“Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Science without humanity Knowledge without character Politics without principle Commerce without morality Worship without sacrifice. https://vidjambov.blogspot.com/2023/01/book-inventory-vladimir-djambov-talmach.html The goal of the Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit, in communion with God. Communion with God is the essence of our salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. /// The path to salvation is the fulfillment of the commandments of God, life in Christ, or, what is the same, the Christian pious, virtuous life. /// The Christian virtuous life of every Christian has two essential aspects: the struggle against tempting evil (the struggle against sinful passions and vices) and the acquisition of Christian virtues. /// This book is devoted to these vital issues - the fight against the main sinful passions (vices) and the acquisition of basic Christian virtues. /// This far from finished work arose on the basis of conversations that the author, acting as a mentor, conducted with students of the seminary. These conversations have been completed and expanded, brought into the system. /// Many books have been written on the fight against passions and on Christian virtues by people experienced in the spiritual life under the guidance of Sts. fathers. There are also extensive scientific works from the field of asceticism. /// This same book is not a scientific treatise or study; rather, it is a systematized collection of patristic thoughts on individual, most important, issues of active Christian life, which has, mainly, a moral and edifying purpose. The author in his work sought to present the patristic teaching and experience in a form that is understandable and intelligible to the modern reader and to show their necessary applicability in the life of every Christian, for the commandments of God and the laws of spiritual life are common to all Christians, no matter what way of life and ascetic labor they pursue. /// In particular, the author had in mind that the book would serve as a manual for students of the seminary, candidates for the priesthood, so that they could get acquainted with the patristic teaching on this issue in an assembled form. Acquaintance of the candidate of the priesthood with the questions of Christian asceticism according to the teaching and experience of Sts. fathers and ascetics is of great importance for their future pastoral activity. /// The second and immediate goal of writing this work was also one’s own benefit: “in order to move oneself to correction, to the denunciation of one’s poor soul, so that, although being ashamed of words,” as St. John of the Ladder, - began to work having not yet acquired any good deed, but only words . And Rev. Nilus of Sinai points out that “he who does not do good should speak of good things, so that, being ashamed of words, he begins deeds” 2 . /// The book is divided into two parts. The first part gives general concepts about sin, sinful passions and self-love as the source of all sin and vice. Then a strategic teaching is presented about each of the main passions separately: about pride and vanity, about gluttony and fornication and the fight against them, about greed and anger, about envy, slander and condemnation, and, finally, about sinful sadness and despondency. /// The second part is devoted to the study of the main Christian virtues: love, humility, meekness, temperance and chastity - those virtues that a Christian needs to acquire in the active eradication of the above main passions. /// Therefore, when studying chapters, for example, on carnal passions (gluttony and fornication), it is useful to follow this (from the 2nd part) to assimilate the patristic teaching about the main eradicators of these passions - the virtues of temperance and chastity. When studying the issue of struggle with self-love, pride, greed and envy, one should follow this by studying the patristic teaching on love and humility. Anger has its opposite in meekness, etc.

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” —1 Peter 5:5 A battle rages within every one of us every day. It’s the clash between our sense of stubborn self-sufficiency and God’s call to recognize that we’re really nothing without Him. It’s pride versus humility. And it’s a fight we can’t win without looking repeatedly to Christ and the cross. C. J. Mahaney raises a battle cry to daily, diligently, and deliberately weaken our greatest enemy (pride) and cultivate our greatest friend (humility). His thorough examination clarifies misconceptions, revealing the truth about why God detests pride and turns His active attention to the humble. Because pride is never passive, defeating it demands an intentional attack. The blessing that follows is God’s abundant favor. “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit.” —Isaiah 66:2, ESV God clearly states that He is drawn to the humble. He’s also clear that He opposes the proud. These two, humility and pride, cannot coexist. Where one is fostered, the other is defeated. Which will you pursue? When you acknowledge the deception of pride and intentionally humble yourself, you become free to savor abundant mercies and unlikely graces. You will find a new life is yours—a life God richly favors. A God-glorifying life you don’t want to miss.

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In Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance, Matthew Levering argues that Catholic ethics make sense only in light of the biblical worldview that Jesus has inaugurated the kingdom of God by pouring out his spirit. Jesus has made it possible for us to know and obey God’s law for human flourishing as individuals and communities. He has reoriented our lives toward the goal of beatific communion with him in charity, which affects the exercise of the moral virtues that pertain to human flourishing. Without the context of the inaugurated kingdom, Catholic ethics as traditionally conceived will seem like an effort to find a middle ground between legalistic rigorism and relativistic laxism, which is especially the case with the virtue of temperance, the focus of Levering’s book. After an opening chapter on the eschatological/biblical character of Catholic ethics, the ensuing chapters engage Aquinas’s theology of temperance in the Summa theologiae, which identifies and examines a number of virtues associated with temperance. Levering demonstrates that the theology of temperance is profoundly biblical, and that Aquinas’s theology of temperance relies for its intelligibility upon Christ’s inauguration of the kingdom of God as the graced fulfillment of our created nature. The book develops new vistas for scholars and students interested in moral theology.