Letter 368

To Vincentius the Ascetic. By however much you think you are disciplining the body harshly through a laborious and rather severe regimen, by that much the more humble your own heart, debasing and reducing yourself to nothing, so that vainglory may not take a foothold in you, and you reap a nettle instead of wheat, and your labors be lost.

Ὅσον δοκεῖς τὸ σῶμα σκληραγωγεῖν τῇ ἐπιπόνῳ καὶ τραχυτέρᾳ διαίτῃ, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον τὴν σεαυτοῦ καρδίαν ταπείνωσον, κατευτελίζων, καὶ ἐξουδενῶν σεαυτόν, ἵνα μὴ τῆς κενοδοξίας χώραν λαδοῦσης ἔν σοι, ἀντὶ πυοῦ, κνίδην θερίσης, καὶ οἱ κόποι ἀπόλυνται.