Wednesday. [Phil. 1:12-20; Luke 5:33-39]

   It is indecent for the children of the bridechamber to fast while the bridegroom is with them, said the Lord, and thus pronounced the law that even with virtues and spiritual endeavours everything has its place and time. And this is so pressing that an untimely and inappropriate deed loses its value, either entirely, or in part. The Lord arranged everything in visible nature with measure, weight and number; He also wants everything in the moral realm to be in good form and order. Inner good form amounts to a combination of every virtue with all virtues in totality, or a harmony of virtues, so that none protrude without need, but are all harmonious like voices in a choir. Outer good form gives each deed its place, time and other points of contact. When all of this is properly arranged, it is like a beautiful lady dressed in beautiful clothes. Virtue which is in good form both on the inside and outside is decent; it is Christian good sense that makes it this way, or according to spiritual elders: it is discernment acquired through experience and sensible examination of the lives of saints in the light of the word of God.

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).