Easter Sunday

"O the wonder of God's compassion. O the amazement of the bounty of our Creator. O the power of His almightiness. O His immeasurable kindness regarding our nature, that He also brings sinner into existence! Who can sufficiently tell His praise, who quickens the sinner and abuser who had become dust without motion [so as to participate of] a laudable, recognizing and rational mode of existence, that changes scattered dust into a being exalted above perception, that makes scattered senses a rational nature with quick motion? If the sinner is not able to [understand] His quickening power, he can be content with His grace... Come and let us wonder at the grace of our Creator. The retribution of the sinners is this, that He repays them with resurrection instead of with justice... Glory to Your immeasurable grace. Now the floods of Your grace make me silent without any emotion remaining, not even thankfulness. With what mouth shall we thank You, good king who loves our life?" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 50, 358-359).

Christ is truly Risen! Alleluia. Alleluia!
A very blessed Easter to you all!

Anastasis - Russian Icon

Holy Saturday

"Great is the power of a little discipline, if it is combined with constancy. The soft drop on account of its constancy makes a hole even in hard rocks. When the spiritual man is near to being quickened in you, death to all things will come to you, and your soul will become hot with gladness which has no equal among created beings, and your deliberations will be concentrated within you, on account of the sweetness in your heart. But when the world is quickened in you, distraction of mind will increase in you, and lack of courage without constancy" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 46, 331-332).

Anastasis - Christ's Descent into Hell
Russian Icon

Good Friday

"The cross is the gate of mysteries; here takes place the entrance of the mind unto the knowledge of the heavenly mysteries. The knowledge of the cross is hidden within the sufferings of the cross... The greater place the suffering of Christ takes in us, the greater becomes our consolation in Christ... It is not possible that our soul produce spiritual fruits, except when our heart is dead to the world. For the Father quickens the soul that has died the death of Christ" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 79, 544).

Orthodox Crucifixion Icon
by Theophanis the Cretan

Holy Thursday

"When we have found love, we eat the heavenly bread and we are sustained without labor and without weariness. Heavenly bread is that which has descended from heaven and which gives the world life; this is the food of angels. He that has found love eats Christ at all times and becomes immortal from thence onwards. For whoever eats of this bread shall not taste death in eternity. Blessed is he that has eaten from the bread of love which is Jesus. Whoever is fed with love is fed with Christ, who is the all-governing God. Witness is John who says: God is love" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 43, 316-317).

Luminous - The Institution of the Holy Eucharist

Wednesday in Holy Week

"Compel yourself to show honor to your fellow man, when you meet him... This be your aim regarding all men. And when you become angry at any one and zealous for the sake of faith, or on account of his evil works ... then be cautious. We all have a just judge in heaven. But if you are merciful and seek to turn him unto the truth, you have to suffer for him. And with tears and in love you must speak to him without being enraged against him, effacing all sign of hostility from your face. Love does not know how to be angry; it is not indignant, it does not despise so as to cause suffering. Wherever the sign of love and knowledge is present, it is profound humility rising from the inner mind" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 79.80).

Tuesday in Holy Week

"Love the sinners but reject their works. Do not despise them because of their shortcomings, lest you be tempted by the same. Remember that you share in the stink of Adam and that you are clad with his illness. To him who needs passionate prayer and soft words, do not give blame instead, lest you cause his destruction and his soul be demanded from your hand. Resemble the physician who use cold medicines against symptoms of fever" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 79).

Monday in Holy Week

"Make yourself small among men, then He will exalt you even above the heads of the people... Where humility sprouts, there glory will rise... If you are humble in your heart, He will show you His glory in your heart. Be disdained in your greatness, not great in your being disdained. Learn to be disdained, while being full of the honor of the Lord; not to be honored while being injured by ulcers within. Reject honor, then you will be honored. Do not love it, lest you be rejected. If you pursue honor, it will flee from you. If you flee from it, it will rise for you from the place where you hide yourself and it will be a herald of your humility to every one" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 76.77).

Palm Sunday

"In prosperity be near to Him and obedient, that you may have freedom of speech with Him in trouble because of you constantly being near to Him in your heart by means of your prayer. Sit before His face all your time, thinking of Him and recollecting Him in your heart, lest, seeing Him only after long you should lack freedom of speech with Him on account of bashfulness. A high degree of freedom of speech is born from constant intercourse. Constant intercourse with men is of a bodily nature; that with God is psychic meditation and offerings in prayers" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 72-73).

Jesus entering Jerusalem by Giotto
(Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padova, Italy)

Saturday of Lent Week 5

"By sufferings and distress He has caused you frequently to recall Him in your heart, and by fear of adversities He incites you to turn towards the gate of his mercy. By liberating you from these [troubles] He sows in you causes of love unto Him. And when you have found love he brings you near to the honor of the sons, He shows you the richness of His bounty and the steadfastness of His care for you. Then He will make you perceive the holiness of His honor and the hidden mysteries of the nature of His greatness. How should you have become acquainted with these things if there had not been adversities? For through these the love of God is able to increase, viz. by understanding His acts of bounty and by recalling His various acts of care. All this good is born for you from things causing grief, if you know to give thanks" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 72).

Friday of Lent Week 5

“Deem him a man of God, who constantly takes upon himself the lot of want, being moved by great compassion. He who does good to the poor finds God his provider. He who suffers want for His sake finds Him to be a great treasure. God does not need anything, only He rejoices when anyone satisfies or honors His image for His sake” (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 68).

Thursday of Lent Week 5

“If it is certain to you and you believe that God cares for you, you need not be anxious for your body nor have care concerning the guiding of yourself by means. But if you doubt this and desire to care for yourself, without God, you are more wretched than any man, and what does life mean to you? Throw your care on God, that you be strengthened against all fear. He who once has entrusted his life to God, will dwell in mental peace” (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 67).

Wednesday of Lent Week 5

"[Divine] care surrounds all men at all times, but it is not seen, save only by those who have purified themselves from sins and think of God perpetually. To these men then it is revealed clearly; for when they have been led into great temptations for the sake of truth, then they receive a faculty of perception clearly as if with the eyes of the flesh" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 64-65).

Tuesday of Lent Week 5

"When sin is still green, eradicate it, lest it cover the whole ground. He who neglects an evil thing while it is small, will find it at last a hard master and he will go in bonds before it. He who treats it severely in the beginning, will easily rule it" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 63).

Monday of Lent Week 5

"Among men riches are honored; by God a humble soul... The commandments of God are better than the treasures of the whole earth. He who acquires His laws in his heart, will find the Lord in them. He who meditates upon God in the night, will acquire Him as a housemate. He who is pliable to His will, will find the angels of heaven his teachers" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 5, 61-62).

Fifth Sunday of Lent

"There is nothing which brings the heart so near unto God as mercy... Do not make any distinction between the rich and the poor nor know who is worthy and who is not worthy. Deem all men worthy of bounty on your part. Especially because you spur them unto truth thereby. The soul can easily be drawn by corporeal things to the thought of the fear of God. Also our Lord shared his table with publicans and harlots without making any distinction between those who were worthy and those who were not, seeking to spur them on thereby unto the fear of God and to bring them, through communion in bodily things, unto spiritual communion" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 54-55).

The Raising of Lazarus (Greek Icon)

Saturday of Lent Week 4

"It is not necessary to search for God in heaven and earth and to send out our mind to seek Him in different places. Purify your soul, o man, and strip yourself from the thought of recollections which are unnatural and hang before your impulses the curtain of chastity and humility. Thereby you will find Him that is within you. For to the humble the mysteries are revealed" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 51-52).

Friday of Lent Week 4

"Be occupied with the books of God's providence intensely, without becoming satisfied. They have been composed by holy men and show the aim of His different works in His establishing the different species of the world. Let your mind be strengthened by them and you will acquire enlightened impulses from their subtlety, then your mind will go its way with a clear consciousness towards the aim of [understanding] the right scheme of the creation of the world, according to the laudable wise intention of the Creator of the natures. Read in the two testaments which God has destined for the instruction of the whole world, so that it should be dazzled by the power of His Providence in every generation and be enveloped in wonder" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 48).

Thursday of Lent Week 4

"Think concerning yourself always that you need teaching, in order that you be found a wise man during your whole life. Do not hand down to others as your own, the practical ethics that you have not yet reached, lest you be put to shame by yourself and your deception appear from the comparison with your behavior. But if you speak concerning what is becoming, speak as one belonging to the class of pupils, not as an authority, having before subdued your self and shown yourself as being less than your listener. Then you will give also your hearers an example of humility and your words will spur them unto the course towards [good] works and you will be honored in their eyes" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 47).

Wednesday of Lent Week 4

"For the heart within and the habits without necessarily must be parallel one to another. Who would be able to acquire chastity of mind, when he is addicted to luxuriance? And who could acquire humble inward deliberations, when he is pursuing outward glory? And who is he, that being lascivious without and lax in his limbs, should be chaste in his heart and pious in his deliberations? When the mind is guided by the senses, it feeds with them upon the food of the beasts; but when the senses are guided by the mind, they feed with it upon the sustenance of the angels" (from The Mystical Treatises, Homily 4, 44-45).

Tuesday of Lent Week 4

"Acquire a pure behavior, that your soul may exult during prayer and joy be kindled in your mind at the recollection of death. Keep control of small things, lest you neglect great ones... Acquire freedom in your behavior, that you be freed from confusion. Do not use your freedom for the sake of comfort, lest you become a slave of slaves" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 44).

Monday of Lent Week 4

"Merciful is he, who shows his compassion towards his neighbor not only in gifts, but who after hearing or seeing anything that causes suffering to any one, cannot withhold his heart from burning; who, even if he receives a blow on his cheek from his brother, does not venture to repay him even with a word and so cause him to suffer intellectually" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 43).

Fourth Sunday of Lent

"To give the poor from one's own possessions, and to cover the naked on seeing them, to love the neighbor as oneself, not to do iniquity or falsehood, are things commanded also by the old law. But perfection in behavior, according to the new covenant, commands thus: If a man takes from you, do not demand back; give every one who asks from you. And not only have you to suffer gladly iniquitous dealing in possessions and other outward things, but you have even to give yourself in behalf of your neighbor" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 43).

Duccio, Healing of the Man Born Blind

Saturday of Lent Week 3

"If you set up as your aim to practice mercy, train yourself not to pursue justice in other fields, lest you appear to work with one hand and to spill with the other. For there clemency is necessary, but here magnanimity. Let the forgiveness of those who are guilty towards you in these things, be reckoned by you as a work of righteousness. Then you will see peace springing up in your soul" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 42). 

Friday of Lent Week 3

"He who promises to leave the world, yet quarrels with men concerning [worldly] things because he is not willing to give up anything of what is agreeable unto him, he is perfectly blind, because he has given up the whole world voluntarily, yet quarrels about a part of it. If anyone flees from what is agreeable [unto him] in this world, his mind will behold the world to come" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 41).

Thursday of Lent Week 3

"The soul that loves God [finds] its rest in God only. First detach from yourself the outward bonds, then strive to bind your heart to God. To be detached from matter is prior to being bound to God. When a child has been weaned, bread is given him as food. And a man who wishes to become excellent in God, has first to wean himself from the world, as a child is weaned from his mother's breasts" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 4, 40).

Wednesday of Lent Week 3

"Let the recollection of it [God's providential leading of the Ancients] be kept with you at all times of the day. Meditate and think of it and learn wisdom from it, that you be able to receive in your soul with honor the recollection of God's greatness and find for yourself everlasting life in Jesus Christ, the mediator of God and mankind, who was one in his two natures" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 39).

Tuesday of Lent Week 3

"Do not fear temptations by means of which you will find precious things... For without temptations God's care cannot be perceived and familiarity of speech with Him cannot be acquired and spiritual wisdom cannot be learned and the love of God cannot be implanted in the soul. Before [having experienced] temptations, man prays unto God as a stranger. But when he has entered into troubles for the sake of his love, without being changed, then ... he is reckoned as His housemate and His friend, who has fought, for the sake of His will, against the host of His enemies" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 34.36).

Monday of Lent Week 3

"Be free even while you are bound in the body and show submission in your freedom for the sake of Christ; and be wise in your innocence, lest you be beguiled. Love humility in your dealings, that you may be freed from the imperceivable snares which are continually to be found by the side of the paths on which the humble walk. Do not reject the troubles, by means of which you are led towards knowledge" (from The Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 34).

Third Sunday of Lent

"It is not becoming that great things should fall into our hands easily, lest the gift of God should be thought to be mean because of its being acquired without difficulty. All that is acquired with labor, is guarded with caution. Thirst after Jesus, then he will satisfy you with his love. Shut your eyes to the precious things of the world, then you will be deemed worthy of a peace given by God to reign in your heart. Restrain yourself from the allurements that are shining for the eyes, the you will be deemed worthy of spiritual joy" (from The Mystical Treatises of Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 33-34).

Icon of the Samaritan Woman encountering Jesus

Saturday of Lent Week 2

"If He is slow in granting your request, when you asked without receiving promptly, then be not distressed. For you are not wiser than God. When you remain as you are, [it is] either because your behavior does not agree with your request, or because the ways of your heart diverge from the aim of your prayer, or because your inner state is childish in comparison with the greatness of the thing" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 33).

Friday of Lent Week 2

"A son does not ask bread from his father, but makes supplication concerning the great portions in store for him in the house of his father. That which our Lord has commanded concerning daily bread, namely that we pray for it, is a petition which he handed down to the common people, because of the weakness of their minds. Regard that which he commands to those who are perfect in knowledge and sound soul, viz. you shall not take thought of food or raiment. If your Father bestows care upon the fowls that have no soul, how much more upon you. But ask from God the Kingdom and righteousness, then he will add these things too" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 33).

Thursday of Lent Week 2

"Learn to pray with prudence, that you may be esteemed worthy of glorious things. Seek well-esteemed things from Him, who does not withhold; then you will receive honor from Him, because of the choice of your wise will" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 32).

Wednesday of Lent Week 2

"Be dead in life, then you will not live in death. Let yourself die in integrity, but not live in guiltiness. Not only those who suffer death for the sake of the faith in Christ are martyrs, but also those who die for the sake of keeping the commandments" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 31).

Tuesday of Lent Week 2

"Human nature needs fear in order to guard against the borders of the commandments being crossed, [it needs] love to excite the desire of good things, for the sake of which man hastens to perform beautiful things" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 30).

Monday of Lent Week 2

"Purity of mind is something other than purity of heart, just as there is a difference between one of the members of the whole body and the whole body. The mind is one of the senses of the soul. The heart is the central organ of the inward senses; this means the sense of the senses, because it is the root. And if the root is holy, so also are all the branches. But this is not so if it is holy in one of the branches only. Now with but little acquaintance with the scriptures and a little exercise in fasting and solitude, the mind forgets its former occupation and is cleansed, while it refrains from foreign habits. But is also easily defiled" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 29).

Second Sunday of Lent

"When you hear of being far from the world, of leaving the world, of being pure from the world, you are first in need of learning and knowing ... what the term world means, how many different meanings the word conveys. Then you will be able yourself to know, in how far you are distant from or connected with the world. If a man know not first what the world is, he cannot understand with how many limbs he is bound to or far from it" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 17-18).

Icon of the Transfiguration

Saturday of Lent Week 1

"If the small pupil of your soul has not been purified, do not venture to look at the globe of the sun, lest you be bereft even of the usual sight, which is simple faith and humbleness and confession of the heart and light service in accordance with your power, and you be cast into one of the intelligible places, which is darkness without God, like him who ventured to go to the meal in sordid habits" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 17).

Friday of Lent Week 1

"Show your weakness before God at all times, lest strangers come to examine your strength while you are separated from your helper" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 15).

Thursday of Lent Week 1

"Do not tempt your mind, for the sake of examination, by consideration of impure seductive thoughts, thinking that you shall not be vanquished. Even wise men have been perturbed in this place and deviated. Do not take fire in your bosom" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 14).

Wednesday of Lent Week 1

"Be strenuous in prayer at all time before God, with a heart full of chaste deliberations mingled with passion, then He will preserve your mind from impure thoughts, so that the way of God be not disordered in you. Occupy your gaze with constant intercourse with intelligent recitation [of the scriptures], lest, on account of idleness, the sight of foreign things defile your look" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 14).

Tuesday of Lent Week 1

"Protect the sinner without doing him wrong. But strengthen his courage for life, then the mercy of the Lord will bear you. Support with your word the weak and the distressed in spirit whenever you can, then the hand that bears the universe will support you. Participate with those who are suffering in heart, in passionate prayer and mourning of the heart, then before your demand a fountain of grace will be opened" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 14).

Monday of Lent Week 1

"Be on peaceful terms with your soul, then heaven and earth will be on peaceful terms with you. Be zealous to enter the treasury within you, then you will see that which is in heaven. For the former and the latter are one, and entering you will see both. The ladder unto the Kingdom is hidden within you and within your soul. Dive into yourself [freed] from sin, there you will find steps along which you can ascend" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 12).

First Sunday of Lent

“The temptation of Christ on the mount" by Duccio di Buoninsegna (Frik Collection of New York)

"When you are in a state of subjection and languid and dejected, and you are bound and fettered before your foe in mournful wretchedness and laborious service of sin, then recall to your mind the previous times of firmness; how you showed painstaking even concerning small things and how you were moved with zeal against the obstructors in your course; how you uttered sighs on account of the small things which were despised by you as accidental and your whole person was winding a wreath of victory over these things. Then, by these and similar recollections, your soul will be aroused as from the depth, and be clad with the flame of zeal; and it will rise from its immersion as if from the dead, and stretch itself and return to its former state, in hot strife against Satan and sin" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 11-12).

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

"Gratefulness on the part of the recipient spurs on the giver to bestow gifts larger than before... There is no sin which cannot be pardoned except that one which lacks repentance, and there is no gift which is not augmented save that which remains without acknowledgement. For the portion of the fool is small in his eyes" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 2, 11). 

Friday after Ash Wednesday

"Very different is the word of practice from words of beauty. Even without experience wisdom knows how to adorn its words and to speak the truth even without having any acquaintance with it, and to express itself concerning excellence without any experience of [practical] performance. A word proceeding from practice, is a treasure to confide in. But idle wisdom is a pawn causing shame; it is as when an artist paints water on walls, without being able to quench his thirst by it; or as a man who dreams beautiful dreams" (from The Mystical Treatises, of St. Isaac of Nineveh, Homily 1, 9).

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

"If you wish to have mental communion with God, by acquiring the impression of that delight that is not subject to the senses, then cling to mercy. For the holy beauty is formed by that element within you, which resembles mercy. And all the practices of mercy bring the soul, immediately,, into communion with the unique splendor of the divine glory" (Homily 1, 8).

Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2017

“He who simply read lofty words, his heart will also remain simple and devoid of the holy power, that imparts to the heart a sweet taste by the meanings that stupefy the soul. All things are accustomed to move towards that which is akin [to them]. And the soul that possesses something of the spirit, on hearing anything wherein a spiritual force is hidden, fervently embraces that which it hears; and yet a tale that is told spiritually and wherein a great force is hidden, is not able to arouse every one unto admiration.” (Homily 1, 6-7).

"They will look on me, the one they have pierced (Zec 12:10 NIV)"

Reflections for Lent 2017 selected from the Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh

Translated by A.J. Wensinck

Beginning this coming March 1, Ash Wednesday, I will be posting daily reflections taken from the Mystic Treatises written by St. Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh century Bishop and Theologian of the Assyrian Church. He was native of Bet Qatraye near present-day Bahrain or Qatar on western shore of the Persian Gulf. A teacher and monk, he was consecrated bishop (ca. 660-680), but preferred to live out his life as an anchorite (hermit). A Scriptural scholar, it is said that he studied Scripture so much that he became blind and had to dictate his writings. He died at an advanced age in ca. 700 and was buried in Rabban Shabur, where he spent most of his monastic life. St. Isaac's monastic anthropology has a major influence on all of Byzantine spiritual literature. (from www.spiritualite-orthodoxe.net).

This is a beautiful testimony of a young Greek Orthodox monk quoted by Archimandrite Vasileios of the Stavronikita Monastery on Athos:

"I am reading St. Isaac the Syrian. I find something, heroic, spiritual in him; something which transcends space and time. I feel that here, for the first time, is a voice which resonates which resonates in the deepest parts of my being, hitherto closed and unknown to me. Although he is so far removed from me in time and space, he has come right into the house of my soul. In a moment of quiet he has spoken to me, sat down beside me. Although I have read so many other things, although I have met so many other people, and though today there are others living around me, no one else has been so discerning. To no one else have I opened the door of my soul in this way. Or to put it better, no one else has shown me in such brotherly, friendly way that, within myself, within human nature, there is such a door, a door which opens onto a space which is open and unlimited. And no one else has told me this unexpected and ineffable truth, that the whole of this inner world belongs to man" (quoted in The Wisdom of Saint Isaac the Syrian, translated by Sebastian Brock, SLG Press: 1997).