ДИАВОЛ

Satan always tries to upset the order established by God, deceiving people with sophistry and using people themselves to destroy their temporary and eternal well-being. ABOUT! As a person (judging by myself) he is blind and gullible. With great difficulty he decides to believe God, with the greatest speed, headlong, as they say, he believes Satan. From my solitude I look at the world as at a ship sailing in the distance, and I am filled with the desire that it complete its voyage under the cover of God’s mercy. ABOUT! May she not betray us to the leadership of false reason - this source of human misfortune. Truly, truly, I say to you: now, when there are no more works at all and spiritual wisdom is extremely rare, now the devil hates this wisdom so much that he would like to destroy it from the face of the earth, so that the Gospel remains with us only for our condemnation, and not for edification, for we will be judged according to the Gospel, as the Lord Jesus Christ foretold to us (see: John 12:40). The devil is ready to give us common sense tenfold and multiply our practical information a thousandfold, just to steal from us the knowledge of the cross, with which we can stand at the right hand of God. He who ascribes to himself information and common sense is likened to the devil, who wanted to recognize himself as a source of light. He is the source of imaginary light - carnal wisdom, which does not submit to the mind of God, bears the stamp of pride and contains the condition of all falls. “Have you seen anyone fallen? Remind yourself as if you were your own successor,” says Abba Dorotheos. This saint said about himself that he would rather sin in some external matter, acting on the advice of his neighbor, than to act on his own. And in my small experiments, in the event of any failure, I have the consolation that flows from the fact that the deed was not done or undertaken on my own. 127. Every face, no matter whose it is, when it appears to the imagination, stirring up unclean thoughts and thoughts, is the face of the devil, i.e. the devil himself, who, during a sinful temptation, confronts the soul and deceives it with an assumed guise, capable of arousing passion according to the mood of the soul. Those who are combined with sinful thoughts and dreams are combined with Satan himself and submit to him in this age and in the future, which is why it is necessary to fight thoughts. And the very incentive to jealousy is also a devilish deception, because the one who teaches others deadness towards all, and therefore equal love in Christ for all, does not prefer one to the other, since Christ in all His image is One. – May the Lord restore peace to you through your true repentance. Your sin is forgiven; sin no more. 138. In the second letter you write: “Remove me, O Lord, from the wicked man, deliver me from the unrighteous man: those who have thought unrighteousness in their hearts will fight with the army all day long: they have sharpened their tongue like a serpent: the poison of asps is under their lips. Save me, O Lord, from the hand of sinners; take me away from the unrighteous men, who thought the heels of my feet” (Ps. 139:2-5). “Who do you think is a wicked man, an unrighteous man, a sinner who fights all day long, with the venom of an asp under his lips?” - This is the devil. – When Saint David curses his enemies, or more correctly, through his mouth the Holy Spirit, then in these cases one must always understand the unclean spirits, the enemies of the human race, who have taken away paradise from us, who want to take away the redemption and salvation given to us by God. In Scripture the devil is sometimes called a man. So the Savior called the one who sowed tares among the wheat “the enemy - man.” 158. Many place heavy burdens on their neighbors, but there are few who have taught and helped bear the burdens. - Beware of the snare of the devil, who certainly inspires a person to take up life and deeds that exceed his strength: the devil does this with the intention of prematurely depleting a person’s strength and making him incapable of any spiritually beneficial activity. 169. You might be interested in: