Very useful chapters arranged in acrostics

Essay by Rev. Gregory of Sinaite “Very useful chapters arranged in acrostics” (1327) is also known by its full title, corresponding to the acrostic: “Various words about commandments, dogmas, threats and promises, as well as about thoughts, passions, virtues; moreover, about silence and prayer.” The work contains 137 short, aphoristic instructions covering a wide range of topics: 1. Fundamentals of Orthodox dogma (dogmas) in terms of triadology and Christology. 2. Ways of salvation: through the fulfillment of the Divine commandments and awareness of the threat of eternal punishment, as well as the promises of the Kingdom of Heaven. 3. Anthropology and spiritual struggle. The nature of man, the origin of sin, the emergence and development of thoughts, passions and virtues are examined in detail. Particular attention is paid to identifying the causes of passions and ways to combat them. 4. Practice of silence (hesychia) and prayer. The author gives recommendations on daily routine, diet, wakefulness, psalmody and reading. The central place is occupied by the teaching of mental (heartfelt) prayer as the main instrument for purifying the mind and acquiring the Holy Spirit. 5. Prelest (spiritual delusion). St. Gregory of Sinaite describes the types of spiritual delusion, its causes and signs, warning ascetics about false states and visions, as well as the need for humility and reasoning. * The title of the work in Greek is Κεφάλαια δι᾿ ἀκροστιχίδος (Κεφάλαια πάνυ ὠφέλιμα περὶ ἐντολῶν...). * The title of the work in Latin is Capita valde utilia per acrostichidem. Also - about thoughts, passions and virtues, - and also - about silence and prayer. Their [general] acrostic is as follows: “Various words about commandments, dogmas, threats and promises, as well as thoughts, passions, virtues; moreover, about silence and prayer.” 1. To be to some extent rational or to become pure and incorruptible by nature, as it was before, is impossible [now for a person] due to the dominance [over purity] of sensual irrational habits, and [over incorruptibility] - the state of corruption of the flesh. 2. The only ones who are intelligent by nature are those who have become saints through purity. None of the wise in words had pure reason; from the beginning they darkened their rational power with thoughts. The materialistic and loquacious 2 spirit of wisdom of this world, leading [a person] with words to the breadth of knowledge and thoughts to the wildest reasoning, creates [himself in them] refuge, suffering a lack of essential wisdom, contemplation and single and inseparable knowledge. 3. Place the knowledge of the truth in the grace-filled feeling of it. The remaining thoughts 3 should be called expressions of ideas [of truth] and indicators of its objects. 4. Those who lose grace endure it for unbelief and carelessness and again find it [that is, grace] through faith and diligent seeking. With the help of these [the latter] they [morally] always move forward. From the opposite [unbelief and carelessness] they return completely. 5. There is a close similarity in whether to be dead or insensitive, whether blinded rationally or not seeing bodily, since the dead have lost their life-giving and creative power, and the blind person has lost the Divine light, which imparts the ability to see and be visible. 6. Not many people receive strength and wisdom from God. [Strength] is the perceiver of 5 Divine blessings, and [wisdom] is their revealer. To assimilate [wisdom] and pass it on [to others] is a truly Divine and superhuman task. 7. The heart, alien to thoughts and moved by the Spirit, is the true sanctuary even before the future life. There 6 everything is done and spoken spiritually. Hence, he who has not acquired such a [heart], although he is a stone suitable for the construction of the Divine Church thanks to certain virtues, is not a church and performs sacred acts [by the will of] the Spirit. 8. Man was created incorruptible without moisture, as such he will be resurrected, [created] not without inclination [to evil], but not with inclination either. He had the power according to the volitional desire to change [negatively] or not. Desire has not yet assimilated nature into perfect constancy. This [last] is the reward of future immutable deification. 9 . Decay is the product of the flesh. Eating food and regurgitating excess, proudly performing and sleeping are the natural properties of animals and livestock. Because of this, we, who through disobedience [to God] became like beasts, fell away from the God-given blessings inherent to us, turning from rational [creatures] into bestial ones and from divine ones into brutal ones. 10. There is a twofold paradise - sensual and spiritual, that is, Edenic and blessed. We are going to a very high place, rising to the very third heaven, as [spiritual] writers say. He [Edem] is neither unconditionally incorruptible, nor corruptible in the full 7 sense of the word. Being at the turn 8 of decay and incorruption, it always flaunts flowers 9 and is rich in unripe and ripened fruits. Rotting trees and overripe fruits, falling to the ground, become fragrant dust [in the Edenian paradise] and do not emit the smell of decay, like earthly plants. This comes from the great abundance of the grace of sanctification that is always pouring out there. In the middle of [paradise] 10 there passes the Ocean River, destined for its constant irrigation. [Streams] emerge from it and branch in four directions. By their flow, loose earth 11 and fallen leaves are carried away and delivered to the Indians and Ethiopians, whose arable land always floods the Phi-son and Geon united together, until, once again divided, one irrigates Libya, the other the Egyptian country. 11. They say that all creation, which now passes away 12, was not originally subject to corruption. Subsequently, doomed to corruption, she submitted to vanity, as Scripture says, precisely for the man who enslaved her [to corruption] not voluntarily, but against her will - in the hope (see: Rom. 8:20) of the renewal of Adam, who had fallen into corruption. He who renewed [man] and sanctified him (although he [man] wears a corruptible body because of his temporary life), also renewed creation, 13 but has not yet freed it from corruption. Some people call the deliverance of creation from decay a change for the better, while others call it a complete transformation of the sensory. Scripture usually makes simple and thorough statements about certain difficult [to understand] subjects. 12. Those who receive grace are like those who have conceived and are filled with the 14 Spirit. They either reject the Divine seed by falling, or become widowed [in alienation] from God due to the connection with the enemy that lurks within them. The loss of grace results from the action of passions, and its complete deprivation is due to the admission of 15 sins. A multi-passionate and sin-loving soul, disconnected from grace and deprived of it, becomes a widow and becomes now and in the next century a dwelling place of passions, not to say [more strongly], a den of demons. 13. Nothing pacifies and tames anger like courage and mercy. They defeat the enemies besieging the city [of souls]: first - external, second - internal. 14. Many who keep the commandments [only] seem to be moving forward and, not reaching the city, remain outside it, because they walk unreasonably, mistaking for the right royal path the crossroads that lead astray from it, that is, the vices adjacent to virtues. The commandments [do not allow] either devastation or excess, but [demand the implementation of] a godly goal and only the Divine will. Otherwise, 17 the work [of those who are being saved] is in vain and, according to Scripture, the righteous ways of God are not carried out, because in any work one must consider 18 the purpose of its accomplishment. 15. Seek the Lord on the way, that is, in the heart, through [the implementation of] the commandments. When you hear the [words] of John [the Baptist], commandingly calling everyone to prepare the roads and straighten the paths (see: Mark 1:3), then mean here [a reference to] the commandments of the heart and deeds. It is impossible to follow the path of the commandments and the infallible 19 feat correctly without heartfelt rightness. 16. When you hear the testimony of Scripture about the rod and the club (see: Ps. 22:4), then understand by the prophetic word judgment and Providence, in the moral sense - psalmody and prayer, because we, judged by the Lord, are punished through the rod of punishment (see: 1 Cor. 11:32) for conversion [to God]. By punishing those who rise up against us with the rod of vigorous 20 psalmody, we strengthen ourselves in prayer. So, having in the hand of an active mind 21 rods and clubs, we will not stop punishing and being punished until, being under the [roof] of Providence, we will not finally escape the present and future judgment. 17. It is common for [the executors of] commandments to always prefer [over all] the greatest generic commandment about the memory of God, which reads: remember the Lord your God always (Deut. 8:18). For [violating] it, people died and through it they can be saved 22. Oblivion [of God] eradicates the Divine memory at the root and, eclipsing the commandments, thus exposes man [spiritually] completely naked. 18. Ascetics return to their original dignity through two commandments - obedience and fasting. From deeds opposite to them, all evil penetrated into the mortal race. Those who keep the commandments, by virtue of obedience [to the leader], quickly ascend to God, but through fasting and prayer - more slowly. Obedience is more appropriate for beginners, fasting for average people who have tasted speculation and are courageous. But maintaining true obedience to God in relation to the commandments is characteristic of very few, and for the most courageous it is extremely difficult. 19. The law of the spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), according to the apostle, is the one that speaks and acts in the heart, just as [the law of] the letter is carried out by the flesh. That [spiritual law] frees the mind from the law of sin and death. This [written] one allows one to secretly act as a Pharisee, and physically observe the law by fulfilling the commandments before [prying] eyes. 20. The collection of all the commandments, united and ordered by the Spirit (see: Eph. 4:16), is [sometimes] called a perfect or not yet perfected person - depending on his [moral] maturity 23. In this case, the commandments form, as it were, a body, virtues, like crystallized internal qualities 24, form bones, and grace forms a living soul that moves the body and carries out deeds according to the commandments. Carelessness and zeal for growth in Christ show whether someone is a child or an adult now and in the future [age]. 21. He who wishes to grow the body of the commandments, let him labor with great anguish 25 in search of the pure, rational milk of maternal grace. Hence, everyone who seeks and desires to increase in stature in Christ feeds on the milk [of grace]. Milk, which promotes growth, or, what is the same, wisdom, gives warmth from its breasts, and nourishing honey gives the perfect its joy for purification. Honey, they say, and milk is under Your tongue (Song. 4:11). Solomon called the nourishing and growing power of the Spirit milk, and His cleansing power honey. Hinting at the difference between [these] actions of the [Spirit], the great apostle said: “Like infants I gave you milk to drink, and not solid food [nourished]” (see: 1 Cor. 3, 1-2). 22. He who seeks [the meaning] of the content of the commandments apart from [fulfilling] them and through reading or studying greedily strives to find it is like one who imagines a shadow instead of the truth. The words of truth in the bearers 26 of it are [a sign of] actual participation in it. Those who are indifferent to the truth and not initiated into it, looking for its content 27, borrow it from “crazy” wisdom. The apostle called them spiritual, not having the Spirit, although they exalt themselves in the truth (see: 1 Cor. 2:14). 23. Just as the sensory eye, glancing at the letters, receives sensory perceptions from them, 28 so the mind, when it is purified and restored to its original 29 dignity, looks at God and receives Divine thoughts from Him. As the 30th book, he [the mind] then has the Spirit, instead of the 31st reed pen, the thinking ability and language. My tongue, says [the Psalmist], is a feather of reed (see: Ps. 44:2). Instead of ink, the mind has light. Immersing thought 32 in light and filling it with light, [the mind] by the Spirit inscribes words in the pure hearts of those who listen. Then he will realize what has been said about how everyone will be taught by God (see: John 6:45) and how God will teach man knowledge, according to prophecy, and in the Spirit (see: Ps. 93:10). 24. By the law of commandments we mean heartily manifested immediate faith, because from it every commandment flows and produces the enlightenment of souls, in which the following fruits of true and active faith then appear: abstinence, love and, finally, 33 God-given humility as the beginning and strengthening of love. 25. The true glory of 34 [intelligent] beings consists in the true knowledge of visible and invisible things: visible or sensible, invisible or mental, rational, spiritual and Divine. 26. The limit [of Orthodoxy] is pure contemplation and knowledge of the two dogmas of faith, that is, the Trinity and the Two: recognition of the Trinity [is] and contemplation of It as an unfused and indivisible Unit. The duality [recognition consists] in the acceptance and confession in Christ of two natures in one Person, that is, the One Son, before the incarnation and after the incarnation in two natures and wills - Divine and human - infinitely glorified. 27. Birth, ungeneracy and procession are three unchangeable and immutable properties of the Most Holy Trinity, [which] must be reverently confessed. The Father is unborn and without beginning, the Son is begotten and without beginning, and the Holy Spirit is emanating from the Father and given through the co-essential Son, as Damascene says. 28. Only grace-filled faith, manifested in fulfilling the commandments in the spirit, would be sufficient for salvation, if we cherished it, living and active in Christ. Now ignorance has taught pious [people] verbal, dead and insensitive faith, and not grace-filled faith. 29. The Trinity is a simple and uncomplicated Unit without any sensible quality 35 . The Trinity in Unity, or Trinitarian God, has a completely unfused connection in the Persons. 30. The infinite God in everything is known and comprehended threefold. He contains everything and provides for everything through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And there is not a single [Person of the Holy Trinity] who is outside or separately from the other [Persons] anywhere thought, named and confessed. 31. Since in man there is a mind, a word and a spirit, existing in each other and on their own, and the mind is not separated 36 from the word and the word from the spirit so that the mind speaks verbally and the word is expressed with the help of the soul, then by virtue of this attribute 37 man bears an obscure image of the inexpressible, primitive Trinity, thereby briefly revealing his [creation] in the image of God. 32. The Mind is the Father, the Word is the Son, and the Holy Spirit is truly the Spirit, as the figuratively God-bearing fathers teach, developing the dogmatic teaching about the Holy Superessential and Prenatural Trinity, about the One God in three Persons and who left us [as a heritage] true faith and an anchor of hope. To know the One God is, according to Scripture, the root of immortality, and to comprehend the power of the Trinitarian Unit is the whole truth. The word of the Gospel proclaimed about this can be understood as follows: Let them know You, the only true God, in three Persons, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent, in two natures (John 17:3) 38. 33. Eternal punishments are varied, as are the rewards of the good. [Torment] takes place 39 in hell, or, according to the testimony of 40 Scripture, in a dark and gloomy land, in a land of eternal darkness (see: Job 10, 22), where sinners live until judgment and where they will return after the [final] sentence. The words: let sinners return to hell (Ps. 9:18) and death will graze them (Ps. 48:15) mean nothing but the final determination [of God] and eternal damnation. 34. Fire, darkness, worm, tartar exist [already on earth] in heterogeneous voluptuousness, the all-consuming darkness of ignorance, in the unquenchable thirst for sensual pleasure, in the trembling and stench of fetid sin. These 41 pledges and thresholds of 42 hellish torments are still active here in sinful souls and arise in them as a result of [passionate] habit. 35. Habits of passions are the makings of torment, while the discovery of virtues are the [keys] of the Kingdom of Heaven. Commandments should be considered and called actions, and virtues - skills, just as vices, due to their stability, are called habits. 36. In eternity, rewards are equal to punishments, although many seem unequal. God's justice will reward some [people] with eternal life, and others - eternal torment. Both of them, going through the present century well or worse, will inherit 43 retribution according to their deeds. The quantity and quality of reward 44 will be consistent with the skills and manifestations of passions and virtues. 37. Lakes of fire are 45 voluptuous souls, in which, as in stinking swamps, the stench of 46 passions feeds the never-ending worm of debauchery, the unbridled lust of the flesh, [feeds] snakes, toads and leeches of violent 47 passionate desires, criminal and destructive thoughts and demons. Such a [spiritual] dispensation here finds a guarantee of future torment. 38. Just as the germs of [hellish] torment lurk invisibly in the souls of sinners, so the firstfruits of [heavenly] blessings are communicated and revealed in the hearts of the righteous through the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of Heaven is a virtuous life, [as well as] torment [hellish] is passionate habits. 39. The approaching night is, according to the word of the Lord, future darkness, when no one can do anything (John 9:4) 48. Or, according to another explanation, this is the Antichrist, called night and darkness, or, according to the moral interpretation, this is continuous carelessness [about salvation], which, like a hopeless night, mortifies the soul with the sleep of insensibility. Night [in the literal sense of the word] makes everyone sleepy and serves as an image of death by mortification. And the night of future darkness will intoxicate dead and senseless sinners with suffering 49 . 40. The judgment of this world is the unbelief of the wicked, according to the Gospel saying: He who does not believe is already condemned (John 3:18), and is determined by 50 judicial actions of Providence in the correction and conversion of [sinners to God] and in weighing their good and evil intentions according to [external] manifestations according to the words: “Let sinners be rejected, those who went astray from their mother’s womb” (Ps. 57, 4). In relation to unbelief, punishment and works, the righteous judgment of God appears [when] it punishes some, has mercy on others, crowns others or gives them over to torment, since the first are always wicked, the second believe, but are careless and therefore are punished philanthropically 51 . Those who are perfect in virtues and mired in vices will receive [their] retribution. 41. If our nature 52 with the assistance of the Holy Spirit is not preserved unsullied or pure, as it should be, then it cannot be one spirit and body with Christ, either now or in a future union. It is not characteristic of the omnipotent and connecting power of the Spirit to sew the rags of old passions to the new tunic of grace to replenish 53. 42. Equal dignity 54 in the sense of the image in Christ will be given to those who undeservedly received and retained the renewal of the Spirit, inexpressibly experiencing 55 supernatural deification. But no one will be in Christ or a member of Christ if he does not already here become a bearer of grace, having in himself, according to the Apostle, an example of knowledge of the truth (Rom. 2:20). 43. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a tabernacle built by God. It is [modeled on] the tabernacle of Moses, and has in two curtains an image of [the life of] the age to come. The first part [of the Kingdom of Heaven] will include all those sanctified by grace, and the second, as spiritual, will include only those who here, in the darkness of theology, being, as it were, priests, perfectly performed the sacred functions of the three powers of the soul. The latter 57, having as their intercessor the [One] Jesus of the Trinity, the greatest of the priests and the first of the high priests, will penetrate into the God-created tabernacle and be illuminated with lightning-fast radiance. 44. The Savior called the various stages and states of moral maturity there [in paradise] many abodes. Although the Kingdom is one, it has 58 many differences 59 . In it there are [persons] heavenly and earthly in the sense of virtue [and different] visions and degrees of deification. Another is the glory of the sun, another of the moon and another of the stars. And star differs from star in glory, according to the apostle (1 Cor. 15:41), despite the fact that they all shine in one visible Divine sky 60. 45. As [almost] incorporeal and incorruptible, he little by little 61 becomes a cohabitant of the angels, who purified the mind with tears, resurrected the soul here by the Spirit, subdued the flesh to the mind and changed his by nature “clay” external image into the light-like and fiery face of Divine beauty, because incorruption is the drying up of bodily moisture and fullness. 46. Having been indescribably transformed from the soul into the spiritual, the incorruptible body, without moisture and heaviness, will remain [still] earthly, so that it will be together earthly and heavenly in god-like subtlety. As it was originally created, so it will be resurrected in order to be conformed to the appearance of the Son of Man as a result of perfect participation in deification. 47. The land of the meek is the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Divine 62 state of the Son [of God], into which we have entered and are entering, having received the grace-filled birth of sonhood and renewal through the resurrection. Also, holy land is deified nature, or perhaps it is actually land purified for earthly beings in accordance with their dignity. According to another understanding, the earth, which constitutes the inheritance of the truly saints, is the imperturbable Divine silence of the superintelligent world. A race of righteous people will settle on it [this land], not disturbed or disturbed by anything that exists there. 48. The Promised Land is dispassion from which honey and milk flow, that is, the joy of the Spirit. 49. The saints in heaven mysteriously communicate to each other the inner word spoken in the Holy Spirit. 50. If we do not know how God created us, then we will not be aware of how sin has changed us 63. 51. Those who have reached the fullness of perfection in Christ are equal in terms of spiritual age. 52. Those who have hard work have rewards. The quantity and quality [of rewards], or what their size will be, will show the rank and state in which [the saints] will be. 53. According to incorruption and deification, the saints, as it is written, will be angelic minds and sons of the Resurrection of Christ (Luke 20:36). 54. In the next century, angels and saints, they say, will never cease to rise in the multiplication of talents and will never weaken in the pursuit of good, since that century does not allow [moral] weakening and deviation from virtue to vice. 55. Recognize the one who has now taken the likeness of the ages of Christ as a pledge as a perfected man. In the next century, the power of deification declares [man] perfect. 56. Dignity and adoration, equal to those of one’s peers, will be received in the future life by those who here [have reached] perfect spiritual age in virtue. 57. True glory, they say, is knowledge, or spiritual contemplation, or a thorough recognition of the dogmas and understanding 64 of the true faith. 58. Amazement is the complete elevation of the soul's powers to what is known, characteristic of the magnificent glory [of the Divine]. Or again: amazement is the pure and complete aspiration of the mind towards the boundless power that resides in the light. Ecstasy represents not only the admiration of spiritual powers to heaven, but also a complete frenzy of the feelings themselves 65. Jealousy 66 for God is twofold: it is spiritual intoxication, arousing the desire [for salvation]. 59. There are mainly two [types] of jealousy in the soul - heartfelt and frantic. The first belongs only to those who are enlightened, and the other to those who have already perfected themselves in love. Both [types of jealousy], when acting, distract the mind from feelings, since Divine jealousy is the intoxication of the spirit with that which is higher than natural reason 67 , and thanks to it 68 [from a person] even the sense of external relations 69 is stolen. 60. The beginning and cause of thoughts lie in the division by sin of man of a single and simple memory, which [thereby] destroyed the [continuous] remembrance of the Divine and, turning from simple to complex, from monotype to variety, doomed itself to destruction by its own personal forces. 61. The healing of primitive 70 memory from the insidious and disastrous memorization of thoughts is conditioned 71 by its return to primordial 72 simplicity. The instrument of evil - disobedience not only upset the simple mental memory of goodness, but also perverted all the powers of the soul, 73 weakening its natural attractions to virtue. Memory is completely healed by continuous and strengthened by prayer remembrance of God, which, having dissolved 74 with the spirit, is directed from natural objects to supernatural ones. 62. The cause of passions is sinful deeds, thoughts are passions, dreams are thoughts, thoughts are memory, memories are oblivion; the mother of oblivion is ignorance. The cause of ignorance is carelessness. Carelessness degenerates from passionate desire. The basis of 75 desires is random movement, movements are an impulse 76 to action; A [sinful] deed is a reckless 77 desire for evil and a disposition towards sensual and [passionate] sensations. 63. In the mind 78 thoughts are formed and act, in the irritable 79 force - brutal passions, in the will - bestial aspirations, in the mind 80 - fantastic ideas, in the mind - thoughts. 64. The attack of immoral 81 thoughts is like a 82 river flow. In [the form of] thoughts [they express] excuses 83 with which sinful agreement is allowed, flooding 84 the heart as if with a stormy 85 flood. 65. Consider fleeting pleasure [or] the filth of fornication and the burden of material acquisitions to be a deep swamp. Weighed down by them, the passionate mind is plunged through its thoughts into the abyss of despair. 66. Scripture often calls words about things thoughts, as well as thoughts words 86 . This happens because the supermaterial movement of any kind 87 is materialized and transformed by objects into images 88 . Thus, through “appearance” the [named] movement is cognized and expressed. 67. Thoughts 89 are the words of demons and the forerunners of passions, and 90 words and thoughts 91 are [the thresholds of] deeds, since it is impossible to do something good or evil that has not previously aroused [any] thought. Thought is the movement of a formless preposition [concerning] certain objects. 68. The matter of things produces pure thoughts, but the demonic impulse produces evil ones. So, when compared, natural thoughts and words differ from unnatural and supernatural ones. 69. Thoughts equally and instantly change from one to another: natural ones turn directly into unnatural ones and natural ones into supernatural ones. The reason for this mutual transformation and degeneration of material thoughts into demonic ones and those arising from the pretext into material ones are 94 thoughts [in themselves]. Just as Divine thoughts produce natural thoughts, these produce supernatural ones. In a word, each [mental movement] changes into what is akin to it, according to its four producing causes 95. 70. Note that their reasons precede thoughts; thoughts [come before] dreams, dreams - passions, passions - demons. [These phenomena], connecting one with another, form a kind of 96 chain, or order, among spirits who do not know the order. By itself - regardless of demons - nothing arises 97. Neither the imagination creates images without secret demonic power, nor does passion act, because Satan, although cast out [from heaven] and crushed, is exalted above us and is very strong thanks to our carelessness. 71. [Demons] fill the mind with images, or, better, they themselves take on a form in accordance with the [spiritual structure] of ourselves. They are expressed depending on the inclination of the soul towards the prevailing and active passion in it. The demons use this passionate skill as a condition for the reproduction of images in us. In dreams and in the waking state, they show us things related to a rich and varied fantasy. Demons of carnal passion are sometimes transformed into pigs, sometimes into donkeys, sometimes into misogynistic and fire-like horses, sometimes into extremely licentious Jews. [Demons] of wrath sometimes turn into pagans, sometimes into lions; [demons] of timidity - in the Ishmaelites; [demons] of inconstancy - to the Edomites; [demons] of intemperance and drunkenness - to the Saracens; [demons] of self-interest - sometimes into wolves, sometimes into panthers; [demons] of cunning - sometimes into snakes, sometimes into vipers, sometimes they transform into foxes; [demons] of shamelessness - in dogs; [demons] of laziness - in cats. It happens that [demons of] fornication sometimes [take on the forms of] snakes, sometimes - crows and rooks. Since birds are spiritual 98, it is mainly air demons that turn into them. Due to the tripartite 99 soul, the imagination has a reason to change the images of spirits threefold. According to the strong-willed, irritable 100 and mental powers of the soul, the imagination represents demons in three ways - in the form of birds, animals and cattle. The three main leaders of passion always arm themselves against the three [spiritual forces], and, depending on which passion the 101 soul is determined, in the form of that, according to their affinity with it, they appear and attack us. 72. Demons of voluptuousness often approach like fire and burning coals, since voluptuous spirits ignite lustful desires and, introducing confusion into thinking, darken the soul. Actually, passionate pleasure is the cause of kindling, confusion and darkness. 73. The night of passions is the darkness of ignorance, or else: the night is the region that gives birth to passions, in which the prince of darkness reigns and in which the spirits [of evil] - these, in an allegorical sense, are the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the reptiles of the earth - roaring, greedily seeking to seize us as food. 74. During the action of passions, some thoughts precede and others follow them. Thoughts precede dreams, dreams are followed by passions. Passions go before demons, and demons follow passions. 75. The beginning and cause of passions is abuse. The [reason] for abuse is inclination, inclinations are the preponderance 102 of some volitional impulse 103 . The test of desire is a pretext, and the pretext is the demons, to whom Providence allows us to show what our arbitrariness is. 76. The deadly poison of the sting of sin is a passionate skill of the soul, because the character of the one who voluntarily enslaves himself to passions is unshakable and unchangeable. 77. Passions have different names. They are divided into mental and physical; bodily are divided into sorrowful and sinful; the mournful are still divided into painful and nurturing. Also, mental passions are divided into irritable, volitional and mental. Mental ones are divided into rational and imaginative ones. Some of these passions arise as a result of abuse of the will, others are forced by necessity. These are the so-called non-blameable 104 passions, which the fathers call accompanying 105 and natural properties. 78. Some are bodily passions, and others are spiritual. Some are desirable, others are irritable 106; some are the passions of mental power, and others are the passions of the mind and reason. They are mutually connected and contribute to each other: bodily - to the volitional, mental - to the irritable, 107 and again the passions of the thinking force - to the mental, mental - to the rational and memory passions. 79. The passions of irritable power are: anger, vexation, loudness 108, hot temper, insolence, arrogance, vanity and others. The passions of the will include: covetousness, debauchery, intemperance, gluttony, voluptuousness, love of money and self-love - more painful than all passions. Carnal passions [are]: fornication, adultery, uncleanness, licentiousness 109, injustice, gluttony, carelessness, absent-mindedness, covetousness, covetousness and others. The passions belonging to the mental realm [are as follows]: unbelief, blasphemy, cunning, deceit, curiosity, double-mindedness, slander, slander, condemnation, humiliation, blasphemy, hypocrisy, lies, foul language, idle talk, flattery, irony, vanity, man-pleasing, exaltation, perjury, idle talk and others. Passions of the mind: conceit, arrogance, self-praise, love of argument, indignation, complacency, contradiction, disobedience, daydreaming, a tendency to fiction and boasting 110, love of fame, pride - the first and last of all evils. The passions of the intellect are as follows: wandering, frivolity, servility, darkness, blindness, deviations, excuses, consent, inclinations, transformations, rejections and the like. In a word, all unnatural evil has dissolved with the three spiritual forces, just as all good is naturally co-present in them. 80. Oh, with what amazement David cries out to God, saying: Thy knowledge is marvelous to me, high, I cannot comprehend it (Ps. 139:6). It is indisputable and incomprehensible - beyond my weak mind and my strength. How incomprehensible, further, in the formation of its composition is the body itself, 111 having in each of its forms a trinitarian and unified structure, adorned with septenary and dual numbers, arithmetically signifying time and nature, which, in turn, according to the current laws of nature, shows the glory of God in the bodily bearer of the Trinity splendor. 81. For moving members, the laws of nature are a kind of connections. Even the word our names their differences, because they represent numerous expressions of [our] own properties 112. Or again: natural law is the force of activity of each species and member. Just as God [animates] all creatures, so the soul activates the members of the body and moves each of them to its proper activity. Here we should ask why God-bearing men 113 sometimes call anger and passionate desire carnal forces, sometimes spiritual forces. We affirm [in the answer] that the words of the saints have no disagreement 114 for those who clearly understand them. In both cases, [the saints] reveal the truth and, where they follow, very wisely change the names of the passions [soul and body] thanks to their mysterious dual existence in the form of coexistence 115, especially since the soul is still perfect here, and the body, growing under the condition of nutrition, is [obviously] imperfect. The soul, created rational and thinking, in itself, from the beginning of its creation, has the power of a certain desire and the power of irritability, 116 arousing courageous jealousy. But reckless irritability and insane attraction were not created with it, just as they were not originally in the flesh. [The flesh] was created incorruptible, without that moisture from which carnal desire and brutal rage arose. Following disobedience, when [man] fell into corruption and the carnal coarseness of 117 dumb animals, then, of necessity, irritability and carnal passion arose in him. And every time the flesh dominates in a person, so through rage and carnal desire he counteracts the desires of the soul. When this mortal submits to the rational, then [the one who is being saved] hastens in doing good according to the desire of the soul. [Now] as a result of the mixing and union with the soul of the incoming carnal properties, man has become like beasts of burden and, having subjected himself to the law of sin, by force of natural necessity has turned from rational to stupid and from man to beast. 