Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
We should sleep halfawake…. A man who is asleep is not good for anything, any more than a man who is dead. Therefore, even during the night we should rouse ourselves from sleep often and give praise to God. Blessed are they who have kept watch for him, for they make themselves like the angels whom we speak of as ever watchful. .
So that you may know that the prayers which are uttered in time of affliction would have the best chance of being heard, hear what the prophet says, “In my affliction I cried to the Lord, and he listened to me.” Therefore, let us stir up our conscience to fervor, let us afflict our soul with the memory of our sins, not so that it is crushed with anxiety but so that we may make it ready to be heard, so that we make it live in sobriety and watchfulness and ready to attain heaven itself. Nothing puts carelessness and negligence to flight the way grief and affliction do. They bring together our thoughts from every side and make our mind turn back to ponder itself. The man who prays in this way, in his affliction, after many a prayer, can bring joy into his own soul.
Here he shows, that to be in the day depends on ourselves. For here indeed, in the case of the present day and night, it does not depend on ourselves. But night comes even against our will, and sleep overtakes us when we do not wish it. But with respect to that night and that sleep, it is not so, but it is in our power always to have it day, it is in our power always to watch. For to shut the eyes of the soul, and to bring on the sleep of wickedness, is not of nature, but of our own choice. But let us watch, he says, and be sober. For it is possible to sleep while awake, by doing nothing good. Wherefore he has added, and be sober. For even by day, if any one watches, but is not sober, he will fall into numberless dangers, so that sobriety is the intensity of watchfulness. They that sleep, he says, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. The drunkenness he here speaks of is not that from wine only, but that also which comes of all vices. For riches and the...
Wherefore, let us honor this sacred day, the day on which the author of our salvation appeared. Whom the wise men revered as an infant in his crib, let us worship as allpowerful in heaven. Just as they offered to the Lord mystical kinds of gifts from their treasures, let us bring forth from our hearts things that are worthy of God. Although he himself bestows all good things, he nevertheless asks for the fruit of our effort. For the kingdom of heaven comes not to those who sleep but to those who work and watch according to the Lord’s command. If we do not render his gifts ineffective, we may deserve to receive what he promised through the very things which he has given.
