and infinitely more knowledgeable to God’s understanding to what extent each soul must be subjected to temptation in order for it to become well-skilled and useful for the Heavenly Kingdoms? 130. Like a hemp stalk, if you chop it for a short time, it will not be suitable for spinning the thinnest threads from it; but the longer they beat it and the more they comb it out, the cleaner it becomes and the more suitable for use; and like a vessel made of clay, if it has not been in fire, it is unfit for human use; and just as an infant, still inexperienced in worldly affairs, can neither build, nor plant, nor sow, nor perform any other worldly work, so often souls, although, by the goodness of the Lord, for the sake of their infancy, have become partakers of Divine grace and are filled with the sweetness and peace of the Spirit, however, as not being tempted and not tested by various sorrows from evil spirits, they remain in infancy and so to say, they are still unprofitable for the Kingdom of Heaven. For the divine Apostle says: if you remain without punishment, which is common to all, then you are illegitimate children, and not sons (Heb. 12:8). Therefore, temptations and sorrows are sent to a person for his benefit, making the soul all the more skillful and firm. And if she endures to the end with trust in the Lord, then it is impossible not to receive spiritual promises and deliverance from evil passions. 131. How the martyrs, who were subjected to many tortures and showed their steadfastness even to the point of death, became thereby worthy of crowns of glory; and the more they experienced the most difficult labors, the greater glory and greater boldness they acquired before God, so, like this, souls given over to various sorrows - which are either visibly inflicted by people, or mentally produced by obscene thoughts, or stem from bodily illnesses - if they endure them to the end with patience, they will be awarded the same crowns as the martyrs and the same boldness. For just as the martyrs suffered from people, so these too, from the action of evil spirits on them, suffer the torment of sorrows; and the more sorrows they suffered from the enemy, the more they will not only receive greater glory from God in the future, but also here they will be honored with the consolations of the Good Spirit. 132. since there is no doubt that this is the path that leads into life - and it is narrow and cramped, which is why few follow it - then, in trusting in the blessings prepared in heaven, we must firmly endure every temptation of the evil one. For no matter how many sorrows we endure, will we give anything equivalent to either a future promise, or the consolation that is still given to souls by the Good Spirit, or deliverance from the darkness of evil passions or a multitude of debts, that is, our sins? It is said: the sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). For the sake of the Lord, we must endure everything with firmness, as has been said, like courageous warriors, not fearing to die for our King. For why, when we were busy with the world and the affairs of this life, did we not fall into such sorrows, but now, since we came to serve God, do we endure these manifold temptations? Do you see that these sorrows are for the sake of Christ, because the enemy envies us of the reward we hope for and wants to put relaxation and laziness into our souls, so that we will not be worthy of what we hope for for a godly life? All his tricks against us are destroyed by the combating Christ. Let us think that He is our protector and patron - this is how this age passed away: reviled, persecuted, finally desecrated, he completed everything with a shameful death on the Cross. 133. If we want to easily endure all sorrow and temptation, then let it be desirable for us and always written before our eyes to die for Christ. For this is also the commandment given to us - to take up the cross and follow Him, that is, to be comfortable and ready for death. If we are so disposed, then, as has been said, we will very easily endure any kind of sorrow, both secret and open. For whoever has a desire to die for Christ will hardly be upset when he sees the labors and sorrows. That is why we consider sorrows to be severe, because we still do not desire death for Christ and our thoughts are not constantly attached to Christ. Whoever desires to be an heir of Christ, let him also desire to compete with the sufferings of Christ. Therefore, those who claim to love the Lord know from this that, with trust in Him, they endure every sorrow they encounter not only courageously, but also willingly. 134. Whoever comes to Christ must first even forcibly attract himself to goodness, although our heart would not want it. For the unfaithful Lord says: The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who use force take it away (Matthew 11:12). And he must also make an effort to enter through the narrow gate (Luke 13:24). Therefore, as it has been said, one must force oneself to virtue against one’s will; compel to love those who do not have love; to compel those who lack it to meekness; to force one to have a compassionate and humane heart, to endure dishonor and contempt, to be patient when humiliated. And when God sees that, not yet having the ability to pray and not having acquired spiritual prayer, we strive in this way and, although our heart seems to resist, with need we attract ourselves to good, then He gives true prayer, gives mercy, patience, generosity and, in a word, fills us with all the fruits of the Spirit. If someone, being poor in other virtues, perhaps begins to force himself to pray alone in order to have the gift of prayer, but is negligent and does not care about meekness, humility, and all this noble family of virtues - also about being firm in faith and trust in Christ - then, although such, at his request, is sometimes given by the Good Spirit the grace of prayer in part in joy and peace, however, he remains deprived of all other goodness, because, as it is said, he did not force himself to acquire them and did not beg Christ for it. For one must not only urge oneself to the above, even against one’s will, and ask God to grant this, but also urge one to judge which speeches are useless and completely idle and unworthy of the tongue, and always learn with the lips and heart the words of God; also encourage you not to be irritated and not to cry, for it is said: let all grief, and anger, and crying be removed from you along with all malice (Eph. 4:31); and also to encourage not to slander or condemn anyone, not to be arrogant. And then the Lord, seeing that a person, as said, controls himself and forcibly drags himself, - without a doubt, grants him to do without difficulty and comfortably what he was previously unable to do even with compulsion, due to the wickedness living in him. And then all these virtues turn into nature for a person: because the Lord, according to the promise, comes and abides in him (just as he abides in the Lord) and Himself fulfills the commandments in him with great convenience. 135. Whoever, as the word previously explained, having forced himself to prayer, does not teach and force himself to humility, to love, to meekness and to this whole chain of other virtues, reaches such an end. Sometimes, at his request, Divine grace visits him, because God, as good, humanely gives what he asks for to those who ask Him; but, without acquiring the skill and not making it a habit for himself to exercise in the above-mentioned virtues, he either loses the grace he has received and falls from the high-minded, or he does not succeed and grow in grace itself: because the abode, so to speak, and rest for the Good Spirit are humility, love, meekness and all the holy commandments of Christ. Therefore, whoever intends to grow in all these virtues and reach perfection, first, as has been said, let him force himself and try to make his stubborn and contradictory heart compliant and submissive to God. For whoever forced himself in this way at the beginning, and completely softened the stiff-necked nature of his soul with a good disposition, and became obedient to God and with such a disposition of soul asks and prays, in him the gift of prayer, given to him by the Spirit, which he sought for himself beyond love and loving meekness, grows and blossoms, resting in his modesty. And then the Spirit grants him this - and teaches him true humility, and unfaithful love, and meekness, which he sought, even before forcing himself to it. And thus, growing and becoming perfect in the Lord, he turns out to be worthy of the Kingdom: because the humble never falls. And where should one go who considers himself lower than everyone else? Therefore, just as arrogance is a great humiliation, so, on the contrary, humility is a great exaltation and safe dignity. 136. Those who truly loved God decided to serve Him not for the sake of the Kingdom, as if for purchase and gain, and not because of the punishment prepared for sinners, but as adherents to the one God and together to their Creator, realizing by natural order that slaves are obliged to please the Lord and Creator. And they act with great prudence in all circumstances encountered by them, because there are many obstacles to those who wish to please God. Not only poverty and disgrace, but also wealth and honor equally serve as temptations for the soul. In part, the consolation itself, and this peace, which by the power of grace embraces the soul, if the soul that has been granted it does not come to consciousness and is not guided by great modesty and prudence, can very conveniently turn into a temptation and an obstacle for it, because malice contrives, under the pretext of grace itself, to weaken the spiritual strength, to produce laziness and negligence in the soul. Why does grace itself require that the soul that partakes of it be reverent and thoughtful, honor grace and show worthy fruits in itself. Therefore, the soul is in danger, that not only sorrows, but even peace itself can be a temptation for it. For the Creator tests souls with one and another, so that it will clearly be revealed who bases their love for Him not on self-interest, but recognizes Him alone as worthy of great, in the true sense, commitment and honor. But just as the following serve as an obstacle to eternal life for the careless, poor in faith and infant in mind: sorrows, difficulties, illnesses, poverty, disgrace, on the other hand - wealth, glory, pleasure from people and, on top of that, the battle of the evil one, striking in secret, so, on the contrary, you will find that the faithful, prudent, and courageous will all the more benefit from this to achieve the Kingdom God's For, according to the words of the divine Apostle, all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28). And from this it is revealed that a true lover of God, having dissolved, overcome and passed everything that is considered an obstacle in the world, is embraced by one Divine love. For the divine prophet says: The snares of sinners have entangled me, but I have not forgotten Your law (Ps. 119:61). 137. The Divine Apostle Paul depicted with all the detail and clarity how the perfect mystery of Christianity in every believing soul is experimentally known through Divine efficacy, that is, through the illumination of heavenly light in revelation and the power of the Spirit, so that others, in the thought that spiritual enlightenment is acquired only by rational knowledge, would not be in danger of remaining ignorant and careless in not comprehending the perfect mystery of grace. And therefore, for a decent image of knowledge, he presented as an example the glory of the Spirit that surrounded the face of Moses, and says: If the ministry of the deadly letters inscribed on the stones was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look at the face of Moses because the glory of his face was passing away, then should not the ministry of the Spirit be much more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation is glorious, much more will the ministry of justification abound in glory. That which is glorified does not even turn out to be glorious from this side, because of the predominant glory of what follows. For if the things that pass away are glorious, much more are the things that endure (the permanent) glorious (2 Cor. 3:7-11). He called the glory of light that surrounded the mortal body of Moses transitory. Then he adds: having such hope, we act with great boldness (2 Cor. 3:12); and a little below shows that this immortal glory of the Spirit, revealed in revelation, now shines immortally and in an unceasing manner to the worthy in the immortal inner man; therefore he says: “But we all, that is, born of the Spirit by perfect faith, behold with open face [as in a mirror] the glory of the Lord, being transformed into His image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). We look with an open face, that is, with our soul, and as soon as someone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. The Lord is Spirit (2 Cor. 3:16-17). And this clearly shows that a veil of darkness lay on the soul, which, as a result of Adam’s crime, found a place for itself in humanity; and now, by the illumination of the Spirit, it is taken from the souls of the faithful and truly worthy. For this reason there was the Coming of Christ: because God was pleased that true believers should achieve such a measure of holiness. 138. Such spiritual illumination is not only the revelation of thoughts and grace-filled, as they say, enlightenment, but a constant and continuous luminosity of the hypostatic Light in the souls. For what was said: He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6); and also: enlighten my eyes, so that I may not sleep mortally (Ps. 12:4), that is, the soul, being resolved with the flesh, may not be darkened by the veil of the death of sin; and likewise this place: open my eyes, and I will understand the wonders of Your law (Ps. 119:18); and also: send Your light and Your truth: they will guide me and lead me into Your holy mountain and into Your villages (Ps. 42:3); and: the light of Your face has been imprinted on us (Ps. 4:7), and other places of Scripture express the same thought. 139. And the light that enveloped blessed Paul on the way (see: Acts 9:3), with which he was caught up to the third heaven (see: 2 Cor. 12:2) and became a hearer of unspoken mysteries, was not some kind of enlightenment of thoughts and knowledge, but a hypostatic illumination of the soul by the power of the Good Spirit; and unable to bear the excess of the brightness of this illumination, the carnal eyes were blinded. With this illumination, the revelation of all knowledge is given and God is truly known by a soul worthy and pleasing to Him. 140. Every soul, for diligence and faith here still, by the power and certainty of grace, which has been deemed worthy to be completely clothed in Christ and has entered into unity with the heavenly light of the incorruptible Image, is now itself hypostatically secretly led to the knowledge of all heavenly mysteries; and on the great day of resurrection, her body, glorified by the same heavenly image of glory, and, according to what is written, caught up by the Spirit into heaven (see: 1 Thess. 4:17), and deemed worthy to become conformed to the body of His glory, will have an eternal Kingdom, not successive in co-inheritance with Christ. 141. To the extent that someone has partaken of the heavenly glory of the Holy Spirit through his diligence and faith and has adorned his soul with good deeds, to that extent on that day his body will become worthy of glorification. For what a person has gathered inside himself now will then be revealed externally, just as fruit, hidden inside trees in winter, appears outside in spring, which was explained before. Therefore, the God-like image of the Spirit, even now, as it were, imprinted inside the saints, will make their body God-like and heavenly in appearance. The veil of the worldly spirit, lying on the soul of the defiled and sinful, making the abomination of passions (woe is me!) and the mind itself darkened and ugly, will reveal the body in appearance darkened and filled with all shame. 142. As in the crime of Adam, when the goodness of God condemned him to death, he first suffered death in his soul, because the intellectual feelings of the soul became extinguished in him and, as it were, killed by the deprivation of heavenly and spiritual pleasure; subsequently, after nine hundred and thirty years, physical death befell Adam - so now, through the Cross and the death of the Savior, God, reconciled with humanity, restores the truly believing soul, while it is still in the flesh, to enjoy the communion of heavenly lights and mysteries, as well as the Divine light of grace and again gives insight to its intelligent feelings; subsequently the body itself will be clothed with immortal and incorruptible glory. 143. Those who withdraw from this world, living honestly and virtuously, but since we have all become guilty for disobedience to the primordial, still wearing the veil of passions, that is, carnal wisdom, rightly called by the Apostle death (see: Rom. 8:6), are like people who walk at night, illuminated by the light of the stars, that is, God's commandments. It is impossible for them, as those who have not completely freed themselves from darkness, to see everything clearly; and therefore it is necessary, with much labor and with great faith, taking care of virtue, to beg the Sun of Christ’s truth, so that it may shine in their hearts and they will be able to see everything exactly - both various kinds of attacks on us by mental beasts, and the secretly visible, ineffably delightful delights of the incorruptible world, which becomes open and obvious to those who have reached the height of virtues and in whose hearts the intelligent Light effectively shone. For, as Blessed Paul says, solid food is characteristic of the perfect, whose senses are trained by skill to distinguish between good and evil (Heb. 5:14). Yes, and the divine Peter says: “And you, having the prophetic word; and you do well to look to him as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts (2 Peter 1:19).” Many are absolutely no different from those who walk at night, when all light is impoverished, without even using short-term illumination, that is, God’s word, which has the power to illuminate their souls, and are likened to almost blind people. These are people who are completely entangled in material connections and worldly ties, are not restrained by the fear of God, and do not practice any of the virtues. For among the worldly people, those who, as has been said, are illuminated by the holy commandments, as if by some stars, listening to faith and the fear of God, are not completely enveloped in darkness, which is why they can have hope of salvation. 144. Just as people collect wealth in the world in different ways and through various activities - some through the rank of city ruler, some through trade, and some through hard work, agriculture, or some other way - so imagine the same order in the spiritual. Some collect heavenly wealth with various gifts, as can be seen from the words of the Apostle: according to the grace given to us, we have various gifts (Rom. 12:6), and others with various exploits, various righteous and virtuous deeds performed for the sake of one God. But those who dig up gold are also not unknown, that is, those who carry out their course with generosity and patience, partly consoling themselves for the time being with the good hope of getting rich. Not unknown are also those, as it were, mercenaries who, being voluptuous and lazy, immediately, as it were, devouring everything that comes their way and not finishing with patience what is in their hands, always walk around in nakedness and poverty. Such people have great readiness and ardor to receive grace, but since they are fickle, as soon as they touch it, they already feel sated, and they turn out to be indisposed and clumsy to work, then they are deprived of the grace that they have already been awarded: because laziness, inactivity and careless will are always recognized now, and in the next century they will turn out to be inconsistent with grace, deprived of good deeds, unskillful and inglorious before God. 145. Man, as soon as he transgressed the commandment of God and lost his life in heaven, immediately became bound by double bonds, as it were: by the bonds of worldly affairs, carnal pleasures, wealth, fame, friendship, attachment to his wife, to children, to relatives, to the fatherland, to property - in a word, to everything visible, from which God’s word commands us to renounce according to our own free will - and also by invisible bonds; because the spirits of evil bind the soul with some kind of bonds of darkness, which is why it is impossible for it to love God, to believe in Him, or to use prayer as it would like. For since the time of the transgression of the first man, opposition to everything, both visible and invisible, has entered into all of us. Therefore, when a person begins to listen to God’s word with a humble ear, withdraws from worldly affairs and renounces all carnal pleasures, then, constantly standing before God and unceasingly abiding with Him, he will receive the ability to recognize that in the secrets of the heart there is hidden another struggle and another battle of thoughts. And, being in such a feat, asking for the bounties of Christ, when patience is followed by great faith and, moreover, God’s beck is added, he will be able to free himself from these internal bonds and barriers and from the darkness of the spirits of malice, that is, from the actions of hidden passions. We are able to stop this battle only through the grace and power of Christ, but without God and on our own it is impossible for a person to get rid of it, even to free himself from the struggle with thoughts; It is possible to resist thoughts and not enjoy them. 146. If anyone is held back by the cares of this world and various bonds and driven by harmful passions, then, as we said before, he is far from knowing that there is another struggle and another, invisible warfare. But it is desirable that a person, having renounced everything visible, moving away from carnal pleasures, beginning to relentlessly stand before the Lord, comes to a state of cognizing the ongoing struggle of passions and the hidden battle within us. For if, as we said, this does not happen and a person does not love with all his soul and completely stand before God, then he will not know these secret harmful passions and internal bonds, but is in danger, having ulcers on himself and nourishing hidden passions, to honor and present himself as healthy. And to the one who despises lust and glory, it becomes possible first to know this, and then, when he prays to Christ with faith and receives spiritual weapons from heaven - the armor of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith and the spiritual sword - and overcome all this. 147. The enemy, who is trying to distract us from the love of Christ, has thousands of tricks against us. Or, with the help of spirits of malice, he brings inner sorrows to the soul, or prepares in it nasty and inadmissible thoughts, bringing to mind previous sins, as if with the intention of plunging the soul into relaxation and instilling in it thoughts of despair: namely, that it is impossible for it to achieve salvation and that the soul seems to give birth to these thoughts completely from itself, and not an alien spirit of malice implants them in the soul and tries to do this hidden. Therefore, the opponent either does what was said above, or inflicts physical labor, or seeks reproaches and sorrows from people. But to the extent that the evil one directs these kindled arrows at us, to the same extent we must be more and more inflamed with hope in God, knowing exactly what is God’s will for this - to put our souls, flaming with love for God, to the test: have we truly loved Him? 148. The thousands of years of this age in comparison with the imperishable world and age are the same as if one grain of sand were taken from all the sand of the sea. Consider it this way again. May it be possible for you alone to become the king of the whole earth - to take possession of all the treasures of the universe alone; Let us also assume that the beginning of the existence of people is also the beginning of your reign, and its end will be the change and transformation of the entire visible and entire World; what? If they give you a choice, will you really exchange for this kingdom a true, permanent Kingdom, which has nothing transitory or destroyable in it? I don’t think so, if you have the ability to reason and understand well what is good for you. For it is said: what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul (Matthew 16:26)? We know that nothing can replace it: because the soul alone (not to mention the Kingdom of Heaven) is much more expensive than the whole World and the worldly kingdom. We call the soul most precious because God deigned to bring into unity and communion with the Spirit of His own nature not another creature, or the sky, or the sun, or the stars, or the sea, or the earth, or any other visible creature, but only one person, whom He loved more than His creatures. Therefore, if we do not, judging sensibly, exchange the eternal Kingdom for the greatest thing in the world, I mean the above-mentioned wealth and possession of the entire earth, given to one person, then on what basis do many consider it equivalent to things that are worthless and the most ordinary, for example, some desire, little glory, little gain, and something like that? For whatever someone loves and is bound by in this age, without a doubt, the Kingdom of Heaven exchanges for; and what is worse, he recognizes as God, as it is said in one place: whoever is conquered by someone is his slave (2 Pet. 2:19). Therefore, one must completely, completely flow to God, cleave to Him and be crucified with soul and body, walking in all His holy commandments. 149. And if this is so, then do you really consider it fair that this perishable glory and a one-day kingdom and everything else that is similar to this temporary one should be acquired by those who desire it with much labor and sweat, and that an endless reign with Christ, the acquisition of these unspeakable blessings, should be so insignificant and easy that the one who wishes would succeed in this without labor and effort? 150. Oh, what an economy of Christ's Coming! Oh, what a return to the primitive state and restoration of our nature! Christ restored to human nature the dignity of the primordial Adam; and moreover (oh the Divine and truly great grace of the Good Spirit!) bestowed upon him a heavenly inheritance; having brought our nature out of a dark prison, he showed the path and the door to life, and whoever strikes it and enters through it can be in the Kingdom, for it is said: ask, and it will be given to you; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). By entering through this door, it is not difficult for anyone who wishes to lead his soul into freedom, and for the soul to perceive its own thoughts, to be enriched in cohabitation with Christ and, through the communion of the Good Spirit, to have Him as if it were its bridegroom. Do you see what an inexpressible love the Lord has for man whom He created in His image! We present the translations of Paisius Velichkovsky in their entirety, except for seven hundred chapters, of which we present the first 225. We “duplicate” the translations of Elder Paisius with Russian translations by A. I. Sidorov. Maximus the Confessor to the presbyter (πρεσβύτερο) Elpidius. About love, 400 chapters 1. Love is a good disposition of the soul, according to which it does not prefer anything that exists to the knowledge of God. But the skill of such love cannot be acquired by someone who is addicted to anything earthly. 2. Love is generated by dispassion, dispassion by trust in God, trust by patience and generosity, they by comprehensive abstinence, abstinence by the fear of God, and this fear by faith in the Lord. 3. He who believes in the Lord fears [eternal] punishment; he who fears punishment abstains from passions; he who abstains from passions patiently endures sorrows; he who patiently endures sorrow will have trust in God; Trust in God detaches the mind from all earthly attachments, and a mind detached from this will have love for God. 4. He who loves God prefers the knowledge of God to everything created by Him and constantly strives towards this knowledge in loving longing. 5. If all things came into existence through God and for the sake of God, and if God is better than what He created, then he who leaves the incomparably better God and turns his attention to [things] worse shows that he prefers to God what He created. 6. He who has a mind nailed to love for God despises visible [creatures] and the body itself, as [something] alien to him. 7. If the soul is better than the body and incomparably better than the world, God who created it, then the world He created, who prefers the body to the soul and God, is no different from idolaters. 8. Having separated [his] mind from love for God and from diligent diligence [in prayers] to Him, and having attached this mind to something sensual, such [a person] is the one who prefers the body to the soul and God to the Creator of His creation. 9 . If the life of the mind is enlightenment through knowledge, and this enlightenment is born of love for God, then it is correctly said that there is nothing higher than love for God. 10. When the mind is lifted up to God by the attraction of love, then it does not feel at all either itself or anything that exists. Illuminated by the divine boundless Light, he ceases to sense everything created, just as the sensory eye ceases to see the stars when the sun rises. 11. All virtues contribute to the mind in [its] love for God, but most of all [this is facilitated] by pure prayer. For thanks to her he soars to God, becoming beyond the existing. 12. When, through love, the mind is delighted with divine knowledge and, finding itself outside of existence, feels the Divine Infinity, then, like the divine Isaiah, coming from amazement to a sense of its own insignificance, with all its soul it repeats the words of the prophet: Oh, I am accursed, I am grieved, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people also with unclean lips, and with my eyes I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts ( Isa.6:5). 13. He who loves God cannot help but love every person as himself, although the passions of those who have not yet been purified cause disgust in him. Therefore, seeing their conversion and correction, he rejoices with immeasurable and inexpressible joy. 14. A passionate soul is unclean and filled with lustful and hateful thoughts. 15. He who sees in his heart a trace of hatred towards any person for some kind of fall is completely alien to the love of God. After all, love for God is completely incompatible with hatred of man. 16. The Lord says: He who loves Me keeps My commandments (John 14:15). And this is My commandment, that you love one another (John 15:12). Therefore, one who does not love his neighbor does not keep the commandment. And he who does not keep the commandment cannot love the Lord. 17. Blessed is the man who can love every man equally. 18. Blessed is the man who is not attached to any perishable or transitory thing. 19. Blessed is the mind that has passed through all existing [things] and constantly delights in Divine beauty. 20. Whoever turns care for the flesh into lust (Rom. 13:14) and bears a grudge against his neighbor because of some temporary [goods], he serves the creature instead of the Creator (Rom. 1:25). 21. He who protects his body from pleasure and illness has in him a co-worker to serve the best. 22. He who avoids all worldly lusts places himself above all worldly sorrow. 23. He who loves God certainly loves his neighbor, and such a [person] cannot [greedily] protect his property, but manages it godly, presenting to everyone what he needs. 24. Whoever, imitating God, gives alms, does not distinguish between [things] necessary for the body, between bad and good [persons], between the righteous and the unrighteous, but distributes equally to everyone, commensurate with need, although, of course, he prefers [a person] to a virtuous person over a bad one for his good will. 25. Just as God, being by nature good and dispassionate, loves everyone equally, as His creatures, but glorifies the virtuous, since he assimilates himself [to God] thanks to [good] will, and has mercy on the bad according to His goodness and, raising him in this age, converts, so [man], who voluntarily [becomes] good and dispassionate, loves all people equally: the virtuous due to nature and for [his] goodness. will, and the bad - [also] due to nature and out of compassion, taking pity on him, as unreasonable and walking in darkness. 26. It is not through the distribution of property alone that the [good] disposition of love is learned, but much more through the distribution of the word of God and bodily service. 27. He who sincerely renounces the things of the sea and serves his neighbor unfeignedly out of love is soon freed from all passion and becomes a partaker of Divine love and Divine knowledge. 28. He who has acquired Divine love within himself does not bother, following the Lord his God (Jer. 17:16), like the divine Jeremiah, but courageously endures all pain, blasphemy and reproach, not plotting any evil against anyone at all. 29. When you are offended or humiliated in some way, then beware of thoughts of anger, so that through sadness they do not separate you from love, moving you into the area of ​​hatred. 30. When you are tormented by insult or wickedness, then know that you have received great benefit from this, for through wickedness vanity has been driven out of you economically. 31. Just as the memory of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not produce enlightened knowledge in the soul. 32. Just as the light of the sun attracts the sound eye, so the knowledge of God naturally attracts the pure mind through love. 33. The mind is pure, separated from ignorance and enlightened by God's light. 34. The soul is pure, freed from passions and constantly abiding in joy [generated by] Divine love. 35. Reprehensible passion is an unnatural movement of the soul. 36. Dispassion is a peaceful state of the soul, in which it becomes resistant to evil. 37. He who through [his own] zeal has acquired the fruits of love will not give it up, even if he endures thousands of evils. And let the disciple of Christ Stephen, and others like him, and the Savior Himself convince you of this, praying to the Father for [His] murderers and asking Him for forgiveness, as those who do not know [what they are doing] (Luke 23:34). 38. If the property of love is long-suffering and kindness, then the one who is irritated and crafty, as is obvious, becomes alien to love. And he who is alien to love is alien to God, since God is love (1 John 4:8). 39. Do not say, says the divine Jeremiah, that you are the church of the Lord (Jer. 7:4). And don’t say that faith in our Lord Jesus Christ alone can save you - this is impossible if you do not acquire love for Him through your works. As for simple faith, then the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). 40. Works of love are: heartfelt beneficence to one's neighbor, generosity, patience and prudent use of things. 41. He who loves God does not sadden anyone and is not brought into a state of sadness by anyone because of temporary things. He grieves and is saddened by the same saving sadness that blessed Paul grieved and saddened the Corinthians. 42. He who loves God lives an angelic life on earth, fasting, staying awake, singing psalms, praying, and always thinking good about every person. 43. If someone wants something, he tries hard to get it. And the Divine is incomparably better and more desirable than all goods and desirable things. What zeal we must show in order to receive this Divine, which is naturally good and desired. 44. Do not defile your flesh with shameful deeds and do not stain your soul with evil thoughts: and the peace of God will descend upon you and bring love. 45. Scourge your flesh with fasting and vigil, tirelessly devote all your time to singing psalms and prayer - and the sanctification of chastity will descend on you and bring love. 46. He who has been worthy of Divine knowledge and has acquired its enlightenment through love is never puffed up by the spirit of vanity, and he who has not been worthy of such knowledge is easily whirled by this spirit. However, if such a person, in all his deeds, turns his gaze to God, doing everything for His sake, then he, with [the help of] God, will easily avoid this vanity. 47. He who has not yet achieved Divine knowledge, brought into action by love, attaches great importance to what is accomplished by him according to God. But, having been granted this knowledge, he [already] with full conviction repeats the words of the patriarch Abraham, who was worthy to [see] the Divine appearance: I am dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27). 48. He who fears the Lord always has humility as his companion and through his instructions comes to Divine love and gratitude. For this interlocutor reminds [the one who fears the Lord] of his former worldly life, various sins, temptations from his youth; reminds us of how the Lord delivered him from all of them and how he led him from a passionate life to a life according to God. Then, along with the fear [of God], this person also receives love and, in the fullness of humility, offers thanks to the Benefactor and Pilot of our life. 49. Do not defile your mind by holding thoughts of lust and anger, so that, having fallen away from pure prayer, you do not fall into a spirit of despondency. 50. The mind then falls away from good communication with God when it becomes an interlocutor with evil and evil thoughts. 51. An unreasonable [person], guided by passions, when driven by rage, becomes confused and recklessly rushes to run away from the brethren; when he is kindled by desire, he regrets it and immediately returns, [ready] to enter into conversation. A prudent [person] in both cases does the opposite: during times of anger, he cuts off the cause of confusion from himself and frees himself from grief towards the brethren, and at a time when desire [is kindled], he refrains from an unreasonable impulse and communication [with the brethren]. 52. During temptations, do not leave your monastery, but courageously endure the disturbance of thoughts, especially [thoughts of] sadness and despondency. For being providentially tested by sorrows, you will have firm trust in God. And if you leave [the monastery], you will find yourself unable to stand the test, cowardly and fickle. 53. If you do not want to fall away from love according to God, then do not allow your brother to go to sleep, upset with you, and do not fall asleep with sorrow [in your heart] at him, but first go and be reconciled with your brother (Matthew 5:24) and with a clear conscience offer a gift to Christ in diligent prayer. 54. If he who has all the gifts of the Spirit of love does not have any benefit, then he has no benefit, according to [the words of] the divine Apostle (1 Cor. 13:1-3). What zeal we must use to acquire it! 55. If love does not harm one’s neighbor (Rom. 13:10), then the one who envies his brother, who is upset because of his good fame, who smears respect for him with evil ridicule, or who maliciously slanders him, does not he alienate himself from love, consigning himself to eternal condemnation? 56. If love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:10), then he who bears a grudge against his brother, plots against him, curses him and rejoices at his fall, is not he a criminal worthy of eternal punishment? 57. If someone curses a brother or judges his brother, he curses the law and judges the law (James 4:11), and the law of Christ is love, then does not the slanderer fall away from the love of Christ and does he not become the author of his own eternal punishment? 58. Do not give your ear to the tongue of a slanderer, and do not give your tongue to the ear of a slanderer, with pleasure speaking or listening [to slander] against your neighbor, lest you fall away from Divine love and find yourself alien to eternal life. 59. Do not listen to blasphemies against your father and do not encourage him to dishonor him, lest the Lord be angry with your deeds and destroy you from the land of the living. 60. Shut the mouth of the slanderer in your ears, so as not to commit a double sin with him: by accustoming yourself to this destructive passion and by not preventing him from blaspheming your neighbor. 61. The Lord instructs: I tell you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you (Matthew 5:44). Why did He command this? - In order to free you from hatred, sorrow, rancor and to make you worthy of great acquisition - perfect love: it cannot be possessed by anyone who does not love all people equally, imitating God, who loves everyone equally and wants all people to be saved and achieve the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). 62. I tell you: do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him; and whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer clothing too; and whoever forces you to go one mile with him, go with him two miles (Matthew 5:39–41). What are these [commandments] for? - In order to keep you non-angerous, imperturbable and carefree, and to educate [those who are at enmity with you] with your long-suffering; and [the Lord], being good, [thus] brings you both under the yoke of love. 63. Whatever things we were once partial to, we retain passionate dreams about. And therefore, he who conquers passionate dreams naturally despises the things of which these dreams are ghosts. For fighting with memories is just as difficult as fighting with things, just as it is easier to sin in thought than in deed. 64. Of the passions, some are physical, and others are mental. The bodily ones have their origins in the body, and the spiritual ones – in external things. Both those and others are suppressed by love and abstinence: love suppresses mental [passions], and abstinence – physical. 65. Of the passions, some belong to the violent part of the soul, others to the desirable. Both are set in motion through feelings, and this happens when the soul finds itself outside of love and self-control. 66. It is more difficult to overcome the passions of the violent part of the soul than the passions of the desirable part of it. Therefore, the Lord gave a stronger medicine against it - the commandment of love. 67. All other passions capture only either the furious part of the soul, or the desirable part, or the thinking part, such as, for example, oblivion and ignorance. Dejection, covering all the forces of the soul, sets almost all passions in motion at once. Therefore, it is the most painful of all other passions. And the Lord, who gave a cure against him, says beautifully: Through your patience save your souls (Luke 21:19). 68. Never insult any of the brethren, especially unreasonably, so that he may not be able to bear the insult and leave. For [otherwise] you will never escape the conviction of [your] conscience, which will always cause you grief during prayer, removing [your] mind from close communication with God. 69. Do not tolerate suspicion or people who cause you temptations against anyone. For those who in any way allow temptations from [things] that happen voluntarily or involuntarily do not know the way of peace (Rom. 3:17), which through love leads those who love this way to the knowledge of God. 70. He does not yet have perfect love who brings his inner state of mind into harmony with human opinions. For example, when he loves one person and hates another for one reason or another. Or when he sometimes loves the same person and sometimes hates him for the same reasons. 71. Perfect love does not share the single nature of people according to their different inner dispositions, but it always turns its gaze to this single nature and loves all people equally: those who are zealous [in virtue] as friends, and those who are careless as enemies; she benefits them, is long-suffering and endures the [sorrows] they cause. She does not think about evil at all, she suffers because of them if circumstances require it, in order to make [the negligent] her friends, if this is possible, and if this is impossible, then she remains true to herself, always equally showing the fruits of love to all people. So our Lord and God Jesus Christ, showing His love for us, suffered for all humanity and equally gave the hope of resurrection to everyone, although everyone makes himself worthy of either glory or [eternal] punishment. 72. He who does not despise glory and dishonor, wealth and poverty, pleasure and sorrow, has not yet acquired perfect love. For perfect love despises not only this, but also temporary life and death itself. 73. Listen to those who have been rewarded with perfect love, what they say: Who will separate us from the love of God: tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? as it is written: “For Your sake we are killed every day; They consider us like sheep doomed to the slaughter.” But we overcome all this by the power of Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35-39). [All who say and do these things concerning the love of God] are saints. 74. Listen again to what [the saints] say to their neighbor: I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit, that there is great sorrow for me and unceasing torment of my heart: I myself would like to be excommunicated from Christ for my brothers who are related to me in the flesh, that is, the Israelites (Rom. 9:1-4) and the following. Likewise Moses and the rest of the saints (Ex. 32:31–32). 75. He who does not despise glory, pleasure and the love of money, who cultivates them and is formed thanks to them, cannot suppress the motives of anger. And he who does not cut them off cannot achieve perfect love. 76. Humility and suffering free a person from all sin: humility cuts off the passions of the soul, and suffering cuts off the sufferings of the body. Blessed David shows that he received this by turning to God in prayer: Look at my humility and at my exhaustion, and forgive all my sins (Ps. 24:18). 77. Through the commandments, the Lord makes those who fulfill these commandments dispassionate, and through divine dogmas He grants them enlightenment in knowledge. 78. All dogmas relate either to God, or to visible and invisible [things], or to Providence and Judgment concerning these [things]. 79. Charity heals the violent part of the soul, fasting dries up desire, and prayer purifies the mind, preparing it for the contemplation of things. For the Lord has given us commandments according to the strength of our souls. 80. [The Lord] says: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29) etc. Meekness protects the violent nature [of the soul] from excitement, and humility frees the mind from arrogance and vanity. 81. The fear of God is twofold: one is born in us from the threat of punishment, and thanks to it, abstinence, patience, trust in God and dispassion, from which love [emerges], appear in us, in order; the other is associated with love itself, producing reverence in the soul, so that it, taking advantage of the trusting attitude of love, would not fall into disdain for God. 82. Perfect love casts out (1 John 4:18) the first fear from the soul that has acquired it and is no longer afraid of punishment; the second fear, as was said, is always associated with itself. The first fear [corresponds to the words of Scripture]: But by the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil ( Proverbs 16:6 ) and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ( Proverbs 1:7 ); to the second [fear of the word]: The fear of the Lord endures forever and ever (Ps. 18:10) and those who fear Him have no shortage (Ps. 33:10). 83. Mortify your members on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust and covetousness (Col. 3:5) and the following [words]. “Earth” [the Apostle] called the mind of the flesh; “fornication” is a sin committed in practice; “uncleanness” – internal consent [to sin]; “passion” – passionate thought; “evil through lust” is a simple assumption of the thought of lust; “covetousness” – matter that gives birth and nurtures passion. All this, as members of the carnal mind (Rom. 8:6), and the divine Apostle commanded to be put to death. 84. Initially, memory brings a simple thought into the mind; when he lingers [there], passion is set in motion; if it is not destroyed, then it forces the mind to agree [to sin], and when this happens, then the sin itself is committed. Therefore, the wise Apostle, addressing the message to [converts] from the pagans, first of all commands [them] to destroy the effect of sin, and then [calls on them], returning in the reverse order, to eliminate the [very] cause [of sin]. And the reason, as mentioned above, is covetousness, which generates and nurtures passion. I think that “covetousness” here means gluttony - the mother and nurse of fornication. For covetousness is evil not only in relation to property, but also in relation to food, just as abstinence is good not only in relation to food, but also in relation to property. 85. Just as a sparrow, tied by the leg and trying to fly, falls to the ground, drawn by a rope, so the mind, which has not yet acquired dispassion, but is trying to soar to the knowledge of heavenly [things], falls to the ground, pulled down by passions. 86. When the mind is completely freed from passions, then it moves without looking back towards the contemplation of beings, paving its way to the knowledge of the Holy Trinity. 87. When the mind is pure, it perceives the ideas of things and is impelled to spiritual contemplation of them. Having become unclean through its negligence, the mind begins to imagine simple ideas of other things, and, perceiving human [thoughts], it turns to shameful and evil thoughts. 88. Whenever during prayer the mind is not disturbed by any worldly thought, then know that you are not beyond the limits of dispassion. 89. When the soul begins to feel healthy, then in sleep it begins to see pure and serene dreams. 90. Just as the beauty of visible [things] attracts the sensual eye, so the knowledge of [things] invisible attracts the pure mind. And I call [things] incorporeal [things] invisible. 91. It is a great thing not to be addicted to things, but much greater is to remain dispassionate in regard to dreaming about them. Because demons wage [spiritual] warfare with us through thoughts, which is heavier than the warfare waged through things. 92. He who excels in virtue and is enriched in knowledge sees things as they are by nature, and therefore acts and speaks according to right reason, never deviating [from the truth]. For we become virtuous or vicious depending on the prudent or unwise use of things. 93. A sign of higher dispassion is the constant ascent of simple ideas of things in the heart, both while the body is awake and in sleep. 94. Through the work of implementing the commandments, the mind removes passions from itself, and through spiritual contemplation of invisible [things] it removes passionate thoughts about things [bodily]. Through knowledge of invisible [things, he renounces] contemplation of visible things, and this knowledge [is achieved] through knowledge of the Holy Trinity. 95. Just as the sun, rising and illuminating the World, reveals both itself and the objects it illuminates, so the Sun of Truth, rising in a pure mind, reveals itself and the logoi of all [creatures] - those already brought into being and those that will yet be created. 96. We know God not from His essence, but from the greatness of His creation and from the Providence of those who exist. For through them, as if through a mirror, we comprehend [His] boundless Goodness, Wisdom and Power. 97. A pure mind is found either in simple speculation about human things, or in natural contemplation of visible [things], or in contemplation of [things] invisible, or in the light of the Holy Trinity. 98. Contemplating visible [things], the mind seeks either their natural logos, or what is signified by these logos, or it seeks the Cause [of them] itself. 99. Being in contemplation of invisible [things, the mind] seeks their natural logoi, the Reason for their existence, their consequences, as well as the Providence and Judgment of [God] about them. 100. When [the mind] finds itself in God, then, inflamed by longing for love, it first of all seeks the logoi that are around His essence, but does not find consolation, [recognizing] what is in God, for this is impossible and beyond the strength of any created nature. Therefore, [the mind] is comforted by what is around God - I mean comforted by what pertains to Eternity, Infinity and Infinity [of God], as well as pertaining to the Goodness, Wisdom and Power of [His], creating things, providentially managing [them] and judging [them]. “In Him this one thing is completely comprehensible - His infinity,” and His very ignorance is knowledge that surpasses the mind, as theologians once said: Gregory and Dionysius. 1. He who sincerely loves God, of course, prays with concentration, and he who prays with concentration, of course, sincerely loves God. But one whose mind is nailed to something earthly cannot pray with concentration. Therefore, the one who has a mind fettered by anything earthly does not love God. 2. The mind that has been occupied with [any] sensual thing for a long time has a passion for it: lust, sadness, anger or rancor. And one who does not despise this thing cannot free himself from such passion. 3. Passions that take possession of the mind tie it to material things and, separating it from God, force it to occupy itself with them. When the love of God takes possession of him, it frees the mind from its bonds, convincing it to despise not only [sensual things], but also our transitory life itself. 4. The fruit of the implementation of the commandments is simple thoughts about things, and the fruit of reading [Scripture] and contemplation is making the mind immaterial and formless. And from this comes concentrated prayer. 5. The path of [spiritual] activity is insufficient for the complete liberation of the mind from passions and for the possibility of concentrated prayer, if various spiritual contemplations do not become its successors. For this path frees the mind only from intemperance and hatred, and spiritual contemplations free it [also] from oblivion and ignorance: thus it gains the opportunity to pray as it should. 6. There are two states of pure prayer: one corresponds to those who strive in [spiritual] work, and the other corresponds to those who struggle in contemplation. The first arises in the soul from the fear of God and good hope, the second - from Divine love and highest purity. Signs of the first state are the gathering of the mind and [removing] it from all worldly thoughts, the creation of concentrated and [nothing] disturbed prayer, as if God Himself is before [the worshippers] - and He really is. The sign of the second is the admiration of the mind by the Divine and boundless light in the very impulse of prayer, when it does not feel at all either itself or anything that exists, but only One Who so illuminates it with His love. Then, moving near the logoi that are around God, the mind perceives pure and obvious images of Him. 7. He who loves something stubbornly adheres to it, and he despises everything that hinders [the achievement of] this, so as not to be deprived of [what is dear to his heart]. Therefore, he who loves God cares about pure prayer, and he casts out of himself any passion that interferes with this love. 8. He who rejects selfishness - the mother of passions - easily eliminates, with the help of God, other [passions]: anger, sadness, bitterness and others. He who is obsessed with selfishness is wounded by these passions, even if he does not want it. And selfishness is passionate attachment to the body. 9 . People love each other, in a praiseworthy or reprehensible sense, for the following reasons: for the sake of God, just as a virtuous person loves everyone, and even an unvirtuous person loves him; because of nature, as parents love their children, and children love their parents; for the sake of vanity, as the praised loves the praiser; because of the love of money, just as a rich man is loved for the money he receives; due to voluptuousness, as they love one who serves the belly, or what is under the belly. [Of these types of love], the first is praiseworthy, the second is neutral, and the others are passionate. 10. If you hate some, and neither love nor hate others; If you love some moderately and others strongly, then learn from this inequality that you are still far from perfect love, which presupposes equal love for all people. 11. Avoid evil and do good (Ps. 36:27), that is: fight your enemies to diminish passions, and then be vigilant so that they do not increase. And one more thing: strive to acquire virtues, and then watch to maintain them. And this means to cultivate and store (Gen. 2:15). 12. Those who tempt us, by God's permission, either inflame the desirable part of the soul, or lead to furious confusion, or darken the rational principle, or afflict the body with torment, or plunder [our] bodily [goods]. 13. Demons tempt us either on their own, or they arm [people] who do not fear the Lord against us: on their own, when we isolate ourselves from people, as the Lord [was tempted] in the desert; through people when we communicate with them, just as [the demons tempted] the Lord through the Pharisees. But we, looking at our example, will repel their attacks from both sides. 14. When the mind begins to succeed in the love of God, then the lack of blasphemy begins to tempt it, instilling in it such thoughts that no man can invent, but only the devil, the father of demons. He does this out of envy of the lover of God, so that he, despairing of having conceived such thoughts, would no longer dare to soar to God through his usual prayer. But the wicked does not derive any benefit from this for himself and [does not achieve] his goal, but, on the contrary, makes us stronger. For by fighting and repelling the attacks of enemies, we become more experienced and sincere in our love for God. Let their sword enter their hearts, and let their bows be broken (Ps. 36:15). 15. The mind, turning to visible things, naturally thinks of them through the senses. Neither the mind, nor natural thinking, nor things and feelings are evil, for they are creations of God. What then is evil? It is clear that it is a passion of natural thinking, which cannot exist with the [correct] use of speculation when the mind is awake. 16. Passion is an unnatural movement of the soul towards either unreasonable love or indiscriminate hatred, felt towards someone because of something sensual. For example, [the movement] towards unreasonable love either for things, or for a woman, or for wealth, or for passing fame, or for something sensual or for their sake. And [the movement] towards indiscriminate hatred - also in relation to or for the sake of any of the above. 17. Or again: depravity is the misuse of thoughts, followed by the abuse of things. For example, if it concerns a woman, then the correct use of marriage has the purpose of procreation. But whoever has in mind [mere] voluptuousness is mistaken about the benefits [of marriage], considering as good that which is not such. And by getting married, he abuses the woman. The situation is similar with other things and thoughts. 18. When demons tear your mind away from chastity and surround it with lustful thoughts, then cry out to the Lord with tears: My persecutors have now surrounded me; my joy, deliver me from those who surround me (Ps. 16:11, 31:7). And you will get rid of it. 19. The demon of fornication is severe, and it violently attacks those who strive against passion, especially when they neglect abstinence in food and in meetings with women. He first imperceptibly steals the mind with the tenderness of pleasure, and then, with the help of the memory [of this pleasure], he attacks the silent one, inflaming the body and presenting various [shameful] images to the mind. Thus, he excites him to agree to sin. If you do not want this to linger in you, take upon yourself fasting, work, vigil and beautiful silence with intense prayer. 20. Always pursuing our soul [demons] pursue it through passionate thoughts in order to plunge it into mental or actual sin. But when they find a mind that does not accept [them], then they will be ashamed and put to shame (Ps. 34:4), and when they find it engaged in spiritual contemplation, then they will return and be ashamed very quickly (Ps. 6:11). 21. The one who anoints the mind with sacred deeds and drives away passionate thoughts from it corresponds to the deacon; presbyter - one who enlightens the mind with the knowledge of things and destroys false knowledge; the bishop is the one who makes the mind perfect, anointing it with the sacred world of knowledge of the worshiped and Holy Trinity. 22. Demons become exhausted when passions in us are reduced through [the fulfillment of] the commandments. They perish when, due to the dispassion of the soul, [these passions] are completely erased, not finding in it anything that they previously found and through which they fought with it. This is what [Scripture] says: They will faint and perish at Your presence (Ps. 9:4). 23. Some people refrain from passions out of human fear, others out of vanity, others as a result of abstinence, and still others are freed from passions by the destinies of God. 24. All the words of the Lord contain four [subjects]: commandments, dogmas, threats and promises. And for their sake we endure all the harsh tests of ascetic life: fasting, vigil, sleeping on bare ground, hard work in serving [other people], reproach, dishonor, torment, death, and the like. Therefore [Scripture] says: according to the words of Your mouth, I have kept cruel ways (Ps. 16:4). 25. The reward for abstinence is dispassion, for faith is knowledge. Dispassion gives rise to the ability to discern, and knowledge gives rise to love for God. 26. The mind that successfully traverses [the path of spiritual] activity succeeds in prudence, and the mind that successfully traverses [the path of] contemplation succeeds in knowledge. The first [path] leads the aspirant to the distinction between virtue and vice, and the second brings the participant [knowledge] to the logoi of incorporeal and corporeal [things]. The mind is rewarded with theological grace when, on the wings of love, having flown through everything named, it finds itself in God, and can, as far as is accessible to the human mind, see through the spirit the property that surrounds Him. 27. When you are going to theologize, do not seek the properties of the existence of God, for they are inaccessible either to the human mind or to any [creature] after God. But consider, if possible, the properties that are around Him; for example, properties related to His Eternity, Infinity, Infinity, Goodness, Wisdom and Power, which creates beings, provides for them and judges them. For among people he is a great theologian who reveals these properties even to a small extent. 28. Strong is the man who combines doing with doing. For with the help of doing he dries up desires and tames rage, and with the help of knowledge he inspires the mind and soars to God. 29. When the Lord says: I and the Father are one (John 10:30), He denotes the identity of the [Divine] essence, and when He says: I am in the Father and the Father in Me (John 10:38), He shows the inseparability of the Hypostases. And the tritheites, who separate the Son from the Father, slide into the abyss. For they either assert that the Son is co-essential with the Father, but separate one from the other, and therefore are forced to deny the birth [of the Son] from the Father and fall into the affirmation of three gods and three principles; or they say that [the Son] was born of the Father, but they separate Them, and therefore are forced to deny co-essence with [His] Father and subordinate time to the Lord of times. However, according to the great Gregory, one must both preserve one God and confess three Hypostases, each with its inherent property. For, according to his teaching, [the Trinity] is “divided inseparably, but united separately.” Therefore, both difference and unity [in God] are something incomprehensible. For what would be incomprehensible if the Son were united with the Father, as man is united with man, and nothing more? 30. One who is perfect in love and has achieved the highest dispassion does not know the difference between one’s own and another’s, believer and unbeliever, slave and free, and even between male and female. But, having risen above the tyranny of passions and looking at the one human nature, he looks at everyone equally and is equally disposed towards everyone. For him there is neither Jew nor Gentile; there is neither male nor female, but Christ is all and in all (Gal.3:28). 31. Demons, relying on the passions that lie deep in the soul, set in motion passionate thoughts in us. Then, waging war with the mind through these [thoughts], they force him to agree to sin. Having overcome [the mind in this way], they lead it to mental sin, and when [this sin] is committed, they draw the already captive mind to [sinful] action. After this, the demons, having devastated the soul through thoughts, are removed along with them. Only the idol of sin remains in the mind, about which the Lord speaks: When you see the abomination that makes desolate... standing in the holy place, let the reader understand (Matthew 24:15). Because the human mind is a holy place and church of God, in which demons, having devastated the soul through passionate thoughts, erected an idol of sin. And that this has already happened in history, no one who has read Joseph doubts. However, some say that this will happen under the Antichrist. 32. There are three [principles] that encourage us to do good: natural seeds, holy Powers and good will. Natural seeds - when, for example, we want people to treat us the way we treat them; or, when we see someone in straitened circumstances and need, we naturally sympathize with him. Holy Powers - when, for example, moving towards a good deed, we gain [their] good assistance and successfully complete this deed. And good will is when, distinguishing good from evil, we choose good. 33. There are also three [principles] that prompt us to evil: passions, demons and evil will. Passion, when we desire [some] thing contrary to reason; for example, food - not at the right time and without need, a woman - not having the purpose of childbearing or not being a legal wife. Also, when we are angry and sad unjustly; for example, someone who did not honor or punished us. Demons, seizing the moment of our negligence, suddenly and swiftly attack us, setting in motion the named passions and similar ones with all their might. And evil will, when we, knowing good, choose evil. 34. The reward for the labors of virtue is dispassion and knowledge. For they are [our] protectors in the Kingdom of Heaven, just as passions and ignorance are the patrons of eternal torment. Therefore, he who seeks them for the sake of human glory, and not for the sake of good itself, let him heed the Scripture: You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly (James 4:3). 35. Of human actions, many are good in themselves, but they are not good for any reason. For example, fasting and vigil, prayer and psalmody, mercy and hospitality are by their nature good deeds, but when they are done for the sake of vanity, then they cease to be good. 36. God seeks the intention of everything we do: whether we do it for His sake, or for [any] other reason. 37. When you hear the word of Scripture: for You will reward everyone according to his deeds (Ps. 61:13), [know] that God rewards good deeds, but not those that contradict the right intention, even if they seem good. For the judgment of God does not consider deeds, but the intention with which they are committed. 38. The demon of pride has a twofold cunning: it either convinces the monk to attribute virtuous deeds to himself, and not to God, the Giver of blessings and Helper in the implementation of [righteous deeds], or, if the monk does not succumb to such a conviction, he inspires him to despise less perfect brethren. The one possessed by this demon does not know that he is persuading him to refuse God’s help. For, despising the brethren as unable to succeed [in spiritual improvement], he, of course, imagines himself to have succeeded thanks to his own strength. But this is impossible, since the Lord says: Without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5). After all, our weakness, driven [to do] good [deeds], cannot bring anything to the end without the Giver of good things. 39. He who knows the weakness of human nature gains the experience of Divine power; thanks to her, he succeeds in some [spiritual things] and strives to succeed in others, never despising any of the people. For [he knows] that just as [God] helped him and freed him from many passions and troubles, so He can help everyone when He wishes, especially those who struggle for His sake. However, according to certain [His] judgments, He does not immediately deliver everyone from passions, but, being a good and philanthropic Doctor, He heals each of those who are zealous [in virtue] at the appropriate time. 40. Arrogance arises when the passions are inactive, when either the reasons [for them] are hidden, or the demons insidiously retreat. 41. Almost every sin happens for the sake of pleasure, and it is destroyed through suffering and sadness, voluntary or involuntary, as well as thanks to repentance or misfortune brought [on us] according to the economy of [God's] Providence. For [Scripture] says: If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged; being judged, we are punished by the Lord, so as not to be condemned with the world (1 Cor. 11:31-32). 42. When an unexpected temptation comes upon you, do not look for the person through whom it came, but seek why it happened, and you will find improvement. After all, whether it happened through one or through another, you must fully drink the bitterness of God’s judgments. 43. As long as you are evil, do not reject the suffering you endure, so that, having humbled yourself through it, you will spew out arrogance. 44. Some of the temptations bring people pleasure, others - sorrow, and still others - bodily torment. And, in accordance with the cause of passions located in the soul, the Physician of souls also applies the [corresponding] medicine through His judgments. 45. Attacks of temptations occur on some - to destroy sins already committed, on others - to stop those currently being committed, and on others - to prevent future ones. This is in addition to those temptations that happen for testing, as, for example, happened to Job. 46. A prudent [person], reasoning about the healing power of God’s judgments, endures the misfortunes that happen to him with gratitude; he considers their cause only to be his own sins, and not anything else. The unreasonable person, not knowing the wise Providence of God, when he sins and is punished, considers either God or people to be the cause of his evils. 47. There are [means] that stop the movement of passions and do not allow them to increase, and there are others that diminish and reduce them. For example, fasting, work and vigil do not allow desire to grow, and solitude, contemplation, prayer and love for God reduce it and bring it to naught. The same is true with rage. Long-suffering, forbearance and meekness stop it and do not allow it to grow, while love, compassion, kindness and philanthropy reduce it. 48. Whoever's mind is always with God, his desire develops into divine passion, and his rage completely turns into divine love. For thanks to long-term involvement with Divine illumination, he becomes entirely light-like and, closely connecting his passionate part with himself, transforms it, as it is said, into endless divine passion and unceasing love, turning entirely from earthly [things] to the Divine. 49. He who is not envious, who does not fall into anger, and who does not remember the evil of the offender is not always the one who loves him. But he can, not yet loving him, not repay evil for evil according to the commandment, although it is difficult for him to repay constant good for evil. For doing good to those who hate us with all our hearts is a sign of only perfect spiritual love. 50. He who does not love someone does not necessarily hate him; conversely, a non-hating person is not necessarily a loving person. But he can be neutral in relation to him, that is, not love, but not hate. After all, only five methods indicated in the ninth chapter of this centenary can produce a loving disposition in the soul: one is praiseworthy, the other is neutral, and the rest are blameworthy. 51. When you see that your mind is happily engaged in material things and willingly turns to thoughts about them, then know that you love them more than God. For where your treasure is, says the Lord, there your heart will also be (Matthew 6:21). 52. The mind that is united with God and abides in Him through prayer and love becomes wise, good, strong, philanthropic, merciful and long-suffering. And just to say: he carries within himself almost all the Divine properties. And moving away from God and giving himself over to material things, he becomes lustful, bestial and bestial, fighting with people because of these things. 53. Scripture calls material things “the world,” and worldly [people] are those whose minds are occupied with them. Shaming them, [Scripture] says: Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world... the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of this world (1 John 2:15-16). 54. A monk is one who has removed his mind from material things and abides in God through abstinence, love, psalmody and prayer. 55. [The word] “cattle feeder” in the spiritual sense means one who labors in [spiritual] deeds, for by “cattle” are meant moral deeds. That's why Jacob says: Men who feed livestock are your servants. And the “shepherd of the sheep” is the one who acquires knowledge, for “sheep” means thoughts grazed by the mind on the mountains of speculation. Therefore, for every shepherd of sheep is an abomination to the Egyptians (Gen. 46:34), that is, to those who are opposed to the powers. 56. When the body is prompted by the senses to [fulfill] its desires and [gain] pleasures, the vicious mind follows it and agrees with its dreams and aspirations. A virtuous mind abstains and is distracted from passionate dreams and aspirations, instead contemplating how to make its [mental] movements better. 57. Of the virtues, some are physical, others are mental. Corporal: fasting, vigil, sleeping on the ground, service, handicrafts [performed in order to] not burden anyone, or to help others, and so on. Mental: love, long-suffering, meekness, abstinence, prayer, etc. If, due to some necessity, due to a physical state, for example, due to weakness or something similar, it happens to us that we cannot fulfill the above-mentioned bodily virtues, then the Lord, who sees the reasons for this, will forgive us. But failure to fulfill spiritual [virtues] will have no justification, for it is not subject to the power of necessity. 58. Love for God inspires those who participate in it to despise all transitory pleasure, all pain and sorrow. All the saints who joyfully endured all this for the sake of Christ will convince you of this. 59. Avoid selfishness, the mother of evils, which is unreasonable love for the body. For from it, with apparent rationality, the three first, main, passionate and frantic thoughts are born; I mean gluttony, love of money and vanity, based on the necessary needs of the body. And from them, in turn, comes the rest of the list of vices. Therefore, as has been said, one should avoid [self-love] and resist it with great sobriety of mind. For when it is destroyed, then all the [other vices] that came from it perish with it. 60. The passion of selfishness advises the monk to be merciful to the body and indulge it in food beyond what is appropriate. [This is done], of course, under the pretext of housebuilding and [reasonable] management [of the body], so that [the monk], little by little carried away [by passion], would fall into the pit of voluptuousness. She inspires the laity to turn care for the flesh into lust (Rom. 13:14). 61. The highest state of prayer, as they say, is when the mind finds itself outside the flesh and the World, and during it becomes completely immaterial and formless. He who maintains this state unbroken truly prays without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). 62. Just as the body, dying, is separated from everything worldly, so the mind, dying in the highest state of prayer, is torn away from all worldly thoughts. For if he does not die such a death, then he cannot live with God. 63. Let no one tempt you, monk, that you can be saved by serving pleasure and vanity. 64. Just as the body sins through things and has bodily virtues for [its] education, so the mind sins through passionate thoughts and is educated by spiritual virtues, so that it becomes chaste, contemplating things purely and dispassionately. 65. As nights follow days and summers follow winters, so sorrows and torments follow vanity and pleasure in the present or future. 66. It is impossible for someone who has sinned to escape the coming judgment without voluntary labors or without involuntary troubles here. 67. They say that for five reasons God allows demons to fight us. The first reason, as they say, is so that we, being fought and opposed, achieve the distinction between virtue and vice. The second is that we, having acquired virtue through struggle and labor, have it firm and unshakable. The third is that, while we succeed in virtue, we do not become arrogant, but learn humility. The fourth is that, having experienced vice, we would hate it with complete hatred. Finally, the fifth and most important reason is so that, having become dispassionate, we would not forget either about our own weakness or about the strength of [Helping] us. 68. Just as the mind of a hungry person dreams of bread, and the mind of a thirsty person dreams of water, so the mind of a glutton dreams of various dishes, a sensualist dreams of women’s faces, a vain person dreams of human honors, a lover of money dreams of profits, a vindictive person dreams of revenge on the offender, an envious person dreams of the troubles that will befall the one he envies. The same thing happens with other passions. For the mind, overcome by passions, perceives passionate thoughts both when the body is awake and when it sleeps. 69. When desire intensifies [in the soul], the mind [begins] to dream in dreams about material things that give pleasure, and when rage intensifies, it [begins] to see things that cause fear. When passions intensify, then unclean demons, taking our negligence as accomplices, inflame them. And the holy Angels weaken these passions, encouraging us to perform virtues. 70. When the desirable principle of the soul is often kindled, then a stable habit of voluptuousness is formed in it, and when the violent principle is constantly aroused, this makes the mind timid and cowardly. The first is healed by the constant feat of fasting, vigil and prayer, and the second by kindness, philanthropy, love and mercy. 71. Demons fight with us either through things or through passionate thoughts related to these things. Through things they fight with those who are immersed in [the world of] things, and through thoughts - with those who have withdrawn from things. 72. How much easier it is to sin in thought than in deed, so much more severe is mental warfare compared to warfare waged through things. 73. Things are outside the mind, and thoughts about them are formed inside it. Therefore, the correct or evil use of these thoughts depends on the mind, for the sinful use of thoughts is followed by the abuse of things. 74. The mind perceives passionate thoughts in three [ways]: through feeling, through bodily structure and through memory. Through feeling, when it is affected by things to which we are passionate, for then feeling prompts the mind to passionate thoughts. Through the physical dispensation, when, due to intemperance in food, a demon operating [in us] or some illness changes this disposition, and it again prompts the mind to passionate thoughts, or forces [it to go] contrary to [God's] Providence. Through memory, when it evokes in us thoughts of things to which we were partial, and thereby again stimulates the mind to passionate thoughts. 75. Of the things given to us by God for use, some are in the soul, others in the body, and others around the body. For example, those that are in the soul are its powers; those in the body are the sense organs and other members; and those around the body are food, property, and so on. Therefore, using them for good or evil, as well as using the random properties associated with these things, reveals us either virtuous or vicious. 76. Of the random properties of things, some are in the soul, others in the body, and others around the body. For example, those that are in the soul are knowledge and ignorance, oblivion and memory, love and hatred, fear and courage, joy and sadness, and so on. Those that are in the body are pleasure and pain, feeling and the absence of it due to [any] physical defect, life and death, and the like. Those around the body are fertility and infertility, wealth and poverty, glory and disgrace, and so on. Of these, some are considered by people to be good, others - to be evil, but [in fact] in their essence, none of them is evil; they turn out to be good or evil depending on their use. 77. Knowledge is by nature good, as is health, but their opposites are often more beneficial than themselves. For for the vicious, knowledge, although it is good by nature, as has been said, does not benefit the good, as well as health, wealth and joy: after all, [such people] do not use them for [spiritual] benefit. The opposite is good for them. Therefore, [such states] are not inherently evil, even if they seem to be so. 78. Do not abuse thoughts, so that by necessity you do not abuse things. For he who has not sinned before in thought will never sin in reality. 79. The “image of earthy” is the main vices: stupidity, cowardice, licentiousness and injustice. And the “image of heaven” is the main virtues: wisdom, courage, chastity and justice. And just as we have borne the image of earth, we will also bear the image of heavenly things (1 Cor. 15:49). 80. If you want to find the path leading to life, then look for it in that Path which [about Himself] says: I am the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6), and there you will find it. But seek with all diligence, because few find it (Matthew 7:14); otherwise you will fall behind the few and find yourself among the many. 81. The soul is restrained from sins for the following five [reasons]: out of fear of people, out of fear of judgment, out of [fear] of future retribution, out of love for God, or, finally, out of remorse. 82. Some say that evil would be absent from beings if there were not some other force that draws us towards it. But this force is nothing more than neglect of the natural energies of the mind. Therefore, those who care about them always do good, but never evil. If you also want this, then reject negligence, and with it you will reject evil, which is the sinful use of thoughts, accompanied by the abuse of things. 83. It is natural for the rational principle in us to obey the divine Word and to rule over our unreasonable principle. Therefore, this order must be observed in all [people], and then there will be neither evil in those who exist, nor that which leads to such evil. 84. Of the thoughts, some are simple, while others are complex. Simple thoughts are dispassionate, and complex thoughts are passionate, consisting of passion and thought. And at the same time, one can see that many simple thoughts follow complex ones when they begin to move toward mental sin. Let's take gold as an example. When someone has a passionate thought about gold, then the thought of stealing it arises - and a sin is already committed in the mind. The memory of gold is followed by the memory of a wallet, a chest, a pantry, and so on. In this case, the memory of gold is complex, because passion is present, but the memory of a wallet, chest, pantry, etc. is simple, because the mind has no attachment to them. The situation is the same with every other thought: with the thought of vanity, with the thought of a woman and the rest. After all, not all thoughts that follow a passionate thought are also passionate, as shown in the example. From this we can know which thoughts are passionate and which are simple. 85. Some say that demons, touching the secret members of our body during sleep, arouse the passion of fornication, and through memory it brings to mind the image of a woman. Others [believe] that demons appear to the mind in the form of a woman, and then, touching the secret members, arouse lust, and thus [prodigal] dreams arise. Still others [believe] that the passion prevailing in the approaching demon sets in motion the [same] passion [in a person], and therefore the soul is kindled by thoughts, through memory [imagining various] images. The situation is the same with other passionate dreams; however, as they say, with some it happens this way, and with others differently. However, demons are not able to arouse passion in any of the above ways, whether during wakefulness or during sleep, if love and self-control are present in the soul. 86. Some of the commandments of the law must be observed both physically and spiritually, while others must be observed only spiritually. For example, [commandments]: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, and similar ones should be observed both physically and spiritually, and with spiritual observance - threefold. [The commandments] of circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, slaughtering a lamb, eating unleavened bread with bitter herbs, and the like [must be observed] only spiritually. 87. Monks have three main moral states: first, do not commit sins; second, do not retain passionate thoughts in your soul; third, with a dispassionate mind, look at the faces of women and offenders. 88. The one who has renounced everything that belongs to him and no longer has anything on earth except his body is not covetous, and he breaks the connection with it, entrusting the care of himself to God and pious people. 89. Of those who acquire [wealth], some acquire [it] dispassionately, and therefore do not grieve when they lose it, as those who joyfully accept the plunder of their property (Heb. 10:34). Others acquire it passionately, and therefore grieve when they are about to lose it, as was the case with the rich [young man] in the Gospel, who went away sad (Matthew 19:22), and if they are [really] deprived, they grieve to the point of death. And therefore, deprivation [of wealth] exposes the inner disposition of a dispassionate or passionate [acquisitor]. 90. With those who have reached the heights of [mental] prayer, demons wage war in such a way that they do not perceive simple thoughts about sensory things; with the leaders - so as to retain passionate thoughts in them; with those who strive in [spiritual] work - so as to convince them to commit sin in practice. And these damned ones fight everyone in any way in order to separate people from God. 91. Those whom God's Providence exercises in piety in this life are tested by the following three temptations: either the gift of pleasant [things], such as health, beauty, parental happiness, wealth, and the like; or an influx of sorrows, for example, the loss of children, wealth and fame; or torments caused to the body, such as illness, suffering, and so on. The Lord addresses the first: He who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:33), and to the second and third: Save your souls with your patience (Luke 21:19). 92. They say that four things change the bodily structure and impart both passionate and dispassionate thoughts to the mind: Angels, demons, weather and lifestyle. Angels change [this dispensation] with a word, demons with their touch, the weather with their vicissitudes, the way of life with the quality and quantity of food and drink, their excess or deficiency. In addition, a change in the bodily structure occurs through memory, hearing and vision, for the soul is the first to be affected by sad or joyful circumstances. And having been exposed to them, the soul, [in turn], changes the bodily structure, and it, having changed, inspires [corresponding] thoughts in the mind. 93. Death, in the true sense of the word, is separation from God, and the sting of death is sin (1 Cor. 15:56). Having taken this thorn into himself, Adam found himself expelled from the tree of life, from paradise and from God, which was inevitably followed by death. Life, in the proper sense of the word, is the One who said: I am Life (John 14:6). By His death He brought the dead back to life again. 94. When something is written, it is done either for oneself as a keepsake, or for [the benefit of] others, or for both. [Sometimes this is done] to shame some [people], or for proof, or out of necessity. 95. A green place is active virtue, and still water (Ps. 22:2) is knowledge of created things. 96. The shadow of death is human life. And he who is with God, and with whom God is, can boldly say: though I walk in the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Ps. 22:4). 97. A pure mind sees things in their truth, a skillful word conveys this vision [to others], and a sensitive ear accepts it. He who is deprived of all this condemns the one who spoke [the true word]. 98. He is with God who knows the Holy Trinity, Her creation, the Providence of [God] and who contains the passionate part of [his] soul in dispassion. 99. They say that the “rod” means the Judgment of God, and the “staff” means Providence. And he who has received knowledge of them can say: Your rod and Your staff - they have comforted me (Ps. 22:4). 100. When the mind is stripped of passions and enlightened by the contemplation of things, then it can be in God and pray as it should. 1. The rational use of thoughts and things creates chastity, love and knowledge, and the unreasonable use creates licentiousness, hatred and ignorance. 2. You have prepared a table for me (Ps. 22:5) and so on. “Meal” here means active virtue, for it was prepared by Christ to resist those who are cold to us. The “oil” that anoints the mind is the contemplation of creatures. The “cup” of God is the knowledge of God. His “mercy” is His Word and God, for He, through His Incarnation, follows us all the days until He takes possession of all those who, like Paul, must be saved (Phil. 3:12-13). The “house” is the Kingdom [of Heaven], in which all the saints are restored. And “length of days” is eternal life. 3. Vices happen to us as a result of abuse of the powers of the soul: desirable, violent and reasonable. The abuse of intelligent power is ignorance and recklessness, of violent and desirable power is hatred and licentiousness. Their [correct] use is knowledge and prudence, love and chastity. And if this is the case, then nothing created and brought into being by God is evil. 4. It is not food that is evil, but gluttony; not childbearing, but fornication; not material wealth, but love of money; not glory, but vanity. If so, then there is no evil in beings; it is only in the abuse [of things], which comes from the mind’s neglect of the natural cultivation [of the powers of the soul]. 5. Blessed Dionysius says that evil in demons is irrational rage, senseless desire and rash imagination. But even in rational beings, unreason, senselessness and rashness are a lack of reason, intelligence and prudence. But such deprivation testifies to previous possession. Consequently, once upon a time demons also possessed reason, intelligence and reverent prudence. And if so, then by nature they are not evil, but became so through the abuse of natural forces. 6. Some of the passions produce licentiousness, others produce hatred, and still others produce both licentiousness and hatred. 7. Polyeating and sweet eating are the causes of debauchery; love of money and vanity are the reasons for hatred of one’s neighbor; and selfishness - their mother - is the cause of both. 8. Self-love is passionate and unreasonable love for the body; love and abstinence are opposed to it. He who has selfishness, as is obvious, also has all the passions. 9 . No one, says the Apostle, has ever hated his flesh, but pacifies and enslaves it (Eph. 5:29, 1 Cor. 9:27), allowing it nothing but food and clothing (1 Tim. 6:8), and then only those necessary for life. Thus, one must love her dispassionately, as a servant of the divine, nourish and warm her exactly to the extent that this satisfies her needs. 10. He who loves someone tries to serve him in every possible way. Therefore, if someone loves God, then he naturally tries to do what is pleasing to Him. He who loves flesh pleases it. 11. Love, chastity, contemplation and prayer are pleasing to God, but gluttony, licentiousness and [everything] that increases them are pleasing to the flesh. Therefore, those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. But those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Rom.8:8, Gal.5:24). 12. When the mind gravitates towards God, it holds the body as a slave and does not allow it anything beyond what is necessary for life. When he gravitates towards the flesh, he is enslaved by passions, always turning care for it into lusts (Rom. 13:14). 13. If you want to overcome thoughts, observe the passions and thanks to this you can easily expel thoughts from your mind. For example, in relation to fornication - fast, vigil, work and be alone. Regarding anger and sadness, despise fame, wickedness and material things. Regarding memory malice, pray for the one who insulted [you] and you will be freed [from this passion]. 14. Do not measure yourself against the weakest of people, but rather [strengthen] yourself and expand yourself to the commandment. For by measuring yourself with the weakest, you will fall into the pit of arrogance, and by expanding yourself [to this commandment], you will reach the heights of humility. 15. If you fully observe the commandment towards your neighbor, why does bitterness of annoyance towards him arise in you? Isn’t it clear that this is a consequence of the preference for transient [things] of love for one’s neighbor and that by seeking them, you are fighting with your brother? 16. It is not so much out of necessity that gold is desired by people, but because through it many satisfy their lust. 17. There are three reasons for the love of wealth: love of pleasure, vanity and unbelief. Of these, the most difficult is unbelief. 18. He who loves pleasure also loves silver, so that thanks to it he can enjoy luxury; the vain [loves him] in order to become famous thanks to him; the unbeliever [loves silver] in order to hide and preserve it, fearing hunger, old age, illness or exile, and trusts in it more than in God - the Creator and Provider of every creature, even the very last and most insignificant living creature. 19. There are four kinds of people who accumulate wealth: three were discussed above, and the fourth is the home-based person. And only such a person saves correctly, [for he takes care that] his hand does not become scarce to give to everyone in need. 20. All passionate thoughts either irritate the desirable part of the soul, or confuse the violent part, or darken the rational part. This results in blindness of mind both in relation to spiritual contemplation and in relation to prayerful ascension to God. Therefore, a monk, especially a silent one, must pay close attention to thoughts and cut off their causes. To know this way: the desirable part of the soul is irritated by passionate memories of women, the causes of which are intemperance in food and drink, as well as frequent and unreasonable treatment of women. These memories are cut off - hunger, thirst, vigil and solitude. The furious part of the soul is disturbed by biased memories of offenders; they are caused by love of pleasure, vanity or attachment to material things. As a result of them, a passionate [person] grieves: either because he has lost them, or because he has not acquired them. Contempt or disdain [for these things] and love for God cuts off such [passions]. 21. God knows both Himself and His creatures. The Holy Powers also know God and His creatures. But they do not know this as God Himself knows. 22. God knows Himself from His blessed essence, and His creatures from His Wisdom, through which and in which He created everything. The Holy Powers know God through communion [with Him], although He is above communion. And they know His creations through the perception of the ideas embedded in them. 23. The creatures [of God] are outside the mind, but he perceives the contemplation of them within himself. But this is not the case with God - the Eternal, Boundless and Limitless, who grants existence, well-being and ever-being to beings. 24. The rational and spiritual essence participates in the Holy God by its existence, inclination towards goodness (that is, towards goodness and wisdom) and the grace of ever-being. In the same way she knows God. She knows His creatures, as has been said, through the perception of the skillful Wisdom contemplated in creatures, which exists in the mind as a simple and devoid of hypostasis. 25. God, bringing into being a rational and spiritual essence, in His highest goodness imparted to it four divine properties, through which He contains everything together, protects and saves those who exist: being, ever-being, goodness and wisdom. [God] bestowed the first two properties on the essence, and the other two on the powers of the will; that is, He gave existence and ever-being to the essence, and the abilities of the will - goodness and wisdom, so that the creature through communion would become what He Himself essentially is. That is why it is said that man was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26). “In the image” - as the existing [image] of the Existing and as the ever-present [image] of the Ever-Existing: although it is not without beginning, it is infinite. “In the likeness” - as good, [the likeness of] the Good and, as wise, [the likeness of] the All-Wise, being by grace what [God is] by nature. Every rational nature is in the image of God, but only the good and wise are in [His] likeness. 26. Every rational and spiritual essence is divided into two: into angelic and human nature. The entire angelic nature is again divided into two general parts and groups: the saints and the damned, the holy Powers and unclean demons. And all human nature is divided only into two general parts: [people] pious and wicked. 27. God, being Self-Existence, Self-Goodness and Self-Wisdom (or, to put it more truthfully, transcending all this), does not possess anything opposite at all. Creatures, like all those who have existence through participation and grace (and the rational and spiritual also have the ability to perceive goodness and wisdom), also have something opposite. Namely, being is opposed to non-being, and the ability to perceive goodness and wisdom is opposed to vice and ignorance. For them, to always be or not to be depends on the power of the One who created them. Whether or not to participate in His Goodness and Wisdom depends on the will of rational [beings]. 28. The Greeks, saying that the essence of beings coexists with God from eternity and that from Him it receives only its own qualities, argue that in essence there is nothing contrary. We say that only one Divine essence has nothing contrary, being eternal, limitless and giving eternity to other [entities]; that the essence of beings is opposed to non-existence and that it depends on the power of true Being whether this essence will always be or not be, for the gifts of God are immutable (Rom. 11:29). Therefore, held by the Almighty Power, it is and will always be, although, as has been said, it has non-existence as its opposite, since it is brought into being from non-existence and it is in the will of God whether it is or not to be. 29. Just as evil is the deprivation of good, and ignorance is the deprivation of knowledge, so the non-existent is the deprivation of the existing - but not the Existing in the proper sense of the word, for It does not have an opposite - but the existing by participation in the actual Existence. Just as the deprivation of the first [two] depends on the will of creatures, so the deprivation of the second depends on the will of the Creator, who, by [His] Goodness, always wants those who exist to be and always be blessed by Him. 30. Of all creatures, some are rational and spiritual; they can perceive opposites within themselves, for example, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance. Others are different bodies consisting of opposites, that is, earth, air, fire and water. And some are completely incorporeal and immaterial (although some of them are combined with bodies), while others are formed only from matter and species. 31. All bodies are naturally motionless. They are set in motion by the soul: some [bodies] by the rational [soul], others by the unreasonable, and still others by the insensible. 32. Of the powers of the soul, some are nutritious and vegetative, others relate to the ability of imagination and desire, and others relate to the ability of understanding and thinking. Plants participate only in the first, irrational animals also participate in the second, and people participate in all three. The first two forces are perishable, and the third is incorruptible and immortal. 33. The Holy Powers communicate [Divine] illumination to each other. And they give [something] to human nature: either from their virtue or from their knowledge. From virtue, as from God-imitating goodness, in accordance with which they do good to themselves, and to each other, and to those who are lower than them, making them God-like. From knowledge [they give] either some more exalted [knowledge] about God - for [Scripture] says: You are the Highest forever, O Lord (Ps. 92:9), - or deeper [knowledge] about bodies, or more accurate [knowledge] about incorporeal beings, or clearer - about [God's] Providence, or more distinct - about [God's] Judgment. 34. The impurity of the mind consists, firstly, in false knowledge; secondly, in ignorance of something from the universal - I speak regarding the human mind, for it is unusual for an angel not to know even any particular thing; thirdly, in passionate thoughts; fourthly, in consent to sin. 35. The impurity of the soul lies in the fact that it does not act in accordance with nature, and from this passionate thoughts are born in the mind. 36. Uncleanness of the body is actual sin. 37. He who is not partial to worldly things loves silence; whoever loves nothing human loves all people; He who is not tempted by anyone [of his neighbors], either because of [his] falls or because of suspicious thoughts [about him], has knowledge of God and the Divine. 38. It is a great thing not to be partial to things, but even greater is to remain dispassionate in thoughts about them. 39. Love and self-control keep the mind dispassionate both in relation to things and in relation to thoughts about them. 40. The mind of a God-loving person fights not with things and not with thoughts about them, but with the passions associated with these thoughts. For example, he fights not with [any] woman, not with the offender, and not with images of them imagined in the imagination, but with the passions associated with such ideas. 41. The whole struggle of a monk is to separate passions from thoughts. Otherwise, it is impossible for him to look at things dispassionately. 42. Another is a thing, another is a thought, and another is a passion. For example, a thing is a man, a woman, gold, and so on; thought - a simple memory of the named things; passion is either unreasonable love or blind hatred towards them. And the monk enters the battle [precisely] with passion. 43. A passionate mental idea is a thought arising from a combination of passion and thought. If we separate passion from thought, then what remains is simple thought. And we separate it, if we want, through spiritual love and abstinence. 44. Virtues separate the mind from passions, spiritual contemplations from simple thoughts, and pure prayer represents it before God Himself. 45. Virtues [exist] for the sake of guiding creatures; knowledge - for the sake of the knower; the knower - for the sake of the Known in an unknown way, the knowledge [of which] exceeds all knowledge. 46. The all-abundant God did not bring creatures into existence as being in need of anything, but [He did this] so that they would partake of communion commensurate with Him, and He Himself would rejoice in His deeds, seeing them rejoicing and always being insatiably satisfied with the Insatiable One. 47. The world has many poor in spirit, but not as it should; there are many who cry, but about the loss of property or the loss of children; many are meek, but in relation to unclean passions; there are many who hunger and thirst, but [hungry] to steal what belongs to others and to enrich themselves unrighteously; many are merciful, but to the body and the physical; [many] are pure in heart, but because of vanity; [many] are peacemakers, but subjugate the soul to the flesh; many were expelled, but because of their dissipation; many are reviled, but for shameful sins. However, blessed are only those who, for the sake of Christ and according to Christ, do and endure this. Why? – Because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven and they will see God (Matthew 5:3,8). And they are blessed not because they do and endure this (for those named above do the same), but because they do and endure this for the sake of Christ and according to Christ. 48. As has often been said, in all our deeds God seeks [our] intention: whether these deeds were performed for His sake or for the sake of something else. Therefore, when we want to do something good, we will have God as our goal, and not people-pleasing, so that we always look to Him and do everything for His sake, for otherwise we will endure labor [in vain] and will lose our reward. 49. During prayer, banish from your mind simple thoughts about human things and contemplation of all created things, so that, imagining lower things, you do not fall away from the One who is incomparably better than all existing things. 50. If we have sincerely loved God, then through this love we will reject passions. After all, love for Him is a preference for His world and soul - the flesh. This means contempt for worldly things and complete dedication to God through abstinence, love, prayer, psalmody and the like. 51. If we devote a lot of time to God and vigilantly monitor the passionate part of the soul, then we no longer become victims of the attack of thoughts. But by more accurately comprehending their causes and cutting them off, we become [spiritually] more vigilant, so that the words are fulfilled in us: And my eye will look at my enemies, and my ear will hear about the wicked people who rise up against me (Ps. 91:12). 52. When you see that your mind revolves piously and righteously in thoughts about the world, then know that your body also remains pure and sinless. But when you see your mind mentally indulging in sins and do not cut off [them], know that your body will not hesitate to fall into them. 53. Just as the body has things as its world, so the mind has thoughts as its world. And just as the body commits adultery with the body of a woman, so the mind commits adultery with the thought of a woman, through the dreaming of its body. For in thought he sees the image of his body copulating with the image of a woman. Likewise, in his thoughts he sees the image of the offender, to whom the image of his body takes revenge. The same is true with other sins. For what the body actually does in the world of things, the mind also does in the world of thoughts. 54. We should not shudder, be amazed and wonder that God the Father does not judge anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). The Son cries: Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1) and Condemn not, and ye not be condemned (Luke 6:37). In the same way [says] the Apostle: Judge not in any way before the time, until the Lord comes (1 Cor. 4:5). And one more thing: By the same judgment with which you judge another, you condemn yourself (Rom. 2:1). But people, having stopped crying about their own sins, took the judgment from the Son and themselves, as if sinless, judge and condemn each other. The sky is horrified at this (Jer. 2:12), and the earth trembles, but they, insensitive, are not ashamed! 55. He who is curious about the sins of others or who judges his brother out of suspicion has not yet begun to repent and has not embarked on the path of learning about his own sins (which are truly heavier than the weight of many pounds of lead). And he does not know why a person becomes hard-hearted, loving vanity and seeking lies (Ps. 4:3). And therefore, like a madman wandering in the darkness, he neglects his own sins and imagines about others, true or suspected imaginary. 56. Self-love, as has often been said, is the cause of all passionate thoughts. From it three main thoughts are born: the thought of gluttony, the thought of love of money and the thought of vanity. From gluttony the thought of fornication is born, from the love of money - the thought of covetousness, from vanity - the thought of pride. All others follow one of three: thoughts of anger, sadness, bitterness, despondency, envy, slander and others. These passions connect the mind with material things and keep it on the earth, pressing it to it like a heavy stone, although by nature the mind is lighter and swifter than fire. 57. Self-love is the beginning of all passions, and their end is pride. Self-love is unreasonable love for the body. He who cuts off this love cuts off, along with selfishness, all the passions that arise from him. 58. Just as parents are partial to their bodily offspring, so the mind is naturally partial to its thoughts. And just as to the most partial of parents their children appear the most gifted and beautiful of all, although they are in every respect the most worthy of ridicule, so to the reckless mind its thoughts appear the most reasonable, although they are the most pitiful. This is not how his thoughts appear to the sage. On the contrary, even when it seems to him that he has become convinced of their truth and correctness, it is then that he most does not trust his judgment. He appoints other wise [men] as judges over his thoughts and thoughts - whether he is running or has run in vain (Gal. 2:2) - and from them he receives confirmation. 59. When you overcome any of the dishonest passions - gluttony, fornication, anger or covetousness - then the thought of vanity immediately attacks you. And when you defeat him, then the thought of pride follows him. 60. All dishonest passions, having dominion over the soul, expel the thought of vanity from it, and when they are conquered, they give it freedom [to rule over the soul]. 61. Vanity, sometimes destroyed and sometimes remaining [in the soul], gives rise to pride. When it is destroyed, it produces conceit, and when it remains, it produces arrogance. 62. Secret [spiritual] work destroys vanity, and attributing [one's own] achievements to God destroys pride! 63. He who has become worthy of the knowledge of God and has truly tasted its sweetness despises all pleasures generated by [carnal] lust. 64. He who lusts after earthly things thirsts either for food, or for that which serves the subgastric [passions], or for human glory, or for money, or for any of their ensuing consequences. And if the mind does not find anything better than this, to which it could transfer its desire, then it will not be completely convinced of [the need] to despise such [passions]. And incomparably better than these is the knowledge of God and divine [things]. 65. Those who despise pleasures despise them either out of fear or out of trust, knowledge or love of God. 66. Dispassionate knowledge of divine [things] does not convince the mind to completely despise material [things], but it rather resembles a simple thought about a material thing. Therefore, you can find many people who have abundant knowledge and yet, like pigs, wallow in the mud of carnal passions (2 Peter 2:22). For, having first cared a little about the purification [of the soul] and gained knowledge, and then stopped caring about it, they became like Saul, who, having been awarded the kingdom, behaved unworthily and was dethroned with terrible anger. 67. Just as a simple thought about human things does not force the mind to despise divine things, so a simple knowledge of divine things does not convince the mind to completely despise human things, because the truth now exists in shadows and similarities. And from here arises the need for the blissful passion of holy love, combining the mind with spiritual contemplations and convincing him to prefer the immaterial to material things, and the intelligible and divine to the sensual. 68. He who has cut off passions and produced simple thoughts has not yet turned them completely to the divine, and therefore he can [only] be not committed to either the human or the divine. This happens to people who devote themselves to only one task, but have not yet been worthy of knowledge; they abstain from passions either because of the fear of [eternal] punishment or because of the hope of the Kingdom [of Heaven]. 69. We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7) and we have knowledge as through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12). That is why we need them, so that through long-term training and exercise regarding faith and knowledge, we can acquire strong skill in speculation. 70. If we partially cut off the causes of passions and indulge in spiritual contemplation, but do not always devote ourselves to them, doing only this, then we will easily plunge again into carnal passions, not reaping any fruits other than simple knowledge together with conceit. In the end, there is a darkening of knowledge itself and a complete turning of the mind to material [things]. 71. The reprehensible passion of love immerses the mind in material things, and the praiseworthy passion of love combines it with divine [things]. For as a rule, where the mind lingers, it expands, and where it expands, desire and love turns to that: either to [things] divine and intelligible, peculiar to it, or to carnal things and to passions [bodily]. 72. God created both the invisible world and the visible world; He also created the soul and body. And if the visible world is so beautiful, then what is the invisible [world] like? And if it is better than what is visible, then how much greater is God who created them than both [worlds]? And if the Creator of all good things is better than everything created, then why does the mind, leaving the best, indulge in the worst, that is, carnal passions? Is it not clear that by virtue of habit and constant communication with the flesh, [begun] from birth, without having yet received the perfect experience of the One who is better than everyone and surpasses everything? Therefore, if by prolonged abstinence from [sensual] pleasures and concern for divine things we gradually tear the mind away from such a connection, then it, gradually succeeding in the divine, will expand and recognize its own dignity and, finally, transfer all its ardent desire to God. 73. He who dispassionately speaks of a brother's sin speaks about it for two reasons: either to correct him himself, or to benefit another. If he speaks to himself or to another without these [intentions], then he speaks condemningly or mockingly. Therefore, God will not leave it like that, and he will fall into the same or another sin and, being exposed and disgraced by others, will be put to shame. 74. There is not one and the same reason why sinners actually commit the same sin, but [these reasons] are different. For example, it is one thing to sin out of skill, and another thing out of [unreasonable] passion. In the latter case, [the person] neither before nor after the sin thought about it, but was very sad about what happened. Quite the opposite happens to someone who has sinned by habit: even before the sin he did not stop mentally sinning, and after it he retains the same disposition. 75. He who strives for virtues for the sake of vanity and knowledge also strives for his sake. Such a person does or says something not for edification, but seeks approval from viewers or listeners. [His] passion is exposed when one of them reproaches his words or deeds, and he greatly grieves about this - not because they did not heed the edification (for he did not have such a goal), but because he himself was wounded. 76. The passion of the love of money is exposed by the fact that [the one possessed by it] receives with joy and gives with sadness. Such a person cannot be a housewife. 77. A person endures suffering either because of love for God, or because of fear of punishment, or because of fear of people, or as a result of natural [endurance], or for the sake of pleasure, greed or vanity, or out of necessity. 78. It’s one thing to get rid of thoughts, and another thing to free yourself from passions. A person often gets rid of thoughts because those things for which he developed passions are absent. But these passions are hidden in the soul and are revealed when things appear. Therefore one must watch the mind when things are present and know what it has passion for. 79. He is a true friend who, during temptations caused by circumstances, calmly and calmly endures the sorrows, needs and troubles of his neighbor as if he were his own. 80. Do not neglect your conscience, which always advises you the best. For it prompts you with a divine and angelic thought, frees you from secret defilements of the heart and grants you close communication with God at the end. 81. If you want to become knowledgeable and modest and not be enslaved by the passion of pride, always look for in things that are hidden from your knowledge. Having found numerous and varied things hidden for you, you will be surprised at your ignorance and humble your wisdom. And having known yourself, you will learn many great and wondrous things, since recognizing yourself as a knower does not allow you to succeed in knowledge. 82. He conscientiously desires to be saved who does not resist healing medicines. And they are torments and sorrows that occur as a result of various circumstances. He who resists [these medicines] knows neither what is happening here, nor what benefit he will receive [from them] after leaving this world. 83. Vanity and love of money give rise to each other. For those who are vain become rich, and those who become rich become vainglorious. But this is how things are with worldly people, and a monk is even more vain when he is not possessive. Having silver, he hides it, ashamed of having something inappropriate for the monastic rank. 84. The vanity of a monk is to be vain about virtue and its consequences. And his pride tends to exalt himself with his own [spiritual] achievements, attribute them to himself, and not to God, and to despise others. Vanity and pride of a worldly person tend to be exalted and conceited in beauty, wealth, influence and common sense. 85. The achievements of worldly people are downfalls for monks, and the achievements of monks are downfalls for worldly people. For example, the achievements of worldly people are wealth, fame, influence, luxury, bodily health, many children, and so on. Having achieved this, the monk dies, for his achievements are lack of wealth, disgrace, lack of influence, suffering, and so on. Unwittingly finding himself in such circumstances, a person who loves the world considers them to be great disasters and is often ready to commit suicide - some even commit it. 86. Food was created for two reasons: for satiation and for healing. Therefore, those who accept it, in addition to these reasons, abuse what is given by God for [man’s] benefit and are condemned as sybarites. Likewise, in relation to all things, abuse [of them] is a sin. 87. Humility is constant prayer with tears and labors. For it, always calling on God for help, does not allow one to boldly rely on one’s own strength and wisdom and to exalt oneself over others - which are two serious diseases of the passion of pride. 88. It is one thing to fight a simple thought so that it does not set passion in motion; another thing is to fight a passionate [thought] so that permission [to sin] does not occur. But both of these methods [of spiritual warfare] do not allow thoughts to linger [in us]. 89. Memory malice is associated with sadness. After all, when the mind, as in a mirror, reflects the face of a brother with [feelings of] sadness, then it is clear that he has memory of him. The path of the vindictive leads to death (Proverbs 12:28), for he who holds vindictiveness is called a wicked person (Proverbs 21:24). 90. If you have a grudge against someone, pray for him and stop the movement of passion, through prayer separating sadness from the memory of the evil done to you. By becoming well-disposed and philanthropic, you will completely banish passion from your soul. And when another [person] bears a grudge against you, be kind and humble towards him and treat him nobly - then you will free him from passion. 91. It is difficult to stop the sadness of someone who envies you, because he considers as misfortune what makes him envious of you. And there is no other way to stop his sadness than by hiding it. But if this brings benefit to many, but causes him grief, then what will you neglect? – It is necessary, of course, to choose the benefit of many, but if possible, not to leave it neglected, so as not to be carried away by the deceit of passion, defending not the passion, but the suffering one. Therefore, through humility, you should consider him superior to you and give him preference at every time, in every place and in every matter. And you can stop your envy by rejoicing in what the person who makes you envy rejoices, and grieve with him at his sadness - by doing this you will fulfill the [commandment] of the Apostle: Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). 92. Our mind is in the middle of two certain [forces], each of which produces what is characteristic of it. [I mean] virtue and vice, that is, angel and demon. But the mind has the power of choice and the power to follow or resist what it wishes. 93. The Holy Powers turn us towards good, and natural seeds and good will help us. On the contrary, passions and evil will become allies of demonic battles. 94. Sometimes God Himself teaches the pure mind, condescending upon it; sometimes the holy Powers inspire him with good, and sometimes [this is done] by the contemplated nature of things. 95. A mind that has been granted knowledge should preserve its thoughts about things in dispassion, keep its speculations unshakable and its prayerful state in serenity. But he cannot always protect them from the attractions of the flesh, shrouded in the smoke of demonic obsessions. 96. What causes us sadness is not always the same as what causes our anger, for the former is more abundant than the latter. For example, such and such a thing broke, such and such was lost, such and such a person died. Because of one thing we only get upset, because of another we get upset and angry, not having a wise disposition of soul. 97. It is the nature of the mind that perceives thoughts about things to change according to each thought. Contemplating them spiritually, he is transformed in many different ways, applying himself to each object of contemplation. But once in God, he becomes completely ugly and formless, for, contemplating the Simple, [the mind itself] becomes simple and entirely light-like. 98. The perfect soul is the one whose passionate power is directed entirely towards God. 99. Perfect is that mind which, through true faith, in an unknown way cognizes with supreme knowledge the One who is above all knowledge. Reviewing the entire totality of God's creatures, he receives (as far as is available to man) from God a comprehensive knowledge of Providence and Judgment [acting] in these [creatures]. 100. Time is divided in a tripartite manner; faith extends to all three parts, hope to one, and love to two. Faith and hope [exist] to a certain [limit], and love, uniting for endless centuries in the highest unity with the Infinite, always remains, growing all the time. Therefore, love is the greatest of these (1 Cor. 13:13). 1. The mind, comprehending the Divine Infinity - this inaccessible and much-desired Ocean in all respects - is first of all surprised. Then he is amazed at how [God] brought everything that exists out of nothing into existence. But, since His greatness has no limit (Ps. 145:3), His Wisdom is also incomprehensible. 2. For how can one not be surprised when contemplating this immeasurable Ocean of Goodness that surpasses all amazement? How not to go into a frenzy, comprehending with the mind how and where the intelligent and rational essence came from, as well as the four elements from which bodies are formed, when there was no matter pre-existing their existence? What is the Power that came into being and brought them into being? – But the children of the Hellenes do not accept this, not knowing about the omnipotent Goodness, Its effectiveness, wisdom and knowledge that exceed the mind. 3. Being the Creator from eternity, God, by His infinite Goodness, creates through the consubstantial Word and Spirit whenever He wants. And don’t ask: “Why did He create now, being always Good?” For I tell you that the inscrutable Wisdom of the infinite Essence is beyond human knowledge. 4. The Creator, when He willed, realized and brought into being from eternity the knowledge of beings that preexisted in Him. It is absurd to doubt that an omnipotent God can accomplish anything when He wills it. 5. Investigate why God created, for this is knowledge. But do not investigate how and why He recently [created], for this is beyond your mind. After all, among [things] divine, some are comprehended by people, while others are not. “Unbridled contemplation can throw you off a cliff,” as one of the saints said. 6. Some say that creatures co-exist with God from eternity, but this is impossible. For how can [things] limited in everything coexist from eternity with the Infinite? Or how can they really be creatures if they are co-eternal with the Creator? - This is the teaching of the Hellenes, who consider God the Creator of only qualities, but not of beings. We, recognizing God as omnipotent, say that He is the Creator not only of qualities, but also of beings endowed with qualities. And if this is so, then creatures do not coexist with God from eternity. 7. The Divinity and the divine are in some respects knowable and in some respects unknowable. It is cognizable in that it is contemplated around It, and uncognizable in that It [is] in Itself. 8. In the simple and boundless essence of the Holy Trinity there are no stable states and abilities, so as not to make it complex, like creations; to think this way about God is absurd and impious. 9 . Only one boundless and omnipotent essence, creating everything, is simple, uniform, qualityless, peaceful and imperturbable. Every creature is complex, consisting of essence and accident; she always feels the need for God's Providence, being not free from change. 10. Every thinking and feeling entity received from God, when it was brought into existence, the powers that make it possible to comprehend existing [things]: the thinking [entity received] the ability to think, and the feeling one - feelings. 11. One can only be involved in God; the creature both participates and communicates [the sacrament]. It participates in both being and well-being, but communicates only well-being: the corporeal essence [communicates it] in one way, and the non-corporeal in another. 12. The incorporeal essence communicates well-being by what it says, what it does, and by what it is contemplated; the corporeal essence [communicates it], being only contemplated. 13. The ever-being or non-existence of a thinking and rational entity is in the will of the One who created everything good; but to be good or bad at will depends on the will of creatures. 14. Evil is contemplated not as relating to the essence of creatures, but as relating to their sinful and unreasonable movement. 15. The soul moves correctly when the desiring principle [of it] is determined by abstinence, the fierce principle steadfastly adheres to love and turns away from hatred, and the thinking principle rushes towards God through prayer and spiritual contemplation. 16. Whoever, during temptations, does not show patience in relation to the sorrows that befall [him], but cuts himself off from love for his spiritual brothers, does not have perfect love and deep knowledge of God’s Providence. 17. The purpose of God's Providence is to unite through right faith and spiritual love those who are divided by vice in a variety of ways. For this reason the Savior suffered, in order to gather together the scattered children of God (John 11:52). Therefore, the one who cannot withstand [everyday] inconveniences, does not endure sorrows and does not steadfastly endure difficulties, lives outside of Divine love and the purpose of Providence. 18. If love is long-suffering and merciful (1 Cor. 13:4), then the one who is faint-hearted during the sorrows that have occurred, and therefore acts badly towards those who have offended him and cuts himself off from love for them, does not thereby fall away from the goal of God’s Providence? 19. Be attentive to yourself: is there a vice that separates you from your brother in yourself, and not in your brother? hasten to make peace [with him], so as not to fall away from the commandment of love. 20. Do not neglect the commandment of love, for through it you will become the son of God. If you transgress it, you will find yourself a son of Gehenna. 21. The following separate [us] from love for friends: envy or becoming an object of envy, causing or suffering damage, causing or suffering dishonor, and thoughts arising through distrust. Therefore, never do it yourself and do not give [others] a reason to do it, so as not to be separated from the love of a friend. 22. A temptation from your brother happened to you and grief led you to hatred - do not be defeated by hatred, but conquer hatred with love. You can win in the following way: by sincerely praying to God for this brother, by accepting his apology or by becoming his defender, considering yourself to be the cause of the temptation, by being patient until the cloud passes. 23. He who waits for the end of temptation is long-suffering; he receives praise [from the Lord] for his endurance. 24. A long-suffering man has great understanding (Prov. 14:29), because he endures everything that happens to him to the end and, enduring it, ceases his sorrows. And according to the divine Apostle, the end is eternal life (Rom. 6:22). This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent (John 17:3). 25. Do not be inclined to reject spiritual love, for there is no other path to salvation left for people. 26. Do not judge, as a result of the hatred that arose in you from the slander of the evil one, as a bad and evil brother, whom yesterday you considered to be spiritual and virtuous. But through the long-suffering of love, put away today's hatred, thinking of yesterday's good. 27. Do not now, as a result of your transition from love to hatred, as bad and evil, whom yesterday you praised as good and extolled as virtuous, making your blasphemy an excuse for the evil hatred that has arisen in you. But even if you are overcome by sadness, continue your praises and you will easily return to saving love. 28. In the company of other brethren, do not spoil the usual praise of any brother, due to the annoyance hidden in you, by imperceptibly mixing censure into your words. On the contrary, in the assembly [of the brothers] only praise him and sincerely pray for him as for yourself. Then you will quickly get rid of harmful hatred. 29. Do not say: “I do not hate my brother,” while turning away from remembering him. But listen to the words of Moses: Do not hate your brother in your heart {mind}; rebuke your neighbor, and you will not bear sin for him (Lev.19:17). 30. Even if a brother who has fallen into temptation does not stop slandering you, do not allow the evil demon to lead you out of the state of love and disturb your thoughts. This will not happen if you, who are reviled, continue to bless; if you are slandered, you will remain silent; reviled, you will be favored. This is the path of wisdom according to Christ; he who does not walk this way will not be with Him [in the Kingdom of Heaven]. 31. Do not consider those well-meaning who convey to you words that inspire resentment and hatred towards your brother, even if they seem true. On the contrary, turn away from such [people] as from deadly snakes, so that you can stop their slander and save your soul from wickedness. 32. Do not offend your brother with mysterious speeches, lest you receive the same from him in return, and thereby drive out the disposition of love from both of you. On the contrary, go and rebuke him (Matthew 18:15) with the confidence of love, in order to eliminate the causes of the offense and save both of you from confusion and sorrow. 33. Examine your conscience with all care: is it not your fault that your brother is not reconciled with you? Do not deceive her, for she knows your secrets - she convicts you during the exodus [from the world], and during prayer she is a stumbling block for you. 34. During [spiritual] peace, do not remember what your brother said during grief, even if the offensive words were spoken to your face or said about you to another, and then heard by you, so that, holding thoughts of memory of malice, you do not turn to destructive hatred of your brother. 35. A rational soul that harbors hatred for man cannot live in peace with God, the Giver of commandments. For He says: And if you do not forgive people their sins, then your father will not forgive you your sins (Matthew 6:15). If a person does not want to make peace, you, however, save yourself from hatred, sincerely praying for him and not slandering him. 36. The ineffable peace of the holy Angels is observed thanks to two dispositions: love for God and love for each other. The same is the case with all the saints from all eternity. For it is beautifully said by our Savior: On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40). 37. Don't be self-indulgent and you won't be a brother-hater. Don't be self-loving and you will be God-loving. 38. Having chosen to live together with spiritual [people], renounce your desires at the door, for otherwise you will not be able to be at peace either with God or with those living with you. 39. Whoever was able to acquire perfect love and organize his entire life according to it, calls Jesus Lord by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Otherwise the opposite happens. 40. Love for God has the habit of always opening the mind to Communion with God; Love for one's neighbor prepares [the mind] to always think well of him. 41. For someone who still loves vain glory or is attached to material things, it is common to be annoyed with people because of something transitory, to bear a grudge, to hate them, or to slavishly serve shameful thoughts. All this is alien to a God-loving soul. 42. When you do not say or commit anything shameful in your thoughts, you do not bear any grudge against anyone who has harmed you or blasphemed you, and when during prayer you always have an immaterial and formless mind, then you will know that you have achieved the [proper] measure of dispassion and perfect love. 43. It is no small feat to get rid of vanity. They get rid of it through the secret practice of virtues and constant prayer. 44. If you want to be righteous, give each part [of your being] - I mean soul and body - what it deserves. For the rational part of the soul - [spiritually beneficial] reading, spiritual contemplation and prayer; the furious part - spiritual love, the opposite of hatred; the desirable part is chastity and abstinence; and the carnal part - food and clothing, but only what is necessary. 45. The mind acts in accordance with nature when it keeps passions in subjection, contemplates the logoi of beings, and abides with God. 46. Just as health and illness relate to a living being, light and darkness relate to the eye; Likewise, virtue and vice are related to the soul, and knowledge and ignorance are related to the mind. 47. Christiania philosophizes in three ways: commandments, dogmas and faith. The commandments separate the mind from passions, dogmas introduce it into the knowledge of beings, and faith into the contemplation of the Holy Trinity. 48. Some of the ascetics only reflect [the onslaught of] passionate thoughts, while others cut off the passions themselves. Passionate thoughts are reflected by psalmody, prayer, soaring of the mind to God, or some other appropriate activity. Passions are cut off by contempt for those things through which these passions were acquired. 49. The things we are passionate about are: women, money, fame, and so on. Contempt for a woman can be achieved when, after leaving the world, the body is exhausted as it should be through abstinence; contempt for money - when the mind is convinced to be satisfied with everything it has; contempt for glory - when love is kindled for the secret practice of virtues, obvious only to God. The same is true with other [passions]. He who despises all this will never hate anyone. 50. He who renounced things—women, money, and the like—made [his] outer man a monk, but not the inner one. And he who renounced passionate thoughts about these things [made a monk] and the inner man, that is, the mind. It is easy to make the outer man a monk if you want, but to make the inner man one requires no small feat. 51. But who in this generation has completely gotten rid of passionate thoughts and has been rewarded with pure and immaterial prayer - which is the sign of an inner monk? 52. Much is hidden in the souls of our passions; they are revealed when things appear that [stimulate them]. 53. Passions may not bother a person if there is a shortage of [any necessary] things, and he achieves partial dispassion. But as soon as things appear, passions immediately begin to captivate the mind. 54. When there is no thing [that causes passion], do not consider that you have perfect dispassion. But when it appears and you remain unaffected either by the thing itself or by the memory of it, then know that you have reached the [outer] limits of this [dispassion]. However, one must not fall into self-confidence, because virtue [always] continuing mortifies passions, and [virtue] neglected kindles them again. 55. He who loves Christ naturally imitates Him whenever possible. For example, Christ did not stop doing good to people. When faced with ingratitude and reviled, He was patient; exposed to blows and killed by them, He endured [everything], not thinking evil at all about anyone. And these three are the essence of love for one’s neighbor, without which he who says that he loves Christ or that he has received His Kingdom [only] deceives himself. For [the Lord] says: Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! God!" He who does the will of My Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 7:21). And again: He who loves Me and keeps My commandments (John 14:15,21). 56. The whole purpose of the Savior’s commandments is to free the mind from intemperance and hatred and to raise it to the Savior Himself and to one’s neighbor. From this love the radiance of holy knowledge is born, in all its fulfillment. 57. Having been rewarded with partial knowledge from God, do not neglect love and self-control. For they, purifying the passionate part of the soul, always prepare for you the path to [perfect] knowledge. 58. The way of knowledge is dispassion and humility, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). 59. Since knowledge puffs up, and love creates (1 Cor. 8:1), then pair love with knowledge and you will not be arrogant, but you will become a spiritual architect, creating both yourself and everyone around you. 60. Love creates because it does not envy, does not get irritated by those who envy, and does not expose to everyone what could be the subject of envy. [He who abides in love] does not consider himself to have already comprehended (Phil. 3:12) and is not ashamed to admit his ignorance of what he does not know. In a similar way, he makes his mind not arrogant and always prepares it for success in knowledge. 61. Conceit and envy are inherent in following the lead, especially in the beginning. Conceit [manifests] only inside, and envy - both inside and outside; within - to those who have knowledge, and without - from those who do not have it. Love overthrows these three [vices]: conceit, because it is not proud; internal envy, because it does not envy; but outward envy, because it is long-suffering and merciful (1 Cor. 13:4). Therefore, one who has knowledge needs to add love [to it] in order to keep his mind unshakable in all respects. 62. One who has been awarded the gift of knowledge, but is offended and holds a grudge against his brother, is like a man who pricks his eyes with thorns and thistles. Therefore, leadership, by necessity, needs love. 63. Do not devote all your time to the flesh, but assign ascetic labor to it, in accordance with its capabilities, and turn all your mind inward. For bodily exercise is of little use, but godliness is of all use (1 Tim. 4:8) and so on. 64. He who continually devotes himself to the inner is chaste, long-suffering and humble. But not only that: he also contemplates, theologizes and prays. This is what the Apostle is talking about: Walk in the Spirit (Gal.5:16) etc. 65. He who does not know how to walk the spiritual path does not care about passionate thoughts, but devotes himself entirely to the flesh. Therefore, he either indulges in gluttony, debauchery, mourns, is angry and holds grudges, and therefore darkens his mind; or indulges in excessive asceticism and clouds his thoughts. 66. Scripture does not abolish anything that God has given us for use, but only curbs immoderation and corrects folly. For example, It does not prohibit eating, having children, having money and using it correctly, but it does prohibit gluttony, adultery, and so on. It does not prohibit thinking about these things (for that is what they were created for), but it does prohibit thinking passionately. 67. Some acts that we perform for the sake of God are done according to the commandment, while others, so to speak, are done according to a voluntary offering. For example, those performed according to the commandment are: love for God and neighbor, love for enemies, abstinence from adultery and murder, and so on. When we break these [commandments], we are condemned. Actions not performed according to the commandment are: maintaining virginity, celibate life, non-covetousness, hermitage, and so on. They have the meaning of gifts, so that if, due to weakness, we are unable to fulfill any of the commandments, with such gifts we could appease our good Master. 68. He who values ​​celibacy and virginity must, of necessity, have his loins girded and a burning lamp (Luke 12:35); “loins” - through abstinence, and “lamp” - through prayer, contemplation and spiritual love. 69. Some of the brethren consider themselves to be outside the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because due to negligence in fulfilling the commandments, they do not know that he who has impeccable faith in Christ possesses within himself all the divine charisms at once. But since we, due to our idleness, are far from effective love for Him, which reveals the divine treasures [hidden] in us, we rightly consider ourselves to be outside the divine charisms. 70. If, according to the divine Apostle, Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17), and in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3), then all these treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in our hearts. There they are revealed in proportion to the purification of each one by [fulfilling] the commandments. 71. Such is the treasure hidden in the field (Matthew 13:44) of your heart, which you have not yet discovered due to your laziness. For if he had discovered it, he would have sold everything and acquired this field. But now you have left this field and cherish what is around it - and there is nothing there but thorns and thistles. 72. Therefore, the Savior says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8) - for God is hidden in the hearts of those who believe in Him. Then they will see God and the treasures [hidden] in Him, when they purify themselves through love and self-control; and the more clearly they will see, the more they are purified. 73. Therefore He says: Sell your possessions and give alms (Luke 12:33); then everything will be pure for you (Luke 11:41), that they no longer devote themselves to bodily things, but strive to cleanse the mind, which the Lord calls “heart.” For these things pollute the mind and prevent it from seeing Christ dwelling in it through the grace of holy baptism. 74. Scripture calls virtues “paths,” and the greatest of the virtues is love. Therefore, the holy Apostle says: I will show you an even more excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31), since [love] convinces you to despise material things and not to prefer anything transitory to the eternal. 75. Love for God is opposed to lust, for it convinces the mind to abstain from pleasures. Love for one's neighbor is opposed to anger, for it causes contempt for wealth and fame. And they are the two denarii that the Savior gave to the innkeeper so that he would take care of you (Luke 10:35). But do not show yourself unreasonable and do not get involved with robbers, so as not to be beaten again and not find yourself no longer half dead, but completely dead. 76. Clear your mind of anger, resentment and shameful thoughts. And then you will be able to know the Christ who dwells in you. 77. Who enlightened you with faith in the Holy, consubstantial and worshiped Trinity? Who instilled in you the knowledge of the incarnate Economy of the One from the Holy Trinity? Who taught you about the logoi of incorporeal [creatures], about the origin and end of the visible world, about the resurrection of the dead and eternal life, about the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven and about the Last Judgment? Is not the grace of Christ dwelling in you, which is the guarantee of the Holy Spirit? What is greater than this grace and what is better than this wisdom and knowledge? What is greater than such promises? But if we are lazy and careless, and do not cleanse ourselves of the passions that defile us and darken our minds so that we cannot see the logoi of these [things] clearer than the sun, then we must blame ourselves, and not deny the dwelling of grace [in us]. 78. God, who promises you eternal blessings and has given you the guarantee of the Spirit in your heart, commanded you to take care of the [righteous] life, so that the inner man, freed from passions, begins here to taste these blessings. 79. Having been rewarded with divine and sublime contemplations, have even greater care and abstinence, so that, while keeping the passionate part [of the soul] in serenity, you may possess the inexhaustible radiance of this soul. 80. Contain the furious part of your soul with love, exhaust its desirable part with abstinence, inspire its rational part with prayer - and the light of your mind will never be darkened in you. 81. What destroys love is the following: dishonor, damage caused (either in relation to faith or in relation to life), as well as beatings, blows, and so on - this happens to any [person] or to his relatives and friends. And whoever destroys love by such actions has not yet learned the purpose of Christ’s commandments. 82. Try as much as possible to love every person. But if this is not yet possible, then at least try not to hate anyone. However, you cannot do this either if you do not despise worldly things. 83. Someone raised a blasphemy against you - do not hate him, but hate the blasphemy itself and the demon who set him up to blaspheme. If you hate the one who blasphemes, then you hate the person and thereby break the commandment, and what he did in word, you do in deed. And if you keep the commandment, then prove your love and, as far as possible, help him so that he gets rid of evil. 84. Christ does not want you to harbor hatred, vexation, anger, or resentment because of any transitory thing in one way or another. And this is what [all] four Gospels proclaim. 85. Many of us talk, but not many of us do. But no one should distort the Word of God through their own negligence. On the contrary, one must confess one’s weakness and not hide the truth of God, so as not to be guilty not only of breaking the commandment, but also of incorrectly interpreting the Word of God. 86. Love and abstinence rid the soul of passions; [spiritually beneficial] reading and contemplation free the mind from ignorance, and the state of prayer brings the mind closer to God. 87. When demons see that we despise worldly things, so that through them we do not become inflamed with hatred of people and fall away from love, then they raise slander against us, so that we, unable to bear the insult, will hate the slanderers. 88. There is nothing more painful to the soul than slander: whether it is faith or [a person’s] life. And no one can despise this, unless he looks, like Susanna (Dan. 13:35), to God alone - the only One who is able to deliver from circumstances, as he delivered her, and to assure people, as he verified about her, and to console the soul with hope. 89. To the extent that you pray with [their] whole soul for the one who slandered [you], to the extent that God confirms those who are offended. 90. Only God alone is good by nature, and only he who imitates God is good by his own will. Its goal is to unite evil [people] with [God], Good by nature, so that they too become good. Therefore, when he is reviled, he blesses; when persecuted, he endures; when they blaspheme, he consoles; when they kill, he prays for those who kill (1 Cor. 4:12–13). He does everything so as not to fall away from [his] goal - love, which is our God Himself. 91. The Lord's commandments teach us to use ordinary things wisely. And such prudent use purifies the [internal] state of the soul; its pure state gives rise to the ability of discrimination; it gives birth to dispassion, and from dispassion perfect love is born. 92. He does not yet possess dispassion who, in the event of temptation, cannot ignore the sin of a friend, whether it actually happened or was only apparent. For when the passions in the soul become confused, they blind the thought, not allowing it to look at the radiance of truth and distinguish between good and bad. Such a person has not acquired perfect love, which casts out the fear (1 John 4:18) of condemnation. 93. I will return to a friend without betrayal (Sir. 6:15), for he considers his friend’s misfortunes to be his own and, suffering, he endures them with him until death. 94. There are many friends in times of prosperity, but in times of temptation it is difficult to find even one. 95. One must love every person with all one’s soul, but one must place one’s trust only in God alone and must serve Him with all one’s might. For as long as He protects us, our friends respect us and our enemies are helpless against us. When He leaves us, then all our friends turn away from us, and our enemies gain strength. 96. There are four types of God-forsakenness. The first is economic abandonment by God, as was the case with the Lord, so that through the apparent abandonment of God the abandoned would be saved. The second is abandonment of God for the sake of testing, as happened with Job and Joseph, in order to show one as a pillar of courage, and the other as a pillar of chastity. The third is God-forsakenness for the sake of fatherly edification, as happened with the Apostle, so that by humbling himself, he would retain the abundance of grace. The fourth is abandonment by God due to falling away [from God], as happened with the Jews, so that they, being punished, could turn to repentance. All these types [of God-forsakenness] are saving and full of God’s Goodness and Wisdom. 97. Only the exact guardians of the commandments and the true secretaries of God’s judgments do not abandon friends who, by God’s permission, are exposed to temptations. But those who despise the commandments and are uninitiated into the mysteries of God’s judgments, when a friend prospers, enjoy with him, and when he suffers, subjected to temptations, they leave him. And it happens that they take the side of his enemies. 98. The friends of Christ love everyone heartily, but they are not loved by everyone. The friends of the World [of this] do not love everyone, and are not loved by everyone. The friends of Christ remain constant in love to the end; the friends of this world preserve it only until they quarrel with each other over something worldly. 99. A friend is faithful, the shelter is strong (Sir. 6:14), for in the friend’s prosperity he is a good adviser and unanimous collaborator, and in his suffering he is the most sincere supporter and the most compassionate intercessor. 100. Many have said a lot, but only by looking for it among the disciples of Christ will you find it, for they alone have true Love as a Teacher of love, about which it is said: If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge..., but do not have love, it is of no benefit to me (1 Cor. 13:2-3). He who has acquired love has acquired God Himself, since God is love (1 John 4:16). To him be glory forever. Amen. The end of the chapters about the love of Maximus the Confessor. Our Reverend Father Maximus the Confessor chapters on theology and the economy of the incarnation of the Son of God. To Thalassius 200 chapters 1. God is one, beginningless, incomprehensible and possesses all the power of total existence; He completely excludes any thought about time and the mode of existence of being, since he is inaccessible to all beings and is not cognized by any of the existing ones through His natural manifestation. 2. God, as is accessible to our knowledge, is in Himself neither the beginning, nor the middle, nor the end; Nor is He any of the things that one naturally contemplates when following Him. For God is limitless, immovable and infinite, so that He is infinitely superior to all essence, power and action. 3. Every essence introduces with itself a limit to itself, for it is inherent in it to be the beginning of movement, contemplated in it as a possibility. Every natural movement towards action, conceived after essence and before action, is a middle, since it is naturally conceived as something between the two. And every action, naturally limited by its logos, is the completion of the essential movement thought before it. 4. God is not an essence - neither in the general nor in the specific sense of the word - even if He is the Beginning; God is not a possibility - neither in the general nor in the specific sense of the word - even if He is the Middle; God is not action - neither in the general nor in the specific sense of the word - even if He is the Completion of the essential movement conceivable before this completion. But God is the creative essence and the super-essential First Principle of being; He is the creative force and the most powerful Ground; finally, He is the infinite and efficient State of all action. Briefly stated, God is the Creative Cause of essence, power and action, that is, the beginning, middle and end. 5. The beginning, middle and end are the distinctive characteristics of [beings] separated by time. One can rightfully say that they are the distinctive signs of [everything] observed in this century. For time, which measures motion, is limited by number; the age, containing within itself the category of time, which is conceived simultaneously with existence, allows for separation, since it began to be. And if time and age are not without beginning, then even more so are those [beings] who are encompassed by them. 6. God by nature is always and in the true sense of the word One and Only; He contains within Himself the entire totality of true being and at the same time surpasses this being. And if this is so, then in general nothing that is denoted by the word “being” has existence in the true sense of the word. After all, in general, nothing that is different from God in essence is contemplated with Him from eternity - neither age, nor time, nor those [creatures] that live in them. For genuine and inauthentic being are in no way combined with each other. 7. Any beginning, middle and end do not at all negate the category of relation. God, existing in boundless infinity, surpasses any relation in general and, naturally, is neither the beginning, nor the end, nor the middle. For He is not any of those things in which it is possible to contemplate the category of relation. 8. All beings, it is stated, are comprehended by the mind and contain clear principles of knowledge of them. God is called “Inaccessible to intelligibility,” and of all intelligible [creatures] only His existence is accepted on faith. Therefore, none of them can be compared with Him. 9 . The knowledge of beings contains, for proof, their own logoi, which are naturally united together and whose clear limits give the existence of beings natural stability. As for God, through these existent logoi one gains faith only in His existence. He gives to pious people confession and faith that He truly exists, and [such faith] is more accessible than any proof. For faith is true knowledge, possessing unprovable principles, since it is a hypostasis of things that exceed mind and reason. 10. God is the Beginning, the Middle and the End of things, since He is active and not undergoing. He is also everything that we call Him. For God is the Beginning as the Creator, He is the Middle as the Provider and the End as the Description. For [the Apostle] says: All things are from Him, by Him and to Him (Rom. 11:36). 11. There is no rational soul that is inherently more valuable than [another] rational soul. For God, being Good, creates every soul in the image of Himself and brings it into being self-moving. And each [soul] of its own free will chooses either honor, or through its deeds voluntarily accepts dishonor. 12. God is, as it is written, the Sun of righteousness (Mal.4:2) and He simply illuminates everyone with the rays of [His] Goodness. It is inherent in the soul, by free will, to become either, as a lover of God, wax, or, as having an inclination towards matter, dirt. After all, just as dirt is naturally dried by the sun, and wax softens under its rays, so every soul that gravitates towards matter and voluntarily imitates dirt is punished by God, becomes hardened and, like Pharaoh (Ex. 7:13), pushes itself to destruction. And every God-loving soul softens like wax, divine images and images are imprinted on it, and it becomes the abode of God in the Spirit. 13. He who enlightens the mind with divine speculations, accustoms [his] mind to constantly glorify the Creator with divine praises, and to sanctify his senses with pure visions, he adds to natural beauty “in the image” also the good chosen by [his] free will “in the likeness.” 14. He keeps his soul unsullied for God who forces his thought to turn to the only God and His virtues; who makes the mind a faithful interpreter and interpreter of his virtues, and the feeling teaches to piously perceive the visible World and everything that is in it, so that [all beings] proclaim to the soul the greatness of their logoi. 15. God, having freed us from the painful slavery of tyrannical demons, gave us a humane burden - humility, through which all devilish power is tamed. For those who choose this humility, everything becomes good and retains its inviolability. 16. The believer experiences fear [of God]; the one experiencing this fear humbles himself; the one who humbles himself becomes meek, acquiring a skill that renders the unnatural movements of irritability and lust inactive. The meek one keeps the commandments, the one who keeps them is purified, the purified one is illuminated, and the illuminated one is worthy to be united in [heavenly] marriage with the Bridegroom-Word in the treasury of [heavenly] mysteries. 17. Just as a farmer, looking for a convenient place to transplant trees, unexpectedly finds a [hidden] treasure, so every humble and genuine ascetic, whose soul is devoid of the shaggyness of matter, like the most blessed Jacob, who, when the Father asked regarding the image of knowledge: What is this that you quickly found, O child?, answers him: Which the Lord your God delivered before me ( Gen.27:20). For when God hands us, without any effort [on our part] and more than aspiration, the wise speculations of His Wisdom, we believe that we have suddenly found a spiritual treasure. After all, a true ascetic is a spiritual farmer who transplants, like a wild tree, the sensory contemplation of visible [things] into the realm of the spiritual and thereby acquires a treasure - the Revelation of Wisdom, by the grace of [God] manifested in [all] things. 18. The knowledge of divine speculation, which falls to the lot of the ascetic as a result of his humility, crushes the reasoning of the one who seeks this knowledge through hard efforts and labors in order to boast about it, and [therefore] does not obtain it. Then the foolish man is born with envy of his brother, the thought of killing him, and sorrow for himself, caused by the fact that he is not filled with pride from [listening to] praise. 19. Those who seek knowledge with hard efforts and do not obtain it fail either due to unbelief, or because they inappropriately oppose [the people] who know and stir themselves up against them, just as the people once [stirred themselves up] against Moses. The law tells about them, saying that when those who trusted in their own strength ascended the mountain, the Amorite living on it came out and defeated them (Num. 14:40–45, Deut. 1:41–44). For those who feign virtue for the sake of boasting not only fail in their pretense of piety, but they are inevitably crushed by their conscience. 20. He who strives for knowledge for the sake of boasting and fails in this, let him not envy his neighbor and do not grieve. For he should first lay the foundation [for knowledge] by love for his neighbors, and then, by working hard on the body in [spiritual] work, he will be able to prepare knowledge for the soul. 21. Those who rightly and piously strive for the knowledge of beings and do not think about boasting acquire all-luminous contemplations of these beings, hastening to meet them and granting [such ascetics] a clear comprehension of themselves. The law addresses such people: Come and inherit great and beautiful cities, which you did not build, and ready-made cellars, which you did not hew out in stone, and vineyards and olive gardens, which you did not plant (Joshua 24:13). For the one who lives not for himself, but for God, acquires in abundance divine gifts that were not discovered until then due to the annoying pressure of passions. 22. Feeling is spoken of in two senses. One is a feeling that corresponds to a [simple natural] state; This is the sensation in sleep, when we do not perceive any objects - it is useless because it does not translate into action. The other sense is active, and through it we perceive sensible [things]. There are also two types of knowledge. One is scientific, which, by virtue of its properties alone, comprehends the logoi of existence; it is useless because it does not strive to implement the commandments. Another knowledge is active and effective, which truly cares about the comprehension of beings through [spiritual] experience. 23. The hypocrite does not feel agitated as long as he believes that his hypocrisy has not been discovered; he strives for glory, trying to show his righteousness. When he is exposed, he spews out deadly speeches, believing that by reproaching others he is hiding his own shamelessness. [Holy] Scripture compares such a person, due to his cunning, with a brood of vipers, ordering him to produce fruit worthy of repentance (Matthew 3:7-8), that is, to make his hidden state of mind apparent. 24. Some say that a wild beast is every living creature that lives on earth, in the sea and in the air, which the law does not consider pure, even if in its disposition it seems domestic. By such wild beasts Scripture means people obsessed with their passions. 25. He who pretends to be friendly in order to harm others is like a wolf dressing up in sheep's clothing. And when he encounters the simplicity of character or speech of those who act and speak ingenuously according to Christ, then he rapaciously kidnaps and destroys them, showering them with countless ridicule. He attacks such morals and words as if he were a spy on the freedom of the brothers in Christ (Gal. 2:4). 26. He who pretends to be silent in order to commit an atrocity builds a trap for his neighbor. And when he fails, he withdraws, adding sorrow to his passion. On the contrary, the one who remains silent for the benefit of [his neighbor] increases his love [for him] and departs joyful, having found the light that delivers [the soul] from darkness. 27. Anyone who hastily interrupts a speaker in a [brotherly] meeting is not hiding his obsession with fame. Affected by this disease, he puts forward many side topics for discussion in order to interrupt the coherent flow of the speaker's reasoning. 28. The sage, who teaches and is taught, desires to instruct and be taught only regarding useful things. The false sage, asking and being questioned, speaks only about vain things. 29. Whoever, by the grace of God, becomes a partaker of [spiritual] blessings must willingly share them with others. For [the Lord] says: Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8). Whoever buries his gift in the ground, accusing the master of cruelty (Matthew 25:24), rejects virtue from himself with his carnal stinginess. And whoever betrays the Truth to the enemies is later convicted of love of glory and, unable to bear the shame, is strangled (Matthew 27:5). 30. Those who are still timid in the face of warfare with passions and fearful of the attacks of invisible enemies should remain silent, that is, they should not use that method of struggle [against these enemies] that exceeds their virtue, but they should, through prayer, entrust themselves to the care of God, who cares for them. The speech in Exodus addresses them: The Lord will fight for you, but you be calm (Exodus 14:14). Those who have already overcome the [demons] that persecute them and strive to acquire the methods of virtues, in order to obtain correct knowledge, must only have open ears of reason. They are told: Hear, O Israel (Deut. 6:4). And for one who, having gone through purification, [is] able to fully indulge in divine knowledge, pious assurance is due. To such [an ascetic] it is said: Why are you crying out to Me (Ex. 14:15). Therefore, anyone who is prescribed silence due to his fear should seek refuge only in God; the one who is ordered to listen must be ready to listen to the divine commandments; and one who has knowledge should constantly cry out to [God] in kneeling prayers, so that He does not allow evil, and offer Him [constant] thanksgiving for participation in the benefits [received]. 31. The soul will never be able to strive for the knowledge of God if God Himself, having descended, does not touch it and raise it to Himself. After all, the human mind itself is not able to ascend so much as to comprehend even a fraction of the Divine Radiance, unless God Himself raises it (as far as it is possible for the human mind to be ascended) and illuminates it with [His] Divine rays. 32. He who imitates the disciples of the Lord does not refuse, because of the Pharisees, to pass through the sown fields on the Sabbath and pluck ears of corn (Luke 6:1), but, having become dispassionate as a result of [spiritual] work, he collects the logoi of created beings, piously feeding on the divine knowledge of beings. 33. The one who simply believes, according to the Gospel, moves the mountain of his depravity through action (Matthew 17:20), removing from himself the previous disposition to the fickle circulation of sensual [things]. He who can be a disciple receives from the hands of the Word [of God] pieces of the bread of knowledge and feeds them to thousands, demonstrating in action the increasing power of the Word (Matthew 14:14-21,15:32-39). And the one who is able to become an apostle heals every disease and illness, casting out demons, that is, the actions of the passions; healing the sick, through hope he leads those deprived of it to virtue and strengthens with the word of judgment those who are weak due to fear (Matthew 10:1). For the one who is given the power to tread on snakes and scorpions (Luke 10:19) destroys the beginning and the end of sin. 34. The apostle and the disciple are both completely believers; the disciple is not a complete apostle, but he is a complete believer. And whoever is only a believer is neither a disciple nor an apostle, but through [pious] life and contemplation he can be raised from the third rank and dignity to the second, and from the second to the first. 35. Those things that are created in time and according to time become perfect when they cease their natural growth. And those things that the knowledge of God creates in accordance with virtue continue to increase and become perfect. For the end of some becomes [here] the beginning of others. After all, the one who, through the active implementation of virtues, ceases the existence of the corruptible in himself, lays the foundation for the formation of another - more divine. But God never ceases [the existence of] good things that have no beginning, for just as it is characteristic of light to shine, so it is characteristic of God to do good. Therefore, the Sabbath is honored as a day of rest in the law, which governs the dispensation of things that exist in time and are subject to creation and destruction. And in the Gospel, which introduces the structure of spiritual things, the Sabbath is decorated with the doing of good deeds. And let this not outrage those who do not yet know that the Sabbath is for man, and not man for the Sabbath, and that the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28). 36. In the law and the prophets there is a Sabbath, Sabbaths, and Sabbaths of Sabbaths ( Ex. 31:13–15 ); circumcision and circumcision of circumcision, as well as harvest and harvest of harvests, according to what is said: When you reap your harvest (Lev.23:10). The first is the completion of active, natural and theological philosophy; the second is the liberation of created being and the logoi that are in it; the third is the offering and eating of the spiritual logoi of the senses and mind. And, of course, this happens three times in relation to each of those in question. [This happens so that] the leader knows the logos, according to which Moses kept the Sabbath, dying outside the holy land (Deut. 34:5), Joshua performed circumcision while crossing the Jordan (Josh. 5:3), and those who inherit the good land, [according to these logos], bring to God the tribute of a double bountiful harvest. 37. The Sabbath is the dispassion of the rational soul, which, thanks to [spiritual] work, has completely eradicated the stigma of sin. 38. The Sabbath is the freedom of the rational soul, which, through natural contemplation in the spirit, suppresses in itself action aimed at the sensual. 39. The Sabbaths of the Sabbaths are the spiritual peace of the rational soul, which leads the mind away from all the divine logoi [contained] in beings, unites it entirely with the only God in a loving frenzy and, through mystical theology, makes it completely motionless in God. 40. Circumcision is the removal from the soul of the passionate predisposition to created being. 41. The circumcision of circumcision is a complete rejection and removal of the natural movements of the soul directed towards this [created] being. 42. Harvest is the gathering and cognition by the rational soul, according to the virtue and nature [of things], of the spiritual logoi of existence. 43. The harvest of harvests is the comprehension of God, which is not accessible to everyone, arising in an unknown way in the mind after the mysterious contemplation of intelligible [beings]; This comprehension is appropriately offered [as a gift to God] by the one who worthily and reverently honors the Creator, [glorifying Him] from creatures visible and invisible. 44. But there is another, more spiritual harvest, which is said to be from God Himself; there is another, more mysterious circumcision; finally, there is another, more hidden Sabbath, on which God rested from His own labors. This is according to what is written: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (Luke 10:2); circumcision, which is in the heart, according to the Spirit (Rom. 2:29); and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He rested from all His works, which God began to do (Gen. 2:3). 45. The harvest of God is the complete abiding and dwelling in God of [people] worthy, which will occur at the consummation of the ages. 46. Circumcision, which is in the heart, in the spirit, is the complete cessation of natural actions in the mind and feeling, aimed at the intelligible and sensible. They cease due to the presence of the [Holy] Spirit, who immediately transforms the entire body and soul into something more divine. 47. God's Sabbath is the final return to God of all creatures. At this time, God rests, resting from [His] natural energy directed towards them, and ceases His Divine action, carried out in an indescribable manner. But it is possible that God also rests from the natural energies in each of the beings, which are the cause of their natural movement when each being, receiving Divine energy commensurate with [it], determines its own natural energy in relation to God. 48. Zealots [of the faith] should examine which creatures [His] God should have conceived as beginning to be, and which as not beginning to be. For if He rested from the works that He began to do, then it is clear that He did not rest from those works that He did not begin to do. Therefore, it is possible that the creations of God, whose existence began in time, are all participating beings, such as, for example, the various essences of beings, since their existence was preceded by non-existence. God was then when the participating beings were not yet. The creations of God, whose existence did not begin in time, are perhaps those beings that allow participation in themselves; beings who participate in them participate by grace. These, for example, are: goodness and everything that is included in this concept, as well as simply all life, immortality, simplicity, immutability, infinity, and that which is essentially contemplated around God - they are the essence of God’s creations, and did not begin to exist in time. After all, virtue or any of the above was never preceded by non-existence, although the [beings] participating in them themselves began to be in time. For every virtue is without beginning, and time does not precede it, since from eternity it has as its Parent the only God. 49. God is infinitely and infinitely different from all beings - both those who participate and those who allow participation. For everything that can be said to have the logos of being is a creation of God, even if one began to be in time, and another - such as, for example, some innate power that clearly proclaims the presence of God in all things - was introduced into creatures by grace. 50. All the immortals and immortality itself, all the living and life itself, all the saints and holiness itself, all the virtuous and virtue itself, all the good and goodness itself, all that exist and existence itself - all of them, undoubtedly, are the creations of God. However, some began to be in time, for God was then when they were not; others did not begin to be in time, for God would not exist if there were no virtue, no goodness, no holiness, no immortality. And those who begin to be in time are and are called those who they are and are named, thanks to their participation with [beings] who did not begin to be in time. God is the Creator of all life, immortality, holiness and virtue, since He transcends the essence of everything comprehended by the mind and spoken by word. 51. The sixth day, according to Scripture, completes [the creation of] beings subject to nature; seventh - limits the movement inherent in time; the eighth - discovers a way of arranging that which is above nature and time. 52. Whoever spends the sixth day only in accordance with the law, avoids the domination of passions that actively oppress the soul, and dispassionately crosses the sea, [heading] into the desert - such a person celebrates the Sabbath with only the inaction of the passions. The one who crosses the Jordan, leaving the very state of simple inactivity of passions, becomes the heir of virtues. 53. He who spends the sixth day according to the Gospel, having first mortified the first movements of sin, achieves through the virtues a state of dispassion, devoid of all depravity; he celebrates the Sabbath in his mind, [keeping] the imagination itself pure from passions. The one who crosses the Jordan is transferred to the realm of knowledge in which the mind, mysteriously created by the world, like a church, becomes in the Spirit the dwelling place of God. 54. Whoever, through appropriate deeds and [good] thoughts, divinely completes the sixth day in himself and successfully fulfills his deeds, with the help of God, overcomes with thought all existence subject to time and nature, and achieves the mysterious contemplation of eternal ages; having completely abandoned the existing [things] and stepped over them, he celebrates the Sabbath in his mind in an unknown way. And whoever is rewarded with the eighth day has risen from the dead (I mean the rise from everything that is after God - from sensible and intelligible [beings], from words and thoughts): he tastes the blessed life of God, which truly exists and is called the only true Life, since he himself becomes a god thanks to deification. 55. The sixth day is the perfect fulfillment of virtuous deeds corresponding to [human] nature; the seventh day is the completion and cessation of all natural thoughts of those who indulge in the contemplation of ineffable knowledge; the eighth is the transition to the deification of those worthy [of this]. Perhaps the Lord never revealed the seventh and eighth days more mysteriously than when He called them the day and hour of accomplishment, that is, the hour that describes the mysteries and logos of everything. None of the heavenly and earthly Powers could have known these days before experiencing them, if not for the blessed Deity who created them. 56. The sixth day reveals the logos of being of beings; the seventh indicates the image of their well-being; and the eighth hints at the inexpressible mystery of the eternal well-being of these beings. 57. Knowing that the sixth day is a symbol of practical work, we will fulfill on this day the entire duty of virtuous deeds, as if it were said regarding us: And God saw everything that He had created: and, behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31). 58. He fulfills his duty of good deeds for the glory of God who, through the body, works hard to adorn the soul with various virtues. 59. The one who carries out the preparation of righteous deeds achieves the peace of speculative contemplation, in which he divinely comprehends the logoi of beings, thereby stopping the movement in the mind related to this preparation. 60. He who participates in the rest of God, [arranged by Him] for us on the seventh day, also participates, by deification, in His action for us on the eighth day, that is, the mysterious Resurrection. He left the linen cloths and the cloth that was on His head lying in the tomb. Those who see these things, as Peter and John saw them, believe that the Lord has risen (John 20:5-8). 61. The Holy Sepulcher is this, or the heart of every believer. Veils are the logoi of sensible [things] together with the images of virtues. The cloth that was on [the Lord's] head is a simple and uniform knowledge of [things] intelligible, together with the theology perceived [thanks to knowledge]. Through this, [God] the Word was known, for without this He, being above sensible and intelligible things, is completely inaccessible to our perception. 62. Those who respectfully bury the Lord will see Him risen in glory - something that is inaccessible to the vision of those who do not do this. For He is inaccessible to the perception of those who harbor evil intentions, since He no longer has the coverings, thanks to which the Lord, as it seemed, was pleased to be perceived by [all] who wished [to see Him] and endured [the cross] suffering for the salvation of all. 63. He who respectfully buries the Lord is surrounded by the respect of all lovers of God. For he, as it should be, saves the Lord from being ignominiously paraded before all the people, not allowing unbelievers to use His nailing to the Cross as a pretext for blasphemy (Matthew 27:57-66). Those who put a seal on the grave and place guards at the tomb are the enemies of this cause - they slander the resurrected Word as stolen by the disciples; for the sake of slandering the risen Savior, they bribe soldiers (Matthew 28:11-15) for the same pieces of silver that the false disciple [of the Lord] who betrayed Him received (by “pieces of silver” I mean an ostentatious image of [the implementation of] virtues). The person leading knows that what is said appears only in its visible side; he is not ignorant of how and in what manner the Lord was crucified, buried and resurrected. He considers the passionate thoughts planted by demons around the heart to be dead; [with these thoughts] in temptations and are divided, like the garments of [the Lord], the ways of moral decency. [Such a leading person] also transgresses, as if through seals [on the Holy Sepulcher], through images of anticipation of sins, imprinted on the soul. 64. Every lover of money who feigns virtue for the sake of precaution, when he acquires the coveted metal, abandons the way [of life] according to which he previously considered himself a disciple of the Word. 65. When I see some proud people who cannot bear praise for better people [than them], insidiously seeking means to make the proclaimed Truth unknown, turning [others] away from It with thousands of temptations and lawless slander, then it seems to me that the Lord was crucified and buried by them, they assigned guards [to His tomb] and put seals. [God] the Word turned them [the machinations] against themselves; having risen amidst the enemy's attacks, He appeared [in a blaze of glory], as if strengthening [us] in dispassion amidst sorrows. For He is stronger than all, since He exists and is called Truth. 66. The mystery of the Incarnation of the Word contains the meaning of all the riddles and images of Scripture, as well as the knowledge of creatures revealed and comprehended by the mind. He who knows the mysteries of the Cross and the [Holy Sepulcher] also knows the purpose for which God originally brought everything into existence. 67. All manifested things need the Cross, that is, that stable state that preserves in them the connection of actions carried out in the sensory [world]; all intelligible things need the Sepulcher, that is, that perfect immobility that stops in them all actions carried out in the mind. For when natural action and movement relating to all [created things] are combined in a [single] connection, then [God] the Word, alone of all, existing in Himself, appears as if Risen from the dead, containing and describing all [creatures] that have come from Him. However, at the same time, not a single creature has a relationship with Him due to a natural connection. For the salvation of those who are saved is by grace and not by nature. 68. Age, time and place belong to the relative, for without them nothing exists that is thought together with them. God does not belong to the relative, for He does not contain at all anything that could be thought at the same time as Him. Therefore, if worthy [people] are heirs of God Himself, then [everyone] awarded such grace will be above all ages, times and places. His place will be God, according to what is written: Be God my protector and a strong place for my salvation (Ps. 71:3). 69. The end has nothing in common with the middle, since it will then no longer be the end. The middle is everything that [follows] the beginning and has an end in front of it. If all ages, times and places, together with everything that is thought simultaneously with them, are after God, Who is the beginningless Beginning, and have Him before them as an endless End, then they are no different from the middle. God is the End of those who are being saved, and nothing from the middle will be contemplated in them, who find themselves in this most extreme End. 70. The whole World is limited by its logoi, and the [creatures] living in it are determined by place and time. [The World] possesses [these logoi] as images of speculation inherent in it by nature, which make possible partial comprehension of the Wisdom of God, [absorbing] in all [creatures]. And as long as they are used for such comprehension, they have both a middle and a partial perception. And when the manifestation of the perfect ceases to be partial, then everything that is speculative and dull passes away, the Truth appears face to face, and the one who is saved, having become perfect in God, will be above all the worlds, ages and places by which he has hitherto been raised as a child (1 Cor. 13:10-13). 71. Pilate is the image of the natural law, and the crowd of Jews is the image of the written law. Anyone who, by faith, is not above both laws cannot perceive the Truth, which surpasses both nature and reason. On the contrary, he will certainly crucify [God's] Word, considering the Gospel, like a Jew, a temptation and, like a Greek, madness (1 Cor. 1:23). 72. When you see Herod and Pilate entering into a friendly alliance with each other for the destruction of Jesus, then mean by this the unanimous consent of the demons united to kill the logos of virtue and knowledge. For the demon of vanity, taking the guise of spiritual knowledge, sends [the ascetic] to the demon of fornication, and he, in turn, putting on the humility of false purity, again sends him to the demon of vanity. That is why it is said: Herod... dressed Him in light clothes and sent Him back to Pilate (Luke 23:11). 73. It is excellent to guard the mind without being led by the flesh and passions. For the Lord says: They do not gather figs from thistles, that is, virtue from the passions, or grapes from thorns (Matthew 7:16), that is, joyful knowledge from the flesh. 74. An ascetic who has steadfastly withstood the test of temptation, who has been purified by the education of his body and who has achieved perfection through zeal for sublime speculation, is rewarded with divine consolation. For Moses says: The Lord came from Sinai - that is, from temptations, and appears from Seir to us - that is, from bodily labors, and hastened from Mount Paran, and came with tens of thousands of saints (Deut. 33:2) - that is, from the mountain of faith with darkness of holy knowledge. 75. Herod lingers on the logos of the carnal way of thinking, Pilate - on the logos of sensual things, the Jews - on the logos of spiritual thoughts. When the soul, due to ignorance, cleaves to sensory things, it betrays [God's] Word to death, deciding within itself to confess the kingdom of corruption. For the Jew says: We have no king except Caesar (John 19:15). 76. Herod lingers at the place where the passions are realized; Pilate - in the place of false skill in them; Caesar is in the place of the ruler of darkness, and the Jews are in the place of the soul. Therefore, when the soul submits to passions, it betrays virtue into the hands of vicious habit, clearly abandons the Kingdom of God and goes to the destructive tyranny of the devil. 77. For spiritual joy, it is not enough for the soul to have dominion over the passions, if at the same time it does not acquire virtue by fulfilling the commandments. For [it is said]: Do not rejoice that the spirits obey you - that is, the actions of the passions, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20) - that is, that they are inscribed in a place of dispassion, thanks to the grace of adoption and through the implementation of virtues. 78. The abundance of virtues achieved by [spiritual] activity is absolutely necessary for a leading person. For [the Lord] says: Whoever has a bag - that is, spiritual knowledge, take it, and also a bag - that is, an abundance of virtues that generously feed the soul, and whoever does not - of course, a bag and a bag, that is, knowledge and virtues, sell your clothes and buy a sword (Luke 22:36); that is, [the Lord] says: devote your flesh to the labors of virtue and wisely wage a battle with passions and demons for the sake of achieving the peace of God. Or [He says to you]: acquire in the Word of God that skill which, [like a sword], separates the worst from the best (Heb. 4:12). 79. The Lord, having revealed himself at the age of thirty, secretly teaches secrets concerning Him, which become visible thanks to this number. For the number thirty, understood in a mysterious sense, represents the Lord as the Creator and Provider of time, nature and intelligible [beings] that are above nature. [After all, the Lord is the Creator] of time thanks to the number seven, for time is sevenfold; nature thanks to the number five, for nature is fivefold and is divided into five parts by feeling; intelligible [beings] due to the number eight, for their existence exceeds the period measured by time. [The Lord] is the Provider due to the number ten; through the holy ten commandments people are brought to well-being, and this letter secretly begins the name of the Lord who became man. And when you add five, seven, eight and ten, you get the number thirty. And he who knows how wonderful it is to follow the Lord, our Guide, does not remain ignorant of the reason that He revealed himself at the age of thirty, already having the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom. For when He immaculately, like some visible nature, created the world of virtues with [His] active wisdom, without changing the course of the life of His soul, passing through opposites for a certain time; when, through contemplation, He confidently reaped the harvest of knowledge of intelligible [things], and therefore He was able to providentially invest the same skill in others, then [God the Word] Himself, as if possessing a bodily image and having reached the spirit of thirty years, reveals, along with His own benefits, His effect on others. 80. One who indulges in bodily pleasures cannot be tireless in virtue and easily strive for knowledge. Therefore, he does not have a person (John 5:5-15) - that is, a conscious reasoning, which, when the water is troubled, would lower him into the pool, that is, into a virtue that can accommodate knowledge and heal every ailment, unless, of course, the sick person, due to his negligence, did not hesitate and was not previously overcome by another ailment that prevented his healing. Therefore [the weakened one] lay in weakness for thirty-eight years. For the one who contemplates the visible creation not for the glorification of God and does not piously raise his thought to the intelligible nature, in justice, remains in relaxation for the indicated number of years. For the number thirty, perceived from the point of view of natural contemplation, signifies sensible nature, and viewed from the point of view of [spiritual] division, it signifies practical virtue. The number eight, comprehended from the point of view of natural contemplation, means the intelligible nature of incorporeal [beings], and from the speculative point of view - wise theology. Anyone who is not moved towards God by this remains relaxed until [God] the Word comes to him and teaches him, briefly commanding: Arise, take up your bed and walk (John 5:8) - that is, [God the Word] commands you to be the ruler of [your] mind and [keep] it from the obsessive love of pleasures, lift your body on the shoulders of virtues and go to [your] home, that is, of course, to Sky. For it is more fitting for the worse to be lifted up by the better on the shoulders of [spiritual] work for the sake of virtue, than to allow the better to be carried away by the worse, due to the relaxation of the soul, in the pursuit of pleasures. 81. With purity of thoughts, we do not go beyond our essence and the essence of everything that comes after God, and we also do not acquire skill in immutable virtue. However, when we restore [our lost] dignity through love, then we will know the power of the Divine promise. For one should believe that the worthy, according to [their] unshakable constancy [in virtues], are where [their] mind, anticipating this with love, has rooted [its] strength. After all, he who has not come out of himself and from everything that can be comprehended by thought, who has not settled himself in Silence, which exceeds [all] thinking, cannot be at all free from the variability of [material] existence. 82. All thinking reflects multiplicity, or at least duality. For it is a mediating connection of certain extremes connected to each other, that is, it is a connection between the thinker and the thinkable. Neither of these extremes is capable of remaining completely simple. After all, the thinker is a certain subject who contains within himself the ability to think, which is inseparable from him. And the thinkable is either the substratum or that which is in the subject; inseparable from it is the ability to be comprehended by thought or the underlying essence to which this ability relates. For no being is in itself a simple essence or a simple thought so as to be an indivisible unit. And God, if we call Him “essence,” does not contain in Himself the ability inherent in Him to be knowable, so as not to be complex; if we call Him “thinking,” then He does not contain within Himself a sub- ject essence that by nature can accommodate thought. But God Himself, the Whole and Unique, is in essence Thinking, and in thinking He, the Whole and Unique, is Essence. And at the same time, He is entirely above essence and thinking, because He is an inseparable, indivisible and simple Unit. And therefore, the one who participates to some extent in thinking does not yet go beyond duality; the one who completely abandons this thinking finds himself in a certain way in the Unit and removes from himself the ability to think. 83. In plurality - otherness, dissimilarity and difference; in God, the truly One and Only, there is only one identity, simplicity and similarity. Therefore, it is imprudent to turn to the contemplation of God without first finding yourself outside the multitude. And this is shown to us by Moses, who first pitched the tent of [his] understanding outside the camp (Ex. 33:7), and only then turned to God. It is dangerous to try to express in words the inexpressible, for the spoken word is dual and even plural. It is more reliable to contemplate Existence in the soul alone, without uttering anything, because the soul rests in an indivisible Unit, and not in multitude. For the high priest, who is commanded to enter once a year behind the veil into the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:1-7), teaches that only he who goes through the church and sanctuary should be inside the “holy of holies,” that is, he who goes through the whole nature of sensible and intelligible [things] and becomes clean from every property inherent in him by birth - only he should perceive God through the naked and deprived clothes of thought. 84. The great Moses, having pitched his tent outside the camp, that is, having placed his free will and thought outside the limits of [things] visible, begins to worship God. And, having entered into darkness, that is, into a formless and immaterial place of knowledge, he remains there, performing the most sacred sacraments. 85. Darkness is a formless, immaterial and incorporeal structure that contains the heavenly knowledge of beings. He who finds himself inside this dispensation, like another Moses, comprehends the Invisible with [his] mortal nature. Thanks to this, he, having imprinted in himself the beauty of the divine virtues and becoming like a picture that accurately conveys the beauty of the Prototype, descends, placing himself at the disposal of those who wish to imitate [highest] virtue, and revealing the humane and benevolent [essence] of grace in which he participates. 86. Those who immaculately follow wisdom according to God gain great benefit from the knowledge bestowed upon them. [The essence of this philosophy is that] one should not adapt [one’s] free will to [changing] circumstances, but should zealously and with unshakable firmness begin what corresponds to the meaning of virtue. 87. Baptized in Christ through the [Holy] Spirit, we receive the first incorruption according to the flesh, and we perceive the last incorruption through Christ and the [Holy] Spirit, preserving, thanks to success in good deeds and voluntary mortification [of the flesh], the first incorruption, according to which none of those who possess it are afraid of losing the acquired benefits. 88. God, out of [His] mercy towards us, desiring to send down the grace of divine virtue from heaven to those living on earth, symbolically arranged the sacred tabernacle and everything in it; she is the imprint, image and likeness of the Wisdom [of God]. 89. The grace of the New Testament is mysteriously hidden by the letter of the Old [Testament]. That is why the Apostle says that the law is spiritual (Rom. 7:14). After all, the law, which is dilapidated and outdated in letter, is abolished (Heb. 8:13), but in spirit it becomes younger and is always effective. For grace does not grow old. 90. The law is the shadow of the Gospel, and the Gospel is the image of future blessings. The first prevents the implementation of evil deeds, and the second suggests the implementation of good deeds. 91. We say that all Holy Scripture, like a spiritual man, is divided into flesh and spirit. And whoever claims that the words of Scripture are flesh, and His meaning is spirit or soul, does not sin against the truth. Therefore, he is undoubtedly wise who neglects the perishable and becomes wholly owned by the imperishable. 92. The law is the flesh of the spiritual man, likened to the Holy Scriptures, the prophets are his feelings, and the Gospel is the rational soul. [The soul] acts through the flesh of the law and the feelings of the prophets, revealing its power in these actions. 93. The law is a shadow, and the prophets are an image of the divine and spiritual blessings contained in the Gospel. And the Gospel reveals the Truth itself, present in us through letters, which was previously hidden in the shadow of the law and foreshadowed by the prophets. 94. He who fulfills the law by his life and his behavior brings into inaction only evil inclinations, sacrificing to God the action of irrational passions. And due to his spiritual immaturity, such a way [of life] is enough for him to be saved. 95. He who is brought up by the prophetic word rejects the actions of the passions, putting aside at the same time his compliance with them, which takes root in the soul. And this is so that, by showing in relation to the worst (I mean the flesh) that he abstains from evil, he can hide what he abundantly does in relation to the better (I mean the soul). 96. A person who is sincerely devoted to the gospel life cuts off from himself the beginning and end of evil. He strives for every virtue in word and deed; makes a sacrifice of praise and confession, moving away from every disturbing action of the passions and becoming free from mental warfare with them; knows only one [spiritual] pleasure, feeding the soul with hope for future blessings. 97. To zealous zealots in [the study of] the Holy Scriptures, the Lord appears in two forms: in a simple and publicly accessible one, which many can see and about which it is said: and we saw Him: and He had neither form nor beauty (Is. 53:2); and in another form, more hidden and accessible only to a few, that is, to those who, like Peter, James and John, had already become holy apostles, before whom the Lord was transformed into a glory that overcomes sense. According to this glory, the Lord is most beautiful of the sons of men (Ps. 44:3). Of these two types, the first corresponds to those who are just beginning [life in Christ], and the second to those who have reached perfection in knowledge, as far as is possible [to man]. One is the image of the first coming of the Lord, the words of the Gospel are correlated with it, and people of an active disposition are purified by its passions. The second is a pre-image of the coming of [the Lord] in glory, which is thought of as the Spirit. Through wisdom it transforms those who lead for deification, and thanks to this transformation of [God’s] Word in them, with an open face, as in a mirror, they look at the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). 98. He who, thanks to virtue, invincibly resists formidable dangers, has within himself the first coming of [God] the Word, acting in him and cleansing him from all filth. And whoever, through contemplation, brings his mind into an angelic state, contains within himself the power of the second coming, which makes him impassive and invulnerable. 99. Feeling is appropriate for an active person who strives for virtue through [spiritual] labor, and insensibility is appropriate for a leading person who turns his mind away from the flesh and the world and turns it to God. Whoever, through [spiritual] work, achieves the liberation of the soul from the natural bonds that bind it to the flesh, has a free will that is constantly subordinate to [the needs of spiritual] work. And whoever, through contemplation, has already pulled out the nails of this connection [with the world], he is not held back by anything at all, becomes pure from passions and naturally acquires strength that resists [the evil one], who longs to take possession of him. 100. The manna sent down to Israel in the wilderness is the Word of God, appropriately assimilated by those who are satisfied with Him for all spiritual joy and changing according to the taste of each, to satisfy the desires of those who partake (Wis. 16:21). For It contains [every] quality of all spiritual food. Therefore for those who are born again through the [Holy] Spirit of incorruptible seed, It becomes pure milk of the word (1 Peter 2:2); for the weak - a vegetable (Rom. 14:1-2), calming the suffering strength of the soul; and for those who, through constant practice, exercise the senses of their soul to distinguish between good and evil, It gives Itself as solid food (Heb. 5:14). The Word of God also has other innumerable powers that cannot be contained here. He who dissolved [here existence] and was worthy to be raised up among the host of many (or all) powers of the Word, will comprehend the whole sum of them, or some of them, because here he was faithful in small things (Matthew 25:21). For all the sublime divine gifts given to us in this life seem modest and insignificant in comparison with the gifts of the future. 1. There is one God because there is one Divinity; The unit is beginningless, simple, super-essential, indivisible and indivisible; She is One and She is Trinity, entirely Unity and entirely Trinity; the whole Unity - in essence, and the whole Trinity - according to Hypostases. For the Godhead is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the Godhead is in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is entirely in the whole Father, and the Father is entirely in the whole Godhead; It is entirely in the whole Son, and the Son is entirely in the whole Godhead; It is entirely in the whole Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is entirely in the whole Godhead. It is wholly the Father and wholly the Father; the whole Father in the whole Godhead and the whole Father is the whole Godhead. And the whole Godhead is the whole Son, the whole Godhead in the whole Son and the whole Son in the whole Godhead. The whole Divinity is the Holy Spirit, and It is in the whole Holy Spirit; the whole Godhead is the whole Holy Spirit, and the whole Holy Spirit in the whole Godhead. For the Godhead is not partly in the Father, and the Father is not partly God; The Godhead is not partly in the Son, and the Son is not partly God, the Godhead is not partly in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not partly God. After all, the Divinity is indivisible, and the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit is not an imperfect God, but the perfect Divinity exists entirely and perfectly in the perfect Father, and in the perfect Son, and in the perfect Holy Spirit. The Father is wholly and perfectly in the whole Son and Spirit; The Son is wholly and perfectly in the whole Father and Spirit; The Holy Spirit is wholly and perfectly in the whole Father and Son. Therefore, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God. For there is one and the same essence, power, and operation of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; they do not exist and are not conceived in any [of these Divine Persons] separately from one another. 2. All thinking is characteristic of [creatures] thinking and conceivable. God does not belong to either the first or the second, for he surpasses them. Otherwise, he would be describable, having a need, as a thinker, in connection with the thinkable, for he would naturally submit to the thinker, due to the connection [with him] becoming the object of thought. Therefore, God cannot be understood either as thinking or as being thought, since He is above this. For those [creatures] who are after God, it is common to both think and be thought. 3. Just as every thought, being a quality, is posited in essence, so it also has a movement performed in relation to the essence. For it is incapable of revealing itself as something that exists in general freely and simply in itself, because it is not free and not simple. God is completely simple in both ways. [He is] an Essence that is outside of what is in the subject, and [He is] Thinking, which has no substrate at all. For [God] belongs neither to those who think nor to those who are thought, since He is above both essence and thought. 4. Just as straight lines diverging from the center are considered completely inseparable in it, so he who is worthy to be in God comprehends by simple and inseparable knowledge all the logoi of created things pre-existing in Him. 5. Thinking is formed by thinkable [things]; be it one or multiple, it is formed in the image of each conceivable one. When it appears on the other side of the multitude of sensory and intelligible [things] that form it, and becomes completely formless, then the pre-thought [God] Word assimilates it to Himself and gives it peace [from the endlessly] alternating change of mental images. He who experienced this also calmed down from his deeds, just as God did from His (Heb. 4:10). 6. He who achieves perfection here, accessible to people, bears fruit for God love, joy, peace and long-suffering, and for the future - incorruptibility, eternity and the like. And, perhaps, the first are appropriate only to the one who actively exercises moral wisdom, and the second - to the one who, through true knowledge, emerges from [all] created things. 7. Just as sin is an act characteristic of disobedience, so virtue is an act characteristic of obedience; and just as disobedience follows the violation of the commandments, so obedience follows the keeping of the commandments and union with the One who gave [them]. Therefore, he who keeps the commandment through obedience does a righteous deed, and through love maintains inseparable unity with the Commander. And he who violates it through disobedience commits sin and dissolves his unity of love with the Commanded One. 8. Whoever, [overcoming his] separation [from God, which occurred] as a result of a transgression [of the commandments], unites [with Him], first of all separates himself from passions, then from passionate thoughts, then from nature and the logoi inherent in this nature, and then from speculation and from the knowledge associated with them. Finally, moving away from the diversity of the logoi of Providence, he in an unknown way reaches the logos of the Unit. And only in this logos does the mind, contemplating its own immutability, rejoice with inexpressible joy (1 Peter 1:8), having perceived the peace of God, which is above all understanding (Phil. 4:7) and which vigilantly guards its unshakable dignity. 9 . Fear of Gehenna encourages the beginner to avoid evil; those who succeed [in spiritual life] are granted zeal in the implementation of virtues, [generated by] the desire to repay [good for received] benefits; the mystery of love lifts the mind above all creatures, making it blind to what is after God. Only such blind people do the Lord make wise by showing them more divine things. 10. The Word of God is like a mustard seed, and before it is planted it seems small, but when properly sown, It becomes so great that [all] the sublime logoi of sensible and intelligible creatures, like the birds [of heaven], find rest in [the branches] of It. For the logoi of all things are in the Word of God and are contained in It, but not one of the existing things contains Him. Therefore, the Lord said that he who has faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain with a word (Matthew 17:20), that is, drive away the power of the devil that dominates us, moving it from its foundation. 11. The mustard seed is the Lord, who is sown by the Spirit in the hearts that receive [Him]. And whoever carefully grows this grain with [his] virtues, he moves the mountain of a dirty mind, voluntarily removing [from himself] the stable habit of depravity. And then in him, like the birds of the air, the logos and methods of [implementing] the commandments, as well as the divine Powers, find peace in him. 12. Placing the Lord as the basis of [our] faith, like a certain cornerstone, we erect an exalted and blessed [church], that is, pure and genuine theology, a clear and bright life, as well as divine thoughts and speculations like pearls. But [for the construction of this church] wood, hay and straw are not needed (1 Cor. 3:12), that is, idolatry or preoccupation with sensual things, an unreasonable life and passionate thoughts, devoid of wise understanding, like ears of corn. 13. He who strives for knowledge lays [solid] foundations for the salvation of the soul, as God said to Moses: You stood up with me. You should know that there are differences among those standing with the Lord, since the words are important for those with an inquisitive mind: There are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9:1). For the Lord does not appear to all who stand before Him in glory, but before the novices He appears in the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7), and to those who can follow Him ascending the high mountain of His Transfiguration, the Lord is revealed in the form of God (Matt. 17:1–9, Mark 9:2–13, Luke 9:28–36, 2 Peter 1:16–18), in which He was before the creation of the World. For it is possible for the Lord to reveal Himself to everyone who is with Him in different ways - some in this way, and others in another, which happens, of course, in proportion to the ability of everyone to see, determined by faith. 14. When the Word of God becomes clear and bright in us, and His Face shines like the sun, then His garments appear white, that is, the sayings of the Holy Gospel Scripture [appear in us] clear, transparent and without any covering. And together with the Lord come [to us] Moses and Elijah, that is, the spiritual logoi of the law and the prophets. 15. Just as the Son of Man comes in the glory of the Father with His Angels (Matthew 16:27), so the Word of God, coming in the glory of the Father with His Angels, is transformed into those worthy, in accordance with the progress in the virtues of each. And the spiritual logoi of the law and the prophets, prefigured by Moses and Elijah, appearing with the Lord at His Transfiguration, preserve the proportionality of the glory [of the Lord] in the worthy, revealing to them the [divine] Power [to the extent that] they can accommodate it at this time. 16. Anyone initiated into the mystery of the logos of the Unit will certainly recognize the logos of Providence and Judgment, connected with this logos of the Unit. Therefore, according to Saint Peter, he has three tabernacles, which should be counted among the [tabernacles] perceived by sight. They are three skills in salvation: I mean skill in virtue, skill in knowledge and skill in theology. The first requires courage and prudence in [spiritual] work, the image of which is the blessed Elijah; the second requires righteousness in natural contemplation, which the great Moses demonstrated; the third requires the most perfect wisdom, which the Lord has revealed. The named tabernacles, since they are better and more exalted than others, will become the inheritance of the worthy in the future. 17. He who devotes himself to spiritual work lives in the body like an alien, cutting off the connection of the soul with the flesh with virtues and removing the deception of the material from himself. He who devotes himself to knowledge lives as a stranger in virtue itself, contemplating the truth, as if reflected in mirrors and allegorically (1 Cor. 13:12). For he is not yet able to see the self-existent types of goods and enjoy the contemplation of them face to face. After all, every saint passes [through this life], through the image of goods, rushing to the future, and at the same time exclaims: I am a stranger and a stranger, like all my fathers (Ps. 39:13). 18. The one who prays should never stop his ascent of grief towards God. After all, our ascent should be understood as success in virtues during [spiritual] work from strength to strength (Ps. 83:8), as an ascent of spiritual knowledge during contemplation from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18) and as a transition from the words of Holy Scripture to [His] spirit. One who finds himself in a place of prayer should do the same: raise the mind to grief, putting aside human [concerns] and [turning to] more divine [things], so that the mind will be able to follow the one who has passed through heaven, Jesus the Son of God (Heb. 4:14), who is omnipresent and all-filling according to the Economy of God for our sake, so that we, following Him and passing through everything that comes after Him, would end up with Him Himself. If we comprehend Him, it is not by the weakness of the economic condescension [to us], but by the greatness of [His] natural Infinity (2 Cor. 5:16). 19. It is wonderful to devote all our time to God and seek Him, as we are commanded (Ps. 104:4), even if those who seek Him in this life are not able to approach the limits of the depths of God. But perhaps, by striving at least a little towards this depth, we will [be worthy] of contemplating the Holy of Holies and the Spiritual Spiritual. This is figuratively demonstrated by the bishop, entering from the Holy of Holies of the church into the Most Holy of Holies, [which] are the most holy of [all] holy things. 20. Every word of God is not long-winded or long-winded; it is one, although it consists of various speculations, each of which is a part of [this] word. Therefore, he who speaks in the name of truth and is able to speak in such a way as not to miss anything from what is being studied, speaks the one word of God. 21. In Christ, who is God and the Word of the Father, in essence dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9); in us, this fullness of the Divine dwells by grace, when we collect in ourselves all virtue and wisdom and in no way (as far as humanly possible) neglect the true imitation of the Prototype. For due to the adoption [of us by God] it is quite natural [that] the fullness of the Divinity dwells in us, consisting of spiritual speculations. 22. Just as our word, arising naturally from the mind, is a messenger of its hidden movements, so the Word of God essentially knew the Father, just as the Word [knows] the Mind that gave birth to [It]. And without the Word, not one of the creatures can perceive the Father, for, being the Word by nature, It reveals the Father Whom it knew, which is why it calls this Word of the Great Council an Angel (Is. 9:6). 23. The Great Council of God and the Father is the silent and unknown mystery of the [Divine] Economy. The Only Begotten Son revealed and fulfilled [this Council] through [His] Incarnation, becoming the Messenger of the Great and Eternal Council of God the Father. everyone who knows the meaning of the sacrament [of the Economy] also becomes a messenger of the Great Council of God to the extent that he, in word and deed, endlessly ascends the mountain and, overcoming everything [created], hastens to the One who condescended to him. 24. If the Word of God, being completely motionless by nature, economically for our sake descended to the lowest parts of the earth, ascended above all the heavens (Eph. 4:9-10) and, according to God’s economy, in Himself, as in man, pre-realized the future, then let him who nourishes [an inescapable] love of knowledge and abides in the mysterious joy [of God] consider what, according to the promise, is the goal loving Lord. 25. If God the Word, the Son of God the Father, became Man and the Son of Man for this purpose, to make men gods and sons of God, then we believe that we will be where Christ Himself is now, as the Head of the whole body (Col. 1:18), who, being like us, went in to the Father as a forerunner for us (Heb. 6:20). After all, He, as God, became in the assembly of gods (Ps. 82:1), that is, in those who are being saved, and, standing in the midst of [them], He distributes [gifts] of future bliss to those worthy, without being separated from them by any space. 26. He who is still filled with passionate desires of the flesh still dwells as an idolater and creator of idols in the land of the Chaldeans. When he becomes [able] to discern things at least a little and to feel properly the ways of [existence] of nature, then he, leaving the land of the Chaldeans, moves to Harran of Mesopotamia (Gen. 11:28-31), that is, into an intermediate state between virtue and vice, when the feeling does not yet become pure from the deception [of carnal things]. This is Harran. If, rising above feeling, he achieves a proportionate understanding of good, then he already rushes to the good land, that is, to a state free from all evil and ignorance. The honest God showed this land and promised to give it as a reward to those who love Him. 27. If the Word of God was crucified in weakness for our sake and rose again by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4), then it is clear that He always spiritually does and endures for us, becoming all things to all men in order to save all. And the divine Apostle, turning to the weak Corinthians, splendidly says that he decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). To the Ephesians, who were perfect, he writes: God raised us up with Him, and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6), thereby saying that the Word of God becomes [one or another] proportionate to the strength of each one. For it is crucified for those who are just actively being introduced to piety, nailing their actions, filled with passion, to the Cross with divine fear. He resurrects and ascends into heaven for those who have put aside all the old man, which is corrupted by the deceitful lusts, and have put on the whole new man, created by the Spirit in the image of God (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10), and therefore found through the grace [working] in them, with the Father, above all principality and authority and power and dominion and every name, named not only in this age, but also in the future (Eph. 1:21). For everything that is after God - both [created] things and virtues - will be lower than the one who finds himself in God through grace. 28. Just as the Word of God, before His appearance and coming in the flesh, spiritually dwelt in the patriarchs and prophets, prefiguring the mysteries of His coming, so after this dwelling [in the flesh] It is present in still infants [in Christ], spiritually nourishing and leading them to maturity according to God, and in the perfect, hiddenly delineating in them, as if drawing the outlines of an image, His future coming. 29. Just as the words of the law and the prophets, being the harbingers of the coming of the Word in the flesh, led souls to Christ, so the glorious Word of God Himself, having become incarnate, became the harbinger of His spiritual coming, leading souls through His own utterances to receive His obvious and divine [future] Coming. This coming always occurs, transforming the worthy from flesh to spirit through virtue; It will also happen at the end of [this] age, when [mysteries] hitherto inexpressible will be blessedly revealed to everyone. 30. Since I am imperfect and disobedient, I do not obey God through the implementation of the commandments and do not become perfect in my thoughts through knowledge, then in me and through me Christ is considered imperfect and disobedient. For I humiliate and curtail Him and, although I am a member and part of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), I do not grow with Him in spirit. 31. Scripture says: The sun rises and the sun sets (Eccl. 1:5). Obviously, [it is here implied] that [God] the Word is in the habit of sometimes ascending to the mountain, and sometimes descending to the bottom, according to the dignity, meaning and way of [life] of those who strive for virtue and are prompted [by the desire] for divine knowledge. Blessed is the one who retains within himself, following the example of Joshua (Joshua 10:12), the reserved Sun of righteousness - the measure of the day of this life, not limited by the evening of vice and ignorance, which helps him put to flight the evil demons rising against him. 32. The Word of God, raised in us through action and contemplation, attracts everyone to Himself (John 12:32), illuminating, according to virtue and knowledge, our reflections and judgments regarding the flesh, soul and nature of beings. [It illuminates] the very members of the body [ours] and feelings, making them subject to His burden (Matthew 11:29-30). Therefore, let the contemplator of [things] divine diligently ascend the mountain, following the Word until he finds himself in the place where It [dwells]. For there the Word “draws,” as Ecclesiasius says, And He is drawn to His place (Eccl. 1:5), that is, it draws those who follow Him, as the Great High Priest, leading into the Holy of Holies, where He Himself entered as a forerunner for us (Heb. 6:20). 33. Let him who devotes himself to pious wisdom and prepares himself for warfare against invisible powers offer up prayers, so that the natural [ability] of discernment, possessing proportionate light, and the illuminating grace of the [Holy] Spirit may always remain with him. For the first leads the flesh, through [spiritual] work, to virtue, and the second enlightens the mind so that [man] can prefer to all [other things] cohabitation with the Wisdom [of God], according to which the strongholds of evil and every exaltation that rises up against the knowledge of God are destroyed (2 Cor. 10: 4-5). And this is shown by Joshua, in prayer asking [the Lord]: Let the sun become over Gibeon (Joshua 10:12), that is, asking that the forbidden light of knowledge of God linger over the mountain of mental contemplation; and the moon over the valley, that is, so that the natural [ability] of discrimination, which resides in [our] bodily weakness, remains unchanged due to virtue. 34. Gibeon is the exalted mind, and the valley is the flesh humbled by death. The sun is [God] the Word, enlightening the mind, giving it the power of speculation and driving away all ignorance from it. And the moon is a natural law, exhorting the flesh to obey the spirit lawfully in order to take upon itself the burden of the commandments. The moon is a symbol of nature because it is changeable; but in the saints it remains unchanged, due to their immutable skill in virtue. 35. The Lord must be sought not outside of those who seek [Him], but within themselves, who seek Him through faith [carried out] in works. [Holy Scripture] says: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith (Rom. 10:8), since Christ Himself is the sought Word. 36. Reflecting on the height of Divine infinity, we will not lose hope in God’s love for mankind, extending from the [Divine] heights to us; Realizing [the full] depth of our sinful fall, we will not lose faith that the virtue that has been killed in us will be resurrected. For it is possible for God to do both: to descend [to us], enlightening our minds with knowledge, and to resurrect virtue in us again, taking us up with Him through righteous deeds. [The Apostle] says: “Do not say in your heart: who will ascend to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ together; or: “Who will go down into the abyss?” that is, to raise Christ from the dead (Rom. 10:6–7). It is possible that, according to one understanding, the “abyss” is all [beings] below God; The Word of God is providentially found in them all, as Life coming to those in the tombs. For all who live by participation in life are dead. “Heaven” is the natural hiddenness of God, [being] in which He is incomprehensible to everyone. If someone interprets “heaven” as the logos of theology, and “the abyss” as the sacrament of [God’s] Economy, then, in my opinion, he will not be wrong. For both are inaccessible to those who seek to explore them with the help of evidence. Moreover, they become completely inaccessible if sought without faith. 37. In an active person, the Word [of God], condensed by the ways of [implementing] virtues, becomes flesh. In the contemplator [of the Divine mysteries], It, being refined by spiritual speculations, becomes Whom it was in the beginning, that is, God the Word. 38. The one who, with the help of simple examples and sayings corresponding to the ability of the hearers, presents [them] with the moral teaching of the Word, makes this Word flesh. And the one who expounds mysterious theology with the help of sublime speculations makes the Word the Spirit. 39. He who theologizes cataphatically, proceeding from [affirmative] propositions, makes the Word flesh, for he can know God as the Cause of [everything], proceeding only from [things] visible and tangible. He who theologizes apophatically, proceeding from negative judgments, makes the Word the Spirit, as being in the beginning of God and existing with God (John 1:1); he truly cognizes the Supercognizable, not based on anything accessible to knowledge. 40. He who, like the patriarchs, has learned to dig within himself through [spiritual] work and contemplation of the well of knowledge finds within [them] Christ, the Source of Life. Wisdom calls us to drink from it: Drink water from your vessels and from the source of your wells (Proverbs 5:15) - those who do this will find Her treasures that are within us. 41. Those who live a bestial and sensual life make the Word [of God] flesh at their own risk; they abuse the creations of God to please [their] passions, but do not heed the Word of Wisdom in order to know and glorify God, [based on] His creations, and in order to understand where, why, for what and how we found ourselves among visible [things]. On the contrary, they, wandering in the darkness of this age, feel with both hands the ignorance of God. 42. Those who cling only to one word of the Holy Scripture and bind the dignity of [their] soul with the shackles of bodily service to the law, shamefully make the Word of [God] flesh for themselves. They believe that God is satisfied with the sacrifices of irrational animals, they take great care of the body, performing rites of external purification, but they neglect the beauty of the soul, covered with [dirty] stains of passions - that soul, for the sake of which every power of visible [creatures] was produced and every Divine word and every Divine law was given. 43. The Holy Gospel says that the Lord was prepared for the fall and rising of many (Luke 2:34). Therefore we must consider: was not [He set] for the fall of those who behold the visible creation with only sensible eyes and follow only the [literal] speech of the Holy Scriptures, being, through their foolishness, unable to turn to the new spirit of grace? And [was He not predestined] for the rebellion of those who spiritually contemplate the creatures of God and spiritually listen to His sayings, having only concerns about restoring the divine image in the soul through the proper means [of implementing the commandments? 44. The fact that the Lord was predestined for the fall and uprising of many in Israel can only be understood in a praiseworthy sense: for the fall of passions and evil thoughts in each of the believers, and for the uprising of virtues and every godly thought. 45. He who considers the Lord the Creator of only that which is born and perishes, takes Him, like Mary Magdalene, for a gardener (John 20:15). Therefore, the Lord, for the benefit of such a person, avoids touching him, since he considers [the Lord] incapable of ascending to the Father, and therefore says to him: Do not touch Me (John 20:17). For [the Lord] knows that harm can be caused to those who approach Him with such an everyday disposition [of soul]. 46. Those who sit in Galilee with the doors closed on the top floor out of danger from the Jews (John 20:19) are those who, in the land of Revelation, wary of evil spirits, have safely ascended to the height of divine speculation, having, as usual, closed the doors of the senses: they perceive the Word of God, which has come to them in an unknown way and appears without affecting the senses. It grants them, through [spiritual] peace, dispassion and inspiration through the dispensation of the Holy Spirit; represents power over evil spirits and reveals to them the symbols of His secrets. 47. For those who study the Word of God according to the carnal [understanding], the Lord did not ascend to the Father; but He ascended to [His] Father for those who seek Him in spirit, through sublime speculation. After all, we, being down, do not fully assimilate the One who, out of [His] love for mankind, found himself down for our sake. However, when we ascend with Him to the Father, we leave the earth and everything earthly, so that it would not be said to us, as incorrigible Jews: Where I go, you cannot come (John 8:21). For without the Word it is impossible to be with the Father of the Word. 48. The land of the Chaldeans is a life overwhelmed by passions; idols of sins are created in it and worship is given to them. Mesopotamia is a way of life that oscillates between good and evil. The Promised Land is a dispensation [of the soul] filled with every good thing. Anyone who neglects such a state [of the soul], like the old Israel, is again drawn into the slavery of passions, deprived of the freedom granted to him. 49. It should be noted that none of the saints descend voluntarily to Babylonia. For it is not the custom of those who love God (and it is contrary to common sense) to prefer the worst to the best. If some of them are forcibly taken away by the local people, then by this we understand those who, not by [their own] will, but due to forced circumstances, for the sake of guiding those in need of salvation, leave the most sublime word of knowledge and turn to instruction regarding the passions. In accordance with this, the great Apostle decided that it was more useful to be in the flesh, that is, for the sake of his disciples, to turn to moral edification, although he was filled with the desire to be released from it and to be with Christ through simple, intelligent and worldly contemplation (Phil. 1:23-26). 50. Just as Saul was once tormented by an evil spirit, and blessed David, with his playing on the harp, gave him rest (1 Sam. 16:23), so every spiritual word gives rest to the mind possessed [by demons], delighting it with spiritual speculations and freeing it from the evil conscience tormenting it. 51. Like the great David, hearty and with kind eyes (1 Sam. 16:12) there is one who, along with the bright joy of life according to God, also possesses a radiant word of knowledge, in accordance with which [spiritual] work and contemplation merge into one. The first shines in the ways of [implementing] virtues, and the second is illuminated by divine speculation. 52. The reign of Saul is an image of bodily service to the law; The Lord abolished this law as imperfect. For the Apostle says: The Law brought nothing to perfection (Heb. 7:19). The reign of the great David is a foreshadowing of the Gospel ministry, for he embraces in his heart all the desires of God (1 Samuel 16:1; Acts 13:22). 53. Saul is the natural law, to whom the Lord initially entrusted dominion over nature. But since he violated the commandment of [God] through [his] disobedience, spared Agag, king of Amalek (that is, the flesh) and was carried away by passions, then the kingship is taken away from him, so that Israel would become the inheritance of David (1 Sam. 15:8 ff.), that is, the spiritual law that gives birth to the world, which gloriously erects for God a church of contemplation. 54. The name "Samuel" is interpreted as "obedience to God." And let the Word [of God] act sacredly in us for some time out of obedience, although Saul spares Agag, that is, the earthly mind, but the Word-Priest is jealous that it should be killed, and, shaming the sin-loving mind, as a violator of the divine commandments, strikes him [with His blows]. 55. Whenever an arrogant mind, anointed to fight against the passions by the word of teaching, ceases to inquire through proper inquiry about what it should and should not do, it, through ignorance, falls captive to the passions. Through these passions, the mind, gradually moving away from God, in the involuntary vicissitudes [of life] surrenders to the demons who deify the womb (Phil. 3:19), thereby wanting to find consolation from the tormentors. And then Saul, who did not heed all of Samuel’s advice, convinces himself that out of necessity he turned to idolatry, daring to question the sorceress as if he were some kind of god (1 Sam. 28:7 ff.). 56. He who prays to receive his daily bread does not completely and completely perceive this bread as it really is, but only as he can perceive it. The Bread of Life (John 6:35), as a Lover of Mankind, gives Himself [as food] to everyone, but not to everyone equally. To those who have done great deeds of righteousness [He gives Himself] abundantly, and [to those who have done lesser deeds] to a lesser extent; to each - as much as his spiritual dignity allows him to accept [this Bread]. 57. The Lord is sometimes absent and sometimes present [in us]. He is present when contemplating face to face (1 Cor. 13:12), but He is absent when contemplating through a dark glass and fortune-telling. 58. The Lord is present, through virtues, in a person who devotes himself to [spiritual] work, and is absent in one who does not realize any logos of virtue. And again: He is present in a person who devotes himself to contemplation [of the Divine] through true knowledge of beings, and is absent in one who deviates from such knowledge. 59. The one who has passed from the active state to the speculative state is absent from the body. Admired, as if by clouds, at the height of speculation, [he finds himself] in the clear air of mysterious contemplation, in which he can always be with the Lord. The one who is unable to contemplate [divine] speculations with a pure mind, without their influence on the senses (as far as possible [for a person]), and who is not able to contain a simple word about the Lord, without allegories, moves away from the Lord. 60. The Word of God is called flesh not only because It is incarnate, but also because God the Word, originally conceived simply as [being] with God the Father and as possessing clear and naked images of the truth concerning all [created things], does not contain in Himself either a parable or an allegory, or a narrative in need of allegorical interpretation. But when God the Word came to people who were unable to come into contact with naked conceivable [things] with their naked minds, then, speaking to them according to their custom, He became flesh, in which a motley [multiple] narratives, allegories, parables and dark sayings were combined. For our mind, at the first contact [with the Word], comes into contact not with the naked Word, but with the incarnate Word, that is, with the diversity of sayings - the Word existing by nature, but flesh in appearance. Therefore, It, being truly the Word, appears to many to be flesh and not the Word. But the meaning of the [Holy] Scripture is not what appears to many, but something else. After all, the Word becomes flesh through each of the written utterances. 61. It is inherent in the beginning of teaching people in piety to have a kind of carnal character. For at the first contact with the worship of God we become acquainted with the letter, and not with the spirit [of the Holy Scripture]. As we progress spiritually, scraping off the fleshy mass of sayings with the subtlest speculations, we become pure, as far as humanly possible, in pure Christ in order to have the power to say according to the Apostle: But if we knew Christ in the flesh, now we no longer know (2 Cor. 5:16). It is clear that this occurs due to the simple contact of the mind with the Word, in addition to those veils that envelop Him, and [happens when] we, beginning from the knowledge of the Word through the flesh, advance [in the knowledge of] His glory as the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14). 62. He who seeks life in Christ becomes superior to the righteousness that is in law and nature. Revealing this, the divine Apostle says: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything (Gal.6:15). By the word "circumcision" he refers to the righteousness of the law, and by the word "uncircumcision" he alludes to natural equality. 63. Some are reborn through water and spirit, while others receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11; John 3:5). I think that all four - water, spirit, fire and the Holy Spirit - are one and the same Spirit of God. For some, the Holy Spirit, like washing away external bodily dirt, is water; for others, as a performer of good [deeds] of virtue, He is simply a spirit; for still others, as one who cleanses the inner stains [of sin] in the depths of the soul, He is fire; for the fourth, like the great Daniel, He, as the Giver of wisdom and knowledge, is the Holy Spirit. And from the difference in the action on the subject, the one and same Spirit receives different names. 64. The Law gave the Sabbath, so that, as it says, your donkey and your servant may rest (Ex. 23:12). Both allegorically denote the body. For it is the donkey of the active mind, forced during [spiritual] work to endure burdens and urged on by images of virtues. [The body is also] the servant of the contemplative [mind], already experienced in speculation, and it intelligently obeys its spiritual commands. For both, the Sabbath is the fulfillment of the benefits realized in them through work and contemplation, which bring each [mind] appropriate peace. 65. One who performs virtuous deeds with appropriate knowledge has a body like a donkey, urging it on with his mind to perform proper actions; [he also has a body] as a servant, that is, as a way of actively realizing virtue or that very way that is inherent in bringing into being virtue, acquired, as if with money, by discriminating reasoning. The Sabbath is a dispassionate and peaceful state of soul and body, born of virtue, or the property of immutability [acquired with its help]. 66. The Word of God becomes chaff and straw for those who still care much about the bodily forms of virtue; It feeds the passionate part of their soul to serve the virtues. And for those raised to contemplation and true perception of divine [things], the Word of God is bread that feeds the intelligent [part of] their soul for God-like perfection. Therefore, we learn that the patriarchs stocked up on food on the way: bread for themselves, and straw for their donkeys. And in the Book of Judges, the Levite says to the old man who received him into his house in Gibeah: There is bread for us and straw for our donkeys; there is nothing lacking for your servants (Judges 19:19). 67. The Word of God is and is called dew, water, spring and river, as it is written (Deut.32:2; Sir.15:3,24,28-29); It is and becomes all this according to the subject power of the perceivers. For some, [the Word of God] is dew that extinguishes the fire and action of passions applied from outside to the body. For others, whose insides are scorched by the poison of vice, It is water, which not only abolishes the effect of this vice, but also imparts life-giving force for well-being. [For the third], who have an inexhaustible and gushing skill in contemplation, the Word of God, as the Giver of wisdom, is the source. Finally, It is a river for those who pour out pious, righteous, saving and river-like teaching, abundantly watering both people and livestock, animals and plants. And this is so that people will be deified, lifted up by the thoughts expressed [in Scripture]; those who became like beasts through passions would again regain their natural rationality, again acquiring a human form thanks to the exact fulfillment of the methods of virtue; those who became like beasts through bad habits and atrocities would return to the meekness of [their] nature, ennobling thanks to beneficial and gentle exhortation; and those who were insensitive to [spiritual] goods like plants would be moistened through immersion in the depth of the Word [of God], would acquire a feeling for [spiritual] fertility and the power that nourishes them, and [thereby would perceive] the quality of the Word of God. 68. The Word of God is the Way (John 14:6) for those who, during [spiritual] work, successfully and diligently overcome the stages (στάδιον, stage) of virtue, deviating neither to the right through vanity, nor to the left through attraction to passions, but directing their path exactly according to God. Asa, the king of Judah, was unable to observe this to the end, about whom it is said that in his old age he was sick with his legs (1 Kings 15:23), [that is, it implies] the weakness that overtook him on the path of life according to God. 69. The Word of God is called the Door (John 10:9), which introduces those who have successfully overcome the entire path of virtues, immaculately walking along the list of [spiritual] activities. And as Light It reveals the all-luminous treasures of Wisdom. For the same thing [the Word of God] is the Way, and the Door, and the Key, and the Kingdom. It is the Path, like a Guide; The key is like one that opens [the secrets of] divine [things] to those who are worthy and is opened by them, like a bolt; The door is like an introduction [to those worthy into the Divine secrets]; The kingdom is inherited and born in everyone through communion. 70. The Lord is called Light, Life, Resurrection and Truth (John 8:12, 11:25; 14:6). Light is like illumination for souls, like a persecutor of the darkness of ignorance, like an enlightening mind for comprehending ineffable [secrets], as revealing mysteries that are visible only to the pure [of heart]. Life is the cause of movement in [things] divine, appropriate for souls who love the Lord. Resurrection is like awakening the mind from a dead inclination towards [things] material, cleansing it from all corruption and deadness. Truth is like giving the worthy an immutable skill in good. 71. The Word of God or God the Word of the Father is mysteriously present in each of His commandments, and God the Father is naturally and indivisibly present in all the Word. He who perceives the divine commandment and fulfills it perceives the Word of God in it. And he who perceives this Word through the commandment co-perceives the Father and the [Holy] Spirit who naturally exist in Him. For it is said: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives him whom I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me (John 13:20). Therefore, he who receives the commandment and fulfills it mysteriously perceives [the entire] Holy Trinity. 72. God is glorified not by the one who honors Him with words alone, but by the one who steadfastly endures the hardships of labor for the sake of virtue - and he, in turn, is glorified by God, acquiring, as a kind of reward for virtue, the glory of God and the grace of dispassion [bestowed] by communion. For everyone who glorifies God in himself through suffering for the sake of virtue in [spiritual] work is himself glorified in God through the dispassionate radiance of the Divine in contemplation. For the Lord, going into suffering, says: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God was glorified in Him, then God will glorify Him in Himself, and will soon glorify Him (John 13:31-32). From this it is clear that suffering for the sake of virtue is followed by divine gifts of grace. 73. As long as in the utterance of the Holy Scripture we see the Word of God incarnate through various allegories, we do not yet discern with [our] spiritual eye the incorporeal, simple, one and only Father in the incorporeal, simple, one and only Son, according to what is written: He who has seen Me has seen the Father, and I in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:9-10). And it requires great art to, having first penetrated under the veils of the sayings surrounding the Word, then see with the naked mind Him [Himself], existing in the purity of His Own Being, when the Word clearly reveals the Father in Himself, as far as this is accessible to the perception of people. And therefore it is necessary that he who piously seeks God should not be overcome by any speech, lest he perceive what is around the Word instead of the Word Himself; that is, so as not to love with an unreliable love the [literal] utterances of Scripture instead of [the] Word [of God] Himself, and so that, avoiding this Word with the mind, do not consider that It is in the power of [Its] veils, like that Egyptian woman who, instead of Joseph, took possession of his clothes (Gen. 39:12). Or: [so as not to become like] the old people, who, bewitched by the mere splendor of the visible, did not notice that they serve the creature instead of the Creator (Rom. 1:25). 74. The word of Holy Scripture, thanks to the most sublime speculations, strips itself of [all] the bodily connection of the sayings that clothe it, appearing as if in a breath of subtle coolness (wind) (1 Kings 19:12) to a vigilant mind, and especially to [such a mind] which, having completely abandoned the actions of nature, can be embraced by a sense of simplicity that reveals the word [of God]: a similar thing happened to the great Elijah, who was awarded such a great vision in the cave of Horeb. "Horeb" is interpreted as a "sign", and this is a skill in virtues [acquired] in the new spirit of grace. The “cave” is the hiddenness of wisdom [hidden] in the mind; whoever finds himself in it will mysteriously feel knowledge that is above [all] feelings; in it, as they say, God dwells. Anyone who, like Elijah (1 Kings 19:8-11), truly seeks God, will find himself not only in Horeb, that is, as one who devotes himself to [spiritual] work, he will have the skill of virtue, but also in the cave of Horeb, that is, as one who devotes himself to contemplation, he will find himself in the hiddenness of wisdom, which is found only in the habit of virtues. 75. When the mind shakes off the [dust] of manifold opinions concerning things that cover it, then the word of truth is clearly revealed to it, truly giving instruction of knowledge, which removes its recent [sensory] memories, like scales falling from the eyes - this happened with the inspired and great Apostle Paul (Acts 9:18). Scales are the perception of the utterances of Scripture alone, preventing a pure appeal to the Word of truth, and a sensually biased contemplation of visible [things], which, [like covers], are superimposed on the penetrating vigilance of the soul. 76. The Divine Apostle Paul said that knowledge of the Word is known in part (1 Cor. 13:9). And the great Evangelist says that His glory was visible: And we saw His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Didn't St. Paul say that knowledge of the Word is known in part? For It is known to some extent only from [Its] actions. Knowledge of Him in essence and hypostasis is equally inaccessible to any of the angels and people. And Saint John, who was perfect among men, by the phrase that the glory of the Word made flesh was visible, enlightens us regarding His Incarnation, that is, regarding the meaning and purpose by which God became man and became visible in the fullness of grace and truth. After all, not as God in essence and the Only Begotten Son, consubstantial with God the Father, He was overshadowed by grace, but as having become man and consubstantial with us by nature according to [God’s] Economy, He was overshadowed by it for the sake of us, who are in need of grace. And we, with our [spiritual] prosperity, constantly receive the corresponding grace from His fullness. Therefore, having preserved within itself perfect and inviolable the logos of the incarnate God of the Word for our sake, acquires the full glory of the grace and truth of Him who for our sake was glorified and sanctified Himself at the time of His coming (John 17:8-19). For [the Holy Evangelist] says: When it is revealed, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2). 77. As long as the soul moves from strength to strength and from glory to glory, that is, it advances from [lesser] virtue to greater virtue and ascends from [less exalted] knowledge to more exalted knowledge, it does not cease to come, according to what has been said: My soul lived long in the land of migration (Ps. 119:6). For the distance that she must travel is great, and the amount of knowledge that she needs to learn is abundant before she goes to the place of the wondrous settlement, to the house of God, with a voice of joy and confession [of God], with a festive exclamation (Ps. 42:5). And with [her] success in divine speculation, she always adds [her own] mental voice to other mental voices, along with rejoicing, joy and proportionate thanksgiving, which are born in the mind [during spiritual contemplation]. This is how everyone who has received the Spirit of grace celebrates, crying out in their hearts: “Lion, Father” (Gal. 4:6). 78. To the place of the wondrous settlement (Ps. 41:5) there is a skill, dispassionate and grace-filled, in virtues; The Word of God, born in this habit, adorns the soul, like a tabernacle, with the beauty of various virtues. And the house of God is knowledge, created from many and various virtues; God, dwelling in the soul thanks to this knowledge, saturates [it] from the cup of Wisdom. The voice of joy is the [joyful] dance of the soul at the sight of the treasures of virtues [given to it]. The voice of confession is thanksgiving for the glory of the feast of Wisdom [to which she was invited]. Exclamation [festive] is a mysterious doxology, constantly born from the mixture of both - joy and confession. 79. He who courageously overcomes bodily passions, steadfastly withstands the battle with unclean spirits and expels their thoughts from the confines of his soul, let him pray that he be given a pure heart and that a right spirit is renewed in his womb (Ps. 50:12); that is, so that he is completely emptied of bad thoughts and filled with the grace of divine thoughts. And this is in order to be spiritually born into the bright and great world of God, consisting of moral, natural and theological speculations. 80. He who has made [his] heart pure will not only recognize the logoi of [all] that which is lower and after God, but will also see in himself, after passing through everything, the highest goal of good. In such a heart God is born, and on this heart, as if on some tablets of Moses, He deigns to inscribe His own writings through the [Holy] Spirit to the extent that it has grown itself according to the commandment that mysteriously commands: Multiply (Gen. 35:11). 81. A heart is called pure in which there is no natural movement towards anything [carnal]. Thanks to the highest simplicity, God is born in such a heart and inscribes His laws on it, as if on a smooth tablet. 82. A pure heart is that heart that presents [its] memory to God as completely formless and formless, and it is ready to be imprinted only by those images of Him through which it is inherent for [God] to appear. 83. The mind of Christ, which the saints perceive by the verb: We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), is not born in us as a result of the power of thinking; [it is not] an integral part of our mind and does not move in an essential and hypostatic way into our mind, but [the mind of Christ is born] as a force, with its quality making our mind clear and imparting to it action directed towards it. For to have the mind of Christ, as I understand it, means to [constantly] think according to the Lord and always think about Him. 84. We are talking about the body of Christ, according to what has been said: We are the body of Christ, and individually members (1 Cor. 12:27). And we become His Body not due to the deprivation of our own bodies and not because He hypostatically moved into us or was divided into [His] members, but because, becoming like the flesh of the Lord, we reject the corruption of sin. For just as Christ was sinless by [human] nature, flesh and soul, through which He is comprehended by thought as a man, so we, who have believed in Him and have clothed ourselves with Him through the [Holy] Spirit, can be sinless in Him according to [our own] will. 85. The Scripture [speaks] both of temporary ages and of [ages] encompassing the end of other ages, according to what was said: Now once at the end of the ages (Heb. 9:26) and the following words. Again, there are also other ages, free from the temporal nature, [which will be] after this time has come and after the age that marks the end of the ages, according to what was said: So that in the coming centuries he will show exceeding riches (Eph. 2:7) and the following words. We find in Scripture many centuries: past, present and future; Some centuries are centuries of centuries; there are centuries of centuries, and centuries of ages (2 Tim. 1:9), and generations combined with centuries. And in order not to [be mistaken about] what the Holy Scripture means when speaking about temporary centuries, about centuries-old times and generations, what are simply centuries and what are centuries of centuries, what is an age and what is an age of centuries, we have now undertaken to talk about this, leaving it to the inquisitive to bring the study of this question to the end. 86. We know that according to Scripture there is something eternal; [Scripture] indicated what it is, but did not name what it is, according to what was said: The Lord reigns [for] ever and ever and again (Ex. 15:18). Therefore, the pure Kingdom of God is something that transcends centuries. For it is impermissible to say that It had a beginning or was anticipated through centuries and times. We believe that this Kingdom is the inheritance, the abode and place of those who are being saved, as the true teaching [of the Church] conveys; It is the goal and desired limit for those who strive and move [towards Him], and, once in Him, they find peace from all movement, since they no longer have to pass through any age or time. After all, after all [this] they reach God, Who exists before all ages, Whom the nature of ages is not able to forestall. 87. As long as someone remains in this life, even if he is perfect in accordance with this dispensation and, thanks to work and contemplation, partially possesses knowledge, [the gift of] prophecy and the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, he nevertheless does not possess the fullness of them. Only one day, after the completion of centuries, will he reach the perfect destiny - the Truth resting in itself, which reveals itself to the worthy face to face, so that they do not have only part of the fullness, but would acquire the entire fullness of grace through communion. For the Apostle says: All - it is clear that he means those who are being saved - will come to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13), in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). And with their appearance, everything partial will be abolished. 88. Some ask: how will the dispensation take place for those who are worthy of perfection in the Kingdom of God? Will it be proportionate to [spiritual] advancement and change, or consistent with constant identity? How then should souls and bodies be perceived? – This can be answered quite correctly by making a comparison with bodily life, where the meaning of nutrition is dual: it both promotes growth and preserves those who eat. For until we reach perfect bodily maturity, we feed in order to grow; but as soon as the body stops developing, we eat only to preserve [life], and not to grow. In the same way, the meaning of nourishing the soul is dual. After all, she is nourished to excel in virtues and speculations until, having passed through all existing [things], she reaches the measure of maturity in the fullness of Christ. And when this is achieved, then all progress, carried out in an indirect way for the sake of development and growth, stops. [The soul already] directly tastes what is above thinking, and therefore [turns out to be] above growth. The type of incorruptible food [is intended] to preserve the god-like perfection bestowed upon it. Thanks to the manifestation of the infinite beauty of this food, [the soul] perceives into itself the eternal and identical goodness that settles in it; she becomes a god through participation in God's grace, ceases all actions of the mind and feelings, and at the same time the natural actions of the body, united with the soul through the corresponding participation in deification, cease in her. So that God alone becomes visible through soul and body, surpassing their natural properties by the abundance of His glory. 89. Some of the inquisitive seek what will be the difference between the eternal and the promised abodes. Will this difference be in spatial reality, or will it be in the mental and spiritual quality and quantity with which each abode is distinguished? Some believe that it is the first, others that it is the second. But he who knows that the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21) and that the Father has many mansions (John 14:2) will rather choose the second. 90. Some ask: what is the difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven; Are they really different from each other, or only mentally? The answer to this must be that they differ not in reality, because in essence they are one, but only mentally. After all, the Kingdom of Heaven is the comprehension of the pure and eternal knowledge of beings according to their logoi [abiding] in God. And the Kingdom of God is the acquisition by grace of goods that are naturally characteristic of God. The first [is acquired] at the end of things, and the second [is acquired] mentally after this end. 91. The words: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2) do not mean, I think, a decrease in time. For [the Kingdom of God] will not come in a noticeable way; and they will not say: “Look, it is here” or: “Look, there” (Luke 17:20-21), but It depends on the [internal] connection with Him of the worthy, corresponding to their spiritual predisposition to this Kingdom. After all, the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). 92. The Kingdom of God and the Father potentially exists in all believers, but in reality It is only in those who have completely renounced the mental and physical disposition to all [manifestations] of life by nature, having acquired spiritual life for themselves, and who can say: And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20). 93. The Kingdom of Heaven, as some say, is the life of the worthy in heaven; others - that It is the equal angelic dispensation of those being saved; still others - that the very appearance of divine beauty of those who bear the image of heavenly things (1 Cor. 15:49). All three opinions, it seems to me, are true. For future grace is given to all, in proportion to the quality and quantity of righteousness in each. 94. If someone courageously and for a long time goes through the divine battles to the end according to active wisdom, then he comes into the world from the Father through [fulfilling] the commandments and retains [His] Word within himself. And when he, having revealed himself as a conqueror of the passions and demons, stops the struggle with them that takes place during [spiritual] work, and moves through contemplation to speculative wisdom, then [God] the Word allows him to leave the world and go to the Father. Therefore, the Lord says to the disciples: You loved Me and believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and came into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father (John 16:27–28). It is possible that the Lord here calls “peace” the hard work of virtues during [spiritual] work; “Father” is a premium state of mind, free from all material thoughts. According to this state, the Word of God is born in us, stopping the war against passions and demons. 95. The one who was able to mortify the earthly members through [spiritual] work (Col. 3:5) and overcome my passions in himself through [fulfilling] the commandments of the Word will not endure any sorrows. He has already left the world and found himself in Christ - the Conqueror of the world of passions and the Giver of all peace. For he who has not given up his attachment to material [things] will always be overcome by sorrows, for his consciousness changes simultaneously [with these things], which by nature are inherent in changing. And for those who are in Christ there will be no reason to feel any material change. Therefore the Lord says: These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world (John 16:33). In Me - that is, in the Word of virtue - you have peace; [you], freed from the disorderly movement and confusion of material passions and things. In the world - that is, in the addiction to material things. Sorrow is [that is, what arises] due to the constant change of these material things. After all, both the one who strives in virtues because of the labor associated with it, and the one who loves the [material] world due to the deception that material [things] [carry with them] are overcome with sorrow. But one sorrow is saving, and the other is corrupting and destructive. The Lord grants liberation to both: for one it is peace from the labors of virtues in oneself through dispassion in contemplation, for the other it is deliverance from addiction and attachment to pernicious [things] through repentance. 96. The inscription, which outlined the accusation brought against the Savior, clearly showed that the Lord is the King of active, natural and theological wisdom. For, as [St. John the Evangelist] says, it was written in Roman, Greek and Hebrew (John 19:20). I think that “in the Roman way” implies active [philosophy], for the Roman kingdom, as defined by [the prophet] Daniel (Dan. 2:36-45), is the most courageous of all earthly kingdoms, and courage, more than anything else, is characteristic of active [philosophy]. And “in Greek” [means] natural contemplation, for, in comparison with other peoples, the Hellenes devoted themselves more than others to natural wisdom. Finally, “in Hebrew” means theological mystery, since this people from their ancestors from the beginning clearly devoted [themselves to serving] God. 97. We should not only mortify bodily passions, but also kill passionate thoughts in the soul, according to the words of the saint [David]: In the morning I slew all the sinners of the earth, to destroy from the city of the Lord all those who practice iniquity (Ps. 100:8) - that is, to kill bodily passions and lawless thoughts of the soul. 98. Whoever follows the path of virtues immaculately and unswervingly with pious and right knowledge will see, thanks to dispassion, the coming of God to him. After all, I sing and understand the blameless way when you come to me (Ps. 100:2). For “song” here means virtuous deeds, and “understanding” means speculative knowledge corresponding to the virtues. In accordance with this knowledge, the one who, being vigilant in virtues, awaits his Lord, perceives the Divine Coming. 99. A beginner in fulfilling the commandments should not be guided by kindness alone, but, remembering the divine commandments, with [ascetic] severity, acquire for himself an abundance of [spirituality], and thanks to this, not only ardently love the Divine, but also with the fear of [God] abstain from evil. After all, I will sing to You of mercy and judgment, O Lord (Ps. 100:1), so that he who is delighted by the longing of love for God may sing [Him], and he who is brought into silence by the fear [of God] may also have the courage to sing [Him]. 100. He who brought body and soul into harmony through beneficence and knowledge became the lyre, the flute and the church of God. Kifaroi - as one who correctly observes the harmony of virtues; flute - as perceiving, through divine speculation, the inhalation of the [Holy] Spirit; a church - as having become, due to purity of mind, the dwelling place of the Word [of God]. Various theological and economic chapters, and on virtue and vice 1. One super-beginning and super-essential Good - the Holy Trinitarian Unit, Father and Son and Holy Spirit; the boundless unity of the Three Boundless Ones. The meaning and image of existence [of the Holy Trinity], what and what It is, is completely inaccessible to those who exist. For She eludes all thinking of those who think, in no way emerges from Her hidden natural essence and extends infinitely beyond the boundaries of all knowledge of all knowledge. 2. That which in essence is true Good is neither the Beginning, nor the End, nor the Cause of being; It does not possess in existence any movement towards the Cause. And that which does not possess all this is not, in the true sense of the word, the Existing One, which has a Beginning, an End, and a Cause of Being, and has a certain movement towards the Cause. 3. If the Word precedes the creation of beings, then there was not, is not and will not be a word that is higher than this Word. It is not devoid of mind or life, but has mind and life, since it has a Mind that gives birth to It, existing in an essential way, that is, the Father, and Life, that is, the Holy Spirit, [also] existing in an essential way and co-existing with Him. 4. One God, one Son, Parent, Father, and one Holy Spirit, Source; The unfused Unit and the undivided Trinity; Mind without beginning, unique and essentially [existent] Parent of the unique and beginningless Word; The source of the only and eternal Life, that is, the Holy Spirit. 5. There is one God because there is one Divinity. The unit is beginningless, super-essential, indivisible and indivisible. The same One and Trinity, and so on. 6. If every participation is comprehended by thought before those participating, then it is self-evident and obvious that the Cause of these beings, existing and conceived before them, is incomparably and in every way superior to all existing ones. [However, this relation cannot be understood] as [the relation of] essence to accidents, since in this case the Divinity will appear complex and possessing the existence of existing beings as an addition to its own Existence. [This relation is more likely to exist. should be understood] as the relation of the Superessential to the essence. After all, if the arts [themselves] seek the external forms of those [creations] that are [born] by them, and the general nature [itself seeks] the species [of beings] included in it, then all the more God, as the Superexistent, brought into being the essences of those that exist from those that do not, and by virtue of the position of [His] Superessence, He is even more infinitely superior [to everything]. For God combined skill with art to discover the external forms [of creation], He gave nature the energy that produces species, and established the very existence of beings as it is. 7. He, who in essence does not allow beings to participate in Himself, deigns to participate in Him in another way by those who are able to do this, but [Himself] does not at all emerge from [His] essential Hiddenness, since the way in which He deigns to participate [with Him] always remains closed to everyone. Consequently, just as God deigns to participate [in Himself] in a way that He [alone] knows, so He also by His will brought into being the participating [creatures] in accordance with the logos comprehended only by Him, and through the overwhelming power of [His] Goodness. Therefore, what arose thanks to the will of the Creator can never be coeternal with Him who deigned to bring it into existence. 8. The Word of God, once born according to the flesh, because of His love for mankind, always desires to be born according to the Spirit in those who desire [it]. And becoming a fetus, It forms Itself in them through virtues, revealing itself as much as the one who receives [It] can contain; It does not belittle with envy the manifestation of its own Greatness, but, seeing the strength of those who thirst [for Him], it measures it to them in due measure. Thus, the Word of God is always revealed in the ways [of the implementation of virtues] among [people] who participate in [It], and always remains invisible to everyone due to the abundance of [Its] mystery. Therefore, the divine Apostle, wisely contemplating the power of [this] sacrament, says: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8). And the mind comprehends and sees the eternal newness of this sacrament, which never grows old. 9 . Christ God is born, becoming man through the addition of flesh possessing a rational soul; He who brought existing [things] into being from non-existence and Whom the Virgin gives birth to in a supernatural way, without dissolving a single evidence of [His] virginity. For just as He Himself became a man, without changing his nature and strength, so He makes [His] Mother give birth and preserves Her as a Virgin, as a result of which one miracle is explained by another, and each of [these] miracles is hidden in another. Since God Himself and in His essence is eternally a Mystery, He emerges from His natural Hiddenness to the extent that It becomes more and more hidden through manifestation. And again, He makes the giving birth Mother a Virgin to the extent that [Her] bearing the Fruit in the womb becomes an indissoluble bond of virginity. 10. Natures are renewed, and God becomes man; and not only the Divine [nature], stable and motionless, moves towards [nature] movable and impermanent, so that it ceases to be carried away [by decay]; and not only human [nature], seedlessly and in a supernatural way, grows perfect flesh for the Word, in order to stop being carried away [by corruption]; but also a star that appeared from the east during the day and led the Magi to the place of the Incarnation of the Word, in order to mysteriously show this Word, conquering the feeling, [speaking] in the law and the prophets and leading the peoples to the greatest light of knowledge. For the Word, which is in the law and the prophets, godly contemplated in the likeness of a star, clearly leads to the knowledge of the incarnate Word of those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28) by the power of grace. 11. Since I, a man, of my own free will, transgressed the divine commandment, and the devil, seducing [me] with the hope of being a deity, carried away the strength of my nature to pleasures, which he boasted of as the organizer of death, rejoicing in the corruption of nature, so God becomes a man, not neglecting anything from [human] nature, with the exception of sin, for this sin does not belong to nature. [And this is so] that the flesh, seduced by the offer [of the devil], she poisoned the insatiable dragon, [constantly] greedily devouring her, and, having become poison for him, would have completely destroyed him by the power of the Divinity [residing] in her. And for human nature [this flesh of the Lord would become] a Guardian, the power of the Divine, [residing] in it, calling for original grace. For just as the devil, pouring the poison of his evil into the tree of knowledge, destroyed the [human] nature that ate [from this tree], so he himself, desiring to taste the flesh of the Master, was destroyed by the power of the Divinity in it. 12. The great mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine always remains a mystery. And not only because, being revealed in proportion to the strength of those saved by Him, it has greater power than what was revealed, and is never accessible to sight, but also because this very manifestation [of the mystery] still remains completely hidden and unknowable by any reason. And let what has been said not seem incredible to anyone. For God, being super-essential and surpassing all super-essence, desired to come to essence and in a super-essential manner clothed himself in being. Therefore, He, as a Lover of Mankind, for the sake of people, truly became a man from human essence and remains, regarding the method of His Incarnation, completely unmanifested; for He became man above man. 13. Let us consider with faith the mystery of the Divine Incarnation and only in [heartfelt] simplicity let us glorify Him who deigned to become human for our sake. For who, relying on the power of logical proof, can say how the conception of God the Word occurs? How does flesh come into being without [male] seed? How could there be a birth without corruption? How did the Mother [of God] remain a Virgin even after being delivered from her burden? How did the Superperfect succeed as he matured? How was the Pure One baptized? How did [Himself] the Hungering One satisfy [others]? How did the Weary One give [others] strength? How did the Sufferer heal? How did the Dead give life? And finally, most importantly: how does God become a man? And the most mysterious [of all]: how did the Word, by hypostasis, essentially abide in the flesh, being all wholly in essence and hypostatically in the Father? How is it that the same One is both wholly God by nature, and wholly became man by nature, without completely denying either of these natures - neither the Divine nature, according to which He is God, nor our nature, according to which He became man? These sacraments are contained in faith alone, being the realization of things (Heb. 11:1) that surpass mind and understanding. 14. Adam, by his disobedience, taught that the existence of [human] nature begins with pleasure; The Lord expelled this [property] of nature and did not allow conception from [male] seed. The woman, having violated the commandment, showed that the birth of [human] nature begins with torment; The Lord, having been born [of the Virgin], shook off this [property of] nature and did not agree that She who gave birth [to Him] should be subject to corruption. [And this in order] to expel from nature both voluntary pleasure and the torment resulting from this pleasure, of which He was not the creator, but became the Destroyer. And also in order to teach about the beginning of another life, perhaps having its origin in torment and labor, but ending in divine pleasure and boundless joy. Therefore, He, who created man, becomes man and is born as a man in order to save man, healing the passions with [His] suffering, and so that, Himself being a Passion, He may turn into the [Destroyer] of our passions. And therefore, He supernaturally, through His hardships in the flesh, lovingly renews our skills in the spirit. 15. Whoever, by attraction to God, has overcome the predisposition of the soul to the body, has become unlimited, although he is in the body. For God, being incomparably above everything, attracts [to Himself] the desire of the one who thirsts [for Him], not allowing this desire to be nailed to anything that is after God. So, let us desire God with all the strength of our nature, let us make our will unenslaved by everything corporeal, let us stand in our spiritual disposition above the existing, sensible and intelligible, and absolutely not allow natural limitation to cause damage to the unlimited by nature, when by force of will [we strive] to cohabit with God. 16. The grave suffering of the saints is the arena of the struggle between envy and virtue: envy, in order to overcome, persists, but virtue, in order to remain unconquered, endures everything. And envy fights so that vice can flourish through the punishment of those who succeed in virtue, and virtue fights so that good people persevere, even in grave troubles and suffering. 17. The feat of virtue is a constant struggle in labor, and to those who courageously endure it, it brings a victorious crown - dispassion of the soul, thanks to which it, having united with God with love, in its internal disposition moves away from the body and the world. For bodily torment strengthens the soul of the steadfast. 18. Initially stolen by the charm of pleasure, we preferred death to truly existing life. And therefore, with thanksgiving we bear bodily labor, which mortifies this pleasure, so that, by its very death, having abolished death along with it, we may receive back the life that has returned to us, [once] sold to pleasure, and [now] redeemed by the small labors of the flesh. 19. If the flesh prospers, then the power of sin usually increases. And therefore it is clear that when the flesh suffers, virtue naturally tends to increase. And we must endure the suffering of the flesh with courage, for it cleanses the defilement of the soul and secures future glory. For the sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). 20. Doctors do not heal the body by offering the same medicine to everyone, and God does not heal illnesses of the soul with only one method of healing, suitable for everyone, but makes [people] healthy, using a medicine appropriate for each individual. And we who are healed will give thanks [to Him], even if we happen to suffer torment, for blessed is the final goal [of healing]. 21. Nothing exposes the inner disposition of the soul more than an increase in carnal suffering. For if she succumbs to them, then she shows herself to love the flesh more than God, and if she remains unshakable in their shocks, then she shows herself to honor virtue more than the flesh. Thanks to this, the soul perceives the indwelling of God, Who for its sake endured our suffering and Who [victoriously] proclaims to [it], as He once proclaimed to [His] disciples: Take courage: I have overcome the world (John 16:33). 22. If all the saints were partakers of educational punishment, then we, who were brought up together with them, will give thanks [to God], so that we may be worthy to become partakers of their glory. For the Lord punishes whomever he loves; he beats every son whom he receives (Heb. 12:6; Prov. 3:11-12). 23. Adam, having accepted the pleasure offered [to him] by his side, drove humanity out of paradise, and Christ, by torment [from the wounds inflicted by] the spear, cut this pleasure and brought the thief inside paradise. Let us also love the torment of the flesh and hate its pleasure. For torment introduces and restores us to [divine] blessings, and pleasure leads us out and removes us from them. 24. If God, who became man, suffers in the flesh, then will not the sufferer rejoice, having God as a Partaker in the suffering? For [God] provides the Kingdom [of Heaven] to those with compassion. [The Apostle] speaks the truth: If only we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:17). 25. If we must certainly suffer, as a result of the pleasure mixed in by our forefathers with [human] nature, then we will courageously endure temporary suffering, dulling the sting of pleasure in us and freeing us from the eternal torment that it entails. Our Reverend Father Maximus the Confessor to a certain lover of Christ, interpretation of the prayer “Our Father” Blessed David, realizing that fear, primarily of other feelings, is part of the love of God, says: The fear of the Lord is pure, abiding forever (Ps. 19:10); It is obvious that he distinguishes this fear from another, that is, from the fear of punishment for sins, since this latter, with the advent of love, is driven out of the heart and completely disappears, as the great Evangelist John testifies to this in one place in his epistles, saying: Love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). And this fear, on the contrary, naturally inscribes in the heart the law of true love, forever preserving incorruptible among holy people, through reverent shame, their love for God and for each other, which they observe as a sacred institution and as a way of life. Thus, as was said above, I, having mixed my fear with attraction to my Master, am to this day governed by this law of love: respectful fear of him forbids me to write, so as not to give way to neglect, and affection for him, on the contrary, prompts me to write so that a decisive refusal to write would not be explained by hatred. And I write, not guided by my own understanding, for, as the Scripture says: For the thoughts of mortals are fearful (Wisdom 9:14), but only insofar as God, by His grace, gives [me understanding] for the benefit of [the readers]. The counsel of the Lord, says David, endures forever, the thoughts of His heart to generation and generation (Ps. 32:11). Here, it seems, by the advice of God the Father is meant the ineffable exhaustion, which determines the end of all ages, of the Only Begotten Son for the deification of our nature. By “the thoughts of His heart” are meant the logoi of Providence and Judgment, according to which the Lord wisely controls both our present and future lives, like different tribes, differently applying to each the appropriate mode of action. If the work of God’s council is to deify our nature, and the intention of God’s thoughts is to fully realize the sought-after goal of our life, then, of course, it is useful to understand the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer and fulfill [the requirements contained in it]. Therefore, [an explanation of the Lord's Prayer] written properly is also useful. And since my Master, in his letter to me, his servant, mentioned, at the inspiration of God, about this Prayer, then, beginning my reasoning about it, I pray to the Lord, the Teacher of this Prayer, to open my mind to comprehend the secrets hidden in it and give me the appropriate word to explain them. For this Prayer contains in itself all the indicated intention [of God], secretly hidden in a summary, or, better said, contains the meaning of [everything] that is preached to the strong [in spirit]. After all, the exhausted Word of God, the Self-perfecter of everything through His flesh, in the words of this Prayer gives us a petition, teaching [us] to assimilate those benefits that God the Father alone truly gives, [acting] through the Son - by the nature of the Mediator in the Holy Spirit. And since, according to the words of the divine Apostle, the Mediator between God and people is the Lord Jesus, He reveals to people through His flesh the unknown Father, and through the Spirit brings in Himself reconciled people to the Father, for whom and for whose sake He immutably became man; He becomes the Self-Accomplisher and Teacher of new secrets, of which there are so many that the mind cannot comprehend either their number or greatness. Among them, He gave people, out of [His] abundance of generosity, the seven most important ones, the meaning of which, as I said, lies intimately in the content of this Prayer. These mysteries are: theology, adoption by grace, equality of [people] with the Angels, participation in eternal life, restoration of [human] nature to its original dispassionate state, overthrow of the law of sin and the overthrow of the evil one, who, through deception, subjected us to his tyrannical dominion. Now let's check what was said. Theology is taught by the incarnate Word of God, showing in Himself the Father and the Holy Spirit, because the whole Father and the whole Holy Spirit dwelt essentially and perfectly in the whole incarnate Son, not being incarnate themselves, but one favoring, and the other assisting in the Incarnation the self-acting Son. The Word remained rational and alive, not comprehended by anyone else in essence except the Father and the Spirit alone, and hypostatically united through [His] love for mankind with flesh. Adoption is given [to people by the Son of God], giving them a supernatural and grace-filled birth from above through the Holy Spirit. The preservation and observance of sonship in God depends on the free will of those regenerated: they, with their sincere inner disposition, accept the beauty bestowed by grace, and through the exhaustion of passions they assimilate the Divinity to the extent that the Word of God, according to the Economy of our salvation, by will diminished Himself in His pure glory, becoming true Man. Equality with the Angels was given to people [by the Word of God] not only by reconciling everything to Himself, pacifying through Himself, through the Blood of His cross, both earthly and heavenly (Col. 1:20), and abolishing the hostile forces that fill the middle place between heaven and earth; during the distribution of divine gifts, It arranged one [common] celebration for the earthly and heavenly powers, when human nature, having the same will with the heavenly powers, together with them rejoicingly sang the glory of God - but also because, in fulfillment of the Economy of our salvation, It united heaven and earth with Itself, ascending together with the body received [on earth] [to heaven]; It united the intelligible with the sensible, and also showed the unity of the extreme parts of the created nature, internally connected by virtue and knowledge of the First Cause, and showed this, I think, in a mysterious way through what He accomplished. For reason is the unity of what is divided, and unreason is the division of what is united. So, let us learn to acquire reason for ourselves through doing, so that we can not only unite with the Angels through virtue, but also unite with God [Himself] through knowledge of [Him] and detachment from [all created] things. And [God the Word] gives divine life through the fact that He gives Himself as food [to the faithful] in a manner known to Him alone. Those who have received such a spiritual sensation from Him, through eating this food, can truly know how good the Lord is (Ps. 33:9), Who, for the sake of the deification of those who eat, assimilates [His] divine property to them, since He clearly exists and is [rightly] called the Bread of Life and Strength (John 6:48). Nature [human] in its original form [the incarnate Word] restores not only by the fact that, having become Man, He preserved the will free from passions and not prone to rebellion, which did not shake in its natural basis against the crucifiers themselves, but, on the contrary, chose death for them instead of life. From this humane disposition of the Suffering One [towards the crucifiers] it is clear that He suffered voluntarily. However, [the Lord recreated human nature in its original purity] also by the fact that, having abolished enmity, he nailed to the cross the handwriting (Col. 2:14) of sin, as a result of which this nature waged an irreconcilable struggle against itself; calling those who were far and near, that is, those who were under the law and those who were outside the law, and destroying the barrier that stood in the middle, abolishing the enmity of His Flesh, and the law of commandments by teaching, in order to create from the two in Himself one new man, establishing peace (Eph. 2:14-15), reconciling us through Himself with the Father and with each other. And at the same time, we no longer have a will that opposes the logos of nature, but both by nature and by [free will] we remain unchanged. And [God of the Word] makes [human] nature pure from the law of sin (Rom. 7:23,25,8:2) by the fact that He did not allow His Incarnation to be preceded for our sake by carnal pleasure. For His conception in an incredible way was without a family, and His birth in a supernatural way was incorruptible, since the born God by [His] very birth strengthened [in the bowels of] His Mother the bonds of virginity, surpassing nature. And all nature [human], in the person of those who desire this and imitate His voluntary death through the killing of their earthly members (Col. 3:5), He freed from the power of the law [sin] dominating [him]. For the sacrament of salvation [is given to] those who voluntarily thirst for it, and not to those who are forcibly attracted. [God the Word] overthrew the tyrannical power of the evil one, who subjugated us by deceit, by putting up against him as a weapon the flesh defeated in Adam, and defeating [it]. And this in order to show that the flesh, previously captured by death, captured the one who captured [it], and by its natural death destroyed his life and became poison for him, so that he would vomit all whom he was able to devour, as having power over death (Heb. 2:14). And for the human race, this flesh became life, raising all [human] nature, like leavened dough, to the resurrection of life, for which purpose God the Word himself became Man - a truly strange and unheard of thing - and voluntarily accepted carnal death. The content of the Lord's Prayer, as I have already said, contains a prayer for all this. Thus [Prayer] speaks about [God] the Father, about the name of the Father and about [His] Kingdom. Moreover, it shows that he who prays is a son of this Father by grace; demands unity of will for heavenly and earthly beings and commands them to ask for their daily bread. It legitimizes the reconciliation of people [with each other], by their mutual compliance it binds together [human] nature, which is not divided by differences of will [in individuals]. She teaches to pray so as not to fall into temptation, that is, into the law of sin, and also admonishes [to pray] to get rid of the evil one. For it is necessary that the Self-Performer and Dispenser of good things should be at the same time a Teacher for those who believe in Him - His disciples, and that He should give to those who imitate His life according to the flesh, as a guarantee of [eternal] life, the words of this Prayer, with which He showed the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3), existing in Him in a visible way, in order, without a doubt, to arouse in those who pray the desire to enjoy them. Scripture called this teaching “prayer” because, I think, it contains asking God for the gifts that He bestows on people by grace. For our God-inspired fathers define prayer this way: prayer is asking for what God, in His own way, usually gives to people. And prayer is defined as a promise or vow that people who serve God sincerely bring to Him. This is repeatedly confirmed by Scripture in its own words, such as: Pray and give thanks to the Lord our God (Ps. 75:12). And one more thing: what I promised, I will bring for my salvation to You, the Lord (John 2:10) - this is said about prayer. On the other hand, [Scripture says] as, for example, And Anna prayed to the Lord, saying: Adonai, Lord Eloi of hosts, if you will hear your handmaid, and give me the fruit of your womb (1 Samuel 1:11). And again: And Hezekiah the king of Judah, and Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet, prayed before the Lord (2 Chronicles 32:20). Also: When you pray, say: Our Father who art in heaven! (Luke 11:2) - what was said to the disciples by the Lord [Himself]. So, prayer is keeping the commandments and fulfilling them with the will of the one praying, and prayer is asking the one who has kept [these commandments] [from God] to renew himself for good deeds. Or, better to say, prayer is a feat of virtue dedicated to God, who graciously accepts it; and prayer is a reward for a feat of virtue, given [to a person] by God with great joy. So, after it has been shown that this Prayer is a request for benefits from the incarnate Word and that it represents Him Himself as the Teacher of Prayer, let us dare to examine it carefully, clarifying through speculation, as far as possible, the meaning of each phrase. For the Word [of God] itself is wont to bestow the proper ability to understand the thought of the speaker: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. In these [words] the Lord teaches those praying that [prayer] should begin immediately with theology, and also initiates them into the mystery of the way of existence of the Creative Cause of all things, being Himself in essence this Cause. For the words of the Prayer reveal [to us] the Father, the Name of the Father and His Kingdom, so that from the very beginning [of the Prayer] we learn to honor the one Trinity, to call upon Her and to worship Her. For the Name of God the Father, which exists in an essential manner, is [His] Only Begotten Son. And the Kingdom of God the Father, which also exists in an essential manner, is the Holy Spirit. What Matthew calls here the Kingdom, another Evangelist called the Spirit, saying: Let Your Holy Spirit come and cleanse us. After all, the Father does not possess this Name as newly acquired, and we understand the Kingdom not as a dignity contemplated in Him, since He did not begin to be in order to become first the Father and then the King, but, the Ever-Bearing One, He is always both Father and King, having no beginning at all either for His being, or for becoming Father or King. If He is the Ever-present and is always both the Father and the King, then this means that both the Son and the Holy Spirit always essentially coexist with the Father. They naturally exist from Him and in Him in such a way that they transcend [all] reason and [all] reason. They did not begin to exist after Him and not according to the law of causality, since the connection [Them] has the ability to jointly manifest that of which it is the connection and is called, not allowing them to be considered as following One after the other. Therefore, having begun this Prayer, we learn to honor the Consubstantial and Pre-Existent Trinity as the creative Cause of our existence. At the same time, we learn to proclaim the grace of adoption in us, being worthy to call our Creator by nature Father by grace. And this is so that, experiencing reverent fear of the name of [our] Parent by grace, we would try to imprint in [our] life the features of the One who gave birth to us, sanctifying His name on earth, becoming like Him, revealing ourselves through the deeds of our children [Him], and glorifying with our thoughts and deeds the Self-performer of [our] adoption - by nature the Son of the Father. And we sanctify the name of our heavenly Father by grace when we mortify the lust attached to matter and cleanse ourselves from corrupting passions. For sanctification is complete immobility and mortification of sensual lust. Being in this state, we calm down the obscene howl of rage, no longer having lust that excites it, and also incites it to fight for its pleasures. And therefore, lust, thanks to holiness consistent with reason, is mortified in us. After all, rage, by its nature [of its own] carrying within itself retribution for lust, usually ceases to rage when it sees lust mortified. So, through the rejection of lust and rage, the power of the Kingdom of God the Father naturally comes to us, according to the Lord’s Prayer, when, after rejecting the passions, we are worthy to say: Thy kingdom come, that is, the Holy Spirit, and when we have already become, through this Spirit and thanks to the way of existence and the logos of meekness, churches of God. For [the Lord] says: To whom will I look? - only on the meek and silent and trembling at My words (Is. 66:2). From this it is clear that the Kingdom of God the Father belongs to the humble and meek. For it is said: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). God did not promise this earth as an inheritance to those who love Him, which by nature occupies a middle position in the universe. Revealing the truth to us, He says: For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but remain as the angels of God in heaven (Matthew 22:30). And again: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). And again in another place He said with thanksgiving to the worker: Enter into the joy of your master (Matthew 25:21). And after Him the divine Apostle says: For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:52). Also: Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17). So, if all this was promised in a similar way to those who love the Lord, then who, chaining his mind to only one saying of the Holy Scriptures, will begin to talk about the identity with the earth [on which we now live], Heaven and the Kingdom prepared from the creation of the World, and the Lord's mysteriously hidden joy, as well as the permanent and non-spatial residence and habitation of [people] worthy with the Lord? Who will say this if he is prompted by the Word [of God] and passionately longs to be His servant? Therefore, I think that “earth” here refers to the unshakable and unchanging habit, [inner] strength and steadfastness in the good of the meek, for they always abide with the Lord, have inexhaustible joy, adhere to the Kingdom prepared from the beginning, and are worthy of standing and rank in heaven. Such rational virtue is like a kind of earth occupying a middle position in the universe. Accordingly, the meek, being between praise and reproach, remains dispassionate, neither puffed up by praises nor embarrassed by reproaches. For the mind, having abandoned passion, no longer feels uneasy from attacks from that from which it is by nature free, since it has calmed within itself the storm caused by these [passions], and has transferred all the strength of its soul into the haven of divine and motionless freedom. Wanting to teach this freedom to His disciples, the Lord says: Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). The Lord here calls “peace” the power of the divine Kingdom, which creates in [the souls of people] worthy autocratic rule, alien to any slavery. If the indestructible power of the immaculate Kingdom is given to the humble and meek, then who will be so lazy and completely indifferent to the Divine blessings that he will not, with the utmost effort of strength, strive for humility and meekness in order to become, as far as humanly possible, an imprint of the Divine Kingdom, truly bearing within himself the great, by nature and essence, King Christ and becoming, by grace, an unchangeable image of [His] Spirit. In this image, says the divine Apostle, there is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28), that is, there is neither rage nor lust. After all, the first tyrannically steals the understanding and takes thought beyond the boundaries of the law of nature, and the second makes more desirable than the One and Only, the desired and dispassionate Cause [of all things] and the Nature [of this being], that which is lower than It, and therefore the flesh prefers to the spirit, makes the pleasure of the visible more pleasant than the glory and radiance of mental goods and the pleasantness of sensual pleasures keeps the mind from the divine and akin to [it] perception [things] intelligible. But [in this image there is only] one single mind, by the excess of virtue, exposed even from the most completely dispassionate, but still natural, love and inclination towards the body, since the Spirit finally conquers nature and forces [the mind] to no longer engage in moral wisdom, for it [already] should unite with the Word that exceeds the essence through simple and indivisible contemplation. However, it is natural for [the mind] to facilitate the easy dissection of the temporary flow of existence and the transition [through it]. And after passing through temporary [being], it is indecent for the mind to burden itself, as if with mercy, with moral concerns, since it was no longer under the power of the sensory. The great Elijah clearly shows this, typifying such a sacrament by what he did. Namely: during his rapture [to heaven] a mantle, signifying the mortification of the flesh and containing the splendor of moral decency, he gave to Elisha to assist the Spirit in the fight against every hostile force and to defeat the fickle and fluid nature, the image of which was Jordan, so that the disciple would not be deterred from crossing into the Holy Land, plunging into a dirty and slippery addiction to material things. And [Elijah] himself, marching towards God completely free, not held back by any connection with existence and possessing a simple aspiration and an uncomplicated will, ascends to the Simple by nature [God] through interconnected, universal and connected by knowledge one with another virtues, as if making his way on fiery horses. For he knew that a disciple of Christ should not have unequal spiritual dispositions, since their difference exposes alienation [from Christ]. If the excitement of lust dissolves the spirit located near the heart, then rage generates boiling of the blood. Therefore, Elijah, as one who anticipates life in Christ, moved and existing [by Him] (Acts 17:28), eliminated from himself the unnatural source [of passions], not carrying in himself, as I said, opposite, like the male and female sex, predispositions of these passions. And this is so that the mind, which is endowed by nature itself with honoring the divine image, is not enslaved by them, changing from their unstable changes, convincing the soul to recreate itself, of its own free will, to become like God and become the bright dwelling of the great Kingdom, that is, the Holy Spirit - [the Kingdom], which essentially exists together with God and the Father of all [creatures]. [Such a person] receives, if I may say so, the full power of knowledge of the Divine nature, as far as this is possible for him. By virtue of this [Knowledge of God], the soul tends to renounce the worst and become better, if only it, like God, preserves within itself, by the grace of vocation, the unspoiled essence of the given blessings. In such a soul, Christ always deigns to be mysteriously born, incarnated by those who are being saved, and He makes the giving birth soul a virgin mother. Therefore, due to [such] properties, it does not have in itself the signs of a nature that is under [the laws of] decay and birth, such as, for example, the signs of male and female. And let no one be surprised when they hear that corruption comes before birth. After all, having impartially and with sound understanding examined the nature of what is born and disappears, he will clearly see that birth begins with corruption and ends with corruption. Christ, that is, Christ’s and life and mind according to Christ, do not have the passionate properties of this birth. For truly says [the Apostle], pointing, without a doubt, to the signs and properties of nature, which is under [the laws of] corruption and generation: In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28), but there is only a godlike mind, created by divine knowledge, and a single movement of the will, choosing virtue alone. Also [in Christ Jesus] there is no longer Jew or Gentile - [these words] denote a different, or, more precisely, opposite way of thinking about God. For one [way of thinking about God], namely the Hellenic one, foolishly introduces [the idea of] multiplicity, divides the one Principle into opposing actions and forces, invents polytheistic veneration, which, due to the multitude of worshiped [gods], brings discord and disgraces itself in different ways of worship. And the other, that is, the Jewish way of thinking about God, although [teaches] about one Beginning, but [represents Him] as narrow, imperfect and almost non-existent, devoid of Word and Life - and through this opposite extreme it falls into evil equal to the previous teaching, that is, into atheism. For he limits the single Principle to the Person alone, existing either [completely] without the Word and the Spirit, or possessing the Word and the Spirit as properties. [This teaching] does not notice that God, devoid of [the Word and the Spirit], is no longer God. For he will not be God who is endowed with [the Word and the Spirit] as random properties by participation, like rational [created beings] who are [under the laws of] birth. Both of these [doctrines about God] are absent in Christ, for [in Him there exist] the only teaching of true piety and the unshakable law of mysterious theology, which reject the expansion of the Divine in the first teaching and do not accept His contraction in the second. After all, the Divinity should not be represented, by virtue of Its natural plurality, as being in internal discord [with Itself] - which is a Hellenic [delusion]; It should not be presented, because of its unity, as subject to suffering, being deprived of the Word and the Spirit or endowed with the Word and the Spirit as accidental properties - this is a Jewish [delusion]. [Therefore, the law of sacramental theology] teaches us, through the calling of grace of those adopted by faith to the knowledge of the truth, to comprehend the one nature and power of the Divine, namely, the One God, contemplated in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is, [to cognize] the only and causeless Mind, which abides in an essential way and is the Parent of the only Word, existing without beginning in essence, [and also to cognize] the Source of the one ever-present Life, which abides in an essential way as the Holy Spirit. [One should recognize] the Trinity in the Unity and the Unity in the Trinity; not one in the other, because the Trinity is not for the Unit what a random property is for the essence, and the Unit is not in the Trinity, for it is without quality; and not as one and the other, because the Unity is not distinguished from the Trinity by the otherness of its nature, being a simple and united Nature; and not as one along with the other, because it is not by weakening of power that the Trinity differs from the Unity, or the Unity from the Trinity; and not as something general and generic, contemplated by thought alone, does the Unit differ from the Trinity, [for the Divine] essence is truly Self-existent, and the [Divine] power is truly self-powerful; and not as one through the other, for that which is completely identical and irrespective is not mediated by a connection, like the connection of an effect with a cause; and not as one from the other, for the Trinity, being unbegotten and self-manifested, does not come from the Unit by creation. But we think and speak [about God], Who truly is both Unity and Trinity; He is a Unit due to the logos of His essence and a Trinity due to the image of [His] existence. [We confess] the whole same Unit, undivided by Hypostases; and the entire same Trinity, not fused by the Unity, so that polytheism would not be introduced by division or atheism by merging, and, avoiding these [two extremes], the teaching of Christ shines with all light. By the teaching of Christ I mean the new preaching of truth, in which there is no male or female sex, that is, there are no signs of the weakness of nature, which stands under the [law of] corruption and birth; there is no longer Jew or pagan, that is, there are no opposing teachings about the Divine; there is no circumcision or uncircumcision, that is, there are no ministries corresponding to these [teachings]; for one of them - the Jewish ministry - through the symbols of the law condemns the visible creation and slanderes the Creator as the Creator of evil, and the other - the pagan ministry - idolizes the creation for the sake of satisfying passions and restores this [creation] against the Creator: in a similar way, both ministries lead to the same evil - blasphemy; there is no barbarian, no Scythian, that is, there is no division of a single [human] nature, rebelling against itself of its own free will, as a result of which, contrary to nature, the destructive law of mutual murder invaded humanity; there is neither slave nor free, that is, there is no division of [human] nature that goes against the will, which makes dishonorable those who are equally honorable by nature and has as its assistant the law, reflecting the way of thinking of those in power and tyrannically trampling on the dignity of the image [of God]; but Christ is all and in all, through that which is above nature and law, creating in the Spirit the image of the beginningless Kingdom - and this image, as was indicated, is inscribed [in the soul] by humility of heart and meekness, the combination of which indicates a person perfect in Christ (Col. 1:28). After all, everyone who is humble in wisdom is, without a doubt, meek, and everyone who is meek is, without a doubt, also humble in wisdom. He is humble because he has learned that he has a borrowed existence, and he is meek because he has learned the [correct] use of the powers given to him by nature. By forcing these [natural forces] to serve the mind for the birth of virtue, he completely distracts their energy from sensory sensations. As a result, in the mind he always moves towards God, but in feeling he is completely motionless, not perceiving the experience of everything that causes sadness to the body, and not drawing a trace of sadness in the soul instead of the joy [reigning] in it. For he does not look at the absence of pleasure as a felt pain, because he knows only one pleasure - the cohabitation of the soul with the Word; deprivation of this [pleasure for him] is endless torment, spreading to eternity. Therefore, leaving the body and the corporeal, he rushes towards Divine coexistence; even if he had dominion over everyone living on earth, even then he considered only one thing to be [genuine] deprivation - the unattainability of the expected deification by grace. So, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), so that, having quenched the lust that absurdly flirts with the passions, we sanctify the Divine Name, and let us bind with our minds the rage driven into frenzy by pleasures, so that, having become meek, we accept the coming Kingdom of God the Father. Let us add the following to the previous words of the Prayer: Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth. Whoever mysteriously brings service to God with one rational power, [his own], detached from lust and rage, he on earth, like the ranks of angels in heaven, fulfills the will of God. [He has already] become a co-servant and cohabitant of the Angels, as the great Apostle says: But our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). Such [people] have neither lust, which relaxes the tension of the mind with pleasure, nor rage, which rages and shamelessly barks at what is related to itself. There remains only one single mind in them, which naturally leads rational beings to the first Mind. This is the only thing God rejoices in and this is the only thing He demands from us, His servants. This is revealed in His words to David: What [exists] for me in heaven? And without You, what do I want on earth? (Ps. 73:25). But the holy Angels in heaven bring nothing to God except reasonable service. Desiring the same from us, [the Lord] teaches those who pray to say: Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth. So let our minds rush to the search for God, and let the power of desire become an attraction to Him, just as let the fierce beginning enter into the struggle to preserve Him. Or, more precisely, let [our] whole mind extend to God, prompted, as if by a certain voice, by the tension of passion and inflamed by the utmost impulse of the power of desire. Imitating in this way the heavenly Angels, we will always be servants of God and on earth we will demonstrate an equal life with the Angels, and therefore, along with the Angels, we will have a mind completely indifferent to what is lower than God. Living in this way, through Prayer we will find, as our daily bread, life-giving and satiating our souls to preserve the strength of the blessings given to us, [the] Word itself, who spoke: I am the bread of life that came down from heaven, giving life to the world (John 6:33, 35-38). This Word becomes everything, proportionate to us, saturated with virtue and wisdom, and is embodied in various ways, as soon as He Himself knows, for the sake of each of those who are saved. [Let us accept Him], while still living in this age, according to the meaning of the following saying of the Prayer: Give us this day our daily bread. The word “today,” I think, means the present age. Or, to interpret this passage of the Prayer more clearly, we can say: give us our bread, which You prepared in the beginning for the immortality of [human] nature, today, in this mortal life, so that the eating of the bread of life and knowledge will overcome sinful death - that bread, the communion of which was deprived by the crime of the Divine commandment by the first man. After all, if he had been satisfied with this Divine food, he would not have been taken captive by the death of sin. However, the one who prays to receive this daily bread does not receive it entirely as it is, but receives only as much as the recipient himself can [perceive it]. For the Bread of Life, as a Lover of Mankind, although He gives Himself to all who ask, does not give Himself equally to everyone: to those who have done great deeds He gives more, but to those who have done [deeds] less He gives less, that is, He gives to everyone as much as he can accept his spiritual dignity. The Savior Himself led me to this understanding of the present saying [of the Prayer], commanding [His] disciples not to worry at all about sensual food, telling them: Do not worry about your soul, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear (Matthew 6:25), because the people of this world seek all these things (Luke 12:30), [but you] seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and that is all. will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). How does [the Lord] teach in Prayer not to seek what He [Himself] previously commanded? - It is clear that in Prayer He did not order to ask for what He did not command in His commandment, for in Prayer we must ask for what we should seek according to the commandment. And what [the Lord] does not allow us to seek is unlawful to pray for. If the Savior commanded to seek one Kingdom of God and truth, then He encouraged those who seek Divine gifts to ask for the same thing in Prayer, so that, through this Prayer, having established the grace of those sought by nature, to unite and identify through relative unity the will of those asking with the desire of the Giver of grace. If Prayer commands us to ask for that everyday bread that naturally supports our present life, then this is so that we do not go beyond the boundaries of Prayer, covering whole periods of years in our thoughts, and do not forget that we are mortal and have [here] life, like a passing shadow, but so that, without being burdened by unnecessary worries, we ask in Prayer for bread for the day. And we will show that we wisely, according to Christ, turn [our earthly] life into a meditation on death, by our own will forestalling nature and, before death, cutting off the soul’s care for the body, so that it does not cleave to the corruptible and does not pervert [by attraction to] matter the natural use of [its] desire [for God], becoming accustomed to covetousness, which deprives the wealth of Divine blessings. So, let us avoid, as far as possible, love for matter and wash away, like dust, from [our] mental eyes the very connection with it; Let us be content only with what supports our life, and not with what gives it pleasure. Let us pray to God, as we have learned, so that our soul does not fall into slavery and not, for the sake of the body, fall under the yoke of visible [things]. Then it will be clear that we eat in order to live, and do not live in order to eat, since the first is characteristic of rational nature, and the second - of irrational nature. Let us be strict guardians of this Prayer, showing by our very deeds that we firmly adhere to one and only life - life in the Spirit, and to acquire it we use [our entire] real life. Let us prove in practice that for the sake of spiritual life we ​​only endure this [mortal life], supporting it with one bread and preserving it, as far as possible, in a healthy state only so that we do not [simply] live, but live for God, making the body, inspired by virtues, a messenger of the soul, and making the soul, distinguished by constancy in goodness, a preacher of God. And we will naturally limit this bread to [the needs of] one day, not daring to extend requests for it to another day out of [obedience] to the One who granted this Prayer. Therefore, having actively adjusted ourselves in accordance with the meaning of the Prayer, let us proceed in purity to the rest of the sayings, saying: And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors. Who, according to the understanding of the previous saying of the Prayer, in this age, which is symbolized, as we said, [by the word] “today,” seeks through Prayer the incorruptible Bread of Wisdom, [the eating of] which the original transgression [commandments] deprived us of; who recognizes only one pleasure - success in the Divine, the Giver of which by nature is God, and the guardian by choice is the free will of the recipient; who knows only grief - failure in this success, the inspirer of which is the devil, and the accomplisher is anyone who, due to weakened will, gets tired of the Divine and does not keep [this] treasure, which is held [in the soul by a loving] disposition of the will; whoever does not voluntarily gravitate towards visible things and therefore does not yield to the bodily sorrows that happen to him, truly forgives those who dispassionately sin against him. After all, no one can take away the good that he preserves within himself with love and care, for it, as verified by faith, is inalienable by nature. He appears before God as an example of virtue and, so to speak, calls on the Inimitable One to imitate himself, saying: forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; he prays to God to be what he himself was in relation to his neighbors. For if he wishes that God would forgive him in the same way as he himself forgave the debts of those who sinned against him, that just as God dispassionately forgives those whom he forgives, so he also forgives those who have sinned, remaining dispassionate to what happens to him, and therefore does not allow [his] mind to be imprinted with memories of previous sorrows, showing himself to be a person who is not separated from other people and does not dismember [the one] nature [human]. For when the will is united in this way with the logos of nature, then the reconciliation of God with [human] nature usually occurs, since it is impossible otherwise for nature, which voluntarily rebels against itself, to accept the ineffable condescension of the Divine. And, of course, the Lord desires our reconciliation with each other not in order to learn from us to reconcile with those who have sinned and agree to redress many and terrible grievances, but He desires this in order to cleanse us of passions and show that our state of mind is closely connected with grace. And it is clear that when the will has united with the logos of nature, the free will of the people who do this will no longer rebel against God. After all, there is nothing contrary to reason in the logos of nature, since it is both natural and Divine law, taking into itself the movement of the will acting in accordance with it. And if in the logos of nature there is no counter-reason, then it is quite natural that the will, moved in accordance with it, will act in everything in accordance with God. This is the active disposition of the soul, through the grace of the Good by nature [God] contributing to the birth of virtue. The one who asks for spiritual Bread in Prayer has this disposition, and after him the same disposition will be found by the one who, forced by the [needs of bodily] nature, asks only for everyday bread. Realizing himself to be mortal by nature, he leaves debts to debtors, and then, in view of the uncertainty [of the hour of death], every day he awaits the naturally inevitable and with his will warns nature, becoming a self-willed dead man for the world according to the words of [the Psalmist]: For your sake we are killed all day long, counted as sheep of the slaughter (Ps. 43:23). As a result of this, he is reconciled with everyone, so that, when he is presented to unfading life, he does not bring with him signs of the depravity of the present age and in order to receive from the Judge and Savior of all in equal recompense what he borrowed here [on earth]. For both of them need a [good] spiritual disposition towards those who grieve for their own benefit. And this is demonstrated by the following words of the Prayer: And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. With these words, Scripture shows that whoever has not completely reconciled with those who sinned [against him] and has not presented to God a heart pure from sorrow and enlightened by the light of reconciliation with neighbors, he will not only not receive the grace of those benefits for which he prayed, but will also be handed over by righteous judgment to temptation and the evil one, so that he can learn to be cleansed of sins, eliminating his complaints against others. The law of sin is called temptation - the first man brought into being [by God] did not have it, and by “the evil one” is meant the devil, who mixed this [law] into human nature and deceived a person into directing [all] the aspirations of [his] soul to the unlawful instead of the permitted, and thereby inclined to violate the Divine commandment, as a result of which he lost the incorruptibility given to him by grace. Or in other words: “temptation” is the voluntary disposition of the soul towards carnal passions, and “evil” is the way of actively fulfilling the passionate mood of the soul. No righteous Judge will deliver from them the one who did not forgive debts to [his] debtors, but only asked for it in prayer. Such [a person], cruel and harsh in heart, [the Lord] allows to be defiled by the law of sin and leaves him in the power of the evil one, since he preferred the passions of dishonor, the seeds of which are sown by the devil, to nature, the Creator of which is God [Himself]. And indeed, [the Lord] does not hinder him when he is willingly inclined towards carnal passions, and does not deliver him from the [many different] ways of actively realizing the passionate moods of the soul, since, considering nature lower than passions that do not have independent existence, he, as a result of caring for these passions, did not know the logos of nature. And [man] must learn what the law of nature is and what the tyranny of passions is, not naturally, but randomly invading him due to his free consent. And he must preserve this [law of nature], observing it in an activity consonant with nature, and expel the tyranny of passions from his will and [by the power of] reason preserve [immaculate] his nature, in itself pure, untainted and free from hatred and discord. Then he must make his will, which should not bring in anything that the logos of nature does not bestow, a companion to nature. And therefore he one should remove [from oneself] all hatred and all discord towards those close to him by nature, so that God would hear him when he says this Prayer, and instead of simple grace would give him double grace: forgiveness of past sins, and protection and deliverance from future ones; and so that he would not allow him to fall into temptation and become a slave of the evil one - [all this] for the sole reason that he readily forgives debts to his neighbors. Therefore, when we return, we will briefly repeat the essence of what was said. If we want to get rid of the evil one and not fall into temptation, let us believe in God and forgive the debts of our debtors. And if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins (Matthew 6:15). Then we will not only receive forgiveness of the sins we have committed, but we will also defeat the law of sin itself, [since the Lord] will not allow us to experience it, and we will trample on the parent of sin, the evil serpent, for whose deliverance we pray. And our Commander will be Christ, who has conquered the world; He equips us with the laws of the commandments, and in accordance with these laws, through the rejection of passions and through love, he binds [human] nature together. As the Bread of life, wisdom, knowledge and truth, He draws to Himself our insatiable desire; in fulfillment of the Father's will, He makes us co-servants of the Angels, so that even in this life we, imitating [the Angels], demonstrate in our lives heavenly pleasing [God]. Then He raises us to the highest levels of the Divine, leading to [Him] the Father of lights (James 1:17) and makes us, through grace-filled communication with the [Holy] Spirit, partakers of the Divine nature, thanks to which we will all be called children of God without limitation and will most pure bear [within ourselves] the whole Son of God by nature - the very Perfecter of this grace, from Whom, through Whom and in Whom we have and will have being, and movement, and life. So, let the purpose of this Prayer be for us to contemplate the sacrament of deification, so that we may know in place of what and what the exhaustion through the flesh of the Only Begotten has made us, and also from where and where we, who have taken the lowest place in the universe, into which the weight of sin has cast us, [the Lord] has raised us up by the power of [His] humane hand. And let us love even more the One who so wisely prepared this salvation for us. Let us show by our deeds that this Prayer is fulfilled and we will be preachers of God, [our] true Father by grace. And let us not have the passions of dishonor, which show that we have the evil one as the father of our life, who always attempts to tyrannically control [human] nature. And we will not exchange life for death without noticing it. For each of them is in the habit of rewarding those who join him. One gives eternal life to those who love Him, and the other, through the instillation of voluntary temptations, brings about death in those who approach [him]. For temptations are, [as can be seen] from the Holy Scriptures, of two kinds: one kind is pleasant, and the other is painful; one is voluntary and the other is involuntary. The first of these is the parent of sin, and therefore we must pray so as not to be subject to it, according to the instruction of the Lord, who says: And lead us not into temptation and Watch and pray so as not to fall into temptation (Matthew 26:41). And the second [type of temptation], punishing love of sin by inducing involuntary suffering, is the punisher of sin. If anyone endures such [temptation], and if he is not nailed down by the nails of vice, he will hear the great James clearly crying: Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance; patience must have its perfect effect. Patience comes from experience (James 1:2-4; Rom.5:4). The evil one maliciously watches these and other temptations: voluntary and involuntary. In the case of the first, he, sowing seeds of bodily pleasures in the soul and irritating it with them, plots to distract it from the desire for Divine love. Temptations of the second kind he himself [sometimes] slyly asks for, wanting to destroy [human] nature with torments [and sorrows] and force the soul, exhausted in suffering, to raise its thoughts to enmity with the Creator. But we, knowing the plans of the evil one, abhor free temptation, so as not to distract our desire from Divine love; and we will courageously endure an involuntary [temptation] that happens by God’s permission, in order to show that we prefer the Creator of nature to nature [itself]. And let all of us who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ get rid of the present pleasures that come from the evil one, and avoid future torments, becoming partakers of the visible essence of future blessings, revealed to us in Christ our Lord Himself, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, glorified by all creatures. Amen. Paisiy Velichkovsky translated six of the seven Greek works. Philocalia; and, apparently, the 150 chapters of Gregory Palamas do not exist in Slavic. The Russian text is presented in translations by different authors. We have corrected the translation of “Three Chapters and Purity of Heart”, “Tomos of Saints” (at the very end), and significantly expanded the translation into Greek. and glory text of the letter “To the all-honorable nun Ksenia”, since Theophan the Recluse cut down his translation. The Holy and Beatitude Archbishop of Thessaloniki Gregory Palamas, to the all-honorable nun Xenia, about the passions and virtues and about the fruits born in the mind from mental silence For those who truly want to live a monastic life, it is uncomfortable (δυσάρεστη) not only to interact with many [people], but even to talk with like-minded people. For frequent conversation interrupts the delightful conversation with God and splits (σχίζει) the unity (ενιαίο) of the mind, in which the inner and true monk consists, in two, and sometimes into many parts (μέρη). For this reason, one of the fathers, when asked why he avoids people, replied that he cannot be with God by communicating with people. Another certain father, speaking about this from experience, argued that for those who practice silence, not only talking with many, but even one type of people can cause the destruction of a stable (σταθερότητα) peace (ηρεμίας) mind. If anyone examined carefully, he would discover that even the thought of approaching or waiting for someone’s visit and conversation deprives (αφήνει) of peace of mind (νοητικό) part (μέρος) of the soul. And whoever writes down words burdens the mind with even greater anxiety (μέριμνα). So, if he has succeeded in virtue (αρετή) and has achieved, due to the health of the soul, Divine love, then, although he has it active (ενεργητική) and when he writes, it will be an indirect and not true (γνήσιο) image (τρόπο). But if he is one of those who is still subject to many illnesses and spiritual passions, as I truly am, then he must constantly cry out to God: “Heal me, for I have sinned before You” (cf. Ps. 40:5), and it would be unwise for such a person, of his own free will, to leave prayer until [complete] healing in order to do something else. In addition, through writing there is a conversation with those who are absent, and sometimes what is written falls into the hands of those who should not read it, because letters usually outlive their writers. For this reason, many fathers who practiced silence did not want to write anything, although they could explain important and useful things. I share the caution of our fathers, having the habit of writing only when there is great need. Now I have completely lost the desire to write because of people looking at some of my writings with envious eyes and looking for a reason to harm me. Such people, according to the Great Dionysius, corrosively cling to meaningless (χωρίς νόημα) lines, lines, syllables and incomprehensible words that do not reach the rational part (μέρος) of their soul. This is truly absurd (παράλογο), malicious (κακό) and completely inconsistent with those who want to understand the Divine: to pay attention to [individual words], and not to listen to the meaning (έννοια) of the content. [Also] I know well that I was rightly criticized, not because my writings contradict the [teachings] of the fathers (by the grace of Christ I preserved it in my writings), but because I wrote about what I was not worthy to write, like the second Uzzah, wanting with a word to save the chariot of truth from destruction. Of course, the punishment I received from God was not a matter of anger, but of proportionate instruction. Thanks to which my opponents did not receive any benefit. And also, perhaps, because of my unworthiness. I was not worthy, as it seems to me, or was unable to suffer for the truth, and thus could not joyfully partake of the sufferings (παθημάτων) of the saints. Undoubtedly, was not [St. John] Chrysostom, who, while still clothed in the body, became one in heaven with the Church of the Firstborn, and who, like no one else, effectively, clearly and sweetly wrote words about piety, was he not excommunicated from the Church and sentenced to exile on charges of writing and interpreting (φρονούσε) the heresy (αίρεση) of Origen? And St. Peter, the eldest of the Lord's first disciples, said that illiterate and unstable people distorted complex passages in the epistles of St. Paul and, as a result, led themselves to destruction (cf. 2 Pet. 3:16). Due to the multitude of people attacking me, I decided to completely refrain from writing about anything, if you, venerable mother, had not incessantly asked me about this with letters and reminders through others, until you convinced me to take up this matter again, for the consolation and edification of those seeking salvation. For you yourself, no admonitions are required, because, by the grace of Christ, with old age you have acquired gray hairs of wisdom and the sacred commandments of the Gospel through long-term activity according to them, dividing your life between labors of obedience and silence, with which, having whitened the treasure of your soul, you made it capable of accepting divine marks and preserving them. But this matter is such that the soul, completely captivated by the love of spiritual teaching, never receives saturation with it. Why does wisdom say about itself: those who eat me will still hunger (Sir.24:23). And the Lord, who instills such a divine desire in the soul, speaks of Mary, who has chosen this good part, that it will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:42). You, however, perhaps need such writings both for the daughters of the great King, who live under your nurturing, and for the brides whom you are jealous of training with the immortal Bridegroom, Whom you, imitating, as He for our sake accepted our true form, now accept the face of beginners who demand teaching. Why am I, not as content to teach others, and moreover, to such teaching, but for the sake of obedience and commandments to give to those who ask, I will readily fulfill the duty of love for Christ, from what I have now. Word 2. About the fact that the soul, immortal by nature, has death Know, venerable mother, or better yet, let the young women who have chosen to live according to God know through you, that the soul also has death, although it is immortal by nature. So the beloved Theologian says: there is sin leading to death... and there is sin not leading to death (1 John 5:16-17), meaning here, of course, the death of the soul. And the great Paul says: worldly sorrow produces death (2 Cor. 7:10), of course, the death of the soul. And again: Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light (Eph. 5:14). From what dead does he call to rise? Of course, from those killed by carnal desires, which wage war on the soul (1 Peter 2:11). Why did the Lord call the living dead according to the spirit of this vain World, when He did not give permission to one of His disciples, who asked to go and bury his father, but commanded him to follow Him, leaving the dead to bury their dead. The Lord called those who were still living dead, of course, as dead in soul. What is this death? For just as the separation of the soul from the body is the death of the body, so the separation of God from the soul is the death of the soul. And this is mainly death, the death of the soul. God pointed to it, and when, giving the commandment in paradise, he said to Adam: on the day you eat from the forbidden tree, you will die (Gen. 2:17). For then his soul died, having been separated from God through a crime; in body he continued to live from that hour onwards until nine hundred and thirty years (Gen. 5:5). Word 3. About the fact that mental death becomes the cause of physical death But death, which arrived through crime, not only made the soul obscene and a person subject to oath, but also the body, having made it much painful and many-passionate, it finally gave over to death: for then, following the death of the inner man through crime, earthly Adam heard: cursed is the earth in your deeds... thorns and thistles will grow for you... in the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the land from which you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return (Gen. 3:17–19). Word 4. About the fact that spiritual death becomes the cause of eternal destruction If in this future rebirth, with the resurrection of the righteous, the bodies of the lawless and sinners will be resurrected, then only in order to be given up to the second death - eternal torment, the undying worm, the gnashing of teeth, pitch darkness, gloomy fiery unquenchable Gehenna, according to the word of the Prophet, who says: the lawless and sinners will be burned together, and no one will extinguish ( Isa.1:31). For this is the second death, as St. John by revelation. Listen to the great Paul, who says: if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if you put to death the deeds of the flesh in the Spirit, you will live (Rom. 8:13). He speaks about the life and death of those who will be in the next century, calling the pleasure of the eternal kingdom life, and death the eternal torment. Thus, the transgression of God’s commandment is the cause of all death, both for the soul and for the body, both that which happens in this age and that which will be the result of endless torment. And this is real death, when the soul is separated from divine grace and combined with sin. Those who have intelligence should avoid such death and be afraid. For those who think well, it is worse than the very torment of Gehenna. We will do our best to avoid it. Let's give up everything, let's leave everything, let's renounce everything in mutual relationships, in deeds, and in desires, which distracts and separates us from God and causes such death. Whoever fears this death and guards himself from it will not be afraid of the approach of bodily death, having true life dwelling within himself, which, especially through death, acquires inalienability. For just as the death of the soul is real death, so the life of the soul is real life. The life of the soul is unity with God, just as the life of the body is its unity with the soul. Word 5. What is the true life of the soul For just as through the transgression of the commandment, having separated from God, the soul was killed, so through obedience to the commandment, having united again with God, it is revived. For this reason the Lord says in the Gospel: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63). Having experienced this experimentally, St. Peter said to Him: You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68). But they are words of life for those who obey them, and for those who disobey, the commandment of life comes to death. So the Apostles, being the fragrance of Christ, were for some a deadly savor unto death, and for others a life-giving savor unto life (2 Cor. 2:15-16). Word 6. About how this life makes the body immortal This life again is the life not only of the soul, but also of the body: for it immortalizes it through the resurrection, saving not only from mortality, but also from the never-ending death, the future hellish torment. She gives him eternal life in Christ, effortless, painless and sorrowless, truly immortal. But as after the death of the soul, i.e. after crime and sin, the death of the body followed, and with it the taking away and transformation into dust into the earth, after bodily death again the second death of the soul, its condemnation to hell: so after the resurrection of the soul, which is its return to God through the fulfillment of the Divine commandments, the resurrection of the body will follow when it is again united with its soul; This resurrection will be followed by true immortality and co-eternity with God of those worthy of it, who have become spiritual from the flesh and have become, like the Angels of God, capable of living in heaven (see Matt. 22:30). Word 7. That those who live the life of Christ will be exalted like the Lord We will be caught up, says the Apostle, to meet the Lord in the clouds in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17). Just as the Son of God, who for the love of mankind became man, died in the flesh, through the separation of His soul from the body, without however separating the Divinity from Him, which is why, having resurrected His body, He took it to heaven in glory: so those who lived here according to God, while being separated from the body and not separated from God, will take up the body to God in the resurrection, entering with Him in inexpressible joy where Jesus entered as the forerunner for us (Heb. 6:20 ), so that together with Him we may enjoy and reveal the glory that is in Christ. For they will not only be partakers of the resurrection, but also of the Ascension of the Lord and His entire divine life, but not those who lived here carnally and during the exodus found themselves having no communion with God. For although everyone will be resurrected, each one, as the Apostle says, will be in his own order: he who slain the flesh here by the spirit of deeds will live there with Christ a divine and truly eternal life; but through carnal lusts and passions the spirit has been killed here - there, alas! has to be condemned along with the artist and the author of all evil, and given over to unbearable and unceasing torment: that there is a second, without succession, death. Word 8. About the fact that in earthly life a person accepts the beginning of eternal life Where did true death begin, the originator and culprit of temporary and eternal death for both soul and body? Is it not in the area of ​​life? - Why, alas! man was immediately expelled from the paradise of God beyond its borders, as having acquired a life that was deadly and inappropriate for the divine paradise. In the same way, true life, the cause of true and eternal life for both soul and body, must begin in this region of death. And he who is not zealous to acquire it according to his soul here, let him not deceive himself with empty hopes of receiving it there, or somehow being worthy of God’s love for mankind at that time. For then there will be a time of righteous retribution, and not mercy and mercy, a time of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 2:5), a time of showing a strong and high hand, casting the disobedient to torment in hell (Ps. 135:12). Woe to him who has to fall into the hands of the living God! (Hebrews 10:31). Woe to him who has there to experience the wrath of the Lord, and not here from the fear of God to him who has known the power of His wrath (Ps. 89:11), and who has not sought God’s love for mankind through his deeds! - This is a matter of the present time. This is why God created this life for us, to give room for repentance. If this had not happened, then the person who sinned would immediately lose this life. For what would be the use of it, or what need would there be for it? Word 9. About never having room for despair in a person This is why no one should despair; although the evil one tries in many ways to plunge into it not only those who live carelessly, but also those who strive well. since in this way the time of life is the time of repentance, then the very fact that the sinner is still alive serves for him, if he wishes to turn to God, as a guarantee that he will be mercifully accepted by Him. For in real life, autocracy is always in force; autocracy, as an object, is subject to a path above the indicated life and death, from which he can choose or reject whichever he wants, as an achievable matter. Where can we find a place for despair, when everyone always has the opportunity, if they want, to acquire eternal life? Word 10. About divine love for mankind Don't you see how great is God's love for mankind?! At the beginning He does not use righteous judgment against our disobedience, but by enduring for a long time, He gives time for conversion. In this time of long-suffering, He gives us power to become sons of Him (John 1:12), if we want. What am I saying - to become sons of Him? unite with Him and be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). At the same time of long-suffering, even if we follow the path contrary to Him and love death more than true life, He will not take away the power given to us, or the freedom to return to Him, and not only does not take away such power, but He Himself calls us back and goes around looking for how to turn us to the works of life, according to the parable of the vineyard workers, from the morning until the evening of life (Matthew 20: 1-16). But who calls and hires? – Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and God of all comfort. Who are the grapes that He calls to do? – The Son of God, who said: I am the vine (John 15:1). For no one can come to Christ, as He Himself said in the Gospel, unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). And who are the branches? We; for listen to what He immediately says: You are branches, but My Father is a vinedresser (John 15:1-5). The Father, through the Son, reconciles us to Himself, not imputing our sins (2 Cor. 5:19), and calls us not as those who are involved in indecent works, but as those who do nothing and stand idle, although idleness is a sin, since we will reward the word for an idle word (Matthew 12:36). God, as I said, despising the sins previously committed by each, calls us again and again. What does He call you to do? - Work in the vineyard. And this means working on the branches, i.e. above yourself. Then, oh, how incomprehensibly great is God’s love for mankind! - and promises and gives us a reward - for the fact that we have worked on ourselves and for ourselves. Come, he says, receive eternal life, richly given from Me. And for the labor of this journey to life and the very desire to receive it from Me, for everything, as a debtor, I will pay a reward. Who does not confess grace and give thanks to the Deliverer from death and the Giver of life? – And He also promises to give a reward and an inexpressible reward. I, he says, came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). What's more? Not only to abide and live by His power, but also to be His brothers and joint heirs. This excess is a reward given to those who flow to the life-giving vine and become branches on it, who work on themselves and cultivate themselves. Doing what? Cutting off from yourself everything that is not only unnecessary and useless, but also hinders the bearing of fruits worthy of the granary of God. What is this? - wealth, pleasures, vain glory, everything fluid and transitory, every passion of soul and body, shameful and harmful, every hearing and vision and every word that can cause harm to the soul. For whoever does not cut off all this and does not cleanse his heart with the greatest care of such growths will never bear fruit for eternal life. It is possible for those living in marriage to achieve such purity, but with great difficulty. Why is it that everyone who has received God’s favor from youth, looking with the sharpest eye of the mind at this life and the blessings there, having become lovers, reverently shuns marriage, since even in the resurrection, as the Lord said, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but remain like the Angels of God in heaven (Matthew 22:30). Whoever thus desires to be an Angel of God, rightly still here, like the sons of the resurrection, holds himself above bodily confusion. Moreover, the reason for sin originally came from the wife. Why should those who wish to never give their adversary any opportunity for temptation to refuse marriage. If this body in itself is difficult to restrain and difficult to incline towards virtue, and we, as a natural opponent fused with us, carry it around us, then will we ever be able to conquer it, and how much will we increase the difficulties in the matter of virtue, being connected by many and different bodies (wife, children, servants)? And how will she have freedom, for which the commandment has accepted the zeal, who is bound by natural ties to her husband, children and all half-blooded people? How can one who has taken upon herself the care of so many persons carelessly bow to the Lord? How can she survive without embarrassment and anxiety when she is surrounded by such crowds? Word 12. About how a virgin should avoid relatives according to the flesh For this reason, the true virgin, wanting to become like St. To the Virgin and the Son from the Virgin, the bridegroom in the virginity of reverently lived souls, flees not only carnal marriage, but also all worldly cohabitation, abandoning all relatives: so that with boldness he can say to Christ and Peter: behold, we have left everything and followed You (Matthew 19:27). And what new thing does she do if, just as the earthly bride leaves her father and mother for the sake of the corruptible groom and cleaves to him, according to Scripture, she does the same for the worldly bridal chamber and the groom, leaving them? And would it be appropriate for those whose residence is in heaven to have kinship on earth? (Phil.3:20). How, being a child not of the flesh, but of the spirit, will she have a fleshly father, or a mother and blood relatives? How, having become alienated from her own body and alienated, if possible, as having put aside carnal life, will she have any relationship with the bodies of others? If now, as they say, likeness is a community and kisses everything similar, then the virgin will become like those with whom she becomes friends and falls into the disease of peacefulness. Friendship with the world is enmity against God (James 4:4), as Paul, the leader of the spiritual bridal chamber, says. Thus, she is exposed to the danger of not only breaking her marriage union with the most peaceful Bridegroom, but also becoming hostile to Him. Do not be surprised and do not be upset if, according to Scripture, it is not a reproach for those who enter into a worldly marriage if they care about the things of the world and not about the Lord (1 Cor. 7:32-34); those who have taken a vow of virginity to God are forbidden to even touch anything worldly, and are not allowed to live comfortably at all. However, to the wedding St. Paul says this: the time is already short, so that those who have wives must be as if they had none... and those who use this world as if they do not use them (1 Cor. 7:29-31). Which, I believe, is much more difficult than the feat of virginity. Experience also shows that fasting is more convenient than abstinence in food and drink. Perhaps, in general, someone would say correctly and righteously that whoever does not embrace the work of salvation, we have more than one word for him; whoever cares about his salvation, let him know that life in virginity is much more fulfilling and less difficult than married life. But let's leave it at that. Keep in my mind, virgin, bride of Christ, the branches of the vine of life that were said above. “This is what the Lord says: I am the vine, you are the branches, and My Father is the vinedresser.” He purges every branch of Me that bears fruit, so that it may bear more fruit (John 15:1-5). Consider such care for you as an indication of the fruit of your virginity and the love of your Bridegroom for you; and rejoice in this much, and be careful to repay Him for this with complete devotion. I will also say something else: gold that has been mixed with something copper is called counterfeit; and copper overlaid with gold or gilded is brighter and more brilliant than it is: so, virgin, those who are not virgins desire you and yours, there is praise; and for you to desire them and theirs is dishonor, because through this lust your desire returns you to the world - either by the fact that you enter into intercourse with those who are in the world and live with them after you have died to the world - or by the fact that you want to enjoy the same things as they and their relatives and what constitutes worldly contentment, such as wealth, nobility, glory, joy. Thus, it will finally happen that you will fall away from the will of your Bridegroom. For He clearly condemns all this in the Gospel, saying: “Woe to you, you rich!” Woe to you who laugh! Woe to you, jaded ones! Woe to you when all people speak well of you! (Luke 6:24–26)" How does He curse them? Is it not like those who have died in soul? What affinity does the bride of life have with the dead? What contact is there with those who are moving in the opposite direction? The path along which they rush is spacious and wide; and if they do not restrain themselves, mixing into themselves something from yours, then they will completely fall into destruction; but you enter into the belly through a narrow gate and a narrow path (Matthew 7:13). No one can pass through the narrow gates and the narrow path, inflated with glory, overflowing with pleasures and burdening himself with wealth and property. But when you hear that that path of life is broad, do not think that it is sorrowless, for it is full of many and grave sorrows; They call it wide and spacious because there are many walking along it, and each of them is surrounded by a large mass of transitory things. Your path, girl, is very narrow, so that it does not even accommodate two people walking together. Why are many of those who were previously occupied with the world, after they lost their husbands and were left alone, out of jealousy for your worldly way of life, renouncing the world, and began to walk your path in order to be worthy of the same crowns? Such St. Paul commands us to honor those who are diligent in supplication and supplication, with hope in God (1 Tim. 5:3–5). If something regrettable is encountered along this path, then it also provides a kind of consolation, contributes to the receipt of the Kingdom of Heaven and leads to salvation; the same way, both pleasant and sorrowful are equally deadly. For, it is said, worldly sorrow produces death, but Godly sorrow produces unchangeable repentance leading to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10). Why does the Lord please that which is opposite to the blessings of the world, saying: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3). Word 13. For what reason does the Lord do good to the poor in spirit? Why is this, having said: blessed are the poor, He also added: in spirit? To show that it is the humility of the soul that is worthy of blessing, and that although bodily poverty is blissful and leads to the Kingdom of Heaven; but if it is accompanied by spiritual humility, if it is closely connected with it and receives its beginning from it. Having thus blessed the poor in spirit, the Lord wonderfully showed where the root and cause of the visible poverty of the saints is, i.e. in their spirit. The Spirit, having received into its bosom the grace of the Gospel preaching, repays from itself the source of poverty that waters the face of the earth (Gen. 2:6), i.e. our outer man and making him a paradise of virtues. Such poverty is worthy of blessing from God. According to the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord gave this short speech to people on earth (Is. 10:23) to show the reason for voluntary and varied poverty; and after showing and blessing, he described with these words all the results (αποτελέσματα), briefly teaching about everything. For another may be non-covetous and poor, and at that arbitrarily, but for the sake of human glory. Such a person is not poor in spirit, but a hypocrite. Hypocrisy is born from conceit, which is contrary to poverty in spirit. He who has a contrite and humble spirit cannot help but rejoice in visible poverty and humility, for he considers himself unworthy of glory, contentment, consolation and all that. He who considers himself unworthy of all this is a beggar blessed by God. And such a beggar truly is, not half deserving of this name. And all of these are from among those who heard and followed the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and imitated Him, for He said: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). Why is theirs the Kingdom of God, for they are joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). The soul is tripartite and is contemplated in three forces: thinking, irritable and desirable. She is sick with all of them; and Christ, her physician, begins His healing with the latter, i.e. with the desired strength. The food for anger (the matter of irritable force) is desire (the matter of desirable force); They both, when in a bad direction, nurture pride of mind (a matter of mental power). Why will you never see the healthy irritable power of the soul before healing both of them? If you investigate, you will find that the first evil generation of desire is covetousness. Wishes that help people preserve and organize their lives are blameless; why from a young age nails are fused with us. The love of money grows a little later on to everything that already exists. From which it is clear that it has its origin not from nature, but from will. And Saint Paul rightly called it the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). Some of the evils usually generated by it are the following: stinginess, hucksterism, predation, theft, and in general every kind of covetousness, which the same Apostle called the second idolatry (Col. 3:5). To those whom it does not generate, it provides food and support to almost everyone. Yet these passions, born from the love of things, are the essence of a soul that has no zeal for good deeds. In general, passions that depend on the will are more easily treated than passions that originate in nature; but the passions generated by the love of money are made difficult to overcome by lack of faith in divine Providence. He who does not believe in this Providence rests his hope on wealth. Such, although he hears the words of the Lord that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24), but not regarding the Kingdom, and, moreover, the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal, as anything, he covets earthly and flowing wealth, which, even when it is not in the hands of those who desire it, the very thing that is coveted causes the greatest harm. For those who desire to become rich fall into temptations and snares of the devil, as Paul says (1 Tim. 6:9). Even when it is present - available in the hands, at home - it shows its insignificance by the fact that, despite its presence, it is still coveted by the unreasonable, whom even experience does not make wise. For this unhappy passion is not from the poor, but rather the poverty (the feeling of the poor) is from it; she herself is from madness, according to which, very righteously, from the common Lord of all, Christ, he also receives the name He, who breaks down his barns and builds greater ones (Luke 12:18). For how is he not crazy who, for the sake of things that cannot bring any significant benefit, for a person’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15), renounces things that can bring him great benefit? He fails to become a wise merchant, even selling necessities to make a profit; or become a farmer who expects a hundredfold profit from the harvest, although the expected profit is very uncertain and not guaranteed. And the curious thing is that the smaller the warehouse from which the seeds are received, the greater the harvest will be. But charity (αγαθοεργία) is not the reason for [passionate] desire to become rich. In fact, people are afraid of being poor because they do not have faith in the One who promised to provide everything necessary for those who seek the Kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 6:33). And having this alone as a reason (αφορμή), even when they have everything, they never free themselves from this painful and destructive desire. But they continue to accumulate [wealth], load themselves with useless cargo, or, what is even more paradoxical (παράδοξο), imprison themselves in a coffin while still alive. Dead people are simply buried in the earth, but the minds of living misers are buried in golden earth. And this grave is more stinking (βρωμερός) than those whose spiritual (πνευματικές) feelings are sound. And this grave stinks the more the more golden soil covers it. For among those buried in this way, the stench of the ulcer penetrates the thickness of the coffin and even reaches the sky, the Angels and God. This makes them disgusting and, in fact, worthy of disgust, because, according to David, they stink from their madness (Ps. 37:6). And voluntary non-acquisitiveness, without the goal of pleasing people, saves people from this fetid and deadening passion; [after all] it is identical to that spiritual poverty that the Lord blessed. It is impossible for a monk who has this passion to be obedient. If he stubbornly satisfies her, then he faces a great danger of suffering incurably in his body. Gehazi and Jude, from the Old and New Testaments, are compelling examples of this. In that one, leprosy flourished as an indication of the incurability of the soul, but this one, in a village of blood, fell from the noose and fell head down, collapsed, and all his entrails fell out (Acts 1:18). Renunciation of everything precedes obedience; and without the former there is no place for the latter. It is the elementary beginning of monastic life; And for one who has not previously renounced all acquisition, how can another achieve any feat of such a life? Who will say: what is the harm if he is incapable of obedience? - But he will become silent, living alone and diligent in prayer. – Let him hear what the Lord said: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21). How then can he who hoards treasures on earth reach out mentally to Him who sits on the right side of the throne of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3)? And how will he inherit the Kingdom if his passion for love does not even allow him to take it purely? That is why it is said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:3). Do you see how many passions the Lord cut off with this one bliss? But covetousness is only the first generation of the gold of lust. He has a second one, which must be avoided even more, and a third one that is no less evil. What's the second one? - Love of popularity. For, having succeeded in age, before carnal love, when, however, we are still youths, the passion of love of glory overtakes us, as some kind of evil predilection of it. Here I mean that type of love of glory, which consists in preening the body and flaunting clothes, and which the fathers call worldly vanity. Another type of vanity occurs in those distinguished by virtue and entails doubt and hypocrisy, with which the enemy attempts to steal and scatter our spiritual wealth. All these perfect passions find healing in the feeling and love of the highest honor, with the veneration of oneself as unworthy of it, and in the enduring of human humiliation, with the esteem of oneself worthy of it, and, moreover, in the preference for the glory of God over the glory of man, according to the word of the Prophet: not to us, Lord, not to us; but give glory to Thy name (Ps. 113:9), - when something praiseworthy is recognized as having been done, in attributing to God the doing of it, and gratefully sending glory to Him for it, and not appropriating it to oneself. Such a one will rejoice that he has received virtue as a gift and will not exalt himself with it, as if he had nothing of his own, but rather humble himself, having his mental eyes turned to God day and night, like the eyes of a slave, psalmically speaking, on the hand of her mistress (Ps. 122:2), out of fear, as if separated in good from the giver and the one who watches it, not to fall into the abyss of evil. For this is what the slaves of doubt and vanity usually suffer. What helps to heal such people is especially moving away from community with others, living alone and sitting in a cell, with the awareness of the weakness of one’s will and considering oneself not strong enough to live mixed with others. What else is this, if not poverty in spirit, which the Lord blessed? If someone also takes into account the shame that usually accompanies this passion, then he will avoid vanity as much as he can. For those who seek glory from people, from their very deeds, usually meet dishonor. Word 16. About decoration He who cares about beauty, who thinks a lot about himself based on the nobility of his ancestors, the splendor of his clothes, and other such things, exposes his childish immaturity of mind, for all this is dust; What is more insignificant than ashes? - The one who does not use clothes to cover and warm the body, but for ostentation and flaunting their grace and color, not only reveals the barrenness of the soul to those who look at it, but is also covered with fornicating shamelessness. Let such and such hear Him Who said: Behold, they that wear soft garments are in the houses of kings (Matthew 11:8). Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), says St. Paul. Let us not allow ourselves, for the sake of the softness of our clothes, to be cast down from heaven into the blood of the prince of this age (see Eph. 6:12). Word 17. More about vanity Those who do good deeds for the sake of human glory also suffer. For such, having received the lot, to have life in heaven, their glory, alas! - they cast into dust (Ps. 7:6), bringing upon themselves this Davidic oath. And their prayer does not ascend to heaven, and all their zeal falls to the ground, not being covered with the wings of divine love, which makes our earthly deeds ascendant: so that they endure labor, but do not gain rewards. But what am I saying about the fruitlessness of their labors? They bear fruit, but what kind? shame, fickleness of thoughts, captivity and confusion of thoughts. For God scattered the bones of men-pleasers, says the psalm, they were ashamed, for God destroyed them (Ps. 52:6). This passion is the most subtle of all passions. Why should the ascetic not beware of the interview, or not run away from adjudication, but, considering the pretext itself already an addition, protect himself from it. For even if he acts like this, he will barely have time to forestall the speed of his fall. But although he will act by paying attention to himself in this way, the excuse causes contrition. If not, then this creates a place for pride. Whoever accepts this will be difficult to reason with, or better yet, he will become incorrigible. For this is the devil's fall. But even before this, the passion of man-pleasing causes such harm to those who have acquired it that they even suffer ruin in relation to faith, according to the word of the Lord, who said: How can you believe if you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:44). What do you have in human glory, O man, or is it better in the empty name of glory, which not only does not have what it names, but also deprives it? And not only this, but with other evils, envy also gives rise to envy - envy tantamount to murder - the cause of the first murder, and then deicide? Is it useful to nature in any way? Does it support and preserve it, or, having received it damaged in some way, does it heal? No one, of course, can say this about her. And I think this shows the baselessness in justifying abuse. On the contrary, if anyone wants to carefully examine everything about her, he will find that for the most part she is a crafty adviser in shameful matters, tearing off her shameless mask and shaming her lovers. – Preachers instill in Hellenic teachings that without it there would be nothing good in life. O their delusions! But this is not how we are taught, bearing the glorious name of the One who lovingly anointed our nature with Himself. We have him as a spectator of our deeds. Looking to Him, through Him and for Him we do everything best, and we direct everything to His glory, not at all having in mind pleasing people, following St. Paul, the supreme secret of our Lawgiver, and our Lawgiver, who says: if I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10). Let us now see whether the third offspring of evil desire will be destroyed by poverty blessed [from the Lord]. The third lust of a soul sick with lust is gluttony, from which comes all carnal uncleanness. Why do we call it the third and last, when it is embedded in our nature from birth, as well as the natural movements related to childbirth. Why do we also put carnal lust in last place? Because this is our nature. What is natural is innocent, as created by a good God, so that we can use it for good. Movements that are natural for the sake of this do not indicate illness of the soul. The sick soul is exposed in those who abuse them. When we turn cares for the flesh into lusts (Rom. 13:14), then this voluptuousness is a sinful passion, the beginning of carnal passions, and a disease of the soul, for although they enter from the outside, they are assimilated by the soul and become its own. Why does the Lord say that evil thoughts come from the heart, which defile it (Matthew 15:19–20). And before the Gospel, the law says: take heed to yourself, so that no lawless thought secretly enters your heart (Deut. 15:9). Evil thoughts come from the soul, but they are drawn into the soul from below through the senses and are held in the imagination of sensory things, which is again set in motion by the senses, especially the eyes, which from afar can attract the servant to defilement; to which our foremother, Eve, provides clear evidence. For she first saw that it is good to see and to understand well (Gen. 5:6), and then she already formed the thoughts of her heart, touched and tasted of the forbidden tree. Therefore, we have kindly said that the victory of shameful passions is preceded by the seduction of the beauty of things and faces through the eyes. Hence the fatherly commandment not to gaze at the beauty of other people’s bodies, and not to enjoy one’s own. Before the mind becomes captive to passions, which naturally exist in children and are not created for sin, it (the mind) is not in evil. But since carnal passions begin and come into motion from passionate thoughts, then healing them must also begin from them. For, as in a fire, if someone who wants to extinguish it begins to somehow stop the flame from above, he will not have any time in extinguishing it; if the flammable substance is rejected, the fire will immediately diminish and subside: so in relation to lustful passions, if you do not dry up the source of thoughts within with prayer and humility, but only arm yourself against them by fasting and mortification of the body, then you will work unsuccessfully; If you sanctify the source through humility and prayer, as we said, then you will impart sanctification to the external body. This, it seems to me, is what the Apostolic word inspires, commanding us to gird our loins with truth (Eph. 6:14), just as one of the fathers thought that when the speculative power tames the lustful, then the passions in the loins and hypogastrics subside. Mortification of the body and proportionate abstinence in food and drink are required, so that it does not become unbridled and begin to force the mind. Carnal passions cannot be cured by anything other than the mortification of the body, assisted by prayer and humility of heart: which is poverty in spirit, which the Lord blessed. If anyone wishes to be enriched by sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14), let him remain in his cell, mortifying the body and diligent in prayer in humility, for for those who are good in solitude, the cell serves as a haven of chastity. Everything external, especially what happens at market places and festive festivities, is filled with a lustful mixture, which, through hearing and sight, penetrates the soul of a monk approaching them and plunges him into shameful thoughts and movements. You can also call this sinful world a burning fire, which makes those who revolve in it a combustible substance, and turns every form of virtue in them into ashes. A fire that does not burn was once found in the desert (bush). Instead of the desert, sit in a cell, and hide in it for a little while until the heat of passion passes: for when it passes, staying in the open air does not harm. Then you will truly be poor in spirit, you will gain dominion over the passions, and you will be brilliantly blessed by Him who said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for of them is the Kingdom of Heaven. And will not those who do not trust in wealth at all, but in Him alone, who do not want to please anyone except Him alone, and live in humility before His face, be righteously blessed? Let us also be humble in spirit, humble ourselves, mortify the flesh and not covetousness, so that the Kingdom of God will be ours and we will be worthy of good hopes. Prefacing the Gospel, as it were, with a kind of abbreviation (in the sayings about the beatitudes), with this first saying (about poverty in spirit) how many virtues did he embrace, and how many bad dispositions did he cut off and deprive of bliss? The Lord blessed all those who, through repentance, circumcised (περιτέμνουν) the passionate part of the soul (that is, cut off the passions, healed them). But this is not all, since in the phrase of beatitude, God, includes another something: like not circumcision, but the action of cold, ice, snow, frost and the violence of the wind, and simply to say from which plants usually suffer in winter and summer, being exposed to cold and heat, without which no plant on earth can bear ripened fruit. What is this? An indication of various humbling temptations, which must be joyfully endured by those who wish to bear fruit to the Cultivator of our souls. Word 19. About coming temptations For if someone takes pity on plants growing from the ground and fences them off, and builds a roof over them, and does not leave them to suffer from changes in the weather, then he will not receive fruit from them, even if he cleanses, prunes and does everything properly. But they need to withstand everything, because winter will pass and spring will come, they will turn green, bloom, become covered with leaves and produce, along with beautiful shoots, unripe fruits, which, under the influence of the sharp rays of the sun, will slowly grow and ripen, and will become suitable for collection and consumption. He who has not valiantly endured the heavy burden of the temptations encountered, even if he is not deprived of any of the virtues, will never bear fruit worthy of the heavenly granaries and treasuries. After all, every zealot for perfection achieves it through voluntary and involuntary labor and deprivation, some of which are found from outside, others from ourselves. For what happens to plants from nature, agricultural inventions and changing seasons is our choice, as intelligent shoots (κλήματα) of Christ, submitting to the Cultivator of our souls, and as independently living. And without the involuntary patience that is found on us, and without voluntary labor (κόποι), it is impossible to receive Divine blessing. For love for God is most tested by the sorrow of involuntary temptations. Voluntary deprivations prepare the soul to endure involuntary ones, for having become accustomed to putting the pleasures of life and glory in the first place, it easily endures the latter. The poor in spirit, by the very spirit of this poverty, not only is not embarrassed by the sorrows that occur, but considers himself even more guilty, as in need of the strongest healings of repentance. Why does he live, waiting day and night for any sorrow, and accepts every temptation as a fitting part of him, and rejoices when he falls under it, as one who has entered the purification of his soul, making it the subject of the most contrite and most effective prayer, as a source and protection of spiritual well-being; as a result of which he not only does not bear any grudge against those who plunged him into temptation, but also expresses gratitude to them and prays for them as benefactors (Matthew 6:14). For this, he himself not only receives forgiveness of his sins, according to the promise of the Savior, but is also honored with the blessings of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, being blessed by the Lord, for the sake of his patience to the end in the spirit of humility. After those who have acquired inalienable wealth through poverty in spirit, the One Blessed One declares those who mourn to be partakers of His bliss, saying: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). Why did Christ the Lord so closely combine crying with poverty? Because he is never separated from her. But sadness in worldly poverty produces the death of the soul, says the Apostle; and sorrow in poverty according to God produces unchanging repentance for the salvation of the soul (2 Cor. 7:10). Moreover, involuntary poverty is followed by involuntary crying, and voluntary crying is followed by voluntary. since the mourning here pleased is connected with poverty for God, it is understood that it occurs for its sake and depends on it, as on the cause, in everything, and only in connection with it is spiritual and voluntary. Let's see how blessed poverty gives birth to blessed crying. We showed four types of spiritual poverty a little higher - in wisdom, in the maintenance of the body, in the everyday state, in temptations found from outside. But none of you, hearing how they are presented separately, do not assume that they are actually separated: for they usually all appear together; why are they all contained in one bliss, which wonderfully shows where their root and source are, as it were, precisely in our spirit. For he, having received into his bosom the grace of the Gospel, as it is said, gives from himself a source of poverty, watering the entire face of our land (Gen. 2:6), i.e. our outer man, and makes him a paradise of virtues. Each of these four types of poverty gives birth to its own special cry, with corresponding consolation. From poverty in maintaining the body with humility - which consists of greed, thirst, vigil and any general deprivation and mortification of the flesh, and, moreover, strict guarding of feelings - not only crying (pity, sorrow) is born, but also tears. For just as insensibility, coarsening and hardening of the heart are usually born from nourishment and contentment of the body with everything, so from abstinence and a meager diet - contrition of the heart and tenderness, which destroys all bitterness during bodily deprivation and brings the quiet sweetness of life with them. Without contrition of the heart it is impossible, they say, to get rid of sinful feelings; The heart is crushed by threefold abstinence - in sleep, in food and in bodily rest. The soul, freed through bodily contrition from such feelings and from their bitterness, receives spiritual joy instead. And this is the consolation for which the Lord pleases those who cry. Saint John, who arranged a spiritual ladder for us, says: “thirst and vigilance crush the heart; with a contrite heart, tears flow. He who has experienced this will laugh about it, blessed, that is. laughing (Luke 6:21), comforted, as the Lord promised” (Fl. 6:13). Thus, from God-loving bodily poverty, crying is born, blissfully consoling those who acquire it. But how is crying born from self-effacing wisdom and divine humility in the depths of the soul? Self-abasement always accompanies humility of soul; and at the beginning it is brought into the strongest tension by the fear of eternal torment, imagining the most terrible thing of being in the same torment with enemies, and to this adding fear and from the thought that those torments are inexpressible, that there are no words to express them; and their endlessness adds to the horror! - Heat, cold, darkness, fire, bonds, monsters, never-ending gnawing of worms - they come together in this punishment. But even this does not yet represent to everyone the entire horror of that time, as it is, judging by what has been said about the opposite state: it did not even enter the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). And how useless, how joyless will be that cry that has no end! Here, in those who sin against God, crying begins to move from the consciousness of their sins, softened by the hope of pardon. There, in those convicted and condemned, when all good hope is taken away and in despair for salvation, involuntary denunciation and gnawing of conscience with crying will immeasurably increase the proper torment. And now crying, and always crying, and this consciousness of its incessancy gives birth to new crying! Likewise, there will be darkness upon darkness, and burning upon burning without the slightest coolness. And everything is enveloped in an endless abyss of despair. Now here crying is precious. For God listens to him, even descending to us with his presence, and giving the promise of consolation to those who mourn, since He Himself is and is called the Comforter. Have you now seen the crying that comes from a humbled soul and brings with it consolation? However, self-abasement in itself, like a kind of mental sharpener for the mental part of the soul, heavily oppresses and crushes, and squeezes out the saving wine that gladdens the heart of man, our inner man. This wine is contrite tenderness, which crushes passions with crying, and fills the soul with blissful joy, having delivered it from this cruel burden. Why are those who mourn blessed, for they will be comforted. From non-covetousness, or what is also - from material poverty, when it is combined with poverty in spirit, as stated above, for only in this case (when all types of poverty are combined) is it perfect (τέλεια) and pleasing to God - from such poverty as crying comes and the consolation that is in it - listen and heed wisely. When a person, having left everything, renounces silver and gold and all property, abandoning it or squandering it according to the commandment, then, having torn his soul away from caring about this, he gives it the opportunity to turn to caring for itself, freed from the affairs of everyday life that distract it from the outside. Word 21. How crying is born from the abolition of the mind When the mind is torn away from everything sensory and, having arisen from being drowned by concern for this, begins to peer into the inner man; then, seeing his face disgustingly polluted from wandering below, first of all, he hastens to wash it with tears, then, after removing this ugly cover from him, since the soul is no longer entertained by things unworthy of it, it does not hesitate to enter its inner treasuries, and there secretly prays to the Father, Who first of all gives him a world of thoughts, as a ready container for grace-filled gifts, and with it the perfect humility, the parent and guardian of all virtue, is not the humility that consists of humble words and postures that are not difficult for anyone who desires, but that which is evidenced by the good Divine Spirit and which creates a spirit renewed in our wombs (Ps. 50:12). In this (peace and humility), as in a tightly fenced mental paradise, all kinds of trees of true virtue grow, in the midst of which the royal sacred palace of love is erected, and on the threshold, as the beginning of the future age, an inalienable ineffable joy blooms. For non-covetousness is the mother of carelessness; carelessness - attention and prayer; these are crying and tears; and these ones blot out everything biased (previous sins); After this has been blotted out, the rest of the path of virtue is conveniently completed, because then all obstacles to this are eliminated and the conscience becomes impeccable. From all this joy and blissful laughter of the soul exude (Luke 6:21). Then bitter tears are transformed into sweetness, the words of God are sweet to the throat and better than honey to the lips (Ps. 119:103), and in prayer the petition changes into thanksgiving; teaching in the Divine commandments (εντολών) fills the heart with a feeling of joy and irrefutable hope, through which the soul, as a foretaste of the heavenly (ουρανίων), already now receives experience and partially knows the excessive (υπερβολικό) wealth of God’s goodness, according to what David said: taste and see, how good the Lord is (Ps. 33:9), - the joy of the righteous, the joy of the honest (ευθέων), the joy of the humble and the consolation of those who cry for His sake. So what? But are these the only gifts of the sacred betrothal [to the Bridegroom]? And [along with this] will not the Bridegroom reveal Himself even more clearly to the souls (ψυχών) of those who have been perfected and purified by blessed crying, and adorned with virtues like a bride? Not otherwise. But for what we say now, some, out of envy, are ready to blame us, saying this: “Do not speak in the name of the Lord, otherwise your name will be rejected as evil, and slander and falsehoods will be laid down and spread against you. But let’s not notice these people, and now let’s continue our word, speaking in the words of the holy fathers, fixing our gaze on them and convincing others with this. For the Scripture says: I believed, and therefore I spoke (Ps. 116:1), and: we believe, therefore we speak (2 Cor. 4:13) Sermon 22. On divine enlightenment and the contemplation born from it When every passion that nests in us is expelled, and the mind, as already said above, returns to itself and to other spiritual powers, the cultivation of virtues beautifies the soul, ever reaching out to the most perfect, making more and more active ascents, washing itself more and more with God's help: then it not only tears out the bad, but generally drives out everything that comes in, even if it belongs to the good part. And having risen above everything mental and all thoughts that are not dreamless about it, and putting all this aside out of love and for the sake of love for God, like a deaf and dumb person (see Ps. 37:14), he stands before God. Then the mind is restrained from [inert] matter by the hands (χέρια) of God and freely takes on the image of the divine (θειότατη) restoration (ανάπλαση). Then nothing external pushes at the door of the mind, because grace keeps the internal in the best mood and illuminates it with an indescribable, wonderful light, thus perfecting the inner man. When in this way the day is illuminated and the morning star shines in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19), then, according to the prophetic word, a true man goes out to his true work (Ps. 103:23), and, using that light, he follows the path by which he is raised to the mountains of eternal and worldly things in that light, lo and behold, he becomes a spectator: not separated from the body of matter (υλικό), with which it was connected from the very beginning, or separated from it, depending on the level (στάδιο) of growth. For it does not rise on the imaginary wings of the mind, which wanders like a blind man, not having an accurate and true understanding: neither about the absent visible (αισθητά), nor about the high and inaccessible mental. But he ascends truly, with the ineffable power of the Spirit, and with inexpressible spiritual (πνευματική) understanding (αντίληψη) he hears ineffable words (2 Cor. 12:4), and sees the invisible. And he will be completely delighted with the miracle, even when he is absent there, and will easily compete (συναγωνίζεται) with the tireless angelic choir, truly becoming another angel of God on earth; and through himself to bring every creature (κτίση) to God, since he himself is involved in everything, as well as in the One who surpasses everything, in order to show that he bears the exact (ακριβή) image of God (θεία). Why does the divine Nile say: “the present state of mind is a mental height, similar to the flower of heaven, into which during prayer the light of the Holy Trinity is present.” And again: “if anyone wants to see the mind in its present state, let him abolish himself from all thoughts, then he will see it like a sapphire, or a heavenly color. But this cannot be done without dispassion: for this requires the help of God and the outpouring of His divine light.” And the holy Diadochus also says: “Holy grace gives us two blessings through baptism, one of which immeasurably exceeds the other: the first is that it renews us in water, and illuminates what is in us in the image of God, taking away all sinful impurity in us; the other thing is that it begins to act together with us. So, when the mind begins to taste with full feeling the goodness of the Holy Spirit, then we should know that grace begins to paint in us, as it were, what is in the image, what is in the likeness: so that feeling shows that we are being formed into the likeness; We recognize the perfection of likeness from enlightenment.” - And again: “no one can acquire spiritual love unless he is fully enlightened by the Holy Spirit: for if the mind, through divine enlightenment, does not perfectly accept that which is in likeness, then although it may have all other virtues, perfect love still remains unparticipated.” Likewise, St. Isaac says: “a mind blessed during prayer sees its purity as similar to the heavenly color, which the elders of Israel called the place of God when it was seen by them on the mountain.” And again: “there is purity of mind in which, during prayer, the light of the Holy Trinity shines. But the mind, worthy of this light, imparts to the body united with it many signs of divine beauty, standing in the midst of divine grace and plump flesh, and imparting to it the power to do what it itself cannot do. Hence the god-like and inimitable virtuous mood, completely motionless or unmovable in the face of evil.” From here the Word comes and makes clear the logoi of beings, and because of its purity shows it the secrets of nature. And through them, the mind of those who take it on faith, through the relationship of analogies, rises to the understanding of supernatural realities (the supernatural) - that the Father of the Word communicates through immaterial touch. Hence various other miracles, and insight and foresight, and the story of those who are far away, as if they were present before one’s eyes. And the most important thing is that this is not what these blessed souls care about, but like someone looking at the rays of the sun and at the same time trying to feel small particles in the air, although this is not his intention. So those who have received purity partake of the divine rays, which by their nature reveal knowledge about everything: the past, the present, and even what will happen. And this comes as side knowledge as they become pure. But their main goal is to return the mind to itself and concentrate on itself, or rather to return all the powers of the soul to the mind, and, strange as it may seem, the action is in it and God (to be in a state where the mind and God cooperate). Thus restored, they become like the Prototype (God) and come to a sound spiritual state, and by grace return to their pristine and indescribable beauty. This is the height to which the blessed cry lifts the humble in heart and the poor in spirit. And since, due to the negligence nesting within us, this [achievement] is beyond us, let us return to its foundation and talk a little more about crying. It also accompanies all types of involuntary or worldly poverty. For how can one who is poor in money, hungry involuntarily, burdened with labor, and deprived of honor, not grieve? - Here crying is inconsolable as long as poverty continues, especially if the one who suffers this does not have true knowledge. For such a person does not subordinate the sweets and sorrows of the senses to reason, but he himself submits to them, and, abusing the resourcefulness of the mind, increases them beyond what is necessary, not only without benefit, but also with great harm to the soul. He openly exposes himself to the fact that he does not firmly believe in the Gospel of God, the prophets who preceded him, and His disciples who followed him, sent to preach the good news, through poverty the inexhaustible wealth received, through dishonor - unspeakable glory, through deprivation - sorrowless consolation, through enduring the temptations found - deliverance from eternal languor and sorrow, postponed to those who They loved the licentious life here, and did not want to go through the narrow gates and narrow paths into the belly. The Apostle Paul said well that this worldly sorrow produces death (2 Cor. 7:10). For if the true life of the soul is the divine light that comes from crying for God, as said above in the words of the fathers, then the death of the soul will be the evil darkness that comes from the sadness of this world to the soul, that darkness about which Basil the Great says: “sin, which has its existence in the impoverishment of good, forms mental darkness through untruths.” And the divine Mark says: “He who is overwhelmed by evil thoughts, how will he see the essential sin hidden beneath them, which is the darkness and fog of the soul, which comes upon it from evil thoughts, words and deeds? When will he who has not seen this common sin pray for it and be cleansed? How can one who has not been purified find the place of pure nature? How can one who has not found it see the inner dwelling of Christ?” So, one must seek this abode through constant prayer, and not only acquire it, but also preserve it. For there are those who, after receiving this, lost it. Perhaps those who are slow to learn and those who are young have bare knowledge or casual experience of this; Not all of the reverent elders and the most experienced have the ability to do this constantly with patience. Macarius, heavenly in knowledge, and the entire host of saints agree with this. But how this darkness receives its existence from all sins; So, if you examine the sadness of this World, you will find that it is generated and maintained by all passions. She bears an image, and is, as it were, the beginning, the threshold, or the guarantee of a future never-ending cry that is to come for those who did not want to choose for themselves the cry blessed by the Lord - which not only brings comfort here, serving at the same time as a guarantee of eternal joy, but also makes virtue firmly firm, making the soul adamant for the worst. For one who has become poor, humbled and humbled by God, if he succeeds to the best and does not at the same time experience tears, he becomes easily converted and wants to return in thought to what he has left behind and to lust after what he has fallen behind, thus making himself a criminal. If, remaining constant in the disposition to blissful poverty and listening to it, he establishes crying within himself, then he becomes adamant towards what he has left behind and does not run away evilly to that from which he previously ran away, doing good. For sorrow for God, as the Apostle says, produces unchangeable repentance leading to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10). Why did one of the fathers say: “crying makes and preserves.” And not only this fruit from crying, that from it a person becomes almost motionless for worse, and difficult to return to previous sins, but also that these sins become as if they had not been. For since a person cries because of them at the beginning, God considers them as involuntary in him; What is involuntary is not imputed to him. Just as someone who weeps about poverty testifies by the fact that it is involuntary for him, why, together with those who want to get rich, or who are already getting rich, he will fall into the snares of the devil, and if, by changing, he does not hasten to escape from these snares, he will thereby send himself into eternal torment (Matthew 25:46): so he who sins against God, if, having repented, spends his days in weeping for sins, then his sins are righteous. it is imputed to him as involuntary, and he, together with those who have not sinned like him, will be without the temptation for them to be mother-in-law along the path leading into the eternal belly. This is the fruit of the beginning of crying, which is painful, since the fear of God is combined with it. But stretching into the foreground, it is wonderfully combined with the love of God and brings the sweetest and most sacred fruit of consolation through the goodness of the Comforter, who (the fruit) tastes those who are qualified by crying (for whom crying has become a character trait) and which for those who have not experienced it is something unheard of, as if inexpressible. For if no one can clearly explain the sweetness of honey in words to those who have not tasted it, then who will explain the sweetness of joy and grace, which is from God, to those who have not experienced it? Of course no one. The beginning of crying is, as it were, a kind of search for the betrothal of God, which seems unattainable. Why are some pre-wedding words spoken at this time by those who, out of a strong desire for this, cry, torn at heart before the groom, and calling him with sobs. The end of crying is a marriage in purity, a perfect combination. Why does Paul, calling the union of spouses into one body a great sacrament, say: I say this in relation to Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:32). For just as they are one body, just as those of God are one spirit with God, just as the same Apostle said somewhere: he who is united with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). Where are those who say that the grace that dwells in the saints is something created? Let them know that they are blaspheming the Spirit itself, of which the saints are partakers. We will also offer another, more expressive example to clarify what we are talking about. The beginning of crying is similar to the return of the prodigal son: for he also fills his worker with shame, and makes the same words speak: father, I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no longer worthy to be called your son (Luke 15:21). Its end is similar to the meeting and embrace of the heavenly Father, of which, due to the richness of ineffable compassion, the son is filled with joy and boldness, receives and gives a kiss, enters the house with the Father and eats with Him, at the same time tasting heavenly joy. Let us also come, in blessed poverty of spirit, let us fall and weep before the Lord our God (Ps. 95:6), so that we may wash away our former sins, and make ourselves immovable against evil, and be honored with the communion of the Comforter Spirit and be consoled by Him, giving glory to Him with the beginningless Father and the only begotten Son, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. The same Gregory Palamas, Decalogue of Christ's Law, that is, the New Testament 1. The Lord, Thy God, the Lord is one (Deut. 6:4), knowable in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: In the Unbegotten Father, in the Son Begotten without beginning, without time and dispassionately, as in the Word, Who having anointed Himself received from us [nature], is called “Anointed” (Christ), in the Holy Spirit, Who is not born, but comes from Father. He alone is God and He is the true God, in the Trinity of hypostases the one Lord, not divided [in his] nature, in counsel, in glory, power and action and in all other signs of the Divinity. Love Him alone and serve Him alone with all your mind and with all your heart and with all your strength (Deut. 6:5), and let His words and commandments be in your heart, so that you do them and meditate and speak about them, whether you sit or walk, rest on a bed or stand (Deut. 6:6-7). And always remember the Lord your God and fear Him alone. And do not forget Him or His commandments, for He Himself will then give you the power to do His will. After all, He does not seek anything else from you except that you fear and love Him and walk in all His ways (Deut. 10:12,21). Do not listen to [stories] about impassive and invisible supermundane angels and about the great malice of the one who fell from there, about his clever, subtle and cunning deception, and do not consider any of this equal to God. Do not look at the greatness of the sky, at the variety of movements on it, at the radiance of the sun, at the light of the moon, at the brilliance of the other stars, at what is favorable for the breath of air, for the abundance of the fruits of the sea and the earth, and do not deify any of this. For all these things are creations subordinate to the One God, arising at His word from nothingness. For He spoke, and they became; He commanded, and they were created (Ps. 32:9). Glorify this one Lord and Creator of everything [that exists], cleave to Him with love, repent before Him day and night for your voluntary and involuntary falls, for He is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and abundantly merciful and ever-beneficent (Ps. 85:15), who promised and gives the kingdom of heaven and never-ending, painless living and life immortality and enjoyment of the non-evening light of those who honor Him, worship Him, love Him and keep His commandments. But He is also a jealous God and a righteous Judge and a terrible avenger (Ex. 20:5): those who do not honor Him, resist Him and do not keep His commands will face eternal punishment - unquenchable fire, unceasing pain, inconsolable grief, hopeless darkness, a dark and cramped place, where the gnashing of teeth and never-ending poisonous worms cry out for compassion. He prepared this for the first evil apostate, and with him for all who succumbed to his deception, followed him and rejected their Creator in deeds, words and thoughts. 2. Do not make for yourself any image of what is in heaven above, and what is on earth below, and what is in the water, and do not serve them and do not glorify them as gods (Ex. 20:4-5), for they are all creations of the One God, Who in recent times took flesh from a virgin’s womb and was visible on earth, lived among people and, having suffered for the salvation of people, died, was resurrected, ascended with the flesh to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in the highest (Heb. 1:3); with this flesh He will come again to judge the living and the dead. So make an image of Him who became man for our sake, [make it] out of love for Him and [looking at] this image remember Him, worship Him, raising your mind from [the image] to the worshiped flesh of the Savior, which sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. In the same way, make images of the saints and worship them not as gods (for this is forbidden), but because of your attitude and disposition towards them and the greatest reverence, lifting your mind from the images to the [depicted] themselves, just as Moses made images of the Cherubim (see Exodus 26:1) inside the sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies itself (see. Ex.26:33) was an image of things above heaven, and the sanctuary for the laity was an image of the whole world, and Moses called them “holy” not because he glorified created things, but because through them he [glorified] God, the Creator of the world. And you, of course, do not deify the images of the Lord Christ and the saints, but through them worship the One who first created us in His image (see Gen. 1:27), and then, out of ineffable love for mankind, deigned to accept this image of His [depicted] in us and in it became available for description. Worship not only the Divine icon, but also the image of His cross, because it is the greatest sign of Christ’s victory over the devil and over the entire opposing army, which is why they tremble and run when they see its image. This image, when there was no prototype yet (that is, before the Savior of the world was nailed to the cross), was already very glorified by the prophets and performed many miracles. And at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on it, when He comes to judge the living and the dead, this great and terrible sign of Him will go ahead with great power and glory. Glorify him now, so that then you can look at him with boldness and be glorified with him, also worship the images of the saints as those crucified with the Lord and create on your face the sign of the cross, remembering that they are the fragments of the sufferings of Christ. And their holy tombs [worship], and the remains of bones, if preserved, for the grace of God did not depart from them, just as during the life-giving death of Christ the [fullness] of the Divinity did not depart from His worshiped body. By doing this and glorifying those who glorified God as having in fact shown themselves to be perfect in love for God, you yourself will be glorified by God and, together with David, you will exclaim: “Your friends are of great honor to me, O God!” 3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Ex. 20:7), for the sake of anything earthly, or out of human fear, or out of shame, or for the sake of your own gain, using an oath falsely. After all, breaking an oath is a renunciation of God. That is why, do not swear at all, but completely avoid swearing, knowing that through an oath comes perjury, which alienates one from God and ranks the one who breaks the oath among the wicked, and you be truthful in all your speeches and give them the reliability of the oath. If you yourself have to submit to an oath, and you need to pray that this does not happen, then when it concerns things consistent with the Divine law, fulfill it as a lawful matter, but punish yourself for the fact that you swore in the first place: with alms, prayer, crying and the suffering of the body, appease Christ, who commanded “Do not swear!” (Matthew 5:34). If the matter is illegal, be careful not to break the law for the sake of an oath and be numbered with the prophet-murderer Herod; having renounced this illegal oath, make it a rule to never swear again and ask for mercy from God, using the mentioned medicines with great difficulty and tears. 4. One day a week, the day that is called “Resurrection” (Lord’s Day), because it is dedicated to the Lord who rose from the dead on this day, who foretold and foresaw [us] about the general resurrection, consider this day holy and do not occupy it with any everyday business other than what is necessary. And give rest to those who are with you and subordinate to you (Deut. 5:14; cf. Exod. 20:10), so that together we can glorify the One who purchased us with His death and resurrected, having resurrected our nature with Himself. And remember about the next century, carefully fulfill all the commandments and laws of the Lord and examine yourself to see if you have transgressed or missed anything, and you will correct yourself in everything. At the same time, be zealous for the church of God, attend meetings there, with sincere faith and an unashamed conscience, partake of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, and thus lay the beginning of a strict life, you will renew yourself and prepare to accept future eternal blessings, for their sake, and on the remaining days [weeks], do not worry too much about earthly things, but on Sunday, being zealous for God, set aside caring for everything except the most necessary, without which one cannot live. Thus, having God as a place of refuge, you will not transgress [the law], you will not allow the flames of passions to flare up, you will not take on the burden of sin, and you will sanctify the Sabbath day, keeping the Sabbath by not doing evil. Compare the great holidays established by law to Sunday, doing the same and abstaining from the same. 5. Honor your father and your mother (Ex. 20:12), for through them God brought you into life and they, together with God, are the creators of your existence. This means that you, too, honor and love them after God, if love for them contributes to love for God, but if it does not, then run from them, and if they are heterodox and oppose you, especially in what relates to the true and saving faith, then not only run, but even hate not only them, but also all your relatives and other friends and loved ones, and your very members and their aspirations and your whole body with its passionate structure. If anyone does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers, and indeed his own life, and who does not bear his cross and follow Me, he is not worthy of Me (Luke 14:26-27; Matt. 10:77-38), said Christ. Treat your carnal parents, friends and brothers this way. And honor and love those who are yours by faith, who do not interfere with salvation. If this is how you [should treat] carnal parents, then how much more will you honor and love those who became your parents in spirit? Those who turned your existence into well-being, who passed on to you the light of knowledge, who taught you the revelation of truth, who gave birth to you again by the bath of rebirth and put in you the hope of resurrection, immortality and the inheritance of an endless kingdom, from the unworthy made you worthy of eternal blessings, from the earthly made you heavenly, instead of the temporary - eternal, the son and disciple no longer of man, but of the God-man Jesus Christ, who said: Do not call anyone on earth your father, mentor, for you have one Father and mentor, Christ (Matthew 23:9-10). You must, therefore, honor and love your spiritual fathers in every possible way, realizing that the honor given to them relates to Christ and the Holy Spirit, in whom you were adopted as sons, and to the heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (Eph. 3:15). Take care throughout your life to have a spiritual father and reveal to him every sin and every thought and receive from him healing and forgiveness, because it is given to them to decide and bind souls (see. Matthew 18:18) and whatever they bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever they loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. This is the grace and power they received from Christ, so obey and do not contradict them, so as not to bring destruction to your soul. After all, if he who contradicts his carnal parents in that which is not prohibited by Divine law must die according to the law (see Ex. 21:17), then does not he who contradicts his spiritual fathers drive away the Spirit of God from himself, and does he not destroy his soul? That’s why consult with your spiritual fathers and obey them to the end, so that your soul may be saved and become an heir to eternal and incorruptible blessings. 6. Do not commit adultery (Ex. 20:14), otherwise you will no longer become a member of Christ, but a member of a harlot, and you will be cut off from the Divine body and cast into Gehenna. If the daughter of a priest, taken in adultery, according to the law must be burned with fire (see Lev. 21:9) as having dishonored her father, then will not the one who desecrated the body of Christ thereby be even more guilty of eternal punishment? And you, if you are able to accommodate it, observe virginity in order to completely belong to God and cleave to Him with perfect love, standing before Him all your life, constantly caring for the work of God, anticipating the future life and living on earth as an angel of God. The angels are characterized by virginity, and to them, as far as possible, is likened to the one who, living in the flesh, cleaves to virginity, and even more than them, [he is likened] to the Father, who gave birth in virginity before all ages, and to the virgin [Son], and from the virgin Father, who came in the beginning by birth and in the last times, born in the flesh from the Virgin Mother, and the Spirit, who only from The Father ineffably comes not by birth, but by adventure. He who has attained true virginity becomes like this God and is united [with Him] in an immaculate marriage, being a virgin in soul and body, he adorns with the beauty of virginity every feeling, word and reflection. If you have not chosen virginity for yourself and have not promised this to God, according to the law of the Lord you can bring one wife and live with her alone and have her with you as a consecrated vessel, avoiding with all your might the wives of others. You will be able to avoid them altogether when you beware of untimely meetings with them and do not enjoy listening to prodigal speeches. As far as possible, turn away your very gaze, physical and mental, from them. And teach yourself not to stare at beautiful faces in vain. For whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28), and therefore he is unclean to Christ, Who sees the heart; the unfortunate man then falls into debauchery in his body. But what is fornication, adultery and all the abominations inherent in our nature, when from a curious look at bodily beauty a person is uncontrollably drawn to unnatural debauchery! You, uprooting the bitter roots from yourself, will not reap deadly fruits, but will receive the fruit of purity and its inherent holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. 7. Do not kill (Ex. 20:13), lest you fall from sonship with Him who makes the dead alive, and become a son through works to Him who was from the beginning a murderer. Murder comes from a blow, a blow comes from pride, and it comes from anger, and anger arises when someone causes us harm, a blow or an insult, so the Lord said: Do not prevent those who take away your outer clothing from taking your shirt (Luke 6:29). Likewise, do not retaliate with a blow to the one who hits you, and do not repay the one who insults you with an insult. In this way you will protect yourself and your offender from the sin of murder. You will then receive pardon for the sins you have committed against God: Forgive and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37). Those who slander and do evil will suffer retribution - eternal punishment according to the word of Christ: He who says to his brother “mad” is subject to fiery hell (Matthew 5:22). If you can uproot evil and assimilate into your soul the bliss of meekness, glorify Christ, the teacher and helper in doing virtues, without Whom, as you know, we cannot do anything good. If you cannot remain without anger, then despise yourself when you are angry, and repent before God and before the person whom you offended by word or deed. After all, the one who repents at the beginning of sin does not reach its end, and the one who does not grieve over small sins, through them falls into large ones. 8. Do not steal (Exodus 20:15), lest He who knows what is hidden (Dan.13:42) repay you with repeated vengeance for neglecting Him. You, on the contrary, give secretly from your possessions to those in need, in order to receive a hundredfold from God, who sees in secret (cf. Matt. 6:3), and eternal life in the next century. 9 . Do not bear false witness (Ex. 20:16), lest you become like the one who lied to God in front of Eve in the beginning (see Gen. 3:1–5), and do not bring upon yourself a curse along with him. Moreover, if it does not harm many, cover the sin of your neighbor and imitate not Ham, but Shem and Japheth (see Gen. 9:18–27) and you will receive a blessing. 10. You shall not covet anything that your neighbor has: neither his property, nor his money, nor his glory, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor (Ex. 20:17). For desire perceived in the soul gives birth to sin, and realized sin produces death. Don’t covet someone else’s and, if you can, don’t let greed take over you, but, on the contrary, give from your means to the one who asks and show mercy as much as you can to the one who needs mercy, and don’t turn away from anyone who wants to borrow from you (Matthew 5:42). If you find a lost thing, return it to its owner, even if he is hostile to you, by this you will reconcile him with yourself, and you will overcome evil with good, as Christ commands you (See Rom. 12:21). Observe this with all your might, live according to this, and you will accumulate a treasure of piety for your soul and please God; God will reward you with His blessings, and you will become an heir to future blessings, of which may we all be worthy of the mercy and love for mankind of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory, honor and worship are due to Him with His Originless Father and His All-Holy and Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. The same Gregory Palamas's Word on the sacredly silent You did well, father, to bring at the same time the words of the saints about my concern. Seeing how you resolved my doubts, I was amazed at the obviousness of the truth and was a little afraid that if, as you yourself say, every word fights with the word, then there might not be some kind of refutation of your words; but I stopped being afraid of this when I heard that only the testimony of good deeds is unshakable, and I realized that the saints say the same thing as you, but how can someone who does not trust them count on trust? Doesn’t such a person reject the God of the saints, Who said to the apostles, and the apostles through them to the subsequent saints, that “he who rejects you rejects Me” (Luke 10:16), rejects the Truth itself? Can seekers of truth agree with its opponent? Then I ask you, father, listen to the enumeration of other things that I have heard from those who have been engaged in Hellenic science all their lives; say what you think about all this, and again add the judgment of the saints. So, these people say that we are doing a bad job by trying to bring our mind inside the body; If you listen to them, then you must, on the contrary, use all your might to expel it beyond the boundaries of everything corporeal. Therefore, they mock some of our monks, condemning them for the fact that they tell beginners to look at themselves, with sighs to send their own mind inside themselves, and at the same time consider that the mind is not separate from the soul; if the mind is not separated from the soul, but is connected with it, then, these scoffers say, how can you bring it inside again? They also claim that they teach us to infuse ourselves with God’s grace through our nostrils. However, knowing for sure that here they are slandering, because I have never heard such a thing from our people, I guess that in everything else they also have treachery and deception: after all, whoever invents what is not, will also distort what is. Just explain to me, father, why we try with all our might to bring the mind inside and do not consider it bad to imprison it in the body. Answer. That, while striving to listen to oneself in hesychia, it is not useless to keep the mind inside the body Don’t you remember, brother, the words of the Apostle that “our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in us” and that “we are the house of God,” just as the Lord says that “I will dwell and walk in them and will be their God” (1 Cor. 6:19; Heb. 3:6; 2 Cor. 6:16)? And in what by nature is capable of becoming God’s house, does anyone who has a mind disdain to infuse his mind? And why did God initially infuse the mind into this body? Didn't he do something bad too? Such things are appropriate for heretics to say, who call the body evil and the image of the evil one, but we consider evil only the presence of the mind in bodily thoughts, while in the body it is not evil at all, since the body itself is not evil. It is not for nothing that everyone who has dedicated their life to God exclaims to God together with David: “My soul has thirsted for You, how much more has my flesh” and “My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God” (Ps. 62:2, 83:3) - and together with Isaiah: “My belly will cry like a harp, and my insides like a copper wall that You have renewed.” ”, and: “For Thy fear, O Lord, in the womb we conceived the Spirit of Thy salvation” (Is. 16:11, 26:18), daring in which we will not fall, but those who speak from the earth and falsely interpret heavenly sayings and ways of life into earthly ones will fall. If the apostle calls the body death, “who,” he says, “will deliver me from this body of death?” - then he understands the body as a mundane and bodily thought, occurring only in bodily images, which is why, comparing it with the spiritual and divine, he rightly calls it “body”, and not just “body”, but “the death of the body.” A little higher, he shows even more clearly that it is not the flesh that is condemned, but the sinful desire that comes from crime: “I,” he says, “is sold to sin,” but I am not a slave sold by nature; and again: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.” Do you see? He does not call the flesh evil, but what lives in it. The fact that it is not the mind (spirit), but “the law that is in our members and warring against the law of the mind” that lives in our body (Rom. 7:14–24), this is evil. Therefore, we, opposing the “law of sin” (Rom. 8:2), expel it from the body, install the mind as a ruler in the bodily house and with its help establish the proper law for every faculty of the soul and for every bodily organ: we command the senses what and how much to perceive, the action of this law is called “temperance”; We give the passionate part of the soul the best state, which is called “love”; We also improve the reasoning ability of the soul, driving out everything that prevents the thought from striving for God, and we call this section of the mental law “sober.” Whoever through abstinence cleanses his body, by the power of God’s love makes his will and his desire the support of virtues, and gives his mind to God in enlightened prayer, will receive and see in himself the grace promised to all who are pure in heart. Then he will be able to say with the Apostle Paul: “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” “We carry this treasure,” says the apostle, “in scanty vessels” (2 Cor. 4:6-7). Even if we carry the light of the Father in the face of Jesus Christ, for the knowledge of the glory of the Holy Spirit, as in meager vessels, in bodies, then will we really act unworthy of the nobility of the mind if we restrain our own mind inside the body? Who would say such a thing, not to mention those who are spiritual, but who at least possess a human mind, albeit one devoid of God’s grace? If our soul is a single multi-capable force that uses the body that receives life from it as an instrument, then using what parts of the body as instruments does that ability that we call mind operate? Of course, no one has ever imagined that the seat of thought is neither nails, nor eyelashes, nor nostrils, nor lips; everyone considers it to be located inside us, but theologians disagree on the question of which of the internal organs thought uses first of all, because some place it, as in a kind of acropolis, in the brain, while others assign its seat to the deepest center of the heart, cleansed of the spiritual spirit. If we ourselves definitely know that our ability to think is located not inside us as in some kind of vessel, since it is incorporeal, and not outside us, since it is associated with us, but is located in the heart as its instrument, then we learned this not from people, but from the Creator of people himself, who, after the words “What does not enter into the mouth, but what comes out through them defiles a person” says: “Thoughts come from the heart” ( Matthew 15:11,19). That is why Macarius the Great says: “The heart rules the entire composition of a person, and if grace takes possession of the pastures of the heart, it reigns over all thoughts and bodily members; after all, all the thoughts of the soul are in the heart” (Conversation 15:18): so the heart is the treasury of the rational ability of the soul and the main bodily instrument of reasoning. Trying in strict sobriety to observe and direct this ability of ours, what should we do if not to gather the mind scattered through external sensations and bring it to the inner focus, to the heart, the repository of thoughts? It is not for nothing that the venerable Macarius immediately after the words just quoted adds: “So, here we must look to see whether the laws of the Spirit are inscribed by grace.” Where is "here"? In the main bodily organ, on the throne of grace, where the mind and all spiritual thoughts are: in the heart. Do you see that those who decide to listen to themselves in hesychia must return and enclose the mind in the body, and especially in that inner body of the body, which we call the heart? If, according to the psalmist, “all the glory of the daughter of the King is within” (Ps. 44:14), then why would we look for her somewhere outside? If, according to the Apostle, “God has given His Spirit, crying in our hearts, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6), then is it not in our hearts that we should pray together with the Spirit? If, according to the Lord of the prophets and apostles, “The kingdom of heaven is within us” (Luke 17:21), then will not the one who tries with all his might to bring his own mind out from within himself will remain outside the Kingdom of heaven? “A right heart,” says Solomon, “seeks feelings” (Prov. 27:21), which he in another place called intelligent and Godly, and encouraging everyone to do so, the fathers say that “an intelligent spirit is always clothed in an intelligent feeling, and whether it is within us or outside of us, may we never cease to seek it” (Fl., verse 26). in a virtuous struggle, or rather, the key to the reward for virtue, intelligent feeling, then he needs to bring the body and mind inside? And to derive the mind not from bodily thoughts, but from the body itself, outside of which it supposedly receives mental contemplations, is the worst Hellenic seduction, the root and source of all evil teaching, a demonic invention, a science that gives rise to madness and is born of bewilderment. It is no coincidence that those who speak at the suggestion of demons are in a frenzy of themselves, not understanding what they are saying. We, on the contrary, introduce the mind not only inside the body and heart, but even inside the heart itself. Let these people gossip about how they can still introduce the mind, which is not separated from the soul, but connected with it. Apparently, they do not know that the essence of the mind is one thing, and its energy is another; or, perhaps, they know, but deliberately pose as confused, sophistically hiding behind the namesake of different concepts: after all, “whoever does not accept the simplicity of spiritual teaching, being sophisticated in dialectical contradictions,” he, in the words of Basil the Great, “perverts the power of truth with the plausibility of sophisms, using the antitheses of false knowledge” (Conversation 12, on Proverbs). Those who are not spiritual themselves, but consider themselves worthy to judge and teach about spiritual things, cannot do otherwise. They cannot help but remember that the mind is not like sight, which sees all other visible things, but does not see itself. He acts in everything else, considering what he needs - Dionysius the Areopagite calls this the direct movement of the mind - and returns to himself and acts on himself, contemplating himself, which Dionysius calls the circular movement of the mind (On the Divine Names 4:9). The second is the best and most characteristic action (energy) of the mind, through which it sometimes surpasses itself, uniting with God. Basil the Great says that “a mind that is not scattered externally...” - therefore, it can go outside! and when leaving, he needs, of course, to return, which is why Vasily continues: “... returns to himself, and through himself he ascends to God” (Letter 2 to St. Gregory the Theologian) as if in some reliable way. After all, the circular movement of the mind, says the undeluded contemplator of the intelligible sky Dionysius, is impossible to fall into any kind of wandering (On the Divine Names 4, 9). And so the father of error, who always tries to seduce a person from God’s path and turn him onto the path of wandering, until now, as far as we know, has not found an assistant who would try to lure him onto such a path with good words, but now, apparently, he has found his accomplices, if indeed, as you say, there are people who are beginning to convince the crowd and are already writing books, teaching that the one who prays is even the one who has accepted life with joy sublimely detached and silent - must keep his mind outside the body. These people do not recognize the definitive judgment of John, the builder of the verbal staircase leading to heaven, that “a hesychast is one who tries to enclose in his body the incorporeal” (Lev., word 27:6-7). This is what our spiritual fathers taught us. And rightly so: after all, if you do not enclose it inside the body, then how else can you contain the mind, which clothes itself in the body and, likening itself to the natural appearance of the body, is located throughout its entire formed matter? The externality and separateness of this matter cannot contain the essence of the mind unless this matter lives, and in a way of life that corresponds to the fusion of mind and body. Do you notice, brother, that even if you analyze the matter not spiritually, but simply in a human way, it still turns out that for those who want to belong to themselves and become truly “monks” (“one”) according to the inner man, it is necessary to introduce the mind inside the body and restrain it there? It is especially appropriate to teach beginners to look into themselves and bring their own mind inside through breathing. Therefore, no reasonable person would advise against using any methods to concentrate the mind within himself to a monk who does not yet know how to see himself. Precisely, since for those who have just begun to struggle, even the concentrated mind constantly jumps and they constantly have to return it again, but it eludes the inexperienced, who do not yet know that there is nothing more elusive and volatile than their own mind, then some advise carefully monitoring the inhalation and exhalation and holding back the breath a little, in observing it, as if holding the breath and the mind, until, having reached the highest stages with God and making your mind non-wandering and unmixed, teetotalers will not learn to strictly concentrate it in a “single convolution” (On the Divine Names 4, 9). You can see that this happens naturally with intense attention: with any concentrated thinking, especially in people who are calm in body and mind, the breath comes out and comes in quietly. By subsisting spiritually and, to the extent possible, restraining their own bodily actions, hesychasts stop all comparative, enumerative and various other cognitive work of mental forces, all sensory perception and, in general, all voluntary bodily action, and they limit anything that is not completely voluntary, such as breathing, to the extent that it depends on us. For those who have advanced in hesychia, all such things are achieved without labor and effort: with the perfect concentration of the soul within itself, the rest gradually comes on its own and without effort. On the contrary, you will never see what we are talking about happen without effort from beginners. Patience comes from love, because “love endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7), but we still learn to achieve patience through effort, so that with its help we can come to love; so here they are. Why talk about it a lot? Everyone who has spiritual experience only laughs at people who derive opposite rules not from experience, but from their own understanding; After all, in such matters, the teacher is not reason, but labor and experience gained through labor, which brings useful fruit, making the reasoning of all kinds of disputants and accusers empty and fruitless. And if, as one of the great teachers says, after the fall it is natural for the inner man to become like external forms, then is it really not useful for a monk who is trying to return his mind within himself and wants it to move not in a straight line, but in a circular and non-wandering motion, to not wander his gaze here and there, but as if at some stop to stop it on his chest [or navel]? Curling outwardly, as far as possible, as if into a circle, that is, becoming similar to the desired internal movement of the mind, he will also bring the power of the mind pouring out from the eyes, thanks to this form of the body, inside the heart. And then, if the power of the mental beast is on the umbilical cord of the belly, because here the law of sin has its power and feeds the beast, then why don’t we establish here the opposing law of the mind armed with prayer (Rom. 7:23), so that the evil spirit expelled by the bath of rebirth (Titus 3:5), returning with seven other and most evil spirits, does not move in again and the last does not become worse than the first (Luke 11:26)? “Pay attention to yourself,” says Moses, that is, to everything in yourself, and not to something yes, to something no. Whereby? Of course, through the mind, because it is impossible to listen to everything else. Place this guard over the soul and body; with it you can easily get rid of bad bodily and mental passions. Subdue yourself, command yourself, test yourself, or rather, submit, obey and test everything; so you will subjugate the unbridled flesh to the spirit and “there will never be a secret word in your heart” (Deut. 15:9). “If the spirit of the ruler” - that is, we must understand, the spirit of wickedness and passions - “comes upon you,” says Ecclesiastes, “do not leave your place” (Eccl. 10:4), that is, do not leave without supervision a single part of the soul, not a single bodily member; so you will rise above the spirits threatening from below and before “the one who searches the hearts and bellies” (Jer. 11:20) you will boldly stand, not being tested, since you yourself have already put everything to the test - after all, “if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged,” says Paul (1 Cor. 11:31). Having experienced the blessed Davidic feeling, you, too, will tell God that “the darkness will not darken you, and the night will shine like day for me, for you have taken possession of my inward parts” (Ps. 139:12-13). You not only, says the prophet here, appropriated to Yourself all the capacity of desire in my soul, but also every spark of this desire in the body, returning to its source, rose through it to You, united with You and clung to You. Because just as in those who are obsessed with sensual, perishing pleasures, the power of spiritual desire is completely emptied into the flesh, because of which they completely become flesh, and God’s Spirit, according to Scripture, cannot live in them (Gen. 6:4), so in those who ascend to God and are attached with their soul to God’s love, even the flesh, having been transformed, also rises and also tastes communion with God, itself becoming God’s possession and residence and no longer having any hidden enmity towards God, nor a desire contrary to His Spirit. And then, which place is more convenient for an evil spirit attacking us from below, the flesh or the mind? Is it not the flesh, about which the apostle said that until the law of life is infused, no good lives in it (Rom. 7:18)? This means that it should never be ignored. How will it submit to us, how can we not lose it, how can we repel the spirit of evil approaching it, especially when we do not yet know how to spiritually repel the spiritual forces of evil, if we do not learn to be attentive to our external form? What can we say about beginners, if even perfect men, not only after Christ, but also before His coming to us, gave their bodies such a form during prayer and were heard by God. The most perfect seer of God, Elijah, resolved a long-term drought with prayer, leaning his head on his knees and thus diligently introducing his mind inside himself and into God (1 Kings 18:42). And the people from whom you have heard enough, brother, are probably suffering from the Pharisaical disease, which is why they do not want to observe and cleanse the inside of the cup, that is, their heart. Not following the tradition of their fathers, they rush to sit over everyone as new teachers of the law; So they reject the physical form of the prayer of the publican, justified by the Lord, and they also encourage other praying people not to adhere to it. Because what does the Lord say in the Gospels? “The publican did not even dare to lift his eyes to heaven” (Luke 18:13). Those who, when praying, direct their gaze to themselves, strive for this external form. People who called them omphalopsyches (ὀμφαλοψύχους, “umbilical”) with the obvious purpose of slandering the accused - because did any of the prayer books ever say that the soul is in the navel? - not only exposed the slanderous intention of their attacks, but also showed about themselves that they desecrate the virtuous, and do not correct the erring, and write not for the sake of hesychia and truth, but out of vanity, and not to encourage sobriety, but to distract from sobriety. And they try in every possible way to humiliate this very work and the men who have diligently taken up it, just for one external action that corresponds to it. Those who said that “Your law is in the midst of my belly” (Ps. 39:9), and who prophesied to God that “my belly will cry like a harp, and my insides will be like a copper wall that You have renewed” (Is. 16:11), can easily be called kiliopsychs (κοιλιοψύχους, “gluttonous”) and in general to pervert everyone who imprints, names and seeks intelligent, divine and spiritual things in bodily symbols. Of course, by doing this they will not cause any harm to the saints; on the contrary, they will become a reason for new blessings for them and an even greater increase in heavenly crowns, while they themselves will remain outside the sacred veils, not being able to look even at the shadows of truth. And there is a great danger that people who not only moved away from the saints, but also went against them in their speeches, will pay for this with eternal punishment. You have read the “Life” of Simeon the New Theologian, almost whose entire life, glorified by God with supernatural signs, was a miracle, so that if anyone called his creations manuscripts of grace, he would not sin against the truth; You also know Nicephorus, a holy man, who, having spent many years in solitude and hesychia, and then settling in the most desolate place of the Holy Mountain and delving into his studies, conveyed to us the experience of sobriety drawn from all the writings of the holy fathers. They clearly advise beginners exactly what you say some people object to. Is it only the old saints? Men who testified a short time before us, and were distinguished by the power of the Holy Spirit, gave us the same message from their own lips. I am talking about the theologian - truly a theologian and the most reliable contemplator of the truth of God's mysteries - about the worthy Theoliptus, who became famous during our time, the primate of the Philadelphian Church, or rather the lamp that illuminated the universe from it; about Athanasius, who adorned the patriarchal throne for many years and whose relics the Lord honored; about Nile, who came to us from Italy, a rival of the great Saint Nile; about Celiota and Elijah, who are in no way inferior to him; about Gabriel and his friend Athanasius, who were awarded the prophetic gift. You know that all of them and many of their other predecessors, contemporaries and followers approve of this tradition and exhort them to adhere to it, while the newly-minted teachers of hesychia, who have not seen the shadow of hesychia, who edify not from experience, but from grandiosity, are trying to refute, distort and humiliate this very tradition, which is not at all for the benefit of those who listen to them. We personally communicated with some of the listed holy men, listening to their teachings. So, will we really neglect them, rich in both experience and grace, and prefer others who began to teach out of arrogance and passion for word disputes? It won't happen, it won't! And therefore, turn away from such people, wisely saying to yourself instead of David: “Bless, my soul. Lord, and all that is within me is His holy name” (Ps. 102:1) - and, entrusting yourself to your fathers, listen to how they admonish you to always bring your mind inward. The same Gregory Palamas. Three chapters on prayer and purity of heart Since the Divine is Absolute Goodness and - truly - mercy and the abyss of kindness, or better [to say] - That which also embraces this abyss, as surpassing every name that is called and [every] intelligible phenomenon, [then] only through union with Him is it possible to receive this mercy. And a person is united with Him - as far as [this] is possible - by engaging in similar virtues and through communication in prayer and unity, [achieved] by praying to God. However, the communication through the virtues is such that it makes the one who is diligent, through assimilation [to the Divine], capable of perceiving the Divine, but [it is not able to] unite [him with God]; the power of his prayer is sacred and completes man’s ascent to the Divine and unity [with Him], being a link connecting rational creatures with the Creator ([this is achieved when] the [fruits] of prayer with ardent contrition surpass passions and thoughts). For it is impossible for a mind overcome by passions to unite with God. So, as long as the mind remains like this while praying, it will not receive mercy; but to the extent [he] is able to get rid of thoughts, he plunges into crying. And according to the extent of this crying, he receives the mercy of consolation; and if at the same time he strengthens himself in humility, he will completely transform the passionate (το παθητικό) part of the soul. When the unity of the mind becomes trinitarian, remaining one, it is combined with the unity of the Divine Trinity, blocking access to any error and becoming above the flesh, the world and the ruler of the world. And thus, completely freed from their grip, he remains in himself and in God, enjoying himself to the fullest as long as he remains as such - exuding spiritual rejoicing from within himself. And the unity of the mind becomes threefold, remaining one, in its (i.e., the mind) turning to itself and ascending through itself to God. Turning the mind to itself is watching over itself, and its ascension to God is first accomplished through prayer - and through prayer that clings to [it], and sometimes - it happens - through one that has become longer, which is unbearably harder. But if someone remains steadfast in this gathering (coiling) of the mind and ascent to God, with a decisive effort squeezing the passage of his own mind [for bad thoughts], then he mentally approaches God, acquires unspeakable [goods], experiences [the bliss] of the future age and with a spiritual feeling knows that the Lord is good - just as the Psalmist says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good /” ( Ps.33:9). So, on the one hand, to find a single mind - one and the same - threefold: observing [oneself] and being observed, and praying while observing, is perhaps not so difficult, but, on the other hand, to remain for a long time adamant in such a state, giving rise to ineffable [goods], is extremely painful. After all, any labor [to acquire] another virtue is small and easily bearable in comparison with this one. That is why many, having retreated due to the inaccessibility of this prayerful virtue, do not achieve an abundance of talents; but those who endure [all difficulties] are made more powerful by the gifts of God - and, testing [them] and supporting them, they encourage them to move forward with joy, making the difficult to achieve [virtue] more effective, and putting, so to speak, into our nature the angelic skill, making it possible for this [nature] to communicate with that which is above nature, according to what was said through the prophet: “Those who hope They will lift up their wings and renew their strength...” (cf. Is.40:31). The activity of the mind, consisting of thoughts and reflections, is also called mind; in addition, the mind is the force that produces (ενεργεί) them, which Scripture calls the heart. In accordance with this [force], the most important of our internal forces, our soul is rational (λογική) - or, rather, the activity of the mind [consisting] in thoughts (λογισμοῖς), [which] for those who spend time in prayer, and mainly in monosyllabic prayer, is easily calmed and purified, while the power that generates it (potency, δύναμις) cannot be cleansed unless all the other powers of the soul [are cleansed]. For the soul is a single living being with many powers. This is why it is completely desecrated: [when] evil arises from any of its forces, [then] all [the others] are combined with this one [force] due to the unity of the soul. And since each of the forces is accompanied by its own special action, [then] it is possible, thanks to diligence, to temporarily purify the action of any one [of the forces]; but thanks to this, this force itself will not become pure: after all, communicating with [all] other [forces], it will rather remain uncleaned than pure. Therefore, the one who has purified - thanks to diligence in prayer - the activity of the mind, and [becomes] enlightened to the extent of [his purity] - either by the light of knowledge, or [more than that] by mental illumination (i.e., the light of God). But if because of this he considers himself purified, [then] he will fall into error, uttering lies against himself, and, [driven by] conceit, he will open [himself], who is trying to fall into [this] error forever, a wide door [leading] away from himself. If he knows the impurity of his own heart, [then] let him not boast of that [very] moderate purity of his; [and now], using it as an assistant, [he] more clearly sees the impurity of other spiritual forces, succeeds in humility, adds to crying and appropriately seeks healing for each of the forces of the soul: active - with activity, cognitive - with knowledge, and through prayer - contemplative strength. And thanks to them, he enters into perfect, true and unshakable purity of heart and mind, which would never have arisen in anyone if it had not been [acquired] by perfection in deeds, persistent contrition, contemplation and prayer [performed] in contemplation. Svyatogorsk tomos in defense of the sacredly silent, against those who, having no experience, not believing the saints, reject the indescribable mysterious actions (energies) of the Spirit, which act in those who live according to the Spirit and reveal themselves actively, and are not proven by reasoning. 1. The institutions, barely heard and already jointly recognized and openly proclaimed by all, were the sacraments of the Mosaic Law, and only the prophets saw spiritually in them. The blessings of the future age promised to the saints are the sacraments of living according to the Gospel, and seeing in them is given to those who are worthy of having spiritual vision, and they see them in a small measure, as if a certain part of the pledge. And just as the ancient Jew, listening unfavorably to the prophets speaking about the Word and the Spirit of the coeternal and eternal God, would have blocked his ears, thinking that piety does not allow listening to these words, that they contradict the voice recognized among the pious, that is, who said “The Lord our God, there is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4), so now the same can be experienced by those who are without listens with reverence to the spiritual mysteries, which are known only to those who are purified by virtue. And again, just as those predictions came true, what was then a secret came into agreement with obvious things, and we now believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the Trinitarian Divinity, in one nature, simple, uncomplicated, uncreated, invisible, incomprehensible to the mind, so will it be when by the ineffable appearance of God, one in three perfect hypostases, the future age will be revealed in due course for all it will become clear that the mysterious things agree with the obvious ones. The following is also worthy of attention: just as the consistency of the Trinitarian Divinity and what was said about the unity of command became evident everywhere to the ends of the earth in later times, the prophets knew this even before the events took place and were able to convey their knowledge to those who believed them then, in the same way and now we accept the words of confession, both those that are openly proclaimed and those that are mysteriously, spiritually made clear to the worthy. Some are initiated into the sacraments by their own experience - these are those who, for the sake of the Gospel life, rejected the acquisition of money, human glory and obscene pleasures of the flesh and further strengthened their renunciation by entering into obedience to those who had succeeded in the age of Christ; carelessly in silence, listening to themselves and to God, in pure prayer, becoming above themselves and abiding in God, with the help of a mysterious union with Him that transcends the mind, they became involved in the sacraments that are inaccessible to the mind. Others - for respect, faith and love for such people. This is how we, too, listening to the words of the great Dionysius in his second letter to Gaius about divinity, superiority and goodness as a deifying gift of God, believe that God, who gives this grace to the worthy, is superior to this divinity, because God does not tolerate diversity and no one here speaks of two divinities. And Saint Maximus, when writing about Melchizedek, calls this grace of God uncreated and eternally existing from the eternally existing God, in another place - unborn, hypostatic light, which is worthy when they become worthy, reveals itself, but does not then arise at all; he calls this light the light of ineffable glory and the purity of angels. The great Macarius calls it the food of the incorporeal, the glory of the divine nature and the beauty of the future age, the divine and heavenly fire, the ineffable and mental light, the deposit of the Holy Spirit (See 2 Cor. 1:22), the sanctifying oil of joy (See Ps. 45:8). 2. Therefore, whoever counts among the Messalians people who call this idolizing grace of God uncreated, unborn and hypostatic, and calls them hypotheists, let him know, whoever he is, that he opposes God’s saints and if he does not repent, he will cast himself out of the lot of those who are being saved, falling away from the One and Only God of the saints by nature. But he who, having faith and obedience, agrees with the saints and does not invent excuses for sins (cf. Ps. 140:4), does not ignorantly reject what is clearly spoken about, but does not know the way in which the sacrament is performed, let him not neglect to study carefully from those who know. He learns that neither the dogma that protects us, nor the completely divine sacrament deviates in any way from divine words and actions, in the most important things, without which nothing could exist at all. 3. He who declares that without the deifying grace of the Spirit, complete unity with God is achieved through mere imitation and intercourse, as among people of equal equality and loving each other, and that the deifying grace of God is a state of rational nature that arises through simple imitation, and not a supernatural ineffable illumination and not divine energy, invisibly visible to the worthy and inconceivably conceivable, let him know that, not knowingly, he fell into the deception of the Messalians. After all, if deification is carried out by virtue of natural ability and is covered by the limits that nature sets, then God will then make people deified naturally, out of inevitable necessity. Let such a one not strive to impose his vacillation on those who stand firm, let him not denigrate those whose faith is immaculate, putting aside arrogance, but learn from those who are experienced or from those who have been taught by them that the grace of deification is completely incomprehensible by anything, for it has no property capable of being contained in nature, otherwise it is no longer grace, but a manifestation of the action of natural force. And what happens will cease to be something extraordinary if deification could take place due to the ability to contain deification. Deification would then be a natural work of nature, and not a gift from God. Then man could become God by nature and be called such by right. After all, the property inherent by nature in every being is nothing more than the constant movement of nature towards activity. How does deification place the deified person outside of himself, if it itself is limited by the limits of nature - I cannot understand this. This means that the grace of deification stands above nature, virtue and knowledge and, according to the testimony of St. Maxima, everything like that is infinitely beneath her. Every virtue and imitation of God within our power makes the one who acquires them suitable for divine unity, while the ineffable unity itself is accomplished by grace. Thanks to it, the whole God abides near those who are completely worthy, and near the whole God the whole saints abide entirely, receiving the whole God in return for themselves, as if as a reward for ascending to Him, having acquired Him alone, God, and He, in the image of the soul fused with the body, has deigned them, as His members, to be in Him. 4. He who declares those who say that the mind has its seat in the heart or in the brain to be Messalians, let him know that he has not diligently studied the saints, for the great Athanasius places the rational part of the soul in the brain, and Macarius, who is in no way inferior to him in greatness, places the activity of the mind in the heart, and almost all the saints agree with them. And the divine Gregory of Nyssa does not contradict the saints with this when he says that the mind is incorporeal and is neither inside the body nor outside it. They speak of the mind inside the body as being in contact with the body, and by expressing it in a different way, they do not differ at all from it. So, the one who says that the Divine, as incorporeal, does not dwell in any place, is not contradicted by the one who says that the Word of God dwelt inside the virgin and immaculate womb, meaning that there He, out of inexpressible love for mankind, incomprehensible to reason, came into contact with our mixture. 5. Whoever says that the light that illuminated the disciples on Tabor (See Matt. 17:1-2) is a phenomenon and a sign, like those that arise and disappear, and does not have the fullness of being and does not exceed all speculation, but is lower than speculation in its action, clearly does not agree with the opinion of the saints, for they call it in their hymns and writings the ineffable, uncreated, eternal light, timeless, unapproachable, immeasurable, boundless, boundless, invisible to angels and men, original and unchangeable beauty, the glory of God, the glory of Christ, the glory of the Spirit, the ray of the Divine, and similar names. The flesh, they say, is glorified along with what it has received, and the glory of the Divine becomes the glory of the body, but in the visible body the glory was invisible to those who could not contain what is inaccessible even to the gaze of angels. What is transformed is not what He did not take upon Himself, and not what He did not change into, but what He made clear to His disciples, opening their eyes, making them sighted from the blind. Remaining identical to Himself, He now appeared to the eyes of the disciples as He had been before, for He is the true Light (See John 1:9), the beauty of glory and shone like the sun; This likeness is dim, but it is impossible to give an impeccable likeness to the uncreated in the created. 6. Whoever recognizes only the essence of God as uncreated, but not all those eternal energies of Him, over which He rises as the productive above the produced, let him listen to Saint Maximus, who says: “All the immortals and immortality itself, all the living and life itself, all the saints and holiness itself, all the virtuous and virtue itself, all the good and goodness itself, all that exist and existence itself - all of them, undoubtedly, are the creations of God. However, some began to be in time, for God was then when they were not; others did not begin to be in time, for He was never without virtue, goodness, holiness and immortality.” And again: “goodness and everything that is included in this concept, as well as simply all life, immortality, simplicity, immutability, infinity and that which is essentially contemplated around God - they are the creations of God, and did not begin to be in time. After all, virtue or anything of the above was never preceded by non-existence, although the beings participating in them themselves began to be in time. For every virtue is beginningless and time does not precede it, since from eternity it has as its Parent the only God, God is infinitely and infinitely different from all beings - both those who participate and those who allow participation.” Let him learn from this that not everything that has come from God is also subject to time, for some of them have no beginning, and this does not at all distort the statement about the one Triple Unit, beginningless in nature, and the supernatural simplicity inherent in It. Likewise, the mind, in weak resemblance to that highest indivisibility, is not at all complex due to the thoughts inherent in it. 7. Whoever does not accept the spiritual states imprinted in the body from the grace-filled gifts of the Spirit, characteristic of those who have succeeded in the soul according to God, who calls dispassion the state of the deadness of the passionate part of the soul, and not the state of its activity aimed at the better - when the passionate part has completely turned away from evil deeds and turned to good ones, having lost bad properties and been enriched by good ones - he, following a similar opinion, rejects the presence of the body in the incorruptible age being; after all, if then the body will participate with the soul in unspeakable blessings, then now it will certainly, as far as it can contain, participate in the grace that God mysteriously and ineffably gives to the purified mind, and the body in itself will experience divine things, if the passionate part of the soul has changed, been sanctified, but not mortified as a state and, with the community of body and soul, sanctifies the dispositions and actions of the body. After all, when the blessings of life are abandoned for the sake of the hope of future blessings, the mind, according to the word of Saint Diadochos, having a healthy course due to carelessness, itself feels the divine ineffable goodness and, to the extent of its success, allows the body to participate in its goodness. And the joy that is then born in the soul and in the body is an undoubted reminder of incorruptible life. 8. The mind tends to perceive light differently from the senses. The sense perceives sensory light, which shows sensory objects as sensory, and the light of the mind is knowledge resting in thoughts. This means that vision and mind do not perceive the same light, but both act within limits consistent with their own nature, and in what is consistent with nature. And those who are blessed with spiritual and supernatural grace and power, those who are awarded this, see with their feelings and minds that which is above all feelings and all minds. Let us say together with the great theologian Gregory that this is known only to God and to those who do such things. The Scriptures taught us this, we received this from our Fathers, we learned this from our little experience. And our most honorable hieromonk and brother Gregory wrote about this in defense of the sacredly silent. Certifying its exact adherence to the traditions of the saints, we have added our signatures for complete confidence of the readers. And having the signatures of the most reverend protoss, and the abbots, and the honest elders, the most sacred bishop after them, for confirmation, also wrote in this way: “The humble Bishop of Jerissa and the Holy Mountain, Jacob, brought up in the Holy Mountain and patristic traditions, testifies that in the person of those who put their signatures here, the entire Holy Mountain signed in agreement with them, and he himself, agreeing, signed, putting a seal. And after all he added the following: if anyone does not agree with the saints, as we and our Fathers who were shortly before us agree, then we will not enter into communion with him.” And for [greater] approval I wrote the names of the above-mentioned abbots and monks: [Hegumen Saint] Theodosius of the Lavra. [Hegumen] of the Iveron Monastery Anthony. [Hegumen] of the Vatopedi Monastery Ioannikios. Abba John from the Bulgarian [monastery]. Hieromonk of [St.] Lavra Philotheus. Confessor of the monastery of Esphigmen Amphilochius. Theodosius, confessor of the Vatopedi monastery. [Hegumen] of the Kotlomu monastery Feosterikt. Geronius Maroulis, [elder of the sacred] Lavra. [Monk] of the same [Lavra] Callistus Mouzalon. Hieromonk of the Vatopedi monastery Gerasim. [Elder and monk] Moses of the Ivir monastery. [Monk] of the sacred monastery Gregory Stravolankoditus. [Elder and] hieromonk from the skete Magul Isaiah. [Monk] of the same [monastery] Mark Sinaite. Hieromonk of the same monastery Kallistos. Sirsky [silent elder]. [Monk] Sophrony from the Vatopedi monastery. [Monk] of the same [monastery] Josaf. From the Life of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, that all Christians should pray unceasingly Do not think, my Christian brothers, that only priests and monks should pray always and incessantly, but not the laity. No no! All of us Christians should always be in prayer. His Holiness Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople writes about this in the Life of Saint Gregory of Thessaloniki. He says that the divine Gregory had a beloved friend named Job, a simple man and very virtuous. Talking with him one day, the saint told him about prayer: it is fitting for every Christian to continually turn to prayer and pray unceasingly, as the Apostle Paul commands all Christians: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). The prophet David, who was a king and had all the worries of being a king, says the same thing: “I always saw the Lord before me” (Ps. 15:8), which means: “I see the Lord always before me in my mind in prayer.” And Gregory the Theologian teaches all Christians and tells them: “(The name of God should be remembered through prayer more often than we breathe.” And saying this to his friend Job and much more, Saint Gregory also told him that we should obey the commandments of the saints, and not only pray constantly ourselves, but also teach all others - monks, laymen, the wise and the ignorant, and encourage them to pray unceasingly. Hearing all this, Elder Job, who thought this was a new thing, began to argue with Saint Gregory, arguing that only fasters and monks who have left the world and its worries should constantly pray, and not the laity, who have so many worries and responsibilities. The saint spoke to him again and brought other evidence and unquestioning instructions, but Elder Job did not agree. The Divine Gregory, avoiding verbosity and argument, fell silent, and they each went to their own cell. Afterwards, when Job was praying alone in his cell, an Angel of the Lord appeared before him, sent from God, who wants the salvation of all people. And having denounced the elder for arguing with Saint Gregory and resisting the obvious, thanks to which the salvation of Christians occurs, he commanded him in the name of the Holy God in the future to diligently listen and refrain from objecting to this most soul-helping matter, for this is resistance to God’s Will. Let him not dare to accept with his mind an opposing thought and think differently from what the divine Gregory says. Then this simple old man Job went quickly to the Saint and fell at his feet, asking forgiveness for his resistance and support, and revealed to him everything that the Angel of the Lord had told him. You see, brothers, how all Christians, young and old, should always pray a mental prayer, namely: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” And let their minds and hearts get used to saying this always. And think how we please God with this and what benefit it can bring! Since He, out of boundless love for mankind, sent a Heavenly Angel to reveal this to us, let there be no doubt in us about this! What do the laity say? - “We have so many worries and responsibilities, how is it possible for us to pray unceasingly?” And I answer them: “God did not command us anything impossible, He commanded us only what we can do. Therefore, it is possible for anyone who persistently seeks the salvation of their soul to fulfill this. If this were impossible, then it would be the same for all laypeople. And then there wouldn’t be so many people in the world who would do it. Of these, let the father of the aforementioned Saint Gregory, the wondrous Constantine, who was at the royal court and called “the father and teacher of King Andronicus,” be an example for many. He was daily engaged in his duties at court, and in addition, he had household chores, because he was rich, had a lot of property, slaves, children, and a wife. And, despite all this, he was so inseparable from God and so diligently devoted himself to intelligent and unceasing prayer that he often forgot what the king and princes told him about royal affairs, so that he had to ask them again twice and thrice. Because of this, other courtiers, not knowing the reason, were dissatisfied with him and reproached him for quickly forgetting and annoying the king with repeated questions. But the king, knowing the reason, defended him, saying: “Blessed Constantine has his own worries, and because of them he cannot listen to our words. For our words are about vain and transitory matters. The mind of this blessed one is nailed to true and heavenly [things], because of this he forgets everything earthly, for all his attention is in prayer and in God.” This Constantine was famous for this, as His Holiness Patriarch Philotheus says, and deservedly loved by the king and all the nobles and princes, because he was loved by God. And therefore the ever-remembered one was honored to work miracles. One day, as His Holiness Philotheus relates in the life of Saint Gregory, his son, he got into a boat with all his household to go for prayer and blessing to a hermit who was staying in silence in the mountains near Galata. On the way, he asked the servants if they had taken any food to bring to the hermit and treat him. They said that they forgot about what was entrusted to them and did not take anything. The blessed one was upset, but did not say anything. Only when the boat floated forward, he plunged his hand into the sea and prayed with a silent and intelligent prayer to God, the Lord of the sea, to give him some kind of catch. After some time (O Christ the King! With what miracles do you glorify your servants!) he takes his hand out of the sea and holds a large fish. And he threw it into the boat in front of his servants and said: “So the Lord took care of Abba, his servant, and sent food!” You see, my brothers, with what glory the Lord Jesus Christ glorifies His servants, those who are always with Him and always call upon His all-holy and sweetest Name. And the righteous Saint Evdokim? Was he not also in Constantinople in the royal chambers and in the royal services, with kings and courtiers, and with so much care and bustle? But mental prayer was always inseparable from him, as Simeon Metaphrastus tells about it in his Life. Therefore, being in the world and being a layman, this blessed “man” lived his life in a truly angelic and premium (υπερκόσμια) life and was vouchsafed by the rewarder God to accept a blessed and divine end. And many other people, of whom there are many in history, while in the world, indulged in intelligent and saving prayer. So, my Christian brothers, I pray to you - like the divine Chrysostom: for the sake of the salvation of your soul, do not neglect the work of prayer! Imitate those of whom I have spoken and follow them as best you can. And if at first this seems difficult to you, then let it be known to you, as from the Almighty God Himself, that the very name of our Lord Jesus Christ, called upon by you daily without ceasing, will help us overcome these difficulties, and over time, when we get used to it and enjoy it, then we will learn from our own experience that this is not impossible and difficult, but possible and easy. Therefore, the divine Paul, who knows better than us the great benefits contained in prayer, commanded us to pray unceasingly. After all, he would never have advised us to do something difficult and impossible if we had been unable to fulfill it, for then we would have become violators of his commandment and would have been worthy of condemnation. But the prudence of the apostle, who advises us to pray unceasingly, is precisely that we should pray mentally, this is always possible. For when we do handicrafts, and when we walk or sit, or eat, or drink, we can always pray in our mind, make mental prayer, pleasing to God and righteous. Let us work with our bodies and pray with our minds. Let the outer man perform bodily service, and let the inner man always be dedicated to the service of God and never become lacking in this spiritual work of mental prayer, as the God-man Jesus commands us in the Holy Gospel: “But when you pray, go into your closet and, having shut the door, pray to Your Father in secret” (Matthew 6:6). The cage of your soul is the body of the door, and our five senses. The soul enters its cage when our mind is not immersed in worldly affairs and remains in our heart, our feelings are closed and remain closed if we do not leave them nailed to sensory and visible things. In this way, our mind remains free from all worldly attachments, and through secret and mental prayer is united with God, our Father. And then, says the Lord, your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly. God, the knower of the heart, sees your intelligent prayer and rewards it with obvious great gifts. For this prayer is true and perfect, and it fills the soul with Divine Grace and spiritual gifts, like sacred ointment: the more tightly it is closed in a vessel, the more it fills the vessel with fragrance. Likewise, prayer: the deeper it is hidden in your heart, the more it fills it with Divine Grace. Blessed and prosperous are those who are accustomed to this heavenly work, for with it they overcome all temptations of demons, just as David once defeated the proud Goliath. In this way they extinguish the unruly lusts of the flesh, just as three youths once extinguished the fire of the cave. Through this act of mental prayer passions are tamed, just as Daniel tamed the fierce lions. By this they bring down the dew of the Holy Spirit into their hearts, just as Elijah brought down the rain on Carmel. This mental prayer ascends like incense even to the Throne of God and is kept in golden phials. As John the Theologian says in the Apocalypse: “Twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Apoc. 5:8). This mental prayer is the only light that always enlightens a person’s soul and ignites his heart with the flame of God’s love. She is a kind of chain that holds God in union with man. O incomparable grace of mental prayer! It makes a person an interlocutor with God. Oh, a truly wonderful and extraordinary thing! May you always be with man physically and always with God mentally. Angels do not have material voices, but with their minds they constantly bring praise to God. That's their business. This is what their life is dedicated to. And you, brother, when you enter your cell and close the door, that is, when your mind is not scattered here and there, but enters inside your heart, and your feelings are not nailed to the things of this world - and you always pray with your mind, then you are like the holy Angels, and your Father, who sees your mysterious prayer, which you bring to Him in the depths of your heart, will clearly reward you with great spiritual gifts. What more can one desire than to be always with the mind with God, as I said, and to converse with Him unceasingly. Without Him no one can ever be blessed, either here or in another life. In addition, brother, whoever you are, when you pick up this book and, by reading it, want to find benefit in your soul, I ask you fervently, do not forget to pray to God: “Lord, have mercy, for the sake of the sinful soul, who labored about this book and gave his support to print it, the one who needs your great prayer in order to find Divine mercy in his soul, just as you do in yours." The chapters of Thalassius of Libya “On Love, Temperance and Spiritual Life” are based on the Slavic translation of Paisius Velichkovsky and the Russian translation of Optina Pustyn in 1855. Our Reverend and God-Bearing Father Abba Thalassius of Libya and Africa, on love, abstinence and spiritual life, to Presbyter Paul [their edge is as follows: To the spiritual brother and beloved Master Paul, Thalassius, apparently silent, but in truth a vain merchant.] 1. Love, constantly extended (directed) towards God, connects those who love with God and with each other. 2. A mind that has acquired spiritual love does not think about its neighbor anything that is not characteristic of love. 3. Under the guise of love, he hides hypocrisy who blesses with his lips but humiliates with his heart. 4. He who has acquired love without embarrassment endures the sorrowful and distressing things brought about by his enemies. 5. One love unites creatures with God and with each other in like-mindedness. 6. He has acquired true love who does not accept suspicion or criticism of his neighbor. 7. He is worthy of honor before God and people who does not intend anything to destroy love. 8. Unfeigned love is characterized by truthful speech, which comes from a good conscience. 9 . He who conveys reproaches to his brother from another, under the guise of good disposition, conceals envy. 10. Just as carnal virtues attract human glory, so do spiritual virtues of God. 11. Love and abstinence cleanse the soul, and pure prayer makes the mind bright. 12. A strong man is one who repels evil through action and conduct. 13. He has found grace from God who has acquired dispassion and spiritual knowledge. 14. If you want to overcome passionate thoughts, acquire abstinence and love for your neighbor. 15. Save yourself from intemperance and hatred, and you will not encounter stumbling blocks during your prayer. 16. Just as fragrances cannot be found in the mud, so the fragrance of love cannot be found in the soul of a vindictive person. 17. Manage irritability and lust, and you will soon get rid of evil thoughts. 18. By doing things in secret, vanity is destroyed, and by not humiliating anyone, pride is driven away. 19. Vanity is characterized by hypocrisy and lies, and pride is characterized by arrogance and envy. 20. The boss is the one who rules over himself, and has subdued both soul and body to reason. 21. The sincerity of a friend is revealed in temptation when he takes part in difficult circumstances of life. 22. Shut your feelings through silence, and judge the thoughts that come to your heart. 23. Address sad thoughts without resentment, and be hostile towards those who love voluptuous thoughts. 24. Silence, prayer, love and abstinence are a four-part chariot that lifts the mind to heaven. 25. Exhaust your body with non-eating and vigil, and you will repel the tormentor, the thought of sweetness. 26. Just as wax melts from fire, so does an unclean thought from the fear of God. 27. A serious loss for a reasonable soul is the bending of the mind in reprehensible (shameful) passion. 28. Patiently endure sorrowful and painful cases, for through them the Providence of God purifies you. 29. Having rejected the material and renounced the world, renounce evil thoughts. 30. The nature of the mind is to always remain in the words of God. 31. Just as it is the work of God to rule the world, so it is the work of the soul to rule the body. 32. With what hope will we meet Christ, working for the pleasures of the flesh even to this day? 33. Lust for pleasure is destroyed by suffering and sorrows, either arbitrary or sent from Providence. 34. The food of passions is the love of money, for it strengthens the prevailing sweetness. 35. From the deprivation of pleasure sorrow is born, and pleasure is associated with every passion. 36. With what measure you measure to your body, God will measure it back to you. 37. The works of Divine destinies are righteous rewards for what is done in the body (2 Cor. 5:10). 38. Virtue and knowledge give birth to immortality, and their deprivation was the mother of death. 39. Sadness for God kills sensual pleasure, and the mortification of sensual pleasure is the resurrection of the soul. 40. Dispassion is the immobility of the soul towards evil, which cannot be obtained without the mercy of Christ. 41. Christ is the Savior of soul and body, and those who follow His footsteps are freed from evil. 42. If you want to receive salvation, renounce sweets (carnal pleasures), and accept abstinence and love with diligent prayer. 43. Dispassion is characterized by true reasoning, with the help of which you do everything according to measure and rule. 44. Jesus Christ is our Lord and God, and the mind that follows Him will not remain in darkness. 45. Gather your mind and observe your thoughts, and whichever of them you find passionate, wage war against them. 46. There are three reasons from which thoughts arise in us: feelings, memories and bodily constitution; The most painful thoughts are those that come from memories. 47. He who is given wisdom understands the properties of the incorporeal, and what is the beginning and end of the World. 48. Do not be careless about active virtues, and your mind will be enlightened. Treasures, says the Lord, hidden in darkness, hidden treasures I will give to you (Is. 45:3). 49. He who has been freed from passions has found the grace of God, and he who has been granted knowledge has found great mercy. 50. The mind, freed from passions, becomes light-like, being constantly illuminated by the contemplation of creatures. 51. The light of the soul is holy knowledge, which, having been deprived, the madman walks as if in darkness. 52. The one who turns in the darkness of vice is mad: he is soon enveloped by the darkness of ignorance. 53. He who loves Jesus will be freed from evil, and he who follows Him will receive true knowledge. 54. The mind, freed from passions, sees subtle mental ideas, both when the body is awake and in dreams. 55. The mind, completely purified, sees for itself cramped existence, and always wants to be outside of everything created. 56. Blessed is he who has reached infinite infinity, and he has reached [infinity] who has transcended all that is finite. 57. He who honors God tests His word, and the lover of truth understands it. 58. A mind driven by righteousness finds the truth, but a mind driven by some passion is led astray by it. 59. God is both essentially incomprehensible and infinite in greatness. 60. A being that has neither beginning nor end, and [its] wisdom is untestable (unsearchable). 61. The preservation (salvation) of every creature is the all-good providence for it of its Creator. 62. With His mercy the Lord strengthens all those who fall, and restores all those who are cast down (Ps. 144:14). 63. Christ is the Judge of the living and the dead and the righteous rewarder of each according to his deeds. 64. If you want to rule over the soul and body, then first cut off the causes of passions. 65. Pair (combine) spiritual strength with virtues, and they will be completely freed from the violence of passions. 66. Curb the impulse of lust with abstinence, and the impulse of irritability with spiritual love. 67. Silence and prayer are the greatest weapons of virtue: for they, purifying the mind, make it insightful. 68. Only spiritual conversation is useful, and silence is preferable to everything else. 69. Of the five types of conversation, choose three, use the fourth not often, and do not use the fifth at all. 70. Silence is loved by one who is not partial to worldly things and who loves all people, not loving anything human. 71. Conscience is the true teacher; whoever listens to it will not be stumbled. 72. Only those who have reached the height of virtue or vice are not judged by conscience. 73. Perfect dispassion makes mental representations (thoughts) subtle; perfect knowledge leads to the Unknown. 74. Sorrow from an unsatisfied desire for pleasure is reprehensible; but he who despises them remains careless. 75. Sorrow in general is a deprivation of sweetness, whether you mean Divine or worldly sweetness. 76. The Kingdom of God is goodness and wisdom, and whoever achieves them lives in heaven. 77. Pathetic is the man who by his deeds prefers the body to the soul and this to God. 78. He has acquired equal love for everyone who does not envy those who are zealous [in virtue] and is merciful to the vicious. 79. In truth, he should be the leader who has made the deeds of virtue a law for the soul and body. 80. A spiritual merchant is one who, for the sake of future [goods], has equally acquired self-sacrifice from the pleasures of life and from the sorrow of everyday things. 81. The soul is strengthened by love and abstinence, and the mind is strengthened by pure prayer and spiritual contemplation. 82. When you hear a useful word, do not judge the one who speaks it, lest you be deprived of useful teaching. 83. The evil mind thinks evil and interprets the good deeds of its neighbor to reduce their dignity. 84. Do not believe the thought that judges your neighbor; for he, having an evil treasure, thinks evil. 85. From a good heart come good thoughts, for his thoughts correspond to his treasure. 86. Watch your thoughts and run away from evil, so that your mind does not become darkened and begins to see one thing instead of another. 87. Remember the Jews and strengthen yourself. They, blinded by envy, reinterpreted the Lord and God into Beelzebub. 88. Evil suspicion darkens the mind and causes what is seen to be outside the path instead of the path (the unwise is seen as the right). 89. Evil is attached to every virtue, and therefore wicked [people] interpret virtue into vice. 90. The mind, ossified in pleasure or sorrow, the sooner it falls into the passion of despondency. 91. A clear conscience elevates the soul, but an unclean thought casts it down [to the underworld]. 92. Passions, being in motion, drive away vanity, and being tamed, they bring it back again. 93. If you want to get rid of all passions together, then embrace abstinence, love and prayer. 94. The mind, staying in God for a long time through prayer, delivers the passionate part of the soul from passions. 95. God, having given existence to creatures, at the same time connected everything with His Providence. 96. Being the Master and becoming a slave, He thereby revealed to creation the perfection of Providence. 97. God and the Word, having become incarnate unchangeably (immutably), through the taking on of flesh united with all creation. 98. A strange miracle is happening in heaven and on earth: God on earth and man in heaven! 99. To unite people with Angels and together grant deification to all [intelligent and verbal] creation. 100. The sanctification and deification of Angels and men is the knowledge of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. 101. Forgiveness of sins is freedom from passions; and whoever has not freed himself from them by grace has not yet received forgiveness. [their edge is as follows: Pray for me, most honest brother; for I worthily expect great troubles according to the works of my will—spiritual sorrows and bodily sorrows. ] 1. If you want to free yourself from all evil collectively, then renounce the mother of evils - self-love. 2. Health of the soul is dispassion and knowledge; one who works with sweets cannot achieve this. 3. Temperance with patience and love with generosity dry up bodily and mental pleasures. 4. The beginning of evil for the soul was pride. Self-love is love for the body. 5. It is common for a rational being to obey the mind and pacify and enslave the body (1 Cor. 9:27). 6. It is offensive for the rational part of a person to obey the unreasonable part and to extend concern for this to shameful lusts (Rom. 13:14). 7. It is a bad thing for a rational soul to leave the Creator of it and idolize the body. 8. You are commanded to have the body as a servant, and not to serve its pleasures contrary to nature. 9 . Break the bonds of love for the body, and do not give this slave anything except what is absolutely necessary. 10. Shut your senses under the guard of silence so that they do not carry the mind towards their desires. 11. The strongest weapons for one who is silent with patience are: abstinence, love, prayer and reading. 12. The mind does not stop wandering around sweets as long as it has enslaved the flesh and practices contemplation. 13. Let us strive for the commandments in order to free ourselves from passions, and for the Divine dogmas in order to be worthy of knowledge. 14. Undisturbed peace of the soul is dispassion and knowledge; one who works with sweets cannot achieve this. 15. Enslave the body by taking away sweets from it, and you will free it from painful slavery. 16. Having been created free and called to freedom, do not allow yourself to be servile to impure passions. 17. With sorrows and sweets, lusts and insurances, demons tie the mind to the sensual. 18. The fear of God holds back lust, and sorrow for God drives away pleasures. 19. The desire for wisdom despises fear, and the sweetness of knowledge drives away sorrow. 20. Scripture contains these four: commandments, dogmas, threats and promises. 21. Temperance and work stop lust, and silence and love for God reduce it. 22. Do not hurt your brother with mysterious words; for you cannot endure being mutually exposed to such things. 23. Generosity and unforgettable malice stop irritability, and love and mercy reduce it. 24. Whoever is given knowledge is given intelligent light, and whoever, having received it, dishonors it, will see darkness. 25. Keeping God's commandments gives rise to dispassion; knowledge is preserved by the dispassion of the soul. 26. Elevate the sensory to spiritual vision, and you will elevate feeling above the sensory. 27. A sensual wife means an active soul, with which, when combined, the mind gives birth to virtues. 28. Studying the word of God teaches the knowledge of God to those who seek [it] sincerely, reverently and diligently. 29. As light is to those who see and what is seen, so is God to those who think and what is thought. 30. The sensual firmament means the firmament of faith, on which all the Saints shine like luminaries. 31. The heavenly Jerusalem is the understanding of the incorporeal, for in this the vision of the world is contemplated. 32. Do not neglect doing (active life), for through this knowledge decreases, and there will be famine, and you will go to Egypt. 33. Spiritual freedom is liberation from passions; no one receives it without the grace of Christ. 34. The land of promise is the Kingdom of Heaven, into which dispassion and knowledge are introduced. 35. Mental Egypt is a clouding of passions; no one enters it unless he is hungry. 36. Incline your ear more often to spiritual words, and your mind will move away from unclean thoughts. 37. God alone is good and wise by nature, but the mind can also be so by communion, if it strives. 38. Master your belly, your sleep, your temper and your tongue, and you will not dash your foot against a stone. 39. Strive to love every person equally, and you will drive away all passions. 40. The vision of the sensory is common to the mind and feeling; Actually, the contemplation of the mental belongs to the mind [alone]. 41. It is impossible for the mind to exercise in the spiritual if it does not cut off attachment to the senses and to the sensual. 42. The senses have a natural predilection for the sensual and, being attracted to the sensual, carry the mind with them. 43. Submit your feelings to the service of the mind, and do not give them time to captivate it. 44. When the mind happens to occupy itself with sensory objects, attract the senses opposite, bringing the subject [spiritual] objects to the mind. 45. A sign that the mind is exercising itself in the spiritual is contempt for everything that flatters the senses. 46. When the mind opens to the vision of the spiritual, it finds in it a sweetness that is difficult for it to part with. 47. When the mind is enriched with the knowledge of the Unity, then it also has a feeling completely subjugated to it. 48. Forbid your mind from wandering around sensory objects, so that it does not gather from them the fruits of pleasures and sorrows. 49. Those whose mind is constantly occupied with the Divine; For those, the passionate part of the soul becomes God’s weapon. 50. It is impossible for the mind to acquire knowledge for itself if it does not first rid itself of passion through its inherent virtues. 51. The mind then withdraws from the worldly when it completely cuts off attachment to the senses. 52. The rational part of the soul tends to exercise in the knowledge of God, and the passionate part - in love and self-control. 53. It is impossible for the mind to occupy itself with a sensory object for a long time unless it has completely acquired a passion for it. 54. The mind that has acquired knowledge is perfect; the perfect soul is the one that is imbued with virtues. 55. The attachment of the mind to feelings makes it a slave to bodily passions. 56. The mind oscillates (moves) from its place of awareness when the passionate part of the soul emerges from its virtues. 57. We have received the power to be children of God; but we are not them if we are not distracted by passions. 58. No one should really think of being a child of God if he has not yet acquired the Divine marks within himself. 59. Conforming ourselves to good or evil morals makes us either sons of God or sons of Satan. 60. A reasonable husband is one who pays attention to himself and tries to avoid all filth. 61. The hardened soul, being beaten, does not feel this, and does not want to come into the consciousness of the Benefactor. 62. Desecrated clothing expels you from the Divine wedding feast and makes you a participant in total darkness. 63. He who fears God takes care of his soul and withdraws from evil society. 64. It is impossible for one who has abandoned God and is servile to sweets to receive God’s mercy. 65. Jesus says [even though we don't want to believe it] that no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). 66. A soul defiled by passions becomes hardened, and without cuttings and cauterizations it will not believe. 67. Terrible torment befalls the hardened, for they do not allow themselves to be softened without great sorrow. 68. A reasonable husband takes care of himself and avoids involuntary labor through voluntary labor. 69. Caring for the soul consists of suffering (enduring voluntary and involuntary sorrows) and humility, through which God forgives all sins. 70. Just as lust and anger multiply sins, so abstinence and humility blot them out. 71 Sorrow for God crushes the heart, and it is born from the fear of torment. 72. Sorrow for God cleanses the heart and removes from it the filth of voluptuousness. 73. Patience is the industriousness of the soul, and where there is industriousness, voluptuousness is expelled from there. 74. Every sin is committed for pleasure, and every forgiveness is obtained through suffering and sorrow. 75. Whoever does not want to bear the voluntary sorrows of repentance is subjected to involuntary sorrows by God's providence. 76. The Savior of the whole world is Christ, and He granted repentance for the salvation of people. 77. From repentance comes observance of the commandments, and observance of the commandments produces cleansing of the soul. 78. Purification of the soul is liberation from passions, and liberation from passions gives birth to love for God. 79. A pure soul is one that loves God, and a pure mind is one that has become alien to ignorance. 80. Strive for the commandments of Christ even to the point of death, for having been cleansed by them, you will enter eternal life. 81. Use the body as a servant of the commandments, keeping it, as much as possible, not voluptuous and painless. 82. Rebellion of the flesh comes from negligence, abstinence in food and good silence. 83. Good silence gives birth to good fruits: abstinence, love and pure prayer. 84. Reading and prayer purify the mind, and love and abstinence purify the passionate part of the soul. 85. Always maintain equal abstinence, so that through inequality you do not fall into the opposite. 86. He who legitimizes something for himself must not transgress this, for he who invents pretexts for himself deceives himself. 87. Passionate souls are mental westerns, for for such the Sun of Truth has set. 88. The Son of God is the one who became like God in goodness and wisdom, power and righteousness. 89. A bad habit is a disease of the soul, but a sin actually committed is its death. 90. Perfect dispassion is spiritual non-covetousness: for having achieved it, the mind withdraws from everything here. 91. Keep your spiritual virtues in harmony, for from this the fruit of truth is born. 92. They say that contemplation of the mental is incorporeal, for it is completely free from substance and form. 93. Just as the four elements consist of substance and form, so the bodies formed from them have the same composition. 94. The Word, having become flesh through love for mankind, did not change either what it was or what it became. 95. As from Divinity and humanity and in Divinity and humanity, so also from two natures and in two natures we recognize one Christ. 96. We confess one (one) hypostasis of Christ in two natures, united inseparably. 97. We glorify the one, indivisible hypostasis of Christ and confess the unfused union of natures. 98. We worship the Tri-hypostatic one essence of the Divinity and confess the Consubstantial Holy Trinity. 99. Three hypostases are proper: Patronymic, Sonship and Descent; and all of them have in common: being, nature, Divinity and goodness. [their edge is as follows: In fact, what should be considered evil is not that which burdens the flesh, but purifies the soul; but that which offends the conscience and delights the flesh.] 1. Think about what is good by nature, and think good about every person. 2. On the day of judgment, God will require an account from us about our words, deeds and thoughts. 3. The habit of virtue or vice moves us to think, speak and do good or bad. 4. A mind possessed by passions thinks what it should not, but the thoughts are revealed in words and deeds. 5. Evil thoughts are led by passion; The cause of passion is feeling, and the cause of abuse of feeling is obviously the mind. 6. Close your senses and fight your mental ideas, and beat your passions with the weapon of the commandments. 7. Vice, inveterate, requires long-term asceticism; for an established habit is not suddenly abandoned. 8. Long-term asceticism through abstinence and love, patience and silence destroys adversity. 9 . Raise your mind often to prayer, and you will destroy the thoughts that come to your heart. 10. Asceticism requires patience and generosity, for long-term hard work drives away voluptuousness. 11. You will easily learn the labors of asceticism if you do everything according to the measure and rule. 12. Always maintain the same measure of asceticism; and don't break the rules unnecessarily. 13. Just as love and self-control bring down thoughts, so every high thing that rises up (2 Cor. 10:5) is contemplation and prayer. 14. Conscience is made clear by the works of asceticism, such as fasting, vigil, patience, generosity. 15. He who patiently endures the involuntary temptations that are allowed upon him becomes humble, experienced and trustworthy. 16. Patience is the diligence of the soul; it is made up of voluntary labors and involuntary temptations. 17. Enduring misfortunes gives rise to gentleness, and patience completely destroys malice. 18. Feelings are hurt by inflicting sorrows, and voluptuousness is destroyed by inflicting sorrow. 19. Four are the main passions, which Providence wisely uses one against the other. 20. Thus, the induction of sorrow curbs voluptuousness, and the fear of torment dries up lust. 21. A well-minded mind trains its soul and accustoms its body to all kinds of exploits. 22. Try to imagine as a monk not your outer person, but your inner one, freeing him from passions. 23. The first renunciation is liberation from things, the second and third - from passions and ignorance. 24. Conveniently, anyone who wishes can be freed from things; but with considerable difficulty - from an addiction to them. 25. By mastering lust, you will also overcome irritability, for it is the cause of the indignation of irritability. 26. Have we got rid of passionate thoughts and enjoy pure and spiritual prayer, or not yet? 27. Great is the mind that has freed itself from passions, renounced created beings, and abides in God. 28. The successful person philosophizes about these three: about the commandments, about dogmas and about faith in the Holy Trinity. 29. The mind, stripped of passions, remains in pure speculation, contemplation of beings and in the ever-present light. 30. The worst passions hide in our souls; they appear when their deeds expose them. 31. It happens that the mind is unperturbed, having received partly dispassion, but is inexperienced due to the absence of things [tempting]. 32. Passions come into motion from these three [reasons]: from memory, from bodily constitution and from feelings, as was said above. 33. The mind, having closed its senses and balanced its bodily constitution, struggles only with memories. 34. Feelings set passions in motion when temperance and spiritual love are not present. 35. Proportionate fasting, vigil and psalmody usually balance the bodily constitution. 36. Three things in the bodily constitution produce a change for the worse: disorder in the use of food, a change in the air, and the touch of demons. 37. Passionate memories are weakened by prayer and reading, abstinence and love. 38. First close your feelings with silence, and then fight against memories with the weapon of virtues. 39. Mental evil is the abuse of thoughts (use for evil), and real (active) sin is the abuse of deeds. 40. The abuse of thoughts and deeds is their unpious and unrighteous use. 41. Shameful passions are bonds that hold the mind to what is sensual in things. 42. He has perfect dispassion who has no attachment either to things or to the memories of them. 43. A kind soul does good to his neighbor and not only endures his ingratitude generously, but also with patience accepts insults from him. 44. Evil thoughts are evil, which he who does not reject will not learn to know. 45. He who listens to Christ is enlightened, and he who imitates Him is corrected. 46. Rancor is a leprosy of the soul. It comes from dishonor, or from loss, or from suspicious thoughts. 47. The Lord blinds the envious mind because it unjustly grieves for the blessings of its neighbor. 48. The evil-speaking soul has a trident tongue; for she harms herself and the listener, and sometimes even the one she slanderes. 49. The one who prays for the one who has grieved him is not vindictive, and the one who does not spare gifts gets rid of vindictiveness. 50. Hatred of one's neighbor is the death of the soul. The soul of the slanderer carries it within itself and produces it in others. 51. Dejection is the negligence of the soul, but the voluptuous soul is negligent. 52. He who loves Jesus exercises himself in labor [asceticism], and constancy in labor drives away despondency. 53. The soul is strengthened by the labors of asceticism, and by doing everything in moderation, it drives away despondency. 54. He who rules over the belly dries up lust, and his mind is not enslaved by lustful thoughts. 55. The mind of the abstinent is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the mind of the glutton is the dwelling of corvids. 56. Satiety produces a desire for various foods; and even the simplest bread delights poverty. 57. The one who, secretly from the envier, rejoices at the neighbor whom he envies, gets rid of and delivers from envy. 58. Keep yourself away from anyone who lives carelessly, even if he has acquired a great name from many. 59. Find a friend, a hardworking husband, and you will find a covering for your eyes (sins). 60. The careless man has sold himself to many masters, and as they lead him, so he acts. 61. A careless person in times of peace is kind to you as a friend, but in times of temptation he attacks you as an enemy. 62. Before passions arise, he lays down his life for you, and when they arise, he plucks out your soul. 63. A desolate land is full of thorns, and a careless soul is full of unclean passions. 64. A well-meaning mind curbs its soul, pacifies the body and enslaves the passions. 65. Explicit movements are signs of internal ones, just as unknown trees are recognized by the fruits they bear. 66. Words and deeds expose the hypocrite and reveal the secretive false prophet. 67. A mind left in negligence does not enlighten its soul and removes it from love and abstinence. 68. The cause of bad thoughts is an evil habit that comes from vanity, pride and arrogance. 69. Those who have been scolded are characterized by: hypocrisy, flattery, deceit, ridicule and worthless lies. 70. The above are: envy and strife, irritability and anger, sadness and rancor. 71. This is the way of those who live in negligence and this is the treasure that is stored in me. 72. Suffering and humility save the soul and deliver it from the above-mentioned passions. 73. A reasonable thought is characterized by a useful word and a good soul by a virtuous deed. 74. The enlightened mind pronounces wise words, and the pure soul produces Divine thoughts. 75. The thoughts of the careful (zealous) one are taught wisdom and his words enlighten those who listen. 76. When virtues lie in the soul like soil, then it gives birth to good thoughts, and when there are vices, then it gives birth to bad thoughts. 77. The soul of a passionate person is a receptacle for evil thoughts and brings out evil from its treasure. 78. A good treasure is a habit of virtue, and a good mind brings good things out of it. 79. A mind in which Divine love operates gives birth to good thoughts about God, while a mind driven by self-love does the opposite. 80. The mind, driven by love for one’s neighbor, always thinks good about him, and on the contrary: driven by the opposite feeling, it assumes bad things about him. 81. The cause of good thoughts is virtues, virtues are commandments, and the fulfillment of commandments is free will. 82. The presence and absence of virtues and vices produce a good or bad disposition in the soul, prompting it to corresponding thoughts. 83. The cause of bad thoughts is vices, the cause of vices is disobedience, disobedience is the seduction of feelings, and seduction is the negligence of the mind about protecting the feelings. 84. For successful people, the arrangement can move from one of the opposite to the other. But the perfect ones have immobile skills in relation to one and the other. 85. The strength of the soul is an unshakable habit of virtue, which, having achieved it, as if invincible, said: who will separate us from the love of Christ, and so on (Rom. 8:35). 86. All passions are preceded by pride, and all are finally followed by pride. 87. The three main thoughts of lust are born from the passion of self-love. 88. Understand here the thoughts of gluttony, vanity and love of money, which are followed by all other passionate thoughts, but not all together. 89. The thought of gluttony is followed by a lustful thought, the thought of vanity is followed by the thought of pride, and the rest are followed by all three. 90. In general, these three are followed by thoughts: sadness, anger and resentment, envy, despondency, and others. 91. Lord of all Christ! deliver us from all of these: both from destructive passions and from the thoughts born from them. 92. We were created for You, so that we might enjoy You, brought into the paradise You planted. 93. But they themselves brought our present dishonor upon themselves, preferring harmful pleasure to blissful pleasure. 94. And they received retribution for this in themselves, exchanging everlasting (eternal) life for death. 95. Now, O Master, as you have looked upon us, look upon us to the end, and, as having become a man, save us all. 96. You came to save us who perished; do not separate us from the portion of those being saved. 97. Resurrect souls and save bodies, cleansing us all from all filth. 98. Break the bonds of passions that bind us, Disperse the regiments of unclean demons! 99. Deliver us from their torment, so that we may serve You as the one eternal Light. 100. Having risen from the dead and rejoicing with the Angels with that blessed and eternal rejoicing. Amen. [their edge is as follows: But pray diligently to our God that we may get rid of evils, both real and not real, but only those revered as such.] 1. He who has separated the mind from love and pleasing the flesh has, through the life-giving Spirit, put to death the deeds of the flesh. 2. Do not think that you will leave attachment to the flesh if your mind is still occupied with what is characteristic of the flesh. 3. Just as the flesh has feelings and the sensual, so the soul has the mind and the mental. 4. Distract your soul from the senses and the sensual, and your mind will be in God and in the mental. 5. Intelligent beings, comprehended only by the mind, are close to the Divine. The senses and the sensual are created to serve the mind. 6. Let the senses and the sensual serve you for mental, that is, spiritual contemplation, and not, on the contrary, serve the senses, to satisfy the desires of the flesh. 7. You are commanded to put to death the deeds of the flesh, so that the soul, killed by sweets, can be resurrected by labor. 8. May God rule over you, and you rule over feelings and, as the best, do not give power to the worst. 9 . God is ever-present (eternal), infinite and limitless, and promised those who obey Him everlasting, infinite and ineffable blessings. 10. The mind tends to dwell in God and reflect on Him, on His providence and on His terrible destinies. 11. You have the power to bend to one side or the other. Surrender to the best, and you will conquer the worst. 12. Feelings and sensual things are good, as the creations of a good God, but they cannot in any way be compared with the mind and the mental. 13. God created a verbal and intelligent being capable of receiving His spirit and knowledge; and he created feeling and sensual things for use by this being. 14. Just as it is indecent to enslave a good master to an evil slave, so it is indecent to enslave a rational mind to a corruptible body. 15. The mind, not controlling the feelings, will fall into evil through them, for they, being seduced by the sweetness of the sensual, give birth to vice. 16. Having feelings, guard your memory, for the impressions it receives through the senses [through memory] excite passions. 17. Calm your body and pray often, and you will soon get rid of thoughts arising from previous impressions. 18. Constantly practice the word of God, for hard work in this destroys passions. 19. Reading, vigil, prayer and psalmody keep the mind so that it does not wander around passions. 20. Just as spring awakens plants to grow, so dispassion awakens the mind to the knowledge of beings. 21. Keep the commandments and you will find peace; You will love God and you will achieve knowledge. 22. You are condemned to eat the bread of knowledge through labor, struggle and the sweat of your brow. 23. Negligence led the Forefather to crime and, instead of heavenly pleasure, condemned him to death. 24. Possess Eve, too, and beware of the serpent, lest she be deceived and give you the fruit of that tree. 25. Just as the soul naturally animates the body, so the soul is animate by virtue and knowledge. 26. The mind that dreams of its own wisdom is a waterless cloud, carried by the winds of vanity and pride. 27. When conquering vanity, beware of fornication, so that by avoiding honor you do not fall into dishonor. 28. When running away from vanity, look to God, for otherwise you will fall into conceit or fornication. 29. Vanity is characterized by a trick to show off oneself, and pride is characterized by humiliating others and becoming irritated. 30. When fleeing gluttony, guard yourself from man-pleasing, who tries (manages) to show the pallor of his face. 31. Beautiful is fasting, which rejoices in the lack of eating, adheres to dry eating and avoids man-pleasing. 32. Fasting until evening, then do not be completely satisfied, so as not to build again what you destroyed (Gal. 2:18). 33. Without drinking wine, do not drink water until you are full, for otherwise you will supply the same substance to fornication. 34. Pride means that we move away from God’s help, rely on ourselves and rise up before people. 35. Two things are offered as medicines for pride, and to those who do not use them a third, much bitterer, will be given. 36. Pride is destroyed by prayer with tears, not to humiliate anyone, and involuntary misadventures. 37. The mental rod is admonition through temptation, which teaches the recklessly ascending to be humble. 38. The task inherent in the mind is not to tolerate thoughts in oneself that secretly blame one’s neighbor. 39. Just as a gardener, without weeding the herbs, choke out the vegetables, so the mind, without purifying thoughts, ruins the work. 40. A husband who takes advice is wise, and especially from a spiritual father who advises according to God. 41. He who is mortified by passions does not heed advice and does not tolerate spiritual admonition at all. 42. He who does not accept advice does not correct his ways, but always wanders through the aspirations and wilds. 43. A monk is a mind that has renounced feelings and does not even allow itself to look at the thought of pleasure. 44. A doctor is a mind that has healed itself and heals others with the medicines with which it has healed itself. 45. Seek virtue and try not to lose it, so as not to live shamefully and die in a miserable way. 46. Our Lord and God Jesus has given light to everyone, and those who disobey Him darken themselves. 47. Do not consider the loss of virtue unimportant; for through this death entered Mith. 48. Obedience to the commandment is the resurrection from the dead; for life naturally follows virtue. 49. When the mind was killed it was a transgression of the commandment; then, of necessity, physical death followed. 50. Just as Adam fell to death through disobedience, so the Savior killed death through obedience. 51. Kill vice, so that you do not rise again dead and pass from a small death to a great one. 52. Because of Adam's crime, the Savior became man, so that, having released from condemnation, he could resurrect everyone. 53. He who has mortified passions and rejected ignorance passes from life to life. 54. Search the Scriptures and you will find commandments; fulfill what is said [in them], and you will get rid of passions. 55. Obedience to the commandment produces purification of the soul, and purification of the soul makes us partakers of the light. 56. The tree of life is the knowledge of God: the pure, eating from it, remains immortal. 57. The beginning of an active life is faith in Christ, but its end is love for Christ. 58. Jesus Christ is our Lord and God, who has given us faith in Him for [eternal] life. 59. He appeared to us with soul and body and Divinity, so that, like God, he could deliver soul and body from death. 60. Let us acquire faith in order to achieve love, from which the enlightenment of the mind is born. 61. The acquisition of faith is followed in order by: fear of God, abstinence from sweets, patience in work, hope in God, dispassion and love. 62. From pure love comes natural knowledge; and this is followed by the ultimate object of desire (the fulfillment of the highest desire), that is, the grace of Theology. 63. The mind, having passions, possesses them, of course, with the help of the fear [of God], believing God in what He threatened and promised. 64. To whom faith is given, abstinence is required; this, taking root, gives birth to patience, which is a difficult skill. 65. A sign of patience is love of work; hence, accepting boldness, the mind hopes to receive promises and avoid threats. 66. The expectation of future benefits clings the mind to the expected, and, remaining in this, it forgets the present. 67. He who tastes the desired overthrows the present: because in it [the tasted] he exhausts all his desire. 68. The One who promised future benefits is God. Believing in Him, the ascetic desires the future as if it were already the present. 69. A sign that the mind is in the desired blessings is that it completely forgets what is here and expands into the knowledge of the future. 70. Good is the truth that the God of truth teaches, even here granting full assurance to the God-loving soul. 71. The blessings prepared for the heirs of the promise are above all ages: they are before all ages and above mind and word. 72. Let us adapt ourselves to the rules of piety, so as not to deviate in passion and not to fall away from hope. 73. Jesus Christ is one of the Trinity, and you have to be a joint heir with Him. 74. He who has learned from God the knowledge of existing things does not distrust the Scriptures about what was said before (?predicted). 75. The Holy Spirit, having found a mind distracted by passions, accordingly, secretly guides it to everything that is hoped for. 76. As the mind is purified, the soul is given an understanding of the word of God. 77. He who places his body under the rules and walks in knowledge is most purified by this knowledge. 78. The mind, beginning to philosophize about the Divine, begins from faith, goes through objects [of faith] that are openly presented, and again ends with the highest faith. 79. We see that the beginning of philosophy is followed by fear, and the end is preceded by love. 80. The mind, beginning wisdom from constant faith, ends it with a Theology that surpasses all minds, which is defined as follows: Theology is unforgettable faith and contemplation of an unrevealed (hidden) object. 81. Our holy and blessed fathers draw their words about God from contemplation not of what is in Him, but of what is around Him. 82. All the words about what is around Him, that is, God, are meant by some positively, and others negatively, such as: 83. The essence, Divinity, goodness and similar properties of God are understood positively and affirmatively; and beginninglessness, infinity, boundlessness and the like have an exclusive and negative meaning. 84. As the one Divinity of the Holy Trinity, it is above the mind and [all] words and the hidden [Divinity]; the above, and the like, as they say, can be contemplated around Him. 85. Just as the one Divinity of the Holy Trinity is preached, so the three hypostases of the one Divinity are glorified. 86. The above concepts, negative and positive, are recognized as common to the Holy Trinity of the Consubstantial Trinity, except for personal properties; for most of these are spoken positively, and some are spoken negatively. 87. They also say that the personal properties of the three hypostases are these: patronymic, sonship, procession, and so on, which are said to be their own hypostases. 88. Hypostasis is defined as an entity with personal properties. Why does each hypostasis have one thing, a common essence, and another, its own hypostasis. 89. It is believed that what was said above in general about the Holy Trinity is negative, it is said more properly than what was said positively. But not so with regard to personal properties. For these too, as stated above, are spoken of partly positively, partly negatively, such as: birth, unbirth, and the like. For unbegottenness and begottenness differ only in meaning: unbegottenness signifies the Father, and begottenness the Son. 90. Sayings and names are used to explain understandings that are contemplated, as it is said, around the essence of the Holy Trinity, and not in the essence itself: for that which is perfect in essence is unknown to the mind and inexpressible by any word, and is known to the one Holy Trinity. 91. Just as the one being of the Divine is recognized as trinitarian, so the Holy Trinity is confessed to be consubstantial. 92. They contemplate the Father both as beginningless and as beginning; beginningless, as unborn; the beginning, as the parent and producer of those existing from Him in essence, existing in Him from eternity. Son of the Word and the Holy Spirit. 93. Unity, extending to the Trinity, remains Unity; and the Trinity, gathering into the Unity, remains the Trinity. And this is wonderful. 94. Everyone understands the Son and the Spirit to be not without beginning, but ever-present (eternal). They are not without beginning in relation to the Father, Their beginning and source; but they are ever-present, as those existing from the Ever-Essential, and co-existing with Him, one born, and the other originally. 95. The One Divinity of the Trinity is inseparably preserved, and the trinity of the one Divinity is preserved unmerged. 96. They consider personal properties: the Father - beginninglessness and ungeneracy, the Son - that He is in the beginning, and birth, the Holy Spirit - that He is with the beginning, and originality. The beginning of the Son and the Holy Spirit is not believed to be temporary. How is this possible? But under the name of the beginning they show the cause from which the Son and the Holy Spirit, like light from the sun, have their existence from eternity, for from it they are in essence, although not after it. 97. They also retain the property of hypostases immovable and immutable, and the commonality of essence, i.e. Divinity, inseparable. 98. We confess the Unity in the Trinity, and the Trinity in the Unity, divided inseparably and united separately. 99. They know the beginning of everything - the Father. He is the beginning of the Son and the Spirit, like a Parent, and like an ever-essential, and co-eternal, and co-infinite, and limitless, and consubstantial, and indivisible source. He is the beginning of creatures, as the Creator and Provider and Judge: i.e. Son in the Holy Spirit. For all things are from Him and through Him and for Him: to Him be glory forever, Amen (Rom. 11:36). 100. They say that the Son and the Holy Spirit are co-essential with the Father, but not co-eternal: co-essential, as co-existing with the Father from eternity; are not co-originating, because they have a cause of being. For from Him, although not after Him, is like light from the sun, as said above. However, They are also called without beginning, when someone takes the beginning from time, so that those from Whom time are not represented as time. And so, They are not without beginning in relation to their cause, but in relation to time they are without beginning, as existing before every time and age, and above age and time, through Whom is every age and time, and that which is in the age and in time, and as being co-existent with the Father, as said above, with Whom is His glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Heads of St. Theognost (“On the active and contemplative life, and on the priesthood”) are given in Slavic according to the manuscript of Paisius Velichkovsky, as well as in the Russian translation, which is a compilation of an unknown pre-revolutionary book. Translation from the magazine “Strannik” (1894) and translation by Feofan Zavtornik from the Russian Philokalia. Our venerable father Theognostos about the active and contemplative life, and about the priesthood of the head, of which the acrostic is as follows: To the most reverend fathers, Lazarus and Varlaam, the meager Theognost, unworthy of all those living in the present world. 1. Then think that you have true virtue when you place everything that exists on earth at absolutely nothing, always having in your heart with a clear conscience the readiness to dwell in the Lord. If you want to be known by God, do not be known by people as much as possible. 2. Beware of unnecessary bodily consolations, and abstain from them, lest they take away anything from the value of your labors. Consider it a loss not to deprive yourself of sensual pleasures, but to fall away from the best through tasting them. 3. With all your feeling consider yourself an ant and a worm, so that you may become a God-created man: for if this does not happen first, this will not follow. The more you go down in your feelings about yourself, the more you go up in reality. When you count yourself as nothing before the face of the Lord, like the Psalmist (Ps. 38:6), then you become secretly great from small; and when you recognize yourself as having nothing and knowing nothing, then you are rich in both deeds and intelligence, praiseworthy by the Lord. 4. Erase the backbone of the sinner and the evil one - lust, I say, and wickedness, from which all evil is born; erase it with abstinence and humble kindness: so that even if sinfulness were strictly sought out in you, during the trial, nothing of the kind would be found in what you did; for sins are erased when we, having hated the reasons for which they were committed, begin to fight against them, and reward the first defeat with the last victory. 5. There is nothing better than pure prayer, from which, as from a source, flow all the virtues - prudence and meekness, love and abstinence, and tears for the sake of the descending intercession and consolation. The goodness of it (prayer) consists of maintaining the attention of the mind in what is pronounced by the tongue and thought with this mind, and the insatiable, ever-present desire for conversation with God, when the mind, through consideration of the Existing One, rushing after its Master and with fiery love eagerly seeking to find the invisible, and encountering the darkness that covers Him, again returns to itself, with all-reverent humility, being content by what is now revealed to benefit by contemplation, and thereby being consoled; in good faith, however, remaining in the hope of ultimately achieving what you want when the vision ends, as if through a glass, fortune-telling, and His unceasing, clear sight comes face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). 6. Refrain from higher contemplations, if you have not yet achieved extreme dispassion, do not pursue what you cannot catch up with, and do not seek what is beyond your strength. If you want, someone says, to become a theologian and contemplator through the path of life, ascend to this and through purity acquire pure (knowledge of God). Having mentioned theology, I remind you - be careful not to stretch into its height to immensity, and know that it is not fitting for us, still drunk with the milk of virtues, to attempt to soar there, so as not to lose our feathers in vain, as happens with young chicks, although the sweetness of knowledge strongly attracts our desire. When, after purification by chastity and tears, we are raptured from the earth, like Elijah or Habakkuk, prefiguring or prefiguring the rapture that will once be in the clouds, and through contemplative prayer, pure and unparalleled, having become beyond the senses, we seek God, then, perhaps, we will touch upon theology to some extent. 7. Equally desiring to be worthy of Divine vision and illumination of the mind, first love a peaceful and silent life, and, having abstained from everything, know yourself and God. If this happens; then nothing will hinder you, as in the subtle breath of the wind (the voice of thin cold) with your inner dispensation, pure and not disturbed by any passion, to intelligently see for everyone the Invisible One, who brings you the gospel of salvation, through the most impressionable knowledge of Him. 8. As after the flash of lightning, thunder is immediately expected; so where Divine purification has shone, the storm of passions subsides. And where this is, there along with this the pledge of the local (future) bliss is established in the person who has acquired this. But there is neither a feeling of Divine mercy, nor the hope of dispassion in a soul that loves everything more than the Creator, has an addiction to what is visible and desires carnal pleasures and pleasures with all its desire. 9 . The Deity, what it is and where it is, do not search with your mind; for it is supernatural and is not limited by space, as if it is above all that exists. But only show the God-Word described [by incarnation] in yourself, as in a mirror, how much of this is available, which in this case, emitting bright rays with its Divine nature, is mentally posited in a certain place, being omnipresent, due to the indescribability of the Divine. However, as much as you purify yourself, you will be granted divine illumination. 10. Having desired true knowledge and assurance of undoubted salvation, first manage to dissolve the passionate unions of the soul with the body, and having been exposed from addiction to material things, descend into the abyss of humility - and you will find a valuable bead of salvation, as in a shell, hidden in Divine knowledge, and the lightness of the Kingdom of God will betroth you. 11. For one who has done spiritual obedience well, subjugating the flesh to the spirit, human obedience is not required; for such a one is in obedience to the Word of God and the Law, like a grateful servant. But for those who are in a struggle and war of the body against the soul, it is necessary to have a leader and ruler and obey him, as if he knows how to competently steer the wheel of our life and equip us in time with useful weapons, so that we are not captured by invisible adversaries, and passions do not drown us due to our inexperience. 12. When no passion begins to disturb you, the Divine desire will grow inside you, in your heart; when you no longer fear death, considering it a dream, and even more desire permission from the body: then you will acquire, as you should, the guarantee of salvation, and you will carry the Kingdom of Heaven within you, rejoicing with inexpressible joy. 13. If you have been honored with the Divine and reverently revered Priesthood, then you must first sacrifice yourself, through the mortification of passions and pleasures - then dare to touch the life-giving and terrible Sacrifice, when you do not want, like a combustible substance, to be burned by Divine fire. If Seraphim did not dare to touch the Divine coal without tongs (Is. 6:6): then how will you touch this without dispassion, by which your tongue would be sanctified, and your lips would be cleansed, and your soul and body would become pure, and your very hands would become brighter than any gold, like ministering instruments of supernatural fire and such a Sacrifice? 14. Understand, as you should, the meaning of what is being said to you: you daily look at that salvation, which the elder Simeon once saw, was horrified, and prayed for release from here (Luke 2:30). And therefore, if you have not received notification from the Holy Spirit that you are an intercessor pleasing to God before Him for people, as an equal angel, then do not dare to boldly [attack] the terrible and most honest sacred rite of the Divine mysteries, which the Angels themselves are terrified of and from which many of the Saints have reverently shied away as from the most holy; otherwise, thinking to do good, you would not have perished, like the famous Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:6-7). 15. Pay attention to yourself, as it is said (1 Tim. 4:16). If there was some kind of uncleanness in you before, or even now happens, due to weakness: then let it be consumed by Divine fire through the sacrifice you first made for yourself. Thus, you, as a chosen vessel, and useful, and pure, and as worthy of such a sacrifice, could be completely transformed into the essence of silver or gold (1 Cor. 3:12), even if before you were something wooden or clay. If only God's favor would be with you! for where God is ready to hear, there is no obstacle to such change. 16. Look what an honor you have received equal to the angels! and therefore try, through all virtue and purity, to remain impeccably in the degree to which you are called. Do you know about the fallen star (Lucifer) - from what and what kind did he become through ascension?! So that the same thing does not happen to you, if you think highly of yourself, and therefore consider yourself earth, and ashes (Gen. 18:27), and rubbish, and like some kind of dog, and weep unceasingly, that, despite this, you are still worthy, by the ineffable love of God and His unspeakable goodness, to be called into communion and affinity (union) with the Divine through touch to the Holy Mysteries in a terrible sacred rite. 17. The priest must be clean and free from all passions; especially fornication and rancor, there should not even be a subtle dream (imagination) in it, if you do not want, like the contagious or blackened by soot and the king who dares to touch, to be hated and disgusting. 18. Having first whitened yourself whiter than snow (Ps. 50:9) with streams of tears, and also whitened your conscience with purity, touch the Shrine like a saint, so that the outer angel-like white robe is a manifestation of the inner beauty of the soul. Be careful not to be satisfied with the Divine orders (the performance of the Divine Mysteries) with human traditions alone; but may Grace be for you secretly and at the same time a mysterious mentor of higher understandings. 19. Striving for incorruptibility and immortality, honestly and reverently approach the life-giving and incorruptible Mysteries with faith and, as having already been perfected by faith, have the desire to depart from this life. If you are afraid of death, then you have not yet been united in love with Christ, Whom you were deemed worthy to sacrifice with your own hands, and whose flesh you feed on. If you were to unite with him, you would strive to where your Beloved is, no longer caring at all about life and flesh. 20. Having become a priest of the flesh of God and a partaker of it through eating, you must be conformed to the likeness of His death (Rom. 6:5), living, according to the word of the Apostle, not for yourself, but for the sake of Him who was crucified and died for you (2 Cor. 5:15). If you live for the flesh and the world - in passions: then prepare to enter immortal torment through death, unless you voluntarily give up before your death from performing a bloodless sacrifice. However, there are so many unworthily performing priests who, here too, were suddenly caught up in death and sent into torment there. 21. A certain priest and at the same time a monk, who enjoyed the glory of being reverent, but who inwardly secretly committed fornication and became defiled, once performed the Divine and Holy Liturgy, when the time came for the singing of the Cherubic song, and he, as usual, bowed his head before the holy meal and began to read the prayer, “No one is worthy”: he suddenly found himself dead. This is the position his soul left him in! 22. There is nothing preferable to right reason and knowledge. For from this the fear of God and love for God are generated: and this one purifies through reverence and self-restraint, and this one perfects, through a bright good mood and prudence, and makes the mind soar freely in high contemplations and ascents of the mountain. But without fear it is impossible to be directly transported to Divine love and, bypassing love, to fly to the trusted one and rest in him. 23. Come to me, who desire salvation, flow with fervor and without knowing fatigue, until you reach it - seek hard, ask unceasingly, patiently until you receive it, hoisting firm faith and humility at the top of the ladder, like a banner. Consider yourself to have achieved what you want not when you receive remission of sins, but when you cease to be afraid of the uprising of all passions, without fear and with boldness you are ready to leave the body. 24. With many tears, seek to receive confirmation of salvation, but not before death, if you are humble, so that otherwise later, having become careless, you will not neglect the matter of salvation; but then, near the end, to find it, pray—what is certain, however—so that, having boldly and mockingly dreamed that you have it, you will not end up not getting where you dreamed of aiming when the desired time finally comes. Where will you go then, damned one, without a pledge and an undoubted saving certificate given by the Holy Spirit?! 25. Having desired God-created dispassion, first, through obedience and humility, seek this desired thing, so that, by going to it another way, you do not cause yourself unnecessary labor. Those who have acquired dispassion should honor not the one who is sometimes besieged by passions, and sometimes is peaceful and tranquil from them, but the one who constantly enjoys dispassion, and when the causes of the passions are inherent, remains unmoved by them, and when thoughts about them come, does not suffer anything from it. 26 3. With abuse and reproaches, the enemy boldly approaches the soul that has left the body, like a bitter and terrible accuser of its falls. But then one can see how the God-loving soul, although previously often vulnerable to many sins, is not at all affected by his attacks and threats, but, being confirmed in the Lord, is inspired with joy, filled with boldness, seeing the Holy powers accompanying it, and, protected by the light of faith, with great fearlessness, calls out to the evil one: “What do you and me, a fugitive from heaven and an evil servant? You have no power over us. Christ, the Son of God, has power over us, as over everything. We have sinned to Him, and we will give an account to Him, having His honourable Cross as the guarantor of His mercy towards us and of our salvation in Him. You run further from us, damned one; nothing to you and the servants of Christ.” From such daring speeches of the soul, the devil finally gives back, torn by cries, unable to stand before the name of Christ. After this, the soul, having passed the region of the princes of the air, is joyfully taken by the Divine Angels to the place determined for it, according to its dispensation. 27. Let not the love of fluid things drag you down to the earth, O heavenly sage. If any attachment to earthly goods binds you, then you are like an eagle caught in a net by the nail, and cannot fly to the heights. So have and consider all things as rubbish (Phil. 3:8), in hope of something better; and, when time demands, having thrown off your very flesh, you will freely follow the Angel leading you. 28. Just as it is impossible to bring a coin that does not have the royal seal along with ordinary coins into the royal treasury; so it is impossible, without right knowledge and dispassion, to accept the guarantee of the bliss there, and with boldness and confidence to go out from here to the trusted and unite with the elect. Knowledge, however, I do not call [worldly] wisdom, but the unfalse knowledge of God and the Divine, by which the God-loving One, not dragged down by passions, is elevated to deification by the grace of the Holy Spirit. 29. Even if you have gone through everything related to active life, do not rely on yourself and at the same time, as if you have already achieved dispassion and can move carefree in the world; so that in this case, having gained passionate expressions, before returning to yourself, you do not encounter anything unfavorable to the order of your life. But always, under the nurturing of fear, diligently take care of your changeable and perverse nature, prudently moving away from the causes of passions. For dispassion to the highest degree, unchangeable, occurs only in those who have achieved perfect love and by constant contemplation are held above everything sensual and have ascended to the height of humility, who are no longer touched by the flame of passions, cut off by the voice of the Lord, for the sake of transmuting them (perfect) into incorruption. 30. Do not wish for dispassion ahead of time, lest you suffer the same thing that the first-created One suffered when he immaturely ate the tree of knowledge; but by working with patience in all-round abstinence and unceasing prayer, and preserving active habits and practices with self-contempt and extreme humility, you will then receive, at favorable times, the grace of dispassion, this haven of peace, after storms and anxieties. For God is not offended, so that for those who walk in the right, when it should be, He opens the door of dispassion. 31. Go to the ant, you sluggard (Proverbs 6:6), and learn from him hard work. But at the same time, do not forget that God has no need of our good things, lacking nothing and being filled with everything; but He Himself does good in a richly gifted manner, and saves by grace the prudent, and those who are faithful to His will and grateful; although he philanthropically accepts their efforts. So, if you work as a debtor to Him for His previous benefits to you, you do good, and God’s mercy is close to you; If you think that God is a debtor for the good you have apparently done, then you have gone astray, deviating from the straight path: for how can a benefactor be a debtor? - However, they act like a mercenary; and little by little, succeeding, you will achieve, by the grace of God, what you are looking for. 32. Do you want me to show you another path to salvation, or better yet, to dispassion? Annoy your Creator as much as you can with prayers, so as not to deviate from your set goal, always offering all-heavenly powers and all the Saints, and with the Most Holy Theotokos as intercessors before Him; and do not seek dispassion, as if you are unworthy of such a gift, but ask hard for salvation, and with it you will learn dispassion, one of which is like silver, and the other pure gold; Have both the most hidden work, this servant of God, and some hidden secrets of words to God, idolizing you, with which He is pleased and worships. 33. Strive to receive the guarantee of salvation inside, in your heart, as an undoubted confirmation; so that during the exodus you will not unexpectedly encounter fear and trembling. Consider yourself to have received this pledge when you have your heart not holding you in any sin and your conscience not beating in anger; when the savagery of brutal passions submitted to you, by the grace of God; when tears of consolation flow naturally from you and your mind prays purely and without dreams; and when you joyfully, with the readiness of your heart, await death, which for many is terrible, which they would like to avoid. 34. The verbs (words) of eternal life, which, as the Apostle Peter testified (John 6:68), God the Word has, are verbs about what He has accomplished, by which the one who is secretly led to Him from here on gains both eternal life and the guarantee of the Spirit and the unashamed hope of salvation. But this is not granted to the one who prefers the flesh to the soul, and has an addiction to earthly goods and enjoys them. 35. Verbal (λογικός - reasonable) is not the one who has a spoken word (has the ability to speak articulately): for such is every person; but the one who, with verbal (reasonable) power, seeks and explores how to find God. However, he will never find that he is Prenatural by nature. This is impossible for any nature; but in the wise arrangement of all things, in the thought of it, its preservation, direction and management, the beauty of this cunning Author and Founder is, as it were, contemplated and felt (Wis. 13:1,4:5), as a steward is recognized from the work of His hands. 36. You cannot acquire non-covetousness, as you should, without dispassion, nor dispassion without love, nor love without the fear of God and pure prayer, nor these without faith and care, with which the inspired mind abandons its pre-flying wisdom, soars into what is above and surveys it, seeking its Master. 37. Kiss purity like the apple of your eye, so that you will be the church of God and the home He desires: for without chastity it is impossible to become God’s own, but this generates love for God, dispassion for the world and removal from it, and preserves humility, abstinence, unceasing prayer, spiritual contemplation (God-thinking), crying and reasoning - the kindness of which you cannot achieve without dispassion. 38. Let no one mislead you into thinking that without sanctification (purity), contrary to the word of the Apostle (Heb. 12:14), you can see God. For the Lord, who is all-good and above all purity, is not pleased to appear inwardly to the unclean. How unworthy of Him is he who loves father and mother, or daughter and son, more than Him; So unworthy of Him is the one who prefers anything temporary and material to love for Him, and especially this vile and stinking sin. From the one who does not turn away from this uncleanness, God turns away, since corruption does not inherit incorruption (1 Cor. 15:50). 39. You cannot be granted divine love without knowledge, and knowledge without faith. I mean faith, not just naked, but generated by the practice of virtues. You will then experience true contrition when, through abstinence, vigilance, prayer and humility, having dried up the lustful sweetness fused with your flesh, you are crucified with the Lord Jesus, and you will no longer live passionately, but begin to live by the Spirit, conforming to the hope of the highest calling and election (2 Peter 1:10). 40. From this I know that You are well pleased with me, the Prophet cries to God, if my enemy does not triumph over me (Ps. 40:12), until the end of tyranny and dishonoring me with passions. But before the end, snatch me from his hands, and, having allowed me to live spiritually, in a way pleasing to You, deign, after a blessed death, to present me saved to Your throne, and from here bearing the guarantee of salvation, by Your mercy, and the undoubted confirmation of it; since to find myself unprepared and trembling at the hour of exodus, I consider it an unbearable disaster, bitterest and worst than death and hell itself. 41. Faith and hope are not a simple or accidental matter; but faith requires a strong soul, and hope requires a right character and heart; besides, who can easily believe the invisible without grace? And who will have hope about the future, which is not manifest, if he has not had some right experience of the gifts of the Lord, from which he could receive evidence of the future as the present? Both of these virtues require the strength of our will, and the wave and help of God, which when not there, our work is in vain. 42. The product of true virtue is either knowledge, or dispassion, or both. Why if someone began to look in vain for this in us; then it would not be false that our virtue is only apparent virtue, and not true. For if it were not like that, it would be rich in fruits, and not just leaves. Thus, one who is motivated to do good, either by man-pleasing, or by self-indulgence, or by anything else displeasing to God, is deceitful and not God-loving. But if we correct the motivating cause, then we will undoubtedly achieve perfection in true virtue, which in due time and in due measure will bring us both knowledge and dispassion by the grace of our all-good God. 43. Find out the plans of the enemy (2 Cor. 2:11) by the enlightenment of grace, and casting yourself before the face of God with tears, confess your weakness, counting yourself as nothing, although our deceiver inspires us to think that we are something. Do not seek to teach you gifts if they do not contribute to salvation and the preservation of humility; seek knowledge that is not overwhelming, as the cause of knowledge of God, and so as not to be completely raped by passions, like tyrants, and to be released from the flesh in dispassion, or, at least, in pain over sins. 44. Just as it is impossible to fly high without wings, so it is impossible to catch someone you trust without undoubted confirmation of that fact from here; This confirmation is generated from humility, or from the grace of the Holy Spirit in those who have completely pleased God, who, of course, are characterized by dispassion, either partially or completely, depending on the extent of their pleasing to God and purification. Those who come out of the body in a different form, as in the winter of the passion or on the Sabbath (i.e., without works of virtue) (Matthew 24:20), are subject to judgment and torture during the time of retribution. 45. You who are being saved, give thanks to God the Savior. If you also want to bring gifts to Him, gratefully offer two mites from your widowed soul—humility, I mean, and love. And He will accept them, as I know well, more than the great wealth of good deeds that many cast into the treasury of salvation. If, like Lazarus, you need revival, having died of passions, make these same virtues, like your own sisters, intercessors before Him, and you will certainly receive what you are looking for. 46. Correcting, as you should, the active guardian of a virtuous life, through this alone you cannot reach the pier of dispassion, so that you can pray purely and unwaveringly; if at the same time your mind is not embraced by spiritual contemplations of enlightening knowledge and knowledge of existence, by which, inspired and enlightened, it would rapidly rise up in true prayer, entirely breathing with love, to the kindred lights of the highest immaterial ranks, and from them, as much as is available, it would ascend to the great light, to the three-solar God-originating Trinity. 47. We will not be punished in the next century for having sinned, and we will not be condemned for this reason, having received a changeable and fickle nature, but because, having sinned, we did not repent and did not turn from the evil path to the Lord, having received power and having time for repentance. God is good and merciful to those who repent, although He is portrayed as threatening and angry, but this is against evil and sin, and not against us, whom He is always ready to accept as soon as He sees a tear of contrition on our face. And in general, He treats us like this, whatever our deeds and dispositions are, giving each one the dignity of his life. 48. When you accidentally stagger in your good standing, do not tremble, but, straightening up as quickly as possible, hasten to return to your former well-being, with sadness, pity, self-reproach, and a contented outpouring of tears, in contrition of spirit; by virtue of which, having emerged from the fall that has occurred, you will enter the bosom of saving joy, believing in your heart to stand firmly forward, so that again, having angered the Judge, you will not have the need for tears and contrition for cleansing: for if this does not happen here, then of course in the future we will not escape worthy torments. 49. Again we have a word about a reverently honored priesthood: it requires an angelic state and purification, and upon acceptance of it, greater firmness in virtue is needed than what was before. So, it is necessary for someone who has had some kind of defilement before this to become clean: if so, then how can one defile something that is pure? Unless we want, for mixing light with darkness and myrrh with stench, to inherit grief and destruction, as truly blasphemers, like Ananias and Sapphira. 50. From a vessel that was lost and useless (even if you considered yourself to have worthily received the equal-angelic and heavenly priesthood), through a small purification, having become, according to the word of Paul, a chosen and useful vessel of the Lord (2 Tim. 2:21), keep the honor that you have been granted undefiled. Guard the divine gift like the apple of your eye, so that somehow, through inattention, you become defiled and you are not thrown from the heights into the abyss, from where it is not easy to find a return. 51. Understand, as one who has wisdom, that when God justifies, no one can condemn (Rom. 8:34). And therefore, if you, having been called, have entered into the highest grace of the divine priesthood, then do not worry at all about your previous life, even if it was defiled in some way, but was later cleansed by God and your correction. But after this, let your first concern, attentive and sober, be not to darken this grace. If someone, out of unreason, began to conclude about your sacred rites, judging by your previous life, then such a one will hear the Divine admonishing voice: what God has cleansed, you do not declare unclean (Acts 10:15). 52. The office of the priesthood is easy and the yoke is good (Matthew 11:30); but only if it is accepted, and also fulfilled in everything according to the law, and if the grace of the Divine Spirit was not the subject of purchase. If, through human effort and a perishable gift, something unsaleable was acquired, and if the title was not from above, then this burden is very heavy, as if carried unworthily and through force, and this yoke is very cruel, erasing both the neck and the strength of the one who is attracted, and if it is not abandoned, it will exhaust and destroy him completely. 53. Coming boldly under the yoke of the priesthood, correct your ways, and correctly teach the word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15), working out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12): for our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). And if you touch Him like gold and silver, do not be afraid of burning, just as the youths in Babylon were not afraid of fire. If, because of your earthly wisdom, you are like hay and reed - these substances, the most easily combustible, then tremble lest you be burned by Divine fire, if, like Lot, you do not escape wrath by moving away from the most terrible. Only perhaps your shortcomings are some very insignificant, arising from weakness, which are destroyed by this Divine fire of the most holy sacrifice, and therefore you yourself remain in the fire unburned and unharmed, like the weak bush bush plant; Otherwise I don’t know how it could be. 54. Being unable to tear yourself away from the passionate habit of semen flow, due to a long-term habit of this, how dare you, damned one, do something that is inviolable even for Angels?! So, either be horrified and withdraw from the Divine sacred rite, and by this you will appease God; or expect, as one possessed by insensibility and incorrigible, to angrily fall into the hands of the Living God (Heb. 10:31), Who will no longer kindly spare you, but will mercilessly torment you for the fact that you shamelessly dared to take part in the royal marriage, while, defiled both in soul and in clothing, you are not worthy of even entering there, much less of reclining. 55. I know one of the priests who dared to unworthily touch the Divine rites, while he fell into the passion of fornication. And therefore he was struck by a severe and incurable illness, and was already approaching death. And as he, trying in every possible way to get rid of this evil and taking all means to do so, did nothing else besides this, the evil that befell him multiplied more and more. Finally, having somehow come to his senses and realizing that he was being put to death for an unworthy sacred act, he immediately renounced with an oath the performance of the sacred liturgy. Healing immediately followed, so that not a trace of his former illness remained in him. 56. The dignity of the priesthood is brilliant, as is its vestment; but only until the inside and the soul shine with purity. And if, through inattention, it becomes vicious, and the conscience, reproaching for this, is left neglected: then this light becomes darkness and the cause of eternal darkness and fire, unless we somehow leave this path, as having rapids on both sides, and do not deviate through virtue and humility to another, safely leading to the Kingdom of God. 57. Salvation is acquired through humility and virtue, and not through a glorious priesthood that requires living as an angel. And therefore, either be dispassionate like the Angels, staying with your mind outside the world and the flesh, and then ascend this heavenly ladder; or, recognizing your weakness, fear the terrible fall from a height to which those who lack sufficient courage and valor are subjected, and accept a life that is dear to many and appropriate to God no less; in this life, if a fall happens, then it is more convenient to rise again through repentance, by the mercy and grace of God. 58. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50): and how is it that you, partaking of the flesh and blood of God, are not transformed into one body with God (Heb. 3:6) and dissolved with His blood - so that you already have the Kingdom of Heaven within you, but on the contrary, are you obsessed with the passions of flesh and blood? I am afraid that the Spirit of God will not cease to dwell in you, as in the flesh (Gen. 6:3), and that you will not be cut in two (Matthew 24:51) at the judgment by taking away the reverently honored priesthood from you, as being unworthy of such grace. 59. Having no fear of God before your eyes, you consider unworthy sacred rites to be an unimportant matter and, deceived by pride, you consider God good... The same thing once happened with Dathan and Aviron, which is why the earth swallowed them up. Fearing this and fearing where there really is fear (Ps. 53:6), understand the greatness of the subject - and, either worthily and purely, not to say equally angelic, perform the service of the Divine priesthood, or, as a prudent person, refrain from a terrible sacrifice. Otherwise, if you treat this with contempt and deceive your conscience when it denounces you, you would not have had to then, during the general judgment and torture, as if condemned, say with illness: the fear of which I was terrified has befallen me, and of which I was afraid has met me ( Job 3:25 ). 60. Soberly, with pain, first offer for yourself, with contrition and tears, a world-saving sacred sacrifice to propitiate God. For after your death, who will grieve for you and make sacrifices as much as you yourself? Therefore, as a far-sighted one, perform a burial over yourself in advance, and remember yourself in advance, presenting to God in intercession for your salvation these very Holy Gifts presented at the holy meal, and remembering His free and humane slaughter here. 61. What unspeakable and inexpressible consolation when the soul, with confidence in salvation, is separated from the body, folding it like clothing! For, as if in possession of the essential blessings, she leaves him carefree, going in peace to the Angel, who descends from above to her with joy and gladness, and with him freely passing through the air space, without being attacked in any way by the spirits of evil, but ascending in joy with boldness and grateful exclamations, until she reaches the worship of the Creator, and there she receives the determination to be placed in the host of her kind and equals in virtues, until the general resurrection. 62. I’ll tell you a terrible word; but don't be surprised. – Even if you do not achieve dispassion, due, perhaps, to tyrant predispositions, but being at the time of the exodus in deep feelings of humility, no less dispassionate, you will ascend on the clouds. For let the treasure of the impassive be made up of every virtue; but the precious stone of humility is more worthy and lofty than all of them, and to the one who acquires it it brings not only propitiation before God, but also entrance, together with the elect, into the bridal chamber of His Kingdom. 63. Accepting forgiveness of sins from God, glorify Him that, not remembering your evil, He does not take revenge on you for it, and protect yourself with all your might from arbitrary falls. For although it is possible to receive forgiveness in them every day until death; but you turn out to be ungrateful if you sin so easily and knowingly. However, if, having driven away the dog of despair with a trustworthy stone, you persistently and patiently implore the goodness of God, then many of your sins will be forgiven, so that you too may love the Most Compassionate and Most Good One in the age to come. 64. When, by the action of Divine grace, you appear before God in prayer with tears, fall on your face, prostrate crosswise on the ground and, striking with your head, ask for forgiveness from here, as liberation from corruption, and deliverance from temptations; but not as you wish, but how, when and where, God deigns, desire to come forth, and even with love express your readiness to come together with these tears to the Lord in deep humility, in order to quench the flame of your desire and quest; but agree to endure a delay at the present time, if God sees something better. Seek only one thing urgently and relentlessly, so as not to fall away from God; - what without doing, what without saying, what without intending, and what without undertaking. 65. Being a flesh-bearer, do not attempt to explore the mental and spiritual as it is, although the intelligence of your soul disposes you to this when it is pure. For until the incorporeal soul, held in bonds of flesh and blood, does not renounce this stupidity and begins to be with mental powers, it cannot, as it should, think about them and understand them. So, in preparation to emerge from your material connection, as from a dark second mother’s womb, into this immaterial and bright existence, be complacent, glorifying your benefactor, who leads us through death to the better existence we desire - constantly be sober and awake, because unclean demons walk around us, always slandering against our well-being and cunningly watching our heel until the very end of life - and until the very end of one’s life, one trembles for oneself, because of the uncertainty of the future, as one created perverse and changeable by one’s own autocracy. 66. The enemy then meets us with cruel and terrible temptations when he senses that the soul has entered the highest measures of virtue. This is evidenced by the words of prayer and its elevation above the material duality of flesh and feelings. And then the misanthrope tempts us so viciously that we even have to despair of life. But he, the vain one, does not know what benefits he brings to us, making us more experienced through patience and weaving bright crowns for us. 67. There is no other feat as great as the feat of chastity and virginity. He who honestly maintains celibacy is an object of wonder for the Angels and is crowned no less than martyrs. For from one who, being bound by flesh and blood, always tries to imitate the immateriality of the incorporeal through purity, how much labor and sweat is required? And truly, this work is so great and lofty that it would be impossible, as supernatural, if God did not show His intercession from above, strengthening and confirming the weak and mortal nature, and somehow raising it from the earth with Divine love and the hope of promised rewards. 68. Flesh strewn with too much eating and too much sleeping is a great obstacle to chastity. True chastity remains motionless even in sleepy dreams. For if the mind delights in them in a dream, then this serves as a sign that it carries in its depths the disease of this passion. If, by the grace of God, he is granted a conversation with God in a dream, then it is clear that he remains inviolable for this passion; why at all times he is a cheerful guardian of souls and bodies, keeping them in a peaceful state among themselves, and like a certain dog, keeping watch over them because of the malicious wolves, and thereby avoiding predation. 69. I’ll tell you a strange word; but don't be surprised. There is a certain hidden sacrament that takes place between God and the soul. This happens to those who reach the highest measures of perfect purity, love and faith, when a person, having completely changed, unites with God, as one of his own, through unceasing prayer and contemplation. Being at this level, Elijah shuts up the sky and burns the victim with heavenly fire; Moses crosses the sea and by raising his hands puts Amalek to flight; Jonah gets rid of the whale and the depths of the sea. For there is a certain need for this for the most loving God, however, in proportion as this is in accordance with His will. He who was worthy of this, although covered with flesh, surpassed the measure of corruption and mortality, like an ordinary sleep, accepting death, which, to his consolation, sent him to what he had always hoped for. 70. Reverent before the suffering of the Master and the exhaustion of God the Word for us, as well as before the dissolution with us of the life-giving Body and Divine Blood, of which we were not only honored to be partakers, but also celebrants, humble yourself, like the lamb of the slaughter, considering everyone truly better than yourself and trying not to offend anyone’s conscience, and especially without a good reason. Uninitiated, do not dare to touch the shrine, otherwise you will perish, being burned like hay by Divine fire and melting away like wax. 71. Truly, if you properly perform the terrible sacrament of the Divine and reverently revered sacred act, and your conscience does not reproach you for anything, then from nothing else you will not receive such hope of salvation as from this; The benefit gained from this is more abundant than from any other activity or conduct. Otherwise, you will see for yourself that it is better, having realized your weakness, to completely renounce the height of the priesthood, than, holding it illegally and uncleanly, and being considered by many to be great, in fact, due to unworthiness, lie in a fall worthy of crying. 72. The service of the reverently revered Priesthood, the propitiation and supplication of God by it, is as much superior to all singing and prayer as the sun is superior to the stars; for at the same time we slay the Only Begotten Himself and offer it as a sacrifice, offering as intercession for sinners the One who, out of His love for mankind, was slain to death - not only for the remission of sins, but also for the fulfillment of everything truly useful, no matter what we pray for, and for the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven, unless the conscience is defiled. And the body, united with the Divine, like a burning coal, burns up every substance of iniquity and enlightens the hearts of those who approach with faith; in the same way, the Divine and honest Blood, better than any hyssop, wipes away and cleanses all filth and all uncleanness of those who, to the best of their ability, dare to approach the shrine purely and not uncleanly. Oh, if only someone could die in such a state! 73. Not [the ascended into heaven] body of God the Word, received by him, as one of the Saints said, descending from heaven, is sacrificed, but this very bread and wine is transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, being reverently performed with faith, fear and love by those who have been made worthy of the Divine Priesthood, and the change from one to the other is accomplished by the action and influx of the Holy Spirit, becoming not another body, different from the Body of the Lord, but transforming into this very Body, and becoming incorruptible. What purity and holiness is required for a priest who touches the Divine body! What boldness must one have who becomes a mediator between God and people, becoming a prayer companion to the Most Pure Mother of God, all the Heavenly Powers and all the Saints from the ages! I think that he needs the Angelic or Archangelic - both dignity and assimilation to God. 74. You should note, O believer, that the Holy Mysteries, which are about to be sanctified, are presented open at the holy meal after the Creed, so that they, as it were, intercede in some way for those who bring them, and with unpronounceable voices cry out to Him who lives in heaven. For He, in vain, does not despise them, and seeing them, does not ignore them, but this vision, as it were, reminds Him of His free surrender of Himself for sinners, His ineffable condescension and humane slaughter. After all, it was not for the sake of the righteous that He, good and kind, gave us the price of deliverance and salvation through His sufferings; but when we became criminals, then He had mercy and called us. Amen. 75. Although you strive for pure prayer, immaterially uniting the immaterial mind with God, you have already achieved the point that, as in a mirror, you see the fate that will meet you after the end of this life, as someone who has received the pledge of the Spirit and the Kingdom of Heaven within, having acquired with all your senses with full assurance; with all this, do not allow yourself to be separated from the flesh without the foreknowledge of death, but also pray earnestly about this and be inwardly confident in obtaining this, if it is pleasing to God and useful to you, before the exodus - for which you prepare yourself day and night, shedding all timidity, as if you had passed through the air spaces and avoided the spirits of malice, you were already bold and fearless in the heavenly regions, compared with the angelic ranks and ranked among the righteous chosen from the ages, and God in vain, as much as this is available, or in every possible way in vain the benefits prepared for us from Him and contemplating God the Word, with his rays illuminating all that is heavenly, worshiped in one with his most pure flesh in worship, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, from all the heavenly powers and all the Saints. Amen. The Slavic translation was typed from the elder’s manuscript. Russian – from Optina Pustyn in 1873. The Slavic text turned out to be slightly shorter than the Greek (and, accordingly, Russian too), several paragraphs are missing from it. We present the text as Paisiy Velichkovsky translated it. Our Reverend Father John of Damascus, a Word that is helpful and worthy of miracles Let it be known that man is pure, that is, he consists of soul and body; and therefore has strong feelings and strong virtues. Five senses of the soul, and five of the body. The spiritual feelings, which the wise call forces, are the following: mind, thought, understanding, imagination, and feeling. These bodily senses are: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch. Therefore, their virtues are great, their passions are great. So, every person needs to know clearly: what are the spiritual and what are the bodily virtues, and again - what are the spiritual and what are the bodily passions. First of all, we call the most important four spiritual virtues, i.e. wisdom, courage, chastity and truth. From these are born other spiritual virtues: faith, hope, love, prayer, humility, meekness, long-suffering, kindness, kindness, lack of anger, divine reason, non-irritability, simplicity, indignation, unhypocrisy, lack of pride, lack of pride, lack of envy, truthfulness, lack of love of money, compassion, mercy, charity in words and deed, fearlessness, carelessness, tenderness, shame, reverence, desire for future blessings, desire for the Kingdom of God and the desire for sonhood. The bodily virtues, and especially the instruments of the virtues, performed in reason and according to God, without any hypocrisy or man-pleasing, guiding a person to success in humility and dispassion, are the following: abstinence, fasting, hunger, thirst, vigil, all-night standing, frequent kneeling, insanity, contentment with one’s clothes, dry eating, late and moderate consumption food, drinking - water, sleeping on the ground, poverty, non-covetousness, simple and poor clothing, lack of self-love, solitude, silence, staying in a cell, poverty, contentment with the most necessary things, silence, exercise in handicrafts, enduring all kinds of suffering, and all kinds of bodily feats. All this is very necessary and useful when the body is healthy and struggling with carnal passions, but the weak and with the help of God, who has overcome, do not need them so much as holy humility and gratitude, which replenishes everything. Now we must talk about mental and physical vices, i.e. passions. These spiritual passions are: oblivion, laziness and ignorance. From these three passions the eye of the soul, i.e. a darkened mind sometimes possesses all the passions, which are: wickedness, unbelief, i.e. all heresy, blasphemy, rage, anger, bitterness, hot temper, hatred of neighbors, maliciousness, slander, condemnation, reckless sadness, fear, timidity, contentiousness, jealousy, envy, vanity, pride, hypocrisy, lies, unbelief, greed, love of things, addiction, attachment to earthly things, despondency, cowardice, ingratitude, grumbling, arrogance, conceit, arrogance, arrogance, desire to boss, people-pleasing, flattery, impudence, insensibility, caressing, sneakiness, mockery, double-mindedness, mental consent to those sins to which the passionate part of the soul bows, and frequent reflection on them, wandering thoughts, the parent of evil is self-love, and the root of all evil - love of money, malice and deceit. The bodily passions and vices are the following: gluttony, delicacy, pleasure, drunkenness, secret eating, various voluptuousness, fornication, adultery, sodomy, uncleanness, incest, child molestation, bestiality, sinful lusts and all unnatural and shameful passions: theft, sacrilege, robbery, murder and all peace and joy of the body, especially if the body is healthy; sorcery, magic, bird fortune telling, charm, amorous decoration, vain utensils, effeminacy, the use of embellishment, rubbing faces, condemnable idleness, absent-mindedness, spending time in empty games (κυβεῖαι, playing dice), biased use for evil of everything pleasant in the world, carnal life, which, making the mind dull, makes it earthly and bestial, and never allows one to rise to God and to the practice of virtue. The roots of all these passions, and, so to speak, the first causes of them are: voluptuousness, love of fame and love of money, from which all evil arises. But a person does not commit any sin unless first, as the wisest of the ascetics, Mark says, he is defeated and these strong giants do not prevail over him: oblivion, laziness and ignorance. They grow from the fact that a person indulges in bodily pleasures and peace, loves human glory and is entertained by everyday worries. And the first guilt of all these passions, and, as it were, the worst mother, as stated above, is self-love, i.e. reckless love of the body and sinful addiction. Absent-mindedness and relaxation of the mind with blasphemy and foul language are the cause of many evils and downfalls, just like insolence and laughter. Besides all this, one must know how varied and varied the voluptuousness of the passions is, and how many passionate desires deceive the soul when it is not awake before God, and is not strengthened by divine fear and love for Christ, and is not diligent in doing virtues. For countless passionate desires are brought that attract the eyes of the soul: love of bodily beauty, wealth, the pleasures of glory, a tendency to laziness and anger, love of power, love of money and covetousness. All this, when seduced, seems to have a bright and desirable appearance, capable of attracting those who are surprised by this and do not really care about virtue, and do not endure its difficulties. Any attachment to earthly things and addiction to anything material in those who are partial to this produce pleasure and joy that is useless and even harmful; and when deprived of the desired object, the one overcome by passion is subjected to irritability and anger, sadness and remembrance, which is where the passionate action of the desired part of the soul turns out to be. If, with addiction, even a small skill is strengthened, alas, it insensitively and incurably encourages the one who is caught up in the innermost passion to hold on to the reckless addiction until the end of his life. For the sweetness of desires is manifold, as was said above, and is fulfilled not only in fornication and in any other bodily pleasure, but also in other passions; because chastity does not consist only in avoiding fornication and carnal passion, but in being free from other passions. Therefore, the one who is enslaved by covetousness, love of money and avarice is a fornicator. For just as he seeks bodily pleasure, so does this wealth, or rather, this latter is considered more of a fornicator, since his nature does not attract him to the love of money with such compulsion (as in carnal passion). Truly, that horseman is considered especially unskillful, who not only cannot tame an indomitable and unbridled horse, but also cannot hold a quiet and meek one. From this it is clear that the desire for a lot of property is unnatural, but comes from the outside, since the compulsion to it is not from nature, but from evil will. Therefore, the one who is voluntarily overcome by this sins unforgivably. So, we must know clearly that voluptuousness consists not only in pleasure and sin of the flesh, but also in every image and thing that the soul loves by will and passion. In order to understand the passions even more clearly according to the tripartite nature of the soul, we decided to briefly add the following. The soul is divided into three parts: verbal (reasonable), irritable and desirable. The sins of the verbal part are the following: unbelief, heresy, madness, blasphemy, ingratitude and consent to those sins to which the passionate part of the soul is prone. The healing and healing from these evils are: undoubted faith in God, firmness and steadfastness in the truth of the dogmas of Orthodoxy, frequent teaching in the words of the Spirit (Divine Scripture), pure and unceasing prayer and thanksgiving to God. The sins of the irritable part of the soul are: unmercifulness, hatred, lack of compassion, remembrance, envy, murder and constant thinking about this. The healing and healing of these passions: philanthropy, love, meekness, brotherly love, mercy, kindness and goodness. The sins of the desirable part of the soul are the following: gluttony, delicacy, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, uncleanness, adultery (the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah), covetousness, desire for vain glory, gold and wealth, and other carnal pleasures. The healing and healing of these passions are as follows: fasting, abstinence, suffering, lack of longevity, distributing property to the poor, the desire for these future immortal blessings, the desire for the Kingdom of God and the desire for sonhood. Now we should also point out to you the difference in passionate thoughts through which every sin is committed. There are eight main sinful thoughts: the thoughts of gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sadness, despondency, vanity and pride. It is not in our power whether these eight thoughts disturb us or not; but whether it remains in us or not, whether it arouses passions or not, it depends on us. There is another pretext, another combination, another struggle, another passion, another copulation (or consent) that comes close to committing a sin, another commission of sin and another captivity. The pretext is simply a suggestion given by the enemy: do this or that, as he said to Christ the Lord and our God: “Tell that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:3). This, as has been said, does not depend on us. The combination is the acceptance of a thought inspired by the enemy, a thought and, as it were, a conversation with him, combined with pleasure, which depends on our will. Passion is a skill born from combination with a passionate thought, invested from the enemy, and, as it were, some incessant reflection and imagination of it. Struggle is the resistance of the mind, which leads either to the destruction of passion in thought, i.e. passionate thought, or to agreement with it, as the Apostle Paul says about this: “For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: they oppose each other” (Gal. 5:17). Captivity is a forced and involuntary attraction of the heart, forcibly possessed as a result of the previous acceptance of thoughts and long experience. Subjugation is the inclination of thought to passion. The action is the very fulfillment of the passionate thought with which there was conflict. So, whoever thinks of the first (i.e. the preposition in thought) dispassionately, or rejects it with contradiction and courage from the very beginning, cuts off all the last at once. The mortification of the eight passions happens like this: gluttony is destroyed by abstinence, fornication - by divine love and the desire for future benefits, love of money - by compassion for the poor, anger - by love for everyone and goodness, worldly sadness - by spiritual joy, despondency - by patience, firmness and gratitude to God, vanity - by the secret practice of virtues and frequent prayer with the heart. contrition, pride - by not judging or humiliating anyone, like the arrogant Pharisee, but by considering oneself the last of all. Thus, the mind, freed from the above-mentioned passions and elevated to God, henceforth lives a blessed life, accepting the betrothal of the Holy Spirit, and, having separated from all earthly things, with dispassion and true reason stands before the light of the Holy Trinity, being illuminated with the divine angels for endless centuries. So, the soul, according to the above, is tripartite, and its three parts are these: verbal, irritable and desirable. If the irritable part contains love and philanthropy, and the desirable part contains purity and chastity, then the verbal part, i.e. the mind is enlightened. If the irritable part is hatred of man, and the desirable part is intemperance, then the mind becomes darkened. So, the verbal part, i.e. the mind is then healthy, chaste and enlightened when the passions are subdued to it, and it spiritually contemplates the logoi (the purposes for which all creations are created) of God’s creations, and is elevated to the blessed and Holy Trinity. Again, the irritable part then acts by nature when it loves all people and has no grief or resentment against anyone. The desirable part is then healthy when it mortifies the passions through humility, abstinence and non-covetousness, i.e. carnal passion and desire for possessions and transitory glory, and will turn to divine and immortal love. For desire is directed to three objects: either to carnal pleasure, or to vain glory, or to the deception of wealth, and because of this perverse desire, a person despises God and His divine commandments, forgets his divine nobility, becomes bitter against his neighbor and so darkens his mind that he can no longer view the truth. Whoever has acquired a higher way of thinking regarding this, before leaving this life, as it is said, becomes a partaker of the Heavenly Kingdom, and lives a blessed life, in anticipation of the bliss promised to those who love God, which we too may be deemed worthy to receive by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We, as simple people, have stated all this simply, having clearly and clearly outlined the word about virtues and passions and vices, so that everyone, through such an explanation, could conveniently recognize and understand the division and difference between them. Therefore, we examined all this in detail and from different sides, so that no kind of virtue or passion, as much as possible, would be unknown to anyone, and so that we diligently strive for virtues, and especially spiritual ones, with which we approach God; To avoid and avoid growths and vices in every possible way. For truly blessed is he who seeks virtue and adheres to it, and carefully tests what virtue consists of; because through it he approaches God and spiritually unites with Him. For in this lies wisdom and courage, wisdom and true reason and inalienable wealth, so that through active virtue one can ascend to the contemplation of the Creator. Virtue (ἀρετή) is what is chosen at will (αἱρεῖσθαι), for it is desirable (αἱρετή) and arbitrary, since we do good according to our will and desire, and not against our will and compulsorily. Wisdom (φέρω - I bring and ὄνησις - benefit) is called carrying or containing useful things in the mind. If you wish, let us attach to this simple word, like a golden seal, something about the image and likeness of God, the most honorable of all [visible] creations of God. The rational and verbal animal is man, one of all [visible creatures] created in the image and likeness of God. “In the image of God” is said about every person, for the sake of the dignity of his mind and soul, i.e. that the soul is incomprehensible, invisible, immortal, autocratic; also for the sake of his dominion [over other creatures], for the sake of childbearing and the ability to create. “In the likeness” is said in relation to virtues and to God-named and God-imitating deeds, i.e. in order to have a philanthropic disposition towards those like oneself, to regret, have mercy and love slaves just like oneself, and to show all kindness and mercy. “Be ye therefore,” says Christ God, “merciful, just as your [Heavenly] Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36; Matt. 5:48). As for the image of God, every person has it: for “the gifts of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). But what is said “in the likeness” is rare, and only the virtuous and saints, who by the grace of God and, as many people as possible, imitate Him. May we also be worthy of His most kind love for mankind, having pleased Him with good deeds, and becoming imitators of those who have pleased Christ from time immemorial. For His is mercy, and to Him is due all glory, honor and worship, together with the beginningless Father and the Most Holy and His good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Slav. the text of Simeon of Thessalonites (chapters 296 and 297) was typed from the manuscript of Paisius Velichkovsky. The Russian text is presented by a translation by Theophan the Recluse (with a small translation from the Greek source). Saint (Άγιος) Simeon of Thessalonite On [the saving invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ,] sacred (Άγιος) and god-creating (θεοποιό) [Jesus] prayer Chapter 296 [About how much this sacred prayer contains.] This divine prayer, consisting of the calling of the Savior, is the following: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. She is a prayer, a vow, and a confession of faith - the giver of the Holy Spirit and divine gifts, the purification of the heart, the casting out of demons, the infusion of Jesus Christ, the source of spiritual understanding and divine thoughts, the remission of sins, the healer of souls and bodies, the giver of divine enlightenment, the storehouse of God's mercy, the revelation of the mysteries of God, the intercessor, the only savior, who bears the name of our Savior God within herself, - the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, given to us. And there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), as the Apostle says. This invocation is also a prayer, because in this we ask for the mercy of God, - and a vow, because in it we betray ourselves to Christ through calling on Him, and confession, because, having thus confessed the Lord Jesus, Peter was blessed by Him (Matthew 16:17), - and cleansing of the heart, because God sees and calls and cleanses the one who sees God in this way - casting out demons, because in the name of Jesus Christ demons were driven out and expelled - and the indwelling of Christ, because Christ is in us through the remembrance of Him and through this remembrance he dwells in us and fills us with joy, as St. David: I remembered God and rejoiced (Ps. 76:4), and spiritual understanding and thoughts are the source, because in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3), and He gives them to those in whom He dwells. And deliverance from sins, because the Lord said: whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18). And healing of soul and body, for Peter said (Πέτρος): in the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk (Acts 3:6). I: Aeneas! Jesus Christ heals you... (Acts 9:34). And the giver of divine enlightenment, because Christ is the true light (1 John 5:20), and imparts enlightenment and grace to those who call on Him, - as the prophet cried: let the light of the Lord our God be on us (Ps. 89:17) and as the Lord promised: He who follows Me will have the light of life (John 8:12), - and a storehouse of God’s mercy. Because the Lord is merciful and gracious to all who call upon Him (Ps. 85:5) and will soon give protection to those who cry out to Him (Luke 18:8–7), and the revelation of the mysteries of God to the humble is an intercessor, as the truth about Christ was revealed to the fisherman Peter from the Heavenly Father (Matthew 16:17), and as St. Paul was caught up into paradise to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words (2 Cor. 12:4) - and the only savior, because there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:11) except the Lord, to whom we cry, for this is truly the Savior (Christ) of the world (John 4:42). Why on the last day, although unwillingly, every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11). Such a confession is a sign of our faith and evidence that we are from God. For every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is from God, and he who does not confess this is not from God, but is the spirit of Antichrist (1 John 4:3). Why should all believers constantly confess this name, both for the preaching of faith, and for witnessing our love for our Lord Jesus Christ, from which nothing should ever separate us, and for the sake of grace in this name, remission of sins, healing of the soul, sanctification, enlightenment, and above all for the sake of salvation. The Divine Evangelist says: These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Behold faith! - and that, believing, they may have life in His name. Behold salvation and life! (John 20:31). Chapter 297 [That all Christians: priests, monks and laity, at a certain time, according to their strength, should pray in the name of Jesus Christ] Let every pious person always proclaim this invocation as a prayer, both with his mind and tongue, and standing, and walking, and sitting, and bending on a bed; and saying something, and doing something - and always force himself to do it, and find great peace and joy, as those who care about this know from experience. - But since this is impossible for everyday people and even for monks, when they are in the inevitable troubles of everyday life, then let everyone devote at least a certain time to this - only let everyone, and the consecrated rank, always have a rule to say this prayer persons, both monastics and laity. Monastics, who have already been called to this and have an urgent duty, although they are in trouble to fulfill obediences, always force themselves to say this prayer and call on the Lord unceasingly, although with theft of thoughts and captivity of the mind, and because of this theft, let them not allow themselves to be careless about it, but in every possible way try to return to it again and rejoice at this return. Let persons of the holy order take care of this apostolic work, as a divine sermon, as a sacred act, as a manifestation of their love for Christ the Lord. Let the laity observe this prayer to the best of their ability, as a seal and sign of their faith, as protection, sanctification and driving away all temptations. For this sake, all persons of the holy order, both Laymen and monks, having risen from sleep, must first of all remember Christ and think about Him, offering Him this first thought, as a sacrifice, as those saved and beloved by Him, bearing His name (i.e. “Christians”), clothed in Him in holy baptism, sealed by Him in holy anointing, His body and blood those who partake and thereby become members of Him, and a church, and having Him living within them. For all this, every Christian has the duty to wholeheartedly love Him, and to always try to remember Him. And therefore, according to his strength, he must devote a certain time and measure to prayer. And that's enough. Because the whole diversity of teaching is revealed to those who seek this. Slavic translation – Paisiy Velichkovsky, Russian – A.G. Dunaeva. About the words contained in the divine prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” How great the power of prayer is, what is given to those who surrender [to it] and what state it brings them into is not for us to say. The very words of which it consists were not originally acquired by our sacred fathers from themselves, who took their foundation from the Divine Scripture itself from above {from ancient times} and from the supreme disciples of Christ, or, better to say, they accepted it, like a certain inheritance, that came to them from their fathers, and passed it on to us, so that from here the divine inspiration, as if prophetic, of this sacred prayer would be clear for those who cannot experience [it] to recognize it. After all, we believe that divine prophecies, spiritual revelations and the voice of God are everything that Christ, who spoke to them, gave them to say or write (cf. 2 Cor. 13:3). So, for example, the most divine Paul directly proclaims to us, as if from the third heaven (Compare: 2 Cor. 12:2): “No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3), - very wonderfully, through denial 4, revealing the height of the invocation of the Lord Jesus that is beyond the reach of most. And the most glorious John, who thundered (cf. Mark 3:17) with spiritual [words], making the end of his [words] the beginning [of his own], conveyed something like this to continue the prayer: “Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2). Although he used the statement here, he follows him [the Apostle Paul] in considering the calling and confession of Jesus Christ as a [work] of spiritual grace. Let the third [apostle], the supreme head of theologians, come before us to present the last part of the prayer in question. After all, when the Lord asked the disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” - hot [Peter], as usual, ahead of the others, [answered]: “You are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matthew 16:15–16). This [Jesus] testified that as the Savior was revealed from above by the Father (Wed: Matt. 16:17), the same can be said: by the Holy Spirit (Wed: 1 Cor. 12:3). But look how these sacred disciples hold each other, as if in a circle, and receive these divine voices from one another, so that the final words of one serve as the beginning for the next. One says: “Lord Jesus,” another: “Jesus Christ,” the third: “Christ, the Son of God.” The beginning is connected with the end, as if in a circle, as we said, if in fact there is no difference in saying “Lord” or “Son of God,” since both [expressions] reveal the divinity of the Only Begotten and represent His one-nature and equality with the Father. So the three [apostles], blessed and most worthy of faith above all, gave us to call and confess in the Spirit the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, because every word, according to the divine voice, is confirmed by three witnesses (Matt. 