The Philokalia

by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Indeed, the cardinal rule of the Christian life is not to put one's trust in acts of righteousness even if one practices all of them, or to imagine that one has done anything great; and even if one participates in grace, one must not think that one has achieved anything or reached the goal. On the contrary, one should then hunger and thirst, grieve and weep even more, and be totally contrite in heart.

116. When you hear that Christ descended into hell in order to deliver the souls dwelling there, do not think that what happens now is very different. The heart is a tomb and there our thoughts and our intellect are buried, imprisoned in heavy darkness. And so Christ comes to the souls in hell that call upon Him, descending, that is to say, into the depths of the heart; and there He commands death to release the imprisoned souls that call upon Him, for He has power to deliver us. Then, lifting up the heavy stone that oppresses the soul, and opening the tomb. He resurrects us - for we were truly dead - and releases our imprisoned soul from its lightless prison.

Grace does not make a man incapable of sin by forcibly and compulsorily laying hold of his will but, though present, allows him freedom of choice, so as to make it clear whether the man's own will inclines to virtue or to evil. For the law looks not to man's nature but to his free power of choice, which is capable of turning towards either good or evil.

121. The prudent farmer first clears his land of brambles before sowing it with seed. Similarly, the man who aspires to receive from God the seed of grace must first clear the earth of his heart, so that when the seed of the Spirit falls it may yield a good and abundant harvest. If he does not first cleanse himself from 'all pollution of the flesh and spirit' (2 Cor. 7:1), he remains flesh and blood and is far from the realm of life (cf. 1 Cor. 15:50).

136. Those who truly love God do not serve Him in order to obtain the kingdom, as though they were engaged in commerce for the sake of gain, nor yet to avoid the punishment that is in store for sinners. They love Him because He is their sole God and Creator, since they know the proper hierarchy of things and that it is the duty of servants to please their lord and maker; and they submit to Him with great understanding in the face of all the afflictions that befall them.

For the inattentive, who are deficient in faith and immature in mind, there are many obstacles to eternal life - not only distressing and painful things such as sickness, poverty and obscurity, but equally their opposites like riches, honor and praise from others, as well as the unseen warfare of the devil.

Similarly, now that God has reconciled mankind through the Cross and death of the Savior, He restores to the truly believing soul its enjoyment of spiritual light and mystery while it is still in the flesh, and once more enlightens its spiritual organs of perception with the divine light of grace. Later He will invest the body also with deathless and incorruptible glory.

150. What is the purpose of Christ's advent? The restoration and reintegration of human nature in Him. For He restored to human nature the original dignity of Adam, and in addition bestowed on it the unutterable grace of the heavenly inheritance of the Holy Spirit. Leading it out of the prison of darkness. He showed it the way and the door to life. By traversing this way and knocking on this door we can enter the kingdom of heaven. As He said: 'Ask and it will be given to you... knock and it will be opened to you' (Matt. 7:7). By passing through this door it is possible for everyone to attain the freedom of his soul, to cut off his evil thoughts, and to become Christ's bride and consort through the communion of the Holy Spirit. Such is the ineffable love of the Lord towards man, whom he has created in His own image.

The high respect felt for St Symeon by his followers is evident in the title that they ascribed to him, 'the New Theologian'. The term 'theologian' is to be understood in this context, not in its modern academic sense, but to signify a person of prayer, who speaks about the vision of God on the basis of his own immediate experience.

Thus we deserve greater punishment than they, for we have been given greater blessings. For we know that God became for our sakes like us in everything except sin, so that He might deliver us from delusion and free us from sin. But what is the use of saying this? The truth is that we believe in all these things only as words, while we deny them where our acts are concerned. Is not Christ's name uttered everywhere, in towns and villages, in monasteries and on mountains? Search diligently, if you will, and find out whether anyone keeps His commandments. Among thousands and myriads you will scarcely find one who is a Christian both in word and in act. Did not our Lord and God say in the Gospel, 'He that believes in Me will also do what I do - indeed, he will do greater things' (John 14:12)? But which of us dares to say, 'I do Christ's work and I truly believe in Christ?' Do you not see, brethren, that on the day of judgment we risk being classed among the unbelievers and will be chastised more severely even than those ignorant of Christ? Inevitably either we must be chastised as unbelievers or Christ is a liar - and that, my brethren, is impossible. I

14. A man full of self-esteem suffers torture when he sees a humble person weeping and being doubly compensated: by God, who is moved to pity because of his tears, and by men, who are moved to give him praise that he never sought.

20. If you truly love and pray for those who slander and maltreat you, who hate and defraud you, you will make rapid progress, for when your heart is fully aware that this is happening, your thoughts and, indeed, your whole soul with all its three powers are drawn down into the depths of humility and washed with tears.

31. A person who suffers bitterly when slighted or insulted should recognize from this that he still harbors the ancient serpent in his breast. If he quietly endures the insult or responds with great humility, he weakens the serpent and lessens its hold. But if he replies acrimoniously or brazenly, he gives it strength to pour its venom into his heart and to feed mercilessly on his guts. In this way the serpent becomes increasingly powerful; it destroys his soul's strength and his attempts to set himself right, compelling him to live for sin and to be completely dead to righteousness.

32. If you want to renounce the world and to be instructed in life according to the Gospels, do not place yourself in the hands of an inexperienced master or one subject to the passions; for then you will be taught, not the ways of the Gospels, but those of the devil. Good masters impart good teaching, but the evil teach evil. Bad seed produces rotten fruit.

36. The person who has not consciously invested his intelligence and intellect with the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly one, man and God, is still but flesh and blood. He cannot perceive spiritual glory solely through his intelligence, just as those blind from birth cannot know the sun's light solely through their intelligence.

43. I exhort you, who are under obedience, to meditate on these things constantly and to make every effort not to plunge into these infernal evils of which I have spoken. Entreat God fervently each day with these words: 'God and Lord of all, master of everything that has breath and soul, who alone canst cure me, hear my prayer, abject as I am. Root out of me and destroy through the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit the serpent that dwells in me. Make me worthy, poor though I am and bereft of virtue, of falling with tears at the feet of my spiritual father. Move his holy soul to have mercy on me; and. Lord, bestow humility on my heart and give me such thoughts as befit a sinner who has resolved to repent before Thee. Do not abandon for ever a soul that has once submitted and has confessed to Thee, that has chosen and honored Thee above all me world. Thou knowest that I wish to be saved, even if my bad habits hinder me. But to Thee, Lord, are possible all things that are impossible to men' (cf Luke 18:27).

50. The person who has attained purity of heart has triumphed over cowardice. The person still in the process of being purified sometimes overcomes it and sometimes is overcome by it. The person not even engaged in spiritual warfare is either completely unaware that he is the ally of his own passions and of the demons and that he is sick with pride and presumption, thinking he is something when he is not; or else he is the slave and servant of cowardice, trembling like a baby and fearing fear where, for those who fear the Lord, there is no fear (cf Ps. 14:5. LXX) nor any occasion for cowardice.

60. Many read the Holy Scriptures and hear them read. But few can grasp their meaning and import. For some what is said in the Scriptures is impossible, for others it is altogether beyond belief. Some again interpret them wrongly: they apply things said about the present to the future, and things said about the future to the past or else to what happens daily. In this way they reveal a lack of true judgment and discernment in things both human and divine.

61. We, the faithful, should look upon all the faithful as one single being, and should consider that Christ dwells in each of them. We should have such love for each of them that we are willing to lay down our lives for him. Nor should we ever think or say that anyone is evil: we should look on everyone as good, as I have already said. Even should you see someone overwhelmed by some passion, execrate, not him, but the passions that fight against him. And if he is mastered by desires and prepossessions, have even greater compassion for him; for you too may be tempted, subject as you are to the same fluctuations of beguiling materiality.

71. The garrulous and ostentatious man is thought by these people to be a spiritual master; but the quiet man, careful not to waste words, they regard as uncouth and inarticulate.

75. Through repentance the filth of our foul actions is washed away. After this, we participate in the Holy Spirit, not automatically, but according to the faith, humility and inner disposition of the repentance in which our whole soul is engaged. In addition, we must also have received complete remission of our sins from our spiritual father. For this reason it is good to repent each day, in accordance with the commandment that tells us to do this; for the words, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near' (Matt. 3:2), indicate that the act of repentance is unending.

77. Just as an engagement is not binding unless the documents of the contract bear the signatures of trustworthy witnesses, so the illumination of grace is dependent upon the practice of the commandments and the actualization of the virtues. What witnesses are to a contract, the virtues and the practice

84. A house left without a roof through the neglect of the builder is not only useless, but brings ridicule on the builder. Similarly, a person who has laid foundations through the practice of the commandments, and has raised walls through the acquisition of the higher virtues, remains incomplete, and an object of pity to the perfect, if he does not receive the grace of the Spirit in the form of contemplation and spiritual knowledge.

94. The Lord never allows those who come to Him unhesitatingly to fall completely. When He sees them faltering He helps them in their efforts, stretching a hand of power down to them and drawing them up to Himself. He works with them visibly and invisibly, consciously and unconsciously, until, having climbed every step of the ladder, they draw near Him, wholly united with Him in His wholeness and forgetting all that is earthly. Whether they are there with Him in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2); but they dwell with Him and enjoy His ineffable blessings.

96. If, after we have committed ourselves to some form of ministry within the Church and have performed it honorably, the Spirit should then direct us to some other ministry or work or activity, we should not resist. For God does not want us to be idle, but neither does He want us to be confined for ever to the first work in which we engaged. On the contrary. He wants us to advance, moving always towards the realization of something better, acting in accordance with His will and not our own.

102. A soul not consciously and completely free from ties and attachments to the visible world is not able to endure serenely the calamities and ravages with which both men and demons assail it. Bound by its attachment to human concerns, it is lacerated by the loss of material things, suffers when deprived of possessions, and is full of distress when its body is afflicted.

104. Anyone who thinks himself intelligent because of his scholarly or scientific learning will never be granted insight into divine mysteries unless he first humbles himself and becomes a fool (cf 1 Cor. 3:18), discarding both his presumption and the knowledge that he has acquired. But if he does this and with unhesitating faith allows himself to be led by those wise in divine matters, he will enter with them into the city of the living God. Guided and illumined by the divine Spirit, he will see and learn what others cannot ever see or learn. He will then be taught by God (cf. John 6:45).

108. What is the purpose of the Incarnation of the Divine Logos which is proclaimed throughout the Scriptures, about which we read and which yet we do not recognize? Surely it is that He has shared in what is ours so as to make us participants of what is His.

109. Baptism does not take away our free will or freedom of choice, but gives us the freedom no longer to be tyrannized by the devil unless we choose to be. After baptism it is in our power either to persist willingly in the practice of the commandments of Christ, into whom we were baptized, and to advance in the path of His ordinances, or to deviate from this straight way and to fall again into the hands of our enemy, the devil.

We are created good by God - for God creates nothing evil - and we remain unchanging in our nature and essence as created. But we do what we choose and want, whether good or bad, of our own free will.

114. Christ takes on the appearance of each of the poor and assimilates Himself to all of them so that no one who believes in Him will be arrogant towards his fellow being. On the contrary, he will look on his fellow being and his neighbor as his God, regarding himself as least of all in comparison just as much with his neighbor as with his Creator, honoring his neighbor as if he were his Creator, and exhausting his all in his service, just as Christ our God poured out His blood for our salvation.

116. Whoever regards his neighbor as himself cannot bear to possess more than his neighbor. On the other hand, if he has more and does not give unstintingly until he himself becomes as poor as his neighbor, he fails to fulfill the Lord's commandment. And if someone wishes to give to all who ask, but rejects one of them while he still has a penny or a scrap of bread, or if he does not act towards his neighbor as he would like other people to act towards him, he too is failing to fulfill the Lord's commandment. Similarly if you provide for even the humblest of the poor, and give him drink, and clothe him, and so on, but ignore a single person whom you know to be hungry and thirsty, you will be regarded as having ignored Christ our God when He was hungry and thirsty.

The person who is in communion with Him who inspired those who wrote the Divine Scriptures, and is initiated by Him into the undivulged secrets of the hidden mysteries, will himself be an inspired book to others - a book containing old and new mysteries and written by the hand of God; for he has accomplished all things and in God, the principle of perfection, he rests from all his labors.

121. At all times you should fear God, and every day you should examine yourself to see what good things you have done and what bad things. And you should forget what was good, lest you succumb to the passion of self-esteem. But where what was bad is concerned you should weep, confess, and pray intensely. This self-examination should take place as follows: when the day has ended and evening has come, ask yourself how, with God's help, you have passed the day. Did you judge anyone, speak harshly of anyone, or offend anyone? Did you look impassionately at anyone, or did you disobey your superior with regard to your duties and neglect them? Did you become angry with anyone, or occupy your mind with useless things while in church? Or, overcome by lethargy, did you leave church or depart from your rule of prayer? When you see that you are guiltless on all counts - which is impossible, for 'no one is free from stain, not even for a single day of his life' (cf. Job 14:4-5. LXX), and 'who will boast that his heart is pure?' (cf. Prov. 20:9) - then cry out to God, full of tears: 'Lord, forgive me all my sins, in thought or act, conscious or unwitting.' For we offend in many ways, and do not know it.

140. You should always direct your intellect towards God, whether asleep or awake, eating or talking, engaged in your handiwork Or in any other activity. Thus you will fulfill the saying of the prophet, 'I have set the Lord always before me' (Ps. 16:8). Reckon yourself a greater sinner than anyone else. For if you persist in this state of recollectedness, illumination will enter your mind like a ray of light. And the more you aspire to such illumination, attentive and undistracted, striving and tearful, the more clearly it will shine. When it shines, it is loved; and when it is loved, it purifies; and as it purifies, it makes one godlike, enlightening one and teaching one to distinguish good from evil. But, my brother, much hard work is needed, and God's help, before this radiance indwells totally in your soul and illumines it as the moon illumines the darkness of the night. You must also pay attention to the thoughts of arrogance and presumption which attack you, and not condemn anyone when you see him doing something wrong.

143. Strive to become for the whole community a good example of every virtue: of humility, gentleness, active compassion, obedience even in the least of things, freedom from anger, detachment, unpossessiveness and compunction, guilelessness and uninquisitiveness, of simplicity and estrangement from the world. Visit the sick, console the distressed, and do not make your longing for prayer a pretext for turning away from anyone who asks for your help; for love is greater than prayer. Show sympathy towards all, do not be arrogant or over-familiar, do not find fault with others, or ask for anything from the abbot or from those in charge of various monastic tasks; be respectful towards all priests, attentive in prayer, frank and loving towards everyone; and do not ransack the Scriptures for the sake of glory. Prayer accompanied by tears and illumination given by grace will teach you how to accomplish all this.

The First Method of Prayer The distinctive features of the first method of prayer are these. When a person stands at prayer, he raises hands, eyes and intellect heavenwards, and fills his intellect with divine thoughts, with images of celestial beauty, of the angelic hosts, of the abodes of the righteous. In brief, at the time of prayer he assembles in his intellect all that he has heard from Holy Scripture and so rouses his soul to divine longing as he gazes towards heaven, and sometimes he sheds tears.

The Second Method of Prayer The second form of prayer is this. A person withdraws his intellect from sensory things and concentrates it in himself, guards his senses, and collects all his thoughts; and he advances oblivious of the vanities of this world. Sometimes he examines his thoughts, sometimes pays attention to the words of the prayer he is addressing to God, and sometimes drags back his thoughts when they have been taken captive; and when he is overcome by passion he forcefully strives to recover himself.

The Third Method of Prayer Let us now begin to speak about the third method of prayer, which is truly astonishing and hard to explain. For those ignorant of it, it is not only difficult to understand but virtually incredible, and there are very few to be found who practice it. It seems to me that it has deserted us along with the virtue of obedience. For it is the love of obedience that delivers us from entanglement with this evil world, rendering us free from anxiety and impassioned craving. It makes us wholehearted and unflagging in pursuit of our aim - provided, of course, that we find an unerring guide.

The starting-point of this third method of prayer is not to gaze upwards, to raise one's hands aloft, to concentrate one's thoughts and to call down help from heaven. These, as we said, are the marks of the first form of delusion. Nor does it begin, as the second method does, by keeping guard over the senses with the intellect, while failing to observe the enemies who attack from within. In such a case, a person is struck by the demons instead of striking them; when wounded he is unaware of it; taken captive, he cannot retaliate against his captors. His enemies constantly attack him, from behind and even face to face, and fill him with self-esteem and arrogance. If you desire to embark on this light-giving and joyful task, begin as follows.

You must first practice exact obedience, as described above, and so act always with a pure conscience; for without obedience it is impossible for your conscience to be pure. And you must keep your conscience pure in three respects: first, with respect to God; second, with respect to your spiritual father; and third, with respect to other people and to material things. With respect to God you must keep your conscience pure by refraining from doing anything that conflicts with the worship due to Him. With respect to your spiritual father do everything he tells you to do, neither more nor less, and be guided by his purpose and will. With respect to other people, you must keep your conscience pure by not doing to them anything that you hate (cf. Tobit 4:15) and that you do not want them to do to you. With respect to material things, you must take care not to misuse them, whether food, drink or clothing. In brief, do everything as if you were in the presence of God, so that your conscience does not rebuke you in any way. Having cleared

Once it has tasted within the heart that the Lord is bountiful (cf. Ps. 34:8. LXX), then the intellect will have no desire to leave the heart, and it will repeat the words of the Apostle Peter, 'It is good for us to be here' (Matt. 17:4).

Our holy fathers hearkened to the Lord's words, 'Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, unchastity, thefts, perjuries, blasphemies; these are the things that defile a man' (Matt. 15:19-20); and they also hearkened to Him when He enjoins us to cleanse the inside of the cup so that the outside may also be clean (cf. Matt. 23:26). Hence they abandoned all other forms of spiritual labor and concentrated wholly on this one task of guarding the heart, convinced that through this practice they would also possess every other virtue, whereas without it no virtue could be firmly established. Some of the fathers have called this practice stillness of the heart, others attentiveness, others the guarding of the heart, others watchfulness and rebuttal, and others again the investigation of thoughts and the guarding of the intellect. But all of them alike worked the earth of their own heart, and in this way they were fed on the divine manna (cf. Exod. 16: 15).

you should strive to acquire three things, and so begin to attain what you seek. The first is freedom from anxiety with respect to everything, whether reasonable or senseless - in other words, you should be dead to everything. Secondly, you should strive to preserve a pure conscience, so that it has nothing to reproach you with. Thirdly, you should be completely detached, so that your thoughts incline towards nothing worldly, not even your own body.

The first age in the monastic state is to curtail the passions. This is the stage of beginners. The second rung or stage whereby a person grows up spiritually from adolescence to youth is assiduously to practice psalmody.

The third rung or stage in life, marking the spiritual transition from youth to manhood, is to persevere in prayer. This is the stage of those who are already well advanced. Prayer differs from psalmody just as the full-grown man differs from the youth and the adolescent, according to the scheme that we are

there is a fourth rung or stage in spiritual life, that of the old man with grey hairs. This signifies undeviating absorption in contemplation, and this is the state of the perfect. So the journey is complete and the top of the ladder has been reached.

2. A life in harmony with God begins with complete flight from the world. 'Flight from the world' means the denial of the soul's desires and the transformation of the mundane will.

Thus, whether we are engaged in ascetic practice or are contemplatives and theologians, when we act according to nature we prove; ourselves to be among the faithful members of the Church, and when we act contrary to nature we become bestial, savage and demonic.

25. If you wish to advance to the frontiers of virtue and to find unerringly the path that leads to God, do not allow your eyes to sleep or let your eyelids droop or give rest to your brow (cf. Ps. 132:4) until, with your soul riven by toil and tears, you have attained the land of dispassion and have entered into the sanctuary of the knowledge of God. For then, aloof from all that is below, in your great thirst you will have climbed like a stag to the high mountains of contemplation and through God's personalized Wisdom you will have descried the ultimate reaches of human life.