The Ladder of St John Klimax
16th c. Pantokrator Monastery Wood, egg tempera, 31 x 24 cm
축일:3월30일
성 요한 클리마코 아빠스
St. John Climacus
San Giovanni Climaco Abate
St. Joannes Climacus, Monachus
Born:505-579 in Syria
Died:605-649 on Mount Sinai of natural causes
아마도 시리아에서 태어난듯한 그는 16세 되던 해에 시나이산의 수도자들과 합류하여, 4년 후에 서원하였다.
그후 그는 은수자로 살았고, 35년 동안이나 톨레에서 자신의 고유한 은수생활을 계속하면서,
성서와 교부들을 연구하여 큰 업적을 남겼고, 뛰어난 영적 지도자가 되었으니,
특히 그는 마음이 헷갈린 영혼을 돌보는데 큰 능력을 발휘하여 더욱 유명하게 되었다.
자신의 의견과는 달리, 70세에 시나이산 수도원의 원장으로 선출되었으나,
40여 년이나 살아오던 은둔소에 살다가 그곳에서 운명하였다.
그는 "천국의 사닥다리"(The Ladder of Divine Ascent)의 저자인데,
이 책에서는 수도자의 완덕 추구에 관한 30 단계를 묘사하였다.
이 책은 중세시대의 가장 대중적인 신심서적이다.
그는 시나이산에서 운명하였는데, 요한 스콜라스티쿠스(John Scholasticus)로도 알려져 있다.
(성바오로수도회홈에서)
4세기에는 수도생활을 갈망하여 이집트 혹은 아라비아의 사막에 은수하는 신자가 많았다.
그래서 로마 황제 유스티아노는 모세가 하느님의 십계를 받은 바 있는 시나이 산 부근에 사는
이런 수사들을 위해서 그 산위에 한 수도원을 세웠다.
어느 날 일어난 일이었다.
아직 16세밖에 안 된 요한이라 하는 한 소년이 이 수도원 문을 두드리고 수사로 받아 줄 것을 간절히 원했다.
그리해서 그의 소원대로 된 소년은 수도자의 반열에 들게 되었으나 원체 아직 어린데다 체격도 허약했으므로
그의 지도를 담당한 말디리오 노(老)수사도 과연 그가 오랫동안 그런 엄격한 생활을 감당할 수가 있을까
몹시 염려했다.
그런데 요한 소년은 수도원에 들어온 날부터 다른 이들보다 더 열심을 분발해 말디리오의 지도를 따라
성심성의로 수덕에 힘쓰며, 청빈, 순명, 정결 등의 모든 덕에 있어서도 비난의 여지없이 훌륭하게 지켜나가
단시일에 그의 덕의 진보는 실로 놀랄만한 점이 있었다.
그러던 중 은사 말디리오가 선종을 한 후에는 요한은 더욱 완덕의 길을 닦고자 수도원을 나와
시나이 산의 기슭에 한 초막을 짓고 홀로 그곳에서 지냈다.
이리하여 그는 매주 토, 일 양일에 미사 성제에 참여하고 천사의 빵(성체)을 받고
성서나 교부들의 수덕에 관한 저서를 정독하고 고행, 묵상, 노동을 행하며 몸과 마음을 수양하도 덕을 닦았다.
이렇게되자 그가 아주 드문 성인이라는 소문은 어느덧 세상에 퍼져 그의 교훈을 받고자
각처에서 모여드는 자들이 수는 헤아릴 수가 없었다.
그러나 호사다마(好事多魔)라는 격언과 같이 그의 명성이 일약 유명해져서 사방에 떨치자
이에 질투심을 품고 그를 비난, 시기하는 자가 나와서 "그는 성인이 아니다. 다만
말 많은 교만한 자에 불과하다." 하고 비난을 한 때도 있었다.
그래도 요한은 그런 말을 들어도 조금도 동요하지 않고 쾌히 상대자를 용서했으며
도리어 죄의 보속을 위해 온전히 침묵을 지킬 결심을 했던 것이다.
그로 인해 먼저 그를 비난하던 이도 마침내 자신의 잘못을 깨닫고 충심으로 통회했다고 한다.
요한은 그 후도 더 한층 완덕의 길을 닦았지만 75세의 고령에 달했을 때
시나이 산 수도원의 수사들에게 추대되어 원장에 취임했다.
그리고 모세와 같이 하느님께 특별한 묵시를 받고 일반 수도자를 위해
’완덕의 계단(클리마코)’이란 영감(靈感)에 충만한 책을 저술했다.
그가 요한 클리마코라고 불리게 된 것은 이에 기인하는 것이다.
요한의 명성은 그 후도 점점 높아져 멀리 로마에까지 미쳤으며
교황 대 그레고리오께서도 그의 성덕을 칭찬하는 서한을 보내며 그의 기도를 청했다고 한다.
또한 그에 관해서는 어느 해 한발(旱魃)로 곡식이 모두 말라죽으려고 할 때
그의 열렬한 기도의 덕분으로 좋은 비가 와서 백성은 흉작, 기근의 곤궁에서 구제되어
요한을 제2의 엘리야로 존경했다는 이야기도 있다.
