Guidance for Practices That Strengthen the Soul’s and Body’s Powers in Goodness

In this way, the life of grace that dwells within, in the spirit, will burn and kindle more brightly. Because of the zeal and devotion of a person who gives himself to God, grace will overshadow him and penetrate with its sanctifying power, and increasingly, in a manner of speaking, make him its own. Yet we must not stop here. This is still seed, a point of support. What is needed is for this light of life to proceed further and, by penetrating the very nature of soul and body and in this way sanctifying them, making them its own, to tear away the unnatural passion that has taken hold and to restore them to their pure and natural condition—not to remain in itself, but to flow throughout all our being, through all our powers. But since these powers, as was said above, are saturated through and through with what is unnatural, the spirit of grace, the purest, that comes into the heart, cannot enter them directly and immediately, being blocked by their uncleanness. Therefore, there must be established certain means between the spirit of grace living within us and the powers, through which it might flow into them and heal them through them, as through poultices applied to diseased places. It is evident that all these means, on the one hand, must bear the character and properties of something of Divine or heavenly origin, and on the other hand must stand in perfect harmony with our powers in their natural structure and purpose; otherwise grace will not pass through them and the powers will not draw healing from them. Such means must be in their origin and inner nature. In themselves they can be nothing other than actions, exercises, labors, insofar as they are applied to powers, whose distinctive property is to act. Thus it is now necessary to seek out which actions and exercises God Himself, in His Scripture or through the teaching of the holy fathers after it, chose and indicated as means for healing our powers and restoring to them their lost purity and wholeness. It is not difficult to discover such exercises and practices; one need only look through the lives of several ascetical men, and they will reveal themselves naturally. Fasting, labor, vigil, solitude, withdrawal from the world, guarding the senses, reading of Scripture and the holy fathers, attending church, frequent confession and communion, vows and other works of piety and good deeds—all of this as a whole, and sometimes especially certain particular aspects, can be found in almost every life of the holy fathers. They all share a common name—ascetical struggle—which may seem frightening, but should attract us through its demonstrated significance, that is, its healing power. We will indicate for each of these struggles and exercises its proper place, in which power and toward what purpose each practice should be applied. In order to do this more successfully, we will show the course of every action of ours and consequently all our activity. Every free action, arising in consciousness and freedom, and consequently in the spirit, descends into the soul and by its powers—by reason, will, and feeling—is prepared for execution, and then is executed by the powers of the body in a definite time, place, and other external circumstances. External action most often passes away without trace when it is not repeated, noticed, and taken up by others. When this happens, it becomes a permanent rule, habit, custom, as it were a law. The sum total of these customs constitutes the spirit of that society or circle of people in which such customs are established. If their source is good, then the customs are good, and the society is good. If their source is bad, then the customs are bad, and the society is bad. But in the latter case, whoever has entered into this cycle of customs and habits is inevitably their slave and, despite the toil of slavery, serves it without objection. Whoever lives in a worldly way serves the customs and spirit of the world. But even he who enters this world fresh is inevitably permeated by its spirit and quickly becomes like others, because these customs are elements for the formation in us of a sinful, passionate, God-opposing spirit, since they themselves are nothing other than walking passions.

Having as its aim to purify and correct the human person, Divine grace first of all heals the source of all his activity, namely: it turns consciousness and freedom toward God, so that from there healing might proceed through all the powers by means of their proper activity, either designated for them or stirred up in them from the source already healed and sanctified. We saw earlier how this source is healed and how it is guarded. Now it is necessary to determine what actions should proceed from it with healing power, in the meaning that was indicated earlier. However, this does not permit arbitrary designation of these practices, but rather that they should be accepted by unpressured consciousness and freedom, for otherwise neither the expected fruit would come from them.

Thus, following upon the formation and guarding of zeal with all the inner ordering, one must determine the practices indicated in the word of God and in the writings of the holy fathers, first for the powers of the soul as the nearest receivers of all that is conceived in the sanctuary of the spirit, then for the powers and functions of the body as receivers of what matures in the soul; finally, for external conduct as the common outpouring of all internal activity or its field and also the formation of it. All these practices must be directed so that they do not quench but kindle more and more the spirit of zeal with all the inner ordering.

In the soul we find three powers: mind, will, and heart, or, as the holy fathers call them, the rational, appetitive, and spirited powers. To each of them the holy ascetics applied particular healing exercises, kindred to each, both receiving and conducting in relation to grace. They do not need to be constructed from theory, but only chosen from practices already tested—which practices go with which power. Thus:

For the mind:

Reading and hearing the word of God, the writings of the holy fathers and lives of the saints. Study and imprinting of all divinely-given truths in brief summaries (the catechism). Questioning those who are more experienced and elder. Mutual conversation and friendly counsel.

For the will:

Strict observance of all ascetical rules now to be set forth. Obedience to the entire church order. Obedience to civil or official and family order, for through it the will of God is mediated. Submission to the will of God in one’s fate and life. Attention to conscience in doing good deeds. Obedience to the spirit that is zealous for the fulfillment of vows.

For the heart:

Attendance at holy church services. Prayer ordered by the Church—the home rule. Use of the holy cross, icons, and other sacred substances and things. Observance of the sacred customs established by the Church and always offered by it.

The body, by nature, is pure. Therefore, it is necessary only to remove from its needs what is unnatural and to strengthen what is natural for it, or, what is the same, to return it to its nature. Moreover, it must be a helper to the soul, as its constant friend; therefore, besides restoration to the bounds of nature, the satisfaction of its needs must be applied also to the benefit of soul and spirit. In fulfilling these requirements, to each function of the body is assigned a kind of exercise—as a means both for the healing of our bodily nature and for spiritual benefit.

To this belong the rules that prescribe: in relation to the senses: guarding of the senses in general, and especially of hearing and eyes (nervous function); guarding of the mouth and tongue (muscular); bodily vigilance, with labor and work (muscular); abstinence and fasting (digestive); measure in sleep and vigil (digestive); bodily cleanliness (digestive).

In general with respect to the body: laboring (muscular), afflicting (nervous), and emaciation (digestive).

It is evident of itself how through such practices, little by little, the body will return to its natural condition, become lively and strong (muscular), radiant and pure (nervous), easy and free, and will show itself the most suitable instrument for our spirit and a worthy temple of the Holy Spirit.

Our external life—the outpouring of our deeds, their field, and also their cause and support—their beginning and end. One might leave it in peace if it did not react back on us. But in reality it powerfully governs and even rules us. Therefore, as an expression of the character of the activity of our powers or of our inner character, upon their change, it must necessarily be changed. Its field is family, occupation, relationships. Thus, to this must be applied all rules that require: abandoning all evil customs without exception; then—purifying relationships and associations, keeping what is saving and removing what is harmful, and determining conduct or dealings with people; redistributing or newly instituting occupations according to one’s position, if one has them; instituting the order of family affairs, or in general adapting the home to spiritual life.

It is necessary to arrange things so that everything external—with things, persons, and deeds—constitutes around us, as it were, a spiritual atmosphere that nourishes and builds up, not destroys.

Here are the exercises and practices! Their use must be continuous; they must be with us like a bandage with poultice on different parts of our being. But the most suitable place for them, where they should appear in their purest and most perfect form, most strictly, is fasting—the most saving institution of the Holy Church, appointed for our purification and sanctification through the Mysteries. This name means: the passing through all practices in perfect form as preparation for receiving the Mysteries; the very reception of the Mysteries of confession and communion of the Body and Blood of Christ.

These are exercises that embrace the whole human being, nourishing spirit and soul and body. Let us call them gracious means of education and strengthening of spiritual life.

Here are some general remarks on all these practices and exercises. All such practices and exercises must be gone through by each ascetic in a particular, adapted form, because in themselves they are as it were still materials and frames for rules. Rules are constructed from them through application to time, place, person, circumstances, and other factors. This must be done by each one practicing either by himself or with the guidance of his guide and spiritual father—done for each exercise, and then from the whole sum of them is constructed one all-embracing order of spiritual exercises, or practices, where everything has its place and time, both great and small. This order, as well as the rules, cannot be adequately set forth in a written guide, except only in outline. Here one can only describe each exercise and show its healing power and the general principles of its use.

It is easy to see how all such practices and exercises correspond to inner practice. Namely, rules of external conduct, with the ordering of the body, are essentially necessary for maintaining inward dwelling and spiritual consciousness, while the exercises of piety are for spiritual life-activity. Therefore, in the spiritual life, just as the inner is essential, so are they essential as well. In the teachings of the holy fathers they are called bodily, material practice, or the active life, while the inner practice is called the contemplative life, and also spiritual and mental practice. It is a delusion to think that the inner can stand, even without the external being adapted to it; just as it is wrong if someone stops at the external alone, forgetting the inner, as we have indicated it here, or not caring about it. Both must proceed together, so that the whole matter briefly can be expressed thus: having entered into yourself and taken your stand in spiritual consciousness, stir up life-activity, or establish a spiritual order, and then walk in the order of ascetical practice that you have established.

It is necessary to hold firmly in mind at the same time that the exercises, practices, and conduct, despite all their essential necessity and full fitness for guarding and forming spiritual life and restoring nature, have the power to do this not from themselves—they do not create the spirit and purify nature, but the grace of God, passing through them and gaining, as it were, access and flow to our powers. Therefore, go through them with all diligence, zeal, and constancy; but entrust your own progress to the Lord, so that under their protection He Himself might build us up as He wills and knows. In entering upon a practice, do not fix your attention and heart on it, but pass through it as something external—open yourself to grace as a ready vessel, with complete self-surrender to God. “He who finds grace finds it through faith and diligence,” says Saint Gregory of Sinai, “not through diligence alone.” No matter how correct our practice might be, but as soon as we do not surrender to God in it, do not draw grace, it builds in us not the true spirit but a deceptive spirit, produces a Pharisee. Grace is their soul. They are true only insofar as they nourish and guard self-abasement, contrition, fear of God, need for God’s help, and surrender to God. Satiety and self-satisfaction from them is a sign of their wrong use, or lack of understanding.

Here is the whole order of what we have called positive practice, or the beginning of self-coercion. There follows now an unfolding of each one individually, although in general outline.