CELIBACY..........2
68. He who honors celibacy and virginity must keep his loins girded and his lamp burning (cf. Luke 12:35). He keeps his loins girded through self-control, and his lamp burning through prayer, contemplation and spiritual love.	St Maximos the Confessor Four Hundred Texts on Love Fourth Century
67. No struggle is greater than the struggle for self-restraint and virginity. He who honors celibacy is admired even; by the angels and is crowned just as athletes are. If, bound to flesh and blood, he strives to imitate through chastity the immaterial nature of the angels, terrible Is the battle he has to fight; and if he is successful, so great is his achievement that it appears virtually impossible and beyond our nature. Indeed, it would be impossible if God did not help us from above, supporting the weakness of our nature, mending what is rotten, and somehow raising us from the ground through divine love and through hope for the gifts held in store for us.	St Theognostos On the Practice of the Virtues, Contemplation and the Priesthood
CELIBATE..........1
I went through all these slowly and diligently, trying to discover the root of man’s destruction and salvation, and which of his actions or practices does or does not bring him to salvation. I wanted to find what it is that everyone seeks after, and how people served God in the past, and still serve Him today, in wealth or poverty, living among many sinners or in solitude, married or celibate: how, quite simply, in every circumstance and activity we find life or death, salvation or destruction. Even among us monks there are different situations: obedience to a spiritual father in all matters pertaining to body or soul; the stillness that purifies the soul; spiritual counsel in the place of obedience; the offices of abbot and bishop. In each of these situations, some find salvation and others perish.	St Peter of Damaskos Book 1 A Treasury of Divine Knowledge
CENTRAL...........1
22. After this initial creation. He who brings forth all things from non-being proceeds as it were to embellish and adorn the world. In six days He allotted its own proper and appropriate rank to each of His creatures that together constitute His world. He differentiates each by command alone, as though bringing forth from hidden treasuries the things stored within, giving them form, and disposing and composing them harmoniously, with perfection and aptness, one to the other, each to all and all to each. Establishing the. immovable earth as the centre He encircled it in the highest vault with the ever-moving heavens and in His great wisdom bound the two together by means of the intermediary regions. Thus the same world is both at rest and moving. For while the heavenly bodies encircle the earth in rapid and perpetual motion, the immovable body of the earth necessarily occupies the central position, its state of rest serving as a counterbalance to the heavens' mobility. In this way the pancosmic sphere does not change its position as it would if it were cylindrical.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
CENTURY...........2
When making a request to an earthly king, sometimes men bring with them as an offering nothing more than a bunch of spring flowers; yet often, so far from rejecting their request, the king has even presented them with gifts in return. In the same way I, at your command, have gathered from various sources a century of spiritual texts: this is my offering to you who are 'citizens of heaven' (Phil. 3:20). I hope that you will accept what I offer and grant me in return the gift of your prayers.	St John of Karpathos For the Encouragement of the Monks in India who had Written to Him One Hundred Texts
50. If a man does not love someone, it does not necessarily mean that he hates him; and conversely, if he does not hate him, it does not necessarily mean that he loves him, since he can be neutral towards him, that is, neither love him nor hate him. For the disposition to love is created only in the five ways listed in the ninth text of this Century, one commendable, one of an intermediate kind, and three reprehensible.	St Maximos the Confessor Four Hundred Texts on Love Second Century
CERTAINTY.........6
11. Spiritual discourse always keeps the soul free from self-esteem, for it gives every part of the soul a sense of light, so that it no longer needs the praise of men. In the same way, such discourse keeps the mind free from fantasy, transfusing it completely with the love of God. Discourse deriving from the wisdom of this world, on the other hand, always provokes self-esteem; because it is incapable of granting us the experience of spiritual perception, it inspires its adepts with a longing for praise, being nothing but the fabrication of conceited men. It follows, therefore, that we can know with certainty when we are in the proper state to speak about God, if during the hours when we do not speak we maintain a fervent remembrance of God in untroubled silence.	St Diadochos of Photiki On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination One Hundred Texts
71. Men must not acquire anything superfluous or, if they possess it, must know with certainty that all things in this life are by nature perishable, and easily plundered, lost or broken; and they must not be disheartened by anything that happens.	St Antony the Great On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life One Hundred and Seventy Texts
130. If someone possesses intellect, he knows himself and what he is; and he knows, too, that man is subject to corruption. And he who knows himself knows all things: he knows that all things are created by God and made for man's salvation. For it lies in man's power correctly to apprehend all things and to hold correct beliefs concerning them. Such a man knows with certainty that those who detach themselves from worldly things must endure some slight hardship in this present life, but after death they receive from God eternal blessedness and peace.	St Antony the Great On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life One Hundred and Seventy Texts
147. The devil tries to disrupt our hope in Christ and our love for Him in a thousand ways. Inwardly he brings afflictions on the soul by means of the evil spirits, or he fills it with foul and immoral thoughts by stirring up its memory of former sins, so as to make it grow sluggish and to despair of ever attaining salvation. His aim is to cheat the soul into thinking that it generates these thoughts of its own accord and that they are not sown in it maliciously by an alien spirit. Or else he inflicts bodily suffering and brings on us vilification and tribulation through the agency of other people. But the more he shoots his fiery arrows at us, the more we must enkindle our hope in God, knowing with certainty that He deliberately permits souls that long for Him to suffer these things, so as to discover if they truly love Him.	St Symeon Metaphrastis Paraphrase of the Homilies of St Makarios of Egypt VI The Freedom of the Intellect
'I am not worthy to be a priest; but I know very well what someone who is to celebrate the sacred mysteries of God should be like. In the first place, he should be chaste, not only in body but also in soul, and he should be free of all sin. Secondly, he should be humble both in his external manner and in the inner State of his soul. Then, when he stands before the holy altar, while gazing with his physical eyes on the holy gifts, spiritually — and with total certainty — he should perceive the Godhead. Moreover, his heart should be consciously aware of Him who is invisibly present and dwelling in the gifts, so that he may offer the petitions with confidence; and when, like a friend speaking to a friend, he says, 'Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name' (Matt. 6:9), the way in which he recites the prayer will show that he has dwelling within him the true Son of God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I have seen such priests. Forgive me, fathers and brethren.'	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
3. 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain' (Exod. 20:7), swearing an oath falsely because of some worldly thing, or out of human fear, or shame, or for personal gain. For a false oath is a denial of God. For this reason you should not take an oath at all (cf. Matt. 5:34). Avoid oaths altogether, since through an oath a man forswears himself, and this estranges him from God and numbers him among the wrongdoers. If you are truthful in all your words, that will convey the certainty of an oath.' Should you, however, bind yourself with an oath — something to be deprecated — you must fulfill it as a legal obligation, provided it involves something permitted by the divine law; but you should hold yourself at fault because you swore at all, and by acts of mercy, supplication, grief and bodily hardship you should ask Christ's forgiveness, since He said you should not swear oaths. If, on the other hand, you take an oath that involves something that is unlawful, beware lest on account of your oath you do what is wrong and are numbered with Herod, the prophet-slayer (cf. Matt. 14:7-9). And when you have put that unlawful oath behind you, make it a rule never again to take an oath, and with tears ask more intensely for God's forgiveness, using the remedies already mentioned.	St Gregory Palamas A New Testament Decalogue
CHAIN.............7
20. A self-indulgent heart becomes a prison and chain for the soul when it leaves this life; whereas an assiduous heart is an open door.	St. Mark the Ascetic On the Spiritual Law
28. Let your soul be free of evil fantasies and illumined with thoughts of what is truly noble. Constantly remember the saying, ‘A self-indulgent heart becomes a prison and a chain for the soul when it leaves this life; whereas an assiduous heart is an open door.’ Truly, when pure souls leave the body they are guided by angels who lead them to the life of blessedness. But unclean and unrepentant souls will be taken in charge by the demons.	St Theodoros the Great Ascetic A Century of Spiritual Texts
41. Reprehensible passions chain the intellect, binding it to sensible objects.	St Thalassios the Libyan On Love, Self-control and Life in Accordance with the Intellect Third Century
145. When man broke God's commandment and was expelled from paradise he was bound in consequence as by two chains. The first is that of temporal things and worldly pleasures-riches, glory, affection, wife, children, relations, country, possessions and, in short, all visible things from which God has summoned us to liberate ourselves through our own free choice. The second is hidden and invisible; for the soul is bound by a certain chain of darkness to the spirits of evil, and because of this darkness it cannot love God, or believe or pray as it wishes. In consequence of the transgression of the first man, we each of us find that all things visible and invisible are opposed to us. Thus, whenever someone listens obediently to the word of God, he must first begin by cutting his attachment to temporal things and renouncing all worldly pleasures. Then, if he waits attentively upon God and enters into constant communion with Him, he will receive the power to learn that there is another struggle and another battle of thoughts hidden in the depths of his heart. Persevering in this way and beseeching Christ's mercy, combining great faith in Him with endurance, he can with God's help escape from these inner bonds and fetters and from the darkness of the spirits of evil, which are the energies of the hidden passions. Through Christ's grace and power we can bring this war to a successful conclusion. But by ourselves and without divine aid it is altogether impossible for us to free ourselves from the struggle against evil thoughts: we can merely rebut them and not take pleasure in them.	St Symeon Metaphrastis Paraphrase of the Homilies of St Makarios of Egypt VI The Freedom of the Intellect
62. A person false through hypocrisy, or culpable because of his actions, or easily shattered by some passion, or who lapses slightly through negligence, must not be left in the company of those who are working together in harmony. On the contrary he must be excluded from their society as still corrupt and reprobate. Otherwise at some crucial moment he might break their chain of union, causing division where there should be none and distress both to those who are at the head of the chain — for they will be grieved for those who follow after them — and to those at the tail of the chain, who will suffer because they are cut off from those in front of them.	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
62. A person false through hypocrisy, or culpable because of his actions, or easily shattered by some passion, or who lapses slightly through negligence, must not be left in the company of those who are working together in harmony. On the contrary he must be excluded from their society as still corrupt and reprobate. Otherwise at some crucial moment he might break their chain of union, causing division where there should be none and distress both to those who are at the head of the chain — for they will be grieved for those who follow after them — and to those at the tail of the chain, who will suffer because they are cut off from those in front of them.	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
62. A person false through hypocrisy, or culpable because of his actions, or easily shattered by some passion, or who lapses slightly through negligence, must not be left in the company of those who are working together in harmony. On the contrary he must be excluded from their society as still corrupt and reprobate. Otherwise at some crucial moment he might break their chain of union, causing division where there should be none and distress both to those who are at the head of the chain — for they will be grieved for those who follow after them — and to those at the tail of the chain, who will suffer because they are cut off from those in front of them.	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
CHANCES...........1
Let us strip ourselves of everything, since our adversary stands before us stripped. Do athletes compete with their clothes on? No, the rules require them to enter the stadium naked. Whether it is warm or cold, that is how they enter, leaving their clothes outside; and if anyone refuses to strip, he excludes himself from the contest. Now we too claim to be athletes, and we are struggling against opponents far more skilful than any that are visible. Yet, instead of stripping ourselves, we try to engage in the contest while carrying countless burdens on our shoulders, thus giving our opponents many chances of getting a grip on us. How can someone encumbered with material possessions contend against 'spiritual wickedness’ (Eph. 6:12), since he is vulnerable from every angle? How can someone weighed down with wealth wrestle with the demon of avarice? How can someone clothed in worldly preoccupations race against demons stripped of every care? Holy Scripture says, ‘The naked shall run swiftly in that day’ (Amos 2:16. LXX) — the naked, not the one who is hindered in running by thoughts about money and material possessions.	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
CHANGE............80
Let us look at it in this fashion. Movement occurs in the sexual organs not only of young children who cannot yet distinguish between good and evil, but also of the smallest infants still at their mother's breast. The latter, although quite ignorant of sensual pleasure, nevertheless manifest such natural movements in the flesh. Similarly, the incensive power exists in infants, as we can see when they are roused against anyone hurting them. I say this not to accuse nature of being the cause of sin — heaven forbid! — but to show that the incensive power and desire, even if implanted in man by the Creator for a good purpose, appear to change through neglect from being natural in the body into something that is unnatural. Movement in the sexual organs was given to us by the Creator for procreation and the continuation of the species, not for unchastity; while incensive power was planted in us for our salvation, so that we could manifest it against wickedness, but not so that we could act like wild beasts towards our fellow men. Even if we make bad use of these passions, nature itself is not therefore sinful, nor should we blame the Creator. A man who gives someone a knife for some necessary and useful purpose is not to blame if that person uses it to commit murder.	St John Cassian On the Eight Vices On Avarice
178. Just as some snakes live in glens and others in houses, so there are some passions which take shape in our thoughts while others express themselves in action. It is possible, however, for them to change from one type to the other.	St. Mark the Ascetic On the Spiritual Law
118. When you hear Scripture saying of the Holy Spirit that He 'rested upon each' of the Apostles (Acts 2:3), or 'came upon' the Prophet (1 Sam. 11:6), or 'energizes' (1 Cor. 12:11), or is 'grieved' (Eph. 4:30), or is 'quenched' (1 Thess. 5:19), or is 'vexed (Isa. 63:10), and again, that some 'have the first fruits' (Rom. 8:23), and that others are 'filled with the Holy Spirit' (Acts 2:4), do not suppose that the Spirit is subject to some kind of division, variation or change; but be sure that, in the way we have described, He is unvarying, unchanging and all-powerful. Therefore in all His energies He remains what He is, and in a divine manner He gives to each person what is needful. On those who have been baptized He pours Himself out in His fullness like the sun. Each of us is illumined by Him to the extent to which we hate the passions that darken us and get rid of them. But in so far as we have a love for them and dwell on them, we remain in darkness.	St. Mark the Ascetic On Those who Think that They are Made Righteous by Works
These monks have not so much as begun the ascetic life, far less learnt the value of stillness. Perhaps they came to the monastic life because of some pressure, not realizing what is involved; so they regard it merely as a way of earning their living. This attitude might change to something more spiritual, if only they would stop knocking on every door and if, shamed by their monastic habit into restraining their gross acquisitiveness, they were willing to impose a much-needed curb on their body. But, being self-indulgent, they do not realize how their soft living constantly breeds new and extravagant desires.	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
Let us give up our flocks and herds, and so become real shepherds. Let us abandon sordid commerce, and so acquire the 'pearl of great price' (Matt. 13:46). Let us stop tilling the earth which 'brings forth thorns and thistles' (Gen. 3:18), and so become cultivators and keepers of paradise. Let us give up everything and choose the life of stillness, and so put to silence those who now reproach us for owning possessions. The best way to abash our critics is discreetly to correct in ourselves the faults for which they revile us; for such a change in those reproached puts their reproachers to shame.	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
But what if someone, not from any choice of his own, is obliged to accept one or two disciples, and so to become the spiritual director of others as well? First, let him examine himself carefully, to see whether he can teach them through his actions rather than his words, setting his own life before them as a model of holiness. He must take care that, through copying him, they do not obscure the beauty of holiness with the ugliness of sin. He should also realize that he ought to work as hard for his disciples' salvation as he does for his own; for, having once accepted responsibility for them, he will be accountable to God for them as well as for himself. That is why the saints tried to leave behind them disciples whose holiness was no less than their own, and to change these disciples from their original condition to a better state. Thus Paul the Apostle changed Onesimus from a runaway slave into a martyr (cf. Philem. 10-19); Elijah turned Elisha from a ploughman into a prophet (cf. 1 Kgs. 19:19); Moses transmitted special gifts to Joshua, though he was younger than all the rest (cf. Deut. 31:7-8); and Eli made Samuel greater than himself (cf. 1 Sam. 3:19-20). In each of these cases the disciple was helped by his own efforts, but the chief cause of his progress was the fact that he had found a teacher capable of fanning the smoldering spark of his zeal and of kindling it into flame. So these teachers became God's spokesmen, communicating His will to others; for God says: 'If you bring forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth' (Jer. 15:19).	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
God also showed Ezekiel what the teacher's attitude should be, and what kind of change he should bring about in his disciples: 'Son of man,' He says, 'take a tile, and lay it before you, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem' (Ezek. 4:1). This means that the teacher should transform his disciple from clay into a holy temple. The words 'and lay it before you' are particularly significant, for the disciple will quickly improve if he is continually in the sight of his teacher. The constant influence of a good example marks other souls with its own impress, so long as they are not completely stubborn and insensitive. The reason Gehazi and Judas succumbed, the first to theft and the second to treachery, was that they withdrew from the sight of their teachers: had they remained under the restraining influence of their teacher's eye, they would not have sinned.	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
From this we may understand that virtue is a thing most delicately balanced, and that if neglected it quickly turns into its opposite. Scripture seems to refer to this symbolically, saying: 'The land into which you go so as to inherit it is a land subject to change through the movement of the peoples' (Ezra 9:11. LXX). For as soon as someone who has attained the state of virtue inclines towards its opposite, his virtue is thereby altered, being ‘a land subject to change'. So from the moment that harmful fantasies appear we should deny them entry into our mind. We should not allow it to 'go down into Egypt', for from there it is led away into captivity by the Assyrians (cf. Jer. 42 :19; 43:2-3). For when the mind descends into the darkness of impure thoughts — and that is what Egypt means — then the passions drag it forcibly and against its will into their service.	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
From this we may understand that virtue is a thing most delicately balanced, and that if neglected it quickly turns into its opposite. Scripture seems to refer to this symbolically, saying: 'The land into which you go so as to inherit it is a land subject to change through the movement of the peoples' (Ezra 9:11. LXX). For as soon as someone who has attained the state of virtue inclines towards its opposite, his virtue is thereby altered, being ‘a land subject to change'. So from the moment that harmful fantasies appear we should deny them entry into our mind. We should not allow it to 'go down into Egypt', for from there it is led away into captivity by the Assyrians (cf. Jer. 42 :19; 43:2-3). For when the mind descends into the darkness of impure thoughts — and that is what Egypt means — then the passions drag it forcibly and against its will into their service.	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
Those who renounce the world should in the first place make sure that they keep back nothing. They should fear the terrible example of Ananias, who thought that no one would notice if he kept back something for himself, and who was condemned by God for stealing (cf. Acts 5:1-10). They should renounce not only themselves but everything they have, knowing that whatever they retain will form an object of continuing attraction to their minds, and so will draw them away from higher things and eventually cut them off altogether from the brotherhood. Let us recall the lives of the men of old, written by the Holy Spirit: here appropriate examples can be found to bring each man to the truth, whatever his way of life. When Elisha placed himself under his teacher, how did he renounce the world? Scripture says that he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and that he killed the cattle, made a fire of their harness, and roasted them (cf. 1 Kgs. 19:19, 21). This gives us some idea how eager he was. He did not say, 'I shall sell the harness and distribute the money appropriately'; he did not calculate that the things would do more good if sold. Entirely absorbed by his desire to join his teacher, he despised all visible things and sought to get rid of them, because they would distract him from his intention; and he knew that delay often leads to a change of mind. And why did the Lord, when He spoke to the rich man about the life of perfection ordained by God, instruct him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor, keeping back nothing for himself (cf. Matt. 19:21)? Was it not because He knew that anything kept back would give rise to all kinds of distractions? And I think that when Moses requires those who wish to sanctify themselves through intense prayer to shave their entire body, he is likewise demanding the complete renunciation of possessions (cf. Num. 8:7).	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
Similarly, when a slave has come to love his master and his own wife and children, he may reject true freedom because of his bonds of physical kinship; and so he becomes a slave for ever, allowing his ear to be pierced through with an awl (cf. Exod. 21:6). He will never hear the word that can set him free, but will remain perpetually a slave in his love for present things. This is why the Law commanded that a woman's hand should be cut off if she seized hold of the genitals of a man who was fighting with another (cf. Deut. 25:11); in other words, when there was a battle between her thoughts, whether to choose worldly or heavenly blessings, she failed to choose the heavenly and grasped those which are subject to generation and corruption — for by the genitals the Law signifies the things which belong to the realm of change.	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
The soul that succumbs to past habits and gives all its attention to material things, which lack true reality, is like Rachel sitting on Laban's idols; it does not listen to the teaching which would raise it up to higher things, but says like Rachel: 'I cannot rise up before you, for the custom of women is upon me' (Gen. 31: 35). For the soul which has long been brooding on the things of this life is indeed 'sitting on idols'. Insubstantial in themselves, these idols are given substance by human artifice. Wealth, fame and the other things of this life all lack substance, for there is nothing clear and distinct about them. They possess a specious resemblance to reality, but change from day to day. We ourselves give them substance when in our thoughts we shape fantasies about things that serve no real purpose. With our fertile imagination we exceed the basic needs .of the body to the point of impossible luxury; we lavish innumerable sauces on our food; to show off, we dress up in expensive and luxurious clothes; and when criticized for this useless extravagance we answer that we are merely doing what is fitting and proper. What else are we trying to do in all this but to give substance to what in itself lacks reality?	St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos
37. The dreams which appear to the soul through God's love are unerring criteria of its health. Such dreams do not change from one shape to another; they do not shock our inward sense, resound with laughter or suddenly become threatening. But with great gentleness they approach the soul and fill it with spiritual gladness. As a result, even after the body has woken up, the soul longs to recapture the joy given to it by the dream. Demonic fantasies, however, are just the opposite: they do not keep the same shape or maintain a constant form for long. For what the demons do not possess as their chosen mode of life, but merely assume because of their inherent deceitfulness, is not able to satisfy them for very long. They shout and menace, often transforming themselves into soldiers and sometimes deafening the soul with their cries. But the intellect, when pure, recognizes them for what they are and awakes the body from its dreams. Sometimes it even feels joy at having been able to see through their tricks; indeed it often challenges them during the dream itself and thus provokes them to great anger. There are, however, times when even good dreams do not bring joy to the soul, but produce in it a sweet sadness and tears unaccompanied by grief. But this happens only to those who are far advanced in humility.	St Diadochos of Photiki On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination One Hundred Texts
66. If a demon has such strength as to force a man, even against his will, to change from his natural state of goodness into a state of sin, how great must be the strength of the angel who at the appointed time is commanded by God to restore that man's whole condition. If the icy blast of the north wind is strong enough to give to water the hardness of rock, what cannot the warmth of the south wind achieve? If extreme cold forces everything to submit to it — for 'who can withstand His cold?' (Ps. 147: 17) — cannot heat in the same way alter everything? 'Who can abide the burning heat?' (Ecclus. 43:3). So let us confidently believe that the cold, dark coals of our mind will sooner or later blaze with heat and light under the influence of the divine fire.	St John of Karpathos For the Encouragement of the Monks in India who had Written to Him One Hundred Texts
150. God is good, dispassionate and immutable. Now someone who thinks it reasonable and true to affirm that God does not change, may well ask how, in that case, it is possible to speak of God as rejoicing over those who are good and showing mercy to those who honor Him, while turning away from the wicked and being angry with sinners. To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, for to rejoice and to be offended are passions; nor is He won over by the gifts of those who honor Him, for that would mean He is swayed by pleasure. It is not right to imagine that God feels pleasure or displeasure in a human way. He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him; but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us, and expose us to the demons who punish us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him change, but that through our actions and our turning to God we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God's goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind.	St Antony the Great On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life One Hundred and Seventy Texts
150. God is good, dispassionate and immutable. Now someone who thinks it reasonable and true to affirm that God does not change, may well ask how, in that case, it is possible to speak of God as rejoicing over those who are good and showing mercy to those who honor Him, while turning away from the wicked and being angry with sinners. To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, for to rejoice and to be offended are passions; nor is He won over by the gifts of those who honor Him, for that would mean He is swayed by pleasure. It is not right to imagine that God feels pleasure or displeasure in a human way. He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him; but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us, and expose us to the demons who punish us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him change, but that through our actions and our turning to God we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God's goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind.	St Antony the Great On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life One Hundred and Seventy Texts
What, then, is the nature of our contest in this world? The intelligent soul is conjoined with an animal-like body, which has its being from the earth and gravitates downwards. It is so mixed with the body that though they are total opposites they form a single being. Without change or confusion in either of them, and with each acting in accordance with its nature, they compose a single person, or hypostasis, with two complete natures. In this composite two-natured being, man, each of his natures functions in accordance with its own particular powers. It is characteristic of the body to desire what is akin to it. This longing for what is akin to them is natural to created beings, since indeed their existence depends on the intercourse of like with like, and on their enjoyment of material things through the senses. Then, being heavy, the body welcomes relaxation. These things are proper and desirable for our animal-like nature. But to the intelligent soul, as an intellective entity, what is natural and desirable is the realm of intelligible realities and its enjoyment of them in the manner characteristic of it. Before and above all what is characteristic of the intellect is an intense longing for God. It desires to enjoy Him and other intelligible realities, though it cannot do this without encountering obstacles.	St Theodoros the Great Ascetic Theoretikon
71. Perfect love does not split up the single human nature, common to all, according to the diverse characteristics of individuals; but, fixing attention always on this single nature, it loves all men equally. It loves the good as friends and the bad as enemies, helping them, exercising forbearance, patiently accepting whatever they do, not taking the evil into account at all but even suffering on their behalf if the opportunity offers, so that, if possible, they too become friends. If it cannot achieve this, it does not change its own attitude; it continues to show the fruits of love to all men alike. It was on account of this that our Lord and God Jesus Christ, showing His love for us, suffered for the whole of mankind and gave to all men an equal hope of resurrection, although each man determines his own fitness for glory or punishment.	St Maximos the Confessor Four Hundred Texts on Love First Century
92. The following four things are said to change the body’s temperament and through it to produce either impassioned or dispassionate thoughts in the intellect: angels, demons, the winds and diet. It is said that angels change it by thought, demons by touch, the winds by varying, and diet by the quality of our food and drink and by whether we eat too much or too little. There are also changes brought about by means of memory, hearing and sight — namely when the soul is affected by joyful or distressing experiences as a result of one of these three means, and then changes the body’s temperament. Thus changed, this temperament in its turn induces corresponding thoughts in the intellect.	St Maximos the Confessor Four Hundred Texts on Love Second Century
92. The following four things are said to change the body’s temperament and through it to produce either impassioned or dispassionate thoughts in the intellect: angels, demons, the winds and diet. It is said that angels change it by thought, demons by touch, the winds by varying, and diet by the quality of our food and drink and by whether we eat too much or too little. There are also changes brought about by means of memory, hearing and sight — namely when the soul is affected by joyful or distressing experiences as a result of one of these three means, and then changes the body’s temperament. Thus changed, this temperament in its turn induces corresponding thoughts in the intellect.	St Maximos the Confessor Four Hundred Texts on Love Second Century
9. Only the infinite Being, all-powerful and creative of all things, is simple, unique, unqualified, peaceful and stable. Every creature, consisting as it does of being and accident, is composite and always in need of divine providence, for it is not free from change.	St Maximos the Confessor Four Hundred Texts on Love Fourth Century
5. Origin, the intermediary state and consummation characterize things divided by time, as indeed they characterize things existing in the eon. For time, by which change is measured, is defined numerically; while the eon, whose existence presupposes a ‘when’, possesses dimensionality, since its existence has an origin. And if time and the eon have an origin, how much more so will those things that exist within them.	St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God First Century
81. Until our minds in purity have transcended our own being and that of all things sequent to God, we have not yet acquired a permanent state of holiness. When this noble state has, by means of love, been established in us, we shall know the power of the divine promise. For we must believe that where the intellect, taking the lead, has by means of love rooted its power, there the saints will find a changeless abode. He who has not transcended himself and all that is in any way subject to intellection, and has not come to abide in the silence beyond intellection, cannot be entirely free from change.	St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God First Century
86. Those who apply themselves with a pure heart to divine philosophy derive the greatest gain from the knowledge it contains. For their will and purpose no longer change with circumstances, but readily and with firm assurance they undertake all that conforms to the standard of holiness.	St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God First Century
5. When intellection is given form through its apprehension of intelligible objects, it ceases to be single and becomes many intellections; for it is marked by the form of each intelligible object that it apprehends. But as it passes beyond the multiplicity of the sensible and intelligible things that in this way confer their manifold forms upon it, it becomes altogether free from form. It is now that the Logos, who is beyond intellection, unites Himself to it and makes it His own, giving it rest from those things which by nature change and diversify it with the many conceptual forms that they impose upon it. He who experiences this has rested from his works, just as God did from His (cf. Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:10).	St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God Second Century
88. Some seek to discover what the state of perfection of the saints in the kingdom of God is like. Does it involve progress and change or is it a fixed condition? In what way must bodies and souls be thought to exist? Speaking conjecturally, one may suggest a parallel between the life of the body and that of the soul. In the case of physical life the reason for taking food is twofold: first for growth and second for sustenance when we have already grown up. Until we reach physical maturity we feed ourselves in order to grow; but when the body reaches its full stature it is fed no longer for growth but for sustenance. In the same way the reason for nourishing the soul is also twofold. While it is advancing along the spiritual path it is nourished by virtue and contemplation, until it transcends all created things and attains ‘the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph. 4:13). Once it has entered this state it ceases from all increase and growth nourished by indirect means and is nourished directly, in a manner which passes understanding. Having now completed the stage of growth, the soul receives the kind of incorruptible nourishment which sustains the godlike perfection granted to it, and receives a state of eternal well-being. Then the infinite splendors inherent in this nourishment are revealed to the soul, and it becomes god by participation in divine grace, ceasing from all activity of intellect and sense, and at the same time suspending all the natural operations of the body. For the body is deified along with the soul through its own corresponding participation in the process of deification. Thus God alone is made manifest through the soul and the body, since their natural properties have been overcome by the superabundance of His glory.	St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God Second Century
95. He who through practice of the virtues has succeeded in mortifying whatever is earthly in him (cf. Col. 3:5), and who by fulfilling the commandments has triumphed over the world of the passions within him, will experience no more affliction; for he will have already left the world and come to be in Christ, the conqueror of the world of the passions and the source of all peace. He who has not severed his attachment to material things will always experience affliction, since his state of mind depends on things that are naturally changeable, and so it alters when they do. But he who has come to be in Christ will be totally impervious to such material change. That is why the Lord says, ‘I have said these things to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will experience affliction; but have courage, for I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). In other words, ‘In Me, the Logos of virtue, you have peace, for you have been released from the swirl and turmoil of material passions and objects; in the world — that is, in a state of attachment to material things — you are afflicted because of the successive changes of these things.’ For both he who practices the virtues and he who loves the world experience affliction, the first because of the toil which such practice entails and the second because of the futility of material things. But the affliction of the first is salutary, that of the second corrupting and destructive. The Lord gives release to both: in the case of the first He allays the toil of ascetic practice with the contemplation attained through dispassion, and in the case of the second He rescinds attachment to corrupted things by means of repentance.	St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God Second Century
54. The ‘rough places’ — that is to say, the attacks of trials and temptations suffered against our will — shall be made ‘smooth’, above all when the intellect, rejoicing and delighting in weakness, affliction and calamity, through its unsought sufferings deprives of all their lordship the passions in which we deliberately indulge. For by ‘rough places’ Scripture means those experiences of unsought trials and temptations which change to smooth ways when endured with patience and thankfulness (cf. Isa. 40:4. LXX).	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Second Century
8l. No benefit comes from a just man’s prayer if he who asks for it finds more pleasure in sin than in virtue. For Samuel mourned over Saul when he sinned, but he was not able to obtain God’s mercy, for his grief was not supported by the necessary change of life on the part of the sinner. Hence God put an end to the pointless grief of His servant, saying to him, ‘How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?’ (1 Sam. 16:1).	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Third Century
42. The Lord revealed His wisdom by the way in which He healed man, becoming man without the slightest change or mutation. He demonstrated the equity of justice when in His self-abasement He submitted deliberately to the sentence to which what is passible in human nature is subject, and made that sentence a weapon for the destruction of sin and of the death which comes through sin — that is, for the destruction of pleasure and of the pain which pleasure engenders. It was in this pleasure-pain syndrome that the dominion of sin and death lay: the tyranny of sin committed in pursuit of pleasure, and the lordship of the painful death consequent upon sin. For the dominion of pleasure and pain clearly applies to what is passible in human nature. And we seek how to alleviate through pleasure the penalty of pain, thus in the nature of things increasing the penalty. For in our desire to escape pain we seek refuge in pleasure, and so try to bring relief to our nature, hard pressed as it is by the torment of pain. But through trying in this way to blunt pain with pleasure, we but increase our sum of debts, for we cannot enjoy pleasure that does not lead to pain and suffering.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fourth Century
56. In the mystery of the divine incarnation the distinction between the two natures, divine and human, in Christ does not imply that He is divided into two persons. On the one hand, a fourth person is not added to the Trinity, which would be the case if the incarnate Christ was divided into two persons; while on the other hand, since nothing can be coessential or cognate with the Divinity, there must be a distinction between the divine and human natures in Him. In other words, in the incarnation the two natures have united to form a single person, not a single nature. Thus not only does the hypostatic union formed by the coming together of the two natures constitute a perfect unity, but also the different elements which come together in the indivisible union retain their natural character, free from all change and confusion.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fourth Century
58. He who does not distinguish the two natures in Christ has no basis for affirming that the Logos became flesh without change. He does not acknowledge that after the union that which assumed and that which was assumed are preserved according to their nature in the single person of the one Christ, our God and Savior.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fourth Century
79. Through fear, devotion and spiritual knowledge the Holy Spirit purifies those blessed with the purity of the virtues. Through strength, counsel and understanding He illumines those worthy of light with the knowledge of the inner and quickening essences of created beings. Through radiant, simple and complete wisdom He grants perfection to those honored with deification, leading them directly towards the Cause of created beings by every way that men can be so led. The perfect are known only by the divine qualities of goodness with which they recognize themselves in God and God in themselves, since there is no dividing wall between them. For nothing intervenes between wisdom and God. They will attain a state not subject to change or mutation, having entirely transcended all the intermediate states in which there is a danger of going astray with respect to spiritual knowledge. By these intermediate states is meant the being of the intelligible and sensible realities through which the human intellect is led on its journey to God, the Cause of all being.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fourth Century
34. Once the external observance of the letter of the Law has been superseded, together with the ignorance that goes with it, it is then possible to put an end to the matter and form of which we have been speaking, as well as to the five ways of misusing the five senses with regard to matter and form — and by this I mean the impassioned and unnatural association of the senses with sensible things subject to time and change. The spiritual law, or intellect, destroys this association by means of the higher principles and thoughts which are found in natural contemplation. In this way the intellect, when it has attained the heights of the law of spiritual contemplation, destroys man’s all-pervasive subjection, established through the symbols of temporal things, to sense-perception and to the outward form of things.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fifth Century
37. When the Law is understood only according to the letter, it is hostile to the truth, as the Jews were, and as is anyone else who possesses their mentality. For such a person limits the Law’s power merely to the letter, and does not advance to natural contemplation, which reveals the spiritual knowledge hidden mystically in the letter; for this contemplation mediates between figurative representations of the truth and the truth itself, and leads its adepts away from the first and towards the second. On the contrary, he rejects natural contemplation altogether and so excludes himself from initiation into divine realities. Those who diligently aspire to a vision of these realities must therefore destroy the outward and, evanescent interpretation of the Law, Subject to time and change; and they must do this by means of natural contemplation, having ascended to the heights of spiritual knowledge.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fifth Century
47. The world is a finite place and possesses but limited stability. Time is circumscribed movement. It follows that the movement of living things within time is subject to change. When nature passes beyond place and time, actively ‘and inwardly — that is, when it passes beyond those things which always accompany created being, namely, a limited state of stability and limited movement — it is united directly with providence, and finds in providence a principle which is by nature simple, stable, without limitation and thus completely without movement.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fifth Century
48. Since nature exists in the world in a temporal mode, its movement is subject to change because of the world’s limited stability and its liability to alteration and corruption through the passing of time. When nature has come to exist in God through the essential unity of Him in whom it was created, it will possess an ever-moving stability and a stable and changeless form of movement generated eternally round that which is one, unique and always the same. It has been said that this state is a direct and permanent grounding in the first cause of created beings.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fifth Century
91. Spiritual knowledge unites knower and known, while ignorance is always a cause of change and self-division in the ignorant. Hence nothing, according to sacred Scripture, will shift him who truly believes from the ground of his true faith, in which resides the permanence of his immutable and unchanging identity. For he who has been united with the truth has the assurance that all is well with him, even though most people rebuke him for being out of his mind. For without their being aware he has moved from delusion to the truth of real faith; and he knows for sure that he is not deranged, as they say, but that through truth — simple and always immutably the same — he has been liberated from the fluctuating and fickle turmoil of the manifold forms of illusion.	St Maximos the Confessor Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice Fifth Century
36. Three things upset the balance of the body’s temperament: lack of restraint in our diet, a change in the weather, and the touch of the demonic powers.	St Thalassios the Libyan On Love, Self-control and Life in Accordance with the Intellect Third Century
15. ‘Watch yourself attentively’, it is said (cf. Exod. 23:21. LXX). Always offer the sacrifice first of all on behalf of your own sins: then if, because of your weakness, some defilement exists in you already or now enters into you, it will be consumed by the divine fire. In this way, as a chosen vessel, serviceable, pure and worthy of such a sacrifice, you will have power to change wooden or clay vessels into silver or gold, provided that you have intimate communion with God and He hears your prayers. For where God hears and responds there is nothing to hinder a change from one thing to another.	St Theognostos On the Practice of the Virtues, Contemplation and the Priesthood
15. ‘Watch yourself attentively’, it is said (cf. Exod. 23:21. LXX). Always offer the sacrifice first of all on behalf of your own sins: then if, because of your weakness, some defilement exists in you already or now enters into you, it will be consumed by the divine fire. In this way, as a chosen vessel, serviceable, pure and worthy of such a sacrifice, you will have power to change wooden or clay vessels into silver or gold, provided that you have intimate communion with God and He hears your prayers. For where God hears and responds there is nothing to hinder a change from one thing to another.	St Theognostos On the Practice of the Virtues, Contemplation and the Priesthood
O Lord my God, do not abandon me, though I am nothing before Thee, though I am wholly a sinner. How shall I become aware of my many sins? For unless I become aware, severe is my condemnation. For me Thou hast created heaven and earth, the four elements and all that is formed from them, as St Gregory the Theologian says. I shall keep silence as to the rest, for I am unworthy to say anything because of my many crimes. Who, even if he had the intellect of an angel, could grasp all the countless blessings I have been given? Yet because I do not change my ways I shall lose them all.	St Peter of Damaskos Book 1 The Second Stage of Contemplation
By thus contemplating dispassionately the beauty and use of each thing, he who is illumined is filled with love for the Creator, He surveys all visible things in the upper and lower worlds: the sky, the sun, the moon, stars and clouds, water-spouts and rain, snow and hail, how in great heat liquids coagulate, thunder, lightning, the winds and breezes and the way they change, the seasons, the years, the days, the nights, the hours, the minutes, the earth, the sea, the countless flocks, the four-legged animals, the wild beasts and reptiles, all the kinds of bird, the springs and rivers, the many varieties of plant and herb, both wild and cultivated. He sees in all things the order, the equilibrium, the proportion, the beauty, the rhythm, the union, the harmony, the usefulness, the concordance, the variety, the delightfulness, the stability, the motion, the colors, the shapes, the forms, the reversion of things to their source, permanence in the midst of corruption.	St Peter of Damaskos Book 1 The Fifth Stage of Contemplation
The holy fathers St Basil and St Maximos state that, to relieve hunger and thirst, only bread and water are needed, while for health and bodily strength we require other foods that God in His compassion has given us. But so that the constant eating of the same thing does not produce a feeling of revulsion in the sick person, he should eat different foods, one at a time, as already said. It is abstention and dissipation that bring on illness, while self-control and a change of foods each day are conducive to health. The body then remains impervious to pleasure and sickness, and co-operates in the acquisition of the virtues.	St Peter of Damaskos Book 1 A Further Analysis of the Seven Forms of Bodily Discipline
This, according to the Gerontikon, is the great work of the monk. When his enemies suggest one thing, he suggests something else; when they put forward this something else, he introduces the first thing again, knowing that nothing in this life is exempt from change, and that ‘he who endures to the end will be saved’ (Matt. 10:22). But the person who wants things to come about as he himself wills does not know where he is going and, like a blind man thrown hither and thither by the wind, he is entirely dominated by whatever befalls him. Like a slave be fears what produces distress, and he is led captive by his own conceit; in his inane joy he thinks he possesses things he has never seen and of whose origin he is completely ignorant — and if he says he is not ignorant of it, then he is all the more blind. This happens because he does not censure himself. Such lack of self-criticism is a form of self-satisfaction and leads imperceptibly to destruction, as St Makarios says in his discourses about the monk who saw the heavenly Jerusalem: while this monk was praying with some of the brethren, his intellect was ravished in ecstasy, but he perished because he thought that he had achieved something by his own efforts and did not realize that he had become an even greater debtor. Just as those dominated by the passions do not even know what is obvious to all because of the obfuscation produced by their passions, so the dispassionate, because of the purity of their intellect, know things of which most are ignorant.	St Peter of Damaskos Book 1 How God Has Done All Things For Our Benefit
The virtues are: moral judgment, self-restraint, courage, justice, faith, hope, love, fear, religious devotion, spiritual knowledge, resolution, strength, understanding, wisdom, contrition, grief, gentleness, searching the Scriptures, acts of charity, purity of heart, peace, patient endurance, self-control, perseverance, probity of intention, purposiveness, sensitivity, heedfulness, godlike stability, warmth, alertness, the fervor of the Spirit, meditation, diligence, watchfulness, mindfulness, reflection, reverence, shame, respect, penitence, refraining from evil, repentance, return to God, allegiance to Christ, rejection of the devil, keeping of the commandments, guarding of the soul, purity of conscience, remembrance of death, tribulation of soul, the doing of good actions, effort, toil, an austere life, fasting, vigils, hunger, thirst, frugality, self-sufficiency, orderliness, gracefulness, modesty, reserve, disdain of money, unacquisitiveness, renunciation of worldly things, submissiveness, obedience, compliance, poverty, possessionlessness, withdrawal from the world, eradication of self-will, denial of self, counsel, magnanimity, devotion to God, stillness, discipline, sleeping on a hard bed, abstinence from washing oneself, service, struggle, attentiveness, the eating of uncooked food, nakedness, the wasting of one’s body, solitude, quietude, calmness, cheerfulness, fortitude, boldness, godlike zeal, fervency, progress, folly for Christ, watchfulness over the intellect, moral integrity, holiness, virginity, sanctification, purity of body, chasteness of soul, reading for Christ’s sake, concern for God, comprehension, friendliness, truthfulness, uninquisitiveness, uncensoriousness, forgiveness of debts, good management, skilfulness, acuity, fairness, the right use of things, cognitive insight, good-naturedness, experience, psalmody, prayer, thanksgiving, acknowledgment, entreaty, kneeling, supplication, intercession, petition, appeal, hymnody, doxology, confession, solicitude, mourning, affliction, pain, distress, lamentation, sighs of sorrow, weeping, heart-rending tears, compunction, silence, the search for God, cries of anguish, lack of. anxiety about all things, forbearance, lack of self-esteem, disinterest in glory, simplicity of soul, sympathy, self-retirement, goodness of disposition, activities that accord with nature, activities exceeding one’s natural capacity, brotherly love, concord, communion in God, sweetness, a spiritual disposition, mildness, rectitude, innocence, kindliness, guilelessness, simplicity, good repute, speaking well of others, good works, preference of one’s neighbor, godlike tenderness, a virtuous character, consistency, nobility, gratitude, humility, detachment, dignity, forbearance, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, discrimination, accessibility, courtesy, tranquility, contemplation, guidance, reliability, clearsightedness, dispassion, spiritual joy, sureness, tears of understanding, tears of soul, a loving desire for God, pity, mercy, compassion, purity of soul, purity of intellect, prescience, pure prayer, passion-free thoughts, steadfastness, fitness of soul and body, illumination, the recovery of one’s soul, hatred of life, proper teaching, a healthy longing for death, childlikeness in Christ, rootedness, admonition and encouragement, both moderate and forcible, a praiseworthy ability to change, ecstasy towards God, perfection in Christ, true enlightenment, an intense longing for God, rapture of intellect, the indwelling of God, love of God, love of inner wisdom, theology, a true confession of faith, disdain of death, saintliness, successful accomplishment, perfect health of soul, virtue, praise from God, grace, kingship, adoption to sonship — altogether 228 virtues. To acquire all of them is possible only through the grace of Him who grants us victory over the passions.	St Peter of Damaskos Book 1 A List of the Virtues
It is from God that, along with their being, angels and holy men have by grace received the virtues, and it is through emulating Him that they become righteous, good and wise. Because they are creatures, they have need of God’s assistance and inspiration, for without this they can possess neither virtue nor wisdom. All creatures are susceptible to change, and because they are composed of various elements they are called composite. But God is bodiless, simple, unoriginate, one God, worshipped and glorified by all creation in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He who becomes like God has but one will and not many composite wills. His intellect is simple and — so far as this is possible — is always concentrated on what is formless; but by divine providence it descends reluctantly from the realm of the formless to the contemplation of some verse of Scripture or aspect of creation: Yet in order not to be condemned, such a person makes provision for his body, not because in his love for it he wishes to keep it alive, but so as not to make it utterly useless and on this account to incur condemnation.	St Peter of Damaskos Book II Twenty-Four Discourses XVI Knowledge of God
45. He who follows the spiritual path must pay great attention to discrimination, since the ability to distinguish between good and evil, and to scrutinize and understand the various tricks through which the devil by means of plausible fantasies leads most people astray, keeps us safe and helps us in every way. If a man wanting to test his wife’s virtue comes to her at night disguised as someone else, and she repels him, he will rejoice at this and welcome the assurance it gives. It is exactly the same with us in relation to the attacks of the evil spirits. Even if you repel the heavenly spirits, they will be gladdened by this, and will help you to participate still further in grace: because of this proof of your love for the Lord they will fill you brim-full with spiritual delight. So do not from light-mindedness speedily surrender yourself to the visitations of spirits, even if they are heavenly angels, but be wary, submitting them to the most careful scrutiny. Thus you will welcome the good and repel the evil. In this way you will increase in yourself the workings of grace, which sin, however much it may assume the appearance of the good, cannot altogether simulate. According to St Paul, Satan can even change himself into an angel of light in order to practice his deceptions (cf. 2 Cor. 11:14); yet though he may manifest himself in such a glorious manner, he cannot, as we said, produce within us the effects of grace, and so it becomes quite clear that the vision is counterfeit. For the devil cannot bring about love either for God or for one’s neighbor, or gentleness, or humility, or joy, or peace, or equilibrium in one’s thoughts, or hatred of the world, or spiritual repose, or desire for celestial things; nor can he quell passions and sensual pleasure. These things are clearly the workings of grace. For the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, and so on (cf. Gal. 5:22), while the devil is most apt and powerful in promoting vanity and haughtiness. You may know from its effect whether the intellectual light shining in your soul is from God or from Satan. Indeed, once it has developed its powers of discrimination, the distinction is immediately clear to the soul itself through intellectual perception. Just as the throat through its sense of taste distinguishes the difference between vinegar and wine, although they look alike, so the soul through its intellectual sense and energy can distinguish the gifts of the Spirit from the fantasies of the devil.	St Symeon Metaphrastis Paraphrase of the Homilies of St Makarios of Egypt III Patient Endurance and Discrimination
I subsequently met him after he had become a monk, in the third or fourth year of his monastic life. He was then thirty-two. I knew him very well: we had been friends from childhood and had been brought up together. On account of this he also told me the following: 'A few days after that incredible change in my life and the more than human help I received, I was continually attacked by the temptations of my worldly life — temptations that thwarted my secret activities and that little by little deprived me of the blessings I had been given. As a result I longed to get completely away from the world and in solitude to seek out Him who had appeared to me. For, brother, I was convinced that He had appeared to me solely in order to draw me, unworthy as I was, to Himself and to separate me entirely from the world. Yet lacking the strength to respond straight away I gradually forgot everything I have told you about and fell into utter darkness, to such an extent that I no longer remembered or even thought of anything, major or minor, connected with those experiences. Rather, I plunged into evil ways more deeply than ever before and ended up in such a state that it was as if I had never understood or heard Christ's holy words. Even the saint who had once shown me such mercy and who had given me that short rule and had sent me that book became for me merely someone I had happened to meet, and I gave no thought to the things I had seen because of him. I am telling you this,' he continued, 'so you can see quite clearly the pit of perdition into which I fell, contemptible as I was, because of my sloth and negligence, and so you will be filled with amazement at the inexpressible blessings that God subsequently bestowed on me.	St Symeon the New Theologian On Faith
13. When the demons have done all they can to shake our resolve to live a spiritual life and to hinder us from carrying it out, and have failed in their efforts, they enter pious hypocrites and through them try to obstruct us. First, as if moved by love and compassion, they exhort us to give our bodies some relaxation, on the grounds that otherwise we will become physically exhausted and listless. Then they invite us to join in useless discussions, making us waste whole days in them. If we pay attention to these hypocrites and model ourselves on them, the demons change tactics, mocking us for falling in this way; but if we take no notice of their suggestions, and hold ourselves aloof from all, recollected and reserved, they are consumed with jealousy and do everything they can until they have driven us from the monastery. Arrogance cannot bear to see itself scorned and humility held in honor.	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
59. A person who is raised by the king from extreme poverty to wealth, who is invested by him with high office and a splendid uniform and commanded to stand in his presence, will be full of devotion for the king and will revere him as his benefactor. He will be fully aware of his splendid robes, of his high office and the wealth he has been given. Similarly, if a monk has truly withdrawn from the world and its affairs and has come to Christ, if he is fully conscious of his calling and has been raised to the heights of spiritual contemplation through the practice of the commandments, then he will look unwaveringly on God and be well aware of the change that has taken place in him. He will see the grace of the Spirit always illuminating him — the grace that is called a garment, the royal purple or, rather, that is Christ Himself, if it is indeed true that those who believe in Christ are clothed in Christ (cf. Gal. 3:27).	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
69. 'Let no one deceive you with vain words' (Eph. 5:6), and let us not deceive ourselves: before we have experienced inward grief and tears there is no true repentance or change of mind in us, nor is there any fear of God in our hearts, nor have we passed sentence on ourselves, nor has our soul become conscious of the coming judgment and eternal torments. Had we accused ourselves and realized these things in ourselves, we would have immediately shed tears; for without tears our hardened hearts cannot be mollified, our souls cannot acquire spiritual humility, and we cannot be humble. If we do not attain such a state we cannot be united with the Holy Spirit. And if we have not been united with the Holy Spirit through purification, we cannot have either vision or knowledge of God, or be initiated into the hidden virtues of humility.	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
110. Whoever after baptism deliberately submits to the will of the devil and carries out his wishes, estranges himself — to adapt David's words — from the holy womb of baptism (cf. Ps. 58:3). None of us can be estranged or alienated from the nature with which we are created. We are created good by God — for God creates nothing evil — and we remain unchanging in our nature and essence as created. But we do what we choose and want, whether good or bad, of our own free will. Just as a knife does not change its nature, but remains iron whether used for good or for evil, so we, as has been said, act and do what we want without departing from our own nature.	St Symeon the New Theologian One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts
31. The external appearance of the face changes in accordance with the inner state of the soul: whatever the soul's noetic activity, it will be reflected in the face. Disposed and changed according to the thoughts within the soul, the face brightens when the heart rejoices in the upsurge of good thoughts and in its meditation on God, but is downcast and glum when the heart is embittered by unnatural thoughts. In both cases, what is happening is quite evident to those in whom the soul's organs of perception are well trained. Either it is a change brought about by 'the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 77:10. LXX), and this is obvious to them because it is something familiar and dear to them whereby they are reborn in the Spirit and become light and salt to others near them (cf. Matt. 5:13-14); or else is a change brought about by the discord of evil powers and the tumult of our thoughts, and this too is evident to them, since they resist such change, the impress of the image of the Son of God within them having been burnished to the highest degree by the rays of divine grace.	Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts
31. The external appearance of the face changes in accordance with the inner state of the soul: whatever the soul's noetic activity, it will be reflected in the face. Disposed and changed according to the thoughts within the soul, the face brightens when the heart rejoices in the upsurge of good thoughts and in its meditation on God, but is downcast and glum when the heart is embittered by unnatural thoughts. In both cases, what is happening is quite evident to those in whom the soul's organs of perception are well trained. Either it is a change brought about by 'the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 77:10. LXX), and this is obvious to them because it is something familiar and dear to them whereby they are reborn in the Spirit and become light and salt to others near them (cf. Matt. 5:13-14); or else is a change brought about by the discord of evil powers and the tumult of our thoughts, and this too is evident to them, since they resist such change, the impress of the image of the Son of God within them having been burnished to the highest degree by the rays of divine grace.	Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts
31. The external appearance of the face changes in accordance with the inner state of the soul: whatever the soul's noetic activity, it will be reflected in the face. Disposed and changed according to the thoughts within the soul, the face brightens when the heart rejoices in the upsurge of good thoughts and in its meditation on God, but is downcast and glum when the heart is embittered by unnatural thoughts. In both cases, what is happening is quite evident to those in whom the soul's organs of perception are well trained. Either it is a change brought about by 'the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 77:10. LXX), and this is obvious to them because it is something familiar and dear to them whereby they are reborn in the Spirit and become light and salt to others near them (cf. Matt. 5:13-14); or else is a change brought about by the discord of evil powers and the tumult of our thoughts, and this too is evident to them, since they resist such change, the impress of the image of the Son of God within them having been burnished to the highest degree by the rays of divine grace.	Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts
61. Sorrow prompted by God is an excellent tonic for those parts of the soul corrupted by evil actions, and it restores them to their natural state. It dissolves through tears the storm-clouds of passion and sin and dispels them from the soul's spiritual firmament, so that at once a clear sky appears in the thoughts of our intellect, the sea of the mind grows calm, gladness rises in the heart and a change comes over our face. When this is now seen by those skilled in discerning our inner state from our outward appearance, they will exclaim, as did David, 'This change is from the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 77:10. LXX).	Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts
61. Sorrow prompted by God is an excellent tonic for those parts of the soul corrupted by evil actions, and it restores them to their natural state. It dissolves through tears the storm-clouds of passion and sin and dispels them from the soul's spiritual firmament, so that at once a clear sky appears in the thoughts of our intellect, the sea of the mind grows calm, gladness rises in the heart and a change comes over our face. When this is now seen by those skilled in discerning our inner state from our outward appearance, they will exclaim, as did David, 'This change is from the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 77:10. LXX).	Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts
The world of the lust of the eyes, of your fallen self (cf. 1 John 2:16), the presumptuousness of your own thoughts, the deceit of things visible. If you flee from this world, then light will dawn for you, you will see the life that is in God, and the medicine of your soul — that is, tears — will swiftly well up in you. You will experience the change brought about by the right hand of the Most High'(Ps. 77:10), and from that time the 'plague' of the passions will not 'come near your dwelling' (Ps. 91:10). In this way, living in the world and among people, you will be like a man living in the desert and seeing no one. If you do not flee the world in such a manner, you will gain nothing as regards the perfecting of virtue and union with God simply by flight from the visible world.	Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts
100. Just as it is impossible without oil and flame for a lamp to bum and thus to give light to those in the house, so it is impossible without the divine fire and Spirit for a soul to speak clearly about divine matters and to illumine others. For every perfect gift bestowed on the devout soul 'is from above . . . from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness or shadow due to change' (Jas. 1:17).	Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts
39. To know yourself means that you must guard yourself diligently from everything external to you; it means respite from worldly concerns and cross-examination of the conscience. Once you come to know yourself a kind of super rational divine humility suddenly descends upon the soul, bringing contrition and tears of fervent compunction to the heart. Acted upon in this way you regard yourself as earth and ashes (cf. Gen. 18:27), and as a worm and no man (cf. Ps. 22:6). Indeed, because of this overwhelming gift of God, you think you are unworthy of even this wormlike form of life. If you are privileged to remain in this state for some time you will be filled with a strange, unspeakable intoxication — the intoxication of compunction — and will enter into the depths of humility. Rapt out of yourself, you take no account of food, drink or clothing beyond the minimum needed; for you are as one who has experienced the blessed change that comes from 'the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 77:10. LXX).	Nikitas Stithatos On the Inner Nature of Things and on the Purification of the Intellect: One Hundred Texts
61. The images that visit us during sleep are either dreams, or visions, or revelations. To the category of dreams belongs everything in the image-forming faculty of the intellect that is mutable — all that makes it confused and subject to constantly altering states. We have nothing to gain from such images and if we are sensible we should ignore them — indeed, they disappear of their own accord as soon as we awake. Visions on the other hand are constant; the one does not change into another, but they remain imprinted upon the intellect unforgettably for many years. Those that disclose the upshot of things to come, and assist the soul by inspiring it with compunction and the sight of fearful wonders, make the beholder reflective and strike him with awe on account of their constancy and their fearsome nature. Hence they are treated with great seriousness by those skilled in spiritual matters. Revelations occur when the purified and illumined soul is able to contemplate in a way that transcends normal sense-perception. They have the force of things and thoughts miraculous and divine, initiating us into the hidden mysteries of God, showing us the outcome of our most important problems and the universal transformation of things worldly and human.	Nikitas Stithatos On the Inner Nature of Things and on the Purification of the Intellect: One Hundred Texts
65. Yet if the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots (cf. Jer. 13:23), these same bantlings of malice can also speak and devise what seems good, well versed as they are in evil. With the heel they trip up their fellow men, their ways being ways of treachery and deception, even with regard to their friends. They lie because lying and quackery are what they are trained in (cf. Jer. 9:4-5. LXX). So if on account of your intelligence and spiritual knowledge you become a butt for their jealousy and deceit, you must be wary: appeal to God in the words of Jeremiah, saying, 'O Lord, remember me and visit me and free me from those who persecute me with their malice. Although it is Thy will to test me for a long time, in Thy forbearance do not reject me. See how those who repudiate Thy sacred knowledge have derided me. Consume them in their jealousy, and Thy teaching will be a joy to me and the delight of my heart. I have not sat in the company of those who spurn Thy knowledge, but have feared the presence of Thy hand, and sat alone because I was filled with bitterness by their envy.' When you say this you will hear the response:' "This I know well. But if you set him who has gone astray on his right path, I will re-establish you among My friends; you will stand before Me; and if you extract what is precious from what is vile, you will be as My mouth. I will deliver you from these malicious people who plague you", says the Lord God of Israel' (cf. Jer. 15:15-21. LXX).	Nikitas Stithatos On Spiritual Knowledge, Love and the Perfection of Living: One Hundred Texts
91. He who has risen above the threats and promises of the three laws and has entered into the life which is not subject to law has himself become the law of the Church and is not ruled by law. The life that is free is not subject to law, and therefore transcends all physical necessity and change. He who has attained such a life is as if liberated from his fallen unregenerate self, and through his participation in the Spirit he becomes incandescent. Purged of all within him that is imperfect (cf. 1 Cor. 13:9-10), he is united wholly with Christ, who transcends all nature.	Nikitas Stithatos On Spiritual Knowledge, Love and the Perfection of Living: One Hundred Texts
8. Man is created incorruptible, without bodily humors, and thus he will be when resurrected. Yet he is not created either immutable or mutable, since he possesses the power to choose at will whether to be subject to change or not But the will cannot confer total immutability of nature upon him. Such immutability is bestowed only when he has attained the state of changeless deification.	St Gregory of Sinai On Commandments and Doctrines, Warnings and Promises; On Thoughts, Passions and Virtues, and Also on Stillness and Prayer: One Hundred and Thirty-Seven Texts
69. Thoughts in different classes of people are equally prone to change, thoughts that accord with nature becoming either thoughts contrary to nature or, alternatively, becoming thoughts that transcend nature. Occasions for these changes are provided, in the case of evil-minded people, by thoughts suggested by material things; whereas in the case of those who are materially-minded they are provided by demonic provocation. Similarly, in the case of saints, it is thoughts that accord with nature that provide the occasion for this change, such thoughts generating thoughts that transcend nature. For the motivating occasions and grounds for these changes of the various types of thought into their congenerate types are fourfold: material, demonic, natural and supernatural.	St Gregory of Sinai On Commandments and Doctrines, Warnings and Promises; On Thoughts, Passions and Virtues, and Also on Stillness and Prayer: One Hundred and Thirty-Seven Texts
69. Thoughts in different classes of people are equally prone to change, thoughts that accord with nature becoming either thoughts contrary to nature or, alternatively, becoming thoughts that transcend nature. Occasions for these changes are provided, in the case of evil-minded people, by thoughts suggested by material things; whereas in the case of those who are materially-minded they are provided by demonic provocation. Similarly, in the case of saints, it is thoughts that accord with nature that provide the occasion for this change, such thoughts generating thoughts that transcend nature. For the motivating occasions and grounds for these changes of the various types of thought into their congenerate types are fourfold: material, demonic, natural and supernatural.	St Gregory of Sinai On Commandments and Doctrines, Warnings and Promises; On Thoughts, Passions and Virtues, and Also on Stillness and Prayer: One Hundred and Thirty-Seven Texts
4. Listlessness — a most difficult passion to overcome — makes the body sluggish. And when the body is sluggish, the soul also grows sluggish. When both have become thoroughly lax, self-indulgence induces a change in the body's temperament. Self-indulgence incites the appetite, appetite gives rise to pernicious desire, desire to the spirit of revolt, revolt to dormant recollections, recollection to imaginings, imagining to mental provocation, provocation to coupling with the thought provoked, and coupling to assent. Such assent to a diabolic provocation leads to actual sinning, either through the body or in various other ways. Thus we are defeated and thus we lapse.	St Gregory of Sinai Further Texts On Passion-Imbued Change
1. There are two modes of union or, rather, two ways of entering into the noetic prayer that the Spirit activates in the heart. For either the intellect, cleaving to the Lord (cf. 1 Cor. 6:17), is present in the heart prior to the action of the prayer; or the prayer itself, progressively quickened in the fire of spiritual joy, draws the intellect along with it or welds it to the invocation of the Lord Jesus and to union with Him. For since the Spirit works in each person as He wishes (cf. 1 Cor. 12:11), one of these two ways we have mentioned will take precedence in some people, the other in others. Sometimes, as the passions subside through the ceaseless invocation of Jesus Christ, a divine energy wells up in the heart, and a divine warmth is kindled; for Scripture says that our God is a fire that consumes the passions (cf. Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). At other times the Spirit draws the intellect to Himself, confining it to the depths of the heart and restraining it from its usual distractions. Then it will no longer be led captive from Jerusalem to the Assyrians, but a change for the better brings it back from Babylon to Zion, so that it says with the Psalmist, 'It is right to praise Thee, O God, in Zion, and to Thee shall our vows be rendered in Jerusalem' (Ps. 65:1. LXX), and 'When the Lord brought back the prisoners to Zion' (Ps. 126:1), and 'Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad’ (Ps. 53:6). The names Jacob and Israel refer respectively to the ascetically active and to the contemplative intellect which through ascetic labor and with God's help overcomes the passions and through contemplation sees God, so far as is possible. Then the intellect, as if invited to a rich banquet and replete with divine joy, will sing, 'Thou hast prepared a table before me in the face of the demons and passions that afflict me' (cf. Ps. 23:5).	St Gregory of Sinai On Stillness: Fifteen Texts Two Ways of Prayer
2. 'In the morning sow your seed', says Solomon — and by 'seed' is to be understood the seed of prayer — 'and in the evening do not withhold your hand', so that there may be no break in the continuity of your prayer, no moment when through lack of attention you cease to pray; 'for you do not know which will flourish, this or that' (Eccles. 11:6). Sitting from dawn on a seat about nine inches high, compel your intellect to descend from your head into your heart, and retain it there. Keeping your head forcibly bent downwards, and suffering acute pain in your chest, shoulders and neck, persevere in repeating noetically or in your soul 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy'. Then, since that may become constrictive and wearisome, and even galling because of the constant repetition — though this is not because you are constantly eating the one food of the threefold name, for 'those who eat Me', says Scripture, 'will still be hungry' (Eccles. 24:21) — let your intellect concentrate on the second half of the prayer and repeat the words 'Son of God, have mercy'. You must say this half over and over again and not out of laziness constantly change the words. For plants which are frequently transplanted do not put down roots. Restrain your breathing, so as not to breathe unimpededly; for when you exhale, the air, rising from the heart, beclouds the intellect and ruffles your thinking, keeping the intellect away from the heart. Then the intellect is either enslaved by forgetfulness or induced to give its attention to all manner of things, insensibly becoming preoccupied with what it should ignore. If you see impure evil thoughts rising up and assuming various forms in your intellect, do not be startled. Even if images of good things appear to you, pay no attention to them. But restraining your breathing as much as possible and enclosing your intellect in your heart, invoke the Lord Jesus continuously and diligently and you will swiftly consume and subdue them, flaying them invisibly with the divine name. For St John Klimakos says, 'With the name of Jesus lash your enemies, for there is no more powerful weapon in heaven or on earth.'	St Gregory of Sinai On Stillness: Fifteen Texts The Beginning of Watchfulness
2. Some of the fathers advise us to say the whole prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy', while others specify that we say it in two parts — 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy', and then 'Son of God, help me' — because this is easier, given the immaturity and feebleness of our intellect. For no one on his own account and without the help of the Spirit can mystically invoke the Lord Jesus, for this can be done with purity and in its fullness only with the help of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3). Like children who can still speak only falteringly, we are unable by ourselves to articulate the prayer properly. Yet we must not out of laziness frequently change the words of the invocation, but only do this rarely, so as to ensure continuity. Again, some fathers teach that the prayer should be said aloud; others, that it should be said silently with the intellect. On the basis of my personal experience I recommend both ways. For at times the intellect grows listless and cannot repeat the prayer, while at other times the same thing happens to the voice. Thus we should pray both vocally and in the intellect. But when we pray vocally we should speak quietly and calmly and not loudly, so that the voice does not disturb and hinder the intellect's consciousness and concentration. This is always a danger until the intellect grows accustomed to its work, makes progress and receives power from the Spirit to pray firmly and with complete attention. Then there will be no need to pray aloud — indeed, it will be impossible, for we shall be content to carry out the whole work with the intellect alone.	St Gregory of Sinai On Prayer: Seven Texts How to Say the Prayer
10. 'You shall not covet anything belonging to your neighbor' (cf. Exod 20:17), neither his land, nor his money, nor his glory, nor anything that is his. For covetousness, conceived in the soul, produces sin; and sin, when committed, results in death (cf. Jas. 1:15). Refrain, then, from coveting what belongs to others and, so far as you can, avoid filching things out of greediness. Rather you should give from what you possess to whoever asks of you, and you should, as much as you can, be charitable to whoever is in need of charity, and you should not refuse whoever wants to borrow from you (cf. Matt. 5:42). Should you find some lost article, you should keep it for its owner, even though he is hostilely disposed towards you; for in this way you will change him and will overcome evil with good, as Christ commands (cf. Rom. 12:21).	St Gregory Palamas A New Testament Decalogue
22. After this initial creation. He who brings forth all things from non-being proceeds as it were to embellish and adorn the world. In six days He allotted its own proper and appropriate rank to each of His creatures that together constitute His world. He differentiates each by command alone, as though bringing forth from hidden treasuries the things stored within, giving them form, and disposing and composing them harmoniously, with perfection and aptness, one to the other, each to all and all to each. Establishing the. immovable earth as the centre He encircled it in the highest vault with the ever-moving heavens and in His great wisdom bound the two together by means of the intermediary regions. Thus the same world is both at rest and moving. For while the heavenly bodies encircle the earth in rapid and perpetual motion, the immovable body of the earth necessarily occupies the central position, its state of rest serving as a counterbalance to the heavens' mobility. In this way the pancosmic sphere does not change its position as it would if it were cylindrical.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
23. Thus by assigning such positions to the two bodies that mark the boundaries of the universe — the earth and the heavens — the Master-craftsman both made fast and set in motion what one might call this entire and orderly world; and He farther allotted what was fitting to each thing lying between these two limits. Some He placed on high, enjoining them to move in the upper regions and to revolve for all time round the uttermost boundary of the universe in a wise and ordered manner. Those are the light and active bodies capable of making bodies that lie beneath them fit and serviceable. They are most wisely set above the world's middle region so that they can sufficiently dispel the excessive coldness there and restrain their own excessive heat to its proper level. In some manner they also restrict the excessive mobility of the world's outermost, bounds, for they have their own opposing movement and they hold that outermost region in place through their counter-rotation. At the same time they provide us with beneficial yearly changes of season, whereby we can measure temporal extension; and to those with understanding they supply knowledge of the God who has created, ordered and adorned the world. Hence He commanded those bodies in the upper region to dance round it in swift rotation for two reasons: to fill the entire universe with beauty and to furnish a variety of more specific benefits. He set lower down in the middle region other bodies of a heavy and passive nature that come into being and undergo change, that decompose and are recompounded, and that suffer alteration for a useful purpose. He established these bodies and their relationships to one another in an orderly manner so that all things together could rightly be called 'cosmos', that is to say, that which is well-ordered.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
37. Our intellect, because created in God's image, possesses likewise the image of this sublime Eros or intense longing — an image expressed in the love experienced by the intellect for the spiritual knowledge that originates from it and continually abides in it. This love is of the intellect and in the intellect and issues forth from it together with its innermost intelligence or logos. This is shown clearly by the fact that even those who are unable to perceive what lies deeply within themselves possess an insatiable desire for spiritual knowledge. Yet in the Archetype, in this absolutely and transcendently perfect Goodness, wherein there is nothing imperfect, the divine Eros is indistinguishably whatever that Goodness is, except for the fact that it is derived from It. Hence this intense longing is — and is called — the Holy Spirit and the other Comforter (cf. John 14:16), since He accompanies the Logos. Thus we know Him to be perfect in a perfect and individual hypostasis, in no way inferior to the Father's essence, but indistinguishably identical with the Son and the Father, although not according to hypostasis; for His distinction as hypostasis is manifest in the fact that He proceeds from God in a divinely fitting manner. Thus we worship one true and perfect God in three true and perfect hypostases — not, certainly, a threefold God but one who is simple. For Goodness is not something threefold, nor a triad of goodnesses. Rather, the most sublime Goodness is a holy, awe-inspiring and venerable Trinity flowing forth out of Itself into Itself without change and divinely established in Itself before the ages. The Trinity is without limits and is limited only by Itself; It limits all things, transcends all and permits no beings to be outside Itself.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
54. O the depth of God's riches, wisdom and compassion (cf. Rom. 11:33)! Had there been no death and had our race not become mortal prior to death — for it is from a mortal root — we should not in fact have been enriched with the firstfruit of immortality, nor should we have been called into the heavens, nor would our nature have been enthroned 'above every principality and power' (Eph. 1:21) 'at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens' (Heb. 8:1). Thus God in His wisdom, power and compassion knows how to change for the better the lapses we suffer as a result of our freely-willed perversion.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
128. St Gregory of Nazianzos, when writing about the Holy Spirit, teaches us that, even though the divine energy is as it were also an accident, it is still seen to be in God without thereby making God composite. For he says, 'The Holy Spirit must either be ranked among beings that are self-existent or among those that are seen to be in another. Those skilled in such matters call the former essence and the latter accident. If the Holy Spirit were an accident, He would be an energy of God. For what else, or of whom else, could He be? And this avoids making God composite.' He is clearly saying that if the Spirit is one of the things seen to be in God, and so is not essence, but is an accident and is called Spirit, He cannot be anything other than God's energy. This he indicated by saying, 'For what else, or of whom else, could He be?' In order to make it clear also that apart from energy nothing else — not quality, or quantity, or anything else of this kind — can be seen to be in God, he adds, 'And this avoids making God composite.' But how does the energy, though it is seen to be in God, not introduce composition into God? Because only God possesses completely impassible energy: He alone acts without being acted upon. He does not come into existence, nor does He change.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
134. All existent things can be grouped into ten categories, namely, essence, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, activity, passivity, possession and dependence; and these ten categories apply likewise to everything subsequently seen to pertain to essence. But God is supra-essential essence, in which can be seen only relation and activity or creation, and these two things do not produce in His essence any composition or change. For God creates all things without being affected in His essence. He is Creator in relation to creation, and also its Principle and Master in that it has its origin in Him and is dependent on Him. But He is also our Father, since by grace He confers on us rebirth. Yet He is Father, too, in relation to the Son who is completely without any temporal beginning. The Son is Son in relation to the Father, while the Spirit is the projection of the Father, coetemal with the Father and the Son, being of one and the same essence. Those who assert that God is only essence, with nothing to be seen in Him, fabricate a God who has neither creativity and energy nor relation. But if He whom they suppose to be God does not possess these properties, then He is neither active nor Creator, nor does He possess an energy; and neither is He Principle, Creator and Master, nor is He our Father by grace. For how could He be these things if relation and creativity are not to be envisaged in His essence? Furthermore, if relation is not to be envisaged in God's essence, the tri-hypostatic character of the Godhead is also abolished. But He who is not tri-hypostatic is not the Master of all or God. Thus those who hold the views of Barlaam and Akindynos are atheists.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
145. Just as the essence of God is altogether without name because according to the theologians it transcends all names, so it is also imparticipable in that according to them it transcends participation. Thus those who in our day disbelieve the teaching of the Spirit given through our holy fathers and who revile us when we agree with the fathers, say that if the divine energy differs from the divine essence, even though it is envisaged as wholly pertaining to God's essence, then either there will be many gods or the one God will be composite. They are unaware that it is not activating and energy but being acted upon and passivity that produce composition. God activates without in any way being acted upon or subject to change. Thus He is not composite on account of His energy. Furthermore, God also possesses relationship and is related to creation, as being its Principle and Master; but He is not on this account numbered among things that have come into existence. And how will there be many gods because of God possessing an energy, since the energy pertains to one God or, rather, since God Himself is both the divine essence, and the divine energy? All this is clearly folly deriving from a demented state of mind.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
148. Because the followers of Akindynos at the Synod audaciously asserted and strove to demonstrate that the divine light that shone from the Savior on Tabor was an apparition and a creature, and because they did not change their views although they were frequently confuted, they were placed under a writ of excommunication and anathema. For they blaspheme God's economy in the flesh, and mindlessly say that God's divinity is created; and in this way-since the divinity of the three Persons is one and the same — they degrade the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit themselves to the rank of a creature. And when they claim to worship an uncreated divinity, they plainly profess that there are two divinities in God, the one created and the other uncreated. In this manner they strive to surpass in impiety all the ancient heretics.	St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts