Category: Nikitas Stithatos

Those who pursue the carnal mode of life and in whom the will of the flesh is imperious…are not able to conform to God’s will (Romans 8:8). Their judgment is eclipsed and they are totally impervious to the rays of divine light: the engulfing clouds of the passions are like high walls that shut out the resplendence of the Spirit and leave them without illumination.

Their soul’s senses maimed, they cannot aspire to God’s spiritual beauty and see the light of the true life and so transcend the lowliness of visible things….they strive only for what is visible and corruptible, on this account fighting among themselves and even sacrificing their lives for such things, avid for wealth, glory and the pleasures of the flesh, and regarding the lack of any of these things as a disaster.

To such people applies the prophetic statement that comes from God’s own mouth: ‘My Spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh’ (Genesis 6:3).

~Nikitas Stithatos

Love for God begins with detachment from things human and visible. Purification of heart and intellect marks the intermediate stage, for through such purification the eye of the intellect is spiritually unveiled and we attain knowledge of the kingdom of heaven hidden within us (Luke 17:21). The final stage is consummated in an irrepressible longing for the supranatural gifts of God and in a natural desire for union with God and for finding one’s abode in Him.

~Nikitas Stithatos

To those newly engaged in spiritual warfare illness is salutary, for it contributes to reducing and subduing the ebullience of the flesh. It greatly debilitates the flesh and attenuates the soul’s materialistic propensities, while at the same time it invigorates and braces the soul, in accordance with St Paul’s words, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corninthians 12:10).

~Nikitas Stithatos

Expunge from yourself the disgrace of negligence and the ignominy of disdaining God’s commandments. Dispel self-love and battle with your fallen self unsparingly. Seek out the judgments of the Lord and His testimonies. Scorn glory and dishonor. Hate the titillating appetites of the body….open your spiritual eye to the contemplation of God and recognize the delightfulness of the Lord from the beauty of creation.

And when you descend from these heights of contemplation, speak to your brethren about eternal life and the mysteries of God’s kingdom. This is the purpose of flight from men through the strictest asceticism, and the ultimate goal of the life of solitude.

~Nikitas Stithatos

Everything that brings disgrace upon us, whether prompted by man or demons, occurs through God’s just judgment in order to humble the overweening vanity of our souls. For God, the helmsman of our lives, wishes that we should always be humble and have not an exaggerated but a modest view of ourselves (Romans 12:3); that we should not have great ideas about ourselves, but should look to Christ and imitate , so far as we can, His blessed humility; for He was ‘gentle and humble in heart’ (Matthew 11:29).

He who for our sake endured a disgraceful, unjust death desires us to be like this, for there is nothing so dear to Him or that in its true virtue so fully accords with Him–nothing so apt to raise us from the dunghill of the passions–as gentleness and humility and love for our fellow beings. If these are not present with us as we cultivate the virtues, all our labor is in vain and all our ascetic endeavors are useless and unacceptable.

~Nikitas Stithatos

 

If while you are engaged in ascetic labor and hardship God withdraws from you because of some bodily lapse, or lapse of tongue or thought, do not take this to be strange or untoward….had you not yourself first indulged in some new-fangled, overweening and obnoxious thought about yourself, or had you not in arrogance treated someone disdainfully or criticized him for his human weakness, you would have recognized your own fallibility and God in His righteous judgment would not have withdrawn from you. Learn from this not to judge (Matthew 7:1), not to think too highly of yourself (Romans 12:3), and not to look down on others (1 Corinthians 4:6).

~Nikitas Stithatos

Do not imagine that you will be delivered from your passions, or escape the defilement of the passion-charged thoughts which these generate, while your mind is still swollen with pride because of your virtues. You will not see the courts of peace, your thoughts full of lovingkindness, nor, generous and calm in heart, will you joyfully enter the temple of love, so long as you presume on yourself and on your own works.

~Nikitas Stithatos

God deserts those engaged in spiritual warfare for three reasons: because of their arrogance, because they censure others, and because they are so cock-a-hoop about their own virtue. The presence of any of these vices in the soul prompts God to withdraw; and until they are expelled and replaced by radical humility, the soul will not escape just punishment.

It is not only passion-charged thoughts that sully the heart and defile the soul. To be elated about one’s many achievements, to be puffed up about one’s virtue, to have a high idea of one’s wisdom and spiritual knowledge, and to criticize those who are lazy and negligent–all this has the same effect, as is clear from the parable of the publican and the pharisee (Luke 18:10-14).

~Nikitas Stithatos

He who wholeheartedly hates and renounces ‘the desire of the fallen self, the desire of the eyes, and the false pretensions of this life’ (1 John 2:16)–that whole ‘world of iniquity’ (James 4:4)–has crucified the world to himself and himself to the world: he has destroyed in his flesh the enmity between God and his soul, and has made peace between the two (Ephesians 2:15). For he who has died to these things through effacing the will of the flesh has reconciled himself to God.

He has eradicated the enmity of this world by obliterating sensual pleasure through a life crucified to the world, and has embraced friendship with Jesus. He is no longer God’s enemy because of his love for the world, but is a friend of God, crucified to the world and able to say, ‘The world is crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Galatians 6:14).

~Nikitas Stithatos

The three most general passions are self-indulgence, avarice and love of praise; and three are the ranks of men that fight against them and overcome them: those newly embarked on the spiritual path, those in mid-course, and those who have attained its goal.

The battle waged by those in the three stages of the spiritual path against these three principles and powers of the prince of this world is not one and the same, but at each stage the battle is different. At each stage there is a different way of fighting against these passions, and each way makes lawful and natural use of the power of righteous indignation.

~Nikitas Stithatos