Sleep for five hours, or six; in general, measure sleep with the sleep of the night.

26) How to wake up from sleep and spend time until morning.

When you awaken from sleep, first of all give glory to God, and calling upon His intercession, begin your most important work, that is, pray in your heart unwaveringly and purely, and pray in this way for an hour. Then the mind itself is for the most part quiet and unserene; but we have a commandment to offer the first and best thing to God as a sacrifice, that is, to unswervingly extend our first thoughts in pure heartfelt prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ, as St. John says. Nilus: "He makes his prayer heard, who always brings his first thought, like ripe fruit, to God" (ch. 126). Then sing the Midnight Office.

But if you, not being firm in perfect silence, cannot begin as we have said, for this or any other reason, as often happens to those who are just beginning such work, and sometimes, though rarely, to those who have made good progress in it, but have not yet attained perfection, for only the perfect can do all things in Christ Who strengthens them (Phil. 4:11). 13), — so if you cannot, then, having risen from sleep and having restored as much as you can, a vigorous sobriety, first sing the Midnight Office, with attention and understanding.

After this, sit down and pray in your heart purely and unwisely, as shown, for one hour, or rather, as much as the Giver of good things gives you. Climacus says: "During the night, devote most of your time to prayer, and give less to Psalmody; and by day you shall arrange your works. according to his strength" (Verse 27:77).

If, even after such an ascetic need, you are still overcome by sleepy relaxation and dissipation, get up and tense up, still holding fast to prayer, and trying, as you know, to bring yourself to a waking state (St. Isaac: "Go out and walk"). Then sit down and pray, as it is written, always with all diligence trying to converse with the Pure One with pure prayer.

Then arise, sing wisely the Six Psalms, the Fifty Psalm, and the canon as you wish. After this, sit down again and pray sincerely for half an hour with cheerful sobriety. And rising again, sing the praises, the usual doxology, and the first hour. And then make the dismissal.

Speak with your lips what you read only in such a high voice. so that this may be heard by your ears: since we are commanded to bring fruit to God, with all our soul and with all our minds thanks to the all-wise God, Who loves mankind and cares for us, Who by His immeasurable mercy has vouchsafed us to pass safely through the abyss of the past night, and to see the bright field of the present day, and praying warmly that He may grant us to flow comfortably through the gloomy and fierce storm of demons and passions.

27) How it is proper to live from morning to lunch.

From morning to noon, having placed your whole trust in the One God, and having prayed to Him with a contrite heart, may He be a helper to you, who are weak, lazy and careless, try to spend all your time as much as you have in heartfelt prayer, pure and unwavering, and in reading. When you read what is due to you from the Psalter, the Epistle and the Holy Gospel, read it while standing, and do the same when you lift up prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ and the Most-Pure Mother of God; and the rest of the readings of the Holy Scriptures are to be performed while sitting. Then, in due time, sing attentively the usual hours, very wisely established by the Holy Fathers, all-mightily and wholeheartedly rejecting idleness, the teacher of all evil, and avoiding along with passions and the occasions for them, no matter how small and harmless they may seem.

28) On how necessary it is to avoid idleness, and on the fact that the Church tradition should be observed even by the silent.

St. St. Isaac says: "Beware, beloved, of idleness, for in it is hidden certain death, and without it it is impossible to fall into the hands of those who seek to capture the monk. On that day, God will not condemn us for the psalms, nor for the omission of prayers, but for the fact that by this omission the demons are given entrance. But these, when they have found a passage for themselves, will enter in and shut the doors of our eyes; then they will terannically fill us with such impurities that they subject us to divine judgment, with the most vicious vengeance. And we thus become for the omission of small things, which, nevertheless, for Christ's sake is considered worthy of great care, as it is written: "Whoever does not submit his will to God will fall under the yoke of His adversary. Wherefore let it be esteemed by thee, as it were, as a wall against those who seek to take us captive, this, which seems to thee small, the accomplishment of which in the cell, in the spirit of revelation, has been wisely established by the heads of the church rite for the preservation of our lives, and the omission of which is considered small by the unwise, who do not take into account the harm resulting from it. But for these both the beginning of the path and the middle is unbridled freedom, which is the mother of passions. Why is it better to asceticly compel oneself not to omit this little thing, than to give place to sin by omitting it? For the end of this miserable freedom is cruel slavery" (Verse 71, p. 519).

A little later he immediately said again: "Oh, how sweet are the passionate urges! It happens that some people can sometimes cut off and by moving away from objects establish a certain peacefulness in themselves and rejoice in peace from them, but they cannot stop the urges of passion. Why and not even though we are tempted; and we grieve for the passions (that have arisen), but we love the prolongation of the urges or sweets of the passions. We do not desire sins, but we accept with pleasure the urges that lead us to them; wherefore these latter become in us the cause of the former in reality. Whoever loves passionate passions is involuntarily and handied by them, and unwillingly, a slave is a slave to the passions. He who hates his sins will cease to sin, and he who confesses them will receive their remission. It is impossible for a person to abandon the habit of sin before acquiring enmity towards it, and to receive forgiveness before confessing his sins; of which one serves as the cause of true humility, and the other of contrition, which is born of shame in the heart" (ibid., pp. 520-1). And again: "There is no sin that is not forgiven, except that of which one does not repent" (Verse 2, p. 12). However, enough about this.

And thou, after singing the said hours, sit down to sing, — keeping prayer also while partaking of food, so that, acting in this way, come, by the grace of God, to the habit of praying unceasingly, according to the commandment. But let the word about food, the body, Who created and sustains the body in ineffable wisdom, wait a little, and first let the word about food, which strengthens and enlivens the soul, which is served, according to the words of the Holy Fathers, sacred and divinely created prayer: which is quite true, because the soul is more precious than the body.