Second Conference in Prayer
THE SECOND CONFERENCE OF ABBA ISAAC.
On Prayer
Contents
1. The sequence of this narrative compels us to insert and find a place, amongst the lofty instructions of the anchorites that, by God’s help, have been set forth (albeit in plain and unadorned style) for something which may seem to add a blemish to a fair body. I have no doubt, however, that by it no small instruction will be conferred on some rather simpler people in the matter of the image of Almighty God which we read about in Genesis—particularly when the foundations of such a doctrine are considered—since ignorance of it cannot but mean terrible blasphemy and harm to the Catholic faith.
2. (1) In the land of Egypt, this is the custom that is observed in keeping with ancient tradition: After the day of Epiphany (which the priests of that province regard as the time of our Lord’s baptism and of His nativity according to the flesh as well, and so they celebrate the solemnity of either mystery on the single festival of this day and not separately as in the Western provinces), letters are sent from the bishop of Alexandria to all the churches of Egypt; by these letters, the beginning of Lent and the day of Easter are designated, not only in all the cities but also in all the monasteries.38
(2) Now, in keeping with this custom, just a few days after the previous conference with Abba Isaac had been held, the festal letters arrived from Theophilus, bishop of the aforesaid city.39 In these letters, along with the announcement of Easter, he also argued against the Anthropomorphites’ foolish heresy with an extended discussion, and refuted it in detail. This was received with such great bitterness by nearly the entire group of monks who dwell throughout the whole province of Egypt, because of their simplicity and error, that the greatest part of the elders decreed instead that the aforesaid bishop deserved to be condemned by the whole body of the brethren as one who had been tainted with the worst heresy: he seemed to attack the teaching of Holy Scripture by denying that God Almighty was formed in the shape of a human figure (although in fact Scripture attests most clearly that Adam was created in His image). (3) Finally, this letter was rejected also by those who were living in the desert of Scetis, who excelled all who were in the monasteries of Egypt in perfection and in knowledge. Except for Abba Paphnutius, the priest of our congregation,40 none of the priests who presided over the other three churches in the same desert would so much as allow it to be read or repeated in their meetings.
3. (1) There was amongst those who were captured by this mistaken notion a man named Serapion—a man of most ancient austerity and altogether perfected in asceticism,41 whose ignorance in view of the aforementioned doctrine was injurious to all who maintained the true faith to the same extent that he himself surpassed nearly all the monks in the merits of his life and in the greatness of his age.
(2) Now when Serapion could not be brought back to the path of the right faith by many admonitions of the holy priest Paphnutius (in that this position seemed to him a novelty rather than something that had been taught or handed down by his predecessors), as it happened a certain deacon named Photinus, who was a man of profound learning, came from the region of Cappadocia out of a desire to visit the brethren living in the same desert. The blessed Paphnutius received him with the warmest welcome and, with a view to confirming the faith related in the letters of the previously mentioned bishop, placed him in the midst of the brethren and asked him before all of them how the Catholic churches of the East as a whole habitually interpreted the passage in Gen. [1: 26] where it says, ‘Let us make man after our image and likeness’.
(3) Now when he had explained that the ‘image and likeness of God’ was taken by all the leaders of the churches spiritually rather than according to the lowly sense of the letters, and he had proved in detail—with many examples from Scripture—that nothing of the sort could befall that infinite, incomprehensible and invisible majesty with the result that it could be encompassed in a human shape and likeness (since that which is by nature incorporeal, uncompounded and simple cannot be conceived by the mind any more than it can be detected by the eyes)—at last the old man, moved by this learned man’s many powerful assertions, was drawn to the faith of the Catholic tradition.
(4) Abba Paphnutius (like the rest of us) was filled with unbounded delight at his assent, in that the Lord had not allowed a man of such great age who was perfected in so many virtues—one who erred only in ignorance and the simplicity of his lack of learning—to deviate from the path of right faith even to the end. But when we arose in thanksgiving and were all pouring forth prayers to the Lord, the old man’s mind was confused during his prayer because he perceived that the anthropomorphic image of the Godhead that he habitually set before himself during prayer had been eliminated from his heart. Suddenly bursting into a flood of bitterest tears and choking sobs as a result, he cast himself down on the ground, exclaiming with powerful groans: ‘Alas, wretch that I am [cf. Rom. 7: 24]! (5) They have taken from me my God, Whom I would now grasp—but have not; Whom I would address or supplicate—but know no longer!’42
We were deeply disturbed by this and, with the effect of the previous conference lingering in our hearts, we returned to Abba Isaac. When we found him nearby, we addressed him with these words:
4. (1) ‘Although our delight in the previous conference about the character of prayer would incite us to return to your Holiness and postpone everything else, quite apart from what has arisen lately, all the same this desire of ours is somewhat increased by Abba Serapion’s grave error, which we suppose was conceived by the slyness of iniquitous demons. We are depressed by no small anguish when we consider him not only completely losing those labours which he has so laudably performed in the desert these fifty years, but also incurring the risk of eternal death, by the sin of this ignorance. (2) So first we want to know how and why such a grievous error has crept over him. Next, we ask to be taught how we can arrive at that quality of prayer that you spoke of some time ago, not only fully, but also splendidly. For that admirable conference has had on us the effect that it has only dazzled our minds, but not shown us how to accomplish or secure it.’
5. ISAAC: (1) ‘No wonder if a really simple man who was never educated at all about the substance and nature of the Godhead could be restricted and deceived by the error of rusticity and the habit of a longstanding mistake and (to speak more truly) remain in the original mistake! But this mistake is introduced, not by a recent illusion of the demons as you thought but by the ignorance of the ancient paganism. In keeping with the custom of that mistake whereby they worshipped demons shaped in human forms, even now they reckon that the incomprehensible and ineffable majesty of the true Deity ought to be worshipped encompassed in some figure: for they believe that they can grasp or hold nothing if they have no image set before them, which they unceasingly call upon when they set themselves to pray, which they carry around in their minds, and which they always hold fixed before their eyes.
(2) ‘This claim can be fittingly directed against their mistake: “And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man” [Rom. 1: 23]. Jeremiah also says: “My people have changed their glory for an idol” [Jer. 2: 11]. Although by its origin, of which we have spoken, this error was rooted in the senses of some, it is nevertheless also contracted in the spirits of those who have never been tainted with pagan superstition by the colour of the passage where it is said, “Let us make man in our image and our likeness” [Gen. 1: 26], which ignorance and lack of learning have brought about. Thus, on account of this despicable interpretation, there has actually arisen the so-called Anthropomorphites’ heresy, which with obstinate perversity contends that the endless simple substance of the Godhead is fashioned with our limitations and a human shape. (3) But anyone who has been informed in Catholic doctrine will abhor this as pagan blasphemy and thus will arrive at that perfectly pure kind of prayer which not only will not introduce into its petition any effigy or bodily limitations of the Godhead (which it is shameful even to mention!), but will not even allow in itself so much as the memory of a saying, the appearance of a deed, or the outline of any shape.
6. (1) ‘As I said in the earlier conference, a given mind at prayer is elevated and formed according to the measure of its purity. The condition of its purity moves the mind along to the extent that it leaves off the contemplation of earthly and material things and enables Jesus to be seen with the inner gaze of the soul, either still humble and in the flesh or glorified and coming in the glory of His Majesty.43 (2) Those who are still kept back in as it were a Jewish weakness are unable see Jesus coming in His Kingdom and cannot say with the Apostle: “And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know Him so” [II Cor 5: 16]. The only ones who can look upon His Godhead with purest eye are those who, ascending from base and earthly works and thoughts, have sat with Him in the highest mountain of solitude which, free from all earthly thoughts, hidden from the tumult of passions and the contamination of all faults, and exalted by the purest faith and eminence of virtues, reveals the glory of His face and the image of His glory to those who deserve to gaze upon Him with the pure gaze of the soul. (3) Otherwise, Jesus is also seen by those who live in cities, towns and villages (i.e., who are occupied in the active life and works), but not with the same radiance with which He appeared to those who can go up into the aforesaid mount of the virtues with Him, namely, Peter, James and John [cf. Matt. 17: 1].44 Likewise, He appeared to Moses and spoke with Elias in solitude [cf. Exod. 3: 2, 3 Kgs 19: 9 LXX].
(3) ‘Our Lord, wishing to confirm this and leave us examples of perfect purity, withdrew alone into the mountain to pray [Matt. 14: 23], even though He Himself as the very font of inviolable holiness did not need the benefit of external solitude or the help of withdrawal to obtain perfect purity (for the fullness of purity could not be stained by any of the crowds’ filth, nor could He who cleanses and sanctifies all polluted things be contaminated by human interaction). In this way, He taught us by the example of His withdrawing that, if we wish to address God in a pure and spotless affection of heart, we should similarly withdraw from all the disturbance and chaos of the crowds so that, while still living in this body, we may fit ourselves in some degree to a likeness of that bliss which is promised hereafter to the saints and for us “God may be all in all” [I Cor. 15: 28].
7. (1) ‘Then our Saviour’s prayer will be perfectly fulfilled in our case, for in praying for His disciples to the Father He said, “that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and they in Us;” and again: “that all may be one as You, Father, in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us” [John 17: 26, 21]. It will be fulfilled when that perfect love of God, with which ”He first loved us” [I John 4: 10], has passed into the feeling of our heart through the fulfilment of this prayer of the Lord’s which we believe can in no way fail. (2) So it shall be, when our every love, desire, eagerness, effort and thought, all that we live, speak, breathe, will be God. And that unity which is now the Father’s with the Son and the Son’s with the Father will have transfused our perception and mind, that is, so that just as with a sincere and pure and indissoluble love He loves us, we too will be joined to Him by perpetual and inseparable delight, so linked to Him, to be sure, that whatever we breathe, understand, say, would be God. In Him, I say, we shall accomplish the end about which we spoke earlier, the which the Lord besought that it would be fulfilled in us when He prayed, “That they all may be one just as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they too may be perfected in one” [John 17: 22-3], and again, “Father, I wish that those whom You have given Me may themselves be with Me where I am” [John 17: 22-4]. (3) So this should be the solitary’s destination, this should be his entire aim so that he may be counted worthy to possess an image of the future blessedness even in this body and begin somehow to have a foretaste of a pledge of that heavenly life and glory in this vessel. This, I say, is the end of all perfection, so that every day the mind, purged from all carnal desires, may be lifted towards spiritual things, until its whole life and the heart’s every thought are made one continuous prayer.’
8. GERMANUS: (1) ‘The greatness of our astonishment at the awe-inspiring earlier conference (which is the reason we returned) is greatly increased! We fall into greater despair in the measure that we are fired with the desire of perfect blessedness by the inducements of this teaching, since we do not know how to seek or obtain the discipline needed for such lofty heights. We therefore entreat you patiently to allow us to explain what we had begun to turn over in our minds as sitting in the cell we contemplated it at length (for perhaps it will be necessary to explain it with a good deal of talk); but we know that Your Blessedness is in no way offended by the infirmities of the weak, which for this very reason should be set out in the open, so that whatever is foolish in them may be corrected.
(2) ‘Our opinion, then, is that it is necessary for the perfection of any art or discipline at all to begin with some simple rudiments and first be initiated with gentle and relatively easy beginnings so that, being nourished by rational milk (as it were) [cf. I Pet. 2: 2] and trained little by little, it may grow and ascend from the depths to the heights by degrees and step by step. And when it has thus entered on the plainer principles and, so to speak, through the gates of profession that it has drawn near, it will consequently arrive without toil at the innermost and exalted peaks of perfection.
