John Cassian brought the teaching of the Egyptian monks to the West: the twelve books of the Institutes on the monk's life and the eight principal faults, the twenty-four Conferences with the Abbots of Egypt, and his seven books On the Incarnation against Nestorius. Modern English from the Post-Nicene Fathers translation.
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Contents
The Conferences, Conference 21
1How Theonas Came to Abbot John2Abbot John Welcomes the Tithes3Tithes and Firstfruits4Saints Who Went Beyond the Law5The Gospel Asks More Than the Law6Pardon for the Weak, the Kingdom for the Perfect7Under Grace or Under the Law8Theonas Urges His Wife to Renounce the World9Theonas Flees to a Monastery10Not a Case for Leaving Wives11Why Egypt Neither Fasts Nor Kneels for Fifty Days12Things Good, Bad, and Indifferent13What Kind of Good Fasting Is14Fasting Is Not Good in Itself15The Highest Good Is Not Done for a Lesser One16How to Know What Is Good in Itself17The Reason for Fasting and Its Worth18Fasting Is Not Always Fitting19Why Fifty Days and Not Forty?20The Fifty Days of the Festival21Does the Long Feast Endanger Chastity?22Keeping Abstinence in Balance23The Time and Measure of Refreshment24A Question About the Length of Lent25Lent as the Tithe of the Year26Offering Our Firstfruits to the Lord27Why Lent Is Kept for Different Numbers of Weeks28Why the Fast Is Called the Forty Days29How the Perfect Go Beyond the Rule of Lent30How Lent Began31What “Sin Will Not Have Dominion” Means32Grace and the Commands of the Law33The Gospel’s Commands Are Gentler Than the Law’s34How to Tell Who Is Under Grace35Why Strict Fasting Can Bring Harder Struggles36The Question Kept for Another Conference