Catecheses of St.

Theodore the Studite

to his Monks

INTRODUCTION
There is some confusion as to when the post-paschal instructions
were given. The Greek text of the Small Catecheses by Skrettas, based
on Auvray’s edition, gives no indication of dates for numbers 1-6; the
list in the introduction to the Migne edition gives this one as In
Dominica Sancti Thomae, sive prima post Pascha, but the Latin heading
of the sermon itself has simply Post Pascha, and for number 5 In
Octavam Paschae, though the Greek list gives this as for the
Wednesday of Mid-Pentecost.

It should be remembered that St Theodore and his monks were in

exile in the Propontis at this time. This perhaps explains a number of
allusions to shipping and metaphors taken from it in these
Instructions. He appears to have some difficulty in keeping the
community together. He refers to the problem again in no. 103,
where he says he has to keeping mentioning it.

CATECHESIS 2
That we must always die the chosen death, and on good order.

Brethren and Fathers, Pascha is gone by and the feast has been
completed; but rejoicing and feasting, should we wish, have by no
means gone by, for we are always allowed to rejoice and feast
spiritually, in accordance with the saying of Scripture, Rejoice in the
Lord always, and again I will say: Rejoice! [Phil. 4:4.] But how shall this
be? If we always keep fresh the memory of the sufferings of our
Saviour Christ; that the Lord of glory was crucified for our sake, that
he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, raising us
with himself and giving us life with himself, so that being alive we may
no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died and was raised for our
sake, [2 Cor. 5:15.] so that we can confidently say with the Apostle, I
live, but no longer I; Christ lives in me. What I now live in the flesh, I live
in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and who handed himself over for
me.[ Gal. 2:20.] This is the sum of the mystery: to be corpses to the
world but alive to God.

And so after Pascha we must be watchful and awake, pray and be

stirred to compunction, weep and be illumined, always bearing in our
bodies the death of the Lord Jesus, [2 Cor. 4:10.] dying each day by choice,
always journeying from the body and dwelling with the Lord
through leaving the thoughts of the flesh. Do not say, ‘It is not Lent
now ‘. It is always Lent for the watchful. Do not say, ‘I have spent
hours in ascetic activity and it is necessary to rest’. There is no rest
here. Do not say, ‘I have grown old in virtue and I am not afraid’.
There is always fear of reversal; and Satan in one instant has cast into
the deep of sin many who had grown old in virtue. So let the one who
thinks they stand beware lest they fall, [1 Cor. 10:12.] and the one who
thinks they have been guarded see to it that they are not off their
guard. So let there be guard and attention and moderation with
regard to sleep, to food, to drink and to whatever else, so that the
body may be kept under control and brought into servitude, [Cf. 1
Cor. 9:27.] lest, like a colt in fine condition which takes the bit between
its teeth [St Theodore is thinking of the myth of the Charioteer in the
Phaedrus, where this precise phrase occurs [254D], it push us down the
precipice of sin.

I ordered you in a previous instruction not to go off on your own and

live by yourselves in more inaccessible places [St Theodore refers to this
problem again in number 103, where he says he has to keep referring to it.].
Yet again some of you are doing just that. What do you want? That I
should come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?[ 1
Cor. 4:21.] In short, I spoke and I was not listened to; in short, you
clearly saw your brother disciplined for this very thing and you were
not restrained. Take care that none of you falls into a similar sort of
disobedience. These instructions are not given to no purpose or
vainly. Because God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the
churches of the Saints.[ 1 Cor. 14:33.] And so let everything be done fittingly
and in order, [1 Cor. 14:40.] so that in all things the Lord may be
glorified in you. Those of you, brethren, who come alongside [The
metaphor is of a ship coming to harbour.] here and there take care for
yourselves where and how you settle and dwell. Do not be like
dissolute people, but like ones bound by the spirit; not like ones
without supervision, but like ones under the supervision of the Lord,
who oversees your every movement and action; not ones being
driven randomly here and there, but remaining in stillness in your
cells, attending to your manual work, your prayers and psalmody;
not amassing treasure for yourselves from love of money, but content
with what you have now. For he himself said, I will not abandon you, I
will not desert you, so that we may say confidently, The Lord is my helper,
and I shall not fear what man will do to me. Remember your brethren, and
keeping before you the outcome of their lives imitate their faith. [Hebrews
13:5-7. St Theodore has freely adapted verse 7, which in the original refers to
‘leaders’ rather than ‘brothers’.]

Such was the blessed Dometianos, whom we have praised and

whose memorial is with the Saints. How great the business he
achieved, how great the life he accomplished by few toils and
struggles, inheriting eternal glory, a man of no worth in human
terms, but since he chose virtue and loved God, God exalted him, in
accordance with what is written, Because I will glorify those who glorify
me, and the one who despises me will be dishonoured [1 Kingd. 2:30.]. It is
right to rejoice and be glad in such brothers; but it is of no use unless
we also make our own contribution. If we contribute as best we can,
we too will have a portion with the Saints in Christ Jesus our Lord, to
whom be the glory and the might with the Father and the holy Spirit
now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 4
On taking care for ourselves and fleeing sin’s
destructive places and ways.
[Given on the Sunday of the Paralysed Man]
Brethren and fathers, after the feast the season invites us once again
to talk with you and to return to the usual instruction. And we have
come with enthusiasm knowing that we are appointed for this, and
woe to us if we do not talk with you as much as possible. So, what is
there to say in the present circumstances? That each of you, like a
merchant, having amassed spiritual wealth for himself during holy
Lent, has reached holy Pascha like a harbour, laden with many
excellent stocks of virtue, namely: fasting, vigil, prayer, hard work
and all the other exertions of holiness. For a physical harbour is not
like a harbour of the mind. When someone comes to anchor in the
former, they ease off and have no worries about the storms and
dangers of the sea. In the latter on the contrary, the passions become
more ferocious with the relaxation of the flesh, and the spirits of
wickedness join in the assault like storms: the spirit of fornication,
the spirit of gluttony, the spirit of avarice, the spirit of despondency,
the spirit of dejection, the spirit of pride. The fear is that we may be
sunk in harbour. David once looked unguardedly on Uria’s wife, and
readers know what he suffered. Jacob ate and was filled, says Scripture,
and the beloved kicked [Deut 32,15]. Someone touched without meaning
to and they were enflamed to lust and gave birth to iniquity.

Take care, you who are listening to this. Flee the destructive places and
ways of sin. Govern your sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, your
food, drink and sleep, that you may keep from being overwhelmed
by the tempest of the passions. This is worth remembering: someone
who sails across the physical sea is subject to storms and tempests
without their wanting it, while someone who crosses the water of the
mind is lord of tempest and of calm. For if they manfully shake off
unseemly thoughts, they are filled with calm, having the Holy Spirit
as the companion of their voyage, as it is related of Saint Arsenios.
But one whose senses are unbridled and who lets in desires like
streams, stirs up a most dreadful storm for themselves. Unless the
person does not swiftly smooth out their tempestuous thoughts, will
end by repeating those miserable words, I entered the depths of the sea,
and a tempest drowned me [Psalm 68,3]. Therefore let reason be in
control, and let the better not be dragged down by the worse, but let
the spirit be master and act for the better. Or don’t you know what
sin produces? Didn’t it introduce death into the world? Didn’t it
destroy the earth? Hasn’t it filled the inhabited world with
graveyards and tombs from the beginning of time until now? For
humanity was incorrupt before the fall and none of the things I have
mentioned would have started if the first-formed had steadfastly
observed the commandment that had been given. Sin is the cause of
the everlasting punishments, the fuel of the unquenchable fire of
Gehenna, the food of the undying worm; sin that has made
humanity, that was in honour, be compared to the unreasoning
beasts [Cf. Psalm 48,13.21].
And so, because sin is like all this, destructive and deadly, we must
flee from it, brethren, with all our might, and choose virtue, which
makes humans angels, raises them from death, resists the demons,
overcomes the rulers of this age, and finally betroths them to the
kingdom of heaven. May we all reach it too by the grace and love for
humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and
the holy Spirit belong glory, might and honour, now and for ever,
and the ages of ages. Amen.

INTRODUCTION
There is some confusion over the numbering of this instruction. The
list in Migne gives it as number 5 and assigns it to the Wednesday of
Mid-Pentecost, but in the text it is given as number 6 and described
as Ante Mesopentecosten. In the text the feast is said to be ‘at the
doors’, which would suggest that the sermon was given before the
day itself.

This Instruction contains a number of words that are not attested in

the standard lexica, but their meaning is clear, except for the second
verb in the allusion to Acts 1,3-4, where the commentators are
divided between ‘meet with’, ‘gather’ and ‘eat’. Most English
versions of the New Testament give the former, but St John
Chrysostom and St Jerome, who has ‘conuescens’, prefer the second.

CATECHESIS 6
That one must give off a sweet fragrance through acquiring the virtues.

Brethren and fathers, at Christ’s resurrection creation too, putting

away its winter gloom, like a deadness puts out fresh shoots and as it
were comes to life again. And yes, we see the earth wearing green,
the plants flourishing, the animals skipping around [an unattested
word], the sea tamed and everything being changed for the better.

But I must explain why I have said this. If inanimate and irrational
creatures are made radiant and lovely by the resplendent
resurrection, how much more ought we, who have been honoured
with reason and the image of God, make ourselves bright by our life
and give off sweet fragrance by the spirit. For one who strives after
virtue is truly the sweet fragrance of Christ, and the Apostle bears
witness to this when he says, For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ for
God among those who are being saved and those who are perishing, for the
latter a scent of death leading to death, for the former an scent of life leading
to life [2 Cor. 2,15-16].

And it is possible to say this as well. Before his transgression, Adam

too was a sweet fragrance for God, made bright by immortality and
incorruption and engrossed in heavenly contemplation. And
therefore, like a fragrant meadow filled with flowers, appropriately
he dwelt in Paradise, giving off the virtues. The patriarch Isaac also,
when he smelt a sweet aroma on his son Jacob, said, See, the scent of
my son is like the scent of a fertile field that the Lord has blessed [Gen.
27,27], that is to say the scent that has been received spiritually.

So then, my brothers, let us give off a sweet spiritual fragrance, a

perfume that each one produces [unattested] for themselves by a
blending of the virtues, as a truly master perfumer. This perfume is
blessed. This perfume is sweet to God. This perfume attracts angels,
but repels demons. With this perfume women ran behind Jesus, as it
says in the Song of Songs [1,4 LXX]. With this perfume too let us also
run as we celebrate with sincerity the holy Mid-Pentecost, which is at
the doors, since it is written, When it was already the mid-point of the
feast, Jesus went up to the Temple and taught, and the Jews marvelled,
saying, ‘How does this man know letters, without having learnt?’ [John
7,14-15] But this was before the Passion, while now, after the
Resurrection, he appears to and eats [Cf. Acts 1,3-4] with the holy
Apostles, initiating them into greater and more ineffable mysteries,
and — O what inexpressible condescension! — after the Resurrection
he touched food, though his holy flesh had no need to. But
nevertheless, so as to confirm his Resurrection, he ate and drank and
let his side be handled. And to those who thought that he was a spirit
he said, See my hands and feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see,
because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have [Luke
24,39]. What do you say to that, enemy of Christ? If he has flesh and
bones, does he not have the possibility of being portrayed in an
image? So if the latter is impossible, so was the former. But he
himself silently bears witness also to his being portrayed, for each of
them confirms the other.

But the iconoclasts, who think like the Manicheans, will pay the
penalty of everlasting destruction [2 Thess. 1,9], as it is written. Let us
though, brethren, who believe with orthodox understanding that we
both see and worship our Lord Jesus Christ in an image, display a
way of life worthy of the faith, pure, blameless, guiltless, so as not to
limp on either account, but well-pleasing on both we may attain the
kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and
might with the Father and the holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to
the ages of ages. Amen.

INTRODUCTION
The feast seems to have fallen in the second half of May in the year
that St Theodore gave this instruction, since he refers to the recent
celebration of St Pachomius, whose feast falls on 15 May.

The quotation from 1 Timothy 3,16 is one of the key quotations in the
liturgical texts for the feast. All the texts in the New Testament speak
of Christ’s being ‘taken up’, and this language has been preserved in
the hymns of the Church. The Greek name of the feast means
‘Assumption’, not ‘Ascension’, which comes from the Latin name for
the feast.

Apart from the necessary change of person in the verb, the whole
clause ‘he descended into the lowest parts of the earth’ is the opening
of the Irmos of the 6th Ode of St John of Damascus’s Easter Canon,
which St Theodore would have known.

CATECHESIS 7
On the Assumption of our Saviour Jesus Christ
and on conducting ourselves in a manner pleasing to God.

Brethren and fathers, a feast of feasts, the Assumption of our Saviour

Jesus Christ, is at our doors, and a great and supernatural mystery;
for our nature is being taken up beyond heaven, as it written: By
grace you have been saved; and he has raised us up together and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,[Ephesians 2,5-6] who is at
the right hand of God, [Romans 8,34] far above every principality and
authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only
in this age, but in that which to come. And he has put all things under his
feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his
body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. [Ephesians 1,22-23]

Do you see then to what height of glory human nature has been
raised? Is it not from earth to heaven? Is it not from corruption to
incorruption? How hard would not someone toil in order to become
the intimate friend of a corruptible king here below? But we,
although we were alienated and hostile in our intent by evil deeds,
have not only been reconciled to God the Father, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, but we have also soared aloft to sonship, and now our
nature is worshipped in the heavens by every creature seen and
unseen. Such is the mighty work of the ineffable love for mankind of
our good God, and with this in mind the blest Apostle cried out:
What is the hope of his calling, and what the wealth of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power
towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his
strength which he worked in Christ? {Ephesians 1,18-20] For what came
to pass? He who is supremely good came to us through a virgin
birth, he became a slave to the normal laws of nature, he ascended
the cross, nailing to it the record against us, he descended to the lowest
parts of the earth [Psalm 138,15] and abolished the pains of death and
raised humanity with himself, finally he was taken up in glory {1
Timothy 3,18], manifesting himself for us to God the Father.

These then briefly are the events of the holy feast. And as we
contemplate them, brethren, and because we are the body of Christ,
let us reverence the gift, let us preserve the nobility, let us not betray
the grace, let us not make the members of Christ members of a harlot; [1
Corinthians 6,15] but let us sanctify ourselves in both thoughts and
deeds, let us yet refrain from carnal desires that war against the soul,[1
Peter 2,11] maintaining good conduct in ourselves, peaceable,
compliant, obedient, humble, reliable. And this is the blessed life: but
pleasures and trifles, occasions of laughter and dissoluteness and all
such inordinate behaviour should be left to the lovers of the flesh and
to the lovers of life, who see and do not see and hear and do not hear,
for their hearts are insensitive [Cf. Mark 8,17-18] and their ears
blocked up so as not to distinguish good from bad, light from
darkness, life from death, but so as to go towards the fire that is
ready. For the desire of the flesh is fire, and yet they rush towards it
unbridled; love of money is a pit, and yet deep embedded they do
not cease to follow their self-chosen demon and to be entitled to be
called miserable rather than blessed, because despising what is truly
good they embrace rather perishable corruption.

But we, brethren, let us hold fast to the confession in which we stand,
and let us boast in the hope of the glory of God, [Romans 5,2] let us keep
to the discipline in which the saints disciplined themselves, as indeed
did the blessed Pachomius, whom we recently celebrated. Let us see
healthily, let us hear healthily, let us touch healthily, using all our
members healthily, so that guided by the word and as servants of the
word we may become inheritors of eternal life according to the
promise, [Cf. 1 Timothy 4,8] in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the
glory and the might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for
ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

INTRODUCTION
This Instruction is no. 14 of the Large Catechesis. The list in Migne is
confused, since two instructions are numbered ‘7’. The title of the one
for the Sunday of the Blind Man is the same as this one, and the
reference to spring suggests that it the one meant.

LARGE CATECHESIS 14
On freedom from affections and on self-mastery.
My brothers, fathers and children, talking to you and seeing you is
for me comfort and consolation, while I am convinced that your
reciprocal love and sight of me is the same also for you, since after
God I have no one else, not father, not mother, not brothers, not
relatives, not friends, apart from you my most dear members and
children and brothers and fathers, not have you any except me, an
unprofitable sinner. This affiliation is of the Holy Spirit. Flight from
the world, alienation, the denial of parents and all fleshly
connections1 have secured this union for us. Therefore this sacred
fellowship is acknowledged to be one soul and one will for all. So
then I rejoice each time I speak to you and address you, and am filled
with zeal and am on fire for your love according to God and your
salvation that your work as it progresses may progress, as it
increases, may increase, as it shines, may shine to my inexpressible
joy.

I beg you then, my children, now too stand steadfast and immovable
from hope in God and by tearing apart the tangled wiles of the devil
[ Cf. Eph. 6:11.] show yourselves to be above the passions as you
trample down the pleasures and desires of the flesh and guard from
every side your virginity and purity of soul and body. You realize
that it is springtime when every animate nature is moved to
reproduction. Let your sleep be in moderation, as I said to you before
Easter, let your food be regulated as prescribed.2 It is good, says the
Apostle, not to eat meat or to drink wine, or do anything that makes
your brother stumble.[Rom. 14:21.] And I too, my brothers, say by
way of advice, not as a regulation, for the sake of your precious
souls, not to the sick but to those who are in good health, it is good
not to drink wine, particularly for the younger ones, for through
wine the passions are enflamed. We have in ourselves the tempest of
the physical pleasures; why then do we add the waves of wine to it?
Taste therefore and see that self-mastery in this regard is good. [Cf.
Ps. 33:8.] For you will see yourself by abstinence from wine rising
above thoughts, freed from fever of the soul, awake to the love of
God and aroused for those things that are better and abound in
salvation. One who abstains from wine is filled with the Holy Spirit;
one who drinks water has drunk the streams of compunction.
However, as you are able, act thus to preserve your bodily health or
in proportion to your toil; for I have not issued an order, but I am
giving you advice in the matter. And with regard to foods, my
children, I have the same advice, to flee irrational surfeiting and
wanton indulgence, from which come dissolute behaviour and the
seeds of Sodom.3 But you are to act with regard to eating and
drinking and everything else so as to rule and not be ruled by
pleasures; so as to master and not be mastered by the flesh. And this
is the best. This is the best formula for soul and body: for the better
not be dominated by the worse. Be careful regarding journeys
outside and worldly contacts not to bring disturbances to the
brotherhood. And those of you who are assigned to the boats for
going in and out and bringing in what is needed, do not associate
with secular people, neither talk nor shout like them, but let your
sailing4 be seemly, so that God may be glorified by it.
I learn that some people are going down to the gardens and asking
the gardener for vegetables to eat and that when, because of the rule,
they do not get any, they pick a fight with the gardener. This is
utterly satanic and is to occur no longer, since those of you who
behave thus will be subjected to punishments. Is what is put before
you not sufficient? How are you going to make war on passion if you
are defeated by a cabbage? You will become weaker than a feather if
you do not fortify yourself by thought through self-mastery. In short
people both do become and have become perfect from imperfect,
very great from small, healthy from weak, men from boys, and we
too at least have become and let us continue to become and let us not
be slothful, let us not be sluggish. The Lord gives strength and might.
[Cf Ps. 67:35.] Spreading his wings he received them and took them
on his back. [Deut. 32:11.] Thus he loves to save us, thus he is near to
those that call on him. [Ps. 144:18.] Thus then the Lord of glory will
comfort your hearts and firmly establish your souls and tightly gird
your loins, beloved children, for the battle line, for war with the
adversary, for victory, for the routing of opponents, for glory, for his
praise, for inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, for to him belongs
glory, with the Father and his all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and
for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES
1 I take the Greek here to be masculine, not neuter, and to refer to
‘relatives’.

2The word is not in the lexica, but the meaning is clear. This remark
of St Theodore’s may explain why the normal fast days were
prescribed from Thomas Sunday onwards.

3 The adjective, sodomitikos, is not attested in the lexica. Here it is

linked with asotia, which echoes the parable of the Prodigal Son. The
elder brother in the parable asserts that his asotia includes
squandering his money on harlots among other things. This suggests
that the adjective also has sexual connotations. In view of St
Theodore’s earlier remarks about spring this seems the most likely
connotation of the word.

4 Another unattested word.

 CATECHESIS 20
That we must preserve the beauty and untarnished loveliness of the
soul, and about repentance.

Brethren and fathers, since we have been counted worthy to celebrate

the forefeast of the divine Transfiguration, from this then let us
compose an instruction, discharging our duty in a few words. On the
one hand, all the feasts of the Lord expound the mysteries of his
sojourn in the flesh, such as that he was born, that he was baptized,
that he was crucified, that he was buried, that he was raised on the
third day, that he was taken up in glory; while the mystery of the
Transfiguration hints at the restoration in the age to come. For in the
same way that ‘his face blazed like the sun, while his garments
became white as light’ [Matt. 17,2], in the same way he will come
from heaven like lightning, with power and great glory to judge the
universe. And as Peter, James and John were with him on the holy
mountain, so the elect will be with him in the kingdom of heaven,
enjoying his ineffable manifestation as God and inexpressible joy.
And who is adequate for all this? Who is worthy to attain that joy?
Who else but one whose way of life is pure and undefiled? For since
our God is pure, or rather the highest light, he comes to the pure, and
as he has placed a pure soul in us, he will also ask it from us pure.
For since it has been made according to God’s image and likeness,
that is to say as a figure1 of the divine beauty, it has also shared in
that beauty. And knowing this the poet speaks thus, ‘Lord, by your
will you granted power to my beauty’ [Psalm 29,8], that is to say to
the beauty of the soul, lest, having turned away towards the ugly
passions of sin and become disfigured, it fall from God and his
divine rewards. Since therefore it is agreed that our soul should be
like this, lovely and beautiful, and that we should give it back to God
like a pledge on the last day, the day of resurrection, I beg and urge
that we love this beauty and carefully guard this loveliness, not
turning back to the fair things of the present age or to the beauties of
flesh and blood. They are not beauties, but idols of beauty; they are
rather corruption and change. And this we can learn from the end of
things, for one who today is outstandingly beautiful and fair of face2
is tomorrow cast into a tomb, stinking and abhorrent. So there is
nothing fair and loveable but exemplary virtue, which should be our
chief pursuit, my brothers. But if admittedly it frequently happens
that the soul grows slack and is defiled by unseemly thoughts -- for
who will boast that they have a pure heart? -- let it be quickly made
clean again and brought back to its former condition, lest by delaying
in evil it gives birth to death. And let no one ever say that they
cannot be made clean again, stained as they are by many sins, when
they listen to the One who said, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, I
will make them white as snow. Though they are like crimson, I will
make them white as wool’ [Isaias 1,18]. Do you see God’s ineffable
love for humankind? Not only has he promised to purify, but to
bring the one who repents to the pinnacle of loveliness. And
examples are manifest.

David was a prophet and, when he fell into the crime of adultery and
murder, he did not give up, but after he had swiftly had recourse to
repentance, he received the grace of prophecy once again. Manasse
perverted Israel for fifty two years, but when he repented, he too
found salvation. The prince of the Apostles, after his denial, by the
medicine of tears took up again the burden of the apostolate. Mary of
Egypt, to pass over the numberless others, had reached the uttermost
limit of debauchery, but once she had come to a remarkable
repentance, she attained the highest degree of virtue. So there is no
excuse for claiming incapacity for someone who chooses to be saved,
unless they are insensible or bent on death3. But we hear the words,
‘Why would you die, house of Israel?’ [Ezekiel 18,31], and why do
we choose everlasting death rather than immortal life that is set
before us? Our good Master cries out each day, ‘Come to me all you
that toil and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ [Matthew
11,28]. And we are unwilling to get rid of the heavy load of our sins.
The same Master cries, ‘I am the light of the world. One who follows
me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ [John
8,12]. But we turn to the opposite, proclaiming by our actions, ‘We do
not want to know your ways’ [Job 21,14]. All that remains is for us to
hear, ‘Walk by the light of your fire and the flame you have kindled’
[Isaias 50,11]. And Scripture says, ‘Those who do such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God’ [Galatians 5,21]. But God forbid that
such things should be said of us. ‘For you are may friends, says the
Lord, if you do all that I command you’ [John 15,14]. So then, let us
do all that we have been commanded, that we may be worthy to be
called friends, to inherit the kingdom of heaven, in Christ our Lord,
to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES

1. The Greek word is ‘agalma’, which is the usual word for a ‘statue’. It is
however used occasionally by the Fathers to refer to the ‘image of God’ in
human beings.

2. This word is unattested in the lexica.

3. This word is unattested in the lexica.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
As the opening quotation from the Gospel of the day makes clear,
this Instruction was intended for the first day of the new
ecclesiastical year, the beginning of the Indiction on 1 September. The
beginning of the second paragraph contains a quotation from the
Anaphora of St John Chrysostom.

CATECHESIS 24
Of the surpassing gift of God, of love for him and hatred of the devil,
and of humility. It was spoken at the beginning of the year.

Brethren and fathers, the beginning of the year has already come, on
which the Good Tidings are read in these words,The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good
tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim forgiveness to
captives and sight to the blind, to send the oppressed away with forgiveness,
to announce a year acceptable to the Lord [Luke 4:18-19, Isa. 61:1-2, 58:6].
Since then the only-begotten Son of God has been sent from the
Father as propitiation for the world, may we, the blind, see again, we
captives be freed, we oppressed be forgiven. Who is blind? One
short-sighted through attachment to the passions. Who is captive?
One led away by unseemly thoughts. Who is oppressed? One broken
by sins. The Lord heals them; for he is a physician of souls as well as
bodies. And he was not only present in bodily form to those at that
time, but he is also present now, invisibly, with the same good
tidings, taking away the sin of the world, and healing every disease and
every weakness [John 1:29, Matt. 9:35]. Let no one then remain
unenlightened and unhealed, but let them draw near with faith and
they will receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God their Saviour
[Ps. 23:5].

Oh, what ineffable love for humankind! He brought us from non-

existence into existence; when we had fallen, he raised us up again;
he has granted us a third grace: monastic completeness; and though
we are still sinning, he does not therefore turn away, but he draws
near and consoles us when we are afflicted, encourages us when we
are sorrowing, massages us when we are running, strengthens us
when enfeebled and heals us when wounded; and when we are
about to fall into pit of Hell itself, he goes ahead and snatches us
from dangers in his love for humankind; so that it would be
appropriate for each of us to say, If the Lord had not helped me, my soul
had almost dwelt in Hell [Ps.93:17]. And I was thrust down and
overthrown so as to fall, and the Lord came to my assistance [Ps. 117:13].
And each one knows the temptations into which they have fallen,
and how they have at once found the good God to be their helper in
their afflictions.

In addition he who is supremely good nourishes us when we hunger,

with regard to our bodies with the fruits that the earth bears year by
year; with regard to the soul with the most pure Mysteries, as he
longs for us more than a mother or a nurse and embraces us with
affection. For a mother nourishes her child with milk for a time,
while he our true master and father gives his own body and blood as
food and drink, and this permanently. Oh, what unfathomable
goodness! And oh, what an incomparable gift! How then can we fail
to love him? How fail to cherish him? How fail to cling to him
unceasingly? So that if we were not so disposed, heaven would
instantly cry out against us, earth would groan, the very stones
would condemn our utter insensibility.

So that this may not happen, let us hold fast to love of him, hating
and rightly turning away from the devil. For as our benefactor is
loved and cherished in proportion to his benefactions, so the wicked
one should be hated and rejected for his ways in equal proportion.
For he is the destroyer of our life. In the words of the Master, he is a
murderer from the beginning [John 8:44]. He is the one who has divided
our race into ten thousand opinions, wounding it with many darts of
sin and seeking to swallow down the inhabited world. If we do not
hate him, there will be no escaping the punishment that will be
meted out to us, because we joined to our foe and murderer. But, my
brothers, let us fly from him! Let us fly most certainly. What is flight?
The avoidance of wicked actions and thoughts, and also affinity with
God, the assumption of good works.

And so let us chose the good with all humility and meekness and
modesty serving the Lord, knowing that every achievement that is
not guarded by humility is worthless. So let those of us whose ideas
are puffed up humble ourselves beneath the mighty hand of God [1
Peter 5:6], lest we run in vain; but let all of us, doing well, press
forward, pursue, run on, that we may attain, that we may inherit the
kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to whom be glory and
might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to the
ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 32
On the Nativity of the Saviour and the vigorous pursuit of our ascetic
life.

