The Conferences 1.1–1.13

In the desert of Scetis, where the most approved fathers of the monks dwelt and all perfection had its home, I sought out Abba Moses, who among those outstanding flowers gave off the sweetest fragrance, not only in practical but also in contemplative virtue, wishing to be grounded by his instruction. I went together with the holy Abba Germanus, with whom, from the very beginning and first rudiments of spiritual warfare, I had shared so inseparable a companionship both in the coenobium and in the desert that everyone, to express the sameness of our fellowship and purpose, would say that we were one mind and one soul in two bodies. Together we asked the same abba with tears for a word of edification (for we knew very well the strictness of his mind: he would by no means consent to open the door of perfection except to those who desired it faithfully and sought it with all contrition of heart, lest, if he displayed it indiscriminately to those who did not want it or thirsted for it only lukewarmly, he should seem, by laying open necessary things, which ought to be known only to those who long for perfection, to the unworthy and to those who received them with disdain, to incur either the vice of boasting or the crime of betrayal). At last, worn down by our entreaties, he began thus.

“All arts and disciplines,” he said, “have a certain skopos, that is, a goal, and a telos, that is, an end proper to them. Looking to it, the diligent pursuer of any art bears all labors, dangers, and losses calmly and gladly. The farmer, shrinking neither from the scorching rays of the sun nor from frost and ice, tirelessly cleaves the earth and subdues the untamed clods of the field with frequent ploughing, while he keeps his goal in view: to clear it of all briars, free it of every weed, and break it up by working it until it is like loose sand. He is confident that he will not otherwise attain his end, that is, the gathering of plentiful crops and an abundant harvest, by which he may afterwards either live free from care or increase his property. He even gladly empties his well-stocked barns of grain and entrusts it with pressing labor to the crumbling furrows, not feeling the present loss because he contemplates the harvests to come. Those too who carry on trade do not fear the uncertain chances of the sea and shrink from no dangers, while they are spurred on by swift hope toward their end, which is profit. So also those who are fired with the ambition of worldly service, while they look ahead to the end of honor and power, do not feel the ruin and dangers of travel, nor are they broken by present hardships and wars, while they long to obtain the end of rank they have set before themselves. Our profession, then, also has its own goal and its end, for which we spend all our labors not only tirelessly but even gladly. For its sake the hunger of fasting does not weary us, the fatigue of vigils delights us, continual reading and meditation on the Scriptures do not sate us, and unceasing labor, nakedness, the lack of all things, and even the horror of this vast solitude do not deter us. For its sake you yourselves, no doubt, spurned the affection of your parents, and despised your native land and the delights of the world, passing through so many regions to reach us, rustic and unlearned men living in the squalor of this desert. Therefore,” he said, “answer me: what is your goal, or your end, which spurs us to bear all these things most gladly?”

When he insisted on drawing out our opinion on this question, we answered that all these things are endured for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

To this he said: “Good; you have spoken shrewdly about the end. But what our goal ought to be, that is, the aim to which we must cling constantly in order to reach the end, you ought to know before all else.” When we had simply confessed that we did not know, he added: “In every art and discipline, as I said, there goes before a certain skopos, that is, an aim of the soul or unceasing intention of the mind. Unless one keeps it with all zeal and perseverance, he will not be able to reach the end of the fruit he desires. For, as I said, the farmer, whose end is to live securely and plentifully on the yield of fruitful crops, has as his goal, that is, his aim, to clear his field of all briars and empty it of every unfruitful weed; and he is not confident that he will attain the abundance of the restful end unless he first possesses, by a kind of plan of work and hope, what he desires to enjoy in use. The merchant, too, does not lay aside the desire of acquiring goods by which he may gather riches more profitably, because he would long for gain in vain if he had not chosen the way by which to pursue it. And those who desire to be honored with particular ranks in this world first decide to what office or order they must commit themselves, so that by the lawful path of hope they may reach the end of the rank they desire. So too the end of our way is the kingdom of God. But what the goal is must be diligently asked; for if it is not likewise known to us, we shall wear ourselves out striving in vain, because for those who travel without a road there is the labor of the journey but no progress.” When we were astonished at this, the old man went on: “The end of our profession, as we have said, is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven; but the aim, that is, the goal, is purity of heart, without which it is impossible for anyone to reach that end. Fixing the gaze of our direction on this aim, we shall direct our course most straight, as though toward a sure line; and if our thought turns aside from it even a little, we shall run back at once to the sight of it and correct it again most exactly, as by a rule. This rule, always calling all our efforts back to this one mark, will show at once if our mind has strayed even a little from the direction set before it.”

“It is like those who are practised in handling weapons of war: when they wish to show the skill of their art before a king of this world, they strive to hurl darts or arrows at very small targets on which the prizes are painted. They are certain that they cannot reach the end of the prize they desire except by the line of their aim, and they will obtain it only when they have been able to hit the goal set before them. If that goal happens to be withdrawn from their sight, however far the vain aim of the unskilled strays from the right path, they will not perceive that they have fallen away from the direction of that trained line, because they have no sure mark to prove the skill of their direction or expose its fault. And so, when they have poured out useless shots into the empty air, they cannot judge where they went wrong or how they were misled, since no sign shows them how far they have departed from the direction, and an undirected gaze cannot teach them how they ought to correct or recall the line of their discipline afterwards. So also the end of our purpose, according to the apostle, is eternal life, as he declares: ‘Having your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.’ But the goal is purity of heart, which he rightly called sanctification, without which the aforesaid end cannot be grasped; as if he had said in other words: ‘Having your goal in purity of heart, and the end eternal life.’ Teaching us about this aim, the same blessed apostle expressly used the very word, that is, skopos, saying: ‘Forgetting what is behind, and reaching out to what is ahead, I press on toward the mark, toward the prize of the heavenly calling of the Lord.’ This is put more plainly in the Greek, kata skopon diōkō, that is, ‘I press on according to the mark,’ as if he had said: ‘With this aim, by which I forget what is behind, that is, the vices of the former man, I strive to reach the end, the heavenly prize.’ Whatever, then, can direct us to this goal, that is, purity of heart, must be pursued with all our strength; whatever draws us away from it must be avoided as ruinous and harmful. For its sake we do and endure everything; for its sake parents, homeland, honors, riches, the delights of this world, and every pleasure are despised, so that purity of heart may be kept for ever. With this aim always set before us, our acts and thoughts will be directed most rightly to obtaining it. If it is not continually set before our eyes, it will not only make all our labors empty and unstable and force them to be poured out in vain and without any profit, but will also stir up all kinds of thoughts, different and contrary to one another. For a mind that has nowhere to return to and nothing to cling to principally must change every hour and moment with the variety of what assails it, and be transformed at once, by what comes to it from outside, into whatever state first presents itself.”

“This is why we have seen some who despised the greatest wealth of this world, not only many talents of gold and silver but also magnificent estates, afterwards become agitated over a knife, a stylus, a needle, or a pen. If they held fixed the contemplation of a pure heart, they would certainly never have fallen, for small things, into what they chose to cast off altogether with their great and precious riches, so as not to fall into it for their sake. Very often some guard a book with such zeal that they will not let anyone so much as read or touch it lightly; and from the very thing by which they are admonished to gain the rewards of patience and love, they take occasions of impatience and death. And though they have given away all their riches for the love of Christ, they keep their former attachment of heart in the smallest things and sometimes become quickly angry over them; and so, as those who do not have apostolic love, they are rendered fruitless and barren in everything. The blessed apostle foresaw this in the Spirit when he said: ‘Though I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.’ From this it is clearly proved that perfection is not reached at once by nakedness and the loss of all possessions or by casting off honors, unless there is that love whose parts the apostle describes, which consists in purity of heart alone. For what else is it not to be envious, not to be puffed up, not to be provoked, not to act wrongly, not to seek one's own, not to rejoice in iniquity, not to think evil, and the rest, than always to offer God a perfect and utterly clean heart and to keep it untouched by all disturbances?”

“Everything, then, must be done and sought for the sake of this. For this solitude is to be pursued; for this we should know that we must undertake fasts, vigils, labors, bodily nakedness, reading, and the other virtues: that through them we may prepare and keep our heart unharmed by all harmful passions, and by leaning on these steps climb up to the perfection of love. And we must not, because of these observances, if perhaps we are prevented by some honorable and necessary occupation from fulfilling our customary strictness, fall into sadness or anger or indignation, the very things we were going to fight against by doing what has been left undone. For the gain from a fast is not as great as the loss from anger, nor is as much fruit gained from reading as harm is incurred by despising a brother. The things that are secondary, then, that is, fasts, vigils, withdrawal into solitude, meditation on the Scriptures, we ought to practise for the sake of the principal goal, that is, purity of heart, which is love, and not for their sake disturb this principal virtue. As long as it remains whole and unharmed in us, it will do no harm if any of the secondary things has been omitted out of necessity; whereas it will profit nothing to have done them all if this principal thing, for the sake of which everything is to be done, is taken away. For this is why someone hastens to get and prepare the tools of any art: not to have them lying idle, nor to place the profit he hopes for from them in the mere possession of the instruments, but so that by their service he may effectively grasp the skill and end of the discipline which they assist. Fasts, vigils, meditation on the Scriptures, nakedness, and the lack of all possessions are therefore not perfection but the instruments of perfection, because the end of that discipline does not consist in them, but through them one reaches the end. In vain, then, will a man labor at these exercises if he is content with them as the highest good and fixes the intention of his heart only so far, and does not extend all his zeal for virtue to grasping the end for which they are to be sought, having the instruments of the discipline but not knowing the end in which all the fruit consists. Whatever can disturb this purity and tranquillity of our mind, however useful and necessary it may seem, must be avoided as harmful. By this rule we shall be able to escape the scattering of all errors and wanderings and reach the desired end by the line of a sure direction.”

“This, then, must be our principal effort, and this the immovable aim of the heart to be sought continually: that the mind may always cling to divine things and to God. Whatever differs from this, however great, must be judged secondary, or even the lowest, or certainly harmful. A figure of this disposition and way of acting is beautifully shown in the Gospel in Martha and Mary. For while Martha was engaged in a service that was certainly holy, since she was serving the Lord himself and his disciples, and Mary, intent only on spiritual teaching, clung to the feet of Jesus, kissing them and anointing them with the ointment of a good confession, yet the Lord preferred her, because she had chosen the better part, and one that could not be taken from her. For when Martha, laboring with pious care and distracted by her serving, saw that she could not manage so great a service alone, she asked the Lord for her sister's help, saying: ‘Do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ She was certainly calling her not to a mean task but to a praiseworthy service. And yet what does she hear from the Lord? ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; but few things are needed, or even one. Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.’ You see, then, that the Lord placed the principal good in theoria alone, that is, in divine contemplation. Therefore, though we declare the other virtues necessary, useful, and good, we judge that they must be ranked in the second degree, because all of them are practised for the sake of this one. For when the Lord says, ‘You are anxious and troubled about many things, but few are needed, or even one,’ he placed the highest good not in practical work, however praiseworthy and abounding in many fruits, but in contemplation of himself, which is truly simple and one. He declares that few things are needed for perfect blessedness, that is, the contemplation which is first practised in considering a few saints. Rising from contemplating them, one who is still in the course of progress will come, with God's help, to that which is called one, that is, the vision of God alone, so that, passing beyond even the wonderful acts and services of the saints, he may feed on the beauty and knowledge of God alone. ‘Mary, therefore, has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.’ This must be looked at more closely. When he says, ‘Mary has chosen the good part,’ though he says nothing about Martha and does not seem to blame her at all, yet by praising the one he declares the other inferior. Again, when he says, ‘which shall not be taken from her,’ he shows that Martha's portion can be taken from her (for bodily service cannot remain with a human being for ever), but he teaches that Mary's pursuit can never come to an end in any age.”

Deeply moved at this, we said: “What then? Will the labor of fasting, diligence in reading, and works of mercy, justice, piety, and kindness be taken from us and not remain with those who do them? Especially since the Lord himself promises the reward of the kingdom of heaven to these works, saying: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink,’ and the rest. How then will these things be taken away which bring those who do them into the kingdom of heaven?”

Moses: “I did not say that the reward of a good work will be taken away, for the same Lord says: ‘Whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.’ But I say that the activity itself will be taken away, which bodily necessity, or the assault of the flesh, or the inequality of this world requires to be carried out. For diligence in reading and the affliction of fasting are usefully practised only in the present, for cleansing the heart and chastening the flesh, while ‘the flesh lusts against the spirit.’ We see that even in the present they are sometimes taken away from those worn out by excessive labor, bodily illness, or old age, and that a person cannot practise them continually. How much more will they cease in the future, when ‘this corruptible has put on incorruption’ and this body which is now ‘natural’ has risen ‘spiritual’, and the flesh has begun to be no longer such as to lust against the spirit. Of these things the blessed apostle also plainly declares: ‘Bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness’ (which is certainly to be understood as love) ‘is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.’ What is said to be profitable for a little is plainly declared neither to be practised for all time nor able by itself to give the laborer the summit of perfection. ‘A little’ can refer to either: to the shortness of time, since bodily exercise cannot last for ever with a man both in the present and in the future; or else to the smallness of the profit gained from exercising the flesh, since bodily affliction brings about certain beginnings of progress, not the very perfection of love, which has the promise of the present life and of the future. And therefore we judge the exercises we have mentioned to be necessary, because without them one cannot climb to the heights of love. These works of piety and mercy you speak of are also necessary in this time, while unequal differences still prevail. Their exercise would not be expected even here if there were not an overwhelming number of the poor, the needy, and the sick, brought about by the wickedness of men: of those, namely, who seized for their own use alone what was granted to all by the common Creator, and yet did not use it. So as long as this inequality rages in the world, this activity will be necessary and useful to the one who does it, repaying a good disposition and a godly will with the reward of the eternal inheritance. But it will itself cease in the world to come, when equality reigns, since there will no longer be the inequality for which it must be done; all will pass from this manifold, that is, practical activity to the love of God and the contemplation of divine things in perpetual purity of heart. To this, those who care to devote themselves either to knowledge or to cleansing of the mind have already chosen, while still in this world, to give themselves with all their effort and strength, assigning themselves, while still in corruptible flesh, to that office in which they will remain when corruption is laid aside, and reaching the promise of the Lord and Savior in which it is said: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’”

“And why are you surprised that those duties mentioned above will pass away, when the holy apostle describes even the higher gifts of the Holy Spirit as passing away, and marks out love alone as remaining without end? ‘Whether there be prophecies,’ he says, ‘they shall be done away; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall be destroyed’; but of love: ‘Love never fails.’ For all gifts are given for a time, for use and need, and will surely pass away as soon as the dispensation is completed; but love will be cut off by no time. For it not only works usefully in us in the present world, but in the future too, when the burden of bodily need has been cast off, it will remain far more effective and excellent, never to be spoiled by any failing, but through perpetual incorruption clinging to God more ardently and more intently.”

Germanus: “Who then, surrounded by frail flesh, can be so fixed on this contemplation that he never thinks of a brother's arrival, of visiting the sick, of the work of his hands, or at any rate of the kindness to be shown to strangers and visitors? Finally, who is not interrupted by providing for and caring for the body itself? We want to be taught how, and in what, the mind can cling to that invisible and incomprehensible God.”

Moses: “To cling to God continually and to be joined inseparably to contemplation of him, as you say, is impossible for a human being surrounded by this frailty of the flesh. But we ought to know where we should keep the intention of our mind fixed, and to what aim we should always recall the gaze of our soul. When the mind has been able to keep it, let it rejoice; when it is drawn away from it, let it grieve and sigh, and feel that it has fallen from the highest good as often as it finds itself separated from that gaze, judging even a momentary departure from the contemplation of Christ to be sexual immorality. When our gaze has strayed from him even a little, let us turn the eyes of the heart back to him and recall the mind's sight as by a perfectly straight line. For everything depends on the inner recess of the soul: when the devil has been driven out of it and vices no longer reign there, the kingdom of God is consequently founded in us, as the evangelist says: ‘The kingdom of God will not come with observation, nor will they say, Look, here it is, or, Look, there it is; for truly I say to you that the kingdom of God is within you.’ But within us there can be nothing else than knowledge or ignorance of the truth, and love either of the vices or of the virtues, by which we prepare a kingdom in the heart either for the devil or for Christ. The apostle also describes the character of this kingdom, saying: ‘For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ So, if the kingdom of God is within us, and the kingdom of God itself is righteousness and peace and joy, then whoever dwells in these is without doubt in the kingdom of God; and, on the contrary, those who live in unrighteousness and discord and the sadness that works death are placed in the kingdom of the devil, and in hell and death. For by these signs the kingdom either of God or of the devil is distinguished. And indeed, if we consider with the lofty gaze of the mind the state in which the heavenly and supernal powers live, who are truly in the kingdom of God, what else should we believe it to be than perpetual and unbroken gladness? For what is so proper to true blessedness, and so fitting to it, as unbroken tranquillity and everlasting joy? And so that you may be more surely taught that what we say is so, not by my conjecture but by the authority of the Lord himself, hear him describe most plainly the character and state of that world: ‘Behold,’ he says, ‘I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor shall they come up upon the heart. But you shall rejoice and exult for ever in the things which I create.’ And again: ‘Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of praise. And it shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath.’ And again: ‘They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’ And if you want to know still more clearly about that life and city of the saints, attend to what is addressed by the Lord's voice to Jerusalem itself: ‘I will make your visitation peace, and your overseers righteousness. Iniquity shall no more be heard in your land, nor devastation and destruction within your borders; salvation shall take possession of your walls, and praise of your gates. You shall no more have the sun to give light by day, nor shall the brightness of the moon give you light; but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God for your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, and your moon shall not wane; but the Lord shall be an everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.’ And therefore the blessed apostle does not declare generally or simply that every joy is the kingdom of God, but pointedly and specifically only that which is in the Holy Spirit. For he knew there is also another, blameworthy joy, of which it is said, ‘This world shall rejoice,’ and, ‘Woe to you who laugh, for you shall weep.’ The kingdom of heaven, indeed, is to be understood in three ways: either that the heavens, that is, the saints, will reign over others made subject to them, according to the words, ‘Be over five cities,’ and ‘you over ten,’ and what is said to the disciples, ‘You shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel’; or that the heavens themselves begin to be reigned over by Christ, when all things have been made subject to him and God has begun to be all in all; or else that the saints will reign with the Lord in heaven.”