The Ascetic Discourses

Saint Dorotheos of Gaza · the golden age of the Fathers

The Ascetic Discourses

THE ASCETIC DISCOURSES DISCOURSE I: ON RENUNCIATION OF THE WORLD Man Created According to Nature In the beginning, when God created man, He placed him in Paradise, as Holy Scripture says (Genesis 2:15), having adorned him with every virtue and given him the commandment not to eat from the tree that stood in the midst of Paradise (Genesis 2:16-17). And he lived in the delight of Paradise with prayer and with the contemplation of God, in every honor and glory, possessing sound senses and remaining “according to nature,” exactly as he had been created. For God created man “according to His image” — that is, immortal and self-determining, adorned with every virtue. But when he disobeyed God and ate from the tree that God had forbidden him to eat, he was then driven out of Paradise (Genesis 3:23), for he had fallen from the “according to nature” and found himself in the “contrary to nature” — that is, in sin, in love of glory, in love of the pleasures of this world, and in the rest of the passions, which mastered him, for through this transgression he truly became their slave. The Reign of Sin and the Giving of the Law From that time, then, the various forms of wickedness began more and more to multiply, and death reigned (Romans 5:14). Nowhere was reverence for God to be found; everywhere there was ignorance of God.

Only a few, as the Fathers have said, knew God, helped by the innate moral law. Such were Abraham and the other patriarchs, Noah and Job — in a word, few, and very rare, were those who knew God. For then the devil spread abroad the whole of his wickedness, once sin had come to reign (Romans 5:21). Then began the worship of idols, belief in many gods, sorceries and magic arts, murders, and the rest of the devil’s wickedness. Then the all-good God had mercy on His creature and delivered to him, through Moses, the written Law, by which He forbade certain things and permitted others. Here is what I mean: through the commandments He said, “Do this; do not do that.” He gave the commandments, and He said plainly, “The Lord your God is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4), so as to draw the minds of men away from polytheism. And again He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your understanding” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Everywhere He proclaims that God is one and that there is no other besides Him. For in saying, “You shall love the Lord your God,” He showed that there is one God and one Lord. And again, in the Ten Commandments: “You shall worship the Lord your God alone, and Him alone shall you serve, and to Him you shall be devoted, and you shall swear by His name” (Deuteronomy 6:13).

Then He adds: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth below” (Deuteronomy 5:7-8), for at that time men worshiped every kind of created thing. Neither Law nor Prophets Could Heal the Wound The all-good God, then, gave the Law for help, for the return of man, for the correction of evil — and yet evil did not disappear from the earth. He sent Prophets, but even they could not help, for evil had prevailed, as Isaiah says: “Wickedness is not merely a wound here, or a bruise there, or a festering sore somewhere else; the whole body is one wound. And so it is not possible to apply healing oils or bandages to it” (Isaiah 1:6). We might say that evil was found not in a single form and in one part of the body, but had taken possession of the whole body, of the entire soul, and had affected all its powers. There is no ointment to heal it, and so on — as though he wished to say, “All has been subjected to sin; all has been mastered by it.” And Jeremiah says, “We gave medicines to Babylon, and she was not healed” (Jeremiah 28:9 LXX). That is: we made Your Name known, we proclaimed Your commandments, Your benefactions, Your promises; we prophesied the rousing of enemies against Babylon, and yet she was not healed — that is, she did not repent, she was not afraid, she did not abandon her wickedness.

As it says elsewhere, “She did not accept discipline” (Jeremiah 2:30) — that is, counsel, instruction. And in the Psalm it says, “Their soul loathed all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death” (Psalm 106:18). God Sends His Only-Begotten Son Then the good and man-loving God sent His Only-Begotten Son (John 3:16). For only God could now heal man and strengthen him to rise up from so great a passion. And the Prophets were not unaware of this. For this reason David said plainly, “You who sit upon the Cherubim… reveal Yourself, put forth Your invincible power, and come to save us” (Psalm 79:2-3). And elsewhere, “Lord, bow the heavens and come down” (Psalm 143:5), and many other sayings like these. All the other Prophets too, each in his own way, said many such things — at times entreating God to come down, at other times foretelling His coming, for they had truly received the assurance that He would certainly come down. Our Lord came, then, and became man for our sake, in order to heal, as Saint Gregory says, “like with like — soul with soul, body with body.” For the Lord became perfect man, apart from sin. He took our very substance; He took our whole human nature and became a new Adam, “according to the image” of Him who created him (Colossians 3:10).

For He renews human nature and restores our senses to their fullness, exactly as they were created in the beginning. By becoming man He renewed man, who had fallen; He set free the one who had been utterly enslaved to sin and was being dragged along by it against his will. For man was dragged along by the enemy by force and unwillingly. Even those who did not wish to sin sinned almost by compulsion, as the Apostle, speaking on our behalf, says: “I do not do the good that I wish, but the evil that I do not wish, this I do” (Romans 7:19). Freedom from the Tyranny of the Enemy By becoming man for our sake, then, God freed man from the tyranny of the enemy. For He weakened him; He shattered his whole power and delivered us from our slavery to him, from our complete subjection to him — provided, of course, that we ourselves do not choose to sin. For, as He said, He gave us authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and to overcome every power of the enemy (Luke 10:19), once He had cleansed us of every sin through baptism. For holy Baptism forgives and blots out every sin. Yet the good God, knowing our weakness and foreknowing that even after holy Baptism we would sin — for Holy Scripture says that “our mind is inclined toward evil from our youth” (Genesis 8:21) — gave us, according to His goodness, holy commandments to cleanse us, so that, if we so wish, we may again be cleansed through the keeping of the commandments, not only from our sins but also from our very passions.

For the passions are one thing, and sins are another. Passions and Sins Distinguished The passions are anger, vainglory, love of pleasure, hatred, evil desire, and the like. Sins are the actions of these passions — that is, when a person allows his passions to act, when with the body he carries out what the passions dictate to him. It is of course possible for someone to possess the passions and yet not put them into action. He gave us, then, as I have said, commandments that cleanse us even from our own passions, from those evil dispositions that exist in the “inner man” (Romans 7:22; Ephesians 3:16). For the commandment endows him with the discernment of good and evil, awakens him, and shows him the causes that lead him to sin, saying: “The Law said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I say, ‘Do not even desire’” (Matthew 5:27-28; Exodus 20:14). “The Law said, ‘Do not murder.’ But I say, ‘Do not even become angry’” (Matthew 5:21-22; Exodus 20:13). How Sin Advances by Small Steps For if you desire, then even if you do not commit adultery today, the desire does not cease troubling you within until it casts you also into the commission of the passion. If you become angry and rise up against your brother, you will fall next into slander, and then into the desire that he suffer harm, and so, advancing little by little, you come to the point even of committing murder.

Again the Law says, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and so on (Exodus 21:24). But the Lord teaches us not only to receive with patience the blow of the one who strikes us, but also to turn to him the other cheek with humility. For the purpose of the Law at that time was to teach us not to do what we would not wish to suffer. It restrained us, then, from doing evil through fear of suffering the same. Now, as I have said, what is asked of us is to root out of our soul every passion, whether it be hatred, or love of pleasure, or love of glory, or anything else. Christ’s Purpose: To Heal the Root In a word, the purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ is to teach us how we came to these sins, from what cause we fell into these evil days. First of all, He set us free, as I have already said, through holy Baptism, granting us the forgiveness of sins, and gave us authority to do good, if we wish, and no longer to be dragged, as it were, by force into evil. For the one who is a slave to sins is pressed and dragged by them, as it is written: “Each man is bound by the chains of his own sins” (Proverbs 5:22).

Then, through the holy commandments, He teaches us how to be cleansed even from the passions themselves, so that we do not fall again through them into the same sins. He shows us, then, the cause that brings a person to arrogant and contemptuous behavior and to disobedience even of God’s own commandments. Thus He gives us the cure for the cause itself, so that we may be able to obey and be saved. The Root of All Evil, and Its Remedy What, then, is the cause, and what is the cure, of this arrogant and contemptuous behavior? Hear what our Lord says: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Here, briefly, in a single saying, He has shown us the root and cause of every evil, and its remedy — the cause of every good. He has shown us that pride has conquered us, and that we can be shown mercy in no other way than by its opposite, which is humility. For pride gives birth to arrogant and contemptuous behavior and to destructive disobedience, just as humility gives birth to obedience and the salvation of our souls. I mean, of course, true humility — not merely humility in words or in outward forms, but the truly humble disposition cultivated in the heart and mind.

For this is what He means when He says, “I am gentle and lowly of heart.” True Rest Is Found in Humility Let the one, then, who wishes his soul to find true rest learn humility, and he will see that in it is found every joy, every glory, and every rest, just as in pride is found the opposite of all these. How did we arrive at all these afflictions? Why did we fall into all this wretchedness? Is it not from our pride? Is it not from our folly? Is it not because we gave place to our own evil purpose? Is it not because we preferred to impose our own bitter will? But why do I say this? Was not man created amid every delight, every joy, every rest, every glory? Was he not in Paradise? God said to him, “Do not do this.” And he did it. Do you see pride? Do you see obstinacy? Do you see insubordination? When, then, God saw that shamelessness, He said, “This man is foolish; he does not know how to rejoice. Unless he suffers hardship, in a little while he will be altogether lost. For if he does not learn what affliction is, he will not learn what rest is either.” Then He gave him what he deserved and cast him out of Paradise. He was thus given over to his self-love and to his own will, so that these might crush him — so that he might learn not to trust in himself but in the commandment of God — so that this very hardship of disobedience might teach him the rest of obedience, as the Prophet says: “Your own apostasy will punish you” (Jeremiah 2:19).

God’s Goodness Calls Man Back Yet the goodness of God, as I have often said, did not abandon His creature, but again He rouses it, again He consoles it: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is as though He said: “You have grown weary; you have suffered; you have learned by experience the evil results of your insubordination. Come, then; turn back; recognize the greatness of your weakness and of your disgrace, so that you may find rest and your glory. Come, live with humility, you who have been put to death by pride. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and your souls will find rest” (Matthew 11:29). Adam and Eve Blame Rather Than Confess Alas, my brethren, what evil pride works! Ah, if only you knew what humility can accomplish! What need was there for all these misfortunes? For if from the beginning man had humbled himself, obeyed God, and kept the commandment, he would not have fallen. Again, after the sin, God gave him occasion to repent and to be shown mercy, and yet he remained in his pride. For God came to him, saying, “Adam, where are you?” — instead of saying, “From what glory have you fallen, and to what wretchedness have you come?” Then He asks him, “Why did you sin?

Why did you transgress the commandment?”, giving him the opportunity simply to say, “Forgive me.” But where was “Forgive me” to be found? Nowhere was there humility, nowhere repentance — but the very opposite. And he answers, “The woman whom You gave me” (Genesis 3:12). He does not say, “My wife deceived me,” but, “The woman whom You gave me” — as though he wished to say, “The calamity You loaded upon my head.” For it is so, my brethren: when a man is not accustomed to accuse himself, he does not delay long before considering God Himself the cause of the evil. Then God comes to her, to Eve, and says, “Why did you not keep the commandment?” — as though wishing to say to her, “At least you say, ‘Forgive me,’ so that your soul may be humbled and find mercy.” But again, nowhere was “Forgive me” to be found. She too answers, saying, “The serpent deceived me” (Genesis 3:13) — as though wishing to say, “If he sinned, what fault is it of mine?” What are you doing, wretched ones? Make a prostration; acknowledge your fault; grieve over your nakedness. Yet neither of them was found worthy to accuse himself; neither of them was found to possess even a little humility. See, then, clearly, to what state our condition has come. See into how many and what great evils we have been brought by justifying ourselves, by following our own opinion, by satisfying our own will — which are, of course, the offspring of that opposing pride — just as accusing ourselves, refusing to trust our own prudence, and hating our own will are the offspring of humility.

Without Humility Nothing Good Is Accomplished For through these latter things a person is counted worthy to find himself again, to return again to the “according to nature,” through the cleansing granted by the keeping of Christ’s holy commandments. For without humility no one can obey the commandments, nor accomplish anything good, as Abba Mark said: “Without contrition of heart it is impossible for anyone to be freed from wickedness; it is altogether impossible to acquire virtue.” Through contrition of heart, then, one accepts the commandments, is freed from wickedness, acquires the virtues, and finally finds his rest again. Those Who Sought to Become Passionless Because all the saints had understood this, they took care through every humble manner of life to be united with God. For there were some who loved God so much that, after baptism, they cut off not only the actions of the passions but desired to conquer the passions themselves, to become “dispassionate.” Such were Saint Anthony, Saint Pachomios, and the other God-bearing Fathers. Since they had set as their goal, as the Apostle says, to be cleansed “from every defilement of flesh and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1), they knew that, as we have already said, through the keeping of the commandments the soul is cleansed, and, one might say, the mind is cleansed, recovers its light, and comes to the “according to nature.” The Origins of the Monastic Life For “the commandment of the Lord is pure and enlightens the eyes” (Psalm 18:9).

They understood that, so long as they remained in the world, they could not easily attain virtue. And so they devised for themselves a peculiar and original way of life, a strange life — I mean, of course, the monastic life — and they began to flee from the world and to dwell in the deserts, with fasting, with sleeping on the ground, with vigils, and with other ascetic labors that bring hardship and the complete renunciation of homeland and kindred, of money and of possessions. In a word, they crucified within themselves every worldly attachment. And not only did they keep the commandments, but they also offered gifts to God. I will explain how. Commandments and Gifts The commandments of God were given for all Christians, and every Christian is obliged to keep them. They are, we might say, taxes that one owes to the king. Who can say, “I will not pay taxes to the king,” and escape punishment? Yet there are in the world great and distinguished men who not only pay taxes to the king but also offer him gifts, and these men are counted worthy of great honor, great favors, and high office. So, then, the Fathers not only kept the commandments but also offered gifts to God. These gifts are virginity and non-possession. These are not commandments; they are gifts. For nowhere is it written, “Do not marry, do not have children.”

Nor did Christ give a commandment when He said, “Sell what you have.” Indeed, when the lawyer approached Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, He answered, “You know the commandments: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness against your neighbor,” and so on. And when the man said that “all these I have kept from my youth until now,” He added, “If you wish to be perfect, sell all that you have and give to the poor” (Matthew 19:16-21; Mark 10:17-21), and so on. He did not say, “Sell what you have,” as though giving a commandment, but as counsel; for “if you wish” indicates not a commandment, but counsel. Crucifying the World Within Us — and Ourselves for the World As we have said, then, the Fathers offered to God, along with the other virtues, virginity and non-possession as gifts; and just as we have already said, they crucified the world within themselves and thereafter struggled to crucify themselves also to the world, as the Apostle says: “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). What difference, then, is there between crucifying the world within me and being crucified myself to the world? The world is crucified for a man when he renounces the world and becomes a monk, when he leaves parents, money, possessions, business affairs, and transactions.

Then the world is crucified for him, because he has abandoned it. This is what the Apostle means when he says, “The world has been crucified within me.” Then he adds, “And I to the world.” But how is a man crucified to the world? He is crucified when, having freed himself from external things, he struggles also against the very pleasures, against the very desires for things, against his own will, and puts his passions to death. Then he too is crucified to the world, and is counted worthy to say together with the Apostle, “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” We Have Left the World but Still Feed Its Passions The Fathers, then, as we have said, having crucified the world within themselves, took care through their labors to crucify themselves also to the world. We, however, though we appear to have crucified the world within us, to have left it and come to the monastery, do not wish to crucify ourselves to the world, for we still seek after its pleasures, we are still bound to it by passion, we struggle for its glory, we struggle over food and clothing. If there is some good tool in the monastery, we covet it and allow it to take, within us, the place that money once held — exactly as Abba Zosimas said.

We appear, then, to have renounced the world and abandoned worldly things; yet we come to the monastery and fulfill the desires of the world with the most worthless of things. And this happens to us out of our great folly, for while we have left behind great and precious things, we feed our passions with a few trifles. For each of us left behind what he had — the one who had much, the much; the one who had some small possession, he too left all his substance, each according to his own ability. And we come to the monastery and, as I said, feed our desires with worthless and trivial things. We ought not to behave in this way, but, just as we renounced the world and everything belonging to it, so we ought to renounce also this very “attachment” of ours to material things, knowing well what this renunciation means, why we came to the monastery, what the habit we wear signifies. And in accordance with these things we ought to be trained and to struggle, as our Fathers have taught us. … The Symbols of the Monastic Habit The habit we wear consists of the sleeveless tunic, the leather belt, the analavos (the cross-worn cord), and the cowl. These are the symbols of our habit, and we ought to learn what they signify for us. Why do we wear the sleeveless tunic, which has no sleeves?

Why is it that we have no sleeves, while everyone else does? Sleeves are symbols of the hands, and the hands are used for practical works. When, then, the thought comes to us to do with our hands something that the “old man” dictates to us — let us suppose, to steal, or to strike someone, or any other sin committed with the hands — we ought to observe our habit and see that we have no sleeves, that is, that we have no hands with which to fulfill any of the desires of the “old man.” Our tunic also bears a certain red mark. What might this red mark signify? Everyone enlisted in the royal army wears purple upon his cloak. For since the king wears purple, all who belong to his army place purple upon their cloak, that is, upon the royal garment, in order to show by this that they belong to the king’s ranks and are under his orders. So too we place a red mark upon our tunic, wishing to show that we have become soldiers of Christ and are obliged, for His sake, to endure all the sufferings that He endured for us. For when our Lord suffered, He was clothed in purple (John 19:2) — first of all as King, because He is the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16), and then also as one who was being mocked by those impious men.

So we too, by wearing the red mark, promise, as I have said, to endure all His sufferings. And just as the soldier does not leave the army to become a farmer or a merchant — for then he loses his place in the army, as the Apostle says, “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the affairs of civilian life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him” (2 Timothy 2:4) — so we too must struggle to escape all care for worldly things and affairs, and to occupy ourselves with God alone, as the Apostle says, “so that the virgin may live free from distraction, devoted to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:34-35). The Belt: Readiness and the Death of Desire We also have a belt. Why do we wear it? The belt we wear symbolizes, first of all, that we are ready to serve. For everyone who wishes to work first girds himself, and thus begins the work, as it is written: “Let your loins be girded” (Luke 12:35). Then, just as the belt is made from dead skin, so we too must put to death our love of pleasure. For the belt is worn about our waist, and there the kidneys are found, which, it is said, are the seat of the soul’s desires. And this is what the Apostle means when he says, “Put to death your earthly members: fornication, uncleanness,” and so on (Colossians 3:5).

The Cross-Cord: Perfect Renunciation We also have the analavos. It is worn crosswise upon our shoulders. This signifies that we bear the symbol of the cross upon our shoulders, as it is written: “Take up your cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). What else does the cross signify but perfect mortification, which is accomplished within us through our faith in Christ? For faith, as the Sayings of the Fathers again tells us, removes every obstacle and clears our path for the ascetic labor that leads us to this absolute mortification. That is, one must put to death within himself every worldly thing and affair. And if he has left parents, he must struggle also against the desire for relations with them; likewise also with money and possessions. For every single thing that one has renounced, one must also renounce the desire for it, exactly as we have already said. This is perfect renunciation. The Cowl: The Innocence of a Child We also wear the cowl. This is a symbol of humility, for small infants wear cowls; a grown man, of course, does not wear a cowl. We, then, wear it for this reason: so that we may become “infants” in wickedness, as the Apostle says: “Do not be children in your thinking, but in wickedness be infants” (1 Corinthians 14:20). What does it mean to become infants in wickedness? An infant, having no malice, does not become angry if it is treated with contempt, nor is it puffed up with vainglory if it is honored.

If someone takes away whatever it has, it is not distressed, for it bears no malice. It does not pursue the satisfaction of its passions; it does not wish to claim for itself a glory that is not its own. The cowl is also a sign of the grace of God, for just as the cowl covers and protects the child’s head, so the grace of God covers our mind, as it says in the Sayings of the Fathers: “The cowl is a symbol of the grace of our Savior God, which covers our ‘governing faculty’ and cherishes the childlike innocence that Christ grants us, protecting it from those who strike at it and attempt to wound it.” Living According to the Habit We Wear See, then: we have the belt about our waist, which signifies the mortification of irrational desire; and the analavos upon our shoulders, which signifies the cross. We also have the cowl, which signifies innocence and childlikeness “in Christ.” Let us, then, live according to our habit, as the Fathers have said, so that we do not wear a habit that does not match our life; but just as we have left behind the great things, so let us leave behind the small ones too. We have left the world; let us leave behind its desires as well. For desires, as I have said, bind us to the world again without our realizing it, using as their instruments certain small, worthless, and insignificant things.

Cutting Off One’s Own Will If, then, we wish to be perfectly freed and set at liberty, let us learn to cut off our own will; and so, advancing little by little, by the grace of God, we shall arrive at “freedom from attachment.” For nothing benefits people so much as cutting off their own will. Indeed, a person makes progress through this practically more than through any other virtue. And just as someone walking along a road who finds a shortcut and follows it gains a very great part of the journey by that path, the same thing happens to the one who follows the path of “cutting off one’s own will.” For by cutting off his own will, a person acquires “freedom from attachment,” and from “freedom from attachment” he comes, by the grace of God, to perfect “dispassion.” One can, in fact, cut off ten wills in a short time. Let me tell you how. He takes a little walk and sees something, and the thought says to him, “Look over there.” And he says to the thought, “No, I am not looking at all.” And so he cuts off his will and pays no attention. Again he meets some people talking, and the thought says to him, “Say this too.” And he cuts off his will and does not say it. Again the thought says to him, “Go and ask the cook what he is preparing.”

And he does not go, but cuts off his will. He sees something, and the thought says to him, “Ask who brought it.” And he cuts off his will and does not ask. And so, cutting off his will again and again, he becomes accustomed to cutting it off; and beginning with small things, he comes at last to cut off, with ease and joy, even the great ones as well. The Fruit of Cutting Off One’s Will: Dispassion In this way he ends by having no will of his own at all; instead, whatever happens gives him rest, as if it had happened by his own will. And though he himself has no desire to do his own will, he finds that he is always doing it. For whoever has no will of his own finds that everything that happens is also his own. And in this way, as we have said, he comes to be free from “attachment,” and from that “freedom from attachment” he comes to “dispassion.” Do you see how much progress we make by cutting off our will little by little? Who was that blessed Dositheos, and what kind of life did he live before — with what luxury, with what ignorance! A man who had never before heard a word of God. And yet you have heard to what “measures,” and in how short a time, he attained, by being faithful in obedience and by cutting off his own will.

See, too, how God glorified him and did not allow so great a virtue to be forgotten, but revealed it to the holy elder, who saw him together with all those saints, enjoying the same blessedness as they. The Brother Who Crossed the Flooded River I will tell you of something else as well, of which I myself am a witness, so that you may learn that obedience, and having no will of one’s own, save a man even from death. When I was once at the monastery of Abba Seridos, a disciple of a certain great elder came from the region of Ascalon on some business of his elder. But he had been ordered by his elder to return to his cell that same evening. But before he could leave, the weather turned very bad; rain and thunder began, and the nearby stream flooded. Yet he wished to leave, in accordance with his elder’s command. We begged him to stay, for we believed it was impossible for him to survive the crossing of the river. But we could not persuade him to remain. At last we said, “Let us go with him as far as the river, for if he sees it, he will surely turn back on his own.” We went with him, then, and as soon as we reached the river, he took off his clothes, tied them upon his head, girded up his mavorion, and threw himself into the river, into that entire terrifying current.

We stood there full of astonishment and fear that he might drown. But he swam, and suddenly he was found on the opposite bank; he put on his clothes, made a prostration to us from there, took our blessing, and ran off. We remained full of wonder and astonishment at the power of that virtue, for while we watched him full of fear, he crossed without encountering any danger, thanks to his obedience. The Brother and the Envoy’s Daughter In a similar way, there was that brother whom his elder had sent on various necessary errands to the elder’s envoy in the city. When he perceived that the envoy’s daughter wished to lead him into sin, he said only, “My God, through the prayers of my elder, save me,” and immediately he found himself on the road leading to the monastery, returning to his elder. Do you see the power of virtue? Do you see the efficacy of a word? How much help a person receives through the mere invocation of his elder’s prayers? For simply by saying, “My God, through the prayers of my elder, save me,” he immediately found himself on the road. The Humility of Both Elder and Disciple Understand the humility and reverence of both of them. They were in need, and the elder wished to send the brother to their envoy. Yet he did not say to him, “Go,” but said to him, “Do you wish to go?”

Likewise the brother did not say, “I will go,” but said to him, “I will do as you wish.” For he feared both the temptations he might meet and the possibility of disobeying his elder. Later, when the need became more pressing, the elder said to him, “Rise, go.” And he did not say, “I hope that God will protect you,” but said to him, “I hope that, through the prayers of my elder, God will protect you.” Likewise, when the brother found himself in temptation, he did not say, “My God, save me,” but, “My God, through the prayers of my elder, save me.” Each of them placed his hope in the prayers of his elder. Obedience Yoked with Humility Do you see how they joined obedience together with humility? For just as, when a carriage is yoked, one horse cannot run faster than the other without being injured, so obedience too must be yoked together with humility. And how can a person be counted worthy to acquire this grace unless, as I have said, he compels himself to cut off his own will and, after God, entrusts himself entirely to his elder, without reservation in anything, doing everything exactly as they did, with the certainty that he is obeying God? Who is worthy to find mercy? Who is worthy to find salvation? Saint Basil and the Obedient Monk It is told that once, when Saint Basil the Great visited the monasteries of his province, he said to an abbot, “Do you have anyone here who truly strives for his salvation?”

The abbot said to him, “Through your prayers, master, we all wish to be saved.” Saint Basil said to him again, “Do you have anyone who walks the way of salvation?” The abbot, understanding what he meant, since he too was a man of spiritual discernment, said, “Yes.” The saint said to him, “Bring him here.” That brother came, and the saint said to him, “Bring me water to wash my hands.” He went and brought him water to wash. After Saint Basil had washed, he took the water pitcher in his turn and said to the brother, “Take this and wash yourself too.” The brother received the water from the saint without objection. Having tested him in this, the saint said to him again, “When I go into the sanctuary, come and remind me to ordain you.” Again the brother obeyed without contradiction. And when he saw Saint Basil in the sanctuary, he went and reminded him, and the saint ordained him and took him along with him — for who else ought to be with that holy and God-bearing man, but such a blessed brother? Dorotheos’s Own Testimony to the Rest Found in Obedience You have no experience of unquestioning obedience, nor have you tasted the rest that it grants. I once asked the elder John, the disciple of Abba Barsanuphius, and said to him: “Elder, since Holy Scripture says that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven through many afflictions (Acts 14:22), and I see that I have no affliction at all, what should I do, lest I lose my soul?”

