She Devil (mountain)

Transcription

Devil in mind Human beings think more than they breath In just a breath we can do many thoughts and that is something we don't conceive. We don't consider that all the thoughts we do form our character, our personality our thoughts give us our identity represent who we are This occurs to such an extend, that an American philosopher says "you are what you think" Our entire lifes is a result of our thoughts With our thoughts we can change our future for example Our future is not given,is not written , there is no "kismet" We will decide on our future Our thoughts can make even God's oppinion about our future to change As much outrageous that this might hear , or unimaginable , it's in the Bible teachings (Old Testament) We see it for example in Jonah's story and the city of Nineveh.The citizens , of this big city of the time, were fallen on sin and God decided to destruct the city "Nineveh shall be destroyed" God took a decision for the future of the city Jonah's went to his fellow citizens and preached for repentance and the whole population did regret and consequently God changed His decision "He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened" (Jonah 3) and the population were saved This is what can happen from a change of mind which can effect our future We have to do a distinction here There is a difference between the word "thought" and the word "logismos" (greek word meaning the thought that insists and keeps coming again and again) Some times they do concur and have the same meaning as it means an idea, a thought, a notion But "logismos" is the insisting thought and not the one that passes by the one that comes and comes again, which keeps bothering us These insisting thoughts have tremendous power not only in our lives in the present or in our future, but even to our bodies Let's say an example of how a thought can affect our bodies I was in a monastery ,one father (monk) could not eat sesame paste he detested it , but he loved "halvas" (kind of candy) So he ate "halva" often and was one of his favourite things to eat Until another monk asked him "how come that you deteste sesame paste and love halva?" and the first one answered "why , how do you associate these 2 things , what's their connection?" "the main ingredient of halva is sesame paste" said the other one At the moment the first monk heard that ,he felt nauseous and started vomiting This thought affect his body to react such way There is a very good psychiatrist in Athens who has a well known dean as a spiritual father This psychiatrist had a patient, a lady with a major psychological problem and due to her treatment he brought some very rare and expensive drugs from Holland He explained the lady to be very careful to hear and implement the drug therapy with accuracy ,because these drugs were very rare and it would be so difficult to have them again soon So he gave her all the instructions and steps of the therapy She heartily thanked him for his concern and efforts that the doctor did especially for her case and she took the drugs and followed the instructions step by step and she was healed She was cured and she praised God because she was suffering over 10 years with this illness and these medicines made her all well What is the main point here? That these drugs were just candies, there were not pills This is what thought can do, how essentialy can affect the body. Unfortunally it can not only have positive effect on the body like the lady of this case ,but also negative I will tell you another incident which is beyond any imagination but is 100% true i can tell you the name of the doctor when i finish the speech This doctor says, that a relative of him went to a magician (one, who saw the future in some crystals) who told him that he had a heart problem and he would die in the next full moon The doctor's relative was healthy, full of energy and generally happy but he had a very good oppinion for this famous magician and trusted her a lot The magician saw a crystal and foretold the future of each person and many of these did really happen That's why she had such a reputation and had gain the confidence of the doctor's relative In his case she had made a negative submission and he accepted this thought he was terrified and his mind stucked to this idea that he was going to die in the next full moon He actually started to talk to his intimates he prepared the inheritance issues, did his covenant and this terrible submission was finally fulfiled because he believed it completely He died , he really died , without a significant health problem This is the power of insisting thoughts Both for good and for bad Insisting thoughts are divided into 3 types , let's separate them First are our own thoughts ,our ideas, these that a human mind can do Secondly are these that the devil brings to us We say for example "a thought came by" and we can not imagine how accurate and spot on we are, by saying this sentence it's correct that it was brought to you, literally someone brought it to you Devil is a spirit and as that he can brush thoughts in our minds So there are our own thoughts, thoughts that come from the devil and thirdly thoughts that good God send us. How can we distinguish them in order to concern for our own thoughts and the thoughts that God send us and reject the ones that devil brings to us? How can we do this discrimination in our insisting thoughts? It is very simple . We can not do it By no means we can do this distinction of our thoughts, God's and devil's This needs extreme spiritual knowledge, extreme efforts The Fathers of our church say that the charisma of distinguishing these thoughts is the greatest virtue Then how shall we accept God's thoughts in order to live and reject bad thoughts from our own or by devil in order not to be perished? Generally we accept good thoughts and discard the bad ones It seems simple,it isn't. Because immediately 2 problems come across First, how a bad thought is confronted and rejected and secondly when a good thought is brought by the devil? How can we know that it comes from devil to turn it down? Because, we very well know, that the time when devil appeared with horns and tail is way back He has now changed form, he knows to disguise He comes as a brilliant idea, as a man with many gifts as a politician with eloquence, as a cleric who will fascinate you with his speeches How can we figure out that devil is behind all this? When we have a bad thought it's easy to reject it but when it comes like a nice idea deriving from devil what can we do? In Old Testament it says "There is a way that appears to be right,but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 14:12) There is a path that you start to walk and seems good and useful and at the end death is awaiting How can we recognize that, in order not to start this effort that will lead us to death? For the first one, of how we deal and reject a bad thought,i will give a small plan a plan of how this bad thought progress so that you can remember it Each thought has a development for example, we pass along a brothel or we see a wallet on the ground The idea comes "get in" or "take it" This stage of thinking is called "infection" it attacks , it strokes us We repel it , deny it, we say "no i won't get in" or " i won't take the wallet i found" The thought insists "get in, just to take a look, there could be something awesome" or "the wallet seems overfull, the owne r shouldn't have a financial problem" We still send away this thought "no" but it still coming At this stage"infection", we are not responsible across God for this thought, however bad and sinfull it is We are innocent before God So ,this insisting thought comes again,we repel it , comes again we reject it and this second stage is called "struggle,fight" we are wrestling with this idea So, for the first stage we are not responsible , for the "infection" But for the second , the "struggle" ,we are not only irresponsible,but we will receive a wreath from God we will receive a spiritual wage from God Because we do fight ,reject the bad idea, although it is so difficult to subdue it to prevail over the temptation and the wish that is trying to lure us From this fight for the love of God we will have benefits, we will be saved. On the other hand, if we start to discuss it over, in our minds and say "ok i will get in just to see if the girl is beautiful, i won't do anything else and i will exit" or"i will take the wallet and i will do a charity, there are a lot of money i will keep a small amount and i will help someone with the rest" From this stage and on our fault begins. We are not yet guilty, but the sin begins and is called "combination" We are trying to find excuses, to make it easy, from that point the guilt begins From the moment we'll say in our mind "i get in" or "i'll take it" the story is finished We are guilty before God It doesn't matter if we finally get in or take the wallet, because this can depend on external factors like someone see us at the time we want to entry and we feel shame and leave This doesn't matter as the bad thought has won us in our mind These are the 4 stages of the insisting thought the "infection" , the "struggle" , the "combination" and the "consent" From "consent" everything starts. There is nothing harmful that we can do without consenting firstly in our minds There are trully very few bad things or sins or crimes that we can do from carelessness, due to recklessness, inattention or negligence. Most of the times we have assent to commit the evil thing in our mind first and we do it afterwards So if this evil thing don't occur inside us then it won't never occur outside us That is the meaning of Jesus words "anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:28) and also in Holy Bible it says "Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer" (1 John 3:15) he will be judged as a murderer and the Fathers of the church speak about envy which can result to murde When you envy and are jealous of someone you have already killed him in your heart is a potential murder That's why Jesus insisted "First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." (Matthew 23:26) Otherwise ,however nice you look externally "You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean."(Matthew 23:27) That's why we pay such a great attention to these thoughts We have mentioned the stages of these thoughts, which are 4 We are also going to say 4 ways to deal with them. All these might interlarded,enriched and branched We will just refer to a skeleton , a framework and speak telegraphicly ust a simple scheme easy to be remembered So how we fend off the insisting thought, we repel it right from the start We shouldn't allow it to take root inside us At the moment it comes we repulse it straight away when it is obvious that is evil send him away immediately, before he get strengthen inside you It seems like you know a killer is right outside your street door and knocking If you don't open him he is quite away and you are safe If you open the street door and let him in ,he is now pretty closer Now you have to do much greater effort to send him away from your yard If you still open your door and let him in your house, he will step inside and start knocking your room door and then it's much more difficult to put him out If you open your room then you will start to fight against him and it ends to an even harder thing to send him away The same thing happens with an illness You are in the first symptoms of it and your doctor gives you some medicines to take, to have a short therapy You do obey, you are saved. You don't obey , you are getting worse You will then need more pills, antibiotics, greater therapy You don't follow the instructions, then you will need a surgery, you don't no if you will live in the end That's why straight away ,when we are sure that something is evil we have no excuse, we send it away at once We don't want to thing badly. we don't want to accept bad thoughts Yes but how that can be done? You see , it needs practice,like everything new we learn needs practice, with insistence, little by little We have to learn to be awaken,sharp witted, not to be abstracted Someone talk to us, what is he saying, we should pay attention our mind buzz off , we must pull it together forgot myself, lost a point he mentioned Wherever our body is, there should be our mind too and not elsewhere the body , ourself and our mind. There was a communist, a fanatic one during the civil war the opposite side killed his mother and father his sister have being raped at the age of 9 and afterwards slaughtered along with his brothers His dream was ,as he told father Nikon, to kill a ranger and then die Not to pass away before killing a gendarme, a policeman But human life has inversions, things have been changed and he became a faithful christian he became a monk and he came to mount Athos His body did come but the mind? His elder was asking him at a time "where were we today my son?" and he replied " Oh my elder, we were with Lenin and Krupskaya (Lenin's wife) sermonizing the ideas of communism in this place.." and his elder was smiling "say the prayer my son,Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me" in order to recollect the mind A week later "how are we doing my son , where is your thoughts?" "well my elder ,we are in Greece, we are emending Greece those things shouldn't happen in that meeting of my comrades, they should have taken other decisions", elder was smiling After some time "how is it going my son?" "my elder, we have arrived in Ouranoupoli "(the city right before entering mount Athos) and next time " how is it going my son" "well my elder the superintendency didn't decide correct in that occasion" The monks mind had entered in the Holy Mountain affairs the monasteries should resolve a specific issue differently, he was correcting mount Athos decisions now After a little while " how is it going my son?" "well my elder we are around our place "skiti" (very small monasterial community) Little by little, we can not recollect our mind in a time instance, to be in its proper status when in all our previous lifetime had let it go away, let it get accostumed on that And when time comes for us to pray or do a spiritual work or even to read something and absorb this knowledge, we must pay attention on this task It is not easy to gather our mind on this particular moment, when all day long it goes around collecting "trash" and "garbages" That's why from the moment we awake in the morning, little by little, we must try to keep the mind in its position. Where am i? i'm here, what am i doing? i do this work This may look insignificant, but it is important that you bring your thoughts to here and now and this can be practised and get used to and finally the mind learns to keep this state These are things that we have saw, learned,lived and know it is so and are so simple that you can see by yourself the truth of it Alright, but what are we going to think? The mind can't stay blank, it has to think of something We can not think constantly the paper we read, we have to think of something What should we do. Simply, we will not fill the mind with a thousand of matters The mind can't stay still, immobile, it always needs something There is an Hindu saying, about how can we think positively It says, that if you put an elephant into a room , there is nothing else that can get in Exaggeration, but very characteristic The Fathers of Orthodox church say "consider positively ,so you don't consider negatively thing good not to think bad, see good not to see bad, listen good not to listen bad The mind can't stay unmoving It needs to be fed, it works ,so you'll give it good tasks not to be space for evil things This is the second way There is a wish in Eucharist before Holy Communion that says "bury through my kindness thoughts all the devious consultations" he mind can't stay still, by kind thoughts we will bury the evil cogitations we shall throw them away, we won't let them any space The first way ,as we said, is the repulsion, straight away The second is not to let any room for them The third is to avoid the causes that give birth to such thoughts Beware, we can't say that i will not think whorish, fleshly and on the other hand to view porn films, or magazines or open tv on programmes that we know what we will see and simultaneously claim that we shall keep our mind clean We shall avoid the causes that produce the evil thoughts that rule us and we wish to repel You can't say that i won't thing bad, i'll thing good when you hear indecent songs They will stuck in your head You must avoid the causation places There is a case in the Bible when God says Lot to leave Sodoma and Gomora and go ,not only away of them, not on the suburbs, but climb the mountains to be saved There was a young person addicted to narcotics who went to elder Paiessios (contemporary saint,monk on mount Athos who reposed on 1994) Elder Paiessios told him "what can i do for you my boy as you are like the one who wants to quit smoking and the same time hangs about the tobacco store he won't buy the first time, nor the second, the third he will." You must drive away even from the places which generate troubles for you, apart from looking out what you think Fathers say "get away and get saved" When i was undergraduate (father Nikon) we got ready to see a film , a shameful one and i asked another friend if he was coming with us The other one asked "would Christ go to that film?".... "what did you say?" father Nikon asked back It's easy said the other one, when i want to go somewhere i ask myself if Christ would go there and if my consciousness says yes , i go. Father Nikon was amazed from that reasoning His friend had found a way to avoid the places that could trap him Things are pretty simple, as long as we learn , remember and practice them This was the third way,avoiding the causes Now ,the problem is that we want something but we can't do it We want to repulse the thought straight away but we can't we want to avoid the places that will lead us to a fall but we can't we want to have kind thoughts instead of bad ones but we can't Apostle Paul says " I can do everything" How he says that? what does he mean by that? Every human mind has a maximum experience of about 100 years as we usually can't live more, we die Devil has the experience of centuries, how can we confront him, how apostle Paul could? "I can do all this through Him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13) he says When Jesus Christ strengthens me Jesus Christ said"apart from me you can do nothing"(John 15:5) We can't do anything without Christ's aid Even with our attitude to go to the spiritual father ,we bring a wound to devil's wishes The time the priest is saying the Forgiveness prayer,he is gone(devil) We can not be humble to the air, there is no meaning in self humility It is of great importance to get humiliated before another one for the love of Christ, to preserve Christ's precept You'll see if these are true only in practice The way, practically, so many millions people in the passage of 2000 years learned them, this way you can ascertain them by yourself We have already said that the time has passed when devil appeared with horns and tail Nowadays he's coming like a nice thought We can pull through a thought we know is bad, with the 4 ways i told you before repulsion, don't leave space, avoiding the causes and the Sacraments of church But..when devil comes as a kind thought? When is coming like a dear friend ? How can we then understand it? Brethren there are numerous species of deamons and there are 2 ways of deamonism There are 2 ways that devil can totally dominate someone There are some thick deamons The deamon of gluttony, fornication,avarice Everything we feel is not always from natural causes In a neighboring monastery there was a father who, all of the sudden he started to eat a lot more than average He ate 10 loafs of bread per day , but he wasn't fat Where all this food go? 10 loafs of bread per day ,where were going? The other fathers were concerned and read conjurations on him and after a week he recovered And he, who ate 10 loafs of bread and was still hungry, now was satisfied with 2 slices of bread We can recount a lot of stories on these issues Fornication deamon, anger deamon, gluttony deamon ,these are thick deamons But there are other deamons,princes,masters, sharp like blades and alas to whom falls in their hands There is nothing that can save one from them If God doesn't help this man miraculously, he is in great danger Such a deamon is pridefulness, the deamon of heresy, the deamon of fallacy The one who believes a fallacy can't deny his fallacy even if his skin is scuffed. As i told you there are 2 kinds of deamonism The first one is when devil conceives your mind, dominates your thoughts and makes you accept whatever thought you have This is the way the sagacious deamonized, the clever brainy people as they fall into great pridefulness Devil dominates their brain totally and from then on they believe all of their thoughts as correct and true The teribble thing is that they have no idea that something's going wrong all the others near him apprehend that something's wrong except himself This is devil's cunning, craft and ingenuity Not ingenuity to speak correctly but the slyness , because if devil was clever he would repent and be saved Saint Ephrem the Syrian says how wise the enemy is , as he don't binds me with trammels that i hate but ties me with trammels i love and enjoying being leashed Being beaten ,slaved on something and be happy for it There is devil's slyness When he comes as a gift, as a virtue, dressed up the garment of freedom,"i'm free to do whatever i want" That's why i have mentioned before, that unless God's help the man who is deamonized like that and his mind is occupied can't never escape, as he don't have a sense of his condition I only know one person,one writer who did understand his condition but he couldn't do anything You can't do anything As it is said it's like the evil is in control of your mind and drives you wherever he wants, instead of your willingness If a person is deamonized like that he can't do much , as it means that he has given a lot of priviligies to devil The result in this incident was what? The devil had persuaded this person that he's the new messiah and he will save humanity and such a clever man as this writer accepted that He reached to the point to write to a dean in USA (i have his writings) "Son of the thunder, let us prepare We ought ,undoubtedly,to establish churches in several places. We are 3, it doesn't matter " A companionship of 3 , him the dean and another,they would establish his church "it doesn't matter we are 3 persons" Jesus Christ needed 12 ,as He was more impotent He needed more persons to help Him but this man needed just other 2 He had such a mind trouble And continued in his letter "you have to found a battalion in USA i will found in Berlin and in Poland the first churches and along is Lefteries (the third one) The apostolic routes will start, the struggles , the martyrdoms. An ecumenical council should take place in 2-3 years." Now take notice , in order for the first ecumenical council to happen which meant to gather bishops from the whole world and discuss the first heresy of Christianity it took 300 years. But the new religion of this poor man was such superior than Christ's his philosophy so deeper, that in only the following 3 years he would misapprehended Which means that in these 3 years his sermon would spread whole over the world churches would have been found, and priests would preach his teaching bishops, deans and within 3 years, he would misapprehended and an ecumenical council should be necessary And you think ,is this man ok,is he ok? Is he foolish? As a matter of fact he is one of the smartest persons among Greece and the whole world How he ended like that? Fathers of the Ortodox church call this situation as "captivity" when devil captivates your mind, from then on you are gone,you can't do much, he manipulates you as he want That's why we must not stay alone, with our thoughts and point of views we must discuss them, we must take advices, we must not try to impose our ideas to the others by force We should listen to the others, we mustn't rely on our own thoughts We must learn to back down, we must accept advices We should go to the spiritual fathers, we should confess in a simple way without many details We also have to listen to the advices of the spiritual father the Bible says the man who don't accept advices is an enemy of himself (Solomon wisdom) The person who don't ask things is an enemy of himself, he needs no other enemy As long you don't ask , you have the one who will destroy you Devil doesn't afraid our smartness or our knowledges, he has much more nor our virtues, he has more there is only one he misses and this is deadly for him and we are saved by this one Which is that virtue that misses and kills him? Once, i achieved something and i went full of pride to my elder By the way i looked he understood that something was wrong and before telling him a lot he replied "why should we brag about my boy, why should we feel proud because we fast and eat a little? devil fasts more than us,he doesn't it at all Because we stay up, we wake up at night and sleep a little? devil never sleeps Because we have self restrain , keep our virginity? Devil is more virgin than us because even if he don't want he can't as he has no body" And so i was landed on earth again Whatever virtues we might acquire, devil has them the virtues that devil had when he was an Archangel we will never obtain and all these virues were wasted as he was missing one This one virtue we shall try to obtain in order to be saved So you ought to have in mind that devil doesn't fight us only with sins, but the most with virtues We can understand sins and try to avoid them, but our virtues we strive to acquire them A saint of our church says "you want to fast devil helps you you want to make charities devil helps you,to build churches devil helps you" Why is that? Because he knows that helping you do all these he can drive us to pridefulness and waste everything We must have then this virtue that devil didn't have We will be humble That's exactly what Jesus did as the Bible says "he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8) "He parted the heavens and came down" (Samuel 22:10) We will become humble , we will learn to have humble spirit to be humble persons not just talk about humility not in words but in life,in way of thinking And this means not to consider other people as inferior of us not to assume ourselfs as very important We will admit that we have good aspects but we'll say "God gave that to me" we have some gifts "God gave these to me" we do a kind thing "by the help of God" we will have a shelter instantly, we shall put a shield and we shall engage God to everything and thanks to Him we get round That's how we keep our humility and don't fall to pride There was a visitor who came in my cell (monastic dwelling) and told me "oh elder that's too much , everything is done by you in here?" " what do you mean?" i asked ''I told your submissive (spiritual son) how nice the food was and he replied "the elder,the elder" I told him about another thing he replied"the elder", anything i told him "the elder" , so is everything done by you over here?" He (spiritual son) had found the wright way, he did a kind thing "by the wish of my elder, by help of God" That's what we should do too whatever we do we'll have a humble feeling in our minds We don't need to "act" like a humble We will also be humble in practice, when is necessary for example if we get involved in a deteriorating situation where we have a quarrel with someone , we should back down Back down even if we are a 100% right, when the issue is not of great importance,we should back down This is merciful for the soul of the other person too, as you don't give him to the devil It needs attention in such cases. It's different to be humble from being coward and not a fighter One thing is to be humble and another is to be clout collector When you backing down again and again and you realize that the other one is taking advance of that and wants to overrule you then you will stand up and you will defend yourself, that doesn't mean you are not humble We must take care of that ,we shouldn't let our yieldingness to be a cause for the other one to sin There are occasions when we shall back down, because we are humble and for the love of the other and times when we will stand up and confront the other and still be humble Jesus Christ Himself gives us the example, as He didn't teach us only by words but with His life as well When they have arrested Him and beat Him mercilessly and He was bleeding all over while He was at the high priest, a soldier came up and gave Him a slap in the face Christ's words were " If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also" (Matthew 5:39) At the time the soldier slaped Him on the cheek did Christ turn the other? He didn't but he turned his face upon the soldier and said "If I said something wrong ,testify as to what is wrong but if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?" What was His point on that? Exactly this Was it possible for Him not to accept a slap when He accepted the cross? Did the slap hurt Him when He accepted the nails? and the lance and such a martyrdom death He accepted? He wanted to show us exactly that cowardice differs humility We should keep that in mind. We will be humble and we will now how to struggle in the same time Let's go back again, we shouldn't forget the power of our thoughts and devil we've said Prophet Isaiah said ''he became devil by his thoughts" and also "You said it in your heart" which means in your mind, you thought it "I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of God I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights " (Isaiah 14:13) Devil's fall happened before the creation of the world, God hadn't create humankind yet devil didn't kill anyone as there were no humans at the time He didn't lied or fooled nobody as the world didn't exist The creation of the spiritual world and lucifer's fall happened first and then followed the creation of the material world With only his thought then he became devil. That's the power of thoughts Across the "skiti"(small monasterial community) i lodge, high on the edge of the mountain there is a cell difficult to discern This was the cell of a spiritual monk in the past Allow me to read you an amazing story that happened in this cell skipping many details The spiritual monk's name was "papa Savvas" Among the many monks that papa Savvas confessed there was a Romanian deacon who came on mount Athos at a young age and cloistered somewhere in the desert(lonly area in the Holy mountain) not too long from St.Anna This happened some many years ago "My spiritual father" says one day the deacon sorrowfull "please, don't forget to memorize in tomorrows liturgy my mother that has her third" which means that she died 3 days ago Papa Savvas trying to hide his suspense asked him "tell me my son, your mother have died before 3 days, in Romania, how did you know about her death in these 2 days" There was a little silence At the time they had no telephones, like i (father Nikon) do not have electric current in my "skiti" They didn't have telephones "How did i learn" the Romanian said waveringly "well i was told" "who told you?" - "well my guardian angel told me" "your guardian angel,have you seen him?" "I was blessed to see him, not once or twice, but almost for 2 years now He comes along and accompanies me on praying. We say together the greetings for Holy Mary, we do penances, we discuss spiritual themes" The words "2 years" embittered papa Savvas a lot "and how come and you didn't mention a thing to me for all these time my son?" "my angel told me that it's not necessary" "are you completely sure that this is an angel that appears to you my son?" "absolutely certain my father, we do pray together, we do 1000 penances daily we talk for the life after, for the future in heavens, he is my guardian angel" and the deacon seemed assured But he was still receptive, because he had great trust to his spiritual and enlightened by God, father On the other hand he wandered how can a deamon reinforce him in prayers, as he is fighting against the praying people After a lot of discussions they agreed to resort to some tests. To have some trials for the guardian angel "Ask him when he returns to say the pray Mother of God Virgin Mary" said papa Savvas "and also ask him to do the cross sign" But things weren't so simple When for 2 years the deacon was wreathed in fallacy , then his eyes and ears were imagining that the angel did what he was asked In the next meeting the deacon announced with a hidden joy to the spiritual father "my elder,things are just as i've told you, he is God's angel, my guardian angel and he prayed the Mother of God and he did the cross sign" I skip many things The saints and Angels know what we think, but beware the devil doesn't have the powers we think We shouldn't exaggerate about his capabilities , as he has great disadvantages,many minus. I will not refer to any other thing but this, that he doesn't know what we are thinking Take notice on that , the Angels know what we think The saints, not only those who are in heaven, but those who are among us when they see us they know what we are thinking.Devil doesn't What happens with thoughts then? Devil puts in our minds a thought ,he doesn't know if we accepted that but if he sees that we are changing our programm then he understands that we've accepted it Let's say that he puts a fleshly desire, he doesn't know if we accept it but when he sees our pulse to get rise, or changing our plans he concludes we've allowed it He doesn't know what we are thinking, this is one of his great disadvantages, we'll talk about others in another time So ,papa Savvas told the deacon "Listen to what we'll do In that instant moment i will think of something" , he thought something against devil, "and i'll keep that as a secret in mind You will ask at night the angel to tell you what i thought. If he finds it, he is undoubtedly God's angel and you should come to inform me" The deacon was returning to his hut with un unpleasant anxious feeling inside but on the other hand he admired the great idea of his spiritual father This situation would face the most important stage When the angel was asked at night to answer this, a hidden disturbance corrugated his bright face he seemed discomfit "but my dear father ,why would an important spiritual person like you, should care for the thoughts of a priest This is an abjection, poor wishing Wouldn't you care more to show you heaven and hell, Mother of God's glory?" but the deacon feeling suspicious insisted " I do obedience to my father , you have to tell me what he thought" The angel tried to change the subject again but the deacon persisted and this avoiding technics made him more suspicious "you have to tell me what my spiritual father thought, this is a simple matter why are you evading that? you don't know?" " watch out deacon , by this petty behaviour you are putting at stake my favour on you" " I don't know, i ask you a simple thing, do you or you don't know what my father thought finally?" At this moment the bright face of the angel was vanished and a horrible figure took its place and as of a beast's mouth this words came out " You should be perished squalid,tomorrow this hour you'll be in hell and fire, we'll burn and destroy you tomorrow this hour" And the deacon stayed alone and desperate all the sweatness of the 2 years of visions couldn't counterbalance his bitterness And if it wasn't for his spiritual's father cordially prayers from away who staid awake and begged for him, the deacon would have gone Many hours passed before the deacon came together, his hut couldn't fit him anymore he couldn't feel secure but only near his spiritual father During the route to his father he was hearing in his mind the threat "this hour tomorrow in hell" and was shivering He finally arrived to the hut of papa Savvas and grasp the frock of his spiritual father and didn't leave it even at the time the priest want to rest for a very little time "Don't be afraid my son, calm down" "How can i my father as the time for me is coming, the time to be taken, Jesus Christ save me" And indeed ,the specific time he was violently attacked by the deamons. He shouted desperately "save me , they are taking me , save me" and papa Savvas kneeled and started praying God to be merciful on his servant and rebuke the deamons and his prayer was listened and the poor deacon was saved from the lion's mouth I skip things.. By time and papa Savvas guidance the Romanian deacon calmed His spiritual life evolved well , he was ordained priest and was distinguished for his devoutness However these years of fallacy had left him some marks Devil had obtained some rights upon him, as he didn't offer so many visions for free Thus, during his life he was suffering from some annoying temptations All the diacritical fathers saw upon him the remainings of the biennial cooperation with the angel who wasn't angel. My brethren and fathers, we don't have another chance to earn our salvation, from the one we have now We don't have another life, only this one and it's a pity to be perished Good God has given everything to us to be saved Devil might have today so many weapons that he'd never possessed before But Christians also,have so many weapons to defend that we never had before Christians had never before radio stations like now, they had never before so many Christian books like now and i mean spiritual books not theological, that can help us in our everyday life Never before we had so many tapes,cd's,dvd's for someone to hear something beneficial from Fathers of church Devil equips his man , but good God equips His too We have everything to be saved and most of all we have church's Sacraments Don't go away from your parishes, don't go away from your priests "petrahielie"(Holy confession) We have no excuse to perish with all these, it will be of our laziness and nothing else And a father says that it is easier to go in heaven than in hell with all these we have today you have to work harder to go in hell than go in heaven We will take care of this Everything starts in our minds and nowhere else Devil has as much power as we give him Why is that he can manipulate some persons and others don't? Why can he overrule wisemen, like the example i've told you and make them say nonsenses to laught about and they don't understand a thing? And talking about churches and ecumenical counsils that he wants. Making everybody laugh except himself Well ,as the Holy Bible says before the Ascension of Christ the apostles were gathered at the attic of the place they were staying and received the Holy Spirit They were joined together at the highest place of the residence and an Athonian monk says that in the spiritual attic of the body at the highest place of human body which is called "nouss" (greek word meaning "intellect" "mind") and which has the image of the Big "mind" we are also receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit From here depends life and death, heaven and hell, the way up or the way down We should make our mind a holy workshop From here everything begins.. We ought to say a prayer for Holy Mary which is referred during the Eucharist that has the following words "give us withdrawal to the captivity of our thoughts", to bring back my notions which the devil captures Apostle Paul says "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." (Philippians 4:8) And we should praise along with the chanter "and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me" Psalm 51(12) Amen .With your wishes. If anybody wants to ask something with pleasure I thank you for your patience and your love. Things are simple as others succeeded we can succeed as well Question: In any case of a thought if we say the prayer " Lord Jesus Christ,have mercy on me" and do the cross sign does it work? does it turns away everything? Answer: It depends " Lord Jesus Christ,have mercy on me" is a weapon against devil and not only a plain weapon, but a nuclear bomb It blows devil away, it vanishes him It's a tremendously concentrated and powerfull wish It includes inside all the prayers, you know why? It's a mystery, the Bible says that during the Secont Advent the name of Christ will appear on the sky and before the name of Christ everything will kneel everything in heavens - the Angels, everything on earth-human beings and everything below earth - the deamons and devil everything in heavens - the Angels, everything on earth-human beings and everything below earth - the deamons and devil The Bible also says that there is no other name,but Christ which will save us. So what we do? we say this name "Lord Jesus Christ" Your name we name, we don't know other God than You It's something that devil tries to persuade us not to do Devil doesn't affraid if we believe in god, take notice on that however faithful you are you are not saved You are not saved if you believe in god Devil is killed,we are getting saved when we confess that Christ is God We don't have another God. This is the scandalous point,and devil's concern There are theological conventions abroad with Christians, Christians i repeat, who agree not to mention Christ's name in order not to offend Buddhists, Hindu and all the others participants How devil fears Christ's name And we name Christ as Lord, the thing that devil tries not to be said Firstly devil don't want you to think about Christ but if you do , think of Him as a great initiate as a reincarnation of Buddha, as a great poet,philosopher,as..,as...but not Lord And we say "Lord Jesus Christ" and what else," have mercy" who asks for mercy? a beggar, that means that you humiliate yourself, killing bullet for devil That's why we insist on "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" Now if we do the same time the cross sign or not, it doesn't matter When we have devil in our heart it's a joke to do the cross sign, it doesn't save us,it's insignificant The important thing is to have Christ's name in our minds It's a nuclear bomb. You'll see those in practise Simple things, you'll leave this place, you'll start walking there is noone who can stop you saying by yoursef "Lord Jesus Christ,have mercy on me" repeatedly What obstructs you? What does it costs? All the other prayers need a silent environment, some icons,vesper time, some books This prayer we can say whenever. You can say it when you walk ,when you drive Make a start and the prayer itself we'll tell you everything We learn these in practise and not by words You might hear the words i'm saying and feeling good about it but when temptation time will come the devil will attack viciously and nothing from my speech will be rememberd The thing that you'll have, is what you practised by yourself and learn it personally This what noone can move away from you This is how you acknowledge if these are true and that is the way we acknowledge Christianity's true, if Christ spoke the truth or not People have learned and kept everything from their own lifes and not by the priests and monks People themselves experience and recount them to us You can't imagine the stories we've heard from people who live among the world Exactly because it's a matter of living we can all be saved It's not a case of intelligence, education or knowledge That's why we had illiterate saints, who didn't even finish school and we pray "saint of God ,intercede for us" and on the other hand cultured people who say rubbish Simple things and with these simple things we go either in heaven or hell