Philotheos of Sinai – Alana Nickels

Philotheos of Sinai / Quotes on Orthodoxy

“They do not take into account the defeats and the victories that occur on the plane of thought.”

Many monks are not aware how the demons deceive the intellect. Being naive and undeveloped, they tend to give all their attention to the practice of the virtues and do not bother about the intellect. They move through life, I fear, without having tasted purity of heart, and are totally ignorant of the darkness of the passions within.
Such people, unaware of the battle about which Paul speaks (Eph. 6:12) and not imbued with personal experience of true goodness, regard as lapses only those sins which are actually put into effect. They do not take into account the defeats and the victories that occur on the plane of thought, for these, being internal, cannot be seen by natural sight and are known only to God our judge, and to the conscience of the spiritual contestant. I take it that the scriptural words, They said, ‘Peace’, but there was no peace (Ezek. 13:10), apply to such people. The other brethren pray for them in their simplicity, and as best they can teach them to avoid the actual commission of sin. But for those who have a divine desire to cleanse the vision of the soul there is another form of activity in Christ and another mystery.

– Philotheos of Sinai, “40 Texts on Watchfulness (Nepsis)“, the Philokalia

Featured image: Photographer Gintare Vilcinyte. source

Philotheos of Sinai

40 Texts on Watchfulness (Nepsis) – Philotheus of Sinai

Philotheus of Sinai, 9th-10th c.

1. There is within us, on the noetic plane, a warfare tougher than that on the plane of the senses. The spiritual worker has to press on with his intellect towards the goal (Phil. 3:14), in order to enshrine perfectly the remembrance of God in his heart like some pearl or precious stone (Matt. 13:44-46). He has to give up everything, including the body, and to disdain this present life, if he wishes to possess God alone in his heart. For the noetic vision of God, the divine John Chrysostom has said, can by itself destroy the demonic spirits.

2. When engaged in noetic warfare we should therefore do all we can to choose some spiritual practice from divine Scripture and apply it to our intellect like a healing ointment. From dawn we should stand bravely and unflinchingly at the gate of the heart, with true remembrance of God and unceasing prayer of Jesus Christ in the soul; and, keeping watch with the intellect, we should slaughter all the sinners of the land (Ps. 101:8.). Given over in the intensity of our ecstasy to the constant remembrance of God, we should for the Lord’s sake cut off the heads of the tyrants (Hab. 3:14), that is to say, should destroy hostile thoughts at their first appearance. For in noetic warfare, too, there is a certain divine practice and order. Thus we should force ourselves to act in this way until it is time for eating. After this, having thanked the Lord who solely by virtue of His compassion provides us with both spiritual and bodily food, we should devote ourselves to the remembrance of death and to meditation; on it. The following morning we should courageously resume the same sequence of tasks. Even if we act daily in this manner we will only just manage, with the Lord’s help, to escape from the meshes of the noetic enemy. When this pattern of spiritual practice is firmly established in us, it gives birth to the triad faith, hope and love. Faith disposes us truly to fear God. Hope, transcending servile fear, binds us to the love of God, since hope does not disappoint (Rom. 5:5), containing as it does the seed of that twofold love on which hang the law and the prophets (Matt. 22:40). And love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8), once it has become to him who shares in it the motive for fulfilling the divine law both in the present life and in the life to be.