The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Volume III

Publication Data: London, United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 1995
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 379
Dimensions (l × w × h): 19.8 cm × 12.8 cm × 2.4 cm
ISBN-13: 978‒0‒571‒17525‒3
ISBN-10: 0‒571‒17525‒2

   
compiled by St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St Makarios of Corinth
translated from the Greek and edited by G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware
with the assistance of The Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Brookline), Constantine Cavarnos, Basil Osborne, Norman Russell

Volume III of The Philokalia: The Complete Text

“There is within us, on the noetic plane, a warfare tougher than that on the plane of the senses. The spiritual worker has to press on with his intellect towards the goal (cf. Phil. 3 : 14), in order to enshrine perfectly the remembrance of God in his heart like some pearl or precious stone (cf. Matt. 13 : 44–46). He has to give up everything, imcluding the body, and to disdain this present life, if he wishes to possess God alone in his heart. For the noetic vision of God, the divine Chrysostom has said, can by itself destroy the demonic spirits.”
—“Forty Texts on Watchfulness”

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
NOTE ON BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES
ST PHILOTHEOS OF SINAI
   Introductory Note
   Forty Texts on Watchfulness
ILIAS THE PRESBYTER
   Introductory Note
   A Gnomic Anthology
      Part I
      Part II
      Part III
      Part IV
THEOPHANIS THE MONK
   Introductory Note
   The Ladder of Divine Graces
ST PETER OF DAMASKOS
   Introductory Note
   Book I. A Treasury of Divine Knowledge
      Introduction
      The Seven Forms of Bodily Discipline
      The Seven Commandments
      The Four Virtues of the Soul
      Active Spiritual Knowledge
      The Bodily Virtues as Tools for the Acquisition of the Virtues of the Soul
      The Guarding of the Intellect
      Obedience and Stillness
      The Eight Stages of Contemplation
      The First Stage of Contemplation
      The Second Stage of Contemplation
      The Third Stage of Contemplation
      The Fourth Stage of Contemplation
      The Fifth Stage of Contemplation
      The Sixth Stage of Contemplation
      The Seventh Stage of Contemplation
      The Eighth Stage of Contemplation
      That there are No Contradictions in Holy Scripture
      The Classification of Prayer according to the Eight Stages of Contemplation
      Humility
      Dispassion
      A Further Analysis of the Seven Forms of Bodily Discipline
      Discrimination
      Spiritual Reading
      True Discimination
      That we should not Despair even if we Sin Many Times
      Short Discourse on the Acquisition of the Virtues and on Abstinence from the Passions
      How to Acquire True Faith
      That Stillness is of Great Benefit to those Subject to Passion
      The Great Benefit of True Repentance
      God’s Universal and Particular Gifts
      How God has done All Things for our Benefit
      How God’s Speech is not Loose Chatter
      How it is Impossible to be Saved without Humility
      On Building up the Soul through the Virtues
      The Great Value of Love and of Advice given with Humility
      That the Frequent Repetition found in Divine Scripture is not Verbosity
      Spurious Knowledge
      A List of the Virtues
      A List of the Passions
      The Difference between Thoughts and Provocations
   Book II. Twenty-Four Discourses
      I. Spiritual Wisdom
      II. The Two Kinds of Faith
      III. The Two Kinds of Fear
      IV. True Piety and Self-Control
      V. Patient Endurance
      VI. Hope
      VII. Detachment
      VIII. Mortification of the Passions
      IX. The Remembrance of Christ’s Sufferings
      X. Humility
      XI. Discrimination
      XII. Contemplation of the Sensible World
      XIII. Knowledge of the Angelic Orders
      XIV. Dispassion
      XV. Love
      XVI. Knowledge of God
      XVII. Moral Judgment
      XVIII. Self-Restraint
      XIX. Courage
      XX. Justice
      XXI. Peace
      XXII. Joy
      XXIII. Holy Scripture
      XXIV. Conscious Awareness in the Heart
ST SYMEON METAPHRASTIS: PARAPHRASE OF THE HOMILIES OF ST MAKARIOS OF EGYPT
   Introductory Note
      I. Spiritual Perfection
      II. Prayer
      III. Patient Endurance and Discrimination
      IV. The Raising of the Intellect
      V. Love
      VI. The Freedom of the Intellect
GLOSSARY
INDEX
   Authors and Sources
   Subjects