On Avoiding Human Praise and Cultivating Scripture

courage

to suffer with, and to suffer in soul.

Chapter 19. Let not mouth alone, but also heart be guarded, for at times the eye of the soul is dimmed by the eye of people-pleasing, when the mind rests. Let your mind be blind toward the most shameful things, for the Lord makes such blind ones wise, but keen-sighted toward the most beautiful things, so that it may be blind toward the worst things. Consider for me that there are two fornications yoked in distinction, that of the body and that of the spirit; when a thought of fornication mingles with your spirit, then your soul consorts with an imprint of error. A demon is formed with a woman’s face, to drug the soul into mingling with it; a bodiless demon wears a carved form, to prostitute the soul with an undisciplined thought. Do not, then, veil yourself with a non-existent idol, lest you do the like also in the flesh — such as these were led astray by a spirit of fornication, who do not scare away the inner adulteries of the spirits with the cross. Torment the thoughts with abstinence from foods, so that they speak not of fornication but of hunger; establish tears by wakefulness in prayer, so that you may receive help for the present war. In the time of the war of fornication, decline the invitations of hosts, and you will give rest to the stranger who stands by, serving him, but yourself, in a veiled manner, you will fence about with abstinence. Let your reward for both works be double, apportioning to each one the practical through virtue; do not eat with the brother for the sake of the belly, but for Christ’s sake lodge together with love. Satiety of foods feeds thoughts, and drunkenness gives drink of sleep to phantasy. Pleasure has died after the gorge of luxury, and in the tomb breathe the lewdnesses of the belly. The labors of the allotment end in rest, but the ways of luxury end in burning. He who withers the flower of the flesh by asceticism meditates daily in the flesh upon his own end. Let the reckoning of the heart measure the body, so that, if it is struck, it may not also grow weary; let the flesh be content to cut off natural things; let your bodily exercise be managed among the habits, so that you may learn to toil with the heart and to suffer with the soul.

Chapter 20. Let those who make the appearance of virtue shine in their training cast away this thought, to come to the praise of men, and let them cast it inward before the encounter. When you abstain from wine, and oil, and superfluous things for a period of time, then the thoughts calculate the times for you with praises, suggesting that you are enduring pains for the sake of those training the body. It is fitting, then, that you should answer back to the ill-disposed ones who have calculated your merits, with whatever stands against the reversal of their foolishness. Which of the brothers, being praised inwardly for his pains against demons, sang: ‘Let them turn away immediately, being ashamed, those saying to me: Well done! Well done!’ (Psalm 70:3). Let not the thought bring a many-year cycle upon you in your life of solitude, so that they might not hang your pains upon the years, nor might you be depicted as boasting in the endurance of the desert; but let it be remembered in the endurance of the worthlessness of a slave to be useless.

Because of old age, someone was forcing a certain venerable desert-dweller, a long-enduring one, to take him. And he to him said: ‘Stop, he says, the violence, for the evildoer has not been called to exile yet.’ And while this man was seeking from me the word of instruction, he said: ‘Seek, first, the innate fear through experience, and then you will find within the experienced word, the man teaching knowledge.’ And the same, being questioned also about fear, answered thus: ‘He having the care of the memory of death, is led also into the fear of judgment.’ Become a companion to the fear of the Divine Scriptures at every moment; for by the company of these Scriptures, you will lead out the conversation of thoughts. The one treasuring the Divine Scriptures by meditation in the heart, easily casts out the thoughts from this. While listening to the Divine Scriptures in nocturnal readings during vigils, let us not kill the ears with sleep, nor betray the soul to the captivity of thoughts, but let us moisten the heart with the center of the Scriptures, so that by the moistening of care we may divide the opposite neglect.

Chapter 21. Some, I say, through reputation, and not through care of the soul, are loved by the pious, so that they may acquire for themselves a world only; but he who is burning through love by the memory of heavenly things, casts out the approval of earthly things from the intention...