The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues.[513] 1. And now, finally, after all that we have said, there remain these three that bind and secure the union of all, faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love,[514] for God Himself is so called.[515] 2. And (as far as I can make out) I see the one as a ray, the second as a light, the third as a circle; and in all, one radiance and one splendour. 3. The first can make and create all things; the divine mercy surrounds the second and makes it immune to disappointment; the third does not fall, does not stop in its course and allows no respite to him who is wounded by its blessed rapture. 4. He who wishes to speak about divine love undertakes to speak about God. But it is precarious to expatiate on God, and may even be dangerous for the unwary. 5. The angels know how to speak about love, and even they can only do this according to the degree of their enlightenment. 6. God is love. So he who wishes to define this, tries with bleary eyes to measure the sand in the ocean. 7. Love, by reason of its nature, is a resemblance to God, as far as that is possible for mortals; in its activity it is inebriation of the soul; and by its distinctive property it is a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, a sea of humility. 8. Love is essentially the banishment of every kind of contrary thought for love thinks no evil.[516] 9. Love, dispassion and adoption are distinguished as sons from one another by name, and name only. Just as light, fire and flame combine to form one power, it is the same with love, dispassion and adoption. 10. As love wanes, fear appears; because he who has no fear is either filled with love or dead in soul. 11. There is nothing wrong in representing desire, and fear, and care and zeal and service and love for God in images borrowed from human life. Blessed is he who has obtained such love and yearning for God as an enraptured lover has for his beloved. Blessed is he who fears the Lord as much as men under trial fear the judge. Blessed is he who is as zealous with true zeal as a well-disposed slave towards his master. Blessed is he who has become as jealous of the virtues as husbands who remain in unsleeping watch over their wives out of jealousy. Blessed is he who stands in prayer before the Lord as servants stand before a king. Blessed is he who unceasingly strives to please the Lord as others try to please men. 12. Even a mother does not so cling to the babe at her breast as a son of love clings to the Lord at all times. 13. He who truly loves ever keeps in his imagination the face of his beloved, and there embraces it tenderly. Such a man can get no relief from his strong desire even in sleep, even then he holds converse with his loved one. So it is with our bodily nature; and so it is in spirit. One who was wounded with love said of himself (I wonder at it): I sleep because nature requires this, but my heart is awake[517] in the abundance of my love. 14. You should notice, venerable brother, that the stag—the soul—having destroyed those reptiles,[518] longs and faints[519] for the Lord with the fire of love, as if struck by an arrow. 15. The effect of hunger is vague and indefinite; but the effect of thirst is intense and obvious to all, and indicative of blazing heat. So one who yearns for God says: My soul thirsts for God, the strong, the living God.[520] 16. If the face of a loved one clearly and completely changes us, and makes us cheerful, gay and carefree, what will the Face of the Lord not do when He makes His Presence felt invisibly in a pure soul? 17. Fear when it is an inner conviction of the soul destroys and devours impurity, for it is said: Nail down my flesh with the fear of Thee.[521] And holy love consumes some, according to him who said: Thou hast ravished our heart, Thou hast ravished our heart.[522] But sometimes it makes others bright and joyful, for it is said: My heart trusted in Him and I have been helped; even my flesh has revived;[523] and: When the heart is happy the face is cheerful.[524] So when the whole man is in a manner commingled with the love of God, then even his outward appearance in the body, as in a kind of mirror, shows the splendour of his soul. That is how Moses who had looked upon God was glorified.[525] 18. Those who have reached such an angelic state often forget about bodily food. I think that often they do not even feel any desire for it. And no wonder, for frequently a contrary desire knocks out the thought of food. 19. I think that the body of those incorruptible men is not even subject to sickness any longer, because it has been rendered incorruptible; for they have purified the inflammable flesh in the flame of purity. I think that even the food that is set before them they accept without any pleasure. For there is an underground stream that nourishes the root of a plant, and their souls too are sustained by a celestial fire. 20. The growth of fear is the beginning of love, but a complete state of purity is the foundation of divine knowledge.[526] 21. He who has perfectly united his feeling to God is mystically led by Him to an understanding of His words. But without this union it is difficult to speak about God. 22. The engrafted Word[527] perfects purity, and slays death by His presence; and after the slaying of death, the disciple of divine knowledge is illumined. 23. The Word of the Lord which is from God the Father is pure, and remains so eternally. But he who has not come to know God merely speculates. 24. Purity makes its disciple a theologian, who of himself grasps the dogmas of the Trinity. 25. He who loves the Lord has first loved his brother, because the second is a proof of the first. 26. One who loves his neighbour can never tolerate slanderers, but rather runs from them as from fire. 27. He who says that he loves the Lord but is angry with his brother is like a man who dreams that he is running. 28. The power of love is in hope, because by it we await the reward of love. 29. Hope is a wealth of hidden riches. Hope is a treasure of assurance of the treasure in store for us. 30. It is a rest from labours; it is the door of love; it is the superannuation of despair; it is an image of what is absent. 31. The failure of hope is the disappearance of love. Toils are bound by it. Labours depend on it. Mercy encircles it. 32. A monk of good hope is a slayer of despondency; with this sword he routs it. 33. Experience of the Lord’s gift engenders hope; he who is without experience remains in doubt. 34. Anger destroys hope, because hope does not disappoint,[528] but a passionate man has no grace.[529] 35. Love bestows prophecy; love yields miracles; love is an abyss of illumination; love is a fountain of fire—in the measure that it bubbles up, it inflames the thirsty soul. Love is the state of angels. Love is the progress of eternity. 36. Tell us, fairest of virtues, where thou feedest thy flock, where thou restest at noon.[530] Enlighten us, quench our thirst, guide us, take us by the hand; for we wish at last to soar to thee. Thou rulest over all. And now thou hast ravished my soul. I cannot contain thy flame. So I will go forward praising thee. Thou rulest the power of the sea, and stillest the surge of its waves and puttest it to death. Thou hast humbled the proud—the proud thought—like a wounded man. With the arm of thy power thou hast scattered thy enemies,[531] and thou hast made thy lovers invincible. But I long to know how Jacob saw thee fixed above the ladder. Satisfy my desire, tell me, What are the means of such an ascent? What the manner, what the law that joins together the steps which thy lover sets as an ascent in his heart?[532] I thirst to know the number of those steps, and the time needed for the ascent. He who knows the struggle and the vision has told us of the guides. But he would not, or rather, he could not, enlighten us any further. And this queen (or I think I might more properly say king), as if appearing to me from heaven and as if speaking in the ear of my soul, said: Unless, beloved, you renounce your gross flesh, you cannot know my beauty. May this ladder teach you the spiritual combination of the virtues. On the top of it I have established myself, as my great initiate said: And now there remain faith, hope, love—these three; but the greatest of all is love.[533] a brief exhortation summarizing all that has been said at length in this book Ascend, brothers, ascend eagerly, and be resolved in your hearts to ascend[534] and hear Him who says: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God, who makes our feet like hind’s feet, and sets us on high places,[535] that we may be victorious with His song. Run, I beseech you, with him who said: Let us hasten until we attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,[536] who, when He was baptized in the thirtieth year of His visible age, attained the thirtieth step in the spiritual ladder; since God is indeed love, to whom be praise, dominion, power, in whom is and was and will be the cause of all goodness throughout infinite ages. Amen. [1] Lit. ‘head’, Gk. kephale, commonly used as a term of endearment. [2] The words in parenthesis