Brethren and Fathers, already the Manifestation of God is near and

the day of joy is at the doors; for it is a great joy, such as has not been
since time began, that the Son of God has come to us, not through
riddles and symbols, as he appeared of old to the fathers, but by
coming to live with us and manifesting himself in his own person
through his birth from a Virgin. There has been nothing more blest
than this in generations of generations, nothing more wonderful
among all the wonders that God has done since time began. For this
reason Angels are proclaiming the good tidings of the mystery and a
star revealing that the heavenly has been brought to birth on earth;
for this reason Shepherds are running to see the salvation that has
been proclaimed, and Magi are bringing gifts fit for a king; for this
reason a new song is being sung for new events, because God, who is
glorified in the highest, has appeared as peace on earth. And the
Apostle bears witness when he says, For he is our peace, who has
made both one, breaking down the middle wall of partition, the
hostility between us, in his flesh. He has abolished the law with its
commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one
new humanity in place of two, thus making peace, and might
reconcile both to God in one body through the Cross, thus putting to
death that hostility through it. This is what the prophets and the just
since time began desired to see, but did not see except through faith;
while we have both seen and our hands have touched, as it is written,
concerning the Word of life, and this life has been revealed, and we
have received sonship. But what shall we give in return for all that
the Lord has given to us? Already holy David anticipated and cried
out the answer. I shall take the cup of salvation and call on the name
of the Lord. So then let us rejoice, brethren, because we have been
granted to give the Lord a return for all that he has given us. And
what is this return? The cross-bearing way of life that we have taken
on, and the confession in which we stand and we boast in our hope
of the glory of God. And this is confessedly a witness. Meanwhile it
is not for us to feast for just one day, but throughout our life; just as
those who are governed by the flesh and in thrall to the passions are
unable to feast, even if they seem to feast, nor are they at liberty, for
they are slaves of the passions sold under sin. Indeed it is written,
Everyone who sins is a slave of sin; but the slave does not abide in
the house for ever. The son abides for ever. Since then we too have
been granted to have been called sons according to grace, we remain
in the house for ever, if we hold firm the beginning of our
undertaking to the end. And so, empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us
still hold to our monastic state, and let us consider how to provoke
one another to love and good deeds, to obedience, to humility, to
meekness, and let us be eager for everything which is of the best, not
weakening in our resolve, but straining ever more and more, and the
more so as we see the day drawing near. For the great and manifest
day of the Lord is drawing near, on which the judge of all will be
revealed and will appear in the glory in which he appeared to the
Apostles at his divine Transfiguration, as he brings and judges every
creature and rewards each according to its work. But may it be given
to us too, with all the saints, to see him looking upon us with a
kindly face and taking us into the kingdom of heaven, by the grace
and pity and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom are
due glory, honour and worship with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.
 CATECHESIS 40
That we should conduct ourselves in newness of life,
just as we promised through the holy Schema. [1]

Brethren and Fathers, just as the hungry long to eat and the thirsty to
drink, so we should be enthusiastic to listen to the word of God. For
by listening we gain the greatest benefits. If we are slothful, we put
away sloth; if we are eager, we become even more eager; and from
both the outcome is good. What then is the present word? For, says
Scripture, this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life [2]. Nor
did he simply give him, but even to death, death on a cross [3]. How?
We were enslaved to the devil through Adam's transgression, we
were under the reign of death, sold under sin [4], guilty and captive,
subject to corruption. Therefore the only Son of God came, giving
himself as a ransom for all. He not only delivered us from death's
possession, but also, having washed us from our sins by his own blood,
he made us a kingdom (of heaven) and priests to his God and Father. [5]
Have you seen the mighty love of his strength? Have you seen the
measureless mercy of his love for humanity? How unsearchable are
his mercies and inscrutable his acts of compassion [6], which he has
poured out on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour! [7] What may we,
poor wretches, say to all this? What may we think? Shall we willingly
return to sin? Shall we long for dishonour? Shall we choose
corruption and condemnation? By no means, says the Apostle, we have
died to sin, how shall we continue to live in it? Or are you ignorant that as
many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death. We
were buried then with him through baptism to death, so that, just as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life. [8] So, brothers, let us walk in newness of life, just as
we promised when we took the habit. Let us conduct ourselves with
righteousness and holiness, as befits saints [9] with peace and
harmony, with reverence and piety, with holiness and dispassion,
not being led away in ignorance by our former [10] deceits, but fleeing
our former notions like fire and standing fast on the rock of our faith.
This is newness. And what is 'oldness'? Indulgence, by which Adam
our forefather was caught and became an outcast from Paradise and
underwent a life of much grief. Envy, by which Cain was inflamed
and murdered his brother Abel because his gifts were preferred, and
as a result he passed his whole life in fear and groaning. From these
two sins ten thousand evils surfaced in the world. Because of these
the Flood utterly wiped out all the high ground of the earth. Because
of these Sodom and Gomorra were reduced to ashes by fire and
brimstone as a warning to the impious. Do you see what sin has
brought about and the desire of the eyes and pride in one's way of life. [11]
But nevertheless, as has been said before, we have been called by
God's mercy, we have gained freedom, we have run to be adopted as
sons. Let us then stand with the freedom with which Christ has freed
us, and let us be guarded by the glory with which Christ has glorified
us, spitting on everything that belongs to empty vanity, reckoning
them all secondary for the sake Christ: dishonour as honour,
affliction as joy, blows as pleasures, persecution as happiness, death
as life, just as our holy fathers and brothers, whose names are in the
book of life, [12] whom we have remembered today, chose to do. For if
we too live like this, we shall appear here like beacons in the world,
holding on to the word of life, [13] while in the age to come we shall
inherit the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be
glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever ,
and to the ages of ages.

[1] The manuscripts give no particular date for this Instruction, but its place, between
Theophany and Lent, and the reference in the last paragraph to 'our holy fathers and
brothers, who have been commemorated by us today' strongly suggest that it was
given on the Saturday before Cheese Sunday. The references to Adam and his
banishment from Paradise, the theme of the next day's services, support this.

[2] John 3:16

[3] Phil. 2:8.

[4] Cf. Romans 7:14, which is alluded to in the Anaphora of St Basil in a similar
context in the first person plural. It may be that St Theodore has the Anaphora in mind
here, rather than Romans.

[5] Apocalypse 1:5-6. St Theodore is probably quoting from memory The word
'heaven' is not in the text of the Apocalypse. The standard Byzantine text has 'kings',
rather than 'kingdom', which is the accepted reading in modern critical editions. It is
also that underlying the Vulgate's 'regnum'. The Latin in Migne does not include the
word.

[6] Cf. Romans 11:33.

[7] Titus 3:6.

[8] Romans 6:2-4.

[9] Ephesians 5:3.

[10] 1 Peter 1:14. St Theodore replaces 'desires' by 'deceits'.

[11] 1 John 2:16. The Greek bios is not easy to translate here. Some translators go so
far as to put 'riches'. Perhaps 'style of life', 'standard of living'.

[12] Philippians 4;3.

[13] Philippians 2:15-16.

CATECHESIS 49
On self-mastery and our present confession.
On Friday of Meat Week [1]
Brethren and fathers, most people call the present days ‘feasts’,
because of they get drunk and debauched during them, not
understanding that these days demand abstinence from meat, not
indulgence in drunkenness and intoxication. That is proper to a
pagan feast; it is the business of Christians to exercise self-control
‘and not to satisfy the desires of the flesh’, [2] as the Apostle teaches.
Nevertheless evil has progressed into law and leads the world as it
wishes. But let us, brethren, flee intemperance even in partaking of
things that are permitted, for we know that intemperance is the
mother of sin. For our forefather Adam, as long as he abstained from
the forbidden food in Paradise, rejoiced and was made glad by
divine visions and filled with divine revelations; but when he acted
intemperately and partook of the tree of disobedience, he was at once
exiled from the delight of Paradise and intemperance for him became
the begetter of death. So too the inhabitants of Sodom behaved
wantonly ‘with food in abundance’, [3] and drew down upon
themselves the anger of God and were overwhelmed with fire and
brimstone. So too Esau the hated, entrapped by gluttonous eyes,
exchanged his birth right for a meal. [4] ‘But the people of God sat
down to eat and drink, and arose to play’. [5] These are the sort of
things that are going on during these days; for revels and inebriation,
shouting and demonic leapings require not only the day but most of
the night as well. So intemperance is an evil, and through it death
entered the world. But we should give thanks to God, brethren loved
by the Lord, because he has rescued us from such empty behaviour
and transferred us to this blessed life, in which there is not
intemperance, but moderation; not drunkenness, but vigilance; not
disturbance, but peace; not hubbub, but tranquillity; not abuse, but
thanksgiving; not wantonness, but purity, holiness and temperance.
From this it was that our inspired fathers sprang up, [6] who with
God trampled down the passions, expelled demons, rivalled angels,
performed signs from God, attained heavenly glory, were a cause of
wonder in the world. One of them was the blessed Antony, whose
life we have been reading; and we have learnt how God magnified
him in this world under heaven, so that the kings of the earth
thought it important to write to him and to hear from him a written
voice.

And so we too, humble wretches, follow their way of life; and

that we imitate it our monastic profession bears witness, our denial
of the world, estrangement from fatherland, race, friends and
intimates, our subjection, our obedience, this present confession, for
which we have also been persecuted. Accordingly, let us rejoice and
congratulate one another that we have been given these gifts of grace
by God, and that we are leading a spiritual life, in which it is always
open to us to keep festival every day, should we so wish, and to
rejoice with unlimited [7] joy. Therefore I beg you, let us hold
mightily to our ascetic practice and this confession, for a word has
gone out that the Mighty [8] is keeping an eye on our affairs and
doubtless a royal official will suddenly arrive. [9] But don’t be scared
at what has been said. ‘If God is on our side, who is against us?’ [10]
And if he helped us in the past, how would he not help in the future?
Only let us stand nobly, only let us attend [11] without faltering, and
he himself will give power to all who lead to the end a life that is
well-pleasing to him to gain the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus
our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power with the Father and
the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

[1] This Instruction is suggested for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son by the
current Slavonic Triodion from Moscow, which only gives Catecheses for the
Sundays of these weeks.

[2] Rom. 13:14.

[3] Ezekiel 16.49.

[4] Cf. Genesis 25:29-34 and Mal. 1: Esau I hate.

[5] Exod. 32:6.

[6] The verb anatello means to ‘rise up’, sometimes of the sun, at others of
plants, and is used metaphorically of people with either image understood. In
this passage the idea of plants is the one of which St Theodore is thinking.

[7] This adjective, amuretos, is not in the lexica. The Greek editor suggests,
‘incorruptible’, ‘unending’, though he gives no reasons.

[8] That is to say the Emperor. St Theodore plays on the words ‘mightily’,
krataios, and ‘mighty’, kraton’.

[9] This echoes the troparion from the Midnight Office, ‘The Judge will come
suddenly and the deeds of each will be laid bare’. St Theodore implies that it
is not only the just Judge who arrives suddenly.

[10] Romans 8:31.

[11] St Theodore in these two clauses deliberately echoes the deacon’s

invitation at the beginning of the anaphora. Hence my somewhat unidiomatic
translation of prosechomen. The present subjunctive of continuous action here
contrasts neatly with the aorist of immediate action in the Liturgy.

CATECHESIS 50
On the great and manifest day of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was
spoken on Meat Sunday.

Brethren and fathers, it is a universal law on this day for those who
live in the world to stop eating meat and one may see among them
great competition in meat-eating and wine-bibbing, and even
spectacles of outrageous pastimes which it is shameful to speak
about. It is necessary to participate with moderation and to give
thanks to the Lord for what we have and to make worthy
preparation for the banquet before us; while they possessed by the
wiles of the devil do the opposite, demonstrating that they have
accepted one rather than the other. Why have I mentioned these
things? So that we humble monks may not direct our thoughts in that
direction, nor desire their desire, which is not worthy of desire, but
rather of misery; let us rather turn to consider the Gospel we are
going to listen to, thinking, while the canon is being chanted, about
the great and manifest day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when the judge will stand the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.
And to those on the right he will utter that blessed and most longed
for invitation, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world; while to those on the left he
will utter that most unwelcome and piteous sentence, Depart from me,
accursed, into the everlasting fire that was prepared for the devil and his
angels. These words are full of dread, fear and alarm; they should
make us, and them, as we reflect fall down and weep and make God
merciful to us, before he has come to test those who listen. But
although they are thus, let us, I beg, hear and heed the message of the
Gospel, striving keenly to serve the Lord with fear and trembling,
removing all wickedness from the soul, introducing instead all
knowledge of good works, compassionate pity, goodness, humility,
meekness, longsuffering, and whatever else is good and estimable,
that when we have led lives worthy of the Gospel of Christ we may
become heirs of the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to
whom belong glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 51
On being confident and courageous in the present persecution.
Given on Wednesday of Cheese Week.

Brethren and fathers, the question for us to discuss to-day should be

self-mastery, because the holy Lent is at our doors. However the
common talk does not allow us to do this, as our thought and our
talk is preoccupied with something else. For I have already told you
in the previous instruction that the Emperor is commanding things
against us, and now, so they say, is making threats against us
through Nikomedes. If we were to meet them in a manner fitting
God, he would not endure at all, but do what occurred to him. What
more is to be said then? That to be persecuted again is to be crowned
again; and that where sufferings are multiplied, there too the
consolations of the Holy Spirit are multiplied; for the Apostle says,
For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our
consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for
your consolation and salvation which you experience when you patiently
endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering, and our hope for you
is sure; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation and salvation, for
we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our
consolation. See how by these words he showed that we are partakers
with one another in sufferings and in consolations, as being one body
and one spirit, as we have also been called in one hope of our calling. So
then, brethren, let us not fall, let us not lose heart, but let us all stand
together, as good soldiers of Christ, bearing our arms, not physical
ones, but ones empowered by God, for the destruction of
strongholds, that is to say: prudence, courage, temperance and
justice; and with them fulfilling that which was said by God, When
they persecute you in one city, flee to another. And as we depart there, let
us not worry what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or how we
shall be clothed. For he himself has said, I shall not leave you, or desert
you. So that there too he would be opening a door for us and helping
us in all ways. Do we not rejoice then, having such promises? Are we
not leaping for joy that we are the Lord's disciples. Thus they
persecuted the holy apostles also, to whom the Lord said, Blessed are
you, when they revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake; rejoice and leap for joy on that day. So the
present situation is one for joy and gladness; for it is for us the cause
of inexpressible joy and eternal life and the kingdom which has no
end. Do not go into the way of the nations, he says, and do not enter a city
of the Samaritans. This is to be understood of the heretics; then let us
not enter their churches, nor their houses; but where the son of peace
is, the seed of true religion, there let us stay, and there let us pass our
time, as in times past. Let us guard ourselves from those who
counterfeit the truth, from those who call themselves guides and are
not guides, but deceivers who both deceive and are deceived, mislead
and are misled, whose condemnation is deserved. Let us guard the faith
unswerving and our way of life intact, not maltreating the one by the
other, but being safe and perfect on either hand. The subject of the
confession is about the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore one who does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is
portrayed in picture is one who does not confess that he appeared in
flesh; for it is the same to appear in flesh and to be portrayed in
picture. One who does not worship his holy image, does not worship
the Lord; for the prototype is revealed and worshipped in the image,
and the image in the prototype of each person that is depicted. And if
the Iconoclasts say that they worship, they lie; for they profess, he says,
to know God, but by their deeds they deny him. We then worship Christ
and his image, we worship the Mother of God and her image, the
saints and their images. And this is the apostolic teaching, which we
have received from our holy fathers; and this is the deposit which I
entrust to you to guard unharmed and unperverted. For the rest pray
for our humble selves, that on opening our mouth the Lord may give us
utterance, to answer according to reason; and that we may not be
ashamed of our expectation and that we may without condemnation
accomplish with you the contest now proposed and that we may all
reach the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be
glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and
always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 52
On self-mastery and prayer; spoken on the Friday of Cheese Week.

