Με πολλήν προσοχήν πρέπει να περνούμεν τας ημέρας μας. Ο διάβολος είναι πολύ πονηρός και καιροφυλακτεί να μας παγιδεύση εν καιρώ πνευματικού νυσταγμού και να μας κάμνη υπευθύνους ενώπιον του Θεού και της συνειδήσεως.
Είθε ο Θεός να τον καταργήση, ώστε να μην ημπορή να μας κάμνη κακόν, αλλά ως δίκαιος, δεν δύναται να σηκώση το αυτεξούσιον του ανθρώπου, και ούτω προαιρετικώς υπακούομεν, εγώ πρώτος, εις τας πονηράς υποβολάς του διαβόλου και αμαρτάνομεν.
Γέροντας Εφραίμ Φιλοθειτης
Τake care of your soul, my child. Read the Fathers; pray with the beloved little prayer, which will fortify the foundation of your soul. Meditate on death, which is something that will most definitely come to us. Ah, death! The cup of death is extremely bitter for the soul when it powerfully separates the soul from the body. How much regret we shall feel then for everything we have done out of carelessness and laziness! Our conscience will torment us as a foretaste of hell. So why should we let the pleasure of sin defeat us, for which we shall pay with much pain and no cure? Man, with a dual nature, the elect and unique creation of God, is born on this planet, the earth, and gradually he dies physically some day, completely incapable of keeping himself alive. Conceit blows him up like a balloon, only to die because of just one illness. He has no power over himself. Without realizing it, he is governed by another’s will and command, while he is led away involuntarily, completely helpless to resist. What are you, O man, that you boast and brag, imagining outrageous things about yourself? Behold, an invisible microbe attacks you, and at once you feel ill, fall sick, and go to your grave. O conceited mortal, you see that death is coming and that you will depart to an unknown land and yield to it with no ability to object. Are you able to refuse, to resist, to escape what is going to happen to you at that fearsome hour? Not at all! Total helplessness. Then why do you boast, O man of clay, you helpless, wretched, useless one? What do you own that God has not given you? Can’t He take it from you whenever He wants? Yes. Then bend your neck, humble yourself, and thus you will be saved.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
