St.

Isaac the Syrian: Various Texts

St. Isaac the Syrian

These short quotes have been taken and slightly adapted from The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac,
Holy Transfiguration Monastery 1984.

A man who craves esteem cannot be rid of the causes of grief.

Through the toil of prayer and the anguish of your heart commune with those who are grieved at heart,
and the Source of mercy will be opened up to your petitions.

Whenever you wish to make a beginning in some good work, first prepare yourself for the temptations
that will come upon you, and do not doubt the truth.

He who is able to suffer wrong with joy, though having means at hand to rebuff it, has consciously
received from God the consolation of his faith.

The man who endures accusations against himself with humility has arrived at perfection. He is
marveled at by the holy angels, for there is no other virtue so great and so hard to achieve.

When temptation overtakes the deceitful man, he does not have the presence of mind to call upon God,
or to expect salvation from Him, since in the days of his ease he stood aloof from God's will.

Before the war begins, seek out your ally; before you fall ill, seek out your physician; and before grievous
things come upon you, pray, and in the time of your tribulations you will find Him, and He will listen to
you.

Love the poor, and through them you will find mercy.

Do not disdain those who are handicapped from birth, because all of us will go to the grave equally
privileged.

Love sinners, but hate their works; and do not despise them for their faults, lest you be tempted by the
same trespasses.

It is better to avoid the passions by the recollection of the virtues than by resisting and arguing with
them. For when the passions leave their place and arise for battle, they imprint on the mind images and
idols. This warfare has great force, able to weaken the mind and violently perturb and confuse a man's
thinking. But if a man acts by the first rule we have mentioned, when the passions are repulsed they
leave no trace in the mind.


That which befalls a fish out of water, befalls the mind that has come out of the remembrance of God
and wanders in the remembrance of the world.

The more a man's tongue flees verbosity, the more his intellect is illumined so as to be able to discern
deep thoughts; for the rational intellect is befuddled by verbosity.

On that day God will not judge us about psalmody, nor for the neglect of prayer, but because by
abandoning them, we have opened our door to the demons.

Stillness mortifies the outward senses and resurrects the inward movements, whereas agitation does
the opposite, that is, it resurrects the outward senses and deadens the inward movements.

What is the sign that a man has attained to purity of heart, and when does a man know that his heart
has entered into purity? When he sees all men as good and none appears to him to be unclean and
defiled, then in truth, his heart is pure.

Whenever in your path you find unchanging peace, beware: you are very far from the divine paths
trodden by the weary feet of the saints. For as long as you are journeying in the way to the city of the
Kingdom and are drawing near the city of God, this will be a sign for you: the strength of the
temptations that you encounter. And the nearer you draw close and progress, the more temptations will
multiply against you.

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all beatitude, and there the blessed Paul
partook of supernatural nourishment.

Until we find love, our labor is in the land of tares, and in the midst of tares we both sow and reap, even
if our seed is the seed of righteousness.

Love is the Kingdom, which the Lord mystically promised His disciples to eat in His Kingdom. For when
we hear Him say, 'You shall eat and drink at the table of My Kingdom,' what do we suppose we shall eat,
if not love? Love is sufficient to nourish a man instead of food and drink. This is the wine 'which makes
glad the heart of man.' Blessed is he who partakes of this wine! Licentious men have drunk this wine and
felt shame; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling; drunkards have drunk
this wine and became firm in virtue; the rich have drunk it and desired poverty; the poor have drunk it
and been enriched with hope; the sick have drunk it and become strong; the unlearned have taken it
and been made wise.

As it is not possible to cross over the great ocean without a ship, so no one can attain to love without
fear. This filthy sea, which lies between us and the paradise of the heart, we may cross by the boat of
repentance, whose oarsmen are those of fear. But if fear's oarsmen do not pilot the boat of repentance
whereby we cross over the sea of this world to God, we shall be drowned in the sordid abyss.

The man who chooses to consider God an avenger, presuming that in this manner he bears witness to
His justice, accuses Him of being bereft of goodness. Far be it, that vengeance could ever be found in
that Fountain of love and Ocean brimming with goodness! The aim of His design is the correction of
men; and if it were not that, we should be stripped of the honor of our free will, perhaps He would not
even heal us by reproof.

Do not approach the words of the mysteries contained in the divine Scriptures without prayer and
beseeching God for help, but say: Lord, grant me to perceive the power in them! Reckon prayer to be
the key to the true understanding of the divine Scriptures.

A small but always persistent discipline is a great force; for a soft drop falling persistently, hollows out
hard rock.

As children are not born without a mother, so passions are not born without distraction of the mind, and
sin is not committed without parley with the passions.

Ease and idleness are the destruction of the soul and they can injure her more than the demons.

If you compel your body when it is weak to labors that exceed its strength, you will instill darkness upon
darkness into your soul and bring greater confusion upon her.

As grass and fire cannot coexist in one place, so *legality* and mercy cannot abide in one soul.

Be persecuted, but persecute not; be crucified, but crucify not; be wronged, but wrong not; be
slandered, but slander not. Have clemency, not zeal, with respect to evil. Lay hold of goodness, not
legality.

Be every man's friend, but in your mind remain alone.

