Слово 17. О нестяжании

1. Non-covetousness is the putting aside of earthly cares, carelessness about life, unforbidden travel, faith in the commandments of the Savior; it is alien to sadness. 2. A non-covetous monk is the ruler of the world, who has entrusted God with the care of himself, and by faith has acquired everyone as his slaves. He will not tell a person about his need; and what comes, he accepts as from the hand of the Lord. 3. The non-acquisitive ascetic is the son of impartiality, and what he receives he considers as nothing. If he happens to go somewhere, he blames everything for his skills. If he grieves about something, he has not yet become non-covetous. 4. A non-covetous husband prays with a pure mind; and the covetous person imagines images of matter during prayer. 5. Those who remain in obedience are alien to the love of money; for when they betrayed their body, what will they consider their property? They only lose the benefit of being comfortable and ready to move from place to place. I saw that the substance gave the monks the patience to remain in one place; but I have given more joy to those who wander for the Lord's sake. 6. He who has tasted heavenly blessings easily despises earthly ones; he who has not tasted the former rejoices in acquiring the latter. 7. A recklessly non-covetous person is deprived of a double benefit: both present benefits are removed and future benefits are deprived. 8. O monks! Let us not be more unfaithful than the birds that neither bake nor gather. 9. Great is he who piously renounces his possessions, but holy is he who renounces his will. The first will be enriched a hundredfold with property or talents; but the latter will inherit eternal life. 10. The waves will not leave the sea; but anger and sorrow will not leave the lover of money. 11. He who despised substance got rid of justifications and contradictions; the covetous is ready to compete to the death for a needle. 12. Unshakable faith cuts off vain worries; and the memory of death teaches one to reject the body too. 13. There was not a trace of love of money in Job; That’s why he, having lost everything, remained without embarrassment. 14. “The love of money is and is called the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10); and it is indeed such, for it produces hatred, theft, envy, separation, enmity, confusion, resentment, cruelty and murder. 15. Some people burned a lot of substance with a small fire; and by one virtue many have escaped all the passions described above: this virtue is called impartiality. It is born in us from experienced knowledge and taste of the Divine mind, and from concern for a terrible answer during the exodus from this world. 16. He who has carefully read the word about gluttony, this mother of so many evils, does not know that in her destructive and cursed childbirth she called her second fiend the stone of insensibility. But I could not give him the place in order that belonged to him, being obliged to speak first about the many-headed serpent of idolatry, which from the most prudent fathers received the third link in the chain of the eight main passions. Now, having finished a moderate word about it, we intend to talk about insensibility, which occupies third place in order, and second in origin. Then we will talk about sleep and vigil; Let’s also talk briefly about children’s cowardly timidity; for all these ailments are characteristic of beginners. Seventeenth degree. Whoever has ascended to it goes to heaven, stripped of substance. You might be interested in: