On the Life of Stillness and the Monastic State

One Hundred Texts

By Sts. Kallistos and Ignatios

1.) We who, according to the divine Scriptures, have been “taught by God” (1 Thess 4:9), and
in whom the new law, inscribed ineffably in our hearts, shines more brightly than a beacon, are
guided (John 6:45) by the bountiful and most righteous Spirit, and are as children and “Heirs of
God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17). For this reason, as Scripture tells us, we must live an
angelic life, and must not in any way be in need of anyone to teach us to “know the Lord” (Jer
38:34). But because from our earliest infancy we have turned aside from goodness and lapsed into
evil, and because we are now subject to the treachery and ruthless tyranny of the wily Belial, our
tendency is most wickedly to run from the commandments that save us and deify us, to cast
ourselves headlong from the soul-destroying cliffs, and—what is most lamentable—to think and
act in a way contrary to the commandments. This is why, according to the divine saying, “There
is none who understands; there is none who seeks God” (Rom 3:11); “They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable” (Rom 3:12). Since, then, collectively we are all called
“flesh” (Gen 6:4), and are deprived of light-bringing divine grace, we need the encouragement and
help of each other to turn us towards what is good.

The following treatise was written with the purpose of answering a query put to us by a
fellow monk; it also seeks to fulfill a fatherly obligation
2.) Since you have a strong desire to investigate the divine and life-giving Scriptures, as the
Lord exhorts us to do (John 5:39), and to be initiated safely by us, unprofitable as we are, you have
frequently asked for direction and a written rule for your own benefit and perhaps for that of others
too, as you yourself say; and though we did not wish to do so earlier we have now decided that,
with God’s help, we must set aside our habitual indolence and, out of love for you and for your
profit, must satisfy your laudable desire. We must accept you, particularly in view of your zeal for
what is good and your assiduous ascetic practice, as our spiritual and most dear child. But over
and above this we fear the judgment with which God terrifyingly threatens all who hide their talent
(Matt 25:25). In addition, we are fulfilling the injunction which our fathers and spiritual teachers
have laid down for us, as they also did for others intimate with God whose teachings we must
believe. May God, then, the Father of love and unstinting Source of universal bounty, give us, slow
and hesitant of speech as we are (Exod 4:10), words apt for our discourse; for He has often inspired
dumb animals with speech for the benefit of those who listen (Num 22:28). And may He give you
and all who happen to read this work, each according to his intelligence, the ability to absorb what
is written wisely and understandingly, and to go forward undeviatingly, in conformity to His will.
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For without Him, as Scripture says, we can do nothing that is useful or that contributes to our
salvation (John 15:5). Moreover, “except the Lord build the house, they that build labor in vain”
(Ps 126:1).

The purpose of this work is to discover the foundation of the spiritual life
3.) Precedent to every undertaking is its purpose. Our purpose is to explain to the best of our
ability all that concerns your spiritual growth, while yours is truly to lead your life according to
what we write. Hence we must, to start with, examine the ground on which the whole building that
we envisage, structured according to Christ’s precepts, is to be built, so that we may first give it a
proper foundation. Then, in due time or, rather, when we have been blessed with abundant help
from above, we will roof the spiritual temple in a way that is fitting. Prerequisite to every
undertaking consonant with God’s will is that we live according to the Savior’s commandments.
Its fulfillment is to recover the perfect grace of the holy and life-initiating Spirit bestowed on us
originally through divine baptism.

4.) To put it concisely, prerequisite to every undertaking consonant with God’s will is that we
try in every way and with all our strength to lead our lives according to the precepts laid down in
all the Savior’s deifying commandments. Its fulfillment is that through keeping these
commandments we recover the dowry bestowed on us originally by God in the sacred font, thus
achieving total spiritual rebirth and renewal. We can put this another way and say that this is
equivalent to discarding the old Adam with his activities and desires and to clothing ourselves with
the new spiritual Adam, Lord Jesus Christ (Col 3:9-10). St. Paul indicates this when he writes,
“My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!” (Gal 4:19),
and, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3:27).

On what grace is and how we can acquire it. And on which things sully it and which things
purify it again
5.) What grace is and how we can acquire it, and what sullies it and what purifies it again, is
something we can learn from St. Chrysostom, he whose soul and tongue are brighter than any gold.
For he writes: “What is the meaning of ‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the
Lord, are being changed into his likeness’ (2 Cor 3:18)? The sense of this was more clearly evident
when miracles were being worked. But even now it is not difficult to see what it means if we look
at it with the eyes of faith. For at the time of our baptism our soul shines more brightly than the
sun because it has been cleansed by the Spirit. And not only do we gaze at the glory of God, but
we also receive from that glory a certain radiance. For when pure silver intercepts a sunbeam it
sends out rays itself, not only from its own nature but also from the brilliant light of the sun.
Similarly, when a soul has been purified and has become brighter than any silver it receives rays

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from the glory of the Spirit which strikes its own innate glory; and these rays are of a quality that
accords with the Lord’s Spirit” (2 Cor 4:18). And a little further on he writes: “Would you like me
to demonstrate this to you more vividly by taking as evidence the Apostles themselves? Consider
Paul, whose clothing worked miracles (Acts 19:12), and Peter, whose shadow had power (Acts
5:15). Their clothing and their shadows would not have had these effects had they themselves not
borne the royal image and had their dazzling splendor not been unapproachable. For royal apparel
inspires fear even in robbers. Would you like an example of how this glory also shines through the
body? When people gazed intently at St. Stephen’s face, they saw it as the face of an angel (Acts
6:15). But this was nothing in comparison with the glory that shone within. For what Moses once
showed on his face (Exod 34:30) such men have borne in their souls, only in a much greater degree.
The glory of Moses, however, was more perceptible; that of the others is incorporeal”1.
Fiery particles flow from bright bodies onto neighboring objects and make them shine with
their own brightness. Something similar also happens to the faithful. Those who experience this
are thereby estranged from earthly concerns and, alas, fantasize about heavenly things. For in this
life it is good to sigh bitterly because whatever the state of spiritual excellence we may have
attained we do not possess true knowledge of what has been communicated to us since we quickly
lose contact with these realities and become distracted by sensible things. “For this awful and
ineffable glory remains in us for one or two days. Then we extinguish it by letting in the storm of
worldly concerns, thereby obscuring its rays with the density of the clouds”. And again elsewhere
he writes: “The bodies of those in concord with God will be clothed with such radiant glory that
the light will be too strong for human eyes. God has granted us certain faint signs and traces of
these things in both the Old and New Testaments. In the former, Moses’ face once shone with such
radiant glory that the Israelites could not look at him (Exod 34:30). In the New Testament Christ’s
face shone much more brightly than that of Moses” (Matt 17:2).
Have you listened to the words of the Spirit? Have you sensed the power of the mystery? Have
you grasped the nature of the birth-pangs through which in the font we experience in ourselves
total spiritual renewal, and learnt how great its fruits are, its fulfillment and rewards? Do you
realize that it depends on us whether this supernatural grace flows strongly or weakly within us —
whether, that is to say, we manifest it or obscure it in our own lives? What obscures grace in us is
the storm of worldly concerns and the murkiness of the passions to which they give birth. They
pour over us like a tempest or raging torrent and overwhelm our soul. They do not allow it to fulfill
the purpose for which it was created, and to breathe or contemplate what is truly good and blessed.
On the contrary, when it has been tossed and tormented in the swell and reeks of sensual pleasure,

1 St. John Chrysostom, Homily on 2 Corinthians

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they drag it under and plunge it into darkness. On the other hand, whatever is engendered by the
deifying commandments in those who live spiritually and not according to their fallen self — as
Scripture says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16)
— is profitable and conductive to salvation: like a ladder it takes them upward, even to the topmost
rung of all, that of love, which is God (1 John 4:8).

In holy baptism we receive the free gift of divine grace through grace itself. When we
shroud this gift in the passions we unshroud it again by keeping the commandments
6.) In the divine womb — in the sacred font — we receive divine grace as a free and utterly
perfect gift. Subsequently, through the misuse of worldly things and anxiety about matters
connected with the present life, we abusively shrouded this supernatural splendor in the murk of
the passions. Yet through repentance and the fulfillment of the deifying commandments we can
unshroud it once more and repossess it, beholding its manifestation with the utmost clarity. The
degree to which this grace is manifest in a particular person depends of course on the fervor of his
faith and above all on the help and favor of the Lord Jesus Christ, as St. Mark says. Since Christ
is perfect God, He bestows the perfect grace of the Holy Spirit on those who are baptized. This
grace does not receive any addition from us. But it is disclosed and manifest in us according to
how we have kept the commandments. And it does increase faith in us to the point at which “we
all come into the unity of the faith and attain the full stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13).
Thus if we contribute anything when we are reborn in Him, this is something which He has already
and which, coming from Him, was hidden in us.

To live according to God we have to obey all the commandments. The greatest part of this
task is to determine which take precedence over the others and are, so to speak, more
comprehensive
7.) The starting point and root of this whole undertaking, we said, is to live according to the
saving commandments; its fulfillment and fruition is the recovery of the perfect grace of the Spirit.
This grace, first given to us in baptism, and in spite of being buried by the passions continuing to
dwell within us — for Scripture says that the gifts of God are irrevocable (Rom 11:29) — is again
uncovered by the observance of the deifying commandments. We should therefore do everything
we can to fulfill these commandments so that the Spirit can manifest Himself in us in all His purity
(1 Cor 12:7) and so that we can perceive Him with the utmost clarity. “Thy law,” the blessed David
says to God, “is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths” (Ps 118:105). He also says, “The
commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes” (Ps 19:8) and “I directed myself
according to all Thy commandments” (Ps 118:128). St. John the Evangelist writes, “All who keep
his commandments abide in him, and he in them” (1 John 3:24), and, “His commandments are not
burdensome” (1 John 5:3). The Savior Himself says, “He who has my commandments and keeps
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them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him
and manifest myself to him…If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love
him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:21, 23)” and “He who does
not love me does not keep my words” (John 14:24). But we must somehow devote the greatest
part of our labor especially to these commandments which are pre-eminent, the most
comprehensive and, as it were, the mothers of the rest. For in this way with the help of God we
may unfalteringly succeed in doing what we have set out to do, namely, to make a good beginning
and to attain the goal of our desire: the manifestation in us of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:7).

The starting-point of every holy work is the invocation with faith of the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, together with the peace and love that issue from it
8.) The starting-point of every holy work is the invocation with faith of the saving name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself made this clear when He said, “Apart from me you can do
nothing” (John 15:5). This invocation is accompanied by peace — for prayer, says Scripture, must
be “without anger or quarreling” (1 Tim 2:8), and it is also accompanied by love, for “God is love,
and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). Peace and love
not only make this prayer acceptable but are born from the prayer itself: they issue from it like
twin divine rays and they grow and are made perfect.

Through each of these and through the three together an abundance of divine bounty is
poured out lavishly upon us
9.) From these, or rather, through each of these and through all three together, divine bounty
is poured out lavishly upon us and overwhelms us. For through the invocation in faith of the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ we assuredly hope to receive mercy and the true life which is hidden in
Him (Col 3:3). These well up as from another eternal and divine spring, when in a state of purity
we call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts. Through peace “which surpasses all
understanding” (Phil 4:7) and has no end (Isa 9:7), we are brought back into harmony with God
and with one another. And through love, the glory of which is incomparable because it is the
fulfillment and consummation of the law and the prophets (Matt 22:40) and because God Himself
is called love (1 John 4:8), we are wholly united with God; for through God’s justice and through
the affiliation of grace wondrously wrought in us by love we are set free from our sinful state.
“Since love”, says Scripture, “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8) and “Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Cor 13:7-8).

Our Lord Jesus Christ at the time of His saving passion and also after His resurrection left
these prescripts to His disciples as final commandments or a divine inheritance
10.) Thus when our bountiful and most dear Lord Jesus Christ willingly embraced His passion

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for our sake, and also when He was seen by the Apostles after the resurrection, and, indeed, when
He was about to return to the Father who is His by nature and ours by grace, He, like a true and
loving father, left these prescripts to all His disciples as final commandments and exhortations;
and these constitute fit, gentle and unimpeachable pledges or, rather, an irrevocable inheritance
given by God. When He embraced His saving passion, He said to His disciples: “Whatever you
ask in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13) and “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly,
I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you
have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:23-
24) and “In that day you will ask in My name” (John 16:26). Immediately after the resurrection
He said, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out
demons; they will speak in new tongues” (Mark 16:17), and so on. The beloved disciple adds the
following: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written
in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31). The divine Paul says, “At the
name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Phil 2:10), and so on. And in the Acts of the Apostles the
following is recorded: “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people
and elders, be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing
before you well’ ” (Acts 4:8-10). And just after that it is said: “And there is salvation in no one
else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts
4:12). Again the Savior says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt
28:18). In addition, prior to His crucifixion the Theandric Lord said to His apostles, “Peace I leave
with you, my peace I give you” (John 14:27); “I have said this to you, that in me you may have
peace” (John 16:33); “This is my commandment, that you love one another” (John 15:12); “By
this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35);
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and
abide in his love” (John 15:9-10). Moreover, it appears that after the resurrection Jesus at various
times revealed Himself to His disciples and often bestowed peace on them, saying, “Peace be with
you” (John 20:19). And to Peter, to whom the Lord entrusted the leadership of the disciples,
showing that the care of His flock was a kind of reward for Peter’s burning love for Him, He said,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Feed my lambs” (John 21:15-18). It could
pertinently be said that through the above three remarkable prescripts are generated three other
exceptional qualities, namely: the purification, illumination and perfection of the soul.

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All the virtues are interwoven with these three prescripts
11.) Should you examine things carefully and with perspicacity, you will find that the whole
incorruptible and divinely wrought purple robe of the virtues hangs from and is interwoven with
this threefold and, as it were, unbreakable cord (Eccl 4:12). For a life lived according to God is
like a precious chain, a necklace of variegated gold, since each virtue fittingly depends on the next
and all are joined together in a unity. Thus they all contribute to the single task of deifying whoever
cultivates them sincerely throughout his life. In this way, like bonds and links, they strengthen the
faith and, if you like, the hope and humility with which he repeats the saving invocation of the
beloved name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and enrich him with peace and love. These form a thrice-
perfect life-giving tree truly planted by God; and he who plucks its fruit at the right time and eats
it in a suitable way will reap not death, like the first man, but indestructible and eternal life. The
gift of the Holy Spirit and His coming to the faithful through God the Father is bestowed in Christ
Jesus and in His Holy name.

12.) The gift of the Holy Spirit and His coming to the faithful through God the Father is
certainly bestowed in Christ Jesus and in His Holy name. As the divine Lord Jesus Christ, the lover
of souls, Himself said to the Apostles, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go
away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7) and “But
when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who
proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me” (John 15:26) and again, “But the Counselor,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name” (John 14:26).

Our holy fathers, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit who dwells within them, rightly
declare that we should pray to our Lord Jesus Christ and seek mercy from Him
13.) With great wisdom, then, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit who dwells within
them, our illustrious guides and teachers teach us to pray in the Lord and unwaveringly seek mercy
from Him, putting this above every other good work and pursuit. This they teach all of us, but
especially those who have chosen to enter into the struggle for deifying stillness, who devote
themselves to God, separate themselves from worldly preoccupations, and live reflectively in
stillness. Moreover, they teach us to make His most holy and dear name our constant study and
meditation, to keep Him unceasingly in our heart and intellect and on our lips, to breathe and live
and sleep and be awake and move and eat and drink in Him and with Him, and, in a word, to try
to do everything in a like manner. For just as without Him everything awful converges on us or,
rather, nothing benefits us, so when He is present in us everything opposed to Him is expelled, we
lack nothing that is good and there is nothing that we cannot achieve. As our Lord Himself says,
“He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do
nothing” (John 15:5). Now that we, unworthy as we are, have called in faith on this reality and
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name which, being above every reality and name (Phil 2:9), are to be feared and venerated by
every creature, and now that we have fully spread the sails of our discourse on this theme, we can
proceed in the manner stated below.

If you wish to follow the holy path of stillness without going astray you must first of all
decide to live in total obedience combined with total renunciation
14.) In the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6) and “I am the door; if any
one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9), that is,
salvation. Listen attentively to what we say and we will give you true counsel. First of all, together
with the total renunciation enjoined by sacred Scripture, you must embrace in all sincerity a life of
total obedience. Do your utmost, that is to say, to find a reliable guide and teacher. Such he will
be if what he says accords with the testimony of sacred Scripture, if he is imbued with the Spirit
in the sense that his life is consistent with his words, if his mind is lofty but he is humble in
disposition and virtuous in the other ways, and if like a Christian teacher he repeats the counsel
given by God. When you have found him and have attached yourself to him in body and spirit like
a living son to his true father, follow with complete fidelity what he tells you to do, and cleave to
him as if he were Christ Himself rather than an ordinary man. Expel every disbelief and doubt,
yes, even your own preoccupations and plans, and in this way follow in the footsteps of your
teacher simply and uncritically, as if your own conscience were a mirror reflecting your manifest
trust in your unwavering and perfect obedience to your initiator. And if the devil, hostile to all
goodness, should ever sow any rebellious thoughts in your mind, shun them as you would
fornication or fire and counter his ploys shrewdly. Say to him, “It is not the disciple who guides
his master, but the master who guides his disciple” and “I have not accepted responsibility for my
elder, but he has for me” and “I am not his judge, but he is my judge”. These, and other similar
phrases, accord with what St. John Climacus writes.
If you have made an irreversible decision to erase the catalogue of your sins and to enroll
yourself among the elect, there is no sounder way of life than that of obedience. According to St.
Paul, when on our account the Lord Jesus, the Son of God and our God, dwelt as man among us
and fulfilled the Father’s purpose with such wisdom, it was this way that He followed; and through
it He both offered propitiation on behalf of man and was granted the Father’s crown of victory.
For “He humbled Himself”, writes St. Paul, “and became obedient unto death, even death on a
cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every
name” (Phil 2:8-9), and so on. Who, then, if he aspires to attain the glory of our Lord and God and
Savior Jesus Christ and to receive the Father’s bounty, would arrogantly, not to say ignorantly,
refuse to follow along the same path as our guide and teacher, Jesus Christ? For the disciple who
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intends to be like his teacher, the image of the most perfect archetype, must with all the strength
of his soul model himself on the life and acts of his mentor and must make every effort to imitate
him. Moreover, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ Scripture says that He was obedient to His father
and mother (Luke 2:51). The Savior Himself said, “Even as the Son of man came not to be served
but to serve” (Matt 20:28).
Another kind of person prefers to live in a different way, gratifying his ego and his own will,
and not having a guide. Does such a person suppose that he is living a divine life in the correct
manner? Surely not. For he does nothing of the kind, being far wide of the mark. St. John Climacus
says, “Just as a man who lacks a guide easily loses his way, so he who follows the spiritual path
while relying on his own judgment easily perishes, even if he possesses all the wisdom in the
world”. That is why most, if not all, of those who are not under obedience, and do not proceed as
they are counseled to, sow with labor and sweat, dreaming of a rich harvest, but in the event reap
very little. Some, alas, gather tares instead of wheat, because they act, as it is said, according to
their own inclination and propensity for self-indulgence. Nothing is worse than this, as St. John
Climacus testifies when he writes, “If you have tried to enter the arena of spiritual struggle, to
shoulder Christ’s yoke, to place your burden on the back of your elder, to sell as quickly as possible
the bonds of self-love and to purchase in exchange the charter of freedom, to swim across this
great sea borne up on the arms of others — if you have done this you should be aware that you
have tried to tread a short, rough path wherein there lies but a single wrong turning, that of
following one’s own inclinations. If you once and for all spurn that devious route with respect to
everything that you regard as good, spiritual and in accordance with God’s will, you will have
reached your journey’s end before you have started. For to be under obedience is to distrust
yourself in all things spiritual throughout your whole life”.
If, then, you have grasped all this and want to live a life of divine stillness — that blessed
reward which cannot be taken away — follow in the manner you have been shown by the
guidelines so excellently laid down for you. First of all, gladly embrace obedience and then
stillness in the same way. For just as the practice of the virtues is the gateway to contemplation, so
obedience is the gateway to stillness. Do not try to shift the landmarks which the fathers, as
Scripture says, have established (Prov 22:28) and “Woe to him that is alone” (Eccl 4:10). If you
start with good foundations you will with time, and through the master-artistry of the Spirit, erect
a splendid roof. For, as they say, when the beginning is slipshod the whole thing will be a failure,
and, conversely, when the beginning is sound the whole structure will be comely and well wrought,
even though sometimes the opposite is the case. Which way things go depends, of course, upon
our own free will and probity.

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Signs betokening perfect obedience
15.) Since this whole question of the life of obedience is many-sided and complex, and since
consequently those who engage in such a life do so in different ways, we ought to provide you
with some easy guidelines, as it were, which you can keep by you as a rule and authoritative
standard and so conduct your life in a holy way. This is what we advise.

