It is not an external enemy. . .
It is not an external enemy we dread. Our foe is shut up within ourselves. An internal warfare is daily waged by us.”
― Making Life a Prayer: Selected Writings
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No matter what provokes it. . .
“No matter what provokes it, anger blinds the soul’s eyes, preventing it from seeing the Sun of Righteousness.”
+ St. John Cassian, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 1), “On the Eight Vices: On Anger”
Oppose no man in anything; do not. . .
“Oppose no man in anything; do not quarrel, and do not lie, and do not swear by the name of the Lord your God. Be despised, and do not despise. Be wronged, and do not wrong. It is better for things of the body to perish with the body than for something pertaining to the soul to be hurt. Go to court with no man, but endure to be condemned, being uncondemned.”
+ St. Isaac of Nineveh , The Ascetical Homilies, Homily 17
When the demons see. . .
When the demons see Christians, specially the monks, working joyfully and growing in the spirit, first they fight them with temptation, and by placing obstacles to hinder their growth, trying to inject evil thoughts in their minds; but there is no reason for fear from their temptations because their offenses fail instantly by prayer and fasting, specially if you have had armed yourself with faith and the sign of the cross.
St Anthony the Great
A time is coming when men will. . .
“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.’”
+ St. Anthony the Great, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection
St. Ephraim the Syrian: While the dying person addresses his last words to us . . .
“While the dying person addresses his last words to us, suddenly his tongue is at a loss, his eyes dim, his mouth falls silent, his voice paralyzed when the Lord’s troops have arrived, when His frightening armies overwhelm him, when the divine bailiffs invite the soul to be gone from the body, when the inexorable lays hold of us to drag us to the tribunal… Then the angels take the soul and go off through the air. There stand principalities, powers and leaders of the adverse troops who govern the world, merciless accusers, strict agents of an implacable tax bureau, like so many examiners that await the soul in the air, ready to demand a reckoning, to examine everything, brandishing their claims, that is to say our sins: those of youth and of old age, those intentional and those not so, those committed by actions and those by words or thoughts. Great then is the fear of the poor soul, inexpressible its anguish when it sees itself at grips with these myriads of enemies, who stop it, push and shove it, accuse it, hinder it from dwelling in the light, from entering into the land of the living. But the holy angels, taking the soul, lead it away.
