Psalms 120:6

"My soul hath wandered much" [Psalm 120:6]. Lest thou shouldest understand bodily wandering, he hath said that the soul wandered. The body wandereth in places, the soul wandereth in its affections. If thou love the earth, thou wanderest from God: if thou lovest God, thou risest unto God. Let us be exercised in the love of God, and of our neighbour, that we may return unto charity. If we fall towards the earth, we wither and decay. But one descended unto this one who had fallen, in order that he might arise. Speaking of the time of his wandering, he said that he wandered in the tents of Kedar. Wherefore? Because "my soul hath wandered much." He wandereth there where he ascendeth. He wandereth not in the body, he riseth not in the body. But wherein doth he ascend? "The ascent," he saith, "is in the heart."

With those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they attacked me without cause. Unhappy we, we cannot restrain our tongue, we cannot help slandering the brethren. If someone offends us, we as it were present a peaceful face, but for the rest the heart has poison. We are called monks, and although we are not such as we ought to be, yet we are so called. At the third hour we pray, at the sixth hour we pray, at the ninth, we hold the lamp-lighting, at midnight we rise, then at cockcrow we pray. See at what hours we are always roused for the service of God. See what he says: the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, the lamp-lighting, midnight, cockcrow, early morning. All this we do, and we do not consider that if our soul holds enmities against a brother, we pray in vain. For in the Gospel what is said? 'If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you.' See what he says. He did not say, if you have something against your brother; but, if your brother has something against you. He seems to lay upon us something as it were unjust: for if he had said, if you have something against your brother, it would have been in our power what we had. But now what does he say? If you remember that your brother has something against you. I answer him: Lord, this is not in my power, whether my brother has something against me: I have nothing against him. If he has something against me, what does it concern me? and why do you refuse to receive my gift and say, If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you: leave, he says, your gift, and go be reconciled to your brother, and so you shall offer your gift? Behold, I have nothing: if he has, what does it concern me? The Lord answers you, and what does he say? Wicked servant, I understand your mind: you have nothing against your brother? you have nothing? do you love him? why then do you not want him to be saved? if you love him, go, ask him not to have anything against you, so that he may be saved. But you show that you do not love him, because you do not want him to be saved. Go, ask him, cast yourself at his feet, entreat him day and night: say, I have left my gift at the altar, on your account I cannot offer the victims. He is pricked with compunction, and what does he say? If this man who asks me does not…