The fourth century
1. The mind, when it thinks about the divine, is first of all boundlessly amazed that He is wondrously beyond grasp and desirable; second, it wonders at how God brought all beings from nothing into being. But as “of his greatness there is no end” (Ps. 144:3), so His wisdom too is beyond grasp.
2. How shall the mind not be amazed when it beholds the ungraspable and amazing Cause of good? How shall one not be astonished at the thought of from what and whence, or from what body, the speaking and reasoning being and the four elements came into being, when before their coming into being there was no matter at all? What is the power that by its working brought them into being? But the Greeks do not acknowledge this, since they do not know the almighty goodness of God, the life-giving power and the mind that surpasses all wisdom and understanding.
3. God, who is Creator from eternity, when He wills by His boundless goodness, then creates by His consubstantial Word and Spirit. But do not ask: how does He who is eternal Goodness appear as Creator only now? For I too tell you that the ungraspable wisdom of the beginningless Being is not subject to human knowledge.
4. The Creator brought into effect the knowledge of all beings that existed in Him from eternity, and accomplished it in deed when He willed. For it is impossible, with regard to the almighty God, to doubt that He can accomplish what He wills and when He wills.
5. Enquire into what God made each thing for, since this can be known. But how, and why not earlier — do not enquire into this, because it is beyond the grasp of your mind. For of divine things some are accessible to the human mind and others inaccessible. And the straining of the mind, if you do not bridle it, may cast you into an abyss, as one of the saints (Gregory the Theologian) has said.
6. Some say that creatures co-existed with God eternally; but this is impossible. For how could beings limited in every way exist together with the Being boundless in every way, and how would they be creatures if they abode eternally with the Creator? But this is an invention of the Greeks, since for them God is the Creator not of essences but only of qualities. But we confess God as almighty and say that He is the Creator not only of qualities but of beings that have qualities. If this is so, then creatures did not exist with God from eternity.
7. God and divine things are in part knowable and in part unknowable. They are knowable by the contemplation of what surrounds God, and unknowable in what He is in Himself.
8. In the simple and infinite nature of the Holy Trinity do not seek any disposition or capacity, lest you make it compound like created things, which is folly and an action unworthy of God.
9. The simple, of one form, without qualities, peaceful, untroubled and calm is the one boundless, almighty and all-holding Being. But every creature is compound by reason of essence and accidents and, being subject to change, always needs the providence of God.
10. To every thinking and feeling being, when it was brought into being, God gave the power of receiving impressions from things: the thinking being received the power of thought, and the feeling being the power of sensation.
11. God only imparts, while the creature both receives and imparts: it receives being and good, and imparts only good; but one kind is the bodily being and another the bodiless.
12. The bodiless being imparts good both by word and by deed and in their contemplation, while the bodily being imparts it only in their contemplation.
13. The eternity and the non-being of a reasoning and thinking being depend on the will of Him who created everything good; while the being of the evil and the good, from their freedom, depends on the will of these creatures.
14. Evil is not in the nature of created things but in their sinful and senseless action.
15. The soul acts prudently when its power of desire is marked by self-restraint, its anger is zealous in love and rejects hatred, and its power of reason abides with God by prayer and spiritual contemplation.
16. He does not yet have perfect love and a deep knowledge of God’s providence who, in the time of trial, when misfortune befalls, is not long-suffering and loses his love for his spiritual brethren.
17. The aim of God’s providence is to unite again, by right faith and spiritual love, those who have been scattered by the devil. For the Saviour too suffered in order “that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:52). So whoever does not want to bear misfortune, to carry trial, to endure sickness, walks outside the love of God and outside the aim of His providence.
18. “If love suffereth long, and is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4), then does not one who in the time of trial is faint-hearted, embittered against those who grieve him and refuses his love for them, fall away from the aim of God’s providence?
19. Look into yourself: is it not in you, and not in your brother, that the evil is hidden which has parted you from him? Hasten to be reconciled with him, lest you fall away from the commandment of love.
20. Do not be negligent about the commandment of love, for by it you become a son of God, while by falling away from it you will be a son of Gehenna.
21. Love between friends goes out: if you envy or are envied, if you do harm or suffer it, if you insult or bear insult, and finally if you have and nurse suspicions against your brother. So have you not done or suffered something like this, for which you have renounced your love for your friend?
22. If a trial has come to you from a brother and offence has led you to hatred, do not be overcome by hatred, but overcome hatred with love. And you will be able to overcome it thus: pray sincerely to God for your brother; if he asks, forgive him, or by asking forgiveness heal him yourself; count yourself the cause of the trial and wait patiently for the clouds to pass.
23. Long-suffering is he who endures trial to the end and receives the reward for patience.
24. “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding” (Prov. 14:29), for he links every event with its end and in expectation of it bears every trial. And “the end,” in the words of the apostle, is “everlasting life” (Rom. 6:22). “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
25. Do not hasten to renounce spiritual love, for people have been left no other way of salvation.
26. The one whom yesterday you counted a spiritual brother and good, do not count today wicked and evil because of the hatred born in you by the working of the devil. But with long-suffering love, thinking on yesterday’s good, drive today’s hatred out of your heart.
27. The one whom yesterday you praised as good and extolled as of high character, do not now revile as wicked and evil because your love has turned into hatred. But remain still his praiser, even if you are still seized with anger — and you will be able to return to saving love.
28. Because of the offence against your brother which is still in you, do not change your usual praise of him, in conversation with other brethren, into hidden blame; but speak of him with sincere praise and pray diligently for him as for yourself — and you will soon be freed from destructive hatred.
29. Do not say, “I do not hate my brother,” when you do not even want to remember him; consider what Moses says: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and there shall be no sin in thee” (Lev. 19:17).
30. Though because of some trial your brother speaks ill of you unceasingly, do not leave off your love for him and do not let that same evil spirit trouble your thoughts. You will not lose this love if, insulted and slandered, you pray for him and do him good. Such is the wisdom of the love of Christ, and whoever walks this way will come to the Lord.
31. Do not count as well-wishers those who tell you things that breed in you offence and enmity toward your brother, even if you think that what they say is true. Keep away from such as from poisonous snakes, so as both to bridle their evil talk and to deliver your own soul from bitterness.
32. Do not wound your brother with veiled words, lest you receive the same from him and thereby love be driven out of you both; but go and reprove him with love (Matt. 18:15), so that he may root out the causes of anger, and by this deliver both yourself and him from turmoil and offence.
33. Examine your conscience in detail: is it not your fault that your brother is not reconciled? And do not by wrong reasoning reject the reproof of conscience, which sees even your hidden things and can reprove you at your departure from this world and hinder you in the time of prayer.
34. In the time of peace do not recall what your brother said of you in the time of unpleasantness — whether he said it to your face or said it to another and you learned it afterwards; lest by the remembrance of what was bad the destructive hatred of your brother return to you.
35. A reasoning soul that nurses hatred toward a person cannot be at peace with God, who gave this commandment: “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15). If your brother does not want peace, still keep yourself from enmity by sincere prayer for him, and speak ill of him before no one.
36. The indescribable world of the holy angels exists by these two dispositions: by love for God and by love for one another; and from the beginning the world of the saints is like this too. So the Lord truly tells us: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:40).
37. Do not think of yourself alone — and you will not be a hater of your brother; do not be a lover of self — and you will become a lover of God.
38. When you want to live with spiritual brethren, renounce your own wishes at their door, for otherwise you will not be able to live in peace either with God or with those you live with.
39. He who has gained perfect love and has directed his whole life by this way “calls Jesus Lord by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 13:3). Otherwise the opposite is the case.
40. The love of God loves to give the mind wings, so that it may speak of God and of divine things; while love of one’s neighbour always thinks good of him (of one’s neighbour).
41. The lover of vain glory, or one bound to something material, is angry with people over what is passing, or speaks ill of them, or hates them, or becomes a slave to foul thoughts. But to one who loves God all this is foreign.
42. When you neither say nor do anything shameful even in thought, when you do not speak ill of the one who has grieved you or who speaks ill of you, when during prayer your mind is always free of things and of representations, know that you have reached the limit of dispassion and perfect love.
43. Freedom from the love of honour is an important labour, which is attained by the hidden fulfilling of the virtues and by frequent prayer; and the sign of such freedom is when we do not speak ill of those who speak ill of us.
44. If you want to be righteous, render to each part of yourself, that is, to soul and body, what it deserves: to the reasoning part of the soul, reading, spiritual contemplation and prayer; to the incensive part, spiritual love, which is the opposite of hatred; to the desiring part, dispassion and self-restraint; and to the body, food and clothing as much as is necessary.
45. The mind acts according to its nature when it holds the passions in check, contemplates the meaning of all beings and abides with God.
46. As health and sickness are imprinted in the body of a living person, and light and darkness in the eyes, so virtue and vice are imprinted in the soul, and knowledge and ignorance in the mind.
47. A Christian is made wise in these three ways: by the commandments, by the doctrines and by faith. The commandments free the mind from the passions, the doctrines help in the knowledge of truth, and faith assists in the contemplation of the Holy Trinity.
48. Some labourers drive away only passionate thoughts, while others cut off the passions themselves; passionate thoughts are driven away either by psalmody, or by prayer, or by the thought of God, or by some other like action; while the passions are cut off by disregard of the things toward which the passion strives.
49. There is a passion for a woman, for property, for fame and so on. To disregard a woman and to count her as nothing may be reached by one who, together with renouncing the world, strives to temper the body by self-restraint as he ought; to disregard property, if he persuades his desire to be content with what he has; to disregard fame, if he comes to love the hidden fulfilling of the virtues, so that what he has done is known to God alone. So also with the other passions. Whoever disregards all these passions will never come to hate anyone.
50. The renunciation of earthly things — a woman, property and the rest — still makes a monk of the outward man, not of the inward. But the renunciation of passionate thoughts makes a monk of the inward man, that is, of the mind. To make the outward man a monk is easy — the chief thing is to want it; but great toil is needed to make the inward man a monk.
51. He who is in this state is wholly free from passionate thoughts and has attained pure prayer, free from everything (which is the sign of inward monasticism).
52. Many passions are hidden in our soul, and they come to light when the object of the passion appears.
53. Perhaps some, who have in part attained dispassion, are not troubled by passion when the object of the passion is absent; but as soon as the object appears, the passion at once begins to tempt the mind.
54. When the object of passion is absent, do not count yourself wholly dispassionate. But when the object appears and neither it nor the memory of it has any effect on you, know that you have reached the limit of dispassion. But even then do not be careless, since a long virtuous life does lessen the passions, but in case of negligence they show themselves again.
55. He who truly loves Christ imitates Him as far as he can. And Christ unceasingly did good to people; then, when He received ingratitude and blasphemy from them, He bore it with long-suffering; He bore both blows and death, repaying no one with evil. These three actions are the expression of love for one’s neighbour, without which whoever says that he loves Christ and will enter His Kingdom deceives himself, for the Lord tells us: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). And again: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me” (John 14:15, 21), and so on.
56. The aim of the Saviour’s commandments is to free the mind from hatred and want of restraint and to impart to it the love of God and of one’s neighbour, which gives birth to the light of holy active knowledge.
57. You who have been made worthy by God of a certain knowledge, guard love and self-restraint, since they, cleansing the passionate part of your soul, clear the way for you to the knowledge of what is due.
58. Dispassion and humility are the road leading to knowledge, without which “no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
59. Since “knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Cor. 8:1), gain love with understanding — and you will be a stranger to pride, will become a spiritual builder, and will teach both yourself and others who draw near to you.
60. Love edifies because it does not envy, is not angry with the envious, and does not declare publicly what deserves envy. Love does not consider that it has attained perfection (Phil. 3:12), and, when it does not know something, is not ashamed to confess its ignorance. In this way it keeps the mind from pride and always helps it to make progress in knowledge.
61. Usually knowledge, especially at the beginning, is accompanied by pride and envy. The showing of pride is inward, while that of envy is both inward and outward: inward (from me) in those who have knowledge, and outward (toward me) from those who do not have knowledge. But love disregards all three of these vices: pride, since it is not puffed up; inward envy, since it does not envy; and outward envy, since it “suffereth long, and is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4). So one who has knowledge should gain love too, so that it may keep the mind unharmed in every respect.
62. He who has been made worthy of the gift of knowledge but carries anger, remembrance of wrongs and hatred toward people is like one who gouges out his own eyes with thorns and briars. So love is necessary for knowledge.
63. Do not always care for the body, but appoint for it such labour as it can bear, and direct your whole mind to what is within. For “bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things” (1 Tim. 4:8), and so on.
64. He who looks into his own soul and cares for it unceasingly is dispassionate, long-suffering, merciful, humble, and not only this, but he contemplates, speaks of God and prays. This is what the apostle means in the words: “Walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16), and so on.
65. He who does not know the spiritual way does not fight against passionate thoughts but pampers the body wholly: he gives himself to gluttony, lives dissolutely, is hostile, angry, resentful, and so darkens the mind; or else he toils excessively and by this crushes his thoughts.
66. Holy Scripture does not take from us what has been granted by God for our use, but bridles immoderation and corrects thoughtlessness. That is, it forbids neither eating, nor the bearing of children, nor having money and spending it rightly, but forbids gluttony, fornication and the rest. It does not forbid even thinking about them, since that is what they were made for, but forbids passionate thought.
67. Of the works done for God, some are done according to the commandments, and others not according to the commandments but, to put it otherwise, as a voluntary sacrifice. We act according to the commandments when we love God, or our neighbour, or our enemy, when we do not commit adultery, do not kill and so on; if we break these commandments, we are subject to judgement. The commandments do not oblige us, and yet we keep virginity, celibacy, renounce all property, live as hermits and so on. Such labour has the meaning of a voluntary sacrifice, so that if through weakness we do not fulfil some commandment, such a sacrifice may make our good Master merciful.
68. He who has chosen the celibate life or virginity should have “loins girded about and a light burning” (Luke 12:35). He girds his loins with self-restraint, and kindles the light with prayer, with divine thought and with spiritual love.
69. Some of the brethren think that they cannot have the grace of the Holy Spirit. But such a one, through negligence in keeping the commandments, does not know that one who has true faith in Christ has in part all the gifts of God. But since through our sloth we are far from the active love of God, which would show us the divine treasure hidden in us, we rightly count ourselves strangers to the divine gift.
70. If, according to the words of the divine apostle, Christ dwells in our souls “by faith” (Eph. 3:17), “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3), then all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in our hearts. And they are revealed to the heart when it is cleansed by keeping the commandments.
71. This “treasure hid in the field of your heart” (Matt. 13:44) you have not yet found through want of labour. For if you had found it, you would sell everything and buy that field. But you have left that field and work near it, where there is nothing but thorns and briars.
72. That is why the Saviour says: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). And they will see God and the treasure that is in Him when they cleanse themselves by love and self-restraint, and the more they are cleansed the more they will see.
73. And again He says, “Sell that ye have, and give alms” (Luke 12:33), “and all things are clean unto you” (Luke 11:41), so that you may free your mind, which the Lord calls “the heart” (Matt. 15:19), from care for the things bound up with the body, from hatred and want of restraint, since all this defiles the mind and does not let it see Christ, who dwells in it by the grace of holy baptism.
74. Holy Scripture calls the virtues a way, and love above all the virtues; therefore the apostle says: “Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31), which disposes us to disregard everything material and not to prefer what is passing to what is eternal.
75. The love of God opposes sensuality, since it moves the mind to refrain from enjoying things of sense. And love of one’s neighbour opposes anger, since it makes the mind disregard honour and riches. These are the two pence which the Saviour gave to the innkeeper (Luke 10:35), so that he might take care of you. But let us not be ungrateful, lest, falling among robbers again, we be wounded and remain no longer half dead but dead.
76. Cleanse the mind of anger, remembrance of wrongs and foul thoughts — and then you will be able to know Christ who dwells in you.
77. Who enlightened us with faith in the holy, consubstantial and worshipful Trinity? Who taught us the knowledge of the origin and end of bodiless beings and of the visible world, or of the resurrection from the dead and eternal life, or of the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven and the dread judgement? Was it not the grace of Christ dwelling in us, which is the pledge of the Holy Spirit? What is better than this grace? Or what is more excellent than the pledge of the Holy Spirit? What surpasses this grace? Or what is better than this wisdom and knowledge? What is higher than this promise? If after this we still remain slothful and negligent and are not cleansed of the passions, which darken our mind and hinder us from seeing the truth, brighter than the sun, then we should not deny that grace has been promised us, but should blame ourselves.
78. God, who has promised us eternal good things, has given your heart the pledge of purity and has given you the commandment to care for your own salvation, so that the inward man, freed from the passions, may begin to taste these good things while still in this world.
79. If you have become worthy of high divine contemplation, care especially for love and self-restraint, so that by keeping the passionate part untroubled you may have unfading light in your soul.
80. Bridle the incensive part of the soul with love, quench the desiring part with self-restraint, give wings to the reasoning part with prayer — and the light of the mind will never be darkened in you.
81. The causes of the going out of love are these: insult, loss, slander, blows, wounding and the rest, when either the person himself suffers loss or some one of his kin or friends. He who disregards love for any of these causes has not yet understood what is the aim of Christ’s commandments.
82. As far as you can, strive to love all people. If you cannot yet do this, strive very hard at least to hate no one. But you will not be able to do even this unless you renounce everything earthly.
83. Do not hate the one who reviles you, but hate the reviling and the demon who stirs it up. If you hate the one who reviles you, you hate a person and break the commandment, and what he did in word you do in deed. But if you keep the commandments, show him the work of love, help him as you can — and you will turn him from evil.
84. Christ does not want you to hate a person, or to be angry with him, or to have wrath and enmity against anyone, of whatever kind and for whatever cause. All this the four Gospels preach to us.
85. Among us there are many who talk, but few who do. But no one should distort the word of God to justify his own negligence; it is better, without hiding the divine truth, to confess one’s own weakness, lest, besides the transgression against the commandments, one be charged with a wrong interpretation of the word of God as well.
86. Love and self-restraint free the soul from the passions; reading and divine thought keep the mind from ignorance; and standing in prayer sets it before God Himself.
87. When the demons see that we count things as nothing and do not want to hate people and lose love because of them, then they stir up slander against us, so that we may hate the slanderers.
88. Slander is heavier than anything heavy for the soul, whether you are slandered in faith or in conduct. No one will be able to disregard it as Susanna did. If, like her, you trust in the one mighty God, He will deliver you as He delivered her; you will show people the confirmed truth, as she showed it, and will calm your soul with hope.
89. According as you pray for the slanderers, God will plainly reveal the truth to those who have stumbled through you.
90. In His essence God alone is good, but in the disposition of the soul goodness is the imitation of God, since its chief aim is to make the evil partakers of good, so that they too may become good. For this the insulted one prays, the persecuted endures, the reviled is gentle, the one condemned to death prays for the murderers (1 Cor. 4:12–13). He does everything so as not to turn aside from his chief aim — love.
91. God’s commandments teach us to use indifferent things with good sense. The sensible use of indifferent things makes the state of the soul pure; purity of soul gives birth to the power of discernment; the power of discernment gives birth to dispassion, from which perfect love arises.
92. He is not yet dispassionate who in the time of trial cannot leave unheeded the sin of his neighbour, whether it really exists or only seems to. When this passion hidden in the soul is roused, it darkens the mind and does not allow one to see the truth and to tell evil from good. Should we not suppose that such a one has not yet gained perfect love, which casts out the fear of torment (1 John 4:18)?
93. “Nothing doth countervail a faithful friend” (Sir. 6:15); he counts his friend’s misfortune his own, shares his trial, feels it to the utmost.
94. In time of prosperity we have many friends, but in time of trial it is hard to find even one.
95. We should love all people with the whole heart, but we should hope in the one God alone and serve Him alone with all our strength. For so long as God covers us, friends too are well disposed and enemies cannot do harm; but when God leaves us, then friends too turn their backs and enemies are able to overcome us.
96. There are four chief kinds of being forsaken by God: one is a forsaking by dispensation, which the Lord Himself experienced; by such a seeming forsaking God wills the salvation of those forsaken. Another is a forsaking for the sake of testing, which befell Job and Joseph, so that the one might be shown a pillar of courage and the other of chastity. Another is a forsaking for spiritual training, which happened to Peter, so that by means of humility he might keep the fullness of grace. And finally there is a forsaking for rejection, which befell the Jews, so that, having been punished, they might turn again to repentance. All these kinds of forsaking are saving, full of God’s love for mankind and of His grace.
97. The faithful keepers of the commandments and the true initiates of God’s providence do not leave alone a friend who by God’s permission is in trial. But those who reject the commandments and are ignorant of God’s providence make merry with a friend in the time of his prosperity, but when they find him suffering in trial, they abandon him. Sometimes it even happens that they go over to the camp of his adversaries.
98. The friends of Christ love all sincerely, but not all love them. But the friends of the world neither love all nor are loved by all; the friends of Christ keep the bond of love to the end, but the friends of the world only until they fall out with one another over something earthly.
99. “A faithful friend is a strong defence” (Sir. 6:14). For both in his friend’s prosperity he is a good counsellor and a faithful helper, and in the time of need the most heartfelt supporter and the most compassionate defender.
100. Many have said many things about love, but it can be found only among the disciples of Christ, since they alone had true love, of which it is said: “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, and have not charity, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2–3). He who has gained love has found God Himself, for “God is love” (1 John 4:16). To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Georgian translation by Nato Parjanadze, from the book “Teachings on True Love”, Kutaisi, 2000.
