Letters of Spiritual Direction to a Young Soul - Letter Fifty-nine Part II

Tonight, in Letter 59, St. Theophan continued to guide Anastasia through the writings of Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem. Again we see how deeply connected Theophan is to the spiritual tradition as a whole. The spiritual battle is very simple, albeit not easy. We must show great attentiveness to what is going on internally and with our thoughts. When we see the enemy advance a thought, we must strike it down with anger in the heart and do so swiftly. Most of all we must pray against it, calling upon the name of Jesus Christ in the heart. The fruit of such an exercise is that we begin to walk upon that path of holy contemplation belong to the Saints, immersing ourselves more more deeply into the mysteries of Christ.  It is His Spirit that dwells within us and guides us most of all and that should free us from fear in the battle. When we call upon Christ in that Spirit we lack no power to overcome the attacks of the demons.

Theophan also warns Anastasia not to ignore the secret thoughts that can approach the heart. The evil one often begins with what the fathers called “provocation”; thoughts immediately rush in and, if they are met with our thoughts willingly, the passions are stirred. Rather we must seek unceasing silence of any thought in the heart and allow that Spirit to breathe so deeply within us that we are constantly calling upon the Lord. A certain sobriety must guide our actions; we must situate ourselves at the doors of the heart in order that we might see the thoughts creeping up and understand what form the demons are attempting to inscribe and how they are seeking to entice the imagination.

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00:11:14 Lilly: Hi Nick and Natalia! Happy to see you guys made it!

00:11:28 Nicholas Koeppel: Thank you for the invite Lilly!

01:02:32 renwitter: "Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little and have a cup of tea" ~Elder Sophrony of Essex

01:02:39 renwitter: Or in Fr. David’s case, an espresso

01:02:42 renwitter: Or five

01:03:15 Ashley Kaschl: 😂😂

01:03:37 Joseph Muir: How about some whiskey?😂

01:04:05 Erick Chastain: why not both? Irish coffee

01:04:21 renwitter: Thats a dangerous path away from despair, but works in a pinch ;-)

01:04:25 Joseph Muir: But not five of them😆

01:04:48 Erick Chastain: some ascetic reading group this is LOL

01:05:27 renwitter: Rough day, so I had two beers with dinner tonight, which I thought was pretty indulgent. But there are four left in the fridge if I end up needing five :-D

01:16:46 Katharine M: ^‿^

01:20:18 Joseph Muir: I got my copy of The Ladder in the mail earlier this week!

01:20:43 Nicholas Koeppel: Thank you