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Concerning the beginning of a most beneficial and salvific life, fitting for those who have just renounced the world and the things in the world and are turning towards the monastic life. And a most profitable instruction for beginners.

Discourse 26. (328) Brothers and fathers, every man who has just renounced the world and all the things in the world

and has fled to this life and the arena of the monks, if indeed he has renounced for God's sake and chooses to learn this art of arts and does not wish his departure from the world to be in vain, from the very beginning with all eagerness and the most fervent intention ought diligently to practice the things of virtue. And so that we might hand down in writing some preliminary instruction of the elements of the science of sciences, I mean of our ascetic practice, to those who have just come from the world to this, as it were, school, we set forth such things from the outset, as a model, for them and for those after them, just as we ourselves also received from our fathers.

It must be known, therefore, that he who has already put off the earthly man with his mindset (329) and has put on the heavenly man through the monastic habit, ought to rise at midnight before the dawn and to say a set prayer, and so after this to rise for the doxology with everyone and to go through it all with attentiveness and watchfulness, paying great attention to the beginning of the hymnody, that is, to the Hexapsalmos, to the stichology, to the readings, unweariedly, not letting the body grow slack and standing with one foot beside the other or leaning on walls and pillars, but he ought to have his hands securely folded, his feet planted evenly on the ground, and his head unmoved and not nodding this way and that; not letting his mind wander, nor letting his thoughts be meddlesome or be carried away with the more negligent who talk to each other and whisper; but rather to keep his eye and his soul undistracted and to attend only to the psalmody and the reading and to the power of the words of the divine Scripture being chanted and read, as far as is possible, so that not a single word might pass him by idly, but that his soul, being nourished by all of them, may come to compunction and humility and the divine illumination of the Holy Spirit.

I beseech you all, therefore, as one, my fathers and my brothers and children, and I set these things forth as a salvific law, that each of you may be zealous to make such a beginning in the work of virtue or, rather, of God, from whom we also lovingly receive the rewards in proportion to our labors, so that, if possible, none of you should go through the service and the reading without tears. ( 330) For if you accustom yourself, O brother, to do this work in this way, in a short time you will progress and attain to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. For by compelling yourself not to run through the set service of the church without tears, you will acquire this good as a habit and, in the stichology itself and in the troparia which you chant, your soul is nourished, receiving their divine thoughts unto itself, and your mind is raised up through the words spoken to the intelligible realities, and weeping sweetly, you thus pass your time in the church as if in heaven itself with the powers above.

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Περί ἀρχῆς βίου λίαν ἐπωφελοῦς καί σωτηρίου, ἁρμοζούσης τοῖς ἄρτι τῷ κόσμῳ καί τοῖς ἐν κόσμῳ ἀποτασσομένοις καί πρός τόν μοναδικόν ἀποτρέχουσι βίον. Καί διδασκαλίας εἰς ἀρχαρίους λυσιτελεστάτη.

Λόγος Κστ΄. (328) Ἀδελφοί καί πατέρες, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἄρτι τῷ κόσμῳ καί τοῖς ἐν κόσμῳ πᾶσιν

ἀποταξάμενος, ἐπί δέ τόν βίον τοῦτον καί τό στάδιον τῶν μοναχῶν ἀποδραμών, εἴ γε διά Θεόν ἀπετάξατο καί τήν τέχνην τῶν τεχνῶν ταύτην μαθεῖν αἱρεῖται καί μή εἰς κενόν βούλεται γενέσθαι τήν ἀπό τοῦ κόσμου αὐτοῦ ἀναχώρησιν, ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀρχῆς μετά προθυμίας πάσης καί θερμοτάτης προθέσεως τά τῆς ἀρετῆς σπουδαίως ὀφείλει ποιεῖν. Καί ἵνα προπαίδειάν τινα τῶν στοιχείων τῆς ἐπιστήμης τῶν ἐπιστημῶν, λέγω δή τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀσκήσεως, τοῖς ἄρτι πρός ταύτην οἱονεί τήν σχολήν ἀπό τοῦ κόσμου παραγενομένοις ἔγγραφον παραδώσωμεν, τοιαῦτα ἐκ προοιμίων ὑποτιθέμεθα, ὡς ἐν τύπῳ, αὐτοῖς τε καί τοῖς μετ᾿ αὐτούς, καθώς καί αὐτοί ἀπό τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν παρελάβομεν.

Ἰστέον οὖν ὅτι ὁ ἤδη τόν χοϊκόν ἄνθρωπον μετά τοῦ φρονήματος (329) καί τόν ἐπουράνιον διά τοῦ μοναχικοῦ σχήματος ἐνδυσάμενος, μεσονύκτιον ὀφείλει ἀνίστασθαι πρό τοῦ ὄρθρου καί τετυπωμένην εὐχήν εὔχεσθαι, καί οὕτω μετά ταῦτα εἰς τήν δοξολογίαν μετά πάντων ἐγείρεσθαι καί νουνεχῶς καί ἐγρηγόρως πᾶσαν αὐτήν διεξέρχεσθαι, προσέχων τῇ ἀρχῇ τῆς ὑμνῳδίας μεγάλως, ἤτοι τῷ ἑξαψάλμῳ, τῇ στιχολογίᾳ, ταῖς ἀναγνώσεσιν, ἀόκνως, μή χαυνούμενος τό σῶμα καί πόδα παρά πόδα ἱστάμενος ἤ ἐπακουμβίζων τοίχοις καί κίοσιν, ἀλλά τάς μέν χεῖρας ἀσφαλῶς δεδεμένας ἔχειν ὀφείλει, τούς πόδας ἐπιστηριζομένους ἴσους τῇ γῇ, τήν δέ κεφαλήν ἀσάλευτον καί μή πρός τά ὦδε καί ἐκεῖ νεύουσαν· μή μετεωριζόμενον τόν νοῦν, ἀλλά μηδέ περιεργαζόμενον τό φρόνημα ἤ συναπαγόμενον τοῖς ἀμελεστέροις, ὁμιλοῦσιν ἀλλήλοις καί ψιθυρίζουσιν· ἀμετεώριστον δέ μᾶλλον ἔχειν τό ὄμμα καί τήν ψυχήν καί μόνῃ προσέχειν τῇ ψαλμῳδίᾳ καί τῇ ἀναγνώσει καί τῇ δυνάμει τῶν ψαλλομένων καί ἀναγινωσκομένων λόγων τῆς θείας Γραφῆς, ὅσον τό κατά δύναμιν, ἵνα μή λόγος ἐν αὐτῷ παρέλθῃ ἀργός, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ πάντων αὐτῶν πιαινομένων αὐτοῦ ἡ ψυχή, εἰς κατάνυξιν καί ταπείνωσιν καί φωτισμόν ἔλθῃ θεῖον τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ Ἁγίου.

Παρακαλῶ οὖν ὡς ἕνα πάντας ὑμᾶς, πατέρες μου καί ἀδελφοί μου καί τέκνα, καί ταῦτα ὡς νόμον σωτήριον ὑποτίθημι, ἵνα σπουδάσητε ἕκαστος ὑμῶν βαλεῖν τοιαύτην ἀρχήν εἰς τό ἔργον τῆς ἀρετῆς ἤ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν τοῦ Θεοῦ, δι᾿ οὗ καί τούς μισθούς ἀναλόγως τῶν πόνων ἡμῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ φιλαγάθως λαμβάνομεν, ὥστε εἰ δυνατόν μή παρελθεῖν τινα ἐξ ὑμῶν ἄνευ δακρύων τήν ἀκολουθίαν καί τήν ἀνάγνωσιν. ( 330) Εἰ γάρ οὕτω σεαυτόν ἐθίσεις, ὦ ἀδελφέ, εἰς τό ἔργον τοῦτο ποιεῖν, ἐν ὀλίγῳ προκόψεις καί ἀναδράμῃς εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον, εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Βιαζόμενος γάρ ἑαυτόν ἵνα μή ἄνευ δακρύων παρατρέχῃς τήν τετυπωμένην ἀκολουθίαν τῆς ἐκκλησίας, γίνῃ τοῦ καλοῦ τούτου ἐν ἕξει καί, ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ στιχολογίᾳ καί ἐν τοῖς τροπαρίοις οἷς ψάλλεις, τρέφεταί σου ἡ ψυχή, ἀναδεχομένῃ τά τούτων θεῖα νοήματα πρός ἑαυτήν, καί ἀναβιβάζεταί σου ὁ νοῦς διά τῶν λεγομένων πρός τά νοητά, καί δακρύων ἡδέως, οὕτως ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ διάγεις, ὡς ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ οὐρανῷ μετά τῶν ἄνω δυνάμεων.