The Practice

1The Practicus of the monk Evagrius. Since you previously revealed to me — I dwelling in the Skete on the holy mountain — most desired brother Anatolius, and requested that the symbolic habit of the monks in Egypt be made clear to you, for you have not considered it without reason nor superfluous, having such a variation from the other habits of men: come, let us declare whatever we have learned from the holy Fathers concerning this.

The hood is a symbol of the grace of our Savior God, covering their ruling faculty and sheltering the infancy in Christ against those constantly attempting to strike and lash. Therefore, those who carry this upon their head sing these things by power: ‘Unless the Lord builds a house and guards a city, in vain has the builder labored and he who attempts to keep watch’ (Ps 127:1). And such voices indeed produce humility, but they uproot pride, that ancient evil, which cast down into the earth the Morning Star rising in the morning.

And the bareness of the hands shows the sincerity of the way of life; for vainglory is terrible, covering and overshadowing the virtues, always hunting the honors from men and driving away faith. For how can you, he says, believe, receiving honor from one another and not seeking the honor from the only God? For the good must be chosen not through another but rather through itself; for if this were not granted, that which moves us toward the work of the good would appear much more precious than the thing produced — which would be among the most absurd things, to conceive and to say that anything is better than God.

And the mantle, entwined crosswise about their shoulders, is a symbol of the faith in Christ which takes up the gentle and always prunes away what hinders, providing them the work unhindered. And the belt, tightening around their loins, repels all impurity and commands this: ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman.’

Those who always carry the death of Jesus in their body and silence all the irrational passions of the body, while cutting off the soul’s evils by participation in the good, possess the sheepskin; they love poverty and flee greed as the mother of idolatry. The staff is the wood of life to all who hold fast to it, and secure for those who lean upon it as upon the Lord. The shape of these things is a symbol, as in summary, of the realities; these are the words which the Fathers always say to them: the fear of God makes faith firm, children, and self-control makes this fear firm again, and patience and hope make it unshakeable — from which dispassion is born, whose offspring is love, and love is the door of natural knowledge, which theology succeeds, and the door of final blessedness.

Let enough be said to us regarding the holy habit and the teaching of the elders in the present matter. But concerning the life both practical and contemplative we now discourse, not as much as we have seen or heard, but as much as we have learned from them to say to others — dividing the practical matters concisely into one hundred chapters and the contemplative into six hundred and fifty; having concealed some and shadowed others, so that we might not give holy things to dogs nor cast our pearls before swine (Matt 7:6). These things will be manifest to those who have stepped into the same track.

THE SAME PRACTICAL LOGOS — 100 CHAPTERS. 1 Christianity is a doctrine of our Savior Christ composed of the practical, the natural, and the theological. 2 The kingdom of heaven is the dispassion of the soul with true knowledge of beings. 3 The kingdom of God is knowledge of the Holy Trinity co-extended with the constitution of the mind, surpassing its incorruptibility. 4 Whomever one loves, for him he also reaches out, and whatever he reaches for, for that he...

2One struggles to encounter them. Indeed, desire rules over every pleasure, but sensation gives birth to desire; for what is without sensation is free from passion. For recluses the demons wrestle naked, but for those working out virtue in communities or companies they arm the less attentive of the brothers; and the second war is much lighter than the first, because it is not possible to find on earth men more bitter than demons, or all at once receiving their malice.

Concerning the eight logismoi: Eight are all the most general logismoi, in which every logismos is contained. First is that of gluttony, and after it that of fornication; third is that of avarice; fourth is that of sorrow; fifth is that of anger; sixth is that of acedia; seventh is that of vainglory; eighth is that of pride. Whether these all trouble the soul or do not trouble it is not up to us; but whether to let them linger or not, or to move passions or not to move them, is up to us.

The logismos of gluttony suggests a rapid fall to the monk of asceticism: picturing stomach and liver and spleen and dropsy, and a long disease, and scarcity of necessities, and helplessness of physicians. And it often brings him to the memory of certain brothers who have fallen into these passions. And there is a time when it even persuades him to compare those very sufferers with those exercising self-control, and to recount their own misfortunes, and how from asceticism they have become such.

