Immoderation in food is cut away by fasting; The intemperance of fornication is stripped off by abstinence with prayer.

Avarice, the mother of idolatry is brought to an end by almsgiving; Anxiety over corporeal matters is cut away by hope in God.

The wandering nous is gathered back through reading the oracles of God, and through vigils with prayer.

The [sudden] inrush of indignation is quieted by patience and psalmody.

Acedia is checked by patient endurance with tears; Worldly sorrow is silenced by hatred of pleasures

Hospitality is obtained through humility together with renunciation of love of power and preeminence Pride, the primordial vice, that abomination before the Lord which God Himself opposes, is put down by immeasurable humility: – [humility] which says, ‘I am dust and ashes’, and again, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house the builder labors’ and attempts to guard it ‘in vain’.

Just as it is not possible to purify agitated water unless it remain undisturbed, even so a monk cannot know [his innermost] state without tranquility.

Loquacity disturbs a soul; immoderate napping thickens the mind

Roaming desire undermines the nous’ innocence.

Unbalanced laughter obliterates a humble disposition.

Meetings with many people render good habit[s] muddy, while speaking evil drives us away from peace.

Eagerness, yearning, and bodily mortification cultivate tears, while tears wipe the soul clean of sins, after the fashion of a whetstone wiping the rust from iron.

Sweet is pleasure, but terrible is the outer darkness; difficult to achieve is virtue, but unspeakable is the glory of the saints and the just.

Just as one who hears the teaching of God but does not perform it will receive a severe beating for knowing the will of the Lord but not performing it; and all who reject the words of God will be punished as disobedient: even so, one who hears and performs the will of the Lord is blessed, for he will become a partaker of eternal life. Amen.