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the earthly glory that is given, he who accepts it with pleasure and joy, and exults in it, and rejoices in his heart, will be condemned as a fornicator. For such a man is like a man choosing to be a virgin and having renounced intercourse with women, and not deserting to them, nor desiring to live with them, (189) but when a certain woman comes to him, immediately accepting her with pleasure and fulfilling the pleasure of intercourse. And this, indeed, happens with every other desire and with every passion. For if someone willingly gives himself over to envy, and avarice, or jealousy, or strife, or some other evil, he will not attain the crown of righteousness. For God, being righteous, does not tolerate having the unrighteous as partners; and being pure, He is not defiled with the impure; and being without passion, He does not dwell with the passionate; and being holy, He does not enter into a sullied and wicked soul. And wicked is he who has received the seed of the wicked sower in his heart and brings forth thorns and thistles of sin for the devil, the kindling for the eternal fire, which are envy, hatred, malice, jealousy, strife, conceit, vainglory, pride, deceit, meddling, slander, and whatever detestable passion of the flesh is performed with pleasure and defiles the inner man within us, according to the voice of the Lord.

But may it never be that we, brothers, should ever bear such tares, having received through laziness the seed of the evil one in our hearts. But may it be that we bear fruit for Christ thirty and sixty and a hundredfold, the things cultivated in us by the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, kindness, (190) goodness, long-suffering, faith, gentleness, self-control; and may we be nourished by the bread of knowledge and grow in the virtues and attain to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to whom belongs all glory forever. Amen.

Discourse 11. (191)

Concerning fasting. And that it is not right to observe and embrace with zeal the benefit of fasting only in the first week of the fasts, but that the same and equal zeal in all the weeks of the

fasts it is necessary for the zealous to maintain. Brothers and fathers, we should have on the past Sunday the things now about to be

spoken by us to your love. But since I knew that the entire most Christian people, I mean both monks and laity, in the holy and first week of the fasts with burning eagerness each one of us, the faithful, undertakes the good of fasting, and everyone willingly places its yoke upon his own neck, and there is no one, not even of those who have utterly despaired of their own salvation and live in fearlessness and contempt of God, who rejects the law of fasting that week, but rather even he himself, with everyone, as much as in him lies, practices self-control, today I come now to say a few brief things to you for the sake of the present time.

(192) For since, as has been said, all the faithful pass through the past first week of the fasts with struggle, and when this had passed and Saturday had arrived, since the church of God also has by tradition come to celebrate the feast of the holy great-martyr Theodore or, rather, the wondrous salvation that came from God through him to His most faithful people, and likewise also on Sunday everyone, making commemoration of the orthodox faith, thanksgiving

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διδομένην τήν ἐπίγειον δόξαν, ὁ μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς καί χαρᾶς ταύτην ἀποδεξάμενος καί ἐν ταύτῃ ἐναμβρυνόμενος καί τῇ καρδίᾳ ἐνευφραινόμενος, ὡς πόρνος κατακριθήσεται. Ὅμοιος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ τοιοῦτος ἀνθρώπῳ παρθενεύειν προαιρουμένῳ καί τήν τῶν γυναικῶν συνουσίαν ἀπηρνημένῳ και πρός μέν αὐτάς μή αὐτομολοῦντι, μήτε μετ᾿ αὐτῶν διάγειν ἐπιθυμοῦντι, (189) ἀπερχομένης δέ πρός αὐτόν μιᾶς τινος γυναικός, μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς εὐθύς ἀποδεχομένῳ καί τήν τῆς μίξεως ἡδονήν ἐκπληροῦντι. Τοῦτο δέ ἄρα καί ἐπί πάσης ἄλλης ἐπιθυμίας καί ἐπί παντός πάθους συμβαίνει γίνεσθαι. Εἴτε γάρ φθόνῳ, καί φιλαργυρίᾳ ἤ ζήλῳ ἤ ἔριδι ἤ τινι ἑτέρᾳ κακίᾳ ἑκουσίως ἑαυτόν τις ἐκδῷ, τοῦ στεφάνου τῆς δικαιοσύνης οὐκ ἐπιτεύξεται. ∆ίκαιος γάρ ὤν ὁ Θεός, ἀδίκους ἔχειν συγκοινωνούς οὐκ ἀνέχεται καί καθαρός ὤν, ἀκαθάρτῳ οὐ συμμιαίνεται καί ἀπαθής ὑπάρχων, τοῖς ἐμπαθέσιν οὐ συναυλίζεται καί ἅγιος ὤν, εἰς κεχραμμένην ψυχήν καί πονηράν οὐκ εἰσέρχεται. Πονηρός δέ ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ πονηροῦ σπορέως τόν κόκκον ὑποδεξάμενος ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ καί καρποφορῶν ἀκάνθας καί τριβόλους τῆς ἁμαρτίας τῷ διαβόλῳ, τά τοῦ αἰωνίου πυρός ὑπεκκαύματα, ἅτινά ἐστι φθόνος, μῖσος, μνησικακία, ζῆλος, ἐριθεία, οἴησις, κενοδοξία, ὑπερηφανία, δόλος, περιεργία, διαβολή καί εἴτι διά σαρκός πάθος ἀπόπτυστον καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἐκτελεῖται καί κοινοῖ τόν ἐντός ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπον κατά τήν τοῦ Κυρίου φωνήν.

Ἀλλά μή γένοιτο ἡμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, τοιαῦτά ποτε καρποφορῆσαι ζιζάνια, δεξαμένους ἐκ ῥᾳθυμίας τόν σπόρον τοῦ πονηροῦ ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν. Γένοιτο δέ εἰς τριάκοντα καί ἑξήκοντα καί ἑκατόν καρποφορῆσαι Χριστῷ τά διά τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐν ἡμῖν γεωργούμενα, ἅ ἐστιν ἀγάπη, χαρά, εἰρήνη, χρηστότης (190) ἀγαθωσύνη, μακροθυμία, πίστις, πρᾳότης, ἐγκράτεια, τραφῆναί τε τόν ἄρτον τῆς γνώσεως καί αὐξηθῆναι ταῖς ἀρεταῖς καί καταντῆσαι εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον, εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ᾧ πρέπει πᾶσα δόξα εἰς τούς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

Λόγος ΙΑ΄. (191)

Περί νηστείας. Καί ὅτι οὐ χρή τό τῆς νηστείας ὠφέλιμον ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ καί μόνῃ τῶν νηστειῶν ἑβδομάδι σπουδαίως τηρεῖν καί ἀσπάζεσθαι, ἀλλά τήν ἴσην καί τήν αὐτήν σπουδήν ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἑβδομάσι τῶν

νηστειῶν ἀναγκαῖον τοῖς σπουδαίοις διατηρεῖν. Ἀδελφοί καί πατέρες, ἔδει μέν ἡμᾶς τῇ παρελθούσῃ κυριακῇ τά νῦν μέλλοντα

ῥηθήσεσθαι παρ᾿ ἡμῶν πρός τήν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην εἰπεῖν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπείπερ εἰδώς ἤμην, ὅτι ἅπαν τό χριστιανικώτατον φῦλον, μοναχῶν τε φημί καί λαϊκῶν, τῇ ἁγίᾳ καί πρώτῃ ἑβδομάδι τῶν νηστειῶν ζεούσῃ τῇ προθυμίᾳ τό τῆς νηστείας καλόν ἕκαστος ἡμῶν τῶν πιστῶν ὑποδέχεται, καί πᾶς τις ἐπί τόν αὐτοῦ τράχηλον τόν ταύτης ζυγόν ἐπιτίθησιν ἑκόντι, καί οὐδείς ἐστιν, οὐδέ τῶν λίαν ἀπεγνωκότων τῆς ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίας καί ἐν ἀφοβίᾳ καί καταφρονήσει Θεοῦ πολιτευομένων, ὅς τήν ἑβδομάδα ἐκείνην τόν τῆς νηστείας ἀπωθεῖται νόμον καί οὐχί μᾶλλον καί αὐτός μετά πάντων, τό ὅσον ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτῷ, ἐγκρατεύεται, σήμερον ἤδη λέξων ἔρχομαι βραχέα καί ὀλίγα τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος χάριν καιροῦ πρός ὑμᾶς.

(192) Ἐπειδή γάρ, ὡς εἴρηται, τήν παρελθοῦσαν πρῶτην τῶν νηστειῶν ἑβδομάδα ἅπαντες οἱ πιστοί ἐναγωνίως διέρχονται, παρελθούσης δέ ταύτης καί τοῦ σαββάτου καταλαβόντος, ἐπεί καί ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκκλησία ἑορτήν ἄγειν ἐκ παραδόσεως ἔλαχε τήν τοῦ ἁγίου μεγαλομάρτυρος Θεοδώρου ἤ, μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν, τήν ἐκ Θεοῦ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ γενομένην τῷ πιστοτάτῳ λαῷ αὐτοῦ σωτηρίαν παράδοξον, ὡσαύτως δέ καί τῇ κυριακῇ πάντες τήν τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως ἀνάμνησιν ποιούμενοι, εὐχαριστηρίους