Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

104 DIFFICULTY 10
C
D
1125A
finding the flesh [simply] a cloud, darkening through its
passions the pilot of the soul, so that he might become a
partaker of those ineffable things that he desires, so far as
that is possible to one still bound to flesh subject to corruption,
and become a firm assurance for us of those things that are
promised. For through all these things that with a secret
meaning were wordlessly enacted, God cries out, setting this
before him, that to be with God alone in peace is more
profitable that any other good.
13
Contemplation of Elisha 27
So Elijah’s disciple and spiritual successor, Elisha, no longer
possessed senses that were controlled in their activity by
material imaginations, but he had already passed to the
graces of the Spirit in the mind. For he saw around him the
divine powers opposed to the wicked powers with another
activity of his eyes and was able to grant his companion to see
that this power was stronger than weakness, that is, the flesh,
by means of which the spirits of wickedness invade the clearsighted
mind, and even more possess the soul, around which
the phalanxes of angels pitch their camps and lay siege to the
royal image. 28 All this he both was taught and taught to
others.
14
Contemplation of Anna and Samuel 29
So the blessed Anna, the mother of the great Samuel, being
barren and childless, asked God for the fruit of the womb, and
fervently promised to give back to God who had given it the
baby she was to be given by making him a servant in the
temple. The secret teaching of this is that every soul must be
barren of fleshly pleasures through being sown by God with
the seeds of virtue, so that, conceiving in the mind and giving
birth to reason obedient to God, it might be able to bring forth
the power to see with knowledge what is in front of it, through
a religious attention to contemplation. So that judging nothing
its own, as a great and precious obligation, everything is
referred to God who gives and receives. As it says in the law,
My gifts, my presents, my offering of fruit, take care to offer to
me (Num. 28:2), since every good thing originates from Him
and is destined for Him. For the Word of God belongs to those