Brethren and fathers, I often call your way of life blessed, not by way
of flattery but truth; nor do I wish to call those in the world unhappy,
but I aim to make you more fervent. Since too you know the sort of
things that take place in the world, drinking bouts and drunkenness,
revels and intoxication, shouts and caperings, and all the other
things, whose condemnation is deserved, as it is written, which are the
results of the activity of the evil one. But our manner of life is not like
this. But what is it? Night and day we praise the Lord according to
the legislation which has been handed down to us by our holy
fathers. Psalmody succeeds psalmody, reading reading, prayer
prayer. Government of thoughts in accord with the mind, in the heart
meditation of divine words, timely stillness, fitting speech. We serve
one another, we keep close to one another, everything is ordered
with stability and measure, and if there is need for some bodily
consolation at the feast, that is not discordant; for hear what the Lord
says to Judas, What you are doing, do quickly. Not one of those at table
knew why he said this to him. For some thought that, because Judas held the
purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the feast’, or that he
should give something to the poor. Do you see that among them the
consideration both of the feast and of the poor was a matter for
concern? Which we also, lowly as we are, as you see, try to achieve.
But blessed is God, who has granted us to be admitted to such a way
of life, not because of any works of justice that we have done, for we have
done nothing good upon earth, but according to his mercy the call is
freely given. So then each one of us is a debtor, to say always with a
contrite heart, Who am I, O Lord, my Lord, and what the house of my
father, that you have loved me? And such is ours; while rarely are such
things found in the world. Because day succeeds night with the care
of this age, the deception of wealth, with the other concerns, so that a
person is unable to draw breath. People bring trouble on each other,
they wrangle with one another, Adultery and theft and cursing and
lying have been poured out upon the earth, to speak like the Prophet, and
all those other things which it is not easy to detail. With all this in
mind the blessed Chrysostom has already said, The majority of the
world is hardly to be saved. It is a fearful word, but nevertheless it is
true. For this reason one must grieve and be sad for one who is truly
conscious that he is under this sentence. For are we not all one
another’s brothers? Are we not of one blood? Are we not of the same
dust? Is not someone who sees a beast of burden being carried over a
precipice seized with pity? How much more then for brothers and
fellow believers. Hence the blessed Apostle wept for the enemies of the
Cross of Christ, praying with unremitting grief of heart. Hence the
Prophet Jeremy lamented over Israel and left behind various
lamentations in writing. Hence the great Moses cried to God, If you
will forgive them their sin, forgive; if not, wipe me out of your book of life.
And indeed each of the saints had the same sympathy and made
entreaty for the others. Should not we then, if want to walk in their
footsteps, not simply have in view what concerns ourselves, but also
pray on behalf of the world, having mercy and pity for those who are
living in the distraction of life, those who are in the grip of heresies,
those who have been led away into error, those in the darkness of
paganism, in brief all mankind, according to what we have been
commanded by the Apostle to make supplications and prayers. For thus
we shall profit ourselves before the rest, being filled with
compunction and cleansed of passionate habits; and delivered from
which may we be granted to reach eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord, to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 53
On fasting; and that the true fast of the obedient and the subject is the
cutting off of one’s will.
Given on Cheese Sunday.

Brethren and Fathers, our good God who gives us life and brings us
from year to year, has brought us also with love for mankind to this
present time of fasting, in which each of the eager, as their choice
directs, enters the contest; one devoting himself to self-mastery,
eating only every two or three days, another to vigil, keeping vigil
for so long or so long, another spending even longer in prostrations,
and others in other ascetic actions. Quite simply during these holy
days it is possible to see great zeal and attention. But the true subject
behaves with obedience not at any particular time, but keeps up the
struggle always. What is the struggle? Not to walk according to one’s
own will, but to let oneself be ruled by the disposition of the
superior. This is better than the other works of zeal and is a crown of
martyrdom; except that for you there is also change of diet,
multiplication of prostrations and increase of psalmody are in accord
with the established tradition from of old. And so I ask, let us
welcome gladly the gift of the fast, not making ourselves miserable,
as we are taught, but let us advance with cheerfulness of heart,
innocent, not slandering, not angry, not evil, not envying; rather
peaceable towards each other, and loving, fair, compliant, full of
mercy and good fruits; breathing in seasonable stillness, since
hubbub is damaging in a community; speaking suitable words, since
too unreasonable stillness is profitless; yet above all unsleepingly
keeping watch over our thoughts, not opening the door to the
passions, not giving place to the devil. If the spirit of the powerful one, it
says, rise up against you, do not let it find your place. So that the enemy
has power to suggest, but in no way to enter. We are lords of
ourselves; let us not open our door to the devil; rather let us keep
guard over our soul as a bride of Christ, not set about with tumult,
unwounded by the arrows of the thoughts; for thus we are able to
become a dwelling of God in Spirit. Thus we may be made worthy to
hear, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Quite simply,
Whatever is true, whatever noble, whatever just, whatever pure, whatever
lovely, whatever of good report, if there is anything virtuous, if there is
anything praiseworthy, to speak like the Apostle, do it; and the God of
peace will be with you all, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to whom be the
glory and the might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for
ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 54
On fasting and dispassion; spoken at the beginning of the fast.
Given on Wednesday of the First Week.
Brethren and fathers, the season of Lent, when compared to the
whole year, may be likened to a storm-free harbour, in which all who
are sailing together enjoy a spiritual calm. For the present season is
one of salvation not for monks and nuns only, but also for lay people,
for great and small, for rulers and ruled, for emperors and priests, for
every race and for every age. For cities and villages reduce their
hubbub and bustle, while psalmody and hymns, prayers and
entreaties take their place, by which our good God is propitiated and
so guides our spirits to peace and pardons our offences, if, with a
sincere heart, we will only fall down before him with fear and
trembling and weep before him, promising improvement for the
future. But let the leaders of the churches speak of what is suitable to
lay people, for just as those who run in the stadium need the vocal
support of their fellow contestants, so fasters need the
encouragement of their teachers. But I, since I have been placed at
your head, honoured brethren, will also talk to you briefly. Fasting
then is a renewal of the soul, for the holy Apostle says, Even though
our outward man is perishing, yet the inward is being renewed day by day.
And if it is being renewed, clearly it is being made beautiful
according to its original beauty; made beautiful in itself it is being
drawn lovingly to the one who said, I and the Father will come and
make our dwelling with him. If then such is the grace of fasting, that it
makes us into a dwelling place of God, we must welcome it,
brethren, gladly, not grieving at the plainness of the diet, for we
know that the Lord, though he is able to nourish lavishly, made a
banquet for thousands in the wilderness from bread and water. Also
because what is unusual, with enthusiasm becomes acceptable and
painless. Fasting is not defined by foods alone, but by every
abstinence from evil, as our godly fathers have explained. And so, I
beg you, let us abstain from despondency, idleness, sluggishness,
jealousy, strife, maliciousness, self-indulgence, self-reliance; let us
abstain from destructive desire which the many-shaped serpent lays
before us when we are fasting. Let us listen to the one who says, ‘The
fruit which slew me was beautiful to behold and fair to eat’. And
observe: he says beautiful to behold, not beautiful by nature. For just
as if someone taking a pomegranate decked out with a scarlet rind
should find it rotten, in the same way pleasure feigns untold
sweetness, but when it is plucked it is found more bitter than gall, or
rather, than a sharpened two-edged sword which devours the soul it
has captured. This is what our forefather Adam suffered when he
was tricked by the serpent; for when he touched the forbidden food,
he found death instead of life. This too is what all they have suffered
who from then until now have been similarly deceived by the
dragon. For just as he, who is darkness, transforms himself into an angel
of light, so he knows how to transform bad into good, bitter into
sweet, dark into light, ugly into beautiful, deadly into life-giving; and
so the all-evil one does not cease to lead the world astray at every
opportunity. But let us at least, brethren, not be led astray by his
manifold deceptions, nor suffer the fate of the birds who greedily
approach what seems to be food and fall into the hunter’s trap. Let us
rather look on the outer coverings of evil as dung and when with the
mind we have looked on evil in its nakedness we shall flee from it at
once. In addition let us welcome the times of psalmody, be
enthusiastic for hymnody, attentive to the readings, making
prostrations according to the given measure at each hour; working
with our own hands, because working is good and because one who
does not work is not judged worthy of eating. Let us bear one another’s
burdens, for one is weak and another strong, making use of food and
drink and the other necessities with moderation, so that there is no
provoking to jealousy among evil people, but zeal in goodness. In
everything be good to one another, compassionate, reasonable,
obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, and the peace of God which
passes all understanding will keep your hearts and thoughts. And now,
may you be found worthy without condemnation to reach the
supreme day of the Resurrection, but in the age to come at the
resurrection of the dead to gain the kingdom of heaven in Christ
Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might, with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 55
On decorating our incorruptible house through the assumption of the
virtues.
Given on Friday of the First Week.

Brethren and fathers, people in the world when they erect a

luxurious house give themselves no rest at night and at the end of the
day they toil and plan, labouring until they have achieved their
object; and such is the longing that fills them that their mind is
wholly occupied in this and in considering how the roof may be well-
covered, how the floor, adorned with many different marbles with
every other form of elegance, will offer lovers of fine sights the most
pleasing appearance. But if someone were to wish to tear them away
from that care, they would be most distressed, as though they were
being seriously wronged. But we, when we are building not a
corruptible house but an incorruptible, not one made out of stones
and wood but one skilfully constructed from spiritual graces, how
can we be idle and come far below these others in zeal? How should
this not be the greatest of wrongs? That other house harbours people
who love the flesh and when it has passed through many masters it
will be pulled down and deserted. The other knows that it welcomes
the Holy Spirit, since we are a temple of the living God and the Spirit of
God dwells in us, as the divine Apostle says. Moreover with those who
depart from things here it leaves too and abides in heaven intact and
eternal. What is the material of this building? The assumption of the
virtues. Take first, if you will, as a foundation stone, the fear of God,
since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Next
understanding, courage, sobriety, justice; and so with one attached
firmly to the other and fitted together with the bond of love it will
grow into a holy temple of the Lord, as it is written. Let us be building
this temple, brethren, at every moment, and let us not fail to adorn it
with the beauty of the virtues, so that we may have the Holy Spirit
for its inhabitant, so that by the pleasantness of our life we may turn
the attention of angels and men to ourselves. But since one of the
virtues is self-mastery, and we are more closely concerned about this
one, let us give glory to God that we have arrived at the one stadium
for it. Your faces have been changed from what they were before, but
they shine with a fair change: the pallor that comes from self-
mastery; your mouths have become embittered, filled with the bile of
eating late, [The only reference in the lexica for this word is the Greek
Ephrem, where Lampe translates ‘eating slowly’, but the meaning here is
surely ‘eating late’, that is after Vespers in the late afternoon, when the only
meal is eaten on fast days] but your spirits have been sweetened, flying
on wings of hope. And these things are opposed to one another, and
by mastering the one the other has become weak; so that we may
rejoice for we are sided with the stronger. Perhaps some one will say
that to eat every day is a failure of perfection. Not at all! Otherwise
our Lord would not have ordered us to ask each day for our daily
bread; the prophet Elias would not have been nourished each day in
the desert by a raven; Paul, who dwelt in the desert before the godly
Antony, would have received bread from God every day; Antony the
Great preferred as almost necessary eating daily to a fast of above a
day or for a week. And this is how it seems to me; for since our body
is physically exhausted through its toil for the whole day, like a
racing colt, and needs its rest, so necessarily the creator of our nature
has arranged for it to be strengthened by its daily nourishment so
that it might run well for the future, but not be exhausted and fading,
which what they suffer who drag out their fast over two, three and
five days. Nor would they be able to prostrate more frequently, not
to join more lustily in psalmody, nor to accomplish their other
services easily, unless something truly extraordinary happens. And
so daily nourishment is not simply for the imperfect, but very much
for the perfect by the traditional definition and canon. And thank
goodness these things have been laid down by the fathers. And may
you be granted again and again both health of body and strength of
spirit to serve the living and true God and to await the last day, in
which may you shine out like the sun as heirs of the kingdom of
heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might, with
the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of
ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 56
On not being stretched beyond our power in our works of zeal for
God
and about nourishing the soul with spiritual speculations.
Given on the First Sunday, which was not yet the Sunday of
Orthodoxy.

Brethren and fathers, since every beginning is difficult, the first fruits
of the fast corresponding to the change of diet and of works of zeal
produce a certain difficulty and roughness; but with persistence and
practice it is soothed and softened; this is why it is written, No
chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless,
afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of justice to those who have been
trained by it. And so let us too, who have been allowed to traverse the
first week of the fast, become more enthusiastic for the future
through experience, knowing that enthusiasm strengthens both soul
and body, making what is heavy light and what is difficult easy. The
opposite is true: idleness makes what is light heavy and what is easy
difficult. However let us not strive beyond our power in our works of
zeal, but with our spiritual father keep a watch over our bodily
health also. For what use is there in walking too hard from the start
and falling down more quickly, rather than attentively keeping in
view the extent of the dwelling. But since the day with exertion is
accustomed to produce despondency, let us sustain the soul with
good pursuits and spiritual thoughts, not with those of a worldly
sort, in which are emptiness, confusion, wretchedness and bitterness,
but in ones in which are sweetness and joy. I remembered God, it says,
and I was glad. Our mind then should be on God, on heavenly sights,
on the beauties of Paradise, on the everlasting dwellings, on the
regime there, where the souls of the just and of sinners are now, on
how the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ will be,
in which, according to the sacred saying, the heavens will pass away with
a great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the
works that are in it will be burned up; then how each soul is going to
take again its yoke-fellow the body, what a gathering that will be of
every human from Adam to the final consummation, how great and
fearful and more dazzling than the rays of the sun will be the face of
Christ, what his voice that we shall hear, and last, what will be the
final state of the just who are admitted into the kingdom of heaven
and of the sinners who are sent away to eternal punishments. These,
brethren, are the things that we should be caring about and thinking
about, with which we should be occupied, since we live out of the
world, and since we have our home in heaven and our lives have
nothing in common with those who live according to the world; with
these it is possible to be moved to compunction, to weep and to be
enlightened, both to lead a life of peace here and to have hope of
attaining the eternal good things to come, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to
whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now
and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 57
On guarding the soul from destructive passions.
Wednesday of the Second Week.

Brethren and fathers, now that we have fasted for the first week we
appear to each other somewhat different to what we were, leaner and
paler. But even if our outward nature is wasting away, as the Apostle
says, the inner is being renewed day by day. For what it is to see a body
healthy-looking and sleek through pleasure; this it is to understand
what follows for the soul through self-mastery, so that by humbling
the body we shall bring about the beauty of the soul, that beauty
which the holy David longed for when he prayed, Lord, by your will
you have granted power to my beauty. With this beauty moreover the
blessed Paul confirms that we are betrothed to Christ, For I have
betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, so your
thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere commitment to Christ. Do you
each see the greatness of the gift, that we have been granted to have
Christ as Bridegroom? Does each of you see how afraid our
groomsman is for our safety? So our soul is like a maiden who has
been brought into the bridal chamber. Just as she deprives herself of
the sight of males, keeping herself within the bridal chamber,
exercising every care to preserve herself incorrupt, until the moment
comes for her marriage, the soul too requires the same behaviour,
with every care to keep herself pure from the corrupting passions of
sin, until her departure; at which, as though going from the body as
from a bridal chamber, if she were comely, resplendent by good
works, she would give joy to the holy Angels, indeed most fittingly;
but if she were ugly through wickedness, she will be an object of
malignant delight for the demons, an insult to Christ; which is
pitiable both to speak and to think about. This is the reason for the
punishing of the body; because of this there is austerity, like a bit,
reining in the impulses of the flesh, so as not to unseat the charioteer
— the mind, not only at the present moment, but throughout the
whole of life. For what is the ascetic life but mastery of the passions,
control of thoughts and unrelenting wrestling against invisible foes?
And how should these things not afflict the flesh? But this slight
momentary affliction of ours, as it is written, is preparing for us an eternal
weight of glory, beyond all measure, because our aim is not what can be seen
but what cannot be seen. So then for things which cannot be seen, things
which Angels too hope to glimpse, for the Bridegroom Christ to whom
we are betrothed, I ask and beseech you, brethren, that keep our own
soul pure from evil deeds, from sordid thoughts, which defile us, as
the Lord said; not thinking any wickedness at all; for by thinking
desire is set alight like fire; but taking our stand far from the passions
and beating off the tempter from the moment of provocation [For this
technical term, see The Philokalia, Vol. 1, p. 365. It means ‘the initial
incitement to evil’], both by good works making the soul resplendent,
and holding fast more fervently to the self-mastery which lies before
us, so that, when we have in purity passed over from things here, we
may depart in unspeakable joy to heaven and delight in the joy of the
heavenly bridal chamber, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory
and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to
the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 58
On harmony and love and on nobly enduring the toils of virtue for
gaining the kingdom of heaven.
Friday of the Second Week.

Brethren and fathers, in my lowliness I rejoice over you, because you

are walking in harmony, conducting yourselves peaceably and
continuing the season of the fast with endurance. And this is for your
salvation and for our hope; for peace and harmony are a considerable
good in a community, already evils are kept far away: disorder and
instability, contradiction and slander, disobedience and pride and
any other wickedness that may exist! Such people in the first place
find good for themselves, secondly they are set forth as an example
of virtue to others, and thence they gain the greatest benefits. For as
those who are causes of scandals inherit the Woe, so those who incite
to virtue inherit blessing. And never, brethren, let us fall away from
the good state and the praiseworthy way of life, nor let us leave off
loving God; for it is written, You shall love the Lord your God with your
whole heart and your whole soul and your whole strength and your whole
mind. One then who loves thus is not satiated, does not fall, is not
overtaken by despondency [The translators of the Philokalia use
‘listlessness’ for this well known monastic scourge, akedia See Volume 1
pp. 88-91 for St John Cassian’s account, or Step 13 of The Ladder].; rather
he adds fire to fire, and sets enthusiasm alight with enthusiasm,
disposing ascents of virtues in his heart and going from power to spiritual
power; and this unremittingly. Do you not see how much those who
toil according to the flesh toil for vain and perishable things? Do you
not see how those who build ships here under your very eyes [St
Theodore and his monks were in exile at this time at the monastery of
Crescens on the narrow gulf of Nikomedia (the modern Izmit Kφrfezi) at the
NE end of the Sea of Marmara.] pass the whole day in toil , not
allowing themselves any relaxation whatsoever? For what? So that
they may acquire a little gold, so that they may take home what they
need for their families; while we, to become rich with the things of
God, to reach the kingdom of heaven, to enjoy the everlasting good
things, to escape the everlasting punishments, shall we not endure all
things with all enthusiasm and energy, if it were necessary to shed
our blood, to be entirely ready to do so for the Lord? Yes, my
brothers, I ask you, let us stand nobly, rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, persevering in prayer, attentive to our manual work, to the
psalmody, the recitation, the readings, that by such occupation we
may keep a hold on the mind, dragging it away from being occupied
with vanities; since idleness is the mother of wickedness, while work
is the guardian of the mind. Not however through these being turned
from our state, but placing even greater emphasis on obedience,
good order, the repose of our neighbour, all the other things which
bring about the salvation of our soul; besides all these praying also
for our brothers who have been scattered here and there; for
concerning them too, whom I cannot see before my eyes, it is an
anguish for me how each one is coming through safely; but at any
rate praying earnestly for my humble person, that a word may be given
me when I open my mouth, and a life free from deformation; so that
from either side both we and you may be saved, in Christ Jesus our
Lord, to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 59
On our accomplishing the days of the fast gently and readily in the
hope of life without end.
There is no indication of date for this Instruction, but since it comes
between the ones for Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent and Wednesday
of the 3rd, it is reasonable to allocate it to the 2nd Sunday.

Brethren and fathers, fasting is good if it possesses its own special

characteristics, which are to be peaceable, meek, well-established,
obedient, humble, sympathetic and all the other forms of virtue. But
the devil hurries to suggest the opposite to fasters and to make them
insolent, angry, bad-tempered, puffed up, so as to produce hurt more
than gain. But let us not be ignorant of his plans, but continue our
path peaceably, gently, meekly and steadfastly bearing with one
another in love, knowing that this is what is acceptable to God; for
though you bend your neck double like a hoop and smother yourself
with sackcloth and ashes, if these qualities are lacking to you, you
would not be well-pleasing to him. Because while fasting batters and
wastes the body, it clears the soul and makes it flourish. For as much
as our outer nature is perishing, it says, by so much the inner is being
renewed day by day. And Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is
working for us a far more exceeding weight of glory. So that looking at the
recompense, let us bear the toils of virtue with long-suffering, giving
thanks to the God and Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of
darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. Do we
not communicate each day of his immaculate body and blood? [This
suggests that daily Communion was the norm for St Theodore’s monks.
This would imply that during Lent the Liturgy of the Presanctified was
celebrated every weekday, not just on Wednesdays and Fridays.] What
could be sweeter and more filled with enjoyment than this, since
those who partake with a pure conscience will obtain eternal life? Do
we not converse each day with the godly David and the other holy
fathers through taking in the readings? What could bring greater
consolation to the soul? Have we not broken off contact with the
world and with our relatives according to the flesh? Again is
anything more blessed or higher than this? For our citizenship is in
heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his
glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue
all things to himself. And so, my brothers, let us rejoice and be glad as
we repudiate every pleasure. All flesh is grass, and all human glory like
the flower of the grass. The grass withered and the flower faded, but the
work of virtue endures for ever. Is anyone among you suffering? as the
brother of God says, Let him pray. Is anyone sad? Let him sing psalms. Is
anyone tempted by evil passion? — since the tempter is always at
work — let him endure patiently as he listens to the one who says,
Blessed is the one who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he
will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love
him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them, said the
Lord, to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, now and for ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

INTRODUCTION
Catechesis 60 contains a number of interesting details. Who, for
example, if the ‘holy father and teacher’ referred to in the opening
sentence? If the Short Catecheses were given during St Theodore’s
exile to the Propontis in 820, it cannot be St Platon, who had died in
812. The most likely person is St Nikephoros, the Patriarch. The
latter, despite certain earlier difficulties, had a great respect for St
Theodore. Cf. in particular Life A chap. 120 [PG 99:221-224]. The
Patriarch called himself St Theodore’s ‘son’ [Letters II:79 — PG
99:1317C], and St Theodore refers to himself as the Patriarch’s ‘child’
[ibid. II:18. PG 99:1176A]. St Nikephoros had been deposed in 815
and was at this time also in exile in his own monastery on the
Propontis. That he should visit his friend St Theodore and his monks
is, to say the least, not improbable.

The reference to ‘the story of the Flood’ suggests that the readings at
Vespers were the same in St Theodore’s day as they are today.

In number 63 the reference to ‘the ruler’ in Bulgaria is almost

certainly to Omurgat (813-831), whose father, Kroumos (802-814) had
carried off into captivity some 30,000 Christians some years before. If
the Catecheses were all given at the same time, they must be dated
between 820 (the death of Metropolitan Michael, the subject of
Catechesis 21) and 826 (the death of St Theodore himself).

CATECHESIS 60
On our sudden departure from here and teaching about keeping safe
watch over our senses and our mind from unseemly desires. Given
on Wednesday of the 3rd Week.

Brethren and fathers, in the presence of our holy father and teacher
we have no need to discourse; but nevertheless because of our
custom let us say just a little. Day by day our life, as you see, is
passing and we are getting nearer to death, and we must remove
hence and be joined to our brothers and fathers; so that there is need
of much vigilance and attention and preparation of heart. We hear
the story of the Flood being read, and the Lord in the Gospels saying:
As in the days of Noλ they were eating, drinking, marrying, buying,
selling and suddenly the flood came, so too it will be at the coming of
the Son of Man [Cf Mt 24,37-39, Lk 17,26s. St Theodore is quoting from
memory]. And perhaps we wonder in this case how insensibly they
were disposed, and were not rather trembling and terrified. Let us be
on the watch then lest we find ourselves without realising it in the
same state of which we accuse them. Already it is not the ark which
is being got ready, which was being filled up during one hundred
years, but every day the tomb is seen filled, into which we are about
to crawl. Already each day death is at work [Cf. 2 Cor 4,12.], when
each one of our brothers departs. Things here are more fearful than
those there; and so we should be on our guard. I don’t say: we
shouldn’t eat, drink, or clothe ourselves. I don’t say that; but whether
we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, let us do everything to the glory of God,
[1 Cor 10,31-32.] giving no offence to Jews or Greeks or to the Church
of God, as the Apostle teaches.

Yes, I exhort, yes, I implore, my brothers, make my joy complete, as the

Apostle again says, be of the same mind, having the same love, being in
full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or vainglory;
but in humility think of others as better than yourselves [Phil 2,2-3.]. Let
us secure our senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, through them
death enters. Let us bridle our mind not to be carried off to things it
should not, not to step into the pitfall of unseemly things, not to
picture to ourselves evil images nor to conceive sinful desires, from
which we gain no profit or pleasure; on the contrary we are pained
and crushed accomplishing nothing useful. There is one repose then
and one pleasure, to cleanse the soul and to look towards dispassion.
And let us not grow despondent [The verb from akedia.] when called
to repose and the joy of dispassion, but let us hasten and press
forward intently with diligence to right every defect; and God is our
helper; for the Lord is near those who wait for him. And by living
thus may we reach the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord,
to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 61
That we must not submit ourselves in temptations, and about fasting.
Given on Friday of the 3rd Week.

Brethren and fathers, yesterday a tempest and to-day calm; yesterday

a <disturbance> [1] and today quiet; but blessed is God, who has
also dispelled the trial and given you power to remain unmoved in
the expectation of threats. This is the way of true Christians, this is
the way of authentic monks, to hold themselves always in readiness
in the face of dangers on behalf of virtue and to consider nothing
more precious that the commandment of God. Those who came said
what they said, and they left not so much amazed as ashamed; while
to you may the Lord grant the perfect reward in return for your
having chosen to be persecuted for his sake; and being rich in mercy
he knows how to crown from the intention alone the one who
chooses the good. But in fact the trial has not been dispelled, but
again and again it continues, and particularly because everywhere
there are edicts of the rulers that no one is to lag behind from having
a share in heretical fellowship. And so let us hear the Apostle when
he says, Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of
the opportunity. Let your speech be always gracious, seasoned with salt, so
that you may know how you should respond to each one [Col 4,5-6.]. By
this he teaches us that we should not submit just anyhow to trials,
nor should we pass God’s word over in silence, for he says, My soul
takes no pleasure in anyone who draws back [Heb 10,8 = Hab 2,4]. But
that’s enough of these matters.

Already the fast has advanced and lays on us, brethren, the task of
pressing on eagerly again and again to what follows as each has
chosen, not reluctantly or under constraint; for God loves a cheerful
faster [1 Cor. 9,7. St Paul, of course, has ‘giver’.]. Except that the
coenobitic rule does not let each one act according to their own will;
but this is the common limit of self-mastery for those living in
obedience: the cutting of their own will. Fasting then is good, because
it tames the passions and subjects the flesh to the spirit; weeping is
good, because it wipes clean and washes the heart of sins and sets it
pure before the Lord; prayer is good, because it gives the mind wings
and makes it a companion of God; love is good, because it disregards
what concerns itself for the advantage of the neighbour; zeal is good,
because it lightens toils and makes the spirit young, as it makes the
elder young again. Therefore let us become cheerful, let us be eager.
The moment for psalmody? Let us advance keenly. The moment for
work? Let us work earnestly. The moment for stillness? Let us be still
reasonably. The time for talk? Let us talk suitably. And to speak
simply, doing everything decently and in order,[1 Cor. 14,40.] as we
have been instructed; let us remain outside tumult and all idle
chatter. Let the measure of genuflexions be completed and the
customary recitation be fulfilled, according to each one’s power,
while watch is kept over the body’s health. And would that the God
of peace might bring us to the queen of days, to the resurrection of
Christ, and make us worthy of the kingdom of heaven, where there is
no food and drink, but justice and peace and joy, as it is written, in the
Holy Spirit [Rom. 14,17.]. Would that we might share in them richly,
in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might, with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages.
Amen.

[1] The Greek has diatheke, which means a ‘disposition’, in the sense
of a ‘will’ or ‘testament’. In the LXX and NT it is the regular word for
‘covenant’. It does not seem to make any sense in the context, though
Moulton Milligan’s comment on the word is interesting: ‘diatheke is
properly disposition, an ‘arrangement’ made by one party with
plenary power, which the other party may accept or reject, but
cannot alter.’ Migne has ‘tumultus’, but since it does not print the
Greek, whether this represents a different text, or is simply a guess to
fit the sense is unclear. The text as it stands may be corrupt, unless
diatheke can be taken in the sense of something like an ‘ultimatum’.

CATECHESIS 62
On our imitating the Lord’s sufferings.
[Migne adds: On the Forty Martyrs [March 9th]. But it seems to have
been given after the day itself.]

Brethren and fathers, how good it has become for us the separation
from the monastery here! For why should our liberty be subject to the
judgement of another’s conscience? [1 Cor. 10,29.] And why do we
maltreat ourselves still for what is of no use? We managed as far as it
was possible and the moment allowed; but now, because when the
moment summoned they did not choose persecution on behalf of
Christ, as certain others, it is necessary to listen to the Prophet when
he says, Come out from among them and be separated, [Isa. 52,11.] says
the Lord. If others act otherwise over these matters, they will render
an account to the Lord on the day of judgement; for it seems to me
that to be brought under their power is equivalent of being
indifferent towards the heretics. You see that the same distinction
withdraws us from the world and drives us to trouble, to distress, to
hunger, to persecution, to prison, to death; but in all these we must be
supremely victorious through the God who loved us, [Rom. 8,37. St
Theodore seems to be quoting from memory ] when, whenever he
sees a soul thirsting for him, gives it force to be able to endure
sufferings on his behalf. And to this the Forty Martyrs, whose
memorial we have just celebrated, bear witness with the others; for
we cannot say that they possessed a different nature to the one we
have. But since they loved God with a true heart, they were
empowered in their weakness to throw down the invisible enemy by
the flesh, and to accomplish a struggle of such a quality and
greatness that all Christians praise it in song. And blessed is one who
has been granted to share in the sufferings of Christ,[ Cf. 1 Pet. 4,13.]
even to some extent at least: the persecuted, because he too was
persecuted; the arrested, because he too was arrested; the reviled,
because he too was reviled; the scourged, because he too was
scourged; the imprisoned, because he too was imprisoned; see too
why it is written, If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if
we endure, we shall also reign with him; if we deny, he too will deny us; if
we are faithless, he remains faithful; he is not able to deny himself. [2 Tim.
2,11-13] Do you see the promises and the threats, of what sort and
how great they are? For the rest then, brethren, let us strive, let us
struggle by the grace of Christ not to shame those things that have
been previously mentioned, the banishments, the imprisonments, the
scourgings. We may not all have been imprisoned, nor all scourged;
but nevertheless the fellowship of life itself becomes a fellowship of
sufferings, for if one limb suffers, all the limbs suffer with it; if one limb is
glorified, all the limbs rejoice with it. [1 Cor. 12,26] And would that we
were even more one body and one spirit, as we have been called in one hope
of our calling, [Eph. 4,4.] having Christ as the head, to become well-
pleasing to God, to gain the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our
Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 63
Historical, concerning the Christians who were massacred in
Bulgaria during the holy Lent, on account of meat-eating. On the 3rd
Sunday.

Brethren and fathers, in the present instruction I want to urge you to

consolation from a certain story. The story is this: In Bulgaria, as
those who were accurately informed have reported, an evil decree
went out from the ruler there that the Christians in captivity and our
brothers were to eat meat during the period of the holy Forty Days;
those who obeyed would live, those who disobeyed would be killed.
The word of the godless was exceedingly strong and the people
assembled and there was weeping and groans and much lamentation
with women and children, on the one side of those clinging to the
Christian law, on the other of those quailing before the death of the
flesh. Finally — ah, the pitiable announcement — they were defeated
and submitted to the godless order. Fourteen of them though broke
away and stood apart saying it was not possible either to obey or to
eat meat in violation of the Christian law. At this, appeals and
exhortations by the people: Let them yield to constraint, not die
foolishly, and through repentance they can be restored again. But
nothing could persuade them or weaken them from keeping their
gaze fixed on God and on the blessedness that was laid up in his
promises. The Scythian then, when he saw the implacable
determination of the men, thought to subdue the rest by means of
one, and having slain him he at once distributed his children and his
wife among the Scythians as slaves, so that the others weakened by
this would be brought over. But they rather remained unbowed and
shouted out, ‘We are Christians, and our lot is that of our dead
brother’. At this confession they were crucified on planks and died in
the Lord. You see, therefore, brethren, that even now too the Gospel
of the kingdom of God is active. One who loves father or mother, it says,
more than me is not worthy of me; and one who loves son or daughter or
wife more than me is not worthy of me; and one who does not take up his
cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me [Matt. 10,37-38]. And again,
Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; rather fear one
who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna [Matt. 10,28.]. They were
obedient then to the commands of the Gospel, they obeyed the
authority of the Lord and were wreathed with the crown of
martyrdom, imitating the holy Maccabees and doubling their
number, for the Maccabees were seven, but they were fourteen; the
former so as not to taste swine’s meat in violation of the law, the
latter so as not to partake of any meat in violation of the Christian
rule; this latter seems stricter, because for the Maccabees partaking of
pork was utterly forbidden, but for these men it was permissible to
partake of any meat under necessity, as St Basil says. But since the
order from the Scythians was aimed at the rejection of the faith, they
refused; but they considered all things as secondary for the love of
Christ. O blessed men! O blessed action! in a single instant to have
received in exchange eternal rest! What will they say to this, those
who deny that heretical communion is a breach of faith? For if there
there was a breach of faith by the people over eating meat, how much
more here over the heretically sacrificed communion. Where too are
those who say that there is no ground for martyrdom in the image of
Christ? For if there there was ground for martyrdom for those who
did not eat meat, how much more here is the ground for martyrdom
resplendent for those who have not denied. But the heretics, because
they are dark themselves, also speak things that are dark as they try
to embroil others in their own falls.

But let us, brethren, glorify our good God, who glorifies those who
have glorified him, who reveals martyrs in this generation too, as we
reflect on the fact that if men who were apparently lowly,
uneducated, married and with children gave everything up for the
love of Christ, how much more should we, who are unmarried and
outside the world, when the moment calls, become as zealous as the
saints. But this is for a day when Christ calls us; now though, let us
stand firm for the uninterrupted martyrdom according to the
conscience. Let us not bow the knee to Baal, brethren, and let us not
give in when struck by the thoughts [‘The thoughts’, logismoi, are a
technical term in the monastic literature and I retain the slightly
awkward definite article in English. The expression is effectively
synonymous with ‘the demons’. See the important treatment by Prof.
A. Guillaumont in Ιvagre le Pontique. Traitι Pratique ou le Moine, tom.
1, pp. 54-98 [SC 170]]; let us rather quench the fiery arrows of the evil
one with tears, with supplications, with compunction, with the other
batterings of the body, so that we too may be able to say with the
Apostle, Every day I die, that is as certain as the boast in you, which I have
in Christ Jesus our Lord [1 Cor. 15:31.]; and with the holy David,
Because for you we die all the day, we were reckoned as sheep for the
slaughter [Ps. 43:23.]. With them may we be found worthy to become
heirs of the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be
glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for
ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 64
On the incarnate dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we
should celebrate spiritually. It was spoken on the day of the
Annunciation.

Brethren and fathers, the Annunciation is here and it is the first of the
Feasts of the Lord, and we should not simply celebrate as most do,
but with understanding and with reverence for the mystery. What is
the mystery? That the Son of God becomes son of man, using the
holy Virgin as the means, dwelling in her and from her fashioning
for himself a temple and becoming perfect man. Why so? That he
might ransom those under the law, as it is written, and that we might
receive sonship [Gal. 4,5.]; that we may no longer be slaves, but free; no
longer subject to the passions, but free of passions; no longer friends
of the world, but friends of God; no longer walking according to the
flesh, but according to the spirit. Those who walk according to the flesh,
think the things of the flesh; those who walk according to the spirit, the
things of the spirit; for the thought of the flesh is death; but the thought of
the spirit, life and peace. And so the thought of the flesh is hostile to God, for
it is not subject to the law of God. Indeed it cannot be. Those who are in the
flesh cannot please God [Rom. 8,5-8.]. In brief this is the power of the
mystery, and this is why we should celebrate spiritually and behave
spiritually, with holiness and justice, with love, with gentleness, with
peace, with forbearance, with goodness, with the Holy Spirit [2 Cor. 6,6.],
so that as far as we ourselves are concerned we do not render the
dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ empty and ineffectual. Not
only that, but we should both pray and grieve for the world. Why so?
Because the Son of God came to save the world, and the world rejects
him. Tribes and languages reject him; the barbarian nations reject
him, those who have had his holy name invoked upon them reject
him, some through abandoning the faith, others through their evil
lives. What should he have done and did not do? Being God he
became man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, the death
of the cross [Phil. 2,8.]; he gave us his body to eat and his blood to
drink; he allowed us to call him Father, Brother, Head, Teacher,
Bridegroom, Fellow-heir and all the other titles which there is no
time to mention now. And still he is rejected, and still he bears it. For,
he says, I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world [John
12,47.]. What then is there to say, brethren? That the genuine
disciples are grieved by the rejections of their fellow-disciples, thus
showing love both for the teacher and for the disciples. So too,
genuine servants suffer in the same way from the desertions of their
fellow-servants. This is why the great Apostle orders that we should
offer supplications, prayers, entreaties, thanksgivings on behalf of all
mankind, for kings and for all in high positions [1 Tim. 2,1-2.]; and
elsewhere he says this on the subject, I speak the truth in Christ, I do not
lie, my conscience bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have a
great grief and unceasing anguish in my heart; for I have prayed that I
might be anathema to Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen
according to the flesh [Rom. 9,1-3.]. You see the power of love? You see
the height of friendship? Moses shows it too when he says to God, If
you will forgive them their sin, forgive; if not, wipe me out of the book which
you have written [Exodus 32,32]. So we too, as genuine and not
counterfeit disciples, should not only look to what concerns
ourselves, but we should grieve and pray for our brothers and for the
whole world; for by so doing what is pleasing to the Lord we shall
become inheritors of eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom
be the glory and the might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now
and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The place of these two catecheses in the numbering suggests that
they may have been given during the 4th week of Lent.

CATECHESIS 66
That this Pascha is a type of the future and eternal Pascha;
and about endurance and courage.

Brethren and fathers, Lent is already galloping past and the soul
rejoices at the imminence of Pascha, because by it it finds rest and
is relieved of many toils. Why did this thought sound for me in
advance? Because it is as if our whole life directs its reason
contemplating the eternal Pascha. For this present Pascha, even
though it is great and revered, is nevertheless, as our fathers
explain, only a type of that Pascha to come. For this Pascha is for
one day and it passes, while that Pascha has no successor. From it
pain, grief and sighing have fled away [1]; there everlasting joy,
gladness and rejoicing; there the sound of those who feast [2], a
choir of those who keep festival and contemplation of eternal light;
where there is the blessed breakfast [3] of Christ and the new [4]
drink of which Christ spoke, I shall not drink of the fruit of this vine,
until I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father [5] Of this he
spoke to his disciples when he was about to ascend to heaven, I am
going to prepare a place for you and, if I go, I will prepare a place for you.
I am coming again and I will take you to myself, so that where I am you
maybe also. And where I am going you know, and the way you know.
[6]And a little further on, On that day you will know that I am in the
Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. [7] And elsewhere, Father,
I wish that where I am they may be with me also, so that they may see my
glory, which you gave me, because you loved from before the foundation
of the world. [8] But because this concerns not only the Apostles, but
also ourselves, he also said, I do not ask this only for them, but also for
those who through their word believe in me, so that all may be one, as
you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they may also be one in us.
[9] What could be more comforting than these words? What could
be more appealing? What soul can they not soften? What heart not
prick with compunction, even should someone say that the human
heart is a nature of stone? With thoughts like these the saints bore
all that they bore, considering afflictions as joys, constraints as
freedoms [10], struggles as delights, harsh training as relaxation,
deaths as lives. I beseech you, my brother, should not we also,
since we have the same aim and seek the same Pascha, bravely and
courageously bear our present condition, not falling, not
succumbing to despondency, but rather roused with greater
fervour watching for the wicked serpent who works to deceive us
by the passions, transforming himself into an angel of light,
[11]and altering things from what they are; show dark as light,
bitter as sweet. This was how he ensnared our forefather,
bewitching his sight and depicting as beautiful what was not, and
as a result through food casting him out of Paradise. But let us,
who have learned by experience what a deceiver he is, not leave
the paradise of God’s commandments, nor, when he indicates to
us that the fruit is beautiful, let the eye of soul or body be directed
there, otherwise we are being caught in the snare. But let us flee by
every means from looking. What the is the fruit which seems
beautiful? The love of the flesh, the evil lust of every one of the
destructive passions. If we avoid experiencing them, my brothers,
we shall be saved and easter [12] to age on age, with all the Saints
in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of
ages. Amen.

[1] Isaias 35:10. The phrase is familiar from the prayer for the departed.

[2] Cf. Psa. 42:4, where the Greek has a singular. The same phrase is found,
but with the plural, in the prayers after Communion.
[3] Cf. John 21:12.

[4] The Greek has koinon, ‘common’, but the word should be kainon, ‘new’, as
the following citation makes clear. There is also an echo of the Paschal canon,
‘Come, let drink a new drink’ (poma kainon).

[5] Matthew 26:29.

[6] John 14:2-4.

[7] John 14:20.

[8] John 17:24.

[9] John 17:20-21.

[10] It is difficult to reproduce the play in Greek on stenochoria and evrychoria.

[11] 2 Corinthians 11:14.

[12] St Theodore uses a very rare verb paschazein, and temptation to follow G.
M. Hopkins and use ‘easter’ as a verb is irresistible. The only reference in
Lampe is to St Theodore’s contemporary Theophanes, who uses it of the
Quartodecimans, who ‘easter’ with the Jews.

CATECHESIS 67
That to feast each day and to easter to the Lord God consists in the death the
passions and the resurrection of the virtues.

Brethren and fathers, the day of Pascha is drawing near, since with
God’s help we have passed the mid-point of the fast. But are we
pressing forward to reach the Pascha that comes and goes? Have we
not achieved this year after year? The present Pascha too will pass,
for there is nothing lasting inthe present age, but, All our days pass like
a shadow, [1] and our life travels like a rapid rider, until it has driven
us to the final boundary of life. ‘What’, someone says, ‘is Pascha not
to be desired?’ Of course, it very much to be desired. How could it
not be? But we accomplish Pascha every day. And what is this?
Cleansing from sins, contrition of heart, tears of compunction, a clean
conscience, the death of the parts of us that are earthly: immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, [2] and any other evil that is at work. One
who has been found worthy in all this does not easter and celebrate a
much longed for feast to the Lord just once a year, but, we may say,
does so each day. Someone, on the other hand, who does not have all
the foregoing, but is held fast by the passions, cannot celebrate. For
how can someone celebrate whose god is their stomach? [3] Or who
is aflame with fleshly lust? Or melted by the heat of jealousy? Or
drowned by the love of money? Or enslaved to vainglory? Or caught
up by the other passions. No one could possibly say that someone
with a high fever was at rest, or that someone shipwrecked was
making a good voyage. It simply isn’t possible. It is impossible for
someone who has become dark to be enlightened, or for someone
possessed by sins to celebrate. But for you, brothers, we are confident
of better things, ones that promise salvation. For our way of life is
nothing other than preparation [4] for a feast. Look at the reality:
psalmody succeeds psalmody; reading, reading; study, study;
prayer, prayer, like a wheel drawing us and joining us to God. How
truly excellent is this way of life, how supremely excellent! How
blessed this life and thrice-blessed! So then, since we have been
shown the sought for Pascha, my honoured brothers, let us make it
our aim, and, as far as we can, celebrate it every day, through the
death of the passions and the resurrection of the virtues, in imitation
of the Lord, because he too suffered for us, leaving us an example that we
should follow in his steps. [5] And I say this, not so we become judges
of the others —for each has their own load to carry [6]—but so that,
conscious of the grace that has been given us by God, we may give
thanks to the giver, glorify the benefactor, repay the master, who has
not only granted our present blessings, but also, to those who
genuinely serve him to the end, he will also give those that are in his
promises, that eternal and heavenly Pascha. May we all attain it, by
the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and
always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

[1] Psalm 143:4.

[2] Colossians 3:5.

[3] Cf. Philippians 3:19.

[4] The ordinary Greek word for ‘preparation’, paraskevi, in Christian Greek
also means Friday, in particular Good Friday, the ‘preparation’ for Pascha.

[5] 1 Peter 2:21. The critical editions have the second person throughout.
[6] Galatians 6:5.

CATECHESIS 68
That we must be renewed for what is ahead through endurance of
the trials that fall upon us, both visible and invisible. [On the 5th
Sunday.]
So the list in Migne [PG 99:28].

Brethren and fathers, because winter has passed and spring has
arrived, we see creation flourishing again; the plants are flowering,
the earth is growing green, the birds are singing and everything else
is being renewed; and we take pleasure in all this and we glorify God
the master craftsman who transforms and changes creation year by
year, and it is reasonable to do so. Ever since the creation of the world
his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been
understood and seen through the things he has made [Rom. 1:20]. It is our
duty not just to stay where we are, but to advance further and to
examine carefully for ourselves the logic of creation. How? Because
this renewal has winter as its cause. It would not have reached its
prime had it not first undergone snows and rains and winds. And so
it is with the soul; unless it is first snowed on by afflictions, troubles
and difficulties, it will not flower, it will not fruit; but by enduring, it
bears fruit and partakes in a blessing from God, as it is written:
Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a
crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, partakes in a blessing from
God [Heb. 6:7]. Therefore, brethren, let us also endure every affliction,
every trouble, every trial which assails us both visibly and invisibly,
the fast we are drawing out as we hunger and thirst and are
otherwise made wretched, so that we may bear fruit and partake of
God's blessing; and not only that, but that we may nourish and
welcome Jesus as our guest. For just as we enjoy the sight of creation,
so he too enjoys the ripe beauty [The Greek has literally ‘the hour of
our souls’, but the word can also connote ‘beauty‘, ‘ripeness’, ‘the
bloom of youth’, ‘spring-time’. Hence, for example, the derivatives
‘beautiful’ and ‘ripe’.] of our souls. What are the fruits? Love, joy,
peace, patience, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-mastery
[Gal. 5:22]. By these he is nourished, by these he is entertained. And
blest the one who nourishes him, because he will be nourished by
him with eternal good things; and blest the one who receives him as
his guest, because he will be received by him as his guest in the
kingdom of heaven! Indeed! So if someone is to receive a king as his
house guest [The word that I have translated ‘house guest’ does not
appear in the lexica, either ancient or modern, though the meaning is
clear.], he rejoices and is extremely glad; hoe much more then
someone who receives the King of kings and Lord of lords as his
house guest. That he is received is clear from what he himself has
said: I and my Father will come and make our abode with him [John 14:23].
And again: One who has my commandments and keeps them, is the one
who loves me; the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall
love him and manifest myself to him [John 14:21]. Therefore, since such
are the promises, let us not only bear, but let us endure with joy all
things, both those that are present, those that are whispered about
and those that are expected, as we listen to the Apostle when he says:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete
what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the
Church [Col. 1:24]. And again Saint James who says: My brethren,
whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because
you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let
endurance have its full effect, so that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing [James 1:2-4]. Do you see then that in trials there is
joy, and in tribulations gladness? For these are the things that are
exchanged where God is concerned; and this is how the saints led
their lives; this too how we, by doing violence to ourselves and yet
greater violence, and by living our life in their footsteps, shall inherit
the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory
and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and
to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 69
That those who have passed through life in afflictions and miseries
enjoy a pleasure which is without sorrow and ineffable. In PG the
title adds ‘In memory of the godly Platon’.
[It was given on Wednesday of the 5th week of Lent.]

Brethren and Fathers, everyone who is starting something, whether it

be word or action, at the beginning has affliction and difficulty, but at
the conclusion of the struggle joy and happiness. So a farmer sows
with tears, as we sing, but reaps with gladness [Cf. Ps. 125:5]. The
soldier as he sets out to war is depressed, but as he returns from war
he is filled with joy. So we too now that we have come near the end
of our abstinence, no longer remember the mortification of our
former struggles, but we rejoice at our present ones and glorify the
Master. Would that you may excel in noble struggles for the time
ahead. For I testify to you that you have come through the time of the
fast in the right spirit, without conflict, without disturbance,
obediently, in good order, each one fulfilling his service properly.
And thanks be to the powerful God who has empowered you to
achieve this completion. Let us then take this example, brethren, and
at the completion of life here, whenever each of us rests from his
works, When Christ our life appears [Col. 3:4.], When he hands over the
kingdom to God the Father, as it is written, when he has abolished every
rule and every authority and power [1 Cor. 15:24]; because then the
saints will have no sensation of their sufferings and struggles for the
sake of virtue, but will enjoy a pleasure without sorrow and
ineffable. And who are they? The glorious fathers and prophets
before the Law and under the Law, those like Abraham, those like
Moses; in the time of grace, the blessed Apostles, the victorious
Martyrs, the whole choir of the Saints. Among them and before them
the great Forerunner, whose imitator our venerable father Platon,
whose memory we are celebrating today, was counted worthy to
become by denouncing the adulterous Emperor [St Platon was St
Theodore’s spiritual father. He denounced the illicit marriages of
Constantine VI. This resulted in the banishment of the two saints in
809. St Platon’s feast is on the 4th April]. And since the disciples of a
good teacher should themselves be, as the tree is known by its fruit, I
beg and implore you, by the same rule, that we too may follow in the
same tracks that he and the rest of our fathers and brethren followed,
not abandoning our ascetic discipline nor the confession which lies
before us. For you have certainly all heard what the wretched
Alexander has done; he has denied his obedience and his confession.
And what caused him to suffer this but that fact that he had been on
his own ? how do I blame those who are on their own [The Greek
word used here, is common in the sense of ‘solitary’, but here it
means a monk who is isolated, without other brothers. The
community was scattered at this time in semi-exile and St Theodore
clearly had problems with monks who wanted to live on their own
with all the attendant dangers.] ? and had become a lover of money
like Judas. Both of them betrayed the Lord of glory, the one to the
Jews, the other to those who think like the Jews, the Iconoclasts.
Rightly the Apostle cries out: The love of money is a root of all evils, and
in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and
pierced themselves with many pains [1 Tim. 6:10]. I want next to rebuke
some of you not unreasonably. Why so? Because, since he was a
lover of power and a lover of rank, the poor fool, you connived with
him, as a joke in fact, by voting for him as priest; and he, maimed by
the devil, turned the game into reality. Oh how the poor wretch has
suffered! He has suffered shipwreck in the faith [Cf. 1 Tim. 1:19. One
of those mentioned by St Paul was also called Alexander.], he has lost
the merchandise of virtue, he has grieved us too lowly as we are, he
has caused as much scandal as he can to the Church of God. But may
our good God, who brings from the deep of destruction the soul that
has been submerged, call him back finally from his fall when he has
at last repented; may he pardon you for your rashness and idle
speech, and may he save us all for his heavenly kingdom, in Christ
Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the
holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 70
That we should endure every torment in imitation of Christ and the
saints.
Given on the Friday of the 5th week of Lent.

Brethren and Fathers, the previous instruction [Unless the renegade

Alexander was more dangerous than St Theodore says this does not
seem to have been Catechesis 69. Moreover according to some MSS
there was one for Thursday of this week, number 33 of the Large
Catechesis. The latter speaks of no such threats.] no doubt pained you
which indicated the trials that are being meditated against us. But
because of what I have said to you, says the Lord, grief has filled your
hearts; but I speak the truth to you [John 16:6-7]. And again the Apostle:
It is not troublesome for me to speak, while for you it is a safeguard [Phil.
3:1]. May we be safeguarded, then, with every spiritual safeguard,
and if what is being said passes into act, we will meet it, with God's
help, nobly; but if not, it will not be without advantage for us as our
good God accepts such preparation and without toils and blows
crowns those who thus choose. Already Lent draws to its end and
the time introduces the fair crown, that is the remembrance of the
life-giving sufferings of the Saviour, in which we find the greatest
consolation. For if our Lord and God was arrested for our sins, is it a
great matter if we unprofitable servants should also be arrested for
his sake? And if he was bound and led away and put in prison, is it
so strange should we suffer the same treatment as the Master? Rather
it would be exceedingly grievous not to encounter such things. But if
we must be scourged, let us bear the scourges; and if we must be
beaten, let us bear the beatings; and we have to be spat on, let us bear
the spittings; and finally if we must be put to death, let us bear that
revered death. And good it is if anyone were to be found worthy to
become a partaker in Christ's sufferings. This is blessedness, this is
immortality. Do we not hear what the Apostle says? From now on, let
no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of the Lord Jesus branded
on my body [Gal. 6:17]. As though he were saying: Let no one despise
me, for I bear the adornments of Christ the universal King in my
flesh. Such also was Saint Ignatios who called himself God-bearer by
his bearing in himself the Lord's sufferings. Such was St Efstratios
who cried out in the midst of torments and said, ‘Now I know that
Christ lives in me’. O blessed voices and thrice-blessed souls! Whose
memorials then do we celebrate? Whose nativities do we feast? To
whom do we erect sacred churches, whose relics do we venerate? Is
it not those of the Martyrs? Those of the Confessors? Those of the
Ascetics? And if here they have been found worthy of so great glory,
how much and how great the splendour they would enjoy in the age
to come? Ineffable and unimaginable the reckoning! This is the fair
business, this the blessed exchange: by small struggles and toils to
purchase goods that are eternal and without end. Let us too then
imitate them, brethren; let us mingle our blood with the holy blood,
for this is possible; for its nature is not dissimilar nor has he changed
who says: See, see that I am and I have not changed [Cf. Dt. 32:39 and
Mal. 3:6]. He loves all equally, he died on behalf of all, he sets before
all inexhaustible delight, he is passionate for the salvation of all, and
this to him is riches, for he says he is richly generous to all who call upon
him [Rom. 10:12]. Therefore let us call upon him in what befalls us
and he will give power and might [Ps. 67:36] to our souls. Let us
embrace him and he will bring our enemies to naught [Ps. 107:14] both
seen and invisible. Let us await him and he will crown us for the day
of resurrection of the dead, for the day of his appearing; for which
may we too be found worthy to attain without condemnation and to
stand uncondemned at his judgement seat, giving a good defence, in
Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and might, with the Father and
the holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 72
 On the saving Passion; and teaching on humility and patient
endurance.
Given on the Wednesday of Holy Week.

Brethren and Fathers, the present day is holy and to be venerated, for
from this day the Lord begins to take on himself the sufferings of the
Cross for our sake, in accordance with David’s words: Why did the
nations rage and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth
rose up and the rulers assembled together against the Lord and against his
Christ [Psalm 2:1-2]. They assembled together to plot an evil plan
against the Master. The deceitful Judas denied him utterly and
betrays the teacher with a deceitful kiss. The Lord of all things is led
away prisoner, stands before the judgement seat, is interrogated and
answers; and when he answers—O fearful report!—he is struck by a
slave and bears it with longsuffering, saying: If I have spoken evil, give
testimony to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me? [John 18:23] Then
he is scoffed at, mocked, jeered at, ridiculed, spat at, buffeted,
scourged. He ascends the Cross, and when he has ascended he prays
for his murderers: Father, forgive them their sin, for they do not know
what they do [Luke 23:33]. Then he is given gall with vinegar to drink,
he is pierced by a lance, the immortal is put to death. These in brief
are the Master's sufferings, and one who hears them with
understanding is not angry, or embittered, or enraged, or puffed up,
or arrogant towards his brother; is not envious, or filled with
vainglory. Rather he is humbled, crushed, considers himself to be
earth and ashes, desires communion in Christ's sufferings, to is eager
to be conformed to his death, so that he may have a part in the glory
of his resurrection. But you too take courage, because you have
shared and are sharing in the Master's sufferings. For you see where
you are. Is it not for the sake of his word and his testimony that you
are in exile and persecution? [These Catecheses were given when St
Theodore and his monks were in exile from Constantinople in the reign of
Michael II (820-829).] Have you not previously experienced prison?
Have you not shed your blood under tortures? Have not some of our
brothers died a martyr's death? Such then is our boast in the Lord,
such our gift. But since until the end beatitude is not assured because
of the ease of reversal and the impossibility of knowing what the
morrow will bring to birth, stand your ground unflinching and
unmoving in the Lord striving side by side with one spirit and one soul
for the faith of the Gospel, in no way intimidated by your opponents [Phil.
1:27-6], not giving offence in anything, but in everything recommending
ourselves as God's ministers [2 Cor. 6:3-4], by obedience, humility,
meekness, longsuffering, great endurance. For you need endurance in
order to do God's will and obtain the promise. For in a little while he who is
coming will come and not delay [Heb 10:36-37]. But if he will come and
not delay, why do we hate being in afflictions and do not rather
choose to die each day for the Master? For it is written: If we have died
with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with
him; if we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are unfaithful, he
remains faithful; he cannot disown himself [1 Tim. 2:11-13]. How great joy
the saints will have when they see the Lord coming from heaven with
the angels of his power [2 Thess. 1:7], inviting them with inexpressible
joy, crowning them and becoming their companion for ever and
ever? What anguish will they have who have disobeyed the Gospel
and transgressed his commandments? They will suffer the penalty, as it
is written, of eternal destruction, cut off from his presence and from the
glory of his strength, when he comes to be glorified in his saints and
marvelled at among all who have believed [2 Thess. 1:9-10]. And so,
brethren, as we contemplate and think on these things, again and
again let us purify ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God [2 Cor, 7:1], zealous for what is
better, striving for what is more perfect, hating what is evil, holding fast
to what is good, loving one another with brotherly affection, outdoing one
another in showing honour, not lagging in zeal, being ardent in spirit,
serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in affliction, persevering in
prayer [Rom. 12:9-12], that by such sincerity we may worthily celebrate
the imminent Pascha, and be counted worthy to enjoy the eternal
blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with
the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of
ages. Amen.

CATECHESIS 73
On the saving passion of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.
Given on Good Friday.

Brethren and Fathers, while the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ
when they are recalled are always able to pierce the soul, they do so
especially in these present days, on which each of them reached its
end. What then are they? The murderous council against him, the
Jewish arrest, his being led away to death, his arraignment before
Pilate's tribunal, the interrogation, the scourging, the blows, the
spittings, the insults, the mockeries, the ascent of the Cross, the
nailing of his hands and feet, the tasting of gall, the piercing of his
side and all the other things which blazed forth [This word is not in the
lexica, but the meaning is clear.] with them, which the world cannot
contain, nor can anyone worthily proclaim, not human tongue, nor
even all the tongues of angels together. For let us consider, brethren,
this great and ineffable mystery. The Lord who reveals the counsels of
hearts [1 Cor. 4:5] and knows every human desire is the one who is
taken before a council of death; the Lord who bears all things by the
word of his power [Hebrews 1:3.]is the one who is handed over to
sinners; the Lord who binds the water in the clouds [Job 26:8.] and sows
in the earth in due season and uniformly is the one who is led away
prisoner; the Lord who measures the heavens with the span of his hand
and the earth in a handful and weighed all the mountains in the balance
[Isaias 40:12.] is the one who is struck by the hand of a servant; the
Lord who adorned the boundaries of the earth with flowers is the
one who is dishonourably crowned with thorns; the Lord who
planted the tree of life in Paradise is the one who is hanged upon an
accursed tree. O great and more then natural sights! The sun saw
them and faded, the moon saw them and was darkened, the earth
perceived them was shaken, the rocks perceived them and were rent,
all creation was turned back at the outrages done to the Master. The
lifeless elements which have no senses, as if endowed with life and
sensation from fear of the Lord and from the spectacle of what is
seen, were amazed and altered; and do we, who have been honoured
with reason, for whose sake Christ died, remain untouched and
unweeping in these days? How could we be less rational than things
which have no reason, more unfeeling than the stones? In no way,
my brothers, in no way. Let us rather be amazed in a manner worthy
of God, by being changed with a fair change; let us draw down tears,
sacrifice the passions, changing insults for insults and exchanging
wounds for wounds, the one through obedience, the other through
unflinching confession. Do we not see the burning incitements of
divine love? Who ever dwelt in prison for a friend? Who accepted
slaughter for their beloved? But our good God not only did the one
and both of them, but accepted ten thousand sufferings for the sake
of us, the condemned. Fittingly then the blessed Apostle, when he
thought on these things and became powerfully aware of the love of
God, said For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
rules nor powers, neither present nor future, neither height nor depth, nor
any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord [Rom. 8:38-39]. For such was the love God had for us that
he gave his only Son, that all who believe in him might not perish, as it is
written, but have eternal life [John 3:16.]. As an exchange for this love,
the saints, when they had nothing to offer, offered their own bodies
and blood by asceticism and struggle, singing with blessed David the
song: What return may we make to the Lord for all that he has given to us?
[Psalm 115:3.] Let us also, brethren, cry out these words each day, as
we serve him with an unceasing attitude of love, striving again and
again for what is better, so that we may become heirs with the saints
of the eternal blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory
and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and
to the ages of ages.

CATECHESIS 78
On listening with understanding to the Holy Scriptures.

Brethren and fathers, all we human beings have eyes and ears;
however it is not given to all to see and hear, but to those who in
addition have a ear which obeys and an eye for looking. That is why
the Lord says in the Gospels, ‘Those who have ears to hear, let them
hear’ [Matthew 13,9]. While of those who are hard of hearing the
Prophet says, ‘God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes for not
looking and ears for not hearing’ [Romans 11,8]. We should surely
then listen with understanding to the things that are read to us, not
simple-mindedly or anyhow, so that we may not fall beneath the
threat, but rather that we may able to say, as it is written, ‘The Lord’s
training opens my ears’ [Isaias 50,5]. The one who hears like this is
attentive and moved by compunction, as we sing in David’s Psalms,
‘Rejoice in the Lord, you just’ [Psalm 32,1]. Such a person considers
everything here to be a passing shadow; considers everything to be
rubbish, so that he may gain Christ [Cf. Philippians 3,8]. Just as he
hears him saying to his Disciples, ‘I will not leave you orphans. I am
coming to you. A little while, and the world sees me no longer. But
you see me, because I live and you will live’ [John 14,18-19]. And
again, ‘I am the vine and you are the branches’ [John 15,5]. And
again, ‘You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. I no
longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his
lord does. But I have called you friends, because everything that I
have heard from my Father, I have made known to you’ [John 15,14-
15]. And again, ‘You have remained with me in my trials, and I make
a covenant with you — an eternal covenant — that you may eat and
drink for ever at my table in my kingdom’ [Luke 22,28-30]. When
someone who loves God hears such words, they not only rejoice but
also choose to die for Christ every day. This then was how all the
Saints lived their lives, with statements such as these they gloried
triumphantly of their longing for God. Jeremias says, ‘I did not grow
weary following you, Lord, nor did I desire any human day’
[Jeremias 17,16]. David says, ‘What shall I give the Lord in return for
all that he has given me? I will take the cup of salvation and call on
the name of the Lord’ [Psalm 115,3-4], while the Apostle again says,
‘It has been given us by God not only to believe in Christ, but also to
suffer for him’ [Philippians 1,29]. Similarly the Apostles, after they
had been flogged, rejoiced, as Scripture says, ‘because they had been
found worthy to be dishonoured for the name of Christ’ [Acts 5,41].
In short each of the Saints with words like these reveals their love for
Christ. And therefore, brethren, let us too hear obediently what is
said and love our beloved God with love, always giving thanks for
all the good things that he has done for us, that he chose us from the
beginning for salvation by the sanctification of our profession here;
that he gave us the grace to worship him with orthodox faith and not
be carried astray. For how many have gone astray, utterly deceived
‘by human trickery, by villainy to the cunning of error’ [Ephesians
4,14]! How many are famished ‘not with a famine of bread or thirst
for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God’ [Amos 8,11], as it
is written! To us has been given, like a full table, the teaching of the
Saints, whence one works the divine words like a goldsmith, another
and another from here and from there sweetens by his utterances. It
is opportune then to say with the Apostle, ‘If God is for, who is
against us? For the One who did not spare his own Son, but handed
him over for us all, how will he not with him also grant us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen one? It is God who
justifies. Who then condemns? It was Christ who died, yet rather he
was raised from the dead, who is also at the right hand of God and
who also makes intercession for us’ [Romans 8,31-34], to God the
Father that is, and who will also bestow on us his eternal kingdom,
for to him belong glory and might, with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages, Amen.

CATECHESIS 103
 On keeping God’s commandments
and the just threat against those who neglect them. [1]

Brethren and fathers, God, who fashioned us and brought us out of

non-existence into being, [2] has placed us in this life as in a
schoolroom to learn to gospel of his kingdom. For this reason too,
when he sent out his disciples to preach, he gave them this
command, ‘Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe everything that I have commanded you’. [3] But what are
the things he commanded? According to the old covenant, to
summarise, ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness’. [4] According to
the new, things that are higher and more precise. For Scripture says,
‘it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder’; whoever commits
murder will be liable to judgement. But I say to you, everyone who is
angry with their brother without good cause will be liable to
judgement’. [5] Again, ‘it was said to those of old, [6] ‘You shall not
commit adultery’. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman
with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart’. [7]
Again, ‘it was said, ‘You shall not commit perjury’. But I say to you,
you are not to swear at all’. [8] Again, ‘it was said, ‘You shall love
your neighbour and hate you enemy’. But I say to you, Love your
enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you’.
[9] Do you see how great the difference is between the two
covenants? The one forbids the acts themselves, while the other the
impulses from which the acts come, so that sin may not put down
roots from there. If then we are found to be living in accordance with
neither law nor Gospel, but rather, as one might say, with paganism,
what shall we suffer on that day? [10] ‘Do not be led astray’,
Scripture says, ‘neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor
male prostitutes nor Sodomites nor thieves nor extortioners nor
drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of
God’. [11] And for this reason, as I have often declared by way of
putting you on your guard and do so now, let no one live on their
own, behave without discretion, amass money, acquire a slave; let no
one be a horse breeder or cattle herdsman or engage in any activity
[12] beyond the rule under persecution. [13] From these come greater
and more serious sins. Nevertheless there are some of you who,
being disobedient, disobey, and being quarrelsome, quarrel with the
truth. And I, your poor Abbot, [14] ‘am not responsible for the blood
of any of you, for I have not shrunk from declaring to you’ God’s
ordinance, nor by, keeping silent, have I failed to reveal the sword
that is coming ‘upon those who disobey’. [15] ‘Or are we provoking
the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?’ [16] ‘The axe is
already being laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that
does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown onto the fire’.
[17]

Are you frightened by this example? [18] Do you not tremble at the
threat? Are you not afraid of death, which we shall all face [19] in a
little while? How are we to look on the fearsome angels, as they come
to take us from the body? How are we to journey on that long and
unending road, if we have not obtained the necessities for the
journey? How are we to take our stand at the judgement seat of
Christ, to whom ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue confess’,
[20] if we have a bad conscience? Will we not inevitably be sent away
from there to the place ‘where the fire is not quenched and the worm
does not die’, [21] where there is ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’.
[22] But, brethren, so that this does not happen, ‘Come, let us
worship and let us weep to our good God. Let us come into his
presence with confession’, [23] supplication, compunction, tears,
prayers, fasts, purity and every form of good conduct. ‘He is
expiation for our sins’, [24] and he has not shut the doors against us,
he has not turned away from someone who turns back, but he lets
them approach like the harlot, the prodigal and the thief. Yes,
brethren, I beg you, let us stand up, let us rouse ourselves and let us
compete, so that, like school children, who are ready learners, when
they are dismissed, go home rejoicing, we too, as genuine disciples of
the Gospel, when we have been dismissed from the life here, may
depart with joy for the everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord, to
whom belong glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and for ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

[1] The current Moscow edition of the Lenten Triodion gives this catechesis, in
a Russian translation, for the Sunday of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee,
though there is nothing to suggest this either in the text itself or in the
numbering of the Greek MSS., where it is numbered 116. The series for the
Triodion begins with number 13 in Greek, for the Wednesday before Meat
Sunday.

[2] A quotation from the Anaphora of St John Chrysostom.

[3] Mat. 18:19-20.

[4] Exodus 20:13-15.

[5] Mat. 5:21-22. The words ‘without good cause’ (one word in Greek) are not
in many ancient MSS. nor in some of the versions and are generally rejected by
contemporary scholars, but are part of the Church’s text. The latest edition of
Liddell and Scott adds this meaning to the article in question, citing a number
of passages from Demosthenes for it.

[6] Most modern editors omit ‘to those of old’ in this verse.

[7] Mat. 5:27-28.

[8] Mat. 5:33-34.

[9] Mat. 5:43-44.

[10] The day of judgement. The phrase, without further explanation, is found
already in the New Testament. Cf. Mat. 7:22, 2 Timothy 1:18 and 4:8.

[11] 1 Cor. 6:9-10. The exact meaning of some of these terms is much disputed,
as a glance at the many contemporary commentaries and versions of the New
Testament will show. Neither St John Chrysostom nor Theodoret comment on
the individual categories.

[12] This meaning is not attested in the lexica.

[13] One of a number of references by St Theodore to the problems of keeping

community life and discipline when the brotherhood is in exile and dispersed.

[14] Literally, ‘And I, the humble,’ but this is most unnatural in English and I
have taken the liberty of trying to convey a tone of voice rather than the
‘literal’ sense of the words.

[15] Colossians 3:6. The Greek has ‘sons of disobedience’, which is a Semitism
for ‘the disobedient’, but the word ‘sons’ is particularly apposite in the context
of a monastic brotherhood. The phrase in the New Testament refers to those
who oppose God. Cf. also Ephesians 2:2 and 5:6.

[16] 1 Cor. 10:22.

[17] Mat. 3:10.

[18] Cf. Hebrews 4:11.

[19] The use of this verb suggests that St Theodore may be thinking of
Malachy 3:2.

[20] Isaias 45:23, Rom. 14:11 and cf. Phil 2:10-11.

[21] Isa. 66:24, Mark 9:48. St Theodore reverses the two clauses.

[22] Mat. 8:12. The phrase occurs six times in Matthew and once in Luke.

[23] This is a free citation of Psalm 94 vv. 6 and 2. The actual expression ‘good
God’ does not occur in Scripture, except predicatively in Psalm 72:1. The
Greek word exomologesis means both ‘thanksgiving’ and ‘confession’ (sc. ‘of
sins’). The latter is clearly the meaning St Theodore intends here, and this is
why he has put verse 2 after verse 6, to make the beginning of his list

[24] 1 John 2:2.