Teaching (Book of Orsiesius) 19–32

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

But you too, all you brothers who are subject through the order of a free service: “Have your loins girded and lamps burning in your hands, like servants who await their lord, when he returns from the wedding, so that when he comes and knocks they may open to him at once. Blessed are the servants whom the lord, when he comes, finds watching.” So it will be with you too: if long labour does not produce weariness in you, you will be called to the heavenly banquet, and angels will serve you. These are the promises to those who keep God's commandments, and these the rewards of things to come: “Rejoice in the Lord; again I say, rejoice.” Be subject to the fathers with all obedience, without murmurings and divided thoughts, bringing simplicity of soul to good works, so that, full of virtues and of the fear of God, you may become worthy of adoption by God. “Take up the shield of faith, with which you may quench all the burning arrows of the devil, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” “Be prudent as serpents and simple as doves.” Hear Paul saying: “Children, obey your parents,” and possess the salvation of your souls through those who are set over you. And in another place it is written: “Obey your leaders and be subject to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give account for you.” And always fear what the same apostle says: “You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of the Lord dwells in you. But if anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him.” And again: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” of just judgment. [20] Keep the chastity of your body, so that you may be “a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.” “For he who is born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him.” The same John says: “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one.” When you too have conquered the enemy, with God giving you help, he himself will sing and say: “I will rescue them from the underworld and redeem them from death; where is your contention, O death? Where, O death, is your sting?” If we swallow up death, we shall overcome it, and it will be said to us: “Death will no longer have dominion over him”; for the death by which we once died to sin is dead in us, and the life we live in Christ we live for ever. For he who dies in the flesh will be justified from sin. Let us no longer live in the desires of men, but complete the rest of our life in the will of God. You who fear the Lord, arm yourselves with chastity, so that you may be worthy to hear: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.” And know that to the perfect perfect things are given, and to the empty empty things are returned, according to the Gospel word: “To him who has it will be given, and he will abound; but from him who has not, even what he seemed to have will be taken away.” Let us imitate the wise virgins, who were worthy to enter the bridal chamber with the bridegroom, because they had in their vessels, with their lamps, the oil of good works. But the foolish virgins found the chamber already shut, because they would not prepare oil for themselves before the wedding. “These things happened to them in figure, but they were written for our correction,” that we may avoid the old ways and keep the precepts of the wise man, who says: “My son, if your heart is wise, you will gladden my heart, and my lips will recount your words, if only they are right.” And again: “Let your heart not envy sinners, but be in the fear of God all the day”; and observe the worship of God continually.

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

Let us keep watch more attentively, and know that God has granted us great grace through our Father Pachomius, that we should renounce the world and count as nothing all the anxiety of the world and the cares of worldly things. What occasion is left us to have anything of our own, from a cord to the mending of a shoe, when we have superiors who with fear and trembling take care of us, in food and clothing and in sickness of the body, should it come, so that we need fear in nothing lest through the occasion of the flesh we lose the soul's gains? We are free; we have thrown off from our necks the yoke of worldly service; why do we want to return again to our vomit, and to have something to be anxious about and afraid to lose? Why do you want a superfluous cloak, or richer meals, or a better bed, when everything has been prepared in common, and nothing is harder than the cross of Christ? Living by it, our fathers built us upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets and the discipline of the Gospels, which is held together by the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ; following him we have come down from a deadly height to a life-giving humility, exchanging riches for poverty and delights for simple food.

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

Do not, I beseech you, forget the purpose once taken up, and let us regard the traditions of our Father as ladders reaching to the kingdom of heaven. Do not long for what you once trampled underfoot. It is enough for us to have what suffices a man: two sleeveless tunics and another worn one, a linen cloak, two hoods, a linen belt, sandals, a skin, and a staff. If one to whom some ministry and stewardship of the monastery has been entrusted makes gain from it, let it be held a crime and a sacrilege to take anything from it and turn it to his own comfort, as though despising those who have nothing and are rich in a happy poverty; so that not only does he himself perish, but he also provokes others to perish. And those indeed who have bowed their necks and, with all humility and affliction, mourning and lamenting, have pleased God in the present life, when they go out of this little body will be led away and recline with the holy fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with the prophets and the apostles, and will enjoy worthy consolation, as Lazarus too enjoyed it in Abraham's bosom. But those who lived in the cenobium and diverted something from the common store to their own uses, woe to them: when they go out of the body it will be said to them: “Remember that you received good things in your life,” while the brothers laboured and sweated in fastings and continence and unceasing toil. “Therefore see them in joy and gladness, who left the present life to obtain the life to come, and yourselves set in squalor and torments and misery,” because you would not hear the Gospel word and despised the words of Isaiah, who says: “Behold, those who serve me shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, those who serve me shall drink, but you shall thirst. Behold, those who serve me shall exult, and you shall cry out for sorrow of heart and howl for contrition of spirit.” You heard all the beatitudes of the Scriptures and would not receive discipline.

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

Therefore, brothers, let us be equal, from the least to the greatest, rich as well as poor, perfect in concord and humility, so that it may be said of you too: “He who had much did not abound, and he who had little did not lack.” Let no one provide for his own delights while seeing his brother set in poverty and distress, lest that prophetic word be said to him: “Has not one God created you? Is there not one father of all of you? Why have you each forsaken his brother, to make abominable the covenant of your fathers? Judah has been forsaken, and an abomination has been done in Israel.” Wherefore, according to what the Lord and Saviour commanded the apostles, saying: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you; and by this you will be known to be my disciples,” we ought to love one another and show that we are truly servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, and sons of Pachomius, and disciples of the cenobia.

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

If the superior of a house has rebuked one of the brothers subject to him, instructing him in the fear of God and wishing to correct him from error, and another chooses to speak for him and defend him, subverting his heart, he who does this sins against his own soul: for he has subverted one who could have been corrected, he casts to the ground one who was rising, and by evil persuasion deceives one who was striving toward better things, himself erring and making others err. To him this will aptly be applied: “Woe to him who gives his neighbour a muddy drink of subversion and makes him drunk”; “Cursed is he who makes the blind go astray on the way”; “Whoever scandalizes one of these little ones who believe in God, it is better for him that an ass's millstone be hung about his neck and he be cast into the sea.” For, as we said, he has subverted one who was raising himself up, and turned the obedient to pride, and turned to bitterness one who could have walked in the sweetness of love; and he has corrupted with evil counsels one subject to the laws of the monastery, and made him hate and be grieved against the one who was teaching him the Lord's discipline, sowing quarrels and discords among the brothers, and not fearing what is written: “Who are you who judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the master is able to make him stand again.” Consider what he said: “The Lord is able to make him stand.” He who passes over the Lord's words is not able.

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

Therefore, brothers, let us above all avoid turning anyone's mind against his teacher and admonisher, and let us remember the Scripture that says: “Free your heart from malice, that you may be saved.” Nor let us sow pride and contumacy in one another's hearts instead of obedience. For he who fears his Lord, if he sees his brother err and slip, ought rather to show him what is holy and point out the right road, so that, walking with all chastity and with trembling before God, he may carry out that saying of Solomon: “Rescue those who are led to death, and do not cease to redeem them from slaughter.” And do not say, “I do not know this man.” Know that God knows the hearts of all. And Jude says in his letter: “And these indeed, snatching them from the fire, hating even the stained tunic.” Let us beware of such a garment, and rather put on the armour of God, that we may be able to stand against the snares of the devil. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities, against the rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

