My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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SPIRITUAL WARFARE
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same suffering is experienced by your brotherhood in the world" (1 Peter 5:8-9).
"The devil and his angels (demons) explore us individually, looking for our weaknesses. The enemy offers appealing visions to our eyes, music to our ears, to each of our senses setting forth whatever might tempt us to sin. He arouses our tongues to speak evil about others, and urges our hands to injure them. He sets forth profits to be earned by shady and immoral means and holds out earthly honors and false values to be preferred to heavenly ones. When he is unable to tempt us, he brings forth a threat of persecution so that fear may cause us to betray the faith. Thus we must always be alert for his many-faceted attacks, ready to resist him at every turn" (Orthodox Study Bible page 558).
Spiritual warfare is about bringing our thoughts into obedience to Christ. But we must do this gently, recognizing that our flesh is weak, but must nevertheless be trained, like children. Saint Isaac the Syrian says it never goes away so long as we are still in the body...Struggles with the passions are not really about the passions. Spiritual warfare is about our attention. When our attention wanders from Our Creator, from the awareness of God's nearness, and from the continual contemplation and prayer to God in our hearts, then the passions, the flashy red poisonous berries, get our attention.
"...Saint Paul says I am sure of better things for you, things that accompany salvation. Warfare is our lot so long as we live in the evil age. But as Saint Paul also says, OUR WARFARE is not against flesh and blood, it's not against other people no matter how evil they seem to be. Our warfare is against our own thoughts (logismoi) and fears, or despondent tendencies. We each have our unique battles to fight, our own unseen martyrdom.
Since we are constantly under attack from the Evil One we must turn to prayer. You call out to God in prayer, not only in your mind and heart but with your body too. Cross yourself when you pray. Get out of bed and do prostrations (metanoies) as you pray. Light a candle before an icon, burn some incense and pray. Pray with your mind, heart, and body. Beg God to have mercy as you pray. The Jesus Prayer ("The Prayer of the Heart") is most appropriate.
Saint Andrew of Crete prays in the name of all of us who sin before God: "Take my heavy sinful burden away from me and give me tears of repentance!" We must shed tears of repentance because there are only two kinds of water which can wash away the filth of sin: the water of baptism and the tears of repentance. Furthermore, as Saint John Climacus asserts: "Greater than baptism itself is the fountain of tears after baptism, even though it is somewhat audacious to say so. For baptism is the washing away of evils that were in us before, but sins committed after baptism are washed away by tears. As baptism is received in infancy, we have all defiled it, but we cleanse it anew with tears. And if God in His love for mankind had not given us tears, those being saved would be few indeed and hard to find."
When we turn our attention to Jesus, then Jesus fights our battles. One of the desert Holy Fathers said that trying to confront our own wicked thoughts is like trying to drive off wild dogs by throwing biscuits at them. We end up feeding the very thing we are trying to drive away. But if we turn our attention to Christ as the priest says during the Divine Liturgy "let us be attentive", to the One Who saves, to the One Who made us and loves us and calls us to Himself, then the barking of the dogs (demons) fades away into the background. Then, Christ, Himself fights with us the spiritual battles, and we return to our natural place as worshippers of God, as those whose minds and hearts are attending to the one thing needful. (Source: Pravmir)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George