그는 수도원장으로서 5년간 모든 책임을 알뜰히 완수하다가 선종의 준비를 하기 위해서
적당한 후계자를 구해 그에게 원장직을 물려주고 전에 살던 초막으로 다시 돌아가서 1년간 마음껏 기도와
보속을 행하고 드디어 시메온과 같이 "주여, 이제는 말씀하신 대로 이 종은 평안히 눈감게 되었습니다.
주님의 구원을 제 눈으로 보았습니다"(루가 2, 29-30)하고 기도하며 고요히 세상을 떠났다.
때는 605년 3월 30일이었다.
(대구대교구홈에서)
*시나이의 성 가타리나수도원:알렉산드리아의 성녀 가타리나 축일:11월25일.게시판1491번
*성(대)그레고리오 교황 학자 축일:9월3일.게시판1346번.
*성 엘리야 예언자 축일:7월20일.게시판1280번.
*성 모세 예언자 축일:9월4일,게시판1647번
☞http://home.catholic.or.kr/gnbbs/ncbbs.dll/chinchang
♬시편102(103)
update2005.11.30.
update2007.3.29.
JOHN CLIMACUS
Also known as
John Scholasticus; John the Sinaita; John of the Ladder
Memorial
30 March
Profile
Monk on Mount Sinai at age 16. Hermit in various places in the Arabian Desert. Abbot at Mount Sinai at age 75. Just before his death he resigned his position to return to his solitary life. Ascetical writer whose works have influenced those seeking the holy life for 15 centuries.
Born
505-579 in Syria
Died
605-649 on Mount Sinai of natural causes
Representation
abbot carrying a ladder; man having a vision of a ladder being scaled by monks
Works
The Climax: The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Readings
"This work is ahead of us until the fire of God shall enter our sanctuary" (cf. Ps. 73:16-17), and then indeed the power of our predispositions will no longer constrain us. For our God is a fire consuming all lusts, all stirrings of passion, all predispositions, and all hardness of heart, both within and without, both visible and spiritual.
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A chaste man is completely oblivious to the difference between bodies. The rule and limit of absolute chastity is to have the same feelings regarding animate and inanimate beings, rational and irrational.
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A chaste man is someone who has driven out bodily love (eros) by means of divine love (eros), who has used heavenly fire to quench the fires of the flesh.
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A dried-up puddle is of no use for the pigs and a dried up body is of no use to the devils.
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A man is truly dispassionate -- and is known to be such -- when he has cleansed his flesh of all corruption; when he has lifted his mind above everything created, and has made it master of all the senses; when he keeps his soul continually in the presence of the Lord and reaches out beyond the borderline of strength to Him... Its effect is to sanctify the mind and to detach it from material things, and it does so in such a way that, after entering this heavenly harbor, a man, for most of his earthly life, is enraptured, like someone already in heaven, and he is lifted up to the contemplation of God.
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A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images.
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A man, no matter how prudent, may easily go astray on a road if he has not guide. The man who takes the road of monastic life under his own direction may easily be lost, even if he has all the wisdom of the world.
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A monk has an unfailing light in the eye of the heart.
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A person is at the beginning of a prayer when he succeeds in removing distractions which at the beginning beset him. He is at the middle of the prayer when the mind concentrates only on what he is meditating and contemplating. He reaches the end when, with the Lord, the prayer enraptures him.
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A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself.
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A servant of the Lord stands bodily before men, but mentally he is knocking at the gates of heaven with prayer.
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A ship with a good navigator comes safely to port, God willing. A soul with a good shepherd climbs easily heavenward, even if it has earlier done much wrong.
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A small fire is enough to burn down an entire forest; a little hole may destroy an entire building.
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A small hair disturbs the eye. A minor concern interferes with stillness, for, after all, stillness means the expulsion of thoughts and the rejection of even reasonable cares. The man who wishes to offer a pure mind to God but who is troubled by cares is like a man who expects to walk quickly even though his legs are tied together.
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A tool which is in good condition may sharpen one which is not in good condition, and a fervent brother may save the person who is only lukewarm about his faith.
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All the acts, thoughts, and words of such a man are directed to the will of God and he never trusts himself. Indeed, to a humble man, self-confidence is as much a thorn and a burden as the orders of someone else are to a proud man.
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Always be brave, and God will teach you your prayer.
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Among the perfect, {discernment} is a knowledge resulting from divine illumination, which with its lamp can light up what is dark in others. To put the matter generally, discernment is -- and is recognized to be -- a solid understanding of the will of God in all times, in all places, in all things; and it is found only among those who are pure in heart, in body, and in speech.
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And if you watch yourself early in the morning, at midday, and in the hour before dinner, you will discover the value of fasting, for in the morning your thoughts are lively, by the sixth hour they have grown quieter and by sundown they are finally calm.
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And there are men who wear out their bodies to no purpose in the pursuit of total dispassion, heavenly treasures, miracle working, and prophetic ability, and the poor fools do not realize that humility, not hard work, is the mother of such things. The man who seeks a quid pro quo from God builds on uncertainty, whereas the man who considers himself a debtor will receive sudden and unexpected riches.
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Anyone trained in chastity should give himself no credit for any achievements, for a man cannot conquer what he actually is. When nature is overcome, it should be admitted that this is due to Him Who is above nature, since it cannot be denied that the weaker always yields to the stronger.