82. The thinking soul 118 was created through a breath and thanks to the breathing of intelligent life into it. Together with it, God created not rage and animal carnal desire, but one active force of desire and zealous persistence of desire. Likewise, having created the body, [the Lord] did not put into it from the beginning irritability and unreasonable carnal lust. Subsequently, due to disobedience, it accepted mortality, decay and the traits of animals, to which it became like. Theologians say that the body was created incorruptible, and as such it will be resurrected, although now it is corruptible. Likewise, the soul is created dispassionate. But both - body and soul - were corrupted and co-dissolved according to the natural law of unification and influence on each other, and [the soul] gave itself up to passions and especially demons, [the body] became like dumb cattle due to the properties of its condition and submission to decay. Acting in one direction, the forces of soul and body 119 formed one beast, senseless and unreasonable, with rage and carnal desire. Thus, according to Scripture, man joined the cattle and in all respects became like them 120 (Ps. 48, 13). 83. Just as God is the cause and source of all good, so the beginning and foundation of virtues is a good intention or desire for the beautiful. The beginning of good is faith, especially Christ - the Stone of faith, Whom we have as the beginning and foundation of all virtues, on Whom we are established and build all that is good. He is the cornerstone connecting us to Himself, and the Pearl of great price. Looking for it, the monk, entering the depths of silence, by obedience to the commandments, as if sells all his own desires in order to acquire [this Pearl] 122 while still on earth 121. 84. The virtues maintain mutual equality in that all are reduced to one, [have] one limit and fill the face of [one] virtue. But there are also [partial] virtues, and some are superior to others 123 insofar as 124 they embrace and concentrate in themselves the virtues either very many, or even all, such as Divine love, humility and Divine patience. About patience 125 The Lord says this: With your patience save your souls (Luke 21:19). He did not say: “[Save] by your fasting, by your vigilance.” Patience I call that [state] which is in accordance with the will of God and is the queen of virtues, the basis of valiant deeds 126, peace in wars, silence in a storm and an unshakable stronghold for those who possess it. He who has acquired it in Christ Jesus cannot be harmed by weapons, spears, advancing troops, the demonic horde itself, or the gloomy phalanx of opponents. 85. Although the virtues are reborn from each other, they all have their [root] origin, excluding the Divine [virtues], from the three powers of the soul. The beginning and cause of the four generic virtues between natural and Divine, from which and by which all the others are formed, that is, [the cause of] prudence, courage, chastity and truth, is Divine and theological wisdom, acting upon the excitement of the Spirit 127 and reflected in the mind in four ways. She manifests 128 virtues not all together, but each separately and in due time in accordance with desire: one - as light, another - as insightful power and inexhaustible inspiration, the third - as a sanctifying and cleansing force, and the last - as cheerful and refreshing dew of purity from the heat of passions. Wisdom allows, as mentioned above, to feel its manifestation to everyone according to the maturity [of his soul in goodness] and perfect [shows] perfect action. 86. Experiences in virtues do not yet impart perfect [moral] steadfastness to the soul with the help of personal zeal alone, if through grace [virtue] they do not transform into a significant internal disposition. Each virtue has its own unique talent and its own action, in which it can attract even those who do not want to be its accomplices by skill and the nature of goodness and, when it is given to us, it has been preserved firmly and unchangeably ever since. To perform [virtues] 129 people have in their own members the grace of the Spirit, like a living soul. Without it, the entire collection of virtues becomes dead. And those who seem to have [virtues] perfectly and implement them, [often have] only the shadow and ghost of the beautiful, and not the image of the truth. 87. There are four cardinal virtues: courage, prudence, chastity and truth. According to the degree of excess or deficiency in them, eight [mental qualities] are close to them, which we call and consider vices, and in the world - virtues. Courage is usually followed by insolence and timidity, prudence is followed by deceit and ignorance, chastity is followed by licentiousness and petrification, and truth is followed by self-interest and untruth or resentment. In the middle of them stand not only the fundamental and natural virtues, rising above excess and deficiency, but also the active ones. Some of the virtues, due to the correctness of reasoning, are expressed in [good] arbitrariness 130, others are accompanied by perversion [of goodness] and conceit. The fact that the middle position is occupied by 131 real virtues is evidenced by a parable that says: “Let all good ways be corrected” (see: Proverbs 2:9). So, all virtues are united in the three powers of the soul, in which they are born and strengthened, having the four generic virtues as the foundation of their building, most of all Christ. Moreover, natural virtues are purified by active ones, and divine and supernatural [virtues] are taught by the favor of the Spirit. 88. Of the virtues, some are active, others are Divine, others are natural and spiritual. Active ones [represent the result] of free election, natural ones - of an internal nature, Divine ones - of grace. 89. Just as the origin of virtues takes place in our soul, so does the [source of] passions. But the former are naturally born in it, while the latter are born contrary to nature. The soul finds the reason for the generation of good and evil in the inclination of desire, which - like the tip [for drawing] a line or the arrow on the yoke of a scale - in which direction it inclines, it receives the influence and acts in that [direction]. The will is subject to a double action, because it contains both in itself, [namely]: good by birth, and evil by free inclination of the will. 90. Scripture calls the virtues youths (see: Song 1, 2) due to their close connection with the soul, why they are contemplated with it as one spirit and body. The appearance of 132 young women serves as a symbol of love, and their clothing is evidence of the chastity and purity of these sacred virgins. Divine grace usually [tends] to create and unmistakably transform varieties of virtue in the strong [in spirit] in relation to their qualities and properties. 91. There are eight ruling passions: three great ones: gluttony, love of money and vanity - and five following them: fornication, anger, sadness, laziness and pride. Likewise, of the virtues opposite [passions], the three main ones are: poverty, abstinence and humility, and with them and after them follow [the rest]: purity, meekness, joy, courage, self-abasement and the whole series of virtues. It is not possible for everyone to study and realize the power, action and fragrance of each virtue and the [stench] of passion, but only for those who act, work in word and deed, and who have received from the Holy Spirit the gift of knowledge and reasoning. 92. The virtues either act or are put into action [by us]. They act by settling with us at the appropriate moment, when, how and as much as they want. We manifest them out of free will, moral disposition and habit. But they are essential in themselves, and we are morally formed with them approximately 133, since the image of all our [good] actions is an imprint of the original. The spiritual, before the future immortal pleasure, is essentially assimilated by a few 134. And here, in fact, we take upon ourselves and perform labors and exploits 135, and do not [possess] the virtues themselves. 93. He, according to Paul, ministers the gospel (see: Rom. 15:16), who, being a participant in it, can actively communicate Christ’s enlightenment to others. Like some seed, he scatters the Divine word on the spiritual fields of his listeners. Let your word, it is said, always be with grace, seasoned with the salt of Divine goodness (Col. 4:6), so that it may bring grace to those who hear with faith (Eph. 4:29). Having called teachers farmers, and those taught a cultivated field, [the apostle] very wisely depicts those as plowmen and sowers of the Divine word, and these as a fertilized, fruitful and rich land of virtues, because true sacred action is not only the performance of Divine works, but also [personal] participation and teaching of benefits. 94. The word spoken orally for the teaching of others is different and does not flow equally from four sources 136, but in many ways. One word [comes] from teaching, another from reading, another from activity, and another from grace. But just as water, homogeneous in nature, is transformed into its inherent property in relation to the differences in the underlying earthly soil 137 and changes, as it is known by taste, now bitter or sweet, now salty or sour, so the spoken word, changing in accordance with the moral structure of everyone, is recognized in action and through it brings benefit. 95. The word is given to every rational being for pleasure, and from the word, like from some varied food, the perceiving soul [always] feels unequal sweetness. The scientific word is for her like an educator, morally forming her. The word from reading, as it were, fills her with water of calm, the word from activity saturates her, like a pasture rich in grass; the word of grace makes glad, like a cup overflowing [with wine] (see: Ps. 23:5). The indescribable, gracious joy from the word of grace enlightens [the soul], like oil from which the face shines (Ps. 103:15). 96. The soul not only truly possesses life within itself, but when it hears about it in teaching from others, it feels them, if only both [the teacher and the listener] are governed by faith and love, that is, if one listens with faith, and the other enlightens with love, teaching words 138 about virtues without pride and vanity. Then the word from the teaching is accepted by the soul as an educator; [the word] from reading is like a nourisher, the word from activity is like the most skilful 139 beautifier of the bride’s [appearance] and the enlightening word of the Holy Spirit is like the word of a joyful bridegroom, since every speech emanating from the mouth of God represents either the words uttered by the mouths of the saints with the assistance of the Spirit, or the consequence of that sweetest inspiration from the Holy Spirit, which is fed not by everyone, but only by the worthy. Although all intelligent people enjoy the word, very few actually enjoy themselves here under the influence of the Spirit. The majority of 140 [people] know and assimilate in memory only the images of spiritual words, but they have not tasted the true bread of the future life, which consists in the sensation of God the Word. There [beyond the grave] only this one [bread] is offered in sufficient measure to all who are worthy for a variety of delights and is never exhausted, wasted or becomes scarce. 97. Without spiritual feeling it is impossible to tangibly feel 141 Divine sweetness. How does one dull the [bodily] senses; insensitive to sensory phenomena and does not see, does not hear, does not smell, being relaxed or, better, half-dead, so the one who has killed the natural spiritual forces with passions makes them insensitive to influences on them [from above] and [incapable] of participating in the mysteries of the Spirit. He who does not see, hear or feel spiritually is dead. Christ does not live in him, and he himself moves towards actions that are not Christlike. 98. Compared with mental forces, especially when they are healthy, feelings have an equal and the same, not to say identical, function. Thanks to those, these too live and act. They are both united by the life-giving 142 Spirit. On the other hand, a person becomes completely exhausted when he becomes infected with the root disease of passions and continuously lies in the hospital of negligence. The senses definitely 144 contemplate the sensual, the [spiritual] forces – the mental, especially in the absence of 145 satanic struggle in them, counteracting the law of mind and spirit. When they are brought together by the Spirit and unity, having become one-formed, 146 then they directly and essentially recognize the things Divine and human as they are by nature, clearly perceive the meaning in them and, as far as possible, purely contemplate the only cause of everything - the Trinity. 99. First of all, the silent person must have the following five virtues as a basis for building his actions silently: silence, abstinence, vigilance, humility and patience. There are three godly activities: psalmody, prayer and reading, and if you are sick, then handicrafts. The named virtues not only embrace all [others], but also form part of one another. [The silent person] should remain in the remembrance of God in the morning, in prayer and silence of the heart, and pray patiently for the first hour; then the second [hour] - to read, the third - to sing, the fourth - to pray, the fifth - to read, the sixth - to sing, the seventh - to pray, the eighth - to read, the ninth - to sing, at the tenth hour to refresh yourself with food, at the eleventh - to rest if the need arises, and at the twelfth [hour] to sing vespers. Thus virtuously walking his daily journey, he pleases God. 100. Like a bee, one should collect the most useful from all virtues. Thus, by taking from them little by little, [one can] form [in the soul] a huge collection of virtuous manifestations, from which the honey of wisdom is produced to the joy of the soul. 101. If you wish, listen to how it is easier to cross the period of night time. Night wakefulness has three orders: for beginners, intermediate and perfect. The first [statute] prescribes 147 half the night to sleep and half to stay awake, whether from evening to midnight or from midnight to morning. The second [statute] prescribes 148 to stay awake for one or two hours in the evening, then sleep for four hours and wake up in the morning, and sing and pray until about six hours in the morning. The first hour [of the day] one should sing and sit, silent, as said [above]. Next, you need to follow the order of the indicated activities by the hour 149 or constantly maintain continuous prayer, the habit of which organizes human life. Finally, the third [rule] consists of standing all night [in prayer] and staying awake. 102. Now let's talk about food. About a pound of bread is enough for anyone who has entered into the feat of silence. Undissolved wine [can] be drunk in two cups, water in three, and from the food supplies that are found, [it is permissible] to consume not as much as nature whimsically requires, but [must] be used with self-restraint 150 only provided by Providence. The best and most abbreviated rule guiding those who want to live properly is to perform three virtues out of feats - I mean fasting, wakefulness and prayer - by which the most reliable foundation of all virtues is strengthened. 103. First of all, silence requires faith, patience, strength and strength, love from the bottom of the heart and hope. If a believer, whether due to ordinary carelessness or for some other reason, does not find what he is looking for here, then at his death 151 he cannot help but be fully convinced of the fruit of faith and deed and not see freedom through Christ Jesus, Who is the Redemption and Salvation of our souls, the God-man Word. And the unbeliever in all respects 152 will be condemned at his death. However, according to the word of the Lord, he is already condemned (see: Mark 16:16), since 153 enslaved to pleasures and seeking glory from people, and not from God, can he believe? (see: John 5:44). Although such a person seems to be faithful in words, 154, but, without noticing it, he deceives himself and hears [once] the words: “Because you did not accept Me into your heart, but rejected Me by your back, then I will also turn away from you.” So, the faithful must have bright hope 155 and believe God's truth, testified in all the Scriptures, confessing his weakness, so as not to incur double, inexorable condemnation. 104. Nothing contributes so much to contrition of the heart and humility of the soul as reasonable solitude and perfect silence. And nothing else that fundamentally 157 destroys the structure of silence and removes the Divine [protective] power from it, is the following passions: insolence, gluttony, verbosity, entertaining care 158, pride and the mistress of the passions - conceit. Whoever willingly gets used to them, with their growth, becoming more and more darkened, becomes [ultimately] extremely insensitive. And if [such a person] again frees himself [from passions] 159 and makes a beginning [of salvation] with faith and zeal, then he will again receive what he seeks, especially if he seeks it humbly. The reign in him 160 due to the carelessness of at least one of the named passions turns against him the whole host of evils, led by disastrous unbelief, and devastates his soul, which becomes, from demonic confusion and noise, like a second 161 city of Babylon, so that the last for him is worse than the first (see: Matt. 12, 45). He then becomes a passionate enemy and accuser of the silent, always sharpening his tongue against them, like a razor and a two-edged sword. 105. The waters of passions that fill the muddy and troubled sea of ​​silence can only be crossed on a light and fast ship of unconditional non-covetousness and abstinence. From intemperance and love for things, streams of passions, flooding the earth of the heart and bringing rot and dirt of thoughts onto it, produce confusion in the mind, darkness in thoughts, burden in the body, and make the soul and heart careless, darkened and numb and deprive them of their natural mood and feeling. 106. Nothing contributes more to the relaxation, carelessness and madness of the soul of zealous ascetics than the nurse of passions - self-love. When it prefers bodily peace to achievements in virtue and considers the mind to be caring, if it does not voluntarily urge one to exhaust [the body] with labors in fulfilling the commandments 163 associated with little and light sweat, then it [self-love] usually makes the soul sluggish in following the path of silence and produces a strong and irresistible relaxation in its activity. 107. The best and primary doctor for those who are exhausted [in keeping] the commandments and are firmly 164 determined to vomit out the 165 impenetrable darkness is unreasoning obedience in everything with faith. It is a life-giving and multi-component healing agent for those who drink it and a knife that immediately cleanses the scars of wounds. Preferring the action of this [knife] to everything else, with faith and simplicity he cut off all passions with one blow. He not only achieved silence, but by obedience he already realized it, finding Christ, becoming and calling himself his imitator and slave. 108. Without organizing life and activity in contrition of the spirit, it is impossible to endure the heat of silence. He who weeps and reflects on pre-death and post-mortem horrors, before they occur on their own, will have humility and patience - these two foundations of silence. Without these [foundations], one who leads a silent life always has conceit as a counterpart to his carelessness. And from them sinful entertainment and enslavement multiply and plunge us into relaxation. Hence, intemperance - the daughter of carelessness - makes the body lethargic and powerless, and the mind darkened and coarsened. Then Jesus also hides from the crowd of thoughts and reasoning present in the area of ​​the mind. 109. It is impossible 166 to experience the torment of conscience now or in the next century 167 . This [test] concerns mainly those who here and there lack love and glory 168 [from ordinary worries]. Like some ferocious executioner, punishing in various ways the persons subject to responsibility, [conscience] always raises, as it were, 169 over the despotically naked [victims] a sharp 170 [from ordinary worries] sword, that is, denunciation and indignation. Conscience is also called jealousy because of its inherent [custom] to influence 171 [from ordinary worries] on enemies, on the nature of the body and on the soul. And by others [it is called] natural ardor, which we are commanded to sharpen against our enemies, like a sharp sword. And if [conscience] victoriously conquers 172 [from ordinary worries] [our] duality to unity, then the goal of its zeal 173 [from ordinary worries] is then the ascension to God. But if the soul itself is subject to two - I mean sin and the flesh - then its end is assigned there [in eternity] to merciless torment for the fact that it brought itself to complete enslavement to its enemies. A soul that commits something shameful here destroys its virtuous state, is excommunicated and alienated from God. 110. Of all the passions, two are extremely severe and difficult - fornication and despondency, which, dominating the unfortunate soul, weaken it. They have mutual communication and a close connection with each other and are therefore indestructible, insurmountable and completely invincible. The first [prodigal passion] successfully grows in the area of ​​desires 174 [from ordinary worries], but contains material for both inseparable by nature [parts of our being] - I’m talking about soul and body - spilling all its sweetness over all [bodily] members. The second [passion of despondency], gaining the upper hand over the dominant mind, wraps itself 175 [from ordinary worries] around the entire soul and body, like ivy 176 [from ordinary worries], making 177 [from ordinary worries] our nature sluggish, relaxed and as if broken by paralysis. Although [these two passions] are not completely suppressed before blissful dispassion, they are [temporarily] removed after the soul, having received in prayer the power of the Holy Spirit, imparting to it joy, strength and deep peace of heart, enjoys silence. [Prodigal passion] 178 [from ordinary worries] is the beginning, mistress, queen and all-encompassing pleasure of pleasures. Its companion is laziness, which elevates the Pharaoh’s generals to an invincible chariot. Through them, [that is, through fornication and despondency], impulses to passions penetrated into the lives of us pathetic ones. 111. The beginning of mental prayer is the action, or purifying power, of the Holy Spirit and the mysterious sacred action of the mind, just as the beginning of silence is the withdrawal 179 [from ordinary worries], the middle is enlightening power and contemplation, and the end is ecstasy and admiration of the mind towards God. 112. The spiritual sanctuary is a rational 180 action of the mind, mystically performing sacred acts on the spiritual altar as a sign of betrothal to God and the partaking of the Lamb before future incomprehensible pleasure. Eating the Lamb of God on the Mental Altar of the soul does not mean only to comprehend [Him] and be in communion with Him, but also to be, as it were, the Lamb Himself after accepting His image in the future. Here are only words; there we hope to receive the very objects of the sacraments. 113. For beginners, prayer is like a fire of joy radiating from the heart, and for perfect ones it is like a gracious light acting [in the soul]. Or again: prayer is the preaching of the apostles, the action of Faith, or better yet, immediate faith, the steadfastness of those who hope, manifested love, angelic movement, the power of the disembodied, their work and joy, the Gospel of God, the message of the heart, the hope of salvation, the sign of sanctification, the symbol of holiness, the knowledge of God, the revelation of baptism, the cleansing of the font 181, the betrothal of the Holy Spirit, the joy of Jesus, the joy of the soul, mercy God, the sign of reconciliation, the seal of Christ, the ray of the rational sun, the morning star of hearts, the affirmation of Christianity, the revelation of God's reconciliation, the grace of God, the wisdom of God or, better, the beginning of wisdom in itself, God's appearance, the occupation of monks, the way of life of the silent, the reason for silence, a sign of the angelic order of life. And, to say a lot, prayer is God, who works all things in all, because there is one action of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who works 182 all things in Christ Jesus. 114. If Moses had not received the rod of power from God, he would not have become a god to Pharaoh and would not have defeated either him or Egypt. And the mind, if it does not have the power of prayer in its hand, will not be able to break sin and forces that are contrary to itself. 115. Those who speak or do anything without humility are like those who build a house in winter or without cement. To find and comprehend humility through experience and reason is the [happiness] of very few. Those who spread words about him are like those who measure the abyss. We, the blind, who have an adolescent understanding of this great light, will say little. True humility does not have a humble speech, nor a humble appearance, does not force one to think humbly, nor, in humility, reproach oneself. Although [all] these signs and images of humility [are] sort of its varieties, humility itself is grace and a gift from above. There are, as the fathers say, two humility: a) considering oneself the lowest of all and b) attributing one’s good deeds to God. The first is the beginning, the second is the end [of humility]. Those who seek it should be aware and have in mind three such [objects of reflection]: 1) that they are more sinful than all people, 2) more disgusting than all creation, as contrary to their nature, and 3) more miserable than demons, as demonic slaves. [The humble one] should say this: “Do I know exactly the sins of people, what they are and how many there are? Are they greater than or equal to my sins? Due to ignorance, we, soul, will consider ourselves lower than all people, like the earth and dust under their feet 183. And how can I not consider myself the most vile of all creatures, when they correspond to their nature with which they were born, but through immeasurable iniquities I have deviated from nature? Truly beasts and cattle are purer than me, a sinner. Therefore, I, who cast myself down to hell and lie [in it] before death, am lower than everyone. And who doesn’t know and doesn’t feel that a sinner is baser even than demons, as their slave, novice and heir of darkness are still here with them?! In fact, he, the unfortunate one, is more bitter than the demons and, controlled by them, will suffer through this, inheriting with them the abyss. Dwelling before death in earth, hell and the abyss! How dare you call yourself righteous, having turned yourself into a sinner, a wicked person and a demon through evil deeds? Woe to your deception and delusion, you demon-possessed, dirty dog, sent for this into fire and darkness!” 116. The wisdom given by the Spirit, according to theologians, is the power of intelligent, pure, angelic prayer, the sign of which is the mind, which during prayer does not see any image and does not see with the sensory eye either itself [that is, appearance] or anything else, but is often distracted from the senses by the light [acting] in it, because then the mind becomes immaterial, light-like and inexpressibly united with God into one spirit. 117. There are seven mutually inclusive and mutually generated, but different ways that lead and guide the humility sent down by God: silence, humility, humility, humble clothing, self-abasement, contrition of spirit and placing oneself [everywhere] among the latter. Reasonable silence gives rise to humility. Three types of humility flow from humility of mind: humble speech pronunciation, humility and poverty in clothing, and constant self-reproach. These three images [of humility] give rise to 185 contrition, produced by allowing trials and called providential punishment and humility through 186 demons. Contrition [by itself] easily places the soul [in its feelings] lower than everyone else and last of all, as servile to everyone. These two types bring perfect and God-given humility, called strength and perfection of all virtues. It attributes its correction to God. So, the first of all [images of humility] is silence, from which humility is born. This produces 187 three kinds of humility; three form one 188 – crushing. Contrition gives birth to the seventh type, or the image of the first humility, subordinate to all, which is called providential. Providential humility brings [into the soul] perfect, true, unimaginable humility sent by God. The first, [that is, providential humility], arises under such conditions. If a person, left to himself, is [morally] defeated, enslaved and experiences the domination of every passion and thought over himself, then, not meeting help either from business, or from God, and absolutely from no one, and almost 189 falling into despair, he cannot, oppressed from everywhere, not be crushed. He considers himself the lowest of all and the last slave 190, worse than the demons themselves, as defeated by them and subject to their tyranny. This is providential humility. After it, 191 God gives from above the second - the highest - humility, which represents the Divine power that acts in everything and produces everything. Thanks to it, man, always seeing himself as an instrument of Divine power, accomplishes amazing divine deeds with its help. 118. Since we now have a tyrannical predominance of passions as a result of many temptations, it is impossible to find in our race the contemplation of essential 192 spiritual light, the undreamy mind and the undistracted, true action of prayer, always flowing from the depths of the heart, the resurrection and aspiration to heaven of the soul, its Divine amazement and complete admiration, a complete spiritual emergence from these feelings of thinking, abstraction from one’s powers of the mind, angelic spiritual movement along God's wave, directed towards the boundless and incomprehensible. Usually the mind dreams more not about unimportant objects, but about [significant] things prematurely. Thus, by destroying the small good dispensation he received from God, he becomes completely dead. Therefore, one should seek with careful reasoning and the temporary not prematurely, and not turn away from what is in one’s hands, dreaming of something else. It is not difficult for the mind by nature to construct dreamy ideas about the above and imagine 194 of them what has not yet been achieved. Because of this, considerable fear arises that such a [dreamer] will not lose the spiritual treasure given to him and, deceived, will not lose his mind, turning 195 from a silent person into an idle dreamer. 119. Grace is not only faith, but also effective 196 prayer. It [grace], merited 197 by the spirit through love, clearly shows true faith, which has the life of Jesus. He who does not see faith operating in himself has acquired the opposite faith - dead and lifeless. Let him not even be called a believer who believes only in an unproven word, but does not have faith in the spirit and in fulfilling the commandments. So, one must demonstrate faith by success in [good] deeds or have it shining and acting in the light, as the divine apostle says: Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith from my works (James 2:18), emphasizing here that grace-filled faith is revealed by works according to the commandments, just as the commandments are fulfilled and shine through faith in grace. Faith is the root of the commandments, or, better, the source that waters them to increase. It bifurcates 198 into confession and grace, remaining indivisible by nature. 120. The small and together the great and shortest novice ladder is equipped with 199 five steps leading to perfection: the first [step] is renunciation [of the world], the second is submission [to monastic regulations], the third is obedience [in life], the fourth is humility, the fifth is love, which is God. Renunciation of hell raises up the [morally] lying and enslaved and frees [from the power of] matter. Submission finds Christ and serves Him, as He said: Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there will my servant also be (John 12:26). Where is Christ? [In heaven] sits at the right hand of the Father. The servant must be there, where is the One Whom he serves. [Let him remember this] who places his foot [on the 1st step] towards the ascent. Sometimes, [however], before ascending in these ways, a person already follows Christ and improves. Obedience, acting entirely according to the commandments, builds a ladder from various virtues and places them in the soul as steps. Taking the obedient one down from this [ladder], 200 elevating humility carries him upward - to heaven, transfers him to the queen of virtues - love and, leading him to Christ, presents him. So easily a true novice ascends to heaven along a short ladder. 121. To the royal palaces in heaven 201 there is no other shortest path through the small ladder of virtues, except [the path] of destroying the five passions opposite to obedience, namely: disobedience, contradiction, self-indulgence, self-justification and disastrous conceit. They are members and parts of a rebellious demon, who, absorbing his illegitimate children 202 from the novices, sends them into the abyss to the serpent. Disobedience is the mouth of hell, contradiction is his sword-sharp tongue, self-indulgence is his sharpened teeth, self-justification is his larynx, hell-referring conceit is the breath of his omnivorous womb. But whoever conquers the first by obedience cuts off the rest with one blow and with one degree [of virtues] quickly rises to heaven. A truly indescribable and incomprehensible miracle! And our philanthropic Lord accomplished it. [From now on] one can immediately ascend to heaven through one virtue or, better yet, a commandment, just as through one disobedience we fell and are being cast into hell. 122. Man is, as it were, a special dual world and is called, according to the divine apostle, new. Whoever, it is said, is in Christ is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). A person is called and exists by virtue as heaven, earth and everything. For him, as the Theologian notes, everything is said and every mystery is accomplished. Moreover, since, according to the apostolic word, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, powers of darkness of this age and against the heavenly spirits of the wickedness of the prince of the air (Eph. 6:12), then, according to this, in the nature of our spiritual powers, as in another great world, there must be our secret opponents. And indeed, against the three [forces of the soul] the three princes [of malice] make attacks, opposing the ascetics. Who [of them] makes progress in what and works on what, experiences struggle in that. The serpent, the prince of the abyss, takes military action against those who are attentive to the heart, as having [the basis] of his power on the passionate loins (see: Job 40, 11) and the navel 204. Through the voluptuous giant of oblivion, he throws [at them] searing clouds of fiery arrows and, having, as it were, some sea of ​​boundless lust, enters it, reptiles in it, agitates it, foams it, brings it to a boil and inflames [the tempted] to mix, flooding them with streams of pleasures, and overwhelms them with them to the point of insatiability. The prince of this world attacks those who strive for active virtue, as supporting 205 the struggle against irritable force. With the charms of all kinds of passions, through the giant of negligence, he cunningly wages [war] in irritable force, as if in another world - in a place of spectacles or an arena. He always conquers or is conquered by those who courageously oppose him, preparing for them either crowns or shame in the face of the angels. Directing his regiments at them, he fights against them [vigilantly]. The air prince admires those who occupy his mind with contemplation, presenting them with the fantastic while approaching with crafty air spirits the thinking and mental parts of the soul. Through the giant of unreason, he darkens the high mind with indignation, like another - mental - sky, falsely presenting foggy images and transformations of spirits, instilling fear with ghostly lightning, thunder, storm and crash. Obviously, each of the three princes, fighting with the corresponding force [of the three-part soul], opposes it. And whoever [of the demons] fights with which part of [the soul] competes against that part. 123. And they [the spirits of evil] were once minds, but, having fallen from this immateriality and subtlety, each of them acquired a certain material coarseness, having become fleshed out according to the order or property of action from which they received their qualities. Since demons 206, like humans, deprived of angelic bliss 207, lost [the ability] to enjoy the Divine, they began to experience sweetness, like us, in earthly things, becoming in some way material due to a tendency to material 208 passions. And one should not be surprised at this, in view of the fact that our rational and thinking soul, created in the image of God, having forgotten God, has become bestial, insensitive and almost insane from the enjoyment of material affairs, because usually skill transforms nature and changes its actions in accordance with the free decision of the will. Some of the [evil] spirits are to some extent material, obnoxious, 210 unbridled, voluptuous, vengeful and, like some carnivorous animals, attracted to material pleasure and enjoyment. Like dogs to blood, so they show their love for tasting rot together with [other] animate [creatures]. Their flesh, pleasure and dwelling are material and gross. Other [demons] are dissolute and susceptible to carnal passion, like leeches, frogs and snakes in swamp water. Sometimes they change into fish, follow the caustic pleasure of debauchery, as if experiencing it experimentally, and swim in a sea of ​​​​intoxication. Being, as they say, lazy and pampered by nature, [these demons] rejoice in the pampering effect of unreasonable pleasures and always arouse in the soul waves of thoughts, unclean dreams, worries and storms. [Some demons], like airy spirits, are light and subtle. They distract the soul from contemplation, infuse [it] with a kind of sultry winds and dreams, and in order to seduce the soul they falsely turn into birds or angels. Drawing 211 in [human] memory the views of certain known objects, they transform and pervert all spiritual contemplation, especially those [ascetics] who struggle with them before purification and spiritual reasoning. There is nothing spiritual, whatever [demons] secretly transform themselves into in the imagination. In contrast to the internal [human] state, in the measure of moral height, they arm themselves and place in the souls what is inflicted, that is, charm instead of truth, fantastic images instead of contemplation. Scripture clearly testifies to this, saying that the spirits of evil become manifest [in the form of] beasts of the field, birds of the air and reptiles of the earth (see: Hos. 2:18). 124. Indignation of passions and carnal war, aroused against the soul, occur among us in five forms: sometimes the existing 212 is abused by the flesh; sometimes she strives for unnatural actions, as if they were characteristic of nature; sometimes, having become pleasant friends with demons, they sometimes turn them against the soul. It happens that the soul itself allows disorder, as if it has defined itself by passions. Finally, a struggle also arises from the envy of demons, which, for our humility, we are allowed to resist when by all the above-mentioned methods they do not achieve the [tempting] goal. 125. The main causes of spiritual war, which appear to us from everything and through everything, are three: addiction, abuse of existing things and, by assumption, envy and the struggle of demons. Voluptuous excitement and restoration of flesh to soul and soul to flesh have the same character in skill and manifestation as the [rebellion] of the passions of the flesh against the soul and the valiant struggle of the soul against the flesh. Our enemy himself, being shameless, sometimes unexpectedly and without reason begins to boldly fight us. Do not, my friend, let the bloodthirsty leech drink blood from the arteries, because it can never vomit blood. Do not allow the serpent and the dragon to become satiated with dust, and you will easily crush the pride of the lion and the serpent. Sigh until, having laid aside earthly things 213, you take refuge in the highest dwelling and are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, who created you. 126. The truly perfect flesh and self-love [embodied] are those who are always enslaved to pleasure and love of glory. Envy took root in them. Exhausted by gloating and overwhelmed by grief [over] the happiness of their neighbor, they slander the good [in him] as an evil and actual product of delusion, they do not accept and do not believe in what is from the Spirit, and due to lack of faith they are not able to see or know God. Such, in their blindness and lack of faith, will rightly hear there: I do not know you (Matthew 25:12). But the faithful one who asks [about salvation] must either, listening, believe in what he does not know, or study what he believes, and instruct those who receive [the sermon] with what he has learned with faith, increasing their talent without envy. If anyone does not believe in what he does not know, and disparages the incomprehensible, or teaches what he himself has not studied, slandering those who teach instruction from experience, he will receive his full share with those who have inherited 214 bitter gall as punishment. 127. According to the truly wise, an orator is one who briefly, through general knowledge 215, mentally embraces existing things. He separates and combines them, like one body, showing that they are equivalent 216 in difference and identity. Or again: the orator, rightly called solid 217, is a truly spiritual [person], who, as a teacher of eloquence, with the commonly used words of an articulate voice, separates and unites five different general and cumulative qualities of things, united by the Word made man. Having comprehended them all, he not only reveals them to others with a pure demonstrative word, but, according to the expression of external teachers, he can even enlighten others with the contemplations revealed to him in the spirit. A true philosopher is one who, from [observation] of an object, understands their cause, or from the cause came to the knowledge of existing things through their unity, incomprehensible to the mind, and his immediate faith; who not only knows, but also experiences Divine things. Also, a true philosopher is one who has an active, contemplative and submissive mind. An excellent philosophical mind is characteristic of the one who has shown success in moral, natural and Divine philosophy, especially in the love of God, and [who] from moral philosophy is taught by God about the affairs of God, from natural philosophy - speeches about nature, from Divine philosophy - contemplation and the indisputable truth of 218 dogmas. Further, the divine of the divine is that orator who separates truly existing things from existing and non-existent ones, explains the properties of those from these and, by Divine inspiration, discerns the properties of these on the basis of those. He [the speaker] recognizes the spiritual and invisible from the sensory and visible, and the sensory and visible world from the invisible and supersensible, because the visible is the image of the invisible and the invisible is the prototype of the visible. Some one says that images of unimaginable things and species of unformed things are presented to us, so that this [figurative world] may be spiritually revealed through that [unimaginable], and that through this one, and [so that] we can clearly see [both worlds] together or one in the other, explaining 219 them with the word of truth. The speaker presents knowledge shining like the sun, not with mysterious and allegorical words, but through [his] spiritual knowledge and power. With the greatest expressiveness, he interprets and shows the properties of both worlds, since one of them serves as our guide, the other as the eternal Divine home, obviously prepared for us. The Divine philosopher is the one who, through activity and contemplation, directly united with God, became His friend and is called such, as having become friends with and loving the original 220, creative and true Wisdom above all other friendship, wisdom and knowledge. A philologist, and not a perfect philosopher (although fame secretly gave him the name of philosopher, as the great Gregory says), is one who loves and studies the wisdom [of the structure] of God’s creations, but, according to what was said at the end of this [creation], he does not exercise this wisdom vainly, [not] for the sake of praise and human glory, so as to be a lover not of matter, but of the natural wisdom of God. A scribe consists of 221 one who has studied the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, is actively engaged in the contemplation of God and remains in silence, who from the treasury of his heart brings out new and old, that is, evangelical and prophetic, [teaching], New Testament and Old Testament, theoretical 222 and active, or legal and apostolic. The scribe spreads these new and old mysteries, having learned them through a godly life. So, a scribe is all practical and practices bodily activities. The divine speaker is the one who naturally occupies a middle position between knowledge and the properties of things and spiritually proves everything by the dividing power of the word. Finally, the true philosopher is the one who clearly and directly in himself has a supernatural union with God. 128. Without the Spirit, those who write, speak and intend to build the Church are soulish and do not have the Spirit (see: Jude 1:19), as the divine apostle said somewhere. They 223 fall under the curse of the one who asserted: “Woe to the wise before themselves and to the understanding before themselves” (see: Is. 5:21). And they speak from themselves, and not the Spirit of God, according to the word of the Lord (see: Matt. 10:20), speaks in them. Those who preach from their own thoughts before purification are led astray by the spirit of conceit. The parable says about this: “I saw a man who thought that he was wise. But a fool has more hope than he has” (see: Proverbs 26:12). And Wisdom also bequeaths to us: Do not dream about yourself (Rom. 12:16). Himself filled with the Spirit, the divine apostle declares, saying: We ourselves were unable to think anything of ourselves, but our ability is from God (2 Cor. 3:5). And again: “We speak as if from God in the presence of God in Christ” (see: 2 Cor. 12:19). The words of the above-mentioned 224 [proud people] are unpleasant and unluminous, because they pronounce them, borrowing not from the living source of the Spirit, but from their hearts as some kind of muddy swamp that feeds the snakes, leeches and frogs of carnal passions, arrogance and intemperance. The water of their knowledge is fetid, cloudy and lukewarm, and those who drink it, experiencing dizziness, disgust and nausea, turn away from it. 129. “We are the body of Christ,” says the divine apostle, “and members separately” (see: 1 Cor. 12:27). And again: One body and one Spirit (Eph. 4:4), as they are called. Just as a body without a spirit is dead and insensitive, so one who has killed himself by passions through negligence about the commandments of baptism becomes alien to the action [of grace] and unenlightened by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s grace. By virtue of faith and rebirth, he has a spirit, but [the spirit] in him is motionless and inactive due to his spiritual mortification. [A person] has one soul, but many members of the body. And she owns everyone, gives them life and moves those who are capable of accepting life. Those members that have dried up due to some random illness, although she keeps them with her, they are lifeless and insensitive, like dead and motionless. So the Spirit of Christ, entirely abiding in all the members of Christ unfused 225 and acting, revives those of them who are able to be participants in the [gracious] life, and through the weakness of those who are separated from Him, humanely retains them as their own members. Therefore, every faithful 226 is a participant in the sonship of the Spirit by faith, but remains without His action and unenlightened, having lost the light and life of Jesus due to carelessness and unbelief. And, despite the fact that every faithful member of Christ has the Spirit of Christ, nevertheless, others remain inanimate by the action and movement of grace, as incapable of receiving it. 130. We affirm that there are eight main 227 objects of contemplation: the first is God, the formless, beginningless, uncreated, the Cause of everything, the Trinity One and all-essential Deity; the second is the order and structure [of life] of intelligent forces; third – arrangement of the existing one; the fourth is the economic descent of the Word; fifth – general resurrection; sixth - the terrible second coming of Christ; the seventh is eternal torment; eighth – Kingdom of Heaven. The four [first objects of contemplation] are past and have already happened, and the four [last] are future and not yet realized. All of them are clearly contemplated and are [in memory] for those who have acquired complete purification of the mind with the help of grace. Let him who approaches them without light [grace] know that he is constructing fantastic images and not contemplations, deceiving himself and being deceived by a dreamy spirit. 131. Here, if possible, it is necessary to talk about charm, since due to the wealth 228 and diversity of its intrigues and ambushes, it is not easily recognized by many and is almost incomprehensible. Charm, they say, is found in two forms, or, better, comes 229 and is reflected in relation to the dreams and actions [of people], although it has its beginning and reason in pride alone. The first type [of charm] is the beginning of the second, and the second is the beginning of the third or frenzy. The beginning of fantastic contemplation is conceit, which determines the presentation of the Divine under some image. Conceit follows charm, [leading] to delusion due to daydreaming. Dreamy charm gives rise to blasphemy, and after that, from extraordinary signs during wakefulness, it produces timidity, called trembling and confusion of the soul. Thus, after excessive pride comes delusion, after charm comes blasphemy, after blasphemy comes timidity, after timidity comes trembling, and after trembling comes an unnatural frenzy of the mind. This is the first image of the delights of dreams. The second type of charm in relation to actions is this. It has its origin in voluptuousness, usually born from natural carnal passion. From voluptuousness comes an unbridled impulse towards unspeakable immorality. He, having inflamed all nature and darkened the sovereign mind by connecting with imaginary idols, leads him into a frenzy and, intoxicated by his inflaming influence, makes him insane. [Then the charmer] tries to predict false prophecies, prophetically announces the visions of some saints and their speeches revealed through him, and, intoxicated by the excitement of passion, changes in character, like a demon possessed 230. Laymen who are deceived by delusion call them holy fools. [The charmers] settle down and stay at the churches of certain saints and proclaim something to people thanks to the fact that demons possess them, influence them and torment them. [Such persons] should be called in the full sense of the word 231 possessed, seduced and enslaved by charms, and not prophets prophesying the present and future. The demon of debauchery itself, having darkened their minds with a voluptuous fire, leads them into a frenzy, dreamily showing them some saints, presenting visions and various conversations. But it happens that the demons themselves come to them, oppress them with fear and, having subjected them to the yoke of Satan, 232 forcibly move them to sinful actions in order to keep them captives and slaves destined for torment until the end. 132. You need to know that delusion has three primary reasons why it arises in people: pride, demonic envy and punitive indulgence. The reasons for these [grounds of delusion] are as follows: pride - frivolity, envy - improvement, punitive indulgence - sinful life. The delusion of envy and proud conceit is quickly healed, especially if someone humbles himself. But God sometimes allows delights in the form of punishment or provision to Satan for sin to continue until death. It happens that innocent people are given over to suffering in order to save them. You should know what the demon of conceit himself predicts [sometimes] in those who do not carefully watch their hearts. 133. All pious kings and priests will truly be anointed in the new grace 233, as the ancients were once transformative. The latter were prototypes for our truth and not partly 234, but all foreshadowed all of us, because our kingdom and priesthood with those [ancients] do not have coincidence and homogeneity, although their images are the same. We are not distinguished by nature between anointing or grace and the call to anointing, but we have the same knowledge, faith and image. And from the word of truth it is clear and known that what is pure, dispassionate and all that is most holy in the present and future ages is entirely dedicated to God. 134. He now speaks with his lips wisdom and with the reflection of the heart - knowledge (see: Ps. 48:4), who clearly shows from the existing God the Word the Hypostatic Wisdom of God and the Father and [who] with his mind sees in things the imprints of prototypes 235 and with his lips, with the assistance of the living word, preaches wisdom from 236 wisdom, while [his] heart illuminates with the power of renewed spiritual knowledge. [He] through this knowledge can arouse faith in listeners and enlighten them. 135. The great opponent of truth, now leading 237 to the death of people, is delusion. Through her, a dark ignorance reigned in the souls of the careless, alienating them from God, so that they do not know whether there is a God who aroused and enlightened us, or they know and believe in Him only by an unproven word, and not by deed, His appearance is learned not by us, but by the ancients alone. They attribute the testimonies of Scripture about God to other authors who did not express them, and they blaspheme the glory of God, as Scripture says (see: 2 Peter 2:10). They completely deny the knowledge of piety, explain the Scriptures only sensually, not to say Jewishly, and, rejecting the awakening of the soul still here through the resurrection, they madly strive to rest in their graves. With such seduction three passions are inseparable: unbelief, deceit and carelessness. They give birth to and support each other. Unbelief is the teacher of deceit, and deceit is the companion of carelessness, which leads to complete laziness 238. Or, on the contrary, carelessness is the breeder of deceit, as the Lord said: The wicked and lazy servant (Matthew 25:26). Deceit is the mother of unbelief, because everyone who is deceitful is unfaithful, but the unbeliever does not fear God. From lack of fear comes carelessness - the mother of negligence, due to which we do not care about any good and commit various evils. 136. True knowledge of God 239 and correct knowledge [of the truth] constitutes the perfect Orthodoxy of dogmas. Therefore, everyone should praise God like this: “Glory to Thee, Christ our God, glory to Thee! You became man for our sake, the all-essential God the Word. Great is the mystery of Your economy. Our Savior, glory to You! 137. According to the great Maxim, there are three great purposes for compiling impeccable and infallible writings: the first is for one’s memory; the second is for the benefit of others; the third is by virtue of obedience, according to which very many scriptures have been compiled for those who humbly seek the word [of the truth]. He who writes to please people, for glory and to demonstrate his virtues, loses, I say, his reward. He will not receive any benefit here, nor will he receive a blessed reward in the future, but he will be condemned as a flattering, covetous man selling the word of God. Ἄνωθεν – lit.: from time immemorial or free: from childhood. Μεθεκτικὴ – lit.: accomplice. Ἀνθοῦντα – lit.: blooming. We have omitted the word “here” because it is unnecessary. Literally it should be translated as follows: “Here, in the middle of [paradise]…”. Ῥευστή – current, changing. Ἐγκυμονοῦντες – lit.: pregnant, not idle. Τὰς τρίβους εὐθείας ποιεῖν. Ἀνδρικῆς – lit.: courageous. Τὴν προκοπὴν – lit.: prosperity. Ὡς ποιοτήτων ἓξεις – lit.: skill of qualities. Ἐν τοῖς μετόχοις – lit.: in accomplices. Νοήματα – lit.: thoughts, intentions, decisions. Ὑπόδειγμα – lit.: example. We omitted in Chap. 32 words ἢ πάλιν for the sake of coherence of speech. The word “these” has been replaced for clarity by the word “which as”. Τῆς μετοχῆς – lit.: participation [in retribution]. We have omitted the words “as” and “so” in the last sentence. Πάσχων – lit.: testing. Μέτοχος – lit.: participant. We do not preserve the periodic structure of Greek speech: with the word “last” we begin a new phrase, and in the Greek original one sentence stretches to the end of the chapter. We left out the conjunction “since” because it was unnecessary before the words “in it”. Οἳους ἐποίησεν ἡ αμαρτία – lit.: what sin has done. Ἀυτῆς τῆς αἰσθήσεω – lit.: the feeling itself. Τῶν φύσιν φρενῶν – lit.: natural thoughts. Δι᾿ ἧς – lit.: through this. Ἑαυτῆς δυνάμεις – lit.: her powers. Μήτηρ – lit.: parent. Ἐνέργεια – lit.: action. Ἡ προσβολὴ – lit.: throwing, approaching, touching. Καλύπτουσα – lit.: hiding. Κυματουμένη – lit.: worried. Τῶν τοιούτων – lit.: of this kind or of this kind. Μορφοῦται δὲ διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων εἰς εἶδος καὶ μεταπλάττεται. Ὥσπερ – lit.: equally. Ψιλοὺς – lit.: naked. Τετραχῶς διῃρημένην αἰτίαν. Οὐδὲν ἐνεργεῖ καθ᾿ αὑτό, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπὸ δαιμόνων ἐνεργεῖταν. Τῆς θελητικῆς ἕξεως – lit.: volitional state. Τῇ παχύτητι – lit.: thickness, fullness. “Καθάπερ” at the beginning of the chapter is left without translation in order to avoid the prolixity of periodic speech. Τῶν ἀμφοτέρων – lit.: both of them. Ἐνεργεῖ – lit.: valid. Τοῦ ἐνεργεῖν αὐτάς – lit.: to accomplish them. Τυπικῶς – lit.: figuratively. Ὀλίγοις λίαν – lit.: very few. Τοὺσ τύπουσ – lit.: not “feats”, but “images”. Εἰδῶν – lit.: types or beginnings. Ἡδύτατον – lit.: the sweetest. Ὁι πολλοὶ – lit.: many. We replaced this word to eliminate the tautology. Γενικὴν – lit.: generic. Ὅτε μάλιστα οὐκ ἕστι ἐν αὐταῖς. We have omitted the extra introductory word “says,” since before that there are already introductory words “according to the word of the Lord.” Due to the repetition of conjunctions at the beginning of sentences, we have released “if” before the words “reign in it” and “then” in the middle of the phrase. Ἄλλην – lit.: to some. We have released the word “especially” that is constantly repeated by St. Gregory. We replaced the word “actively” with the concept “firmly”. Ἐμεῖν – lit.: to vomit, to vomit. Ἐν αἰσθήσεν – lit.: in feeling. Ἡ δόξα – lit.: glory, opinion, assumption. We translate the verb “influence” into the noun “impact”. We translated “victorious” instead of “having won.” Ἀνδρείας – lit.: courage. We've left out the redundant word "all". It should be translated in full: “... our whole nature.” Ὑπὸ κάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτῶν. We have omitted the word “all” used by St. Gregory in view of its repetition before. Full translation: “...slave of all.” We replaced the words “by virtue of which” with the words “after it.” Ἀναπλάττειν – lit.: to form. Ἐνεργουμένη – lit.: produced. Κέκτηται – lit.: possesses. Ἐχόντων – lit.: with those who have. Ἀποδεικτικῷ. We have moved the words “justly called solid” from the previous phrase for ease of understanding. Τοιούτων – lit.: such. Ἐν τῇ ἀνακαινίσει – lit.: in renewal. 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