It is indeed to be lamented that, on account of the antiquity of the codex of the monastery once of Appanis, the greater part of this sermon can in no way be read; wherefore, diminished in many of its parts in various places, we are compelled to publish it as we received it. It is there inscribed: Likewise also on Lent, Sermon VII. Although, brethren, throughout the whole time of our life we ought to strive toward the heavenly homeland, yet this is especially to be striven for by us with all our might in these holy days of Lent............ Now this number of forty days, as we have often intimated to your holiness, is mystical and consecrated in the sacred Scriptures. For you know, as we have often said, that Saint...
...Moses, in order that he might deserve to receive from Him the tablets written with the finger of God, abstained from all food and drink for the number of forty days and nights. We added also that blessed Elijah, after fasts continued for forty days, was carried up into heaven in a fiery chariot. And not by these alone, but also by other examples of the old law, we demonstrated this. Nay rather, we added the example of our very Lord and Savior, who, in order to prepare Himself for the preaching of His Gospel, abstained from all food and drink for the number of forty days and nights; whence also concerning the diabolical temptations (Here two leaves are missing in the original; then this fragment follows.) But what does it profit a man, if his body fasts from food, but his mind does not fast?
What if you abstain from foods, and do unlawful things? If you persecute the orphan, if you persecute the widow,.............................. Then will your fasts be pleasing and acceptable to God, if you restore to another what you hold; if you forgive the brother who has been troublesome to you; if you abstain from another's wife, if you bestow alms upon the poor of the things that are yours (Here fifteen lines are missing in the original.) May the divine mercy, therefore, grant these things to you, that by fasts, alms, and holy works you may deserve to obtain eternal life. Here it ends. There occurs to us another sermon, in which the traces of the antiquity of the codex of the abbey once of Saint Dalmatius, as we have often said, are recognized. For it labors under very many lacunae. In the original the title is:
Likewise also on Lent, Sermon XII. Brethren, we have already often told you how our Lord the Redeemer consecrated the days of holy Lent, of which today we attend to the beginning, and in what manner Moses too and Elijah under the Old Testament sanctified them. And indeed in those forty days, in which Moses and Elijah in the old law kept holy fasts, they, as it were, fasted a Lent, and thus prefigured, as it were, a type of the holy fast which today we begin, as we have already elsewhere set forth to your holiness.........
For if Moses, the leader and saviour of the people of Israel, who had so passed his life unstained that he deserved often to speak with the Lord face to face, as a friend is wont to speak with his friend, why shall we, who are weighed down and overwhelmed by the burden of countless sins, not keep the holy fasts? If he who was just and holy fasted, why do we, who are unjust and sinners, refuse to do so? If he who was humble, meek, and chaste fasted, why do we, who are proud, wrathful, and unrestrained, neglect to do so? If he, finally, who cleaved to God in all things and above all things with the whole affection of his mind fasted, why do we, who ever savour of earthly things, not turn to the same with the whole affection of our mind?
We are ever thinking of these earthly things, but of God never, in these days of the holy Lent by fasting. Indeed, why did Moses keep the holy fast of forty days? That he might, as the divine word says, deserve to receive the law of God. (Here three leaves are missing in the original; the ending, however, is of this sort.) Therefore, by believing and by cleaving steadfastly to good works, we shall be able to overcome the peril which we see, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it. It is finished.