with anguish and tears, both by day and by night unceasingly, to give him the victory over it?” The old man said, “That passion probably overcame him to an excessive degree through the natural constitution of his body, but it is quite certain that the passions and the devils waged war against him like a mighty man and a warrior. For the devils made war upon the Fathers with intense fierceness and violence, upon each man according to his capacity, and in proportion to their power to triumph, through long-suffering, that is to say, through patient and persistent endurance, the battle against them was protracted.”
653. The brethren said, “Abbâ Dorotheus said, ‘Our lack of ability to distinguish between matters will permit us to acquire great excellence in the virtues’; explain to us what the old man [intended] to say.” The old man said, “He wished to say as follows:—‘Because of our lack of ability to distinguish between matters we do not make progress in the virtues, and our heart is not quickly purified, and we do not ascend to perfection, because we do not labour with the knowledge and power of discernment which it is right [for us to have]; but [we progress] painfully, and [only] for the sake of vainglory, and as the result of chance circumstances, and without discretion. And, as it cometh, this resembleth that which the blessed Evagrius spake, saying, “As it is not the material foods themselves which nourish the body, but the power which is in them, so it is not matters themselves which make the soul to grow, but the power of discernment which [cometh] from them.” And he also said, “As the feeding, and health, and growth of the body do not come through the actual materials of our foods, for these are cast out of the body in the draught, but from the hidden power which is in them, so also the nourishment and the growth of the soul take place through the fear of God. And the healthy state thereof which ariseth through impassibility, and the perfection thereof which is in righteousness, do not exist through the labours of the body only, but from the deeds and acts which [are performed] with knowledge, that is to say, with a straight object, and from the action of the mind which hateth passions, and from the prayer which is joined to humility, and from the mind which is in God.” ’ ”
654. The brethren said, “Abbâ Arsenius said unto one of the brethren, ‘Lead the ascetic life with all the strength that thou hast, and the hidden labour which is within, and which is performed for God’s sake, shall vanquish thine external passions’; to what doth he give the name of ‘passions’?’