It seems to us that to be truly obedient you must unquestionably possess the following five
virtues. The first is trustfulness. That is to say, you must have a pure and sincere faith in your
spiritual father, to such a degree that you think that in him you see Christ and are under obedience
to Christ. As the Lord Jesus Himself says, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you
rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). As St. Paul writes, “For
whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23). The second virtue which you have to
possess is truth. That is to say, you must be truthful in what you do and in what you say, and must
scrupulously confess your evil thoughts. For “The beginning of Thy words”, says the Psalmist, “is
truth” (Ps 118:160), and, “The Lord seeks for truth” (Ps 30:23). Christ Himself says, “I am the
truth” (John 14:6), and He is indeed called truth absolute. The third virtue is not to act in
accordance with your own will. It is accordance with his own will. He should always cut it off
voluntarily, that is, before he is forced to do so by his spiritual father. The fourth virtue is never to
be contentious or quarrelsome, since contention and quarreling have no place among the devout.
St. Paul writes, “If any one is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no other practice, nor do
the churches of God” (1 Cor 11:16). If such things are simply forbidden to all Christians in general,
how much more so they are to monks, who, as the Lord desires, have promised scrupulous
obedience, contention, and quarreling, we are told, spring from a mistrustful and arrogant state of
mind. An arrogant monk is aggressively contentious. The contrary is also true, namely, that not to
be contentious and quarrelsome denotes a trustfulness and a humble disposition. The fifth virtue
which you have to possess is that of making a scrupulous and sincere confession to your spiritual
father; for when we were tonsured we made a promise, as if standing at the dread tribune of Christ
in the presence of God and the holy angels, that to confess the secrets of our heart would be the
ground and context for our other promises and vows to the Lord. The holy David writes, “I
acknowledged my sin, and hid not mine iniquity: I said, I will confess mine iniquity to the Lord
against myself; and thou forgavest the ungodliness of my heart.” (Ps 31:5), and so on. St. John
Climacus says, “Wounds shown to the doctor do not get worse but are healed”.
A person who wisely and consciously practices these five virtues we have described should be
assured that he will experience a foretaste, as it were, of the blessed life of the just. These virtues
constitute the properties of holy obedience; they are, so to speak, its root or foundation. Now listen
to what may be described as its branches and fruit, or its roof.
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 As again St. John Climacus states, from obedience comes humility; from humility,
discrimination; from discrimination, spiritual insight; and from insight, foreknowledge. The last is
wrought by God alone and is given by Him as an exceptional, supernatural gift to those who attain
a state of blessedness and are deified. In addition to this you should also be aware that the growth
of humility in you depends on the degree of obedience which you have attained; the growth of
discrimination depends on your humility; and so it is successively with the other qualities. You
should do your utmost to advance steadily along the path of obedience. For in this way you will
assuredly attain the qualities to which it gives access. And you should know that if you stumble
before completing the lap of obedience, you will not worthily finish the rest of the course you have
set out on, namely, a life lived in a Christ-like manner, nor will you be given the victor’s crown.
Therefore let obedience, together with the properties which we have said belong to it, be your
guide, like the mark on which sailors keep their eye in order to steer a steady course; by keeping
it constantly in view you will be able to cross the great sea of the virtues and thus find anchorage
in the heaven of dispassion. If some storm or tempest should come upon you, this will be caused
by your disobedience. Even the devil himself, as the fathers say, cannot harm a person who is truly
obedient. And so that we may show you in brief how noble the wonderful virtue of obedience is,
we shall cite one further passage from a patristic text.
The brilliant luminary of the Christian life, that new Bezaleel (Exod 31:2) of the heavenly
ladder, St. John Climacus, says, “The fathers state that psalmody is a weapon, prayer a wall, and
the tears of the innocent a cleansing bath. They call blessed obedience a confession of sins without
which no man who suffers from the passions will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). That, it seems to us,
constitutes vivid testimony and praise of the inimitable excellence of blessed obedience. In
addition, if we were to raise our mind to supernal realities and meditate on them, we would learn
and recognize from experience what was the cause of our fragmentation and mortality, for these
things did not pertain to us when we were originally created. Moreover, we would be able to know
the cause of our renewal and immortality. We would thus see that the agent of our corruption is
the self-reliance, self-will and disobedience of the first Adam, which made him reject and
transgress the divine commandment (Gen 3:6); the agent of the second, that is, the bestower of
incorruption, is the obedience to the Father and unity with His will of the second Adam, our God
and Savior Jesus Christ, which brought about the keeping of His commandment. The Savior says,
“For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has himself given me
commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me” (John 12:49-50).
In our first ancestor, and then, in those like him, the root and mother of all grievous things is
presumption, while in the new Godman, Jesus Christ, and in those who desire to live like Him, the
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principle, source, and foundation of all blessings is humility. We can observe that this same mode
and order of things is also effective for the sacred hierarchy of the godlike angels, which is superior
to us, as it is indeed for the earthly Church which is on our own level. As for those who defect
from such an ordinance and wish to lead their lives in an unrighteous, not to say self-willed manner,
we are taught and believe that they are cut off and banished from God, from the glorious
inheritance of heaven, and from the catholic Church, and are cast out into the darkness and fire of
Gehenna. That is what happened to those evil collaborators of Lucifer and to those orators who
appear from time to time declaiming heretical doctrines, as we know from sacred texts. These
latter, it is said, because of their self-indulgence and pride were pitifully excluded from divine
glory and delight, and from the Church.
However, it is said by some sage that things are cured by their opposites. Thus since the cause
of every murksome thing is disobedience and arrogance, while that of every joyous thing is
obedience and contrition, a person aspiring to live blamelessly must put himself under obedience
to a reliable and tested father, one who possesses authority because of his long experience and his
knowledge of divine things and whose life is adorned with the garland of the virtues; and he must
consider his instructions and advice as the voice and will of God. “For they that have no guidance
fall like leaves” (Prov 11:14) and “A person without counsel is an enemy to himself”. If
nonetheless some celebrated fathers have attained deifying stillness and divine perfection without
practicing such obedience, this was according to divine revelation and occurred rarely. But the
exception does not constitute the rule of the Church, just as one swallow does not make a spring.
For your part, then, have faith in true obedience as if it were the introductory knowledge to blessed
stillness; disregard what has happened providentially in isolated instances and give your assent to
what is commonly agreed by the venerable fathers. For in this way you will by grace attain the
rewards bestowed on those who live according to the law.
What, then, is the conclusion? If a person does not yet have any experience of the unknown
road he will not set out upon it without a reliable guide, nor will he attempt to cross the ocean
without a competent pilot. Similarly, he cannot learn any art or master any science without a
reliable teacher. How, then, will he dare to embark on the practice of the art of arts and the science
of sciences, or to take the path that leads to God, or to cross the infinite ocean of the intellect — in
short, to embark on the monastic life, which may be compared with the life of the angels —
believing that he will attain his goal without an experienced and authentic guide, or pilot, or
teacher? Truly such a person, whoever he may be, deceives himself, and is misled before even
setting out, because he does not practice the ascetic life according to the law.
Conversely, a person who follows the directions laid down by the fathers attains his end even
before he sets out. How else can we learn either to fight properly against our unregenerate self, or
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to take up arms against passions and demons? For it is written that the vices are annexed to the
virtues and as it were lean on them. How, then, shall we discipline the body’s senses and bring the
powers of the soul into harmony like the strings of a lyre? Or, rather, how shall we learn to assess
the significance of prophetic utterances and revelations and consolations and divine
contemplations, not to mention frauds and delusions and demonic apparitions? To put it briefly,
how shall we be privileged to attain union with God, to celebrate sanctifying rites and mysteries,
unless we have been initiated by an authentic and enlightened teacher? It is impossible, truly
impossible. Take, for instance, St. Paul, that vessel of election; that initiate into ineffable mysteries;
that mouth of Christ; that light of the world; that universal sun and teacher; whenever we see him
discussing and interrogating the Gospel with his fellow apostles, it is, as he himself says, “the
gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain”
(Gal 2:2). Moreover, wisdom absolute, our Lord Jesus Christ, states concerning Himself, “For I
have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (John
6:38); and He also states that what the holy and life-generating Spirit says will come not from
Himself, but from what He will hear spoken to Him (John 16:13). It is the pertinence of this
principle, which integrates things heavenly and earthly, that fills us with awe, amazement and
anguish both with respect to our own worthlessness and sloth and with respect to those who out of
folly and presumption choose to live perversely and rashly in accordance with their own devises
and without being under obedience. Truly such a life is terrible; predators and their ambushes are
legion, and the casualty rate is immeasurable.
For this reason, very few attain salvation. But let such people live as they wish, since, as
Scripture says, “The fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (1 Cor 3:13) and “If the
work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward” (1 Cor 3:14).
Above all, may the Lord give understanding to people not superficially, as they would wish, but
as they ought to wish and to live. You for your part, and everyone who wishes to live according to
God, discovering as it were from the hem of such phrases the nature of the gold and spiritual
garment of blessed obedience, should do all you can, as we have already explained, to find a
reliable and fully qualified teacher — “Solid food” says St. Paul, “is for the mature, for those who
have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:14). By this means
— seeking, that is to say, with diligence and faith — you will achieve your purpose. “Everyone
who asks”, says Scripture, “and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened”
(Matt 7:8). And your teacher, in proper sequence and order, will initiate you into all that is
necessary and that accords with God, and will guide you towards those spiritual and divine realities
which should not be disclosed to everyone. But this he will do only when he sees that you rejoice
with all your heart in moderation, frugality and simplicity in food, drink, shelter and clothing, and
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are satisfied with the things that are immediately useful, serviceable and necessary, and do not
desire what is superfluous and luxurious, the delight of those who thoughtlessly live a life of vanity
and showy self-display, wielding a sword against themselves and their own salvation. As St. Paul
says, “But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Tim 6:8).
Do you ask for instruction, and to receive from us a written account as to what is appropriate
for the beginning, middle, and fulfillment of the life according to Christ? The request is
praiseworthy, but a ready reply is difficult. Nevertheless, with Christ’s help we will try to respond
to your request. On the firm unshakable basis of illustrious and consummate obedience we will
build up the whole noble structure of the spiritual life, the life of deifying stillness; and what we
say in this respect will be supported, as though by resolute pillars, by the inspired testimony of the
fathers.
First: If you genuinely desire to pursue the path of stillness in a manner that accords with God’s
will you must not only avow the true faith but must also strive to fill your life with actions that
correspond to it. Second: faith is twofold. Further a hesychast must be peaceful, undistracted, free
from care or anxiety, silent, still, and thankful in everything. He must acknowledge his own
weakness, bear trials bravely, hope in God, and receive from Him whatever is profitable.
16.)-i. The Savior says, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21). Thus, my son, to
apply this to deifying stillness — which in this present life is capable of inducing in those who
pursue it genuinely lucent visions of the Kingdom of heaven and of God, and which hereafter will
do so more fully and perfectly; if you are devoted to this stillness not merely in words but in truth
and reality, strive not only to avow the true faith but also to fill your life with actions that
correspond to it. Be at peace with all men; be undistracted, utterly detached and free from anxiety,
silent and still; be thankful in everything, and acknowledge your own weakness. In short, be
vigilant and alert against the various temptations that you encounter in so many different guises,
and struggle with patience and endurance against every storm and affliction which will inevitably
break upon you. As regards the first and second items — that is, that you should not only avow
the true faith but should also embellish your life with holy actions — St. James, the renowned
brother of the Lord, teaches you this clearly when he says, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is
dead” (Jam 2:17) — and the reverse is true as well — and, “I by my works will show you my
faith” (Jam 2:18). And before him our Lord Jesus Christ, universal teacher and mentor, said to His
disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”
(Matt 28:19-20). St. John the Theologian says that God seeks the following three things from every
man who has been baptized; genuine faith from the soul, self-restraint from the body, and truth
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from the tongue.

Faith is twofold
ii. According to holy tradition faith is twofold. One kind is common to all Orthodox Christians
and is that into which we were baptized at the beginning of our lives and which we follow until
we die. The other pertains only to a few, to those who through the fulfillment of the deifying
commandments have been restored to the image and likeness of God and hence have been enriched
by the divine light of grace, and who now place all their hope in the Lord (Ps 72:28). So admirable
indeed are such people that in accordance with the Lord’s teaching (Matt 21:21) they do not doubt
at all when they put their requests to God in time of prayer, but ask with faith and thus immediately
receive what is profitable to them. These saints have acquired such surety of faith through their
holy actions that they have shed all purely individual perceptions of things, all doubts, hesitations
and anxieties, and have plunged themselves wholly into the divine intoxication of faith and hope
in God and love for Him, and have been changed, as the Psalmist says, by the excellent and blessed
change wrought by the right hand of the Most High (Ps 77:10).
This is not the place for a full exposition of the first kind of faith. However, it is the right place
for a discussion of the second kind, which may be said to be the root and principal of what we call
deifying stillness. “For if you do not have faith”, says St. John Climacus, “how will you practice
stillness?” The Psalmist says, “I believed, wherefore I have spoken” (Ps 115:1). The great apostle
Paul says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb
11:1), and “He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Rom 1:17), and so on. And when the
Savior, replaying to His disciples, told them to increase their faith, He said, “If you have faith as a
grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move”
(Matt 17:20), and “If you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to
the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will be
done. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Matt 21:21-22), and,
“Your faith has made you well” (Matt 9:22). St. Isaac writes, “faith is more subtle than knowledge,
just as knowledge is more subtle than sensible things”. All the saints have been given the grace to
attain this mode of life, which is an intense longing for God, and they abide in the power of faith,
in the joy of that supernatural state.
By faith we do not mean simply belief in certain articles of faith, such as the distinction
between the venerated divine hypostases, or the special and specific nature of the Divinity itself,
or the wonderful and providential operation performed for mankind through the assumption of our
nature, sublime as these things are. On the contrary, we mean the faith that arises in the soul from
the light of grace and is confirmed in the mind, and that makes the heart unwavering and at the

15
same time unpresumptuous in the surety of its hope. This faith is not made known through aural
exposition. Instead, it reveals to our spiritual eyes the mysteries buried in the soul, and the hidden
divine riches concealed to fleshly eyes but disclosed in spirit to those who have a place at the table
of Christ through meditation on His laws. For He said, “If you love me, you will keep my
commandments. And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with
you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive” (John 14:6-17) and “He will
declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13), and so on. Until He comes, who is the
fulfillment of the mysteries, and we are granted a clear vision of them, faith works ineffable
mysteries between God and the saints. Through the grace of Christ Himself we are privileged to
experience such mysteries in this life as a foretaste of what is to come, while hereafter, along with
those who love Him, we experience the being and reality of their truth in the kingdom of heaven.

You must be in a peaceful state

iii. As for the third item, namely, that you must be peacefully disposed to everyone, the
Psalmist, David, gives you vivid counsel with regard to this, and so does St. Paul, whose voice
sounds more clearly than a trumpet. The Psalmist says, “great peace have they that love Thy law,
and there is no stumbling-block to them” (Ps 118:165); and “I was peaceable among them that
hated peace” (Ps 119:7); and “seek peace and pursue it” (Ps 34:14). St. Paul says, “Strive for peace
with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14) and “If
possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all” (Rom 12:18).

You must be undistracted

iv. With regard to the fourth item, namely, that you must be undistracted, let St. Isaac be your
teacher. “If desire”, he says, “is the offspring of the senses, let those who claim that though they
are victims of distraction they possess peace of mind hold their tongue”. And do not keep company
with those whose lives are full of distractions.

You must be detached and free from anxiety

v. Where the fifth item is concerned, namely, that you must be detached and free from anxiety
with regard both to what is reasonable and to what is unreasonable, you should take your cue from
what the Lord says in the Gospels: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what
you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more
than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap
nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than
they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you
anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin”

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(Matt 6:25-28). And a little further on He says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall
we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things;
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the
day” (Matt 6:31-34). St. Isaac says, “without being detached do not try to obtain enlightenment of
soul, nor serenity and stillness while your senses are untempered”. St. John Climacus says, “A
single hair upsets the eye and a small anxiety destroys stillness. For stillness means to be free from
conceptual images and from anxiety even with regard to what is reasonable. A person who has
truly attained stillness will not even be anxious about his own physical existence, knowing that He
who promised that this would be taken care of does not lie”.

You must be silent

vi. The sequence of our discourse now impels us to speak about the sixth item, namely, the
keeping of silence. About this, too, St. Isaac has commented, saying, “The person, who prevents
his mouth from uttering words of slander guards his heart from the passions; and he who cleanses
his heart from the passions contemplates the Lord unceasingly; and when you set all ascetic
practices on one side of the scales and silence on the other, you will find that the latter outweighs
the former”. He also says, “Cleave to silence more than anything else, for it nurtures the bearing
of fruit while talk impedes its maturation. First let us force ourselves to keep silence, and then from
such keeping of silence something is born which guides us towards silence itself. May God grant
that you experience what is born from the keeping of silence. If you begin by adopting this regime,
I cannot describe the light with which you may be filled as a result”; and again, “Silence is a
foreshadowing of eternal life; words are an instrument of this present world”. And the voice of
God spoke to St. Arsenios a second time, saying, “Arsenios, flee, be silent, be still, and you will
be saved”.

You must be still

vii. As for the seventh item, namely, that you must live in stillness, St. Basil the Great and
again St. Isaac are trustworthy authorities. St. Basil says, “Stillness is the beginning of the soul’s
purification”, while St. Isaac says, “The consummation of stillness is silence with respect to all
things”. With these phrases they have succinctly indicated the beginning and end of stillness. The
Old Testament puts it thus: “Hast thou not sinned?”, “Be still” (Gen 4:7); and, “Be still, and know
that I am God” (Ps 45:10); and St. John Climacus says, “To achieve stillness, you must first detach
yourself from everything, whether reasonable or unreasonable. If you involve yourself in what is
reasonable you will inevitably become entangled in absurdities. Second, you must pray diligently,
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and thirdly you must labor uninterruptedly in the heart. An illiterate person naturally cannot learn
from books. It is even more impossible for those who have not acquired detachment to engage
themselves in the other two activities”. Again St. Isaac says, “to desire stillness is to wait constantly
upon death. If you attempt to enter the sphere of stillness without having acquired this state of
anticipation you will not be able to endure what inevitably we have to suffer and endure”.

You must give thanks in everything

viii. With regard to the eighth item, namely, that you must give thanks in everything, you
should take your cue from St. Paul, for it is he who exhorts us to “give thanks in all circumstances”
(1 Thess 5:18). In addition, St. Isaac says, “the gratitude of the recipient spurs the giver to give
better gifts next time. If you do not give thanks in little things you will be fraudulent and unjust in
greater things. It is a heart disposed to give thanks unceasingly that draws down God’s graces,
while a heart continually disposed to grumble and complain entices the soul to sin. If you always
give thanks you will receive God’s blessing, and grace fills the heart unfaltering in its gratitude”.

You must know your own weakness

ix. How rich the reward bestowed on the person who has come to know his own weakness —
and this is the ninth item — is something you can learn from the sixth psalm, in which the Psalmist
says, “Pity me, O Lord, for I am weak” (Ps 6:2). In another psalm he says, “But I am a worm, and
not a man, a reproach of men, and scorn of the people” (Ps 21:6). St. Isaac says, “Blessed is he
who knows his own weakness, because such knowledge constitutes the base, root and source of
all generosity in him. When you truly recognize and perceive your own weakness, you can then
throttle the soul’s sluggish, spiritually deadening disposition and make it alert and watchful”. He
also says that the person who can plumb the depths of his own weakness has attained the heights
of humility.

You must bear trials bravely

x. The final section of this discourse — the tenth — is about bearing bravely and withstanding
with patience and long-suffering the various trials which will befall you. Listen then to how the
relevant texts of sacred Scripture deal with this theme. Thus St. Paul writes, “For we are not
contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the
world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places” (Eph 6:12). Again he writes, “If you are left without discipline, in which all have
participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Heb 12:8) and “For the Lord
disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb 12:6). St. James
says, “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the

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crown of life which God has promised to those who love him” (Jam 1:12). St. Elias the Just says,
“Every Christian who truly believes in God may be detached, but he must always be ready for
tribulation, so that when it comes he is not dismayed or shaken, but gratefully endures what afflicts
him and understands what he says when he sings with the Psalmist, ‘Prove me, O Lord, and try
me; purify as with fire my reins and my heart’ (Ps 25:2), and does not say ‘Thy discipline has
destroyed me’, but that it ‘upheld me to the end’ (Ps 18:35)”.
Do not try to discover the causes of these trials or where they come from, but only pray to God
that you may bear them gratefully. As St. Mark says, “When tested by some trial you should try to
find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress
or rancor”. Again he says, “If it is not easy to find anyone conforming to God’s will who has not
been put to the test, we ought to thank God for everything that happens to us”; and, “every affliction
tests our will, showing whether it is inclined to good or evil. This is why an unforeseen affliction
is called a test, because it enables a man to test his hidden desires”. St. Isaac among many other
things gives the same advice: “To be put to the test profits everyone. Since it profits St. Paul (2
Cor 12:9) and ‘every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to
God’ (Rom 3:19). Those engaged in spiritual warfare are tested so that they may add to their
wealth. The sluggish are tested so that they may guard themselves from what inflicts injury on
them. Those sunk in sleep are tested so that they may become vigilant, those far from God so that
they may come close to Him, and those close to Him so that they may enter into intimate
communion with Him. Any son not tested does not receive the wealth of his Father’s house and
thus receive assistance from Him. It is for this reason that God first tests and afflicts us, and then
bestows His gifts. Glory to the Lord whose harsh remedies initiate us into the delights of health”.
No one at the time of being disciplined can escape distress, and there is no one to whom the time
in which he is given the bane of tribulation to drink does not appear bitter. Yet without trials and
temptations it is impossible to acquire a strong constitution. Moreover, we ourselves do not possess
the power to endure. For how can a clay pot withstand the flow of water unless it has been hardened
by divine fire? If we make our submission and with unceasing ardor humbly supplicate, we too
through our endurance will receive everything in Christ Jesus our Lord. For it is said in the wisdom
of Sirach, “My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation” (Sir 2:1); and
“Set thy heart aright, and constantly endure, and make not haste in time of trouble” (Sir 2:2).

You must hope in God and wait upon Him for what is expedient
Anchor your hope in the God of salvation and He will release you from trials and temptations
in the way that is most expedient. St Paul writes, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not
common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with

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the temptation will also provide the way of escape” (1 Cor 10:13), and again he writes, “Suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope
does not disappoint us” (Rom 5:3-5). Elsewhere Scripture says, “He who endures to the end will
be saved” (Matt 10:22) and “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:19). The
brother of the Lord writes as follows: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its
full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jam 1:2-4) and “Blessed is
the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which
God has promised to those who love him” (Jam 1:12). St. Paul also writes, “I consider that the
sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”
(Rom 8:18), and the Psalmist said, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he attended to me, and
hearkened to my supplication. And he brought me up out of a pit of misery, and from miry clay:
and he set my feet on a rock, and ordered my goings aright. And he put a new song into my mouth,
even a hymn to our God” (Ps 39:1-3). And the blessed Symeon Metraphrastes writes, “A soul
bound with bonds of love for God counts suffering as nothing but flourishes on painful experiences
and rejoices in adversity. In fact it suffers more when it fails to suffer for the sake of the beloved;
and it shuns comfort and self-contentment like the plague”.

On the twofold fear of God; the fear of spiritual novices and the fear of the spiritually
mature
17.) Here we should say something about the two forms of fear of God, even though because
of our decision to speak of the perfect kind of fear immediately after the ten sub-sections we have
just completed we have not spoken of the first kind of fear in the proper place; for according to the
holy fathers this place is after the section of faith.

On the first kind of fear, that which pertains to spiritual novices

You should know then, my sons, that there are two forms of fear of God, the first pertaining to
spiritual novices and the second to the spiritually mature. About the first kind of fear the following
has been written: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 1:7) and “Come, ye
children, hear me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps 33:11) and “By fear of the Lord
everyone departs from evil” (Prov 15:27) and “Fear God, and keep his commandments” (Eccl
12:13). St. Isaac says, “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of virtue; it is said to be engendered by
faith” and “It is sown in the heart when the mind cuts itself off from worldly distractions, and when
by meditating on the coming restitution of things to their original state it draws its thoughts,
dispersed through day-dreaming, back into itself” and “The beginning of our true life is fear of
God; but such fear cannot be persuaded to dwell in a soul distracted by day-dreams” and “Teach

20
yourself how to base your journey on fear of God, and in a few days you will arrive at the gates of
the kingdom without straying from the road”.

On the second and perfect fear of God

About the second, the perfect fear of God Scripture has the following passages: “Blessed is the
man who fears the Lord; he will delight greatly in His commandments” (Ps 111:1) and “Blessed
are all they that fear the Lord; who walk in His ways” (Ps 127:1) and “Fear the Lord, all ye his
saints: for there is no want to them that fear him” (Ps 33:9) and “Behold, thus shall the man be
blessed that fears the Lord” (Ps 127:4) and “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for ever and
ever” (Ps 18:9). St. Peter of Damascus writes, “The sign of the first kind of fear is hatred of sin
and anger towards it, like someone wounded by a wild beast. The sign of perfect fear is the love
of virtue and the fear of relapsing, since no one is unalterable. Thus in every situation throughout
this present life we ought always to be afraid of falling”. So absorb all this with understanding and,
along with everything else we have spoken about, do what you can to keep the first kind of fear
always alive within you; for it is like a treasure-house safeguarding every kind of good action. In
this way you will be directed towards fulfilling all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and thus through desire for the virtues and through the mercy of our bountiful God you will attain
the fear that is perfect and pure.

For the sake of the commandments and of the accompanying faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
we should set aside even our own life if the occasion calls for it
18.) In addition to those things about which we have already spoken you should also recognize
that for the sake of the life-giving commandments and the accompanying faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ we should gladly give up our lives if the occasion calls for it; we should pay no attention to
our mundane existence, since the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has said that “whoever loses his life
for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35), provided he believes without doubt or
hesitation that the Godman Jesus the Savior is Himself resurrection and life and everything that is
conducive to salvation. For He Himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes
in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John
11:25-26) and “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) and “I came that they may have life, and
have it abundantly” (John 10:10). So “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what
lies ahead” (Phil 3:13) as Scripture says, pursue your path unswervingly with the help of Jesus
Christ our Lord. To this end it seems to us desirable and fitting to explain first the natural method,
expounded by the most blessed Nikiphoros, by means of which one enters into the heart through
breathing in words, since this method is to some extent linked with the concentrating of the mind.

21
In this way with the help of God our treatise may proceed in a logical sequence. Among many
other things whose authority derives from the written testimonies of the saints, this holy man says
what we repeat below.
A simple method of entering and leaving the heart by inhalations through the nose, and of the
prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” which accompanies this. Such a
method also somehow contributes to the concentration of the mind.
19.) “You know, brother, that what we breathe is air. When we exhale it, it is for the heart’s
sake, for the heart is the source of life and warmth for the body. The heart draws towards itself the
air inhaled when breathing, so that by discharging some of its heat when the air is exhaled it may
maintain an even temperature. The cause of this process or, rather, its agent, are the lungs. The
Creator has made these capable of expanding and contracting like bellows, so that they can easily
draw in and expel their contents. Thus by taking in coolness and expelling heat through breathing,
the heart performs unobstructed the function of sustaining life for which it was created.

“Sit down, then concentrate your intellect and lead it into the respiratory passage through which
your breath passes into your heart. Put pressure on it and compel it to descend with your inhaled
breath into your heart. Once it has entered there, what follows will be neither dismal nor glum.
Just as a man, after being away from home, on his return is overjoyed at being with his wife and
children again, so the intellect, once it is united with the soul, it is filled with indescribable delight.
“Therefore, brother, train your intellect not to leave your heart quickly, for at first it is strongly
disinclined to remain constrained and circumscribed this way. But once it becomes accustomed to
remaining there, it can no longer bear to remain outside the heart. For ‘The kingdom of heaven is
in the midst of you’ (Luke 17:21); and when the intellect concentrates its attention in the heart and
through pure prayer searches there for the kingdom of heaven, all external things become
abominable and hateful to it. If, then, after your first attempts you enter through your intellect into
the abode of the heart in the way that I have explained, give thanks and glory to God and exult in
Him. Continually persevere in this practice and it will teach you what you do not know.
“Moreover, when your intellect is firmly established in your heart, it must not remain there
silent and idle; it should continually repeat and meditate on the prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
God, have mercy on me’, and should never stop doing this. For this prayer protects the intellect
from distraction, renders it impregnable to diabolic attacks, and every day increases its love and
desire for God”.
That is what the most blessed Nikiphoros has to say. His chief aim is to show how, once this
simple method has been put into operation, the intellect reverts from its usual state of distraction,
captivity and restlessness to a state of attentiveness; how through attentiveness it returns to itself
and is thus united with prayer; and how it then, together with the prayer, descends into the heart,
22
and remains there permanently.
Similarly, another divinely inspired father, experienced in sacred work of this kind, writes as
follows, as though offering further explanation of the passage we have set out above.

On the simple method of inhalation through the nose accompanied by the invocation of the
Lord Jesus Christ
20.) “We should also explain the following to those anxious to learn, namely, that if we try to
train our intellect to descend into the heart with the air that we breathe in, we will then assuredly
discover that when it descends it cannot enter there until it abandons every thought, becomes
unitary and naked, and retains in itself nothing except the invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, when it emerges thence and comes into the external world, its attention is involuntarily
diversified and fragmented”.

St. Chrysostomos, together with other holy fathers, declares that we must pray in the name
of Christ Jesus our Lord within the heart using the prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me’
21.) St. Chrysostomos says, “I beg you, brethren, never undervalue or neglect the rule of
prayer”. And shortly after that he says, “Whether eating, drinking, sitting, performing some task,
walking or doing anything else, a monk should unceasingly repeat the prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God, have mercy on me’ ”. And he then comments: “In this way the name of Jesus, when
it descends into the depths of his heart, will humble the serpent that dwells there and
simultaneously will save the monk’s soul and give it life. Therefore invoke the name of the Lord
Jesus without halting, so that your heart imbibes the Lord and the Lord imbibes your heart and the
two become one”. Again he writes, “Do not put asunder your heart from God, but persevere,
guarding it constantly through mindfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the Lord’s name takes
root in it and it has no other concern; for thus Christ’s presence will burgeon within you”.

Again on preserving mindfulness of Jesus in the heart through breathing inward

attentively
22.) St. John Climacus, too, writes, “Let mindfulness of Jesus be linked to your breathing and
then you will know the value of stillness”. St. Hesychios says, “If you really wish to cover your
thoughts with shame, to be still and calm, and to watch over your heart without hindrance, let the
Jesus prayer cleave to your breathing, and in a few days you will find that this is possible.

Anyone who wishes to be noetically awake and watchful, especially a beginner, should sit at
the time of prayer in a quiet and dark room, so that bit by bit he can truly concentrate his intellect
and mind.”

23.) These testimonies, taken from the holy fathers, explain to us, then, how through leading
our breath into the heart we may with grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and through
23
the power of His holy and saving name, pray, meditate, and be noetically awake and watchful, and
how from Him we may seek mercy. Yet we should add that the divine fathers and teachers who
speak from their experience of this most blessed work also instruct those who wish to attain a state
of noetic vigilance in their hearts, and especially beginners, to sit down in a quiet and dark corner,
particularly at the appointed time of prayer. For our looking at visible things naturally distracts
and disperses the mind, and thus troubles and beguiles it. But when the mind is confined, as we
said to a still and dark room, its attention is no longer dispersed among and beguiled by the things
we look at. Thus the intellect, whether it wants to or not achieves a certain measure of tranquility
and gets used to keeping itself to itself. As St. Basil the Great says, “An intellect not distracted by
external things, or dispersed hither and yonder by the senses, returns to itself”.

Freedom from distraction is granted to the intellect above all through our Lord Jesus Christ
and through faithfully invoking His holy name in the heart. The simple method of leading the
breath through the nose into the heart, as well as sitting in a still, dark place and similar practices,
also contribute to this.
24.) More importantly or, rather, most importantly, the intellect brings this struggle to a
successful conclusion with the help of divine grace; and it does this not — God forbid! — merely
through the outward practices we have described of breathing in through the nose and sitting in a
quiet, obscure place, but through the undistracted, single-phrased invocation of our Lord Jesus
Christ, uttered in pureness of heart and with deep faith. For the divine fathers do not regard these
outward practices as anything more than supports to the mind’s efforts to attain a state of
concentration and attentiveness, and to return to itself by freeing itself from its habitual
distractions; for it is in this way that unceasing, pure and undistracted prayer is generated in the
intellect. As St. Neilos2 writes, “If you seek prayer attentively you will find it; for nothing is more
essential to prayer than attentiveness. So do all you can to acquire it”. On these matters we have
now said enough. As for you, my son, since you desire life and long to see good days (Ps 33:12)
and to live in the body as if you were bodiless, submit your life to the rule and discipline which
we will now describe.

On prayer and on how one must pray at all times

29.) Just as our body without the soul is dead and putrid, so the soul that does not impel itself
to pray is dead, wretched and foul. That we should regard our failure to pray as more baleful than
death we can learn from the great prophet, Daniel, who said he would die rather than loose one
moment of prayer (Dan 6:10). Sound, too, is the teaching of St. John Chrysostomos when he says,

2
This text is actually attributed to Evagrios and is contained within his work On Prayer. Refer to the introductory
not on his work in the Philokalia translated by Kallistos Ware for more information.
24
“Everyone who prays converses with God, and everyone knows how great a thing is such converse
with God. Yet no one can describe this honor in words, for it transcends even the majesty of the
angels”. And elsewhere he writes, “Prayer is common to both angels and men, and where prayer
is concerned there is nothing that separates men from the angels; on the contrary, it is prayer that
distinguishes men from animals and unites them with the angels. If you devote your whole life to
prayer and to the worship of God you will soon be transported into the realm of the angels and will
share in their mode of life, their dignity, nobility, wisdom and their understanding”. And
elsewhere, “When the devil sees a soul well fortified with the virtues, he does not dare to come
near it, because he is afraid of the power and strength furnished by prayer, which nourishes the
soul better than food does the body”. And, the sinews of the soul are prayers. For just as the body
is held together and united by the sinews, and stands and lives and is supported through them, so
that if someone cuts them he disrupts the whole harmony of the body, so souls are set in order and
integrated through holy prayer and pursue the path of holiness without difficulty. If you deprive
yourself of prayer, you do the same as if you were to pull a fish out of the water. For just as water
is life for the fish, so prayer is life for you. Through prayer you can wing your way through the air
as the fish moves through water, and ascend into heaven and draw near to God”; and, “Prayer and
supplication make men temples of God. Just as gold, precious stones and marble make the palaces
of emperors, so prayer makes men temples of Christ. What, then, can be said in greater praise of
prayer than the fact that it builds temples of God? And He whom the heavens cannot contain enters
into the soul when it lives on prayer”.

St. John Chrysostomos also says, “One may gain some knowledge of the power of holy prayer
from the following: St. Paul — who sped through the whole world as if borne on wings; and dwelt
in prison; suffered scourgings; wore chains; lived in blood and among dangers; cast out demons;
raised the dead; and cured diseases — did not in any of these circumstances trust in the salvation
of men but fortified his soul with prayer. After performing miracles and resurrecting those who
had died he straight away resorted to prayer, as an athlete who aspires to win his laurels makes for
the sports ground. For it is prayer that brings about the resurrection of the dead and of every other
thing. For the power that water gives to trees, prayers give to the lives of the saints”; and, “prayer
is the ground of salvation, the harbinger of immortality, the impregnable wall of the Church, the
inviolate stronghold, terrifying to the demons, salvation to the godly”; and, “Just as when a queen
enters a city all the opulence of her retinue must follow behind her, so when prayer enters the soul
every virtue enters with it”; and, “What the foundations are for a house, prayer is for a soul. We
must first establish prayer as a foundation or base, and then diligently build onto it self-restraint,
care for the poor, and all the laws of Christ”; and, “Fervent prayer is light for the understanding
and for the soul, an unquenchable and eternal light. It is because of this that the Evil One litters
25
our minds with countless putrid thoughts when we pray he scrapes together things that have never
entered our mind and tips them into our soul”; and, “Prayer is a great weapon, a great safeguard”.
St. Gregory the Theologian says, “It is better to be mindful of God than to breathe”; and again,
“Invoke God in your thoughts more frequently than you breathe”. St. Isaac says, “Without
ceaseless prayer you cannot approach God”; and “To turn the mind to some other concern after
the toil of prayer brings about a loss of concentration”; and, “All prayer in which the body does
not labor and the heart is not afflicted must be regarded as abortive; for such prayer is soulless”.
St. John Climacus says, “Prayer is essentially converse and union of man with God. In terms of its
action, it upholds the world and brings about reconciliation with God; it is both the mother and
daughter of tears, expiation for sins, a bridge over temptations, a barrier against tribulation, the
dissolution of conflict, the work of angels, the food of all incorporeal beings, a delight in store,
boundless activity, the source of virtues, the harbinger of grace, unseen advancement, food of the
soul, the illumination of the intellect, an axe against despair, a manifestation of hope, release from
distress, the wealth of monks, the treasure of hesychasts, the abating of anger, a mirror of progress,
an unveiling of potentialities, a disclosure of one’s inner state, a revelation of things held in store,
the hallmark of glory. For him who truly prays, prayer is the court, the judgment seat and tribunal
of Christ which precedes the last judgment”; and again, “Prayer is nothing other than detachment
from the world both visible and invisible”. St. Neilos says, “If you long for prayer, renounce all to
gain all”; and, “Prayer is the ascent of the intellect to God”; and, “Prayer is the communion of the
intellect with God”; and, “Bread is food for the body and holiness is food for the soul; spiritual
prayer is food for the intellect”. Such, then, are these things. Now it is time to speak as concisely
as we can of the bodily mode of life, with respect to the balance to be kept between quantity and
quality.

On prayer in the heart acquired through attentiveness and watchfulness, and on the way it
operates
48.) As we have said through attentiveness and watchfulness, and through the dispelling of
every other thought or fantasy, prayer arises in the heart, and the intellect, with the words, “Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God”, is intuitively and mutely elevated towards the Christ whom it invokes.
Then through the words, “Have mercy on me”, it retraces its course and returns to itself, since it
cannot desist from praying for itself. But when through experience it waxes in love, then with the
first part of the prayer it is wholly elevated to the Lord Jesus Christ, while with the second part it
receives from Him unambiguous assurance of His mercy.

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On how the holy fathers teach us to say the prayer, on the different ways in which we may
say it, and on what prayer is
49.) Not all the holy fathers teach us always to repeat the whole of the prayer, but according
to our capacity and state one tells us to say all of it, another, half of it, another, a smaller part, and
another, to say it in a different way. In the following passage St. John Chrysostomos teaches us to
say the whole of the prayer: “I beseech you, brethren, never neglect the rule of prayer or be
indifferent to it. For I once heard some of the fathers say, ‘What kind of monk is he who neglects
the rule of prayer or is indifferent to it?’ On the contrary, whether he is eating, or drinking, or
sleeping, or performing some service, or on a journey, or doing anything else, he should ceaselessly
repeat, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me’, so that this invocation of the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ may rouse the enemy to engage in battle. For a person who really exerts
himself is able through this invocation to perceive everything, whether good or bad. First he will
see the evil in his heart, and then what is good. For invocation can both rouse and crush the serpent.
It can expose the sin within us (Rom 7:17), and overcome the adversary and gradually eradicate
all his power from the heart. Thus when the name of the Lord Jesus Christ descends into the depths
of the heart it crushes the serpent that holds sway there and saves and vivifies the soul. Cleave,
then, ceaselessly to the name of the Lord Jesus so that your heart may swallow the Lord, and the
Lord your heart, and the two become one. But this is not a task that can be completed in one or
two days; it takes a long time, for it needs much struggling over many years before the enemy is
dislodged and Christ comes to dwell in you”; and again, “We must watch over the intellect, and
bridle and curb it, and we must cut away every evil thought and impulse through the invocation of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And where the body is, there let the intellect be also, so that no wall or
barrier can stand between God and the heart, throwing its shadow over the heart and separating
the intellect from God. And should something lay hold of the intellect, it should not dally with the
thoughts it provokes lest consent to those thoughts should be an act laid to its charge on the day of
judgment in the presence of Christ, when God judges what is hidden within us (Rom 2:6).

“Continually disenthrall yourself, then, and devote yourself to the Lord our God until He has
mercy upon you (Ps 123:2). Seek nothing except mercy from the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). And
when seeking mercy, ask for it with a humble and merciful heart. And repeat from dawn until dusk,
and if possible all night too, the words, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me’. And impel your
intellect to persist in this task until death. For it is a task which calls for great exertion on your
part, because ‘narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life’ (Matt 7:14); and it is those who force
themselves to make this effort who enter into it, for the kingdom of heaven is taken by violence
(Matt 11:12). Hence I beseech you not to separate your hearts from God, but continue protecting
them through invoking our Lord Jesus Christ at all times, until the name of the Lord takes root in

27
the heart and you think of nothing else but that Christ may be glorified in you”.
Of course, before St. John Chrysostom, St. Paul, when writing about the Lord Jesus, had said,
“If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses
with his lips and so is saved” (Rom 10:9-10). He also says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except
by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). He adds the words, “Except by the Holy Spirit”, to signify that
the heart receives the energy through which it prays from the Holy Spirit. This is the case with
those who have made some progress and in whom Christ manifestly dwells.
It is in accordance with this that St. Diadochos writes: “When we have blocked all its outlets
by means of the remembrance of God, the intellect requires of us imperatively some task which
will satisfy its need for activity. For the complete fulfillment of its purpose we should give it
nothing but the prayer, ‘Lord Jesus’. “No one”, it is written, “can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except with
the help of the Holy Spirit”. Let the intellect concentrate on these words within its inner shrine
with such intensity that it is not turned aside to any mental images. Those who meditate
unceasingly upon this glorious and holy name in the depths of their heart can sometimes see the
light of their own intellect. For when the mind is closely concentrated upon this name, then we
grow fully conscious that the name of burning up all the filth which covers the surface of the soul;
for it is written: “For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire” (Deut 4:24; Heb 12:29). Then the Lord
awakens in the soul a great love for His glory; for when the intellect with fervor of heart maintains
persistently its remembrance of the precious name, then that name implants in us a constant love
for its goodness, since there is nothing now that stands in the way. This is the pearl of great price
which a man can acquire by selling all that he has, and so experience the inexpressible joy of
making it his own (Matt 13:46).
St. Hesychios, writing in connection with the name, “Christ Jesus”, adds the following: “If the
soul has Christ with it, it will not be disgraced by its enemies even at death, when it rises to
heaven’s entrance; but then, as now, if will boldly confront them. But let it not tire in calling upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, day and night until the time of its departure from this mortal
life, and He will speedily avenge it in accordance with the promise which He Himself made when
speaking of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Indeed, He will avenge it both in this present life and
after its departure from its body”. St. John Climacus speaks only of the name, “Jesus”, when he
writes: “Flog your enemies with the name of Jesus for there is no more powerful weapon in heaven
or on earth”. And he adds nothing else. Again he says, “Let each breath you make be conjoined to
the invocation of the name of Jesus and then you will know the value of stillness”.

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The mystery of the words of this sacred and divinizing prayer has been spiritually unveiled
not only by the holy fathers whom we have cited but also by the chief apostles, Peter, Paul
and John
50.) The mystery of the sacred words of this prayer has been unveiled not only by the inspired
fathers whom we have cited, and by others like them, but also before these by the first and chief
apostles themselves, Peter, Paul, and John. For St. Paul as we have already seen, says, “No one
can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit”. St. John says, “Grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ” (John 1:17); and, “Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is of God” (1 John 4:2). St. Peter, the leader of Christ’s disciples, in reply to the question
“Whom do men say that I am?”, put by the Savior and Teacher Himself to the apostles, made in
his reply a most blessed profession of faith, saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God” (Matt 16:16). This is why those who come after the apostles — our own famous teachers
and especially those who have led the celibate, eremitical life of stillness — have taken these
scattered and random phrases, announced with such prescience by these three pillars of the holy
Church, to be divine utterances revealed through the Holy Spirit and testified to by three most
reliable witnesses — and we know that every utterance is validated by three witnesses (Matt
18:16). On this account they have linked these phrases together with the utmost skill, and with the
help of the Holy Spirit within them have shown how they tally one with the other, calling them a
monument of prayer; and they have taught those who come after them to preserve and guard this
monument in the same manner.
Observe now the order and concatenation of the phrases, and see how superlatively full of
heavenly wisdom they are. For St. Paul says, “Lord Jesus”, St. John, “Jesus Christ”, and St. Peter,
“Christ, Son of God”, as if each followed the other and all adhered closely to each other on account
of the harmony and bond which exists between them. For you can observe how in each of these
expressions the ending of one forms the beginning of the next, and so on for all three. The same
thing happens also with the addition of the word, Spirit. For St. Paul writes, “No one can say ‘Jesus
is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit”. The word which comes at the end of this text, namely, “Spirit”
is used by St. John as his opening word when he says with his “voice of thunder”, “Every spirit
which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God”. They have written these phrases
down for us not as products of their own mind, or as something issuing from themselves, but
because they have been guided by the hand of the Holy Spirit. Even St. Peter’s revelatory
profession of faith was effected by the Holy Spirit. It is as Scripture says: “All these are inspired
by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Cor 12:11).
Thus the threefold, unbreakable cord of deifying prayer, plaited, woven and spun together with
such wisdom and knowledge, comes down to us and is preserved by us in the same form. The

29
words, “Have mercy on me”, were added and placed after the saving words of the prayer — that
is, after “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” — by the later divine fathers. This addition was made
especially for those still unfledged in virtue, that is, for beginners and those who are spiritually
immature. For those who are advanced and mature in Christ one component of the phrase, “Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God”, is enough, and sometimes only a single word, the name “Jesus” which
they take and assimilate to themselves as embracing the whole efficacy of the prayer, since through
it they are filled with an ineffable delight and joy which transcends everything which the mind can
conceive, the eye see, or the ear hear. In this way these thrice-blessed people detach themselves
from material and worldly things, pacify their senses and, seized by love through the divine gift
and grace which dwells within them in an ecstatic and blessed way, are purified, enlightened and
perfected; for now they perceive, indistinctly, as in a mirror and as, so to say, a foretaste, the
supranatural, unoriginate and uncreated grace of the supra-essential Godhead. As we have said,
for their invocation and meditation just one of the revealed names of the Theandric Logos is
enough, and through this they have been exalted by the Holy Spirit and have been granted
unutterable raptures, knowledge and revelations. So that we may be manifestly convinced and
assured in the clearest manner of these things, our sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and
lover of souls, whose utterances are acts and whose words, as He Himself says, are “spirit and life”
(John 6:63), proclaimed with the utmost clarity, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5),
and, “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14), and “Whatever you ask in my
name, I will do it” (John 14:13), and so on, in accordance with what we have explained.

On how even beginners may sometimes say the whole of the prayer and sometimes only
part of it, always, of course, within the heart. And on how one must not frequently change
the words one uses
51.) Even beginners may sometimes say the whole of the prayer and sometimes only part of
it, always, of course, within the heart. According to St. Diadochos, “He who dwells continually
within his own heart is detached from the attractions of this world, for he lives in the Spirit and
cannot know the desires of the flesh. Such a man henceforth walks up and down within the fortress
of the virtues which keep guard at all the gates of his purity. The assaults of the demons are now
ineffective against him”. St. Isaac writes, The heart of a man who continually watches over his
soul is full of joy on account of the revelations he receives. And he who focuses his contemplative
powers on his inner world contemplates the light of the Spirit. He whose intellect is free from all
distraction contemplates his Master within his heart. And he must not frequently change the words
of the prayer, lest his intellect through such constant switching and changing grows used to a
certain instability and dislocation, and remains rootless and unfruitful, like trees that are frequently
dug up and transplanted”.

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Much time, as well as exertion and forcefulness, are needed before prayer in the heart is
brought to fruition. In general, every blessing is attained with great effort sustained over a
long period
52.) To be able to pray ceaselessly in the heart, let alone to advance even beyond that, is not a
simple or fortuitous achievement, to be accomplished with but brief and feeble effort, even if
through the ineffable dispensation of God, there are rare exceptions to this rule. On the contrary,
much time is needed and much toil and exertion on the part of both body and soul, and great
forcefulness, before we can attain such blessings. For the gifts and graces in which we hope to
participate will be bestowed on us according to the strength of our efforts and the time we devote
to making them; and what should be achieved as the result of this is, according to the holy fathers,
that the enemy is ejected from the pastures of the heart and Christ manifestly comes to dwell in it.
St. Isaac says, “He who wishes to see the Lord contrives to purify his heart by ceaselessly invoking
God; for thus, in the clarity of his mind, he will see the Lord at all times”. St. Barsanouphios says,
“Unless inner spiritual practice, with God’s help, assists you, your outer ascetic practice is labor
in vain. It is inner practice, with travail of heart, that brings about purity, and purity brings about
the true stillness of the heart. Stillness in its turn produces humility, and through humility you
become the abode of God. As a result of this indwelling the demons, together with the passions,
are expelled, and you become a temple of God, full of holiness, illumination, purity and grace.
Blessed is he, then, who sees his Lord as in a mirror in the sanctuary of his heart and pours out his
supplication with tears in the presence of His goodness”. St. John of Karpathos says, “Great effort
and much time are needed in prayer before, through struggle, we can reach a state in which our
mind is no longer troubled, and so attain the inward heaven of the heart, where Christ dwells. As
St. Paul says, “Do you not know that Jesus Christ dwells in you — unless of course you are
spurious” (2 Cor 13:5). St. John Chrysostomos says, “Cleave ceaselessly to the name of the Lord
Jesus so that your heart may swallow the Lord and the Lord your heart and the two may become
one. But this is not the work of one or two days; it takes a long time. We need to struggle hard
over a long period before the enemy is banished and Christ comes to dwell in us”. But that is
enough on this point. We must now return to the orderly development of our theme.

On prayer in the heart which is not pure and on how one attains pure and undistracted
prayer
53.) By persevering in pure and undistracted prayer in the heart along the lines we have
described, those pursuing the spiritual path will reach the state in which they pray purely and truly,
without constraint and distraction, even if prior to that their prayer, because it is impeded by
inadvertent and distractive thoughts, is not entirely pure and undistracted. That is to say, they learn
to keep their intellect in the heart and do not compulsively and inattentively draw it into the heart

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through inhaling and then straight away withdraw it again; but they keep the intellect there always
and thus pray without ceasing. St. Hesychios says, “If we have not attained prayer that is free from
thoughts, we have no weapon to fight with. By this prayer I mean the prayer which is ever active
in the inner shrine of the soul, and which by invoking Christ strips away and sears our secret
enemy”; and again, “Truly blessed is the man whose mind and heart are as closely attached to the
Jesus prayer and to the ceaseless invocation of His name as air to the body or flame to the wax.
The sun rising over the earth creates the daylight; and the venerable and holy name of the Lord
Jesus, shining continually in the mind, gives birth to countless intellections radiant as the sun”.

On pure and undistracted prayer in the heart and on the ardor enkindled by it
54.) What we have said shows what is meant when we speak of pure and undistracted prayer
in the heart — prayer that enkindles a certain ardor in the heart, as indicated by the words, “My
heart grew hot within me, and a fire would kindle in my meditation: I spoke with my tongue” (Ps
38:3). This is the fire which the Lord Jesus Christ came to light on the fields of our heart, formerly
because of the passions full of thorns and now through God’s grace full of the Holy Spirit. As our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already
kindled!” (Luke 12:49). This is the fire which once warmed and inflamed Cleopas and his
companion, making them cry out in ecstasy to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us as
we were walking?” (Luke 24:32). St. John of Damascus in one of his troparia in honor of the all
holy Mother of God says, “The fire in my heart impels me to praise the love of the Virgin”. St.
Isaac writes, “Forceful spiritual practice enkindles an intense ardor, inflaming the heart with the
fervent apperceptions that arise spontaneously in the mind. The fervor of such vigilant spiritual
practice refines the intellect and confers on it the power of vision”. He goes on, “This ardor,
induced through the grace of contemplation, gives rise to tears, and these, when they flow
incessantly, free the soul from distractive thoughts. Such freedom in its turn leads to purity of
intellect, and through purity of intellect we are enabled to perceive God’s mysteries”. A little
further on he says, “It is after this that the intellect attains to the vision of revelations and wonders,
like those which the prophet Ezekiel saw”; and, “Tears, tapping one’s head during prayer, and
rocking to and fro fervently, arouse a corresponding pleasurable warmth in the heart, with the
result that it wings in ecstatic reverence towards God and cries, ‘My soul has thirsted for the living
God: when shall I come and appear before God?’ (Ps 42:2)”. St. John Climacus says, “When fire
takes root in the heart, it revives prayer. And when prayer has been restored and rapt into heaven,
fire descends into the cenacle of the soul”; and, “So who is the faithful and wise monk? He who
has kept his fervor unabated, and to the end of his life has not ceased to add every day fire to fire,
fervor to fervor, desire to desire and zeal to zeal”. St. Ilias the Presbyter says, “Whenever the soul,

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paying no attention to external things, is concentrated in prayer, then a kind of flame surrounds it,
as fire surrounds iron, and makes it wholly incandescent. The soul remains the same, but can no
longer be touched, just as red-hot iron cannot be touched by the hand. Blessed is he who in this
life is granted the experience of this state and who sees his body, which by nature is of clay, become
incandescent through grace”.

That ardor has different sources, and that the paramount form of ardor is kindled as a
result of pure prayer in the heart
55.) You should know that ardor originates and subsists in us in a variety of ways, as has been
made clear by the words of the saints which we have cited and — though we hesitate to say it —
from our own experience. Perhaps the paramount form of ardor is that which is kindled by pure
prayer in the heart, and waxes and grows more intense in accordance with such prayer, culminating
in personalized illumination — that is to say, according to the fathers the person who experiences
it is truly filled with divine light.

On the consequences of the ardor enkindled in the heart

56.) The immediate consequence of ardor arising in the heart is the expulsion of whatever
formerly prevented prayer from being accomplished in a pure manner. For our God is fire, a fire
which consumes the depravations of the demons and of our passions. For St. Diadochos says,
“When the heart feels the arrows of the demons with such burning pain that the man under attack
suffers as if they were real arrows, then the soul hates the passions violently, for it is just beginning
to be purified. If it does not suffer greatly at the shamelessness of sin, it will not be able to rejoice
fully in the blessings of righteousness. He who wishes to cleanse his heart should keep it
continually aflame through practicing the remembrance of the Lord Jesus, making this his only
study and his ceaseless task. Those who desire to free themselves from their corruption ought to
pray not merely from time to time but at all times; they should give themselves always to prayer,
keeping watch over their intellect even when outside places of prayer. When someone is trying to
purify gold, and allows the fire of the furnace to die down even for a moment, the material which
he is purifying will harden again. So, too, a man who merely practices remembrance of God from
time to time, loses through lack of continuity what he hopes to gain through his prayer. It is a mark
of one who truly loves holiness that he continually burns up what is worldly in his heart through
practicing the remembrance of God, so that little by little evil is consumed in the fire of this
remembrance and his soul completely recovers its natural brilliance with still greater glory”.

Thus when the intellect dwells in the heart unimpeded, it prays purely and undeviatingly. As
one of the saints says, “Prayer is true and undeviating when the intellect while praying watches
carefully over the heart”. St. Hesychios writes, “a true monk is one who has achieved watchfulness;

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and he who is truly watchful is a monk in his heart”.