The demon of fornication compels to desire different bodies; and he stands against those exercising self-control more fiercely, so that, accomplishing nothing, they may give up; and defiling the soul he bends it down toward those activities, making it say certain words and again hear, as if the matter were seen and present. Avarice suggests long old age and weakness of hands for work, and famines to come and diseases to befall, and the bitterness of poverty, and how shameful it is to receive from others the things for need.

10 Sorrow sometimes occurs by deprivation of desires, and sometimes it follows anger. By deprivation of desires it occurs thus: certain thoughts, having gone before, lead the soul into the memory of house and parents and former way of life. And when they see it not resisting but following, and being poured out in the pleasures according to the mind, then taking it they baptize it in sorrow, as if the former things did not exist nor could any longer exist through the present life; and the wretched soul, as much as it was poured out upon the former thoughts, so much was it contracted upon the second ones, having been humbled.

11 Anger is the sharpest passion; for it is called a heating and movement of temper against the one who has done wrong or is thought to have done wrong; which all day long makes the soul savage, but especially in prayers snatches away the mind, mirroring the face of the one who caused the grief. And sometimes, lingering and changing into wrath, it provides disturbances by night, wasting of the body and paleness, and attacks of venomous beasts. These four things, happening after wrath, one might find accompanied by more thoughts.

12 The demon of acedia, who is also called the noonday demon, is the heaviest of all demons; and he stands over the monk around the fourth hour, and circles his soul until the eighth hour. And first he makes the sun appear slow-moving or motionless to behold, showing the day as fifty hours. Then he compels him to look constantly toward the windows and to leap out of the cell, to gaze at the sun how far it is from the ninth hour, and to look here and there whether any of the brothers comes. Furthermore, he instills hatred toward the place and toward life itself, and toward the work of the hands; and suggests that love has departed from among the brothers and there is no one encouraging; and if during those days someone has grieved the monk, the demon adds this too to the increase of hatred. And he leads him also and

3A desire for other places, in which the things for need are easily found and a more convenient and advancing craft is attained; and he adds that it is not possible to please the Lord in the present place; for everywhere, he says, the divine is to be worshipped. He connects this with the memory of one's own people and of the former way of life; and he traces out a long duration of life, bringing the labors of asceticism before the eyes; and he moves the whole so-called mechanism so that the monk, having abandoned the cell, may flee to the stadium. After this demon another demon does not immediately follow; but a certain peaceful state and unspeakable joy succeeds the soul after the struggle.

13 The thought of vainglory is extremely subtle, and stands beside those who succeed, wishing to publish their struggles readily and hunting the honors from men, fashioning crying demons and women being healed and a certain crowd touching his garments; and finally it predicts priesthood to him, and sets those seeking him at the doors; and how, were he unwilling, he will be led away a prisoner. And having thus made him hang in mid-air with empty hopes, it flies away, leaving him either to the demon of pride to tempt him, or to that of sorrow, which also brings upon him thoughts contrary to his hopes; and sometimes it even hands over to the demon of fornication the one who a little before was a prisoner and a holy priest.

14 The demon of pride becomes the procurer of a most severe fall for the soul; for it persuades it not to confess God as helper, but to think itself the cause of its successes, and to puff itself up against the brothers as if they were senseless, because they do not all know this about it. And anger and sorrow follow upon this, and the final evil: derangement and madness and a multitude of demons seen in the air.

15 Regarding the eight thoughts: Reading, wakefulness, and prayer steady the wandering mind; hunger, toil, and withdrawal wither the inflamed desire; psalmody, patience, and mercy calm the swirling thumos; and these become effective when done in proper times and measures; for the immeasurable and the untimely are short-lived, and the short-lived are rather harmful and not useful.

When our soul reaches for various foods, then let it be confined to bread and water so that it may become thankful, even for the bare morsel itself; for satiety desires various delicacies, but hunger counts satiety with bread to be blessedness.

The lack of water contributes greatly to temperance; and let the three hundred Israelites with Gideon who subdued Midian persuade you (Judges 7:7).