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As I ponder the true nature of compunction, I find myself amazed by the way in which inward joy and gladness mingle with what we call mourning and grief, like honey in a comb. There must be a lesson here, and it surely is that compunction is properly a gift from God, so that there is a real pleasure in the soul, since God secretly brings consolation to those who in their heart of hearts are repentant.
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Birds which are too heavy cannot fly very high. The same is true of those who mistreat their bodies.
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By dispassion I mean a heaven of the mind within the heart... Its effect is to sanctify the mind and to detach it from material things, and it does so in such a way that, after entering this heavenly harbor, a man, for most of his earthly life, is enraptured, like someone already in heaven, and he is lifted up to the contemplation of God.
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By what rule or manner can I bind this body of mine? By what precedent can I judge him? Before I can bind him he is let loose, before I can condemn him I am reconciled to him, before I can punish him I bow down to him and feel sorry for him. How can I hate him when my nature disposes me to love him? How can I break away from him when I am bound to him forever? How can I escape from him when he is going to rise with me? How can I make him incorrupt when he has received a corruptible nature? How can I argue with him when all the arguments of nature are on his side?
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Control your appetites before they control you.
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Detachment from the things perceived by the senses means the vision of things spiritual.
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Detachment grows from an experience and taste of the knowledge of God and from a meditation on the account to be rendered at death.
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Detachment is a withdrawal from all evil desires.
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Do not stop praying as long as, by God’s grace, the fire and the water {i.e. fervor and tears} have not been exhausted, for it may happen that never again in your whole life will you have such a chance to ask for the forgiveness for your sins.
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Do you imagine that plain words can precisely or truly or appropriately or clearly or sincerely describe the love of the Lord, humility, blessed purity, divine enlightenment, fear of God, and assurance of the heart? Do you imagine that talk of such matters will mean anything to someone who has never experienced them? If you think so, then you will be like a man who with words and examples tries to convey the sweetness of honey to people who have never tasted it. He talks uselessly. Indeed I would say he is simply prattling. The same applies in the first instance. A man stands revealed as either having had no experience of what he is talking about or as having fallen into the grip of vainglory.
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Drink deeply of scorn from every man, as though it were living water handed you to cleanse you from lust. Then indeed will a deep purity dawn in your soul and the light of God will not grow dim in your heart.
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Exile {is} an irrevocable renunciation of everything in one’s familiar surroundings that hinders one from attaining the ideal of holiness.
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Eyes show different colors and the sun of the spirit may shine in different ways in the soul. There is the way of bodily tears and there is the way of tears of the soul. There is the way of the contemplation of what is before us and the way of the contemplation of what remains unseen. There is the way of things heard at second hand and the way of spontaneous joy within the soul. There is the way of stillness and the way of obedience. And in addition to these there is the way of rapture, the way of the mind mysteriously and marvelously carried in the light of Christ.
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Fear begets the observance of the commandments, by which I mean those of heaven and earth. To keep the commandments is to show love, and the starting point of love is an abundance of humility, which in turn is the daughter of dispassion. To have dispassion is to have the fullness of love, by which I mean the complete indwelling of God in those who, through dispassion, are pure of heart for they shall see God (Mt. 5:8). To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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Fight always with your thoughts and call them back when they wander away. God does not demand of those under obedience that their thoughts be totally undistracted when they pray. And do not lose heart when your thoughts are stolen away. Just remain calm, and constantly call your mind back.
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Fight to escape from your own cleverness. If you do, then you will find salvation and uprightness through Jesus Christ our Lord
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For those of us who are untried recruits in the life of the spirit, growth in humility comes out of doing what the Lord wants; for those who have reached midway along that route, the test is an end to inner conflict; and for the perfect there is increase and, indeed, a wealth of divine light.
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Full of passions and weakness as we are, let us take heart and let us in total confidence... confess to {Christ} our helplessness and our fragility. We will carry away more help than we deserve, if only we constantly push ourselves down into the depths of humility.
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Get ready for your set time of prayer by unceasing prayer in your soul. In this way, you will soon make progress. I have observed that those who were outstanding in obedience and who tried as far as possible to keep in mind the thought of God were in full control of their minds and wept copiously as soon as they stood in prayer, for holy obedience had prepared them for this.
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Go now. At once. Give away everything you have. ("Sell what you own" -- That needs time.) Give to the poor monks so that their prayers may be with you in your solitude. Take up your cross, carrying it in obedience, and endure strongly the burden of your thwarted will. And then, "Come, follow me" (Mt. 19:21). Come to union with the most blessed stillness and I will teach you the workings and the behavior of the spiritual powers {i.e. the angels}. They never grow tired of their everlasting praise of the Maker, nor does he who has entered into the heaven of stillness cease to praise his Creator. Spirits have no thought for what is material, and those who have become immaterial in a material body will pay no attention to food, for the former know nothing of it and the latter need no promise of it; the former are unconcerned about money and chattels and the latter are heedless of the malice of evil spirits. In those dwelling above, there is no yearning for the visible creation, while those on earth below have no longing for what can be sensed, because the former never cease to make progress in love and the latter will never cease to imitate them. The former know well the value of their progress; the latter understand their own love and longing for the ascent to heaven. The former will desist only when they rise to the realm of the Seraphim; the latter will grow tired only when they come at last to be angels. Blessed is he who hopes; thrice blessed is he who lives to see the promise of being an angel.