(3) ‘For how could any boy manage to pronounce the simplest clusters of syllables, unless he had diligently learnt the letters of the alphabet? Or how can one who is still incompetent in linking short and simple sentences progress to reading quickly? By what means will one who is inadequately instructed in the science of grammar progress to rhetorical eloquence or philosophical knowledge? For this reason I have no doubt that there are some foundations to this loftiest discipline by which we are taught to adhere constantly to God; after these have been firmly laid, the exalted peaks of perfection may afterwards be also raised up upon them.
(4) ‘And we tentatively suspect that these are its first principles: first, learn by which meditation God can be grasped and considered; next, somehow be able to keep fast this subject (whatever it is) which we have no doubt stands as the pinnacle of all perfection. So we want to be shown some subject for this recollection by which God can be conceived and kept perpetually in the mind. Thus, keeping it before our eyes, we may have the wherewithal to recover ourselves and return at once when we sense that we have dropped away from it, and be able to resume it again without the difficult delay of wandering round and searching for it.
(5) ‘Now it happens that, when we have returned to ourselves as if waking from a deadly sleep after wandering from spiritual theoria,45 once we have been thoroughly roused we seek the subject by which we may be able to resurrect the spiritual recollection that has been destroyed, but before we find it we are held back by the delay of actually searching for it. So we are drawn aside from our effort once again and the purpose that was conceived in our hearts evaporates before the spiritual insight is born. It is sure enough that this confusion befalls us because we do not keep something special or some formula set firmly before our eyes, to which the wandering spirit may be recalled after many diversions and various digressions and, as it were, enter the port of silence after long storms.46 (6) So it happens that the mind, which is constantly impeded by this ignorance and difficulty, is always cast about and wanders among various things as if it were drunk. It does not even hold firmly for any length of time to any of the spiritual things that may have occurred to it by chance rather than by its own effort, while it does not perceive the beginning and origin of them, or even their end and departure, since it is always receiving one thing after another.’
9. ISAAC: (1) ‘Your very detailed and subtle inquiry offers an indication that purity is very near. For the only person who would be able even to make inquiries on these matters (I will not say to look into them and make distinctions) is one whom diligent and effective mental labour and ever-vigilant concern had prompted to scrutinize the depths of these questions, one whom the continuous aim of a chaste life had by practical experience led to attempt the entrance to this purity and to knock at its doors. (2) And so since I see you, not standing before the doors of that true prayer which we have been discussing, but rather, touching its inner chambers and inward parts with the hands as it were of experience and already grasping some parts of it, I do not think that I shall find it too difficult now to introduce you who are already roaming around in the recesses, as the Lord may direct, into what I may call its hall. I also do not think that you will be held back by the obstacle of any difficulty from investigating the things that will be shown you. (3) For one who prudently recognizes what he should ask is near to understanding, nor is one far from knowledge who begins to understand what he does not know. So I am not afraid of being accused of indiscretion and frivolity if I divulge the things that I had refrained from discussing when speaking in my former treatment of the perfection of prayer. I think that its force was to be reserved for you who are occupied with this subject and with asceticism, even without the service of my speech, by the grace of God.47
10. (1) ‘Therefore in accordance with that instruction which you have with insight compared to teaching children (who are not able to understand the first lessons of the alphabet and cannot recognize the shapes of the letters and trace their characters with a steady hand other than by accustoming themselves to make their figures by continually contemplating and daily imitating some examples and shapes that have been carefully impressed on wax), the formula of this spiritual theoria must also be handed down to you. Always focusing your gaze with utmost steadiness on it, you may both learn to roll it round in your mind profitably with uninterrupted continuity and you may be able, by practising and meditating upon it, to ascend to an even loftier insight.
(2) ‘This formula of the discipline which you seek, and of prayer shall therefore be proposed to you, which every monk who progresses towards continual recollection of God is used to meditating upon in the ceaseless revolving of his heart, once all kinds of other thoughts have been expelled (for he cannot possibly retain it unless he has been released from all bodily cares and concerns). In the same way that it was handed down to us by a few of the most ancient fathers who were still alive, likewise it is only made known by us to a very few who are really keen. So then this pious formula for possessing the perpetual recollection of God will be set before you: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me” [Ps 69: 2]. (3) Not unreasonably has this brief verse been picked out from the whole body of Scripture, for it admits of all the feelings which can arise in human nature, and can be adapted to every situation and all assaults fittingly and satisfactorily. It has an invocation of God against every danger, it has the humility of a pious confession, it has the vigilance of concern and continual fear, it has the consideration of one’s own frailty, the confidence of being heard, and the assurance of a present and ever ready protection. (4) (For one who constantly calls on his protector is certain that He is always ready.) It has the ardour of love and charity, it has an understanding of the schemes of the enemy and a dread of them, because of which, one who perceives that he is surrounded by them day and night confesses that he cannot be freed without the aid of his defender.
‘This brief verse is an impregnable wall, and impenetrable defence and a most strong shield for all those who labour under the disturbance of demons. It does not allow those who are fixed in akedia and anxiety of mind,48 or who are depressed by sadness or all kinds of thoughts, to despair of saving remedies since it shows that He whom it invokes is continually looking on at our struggles and is not far from His suppliants. (5) It admonishes us who have established some spiritual success and delight of heart not to be elated at all or puffed up by our happy situation (which it attests cannot last without God as our protector) even as it implores Him to help us not only continually but also speedily.
‘This brief verse, I say, will be found helpful and useful to each one of us in whatever condition of life. For one who wants to be helped always and in everything shows that he needs God as his helper, not only in sorrowful or harsh matters, but equally in favourable and happy ones, in order to be delivered from the former and also made to abide in the latter, since he knows that human weakness can endure in neither of them without His assistance.
(6) ‘I am afflicted by the passion of gluttony: I ask for food unknown in the desert, and in the filthy wilderness, odours of royal dishes waft to me and I perceive that very much against my will I am drawn to long for them—I must at once say, “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. I am goaded to take something before the time appointed for supper, or I am attempting with great sorrow in my heart to keep to the due measure of right and customary meagreness—I must cry out with groans: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. (7) Weariness of the stomach prohibits me from stricter fasting on account of the assaults of the flesh, or a parched belly and constipation deters me; for my wishes to be granted, or else for the agitation of carnal lust to be quenched without the measure of a stricter fast, I must pray: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. Upon coming to supper when the proper time arrives, I abhor the bread and am kept from eating anything to satisfy the requirements of nature—I must cry with a wail: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”.
(8) ‘When I want to apply myself to reading for the sake of the heart’s stability, the onset of a headache keeps me from it, my drowsy head falls upon the sacred page at the third hour and I am compelled either to violate or to anticipate the allocated time for rest; in the end, an unbearable attack of sleepiness drives me to cut short the canonical rule for the synaxis and the Psalter49—I must likewise cry out: ”O God, come to unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. Rest is taken from my eyes, for many nights I see myself shattered from diabolical dreams, and all the repose of nightly rest is kept from my eyelids—I must pray with sighs: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”.
(9) ‘Even as I am in the midst of a struggle with sins, a fleshly titillation strikes me unexpectedly and tries with a delightful caress to bring me to consent as I sleep50—lest a blazing fire from without consume the fragrant flowers of chastity, I must cry out: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. I perceive that the incentive to lust is extinguished and that the sexual heat in my members has died down—in order that the virtue that has been born, or rather this grace of God, may abide with me longer, indeed forever, I must intently say: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”.
