153 Practical and Theological Texts

A century and a half of texts combining practical advice with visionary theology. Symeon moves freely between concrete guidance on ascetic practice and rapturous descriptions of encounters with divine light. The 153 texts echo the symbolic number used by Evagrius for his texts on prayer. The combination of the practical and the mystical makes this collection a good representation of Symeon's distinctive approach, in which the heights of contemplation are inseparable from the daily disciplines of repentance and self-examination.