§101
JUST as bread is nourishment for the body and virtue [is nourishment] for the soul, so spiritual prayer is the nourishment for the nous.
§102
PRAY, not like the Pharisee, but like the publican in the holy place of prayer, so that you too may be justified by God (Lk 18:10-14).
§103
STRUGGLE not to curse anyone in your prayer, so as not to make your prayer disgusting, [thus] destroying what you are building up.
§104
THE debtor who owed ten thousand talents (cf Mat 18:23-35) ought to instruct you: if you do not forgive your debtor, you yourself will not win forgiveness (Mat 6:15). For it says, He gave him over to the torturers (Mat 18:34).
§105
DISMISS the necessities of the body during your attendance at prayer, so that you do not lose the great benefit of your prayer through the bite of a flea, a louse a mosquito or a carrion-fly.
106_apophthegmata
§106
IT has come to us how, when one of the holy ones was praying, the evil one was so opposed to him that, as soon as [the holy one] raised his hands, [the evil one] changed his shape into that of a lion and, raising his front paws up, fixed his claws in both sides of the muscles of the combatant's thighs and would not move away until [the holy one] lowered his hands. However he did not let them down before completing his customary prayers.
§107
WE know of another similar monk who lived in a secluded cistern, John the Short - or rather John the Very Great - who remained without moving from his [intimate] communion with God as the demon in the form of a serpent coiled around him and constricted his flesh, disgorging it into his face.
§108
AND you have read the lives of the Tabennesiote monks, where it says that as Abba Theodore was speaking a word to the brothers, two vipers crawled towards his feet; but he, undisturbed, made for them a kind of vaulted chamber [of his feet] and let them stay there until he had finished his word. Then he showed them to the brothers interpreting what had happened.
§109
WE have also read of another spiritual brother who, while praying a snake came and fastened upon his foot. But he did not lower his hands until he had completed his customary prayer, and was not at all harmed - loving God more than himself.
§110
KEEP the eye from roaming during your prayer and deny your flesh and your soul (cf Lk 9:23), and live according to [the] nous.
111_fiery_prayer
§111
ANOTHER holy solitary in the desert was attacked by demons for two weeks while vigorously focusing on his prayer: [as if] playing ball with him, they threw him up into the air catching him on a rush mat. They were completely unable to even briefly bring his nous down from its fiery* prayer.
*fiery supplication DeOrat 94; cf. Cassian Conf 9.15]
§112
AND [yet] another lover of God was praying with thoughtful foresight while going about in the desert when two angels came and walked on either side of him. But he did not attend to them at all, so as not to lose what was better. He remembered the saying of the apostle that neither angels, principalities or powers will be able to separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:38-9).
§113
A MONK becomes equal to the angels (Lk 20:36) by means of true prayer, yearning to see the face of the Father who is in heaven (Mt. 18:10).
§114
DO not seek in any way at all to receive some form or shape or color at the time of prayer.
§115
DO not yearn to see angels or powers or Christ through the senses, so as not to become completely insane by receiving a wolf instead of a shepherd (cf. Jn 10:11-12), and worshipping your enemies the demons.
§116
THE beginning of [deceptive] wandering of the nous is vainglory; by it the nous is moved to try to circumscribe the divine in shape and form.
§117
I WILL speak my piece - and to the youngest I have said it: blessed is the nous that, at the time of prayer, has acquired perfect formlessness.
118_Macarisms
§118
BLESSED is the nous that, praying without distraction, receives a continually increasing yearning for God.
119 immaterial nous at prayer
§119
BLESSED is the nous that at the time of prayer becomes immaterial and wholly dispossessed.
120 Insensible anesthetic nous
§120
BLESSED is the nous that at the time of prayer acquires perfect insensibility .
§121
BLESSED is the monk who considers himself the offscouring of all (1Cor. 4:13).
§122
BLESSED is the monk who regards every human being as God, after God. [cf. Evag.Maxims 2.23: μετὰ θεὸν θεός]
§123
BLESSED is the monk who looks upon the salvation and progress of all with profound joy, as if it were his own.
§124
A MONK is one who is both separated from all and joined to all.
§125
A MONK is one who considers himself to be one with all, because he continuously thinks he sees himself in each one.