A good thought is equivalent to a long vigil! It has great power. So try, as much as you can, before temptation could plant bad thoughts, to plant good thoughts yourself, so that your heart becomes a flower garden and your prayer is accompanied by the divine fragrance of your heart.
When one has even the slightest bad thought about someone, whatever one does, either fasting or vigil, is a lost cause. How can practice help somebody when one is not struggling to cope with bad thoughts?
Why don’t you empty all the sediment settle from the jar first, which is only for soap, and then pour the good oil in it? Why do you prefer to mix the good oil with the useless one? A pure and good thought has more power than any practice.
Elder Paisios
