Letter 296

To Silvanus the Cenobite [a monk living in a communal monastery]. If we wish to trample down the demons in all things, let us show our humility in all things, casting our own will far from us. And just as we gladly accept fasting when those who have advanced before us in the [ascetic] life command it, so too, when we have grown weary and are advised by those who know well how to examine and judge such matters to eat or to drink for a time so as to give the body rest, let us obey readily and without dispute. For partaking in obedience scourges the demons more than fasting does.

Ἐν θέλωμεν διὰ πάντων καταπατῆσαι τοὺς δαίμονας, δείξωμεν διὰ πάντων τὴν ταπεινοφροσύνην, τὸ ἑαυτῶν θέλημα μακρὰν ἀποῤῥίψαντες· καὶ ὥσπερ τὴν νηστείαν ἡδέως καταδεχόμεθα, κελευσάντων ἡμῖν τῶν τὸν βίον προοδευκότων, οὕτω καὶ τὸ φαγεῖν, ἢ πιεῖν πρός τινα χρόνον κεμηκὼς διαναπαῦσαι τὸ σῶμα συμβουλευόμενοι παρὰ τῶν εὖ εἰδότων δοκιμάζειν καὶ κρίνειν τὰ πράγματα, ὑπακούσωμεν προθύμως, καὶ ἀναμφισβητήτως. Πλεῖον γὰρ τῆς νηστείας ἡ καθ' ὑπακοὴν μετάληψις μαστίζει τοὺς δαίμονας.