Discourse 77

This is the heading: Life full. Glory. O weak human, do you wish to find life? Humility and meekness clothe you, for through them you will find mercy and help, and the heart will be filled from God, along with the preservation of the simple and the humble. Do you wish, then, to enter into these, into the entrance of life? Simplicity clothe you from the beginning. Walk in simplicity before God, and not with knowledge. To simplicity, faith is firmly attached. As for subtlety and the turning of the thoughts of knowledge: they are causes of distance. As for causes: distance from God. When you fall before God in prayer, be thus in your thought: like a child, and like the reptiles of the earth, and like a worm. And cry out humbly, and do not speak before Him with knowledge. With a childish intention approach God and walk before Him, so that you may be equal to that primal simplicity which belongs to the fathers over their infant children. It is said: The Lord protects infants. An infant approaches a snake and does not know it, and does not harm it. An infant walks naked all winter. And when others are clothed and covered, he is exposed to the cold in all his limbs. That one is sent and comes on a day of wind and frost, and does not feel it.

because the covering of the body of their youth is another garment that is invisible, from that hidden vanity which preserves the trembling of the limbs of youth, so that the approach of any perception may not come near them. Now believe that there is a hidden vanity: for the body that is accustomed to what is more pure and fine than all perceptions, because of its habituation and the weakness of its riders, and it is preserved in the midst of opposing things, and does it not think? The Lord preserves for the youths. Not only because of the youths of the weeping one shall you hear and believe these things, but also those who, when they were wise in the world, abandoned their knowledge, and upon that wisdom which suffices for all who rely on it, and they became youths by their own will. And then they learned wisdom, that which cannot be learned through the labors of study. And the blessed apostle, the wise in divine things, also spoke well when he declared: Whoever thinks he is wise in this world becomes foolish, so that he may become wise. But entreat God that he may give you to attain the measure of faith. Then perceive the sweetness of faith in yourself; it is not difficult for me to say that again nothing will be that ceases from Christ. And it is not difficult for it to be praised at all times from earthly things, and to reach this weak world, and the remembrance of his wills.

Instead of this: that you may not bring forth tears, and with weeping her desire, and be burned hotly, and with great care be troubled until it is taken. So that again, you will not come to this. For this reason, you will be equal to this, if first you restrain yourself from casting your hope upon God with faith, and you exchange your vanity for His vanity. And then, when He sees your desire, with all the purity of intention, entrust your desires to God. And restrain yourself so that you trust in God more than in yourself. Then that power which is without limit, by which you will be moved, will come upon you, so that you may perceive sensibly the power that is with you, without division. By this power, when many perceive it, they enter the fire and are not burned, and they walk upon water and are not divided, their thoughts of blood being imprinted within them, because faith has loosed the senses of the soul. And like a phantom, something invisible is perceived in it, without the thought being disturbed, and without looking at the spectacle of the desires of the faculties, but at something higher than the senses. See, lest it seem to you that all of it is that spiritual knowledge which is received by this knowledge of the self.

not only because it is impossible that spiritual knowledge be received in this self-knowledge, but also because it does not even permit the perception of its own stirrings, those who are eager in this to be instructed. And if there is someone who desires to approach that knowledge of the spirit, until he denies this and all the knots of its exactitude and its crookednesses, and stands in the simplicity of contemplation, not even a little can he approach it. But many obstacles will be for him its habits and its twisted movements, until little by little they vanish. That spiritual knowledge is simple. And by self-thoughts it is not divided. Until the mind is freed from the multitude of thoughts and comes to a single simplicity of purity, it cannot even perceive spiritual things. This, then, is the order of knowledge: that a person perceive in that delight of the life of that world from here, it casts aside many thoughts. And this knowledge that remains, apart from the coverings of the coarseness of thoughts, that something else might be known, is received in the clarity of the mind, it is not possible. And the word of our Lord is not false. If you do not turn and become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And behold, many do not attain this simplicity.

and by their beautiful deeds, a reward is prepared for them with the Lord in the kingdom of heaven, as is also known from the concept of the beatitudes which he set forth distinctly in his Gospel. For changes, along with many distinctions of dwellings, he made known in the beatitudes. Everyone, in every movement, on every path that goes to him: the door of the kingdom of heaven is opened before him. But unless they turn and become like children, for this one, from here, a person perceives that delight of the kingdom, I say. The kingdom of heaven: the spiritual contemplation, they say, is what it is. And this is not found through the labors of thoughts, but is tasted through grace. And until a person is purified, he is not even fit to hear again. Because it is not acquired through instruction. If, however, you attain to purity, my son, which is acquired through the faith of the heart and the tranquility that comes from the virtues, and you wander, you, to the knowledge of this world, while you are unaware, within you is found my repose, without any subsequent penalty. Set up a pillar, and pour oil upon it. And you will find: your treasure is within you.

