Sermons 134

From the above-praised codex of the monastery of Appanni these remains of the sermons of Saint Maximus have been drawn; the title runs: Likewise, on Lent, Sermon 12. Since, brethren, on this most sacred day we undertake the beginnings of Lent, concerning the fast of Lent with your holiness... (These words have utterly perished in the original; moreover a whole leaf is wanting, and nothing else remains but the following fragment.)... therefore let the mind above all fast from evils.

For he who devoutly enjoins holy fasts upon his own body first renounces the vices to which before, in his misery, he clung; he suppresses the tinder of depraved desire, breaks the assaults of Satan against the mind, conquers blind lust, extinguishes the torches of avarice, and by good works extends more widely the force of love, and bestows the income of his own patrimony for the nourishment of the poor. And then that which he ardently desires he will surely be able to obtain, if with chastened body and devout mind each one advances through the care of holy observance. These, brethren, are the means by which a man, even when refreshed with food, often obtains what he longs for, and by fasting attains the greater rewards of holiness.

Such a fast delights Christ, to which no vain desire either of gaining temporal glory or of heaping up so great a patrimony kindles a man; but a sincere affection of religion ever urges it on, and devout... which, when the offices of full piety accompany them, as much as a man is worth, so much will he profit; and by so acting he will always at once have the Lord present and propitious. Fulfil, therefore, the offices of holy compassion, and you have sanctified your fasts. Clothe the naked; strive to receive the stranger into your lodging. (Here ten lines are wanting.) It is finished.