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Enemies of the soul do not give peace to anyone anywhere, especially if they find a weak side in us and stifle us with some unfulfillable desire, 5 which a person, by his persistence, sometimes places above the pleasures of heaven (2, part 1, p. 109). You describe a new temptation, wanting to know the reason why you gave such a reason to the enemy that he appeared before you visibly and danced for some time, boasting that he had invented a new and powerful trick for you to trick you. I think that this new trick consists in the fact that he managed to rob you with a lack of patience and love for your neighbor, arousing in you anger and discontent against others, starting with the elder person, with the sister living with you, so that towards everyone else a feeling appeared in you not only not of love, but, as it were, of remembrance and hatred. Such enmity by hostility and a not entirely peaceful feeling towards others was also the reason that for the last time you partook of such scattered and distracted feelings as, according to you, you never partook; because the Orthodox Church commands us to approach communion with peaceful feelings, alien to any complaining and dissatisfaction with others, as we read at the beginning of the prayers for Holy Communion: “First reconcile yourself to those who have grieved you, also (i.e. then) daring the mysterious food to eat.” The angry siege, I think, was preceded by another imperceptible siege, but at the same time quite harmful. In general, I’ll tell you that the holy apostle clearly declared the reason for allowing us to be tempted by the enemy in these words: so that I would not become arrogant, ... a thorn was given to me in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7). The apostolic body was annoyed by beatings with sticks, but the enemy annoys us with his various evil tricks (2, part 3, p. 19). ...You write that the hum continues. What to do? We must endure. Saint John of the Climacus writes that even humble people hear the trampling of spiritual thieves, 6 but cannot be tempted by any of them, because their mind, having enclosed itself in the ark of humility, is not stealthy from the thieves. In this temptation, you too should resort to the stronghold of humility, which is impregnable for predators (2, part 3, p. 31). A demon sat in the form of a man and dangled his legs. He who saw this with spiritual eyes asked him: “Why aren’t you doing anything?” The demon answered: “Yes, I have nothing left to do but dangle my legs: people do everything better than me” (1, part 1, p. 103). [Some gentleman came to the elder who did not believe in the existence of demons. Father told him the following: “One gentleman came to the village to visit his friends and chose a room for himself to spend the night. They tell him: “Don’t lie here, it’s not safe in this room.” But he didn’t believe it and just laughed at it. He lay down, but suddenly at night he heard that someone was blowing directly on his bald head. He covered his head with a blanket. Then this someone moved to his feet and sat down on the bed. The guest was frightened and rushed to run away from there as fast as he could, convinced by his own experience of the existence of a dark force.” But even after this story, the gentleman said: “Your will, father, I don’t even understand what kind of demons these are.” To this the elder replied: “After all, not everyone understands mathematics, but it exists.” And he added: “How come demons do not exist, when we know from the Gospel that the Lord Himself commanded demons to enter the herd of pigs?” The gentleman objected: “But this is allegorical.” “So,” the elder continued to convince, “pigs are allegorical, and pigs do not exist. But if pigs exist, then demons also exist” (1, part 1, p. 102)]. You write that you saw in a dream some two persons who made an indignation in you, whom in the dream they called the Antichrist... I think that it is more accurate to mean here two evil spirits sent from hell, who, under plausible pretexts, inspired N. and another person to act as they acted, promising great benefit to come out of this, but in fact what came out was a harmful indignation, as always happens from plausible enemy suggestions. Eve was promised to be a goddess, and this goddess was expelled from paradise that same day along with Adam, who listened to her evil advice. It always happens this way: foolish advisers and foolish listeners are expelled together. If any of them wants to repent, then along with repentance he must also suffer sorrow as punishment for sin. If, according to the word of Scripture, there are many sorrows among the righteous (Ps. 33:20), then how much more are there many punishments for the sinner (Ps. 31:10). That is why we read in the word of God: Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). Why? The apostle explains this, saying this: From tribulation comes patience, from patience experience, from experience hope, and hope does not disappoint (Rom. 5:3-5) (2, part 1, p. 41). You might be interested in: