This letter is staged in three parts. Each part starts with writings of Saint John Climacus and ends with Saint Nikodemus the Hagiorite.
[For the writings herein, all credit belongs to these two Sources: 1) The Ladder of Divine Ascent (ISBN 978-0-943405-03-2) Holy Transfiguration Monastery – Brookline, Massachusetts; and 2) Exomologetarion A Manual of Confession translated by Father George Dokos (ISBN 978-1-63941-001-9) — Uncut Mountain Press.]
Saint Nikodemus the Hagiorite (1749 – 1809): “Every act and sin is judged by its purpose and aim. Therefore, sacred Augustine also says: “It differs greatly by what cause, purpose, and aim something occurs”…. The divine Maximos says in one place: “In everything we do God searches out our purpose to see whether we do it for Him or for some other motive”, and in another place: “The demons do not hate self-restraint, fasting, almsgiving, hospitality, the singing of psalms… or any of the other things which characterize a life lived according to God, so long as the aim and purpose of a person trying to live such a life are tilted in their direction.”
Part 1 of 3
Gluttony and Pleasure Produces Falls
St John Climacus of The Ladder
Saint John Climacus of The Ladder Step 4 (page 90: “In the world, slander has caused many separations; but in communities, gluttony produces every fall and disobedience. If you rule over your mistress [i.e. your stomach], every place of residence will give you dispassion; but if she rules over you, then outside the tomb, you will be in danger everywhere.”… “While struggling against all the passions, let us who are in communities struggle every hour, especially against these two: greed of stomach and irritability. For in a community there is plenty of food for these passions.”… (Step 6) “A vivid remembrance of death cuts down food; and when in humility food is cut, the passions are cut too.” … (Step 11) I once heard from someone who asked me about stillness, that talkativeness is invariably born of one of the following causes: either from a bad, lax way of life and habit (for the tongue, said he, being a member of the body, like the rest of the members, requires the training of habit), or again, in the case of ascetics, garrulity comes especially from vainglory, and sometimes also from gluttony. That is why many who bridle the stomach by force, afterwards easily check the tongue and its chatter.
Step 14 On that clamorous mistress, the stomach. “As we are about to speak concerning the stomach, as in everything else, we propose to philosophize against ourselves. For I wonder if anyone has been liberated of this mistress before settling in the grave. Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when it is glutted, it complains of scarcity; and when it is loaded and bursting, it cries out that it is hungry. Gluttony is a deviser of seasonings, a source of sweet dishes. You stop one spout, and it spurs up elsewhere; you plug this too, and you open another. Gluttony deludes the eyes of others; while appearing to receive in moderation, it intends to devour everything at once. Satiety in food is the father of fornication; but affliction of the stomach is an agent of purity…. Often vanity proves an enemy of gluttony, and between themselves they quarrel over the wretched monk as for a purchased slave.” Evagrius, afflicted by an evil spirit, imagined himself to be the wisest of the wise both in thoughts and expressions. But he was deceived, poor man, and proved to be the most foolish of fools in this among many other things. For he says: “When our soul desires different foods, then confine it to bread and water.” To prescribe this is like saying to a child: ‘Go up the whole ladder in one stride.’ And so, rejecting his rule, let us say: When our soul desires different foods, it is demanding what is proper to its nature. Therefore, let us use cunning against our most wily foe. And unless a very severe conflict is on us, or penance for falls, let us for a while only deny ourselves fattening foods, then heating foods, and only then what makes our food pleasant. If possible, give your stomach satisfying and digestible food, so as to satisfy its insatiable hunger by sufficiency, and so that we may be delivered from excessive desire, as from a scourge, by quick assimilation. If we look into the matter, we shall find that most of the foods which inflate the stomach also excite the body. Laugh at the demon who, after supper, suggests that you should take your meal later in the future; for the next day at the ninth hour, he will urge you to reject the pact which you made with yourself the previous day… The heart of gluttons dreams only of food and eatables, but the heart of those who weep dreams of judgment and castigation. Master your stomach before it masters you; and then you are sure to control yourself with the aid of shame… Let us curb the stomach by thought of the future fire. For some who were slaves of their stomach have cut their members right off, and died a double death. If we go into the matter, we shall find that it is the stomach alone that is the cause of all human shipwreck. The mind of a faster prays soberly, but the mind of an intemperate person is filled with impure idols… He who cherishes his stomach and hopes to overcome the spirit of fornication, is like one who tries to put out a fire with oil. By stinting the stomach, the heart is humbled; but by pleasing the stomach, the mind becomes proud. Keep watch over yourself early in the morning, at midday, and for an hour before taking food, and you will realize the value of fasting. In the morning, thought leaps and runs from one thing to another. With the approach of the sixth hour of the day, it becomes somewhat quieter; and by sunset, it is completely at peace. Stint your stomach and you will certainly lock your mouth, because the tongue is strengthened by an abundance of food. Struggle with all your might against the stomach and restrain it with all sobriety. If you labour a little, the Lord will also soon work with you… Know that often a devil settles in the belly and does not let the man be satisfied, even though he has devoured a whole Egypt and drunk a River Nile. But after one has taken food, this unclean spirit goes away and sends against us the spirit of fornication, telling him of our condition and saying: ‘Catch, catch, hound him; for when the stomach is full, he will not resist much.’ With a smile the spirit of fornication comes, and having bound us hand and foot by sleep, does with us all he pleases, defiling our soul and body with its impurities, dreams and emissions… If you have promised Christ to go by the strait and narrow way, restrain your stomach, because by pleasing it and enlarging it, you break your contract…. The prince of demons is the fallen Lucifer, and the prince of passions is gluttony (Lit. the gullet). When sitting at a table laden with food, remember death and judgment, for even so you will only check the passion slightly. In taking drink, do not cease to bring to mind the vinegar and gall of the Lord. And you will certainly either be abstinent, or you will sigh and humble your mind. Do not be deceived: you will not be delivered from Pharaoh, and you will not see the Heavenly Passover, unless you continually eat bitter herbs and unleavened bread. And bitter herbs — this is the coercion and pain of fasting; and unleavened bread — this is a mind that is not puffed up. Let this cleave to your breathing, the word of him who says: ‘But as for me, when demons troubled me, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer hath cleaved to the bosom of my soul.’ (Psalm 34:15-16). Fasting is the coercion of nature and the cutting out of everything that delights the palate, the excision of lust, the uprooting of bad thoughts, deliverance from incontinence in dreams, purity of prayer, the light of the soul, the guardian of the mind, deliverance from blindness, the door of compunction, humble sighing, glad contrition, a cessation of chatter, a cause of stillness, a guard of obedience, lightening of sleep, health of body, agent of dispassion, remission of sins, the gate of paradise and its delight.
Let us ask this foe, or rather this supreme chief of misfortune, this door of passions, this fall of Adam, this ruin of Esau, this destruction of the Israelites, this laying naked of Noah’s shame, this betrayer of Gomorrah, this reproach of Lot, this perdition of the sons of Eli, this guide to impurity — let us ask her: From whom is she born? Who are her offspring? Who crushes her? And who finally destroys her? ’Tell us, tyrant of all mortals, you who have bought all with the gold of greed: How did you get access to us? And what do you usually produce after your coming? And what is the manner of your departure from us?’ And gluttony, annoyed by these insults, raving with fury against us and foaming, replies: ‘Why are you, who are my underlings, overwhelming me with reproaches? Why are you trying to escape from me? I am bound to you by nature. The door for me is the nature of foods. The cause of my insatiability is habit. The foundation of my passion is repeated habit, insensibility of soul, and forgetfulness of death. How do you seek to learn the names of my offspring? If I count them, they will be more in number than the sand. But learn at least the names of my first-born and beloved children. My first-born son is a minister of fornication, the second after him is the hardness of heart, and the third is sleepiness. From me proceed a sea of bad thoughts, waves of filth, depths of unknown and un-named impurities. My daughters are laziness, talkativeness, familiarity in speech, jesting, facetiousness, contradiction, a stiff neck, obstinancy, disobedience, insensibility, captivity, conceit, audacity, love of thoughts, and often unexpected and sudden misfortunes, with which is closely bound despair, the most evil of all my daughters. The remembrance of falls resists me but does not conquer me.The thought of death is always hostile to me, but there is nothing within men that destroys me completely. He who receives the Comforter prays to Him against me; and the Comforter, when appealed to, does not allow me to act passionately. But those who have not tasted His gift inevitably seek their pleasure in my sweetness.’ The victory [over this vice] is a courageous one. He who is able, let him hasten to dispassion and to the highest degree of chastity,
Step 26.36 Let us try to learn divine truth more by toil and sweat than by mere word, for at the time of our departure it is not words but deeds that will have to be shown…. 26.39 Certain people asked me a question difficult to solve and which is beyond the powers of anyone like me, and is not to be found in any of the books that have reached me. For they said: What are the particular offspring of the eight deadly sins? Or which of the three chief sins is the father of the other five [minor sins]? But by pleading praiseworthy ignorance as regards this difficulty, I learnt from the holy men the following: ‘The mother of lust is gluttony, and the mother of despondency is vainglory; sorrow and also anger are the offspring of those three [i.e. cupidity, sensuality, ambition]; and the mother of pride is vainglory.’ In reply to this statement of those ever-memorable Fathers, I began again earnestly to ask them to tell me about the pedigree of the eight sins — which exactly are born from which? And these dispassionate men kindly instructed me, saying: ‘The irrational passions have no order or reason, but they have every sort of disorder and every kind of chaos.’ And the blessed Fathers confirmed this by convincing examples and supplied many proofs, some of which we are including in the present chapter, that, by them and as regards the rest, we may be enlightened. The sort of thing I mean is this. Ultimately jesting is sometimes born of lust; and sometimes of vainglory, when a man impiously puts on a pious air; and sometimes too of luxury. Much sleep is born sometimes of luxury; and sometimes of fasting; and sometimes from nature. Talkativeness is born sometimes of gluttony, and sometimes of vainglory. Despondency is born sometimes of luxury, and sometimes of lack of fear of God. Blasphemy is properly the offspring of pride; but it is often born of condemnation of our neighbors for the same thing; or of the excessive envy of the demons. Hardness of heart sometimes comes from over-eating, often from insensitivity and attachment. And again attachment comes sometimes from lust, or from avarice, or from gluttony, or from vainglory, and from many other causes. Guile is born of conceit and anger. Hypocrisy comes from self-satisfaction and willfulness…. I will merely say that for all the passions mentioned above, the remedy is humility. Those who have obtained that virtue have overcome all. The mother of all the vices is pleasure and guile. He who has them within him will not see the Lord; and abstinence from the first will bring but little benefit without abstinence from the second…. Sickness is sometimes for the cleansing of sins, and sometimes to humble the mind…. 26.70 In the people of the world the root of all evil is the love of money, but in monks it is gluttony…. It is impossible for those who have not lived in obedience to obtain humility…. The Fathers state that the active life consists in two virtues of the most general kind: fasting and obedience. And rightly, for the first destroys sensuality, and the other reinforces this destruction with humility. That is why mourning also has a double power, for it destroys sin and produces humility…. 26.151 Just as a marriage and a funeral are the very opposite of each other, so too are pride and despair. But as a result of the confusion caused by the demons, it is possible to see the two together…. 26.4 Obedience is born of self-condemnation and desire for health. Abstinence (i.e. ‘self-control, ‘continence’) is the mother of health. The mother of abstinence is the thought of death and firm remembrance of the Lord’s gall and vinegar…. 26.24 As the man under sentence who is going to execution will not talk about theatres, so he who truly weeps for himself will never gratify his stomach…. 26.46 As a mass of dung breeds a mass of worms, so a surfeit of food breeds a surfeit of falls, and evil thoughts, and dreams.
Step 22 The Ladder Quote: For who that has conquered vainglory has pride within him? The only difference between them is such as there is between a child and a man, between wheat and bread; for the one is the beginning and the other the end. And so now that the occasion calls for it, let us speak briefly about the beginning and sum of the passions, unholy self-esteem…. Observe and you will find unholy vainglory abounding till the very grave in clothes, oils, servants, perfumes, and the like…. Every lover of self-display is vainglorious. The fast of the vainglorious person is without reward and his prayer is futile, because he does both for the praise of men…. Vainglory makes those who are preferred, proud, and those who are slighted, resentful. The beginning of freedom from vainglory is the custody of the mouth and love of being dishonoured; the middle stage is beating back of all aspects of vainglory in thought; and then end (if there is an end to an abyss) consists in doing those things in the presence of others which bring us dishonour, without feeling grief therefrom…. Simpler people are not much infected with the poison of vainglory, because vainglory is a loss of simplicity and an insincere way of life. It often happens that when a worm becomes fully grown, it gets wings and rises up on high. So too when vainglory increases, it gives birth to pride, the origin and consummation of all evils.
The consummation of vainglory is the beginning of pride; the middle is the humiliation of our neighbor, the shameless parade of our labours, self-praise in the heart, hatred of exposure; and the end is denial of God’s help, the extolling of one’s own exertions, fiendish character. Let us all who wish to avoid this pit listen: this passion often finds food in gratitude, for at first it does not shamelessly advise us to deny God. I have seen people who thank God with their mouth, but mentally magnify themselves. And this is confirmed by that Pharisee who said ironically: O God, I thank Thee (Luke 18:11). Where a fall has overtaken us, there pride has already pitched its tent; because a fall is an indication of pride. An angel (i.e. Lucifer) fell from Heaven without any other passion except pride, and so we may ask whether it is possible to ascend to Heaven by humility alone, without any other of the virtues…. I once caught this mad (i.e ‘headless’ or ‘headstrong’) imposter as it was rising in my heart, bearing on its shoulders its mother, vainglory. Roping them with the noose of obedience and thrashing them with the whip of humility, I demanded how they got access to me. At last, when flogged, they said: ‘We have neither beginning nor birth, for we are progenitors and parents of all the passions. Contrition of heart that is born of obedience is our real enemy; we cannot bear to be subject to anyone; that is why we fell from Heaven, though we had authority there. ‘In brief, we are the parents of all that opposes humility; for everything which furthers humility, opposes us. We hold sway everywhere, save in Heaven, so where will you run from our presence? We often accompany dishonours, and obedience, and freedom from anger, and lack of resentment, and service. Our offspring are the falls of spiritual men: anger, calumny, spite, irritability, shouting, blasphemy, hypocrisy, hatred, envy, disputation, self-will, and disobedience. There is only one thing in which we have no power to meddle; and we shall tell you this, for we cannot bear your blow: If you keep up a sincere condemnation of yourself before the Lord, you can count us as weak as a cobweb. For pride’s saddle-horse, as you see, is vainglory, on which I am mounted.’ But holy humility and self-accusation laugh at both the horse and its rider, happily singing the song of victory: Let us sing to the Lord, for gloriously is He glorified: horse and rider hath He hurled into the sea and into the abyss of humility.
26.48 As one whose legs are tied cannot walk freely, so those who hoard money cannot ascend to Heaven…. 16.3 The lover of money sneers at the Gospel, and is a wilful transgressor. He who has attained to love scatters his money. But he who says that he lives for love and for money has deceived himself… The beginning of love of money is the pretext of almsgiving, and the end of it is hatred of the poor. So long as he is collecting he is charitable, but when the money is in hand he tightens his grip…. 17.13 In Job there was no trace of avarice, therefore, when he lost everything he remained undisturbed.
Chapter 3 – Concerning Mortal Sins, Pardonable Sins, and Sins of Omission
Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite
According to Gennadios Scholarios, George Koressios, the Orthodox Confession, and Chrysanthos of Jerusalem, mortal sins are those voluntary sins which either corrupt the love for God alone, or love for neighbor and for God, and which render again the one committing them an enemy of God and liable to the eternal death of hell. Generally speaking, they are: pride, love of money, sexual immorality, envy, gluttony, anger, and despondency, or indifference…. Pardonable sins are those voluntary sins which do not corrupt the love for God or the love for neighbor, nor do they render the person an enemy of God and liable to eternal death, to which transgressions even the Saints are susceptible, according to the words of the Brother of God: “For in many things we all sin” (James 3:2), and of John: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8), and according to Canons 125, 126, and 127 of Carthage. These sins, according to Koressios and Chrysanthos are: idle talk, the initial inclination and agitation of anger, the initial inclination of lust, the initial inclination of hate, a white lie, passing envy, or that which is commonly called jealousy, which is slight grief over the good fortunes of one’s neighbor, and the like…. Those good works, or words, or thoughts, which are capable of being done or thought by someone, but through negligence were not done, or said, or thought, are called sins of omission, and are brought forth from the mortal sin of despondency, as we have said…. Furthermore, Spiritual Father, you must know that the degrees of sin from the beginning until the end are twelve.
Chapter 6 – Concerning Thoughts
Just as so-called diagnostic physicians not only know how to treat external and visible wounds of the body, but they also, measuring the pulse, learn the internal and invisible maladies of the heart, of the bowels, and the other unseen workings of the human body, and therefore able to treat them. Likewise, Spiritual Father, it is not enough for you only to know how to treat external passions of the soul, those acts and deeds and effects of sin, but it is also necessary to know through through the confession of the penitent the internal wounds of his soul, which are hidden passions in his heart and the passionate and evil thoughts, and do treat them with great scrutiny and care. For this reason we thought it good to inform you a little about some general and vital matters concerning thoughts. How many types of thoughts there are: Know then, Spiritual Father, that in general, all thoughts are of three types: some thoughts are good, some thoughts are vain and idle, and some thoughts are bad. Concerning good thoughts, it is not necessary to discuss here in detail how and from what aspects of the soul they arise, for we are satisfied that these are good and therefore beneficial and salvific to the soul. We say this only, Spiritual Father, that if someone says to you during confession that he has good thoughts, you should counsel him to take care to be humble and to never trust in himself and become prideful: 1) because a person on his own is not able to do a good work or say a good word or even think a good thought without the power and help of God: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Corinthians 3:5); 2) because the devil is so cunning and evil, that many times he brings evil from good and through good though ts throws those who are not careful into self-esteem, and conceit, and haughtiness, from which is caused the destruction and death of the soul. So says Paul: “Sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good” (Romans 7:13); 3) because man never remains in one state, but is so changing and so quickly alters that, with his thoughts, in one instant he is found in Paradise and in another instant he is in hell, as one Saint said. And Saint Isaac says: “By the mind we improve, and by the mind we become unprofitable,” hence the one today has good thoughts may very well have evil ones tomorrow; and 4) tell him that the devil has greater envy and wages a fierce battle against those who have good thoughts, so that he should have more fear and greater care over himself. What vain thoughts are and how they are corrected: Those thoughts which are not profitable until the purpose and aim of salvation, as much as to our own soul as to that of our neighbor, and do not look to the necessary requirements and constitution of our body, but to the superfluous and more-than-necessary things, even if they are good, I call vain and idle. According to the Shorter Rules of Basil the Great, vain and idle thoughts arise from the idleness of the intellect that is neither engaged in necessary things, nor believes that God is present and searches our hearts and thoughts: “Mental aberration comes from idleness of a mind not occupied in necessary things. For the mind is idle and careless from lack of belief in the presence of God Who tries the heart and reins… He who does this and what is like to it will never dare or have leisure to think of any of those things that do not conduce to the edification of faith, even if they seem to be good.” Concerning these vain and idle thoughts, I say, advise the penitent not to allow his intellect to meditate upon or ponder over them: 1) because just as we have to give an account for idle words on the day of judgment, as the Lord said: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36), so likewise we have to give an account on the day of judgment for idle and vain thoughts, and indeed, if we willfully left our intellect to go after them. And it is thence apparent, because the Lord reproaches and condemns those servants who remain idle: “Why stand ye here all day idle?” (Matthew 20:6); 2) because those vain thoughts deprive us from profitable and salvific thoughts, which we are able to have instead of them; and 3) because these idle thoughts are in themselves evil, as they are the cessation of good and become the beginning of evil, and as giving way and permission to the devil to sow in our idle intellect the tares of evil thoughts. Thus does Gregory the Theologian confirm this: “May evil and its original cause, the devil, be destroyed. For while we were idle, the evil one planted tares in us (Matthew 13:25), in order that the neglect of good might become the beginning of evil, just as the beginning of darkness is the retreat of light.”
The causes of bad thoughts: Know that, in general, bad thoughts derive from two causes, one external and the other internal. The external cause of bad thoughts is the sensible objects of the five sense, that is, those things seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched, like bad and indecent and theatrical sights, obscene words, and lewd songs, scents and colognes and perfumes, luscious foods and pleasurable drinks, fine and soft clothes and comfortable mattresses. All these things cause passionate and hedonistic thoughts in the soul, and then sinful and death-bearing thoughts. Thus the prophet Jeremiah on one hand says: “Death has come up into our windows” (Jeremiah 21:9), the windows meaning the five senses…. The internal causes of bad thoughts are four: 1) the imagination; 2) the passions; 3) the demons; and 4) an internal cause of thoughts, however remote, is the passionate and corrupted condition of human nature which was brought about by the ancestral sin…. Footnote: St Mark the Ascetic says: “When evil thoughts become active within us, we should blame ourselves and not ancestral sin.”…. Specifically, the passions are divided into the three aspects of the soul: the intelligent, the appetitive, and the incensive. The passions of the intelligent aspect, according to Gregory of Sinai, are unbelief, blasphemy, evilness, curiosity, double mindedness, gossip, love of applause, pretension, pride, and others. The passions of the appetitive aspect are fornication, adultery, debauchery, greed, unchastity, incontinence, love of pleasure, self-love, and others. The passions of the incensive aspect are anger, bitterness, shouting, audacity, revenge, and others…. From the passions of the intelligent aspect of the soul come bad thoughts, which are generally given the name blasphemous thoughts. From the passions of the appetitive aspect come the so-called obscene thoughts. From the passion of the incensive aspect come the so-called evil thoughts. For this reason the above-mentioned Gregory of Sinai said that: “The passions are the causes of thoughts,” and Abba Isaac also calls the passions assaults, because they attack within the soul and stir up passionate thoughts.
Part 2 of 3
How to heal sin caused by food and comfort
St John Climacus of The Ladder
The Ladder 26.2. He who has piously destroyed within him the three passions (gluttony, cupidity, vainglory) has destroyed the five too (lust, anger, despair, despondency, pride)… Every satanic conflict in us comes from these three generic causes: from negligence, or from pride, or from the envy of the demons. The first is pitiable, the second is most wretched, but the third is blessed… In all our actions in which we try to please God, the demons dig three pits for us. By the first, they endeavour to prevent any good at all from being done. By the second, after their first defeat, they try to secure that it should not be done according to the will of God. But when these rogues fail in this too, then, standing quietly before our soul, they praise us for living a thoroughly godly life. The first is to be opposed by zeal and fear of death, the second by obedience and humiliation, and the third by unceasing self-condemnation. We shall be faced by toil of this kind until the divine fire enters into our sanctuary. For then, our proclivities are rendered powerless. Our God is a fire consuming all fever [of lust] and movement [of passion], every inclination rooted in us, and all blindness and darkness within and without, both visible and spiritual. The demons, on the other hand, produce in us the opposite of what has just been said. For when they take possession of the soul and extinguish the light of mind, then there is no longer in us poor wretches sobriety, or discernment, or self-knowledge, or shame; but there is indifference, insensitivity, want of discernment, and blindness. What has just been said is known very vividly by those who have abandoned fornication and become chaste, who have curbed their freedom of speech, and have changed from shamelessness to self-possession. They know how after the sobering of the mind, after the ending of its blindness, or rather its maiming, they are inwardly ashamed of themselves for what they said and did before they were living in blindness.
26.15 Perilous, truly perilous, is the sea that we humble monks are crossing, a sea in which there are many winds, rocks, whirlpools, pirates, waterspouts, shallows, monsters, and waves. A rock in the soul we may consider to be fierce and sudden anger. A whirlpool is hopelessness which seizes the mind and strives to drag it to the depths of despair. A shallow is ignorance which accepts what is bad as good. A monster is this savage and heavy body. Pirates are the most dangerous servants of vainglory who rifle our cargo and the hard-won earnings of the virtues. A wave is a swollen and burdened stomach which by its greed hands us over to the beast. A watersprout is pride that casts us down from Heaven, that carries us up to the sky and then down to the abyss. Those engaged in education know what studies are suitable for beginners, what for the intermediate, and what for teachers. Let us take sensible precautions not to prolong our study and stop in the beginners’ lessons. For to see an old man going to a children’s school is a great disgrace. Here is an excellent alphabet for all:
(Α) obedience (Ν) hardship
(Β) fasting (Ξ) humiliation
(Γ) sackcloth (Ο) contrition
(Δ) ashes (Π) forgetfulness of wrongs
(Ε) tears (Ρ) brotherly love
(Ζ) confession (Σ) meekness
(Η) silence (Τ) simple and unquestioning faith
(Θ) humility (Υ) freedom from worldly cares
(Ι) vigil (Φ) hateless hatred of parents
(Κ) courage (Χ) detachment
(Λ) cold (Ψ) innocent simplicity
(Μ) toil (Ω) voluntary abasement
A good schedule and resolution from the advanced, and evidence of their progress, is absence of vainglory, freedom from anger, good hope, stillness, discernment, firm remembrance of the judgement, compassion, hospitality, moderation in reproof, dispassionate prayer, lack of avarice. And here is a standard, rule, and law for those in the flesh who are piously aiming at perfection in spirit and body:
(Α) an unfettered heart (Ν) a fellow worshipper of angels
(Β) perfect love (Ξ) an abyss of knowledge
(Γ) a well of humility. (Ο) a house of mysteries
(Δ) a detached mind (Π) a keeper of secrets
(Ε) an indwelling of Christ (Ρ) a saviour of men
(Ζ) inviolability of the light of prayer (Σ) a god of the demons
(Η) an abundance of divine illumination (Τ) a lord of the passions
(Θ) a longing for death (Υ) a master of the body
(Ι) a hatred of life (Φ) a governor of nature
(Κ) flight from the body (Χ) a banishment of sin
(Λ) an intercession for the world (Ψ) a house of dispassion
(Μ) a forcer of God (Ω) with the Lord’s help, an imitator of the Lord
We have need of considerable vigilance when the body is sick. The demons, seeing us laid low and temporarily incapable of entering into the struggle with them owing to our infirmity, try to attack us fiercely at such times. The demon of irritation, and sometimes of blasphemy, hovers round those living in the world in time of illness. And the demon of gluttony and fornication attacks those living outside the world if they have an abundance of all necessities; but if they are living in ascetical places bereft of all consolation, then the tyrant of despondency and ingratitude is constantly sitting with them…. A noetic mind is certainly wrapped in noetic perception (aka insight or judgement); since it is both in us and not in us, let us never cease to seek it. When it makes its appearance, the outward senses of their own accord cease their natural action. Knowing this, one of the wise said: And thou shalt obtain a perception of the divine…. The providence of God is one thing, His help is another, and His protection another; the mercy of God is another, and His consolation another. Providence is displayed in all nature (creation), help only in the faithful, protection in the faithful who truly have faith, mercy in those who serve God, and consolation in those who love Him…. I have seen an unskilled physician who, by subjecting to dishonour a sick man who was contrite in spirit, only drove him to despair. And I have seen a skilled physician who operated on an arrogant heart with the knife of dishonour, and drained it of all its evil-smelling pus. I have seen one and the same sick man sometimes drink the medicine of obedience, and move, walk, and not sleep in order to cleanse his impurity; and sometimes, when the eye of his soul was sick, remain still and silent. He who has ears to hear, let him hear…. With the help of the Holy Trinity, let us battle with the three against three (aka, poverty, chastity, obedience against cupidity, sensuality, ambition). Otherwise, we shall make much toil for ourselves.
Quote from Saint Gregory The Theologian (Oration 27): ”…But first we must consider: what is this disorder of the tongue that leads us to compete in garrulity? What is this alarming disease, this appetite that can never be sated? Why do we keep our hands bound and our tongues armed? Do we commend hospitality? Do we admire brotherly love, wifely affection, virginity, feeding the poor, singing psalms, night-long vigils, penitence? Do we mortify the body with fasting? Do we through prayer, take up our abode with God? Do we subordinate the inferior elements in us to the better—I mean, the dust to the spirit, as we should if we have returned the right verdict on the alloy of the two which is our nature? Do we make life a meditation of death? Do we establish our mastery of our passions, mindful of the nobility of our second birth? Do we tame our swollen and inflamed tempers? Or our pride which “comes before a fall,” or our unreasonable grief, our crude pleasures, our dirty laughter, our undisciplined eyes, our greedy ears, our immoderate talk, our wandering thoughts, or anything in ourselves which the Evil One can take over from us and use against us, “bringing in death through the windows,” as Scripture has it, meaning thru the senses? No. We do the very opposite…”
The treatment of bad thoughts
Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite
You have learned, Spiritual Father, from what causes come bad thoughts: learn now also how to treat them. Therefore, just as we said earlier how there are two general causes of bad thoughts, so also now we say that there are two general treatments for them, namely, the external and the internal. The external treatments are namely these: for you to advise the penitent not to let his eyes wander, nor to fix his eyes upon the beautiful faces of women, or of young men, because “from looking, lust is born,” according to the ancient proverb, and because the sting of pleasure enters into the soul through these sights, according to Basil, and then follows rising waves of obscene and improper thoughts in the heart which ultimately drown the intellect. You should advise him to guard his ears so as not to hear any bad word, indeed those erotic and obscene songs, just as the Theologian exhorts, saying: “Block your ears with wax, and foolish words hear not, nor pleasant songs or thrilling melodies,” because from hearing these things the soul is disturbed and begins to recall obscene idols in its imagination and to think immortal thoughts in its heart. You should advise him to protect his sense of smell from pleasant scents and perfumes because these things are not proper to men but to women, and not modest or prudent women, but immodest and imprudent women. He should protect his sense of taste from the various and luscious foods and keep his tongue from speaking obscene, abusive, and improper words, because according to the Theologian, there is little difference between the word and act: “There is little difference between ‘to hear’ and ‘to do.’” He should protect the sense of touch and his hands from soft clothes and fine garments and should not touch something when there is no need to do so, not only other bodies, but also his own body, just as Saint Isaac exhorts. The more these are protected the more the bad thoughts diminish from the soul; just as contrarily, the less these are protected the more bad thoughts are engendered. For, if only plain, natural sensible objects engender neutral thoughts, according to the well-versed Gregory of Sinai: “The raw material of actions generates neutral thoughts,” how will passionate and hedonistic sensible objects not bring about hedonistic and passionate thoughts in the soul?
Advise those, then, Spiritual Father, who have blasphemous thoughts or obscene thoughts or evil thoughts to first treat the passions of the three aspects of their soul, from which arise those bad thoughts, as we have already said, For example, as many as are warred upon by blasphemous thoughts must purify the intelligent aspect of their soul through the sacred prayer, according to St. Maximos, by shedding tears and by abstaining from the reading of heretical books, according to St. Isaac, through spiritual knowledge of the divine Scriptures, according to the divine Serapion, and especially through humility. Having healed the intelligent aspect of the soul through these things, it follows that thoughts of blasphemy and unbelief which arise from this intelligent aspect will also be healed. As many as are warred upon by obscene thoughts must wither the appetitive aspect of their soul (from which these types of thoughts arise) through the practice of threefold self-control with respect to sleep, the stomach, and bodily comfort, according to Saint Maximos and Mark the Ascetic. As many are warred upon by evil thoughts, with which they deliberate about how they will injure and take revenge upon their enemy, must calm the passions of the incensive aspect of the soul (from which area these thoughts arise) by love, just as St. Maximos says, by supplicating God on behalf of their enemies, just as the Lord said: “Pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Mt, 5:44), and by reconciling with their enemies if they are present, and by imagining mentally the face of their enemy when he is absent, sweetly and lovingly kissing it and embracing him, according to Saint Diadochos.
By these things are the passions of the three aspects of the soul purified, quenched and bridled. It then follows that the bad thoughts sprouting from these passions are also purified and withered, for it is obvious that when the causes are quenched the effects are always co-quenched. Testifying to these things is the Godbearing Maximos who says: “Bridle your soul’s incensive power with love, quench its desire with self-control, give wings to its intelligence with prayer, and the light of your intellect will never be darkened,” and the divine Serapion who says verbatim: “The intellect drunk with spiritual knowledge is perfectly purified; love treats the inflamed parts of the incensive aspect of the soul; self-control stops the flow of the appetitive aspect of the soul.”
Prayer, especially noetic prayer, as a treatment for bad thoughts
Advise, then, Spiritual Father, those who lack the strength to rebut bad thoughts and who still fear the noetic and invisible war of the thoughts, of the demons, and of the passions, to keep silent when passionate thoughts come to them and to not dispute with them the so-called rebuttal method, but to noetically flee to God alone through prayer, calling upon His aid. This is why the divine Maximos advises this, saying: “Those who still fear the war against the passions and dread the assaults of invisible enemies (like Israel once feared those of Pharaoh) must keep silent; in their struggle for virtue they must not enter into disputes with their enemies but through prayer must entrust all anxiety about themselves to God. To them apply the words of Exodus: ‘The Lord will fight for you, and you must be silent’ (Ex. 14:14).” They are to flee to God through prayer, not only through prayer which is said with the mouth, but more rather through noetic prayer spoken in the heart with the inner word of the heart. This prayer means that they who are warred upon by demonic thoughts are to keep the inner and esoteric word of the heart silent from every other thought, in order for the inner word to repeat and say this short and so-called single-phrased prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me.” And while the inner word below is repeating this prayer, the intellect is to bring down its noetic energy into the heart and noetically concentrate with all of its might on the words spoken by the inner word of prayer, without imagining anything noetic or sensible, just as all the divine fathers, ancient and new, commonly teach. This noetic prayer is the only mighty, the only helpful, and the only victorious weapon in the noetic war of the thoughts, and this is necessarily so, for the war is noetic, and noetic weapons are required to be victorious. Notice how this single-phrased prayer treats all of the causes for bad thoughts. 1) The intellect, becoming accustomed to turning into itself and noetically conversing with God through prayer, neither sees those sensible objects which it desires nor are its senses moved, according to the maxim: “Those who make most use of the intellect make little use of the senses.”* 2) The inner word of the heart, always repeating and saying the prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ,” ceases from being an organ of the evil spirits and from speaking some other obscene or blasphemous or evil word; and because the imagination, being the bridge of the demons by which they mingle with the soul, according to the divine Fathers, is purified, I say, from every passionate idol by lowering the energy of the intellect into the heart, naked and cleansed of every shape and form of the imagination, for on account of the narrowness of the place of the heart the imagination is filtered and stripped and leaves outside every gross image, just as the serpent, when passing thru narrow places, is stripped of its old skin. 3) The warmth generated in the heart from continual repetition of the sacred prayer chases away and scorches the assaults of evil thoughts like a fly, according the Great Gregory of Thessaloniki, and it scatters the passions of the intellectual aspect of the soul like clouds and smoke and causes it to become bright and radiant, it placates and calms the passions of the incensive aspect, it scatters the passions of the desirable aspect, and draws all of that loving power to itself and to the love of the one being repeated, Jesus Christ. 4) Always repeating the sweet and very name of Jesus Christ in the heart flogs, wounds and drives away the demons from the heart, those leaders and creators of all the bad thoughts and passions of the soul. That is why the divine John of The Ladder said: “Flog your enemies with the name of Jesus.” And 5) the manifold memory of bad thoughts, brought about by the Fall of Adam, becomes simple and is healed through the unified memory of Jesus Christ, according to Gregory of Sinai who says: “The memory is restored above all by constant mindfulness of God consolidated through prayer, for this spiritually elevates the memory from a natural to a supernatural state.”
Why say more? The sweetest name of Jesus, repeated continuously, and with compunction, and with desire and faith, in the depth of the heart, lulls all bad thoughts. And where in the past “out of the heart proceeded evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Mt. 15:19), as the Lord said, afterward come good thoughts, spiritual reflections, words of wisdom, judgements, analyses, and discernment, as it is written: “The thoughts of the righteous are right” (Pr. 12:5). Therefore, teach, advise, and prompt penitents and all Christians, Spiritual Father, to repeat continuously in their heart the name of Jesus Christ through the prayer above, because this noetic and uninterrupted prayer in the heart was not given only to ascetics and monks, but also to all the Christians in the world. Therefore the Apostle Paul commands and says to those in the world to pray always: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Th. 5:17), because it is possible for them to pray continuously: when they work, when they eat and drink, when they are at home, when they are outside, when they are sitting, and when they are walking, if only they wish to forsake vain chatter and rather guide their intellect into their heart.
Part 3 of 3
How everyone should prepare for confession
Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite
My brother sinner, this is the preparation you must undergo before you repent and go to confession. Know firstly that repentance, according to Saint John of Damaskos, is a returning from the devil to God, which comes about through pain and ascesis (def. the practice of severe discipline). So you also, my beloved, if you wish to repent properly, must depart from the devil and from the diabolical works and return to God and to the life proper to God. You must forsake sin, which is against nature, and return to virtue, which is according to nature. You must hate wickedness so much, that you say along with David” “Unrighteousness have I hated and abhorred” (Psalm 118:163), and instead, you must love the good and the commandments of the Lord so much, that you also say along with David: “But Thy law have I loved” (ibid.), and again: “Therefore have I loved Thy commandments more than gold and topaz” (Psalm 118:127). In brief the Holy Spirit informs you through the wise Sirach what in fact true repentance is, saying: “Turn to the Lord and forsake your sins… Return to the Most High, and turn away from iniquity, and hate abominations intensely” (Sir. 17:25-26).
The aspects of repentance
Know secondly, that the aspects of repentance of repentance are three: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Footnote: George Koressios, writing about the Mysteries, adds a fourth aspect of repentance, the loosing of sin (also called “keys”), which happens by the grace of the Holy Spirit through the mediation of the Spiritual Father, and which, he says, especially defines the Mystery of Repentance. Contrition is sorrow and perfect pain of heart, which comes about in a person who, on account of the sins committed, disappointed God and transgressed His divine Law. Footnote: This grief does not only consist of its sensible manifestations, like groans and tears, but it mainly consists of the interior will of man hating sins and wishing that sin never occurred, and the resolve to never commit sin again. And note this also, that this grief and contrition of the heart, according to Koressios, is an element of repentance and, as long as it is found in the heart, a person is in a state of repentance. But as soon as grief leaves the heart, so also does a person leave from the state of repentance, which means that grief and contrition must be present in the heart of the penitent perpetually, for in this way is his repentance true. This contrition comes only to the perfect and those who are sons of God, because it only proceeds from the love for God, just as a son repents simply because he disappointed his father, and not because he was deprived of his inheritance or because he will be ousted from his father’s house. Concerning this the divine Chrysostom says: “Groan after you have sinned, not because you are to be punished (for this is nothing), but because you offended your Master, one so gentle, one so kind, one Who loves you so much and longs for your salvation as to have given even His Son for you. On account of this groan.” Related to contrition is affliction, which is also sorrow and imperfect pain of the heart, which comes about, not because a person disappointed God by his sins, but because that person was deprived of divine grace, lost Paradise, and gained hell. This affliction belongs to the imperfect, that is, to the hired hands and slaves, because it proceeds not out of love for God, but out of fear and out of love for themselves, just as a hired hand repents on account of losing his wage and a slave repents because he fears the disciplines of his master. Footnote: Some teachers divide sorrow and the grief which a sinner has on account of his sins into three parts: the grief he has before confession, which they call infliction, or reproach (προστριβή); the grief he has during confession, which they call contrition (συν–τριβή); and the grief which he has after confession, which they call affliction (έπ–τριβή). So you also, my brother sinner, if you wish to acquire this contrition and affliction in your heart, and through these for your repentance to be pleasing to God, you must do the following.
Confess to an experienced spiritual father
First, search and learn who is the most experienced Spiritual Father, because Basil the Great says, just as people do not show their maladies and bodily wounds to just any physician, but to experienced physicians who know how to treat them, so also sins must be revealed, not to just anyone, but to those who are able to heal them: “The same fashion should be observed in the confession of sins as in the showing of bodily diseases. As then men reveal the diseases of the body not to all or to chance comers but to those who are experienced in their treatment; so also the confession of sins ought to take place in the presence of those who are able to treat them, as it is written: ‘Ye that are strong bear the infirmities of the weak’ (Rom. 15:1)— that is, take them away by your care.” Second, just as you would sit down and count your money after a certain business transaction, in like manner go to a particular place, my brother, and two or three weeks before going to the Spiritual Father you found, especially at the beginning of the four fast periods of the year, sit down in that place of quietude and, bowing your head, examine your conscience, which Philo the jew calls: “The testing of the conscience,” and become: “Not a defender, but a judge of your sins,” according to the divine Augustine. Consider, like Hezekiah, the whole span of your life in sorrow and bitterness of soul: “I will ponder in all my years in the bitterness of my soul” (Isaiah 38:15). Consider also how many sins you committed in deed, word, and by coupling with thoughts after you last confessed, counting the months, weeks, and days. Remember the people with whom you have sinned and the places where you sinned, and diligently reflect upon these things in order to find every one of your sins. This is how the wise Sirach counsels you from one side saying: “Before judgment, examine yourself” (Sirach 18:20), and from the other, Gregory the Theologian says: “Examine yourself more than your neighbor: Account of actions is superior to an account of money. For money is subject to corruption, but actions remain.” And just as hunters are not satisfied with merely finding a beast in the forest, but attempt through every means to also kill it, likewise, my brother sinner, you should also not be satisfied with merely examining your conscience and with finding your sins, for this profits you little, but struggle by every means to kill your sins through the grief in your heart, namely, through contrition and affliction. And in order to acquire contrition, consider how much you have wronged God through your sins. In order to also acquire affliction, consider how much you have wronged yourself through your sins.
Sources: The Ladder of Divine Ascent (ISBN 978-0-943405-03-2) Holy Transfiguration Monastery – Brookline, Massachusetts; and Exomologetarion A Manual of Confession translated by Father George Dokos (ISBN 978-1-63941-001-9) — Uncut Mountain Press.