For by constraining yourself not to pass through the appointed office of the church without tears, you become settled in this good thing; and in the very recitation of the psalter and in the troparia which you chant, your soul is nourished, receiving unto itself their divine meanings; and your mind is borne up through the words that are spoken unto things intelligible; and weeping sweetly, you thus pass your time in the church as in heaven itself, together with the powers above.
Set this also, then, as a law for yourself, that before the final prayer you may never leave the assembly, save for great necessity or a bodily need; but remain, as we have said, persevering in your standing, since he who endures to the end, according to what is written, shall be saved.
And not only this, but first you will receive help imperceptibly, then also in a perceptible manner, and after a little while in illumination from God the Almighty.
And when the morning doxology is completed, going out immediately, do not begin to talk with this one and that, and to be distracted, and to speak idle words; but let there be for you, after praying alone in your cell your appointed prayer with tears and much attentiveness, some bodily labor; and straightway hasten off to it—if to a service, to the service; if to handiwork, to the handiwork; if to reading, to the reading.
Neither, moreover, go roaming about the monastery, nor busy yourself with those who are working or serving; but keep silence and abstention from all things, which is true expatriation.
1:2265
Πρόσεχεσεαυτῷμόνῳκαίτῷἐργοχείρῳσου, οἷονδἄνἐστι
當單單留意你自己,並留意你的手工,無論那是何種手工。
Attend to yourself alone and to your handiwork, whatever kind it may be.
For what good thing have I to say, being wholly mire and a fool? Nay, not only this, but also a stranger and unworthy to speak or to hear, or to be numbered among men?
For even if at the outset you are not able to say these things from the soul, nevertheless little by little you will come even to this, as grace works together with you.
Only hear me, the lowly one; only make a beginning in these things, brother; only begin to do and to practice and to say these things, and God will not forsake you.
And if you have been appointed to serve, stand by as one serving Christ and not men, out of a sincere disposition and love toward all as toward saints—or rather, as toward Him, as we have said—serving Christ; embracing each of them as it were with your soul, and giving over your whole self to them in purpose through love, being assured that from serving them you reap sanctification.
But if you too sit down in it with all, see what I charge you in the Lord, as my beloved father and brother: do not rashly stretch out your hand to the foods set upon the table before the older among your brethren begin to eat, before the blessing has been given from above by the priest.
And when you have begun to eat together with your fathers and brethren, attend to yourself alone, sitting in all modesty and silence, conversing with no one at all, but attending to the reading and being nourished—just as the body, so also the soul—from the God-inspired oracles of the Spirit.
For it behooves you, being twofold—of soul, I mean, and of body—to have your food and your table in a twofold and corresponding manner: having the body as sensible and earthly, to nourish it with sensible foods and with things from the earth; but the soul, being intellectual and divine, bearing it up, to nourish it with intelligible and divine viands of the words.
Who am I, the worthless and unworthy one, that I have become a fellow-sitter and table-companion with these saints? And so, saying these things within yourself, hold yourself alone to be a sinner from the soul; and just as some poor man clothed in rags, if he be found in the midst of rulers and rich men arrayed in splendid and costly robes, is ashamed and shrinks back and does not dare even to draw near to any of them or to approach—so also be you disposed toward all of them, ever choosing the last place, and being ashamed to sit above any of those who are to be seen; as though they were all rich in virtues, but you were poor and naked and unworthy even at all to be with them and to look upon them.
With what countenance—being away from the sight of my Master, I the wicked and thankless and ungrateful servant—before I have repented and fully received forgiveness from the man-loving God, as those who have not sinned, or who indeed have sinned but have repented and received forgiveness from thence—shall I too eat and drink and rejoice together with the saints?
But only for the sake of living will I eat and drink, and will waste myself away and grieve and condemn myself, that God, looking down from above and seeing my straitness and my voluntary affliction, may have mercy and forgive me my many evils.
1:2299
Ταῦτατοιγαροῦνἐνθυμοῦ, τούτωνδιηνεκῶςμέμνησο!
