The Remedy for Acedia through Labor

If you have friends, avoid their continuous associations, for by meeting them from a distance you will be useful. But if you perceive through them that harm is happening to you, do not approach them at all. For you must have friends who are useful and compatible with your way of life. Avoid also the associations of wicked and quarrelsome men; do not live with any of them, but rather decline even their bad intentions, for they neither stand toward God, nor do they remain. Let men of peace be your friends, spiritual brothers, and holy Fathers. For the Lord called these such, saying: 'My mother and my brothers and my fathers are these, who do the will of my Father in the heavens' (Matt 12:48-50).

Do not feast with those who are distracted, nor walk with them to a banquet; let them never pull you toward their own affairs or lead you away from the knowledge according to stillness, for this passion is in them; do not turn your ear to their words, and do not receive the thoughts of their hearts. For they are truly harmful. Let your longing be toward the faithful of the earth, and let the toil of your heart be toward a zeal for their mourning. For 'my eyes' are 'upon the faithful of the earth, to sit with them with me' (Ps 37:11). If even one of those walking according to the love of God comes to you to eat and invites you, and you wish to go, go indeed, but return quickly to your cell. If possible, do not sleep at all besides this, so that the grace of stillness may remain with you always, and you may have unhindered worship in its intention.

Do not become a desirer of good foods and of those things that deceive according to extravagance. 'For she who spends extravagantly has died while living,' as the Apostle says (1 Tim 5:6). Do not glut your belly with the food of others, so that a longing for these things does not arise in you, and the outward tables may instill in you longing. For it has been said: 'Do not be deceived by the glutting of the belly.' If you see yourself continually being invited outside your cell, decline. For the continuous staying outside your cell is harmful; it removes grace and darkens the understanding.

It quenches the desire. Look at me, a wine jar placed more abundantly in its place, and lying undisturbed, how it prepares the wine to be bright, settling, and fragrant; but if it is carried around here and there, it becomes agitated, murky, showing the listlessness of all the evils of the harvest. By approaching this very thing, I test the benefit, cutting off the connections of many, so that your mind does not become distracted and disturb the way of stillness.

Attend to the work of the hands, and this very thing, if possible, night and day, so as not to be burdened by anything, but rather even to the point of sharing, just as the holy apostle Paul advises, so that indeed in this you may strike down the demon of listlessness and tear away all the other desires of the enemy. For the demon of listlessness lies upon idleness, and is in desires, as he says. You will not escape sin from giving and receiving.

Therefore, whether you sell or buy, lose a little of the equivalent to yourself; do not, through ways of being drawn into exactness or the love of profit regarding price, fall upon the harmful causes of the soul, such as contention or perjury, through the shifts of your words, and in such things dishonor and shame the worthy intention of our purpose. Thus, you yourself, being mindful, guard your giving and your receiving. But if you choose the better, and this is possible for you, cast your care upon some other faithful man, so that, becoming thus of good mind, you may have good and joyful hopes.

Thus I know how to advise you these useful things, the way of stillness. Now, I will present to you the mind of the things that follow, which are coming upon it; so listen to me, and do what I command you. Sitting in your cell: gather your mind; remember the days of death; see then the death of the body; understand the misery; take up the toil; recognize the vanity of this world; take care of both moderation and diligence, so that you may be able to remain always in the same intention of stillness, and not grow weak. And remember also that in Hades now...