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We have not known (177) beforehand by experience rather than by words the working in ourselves of the things that are about to be said; but what we have been deemed worthy to comprehend and learn from those whose mind was illumined by blessed dispassion, and what we, speaking as fools, have mystically heard in the ear from it, as ones cast off and worthy of nothing, we will proclaim upon the housetops according to the grace that commands from above, so that we may not be condemned like the servant who hid the talent. Just as, then, you have heard the Master say: "Many are called, but few are chosen" and "In my Father's house are many mansions," so I want you all to know, that many are holy, but few are dispassionate; and besides this, there is again a great difference between both groups. And pay close attention to the power and precision of what is being said.

Dispassion of the soul is one thing, and dispassion of the body is another; for the one also sanctifies the body, but the other, alone by itself, profits the one who possesses it in no way. The stillness of the members of the body and of their passions in the soul is one thing, and the acquisition of virtues is another; for the one is present by nature, while the other is accustomed to suppress all natural movements. It is one thing not to desire any of the delightful and pleasant things of the world, and another to long for eternal and heavenly goods, because most people have shown contempt for the former for one reason or another, but very few have taken thought for the latter at all. It is one thing, then, not to seek glory from men, and another to depend on the glory of God and to seek it ceaselessly; for the former, very many, being mastered by other passions, have rejected, but the latter very few have been deemed worthy to receive through much toil and labor. It is one thing to be content with humble clothing (178) and not to desire splendid attire, and another to be clothed in the light of God; for the former, some, being dragged down by countless other desires, have despised, but with the latter are clothed only those deemed worthy to become sons of light and of the day.

It is one thing to speak humbly, and another to think humbly; and humility is one thing, and another is the flower of humility, and another its fruit, and the beauty of this fruit and its sweetness, and another the energies that come from it. Of these things, some are in our power, and some are not in our power; and the things in our power are to perceive all things, to think, to reason, to say and to do whatever brings us to humility; but holy humility and its other properties and graces and its energies are a gift of God and are not among the things in our power, so that no one may boast even in this; and no one will ever be deemed worthy to receive them, unless he has first sown well the seeds that are in his own power.

It is one thing not to be stung or angered in dishonors and insults and in temptations and tribulations, and another to take pleasure in them. It is one thing to pray for those who do such things to us, and another to forgive them, and another to love them from the soul as benefactors, and another to picture in the mind the faces of each one of them and to embrace them dispassionately as true friends with tears of sincere love, with clearly no trace of any aversion at all lurking in the soul. But greater than these things we have mentioned, is when, even at the very time of the temptations, one possesses the same and like disposition unchangeably both toward those reviling and slandering him to his face and toward all others (179) who are either judging him or insulting him or condemning him or spitting in his face, but also, indeed, toward those who outwardly behave with a pretense of friendship, but are secretly perpetrating the same things against him as those mentioned, though not unobserved. But again, I have considered it incomparably superior to these things to be in complete forgetfulness of whatever one might have suffered and never to remember those who caused pain or otherwise acted insolently, whether they are absent or present, but rather equally to the

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οὐκ (177) ἔγνωμεν πείρᾳ μᾶλλον ἤ λόγοις εἰς ἡμᾶς αὐτούς τήν ἐνέργειαν τῶν μελλόντων ῥηθήσεσθαι πρότερον· ἅ δέ καταλαβεῖν ἠξιώθημεν καί μαθεῖν παρά τῶν ἐλλαμφθέντων ὑπό τῆς μακαρίας ἀπαθείας τόν νοῦν καί ἅ παρ᾿ αὐτῆς, παραφρονοῦντες λαλοῦμεν, μυστικῶς ἀκηκόαμεν εἰς τό οὖς, ὡς ἀπερριμμένοι τινές καί τοῦ μηδενός ἄξιοι, κατά τήν ἄνωθεν κελεύουσαν χάριν ἐπί τῶν δωμάτων κηρύξομεν, ἵνα μή ὡς ὁ τό τάλαντον κατακρύψας δοῦλος κατακριθῶμεν. Καθάπερ οὖν ἠκούσατε λέγοντος τοῦ ∆εσπότου· "Πολλοί μέν κλητοί, ὀλίγοι δέ ἐκλεκτοί" καί "Ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ πατρός μου μοναί πολλαί εἰσιν", οὕτως εἰδέναι βούλομαι πάντας ὑμᾶς, ὅτι πολλοί μέν ἅγιοι, ὀλίγοι δέ ἀπαθεῖς· καί πρός τούτοις πολλή πάλιν ἐν ἀμφοτέροις ὑπάρχει διαφορά. Καί πρόσεχε ἀκριβῶς τῇ τῶν λεγομένων δυνάμει καί ἀκριβείᾳ.

Ἄλλο ὑπάρχει ἀπάθεια ψυχῆς καί ἕτερον ἀπάθεια σώματος· ἡ μέν γάρ καί τό σῶμα καθαγιάζει, ἡ δέ αὐτή μόνη καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν οὐδέν τόν κεκτημένον ὀνίσησιν. Ἄλλο ἀκινησία τῶν τοῦ σώματος μελῶν καί τῶν παθῶν αὐτῶν τῆς ψυχῆς καί ἕτερον κτῆσις ἀρετῶν· ἡ μέν γάρ ἐκ φύσεως πρόσεστιν, ἡ δέ καί τάς φυσικάς ἁπάσας κινήσεις εἴωθε καταστέλλειν. Ἄλλο τό μή ἐπιθυμεῖν τινος τῶν τοῦ κόσμου τερπνῶν καί ἡδέων καί ἕτερον τό ἐφίεσθαι τῶν αἰωνίων καί οὐρανίων ἀγαθῶν, ἐπειδή τῶν μέν προτέρων ἄλλοι δι᾿ ἄλλο τι καί πλείονες αὐτῶν κατεφρόνησαν, τῶν δέ δευτέρων ὀλίγοι παντελῶς ἐφρόντισαν. Ἕτερον μέν οὖν μή ζητεῖν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων δόξαν καί ἕτερον τό τῆς δόξης ἐκκρέμασθαι τοῦ Θεοῦ καί ταύτην ἀενάως ἐπιζητεῖν· τήν μέν γάρ καί ὑπό παθῶν ἄλλων πλεῖστοι κυριευθέντες ἀπώσαντο, τήν δέ ὀλίγοι λίαν κόπῳ καί πόνῳ πολλῷ λαβεῖν ἠξιώθησαν. Ἄλλο τό εὐτελεῖ ἐσθῆτι ἀρκεῖσθαι (178) καί στολῆς λαμπρᾶς μή ἐπιθυμεῖν καί ἕτερον τό ἐνδεδῦσθαι τό φῶς τοῦ Θεοῦ· τῆς μέν γάρ ὑπό ἑτέρων μυρίων ἐπιθυμιῶν καθελκόμενοί τινες κατεφρόνησαν, τό δέ μόνοι περιβέβληνται οἱ τοῦ φωτός υἱοί καί τῆς ἡμέρας καταξιωθέντες γενέσθαι.

Ἄλλο τό ταπεινολογεῖν καί ἕτερον ταπεινοφρονεῖν· καί ἄλλο ταπείνωσις καί ἕτερον τό τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἄνθος καί ἕτερον ὁ ταύτης καρπός καί τό τοῦ καρποῦ ταύτης κάλλος καί ἡ ἡδύτης αὐτοῦ καί ἕτερον αἱ ἐκ τούτου ἐνέργειαι. Τούτων δέ τά μέν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν, τά δέ οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν εἰσι· καί τά μέν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν τό πάντα νοεῖν, τό φρονεῖν, τό λογίζεσθαι, τό λέγειν καί πράττειν ὅσα πρός ταπείνωσιν ἡμᾶς φέρουσιν· ἡ δέ ἁγία ταπείνωσις καί τά λοιπά ταύτης ἰδιώματα καί χαρίσματα καί αἱ ταύτης ἐνέργειαι δῶρόν εἰσι Θεοῦ καί οὐ τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν εἰσιν, ἵνα μηδέ ἐν τούτῳ τις καυχήσηται· ὧν καί οὐδείς ποτε τυχεῖν καταξιωθήσεται, εἰ μή καλῶς τά ὅσα ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν εἰσι σπέρματα καταβάληται.

Ἄλλο τό μή δάκνεσθαι μηδέ ὀργίζεσθαι ἐν ἀτιμίαις καί ὕβρεσι καί ἐν πειρασμοῖς καί θλίψεσι, καί ἕτερον τό εὐδοκεῖν ἐν αὐτοῖς. Ἄλλο τό εὔχεσθαι ὑπέρ τῶν τά τοιαῦτα ποιούντων εἰς ἡμᾶς καί ἄλλο τό ἀφιέναι αὐτοῖς καί ἕτερον τό ἀγαπᾶν αὐτούς ὡς εὐεργέτας ἀπό ψυχῆς καί ἕτερον τό νοερῶς ἀνατυποῦν τά πρόσωπα ἑνός ἑκάστου αὐτῶν καί ὡς γνησίους φίλους ἀπαθῶς αὐτούς κατασπάζεσθαι ἐν δάκρυσιν ἀγάπης εἰλικρινοῦς, ἴχνους ὅλως ἀηδίας τινός δηλόνοτι μή ἐμφωλεύοντος αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ. Μεῖζον δέ τούτων ὧν εἴπομεν, ὅταν καί ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ τῶν πειρασμῶν καιρῷ τήν ἴσην κέκτηταί τις καί ὁμοίαν ἀναλλοιώτως διάθεσιν καί πρός αὐτούς τούς κατά πρόσωπον λοιδοροῦντας αὐτόν καί ἐνδιαβάλλοντας καί πρός πάντας ἄλλους (179) τούς ἤ κατακρίνοντας αὐτόν ἤ ὑβρίζοντας ἤ καταδικάζοντας ἤ ἐμπτύοντας εἰς τό πρόσωπον, ἀλλά μήν καί πρός αὐτούς τούς ἐν προσχήματι μέν φιλίας ἔξωθεν διακειμένους, λαθραίως δέ τά αὐτά τοῖς εἰρημένοις διαπραττομένους μέν κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ, μή λανθάνοντας δέ. Τούτων δέ πάλιν ὑπέρτερον ἀσυγκρίτως εἶναι ὑπείληφα τό ἐν λήθῃ παντελεῖ τῶν ὧνπερ ἄν πάθοι τις γίνεσθαι καί μήτε ἀπόντων μήτε παρόντων τῶν λυπησάντων ἤ ἄλλως ἐμπαροινησάντων μεμνῆσθαί ποτε, ἐπίσης δέ μᾶλλον τοῖς