(He sent his son to her with the intention of attracting her to the wilderness life; he describes a way to catch pigeons, smearing the wings of a tame pigeon with myrrh and luring other pigeons to him with incense. (Written from solitude))

There is one way to catch pigeons. When the one who is engaged in this trade gets one pigeon in his hands, he makes it tame and teaches it to eat with him, and then, having smeared its wings with myrrh, he lets it fly in the wild with strange pigeons. And the incense of this world makes the whole free flock the property of the one to whom the tame pigeon belongs, because the other pigeons are attracted by the fragrance and settle in the house.

But what is my intention to begin this letter? That I, too, having taken from you the son of Dionysius, the former Diomede, and anointed the wings of his soul with divine myrrh, I send to your sedateness, so that he may tempt you to fly with him and occupy the nest that I have built with me. If, therefore, I were to see this during my lifetime, that thy sedateness also chose for itself an exalted life, it would require me many persons worthy of God to render Him due honor.

18. To Macarius and John

(He exhorts them to continue in piety in the unfalse hope of receiving the Heavenly Kingdom, not heeding either the threats of the strong or the reproaches of false friends. (Apparently written during the reign of Julian)

Farmers do not consider agricultural labors to be news; swimmers are not surprised by a storm at sea; nor is summer sweat strange to day-laborers: so sorrows in the present world do not constitute something unexpected for those who have chosen a pious life. On the contrary, each of these works is associated with this certain work for those who undertake it, chosen not for its own sake, but for the sake of enjoying the expected blessings, because the difficulties of each such work are alleviated by hopes, which support and encourage people throughout their whole lives. But of those who labor for earthly fruits, or for anything earthly in general, they are completely deceived in their hopes and enjoy only the idea of what is expected; others, if they succeed in reaching the end at will, are again in need of a new hope, because the old hope has soon passed away and faded. In some of those who labor for the sake of piety, neither falsehood has destroyed hope, nor has the end weakened podvigs, because they are accepted by the unshakable and eternally abiding Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, as long as the teaching of the truth helps, let you not be troubled by false slander, let not be frightened by the threats of those who prevail, let not be offended by the ridicule and insults of acquaintances, the condemnation of people who seem to care about you and hide under the guise of advice the strongest bait to be drawn into deception. Let sound reason oppose all this, calling upon the Teacher of piety, our Lord Jesus Christ, as its champion and helper, for Whom it is pleasant to suffer evil, and to die is gain (see Phil. 1:21).

22. On Perfection in the Monastic Life

(Written, apparently, in 366)

In the inspired Scriptures there are many rules that must be observed by those who are zealous for pleasing God. But I thought it necessary to make a brief reminder, at the direction of the inspired Scriptures themselves, for the time being only of those duties about which you have now proposed a question. And since it is not difficult to find evidence of each duty in the Scriptures, I leave this to those who are practicing the reading of the Scriptures and are themselves able to remind even others of the following.

A Christian must have a way of thinking worthy of the heavenly calling, and live worthy of the Gospel of Christ. A Christian should not be distracted or distracted in any way from the remembrance of God, of His will and judgments. A Christian, having become in all things above justifications according to the law, must neither swear nor lie. He must not blaspheme, must not offend, must not quarrel, must not avenge himself, must not repay evil for evil, must not be angry. He must be long-suffering, endure anything; and whoever does wrong, he is to be rebuked in good time, not with a passionate movement in order to avenge himself, but with a desire to correct his brother, according to the commandment of the Lord. He should not say anything about an absent brother with the intention of denigrating — this is slander, even if what was said was just. It is necessary to turn away from a person who slanders a brother. You should not say jokes. One should not laugh and tolerate ridiculers. We should not idle talk and say anything that does not serve either for the benefit of those who hear, or for the use necessary and permitted to us by God; wherefore those who are engaged in work should try as much as possible to have the work done in silence, and that even the kindest words should be spoken by those who, after trial, have been entrusted with the construction of the word for the building up of faith, so that the Holy Spirit of God may not be offended. None of the newcomers should arbitrarily approach any of the brethren or talk to him, until those assigned to watch over the common in the entire deanery have judged whether this is pleasing to God for the common good.

One should not be enslaved to wine, desire to eat meat, and in general be voluptuous in reasoning about food or drink, because the ascetic abstains in everything. That which is given to everyone for use should not be considered property or hidden, but with care one should look upon all this as belonging to the Lord, and not pass unnoticed even that which is occasionally abandoned or neglected.

No one should be master even of himself, but everyone, as given by God to serve unanimous brethren, is accordingly obliged to reason about everything and do everything, however, remaining in his own rank. One should not grumble either when there is a lack of what is needed, or when one is tired of work, because those who are given the power to do this judge each one.

One should not allow oneself to shout or any other kind or movement that shows irritability or deviation from the undoubted confidence in God's presence. The voice should be commensurate with the need. One should not answer anyone or do anything insolently or contemptuously, but one should show modesty and deference to everyone in everything. One should not intentionally blink one's eye or use any other sign or movement of the member that offends a brother or shows contempt.

One should not try to dress up in clothes or shoes -- this is vanity. To satisfy bodily needs should be used inexpensively. Nothing should be spent beyond the need and for the sake of pomp – this is abuse.