Isaac of Nineveh

In his own words on Ezekiel

• Ezekiel 16:49

  The soul … that devotes herself to the recollection of profitable things finds rest in her freedom; her cares are small, and she repents of nothing. She takes forethought for virtue, she bridles the passions, she keeps guard upon excellence, and thus she enjoys growth [that is unhindered], joy free of solicitude, a good life and a perilless haven.

  ASCETICAL HOMILIES 40

• Ezekiel 33:14-15

  Remember God, that He too might always remember you; and when He has kept you in His memory and preserved you safe to the end, you will receive every blessing from Him. Do not forget Him, your mind being distracted with futile concerns, lest He forget you in the time of your warfare. When you enjoy abundance, be obedient to Him, so that in the time of your afflictions you may have boldness before Him through the heart's persevering prayer to Him.

  ASCETICAL HOMILIES 5

• Ezekiel 36:25

  Seek the Lord, O sinners, and be strengthened in your thoughts because of hope. And seek his face through repentance at all times. You will be sanctified by the holiness of his presence, and you will be purified of your iniquity.

  ON ASCETICAL LIFE 5:76

• Ezekiel 36:26

  The image of Christ is formed in us through the Spirit of wisdom and the revelation of the knowledge of Him.

  ASCETICAL HOMILIES 37

• Ezekiel 40:2

  Ezekiel was caught away supranaturally by the action of revelation, and he came to Jerusalem; and in a divine revelation he was a beholder the renewal that was to come. It is likewise with purity of soul. Some, going by the well-trodden road of the law through keeping the commandments in a life of many labours, enter into purity of soul by sweat and blood; and there are others who are vouchsafed purity of soul by the gift of grace. It is a marvellous thing that we are not permitted to ask in prayer for the purity that is granted us by grace and so to reject the active and laborious manner of life.

  EPISTLE TO ABBA SYMEON OF CAESAREA

• Ezekiel 44:9

  When the mind is longingly involved with one of these stirrings—this depends on the urgency of the matter at the time of supplication and is the result of great eagerness—the gaze of its stirring is drawn by the eye of faith inside the veil of the heart, and the entries of the soul are fenced off, keeping out alien thoughts, which are called "strangers," who are not permitted by the law to enter inside the tent of witness. This is what they describe as "an acceptable sacrifice of the heart" and "pure prayer." Prayer's boundaries reach this point: afterwards it is not to be named prayer.

  MYSTICAL TREATISES 22

• Ezekiel 47:3

  After these things, the intellect comes to behold that which in Ezekiel the Prophet is indicated by the apparition of the torrent, which depicts the figure of the three stages of soul that draw nigh to things divine, and beyond the third there is no passage. The beginning of all these things is a good purpose directed toward God, the manifold labours of stillness, and the straightforwardness that is born of prolonged separation from the world.

  ASCETICAL HOMILIES 18