5 In the manuscript, instead of κατα δύναμιν, it reads κατ ̉αξιαν.

6 Lisshegolanie — superfluous verbosity, polyphony.— Ed.

That which is directed towards what is useful in the proper sense is called a word, and that which is uttered by unfulfilled desires for the sake of an unrealizable pleasure is not a word, but a superfluous speech, or as another, expressing a thought in more common words, would say: idle talk, nonsense, nonsense, and anything else of the same meaning. Therefore, what does this word inspire us? – During prayer, do not be subjected to the same things that, for example, happen in a child's mind. For those who are imperfect in mind do not think about what could really be fulfilled according to their thoughts, but autocratically build for themselves some kind of happy fate, assuming treasure, marriage, kingdoms, great cities, which are called by their names, imagine themselves to be the owners of what the vanity of thoughts has depicted to them, and some are even more boldly given over to such vanity, and having transgressed the measure of nature, or become birds in their thoughts, or shine like stars, or carry mountains in their hands, or imagine the sky to be passable for themselves, or intend to live for thousands of years, turning from old people to young people, or other similar things like bubbles and empty ideas7 give birth to the heart in the young in mind; Wherefore, just as in ordinary affairs he does not speculate on how any of the good desires are attained, but is vain with unfulfilled desires, like a foolish and miserable man, in these dreams he wastes time in which he could think how to do something useful for himself: so he who during prayer does not strive for that which is useful to the soul, but asks God to show favor to the passionate movements of his mind, as a foolish man, there is indeed one who speaks superfluously, praying that God may become a co-worker and servant of his vanities. I will say for example: someone approaches God with prayer and, not understanding in his mind the height of the power to which he approaches, without realizing it, offends this greatness with shameful and base petitions. As if a man, out of extreme poverty or coarseness, considers clay vessels to be of great value to himself, and then comes to the king, who is ready to distribute riches and ranks, putting aside the petitions that are proper for the king, and begins to ask the venerable one by this dignity to mold from clay what is desirable for him; In the same way, he who ignorantly uses prayer does not himself rise to the height of the Giver, but, on the contrary, desires to reduce the Divine power to his own low and earthly desire, and therefore extends his passionate aspirations to Him Who sees the heart, and extends them not in order to heal the inappropriate movements of the heart, but so that it may become even worse, when this evil striving, with the help of God, will be crowned with action. Since so-and-so offends, and the heart is disposed towards the offender, he says to God: "Smite him," as if crying out: "Let my passion be made Yours, let my malice pass into Thee also."

Just as in human battles it is impossible to stand for someone on the one hand, without feeling irritation with the one who is angry at the opposing one, so it is obvious that he who stirs up God against his enemy asks Him to be angry with him and become a participant in irritation. And this means for the Divinity to become passionate, to become like a man, and to transform the good nature into brutal cruelty. Thus, the lover of glory, so proud to have more and more, so eager to gain victory in legal proceedings, so eager to receive a crown in bodily struggles, seeking approval in spectacles, and often exhausted by the violent passion of youth – all of them pray to God not to be freed from the disease that prevails them, but that the illness in them may reach its limit; and since each of them does not have time to do this as a misfortune for himself, they truly speak too much, beseeching God to become a co-worker of their mental illness. And what is worse of all, it is desirable for them that the Divinity should accept opposite strivings, dividing God's efficacy into cruelty and love for mankind; for for Whom they desire to be merciful and gentle to them, they also ask Him to show Himself cruel and unmerciful to their enemies. What foolishness of those who speak superfluously! If God

7 According to the manuscript, instead of ποιηματα it reads: νοήματα. 4

is cruel to them, then, without a doubt, he is not kind to you either. And if, in your hope, he bows down to mercy towards you, then why will he come to the opposite disposition, exchanging mercy for cruelty?

But lovers of disputes have this objection at hand. For in defense of their cruelty they immediately present prophetic words, namely: David, who desires that sinners perish (Psalm 9:4), and prays for the shame and shame of his enemies (Psalm 82:18); Jeremiah, who expresses a desire to see God's vengeance on those who oppose him (Jeremiah 11:20); Hosea, who asks to give his enemies a womb that does not give birth and dry breasts (Hosea 9:14), is also collected by many other things, scattered in various places of the Holy Scriptures, proving that one should pray for vengeance on one's opponents and make God's goodness a co-worker of one's cruelty. But in order to stop those who deviate from the contrary about this, as if in passing, we will propose the following about each of the passages mentioned:

Not one of the truly saints, inspired by the Holy Spirit, whose utterances were written by Divine providence for the edification of subsequent generations, will be found to be adding utterances about anything evil. But there is only one goal in their words: it tends to correct nature from the vice that has entered into it. Therefore, just as one who prays that there may be no sick, that there be no beggars, desires not the death of people, but the destruction of sickness and poverty, so each of the saints, praying that everything hostile and hostile to nature may be destroyed, gives rise only to the most ignorant people to think that the saints are hardened and irritated against people. For the Psalmist, having said: "Let sinners perish from the earth, and let the wicked be no more" (Psalm 103:35), prays that sin and lawlessness may perish; for it is not man who is hostile to man, but by the vicious movement of arbitrariness that is united with him by nature becomes his enemy. Therefore David prays that evil may disappear; But man is not evil. For how can the likeness of the Good be evil? Thus, if he prays for the shame and shame of his enemies, then he points out to you the host of adversaries, attacking human life from an invisible enemy, of whom Paul expresses himself more frankly, saying that we are at war... against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness8 of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12), to demonic intrigues, by which evil cases of sin are presented to people, irritating encounters, reasons for lust, pretexts for envy, hatred, pride, and similar vices.

Seeing that all this maliciously surrounds the soul of everyone, the great Prophet, who prays for vengeance on these enemies, prays that they may be ashamed, that is, that he himself may be saved.9 for it is natural for the defeated in the struggle to be ashamed of his fall, just as it is natural for the victor to rejoice in victory. And that this is really so, gives us to understand the form of prayer. Let them be ashamed, it is said, and be ashamed of those who seek my soul (Psalm 34:4). The prophet prays for vengeance, not to those who plot to damage property, or dispute about the limits of possessions, or point out any vice in his body, but who plot against the soul. And what else does malice against the soul consist in if not in its alienation from God? And the human soul is alienated from God only by passionate disposition. Since the Divinity is always impassible, he who is constantly in passion is separated from communion with the Divine. Therefore, in order not to suffer this, David prays for the shame of the opposing ones. And this means nothing else than to ask for victory over one's adversaries. And these adversaries are passions. In the same way, Jeremiah, having a zeal for godliness, since the king of that time was madly devoted to idols, and his subjects were carried away with him, does not heal his own misfortune, but in general offers prayer for people, desiring that the whole human race may be chaste by the blow inflicted on the wicked.

8 This is how it reads from the manuscript.

9 According to the manuscript: τὸν α̉υτὸν. 5

so that the bitter suckers of sin may dry up, and that evil may not be born and nurtured in men any more. Therefore the Prophet says: Give unto them, O Lord... the womb that does not give birth, and dry breasts (Hos. 9:14). And if the saints find some other similar word by which a certain irritation is expressed and signified, then, of course, the thought is hidden in it, that evil should be banished, and not that man should be destroyed. God did not create death (Wis. 1:13). Do you hear this decisive sentence! Therefore, how would the Prophet beg death for his own enemies from God, to Whom the activity of death is alien? He does not rejoice over the destruction of the living. Only he who speaks too much and wishes to turn away from his own enemies God's love for mankind encourages us to rejoice over human misfortunes.

But they say: some have already been vouchsafed authority, honors, riches, having used prayer for this, and by such success they have given the idea that they are God-loving. Therefore someone will say: How then do you forbid us to offer up prayers to God for anything like this? Everyone, however, knows that everything depends on God's will, and the present life is arranged from above, and no one will contradict this teaching. However, we also recognize other reasons for such success of prayer: and without a doubt, God does not give it as good to those who ask, but so that faith in God may be strengthened in superficial people, and so that, ascertaining by experience how God hearkens to our prayers, by asking for unimportant things, little by little we will gradually rise to the desire for higher and divine gifts, as we see in our children. As long as they are at their mother's breasts, as much as nature can accommodate them, they demand from the woman who gave birth. But if the infant grows to manhood and acquires a certain ability to speak, he no longer looks at the nipples, but looks at the mother's eyes, such as the hair on her head, or her clothes, or the like, with which the child's eye is amused. When he comes to age and receives an increase in mind along with the body, then, abandoning all childish desires, he will ask his parents for a servant for a perfect life. In the same way, God, by all means accustoming man to turn his gaze to Him, is often attentive to unimportant petitions for this very reason, so that by a good deed in small things he who has received this mercy may be summoned to the desire of the highest. Therefore, if such and such a person, by God's Providence, has become famous and famous from the invisible, or has acquired anything else that people seek in this life: leadership, or wealth, or a brilliant position, imagine the purpose of this, namely, that God's love for mankind in this serves for you as proof of God's great power, so that, having received children's toys, you may send up petitions to the Father for the most important and most perfect. And this is everything that benefits the soul. For it would be most foolish of all if he who approaches God should ask the Eternal for temporal things, the Heavenly for earthly things, the Most High for him who creeps on earth, the Giver of the heavenly kingdom for this earthly and lowly well-being, the Giver of the inalienable, for the short-term use of another's possessions, and the taking away of which is necessary, and the enjoyment of which is short-lived, and the disposal of which is dangerous.

The Lord beautifully depicts this incongruity by addition, saying as the pagans. But to have concern for what is visible is characteristic of those who have no hope for themselves in the age to come: neither fear of judgment, nor the threat of hell, nor expectation of blessings, nor anything hoped for after the resurrection, is characteristic of people who, like cattle, see only the present life, recognize as good only that which they can give to satisfy the larynx, the belly, and other voluptuous demands of the body. Either to be the first among others and to make oneself think that one is superior to others, or to rest on a multitude of talents, or to possess something else that only serves to deceive life, is characteristic of such people to whom whoever speaks of hope in the future seems to be idle talk, as soon as he begins to describe paradise, and the kingdom, and heavenly life, and the like. Thus, since it is characteristic of those who have no hope to cling to the present life, the excesses and vanities of desire, which voluptuous people hope to successfully attain through prayer, are beautifully called by Scripture 6