Nilus of Ancyra→Timothy|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To the same person.
Vigilance is the greatest good for those who choose to shake off the sleep that is the neighbor of death, and it is great in this measure, that the Master himself also took it up and made it his own in the dispensation according to the flesh, as Luke also says: "Jesus continued all night in prayer to God" [Luke 6:12], teaching us through the deed itself to follow in the footsteps of the Teacher. For this reason he also said: "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation" [Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38]. And those around Paul and Silas, not ignorant of the gain of vigilance, glorified God about midnight [Acts 16:25]. And David says: "I have kept vigil, and have become like a sparrow alone upon the housetop" [Psalm 101:8 LXX; 102:7 MT], that is, well-feathered, not dragged along upon the ground, but upon the housetop, and dwelling on the height of virtue. For when, with a suppliant tongue in place of my hands, I weep as I cling to the invisible feet of the God who loves mankind, then my clay-like heart has become a vessel of silver or of gold, and the lowly man is wrought once more into an altar of the Lord, as grace stirs up within me the coals of knowledge and offers up to God a sweet-smelling sacrifice.
Vigilance is the greatest good for those who choose to shake off the sleep that is the neighbor of death, and it is great in this measure, that the Master himself also took it up and made it his own in the dispensation according to the flesh, as Luke also says: "Jesus continued all night in prayer to God" [Luke 6:12], teaching us through the deed itself to follow in the footsteps of the Teacher. For this reason he also said: "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation" [Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38]. And those around Paul and Silas, not ignorant of the gain of vigilance, glorified God about midnight [Acts 16:25]. And David says: "I have kept vigil, and have become like a sparrow alone upon the housetop" [Psalm 101:8 LXX; 102:7 MT], that is, well-feathered, not dragged along upon the ground, but upon the housetop, and dwelling on the height of virtue. For when, with a suppliant tongue in place of my hands, I weep as I cling to the invisible feet of the God who loves mankind, then my clay-like heart has become a vessel of silver or of gold, and the lowly man is wrought once more into an altar of the Lord, as grace stirs up within me the coals of knowledge and offers up to God a sweet-smelling sacrifice.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.