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(2 Cor. 6, 11–16; Mark 1, 23–28) The demon praised the Savior, and the Savior said to him: “Be quiet and go out” (Mark 1:25). Demons never say or do anything with a good purpose: they always have something evil in mind. It was the same here. The Lord, without exposing their intrigues, decided in one word: “shut up and go out.” He did not want to talk for a long time with an evil spirit. Here's a lesson for us. As soon as anyone succeeds in doing something good, the demon immediately sits down and begins to trumpet in his ears: you are like this and like that. Do not listen and do not enter into conversation with this flatterer, but immediately and flatly say: “shut up and leave”; and follow his trail with sighing and self-reproach, and cover his place with contrite prayer. He wants to generate conceit and well-being, and then inflate self-praise and vanity from them - all such thoughts and feelings that are in spiritual life what thieves are in everyday life. Just as these, having climbed into the house, rob the property of the owner, so those, by taking root in the soul, destroy everything that is good in it and throw it out, so that there is nothing left for which the Lord would then praise. You might be interested in: