from PRAYERS BY THE LAKE by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, a bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, is regarded by many as a saint yet to be canonized. Little by little his writings are being translated into English. He died in 1956. He is best known for The Prologue from Ochrid, a four-volume work on the lives of the saints (published by the Lazarica Press, 131 Cob Lane, Birmingham B30 1QE, England). The first volume of The Holimies will soon be available from the same publisher. Our thanks to Sinisa Rakic of the Wolkentheater in Amsterdam for suggesting publication of several of his "Prayers by the Lake" and to Mother Maria Rule for the translation.

Men can do me no evil as long as I bear no wound.

I saw two caves, one of which gave off an echo, while the other was dumb. Many curious children visited the former, incessantly engaged in shouting matches with the cave. But visitors quickly left the other cave, because it gave them no echo in return.

If my soul is wounded, every worldly evil will resound within it. And people will laugh at me, and will bear more and more strongly on me with their shouting.

But evil-speaking people will not really harm me, if my tongue has forgotten how to form evil words.

Nor will external malice sadden me, if there is no malice in my heart to resound like a goatskin drum.

Nor shall I be able to respond to wrath with wrath if the lair of wrath within me has been vacated and there is nothing to be aroused.

Nor will human passions titillate me if the passions within me have been turned to ashes.

Nor will the untruthfulness of friends sadden me if I have chosen Thee for my friend.

Nor can the injustice of the world overwhelm me if injustice has been banished from my thoughts.

Nor will the deceitful spirits of worldly pleasure, honor and power delude me, if my soul is like a spotless bride, who receives only the Holy Spirit and yearns for Him alone.

Men cannot send anyone off to hell unless that person sends himself, nor can men hoist anyone up on their shoulders to the throne of God, unless that person elevates himself.

If my soul has no open windows, no mud can be thrown into it.

Let all nature rise up against me; it can do nothing to me except a single thing -- to become as soon as possible the grave of my body.

Every worldly crop is covered with manure, so that it will sprout as soon as possible and grow better. If my soul were, alas, to abandon its virginity and receive the seed of this world into itself, then it would also have to accept the manure that the world casts on its fields.

But I call upon Thee day and night: "Come, dwell in my soul and close all the places where my enemies can enter. Make the cavern of my soul empty and dumb, so that no one from the world will desire to enter it."

O my soul, my only care, be on guard and learn to distinguish between the voices that smite your ears. Once you hear the voice of your Lord, abandon your dumbness and echo it with all your strength.

O my soul, thou cavern of eternity, never allow temporal thieves to enter into thee and kindle their fire within thee. Be dumb when they shout at you. Stay still when they bang on you, and patiently await your Master -- for He will truly come.

Love and self-control liberate the soul from its obsessions.

Reading and reflection deliver the intellect from ignorance.

Regular prayer brings the soul into the very presence of God.

THE CONDITION OF A SINNER

By St. Theophan the Recluse, from "The Path to Salvation."

 For the most part, the word of God depicts the sinner, who is faced with the necessity of renewal in repentance, as being submerged in deep slumber. The distinguishing characteristic of such people is not always outright depravity, but rather the absence in the strictest sense of inspired, selfless zeal for pleasing God, together with a decided aversion for everything sinful. Devotion is not the main concern of their cares and labors; they are attentive about many other things, but are completely indifferent to their salvation, and do not sense what danger they are in. They neglect the good life and lead a life that is cold in faith, though it be occasionally righteous and outwardly irreproachable.

Particulars for a Person Who Lacks Grace

 That is the general characteristic. Here are the particulars for a person who lacks grace: Once he has turned away from God, the person dwells on himself, and makes self the main goal of his life and activity. This is because at this point, after God, there is for him nothing higher than self, especially because, having previously received every abundance from God and having now forgotten Him, he hurries and takes care to fill himself up with something. The emptiness that has formed inside him because of his falling away from God causes an unquenchable thirst inside him that is vague but constant. The person has become a bottomless abyss.

 He makes every effort to fill this abyss, but he cannot see or feel it getting full. Thus, he spends his entire life in sweat, toil and great labors; he busies himself with various occupations in which he hopes to find a way to quench his unquenchable thirst. These occupations take up all his attention, all his time and all his activity. They are the highest good, in which he lives with his whole heart. Thus, it is clear why a person who makes self his exclusive goal is never himself; instead, every­thing is outside him, in things either created or acquired by vanity. He has fallen away from God, Who is the fullness of everything.

He himself is empty; it remains for him to seemingly pour himself out into an endless variety of things and live in them. Thus, the sinner thirsts, fusses, and troubles himself with occupations and numerous things outside himself and God. This is why a characteristic trait of sinful life is, in its disregard for salvation, the care and trouble about many things (cf. Lk 10:41).

The Care and Trouble about Many Things

The nuances and distinctions of this care and trouble about many things depend on the kinds of emptiness that have formed in the soul. There is the emptiness of the mind that has forgotten the One Who is everything; this gives rise to care and trouble about learnedness, inquisitiveness, questioning and curiosity. There is the emptiness of the will that has been deprived of possession by the One Who is everything; this creates desire for many things, the longing to possess many things, so that everything is in our control, in our hands; this is self-interest.

There is the emptiness of the heart that has been deprived of the enjoyment of the One Who is everything; this forms a thirst for the satisfaction of many and various things, or a search for an infinite number of objects in which we hope to find pleasure for our senses, both internal and external. Thus, the sinner is continually troubled about learnedness, the possession of many things, and the desire for many pleasures. He amuses himself, he possesses, he questions. He goes around in circles his entire life. Curiosity beckons, the heart hopes to taste sweet things, and he is enticed by the will. Anyone can convince himself of this if he observes the movements of his soul over the course of only a single day.

If left alone, the sinner will continue going in circles, because this is our nature when it is enslaved to sin. However, when the sinner is in the company of others, the circles he goes around increase in number a thousandfold and become more convoluted. There is an entire world full of people who arc continually doing things, questioning, amusing themselves, and scrounging about, whose every way in all of this has led to a system, placed everyone under its laws, and made these laws a necessity for everyone who belongs to this sphere. In this common alliance, they inevitably come into contact, rub up against each other, and in this rubbing succeed in elevating inquisitiveness, self-interest, and self-pleasure to the tenth, hundredth and thousandth degree, thereby placing all happiness, joy and life in this frenzy.

 This is the world of vanity, in which occupations, ways, rule, connections, language, diversions, amusements, concepts—everything, from the smallest to the greatest thing—arc permeated by the spirit of these three fiends of many cares and trouble mentioned above. It is what constitutes the dreary going around in circles by the spirits of worldly people. Being in living communion with this entire world, each sinner is caught up in its thousandfold net, and is so deeply entangled in it that it is invisible to him. Such a heavy burden lies on each worldly person and each of his parts, that he does not have the strength to be stirred in the smallest way by anything that is not worldly, because this would seem like raising a thousand-pound weight to him. Thus, no one undertakes such an unmanageable task, and no one thinks to undertake it; instead, everyone lives on, moving in the rut into which they have fallen.

The Seductions of the Prince of this World

Even worse is the prince of this world who is unparalleled in his cunning, spitefulness and experience in seduction. It is through the flesh and materialism with which the soul became mingled at the fall that he has free access to the soul. In his approach, he kindles curiosity, self-interest, and pleasure-loving self-comfort in various ways. Through various enticements, he holds the soul in these things with no escape; through various suggestions he suggests plans for satisfying them and then either aids in fulfilling them, or thwarts them through instruction of other more ambi­tious plans. All this is accomplished with one purpose: to prolong and deepen a person's involvement in them. This is what constitutes the change of worldly misfortune and fortune, unblessed by God.

The prince of this world has an entire horde of servile spirits of malice that are subordinate to him. At each instant they scurry along every boundary of the inhabited world to sow various things in different places, deepen entanglement in the net of sin, repair traps that have become weak and broken, and especially to guard against anyone who might take it into his mind to rid himself of his bonds and escape to freedom. In the latter case, they hurriedly gather around the self-willed person. First they come one by one, then by detachments and legions until finally, the entire horde is there. This happens in various ways and forms so as to block all exits and mend the strands and nets, and, using the other analogy, to push back into the abyss any person who has begun to crawl out along its steep slopes.

The Invisible Kingdom of Spirits in which Each Sinner Is Immersed

This invisible kingdom of spirits has special places. There are the throne rooms, where plans are drawn up, instructions arrive and reports are received with the approval or reproaches of the chiefs. These are the inner sanctums of satan, as St. John the Theologian expressed it. On earth, in the middle kingdom of people, there are leagues of evil-doers, profligates, and especially nonbelievers and blasphemers, whose deeds, words and writings pour out sinful gloom everywhere and block out the divine light. The aggregate of worldly ways, pervaded with sinful elements that stupefy and draw one away from God, is the organ through which they express their will and power here.

This is the structure of the sinful sphere! Each sinner is immersed in it, but is kept there largely on account of some particular thing. This thing, perhaps, is in appearance tolerable, even laudable. Satan has a single concern; that is, where a person is completely occupied in his consciousness, attention, and heart, that God not be the sole occupier, but that something outside Him be attached to his mind, will, and heart, so the person has something in place of God and only cares about what he knows and what he enjoys and possesses. Here there are not only carnal and mental passions, but also specious things such as learnedness, artistry, and worldliness that can serve as the bonds of satan for keeping blinded sinners in his power and not allowing them to come to their senses.

The Inner Mood and Condition of the Sinner

If one looks at the sinner in his inner mood and condition, it happens sometimes that he is knowledgeable, but is blind with regard to divine things and the matter of his own salvation. Even if he constantly takes care and troubles over things, he is idle and careless in regard to arranging his own salvation; even if he continually experiences anxieties or pleasures of the heart, he is completely insensitive to everything spiritual. In this regard, all forces of being are afflicted by sin; and there is blindness, negligence and insensitivity in the sinner.

He does not see his own condition, and therefore does not sense the danger of his situation. He does not sense his danger and therefore does not take the trouble and care to be delivered from it. The necessity to change and be saved does not even enter his mind. He has complete, unshakable confidence that he is at his proper station in life, wants for nothing and must therefore leave everything the way it is. Therefore, he considers any reminder about another kind of life to be superfluous for himself; he does not listen, and cannot even understand what it is for. He avoids and shuns it.

Civilization is good, but—for it to be beneficial—the soul must also become civilized; otherwise, it is a catastrophe. St. Kosmas said, "Evil will come from the educated."[*] Although science has progressed so much, and made such great advances, with whatever they do to try to help the world, without realizing it, they are destroying it. God left man to rule over himself, as he wouldn't listen to Him, and so he suffers at his own hands. Man destroys himself with his inventions.

 Elder Paisios the Athonite

This prophecy of St. Cosmas' refers to those educated people who don't have the fear of God.

3. God belongs to all free beings. He is the life of all, the salvation of all-faithful and unfaithful, just and unjust, pious and impious, passionate and dispassionate, monks and laymen, wise and simple, healthy and sick, young and old just as the effusion of light, the sight of the sun, and the changes of the seasons are for all alike; for there is no respect of persons with God.

9. All who enter upon the good fight, which is hard and close, but also easy, must realize that they must leap into the fire,  they really expect the celestial fire to dwell in them. But, let everyone examine himself', and so let him eat the bread of it with its bitter herbs, and let him drink the cup of it with its tears, lest his service lead to his own judgment.

11. To lag in the fight at the very outset of the struggle and thereby to furnish a token of our coming slaughter is a very hateful and dangerous thing. A firm beginning will certainly be useful for us when we later grow slack. A soul that is strong at first, but then relaxes, is spurred on by the memory of its former zeal. And in this way new wings are often obtained..

12. When the soul betrays itself and loses the blessed and longed-for fervour, let it carefully investigate the reason for losing it. And let it arm itself with all its longing and zeal against whatever has caused this. For the former fervour can return only through the same door through which it was lost.

15. Let us eagerly run our course as men called by our God and King, lest, since our time is short, we be found in the day of our death without fruit and perish of hunger. Let us please the Lord as soldiers please their king; because we are required to give an exact account of our service after the campaign. Let us fear the Lord not less than we fear beasts. For I have seen men who were going to steal and were not afraid of God, but, hear­ing the barking of dogs, they at once turned back; and what the fear of God could not achieve was done by the fear of animals. Let us love God at least as much as we respect our friends. For I have often seen people who had offended God and were not in the least perturbed about it. And I have seen how those same people provoked their friends in some trifling matter, and then employed every artifice, every device, every sacrifice, every apology, both personally and through friends and relatives, not sparing gifts, in order to regain their former love.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard an interview on the radio. It was a story related to the effects of hormone, specifically testosterone. Through this radio message, God was speaking to me.
 
The interviewee shared his experience of having no testosterone for 4 months. During this time, he said that he had no passion, no drive, no desire for anything (food, hobbies, etc.) All desire to do and want left him. It didn't matter what he ate or what he saw, he had no judgment of it. Instead, the one prevailing thought he had was "That's beautiful." A crack on the wall was beautiful. A scar on the knee was beautiful. He said that it made him feel closer to God. He said that it was so pleasant because he had no wants.
 
While his experience is may have been entirely physiological, the man's story resonated a stronger message and metaphor. If a man, whose desires are involuntarily muted by a physical ailment, can see the world in a more humble view, then how much more can a man see if he voluntarily surrenders his desires to God's grace...if he seeks to change is spiritual DNA?!! 
 
Powerful! 

Step 2: On Detatchment

1. The man who really loves the Lord, who has made a real effort to find the future Kingdom, who is really pained by his sins, who is really mindful of eternal torment and judgment, who really lives in fear of his own departure, will not love, care or worry about money, or possessions, or parents, or worldly glory, or friends, or brothers, or anything at all on earth. But having shaken off all ties with earthly things and having stripped himself of all his cares, and having come to hate even his own flesh, and having stripped himself of everything, he will follow Christ without anxiety or hesitation, always looking Heavenward and expecting help from there, according to the word of the saint: My soul hath cleaved after Thee; I and according to that other ever-memorable man who said: l have not wearied of following Thee, nor have I desired the day or rest of man, O Lord.

It is the same in the sacrament of confession: the more shame we feel when we make ourselves naked before God, the more strength is given to us to overcome sin and the passions.

from THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE HEART, Archmandrite Zacharias, pp. 7

(It is interesting that Linda sent this in today and the reading for tonight in Vespers is the passage from Genesis about the creating of ADAM...so even the humor has humor)

On the first day, God created the dog and said:
 'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who  comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of  twenty years.'
 The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only  ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?  So God agreed.
 On the second day, God created the monkey and said: 'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this,  I'll give you a twenty-year life span.' The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a  pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the  Dog did?' And God agreed.
 On the third day , God created the cow and said:
'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and  suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the  farmer 's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'  The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?' And God agreed again.
 On the fourth day, God created humans and said:
 'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll  give you twenty years.' But the human said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave  back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'
 'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.' So that is why for our first twenty years we ea t, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun
 to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at
 everyone.

This divine grace is achieved by exposing to the consciousness and feeling the insignificance and shame of that to which a person is devoted and values so highly. Just as the word of God pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow (Heb. 4:12), so does grace pierce to the division of the heart and sin, and breaks down their unlawful alliance and relationship.

[Elder Sophrony] would often say that if we prayed before meeting one another — a priest with a priest, or a person with his spiritual father, a believer with his priest, or a priest with his bishop — then the meeting can be a prophetic one, because God will give utterance. He said, "If there is prayer especially from both sides, from the one who comes and the one who receives, surely then God will speak.

Archmandrite Zacharias

Walk ye in Him (C012:6), live in Him: this is the supreme commandment. Do not adapt or change Him to your­self, but yourself to Him; do not mould Him in your image, but yourself in His. Only vain heretics—and those who foolishly loose there souls—mould, adapt and change Christ the Theanthropos [God-man] according to their desires and understanding. This is why there are so many 'false Christs' in the world and so many false Christians. The true Lord Christ—the Theanthropos, in the fullness of His evangelical historicity and reality—is wholly in His theanthropic Body: the Orthodox Church. He was in the time of the Apostles, is today, and will be forever."

Blessed Elder St. Justin Popovich (+1979)

ON THOUGHTS, FANTASIES, AND DISTRACTIONS

By Elder Ephraim, from "Counsels form the Holy Mountain."

Fasting is not just abstention from food, but primarily strict abstinence of the senses. When the senses are fed by external things, they transmit a corresponding amount of poison to the nous and the heart, which kills the poor soul's life in God. Our watchful fathers have so much to tell us about the holy fasting of the senses. Their entire teaching is mainly directed at the purification of the nous from sinful fantasies and thoughts, and the purification of the heart from feelings that defile it. Furthermore, they teach that we must eradicate every evil in its beginning to keep the soul clean. As soon as any evil thought whatsoever approaches even slightly, it is absolutely necessary that we drive it away and say the Jesus prayer right away. And when in this manner we confront the thoughts coming from the senses and the devil, very soon we will feel the joy and the profit derived from the fasting of the senses. If Eve had restrained her sense of vision, she would not have poisoned the offspring of her womb, that is, all the people who were born from her. In short, abstinence with the senses saves man from hell.

I pray, my child, that you resist egotistic and proud thoughts, for from them and from similar passions all the other evil passions originate, and by them a poor soul is pushed over the cliff of destruction.

Pay no attention to passionate thoughts; disregard them completely, since the ugliness of evil is written all over their face. Disregarding the thoughts suggested by the devil brings salvation. Humility is the best stratagem, for not engaging in a battle of rebuttal with them and fleeing for refuge in Christ through prayer is humility.

Passionate thoughts may also be expelled by means of rebut­tal, but the fight is difficult and the soldier of Christ must be very experienced to get by without damage, because Satan is also an expert in the Scriptures and he cites arguments to trip up the soldier.

Therefore, whatever he suggests to you through your thoughts—whether it is pride, vainglory, criticism, etc.—let it go in one ear and out the other. Since they are passionate thoughts, it is unnecessary to hold a conversa­tion with them. Lock them out! Tell them, "I do not tolerate associating and speaking with heretical thoughts," and remain firm in your prayer.

Pay no attention to whatever the enemy says to you. As soon as he is about to whisper something in your ear, immediately say, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me," or "Save me," rapidly and without stopping, and soon you will see that the thought—or rather the pressure to accept the thought—has weakened, and you will not remember what exactly he was trying to say.

This method is simpler and more effective than rebuttal—that is, to contradict the thoughts suggested—because after the demon has left and finished everything he had to say, there is nothing left behind as a remnant or shadow. Whereas with rebuttal, when he is defeated and departs, he leaves behind remnants and shadows of whatever he suggested to the soul, this is, faint memories of what one fought against. The first method—i.e., to take refuge immediately in the prayer—is relaxing, and the soul is quickly calmed. On the other hand, the second method—rebuttal—is laborious, and if the soul does not succeed with rebuttal, one is likely to be wounded in proportion to the demon's skill of persuasion.

Flee from sinful thoughts; cut off fantasies, the idol of pro­vocativeness, because Satan—that "know-it-all"—wants to separate you from God your Creator. For when he makes a person guilty by means of sinful consent, the grace of the Holy Spirit leaves, just as a bee flies away from smoke, and then the soul is left without grace and joy, and full of despondency and sorrow. But when we oppose evil fantasies as soon as they first appear in the mind by destroying or repulsing them and im­mediately seize the sword of the spirit—the holy little prayer of our Jesus—with eagerness and zeal at once we shall see the knavish evil thought abandoning its post and conceding the victory to the governing mind, which the grace and mercy of God strengthened.

The cunning devil cannot tolerate seeing the holy guardian angel of our soul stand near us. This abysmal dragon strives to distance him in order to catch us bereft of a bodyguard and swoop down on us like a fearful tempest and devour us. And since he knows that only unchaste thoughts distance this angel, we see him rouse a multitude of filthy thoughts and fantasies of vain idols in order to defile the mind, heart, and body. But when the soldier of God realizes his malice, he seizes the weapon of Christ immediately and disperses his machinations.

My child, be careful with your imagination. All sins origi­nate from the imagination; it is the root of sin. So be careful. As soon as a fantasy of a person or deed comes, of something you saw or heard, immediately drive it away from your mind with anger and the prayer. Say it rapidly and intensely, and at once entreat our Panagia mentally with pain to help you, and I trust in God that you will obtain the victory.

You were proud, and this is why the devil started fighting you. Humble yourself now; abase yourself ; insult yourself mentally, and God, seeing your humility, will help you. Just as you avoid fire so that you do not get burned, and a snake so that you do not get bitten, likewise—and even more so—you should avoid the devil's fantasies! Be careful, I repeat, with filthy fantasies; because this is how great spiritual men have fallen and perished.

Be careful that your mind does not wander here and there, but affix it tightly to the name of Christ. Entreat Him as if He were in front of you by invoking His name with pain of soul, and then you will see how much benefit you will derive. Drive evil thoughts away quickly—kick them out! Shout, "Get out of here, you tramps, out of the temple of God, out of my soul!" Do not leave them inside yourself, because you run the risk of being wounded, and then you will weep and sigh. Be patient, my child. Flee from thoughts as from a fire, for they ravage, chill, and deaden the soul! But if we drive them away with anger, with vigilance, and the prayer, they give rise to great benefit.

So struggle; do not be afraid. Call upon our ready Physician. Not many entreaties are needed; He does not ask for money; He is not disgusted by wounds; He accepts tears like a good Samaritan; He nurses and attends to a person wounded by the noetic thieves.

Therefore let us hasten to Him.

As for obscene thoughts, they spring from the imaginative part of the soul. That is, within the mind appear people, things, and deeds that the five senses of the body have gath­ered and transported into the storehouse of the imagination. And in time, the devil will present to the imagination people or things or songs, etc., that the senses have stored up, and in order to create thoughts he incites the passions so that he may sack the city of God—the heart, that is—and defile it.

Therefore, the whole trick is to drive away fantasies, people, and so on, as soon as they are depicted in our mind. And if we accomplish this, by the grace of God, the evil temptation is eradicated in its beginning and we win with little effort. But if the thoughts persist, we should resist by invoking the name of Christ and confronting those thoughts with anger.

Furthermore, when we see people who scandalize us, we should try not to let the image of them be deposited within us, but we should drive them away at once, lest these im­ages are taken into the imaginative part of our soul, and thus enable the devil to fight us by showing them to us again later.

Regarding your blasphemous thoughts, my child, which the devil is putting in your mind, do not fear. It is due to the jealousy of the evil sower. The devil tries to choke the Christian's soul with the idea that he himself is blaspheming, and in this way to poison his heart! Such thoughts should go in one ear and out the other. That is how much you should disregard them, because these thoughts are not yours.

I am telling you, my child, do not fear. I shall take the responsibility for them. When these thoughts come, say to Satan: "Bring whatever you want. From now on I couldn't care less for anything you say, since all these things are con­trivances of your malice!"

Even though blasphemous thoughts are clearly from the devil, nevertheless we are also partly responsible for them. How? We are responsible because of the hidden pride of our mind that thinks that we are important: this is revealed bythe blasphemous thoughts. They can also originate from our anger, wrath, hatred, etc. Therefore, along with disregarding them, we should take care to reproach ourselves inwardly and fight off every proud thought. Furthermore, we should be at peace with everyone, even if someone harms us.

Do not talk a lot. Stay away from back talk, quarreling, loquacity, and everything that issues from a careless tongue. Drive away evil thoughts and filthy fantasies from your mind as soon as they appear. For when they linger inside the mind and heart, they create a grave condition. Whereas when we are careful at the first appearance of the filthy fantasy and the filthy thought that follows, we remain in peace and enjoy the moral gratification of purity.

Therefore, my children, let us pay attention to ourselves every time various bad thoughts enter, because the same ap­proach applies for every bad thought. Whatever kind it may be, when it finds the nous careless, it enters and creates—cor­responding to the passion- the aforementioned unhealthy condition.

Therefore, since a monk is fought primarily by thoughts, the thing that saves him is watchfulness! Watchfulness (nepsis) is derived from the verb "nefo," that is, to be careful, vigilant, alert, and on our guard. When we are careful, vigilant, alert, and on our guard, the house of our soul will be well-kept and we shall save our souls for which we struggle our whole life. When a person is young, it is impossible not to be fought by filthy thoughts and fantasies. One must drive them away immediately and say the Jesus prayer, and they will leave. But once again they will return; once more he needs to drive them away through the prayer and watchfulness, that is, through the attention and vigilance of the nous.

One must be careful not to let the temptation form an im­age, because first a fantasy comes, then a thought, and then a filthy pleasure. So when through watchfulness we do not allow an evil fantasy to form and at the same time we say the prayer, we are delivered from the disturbance. In addition, we are crowned by God for our good intention and desire to please Him.

RESPECT FOR TRADITION

By Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain.

Many of the holy Martyrs, whenever they were unfamil­iar with a dogma, used to say: "I trust whatever the Holy Fathers have instituted". If anyone dared to say those words, they would suffer mar­tyrdom. In other words, although they did not know how to present any proof to their persecutors, they did, however, have faith in the Holy Fathers. They would think to them­selves: "How can I not trust the Holy Fathers? They were far more experienced, and virtuous, and saintly. How can I agree to something that is nonsense? How can I tolerate someone abusing the Holy Fathers?" We must have faith in Tradition. Nowadays, unfortunately, we notice that "European good manners" have shown up, and they strive to present a benevolent face. They try to be superior, but in the end, they head towards the worship of the two-horned devil. "Only one religion must exist" they tell you, and they flatten everything.

I've had people come to me too, who suggested: "All of us who believe in Christ should form one religion". I said to them: Now what you're telling me is to take gold and copper—gold of so many carats quality—which they took so much trouble to purify, and then gather the metals and melt them into one mass. Is it right to mix them to­gether again? Ask any goldsmith: "Should we mix inferior elements with gold?"

Well, the same trouble was taken to filter-clean the dogma. The Holy Fathers must have known something, when they forbade every association with a heretic. Nowadays they say: "We should all pray together—not only with a her­etic, but also with a Buddhist and a fire-worshipper and a demon-worshipper. The Orthodox should also participate in these common prayers and conventions. It is a matter of presence."

What do they mean by "presence"? They strive to solve everything with logic, in order to justify the unjustifiable. The "European spirit" is convinced that spiritual matters can also be made a part of the Common Market.

Some of the rather shallow Orthodox want to project "Mis­sionary work", so they convene meetings with the heterodox for the sake of being heard, and they think that this is the way to advertise Orthodoxy—by mingling in the same pot with cacodoxies.

Then we have the hyper-zealots at the other extreme: they even blaspheme the Sacraments of the New-Calendarists etc., and they excessively scandalize those souls who arepious and have an orthodox sensitivity. The heterodox on the other hand usually attend meetings, they pose as know-it-alls, they take any good spiritual material that they find with the Orthodox, they take it to their own workshop, add their own colors and brand names and they present it as something original.

Today's strange world is actually moved by such strange things, and it is eventually destroyed spiritually. But the Lord—when the time is right—will bring forth new Marks of Ephesus and the Gregories of Palamas, who will muster all of our scandalized brethren, who will confess the Orthodox faith, consolidate the Orthodox Tradition and give great joy to our Mother the Church.

If we were living patristically, we would all be enjoying a spiritual health that would have been the envy of all the het­erodox; it would have made them abandon their sick fallacies and render them saved, without any sermons. At present, they are not moved by our holy Patristic tradition, because they are waiting to see our Patristic continuation—our true kinship with our Saints.

That which is obligatory for every Orthodox, is for them to sow the "benevolent anxiety" in the heterodox as well; in other words, to bring them to the realization that they are living a fallacy and that they should not light-heartedly relax their thoughts, for fear of depriving themselves in this life of the bounteous blessings of Orthodoxy, and in the life to come, the infinitely more and everlasting blessings of God I was once visited by some Catholic children who had good intentions, and were ready to acquaint themselves with Orthodoxy. "We want you to say something to us, so that we will be helped spiritually", they told me.

"Look", I replied, "find a book on Ecclesiastic History, and you will see how we once used to be together, and then see where you wound up. This will help you immensely. Do it, and the next time, we will talk about many things."

In olden times, people used to respect something because it was their grandfather's, and they used to safeguard it like an heirloom. I once met a very good lawyer. His house was very simply furnished, and it relaxed not only him, but his visitors also. He told me this, some time ago :

"A few years ago, Father, my acquaintances made fun of me because of the old, family furniture that I had. Now they come and admire them as valuable antiques. While I make daily use of them and enjoy them because they remind me of my father, my mother, my grandparents, and I am always emotionally touched, those acquaintances now go around collecting various old pieces of furniture, to the point that they have turned their lounges into curiosity shops, in an attempt to take their minds off their problems and forget their secular stress."

In the past, one would hold on to a tiny little coin of insignificant value as though it were a vast fortune, only

because it was given to him by his mother or his grandfather. Nowadays, if someone has an expensive coin—a gold Pound for example—that was given to him by his grandfather, and that coin's value is slightly higher than its original value, he will give it away to be sold. He will not show any respect, nor will he be concerned about any mother or father. It's that "European spirit" that is slowly creeping in and is sweeping us all away....

I recall the first time that I visited the Holy Mountain—in one of the retinues, the Elder was a little old man, who was very pious. Out of piety, he had preserved from generation to generation, not only the stoles of his (spiritual) grandfa­thers, his predecessors, but also the moulds that had been used to make the stoles. He also had several old books and various manuscripts that he kept beautifully wrapped in his book-case, which was carefully closed so that they wouldn't collect dust. He never touched those books; he kept them wrapped up. "I am not worthy to read such books" he would say. "I will just read these simpler ones—the Gerontikon, the Ladder...".

Then a young monk came along (he finally didn't stay on the Mountain permanently) who had asked the elder: "Why do you keep all this junk here?" He made a move to take away the moulds and dispose of them—to burn them. The poor old man begged him with tears: "that was from my grandfather—why do you mind my keeping it? There are so many other rooms here—leave them be in a corner." Out of the piety that he had, he not only held on to the books, the heirlooms, the stoles, but even the moulds!

When there is a respect for small things, there will be an even greater respect towards the bigger things. When there is no respect for small things, then neither will there be for the bigger ones. This is how the Fathers maintained Tradition.