Ascetic Works 3-1 part 3/3

Then the mind perceives rest, when, having cut off the causes of the passions, it is occupied with contemplation; but before the cutting off of these, it perceives toil and hardship, approaching feebly the battle with the adversaries.

The elders highly approve withdrawal that comes by degrees, if indeed one who has completed the virtues in a coenobium has advanced to this;

let him test himself, to make progress in withdrawal.

But if, being unable, he is diminished in virtue, let him return to the coenobium, lest, being unable to meet the devices of the thoughts, he fall out of his wits.

Just as sons are a comfort to a mourning widow, so labours are a consolation to a soul that has fallen, which scatter the despair of the thoughts, and sow the faith of repentance, and proclaim the mercies of Christ, and renounce the sins that have been committed.

We ought not, therefore, to perform our labours merely out of habit, but also with the understanding of thanksgiving, lest the soul be found stripped of such philosophy;

for if at each deed we are conscious of the One who grants the ends of the labours, let us seal it with thanksgiving. Just as a puppy lies in wait to snatch bread from a babe, so an evil thought lies in wait to snatch understanding from the heart.

Let us not, then, act childishly, using the wickedness of contrary works, lest we surrender our soul to these beforehand for plundering.

Just as the dance of the stars, bearing torches, brightens the heaven, so the truth of words, bearing lamps, brightens the man.

Let us therefore bear upon our tongue one manner of truth, because "the Lord makes the single-minded to dwell in a house."

Just as fierce lightnings leaping forth foretell thunder, so also precise sayings drawing near presage faith.

Let us therefore be zealous to be faithful to the truth, that we may also advance to love, the mother-city of the virtues.

As the sun with its golden-gleaming rays smiles upon all the earth, so love with its light-bearing deeds rejoices over every soul;

and if we hold fast to it, we have quenched the passions, and have shone forth into the heavens.

You will undertake every labour until you attain holy love, because, when it is absent, of the present things there is no benefit.

For anger grows fierce, and characters become harsh, and labours, growing presumptuous, are mingled with vainglory.

For the humbling of the soul David fasted with mourning, and let us also humble the soul through fasting.

Let him who is trained more rigorously in bodily labours neither work for praise nor be exalted by glory;

for if in these things the demons make the soul lift its brow,

and reinforce the harshness and the asceticism of the body with vainglory, and draw him on to lay hold of greater labours, so that he may also be the more exalted;

for they confer within through the thoughts, casting in these things: that "Just as so-and-so, having practised asceticism most rigorously, was named greatly, and even dead is still spoken of, so do you too ascend to the highest peak of asceticism, that you may win glory for yourself, and your name may go out great, so as to be spoken of surpassingly even after death."

Indeed, through those thus deceived, they not only war against your bodily labours, but rather call them into alliance, because through them they touch the soul in graver matters; for they enthrone him, and exalt him to the office of teaching, that thereby he may be lauded as holding the first rank among the great labourers and the men of knowledge.

And they cast in envy and jealousy toward those who are lauded for their achievements, and whose practice is the more admirable, and to whom knowledge is near at hand.

And there are times when they even lull to sleep the burning of his flesh, craftily banishing the unclean thoughts from within, so that it may be supposed that the spirit of fornication has been conquered in his portion, and that, according to the brightness of the saints, he has purified his heart, and has ascended to the very dome of holiness.

And concerning the foods he ate, and from which he abstained, and the continuous fasts, they reckon up for him the periods in which he ought, like a champion, to boast, and to exalt himself over the brotherhood as worthless;

"I have suffered hardship,"—silencing him still from saying this: "Yet not I, but the help that is in me."

For they do not allow him to confess God as helper in the things wherein they make him boast greatly, so that, having accomplished the whole of the contests as it were by his own strength, he may demand the praises of the struggles wholly for himself, and so be plunged into the abyss of blasphemy, presenting himself, without perceiving it, as his own helper.

Thus, then, when the heart is echoed by the glory of the thoughts and does not resist, it will not be outside the hidden derangement of the wits, the ruling faculty of the mind being in danger of being shaken out—whether through dreams that gain credence, or in transformations during wakefulness, or in appearances under the changed form of light.

For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light for our deception, perhaps pretending that he will give charisms, that, falling down, you may worship him; or proclaiming as good news that you will be taken up like another Elijah; or promising to sanctify you—the faith of which some, having received it, have missed the mark concerning the truth, and have become deranged in mind.

You therefore, O suppliant of the Holy Trinity, knowing these things in which you labour diligently, guard your heart with all watchfulness, lest, attending only to the outward labours, you be craftily ensnared in the inward.

These my words, O child, have been spoken to you; let your heart keep my sayings;

remember Christ who guards you, and do not forget the adorable and consubstantial Trinity, to whom be glory unto the ages.