For I had no affliction and no anxiety whatsoever. And if it happened that some thought troubled me, I would take a writing tablet and write to the elder — for I used to consult him by letter, even before I entered his service — and before I had finished writing, I would feel relief and benefit. So great was my freedom from care and my rest. But because I did not know the power of the virtue of obedience, and because I heard that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven through many afflictions, I was afraid, since I experienced no affliction. As soon as I mentioned this to the elder, he answered me: “Do not be distressed. You have no reason to grieve, for everyone who places himself under the obedience of the Fathers possesses this very freedom from care and this rest.” This discourse (traditionally numbered Discourse I of the Doctrinae Diversae) circulated among the source materials under the mislabeled English title “On Absolution”; its actual Greek heading is Περὶ ἀποταγῆς, “On Renunciation [of the world],” and it is translated under that title here. Akēdia does not appear in this discourse, but several other technical terms recur: aprospatheia (“freedom from attachment”) and apatheia (“dispassion”) are kept distinct, matching Dorotheos’s own careful gradation from cutting off the will, to freedom from attachment, to dispassion. “Old man” (ho palaios anthropos) renders the Pauline term for the unregenerate self (cf.

Romans 6:6). The mavorion (§67 in the Greek numbering) was a full-body hooded outer garment; the note is preserved from the source’s own citation of Palladius’s Lausiac History and the Gerontikon. Scriptural citations follow the Greek (Septuagint) numbering used throughout by Dorotheos; verse references not given explicitly in the source (e.g. Genesis 3:12-13 for Adam and Eve’s replies) have been added here for the reader’s convenience. Ellipsis marks an omission already present in the supplied Greek text. DISCOURSE II: ON HUMILITY Why Humility Comes Before Every Other Virtue 1. One of the elders said: “Before all else we need humility, and we must be ready, whatever word we hear, to say, ‘Forgive me,’ for by humility all the assaults of the enemy and the adversary are destroyed.” Let us examine what this saying of the elder means. Why does he say, “Before all else we need humility,” rather than, “Before all else we need self-control”? For the Apostle says, “Everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25). Or why does he not say, “Before all else we need the fear of God”? For Scripture says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 110:10), and again, “Everyone turns away from evil through the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 15:27). And why does he not say, “Before all else we need almsgiving” or “faith”? For Scripture says, “By almsgiving and faith sins are purged” (Proverbs 15:27), and the Apostle says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

If, then, it is impossible to please God without faith, and sins are purged by almsgiving and faith, and everyone turns away from evil through the fear of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things—why does he say, “Before all else we need humility,” and set all these aside, necessary though they are? The elder wishes to show us that neither the fear of God, nor almsgiving, nor faith, nor self-control, nor any other virtue can be achieved without humility. For this reason he says, “Before all else we need humility, and we must be ready, whatever word we hear, to say, ‘Forgive me,’ for by humility all the assaults of the enemy and the adversary are destroyed.” You see, then, brethren, how great is the power of humility. You see what is accomplished by saying, “Forgive me.” And why is the devil called not only enemy but also adversary? He is called enemy because he is a hater of mankind, a hater of the good, and a plotter of harm. He is called adversary because he attempts to hinder every good work. Does someone wish to pray? He contends against him, hindering him with evil memories, with the captivity of his thoughts, with listlessness. The Enemy and the Adversary Does someone wish to give alms?

He hinders him with love of money, with avarice. Does someone wish to keep vigil? He hinders him with sloth, with negligence. In every good work we attempt, he opposes us in the same way. For this reason he is called not only enemy but also adversary. By humility, then, all the assaults of the enemy and the adversary are destroyed. The Greatness of Humility 3. For humility is truly great, and every one of the saints walked by this humility and, through labor, shortened the journey, as it is written, “Look upon my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins” (Psalm 24:18). For humility alone, as Abba John said, can bring us in, even if slowly. Let us, then, also humble ourselves a little, and we shall be saved; and if we cannot labor as those in good health do, let us, as the weak, at least try to humble ourselves. I believe in the mercy of God that, for this small thing done with humility, we too shall be found in the place of those saints who labored so greatly and served God so faithfully. Very well: we are weak, and cannot labor—but can we not, perhaps, humble ourselves? “Humility Is Never Angry, Nor Angers Anyone” 4. Blessed, brethren, is the one who possesses humility. Great is humility; and that saint spoke well of the one who has true humility, saying, “Humility is never angry, nor angers anyone.”

This seems strange, for humility, it would appear, opposes only vainglory and guards a person from that alone; yet people become angry over money and over food as well. How, then, can it be said that “humility is never angry, nor angers anyone”? Humility, as we have said, is so great and so powerful that it draws down the grace of God upon the soul. This grace of God, once it comes, shelters the soul from these two other grievous passions. For what is more grievous than to become angry and to provoke one’s fellow man to anger? As Evagrius said, it is altogether foreign to a monk to become angry. Indeed, unless such a person is quickly covered by humility, he comes little by little into the condition of a demon, disturbing others and being disturbed himself. For this reason the saying holds, “Humility is never angry, nor angers anyone.” Humility Overcomes Every Passion 5. And why do I say only that it shelters from these two passions? Humility shelters the soul from every passion and every temptation. When Saint Anthony beheld all the snares of the devil spread out and, groaning, asked God, “Who, then, can pass beyond these?”, what did God answer him? That humility passes beyond them. And what other wonder did he add? That they do not even touch it. Do you see the power, do you see the grace of this virtue?

Truly there is nothing stronger than humility, nothing that surpasses it. Whatever grievous thing befalls the humble person, he immediately turns against himself; he immediately condemns himself as deserving it. For this reason he cannot bear to blame anyone else, cannot bear to lay the cause upon another, and so he bears it without disturbance, without sorrow, with complete ease. This is why he is never angry, nor angers anyone. This is why the saint spoke well when he said, “Before all else we need humility.” The Two Prides 6. There are two kinds of pride, just as there are two kinds of humility. The first pride is when someone despises his brother, treating him as though he were nothing and setting himself above him. If such a person does not quickly come to his senses and take the matter seriously, he comes little by little even to the second pride, so that he exalts himself even against God Himself, attributing his achievements to himself rather than to God. The Monk Who Exalted Himself Against the Trinity 7. I once knew, my brethren, a man who had come to such a wretched condition. At first, when one of the brothers spoke to him, he would spit and say, “Who is that? There is no one but Zosimas and his own.” Then he began to despise these as well, saying, “There is no one but Macarius.”

A little later he began to say, “Who is Macarius? No one, except Basil and Gregory.” Somewhat later still he began to despise even these, saying, “Who is Basil, and who is Gregory? No one, except Peter and Paul.” I said to him, “Surely, brother, you will end by despising these as well.” Believe me, after a little while he began to say, “Who is Peter, and who is Paul? No one, except the Holy Trinity.” After this he exalted himself even against God Himself, and so he was destroyed. For this reason, my brethren, we must struggle against the first pride, lest little by little we fall also into complete pride. Worldly Pride and Monastic Pride 8. There is also worldly pride and monastic pride. Worldly pride is when someone exalts himself over his brother as being wealthier, or more handsome, or better dressed, or braver than he. When, then, we find ourselves boasting in things such as these—or that our monastery is larger or more prosperous, or that we have many brothers—we must recognize that we are still in worldly pride. There are also cases where someone boasts in certain natural gifts. For example, someone boasts that he has a fine voice and sings well, or that he is skilled and performs his work well, that he serves well. These are more modest than the former, yet they too belong to worldly pride.

Monastic pride, on the other hand, is when someone boasts because he keeps vigil, because he fasts, because he observes the rules, because he serves others, because he is zealous. There are also cases where someone is humbled by his own glory. These are marks of monastic pride. The right course is not to be proud at all; but if that is impossible, it is better to be proud in monastic matters than in worldly ones. The Two Humilities 9. We have said, then, what the first pride is and what the second is; likewise we have said what worldly pride is and what monastic pride is. Let us now learn what the two humilities are as well.

10. The first humility is to consider one’s brother wiser than oneself and superior to oneself in every respect—in a word, as that saint said, to be beneath everyone. The second humility is to attribute one’s achievements to God. This is the perfect humility of the saints. It arises naturally in the soul through the practice of the virtues. For just as trees, when they bear much fruit, have their branches bent down and drawn low by that very fruit, while the branch that bears no fruit stands upright and grows straight up—and there are trees whose branch, so long as it grows upward, bears no fruit, but if one takes a stone and hangs it on the branch and turns it downward, then it bears fruit—so too the soul: when it is humbled, it bears fruit, and the more fruit it produces, the more it is humbled. For the closer the saints draw to God, the more they see themselves as sinners. The Official of Gaza 11. I remember that once we were speaking of humility, and a certain official of Gaza, hearing us say that the closer a person draws to God, the more he sees himself as a sinner, was puzzled and said, “How can this be?” Since he did not understand, he wished to learn the reason. I said to him, “Tell me, sir governor, what do you consider yourself to be within your own city?”

He answered, “I consider myself great, and the first man of the city.” I said to him, “If you went to Caesarea, what would you consider yourself there?” He said, “I would consider myself lesser than the great men there.” I said to him, “And if you went to Antioch, what would you consider yourself?” He said, “I would consider myself like some rustic.” I said to him, “And if you went to Constantinople, near the emperor, what would you consider yourself there?” He answered, “I would consider myself like a beggar.” Then I said to him, “See, this is how it is with the saints: the closer they draw to God, the more they see themselves as sinners.” Indeed, when Abraham saw the Lord, he called himself “earth and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). Isaiah said, “How wretched and unclean I am” (Isaiah 6:5). So too Daniel: when he was in the den among the lions and Habakkuk arrived with bread, saying to him, “Receive the food God has sent you,” what did Daniel say? “Has God, then, remembered me?” (Daniel 14:36–38, according to the Greek text of Daniel and Bel). Do you see what humility his heart possessed, when he was in the den among lions that did him no harm—and not only once but a second time as well—and yet he marveled, saying, “Has God, then, remembered me?” The Saints Fled from Glory 12.

You see the humility of the saints, the disposition their hearts possessed. Even when they were sent by God to help others, they did not consent to be glorified, but avoided it out of humility. Just as someone clothed in fine silk, if a filthy rag is thrown at him, flees so that his precious garment may not be defiled, so it is with the saints: clothed in the virtues, they avoid human glory so as not to be defiled by it. Those, on the other hand, who seek glory are like a naked man who is always looking for some small rag or the like to cover his shame; so too the one who is naked of virtues seeks the glory of men. Moses and Jeremiah Declined the Call 13. When the saints were sent by God to help others, they did not accept it, out of humility. Moses said, “I beg you to appoint someone else able to do this, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10). Jeremiah said, “I am too young” (Jeremiah 1:6). And in general, every saint acquired this virtue through the keeping of the commandments, as we have said. No one can say what this humility is or how it is produced in the soul unless he learns it himself through experience; it cannot be learned through words. “I Do Not Know How to Tell You—But This Is What I Think” 14.

Once Abba Zosimas was speaking about humility, and a certain philosopher who happened to be present, hearing what he said and wishing to learn its exact meaning, said to him, “Tell me, how do you consider yourself sinful? Do you not know that you are holy? Do you not know that you possess the virtues? We can see plainly how you keep the commandments. How, then, while doing such things, do you suppose that you are a sinner?” The elder could find no argument with which to answer him, but only said, “I do not know how to tell you, but this is what I think.” The philosopher persisted, wishing to learn how this could be. The elder, unable to find a way to explain the matter, began to say, in his holy simplicity, “Do not trouble me; this, at any rate, is what I think.” A Habit Formed by Practice 15. Seeing, then, that the elder was at a loss how to answer, I said to him, “Is this not perhaps like the case of sophistry or medicine? When someone learns and practices one of these well, a certain disposition is gradually formed in the philosopher or the physician, and he cannot say, nor does he know how to explain, how he acquired that disposition; little by little, imperceptibly, as I have said, the soul received it through the practice of the art.”

So too you will find in the matter of humility, that from the keeping of the commandments there arises a certain humble disposition that cannot be expressed in words. When Abba Zosimas heard this, he rejoiced, and immediately embraced me and said, “You have found it! It is just as you have said.” The philosopher, too, was satisfied when he heard this, and he too accepted the explanation. Abba Agathon’s Fear at Death 16. The elders have indeed spoken certain words that help us to understand humility, yet no one has been able to say what the disposition of soul itself is like as it develops. When Abba Agathon was about to die and the brothers said to him, “Are you afraid too, father?”, he said, “Until now I have done what I could to keep the commandments, but I am a man. How do I know whether my work has pleased God? For God’s judgment is one thing, and man’s another.” He has thus opened our eyes to understand it, and given us a way to grasp it. But what it is, or how it is born in the soul, no one, as I have often said, has succeeded in expressing, nor can it be grasped by reason unless the soul is counted worthy to learn it through its own works. But what it is that produces it, the Fathers have told us.

The Way of Humility: Labor, Knowledge, and Unceasing Prayer It is recorded in the Sayings of the Fathers that a brother asked an elder, saying, “What is humility?” And the elder said, “Humility is a great and divine work. The way of humility is bodily labors joined with knowledge, and being beneath everyone, and entreating God unceasingly.” This is the way of humility; and this humility itself is divine and beyond comprehension. Why Bodily Labor Produces Humility 17. But why does he say that bodily labors bring the soul to humility? In what way is bodily labor a virtue of the soul? As for being beneath everyone, we have already said above that this is opposed to the first pride. For how can someone who places himself beneath everyone consider himself greater than his brother, or boast of something, or accuse, or despise anyone? It is likewise clear that unceasing prayer is opposed to the second pride. It is entirely plain that the humble and reverent person, knowing that no good can be accomplished by the soul without the help and protection of God, never ceases to entreat God unceasingly to show him mercy. And whoever entreats God constantly, if he is counted worthy to accomplish something, knows from whom he accomplished it, and cannot become proud or attribute it to his own power; rather, he attributes every achievement to God, continually thanks Him, and continually implores Him, trembling lest he fall from such help and his own weakness and infirmity be exposed.

And so, by humility he prays, and by prayer he is humbled; and the more he accomplishes, the more he is always humbled, and the more he is humbled, the more he is helped and makes progress through humility. The Soul Made One with the Flesh 18. Why, then, does he say that bodily labors also bring about humility? What does bodily labor have to do with the disposition of the soul? I shall tell you. Because the soul, once it fell from keeping the commandment through transgression, gave itself over, in its wretchedness, as Saint Gregory says, to the love of pleasure and to the license of error; it came to love bodily things and became, in a certain sense, one with the body, becoming entirely flesh, as it is written, “My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh” (Genesis 6:3); and this wretched soul, as it were, suffers together with the body and is affected by its workings. For this reason the elder said that bodily labor too leads to humility. For the soul of the healthy person has different dispositions from that of the sick; the soul of the one seated on a horse has different dispositions from that of the one seated on a donkey; the soul of the one seated on a throne has different dispositions from that of the one seated on the ground; the soul of the one clothed in fine garments has different dispositions from that of the one clothed in wretched rags.

Labor, then, humbles the body; and when the body is humbled, the soul is humbled together with it. So it was well said that bodily labor too leads to humility. For this reason, when Evagrius was assailed by blasphemous thoughts—since he had understanding and knew that blasphemy arises from pride, and that when the body is humbled the soul is humbled with it—he spent forty days without entering any roofed dwelling, so that his body, as the writer tells us, might be bitten by ticks as though it were a wild animal; and so the labor was undertaken not for the sake of the blasphemy itself, but for the sake of humility. The elder therefore spoke well in saying that bodily labors too lead to humility. May the good God grant us humility—He who delivers a man from great evils and guards him from great temptations. For to Him belongs glory unto the ages. Amen. Akēdia (rendered “listlessness” / “negligence”) is the classic monastic term for spiritual torpor. The elder quoted in §1 is Abba Isaiah, per the Greek text’s own citation of the Evergetinos; the two anonymous elders in §16 and the “Sayings of the Fathers” citation in §16–17 are likewise drawn from the Apophthegmata/Evergetinos tradition as the Greek text notes in its footnotes. The Daniel episode (§11) is from the Greek additions to Daniel (Bel and the Dragon, vv.

33-39 in most numbering; the source cites it as Daniel 14, following the Septuagint chapter count) rather than from the Hebrew/Masoretic Daniel. The scriptural citation in §18 is given in the source as “Genesis 8:3”; this is corrected here to Genesis 6:3, the actual location of the quoted verse, matching Dorotheos’s identical citation of the same verse elsewhere in his writings. “Zosimas” appears twice in this discourse (§7 and §14–15) as the name of two different monks — the wretched monk of the cautionary tale, and the elder engaged with the philosopher — a distinction the Greek text itself preserves without comment. DISCOURSE III: ON CONSCIENCE The Divine Spark of Conscience 40. When God created man, He placed within him a divine seed, a kind of thought more ardent and luminous, like a spark, to enlighten the mind and show it how to distinguish good from evil. This is called conscience, and it is the natural law (John Chrysostom, PG 49, 131–133). These are the wells which Jacob dug, as the Fathers have said, and which the Philistines stopped up (Genesis 26:15). By this law—that is, by conscience—the patriarchs and all the saints who lived before the written Law were guided, and they pleased God. But because conscience was buried and trampled down by men through the gradual spread of sin, we came to need the written Law, the holy Prophets, and the Incarnation of our Master Jesus Christ Himself, so that He might bring conscience back to light and raise it up again, restoring life to that buried spark through the keeping of God’s holy commandments.

It is now in our power either to bury it again or to allow it to shine and enlighten us, if we obey what it tells us. For when our conscience directs us to do one thing and we disregard it, and then tells us to do another and we do not do it, but continually and persistently trample it down, we bury it; and because of the weight that covers it, it can no longer speak clearly within us. Like a lamp that gives only a dim light, it begins to show us things ever more obscurely and darkly. And just as no one can see his face in water clouded by much mud, so little by little we cease to perceive what our conscience is telling us, until we reach the point of imagining that we have no conscience at all. Yet there is no one who does not possess it. For, as we have already said, it is something divine and is never lost; it always reminds us of what we ought to do. We, however, do not perceive it because, as I have said, we despise it and trample it down. Conscience as Our Adversary 41. For this reason the Prophet laments over Ephraim and says, “Ephraim oppressed his adversary; he trampled judgment” (Hosea 5:11). By the adversary he means conscience. For this reason the Gospel also says: “Come to terms quickly with your adversary while you are still on the way with him, lest your adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be cast into prison.

Truly, I say to you, you will not come out from there until you have paid the last penny” (Matthew 5:25–26). But why does it call conscience an adversary? It is called an adversary because it always opposes our evil will: it reproves us for what we ought to do but do not do, and accuses us for doing what we ought not to do. This is why it calls conscience an adversary and exhorts us, saying, “Come to terms quickly with your adversary while you are still on the way with him.” The way, as Saint Basil the Great says, is this world. Guarding the Small Things 42. Let us take care, then, my brethren, to guard our conscience while we are still in this world, not allowing it to reprove us in any matter and not trampling it down in anything at all, even in the smallest thing. For you know well that from these small and apparently insignificant things we come to despise even great things. When someone begins to say, “What does it matter if I say this word? What does it matter if I eat a little? What does it matter if I pay attention to this thing?”—from saying, “What does this matter?” and “What does that matter?” he acquires an evil and perverse disposition, begins to despise things that are great and weighty, and tramples down his very conscience.

Therefore take care, my brethren, that we do not neglect small things; take care that we do not despise them as insignificant. They are not small, for by them the soul is nourished and from them an evil habit is formed. Let us be watchful; let us attend to light things while they are still light, lest they become heavy. Both progress in virtue and sin begin with small things and end in great ones, whether good or evil. For this reason the Lord exhorts us to guard our conscience. It is as though He wished to make someone especially attentive and said to him: “Look at what you are doing, wretched man. Wake up! Come to terms with your adversary while you are still on the way with him.” And He adds the fear and danger contained in the matter, saying, “Lest your adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be cast into prison.” And what else? “Truly, I say to you, you will not come out from there until you have paid the last penny.” For conscience, as I have said, reproves us concerning good and evil and shows us what we should do and what we should not do; and it will again accuse us in the age to come. For this reason He says, “Lest your adversary hand you over to the judge,” and so forth.

Three Ways of Keeping Conscience 43. Our effort to keep our conscience watchful and to obey its directions takes many and various forms. For a person must act according to conscience toward God, toward his neighbor, and toward material things. Conscience Toward God Toward God, a person must not despise His commandments even when no man sees him and no one demands anything of him. Such a person acts according to conscience toward God in secret. This is what I mean: he neglected prayer; a passionate thought arose in his heart, and he did not take heed or constrain himself, but consented to it. He saw his neighbor say or do something, and on the basis of his own imagination he became suspicious of him and condemned him. In a word, in all the inward and secret things which no one knows except God and our conscience, we must obey the voice of conscience. This is what it means to keep our conscience toward God. Conscience Toward One’s Neighbor 44. To keep conscience toward one’s neighbor means doing absolutely nothing that one knows will grieve or wound him, whether by deed, by word, by a gesture, or by a glance. For, as I often say, it is possible to wound one’s neighbor even by a gesture or a glance. In a word, a man defiles his conscience whenever he knows that he is acting deliberately to give rise to a troubling thought in his neighbor, knowing that he is doing it on purpose to harm or grieve him.

To guard one’s conscience by doing no such thing is what we mean by acting according to conscience toward one’s neighbor. Conscience Toward Material Things 45. To act according to conscience toward material things means not misusing anything and not allowing anything to be ruined or thrown away. Even if one sees something lying discarded, one should not pass it by, however insignificant it may be, but should pick it up and put it in its place. Nor should one use one’s clothing carelessly. Suppose, for example, that a man could wear his garment for another week or two, but instead he goes and has it washed before its time and wears it out. Rather than being able to use it for another five months or even longer, he makes it old and useless through repeated washing. This too is against conscience. The same applies to bedding. Often someone could make do with a small coverlet, yet he asks for a thick mattress. At another time he has a hair mattress, but from vainglory or listlessness he wants to exchange it for another one that is new and beautiful. He could be satisfied with an old garment, yet asks for a woolen one and makes a commotion if it is not given to him. And if he begins to watch his brother and say, “Why does he have that while I do not?”—well, such a man is blessed indeed!

Then he has truly made progress! Again, someone spreads his garment or covering out in the sun, neglects to take it in, and leaves it there to be ruined by the heat. This too is against conscience. It is the same with food. Someone could be satisfied with a little cabbage, a few legumes, or a few olives, but he cannot bear it and asks for some other food that is tastier and more sumptuous. All these things are against conscience. Never Let Conscience Torment You 46. The Fathers say that a monk must never allow his conscience to torment him over any matter whatsoever. Therefore, my brethren, we must always keep watch and guard ourselves against all these things, lest we fall into danger. The Lord Himself forewarned us of this, as we have said before. May God grant that we hear and keep all these things, so that the words of our Fathers may not condemn us. Amen. Syneidēsis is rendered consistently as “conscience.” The repeated expressions kata syneidēsin and para syneidēsin mean acting “according to conscience” and “against conscience.” The Gospel passage in §§41–42 is Matthew 5:25–26, where Dorotheos follows the patristic interpretation of the “adversary” as conscience. Hosea 5:11 follows the Greek Septuagint wording and therefore differs from many English Bibles. The source text attributes the stopped-up wells of Genesis 26:15 to Jacob, although the biblical narrative concerns Isaac; the wording has been retained.

In §45, akēdia carries its monastic sense of listlessness or spiritual weariness. DISCOURSE IV: ON THE FEAR OF GOD The Two Kinds of Fear 47. Saint John says in the catholic epistles, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). What does the saint wish to show us by this? What kind of love does he mean, and what kind of fear? The Prophet says in the Psalm, “Fear the Lord, all you His saints” (Psalm 33:10 LXX), and we find countless other sayings like this in Holy Scripture. If, then, the saints who love the Lord so greatly also fear Him, how can he say, “Love casts out fear”? The saint wishes to show us that there are two kinds of fear: one initial and the other perfect. The first is characteristic, so to speak, of those who are beginners in the spiritual life; the other is characteristic of the saints who have reached spiritual perfection and attained the measure of holy love. This is what I mean. Someone does the will of God from fear of punishment. Such a person, as we have said, is still entirely a beginner. He does not strive for the good itself, but acts because he fears punishment. Another does the will of God because he loves God and takes special delight in making his life pleasing to Him. This person knows the essence of the good; he has tasted what it means to be united with God.

He is the one who possesses true love, which the saint calls perfect. This love brings him to perfect fear. He fears and keeps the will of God no longer because he dreads punishment or condemnation, but because, having tasted the sweetness enjoyed by the one who is united with God, he fears that he may lose it and be deprived of it. This perfect fear, which springs from love, casts out initial fear. For this reason Scripture says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” Yet it is impossible to reach perfect fear except by passing through initial fear. Servant, Hireling, and Son 48. Saint Basil the Great says that there are three dispositions of soul by which we may please God. We please God either because we fear hell—and then we are in the condition of a servant—or because we fulfill God’s commandments in pursuit of the reward we hope to receive for our own benefit—and in this we resemble hirelings—or because we do good for the sake of the good itself—and then we are in the condition of a son. For when a son reaches maturity, he does his father’s will not because he fears being beaten and not in order to receive wages from him, but because he especially loves and honors him and is certain that all his father’s possessions are his own. Such a person is found worthy to hear, “You are no longer a servant but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).

He no longer fears God with that initial fear, but loves Him, as Saint Antony says: “I no longer fear God, but I love Him.” And when the Lord said to Abraham, after he had offered up his child, “Now I know that you fear God” (Genesis 22:12), He meant that perfect fear which enters the soul through love. For how could He say, “Now I know”? Forgive me, my God, for entertaining this thought. Abraham had done so much: he obeyed God, left all his possessions, and went into exile in a foreign land among an idolatrous people where there was not a trace of the worship of God. Above all, God sent him the terrible trial of sacrificing his child. And after all this He says to him, “Now I know that you fear God”? It is evident that He meant the perfect fear possessed by the saints. They no longer do the will of God from fear of punishment or in order to receive a reward, but because they love God, as we have often said, and fear doing anything contrary to the will of the Beloved. This is why Scripture says, “Love casts out fear.” They no longer keep God’s law because they are afraid; rather, they fear because they love. From Initial to Perfect Fear 49. This is perfect fear. But, as we said before, no one can reach perfect fear unless he first acquires initial fear.

For Scripture says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 110:10 LXX; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). And again it says, “The beginning and the end are the fear of God” (Proverbs 22:4). By the beginning it means initial fear, which is followed by the perfect fear of the saints. Initial fear, then, is suited to our spiritual condition. It protects the soul from every evil as tinning protects a copper vessel from corrosion. For Scripture says, “By the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil” (Proverbs 15:27 LXX). If, then, a person turns away from evil through fear of punishment, like a servant who fears his master, he gradually comes to do good. As he does good, little by little he begins to hope for some reward for his labor, just like a hireling. When he perseveres in avoiding evil from fear, like the servant, and continues doing good in hope of reward, like the hireling, remaining by God’s grace in the practice of good for a considerable time and drawing near to God in proportion to his progress, he finally tastes the divine presence and no longer wishes to be separated from God. For, as the Apostle said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). Then he reaches the condition of a son: he loves the good for the sake of the good itself, and he fears because he loves.

This is the great and perfect fear. “Come, Children, Listen to Me” 50. For this reason the Prophet, teaching us the difference between these kinds of fear, said, “Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Psalm 33:12 LXX). Attend to every saying of the Prophet; notice that every word has power. First he says, “Come to me,” inviting us to virtue. Then he adds the word children. The saints call those whom they transform by their teaching from vice to virtue their children, as the Apostle says: “My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). After calling us and urging us toward such a transformation, the Prophet says, “I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Do you see the saint’s confidence? When we wish to say something good, we always say, “Would you like us to speak a little and examine what the fear of God means, or what some other virtue means?” The saint did not speak this way. With confidence he said, “Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” “Who is the man who desires life and loves to see good days?” (Psalm 33:13 LXX). Then, as though someone had answered, “I do. Teach me how to live so that I may see good days,” he instructs him, saying, “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit” (Psalm 33:14 LXX).

See how he immediately cuts off the activity of evil through the fear of God. To keep your tongue from evil means not to wound your neighbor’s conscience by some word, not to speak evil of anyone, and not to provoke anyone to anger. To keep your lips from speaking deceit means not to deceive your neighbor. Then he adds, “Turn away from evil” (Psalm 33:15 LXX). He first named certain sins—evil speaking and deceit—and then spoke generally of every other form of wickedness: “Turn away from evil.” In other words, avoid every evil and withdraw from everything that leads to sin. He did not say only this and then fall silent, but added, “Do good” (Psalm 33:15 LXX). For often a person does not commit evil, yet neither does he do good. He does not act unjustly, but neither does he show mercy. He does not hate, but neither does he love. The Prophet therefore spoke well: “Turn away from evil and do good.” In this way he shows us, in their proper order, the three conditions of which we spoke. Through the fear of God he leads the soul away from evil and urges it to rise into the realm of the good. For if a person is found worthy to stop doing evil and to withdraw from it, he naturally comes to do good under the guidance of the saints.

After saying these things so well, the Prophet continues, “Seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 33:15 LXX). He did not say merely, “Seek it,” but “Pursue it,” so that you may obtain it. Seek Peace and Pursue It 51. Pay close attention to this saying and observe the saint’s precision. When a person is found worthy to turn away from evil and strives, by the grace of God, continually to do good, his enemies immediately begin to wage war against him. He struggles, labors, and suffers affliction—not only because, like the servant, he fears returning to evil, but also because, like the hireling, he hopes to receive his reward for the good. Thus, while he is attacked and fights back and is struck by the enemy, he does good, but with much sorrow and distress. When he receives help from God and begins to grow accustomed to doing good, he then sees rest; he gradually tastes peace; he then perceives the sorrow of warfare and the joy and gladness of peace. So he seeks peace, struggles for it, and runs in pursuit of it, that he may gain it, possess it perfectly, and establish it within his soul. Who, then, is more blessed than the soul found worthy to attain this measure? Such a person, as we have often said, is in the condition of a son. For truly, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Who can persuade such a soul to do good for any reason other than delight in the good itself? Who knows this joy except the one who has tasted it? Then such a person knows perfect fear, as we have often said. We have heard, then, what the perfect fear of the saints is, what the initial fear suited to our condition is, where a person begins, and where he arrives through the fear of God. It remains for us to learn how the fear of God enters the soul and what things estrange us from it. How the Fear of God Is Acquired 52. The Fathers said that a person acquires the fear of God through the continual remembrance of death and punishment; by examining himself every evening as to how he passed the day and every morning as to how he passed the night; by refraining from undue familiarity; and by living with another person who truly fears God. It is said that a brother asked one of the elders, “What should I do, Father, so that I may fear God?” The elder replied, “Go and live with someone who fears God; and as he lives in the fear of God, you too will learn how to fear Him.” We drive the fear of God away from ourselves by doing the opposite of all these things: by failing to remember death and punishment; by failing to watch ourselves and examine how we have passed our time, but instead living heedlessly; by associating with those who are spiritually careless; and, further, by practicing undue familiarity.

Undue Familiarity: The Mother of All the Passions This last is worse than everything else. It is complete ruin. For what drives the fear of God from the soul as effectively as undue familiarity? When Abba Agathon was asked about it, he said that it resembles a great scorching wind: when it comes, everyone runs to hide, and it destroys the fruit of the trees. Do you see, my brethren, the power of this passion? Do you see its fury? When they asked him again, “Is undue familiarity really so terrible a passion?” he answered, “There is no passion worse than undue familiarity, for it is the mother of all the passions.” He spoke very well and wisely in calling it the mother of all the passions, because it drives the fear of God from the soul. For if “by the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil,” then wherever the fear of God is absent, every passion is found. May God deliver our souls from the destructive passion of undue familiarity.

53. Undue familiarity is expressed in many ways. A person may be familiar in speech, in touch, or in the way he looks at another. From undue familiarity one falls into idle talk, conversation about worldly things, joking, and provoking indecent laughter. It is undue familiarity to touch someone without necessity, to stretch out one’s hand toward someone in jest, to push someone or snatch something from him, or to stare at someone brazenly. All these things are born of undue familiarity. They all occur because the fear of God is absent from the soul, and through them a person gradually arrives at complete contempt. For this reason, when God delivered the commandments of the Law, He said, “Make the sons of Israel reverent” (Leviticus 15:31 LXX). Without reverence a person neither honors God Himself nor pays attention even once to any commandment. Nothing, therefore, is more harmful than undue familiarity. It is the mother of all the passions because it removes reverence, drives away the fear of God, and gives birth to contempt. Because you behave with undue familiarity toward one another, you lack respect, speak harshly, and wound one another. If one of you sees something unprofitable, he goes away, discusses it, and plants it in the heart of another brother. He is not the only one harmed; he also harms his brother by placing the deadly seed of evil in his heart.

Often that brother’s mind had been occupied with prayer or some other good thing, and the first goes to him and gives him something else to dwell on. He not only hinders his spiritual benefit but also brings temptation upon him. There is nothing more grievous or destructive than for a person to harm not only himself but others as well. Reverence Toward One Another 54. Let us possess reverence, my brethren; let us fear both our own destruction and that of others. Let us honor one another, and let us take care not even to lift our eyes toward the faces of others, for this too, as one of the elders said, is a form of undue familiarity. If someone happens to see his brother sin, he must neither turn away from him, remain silent, and allow him to perish, nor abuse and slander him. Rather, with compassion and the fear of God, he should report the matter to someone able to correct him, or he himself should speak to the brother with love and humility, saying: “Forgive me, my brother. As someone who has not learned to see my own faults, I notice that perhaps we are not doing this thing rightly.” If the brother does not listen, let him tell another whom his conscience assures him to be reverent. Let him tell his superior or the abbot, according to the seriousness of the fault, and then be at peace.

But, as we have said, let him speak with the intention of correcting his brother—not for idle talk, slander, or contempt; not because he wishes to expose or condemn him; and not while pretending that he wants to correct him when he carries within himself one of the evil intentions I have mentioned. Indeed, even if a person says something to his own elder without intending to correct his neighbor, or simply because he himself has been scandalized, it is a sin and an act of slander. Let him examine his heart; and if he finds a passionate inclination there, let him not speak. But if, after carefully examining himself, he sees that he truly wishes to speak from compassion and for his neighbor’s benefit, yet is troubled inwardly by some passionate thought, let him humbly disclose both his own fault and his neighbor’s to the elder, saying: “My conscience tells me that I wish to speak for the brother’s correction, but I sense that some passionate thought has become entangled within me. Perhaps it is because I once had something against the brother; perhaps it is a deceptive thought trying to prevent me from speaking so that he may not be corrected. I do not know.” Then the elder will tell him whether he ought to speak or not. Sometimes a person says something with no intention of benefiting his brother, confessing his own scandal, or expressing resentment.

He simply introduces it into the conversation from a disposition of idle talk. What need is there for such chatter? Often the brother learns that someone has been speaking about him; he becomes disturbed and grieved, and the evil increases. But when a person speaks solely for another’s benefit, God does not permit disturbance to arise or any grief or harm to follow. Guarding the Tongue and Yielding to One Another 55. Strive, then, as we have said, to guard your tongue. Let none of you speak evil of his neighbor or wound anyone by word, deed, gesture, or in any other way. Do not be easily provoked, so that when one of you hears a word from his brother, he becomes angry, answers harshly in return, or remains grieved with him. These are not signs of those who struggle; they are not the actions of those who wish to be saved. Acquire the fear of God together with reverence, so that when you meet, each of you bows his head before his brother, as we have said, humbling himself before God and before his brother and cutting off his own will for his brother’s sake. It is truly praiseworthy for someone engaged in a service to yield his place to his brother and prefer him. The one who yields benefits more than the other. I do not remember ever having done anything good.

But if the grace of God always sheltered me, I know that it sheltered me for this reason: I never preferred myself to my brother, but always placed my brother first. Abba John’s Four Sayings 56. When I was still at the monastery of Abba Seridos, the attendant of the elder Abba John—the disciple of Abba Barsanuphius—fell ill, and my elder blessed me to serve Abba John. I used to kiss the door of his cell from the outside just as one venerates the precious Cross. How much more did I rejoice to serve him! For who would not wish to be found worthy to serve such a saint? He spoke many wonderful things. Every day, when I had finished my service, I would make a prostration before him to receive his blessing and depart, and he would always say something to me. The elder had four sayings, and every evening, when I was about to leave, he would without fail say one of them. He spoke in this way: “Above all, my brother”—for the elder customarily used this phrase in every saying—“may God preserve love. The Fathers said: Taking care not to offend one’s neighbor’s conscience gives birth to humility.” On another evening he would say: “Above all, my brother, may God preserve love. The Fathers said: I never placed my own will before the will of my brother.”

At another time he would say: “Above all, my brother, may God preserve love. The Fathers said: Flee from men and be saved.” Again he would say: “Above all, my brother, may God preserve love. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Every evening when I left, he would give me one of these four exhortations, as though giving provisions to someone setting out on a journey. Thus I kept them as a safeguard throughout my whole life. Yet although I enjoyed such rest beside the saint and possessed such eagerness to serve him, as soon as I perceived that a brother was grieved because he too wished to serve him, I went to the abbot and entreated him, saying, “If you bless it, it would be better for this brother to serve the elder.” Neither the abbot nor the elder himself gave me permission. Nevertheless, I did everything I could so that the brother might be preferred. Although I spent nine years there and was continually engaged in service, I do not remember speaking harshly to anyone—lest someone suppose that I was never placed in circumstances that might have provoked me to say such a word. Bearing One Another’s Burdens 57. Believe me, I remember a brother following me from the infirmary all the way to the church, insulting me while I walked ahead of him without saying a single word.

When the elder learned of it—I do not know who told him—and wished to rebuke the brother, I fell at his feet and said, “No, for the Lord’s sake! I was at fault; how is the brother to blame?” Another brother, whether from temptation or simplicity—God knows the reason—used for a long time to urinate at night beside my pillow, so that my bedding became wet. In the same way, certain other brothers came each day and shook out their mats in front of my cell. I saw such a multitude of bedbugs enter my cell that I could not manage to kill them, for they were exceedingly numerous because of the great heat. When I went to sleep, all the bedbugs gathered upon me. I would fall asleep from sheer exhaustion; but when I awoke, I found my whole body eaten by them. Yet I never said to any of those brothers, “Do not do that,” or “Why are you doing this?” Nor, as I said before, do I remember ever saying a word that wounded or grieved anyone. Learn, you too, to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2); learn to treat one another with reverence. If one of you hears from someone a word that displeases him, or if something happens to him against his will, let him not immediately take it to heart or become irritated. Otherwise, in a time offered for struggle and profit, he may be found with his heart relaxed, thoughtless, weak, and unable to bear the slightest blow—like a melon which, if even a small pebble touches it, is immediately bruised and begins to rot.

Instead, possess a steadfast heart and longsuffering, so that your love for one another may overcome everything that happens. Peace Is Worth Four Eighths 58. If someone has a service to perform, or happens to need something from the gardener, the cellarer, the cook, or, in a word, any fellow servant, let both the one requesting the service and the one performing it take care above all to preserve an affable and peaceful disposition. Let them never permit themselves to turn aside from God’s commandment into disturbance, hostility, contentiousness, self-will, or insistence on their own rights. Whatever happens, whether small or great, let them set it aside and pay no attention to it. Carelessness is certainly bad; yet it is no better for a person to give priority to what has happened and lose his peace, thereby harming his soul. Whatever service you are performing, even if it is very urgent and important, I do not want you to do anything contentiously or with disturbance. Be assured that every work you do, whether great or small, is one eighth of what is required of us. But to preserve your peace—even if, by yielding, you happen to fail in the service—is four eighths, that is, half of what is required. Do you see how great the difference is?

59. Therefore, when you undertake something and wish to do it perfectly and completely, take care both to complete the thing itself—which, as I have said, is one eighth—and to preserve your inward state unharmed—which is four eighths. But if, in order to complete the service, you are carried away, transgress this commandment, and harm yourself or another, it is not profitable to lose four eighths, your peace, merely to preserve one eighth, the completion of the work. If you see someone acting this way, be assured that he is not performing his service with understanding. Either from vainglory or from a desire to please men, he persists in quarreling and punishing both himself and his neighbor, so that afterward he may hear that no one was able to defeat him. Alas, what a great achievement! This is not victory, my brethren; it is injury and loss. I command you that even if I send one of you to any service, if he sees disturbance arising or any other harm occurring, he must stop. Never harm yourselves or others; let the work stop and remain undone. Only do not disturb one another. Otherwise, as I have said, you lose four eighths in order to gain one eighth. This is manifestly irrational.

60. I do not say these things so that you immediately lose heart and abandon your services, or become careless, throw things down at once, and trample your conscience because you wish to live without responsibility. Nor do I say them so that you may disobey and each of you say, “I cannot do this because it harms me; it is beyond my measure.” With such an excuse you would never perform any service and would never be able to fulfill the commandment of God. I say these things so that you may apply all your strength to performing every service with love and humility, obeying, honoring, and consoling one another. Nothing is stronger than humility. But if anyone sees his neighbor—or himself—becoming distressed, stop, yield, and do not persist to the point that spiritual harm follows. It is better, I tell you a thousand times, that the work not be done as you wish but as circumstances allow, than that through stubbornness or insistence on your rights—even when your aim appears reasonable—you become disturbed or grieve one another and so lose the four eighths. The difference in the loss is very great. Indeed, it often happens that a person loses the one eighth as well and accomplishes absolutely nothing. These are the consequences of quarrels. Let us hold fast to this principle. That is, let us do every work with the purpose of receiving benefit from it.

But what benefit is there if we do not humble ourselves before one another, but instead disturb and grieve one another? You know what the Sayings of the Fathers declares: “From our neighbor come life and death.” Meditate always on these things within yourselves, my brethren. Study the words of the holy elders; strive with love and the fear of God to seek your own benefit and that of others. In this way you will be able to profit from everything that happens and to make progress by the grace of God. May our God, who loves mankind, grant you His fear. For Holy Scripture says, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13 LXX). The same Greek word, phobos, underlies both “initial fear” and “perfect fear”; Dorotheos distinguishes them by motive, not vocabulary. Parrēsia in §§52–54 is rendered “undue familiarity”: in this monastic context it means an undisciplined freedom of speech, touch, or behavior that erodes reverence, rather than the positive New Testament sense of boldness or confidence. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint, so Psalm 33 corresponds to Psalm 34 in many English Bibles. The wording of Leviticus 15:31 also follows the Septuagint. The saying “From our neighbor come life and death” is associated with Abba Antony in the Sayings of the Fathers. Dorotheos’s comparison of a completed service as “one eighth” and preserved peace as “four eighths” is retained literally because the numerical contrast is central to his counsel.

DISCOURSE V: ON NOT TRUSTING ONE’S OWN JUDGMENT The Need for Guidance 61. In the Old Testament, in the book of Proverbs, it is taught: “Where there is no guidance, people fall like leaves, but salvation is found in much counsel” (Proverbs 11:14 LXX). Do you understand the power contained in these words, my brethren? Do you see what Holy Scripture teaches us? It warns us not to trust ourselves, not to consider ourselves prudent, and not to believe that we can govern ourselves. We need help; we need those who, after God, will guide us. Nothing is more wretched or more easily taken as prey by the enemy than those who have no one to guide them on the way of God. Why does it say that those who have no one to direct them fall like leaves? When a leaf first appears, it is always green, tender, and beautiful. Then little by little it dries up and falls, and at last it is despised as useless and trampled underfoot. So it is with a person who has no one to guide him. At first he has great zeal and eagerness for fasting, vigils, stillness, obedience, and many other good and praiseworthy practices. But later, when that first zeal gradually dies away, because he has no one to direct him, strengthen him, and kindle that zeal still more, he slowly withers without realizing it, falls into the hands of the demons, is taken captive by them, and becomes whatever they wish.

Concerning those, however, who disclose everything about themselves in detail and do each thing with much reflection and care, Scripture says, “Salvation is found in much counsel.” It does not say “in much counsel” as though a person should consult everyone. Rather, it means that in everything he should seek counsel from the one to whom he ought to have entrusted himself completely. He must not conceal some things and tell others, but disclose everything and ask counsel about everything. In such a person the saying is fulfilled exactly: “Salvation is found in much counsel.” The Enemy Uses Self-Will 62. Truly, if a person does not disclose everything about himself—especially if he has acquired a bad habit or was badly brought up—the devil finds in him some act of self-will or some self-justifying claim and uses it as a weapon to overcome him. For when the devil sees someone who does not wish to sin, he is not so foolish in contriving evil that he urges him at once to do something plainly sinful. He does not say, “Go and commit fornication,” or, “Go and steal.” He knows that we do not wish to do these things, and he does not trouble to incite us toward what we reject. Instead, he finds us, as I have said, possessing some act of self-will or some claim of right, and through it he tempts us in a way that appears reasonable.

For this reason the Old Testament says again: “The evil one works harm when he allies himself with a claim of right, and he hates the sound of safety” (Proverbs 11:15 LXX). The evil one is the devil. Abba Poemen said: “The will of man is a bronze wall between him and God, and a stone hurled back against God. If a person abandons it, he too can say, ‘In my God I shall leap over a wall’ (Psalm 17:30 LXX). But if self-justification joins itself to the will, the person is worn down.” The devil has power to do evil when he joins some claim of right—our own self-justification—to his malice. Then he has greater power, then he does greater harm, and then he becomes more active. For when we remain bound to our own will and regulate our life according to our supposed rights, we imagine that we are doing something good while unknowingly preparing our own ruin; and we perish without understanding it. How can we know the will of God or seek it with all our strength while trusting ourselves and insisting on our own will? The Brazen Wall of Self-Will 63. This is why Abba Poemen used to say, “The will is a bronze wall separating a person from God.” Understand the power contained in these words. He added again, “Our will is a stone that we hurl against God,” because our own will opposes and resists the will of God.

But if a person abandons his own will, he can say: “By the grace and power of my God I shall pass over this wall. The way of my God is blameless and straight” (Psalm 17:30–31 LXX). He put this exceedingly well. For only when a person renounces his own will does he see the way of God as blameless and unstained. When he identifies himself with his own will, however, he does not see the way of God as straight and pure. If someone happens to offer him a word of warning, he immediately accuses him, reviles him, turns away from him, and tries to overthrow his counsel with arguments. Saint Mark the Ascetic writes: “When we strive with a clear conscience to fulfill all the commandments of God, then we shall understand that the law of the Lord is blameless: it is practiced in our good works, yet cannot be perfected among men without the mercies of God.” How, indeed, can someone who wants only his own will to be done tolerate another person or wish to hear any counsel? The elder then says concerning self-justification: “If a claim of right is joined to the will, a person cannot make sound progress.” Alas, how perfectly the sayings of the saints agree with one another! For self-justification to be joined to self-will is death, a great danger, and a cause of great fear.

Then the wretched person falls completely. Who can persuade such a person to admit that another knows his true benefit better than he does? He abandons himself entirely to the course of his own thought, and afterward the enemy leads him from fall to fall. This is why the Old Testament says: “The evil one works harm when he allies himself with a claim of right, and he hates the sound of safety” (Proverbs 11:15 LXX). Why the Enemy Hates the “Sound of Safety” 64. The Old Testament says that the evil one “hates the sound of safety” because he hates not only spiritual security but cannot bear even the word safety. He hates the very sound of it—that is, he hates everything done for a person’s spiritual protection. I will explain what I mean. Before the person who desires spiritual benefit has even done anything, and before the enemy knows whether the brother will be able to keep what he hears, the enemy hates even the intention to ask and to listen concerning the soul’s benefit. He hates and loathes even the voice and hearing of spiritual words. I will explain why. He knows well that when a person asks, seeks counsel, and concerns himself with beneficial and spiritual words, the enemy’s wickedness and malice are exposed much more clearly. There is nothing he hates and fears more than being unmasked.

He can no longer do evil as he wishes. If the soul safeguards itself by disclosing everything, and if someone experienced in these matters counsels it, saying, “Do this; do not do that. This is good; that is not. This is self-justification; that is self-will. This is not yet the time for this matter; now is the proper time,” then the devil finds no pretext for harming the soul and no way to make it fall. As I have said, it is always guided and protected on every side, and in it the saying is fulfilled: “Salvation is found in much counsel.” The evil one does not want this, but hates it. He always wishes to do harm and takes greater pleasure in those who have no help or pastoral guidance. Why? Because “they fall like leaves.” A brother asked Abba Poemen, “Why am I unable to become free enough with the elders to reveal my thoughts?” The elder replied that Abba John the Dwarf had said, “The enemy rejoices at nothing so much as at those who do not reveal their thoughts.” Abba Macarius and the Brother Who Hid His Thoughts 65. See how the evil one loved that brother of whom he said to Abba Macarius, “I have one brother who, when he sees me, turns like a windlass.” The enemy loves such people and always delights in those who have no spiritual guidance, who do not entrust themselves to someone able, after God, to help them and stretch out a hand for their salvation.

Did not that demon whom the saint saw carrying all those vessels of preparations visit every brother? Did he not tempt them all? But each of them, when he perceived the demon’s approach, ran to disclose his thoughts and found help in the hour of temptation; and therefore the evil one had no power over them. Only this wretched brother did he find trusting himself and receiving help from no one. So he treated the man as a plaything, and departed thanking him while cursing the others. When the enemy told Saint Macarius the matter and the brother’s name, the saint hurried to him and found that this was the cause of his ruin. He found him unwilling to confess and unaccustomed to disclosing all his thoughts. For this very reason the enemy turned him wherever he wished. When the saint asked him, “How are you, brother?” he replied, “Through your prayers, I am well.” When the saint asked again, “Are your thoughts not warring against you?” he answered, “Truly, I am well.” He would confess nothing until the saint, with great skill, persuaded him to disclose everything about himself. Then Saint Macarius strengthened him with the word of God, secured him against the snares of the evil one, and returned to his own place. The enemy came again according to his custom, intending to cast the brother back into sin, but found himself in bitter perplexity.

He found the brother strengthened and no longer deceived. So he went away without accomplishing anything, departing from him in shame. When the saint later asked him, “How is that brother, your friend?” the demon no longer called him a friend but an enemy, and cursed him, saying, “He too has gone bad; even he no longer believes me, but has become fiercer than all the others.” The Root of Every Fall 66. This is why the enemy hates every word that brings safety from evil: he always desires our destruction. This is why he loves those who take themselves as their guide: they cooperate with the devil by preparing their own ruin. I have known no other fall of a monk than that which comes from trusting his own thought. Some say, “A person falls for this reason or for that.” But, as I have said, I know no fall that can be caused in anyone for any other reason than this. Have you seen someone fall into sin? Know that he trusted his own thought. Nothing is graver or more destructive than trust in oneself. God sheltered me by His grace, and I always feared this danger. When I was in the monastery, I disclosed everything to the elder, Abba John. As I have said, I never resolved to do anything without his blessing. Sometimes my thought would say to me, “Is this not what the elder will tell you?

Why trouble him now?” I would answer the thought: “Anathema to you and to your discernment, your wisdom, your prudence, and your knowledge, for whatever you know, you know from the demons.” Then I would go and ask the elder. Sometimes he answered exactly as I had already thought, and my thought would say, “What happened, then? See, he told you what I had told you. Did you not trouble the elder for no reason?” I answered the thought: “Yes, but now it is blessed; now it comes from the Holy Spirit. What comes from you is evil, demonic, and filled with passion.” The Rest of Obedience Thus I never permitted myself to follow my own thought without first asking counsel. Believe me, my brethren, my soul enjoyed such great rest and freedom from care that I even became troubled by it, as I think I once told you. I heard that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven through many tribulations (Acts 14:22), yet I saw that I had no tribulation. I was afraid and perplexed because I did not know the cause of so much rest, until the elder told me, “Do not be troubled. Everyone who places himself under obedience to the Fathers possesses this kind of rest and freedom from care.” Deliverance from Demonic Despondency 67. Take care, then, my brethren, to ask counsel about everything and not to trust yourselves.