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1; cf. Deut. 19:15). But the order of words is not accidental, for the mysterious tradition of prayer, beginning from the last of all the disciples (Compare: 1 Cor. 15:8), through the middle one goes back to the first, who was closest to Jesus in love. I believe that this is a symbol of our noble progress and ascension and unity with God in love through activity and contemplation, since Paul is the image of activity, for he says: “I have labored more than all of them” (1 Cor. 15:10), contemplation is John, and love is Peter, of whom it is testified that he loved [the Lord] more than others (John 21:15). However, one can see that these divine prayer utterances also reveal our pious teaching and, as it were, drive away all slanderous heresy. Since the divine nature of [the God-man] is revealed by [the word] “Lord,” those who consider Jesus a mere man are rejected. [With the word] “Jesus,” who reveals human [nature], those who consider Him only God, who became man [only] ghostly, are driven away. And the [appeal] “Christ,” which contains two natures, calms those who think that in Him there are both [natures], but hypostases separate from each other. [The words] “Son of God,” in turn, close the mouths of those who dare to introduce the fusion of natures, indicating the non-fusion of the divine nature even after the union [with the human], and thereby the human, so that these four expressions, like divine verbs and spiritual swords, crush both pairs of evil heresies, although diametrically opposed, are equal in wickedness. Thus, these divine sayings were handed down to us, which could rightly be called the pillar of prayer and at the same time of Orthodoxy; those who have reached the age of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:13) and are spiritually perfect, are content with them alone, carrying in their hearts each of these divine prophecies, as transmitted by the sacred apostles, that is, “Lord Jesus - Jesus Christ - Christ, the Son of God” (and sometimes, of course, only the sweetest name “Jesus”), as if they were completely engaged in prayer, and devoted to [them], and through this they are filled with unspeakable spiritual joy, being outside the flesh and the world and being rewarded with divine gifts. As they say, “the initiated know.” And to infants in Christ (Compare: 1 Cor. 3:1), imperfect in virtue, the appropriate addition “have mercy on me” is given, thanks to which they know their own measures and the need for much mercy from God and imitate, perhaps, the blind man who, wanting to receive his sight, cried out when the Lord passed by: “Jesus, have mercy on me” (Mark 10:47). Others, doing something more characteristic of love, use the word in the plural and say the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us,” knowing that love, as containing and leading every commandment and spiritual work, is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets (cf. Rom. 13:10; Matt. 22:40), calling the brethren to prayerful communication in love, and even more so to God mercy, that together they call Him God and ask for mercy, or, perhaps, because it is characteristic of divine mercy to help us for the sake of right faith and fulfillment of the commandments, for both contain, as shown, this short verse. And the fact that the divine names, through which we perceive the exact meaning of dogmas, are established orderly and consistently and are pronounced by us as was shown at the beginning, can also be discovered through the indication of times (Cf.: Sir.43:6). After all, the Old Testament everywhere - both before the law and after - proclaims God’s Word as Lord, as [for example]: “And the Lord shed fire from the Lord” (Gen. 19:24), and: “The Lord said to my Lord” (Ps. 109:1); and the New [Testament], finally, at His incarnation, presents an angel giving a name and saying to the Virgin: “You will call His name Jesus” (Luke 1:31), - by which [name] He was called, [as] the divine Luke says. For, being the Lord of all as God, He desired, according to the human economy, to be called our Savior, which is what the name “Jesus” means when translated (cf. Matt. 1:21). And [the name] “Christ,” indicating the deification of the perceived nature, He Himself, before His passion, forbade His disciples to speak to anyone, but after suffering and resurrection, Peter openly says: “Know, all the house of Israel, that God has made Him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). And this is fair, because our nature, perceived by God the Word, was immediately anointed by the perceiving deity, and became the same as the anointing one, that is, monodivine, after the glorification of my Jesus by passion and resurrection from the dead. Then the indication of the name “Christ” became opportune, since He turned out to be not only our benefactor, having created (Gen. 2:7) first [people] and again recreating and saving the broken, but He also raised our nature to heaven, glorified with Himself and was worthy to sit with the Father, and since the apostles began to proclaim Him the Son of God and God, first, in the beginning sermons, using this name with caution and moderation, and then clearly preaching on the housetops (cf. Matthew 10:27; Luke 12:3), as the Savior Himself predicted to them. So, consistently and in accordance with the temporal indications of faith, the divine words of prayer are established, so that the wisdom of God composed and transmitted to us [the words] is most clearly demonstrated from everywhere - from the orderly following of the apostolic confessions and traditions, from the discovery of our pious teaching and from reminding us of the times in which a varied economy was revealed to us, led to godliness by sayings that agree with each other. This is what we offered, as much as we could, about the words [of prayer], like flowers, collected by us from some beautiful and large tree, and let the fruit contained in them go to others who have succeeded and come closer to God, to whom this has been granted by long-term teaching and asceticism. Slavic translation - Paisius Velichkovsky, Russian - translation by Theophan the Recluse with a slight correction. Interpretation of "Lord, have mercy" very useful for understanding by every Christian, for which reason it was translated from Greek. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! and in short: Lord have mercy! from Apostolic times it was given to Christians, and it was determined that they should unceasingly proclaim this, as they proclaim. However, in doing this, very few people now know what it means: Lord have mercy! Therefore they cry in vain; they cry: Lord have mercy! but they do not receive the Lord’s mercy, because they themselves do not know what they are looking for. We must know that the Son and Word of God, from the moment he became incarnate and, having become a man, suffered on the Cross, and through the shedding of His Most Holy Blood redeemed man from the hands of the devil, - from that time on he primarily became the Lord and Ruler of human nature. For although before His incarnation He was the Lord of all creatures, visible and invisible, as their Creator and Maker, yet for people and demons, who themselves did not want to have Him as their Lord and Ruler, He, the Lord of the whole world, was not Lord. For the All-Good God created Angels and people autocratic and gave them rationality, as righteous and true, He did not want to deprive them of autocracy and rule over them under compulsion, against their desire; but those who wish to be under the power and control of God, he controls and protects them, and those who do not want again, he leaves them to fulfill their own will, as autocratic. Therefore, Adam, who was seduced by the apostate devil, himself became an apostate from God and did not want to listen to His commandments, God left him to autocracy and did not want to rule over him by force; and the envious devil, who had deceived him at first, did not cease to deceive him more and more, until he made man in foolishness like senseless cattle. The most merciful God, having mercy on man, bowed the Heavens and descended to earth, became man for man’s sake and redeemed him from the slavery of sin with His Most Pure Blood, through the Holy Gospel instructed him to live godly and, according to the word of John the Theologian, “gave us the power to be children of God”> (John 1:12), revived and recreated us with Divine Baptism, and the Most Pure Mysteries daily nourish our soul and revive it; in short, with His supreme wisdom He invented a means to always remain inseparable from us and us from Him, so that the devil would no longer have any place in us. So, those Christians who, after having been rewarded with so many benefits received from the Lord Christ, were again deceived by the devil, through the world and the flesh, moved away from God and fell under the dominion of sin and the devil, fulfilling his will, but are not completely insensitive, understand their sinfulness and are aware of the slavery in which they are, but cannot get rid of themselves, therefore they resort to God and cry out: “Lord, have mercy,” so that the Most Merciful Lord would have mercy on them, have mercy on them, accept them as the prodigal son, and give them again His Divine grace, so that through it they would get rid of the slavery of sin and the devil, would receive their freedom again and thus be able to live pleasing to God and keep the commandments of God. Christians who cry out with such intention: “Lord, have mercy” will receive the mercy of the All-Good God and His grace in order to be freed from the slavery of sin and saved. And those who have no knowledge at all about what we have said do not know trouble, being enslaved by carnal desires (θελήματα) and worldly things, they cannot reflect on their enslavement by which they are bound, but without this they cry out: “Lord, have mercy” - more out of habit. How can they receive God's mercy? such wonderful and endless mercy? Therefore, it is much better for them not to receive God’s mercy than to receive and lose again, for their sin is double. If someone gives any precious stone into the hands of a little child or a rude person who does not know its value, and they, having received the stone in their hands, lose it, then it is clear that it was not they who lost it, but the one who gave them the stone. To better understand what we have said, consider: how in this world someone who is poor and wants to receive alms from someone rich goes to him and says: “Have mercy on me!”, i.e. “Have pity on me, for the sake of my poverty, and help me!” Likewise, someone who has a debt and wants the lender to forgive him this debt, goes to him and says: “Have mercy on me!”, i.e. “Have pity on me, for the sake of my insufficiency, give me what I owe you!” Likewise, someone who is guilty of something, wanting to be forgiven by the one before whom he became guilty, goes to him and says to him: “Have mercy on me!”, i.e. “forgive me for what I did!” And the sinner calls out to God: “Lord, have mercy” - not knowing what he is saying and why he is saying it, not even knowing what God’s mercy is, which he asks God to give it; does not know why he needs this mercy that he is looking for, but only out of habit he cries out: “Lord, have mercy!”, without knowing anything. How will God give him His mercy when he, not knowing it, does not appreciate it, soon loses it again and sins even more? The mercy of God is something precisely like the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, which we, sinners, must seek from God, constantly crying out: “Lord, have mercy /” - i.e. “Have mercy, my Lord, on me, a sinner, and accept me again into Your grace! Give me the spirit of strength so that it will strengthen me to resist the temptations of the devil and the evil habit of sin! Give me the spirit of chastity, so that I may become chaste, come to my senses and correct myself! Give me the spirit of fear so that I may fear You and keep Your commandments! Give me the spirit of love, so that I may love You and not be separated from You anymore! Give me the spirit of peace, so that it will keep my soul peaceful, so that I collect all my thoughts and be quiet and undisturbed! Give me the spirit of purity so that it will preserve me from all defilement! Give me the spirit of meekness, so that I may be gentle with my Christian brothers and refrain from anger! Give me the spirit of humility, so that I do not think highly of myself or be proud!” So, whoever knows the need that he has in all this, who seeks this from the Most Merciful God, crying out: “Lord, have mercy,” he will undoubtedly receive what he asks and achieve mercy from the Lord and His Divine grace. But for one who does not know anything of what we have said, but only out of habit cries out: “Lord, have mercy,” it is never possible to receive the mercy of God, for before he received many gifts from God, but did not recognize them and did not thank God who bestowed them. Received God's mercy when he was created as a man. He received God's mercy when he was recreated through holy Baptism and became an Orthodox Christian. He received God’s mercy when he got rid of so many mental and physical dangers he experienced in life. He received God’s mercy as many times as he was worthy to partake of the Most Pure Mysteries. He received God’s mercy as many times as he sinned before God and upset Him with his sins, but he was not destroyed and was not even punished, as he should have been. He received the mercy of God when he was favored by God in various ways and did not acknowledge it, but forgot everything and did not care at all about his salvation. So, how can someone like a Christian receive the mercy of God without feeling and knowing that he is receiving such grace from God, without even knowing what he is saying, but crying out only: “Lord, have mercy” - without any concept or purpose, out of habit alone? Scroll An essay by Elder Archimandrite Our Father Paisius on mental prayer, divided into chapters [This scroll] was written against a certain detractor of mental prayer, a superstitious philosopher-monk residing in the Moshen Mountains, in the Dragomirn monastery. Therefore, having mourned such wickedness of these deluded from the belly and speaking lies (Ps. 57:4) and fearing that one of the unsteady in mind, hearing such fables of theirs, would not fall into a ditch of blasphemy similar to them, and would not mortally sin before God by blaspheming the teaching of many of our God-bearing fathers, who testify and teach about this Divine prayer from the enlightenment of Divine grace, and, moreover, no longer tolerating blasphemous speeches about this immaculate work, and in addition, convinced by the request of the zealots of this soul-saving work, I decided, although this exceeds my feeble mind and weak strength, calling for the help of my sweetest Jesus, without whom no one can do anything, in refutation of the false mind of the empty-minded and for the affirmation of God's chosen flock about the name of Christ of the brethren gathered in our monastery, write a little something about Divine mental prayer with extracts from the teachings of the holy fathers, for firm, unshakable and undoubted confirmation of it. Being dust and ashes, I bow the mental knees of my heart before the unapproachable majesty of Your Divine glory, and I pray to You, my all-sweet Jesus, the Only Begotten Son and Word of God, the radiance of glory and the image of the Father’s hypostasis! enlighten my darkened mind and thoughts and grant Your grace to my accursed soul, so that this work of mine may serve for the glory of Your most holy name, and for the benefit of those who want, through the intelligent and sacred practice of prayer, to intelligently cleave to You, our God, and to constantly carry You, a priceless bead, in their soul and heart, and for the correction of those who, in their extreme ignorance, have dared похулить это Божественное делание! Блаженной памяти отца нашего старца Паисия главы об умной молитве About the fact that mental prayer is the work of the ancient holy fathers, and against the detractors of this sacred and immaculate prayer. Let it be known that this Divine work of sacred mental prayer was the constant work of our ancient God-bearing fathers, and in many desert places and in communal monasteries it shone like the sun among the monks: in Mount Sinai, in the Egyptian monastery, in Mount Nitria, in Jerusalem and in the monasteries that are around Jerusalem, and, simply to say, in the whole East, in Constantinople, on Mount Athos and on the sea islands; and in recent times, by the grace of Christ, also in Great Russia. With this intelligent attention to sacred prayer, many of our God-bearing fathers, kindled by the seraphic flame of love for God and, according to God, for one’s neighbor, became the strictest keepers of God’s commandments and, having cleansed their souls and hearts from all the vices of the old man, were worthy to be chosen vessels of the Holy Spirit. Filled with His various Divine gifts, they appeared in their lives as luminaries and pillars of fire for the universe and, having performed countless miracles, in deed and word they led countless human souls to salvation. На помянутое Божественное умное делание и хранение сердечного рая никогда никто из правоверующих не дерзнул произнести хулы, но всегда все относились к нему с великою честию и крайним благоговением, как к вещи, исполненной всякой духовной пользы. Но начальник злобы и супостат всякого благого дела – диавол, видя, что наиболее чрез это делание умной молитвы монашеский чин, избирая благую часть, сидит неотторжною любовию у ног Иисусовых, преуспевая в совершенство Его Божественных заповедей, и чрез то делается светом и просвещением миру, начал таять завистию и употреблять все свои козни, чтобы опорочить и похулить это душеспасительное дело и, если можно, completely wiped out from the face of the earth. И то, как сказано выше, чрез сарацын, во всем ему подобных, истреблял книги, то в чистую и небесную этого делания пшеницу насевал свои душетленные плевелы, чтобы посредством безрассудных нанести на это спасительное дело хулу тем, что самочинники, касавшиеся этого делания, ради своего возношения, вместо пшеницы пожинали терние и вместо спасения находили погибель. И этим еще диавол не удовольствовался, но нашел в Итальянских странах Калабрийского змия, предтечу антихристова, гордостию во всем подобного диаволу, еретика Варлаама, и, поселившись в нем со всею своею силою, подвиг его хулить нашу православную веру, как об этом подробно пишется в Постной Триоди, в синаксаре второй Недели св. Great Lent. Между прочим дерзнул он различно, и языком и рукой, хулить и отвергать и священную умную молитву, как пишет об этом в своей священной книге, в главе 31, иже во святых отец наш Симеон, архиепископ Фессалонитский, которого и подлинные слова предлагаю здесь, говорящего так: After all, His name is eternal life: “This,” he says, “was written, so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and, believing, you might have life in the name” (John 20:31), - and the Holy Spirit is taught by the invocation of Christ: “No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3) - and this has been said a thousand times.” What did the evil serpent accomplish with his undertaking with the son of perdition, the accursed heretic Varlaam, whom, as I said, he taught to blaspheme against sacred mental prayer? Could blasphemy darken the light of this clever work and, as he hoped, completely destroy him? No way. But his illness turned on his head. At that time, the great champion and representative of piety, most luminous among the saints, our father Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonites, Palamas, who in perfect obedience and constant sacred exercise of mental prayer, like the sun, shone on St. Mount Athos, by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, even before the elevation to the episcopal throne of this Church, during the reign of the Most Divine King Andronikos Palaeologus, in the reigning city, in the famous great church of the Wisdom of God, at the Council gathered against the above-mentioned heretic Varlaam, filled with the Spirit of God, having clothed himself with irresistible power from above, He blocked his mouth, which was open to God, and finally put him to shame, and he burned all his blasphemies with fire-inspired words and writings and turned them to ashes. And by the entire Catholic Church of God this heretic Barlaam, with Akindinus and all his like-minded people, was thrice anathematized. But even to this day, every year on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, he is cursed by the same Church, along with other heretics: “Anathema (three times) to Barlaam, and Akindinus, and their followers and successors.” Look here, friends, who dare to blaspheme mental prayer, and consider who its first blasphemer was: is not Barlaam the heretic, thrice anathematized by the Church and subject to be cursed forever? Do you not also share in your blasphemy with this heretic and his like-minded people? Do you really not tremble in your soul to fall under a similar church curse and be alienated from God? Rising up to the most sacred cause and seducing with your blasphemy the souls of those who are not established in the minds of your neighbors, are you not horrified by the terrible thunderstorm of God for this in the Gospel? Aren't you afraid, according to the apostolic word: “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31), and for this, if you do not repent, to fall into both temporary and eternal punishment? What plausible reason have you invented to blaspheme this most immaculate and most blessed thing? I'm completely perplexed. Do you think that calling on the name of Jesus is unprofitable? But there is no way to be saved in anyone else, except in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is the human mind, by which prayer operates, vicious? But this is impossible. After all, God created man in His image and likeness; The image of God and likeness is the soul of man, which, according to God’s creation, is pure and immaculate, which means that the mind, being the primary spiritual sense, like vision in the body, is also immaculate. But doesn’t the heart, on which, as on an altar, the mind sacredly performs the secret sacrifice of prayer to God, deserve blasphemy? No way. Being a creation of God, like the entire human body, it is beautiful. If the calling of Jesus is saving, and the mind and heart of a person are the work of God’s hands, then what vice is it for a person to send up a prayer from the depths of his heart with his mind to the sweetest Jesus and ask for mercy from Him? Or is it not because you blaspheme and reject mental prayer because you think that God does not hear secret prayer made in the heart, but hears only that which is pronounced with the lips? But this is a blasphemy against God, because God knows the heart and knows everything exactly, the most subtle thoughts of the heart, and even future ones, and knows everything as God and the All-Knower. Yes, and He Himself demands, as a pure and immaculate sacrifice, precisely such a secret prayer, sent from the depths of the heart, commanding: “But when you pray, go into your room and, having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6), - what are the words of Christ’s mouth, the universal luminary, the universal teacher, St. John Chrysostom, in Discourse 19 on the Gospel of Matthew, God-given wisdom of the Holy Spirit, refers not to the prayer that is pronounced with the lips and tongue alone, but to the most secret, silent, prayer sent from the depths of the heart, which he teaches to perform not with the actions of the body and not with the cry of the voice, but with the most zealous will, with all quietness, with contrition of thoughts and internal with tears, with mental illness and the closing of mental doors. And he brings as testimony to this prayer from the Divine Scripture the God-seer Moses, and St. Anna, and righteous Abel, saying this: “But are you sick in soul? You cannot help but cry out, because praying and asking in the way I said is characteristic of someone who is very sick.” And Moses, being sick, prayed like that and his illness was heard, which is why God said to him: “Why are you crying to Me?” (Ex.14:15). And Anna, again, fulfilled everything she wanted, but her voice was not heard, because her heart was crying out. Didn’t Abel silently, and even after dying, pray? And his blood emitted a voice more excellent than the voice of a trumpet. Steni and you are the same as St. Moses, I do not forbid. Tear apart, as the prophet commanded, your heart, not your garments. Call on God from the depths: “From the depths,” he says, “I called to You, O Lord,” “from below, from the heart, attract a voice, make your prayer a sacrament.” And below: “You do not pray to people, but to the omnipresent God, who first hears voices and knows unspoken thoughts, if you pray like this, you will receive a great reward. “Your Father,” he says, “who sees in secret, will reward you openly.” And below: “Since He is invisible, He wants your prayer to be the same.” You see, friends, that, according to the testimony of the invincible pillar of Orthodoxy, there is another prayer, besides that pronounced with the lips, secret, invisible, silent, from the depths of the heart, raised to God, which, like a pure sacrifice, the Lord accepts into the stench of spiritual fragrance, rejoices over it and is glad, seeing that the mind, which should primarily be devoted to God, is united to Him in prayer. Why, in response to this prayer, witnessed by the lips of Christ, by the saint, I say, John Chrysostom, do you arm your tongue with blasphemy, blaspheming, slandering, hating, swearing, rejecting and turning away as if it were some kind of bad thing, and, in short, not being able to tolerate even hearing it? Horror and trembling surround me because of such a wordless undertaking of yours. But also, seeking the reasons for your blasphemy, I ask you: is it not because you blaspheme this most saving prayer because perhaps you happened to see or hear that one of the practitioners of this prayer acted foolishly, or accepted some delusion instead of the truth, or suffered some kind of spiritual harm, and therefore it seemed to you that mental prayer was the cause of such harm? But no, no! На самом деле, это вовсе не так. Sacred mental prayer, according to the power of the writings of the God-bearing fathers, acted by God's grace, cleanses a person from all passions, arouses him to the most zealous keeping of God's commandments and keeps him unharmed from all the enemy's arrows and charms. If anyone dares to act this prayer arbitrarily, not according to the strength of the teachings of St. fathers, without questioning and the advice of experienced people, and, being arrogant, passionate and weak, lives without obedience and obedience and, moreover, pursues only a desert life, which, for his self-rule, he is not worthy to see a trace of, such, truly, and I affirm, conveniently falls into all the snares and charms of the devil. So what? Is this prayer the reason for such charm? No way. If you discredit mental prayer for this, then let the knife also be disgraceful for you if it happened to a small child, while playing, due to foolishness, to stab himself with it. Also, in your opinion, it is necessary for warriors to be prohibited from using a military sword, which they take against their enemies, if some crazy warrior happened to stab himself with his sword. But just as a knife and a sword do not cause a single vice, but only expose the madness of those who have slain themselves with them, so the spiritual sword, sacred, I say, mental prayer is not guilty of a single vice, but the self-indulgence and pride of the self-inflicted serve as the cause of demonic delights and all kinds of spiritual harm. But why else, as if I had been perplexed until now, am I asking you the reasons for your blasphemy against this sacred prayer? I probably know, oh my friends! Знаю самую существенную причину вашего языкоболия: 1) не по заповеди Божией, т.е. не с испытанием, ваше чтение Свящ. Scriptures; 2) distrust of the teachings of St. отцов наших, учащих о сей Божественной умной молитве богоданного себе премудростию Духа, по силе Свящ. Scriptures; 3) наконец ваше крайнее невежество: вы или, может быть, не видели и не слышали о ней никогда писаний богоносных отцов наших, или, если не это, то силы богомудрых их слов вы отнюдь не разумеете, – вот самая существенная причина такого вашего зломудрия. If you, with the fear of God and strong attention and undoubted faith, with diligent testing and humility, read the paternal books, which are most appropriate for reading by monastics alone, containing in themselves the whole mind of living the Gospel - paternal books, I say, which are also necessary for monks for spiritual benefit and correction and for acquiring the true, healthy, unpretentious and humble wisdom mind, just as breathing is necessary for the formation of bodily life, if you had read these books like that, then God would never have allowed you to fall into such a ditch of blasphemy. Moreover: through this doing, He would kindle you with His Divine grace into His inexpressible love, so that you and the apostle would cry out: “Who will separate us from the love of God” (Rom. 8:35), which we were honored to achieve by mentally doing this prayer? And you would not only not blaspheme her, but you would also strive to lay down your soul for her, feeling from this intelligent attention by deed and experience an indescribable benefit to your souls. And since you do not read the books of our reverend fathers with undoubted faith, or, even when reading, do not trust, as the fruits of your blasphemy show, or completely neglect to read, then you have fallen into such ungodly wisdom that, as if you had never heard the Christian scriptures, you blaspheme and reject this sacred prayer, testified by the God-wise explanation of St. fathers, all saints Scripture. And in order to get rid of such spiritual harm to you and everyone who doubts about it, I do not find any other decent remedy, except that I will try, as much as the Lord with His grace will hasten and help me, to point out that our God-bearing fathers, enlightened by Divine grace, establish the building of their soul-beneficial teaching about this all-sacred prayer, secretly acted by the mind in the heart, on the immovable stone of the Holy. Scriptures. But you, having seen for yourself openly and clearly, with the assistance of the grace of God that secretly touched your souls, the truth of the teachings of St. fathers and having been healed of this mental illness of yours, bring sincere repentance to God for your attempt and be worthy of His Divine mercy and perfect forgiveness of your sin. Where does this Divine mental prayer begin, and what evidence do the God-bearing fathers give about it from the Holy Scriptures? Before pointing out where this Divine prayer has its very first beginning, we need to offer the following for your information: let it be known that, according to the writings of our holy and God-bearing fathers, there are two mental prayers: one of the novice, belonging to the deed, and the other of the perfect, belonging to the vision; that one is the beginning, and that one is the end, because action is the ascent of vision. You should know that according to St. Gregory of Sinai, there are eight first visions, which, counting them, he says: “We say that there are eight first visions. The first is the vision of God, formless, beginningless and uncreated, the Cause of everything, the one Trinity and the all-essential Divinity. The second is the rank and structure of the intelligent forces. The third is the dispensation of sensual creatures. The fourth is the watchful condescension of the Word. Fifth - general resurrection. The sixth is the second and terrible coming of Christ. The seventh is eternal torment. Eighth – the Kingdom of Heaven, which has no end.” Having proposed this, I inform you, according to the thinness of my weak mind, in what strength the action and vision should be understood. Let it be known (I speak to simple ones like me) that the entire monastic feat, which, with the help of God, would force someone to love one’s neighbor and God, to meekness, humility and patience and all the other God’s and patristic commandments, to complete obedience to God with soul and body, to fasting, vigil, tears, bows and other fatigues of the body, to diligently perform church and cell duties. rules, for the smart secret exercise of prayer, for crying and thinking about death - all such feat, while the mind is still controlled by human autocracy and will, is reliably called an act, but not a vision. If such a mental feat of prayer would be called vision somewhere in the writings of the holy fathers, then this is in common parlance, because the mind, like the spiritual eye, is called vision. When someone, with God's help and the above-mentioned feat, and most of all with the deepest humility, cleanses his soul and heart from all filthiness of spiritual and physical passions, then the grace of God, the common mother of all, taking the mind, purified by it, like a little child by the hand, leads him, as if by steps, to the above-mentioned spiritual visions, revealing to him, as he is purified, ineffable and incomprehensible to the mind Divine secrets. And this is truly called true spiritual vision, which is visual, or, according to St. Исааку, чистая молитва, от которой – ужас и видение. But no one can enter into these visions with his own arbitrary feat, unless God visits someone and leads him into them by His grace. Если же кто без света благодати дерзнет восходить на такие видения, тот, по св. Gregory Sinait, let him know that he imagines dreams, not visions, dreaming and dreaming with a dreamy spirit (Gregory Sinait. Ch. 130). Таково рассуждение о деятельной и зрительной молитве. Но уже время показать, откуда Божественная умная молитва имеет свое начало. Let it be known that, according to the untrue testimony of our God-wise, reverend and God-bearing father Nil, the faster of Sinai, even in paradise God Himself gave to the pristine man a mental Divine prayer befitting the perfect. St. Neil, teaching those who prayed to diligently and courageously preserve the fruit of prayer, so that their work would not be in vain, says this: “Having prayed as you should, expect what you should not, and become courageous, preserving your fruit. After all, this is what you were assigned to do from the beginning: to do and preserve. Therefore, having done, do not leave the work unrestricted, otherwise you will not receive any benefit from prayer” (Ch. 49). Explaining these words, the Russian luminary, St. Nile, the hermit of Sorsky, who shone like the sun in great Russia with the intelligent practice of prayer, as is clear from his wise book, says this: “This saint brought this from ancient times: to do and keep, because the Scripture says that God, having created Adam, placed him in paradise to make and keep paradise. And here St. Neil of Sinai called prayer a heavenly thing, and guarding against evil thoughts through prayer as a guardianship.” Also St. Dorotheus says that the primordial man, placed by God in paradise, remained in prayer... From these testimonies it is clear that God, having created man in His image and likeness, introduced him into paradise of sweets to make immortal gardens, i.e. Divine thoughts, purest, highest and perfect, according to St. Gregory the Theologian. And this is nothing other than that he, as pure in soul and heart, should remain in visual, sacred, grace-filled prayer performed with one mind, i.e. in the sweetest vision of God, and courageously, like the apple of his eye, he preserved it as a heavenly thing, so that it would never diminish in the soul and heart. Great, therefore, is the glory of sacred and Divine mental prayer, of which the end and the top, i.e. beginning and perfection are given by God to man in paradise, from there it has its beginning. But she gained incomparably greater glory when, more than all the saints, the Most Holy, the Most Honest of the Cherubim and the Most Glorious without comparison of the Seraphim, the Most Holy Virgin Theotokos, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, through mental prayer ascended to the extreme heights of God-vision and was honored to be the vast Village of the One who is inconceivable to all creation, hypostatically contained in Her, the Word of God and from Her, human salvation, forever born, as evidenced by the invincible pillar of Orthodoxy, like our holy father Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonites, in the Homily on the Entry into the Church of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. He says that the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, and understanding completely from the Holy. Scripture, read every Saturday, about the destruction through disobedience of the human race, and, filled with extreme regret for it, she accepted a prayer intelligent to God for a speedy pardon and salvation of the human race. I offer here the very words of this saint. Gregory, worthy of the angelic mind, few of many: “This Virgin Mary, hearing and seeing, had pity for the human race common to Her and thought about how to find healing and healing equivalent to such suffering. Soon She was found - to turn with all her mind to God - and accepted this prayer for us in order to compel the Uncompelled One and quickly attract Him to us, so that He Himself would remove the curse, stop the fire corrupting the pasture of the soul, and, having healed the weak, unite His creation with Himself. Thus, the Blessed Virgin, seeing what was most suitable and characteristic of all nature for Herself, considered mental prayer as wonderful and glorious and better than any word. Seeking the most artistic and natural way to converse with God, she came to Him, a self-ordained or, better yet, God-chosen Prayer Book.” And below: “Not seeing anything that was manifested by people before Her that would definitely indicate this, she stretches out with diligence firmly to prayer, creates new things that are greater and more perfect, and invents, and acts, and teaches the action to those who follow this as the highest ascent to vision, and vision is as much greater than what was said above, as truth is higher than dreaming. But, having collected everything within yourself and cleared your mind, hear about the greatness of the sacrament: I want to say a word that benefits the entire congregation of Christ, most relevant to those who have renounced the World. Having already tasted for the sake of renunciation something of those future blessings, who becomes with the angels and acquires residence in heaven, let him desire to imitate, according to his strength, the first and only one who renounced the World from infancy, for the sake of the world, the Ever-Virgin Bride.” And below: “Searching for what prayer books need most for conversation, which is what prayer is, the Virgin finds sacred silence - silence of the mind, the distance of the world, oblivion of the earthly and introduction to the highest secrets, to a better transformation; this act, as truly an ascent to the vision of the truly Existent, or, better said, more fairly, to the Vision of God, is, as it were, a brief indication for the soul of the one who has truly acquired it (the act). Every other virtue is like healing, in relation to mental illnesses and evil passions that have taken root through despondency, while vision of God is the fruit of a healthy soul as some final perfection and image of God’s deeds. And therefore, a person is idolized not by words or judicious moderation regarding the visible - all this is earthly, low, human - but by remaining in silence, because by this we renounce, and move away from the earthly, and ascend to God. Enduring day and night with prayers and supplications in the upper room of silent living, we somehow approach and approach this inaccessible and blissful Nature. Претерпевающие таким образом, очистившие сердца священным безмолвием и срастворившиеся им неизреченно высшему чувства и ума Свету, в себе, как в зеркале, видят Бога. Итак, безмолвие есть скорое и сокращенное руководство, как успешнейшее и соединяющее с Богом, особенно для держащихся его во всем вполне. And the Virgin, who from the soft, so to speak, nails dwelt in him, what - She? Она, как безмолвствовавшая превышеестественно с такого самого детского возраста, потому одна из всех и породила неискусомужно Богочеловека Слово». И ниже: «Поэтому и Пречистая, отрекаясь самого, так сказать, житейского пребывания и молвы, переселилась от людей и, избежав виновного жития, избрала жизнь никому не видимую и необщительную, пребывая в невходных. Здесь, разрешившись всякого вещественного союза, и оттрясши всякое общение и любовь ко всему, и превзойдя самое снисхождение к телу, Она собрала весь ум в одно с Ним сообращение, и пребывание, и внимание, и в непрестанную Божественную молитву. And having become Her within Herself and having settled above the manifold rebellion and thoughts and simply every kind and thing, She made a new and ineffable path to heaven, which is, I will say so, mental silence. And, diligent and listening to this with her mind, she flies over all creatures and creatures, and much better than Moses, beholds the glory of God, and beholds Divine grace, which is not at all subject to the power of feeling - this is a joyful and sacred vision of undefiled souls and minds, having partaken of which, She, according to the Divine hymns, becomes a bright Cloud of living, truly Water, and the Dawn of the mental Day, and a fiery Chariot Words." From these words of the Divine Gregory Palamas, anyone with a mind can understand more clearly than the sun that the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, through mental prayer ascended to the extreme heights of vision of God and by renunciation for the world from the world, sacred silence of the mind, mental silence, gathering of the mind in unceasing Divine prayer and attention and ascension through action to the vision of God, gave Herself The Divine monastic order is a model of attentive living according to the inner man, so that monks who have renounced the world, looking at Her, diligently strive, as much as they can, through Her prayers to be Her imitators in the above-mentioned monastic labors and sweats. And who will be able to properly praise the Divine mental prayer, the doer of which, as an example of the benefit and success of the monks, instructed by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as it is said, was the Mother of God Herself? But in confirmation and undoubted confirmation of those who doubt about it, as if about an untestified and unreliable thing, it is now time to show what evidence the God-bearing fathers, who wrote from the enlightenment of Divine grace, cite about it from the Holy Scriptures. Scriptures. Divine mental prayer has an unshakable foundation in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “But when you pray, go into your room and, having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). These words, as already said in Chapter 1, are the universal luminary, St. John Chrysostom, God-given wisdom, explains the relatively silent, secret, prayer sent from the depths of the heart, bringing into evidence from the Holy. The writings of Moses, the seer of God, and St. Anna, the mother of Samuel the Prophet, and righteous Abel and his blood crying out from the earth - that in their prayer, without uttering a single voice, they were heard by God. This great teacher of the universe, the mouth of Christ, St. John Chrysostom also separately set out, in three Words, the teaching about this Divine prayer, as the unfalse witness, His Beatitude Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonites, writes about this in chapter 294 of his book, which the entire Holy Catholic Eastern Church holds in great veneration as a pillar and affirmation of the truth. The pillar of fire and the fiery mouth of the Holy Spirit, the church eye, Basil, I say, the Great, explaining the saying of the Divine Scripture: “I will glorify the Lord at all times, His praise is always on my lips” (Ps. 33:2), teaches beautifully about smart lips and smart action, citing evidence from the Holy Scriptures. Scripture, whose very words, filled with Divine wisdom, I present as follows: “His praise is always on my lips.” It seems that the prophet is saying the impossible: how can the praise of God always be in the mouths of men? When a person talks about ordinary everyday things, then he does not have the praise of God in his mouth; when he sleeps, he is silent, of course, and even when he eats and drinks, then how can his lips offer praise? To this we answer that there are certain mental lips of the inner man, with which he feeds, partaking of the Word of the animal, which is the Bread that comes down from heaven (John 6:33). The prophet said about these lips: “I opened my lips and drew the Spirit into me” (Ps. 119:131). The Lord encourages us to do this, so that we have these lips spacious, for sufficient reception of true food, saying: “Open your lips and I will fill them” (Ps. 80:11). Therefore, once inscribed and established in the mind of the soul, the thought of God can be called the praise of God, which is always present in the soul. And according to the apostolic word, someone who is careful can do everything for the glory of God, so that every deed, and every word, and every mental action has the meaning of praise. So, whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). Even the sleeping person’s heart is vigilant.” So says St. Vasily. From his words it is clear that in addition to the bodily lips there are mental lips, and there is mental action and praise, which always occurs mentally in the inner man. Named after bliss, the Egyptian or, better to say, the universal sun, shone with the ineffable gifts of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly man, the Great, I say, Macarius, in his heavenly words about this holy prayer says this: “Christians should always have the memory of God, because it is written: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart” (Matthew 22:37). Not only then should he love the Lord when he enters the prayer church, but also while walking, and talking, and eating, and drinking, let him have memory of God, and love, and desire, because He says: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). Reverend and God-bearing ancient St. father, Isaiah the Hermit, about the hidden teaching, i.e. The Jesus Prayer, performed as a thought in the heart, brings into evidence the words of Divine Scripture: “My heart grew warm within me, and in my meditation a fire was kindled” (Ps. 39:4). St. Simeon, testified in the above-mentioned book of the most blessed Simeon of Thessalonites, who among the reigning city, like the sun, shone with mental prayer in the ineffable gifts of the Holy Spirit and therefore was called the New Theologian by the whole Church - this one in his Word on the three types of prayer writes about mental prayer and attention like this: “Our Holy Fathers, hearing The Lord, who says that from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy - this defiles a person (Matthew 15:19-20), and again hearing that He teaches us to cleanse the inside of the cup so that the outside may also be clean (Matthew 23:26), they left every other work and labored only in this guarding of the heart, knowing for certain, that along with this activity they will conveniently acquire every other virtue. Without this same doing, it is impossible to acquire and maintain a single virtue.” These words of the monk clearly show that the Divine Fathers set the above words of the Lord as evidence and a basis for guarding the heart, i.e. mental invocation of Jesus. This venerable man also cites other sayings of the Holy Spirit as evidence of Divine mental prayer. Scripture, saying: “Ecclesiastes also speaks about this: “Rejoice, young man, in your youth... and walk in the ways of your heart blameless... and remove wrath from your heart” (Eccl. 11:9-10), and: “If the anger of the ruler flares up against you, then do not leave your place” (Eccl. 10:4), but he calls the place the heart, just as the Lord said: “From the heart come the evil ones.” помыслы » ( Мф.15:19 ). And again: “Do not worry” (Luke 12:29) (i.e. do not worry, do not waste your mind here and there). And again: “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14), also: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), i.e. Not having in themselves a single thought of this age.” And ap. Peter says: “Be sober and watchful, for your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). And ap. Paul clearly writes to the Ephesians about guarding the heart, saying, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). St. Hesychius presbyter, theologian and teacher of the Jerusalem Church, friend and interlocutor of our reverend and God-bearing father Euthymius the Great, who wrote with divine wisdom, from the enlightenment of Divine grace, about this sacred mental invocation in the heart of Jesus, i.e. about mental prayer, a book of two hundred chapters, gives testimony about this from St. The scriptures are as follows: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8); “Take heed to yourself, lest any wicked thought enter your heart” (Deut. 15:9); “In the morning I will appear before You, and You will see me” (Ps. 5:4); “Blessed is he who takes and dashes your babies against a stone” (Ps. 137:9); “In the morning I slew all the sinners of the earth, to destroy from the city of the Lord all those who commit iniquity” (Ps. 100:8); “Prepare to call on your God, O Israel” (Amos 4:12). And the Apostle: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and the Lord Himself says: “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; without Me you cannot do anything. Whoever does not abide in Me will be cast out like a branch" (John 15:5-6), and: "From the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery... this defiles a person" (Matthew 15:19), also: "My God has willed to do Your will, and Your law is within me" (Ps. 39:9), and others, which I leave in abundance. Our divine and God-bearing father John Climacus cites the testimony of Divine Scripture about this sacred prayer and true silence of the mind, saying: “The great worker of great and perfect prayer said: “I want to say five words with my mind...” (1 Cor. 14:19),” and again: “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready” (Ps. 56:8), also: “I sleep, but my heart is watchful” ( Song.5:2), also: “I cried with all my heart” (Ps.119:145), i.e. body and soul, and so on. Our Divine Father Philotheus, abbot of the monastery of the Bush of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is on Sinai, who compiled a small book of chapters on the mental preservation of the heart - priceless margaritas of Divine wisdom, filled with the ineffable heavenly sweetness of the Holy Spirit - places the sayings of the Holy Spirit as the unshakable foundation of his words. Scripture: “In the morning I slew all the sinners of the earth” (Ps. 100:8); “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21); “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed,” and beads, and kvass; “Without Me you can do nothing” (Pn. 15:5); “Keep your heart with all care” (Proverbs 4:23); “First cleanse the inside of the cup... so that the outside also... may be clean” (Matthew 23:26); “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12); “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him with firm faith" (1 Pet. 5:8–9); “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man; But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me a captive” (Rom. 7:22-23) and so on. Our Divine Father Diadochos, Bishop of Photikie, testified in the book of the above-mentioned Saint of Christ Simeon of Thessalonites, believes in his word, filled with spiritual wisdom, of which there are one hundred chapters in his Divine book, about the mental Jesus prayer, sacredly performed in the heart, the following basis from the Divine Scripture: “No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit” ( 1 Corinthians 12:3); and from the Gospel parable about a merchant looking for good beads, he quotes in the following words: “This is a valuable bead, which can be acquired by anyone who sells his property and will have unspeakable joy in finding it, etc.” Our Reverend Father Nicephorus the Faster, testified in the same book by the above-mentioned St. Simeon, in his word about guarding the heart, full of spiritual benefit, likens this Divine mental prayer in the heart to a treasure hidden in the village, and calls it a burning lamp, citing the sayings of St. Scriptures: “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), “our struggle is not against flesh and blood” (Eph.6:12), also to cultivate and store (Gen.2:15) and so on. Our blessed and God-bearing father Gregory of Sinai, who by doing this Divine prayer ascended into extreme vision of God and, like the sun, shone with the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Spirit. Mount Athos and in other places, who compiled the “Trinity”, sung every week after the Trinity Canon in the Holy Catholic Eastern Church throughout the universe, also the canon of the Life-Giving Cross, which embraced the writings of all the spirit-bearing fathers, compiled a book full of all spiritual benefits, in which, more than all other saints, he teaches in subtlety about this Divine prayer performed with the mind in the heart and cites in confirmation of his words from the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures are as follows: “Remember the Lord your God always” (Deut. 8:18); “Sow your seed in the morning, and in the evening do not let your hand rest” (Eccl. 11:6); “If I pray with my tongue (i.e., lips), my spirit prays (i.e., my voice; know that the lips and tongue, and spirit, and voice are one and the same), but my mind is barren. I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the mind...” (1 Cor. 14:14-15) “I want to say five words with my mind...” (1 Cor. 14:19), bringing the Climacus as a witness, attributing these words to prayer. Also: “The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who force themselves to force achieve it” (Matthew 11:12), “No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3) and so on. Following the apostolic footsteps, the invincible pillar of the Orthodox faith, who destroyed the Doukhobor heresies of the Latins with the fiery sword of the Spirit and the truth of Orthodox dogmas at the Florence Council, Mark, I say, the most holy, wise and verbal, Metropolitan of Ephesus, at the beginning of the interpretation of church succession, writes about the Divine Jesus Prayer, performed secretly with the mind in the heart, using the testimony of Divine Scripture, of which I offer the following most God-wise words: “We should, according to the commanding commandment, pray unceasingly and in spirit and in truth offer up the worship of God, but diligence about the thoughts of life and the bonds of care for the body lead many away and remove them from the Kingdom of God, which is within us, as the word of God proclaims, and prevents us from remaining with the mind the altar and offer spiritual and verbal sacrifices to God, according to the Divine Apostle, who says that we are the church of God living in us, and His Divine Spirit lives in us. And there is nothing surprising if this usually happens to many who live according to the flesh, when we see that some of the monks who have renounced worldly things, due to mental warfare from the enterprise of passions and rising from that great rebellion that darkens the verbal part of the soul, are not yet able to achieve pure prayer, although they strongly desire it. The pure and unceasing memory of Jesus in the heart and the ineffable enlightenment that comes from it are delightful.” Our Reverend Russian Father, St. Nil Sorsky, who compiled his book on the mental preservation of the heart from the teachings of the God-bearing fathers, and especially from Gregory of Sinaite, uses from the Holy. The testimonial scriptures are: “Evil thoughts come from the heart... this defiles a person” (Matthew 15:19); “cleanse the inside of the cup” (Matthew 23:26); “We must worship the Father in spirit and truth” (Pn. 4:24); “When I pray in tongues...”; “I would rather speak five words with my mind than many words with tongues” (1 Cor. 14:19), and so on. The Russian luminary, Saint Demetrius of Christ, Metropolitan of Rostov, who with the spiritual sword of the word destroyed, like cobwebs, the errors of schismatics and their ungodly, corrupt, and Holy. A mind contrary to Scripture, who wrote many teachings for the benefit of St. Churches filled with the wisdom of St. Spirit, and who has composed a word about the internal mental performance of prayer, filled with spiritual benefit, uses from the Holy. The scriptures of testimony are as follows: “But when you pray, enter into your closet...” (Matthew 6:6); “My heart said to you: I will seek the Lord. My face has sought you; I will seek your face, O Lord” (Ps. 26:8); also: “As a deer eagerly strives for springs of water, so my soul longs for You, O God” (Ps. 41:2); also: “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21); also: “Pray with all prayer and supplication at all times in the Spirit” (Eph.6:18); “When I pray in tongues, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Cor. 14:14); “I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the mind; I will sing with the spirit, but I will also sing with the mind” (1 Cor. 14:15) and so on. These words he, in agreement with St. John Climacus, Gregory of Sinaite and Nilus of Sora, refers to mental prayer. And the very Charter of the Church, printed in the reigning great city of Moscow, offering church legislation on bowing and prayer, also cites the sayings of St. about this Divine prayer. The scriptures are as follows: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24); “When I pray in tongues, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the mind; I will sing with the spirit, but I will also sing with the understanding” (1 Cor. 14:14-15). And again: “I want,” he says, “in church to speak five words with my mind, rather than many words with tongues” (1 Cor. 14:19). And he brings St. into testimony. fathers: St. John Climacus, St. Gregory of Sinaite and St. Antiochus, - and partly their Divine teachings about this mental prayer, and finally says: “And with this here we finish the word about the sacred and ever-memorable mental prayer.” And then he speaks about the holy, common prayer of all, performed according to church rites. Here, by the grace of God, it is shown that the God-bearing fathers, wise by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, lay the foundation of their teaching about the mental sacred act of prayer, secretly performed in the inner man, on the immovable stone of the Divine Scripture of the New and Old Testaments, borrowing from there, as from an inexhaustible source, so much evidence. Which of the faithful Christians, seeing this, could have even the slightest doubt about this Divine thing? Perhaps only those who obey the spirit of insensibility, who hear and see, but do not want to understand and know. But those who have the fear of God and a sound mind, seeing such evidence from so many witnesses, unanimously recognize that this Divine work, above all monastic deeds, is more characteristic and more fitting of the angelic monastic order. About this work, the above-mentioned and many other Divine Fathers in their writings offer many well-heard words, sweeter than honey and honeycomb, filled with spiritual wisdom, teaching inner, mental feat against mental enemies: how this spiritual sword and fiery invincible weapon of the name of Jesus, guarding the heart gates, should be turned on them. how this Divine Jesus Prayer should be sacredly performed with the mind in the heart. About this sacred action of this sacred prayer, especially about its very beginnings, and about how beginners should learn it through experience, I am the last, according to the strength of my weak mind, with the help of God, to write at least something a little from the teaching of the Holy Fathers. And, firstly, it is necessary to express that this Divine prayer is a spiritual art, then - how to practice it, according to the teachings of St. fathers, preparation is required. That this sacred mental prayer is spiritual art Let it be known that our Divine Fathers call this sacred mental making of prayer art, holy art. John Climacus in Homily 27 on silence, teaching about the sacrament of this mental prayer, says: “If you have thoroughly studied this art, then you cannot help but know what I am saying. Sitting on high, watch, if you only know how, and then you will see how, when, and where, and how many, and what kind of thieves come to come in and steal your grapes. This guard, tired, gets up and prays, then sits down again and courageously takes up his previous work” (Lestv. 27:22-23). St. Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, says about this sacred prayer: “Sobriety is a spiritual art, completely, with the help of God, freeing a person from passionate thoughts and words and evil deeds.” St. Nicephorus the Faster, teaching about it, says: “Come and I will announce to you the art or, better, the science of the eternal, or better yet, heavenly residence, leading its worker without labor and safely into the haven of dispassion.” The art of St. the fathers, as shown, call this holy prayer, I think, because, just as a person cannot learn art on his own without a skilled artist, so it is impossible to learn this mental practice of prayer without a skilled mentor. But this is the case, according to St. Nikifor and many or even all, comes from teaching, while those who are rare without teaching, through the pain of doing and the warmth of faith, received it from God. The church rule according to the charter and sacred church books, which Orthodox Christians, lay and monks, must bring daily as tribute to the Heavenly King, can be read orally by anyone literate and performed without any teaching. And with the mind in the heart it is impossible to offer God the mysterious sacrifice of prayer, since this is a spiritual art, without teaching, as indicated above. Being a spiritual art, it also constitutes the unceasing work of monks, so that not only by renunciation of the world and those in the world, change of name at tonsure, peculiarity of clothing, celibacy, virginity, purity, spontaneous poverty, separation of food and place of residence, but also by the most mental and spiritual attention and prayer according to the inner man, the monks have an excellent and superior quality over worldly people doing. What kind of preparation is needed for someone who wants to undergo this Divine work? How much more than any other monastic feat is this Divine prayer, which, according to St. fathers, is the summit of all corrections, the source of virtues, the subtlest and invisible in the depths of the heart, the doing of the mind, just as the subtlest, invisible, barely comprehensible to the human mind, the networks of its diverse charms and dreams are extended to it by the invisible enemy of our salvation. Therefore, the zealous person must learn this Divine work, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, surrender yourself soul and body to obedience in accordance with the Holy. Scripture, i.e. to surrender oneself to the complete cutting off of one’s will and one’s reasoning to a person who fears God, a zealous keeper of His Divine commandments and not inexperienced in this mental feat, who is able, according to the scriptures of St. fathers, to show the obedient the unlost path to salvation - the path of mental prayer, secretly performed with the mind in the heart. This is necessary so that through true obedience in the mind he can become free from all rumors, and cares, and addictions of this world and body. How can someone who has entrusted all care for his soul and body to God and, according to God, to his father, not to be free? By humility, born from obedience, according to the testimony of St. John Climacus and many holy fathers, he will be able to avoid all the charms and snares of the devil and quietly, silently, without any harm, constantly exercise in this mental matter, with great spiritual success. If someone gave himself up to obedience, but did not find in his father by his very deed and experience a skillful mentor of this Divine mental prayer (at the present time - alas! worthy of much crying and sobbing - experienced mentors of this work are completely disappearing), then he should not therefore fall into despair. But, remaining in true obedience according to the commandments of God (and not arbitrarily and especially arbitrarily, without obedience, which usually follows delusion), placing all hope in God, together with his father, instead of a true mentor, let him obey with faith and love the teachings of our venerable fathers, who expounded to the subtlety the doctrine of this Divine work from the enlightenment of Divine grace, and from here let him borrow instructions about this prayer. And, in any case, the grace of God, through the prayers of St. fathers, will hasten and instruct how, without any doubt, to learn this Divine work. About what this sacred Jesus Prayer is in terms of its quality and effect Having laid such a preliminary preparation as a firm and unshakable foundation for this Divine prayer, i.e. blessed obedience, it is time to show from the teachings of St. fathers, what is this sacred prayer in terms of its quality and action. And this is so that those who want to learn her spiritual work can see to what great and ineffable success she raises the ascetic in all sorts of virtues, and this would be encouraged in the desire to cleave to the sacred work of this mental prayer with great zeal and Divine zeal. St. John Climacus in Homily 28, at the beginning, says: “Prayer in its quality is communication and the union of man with God, and in action - the affirmation of peace, reconciliation with God, the mother and again the daughter of tears, the cleansing of sins, a bridge through temptation, a wall against sorrows, the destruction of wars, angelic work, food for all incorporeal, future joy, boundless work, the source of virtues, the reason talents, invisible prosperity, food for the soul, enlightenment of the mind, ax for despair, proof of hope, cessation of sorrow, wealth of monks, treasure of the silent, reduction of irritability, mirror of prosperity, indication of measure, detection of fortune, indication of the future, sign of glory. Prayer for the one who truly prays is the judgment seat, judgment and throne of the Lord, even before the future Judgment.” St. Gregory of Sinai in chapter 113 says: “Prayer in beginners is like a fire of joy emitted by the heart, but in perfect ones it is like active light, fragrant.” Or again: “Prayer is the preaching of the apostles, the action of faith or, better, immediate faith, the notification of those who hope, active love, angelic movement, the power of the disembodied, their work and joy, the gospel of God, the notification of the heart, the hope of salvation, the sign of sanctification, the formation of holiness, the knowledge of God, the appearance (revelation) of baptism, the cleansing of the font, the betrothal of the Holy Spirit, the joy of Jesus, joy souls, the mercy of God, the sign of reconciliation, the seal of Christ, a ray of mental sun, the day of hearts, the affirmation of Christianity, the manifestation of God’s reconciliation, the grace of God, the wisdom of God or, better, the beginning of self-wisdom, the appearance of God, the work of monks, the residence of the silent, the cause of silence, the sign of the residence of angels.” Blzh. Macarius the Great says: “The head of all good diligence and the summit of all corrections is to endure in prayer, through which we can acquire, through asking God, all other virtues. Through prayer, those worthy participate in the holiness of God, and spiritual action, and the union of the mind with the Lord with ineffable love. He who always forces himself to endure in prayer is kindled with spiritual love into Divine zeal and a fiery desire for God and accepts, to a certain extent, the grace of spiritual sanctifying perfection” (Conversation 40. Chapter 2). St. Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, says: “Light-bearing, and lightning-giving, and light-emitting, and fiery-bearing, let the preservation of the mind be appropriately and properly called. It surpasses, truly speaking, all the countless physical virtues. So, this virtue should be called by the most honest names because of the luminous light born from it. Having loved her, the sinful, the profane, the vile, the foolish, the foolish and the unrighteous can become righteous, wholesome, pure, holy and reasonable in Christ Jesus. And not only this, but also to contemplate the Divine sacraments and theology. And, having become visual, they swim to this purest and infinite Light, and touch It with ineffable touches, and live and abide with It. Since they tasted “that the Lord is good” (Ps. 33:9), then this Divine Davidic word is clearly fulfilled in such first angels: “Therefore the righteous will confess Your name, and the upright will dwell before You” (Ps. 139:14). Truly, these alone truly call and confess to God and always love to talk with Him, loving Him” (Ch. 171). St. Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonites, says about this sacred prayer: “This Divine prayer, this invocation of our Savior: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” is prayer, and supplication, and confession of faith, and the giver of the Holy Spirit, and the giver of Divine gifts, and the purification of the heart, and the casting out of demons, and the indwelling of Jesus Christ, and the source of spiritual thoughts and Divine thoughts, and deliverance from sins, and healing of souls and bodies, and the giver of Divine enlightenment, and the source of God’s mercy, and the giver of revelations of Divine mysteries to the humble, and salvation itself, because it is the bearing of the saving name of our God. This very thing is the naming of the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Ch. 296). In exactly the same way, other God-bearing fathers, writing about this sacred prayer, with their teaching, filled with God’s wisdom, express its action, the ineffable benefit that comes from it and the success through it in the Divine gifts of the Holy Spirit. Who, seeing that this most sacred prayer leads the ascetic to such a heavenly treasure of various virtues, will not be kindled by God’s zeal for the constant practice of prayer, so that through it he can constantly contain the all-sweet Jesus in his soul and heart, constantly remembering His most dear name within himself, and thereby become inflamed with His ineffable love? Is it only the one who, diligent with worldly thoughts, is bound by the chain of bodily cares, which lead many away and remove them from the Kingdom of God, which is within us. Wouldn’t he be overzealous about touching on the mental activity of mental prayer, who by deed and experience has not tasted with his soul’s throat the ineffable Divine sweetness of this most useful activity and does not know how much this thing has hidden spiritual benefits within itself. And those who want to be united by love with the sweetest Jesus, having spat upon all the beauties of this world, all the pleasures and the most bodily peace, will want nothing else in this life but to constantly practice the heavenly work of the village of prayer. About how one should first learn to act with the mind in the heart of this Divine prayer In ancient times, this all-holy work of mental prayer shone in many places where saints were present. fathers. That’s why there were many teachers of this spiritual work back then. For this reason, St. Our fathers, writing about it, expressed only the ineffable spiritual benefits that came from it, without, as I think, the need to write about the very experience of this doing, befitting beginners. If several have written about this, then this is very clear only for those who know the experience of this doing, but for those who do not know it is not at all incomprehensible. Some of them, when they saw that the true and unpretentious teachers of this work began to completely diminish, and fearing that the true teaching about the beginning of this mental prayer would not be lost, wrote both the very beginning and the experience of how beginners should learn, and enter with their minds into the lands of the heart, and there, truly and unpretentiously act prayer with their minds. It is these fathers who must present the most Divine teaching on this subject on Wednesday. St. Simeon the New Theologian speaks about the beginning of this work as follows: “True and unadulterated attention and prayer consists in the fact that during prayer the mind guards the heart and remains constantly inside it, and from there, that is, from the depths of the heart, sends prayers to God. And when the inside of the heart tastes that the Lord is good and delights, it will no longer come from the place of the heart. И вместе с апостолом скажет и он: «Хорошо нам здесь быть » ( Мф.17:4 ). And, constantly examining the places of the heart, he invents some way to drive away all the enemy thoughts floating there.” And below he speaks about it even more clearly: “Sitting in a silent cell and alone in some corner, try to do what I tell you: close the door, and collect your mind from all vain things; затем, упершись брадой своей в грудь, двигай чувственное око со умом. Then restrain the desire for nasal breathing, so as not to breathe often, and mentally explore the womb inside, in order to find the place of the heart, where all spiritual forces usually reside; и сначала ты найдёшь мрак и непроницаемую толщу. But by constantly striving in this matter night and day, you will find - lo and behold! - unceasing joy. For as soon as the mind finds the place of the heart, it immediately sees what it has never seen; He sees the air and himself in the middle of the heart, all bright and full of reasoning. And from now on, by calling on Jesus Christ, he expels and destroys the thought as it appears, before it is completed (enters) or formed (imagined). From now on, the mind, remembering demonic malice, raises natural anger and, in pursuit, defeats mental enemies. You will learn the rest, with God’s help, by keeping your mind, holding Jesus in your heart” (A Word on Three Types of Prayer). St. Nikifor the Faster, teaching even more clearly about entering the heart with the mind, says: “First of all, let your life be silent, carefree and peaceful with everyone. Then, having entered your cage, shut yourself and, sitting in some corner, do what I tell you. You know that the breath we breathe is this air, but we exhale it with nothing other than our heart. It is the cause of life and warmth of the body. The heart attracts air in order to release its warmth through breathing and give itself coolness. The cause of this action, or, better to say, the servant is a lung, which, being created by a rare Creator, like a pump, conveniently brings in and takes out the surroundings, i.e. air. Thus, the heart, attracting cold through the air and expelling warmth, constantly observes the order designed to support life. You, having sat down and collected your mind, introduce it into the nostril path through which air enters the heart, push it through, and force it, along with the inhaled air, to descend into the heart. When he enters there, then what happens after that will not be sad or joyless for him.” And below: “Therefore, brother, train your mind not to leave there soon, because at first it gets very bored from the inner seclusion and cramped space. When he gets used to it, he no longer tolerates wandering outside, because the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, and when we consider it there and seek it with pure prayer, then everything external becomes vile and hateful. If, as has been said, you immediately enter with your mind the place of your heart that I showed you, then give thanks to God, and glorify, and jump, and stick to this doing constantly, and it will teach you what you do not know. You also need to know that the mind, being there, should not stand silent or idle, but these words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” - to have constant work and teaching, and never cease from this. This, keeping the mind low, keeps it elusive and impregnable to the enemy’s attacks and elevates it daily into love and desire of the Divine. If, brother, having worked a lot, you are not able to enter the lands of the heart, as we commanded you, then do what I tell you, and with the help of God you will find what you are looking for. You know that the literature of every person is in the Persians: here, inside the Persians, and with the silence of our lips, we speak, and reason, and say prayers and psalms, and so on. Having taken away every thought from this literature (you can do this if you want), let it say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” and force this, instead of every other thought, to constantly cry out within. When you hold this for a while, then the heart’s entrance will be opened for you, as we wrote to you, without any doubt, as we ourselves have learned from experience. And the whole face of virtues will come to you, with much-desired and sweet attention: love, joy, peace (Gal. 5:22) and so on.” The Divine Gregory of Sinai, also teaching how the most salvific invocation of the Lord should act in the heart with the mind, says: “Sitting in the morning on a seat of one quarter (one span), bring the mind down from the sovereign [place] (place of authority) in the heart and keep it in it. And, bowing down with difficulty and feeling severe pain in the chest and shoulders and neck, constantly call mentally or spiritually: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me /” Then, if, perhaps, for the sake of crampedness and soreness and from frequent invocation, it becomes unsweetened to you (which does not happen because of the monotony of the food of the Triple Name, often poisonous, for those who eat me, it is said, will still hunger (i.e. they will eat more) - Sir.24:23), then, changing your mind to the other half, say: “Son of God, have mercy on me!” And, having repeatedly pronounced this half, you should not, out of laziness, often change them, because trees, which are often transplanted, do not take root. Hold back the breath of your lungs, so that you do not breathe insolently, for the movement of air that comes from the heart scatters the thought and darkens the mind and, returning it from there, either consigns it to oblivion as a prisoner, or forces it to learn from the other instead of one, and it turns out to be insensitive in what it should not. If you see the uncleanness of evil spirits, i.e. thoughts that arise or are depicted in your mind, then do not be horrified, but if good understandings about certain things appear to you, do not heed them: holding your breath as much as possible, and confining your mind in your heart, and acting constantly and often by calling on the Lord Jesus, you will soon crush and destroy them, wounding invisibly with the Divine name, as the Climacus also says: “In the name of Jesus, beat the warriors, because there is no stronger weapon, neither in heaven nor on earth." And again this same saint, teaching about silence and prayer, how one should sit in it, says: “Sometimes one should sit on a chair, for the sake of work, sometimes on the bed a little before the time, for joy. Patience should be your seat, for the sake of who said that you should be constant in prayer (Col. 4:2), and not get up quickly, faint-hearted due to the difficulty of the illness, and mental crying, and frequent tension of the mind. This is what the prophet says: “Sickness has overcome me, like one in labor” (Jer.8:21). So, bowing down and collecting your mind in your heart, if your heart has been opened to you, call on the Lord Jesus for help. When you are in pain, often having headaches, endure it intensely and zealously, seeking in your heart the Lord: “The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who force themselves, and those who use force take possession of it” (Matthew 11:12). And also, as one should say a prayer, he says: “The fathers said this: another says: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” - all, but the other half: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!” - and this is more convenient, due to the weakness of the mind and infancy. No one can, by himself, without the Spirit, secretly name the Lord Jesus - purely and completely, only by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 12:3), but, like a speechless (silent) baby, he cannot yet accomplish it with his members. Out of laziness, he should not often change the invocation of names, but rarely for retention. Again: some teach to pronounce it with the lips, others with the mind, but I admit both. Sometimes the mind is exhausted, bored with speaking, and sometimes the lips are tired. Therefore, one must pray with both: both the lips and the mind, but silently and unabashedly one must cry out so that the voice, confusing the feeling and attention of the mind, does not interfere until the mind, having become accustomed to the task, succeeds and receives from the Spirit the strength to pray firmly and in every possible way. Then he no longer needs to speak with his lips and is not even able to, being able to do things entirely with his mind alone.” So, here are the above-mentioned St. the fathers are shown to present a very clear teaching and experience of teaching smart doing to beginners. And from this teaching one can understand the teaching of other saints about this work, stated more secretly. End of six chapters. To the Most Gracious God be glory, honor, worship and thanksgiving unto endless ages. Amen. The printed edition contains Greek words in both modern and ancient spellings. Here and further we give them as in the original book. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. Theoliptus means “embraced by God.” Paisiy Velichkovsky excluded this chapter from his translation, since it belongs to John of Carpathia and is found in his letter to the monks from India under number 25. Therefore, we present this chapter from another manuscript of the elder. The author correlates the expressions of the apostles with two methods of theology - apophatic and cataphatic, classically formulated in Ps. – Dionysius the Areopagite.