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the beauty of the fruits and they advise to rest a little for the consolation of the labors of the journey and they suggest eating from the fruits, bringing forth the pleasure more than the contemplation in them, and they devise many other snares for us and various pretexts; not only in the day but also in the very nights, and they rise up against us, not only when we are awake but also when we are sleeping, sometimes with ticklings and emissions, sometimes with tastings of forbidden foods, at other times also with lanterns and torches like sword-bearing robbers coming upon us in a robber-like way they threaten us with death, thinking to greatly disturb us and to turn us aside from the straight path. And some of them suggest to us that it is impossible to endure until the end the hardships on the road, others that these things are unprofitable and able to benefit in no way those who toil. Others say that there is never an end to this road nor will there be, pointing out some of those who have not succeeded and especially those who have spent a long time in the ascetic practice and found no benefit from their time because they do not run with knowledge and pious reason in what seems to be the race of the commandments, but do this with self-will and conceit, for whom, as is fitting, their steps toward God are cut short, becoming cowardly and turning back and through negligence they hand themselves over to the evil one for him to work in them the things that seem good to him.

(152) But why should I wish to explain everything to you, my spiritual brothers, and behold they are not subject to number, the ambushes and terrible machinations of the devil who opposes us and of his evil spirits! But leaving most of them to be investigated by the zealous and having given them the starting points from these few things, I will try to demonstrate what I have promised to your love; and what is this? The bond of attachment to our relatives and how the devil binds us through it, and especially those who have shown courage against the other passions and have taken up the crown, and through which the evil one unfortunately sends us to darkness and to destruction.

And consider again for me accurately the power of what is being said. Understand yourself on the aforementioned road, either having just entered upon it or having walked upon it for years and having suffered many things from all those aforementioned beasts and robbers of which we have spoken before, but by the grace of Christ neither having been deceived by flattery, nor stolen away toward pleasure by the beauty of appearances, nor bent by fear or by threats so as to turn aside from the straight road or to cease from going forward, nor indeed having turned back, but rather running even more vigorously. Has Satan, then, as you are running thus, ceased from warring against you any longer, or will he ever cease? No, not at all! But knowing that God has given us a commandment to deny father and mother and simply all carnal kinship, and even our very selves; and not only this, but also that we made an agreement with God, (153) when we came to the monastic life, to keep this along with all the others, since he was not strong enough to do anything against you out of all the things that have been said, what does he do? First, he stirs up and renews in us the memory of our own people, then, he also suggests to us from the divine Scriptures things said about others and to others for the turbid subversion and transgression of the commandment, saying: "Honor your father, says the divine Scripture, and your mother, and you shall not overlook those of your own seed; for he who does not provide for his own, according to the divine apostle, has denied the faith," the cunning one ignoring, as is likely, that these things were said not so that we should love our parents or relatives more than God and prefer them to His love, but so that we might be taught obedience and learn that if submission and honor are necessary towards our parents, how much more so towards Him, the God who made both them and us? But those of our own seed, O deceiver—for it is good to speak to him

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ὡραιότητα τῶν καρπῶν καί παραινοῦσι μικρόν ἀναπαύσασθαι εἰς παραμυθίαν τῶν πόνων τῆς ὁδοιπορίας καί φαγεῖν ὑποτίθενται ἀπό τῶν καρπῶν τό ἡδύ πλέον ἐπιφερομένων τῆς ἐνούσης αὐτοῖς θεωρίας, καί πολλάς ἑτέρας ἐπινοοῦσι τάς πάγας ἡμῖν καί ποικίλας τάς ἀφορμάς· οὐκ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ δέ μόνον ἀλλά καί ἐν αὐταῖς ταῖς νυξί, καί οὐδέ ἐγρηγορότων μόνον ἀλλά καί καθευδόντων, ἡμῖν ἐπανίστανται, ποτέ μέν γαργαλισμοῖς καί ἐκκρίσεσι, ποτέ δέ βρωμάτων ἀπηγορευμένων γεύσεσιν, ἄλλοτε δέ καί μετά φανῶν καί λαμπάδων ὡσεί ξιφήρεις λησταί ληστρικῶς ἐπερχόμενοι θάνατον ἡμῖν ἐπισείουσιν, ἐκταράσσειν ἡμᾶς οἰόμενοι καί τῆς εὐθείας παρατρέψαι ὁδοῦ. Καί οἵ μέν αὐτῶν ἀδύνατον ἡμῖν ὑποτίθενται τό μέχρι τέλους ὑπενεγκεῖν τά ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ δυσχερῇ, οἵ δέ καί ἀνόνητα ταῦτα καί μηδέν τούς κοπιῶντας ὠφελεῖν δυνάμενα. Ἄλλοι ὅτι οὐδέ ἔστι ποτέ τέλος τῆς ὁδοῦ ταύτης οὐδέ ἔσεται λέγουσι, δεικνύοντες ἐκ τῶν μή κατορθωκότων τινάς καί μάλιστα τούς ἐγχρονίσαντας εἰς τήν ἄσκησιν καί μηδεμίαν ἐκ τοῦ χρόνου εὑρόντας ὠφέλειαν διά τό μή ἐν γνώσει καί εὐσεβεῖ λογισμῷ τρέχειν αὐτούς ἐν τῷ δοκεῖν τόν δρόμον τῶν ἐντολῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ἰδιορρυθμίᾳ καί οἰήσει τοῦτο ποιεῖν, οἷς εἰκότως καί τά κατά Θεόν αὐτῶν διαβήματα περικόπτεται, δειλαινομένοις καί ὑποστρέφουσιν εἰς τά ὀπίσω καί ἑαυτούς διά τῆς ἀμελείας τῷ πονηρῷ ἐμπαρέχουσιν εἰς τό ἐργάσασθαι εἰς αὐτούς τά δοκοῦντα αὐτῷ.

(152) Ἀλλά τί θέλω πάντα ὑμῖν ἐξηγήσασθαι τοῖς πνευματικοῖς μου ἀδελφοῖς, καί ἰδού εἰσιν ἀριθμῷ μή καθυποβαλλόμενα, τά τοῦ ἀντικειμένου ἡμῖν διαβόλου καί τῶν αὐτοῦ πονηρῶν πνευμάτων ἔνεδρά τε καί δεινά πανουργεύματα! Ἀλλά τά πλεῖστα παρά τοῖς σπουδαίοις διερευνᾶσθαι ἐάσας καί παρασχών αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῶν ὀλίγων τούτων τάς ἀφερμάς, ὅ ἐπηγγειλάμην ὑμῶν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἀποδεῖξαι πειράσομαι· τί δέ ἐστι τοῦτο; Ὁ δεσμός τῆς πρός τούς συγγενεῖς ἡμῶν προσπαθείας καί ὅπως δεσμεῖ ἡμᾶς δι᾿ αὐτῆς ὁ διάβολος, καί μάλιστα τούς κατά τῶν ἄλλων παθῶν τήν ἀνδρείαν ἐπιδειξαμένους καί τόν στέφανον ἄραντας, καί δι᾿ ἧς ἡμᾶς τῷ σκότει καί τῇ ἀπωλείᾳ δυστυχῶς ὁ πονηρός παραπέμπει.

Καί σκόπει μοι πάλιν ἀκριβῶς τοῦ λεγομένου τήν δύναμιν. Κατανόησον σεαυτόν ἐν τῇ εἰρημένῃ ὁδῷ ἤ ἐπιβάντα ἀρτίως αὐτῆς ἤ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ ἐπί χρόνους βαδίσαντα καί παρά πάντων ἐκείνων τῶν εἰρημένων θηρίων τε καί ληστῶν πολλά μέν παθόντα ἐξ ὧν προειρήκαμεν, τῇ χάριτι δέ Χριστοῦ μήτε κολακείαις ἀπατηθέντα, μήτε τῇ ὡραιότητι τῶν φαινομένων κλαπέντα πρός ἡδονήν, μήτε φόβῳ καμφθέντα ἤ ἀπειλαῖς πρός τό ἐκκλῖναι τῆς εὐθείας ὁδοῦ ἤ παύσασθαι τοῦ πρόσω βαίνειν, μήτε μήν εἰς τά ὀπίσω στραφέντα, ἀλλά μᾶλλον καί εὐτονώτερον τρέχοντα. Ἆρα οὖν οὕτως τρέχοντός σου ἠρέμησε τοῦ μηκέτι πολεμεῖν σε ὁ Σατανᾶς ἤ ποτέ ἠρεμήσει; Οὐμενοῦν οὐδαμῶς! Ἀλλ᾿ εἰδώς ὅτι ἐντολήν ἡμῖν δέδωκεν ὁ Θεός ἀπαρνήσασθαι πατέρα καί μητέρα καί πᾶσαν ἁπλῶς συγγένειαν σαρκικήν, ἔτι δέ καί ὅλους ἡμᾶς αὐτους· οὐ μόνον δέ ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι συνεθέμεθα τῷ Θεῷ, (153) ὅτε τῇ μοναδικῇ πολιτείᾳ προσήλθομεν, καί ταύτην μετά τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων φυλάξασθαι, ἐπειδή οὐκ ἴσχυσεν ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων ἁπάντων τι κατά σοῦ, τί ποιεῖ; Πρῶτον τήν τῶν ἰδίων μνήμην ἀνακινεῖ καί ἀνανεοῖ ἐν ἡμῖν, ἔπειτα καί ἀπό τῶν θείων Γραφῶν τά περί ἄλλων καί πρός ἄλλους εἰρημένα ἐπί ἀνατροπῇ θολερᾷ καί παραβάσει τῆς ἐντολῆς ἡμῖν ὑποτίθησι λέγων· "Τίμα τόν πατέρα σου, φησίν ἡ θεία Γραφή, καί τήν μητέρα, καί ἀπό τῶν οἰκείων τοῦ σπέρματός σου οὐχ ὑπερόψει· ὁ γάρ μή προϊστάμενος τῶν οἰκείων, κατά τόν θεῖον ἀπόστολον, τήν πίστιν ἤρνηται", ἀγνοῶν ὁ δόλιος, ὡς εἰκός, ὅτι ταῦτα εἴρηται οὐχ ἵνα πλέον τοῦ Θεοῦ τούς γεννήσαντας ἡμᾶς ἤ τούς συγγενεῖς ἀγαπῶμεν καί προτιμῶμεν αὐτούς τῆς ἀγάπης ἐκείνου, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα ὑπακοήν παιδευθῶμεν καί μάθωμεν ὅτι, εἰ πρός τούς γεννήσαντας ἡμᾶς ἀναγκαία ἐστίν ἡ ὑποταγή καί τιμή, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἡ πρός αὐτόν, τόν αὐτούς καί ἡμᾶς πεποιηκότα Θεόν; Οἰκεῖοι δέ τοῦ σπέρματος ἡμῶν, ὦ ἀπατεών - καλόν γάρ πρός αὐτόν