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1. Pernicious flesh - the black wave of the evil Belial! Pernicious flesh is the root of manifold passions! Pernicious flesh is the friend of this fleeting world! Pernicious flesh is the enemy of heavenly life! The flesh is my enemy and friend, a pleasant war, an unfaithful good, the flesh that constantly eats the fruit of the murderous tree, clay, a dirty chain, heavy lead, an indomitable beast, the offspring of a substance at war with me, worthless ebullience, the tomb and bonds of your king - the heavenly image that I received from God! Will you still not put an end to shameless vices, will you not submit to the spirit and gray hair, O accursed evil-doer? Christ, when the ugliness of matter brought beauty with words, formed you alone with His own hands, and finally united you with the Divine, so that the beloved creature, the heir of the great life, but whom the stupefying Belial burdened with suffering, could save and by His death deliver from cruel death. Therefore, show me respect, stop being crazy and harboring irreconcilable enmity towards my soul! By the hand of the immortal God and on that calamitous day, which will finally gather into one all the deeds of mortals, I testify to you that, having exhausted and overthrown you with sorrows of every kind, I will make you more powerless than even the dead, unless you stop the madness and flow of blood within yourself by touching the hem of the pure vestments of Christ. Finally, visit me, a cleansing source of tears and laborious vigil of body and mind, so that the flame within me may cool down and the fetid rottenness of tormenting passions will be washed away! Refuse satiety, belly; dry up, knees bowed to the ground; Let ashes be my bread, let hard sackcloth cover my pampered members, serving as a protection for the overwhelmed soul! Come to me, care that does not dare to raise its gaze, the suppressor of dust, and constantly remind me of the coming scourges! These are my remedies for unreason! But Yours, Christ, is both pure life and life from the dead. Who mercifully accepted the progenitor of our sin and our blood when he began to mourn his temptation and deception? Who cleansed the corrupted king Manasseh with tears? Who freed David from great sin? Who saved humble Nineveh, seeing her in tears? Who shed tears for the youngest son? Who, while joyfully accepting those who are pure in life, did not cast out the publicans? Who laid the lost sheep on his ramen? Who cleansed lepers, drove out cruel diseases, giving benefits to body and soul? These are your gifts, O Blessed One, O Light of men! Enter the troubled sea of ​​our life, and the storm will immediately subside! 2. Blessed is he who leads an incorporeal life and does not surround the great image with an admixture of mud! Not much, and even then under compulsion, follows heavenly thoughts, but much more opposes them and serves as a clouding of the mind. I am the product of the fleeting; Why do you make me like me immortal? If God's breath is in me; then why, Christ, do you bind me with clay? Old age has set in, and the limbs have weakened. But if the rebellious flesh, openly or secretly, becomes even more enraged and, what is most regrettable, makes the hiding place of the heavenly sacrifices unclean; then I conjure you, flesh, by the great power of God, or by a black day for the wicked, to refrain from insolence! You might be interested in: