Авва Исаак Сирский

Our Holy Father Isaac of Syria, teaching on prayer. 1. Force yourself to the unceasing work of prayer before God, in your heart bearing a pure thought, filled with tenderness, and God will keep your mind from unclean and nasty thoughts 454. 2. Try to enter your inner cage and you will see the heavenly cage. Both the first and the second are one: you enter both with one entrance. The ladder to the Heavenly Kingdom is within you: it exists mysteriously in your soul. Immerse yourself in yourself from sin, and you will find in yourself the steps with which you can ascend 455. 3. The beginning of darkness of the mind, the first sign of darkness seen in the soul, consists of laziness towards the service of God and prayer. There is no other way to seduce the soul if it does not first abandon this feat of its own. When she is deprived of God's help: then she conveniently falls into the hands of her adversaries 456. 4. Do not be unreasonable in your requests, so as not to anger God with your unreasonableness. Be wise in your prayer, so that you may be worthy of glorious gifts. Ask for valuable things from Him who is free from stinginess, and you will receive valuable things from Him, according to your reasonable desire. Solomon asked for wisdom, and with it he received an earthly kingdom, because he asked wisely from the Great King. Elisha asked for greater grace of the Spirit in comparison with that which his teacher had, and his request did not remain unfulfilled. He who asks for something insignificant from the King degrades his honor. The Israelites asked for nothing, and the wrath of God came upon them; They did not engage in contemplation of the works of God and His terrible miracles, but asked for satisfaction of the lusts of the womb: “I still have meat in their mouths, the wrath of God has come upon her” (Ps. 77:30-31) 457. 5. Bring your petitions to God in accordance with His greatness, so that your dignity will be exalted before Him, and He will rejoice over you. If someone asks the king for a small amount of dirt, he will not only dishonor himself with the insignificance of the request, as having shown great foolishness, but he will also insult the king with his request. This is what the one who asks for something earthly in prayer does. Angels and Archangels - these nobles of the Heavenly King - look at you during your prayer, listening to what you ask from their Lord: they are surprised and rejoice when they see that one made of earth, leaving his flesh, asks for heavenly things; On the contrary, they are upset at the one who, having left heavenly things, asks for his own dirt 458. 6. Do not ask God for that which He Himself gives us without our asking, according to His Providence, which gives not only to His own and beloved, but also to strangers the knowledge of Him. “When you pray,” He says, “do not say too much, as the pagans do” (Matthew 6:7). “The pagans seek carnal things, but you do not worry about what you eat, or what you drink, or what you put on: for your Heavenly Father knows that you demand all of these” (Matthew 6:32, 25, 8). The son does not ask his father for bread, but desires to receive everything that is important and valuable in the father's house. Due to the weakness of the human mind, the Lord commanded to ask for daily bread. Look, what is commanded to those who are perfect in mind and healthy in soul: leaving care for food, drink and clothing, if God provides for dumb animals, for birds, for the most inanimate creatures: then He provides for us incomparably more. God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33) 459. 7. If you pray to God for something, and He is slow to hear you, do not grieve about it. You are no smarter than God. This is done to you either because you are unworthy to receive what you ask for, or because the ways of your heart are not consistent, but contrary to what you ask for, or because you have not yet reached the measure that is necessary in order to accept the gift you ask for. We should not prematurely seek what is characteristic of great prosperity, so that the gift of God, due to the speed of its acceptance, is not neglected. Everything that is conveniently achieved is quickly lost. However, everything acquired with heart disease is carefully stored 460. 8. If your deeds are not pleasing to God, then do not ask Him for great gifts, so as not to end up in the position of a person who tempts God. Your prayer must be consistent with your life. It is impossible for one bound by earthly things to seek heavenly things. It is impossible for one who practices the world to ask for the Divine. The desire of every person is expressed by his activity. Whatever his efforts are directed towards, he must strive for that in prayer. He who desires great things should not practice the unimportant 461. 9. He who keeps his mouth from speaking evil keeps his heart from passions. He who cleanses his heart from passions sees the Lord every hour 462. The one whose thoughts (teachings) 463 are always in God drives away demons from himself and eradicates the seed of their malice. The heart of the one who cultivates his soul every hour is rejoiced by revelations. He who concentrates the vision of his mind within himself sees in himself the dawn of the Spirit. He who is disgusted by all soaring 464 sees his Lord inside his heart. If you love the purity with which the Lord of all is seen, then do not allow yourself any gossip and slander, do not even allow yourself to listen to anyone judging or condemning the brethren 465. 10. Heaven is within you if you are pure; in yourself you will see the Angels and their light, and with them and in them their Lord 466. 11. The treasure of the humble is within him: it is the Lord 467. 12. Passions are uprooted and driven away by constant teaching about God: this is the sword that kills them 468. 13. He who wishes to see the Lord within himself tries to purify his heart by constant remembrance of God (memory of God), thus with his mind, due to the brightness of his eyes, he will continually see the Lord. What happens to a fish taken out of water also happens to a mind that has abandoned the remembrance of God and wanders in the memories of this world. To the extent that a person withdraws from contact with people, he is granted free access to God in his mind. To the extent that he cuts off the consolation of this world from himself, to the extent that he is made worthy of the joy of God in the Holy Spirit. Fish die from lack of water: this is how the spiritual movements born from God die in the heart of a monk, when the monk often lives and treats the laity 469. 14. Fearful to demons, beloved to God and His Angels is the one who, with burning jealousy day and night, seeks God in his heart and eradicates from it the excuses 470 sown by the enemy 471. 15. The fatherland (native country) of the pure in soul is within him. The sun shining there is the light of the Holy Trinity. The air that the inhabitants breathe is the Comforter, the All-Holy Spirit. Co-occupants are holy ethereal beings. Their life, joy and gladness is Christ, Light from the Light of the Father. Such a one is amused by the vision of his soul and is amazed at his beauty, which is a hundred times brighter than the light of the sun. This is Jerusalem and the Kingdom of God, hidden within us according to the word of the Lord (Luke 17:21). This country is a cloud of God’s glory, into which only the pure in heart will enter to see the face of their Master and be illuminated by a ray of His light in their spirit (Luke 9:34) 472. 16. One who gives himself over to rage and anger, a lover of glory, a covetous person, a glutton, who often hangs out in the company of the laity, who wants his will to be done in everything, a hot-tempered person, filled with passions - all of these are in confusion, as if fighting at night in impenetrable darkness, being outside the land of life and light. That country was given over to the merciful, the humble, who purified their hearts 473. 17. A person cannot see the beauty hidden within him before he despises all beauty outside himself and abhors it. He cannot sincerely look to God until he completely renounces the world. The Lord will make wise the one who humiliates and humbles himself. He who recognizes himself as wise will fall away from the wisdom of God 474. 18. To the extent that the mind avoids verbosity, it becomes enlightened in the analysis of thoughts. From verbosity, even the strongest mind loses this ability. 19. He who becomes poor in worldly matters will become rich in God, but a friend of the rich will become poor in matters of God. When a chaste, humble-minded person, who abhors insolence, who has expelled rage from his heart, stands up to pray; then he sees - I believe - in his soul the light of the Holy Spirit, feels a surge of joy in himself in the brightness of the radiance of His light, is delighted by the vision of His glory and his change in its likeness (2 Cor. 3:18) 475. This happened to the holy youth, George, while he was performing the evening rule 476. 20. Those who sit in darkness! lift up your heads, let your faces be illuminated with light. Come out of the realm of the passions of this world, and the Light will come to meet you, emanating from the Father, and will command the ministers of His sacraments to loosen your bonds, so that you can walk in His footsteps to the Father (John 11:44). Woe to us: what are we bound by! from whom are they separated! so separated that we cannot see His glory! Oh, that our bonds would be broken! Oh, that we would seek and find our God 477. 21. He who is devoted to vanity and amusement with soul and body is a fornicator; one who approves of his behavior and takes part in such behavior is an adulterer; one who is in communication with him (out of man-pleasing) is an idolater 478. 22. Any prayer in which the body does not labor and the heart does not come into contrition is recognized as unripe fruit: because such prayer is without a soul 479. 23. Be careful not to abandon the work of God for the sake of showing partiality to man 480. 24. A certain Father said: “I am surprised to hear that others can do handicrafts in their cells and complete their rule together without lapse or embarrassment.” To this he added words worthy of note: “Truly I say: if I go for water, then I already feel a disorder in my life and in the order adopted for it; This already induces a darkness that hinders the action of my prudence” 481. 25. Any alms, or love, or mercy, or anything else, done apparently for the sake of God, but preventing your silence, turning your eye to the world, plunging you into care, tearing you away from the remembrance of God, cutting off your prayers, introducing into you indignation and fickleness of thoughts, forbidding you from edifying yourself with Divine reading, this weapon against soaring, weakening your guarding, forcing you to go out after seclusion and to return to the society of people after solitude, awakening buried passions in you, resolving the bonds by which your feelings are bound, resurrecting your mortification for the world, reducing you from the work of the angels, concentrated in the care of one thing, placing you in the category of the laity - let such truth perish! Fulfilling the duty of love with bodily services belongs to the activities of the laity or monks, but insufficient, who do not remain in silence, or those who are silent, but whose silence is connected with cohabitation with like-minded brethren, and therefore with constant leaving the cell and receiving the brethren into the cell. For such people it is good and praiseworthy (to show love for the brethren through bodily deeds) 482. 26. Those who have truly chosen seclusion from the world with body and mind, in order to concentrate their thoughts in solitary prayer through mortification to everything that is transitory, to the vision of the objects of the world and to their remembrance, should serve Christ not with bodily deeds and not with external righteousness with the goal of being justified by it, but by killing, according to the word of the Apostle, their goods “even on earth” (Col. 3:5), by sacrifice pure and immaculate thoughts, these beginnings of self-cultivation, bodily suffering in enduring troubles for the sake of hope for the future. Monastic life is equivalent to angelic life. We should not abandon the work of the heavenly and hold on to the work of the material 483. 27. A certain elder said: “I marvel at those who embarrass themselves in the matter of silence in order to serve others in the physical.” - He said again: “We should not mix concern for anything else with the matter of silence. Let every deed be honored in its place, so that our life is not mixed. He who cares for many becomes the slave of many; He who has left everything and cares about the order of his soul becomes a friend of God. Look: there are many who give alms and fulfill the duty of love for others in the body and among the world; those who practice good silence, who devote themselves entirely to it, are hardly found and are rare. Who, then, of those who give alms in the midst of the world, or do righteousness through the service of the body, has been able to achieve even one of those gifts that are granted from God to those who live in silence?” “He said again: “If you are a layman, then remain in the habit of worldly virtues. If you are a monk, then shine with the deeds with which monks excel. If you want to practice the virtues of both lifestyles, then you will fall away from both. The deeds of a monk are the following: freedom from bodily activities, physical labor in prayer and unceasing heartfelt remembrance of God (that is, the memory of God or teaching). Judge for yourself: is it possible for you, leaving this, to be satisfied with worldly virtues? 484 28. Question. Is it not possible for a monk who suffers in silence to acquire these two residences, i.e. with care for God, to have a different care in your heart? Answer. If someone who wants to live in silence, I think, does not leave everything and does not concentrate all his cares in the care of his one soul, then he will not be able to, through his living, endlessly satisfy the work characteristic of the silent, even if he places himself outside the cares of everyday life. Moreover, this will happen to him when he allows himself to care about something else. The Lord, having left Himself some to serve Him in the midst of the world and to care for His children, chose others to serve before Him. One can see the difference in ranks not only in the courts of earthly kings, where those who constantly stand before the face of the king and are admitted into his secrets are more glorious than those who are used for external service: the same is seen in the Heavenly King. Those who are constantly in mysterious communication and conversation with Him through prayer, such as they have acquired free access to Him! What riches are awarded in heaven and earth, what power they show over all creation! more than those who serve God with their property and worldly cares, pleasing Him by doing good deeds, although this is also great and very good. And therefore, we must choose as a model of imitation not the last ones, meager in pleasing God, but the holy sufferers and ascetics who shone with their life, abandoned the things of this world and cultivated the Heavenly Kingdom on earth, those who once and for all rejected the earthly and raised their hands to the gates of Heaven 485 . 29. How did the ancient Saints, who paved the way for us to live this life, please God? Saint John the Thebean, the treasury of virtues, the source of prophecy, pleased God within his seclusion, either by serving the brethren physically, or by prayer and silence. I will not dispute that many have pleased God in the first way, but not enough have pleased God through prayer and forsaking everything. It is clear what the help of those who remain in silence and enjoy it, their brethren, should consist of: in helping us with a soul-saving word in times of need and in offering prayer for us. Apart from this, if any worldly remembrance and care remain in the heart of someone who lives in silence, then this is alien to spiritual wisdom. What is said in Scripture: “Render what is Caesar’s to Caesar’s and God’s to the Gods” (Matthew 22:21), neighbor to neighbor and everyone belonging to him (Rom. 13:7), is not said to those who are silent, but to those who live outside of silence. Those who live in the rank of angels, caring for the soul, are not commanded to please God with everyday care, that is, to take care of handicrafts, to accept from some and give to others. And therefore, a monk should not be concerned about anything that shakes his mind and brings him down from standing before the face of God 486 . 30. If anyone, in refutation of this, points to the Divine Apostle Paul, that he worked with his own hands and gave alms: then we will tell him that only Paul could do this; We don’t know anyone else like him, who would be enough for everything, as Paul was enough. Show me another Paul like him, and I will submit to you. Do not set forth what happens according to God’s will as a rule for general activity. One is the work of evangelism and another is the work of silence. But you, if you want to remain silent, be like the Cherubim, who do not care about anything worldly, and do not think that anyone else exists on earth except you and God, to whom all your attention is directed, as you were taught by the Fathers who were before you. If someone does not harden his heart and with firmness does not restrain himself from mercy, so as to stand far from care in everything below, and from that care that seems to be accepted for the sake of God, and from all everyday things, and does not remain in prayer, in one prayer at certain times, then he will not be able to free himself from confusion and care and remain in silence 487. 31. When the thought comes to you of worrying about something about virtue, which may waste the silence that is in your heart: then say to this thought: good is the path of love and mercy for the sake of God; but for God’s sake I don’t want it either. “Stop, father,” said a certain monk: “For God’s sake, I want to follow you.” “And for God’s sake,” he answered, “I’m running away from you.” – Abba Arseny did not talk to anyone, either for spiritual edification or for anything else. Another elder, for God's sake, talked throughout the day and received all the strange people who came to him; Arseny instead chose silence and silence, and for this reason he was in conversation with the Divine Spirit in the midst of the sea of ​​​​real life, which sailed in the greatest silence on the ship of silence, as he was shown in a vision to the ascetics who asked God about it. The ultimate law of silence is silence about everything. If, living in silence, you find yourself filled with confusion, disturbing your body with the works of your hands and your soul with your worries, what kind of silence is there then when caring about many things? Is it then possible to please God? Judge for yourself. It is unconscionable for us to assert that it is possible to live in silence properly, without abandoning everything and without withdrawing from all care 488 . 32. Another is the sweetness of prayer and another is the vision of prayer. The second is more valuable than the first to the extent that a mature person is more valuable than a minor child. Sometimes verses are delightful in the mouth, and the words of a verse of prayer are repeated many times (countless), not allowing the person praying to be satisfied and move on to another verse. Sometimes a certain vision is born from prayer, interrupts the prayer of the lips, and the one praying in that vision becomes frantic with horror, as if not existing. We call this state the vision of prayer, in which there does not appear any form or image represented by dreaming, as those who do not know the matter claim. And again: in this prayer vision there are various measures and divisions of gifts. Before coming to this state, prayer works; because thoughts have not yet ceased, without the cessation of which prayer cannot cease and a state above prayer cannot arise: for the movements of the tongue and heart in prayer are its keys, and what happens after this is the entrance to the cell. Here let all lips and all tongue cease to act, and the heart - this keeper of thoughts, and the mind - this pilot of feelings; and thought is this bird that flies quickly and everywhere; let all their art and knowledge cease; Here let the seeker stop: the Lord of the House has come 489. 33. Just as all the power of the laws and commandments given by God to humanity has its limit in purity of heart: so all the images (forms) and rules in which people offer their prayers to God, according to the teaching of the Fathers, have their limit in pure prayer. And sighs, and kneeling, and prayers from the depths of the heart, and the sweetest laments, in a word, all forms of prayer, as I said, have their limit in pure prayer; before sensation, the mind has the power to act. When the mind crosses this limit and through pure prayer enters the inner cell, then it will no longer have any prayer, no movements, no crying, no power, no autocracy, no supplication, no desire, no sympathy for anything hoped for in this life or belonging to the future. For this reason, after pure prayer there is no other prayer. Even to this limit, in all its movements and images, the mind is guided by the freedom of autocracy, which is why feat is felt in prayer. What happens after this limit is a state of ecstatic surprise, and not prayer: because the forms of action of prayer have ceased, a vision has come and the mind does not pray with prayer. Every form of prayer is accomplished by the action of the mind; when the mind enters a spiritual state, then, in this state, it has no prayer. Another is prayer, and another is the vision in it, although prayer is the initial cause of vision. She is the sowing, and the vision is the harvest, in which the reaper, having become a spectator of the ineffable vision, is surprised how such beautiful ears of grain suddenly grew from the smallest and bare grains he sown. Such a one remains in his vision outside of any movement (action) 490. The Divine Gregory (Sinaite) said to the Divine Maxim (Kapsokalivi): “I beg you, tell me clearly: during prayer, when the mind is enraptured to God, what does it see with spiritual eyes? Can he even offer prayer with his heart?” Saint Maximus answered: “No way. When, during prayer, the grace of the Holy Spirit comes and takes over the mind, then the prayer stops: because the mind is possessed by the coming of the Holy Spirit and cannot set its powers in motion, but is idle, and submits only to the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit leads it, or into the immaterial air of the Divine and ineffable Light, or into another ecstatic vision and inexplicable in words, or into a Divine conversation: that is, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, according to His will, gives consolation to everyone autocratically according to his dignity. What I say is clearly seen in the Prophets and Apostles, who were honored to see great visions, although people mocked them, calling them deceived and drunk. Isaiah says: “I saw the Lord on the throne, high and exalted, and the Seraphim standing around Him” (Is. 6:1-2). The First Martyr Stephen saw the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). In the same way, now the servants of Christ are honored to see various spiritual visions, which some do not believe, do not want to recognize them as true, but recognize delusion, and those who see them are considered deceived. I am very surprised how these, blind in soul, do not believe the grace of the Spirit, promised from ancient times through Joel, who on the face of God said: “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and they will prophesy” (Joel 2:28). Christ still gives this grace and will give it even until the end of the world, according to His promise, to His faithful servants. This grace, when it is in someone, does not show him anything ordinary or sensual that belongs to this world, but secretly teaches him what he has never seen or imagined before. Then the mind secretly learns the lofty and hidden mysteries, which, according to the Divine Paul, neither the human eye can see nor the mind comprehend by itself. To know how the mind sees them, listen to what I say: far from the fire, wax is cruel and can be taken by hand, but when placed in the fire, it melts, ignites, burns, becomes all light, changes in this flame, and it is impossible for it not to melt in the flame and become like water. So the human mind, on its own, before uniting with the Lord, reasons in accordance with its strength; when he unites with the fire of the Divine and the Holy Spirit, then we all possess this Divine Light, become all light, ignite in the flame of the Holy Spirit, are filled with the Divine mind, and it is impossible for him, in the flame of the Divine, to have his own thoughts and think about anything arbitrarily” 491. 34. There is hardly one person out of darkness who fulfilled, although not sufficiently, the commandments and regulations of the law and achieved purity of soul: so is there one in a thousand who, with great self-observation, achieved pure prayer and, breaking this limit, received the sacrament of spiritual vision. And very few, but rare, were honored with pure prayer. The sacrament, which is performed after acquiring it and is located on the other side of the Jordan (Deut. 31), is encountered by those who have achieved God's grace barely from generation to generation (Joshua 1:2). 35. The impurity of prayer is as follows: if, at the time when the mind has prepared to offer one of the above-mentioned movements to God, some extraneous thought or dream about something is mixed into the prayer: then such a prayer is not called pure, because the mind offered it to the altar of the Lord not from clean animals. The heart is the spiritual altar of God 492. 36. When the mind is worthy of feeling the future bliss, then it forgets itself and everything here; he no longer moves in anything 493. Therefore, we can say with confidence that every virtue and every active prayer, performed either with the body or with the mind, is guided and moved by free will by feelings; it moves the mind itself, this king of passions. When the control and observation of the spirit dominates over the mind, the ruler of thoughts and feelings, then free will is taken away from nature; then the mind does not lead, but is guided. Where then will there be prayer, when nature cannot have power over itself, but is guided by another force into an area unknown to it, can give movement to thoughts at will, but at that time it has the power that has captivated it and is led by It outside of its sensation? It then has less will and knows whether it is in the body or outside the body, according to the testimony of Scripture (2 Cor. 12:2). Can someone captive in this way and not behaving have prayer? 494 37. Question. For what reason does this ineffable grace, not being prayer, bear the name of prayer? 495 Answer. It bears this name from the initial reason: because it (grace) is given to the worthy during prayer, prayer has its initial cause, and only during prayer, according to the testimony of the Fathers, does a visit to it occur. The blissful state bears the name of prayer, because the mind is brought into this state by prayer and prayer serves as the cause of it, but at other times it does not take place, as is clear from the Scriptures of the Fathers, for we know from the lives of the Saints that many of them, standing in prayer, were delighted with the mind. If anyone asks why only at this time are these great and ineffable gifts sent down, we answer: because at this time, more than any other time, a person is focused on himself and prepared to listen to God, to desire and expect mercy from Him. What other time is there at which a person would be so prepared and sober as the time at which he intends to pray? Is it really convenient to receive spiritual gifts at a time when he is sleeping or busy with some task, or when his mind is disturbed? The saints, although they did not have idle time, were constantly busy with spiritual work; however, sometimes they are not in a prayerful mood: often they reflect on something related to this life, or are engaged in contemplation of creatures and other useful things. But during prayer, all attention and all the powers of the mind are directed to the one God, and prayers are offered to Him from the heart with diligence and constant warmth. And therefore, at this time, in which the soul is concentrated in its sole care, it is appropriate for Divine mercy to be poured out on it 496. The word vision used in these chapters by Saint Isaac cannot be replaced by the word contemplation. Contemplation depends on arbitrariness and is characteristic of all people; it can be gracious when it acts in gracious people. The blessed visions of the Saints through purity of mind, under the action of autocracy, can also be called contemplation; but when the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the soul for spiritual vision: then there is no place for contemplation. Then the mind sees just as the sensory eye sees sensory objects. For example: one can contemplate the power and wisdom of God in visible nature, but Stephen the First Martyr saw the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. The Apostle Paul saw heaven and heard unspeakable words. The Bethlehem shepherds saw Angels and heard their singing. This was no longer contemplation. 38. The Lord said to Adam: “By the sweat of your brow, eat your bread.” - How long? - “Before you returned to the land from which you were taken, which will grow thorns and thistles for you” (Gen. 3, 18, 19). These are the secrets of activities that belong to life on earth, as long as a person lives on it. But from that night on which the Lord shed His sweat, He exchanged the sweat that brought forth thorns and thistles for the sweat that was poured out in prayer and in the cultivation of righteousness. For five thousand and five hundred years God allowed Adam to labor on earth, because until then “the way of the saints had not appeared” (Heb. 9:8). “In the last days” (Heb. 1:2), He came and commanded human autocracy to replace sweat with sweat, commanding not the cessation of sweat, but its change: for He had mercy on us, on the duration of our suffering on earth. If we stop shedding sweat on the ground; then, if necessary, we will reap thorns 497. The very abandonment of prayer makes the earth of the heart material (rough), and it produces thorns by its nature. Exactly: passions are thorns that grow from the seed that is in us. As long as we are in the image of Adam, then, of necessity, we also have his passions. It is impossible for the earth to remain inactive and not vegetate in the vegetative conditions inherent in its nature. The earth of our body is the product of that earth, according to the testimony of God, who said: “The earth from which you were taken” (Gen. 3:19). It produces thorns, but the verbal soil produces passions. If the Lord, who was in all the various actions of His economy in a mysterious way for us, did not cease from work and labor until the ninth hour of Heel, which mysteriously depicts the activity of our entire life, and on Saturday rested in the tomb: then on what are they based who claim that in this life there is a Sabbath, that is, rest from passions? It is high for us to talk about Sunday. Our Sabbath is the day of our burial: there our nature truly sabbaths. But as long as this earth exists, there will be a daily need to pluck thorns out of it. With the constancy of this labor, these thorns become scarce; The earth is not completely and completely cleared of it. If this is so, and if by allowing yourself to be lazy or a little careless for a short time, these thorns multiply, cover the face of the earth, suppress your seed and make your work seem as if it had never happened: then it follows from this that this earth must be cleansed daily. Leaving this work produces many thorns 498 . “Whoever wishes to purify his heart, let him constantly kindle it with the memory of the Lord Jesus, having only this as an unceasing teaching and occupation. Those who want to be cleansed of their rottenness should not sometimes practice prayer, but sometimes abandon this exercise; on the contrary, one must constantly remain in mindfulness and prayer, if one happens to be outside the churches of prayer. Just as someone who wants to clean gold, if he allows the fire in the furnace to go out for a short time, then the substance being cleaned causes cooling and hardening: in the same way, the one who sometimes engages in the remembrance of God, and sometimes abandons this activity, through idleness destroys what he thinks he can acquire through prayer. It is common for a virtuous man to destroy the earthiness of the heart with the unceasing memory of God, so that the evil is little by little destroyed by the fire of remembrance of the good and the soul returns completely to its natural lordship with increased glory 499. 39. Question. What is the general work that embraces all the private works of living in silence, so that the one who has achieved this work would understand that he has achieved perfection in this living? Answer. When someone is worthy of unceasing stay in prayer. He who has achieved this has reached the highest limit of all virtues and hence becomes the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. If someone has not truly accepted the grace of the Comforter, he cannot complete this stay in prayer with freedom and joy. The Spirit, as it is said, when it dwells in a person, does not cease from prayer: for the Spirit Himself prays unceasingly (Rom. 8:26). Then, both in a sleepy and awake state, prayer does not stop in his soul: but whether he eats food and drink, sleeps, or does anything else, even in deep sleep, the fragrance and evaporation of prayer flow effortlessly from his heart. Then this prayer is not separated from him, but every hour it is in him and with him. Such prayer, even if it falls silent from outside a person, but again it performs its ministry in him secretly. One of the Christ-bearing men calls the silence of the pure prayer: because their thoughts are Divine movements; the movement of a pure heart and mind are meek voices with which the Hidden One is secretly glorified. 40. Question. What is spiritual prayer and by what means is the ascetic granted it? Answer. Spiritual prayer appears in the ascetic when the action of the Holy Spirit joins the spiritual movements for strict chastity and purity. It is granted to one of countless people. She is the mystery of future life and dispensation, in which nature rises (from its natural state to the supernatural) and remains alien to any movement and remembrance of the here. Then the soul does not pray through prayer, but through sensation it senses the spiritual objects of the future age, which exceed human reason and are understood only by the power of the Holy Spirit. Such a state is a vision of the mind, and not a movement and search for prayer; but it has prayer as its initial cause. Through this, some have achieved the perfection of purity, and there is no hour in which their inner movement is not in prayer. Whenever the Holy Spirit comes, He always finds them in prayer, and from prayer itself leads them into a vision, which is called spiritual vision: because they do not need prolonged prayer, much less prolonged standing and the rite of prayer. The memory of God 500 is enough for them, and they are immediately captivated by the love of God. However, such people do not neglect the upcoming prayer at all, and in addition to unceasing prayer, they also attend prayer that is performed at certain hours. Saint Anthony the Great, as we see from his biography, stood at the ninth hour of prayer and was delighted with his intelligence. Another Father stretched out his hands, standing in prayer, and went into a frenzy, in which he remained for four days. And many others, during their prayer, from the strengthened memory of God and from the abundant love for God, were captivated and went into a frenzy. A person is honored with such love for God when he is freed from sin inside and outside by keeping the commandments of the Lord, which are contrary to sin. If anyone loves these commandments and fulfills them properly, it will become necessary for him to free himself from many human affairs, that is, to be stripped of the body and to be outside of it, that is, independent of it, and not outside of its material essence. In the one who lives in the image of the Lawgiver and actually fulfills His commandments, sin does not remain. Therefore, the Lord promised in the Gospel to establish His abode in those who keep the commandments 501. 41. A body that fears temptation, lest it be oppressed and lose its life, becomes a friend of sin. Therefore, the Holy Spirit commands it to die, knowing that if it does not die, it will not overcome sin. Whoever wants the Lord to dwell in him: he compels his body to serve the Lord, works in the commandments of the Spirit, written by the Apostle, and keeps his soul from the deeds of the flesh, described by the Apostle (Gal. 5:19). The body, dissolved (mixed) with sin 502, rests in carnal affairs, and the Spirit of God does not rest in its fruits. When the body is weak, exhausted from fasting and humility: then the soul is strengthened spiritually by prayer 503. 42. An excellent part of the action of grace-filled faith lies in being affirmed in your prayerful request by hope in God. The firmness of this faith in God does not consist in the right confession of faith, but is the vision of the truth of God with the soul from the power of living, although the second is born from the first. When in the Holy Scriptures you find faith combined with living, then understand that it is said about the second, and not about the right confession. Faith, which gives firmness of hope, is never comprehensible to those who are not baptized or whose minds are corrupted in relation to the truth. The “notification” (Heb. 11:1) of faith is revealed by high souls, as morals are established, according to the will of the Lord’s commandments 504. 43. In the (prayerful) work of slaves there is no world of thought; There is no child in freedom - rebellious embarrassment. It is usually confusing to find the taste of reason and understanding (in prayer) and to captivate thought into something else, like a leech drinking life from the body along with the blood that it drinks from its members. Confusion should be called, if possible, the chariot of the devil: because Satan, like one driving a chariot, has the custom of sitting on the mind, and taking with him a collection of passions, entering the accursed soul, drowning it in confusion 505. 44. Pronounce the verses of your psalmody, not as if borrowing words from another, and do not accept the intention of constantly multiplying the work of your prayer, so as not to completely lose tenderness and joy in prayer: but say these words in your prayer as if from yourself, with tenderness, with understanding of their mind, as one who truly understands his work 506. 45. If someone does not contradict the thoughts secretly planted in us by the enemy, but cuts off conversation with them by praying to God: this serves as a sign that the mind of that person has received wisdom from grace, and his true mind has freed him from many affairs; by finding the short path that he had achieved, he rejected the long soaring along the long path. We do not have the power at all times to contradict all the thoughts that plague us and to curb them; On the contrary, they often cause ulcers that do not heal over a long period of time. Know that (wanting to argue with thoughts), you are entering into a struggle with those whose experience is estimated at six thousand years. And this (i.e., on the one hand, your attempt to argue with your thoughts, and on the other, their experience) gives them the opportunity to prepare and inflict an ulcer on you in a way that exceeds your wisdom and reason. Even if you defeat them, then the filthiness of your thoughts defiles your thought and the stench of their evil stench remains in your sense of smell for a long time. Having used the first method, you will be free from all this and from fear: there is no other help except God 507. 46. ​​Tears in prayer are a sign of God’s mercy, which the soul has been granted through its repentance - a sign that it has been accepted and has begun to enter the field of purity with tears. If a person does not stop thinking about what is transitory and does not reject the hope of this world; If contempt for the world does not arise in the thought, good parting words for its outcome do not begin to be prepared in the soul and thoughts arise in it about what it must meet there, then the eyes cannot produce tears. Tears are the consequence of incessant teaching, pure and free from entertainment; are the result of many and frequent thoughts that persist steadily, subtle (spiritual) memories of something that remain in thought and lead the heart to sadness: from this, tears multiply and intensify 508. 47. When, remaining in silence, you turn to handicrafts: then do not imagine that the commandment of the Fathers could serve as a veil for your love of money. Let your handicraft be small, for the sake of your despondency, and not disturb your mind. If you want to do more handicraft for alms, then know that prayer in the order of virtues is higher than alms. But if for the needs of your body: then, if you are not insatiable, what God sends to you by His providence is enough for you to satisfy your needs. For God never left His workers so that they would lack in transitory things. “Seek,” said the Lord, “first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33), before your petition. “One of the Saints said that the rule of your residence is not that you feed the hungry and that your cell be a host to strangers: because this is the residence of the worldly; they should do these good deeds, and not hermits, free from visible worries and keeping their minds in prayer 509. 48. A soul that follows the paths of life and the path of faith and has often performed the work of faith, if it turns to the means of reason, then immediately begins to limp in faith; her spiritual strength becomes impoverished in her, which appears in a pure soul from various intercessions (with which God helped this soul), and abides in her through her directness and simplicity in all her actions. The soul, having once forever surrendered itself to God by faith and having acquired through many experiences the active knowledge of God's assistance, no longer cares about itself, but is bound by surprise and silence, cannot return to the means that reason represents and act with them, so that, because of their opposite direction to faith, it does not lose the providence of God, which constantly watches over it in secret and watches over it in everything that concerns it. But that soul, which imagined that it was sufficient to provide for itself with the power of its reason, became mad. Those in whom the light of faith has shone, no longer allow themselves to pray, to ask God below, grant us this or accept this from us, and do not care about themselves at all: because with the mental eyes of faith they hourly see the Fatherly providence of God, overshadowing them from that true Father, whose immeasurably great love surpasses all paternal love, strong and able to most abundantly help us, more than anyone else. how much we ask, think, understand 510. 49. To choose a good will in preference to other wants (desires) belongs to man, and to carry out the chosen good will belongs to God. Therefore, man needs intercession from God. For this reason, when a good desire appears in us, then, following it, let us engage in prayer, praying not only for intercession, but also for the gift of discerning whether this good desire of ours serves to please God or not. Not every good desire enters the heart from God; from God comes a desire that brings benefit. Sometimes a person desires good, but God does not help him: for some desires also come from the devil, having the semblance of good, and are considered useful, but do not correspond to the measure of a person. The devil, intending to do evil to a person, brings a desire and forces him to strive hard to fulfill it, while the person has not yet achieved the appropriate life, or that desire is alien to the image accepted by man, or again the time has not come at which it could be fulfilled or the fulfillment of it could begin; or a person is insufficient in mind or body to fulfill it; or the circumstances of the time do not contribute to this. The devil, under the guise of goodness, tries in every way to either confuse a person, or harm his body, or create a secret network in his mind. But we, as I said, will offer frequent and warm prayers for the good desire that has appeared in us, and let each of us say: “Lord! May it be Your will to accomplish this good deed, which I wished to do, if it pleases Your will. To desire good is convenient for me, but to fulfill a good desire without the gift sent by You is impossible, although both “both will and do” (Phil. 2:13) - from You, so that, not without the assistance of Your grace, I decide to accept this desire that has stirred up in me, or to be afraid of it.” This should be the custom of one who desires (true) good: to promote the reasoning of the mind through prayer, to help this reasoning and wisdom, separating truth from lies. Good is reasoned through many prayers, doing and preserving, unceasing lust, frequent tears and humility, heavenly intercession, especially when this good is opposed by thoughts of pride: for they prevent God’s help from approaching us. We abolish them through prayer 511. 50. Blessed is the honor of the Lord, who opens the door before us, so that we have no petitions except those coming from a desire for Him! We leave everything, and the soul goes out in search of Him alone, so that it has no care that would prevent it from seeing the Lord. To the extent, beloved, the mind leaves concern for everything visible, cares and thinks about the hoped-for future, in accordance with its elevation above the care of the body: to that extent it becomes refined and transparent in prayer. To the extent that the body is freed from the bonds of matter, to that extent is the mind freed from them. To the extent that the mind is freed from the bonds of concern for material things, to that extent it acquires lordship. To what extent he acquires lordship: to such an extent he becomes refined and rises above the thoughts of this age, imprinted with sterility. Then the mind reaches a vision of God worthy of God, and not similar to our vision 512. The holy, humble Isaac says that the vision is about God, i.e. delivered to the mind by Divine grace, is not like the vision that all people can naturally have. The latter kind of vision can rightly be called contemplation, reflection, daydreaming or fantasy. It completely depends on human arbitrariness. It is often called inspiration, but in such cases it is nothing more than excitement. From it were written the Ode to God, the Hymn to God, various adaptations of psalms and other such works in verse and prose. The vision delivered by grace is by no means an arbitrary contemplation, it is by no means contemplation: it is, in the exact sense, a vision similar to the vision of sensory eyes, which see not as a result of human arbitrariness, but as a result of their natural structure, regardless of human will. So the mind, having received its sight from the overshadowing of Divine grace, suddenly begins to look spiritually at abstract and sensual objects, in accordance with the change made in it and the ability that was unexpectedly, hitherto unknown to it, granted, regardless of its will. 51. Prayer requires training so that by staying in it for a long time the mind will become wise (to pray as it should). Due to non-acquisitiveness, which frees our thoughts from bonds, prayer needs a long-term stay in it: for from a long stay in it, the mind accepts learning, learns ways to drive thoughts away from itself, learns through many experiences what it cannot accept from others 513. 52. Each residence borrows its prosperity from the residence that preceded it, and the previous residence is completed in order to acquire what belongs to the subsequent residence. The prayer is preceded by hermitage. And this very hermitage is needed to acquire prayer, and prayer is needed to acquire God’s love, because through prayer one finds reasons to love God 514. 53. And we should know, beloved, that every mystical conversation, every good care of thoughts about God, every spiritual teaching (meditation) belongs to prayer and is called by the general name of prayer, whether you mention various readings, or vocal and oral praises of God, or sad care for the Lord, or worship of the body, or the verse of psalmody and everything else like that that comes from studying in it pure prayer, from which love for God is born. Love comes from prayer, and prayer comes from being a hermit. We need solitude in order to have a place for continuous teaching, alone, about God. Hermitage is preceded by renunciation of the world: for if a person does not first renounce the world and free himself from everything that belongs to the world, then he cannot be alone. Again: renunciation of the world is preceded by patience. Patience is preceded by hatred of the world. Hatred of the world is the fear of God and the lust of God: for if the heart does not fear Gehenna, then the desire for bliss will not lead it to the lust of God, and hatred of the world will not be aroused in it. If he does not hate the world, then he will not tolerate being outside of its peace. If patience is not first in mind, then a person will not be able to choose a place to live that is full of hardships and has no inhabitants. If he does not choose the life of a hermit, then he cannot remain in prayer. If he does not remain in constant teaching about God, in the various thoughts that make up prayer, and in the various types of teaching it that we mentioned above, then he will not feel love 515. 54. Love for God is born from conversation with Him; conversation with Him (thought on God and prayerful teaching) - from silence; silence - from non-covetousness; non-covetousness comes from patience; patience - from hating lusts; hatred of lusts - from the fear of Gehenna and the aspiration of bliss. He hates lusts who knows what fruit comes from them and what they prepare for him, what bliss he is deprived of because of them. Thus, each life is connected with the one that preceded it, and from this previous one it borrows its prosperity and leads to another life, a higher one. If one of these residences is not sufficient in itself, then the one that follows it cannot take place and be seen 516. 55. Do not recognize as idleness the increase in the practice of prayer that is not soaring (without distraction), concentrated (attentive) and prolonged, for the reason that you have at the same time reduced your psalmody. Love bowing in prayer more than psalmody. If prayer succeeds in you, then it replaces the rule consisting of prayers. If, during the fulfillment of your prayer rule, you are given the gift of tears, then do not recognize the enjoyment of them as idleness in relation to your rule: for the grace of tears is a consequence of the fullness of prayer 517. 56. Let every prayer you offer at night be more important in your eyes than all daytime deeds. Do not burden your belly, so that your thoughts are not confused, so that when you get up at night, you are not disturbed by soaring (the entertainment of thoughts) and do not find yourself filled with effeminate relaxation; not only does this happen (after burdening your belly with food), but your soul also becomes darkened, your thoughts are disturbed, and because of the darkness you cannot concentrate them in your psalmody, the taste for everything is lost in you and you do not feel pleasure from the verses of your psalmody, while the mind usually, with the lightness and brightness of thoughts, tastes variety with sweetness psalmody. When the order of the night is disturbed, then the mind is confused in the activities of the day, remains in darkness, and, as usual, does not enjoy reading: because a storm attacks the thoughts (and does not cease to agitate them), even though the mind resorts to prayer and teaching. The sweetness given to ascetics during the day flows onto the pure mind from the light of nighttime activities. Every person who has not been taught by the experiences of long-term silence should not hope to comprehend from himself (from his own understanding) anything special about the benefits of asceticism, even if he were great, and wise, and a teacher, and had many (other) virtues 518. 57. Confess your weakness and your ignorance from the sincere consciousness of them to the Lord in your prayer in opposition to the subtle action of heaping, so as not to be abandoned to you and not to be tempted by defilements. Fornication will follow pride, and pretentiousness will follow 519. The Holy Fathers call prelest self-delusion, combined with seduction produced by demons. 58. Christ, the fulfillment (fullness) of truth! Let Your truth shine in our hearts, and let us understand to walk Your path according to Your will 520. 59. When any evil thought is sown in you, either from among those that come from afar, or from among those that come according to the law of enterprise 521, and often presents itself to your mind: then know for sure that he is secretly laying a snare for you. But wake up in good time. If the thought belongs to the right and good, then know that God wants to give you some kind of image (a special way) to receive eternal life, and for this reason such a thought, outside of custom, moves in you incessantly. If such a thought coming to you is dark, and you come into doubt about it, not clearly comprehending whether it is your own, or a thief, an intercessor, or a slanderer hiding under the guise of a good one: then prepare for it immediately with diligent, day-night prayer, with much vigil. Do not reject it, and do not agree with it; but with warmth and care, make a prayer for him. Don’t be silent, calling on the Lord, and He will show you where this thought came from 522. 60. The prosperity of the heart consists in constantly teaching it about its hope 523. 61. He who loves conversation with Christ loves to be alone. He who loves to be in the company of many is a friend of this world. If you love repentance, then love silence: for without silence there is no perfect repentance 524. 62. And know this, O wise one, that it is not for the abundant fulfillment of rules that we choose to live alone with our souls, silence and seclusion: for it is known that living with many is more conducive to the fulfillment of long and abundant rules, due to bodily zeal. If long-term rules were needed, then some of the Fathers would not have abandoned interviews and communication with people; on the contrary, some of them lived in coffins, others chose seclusion in a solitary house, - with such residence bringing their body into special exhaustion, leaving it incapable of fulfilling its rules, in all weakness and exhaustion; Moreover, they endured with sweetness throughout their lives the serious illnesses that befell them, from which they could not even stand on their feet to offer the usual prayer or praise with their lips; they did not perform psalmody or anything else performed by the body. They were satisfied with bodily weakness and silence instead of all the rules. They showed this behavior throughout their entire lives. And with all this imaginary idleness, none of them wanted to leave their cells and, because of the abandonment of their rules, seek completeness somewhere outside and have fun in churches with the voices and services of others 525. 63. Some of the Fathers said: “I strive into silence so that I may enjoy the verses of reading and prayer. When, due to the sweetness of their understanding, my tongue becomes silent, then I fall, as it were, into a kind of sleep, into concentrating my feelings and thoughts within myself. Again: when in that very silence, by withdrawing from everything, my heart calms down from the confusion caused by memories: then waves of joy are constantly sent to me from deep thoughts, unexpectedly and suddenly coming to the delight of my heart. When these waves approach the ship of my soul, then it plunges into true ecstatic visions, with its God-pleasing silence, becoming alien to the words of this world and the fleshly belly” 526. 64. Another Father said: “Choose for your sweet work the constant vigil at night, by which all the Fathers have put off the old man and have been made worthy of the renewal of the mind. During these hours the soul feels immortal life, by the sensation of it it takes off the garments of darkness and receives the Holy Spirit" 527. 65. Oh, what pleasure is brought, how the soul is amused, made joyful and cleansed when it is aroused by its wakefulness (sobriety) during reading and prayer 528! 