If you cannot be merciful, at least speak as though you are a sinner. If you are not a peacemaker, at least
do not be a troublemaker. If you cannot be assiduous, at least in your thought be like a sluggard. If you
are not victorious, do not exalt yourself over the vanquished. If you cannot close the mouth of a man
who disparages his companion, at least refrain from joining him in this.

No man has understanding if he is not humble, and whoever lacks humility is devoid of understanding.
No man is humble if he is not peaceful, and he who is not peaceful is not humble. And no man is
peaceful without rejoicing.

We should not be exceedingly grieved when we make a slip in some matter, but only if we persist in it;
for even the perfect often slip, but to persist therein is total death.

There is no knowledge that is not impoverished, however rich it should be; but heaven and earth cannot
contain the treasures of faith.

Truly, confusion should be called (if permissible) the chariot of the devil, because Satan is always eager
to mount upon it as a charioteer, and bearing with him the throng of the passions, he invades the
wretched soul and plunges her into the pit of confusion.

Christ demands not the doing of the commandments, but the soul's amendment, because of which He
gave His commandments to rational beings.

A gift free of trials is a disaster to those who receive it.

To choose what is good belongs to the good will of the man who desires it; but to accomplish the choice
of this good will belongs to God.

His path has been trodden from the ages and from all generations by the cross and by death. How is it
with you, that the afflictions on the path seem to you to be off the path? Do you not wish to follow the
steps of the saints? Or have you plans for devising some way of your own, and of journeying therein
without suffering?

The path of God is a daily cross. No one has ascended into Heaven by means of ease, for we know where
the way of ease leads and how it ends.

In truth, without afflictions there is no life.

The carnal man fears death like a beast fears slaughter. The rational man fears the judgment of God. But
the man who has become a son is adorned by love and is not taught by the rod of fear; he says, 'But I
and my father's house will serve the Lord.'

A merciful man is the physician of his own soul. Like a violent wind he drives the darkness of the
passions out of his inner self.

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the
lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but
keep distant from all men.

As long as you have feet, run after work, before you are bound with that bond which cannot be loosed
again once it is put on.
As long as you have hands, stretch them out to Heaven in prayer, before your arms fall from their joints,
and though you desire to draw them up, you will not be able.
As long as you have fingers, cross yourself in prayer, before death comes loosing the comely strength of
their sinews.
As long as you have eyes, fill them with tears before that hour when dust will cover your black clothes
and your eyes will be fixed in one direction in an unseeing gaze and you will not know it. Yes, fill your
eyes with tears as long as your heart is controlled by the power of discernment and before your soul is
shaken by her departure from it and the heart is left like a house deserted by its owner.

The passions are like dogs accustomed to lick blood in butchers' shops. When these are barred from
what their habit feeds on, they stand in front of the doors and howl until the force of their previous
custom is spent.

A man who sits in stillness and who receives experience of God's kindness has little need of persuasive
argument, and his soul is not sick with the disease of unbelief, like those who are doubtful of the truth.
For the testimony of his own understanding is sufficient to persuade him above endless words having no
experience behind them.

Know with certainty, therefore, that to stand is not within your power, nor does it pertain to your virtue,
but it belongs to grace herself which carries you upon the palm of her hand, that you may not be
alarmed.

Humility, even without works, gains forgiveness for many offenses; but without her, works are of no
profit to us, and rather prepare for us great evils.

Not every quiet man is humble, but every humble man is quiet.

Walk before God in simplicity and not with knowledge. Simplicity is accompanied by faith; but subtle
and intricate deliberations, by conceit; and conceit is accompanied by separation from God.

When you fall down before God in prayer, become in your thought like an ant, like the creeping things of
the earth, like a leech, and like a tiny lisping child. Do not say anything before Him with knowledge, but
with a child's manner of thought draw near God and walk before Him, that you may be counted worthy
of that paternal providence which fathers have for their small children.

It is not possible without temptations for a man to grow wise in spiritual warfare, to know his Provider
and perceive his God, and to be secretly confirmed in his faith, save by virtue of the experience which he
has gained.

A man can never learn what divine power is, while he abides in comfort and spacious living.

Just as a man whose head is submerged in the water cannot breathe the subtle air which is poured upon
the atmosphere's empty opening, so he who immerses his mind in the cares of the present life cannot
take in the breath that is a perception of the new world.

It is a spiritual gift from God for a man to perceive his sins.

This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.

The cross is the door to mysteries. Through this door the intellect makes entrance into the knowledge of
heavenly mysteries. The knowledge of the cross is concealed in the sufferings of the cross. The more we
participate in its sufferings, the greater the perception we gain through the cross. For, as the Apostle
says, 'As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ.' Now by
consolation he means theoria, which, being interpreted, is vision of soul. Vision gives birth to
consolation.

Prayer offered up at night possesses a great power, more so than the prayer of the day-time. Therefore
all the righteous prayed during the night, while combating the heaviness of the body and the sweetness
of sleep and repelling bodily nature.

He who despises the sick will not see light, and the day of him who turns his face from a man grieved by
affliction will become darkness. The sons of the man who scorns the voice of one suffering hardship will
grope their way, being struck with blindness.

Unless those who travel on the road go forward day by day, - and, if on the contrary, should they stand
in one place - the road before them will never diminish and they will never arrive at their destination. So
it is with us also. If we do not constrain ourselves little by little, we shall never have the strength to
abstain from bodily things so as to gaze toward God.