The devil in the mind

Human beings think more than they breathe. In one breath we can have a thousand thoughts, and this is something we don't think about. We don't think that the thoughts we have stigmatize our antibody, they shape our personality, the thoughts we have to give us our meaning and present who we are, to the point that an American philosopher thought that we were a person.

Our whole life is the result of our thoughts, we can with our thoughts for example change our future, our future is not given, it is not written, there is no kismet, we will decide. With our thoughts we can also make God change the future He has in mind for us.

As unbelievable as this sounds, as outrageous as it sounds, it is the very teaching of the Bible. We see it for example in the story of John and Nineveh. A great city has sinned, and God decides to destroy this person. "Nineveh is destroyed." He's made a decision, this will be the future of Nineveh. So Jonah goes and preaches repentance and the Ninevites repent and God changes His mind. "And God repented," the Bible says, and the whole world was saved. What a change in our thoughts can do, how it prepares our future.

Let us make a distinction: thinking is one thing, and calculating is another. Many times they are the same - say I have a thought, I have a thought, I have a calculation. It's the same, but literally, calculus is a thought that persists, not a thought that just passed and went away. It is a thought that comes, comes again, disturbs us, persists, we call this thought a calculus. And the power of these thoughts, these thoughts, is terrible, not only in our lives in the present or in the future, but even in our bodies. For example, how a thought can affect our body: One thought, I was in a monastery, a father couldn't eat tahini, but he liked halvah. And he ate it and he loved it. And another man was surprised and said: "Well, how come you, who don't like tahini, like halvah?" And the father says, "Well, what's halvah got to do with tahini?" "Well, halvah is made of tahini!" As soon as he heard this, he began to vomit. How the thought affected the body!

There is a psychiatrist in Athens, a very good one, the spiritual child of a well-known archimandrite, who had a lady with a terrible psychological problem. For her sake she brings something difficult pills, rare, very expensive from the Netherlands, she explained to her: it's not hard to get them again, it's not a question of money, it's not hard to get them again, you'll get them so and so and so. "She thanked him, touched by the love of the doctor who cared so much for her, especially in her case, took the pills exactly as the doctor told her, and got well. She was well and she praised God and went to thank the doctor because this disease had been tormenting her for over 10 years, and thanks to these pills she was well. Which is the subject? That those pills were just candy. They weren't pills, see what the thought does?

Do you see how much the body is affected by thought? The accident is what doesn't always have a positive effect on this situation. Let me tell you another incident, far from outrageous and far from true, then if he wants I'll tell you the name of the doctor.

Says the doctor: a relative of mine went to a crystallographer, who told him that his heart was in trouble, and he would die on the next full moon. My relative was happy, healthy, and full of bugs. But he had great confidence in this crystal cutter who had a great reputation. She would see a crystal and tell what was going to happen to each person. And a lot of it came true, and he had earned his trust. Last, now she gave him one last suggestion and he accepted the calculation.

He got scared and his mind got stuck in the thought that he was going to die at the next full moon, he even started talking to everyone, he prepared his inheritance, he made his will and the terrible thing was that. He died, he died without having anything! That's the power of calculation for good and for evil.

The accountants are of three kinds to be placed: They are our own calculations, our own thoughts, the ones that the human mind makes. They are the calculations, the thoughts that the devil brings us. We say for example: "I've had a thought". The devil is a spirit and as a spirit, he can put thoughts into our minds. So it's our thoughts that we can do, thoughts that the devil does, and thoughts that the good Lord sends them. How can we now place them, ⁇ so that we can deal with our own thoughts and the thoughts that God sends us, and reject the thoughts that the devil sends us?

How do I make this distinction in the syllogisms? It's very simple, we can't do it, we can't do anything to justify which are our thoughts, which are God's, and which are from the devil. It takes a lot of practice, takes a lot of struggle, the Fathers of the church say that the gift of discernment of thoughts is the greatest virtue.

How then shall we accept the counsels of God in order to live, and how shall we reject the counsels of the evil ones, our own or the devil's, so that we may not perish? Generally, we accept the good thoughts and reject the bad ones.

It seems simple, but it's not. Because two problems immediately arise:

First, how to deal with and reject an evil calculation, and

Second, when a good thought is brought to us by the devil? How do we know it's from the devil to reject it?

For we all know, gone are the days when the devil came with horns and a tail, now he has mutated, he knows how to disguise himself, he comes as a nice idea, as a man with gifts, as a politician His speeches.

How will we understand that behind him in such a case is the devil? When the thought is evil all right we reject it, but when it comes as good thinking? And is it from the devil? What are we going to do? Ford says in the Bible: "There is a way that is too hard for men, and the last of it is the way to the bottom of hell, and good, and in the end, death awaits you. How shall we understand this⁇ that we may not coast on this good road, which will lead us to death? For the first, how to face and reject an evil thought, I will give you a little heart,

Every calculus has an evolution. For example, we walk out of a brothel, or we see a wallet, we get the thought, "Go ahead and take it. This stage of the thought is called an insult. It offends us, it attacks us, it strikes us. You reject the thought, you say: no, I won't go in. I'm not gonna put that wallet I found in my pocket. ⁇ Accountant insists again, but look how it is, it could be a კარგი. The wallet looks inflated, the one who lost it must not have lost much. He seems to have it. If you pursue the calculation again, you'll say no. Calculation resumes. The first was the insult. We have no responsibility before God for this ugly thought no matter how sinful this ugly calculation. Before God we are innocent. Then the thought comes - we drive it out, it comes - we drive it out.

The second stage is the fight. We fight with the calculation, for the first we are not responsible for the insult, for the fight not only are we not responsible but we will be crowned by God. We will get wages from God because we fight we drive out the calculus, which many times is painful for us, c common We will get wages from God. From this struggle, we will be saved.

If we now start to put it together in our minds and say: okay, I'll go in, I'll see if it's a კარგი, I won't do anything to just see what it's like and I'll go out, or I'll take the do-it-yourself a handout, there's a lot in it, I'll keep a little, I'll do a კარგი.

Proceed from this stage onwards our guilt begins. We are not yet guilty, guilt begins, it is called a combination, we try to patch things up, we try to justify things, from where our guilt begins. ⁇ Beginning, from the moment we say: "I'm going in", from the moment we say: "I took it and put it in my pocket", that's the end of the story. Before God we are guilty.

It doesn't matter if we don't get in if we do or don't. This is now dependent on external factors. Someone can walk by, see us, see us, be embarrassed, and leave. We don't have to go to the whorehouse. It doesn't matter, the evil in our minds is done. A.

It all started with consent, there's no harm they do, they do, unless we first agree in our minds to do it, unless we consent to do it. Few are the evils, few are the crimes, and few are the sins that we do out of carelessness because we were careless because the devil found us careless. Most of the time we have agreed in our hearts to do evil and they do it. So if the evil is not done in us, it will never be done outside of us. This is what Christ meant when He said, .that whosoever sees a woman "desireth her, already hath he desired her in his heart". That's why the Spirit of God says in the Bible: "He who hates his brother is a murderer." He who hates his brother has killed him in himself. He will be judged as a murderer, and the church fathers spoke of the envy of the potential murderer.

When you envy someone, when you envy someone, when you envy someone, you have already killed them in yourself, it is potential murder. That's why Jesus insisted, first cleanse the inside of the cup and the outside will be clean. Otherwise, no matter how good we look on the outside, he says, you'll be like the tombs, shining, glistening with marble on the outside and worms, bones, and spiders on the inside.

That's why we give so much importance to calculations. We said the stages of calculus, it's Four. We will also say چهارρις ways of coping. These can all intersect and branch out. We are simply staying in a skeleton and what we say is completely telegraphic. Just a blueprint to remember how to deal with calculus. We repel it from the beginning. We don't give it a chance to take root in us. As soon as you know that he is bad, chase him away immediately. When you know that he is bad, chase him away immediately. Before he gets strong in you. It's as if you know that a murderer is coming now to kill you and knock on the front door of the garden, the front door of the house. If you don't let him in, he's a long way away. You're insured. If you let him through the front door and start knocking on the front door, he's closer.

Now to get rid of him you have to get him out of the yard. If you open the door and he comes upstairs and starts banging on the door of the room you're in, it's even harder to get him out. If you open the door and start fighting him, it's even harder.

The same is done with a sick person. The doctor tells you: If you are at the beginning of your illness, take these pills, a small treatment. Do you save obedience? You don't? Worse, you will need more pills, more antibiotics, and more treatment. Won't you do that too? You'll get to the operation. You don't know if you'll live in the end. That's why when we know something's bad in the first place, we have no excuse, we get rid of it right away. We don't think bad thoughts, we don't accept bad reasoning, bad thoughts.

Yes, but the question is, how is it going to be done?

Look, he wants to practice. Like we learn everything, with practice, with perseverance, little by little. We must learn to be awake, not immediately awake. Someone is talking to us. What does he tell us now? Be careful! Is our mind leaving? Let's do it again. I forgot, I lost something he said. Where our body is, our mind is. Not the body of the body, not us, not the mind.

He was a communist, a fanatic. The right-wingers had killed his mother, his father, raped his little sister when she was 9 years old, then slaughtered her, slaughtered his brothers... "My dream was (he says) to kill a gendarme and I kill a gendarme, they kill a policeman".

Human follies, things have changed, and he becomes a devout Christian. He becomes a monk, and he comes to Mount Athos. The body came, the mind? "Where were we today my boy?" his elder asked him. "Ah, there, Elder, we were with Lenin and Krupskaya, Lenin's wife, preaching the ideals of communism in that place." The old man laughed. "Say your wish, my child: Lord . Jesus Christ, have mercy on me," to collect the mind.

After a week: "How's it going, boy? Where's the brain? "Hey, there, Elder, we're in the country, we're fixing the country, it shouldn't have happened, in this meeting of the leftists that took place there, they should have made other decisions." Laugh Elder.

After a while: "How are we doing, boy?" "Ah, old man, we've reached Ouranoupolis."

"-How are we going my boy?" "-A! Elder, the Diocese did not do right to make this decision."

The mind had begun and was in the place. The monasteries had to think hard, he was correcting the Mount now, taking care of the Mount's things.

After a short time: "How's it going, boy?" "-Ε! Well, here in the Skete we were walking around, Elder."

Slowly. We can't suddenly pick up our minds, and have them in place.

When a whole lifetime we have learned to let it go, and when we keep letting it go, it becomes a habit, and when it comes to prayer, or when they have to do spiritual work, newest to read something we're going to read, we have to watch them. Ε! You can't tidy up that mind when it's going around all day picking up junk and garbage.

So slowly from the morning I started, the mind in place. Where am I? I am here. What am I doing? I do this job. It's important that you pull the mind into the here and now. And it becomes practice and it becomes a habit and eventually, the mind learns. These are things we know. We live them and we know they are. And it's so simple that you can see that it's so.

Yes, but what are we going to think? The mind can't stay blank. Something must be thinking. We can't think of something. We have to think of something. What are we going to do? We simply won't fill the mind with a thousand and two.

The mind cannot stand still, it cannot remain slow. It needs something to think about, There is an Indian proverb, about how to think only well. Excessive but very characteristic. The fathers of the church say: Study well so you don't study badly. Think well so you don't think evil. See well that you may not see evil. Hear well that you may not hear evil. The mind cannot standstill. He wants food, he works. You'll give him good, so there's no room for bad. That's the second way. And he says a blessing in the Eucharist that we read before we take communion: "Blind me through good thoughts to evil thoughts."

The mind cannot standstill. With good thoughts we will bury the thoughts of evil, we will throw them away, we will not let them fit.

⁇ The first way was the repulsion, one from the beginning.

The second is to leave no room.

⁇ Thirdly, to avoid the causes that give rise to reasoning.

Look, we can't say that we won't think about porn, carnal thoughts, and watching porn on the other side. And we can stare at the stands and look at հեռուստραση, at times when we know what we're going to see, and then say we're going to keep our minds clear. We will avoid the causes that give rise to ugly thoughts, which prevail over us and we want to drive them away.

You can't say: I won't think bad, I'll think good when I hear bad songs. They will stick in your mind. You will avoid the places that are the cause of evil. There's something beautiful in the Bible about the state of Sodom and Gomorrah that God said to Lot, "Get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. He didn't just say to him, "Get out of Sodom and Gomorrah." "Away! (he says), go up into the mountains! Or into the country, that you may be saved."

There was a little drug addict who said to Father Paisios and he said to him: "what can I do with you, you're like a man who wants to quit smoking and go around the booth", it won't happen once, it won't happen twice, it will happen the third time. You'll also leave the places that will bring evil to you, not just watch the calculations.

The fathers say, "Go away and save yourself." When I was a student, we were about to go to see a play, it was obscene. I say to someone else. "You will come?" He says to me: "Jesus would come?" "-what did you say?" I tell him. Well, when I want to go somewhere, I say: Would Christ go where I want to go; and I see. If my consciousness would go, I go too." I was left bone-headed, he had found a way to avoid places that had traps.

It's simple, we'll just learn it, remember it, and put it into practice. That's the third way: avoidance of causes.

Look now: 'We won't, there is the problem, 'but we cannot. We want to repel the calculation at once, but we can't. We want to avoid the places that will lead us to the planes, but we cannot. We want to think good thoughts so we don't think bad thoughts, but we can't.

The Apostle Paul says: "I am always strong". How can you do everything? The human mind has 100 years of experience, that's all it has because we're dying. The devil has centuries of experience. How are we gonna get through this? How can the apostle Paul? "I am everlasting," he says, "in Christ. When Christ gives me power.

⁇ Christ, Himself said: "Without me, you can do nothing". And just when we get to go to the spiritualist, we cut the devil's throat. Does the pope's forgiveness wish to read? He disappeared. We can't humble ourselves in the air.

It does not matter what humiliation we do alone. It is important when we humble ourselves before someone else for the love of Christ, in order to keep the commandments of Christ.

In practice you'll see if it's true or not, in practice, but if two thousand years ago, millions of millions of people, you can see it yourself.

We said earlier that the time has passed when the devil came with horns and a tail. Now it comes as good thought, as a right thought. So as I mentioned to you before, by repulsion, by leaving no room, by avoiding causes, and by the sacraments of the church, we escape the calculus that seems to be what it is.

But when it comes to a good calculation and it's the devil? When he comes as a good friend, and he's a devil? How am I supposed to know? My brothers, there are many kinds of demons, and there are two kinds of possession. There are two ways in which the devil can completely dominate a person.

There are fat demons, the demon of greed, prostitution, greed, it is not always natural that we feel. In a monastery near me, there was a father, suddenly he started eating, and eating, and eating, and eating, and eating ten whole loaves of bread a day. He wasn't fat. Where were they going? Ten whole loaves of bread a day where were they going? The fathers caught him and started to read him exorcisms, in a week he was well, and he who couldn't get enough on 10 loaves, now he could get enough on two slices. We can say a lot about these things. Demons of prostitution, demon of anger, the demon of greed, are fat demons.

And there are demon princes, lords, and razors. Woe to him who falls into their hands, nothing can save him. Unless God personally performs a miracle for that man, he cannot be saved. Such as the demon of pride, the demon of heresy, the demon of delusion. He accepts. No matter how much the deceived man may be taken off his ribs, you can't take off his delusion.

I told you there are two kinds of possession. ⁇ One kind of possession is for the devil to take hold of your mind, dominate your thinking, and accept whatever thoughts come to you. This is how those who are very clever, those who are very clever, and those who are very gifted are possessed because they also fall into great pride.

The devil is in their minds completely and from there they accept all their thoughts as true, they accept them as right, and the terrible thing is that they don't understand it. Everybody else understands that he's not doing well, except for Diogo. It's the devil's intelligence, the devil's cunning, the devil is not clever. If he was clever he would have repented and been saved, that's the devil's cunning.

Says the son of Ephraim the Syrian, once the enemy is wise, he does not bind me with bonds that I hate, he binds me with bonds that I like and I am glad to be bound. Be defeated, be enslaved to something, and be glad already. That's the devil's cunning, when the devil comes as a gift, as a virtue, clothed in the garment of freedom, I'm free to do as I please.

That's why I told you earlier unless God does a miracle, the man of iron who has been so possessed, who has had his mind dominated by the devil, never gets saved and can never be saved. I know only one man, a writer. Who understood it and couldn't do anything about it. You can't do anything, you don't know what it means, to have a black man sitting on your brain and not going where you want to go, but taking you where he wants you to go. He couldn't do anything. When a throne man arrives to be possessed, it means that he has given a great right to the devil. What was the result? The devil convinces him that he was the new messiah of mankind, that he would save mankind. Such a clever man accepted it. And he went so far as to write to an archimandrite in Parika. I have his letters: "Son of thunder, let us prepare, we must establish churches in various places. There are three of us, it doesn't matter." One group, this archimandrite, and another would found his church. It doesn't matter that we are three, Christ wanted twelve, and the weaker Christ wanted more people to help him. Such a teasing, he says: "You founded an order in America, I'm founding one in Berlin and Poland, the first churches. I am and Lefteris the third, the apostolic processions will begin, the struggles, the martyrdoms, an Ecumenical Council in two or three years must take place". Beware that for the First Ecumenical Council to take place, that is to say, to gather bishops from all over the world, and to compare the first heresy of Christianity took three hundred years, but the religion of this man, who in three years and already would have been misunderstood. This means that since he says in three years he wants an ecumenical council, in three years his preaching would have spread all over the world, there would have been churches all over the world, there would have been priests all over the world, all over the world would have been his, and in three years he would have been misunderstood, and in three years there would have been an ecumenical council. And you say: Is he in his right mind? Is he in his right mind? Is he crazy? One of the smartest men the country and the world has ever known. How did he get to this state? A phenomenon the church fathers, especially in the desert, call captivity. When the devil captures your mind, you're finished. There's nothing you can do, he can do what he wants.

That's why we will not be alone, with our opinions and with our thoughts. Let us consult them. Not to try to impose our point of view on others by force. To listen to the other, not to trust our own calculations. We must learn to separate, to accept advice.

We will go and confess. We will tell it to the Spiritualist and there simply without many words, and learn to listen to the advice of the Spiritualist. The Bible says: "Anir asymboulos eisimos eisimio". A man who does not ask is an enemy to himself, he needs no other enemy. All you have to do is not ask, and you have an enemy who will destroy you. "Aniros asyboulos anirosis anirosis."

⁇ The devil fears not our intelligence, nor our knowledge. It has more. He fears our virtues, he has more. One it hasn't got, and that's what kills him and saves us. What virtue has he not, and that one kills him?

I once accomplished something and I'm proud to go to my old man. As soon as he saw me, he realized that I had stepped on some cantaloupes, and before I could tell him much, he said:

Why do we boast, my son? Of what shall we boast? Because we fast? Do we eat a little? ⁇ The devil fasts more than we do, he never eats. Because we wake up in the night? Do we sleep a little? Devil sleeps more than we do, never sleeps. Cause we're in a rut? Do we come clean? The devil is more virginal than we are. For even if he wants to fornicate, he can't, he's more virgin than us, he has nobody.

And my ears perked up. Whatever virtues we acquire, the devil has them. Whatever virtues we acquire, the virtues the devil had when he was an archangel, we shall never acquire. And they were all lost, why? Because he was missing one. That's the one we'll look to get that one virtue to save us.

And beware, do not think that the devil fights us only with sins, he fights us with virtues more than with sins. Sins we see, we can avoid, but our virtues we struggle to acquire.

Says a son of the church: "You want to fast, the devil helps you; you want to give alms, the devil helps you; you want to build churches, the devil helps you; why does the devil help you? For he knows, that with all that we accomplish he can throw us into pride and it will all be for naught." So we will have that virtue that the devil doesn't have, we will be humble. Is that exactly what Christ did and what does the Bible say? "He humbled himself by becoming a subject unto death, ascended into heaven and descended." We will become humble, we will learn to be humble.

To humble ourselves, not to humble ourselves. Not in words. Being humble, thinking humble, and thinking humble means not to consider others inferior to us, not to consider ourselves so important. We will see that we have some კარგი, we will say: "God gave it to me".

Do we have gifts? "⁇ God gave them to me." Are we doing something well? We are doing it with God's help, of course. Immediately we will guard ourselves, put up a shield, and throw it all on God. That it's because of Him that we're doing it. And so we keep our humility and don't fall into pride.

A man had come to my cell and said to me, "Oh, Elder, you do everything in here? "-What do you mean?" I tell him? "Well, I said to your subordinate, good food, the old man, the old man." "That's good stuff." "The old man, the old man." No matter what I say to him, "the old man". Do you do everything? He had caught the meaning. Did he do something good? "With my old man's blessing, I did it. With God's help, I did it."

That's what we're going to do. Whatever we do, we'll be humble. In our minds, we don't have to be humble. And in practice, we'll be humble when we have more. For example, when we see that a state of emergency is being created. We argue with someone, and we back down. Back down, let's be right, when it's not a serious matter, back down.

Have mercy on the other person's soul. You don't hand him over to the devil, he needs care here. It's one thing to be humble, it's another to be a coward and not fight. It's one thing to be humble, it's another to be a carpenter. When you see that you're backing down, backing down, backing down, and somebody else sees that, and he's got his brains in the air, and he's going to get on your back, then you're going to stand your ground and put him down.

It doesn't mean you won't be humble. We'll take care of that. Not by being too compliant to be a cause for others to sin. There are times when we will give in and be humble because we are humble out of love for the other person, and there are times when we will stand our ground and put the other person in their place, and we will still be humble.

The example of Christ The example of Christ himself. ⁇ Christ did not teach only by his words. He was also taught by his life. When he was arrested and beaten, he was made a bloody rag from the beating, and he was going to be crucified. They'd hand him over to the cross, says a soldier, and give him a slap on the wrist. What did Christ himself say? If you get slapped on one cheek, you turn the other. A soldier gives him a slap, does he turn the other cheek? He didn't! Why? He said when you're hit on one cheek, turn the other. He didn't turn it, but he turned it and said to the soldier: What did he want to show us with that? Just that. Is it possible that he wouldn't have taken the slap if he'd taken the cross? Did the slap hurt him? He accepted the nails, and he accepted the spear, and he accepted such a martyr's death, to show us just that: one is humble and the other a coward. Let us keep that in mind.

We will be humble and we will know նույյննն years and fight. We come back again, not forgetting the power of our thoughts, we said. May we never forget the state of the devil. The prophet Isaiah says that with his thoughts he became the devil. "Thou hast said in thy mind." Thou hast thought: "In heaven, I will ascend upon the stars of heaven, I will set my throne, I will ascend upon the clouds, I will be like the Highest. And the fall of the devil took place before the world was created. God had not yet created man, the devil had not yet killed anyone. Who could he kill if there was no one? There were no men, he lied to no one, he lied to no one, he lied to no one before the world was created. First, there was the use of the spiritual world and the fall of Lucifer, and then the material world was created. So it was only with his thoughts that he became the devil. What power his thoughts have!

Opposite the skete where I live on a high peak, you can barely see a cell, a spiritualist used to have it, let me read to you omitting too much, something impressive that happened in this cell. The clergyman's name was Father Sava. Among the many confessors confessed by Papa Sava, the text says, there was a Romanian deacon. As a young man, he came to Athos and rested somewhere in the desert, not far from Agia Anna (several years ago). "My spiritual, (the sad deacon says to him one day), do not forget to mention me in the service of my mother who has her third." (She died three days ago). And the spiritual says to him without now showing his distress, "Tell me, my son: your mother has her third tomorrow, that is, she died the day before yesterday. He died in Romania. How did you learn of her death in two days? "There was some silence, there were no telephones, no telephones, like me in my skete, no electricity. They didn't have telephones. "How did I know?" The deacon began to say timidly. "Well, he told me..." "-Who told you?" "My guardian angel told me." "Your guardian angel? Have you seen your angel? "I have seen him. It's not once and twice, it's been two years now, he appears to me and accompanies me in prayer. We say greetings together, we repent, we open spiritual discussions". That "two years" was very bitter to Father-Sabba. "-And why, my child, have you not mentioned anything for so long?" "The angel told me it wasn't necessary." "My child, are you sure it's an angel of God who appears to you?" "-Sure; My sure elder, we pray together, we do a thousand repentances every day, we talk about the future life, about Paradise, my guardian angel is". The deacon seemed unconvinced. But what made him receptive was his trust in his God- enlightened spiritual director. But then again, he said how can the demon strengthen me in prayer? He fights those who pray. After much, they agreed to resort to some trials, to test the guardian angel. Ask him as soon as he returns (says πα Papa-Savvas) to say: 'Theotokos the Virgin', even tell him to make the sign of the Cross". But things were not that simple. When the evil one has had you wrapped in error for two whole years, then your eyes and your ears are deceived and you imagine that you hear the Theotokos the Virgin and you think you see him making the cross and you think you see him making the cross and you see him. On the next visit the deacon with some satisfaction announced to the spiritual director: "Elder, things are as I told you, he is an angel of God, he is my guardian angel. And the Virgin Mary said it and he made his cross". I omit, the sons and angels know what we think. Be careful, the devil doesn't have the powers we think he does. Don't give him more credit than he has, he has terrible disadvantages, terrible drawbacks, we won't mention anything else now, only this, that he doesn't know what we think. Notice this, the Angels know what we are thinking. The sons, not only those who have gone to heaven but also those who are among us, as soon as they see us, they know what we are thinking. The devil doesn't know. Then what happens to your thoughts? It leaves us with a thought. He doesn't know we've accepted it. If he sees that we change برنامه then he knows that we accepted it. It gives us a carnal thought. It doesn't know if we accepted it. When it starts to see that our pulse is rising that we are starting to change our plans, then it understands .what we have accepted it. He does not know what we are thinking. It's one of his big disadvantages. We'll talk about the rest another time. His spiritual father is now telling him: "Beware what they will do: I this night, at this very moment, I will think of something (he thought of something at the devil's expense), and I leave it hidden, within myself. You in the evening will ask the angel to tell you. If he finds it then he is no doubt an angel of God. And come and let me know." When the deacon returned to his hut, something shook inside him, something in agony, something in an unpleasant sensation. On the other hand, he also admired the greatness of the spirit. The case was about to enter its critical phase. As soon as he was asked at night by the angel for a solution to the problem, some indistinguishable commotion softened his bright face. He seemed to be confused. "But my dear father, why should you, a superior man, be interested in the calculations of a priest? That's degradation, poor desires. Shall I not show you tonight hell, heaven, the glory of the Virgin Mary? " ⁇ Deacon who was beginning to suspect something persisted in their theme. "-I obey my spiritual director, tell me what he thought." Angelus, with some maneuvering, tried to transfer the conversation. But the deacon persistently brought him to the point. Besides, these technical evasions did not make a good impression on him. "Tell me what the clergyman thought. The matter is simple! Why do you avoid it? Are you ignoring it? "-Beware, deacon, in the small way you treat me, you run the risk of losing my meaning." "-I don't know, I'm asking you a question. Do you know, at last, what the spiritual thought? "So that's when the shining face came out. A horrible figure was revealed and as if from the mouth of a beast the words were heard: - "Perish, wretch, tomorrow such a one⁇ra in hell and fire, we will burn you and destroy you, tomorrow this one. And the deacon was left alone and in ruins. Lee's sweetness of vision two years ago did not compensate for his present bitterness. Had it not been for the prayers of the spiritualist who lay awake and pleaded for him, he would have given up his spirit. It took him several days to recover and get back on his feet. His hut no longer held him. Nowhere was he safe except near the spirit. All along the way, the threat was ringing in his ears: "Tomorrow, the same in hell". And the terror ran through him to the marrow of his bones. He arrived as he had arrived at the resurrection hut. He took the clergyman's robe and would not let go of it, and when he was about to sleep a little, the deacon was beside him. "Don't be afraid, my child, calm down!", -How can I not be afraid, my spiritualist, that the time is approaching; the time is approaching when they will take me away! Christ save me! " And indeed the determined hour, received a violent attack of the wicked spirits. What cries of terror and despair were these! "Be with me spiritually, I am lost! They are taking me! Save me!" Kneeling, the priest-Sabas, full of pain and tears, knelt to the Lord to spare his servant and rebuke the wicked demons. His prayer was heard. And the poor deacon was saved by the mouth of a lion. I omit, with the time and guidance of Papa-Sabbas the Romanian deacon calmed down. His priestly life took a good turn, he was later ordained a priest and was always distinguished for his piety. His years of deception left some unpleasant traces. The devil had acquired rights over him. Would the devil have offered him so many delightful visions? Thus throughout his later life, plagued by various vexatious temptations, all the discreet fathers saw in them the residue of that two-year association with the angel who was not.

Brothers and fathers, we have no other opportunity to earn our life and salvation than the one we are given now. We have no other life, only this one here. And it's a shame to be lost. Good God has given us everything for our salvation. The devil may have more weapons at his disposal today than he ever had before. But Christians for the first time have so many weapons to defend themselves that we have never had before. Never before has a Christian had Christian radio stations like we have today. Never before have so many Christian books been produced, and spiritual, not theological, Christian spiritual books that benefit us in our long lives. Never before have we had so many. Never before have we had so many tapes so that one could listen to something spiritual, some advice, some counsel, something patristic and beneficial. The devil has armed his own, and the good Lord has armed his own. We have everything we need to be saved, and above all, we have the sacraments of our church.

Do not stray from your parish. Do not stray from the priest's stone. With what we have, we have no excuse to go to hell. Only our laziness will get us to hell, nothing else. And a father says: With what we have, we'd rather go to heaven than to hell. You must be more tired to go to hell, to Paradise more easily.

uman beings think more than they breathe. In one breath we can have a thousand thoughts, and this is something we don't think about. We don't think that the thoughts we have to stigmatize our antibody, they shape our personality, the thoughts we have to give us our meaning and present who we are, to the point that an American philosopher thought that we were a person. Our whole life is the result of our thoughts, we can with our thoughts for example change our future, our future is not given, it is not written, there is no kismet, we will decide. With our thoughts we can also make God change the future He has in mind for us. As unbelievable as this sounds, as outrageous as it sounds, it is the very teaching of the Bible. We see it for example in the story of John and Nineveh. A great city has sinned, and God decides to destroy this person. "Nineveh is destroyed." He's made a decision, this will be the future of Nineveh. So Jonah goes and preaches repentance and the Ninevites repent and God changes His mind. "And God repented," the Bible says, and the whole world was saved. What a change in our thoughts can do, how it prepares our future. Let us make a distinction: thinking is one thing, and calculating is another. Many times they are the same - say I have a thought, I have a thought, I have a calculation. It's the same, but literally, calculus is a thought that persists, not a thought that just passed and went away. It is a thought that comes, comes again, disturbs us, persists, we call this thought a calculus. And the power of these thoughts, these thoughts, is terrible, not only in our lives in the present or in the future, but even in our bodies. For example, how a thought can affect our body: One thought, I was in a monastery, a father couldn't eat tahini, but he liked halvah. And he ate it and he loved it. And another man was surprised and said: "Well, how come you, who don't like tahini, like halvah?" And the father says, "Well, what's halvah got to do with tahini?" "Well, halvah is made of tahini!" As soon as he heard this, he began to vomit. How the thought affected the body! There is a psychiatrist in Athens, a very good one, the spiritual child of a well-known archimandrite, who had a lady with a terrible psychological problem. For her sake she brings something difficult pills, rare, very expensive from the Netherlands, she explained to her: it's not hard to get them again, it's not a question of money, it's not hard to get them again, you'll get them so and so and so. "She thanked him, touched by the love of the doctor who cared so much for her, especially in her case, took the pills exactly as the doctor told her, and got well. She was well and she praised God and went to thank the doctor because this disease had been tormenting her for over 10 years, and thanks to these pills she was well. Which is the subject? That those pills were just candy. They weren't pills, see what the thought does? Do you see how much the body is affected by thought? The accident is what doesn't always have a positive effect on this situation. Let me tell you another incident, far from outrageous and far from true, then if he wants I'll tell you the name of the doctor. Says the doctor: a relative of mine went to a crystallographer, who told him that his heart was in trouble, and he would die on the next full moon. My relative was happy, healthy, and full of bugs. But he had great confidence in this crystal cutter who had a great reputation. She would see a crystal and tell what was going to happen to each person. And a lot of it came true, and he had earned his trust. Last, now she gave him one last suggestion and he accepted the calculation. He got scared and his mind got stuck in the thought that he was going to die at the next full moon, he even started talking to everyone, he prepared his inheritance, he made his will and the terrible thing was that. He died, he died without having anything! That's the power of calculation for good and for evil. The accountants are of three kinds to be placed: They are our own calculations, our own thoughts, the ones that the human mind makes. They are the calculations, the thoughts that the devil brings us. We say for example: "I've had a thought". The devil is a spirit and as a spirit, he can put thoughts into our minds. So it's our thoughts that we can do, thoughts that the devil does, and thoughts that the good Lord sends them. How can we now place them, ⁇ so that we can deal with our own thoughts and the thoughts that God sends us, and reject the thoughts that the devil sends us? How do I make this distinction in the syllogisms? It's very simple, we can't do it, we can't do anything to justify which are our thoughts, which are God's, and which are from the devil. It takes a lot of practice, takes a lot of struggle, the Fathers of the church say that the gift of discernment of thoughts is the greatest virtue. How then shall we accept the counsels of God in order to live, and how shall we reject the counsels of the evil ones, our own or the devil's, so that we may not perish? Generally, we accept the good thoughts and reject the bad ones. It seems simple, but it's not. Because two problems immediately arise: First, how to deal with and reject an evil calculation, and Second, when a good thought is brought to us by the devil? How do we know it's from the devil to reject it? For we all know, gone are the days when the devil came with horns and a tail, now he has mutated, he knows how to disguise himself, he comes as a nice idea, as a man with gifts, as a politician His speeches. How will we understand that behind him in such a case is the devil? When the thought is evil all right we reject it, but when it comes as good thinking? And is it from the devil? What are we going to do? Ford says in the Bible: "There is a way that is too hard for men, and the last of it is the way to the bottom of hell, and good, and in the end, death awaits you. How shall we understand this⁇ that we may not coast on this good road, which will lead us to death? For the first, how to face and reject an evil thought, I will give you a little heart, Every calculus has an evolution. For example, we walk out of a brothel, or we see a wallet, we get the thought, "Go ahead and take it. This stage of the thought is called an insult. It offends us, it attacks us, it strikes us. You reject the thought, you say: no, I won't go in. I'm not gonna put that wallet I found in my pocket. ⁇ Accountant insists again, but look how it is, it could be a კარგი. The wallet looks inflated, the one who lost it must not have lost much. He seems to have it. If you pursue the calculation again, you'll say no. Calculation resumes. The first was the insult. We have no responsibility before God for this ugly thought no matter how sinful this ugly calculation is. Before God we are innocent. Then the thought comes - we drive it out, it comes - we drive it out. The second stage is the fight. We fight with the calculation, for the first we are not responsible for the insult, for the fight not only are we not responsible but we will be crowned by God. We will get wages from God because we fight we drive out the calculus, which many times is painful for us, c common We will get wages from God. From this struggle, we will be saved. If we now start to put it together in our minds and say: okay, I'll go in, I'll see if it's a კარგი, I won't do anything to just see what it's like and I'll go out, or I'll take the do-it-yourself a handout, there's a lot in it, I'll keep a little, I'll do a კარგი. Proceed from this stage onwards our guilt begins. We are not yet guilty, guilt begins, it is called a combination, we try to patch things up, we try to justify things, from where our guilt begins. ⁇ Beginning, from the moment we say: "I'm going in", from the moment we say: "I took it and put it in my pocket", that's the end of the story. Before God we are guilty. It doesn't matter if we don't get in if we do or don't. This is now dependent on external factors. Someone can walk by, see us, see us, be embarrassed, and leave. We don't have to go to the whorehouse. It doesn't matter, the evil in our minds is done. A. It all started with consent, there's no harm they do, they do, unless we first agree in our minds to do it, unless we consent to do it. Few are the evils, few are the crimes, and few are the sins that we do out of carelessness because we were careless because the devil found us careless. Most of the time we have agreed in our hearts to do evil and they do it. So if the evil is not done in us, it will never be done outside of us. This is what Christ meant when He said, .that whosoever sees a woman "desireth her, already hath he desired her in his heart". That's why the Spirit of God says in the Bible: "He who hates his brother is a murderer." He who hates his brother has killed him in himself. He will be judged as a murderer, and the church fathers spoke of the envy of the potential murderer. When you envy someone, when you envy someone, when you envy someone, you have already killed them in yourself, it is potential murder. That's why Jesus insisted, first cleanse the inside of the cup and the outside will be clean. Otherwise, no matter how good we look on the outside, he says, you'll be like the tombs, shining, glistening with marble on the outside and worms, bones, and spiders on the inside. That's why we give so much importance to calculations. We said the stages of calculus, it's Four. We will also say چهارρις ways of coping. These can all intersect and branch out. We are simply staying in a skeleton and what we say is completely telegraphic. Just a blueprint to remember how to deal with calculus. We repel it from the beginning. We don't give it a chance to take root in us. As soon as you know that he is bad, chase him away immediately. When you know that he is bad, chase him away immediately. Before he gets strong in you. It's as if you know that a murderer is coming now to kill you and knock on the front door of the garden, the front door of the house. If you don't let him in, he's a long way away. You're insured. If you let him through the front door and start knocking on the front door, he's closer. Now to get rid of him you have to get him out of the yard. If you open the door and he comes upstairs and starts banging on the door of the room you're in, it's even harder to get him out. If you open the door and start fighting him, it's even harder. The same is done with a sick person. The doctor tells you: If you are at the beginning of your illness, take these pills, a small treatment. Do you save obedience? You don't? Worse, you will need more pills, more antibiotics, and more treatment. Won't you do that too? You'll get to the operation. You don't know if you'll live in the end. That's why when we know something's bad in the first place, we have no excuse, we get rid of it right away. We don't think bad thoughts, we don't accept bad reasoning, bad thoughts. Yes, but the question is, how is it going to be done? Look, he wants to practice. Like we learn everything, with practice, with perseverance, little by little. We must learn to be awake, not immediately awake. Someone is talking to us. What does he tell us now? Be careful! Is our mind leaving? Let's do it again. I forgot, I lost something he said. Where our body is, our mind is. Not the body of the body, not us, not the mind. He was a communist, a fanatic. The right-wingers had killed his mother, his father, raped his little sister when she was 9 years old, then slaughtered her, slaughtered his brothers... "My dream was (he says) to kill a gendarme and I kill a gendarme, they kill a policeman". Human follies, things have changed, and he becomes a devout Christian. He becomes a monk, and he comes to Mount Athos. The body came, the mind? "Where were we today my boy?" his elder asked him. "Ah, there, Elder, we were with Lenin and Krupskaya, Lenin's wife, preaching the ideals of communism in that place." The old man laughed. "Say your wish, my child: Lord . Jesus Christ, have mercy on me," to collect the mind. After a week: "How's it going, boy? Where's the brain? "Hey, there, Elder, we're in the country, we're fixing the country, it shouldn't have happened, in this meeting of the leftists that took place there, they should have made other decisions." Laugh Elder. After a while: "How are we doing, boy?" "Ah, old man, we've reached Ouranoupolis." "-How are we going my boy?" "-A! Elder, the Diocese did not do right to make this decision." The mind had begun and was in the place. The monasteries had to think hard, he was correcting the Mount now, taking care of the Mount's things. After a short time: "How's it going, boy?" "-Ε! Well, here in the Skete we were walking around, Elder." Slowly. We can't suddenly pick up our minds, and have them in place. When a whole lifetime we have learned to let it go, and when we keep letting it go, it becomes a habit, and when it comes to prayer, or when they have to do spiritual work, newest to read something we're going to read, we have to watch them. Ε! You can't tidy up that mind when it's going around all day picking up junk and garbage. So slowly from the morning I started, the mind in place. Where am I? I am here. What am I doing? I do this job. It's important that you pull the mind into the here and now. And it becomes practice and it becomes a habit and eventually, the mind learns. These are things we know. We live them and we know they are. And it's so simple that you can see that it's so. Yes, but what are we going to think? The mind can't stay blank. Something must be thinking. We can't think of something. We have to think of something. What are we going to do? We simply won't fill the mind with a thousand and two. The mind cannot stand still, it cannot remain slow. It needs something to think about, There is an Indian proverb, about how to think only well. Excessive but very characteristic. The fathers of the church say: Study well so you don't study badly. Think well so you don't think evil. See well that you may not see evil. Hear well that you may not hear evil. The mind cannot standstill. He wants food, he works. You'll give him good, so there's no room for bad. That's the second way. And he says a blessing in the Eucharist that we read before we take communion: "Blind me through good thoughts to evil thoughts." The mind cannot standstill. With good thoughts we will bury the thoughts of evil, we will throw them away, we will not let them fit. ⁇ The first way was the repulsion, one from the beginning. The second is to leave no room. ⁇ Thirdly, to avoid the causes that give rise to reasoning. Look, we can't say that we won't think about porn, carnal thoughts, and watching porn on the other side. And we can stare at the stands and look at հեռուստραση, at times when we know what we're going to see, and then say we're going to keep our minds clear. We will avoid the causes that give rise to ugly thoughts, which prevail over us and we want to drive them away. You can't say: I won't think bad, I'll think good when I hear bad songs. They will stick in your mind. You will avoid the places that are the cause of evil. There's something beautiful in the Bible about the state of Sodom and Gomorrah that God said to Lot, "Get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. He didn't just say to him, "Get out of Sodom and Gomorrah." "Away! (he says), go up into the mountains! Or into the country, that you may be saved." There was a little drug addict who said to Father Paisios and he said to him: "what can I do with you, you're like a man who wants to quit smoking and go around the booth", it won't happen once, it won't happen twice, it will happen the third time. You'll also leave the places that will bring evil to you, not just watch the calculations. The fathers say, "Go away and save yourself." When I was a student, we were about to go to see a play, it was obscene. I say to someone else. "You will come?" He says to me: "Jesus would come?" "-what did you say?" I tell him. Well, when I want to go somewhere, I say: Would Christ go where I want to go; and I see. If my consciousness would go, I go too." I was left bone-headed, he had found a way to avoid places that had traps. It's simple, we'll just learn it, remember it, and put it into practice. That's the third way: avoidance of causes. Look now: 'We won't, there is the problem, 'but we cannot. We want to repel the calculation at once, but we can't. We want to avoid the places that will lead us to the planes, but we cannot. We want to think good thoughts so we don't think bad thoughts, but we can't. The Apostle Paul says: "I am always strong". How can you do everything? The human mind has 100 years of experience, that's all it has because we're dying. The devil has centuries of experience. How are we gonna get through this? How can the apostle Paul? "I am everlasting," he says, "in Christ. When Christ gives me power. ⁇ Christ, Himself said: "Without me, you can do nothing". And just when we get to go to the spiritualist, we cut the devil's throat. Does the pope's forgiveness wish to read? He disappeared. We can't humble ourselves in the air. It does not matter what humiliation we do alone. It is important when we humble ourselves before someone else for the love of Christ, in order to keep the commandments of Christ. In practice you'll see if it's true or not, in practice, but if two thousand years ago, millions of millions of people, you can see it yourself. We said earlier that the time has passed when the devil came with horns and a tail. Now it comes as good thought, as a right thought. So as I mentioned to you before, by repulsion, by leaving no room, by avoiding causes, and by the sacraments of the church, we escape the calculus that seems to be what it is. But when it comes to a good calculation and it's the devil? When he comes as a good friend, and he's a devil? How am I supposed to know? My brothers, there are many kinds of demons, and there are two kinds of possession. There are two ways in which the devil can completely dominate a person. There are fat demons, the demon of greed, prostitution, greed, it is not always natural that we feel. In a monastery near me, there was a father, suddenly he started eating, and eating, and eating, and eating, and eating ten whole loaves of bread a day. He wasn't fat. Where were they going? Ten whole loaves of bread a day where were they going? The fathers caught him and started to read him exorcisms, in a week he was well, and he who couldn't get enough on 10 loaves, now he could get enough on two slices. We can say a lot about these things. Demons of prostitution, the demon of anger, the demon of greed, are fat demons. And there are demon princes, lords, and razors. Woe to him who falls into their hands, nothing can save him. Unless God personally performs a miracle for that man, he cannot be saved. Such as the demon of pride, the demon of heresy, the demon of delusion. He accepts. No matter how much the deceived man may be taken off his ribs, you can't take off his delusion. I told you there are two kinds of possession. ⁇ One kind of possession is for the devil to take hold of your mind, dominate your thinking, and accept whatever thoughts come to you. This is how those who are very clever, those who are very clever, and those who are very gifted are possessed because they also fall into great pride. The devil is in their minds completely and from there they accept all their thoughts as true, they accept them as right, and the terrible thing is that they don't understand it. Everybody else understands that he's not doing well, except for Diogo. It's the devil's intelligence, the devil's cunning, the devil is not clever. If he was clever he would have repented and been saved, that's the devil's cunning. Says the son of Ephraim the Syrian, once the enemy is wise, he does not bind me with bonds that I hate, he binds me with bonds that I like and I am glad to be bound. Be defeated, be enslaved to something, and be glad already. That's the devil's cunning, when the devil comes as a gift, as a virtue, clothed in the garment of freedom, I'm free to do as I please. That's why I told you earlier unless God does a miracle, the man of iron who has been so possessed, who has had his mind dominated by the devil, never gets saved and can never be saved. I know only one man, a writer. Who understood it and couldn't do anything about it. You can't do anything, you don't know what it means, to have a black man sitting on your brain and not going where you want to go, but taking you where he wants you to go. He couldn't do anything. When a throne man arrives to be possessed, it means that he has given a great right to the devil. What was the result? The devil convinces him that he was the new messiah of mankind, that he would save mankind. Such a clever man accepted it. And he went so far as to write to an archimandrite in Parika. I have his letters: "Son of thunder, let us prepare, we must establish churches in various places. There are three of us, it doesn't matter." One group, this archimandrite, and another would found his church. It doesn't matter that we are three, Christ wanted twelve, and the weaker Christ wanted more people to help him. Such a teasing, he says: "You founded an order in America, I'm founding one in Berlin and Poland, the first churches. I am and Lefteris the third, the apostolic processions will begin, the struggles, the martyrdoms, an Ecumenical Council in two or three years must take place". Beware that for the First Ecumenical Council to take place, that is to say, to gather bishops from all over the world, and to compare the first heresy of Christianity took three hundred years, but the religion of this man, who in three years and already would have been misunderstood. This means that since he says in three years he wants an ecumenical council, in three years his preaching would have spread all over the world, there would have been churches all over the world, there would have been priests all over the world, all over the world would have been his, and in three years he would have been misunderstood, and in three years there would have been an ecumenical council. And you say: Is he in his right mind? Is he in his right mind? Is he crazy? One of the smartest men the country and the world has ever known. How did he get to this state? A phenomenon the church fathers, especially in the desert, call captivity. When the devil captures your mind, you're finished. There's nothing you can do, he can do what he wants. That's why we will not be alone, with our opinions and with our thoughts. Let us consult them. Not to try to impose our point of view on others by force. To listen to the other, not to trust our own calculations. We must learn to separate, to accept advice. We will go and confess. We will tell it to the Spiritualist and there simply without many words, and learn to listen to the advice of the Spiritualist. The Bible says: "Anir asymboulos eisimos eisimio". A man who does not ask is an enemy to himself, he needs no other enemy. All you have to do is not ask, and you have an enemy who will destroy you. "Aniros asyboulos anirosis anirosis." ⁇ The devil fears not our intelligence, nor our knowledge. It has more. He fears our virtues, he has more. One it hasn't got, and that's what kills him and saves us. What virtue has he not, and that one kills him? I once accomplished something and I'm proud to go to my old man. As soon as he saw me, he realized that I had stepped on some cantaloupes, and before I could tell him much, he said: Why do we boast, my son? Of what shall we boast? Because we fast? Do we eat a little? ⁇ The devil fasts more than we do, he never eats. Because we wake up in the night? Do we sleep a little? Devil sleeps more than we do, never sleeps. Cause we're in a rut? Do we come clean? The devil is more virginal than we are. For even if he wants to fornicate, he can't, he's more virgin than us, he has nobody. And my ears perked up. Whatever virtues we acquire, the devil has them. Whatever virtues we acquire, the virtues the devil had when he was an archangel, we shall never acquire. And they were all lost, why? Because he was missing one. That's the one we'll look to get that one virtue to save us. And beware, do not think that the devil fights us only with sins, he fights us with virtues more than with sins. Sins we see, we can avoid, but our virtues we struggle to acquire. Says a son of the church: "You want to fast, the devil helps you; you want to give alms, the devil helps you; you want to build churches, the devil helps you; why does the devil help you? For he knows, that with all that we accomplish he can throw us into pride and it will all be for naught." So we will have that virtue that the devil doesn't have, we will be humble. Is that exactly what Christ did and what does the Bible say? "He humbled himself by becoming a subject unto death, ascended into heaven and descended." We will become humble, we will learn to be humble. To humble ourselves, not to humble ourselves. Not in words. Being humble, thinking humble, and thinking humble means not to consider others inferior to us, not to consider ourselves so important. We will see that we have some კარგი, we will say: "God gave it to me". Do we have gifts? "⁇ God gave them to me." Are we doing something well? We are doing it with God's help, of course. Immediately we will guard ourselves, put up a shield, and throw it all on God. That it's because of Him that we're doing it. And so we keep our humility and don't fall into pride. A man had come to my cell and said to me, "Oh, Elder, you do everything in here? "-What do you mean?" I tell him? "Well, I said to your subordinate, good food, the old man, the old man." "That's good stuff." "The old man, the old man." No matter what I say to him, "the old man". Do you do everything? He had caught the meaning. Did he do something good? "With my old man's blessing, I did it. With God's help, I did it." That's what we're going to do. Whatever we do, we'll be humble. In our minds, we don't have to be humble. And in practice, we'll be humble when we have more. For example, when we see that a state of emergency is being created. We argue with someone, and we back down. Back down, let's be right, when it's not a serious matter, back down. Have mercy on the other person's soul. You don't hand him over to the devil, he needs care here. It's one thing to be humble, it's another to be a coward and not fight. It's one thing to be humble, it's another to be a carpenter. When you see that you're backing down, backing down, backing down, and somebody else sees that, and he's got his brains in the air, and he's going to get on your back, then you're going to stand your ground and put him down. It doesn't mean you won't be humble. We'll take care of that. Not by being too compliant to be a cause for others to sin. There are times when we will give in and be humble because we are humble out of love for the other person, and there are times when we will stand our ground and put the other person in their place, and we will still be humble. The example of Christ The example of Christ himself. ⁇ Christ did not teach only by his words. He was also taught by his life. When he was arrested and beaten, he was made a bloody rag from the beating, and he was going to be crucified. They'd hand him over to the cross, says a soldier, and give him a slap on the wrist. What did Christ himself say? If you get slapped on one cheek, you turn the other. A soldier gives him a slap, does he turn the other cheek? He didn't! Why? He said when you're hit on one cheek, turn the other. He didn't turn it, but he turned it and said to the soldier: What did he want to show us with that? Just that. Is it possible that he wouldn't have taken the slap if he'd taken the cross? Did the slap hurt him? He accepted the nails, and he accepted the spear, and he accepted such a martyr's death, to show us just that: one is humble and the other a coward. Let us keep that in mind. We will be humble and we will know նույյննն years and fight. We come back again, not forgetting the power of our thoughts, we said. May we never forget the state of the devil. The prophet Isaiah says that with his thoughts he became the devil. "Thou hast said in thy mind." Thou hast thought: "In heaven, I will ascend upon the stars of heaven, I will set my throne, I will ascend upon the clouds, I will be like the Highest. And the fall of the devil took place before the world was created. God had not yet created man, the devil had not yet killed anyone. Who could he kill if there was no one? There were no men, he lied to no one, he lied to no one, he lied to no one before the world was created. First, there was the use of the spiritual world and the fall of Lucifer, and then the material world was created. So it was only with his thoughts that he became the devil. What power his thoughts have! Opposite the skete where I live on a high peak, you can barely see a cell, a spiritualist used to have it, let me read to you omitting too much, something impressive that happened in this cell. The clergyman's name was Father Sava. Among the many confessors confessed by Papa Sava, the text says, there was a Romanian deacon. As a young man, he came to Athos and rested somewhere in the desert, not far from Agia Anna (several years ago). "My spiritual, (the sad deacon says to him one day), do not forget to mention me in the service of my mother who has her third." (She died three days ago). And the spiritual says to him without now showing his distress, "Tell me, my son: your mother has her third tomorrow, that is, she died the day before yesterday. He died in Romania. How did you learn of her death in two days? "There was some silence, there were no telephones, no telephones, like me in my skete, no electricity. They didn't have telephones. "How did I know?" The deacon began to say timidly. "Well, he told me..." "-Who told you?" "My guardian angel told me." "Your guardian angel? Have you seen your angel? "I have seen him. It's not once and twice, it's been two years now, he appears to me and accompanies me in prayer. We say greetings together, we repent, we open spiritual discussions". That "two years" was very bitter to Father-Sabba. "-And why, my child, have you not mentioned anything for so long?" "The angel told me it wasn't necessary." "My child, are you sure it's an angel of God who appears to you?" "-Sure; My sure elder, we pray together, we do a thousand repentances every day, we talk about the future life, about Paradise, my guardian angel is". The deacon seemed unconvinced. But what made him receptive was his trust in his God- enlightened spiritual director. But then again, he said how can the demon strengthen me in prayer? He fights those who pray. After much, they agreed to resort to some trials, to test the guardian angel. Ask him as soon as he returns (says πα Papa-Savvas) to say: 'Theotokos the Virgin', even tell him to make the sign of the Cross". But things were not that simple. When the evil one has had you wrapped in error for two whole years, then your eyes and your ears are deceived and you imagine that you hear the Theotokos the Virgin and you think you see him making the cross and you think you see him making the cross and you see him. On the next visit the deacon with some satisfaction announced to the spiritual director: "Elder, things are as I told you, he is an angel of God, he is my guardian angel. And the Virgin Mary said it and he made his cross". I omit, the sons and angels know what we think. Be careful, the devil doesn't have the powers we think he does. Don't give him more credit than he has, he has terrible disadvantages, terrible drawbacks, we won't mention anything else now, only this, that he doesn't know what we think. Notice this, the Angels know what we are thinking. The sons, not only those who have gone to heaven but also those who are among us, as soon as they see us, they know what we are thinking. The devil doesn't know. Then what happens to your thoughts? It leaves us with a thought. He doesn't know we've accepted it. If he sees that we change برنامه then he knows that we accepted it. It gives us a carnal thought. It doesn't know if we accepted it. When it starts to see that our pulse is rising that we are starting to change our plans, then it understands .what we have accepted it. He does not know what we are thinking. It's one of his big disadvantages. We'll talk about the rest another time. His spiritual father is now telling him: "Beware what they will do: I this night, at this very moment, I will think of something (he thought of something at the devil's expense), and I leave it hidden, within myself. You in the evening will ask the angel to tell you. If he finds it then he is no doubt an angel of God. And come and let me know." When the deacon returned to his hut, something shook inside him, something in agony, something in an unpleasant sensation. On the other hand, he also admired the greatness of the spirit. The case was about to enter its critical phase. As soon as he was asked at night by the angel for a solution to the problem, some indistinguishable commotion softened his bright face. He seemed to be confused. "But my dear father, why should you, a superior man, be interested in the calculations of a priest? That's degradation, poor desires. Shall I not show you tonight hell, heaven, the glory of the Virgin Mary? " ⁇ Deacon who was beginning to suspect something persisted in their theme. "-I obey my spiritual director, tell me what he thought." Angelus, with some maneuvering, tried to transfer the conversation. But the deacon persistently brought him to the point. Besides, these technical evasions did not make a good impression on him. "Tell me what the clergyman thought. The matter is simple! Why do you avoid it? Are you ignoring it? "-Beware, deacon, in the small way you treat me, you run the risk of losing my meaning." "-I don't know, I'm asking you a question. Do you know, at last, what the spiritual thought? "So that's when the shining face came out. A horrible figure was revealed and as if from the mouth of a beast the words were heard: - "Perish, wretch, tomorrow such a one⁇ra in hell and fire, we will burn you and destroy you, tomorrow this one. And the deacon was left alone and in ruins. Lee's sweetness of vision two years ago did not compensate for his present bitterness. Had it not been for the prayers of the spiritualist who lay awake and pleaded for him, he would have given up his spirit. It took him several days to recover and get back on his feet. His hut no longer held him. Nowhere was he safe except near the spirit. All along the way, the threat was ringing in his ears: "Tomorrow, the same in hell". And the terror ran through him to the marrow of his bones. He arrived as he had arrived at the resurrection hut. He took the clergyman's robe and would not let go of it, and when he was about to sleep a little, the deacon was beside him. "Don't be afraid, my child, calm down!", -How can I not be afraid, my spiritualist, that the time is approaching; the time is approaching when they will take me away! Christ save me! " And indeed the determined hour, received a violent attack of the wicked spirits. What cries of terror and despair were these! "Be with me spiritually, I am lost! They are taking me! Save me!" Kneeling, the priest-Sabas, full of pain and tears, knelt to the Lord to spare his servant and rebuke the wicked demons. His prayer was heard. And the poor deacon was saved by the mouth of a lion. I omit, with the time and guidance of Papa-Sabbas the Romanian deacon calmed down. His priestly life took a good turn, he was later ordained a priest and was always distinguished for his piety. His years of deception left some unpleasant traces. The devil had acquired rights over him. Would the devil have offered him so many delightful visions? Thus throughout his later life, plagued by various vexatious temptations, all the discreet fathers saw in them the residue of that two-year association with the angel who was not. Brothers and fathers, we have no other opportunity to earn our life and salvation than the one we are given now. We have no other life, only this one here. And it's a shame to be lost. Good God has given us everything for our salvation. The devil may have more weapons at his disposal today than he ever had before. But Christians for the first time have so many weapons to defend themselves that we have never had before. Never before has a Christian had Christian radio stations like we have today. Never before have so many Christian books been produced, and spiritual, not theological, Christian spiritual books that benefit us in our long lives. Never before have we had so many. Never before have we had so many tapes so that one could listen to something spiritual, some advice, some counsel, something patristic and beneficial. The devil has armed his own, and the good Lord has armed his own. We have everything we need to be saved, and above all, we have the sacraments of our church.

Do not stray from your parish. Do not stray from the priest's stone. With what we have, we have no excuse to go to hell. Only our laziness will get us to hell, nothing else. And a father says: With what we have, we'd rather go to heaven than to hell. You must be more tired to go to hell, to Paradise more easily.