Κεφ. ΙΔ'
The Peril of Pride
Evagrius warns that pride leads to a catastrophic spiritual decline, culminating in madness and demonic delusion.
The demon of pride leads the soul to a terrible fall. It persuades the soul not to acknowledge God as its helper, but to believe it alone is responsible for its achievements, becoming puffed up against the brothers as if they were fools because they don't all recognize this about it. But anger and sorrow follow it, and then comes the final evil: the mind breaks down into madness, and the person sees a multitude of demons in the air.
Read the original Latin
Ὁ τῆς ὑπερηφανίας δαίμων χαλεπωτάτης πτώσεως τῇ ψυχῇ πρόξενος γίνεται· ἀναπείθει γὰρ αὐτὴν Θεὸν μὲν μὴ ὁμολογεῖν βοηθόν, ἑαυτὴν δὲ τῶν κατορθουμένων αἰτίαν εἶναι νομίζειν καὶ φυσιοῦσθαι κατὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ὡς ἀνοήτων, διότι μὴ τοῦτο περὶ αὐτῆς πάντες ἐπίστανται. Παρακολουθεῖ δὲ ταύτῃ ὀργὴ καὶ λύπη, καὶ τὸ τελευταῖον κακόν, ἔκστασις φρενῶν καὶ μανία καὶ δαιμόνων ἐν τῷ ἀέρι πλῆθος ὁρώμενον.
The Praktikos 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