Institutes & Conferences 2 part 2/15

For it is necessary that one who renounces this world, endowed with any possessions and riches whatsoever, should so seek the dwelling of the coenobium that he flatter himself in nothing out of those things which he left behind or brought into the monastery; that he so obey all, that he know he must return, according to the sentence of the Lord, to his former infancy—presuming nothing to himself by consideration of age or by the multitude of his years, which he reckons that he has lost, spent vainly in the world, but rather, on account of the merit of a beginner and the newness of the recruit's service, which he recognizes himself to be undertaking in the warfare of Christ, let him not delay to subject himself even to those younger than himself.

He is also compelled to undertake the habit of labor and sweat in such a way that, providing with his own hands, according to the Apostle's precept, his daily sustenance—whether for his own uses or for the needs of those who come—he may be able both to forget the pride and delights of his former life, and to acquire humility of heart by the contrition of labor. And therefore no one is chosen to preside over a congregation of brethren before he who is to be set in charge has learned by obeying what he ought to command those who are to obey, and has attained, from the institutions of the elders, what he ought to hand down to the younger. For they declare that to govern well or to be governed belongs to a wise man, and they define it to be the highest gift and grace of the Holy Spirit.

For neither can anyone appoint saving precepts for those who obey, except one who has first been instructed in all the disciplines of the virtues; nor can anyone obey an elder, except one who has been perfected, consummate in the fear of God and in the virtue of humility. And therefore we see diverse forms and rules adopted throughout the other provinces, because for the most part we, being ignorant of the instruction of the elders, dare to preside over monasteries and, having professed ourselves abbots before we are disciples, we appoint whatever has pleased us, being more ready to exact the observance of our own inventions than to preserve the tested doctrine of our forefathers.

But while we wish to explain the manner of prayers which above all ought to be observed, being too eagerly provoked by the institutions of the fathers, we have by a too hasty digression anticipated a narration which we were reserving for its proper places. Now therefore let us return to our proposition. Therefore throughout all Egypt and the Thebaid, as we have said, the number of twelve psalms is observed both in the evening and in the nightly solemnities, in such a way, at least, that after this there follow two lessons, one each of the Old and of the New Testament.

This manner, anciently established, therefore endures inviolate even to this day through so many ages among all the monasteries of those provinces, because it is affirmed to have been appointed by the elders not by human invention, but to have been brought down from heaven to the fathers by the teaching of an angel.

For when, in the first beginnings of the faith, but few—yet those most approved—were reckoned by the name of monks, who received their rule of living, as it were, from the Evangelist Mark of blessed memory, who was the first bishop to preside over the city of Alexandria, they retained not only those magnificent things which we read that the Church, or the multitudes of believers, at first celebrated in the Acts of the Apostles (namely, 'the multitude of believers was of one heart and one soul, neither did any of them say that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, selling them, brought the prices of the things which they sold, and laid them before the feet of the Apostles:'

'and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need'), but they had also heaped up things far more sublime than these. For, withdrawing into the more secret places of the suburbs, they led a life so strictly bound by rigor of abstinence, that even to those who were strangers to their religion the profession of their so arduous manner of life was a cause of amazement.

For with such fervor did they apply themselves day and night to the readings of the divine Scriptures, and to prayer, and to the work of their hands, that not even the appetite or the memory of food would interrupt them, unless on the second or third day the hunger of the body called for it; and they took food and drink not so much as desired but as necessary, and not even this before the setting of the sun—so that they might join the time of light with the pursuits of spiritual meditations, but the care of the body with the night; and they accomplished other things far more sublime than these. Concerning which even he who has learned less from the report of the natives may be instructed by ecclesiastical history. In that time, then, when the perfection of that primitive Church—

—while it still endured inviolate in a memory yet fresh among their successors, and the fervent faith of the few had not yet grown lukewarm by being dispersed into a multitude—the venerable fathers, with vigilant care taking counsel for those who should come after, met together to deliberate what manner should be decreed for the daily worship throughout the whole body of the brotherhood, so that they might transmit even to their successors an inheritance of piety and peace, freed from all strife of dissension; fearing, namely, lest some discord or variety, arising at any time in the daily solemnities among men who shared the same worship, should hereafter send forth the seed of error, or of rivalry, or of harmful schism.

And since each man, according to his own fervour and forgetful of another's weakness, judged that a rule ought to be established which he reckoned very easy in the confidence of his own faith and strength, giving too little thought to what was generally possible for the whole body of the brethren -- among whom the greater part must of necessity be found to consist of the weak -- they contended to institute an enormous number of psalms in diverse ways according to the vigour of their own spirit: some judged that fifty psalms should be said, others sixty, while some, not content even with this number, held that it ought to be exceeded. And there was among them, in the matter of the rule of religious life, a holy disagreement of pious contention, so that the hour of the most sacred evening solemnity came upon them while the question was still unsettled, when they were desiring to celebrate the daily rites of prayer.

One rose up into the midst to chant the psalms to the Lord. And while all were seated -- as is still the custom to this day in the regions of Egypt -- with their whole heart's attention fixed upon the words of the one chanting, he sang eleven psalms, separated by the interposition of prayers, with continuous verses in an even delivery; and completing the twelfth with the response of Alleluia, he was suddenly withdrawn from the eyes of all, and thus at once put an end both to the question and to the ceremonies.

Thereupon the venerable senate of the fathers, understanding that by the teaching of the angel a general rule had been appointed for the congregations of the brethren not without the dispensation of the Lord, decreed that this number should be kept both in the evening and in the nocturnal assemblies. To these they added two lessons, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New, joining them as though handed down by themselves and as it were beyond the ordinary rule, for those only who so wished and who by constant meditation strove to possess the memory of the divine Scriptures. But on the Sabbath day and on the Lord's day they recite both from the New Testament: one from the Apostle or from the Acts of the Apostles, and the other from the Gospels.

This also those do throughout all the days of Pentecost who have a care for reading or for the memory of the Scriptures. These aforesaid prayers, therefore, they begin and end in this manner: when the psalm is finished they do not at once fall down to the bowing of the knees, as many of us do in this region, who, before the psalm is well ended, hasten to prostrate ourselves in prayer, pressing on as quickly as possible to the swift completion of the office. And while we wish to exceed its measure, which was of old established by our elders, reckoning up the number of the remaining psalms, we are driven to hurry toward the end, thinking rather of the refreshment of our weary body than seeking the profit and advantages of prayer.

Among them, however, it is not so; but before they bend their knees they pray a little while, and standing they spend the greater part of the time in supplication. And so, after this, for a very brief moment they fall to the ground, as though only adoring the divine mercy, and rise again with the utmost speed; and once more standing erect with hands outstretched, they linger in their prayers in the same manner as they had before prayed while standing. For they say that one who lies prostrate too long upon the ground is assailed more grievously not only by wandering thoughts but also by sleep. Would that we too did not know this to be true by experience and by daily habit -- we who, often prostrate on the ground, desire this very bowing of our limbs to be prolonged the longer, not so much for prayer's sake as under the pretext of refreshment.

But when he who is to gather up the prayer has risen from the ground, all rise together at the same moment, so that no one presumes either to bend the knee before he inclines, or to tarry when he has risen from the ground, lest he be thought not so much to have followed the conclusion of the one who gathers up the prayer as to have celebrated his own.

That practice too which we have seen in this province -- that when one is chanting, at the close of the psalm all who stand by sing together with a loud voice, 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit' -- we have nowhere throughout all the East heard; but rather, in the silence of all, when the psalm is finished by the one chanting, a prayer follows, while it is customary for the antiphon to be concluded only with this glorification of the Trinity. And since the order of the subject has led us on consequently to the manner of the canonical prayers -- of which, although we reserve a fuller treatment for the Conferences of the elders, where we shall set them forth more fully when we begin to discuss their quality and continuance in the words of those men -- nevertheless I think it necessary, as the occasion of the place and of the narrative itself has thus offered, even at present to touch briefly on a few points, so that, forming meanwhile the movements of the outer man and, as it were, laying now certain foundations of prayer, we may hereafter with less labour, when we begin to treat of the state of the inner man, also raise up the heights of his prayers.

Above all providing for this: that if the end of our life, coming beforehand, should shut us out from that narrative which we desire, God willing, to set forth at the fitting time, we may at least leave to you in this work the beginnings of a matter so especially necessary -- for those who burn with desire everything is too slow -- so that, while the respite of this present sojourn is granted us, we may at least meanwhile sketch beforehand certain outlines of prayer, by which those especially who dwell in the coenobia may be able to some extent to be instructed.

At the same time also making provision for those who perhaps, coming upon this book only, will not be able to reach that other one, so that they may be found imbued, even in this part, with instruction concerning the quality of prayer; and just as they have been instructed concerning the habit and clothing of the outer man, so also they may not be ignorant of how they ought to present him for the offering of spiritual sacrifices. For indeed these little books, which at present we are arranging, with the Lord's help, to hammer out, will be more suitably fitted to the observance of the outer man and to the institution of the coenobia; but those others will pertain rather to the discipline of the inner man and to the perfection of the heart, and to the life and teaching of the anchorites.

When, therefore, they come together to celebrate the aforesaid solemnities, which they call the synaxis, so great a silence is maintained by all that, although so numerous a multitude of brethren assembles into one place, no man whatever is believed to be present except the one who, rising up, chants the psalm in the midst -- and especially when the prayer is being completed.

During it no spitting is sent forth, no clearing of the throat is heard to disturb, no cough breaks in, no sleepy yawn is drawn out with gaping and slackened jaws; no groans, no sighs are uttered even by the bystanders such as would hinder others; no voice at all is heard except that of the priest concluding the prayer -- unless perhaps such a sound as has escaped the enclosure of the mouth through an ecstasy of mind, and which has crept imperceptibly upon the heart when the spirit is kindled with an immoderate and intolerable fervour, while it strives to breathe out through a certain unutterable groaning, from the inmost chambers of its breast, those things which the enkindled mind cannot restrain within itself.

But the man who, set in a lukewarmness of mind, supplicates with a loud cry, or sends forth from his throat any of those things we have mentioned above -- and especially one who is overcome by yawning -- they declare to sin in two ways: first, because he is guilty in regard to his own prayer, in that he plainly offers it negligently; secondly, because by his undisciplined noise he also interrupts the attention of another who perhaps could have prayed more intently. And therefore they enjoin that the prayer be concluded with a swift ending, lest, if we linger in it, some overflow of spittle or phlegm interrupt the ecstasy of our prayer.

And therefore, while it is still fervent, it must be snatched up swiftly, as it were, from the very jaws of the enemy; who, since he is ever hostile to us, then stands by most hostile of all, when he perceives that we wish to offer prayers to the Lord against him -- hastening, by stirring up thoughts or various humours, to lead our mind away from the intent of supplication, and thereby striving to cool it from the fervour it had begun. For this reason they judge it more profitable that prayers be short indeed, but very frequent: on the one hand, that by more frequently beseeching God we may be able to cleave to Him continually; on the other, that by concise brevity we may escape the darts of the ensnaring devil, which he presses to inflict upon us especially when we pray.

And therefore they are not eager to conclude even those very psalms, which they chant in the congregation, with a continuous delivery, but according to the number of verses they complete them divided by two or three breaks with the interposition of prayers, distinctly and part by part. For they are delighted not by the multitude of verses, but by the understanding of the mind, pursuing with all their strength that saying: 'I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind.'

And so they hold it more profitable that ten verses be sung with reasonable articulation than that a whole psalm be poured out with confusion of mind -- which is sometimes produced by the haste of the one reciting, when, considering the measure and number of the remaining psalms that are to be chanted, he takes no care to lay open the distinction of the senses to his hearers, but hastens to arrive at the end of the synaxis.

Finally, if any of the younger men, whether through fervour of spirit or because he is not yet trained, begins to exceed the measure of chanting, the progress of the one chanting is cut short by a clap of the elder, who, giving it with his hand upon the seat on which he sits, makes all rise to prayer -- providing above all that no weariness be produced in those sitting by the prolixity of the psalms, whereby he who chants not only loses through himself the fruit of understanding, but also incurs damage through those whom he has caused, by his excess, to run into a loathing of the synaxis. This too is observed among them with all diligence: that in the response of the Alleluia no psalm is said except that which is marked in its title with the inscription of Alleluia.

But the aforesaid number of twelve psalms they so divide that, if there be two brethren, they each chant six; if three, four each; if four, three each. Below which number they never chant in the congregation, and likewise, however great a multitude may have assembled, they never chant more than four brethren in the synaxis. This canonical number of twelve psalms, which we have mentioned, they relieve with such rest of the body that, when they celebrate these same solemnities of the congregations after their custom, all -- except the one who has risen up to say the psalms in the midst -- sitting upon very lowly seats, hang upon the voice of the one chanting with the whole attention of the heart.

