Послание к монаху Николаю

To the most beloved son Nicholas. since you previously cared a lot about your salvation and, having great concern for life according to God, explained to us about yourself, with what labors and with what fiery desire you wanted to unite with the Lord through strict life and abstinence, struggling in all kinds of suffering, in a lot of vigil and strong prayer. You also explained to us what battles and what multitude of carnal passions arise in the nature of the body and rise up against the soul from the law of sin, which opposes the law of our mind (cf. Rom. 7:23). You complained that you were too bothered by the passions of anger and lust, and were looking for some way and reasonable advice [about] what kind of labors and exploits you could use to overcome the mentioned destructive passions. And at that time, as much as possible, we personally advised your love, offering you soul-helping understandings and wisdom and showing you by what labors and ascetic efforts with reason and enlightened judicious knowledge the soul, living according to the Gospel by faith, with the help of grace, can overcome the evil of sin flowing from within, especially the mentioned passions. For from which passions, out of ingrained habit, the soul has most perceived as an image and is more strongly attracted by them, against those it must undertake the most zealous, unceasing struggle, until it subdues the carnal and unreasonable actions of the heart, to which it itself previously submitted and was carried away, and through frequent recollection of thoughts and evil teaching in them was their captive because of the internal agreement of thoughts with them. Because we are temporarily removed from you in face, and not in heart, having gone into the desert to the true workers and ascetics of Christ, so that we, although little, laboring and asceticizing with the brethren who struggle against opposing actions and valiantly resist passions, put aside laziness, shake off despondency, reject negligence and embrace all diligence and diligence in pleasing God. That is why we have taken the pains to present in writing to your sincerity a small piece of advice and useful teaching, so that you, reading with diligence, in the small written piece of advice you will find the same thing, briefly stated, that I personally told you about, [and] as if in our presence, you would enjoy spiritual benefits. 2. So, my son, the beginning of your benefit in God should be from here. You must always unforgettably remember and in constant [internal] teaching reflect on all the benefits of the man-loving God and on the actions of His providence that have taken place on you and are taking place for the salvation of your soul, and not be covered by vicious oblivion or, due to despondency, not remember His many and great benefits and therefore spend the rest of your time uselessly and ungratefully. For such unceasing remembrance, as if some kind of sharp point piercing the heart, always prompts it to confession, to humility, to thanksgiving with a contrite soul, to all good zeal, to the acquisition of good character and good habits and [to the correction of] every virtue about God - a heart that always with the thought [stemming] from a good conscience, learns this prophetic to the word: “What will I repay to the Lord for all that I have repaid? " (Ps. 116:3) For when the soul thinks about the blessings of the humane God that have been upon it since birth, or from how many troubles it has been delivered many times, or how many times it has fallen into evil and fallen into sins many times by its own will, and has not been righteously given over to destruction and death to the spirits that deceived it; but [on the contrary] the philanthropic Master, long-sufferingly despising sins and waiting for her conversion - she, who arbitrarily worked through the passions of enemies and evil spirits, He nourished, covered, and thought about her in every possible way, and finally, with a kind gesture, guided her on the path of salvation, put into her heart the love for the ascetic life and strengthened her with joy to leave the world and all its charms of carnal pleasures, decorated the rite of fasting with an angelic image and arranged a convenient reception from the holy men into the assembly of their brotherhood. Who, [I ask], having a thought [guided] by a good conscience and reflecting on all this, will not always be in contrition of heart, having so many betrothals of preliminary good deeds, without having yet done anything good? Would not [such a person] forever, after considering himself, have had a firm hope [reflecting to himself like this]: “If even then, since I did nothing good, but sinned much before Him, living in carnal uncleanness and in many other passions, He did not deal with me according to my sins and did not repay me according to my iniquities (Ps. 102:10), but sent down such gifts and blessings for my salvation. If from now on I completely devote myself to working for Him in every immaculate continuance and correction of virtues, then how many blessings and spiritual gifts will He grant me, strengthening me for every good deed, correcting and instructing me.” He who always has such a thought and does not forget God’s blessings bows, directs and compels himself to every good teaching of virtue and to every practice of righteousness, being always zealous, always ready to fulfill the will of God. 3. Therefore, my beloved son, having a natural mind by the grace of Christ, always keep in yourself this constant meditation (σύνεσιν) and good teaching (μελέτην) and do not be covered with harmful oblivion, or discouraged by despondency, which makes the mind vain and deviates from life, or darkened in thoughts of ignorance, which is the cause of all evil, or we are seduced by all-evil negligence; Do not [be also] distracted by carnal lust, nor overcome by gluttony, nor captivated by the mind from lust, causing defilement in ourselves by agreement with lustful thoughts, nor overcome by anger, which gives rise to brotherly hatred, and [imaginary] for the sake of mercy or under some despicable pretext, saddening and grieving, and bringing to mind evil thoughts against Our neighbor, deviating from pure prayer to God, we captivate with our minds, and spy on our unanimous brother with brutal thoughts; [for] bound in conscience by the unreasonable disposition of carnal wisdom, you will be handed over for the time being as punishment to the evil spirits to which you yourself submitted, while [your] mind, being surrounded everywhere by perplexities and swallowed up by sadness, despondency, and preliminary guilt, having destroyed its prosperity according to God, again begins to perceive with much humility the beginning of the path of salvation; and, having worked a lot in prayers and all-night vigils, having resolved his guilt through humility and confession to God and his neighbor, he will thus begin to become sober again and, enlightened by the enlightenment of the mind of the Gospel, with the assistance of the grace of God, he will recognize that he who has not completely given himself up to the cross with a humble way of thinking and has not cast himself under everyone in order to endure trampling and humiliation, contempt, insults, ridicule and reproach, and to endure all this with the joy of the Lord for the sake of God, without at all bowing to human glory, or to honor, or to praise, or to the sweetness of food and drink, or to [the best] clothing - cannot be a true Christian. 4. So, given that such feats, competitions and crowns are set before us, how long will we be mocked by the appearance of feigned piety, working for the Lord with cunning, being revered for some by people, and seen by others from the Leader of the secret? For, revered by many as saints, we are still fierce in disposition; we truly have an image of piety, but we have not acquired its power before God (cf. 2 Tim. 3:5); We are revered by many as virgins and pure, but before the Leader of the mysteries we are inwardly defiled by agreement with lustful thoughts and denigrated by the actions of passions; and for the sake of our still feigned asceticism, we fall from human praise and are blinded by our minds. As long as we walk in the vanity of our minds, not assimilating the gospel way of thinking and not learning to live according to our conscience, so that with all diligence we may succeed in it and through this gain boldness in our conscience, but we still establish ourselves on the imaginary truth of the external man, due to the deprivation of true knowledge, and we deceive ourselves only by external teachings, wanting to please people and seeking from them glory, honor and praise. Truly He will come, revealing the secret of darkness and declaring counsel to the hearts (cf.: 1 Cor. 4:5), the inexorable Judge, Who is neither ashamed of the rich, nor will have mercy on the poor, He Who will take away the external image (σχήμα) and make manifest the truth hidden inside: according to the conscience of the living true ascetics and sufferers, He will crown in the presence of angels before His Father, and pretending to be dressed in the image of piety, showing people only external life, and vainly asserting themselves on it, and deceiving themselves with their minds, He will expose the saints before the highest Church and before the entire heavenly army, and so, bitterly ashamed, He will send them into utter darkness, following the example of the foolish virgins, who retained their outward virginity - for They were not blamed in the least for this - and they had some oil in their vessels, that is, they were partakers of certain virtues, and external corrections, and certain talents, which is why their lamps burned for some time. But due to negligence, ignorance, and despondency, they did not take care [of themselves as they should] (πρόνοιαν οὐκ ἐποιήσαντο) and did not reliably know the many passions hidden within and driven by evil spirits; but their understandings were corrupted by contrary actions, and, communicating with them by agreement of thoughts, they were secretly seduced and overcome by the most malicious envy, hating good, jealousy, quarrels, contentiousness, hatred, anger, grief, rancor, hypocrisy, irritability, pride, vanity, man-pleasing, self-indulgence, love of money, despondency, carnal lust, thoughts that produce voluptuousness, unbelief, fearlessness, fear, sadness, contradiction, weakness, sleep, arrogance, self-justification, arrogance, arrogance, gluttony, intemperance, covetousness, all the most cruel despair and subtle actions of evil. These virgins and their good deeds or commendable lives, which they considered necessary to perform before people in order to receive praise from them, and the very fact that they were partakers of certain talents, they sold to the spirits of vanity and man-pleasing; and, also enslaved by other passions, they mixed good teachings with an evil and carnal way of thinking and thereby made them unpleasant and unclean, like Cain’s sacrifice, which is why they were deprived of the joy of the Bridegroom and shut outside the palace of heaven (cf. Matt. 25: 1-12). 5. So, thinking, reasoning and experiencing about this, we will know and understand what deeds we are in, so that, while we still have time for repentance and conversion, we can correct ourselves so that our good deeds, being done purely, are true and good, not mixed with carnal wisdom, so that they do not turn out to be rejected, like a vicious sacrifice, for fearlessness, negligence and impoverishment of true knowledge; so that [and with us] it does not happen that we suffer the labors of virginity, and abstinence, and vigil, and fasting, and love of hobbies and lose days, and for the above-mentioned guilt of passions, our imaginary righteousness, turning out to be a vicious sacrifice, will be unpleasant to the heavenly priest 130 - Christ. First of all, my son, one who wants to take up the cross and follow 131 [Christ] must strive for knowledge (γνώσεως) and reason (συνέσεως) [spiritual] with a constant examination of his thoughts and much concern for salvation and [true] knowledge, with much diligence towards God, and by asking the servants of God who are unanimous and of the same wisdom, and struggling in the same feat, so that, not knowing where and how he walks, [he] does not walk in darkness without the light of a lamp; for whoever walks [this way] on his own without the knowledge of the Gospel and without any instruction at all, stumbles a lot, falls into many pits and snares of the evil one, errs a lot and falls into many troubles and does not know what end he will receive. Many have traversed [their path] with much labor, asceticism and suffering, and have endured many labors for God’s sake, but self-indulgence, lack of reasoning, and demanding benefits from their neighbors have made such labors unsteady and vain. 6. So, you, O my beloved son, remember what I told you at the very beginning of the admonition, and do not forget the 132 blessings shown to you by the venerable and man-loving God, being distracted [from this] by the stealing of malice [enemies] and despondency, but placing before your eyes the physical or spiritual blessings that have been from the beginning of your birth until now, meditate on them and always learn from them, according to what has been said: “... do not forget all His rewards” (Ps. 102:2), so that the heart is conveniently aroused to the fear of God and love, so that according to its strength, it can carefully lead life, [preserving] virtuous living, a pious conscience, a decent word, right faith, humble wisdom, and simply say: surrender all of yourself to God, convinced by memory the benefits that you received from the good and humane God, so that your heart itself, by such a memory of benefits, and especially with the assistance of help from above, is wounded in love and desire [for God]. For He did not do to others much better than you the wonderful things that He showed in you, out of His inexpressible love for mankind. So, try to keep in constant memory everything that was good for you from God. Especially unceasingly remember that great and wondrous grace that God gave you, as you told us, during your voyage with your mother from the holy places to Constantinople, when at night a terrible and uncontrollable storm and excitement arose, and everyone who was in the ship, along with the shipmen and with your mother herself, perished in the depths, and only you and two others were saved by the glorious Divine power, being thrown out onto shore, and how [the Lord] arranged your path to Ancyra, where with paternal compassion you were received by a certain merciful husband and united in love with your most reverent son Epiphanius, and how both of you, having been instructed by the reverend man, turned to the path of salvation and were accepted from the holy servants of God as sincere children. 7. For all these good deeds that have been given to you by God, what worthy thing can you render to Him who called your soul to eternal life? Truly, from now on you must live not for yourself, but for Him who died for you and rose again 133 in all virtue, righteousness, in all fulfillment of the commandments, always seeking what is the will of God, good and perfect and acceptable (Rom. 12:2), and with all your strength trying to achieve this. At the same time, my son, submit your youth to the word of God as the word itself demands: to present [your] body as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, verbal service (Rom. 12:1), and make all the moisture of carnal lust dry up and dry up through malnutrition, little drinking and all-night vigils, so that you too can say about yourself from the pledge of your heart: “ Like fur on one's face, I have not forgotten Your justifications" (Ps. 119:83); and, knowing that you are Christ's, crucify your flesh, according to the apostolic voice, with passions and lusts, and kill the evils that are on the earth (cf. Gal. 5:24; Col. 3: 5), that is, not only the act of fornication, but also the uncleanness stirred up in the flesh by evil spirits. And not only does he limit his feat by awaiting the crown of true, undefiled and all-perfect virginity, but, following the apostolic teaching, he strives to mortify both the very appearance and movement of this passion; Even with this, he who strives with strong zeal to instill angelic and most pure virginity into his body is not yet satisfied, but prays that the very memory of subtle lust, which occurs in one thought without the movement and action of bodily passion, and which occurs during the distraction of the mind, will be destroyed. This can only be accomplished with help from above and the sole power and gift of the Holy Spirit. Are there those who are worthy of this grace? Thus, he who awaits the crown of pure, immaterial and undefiled virginity crucifies his flesh with fasting labors, mortifies the earth, even on earth, by long and unceasing abstinence, wearing away the outer man, and thinning him, and making him old and withered, so that by faith, deeds and the action of grace, the inner [man] is renewed day by day, prospering in the best (cf. 2 Cor. 4:16), growing in love, adorned with meekness, rejoicing with the joy of the spirit, rested in the peace of Christ, led by grace, protected by goodness, surrounded by the fear of God, illuminated by reason and knowledge, enlightened by wisdom, instructed by humility. By these and similar virtues the mind, being renewed by the Spirit, recognizes in itself the outline of the God-like image, and perceives the mental and ineffable goodness of the Master's likeness, and comprehends the wealth of the testamentary law of self-taught and self-intelligent Wisdom. So, my son, with the above-mentioned [deeds] thin the youthful flesh and fatten the immortal soul, and with the above-mentioned virtues renew the mind with the assistance of the Spirit. For youthful flesh, fattened with various foods and drinking wine, is like a boar, ready to be slaughtered by the kindling of bodily pleasures, whose soul is tempered and the mind is captivated by the inflaming of evil lust, being unable to resist carnal pleasures. For the multiplication of blood removes the Spirit. Especially, youth should not even smell the taste of wine, so that the intense fire that appears in the internal action of passion and is poured outward by drinking wine, with which carnal sweetness ignites more strongly, does not drive away from it [the soul] the spiritual sweetness of painful tenderness and does not produce confusion and insensibility in the heart; but for the sake of spiritual lust, youth should not even drink water to the point of satiety, for the scarcity of water greatly contributes to the acquisition of chastity. Having experienced this in practice, you will be convinced of this by experience. Do not think that we want to impose a yoke of need on you by legislating or commanding this; but we kindly teach and advise this as a method and good art that promotes true virginity and reliable chastity, leaving it to your autocratic will to do what it wants. 8. Come, finally, let us think a little about the unreasonable passion of anger, which devastates, confuses and darkens every soul and reveals a person during his movement and action to be similar to animals, especially those who easily fall into it and quickly bow to it. This passion is especially affirmed and strengthened by pride and is indestructible while this devilish tree of grief, anger and irritability is watered with the evil water of pride, then it grows well, blooms well and bears many fruits of lawlessness. Thus, the building of the evil ones becomes indestructible in the soul, being established and strengthened on the foundation of pride. So, if you want this tree of iniquity, I mean the passion of grief, anger and irritability, to dry up in you and be unfruitful, so that the ax of the Spirit, when it comes, cuts it off, throws it into fire (cf. Matt. 3:10), according to the voice of the apostle 134, and destroys it with all malice; and if you want this house of iniquity, which the evil one always evilly builds, collecting, like stones, various solid or unfounded reasons, material deeds or words in thoughts and when constructing a building of evil in the soul, putting thoughts of pride into the confirmation and strengthening of [it]. If you want, I say, for this house to be destroyed and dug up, then have the humility of the Lord unforgettable in your heart, what He is and what He became for our sake; and from what height of the light of the revealed Godhead, according to the power of the heavenly beings, and in heaven glorified from all rational nature: angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim and nameless intelligent powers, whose names have not reached us 135, according to the prophecy of the Apostle, into what depth of human humility He descended, according to His ineffable goodness, being in every way like us, who sit in darkness and the shadow of death 136, and through Adam’s crime we were former captives, and through the action of passions we were possessed by the enemy. 9. So, when we were in such fierce captivity and were in possession of an invisible and bitter death, the Master of all visible and invisible creation was not ashamed, but humbled Himself and, having accepted the condemned man from the passions of dishonor, prohibition and the Lord’s saying [on him], he became like us in everything except sin (cf. Heb. 4:15) i.e. except the passions of dishonor (cf. Rom. 1:26). For what befell man as a punishment for sin was the crime of the saying of the Master, that is, death, labor, hunger, thirst and all such things, He took on, becoming what we are, so that we may be what He is: the Word became flesh (John 1:14), so that the flesh could be the Word: He is rich for our sake, that we through His poverty may be rich (cf. 2 Cor. 8:9); out of great love for mankind he became like us, so that we might become like Him in all virtue. For since Christ came, a truly new man has been renewed in the image and likeness by the grace of the Spirit and power, achieving a measure of perfect love, which casts out fear and is no longer subject to fall, for love no longer falls away (1 Cor. 13:8), because God, says John, is love, and he who abides in love abides in God (1 John 4:16). The apostles were honored with this measure and, like them, they learned virtue, presented themselves to the Lord as perfect, and followed Christ with a perfect desire throughout their lives. So, if you always unforgettably consider such humility, which, out of inexpressible love for mankind, the Lord accepted out of love for us, i.e., the indwelling of God the Word in wombs, the perception of man, birth from a wife, gradual bodily growth, dishonor, annoyance, reproach, reproach, reproach, beating, spitting, ridicule, scolding, scarlet robe, thorns the crown, the judgment of the rulers, the cries against Him of the lawless Jews, His fellow tribesmen: “Take, take, crucify Him” (John 19:15), - the cross, nails, a spear, the drinking of milk and gall, the triumph of the pagans, the mockery of those who, passing by, said to Him: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross, and we believe in You” ( Matthew 27:40,42), - and other sufferings that He endured for our sake: crucifixion, death, three-day burial in the tomb, descent into hell, then the fruits of suffering - what and what? That is, the resurrection from the dead, the captivity of hell and death, the souls who went [there] with the Lord, into heaven, the ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father above all principality and power, every name that is named (see: Eph. 1:20,21), honor and glory, the worship of all angels of the Firstborn from the dead, because of His suffering, according to the apostolic word: “Let this be understood in you, even in Christ Jesus, Who was in the image of God, was not equal to God by admiration, but He humbled Himself, taking on the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of humanity, and being found in the image of a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, the death of the cross. In the same way, God exalted Him, and gave Him a name above every other name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” and so on (Phil. 2:5–10). Do you see the reasons for the above [suffering] according to the truth of God; to what glory and height the man of the Lord was exalted! 10. Therefore, if with love and desire you unforgettably remember this in your heart, then the passion of grief, anger and irritability will not possess you. For if the foundation [established] on the passion of pride, through the humility of Christ, which you consider, is torn out, then the entire edifice of lawlessness, irritability, anger and sadness will conveniently collapse by itself. For what hard and stony heart will not be contrite, will not be moved and will not humble itself if it always has in its mind such a Only Begotten Divinity, humbled for our sake, and the remembrance of the above-mentioned numbered sufferings? Will it not arbitrarily, according to Scripture, be earth and ashes and trampling upon all men? And if the soul, looking at the humility of Christ, is humbled and contrite, then what kind of irritability, what kind of anger can possess it? What grief can overcome her? But, as it seems, the oblivion of these useful and life-giving thoughts, and its sister despondency, and this contributing and uniform ignorance are the most difficult and inner passions of the soul, difficult to acquire and difficult to correct, covering and darkening the soul with fierce curiosity, they also contribute to other evil passions to act and take refuge in it, for they introduce fearlessness and carelessness about the good. affairs and conveniently allow every passion to boldly enter and act. When the soul is covered with all-evil oblivion, pernicious despondency and the mother and nourisher of all evils - ignorance, then the pitiful and blind mind conveniently becomes attached to everything visible, intelligible or audible, i.e., if it sees the beauty of a woman, it is immediately wounded by carnal lust. Further, the memory, passionately and pleasantly renewing what was seen, or heard, or touched by the imagination of thoughts and evil teaching, paints images inside and through this defiles the passionate and pitiful mind with the action of prodigal spirits. 11. And finally, the flesh, if it is fat, or young, or raw, 137 being conveniently aroused by such memories, passionately acts what is natural to itself, being aroused to lust and sometimes in a dream or in reality producing uncleanness, although [such] in reality had no intercourse with his wife. And being considered by many to be chaste, a virgin and pure, although he considers himself a saint, before the One who sees secrets he is a bad man, and a fornicator, and an adulterer, and will be justly condemned on that day, unless he weeps and weeps, and, having melted his flesh with fasting, vigils and unceasing prayers, and having healed and corrected his mind with memories and teachings in the word of God, does not bring worthy repentance to God, before Whom he thought or did evil. For the living voice of the One who said: “But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Therefore, it is useful, especially for young people, if possible, not to talk with their wives, even if they seem to be saints; if you can stay [completely] outside the human community, then this makes it easier to fight and makes it clearer to understand your success; especially if [one] pays careful attention to himself and, eating little food and little water, remains in prayer with much vigil, striving and trying to contact and stay with skilled spiritual fathers and use their instructions. For it is disastrous to live alone on your own, without relying on the testimony of [the experienced], and to live together with the inexperienced in spiritual warfare, because such people are obsessed with other types of warfare. since many are the machinations of malice and hidden ambushes and various networks of the enemy are spread out from everywhere, therefore, if possible, we should walk together, i.e. try to often come to intelligent men and [as instructed by them] strive, and in this way, if [someone] himself does not have the lamp of true reason due to the still imperfection of mental age and infancy, then, walking along with one who has it, he does not walk in darkness, does not suffer disasters from snares and nets, does not fall among the mental beasts grazing in the darkness, who kidnap and beat those who walk in it without smart lamp of the Divine word. 12. So, if you want, my son, to have within [yourself] your own lamp of mental light and spiritual intelligence, so that you may be able to walk without stumbling in the deepest night of this age and so that your steps will be straightened by the Lord (see: Ps. 119:133), yes, according to the prophetic word, greatly delighting (Ps. 36:23) in the path of the Gospel, i.e. with the most ardent faith to follow the most perfect gospel commandments and desire and prayer to be a partaker of the sufferings of the Lord, then I show you a wondrous art and invention of spiritual character, requiring not physical labor or feat, but spiritual labor, constancy of mind and attentive thought, the fear and love of God, an invention with which you can conveniently defeat a regiment of enemies, following the example of blessed David, who killed one a giant of foreigners through faith and trust in God, and through this he and his people defeated the darkness of their enemies (cf. 1 Samuel 17:40–54). The content of our word has as its subject three strong and strong foreign giants, on whom all the resistive power of the mental Holofernes is based (Judith 2:4-6); if they are deposed and killed, then all the power of the evil spirits will be exhausted in the mortal struggle; The seemingly strong giants of the evil one are the three already named: ignorance is the mother of all evils, oblivion is his sister, co-worker and helper, and despondency, which, having weaved a dark black cloud of clothing and a veil of the soul, both first affirm, strengthen, serve as their connection, root evil in the most careless soul and make it solid. For despondency, oblivion and ignorance strengthen and increase the support of other passions. Being assistants to one another and one without the other could not be formed, they are the forces of the opposite and the strong princes of the evil one, by whom the entire army of the spirits of evil is converted, strengthened and manages to carry out their plans, without which the above cannot form one whole. 13. So, if you want to win victory over the above-mentioned passions and conveniently defeat the regiment of mental foreigners, then, through prayer and the assistance of God, come to yourself and go into the depths of your heart, examine these three strong giants of the devil, I mean: oblivion, despondency and ignorance - the support of mental foreigners, with the help of which other evil passions are converted, they live, and act, and achieve power in the hearts of the voluptuous and in the souls of the foolish. And with much attention and constancy of mind, with help from above, having found for others unknown and not even assumed, the most destructive of others, evil passions, weapons of truth, opposed to them, I mean, good memory, the cause of all good things, and an enlightened mind, with which, while awake, the soul drives away the darkness of ignorance, and with special zeal, preparing and arousing the soul for salvation, and, having clothed itself in these weapons virtues through the power of the Holy Spirit, through all prayer and supplication you will valiantly and courageously defeat the three aforementioned giants, mental foreigners; with a special remembrance of God, always thinking, what is true, what is honest, what is righteous, what is pure, what is good, whatever virtue and whatever praise (Phil. 4:8), and thereby driving away from oneself the most wicked oblivion; with an enlightened and heavenly mind, destroying the destructive ignorance of darkness; with all-virtuous and kind zeal, driving out godless despondency, which makes evil implanted in the soul. Having acquired these virtues not by will alone, but by the power of God and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, with much attention and prayer, in this way you will be able to get rid of the three strong giants of the evil one mentioned above. For when in the soul, through effective grace, the agreement of true knowledge, remembrance of the words of God and good zeal is forced and diligently preserved, then the very trace of oblivion, ignorance and despondency in it is destroyed and turns into nothing, and henceforth grace reigns in it in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Compare: Heb.4:14; 7:26; 8:1. Wed: Matt. 16, 24. Mk. 8, 34. OK. 9, 23. Lit.: “... O my child, in accordance with the beginning of the exhortation, do not forget...” - Note. ed. Wed: 2 Cor. 5, 15. Some manuscripts add: “To Christ.” – Note. ed. In many manuscripts and publications: “gospel”. – Note. ed. Compare: Eph. 1, 21 and Col. 1.16. Wed: Is. 9, 2. Matt. 4.16. OK. 1, 79. 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