(10) ‘I am distressed by the pangs of anger, covetousness and sadness and compelled to interrupt the peaceful state that was established and dear to me—lest I be carried off into the bitterness of gall by a raging perturbation, I must cry out with groans from my inner being: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. I am tempted with being carried away by akedia, vainglory and pride as my mind flatters itself somewhat with a subtle thought of the negligence and indifference of others—lest this pernicious suggestion of the enemy overcome me, I must pray with all contrition of heart: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. (11) I have acquired the grace of humility and simplicity, having got rid of the tumour of pride by continually mortifying my spirit—lest the “foot of pride come against me and the hand of the sinner move me” [Ps. 35: 12] again and I be confounded all the more seriously by being carried away at my success, I must cry out with all my strength, “God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”.
‘I am ablaze with countless different wanderings of soul and with instability of heart, I am not able to control my scattered thoughts, I cannot even pour forth my prayer without interruption, apparitions of meaningless figures, and the remembrance of conversations and deeds, and I sense that I am constricted by such dryness and sterility that I feel I cannot give birth to any offspring of spiritual perceptions—in order that I may be vouchsafed to be set free from this filthiness of mind, from which I cannot extricate myself by many sighs and groans, I shall necessarily cry out: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”.
(12) ‘Again, I sense that at the visitation of the Holy Spirit I have gained direction of soul, stability of thoughts and keenness of heart with ineffable joy and transport of mind,51 and in the superabundance of spiritual perceptions I have perceived a revelation of most holy ideas which had previously been altogether hidden from me to overflow at a sudden illumination from the Lord. In order that I may be vouchsafed to dwell longer in them, I must anxiously and frequently exclaim: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”.
(13) ‘Surrounded by nightly terrors of demons, I am agitated and I am distressed by apparitions of unclean spirits, my very hope of salvation and life is withdrawn with a shudder of fear—flying to the safe haven of this verse, I will cry out with all strength: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”. Again, when I have been renewed by the Lord’s consolation and, enlivened by His coming, I sense that I am encompassed as if by innumerable thousands of angels, so that I suddenly dare to seek the fight and provoke a conflict with those whom I dreaded worse than death before and whose touch (or even approach!) I felt with a shudder of mind and body—in order that by God’s grace the vigour of this perseverance may dwell even longer in me, I must cry out with all my strength: “O God, come unto my aid; O Lord, hasten to help me”.
(14) ‘The prayer of this verse must be poured forth with unceasing constancy: in adversity, so that we are delivered; in prosperity, so that we are preserved and not puffed up. Let the meditation of this verse, I tell you, be revolved in your breast without interruption. You should not stop chanting it, regardless of what work, office or travel you find yourself in. Meditate on it when you are sleeping, eating and in the basic necessities of nature. May this pondering in your heart, once it has become like a formula of salvation, not only protect you unharmed from every attack of the demons, but also lead you to those invisible and heavenly theories, purifying you from all sins by earthly pollution, and so carry you on to that ineffable ardour of prayer experienced by very few. (15) Let sleep overtake you meditating upon this verse until, having been shaped by incessantly practising it, you are accustomed to repeating it even in your sleep. Let it be the first thing that occurs to you when you awaken, let it go before all your waking thoughts, let it put you on your knees when you rise from bed and send you on from there to all your work and actions; let it follow you all the time. You shall meditate upon this, in keeping with the Lawgiver’s precepts, “at home and walking on a journey”, [Deut. 6: 7] sleeping and waking. You shall write it on the threshold and door of your mouth, you shall place it upon the walls of your home and the inner places of your heart, so that it may be your chant when you are kneeling on your knees to pray and it may become your constant and established prayer when you rise from there and set out on all the necessary business of life.
11. (1) ‘This, this is the formula which the mind should hold to incessantly until, fortified by constantly using and continually meditating upon it, it casts off and rejects the rich and full resources of all thoughts and so, having restricted itself to the poverty of this one verse, comes through with ready ease to that beatitude of the gospel which holds the first place among the other beatitudes. For it says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” [Matt. 5: 3]. So one who emerges as a distinguished pauper by this sort of poverty will fulfil this saying of the prophet: “The poor and needy shall praise the name of the Lord” [Ps. 73: 21]. (2) And indeed what greater or holier poverty can there be than this? For by this poverty, a man knows that he has no defence and no personal strength, asks for daily help from another’s liberality and, being aware that every single moment his life and substance depend on divine succour, admits not unreasonably that he is truly the Lord’s beggar and cries to Him daily by way of petition, “But I am poor and needy: the Lord helps me” [Ps. 39: 18 LXX].
‘Ascending to the manifold knowledge of God by God’s own illumination, one begins henceforward to be fattened on loftier and holier mysteries, in keeping with what was said by the prophet, “The high hills are a refuge for the stags, the rocks for the hedgehogs” [Ps 103: 18]. This saying is used very satisfactorily in the sense we have given, in that whoever perseveres in simplicity and innocence is injurious or harmful to no one but, being content with his own simplicity, merely wishes to protect himself from those who lie in ambush for him. So having become as it were a spiritual hedgehog, one is protected by the continual covering of that gospel rock which is the memory of the Lord’s passion and, defended by ceaseless meditation on the aforesaid verse, one escapes from the snares of the enemy lying in wait. Of these spiritual hedgehogs, we read in Proverbs [30: 26] as follows: “And the hedgehogs are a feeble race, who have made their homes in the rocks”. (4) What indeed is feebler than a Christian, what is weaker than a monk? Not only is no vengeance allowed to the monk for any of his injuries, but not even a mild and slight annoyance is permitted to spring up within him.
‘One who not only retains the simplicity of innocence when advancing from this condition but also, shielded by the virtue of discretion, becomes an exterminator of deadly serpents— having Satan crushed beneath his feet—and by his mental alacrity has attained to the figure of the rational stag, will graze on the mountains of the prophets and Apostles, that is, on their most excellent and loftiest mysteries. Flourishing on this constant grazing, once he receives into himself all of the Psalms’ emotional responses52 he will begin to sing them as if they were not composed by the psalmist, but instead were his own production. It is as if he were drawing forth his own prayer with deep compunction of heart; certainly, he will reckon that the Psalms are directed at himself and understand that their words were not fulfilled only then by the prophet or in the prophet, but they are born and fulfilled daily in him.
(5) ‘For the Holy Scriptures then are disclosed to us more clearly and as it were their veins and marrow are exposed, when our experience not only perceives but even anticipates their inner meaning, and the sense of the words is unlocked for us not by explanation but by proof. For receiving the actual emotional response of heart in which each psalm was sung and written, becoming as it were their authors, we anticipate the meaning rather than follow it. That is, gathering the force of the things said before knowing them, we recall what has happened to us and what is happening in daily assaults when we meditate upon them. While we sing them we recollect what our negligence has produced for us or our diligence has procured and divine providence has gathered together; or what the enemy’s instigation has deprived us of, what slippery and subtle forgetfulness has taken away and human frailty has brought about, or irresponsible ignorance has cheated us of.
(6) ‘We find all these emotional responses expressed in the Psalms so that, by seeing the things that happen as it were in the clearest mirror, we understand them better. Thus, instructed by the teaching of our emotional responses, we feel our way through them as things that we have seen and not just heard; from the deep emotional responses of the heart, we give birth to what is implanted in the very nature of things and not simply what has been commended to our memory, so that we penetrate to their meaning by anticipating it through experience and not simply by reading the text. Thus, our mind will arrive at that incorruptible prayer to which the argument of our conference ascended—insofar as the Lord deigns to provide it—in the previous treatment.53 Not only is this prayer not engaged with gazing on any image, in fact it is not even enunciated by any sequence of words or sounds; by the fiery purpose of the mind, it is produced through the ineffable transport of the heart with an insatiable keenness of spirit and the mind, being thus brought beyond all the senses and visible material, pours forth this prayer to God “with unutterable groans” [cf. Rom. 8: 26] and sighs.’
12. GERMANUS: ‘We think that not only the tradition of this spiritual discipline (about which we asked) has been handed down by you, but also perfection itself—and that quite openly and clearly. For what can be more perfect, what more lofty than for the memory of God to be encompassed in such an abridged meditation, to move beyond the limits of the visible by rolling around a single verse, and to include in one short saying the emotional responses of all our prayers?54 Therefore we beg you now to explain to us one remaining point: how we can hold fast to this verse which you have handed down to us as a formula in such a way that, just as by God’s grace we have been freed from the follies of worldly thoughts, we may likewise firmly retain all spiritual ones?
13. (1) ‘For when the mind conceives of the meaning of any Psalm, it turns to the text of another scripture in stupid ignorance as the first one imperceptibly slips away. And when it has begun to consider the latter within itself, the recollection of some other passage cuts off the meditation on the previous material even though it has not been thoroughly aired. It is also transferred from this to something else when another meditation sneaks in; and so the soul always whirls round from psalm to psalm, jumps from a text in the gospel to a reading from the Apostle, wheels round from here to the prophetic writings and is carried away from there to some spiritual histories: in this way, it is cast about, unstable and aimless, through the whole body of the Scriptures. Being able by its own will to reject or retain nothing or to complete anything with a full consideration and examination, it has become merely one who touches and tastes of spiritual meanings, not a creator and possessor of them.
(2) ‘Thus the mind, ever aimless in its movement even at the time of the synaxis—as though it were drunk—is distracted by all kinds of things and performs none of the offices properly. For instance, when it prays, it recalls some psalm or reading; when it chants, it meditates on something other than what the text of the psalm itself contains; when it reads a lesson, it wishes it were doing something or remembers something it has done. Thus taking and rejecting nothing in a disciplined and appropriate way, it is seen to be driven by chance events, not having the power to retain the things that delight it or dwell upon them. (3) It is therefore necessary for us to know above all how we can complete these spiritual offices properly and indeed keep firmly this very verse, the form of which you have handed down to us, so that the beginnings and ends of our perceptions may not fluctuate with their rapid variations but may remain under our authority.’
14. ISAAC: (1) ‘Although enough was, as it seems to me, expressed on this matter in our former discussions about the status of prayer, since you nevertheless ask for it to be repeated to you, I will instruct you briefly concerning securing one’s heart. There are three things which make an aimless mind stable—vigils, meditation and prayer; diligence and constant purpose in them will confer stable firmness upon the soul.55 (2) And yet this cannot be possessed in any other way unless all concerns and cares of the present life have been first renounced through indefatigable constancy in work dedicated not to covetousness but to the sacred practices of the monastery. Thus we may be able to fulfil the apostolic command, “Pray without ceasing” [I Thess 5: 17]. Whoever is used to praying only at such time as the knee is bent, prays very little. But whoever, even on bended knee, is distracted by any sort of wandering heart, prays not at all. And for this reason, it behoves us even before the time of prayer to be such as we would wish to be found at prayer. For it is necessary that the mind be formed at the time of its supplication by its previous condition; and by those thoughts on which it had tarried before prayer, its prayer is either elevated to heavenly things or else plunged into earthly things.’
(3) Abba Isaac related his second conference on the quality of prayer to this point, and we were astonished. We greatly admired his teaching about meditation on the aforementioned verse (which he handed down to be retained by beginners by way of an outline) and strongly wished to cultivate it , as we believed that it would be brief and easy—but we have experienced it to be rather more difficult to observe than that asceticism of ours by which before we used to scurry through the whole body of scriptures by inconstant meditation without the chain of any perseverance. So it is settled that absolutely nobody is excluded from perfection of heart by being unable to read nor does rusticity hinder laying hold of purity of heart and mind, which is extremely near to all, if only they will, with constant meditation on this verse, keep the mind’s whole and intact purpose fixed on God.