Steps To The Heights

Sponsionis nostrae et itineris ordo compellit ut abbatis Nesterotis praeclari in omnibus summaeque scientiae viri institutio subsequatur. Qui cum sacrarum Scripturarum nos aliqua memoriae commendasse et eorum intelligentiam desiderare sensisset, talibus nos adorsus est verbis: Multa quidem scientiarum in hoc mundo sunt genera, tanta siquidem earum quanta et artium disciplinarumque varietas est. Sed cum omnes aut omnino inutiles sint, aut praesentis tantum vitae commodis prosint, nulla est tamen quae non habeat proprium doctrinae suae ordinem atque rationem, per quam ab expetentibus possit attingi. Si ergo illae artes ad insinuationem sui certis ac propriis lineis diriguntur, quanto magis religionis nostrae disciplina atque professio, quae ad contemplanda invisibilium sacramentorum tendit arcana, nec praesentis quaestus, sed aeternorum retributionem expetit praemiorum, certo ordine ac ratione subsistit! Cujus quidem duplex est scientia. Prima practice, id est, actualis, quae emendatione morum et vitiorum purgatione perficitur; altera theorice, id est, quae in contemplatione divinarum rerum et sacratissimorum sensuum cognitione consistit. Quisquis igitur ad theoreticen voluerit pervenire, necesse est ut omni studio atque virtute actualem primum scientiam consequatur. Nam haec practice absque theoretica possideri potest, theoretice vero sine actuali omnimodis apprehendi non potest. Gradus enim quidam ita ordinati atque distincti sunt, ut humana humilitas possit ad sublime conscendere: qui si invicem sibi ea qua diximus ratione succedant, potest ad altitudinem perveniri, ad quam sublato primo gradu non potest transvolari. Frustra igitur ad conspectum Dei tendit, qui vitiorum contagia non declinat: Spiritus namque Dei effugiet fictum, nec habitabit in corpore subdito peccatis Sanctus Ioannes Cassianus, Collationes, Collatio XIV, De Spirtiali Scientia Source: Migne PL 49.953b-955b

The order of our promise and course demands that the instruction of the Abbot Nesteros should follow, a man of excellence in all points and of the greatest knowledge. When he had seen that we had committed some parts of Holy Scripture to memory and desired understanding of them, he addressed us in these words. 'There are indeed many different kinds of knowledge in this world, certainly as great a variety as there is of the arts and sciences. But though all are either utterly useless or useful only for the goods of this present life, there is yet not one that does not have its own system and method for learning it, by which it can be grasped by those who seek it. If then those arts are guided by certain specific rules for the understanding of themselves, how much more does the system and expression of our religion, which tends to the contemplation of the secrets of invisible mysteries and seeks nothing of the present but only the gain of eternal rewards, depend on a fixed order and scheme? The knowledge of this is twofold: first, practical, which is brought about by an improvement of morals and purification from faults; second, theoretical, which consists in the contemplation of Divine things and the knowledge of most sacred thoughts. Whoever then would arrive at theoretical knowledge must first pursue practical knowledge with all his resolve and might. For this practical knowledge can be acquired without the theoretical, but the theoretical cannot possibly be gained without the practical. For there are certain stages, ordered and distinct, by which human humility is able to rise to the heights, and if these follow each other in turn in the way as we have said, man can attain to a height to which he could not fly if the first step were removed. Vainly, therefore, does one who does not refuse the pollution of the vices strive for the vision of God, 'For the spirit of God hates deception and dwells not in a body subject to sins.' 1 Saint John Cassian, Conferences, Conference 14, On Spiritual Knowledge 1 Wisdom 1.4-5