Just as for life and death to occur together in the same person is among impossibilities, so for love to coexist with money in someone is among impossibilities; for love is destructive not only of money but even of our fleeting life itself.

He who flees all worldly pleasures is a tower unapproachable to the demon of sorrow; for sorrow is deprivation of pleasure, whether present or expected. But it is impossible to drive away this enemy while we have any attachment to earthly things; for there he sets his snare and works sorrow where he sees us most inclined.

Anger and hatred increase thumos; but almsgiving and gentleness diminish the present one.

Let the sun not set upon our provocation, so that the demons, standing by at night, may not terrify the soul and make the mind more cowardly for the coming day toward the battle; for fearful phantasms naturally arise from the disturbance of thumos; and nothing else makes the mind such a deserter as disturbed thumos.

Whenever the irascible part of our soul, having seized a pretext, is disturbed, then the demons also suggest withdrawal to us as something good, so that we may not free ourselves from disturbance by resolving the causes of sorrow. But when the desiring part is heated, then again they make us, the humane ones, harsh, calling us harsh and wild, so that of bodies...

4Desiring, we encounter bodies. Whom we must not obey; but rather do the opposite.

Do not give yourself to the thought of anger, fighting in your mind against the one who caused grief; nor again imagine more pleasure for the thought of fornication; for the one darkens the soul, while the other calls the soul toward the burning of passion; both make your mind dirty. And imagining images even at the time of prayer and not offering a pure prayer to God, you immediately fall to the demon of acedia, who most especially leaps upon such states and tears the soul like a prey, like a dog.

It is the nature of thumos to fight with demons and to contend for any pleasure. Therefore the angels, suggesting to us spiritual pleasure and the blessedness from it, urge us to turn our thumos against the demons; but those others, dragging us toward worldly desires, force thumos to fight against humans contrary to nature, so that the mind, being darkened and falling away from knowledge, becomes a traitor to the virtues.

Take care of yourself lest you provoke any of the brothers to flee in anger, and you may not escape in your life the demon of sorrow, which always becomes a stumbling block to you at the time of prayer.

Gifts extinguish grudges; and let Jacob persuade you, who with gifts approached Esau, who had come out to meet him with four hundred. But we, being poor, let us satisfy the need at the table.

When we fall to the demon of acedia, then dividing the soul with tears, let us make the one part entreating and the other part being entreated, sowing good hopes for ourselves and chanting the holy David: Why are you so sorrowful, my soul, and why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I shall still praise him; the salvation of my face and my God.

It is not necessary during the time of trials to leave the cell, fashioning seemingly reasonable pretexts, but to remain within.

To stand firm, to endure, and to receive bravely all things that come, but to exclude entirely the demon of acedia, which being the heaviest above all, most especially makes the soul well-tested. For fleeing such struggles and being surrounded unskillfully teaches the mind to be cowardly and a deserter.

And our holy and most practical teacher said: Thus the monk must always prepare himself as if he were to die tomorrow, and again to use the body as if he were to live in it for many years. For the former, he says, cuts off the thoughts of acedia and prepares the monk more urgently; the latter preserves the body safe and always maintains its temperance equally.

It is difficult to escape the thought of vainglory; for what you do toward its destruction, this becomes for you a beginning of another vainglory. And not against every right thought of ours do the demons oppose, but these evils also occur according to the ways we have been qualified.

I recognized the demon of vainglory to be pursued by almost all among the demons, and shamelessly standing over the falls of those pursuing virtue, displaying to the monk a greatness of virtues. He who has touched knowledge and reaps the pleasure from it will no longer be persuaded by the demon of vainglory, even when bringing to him all the pleasures of the world; for what could he promise greater than spiritual contemplation? Insofar as we are without taste of knowledge, we eagerly work out the practical life, showing our purpose to God that we do all things for the sake of his knowledge.

Remember your former life and the ancient failings, and how, being passionate, by Christ's mercy you crossed over to dispassion, and how again you came out of the world which humbled you many times and often. And consider this for me too: who is the one guarding you in the desert, and who is the one driving away the demons gnashing their teeth against you? For such thoughts indeed produce humility, but they do not admit the demon of pride.

5Regarding passions: 34 Of the things whose memories we hold as passionate, the realities we previously received with passion; and as many realities as we again receive with passion, of these we shall also hold the memories as passionate. Hence he who has conquered the active demons scorns those acted upon by them; for the immaterial war is harder than the material. 35 The passions of the soul have their starting-points from men; but those of the body from the body; and the passions of the body self-control cuts short, but those of the soul spiritual love. 36 Those set over the psychic passions persist even unto death; but those over the bodily withdraw more quickly; and the other demons are like the rising or setting sun, touching one part of the soul; but the noonday one is accustomed to encompass the whole soul and to suffocate the mind. Therefore withdrawal is sweet after the emptying of the passions; for then the memories are only bare; and the wrestling is no longer for combat, but prepares the monk for contemplation of it. 37 Whether thought moves the passions, or the passions thought — this must be attended to; for to some the former seemed true, to others the latter. 38 The passions are naturally moved by the senses; and when love and self-control are present they will not be moved, but when absent they will be moved; and thumos needs more remedies than desire, and for this reason love is called great, because it is a bridle for thumos; this too that holy Moses in natural symbols called serpent-fight. 39 The soul tends to kindle toward thoughts against the prevailing stench among the demons, when it perceives them approaching, having been qualified by the passion of the troubler.

Counsels: 40 It is not possible at every time to fulfill the accustomed rule, but one must pay attention to the time and attempt to do the possible commandments as much as possible; for the demons themselves do not fail to recognize such occasions.

Hence, moving against us, they hinder the things possible to be done, and compel us to do the things not possible to be done; for they hinder the sick from being thankful in their pains and from being patient with those who serve them; but they urge the listless to practice self-control again, and prompt those standing heavy-laden to sing.

When we are forced to stay for a little while in cities or in villages, then especially, holding more firmly to self-control, we will be with worldly people, lest our mind, having grown dull and been deprived of its accustomed care due to the present occasion, do something unintended and become a fugitive, cast down by the demons.

One should not pray while being tempted, before saying some words with anger toward the troubler; for your soul having been qualified by the thoughts, it follows that your prayer will not even be pure; but if you say something to them with anger, you confound and obliterate the notions of the adversaries. For anger is naturally able to work this even upon superior notions.

It is also necessary to recognize the differences of the demons and to mark their times; we shall know from the thoughts, and the thoughts from the realities, which demons are rare and heavier, which are continuous and lighter, and which are those suddenly rushing in and snatching the mind toward blasphemy. It is necessary to know these things, so that when the thoughts begin to move their own matter, before we are cast far from our own state, we may say something to them and signal the present one; for in this way we ourselves may easily advance with God, and make those, marveling at us and in pain, take flight.

When the demons, struggling against the monks, are unable, then retreating a little they watch to see which of the virtues has been neglected in the meantime.

6Having suddenly entered there, they seize the struggling soul. The evil demons draw their even more evil demons to their aid; and while opposing one another according to their dispositions, they agree only upon the destruction of the soul.

But let not the demon who snatches away the mind toward blasphemy against God and toward those unmentionable fantasies which I have not dared to hand over even by writing trouble us, nor let him cut off our readiness; for the Lord is a searcher of hearts and knows that, even while being in the world, we never raved with such madness. The aim of this demon is to make us cease from prayer, so that we may not stand before the Lord our God, nor dare to stretch out our hands, against whom we have thought such things.

For the passions in the soul are signaled either by some word brought forward beforehand, or by a movement of the body occurring, through which the enemies perceive whether we have their thoughts within us and are in travail, or whether, having rejected them, we are anxious for our salvation. For God who made us alone knows the mind, and he himself does not need signals to know the things hidden in the heart.

For those in the world, the demons wrestle more through external things, but for the monks, mostly through thoughts; for through external things they are lacking because of the desert. And as it is easier to sin by thought than by deed, so much more difficult is the war by thought than that composed of external things; for the mind is a movable thing and difficult to settle against lawless fantasies.

We have not been commanded to work continually and to keep watch and to fast, but it has been legislated for us to pray unceasingly; for those heal the passive part of the soul but need our body for the work, which through its own weakness is not sufficient for the labors; but prayer strengthens the mind and prepares it pure for the struggle, being by nature fitted to pray even apart from this body, and to fight the demons on behalf of all the powers of the soul. If any of the monks would wish to make trial of wild demons and to get a habit of their craft, let him guard his thoughts, and let him mark their intensifications, and the...

Seek from Christ the words concerning these things: the movements, the transmigrations, the times, which demons are doing these things, and which demon a person follows, and who follows whom. For they rage greatly at those pursuing the practical life more knowingly, wishing to shoot down in the moonless night those upright in heart.

You will find two very sharp demons almost running ahead of the movement of our mind: the demon of fornication and the one seizing us toward blasphemy against God; but the latter is short-lived, while the former, unless it moves the thoughts with passion, will not hinder us from the knowledge of God.

To separate body from soul belongs only to him who bound them together; but to separate soul from body belongs also to the one who longs for virtue. For our Fathers name withdrawal the practice of death and flight from the body.

Those who nourish the flesh badly and make provision for it unto desires, let them blame it; for those who have acquired the soul's dispassion through this body and apply it to the contemplation of beings know the grace of the Creator.

Regarding what happens in dreams: When the demons, fighting in the dream-phantasies against the desiring part, themselves show — but we run toward — gatherings of acquaintances and banquets of relatives and dances of women, and all other such things productive of pleasures, in this part we are sick and the passion is strong. When they again disturb the irascible part, forcing us to walk on precipitous paths, bringing armed men and venomous and flesh-eating beasts, while we are terrified by the paths and flee, pursued by the beasts and men, let us make provision for the irascible part, and calling upon Christ in vigils, let us use the aforementioned remedies.

The imageless natural movements of the body in sleep indicate to some extent that the soul is healthy; but fixation of images is a sign of sickness; and consider the indefinite faces a sign of the old passion, and the defined ones a symbol of the fresh wound.

The proofs of dispassion are, by day, through the thoughts, and by night...

7Through dreams we come to know these things. And we say that dispassion is health for the soul, and knowledge its nourishment, which alone is accustomed to join us to the holy powers, if indeed union with the incorporeal naturally comes about from a similar disposition.

There are two peaceful states of the soul: one rising from the natural seeds, the other supervening from the withdrawal of the demons. Upon the former follow humility with compunction, and a tear and an infinite longing toward the Divine, and an immeasurable zeal for the work; upon the latter, vainglory with pride, drawing the monk down through the destruction of the other demons. Therefore, he who keeps the boundaries of the former state will more keenly recognize the attacks of the demons.

The demon of vainglory opposes the demon of fornication, and for these to attack a soul together is among impossibilities; if indeed the one promises honors, the other becomes a procurer of dishonors. Whichever of these, then, having approached, presses you, fashion, supposedly, within yourself the thoughts of the opposing demon; and if you can drive out, as the saying goes, nail with nail, know that you are near the boundaries of dispassion; for your mind has been strong enough to annihilate the thoughts of demons with human thoughts. But to repel the thought of vainglory through humility, or the thought of fornication through sobriety, would be the deepest evidence of dispassion. And try to do this against all the demons opposed to one another; for at the same time you will also know by which passion you have been more qualified. But as much as possible, ask from God to defend against the enemies in the second way.

As much as the soul advances, so much greater adversaries succeed it; for I am not persuaded that the same demons always remain with it; and this is known most by those who apply themselves more keenly to temptations, and see their present dispassion being pried out by the successors. Perfect dispassion comes to the soul after the victory over all the adversaries in the practical struggle against the demons; but imperfect dispassion is so called with respect to the power, for now, of the demon wrestling with it.

The mind would not advance, nor would it journey that beautiful journey, and come to be in the land of the incorporeal, without having set its inner things right; for the disturbance of its own things tends to turn it back toward those from which it had departed.

Both virtues and vices make the mind blind: the former, so that it may not see vices; the latter, so that it may not again see virtues.

Regarding the signs of dispassion: When the mind begins to perform the prayers without distraction, then the whole war is established regarding the irascible part of the soul, both at night and by day.

