Epistula ad monachos

Of our father among the saints, John Chrysostom, an epistle to monks. The divine apostle says: pray without ceasing, without anger and distractions; for every thought that separates the mind from God, even if it seems good, is entirely of the devil, not to say it is the devil; for the whole struggle of the devil is this, to separate and beguile the mind from God and to drag it into worldly cares and pleasures; he dictates commandments and good works inwardly in the heart and other reasonable or even unreasonable notions, to which one ought not to attend at all. The whole struggle of the soul is not to separate the mind from God, nor to couple and concur with unclean thoughts, nor to attend to what the all-cunning and ancient painter, the devil, depicts in the heart, sometimes forms, sometimes faces and shapes. After all this, the devil is transformed, and the wretched man, standing in one place, thinks he is somewhere else, being deceived and seeming to see certain persons and to speak to faces and to order things which are of diabolical deception. Therefore one must secure and guide the mind, and rein it in, and punish every thought and every energy of the evil one through the invocation of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And where the body stands, there let the mind also be, so that between God and the heart nothing else be found as a partition or as a fence obscuring the heart and separating it from God.

But if ever it seizes the mind, one must not linger over the thoughts, lest the assent to the thoughts be reckoned as a deed before the Lord on the day of judgment, when God judges the hidden things of men. Therefore, devote yourselves entirely and remain with our Lord God, until He has mercy on us, and seek nothing else but only mercy with a humble and pitiful heart. Seek and cry out from morning until evening, if possible, and all night long: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us." I therefore exhort you: force your mind to this work until death. For this work requires much force, because the gate is narrow and the road that leads to life is straitened, and those who force themselves enter it; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who force themselves. I therefore exhort you: do not separate your hearts from God, but persist and guard it with the memory of our Lord Jesus Christ always, until the name of the Lord is implanted within the heart; and think of nothing else but that Christ be magnified in you. I therefore exhort you: never cease this rule of prayer, but whether you eat or drink or travel or do anything, cry out unceasingly: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us," so that this memory of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may provoke war against the enemies. For through memory the forcing soul can find everything, whether evil or good, but first it must see the evils within the heart and then the goods. For memory has the power to humble it.

Memory has the power to expose the sin dwelling within us, and memory has the power to consume it. Memory has the power to rouse every force of the enemy in the heart, and memory has the power to conquer it and uproot it piece by piece; for when the name of our Lord Jesus Christ descends into the depths of the heart, it humbles the dragon that holds sway over the pastures, and it saves and gives life to the soul. Therefore, remain unceasingly in the heart, crying out the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart may swallow the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two may become one. But this work is not a matter of one or two days; rather, it requires much time, opportunity, struggle, and labor, until the enemy is cast out and Christ dwells within. For our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against the spiritual forces of evil, as the apostle says. By the same author: Thus must the one who prays pray, having gathered and concentrated his entire mind, calling upon God with a pained soul, and neither drawing out long speeches nor extending the supplication at length, but uttering few and simple words. For being heard lies not in the multitude of words, but in the sobriety of the mind. And this can be seen from the mother of Samuel, Anna. Therefore, the one who prays must not draw out long speeches and must pray the prayers frequently. Christ through Paul commanded prayers at short intervals.

If you extend your speech to length, having often grown careless, you have given the devil great license to approach and trip you up and lead your mind away from what is being said. But if you make your prayers continuous and frequent, you will be able to occupy the whole time with their frequency and to make your prayers with great sobriety. The same author: Do you wish to learn the wakefulness of prayer, and sobriety, and assiduity? Go to Anna, learn what she did. They all rose from the table, it says, and immediately she did not turn to sleep, nor to rest. Hence it seems to me that even while sitting at table she was light and not weighed down by any foods; for otherwise she would not have shed so many tears. And it was not because she uttered a loud and great voice that this happened, but because she cried out greatly within, in her heart. For her voice was not heard, it says, and God heard her; for nothing needs voice so much as mind, nor the stretching out of hands as a concentrated soul, nor indeed posture, but intention. For even if you are outside the church, cry out and say: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, even if you do not move your lips, but cry out in your mind; for God hears even those who are silent. Place is not sought, but manner. Wherever you may be, pray. You are a temple; do not seek a place. The sea was in front, the Egyptians behind, and Moses in the middle, speaking nothing. And God says to him: Why do you cry out to me? And you, therefore, when temptation comes upon you, flee to God, call upon the master Jesus. For is he a man, that you should go to a place? God is always near. Even while you are still speaking, he will say: Behold, I am here.

You have not yet finished the prayer, and He Himself grants the request. For if you have a mind cleansed of improper passions, whether you are in the marketplace, on the road, at sea, in an inn, or wherever you may be, you will be able, by calling upon God, to obtain your request. The great Basil says: "Often I have asked and did not receive. Surely because you asked badly, or without faith, or with a wandering mind, or for things not beneficial to you. And even if you often asked for beneficial things, you did not persevere; for it is written: 'By your endurance gain your souls,' and 'He who endures to the end, this one will be saved.' For if you do not ask with toil and much perseverance, you do not receive. For one must first desire, and having desired, seek in truth, with faith and endurance, what is beneficial for each, being judged by one's own conscience in nothing as asking carelessly or indolently; and then you receive, when God wills. For He knows better than you what is beneficial for you, and perhaps for this reason He delays, devising your attendance upon Him, so that you may know what a gift of God is and guard what is given with fear. For everything that one acquires with much toil, one is eager to guard, lest by losing it one lose both one's great toil and the grace of the Lord.

if he violates it, he becomes unworthy of eternal life. For what benefit did Solomon have, who quickly received the grace of wisdom and then lost it? Do not, therefore, be faint-hearted if you do not quickly obtain your request. For if the good Master knew that you would not lose the grace upon receiving it quickly, He would have been ready to grant it to you even before the request; but now He does this out of concern for you. For if the slave who received the talent and kept it safe, but was condemned because he did not increase it, how much more will the one who lost it be condemned? By the same author: Pay attention to yourself and watch yourself from every side. Keep the eye of your mind sleepless for your own guard. You walk in the midst of snares. Hidden traps from the enemy have been set all around. Therefore, watch everything, so that you may be saved, like a gazelle from traps; for that animal is uncatchable by traps because of the sharpness of its sight, whence it is named for its keen vision. See, then, that you do not appear worse than the irrational animals in guarding yourself, lest you be caught in the snares and become prey of the devil, captured alive by him for his will. So pay attention to yourself. By the same author, on the mind being undistracted: This, however, you must know: that we can accomplish neither the keeping of any other commandment, nor love for God itself, nor love for neighbor, when our mind is wandering elsewhere to other things. But even the practice of pleasing God according to the Gospel of Christ is accomplished in the withdrawal from the cares of the world and the complete alienation from mental distractions.

Thus also the Lord bore witness to the disciples after their sincere and unwavering disposition, saying, "You are not of this world." And from the contrary, he testified that the world is unable to receive the knowledge of God, nor to contain the Holy Spirit. "For, Father," he says, "righteous one, and the world did not know you, and the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive." Therefore, he who truly intends to follow God must be freed from the bonds of attachment to life. This is accomplished through complete withdrawal and forgetfulness of old habits. Having done this, it is fitting to guard one's heart with every watchfulness, lest one ever cast out the thought of God or the memory of his wonders, defiling it with fantasies of vain things, but through continuous and pure memory to have it imprinted in our souls, to carry the holy thought of God as an indelible seal. For in this way the love for God is acquired, at once rousing us to the performance of the Lord's commandments and, in turn, being preserved by them for endurance and steadfastness. And the Lord shows this, sometimes saying, "If you love me, keep my commandments," and sometimes, "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love." And even more compellingly: "Just as I have kept my father's commandments and remain in his love." But he who corrupts the precision of the commandment in its execution is clearly weak in the memory of God. The same. Also, the unwavering state of the soul and living in seclusion contribute to this.

