Letter 473: Theodore Studite, Letter 473; Greek heading: Κατήχησις πρὸς τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μαθητάσ.

A Labor I, the lowly one, labor at these catecheses [instructional discourses to the monks] not out of a practice of ostentation, nor from the conceit of an alien mind, but out of fear and trembling, out of a heart full of toil and out of love, brothers and fathers, if indeed the mark of one who loves is to instruct with care. "Reprove," Scripture says, "rebuke in season, out of season"; and likewise, "exhort, admonish," and all the other things that the law of God contains and commands. What, then, does my discourse wish to indicate to me? It is about disorder: namely that, when you are summoned by the devout to the singing of psalms, you do not gather together and keep the all-night vigil in a becoming manner, but amid disputes over words and contentions for the first places. "You went ahead," one says, "and did not wait for me; you ate your own supper and did not call me to share it; I should lead the chanting, not you," he says. And these things in church, and these things while those who invited you are listening, at which there is invisibly the wrath of God, and confessed grief and harm to those who invited you. For have you no room, even if something distressing should occur, to make your complaints to one another privately and to reconcile what has happened through explanation and the requisite humility? But brother fights with brother, grows angry, insults, behaves shamefully in the sight of all. O the disorder! O the unmonastic spectacle! O the contempt for the divine laws! And then the blame falls upon the superior: "From such a teacher," one says, "such disciples as these." Have you not made me hated even by those in the city? Has not the good name, which has been bestowed upon your holy brotherhood, been turned into its opposite? You fight and wage war, you eat and drink not reverently, not quietly, but in unseemly fashion, in an unmonastic fashion. "Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do," says the Apostle, "do all to the glory of God." But you are not so, and you shame the holy habit, you scandalize the reverent, and even the irreverent the more. Would that it were heard concerning each one of you: "Ah, what a reverent countenance so-and-so bears! Oh, how great is the silence of so-and-so! Well done, the unpresumptuous bearing of that one, the orderliness of this one, the seemly chanting of another, the affability of yet another!" These things both adorn those who possess them and benefit those who behold them, and they gladden God and dignify me, the sinner. But now, according to my sins, the opposite holds. And I do not lay hold of all, since many, by the grace of God, are such as the discourse seeks, but only of those who are entangled in inattentiveness. I exhort you therefore, or rather I enjoin you: change your evil customs and characters, your manners and your words, your bearings and your mouths. For what need is there to display wickedness instead of goodness to those who invite us, both to grieve God and to shame me, the pitiable one? Shall I be heard, my brothers, when I, the unworthy one, cry out to the Lord, and then shall I also separate myself from the one who disobeys? But perhaps I speak simply and am carried along indifferently, not separating the holy from the unholy. Do you not fear God? Shall we not give an account even for an idle word? Our God is a consuming fire, brothers; let us fear Him, let us from now on serve Him in holiness, so that, abstaining from all evil even down to idle talk, and holding fast to virtue, we may become heirs of eternal life, having fled the punishments threatened