John Cassian - Ancient Christian Writers, The Conferences
John Cassian
Number of quotes: 27
Book ID: 14 Page: 45
Section: 2E2
And when they have given away all their wealth for the sake of Christ’s love, but still retain the heart’s old affection for the littlest things and are always quickly irritated because of them, they become in every respect fruitless and barren,….
Hence it is clearly proved that perfection is not immediately arrived at by being stripped and deprived of all one’s wealth or by giving up one’s honors, unless there is that love whose elements the Apostle describes, which consists in purity of heart alone.
Quote ID: 219
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 14 Page: 46
Section: 2E2
Thus fasts, vigils, meditating on Scripture, and the being stripped and deprived of every possession are not perfection, but they are the tools of perfection. For the end of that discipline does not consist in these things; rather, it is by them that one arrives at the end.
Quote ID: 220
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 47
Section: 2E2
“You see, then, that the Lord considered the chief good to reside in theoria alone-that is, in divine contemplation.
Quote ID: 221
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 119
Section: 2E3
He had, however, moved a little closer so that when he was burdened with age he would not be troubled by such a long distance when he went to church on Saturday and Sunday.
Quote ID: 222
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 126/127
Section: 2E2
“The Apostle declares in regard to the bodily renunciation that we have been talking about: ‘If I gave all my goods to feed the poor and handed my body over to be burned, but did not have love, it would profit me nothing. {27} 8. The blessed Apostle would never have said this had he not in spirit foreseen the future-that some people who had given all their property to feed the poor would not be able to arrive at gospel perfection and at the lofty summit of love because they were dominated by pride and impatience and clung in their hearts to their former vices and wicked behavior...….
“Yet, consider carefully the fact that he did not simply say: If I give my property.
Quote ID: 223
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 155
Section: 2E2
I.1. Among the other men devoted to the Christian philosophy we also saw Abba Daniel, who was indeed equal in every kind of virtue to those who were dwelling in the desert of Skete...
Quote ID: 224
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 14 Page: 170
Section: 2E2
XXI.1. “Something ridiculous should be mentioned. We noticed how some people, after the fervor of their initial renunciation, in which they have forsaken private property or abundant resources and this world’s soldiery and betaken themselves to monasteries, are so zealously attached to things that cannot be completely renounced and that are necessary in this life, although they are small and insignificant, that their concern for these things overarches their passion for all their previous possessions. To have despised extensive goods and property will certainly be of little profit to thee people, because they have transferred their feelings for those things (on account of which feelings these things should be despised) to small and insignificant items. 2. For, in holding on to the vice of covetousness and avarice-which they cannot exercise with respect to precious things-in regard to trifles, they prove that they have not cut off but only exchanged their former passion. Since they are excessively attached to mats, baskets, blankets, books, and other things of the sort, however trifling they may be, they are still held bound by the same yearnings as before. They even guard and defend these things so jealously that they are not ashamed to be upset with a brother because of them nor even-what is worse- to quarrel with him.
Quote ID: 225
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 173
Section: 2E2
4.1.1 Christian philosophy: On the use of the term “philosophy” in connection with Christianity, which dates from the middle of the second century,
Quote ID: 226
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 174
Section: 2E2
4.15ff. The temptation to pride arising from sexual purity is remarked already in the earliest non-canonical Christian literature and frequently thereafter. Cf. 1 Clem. 38.2; Ignatius, Poly. 5.2.
Quote ID: 227
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 175
Section: 2E2
Cf. also Augustine, De civ. Dei 14.13:”I dare say that it is beneficial to the proud to fall into open and manifest sinfulness, so that those who have already fallen by pleasing themselves may be displeasing to themselves.”
Quote ID: 228
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 217
Section: 2A3
The monks who had lived there for a very long time – men of outstanding life and holiness – were suddenly killed by roving Saracen bandits. 2. We heard that their bodies were carried off by the bishops of that region and by the whole population of Arabia with great veneration and were placed among the relics of the martyrs, with the results that countless people from two towns got into a very serious conflict and that, as the situation grew aggravated, the holy plunder even occasioned a clash of weapons. They fought among themselves with pious devotion to see which of them had the greater claim to their burial place and their relics, the ones boasting of their proximity to where they had lived, the others of their nearness to their place of origin.We, however, were considerably disturbed both on our own account and for the sake of the brothers who were scandalized, and we wondered why men of such great worthiness and of so many virtues would be slain by bandits and why the Lord had permitted such a crime to be perpetrated on his servants,
Quote ID: 229
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 296/297
Section: 3A1
“From these indications, the reason for this diversity can be understood. The differences of rank, which the adversary powers are said to possess on the model of the holy and heavenly virtues, they either continue to hold now from the station in which each one of them was originally created, or else those who plunged from the heavens laid claim among themselves, in a perverse imitation of the forces that remained there and to the degree that each had fallen into evil, to the formers’ grades and titles of rank.”
Quote ID: 230
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 299/300
Section: 2C
2. “There is no doubt whatsoever that the prince of the kingdom of the Persians was the adversary power that befriended the Persian nation, which was hostile to the people of God. And he stood in the way of the benefit that he saw the archangel was going to procure in response to the request that the prophet had made of the Lord, being envious lest the angle’s salutary consolation come to Daniel too quickly and lest he comfort the people of God over which the archangel Gabriel had been set. The latter said that he would have been unable to come to him even then because of the vehemence of his onslaught were it not that the archangel Michael helped him and, resisting the prince of the kingdom of the Persians and interjecting himself into the conflict and opposing him, protected him from his attack and let him come to instruct the prophet after the twenty-first day.3. “And shortly afterwards it says: ‘The angel said: Do you know why I came to you? And now I will return to fight against the prince of the Persians. For when I went out, the prince of the Greeks appeared coming. But I shall tell you what is set down in the writings of truth, and no one is my helper in all these things but Michael, your prince. {32} And again: ‘At that time Michael, the great prince, who stands for the children of your people, shall arise. {33} 4. We read, then, that there is another who is called the prince of the Greeks, and he favored the people subject to him while seeming to be opposed both to the people of Israel and to the nation of the Persians.
….
For they cannot be called dominations unless there are those over whom they can exercise the sway of their domination, nor can they be named powers or principalities unless there are those over whom they might claim to be princes. 2. We find this spoken of very openly in the Gospel by the blaspheming Pharisees: ‘By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he cast out demons. {35} We also read that they are called ‘the rulers of darkness {36} and that one has the title of ‘the prince of this world. {37} Yet the blessed Apostle asserts that these grades will be eliminated in the world to come, when all things have been subjected to Christ, when, as he says, ‘he has handed over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has destroyed every principality and power and domination. {38}
Quote ID: 231
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 14 Page: 409
Section: 2E2
I. When we were living in a cenobium in Syria and, after an initial training in the faith, had gradually and increasingly begun to desire a greater grace of perfection, we at once decided to go to Egypt
Quote ID: 232
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 637/638
Section: 2E2
2. “There are in Egypt three kinds of monks. Two of them are very good, while the third is lukewarm and utterly to be avoided. The first is that of the cenobites, who live together in a community and are governed by the judgment of one elder. The greatest number of monks dwelling throughout Egypt are of this kind. The second is that of the anchorites, who are first instructed in the cenobia and then, perfected in their practical way of life, choose the recesses of the desert.….
V.1. “The discipline of the cenobites took its rise at the time of the apostolic preaching. For such was the whole multitude of believers in Jerusalem, which is described thus in the Acts of the Apostles: ‘The multitude of believers had one heart and one soul, and none of them said that what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them. {2} They sold their possessions and their belongings and distributed them to all as each had need. {3} And again: ‘Nor was there anyone needy among them, for as many as owned fields or houses sold them and brought the price of what they sold and laid it at the feet of the apostles, and this was distributed to each just as each had need. {4}
2. “Such, I say, was the whole Church then, whereas now it is difficult to find even a few like that in the cenobia. But, at the death of the apostles, the multitude of believers began to grow lukewarm, especially those who came over to the faith of Christ from different foreign nations. Out of regard for their rudimentary faith and their inveterate paganism, the apostles asked nothing more of them than that they abstain ‘from things sacrificed to idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood.{5} But this liberty, which was conceded to the pagans because of the weakness of their new faith, gradually began to spoil the perfection of the Church which was in Jerusalem, and, as the number of natives and of foreigners daily increased, the warmth of that new faith grew cold, and not only those who had come over to the faith of Christ but even those who were the leaders of the Church relaxed their strictness.
Quote ID: 233
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 14 Page: 719
Section: 2D3B
3. It was to this blessed John that the aforesaid young man came, then, aflame with dutiful devotion and bearing religious gifts. He was with other property-holders who were eagerly offering tithes and firstfruits from what belonged to them to the aforementioned old man. When the old man saw these people thronging to him with their many donations, he wanted to repay their devotion, and, as the Apostle says, he began to sow spiritual gifts among them while reaping their carnal ones. 1 And so, he started to instruct them in these words:
Quote ID: 234
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 722
Section: 2D3B
“And so, if even those who faithfully offered the tithes of their produce and observed the ancient precepts of the Lord could not yet rise to the summit of the Gospel, you see very clearly how distant from it are they who do not do as much as this.
Quote ID: 235
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 724
Section: 2D3B
He was especially humbled and moved by compunction because of the fact that the old man had said that he had not only attained to gospel perfection but that he had barely even fulfilled the commands of the law itself. For although he was accustomed to paying out tithes of his harvest every year as an alms, he lamented that he had never heard of the arrangement regarding firstfruits. Yet, even if he had carried that out as well, he nonetheless humbly recognized that, in accordance with what the old man had said, he was far from gospel perfection.
Quote ID: 236
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 724
Section: 2E2
No longer hesitant about his own desire and determination, he turned all of his mind’s concern and care to the salvation of his spouse, and by similar exhortations he began to incite in her the desire with which he himself had been inflamed and to urge upon her with tears day and night that they should serve God together in purity and chastity. He said that a conversion to a better life should never be delayed, because the vain hope of a youthful age would be no provision against the finality of a sudden death, which in fact had snatched off boys, youths, and young men as well as old men in its arbitrary choice.Pastor John notes: John’s note: Theonas
Quote ID: 237
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 725
Section: 2E2
And if he was unable to have the blessing of joining Christ’s company with his wife, he preferred to be saved even at the expense of one member and as it were to enter the kingdom of heaven crippled, rather than to be condemned with a sound body. {25}3. He also added these words, and said: “If Moses permitted wives to be divorced because of hardness of heart, {26} why would Christ not allow this because of a desire for chastity?
Quote ID: 238
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 726
Section: 2E2
6. But if you want to be not my helpmeet but my seducer, and if you prefer to give your support not to me but to the adversary, and if you think that the sacrament of matrimony was given you so that you might defraud yourself of the salvation offered you and also keep me from being the Savior’s disciple, then I will manfully lay hold of the words uttered by Abba John, or rather by Christ himself, to the effect that no carnal affection should be able to keep me from a spiritual good. For ‘whoever does not hate father and mother and children and brothers and sisters and wife and fields, and his own soul besides, cannot be my disciple.’”{30}7. When, therefore, despite these and other such words the woman’s attitude was unbending, and she remained obstinate and unyielding, the blessed Theonas said: “If I am unable to keep you from death, neither shall you separate me from Christ. It is safer for me to be divorced from a human being than from God.” And so, inspired by the grace of God, he at once took steps to carry out his decision, and he did not permit the ardor of his desire to grow cold on account of any delay. For he immediately stripped himself of all his worldly property and took flight to a monastery.
Quote ID: 239
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 14 Page: 727
Section: 2E2
3. Let each person, then, have his own opinion about this, as we have said. But I warn him to refrain from censorious criticism, lest he believe himself fairer or holier than the divine judgment, by which even the wonders of apostolic miracles were conferred on this man. I shall not even mention the opinion of numerous fathers, who manifestly did not only not blame his action but even lauded it to the extent that they preferred him to the most eminent and distinguished men in the choice for almsgiving. And I am sure that the judgment made by so many spiritual men, which had God as its author, was not erroneous, having been confirmed by such marvelous wonders, as has already been said.
Quote ID: 240
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 820
Section: 2E2
Then, returning to the possibility raised by the two friends that they might be able to convert their relatives, Abraham declares that a quiet life in the desert is far safer than one in the world, however many converts one might gain.
Quote ID: 241
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 825
Section: 2E2
2. And so, in an anxious confession, we laid before this Abraham the struggle of our thoughts, which prompt us with daily turmoil of soul to return to our own province and to see our relatives again. A great desire was occasioned in us by the fact that we remembered the aforementioned relatives of ours with such devotion and love that we imagined that they would never hinder our chosen orientation. We constantly thought over in our mind that we would receive much more from their solicitude and that we would be preoccupied by no worries about bodily things and not be distracted by looking for food if they concerned themselves joyfully with providing for absolutely all our needs. 3. Moreover, we also fed our souls with the hope of foolish joys, believing that we would gain very great fruit out of the conversion of the many persons who would be as it were guided to the way of salvation by our example and admonitions. In addition, there was painted before our eyes the setting of the ancestral property of our forebears and the pleasant and delightful nature of that region, and how graciously and agreeably it stretched out to the reaches of the wilderness, so that the recesses of the forests might not only gladden a monk but also provide sufficient supplies of food.
Quote ID: 242
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 826
Section: 2E2
God he came to our aid with a remedy, he kept silent for a long while and finally said with a deep groan:II.1. “The weakness of your thought shows that you have not yet renounced your worldly desires or mortified your former yearnings. These errant desires of yours testify to the fecklessness of your heart.
Quote ID: 243
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 830
Section: 2E2
GERMANUS: But it is not particularly clear why the proximity of our relatives, which you yourselves did not utterly reject, should be so avoided by us. For since we see that you have proceeded blamelessly along the whole path of perfection, and not only that you live in your own country but that some of you have not even removed yourselves very far from your villages, why do you think that what is not harmful for you is dangerous for us?”
Quote ID: 244
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 14 Page: 832
Section: 2E2
4. “Examine the recesses of your heart, then, and investigate carefully whether you would be able to maintain constantly such strictness of mind with respect to your relatives.….
X.I. GERMANUS: “In this regard you have clearly left nothing in doubt. For we are certain that we could by no means wear our present ragged clothing or go about barefoot every day in their proximity, and that there we would not procure what was necessary for eating with the same effort, while here we are obliged to carry even our very water on our backs every day from three miles away. Neither our sensibilities nor theirs would ever let us do these things in their presence.
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Add page 852
(page 852) 18. In words of this sort the blessed Abraham discussed the origin of and the remedy for our illusion, and he as it were laid before our eyes which deceitful thoughts the devil was author of, inspiring us with a desire for true mortification
Quote ID: 245
Time Periods: 45
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