Letter 865

To the Same. Some of the brethren, being ill-disposed toward the laboriousness, the frequency, and the intensity of prayer and psalmody on account of the sluggishness that is in them, bind themselves to a single book alone, yawning and stretching themselves quite often, and dozing off in their seat, nullifying the commandment that says to make, before all things, supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings [1 Timothy 2:1], and then also to teach themselves psalms and hymns and spiritual songs [Colossians 3:16]. He, then, who clings perpetually to the one book, how will he be able, through the single commandment, as if from a single stone, to bring to perfection and complete the spiritual house?

Τινὲς τῶν ἀδελφῶν δυσκόλως ἔχοντες πρὸς τὸ τῆς εὐχῆς καὶ τῆς ψαλμωδίας ἐπίπονον τε, καὶ πυκνὸν, καὶ σύντονον διὰ τὴν προσοῦσαν αὐτοῖς νωχελίαν, βιβλίῳ μόνῳ ἑαυτοὺς προσδεσμοῦσι, χασμώμενοι, καὶ διατεινόμενοι συχνοτέρως, καὶ ἀπονυστάζοντες ἐν τῇ καθέδρᾳ, καταργοῦντες τὴν λέγουσαν ἐντολήν, ὥστε ποιῆσαι πρῶτον πάντων, δεήσεις, προσευχάς, ἐντεύξεις, εὐχαριστίας, εἶτα καὶ διδάσκειν ἑαυτοὺς ψαλμούς, καὶ ὕμνους, καὶ ᾠδὰς πνευματικάς. Ὁ τοίνυν τὸ βιβλίον διαπαντὸς κατέχων, πῶς δυνήσεται διὰ τῆς μιᾶς ἐντολῆς ὡς ἐξ ἑνὸς λίθου, τελειουργῆσαι, καὶ ἀπαρτίσαι τὸν πνευματικὸν οἶκον;