against the despisers, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Ἔργον ἐγὼ ὁ ταπεινὸς ἐργάζομαι ἐν ταῖς κατηχήσεσιν οὐκ ἐξ ἐπιτηδεύματος φανητιασμοῦ οὐδὲ ἀπὸ συνεπάρσεως διανοίας ἀλλοκότου, ἀλλ' ἐκ φόβου καὶ τρόμου, ἐξ ἐπιπόνου καρδίας καὶ ἀγάπης, ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πατέρες, εἴπερ ἀγαπῶντος δεῖγμα τὸ ἐπιμελῶς παιδεύειν. ἔλεγξον, φησίν, ἐπιτίμησον εὐκαίρως, ἀκαίρως· ἐπεὶ καί, παρακάλεσον, νουθέτησον, ὅσα ἄλλα ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ νόμος ἔχει καὶ διακελεύεται. Τί δὴ οὖν βούλεταί μοι ὁ λόγος ὑποδηλῶσαι; περὶ ἀταξίας· ὅτι, προσκαλούμενοι ὑπὸ εὐσεβῶν εἰς ψαλμῳδίας, οὐ κατὰ τὸ πρεπῶδες συναθροίζεσθε καὶ παννυχίζετε, ἀλλ' ἐν λογομαχίαις καὶ πρωτοκλισίαις. "4προύλαβες σύ"5, φησίν, "4κἀμὲ οὐκ ἀνέμεινας· τὸ ἴδιον δεῖπνον ἔφαγες κἀμὲ οὐ συνεκάλεσας· ἐγὼ κανοναρχήσαιμι, ἀλλ' οὐ σύ"5, φησίν. καὶ ταῦτα ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ, καὶ ταῦτα ἀκουόντων τῶν κεκληκότων, ἐφ' οἷς ὀργὴ μὲν θεοῦ ἀοράτως, λύπη δὲ καὶ βλάβη ὁμολογουμένη τῶν κεκληκότων· μὴ γὰρ χώραν οὐκ ἔχετε, εἰ καί τι γίνοιτο θλιπτικόν, εἰς τὸ ἰδίᾳ ἐγκαλεῖν ἀλλήλοις καὶ τὰ συμπίπτοντα καταλλάσειν δι' ἀπολογίας καὶ τῆς δεούσης ταπεινώσεως; ἀλλὰ ἀδελφὸς μετὰ ἀδελφοῦ μάχεται, ὀργίζεται, ὑβρίζει, ἀσχημονεῖ ἐπὶ προσώπου πάντων. Ὢ τῆς ἀταξίας· ὢ τῆς ἀμονάχου θεωρίας· ὢ τῆς καταφρονήσεως τῶν θείων νόμων. εἶτα ἡ αἰτία ἐπὶ τὸν καθηγούμενον· "4τοιούτου"5, φησί, "4διδασκάλου τηλικοῦτοι καὶ μαθηταί"5. ἆρ' οὐχὶ μισητόν με πεποιήκατε καὶ τοῖς ἐν ἄστει; ἆρ' οὐχὶ τὸ καλὸν ὄνομα, τὸ ἐπικληθὲν ἐπὶ τῇ ὁσίᾳ ἀδελφότητι ὑμῶν, εἰς τοὐναντίον περιτρέπεται; μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε, τρώγετε καὶ πίνετε οὐκ εὐλαβῶς, οὐχ ἡσύχως, ἀλλὰ ἀσέμνως, ἀλλὰ ἀμονάχως. εἴτε οὖν ἐσθίετε εἴτε πίνετε εἴτε τι ποιεῖτε, φησὶν ὁ ἀπόστολος, πάντα εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ ποιεῖτε. ὑμεῖς δὲ οὐχ οὕτως, καὶ καταισχύνετε τὸ ἅγιον σχῆμα, σκανδαλίζετε τοὺς εὐλαβεῖς, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἀνευλαβεῖς. εἴθε ἠκούετο περὶ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου ὑμῶν, "4οἴ, ποῖον εὐλαβὲς πρόσωπον φέρει ὁ δεῖνα, οὐά, ἡλίκον τὸ σιωπηλὸν τοῦ ὁ δεῖνα, εὖγε τὸ ἀπαρρησίαστον ἐκείνου, τοῦδε τὸ τακτικόν, ἄλλου τὸ σεμνόψαλτον, ἑτέρου τὸ εὐαπάντητον"5. ταῦτα καὶ τοὺς ἔχοντας καλλύνει καὶ τοὺς θεωροῦντας ὀνίνησιν, τόν τε θεὸν εὐφραίνει κἀμὲ τὸν ἁμαρτωλὸν σεμνύνει. νῦν δὲ κατὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας μου ἀντίστροφα· καὶ οὐ πάντων καθάπτομαι, ἐπεὶ πολλοὶ χάριτι θεοῦ οἵους ζητεῖ ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ' ἐκείνων τῶν ἐνισχημένων τῇ ἀπροσεξίᾳ. Παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐντέλλομαι, ἀλλάξατε τὰ πονηρὰ ἔθη καὶ ἤθη, τοὺς τρόπους καὶ τοὺς λόγους, τὰ σχήματα καὶ τὰ στάματα· ἐπεὶ τίς χρεία ἀντὶ ἀγαθοῦ πονηρίαν ὑποδεικνύειν τοῖς κλήτορσι, θεόν τε λυπεῖν κἀμὲ τὸν ἐλεεινὸν καταισχύνειν; ἀκουσθήσομαι, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐπεὶ βοήσω πρὸς Κύριον ὁ ἀνάξιος, ἔπειτα καὶ διαστελοῦμαι ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀπειθοῦντος; ἁπλῶς δὲ λέγω τυχὸν καὶ ἀδιαφόρως φέρομαι, μὴ διαστέλλων τὸν ὅσιον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνοσίου. ὑμεῖς θεὸν οὐ φοβεῖσθε; οὐχὶ καὶ περὶ ἀργοῦ ῥήματος δώσομεν λόγον; ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν πῦρ καταναλίσκον, ἀδελφοί· ὃν φοβηθῶμεν, ᾧ ἀπὸ τοῦ δεῦρο δουλεύσωμεν ὁσίως, ἵνα, κακίας ἁπάσης μέχρι καὶ ἀργολογίας ἀπεχόμενοι, ἀρετῆς δὲ ἐχόμενοι, κληρονόμοι γενοίμεθα ζωῆς αἰωνίου, φυγόντες τὰ ἠπειλημένα κολαστήρια τοῖς καταφρονηταῖς, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος σὺν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τῷ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. ἀμήν.