St Macarios the Great
Macarius was an Egyptian and one of the younger contemporaries of
Anthony the Great. His father was a priest. Out of obedience to his
parents, Macarius married. However, his wife died shortly thereafter
and he withdrew to the wilderness, where he spent sixty years in labor
and struggle, both inwardly and outwardly, for the Kingdom of Heaven.
When they asked him why he was so thin, both when he ate and when
he did not eat, he responded: "From the fear of God." So much did he
succeed in cleansing his mind of evil thoughts and desires, that God
bestowed upon him the abundant gift of miracle- working, so that he
even raised the dead from the graves. His humility amazed both men
and demons.
From The Prologue of Ochrid by St. Nikolai Velimirovich, vol 1 p.68-69,
SebastianPress 2008
"The writings attributed to St Macarius of Egypt are one of the main
sources of the philocalic tradition. St Macarius is the founder of semi-
eremiticism in the desert of Scetis (presently Wadi Natrum) in Lower
Egypt. (In the 'Homilies', St. Macarius) insists particularly on the role of
the heart and the place of the body in the spiritual life, on the different
aspects of the divine pedagogy toward man, and on the necessary
cooperation of divine action and human freedom so that baptismal
grace unfolds in this taste of God, "which is a powerful operation of the
Spirit that is exercised in the heart, with a feeling of certainty"
Homily 15,20 as quoted by Fr Placide Deseille in Orthodox Spirituality and the
Philokalia p.19-20, Translated by Anthony P. Gythiel, Eighth Day Press 2008
Homily 19 - Christians, wishing to advance and grow, ought to
push themselves toward every good so as to free themselves
from every habitual sin and be filled by the Holy Spirit.
1. The person that wishes to come to the Lord and to be deemed
worthy of eternal life and to become a dwelling place of Christ and to
be filled with the Holy Spirit so that he may be able to bring forth the
fruits of the Spirit and performs the commands of Christ purely and
blamelessly ought to begin first by believing firmly in the Lord and
giving himself completely to the words of his commands and renounc-
ing the world in all things so that his whole mind may not be taken up
with anything ephemeral. And he ought to persevere constantly in
prayer, always waiting in faith that expects his coming and his help,
keeping the goal of his mind ever fixed upon this. Then he ought to
push himself to every good work and to doing all the commandments
of the Lord, because there is sin dwelling within him. Thus let him strive
to show humility before every person and to consider himself the least
and the worst. Let him not seek honor or praise or the glory of men as
it is written in the Gospel (Jn. 12:44). But let him only have always
before his eyes the Lord and his commands, wishing to please him
alone in the meekness of his heart , as the Lord says: "Learn of me,
because I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for your
souls" Matthew 11:29)
2. Likewise let him accustom himself to be merciful, compassionate
and good according to his power, as the Lord says: "Be good and
kind, even as your heavenly Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). And again
he says: "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John14:15).
And again: "Strive to enter through the narrow door" (Luke 13:24).
Above all, let him take the humility and conduct of the Lord, his meek-
ness and conversation, as his model by ever remembering him. Let
him continue incessantly in prayers, always beseeching and believing
that the Lord may come to dwell in him and may perfect and give him
power to accomplish all his commands and that the Lord himself may
become the dwelling place for his soul.
And thus the things he now does with effort of a reluctant heart, he may
perform one day willingly, accustoming himself always to the good and
remembering the Lord and waiting for him always in great love. Then
the Lord, seeing such an intention and his good diligence, how he
strives to remember the Lord and always seeks to do good and is
humble and meek and loving, how he guides his heart, whether he
wishes or not, to the best of his ability with force, has mercy on him
and frees him from his enemies and the indwelling sin. He fills him with
the Holy Spirit. And gradually, without force or struggle he keeps all of
the Lord's commandments in truth. Or, rather, it is the Lord who keeps
in him his very own commandments, and then he brings forth purely
the fruits of the Spirit.
3. It is, however, necessary at first for one coming to the Lord to
force himself thus to do good and, even if he should not in his
heart be so inclined , he must constantly await his mercy with
unshakened faith and push himself to love, even if he does not
have love. He ought to push himself to meekness, even if he
has none, to mercy and to have a merciful heart. He must force
himself to be disregarded, and when he is looked down upon by
others, let him rejoice. When he is made light of or dishonored,
let him not become angry according to the saying: "Beloved do
not avenge yourselves" (Rom.12:9). Let him push himself to
prayer even when he does not possess the prayer of the Spirit.
And so, God, seeing him striving so and pushing himself by
determination even if the heart is unwilling, gives him the authe-
ntic prayer of the Spirit, gives him true charity, true meekness,
"the bowels of mercies"(Col.3:12), true kindness, and, simply
put, fills him with the fruits of the Spirit.
4. If a person pushes himself to attain prayer alone, when he has none,
in order to attain its grace, without striving earnestly for meekness, and
humility and charity and all the other commandments of the Lord,
neither taking pains nor struggling and battling to succeed in these as
far as his choice and free will go, he may at times be given a grace of
prayer with some degree of repose and pleasure from the Spirit
according as he asks. But he has the same traits he had before. He
has no meekness because he did not seek it with effort and he did not
prepare himself beforehand to become meek. He has no humility,
since he did not ask for it and did not push himself to have it. He has
no charity toward all men because he was not concerned with it and
did not strive for it in his asking for the gift of prayer. And in doing his
work, he has no faith or trust in God, since he did not know that he was
without it. And he did not take pains to seek from the Lord for himself
to have a firm faith and an authentic trust.
5. For just as he forces himself to prayer even when unwilling, so
everyone must push himself likewise to trust, so also to humility, so
to charity, so to meekness, sincerity and simplicity, so "unto every
patience and long-suffering with joy" (Col.1:11), so also to regard
himself as little and to consider himself as poor and the least of all. He
strives not to speak without profit, but always to be concerned to speak
the things of God with mouth and heart. He is attentive not to become
angry and loud-mouthed according to the saying, "Let all bitterness
and anger and clamoring be put away from you, with all malice"
(Eph.4:31). He strives to live according to all the ways of the Lord, in
the practice of virtue and good and noble conduct, to possess all
manifestations of goodness, of humility, of meekness, never being
proud and high-minded and puffed up and never to speak against
anyone.
6. In all of these matters a person must push himself if he desires to
gain the approval of and be pleasing to Christ so that the Lord, seeing
his determination and purpose in forcing himself to all goodness and
simplicity and kindness and humility and charity and prayer with full
determination, may give himself completely to him. The Lord himself
does all of these things in truth in him without labor and force, which
before he could not perform, even by his own determination, because
of sin that indwelled in him. And now all the practice of virtues comes
to him as though the virtues are a part of his nature. The reason is
really that the Lord comes and dwells in him and he is in the Lord.
The Lord himself operates in him to accomplish his own
commandments, effortlessly now, filling him with the fruit of the Spirit.
But if anyone forces himself only to possess the virtue of prayer, until
he receives that gift from God, but does not similarly push himself
to those other virtues, he can not really perform them purely and
faultlessly. He must orientate himself toward what good he is capable
of doing.
Sometimes the divine grace comes to him as he is asking and
imploring. For God is good and kind and he gives to those who ask
him whatever they are seeking. If one does not strive to be good, does
not possess the virtues already mentioned and has not even prepared
himself for them, he loses grace which he has acquired and falls
because of pride, or he does not make progress nor increase in
the grace that came to him because he does not give himself
purposefully to the Lord's commandments. For the dwelling of place
and the repose of the Spirit is humility, charity, and meekness and the
other commandments of the Lord.
7. Therefore, it is necessary that whoever wishes truly to please God
and receive from him the heavenly grace of the Spirit and to grow
and to be perfected in the Holy Spirit should force himself to observe
the commandments of God and to make his heart submissive, even
if he is unwilling according to the saying, "Therefore, I observe all Thy
commandments and every falde way I abhor" (Psalm 119:128).
As one pushes and compels himself to persevere in prayer until he
succeeds, similarly, if he wishes and forces and compels himself to
practice all the virtues and develops a good habit, he thus asks and
begs of the Lord always. And obtaining his request and receiving a
taste for God and becoming a participator of the Holy Spirit, he makes
the gift given to him to increase and to thrive as he rests in humility,
in charity and in meekness.
8. The Spirit himself graces him with all of these virtues and teaches
him authentic prayer, authentic charity, authentic meekness, for which
he pushed himself and sought to possess them. And he had a concern
and thought about them and they were given him. And thus, growing
and becoming perfect in God, he is deemed worthy to become an heir
to the kingdom. For the humble person never falls. Where would
he fall since he is lower than all others? A proud mind is a great
humiliation, while humility is a great uplifting of the mind and an
honor and dignity. Let us then push ourselves and strive to
obtain humility, eventhough our heart is unwilling, to obtain
meekness and charity by praying and begging God in faith and
hope and love unceasingly with such expectancy and purpose
so that he may send his Spirit into our hearts in order that we
may pray and "worship God in spirit and in truth"(John 4:24).
9. Let us pray that the Spirit may teach us true prayer which now we
are unable to accomplish even through our earnest striving. He will
teach us how to accomplish, with hearts of compassion, kindness
and all the other commandments of the Lord truly without any trouble
and force since the Spirit himself knows how to fill us with his fruit.
And so we fulfill the commandments of God through his Spirit, who
alone knows the will of the Lord. The Spirit has perfected us in
himself and he is perfected in us as we are purified from all
defilement and stain of sin, as he presents us as beautiful
brides, pure and spotless, to Christ. We rest in God, in his
kingdom, and God rests in us for all ages unending.
Glory to his tender compassion and mercy and love that he
has deigned to bestow such honor and glory to the human
race and to deign to make them sons of the heavenly Father
and has called them his own brothers,
To Him be glory forever. Amen.
From Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter
p.146-150, Translated and Edited by Fr. George A. Maloney, S.J.,
Paulist Press 1992
