Freedom cannot be gained if we do not free our inner space from tangles and passions.
This is our Church, this is our joy, this is everything for us. And this is what man is asking for today. And people take poison and drugs to come to worlds of joy, but of fake joy.
They feel something at that moment but the next day they feel broken. One scrapes them, eats them, crushes them, fries them. While the other, that is to say giving to Christ, animates them, gives them joy, makes them to rejoice life, to feel the power and the greatness.
It is a great art to make it possible for your soul to be sanctified. You can be sanctified anywhere. Even in Omonia square, you can be sanctified if you want to. In your work, whatever it is, you can become saints. Through meekness, patience and love. Set a new order every day, a new mood, with enthusiasm and love, prayer and silence. Avoid anxiety that makes your chest hurt.
Work with vigilance, simply, gently, without agony, with joy and exultation, with good will. Then the divine grace comes.
All the unpleasant things that stay in your soul and cause anxiety, can provide an opportunity for worshiping God and stop tiring you.
Have trust in God.
There is no need to try and live on a shoestring. All your effort should be on gazing at the light, on conquering the light. So, instead of giving in to sorrows, which are not of the Spirit of God, give in to glorifying God.
Sadness shows that we do not trust our lives in Christ.
Communication with Christ, when done simply, gently, without pressure, makes the devil leave. Satan does not leave with pressure, with tightness. He moves away with meekness and prayer. He recedes when he sees that the soul despises him and turns with love to Christ. He cannot suffer contempt, because he is arrogant. But when you are under pressure, the evil spirit gets wind of it and fights you. Do not deal with the devil, nor ask for him to leave.
The more you ask him to leave, the more he embraces you. Despise the devil. Avoid a frontal attack. When you fight the devil with stubbornness, he attacks like a tiger, like a wildcat. When you fire off bullets against him, he throws a grenade at you. When you throw him a bomb, he’s throwing you a rocket. Do not look at the evil. Look at the embrace of God and fall into His arms and move forward.
The humble ones are conscious of their inner state and, however bad it is, they do not lose their personality… They do not lose their balance. Nevertheless, the opposite happens to the selfish ones, the ones who feel inferior. At first they look like the humble ones. However, if someone disturbs them a little, they immediately lose their peace, they get irritated and upset.
Saint Porphyrios
*The article was originally published in Greek in ikivotos.gr
