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prophetically she too cries out to God,} "You have torn off my sackcloth and have girded me with gladness, so that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent."

οη'. The divine Scripture indicates three places in which the mind is accustomed to dwell. But I say that there are rather two, not dogmatizing contrary to Scripture—may it never be!—but not counting the middle between the beginning and the end.} This is what I mean: one who has passed from city to city and from country to another country, would not also call the very road he traveled a country or a city, even if he sees many wonderful things along it. For one who has passed from Egypt to the promised land and has settled in it remembers all the things in between and relates these to all;} however, he does not say that he passed from a first to a second, and from a second to a third city or country, but rather as from slavery to freedom and from darkness to light and from captivity to the restoration of his own fatherland. So too from passion to dispassion and from the enslavement of the passions to the freedom of the Spirit, and from the unnatural prepossession, which the spiritual law calls captivity, to the supernatural return, from the sea and surge of this life to the calm state outside the world, from the bitterness of worldly cares and afflictions to the ineffable sweetness and freedom from care for any earthly thing, from the state and turmoil of desire for many things to the one (406) thing alone and its total relation and love, the mind of us humans is accustomed to pass.

οθ'. The passage of the mind from the visible to the invisible and its dwelling on things beyond sensation produces a forgetfulness of all that lies behind. This, then, I call true stillness and the space and place of stillness, to which he who has been deemed worthy to ascend, not like Moses on the mountain for forty days and as many nights will again be brought down from there, but having been confirmed that it is good to be there, he will no longer turn at all to the things below;} and having become from that point a house of the Trinity and being himself in the Trinity, as if he were in the kingdom of heaven, he will dwell there, with love, of course, holding him and not allowing him to fall.

π'. Not only he who lives in stillness or he who is in obedience, but also he who is an abbot and he who presides over many and he who serves must be free from care, that is, undoubtedly free from all worldly affairs;} for if we are anxious, we are found to be transgressors of God's commandment which says:} "Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink or what you shall wear; for all these things the Gentiles seek";} and again:} "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life."

πα'. He who has his reasoning anxious about worldly affairs is not free;} for he is held fast and enslaved by anxiety for these things, whether he is anxious about them for himself or for others. But he who is free from these things will not be anxious in a worldly manner, either for himself or for others, whether he happens to be a bishop or an abbot or a deacon;} but neither will he ever be idle or despise any of the lowliest and smallest things, but doing (407) and performing all things in a manner pleasing to God, he will remain free from care in all things and in his whole life.

πβ'. There is an anxiety that is inactive and an activity free from care, just as, conversely, a freedom from care that is active and an idleness full of care, which the Lord also revealed, the one by saying:} "My Father is working until now, and I am working,"} and again:} "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life," not abolishing work, but teaching us work without anxiety;} and the other when He said,} "Who by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?" abolishing inactive anxiety;} and concerning the

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προφητικῶς καί αὐτή βοᾷ πρός Θεόν} «∆ιέρρηξας τόν σάκκον μου καί περιέζωσάς με εὐφροσύνην, ὅπως ἄν ψάλλῃ σοι ἡ δόξα μου καί οὐ μή κατανυγῶ».

οη'. Τρεῖς μέν ἡ θεία Γραφή τόπους, ἐν οἷς ἐμφιλοχωρεῖν ὁ νοῦς εἴωθεν, ὑποσημαίνεται. Ἐγώ δέ δύο μᾶλλον εἶναί φημι, οὐκ ἐναντία τῇ Γραφῇ δογματίζων, μή γένοιτο, ἀλλά τῆς ἀρχῆς καί τοῦ τέλους τό μέσον οὐκ ἀριθμῶν} οἷόν τι λέγω, ὁ ἐκ πόλεως εἰς πόλιν καί ἀπό χώρας εἰς ἑτέραν μεταβάς χώραν, οὐχί καί τήν ὁδόν αὐτήν ἥν ὥδευσε χώραν ἤ πόλιν καλέσειεν, εἰ καί πολλά τινα καί θαυμαστά κατ᾿ αὐτήν θεάσεται πράγματα. Ὁ γάρ ἀπό τῆς Αἰγύπτου πρός τήν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας μεταβάς γῆν καί ἐν ταύτῃ κατοικισθείς, πάντων μέν τῶν ἐν μέσῳ μέμνηται καί ταῦτα διηγεῖται τοῖς πᾶσιν} οὐ μέντοι δέ ἀπό πρώτης εἰς δευτέραν, καί ἀπό δευτέρας εἰς τρίτην πόλιν ἤ χώραν μεταβῆναι λέγει, ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ ἀπό δουλείας εἰς ἐλευθερίαν καί ἀπό σκότους εἰς φῶς καί ἀπό αἰχμαλωσίας εἰς τήν τῆς οἰκείας πατρίδος ἀποκατάστασιν. Οὕτω καί ἀπό ἐμπαθείας εἰς ἀπάθειαν καί ἀπό τῆς τῶν παθῶν δουλώσεως εἰς τήν ἐλευθερίαν τοῦ Πνεύματος καί ἀπό τῆς παρά φύσιν προλήψεως, ὅπερ αἰχμαλωσίαν ὁ πνευματικός ἀποκαλεῖ νόμος, εἰς τήν ὑπέρ φύσιν ἐπάνοδον, ἀπό τοῦ βιωτικοῦ πελάγους καί κλύδωνος πρός τήν ἔξω τοῦ κόσμου γαληνιαίαν κατάστασιν, ἀπό τῆς πικρίας τῶν βιωτικῶν μεριμνῶν τε καί θλίψεων εἰς τήν ἀνεκλάλητον γλυκύτητα καί ἀμεριμνίαν γηΐνου παντός πράγματος, ἀπό τῆς περί τά πολλά ἐπιθυμίας περιστάσεώς τε καί τύρβης πρός τό ἕν (406) μόνον καί τήν ὁλικήν σχέσιν αὐτοῦ καί ἀγάπην, ὁ νοῦς ἡμῶν τῶν ἀνθρώπων μεταβαίνειν εἴωθεν.

οθ'. Ἡ μετάβασις τοῦ νοός ἀπό τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐπί τά ἀόρατα καί ἡ ἀπό τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπί τά ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν τούτου ἐμφιλοχώρησις λήθην πάντων τῶν ὄπισθεν ἐμποιεῖ. Ταύτην οὖν ἐγώ ἡσυχίαν ὄντως καί ἡσυχίας χῶρον καί τόπον ἀποκαλῶ, εἰς ὅν ὁ ἀνελθεῖν ἀξιωθείς, οὐχ ὡς ὁ Μωϋσῆς ἐπί τοῦ ὄρους τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας καί νύκτας τοσαύτας ποιήσας πάλιν ἐκεῖθεν κατενεχθήσεται, ἀλλά καλόν ἐκεῖ εἶναι βεβαιωθείς οὐκέτι πρός τά κάτω καθόλου ἐπιστραφήσεται} οἶκος δέ τῆς Τριάδος ἐντεῦθεν γενόμενος καί αὐτός ἐν τῇ Τριάδι, ὡς ἐν αὐτῷ ὤν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἐγκατοικήσει, τῆς ἀγάπης δηλονότι κρατούσης αὐτόν καί μή ἐώσης πεσεῖν.

π'. Οὐχ ὁ ἡσυχάζων μόνος ἤ ὁ ὑποτασσόμενος, ἀλλά καί ὁ ἡγουμενεύων καί ὁ πολλῶν προϊστάμενος καί αὐτός ὁ διακονῶν, ἀμέριμνος ὀφείλει εἶναι, ἤγουν ἐλεύθερος ἀπό πάντων τῶν βιωτικῶν πραγμάτων ἀναμφιβόλως} εἰ γάρ μεριμνῶμεν, παραβάται τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐντολῆς εὑρισκόμεθα τῆς λεγούσης} «Μή μεριμνήσητε τῇ ψυχῇ ὑμῶν τί φάγητε ἤ τί πίητε ἤ τί ἐνδύσησθε} ταῦτα γάρ πάντα, τά ἔθνη ἐπιζητεῖ»} καί πάλιν} «Βλέπετε μήποτε βαρυνθῶσιν αἱ καρδίαι ὑμῶν ἐν κραιπάλῃ καί μέθῃ καί μερίμναις βιωτικαῖς».

πα'. Ὁ ἐν τοῖς βιωτικοῖς ἔχων πράγμασι τόν λογισμόν μεριμνῶντα οὐκ ἔστιν ἐλεύθερος} ὑπό γάρ τῆς τούτων μερίμνης κατέχεται καί δεδούλωται, κἄν ὑπέρ ἑαυτοῦ μεριμνᾷ ταῦτα κἄν δι᾿ ἑτέρους. Ὁ δέ ἀπό τούτων ἐλεύθερος, οὔτε δι᾿ ἑαυτόν, οὔτε δι᾿ ἑτέρους μεριμνήσει βιωτικῶς, κἄν ἐπίσκοπος κἄν ἡγούμενος κἄν διάκονος εἶναι τύχῃ} ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ ἀργήσει ποτέ ἤ τινος καταφρονήσει τῶν εὐτελεστέρων καί σμικροτάτων, θεαρέστως δέ (407) ἅπαντα ποιῶν καί πράττων, ἀμέριμνος ἐν πᾶσι διατελέσει καί ἐν τῷ βίῳ παντί.

πβ'. Ἔστι μέριμνα ἄπρακτος καί πρᾶξις ἀμέριμνος, ὡς καί τό ἀνάπαλιν ἀμεριμνία ἔμπρακτος καί ἀργία ἐμμέριμνος, ἅς καί ὁ Κύριος ἐδήλωσεν εἰπών τήν μέν ἐν τῷ εἰπεῖν} «Ὁ πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται κἀγώ ἐργάζομαι»} καί πάλιν} «Ἐργάζεσθε μή τήν βρῶσιν τήν ἀπολλυμένην, ἀλλά τήν μένουσαν εἰς ζωήν αἰώνιον», οὐκ ἀναιρῶν τό ἐργάζεσθαι, ἀλλά τήν χωρίς μερίμνης ἐργασίαν ἐκδιδάσκων ἡμᾶς} τήν δέ ἐν τῷ αὖθις εἰπεῖν} «Τίς μεριμνῶν δύναται προσθεῖναι εἰς τήν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ πῆχυν ἕνα;» ἀναιρῶν τήν ἄπρακτον μέριμναν} περί δέ τῆς