Του Μεγάλου Μακαρίου
The Inner Battle
The spiritual athlete must enter the heart to fight Satan and his thoughts, for outward bodily purity is worthless if the soul commits adultery with evil thoughts.
The chief work of the spiritual athlete is to enter his heart, fight Satan, and hate him. And after he has wrestled against the thoughts that Satan stirs up, he must battle him. But if someone only outwardly guards his body from corruption and fornication, while inwardly he commits adultery before God and fornicates with his thoughts, he has gained nothing by keeping his body virgin. For Scripture says: "Everyone who looks at a woman and desires her has already committed adultery in his heart." There is fornication done with the body, and there is fornication of the soul that has intercourse with Satan.1
Harmony of the Fathers
The teaching of Macarius does not contradict that of Abba Isaiah, for both command bodily purity while also requiring purity of spirit, in accordance with the Gospel.
It might seem to us that this great Father says the opposite of what Abba Isaiah, whom we mentioned, says—but that isn't so. For he too, according to the will of God, commands us to guard our bodies; yet he seeks not only purity of the body, but of the spirit as well—and so he also counsels us with the same Gospel precepts.✦
Read the original Greek
Το κυριότατο έργο του πνευματικού αθλητή είναι να εισέλθει στην καρδιά του και να πολεμήσει το σατανά και να τον μισήσει. Και αφού παλέψει εναντίον των λογισμών που αυτός προκαλεί, να δώσει μάχη μαζί του. Αν όμως κανείς εξωτερικά μόνο φυλάει το σώμα του από τη διαφθορά και την πορνεία, ενώ εσωτερικά μοιχεύει ενώπιον του Θεού και πορνεύει με τους λογισμούς του, αυτός δεν ωφελήθηκε τίποτε διατηρώντας παρθένο το σώμα του. Γιατί λέει η Γραφή: «Καθένας που βλέπει γυναίκα και την επιθυμεί, ήδη διέπραξε μοιχεία μέσα στην καρδιά του». Υπάρχει πορνεία που γίνεται με το σώμα, και πορνεία της ψυχής που επικοινωνεί με τον σατανά.
Μας φαίνεται ίσως ότι ο μεγάλος αυτός Πατέρας λέει αντίθετα απ’ ότι ο αββάς Ησαΐας που αναφέραμε· αλλά δεν είναι έτσι. Γιατί κι εκείνος σύμφωνα με το θέλημα του Θεού μας παραγγέλλει να φυλάξομε τα σώματά μας, ζητάει όμως όχι μόνο την καθαρότητα των σωμάτων, αλλά και των πνευμάτων· κι έτσι μας συμβουλεύει κι αυτός τα ίδια ευαγγελικά προστάγματα.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.5.28 — But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Notes
- 1 ↩επικοινωνεί can mean communicates/associates with; rendered as 'has intercourse with' to keep the πορνεία metaphor explicit.
On Watchfulness and the Guarding of the Heart companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent