75

Consider the benefit, as I have said, from fasting and vigil, prayer and psalmody, but also the solemnity, but also the reverence, but also the silence. For it seemed to me then that the monastery was uninhabited by men, but dwelt in by angels alone, because I heard absolutely no other worldly word, but only the doxology sent up by you to God, which is also the work of angels. And I believe that, just as you perform the work of angels, so also the angels invisibly spent their time with you and sang psalms with you. Therefore, do not wish to be separated from the concert with them through much talking and idle chatter, nor cause them to depart from you and the demons to approach you, as before, with disorderly voices or immoderate cries, but let each one attend to himself and his handiwork and his ministry, as serving God and not men, and perform it with diligence. For it is written: "Cursed (196) is every man who does the works of the Lord negligently".

In the divine readings of the synaxes, O brothers, do not fail to stir up one another to listen. For just as at a physical table we both urge and encourage our neighbors to eat, and those whom we love more than others, we compel to eat, so too at this soul-nourishing table we are obligated to pay attention and to urge our neighbors, lest we be condemned as not loving one another and lose our status as disciples of Christ. For he says: "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Therefore, he who at a physical table has not compelled his friend to the feast has often benefited him greatly; but he who does this at the spiritual table, I mean the hearing of the divine oracles, causes no ordinary harm to those near him. Since a surfeit of those foods is often wont to corrupt and harm both soul and body, but the things said here by the saints both illumine the mind and sanctify the soul and, through it, certainly impart sanctification to the body itself and render it healthier and stronger.

Let each one, therefore, pay attention to the reading. For the words of the saints are words of God and not of men. Let him cast them into his heart and keep them securely, since the words of God are words of life, and he who has them in himself and keeps them, has eternal life. (197) For when you have often sat at a sumptuous table, I do not think any of you has ever been so careless as to doze off at all and not only take what is sufficient, but also to depart having eagerly taken up what is for tomorrow and been zealous to give it either to some friends or to the poor. But where words of life are set forth and make immortal those nourished by them, is it permitted for anyone, tell me, to sleep and be careless, or to nod off and snore, as if an animate corpse? O the loss! O the insensibility and the sluggishness! He who sits at a table and does not desire what is set before him is clearly deprived of his natural health; so too he who hears a divine reading and does not, with unspeakable pleasure and an immaterial desire, spiritually delight in the immaterial and divine oracles and spiritually fill all his senses from their sweetness, is weak in faith and has completely no taste for spiritual gifts, evidently wasting away with hunger and thirst in the midst of many good things. For just as a corpse being washed with water is without sensation, so too this one, being drenched by the living and divine streams of the word, does not perceive it.

75

Ἀναλογίσασθε τήν ἐκ τῆς νηστείας καί ἀγρυπνίας, εὐχῆς τε καί ψαλμῳδίας, ὡς ἔφην, ὠφέλειαν, ἀλλά τήν κατήφειαν, ἀλλά τήν εὐλάβειαν, ἀλλά τήν σιωπήν. Ὥσπερ γάρ ἀοίκητόν μοι ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἐδόκει τότε εἶναι τό μοναστήριον, ὑπό ἀγγέλων μόνων ἐγκατοικούμενον, διά τό μή ὅλως ἕτερόν με ἀκοῦσαί τι ῥῆμα βιωτικόν, ἀλλ᾿ ἤ μόνην τήν ὑφ᾿ ὑμῶν πρός Θεόν ἀναπεμπομένην δοξολογίαν, ἤ καί ἀγγέλων ἔργον ἐστί. Πιστεύω δέ ὅτι, ὥσπερ ὑμεῖς ἐπιτελεῖτε τό τῶν ἀγγέλων ἔργον, οὕτω καί οἱ ἄγγελοι ἀοράτως συνδιῆγον ὑμῖν καί συνέψαλλον. Μή οὖν χωρισθῆναι τῆς μετ᾿ ἐκείνων συναυλίας διά τῆς πολυλογίας καί ἀργολογίας θελήσητε, μηδέ φωναῖς ἀτάκτοις ἤ κραυγαῖς ἀμέτροις αὐτούς μέν ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν, τούς δέ δαίμονας πλησιάσαι ὑμῖν, ὡς τό πρίν, ποιήσητε, ἀλλά προσεχέτω ἕκαστος ἑαυτῷ καί τό ἐργόχειρον αὐτοῦ καί τήν διακονίαν αὐτοῦ, ὡς τῷ Θεῷ δουλεύων καί οὐκ ἀνθρώποις, ἐπιμελῶς ἐκτελείτω. Γέγραπται γάρ· "Ἐπικατάρατος (196) πᾶς ἄνθρωπος, ὁ ποιῶν τά ἔργα Κυρίου ἀμελῶς".

Ἐν ταῖς θείαις τῶν συνάξεων ἀναγνώσεσιν ἀλλήλους πρός ἀκρόασιν διεγείρειν, ὦ ἀδελφοί, μή ἐλίπητε. Καί γάρ ὥσπερ ἐπί τῆς αἰσθητῆς τραπέζης ἐσθίειν προτρεπόμεθά τε καί παρακελευόμεθα τοῖς πλησίον, καί οὕς ἄν τῶν ἄλλων πλεῖον ἀγαπῶμεν, παραβιαζόμεθα ἐπί τό φαγεῖν, οὕτω δή καί ἐπί τῆς ψυχοτρόφου ταύτης τραπέζης προσέχειν καί προτρέπεσθαι τοῖς πλησίον χρεωστοῦμεν, ἵνα μή ὡς μή ἀγαπῶντες ἀλλήλους κατακριθῶμεν καί τό μαθηταί εἶναι Χριστοῦ ἀπολέσωμεν. Λέγει γάρ· "Ἐν τούτῳ γνώσονται πάντες, ὅτι ἐμοί μαθηταί ἐστε, ἐάν ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους". Ὁ οὖν ἐπί τῆς αἰσθητῆς τραπέζης τόν ἑαυτοῦ φίλον μή παραβιασάμενος εἰς ἑστίασιν τά μέγιστα αὐτόν πολλάκις ὠφέλησεν· ὁ δέ ἐπί τῆς πνευματικῆς τραπέζης, τῆς ἀκροάσεως τῶν θείων λέγω λογίων, τοῦτο ποιῶν, οὐ τήν τυχοῦσαν ζημίαν τοῖς αὐτῷ πλησιάζουσι προξενεῖ. Ἐπειδή τῶν βρωμάτων μέν ἐκείνων ἡ πλησμονή καί τήν ψυχήν καί τό σῶμα διαφθείρειν εἴωθε πολλάκις καί βλάπτειν, τά δέ ἐνταῦθα ὑπό τῶν ἁγίων λεγόμενα καί νοῦν φωτίζει καί ψυχήν ἁγιάζει καί τῷ σώματι αὐτῷ δι᾿ αὐτῆς πάντως τοῦ ἁγιασμοῦ μεταδίδωσι καί ὑγιεινότερον καί ῥωμαλεώτερον καθιστᾷ.

Προσεχέτω τοιγαροῦν ἕκαστος τῇ ἀναγνώσει. Οἱ γάρ λόγοι τῶν ἁγίων Θεοῦ λόγοι καί οὐκ ἀνθρώπων εἰσίν. Ἐμβαλέτω τούτους ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ καί τηρείτω αὐτούς ἀσφαλῶς, ἐπειδή οἱ λόγοι τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγοις ζωῆς εἰσι καί ὁ ἔχων αὐτούς ἐν ἑαυτῷ καί φυλάσσων αὐτούς, ἔχει ζωήν αἰώνιον. (197) Ἐπί μέν γάρ πολυτελοῦς πολλάκις καθεσθέντες τραπέζης, οὐκ οἶμαί ποτε ῥᾳθυμήσαντά τινα ἐξ ὐμῶν ὅλως ἀπονυστάξαι καί μή μόνον τά ἀρκοῦντα λαβεῖν, ἀλλά καί τά εἰς τήν αὔριον μετά σπουδῆς ἄραντα ἀπελθεῖν καί ἤ φίλοις τισίν ἤ πτωχοῖς αὐτά μεταδοῦναι προθυμηθέντα. Ἔνθα δέ λόγοι ζωῆς πρόκεινται καί τούς ἐξ αὐτῶν τρεφομένους ἀθανάτους ἀποτελοῦσι, καθεύδειν, εἰπέ μοι, καί ῥᾳθυμεῖν ἤ νυστάζειν καί ῥέγχειν ἔξεστί τινι, ὥσπερ ἐμψύχῳ νεκρῷ; Ὤ τῆς ζημίας! Ὤ τῆς ἀναισθησίας καί τῆς νωθρότητος! Ὁ ἐπί τραπέζης καθήμενος καί τῶν προκειμένων μή ὀρεγόμενος τῆς κατά φύσιν ὑγιείας προδήλως ἐστέρηται· οὕτω καί ὁ ἀναγνώσεως θείας ἀκούων καί μή μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς ἀφάτου καί ἀΰλου ὀρέξεως αΰλως τοῖς ἀΰλοις καί θείοις λογίοις ψυχικῶς ἐντρυφῶν καί τάς αἰσθήσεις πάσας αὐτοῦ νοερῶς ἐμπιπλῶν ἐκ τῆς τούτων γλυκύτητος, ἀσθενής τῇ πίστει ἐστί καί τῶν πνευματικῶν δωρεῶν εἰς ἅπαν ἄγευστος, ἐν μέσῳ δηλονότι πολλῶν ἀγαθῶν λιμῷ καί δίψει τηκόμενος. Καθάπερ γάρ νεκρός ὕδατι λουόμενος ἀνεπαισθήτως ἔχει, οὕτω καί οὗτος ὑπό τῶν ζωηρῶν καί θείων τοῦ λόγου ναμάτων ἐπαντλούμενος οὐκ αἰσθάνεται.