On Ascetic Labors

One must not undertake ascetic labors beyond one’s measure, but must strive so that our friend—our flesh—may be loyal and capable of performing acts of virtue.

We must walk the middle path, turning “neither to the right nor to the left” (Prov. 4:27), and give to the spirit what is spiritual and to the body what is bodily—what is needed for sustaining temporal life. But neither must one refuse to civic life what it legitimately requires of us, in the words of Holy Scripture: “Render therefore to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matt. 22:21).

One must be patient with one’s own soul in its weaknesses and imperfections, and bear one’s own shortcomings as one bears the shortcomings of one’s neighbors—but without being lazy, and urging oneself toward what is better.

If you have eaten too much or done something else of that kind, akin to human frailty, do not be disturbed by it, do not add harm to harm, but manfully rouse yourself to correction and strive to preserve peace of soul, according to the word of the Apostle: “Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves” (Rom. 14:22).

The same meaning is contained in the words of the Savior: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:3).

A body exhausted by ascetic labors or illness must be strengthened with moderate sleep, food, and drink, without even observing a fixed time for these. When Jesus Christ raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, he immediately “commanded that something be given her to eat” (Luke 8:55).

Every success in anything must be referred to the Lord, and with the Prophet we must say: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory” (Ps. 113:9).

Up to the age of about thirty-five—that is, until the midpoint of earthly life—great is the struggle for a person to preserve himself, and many in those years do not hold fast to virtue but turn aside from the right path toward their own desires; as St. Basil the Great bears witness: many have gathered much in their youth, but finding themselves in the middle of life and unable to endure the temptations raised against them by the spirits of wickedness, they lost everything they had gathered.

Therefore, in order not to experience such a reversal, one must place oneself as though on a scale of trial and careful self-observation, according to the teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Each person ought to weigh his life as though on a balance” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40).