Above all, one should take care of the first of these commandments and the source, which are, as it were, the mother of the rest, and to them devote the greatest part of the action. For in this way, with God's help, we will unstumblingly attain both the goal presupposed at the beginning of good action and the end of our striving, that is, the manifestation in us of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

8) The beginning of every action pleasing to God is the invocation with faith of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with it the peace and love that shine forth from it.

The beginning of every God-pleasing action is the invocation with faith of the saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, since He Himself declared: "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5), and with this invocation peace and love: peace, for it is fitting to pray, as the Apostle says, without anger or meditation (1 Tim. 2:8); love, for God is love, and abide in love in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). And these peace and love not only make prayer favorable, but they themselves are born again from this prayer and shine forth like inseparable divine rays, and grow and come to perfection.

9) Each of these three and all three together is given us an abundance of all blessings.

Each of these three, and all three together, is given to us and multiplies in us an abundance of all blessings. "For with faith, by invoking the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we firmly hope to receive mercy and true life, hidden in Him, which, with the frequent invocation of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ within our hearts, flow from Him as from some divine source that is ever-flowing. "By those who surpass all intellect and have no limits, we are vouchsafed peace with God and with each other. By love, whose praise is incomparable, since it is the end and head of the law and the prophets, since God is also called love, we are wholly united with God, with the abolition of our sin by the righteousness of God, and with the grace-filled sonship working in us wonderfully through love. For love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8); Love covers all things, eats faith in all things, trusts in all things, endures all things, love falls away (1 Corinthians 13:7).

10) And our Lord Jesus Christ, in the days of the salvific passion, left them to His disciples, as the final commandments and the divine inheritance, also after the resurrection.

When His saving suffering came, He appeared in the following words spoken to His disciples: "If ye ask in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14); and Amen, Amen, I say unto you, that if ye ask of the Father in my name, he shall give it unto you. Hitherto ask nothing in My name: ask and receive, that your joy may be fulfilled (John 16:23, 24). "Again after the resurrection He said to them, 'These signs shall follow them that believe: in My name demons shall come, tongues shall speak anew, and so on.' (Mark 16:17 &c). In agreement with this, the Confidant, John the Evangelist, declares: "Many and other signs, Jesus did before his disciples, which is not written in this book." And this was written, that ye may believe that Jesus is Christ the Son of God, and that ye may believe in His name (John 20:30, 31). And St. Paul the Apostle: In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and so on. (Philippians 2:10). And in the Acts of the Apostles it is written: "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, speak wisely to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, as in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, Whom ye have crucified, Whom God hath raised from the dead, for this he stands well before you." And a little later: "And there is no other salvation: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, in whom it behooves us to be saved" (Acts 4:8-12). And again the Saviour: "Give unto Me all power in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18). This is also evident from what the God-Man Lord said to the Apostles before the cross: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (John 14:27); and: "This I say, that in Me there may be peace" (John 16:33); and: "This is my commandment, that ye love one another" (John 15:12); and "Of this all shall understand, that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:25); and as the Father has loved me, and I have loved you, be ye in my love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love: as I have kept the commandments of My Father, and abide in His love (John 15:9, 10). And again, after His resurrection, at various times, He is often seen as giving peace, appearing as His own and saying, "Peace be unto you" (John 20:21). "To Peter the Apostle, to whom He also entrusted primacy over the disciples, He said to Him up to three times: "If thou lovest Me, O Peter, more than others, feed My sheep" (John 21:17), showing that entrusting the care of the flock is a kind of reward for the most ardent love for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. "It will not be far from our goal or our object if someone says that from the three virtues just shown, other three wondrous fruits are born to us, namely: purification of the soul, enlightenment and spiritual maturity.

11) In these three all the virtues are combined.

If anyone wants to study with all attention to the exactness. then he will find that on this trembling and indissoluble rope hangs the purple woven by God of all virtues. For the life according to God is a kind of precious golden-speckled net, in which one virtue is closely combined with another, and all are harmonized into one: for they all arrange one thing, namely, that which is adored by the man who sincerely lives in them. enriching it in a way, as it were, with connecting rings, with this sweetest name of our Lord Jesus Christ, with faith, if you will, and with hope and humility, with salvific invocation, and also enriching it with peace and love, which are truly a God-planted three-stemmed tree, a life-giving tree, which he touches in good time and, as befits him, partakes of Communion, does not gather death, as the first-created, but unceasing and eternal life.

12) The gift and presence of the Holy Spirit is given to the faithful by God the Father in Christ Jesus and in His holy name.

And the gift of the Holy Spirit is also given to the faithful by God the Father, in Christ Jesus and in His holy name, as the most divine and soul-loving Lord Jesus Christ Himself says to the Apostles: "I have not eaten you, but I am coming: for if I do not come, the Comforter will not come to you: but if I come, I will send Him to you" (John 6:11). 7); and when the Comforter comes, I will send him to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, and so on. . . . (John 15:26); and again: "And the Comforter is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father hath sent in My name" (John 14:26).

13) The Holy Fathers and the Holy Spirit living in them have reverently ordained that we pray to our Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him for mercy.

For this reason, very wisely, our glorious leaders and instructors, and with the Holy Spirit living in them, and all of us, especially those who have desired to enter the field of God-created silence, to dedicate ourselves to God and, having been torn away from the world, to be reasonably silent, teach us above all other work and care, to pray to the Lord and to ask Him for mercy with undoubted hope, having unceasingly in deed and occupation the invocation of His all-holy and sweetest name, always carrying Him in our minds, in our hearts, and in our mouths, and in every way forcing ourselves, in Him and with Him, to breathe, and to live, and to sleep, and to be awake, and to walk, and to eat, and to drink, and in general, whatever we do, to do so. For just as, in His absence, all that is harmful flocks to us, leaving no room for anything beneficial to the soul: so, in His presence, all that is contrary is driven away, there is no lack of anything good, and everything is possible for fulfillment, as our Lord Himself declares: "Whosoever shall be in Me, and I in him, the same shall bring forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:15). 5). For this is a fearful and venerable name for every creature, more than any name, having called upon with faith, and we, the unworthy, with His help, will boldly lift up the wind of the present word and begin to stretch out into the former.

14) He who desires to walk in the Lord without falling along the path of silence, above all, with complete renunciation of everything, must also choose perfect obedience.