Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Spiritual instruction

Spiritual Instructions to Monks and Laymen

St Seraphim of Sarov

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The modern English translation and the cover design are © 2026 Royal Archives. All rights reserved.

The underlying source text is in the public domain.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Royal Archives

Source: Духовные наставления преподобного Серафима Саровского мирянам и инокам

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:nastavlenia:en:1

Introduction

The Author

Few figures in the Christian East are loved as widely, or across as many boundaries, as Saint Seraphim of Sarov. He was born Prokhor Moshnin in the city of Kursk in 1754, the son of a merchant family; his father Isidore died while Prokhor was still a boy, and the child was raised chiefly by his mother, Agathia. Pious stories cluster about his early years—a fall from the scaffolding of a church his family was building, from which he walked away unhurt, and a recovery from grave childhood illness after the passing of a wonderworking icon of the Mother of God. Whatever a cautious historian makes of such accounts, they tell us how the Church has always read this life: as one marked from its beginning for the presence of God and for the special protection of the Theotokos, whose icon would stand before him at his death.

Drawn to the monastic life while still young, Prokhor made a pilgrimage to Kiev and then entered the Sarov hermitage, deep in the forests of the Tambov region, in 1778. He was tonsured a monk in 1786 and given the name Seraphim—“the burning one,” after the fiery order of angels—and was ordained hierodeacon soon after and hieromonk in 1793. His was not, however, primarily a life of liturgical service. Not long after his ordination he received a blessing to withdraw to a small wooden cell in the forest some miles from the monastery, and there he gave himself to the older and harder work of the desert: manual labor, fasting, the unceasing prayer of the heart, and long vigils. To this period belongs the most famous of his ascetic feats—a thousand nights of prayer kneeling upon a great rock, his arms raised to heaven, imitating the ancient pillar-saints in an idiom of his own.

His solitude was not undisturbed. In 1804 he was attacked in the forest by robbers who supposed the elder must be hiding money; they beat him nearly to death with the handle of his own axe. He survived, but remained bent and stooped for the rest of his life, and when his assailants were later found he refused to let them be punished. After a further season of extreme silence he returned to the monastery, and there entered a still stricter reclusion—the Russian zatvor — passing years walled into his cell in prayer and the reading of Scripture, seeing almost no one. Only in his last years, and by his own account at the direction of the Mother of God, did he open his door to the world. From roughly the mid-1820s until his death he received a ceaseless stream of visitors—monks, peasants, nobles, the troubled and the sick—greeting each of them, in every season, with the Paschal cry: “My joy! Christ is risen!” He became the very type of the Russian starets, the spirit-bearing elder whose counsel and discernment drew a nation to his forest cell.

Seraphim died on the second of January, 1833, and was found kneeling before his icon of the Mother of God, as if caught up in prayer at the last. Seventy years later, in 1903, he was solemnly numbered among the saints; the glorification at Sarov drew immense crowds and the presence of Emperor Nicholas II himself, and was carried forward in no small part through the labors of Archimandrite Seraphim Chichagov, who gathered the records of the elder’s life. He is commemorated on January 2 and on July 19, the day his relics were uncovered. His veneration long ago spilled beyond the bounds of the Russian Church: he is honored across the Orthodox world, remembered warmly in the Christian West, and named as a saint even by a Roman pontiff. Something in his gentleness and his radiant joy speaks to Christians of every communion.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The Spiritual Instructions gather, under thematic headings, the counsel that Saint Seraphim gave to those who came to him—monks setting out on the ascetic path, and laypeople seeking a rule of prayer and a way through the ordinary trials of the soul. They are not a treatise that he sat down to compose. They are, rather, the distilled wisdom of a lifetime of spiritual fatherhood, drawn from his conversations and from the papers preserved at the Sarov monastery, arranged after his death by the hands that also compiled and printed the early Lives of the elder in the nineteenth century.

It is important to be candid about what kind of book this is. The Instructions are, in large part, a florilegium—an anthology of the Fathers. On page after page Seraphim speaks by way of Isaac the Syrian, Barsanuphius the Great, Macarius of Egypt, John Climacus, Gregory of Sinai, Symeon the New Theologian, Antiochus the Monk, Isidore of Pelusium, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Ambrose of Milan, threading their sayings together with Scripture and with the hymns of the Church. He himself claimed to teach nothing new. That was precisely his intention. He understood his task as the faithful handing-on of the one ancient tradition of Christian prayer and watchfulness—the tradition of the desert and of the Philokalia, which had been freshly published in his own lifetime and which he almost certainly knew—so that a monk in the Russian forests, or a merchant in a Russian town, might live it. The purpose of the collection, then, is thoroughly practical: to place in the reader’s hands a tested map of the inner life, from the first fear of God to the heights of contemplation, in the words of the saints who had walked it.

Readers should not confuse this collection with the other, shorter text by which Seraphim is most widely known in the West—the record of his winter Conversation with the layman Nicholas Motovilov “On the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit,” a separate work, preserved and published independently, in which the elder’s face is described as shining like the sun. The Instructions are the broader, quieter companion to that luminous scene: the daily discipline that prepares a soul for such grace.

Argument and Structure

The book is built of some forty short chapters, most only a page or two, each gathered around a single theme and titled plainly—“On God,” “On Faith,” “On Hope,” “On Love for God,” “On Prayer,” “On Peace of Soul.” Read straight through, they trace a deliberate ascent, and it is worth noticing the shape of it.

The collection opens with God Himself and the great objects of faith—the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the reasons for the coming of Christ—before turning to the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, and to the fear of God that Scripture calls the beginning of wisdom. From these foundations it moves inward and downward into the practical warfare of the soul: the guarding of the tongue and of the heart’s secrets, the dangers of idle talk, and then a remarkable clinical survey of the passions that afflict anyone who tries to pray—tears and their counterfeits, sorrow, the noonday listlessness the Fathers called tedium or despondency, and despair, each diagnosed and each met with a concrete remedy.

At the center of the book stand its chapters on prayer and peace. Seraphim sets out the practice of the Jesus Prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”—as the unceasing remembrance of God, to be carried into church, into work, into the whole of a life. Around it he ranges the counsels most characteristic of him: on the peace of soul that is “acquired through afflictions” and that makes the heart a dwelling place for God; on the guarding of the heart and the discernment of its movements, the good spirit being known by the quiet joy it brings and the evil one by its trouble and confusion; and on the “light of Christ,” the inner illumination that dawns when the mind, purified and stilled, descends into the heart and calls upon the Name.

From there the book turns to the ascetic scaffolding that supports this inner work—renunciation of the world, bodily labors, repentance, fasting, vigilance against temptation—and to the disciplines of solitude, silence, and stillness in which the prayer of the heart matures. It closes with the most seasoned of its teaching: a careful account of the active and contemplative lives and how one must precede the other, followed by a handful of direct, personal instructions—to a novice, to a brother drawn toward the hermit’s life, and to abbots, whom Seraphim charges to govern their monks not as masters but as a tender mother cares for her children. A final section of explanatory notes, supplied by later editors, clarifies the older Slavonic wording of the many scriptural and liturgical texts the elder quotes.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The abiding contribution of the Instructions is not a new doctrine but a demonstration—proof, in the nineteenth century, that the ancient way of the heart was still alive and still open to anyone who would take it up. In an age of rapid change, when much of educated Christendom had grown skeptical of the mystical tradition, Seraphim stands as a living witness that the promises of the Fathers are not archaic hyperbole. His whole teaching bends toward a single end, which he names again and again: union with God, the warming of the cold heart by the fire of divine love, the shining of the light of Christ within. The famous formulation that the aim of the Christian life is “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit” belongs to his Conversation with Motovilov, but the same vision animates every page of the Instructions; here we are simply shown the long, ordinary labor by which that acquisition is prepared.

Two features give the collection its particular value. The first is its psychological precision. Seraphim, following his beloved Isaac the Syrian, is an unmatched physician of the inner life. His chapters on despondency and despair distinguish states that a careless reader would run together—natural weariness from demonic assault, the despair born of too many sins from the subtler despair born of wounded pride—and prescribe for each a different medicine. He knows how sorrow “gnaws at the mother that gives it birth,” how the noonday demon suggests that a monk’s cell is unbearable, how tears of compunction can be counterfeited by a laughter that betrays the enemy’s hand. This is not theory but the fruit of watching his own soul, and thousands of others, for half a century.

The second is its insistence that the interior path is governed and sober. Seraphim is emphatic that contemplation must be built upon the active life, that the prayer of the heart is entered “with fear and trembling” and, wherever possible, under the guidance of an experienced elder or, failing that, of Scripture and the Fathers—never through presumption, which delivers a soul straight into delusion. Against every caricature of mysticism as private enthusiasm, he sets a discipline hedged about with humility, obedience, and the discernment of spirits. That balance—of longing for grace and distrust of one’s own judgment—is the book’s most bracing gift to a modern reader.

Beneath both features runs the note that colored the whole of Seraphim’s own life: joy. The severity of the counsels never hardens into gloom, because their end is not renunciation for its own sake but the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” and the warmth of a heart set alight. The elder who could greet every stranger as “my joy” and speak of the martyrs’ sufferings in the same breath as the martyrs’ gladness leaves that same imprint on his book. Nor is the reader ever left alone with an abstract God: the Mother of God, who watched over Seraphim from childhood and stood before him at his death, and the whole company of the saints he quotes, hold the Instructions within the living communion of the Church, so that the solitary work of prayer is never a solitude of the soul.

Reception and Influence

Seraphim’s Instructions passed quickly into the bloodstream of Russian spiritual life. Circulated with the Lives of the elder that appeared through the nineteenth century, they helped make Sarov a place of national pilgrimage and shaped the great revival of eldership that runs from Optina to the Russian diaspora of the twentieth century. When Orthodox Christians began, in the last century, to render their tradition into English, the Instructions were among the first texts chosen: they have been translated and set beside the elder’s Life and his Conversation with Motovilov in collections that consciously present Seraphim as a “Russian Philokalia,” a late flowering of the same tradition the Greek anthology had gathered. His words on the Jesus Prayer and on the peace of the soul are quoted wherever the prayer of the heart is taught, and his figure—bent, white-bearded, radiant—has become one of the most recognizable in all of Christian iconography. That his cult crossed so easily into the wider Christian world, drawing the admiration of Western writers and churchmen, is itself a mark of how universally his counsel has been received.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents a fresh, modern English translation of the Spiritual Instructions, made from the public-domain Russian text of the collection as it has come down through the Sarov tradition and as published in standard Russian editions. It renders the Instructions into clear contemporary English while preserving the cadence and the reverence of the original, and it reproduces the full sweep of the work—all its thematic chapters together with the personal instructions to novices and abbots that close it, and the explanatory notes with which later Russian editors glossed the elder’s many Slavonic citations of Scripture and the services.

In keeping with the conventions of this series, the work is attributed to Saint Seraphim of Sarov, the author as the Church receives him; the anonymous compilers who first arranged his counsel, and the editors whose notes clarify the text, are credited for their work but never displace him, and translators are named as translators, never as authors. Scriptural and internal references are given in a normalized Arabic style—book, chapter, and verse—for ease of use, in place of the older Roman and Slavonic forms. Because so much of the book is woven from the Fathers, Seraphim’s quotations of Isaac the Syrian, Barsanuphius, Macarius, and the rest are kept as he gives them, with their sources named where he or his editors named them, so that the reader can see the tradition speaking through him. This is an English edition intended to be read on its own; it is not a parallel or bilingual text, and it does not set the translation against the Russian.

Suggestions for Reading

The Instructions reward slow and repeated reading far more than a single passage from cover to cover. Each chapter is a self-contained counsel, and the book can be opened at any of them; a reader new to this literature might begin with the chapters “On Peace of Soul,” “On Prayer,” and “On Attentiveness to Oneself,” which carry the heart of Seraphim’s teaching in a few pages. It helps to remember that the elder wrote first for monks, and that some of his counsels assume the discipline of the cloister; but their substance—watchfulness over the heart, the unceasing remembrance of God, patience under affliction, refusal to judge one’s neighbor—is addressed to every Christian, as Seraphim himself intended when he offered these words “to monks and laymen” alike. Read a chapter, sit with a sentence, and return; that is how this book was meant to be used, and how the elder in his forest cell would have given it.

On God

God is a fire that warms and inflames hearts and souls. Therefore, if we feel in our hearts a coldness that comes from the devil—for the devil is cold—let us call upon the Lord, and He, coming, will warm our heart with perfect love not only toward Him but also toward our neighbor. And before the warmth of that love, the coldness of the hater of good will flee.

The Fathers wrote, when they were asked: “Seek the Lord, but do not inquire where He dwells.”

Where God is, there is no evil. Everything that proceeds from God is peaceful and beneficial, and brings a person to humility and self-reproach.

God shows us His love for humanity not only when we do good, but also when we offend Him with our sins and provoke His anger. How patiently He bears our lawlessness, and when He chastises, how mercifully He chastises!

“Do not call God just,” says Venerable Isaac, “for in your deeds His justice is not evident. True, David called Him both just and upright, but His Son has shown us that God is above all good and merciful… Where is His justice? In the fact that we are sinners, and Christ died for us” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 90).

To the degree that a person advances here before God, to that same degree he walks in His footsteps; but in the true age to come, God will reveal His face to him. For the righteous, in proportion as they enter into contemplation of Him, see His image as in a mirror, while there they will be granted to behold the manifestation of truth.

If you do not know God, it is impossible for love for Him to be awakened in you. You cannot love God if you have not seen Him. And the vision of God comes from knowledge of Him, for contemplation of Him does not precede knowledge of Him.

Do not reason about the works of God after you have filled your belly: when the stomach is full, what knowledge of the mysteries of God is possible?

On the Mystery of the Holy Trinity

In order to gaze upon the Most Holy Trinity, one must ask the intercession of those holy hierarchs who taught about the Trinity—Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom—whose intercession can draw down the blessing of the Most Holy Trinity upon a person; but one must be careful not to gaze upon the Trinity directly on one’s own.

On the Reasons for the Coming of Jesus Christ Into the World

The reasons for the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into the world are:

1. God’s love for the human race: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16).

2. The restoration in fallen humanity of the image and likeness of God, as the Holy Church sings: “Him who was corrupted by transgression and fell away from the divine image, who had fallen into utter corruption and was stripped of the better divine life, the wise Creator renews anew.”

3. The salvation of human souls: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17).

Therefore, following the purpose of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, we must direct our lives in accordance with His divine teaching, so that through this we may obtain salvation for our souls.

On Faith

Above all, one must believe in God, “that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

Faith, according to the teaching of Venerable Antioch, is the beginning of our union with God: the one who truly believes is a stone of the temple of God, prepared for God the Father’s building, raised to a height by the power of Jesus Christ—that is, the Cross—with the help of a rope, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit.

“Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26); and the works of faith are: love, peace, patience, mercy, humility, rest from all works—as God also rested from His works—the bearing of the cross, and life according to the spirit. Only such faith is counted as righteousness. True faith cannot be without works; whoever truly believes will necessarily also have works.

On Hope

All who have firm hope in God are raised up to Him and enlightened by the radiance of eternal light.

If a person does not have excessive care for himself, out of love for God and for the sake of the works of virtue, knowing that God cares for him—such hope is true and wise. But if a person places all his confidence in his own efforts and turns to God in prayer only when unforeseen calamities overtake him, and seeing no means in his own strength to avert them, begins to hope for God’s help—such hope is vain and false. True hope seeks the Kingdom of God alone and is confident that everything earthly that is needed for this temporal life will without doubt be given.

The heart cannot have peace until it has acquired this hope. This hope alone will fully bring it peace and pour joy into it. It is of this hope that the most holy lips of the Savior spoke: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)—that is, hope in Me and you will be comforted from toil and fear.

In the Gospel of Luke it is written of Simeon: “And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). And he did not let his hope die, but waited for the longed-for Savior of the world, and, receiving Him with joy into his arms, said: “Now You are dismissing Your servant, O Master, to depart to Your Kingdom, which I have longed for, for I have received my hope—the Lord’s Christ.”

On Love for God

One who has acquired perfect love exists in this life as if he did not exist in it. For he considers himself a stranger to the visible world, patiently awaiting the invisible. He has been wholly transformed into love for God and has forgotten all other attachments.

Whoever loves himself cannot love God. But whoever does not love himself for the sake of love for God, loves God.

One who truly loves God considers himself a stranger and sojourner on this earth, for in his striving toward God he contemplates with his soul and mind Him alone.

A soul filled with the love of God will not fear the prince of the air even at the moment of its departure from the body, but will soar upward with the angels as if returning from a foreign land to its homeland.

On the Fear of God

A person who has resolved to walk the path of interior attentiveness must above all have the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom.

Let these prophetic words always be impressed upon his mind: “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling” (Ps. 2:11).

He must walk his path with the utmost caution and reverence toward everything sacred, and not carelessly. Otherwise, one must fear that this terrible divine sentence will apply to him: “Cursed is the one who does the work of the Lord negligently” (Jer. 48:10).

Reverent caution is necessary here because this sea—that is, the heart with its thoughts and desires, which must be cleansed through attentiveness—is great and spacious: “there are creeping things without number” (that is, vain, crooked, and impure thoughts—the offspring of evil spirits).

“Fear God,” says the Wise Man, “and keep His commandments” (Eccl. 12:13). And by keeping the commandments you will be strong in every deed, and your work will always be good. For, fearing God, out of love for Him you will do everything well. But do not fear the devil; whoever fears God will overcome the devil: for such a person the devil is powerless.

There are two kinds of fear: if you do not want to do evil, fear the Lord and do not do it; and if you want to do good, fear the Lord and do it.

But no one can acquire the fear of God so long as he has not freed himself from all earthly cares. When the mind is free of anxiety, then the fear of God moves it and draws it toward love of God’s goodness.

On Guarding the Truths One Has Come to Know

One should not needlessly open one’s heart to another; among a thousand, you might find only one who would keep your secret.

When we ourselves do not keep it within us, how can we hope that it will be kept by another?

With a person of a merely human disposition one must speak of human things; but with a person who possesses spiritual understanding one must speak of heavenly things.6 People filled with spiritual wisdom judge the spirit of any man by Holy Scripture, examining whether his words are in accord with the will of God, and from this they draw their conclusion about him.

When one happens to be among people in the world, one should not speak of spiritual things—especially when no desire to hear them is evident in those present.

In such a case one must follow the teaching of holy Dionysius the Areopagite: “Having yourself been made divine through knowledge of divine things, and having hidden holy things in the sanctuary of your mind from the uninitiated people, as things of one form, keep them safe; for it is not right, as Scripture says, to cast before swine the pure, luminous, and precious adornment of spiritual pearls” (Holy Martyr Dionysius the Areopagite, “On the Celestial Hierarchy,” ch. 2).

One must keep in mind the word of the Lord: “Do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you” (Matt. 7:6).

Therefore one must strive by every means to conceal within oneself the treasure of gifts.

Otherwise you will lose it and not find it again. For, according to the experiential teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian: “The help that comes from guarding… is greater than the help that comes from deeds”7 (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 89).

When necessity demands it, however, or when the occasion arises, one must act openly to the glory of God, according to the word: “Those who glorify Me I will glorify” (1 Sam. 2:30), for the path has already opened.

On Many Words

Mere talkativeness with those whose character is contrary to our own is enough to disturb the inner life of an attentive person.

But most pitiable of all is that this can quench the fire which our Lord Jesus Christ came “to cast upon the earth” (Luke 12:49)—the fire of human hearts; for “nothing so cools the fire breathed by the Holy Spirit into the heart of a monk for the sanctification of his soul as association with others, many words, and conversation, except that which is with the children of the mysteries of God, which leads to the return of His understanding and drawing near to Him”8 (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 8).

One must be especially on guard against association with women, for just as a wax candle, though unlit, placed among lit ones melts away, so the heart of a monk imperceptibly grows weak from conversation with women. Concerning this, St. Isidore of Pelusium also says: “If (as Scripture says) ‘bad company corrupts good morals’ (1 Cor. 15:33), then conversation with women, even if it be proper, is nonetheless powerful enough to corrupt the inner person secretly through impure thoughts; and though the body remain pure, the soul will abide defiled. For what is harder than stone? What is softer than water? Yet constant application overcomes even nature. If nature, which is barely moved, is moved and suffers and is worn down by the very thing it counts as nothing, how shall human will, which is easily swayed, not be overcome and overturned by long habituation?”9 (St. Isidore of Pelusium, “Letters,” 284).

Therefore, in order to preserve the inner person, one must restrain the tongue from many words: “A wise man maintains silence” (Prov. 11:12) and “he who guards his mouth preserves his soul” (Prov. 13:3); and one must remember the words of Job: “I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I think about a young woman?” (Job 31:1), and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).

One must not reply to anyone about any matter before having first listened: “He who gives an answer before he hears is folly and shame to him” (Prov. 18:14).

On Prayer

Those who have truly resolved to serve the Lord God must practice the remembrance of God and unceasing prayer to Jesus Christ, saying in the mind: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner; and in the afternoon hours one may say this prayer as follows: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, through the prayers of the Mother of God, have mercy on me, a sinner; or one may turn directly to the Most Holy Mother of God, praying: Most Holy Mother of God, save us—or recite the angelic salutation: Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos… Through such practice, with guarding oneself from distraction and with the preservation of peace of conscience, one may draw near to God and be united with Him. For, in the words of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Without unceasing prayer you cannot draw near to God.”10

The manner of prayer was set out most excellently by St. Symeon the New Theologian.11

Its worth was very well described by St. John Chrysostom: “Prayer,” he says, “is a great weapon, a treasure never depleted, wealth never spent, a harbor free from storms, the cause of calm, and the root, source, and mother of ten thousand good things.”12

In church during prayer it is beneficial to stand with eyes closed, in inward attention; one should open the eyes only when drowsiness or sleep begins to weigh upon you and incline you toward slumber—then the eyes should be turned toward the icon and the candle burning before it.

If during prayer the mind is captured and carried off into a scattering of thoughts, one must humble oneself before the Lord God and ask for forgiveness, saying: “I have sinned, O Lord, in word, in deed, in thought, and with all my senses.” Therefore one must always strive not to give oneself over to distraction of thoughts, for through this the soul turns aside from the remembrance of God and love of Him, by the working of the devil—as St. Macarius says: “Our adversary’s entire effort is this: to turn our thoughts away from the remembrance of God, from fear of Him, and from love of Him.”13

But when the mind and heart are united in prayer and the thoughts of the soul are not scattered, the heart is warmed with spiritual warmth, in which the light of Christ shines forth, filling the whole inner person with peace and joy.

For all things we must give thanks to the Lord and entrust ourselves to His will; we must likewise present all our thoughts, words, and deeds to Him and strive that everything may serve only His good pleasure.

On Tears

All the saints and the monks who have renounced the world wept throughout their entire lives in expectation of eternal consolation, according to the assurance of the Savior of the world: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).

So too must we weep for the forgiveness of our sins. To this let us be persuaded by the words of the Purple-robed Prophet:14 “Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves” (Ps. 125:5–6); and by the words of Isaac the Syrian: “Wet your cheeks with the tears of your eyes, that the Holy Spirit may rest upon you and wash you from the filth of your wickedness. Appease your Lord with tears, that He may come to you.”15

When we weep in prayer and laughter mingles with the tears, this is from the cunning of the devil. The secret and subtle workings of our enemy are difficult to perceive.

In one whose tears of compunction flow, the heart is illumined by the rays of the Sun of Righteousness—Christ our God.

On Sorrow

When the evil spirit of sorrow takes possession of a soul, it fills it with grief and displeasure, and does not allow it to perform prayer with due fervor, hinders it from occupying itself with the reading of Scripture with proper attention, robs it of gentleness and good cheer in its dealings with the brothers, and gives rise to an aversion to every conversation. For a soul filled with sorrow becomes, as it were, senseless and beside itself, and can neither calmly receive good counsel nor answer gently the questions put to it. It flees from people as though they were the cause of its distress, not understanding that the cause of its illness lies within itself. Sorrow is a worm of the heart, gnawing at the mother that gives it birth.

The sorrowful monk does not move his mind toward contemplation and can never perform pure prayer.

Whoever has conquered the passions has conquered sorrow as well. But one conquered by the passions will not escape the bonds of sorrow. As the sick are recognized by the color of their face, so one held captive by passion is exposed by sorrow.

Whoever loves the world cannot but be sorrowful. But one who has despised the world is always joyful.

As fire refines gold, so “godly sorrow” (2 Cor. 7:10) purifies the sinful heart (St. Antiochus, Homily 25).

On Tedium and Despondency

Together with the spirit of sorrow the spirit of tedium acts inseparably. According to the observation of the fathers, it attacks the monk around midday and produces in him such terrible restlessness that his place of dwelling becomes unbearable to him, as do the brothers living with him; during reading a kind of aversion arises in him, along with frequent yawning and a strong hunger. After filling the belly, the demon of tedium suggests to the monk thoughts of leaving his cell and talking with someone, giving him to understand that there is no other way to be rid of tedium than by conversing with others without ceasing. And the monk overcome by tedium is like the dry brush of the desert, which stops for a moment and then is carried again by the wind. He is like a cloud without water, driven by the wind (see Jude 1:12. — Editor’s note.)

If this demon cannot draw the monk out of his cell, he begins to distract his mind during prayer and reading. “This is not in the right place,” a thought tells him, “and that is not where it belongs; everything needs to be put in order”—and all this it does in order to make the mind idle and fruitless.

This illness is healed by prayer, abstaining from idle talk, whatever manual work one is able to do, reading the word of God, and patience; for it is born of faint-heartedness, idleness, and idle talk (St. Antiochus, Homily 26; St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 30).

It is difficult to avoid this illness for one who is beginning the monastic life, for it is the first to attack him. Therefore first of all one must be on guard against it through strict and unquestioning fulfillment of all the duties laid upon the novice. When your occupations come into proper order, then tedium will find no place in your heart. Only those whose affairs are in disorder grow bored. Obedience, therefore, is the best remedy against this dangerous illness.

When tedium overcomes you, say to yourself, following the counsel of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Again you desire impurity and a shameful life. And if your body says to you: ‘It is a great sin to kill yourself,’ then answer it: ‘I kill myself because I cannot live impurely. I will die here so that I may not see the true death of my soul, death before God. It is better for me to die here for the sake of purity than to live a wretched life in the world. Of my own will I have chosen this death on account of my sins. I mortify myself because I have sinned against the Lord; I will no longer provoke Him. What is life to me if it is far from God? I will endure these afflictions so as not to be cut off from the heavenly hope. What does God gain from my life in this world if I live badly in it and provoke God?’” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 22).

Boredom is one thing; anguish of spirit—what is called despondency—is another. A person sometimes falls into such a state of spirit that it seems to him he would sooner cease to exist, or be without any feeling or awareness, than remain any longer in this inexplicably tormenting condition. One must hasten to get out of it. Guard yourself against the spirit of despondency, for from it every evil is born. “There is a natural despondency,” teaches Saint Barsanuphius, “arising from weakness, and there is a despondency that comes from the demon. If you wish to distinguish them, distinguish them thus: the demonic kind arrives before the time when one ought to allow oneself rest—for when a person begins to do something, before a third or even a quarter of the work is done, it compels him to leave off and get up. In that case one must not listen to it, but should say a prayer and sit at the work with patience; and the enemy, seeing that the person is praying over this, stops fighting him, for he does not want to give occasion for prayer” (St. Barsanuphius the Great, Answer 559).

“When it pleases God,” says Saint Isaac the Syrian, “to subject a person to greater afflictions, He permits him to fall into the hands of faint-heartedness. And it produces in the person an overpowering force of despondency, in which he feels a crushing of the soul—and this is a foretaste of hell. Through it a spirit of frenzy is brought upon a person, from which a thousand temptations flow: confusion, irritability, blasphemy, complaint against one’s lot, perverse thoughts, moving from one country16 to another, and the like. If you ask, ‘What is the cause of all this?’—I will say: your own negligence, for you yourself have not taken care to seek a remedy for this. Yet the remedy for all of it is one, and by it alone a person finds swift consolation in his soul. And what is this remedy? Humility of heart. Without it, no one will be able to demolish the stronghold of these evils; rather, he will find that calamities have prevailed over him” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 79). Despondency is sometimes called by the holy Fathers idleness, laziness, and sloth.

On Despair

Despair, according to the teaching of Saint John Climacus, arises either from the awareness of “the multitude of sins and the burdening of the conscience and an unbearable sorrow, when the soul, because of the multitude of these wounds, is submerged and drowned by their weight in the deep of hopelessness,” or “from pride and arrogance, when those who have fallen think that they do not deserve this fall.” Despair of the first kind draws a person into every vice indiscriminately, while in despair of the second kind a person still clings to his spiritual effort—which, in the words of John Climacus, is incompatible with reason. The first is healed by self-restraint and good hope, and the second by humility and the refusal to judge one’s neighbor (St. John Climacus, The Ladder, Step 26, section 89).

The Lord is concerned for our salvation. But the devil, who is a murderer of men, strives to bring a person into despair.

A soul that is noble and steadfast does not despair in misfortunes, whatever they may be. Our life is like a house of trials and torments; but we will not turn away from the Lord until He commands those who are tormenting us to leave off, and until we are enlivened by patience and firm dispassion.

Judas the betrayer was faint-hearted and inexperienced in spiritual warfare, and therefore the enemy, seeing his despair, fell upon him and drove him to hang himself. But Peter—the firm rock—when he fell into sin, being skilled in spiritual combat, did not despair and did not lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a burning heart; and the enemy, seeing those tears, as though scorched in the eyes by fire, fled far from him with a cry of pain.

“Therefore, brothers,” teaches the venerable Antiochus, “when despair attacks us, let us not submit to it, but, strengthened and guarded by the light of faith, let us say with great courage to the evil spirit: ‘What have we to do with you, you outcast from God, you fugitive from heaven, you wicked slave? You dare not do anything to us. Christ, the Son of God, has power over us and over all. To Him we have sinned, and by Him we will be justified. And you, destroyer, depart from us. Strengthened by His Holy Cross, we trample your serpent’s head’” (St. Antiochus, Homily 27).

And with tender compunction let us pray to the Lord:

On Illness

The body is a slave and the soul is a queen; and therefore it is often also an act of God’s mercy when the body is worn down by illness, for through this the passions are weakened, and a person comes to his senses—and bodily illness itself sometimes arises from the passions.

Take away sin, and illnesses will depart—for they come upon us from sin, as Saint Basil the Great affirms: “Where do diseases come from? Where do bodily afflictions come from? The Lord created the body, not disease; the soul, not sin. And what is most beneficial and necessary? Union with God and communion with Him through love. Losing this love, we fall away from Him; and falling away, we become subject to various and manifold diseases” (“Homily on the Fact that God Is Not the Author of Evils”).

Headache comes from mental activity that is restless and forced beyond measure.

Whoever bears illness with patience and thanksgiving has it counted to him in place of spiritual effort, or even more than that.

An elder who suffered from dropsy said to the brothers who came to him wishing to treat him: “Fathers, pray that my inner man may not be afflicted with such a disease; but as for this present illness, I ask God not to free me from it all at once—for in proportion as ‘our outward man… perishes,’ in that same proportion ‘the inner man… is renewed’ (2 Cor. 4:16).”

On Patience and Humility

One must always bear with patience everything that happens, for God’s sake and with thanksgiving.

Our life is but a single minute compared to eternity, and therefore, as the Apostle says, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).

Bear in silence when the enemy insults you, and at that time open your heart to the Lord.

When someone humiliates you or takes away your honor, strive by every means to forgive him, according to the word of the Gospel: “From one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back” (Luke 6:30).

When people revile us, we ought to consider ourselves unworthy of praise, reflecting that if we were truly worthy, everyone would bow to us.

We must always and before everyone humble ourselves, following the teaching of Saint Isaac the Syrian: “By humbling yourself, you will see the glory of God within you” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 57). Therefore let us love humility and we shall behold the glory of God, “for where humility grows, there the glory of God flows forth” (ibid.).

When there is no light, everything is dark: so too without humility there is nothing in a person but darkness.

Just as wax that has not been warmed and softened cannot receive the seal pressed upon it, so a soul that has not been tried by labors and infirmities cannot receive upon itself the seal of God’s virtue. When the devil left the Lord, “angels came and ministered to Him” (Matt. 4:11). So it is with us: if during temptations the angels of God withdraw from us for a little while, they are not far away, and they soon come and minister to us with divine thoughts, tender compunction, consolation, and patience. The soul, having labored, acquires the remaining virtues as well. This is why the holy Prophet Isaiah says: “But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not grow faint” (Isa. 40:31).

So too the most meek David endured: for when Shimei reviled him and threw stones at him, saying:

“Come out, come out… you man of bloodshed,” he was not angry; and when Abishai, indignant at this, said to him, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?” he restrained him, saying, “Let him alone, and let him curse—for the Lord will see and will repay me with good” (2Sam 16:7,9-10,12). And therefore afterwards he sang: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He turned to me and heard my cry” (Ps. 39:2).

“The furnace tests the potter’s vessels, and the trial of a man is in his reflection” (Sir. 27:5). But “woe to you who have lost your patience: what will you do when the Lord visits?” (Sir. 2:14).

Just as a loving father, when he sees that his son is living disorderly, chastises him, but when he sees that he is faint-hearted and bearing the punishment with difficulty, then consoles him—so our gracious Lord and Father deals with us, using everything for our benefit, both consolations and chastisements, according to His love for mankind. And therefore we, being in afflictions as obedient children, ought to give thanks to God. For if we thank Him only in prosperity, we will be like the ungrateful Jews who, having been satisfied by the wondrous table in the wilderness, said that Christ was truly a Prophet and wanted to take Him and make Him king; but when He said to them, “Do not labor for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27), they said to Him, “Then what sign do you do? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness” (John 6:30–31). Directly upon such people falls the word: “He will give thanks to you when you do him good, and he will not see the light forever” (Ps. 48:19–20).

Therefore the Apostle James teaches us: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience; and let patience have its perfect work” (James 1:2–4); and he adds: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation—for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life” (James 1:12).

On Almsgiving

One must be merciful to the poor and to strangers; the great lights and Fathers of the Church were much concerned with this.

We must strive by every means to fulfill the word of God: “Be merciful, therefore, as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). And again: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matt. 9:13).

The wise heed these saving words, and the foolish do not—and therefore the reward is not equal, as it is said: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6).

The example of Saint Peter the Baker can move us to show mercy to our neighbors, for even a small act of mercy greatly contributes to obtaining the Kingdom of Heaven.

We ought to perform acts of mercy with a disposition of good will in the soul, according to the teaching of Saint Isaac the Syrian: “If you give something to one in need, let gladness of face precede your gift, and with kind words console his sorrow.”20

On Duties21 and Love for One’s Neighbor

One must treat neighbors with kindness, giving no offense even in appearance.

When we turn away from a person or offend him, it is as though a stone settles upon our heart.

One must strive to encourage the spirit of a troubled or despondent person with a word of love.

When a brother sins, cover him, as Saint Isaac the Syrian counsels: “Spread your garment over the one who is sinning and cover him” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 89).

We all need the mercy of God, as the Church sings: “If the Lord had not been with us, who would have been able to remain unharmed by the enemy, who is also a murderer of men?”

In our relations with our neighbor we must be pure both in word and in thought, and treat all people equally; otherwise we will make our life useless.

We must love our neighbor no less than ourselves, according to the Lord’s commandment: “You shall love… your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). But not in such a way that love for our neighbors, going beyond the bounds of moderation, draws us away from fulfilling the first and greatest commandment—that is, the love of God—as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches: “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37).

On this subject St. Dimitri of Rostov reasons very well: “A false love for God in a Christian is evident when the creature is equated with the Creator, or the creature is honored more than the Creator; but true love is evident when the one Creator is loved and honored above all creation.”

On the Duty of Those Under Authority Toward Their Superior

One must not meddle in the affairs of those in authority or pass judgment on them; by doing so one offends the majesty of God, by whom authorities are established, “for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Rom. 13:1).

One must not resist authority in what is for the good, lest one sin before God and incur His righteous punishment: “Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Rom. 13:2). One must be obedient to one’s superior, for through obedience one makes great progress in the building up of the soul, and beyond that one gains through it understanding of things and comes to contrition.

On Not Judging One’s Neighbor

One must not judge anyone, even if one sees with one’s own eyes another sinning or persisting in transgression of God’s commandments, according to the word of God: “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (Matt. 7:1), and again: “Who are you to pass judgment on someone else’s servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4).

It is far better always to call to mind these apostolic words: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

For it is not known how long we can remain in virtue, as the Prophet, who had learned this by experience, says: “As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved’… You hid Your face, and I was dismayed” (Ps. 29:7–8).

On Forgiving Offenses

For any offense that may be inflicted upon us, we must not only refrain from taking revenge, but, on the contrary, must forgive from the heart—even if the heart resists—and incline it through the persuasion of God’s word: “But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, your Father (in heaven) will not forgive you your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15), and again: “Pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44).

One must not harbor malice or hatred in one’s heart toward a neighbor who is hostile, but must strive to love him and, as much as possible, to do good to him, following the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Love your enemies… do good to those who hate you” (Matt. 5:44).

And so, if we will strive with all our strength to fulfill all of this, then we can hope that in our hearts the Divine light will shine forth, illuminating the path there toward the heavenly Jerusalem. Let us emulate those beloved of God; let us emulate the meekness of David, of whom the most good and love-of-goodness Lord said: “I have found a man after My heart… who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22). This is what He says of David, who bore no malice and was kind to his enemies. And we will do nothing in revenge against our brother, lest, as the venerable Antioch says, there be an obstacle during prayer. The Law commands us to care for our enemy’s donkey: “If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him” (Exod. 23:5). God testified of Job as a man free of malice (Job 2:3); Joseph did not take revenge on his brothers who had plotted evil against him; Abel went with his brother Cain in simplicity and without suspicion. According to the testimony of God’s word, all the saints lived without malice. Jeremiah, speaking with God, says of Israel which persecuted him: “Should evil be repaid for good?… Remember how I stood before You to speak good for them” (Jer. 18:20).

God has commanded us to have enmity only against the serpent—that is, against the one who from the beginning deceived mankind and drove them out of paradise, the murderer of men, the devil. We are also commanded to wage war against the Midianites—that is, against the unclean spirits of fornication and licentiousness, who sow impure and filthy thoughts in the heart.

The summit of virtue and wisdom is to act without guile yet with discernment.

Why do we judge our brothers? Because we do not strive to know ourselves. A person who is occupied with knowing himself has no time to notice the faults of others. Judge yourself—and you will stop judging others.

Condemn the bad deed, but do not condemn the one who does it.

We must regard ourselves as the most sinful of all, forgive our neighbor every bad deed, and hate only the devil who has led him astray. It also happens that something seems to us to be done badly by another person, yet in reality, owing to the good intention of the one doing it, it is good. Moreover, the doors of repentance are open to all, and it is not known who will enter first—you who judge, or the one you are judging.

If you judge your neighbor, the venerable Antioch teaches, then together with him you yourself are condemned in the very thing for which you judge him. It is not for us to judge or condemn, but for God alone and the Great Judge, who knows our hearts and the hidden passions of our nature (Venerable Antioch, Homily 49).

And so, beloved, let us not watch for the sins of others and condemn one another, lest we hear: “The sons of men—their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword” (Ps. 56:5).

For when the Lord leaves a man to himself, the devil is ready to grind him up as a millstone grinds a grain of wheat.

On Care for the Soul

In body, a person is like a lighted candle. The candle must burn down, and so he must die. But the soul is immortal, and therefore our care for the soul must be greater than our care for the body: “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26–27)—for which, as is well known, nothing in the world can serve as a ransom. If one soul by itself is more precious than the whole world and an earthly kingdom, then the Kingdom of Heaven is incomparably more precious still. “We call the soul most precious because God,” as Macarius the Great says, “was pleased to bring into union and communion with the Spirit of His own nature not any other creature… but man alone, whom He loved above all His creatures” (Venerable Macarius the Great, Homily 7, “On the Freedom of the Mind,” ch. 32).

Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose of Milan and others were virgins from youth to the end of their lives; their whole life was devoted to care for the soul, not for the body. And so we too must direct all our effort toward the soul, strengthening the body only insofar as it helps to strengthen the spirit.

If we willfully exhaust our body to the point where the spirit is also exhausted, such self-affliction is unreasonable, even if it is done for the sake of acquiring virtue.

But if it is the Lord God’s will that a person should experience illness, He Himself will also grant him the strength to endure it.

Therefore, let illnesses come not from ourselves, but from God.

With What Must the Soul Be Furnished?

“If you wish to build the house of your soul,” says the venerable Barsanuphius, “first prepare the materials and everything needed, so that the Master Builder will only need to come and build. What is needed for such a structure is: a firm faith to build the walls; wooden windows to let in the sunlight that illuminates the house so that there is not the least darkness in it. The wooden windows are the five senses, confirmed by the Honorable Cross of Christ, admitting the light of the spiritual Sun of Righteousness and not allowing even the least darkness of the enemy and hater of good to remain in your house. Then a roof is needed, so that ‘the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night’ (Ps. 120:6). The roof is fastened together with love for God, which, covering the house, would never fall and would not allow ‘the sun to go down on your anger’ (Eph. 4:26), lest you see it rebuking you on the day of judgment and burning you in the fire of hell, and the moon bearing witness to our nightly despondency and sloth. Finally, a door is needed—one that leads into the house and protects the one who lives in it. Understand the spiritual door to be the Son of God, who says: ‘I am the door’ (John 10:9). If you thus build the house of your soul and there is in it nothing unfitting or displeasing to God, then He will come with the blessed Father and the Holy Spirit and will make His home with you (John 14:23), and will teach you what the peace of the soul is, enlightening your heart with unspeakable joy” (Venerable Barsanuphius, Answer 121).

The soul must be furnished with the word of God, for the word of God, as Gregory the Theologian says, is the bread of angels, with which souls that hunger for God are fed. Above all one must exercise oneself in reading the New Testament and the Psalter… From this comes enlightenment of the mind, which is thereby transformed by a Divine transformation.

One must train oneself so that the mind, as it were, swims in the Law of the Lord, by which it must order one’s life.

It is very beneficial to occupy oneself with reading God’s word in solitude and to read the entire Bible attentively. For this single exercise alone, apart from other good deeds, the Lord does not leave a person without His mercy, but fills him with the gift of understanding.

And when a person has furnished his soul with the word of God, he is then filled with understanding of what is good and what is evil.

The reading of God’s word must be done in solitude so that the whole mind of the reader may be immersed in the truths of Holy Scripture and may receive from God within itself a warmth which in solitude produces tears; through these a person is warmed throughout and filled with spiritual gifts that delight the mind and heart beyond all words.

“Bodily labor and meditation in the Divine Scriptures,” the venerable Isaac the Syrian teaches, “guard purity; labor is strengthened by hope and fear. Hope and fear are confirmed in the mind by withdrawal from people and unceasing prayer. While a man has not yet received the Comforter, the Divine Scriptures are needed by him so that the remembrance of good may be impressed upon his thought, and through unceasing reading the striving for good may be renewed in him, and his soul guarded from the subtlety of sinful paths—for he has not yet acquired the power of the Spirit, which removes the delusion that steals away soul-saving remembrances and draws him toward coldness through the distraction of the mind. But when the power of the Spirit descends into the soul-force active in a man, then instead of the law of Scripture the commandments of the Spirit take root in the heart, and he is then secretly taught by the Spirit and has no need of the aid of material things. For as long as the heart is taught by material things, error and forgetfulness follow immediately upon the teaching; but when the teaching is imparted by the Spirit, the remembrance is preserved unimpaired” (Venerable Isaac the Syrian, Homily 58).

It is also fitting to furnish the soul with knowledge of the Church—how it has been preserved from the beginning until now, what it has endured at various times; to know this not because one wishes to govern people, but for cases when questions may arise, as well as for one’s own conviction and consolation of spirit.

Most of all this must be done for oneself, so as to acquire peace of soul, according to the teaching of the Psalmist: “Great peace have those who love Your law, O Lord” (Ps. 118:165).

On Peace of Soul

Peace of soul is acquired through afflictions. Scripture says: “We went through fire and water, and you brought us out to a place of rest” (Ps. 65:12). The path of those who wish to please God lies through many afflictions. How can we glorify the holy martyrs for the sufferings they endured for God’s sake, when we cannot even bear a fever?25

Nothing so promotes the acquisition of inner peace as silence and, as much as possible, continual interior conversation with oneself and rare conversation with others.

There is nothing better in Christ than peace, in which all the warfare of aerial and earthly spirits is destroyed: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12).

The sign of spiritual life is when a person plunges the mind inward into himself and has his work within his own heart.

Then the grace of God overshadows him, and he comes to be first in a peaceful state, and through this in a state beyond peace26—in the peaceful state, that is, with a good conscience; and in the state beyond peace, when the mind contemplates within itself the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the word of God: “His place is in peace” (Ps. 75:3).

Is it possible to see the sun with the bodily eyes and not rejoice? But how much more joyful it is when the mind sees with the inner eye the Sun of Righteousness—Christ! Then truly it rejoices with angelic joy. Of this the Apostle also said: “For our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).

When someone walks in a peaceful state, he draws spiritual gifts as if with a ladle.

The holy fathers, possessing a peaceful state and being overshadowed by the grace of God, lived for a long time.

When a person comes to a peaceful state, then he is able to radiate from himself the light of enlightenment of the mind to others as well; but before this a person must repeat these words of the prophetess: “Let no arrogance come out of your mouths” (1 Sam. 2:3), and the Lord’s words: “Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5).

This peace, as a kind of priceless treasure, was left by our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples before His death, when He said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). The Apostle Paul also speaks of it: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7); “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

Therefore, we must focus all our thoughts, desires, and actions on obtaining the peace of God, and always cry out with the Church: “Lord our God, grant us your peace” (Isa. 26:12).

On Preserving Peace of Soul

By every means we must strive to preserve peace of soul and not be disturbed by offenses from others; to this end we must do everything possible to restrain anger, and through attentiveness keep the mind and heart from unseemly impulses.

And therefore offenses from others must be borne with equanimity, and one must accustom oneself to such a disposition that their offenses seem not to touch us.

Such a practice can bring stillness to the human heart and make it a dwelling place for God Himself.

A model of such meekness we see in the life of St. Gregory the Wonderworker, upon whom a certain harlot publicly demanded payment for a sin he had allegedly committed with her; and he, not in the least angered with her, calmly said to one of his friends: “Give her quickly the sum she demands.” The woman, as soon as she received the unrighteous payment, was attacked by a demon. But the bishop cast the demon out of her through prayer.

If it is impossible not to be disturbed, then at least one must strive to restrain the tongue, as the Psalmist says: “I was troubled and spoke not” (Ps. 76:5).

In this matter we can take as an example for ourselves St. Spyridon of Trimythous and the venerable Ephrem the Syrian. The first endured an offense thus: when he was entering the palace at the demand of the Greek emperor, a certain servant who was in the royal hall, taking him for a beggar, laughed at him, would not let him into the hall, and then struck him on the cheek. St. Spyridon, being meek, according to the Lord’s word turned the other cheek to him as well (see Matt. 5:39). The venerable Ephrem, while fasting in the desert, was deprived of food by his disciple in the following way: the disciple, while bringing him food, accidentally broke the vessel on the way. The venerable one, seeing the grieving disciple, said to him: “Do not grieve, brother; if the food did not wish to come to us, then we shall go to it”—and he went, sat down beside the broken vessel, and gathering up the food, ate it. Such was his freedom from anger.

As to how to overcome anger, this can be seen from the life of Paisius the Great, who asked the Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared to him, to free him from anger. And the Savior said to him: “If you wish to conquer anger and wrath together, desire nothing, hate no one, and despise no one.”

In order to preserve peace of soul, one must drive away despondency and strive to maintain a joyful rather than sorrowful spirit, according to the word of Sirach: “For sorrow has killed many, and there is no benefit in it” (Sir. 30:25).

When a person suffers great want in things necessary for the body, it is difficult to overcome despondency. But this, of course, should be attributed to weak souls.

To preserve peace of soul one must also by every means avoid judging others. By not judging and by silence, peace of soul is preserved. When a person is in such a state, he receives divine revelations.

To be freed from judging, one must attend to oneself, receive no bad news from anyone, and be dead to everything.

To preserve peace of soul, one must frequently enter into oneself and ask: “Where am I?”

In doing so, one must take care that the bodily senses, especially sight, serve the inner person and do not distract the soul with sensory objects, for those who have inner spiritual work and watch over their souls alone receive gracious gifts.

On Guarding the Heart

We must vigilantly guard our heart from unseemly thoughts and impressions, according to the word of the Preacher27: “Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

From vigilant guarding of the heart, purity is born within it, in which the Lord is seen, according to the assurance of the Eternal Truth: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).

Whatever is best within the heart, we must not reveal unnecessarily, for only then can what has been gathered remain safe from visible and invisible enemies, when it is kept as a treasure in the depths of the heart. Do not reveal the secrets of your heart to everyone.

The heart only burns, kindled by the Divine fire, when there is living water in it; but when this living water pours out, it grows cold, and the person freezes.

On Discerning the Movements of the Heart

When a person receives something Divine, he rejoices in his heart; but when he receives something diabolical, he is troubled.

The Christian heart, having received something Divine, does not require further external convincing that it is truly from the Lord, but is convinced by the very action itself that it is heavenly, for it senses within itself the spiritual fruits: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23).

On the contrary, “even if the devil transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14) or presents thoughts of the most plausible appearance, the heart will nevertheless feel some kind of obscurity, agitation of thoughts, and confusion of the senses. Explaining this, St. Macarius of Egypt says: “Even though he [Satan] presents bright visions, he cannot, as has been said, produce a good effect—and this serves as his unmistakable sign” (St. Macarius the Great, Discourse 4, ch. 13).

Thus, from these varied movements of the heart a person can discern what is Divine and what is diabolical, as St. Gregory of Sinai writes about this: “From the movement you will be able to discern whether the light that has shone in your soul is from God or from Satan” (Philokalia, vol. 5, St. Gregory of Sinai, On Stillness).

On the Light of Christ

In order to receive and behold the light of Christ in the heart, one must withdraw from visible objects as much as possible. Having first purified the soul through repentance and good works, with sincere faith in the Crucified One, close the bodily eyes, plunge the mind into the depths of the heart, and cry out, ceaselessly calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then, in proportion to the earnestness and ardor of spirit toward the Beloved, the person finds in the invoked name a sweetness that awakens the desire to seek a higher enlightenment.

When through such a practice the mind lingers in the heart, then the light of Christ shines forth, illumining the chamber of the soul with its Divine radiance, as the holy prophet Malachi says in God’s name: “And the sun of righteousness shall rise upon you who fear my name” (Mal. 4:2). This light is at once also life, according to the Gospel word: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

When a person contemplates inwardly the eternal light, then his mind is pure and has within it no sensory representations; but, wholly absorbed in the contemplation of uncreated beauty, he forgets all that is sensory, does not wish to look even at himself, but desires to hide in the bowels of the earth, if only he might not be deprived of this true good—God.

On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses

We must strive to be free from impure thoughts, especially when we are offering prayer to God. For there is no union between foul stench and sweet fragrance.

For this reason we must repel the first assault of sinful thoughts and impulses and scatter them from the soil of our heart. While the children of Babylon—that is, evil impulses and thoughts—are still infants, we must dash and shatter them against the rock,28 which is Christ;29 and we must especially crush the following three passions: gluttony, love of money, and vainglory, by which the devil attempted to tempt even our Lord Jesus Christ himself at the end of his struggles in the desert.

The devil, “like a lion,” lurking “in his lair” (Ps. 9:30), secretly sets snares for us of impure and ungodly thoughts. Therefore, the moment we perceive them, we must tear them apart through devout reflection and prayer.

Struggle and great vigilance are required so that during the singing of psalms our mind may be in accord with our heart and lips, and so that no foul odor may mingle with the incense of our prayer. For the Lord abhors a heart filled with impure thoughts. The Law says: “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together”30 (Deut. 22:10)—that is, do not offer prayer while entertaining both a pure and an impure thought.

Let us imitate David, who says: In the morning I would destroy all the wicked of the land, to cut off all evildoers from the city of the Lord31 (Ps. 100:8). The Law forbade the unclean from entering the house of the Lord. That house is ourselves, and Jerusalem is within us. The wicked of the land are the serpentine thoughts lurking in our heart. Let us also cry out to the Lord with him: “Rescue my soul from their wickedness” (Ps. 34:17); “Scatter the nations that delight in war”32 (Ps. 67:31), so that we too may hear: “In your affliction you called upon me, and I delivered you” (Ps. 80:8).

Let us continually, day and night, cast ourselves with tears before the face of God’s goodness, that he may cleanse our hearts of every evil thought, so that we may worthily walk the path of our calling and with pure hands offer him the gifts of our service.

If we do not consent to the evil thoughts instilled by the devil, then we are doing good.

The unclean spirit has strong influence only over those who are enslaved to the passions; to those who have been purified of the passions it approaches only from the outside, or externally.

Can a person in the years of youth not burn and be disturbed by carnal thoughts? Yet one must pray to the Lord God that the spark of corrupt passions may be quenched at its very beginning. Then the flame of the passions will not grow strong within a person.

On Attentiveness to Oneself

One who is walking the path of attentiveness must not trust solely in his own heart, but must test the movements of his heart and the course of his life against the Law of God and against the active lives of the ascetics of piety who walked that same path. By this means one can more easily both be delivered from the evil one and perceive the truth more clearly.

The mind of an attentive person is like a sentinel posted on watch, or an unwearying guardian of the inner Jerusalem. Standing on the height of spiritual contemplation, it surveys with the eye of purity the hostile forces that move around and press in upon his soul, as the Psalmist says: “My eye has looked upon my enemies” (Ps. 53:9).

Hidden from his eye is the devil “prowling like a roaring lion…seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8), and those who bend their bow “to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart” (Ps. 10:2).

According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, two angels attend each person: one good, the other evil. The good angel is quiet, gentle, and still. When he enters a person’s heart, he speaks with him about righteousness, purity, honesty, tranquility, every good deed, and every virtue. When you feel this in your heart, it is clear: the Angel of righteousness is within you. But the evil spirit is irritable, harsh, and senseless. When he enters your heart, recognize him by his deeds (St. Antiochus, Discourse 61).

“Always be attentive to yourself, beloved,” says Isaac the Syrian, “and amid your unceasing labors examine the afflictions that come upon you, and the solitude of your dwelling, and the subtlety of your mind together with the coarseness of your understanding, and the long duration of your silence together with the many remedies—that is, the temptations—brought upon you by the true Physician for the healing of the inner person, and at other times by demons, and sometimes by illnesses and bodily hardships, sometimes by fearful thoughts of the soul, terrifying remembrances of what is to come in the end, and sometimes by the infusing and binding of the grace of heartfelt warmth and sweet tears, and spiritual joy, and all the rest. Do you observe clearly in all of this that your wound has begun to heal and close—that is, that the passions have begun to weaken? Mark the sign, and enter into yourself continually, and look: which passions, by your observation, have weakened before you, which of them have been destroyed and wholly departed from you, and which have begun to fall silent as a result of the soul’s recovery rather than through the removal of what excited them, and which you have learned to overcome by the mind rather than by depriving yourself of the occasions for them? Consider also whether you clearly see that in your festering wound living flesh has begun to grow—that is, the peace of the soul. Which passions pursue you one after another in succession and swiftly, and at what interval of time? Are they bodily passions or of the soul, or complex and mixed? And are they stirred only in the memory, feebly, or do they rise up strongly against the soul? And moreover—do they come as rulers, or like a thief? And how does the king of the senses—the mind—attend to them? When they gather strength and enter into battle, does it fight with them and bring them to helplessness by its own power, or does it not so much as glance at them and count them as nothing? And which of the old passions have been erased, and which new ones have formed? Furthermore, do the passions arise in vivid images, or in feeling—without vivid images, and in memory—without passionate movement, without reflection on them and without agitation? By this one can learn the measure of the soul’s health” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 45).

Therefore such a person, following the teaching of the divine Paul, takes up “all the armor of God, that he may be able to stand in the evil day” (Eph. 6:13), and with this armor, aided by the grace of God, repels visible assaults and conquers invisible adversaries. We see an example of such spiritual vigilance in the long-suffering Job, of whom the holy Church sings: The enemy, the foe of the righteous, beholding the wealth of Job’s virtues and scheming to steal them, tore open the pillar of his body, yet did not steal the treasure of his spirit, for he found the soul of the blameless one fully armed33 (from the troparion to the saint, tone 1).

One who is walking this path must not give heed to outside reports, by which the head may be filled with idle and vain thoughts and recollections, but must be attentive to himself.

On this path one must take special care not to meddle in others’ affairs, not to think or speak of them, as the Psalmist says: “So that my lips may not speak of the deeds of men” (Ps. 16:4), and to beseech the Lord: “Cleanse me from my secret faults, and from the sins of others spare your servant” (Ps. 18:13–14).

A person must attend to the beginning and the end of his life; in the middle, where happiness or unhappiness occurs, he must remain indifferent.

In order to preserve attentiveness, one must withdraw into oneself, in accordance with the Lord’s word: “Greet no one on the road” (Luke 10:4)—that is, do not speak without necessity, unless someone is running after you to hear something useful from you.

When meeting elders or fellow monastics, one must honor them with a bow, keeping the eyes always cast down.

Against Excessive Anxiety

Excessive anxiety about worldly affairs is characteristic of a person who is faithless and faint-hearted. And woe to us if, caring for ourselves, we do not ground our hope in God, who cares for us! If we do not refer to him the visible goods that we enjoy in this present age, how can we expect from him those goods that are promised in the age to come? Let us not be such little-believers, but rather let us seek “first the Kingdom of God…and all these things shall be added”34 to us, according to the word of the Savior.

It is better for us to despise what is not ours—that is, the temporal and the passing—and to desire what is ours—that is, incorruption and immortality. For when we become incorruptible and immortal, we shall be granted the visible contemplation of God, as the Apostles were at the most divine Transfiguration, and we shall partake of the supra-intellectual union with God like the heavenly minds. For we shall be like the angels and sons of God, “being sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36).

“There is an evil,” says Ecclesiastes, “which I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his own hurt; and those riches perish through misfortune…all his days are in darkness and in grief, and in much vexation, and in sickness and in anger” (Eccl 5:12-13:16).

On Renunciation of the World

The fear of God is acquired when a person, having renounced the world and all that is in the world, concentrates all his thoughts and feelings on the single contemplation of the Law of God and immerses himself entirely in the contemplation of God and in the sense of the blessedness promised to the saints.

It is impossible to renounce the world fully and attain the state of spiritual contemplation while remaining in the world. For as long as the passions have not been stilled, one cannot acquire peace of soul. But the passions are not stilled as long as we are surrounded by objects that arouse the passions. To come to complete dispassion and to achieve complete stillness of soul, much labor is needed in spiritual reflection and prayer. But how is it possible to immerse oneself wholly and peacefully in the contemplation of God, to meditate on his law, and with one’s whole soul to ascend to him in fervent prayer, while remaining amid the incessant noise of the passions warring in the world? The world…lies in evil.

Without being freed from the world, the soul cannot love God sincerely. For worldly things, in the words of the venerable Antiochus, are for the soul like a veil.

“If we,” says the same teacher, “are living in a foreign city, and our city is far from this city, and if we know our city, then why do we linger in the foreign city and prepare fields and dwellings for ourselves there? And ‘how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?’35 This world is the domain of another—that is, of the prince of this age” (St. Antiochus, Discourse 15).

On Ascetic Labors

One must not undertake ascetic labors beyond one’s measure, but must strive so that our friend—our flesh—may be loyal and capable of performing acts of virtue.

We must walk the middle path, turning “neither to the right nor to the left” (Prov. 4:27), and give to the spirit what is spiritual and to the body what is bodily—what is needed for sustaining temporal life. But neither must one refuse to civic life what it legitimately requires of us, in the words of Holy Scripture: “Render therefore to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matt. 22:21).

One must be patient with one’s own soul in its weaknesses and imperfections, and bear one’s own shortcomings as one bears the shortcomings of one’s neighbors—but without being lazy, and urging oneself toward what is better.

If you have eaten too much or done something else of that kind, akin to human frailty, do not be disturbed by it, do not add harm to harm, but manfully rouse yourself to correction and strive to preserve peace of soul, according to the word of the Apostle: “Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves” (Rom. 14:22).

The same meaning is contained in the words of the Savior: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:3).

A body exhausted by ascetic labors or illness must be strengthened with moderate sleep, food, and drink, without even observing a fixed time for these. When Jesus Christ raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, he immediately “commanded that something be given her to eat” (Luke 8:55).

Every success in anything must be referred to the Lord, and with the Prophet we must say: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory” (Ps. 113:9).

Up to the age of about thirty-five—that is, until the midpoint of earthly life—great is the struggle for a person to preserve himself, and many in those years do not hold fast to virtue but turn aside from the right path toward their own desires; as St. Basil the Great bears witness: many have gathered much in their youth, but finding themselves in the middle of life and unable to endure the temptations raised against them by the spirits of wickedness, they lost everything they had gathered.

Therefore, in order not to experience such a reversal, one must place oneself as though on a scale of trial and careful self-observation, according to the teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Each person ought to weigh his life as though on a balance” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40).

On Repentance

Whoever desires to be saved must always keep the heart disposed toward repentance and contrition, as the Psalmist says: “The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19).

In such contrition of spirit a person can readily pass through the cunning snares of the proud devil without harm—for his entire effort consists in disturbing the human spirit, and in that disturbance sowing his own tares, according to the words of the Gospel: “Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then have the tares come from?” He said to them: “An enemy has done this” (Matt. 13:27–28).

But when a person strives to keep within himself a humble heart and a mind that is not troubled but at peace, then all the snares of the enemy become powerless; for where there is peace of thoughts, the Lord God himself dwells: “In peace,” it is said, “is his dwelling place” (Ps. 75:3).

The beginning of repentance springs from the fear of God and attentiveness, as the holy martyr Boniface says: the fear of God is the father of attentiveness, and attentiveness is the mother of inward peace, which gives birth to conscience, and conscience acts so that the soul, as in some clean and undisturbed water, sees its own ugliness—and thus arise the first fruits and roots of repentance.

Throughout our entire lives we offend the majesty of God by our transgressions, and therefore we must always humble ourselves before him, asking forgiveness for our debts.

Can a person who has received grace rise again after a fall?

Yes, according to the Psalmist: “I was pushed hard so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me” (Ps. 117:13); for when the prophet Nathan reproved David for his sin, David repented and at that very moment received forgiveness.

Another example is a certain hermit who, having gone to fetch water, fell into sin with a woman at the spring. But upon returning to his cell he acknowledged his transgression and once again began to live the ascetic life as before. The enemy troubled him, setting before him the gravity of the sin, denying the possibility of forgiveness, and trying to draw him away from the ascetic life. But the soldier of Christ stood firm on his path. Concerning this incident, God revealed it to a certain blessed father and commanded him to call blessed the brother who had fallen into sin for having won such a victory over the devil.

When we sincerely repent of our sins and turn to our Lord Jesus Christ with our whole heart, he rejoices over us, prepares a feast, and calls to it the heavenly Powers dear to him, showing them the coin he has found again—that is, his royal image and likeness. Laying the lost sheep on his shoulders, he brings it to his Father. In the dwelling of all who rejoice, God settles the soul of the one who has repented together with those who never strayed from him.

Therefore, let us not be negligent in turning quickly to our merciful Lord, and let us not give ourselves over to carelessness and despair because of our grievous and numberless sins. Despair is the greatest joy of the devil. It is “a sin that leads to death,” as Scripture declares (1 John 5:16; St. Antiochus, Homily 77). “And if you do not hinder this by your own slackness and negligence,” says St. Barsanuphius, “you will be amazed and will glorify God for how he brings you from non-being into being—that is, from sinner to righteous person” (St. Barsanuphius, Response 114).

Repentance for a sin consists, among other things, in not committing it again.

Just as there is a remedy for every illness, so there is repentance for every sin.

Therefore, draw near to repentance without hesitation, and it will intercede for you before God. Continually offer this prayer of St. Antiochus: “Daring, O Master, to appeal to the depth of your compassion, I bring you from impure lips and unclean mouth this prayer: Remember that your holy name has been called upon me, and you have redeemed me with the price of your blood; you have sealed me with the pledge of your Holy Spirit, and you have raised me from the depth of my transgressions, lest the enemy seize me. Jesus Christ, protect me and be my strong helper in battle, for I am a servant of passion and am warred upon by it. But you, O Lord, do not leave me cast down upon the earth in the condemnation of my deeds; free me, O Master, from the evil bondage of the ruler of this world, and join me to your commandments. The way of my life, O my Christ, and the light of my eyes—it is your face. O God, Master and Lord, do not give me haughtiness of eyes, and remove evil desire from me; protect me with your holy hand. May cravings and lusts not encompass me, and do not deliver me to a shameless soul. Enlighten in me the light of your face, O Lord, lest darkness encompass me and those who walk in it seize me. Do not deliver to unseen beasts, O Lord, the soul that confesses you. Do not allow, O Lord, your servant to be wounded by foreign dogs. Grant me to become a dwelling-place of your Holy Spirit, and build me, O Holy Father, into a house of your Christ. Guide of the lost, guide me, lest I turn aside to the left. The sight of your face, O Lord, I have longed for. O God, guide me by the light of your face. Grant tears to me your servant, and give the dew of your Holy Spirit to your creation, lest I wither like the fig tree you cursed; and may tears be my drink, and prayer my food. Turn, O Lord, my mourning into joy, and receive me into your eternal tabernacles. May your mercy reach me, O Lord, and may your compassions encompass me, and forgive me all my sins. For you are the true God who forgives transgressions. And do not allow, O Lord, the work of your hands to be put to shame because of the multitude of my transgressions; but call me back, O Master, through your only-begotten Son, our Savior. And raise me up as I lie fallen, as you raised Levi the tax-collector, and give me life though I am slain by sins, as you gave life to the son of the widow. For you alone are the resurrection of the dead, and to you glory is due forever. Amen” (St. Antiochus, Homily 77).

On Fasting

Fasting does not consist solely in eating infrequently, but in eating little; not in eating only once, but in not eating much. That faster is foolish who waits for the appointed hour, yet at the time of the meal surrenders himself entirely—both body and mind—to insatiable eating.

With regard to food, one must also observe this: not to discriminate between tasty and unpalatable dishes. Such behavior is fitting for animals and is unworthy of praise in a rational person. We abstain from pleasing food in order to subdue the warring members of the flesh and to give freedom to the workings of the spirit.

True fasting consists not merely in afflicting the flesh, but also in giving to the hungry that portion of bread which you yourself would have wished to eat: “Blessed are those who hunger… for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6).

Our Ordainer of contests and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, before entering upon the work of redeeming the human race, strengthened himself through prolonged fasting. And all ascetics, when they began to serve the Lord, armed themselves with fasting and entered upon the way of the cross only while engaged in the ascetic effort of fasting. They measured their progress in asceticism by their progress in fasting.

Holy people did not take up strict fasting all at once, but became gradually and little by little capable of being satisfied with the most meager food. Venerable Dorotheus, training his disciple Dositheus in fasting, gradually reduced his ration a little at a time, so that from four pounds he finally brought the measure of his daily food down to eight lots of bread.

For all that, the holy fasters, to the astonishment of others, knew no weakness, but were always alert, strong, and ready for work. Illness among them was rare, and their lives were extraordinarily long.

In proportion as the flesh of the one who fasts becomes lean and light, the spiritual life advances toward perfection and reveals itself in wondrous manifestations. Then the spirit performs its actions as though in a bodiless body. The external senses seem to be closed, and the mind, detached from the earth, is lifted up to heaven and is wholly immersed in contemplation of the spiritual world.

However, not everyone will be able to impose on himself a strict rule of abstinence in all things, or to deprive himself of everything that may serve to ease infirmities. “Let the one who is able to receive this, receive it” (Matt. 19:12).

Not everyone will be able to take upon himself a strict rule of abstinence in all things, or the deprivation of everything that may serve to ease infirmities.

As for food, one must eat each day only as much as is needed for the body to be strengthened and serve as a friend and helper to the soul in the accomplishment of virtue—otherwise it may happen that with the weakening of the body the soul too will grow feeble. On Fridays and Wednesdays, and especially during the four fasting seasons, eat after the example of the fathers only once a day—and the Angel of the Lord will draw near to you.

On Vigilance Against Temptations

It is necessary, when fitting and needful, to be at times like a child and at times like a lion—especially the latter when passions or evil spirits rise up against us; for “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

We must always be watchful against the attacks of the devil—for can we hope that he will leave us without temptation, when he did not leave the very Ordainer of our contests, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord himself said to the Apostle Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat” (Luke 22:31).

Therefore we must always, in humility, call upon the Lord and pray that he will not allow a temptation to come upon us beyond our strength, but will deliver us “from the evil one” (Matt. 6:13).

On Solitude and Silence

Above all one must adorn oneself with silence; for Ambrose of Milan says: “By silence I have seen many saved; by much talking, not one.” And again, one of the fathers says that silence is the mystery of the age to come, whereas words are the instrument of this world (Philokalia, Part 2: Patriarch Callistus and his companion Ignatius Xanthopoulou).

Simply sit in your cell in attentiveness and silence, and strive by every means to draw yourself near to the Lord—and the Lord is ready to make you from a human being into an angel: “For upon whom,” he says, “will I look, if not upon the meek and the silent, and upon the one who trembles at my words” (Isa. 66:2).

When we abide in silence, the enemy—the devil—can accomplish nothing with regard to the hidden person of the heart; but this must be understood as silence in wisdom.

The one who undertakes such a spiritual effort must place all his hope in the Lord God, according to the teaching of the Apostle: “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7).

Such a person must be steadfast in this spiritual effort, following in this the example of St. John the Silent—the hesychast and hermit—who in walking this path was strengthened by these divine words: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).

If it is not always possible to remain in solitude and silence while living in a monastery and carrying out the obediences assigned by the abbot, then at least whatever time remains after obedience should be devoted to solitude and silence—and for this small thing the Lord God will send down his gracious mercy.

From solitude and silence are born compunction of heart and meekness; the working of this latter in the human heart can be compared to the quiet waters of Siloam, which flow without noise or sound, as the prophet Isaiah speaks of them: “The waters of Shiloah that flow gently” (Isa. 8:6).

Remaining in one’s cell in silence, in the practice of prayer and in meditating day and night on the law of God, makes a person devout; for, in the words of the holy fathers, the cell of a monk is the furnace of Babylon, in which the three youths found the Son of God (Philokalia, Part 3: Hieromartyr Peter of Damascus).

On Stillness

The Venerable Barsanuphius teaches: “While a ship is at sea, it is exposed to dangers and the assault of winds. But when it reaches a quiet and peaceful harbor, it no longer fears dangers, sorrows, or the assault of winds, but remains in safety.” So too with you, O monk: as long as you remain among people, expect sorrows, troubles, and the assault of mental winds; but when you enter into stillness, you have nothing to fear (St. Barsanuphius. Reply 8, 9).

Perfect stillness is a cross upon which a person must crucify himself with all his passions and desires. “Consider also that before the Cross, our Lord Jesus Christ endured many insults and reproaches, and only after this did He ascend the Cross. In the same way, no one can attain perfect and fruitful stillness and the holy and perfect repose, unless he first suffers with Christ and endures all His sufferings, recalling the words of the Apostle: If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him41. Do not be deceived: there is no other path of salvation apart from this” (St. Barsanuphius. Reply 342).

One who has entered into stillness must unceasingly remember why he has come, lest his heart turn aside toward something else.

On the Active and Contemplative Life

A person is composed of soul and body, and therefore the path of his life must consist of both bodily and spiritual actions—of the active and the contemplative.

The path of the active life consists of: fasting, abstinence, vigil, prostrations, prayer, and other bodily ascetic labors, which constitute the narrow and sorrowful way that, according to the word of God, leads to eternal life (see Matt. 7:14).

The path of the contemplative life consists of the elevation of the mind to the Lord God, attentiveness of heart, mental prayer, and the contemplation of spiritual realities through such exercises.

Anyone who desires to pursue the spiritual life must begin with the active life, and only then proceed to the contemplative; for without the active life it is impossible to arrive at the contemplative.

The active life serves to cleanse us from sinful passions and raises us to the degree of active perfection, thereby opening for us the way to the contemplative life. For only those who have been purified from passions and have reached perfection are able to enter upon that life, as can be seen from the words of Holy Scripture: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8), and from the words of St. Gregory the Theologian (in his “Oration on Holy Pascha”): “only those most perfect in their experience can safely draw near to contemplation.”

So too the Church, glorifying St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, sings: For through silences and struggles against thoughts you first added contemplation of God to the active life, and through contemplation of God you attained perfect understanding, with which you spoke boldly with God and the Angels42 (Akathist to St. Nicholas. Kontakion 10).

One must approach the contemplative life with fear and trembling, with contrition of heart and humility, with much study of the Holy Scriptures, and, if possible, under the guidance of some experienced elder—not with boldness and self-will. “For the rash and presumptuous one,” in the words of Gregory of Sinai, “seeking things beyond his worth with arrogance, strives to reach them before his time.” And again: “If someone imagines, through conceit, that he has attained lofty things—having seized the desire of Satan rather than the truth—the devil easily catches him in his nets, as his own servant” (Philokalia. Vol. 5. St. Gregory of Sinai. “On Delusion and Many Other Subjects”).

If it is impossible to find a guide capable of leading one into the contemplative life, then in such a case one must be guided by Holy Scripture, for the Lord Himself commands us to learn from Holy Scripture, saying: “Search the Scriptures, for you think that in them you have eternal life” (John 5:39).

One must also read the writings of the Fathers carefully and strive, as much as one is able, to fulfill what they teach, and in this way, little by little, ascend from the active life to the perfection of the contemplative.

For, in the words of St. Gregory the Theologian (“Oration on Holy Pascha”), the very best thing is when each of us attains perfection on his own and offers to God who calls us a living sacrifice, holy, and always and in all things sanctified.

One must not abandon the active life even when a person has made progress in it and has already entered into the contemplative, for the active life supports the contemplative and elevates it.

While pursuing the path of the interior and contemplative life, one must not grow slack or abandon it merely because people attached to externals and the sensory strike at our very heart with the opposition of their views and strive in every way to turn us away from pursuing the interior path, placing various obstacles before us on it—for, in the opinion of Church teachers (Commentary on the Song of Songs by Blessed Theodoret), the contemplation of spiritual realities is preferred above knowledge of sensory things.

Therefore, we must not be shaken from pursuing this path by any obstacles, grounding ourselves in this case upon the word of God: “Do not fear their fear, neither be troubled… for God is with us! Sanctify the Lord of hosts in the heart’s memory of His divine name and the fulfillment of His will, and He shall be to you a fear”43 (Is 8:10,12-13).

Instruction to a Novice Monk

Whether you have come to this monastery by the counsel or authority of others, or in some other way, do not be discouraged: it is a visitation of God. If you keep what you have been told, you will be saved yourself, along with your loved ones about whom you are concerned: “I have not seen,” says the Prophet, “the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread”44 (Ps. 36:25). While living in this monastery, observe the following: when standing in church, attend to everything without missing anything; learn the entire order of services—that is, vespers, compline, the midnight office, matins, and the hours—learn to hold all of it in your mind.

If you are in your cell without a handiwork, devote yourself diligently to reading, and especially to the Psalter; try to read each section many times, so as to keep it all in your mind. If there is a handiwork, occupy yourself with it; if you are called to an obedience, go to it. While at your handiwork or while performing some obedience, pray unceasingly: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. In prayer, attend to yourself—that is, gather your mind and unite it with your soul. At first, for a day or two or more, pray this prayer with the mind alone, separately, attending to each word. Then, when the Lord warms your heart with the warmth of His grace and unites it within you into one spirit45, the prayer will flow in you unceasingly and will always be with you, delighting and nourishing you. This is exactly what is spoken of by the prophet Isaiah: “For the dew that is from You is their healing” (Isa. 26:19). When you hold within yourself this food of the soul—that is, conversation with the Lord Himself—why then would you go visiting the cells of the brothers, even when invited by someone? I tell you truly: that is idle talk and love of idleness. If you do not understand yourself, can you reason about things and teach others? Be silent, unceasingly silent; always remember the presence of God and His name. Do not enter into conversation with anyone, but above all guard yourself from judging those who talk much or who laugh. In this regard be deaf and dumb—whatever may be said about you, let it pass by your ears. You may take as your example Stephen the Younger, whose prayer was unceasing, whose manner was gentle, whose lips were silent, whose heart was humble, whose spirit was tender, whose body and soul were pure, whose virginity was undefiled, whose poverty was true, and whose non-possessiveness was without complaint, whose obedience was diligent, whose work was patient, and whose labor was fervent.

While sitting at table, do not watch or judge who eats how much, but attend to yourself, nourishing your soul with prayer. At dinner eat sufficiently; at supper practice some restraint. On Wednesdays and Fridays, if you are able, eat only once. Each day, sleep without fail during the night for four hours: the 10th, 11th, 12th, and the first hour past midnight; if you grow weak, you may additionally sleep a little during the day. Hold to this firmly until the end of your life, for it is necessary for the rest of your head. I myself have kept to this path from my youth. And we always ask God for rest during the nighttime hours. If you guard yourself in this way, you will not be despondent, but healthy and glad.

I tell you truly: if you conduct yourself in this way, you will remain in the monastery without leaving until the end of your days. Humble yourself, and the Lord will help you, “and He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday” (Ps. 36:6), and “your light will shine before men” (Matt. 5:16).

Answer to a Brother Who Asked for Instruction on Pursuing the Hermit Life

A certain monk, intending to withdraw into the wilderness, came to Father Seraphim, who was living in the wilderness, and asked him: “Father, others say that withdrawing from community life to the wilderness is Pharisaism, and that by such a change one shows contempt for the brothers—or even condemns them.” Father Seraphim replied to this: “It is not our business to judge others, and we withdraw from the community not out of hatred toward them, but chiefly because we have received and bear upon ourselves the angelic rank, which is incompatible with being in a place where the Lord God is angered by word and deed. Therefore, by separating ourselves from the community, we withdraw only from hearing and seeing what is contrary to God’s commandments—which occurs frequently in a large community. We do not flee from people, who share our nature and bear the same name of Christ, but from the vices they commit, just as Arsenius the Great was told: ‘Flee from people, and you will be saved.’”

One monk had been blessed by his abbot to begin the hermit life, and the abbot himself wrote to Father Seraphim, asking him to receive that monk and to instruct him in the spiritual life just as he instructed himself. When this monk came to Father Seraphim with this letter, Seraphim received him with great warmth and blessed him to build another cell not far from his own. When the monk began to ask him for instruction, he said to him out of the deepest humility that he himself knew nothing, and reminded him of the Savior’s words: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29); then he added: “According to the understanding of St. John Climacus, we must be taught not by an angel or a human being, but by the Lord Himself.”

What Should an Abbot Be Like?

An abbot must be perfect in every virtue and have his spiritual senses “trained by long practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:14).

An abbot must be skilled in Holy Scripture; he must meditate on the law of the Lord day and night; through such exercises he can acquire for himself the gift of discerning good from evil.

True knowledge of good and evil can be had only when the ascetic of piety arrives at a foretaste of the future judgment and a foretaste of eternal blessedness—something that takes place in a devout soul even in this earthly life, in a mystical and spiritual manner.

Before attaining discernment of good and evil, a person is not capable of shepherding rational sheep, but only irrational ones—for without knowledge of good and evil we cannot perceive the actions of the evil one.

Therefore an abbot, as a shepherd of rational sheep, must possess the gift of discernment, so that in every case he may be able to give useful counsel to each person who requires his guidance. For, as Peter of Damascus said, “not every person is qualified to give counsel to those who seek it, but only one who has received the gift of discernment from God and has acquired a discerning mind through long perseverance in asceticism”46 (Philokalia. Vol. 3. Hieromartyr Peter of Damascus. On the Edification of the Soul through the Virtues).

An abbot must also possess the gift of insight, so that from consideration of present and past circumstances he may foresee future ones and discern the stratagems of the enemy.

The distinguishing character of an abbot must be his love for those under his care; for, in the words of John Climacus, the true shepherd is revealed by his love for his flock. For it was love that compelled the Supreme Shepherd to be crucified on the cross (In the book “To the Shepherd,” ch. 5).

Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers

A certain abbot, happening to be at the Sarov Hermitage, met Father Seraphim and asked him for counsel on how to govern the brothers. Father Seraphim gave him the following instruction.

Every abbot must become and remain always, in relation to those under his care, like a wise mother. A loving mother does not live for her own gratification, but for the gratification of her children. She bears with love the infirmities of her weak children; those who have fallen into impurity she cleanses, washes gently, clothes in white and new garments, shoes them, warms them, feeds them, cares for them, comforts them, and from every side strives to give rest to their spirit—so that she may never hear the slightest cry from them—and such children are well disposed toward their mother.

So every abbot must live not for his own gratification but for the gratification of those under his care; he must be forbearing toward their weaknesses, must bear with love the infirmities of the weak, heal the diseases of sin with the plaster of mercy, raise up with gentleness those who have fallen through transgressions, quietly cleanse those who have been soiled by some filth of vice and wash them by imposing upon them fasting and prayers beyond those prescribed for all in common, clothe them through his teaching and his exemplary life in the garments of the virtues, watch over them unceasingly, comfort them in every way, and from every side protect their peace and rest—so that not the slightest cry or murmur from them may ever be heard. Then they in turn will strive eagerly to bring peace and rest to their abbot.

In Russian translation: “The wise Creator restores again a person corrupted by transgression but made in the image of God, wholly given over to ruin, fallen away from the higher Divine life” ((1st Canon for the Nativity of the Lord, Ode 1, Troparion 1)).

Cf. Gal. 5:22.—Editorial note of “Azbuka Very”

What is meant here is, of course, not literal rest from all labors, but the absence of excessive anxiety about them. Cf. “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself; sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:33–34).

Труд [labor/toil]—here: suffering, hardship. Cf. Ps. 89:10: “The days of our years are seventy years, and by reason of greater strength, eighty years; and the best of them is labor and sorrow.” — Ed. note.

See Luke 2:29–32: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

See 1 Cor. 2:14–15: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself judged by no one.”

Better is the help of caution… than the help of deeds — the help of precaution is more valuable than the help of the deeds themselves.

In Russian translation: “Nothing so quenches the fire breathed into the heart of a monk by the Holy Spirit for the sanctification of his soul as association with people, much talking, and every kind of conversation, except conversation with children of the mysteries of God, which promotes the increase of the knowledge of God and closeness to Him.”

In Russian translation: “If (as Scripture says) ‘bad company ruins good morals,’ then conversation with women, even if it is good, is nonetheless powerful enough to secretly corrupt the inner person with impure thoughts, so that while the body remains pure, the soul is defiled. For what is harder than stone? And what is softer than water? Yet unceasing persistence conquers even nature: so if the nature of stone, which barely yields to motion, is moved by water and, because of it—which it holds in no account—is broken down and diminished, how could human will, so easily swayed, fail to be overcome and changed by long-standing habit?”

Venerable Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 69.

See “Philokalia,” vol. 5. Venerable Symeon the New Theologian, “Discourse on Three Methods of Attention and Prayer.”

St. John Chrysostom. “Marguerite” [Margarit], Discourse 5. “On What Is Incomprehensible, Against the Anomoeans.” In Russian translation: “Prayer is a great weapon, an inexhaustible treasure, unfailing wealth, a serene harbor, the foundation of tranquility; prayer is the root, source, and mother of countless blessings.”

Venerable Macarius of Egypt, Discourse 2, ch. 15.

The purple-robed Prophet — King and Prophet David, the author of the Psalter.

Venerable Isaac the Syrian. Discourse 68. “On Renunciation of the World.”

Страны [countries/regions]—here: places.

Literally: “a door for those weeping outside” (the Heavenly Bridal Chamber). Cf. “I am the door” (John 10:9); “Someone said to him, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’ He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door, for I tell you, many will seek to enter and will not be able. When the master of the house rises and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ”Lord, open to us,“ then he will answer you, ”I do not know where you come from“‘” (Luke 13:23–25).

Restraining His right hand — holding back His right hand; here: delaying punishment.

Is 35:10,51:11; Prayer of the priest for the departed.—Editorial note by “Azbuka very.”

In Russian translation: “If you give something to one in need, let the cheerfulness of your face precede your gift, and comfort his sorrow with a kind word.” (Venerable Isaac the Syrian, Discourse 89).

О должностях [concerning duties]—here: concerning one’s debt/obligations toward one’s neighbor.

Должности [duties]—debt/obligation.

Во благое — here: for a good purpose.

Midianites — descendants of Abraham who lived on the shore of the Red Sea. See Num. 25:16–18: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they have harassed you with their schemes.’”

Огневицы [fevers/burning]—literally: fevers, intense heat.

Премирном [supra-worldly]—that which is above the present world; the heavenly, celestial realm.

Of Solomon, the author of the Book of Proverbs. — Ed. note.

See Ps. 136:8–9.

Cf. Matt. 21:42: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone… This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

In Russian translation: “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together.”

In Russian translation: “Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.”

In Russian translation: “Scatter the peoples who delight in war.”

In Russian translation: “Seeing the wealth of Job’s virtues, the enemy of righteousness thought to seize it by cunning, and by destroying the strength of his body, he did not steal the treasure of his spirit, for he encountered the armed soul of the righteous man.”

See (Matt. 6:33) “But seek first the kingdom of God… and all these things will be added to you.”

In Russian translation: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Ps. 136:4).

For your holy name has been called upon me — for I have been named with your holy name (that is, as a Christian).

Establish me in your commandments — here: raise me up in your commandments.

Лот [lot, a unit of weight]—12.8 grams.

See 1 Pet. 3:4.

In Russian translation: “The waters of Siloah that flow gently.” (The waters of Siloam, a quiet and slow-moving river, were considered sacred and were an object of commerce. The mention of this river in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah can be interpreted as a symbolic depiction of the quiet, peaceful happiness of those dwelling in the Kingdom of God).

“If only we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17).

In Russian translation: “For first, by silence and the struggle against thoughts, he added contemplation of God to his deeds, and by contemplation of God he acquired perfect understanding, through which he communed boldly with God and the Angels.”

See in Russian translation: “And do not fear what he (the one who does not know God) fears, nor be in dread (Isa. 8:12), for God is with us!” (Isa. 8:10). “The Lord of hosts—regard him as holy, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread!” (Isa. 8:13).

In the Russian translation: “And I have not seen the righteous man abandoned, nor his descendants.”

Will unite it in you into one spirit — will unite it (i.e., the prayer) into one within you (so that it will be both in the heart and in the mind).

In the Russian translation: “Not every person will give sound counsel to those who seek it, but only the one who has received from God the gift of discernment and has acquired a perceptive mind through prolonged ascetic struggle.”

Scripture Index

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Exodus
Exodus 23:521. On Forgiving Offenses (21.3)
Numbers

Numbers 25:16–1843. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.27)

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 22:1029. On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses (29.4)

1 Samuel

1 Samuel 2:324. On Peace of Soul (24.9)

1 Samuel 2:308. On Guarding the Truths One Has Come to Know (8.9)

Job
Job 2:321. On Forgiving Offenses (21.3)
Job 31:19. On Many Words (9.4)
Psalms
Psalms 2:117. On the Fear of God (7.2)

Psalms 9:3029. On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses (29.3)

Psalms 10:230. On Attentiveness to Oneself (30.3)

Psalms 16:430. On Attentiveness to Oneself (30.8)

Psalms 18:13–1430. On Attentiveness to Oneself (30.8)

Psalms 29:7–820. On Not Judging One’s Neighbor (20.3)

Psalms 34:1729. On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses (29.5)

Psalms 36:640. Instruction to a Novice Monk (40.4)

Psalms 36:2540. Instruction to a Novice Monk (40.1)

Psalms 39:216. On Patience and Humility (16.10)

Psalms 48:19–2016. On Patience and Humility (16.12)

Psalms 50:1934. On Repentance (34.1)

Psalms 53:930. On Attentiveness to Oneself (30.2)

Psalms 56:521. On Forgiving Offenses (21.10)

Psalms 65:1224. On Peace of Soul (24.1)

Psalms 67:3129. On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses (29.5)

Psalms 75:324. On Peace of Soul (24.5); 34. On Repentance (34.3)

Psalms 76:525. On Preserving Peace of Soul (25.5)

Psalms 80:829. On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses (29.5)

Psalms 89:1043. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.7)

Psalms 100:829. On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses (29.5)

Psalms 113:933. On Ascetic Labors (33.7)

Psalms 117:1334. On Repentance (34.7)

Psalms 118:16523. With What Must the Soul Be Furnished? (23.9)

Psalms 120:623. With What Must the Soul Be Furnished? (23.1)

Psalms 125:5–611. On Tears (11.2)

Psalms 136:443. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.38)

Psalms 136:8–943. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.31)

Proverbs
Proverbs 4:2326. On Guarding the Heart (26.1)
Proverbs 4:2733. On Ascetic Labors (33.2)
Proverbs 11:129. On Many Words (9.4)
Proverbs 13:39. On Many Words (9.4)
Proverbs 18:149. On Many Words (9.5)
Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 12:137. On the Fear of God (7.5)
Isaiah
Isaiah 8:637. On Solitude and Silence (37.7)

Isaiah 8:1043. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.46)

Isaiah 8:1243. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.46)

Isaiah 8:1343. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.46)

Isaiah 26:1224. On Peace of Soul (24.11)

Isaiah 26:1940. Instruction to a Novice Monk (40.2)

Isaiah 40:3116. On Patience and Humility (16.8)

Isaiah 66:237. On Solitude and Silence (37.2)

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 18:2021. On Forgiving Offenses (21.3)

Jeremiah 48:107. On the Fear of God (7.3)
Malachi
Malachi 4:228. On the Light of Christ (28.3)
Sirach

Sirach 2:1416. On Patience and Humility (16.11)

Sirach 27:516. On Patience and Humility (16.11)

Sirach 30:2525. On Preserving Peace of Soul (25.8)

Matthew

Matthew 4:1116. On Patience and Humility (16.8)

Matthew 5:411. On Tears (11.1)

Matthew 5:635. On Fasting (35.3)

Matthew 5:826. On Guarding the Heart (26.2); 39. On the Active and Contemplative Life (39.5)

Matthew 5:1640. Instruction to a Novice Monk (40.4)

Matthew 5:289. On Many Words (9.4)

Matthew 5:3925. On Preserving Peace of Soul (25.6)

Matthew 5:4421. On Forgiving Offenses (21.1, 21.2)

Matthew 6:1336. On Vigilance Against Temptations (36.3)

Matthew 6:1521. On Forgiving Offenses (21.1)

Matthew 6:3343. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.37)

Matthew 6:33–3443. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.6)

Matthew 7:120. On Not Judging One’s Neighbor (20.1)

Matthew 7:524. On Peace of Soul (24.9)

Matthew 7:68. On Guarding the Truths One Has Come to Know (8.6)

Matthew 7:1439. On the Active and Contemplative Life (39.2)

Matthew 9:1317. On Almsgiving (17.2)

Matthew 10:3718. On Duties21 and Love for One’s Neighbor (18.7)

Matthew 11:285. On Hope (5.3)

Matthew 11:2941. Answer to a Brother Who Asked for Instruction on Pursuing the Hermit Life (41.2)

Matthew 13:27–2834. On Repentance (34.2)

Matthew 16:26–2722. On Care for the Soul (22.1)

Matthew 18:333. On Ascetic Labors (33.5)

Matthew 19:1235. On Fasting (35.8)

Matthew 21:4243. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.32)

Matthew 22:2133. On Ascetic Labors (33.2)
Luke
Luke 2:265. On Hope (5.4)

Luke 2:29–3243. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.8)

Luke 6:3016. On Patience and Humility (16.4)
Luke 6:3617. On Almsgiving (17.2)
Luke 8:5533. On Ascetic Labors (33.6)

Luke 10:430. On Attentiveness to Oneself (30.10)

Luke 10:2718. On Duties21 and Love for One’s Neighbor (18.7)

Luke 12:499. On Many Words (9.2)

Luke 13:23–2543. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.20)

Luke 20:3631. Against Excessive Anxiety (31.2)

Luke 22:3136. On Vigilance Against Temptations (36.2)

John

John 1:428. On the Light of Christ (28.3)

John 3:163. On the Reasons for the Coming of Jesus Christ Into the World (3.2)

John 3:173. On the Reasons for the Coming of Jesus Christ Into the World (3.4)

John 5:3939. On the Active and Contemplative Life (39.8)

John 6:2716. On Patience and Humility (16.12)

John 6:30–3116. On Patience and Humility (16.12)

John 10:923. With What Must the Soul Be Furnished? (23.1); 43. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.20)

John 14:2323. With What Must the Soul Be Furnished? (23.1)

John 14:2724. On Peace of Soul (24.10)
Acts
Acts 13:2221. On Forgiving Offenses (21.3)
Romans

Romans 8:1743. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.44)

Romans 8:1816. On Patience and Humility (16.2)

Romans 13:119. On the Duty of Those Under Authority Toward Their Superior (19.1)

Romans 13:219. On the Duty of Those Under Authority Toward Their Superior (19.2)

Romans 14:420. On Not Judging One’s Neighbor (20.1)

Romans 14:2233. On Ascetic Labors (33.4)

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2:14–1543. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.9)

1 Corinthians 10:1220. On Not Judging One’s Neighbor (20.2)

1 Corinthians 15:339. On Many Words (9.3)
2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 4:1615. On Illness (15.5)
2 Corinthians 7:1012. On Sorrow (12.5)
2 Corinthians 9:617. On Almsgiving (17.3)

2 Corinthians 11:1427. On Discerning the Movements of the Heart (27.3)

Galatians

Galatians 5:2243. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.5)

Galatians 5:22–2327. On Discerning the Movements of the Heart (27.2)

Ephesians

Ephesians 4:2623. With What Must the Soul Be Furnished? (23.1)

Ephesians 6:1224. On Peace of Soul (24.3); 36. On Vigilance Against Temptations (36.1)

Ephesians 6:1330. On Attentiveness to Oneself (30.6)

Philippians
Philippians 3:2024. On Peace of Soul (24.6)
Philippians 4:724. On Peace of Soul (24.10)
Hebrews

Hebrews 5:1442. What Should an Abbot Be Like? (42.1)

Hebrews 11:64. On Faith (4.1)

Hebrews 12:1424. On Peace of Soul (24.10)

Hebrews 13:537. On Solitude and Silence (37.5)

James

James 1:2–416. On Patience and Humility (16.13)

James 1:1216. On Patience and Humility (16.13)

James 2:264. On Faith (4.3)

1 Peter

1 Peter 3:443. Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers (43.42)

1 Peter 5:737. On Solitude and Silence (37.4)

1 Peter 5:830. On Attentiveness to Oneself (30.3)

1 John
1 John 5:1634. On Repentance (34.10)
Jude
Jude 1:1213. On Tedium and Despondency (13.1)

Colophon

Spiritual Instructions to Monks and Laymen
by St Seraphim of Sarov.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Introduction
- On God
- On the Mystery of the Holy Trinity

- On the Reasons for the Coming of Jesus Christ Into the World

- On Faith
- On Hope
- On Love for God
- On the Fear of God
- On Guarding the Truths One Has Come to Know
- On Many Words
- On Prayer
- On Tears
- On Sorrow
- On Tedium and Despondency
- On Despair
- On Illness
- On Patience and Humility
- On Almsgiving
- On Duties21 and Love for One's Neighbor

- On the Duty of Those Under Authority Toward Their Superior

- On Not Judging One's Neighbor
- On Forgiving Offenses
- On Care for the Soul
- With What Must the Soul Be Furnished?
- On Peace of Soul
- On Preserving Peace of Soul
- On Guarding the Heart
- On Discerning the Movements of the Heart
- On the Light of Christ
- On Thoughts and Carnal Impulses
- On Attentiveness to Oneself
- Against Excessive Anxiety
- On Renunciation of the World
- On Ascetic Labors
- On Repentance
- On Fasting
- On Vigilance Against Temptations
- On Solitude and Silence
- On Stillness
- On the Active and Contemplative Life
- Instruction to a Novice Monk

- Answer to a Brother Who Asked for Instruction on Pursuing the Hermit Life

- What Should an Abbot Be Like?

- Instruction to an Abbot on How to Govern the Brothers

- Scripture Index

- Colophon