Беседа 24. О том, что нет пользы в телесных трудах, которые не сопровождаются мыслительной деятельностью, 975 если человек полностью возлагает на них надежду пути и мыслит и думает только о них. 976

1. Corporal service, accompanied by idleness of thought, is vain and useless, if the word of Blessed Mark is true: “There are many who work for righteousness, but with evil thoughts they destroy their beautiful labors.” 977 For, in any case, the one whose mind is deprived of secret service 978 or constant thought 979 about knowledge and reflection, his thoughts are idle. 980 2. For in mental service the body does not remain without labor, even if it is very weak, since the labor of the mind dries up and exhausts the body, making it like dry wood. For the heat is enough for him, from the flame of joy with which the body is constantly engulfed. And through that sweet mental suffering about God and through that life-giving sorrow about which the Apostle spoke, 981 are born in the mind, in accordance with various reflections, sorrow for God, or joy about Him, and a heart immersed in hope that does not dry up in it. 982 With their heat and their strength, suffering and joy burn, scorch and dry out the body, and the blood spreads abundantly through the veins and gives heat, for the flame of the movements of the mind warms the entire composition due to the heat of secret service. at every moment it causes some wonderful change, giving joy, or, delivering severe suffering to the soul and body; it is to stay awake night and day in concern for salvation, to pray fervently and zealously bring petitions to God for this, with a flaming heart and an undistracted thought. 983 3. With such changes, what body will be iron, so as not to perish and burn and not become like a shadow because of its weakness? So, just as the body is withered and weakened by these divine changes, so the soul is renewed and prospered day by day by its ascent 984 to God through its spiritual knowledge. 4. The extraordinary nature and benefits 985 of this sweet work are known to those who spent all the days of their lives in this service. 5. For the constant limitation of hope, which is only to external service, is to the immature and Pharisee 986 way of thinking of those who are proud of their fasts, their tithes and the length of their prayers, according to the word of our Lord, 987 while inside they do not have the thought of knowledge or the right thought about God, 988 in order to decorate their insides with an increase in hope. Lit. “which are accomplished without the service of thinking.” The “ministry of thinking” (“mental activity”) refers primarily to prayer and meditation on God. Lit. “only by them does he limit the movement of thought in his service and his thought.” Wed. Mark the Ascetic. About spiritual law 170. Sire. pulhana kasia ("secret service") seems to correspond to the Greek kripte melete ("secret teaching", "secret care"). The latter term in the Byzantine ascetic tradition meant the inner prayer of the mind, in particular the Jesus Prayer. At Rev. Isaac it means not only prayer, but also an exercise in reading the Holy Scriptures. Lit. "constancy of thought." Lit. "thoughts are free for the idle." Var. “which it constantly looks at.” Lit. "and a movement that does not deviate." Lit. “wholesome deliciousness.” Lit. "childish and Jewish." Wed. Matthew 6:16; 21:13; 21:23. Lit. "right thought, towards God." You might be interested in: