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But may it not 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 through the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, kindness (190) goodness, longsuffering, faith, gentleness, self-control, and that 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 is due all glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Catecheses of St. Symeon 2.

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

is necessary for the zealous to maintain.

Discourse 11. (191) Brothers and fathers, it was necessary for us last Sunday to say to your love the things now about to be said by us. But since I knew that the whole most Christian race, I mean both of monks and of laity, in the holy and first week of the fasts with boiling eagerness each of us of the faithful accepts 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 greatly despaired of their own salvation and who live in fearlessness and contempt of God, who in that week rejects the law of fasting and does not rather, he too with all, as far as he is able, practice self-control, I am coming now today 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 has passed and Saturday has arrived, since also the church of God has received by tradition to celebrate the feast of the holy great-martyr Theodore or, rather, the wondrous salvation which came from God through him to his most faithful people, and likewise also on Sunday all, making the commemoration of the orthodox faith, sing hymns of thanksgiving to our all-good God, the evil one, always envying good things, stealthily entering into each of the faithful and invisibly binding him with laziness and negligence, persuades him to cast off from himself with contempt the saving yoke of fasting and to return to his former habit, for this reason today I remind and exhort your love and paternity not to obey the enemy at all, nor to be carried away by the evil habit of insatiable gluttony, nor to return to the backward and chronic fulfillment of evil desires, but let us honor this second week of the fasts as the first, and in order the remaining ones together.

Yes, my fathers and brothers, let us benefit ourselves by so doing and let us not agree to lose now what we then gathered, but rather let us hasten to add and increase, but neither let us wish now to badly destroy what we formerly built up well. But let each of you remember the benefit from fasting and what kind of gift he enjoyed from God in these few days

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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.

Κατηχήσεις ἁγ. Συμεών 2.

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.

Λόγος ΙΑ΄. (191) 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 ὕμνους τῷ παναγάθῳ Θεῷ ἡμῶν ᾄδομεν, ἀεί φθονῶν τά καλά πονηρός, ἑκάστῳ τῶν πιστῶν λανθανόντως ὑπεισερχόμενος καί ῥᾳθυμίᾳ καί ἀμελείᾳ τοῦτον ἀοράτως καταδεσμεύων, ἀπορρίψαι πείθει καταφρονητικῶς ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τόν σωτηριώδη τῆς νηστείας ζυγόν καί πρός τήν προτέραν παλινδρομῆσαι συνήθειαν, διά τοῦτο τήν σήμερον ὑπομιμνήσκω καί παρακαλῶ τήν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην ὁμοῦ καί πατρότητα τοῦ μή ὑπακοῦσαι καθόλου τῷ δυσμενεῖ, μηδέ τῇ πονηρᾷ συνηθείᾳ τῆς ἀκορέστου γαστριμαργίας συναπαχθῆναι, μηδέ πρός τήν ὄπισθεν καί χρονίαν τῶν πονηρῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν ἐκπλήρωσιν ἐπαναστρέψαι, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς τήν πρώτην καί τήν δευτέραν ταύτην τῶν νηστειῶν ἑβδομάδα τιμήσωμεν, καί καθεξῆς ὁμοῦ τάς λοιπάς.

Ναί πατέρες καί ἀδελφοί μου, εὐεργετήσωμεν οὕτω ποιοῦντες ἑαυτούς καί μή ἅπερ συνήξαμεν τότε, νυνί ἀπολέσαι καταδεξώμεθα, προσθεῖναι δέ μᾶλλον καί αὐξῆσαι σπουδάσωμεν, ἀλλά μηδέ ἅπερ ὄπισθεν καλῶς ἀνῳκοδομήσαμεν νῦν κακῶς καταλῦσαι θελήσωμεν. Μνημονευέτω δέ ὑμῶν ἕκαστος τήν ἐκ τῆς νηστείας ὠφέλειαν καί οἵας ἀπήλαυσε παρά Θεοῦ δωρεᾶς ἐν ταῖς ὀλίγαις ταύταις ἡμέραις