"The first year after I had received the Holy Spirit I thought to myself: ' The Lord has forgiven me my sins: grace is witness thereof. What more do I need?' But that is not the way to think. Though our sins be forgiven we must remember them and grieve for them all our lives, so as to preserve a contrite heart. I did not do this and ceased to be contrite, and suffered greatly from evil spirits. And I was perplexed at what was happening to me, and said: 'My soul knows the Lord and His love. How is it that evil thoughts come to me?' But the Lord had pity on me, and taught me the way to humble myself: 'Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not.' Thus is the enemy vanquished; but when my mind emerges from the fire the suggestions of passion gather strength again.
Fight the enemy with the weapon of humility.
Whoever like me has lost grace, let him wrestle manfully with evil spirits. Know that you yourself are to blame: you fell into pride and vanity, and the Lord in His mercy shows you what it means to be in the Holy Spirit and what it means to be at war with evil spirits. Thus the soul learns by experience the harm that comes of pride, and shuns vainglory and the praises of men, and evil thoughts. Then will the soul begin to recover her health and learn to retain grace. How can we tell if the soul is well or ailing? The ailing soul is full of pride, while the soul that is well loves the humility taught her by the Holy Spirit." - Wisdom from Mount Athos, Chapter 9
Before Abba Serenus began his conference on spiritual warfare between the demons and the soul St. Cassian expressed his frustrations with his spiritual progress in the desert, "Nonetheless I find that, as I strive laboriously in this purity, I have progressed in this alone: I know what I cannot be. Hence I think that nothing but hard work will be my lot as a result of such contrition of heart, so that there may always be reason for weeping. Yet I do not cease to be what I must not be" (7.3.2). This line is so comforting. Often we forget that the saints were men and women like us with their own struggles and battles to fight. We have great comfort in this solidarity, as we summarize this conference on spiritual warfare and consider the principalities and powers of this painful world.
The mind, the demons, and spiritual progress are the focus of this conference. When these three realities are properly understood, the nature of spiritual warfare is perceived with great clarity.
"Chapter One: ON A RESOLUTE AND SUSTAINED PURPOSE
IF you wish to save your soul and win eternal life, arise from your lethargy, make the sign of the Cross and say:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Faith
comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and
speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air
we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the
sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just
sitting in comfort and waiting, say the holy Fathers. Let the Prodigal
Son be our example. He arose and came (Luke 15:20).
However
weighed down and entangled in earthly fetters you may be, it can never
be too late. Not without reason is it written that Abraham was
seventy-five when he set forth, and the labourer who comes in the
eleventh hour gets the same wages as the one who comes in the first.
Abba Serapion, similar to his predecessor Evagrius, taught that there are eight principle vices (5.2-3):
1) Gluttony - natural vice committed through bodily action
2) Fornication - natural vice committed through bodily action
3) Avarice (love of money) - unnatural vice caused by external circumstances
4) Anger - natural vice caused by external circumstances
5) Sadness - unnatural vice caused by internal circumstances
6) Acedia (anxiety of heart) - unnatural vice caused by internal circumstances
7) Vainglory - unnatural vice committed in thoughts apart from bodily action
8) Pride -
unnatural vice committed in thoughts apart from bodily action
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For
the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;
and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things
that you wish." - Galatians 5:16-17
Constant spiritual struggle is what is promised to all Christians who seek perfection in Christ. As St. Anthony the Great said to Abba Poemen, "This is the great work of man: to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath." We are to earnestly contend for the Faith by engaging in constant, interior warfare. In this fourth conference Abba Daniel, who was made a priest by Abba Paphnutius, elaborates on this struggle between the flesh and the spirit by explaining (1) the struggle's environment, (2) the definitions of "the flesh" and "the spirit", (3) the will's role in spiritual warfare, and (4) the states of the soul.
