On the Desire for the Death of a Pure Soul

2.81. To Monk Kyriakos.

Others can still be with Christ in the body, according to the words of the Apostle: "I do not live unto him, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). And even more so – having put off this flesh, as the same Apostle writes again: "I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23). For the soul, as inspired by God into a certain wondrous creation of His, is something imaginable and strives for the imaginable.

For you must be restored to a pure nature, or to a Divine state, ageless, without sorrow, free from all care.

On the Various Conditions of People and on Falls Due to Negligence

2.82. To Monk Kyriakos.

People have states and positions so pure that one takes the place of the sun, another the moon, and a third the stars. And you see that some man was often more glorified than Solomon by wisdom from above, and later for his slumbering, for the weakening of his attentiveness, he was abandoned by God, he rejects reverence and fear of the All-Perfect, and falls into impiety and great sins, so that you can say: the sun has turned away, beyond expectation he has fallen into unlawful deeds! For often such things happen. And zealous people are sometimes afterwards deprived of the protection of the Holy Spirit for negligence, and Nebuchadnezzar goes to war against them, destroys the city with satanic weapons, and blinds the king, I mean the mind, like Zedekiah, and imprisons the youths and leads them to allegorical Babylon, and the holiness of David and Solomon and other kings — all that was in the treasuries of the heart was acquired with great labor and diligence, gathered and prepared, he takes with him, and burns the temple of the Lord, and is ready to trample under unclean feet. And I hear how, lamenting this, the Psalmist cries: "Have mercy on me, for many demons are fighting me from on high, trampling me all day long" (Psalm 55:2, 3); "For thou hast raised up enemies toward" my head (Psalm 65:12). And Jeremiah weeps over the soul, which formerly ruled for its successes, but now by the right of war has been taken, "being under the tribute" (Lamentations 1:7), serving the devil with sins. However, to the one who has fallen into such calamities, if he does not completely neglect himself through faint-heartedness, but, having repented, turns to the Lord and courageously resumes his former pious deeds, the Lord's grace returns again, and about him will speak the prophetic word: "I will turn and "raise up the tabernacle of David, which is fallen and dug up": and success, and Divine gifts, and inner knowledge "I will raise up and reward" (Amos 9:10), "And the last glory shall be greater than the first, saith the Lord Almighty" (Ag. 10). I have written this in reply to what was contained in your letter.

Creation

To the Most Reverend Magna, Deaconess of Ancyra, Homily on Non-Acquisitiveness

Chapter 1. Recently, when we wrote a sermon to those who are going through the monastic life, we sufficiently impressed upon them how much they have departed from apostolic accuracy, proving this by their diligence in vain things, by the fact that they are attached to possessions and no less than the rich-loving indulge in worldly amusements. And now, since zeal must be praised both in you, who have preserved the rule of non-acquisitiveness, as it was inviolable in the beginning, and in others like you, it is necessary to say that those who love a life in accordance with the law induces them to prefer it and leads to the choice of what is proper. As the condemnation of evil, by ashaming those who are devoted to it, and causing them to repent, turns them to the better, so the praise of the good and the lazy arouses them to appropriate it, catching them with the desire for good fame, and without compulsion attracting them to themselves, before, rather than by chaste thoughts, considering the uselessness of human praise, they will see the truly useful glory with which God glorifies the pious, rewarding them for their labors, and now making them known, and crowning them more than any rational nature on the day of judgment, when he will rightly award recompense to each one, not according to the erroneous assumption here, but, as justice requires, according to the very truth of what he has done.

For if he says to those who, out of compassion for their fellow countryman, who is exhausted by poverty, have shown him mercy: "Come, by the blessing of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you" (Matt. 25:34), then will he not speak the same word to those who cared little for the flesh (namely, as much as the need compelled them to do so) in order to maintain life, but spent much time on the occupation of the soul, and took care of the fact that so that it may appear pure and undefiled by indecent thoughts to Him Who will judge the secrets of the heart and examine thoughts, in what affinity or alienation they are with each of the disturbing passions? For both the former for their mercy to their kinsmen, and the latter for their wise treatment of the offender, are equally worthy of approval before the Judge.

Just as the merciful do not grieve that wealth is diminished by daily distribution, but rather rejoice, depending on it for the needy, so the non-acquisitive are not crushed by the desire for real blessings, but are made to leap and delight by the fact that they neglect what others consider precious, that they have freed themselves from the occupation of vain, free thoughts, devoting themselves to the diligent work of all the best, considering it a failure to do something to which others have chosen an unprofitable and useless service.

Chapter 2. Let no one think that progress in non-acquisitiveness is achieved without difficulty and easily.