Therefore, to always examine ourselves and to search our hearts, so that we may know our own faults, trusting in the deliverer of our souls, Christ, to be redeemed from every transgression, both manifest and hidden; and when in truth we seek him righteously and piously, he readily reveals himself to us according to his promise, cleansing our defiled hearts from all wickedness and pollution. 53.5 Therefore, above all, we who wish to please God ought to choose afflictions and distresses and insults, so that we may be deemed worthy to live with him for all ages. For who is worthy to hunger and be naked for the Lord's sake and to rejoice in these things? Blessed is such a one, truly blessed, because he possesses great boldness before God. For the Lord wishes you to be tested in these things, to see if you do not forget him in your afflictions. For, it says, "Unto all patience and longsuffering with joy," and elsewhere, "Trouble and anguish have found me, your commandments are my meditation." This is the contest; in this God is well-pleased. 53.6 But most people who indeed wish to please God, through a lack of true knowledge, labor only in the flesh. But the man of God must struggle in the mind and in his thoughts and in the inner, hidden will, which is the true contest before God of the soul against the invisible reasonings of the evil powers. For, it says, "our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers." For the spiritual forces of wickedness are invisible and bodiless with respect to what is visible; likewise the soul is also invisible and bodiless with respect to the density of bodies. Therefore the struggle and the contest must be invisible and bodiless in the innermost man. This is the very contest which the fathers of old from the beginning contested, even if in visible things they appeared as other men; those who contested in this way were able to please God. 53.7 For courageous and noble souls, despising all things, go out to war, just as Moses also said, hinting at the hidden war of the evil spirits against the soul, and what kind of souls happen to be suitable, "If any man has betrothed a wife, let him not go out to war," and, "if any man has planted a vineyard, let him not go out." He says these things about material bonds, lest anyone contending against the spiritual forces of wickedness be bound by certain things; for if through attachment to pleasures and possessions one does not contend, he becomes cast out from the heavenly gladness, as the Lord says in the gospel about those who were called to the wedding feast and made excuses, "The first says, 'I have bought a field, and I cannot come'; and another, 'I have married a wife and I cannot come, I ask you, have me excused'"; speaking in harmony with Moses. 53.8 For the noble and those ready to obey the will of God advance in the spiritual war. And a good preparation and suitability for the war against the invisible enemies is when one, having left father and mother and all the things of this life, brings himself to God, and in addition to these things denies also his own soul, handing over all the possessions and wealth that pertain to him from his fleshly parents, and everything to the one to whom, after God, he has entrusted his soul, to a spiritual father and ascetic, so that he may manage them in whatever way he himself wishes, and not to be meddlesome where he ought, and where he ought not, lest he be found judging and testing the one he chose as judge and director of his soul, having entrusted it to him as to an expert to bring to God, and rejecting him on account of the insignificant things of matter. For through these things he is shown to be more of an ascetic himself, than a subject of the ascetic for God’s sake. 53.9 For tell me, you who do this: you say you entrust your soul to the ascetic, and falling at his feet you plead, saying "Take my soul and bring it to God,"

τοίνυν ἑαυτοὺς ἀνακρίνειν πάντοτε καὶ διερευνᾶν τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν, ὅπως γνωρίσωμεν τὰ ἑαυτῶν σφάλματα, πιστεύοντες τῷ ἐλευθε ρωτῇ τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν Χριστῷ, λυτρωθῆναι ἀπὸ παντὸς παραπτώματος φαινομένου καὶ κρυπτοῦ, καὶ ὅτε ἐν ἀληθείᾳ δικαίως καὶ ὁσίως ζητήσωμεν αὐτόν, ἑτοίμως ἐμφανίζει ἡμῖν ἑαυτὸν κατὰ τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν αὐτοῦ, καθα ρίζων τὰς ἐρρυπωμένας καρδίας ἡμῶν ἀπὸ πάσης κακίας καὶ μολυσμοῦ. 53.5 πρὸ πάντων τοίνυν τὰς θλίψεις καὶ στενοχωρίας καὶ ὕβρεις αἱρεῖ σθαι ὀφείλομεν, οἱ εὐαρεστεῖν θεῷ βουλομένοι, ὅπως σὺν αὐτῷ ζῆσαι καταξιωθῶμεν ὅλους αἰῶνας· τίς γάρ ἐστιν ἄξιος διὰ τὸν Κύριον πει νᾶσαι καὶ γυμνητεῦσαι καὶ ἐν τούτοις χαίρειν; μακάριος ὁ τοιοῦτος, ὄντως μακάριος ὅτι παρρησίαν μεγάλην ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ θεοῦ κέκτηται· βούλεται γάρ σε ὁ Κύριος ἐν τούτοις δοκιμασθῆναι, εἰ ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν οὐκ ἐπιλανθάνῃ αὐτοῦ, Εἰς πᾶσαν γάρ, φησίν, ὑπομονὴν καὶ μακροθυμίαν μετὰ χαρᾶς, καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ, Θλίψεις καὶ ἀνάγκαι εὕροσάν με, αἱ ἐντολαί σου μελετή μου· αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἄθλησις· ἐν τούτῳ εὐαρεστεῖται ὁ θεός. 53.6 οἱ πλεῖστοι δὲ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῶν δὴ θελόντων εὐαρεστεῖν τῷ θεῷ διὰ ὑστέρησιν γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς σαρκὶ μόνον κάμνουσιν· ἀλλὰ τῇ διανοίᾳ καὶ τοῖς λογισμοῖς καὶ τῇ ἔνδον κρυπτῇ προαιρέσει δεῖ ἀγωνί ζεσθαι τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπον, ὅς ἐστιν ἀληθινὸς ἀγὼν παρὰ θεῷ ψυχῆς πρὸς ἀοράτους τῶν πονηρῶν δυνάμεων διαλογισμούς. Οὐκ ἔστι γάρ, φησίν, ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας. τὰ γὰρ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἀόρατα καὶ ἀσώματα ὅσον πρὸς τὰ φαινόμενα τυγχάνουσιν· ὁμοίως καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ ἀόρατος καὶ ἀσώ ματος ὅσον πρὸς παχύτητα σωμάτων. ἀόρατον τοίνυν καὶ ἀσώματον τὸν ἀγῶνα καὶ τὴν ἄθλησιν εἶναι δεῖ ἐν τῷ ἐνδοτάτῳ ἀνθρώπῳ. ὅνπερ ἀγῶνα οἱ ἄνωθεν ἐξ ἀρχῆς πατέρες ἠγωνίσαντο, κἂν ἐν τοῖς φαινομένοις ὡς οἱ λοιποὶ ἐφαίνοντο ἄνθρωποι· οἱ οὕτως ἀγωνισάμενοι, εὐαρεστῆσαι τῷ θεῷ ἠδυνήθησαν. 53.7 ἀνδρεῖαι γὰρ καὶ γενναῖαι ψυχαὶ καὶ πάντων καταφρονοῦσαι ἀπέρχονται εἰς πόλεμον, καθὼς καὶ Μωυσῆς περὶ τοῦ κρυπτοῦ τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν πολέμου αἰνιττόμενος, καὶ οἷαι ψυχαὶ ἐπιτήδειοι τυγχάνουσιν, ἔφη Εἴ τις ἡρμόσατο γυναῖκα, μὴ ἐξέλθῃ εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ εἴ τις ἐφύτευσεν ἀμπελῶνα, μὴ ἐξέλθῃ. ταῦτα περὶ δεσμῶν ὑλικῶν λέγει μήποτέ τις πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἀθλῶν ἔν τισι πράγμασι δέδηται, ἐὰν γὰρ διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὰς ἡδονὰς καὶ τὰ κτήματα προσπάθειαν μὴ ἀθλήσῃ, ἀπόβλητος τῆς ἐπουρανίου εὐφρο σύνης γίνεται, ὡς ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ ὁ Κύριος περὶ τῶν ἐν τοῖς γάμοις κληθέντων καὶ παραιτησαμένων φησί, Ὁ πρῶτος λέγει, ἀγρὸν ἠγόρασα, καὶ οὐ δύναμαι ἐλθεῖν· καὶ ὁ ἄλλος, γυναῖκα ἔγημα καὶ οὐ δύναμαι ἐλθεῖν, ἐρωτῶ σε ἔχε με παρῃτημένον· συμφώνως τῷ Μωυσῇ λέγων. 53.8 γενναῖοι γὰρ καὶ ἕτοιμοι ὑπακούειν τῷ θελήματι τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῷ πνευματικῷ πολέμῳ προχωροῦσιν· ἑτοιμασία δὲ καλὴ καὶ ἐπιτηδει ότης πρὸς τὸν κατὰ τῶν ἀοράτων ἐχθρῶν πόλεμόν ἐστιν ὅταν τις κατα λιπὼν πατέρα καὶ μητέρα καὶ πάντα τὰ τοῦ βίου προσαγάγῃ ἑαυτὸν τῷ θεῷ, καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἔτι καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν ἀρνήσηται, ἐπιδιδοὺς ὅσα κέκτηται καὶ διαφέρει αὐτῷ ἐκ τῶν σαρκικῶν γονέων χρήματα καὶ πάντα ᾧ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν μετὰ θεὸν ἐνεπίστευσε πνευματικῷ πατρὶ καὶ ἀσκητῇ, ὥστε διοικεῖν αὐτὰ καθ' ὃν αὐτὸς βούλεται τρόπον, καὶ μὴ πολυπραγμονεῖν ὅπου χρή, καὶ ὅπου οὐ χρή, ἵνα μὴ εὑρεθῇ κρίνων καὶ δοκιμάζων, ὃν ἡρετίσατο κριτὴν καὶ διοικητὴν τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, ὡς ἐμπείρῳ ταύτην ἐγχειρίσας προσαγαγεῖν τῷ θεῷ, καὶ διὰ τὰ εὐτελῆ τῆς ὕλης ἀποδοκιμάζων αὐτόν· δείκνυται γὰρ διὰ τούτων ἀσκητὴς μᾶλλον αὐτός, ἢ τοῦ ἀσκητοῦ ὑποχείριος διὰ τὸν θεόν. 53.9 λέγε μοι γὰρ σὺ ὁ τοῦτο ποιῶν· τὴν ψυχὴν σεαυτοῦ ἐγχειρίσαι λέγεις τῷ ἀσκητῇ, καὶ προσπίπτων αὐτοῦ τοῖς ποσὶ δεῇ, λέγων Λάβε μου τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ προσάγαγε τῷ θεῷ,