Isaac the Syrian Quotes

There is a spiritual perception which is born out of meditation;

That the intellect should <find itself> standing during the office or in prayer continually, again and again,

There are times when a person is transported from prayer to a wondrous meditation on God.

So these are the different kinds of paths which discerning solitaries follow,

And when, again, he departs from these things,

It can also happen that from time to time a certain stillness, without any insights, can fall upon a person,

But what need is there to speak of the ascetics,

What watering is to plants, exactly the same is continual silence for the growth of knowledge.

Let us then love stillness, my brethren,

Or maybe there is someone who imagines that the level and the stirring of spiritual prayer consists in one of these things.

O, how evil for hesychasts is the sight of men and intercourse with them!

Just as the non-rational light was entrusted for the distinction of bodies,

Just as the sight of someone standing beside smoke cannot become clear

The first delight of the spiritual revelation of the mind is the contemplation of the care of God,

The whole length of the night is as the day to them,