66. The saints dared to converse with God and elevate themselves to the hidden mysteries in no other way than when the members of the body were weak, when the paleness of the face came from the labor of greed, when there was silence of the mind and renunciation of all earthly thoughts. When the power of silence overshadows you during the long period of your stay in your cell, during work and labor, during internal storage, while eliminating your senses from all external impressions: then first of all you will encounter joy, appearing in your soul from time to time without any extraneous reason, and then, according to the measure of your purity, your eyes will open to the vision of the strength of God’s creation and the beauty of creatures. When the mind is instructed by the wonder produced by this vision, then its only activity, both day and night, will be the contemplation of glorious miracles in the creatures of God. For this reason, the sweetness of this vision conceals from the soul itself sympathy for the passions 529. 67. Love is the fruit of prayer; love instructs the mind to desire with its vision, when someone endures in prayer without despondency, and prays only with the mind fervently and with warmth with silent thoughts. Prayer is the mortification of thoughts about the lusts of the carnal life. He who prays diligently is equal to him who dies for the world. For to deny oneself means to persevere patiently in prayer. From this it follows that God’s love is found in renunciation of one’s soul 530. The same Saint Isaac of Syria, about mercy. 68. Do you want with your spirit to enter into communication with God, accepting the sensation of that sweetness that is not enslaved to the senses? - Follow alms. When it inhabits you, then holy beauty is formed in you, by which a person becomes like God. Grace, when all activity is dissolved by it, creates in the soul a constant, always identical communion with the bright glory of the Divine, and not at times. This spiritual union is an unimprinted remembrance, kindled in the heart by burning love, having no distances, receiving strength for union from staying in the Gospel commandments, not through an illegal violation of the laws of nature and not according to the laws of nature 531. 69. There is no other path to spiritual love, by which the invisible image of God is inscribed in us, unless first of all a person begins to show mercy in the likeness of the Heavenly Father, who showed us His perfection in mercy (Matthew 5:48; Luke 6:36), as the Lord told us, commanding those who obey Him to place mercy as the foundation of a God-pleasing life 532. 70. Acquire peace within yourself and heaven and earth will have peace with you 533. 71. Cover the sinner, if it does not harm you: with this you will encourage him to repentance and correction, and you will be supported by the mercy of your Master. Strengthen those who are weak and sad at heart with your word and with all the means in your power, and that right hand that bears everything will support you. Take part in the work of prayer and the sorrow of your heart in those who are sad at heart, and a source of mercy will open before your petitions 534. 72. Do not exchange love for your brother for love for some thing: because through love for your brother you have acquired within you the One who is most precious in the world. Leave the little to gain the great. Disregard what is superfluous and insignificant in order to acquire what is of great value. Be dead in your life, so that you do not live to die 535. 73. The soul of the merciful shines more than the sun and is constantly rejoiced by the vision of Divine revelations 536. 74. Pour your mercy on everyone, and be distant in body from everyone 537. 75. A certain brother was once convicted of not giving alms. This brother boldly and decisively answered the accuser: “Monks should not give alms.” The one who denounced this said to him: “It is clear and obvious which monk is not subject to the obligation to give alms: this is the one who can openly tell Christ the words of Scripture: “Behold, we have left everything and are dead after You” (Matthew 19:27). This is the one who has nothing on earth, does not indulge in the care of the body, does not occupy his mind with anything visible, does not care to acquire anything, but if someone gives him something, he takes only what is necessary, without being carried away by attention to anything unnecessary - who lives like a bird. Such a person is not obliged to give alms: for how will he give what he does not have? On the contrary, those who care about everyday things, do handicrafts, and receive from others should give alms. Neglect of her is lack of mercy, contrary to the commandment of the Lord. If someone does not approach God through secret deeds, and knows to serve Him in spirit, and does not care about the virtues that are obvious and possible to him: then what hope can there be for such a person to acquire eternal life? Such a person is unreasonable 538. 76. Brother! I command you: on the scales of your reasoning, let alms always prevail over all other types of good, until you feel in yourself that alms that God has for the world (Matthew 5:45). May mercy be a mirror for us and may we be able to see in ourselves (through mercy) the likeness and true image of the perfection found in the nature and being of God. Let us be enlightened by these and similar concepts and be guided by pure will towards a life pleasing to God. A cruel and unmerciful heart can never be cleansed. A merciful person is the doctor of his soul: he, as if by a strong movement of the wind, expels the darkness of passions from his insides. Mercy is our good debt to God according to the Gospel word of life 539. Holy ascetic writers call any short prayer, or short holy thought, in which spiritual ascetics constantly try to contain their minds, teaching or remembrance of God. See The Word on the Teaching or Memory of God, Ascetic Experiences, vol. 2. Holy ascetic writers call absentmindedness of the mind soaring. The enemy’s excuses consist of sinful thoughts, dreams and feelings. St. Simeon the New Theologian Word on Faith, Kindness. Part 1. Philokalia part 1, extract from the life of St. Maxima Kapsokalivi. Those. doesn't think about anything. The state of spiritual vision, being the fruit of prayer, is sometimes called spiritual prayer in contrast to spiritual prayer, which can be very sublime, but is in the power of the one praying. When praying very attentively, ascetics also sweat, not only when they strain their bodies with bows, but also when they perform prayer standing or sitting. Sweat appears with special attention, with special contrition of spirit. So the Venerable Pachomius the Great, during his cell prayers, shed tears and sweat (the life of the Venerable, the Fourth Menaion, on the 15th day of May. - His Holiness Callistos, Patriarch of Constantinople says: “Sometimes it happens that in those who have come to such a state (in those who have acquired heartfelt prayer) there is sweat from the great warmth that appears in the body.” Philokalia, part 4. Ch. 52. A Word on Silence and Prayer by Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos. Philokalia, part 2. It was explained above what the ascetic Fathers mean by the word memory of God. Imbued with sinful sensations. The body usually becomes this way from bliss, rest, abundant nutrition and a distracted, inattentive life. Pimen the Great said about this faith: “Faith lies in remaining in humility and doing alms.” – Word 30. “Betrayal comes from negligence. Do not contradict the attacking thoughts, because the enemies want this, and, seeing the contradiction, will not stop attacking; but pray to the Lord, laying your weakness before Him, and He will help not only drive them away, but also completely abolish them.” Ave. Barsanuphius and John answer 91. Word 30th. An enterprise is what the Holy Fathers, teachers of monasticism, call the manifestation of previously committed sins in thought, dreaming and feeling. How fierce the abuse caused by enterprises can be seen in the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt (April 1 of the Fourth Menaion). “Deliver me from many bitter memories and enterprises,” we pray in the final morning prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos. Canon. That is, supernaturally, from the overshadowing of nature by Divine grace. The Holy Fathers call those actions and states that violate the laws of nature illegally, i.e., supernatural. through sin. You might be interested in: