On the Holy Fathers of Sketis and on Discrimination

The famous Conferences with Abba Moses on discernment, drawn from Cassian's encounters with the Desert Fathers of Sketis. One of the most readable texts in the entire Philokalia — a conversation rather than a treatise, in which the elder teaches the younger monk how to distinguish between thoughts that come from God, from the self, and from the enemy. The dialogue form makes the teaching vivid and immediate. This text is the Philokalia's most important single treatment of the virtue of discrimination (diakrisis).