Conferences I–X, Conference VI

Conference VI

• Conferences I–X VI.1 — Description of the wilderness, and the question about the death of the saints. In the district of Palestine near the village of Tekoa which had the honour of producing the prophet Amos, there is a vast desert which…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.2 — Abbot Theodore's answer to the question proposed to him. This question often exercises the minds of those who have not much faith or knowledge, and imagine that the prizes and rewards of the saints (which are not…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.3 — Of the three kinds of things there are in the world; viz., good, bad, and indifferent. Altogether there are three kinds of things in the world; viz., good, bad, and indifferent. And so we ought to know what is…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.4 — How evil cannot be forced on any one by another against his will. Preserving then these distinctions clear and fixed, and knowing that there is nothing good except virtue alone, and nothing bad except sin alone and…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.5 — An objection, how God Himself can be said to create evil. Germanus: We often read in holy Scripture that God has created evil or brought it upon men, as is this passage: “There is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.6 — The answer to the question proposed. Theodore: Sometimes holy Scripture is wont by an improper use of terms to use “evils” for “affliction;” not that these are properly and in their nature evils, but because they are…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.7 — A question whether the man who causes the death of a good man is guilty, if the good man is the gainer by his death. A question whether the man who causes the death of a good man is guilty, if the good man is the…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.8 — The answer to the foregoing question. Theodore: We are talking about the actual qualities of things good and bad, and what we call indifferent; and not about the characters of the men who do these things. Nor ought…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.9 — The case of Job who was tempted by the devil and of the Lord who was betrayed by Judas: and how prosperity as well as adversity is advantageous to a good man. For the patience of Job did not bring any gain to the…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.10 — Of the excellence of the perfect man who is figuratively spoken of as ambidextrous. Those are they then who are figuratively spoken of in holy Scripture as ἀμφοτεροδέξιον , i.e., ambidextrous, as Ehud is described in…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.11 — Of the two kinds of trials, which come upon us in a three-fold way. Well then, though we say that trial is twofold, i.e., in prosperity and in adversity, yet you must know that all men are tried in three different…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.12 — How the upright man ought to be like a stamp not of wax but of hard steel. And so the mind of the upright man ought not to be like wax or any other soft material which always yields to the shape of what presses on…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.13 — A question whether the mind can constantly continue in one and the same condition. Germanus: But can our mind constantly preserve its condition unaltered, and always continue in the same state?vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.14 — The answer to the point raised by the questioner. Theodore: It is needful that one must either, as the Apostle says, “be renewed in the spirit of the mind,” and daily advance by “pressing forward to those things…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.15 — How one loses by going away from one's cell. And so we ought always to remain shut up in our cell. For whenever a man has strayed from it and returns fresh to it and begins again to live there he will be upset and…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.16 — How even celestial powers above are capable of change. But that even the powers above are, as we said, subject to change is shown by those who fell from their ranks through the fault of a corrupt will. Wherefore we…vatican.va
• Conferences I–X VI.17 — That no one is dashed to the ground by a sudden fall. But we must not imagine that anyone slips and comes to grief by a sudden fall, but that he falls by a hopeless collapse either from being deceived by beginning…vatican.va