(Edited by Stelios Koukos)
Saint Gregory the Sinaite
137 Useful Chapters
Continued from here: https://www.pemptousia.gr/2026/06/agios-grigorios-sinaitis-oi-okto-archigoi-ton-pathon/
93. The Gospel operates in the manner of Paul, he who partakes of the illumination of Christ and can actively transmit it to others, casting the word like a divine seed into the fields of the souls of his listeners. As he himself says: "Let your word be seasoned with the grace of divine goodness, so as to transmit grace to those who hear it with faith." By again revealing the teachers as farmers and the students as farmers [cultivatable fields], he wisely shows that the former plow and sow the divine word, and the latter are fertile, productive, and fruitful soil. True liturgy is not only the operation of the divine, but also the participation in good things and their transmission to others.
94. The spoken word used for teaching is diverse, and it is acquired in many and various ways from four sources: learning, reading, practice, and grace. Just as water, while being one in nature, changes its quality according to the composition of the earth through which it passes—so that in taste it may be bitter, sweet, salty, or sour—so too the word of teaching, after passing through the moral disposition of each person and being altered accordingly, is recognized by its operation and provides benefit.
95. The word has been given to be enjoyed by every rational nature, just as many and various delicacies are offered. Therefore, the soul feels its pleasure in various ways: it has the scientific word as a pedagogue to shape its character; the word of reading, like cool water to nourish and refresh it; the word of practice, like a lush place to strengthen it; the word of grace, like a cup of wine to intoxicate and gladden it; and its unspeakable joy, like oil that makes its countenance gentle and radiant.
96. The soul possesses the above not only within itself as life, but also when it hears them from others as teaching, provided that love and faith naturally pre-exist between the two. That is, one listens with faith and the other teaches with love, presenting the words of virtues without pride or ambition.
Then both receive the four kinds of word as follows: the word from learning, as a pedagogue; the word of reading as a nourisher; the word from practice, which springs from within, as a most sweet bridal chamber-companion; and the word of the Spirit, which illuminates and gladdens, as a bridal chamber that unites with the soul.
For the expression "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" means the words that come forth through the Spirit from the lips of the Saints and are the sweetest activating breath of the Spirit, which are enjoyed not by all, but only by the worthy—for otherwise, the rational beings would have a surplus of the word.
Very few are those who rejoice fully from the words of the Spirit, while the many know and participate only in the forms of spiritual words through memory, without yet having tasted with the sense of the soul the true bread of the life to come, namely, the word of God.
For only then will it be at the disposal of the worthy to fill them with every pleasure, without ever being entirely consumed, exhausted, or sacrificed.
Saint Gregory of Sinai is commemorated on April 6th.
From the "Philokalia of the Holy Neptic Fathers," volume IV, translation by Antonios Galitis, published by To Perivoli tis Panagias.