Κεφ. Ν'
The Vigilant Watch
The monk is called to observe the patterns of demonic influence with prayerful discernment, recognizing that the enemy targets those who seek spiritual understanding.
If a monk wants to test the savage demons and learn their tactics, he should watch his thoughts and note how they intensify, how they subside, how they get tangled up with one another, how long they last, which demons are causing them, which demon follows which, and which ones do not; then he should ask Christ to reveal the reasons behind these things. They become especially enraged at those who pursue the ascetic life with greater understanding, wanting to shoot from the darkness at those whose hearts are upright.
Read the original Latin
Εἴ τις βούλοιτο τῶν μοναχῶν ἀγρίων πειραθῆναι δαιμόνων καὶ τῆς αὐτῶν τέχνης ἕξιν λαβεῖν, τηρείτω τοὺς λογισμούς, καὶ τὰς ἐπιτάσεις σημειούσθω τούτων, καὶ τὰς ἀνέσεις, καὶ τὰς μετεμπλοκάς, καὶ τοὺς χρόνους, καὶ τίνες τῶν δαιμόνων οἱ τοῦτο ποιοῦντες, καὶ ποῖος ποίῳ δαίμονι ἀκολουθεῖ, καὶ τίς τίνι οὐχ ἕπεται· καὶ ζητείτω παρὰ Χριστοῦ τούτων τοὺς λόγους. Πάνυ γὰρ χαλεπαίνουσιν ἐπὶ τοῖς γνωστικώτερον τὴν πρακτικὴν μετιοῦσι, βουλόμενοι κατατοξεύειν ἐν σκοτομήνῃ τοὺς εὐθεῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ.
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