“I do not blame you for committing various sins, even serious ones. No, I don’t. You are human. But I do blame you for not confessing them. Did you fall? Run to your Spiritual Father. Did you fall? Confess everything to your Spiritual Father. Remember Saint Mary of Egypt? The very first thing she did was to confess her sins.”
“For whoever kneels even just once under the Stole of the Priest, Divine Providence will arrange things in such a way that Christ will finally gain him.”
“The Saints faced sorrows, trials, and temptations with patience. They never asked to be given a break from them and so they gained their reward in Heaven.”
“Blasphemous thoughts must be opposed with contempt. Only in this way do they disappear. Blasphemous thoughts are inspired by the devil they are not ours. Here we can affirm that the Lord’s word has validity: “You cannot serve God and mammon”, (Matt. 6:24) that is, the nous cannot do two things simultaneously. It cannot be enchanted by the sweetest nectar of the Jesus Prayer on the one hand and the other hand, while it is Praying, doubt the power of Prayer or Dogmatic Truths. The latter is the attack of the devil. Contempt then is needed and if the blasphemous thought continually attacks us, it needs Confession to the Spiritual Father. Then it disappears immediately. Moreover, the same happens with persistent thoughts. A thought that persists, especially during Prayer, needs to be Confessed. Thus the devil who hides under it immediately disappears, like the snake when we lift the stone… The athlete of Prayer must not let himself be shaken. He must oppose imagination with the continuous invocation of the Name of Jesus, and he must be concentrated on the words of the Jesus Prayer. He must stand bravely in the conciseness of the Jesus Prayer. He must not think of anything during Prayer, either of wrong or even good works… Many times the devil, appears and talks to the athlete of Prayer. He challenges him and tries to open a dialogue with him. Sometimes he blames the athlete, sometimes he praises him, sometimes he scoffs at him, and sometimes he interprets certain acts wrongly. The inexperienced in this Spiritual contest start talking with the devil and answering his questions and his assaults. However, this is an error, especially for the beginners, because the inexperienced in these situations are defeated even if it seems that the devil was put to flight by their replies. Confusion and fear remain. And later, when they recall this scene and all that was said, they will be shaken and troubled. The Fathers recommend that those who do not have the experience and the necessary strength should not answer. They must be indifferent to the devil and despise him. They must do the same in the war against their thoughts. Thus contempt against the devil and perseverance in Jesus’ Prayer is needed…”
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