Know that by the renunciations of knowledge, the soul is united. It does not seem to me that I should say: It is easier for you to be freed from iron fetters, or from them, and it is not far that you are in tranquility from the snares of error, and never will you find and receive boldness and confidence before our Lord. And at all times, you are under the edge of the sword, and that you may be without pain, you cannot be. Gather strength and simplicity, so that you may live well before God, and that you may be without anxiety. For just as shadows follow bodies, so do mercies follow humility. Therefore, if you wish to be converted in these things, do not give your whole hand to weak thoughts. If all these victories and evils and disturbances surround you and frighten you, do not be troubled to look at them, or to think about them. If once you have trusted God that he is sufficient for your guardianship and your conduct, and you have gone after him, do not again be anxious that anything like these things. But say to your soul: That one is sufficient for all, that one to whom I entrusted my soul once. If not, he is near, he knows. And then by deed you will see the wonders of God: how near he is at all times for the salvation of those who fear him. And they are surrounded by his vanity, and are not seen.

And not because of the cares of the body is the guardian of your people seen, that you might be divided over him, even if he does not exist. There is also a time when even the cares of the body are revealed, as in your own truth. What then? That a person casts away from himself all visible assistance and earthly hope, and stands before God in faith and a pure heart; in that very hour grace stands before him, and her power is revealed in various assistances. First, however, in these revelations and those of the body, she shows her assistances through her inactivity over him. As in these, he is more able to perceive the power of God's inactivity over him. Through the understanding of those that are revealed, he is confirmed in those that are hidden, as is fitting for the simplicity of his thought and not for his cleverness. For how? This is like a person who says: His journey is made easy for him without toil, while he does not worry. And many events that have approached him over many years, full of trials, are passed over by him. And when he has not been idle in vain, grace is astonished at him with great wonder, along with the rest of everything that might happen to him suddenly, while he has not intended how many times the destruction of the soul, and from that of the body, can occur.

And the guardian keeps him, as in the rearing of chicks, that the shadow and the spread of her wings over her chicks may not be approached by a bird. And in that time he does this: that he may perceive those that are, while showing him the cause of his destruction through the eyes of the body. And the help of God that is in him in actions that are hidden. And the destruction of his life that was near, and God saved him. Thus also he instructs him in the hidden things. And he opens before him many thoughts and difficult perceptions for comprehension, so that easily their meaning and their connection to one another and their misleading nature may be understood. And which is connected to which, and how one is generated from another, and they destroy themselves. And he spreads before him the whole multitude of demons and the concealment of their thoughts, and what is connected to each of these. And he places in him the meaning: that he may be tested by something that will happen. And the hidden light shines in his simplicity for perception in everything, and by the power of the movements of sharp thoughts. And he shows him: as with a finger. And if he did not know this: what was about to happen to him, and then it is generated for him from here: that everything, small and great, is sought from his guide through prayer.

And when this true grace of his has been fully established in his thought through trust in God, then he begins to introduce him little by little to the exercises. And he allows him to be guarded in those exercises which his measure is able to bear the burden of them. And in that exercise she brings her help to him perceptibly, as if it were a matter of the heart. Until, hand in hand, he meets and acquires wisdom, and triumphs over his adversaries through trust in God. For it is not possible without these that a person should become wise in spiritual battles, and know his guide, and perceive his God, and be confirmed in his faith secretly, by the power he receives from the exercise of his station. And whenever he sees that a thought of despair begins to stir slightly within him, and great things begin to be agitated against him, he leaves him to the exercises that have been tried and tested upon him, so that he may know his weakness, and flee, and cleave to God in humility. And through these a person comes to the measure of a perfect man, through the faith and hope of the son of God, and is raised up to him through love. For the help of God towards a person is known wondrously when, through the desires of the angels, hope is cut off and becomes narrow; then God shows his power in the deliverance from them.

He never learns to know divine power gently and spaciously, nor does he ever show his activity perceptibly, except in a quiet place and in a monastery, and in the cells of the solitaries, far from the disturbances and confusions of the world of the laity. Do not be amazed if, when he begins with asceticism, difficult afflictions are required of you from every side. For that asceticism is not considered true asceticism which is not accompanied by hardship and labors for its practice. For that asceticism from which this one is named, says the holy Evagrius, is a mother to this harshness: that the difficulties rest upon it. And that which is called asceticism is not that which is relaxed, says the blessed Mark the Solitary, when it is wearied by labors. Every asceticism that exists is named after the cross. For this reason, that it is for the sake of the commandment of the Spirit that perfects. Because all those who wish to live in the fear of God through the sign of the cross are compelled. Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and come after me. Whoever wishes to live gently, let him destroy himself. And whoever destroys himself for my sake, will find himself. Concerning this, our Lord set before you the cross beforehand, that death may cut off your self, and then you will guard yourself to go after him. There is no power like the cutting off of hope.