For they grow so weary with fasting and with the labour of the whole day and night, that unless they were aided by refreshment of this kind, they could not accomplish even this number standing. For they allow no time to pass free from the exercise of work, because they strive not only to exercise with all urgency by their hands those tasks which the brightness of day permits, but they also seek out with anxious mind those kinds of labour which not even the thickest darkness of night itself can hinder -- believing that they will attain a so much loftier and purer contemplation of spiritual things in the mind's gaze, the more devoutly they are set upon the pursuit of work and of toil.

And therefore they judge a moderate number of canonical prayers to have been divinely appointed, so that for those more ardent in faith a space might be reserved, in which the tireless course of their virtue might extend itself, and yet, for the weary and sick bodies, no loathing might be begotten from excess.

And so, when the offices of the canonical prayers have been finished according to their custom, each one, returning to his own cell -- which he is permitted to inhabit either alone or with only one other, namely one whom the fellowship of work, or the training of discipleship and the instilling of discipline has joined to him, or at any rate one whom a likeness of virtues has made his equal -- they again celebrate the same office of prayers more diligently, as a kind of private sacrifice; nor thereafter is any of them relaxed into the rest of sleep, until, with the brightness of day coming on, the daily work succeeds to the nocturnal labour and meditation.

This labour, besides that reason by which -- striving with all their industry -- they believe themselves to offer a sacrifice to God from the fruit of their hands, they keep with all observance for two causes. Which we too, if we are zealous for perfection, it behooves to observe with the same diligence. The first: lest perchance the envious enemy, grudging our purity -- against which he ever especially lies in wait and is unceasingly hostile -- should defile by some illusion of sleep the purification acquired by us through the nocturnal psalms and prayers.

For he, after that satisfaction which we have offered for our negligences and ignorances, and after the pardon of our confession implored with copious groanings, hastens all the more anxiously to stain us, if he finds a time of rest -- striving then especially to cast down and unnerve our confidence, when he perceives us tending more fervently toward God through the purity of our prayers; so that sometimes those whom he could not wound through the whole space of the night, he attempts to dishonour under the very brief time of that hour. But the second cause: that, even though no such dread illusion of the devil should arise, an intervening pure slumber may bring forth sluggishness in the monk who is soon to awake.

And, bringing a sluggish torpor upon the mind, it blunts its vigour throughout the whole space of the day, and dulls that keenness of perception and drains away that richness of heart which is able to keep us more cautious and more robust through the whole day against all the snares of the enemy. Wherefore, to the canonical vigils they subjoin private watches of their own, and these succeed the former with greater observance, so that both the purification which has been acquired by psalms and prayers may not perish, and a more intent solicitude, to guard us more diligently through the day, may be prepared by nocturnal meditation. And therefore they carry these out with the addition of work, lest sleep should be able to creep upon them as though idle.

For just as scarcely any time of leisure is excepted by them, so neither is any end set even to spiritual meditation.

For, exercising equally the virtues of body and soul, they balance the wages of the outer man with the profits of the inner man; fixing the weights of works, against the slippery motions of the heart and the unstable fluctuation of thoughts, like a certain tenacious and immovable anchor, to which the volubility and roving of the heart, being bound, may be kept within the enclosure of the cell as though in the most trusty harbour; and thus, being intent only upon spiritual meditation and the guarding of thoughts, it may not only not allow the ever-watchful mind to fall into consent to any evil suggestion, but may also guard it from every superfluous and idle thought -- so that it can scarcely easily be discerned by anyone which depends upon which: that is, whether it is for the sake of spiritual meditation that they exercise the incessant work of their hands, or whether it is by reason of the continuance of work that they acquire so illustrious a progress of the spirit and light of knowledge.

When, therefore, the psalms are finished and the daily congregation, as we have mentioned above, is dismissed, none of them dares to stay behind even for a little, or to converse with another; nor, throughout the whole space of the day, does he presume to go forth from his cell or to forsake the work which he is accustomed to exercise in it -- unless perhaps they be summoned to the office of some necessary work. This they perform, having gone outside, in such a way that no conversation at all is joined among them.

But each one so carries out the work enjoined upon him that, by rehearsing from memory some psalm or portion of Scripture, he gives no room or time not only to a harmful conspiracy or to evil counsels, but not even to idle conversations -- the office of both mouth and heart being continually occupied in spiritual meditation. For it is guarded with the utmost observance that no one be caught, together with another -- and especially the younger men -- to have stood still even for a moment together, or to have withdrawn anywhere, or to have held one another's hands.