所以,你要思念這些事,要不住地記念這些事!
These things, therefore, ponder; of these be continually mindful!
And while you are eating, do not give heed to the thought that suggests to you to choose out some one of the things set before you and to partake of it;
but even out of these, if it should chance that there be some fruit or other of the edible things, and one of them appear pleasing to you, and the thought say to you:
Those, therefore, who wish to return to that paradise—or rather to the kingdom of the heavens—ought to keep self-control without any transgression, even in these matters, lest little by little they fall also into greater and hurtful desires.
If the brethren sitting with you urge you to eat or drink something extra, answer nothing to anyone, save that, folding your hands and rising up a little and inclining your head, you say in a gentle voice:
When you are not drinking wine, do not seek at all to receive it; but neither give it to any other of the brethren, unless it be from a guest and has come to you for some need.
he will flee from us, and whoever keeps our words, with the cooperation of God's grace, remains unwounded and unharmed by them; but the rest, though they do not know it, choose to live a worldly life under the monastic habit, and such men, falling into pits and over precipices, do not even perceive it.
Therefore, when others are seated at supper and eating, but you are not eating, whether you are serving them or not, do not forget to say these things to yourself as well:
So then, after you have risen together with the whole brotherhood, offered thanksgiving to God, and been dismissed by the priest, hasten away in silence to your cell, and having shut the door take up the book.
And when you have read a little, if it is the days of summer, recline on your mat and take a very brief sleep; for by abstaining from satiety and using a frugal table with bread, a measured amount of water, and vegetables or pulse, you will sleep less and rise more quickly. But if it is winter, after reading a little take up your handiwork and persevere in it until the wood signals the hymn-singing of the lamp-lighting office.
Then, entering again into the assembly, stand in fear and attentiveness before God, chanting psalms to Him and making confession, and by no means conversing with anyone at all.
And when the lamp-lighting office is completed, if you have the strength to practise self-control and not eat or drink at all, having resolved to eat once in the day, you will find no small profit in the standing of your evening office and in your nocturnal supplication and vigil;
but if not, then content yourself with a single dry biscuit and a single cup of water, provided this be without weakness and feebleness of your stomach.
And after you have offered the evening prayers to God together with your brothers, making a prostration at the feet of the superior as though at the very feet of Christ, and having received a blessing from him and kissed the holy images of the saints, enter in silence, in no way conversing with anyone, into your cell; and having shut the doors take up the book first, and having read attentively about three pages in it, stand for prayer, quietly chanting psalms and praying to God as though heard by no one.
For you must measure both the hymn-singing of the psalms and the number of your genuflections and the length of your standing according to your strength and manly vigour, so that you may not have your conscience as a rebuke against you, saying:
And when you have completed the prayer, read again a little, then take up also your handiwork, and pass the night in vigil until the first watch, that is, until the third hour of the night.
Then, rising thus and having performed the psalm 'Blessed are the blameless,' recline on the mat after making the sign of the cross over your whole body; and having taken sleep until midnight, you shall do thereafter in order, as was outlined for you above.
and if not, then, beloved, do not let the evening pass without doing so, but also after matins, examining yourself, disclose all the things that befall you.
And have an untaught faith toward him, even if the whole world reviles and disparages him, even if you yourself should behold him with your own eyes committing fornication; do not be scandalised, nor diminish your faith toward him, obeying Him who said:
But when you do thus each day and struggle in this manner, God will not delay to visit you from on high, but will send you help from His holy dwelling-place, and the grace of His All-holy Spirit will overshadow you.
And advancing little by little in your work, you will increase in spiritual stature and grow up into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, being illumined and, like the sun, illumining with the light of knowledge all who draw near to you and meet with you, and glorifying God both by life and by word—Him who gave you the gift of His Holy and life-giving Spirit, to whom belongs glory unto the ages.
That one must not be negligent concerning the working of the commandments of God, nor despise even one single one of them, but strive to keep them all together, lest as despisers we be shut out of the bridal chamber.
And why do we not perceive of ourselves the true power of the words of the Master and the apostles, aptly conjecturing it from the things that are seen?
So too those who are walking on a road and hastening to reach some city are not said to be saved and to reach the city to which they were journeying if they cross this river and pass over that mountain and, having got past those robbers, escape them, but afterward, meeting some other murderer or wild beast, are destroyed by it, or, having fallen into some pit, are choked to death; rather it is those who, by God's help, have escaped every trial and every deadly plot.
For if, after escaping all the adversities, they grow negligent or slothful, and night overtakes them, and the gates of the city are shut, and they are found outside it, they do not know what the coming day will bring forth.
Understand for me, then, that the city is the kingdom of heaven, the night the death of each of us, and the coming day the presence of the Lord and God, which is the day of judgement.
He, therefore, who has not been eager to hasten to be within the kingdom of heaven itself while he is still in the day of this present life, but is found outside it at the departure of his soul, upon him the night of death comes, and he does not know what will befall him on the coming day of judgement, whether he will be permitted to enter into it or not.
But even the gazelle or the deer or some other of these animals is not said to have escaped and been saved when it has fled from this or that hunter and dog, or got clear above this snare or that, but is then seized by some other and falls into their hands; rather, only when it has neither been caught at all nor held fast by any device.
And the robbers are the evil and shameful thoughts, which, falling suddenly upon the one who strives, either contrive to make him flee and break away from the community, supposing that he is thereby saving himself, or, having seized him and bound him fast by the joining and consenting of the thought and drawn the noose tight, they beat him, as it were, with the ticklings and stirrings of the flesh, and dragging him by force through unseemly desire, they cast him down into the pit of sin and over the precipice of the deed.
It is necessary, therefore, with all one's strength to abstain from all evil deeds, and to cling to all good works at once, and to perform the commandments of God with fervent longing and all eagerness, and to despise not even a single one of them, however trifling, as though it were of least account.
For to say 'Would that I had not committed this evil, that I had not done that sin, seeing that this or that is nothing' manifestly overturns all the commandments of God at once and sets itself against them.
Conceive for me, O man, a precious vessel formed out of all the commandments of God—out of faith, for instance, out of the fear of God, out of humility, out of silence from idle speech, out of obedience unto death, out of the cutting off of the inner will and movement of the heart, out of unceasing repentance and compunction, out of ceaseless prayer, out of strictness of the eyes, out of dispassion toward one's neighbour and love equally toward all, out of freedom from love of money and out of chastity, out of hope toward God and perfect love, and out of all the other virtues that accompany these.
And these all, being glued together and fitted into one with one another, fashion man, as has been said, into a serviceable vessel, into which the grace of God is poured like new wine.
Tell me, then: if a single one of the aforesaid virtues, out of which and by which the vessel was composed and fitted together, should be lacking, will God consent to pour into it any of the gifts of His Spirit at all, even though the hole of the leaf, that is, of the place of the virtue, that is wanting should seem to be very small?
How then do we, even apart from many virtues—the incorruptible and inexhaustible wealth of which we have not acquired through the working of the commandments—reckon ourselves, on account of a few good deeds, and those scattered apart from one another by our sins, to be perfect and whole vessels, and suppose ourselves to bear the Holy Spirit within us as a treasure?
But truly, according to him who said it, 'we became futile in our reasonings, and our senseless heart was darkened, and professing to be wise we became fools.'
'God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts, and we have this treasure in earthen vessels'—yet he means that our bodies are the vessels, just as he also says elsewhere:
'Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, and you are not your own?' And in saying 'earthen' he hinted at the weakness of our nature.
'Do not think,' he says, 'that the treasure in you is held together and preserved by you; rather, it is you yourself who are the more preserved by the treasure in you; by the grace within you were you fashioned into being a serviceable vessel for God.'
And the marvellous thing is that even if the vessel be shattered, not by us but by some other enemies, the treasure remains inexhaustible, and the vessel is rendered stronger and more secure by the working of the treasure;
1:2367
Ὅθενπερίτούτουὁαὐτόςἀπόστολοςλέγει·
為此,那同一位使徒論到這事說:
Whence concerning this the same apostle says:
1:2368
() ΠάνταἰσχύωἐντῷἐνδυναμοῦντίμεΧριστῷ
「我靠著那加給我力量的基督,凡事都能作。」
'I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.'
But wishing to show you the treasure—that it is none other than the One who shone, but is of equal honour and of one essence with Him—he added, saying:
'That the excellency of the power may be not from us, but from God,' who has, that is, taken up His dwelling within us through the illumination of the Spirit.
For this is the treasure: the Holy Trinity, held together indeed by us through the exact keeping of all the commandments, as has been said, but Himself holding all of us together through His own love for mankind and power and grace, keeping and guarding us on every side unwounded, unbending, and unshaken;
and when we, being weak and prone to slipping, have fallen a little short or stumbled, the treasure Himself straightway binds us up and unites us to Himself, and glues us fast to Himself, and fills up our deficiencies, and strengthens us and makes us more firm.
For this reason, then, I exhort you, brothers in Christ, to present yourselves blameless to the Lord, free from all sin, bearing with yourselves the guarding of all His saving commandments.
For thus the Artificer, God the Word, taking these up as some material heaped together out of gold and silver and precious stones, will Himself unite them all at once, and through such things fashion us into serviceable vessels.
But let us not bring some of them to Him and leave others behind, nor, when we have offered them all to Him, show ourselves negligent and contemptuous toward the Master Christ our God concerning one single one of them, lest He, being angered, dash even those others down upon us and command that we be cast out of the bridal chamber.
These things, I know, I myself first of all, lowly and utterly wretched as I am, shall hear said of me, since I have not fulfilled even a single commandment of my God.
'For to have reviled or envied, to have jested or laughed — what kind of sin, then, is that?' There are again those who reckon themselves, because they keep clear of the fleshly deeds of sin, to be as angels of God, and who foolishly think great things of themselves, yet take no account of the virtues and passions of the soul; who indeed despise all the other commandments of the Lord and do not force themselves toward their fulfillment, who decline every laborious act and hardship undertaken for the sake of God's commandment, and who pass their days free of care.
For just as he who resists and strikes back at the one who strikes him dishonors the very God who said — 'To him who strikes you on the cheek,' He says, 'turn to him the other also' — so also he who, out of a supposed long-suffering, patiently bears with one who blasphemes against God sins against the One who is blasphemed, as one taking pleasure with the blasphemer and consenting to him.
But if on this account you neglect the services enjoined upon you and the duties of the monastery assigned to you by your superior, I for my part keep silent; but you yourself know that you have heard the divine Scripture saying:
1:2402
ἘπικατάρατοςπᾶςὁποιῶντάἔργατοῦΚυρίουἀμελῶς
「凡懶惰行主工的,必受咒詛。」
'Cursed is everyone who does the works of the Lord negligently.'
But he who has set all the aforesaid things aright, and neither does any of the forbidden deeds nor condemns the negligent brethren, yet, in a time of trial — when spittings and blows and insults come upon him — if he does not bear these unruffled, or, being troubled in heart, does not utter an unseemly word but nonetheless betrays through his outward demeanor that the impulse of his soul has been stirred to anger, and answers back with an insulting word or does some other thing by way of retaliation: how will such a one ever dare to call himself a servant and an imitator of his own Master, and not rather, on the contrary, His enemy?
The friends of God, then, and those who love Him, having Him within themselves as an inviolable treasury of good things, receive such insults and contempts with unspeakable joy and gladness of heart, loving above measure, with a sincere disposition, as benefactors those who display and inflict these things upon them.
In the moment of contention and strife we are moved, as men, to anger and wrath, and there are times when we even retaliate against the brethren in words and in very deeds; yet afterward we hold no enmity against them in our soul, but forgive all — especially if we make reconciliation with one another. Such men seem to me like an unwritten writing-tablet, upon which, whenever the enemy and adversary of our souls finds his opportunity, he inscribes through those very things his wicked and defiling dogmas, and departs.