p273 maximos confessor:

50 . If God rejoiced simply in bloody sacrifices, this would imply

that He is governed by passion and wishes those who offer sacrifice
to Him to value the passions ; for the sincere worshipper gladly rejoices in the
same things as does the God whom he worships. But
the sacrifices of which Scripture speaks are rather the slaughter of
the passions and the offering up of our natural powers. Of these
powers, the ram typifies the intelligence (cf. Lev . .) : I .)) , the bull the i
ncensive power (cf. Exod. 29 : 3 6) , and the goat represents desire (cf. Num. I
.) : 2 7)
51 . By spiritual sacrifices is meant not only the putting to death of the passi
ons, slaughtered by 'the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God' (Eph. 6
: I 7), and the deliberate emptying out of all life in the flesh, as if it were
blood ; the term also signifies the offering up of the moral state we have gaine
d through the practice of the virtues, together with all our natural powers, whi
ch we dedicate and offer to God as whole burnt sacrifices, to be consumed by the
fire of grace in the Spirit, so that they are filled with divine power.
B. As soon as anyone practises the virtues with true intelligence,
he acquires a spiritual understanding of Scripture. He worships God
actively in the new way of the Spirit through the higher forms of
contemplation, and not in the old way of the written code (cf. Rom .
7 : 6) , which makes man interpret the Law in an outward and sensual
manner and, Judaic-like, fosters the passions and encourages sin.
54 As soon as a person stops interpreting Scripture in an outward
and sensual manner, his intellect reverts to its natural spiritual
state : he accomplishes spiritually what the Jews performed in a
purely external and physical manner, thereby provoking God's
anger.
6 I . Let us, too, beseech the noetic David to make our intellect,
frenzied by material things, resonant with the lyre of spiritual contemplation a
nd knowledge, and to drive out the evil spirit of
material inconstancy that dominates the world of the senses (cf. I
Sam. I 6 : 2 3). In this way we may be able to understand the Law
spiritually and find the divine principle hidden mystically within it, so that i
t becomes for us a lasting source of eternal life.
(DERAPAGE !!!)
6 2 . Every lover of salvation is totally committed either to the
practice of the virtues or to the contemplative life. For without
virtue and spiritual knowledge no one can attain salvation in any
way whatsoever. For virtue controls the body's impulses, skilfully
curbing with sound thoughts its gravitation towards unnatural conduct ; while by
means of contemplation one inwardly lays hold of
what has been rightly conceived and intelligently assessed.
7 6 . I do not think that the end of this present life is rightly called death.
More accurately, it is deliverance from death, separation from corruption, liber
ation from slavery, cessation of turbulence, destruction of wars, dispelling of
darkness, rest from suffering, calming of turmoil, eclipsing of shame, escape fr
om passions and, to sum up , the termination of all evils. The saints who have a
chieved these things through voluntary mortification live as strangers and pilgr
ims in this life (cf. Heb. I I : I 3), fighting bravely against the world and th
e body and the assaults stemming from them. And, having stifled the deceit which
both of these engender because of the close connexion existing between the sens
es and sensible objects, they keep the dignity of their soul unenslaved.

p291:
We hallow or sanctify the name of our heavenly Father by grace
when we mortify our desire for material things and purify ourselves
of corrupting passions. For sanctification is truly the complete mortification a
nd cessation of desire in the senses. When we have
achieved this we assuage the uncouth turbulence of our incensive
power, for the desire that arouses it and persuades it to fight for its own plea
sures has now been quelled by holiness. For anger, being
by nature the protagonist of desire, stops of its own accord when
once it sees that desire has been put to death.
It is thus fitting that, anger and desire repudiated, we should next
invoke the rule of the kingdom of God the Father with the words
'Thy kingdom come' (Matt. 6 : 1 o) , that is, 'May the Holy Spirit
come' ; for, having put away these things, we are now made into a
temple for God through the Holy Spirit by the teaching and practice
of gentleness.
p293:
In this likeness, says St Paul, ' there is neither male nor female' (Gal. 3 : 2
8), that is, there is neither anger nor desire. Of these, the first tyrannically
perverts judgment and makes the mind betray the law of nature ; while the secon
d scorns the one dispassionate cause and nature, that alone is truly desirable,
in favour of what is inferior, giving preference to the flesh rather than to the
spirit, and taking pleasure more in visible things than in the magnificence and
glory of intelligible realities. In this way with the lubricity of sensual plea
sure it seduces the intellect from the divine perception of spiritual realities
that is proper to it.
It is our aim to make the intelligence stand alone, stripped through the virtues
of its affection for the body ; for this affection, even when totally dispassio
nate, is still natural. The spirit, completely
triumphing over nature, has to persuade the intellect to desist from moral philo
sophy in order to commune with the supraessential Logos through direct and undiv
ided contemplation, in spite of the fact that moral philosophy helps the intelle
ct to cut itself off from, and to go beyond, things pertaining to the flux of
time. For when the intellect has become free from its attachment to sensible obj
ects, it should not be burdened any longer with preoccupations about morality as
with a shaggy cloak.
p304
For according to Scripture there are two kinds of temptation, one
pleasurable, the other painful. One is the result of deliberate
choice ; the other is unsought. The first kind generates sin. We have been comma
nded by the Lord's teaching to pray not to fall into this, for He says, ' Lead u
s not into temptation' (Matt. 6 : 1 3), and 'Watch and pray so that you do not e
nter into temptation' (Matt.
2 6 : 4 1 ) . The other kind of temptation punishes sin, chastising a sin-loving
disposition with sufferings that are unsought. To the person who endures this k
ind of temptation - which comes in the form
of a trial - and who in particular is not riveted to evil, the words of the apos
tle James may be applied : 'My brethren, regard it as a
great joy whenever you find yourselves beset by many trials ;because
the testing of your faith produces patient endurance ; this endurance shapes the
character ; and the character thus shaped should be brought to fruition' (cf. J
as. 1 : 2-4 ; Rom. s : 4) . The evil one works his malice both through the tempt
ation that is subject to our volition and through the trial that comes unsought.
Where the first is concerned, by sowing the soul with bodily pleasures and by e
xciting it in this manner, he contrives to divert its desire away from divine lo

ve. Where the trial is concerned, in his wish to destroy nature through pain, he
cunningly tries to force the soul, enervated by its sufferings, to calumniate a
nd abuse the Creator.
But, knowing the wiles of the evil one, let us pray for deliverance
from the temptations subject to our volition, so that we do not
deflect our desire from divine love ; and let us bravely endure the
trials that come unsought, since they visit us with God's consent
and by enduring them we show that we have not put nature before
the Creator of nature. May all of us who call upon the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ be delivered from the present delights and the
future affiictions of the evil one by participating in the reality of the blessi
ngs held in store and already revealed to us in Christ our Lord Himself, who alo
ne with the Father and the Holy Spirit is praised by all creation. Amen.