St. Symeon the New Theologian

Words (1 – 52)

Contents

The first word. 1. What was Adam's transgression? 2. How, by reason of his transgression, did all men become corruptible and mortal? 3. How did the merciful and loving God, through the economy of the Incarnation, deliver the human race from corruption and death? 4. And what is the sacrament of the cross and the three-day burial of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ? 4

The second word. 1. That human nature, through the incarnation of the Son and God the Word, comes back to well-being, that is, to that good and divine state in which it was before Adam's transgression. 2. Also about the natural, written and spiritual law. 3. Also about how someone can come to well-being. 4. And by doing what works we can enter into the kingdom of heaven. 6

Third word. 1. That we ought to examine ourselves, whether we have the beatitudes of Christ, because they (the virtues indicated by them) are the sign of the seal (of Christ) 8

Fourth Word. 1. That the death of the soul is the removal of the Holy Spirit from it, and that the sting of death is sin; and that death and corruption of the body are likened to death and corruption of the soul. 2. And about what are the signs of deadness and liveliness of the soul. 3. Of the manner in which corruption and death are taken away, and that death is now not destroyed, but trampled upon and made null and void. 4. On how the bodies of the deceased saints are glorified after death, and also on the resurrection and righteous judgment of God. 12

The fifth word. 1. What is the autocracy that God gave to man in the beginning? 2. And after the fall, what remained in man of this autocracy? 16

Sixth Word. 1. As there is sickness in the body, so is sin in the soul. 2. As we have a bodily sense, so it is necessary that the soul should have a spiritual sense and feel both its illness and health. 3. Whoever does not have a spiritual sense and does not feel whether his soul is sick or healthy, is not yet a Christian, although he is called a Christian, for the direct fruit of the Christian faith is the health of the soul. 18

Seventh Word. 1. God, out of His excessive love for people, subjected them to various deprivations in this life. 2. Poverty is a blessing of the Holy God. 3. Whoever blasphemes poverty denies Christianity and does not want to be a Christian. 4. The necessity insists that Christians should have sorrows and troubles. 20

The Eighth Word. 1. To keep in mind what is read in the Divine Scriptures is the action of the power of God. 2. On prayer and reading. 3. How should a Christian pray? 22

Ninth Homily. 1. The greatest sin is to pray without the fear of God, without reverence and attention. Those who allow it do not know, as they should, God. 2. In order to know God, divine light is needed. 3. Every person sins in mind, word and deed. In order to protect oneself from sins, one must first of all heal the mind. 24

Tenth Word. 1. God did not create man in the beginning who was weak, so that he should sin through weakness, as he sins now. 2. One is the sin of Adam, and another is the other sins with which we sin now. 3. What has been given to us by Christ, and what is sin? 4. For this reason God was made man, that He may abolish the works of the devil. 26