But if any be found to have committed something of those things which are forbidden, contrary to the discipline of this rule, as contumacious men and transgressors of the commandments, pronounced guilty of no light fault, they cannot be free even from the suspicion of conspiracy and of evil counsel. Which fault, unless they wipe away by public penance with all the brethren gathered together into one, none of them is permitted to be present at the prayer of the brethren. Indeed, if anyone for any committed offense has been suspended from prayer, no one whatever has license to pray with him, before his reconciliation and the pardon of his offense has been publicly granted by the abbot in the presence of all the brethren, with penance submitted to the ground.

For on this account, with such observance, they separate and set themselves apart from the fellowship of his prayer, because they believe that he who is suspended from prayer is, according to the Apostle, delivered over to Satan; and that whoever, moved by inconsiderate piety, should presume to communicate in his prayer before he is received back by the elder, makes himself a partner in his condemnation -- delivering, namely, himself voluntarily to Satan, to whom that other had been assigned for the amendment of his guilt: incurring thereby an even far graver crime, in that, by mingling himself with the other in the communion either of conversation or of prayer, he begets in him a greater kindling of insolence and nourishes the contumacy of the offender unto worse.

For, granting a pernicious solace, he will make his heart more and more hardened, and will not suffer him to be humbled on account of that for which he had been separated; and thereby he will make him either to make no great account of the elder's rebuke, or carelessly to think of satisfaction and pardon.

But he to whom the summoning of the religious assembly, or the care of the synaxis, is committed, does not presume to rouse the brethren also to the daily vigils at random, as it pleases him, nor just as he happens to have been awakened in the night, or as the opportunity of his own sleep or wakefulness exhorts him; but, although the daily custom compels him to awake at the usual hour, nevertheless, anxiously and frequently exploring by the course of the stars the time appointed for the congregation, he invites them to the office of prayers -- providing that in neither respect he be found incautious: whether, oppressed by sleep, he pass beyond the appointed hour of the night, or, about to sleep and hastening to slumber, he anticipate that same hour, and be believed not so much to have served the spiritual office or the rest of all, as to have satisfied his own repose.

XVIII. This too we ought to know: that from the evening of the Sabbath, which dawns into the Lord's day, until the following evening, among the Egyptians the knees are not bent -- nor even throughout all the days of Pentecost -- nor is the rule of fasting kept on those days. The reason for these matters will be set forth in its proper place in the Conferences of the elders, when the Lord shall so command. Now it is our purpose only to run through the causes in a brief narrative, lest, exceeding the chastened measure of the volume, it burden the reader either with weariness or with toil. ON THE CANONICAL MANNER OF THE DAILY PRAYERS AND PSALMS. CHAPTERS. I. On the solemnity of the third, sixth, or ninth hour, which are observed in the regions of Syria. II.

That among the Egyptians, without any distinction of hours, throughout the whole day they persist continually, with the addition of work, in prayers and psalms. III. That throughout all the East the solemnity of the third, sixth, or ninth hour is finished with only three psalms and prayers, and why these spiritual offices are more especially assigned to these hours. IIII. That the morning solemnity was not established by ancient tradition, but was devised in our own time for a certain reason. V. That after the morning prayers one ought not to return to sleep. VI. That nothing has been changed by the elders concerning the ancient order of the psalms, when the morning solemnity was established. VII.

That for him who has not come to the daily prayer before the first psalm is finished, it is not permitted to enter the oratory; but in the nocturnal offices there is a pardonable delay up to the end of the second psalm. VIII. What measure of time the vigils, which are celebrated from the evening as the Sabbath dawns, should keep, or in what order they should be celebrated. VIIII. Why the vigils were appointed as the Sabbath day dawns, and why throughout all the East the release from fasting is undertaken on the Sabbath day. X. Whence it came about that in the City fasting is observed on the Sabbath day. XI. In what respect the solemnity of the Lord's day is held to differ from the custom of the other days. XII.

On what days, when supper is set before the brethren, no psalm is said by those coming to the refection, as is wont to be done at the midday meals. Concerning the nocturnal manner of prayers and psalms, which is held throughout Egypt, I think, God granting it, that it has been dealt with as far as the slenderness of our ability has prevailed. Now we must discourse concerning the solemnities of the third, sixth, and ninth hours according to the rule of the monasteries of Palestine or Mesopotamia, as we said beforehand in the prologue -- moderating the perfection of the Egyptians and the inimitable rigour of their discipline by the institutes of these.