only occur in some texts. [3] Romans ii, II [4] Cf. Romans i, 18. [5] Angels. Lit. ‘bodiless ones’. [6] I.e. blindness, obtuseness. [7] St. John xi, 44. [8] ‘Dispassion’: Gk. apatheia, which is often misunderstood and mistranslated as ‘apathy’, ‘indifference’, or ‘insensibility’ in a Stoic sense. In ecclesiastical Greek, ‘dispassion’ means freedom from passion through being filled with the Holy Spirit of God as a fruit of divine love. It is a state of soul in which a burning love for God and men leaves no room for selfish and animal passions. How far it is from the cold Stoic conception may be seen from the fact that St. Diadochus can speak of ‘the fire of dispassion’. Cf. Step 28: 27. Throughout this translation apatheia is usually given as ‘dispassion’. [9] Exodus xvii. [10] Genesis xix. [11] Cf. St. Matthew xi, 12. [12] This means: ‘If every baptized person is not saved, so the same can be said about monks—not all who have made the vow are real monks and will be saved. But I prefer to pass over this matter in silence.’ [13] Lit. ‘slaughter’. [14] That is, revolves round itself, is self-centred. [15] This might also be translated: ‘dawdle over their training’. [16] Psalm cxl, 4. The meaning is that in the midst of his sins he makes excuses for not becoming a monk. The excuses are not for his sins, but his sins are his excuses. [17] The words in parenthesis are missing in some versions and may be an interpolation. [18] Lit. ‘go near the bed of another’. [19] Some texts add: ‘or rather, the easiness’. [20] Proverbs iv, 28. [21] Numbers xx, 57. [22] Ecclesiastes iv, 10. [23] St. Matthew xviii, 20. [24] The order of these words varies in different MSS. [25] Psalm lxii, 9. (R.V. Psalm lxiii, 8); ‘My soul followeth hard after Thee’. Using the Old Latin, Agglutinata est anima mea post Te, my soul is glued behind Thee, St. Augustine asks: ‘What is that glue? It is love.’ And St. Chrysostom compares this close union to the nails of the Cross. [26] Jeremiah xvii, 16. [27] St. Luke ix, 62. [28] St. Matthew viii, 22. [29] St. Mark x, 21. [30] St. Matthew viii, 22. [31] I.e. the story of the rich young man. [32] St. Matthew v, 3—12. [33] 2 Corinthians vi, 17. [34] St. Matthew xii, 45. [35] This is a double translation for a single Greek word xeniteia which means ‘living as a stranger’ (not necessarily as a vagrant) and might be translated ‘unworldliness’. But several considerations, notably paragraphs 6 and 22 of this chapter, have led me to think that in our author’s time the word contained a notion of movement also, and might be rendered ‘pilgrimage’. However, in the text we have kept to the word ‘exile’. [36] St. John iv, 44. [37] Romans xiv, 12. [38] Romans ii, 21. [39] ‘Dispassion’, Gk. apatheia. Jerusalem means ‘City of Peace’. The only true peace is freedom from passion, and the technical word for this is ‘dispassion’. [40] apathes, i.e. free from human emotions and feelings. [41] St. Matthew xii, 49. [42] Psalm xxiii, 6. [43] St. Matthew vi, 24. [44] St. Matthew x, 34. [45] Abraham. [46] Genesis xii, 1. [47] 1 Corinthians xv, 33. [48] ‘Worldly and disorderly’, a pun on kosmos, ‘world’ and akosmos, ‘disorder’. [49] Gk. puktai, ‘prizefighters’. [50] Exile appears to be essentially equivalent to detachment. [51] Psalm liv, 7. [52] Gk. gymnastēs, the trainer of athletes. Here it refers to the spiritual director or superior [53] Or, ‘self-rule’, ‘self-will’, ‘independence’, ‘setting your own pace’; Gk. idiorrhythmia. [54] Lit. ‘the one who arranges the contests or races, and sets the handicaps’, hence, ‘the president’, ‘umpire’ or ‘judge of the races’. [55] Romans xiv, 23. [56] Hebrews xii, 14. [57] I.e. priest-confessor. [58] Orthodox churches are divided into the narthex, the catholicon, and the sanctuary. In ancient times the unbaptized were admitted to the narthex but not to the catholicon. The robber was already in the narthex. He was halted not at the outer door but at the doors of the catholicon. [59] Psalm xxxi, 5. [60] Lit. consciousness; here it means God-consciousness. [61] Hēsychia, ‘stillness’, ‘quiet’, ‘silence’, ‘peace’; also ‘leisure’, ‘rest’ (Latin otium). From this root is derived the technical term ‘hesychasm’, the science and practice of contemplative prayer, and also ‘hesychast’, one who practises interior prayer. [62] ‘visible fire’: i.e. the bakehouse fire. [63] ‘mental activity’: Gk. noera ergasia, a common phrase for interior prayer. [64] The words in parenthesis are missing in some versions. [65] Hebrews vii, 7. [66] I.e. just as they were joined at the gate. [67] Psalm xxxix begins: ‘I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and heard my cry.’ [68] 1 Corinthians xiii, 15. [69] 2 Timothy iv, 2. [70] Romans viii, 58. [71] I.e. the feast of the Baptism of Christ, corresponding to some extent to the Western Epiphany. [72] Philippians iv, 13. [73] St. John Xlii, 35. [74] Psalm cxxxii, x. [75] Gk. akanthologēmata; this might be rendered ‘thistle gatherings’ or ‘bunch of weeds’. [76] Psalm xciv, 6 and Church Service Books. [77] Palm leaves were used for making baskets. [78] Psalm xxiii, 6. [79] Psalm xciii, 19. [80] Psalm lxx, 20. [81] Gk. hēsychastēs. [82] I.e. devil. [83] ‘Holy quiet.’ Gk. hēsychia. [84] Or, ‘dispassion’. [85] Ecciesiasticus xxxiv, 23. [86] Or, ‘hesychast’. [87] Psalm cxxxv, 23—4. [88] Ecciesiastes iv, 9. [89] St. Luke xvii, 10. [90] Cf. Job xiii, I. [91] Psalm cxlv, 8. [92] Lit. ‘a deacon’ or ‘minister’. [93] . John Cassian, Conference 2. [94] Psalm lxvii, 10. [95] Cf. Colossians ii, 24. [96] St. Matthew x, 22. [97] St. Matthew xxvi, 50. [98] Lit. ‘seal’. In the Orthodox service of Confirmation each anointing is accompanied by the words ‘The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit’. Cf. 2, Cor. i, 22. [99] Lit. ‘silence’. [100] Wisdom iii, 6. [101] In some manuscripts there is dislocation here. The first sentence of Step 5 is sometimes placed here. [102] St. John xx, 4. [103] Gk. agorastēs, the slave who did the shopping. [104] I Corinthians ii, 9. [105] Psalm vi, 1. [106] Psalm xxxvi, 6—7. [107] Psalm ci, 4—12. [108] Psalm lxxix, 4. [109] St. Luke i, 7-9. [110] Psalm lxxviii, 8. [111] Psalm lxvi, 2. [112] Psalm cxxiii, 5. [113] Judges ii, 18. [114] Cf. Isaiah xlix, 9. [115] Jonah iii, 9. [116] Cf. St. Luke xi, 8. [117] St. John v, 14. [118] St. Matthew ix, 2. [119] St. Mark v, 34. [120] Psalm ix, 18. [121] St. Matthew xxii, 13. [122] Isaiah xxvi, 10. [123] Psalm lxv, 20. [124] Psalm cxxiii, 6. [125] Psalm cxxiii, 5 [126] ‘Spiritual’ is omitted in some manuscripts. [127] Psalm cxlii, 5. [128] Psalm lxxxviii, 49—50. [129] Job xxix, 2—3. [130] Lit. ‘the sacred illness’. [131] Deuteronomy xv, 12 ff. [132] St. Mark ix, 23. [133] St. Luke vii, 47. [134] St. Matthew xxv, 29. [135] St. Matthew xix, 26. [136] Psalm xxxviii, 14. [137] St. John xx, 4. [138] I.e. that all would eventually be saved. [139] Psalm xxxviii, 4. [140] St. Matthew xxvi, 37. [141] I.e. the devil. [142] Psalm xv, 8. [143] Justinian built a fort on Mount Sinai as well as a church and monastery (Procopius, De aedificiis, V, viii). Today the fort is represented by the actual monastery; cf. E. A. Sophocles, Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (1887), Kastron, Clim. P.G., 88, 79a, 812b, ‘now the Monastery of Mount Sinai’. [144] Gk. Hellēnes. [145] Ecclesiasticus vii, 36. [146] Psalm ci, 5. [147] Lit. ‘who are being saved’. [148] St. Luke xviii, 5. [149] Job xiv, ii. [150] Another reading is: ‘how shall we sing… (Cf. Psalm cxxxvi, 4.) [151] Note in this paragraph the difference between ascetical and mystical activity. [152] Or, ‘unwavering pain of soul’. [153] 2 Corinthians vi, 14. [154] Psalm cxli, 8. [155] St. Matthew viii, 9. [156] Cf. St. Matthew xi, Il; St. Luke xvi, i6. [157] Isaiah xxxv, 10. Cf. Apocrypha vii, 17; xxi, 4. [158] Psalm cxlv, 8. [159] See above, p. 37, note 1. [160] Cf. Ezekiel xxxiii, 13—20. This ‘unwritten saying’ of Christ is recorded by St. Justin (Dial. 47). [161] Another reading is: ‘reared a leopard by hand’. [162] St. Luke xiv, 35. [163] Psalm cxliv, 18. [164] I.e. practice of mourning. [165] Psalm ci, 5. [166] Genesis xix, 30—8. ‘Materials’ that dry up tears are wine and food taken to excess, while honours, power and authority are fuel for pride. [167] Ecclesiasticus i, 22. [168] Or, ‘His coming to us’. [169] I.e. Out of the pit of anger into the precipice of gluttony. [170] Psalm vi, 8. [171] Timothy iv, 2. [172] The words in parenthesis occur only in the Russian version. [173] Our author is speaking allegorically. By ‘skin’ he means the body, by ‘oil’ he means meekness, and by ‘waves’, pride and anger. The ‘ship’ may mean the community, or brotherhood, or just a single person. [174] Or, ‘resentment’, ‘malice’, ‘rancour’, ‘spite’. [175] The ‘Prayer of Jesus’ used in the Orthodox Church is ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me’. What is said in this paragraph applies equally to the Lord’s Prayer, especially the clause ‘forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors’. [176] Vices are forms of decay or corruption. [177] Or, ‘hesychast’. [178] Cf. St Luke vi, 37. [179] Romans i, 26. [180] Psalm c, 5. [181] St. Luke vi, 37. [182] St. Matthew vii, 2. [183] Psalm lxiii, 7. [184] Psalm