Thus: he knows nothing of the hidden. If in the desert and in solitude, when a man decides in his mind that from his life there is no one who knows his heart, and there is no adversary who can harm him, and there is no affliction that can disturb his thought—because every affliction that exists is beneath death, and he has decided upon death for himself to receive—if in all your days and in all your conduct and at all times, in everything that is prepared for you to do, you set your thought to gaze upon labor and hardship, not only will the heart and the suitable not be found at all times to prevail over every difficulty that arises, and by the strength of your thoughts, the thought of humility will flee from you, which is accustomed to be born in a person from that which is not perceived by the thoughts, but all the harsh and difficult things that encounter you will appear to you as easy and insignificant. And how many times, contrary to your desire, when what is expected occurs, adversities will arise against you. For you are the one who is the goal of the hidden, from great helps and from excellent goodness, always saving you from distresses, so that not even those who are in the world, if they were thus in their fleshly ways, would attain the completion of their desire, unless difficulties cut off their intention to endure.

and those of the temptations, it is the witness concerning these: there is no argument concerning the meaning of words. For in every generation before them and until the present day: there is nothing else whose cause disturbs the living concerning the victories and leaves them from the remaining practices. And as if at one time to say: that they are saved from the entrance to the kingdom, except if the intention of the solitary is a small one that is near. And not only this, but also many times that same companion prepares difficult events and harsh temptations for everyone who has set his thought toward him, and his thoughts run according to his time. For in that which governs him, it is the will of passion. He does not know that even the birds, in the solitude of the solitary, approach the snare. Lest also from the bird, much less is our knowledge, as from the snare: in hidden things and events that are concealed in intentions and practices and places and in everything. For even Satan from the beginning is in confession: and the intention of the solitaries hunts us. But because the intention concerning the course of passion has run in the word, I have erred from the thought that I set above in my word. For at every time, the companion of afflictions is set for the intention in everything that we desire to dwell in the path of the house of our Lord: so that the end of its outcome may be excellent and support the head.

How often does a man ask, when he wishes to begin a work, something concerning the Lord: whether there is for him any ease in the intention; whether it is possible without labor to accomplish it simply; or whether there is in it something that oppresses the body. Is not the name of the angels above and below? What do you say, O man? Do you wish to ascend to heaven, and to take that kingdom there, and to have fellowship with God and the holy angels, and that blessedness, and the intermingling with the angels and the immortal lives, and do you ask whether there is labor in this path? O wonder! For those whose desires are of this world and for wealth that is destroyed and for authority that is dissolved, they are agitated. Over the difficult waves of the sea they walk. And on the paths of the powers they tread. And they endure a harsh discipline, filled with labors and afflictions, along with the rest of the base desires that pass away in the world because of their passion for action. And to the end, they do not consider whether there is labor in the intention, or difficulty in that which they wish to do. And you, all your life, complain about the holy angels. If, however, the path of asceticism is always taken in your thought, and asceticism is always considered, what difficulty would not be easy from it?

or whether there is any possibility at all without labor in this matter: that without ever taking up the struggle, one might receive the crown of victory, or minister divine services, or succeed in one of the excellent virtues, or obtain by his hand the desire of his will even from among those who are praised. But first he must toil over labors and afflictions, and from his side the thought that cuts off the path to ease must be driven away—the birth of laziness and timidity, from which comes the slackness of everything. For when the desire goes after excellence, the manifest senses—hearing, sight, and taste—are raised up from the difficult encounters of actions and cares that are outside the custom and boundaries of the natural power, which the beloved do not know. At that time when anger naturally performs its actions, then the vital spirits of the body are consumed by filth. But when the heart is kindled by the spirit, the body does not feel afflictions, nor does it weaken from the powers. Rather, the desire stands against all difficulties, like Adam in his wrath. Moreover, the error of the spirit runs after the will of Jesus, and is pursued by all laziness, which is the birth of slackness in thought. For error begets contention and strength of the self and vigor of the body.

What power do the demons have when the soul is moved to its natural struggle against them? And again, the impulse, the child of the struggle, is spoken of. And the whole movement that cannot be stirred in the soul when it puts forth its powers for action—that one is weak in it. And these crowns of confession which the victorious martyrs receive in their contest—these two operations of the struggle and the impulse, which are born from the power of natural anger, are not felt in the intensity of the pain of the torments.