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He who has earned {freedom from the domination of the flesh} while still alive has died and been resurrected. From now on he has a taste of the immortality to come.
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He who refuses to accept a criticism, just or not, renounces his own salvation, while he who accepts it, hard or not though it may be, will soon have his sins forgiven.
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He who subdues {the flesh with its passions} by resistance to it is someone still chasing an enemy. But the man who has managed to reduce its hold completely, even when he himself is still in this life, is someone who has already risen from the dead.
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Holy humility had this to say: "The one who loves me will not condemn someone, or pass judgment on anyone, or lord it over someone else, or show off his wisdom until he has been united with me..."
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Holy love has a way of consuming some... And it makes others bright and overjoyed... For when the heart is cheerful, the face beams (cf. Prov. 15:13), and a man flooded with the love of God reveals in his body, as if in a mirror, the splendor of his soul, a glory like that of Moses when he came face to face with God (cf. Ex. 34:28-29).
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Humility has it signs: ... poverty, withdrawal from the world, the concealment of one’s wisdom, simplicity of speech, the seeking of alms, the disguising of one’s nobility, the exclusion of free and easy relationships, the banishment of idle talk.
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Humility is a grace in the soul... It is indescribable wealth, a name and a gift from God. Learn from Me, He said; that is, not from an angel, not from a man, not from a book, but from Me, that is from My dwelling within you, from My illumination and action within you, for I am gentle and meek of heart (Mt. 11:29) in thought and in spirit, and your souls will find rest from conflicts and relief from evil thoughts.
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I have known hesychasts whose flaming urge for God was limitless. They generated fire by fire, love by love, desire by desire.
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I must tell you about the astonishing achievement of the {monastery’s baker}. Noticing that during his work he preserved a totally recollected state and a capacity for tears, I asked him how he had managed to be granted such a grace. He answered me when I became insistent: "It always seems to me that I serve God and not men..."
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I once asked a very experienced father how humility is achieved through obedience. This was his answer: "A wisely obedient man, even if he is able to raise the dead, to have the gift of tears, to be free from conflict, will nevertheless judge that this happened through the prayer of his spiritual director; and so he remains a stranger and an alien to empty presumption. For how could he take pride in something that, by his reckoning, is due to the effort not of himself but of his director?"
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I once saw three monks receive the same type of injury at the same time. The first felt it keenly, but did not speak; the second was delighted by the thought of the reward the injury would bring him and he felt compassion for the wrongdoer; the third wept fervently at the thought of the harm his offending neighbor was suffering. At work, then, were fear, the sense of a reward due, and love.
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I saw others among these wonderful fathers who had the white hair of angels, the deepest innocence, and a wise simplicity that was spontaneous and yet directed by God Himself. The fact is that just as an evil person is two-faced, one thing in public and another in private, so a simple person is not twofold, but something whole... {Such simple people} are openly gentle, kindly, radiant, genuine, without hypocrisy, affectation, or falsity of either speech or disposition -- something not found in many. Spiritually, they are like children (cf. Mt. 18:3-4)...
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I think of my spiritual father as the image of Christ, and I think of his commands as not coming form him but from God... Because I love and trust my father, I have no malevolent thoughts concerning him... Anyone who freely chooses to be simple and guileless {with respect to his spiritual father} provides the devil with neither the time nor the place for an attack.
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If after rising in us the sun knows his going down (Ps. 104:19), he makes darkness the place of his concealment (Ps. 18:11). This is done for our providential chastening. The fierce young lions who had left us alone return, and in the dark of night they go prowling once more, seeking to feed on whatever passions we might manifest through our thoughts and deeds. Yet in the darkness of our humility, the sun rises over us. The beasts go where they belong, namely sensual hearts, not our hearts (cf. Ps. 104:20,22). Then the demons are heard to say, The Lord delighted in doing great things for them. And we speak He has done great things for us and we are glad (cf. Ps. 136:7), but you are banished.
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If every enterprise, utterance, thought, step, movement, is done according to the Lord, then the Lord’s work is done with spiritual perception as if He were there Himself. But if a person is somehow robbed {of such recollection}, then he is not yet living in accordance with virtue.
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If pride turned some of the angels into demons, then humility can doubtless make angels out of demons. So take heart, all you sinners.
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If someone has hated the world, he has run away from its misery; but if he has an attachment to visible things, then he is not yet cleansed of grief. For how can he avoid grief when he is deprived of something he loves? We need great vigilance in all things, but especially in regard to what we have left behind.
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If we picture for ourselves the face of the superior whenever he happens to be away, if we think of him as always standing nearby, if we avoid every gathering, word, meal, sleep, or indeed anything to which we think he might object, then we have really learned true obedience. False children are glad when the teacher is away, but the genuine think it a loss.
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If we wish to preserve unshaken faith in our superiors, we must write their good deeds indelibly in our hearts and preserve them in our memories so that, when the demons scatter distrust of them among us, we can repel them by what we have retained in our minds. The more faith blossoms in the heart, the more the body is eager to serve. To stumble on distrust is to fall, since "whatever does not spring from faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23). When the thought strikes you to judge or condemn your superior, leap away as though from fornication. Give no trust, place, entry, or starting point to that snake. Say this to the viper: "Listen to me, deceiver, I have no right to pass judgment on my superior but he has the the authority to be my judge. I do not judge him; he judges me."
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If you are careful to train your mind never to wander, it will stay by you even at mealtimes. But if you allow it to stray freely, then you will never have it beside you.
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If you are constantly upbraided by your director and thus acquire great faith in him and love for him, then you may be sure that the Holy Spirit has taken up residence invisibly in your soul and the power of the Most High has overshadowed you. But you must not boast or celebrate when you manage to be brave under insults and indignities. Rather should you mourn for having earned criticism and for having stirred your director to anger against you. And what I am going to say to you now must not shock you. (In any case I have the support of Moses in this.) It is better to sin against God than against our father. If we make God angry, our director can reconcile Him to us. But if he is angry, then there is no one to speak up for us before God. And in any case, the two situations are really the same. Or so it seems to me.
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If you truly love God and long to reach the kingdom that is to come, if you are truly pained by your failings and are mindful of punishment and of the eternal judgement, if you are truly afraid to die, then it will not be possible to have an attachment, or anxiety, or concern for money, for possessions, for family relationships, for worldly glory, for love and brotherhood, indeed for anything of earth. All worry about one’s condition, even for one’s body, will be pushed aside as hateful. Stripped of all thought of these, caring nothing about them, one will turn freely to Christ.
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In an instant many are pardoned for their mistakes, but no one, in a moment’s time, acquires calmness of the soul which requires much time, much trouble and a great deal of help from God.
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In everything we do, in what has to be done now or later, the objective must be sought from God Himself; and every act that is not the product of personal inclination or of impurity will be imputed to us for good, especially if done for the sake of God and not for someone else. This is so, even if the actions themselves are not completely good.
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In the domain of creation as in that of compunction, there is that which moves itself and that which is moved by some other agent. When the soul grows tearful, weeps, and is filled with tenderness, and all this without having striven for it, then let us run, for the Lord has arrived uninvited and is holding out to us the sponge of loving sorrow, the cool waters of blessed sadness with which to wipe away the record of our sins. Guard these tears like the apple of your eye until they go away, for they have a power greater than anything that comes from our own efforts and our own meditation.
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It happens, I do not know how, that most of the proud never really discover their true selves. They think they have conquered their passions and they find out how poor they really are only after they die.
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It is not without risk that one climbs up a defective ladder. And so with honor, praise, and precedence which are all dangerous for humility.
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It is sheer lunacy to imagine that one has deserved the gifts of God. You may be proud only of the achievements you had before the time of your birth. But anything after that, indeed the birth itself, is a gift from God. You may claim only those virtues in you that are there independently of your mind, for your mind was bestowed on you by God. And you may claim only those victories you achieved independently of the body, for the body too is not yours but a work of God.
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Joy and consolation descend on the perfect when they reach the state of complete detachment.
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Just as clouds hide the sun so bad thoughts cast shadows over the soul.
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Just as darkness retreats before light, so all anger and bitterness disappears before the fragrance of humility.
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Let all those coming to this marvelous, tough, and painful -- though also easy -- contest leap, as it were, into a fire, so that a non-material flame may take up residence within them. But let each one test himself, draw food and drink from the bread of pain and the cup of weeping, lest he march himself to judgment.
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Let the remembrance of Jesus be present with your every breath. Then indeed you will appreciate the value of stillness.
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Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast, and turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No matter how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.
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Love of God is the foundation of exile.
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Love, by its nature, is a resemblance to God, insofar as this is humanly possible. In its activity it is inebriation of the soul. Its distinctive character is to be a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, a sea of humility.
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Lucky the man who loves and longs for God as a smitten lover does for his beloved... Someone truly in love keeps before his mind’s eye the face of the beloved and embraces it there tenderly. Even during sleep the longing continues unappeased, and he murmurs to his beloved. That is how it is for the body. And that is how it is for the spirit. A man wounded by love had this to say about himself -- and it really amazes me -- "I sleep (because nature commands this) but my heart is awake (because of the abundance of my love)" (Song of Songs 5:2).
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Many have been speedily forgiven their sins. But no one has rapidly acquired dispassion, for this requires much time and longing, and God.
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Many set themselves the aim of rescuing the indifferent and the lazy -- and end up lost themselves. The flame within them gets dim with the passage of time. So, if you have the fire, run, since you never know when it may be doused, leaving you stranded in darkness. Not all of us are summoned to rescue others. "My brothers, each one of us will give an account of himself to God," says the holy Apostle (Rom. 14:12). Again, he declared, "You teach someone else, but not yourself" (Rom. 2:21). It is as if he were saying, "I do not know about the others, but we have surely to look to what we must do ourselves."
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Never stop imagining and examining the abyss of dark fire, its cruel minions, the merciless inexorable judge, the limitless chaos of subterranean flame, the narrow descents down to underground chambers and yawning gulfs, and other such images. Then lust in our souls may be checked by immense terror, by surrender to incorruptible chastity, and receive that nonmaterial light which shines beyond all fire.
