5

I poured out like water; all my bones are scattered; My heart became like wax, melted in the midst of my inward parts. My strength has dried up like a potsherd; my tongue cleaveth to my throat, and Thou hast brought me down to the dust of death (Ps. 21. 15, 16).

6

The torments of death have seized me, and the streams of iniquity have terrified me (Ps. 17. 5, 6).

7

… my spirit is discouraged within me, my heart is dumb within me (Ps. 142. 4).

8

Ladder. Homily 26, ch. 14.

9

Consider the path for thy foot, and let all thy ways be firm. Do not deviate to the right or to the left; remove thy foot from evil [for the Lord watches over the right ways, and the left ones are corrupted. 4. 26–29).

10

Church Statute, ch. 35.

11

Ladder. Homily 1, ch. 18 and 19, according to the translation into Russian in 1851.

12

Ibid., ch. 9.

13

Ladder. Homily 4, chs. 3 and 5.

14

Book 4, chs. 8 and 9.

15

This is how monasticism is called in the writings of many Holy Fathers: in the "Discourse on Reasoning" of St. Cassian the Roman, Philokalia, part 1, in the teachings of Abba Dorotheus; in the Homilies of St. Symeon the New Theologian, etc.

16

Ladder. The title of the word is 28.

17

Church Ustav, ch. 37, and the Ladder. Homily 19, ch. 5.

18

Lux. 18. 14.