On the Virtues Opposed to the Eight Principal Sinful Passions
1. Temperance
Restraint from the excessive use of food and drink, and especially from the use of wine in excess. Precise observance of the fasts established by the Church. Curbing the flesh by a moderate and consistently uniform use of food, from which all the passions in general begin to weaken, and especially self-love, which consists in the irrational love of the flesh, its life, and its ease.
2. Chastity
Avoidance of every kind of fornication. Avoidance of lascivious conversation and reading, and of the utterance of foul, lustful, and ambiguous words. Guarding the senses—especially sight and hearing, and still more especially touch. Modesty. Rejection of licentious thoughts and fantasies. Silence. Stillness. Service to the sick and infirm. Remembrance of death and of hades. The beginning of chastity is a mind unshaken by licentious thoughts and fantasies; the perfection of chastity is purity, which beholds God.
3. Non-possessiveness
Contenting oneself with what is strictly necessary. Hatred of luxury and comfort. Mercy toward the poor. Love of evangelical poverty. Hope in God’s providence. Following Christ’s commandments. Tranquility and freedom of spirit. Freedom from care. Tenderness of heart.
4. Meekness
Avoidance of wrathful thoughts and of the agitation of the heart by fury. Patience. Following Christ, Who calls His disciple to the cross. Peace of heart. Tranquility of mind. Christian firmness and courage. Insensibility to insults. Freedom from malice.
5. Blessed Weeping
The sense of the fall common to all men, and of one’s own spiritual poverty. Lamentation over them. The weeping of the mind. The painful contrition of the heart. The lightness of conscience that springs from them, gracious consolation and rejoicing. Hope in the mercy of God. Thanksgiving to God in sorrows; submissive bearing of them from the sight of one’s own multitude of sins. Readiness to endure. Purification of the mind. Relief from the passions. Death to the world. Desire for prayer, solitude, obedience, humility, and the confession of one’s sins.
6. Watchfulness
Zeal for every good deed. Unfailingly performing the church and cell rule. Attentiveness in prayer. Careful observation of all one’s deeds, words, and thoughts. Extreme distrust of oneself. Constant perseverance in prayer and the Word of God. Reverence. Constant vigilance over oneself. Keeping oneself from much sleep, self-indulgence, idle talk, jesting, and sharp words. Love of night vigils, prostrations, and other ascetic labors that bring alertness to the soul. Going out from the cell as rarely as possible. Remembrance of eternal blessings, desire and expectation of them.
7. Humility
The fear of God. The sensing of it during prayer. The dread that arises in especially pure prayer, when the presence and majesty of God are felt with especial strength—the fear of vanishing and becoming as nothing. Deep knowledge of one’s own nothingness. A change in one’s view of one’s neighbors, by which they, without any compulsion, seem to one who has so humbled himself to be superior to him in every respect. The appearance of simplicity of soul from living faith. Hatred of human praise. Constant self-accusation and self-reproach. Uprightness and directness. Detachment. Death to all things. Compunction. Knowledge of the mystery hidden in the cross of Christ. Desire to crucify oneself to the world and to the passions; striving toward this crucifixion. Rejection and forgetting of flattering customs and words, modest under compulsion, calculation, or ingrained habit of pretense. Reception of the folly of the Gospel. Rejection of earthly wisdom as unfit for heaven. Contempt of all that is highly esteemed among men and is an abomination before God (Lk. 16:15). Abandonment of self-justification. Silence before those who wrong one, learned from the Gospel. Putting aside all one’s own reasonings and receiving the understanding of the Gospel. Casting down every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. Humble-mindedness, or spiritual discernment. Conscious obedience to the Church in all things.
8. Love
The transformation during prayer of the fear of God into love of God. Fidelity to the Lord, demonstrated by the constant rejection of every sinful thought and sensation. An inexpressible, sweet attraction of the whole person by love toward the Lord Jesus Christ and the worshipped Holy Trinity. The beholding in one’s neighbors of the image of God and of Christ; the preference of all one’s neighbors over oneself that flows from this spiritual vision, and their reverent honoring in the Lord. Love of one’s neighbors: brotherly, pure, equal toward all, impartial, joyful, equally aflame toward friends and enemies. The rapturing of the mind, heart, and whole body into prayer and love. The inexpressible enjoyment of the body by spiritual joy. Spiritual inebriation.[1] The loosening of the bodily members in spiritual consolation.96 The inactivity of the bodily senses in prayer. The loosing of the tongue of the heart from muteness. The cessation of prayer from spiritual sweetness. The silence of the mind. The illumination of mind and heart. The prayerful power that conquers sin. The peace of Christ. The departure of all passions. The absorption of all understanding by the surpassing understanding of Christ. Theology. Knowledge of incorporeal beings. The weakness of sinful thoughts, unable to take form in the mind. Sweetness and abundant consolation amid sorrows. The vision of the spiritual states of men. The depth of humility and a most abased opinion of oneself…
The end is endless!