Preface

To the First Edition of the Ascetic Sermons

In 1863, certain sermons of mine were published. Here I present a revised and augmented collection of my sermons, discourses, and homilies—some delivered and some unpublished, written for reading in church and for private devotion. In the course of this compilation, their character has become yet more defined, and the title Ascetic Sermons has proved to be wholly suitable for them.

Those acquainted with the Ascetic Essays, which I wrote while serving as archimandrite, will plainly see that the teaching set forth in the Ascetic Sermons flows naturally from monastic life and stands in unbreakable bond with it. These sermons serve as a supplement to the account of spiritual Christian struggle, and they illuminate it considerably. Yet from this it does not follow that reading them is fitting only for the monastic community: it is fitting for all Orthodox Christians who wish to become acquainted with the ascetic life according to the wisdom of the holy Fathers, according to the wisdom of the Church.

Bishop Ignatius. 1866.