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CHAPTER 49. All the war that is waged between us and the unclean spirits is not about anything else but spiritual prayer; for it is exceedingly hostile and most burdensome to them, but to us salvific and most pleasant.

CHAPTER 50. Why do the demons want to work in us gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger and remembrance of wrongs, and the other passions? So that the mind, having been thickened by them, may not be able to pray as it ought; for the passions of the irrational part, having taken control, do not allow it to be moved rationally and to seek the Word of God.

CHAPTER 51. We pursue the virtues for the sake of the principles of created things, and these for the sake of the Lord who gave them substance, and He is wont to be revealed in the state of prayer.

CHAPTER 52. The state of prayer is a dispassionate habit, seizing the philosophical and spiritual mind with the highest love to an intelligible height. CHAPTER 53. He who is eager to pray truly must not only master anger and desire, but also be free of any passionate thought.

CHAPTER 54. He who loves God, always converses with Him as with a Father, turning away from every passionate thought.

CHAPTER 55. Not he who has attained dispassion already prays truly; for he can be occupied with simple concepts and be distracted by their histories, and be far away from God.

CHAPTER 56. Even when the mind does not linger on the simple concepts of things, it has not yet attained the place of prayer; for it can be in contemplation of things, and babble about their principles, 79.1180 which, even if they are bare words, yet as being contemplations of things, they form the mind, and lead it far away from God.

CHAPTER 57. And even if the mind goes beyond the contemplation of bodily nature, it has not yet perfectly beheld the place of God; for it can be in the knowledge of intelligible things, and be variegated by it.

CHAPTER 58. If you wish to pray, you have need of God who gives prayer to the one who prays; therefore invoke him, saying, "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come," that is, the Holy Spirit, and your only-begotten Son; for so he taught, saying, that God, that is, the Father, is to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth, since also the three are God.

CHAPTER 59. He who prays in Spirit and in truth no longer honors the Creator from created things, but praises Him from Himself.

CHAPTER 60. If you are a theologian, you will pray truly, and if you pray truly, you are a theologian.

CHAPTER 61. When your mind, through great longing for God, gradually as it were withdraws from the flesh, and turns away from all thoughts that come from memory or temperament, becoming full of reverence and joy at the same time, then consider that you have approached the boundaries of prayer.

CHAPTER 62. The Holy Spirit, having compassion on our weakness, visits us even when we are unclean, and if it should find our mind praying to Him with a love of truth, it comes upon it, and makes disappear the entire phalanx of thoughts or concepts surrounding it, urging it on to the works of spiritual prayer.

CHAPTER 63. The others through the alteration of the body produce in the mind thoughts, or concepts, and contemplations. But God does the opposite, in the mind itself

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ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΜΘʹ. Πᾶς ὁ συγκροτούμενος πόλεμος μεταξὺ ἡμῶν τε, καὶ τῶν ἀκαθάρτων πνευμάτων, οὐ περὶ ἑτέρου γίνεται, ἢ περὶ πνευματικῆς προσευχῆς· λίαν γὰρ πολέμιος αὐτοῖς ἐστι, καὶ ἐπαχθεστάτη, ἡμῖν δὲ σωτήριος, καὶ προσηνεστάτη.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. Νʹ. Τί βούλεται τοῖς δαίμοσι ἐνεργεῖν ἐν ἡμῖν γαστριμαργίαν, πορνείαν, φιλαργυρίαν, ὀργήν τε καὶ μνησικακίαν, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ πάθη; ἵνα παχυνθεὶς ὁ νοῦς ἐξ αὐτῶν, μὴ δυνηθῇ ὡς δεῖ προσεύξασθαι· τὰ γὰρ τοῦ ἀλόγου μέρους πάθη ἄρξαντα οὐκ ἐᾷ αὐτὸν λογικῶς κινεῖσθαι καὶ τὸν Θεοῦ Λόγον ἐπιζητεῖν.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΝΑʹ. Τὰς ἀρετὰς μετερχόμεθα διὰ τοὺς λόγους τῶν γεγονότων, καὶ τούτους διὰ τὸν οὐσιώσαντα Κύριον, οὗτος δὲ ἐν τῇ καταστάσει τῆς προσευχῆς ἀναφαίνεσθαι εἴωθε.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΝΒʹ. Κατάστασίς ἐστι προσευχῆς ἕξις ἀπαθὴς, ἔρωτι ἀκροτάτῳ εἰς ὕψος νοητὸν ἁρπάζουσα τὸν φιλόσοφον, καὶ πνευματικὸν νοῦν. ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΝΓʹ. Οὐ μόνον θυμοῦ, καὶ ἐπιθυμίας δεῖ ἄρχειν τὸν ἀληθῶς προσεύξασθαι ἐπειγόμενον, ἄλλα καὶ ἐκτὸς ἐμπαθοῦς νοήματος γενέσθαι.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. Ν∆ʹ. Ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν Θεὸν, τούτῳ ὡς Πατρὶ ἀεὶ συνομιλεῖ, ἀποστρεφόμενος πᾶν νόημα ἐμπαθές.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΝΕʹ. Οὐχ ὁ ἀπαθείας τετυχηκὼς, ἤδη καὶ προσεύχεται ἀληθῶς· δύναται γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ψιλοῖς νοήμασι εἶναι καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἱστορίαις αὐτῶν περισπᾶσθαι, καὶ μακρὰν ἀπέχειν ἀπὸ Θεοῦ.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. Νςʹ. Οὐκ ἂν ὅτε μὴ ἐγχρονίζῃ ὁ νοῦς ἐν τοῖς ψιλοῖς νοήμασι τῶν πραγμάτων, ἤδη καὶ προσευχῆς κατείληφε τόπον· δύναται γὰρ ἐν τῇ θεωρίᾳ εἶναι τῶν πραγμάτων, καὶ ἐν τοῖς λόγοις αὐτῶν ἀδολεσχεῖν, 79.1180 ἅπερ, καὶ εἰ ψιλὰ ῥήματά εἰσιν, ἀλλ' ὡς πραγμάτων ὄντα θεωρήματα, τυποῦσι τὸν νοῦν, καὶ μακρὰν ἀπάγουσιν ἀπὸ Θεοῦ.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΝΖʹ. Κἂν ὑπὲρ τὴν θεωρίαν τῆς σωματικῆς φύσεως ὁ νοῦς γένηται, οὔπω τέλεον τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τόπον ἐθεάσατο· δύναται γὰρ ἐν τῇ τῶν νοητῶν εἶναι γνώσει, καὶ ποικίλλεσθαι πρὸς αὐτήν.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΝΗʹ. Εἰ προσεύξασθαι βούλει, Θεοῦ χρεία τοῦ διδόντος εὐχὴν τῷ εὐχομένῳ· οὐκοῦν ἐπικαλοῦ αὐτὸν λέγων, «Ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου, ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου,» τουτέστι τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, καὶ ὁ μονογενής σου Υἱός· οὕτω γὰρ ἐδίδαξε, λέγων, ἐν Πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ προσκυνεῖσθαι τὸν Θεὸν, τουτέστι τὸν Πατέρα, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ τρία Θεός.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΝΘʹ. Ο ἐν Πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ προσευχόμενος οὐκέτι ἐκ τῶν κτισμάτων τὸν ∆ημιουργὸν γεραίρει, ἀλλ' ἐξ αὑτοῦ αὐτὸν ἀνυμνεῖ.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. Ξʹ. Εἰ θεολόγος εἶ, προσεύξῃ ἀληθῶς, καὶ εἰ ἀληθῶς προσεύξῃ, θεολόγος εἶ.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΞΑʹ. Ὅταν ὁ νοῦς σου τῷ πολλῷ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν πόθῳ κατὰ μικρὸν οἷον ὑπαναχωρεῖ τῆς σαρκὸς, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐξ ἐνθυμήσεως, ἢ κράσεως νοήματα ἀποστρέφηται, εὐλαβείας ὁμοῦ, καὶ χαρᾶς ἔμπλεως γενόμενος, τότε νόμιζε ἠγγικέναι ὅροις προσευχῆς.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΞΒʹ. Τὸ ἅγιον Πνεύμα συμπάσχον τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ἀσθενείᾳ, καὶ ἀκαθάρτοις οὖσιν ἐπιφοιτᾷ ἡμῖν, καὶ εἰ εὕροι τὸν νοῦν ἡμῶν φιλαλήθως αὐτῷ προσευχόμενον, ἐπιβαίνει αὐτῷ, καὶ ἅπασαν τὴν κυκλοῦσαν αὐτὸν τῶν λογισμῶν, ἢ τῶν νοημάτων φάλαγγα, ἐξαφανίζει, προτρεπόμενον αὐτὸν εἰς ἔργα πνευματικῆς προσευχῆς.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΞΓʹ. Οἱ μὲν λοιποὶ διὰ τῆς ἀλλοιώσεως τοῦ σώματος ἐμποιοῦσι τῷ νῷ λογισμοὺς, ἢ νοήματα, καὶ θεωρήματα. Ὁ δέ γε Θεὸς τοὐναντίον δρᾷ, αὐτῷ τῷ νῷ