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No one can enter crowned into the heavenly bridechamber without first making the three renunciations. He has to turn away from worldly concerns, from men, from family; he must cut selfishness away; and thirdly, he must rebuff the vanity that follows obedience. "Go out from among them," says the Lord. "Go apart from them. Do not touch the uncleanness of the age" (2 Cor. 6:17).
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Nothing can ever so humble the soul as destitution and the subsistence of a beggar.
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Now Scripture says, "Two are better than one" (Eccles. 4:9), meaning that it is better for a son to be with his {spiritual} father as, aided by the divine power of the Holy Spirit, he fights against his predispositions... He who tries to fight unaided against the spirits {who tempt him to do evil} gets himself killed by them.
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Now if it is true that some good ascetics pass from the strength of action to the strength of contemplation (cf. Ps. 84:7), and if it is true that love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8), and that the Lord will guard the coming in of your fear and the going out of your love (cf. Ps. 121:8), then love has no boundary, and both in the present and in the future age we will never cease to progress in it, as we add light to light. Perhaps this may seem strange to many. Nevertheless it has to be said, and the evidence we have, blessed Father, would lead me to say that even the angels make progress and indeed that they add glory to glory (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18) and knowledge to knowledge.
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Obedience is the mortification of the members {of the body} while the mind remains alive. Obedience is unquestioned movement, death freely accepted, a simple life, danger faced without worry, an unprepared defense before God, fearlessness before death, a safe voyage, a sleeper’s journey. Obedience is the burial place of the will and the resurrection of lowliness. A corpse does not contradict or debate the good or whatever seems bad, and the spiritual father who has devoutly put the disciple’s soul to death will answer for everything (cf. Heb. 13:17). Indeed, to obey is, with all deliberateness, to put aside the capacity to make one’s own judgment.
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Our good Redeemer, by speedily granting what is asked, draws to His love those who are grateful. But He keeps ungrateful souls praying a long time before Him, hungering and thirsting for what they want, since a badly trained dog rushes off as soon as it is given bread and leaves the giver behind.
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Patience is a labor that does not crush the soul. It never wavers under interruptions, good or bad. The patient monk is a faultless worker who has turned his faults into victories. Patience sets a boundary to the daily onslaught of suffering. It makes no excuses and ignores the self... The patient man has died before his death, his cell being his tomb. Patience comes from hope and mourning, and indeed to lack those is to be a slave to despondency.
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Physical love can be a paradigm of the longing for God.
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Pride is utter poverty of soul disguised as riches, imaginary light where in fact there is darkness (cf. Luke 11:35).
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Repentance is a cheerful renunciation of every creature comfort.
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Rise from love of the world and love of pleasure. Put care aside, strip your mind, refuse your body. Prayer after all, is a turning away from the world, visible and invisible. What have I in heaven? Nothing. What have I longed for on earth besides You? Nothing except simply to cling always to You in undistracted prayer. Wealth pleases some, glory others, possessions others, but what I want is to cling to God and to put the hopes of my dispassion in Him (cf. Ps. 73:25,28).
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Rule you own heart as a king rules over his kingdom, but be subject above all to the supreme ruler, God Himself.
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See, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, on the soul raised above earthly longings, and He shall come into Egypt, into the darkened heart, and He shall shatter the man-made idols (Isa. 19:1), the empty fashionings of the mind.
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Show God in your heart the faith you have in your spiritual father and the honest love you have for him. God in ways unknown will urge him to be well disposed to you and fond of you, just as you are well disposed toward him.
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Stillness is worhipping God unceasingly and waiting on Him.
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Stripped of all thought of {earthly things}, caring nothing about them, one will turn freely to Christ. One will look to heaven and to the help coming from there, as in the scriptural sayings: "I will cling close to you" (Ps. 62:5) and "I have not grown tired of following you nor have I longed for the day or the rest that man gives" (Jer. 17:16).
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The Lord often humbles the vainglorious by causing some dishonor to befall them. And indeed the first step in overcoming vainglory is to remain silent and to accept dishonor gladly. The middle stage is to check every act of vainglory while it is still in thought. The end -- insofar as one may talk of an end to an abyss -- is to be able to accept humiliation before others without actually feeling it.
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The Lord, who makes wise the blind (cf. Ps. 146:8), opens the eyes of the obedient to the virtues of their spiritual director and blinds them to his faults, but does the opposite to the hater of what is good.
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The beginning of prayer is the expulsion of distractions from the very start by a single thought; the middle stage is the concentration on what is being said or thought; its conclusion is rapture in the Lord.
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The beginning of the mortification both of the soul’s will and also of the body’s members is hard... But the end is liberation from the senses and freedom from pain.
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The blessed living corpse grows sick at heart when he finds himself acting on his own behalf...
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The depths of mourning have witnessed comfort, and enlightenment has followed on purity of heart. Enlightenment is something indescribable, an activity that is unknowingly perceived and invisibly seen... Divine help is the renewal of a soul bowed by grief in such a way that painful tears are marvelously transformed into painless ones.
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The dispassionate man no longer lives himself, but it is Christ Who lives in him (cf. Gal. 2:20).
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The first and principal token... is the delighted readiness of the soul to accept indignity, to receive it with open arms, to welcome it as something that relieves and cauterizes diseases of the soul and grievous sins. The second token is the wiping out of anger -- and modesty over the fact that it has subsided. Third and preeminent is the honest distrust of one’s own virtues, together with an unending desire to learn more.
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The following are the signs, the stages, and the proofs of practicing stillness in the right way -- a calm mind, a purified disposition, rapture in the Lord, the remembrance of everlasting torments, the imminence of death, an insatiable urge for prayer, constant watchfulness, the death of lust, no sense of attachment, death of worldliness, and end to gluttony, a foundation for theology, a well of discernment, a truce accompanied by tears, an end to talkativeness, and many other such things alien to most men.
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The fruit of arrogance is a fall; but a fall is often an occasion of humility for those willing to profit by it.
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The hour of prayer is no time for thinking over necessities, nor even spiritual tasks, because you may lose the better part (cf. Lk. 10:41-42).
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The lover of silence draws close to God. He talks to Him in secret and God enlightens him.
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The man deemed worthy {of dispassion} during his lifetime has God always within him, to guide him in all he has to say or do or think. The will of the Lord becomes for him a sort of inner voice through illumination. All human teaching is beneath him.
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The man who decides to struggle against his flesh and to overcome it by his own efforts is fighting in vain. The truth is that unless the Lord overturns the house of the flesh and builds the house of the soul, the man wishing to overcome it has watched and fasted for nothing. Offer up to the Lord the weakness of your nature. Admit your incapacity and, without your knowing it, you will win for yourself the gift of chastity.
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The man who has come to know himself with the full awareness of his soul has sown in good ground. However, anyone who has not sown in this way cannot expect humility to flower within him. And anyone who has acquired knowledge of self has come to understand the fear of the Lord, and walking with the help of this fear, he has arrived at the doorway of love. For humility is the door to the kingdom, opening up to those who come near.
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The man who has tasted the things of heaven easily thinks nothing of what is below, but he who has had no taste of heaven finds pleasure in possessions.
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The man who pets a lion may tame it, but the man who coddles the body makes it ravenous.
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The man who thinks nothing of goods has freed himself from quarrels and disputes. But the lover of possessions will fight to the death for a needle.
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The one who is dead can no longer walk. The one who despairs can no longer be saved.
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The one who says he has faith and continues to go against it resembles a face without eyes
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The poverty of a monk is resignation from care... In his poverty he turns into a son of detachment and he sets no value on what he has. Having withdrawn from the world, he comes to regard everything as refuse. Indeed he is not genuinely poor if he starts to worry about something.
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The sick who try out a healer, receive help from him, and then, before being fully cured, jettison him for the sake of another deserve every punishment from God. Do not run from the hands of him who has brought you to the Lord, for never in your life again will you respect anyone as you did him.
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The soul endlessly preoccupied by day with the word of God will love to be preoccupied by it in sleep too. This second grace {of being recollected in sleep} is properly a reward for the first {i.e. being recollected while awake} and will help us to avoid {falls} and fantasies.
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The {the indwelling} Word brings purity to completion, and His presence destroys death, and when death is done away with, the disciple of sacred knowledge is illuminated. The Word of the Lord... remains eternally pure.
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There is such a thing as exile, an irrevocable renunciation of everything in one’s familiar surroundings that hinders one from attaining the ideal of holiness. Exile is a disciplined heart, unheralded wisdom, an unpublicized understanding, a hidden life, masked ideals. It it unseen meditation, the striving to be humble, a wish for poverty, the longing for what is divine. It is an outpouring of love, a denial of vainglory, a depth of silence.
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These were the shouts and cries they raised to the Lord without ceasing. Striking their breasts, as though standing before the gates of heaven, some would say to God: ... "Just show the light of Your face and we will be saved" (Ps. 80:3). Another would say: "Give light to those sitting humbly in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Lk. 1:79), ... Some said: "Will the Lord ever again show the light of His face to us?" (Ps. 67:1).
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Thinking of the heights of virtue from which they had fallen, they would say: ... "Ah, I wish I were back as I used to be in the months of the days when God watched over me, when the lamp of His light shone over the head of my heart" (cf. Job 29:2-3).
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Those nearing perfection in spirit and body experience the following: perfect love, a well of humility, a detached mind, an indwelling of Christ, an assurance of light and of prayer, an outpouring of divine illumination...
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Those of us who wish to gain understanding must never stop examining ourselves and if in the perception of your soul you realize that your neighbor is superior to you in all respects, then the mercy of God is surely near at hand.
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Those with a mind for the religious life will turn away from everything, will despise everything, will ridicule everything, will shake off everything.
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Unswerving hope is the gateway to detachment.
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Until we have acquired true prayer, we are like those who introduce children to walking. Make the effort to raise up, or rather, to enclose your mind within the words of your prayer; and if, like a child, it gets tired and falters, raise it up again. The mind, after all, is naturally unstable, but the God Who can do everything can also give it firm endurance. Persevere in this, therefore, and do not grow weary...
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We in our sickness can only imagine the sort of relief that would come with good health; but they, being healthy, can understand and talk about the weakness that goes hand in hand with sickness.
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We manage for some time to live away from our relatives. We practice a little piety, compunction, self-control. And then the empty thoughts come tramping toward us, seeking to to turn us back to the places we knew. They tell us what a lesson we are, what an example, what a help to those who witnessed our former wicked deeds. If we happen to be articulate and well informed, they assure us that we could be rescuers of souls and teachers to the world. They tell us all this so that we might scatter at sea the treasures we have assembled while in port. So we had better imitate Lot, and certainly not his wife. The soul turning back to the regions from which it came will be like the salt that has lost savor, indeed like that famous pillar. Run from Egypt, run and do not turn back. The heart yearning for the land there will never see Jerusalem, the land of dispassion.
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We must be ever on guard against yielding to the mere thought that we have achieved any sort of good. We have to be really careful about this, in case it should be a trait within us, for if it is, then we have certainly failed.
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We should analyze the nature of our passions and of our obedience, so as to choose our director accordingly... If you are arrogant, let {your director} be tough and unyielding, not gentle and accommodating. We should not be on the lookout for those gifted with foreknowledge and foresight, but rather for those who are truly humble and whose character and dwelling place {are such as to combat} our weaknesses....
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We should fight these risks {i.e., slackness, inadequate discernment, pride}, the first by zeal and fear of death, the second by obedience and self-abasement, the third by unceasing self-condemnation. "This work is ahead of us until the fire of God shall enter our sanctuary" (cf. Ps. 73:16-17), and then indeed the power of our predispositions will no longer constrain us. For our God is a fire consuming all lusts, all stirrings of passion, all predispositions, and all hardness of heart, both within and without, both visible and spiritual.
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We will show ourselves true lovers of wisdom and of God if we stubbornly run away from all possibility of aggrandizement.
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When a man has found the Lord, he no longer has to use words when he is praying, for the Spirit Himself will intercede for him with groans that cannot be uttered (cf. Rom. 8:26).
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When a {spiritual} doctor says he cannot help you, then you must go to another, since few are cured without one.
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When chastised by a spiritual shepherd, he certainly does not leave if through the shepherd he has received the cure for his wounds, for he bears in mind the words, "Neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers nor any other creature can separate us from the love of Christ" (cf. Rom. 8:38-39). If a soul is not attached, bound and devoted to the shepherd in this fashion, it seems to me that the man should not be here at all...
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When fire comes to dwell in the heart it resurrects prayer; and after prayer has been revived and taken up into heaven, a descent of fire takes place into the upper chamber of the soul.
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When heaven’s holy fire lays hold of the {imperfect}, it burns them because they still lack purification... But as for {those who are drawing close to perfection}, it enlightens them in proportion to the perfection they have achieved. It is one and the same fire that is called that which consumes (cf. Heb. 12:29) and that which illuminates (cf. Jn 1:9). Hence the reason why some emerge from prayer as from a blazing furnace and as though having been relieved of all material defilements. Others come forth as if they were resplendent with light and clothed in a garment of joy and of humility.
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When humbly and with true longing for salvation we resolve to bend the neck and entrust ourselves to another in the Lord, there is something to be done before we start... We should question, examine, and if I may say so, put to the test our master, so that there is no mistaking the sailor for the helmsman, the patient for the doctor, the passionate for the dispassionate man, the sea for the harbor -- with the resulting shipwreck of our soul. But having once entered the stadium of holy living and obedience, we can no longer start criticizing the umpire, even if we should notice some faults in him. After all, he is human and if we start making judgments, then our submissiveness earns no profit.
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When the penitents in the prison learned that one of their number was finishing his course and going on ahead of them, they would gather round while his mind was still working. Thirsty, tearful, and sad, they would look at him compassionately, shaking their heads, racked with tenderness, and they would speak to the dying man: "Brother and fellow penitent, how is it with you? ... Have you sensed any illumination in your heart, or it it still in darkness and dishonor? ..."
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Without weapons there is no way of killing wild animals. Without humility there is no way of conquering anger.
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You cannot learn to see just because someone tells you to do so. For that, you require your own natural power of sight. In the same way, you cannot discover from the teaching of others the beauty of prayer. Prayer has its own special teacher in God, who "teaches man knowledge" (Ps. 94:10). He grants the prayer of him who prays. And He blesses the years of the just.
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You will know that you have this holy gift {of humility} within you and not be led astray when you experience an abundance of unspeakable light together with an indescribable love of prayer.
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If I try to bind him through fasting, then I am passing judgment on my neighbor who does not fast -- with the result that I am handed over to him again. If I defeat him by not passing judgment I turn proud -- and I am in thrall to him once more. He is my helper and my enemy, my assistant and my opponent, a protector and a traitor. I am kind to him and he assaults me. If I wear him out he gets weak. If he has a rest he becomes unruly. If I upset him he cannot stand it. If I mortify him I endanger myself. If I strike him down I have nothing left by which to acquire virtues. I embrace him. And I turn away from him.
What is this mystery in me? What is the principle of this mixture of body and soul? How can I be my own friend and my own enemy? Speak to me! Speak to me, my yoke-fellow, my nature! I cannot ask anyone else about you. How can I remain uninjured by you? How can I escape the danger of my own nature? I have made a promise to Christ that I will fight you, yet how can I defeat your tyranny? But this I have resolved