Learn how much freedom from care, how much joy, and how much rest belong to the one who practices this. But since I told you that I never experienced tribulation, hear also what once happened to me. While I was still there in the monastery, I once felt a great and unbearable grief. I experienced such weariness and distress that I seemed about to give up my soul. That grief arose from demonic activity. Such a temptation indeed comes from the envy of the demons. It is very heavy but does not last long; it makes a person listless and dark, unable to find comfort anywhere or from anyone, while everything causes anguish and suffocation. Yet the grace of God comes quickly to the soul, for otherwise no one could endure it. I was in this kind of temptation and distress when one day I stood outside the monastery church, deeply dejected and entreating God about the matter. Suddenly I looked into the church and saw someone who resembled a bishop, wearing a sheepskin cloak, enter the sanctuary. I never approached a stranger without necessity or without a blessing, but something seemed to impel me then, and I entered behind him. He stood for a long time with his hands raised toward heaven. I stood behind him, very much afraid and praying, for his appearance filled me with awe. When he had finished his prayer, he turned and came toward me.

As he approached, I felt the grief and fear depart from me. Then he stood before me, stretched out his hand, placed it on my breast, and tapped me with his fingers while saying: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He attended to me and heard my supplication. He brought me up from a pit of misery and from miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our God” (Psalm 39:1–4 LXX). He recited all the verses of the Psalm three times, each time tapping my breast as I have said, and then went out. Immediately light, joy, consolation, and sweetness entered my heart, and I became another person. I ran out after him, wishing to find him, but I could not; he had vanished from before me. From that hour, by the grace and mercy of God, I was no longer troubled by grief or fear. Until this day God has sheltered me through the prayers of those holy elders. Seeking the Will of God with Sincerity 68. I have told you these things, my brethren, because I wished to show you how much rest, freedom from care, and complete safety belong to the one who does not trust his own thought but entrusts everything concerning himself to God and to those who, after God, are able to guide him.

Learn, then, my brethren, to ask counsel. Learn not to trust yourselves. This is beneficial; it is humility, rest, and joy. Why should a person crush himself needlessly? There is no other way of salvation than this. Someone may think, however: “What should I do if I do not have a suitable person to ask?” Truly, if a person sincerely desires with all his heart to know the will of God, God will never abandon him but will guide him by every means according to His will. If someone directs his heart toward the will of God, God can enlighten even a little child to reveal His will to him. But if a person does not sincerely seek the will of God, then even if he consults a prophet, God will put into the prophet’s heart an answer corresponding to the person’s sinful heart, as Holy Scripture says: “If the prophet is deceived and speaks, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet” (Ezekiel 14:9 LXX). Even Good Works Must Be Examined Therefore we must turn ourselves toward the will of God with all our strength and place no trust in our own thought. Even if the matter is good, and a holy person assures us that it is indeed good, we must regard it as good without presuming that we perform it rightly or exactly as it ought to be done.

We must do what we can, while also seeking counsel about how it should be carried out. After we have done it, we must ask again whether we did it properly. And even when we have observed all these things, we still must not grow careless, but await the judgment of God. So it was with the holy Abba Agathon. When he was asked, “Are you afraid too, Father?” he replied, “I have done what I could, but I am not certain that my work pleased God. God judges in one way and human beings in another.” May God preserve us from the danger that threatens those who trust their own thought, and may He make us worthy to hold fast to the way of our Fathers. The Greek logismos in this discourse means an interior thought or line of reasoning, often one with spiritual and moral force; it is rendered “thought” or “one’s own thought” according to context. Thelema is rendered “self-will” where it denotes insistence on one’s own preference against counsel. Dikaioma can mean a claim of right or self-justification, and both senses are retained. The unusual phrase “sound of safety” follows Proverbs 11:15 in the Septuagint and becomes a theme in Dorotheos’s exposition. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint. The source’s patristic annotations identify the sayings of Abba Poemen, Abba John the Dwarf, Saint Macarius, Saint Mark the Ascetic, and Abba Agathon.

DISCOURSE VI: ON NOT JUDGING OUR NEIGHBOR From Small Neglects to Great Falls 69. If we remembered the words of the holy elders, my brethren, and meditated on them, we would rarely fall into sin and rarely neglect ourselves. For if, just as they counseled us, we did not despise small things and those we regard as insignificant, we would not come to fall into great and serious sins. I am always telling you that through these small things—through saying, “What does this matter? What does that matter?”—the soul acquires bad habits and begins to disregard even great things. Do you know how great a sin it is to judge one’s neighbor? Truly, what could be more serious? What else does God hate and abhor so much as judgment? As the Fathers said, there is nothing worse than this. Yet they say that a person reaches so great an evil through these trifles: by accepting a slight suspicion against his neighbor; by saying, “What does it matter if I hear what this brother is saying? What does it matter if I too say this one thing? What does it matter if I see where this brother is going, or what this stranger is about to do?” The mind begins to abandon its own sins and occupy itself with the life of the neighbor. From this a person comes to backbiting, judgment, and contempt.

From this he falls into the very things he condemns. Because he does not attend to his own faults, because he does not weep, as the Fathers said, over his own dead self, he can make no correction in himself at all, but is always occupied with his neighbor. Nothing provokes God so greatly, nothing strips a person so bare and leads him to abandonment, as backbiting, judging, and despising one’s neighbor. Backbiting, Judgment, and Contempt 70. Backbiting is one thing, judgment another, and contempt still another. Backbiting is spreading one’s neighbor’s sins and faults in words—for example, saying, “So-and-so lied,” or, “He became angry,” or, “He committed fornication,” or did something of that kind. In saying these things, a person has already spoken against his neighbor; that is, he has spoken with passion about the other person’s sin. Judgment is accusing the person himself, saying, “He is a liar; he is an angry man; he is a fornicator.” In this way one has judged the very disposition of his soul and pronounced a sentence on his whole life, saying that his life is of this kind, that he is such a person, and condemning him as such. This is a very great sin. It is one thing to say that someone became angry, and another to say that he is an angry man and, as I have said, to pass judgment on his whole life.

Judgment is so much more serious than every other sin that Christ Himself said, “Hypocrite, first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42). He compared the neighbor’s sin to a speck, but judgment to a beam. So serious is judgment that it surpasses nearly every other sin. The Pharisee in the parable, when he prayed and thanked God for his accomplishments, did not speak falsely but truthfully. Nor was he condemned for thanking God. For we are obliged to thank God if we are ever found worthy to do something good, since He worked with us and helped us. The Pharisee was not condemned, as I have said, because he declared, “I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11)—meaning, I do not do what others do, or I do some things that others do not. But when he turned his gaze toward the publican and said, “or even like this publican,” then he sinned. In this way he judged him as a person, judged the disposition of his soul, and, in a word, judged his whole life. For this reason the publican went away from the temple more justified than he. Taking God’s Judgment into Our Own Hands 71. Truly, as I often say, nothing is more serious or more harmful than judging or despising one’s neighbor.

Why do we not judge ourselves instead, and our own faults, which we know very well and for which we shall give an account to God? Why do we seize judgment away from God? What do we demand from His creature? Indeed, should we not tremble when we hear what happened to that great elder? When he heard that a certain brother had fallen into fornication, he said, “Ah, he did wrong!” Do you not know what a dreadful thing the Sayings of the Elders relates concerning him? A holy angel brought him the soul of the brother who had sinned and said, “See, the one whom you judged has fallen asleep. Where, then, do you command me to place him—in the Kingdom of God or in hell?” Can there be anything more terrible than this burden? What else did the angel’s words to the elder mean but this: “Since you are the judge of the righteous and sinners, tell me what you command concerning this humble soul. Do you grant it mercy, or do you condemn it?” The holy elder was so astounded that he spent the rest of his life in groans, tears, and countless labors, entreating God to forgive him this sin. He did this even after falling at the angel’s feet and receiving forgiveness. For when the angel said, “See, God has shown you how grave judgment is; never do it again,” this meant that God had forgiven him.

Yet the elder never allowed his soul to lose its compunction over that sin until he died. God Alone Knows Each Person’s Circumstances 72. What, then, do we want from our neighbor? Why do we wish to take the burdens of others upon ourselves? We have enough to attend to, my brethren. Let each person keep his mind on himself and on his own sins. God alone can justify or condemn each one, because He alone knows each person’s condition, strength, surroundings, gifts, temperament, and particular abilities, and He judges according to all these things, as He alone knows how. God judges the deeds of a bishop in one way and those of a ruler in another; those of an abbot in one way and those of a disciple in another; those of the young in one way and those of the old in another; those of the sick in one way and those of the healthy in another. Who can judge according to all these conditions except the One who created all things, fashioned all things, and knows all things? The Two Enslaved Girls 73. I remember hearing that something related to this once happened. A ship full of slaves anchored near a city. In that city lived a nun of very holy life who kept close watch over herself. When she learned that the ship had arrived, she rejoiced, because she wished to purchase a very young girl.

She thought, “I will take her and bring her up as I wish, so that she may never learn anything of the world’s wickedness.” She sent for the master of that ship and learned that he had two very young girls, just as the nun desired. At once she gladly paid the price and took one of the girls with her. As soon as the shipmaster left the place where that holy woman lived and had gone only a little way, he met a defiled woman of ill repute. She saw the other girl who was with him and desired to buy her. They agreed on the price; she paid it and departed, taking the child with her. Do you see the mystery of God? Do you see His unsearchable counsel? Who can explain it? The holy nun took her girl and brought her up in the fear of God, accustoming her to every good work, teaching her every detail of the monastic life, and making her know the fragrance that comes from keeping God’s holy commandments. The woman of ill repute took the other unfortunate child and made her an instrument of the devil. For what else could that licentious woman teach her except how to destroy her soul? What, then, can we say about this awesome counsel of God? Both were young; both were sold without knowing where they were going.

One found herself in the hands of God, while the other fell into the hands of the devil. Can we say that whatever God requires from the one He also expects from the other? How could this be? If both should fall into fornication or some other transgression, could we ever say that they would be judged by the same measure, even if they fell into the same fault? How could this be? One learned everything concerning the Judgment and the Kingdom of God, living day and night with the word of God. The other, wretched girl, never learned or heard anything good, but only what was shameful and diabolical. How, then, could anyone demand the same exactness from both? You See the Sin, Not the Repentance 74. A person can know absolutely nothing of the counsels of God. He alone understands all things and is able to judge each person as He alone knows how. It may happen that a brother does certain things in simplicity, and this simplicity pleases God more than your entire life. Yet you sit and judge him, bringing punishment upon your own soul. If he happens to yield to sin, how can you know how hard he struggled and how much blood he shed before doing evil, so that his sin may appear almost as a virtue in the eyes of God? God sees his labor and the sorrow he endured, as I have said, before committing the evil; and He has mercy on him and forgives him.

God has mercy on him, but you condemn him and lose your own soul. How do you know how many tears he shed for this before God? You learned of the sin, but you do not know the repentance. Sometimes we not only judge but also treat another with contempt. For judgment, as I have said, is one thing and contempt another. Contempt is when a person not only judges someone but reduces him to nothing, turning away from him and loathing him as something disgusting. This is even worse and far more destructive than judgment. “Today He, Tomorrow I” 75. Those who wish to be saved pay no attention to the faults of their neighbor, but always attend to their own weaknesses, and in this way they make progress. Such was the man who saw his brother sin and said with a deep groan, “Woe is me! He falls today; surely I shall fall tomorrow.” Do you see how he seeks his salvation and prepares his soul? He immediately found a way to escape judging his brother. By saying, “Surely I too shall sin tomorrow,” he gave himself cause to be concerned and to attend to the sins that he might commit. In this way he escaped judgment of his neighbor. He did not stop there, but lowered himself beneath the one who had sinned, saying, “He will repent of his sin, but it is not certain that I will repent; it is not certain that I will succeed; it is not certain that I will have the strength to repent.”

Do you see the illumination of this divine soul? He not only escaped judging his neighbor, but placed himself beneath him. We wretched people, however, judge without discernment, turn away from others, and treat them with contempt if we see, hear, or even suspect something. Worst of all, we do not stop with the harm we do ourselves, but meet another brother and immediately tell him, “This and that happened.” We harm him too by placing sins in his heart. We do not fear the Prophet Habakkuk, who said, “Woe to him who gives his neighbor a drink of turbid ruin and makes him drunk” (Habakkuk 2:15 LXX). Instead, we do the work of the devil and are not even troubled. What else does the devil do but disturb and harm? We become coworkers with the demons in the destruction both of ourselves and of our neighbor. For the one who harms a soul assists the work of the demons, just as the one who benefits a soul cooperates with the holy angels. Love Covers a Multitude of Sins 76. Why do these things happen to us except because we have no love? If we possessed love, sympathy, and compassion for our neighbor, we would not occupy ourselves with his faults. As the Apostle Peter says, “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8), and as the Apostle Paul says, “Love does not reckon evil ...

it bears all things” (1 Corinthians 13:5, 7). If we possessed love, love itself would cover every fault, just as the saints do when they see the failings of others. Are the saints blind, then, and do they not see sins? Who hates sin as greatly as the saints? Yet they do not hate the one who sins, nor do they judge him or turn away from him. They suffer with him, counsel him, console him, and heal him as a sick member of their own body. They do everything to save him. Consider fishermen. When they cast a hook into the sea and catch a large fish, and realize that it is thrashing violently and moving from side to side, they do not pull it in immediately and sharply, for the line would break and the fish would be lost altogether. Instead, they skillfully slacken the line and let it go where it wishes. When they perceive that its strength is exhausted and its violence has quieted, then they begin to draw it in again little by little. So too the saints draw the brother by patience and love; they do not repel or loathe him. Just as a mother who has an unattractive child does not despise or avoid it, but gladly adorns it and does everything she can to make it beautiful, so the saints always cover, adorn, and care for the sinner.

In this way they correct him at the proper time, prevent another from being harmed through him, and themselves make still greater progress in the love of Christ. Abba Ammonas Covers and Corrects What did Abba Ammonas do when those brothers came to him in agitation and said, “Come and see, Father: there is a woman in this brother’s cell”? How great was the compassion he showed! How much love that holy soul possessed! Realizing that the brother had hidden the woman inside a large jar, he went and sat upon it, then told them to search the entire cell. When they did not find her, he said to them, “May God forgive you.” He put them to shame and helped them not to believe accusations against their neighbor so readily. He also brought the brother to his senses. With God’s help he not only covered his sin, but corrected him as soon as he found the proper opportunity. After sending everyone else outside, he took the brother by the hand and said only, “Attend to your soul, my brother.” At once the brother was ashamed, came to awareness, and was filled with compunction; the elder’s loving-kindness and sympathy immediately acted upon his soul. Members of One Body 77. Let us too acquire love and compassion for our neighbor, and so avoid backbiting, judging, and despising others. Let us help one another as members of the same body.

Who, when he has a wound on his hand, foot, or some other member, loathes himself or cuts off the member, even if it is festering? Does he not rather cleanse it, wash it, apply dressings, sign it with the Cross, sprinkle it with holy water, pray, and ask the saints to intercede for him, as Abba Zosimas used to say? In short, he neither abandons nor loathes his member or its corruption, but does everything possible to heal it. In the same way, we are obliged to suffer with those who suffer and to support them as much as we can, either by ourselves or with the help of others stronger in the spiritual life. We must devise and use every means to help both ourselves and our brethren, because “we are individually members of one another” (Romans 12:5), as the Apostle says. And if “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another,” then “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:26). What do you think cenobitic monasteries are? Do you not understand that everyone together is one body and each is a member of the other? Those responsible for governing the monastery are the head. Those who watch and correct are the eyes. Those who benefit others by speech are the mouth. Those who obey are the ears.

Those who labor are the hands. The representatives and those who perform services are the feet. Are you the head? Govern. Are you an eye? Watch and understand well. Are you the mouth? Speak and bring benefit. Are you an ear? Obey. Are you a hand? Work. Are you a foot? Serve. Let each person serve the body according to his strength. Take care always to help one another—whether by teaching and placing the word of God in a brother’s heart, by consoling him in a time of sorrow, or by extending a hand and helping him in some work. In a word, each one according to his strength, as I have said, do everything you can to be united with one another. For the more a person is united with his neighbor, the more he is united with God. The Circle of Love 78. I will give you an example from the Fathers so that you may clearly understand the power of this saying. Imagine a circle drawn on the ground—a round line made with a compass and having a center. The center is the exact middle of the circle. Attend to what I mean. Let us suppose that this circle is the whole world, that the central point is God, and that the straight lines drawn from the circumference toward the center are the roads—that is, the different ways of life of human beings.

As the saints move toward the center, desiring to approach God, then in proportion to their progress they draw nearer both to God and to one another. The nearer they draw to God, the nearer they draw to one another; and the nearer they draw to one another, the nearer they draw to God. Understand separation in the same way. When people move away from God and turn back toward the outside, it is evident that the farther they move outward and away from God, the farther they move from one another; and the farther they move from one another, the farther they move from God. Such is the nature of love. As long as we remain outside and do not love God, we are distant from one another. But if we love God, then in proportion as we draw near to God through our love for Him, we are united in love with our neighbor; and in proportion as we are united with our neighbor, we are united with God. May God make us worthy to attend to the things that benefit us spiritually and to put them into practice. For the more we take care and apply ourselves to practicing what we hear, the more God always enlightens us and teaches us His will. Dorotheos distinguishes katalalia (“backbiting”), katakrisis (“judgment” or “condemnation”), and exouthenosis (“contempt”). The “representatives” in §77 are apokrisiarioi, monks charged with external affairs.

Habakkuk 2:15 follows the Septuagint; its image of intoxication describes backbiting’s disorienting effect. This translation follows the complete primary text (§§69–78), not the later abridged duplicate. DISCOURSE VII: ON SELF-ACCUSATION Why the Same Word Disturbs Us Differently 79. Let us examine, my brethren, why it is that sometimes a person hears an insulting word and lets it pass without being disturbed, almost as though he had heard nothing, while at another time the very same word immediately troubles him. What is the cause of such a difference? Does this have only one cause, or many? I see that it has many causes, but one of them is, so to speak, the mother that gives birth to all the others. I will explain precisely what I mean. First, it often happens that a person is praying—saying the prayer—or is inwardly occupied with spiritual meditation, and so finds himself, as it were, in a peaceful state of soul. In this condition he bears with his brother and passes over his words without disturbance. At another time a person may be emotionally attached to someone, and for this reason he bears without sorrow every difficulty that person causes him. Again, someone may hold another in very low regard because the other treats him with rejection. He therefore despises him, does not consider him worthy of notice, and will not even trouble to speak about him or about the things he says and does.

Patience Born of Contempt 80. I will tell you something that happened, so that you may marvel. Before I left the cenobium, a certain brother lived there whom I observed never to be disturbed or grieved with anyone, although I saw many of the brethren insult him in various ways and provoke him. That young monk bore whatever he received from each one as though no one had troubled him at all. I continually marveled at such great freedom from resentment and wished to learn how he had acquired this virtue. Once I took him aside, made a prostration before him, and begged him to tell me what thought he always held in his heart when someone insulted him or made him suffer, so that he displayed such great patience. With natural simplicity and without affectation he answered me, “I am accustomed to guard myself against these filthy men and to receive whatever they do to me just as strong, sturdy dogs endure mistreatment from harsh masters.” When I heard this answer, I bowed my head and said within myself, “The brother has found his way!” Then I signed myself with the Cross and departed, praying that God would protect both him and me.

81. Thus, as I said, it may happen that someone is not disturbed because of contempt—but this is manifest ruin. If, on the other hand, someone is disturbed with a brother who grieves him, it is either because he is not in a good state of soul at that moment or because he harbors some aversion toward him. There are, of course, many other causes of this, which have already been described in various ways. The Root of Every Disturbance Yet if we wish to speak precisely, the cause of every disturbance is that we have not become accustomed to seeing our own sins and weeping over them. This is why we experience all this oppression and why we never find rest. We hear from all the saints that there is no other way, and we see that no one who followed another path ever found rest. Is it not astonishing, then, that we expect to find rest or to remain on the right path without becoming accustomed to accuse ourselves? Truly, even if a person accomplishes many spiritual labors, unless he undertakes this work of self-accusation, he will never cease causing grief and being grieved, and he will lose all his labors. But wherever he may go, what joy and what rest will not belong to the one who accuses himself? As Abba Poemen said, quoting Abba Antony, “A man’s great strength is to lay his own fault before the Lord and to expect temptation until his last breath.”

If some loss, dishonor, or any other affliction befalls such a person, he anticipates it by regarding himself as deserving of the suffering, and he is never disturbed. Is there any greater rest than this? The Brother Reveals the Passion Within 82. Someone may say, “If a brother grieves me and I examine myself but find that I gave him no cause, how can I accuse myself?” In truth, if a person examines himself in the fear of God, he will certainly find that he gave some cause, whether by a word, a deed, or a gesture. Even if he sees, as he says, that he gave no such cause at all in this particular instance, perhaps he grieved that brother at another time, over the same matter or another; or perhaps he grieved some other brother and ought to suffer for that; or, as often happens, the trial may be on account of some other sin. Thus, if a person examines himself in the fear of God and searches his conscience carefully, he will certainly find himself at fault. At other times someone sees himself sitting quietly and peacefully. But when his brother says something painful to him, he is disturbed, and for this reason he thinks that he is justly grieved with him. He says, “If he had not come and spoken to me and upset me, I would not have fallen into sin.”

This is not only self-deception but absurdity. Did the one who spoke the harsh word put the passion into his soul? He merely showed him the passion already within him, so that, if he wishes, he may repent of it. Such a person is like fine bread that looks very good on the outside, but when someone cuts it open, its mold becomes visible. He too was sitting peacefully, as he imagined, yet the passion was within him and he did not know it. His brother said a single word to him and brought out the corruption hidden inside. If, then, he wishes to find mercy, let him repent, cleanse himself, and make progress. Let him understand that he ought rather to thank his brother, because in this way the brother has brought him so great a benefit. Growth Makes Trials Easier to Bear 83. Temptations do not always overcome and affect the spiritual struggler to the same degree. The more he advances in the spiritual life, the lighter they appear to him. As the soul progresses, it becomes stronger and is able to bear the things that befall it. If an animal is strong and someone places a heavy load on it, it carries the burden easily. Even if it happens to stumble, it rises at once and scarcely notices that it stumbled. But if the animal is sickly and weak, even the slightest burden brings it to its knees; and if it falls, it needs much help to rise again.

The same is true of the soul. As long as it sins, it is tormented by sin itself, for sin by its nature torments and corrupts the one who commits it. Consequently, whatever happens exhausts him. But when a person makes progress, he continually overcomes with greater ease the things that once wearied him. Therefore, regarding ourselves—and no one else—as the cause of what happens to us benefits us greatly, helps us make progress, and gives us rest. We are helped still more when we believe that nothing is permitted to happen to us outside divine Providence. Receiving Every Need from God 84. Someone may say, “How can I not be grieved when I need something and they do not give it to me? I truly need it.” Even then he has no justification for accusing anyone or becoming sorrowful. If he really needs something, as he says, and it is not given to him, he ought to think, “Christ knows better than I whether I should receive relief, and He will supply what is lacking in this thing or in this food.” The Israelites ate manna in the wilderness for forty years. The manna was one kind of food, yet for each person it became what he needed. For one who needed something sweet it became sweet; for one who needed something savory it became savory. In a word, it became for each person what suited his constitution (Wisdom of Solomon 16:21).

So if someone needs an egg but is given only cabbage, he should say within himself, “If it were for my benefit, God would certainly have sent it to me. Yet God can make this very cabbage as nourishing as an egg for my sake.” I am convinced that in God’s sight this is equal to martyrdom. For truly, if a person is worthy of relief, God enlightens even the hearts of the Saracens to show him mercy according to his need. But if he is not worthy of relief, or if relief would not benefit his soul, then even if he were to make a new heaven and a new earth, he would find no rest. At other times, of course, a person receives more than he needs because God wishes to show the abundance of His love for mankind and to teach him thanksgiving. But when God does not give him what he needs, He supplies by His word what the missing thing would have supplied and teaches him patience. Therefore, in every circumstance we must keep our attention turned toward God. Whether we receive a benefit or suffer hardship, let us keep our attention turned toward God and thank Him for whatever happens to us, striving always to preserve self-accusation. As the Fathers used to say, when something good happens, “It is God’s dispensation”; and when something bad happens, “It is because of our sins.”

Truly, whatever we suffer, we suffer because of our sins. Even when the saints suffer, they endure it for the glory of God’s name, or so that their virtue may be revealed and many may benefit, or so that their reward from God may be increased. But how can we wretched people claim anything of the kind for ourselves? Every day we sin so greatly and pursue the satisfaction of our passions in every way. We have left the straight path marked out by the Fathers—the path of self-accusation—and we walk crooked paths, accusing our neighbor. Each of us lives carelessly, putting nothing into practice, yet demands that his neighbor keep the commandments. How We Shift Blame onto One Another 85. Once two brothers came to me because each was grieved with the other. The elder said of the younger, “I tell him to do something and he becomes distressed, and then I too become distressed. I think that if he loved and trusted me, God would give his heart assurance to accept what I say.” The younger said, “Forgive me, Father. I have the impression that he does not speak to me in the fear of God, but as though he wishes to command me. I think that this is why my heart finds no rest, as the Fathers say.” Notice how each laid the burden upon the other and neither accused himself.

Two other brothers had grieved one another and made prostrations to each other, yet they remained without peace. The one said, “He did not make his prostration to me from his heart, and so I did not find rest, for this is what the Fathers have said.” The other said, “Because he had not first disposed himself toward me with love before I showed my repentance, I too found no rest.” Do you see their self-deception, my brethren? Do you see how their reasoning was distorted? God knows how astonished I am that we even use the words of the Fathers according to our evil desires and so destroy our souls. Each should have taken responsibility upon himself and accused himself. One should have said, “I did not make my prostration sincerely before my brother; therefore God did not give him rest.” The other should have said, “Before my brother expressed his repentance, I did not have my heart ready to forgive and love him; therefore God did not give him rest.” The first pair should have done the same. The elder ought to have said, “I speak presumptuously; therefore God does not give my brother rest.” The younger ought to have thought, “My brother gives me commands with humility and love, but I am disobedient and have no fear of God.” Yet none of them found the right path and accused himself.