This too must above all be guarded against: that anyone should entrust anything to another house or to another's cell and act against the discipline of the monastery. Such a one is not in the number of the brothers but a hireling and a stranger, and ought not to eat the Lord's Passover among the saints; for he has become a stone of stumbling in the monastery, and of him it could be said: “Throw the stones out of my way.” For if our sleeveless tunics are not dry when we wash them, we do not have permission to keep them with us until evening, but give them to the superior to whom we have been entrusted, or to him who has been entrusted with the storeroom, so that he may carry them to the place where the clothes of all are kept together; and in the morning they are given to us to spread in the sun, and when they are dry we do not keep them with us but give them for common keeping, according to the precepts of the elders. How much more, if you entrust to another the things you seem to possess as your own, or want them to be in your own power, do you sin against the discipline of the monastery, and fail to understand Paul saying to you: “But you have been called to freedom; only do not abuse freedom as an occasion for the flesh, but serve one another in love.” And again: “The Lord is near; do not be anxious, but be intent on prayer and supplications.” Let him also who has received something entrusted to him by another, and thinks he is doing a pious thing in refreshing a brother, know that he sins against his own soul, subverting the rule of the monastery. O fool, your soul has been entrusted to your superior, and will the one who guards your soul and body be held unworthy to keep things that will perish? Let us love justice, that we may be justified. For we read: “Mercy meets those who do the truth.” [27] This too must be observed, lest anyone, deceived by a foolish thought, or rather entangled in the snares of the devil, should say in his heart: “When I die, then I will give the brothers what I have.” O most foolish of men, where have you found this written? Did not all the saints who served God at once lay down the whole burden of the world? Did they not, in the Acts of the Apostles, bring all they had to the apostles' feet? Or how will you, when dead, be able to put on the garment of justice, who did not deserve to have it while alive? Why have you forgotten what is written: “What a man sows, that he will also reap”? And: “Each will receive according to what he has done.” And: “He will repay each according to his works.” And again: “I am the Lord, searching hearts and testing kidneys, to give to each according to his ways and according to the fruit of his devices.” Why, while you still live and are set in this little body, do you not hear David saying: “He lays up treasure, and does not know for whom he gathers it,” and the Gospel word rebuking the covetous man: “This night they will demand your soul of you; and what you have prepared, whose will it be?” And again: “On that day all their thoughts will perish.” Fool, why will you not hear the Lord exhorting: “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and take up your cross, and come, follow me”? Hearing this, the young man turned back, for his heart was not right, and so he could not lay down the heavy burden of riches. He had indeed the will for the perfect life, as Scripture testifies, and was drawn to praise by the splendour of the virtues; but his riches drew him back as he ran, and he could not hear the Saviour's teaching, because he was still thinking of the world's delights. Hence the Saviour too says: “It is hard for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of heaven.” And again: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will obey the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” But the Pharisees, since they were covetous, heard these things and mocked; let us avoid their unbelief and not mock those who call us on. Let us renounce the world, so that, being perfect, we may follow the perfect treasure. To those whose soul avarice possesses, poverty for Christ seems folly. “Godliness with sufficiency is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, nor can we carry anything out; having food and clothing, with these we are content. But those who want to become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many desires which are foolish and harmful, which plunge men into ruin and perdition. For the root of all evils is covetousness.” [28] To this day Elijah rebukes Israel, saying: “How long will you limp on both feet? If he is God, go and follow him.” And he says to us: if they are commandments of God which he handed down to us through our Father, and by following them we can reach the kingdom of heaven, let us fulfil them with all desire; but if we follow our own thoughts and our mind tends elsewhere, why do we not simply confess our error, and show that we are what we blush to be seen to be? Lest perhaps it be said to us as well: “Why have you polluted my holy place?” And: “I will cast them out of my house.” If the community of monks is truly the house of God and the vineyard of the saints, as we read it written: “Solomon had a vineyard in a place called Beelhamon; he gave it to keepers; each brings for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard is before me; a thousand for Solomon, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit” — let us not, then, pollute it and be cast out, as we read in the Gospel that those who sold sheep and oxen in the temple were cast out. The Lord and Saviour, entering, made himself a whip of cords and cast the money-changers out of the temple, pouring out their money and overturning the tables of the sellers, and to those who sold doves he said: “Take all these away, and do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” For it is written: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.” And elsewhere: “Because of you my name is blasphemed among the nations.” [29] I beseech you, brothers, lest it be said of us too: “One is hungry and another is drunk. Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and put to shame those who have nothing?” To them it is said: “If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you do not come together for judgment.” Let our house not be one of a strange voice, lest that be aptly applied to us: “They did not cast away the works of Egypt.” And again: “They did not walk in my precepts and they profaned my sabbaths; therefore, when they cry to me, I will not hear them.” Let us not remain in hardness of heart and provoke God to anger, so that he becomes our enemy and says: “And I will give them precepts that are not good, and ordinances by which they shall not live,” because they ate the fruit of lying and worshipped the works of their hands, and their land was filled from the beginning with augury, like the land of foreigners.

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

Lest, after we have renounced the world and begun to follow the banner of the cross, we turn back again and seek temporal refreshment, imitating Ephraim, who says: “I have become rich, I have found refreshment for myself”; lest we hear what he too deserved to hear: “All his labours will not be found [enough] for the iniquities in which he sinned.” Lest that be fulfilled in us: “You began in the Spirit, and are you now being made perfect in the flesh? Have you suffered so much in vain?” And lest that word be spoken against us: “The law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders; and the hands of the people are weakened; the elders have ceased from the gate, the chosen from their psalms.” And again lest it be said: “Because of you my name is blasphemed among the nations”; and lest, the institutions of our Father being despised, forgetfulness creep in, and by our fault we neglect the mediator of God and of the saints.

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

For what fruit, or what sign of God's precepts, is found in us, or in what do we fulfil the profession we took up? Have we not left everything, and yet are we subject to avarice, and it is said to us: “Whence wars and fightings? Is it not from avarice?” For because each seeks his own advantage and not his neighbour's, to this day Ezekiel, still living, rebukes us with the prophetic word, saying: “There was trading in you”; “The son dishonours the father, and the father reproaches the son.” What shall we answer on the day of judgment, or what can we plead in our defence at the last time? All these things have been done to us because “the priests clapped their hands, and the people loved it likewise.” “Because as the people, so the priest. Therefore I will repay him according to his ways, and I will return to him his thoughts.”

Translated by Claude from Jerome (404); edited by L. Holstenius (1661), reprinted by Brockie (1759) and Migne's Latin translation (404) of the Latin (the Coptic original of Orsiesius is lost except for fragments); neither is shown

I do not say these things of all of you, but of those who despise the elders' precepts: “and it would have been far better for them not to know the way of justice than, knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them.” Mourning over such men Jeremiah writes: “My eyes have failed with tears, my belly is troubled, my glory is poured out on the ground, over the ruin of the daughter of my people; for the little one and the suckling fainted in the streets of the city. They said to their mothers: Where is the grain and the wine? when they fainted like the wounded in the streets of the city, when they poured out their souls in their mothers' bosom.” We know that God does not delight in the strength of the horse, nor take pleasure in the legs of a man.