A sign of dispassion is a mind beginning to see its own light, remaining quiet toward the phantasms of sleep, and beholding realities smoothly.

The mind is strong imagining nothing of this world during the time of prayer.

A mind having accomplished the practical with God and approached knowledge perceives little or not at all the irrational part of the soul, knowledge seizing it aloft and separating it from sensible things.

A soul has dispassion, not one that does not suffer with respect to things, but one that remains undisturbed even with respect to their memories.

The perfect does not practice self-control, and the dispassionate does not endure, if endurance belongs to the one suffering, and self-control to the one being tossed about.

Great indeed is to pray without distraction, but greater is to also sing without distraction.

He who has established the virtues within himself, and having been wholly mixed with these, no longer remembers law or commandments or punishment, but says and does whatever the best state dictates.

Practical insights: The demonic songs move our desire, and cast shameful phantasies into the soul; but the psalms and hymns and the spiritual songs always call the mind to the memory of virtue, cooling our boiling thumos and withering the desires.

If wrestlers consist in pressing and counter-pressing, and the demons wrestle with us, then they themselves, pressing us, are counter-pressed by us. For I shall press them out, he says, and they will not be able to stand. And again: those pressing me and my enemies themselves grew weak and fell.

Rest is joined with wisdom, and toil with prudence; for there is not...

8To acquire wisdom without war is impossible, and one cannot win the war without prudence; for this is entrusted to resist the thumos of the demons, forcing the powers of the soul to act according to nature and making the way of wisdom easy. 74 A temptation is a monk's thought ascending through the passive part of the soul and darkening the mind. 75 Sin is a monk's assent of the thought toward a forbidden pleasure. 76 Angels rejoice when evil is diminished, but demons when virtue is; for the former are servants of mercy and love, while the latter are obedient to anger and hatred; and the former, approaching, fill us with spiritual theoria, while the latter, approaching, cast shameful fantasies into the soul. 77 Virtues do not stop the impulses of the demons, but they preserve us innocent. 78 Practical method is a spiritual method cleansing the passive part of the soul. 79 The workings of the commandments are not sufficient to perfectly heal the powers of the soul, unless fitting theoriai also succeed the mind. 80 It is not possible for us to resist all the thoughts cast at us by angels, but it is possible to overthrow all the thoughts from demons; for a peaceful state follows the former thoughts, but a disturbed one the latter. 81 Love is the offspring of dispassion; and dispassion is the flower of practice; and practice is established by the keeping of the commandments; and the guardian of these is the fear of God, which is the offspring of right faith; and faith is an inward good, which is naturally present even in those who do not yet believe in God. 82 Just as the soul acting through the body perceives the weak members, so the mind, acting, knows its own proper energy and its own powers, and through what obstructs it discovers the soul's therapeutic commandment. 83 The mind, waging the passionate war, will not behold the logoi of the war; for it is like one fighting in the night; but having acquired dispassion, it will easily recognize the methods of the enemies. 84 The end of practice is love; the end of knowledge is theology; the beginnings of both are faith and natural theoria; and as many as

The text ends abruptly with 'and as many as' (καὶ ὅσοι).

On the one hand, as many demons as touch the passive part of the soul are said to oppose practice; but as many as disturb the rational part are named enemies of all truth and contrary to theoria. None of the things that defile bodies associates thereafter with the purified; but the virtues both purify the soul and remain with the purified.

By nature, the rational soul acts when its desiring part reaches for virtue, its spirited part struggles on its behalf, and its rational part applies itself to the theoria of things that have come to be. He who progresses in practice diminishes the passions, while he in theoria diminishes ignorance; for of the passions there shall one day be a total destruction, but of ignorance, of the one they say there is an end, of the other that there is not.

The goods and evils beyond use become productive of virtues and vices; it belongs to prudence to use these toward other ends. Since the rational soul is threefold according to our wise teacher, when virtue comes to be in the rational part, it is called prudence, understanding, and wisdom; when in the desiring part, temperance, love, and self-control; when in the irascible part, courage and endurance; but in the whole soul, justice. And the work of prudence is to strategize against the opposing powers, to defend the virtues, to array oneself against the vices, and to manage the intermediate things according to the seasons; of understanding, to harmoniously manage all things contributing to us toward the goal; of wisdom, to behold the logoi of bodily and incorporeal things; of temperance, the work is to look dispassionately at the things that move irrational imaginations within us; of love, to present itself to every image of God as nearly like the prototype, even if the demons attempt to defile them; of self-control, to shake off all pleasure of the throat with joy; not to fear enemies and to bravely withstand the terrible belongs to endurance and courage; of justice, to produce a certain concord and harmony of the parts of the soul.

Sheaves are the fruit of seeds, and knowledge of virtues; and as tears follow seeds, so joy follows sheaves.

9It is necessary to inquire about the ways of the monks who have progressed rightly and to be set straight by them, for many things may be found said and done well by them. Among these, one of them says that the drier and not irregular diet, yoked with love, quickly brings the monk into the harbor of dispassion.

And the same elder delivered a brother troubled at night by phantasms, commanding him to serve the sick with fasting; for in no other way, he said when asked, are such passions quenched than by mercy.

One of the wise of that time approached the righteous Antony and said: How do you endure, O father, deprived of the consolation of books? And he says: My book, philosopher, is the nature of created things, and it is possible whenever I wish to read the logoi of God.

The Egyptian elder Macarius, a vessel of election, asked me: Why is it that, bearing grudges against men, we destroy the memory-power of the soul, but bearing grudges against demons, we remain unharmed? And when I was perplexed at the answer and begged to learn the reason, he said: Because the former is contrary to nature, but the latter is according to the nature of thumos.

10I visited the holy father Macarius at the very midday, and burning exceedingly with thirst I asked for water to drink; but he says: Be satisfied with the shade; for many now traveling or sailing are lacking even this.

Then, while I was speaking words to him concerning training in self-control: Take courage, he says, child, in twenty whole years I have taken no satiety of bread, nor of water, nor of sleep; for I ate my bread by weight, I drank water by measure, and leaning myself against the walls, I snatched a small part of sleep.

The death of his father was announced to one of the monks; but to the one who announced it he says: Stop blaspheming; for my father is immortal.

One of the brothers asked one of the elders whether he orders him, on visiting the house, to eat with his mother and sisters; but he said: With a woman you shall not eat.

One of the brothers possessed only a gospel, and having sold it he gave it for food to the hungry, uttering a word worthy of remembrance: For I, he says, have sold the very word that says to me: Sell your possessions and give to the poor.

11There is an island near Alexandria, situated on the northern part of the lake called Maria, where the most approved monk of the camp of the gnostics lives alone; he determined that all things performed by the monks are performed for five reasons: through God, through nature, through habit, through necessity, and through the works of the hands.

The same one said again that virtue is one by nature, but is given form in the powers of the soul; for the solar light is formless, he says, but it is naturally shaped together with the windows through which it enters.

Another of the monks said: For this reason I cut away pleasures, he said, so that I might cut off the pretexts of thumos; for I know him always fighting for the sake of pleasures, disturbing my mind and driving away my knowledge. And one of the elders said that love does not know how to keep deposits of food or money. The same one says: I do not know, having been deceived twice in the same way by demons. All...

12On the one hand, it is not possible to love the brothers equally, but it is possible to encounter all dispassionately, being free of grudge and hatred. One must love the priests after the Lord, those cleansing us through the holy mysteries and praying for us; and one must honor our elders as the angels, for they are the ones anointing us for the struggles and healing the bites of wild beasts.

But now, let these things have been said to you regarding practice, most desired brother Anatolius — as many things as by the grace of the Holy Spirit, gleaning while our grape was ripening at sowing-time, we have found. But if the sun of righteousness shall shine steadily upon us and the cluster becomes ripe, then we shall also drink its wine which gladdens the heart of man, through the prayers and intercessions of the righteous Gregory who planted me and of the now-holy Fathers who water me, and by the power of Christ Jesus our Lord who makes me grow, to whom be glory and dominion for the ages of ages. Amen.