Three Kinds of Calling and Three Renunciations

Then the blessed Paphnutius said: There are three kinds of calling. And we know that there are three kinds of renunciation as well, which are necessary to a monk, whatever his calling may be. We ought first to examine carefully the reason why we said there are three kinds of calling. Then, when we are sure that we were summoned to God’s service by the first kind of calling, we may take care that our life is in harmony with the lofty height to which we are called; for it will be of no use to have made a good beginning if we do not show an end that matches it. But if we feel that we were dragged away from a worldly life only as a last resort, then, since we evidently rest on a less satisfactory beginning in the religious life, we must make all the more earnest efforts to rouse ourselves with spiritual fervor to make a better end. It is good on every ground, too, for us to know, secondly, the way of the threefold renunciation, because we will never be able to reach perfection if we do not know it, or if we know it but do not try to carry it out in practice.