Thursday. [Phil 1:20-27; Luke 6:12-19]

   And He continued all night in prayer to God. Here is the foundation and beginning of Christian all-night Vigils. A prayerful heat chases away sleep, and exhilaration of the spirit does not allow one to notice the passing of time. True men of prayer do not notice this; it seems to them that they had just begun to pray, meanwhile day has already appeared. But until one reaches such perfection, he must take on the labour of vigils. Solitaries have borne this and bear it; cenobitic monastics have borne this and bear it; reverent and God-fearing laypeople have borne this and bear it. But though vigil comes with difficulty, its fruit remains in the soul, directly and constantly present—peace of soul and contrition, with weakening and exhaustion of the body. It is a state very valuable for those who are zealous about prospering in the spirit! That is why in places where vigils are established (on Athos), they do not want to give them up. Everyone realizes how difficult it is, but nobody has a desire to rescind this order, for the sake of the profit which the soul receives from vigils. Sleep, more than anything, relaxes and feeds the flesh; vigils more than anything humble it. One who sleeps abundantly is burdened by spiritual deeds and is cold towards them; he who is vigilant is quick in movement, like an antelope, and burns in the spirit. If the flesh must be taught to be good, like a slave, then there is no better way to succeed in this than through frequent vigils. Here the flesh fully feels the power of the spirit over it, and learns to submit to it; while the spirit acquires the habit of reigning over the flesh.

Friday. [Phil. 1:27-2:4; Luke 6:17-23]

   The Lord blesses the poor, those who hunger and weep, and the persecuted under the condition that it is all for the sake of the Son of Man; this means that He blesses a life which is surrounded by every kind of need and deprivation. According to this saying, pleasures, ease, honour are not something good; this is the way it is indeed. But while a person rests in these things, he does not realize this. Only when he frees himself from their spell does he see that they are not the good, but only phantoms. A soul cannot do without consolations, but they are not of the senses; it cannot do without treasures, but they are not in gold and silver, not in luxurious houses and clothes, not in this external fullness; it cannot get by without honor, but it lies not in human servility. There are other pleasures, there is other ease, other honour—spiritual, akin to the soul. He who finds them does not want the external ones; not only does he not want them, but he scorns and hates them because they block off the spiritual, do not allow one to see it, they keep a soul in darkness, drunkenness, and phantoms. This is why such people prefer with all their soul poverty, sorrow and obscurity, feeling good within them, like behind some safe fence against the spell of the deceptions of the world. What about those people who have all these things without trying? They should relate to all of these things, according to the word of the holy Apostle, as one who possesses not (cf. 1Cor. 7:30).

Thursday. [Eph. 4:14-19; Mark 11:27-33]

   The Saviour proves that He was sent from heaven using the testimony of John the Forerunner. They were silent, for there was nothing to say to the contrary, yet they did not believe. Another time He proved the same thing through His deeds, and they thought up a new twist: [He casteth out devils] by the prince of the devils (Mt. 9:34, Mk. 3:22). But when this twist was exposed to be completely inappropriate, they again were silent, but nevertheless did not believe. Thus unbelievers never believe no matter what you tell them and how convincingly you prove the truth. They cannot say anything to the contrary, while nevertheless they do not believe. One might say that their mind is paralyzed, since they reason sensibly about other things. Only when the issue touches upon faith do they become confused in their concepts and words. They also become confused when they present their outlooks as a substitute for the tenets of faith given by God. Here their doubt raises such a buttress that it is like a firm cliff. If you hear their entire theory through, you will see that a child could figure out that this is a spider’s web; but they do not see it. O unfathomable blindness! One can explain the obstinacy of unbelievers as their not wanting to believe, but where does this come from? Where does it get such power that it makes a sensible man consciously cling to an illogical form of thoughts? This is darkness. Is it not from the father of darkness?