ST. NILUS OF SINAI - 153 Texts on Prayer

St. Nilus’s main writing is a book of "153 Texts on Prayer," which corresponds to the number of fish that St. Peter caught in John 21:2.

Prayer is the speaking of the mind to God. What structure does the mind need so that, not looking back (nor hither and thither), it may rise to the Lord and converse with Him, with no intermediary?
-- If Moses was forbidden to approach the earthly burning bush until he had loosed his sandals from off his feet (Exodus 3:5), how can you not cast away from yourself every passionate thought when you wish to see Him, Who is above all feeling and thought, and to converse with Him?
-- When you shed floods of tears during prayer, do not exalt yourself for this, as though you were above many others. It is that your prayer has received help from above, so that, having zealously confessed your sins, you may incline the almighty to mercy by your tears.
-- Stand patiently and pray steadfastly, brushing off the impacts of worldly cares and all thoughts; for they distract and worry you in order to disturb the impetus of your prayer.
-- When the demons see that someone has the zeal and diligence to pray as he ought, then they suggest to him thoughts about something, supposedly important (and then draw away); but a little later they again call up the memory of this thing, urging his mind to examine it (if it is a problem – to solve it; if it is a thing – to acquire it); and he, not finding what he seeks, feels vexed and grieved. Then, when he stands up to pray, the demons remind him of what he had thought of and sought for, so that his mind should once more be moved to inquiry and his prayer become barren.
-- Strive to render your mind deaf and dumb during prayer; then you will be able to pray as you ought.
-- When you pray as you ought, there may come into your mind things about which it seems right to be angry with your brother. There is absolutely no anger against your brother which could be justified. If you look, you will find that the question can be settled quite well without anger. Therefore do your best not to be moved to anger.
-- Do not pray that things may be according to your desires, for they are not always in keeping with the will of God. Better pray as you were taught, saying: "Thy will be done" on me (Matthew 6:10). And ask thus about all things, for He always desires what is good and profitable for your soul, whereas you do not always seek it.
-- Do not grieve if you do not at once receive from God that which you ask. He wishes to benefit you still more by making you persist longer in your patient prayer before Him. For what can be higher than to address one’s converse to God and be in communion with Him?
-- Pray firstly to be purified of passions, secondly to be freed from ignorance and forgetfulness, and thirdly to be delivered from all temptation and forsaking.
-- Seek in prayer only righteousness and the kingdom, that is virtue and knowledge – and all the rest "shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33).
-- When the sly demon, after using many devices, fails to hinder the prayer of the diligent, he desists a little; but when the man has finished his prayer, he takes his revenge. He either fires his anger and thus destroys the fair state produced by prayer, or excites an impulse towards some animal pleasure and thus mocks his mind.
-- Why do demons wish to excite in us gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, rancor and other passions? So that the mind, under their weight, should be unable to pray as it ought; for when the passions of our irrational part begin to act, they prevent the mind from acting rationally.
-- He who prays in spirit and in truth does not borrow from creatures thoughts to glorify the Creator, but draws from the Creator Himself contemplations for His praise.
-- When your mind, inflamed by longing for God, little by little divests itself of flesh, as it were, and turns away from all thoughts engendered by sensory impressions, or from memory, being at the same time full of adoration and rejoicing, then you may conclude that it has approached the boundaries of prayer.

 If you pray truly, you will receive assurances of many things, and angels will come to you as they came to Daniel, and will enlighten you with understanding of causes, the wherefore of all things.
-- Pray in peace and serenity, sing intelligently and in a good state – and you will be like a young eagle soaring high in the sky.
-- Prayer is an activity becoming to the dignity of the mind, or rather, is its real use.
-- Knowledge is an excellent thing; it helps prayer, inciting the power of the mind to the contemplation of Divine knowledge.
-- If you have not yet received the gift of prayer or psalmody, ask persistently, and you will receive.
-- Do not wish what concerns you to be as seems (best) to you, but as God wishes; and you will be free from cares and thankful in your prayer.
-- Even if you already appear to be with God, beware the demon of fornication; for it has great fascination and is full of cunning, constantly trying to overcome the transport of your sober mind and to draw it away from God, even when it stands before God with reverence and fear.
-- He who endures distress, will be granted joys; and he who bears with unpleasant things, will not be deprived of the pleasant.
-- You should also know the following subterfuge of the demons: at times they divide themselves into groups. Some come with a temptation; and when you ask for help others come in the guise of angels and chase away the first, to make you believe that they are true angels, and fall into vainglory, through having been granted such a thing.
-- As bread is food for the body and virtue is food for the soul, so spiritual prayer is food for the mind.
-- Strive not to pray against someone in your prayer, lest you destroy what you are building, by making your prayer an abomination (before God).
-- While another God-loving monk was practicing inner prayer walking in the wilderness, two angels appeared and walked along on either side of him. But he never turned his attention to them for a moment, lest he should lose something better, for he remembered the words of the Apostle, neither "angels, no principalities, nor powers . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).
-- Never desire nor seek to see any face or image during prayer.
-- Blessed is the mind which, praying without distraction, acquires ever greater longing for God.
-- Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, is drawn neither to the material nor to possessions.
-- Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, is insensible to all things.
-- Do not shun poverty and afflictions, these wings of buoyant prayer.
-- It happens sometimes that the demons suggest some thoughts to you and then urge you to pray against them, to oppose them, and then quickly withdraw to make you fall into delusion, imagining that you have already begun to conquer thoughts and to intimidate the demons.
-- It happens sometimes that in doing good to one man you suffer harm from another, so that, meeting with injustice, you may say or do something unseemly and thus lose what you have gained. This is precisely the aim of the evil demons. So pay intelligent heed to yourself.
-- He who remains in sin and continues to anger God, and who shamelessly strives to understand Divine things and to acquire transubstantial prayer, should remember the warning of the Apostle that it is not without danger for him to pray with head uncovered. In the words of the Apostle, such a soul ought "to have power on her head because of the angels" (I Corinthians 11:10), having clothed itself in modesty and suitable humility for the sake of those present.
-- Just as long and persistent staring at the sun in its noonday brilliance will bring no good to weak eyes, so imagination about the awesome and transubstantial prayer in spirit and in truth will bring no good to a passionate and impure mind. On the contrary, the Godhead will rise against it in wrath.
-- Prayer is to be praised not merely for quantity but also for quality. This is shown by the "two men (who) went up into the temple to pray" (Luke 18:10), and also by the words, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions" and so on (Matthew 6:7).
-- When, standing at prayer, you are above all other joy, know that you have truly attained prayer. 

from "Early Fathers From the Philokalia," translated from the Russian text, "Dobrotolubiye," by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer, eighth edition, (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1981), pp. 137 - 143.

ST. THALASSIOS THE LIBYAN-ON LOVE, SELF-CONTROL, AND LIFE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE INTELLECT

              

                    by St. Thalassios the Libyan

-- An all-embracing and intense longing for God binds those who experience it both to God and to one another.
-- An intellect that has acquired spiritual love does not have thoughts unworthy of this love about anyone.
-- He who has acquired love endures calmly and patiently the injuries and sufferings that his enemies inflict on him.
-- A person who does not tolerate suspicion or disparagement of others possesses true love.
-- If you tell your brother how someone else denigrates him you conceal your own envy in the guise of goodwill.
-- Worldly virtues promote human glory, spiritual virtues the glory of God.
-- A strong man is one who repels evil through the practice of the virtues and with spiritual knowledge.
-- If you wish to overcome impassioned thoughts, acquire self- control and love for your neighbor.
-- Firmly control anger and desire, and you will speedily rid yourself of evil thoughts.
-- Inner work destroys self-esteem and if you despise no one you will repel pride.
-- The genuineness of a friend is shown at a time of trial, if he shares the distress you suffer.
-- Waste your body with fasting and vigils, and you will repulse the lethal thoughts of pleasure.
-- The proper activity of the intellect is to be attentive at every moment to the words of God.
-- It is God's task to administer the world and the soul's task to guide the body.
-- Hardship and distress, whether of our own choosing or providential, destroy sensual pleasure.
-- The amassing of money fuels the passions, for it leads to increasing indulgence in all kinds of sensual pleasure.
-- How God treats you depends upon how you treat your body.
-- Virtue and spiritual knowledge lead to immortality, their absence is the mother of death.
-- If you wish to attain salvation, renounce sensual pleasure and learn self-control, love and how to pray with concentration.
-- There are three ways through which thoughts arise in you: through the senses, through the memory, and through the body's temperament. Of these the most irksome are those that come through the memory.
-- The intellect freed from the passions becomes like light, unceasingly illumined by the contemplation of created beings.
-- He who stands in awe of God searches for the divine principles that God has implanted in creation; the lover of truth finds them.
-- Stillness and prayer are the greatest weapons of virtue, for they purify the intellect and confer on it spiritual insight.
-- Only spiritual conversation is beneficial; it is better to preserve stillness than to indulge in any other kind.
-- The person who is unaffected by the things of this world loves stillness; and he who loves no human thing loves all men.
-- The conscience is a true teacher, and whoever listens to it will not stumble.
-- Only those who have reached the extremes of virtue or of evil are not judged by their consciences.
-- Spiritual commerce consists in being detached equally from the pleasures and the pains of this life for the sake of the blessings held in store.
-- Love and self-control strengthen the soul; pure prayer and contemplation, the intellect.
-- When you hear something to your benefit, do not condemn the speaker; for if you do you will nullify his helpful admonition.
-- A pure conscience rouses the soul, but an impure thought debases it.
-- If you want to be free of all the passions, practice self- control, love, and prayer.
-- Forgiveness of sins is betokened by freedom from the passions; he who has not yet been granted freedom from the passions has not yet received forgiveness. 

 -- The soul's health consists in dispassion and spiritual knowledge; no slave to sensual pleasure can attain it.
-- Self-love -- that is, friendship for the body -- is the source of evil in the soul.
-- It is an insult to the intelligence to be subject to what lacks intelligence and to concern itself with shameful desires.
-- You were commanded to keep the body as a servant, not to be unnaturally enslaved to its pleasures.
-- Break the bonds of your friendship for the body and give it only what is absolutely necessary.
-- The greatest weapons of someone striving to lead a life of inward stillness are self-control, love, prayer, and spiritual reading.
-- Let us strive to fulfill the commandments so that we may be freed from the passions; and let us struggle to grasp the divine doctrine so that we may be found worthy of spiritual knowledge.
-- The soul's immortality resides in dispassion and spiritual knowledge; no slave to sensual pleasure can attain it.
-- Fear of the Lord conquers desire, and distress that accords with God's will repulses sensual pleasure.
-- The Scriptures contain four things: commandments, doctrines, threats, and promises.
-- Self-control and strenuous effort curb desire; stillness and intense longing for God wither it.
-- Long-suffering and readiness to forgive curb anger; love and compassion wither it.
-- Woman symbolizes the soul engaged in ascetic practice; through union with it the intellect begets the virtues.
-- The study of divine principles teachers knowledge of God to the person who lives in truth, longing and reverence.
-- What light is to those whose and to what is seen, God is to intellective beings and to what is intelligible.
-- Do not neglect the practice of the virtues; if you do, your spiritual knowledge will decrease, and when famine occurs you will go down into Egypt (Genesis 41:57, 46:6).
-- Spiritual freedom is release from the passions; without Christ's mercy you cannot attain it.
-- The Egypt of the spirit is the darkness of the passions; no one goes down to Egypt unless he is overtaken by famine.
-- If you make a habit of listening to spiritual teaching, your intellect will escape from impure thoughts.
-- Control your stomach, sleep, anger, and tongue, and you will not "dash your foot against a stone" (Psalms 91:12).
-- Strive to love every man equally, and you will simultaneously expel all the passions.
-- The intellect cannot devote itself to intelligible realities unless you sunder its attachment to the senses and to sensible things.
-- A sign that the intellect is devoted to the contemplation of intelligible realities is its disdain for all that agitates the senses.
-- When the intellect is rich in the knowledge of the One, the senses will be completely under control.
-- The intellect becomes a stranger to the things of this world when its attachment to the senses has been completely sundered.
-- The intellect is perfect when transformed by spiritual knowledge; the soul is perfect when permeated by the virtues.
-- We are sons of God or of Satan according to whether we conform to goodness or to evil.
-- A wise man is one who pays attention to himself and is quick to separate himself form all defilement.
-- An obdurate soul does not notice when it is whipped and so is unaware of its benefactor.
-- He who fears God will pay careful attention to his soul and will free himself from communion with evil.
-- If you abandon God and are a slave to the passions you cannot reap God's mercy.
-- A soul defiled by the passions becomes obdurate: it has to undergo knife and cautery before it recovers its faith.
-- Concern for one's soul means hardship and humility, for through these God forgives us all our sins.
-- Just as desire and rage multiply our sins, so self-control and humility erase them.
-- All sin is due to sensual pleasure, all forgiveness to hardship and distress.
-- If you are not willing to repent through freely choosing to suffer, unsought sufferings will providentially be imposed on you.
-- Struggle until death to fulfil the commandments: purified through them, you will enter into life.
-- Make the body serve the commandments, keeping it so far as possible free from sickness and sensual pleasure.
-- Blessed stillness gives birth to blessed children: self- control, love and pure prayer.
-- Spiritual reading and prayer purify the intellect, while love and self-control purify the soul's passable aspect.
-- If you lay down rules for yourself, do not disobey yourself; for he who cheats himself is self-deluded.
-- Spiritual poverty is complete dispassion; when the intellect has reached this state it abandons all worldly things.

from G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, trans., The Philokalia -- vol. II, (London: Faber and Faber, 1981), pp. 313 - 318.

ABBA DOROTHEUS- ON PRESUMPTUOUSNESS

ABBA DOROTHEUS

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PRESUMPTUOUSNESS 

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26. Presumptuousness may have many forms; one may be presumptuous by word, gesture, or look. It may lead a man to chatter, to worldly talk, to doing something ridiculous, provoking others to unseemly mirth. It is presumptuousness, too, if a man touches another without need, points at someone who is laughing, pushes him, snatches something out of his hands, shamelessly stares at him; all this is the work of presumptuousness, all this comes of having no fear of God in the soul and so little by little a man becomes utterly careless. Therefore God, when He gave the commandments of the law, said, "Ye shall cause the children of Israel to beware of their uncleannesses" (Leviticus 15:31), for without reverence and modesty man cannot honor even God Himself, nor can he keep a single commandment. Hence nothing is more harmful than presumptuousness; it is the mother of all passions, since it banishes reverence, drives the fear of God away from the soul, and gives birth to carelessness.
28. Over whatever you have to do, even if it be very urgent and demands great care, I would not have you argue or be agitated. For rest assured, everything you do, be it great or small, is but one eighth of the problem, whereas to keep one's state undisturbed even if thereby one should fail to accomplish the task, is the other seven eighths. So if you are busy at some task and wish to do it perfectly, try to accomplish it -- which, as I said, would be one eighth of the problem, and at the same time to preserve your state unharmed -- which constitutes seven eighths. If, however, in order to accomplish your task you would inevitably be carried away and harm yourself or another by arguing with him, you should not lose seven for the sake of preserving one eighth.
29. The wise Solomon says in the Proverbs, "They that have no guidance fall like leaves: but in counsel there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14). So you see what the Holy Scriptures teach us? They enjoin us not to rely on ourselves, not to regard ourselves as knowing all, not to believe that we can control ourselves, for we need help, are in need of those who would counsel us according to God. No men are more unfortunate or nearer perdition than those who have no teachers on the way of God. For what does it mean that where no guidance is, the people fall like leaves? A leaf is at first green, flourishing, beautiful; then it gradually withers, falls and is finally trampled underfoot. So is it with a man who has no guide; at first he is always zealous in fasting, vigil, silence, obedience and other virtues; then his zeal little by little cools down and, having no one to instruct, support and fire him with zeal, he insensibly withers, falls and finally becomes a slave of the enemies, who do with him what they will.
30. Of those who revel their thoughts and actions and who do everything with counsel the Wise One says, "in much counsel there is safety" (Proverbs 9:14). He does not say, "in the counsels of many" that is, in seeking counsel from everyone, but in seeking counsel in all things -- naturally from one we trust; and not in such a way as to tell one thing and conceal another, but to reveal everything and seek counsel in all things. For such a man, safety is assured "in much counsel."
31. When we do not reveal our thoughts and intentions and do not seek the counsel of the experienced, we hold on to our own will and follow our own justifications. Then, apparently doing something good, we spread nets for ourselves, and so without realizing it we perish. For how can we understand the will of God or completely surrender ourselves to it, when we trust ourselves and cling to our own will? Therefore Abba Pimen said that "our will is a brass wall between man and God."
32. The devil trips up as he likes the man who trusts his own mind and keeps to his own will. But he has no access to a man who does everything with counsel. That is why he hates questions and the guidance in response, hates the very voice, the very sound of such words. Is it not clear why? Because he knows that his evil wiles will at once be exposed when people begin to ask questions and talk of useful things. And there is nothing he fears more than being exposed, for then he can no longer be wily as he wills. When a man asks and hears the advice of someone experienced, "do this, but do not do that" or, "now is not the time for that" or sometimes "now is the time," the devil cannot find how to harm or bring him down, since he always seeks counsel and protects himself on all sides. So the saying "in much counsel there is safety" is fulfilled for him.
33. The enemy likes those who rely on their own understanding, for they help him and sets traps for themselves. I know of no other way for a monk to fall than when he trusts his own heart. Some say a man falls because of this or that, but I know of no other fall except when a man follows his own lead. If you see a man fallen, know that he followed his own lead. Nothing is more dangerous, nothing more pernicious than this.

 from E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer, "Early Fathers from the Philokalia," (London: Faber and Faber, 1981), pp. 160 - 163

Saint Diadochos of Photiki-On Divine and Deceptive Sweetness

 

Saint Diadochos of Photiki. "On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination. One Hundred Texts". From Philokalia, Vol. 1.

 

 31. When our intellect begins to perceive the grace of the Holy Spirit, then Satan, too, importunes the soul with a sense of deceptive sweetness in the quiet times of the night, when we fall into a light kind of sleep. If the intellect at that time cleaves fervently to the remembrance of the glorious and holy name of the Lord Jesus and uses it as a weapon against Satan's deception, he gives up this trick and for the future will attack the soul directly and personally. As a result the intellect clearly discerns the deception of the evil one and advances even further in the art of discrimination.

32. The experience of true grace comes to us when the body is awake or else on the point of falling asleep, while in fervent remembrance of God we are welded to His love. But the illusion of grace comes to us, as I have said, when we fall into a light sleep while our remembrance of God is half-hearted. True grace, since its source is God, gladdens us consciously and impels us towards love with great rapture of soul. The illusion of grace, on the other hand, tends to shake the soul with the winds of deceit; for when the intellect is strong in the remembrance of God, the devil tries to rob it of its experience of spiritual perception by taking advantage of the body's need for sleep. If the intellect at that time is remembering the Lord Jesus attentively, it easily destroys the enemy's seductive sweetness and advances joyfully to do battle with him, armed not only with grace but also with a second weapon, the confidence gained from its own experience.

33. Sometimes the soul is kindled into love for God and, free from all fantasy and image, moves untroubled by doubt towards Him; and it draws, as it were, the body with it into the depths of that ineffable love. This may occur when the person is awake or else beginning to fall asleep under the influence of God's grace, in the way I have explained. At the same time, the soul is aware of nothing except what it is moving towards. When we experience things in this manner, we can be sure that it is the energy of the Holy Spirit within us. For when the soul is completely permeated with that ineffable sweetness, at that moment it can think of nothing else, since it rejoices with uninterrupted joy. But if at that moment the intellect conceives any doubt or unclean thought, and if this continues in spite of the fact that the intellect calls on the holy name -not now simply out of love for God, but in order to repel the evil one - then it should realize that the sweetness it experiences is an illusion of grace, coming from the deceiver with a counterfeit joy. Through this joy, amorphous and disordered, the devil tries to lead the soul into an adulterous union with himself. For when he sees the intellect unreservedly proud of its own experience of spiritual perception, he entices the soul by means of certain plausible illusions of grace, so that it is seduced by that dank and debilitating sweetness and fails to notice its intercourse with the deceiver.

From all this we can distinguish between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. It is impossible, however, for someone consciously to taste the divine goodness or consciously to realize when he is experiencing the bitterness of the demons, unless he first knows with assurance that grace dwells in the depths of his intellect, while the wicked spirits cluster round only the outside of the heart. This is just what the demons do not want us to know, for fear that our intellect, once definitely aware of it, will arm itself against them with the remembrance of God.