On the desire and longing engendered by ardor, attentiveness and prayer

57.) Through such ardor, together with attentive or pure prayer, we engender in our hearts
desire, divine longing and love for the ever-invoked Lord Jesus Christ. As it is written, “Therefore
do the young maidens love thee. They have drawn thee” (Song 1:3-4); and, “I am wounded with
love” (Song 2:5). St. Maximos says, “All the virtues cooperate with the intellect to produce this
intense longing for God, pure prayer above all. For by soaring towards God through prayer the
intellect rises above the realm of created beings”.

On the tears of the heart, and again on desire and longing for God
58.) From such a heart flow copious tears, purifying and succoring the person whom love has
thus enriched, not enervating him or depleting him. The tears provoked by fear of God purify,
while those provoked by divine longing succor, generated as they are by an intense and
unrestrained desire and longing for the ever-invoked Lord Jesus Christ. And the heart in ecstasy
cries, “Thou hast bewitched me with desire, O Christ, and Thou hast transformed me with Thy
divine longing”; and, “Thou art all sweetness, O Savior, all desire and yearning, all unslaked, all
irresistible beauty”. St. Paul, herald of Christ, exclaims, “The love of Christ controls us” (2 Cor
5:14); and, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom 8:35); and again, “For I am sure
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39).

A warning not to seek intemperately, and an exhortation to invoke our Lord Jesus Christ
constantly in the heart
59.) Who deserves to hear of such things? As for what they lead on to, now is not the right
time to speak of that; for it is said, “Do not seek prematurely what comes in its own time”; and,
“The good is not good when it does not happen at the right time”. And according to St. Mark, “It
is not helpful to know what comes later before you have done what comes first”. For knowledge
without action “puffs up” but love “edifies” (1 Cor 8:1) because it “bears all things” (1 Cor 13:7).
So, as we have said, we should strive zealously and struggle continually to invoke always the Lord
Jesus Christ in the depths of our heart and not externally or superficially. As the same St. Mark
says in connection with this, “Unless through unwavering noetic hope the innermost, secret and
purified recesses of our heart are opened, we cannot truly be aware of Him who dwells there, or
know whether our spiritual offerings have been accepted or not”.

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On Holy Communion and on the many blessings conferred on us through frequent
communion with unsullied conscience
91.) Nothing so much contributes or is an aid to the purification of our soul, the illumination
of our intellect, the sanctification of our body, and to their transformation into something more
divine, something which partakes of immortality, and indeed to the repulsion of the passions and
the demons or, to put it more directly, to a union and a divine and supranatural conjunction and
interfusion with God, than frequent participation and communion, with as sincere a heart and
disposition as is possible, in the holy, pure, immortal and life-generating sacrament of the sacred
body and blood of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus. For this reason we must certainly say something
on this theme before bringing our discourse to a close.

The truth of what we have just affirmed is evident not only from what the saints say, but much
more so from the actual words of Him who is life itself and truth itself. For He says, “I am the
bread of life” (John 6:48); and, “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may
eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this
bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”
(John 6:50-51); and, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6:53-54); and, “For
my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he
who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such
as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever” (John 6:55-58). St. Paul says
the following: “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on
the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,
‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup,
after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine
himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without
discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak
and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when
we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the
world.” (1 Cor 11:23-32).

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We must study the miracle of the Holy Eucharist: what it is, and why it was given, and how
it benefits us
92.) St. John Chrysostomos writes, “We must study the miracle of the Eucharist: what it is,
and why it was given, and how it benefits us. We are one body (Rom 12:5) and members of the
flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His bones (Eph 5:30). Let those who have been initiated
attend carefully to what we say. So that we may not only become one body through the bond of
love but may in actuality be permeated by the Lord’s flesh. He gave us the food through which
this is accomplished for He wished to show us the love He has for us. For this reason He mingled
Himself with us and mixed His body with ours, so that we might become one like a body united
with its head. This is typical of those who love fervently. It is what Job hinted at when he related
that his servants, by whom he was greatly loved, in order to show their love said, ‘Oh that we
might be satisfied with his flesh’ (Job 31:31). This, then, is why Christ did the same thing, to lead
us to a greater love, and to show His love for us, giving Himself in such a way that those who long
for Him are able not only to see Him but also to touch Him, to eat Him, to be grafted into His flesh,
to be intertwined with Him and to fulfill their entire love”; and, “Those who partake of the most
holy body and precious blood are ranked with the angels, the archangels and the heavenly powers,
for they have put on the royal robes of Christ and bear spiritual arms. But as yet I have said nothing,
for they are clothed in the King Himself. But because He is great, terrible and awe-inspiring, if
you come to Him with purity you attain salvation, while if you come to Him with a conscience full
of evil you will receive chastisement and attribution. For whoever eats and drinks the body and
blood of the Lord unworthily condemns himself in so doing (1 Cor 11:27). For if those who befoul
the imperial purple are punished in the same way as those who tear it apart, it is not at all
unreasonable that those who receive the body with an unclean mind should suffer the same penalty
as those who pierced it with nails. Take note, then, of how dreadful St. Paul shows the penalty to
be when he says, ‘A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony
of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man
who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was
sanctified?’ Heb. 10:28-29).
“When, therefore, we partake of this body and drink this blood, let us keep in mind that we
feed on Him who is enthroned in heaven, is worshipped by the angels, and who adjoins the
untarnished power. Alas! How many paths to salvation there are for us! He made us His body; He
gave us His own body. Yet none of this turns us away from our sins! What hardness of heart! What
callousness!”; and again, “A wonderful old man once told me that he had been privileged to see
and hear that if those who are about to depart from this life commune in the eucharistic sacrament
with unsullied conscience, when they die a retinue of angels bear them from this world because of

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the communion which they have received”.
And St. John of Damascus said, “Because our nature is twofold and composite, our birth must
also be twofold; and similarly our food must be composite. Thus our birth is given to us by water
and the Spirit. Our food is the bread of life itself, our Lord Jesus Christ who came down from
heaven. And just as in the case of baptism, since people are accustomed to wash with water and
anoint themselves with oil, He conjoined the grace of the Spirit to oil and water and made this a
bath of regeneration, so in the same way, since we are accustomed to eat bread and drink water
and wine, He conjoined His own divinity to them and made them His body and blood, so that
through what is ordinary and natural we might attain what is supranatural. The body, born of the
holy Virgin, is truly united with His divinity. It is not that that body which Christ took up to heaven
comes down from heaven, but that the bread and wine are themselves transformed into the body
and blood of God. If you ask how this takes place, it is sufficient for you to hear that it takes place
through the Holy Spirit. It is as with the incarnation; we know that it was with flesh taken from the
holy Mother of God that the Lord through the Holy Spirit created His own body, but beyond that
we know nothing except that the Logos of God is true, efficacious in His actions, and almighty;
for how He did this is inexplicable. Thus those who commune worthily and with faith are granted
the remission of sins, life eternal and the protection of soul and body. But those who commune
unworthily and without faith receive chastisement and retribution, as if they were responsible for
the Lord’s death. Nor are the bread and wine mere tokens of the body and blood of Christ. God
forbid! They are the actual deified body of Christ and His actual blood. ‘For my flesh’, He says,
‘is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed’ (John 6:55). The body and blood of Christ promote
the restoration of our soul and body; they do not lose their efficacy, or become waste-matter that
is expelled from the body; on the contrary, they nourish our being and sustain us, cleansing us of
all filth. And if our gold is adulterated, let us purify it with the fire that separates the true from the
spurious, so that in the life to come we will not judged along with the rest of the world (1 Cor
11:32). When we have been purified by this fire, we are united with the body of Christ and with
His Spirit, and we become the body of Christ. This bread is the first-fruit of the bread in store for
us, the bread necessary for our existence (Matt 6:11). For in the Lord’s prayer, the Greek word
‘ἐπιούσιον’ signifies either the bread in store for us, that is, the bread of eternal world or the bread
that sustains our essential being. The Lord’s flesh is life-generating Spirit because it was conceived
by the life-generating Spirit, and ‘that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit’ (John 3:6). I say this not
in order to deny the physical nature of the body, but because I wish to stress that which is life-
generating and divine in it. The bread and the wine, then, are called ‘antitypes’ of our future state,
not because they are not truly the body and blood of Christ, but because in this life we participate
in the divinity of Christ through them, whereas in the life of eternity we will participate in it
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spiritually through the beatific vision alone”.
And St. Makarios says: “Just as wine mingles with all the limbs of the person who drinks it,
and the wine permeates him and he permeates the wine, so the person who drinks the blood of
Christ imbibes the Spirit of His divinity, and the Spirit is mingled with his perfect soul and his soul
with the Spirit; and since his soul is sanctified in this way, it is made as one with the Lord. Scripture
says, ‘For we were made to drink of one spirit’ (1 Cor 12:13). And through the bread of Eucharist
those who commune in truth are enabled to participate in the Holy Spirit, and through participating
in this way are granted eternal life. And just as the life of the body is not self-sustaining but depends
on what is outside itself — on, that is to say, the fruits of the earth — so it was God’s will that the
soul should have food, drink and raiment, which are its true life, not from its own nature but from
His divinity, from his own Spirit and light. For the divine nature possesses the bread of life,
namely, Him who said, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6:48), as it also possesses living water, wine
that gives delight (Ps 103:15), and the oil of jubilation (Ps 45:7).”
And St. Isidoros says, “Participation in the divine Eucharist is called communion because it
unites us with Christ and puts us in direct communion with His kingdom.” St. Neilos says, “A
believer cannot be saved, receive forgiveness for his sins, and attain the kingdom of heaven, unless
with fear, faith and love he participates in the mystical and pure body and blood of Christ”.
Similarly, St. Basil the Great writes in his letter to the Patrician Kaisaria, “To commune every day
and receive the holy body and blood of Christ is right and profitable, since Christ Himself clearly
says, ‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him has eternal life’ (John
6:56/54). Who doubts that to participate constantly in life is nothing other than to live in many
different ways? As for us, we commune four times a week, on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and
Saturdays, and on other days should it be a saint’s day”. I suspect that St. Basil also celebrated on
those days. He was not able to do so every day because of his many other commitments. St. Apollo
said, “A monk must, if possible, commune every day. For if you keep yourself away from the
Eucharist you keep yourself away from God, while if you commune continually, you continually
receive Christ’s body. For Christ Himself says, ‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides
in me, and I in him’. Thus to commemorate Christ’s passion continually is a great boon to monks.
A monk should be ready every day, and must prepare himself so that he is always in a fit state to
participate in the holy sacrament. For in this way God releases us from our sins”. St. John Climacus
says, “If a body’s energy changes when it touches another body, how will a person who touches
God’s body with innocent hands not be changed?” And it is written in the Book of the Elders,
“John Vostrinos, a holy man with authority over unclean spirits, questioned the demons dwelling
in some young girls, who were maddened and possessed by them in a terrible manner. He asked
them, ‘What things do you fear from Christians?’ And they replied, ‘Truly you have three great
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things: one is that which you wear round your necks; another is the water with which you are
baptized in church; and another is that which you eat in the Liturgy’. And when he asked them
again, ‘Which of these three for you fear the most?’ They replied, ‘If you guard carefully that of
which you partake in the Liturgy, none of us has the power to harm a Christian.’ The things, then,
which our adversaries most fear are the cross, baptism, and communion”.

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