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Behold, therefore, we have told you, beloved brother, how you must approach God and what sort of repentance you must show Him. Do not, then, turn away until your last breath, nor forget the good counsel of me, the sinner; for I have not done these things and spoken to you from my own practice, but the grace of God has given me these things to say for your sake and for your salvation. If, then, with God working with you, you should do these things, as you persevere in this work of repentance, little by little you yourself would understand even greater, other mysteries, being taught them by grace from above, and there will be granted to you not only a fountain of tears, but also, through such actions, an alienation from all the passions. For to seek repentance and compunction always, and to investigate what things help and cooperate toward mourning and weeping and being contrite, and to perform them with zeal, but not to prefer oneself in anything or to do the will of the flesh at all, quickly brings (395) a man to progress and to purification and passionlessness, and makes him a partaker of the Holy Spirit; and not only that, but it also makes him equal to Antony, Sabas, and Euthymius, the great fathers.

And these things, if you listen to me and love repentance and compunction; but if you are not willing to listen to me and to acquire the aforesaid as an unceasing work, let neither you nor another blaspheme and say this is impossible, nor that: 'I have confessed, I have been so many years or so many,' nor recount to me the distribution and scattering of wealth and gold, nor say: 'With so much or so much of the gold I possessed I clothed the naked, I fed the hungry, I gave drink to the thirsty, I scattered all I had, I came to this mountain, I entered this cave, I reached the Lord’s tomb, I went up to the Mount of Olives, and now I have entered this monastery and been tonsured or even, having been purified beforehand, I sit in one cell, saying so many or so many prayers; and with these things I will be saved and it is enough for me!'. Do not, then, deceive yourself, brother, whoever you are, nor console yourself with empty thoughts, doing this foolishly. For all these things are good, and very good, but they are seed, know well, beloved. See then, as I say by way of example, you have fallowed the land and harrowed it, and harrowed it again, you have sown. Have you then recognized the seed sprouting from the bowels of the earth? Have you recognized it growing? Have you recognized the stalks of grain ripening? Have you recognized the fields of your soul’s earth white and ready for harvest? Have you plucked stalks from them, have you rubbed them (396) with your hands, that you might see the naked fruit of your labors? And seeing this, were you then nourished to satiety and did you receive strength? If, then, you know these things, I venerate your feet and I embrace them and I kiss their footprints; for I am not worthy to kiss your face. And rejoice and be glad, gathering with joy what you have sown with much toil and labor.

But if you are ignorant even of these things said to you by me and you do not even know if any of the better fruits has been sown in your earth—I mean, in the field of your heart—what have you gained, tell me, by circling the ends of the earth and coming to the farthest parts of the sea? Absolutely nothing! For if I have mercy on the whole world from things that are not my own—yet let them be my own—but I overlook myself being naked and poor and having come to the extremes of poverty, and so being about to die in poverty of good things and to stand before the dread judgment seat of Christ, what is the profit to me? We must depart from this life and from the body clothed and adorned, if indeed we wish to recline at the royal wedding with the friends of the king. And what is it that I and all of us ought to put on, so that we may not be found naked then? Christ, brothers, and God! And if again I should travel over the whole earth under heaven as one house and leave no country or city or church, into which I do not enter and worship and pray and investigate well the things in them and

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Ἰδού τοιγαροῦν εἴπομέν σοι, ἀγαπητέ ἀδελφέ, ὅπως προσελθεῖν σε δεῖ τῷ Θεῷ καί ὁποίαν αὐτῷ ἐπιδείξασθαι τήν μετάνοιαν. Μή οὖν ἀποστῇς ἕως τῆς ἐσχάτης σου ἀναπνοῆς, μηδέ ἐπιλάθῃ τῆς καλῆς συμβουλῆς ἐμοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ· οὐ γάρ ἔπραξα ταῦτα καί ἀπό πράξεως ἐμῆς εἶπόν σοι, ἀλλά ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ διά σέ καί τήν σήν σωτηρίαν δέδωκέ μοι ταῦτα εἰπεῖν. Εἰ οὖν ταῦτα Θεοῦ συνεργοῦντός σοι ποιήσειας, ἐγχρονίζοντός σου εἰς τό ἔργον τοῦτο τῆς μετανοίας, κατ᾿ ὀλίγον αὐτός σύ νοήσειας ἔτι μείζοντα ἄλλα μυστήρια, ὑπό τῆς ἄνωθεν χάριτος αὐτά διδασκόμενος, καί χαρισθήσεταί σοι οὐ μόνον δακρύων πηγή, ἀλλά καί πάντων παθῶν διά τῶν τοιούτων πράξεων ἀλλοτρίωσις. Τό γάρ ζητεῖν ἀεί μετάνοιαν καί κατάνυξιν, ἐρευνᾶν τε τίνα τά βοηθοῦντα καί συνεργοῦντα εἰς τό πενθεῖν καί κλαίειν καί κατανύσσεσθαι καί μετά σπουδῆς αὐτά διαπράττεσθαι, ἀλλά μηδέ προτιμᾶς ἐν μηδενί ἑαυτόν ἤ τό τῆς σαρκός ὅλως ποιεῖν θέλημα, συντόμως εἰς προκοπήν φέρει (395) τόν ἄνθρωπον καί εἰς κάθαρσιν καί ἀπάθειαν, καί Πνεύματος Ἁγίου κοινωνόν αὐτόν ἀπεργάζεται, οὐ μόνον δέ ἀλλά καί Ἀντωνίου, Σάβα καί Εὐθυμίου, τῶν μεγάλων πατέρων, ἴσον ἀποκαθίστησι.

Καί ταῦτα μέν, ἐάν ἀκούσῃς μου καί ἀγαπήσῃς τήν μετάνοιαν καί κατάνυξιν· εἰ δέ μή θελήσῃς ἀκοῦσαί μου καί τά εἰρημένα ἔργον ἀδιάλειπτον κτήσασθαι, μήτε σύ μήτε ἕτερος βλασφημείτω καί λεγέτω τοῦτο ἀδύνατον, μηδέ ὅτι· "Ἐξηγόρευσα, ἔχω τόσους χρόνους ἤ τόσους", μηδέ ἀπαριθμείτω μοι διάδοσιν καί διασκόρπισιν πλούτου καί χρυσίου, μηδέ λεγέτω· "Τόσους ἤ τόσους ἀπό τῶν ἐμοί ὑπαρχόντων χρυσίων ἐνέδυσα γυμνούς, πεινῶντας ἔθρεψα, διψῶντας ἐπότισα, πάντα μου διεσκόρπισα, ἀφικόμην εἰς τόδε τό ὄρος, εἰσῆλθον εἰς τόδε τό σπήλαιον, τόν τοῦ Κυρίου τάφον κατέλαβον, εἰς τό ὄρος ἀνῆλθον τῶν Ἐλαιῶν, καί νῦν εἰσῆλθον εἰς τόδε τό μοναστήριον καί ἀπεκάρην ἤ καί προαποκαθαρθείς κάθημαι ἐν ἑνί κελλίῳ, ποιῶν τόσας ἤ τόσας εὐχάς· καί μετά τούτων σωθήσομαι καί ἀρκετόν μοί ἐστι! ". Μή τοίνυν ἀπάτα σεαυτόν, ἀδελφέ, ὅστις εἶ, μηδέ παραμυθοῦ σεαυτόν διακένοις ἐννοίαις, ἀφρόνως τοῦτο ποιῶν. Ταῦτα γάρ πάντα καλά καί λίαν καλά, ἀλλά σπόρος εἰσίν, εὖ ἴσθι, ἀγαπητέ. Ἴδε οὖν, ὡς ἐν ὑποδείγματι λέγω, τήν χώραν ἐνέωσας καί ἐδιβόλησας, ἐτριβόλησας, ἔσπειρας. Ἔγνως ἆρα τόν σπόρον προκύψαντα ἐκ τῶν λαγόνων τῆς γῆς; Ἔγνως αὐξήσαντα; Ἔγνως στάχυας φθάσαντας; Ἔγνως λευκά σου τῆς ψυχικῆς γῆς τά λήϊα καί πρός θερισμόν ἕτοιμα; Ἔτιλλας στάχυας ἐξ αὐτῶν, ἔψωχες (396) ταῖς χερσίν, ἵνα γυμνόν ἴδῃς τόν καρπόν τῶν πόνων σου; Ἰδών δέ τοῦτον, ἐτράφης ἆρα εἰς κόρον καί δύναμιν ἔλαβες; Εἰ οὖν ταῦτα οἶδας, προσκυνῶ σου τούς πόδας καί κατασπάζομαι καί τά ἴχνη τούτων καταφιλῶ· οὐ γάρ εἰμι ἄξιος τό πρόσωπόν σου ἀσπάσασθαι. Καί χαῖρε καί ἀγαλλία, μετά χαρᾶς συλλέγων ἅ κόπῳ καί πόνῳ πολλῷ ἔσπειρας.

Εἰ δέ ἀγνοεῖς καί αὐτά τά παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ σοι λεγόμενα καί οὐδέ εἰ ἐσπάρη ἐν τῇ γῇ σού τι τῶν κρειττόνων καρπῶν - λέγω δή ἐν τῷ χωρίῳ τῆς καρδίας σου ἔγνωκας, τί ὠφέλησας, εἰπέ μοι, περικυκλεύσας τά πέρατα καί εἰς τά ἔσχατα τῆς θαλάσσης γενόμενος; Πάντως οὐδέν! Ἄν γάρ ἐλεήσω τόν κόσμον ἅπαντα ἐκ τῶν οὐκ ἐμῶν ὅμως ἔστω ἐμῶν , ἐμαυτόν δέ περιΐδω γυμνόν καί πένητα καί εἰς τά ἔσχατα τῆς πενίας γενόμενον καί οὕτω μέλλοντα ἐν πενίᾳ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀποθανεῖν καί τῷ βήματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ παραστῆναι τῷ φοβερῷ, τί μοι τό ὄφελος; Ἐνδεδυμένους ἡμᾶς δεῖ καί ἐστολισμένους τοῦ βίου τούτου καί τοῦ σώματος ἐξελθεῖν, εἴ γε καί βουλοίμεθα ἐν τῷ γάμῳ τῷ βασιλικῷ συνανακλιθῆναι τοῖς φίλοις τοῦ βασιλέως. Τί δέ ἐστιν ὅ ἐγώ καί πάντες ὀφείλομεν ἐπενδύσασθαι, ἵνα μή γυμνοί τότε εὑρεθῶμεν; Ὁ Χριστός, ἀδελφοί, καί Θεός! Ἐάν δέ πᾶσαν αὖθις τήν ὑπό τόν οὐρανόν γῆν περιέλθω ὡς μίαν οἰκίαν καί οὐδεμίαν καταλίπω χώραν ἤ πόλιν ἤ ἐκκλησίαν, ἐν ᾗ οὐκ εἰσέλθω καί προσκυνήσω καί εὔξομαι καί τά ἐν αὐτοῖς καλῶς ἱστορήσω καί