For having life mixed together is harmful. Therefore, in order that we may not receive irritations through the ears or the eyes, and that we may be able to persevere in prayer, let us first separate ourselves in respect to dwelling; for in this way we will also overcome the previous habit, in which we lived alienated from the commandments of God and from the saying: "If anyone comes to me, let him deny himself." When could anyone be able to fulfill even one of these things? For we must deny ourselves and, taking up the cross of Christ, follow him in this way. Denial of self is the complete forgetfulness of the past and the withdrawal from one's own wills. But if we leave behind for ourselves any earthly memory in some corruptible substance, the mind being buried here as in some mire, it is necessary that the soul be invisible to God and unmoved toward desire for the heavenly beauties and for the goods promised to us. It is not even permitted to be concerned about necessities themselves, such as food and clothing. Reason allows these to be entangled, as it were, with evil thorns—the thoughts of the world—hindering the fruitfulness of the seed sown by the farmer of our souls, our Lord Jesus Christ having said: "These are the ones who have fallen among the thorns, who are choked by cares, wealth, and pleasures of life and do not come to maturity." Of the same author: For we will give no occasion to sins nor leave any place for the enemy in our hearts, having God as a dweller through continuous memory.

of the place. The same author: And the attentiveness of the mind and the habit of being distracted would easily be instilled in such children through correct training, if they were continually examined by those in charge as to where they have their thought and what they turn over in their reflections. For the simplicity of their age, guileless and not prone to falsehood, readily reveals the secrets of the soul; and in order not to be constantly caught in forbidden things, such a child would flee from improper thoughts, fearing the shame of being found out. The same author: And God said, "Let us make man in our image," meaning the inner man. But you will say: He does not speak to us about thoughts; he said man is in the image of God; how then is thought man? Listen to the apostle saying, "Even if our outer man is corrupted, yet the inner man is renewed day by day." So I recognize two men: one visible and one hidden within the visible. Therefore, we have an inner man, and we are in some sense double, and then we truly say that we are within men, but the outer is not. But we have perfection in the rational part of the soul, so that the body is an instrument of the human soul, and man is properly that which is according to the soul itself. And so, "let them rule"—does it rule over the body or over thought? Is the ruling principle in the soul or in the flesh? But in what is the ruling principle, if not in the abundance of thought? For as much as man is inferior in bodily power, to that extent he excels in the constitution of thought. He did not say, "Let us make man in our image," and let them be angry.

For the passions were not taken up into the image of God, but reason was given to you as master of the passions, to rule over the irrational, so that you might govern irrational passion. If, then, you rule over wild beasts, why do you not also rule over the beasts within? If you rule over those outside, will you leave those within without a ruler? You were created a ruler, then; do not have wandering thoughts, nor be light and unstable in your mind. It would be absurd if you were to strike down flying things outside, while yourself being lifted up so lightly and airily were struck down. Do not, then, puffed up, be raised above what you are and think more highly than human nature allows; nor, when praised, be inflated; do not seek glory, nor consider yourself something great, for you will be like an unsteady bird, carried here and there. Rule over the thoughts within you, so that you may become master of all; for the dominion over animals given to us ought to regulate us toward ruling ourselves. Just as there is no benefit from a house, a city, or doors, if there are no guards who know when to close and when to open, so too there is no benefit to a monk from other achievements, unless reason is the doorkeeper of his deliberations. Entrusted with the locking and unlocking of the heart with precision and great knowledge, and knowing what must be brought out and what brought in, even if some thought forces its way, it is necessary to stifle it within and not allow it to be uttered in words, but to dry up that root, and to keep the door secure and the guard precise. And do not allow evil plans to be born, and stifle those that are born.

Therefore God also destroys the evil thoughts within, saying: he who looked at a woman with desire, and so forth. Do you see how he does not allow them to sprout, nor to take root, neither desire nor anger? For he says: he who is angry with his brother shall be liable to the gehenna of fire. Let the doors be closed, he says, and the evil thoughts will quickly be subdued. For from wrath and desire every sin arises in the soul. For this reason David also prays to God, saying: do not incline my heart. Not that God inclines it—far from it!—but what he means is this: do not allow it to be inclined or turned toward evil thoughts; for from there is the source of wickedness and evil.