Κεφ. ϞΖ'
The Ultimate Act of Charity
A monk demonstrates the radical nature of love by selling his only possession, the Gospel, to feed the poor in obedience to its own command.
One of the brothers owned nothing but a copy of the Gospel. He sold even that and gave the money to feed the hungry, adding these memorable words: “I have sold the very book that tells me, ‘Sell what you own and give to the poor.’”✦
Read the original Latin
Ἐκέκτητό τις τῶν ἀδελφῶν εὐαγγέλιον μόνον, καὶ τοῦτο πωλήσας ἔδωκεν εἰς τροφὴν τοῖς πεινῶσιν, ἄξιον μνήμης ἐπιφθεγξάμενος ῥῆμα· αὐτὸν γάρ, φησί, τὸν λόγον πεπώληκα τὸν λέγοντά μοι· πώλησόν σου τὰ ὑπάρχοντα καὶ δὸς πτωχοῖς.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Mark.10.21;Luke.18.22 — And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me." Luke.18.22 — When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
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