xxxviii, 1. [185] Ecclesiasticus xx, iS. [186] Joshua ii, 1 ff. [187] More exactly, ‘On accidie’. It means ‘languor’, ‘torpor’, ‘tedium’, ‘spiritual gloom’, ‘low spirits’, ‘indifference to the work of salvation’, ‘distaste for spiritual things’, ‘spiritual sloth’. [188] Or, ‘hesychast’. [189] Cf. Psalm xc, 6, ‘the noonday devil’. [190] St. Matthew xxv, 36. [191] Lit. ‘snatches the verse from his mouth with untimely yawns’. [192] Lit. ‘the violent’. St. Matthew xi, 12. [193] The title varies slightly in different texts. [194] The fourth century Evagrius of Pontus was a follower of Origen and was condemned with him in the 5th Ecumenical Council in 553. [195] In the Orthodox Church the Paschal Festival or Easter is known as the Feast of feasts and Triumph of triumphs. It is preceded by a fast of forty-nine days inclusive of Passion Week. There is no fasting in Easter Week, hence the glutton rejoices. [196] Or ‘images’. Gk. eidōla [197] St. Matthew vii, 13—14. [198] Psalm xxxiv, 13. [199] Texts vary here. [200] I.e. he would have lived with her as with a sister. [201] The words in brackets are not in some versions. [202] St. Gregory Nazianzen. [203] Or, ‘he is pure who expels fleshly love with divine love, and who has extinguished the fire of passion by the fire of heaven (i.e. the Holy Spirit).’ [204] Another reading of the second half of the sentence is: ‘but he whose members are subject to his soul is perfect’. [205] Lit. ‘clay’. [206] I.e. Satan. [207] Cf. St Matthew xix, 12. [208] See Step26: 127. [209] Psalm cxxvi, 1. [210] That is, the ladder of angels seen by Jacob (Genesis xxviii, 12; St. John i, 51). [211] Or, hunger, fasting. [212] St. Matthew xi, 15. [213] Ephesians v, 12. [214] Romans vii, 24. [215] I.e. St. Gregory Nazianzen. [216] Psalm lxxxviii, 49. [217] This might also be translated: ‘of the impurity of his flesh?’ The meaning would then be: ‘who will live eternally and not see the death of the impurity of the flesh?’ [218] Romans xi, 34. [219] This refers to the story of Moses (Exodus ii, 11) and the burning bush (Exodus iii). [220] 1 Corinthians vi, 18. [221] Cf. P.G., 88; col. 912, Scholion 26: ‘Heresy is a deviation of the mind from the truth and a sin of the mouth or tongue, whereas fornication is a sin of the whole body, which damages and depraves all the feelings and powers of body and soul, darkens the image and likeness of God in man, and is therefore called a fall. Heresy comes from presumption, while fornication comes from bodily comfort. Therefore heretics are corrected by humiliation, and sensualists by suffering.’ We add the gist of a Greek note in K. A. Vretos’s edition of the Ladder (Constantinople, 1883, p. 91): ‘Obviously heresy is the greatest of sins. But since the passion of fornication has a tyrannical power due to pleasure and attracts attention, it often causes men to fall after repentance. Therefore, the fornicator is debarred for periods from the Holy Mysteries, that he may not return to his vomit and jeopardize his salvation. It also serves to put fear in all, and make them struggle against their passions and use the grace of the Holy Spirit. Heresy is a mental passion that springs from error and ignorance, or from ambition and vainglory. But when the evil is removed, it no longer causes conflict or trouble. Further, spiritual education aims at cutting out evil by the root. By the practice of a strict life, fornicators are trained to forget the pleasure of lust. For whereas the evil of heresy lies only in the mind, the passion of fornication also affects the body with corruption. The man who repents of heresy is at once cleansed by turning to God with his whole personality. But one who returns to God from fornication usually needs time and tears and fasting to get rid of the pleasure and heal the wound in his flesh and stabilize his mind. If, however, both remain unrepentant, they will certainly have the same condemnation.’ [222] I.e. his body. [223] 2 See above, p.47, note 2. [224] At the time when the struggle in the blood rages’ (St. Isaac the Syrian). [225] St. Nonus, Bishop of Heliopolis; see Russian Menologium by St. Demetrius of Rostov, October 8th. [226] Cf. Step 4: 109. [227] Cf. 2 Kings xii, 34. [228] Cf. 2 Kings xi. [229] Cf. St. Luke iv, 38; St. Matthew xvi, 19. [230] Psalm xxxvi, 35—6. [231] Psalm viii, 6. [232] Cf. Step 27: 45. The ‘discerning father’ appears to be St. Mark the Ascetic in his Admonition to Nicholas (PG. 65 col. 1036 b). [233] Proverbs xiv, 6. [234] 1 Corinthians iv, 7. [235] I.e. carnal movements and impure desires (cf. Genesis iii, 21). [236] I.e. the unclean spirit. [237] Psalm vi, 3. [238] Cf. St. Luke xviii, 5. [239] Some Greek versions read ‘mother’. [240] Cf. Ephesians v, 5. [241] St. Luke xxi, 2. [242] Cf. St. Matthew v, 3. [243] ‘Accidie’. Cf. Step 13: note 1, p. 52. [244] 2 Thessalonians iii, 10. [245] Acts xx, 34. [246] The words in parenthesis are so printed in P.G. 88. [247] 1 Timothy vi, 10. [248] Loss of the fear of God is the daughter of forgetfulness, which is the daughter of insensibility. Then loss of the fear of God in turn gives birth to insensibility. [249] Some manuscripts reverse these last two sentences. [250] I.e. the gong or bell, often of wood; horns and drums of various kinds were also used. [251] Cf. St. Matthew xxvii, 46. [252] Job iv, 15. [253] Lit. ‘thoughts of evil’. [254] Isaiah iii, 12. [255] 1 Corinthians ii, 11. [256] There are inclinations which are considered virtues, yet are not, but are really gifts and advantages of nature. Many people are naturally meek, gentle, sober, courageous, modest, chaste, or silent. It is no virtue to be naturally a small eater; but it is a virtue to abstain voluntarily and by choice. [257] St. Luke xvi, 10. [258] St. Matthew xvi, 26; St. Luke ix, 25. [259] Psalm xxxix, 15. [260] Psalm lxix, 3. Cf. xxxix, 16. [261] 1 Kings ii, 30. [262] St. Luke vi, 26. [263] St. Matthew vi, 1. [264] St. Matthew v, 16. [265] St. Luke xiv, 11. [266] Or, ‘headless’, ‘headstrong’. [267] St. Luke xviii, 11. [268] James iv, 6. [269] Proverbs xvi, 5. [270] St. Augustine says that God allows the proud to fall into sin to humble them. [271] Cf. ‘I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of satan’ (2 Corinthians xii, 7). [272] I.e. Lucifer. [273] Psalm xvii, 42. [274] Or, ‘successes’, ‘achievements’, ‘exploits’. [275] St. Matthew xxii, 13. [276] Psalm lix 13; cvii 13. [277] See above, p. 76, note 2. [278] Exodus xv, 1 [279] Some versions make a new step or chapter here. [280] St. Matthew iv, 9. [281] St. Matthew iv, 10. [282] Psalm vii, 17. [283] St. Matthew xi, 29. [284] Psalm xxiv, 9. [285] Isaiah lxvi, 2. [286] St. Matthew v, 5. [287] Psalm xxiv, 9. [288] From this paragraph till the end of the step there is much dislocation of the text, and the order varies in different manuscripts [289] St. Matthew vi, 13. [290] Psalm xxxvi, 9. [291] Psalm xxxvi, 2. [292] I.e. Solomon. [293] Song of Songs, i, 3. [294] Psalm xxiv, 8. [295] Psalm vii, 11. [296] Cf. Psalm x, 8. [297] St. Matthew xix, 23. [298] St. John Chrysostom says: ‘The gifts of God are so great that people can scarcely ever believe it. And it is not surprising if they cannot understand them till they know by experience.’ (On 1 Timothy, Homily 4.) [299] I.e. humility. [300] St. Matthew xi, 29. [301] 1 Romans, X, 4. [302] I.e. humility (Psalm xli, 1). [303] Psalm cxxxv, 23—4. [304] Or, ‘the ways of God’. [305] Proverbs xvi, 5. [306] Cf. St. Matthew v, 3; St. John, iv, 14. [307] Psalm lxiv, 14. [308] Psalm cxv, 5. [309] I.e. the floor of the Red Sea. [310] Perhaps the thought of death, the last judgement or Christ’s Passion. [311] This might be either the day of Christ’s Resurrection or of His Nativity. [312] The one virtue inaccessible to the demons is humility. [313] I.e. pride. [314] Cf. 1 Timothy i, 9. [315] Psalm lx, 4. [316] Psalm lxxxviii, 23—4. [317] St. John x, 8—9. [318] Psalm cxiii, 9. [319] Psalm xxi, 26. [320] Abba Symeon, ‘Authentic Tales of the Ascetic Labours of the Holy Fathers’ (74). [321] Abba Serapion, cf. Palladius, Lausiac History, ch. 72. [322] That is to say, he who is afraid of human criticism will lack power in prayer. [323] St. John xiii, 35. [324] St. Luke x, 20. [325] Cf. St. Matthew xiii, 9. [326] 1 Corinthians iv, 4. [327] Cf. St. Luke xviii, 10. [328] Cf. St. Luke xxiii, 43. [329] John xiii, 4. [330] Job xlii, 6. [331] ‘The sacrifice for God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humble heart God will not despise’ (Psalm l, 17). [332] 2 Kings xii, 13. [333] Cf. Isaiah xiv, 12; Ezekiel xxviii, 17; 1 Timothy iii, 6; Jude vi; Revelation xii, 9. [334] Psalm xc, 13. [335] Gluttony, cupidity, vainglory. [336] Lust, anger, despair, despondency, pride (St. Gregory of Sinai, ch. 91). [337] Psalm lxxvi, 16. [338] Hebrews xii, 23. [339] Abba Leo, who redeemed three captives. See John Moschus, Pratum Spirituale, ch. 111. [340] Acts i, 1. [341] Cf. Step 13: 1 ff. And see above, p. 52, note 1. [342] Or, ‘insight’. Cf. Philippians i, 9, where the word is rendered by A.V. ‘judgment, by R.V. ‘discernment’, by Douai ‘understanding’, by Knox ‘perception’, by Moffat and Phillips ‘insight’. [343] A Russian note refers this passage to St. Nilus of Sinai (died c. 450), who was a disciple of St. John Chrysostom. [344] Another reading is ‘creation’. [345] 2 Corinthians vi, 3. [346] Cf. Psalm xc, 7. [347] Poverty, chastity, obedience against cupidity, sensuality, ambition. [348] Psalm lxv, 6. [349] Psalm lxiv, 8. [350] Psalm lxvii, 1. [351] Cf. Job xlli, 2; St. Luke i, 37, etc. [352] I.e. all the virtues. [353] Psalm vii,10. [354] Another reading is: ‘to get rich’. [355] Cf. Ephesians iv, 3; Colossians iii, 14. [356] Romans xiii, 10. [357] Psalm cii, 12. [358] Psalm lxix, 1. [359] Psalm cxviii, 42. [360] Psalm lxxix, 7. [361] Psalm xxxviii, 10. [362] Psalm xxxviii, 2. [363] Psalm cxviii, 51. [364] Ecclesiastes iii, 1. [365] Lit. ‘a time of the death of burning’. [366] 2 Corinthians i, 9. [367] The soul is immaterial. The body is material. Nothing is so opposed to the soul as the body. Nothing so disquiets and blinds the mind as fleshly impurity caused by degrading passions (Romans i, 26). Yet even natural love gives the lover a remarkable insight into the mind and heart of the beloved. Cf. St. Matthew xxiv, 15. [368] I.e. first the soul, then after the resurrection the body. [369] He calls mothers the productive virtues which bear their own. And he calls daughters those which are born of the love of God and of faith and of hope. For these are of God just as their opposites are of the enemy. And the vices likewise are productive. And just as the Lord creates the virtues in us, so the devil creates vices. [370] Deuteronomy xx. [371] Cf. Psalm xli, 1. [372] Ecciesiasticus v, 7—8. [373] Proverbs xxiv, 6. Cf. xx, 18. [374] Corinthians xiv, 40. [375] Psalm cxlii, 10. [376] Psalm xxiv, 5. [377] Psalm cxlii, 8. [378] Cf. Psalm xlviii, 4. [379] Thessalonians ii, 18. [380] Yet the devil fell from heaven. [381] Titus iii, 10. [382] Galatians vi, 9. [383] Cf. Hebrews xiii, 9. [384] Deuteronomy iv, 9. [385] St. Matthew xviii, 15. [386] St. Gregory Nazianzen, Or. 16. [387] I.e. he who merely wrestles with them. [388] I.e. he who really wages war against them. [389] Palm-leaves were used for making baskets. [390] 2 Corinthians vi, 8. [391] I.e. workers for Christ, spiritual athletes, or ascetics. [392] St. Matthew xviii, 22. [393] James ii, 10. [394] St. Matthew v, 9. [395] Psalm cxviii, 96. [396] Psalm lxxxiii, 8. [397] I Corinthians xiii, 8. [398] Psalm cxxviii. [399] Another reading is ‘food’. [400] St. Matthew xii, 40. [401] By three hours (according to Elias of Crete) is meant three kinds, three periods of temptation: first, ambition or love of glory; second, sensuality or love of pleasure; and third, cupidity or love of money (i.e. world, flesh, devil). [402] Psalm ciii, 19. [403] Psalm xvii, 12. [404] Psalm ciii, 20-3. [405] Psalm cxxv, 3-4. [406] Isaiah xix, 1. [407] Psalm cxx, 3. [408] Philippians ii, 8. [409] Colossians iii, 2. [410] Or, ‘regret’. The question proposed is whether a change of mind and purpose for the worse destroys our virtues just as a change for the better destroys our vices. [411] Or, ‘self-control’, ‘abstinence’, ‘continence’. [412] The meaning is that God uses slights, setbacks, rebuffs and other circumstances to strip us of ordinary pride, but spiritual pride requires a special act of divine intervention. [413] Cf. Step 25:8. The comparison of humility with a deer or stag is taken from ancient writers who allege that deer sense the presence of snakes and then stand over the hole and draw the reptile out by their breath. When the snake crawls out, they swallow it; but this causes such a thirst that unless they find water within about three hours, they die. Hence David says that his soul thirsts for God like a deer for water. [414] St. Matthew v, 14. [415] James iii, 5; v, 20. [416] St. Matthew v, 8. [417] Gr. hēsychia, i.e. ‘quiet’ or ‘contemplation’; this has usually been translated as ‘solitude’. [418] I.e. a hesychast, a contemplative, one who lives in solitude or holy quiet. [419] I.e. to shut up in his body, as in a house, all the powers of the soul: thought, imagination, desire, etc. [420] Variant reading: ‘and the mind of the solitary jumps over them safely’. [421] Psalm lvi, 8. [422] Song of Songs v, 2. [423] Or, ‘penitence’. Cf. St. Matthew v, 4. [424] 2 Corinthians xii, 4. [425] Job iv, 12-18. [426] St. Matthew xix, 21. [427] Matthew xvi, 24. [428] I.e. of solitude or contemplation. [429] Cf. ‘he was a burning and shining light’ (St. John v, 35). [430] The great work of quiet or contemplation is a means or cause of greater progress than the active life of a community. Pachomius’s foundation at Tabennisi was famed for its cenobitic character, whereas the desert of Scete was a centre for solitaries in the fourth century and later. [431] St. Matthew xix, 12. In the spiritual life we must begin with the humbler virtues and climb by them to the heights, just as a ladder is used to elevate one from a lower to a higher state. [432] That is, ‘I will be silent about bodily falls and mental derangements.’ [433] The words in brackets are missing in some Greek texts. [434] That is, anyone lacking the signs or proofs just mentioned cannot be called obedient. [435] I.e. pride, vainglory, sloth, despondency, and covetousness (cf. Step 26: 2). [436] I.e. gluttony, anger, lust. [437] That is, none of the activity is stolen or diverted to lower ends. [438] I.e. to the vision of God. [439] 2 Corinthians xii, 2 ff. [440] Hebrews x, 32. Cf. St. Matthew vi, 25-34. [441] I.e. John, Abbot of Raithu. [442] This patristic expression denotes the Prayer of Jesus and not the simple remembrance of the Name of Jesus. [443] St. Luke xviii, i—8. [444] I.e. Mary’s part (cf. St. Luke x, 42). [445] Psalm xlviii, 4. [446] Cf. St. Luke xxiii, 42-3. [447] I.e. the contemplative or practiser of solitude. [448] Psalm xv, 8. [449] St. Luke xxi, 19. [450] St. Matthew xxvi, 43. [451] Proverbs xxiv, 27. [452] Psalm cxiv, 5. [453] Romans viii, 18. [454] Psalm xlix, 22. [455] 1 Corinthians ix, 24. [456] St. Luke xiv, 28-30. [457] I.e. Holy Scripture. [458] James i, 22. [459] Lit. ‘by the words of health’. [460] Anagogical writings appear to mean one thing, but in reality mean something quite different. Being words of darkness, or at any rate puzzling and unclear, they may injure those who cannot go beyond the letter and proceed in the Spirit, being taken at their face value, as the Song of Songs and such like. [461] Philippians ii, 3. [462] Lit. ‘in the gatherings’, or ‘assemblies’. [463] St. Pachomius thus resisted sleep and remained in vigil. [464] In the Holy Trinity there are three Persons, but in Christ one Person; in the Trinity there is one nature, but in Christ two natures. [465] Romans xi, 34. [466] St. Matthew xi, 28-30. [467] Cf. Step 5: 25. [468] Gk. monologia, repetition of a single word or sentence. [469] 1 Timothy i 15. [470] Job xxxviii, 11 [471] I.e. God, the Sun of Righteousness. [472] Gk. monologistōs. This may mean by single words of prayer. [473] 1 Corinthians xiv, 19; the passage continues, ‘than the thousand words in a tongue’. [474] Kings ii, 9 (the Septuagint differs from the A.V. and R.V. here). [475] Cf. Acts xii, 8. [476] Psalm lxxii, 25—8. [477] St. Luke xviii, 1—7. [478] Romans viii, 26. [479] St. Matthew xix, 29. [480] A loving nature (prayer) and a fearful nature (remembrance of death), just as Christ has His divine and human natures united in one Person. [481] Job xxxix, 25. [482] I.e. fervour and tears. [483] St. Gregory Nazianzen, Or. 40. [484] Hebrews xii, 29; St. John 1, 9. [485] This refers to the power of the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. [486] St. Matthew vii, 8. [487] The shield being on the left arm, the right was the unguarded side. [488] Cf. St. Luke x, 42. [489] St. Luke xviii, 5. [490] Psalm xl, 12. [491] Psalm cxviii, 145. [492] St. Matthew xviii, 20. The two are soul and spirit. [493] Psalm xciii, 10. [494] Kings ii, 9 (cf. above, p. 121, note 3). [495] Psalm xlvi, 10. [496] St. Moses the Ethiopian or Abba Tithoe. [497] Cf. 1 Corinthians ii, 16; vii, 40. [498] St. Antony the Great. [499] St. John Kolov. [500] St. Ephraim the Syrian. [501] Psalm xxxviii, 14. [502] The point is, it is the height of temperance or self-control to master hunger which betokens a real need of nature and is therefore blameless. [503] Psalm c, 4. [504] Psalm xli, 3. [505] Galatians ii, 20. [506] 2 Timothy iv, 7. Some texts add ‘orthodox’ before the word ‘faith’. [507] St. John xiv, 2. [508] Psalm xvii, 30. [509] Cf. Isaiah lix, 2. [510] St. John i, 12. [511] Psalm xlv, 11. [512] Psalm cxii, 7—8. [513] I.e. faith, hope and love. [514] 1 Corinthians xiii, 13. [515] 1 John iv, 8, 16. [516] 1 Corinthians xiii, 5. [517] Song of Songs v, 2. [518] See above, p. 108, note 3. [519] Psalm lxxxiii, 2. [520] Psalm xli, 3. [521] Psalm cxviii, 120. [522] Song of Songs iv, 9. [523] Psalm xxvii, 7. [524] Proverbs xv, 13. [525] Cf. Exodus xxxiv; 2 Corinthians iii, 14. [526] Lit. ‘theology’. [527] Cf. James i, 21. Another reading is: ‘the consubstantial Word’. [528] Romans v, 5. [529] Or, ‘an angry man is not beautiful’ (Proverbs xi, 25). [530] Song of Songs I, 6. [531] Psalm lxxxviii, 9—10. [532] Psalm lxxxiii, 4. [533] 1 Corinthians xiii, 13. [534] Cf. Psalm lxxxiii, 6. [535] Isaiah ii, 3; Psalm xvii, 34. [536] Ephesians iv, 13.