On the contrary, each placed the burden on the other. “There Is No Other Way” 86. This is why we cannot make progress. This is why we find no benefit in anything, but spend all our time decaying through the thoughts we harbor against our brethren and crushing ourselves, because each person justifies himself. Each leaves himself, as I have said, without putting anything into practice, while all of us demand that others keep the commandments of God. For this reason we cannot be trained to do what is good. If we ever learn even the smallest thing, we immediately demand that our brother practice it, accusing him and saying, “He ought to do this,” or, “Why did he not do it in this way?” Why do we not demand instead that we ourselves keep the commandments, and accuse ourselves as transgressors? Where is that elder who, when asked, “What more have you found on this path, Father?” replied, “I have learned to accuse myself in everything”? The one who questioned him praised him and said, “There is no other way than this.” Likewise Abba Poemen said with a groan, “All the virtues have entered this house except one, and without it a person can scarcely stand.” When they asked him, “Which one is that?” he replied, “Self-accusation.” And the great Antony said, “This is the chief spiritual work a person must undertake within himself: to take responsibility for his faults before God and to prepare for temptations until his last breath.”

Everywhere we see that the Fathers kept this practice and found rest, referring everything to God, even the smallest things. “If God Had Willed Me to Eat Honey” 87. Such was the holy elder who fell ill and whose brother put linseed oil into his food instead of honey, even though it is extremely harmful. Yet the elder said nothing. He silently ate the first and second portions that he needed, without accusing his brother by saying, “He treated me with contempt.” Not only did he refrain from saying that the brother had despised him; he did not grieve him with any other painful word. When the brother realized what he had done, he became distressed and said, “I have killed you, Father, and you have laid the sin upon me because you said nothing.” With great meekness the elder answered, “Do not be distressed, my child. If God had willed me to eat honey, you would have put in honey.” At once he referred the whole matter to God’s will. Someone might object, “Why bring God into this, monk? The brother made the mistake, and you say, ‘If God had willed it.’ What does this mean?” The elder answers, “Yes. If God had willed me to eat honey, the brother would have put honey in for me.” This happened even though the elder became so ill that for many days he could eat nothing.

Nevertheless, he did not become indignant with the brother, but referred the mistake to God’s will and found rest. The elder spoke rightly, for he knew well that if God had willed him to eat honey, He would have made even the foul oil into honey. Do Not Bite the Stone 88. We, however, hold our brother responsible for everything. We accuse him of despising us and acting without conscience. If we hear a single word, we immediately attribute it to an evil intention and say, “If he had not wished to hurt me, he would not have said it.” Where is that holy prophet David, who said concerning Shimei, “Let him curse, for the Lord has told him to curse David” (2 Samuel 16:10)? Did God command a murderer to curse the Prophet? No. But David was wise and knew that nothing draws the grace of God to the soul so much as temptations, especially when they come in a time of trial and difficult circumstances. Therefore he said, “Let him curse David, for the Lord has told him to do it.” Why? “Perhaps the Lord will look upon my humiliation and repay me with good for his curse.” Do you see with what understanding the Prophet acted? This is why he resisted those who wished to defend him, saying, “What have I to do with you, sons of Zeruiah?

Let him curse, for the Lord has stirred him up” (2 Samuel 16:10–12). But we cannot bear to say of our brother, “The Lord has stirred him up.” When we hear a word, we immediately behave like dogs. Someone throws a stone at them, and they leave the one who threw it and bite the stone. We do the same. We abandon God, who permits afflictions to befall us so that we may be cleansed of our sins, and we turn upon our brother, saying, “Why did he say that to me? Why did he do that to me?” Although we could receive great benefit from these things, we harm ourselves, not understanding that everything happens through God’s Providence for the benefit of each person. May God grant us understanding through the prayers of the saints. Amen. “Self-accusation” translates automempsia, the disciplined practice of taking responsibility for one’s own fault before blaming another. In §85, the Greek plerophoria denotes an inward assurance or settled conviction; the source editor’s explanatory glosses on this term and on divine Providence have been distinguished from Dorotheos’s primary text and are not incorporated into his discourse. Scriptural book names and numbering have been normalized to common English usage. DISCOURSE VIII: ON RESENTMENT Resentment After Reconciliation 89. One of the Fathers, Evagrius, said that monks ought neither to become angry nor to grieve anyone. He also said, “If a person bridles anger, he bridles the demons; but if he has been conquered by this passion, he is altogether a stranger to the monastic life,” together with other sayings of this kind.

What, then, should we say about ourselves, who do not stop at irritation and anger, but often go so far as resentment? What else can we do but mourn over this wretched and inhuman condition of ours? Let us keep the eyes of soul and body watchful, my brethren, and, after God, let us help ourselves, so that we may be delivered from the bitterness of this destructive passion. It often happens that a person makes a prostration before his brother after they have grown cold or become distressed with one another, yet even after the prostration he remains grieved and entertains thoughts against him. He must not treat these thoughts carelessly, but cut them off at once, for this is resentment. He needs vigilant care, repentance, and struggle, as I have said, so that he does not remain long with these thoughts and fall into danger. By making the prostration, he has merely fulfilled a practical command and has dealt with the anger for the moment, but he has not yet undertaken any struggle against resentment. Therefore he continues to harbor grief against his brother. For resentment is one thing, wrath another, anger another, and disturbance another. From Ember to Fire 90. I will give you an example so that you may understand. When someone kindles a fire, at first he has only a little ember. The ember is the bitter word of the brother who grieved him.

See how little power the ember has. For what is one small word from your brother? If you bear it patiently, you extinguish the ember. But if you begin to think, “Why did he say that to me? I too can answer him. If he had not wanted to grieve me, he would not have said it. Believe me, I will settle matters with him!” then you are putting on little sticks or some other kindling, just as one does when he wants to light a fire, and you fill the place with smoke. This smoke is disturbance. Disturbance is the turmoil of passionate and disorderly thoughts that stir up the heart and make it aggressive toward the neighbor. This aggressive impulse against the person who grieved us often becomes threatening as well, because it becomes vindictive. As Abba Mark said, “Malice entertained in thought makes the heart angry and threatening, but when it is fought by prayer and hope, it produces repentance and contrition.” If you had patiently endured your brother’s insignificant word, you would have extinguished, as I said, that little ember before disturbance arose. Yet even this disturbance, if you wish, you can easily extinguish while there is still time—by silence, by prayer, and by a heartfelt prostration. But if you continue producing smoke, you embolden and inflame your heart by turning the thought over in your mind: “Why did he say that to me?

I too can answer him.” From all this boiling and collision of thoughts, by which the heart is heated and stirred up passionately, the passion of anger is kindled. For anger is a boiling of the blood around the heart, as Saint Basil says. This is how anger is kindled; this is how we enter the state called irascibility. If you wish, you can extinguish this too before it produces wrath. But if you continue both causing disturbance and being disturbed, you resemble someone who throws wood onto a fire and makes the flame grow. In this way there come to be glowing coals, which are wrath. Cut Off the Passion While It Is Young 91. This is what Abba Zosimas meant when he was asked to explain the saying, “Where there is no anger, contention ceases.” At the beginning of disturbance, as soon as it starts, as we have said, to make smoke and throw off a few sparks, if a person acts first by accusing himself and making a prostration—before the disturbance rises up and becomes anger—then he remains at peace. Again, once anger has been kindled, if he does not grow quiet but leaves disturbance and vindictiveness in his soul, he resembles, as we said, someone who throws wood onto the fire and remains inflamed until he has made great glowing coals. Just as embers become charcoal that can be stored and remain for many years without being destroyed—and do not decay even if someone pours water upon them—so anger, if it remains in the soul a long time, becomes resentment.

Then, unless a person sheds his blood in the struggle, he will not be delivered from it. There, I have told you the difference; have you understood? You have heard what the first disturbance is, what anger is, what wrath is, and what resentment is. Do you see how from a single word we reach so great an evil? If from the beginning a person had accused himself, endured his brother’s word, and not sought revenge—returning two or five words for one and repaying evil for evil—he would have escaped all these evils. This is why I always tell you: while the passions are still at their beginning, cut them off before they grow strong against you and cause you suffering. It is one thing to pull up a small blade of grass and another to uproot a great tree. “If I Have Repaid Evil” 92. Nothing astonishes me more than the fact that we do not understand what we chant. Every day we chant the psalms and in doing so call down curses upon ourselves without realizing it. Are we not obliged to know what we are chanting? We continually say, “If I have repaid with evil those who repaid me, may I then fall helpless before my enemies” (Psalm 7:4 LXX). What does it mean to fall? As long as a person stands upright, he has the power to defend himself against his enemies.

He strikes and is struck; he conquers and is conquered. For he is still standing. But if he falls, how can he continue the struggle with his enemy while lying on the ground? And we call down upon ourselves not only that we should fall into the hands of our enemies, but that we should fall helpless. What does it mean to fall helpless into the hands of our enemies? We have said that to fall means no longer to possess the power to resist; it means to lie prostrate on the ground. To be helpless means to possess nothing good at all that might give us the strength to rise. For the one who rises can again take care of himself and, when the moment requires, resume the struggle against the enemy. Then we say, “Let the enemy pursue my soul and seize it” (Psalm 7:5 LXX). We ask not only that he pursue us, but that he seize us, so that we may always be his captives, so that he may conquer us and bring us down in everything, if we repay evil to those who wrong us. Nor do we ask only this, but also that he trample our life into the ground. What is our life? Our life is the virtues. We pray that our life may be trampled into the earth, so that we may become entirely earthbound, with every thought turned toward the earth.

“And let him make my glory dwell in the dust.” What is our glory if not the knowledge born in a soul that keeps the holy commandments? Thus we are asking the enemy to make our glory, as the Apostle says, our shame (Philippians 3:19), to trample our life into the earth, and to make both our life and our glory earthly, so that we think nothing according to God but consider everything bodily and carnally, like those of whom God says, “My Spirit shall not remain in these people forever, because they are flesh” (Genesis 6:3 LXX). So when we chant all these things, we call down curses upon ourselves if we repay evil for evil. Yet how many evils we repay for evils done to us! We do not care at all, but remain indifferent. The Hidden Degrees of Retaliation 93. A person can repay evil for evil not only by an action, but also by a word or by his bearing. Outwardly he may appear not to have repaid evil by an action, but he discovers that he has repaid it by a word or, as I said, by his behavior. Often a person makes a grimace, a gesture, or even casts a look that disturbs his brother. One can wound his brother by a look or a gesture, and this too is repaying evil for evil.

Another person tries not to repay evil either by an action, a word, a grimace, or a gesture, yet in his soul he harbors grief against his brother and is distressed with him. Do you see how many different states there are? Another does not even harbor grief against his brother. Yet if he hears that someone has grieved that brother, murmured against him, or insulted him, he takes pleasure in hearing it. He too is in a state of repaying evil for evil within his heart. Another neither bears malice nor rejoices when he hears something evil about the one who afflicted him, but is deeply grieved if that person suffers. Yet he takes no pleasure when something good happens to him; if he sees him honored or enjoying relief, he is distressed. This too is a form of resentment—lighter, certainly, but real nonetheless. A person ought instead to rejoice in his brother’s good, do everything possible to serve him, and in every matter take care to honor him and give him rest. Healing the Scar 94. At the beginning of the discourse we said that someone may make a prostration before his brother and yet remain grieved with him afterward. In that case, we say that by making the prostration he healed the wrath, but has not yet struggled against resentment. There is another person who, if he happens to be distressed with someone and they make prostrations, forgive each other, and are reconciled, remains at peace toward him and carries no evil memory of him in his heart.

But if, after a few days, that brother happens to say something that grieves him, he begins to remember the earlier offense as well and becomes disturbed not only over the second matter, but also over the first. Such a person resembles someone who has a wound and puts a plaster upon it. For a time the plaster heals the wound, yet the place is still tender. Whenever someone throws a stone at it, that place is injured more easily than the rest of the body and at once begins to bleed. The same thing happens to him. He had a wound and placed a plaster upon it, which is the prostration. For a time he healed the wound just as the first person did—that is, he healed the wrath—and he also began to attend to the resentment by trying not to preserve any evil memory in his heart. This is precisely the wound’s healing. But he has not yet made it disappear completely. He still bears a remnant of resentment, which is the scar from which the whole wound easily opens again whenever it receives even a slight blow. He must therefore struggle to make even the scar disappear completely, so that hair grows again on that spot, no disfigurement remains, and no one can tell that a wound was ever there. How can he accomplish this? By praying with his whole heart for the one who grieved him and saying, “O God, help my brother—and help me through his prayers.”

In this way he both prays for his brother, which is a sign of compassion and love, and humbles himself by asking help through his brother’s prayers. Where compassion, love, and humility are present, how can anger, resentment, or any other passion prevail? As Abba Zosimas said, “Even if the devil should stir up every instrument of his malice together with all his demons, all his devices are made useless and shattered by the humility born of keeping Christ’s commandment.” Another elder said, “The one who prays for his enemies has no resentment within him.” The Art of Arts 95. Understand well what you hear and put it into practice. For truly, unless you apply these things in practice, you cannot learn them through words. What person who wishes to learn a craft learns it through words alone? Certainly he first makes something and spoils it, makes it again and spoils it again. In this way, by laboring a little and persevering, he learns the craft with God’s help, for God sees his intention and his labor and strengthens him in the work. And do we wish to learn the greatest of all arts without putting our hands to the work? How is that possible? Let us attend to ourselves, my brethren, and labor with great diligence while we still have time. May God grant us to remember and keep what we hear, so that these teachings may not condemn us on the day of judgment.

“Resentment” translates mnesikakia, literally the remembrance of wrongs and often rendered “rancor” or “holding a grudge.” Dorotheos distinguishes a progression from disturbance (tarache), through anger (thymos) and wrath (orge), to settled resentment. “Prostration” translates metanoia here: a bodily act of repentance and reconciliation, not merely an inward change of mind. The local Greek source includes extended editorial and patristic reference notes; these have been distinguished from Dorotheos’s primary text, while their essential identifications are reflected in the translation. Psalm numbering is normalized to common English usage while the wording follows the Septuagint form used by Dorotheos. DISCOURSE IX: ON FALSEHOOD Truth Is God 96. I wish to remind you of a few things concerning falsehood, my brethren. I do not see that you take much care to guard your tongues, and for this reason we are easily carried away into many faults. You see, my brethren, that in every matter, as I always tell you, habit plays a part both in good and in evil. We therefore need great attention and watchful care so that falsehood does not deceive us. No one who lies is united with God, for falsehood has nothing in common with God. It is written that falsehood comes from the evil one, and elsewhere that the devil “is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). See: Scripture calls the devil the father of falsehood.

Truth, however, is God, for He Himself says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Do you understand, then, from whom we separate ourselves and to whom we bind ourselves by falsehood? Clearly, we bind ourselves to the devil. If we truly wish to be saved, we are obliged with all our strength and every care to love the truth and guard ourselves from every kind of falsehood, lest it separate us from the Truth and the Life. Falsehood in Thought 97. There are three different ways in which a person may lie. One lies in thought, another lies in speech, and a third lies by his whole life. The person who lies in thought is the one who says, “They are speaking about me.” If the others stop talking, he again suspects that they stopped because of him. If someone says a word to him, he suspects that it was said deliberately to grieve him. In a word, he suspects his brother in everything, saying, “He did this because of me; he said that because of me; this is why he did such a thing.” This is the person who lies in thought, for he says nothing true; everything rests upon suspicion. From this arise curiosity about things that do not concern us, backbiting, eavesdropping, disputes, and judgments. Sometimes a person suspects something and subsequent events show it to have been true.

On this account he claims that, because he wants to correct himself, he always proceeds with suspicion and curiosity, thinking, “If someone speaks against me and I listen, I will understand the fault of which he accuses me and correct myself.” First of all, the very preconception he has admitted into his soul is the work of the evil one. He began with falsehood: without knowing, he suspected what he did not know. How can a bad tree produce good fruit (Matthew 7:18)? If he truly wishes to be corrected, then when a brother says to him, “Do not do this,” or, “Why did you do that?” let him not be disturbed. Let him make a prostration and thank him, and then he will be corrected. If God sees that this is his intention, He will never allow him to go astray, but will certainly send him the proper person to correct him. But to say, “Because I wish to correct myself, I believe my suspicions, and therefore I make a habit of eavesdropping and investigating,” is a thought planted and fashioned by the devil, who wishes to destroy him. Do Not Trust Suspicions 98. When I was in the cenobium, I was once tempted to try to infer a person’s inner condition from his movements. Something related to this happened to me. One day, as I was standing somewhere, a woman carrying a jar of water passed by.

I do not know how I was drawn away, but I watched her eyes. At once the thought came to me that she was a prostitute. As soon as the thought said this to me, I became greatly distressed and reported it to the elder, Abba John, in this way: “Father, if without wishing it I observe someone’s movement and my thought draws a conclusion about his condition, what should I do?” The elder answered me, “What then? Does it not often happen that a person has some natural defect and overcomes it through great struggle? You cannot know his condition from such a thing. Therefore, never trust your suspicions, for a crooked rule makes even straight things crooked. Suspicions are false and harmful.” From that time, even if my thought told me that the sun was the sun or that darkness was darkness, I did not trust it. Nothing is more serious than suspicions. They are so harmful that, when they remain in us for a long time, they begin to convince us that we see clearly things that neither exist nor have ever happened. The Brother Accused of Eating Figs 99. Concerning this, I wish to tell you of an astonishing event that I witnessed while I was still in the cenobium. We had a brother there who was greatly troubled by this passion. He was so convinced by his own suspicions that he was certain each one was exactly as his thought portrayed it and could not possibly be otherwise.

As the evil advanced with time, the demons persuaded him to such great deception that one day he went into the garden to spy—for he was always watching and eavesdropping—and imagined that he saw a brother stealing figs and eating them. It was Friday, and the second hour had not yet come. Because he was persuaded that he had truly seen this, he hid himself and slipped away in silence. Later, at the hour of the synaxis, he watched to see what the brother whom he believed had stolen and eaten the figs would do when it was time for Communion. When he saw the brother washing his hands in order to approach Communion, he ran to the abbot and said, “See, that brother is going to receive Holy Communion with the others. Order that it not be given to him, for this morning I myself saw him stealing figs from the garden and eating them.” Meanwhile, that brother was approaching the Holy Eucharist with great compunction, for he was one of the most devout. When the abbot saw him, he called him before he reached the priest who was distributing Communion. Taking him aside, he asked, “Tell me, brother, what did you do today?” Astonished, the brother replied, “Where, Father?” The abbot said, “When you went into the garden this morning, what did you do there?” Still amazed, the brother answered, “Father, I have not even seen the garden today, nor was I here in the cenobium this morning.

I have only just returned from the road. Immediately after the night vigil ended, the steward sent me out on an errand.” The errand he named required a journey of many miles, and the brother had returned only at the hour of the synaxis. The abbot summoned the steward and asked, “Where did you send this brother?” The steward gave the same answer as the brother: “I sent him to such-and-such a village.” Then he made a prostration and said, “Forgive me, Father. You were resting after the vigil, and for this reason I did not send him to receive your blessing before he left.” Once the abbot was fully satisfied, he sent them with a prayer to receive Communion. Then he summoned the brother who had harbored the suspicion, rebuked him, and barred him from Holy Communion. Not only this: after the synaxis he assembled all the brethren, related the event to them with tears, and reproved that brother before everyone. In this way he brought about three good things: the devil was put to shame and exposed as the sower of suspicions; the brother’s sin was forgiven through that humiliation, and he received help from God for the future; and the brethren were made more secure in never allowing themselves to be carried away by their suspicions. After giving us and that brother many admonitions on this subject, the abbot said that nothing is more harmful than suspicions, proving it by the event that had just occurred.

Turn Suspicions into Good Thoughts 100. The Fathers said many other similar things on various occasions to guard us against the harm caused by suspicions. Let us therefore strive with all our strength, my brethren, never to trust our suspicions. Nothing turns a person so far away from attending to and examining his own sins, and nothing makes him so occupied with matters that do not concern him, as suspicions. Nothing good can come from this passion. From it arise countless disturbances and countless afflictions; because of it a person never finds time to acquire the fear of God in peace. Even if our own wickedness sows suspicions in our soul, let us immediately transform them into good thoughts, and then they will not harm us. Suspicions are destructive and never allow the soul to find peace. This, then, is falsehood in thought. Falsehood in Speech 101. The one who lies in speech is the person who, for example, is too sluggish to rise for the vigil and does not say, “Forgive me, for I was too sluggish to get up,” but instead says, “I had a fever; I was dizzy; I could not rise; I had no strength.” He tells ten lies so that he will not have to make a single prostration and humble himself. If someone reproves him for something, he persists in objections and embellished excuses so that he may overturn the accusation, simply because he cannot bear it.

The same thing happens if he quarrels with his brother. He does not stop justifying himself and saying, “But you said it; you did it; I did not say it; he said it; this happened; that happened”—all merely so that he will not humble himself. Again, if he desires something, he cannot bear to say, “I desire this.” Instead, he circles around the matter, saying, “I suffer from this and need that,” or, “I was told to do this.” He tells so many lies until he fulfills his desire. Every sin arises either from love of pleasure, love of money, or love of glory. Falsehood too is spoken for these three reasons: either so that a person will not be reproved and humbled, so that he may fulfill some desire, or so that he may gain something. The liar does not stop turning this way and that and continually devising what to say until he achieves his purpose. Such a person is never believed. Even when he says something true, no one can trust him; others remain doubtful even about the truth he speaks. Concealment in Grave Necessity 102. Sometimes, however, a serious necessity arises, and if a person does not conceal something to a degree, the matter ends in greater disturbance, affliction, or danger. When such a circumstance occurs, he may find himself compelled to alter his words so that, as I said, greater disturbance, affliction, or danger will not follow.

Abba Alonius said to Abba Agathon, “Suppose two men commit murder in your presence, and one of them takes refuge in your cell. The magistrate searches for him and asks you, ‘Did you witness the crime?’ If you refuse to let the matter pass, you hand that man over to death.” When some grave necessity occurs, a person must not remain indifferent even then, but should repent and weep before God, regarding the incident as a temptation. Such a thing must not happen continually, but once in a thousand times. It is like theriac or a purgative: if a person takes it often, it harms him; but if he takes it once after a long interval and under grave necessity, it benefits him. So too one must use this remedy: if necessity truly compels him to conceal something, let him do so only once in a thousand times and only when, as I have said, he sees a grave necessity. Then with fear and trembling let him disclose before God both his intention and the necessity, and he will be protected. Otherwise, even in this he will suffer harm. Falsehood in One’s Life 103. We have said who lies in thought and who lies in speech. Now we wish to describe the person who lies by his very life. The one who lies by his life is someone who is dissipated but pretends to possess self-control; or who is greedy but speaks about almsgiving and praises compassion; or who is proud but admires humility.

He does not admire the virtue because he truly wishes to praise it. If he spoke with this purpose, he would first confess his weakness with humility, saying, “Woe to me, wretched as I am, for I have done nothing good in my life.” Only after confessing his weakness should he admire and praise the virtue. Nor does he praise the virtue chiefly to avoid scandalizing others. In that case he would say, “I am indeed wretched and ruled by passions; why should I scandalize someone else? Why should I harm another soul and burden myself with yet another weight?” With this thought, even if he himself sinned, he would at least have drawn somewhat near to what is good, for it is a mark of compassion to care for one’s neighbor. But this person does not admire virtue for the reasons I have mentioned. Rather, he takes it up, speaks about it, and praises it either to conceal his own shame—suggesting that he too has some connection with the virtue—or, often, in order to harm and deceive his brother. No wickedness, no heresy, and not even the devil himself can deceive a person except by appearing in the form of virtue. As the Apostle says, “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). It is therefore no wonder if his servants too transform themselves into servants of righteousness.

Thus the liar, whether because he is ashamed and fears being humbled or because, as I have said, he wishes to lead someone astray and deceive him, speaks about the virtues, praises them, and admires them as though they were his own and he had experienced them. This is the one who lies by his whole life. He is not a simple person but double-faced: one thing within and another in appearance. His whole life is divided and altogether contemptible. We have now spoken about falsehood and shown that it comes from the devil. We have also spoken about truth and shown that truth is God. Let us therefore flee falsehood, my brethren, so that we may escape the portion of the evil one; and let us struggle to acquire the truth, so that we may be united with Him who said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6). May God make us worthy of His truth. The discourse distinguishes falsehood in thought, in speech, and in one’s whole manner of life. “Suspicion” here is not prudent inquiry but a settled, self-confirming judgment imposed upon another without knowledge. The local Greek transcription marks two omissions with ellipses: the monastery account in §99 and the grave-necessity discussion in §102. Both passages have been restored from the complete primary-text sequence so that §§96–103 are presented without abridgment. “Theriac” in §102 denotes a powerful compound medicine used only as an exceptional remedy.

DISCOURSE X: ON WALKING THE WAY OF GOD VIGILANTLY AND WITHOUT WASTING TIME The Time Will Not Be Given Back 104. My brothers, let us care for our souls with vigilant concern. Who will give us this time again if we lose it? Truly, an hour will come when we shall seek these days and will not find them. Abba Arsenius always used to say to himself, “Arsenius, for what purpose did you leave the world?” We, however, live with such negligence that we neither know why we left the world nor understand what it is that we desired. Therefore, not only do we fail to make progress, but we are always filled with sorrow. This happens because we do not keep vigilant watch over our hearts. If we were willing to struggle even a little, we would not be distressed or labor for long. Although a person constrains himself at the beginning, through struggle he gradually makes progress and thereafter does everything with ease, because God sees that he is constraining himself and helps him. Let us too, then, constrain ourselves. Let us make a beginning; let us desire the good with our whole soul. Even if we have not yet reached perfection, the very act of willing is the beginning of our salvation. From willing we proceed, with God’s help, to struggle; and through struggle we are helped to acquire the virtues.

Therefore one of the Fathers said, “Give blood and receive spirit” (Abba Longinus). That is to say: struggle, and virtue will become part of your very being. Zeal for the Spiritual Art 105. When I was studying in the world, I found it extremely laborious at first. Whenever the hour came to take a book in my hand, I felt as though I were about to seize a wild beast. But as I persisted and constrained myself, God helped me, and I became so accustomed to study that, because of the great pleasure I took in reading, I paid no attention to what I ate or drank or how I slept. The desire to go and dine with one of my friends never drew me away; I did not even meet with them when I had study to do, although I was sociable and loved my friends. When the teacher dismissed us, I would bathe—for I was accustomed to wash every day because study dried me out—and return home without even knowing what I was going to eat. I could not occupy myself with ordering the food I would have, but entrusted it to a reliable man who prepared whatever he wished. I ate whatever I found that he had cooked, with my book beside me on the bed, looking into it from time to time. When I slept, I again kept it beside me on my chair; and as soon as I had slept a little, I would spring up immediately to read.

In the evening, when I returned after vespers, I would light the lamp and continue reading until midnight. I lived in this way because I felt nothing sweeter than the pleasure study gave me. When I came to the monastery, I said to myself: “If I had such longing and zeal for worldly wisdom that I devoted myself to study until it became an inseparable habit, how much more should I labor for virtue?” I drew great strength from this thought. Likewise, if anyone wishes to acquire virtue, he must not be indifferent or allow his mind to be scattered. Just as someone who wishes to learn architecture does not turn his attention to another craft, those who wish to learn the spiritual art must not occupy their minds with anything else. Night and day they must consider how they may acquire it. Those who do not undertake this work with such a disposition not only fail to progress, but wear themselves out by wandering aimlessly. Unless each of us struggles with unceasing care and attention, he will very easily stray from the right road that leads to the virtues. The Royal Road of Virtue 106. The virtues lie in the middle. They are the royal road of which that holy elder said, “Walk the royal road and count the miles you have traveled” (Abba Benjamin). The virtues, as I said, stand between excess and deficiency.

Therefore it is written, “Turn neither to the right nor to the left” (Proverbs 4:27), but “walk along the royal road” (Numbers 20:17). Saint Basil says: “Upright in heart is the person whose thought inclines neither toward excess nor toward deficiency, but aims at the mean—that is, at virtue.” Here is what I mean. Evil in itself is nothing; it has neither substance nor independent existence. God forbid that it should! Rather, this is what happens: by departing from the royal road of virtue, the soul acquires a passionate disposition and brings evil into operation. It is then punished by that very evil, because it loses the repose it found while living naturally in virtue. Consider wood. It does not have a worm within it by nature, but it decays a little, and from the decay a worm is born; then that very worm consumes the whole piece of wood. Copper likewise produces rust, and is itself destroyed by the rust. A garment produces the moth, and the moth itself destroys the garment. So too the soul brings evil upon itself, although evil previously had neither substance nor independent existence, and afterward the soul is punished by that evil. Saint Gregory rightly said: “Fire is born from wood and consumes the wood, just as wickedness, born from the wicked, destroys the wicked.” Exactly the same thing occurs in diseased bodies.

When a person pays no attention and does not care for his health, an excess or deficiency arises in the body, and from it he loses his health. Before this, no disease existed and nothing else was present; and when the body is healed, the disease is nowhere to be found. In the same way, vice is an illness of the soul, for through it the soul loses its natural state of health, which is none other than virtue. This is why we say that the virtues stand in the middle. Courage, for example, stands between cowardice and recklessness. Humility stands between pride and the desire to please people. Reverence likewise stands between timid embarrassment and shamelessness. The same proportion holds for all the other virtues. If a person is counted worthy to acquire these virtues, he is honored in the sight of God. Although he always appears to eat, drink, and sleep like other people, in truth he is especially honored before God because of the virtues he possesses. But if a person does not keep vigilant watch over himself and guard himself, he easily strays either to the right or to the left—that is, toward excess or deficiency—and gives birth to the illness that is vice. This is the royal road walked by all the saints. Count the Miles You Have Traveled 107. The miles are the various conditions a person must continually measure, so that he may see where he is, what point he has reached, and what his condition is.

Here is what I mean. We resemble people intending to journey to the Holy Places. After leaving one city, some walk five miles and stop. Others do not walk at all: they leave the city but remain outside the gates, among the refuse. Others, while on the road, sometimes walk two miles, lose their way, and turn back; or they walk two miles and retreat five. Others travel as far as the Holy City but remain outside and do not enter within its walls. So it is with us. Some of us left the world and came to the monastery intending to acquire the virtues. Some achieved a little and stopped; others achieved a little more. Some reached halfway to their goal and stopped. Others accomplished absolutely nothing: although they appeared to leave the world, they remained surrendered to the world, to the passions, and to the world’s stench. Others make a little progress in the good and then lose it again. Some lose more than they gained. Others succeeded in acquiring virtues but possessed pride and despised their brothers. Therefore they remained outside the city and did not enter. They too failed to reach their goal. Although they reached the city gate, they remained outside and so fell short of their purpose. Let each of us therefore learn where he stands. Has he left his city but remained outside the gate, among the city’s refuse?

Has he advanced a little or a great deal? Has he reached the middle of the road? Does he walk two miles and retreat two? Does he walk two miles and retreat five? Has he journeyed as far as the city and entered Jerusalem? Has he reached the city but been unable to go inside? Let each of us learn his own condition and where precisely he stands. Three Conditions in Relation to the Passions 108. There are three conditions in a person. One allows his passions to act freely and without restraint; another does not permit them to act; and another uproots them. The one who allows his passions to act is the person who conforms his life to them and demands, as though it were his lawful right, the circumstances in which the passion may operate. The one who does not permit the passion to act neither gives it freedom to operate nor uproots it. Rather, with deliberation and a will held under control, he passes through the moment of temptation, although he still keeps the passion within himself. The one who uproots the passion is the person who continually struggles and does everything contrary to what the passion dictates. These three conditions contain a very wide range. Here is what I mean. Shall we name some passion and examine it? Shall we speak of pride or fornication?

Or shall we speak instead of vainglory, since we fall into it so often? Because of vainglory a person cannot bear to hear a single word from his brother. As soon as he hears one word, he becomes disturbed and answers with five or ten words in return. He quarrels and causes disturbance. When the dispute has ended, he continues to harbor evil thoughts against the one who spoke to him. He remembers the injury passionately and is sorry that he did not say even more. He prepares within himself much worse words to speak and continually says, “Ah! Why did I not say this to him? I must tell him that as well.” Thus he remains perpetually angry. This is the first condition: evil has become firmly established in the person. May God preserve us from such a state. This condition renders a person worthy of condemnation, for every sin that is not destroyed through correction and repentance leads a person to Hades. Even if such a person wishes to repent, he cannot escape the passion by himself unless he also receives help from certain holy people, as the Fathers said. Therefore I am always telling you: take care to cut off the passions before they become permanent qualities of your souls. Another person also becomes disturbed when he hears a word and replies with five or ten words in return for the one he heard.

He is distressed that he did not say things three times worse; he grieves and remembers the wrong passionately. He remains this way for several days and then repents. Another remains so for a week and then repents; another for one day. Another insults, quarrels, becomes disturbed and disturbs others, but immediately repents. See how many different conditions there are! Yet all these are subject to condemnation so long as they permit the passion to operate within their souls. When the Passion Is Restrained 109. Let us also speak of those who control and restrain their passions. One person, when he hears a bitter word, is grieved inwardly—not because he was insulted, but because he did not endure it. He belongs to the condition of those who struggle, controlling and preventing the activity of the passion. Another struggles and labors but finally yields because the passion is strong and persistent. Another does not wish to answer maliciously but is carried away by habit and replies. Another struggles not to answer with anything evil at all, but is grieved because he was insulted; afterward he condemns himself for being grieved and repents of it. Another is not grieved because he was insulted, but neither does he rejoice. All these are among those who control and restrain the passion. Two of them, however, differ from all the others in this group: the one who struggled but fell, and the one who fell unwillingly through habit.

These two are in danger of belonging among those who allow the passions to operate freely. I have counted them among those who restrain the passions because their willing purpose was to stop them. They did not desire the passion’s activity, but it caused them grief and struggle. The Fathers said that anything the soul does not desire does not endure for long. Yet these people must search within themselves to see whether, although they do not desire the passion’s activity, they desire some cause that provokes the passion, and for this reason are defeated and carried away. There are others who struggle to restrain one passion by means of another passion. One keeps silence from vainglory, another from the desire to please people, and another from some other passion. Such people try to cure evil with evil. But Abba Poemen said that wickedness never abolishes wickedness. These belong among those who commit evil, even though they deceive themselves into thinking otherwise. When the Passion Is Uprooted 110. We also wish to speak of those who uproot the passion. One person rejoices when he is insulted, but rejoices because he will receive a reward. He is among those uprooting the passion, but not with spiritual understanding. Another rejoices because he is insulted and believes that he deserves it, since he himself was the cause. This person uproots the passion with spiritual understanding.

For when someone is insulted, assigns the responsibility to himself, and accepts what happens as the consequence of his own sin, he struggles with understanding. Everyone who entreats God and says, “Lord, give me humility,” should know that in asking this he is, as it were, begging God to send someone to insult him. Therefore, when someone insults him, he too must reproach and humble himself inwardly, so that while the other person humbles him outwardly, he humbles himself within. There is yet another who not only rejoices when he is insulted and considers himself responsible, but is also grieved because the person who insulted him became disturbed. May God grant us such a condition. Examine Your Condition Continually 111. Do you see how wide a range these three conditions contain? Let each of us, as I said, learn to which condition he belongs. Does he willingly serve the passion and delight in it? Does he not willingly serve it, yet become defeated or carried away through habit, doing what the passion dictates and afterward grieving and repenting? Does he struggle to restrain the passion with spiritual understanding, or does he restrain it through another passion? As we have said, a person often remains silent from vainglory, the desire to please people, or, in short, some passionate human thought. Let each of us also ask whether he has begun to uproot the passion, whether he is uprooting it with spiritual understanding and doing everything contrary to it.

Let each person learn where he stands and at what mile of the road. We are obliged to examine ourselves not only every day but also at regular intervals—every month and every week—and to say: “During the first week I was oppressed by this passion to such a degree; how am I now?” Likewise, from time to time let us say, “Last year this passion defeated me up to this point; where do I stand now?” In this manner let us examine ourselves continually to see whether we have made a little progress, remained the same, or become worse. The Arrows of the Enemy 112. May God grant us strength so that, even if we do not yet uproot the passion, at least we do not act upon it but restrain it. It is truly a very grievous thing to be enslaved to a passion and leave it uncontrolled. I will give you an image of the person who allows his passions to go unrestrained and acts upon them willingly. He resembles a man whose enemy shoots countless arrows at him with a bow, and who takes those arrows and drives them into his own heart with his own hands. The person who restrains the passion resembles one who is struck forcefully with arrows by his enemy but is protected by a breastplate, so that the arrows do not pierce him.

Finally, the person who uproots the passion resembles one who is struck by many arrows, catches them, and either breaks them to pieces or sends them back into the heart of his enemy, as the Psalm says: “Let their sword enter into their own heart, and let their bows be broken” (Psalm 36:15). Let us too take care, my brothers. Even if we cannot turn the enemy’s sword entirely back into his heart, let us at least not receive the arrows and drive them into our own hearts. If possible, let us protect ourselves with a breastplate so that we are not wounded by them. May the good God protect us from these things, grant us vigilance and care of soul, and guide us upon His way. Amen. This translation follows the complete Greek document supplied in the project source folder. Section numbers §§104–112 follow the standard continuous numbering of the Discourses. The central threefold distinction has been rendered consistently: a passion may be allowed to act, restrained from acting, or actively uprooted by contrary practice. “With spiritual understanding” denotes action grounded in truthful self-knowledge rather than outward appearance. Biblical citations follow the Greek source and its Septuagint Psalm numbering. DISCOURSE XI: ON CUTTING OFF THE PASSIONS BEFORE THE SOUL BECOMES ACCUSTOMED TO THEM Christ the Physician and the Soul’s Illness 113. Consider carefully, my brothers, how matters truly stand, and take care not to neglect yourselves, for even a small negligence leads us into great dangers.

I once visited a brother and found that he had only just recovered from an illness. During our conversation I learned that he had been alone with a fever for seven days, and although another forty days had passed, he had still not been able to regain his strength. Do you see, my brothers, how much hardship a person suffers when even the slightest indisposition attacks him? Almost always a person pays no attention to minor ailments and does not understand that, if his body is weakened a little—especially if his health is somewhat delicate—he needs much more labor and time to stand upright again. The poor man had a fever for seven days, and see how many days passed without his being able to recover. The same thing happens with the soul. A person commits one small sin and then needs a long time, shedding his blood, before he is able to set himself right. Bodily illness may have various causes: the medicines may be old and ineffective; the physician may be inexperienced and fail to prescribe the proper remedy; or the sick person may not comply with and faithfully follow the physician’s instructions. But it is not so with the soul. We cannot say that the physician is inexperienced and did not prescribe the proper medicine. Christ is the physician of our souls; He knows everything and administers the appropriate remedy for every passion.

Here is what I mean. For vainglory He gives the commandments of humility; for love of pleasure, the commandments of self-restraint; for love of money, the commandments of almsgiving. In short, every passion has the corresponding commandment as its medicine. The physician, therefore, is not inexperienced. Neither are the medicines old and ineffective, for Christ’s commandments never grow old. The more they are practiced, the more they are renewed. Nothing hinders the soul’s health except its departure from the way of God’s commandments. Do Not Waste the Time That Remains 114. Let us attend to ourselves, my brothers; let us remain spiritually vigilant while we still have time. Why do we neglect ourselves? Let us do some good so that we may find it as help in the hours of temptation. Why do we endanger our lives? We hear so many things and care nothing about them, but remain indifferent. We see our brothers suddenly depart from among us and are not troubled, although we know that in a little while we too shall arrive at death. See: from the hour we sat down to speak until now, we have spent two or three hours of our life and drawn nearer to death. Although we see that we are losing our time, we do not fear. We do not remember the saying of that elder: “If someone loses gold or silver, he can find more in its place.

But the one who loses his time can find no other.” Truly, a time will come when we shall seek even a single hour from all our years and will not find it. How many desire to hear a word of God and cannot find one! We hear so much, yet despise it and do not leave our passionate condition. God knows how astonished I am by the insensibility of our souls! We can be saved, and we do not wish it. While our passions are still small, we are able, if we wish, to cut them off; but we do not take care to do so. We allow them to harden against us until they reach their greatest strength. As I have often told you, it is one thing to uproot a small blade of grass, which comes out immediately, and another to uproot a great tree. The Cypress Trees 115. A great elder once found himself with his disciples in a place where there were various cypress trees, both small and large. The elder said to one of his disciples, “Uproot this little cypress.” It was very small, and the brother immediately pulled it up with one hand. Then the elder showed him another, larger than the first, and said, “Uproot this one too.” The brother shook it with both hands and uprooted it as well. Again the elder showed him a still larger one, which the brother uprooted with greater effort.

He showed him another, larger still; the brother shook it for a long time, labored and perspired, and pulled it out. Then the elder showed him another, much larger tree. Although the brother labored and perspired greatly, he could not uproot it. When the elder saw that he was unable, he commanded another brother to rise and help him, and in this way the two together succeeded in pulling it out. The elder then said to the brothers: “This is exactly how the passions are, my brothers. While they are small, we can easily cut them off if we wish. But if we neglect them as insignificant, they harden; and the harder they become, the more labor they require. If they take deep root within us, then even with labor we can no longer cut them off by ourselves unless we have the help of certain holy people who, after God, support us.” Do you see the power of the holy elders’ words? The prophet teaches us something similar in the Psalm: “Wretched daughter of Babylon! Blessed is he who repays you for the evils you have done to us, who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rock” (Psalm 136:8–9). The Infants of Babylon and the Rock That Is Christ 116. Let us consider the words of the Psalm one by one and in order. He calls Babylon “confusion,” for this is the meaning of the word Babel.

He calls enmity the daughter of Babylon, because the soul is first confused and loses its discernment, and afterward commits sin. He calls her wretched because, as I have told you before, evil has neither substance nor independent existence. It arises out of nonbeing through our negligence, and through our struggle it disappears again, returning to nonbeing. The saint therefore says to her, “Blessed is he who repays you for what you have done to us.” We must learn what we gave, what we received in return, and what we must repay. We gave our will and received sin in exchange. The saying blesses those who repay it, and the repayment is no longer to commit the sin. Then he adds: “Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rock.” It is as though he said: “Blessed is the person who does not allow your offspring—that is, the evil thoughts—even at their beginning to grow within him and bring evil into action. Rather, while the thoughts are still weak, before they are nourished and grow powerful against him, he quickly seizes them, throws them against the rock that is Christ, and destroys them by taking refuge in Christ.” See how both the elders and Holy Scripture agree, blessing those who struggle to cut off the passions while they are still small, before they experience their pain and bitterness.

Let us struggle eagerly, then, my brothers, so that we may receive mercy. Let us labor a little, and we shall find great repose. Examine Every Hidden Place of the Soul 117. The Fathers said that a person must carefully cleanse every hidden place of his soul. Every evening he should examine how he passed the day, and every morning how he passed the night; and naturally, he should repent before God for whatever he has sinned in. Because we sin so much, on account of our forgetfulness we need to examine ourselves even every six hours: how did we pass the time, and in what did we sin? Let each of us say within himself: “Did I perhaps wound my brother with words? Did I see him do something and judge him, despise him, or backbite him? Did I ask the cellarer for something, and when he did not give it to me, murmur against him? Was the food badly prepared, and did I speak disparagingly of the cook and grieve him? Did I murmur inwardly because I felt disgust?” For even to murmur inwardly is sin. Again let him say: “Did the canonarch or some other brother say something to me, and did I fail to bear it, answering him back instead?” In this way we are obliged to examine every day how we passed it. In the same way a person must examine how he passed the night.

Did he rise eagerly for the vigil? Did he disregard the person who woke him or murmur against him? He should know that the person who awakens him for the vigil benefits him greatly and becomes the cause of great blessings for him. He wakes him to speak with God, entreat Him concerning his sins, and receive enlightenment. Ought he not to thank him? Truly, he should almost believe that through his brother’s help he is gaining his salvation. The Seal of the Angel 118. I will tell you something wonderful that I heard concerning a great and clairvoyant elder. While standing in church, as soon as the brothers began to chant, he saw a radiant figure come out of the sanctuary holding a small round vessel of holy water and a brush. He dipped the brush into the vessel, passed among all the brothers, and marked them with a seal; at other times he passed some without sealing them. When the service was about to end, the elder again saw him come out of the sanctuary and do the same thing. One day the elder stopped him and fell at his feet, begging him to explain who he was and what his action meant. The radiant figure told him: “I am an angel of the Lord. I was commanded to seal those who are in church from the beginning of the service and those who remain until its end, because of their eagerness, diligence, and good willing purpose.”

The elder said, “Why, then, do you seal the places of some who are absent?” The holy angel answered him: “Those brothers who are diligent and of good willing purpose but are absent through some necessity or illness, with the Fathers’ blessing, or who are occupied elsewhere in obedience to some command and therefore absent, are sealed even though they are away, because in their disposition they are present with those who chant. Only those who are able to attend but are absent through negligence I am commanded not to seal, for they make themselves unworthy.” See how many gifts the person who wakes his brother for the service occasions for him. Let us take care, my brothers, never to lose the holy angel’s seal. If someone’s attention happens to wander and another reminds him, he must not become indignant. Recognizing the good the other does him, he should thank him, whoever he may be. Dorotheos’s Vigil in the Guesthouse 119. When I was in the coenobium, the superior appointed me guestmaster with the elders’ agreement. I was then recovering from a serious illness. Guests would arrive, and I kept vigil with them; then camel drivers came, and I served them. Often, after all this, I would go to sleep only to have another need arise and be awakened again. Nevertheless, the hour of the vigil would arrive; before I had managed to sleep even a little, the canonarch came to wake me.

At that time, whether from exhaustion or illness—for a slight fever still troubled me—I felt utterly spent and hardly knew where I was. Half asleep, I would answer him: “Bless, elder. May God remember your love and reward you. You have called me; I am coming, elder.” As soon as he left, however, sleep would overcome me again. I was greatly distressed whenever I was late rising for the vigil. Since he could not wait for me to get up, I asked two other brothers for help: one to awaken me, and another not to let me grow drowsy during the service. Believe me, my brothers, I regarded them as instruments of my salvation and held them in great reverence. You too, then, must regard in this way those who wake you for the service and encourage you toward every good thing. Daily Examination Weakens Evil 120. As we were saying, a person is obliged to examine how he passed the day and how he passed the night. Did he stand attentively during the chanting of psalms and prayer? Was he taken captive by passionate thoughts? Did he fail to listen attentively to the readings? Did he leave the service, go outside, and scatter his mind here and there? If a person examines himself every day in this way, takes care to repent of his sins, and corrects himself, he begins to diminish evil.

If he formerly fell into faults nine times, he now falls eight. Thus, by the grace of God, making progress little by little, he does not allow the passions to become established within him. It is a great danger to allow a passion to take root within oneself. Then, as we have said, even if the person wishes it, he cannot overcome the passion by himself unless he also receives help from certain holy people. The Brother Enslaved to Stealing 121. Would you like me to tell you about someone who allowed a passion to take root within him? Listen to a lamentable story. When I was in the coenobium, I do not know how the brothers came to be persuaded to disclose their thoughts to me. With the elders’ agreement, the superior also entrusted this care to me. One day a brother came and said to me, “Forgive me, elder, and pray for me, for I steal and eat.” I said to him, “Why? Are you hungry?” He said, “Yes. What is provided at the brothers’ table is not enough for me, and I cannot ask.” I said, “Why do you not go and tell the superior?” He replied, “I am ashamed.” I said, “Would you like me to go and tell him?” He answered, “Let it be as you think best, elder.” I went and told the superior.

He said to me, “Show love and care for him as you judge best.” Then I took him and went to the cellarer. I said, “Show love: whenever this brother comes here, give him whatever he wishes and withhold nothing from him.” When the cellarer heard this, he said, “As you bless.” The brother passed several days in this way, then came and said to me, “Forgive me, elder, for I have begun to steal again.” I said, “Why? Does the cellarer not give you whatever you wish?” He replied, “Yes, forgive me. He gives me whatever I wish, but I am ashamed before him.” I said, “Are you ashamed before me?” I told him, “Then, if you want anything, come and receive it from me, and do not steal again.” At that time I handled provisions because I served in the infirmary. He therefore came to me and received whatever he wished. After a few days he began stealing again. He came sorrowfully and said, “See, I am stealing again.” I said, “Why, my brother? Do I not give you whatever you wish?” I said, “Are you perhaps ashamed to receive things from me?” I asked, “Then why do you steal?” He answered, “Forgive me; I do not know why, but there it is—I steal.” Then I said, “Tell me truthfully: what do you do with the things you steal?”

He replied, “I give them to the donkey!” It was discovered that this brother stole twice-baked bread, dates, figs, onions—whatever he found before him. He hid some beneath his mattress and some elsewhere. In the end, not knowing what to do with them, when he saw that they had begun to spoil he went and threw them away or gave them to the animals. Do you see what it means for passions to take root within us? Do you see how wretched they make us and how they torment us? The brother knew that it was evil; he knew that he was sinning; he was distressed and wept. Yet the poor man was carried away by the evil habit he had acquired through earlier negligence. Abba Nisteros rightly said that if someone is overcome by a passion, he has become the passion’s slave. May the good God preserve us from evil habit, lest He say also to us, “What profit is there in My blood, if I go down into corruption?” (Psalm 29:10). Habit Becomes a Second Nature 122. I have told you in many ways how a person falls into an evil habit. Someone who becomes angry once is not immediately called an angry man. Someone who commits fornication once is not immediately called a fornicator. Neither is someone who gives alms once called merciful. Both virtue and vice, through being practiced continually, become an inseparable habit in the soul; in the end, this habit either gives the soul repose or brings it punishment.

We have spoken in many ways of how virtue gives the soul repose and vice brings it punishment. Virtue is natural and innate to the soul, for the seed of virtue is imperishable. As we exercise ourselves in virtue, we become identified with it: we recover our own nature and regain our health, just as after an illness of the eye we regain our sight, or after any other illness return to our natural state of health. It is not the same with vice. Through doing evil we acquire a habit that is alien and contrary to nature. It is as though we become accustomed to an infectious disease, so that we can no longer be healed without much help, many prayers, and many tears that draw Christ’s compassion upon us. The same is found in bodily matters. There are certain foods, for example, that may provoke an excessive discharge of bile. Cabbage can cause a disorder of the bile, as can lentils and similar foods. A person does not harm his bile by eating cabbage, lentils, or something similar only once or twice, but by eating them continually. Through this excess fevers arise, those who suffer from them are literally burned, and in some cases many other painful conditions follow. So it is with the soul. If a person persists in sin, an evil habit is created within the soul, and that habit brings it punishment.

A Soul Already Inclined to a Passion 123. You must also know this: sometimes the soul has an inclination to fall into a particular passion. If it falls into that passion even once, it is immediately in danger of becoming one with it. The same thing happens in the body. Through earlier negligence, a person’s bile may be especially sensitive; then a single unsuitable meal can immediately irritate it and produce an excessive discharge. The Eagle Caught by One Talon 124. There is need, therefore, of great vigilance, attention, and fear, lest a person acquire evil habits. Believe me, my brothers: if anyone is enslaved to a passion, he will be brought to judgment. It may happen that someone does ten good works but is enslaved to one passion. That one passion, arising from evil habit, overcomes the ten good works. It is like an eagle that escapes almost entirely from a trap, but only the tip of one talon remains caught: through that small part the whole bird is overcome. Is it not still in the trap, even if its whole body is outside but one talon remains caught? Can the trapper not seize it whenever he wishes? So it is with the soul. If it is bound by even one passion, the enemy overcomes it whenever he wishes, because through that passion he has made it subject to himself.

Rise Immediately After a Fall 125. Therefore I always tell you: do not allow any passion to take root within you. Let us struggle, entreating God night and day that we may not enter into temptation. And if, being human, we are defeated and fall into sin, let us take care to rise immediately. Let us repent of it; let us weep before the goodness of God; let us keep vigil and struggle. God, seeing our willing purpose, humility, and contrition, will extend to us a helping hand and grant us His mercy. Amen. This translation follows the complete Greek document supplied in the project source folder. Section numbers §§113–125 follow the standard continuous numbering of the Discourses. Logismos is rendered ‘thought,’ pathos ‘passion,’ and proairesis ‘willing purpose.’ The Psalm concerning Babylon’s infants is interpreted within Dorotheos’s ascetical argument: evil thoughts must be taken captive at their inception and destroyed by recourse to Christ, the Rock. ‘Canonarch’ denotes the monk who directs the order of chanting and calls the community to the service; ‘cellarer’ denotes the monastic steward responsible for provisions. Biblical citations follow the Greek source and its Septuagint Psalm numbering. DISCOURSE XII: ON THE FEAR OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT AND THE NEED FOR UNCEASING VIGILANCE God’s Providence and the Afflictions of This Life 126. When I was ill with pain in my feet, some brothers who came to visit me asked me to tell them the cause of my illness.

They wished to accomplish two things: on the one hand, to comfort me and make me forget my pain for a little while, and on the other, to give me an occasion to say something profitable to them. But since the pain did not allow me at that time to tell you what I wished, it is good for you to hear a few things about it now. It is pleasant to recount an affliction after it has passed. At sea, when a storm rises, all the travelers are distressed; but after the sea has grown calm, they take pleasure in telling one another what happened. It is profitable, my brothers, as I always tell you, to refer everything to God and to say that nothing happens apart from His will. Even when there is some outward cause, we should say: “God knew that this was good and profitable, and therefore He brought it about.” Here is what I mean. I could say that, because I ate with guests and constrained myself a little in order to please them, my stomach became heavy, inflammation settled in my feet, and this caused the rheumatic pain. I might give various other explanations, for anyone who wishes can easily find such causes. But it is more correct and profitable to say that God knew this would benefit my soul, and therefore it happened.

Nothing God does is without goodness; all His works are good—indeed, very good. A person therefore ought not to grieve over the things that happen to him. Rather, as I have said, he should regard everything as being under the providence of God and remain at peace. Some people grieve so deeply over the afflictions that befall them that they no longer desire life itself, but consider death pleasant because it would free them from their troubles. This happens through faintheartedness and great ignorance, because they do not know the dreadful necessity that awaits the soul after its departure from the body. My brothers, it is a great act of God’s love for mankind that we are still in this world. Because we do not know what happens there, however, we regard the sufferings here as exceedingly heavy. But this is not so. Do you not know what is said in the Sayings of the Fathers? A brother who was very diligent and active in the spiritual life asked an elder, “My soul desires death.” The elder replied, “That is because your soul is trying to escape affliction and does not know that the affliction to come is far worse than the affliction here.” Similarly, another brother asked an elder, “Why do I experience listlessness when I sit in my cell?” The elder answered, “Because you have not yet come to know either the repose for which we hope or the punishment that awaits us.

If you knew both of these well, then even if your cell were filled with worms and you were immersed in them up to your neck, you would endure without listlessness.” We wish to be saved without vigilance or labor, and therefore we lose heart in afflictions. Yet we ought rather to thank God and call ourselves blessed because we are counted worthy to suffer a little here, so that we may find a little repose there. One of the Abbas also said: “The person who prays to depart more quickly from this world while he is still filled with passions resembles a man who asks the carpenter to break apart the sick man’s bed in order to deliver him from his illness.” The Soul Left Alone with Its Passions 127. While the soul is joined to this fleshly body, it obtains some relief from its passions and finds consolation. A person eats, drinks, sleeps, lives beside others, and enjoys the companionship of those dear to him. When the soul is separated from the body, however, it remains alone with its passions and is continually punished by them. It abides in them and suffers their torment as though in a furnace; it is torn to pieces by them and cannot even bring God Himself to mind. The mere remembrance of God consoles the soul, as the Psalm says: “I remembered God and rejoiced” (Psalm 76:4).

Yet the passions do not permit even this. Would you like me to give you an example so that you may understand what I mean? Let one of you come, and I will shut him in a dark cell. For only three days let him neither eat nor drink nor sleep; let him meet no one, chant nothing, offer no prayer, and not call God to mind at all. Then he will learn what the passions do to him—and this while we are still here. How much more will this be so when the soul is separated from the body, surrendered to the passions, and left alone with them? How much must the wretched soul suffer from its passions! You can understand something of that affliction from what we experience here. When someone has a fever, what is it that burns him? What fire or wood produces that flame? If someone has a body of sickly constitution, is it not his very weakness that continually burns and disturbs him and makes his life grievous? The same is true of a passionate soul. The wretched soul is continually tormented by its own miserable condition, always possessing the bitter remembrance and painful persistence of the passions that burn and scorch it without ceasing. And beyond this, my brothers, who can speak of those dreadful places; of those bodies that inflict such great pain upon the soul and torment it without themselves being destroyed; of that terrible fire; of the darkness; of the merciless and tormenting powers; and of the countless other punishments described in so many ways in Holy Scripture, all corresponding to the evil deeds and evil thoughts of souls?

Just as the saints are led to places of light and angelic joy in accordance with their good deeds, so sinners are confined in dark and gloomy places filled with fear and trembling, as the saints tell us. What is more dreadful and pitiable than the places appointed for the demons? What is more bitter than the punishment to which they are condemned? Yet sinners too are punished with the demons, as Scripture says: “Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). More dreadful still is what Saint John Chrysostom says: “Even if there were no river of fire and those dreadful angels did not stand nearby, but all people were merely summoned and some were praised and glorified while others were sent away in dishonor, so that they might not behold the glory of God—would there be any punishment more bitter than that torment of shame and disgrace and the anguish of being deprived of such great blessings?” At that time, as we said before, the accusation of conscience alone and the mere remembrance of our deeds will be worse than countless and unheard-of punishments. What the Soul Remembers 128. The Fathers say that souls there remember everything that happened to them here and are then unable to forget any of it. When the Psalm says, “On that day all his thoughts will perish” (Psalm 145:4), it means the concerns of this life—houses, places, parents, children, and every worldly transaction.

These perish when the soul is separated from the body; it remembers none of them and gives them no care. But whatever the soul did in accordance with virtue or under the influence of a passion, it remembers, and it forgets none of it. If someone benefited another person or was benefited by someone, he always remembers both the person whom he benefited and the one from whom he received benefit. Likewise, if someone was harmed by another or himself harmed someone, he always remembers both the person who harmed him and the person harmed through him. As I have said, the soul forgets nothing it did in this world. On the contrary, after its separation from the body it remembers everything more intensely and clearly, because it has been freed from this earthly body. The Memory of Sin and the Need for Good Thoughts 129. We once discussed this matter with a certain great elder. The elder said that after its departure from the body the soul remembers the passion it put into action, the sin itself, and the person with whom it committed the sin. I said to him, “Perhaps it is not so. Perhaps what remains is the habit the soul acquired by committing the sin, and it is this habit that the soul remembers.” We spent a long time disputing the matter because we wished to clarify it.

The elder could not be persuaded, but insisted that the soul remembers the kind of sin, the place, and even the person with whom it sinned. If this is indeed so, then matters are all the worse for us if we do not attend to ourselves. Therefore I always tell you: take care to cultivate good thoughts, so that you may find them there. Whatever a person has done here will accompany him and will be what he possesses there. Let us take care to escape such a painful condition, my brothers. Let us struggle, and God will have mercy on us. He is, as the Psalm says, “the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far away upon the sea” (Psalm 64:6). Those at the ends of the earth are the people who have reached the furthest extremity of wickedness; those far away upon the sea are those who remain in complete ignorance. Yet Christ is the hope even of all these. The Neglected Field 130. We must expend a little labor; let us therefore toil so that we may find mercy. If someone owns a field and neglects it until it lies uncultivated, the longer he neglects it, the more it fills with thorns and thistles. When at last he comes to clear it, his hands bleed in proportion to the growth as he tries to uproot the weeds he allowed to flourish during his negligence.

It is impossible for a person not to reap what he has sown. The person who wishes to clear his field must first uproot all the weeds thoroughly. If he does not pull out all their roots, but merely cuts off the tops, they will grow again. He must remove the roots themselves, as I have said. After clearing the field well of weeds, thorns, and everything of that kind, he must level it, break up the clods, and plow it. Only after he has prepared it in this way should he sow the good seed. If, after all this preparation, he leaves the field unsown, the weeds will spring up again. Finding the soil softened and made fertile by the work, they will root deeply, grow, and multiply even more. Uproot the Passions and Their Causes 131. The same is true of the soul. First, it must cut off every old passionate attachment and all the evil habits it possesses, for nothing is worse than evil habit. Basil the Great says: “The struggle required to be freed from habit is no small one, for habit established over time generally acquires the strength of a second nature.” A person must struggle not only against evil habits and passions, but also against the causes that produce them, for these are their roots. Unless the roots are pulled out, the thorns will spring up again.

Some passions are weakened when their causes are cut off. Envy, for example, is nothing by itself, but it has many causes. One of them is vainglory: because a person desires to be glorified, he envies the one who is glorified or preferred. Anger likewise comes from many causes, but chiefly from love of pleasure. A certain saint spoke of this when he said, “I renounce pleasures in order to cut off the causes of anger.” All the Fathers say that every passion is born from three principal passions: vainglory, love of money, and love of pleasure—the latter being expressed in fornication and gluttony—as I have told you in various ways. Repent, Then Sow the Good Seed 132. A person must therefore cut off not only the passions but also their causes. Then he must set his conduct in order through repentance and tears, and afterward begin to sow the good seed, which is good works. As we said of the field, if the farmer clears and cultivates it but does not sow good seed, the weeds spring up, find soil that is soft and well worked, and take root more deeply. The same happens to a person. If, after correcting his conduct and repenting of his former deeds, he neglects good works and the effort to acquire the virtues, then what the Gospel says takes place in him: “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest.

Finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order”—that is, unoccupied and empty of every virtue. “Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than itself; and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person becomes worse than the first” (Luke 11:24–26). Depart from Evil and Do Good 133. The soul cannot remain in the same condition; it advances progressively either toward what is better or toward what is worse. Therefore, everyone who wishes to be saved must not only refrain from evil but also practice good, as the Psalm says: “Depart from evil and do good” (Psalm 36:27). It does not say only, “Depart from evil,” but also, “Do good.” If someone was accustomed to acting unjustly, for example, he must reach the point not only of no longer wronging anyone, but also of performing works of justice. If he was dissolute, he must not only cease his dissipation but also practice self-restraint. If he was irascible, he must not only cease becoming angry but also acquire meekness. If someone was insolent, he must not only cease behaving insolently but also humble himself. This is what “depart from evil and do good” means. Every passion has its corresponding virtue. Pride has humility; love of money has almsgiving; dissipation has self-restraint; impatience has endurance; anger has meekness; hatred has love.

In short, as I have said, every passion has its corresponding virtue. I have told you these things many times. Just as we expelled the virtues from within ourselves and put the passions in their place, so we must labor not only to cast out the passions but also to restore the virtues and establish them in their proper places. The Virtues Belong to Our Created Nature 134. The virtues were given to us by God at our creation. When God created the human being, He sowed the virtues within him, as Holy Scripture says: “Let Us make man according to Our image and according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). “According to Our image” means that God made the soul incorruptible and free. “According to Our likeness” refers to everything pertaining to virtue. For Scripture says, “Become merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36), and, “Become holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16; cf. Leviticus 11:44). Again, the Apostle says, “Be kind to one another” (Ephesians 4:32), and the Scripture says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him” (Lamentations 3:25), and many other things of this kind. This is what “according to Our likeness” means. God therefore gave us the virtues together with our very nature. The passions, however, were not given with our nature; indeed, the passions themselves have neither substance nor independent existence.

Darkness has no substantial existence. As Basil the Great says, it is a condition of the air that appears when light is absent. So it is with the darkness of the passions. By turning away from the virtues and loving pleasures, the soul produced the passions and strengthened them to wage war against it. Hide the Good Seed in Humility 135. As I told you concerning the field, after carefully clearing it we must immediately sow the good seed, so that it may bear the corresponding good fruit. Moreover, when the farmer casts the good seed into the field, he must immediately hide it and bury it in the earth; otherwise the birds come, seize it, and it is lost. After hiding the seed, he waits for the mercy of God until rain falls and the seed springs up. Even if the farmer undertakes a thousand labors in clearing, cultivating, and sowing, all his work is lost unless God sends rain to water the seed. So it is with us. Even if we do something good, we must cover it with humility and entrust our weakness to God, entreating Him to bless our labor; otherwise it is lost. At times, even after the rain has fallen and the seed has sprouted, no further rain comes for a long while; then the shoot dries up and is lost. Both the seed and the shoot need rain from time to time until they become firmly established.

Yet even then a person cannot become careless. Sometimes, after the plant has grown and formed an ear of grain, locusts, hail, or something else attacks it and destroys the fruit. The same is true of the soul. After it has labored, been cleansed from all the passions we have mentioned, and applied itself tirelessly to acquiring the virtues, it must always be turned toward God’s mercy and protection, lest these abandon it and it perish. As we said of the seed, even after it has sprouted, grown, and borne fruit, it dries up and is lost if rain does not fall from time to time. So it is with a person. If, after laboring and accomplishing much, God withdraws His grace and protection and abandons him, he perishes. Do Not Sin Against Your Spiritual Condition 136. Abandonment is permitted to a person when he undertakes things contrary to his spiritual condition. For example, a reverent person may fall into indifference, or a humble person into insolence. God does not abandon an indifferent person who behaves carelessly, or an insolent person who behaves insolently, to the same degree that He abandons a reverent person who becomes indifferent or a humble person who grows insolent. This is what it means to sin against one’s spiritual condition, and from this comes abandonment. Therefore Basil the Great judges the sin of the reverent person differently from that of the indifferent person.

When a person has guarded himself from all these dangers, he must finally take care that, if he does some small good, he does not perform it through vainglory, the desire to please people, or some human thought, and thereby lose through that small fault everything he has accomplished—just as we said of the locust, hail, and similar dangers. Vigilance Until the Final Breath 137. Even when nothing has harmed the crop and it has been preserved until harvest, the farmer still cannot become careless. It often happens that, after someone has harvested his field and undertaken all his labors, an evil man comes with hatred in his heart, sets fire to the crop, and destroys both the whole harvest and the farmer’s labor. Until the farmer sees that the grain has been thoroughly cleaned and placed in the storehouse, he cannot be free from care. It is the same with a person. Even if he succeeds in escaping everything we have described, he still must not become careless. After all this, the devil may find ways to deceive him through self-justification, pride, or thoughts of unbelief or heresy. Then the devil destroys not only all his fruits, but separates him from God. What he could not accomplish by causing the person to fall into evil deeds, he accomplishes by causing him to fall into a single thought. Even one thought is able to separate a person from God if he accepts it and gives his assent.

Therefore, the person who truly wishes to be saved must not become careless until his final breath. We need much labor, great care, and continual prayer, so that through His goodness God may protect and preserve us, to the glory of His holy name. Amen. This translation follows the complete Greek document supplied in the project source folder. Section numbers §§126–137 follow the standard continuous numbering of the Discourses. The modern website navigation, republication credits, and editorial production metadata have been excluded as material external to Dorotheos’s discourse. Logismos is rendered ‘thought,’ pathos ‘passion,’ akēdia ‘listlessness,’ and philanthrōpia ‘love for mankind.’ The sustained agricultural image has been preserved: repentance clears and plows the field, good works sow it, humility covers the seed, divine mercy gives rain, and vigilance guards the crop until it reaches the storehouse. Biblical citations follow the Greek source and its Septuagint Psalm numbering. DISCOURSE XIII: ON ENDURING TEMPTATIONS CALMLY AND WITH THANKSGIVING The Measure of Virtue Is Revealed in Temptation 138. Abba Poemen rightly said that the measure of a monk’s virtue is revealed in temptations. “The monk who comes to serve God truly must prepare his soul,” as the Wisdom of Sirach says, “for temptation” (Sirach 2:1). Thus he will neither be surprised nor disturbed when temptations come, but will believe that nothing happens apart from the providence of God. Where God’s providence is present, whatever happens must certainly be good and profitable for the soul.

Everything God does for us He does for our benefit, because He loves us and has compassion on us. Therefore, as the Apostle said, we ought to “give thanks in everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) to His goodness. We must never grieve or lose heart over anything that happens to us, but receive events without disturbance, with humility and hope in God. We should believe, as I have said, that everything God does for us He does from goodness and love, and that it is therefore well ordered. Things can never take a better form or course than the one in which God permits them in His mercy. The Love, Wisdom, and Power of God 139. If someone has a friend and is certain that the friend loves him, then even if he suffers something distressing at his hands, he believes that the friend acted out of love. He never believes that his friend intended to harm him. How much more ought we to think in this way about God, who formed us, brought us from nonexistence into being, became man, and died for us. Whatever He does for us, He does from goodness and love. Concerning a friend, someone may think: “He acts this way because he loves me and pities me. Yet perhaps he does not possess enough understanding to arrange all my affairs with discernment and wisdom; therefore he may unintentionally harm me.”

But we cannot say this of God. He is the fountain of wisdom and knows everything profitable for our souls. He orders everything concerning us, even the smallest matters. Again, someone may say of his friend: “He loves me and pities me; he is prudent and able to arrange my affairs successfully. Yet he does not have the power to help me in everything I think would benefit me.” But neither can we say this of God, for all things are possible for Him and nothing is impossible to Him. We know, therefore, that God loves and has compassion on His creature, that He is the fountain of wisdom and knows how to order our lives, that nothing is impossible to Him, and that all things are subject to His will. We must also know that whatever He does, He does for our benefit. Let us therefore receive everything with thanksgiving, as I said before, as coming from a beneficent and good Master, even when it is painful. Everything takes place according to righteous judgment, and God, who is so compassionate, does not overlook even our smallest affliction. God Does Not Permit What Exceeds Our Strength 140. A person may question within himself: “If someone sins because of his sorrow amid the misfortunes that befall him, how can he believe that the things happening to him are for his benefit?”

My brothers, we would not sin in the misfortunes that befall us if we were not so lacking in endurance, and if we did not refuse to bear a small affliction or suffer something unexpected. God never permits anything to happen to us beyond our strength, as the Apostle said: “God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear” (1 Corinthians 10:13). But it is we who have no endurance. We do not wish to labor even a little, nor do we accept anything with humility. Therefore we are crushed. The more we try to escape temptations, the more heavily they burden us; we lose endurance and are unable to be delivered from them. Bend Beneath the Wave Many people swim in the sea for many different purposes. Some truly know how to swim well. When a wave comes toward them, they bend down and pass beneath it until it has gone by. In this way they continue swimming without danger. But if they try to oppose the wave, it pushes them back and hurls them a great distance away. As soon as they begin to swim again, another wave comes toward them. If they resist it too, it again pushes them back and casts them out. They accomplish nothing but bruising themselves, without making any progress. If, however, as I have said, they bend down and humble themselves beneath the wave, it passes without harming them.

Then they continue swimming as long as they wish and complete their task. The same is true of temptations. If a person bears a temptation with endurance and humility, he passes through it without harm. But if he continues in sorrow and disturbance of heart, considering everyone else responsible for the evil that happens to him, he punishes himself by making the temptation heavier. He not only receives no benefit from it, but is harmed by it. Temptations greatly benefit the person who endures them without disturbance. Do Not Be Disturbed by the Passions 141. Even if a passion troubles us, we must not be disturbed by that either. To be disturbed when troubled by a passion is a sign of ignorance and pride. It comes from failing to know one’s own condition and from avoiding labor, as the Fathers said: “We make no progress because we do not know our measure, we do not have the endurance to complete the work we have begun, and we wish to acquire virtue without labor.” Why is a person ruled by the passions surprised when one of them troubles him? Why is he disturbed because he has put it into action? You possess the passion, and yet you are disturbed? You are bound to it, and yet you say, “Why does it trouble me?” Instead, endure; struggle; entreat God. It is impossible for the person who has put a passion into action not to suffer the affliction it causes.

“Its instruments are within you,” Abba Sisoes said. “Give them back their pledge, and they will depart.” By “instruments” he meant the causes of the passions. Since we loved our passions and put them into action, it is impossible for us not to be taken captive by passionate thoughts. These compel us, even against our will, to enact the passions, because by our own will we treacherously surrendered ourselves into their hands. Egypt and the Assyrians 142. This is the meaning of what the prophet says concerning Ephraim: “He oppressed his adversary”—that is, his conscience—“and trampled justice, because he desired Egypt and was taken captive by the Assyrians” (cf. Hosea 5:11; 7:11). The Fathers call the fleshly will “Egypt.” It inclines us toward bodily ease and teaches the mind to love pleasure. They call the passionate thoughts “Assyrians,” because these thoughts cloud and confuse the mind, fill it with impure images, and drag it forcibly—even unwillingly—into committing sin. If a person willingly surrenders himself to the worship of the flesh, he is afterward compelled against his will to be led forcibly to the Assyrians and to serve Nebuchadnezzar. Knowing this, the prophet cried out to them with great sorrow: “Do not go down into Egypt” (cf. Jeremiah 42:19). “What are you doing, wretched people? Humble yourselves a little. Bend your shoulders, serve the king of Babylon, and remain in the land of your fathers.”

Again he strengthens them, saying: “Do not fear the face of the king, for God is with us to deliver us from his hands” (cf. Jeremiah 42:11). Then he foretells the affliction that awaits them if they do not obey God: “If you enter Egypt, you will find yourselves trapped and will become a curse and a reproach.” But they answer him: “We will not remain in this land. We will go into Egypt, where our eyes will not see war, we will not hear the sound of the trumpet, and we will not lack bread” (cf. Jeremiah 42:13–14). Thus they descended and willingly served Pharaoh. Afterward they were led forcibly to the Assyrians and served them against their will. Before the Passion Becomes an Act 143. Consider carefully what I am telling you. Before a person puts a passion into action, even if thoughts marshal themselves against him, he is still within his own city—that is, he remains master of himself. He is free and has God as his helper. If he humbles himself before God, bears the yoke of affliction and temptation with thanksgiving, and struggles a little, God’s help will deliver him. But if he avoids the labor and yields to bodily pleasure, he is dragged forcibly into the land of the Assyrians and serves them even against his will. The prophet then tells them: “Pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, for in his life lies your salvation” (Baruch 1:11–12).

Nebuchadnezzar signifies that a person must not behave impatiently in the affliction of the temptation that has befallen him, nor flee from it, but endure it humbly as though he were obliged to suffer hardship. He should believe that he is unworthy to be relieved of the burden and that the temptation ought to remain a long time, live on, and intensify against him. Even if he does not find the cause within himself and does not understand it at present, he should believe that nothing lies outside God’s judgment and justice. There was a brother who grieved and wept because God had taken away his temptation. He said, “Lord, am I not worthy to suffer a little?” It is also written that a disciple of a great elder was once attacked by the passion of fornication. Seeing him labor, the elder asked, “Do you want me to entreat God to give you relief from this warfare?” The disciple answered, “Although I labor, elder, I see fruit coming from my labor. Ask God for this instead: that He give me endurance.”

144. Behold, these are truly the people who wish to be saved. This is what it means to bear the yoke with humility and to pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar. Therefore the prophet says, “In his life lies your salvation.” When the brother said, “I see fruit coming from my labor,” it was the same as saying, “In the life of Nebuchadnezzar lies my salvation.” The elder made this clear when he said to him, “Today I have learned that you have made progress and surpassed me.” Temptation Exposes the Passions So They May Be Destroyed When a person struggles against sin in action and begins also to fight the inward passionate thoughts, he is humbled, broken in spirit, and engaged in struggle. Through the afflictions of the contest he is gradually cleansed and returns to what is according to nature. Therefore, when a person is troubled by a passion and becomes disturbed, he must know, as we have said, that this happens through ignorance and pride. It is better for him to recognize his condition, endure, and pray with humility until God has mercy on him. Unless a person is tempted and comes to know the affliction caused by the passions, he will never struggle to be cleansed. The Psalm says of this: “When sinners spring up like grass and all who work iniquity appear, it is so that they may be destroyed unto the ages of ages” (Psalm 91:8).

The sinners who spring up like grass are the passionate thoughts, for grass is weak and has no strength. When passionate thoughts spring up in the soul, then “all who work iniquity”—that is, the passions—appear and are exposed so that they may be destroyed unto the ages. When the passions appear to those who struggle, those who struggle destroy them.

145. I want you to understand what comes first and what follows from the things I have said. First the passionate thoughts spring up; then the passions are revealed; and afterward they are destroyed. Those who struggle know and experience all these things. But we, while committing sin and continually feeding the passions, do not understand when passionate thoughts spring up or when the passions are revealed, so that we may struggle against them. We are still far below, down in Egypt, in the wretched slavery of making bricks for Pharaoh. Who will help us at least to become aware of our bitter servitude, to humble ourselves, and to take care to find mercy? The Bricks and Cities of Pharaoh When the Israelites were in Egypt and enslaved to Pharaoh, they made bricks. Those who make bricks are always bent down and looking at the ground. So too, if the soul is conquered by the devil and sins in action, he casts down its mind and makes it think of nothing spiritual, but always to think and act in an earthly manner. Afterward, with the bricks they made, they built three fortified cities for Pharaoh: Pithom, Rameses, and On, which is Heliopolis. These signify love of pleasure, love of money, and vainglory, from which every sin arises.

146. When God sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and from slavery to Pharaoh, Pharaoh burdened them with more work and said: “You are idle; you are idle. Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and worship the Lord our God’” (Exodus 5:17). Similarly, when the devil realizes that God has been pleased to have mercy on the soul and to give it some relief from the passions through His word or through one of His servants, he intensifies the passions against it and attacks it more fiercely. The Fathers knew this, and therefore they strengthen a person through their teaching and do not allow him to be afraid. One strengthens him by saying: “Have you fallen? Rise again. And if you have fallen again, rise again.” Another says: “The victory of those who wish to acquire the virtues is not to lose heart when they fall, but to struggle again.” In short, each of the Fathers, in various ways, strengthens those who struggle and are afflicted by the enemy. A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “What shall I do, Abba? I have fallen.” The elder said to him, “Rise again.” The brother said, “I rose, and I have fallen again.” The elder replied, “Rise again and again.” The brother asked, “Until when?” The elder said, “Until death finds you, whether in the good or in the fall. For in whatever condition a person is found, in that condition he departs.”

The Fathers received this teaching from Holy Scripture, which says: “Does not the one who falls rise again, or the one who turns away return? Return to Me, My children, and I will heal your wounds, says the Lord” (cf. Jeremiah 8:4; 3:22), and many similar sayings. Leave Not Even a Hoof Behind 147. When the hand of God fell heavily upon Pharaoh and his subjects and God willed to free the Israelites, Pharaoh said to Moses: “Go and worship the Lord your God, but leave your sheep and cattle behind” (Exodus 10:24). The sheep and cattle signify the thoughts of the mind, which Pharaoh wished to enslave, hoping that through them he might draw the Israelites back again. Moses answered him: “Not only will we leave none of our own animals behind, but you too will give us animals for the sacrifices we shall offer to the Lord our God. Our livestock will go with us; we will not leave behind even a hoof” (Exodus 10:25–26). When Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt and brought them to the opposite shore of the Red Sea, God desired to lead them to the seventy palm trees and the twelve springs of water. First, however, He brought them to Marah, and the people were distressed because they found no water to drink, for the water was bitter. From Marah He led them to the place of the seventy palm trees and the twelve springs of water (Exodus 15:22–27).

Through Afflictions to Holy Repose 148. So too, when the soul ceases from sin in action and crosses the spiritual sea, it will first labor in struggle and suffer great affliction. Through these afflictions it will then pass into holy repose, for “through many afflictions we must enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Afflictions draw the mercy of God toward the soul, just as winds bring rain. If rain falls continually while a plant is still young, it rots the shoot and destroys the hope of fruit; but periodic winds dry and strengthen the plant and cause it to take root. The same is true of the soul. Ease, carelessness, and repose put the soul to sleep and scatter it; temptations strengthen it and unite it to God, as the prophet says: “Lord, in affliction we remembered You” (Isaiah 26:16). Therefore, as we have said, we must neither become disturbed nor fall into listlessness when we are in a season of temptations. Rather, we must endure, give thanks, and always entreat God with humility to have mercy on our weakness and protect us from every temptation, to His glory. Amen. This translation follows the supplied Greek source. Sections §§138–148 use the standard continuous numbering; website matter is omitted. Biblical citations follow the Greek source and Septuagint usage. DISCOURSE XIV: ON BUILDING AND JOINING TOGETHER THE VIRTUES OF THE SOUL The House of the Soul 149.

Holy Scripture says that the midwives who spared the male children of the Israelites, because they feared God, built houses for themselves (Exodus 1:21). Does Scripture mean visible buildings? And what significance would there be in saying that such houses were built through the fear of God? We, after all, are taught to leave even the houses we possess, if necessary, in order to gain the fear of God (Matthew 19:29). It is therefore not speaking of a visible house, but of the edifice of the soul, which a person builds for himself by keeping the commandments of God. Through this Holy Scripture teaches us that the fear of God prepares the soul to keep the commandments, and that through keeping the commandments the edifice of the soul is built. Let us attend to ourselves, my brothers. Let us too fear God and build houses for ourselves, so that we may find shelter in them when winter comes, with its rains, lightning, and thunder. For anyone who has no house in winter is in very great distress.

150. But how is the edifice of the soul built? We can learn exactly how this is done from the construction of a visible house. The person who wishes to build a material house must secure it on every side and raise the structure on all four sides at once. He must not attend to one wall and neglect the others, for in that way he gains nothing and merely wastes his labor and expense. So it is also with the soul. A person must neglect no part of its edifice, but raise it evenly and in due proportion. This is precisely what Abba John means when he says, “I want a person to succeed in acquiring a little of every virtue, and not to act like some who struggle for only one virtue, persist in it, and work for it alone while neglecting the rest.” Such people may have a natural preference for that virtue, and therefore are not troubled by the passion opposed to it. The other passions consequently deceive and weigh them down, while they pay no attention to them and imagine that they have achieved something great. They resemble a man who builds one wall and raises it as high as he can, concentrating all his attention on its height and supposing that he has accomplished a great work. He does not understand that, if a strong wind comes, it will throw the wall down because it stands alone, without being joined to the other walls.

Nor can he make a roof for himself with only one wall, for he remains exposed on every other side. It must not be so. Whoever wishes to build his house and make a shelter for himself must raise the structure on every side and secure it against every danger. Foundation, Stones, and Cornerstones 151. I will tell you how. First of all, he must lay the foundation, which is faith, for, as the Apostle says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Upon this foundation he must build the structure evenly. Has he been given an occasion to practice obedience? He must lay one stone of obedience. Has a brother become angry with him? He must lay one stone of patience. Has he been given an occasion for self-restraint? He must lay one stone of self-restraint. Thus, at every opportunity he encounters for practicing a virtue, he must place one stone in the building and in this way raise it all around: one stone of compassion, one stone of cutting off his will, one stone of meekness, and so on. Above all, he must cultivate endurance and courage. These are the cornerstones by which the building is made firm and the walls are joined to one another, so that they neither lean nor open cracks between them. Without endurance and courage no one has the strength to bring any virtue at all to completion.

For if a person has no courage in his soul, he does not endure; and without endurance no one can succeed in anything. Therefore the Lord said, “By your endurance you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:19). Humility as Mortar, Discernment as Binding Beams The builder must also place mortar between the stones. If he puts stone upon stone without mortar between them, the stones break and the building collapses. The mortar is humility, because it is made from the earth and is trodden underfoot by everyone. Every virtue practiced without humility is no virtue, just as the Sayings of the Fathers declares: “As it is impossible to build a boat without nails, so it is impossible to be saved without humility.” Therefore, whatever good a person does, he must do it with humility, so that the good may be preserved through humility. The building must also have what are called binding beams. These are discernment, which strengthens the building, joins one stone to another, binds the structure firmly together, and gives it beauty. The roof is love, which is the perfection of all the virtues, just as the roof is the completion of the house (Colossians 3:14). After the roof comes the parapet around the rooftop. What is the parapet? It is written in the Law: “If you build your house and make a rooftop, you shall also make a parapet around it, so that your children may not fall from it” (Deuteronomy 22:8).

The parapet is humility. It surrounds and guards all the virtues. Just as every virtue must be practiced with humility—according to the image by which every stone is laid in mortar—so also the perfection of virtue has need of humility. As the saints advance in virtue, they naturally arrive at humility. It is as I continually tell you: the nearer a person draws to God, the more sinful he sees himself to be. Who, then, are the children of whom the Law says that they must not fall from the rooftop? The children are the thoughts born in the soul. A person must guard them by humility so that they do not fall from the rooftop, which, as we said, is the perfection of the virtues. The Skilled Builder 152. See: the house is complete. It has its binding beams and its roof; behold, it also has the rooftop parapet. In a word, the house is ready. But is anything still lacking? Yes, we have omitted one thing. What is it? The builder must be skilled. If he is not a good craftsman, he builds the structure a little crooked, and at the first difficult moment the house collapses. The skilled craftsman is the person who builds with spiritual understanding. Sometimes a person expends the labor required by virtue, yet because he does not work with understanding he loses his labor.

He may go around in circles without being able to finish the work, laying the same stone and then removing it. There are others who lay one stone and remove two. For example, a brother comes and says something that troubles and wounds you. You remain silent and make a prostration. See, you have laid one stone. Afterward you go and say to another brother: “So-and-so insulted me. He said this and that to me; and I not only said nothing, but even made a prostration to him.” See: you laid one stone and removed two. Again, a person may make a prostration because he wishes to be praised, and humility is thereby adulterated with vainglory. This means laying a stone and taking it out again. But the one who makes a prostration with spiritual understanding convinces himself that the fault is his and that he himself is the cause. This is what it means to make a prostration with understanding. Another person practices silence, but not with understanding, because he supposes that he is practicing a virtue. He accomplishes nothing. The one who keeps silence with understanding considers himself unworthy to speak, as the Fathers said. This is silence with understanding. Again, a person may have no great opinion of himself merely through indifference and ignorance, and he supposes that in thinking this way he is accomplishing something great and humbling himself.

He does not understand that he gains absolutely nothing, because he is not acting with understanding. To have no great opinion of oneself with understanding means possessing the profound awareness and lived experience that one is nothing and not worthy even to be counted a human being. Thus Abba Moses said to himself: “Wretched black man! Since you are not a human being, what are you doing among human beings?” Serving with Spiritual Understanding 153. If someone serves a sick person solely in order to receive a reward, his work is likewise not done with understanding. Should something distressing happen to him, he immediately abandons the good work and does not complete it, because he is not doing it with understanding. But the person who serves with understanding does so because he has acquired compassion for the sufferer and a merciful disposition. Whoever has such a purpose patiently and undisturbedly endures whatever may happen to him, whether some external affliction or the sick person’s own displeasure. He keeps his attention fixed on his purpose and believes that the sick person benefits him more than he benefits the sick person. Believe me: the person who serves the sick with spiritual understanding also finds relief from passions and inner warfare. I knew a brother who was being attacked by shameful desire. Because he served with understanding a sick man suffering from dysentery, he was delivered from the warfare.

Evagrius also tells of a great elder who freed a brother troubled by nocturnal fantasies by commanding him to fast and serve the sick. When asked why he had prescribed this, the elder said, “Nothing extinguishes the passions so completely as mercy.” If a person practices ascetic discipline through vainglory, or because he thinks that what he is doing makes him virtuous, he is not practicing it with understanding. Consequently he begins to despise his brother, supposing himself to be someone great. He then becomes like a man who not only lays one stone and removes two, but who is in danger of demolishing the entire wall by judging his neighbor. The person who practices self-restraint with understanding does not believe that he is accomplishing a virtue and does not wish to be praised as an ascetic. Rather, he believes that through self-restraint he acquires chastity and through chastity arrives at humility. As the Fathers say, “The way of humility is bodily labor performed with spiritual understanding,” and other sayings of this kind. In short, a person should practice a virtue in such a way that he acquires it and becomes one with it. He is thereby shown to be, as we have said, a good craftsman and a wise builder, able to build his house securely. Ascending One Step at a Time 154. Whoever wishes, with the help of God, to reach this good condition must not say, “The virtues are great, and I cannot attain them.”

The person who says this either does not hope in the help of God or, through laziness, is unwilling to apply himself zealously to anything good. Take whichever virtue you please as an example, and you will see that it lies within our power to attain it, if we are willing. Scripture says, for instance, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Do not fix your attention on how far you are from the virtue and begin to lose courage, saying, “How can I love my neighbor as myself? How can I care about his afflictions as though they were my own—especially those hidden in his heart, which I neither see nor know as I know my own?” Do not occupy yourself with these thoughts or suppose that virtue is supernatural and unattainable. Make a beginning now, believing in God. Show Him your concern and your willing purpose, and you will see the help He gives you in order to attain it. Here is what I mean. Suppose there are two ladders: one leads upward to heaven and the other downward to Hades, and you stand on the earth between the two. Do not think or say, “How can I fly from the earth all at once and find myself at the top of the ladder?” This cannot happen, nor does God ask it of you. For this moment at least, struggle not to descend the other ladder.

Do not do evil to your neighbor; do not wound him, backbite him, insult him, or despise him. Then begin also to benefit your brother a little: comfort him with a good word, suffer with him, or give him something if he is in need. Ascending in this way, one step at a time, you will reach the top of the ladder with God’s help. By helping your neighbor little by little, you come at last to desire his good as you desire your own and his profit as your own. This is what it means to “love your neighbor as yourself.” If we seek, we shall find; and if we beseech God, He will enlighten us. The Gospel says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). “Ask” is said so that we may entreat through prayer. “Seek” means investigating how each virtue comes to us, what produces it, and what we must do to acquire it. To examine these things every day is precisely the Gospel’s command, “Seek, and you will find.” “Knock” means putting the commandments into practice, for everyone who knocks does so with his hands, and the hands are understood as a symbol of practical work. Therefore we must not only ask, but also seek and practice, taking care, as the Apostle said, to be “fully equipped” for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17).

What does “fully equipped” mean? When a person wishes to construct a ship, he first prepares all the materials he will need, down to the smallest nails, the little pitch, and a little tow. Likewise, when a woman wishes to set up a loom, she prepares even the smallest reed and thread. To be “fully equipped” means having made every preparation, down to the smallest item required for the work.

155. Let us, then, be fully equipped for every good work in this way, making every kind of preparation to perform the will of God with spiritual understanding—as it is God’s will and as it is pleasing to Him. The Good, Pleasing, and Perfect Will of God What does the Apostle mean by “the good and pleasing and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2)? Everything that happens is either permitted by God or positively willed by Him, as the prophet says: “I am the Lord, who makes light and creates darkness” (Isaiah 45:7), and again, “There is no evil in a city which the Lord has not permitted” (Amos 3:6). Here “evil” means everything that causes harm, such as distressing events that befall us as discipline for our wickedness—famine, epidemic, drought, sickness, and war. Such things do not occur by God’s good pleasure, but by His permission: He permits them to befall us for the profit of our souls. God does not will that we should desire these things or assist in bringing them about. For example, it may be God’s will by permission that a city be destroyed. Yet He does not will that, because its destruction is permitted by Him, we ourselves should set fire to it and burn it, or take axes and demolish it. In the same way, God may permit a person to be afflicted or become ill.

But He does not will that, because the person’s affliction is permitted, we ourselves should afflict him; nor should we say, “Because it was God’s will that he become sick, we shall not show him mercy.” God does not will this. He does not wish us to serve such a will. He wishes us to be so good that we do not willingly consent even to the calamities He permits. What, then, does He desire us to will? His good will, that which occurs, as we have said, by His good pleasure. The good will is everything done according to the commandment He has given us: loving one another, showing compassion, being merciful, and the like. Behold, this is the good will of God. And what is the pleasing will? It does not follow that simply because a person does something good, it is necessarily pleasing to God. I will give you an example. A man happens to find a poor orphan girl who is beautiful, and because he likes her beauty, he takes her in and raises her under the pretext that he is caring for an orphan. See: this is the will of God, and it is good, but it is not pleasing. It is pleasing when a person gives alms not from some human motive, but for the sake of the good itself, from compassion itself. This is pleasing to God.

The perfect will is when a person gives alms neither grudgingly nor reluctantly and contemptuously, but with all his strength and his whole willing purpose—giving as though he himself were receiving, and doing good as though he himself were being benefited. Then the will of God becomes perfect. In this way a person comes to do the will of God which, as the Apostle says, is “good and pleasing and perfect.” Behold, this is precisely what it means to act with spiritual understanding. Mercy Practiced with Spiritual Understanding 156. A person must learn how great is the good of almsgiving and how much grace it contains, for almsgiving is great and is itself able to blot out sins. The prophet says, “A man’s own wealth is the ransom of his life” (Proverbs 13:8), and elsewhere, “Redeem your sins by acts of mercy” (Daniel 4:24). The Lord Himself said, “Become merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). He did not say, “Fast, just as your heavenly Father fasts,” nor did He say, “Possess nothing, just as your heavenly Father possesses nothing.” What does He say? “Become merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful.” It is especially through this virtue that a human being imitates God, for mercy is one of the characteristic marks of His love. We must therefore always fix our attention upon this purpose, so that whatever we do, we do with spiritual understanding.

Yet even among the purposes for giving alms there are great differences. One person gives alms so that his field may be blessed, and God blesses it. Another gives alms so that his ship may be saved, and God saves it. Another gives for the sake of his children, and God guards his children. Another gives in order to be glorified, and God glorifies him. God overlooks no one, but gives each person what he desires, provided that his soul will not be harmed by it. All these, however, have already received their reward. They have left God no room to give them anything further, because the purpose they set before themselves was not the profit of their souls. Did you give so that your field might be blessed? God blessed it. Did you give for your children? God guarded them. Did you give to be glorified? He glorified you. What more does God owe you? He has paid you for what you did.

157. Another person gives alms in order to escape hell. He gives for the sake of his soul and acts according to God, yet not exactly as God wills. He is still in the condition of a slave. A slave does not do his master’s will because he himself desires it, but because he fears punishment. In the same way, this person shows mercy in order to escape hell, and God delivers him from it. Another gives alms in order to receive a reward. This purpose is higher than the first, yet neither is he acting exactly as God wills, for in the disposition of his soul he has not yet reached the condition of a son. Just as a hired servant does his master’s will only in order to receive wages and make a gain, so this person gives alms in order to receive a reward. As Basil the Great says, there are three dispositions that lead us to do good. I think I have told you about them before. We do good either because we fear hell, in which case we are in the condition of a slave; or in order to receive a reward, in which case we are in the condition of a hired servant; or for the sake of the good itself, in which case we are in the condition of a son. A son does his father’s will neither from fear nor because he wishes to receive wages from him, but because he wishes to serve, honor, and give rest to his father.

We too must give alms for the sake of the virtue itself, sharing in the difficulties of others as though they were members of our own body. We should serve someone as though we ourselves enjoyed the fruit of the service, and give as though we ourselves were receiving. This is almsgiving practiced with spiritual understanding. In this way, as we have said, we attain the disposition of a son. No One Is Too Poor to Show Mercy 158. No one can say, “I am poor and have nothing with which to show mercy.” Even if you cannot give as the rich did when they placed their gifts in the treasury, give two small coins like that poor widow (Mark 12:41–44; Luke 21:1–4), and God will receive them from you more gladly than the gifts of the rich. Do you not even have this? Yet you have bodily strength and can show mercy to the sick through your service. Can you not do even this? You can comfort your brother with a good word. Show him mercy through your good word and hear the saying: “A good word is better than a material gift” (Sirach 18:16). Suppose you cannot show mercy even by a word. Yet if your brother becomes angry with you, you can show him mercy by enduring him in the hour of his disturbance, seeing him affected by the common enemy, the devil.

Instead of saying something to agitate him further, you can remain silent and show mercy to his soul, snatching it from the enemy’s hands. Again, if your brother sins against you, you can show him mercy and forgive his sin so that you too may receive forgiveness from God. For Holy Scripture says, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). You are thus able to show mercy to your brother’s soul by forgiving the things in which he has sinned against you. God has given us authority, if we wish, to forgive one another’s offenses. Even if you are unable to show mercy to your brother’s body, you can show mercy to his soul. And what mercy is greater than mercy offered to the soul? Just as the soul is of greater value than the body, so mercy offered to the soul is of greater value than that given to the body. Therefore no one can say, “I cannot show mercy.” Everyone can do so according to his strength and condition. Let each person only take care to do the good he does with spiritual understanding, as we have said concerning every virtue. We have said that the person who acts with understanding is the approved craftsman who builds his house securely. Of him the Gospel says: “The wise man builds his house upon the rock, and no opposing force can shake it” (cf.

Matthew 7:24–25). May God, the Lover of mankind, grant that we hear and practice what we are taught, lest these words become a cause of condemnation for us on the Day of Judgment. To Him belongs glory unto the ages. Amen. This translation follows the supplied Greek source. Sections §§149–158 use the standard continuous numbering; website matter is omitted. The architectural imagery and the recurring phrase ‘with spiritual understanding’ are retained. Biblical citations follow the Greek source and Septuagint usage. DISCOURSE XV: ON THE HOLY FASTINGS The Tithe of the Year 159. Through the Mosaic Law God commanded the Israelites to set apart each year one tenth of everything they acquired (Numbers 18), to dedicate it to God, and by doing this to receive a blessing upon all their works. With this in view, the holy Apostles considered and determined, for the help and benefit of our souls, to hand down to us something still higher and more perfect: that we should dedicate to God one tenth of the days of our life, so that our works might thereby be blessed and we might receive forgiveness each year for the sins of the entire year. They therefore calculated and consecrated, from the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, these seven weeks of the fasts. Thus they set apart seven weeks. With the passage of time, however, it was agreed that one more week should be added to them.

This was done both so that those about to enter the laborious arena of the fasts might train and prepare beforehand, and so that they might honor the number of the days of the holy Forty Days during which our Lord fasted. For if the Saturdays and Sundays are subtracted, the eight weeks become forty days, while the fast of Great Saturday is honored separately, since it is exceedingly holy and is the only fast-day among all the Saturdays of the year. The seven weeks, excluding Saturdays and Sundays, make thirty-five days. If, therefore, the fast of Great Saturday and half the night of Pascha are added, they make thirty-six and one-half days, which is exactly one tenth of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. For the tenth part of three hundred is thirty; of sixty, six; and of five, one-half. Thus the thirty-six and one-half days are completed, as we have said. This is, one might say, the “tithe” of the whole year established for us by the holy Apostles, so that it might become an occasion for us to be purified, as they said, from the sins we committed throughout the year and to be led to repentance.

160. Blessed, therefore, my brethren, is the one who guards himself diligently during these holy days. For even if, being human, he happened to fall into sin, whether through weakness or negligence, God nevertheless gave these holy days so that, if he struggles with spiritual watchfulness and humility, attends to himself, and repents, he may be purified from the sins of the entire year. Thus he is relieved of the weight of sin and approaches the holy day of the Resurrection with a pure soul. He partakes of the holy Mysteries without bringing God’s judgment upon himself, because through the repentance of these holy fasts he has become a new man. By the grace of God he lives in joy and spiritual gladness, keeping festival throughout the whole period until the Sunday of Pentecost. For Pentecost is, as it is said, a “resurrection of the soul.” For this reason, in honor of the Resurrection, we also have the symbolic custom of not bending the knee in church until the Sunday of Pentecost. Two Forms of Gluttony 161. Everyone who wishes to be purified from the sins of the whole year through the fasting of these days must first of all take care concerning what he eats, for all foods are not the same. As the Fathers say, to eat every kind of food without discernment causes many evils. He must likewise guard himself thereafter from breaking the fast without great necessity, from seeking flavorful foods, and from weighing down his stomach with much food and drink.

For there are two forms of gluttony. A person is often assailed by the flavor of food and does not always wish to eat much, but he desires what is flavorful. When such a person eats a food that pleases him, he is so conquered by the pleasure of its flavor that he keeps it in his mouth for a long time, chewing it considerably and not easily bringing himself to swallow it, so that he may preserve the pleasure he feels. We then say that this person has laimargia, throat-madness. Others are concerned not with the quality but with the quantity of food. They do not desire fine foods, nor are they concerned about anything except eating, whatever the food may be, because their sole concern is to fill their stomach. We then say that these persons have gastrimargia, belly-madness. I shall explain these two designations, laimargia and gastrimargia. In secular learning, margainō means to lose one’s self-mastery and reason—that is, to be maddened by some passion—and one who has been mastered by a passion is called margos. When, therefore, there appears that unrestrained and diseased desire to be continually filling the belly, we call the condition gastrimargia, from “to make the belly mad,” meaning the mania for filling the stomach: “My belly drives me mad.” When there is instead a diseased and unrestrained desire to experience pleasure continually in the throat, we call the condition laimargia, from “to make the throat mad,” meaning the mania for the pleasure of the throat.

162. Anyone who wishes to be purified from his sins must avoid these things with watchful care. For they do not answer to a need of the body but arise from the passions, and if someone tolerates them, they develop into sin. It is just as with lawful marriage and fornication: the act is the same, but the purpose is what makes them different. The one enters into relations in order to beget children; the other, in order to satisfy his love of pleasure. The same is true of eating, for we perform the same act both when we eat from necessity and when we eat for pleasure. The purpose is what constitutes the sin. Eating According to Need A person eats according to the needs of his bodily constitution when he determines for himself how much he will eat each day and observes whether the amount appointed was too much for him and should be reduced a little, and then reduces it; or whether it was insufficient and left him exhausted, so that he should add a little more, and then adds it. In this way he weighs well the needs of his bodily constitution and follows precisely what he has determined—not in order to receive pleasure from food, but in order to strengthen his body. Even what a person eats he ought to eat with prayer, condemning himself in his thought as unworthy to receive any consolation whatever.

He should not pay attention if someone else eats something special—because it is of course indispensable or because there is some necessity—so that he too begins to desire and ask for something more, or imagines that the additional thing he asks for will not harm him.

163. Once, when I was in the coenobium, I went to visit an elder—for there were many great elders there—and I found the brother who served him eating together with the elder. I said to him privately: “My brother, you know that these elders whom you see eating and receiving somewhat better care are like men who, after acquiring a purse, continued working and adding money to that purse until they had filled it. After sealing it, they worked again and gathered another thousand coins, so that they might find and use them in a time of need and preserve what they had in the purse. “So also these elders labored greatly and gathered treasures. After sealing them, they labored and gathered a few more, and these they now possess in the time of sickness and old age and spend from them, while they keep the rest in store. But we, who have not yet acquired even the purse itself—from what are we spending?” For this reason, as I have said, even if we eat only for the body’s need, we ought to condemn ourselves as unworthy of every kind of care, even of that satisfaction of our needs which the monastic rule permits, and we ought not eat fearlessly and carelessly. Only in this way will we not be condemned. The Fast of All the Senses 164. So much, then, concerning self-restraint in foods.

We need, however, not only to take care concerning our diet, but also to withdraw from every other sin. Just as we fast from foods, so also let our tongue fast and remain far from slander, falsehood, idle talk, contempt for our neighbor, anger, and in general every sin committed by the tongue. Likewise, let us fast with our eyes—that is, let us not look upon vain things, nor fall into familiarity through the eyes, nor look upon anyone shamelessly. In the same way, let us restrain our hands and feet from every evil deed. Fasting in this way with, as Basil the Great says, an acceptable fast, and abstaining from every evil committed through all the senses, let us approach the holy day of the Resurrection, as we have already said, renewed, pure, and worthy to partake of the holy Mysteries. But first let us go out to meet our Lord and receive with palms and branches of olive Him who enters the Holy City seated upon the colt. Palms of Victory and Olive Branches of Mercy 165. What does it mean that He sat upon the colt? It was so that the Word of God might restore the soul which had fallen into a state without reason—as the Prophet says, it “became like the irrational animals” (Psalm 48:21)—and might subject it to His divinity. And what does it mean that we meet Him with palms and branches of olive?

When someone goes out against his enemy and returns to the city victorious, every acquaintance welcomes him with palms, as befits a victor, for palms are a symbol of victory. Again, when someone has suffered injustice and wishes to appear before the judge, asking him to adjudicate his case, he holds branches of olive as he cries out and entreats to receive mercy and help, for the olive is a symbol of mercy. Therefore we too receive our Master Jesus Christ with palms because He is the Victor—for He conquered our enemy on our behalf—and with branches of olive because we ask mercy from Him. Just as He conquered, so we too ask His help that we may conquer and may hold the symbols of His victory. These symbols represent not only the victory which He gained for our sake, but also that which we too have gained through His help and the prayers of all the saints. Amen. The two Greek ascetical terms are retained and explained in the text: gastrimargia is the mania for filling the stomach, while laimargia is the mania for preserving pleasure in the throat. “Word” renders Logos in the theological passage on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem; “without reason” and “irrational animals” retain Dorotheos’s wordplay on logos. Scriptural quotations follow the Greek wording cited in the discourse, and Psalm numbering follows the Greek Psalter. The passage attributed to Basil the Great describes true fasting as estrangement from evil: restraint of the tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, and avoidance of slander, falsehood, and perjury (PG 31, 196D).