Messages to the brothers living everywhere

“The physician whom God gave to Egypt,” is how his friend and biographer Saint Athanasius of Alexandria described Saint Anthony the Great (251–356). Not only from Egypt, but from the most remote parts of the Roman Empire, a constant stream of visitors flocked into the desert to see the hermit Anthony: priests, monks, laymen. Some came for advice in some matter of their own, others simply wanted to be with him, learning from his silence and finding that his very presence renewed their hope 1 . Saint Anthony is the prototype of a special spiritual type of elder, characteristic of Eastern Christianity, geron (Greek), a grace-filled “abba”, or spiritual mentor. Many of the words and advice with which Saint Anthony healed his Christian brothers have come down to us - processed and to a greater or lesser extent published - in his Life, compiled by Saint Athanasius, and in the "Apothegmata", or "Words of the Desert Fathers" 2. However, did Saint Anthony himself take the trouble to write down his spiritual teachings, and were these records preserved? Life tells us that he “did not know how to read and write,” but even so, he could well have dictated what he considered necessary to his students. Indeed, seven of the epistles traditionally attributed to St. Anthony survive. Their authenticity has been disputed, but they are now accepted by most researchers as genuine. (There are, in addition, twenty more messages that are definitely doubtful). If these seven epistles are indeed St. Anthony's, they must have originally been written in Coptic, the native language of the local Egyptian Christians. Part of this Coptic text survives; there is a Syriac translation of the first epistle and a complete version of all seven in Georgian and Latin. As far as I know, these seven messages appear in English for the first time in this edition. Their translator, priest and doctor of theology Dervas Chitti (1901–1971), devoted his life to the study of early Egyptian and Palestinian monasticism, collecting the fruits of his forty years of research in the remarkable work Citizenship of the Desert 3. He prepared this translation of the messages for his own use, not for publication; and although he gave typewritten copies of the translation to several of his friends, no doubt he would have wanted to revise the text before committing it to print. I have made a few minor amendments to it to avoid some confusion. As an introduction, we have included in this publication a short article prepared by Father Dervas for the Sobornost magazine. It is reprinted with the kind permission of the magazine publisher. I provided it with footnotes and expanded the bibliography. At first glance, these seven messages may seem unremarkable. It is necessary to read them more than once, slowly and carefully, for their deeper meaning to emerge. Then the reader will gradually begin to discern the leading themes of the teaching of Saint Anthony, to which he constantly returns: this is the theme of the testimony that the Holy Spirit gives birth to in the consciousness of every person; this is the need to achieve self-knowledge, that is, to discover and love our true self, created in the image of God; further, this is the complete salvation of man, both his soul and his body; it is a call to follow the Lord in His extreme self-abasement and humility; this is, finally, the unity of the Church, which embraces both the Old and New Testaments, and angels, and saints, and those living on earth; our interdependence in a common inheritance as members of each other in the Body of Christ. These main themes of the messages are expressed in words that, in their directness and simplicity, are reminiscent of the Words of the Desert Fathers. “The Spirit enters into a loving partnership with the mind,” writes St. Anthony, “...Persist in the testimony that the Spirit bears in the mind like a child... The Spirit assigns to man the labors with which he constrains his soul and body, so that they are purified and together enter into their inheritance... Recognize yourself... He who knows himself knows God... He who knows himself knows all people... He who can love himself loves everyone... From his neighbor - ours destruction, and our life, also come from our neighbor... Whoever sins against his neighbor sins against himself... We are all members of each other, and the body of Christ, and the head cannot say to the foot: “I don’t need you.” And if one member suffers, the whole body is affected and suffers along with it... Therefore, we must love each other with all our might. For he who loves his neighbor loves God; and whoever loves God loves his soul.” Here we hear the genuine voice of the desert experience. Bishop Callistos of Diocleia, Oxford, 1975. On January 17, 356, Saint Anthony rested in a secluded desert shelter in the mountains above the Red Sea, where he had retired more than forty years earlier. For a month, Saint Athanasius, for the third time forcibly expelled from his episcopal throne of Alexandria, hid from persecution (a price was set on his head) and involuntarily shared long hours of solitude with the monks, whose prayers and whose faith had always been strong support for him. It was under these conditions that he wrote as a guide for the spiritual life of monks from other places who asked him to write the Life of St. Anthony, which was destined to play such a memorable role in the conversion of St. Augustine, 4 and which remains to this day an undeniable classic of the Christian spiritual tradition. We can rejoice that the days are gone when venerable historians like Gwatkin could talk about “the great hermit Anthony who never existed.” But the personality of Saint Athanasius was too indisputable for us to decide without hesitation to what extent the “Life” is a portrait of the real Anthony, to what extent it is the creation of an artist. Fortunately, there is a lot of evidence in other sources - in the lives of Pachomius, “The Words of the Desert Fathers”, in Evagrius, Cassian and others, which confirm this image; and the qualities of Athanasius the historian himself (let’s say, a biased one) in his other works incline in favor of the accuracy of the historical outline that he gives us. Moreover, we can now assert with sufficient confidence that the seven epistles that Blessed Jerome considered to belong to Saint Anthony have survived to this day: one epistle and several fragments in the Coptic language, another in Syriac, obviously directly based on the Coptic original; and all seven are in the Latin and Georgian versions of the Greek translation. Despite some dark passages in the translations - and if St. Athanasius is to be believed, the Coptic original itself must have been dictated - we feel that Anthony's Lives is really speaking to us in the Epistles. The year of the “Edict of Milan”, 313, can be considered the milestone year of the “advent of the era” of the Christian Church. In Egypt it was probably the year of three significant events: the entry of young Athanasius into the service of the Bishop of Alexandria; the baptism of Pachomius and the beginning of his asceticism; Anthony's removal to the "inner desert" to the Red Sea. The last two events mark the “coming of the era” of Christian monasticism, although not its birth. Pachomius’s teacher, Palamon, gave him the rule of life, which he himself had been taught, and dressed him in a special monastic robe (“schema”), which was already taken for granted.” 5 And Anthony, who was over sixty, also spent forty years developing a way of life in which at first they did not see anything unique and whose pioneering character was only now fully revealed. He also had mentors in the third century. His life represents a bridge between two eras - the time of martyrs and the time of the Christian empire. The key to his path can be found in the words of the gospel; It was they, heard by a twenty-year-old boy in the church, that drew him onto the path of renunciation of the world: “If you want to be perfect, go sell everything you have” (Matthew 19:21). Further, the story leads us through a period of internal temptations, when Anthony settles in a barn near his old house, until the time when the devil, expelled from his thoughts, begins to attack him from the outside, in a visible way. Further, the path leads us to the great battle of Anthony with demons in a tomb near the village (were the images of the ancient Egyptian animal gods on its walls reflected in the appearance of his pursuers?), the highest point of which is the quiet revelation of the persistent presence of Christ: “Where have you been? Why didn’t You show up from the very beginning to put an end to my torment?” - “I was here, Anthony; but I waited to see your resistance. And because you stood and did not give in, I will always help you and glorify you everywhere.” Only then does Anthony go into the wilderness further than usual, to an old abandoned fortress in the mountains - but still within reach of his friends - for twenty years of solitary struggle and victory, until finally his friends break down his doors - and he comes out to them, fifty-five years old, perfect in every sense of the Greek word teleios - grown to his full height, whole in mind and body, brought into order, healed human nature, initiated into the mysteries and captured by God. Now comes the time to pass on to others the way of life that he had found, to offer this path to those who gathered around him on the mountain and made him their father. But the last great persecution is already approaching, and soon Anthony descends on Alexandria, supporting the confessors and martyrs in their battle, striving for martyrdom, but not bringing it upon himself. For the battle of the monks and the battle of the martyrs are one. The persecution ends, Anthony returns to his old shelter. But now he is famous, and fame attracts the world to him: he is forced to flee. And so, while he is waiting for the boat that should take him to Upper Thebaid, the Spirit inspires him that it is better to join a passing Arab caravan and go with him on a three-day journey through the desert to the foot of a high mountain near the Red Sea. Here we read for the first time that “he fell in love with this place.” The forces of evil are still nearby, envious and relentless. But the main tone now becomes a kind of heavenly clarity: even wild animals obey him, like Adam once did. Naturally, the brothers soon find him and continue to communicate between him and the world. From time to time he goes down to visit them on the outer mountain, near the Nile. And once again, apparently for only two days, in the summer of 338, he goes to Alexandria to express his support for Athanasius against the Arians. But on the whole, it is this quiet heart of prayer on his inner mountain that should be remembered as the background of all the battles of the Church in the next forty years. Evagrius recalls Anthony’s answer to a certain philosopher who asked him how he could endure his long loneliness without the consolation of books: “My book is the nature of created things, which is always before me to read, whenever I wish, the words of God” 6 . Nothing is so close to St. Anthony as Manichaean dualism of any kind. Both the “Life” and the “Epistle” clearly show that his battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the invisible forces of evil (Eph. 6:12) (“The Epistles” pass over in silence those devilish obsessions that are described in the “Life” and with which the idea of ​​Saint Anthony in the popular tradition is almost exhausted). Falling into sin, we become bodies for them, and our souls become a den of unclean spirits. But our bodies were created for the Resurrection. Both good and evil spirits equally come from the All-Good Creator 7 . All this gives special credibility to his uncompromising embodiment of the principle: Friendship with the world is enmity against God (James 4:4). Without this and without the all-pervading feeling of the Church, the testimony of St. Anthony would be devoid of its meaning. The first epistle, according to the Syriac list, is addressed to "the brethren living everywhere" and is rather a general treatise on monastic life. The rest are closer to the epistolary genre itself. The most extensive message is addressed to the monks of Arsinoe (in Fayum) 8 ; The “Life” also speaks of Anthony’s connections with the local monks 9 . Other messages are addressed to unnamed monastic communities - as one might assume, different ones, since the same themes are repeated from message to message, although each variation introduces something new into the overall picture of the saint’s teaching. As far as history is concerned, the epistles tell us almost nothing about it, and only the interesting mention of Arius and his heresy 10 suggests a dating of the entire series of epistles (which do not appear to have been separated by large periods of time) to sometime around 338, when Antony was visiting Alexandria. A few related general remarks can be made. The different translations remind us that in Coptic the same word was supposed to mean both mind (Greek nous) and heart. This is probably an important circumstance for the entire subsequent history of Christian spirituality. Further, in contrast to the “Life” and the lives of Pachomius, where the name of Jesus is always accompanied by the title Christ, in the epistles it is quite often found in isolated use. In order not to draw too far conclusions from the fact of silence, we note that the desert, if my memory serves me correctly, is not mentioned even once, and the Cross only twice, in a repeated quotation from the Epistle to the Philippians. The quotations of Scripture in the Epistles are exactly what we would expect from a man who owes all his knowledge of Scripture to a purely attentive ear: various echoes, scattered quotations, and, above all, a few favorite, repeated verses: Isa. 53:5, Rom. 8:15-18, 32, and Phil. 2:6-11. Quotations from the Gospels are essentially few in number. There is no trace of acquaintance with apocalyptic or other apocryphal literature, as is found in the epistles of Anthony's student and follower, Abba Ammon. The leading theme of all the messages is the constancy of the work of salvation that God performs: “God visited His creatures more than once.” The first time He visited them was by the Law of His Covenant, implanted in man; Abraham is cited as an example of such a visit. When this law implanted in the heart dried up, the Lord sent Moses to give us the written Law; and Moses "laid for us the foundation of the House of Truth, which is the Universal Church." (This sense of the unity of the Church of the Old and New Testaments is also manifested in Anthony’s usual address to his brothers as “the holy children of Israel according to their intelligent essence - noera ousia,” a practice that is confirmed by the first “Life” of Pachomius, which recalls how Anthony spoke of Orsisia as the “true Israel” and of the inhabitants of Tabenissa as “the children of Israel” 11. Moses did not completed construction. The prophets, in turn, began to build on its foundation, but they could not complete the building; They knew that no creature could heal the great wound of mankind, and they prayed to God to send His mercy, the Only Begotten Son, the very Wisdom of the Father and His Image, the One who, being the Image of God... took on the form of a servant... and was obedient even to death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:6-8). The Lord “did not spare His only begotten Son for our salvation, but gave Him for us and for our sins. And He humbled Himself, and by His stripes we were all healed. And with the word of His power He gathered us from all parts of the world... and raised up our hearts from the earth and taught us that we are all members of one another” 12. Parallel to this is the distinction of three kinds of calling in the first epistle: the first kind of called are those who, like Abraham, heard the call “according to the law of love, which is in their nature and which the original Good planted in them at the first creation,” and without delay followed it; Cassian rightly sees in Antony himself a model of this kind of calling 13 . The second kind are those who heard the warnings and promises of the written, Mosaic, Law; the third are hardened sinners to whom the Lord, in His mercy, sends “the cleansing of sorrows until they soften and come to their senses and repent... and they also achieve true life.” These two topics are followed by a description of how the Spirit of Repentance leads a person on his path to righteousness, which in itself is not yet perfection: it teaches discernment, without which all ascetic labors will be in vain; knowledge of oneself, which brings with it the knowledge of God (the deprivation of this knowledge is what makes Arius cast out); and, ultimately, leads to adoption, when Christ will say to His disciples: “I no longer call you servants, but My brothers and friends, for everything that the Father taught Me I have revealed to you” (John 15:15). Thus, a person gains freedom through the Coming of Christ and “does not receive the spirit of slavery, again into fear, but the Spirit of Adoption, by whom we cry: “Abba, Father!” - and we become heirs of God and joint heirs of His Saints 14. Despite all this, the memory of God’s Judgment and the fallen state of the world does not and should not disappear. And Anthony himself is still nothing more than a “wretched prisoner of Christ,” but since he is quite confident in his “own hopelessness,” it does not seem inappropriate to quote words from Charles Wesley’s “The Duel of Jacob” 15. He can say those words of his that are included in “Apothegmata”: “I no longer fear God: I love Him. For perfect love casts out fear." 16 First of all - peace to your love in the Lord! I think, brethren, that souls who are drawn to the love of God are of three kinds, men or women. There are those who are called by the law of love, which is in their nature and which the original Good implanted in them at the first creation. The Word of God came to them, and without the slightest doubt they followed it willingly, like the forefather Abraham; for when the Lord saw that he had learned to love God not by teaching from people, but by the law embedded in his nature from his very conception, the Lord appeared to him and said: Get thee out of your land, from your kindred, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you (Gen. 12:1) 17. And he went, without doubting or hesitating, but ready for his calling. He is an example of that disposition of spirit, which to this day remains in all who follow in his footsteps. By working and seeking the fear of God in patience and silence, they achieve the true kind of life, since their souls are ready to follow the love of God. This is the first kind of calling. This is the second calling. There are people who hear the written Law, which testifies to them of the torments and sufferings prepared for the wicked, and of the promises for those who walk worthily in the fear of God; and the testimony of the written Law prompts their thoughts to seek how it is possible to enter into the calling, as David testifies to this, saying: The Law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls, the testimony of the Lord is true, making children wise (Ps. 18:8). And in another place: The manifestation of Your words enlightens and instructs infants (Ps. 119:130); and much more that we cannot list here. The third calling is this. There are souls who were initially hard-hearted and hardened in acts of sin; and behold, the All-Good God, in His mercy, sends to such souls the purification of sorrows, until they are softened and come to their senses, and are converted, and come closer, and enter into knowledge, and repent with all their hearts, and they, too, will find the true way of life, like those others about whom we have already spoken. These are the three dispositions by which souls come to repentance until they reach the grace and calling of the Son of God. So, regarding those who have entered into repentance with all their hearts and have become, in spite of all the vexations of the flesh, courageous warriors in the battle that rises against them until they are overcome, I think, first of all, the Spirit calls them and makes the battle easier for them, and delights repentance for them, showing them how they ought to repent in soul and body, until He teaches them how to turn to the Lord who created them. And He informs them of deeds with which they could oppress soul and body, so that both soul and body may be purified and together enter into their inheritance. First, the body is cleansed by many fastings, vigils, and prayers, and service, which strengthens a person physically, cutting off all carnal lust. And the spirit of repentance becomes his leader in these things and tests him with them, so that the enemy cannot return back. Then the Spirit-Guide begins to open the eyes of his soul in order to bring repentance to it, and thereby it would be cleansed. The mind begins to distinguish between body and soul and begins to learn from the Spirit how to cleanse both body and soul through repentance. And, taught by the Spirit, the mind becomes our guide in the works of soul and body, showing how to purify them. And he separates us from the fruits of the flesh, which were mixed with every member of our body from the first sin, and brings all the members of the body to their original state, which had nothing of the unclean spirit. And the body is brought into submission to the mind, learning from the Spirit. As the Apostle Paul says: But I kill my body and make it into slavery (1 Cor. 9:27). For the mind cleanses him from food and sleep, in a word, from all his movements, and with its own purity it cleanses the body even from the natural ejaculation of semen. And there are, I think, three kinds of movements in the body. There is a movement put into the body by nature, planted in it at the first creation; however, it is not effective if the soul does not want it, and reveals its presence in the body dispassionately. And there is another movement when a person saturates the body with food and drink, and the heat of the blood from the excess of saturation raises a fight in the body due to our greed. That is why the apostle said: And do not get drunk with wine, for in it there is fornication (Eph. 5:18). And the Lord warned His disciples: Take heed to yourselves, so that your hearts are not burdened with overeating and drunkenness (Luke 21:34), or with pleasures. In particular, those who seek to achieve a measure of purity must repeat: But I mortify my body and make it into slavery (1 Cor. 9:27). And there is a third movement that comes from evil spirits who tempt us out of envy and try to lead astray everyone who has taken the path of purity. So, my beloved children, in these three kinds of movement, if the soul does not give itself any relief and persists in the testimony that the Spirit gives birth to in the mind, then both the soul and the body are cleansed from weakness of this kind. But if in relation to these three movements the mind neglects the testimony that the Spirit bears in it, evil spirits gain the upper hand over it and sow all the passions in the body, and excite it, and raise a strong war against it; so that the soul becomes tired and sick, and cries, and seeks where help would come from, and repents, and submits to the dictates of the Spirit, and is healed. Then she is confirmed in placing her rest in the Lord, and that He is her peace. I told you all these things, beloved, so that you would know how it is required of a person to repent in body and soul and to cleanse them - both body and soul. And if the mind prevails in this competition, it will pray in the Spirit and begin to expel from the body the spiritual passions that entered it of its own will. And then the Spirit establishes friendly cooperation with the mind, since the mind keeps the commands that the Spirit has communicated to it. And the Spirit teaches the mind how to heal all spiritual wounds and cleanse itself from everything that is mixed with the members of its body, and from other passions that, although not in the body, are mixed with its will. And he establishes a rule for the eyes, so that they see correctly and purely, and so that there is no sin in them. Then he lays down a rule for the ears, that they should listen in peace, and no longer have any thirst or desire to hear of evil, or of the failings and humiliations of men, but rejoice in hearing of what is good, and how every man can stand firm, and what mercy is shown to all creation, which was once sick in these members. Then the Spirit teaches purity of the tongue, since the tongue was struck with a serious illness; that illness that struck the soul came out in words, through the tongue, which the soul used as its instrument, and thus struck it with a serious illness and ulcer, and itself was wounded by this instrument - the tongue. The Apostle James testifies and tells us: If anyone among you thinks that he is godly and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, his piety is empty (James 1:26). And in another place he says: The tongue is a small member, but... it defiles the whole body (James 3:5-6) - and much more, which I cannot now bring to you. But if the mind is strengthened by the strength received from the Spirit, it is purified and sanctified, and learns to discern the words that come to the tongue, so that there is no partiality and self-will in them, and thus the word of Solomon would be fulfilled: “My words come from the Lord; there is no vanity or guile in them” (Proverbs 8:8). And in another place he says: The tongue of the wise heals (Proverbs 12:18), and much more. And then the Spirit heals the movements of the hands that once moved erratically, following the will of the mind. But now the Spirit teaches the mind how to purify them, so that they work, doing alms and prayer, and the word about them would be fulfilled, saying: Let the lifting of my hands be like the evening sacrifice (Ps. 141:2), and in another place: The hand of the diligent makes rich (Prov. 10:4). After this, the Spirit cleanses the belly as it eats and drinks; for while the spiritual desires are active in it, it does not know saturation in its greedy desire for food and drink, and through this the demons carry out their attacks on the soul. The Spirit spoke about this through David: With a proud eye and an unsatisfied heart, I do not eat with this (Ps. 100:5). And for those who seek purity in this, the Spirit prescribes the following regulations: to eat in moderation to strengthen the body, but in doing this, not to have the taste of lust, and thereby fulfill what Paul said: So, whether you eat or drink... do everything to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). Then, in relation to carnal lust, which is located below the womb, the mind receives the teaching of the Spirit and distinguishes the three kinds of movements that we spoke about above, and persists in purifying them, and the Spirit helps and strengthens it; and all these movements are tamed by the power of the Spirit, which establishes peace in the whole body and cuts off all passions from it. The Apostle Paul speaks about this: Mortify your members on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, etc. (Col. 3:5). And after that He gives cleansing to the feet. Once they walked wrongly, not in harmony with God; but now the mind, gathered under the authority of the Spirit, purifies them so that they walk according to His will, walking and serving in good works, so that the whole body is changed and renewed and is in obedience to the Spirit. And I think that when the whole body was cleansed and received the fullness of the Spirit, it acquired a certain part of that spiritual body that it will receive at the resurrection of the righteous. I told you all this about the ailments of the soul that are mixed with the members of the bodily nature in which the soul moves and acts; and in this way it - the soul - becomes a conductor for evil spirits who enter through it and act in the members of the body. But I said that the soul also has non-physical ailments; Now let's show them. Pride is a non-physical illness of the soul, as well as vanity, envy, hatred, impatience, laziness and more. But if the soul surrenders itself to the Lord with all its heart, the Lord will have mercy on it and give it a spirit of repentance, which will testify to it of every sin, and they will no longer approach it; and He will show her those who rebel against her and want to prevent her from being separated from them, waging a difficult battle, so that she cannot remain in repentance. But if she stands and is obedient to the Spirit, teaching her to repent, the Creator will not hesitate to condescend to her exhaustion in repentance and, seeing her in bodily labors, many prayers and fasting, and contrition, and in teaching the words of God, in renunciation of the world, in humility and tears, and persistence in contrition - then the merciful God, seeing her labors and obedience, will have mercy on her and save her. The end of the message that Saint Anthony sends to the brethren. My dear and venerable brothers, I, Anthony, greet you in the Lord. Truly, my beloved in the Lord, God visited His creation more than once; but from the creation of the world, when anyone went to the Creator of all, led by the Law of His Covenant, which was embedded in us, God Himself - with each of them with His bounties and the grace of His Spirit. As for such rational creatures, in whose nature this covenant has cooled and the insight of the mind has died, so that they are no longer able to know themselves in their first state, about such I will say that they have become completely unreasonable and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. But the Creator of all things in His great generosity visited us through this Law of His Covenant implanted in us. For He is an immortal Being. And those who became worthy of God and grew in His Covenant implanted in them, and were taught by His Holy Spirit, and received the Spirit of Adoption - all of them were able to worship their Creator as it should be: these are those about whom Paul says that they did not receive the promises (Heb. 11:39), in view of the plan for us. And the Creator of all things, who does not repent of His love, wishing to visit our weakness and confusion, raised up Moses the Lawgiver, who gave us the written Law and laid for us the foundation of the House of Truth, which is the Universal Church, uniting us in God, for He wants us to be able to return to our first beginning. Moses built the house, but did not complete it, left it and went away. Then the Lord, by His Spirit, raised up a choir of prophets. And they built on the foundation of Moses, but they could not complete the house and they also left it and went away. And all of them, being clothed with the Spirit, saw that the wound was incurable, and that no creation was able to heal it, but only the Only Begotten Son, the very Wisdom of the Father and His Image, who in His Image created every rational creature. For they knew that the Savior is a great physician, and they gathered together and began to pray for their members, that is, for us, exclaiming and saying: Is there no balm in Gilead? isn't there a doctor there? Why is there no healing for the daughter of my people? (Jer.8:22). They treated... but she was not healed; leave... and let us each go to his own land (Jer. 51:9). But the Lord, in His abundant and undeceitful love, came to us, speaking through His saints: Son of man, make for yourself vessels of captivity (Ezek. 12:3). And He, being the image of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but he humbled himself, taking on the form of a servant... and becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:6-11). And now, beloved, let this word be clear to you, that the generosity of the Father did not spare His Only Begotten for our sake, but He delivered Him up for the salvation of us all (Rom. 8:32), He gave Himself for our sins (Gal. 1:4), and our iniquities humbled Him, and by His stripes we were healed (Isa. 53:5), and by the word of His power He gathered us from all countries, from the ends of the earth to the other end, and brought about the resurrection of our minds, and the remission of our sins, and taught us that we are members of one another. I pray you, brethren, understand this great providence, that He was tempted as we are in all things, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). And each of the rational creatures, for whose sake the Savior primarily came, must examine His pattern and know its own mind, and distinguish between good and bad, in order to become free through His coming. For all who have received liberation through His Providence are called servants of God. And this is not yet perfect, but for its time it is righteousness, and it leads to adoption. And our Savior, Jesus, knew that they were drawing near to receive the Spirit of Adoption, and that they knew Him, having been taught by the Holy Spirit. He told them: “I no longer call you servants, but brothers and friends, because everything that the Father taught me I have revealed to you and taught you” (John 15:15). Therefore, having gained boldness in their minds, since they knew themselves and their mental essence, the apostles raised their voices and said: “Even if we knew You in the flesh, now we no longer know You so” (2 Cor. 5:16). And they received the Spirit of adoption and exclaimed, saying: “We did not receive the spirit of slavery again into fear, but we received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry: “Abba, Father!” (Rom.8:15). From now on, O God, we know that You have granted us that we are children... and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). But let this word be made clear to you, beloved. If someone does not prepare his own correction and does not work with all his might, let him know that for him the coming of the Savior will be a judgment. For for some it is a tasting of death leading to death, for others it is a tasting of life leading to life (2 Cor. 2:16). For this one is destined for the fall and rebellion of many in Israel and for the subject of controversy (Luke 2:34). I beg you, beloved, in the name of Jesus Christ: do not neglect your salvation, but let each of you tear your heart, and not your clothes (Joel 2:13), fearing lest we wear this monastic dress in vain and prepare for our own judgment. For now the time is near when the deeds of each of us will be tested. Much more could be written to you about what I am saying. But it is said: Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be even wiser (Proverbs 9:9). I greet you all, from small to great. And may the God of peace protect you all, beloved. Amen. A reasonable man, who has prepared himself for liberation by the coming of Jesus, knows himself in his intelligent essence. For the one who knows himself knows the plans of the Creator and everything that He does with His creatures. Heartily, beloved in the Lord, our fellow members and joint heirs with the saints, I beg you in the name of Christ Jesus, that the spirit of discernment may be given to you from the Lord, so that you may feel and know how great the love that I have for you: not physical love, but spiritual love, the love of faith. As for your bodily names, there is no need to write them to you, because these are temporary names. If a person knows his true name, he will see the name of truth. Therefore, while Jacob wrestled all night long with the Angel, his name still remained Jacob, but when morning came, his name was given Israel, which means “the mind that sees God” (Gen. 32:24-30). I suppose you are not unaware that the enemies of virtues are constantly plotting against the truth. And therefore, it was not the only time that the Lord visited His creatures, but from the beginning there were people who were ready to go to their Creator, drawn by the Law of His Covenant, which was planted in them and which taught them to worship the Creator as it should be. But due to the spread of infirmity, due to the heaviness of the flesh and bad cares, the law implanted in man withered, and spiritual feelings weakened, so that people could no longer find themselves as they truly are, according to their creation, that is, their immortal essence, which should not disintegrate along with the body; and therefore their essence could not be liberated by its own righteousness. For this reason, the Lord dealt with them in His bounty, giving them the written Law to teach them to worship the Father as they should. God is One, or, let's say: the Unity of the Intelligent Essence. You should understand, beloved, that in any place where there is no agreement, people bring upon themselves wars and initiate litigation among themselves. And the Creator saw that their wound had become too severe and needed the action of a doctor. And Christ is their Creator Himself, and He Himself heals them, and He sends His forerunners before His face. We are not afraid to say about Moses the Lawgiver that he is one of His forerunners, and that the same Spirit that was with Moses acted in the choir of saints, and they all prayed for the Only Begotten Son of God. And John was one of those who went before Him; For this reason, the law and the prophets existed right up to John, because the Kingdom of God is needed (accepted with need), and those in need delight it (Matthew 11:12). And, being clothed with the Spirit, they saw that not a single creature was able to heal that great wound, but only the generosity of God, in other words, His Only Begotten Son, whom He sent for the salvation of the world; for He is the great Physician who is able to heal this wound. And they asked God, and the Father of creation, in His generosity, did not spare His only begotten Son for the sake of our salvation, but gave Him up for us all and for our iniquities (Rom. 8:32). And He made Himself of no reputation (Phil.2:7), and by His stripes we were all healed (Is.53:5). And by the word of His power He gathered us from all countries, from one end of the world to the other, and lifted up our hearts from the earth, and taught us that we are members of one another (Eph. 4:25). I beseech you, my beloved in the Lord: understand that Scripture is the commandment of the Lord. For the great thing is for us to understand the Form which Jesus took on for our sake, for He became in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). And therefore it is right that we should be freed by His coming, for by His foolishness He made us wise, and by His poverty He enriched us, and by His weakness He strengthened us, and He imparted to us all the Resurrection, having crushed Him who had the power of death (Heb. 2:14). And we should also stop asking Jesus for our bodily needs. The coming of Jesus helps us to do what is good until we have crushed all our vices. And then Jesus will tell us: I no longer call you servants... but I have called you friends (John 15:15). And the apostles, when they reached the point of receiving the Spirit of Adoption, learned from the Holy Spirit to worship the Father as they should. To me, the poor prisoner of Jesus, this time to which we have come has brought joy, and sorrow, and weeping. For many in our generation have put on the robe of faith, but have denied its power. And for those who have prepared themselves for liberation by the coming of Jesus—for those I rejoice. But for those who do their deeds as if in the name of Jesus, but at the same time do the will of their hearts and their flesh—for those I grieve. And for those who saw how long the time was, and their hearts failed within them, and they took off the robe of faith and became like wild beasts—for them I weep. Know that for such the coming of Jesus turns into a great Judgment. But you, beloved, know yourself in order to know your time, and prepare to offer yourselves as a sacrifice pleasing to God. Truly, my beloved in the Lord - for I write to you as men of understanding who can know themselves - you know that he who knows himself knows God; and he who knows God also knows the good deeds that He does to His creatures. Let this word be clear to you that this is not a carnal love that I have for you, but a spiritual love of faith, for we glorify God in the council of His saints (Ps. 88:8). Prepare yourself, for you have intercessors in praying to God for your salvation, so that He may bring down into your heart that fire that Jesus came to bring down on earth (Luke 12:49), and you could exercise your hearts and feelings so that you know how to distinguish good from evil, right from left, real from false. Jesus knew that the devil takes his power from the things of this world, and He called His disciples and told them: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19), and: Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things (Matthew 6:34). Truly, my beloved, you know: when the wind is favorable, the feeder gets cold; but with a headwind and a stormy wind - that’s when the price of the helmsman is known. So know what kind of time we have come to. Much more could be said about everything that concerns the word of freedom. But give instruction to a wise man, and he will be even wiser (Proverbs 9:9). I salute you, from the least to the greatest, in the Lord. Amen. Anthony to all his dear brothers: rejoice in the Lord! Members of the Church, I will never tire of remembering you. I want you to know that my love for you is not physical love, but spiritual love, the love of faith. For physical friendship does not have firmness and constancy, and alien winds shake it. Anyone who fears God and keeps His commandments is a servant of God. And in that service there is no perfection, but only justice, which leads to adoption. For this reason, the prophets, and the apostles, and all the saints whom God chose, entrusting them with the apostolic preaching, by the mercy of God the Father became captives in Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:1). For the Apostle Paul says: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle (Rom. 1:1), - therefore the written Law acts in us in a kind of good slavery until we subdue every passion and achieve perfection in the service of virtue through this apostolic calling. For if a person approaches grace, then Jesus will say to him: I no longer call you servants... but I have called you My friends and My brothers, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father” (John 15:15). For those who drew near and were taught by the Holy Spirit knew themselves according to their mental essence. And in that knowledge of themselves they exclaimed and said: Because we did not receive the spirit of slavery to live again in fear, but we received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry: “Abba, Father!” (Rom.8:15), - we can know what the Lord has given us: if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Rom.8:17). My dear brothers and joint heirs with the saints, all virtues are not alien to you, but they are all yours, if you are not under sin in this carnal life, but are open before God. For the Spirit will not enter the soul of one whose heart is defiled, nor into the body that sins. He is a holy force, not involved in any lies. Truly, my beloved, I write to you as men of understanding who can know themselves. For he who knows himself knows God, and he who knows God is worthy to serve Him as he should. My beloved in the Lord, know yourselves. For those who know themselves know their time, and whoever knows their time is able to stand firm and not be shaken by foreign tongues. For regarding Arius, who rebelled in Alexandria and uttered absurd words about the Only Begotten, attributing a beginning to the Beginningless and an end to the One Who is ineffable among men, and movement to the One Who is motionless, I will say that if man sins against man, they will pray to God for him; If a person sins against the Lord, then who will intercede for him? (1 Samuel 2:25). This man took upon himself a difficult task and an incurable ulcer. For if such a one knew himself, his tongue would not express what he has no knowledge of. But it is clear that he did not know himself. Anthony writes to his dear children, Holy Israel, according to their intelligent being. There is no need to name your bodily names, which pass away, for you are children of Israel. True, my children, the love that I have for you is not carnal love, but spiritual love, the love of faith. And therefore I do not tire of praying to my God for you, so that it may be given to you to know the mercy that He has done for you. For it was not the only time that the Lord visited His creatures, but from the foundation of the world He has provided for His creatures, and in each generation He awakens each one with favorable circumstances and grace. So, my children, do not neglect to cry to the Lord day and night, urging the bounty of the Father, and with His bounty He will send you help from Heaven, teaching you until you know what is good for you. Verily, my children, we are the inhabitants of our death and lodgers in the house of the thief, and are shackled in the shackles of death. And therefore do not let your eyes sleep, nor your eyelids slumber (Ps. 132:4), so that you can sacrifice yourself to God in all holiness, which no one can inherit without sanctification. Truly, my beloved in the Lord, let this word be clear to you: do good, and in this way you will comfort all the saints and bring joy to the service of the angels and joy to the coming of Jesus, for until this hour they had no peace in caring for us. You will also bring joy to me, a poor beggar who lives in this meager dwelling, and to my soul. Truly, my children, our weakness and humiliation in which we find ourselves is grief for all the saints, and they cry and groan for us before the Creator of all. And for this reason, the Lord Almighty is angry at our evil deeds because of the groaning of the saints. And, on the contrary, when we improve in righteousness, we bring joy to the people of the saints, and they earnestly pray and rejoice before our Creator. And He Himself, the Creator of all, rejoices in our deeds according to the testimony of His saints and rewards us with the gifts of His mercy beyond all measure. So, know that the Lord always loves His creatures - and their being is immortal and should not be destroyed along with the body - and He saw how this intelligent nature descended into the abyss along with the body, and died with it, and the Law of the Covenant implanted in man dried up. And in His goodness He visited the human race with Moses. And Moses laid the foundation of the house of truth, and wanted to heal the great wound, and wanted to return people to the first unity, and could not do this, and withdrew from them. Then the choir of prophets began to build on the foundation of Moses, and they were unable to heal the great wound of their members. And seeing that their strength was exhausted, all the nations of the saints gathered together again and offered a prayer to the Creator, and said: Is there no balm in Gilead? isn't there a doctor there? Why is there no healing for the daughter of my people? ( Jer.8:22 ) O Lord, we healed Babylon, but it was not healed; leave him, and let us each go to his own land (Jer. 51:9). And since all the saints asked for the goodness of the Father, that is, His Only Begotten Son, because if He Himself had not descended from Heaven, none of the creations could have healed that great human wound, therefore the Father in His goodness spoke and said: Son of man, make for yourself vessels of captivity and go into captivity (Ezek. 12:3; Jer. 46:19). And the Father did not spare His only begotten Son for the salvation of us all, but gave Him up for our sins (Rom. 8:32). For our iniquities humbled Him, and by His stripes we were all healed (Isa. 53:5) and He gathered us from all the ends of the earth, raising our minds from the earth and teaching us that we are members of one another (Eph. 4:25). Beware, my children, lest the word of Paul be fulfilled on us, and we become having an image of godliness, but denying the power thereof (2 Tim. 3:5). Let each of you tear his heart, and cry out before Him, and say: What will I render to the Lord for all the good things that He has given me? (Ps. 115:3). And I am still afraid, my children, that the word may not be fulfilled on us: What good is it in my blood if I ever descend into decay? (Ps.29:10). Truly, my children, I speak to you as to wise people who are able to understand what I say, and behold, I testify to you: unless each of you hates the whole nature of earthly possessions and renounces it and all its works with all his heart, and does not stretch out the hand of his heart to Heaven, to the Father of all, he will not be saved. If he does what I said, the Lord will have mercy on him for his work and give him that invisible fire, which will burn out everything unclean in him, and our initial spirit will be purified; and then the Holy Spirit will dwell in us, and Jesus will dwell with us, and so we can worship God as we should. But while we have peace with all the natures of this world, we are enemies of God, and His angels, and all His saints. And therefore, my beloved, I beg you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ - do not neglect your salvation, so that this transitory life does not deprive you of eternal life, and the skin of your corruptible body does not take away from you the Kingdom of ineffable light, and the sinful bench does not replace the angelic thrones of judgment for you. Truly, my children, my heart is in amazement, and my spirit is in horror, that we all enjoy ourselves like drunkards with new wine, for each of us sold himself into slavery according to his free will, and we became slaves of our free choice, and we do not want to raise our eyes to Heaven to seek the glory of heaven and the works of all the saints and to follow in their footsteps. Understand, then, that everything, whether the saints of Heaven, or Angels, or Archangels, or Thrones, or Powers, or Principalities, or Cherubim, or Seraphim, or the sun, or the moon, or the forefathers, or the apostles, or the devil, or Satan, or evil spirits, or the powers of the air, or (not to say otherwise) male or female, - at the beginning of creation, everyone came from one - everything except the all-perfect and blessed Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! And because of the evil actions of some, it was required that God give them names according to their deeds. And to those who succeeded the most, He bestowed more abundant glory. Anthony - greetings to all my dear brothers in Arsinoe and its environs, and to everyone who is with you. All of you who have prepared yourselves to go to God, I greet you in the Lord, beloved, from the least to the greatest, husbands and wives, the holy children of Israel according to your intelligent being. Truly, my children, a great blessing has come to you, for great is the mercy that has come upon you in your generation. And it becomes you, for the sake of Him who has visited you, not to slacken in your zeal until you have offered yourself as a sacrifice to God in all holiness, without which no one can enter into the inheritance. Truly, my beloved, it is a great thing for you to ask to understand that intelligent essence in which there is neither man nor woman, but which is immortal, having a beginning but no end. And you should know that she too fell into humiliation and great shame, which overtook us all; and yet she is an immortal essence that should not decay along with the body. And therefore God saw that her wound was incurable. Since it was so difficult, He visited the human race in His mercy and, in His goodness, after the lapse of time, He sent them the Law, giving them help through Moses the Lawgiver. And Moses laid the foundation for them of the house of Truth, and wanted to heal that great wound, and could not complete the building of the house. And so, the choir of saints gathered again and began to pray for the mercy of the Father for our Savior, so that He would come to us to save us all. For He is our great and faithful High Priest and true Physician, Who has the power to heal this great wound. So, according to the will of the Father, He drained Himself of His glory. He was God and took the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7-8), and gave Himself for our sins, and our iniquities humbled Him, and by His stripes we were all healed (Is. 53:5). So, my dear children in the Lord, I want you to know that because of our madness He took on the form of madness, and because of our weakness - the image of weakness, and because of our poverty - the image of poverty, and because of our death He took on the form of a mortal, and in all this He remained for our sake. Truly, my beloved in the Lord, it is not fitting for us to let our eyes sleep and our eyelids slumber (Ps. 131:4), but let us pray and compel the goodness of the Father until He has mercy on us; and thus we will bring comfort to the coming of Jesus and strength to the ministry of the saints who labor for us on earth during our neglect, and excite them to zeal to help us in our time of affliction. So that both he who sows and he who reaps will rejoice together (John 4:36). I want you to know, my children, the great grief with which I grieve for you when I see what great confusion is coming to us, and I think about the great work of the saints and about their groaning, which they always pour out before God for us, since they see all the work of their Creator, and all the evil plans of the devil and his servants, and all the evil that they always plot for our destruction, for their destiny is to be in hell, and therefore they want us to perish with them and be with the multitude. Truly, my beloved in the Lord, I speak to you as to wise people, and you can know all the benefits of our Creator, performed for us, which are given to us by open or secret petition. For we were called rational, but we put on the mind of foolish creatures. Don't you know what the wiles and tricks of the devil are? Evil spirits envy us; As soon as they discover that we have tried to see our own shame and have found a way to escape from them and from their deeds that they do to us together, and that we are not only trying to reject their evil advice that they sow in us, but that many of us are laughing at their machinations, then they will know the condescension of our Creator, that in this world He sentenced them to death and prepared for them Gehenna as an inheritance for their negligence. I want you to know, my children, that I do not cease to pray to God for you day and night, so that He will open the eyes of your heart to you, and you could see the many secret intrigues that evil spirits pour out on us every day in these current days. I want the Lord to give you a knowing heart and a spirit of discernment, so that you can offer your hearts as a pure sacrifice before the Father, in great holiness, without blemish. Truly, my children, they constantly envy us with their evil advice, and secret persecution, and subtle malice, and blasphemous thoughts; and they sow their betrayals into our hearts every day, and their heartfelt inertia, and the darkness of their sorrows, which they bring to us hourly, and their dullness, with which they daily make our hearts dull, and all the anger and mutual insults that they teach us, and self-justification in what we do, and the condemnation that they bring into our hearts, forcing us, when we sit alone, to condemn our neighbors who do not live with us; and the contempt that they plant in our hearts with pride, when we are hard-hearted and despise each other, upsetting each other with cruel words, complaining hourly, blaming others and not ourselves, believing that our misfortunes come from our neighbors, judging and judging what is outside, while our robber is inside, in our house; and disputes and contentions in which we challenge each other until we achieve our goal in order to appear justified in the eyes of others. Evil spirits instill in us zeal for deeds that we are unable to perform, and make us yearn for what is entrusted to us and that is for our benefit. They make us laugh when it's time to cry, and cry when it's time to laugh, and they just constantly lead us astray from the right path. And there are many other tricks with which they turn us into slavery to themselves; now is not the time to describe them all. But when they fill our heart with all these deceptions, and we feed on them, and they become our food, then God condescends to us and visits us to bring us back from our heavy body so that we can leave it. And then the evil deeds that we have committed in our error will be revealed to us in a body subject to punishment; and we will put on this body again - for the Lord in His patience allows this - and for us our last will be worse than our first (Matthew 12:45). Therefore, do not tire of praying for the goodness of the Father, that help may come to you from Him, so that you learn to know what is righteous. Truly I tell you, my children, the vessel in which we dwell is destruction for us and a house full of war. In truth, my children, I tell you that anyone who enjoys according to his own will and submits to his own thoughts, and accepts what is sown in his heart, and delights in it, and believes in his heart that there are some extraordinary chosen secrets in it, and justifies himself in what he does, the soul of such a person is a den of evil spirits inciting him to evil, and his body is a treasure of ungodly secrets that it hides in to yourself; and the power of demons over him is great, because he did not expose them openly before all people. Don't you know that they have more than one way of hunting us that we could recognize and avoid? Investigate, and you will not find such that their sin and iniquity are revealed in a bodily way, for they are bodily invisible; but you should know that we serve as bodies for them, for our soul accepts their abomination and, then, having accepted it, reveals it through the body in which we live. So, my children, let us not give them space, otherwise we will incur the wrath of God, and they will run to their homes and laugh at us. For they know that our destruction comes from our neighbor, and our life also comes from our neighbor. Who has ever seen God and delighted in Him, and kept Him within himself, and did not allow Him to leave him, but helped him - how long does he live in this heavy body? Or who has ever seen a demon in his battle with us, so that he would forestall us and prevent us from doing a good deed, and would attack us in a bodily way, so that we would be afraid of him and run away? For they are hidden, and it is we who make them manifest through our actions. For all of them, in their mental essence, are from one source, but when they fled from God, great diversity arose among them, according to the variety of their actions. And therefore they were given different names according to the action of each of them. So some are called Archangels, others Thrones and Powers, Principalities and Cherubim; these names were given to them when they kept the commands of their Creator. Others who chose the evil path had to be called the devil and Satan because of their evil state; others were called demons, and evil and unclean spirits, and seducing spirits, and the princes of this world. And many species still exist among them. There are those who resisted them in their heavy body in which we live; some of them were called forefathers, others prophets and kings, and priests, and judges, and apostles, and there were many others chosen for their good behavior. And all such names are given to them, men or women, because of the different principles of their activity, but they all come from one source. So, for this reason, he who sins against his neighbor sins against himself; and he who does evil to his neighbor does it to himself; and he who does good to his neighbor does good to himself. Otherwise, who has the power to do evil to God, and is there anyone who could offend Him? Or who could comfort Him, or who could even serve Him? Or who could even bless Him with the blessing He needs, or who is able to honor Him with the honor worthy of Him, or praise Him according to His worth? So, while we are still dressed in this heavy body, let us awaken God within ourselves, reviving each other, and give ourselves over to death for the sake of our souls and for the sake of each other; and if we do this, then the essence of His compassion for us will appear in us. Let us not be selfish, so as not to fall under the power of their changeable power. For he who knows himself knows all people, which is why it is said that He called all things from non-existence into being (Wis. 1:14). This refers to our intelligent nature, which is hidden in our body of corruption, but it did not belong to it originally, and it will be liberated from it. But he who can love himself loves everyone. My dear children, I pray that this will not be hard work for you and that you will not tire of loving one another. Raise up your body, in which you are clothed, and make it an altar, and place all your thoughts on it, and leave all evil advice before the Lord, and lift up the hands of your heart to Him, to the creative Wisdom, and pray to God that He would send down to you His great invisible fire, which would come down from Heaven and burn the altar and everything that is on it; and so that all the priests of Baal, that is, all the resistant actions of the enemy, are afraid and flee from your face, as from the face of Elijah the prophet. And then you will see a cloud over the sea, like the palm of a man, which will bring you spiritual rain, that is, the comfort of the Comforter Spirit (1 Kings 18:38–44). My dear children in the Lord, holy children of Israel, there is no need to bless or call your bodily names, which will pass away. For you are not unaware of the love that is between you and me, not a physical love, but a spiritual love of faith. And therefore I am sure that a great blessing for you is that you have tried to recognize your dishonor and strengthen that invisible essence that will not pass away with the body. And therefore, I think that your grace came in due time. Therefore, let this word be clear to you, so that you do not think that your success and your coming to faith were your own doing, but that some Divine power has always helped you. Strive always to sacrifice yourself to God and bring joy to the power that helps you, and consolation to the Lord at His coming, and to the entire host of saints; also to me, a wretched poor man living in this house of poverty and darkness. Therefore I tell you all this, consoling you and praying that since we are all created from one invisible essence, which has a beginning but has no end, we would love each other with a special love. For all who know themselves know that they are from one immortal essence. I also want you to know that our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Wisdom of the Father. Through Him, all the fullness of all rational nature was created in the image of His Image, and He Himself is the Head of all creation, and His body is the Church (cf. Col. 1:15-18). Therefore we are all members of one another; neither the body of Christ nor the head can say to the foot, “I have no need of you,” but if one member suffers, the whole body is affected and suffers with it (Eph. 4:25; 1 Cor. 12:21, 26-27). But if a member is alienated from the body and is no longer connected to the head, but indulges in the pleasures of its own flesh, this means that its wound is incurable, and that it has forgotten its beginning and its end. And therefore the Father of creation, moved by compassion for this wound of ours, which nothing from creation could heal, but only the mercy of the Father, sent us His only begotten Son, and He, because of our slavery, took upon Himself the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7), and gave Himself for our sins; for our iniquity humbled Him, and by His stripes we were healed (Isa. 53:5). And He gathered us from all lands to resurrect our hearts from the earth and teach us that we are all from one essence and members of each other. Therefore, we must love each other with all our might. For he who loves his neighbor loves God, and he who loves God loves his soul. Let this word be clear to you, my dear children about the Lord, holy children of Israel, and prepare yourself to come to the Lord and sacrifice yourself to the Lord in all the purity that no one can find without purification. Or do you not know, beloved, that the enemies of righteousness are always plotting evil against the truth? And therefore, too, beloved, be careful and do not let your eyes sleep or your eyelids slumber (Ps. 132:4). Cry out to the Lord day and night so that help will come to you from above and direct your hearts and thoughts in Christ. Verily, my children, we have lodged in the house of a robber and are bound by the bonds of death. I tell you truly, beloved, that our carelessness, and our humiliation, and our deviation from the path is a loss not only for us, but a grief for the angels and for all the saints in Christ Jesus. Truly, my children, our humiliation brings grief to them all; and, on the contrary, our salvation and glory bring them joy and consolation. And know that the mercy of the Father does not cease from His first movement, even to this day, to do good for us, so that we do not cause death to ourselves by using the free will with which we were created for evil. Therefore, they guide us at all times, as it is written: The Angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him, and will deliver them (Ps. 33:8). So, my children, I want you to know that from the hour when the movement of God’s love came here, until now, all who turned away from righteousness and acted wickedly are considered children of the devil; and those who are from the devil know this, and therefore they try to change each of us according to their will. For knowing that the devil fell from Heaven because of pride, they first of all attack those who have reached a high level, trying to set them up against each other with pride and vanity. They know that in this way they can cut us off from God, because they know that he who loves his neighbor loves God; and therefore the enemies of righteousness sow discord in our hearts, so that we are filled with great hostility towards each other and cannot tolerate any communication with our neighbor, even at a distance. Truly, my children, I want you to know that there are many who labored in abstinence all their lives, but lack of discernment killed them. Truly, my children, I believe there will be no wonder if, having become careless towards yourself and not discerning your own deeds, you will certainly fall into the hands of the devil when you believe that you are close to God; and when you wait for the light, darkness will overtake you. For what need did Christ have to gird himself with a towel and wash the feet of those below Him, if not to give an example, not to teach those who would turn their first principle to Him? ( John 13:4-17 ). For the beginning of their movement is pride, which came first. And therefore, except through great - with all your heart, and mind, and spirit, and soul, and body - humility, you cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Truly, my children in the Lord, day and night I pray to my Creator, from whom I received the pledge of His Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22), that He would open the eyes of your heart, and you would recognize the love that I have for you, and that He would open the ears of your soul to listen to your troubles. For he who knows his own shame strives again for his high honor; and whoever knows his death knows his eternal life. I speak to you as to wise people, my children; Truly, I am afraid that hunger will overcome you on the way at the place where it is fitting for us to enrich ourselves. I was hoping to see you face to face in the flesh. But I am waiting for the time, and it is close, when we will be able to see face to face the very essence of everyone, when sorrow, and sorrow, and sighing will fly away, and eternal joy will be over everyone’s heads (Is. 35:10). There are many more things I wanted to tell you. But give instruction to a wise man, and he will be even wiser (Proverbs 9:9). I greet you all, my dear children, by name. My children, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, so that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). You see, through His enslavement we were freed, and His weakness strengthened us, and His madness made us wise. Next. By His death He brought our resurrection to earth, so that we could lift up our voice to Heaven and say: But if we knew Christ according to the flesh, now we know it no more... but if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:16-17). Truly, my beloved in the Lord, I tell you things that pertain to the word of freedom by which we have been set free. I have a lot more to tell you, but now is not the time to tell you this. So, I greet you all, my dear children in the Lord, holy children of Israel according to your intelligent essence. Truly, it was fitting for you, who were attracted by the love of the Creator, to seek the salvation of your souls according to the Law of the Covenant placed in us. But due to the increase of wickedness, and the rebellion of evil, and the insatiability of passions, the Law of the Covenant, implanted in our hearts, withered, and the feelings of our souls perished, and therefore we were no longer able to perceive that glorious mental essence due to the death into which we fell. That is why it is written in the Divine Scripture: As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will live (1 Cor. 15:22). Now and henceforth He is the life of every rational creature created by Him in the likeness of His Image, the One Who Himself is the true Wisdom of the Father and the unchangeable Image of the Father (Heb. 1:3). But the essence of the creatures created in His Image is impermanent, for evil entered into us, and in it we died, because it is hostile to the nature of our mental essence. So, through what is alien to nature, we have become a house of darkness, full of war. And I testify to you that we have lost our knowledge of righteousness. Therefore, God our Father saw this illness, that we are no longer able to put on the truth as we should; and therefore in His goodness He came to visit His creatures in the ministry of the saints. I pray to you all in the Lord, beloved, to understand what I write to you, for I love you not with physical love, but with spiritual love, the love of faith. Prepare yourself to go to your Creator, rend your hearts and not your garments (Joel 2:13), and ask yourself: What will I render to the Lord for all His good deeds to me? (Ps. 116:3), Who, even in our local residence and humiliation, remembered us according to His great goodness and His infinite love, and did not repay us according to our sins (Ps. 102:10); Who also commanded the sun to serve us in this house of darkness of ours; He established both the moon and all the stars for our service, commanding them to submit to vanity, which passes away (Rom. 8:20), to strengthen our body. There are also other forces, mysterious forces that He has set to serve us, forces that we do not see with our bodily eyes. So, what will we answer Him on the day of Judgment, or what good did He deprive us of, which He did not create for us? Didn't the prophets die for us? Didn't the apostles endure persecution for our sake? Or did not His Beloved Son die for us all? And now we must prepare ourselves to come to our Creator in holiness. For the Creator saw that none of His creatures, not even the saints, could heal the great wound in our members. Therefore, being the Father of creation, He knew the weakness of all their minds and showed them mercy out of His great love, and did not spare His Only Begotten Son for the salvation of us all, but gave Him up for our sins (Rom. 8:32). And our iniquities humbled Him, and by His stripes we were healed (Is. 53:5). And He gathered us from all the ends of the earth by the word of His power, to bring about the resurrection of our minds from the earth, teaching us that we are members of one another (Eph. 4:25). Therefore, as we approach our Creator, we must exercise our minds and feelings in order to understand the difference between good and evil and to know all the good deeds of Jesus at His coming, just as He became, like us, tempted in all things, except sin (Heb. 4:15). But because of our great wickedness and the rebellion of evil, and our deplorable fickleness, the coming of Jesus became for some foolishness, and for others a stumbling block, but for others a gain, for some wisdom and power, for some resurrection and life (1 Cor. 1:23-24). And let it be known to you that His coming became a judgment for the whole world, for it is said that the days are coming, and they will no longer teach one another, brother to brother, and say: “Know the Lord,” for everyone themselves will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord (Jer. 31:34), for I will cause My name to be preached in all the earth (Rom. 9:17); and therefore every mouth is stopped, and the whole world becomes guilty before God (Rom. 3:19), for they, having known God, did not glorify Him as their Creator (Rom. 1:21) due to their foolishness, because of which they could not perceive His wisdom, but each of us, of our own free will, gave ourselves over to evil and became a slave to it. And therefore Jesus emptied Himself of His Glory, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7), so that His slavery would make us free. And we became foolish, and in our foolishness we committed all kinds of iniquity; and He took on the form of madness, so that through His madness we might become wise. And we became poor, but in our poverty there was no righteousness left; and therefore He took on the form of poverty, so that by His poverty He might make us rich in wisdom and understanding (2 Cor. 8:9). And not only. But He took on the image of our weakness, so that He might strengthen us through His weakness. And He became obedient to the Father in everything, even to the point of death, even death on the cross (Phil. 2:8), so that by His death He was able to accomplish the resurrection of us all, crushing the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14). And if, truly, we have been freed by His coming, it is fitting for us to become disciples of Jesus and in Him to receive the Divine inheritance. Truly, my dear children in the Lord, having prepared ourselves to be sacrificed to God in holiness, we have not hidden anything necessary from you, but we testify to you that we have seen how the enemies of righteousness always plot evil against the truth. And about this also advice was given to us; that he who is born according to the flesh will always persecute him who is born according to the Spirit (Gal. 4:29), and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). Therefore, Jesus, knowing all the sorrows and temptations that would come to the apostles in the world, knowing also that with their patience they would crush all the power of the enemy, that is, idolatry, comforted them and said: In the world you will have sorrow; but take heart: I have overcome the world (John 16:33). And He taught them, saying: “Do not be afraid of the world, for all the suffering in the world is worth nothing in comparison with the glory that will be revealed (Rom. 8:18). If they persecuted the prophets who were before you, they will persecute you too (Matt. 5:12; John 15:20). If they hate Me, they will hate you (John 15:18). But do not be afraid, for your patience will crush all the power of the enemy (Luke 21:19).” I have a lot more to tell you about everything that relates to the word freedom, with which we have become free. But give instruction to a wise man, and he will be even wiser (Proverbs 9:9). You and I still need mutual consolation in our wretched words. But when the mind reaches true understanding, it no longer needs incorrect bodily speech. But I rejoice over all of you, true children of Israel according to your intelligent essence. For, first of all, a reasonable person must know himself, and then learn about God and about all the bounties that His mercy shows to us; and then realize that all sin and guilt are alien to the nature of our mental essence. For our Creator, seeing that by our free choice we have acquired all these unnatural things in which we die, and moved by compassion for us, in His goodness wished to return us to that beginning without end, and visited His creatures, not sparing Himself for the salvation of us all. He gave Himself for our sins (Gal.1:4), and our iniquities humbled Him, but by His stripes we were healed (Is.53:5). And by the word of His power He gathered us from all nations, from one end of the world to the other, and taught us that we are members of one another (Eph. 4:25). And therefore, if we have truly prepared for liberation through His coming, let us test ourselves to see what we, as reasonable people, can render to the Lord who has done good to us (Ps. 116:3). And I, too, a wretched poor man, writing you this message, awakened from the sleep of death, spent most of my time on earth crying and sobbing, and saying: What will I render to the Lord for all His good deeds to me? (Ps. 115:3). For there is nothing that we are deprived of from Him that He has not accomplished for us in our misery. He sent prophets to prophesy and His apostles to preach the Gospel to us. And He commanded the greatest of all His wills, His Only Begotten Son, to take the form of a servant for our sake. So, I beg you, my beloved in the Lord, joint heirs with the saints, awaken your minds to the fear of God. For let this word be clear to you: John, the Forerunner of the Lord, baptized us for the remission of sins, but by the Spirit we are sanctified in Christ. Let us prepare to purify the feelings of our mind in all holiness, so that we may become pure through the Baptism of Jesus, and thus be able to offer ourselves as a sacrifice to God. And this Comforter Spirit comforts us and leads us, and returns us to our beginning, so that our inheritance and the power of His comforting Spirit may be revealed. Therefore all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no longer... slave or free; there is neither male nor female (Gal.3:27–28). And every bodily tongue becomes powerless at the time when they receive the holy inheritance and worship the Father, as befits, in spirit and truth (John 4:24). And let this word be clear to you; don't look for a future Judgment at that coming of Jesus. For at His coming there is already judgment for us all. So know that the saints and righteous, clothed with the Spirit, constantly pray for us, so that we humble ourselves before God and again put on the clothes that we had previously taken off, our mental essence. For often this voice came from God the Father to all those who were clothed with the Spirit, saying to them: Comfort, comfort my people, says God to the priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem (Isa. 40:1-2). For God always visits His creatures and shows them His mercy. Truly, my beloved, I can tell you much more about the Word of truth by which we have been set free. But, as it is said, give instruction to a wise man, and he will be even wiser (Proverbs 9:9). May the God of peace give you grace and the Spirit of discernment, so that you may know that what I write to you is the will of the Lord. And may the All-Merciful Lord keep you in holiness until your last breath. I always pray to God for the salvation of all of you, my beloved in the Lord. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Wed. story from Apothegmatus: “Three elders used to come to Blessed Anthony every year. Two of them asked him about his thoughts and the salvation of his soul; the third remained completely silent. After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him: “You have been here for a long time and haven’t asked me anything!” He answered: “One thing is enough for me, father: to look at you.” - Alpha, Abba Anthony 27. J-C. Gui, p.21. This monument, Apophthegmata Patrum (Migne, Patrologia Graeca, LXV), has enjoyed enormous research and reading popularity in Europe in recent decades. Among the latest translations we will indicate English: Sayings of the Desert Fathers, transl. by Sister Benedicta Ward, Mowbrays 1975; French: Paroles des anciens. Apophtegmes des peres du peres du desert. Traduits et presentes par Jean-Claude Guy. Editions du Seuil, 1976. (see bib.) and Italian: I padri del deserto. Detti, a cura di L. Mortari, Roma 1972. Derwas J. Chitty, D.D. The Desert a City. Basic Blackwell, Oxford, 1966 Afanasy. Life of Anthony, 15 (PG XXVI, 865B) Message III. Wed: John 15:5, Rom.8:15 Charles Wesley, Wrestling Jacob Apothegmata in alphabetical order. Alpha. Avva Anthony, 32 (PG LXV, 85C) References to the books of Holy Scripture are given according to the Synodal and Church Slavonic translations. Quotations in the Messages are often free, and in such cases we follow the original. (Note per.) You might be interested in: