Враг

Take away the strength of all the enemies of my soul, just as You took it away from the chariots and horsemen of Pharaoh; petrify them so that they are without any movement, without any action, just as You petrified the waters. Save me, Lord, my God! My enemies are strong and great! If you leave me to my own devices, they will kill me as a lion kills a weak lamb, they will erase me as a millstone erases a grain of wheat. Just as he stood in paradise, so now stands against man his murderer, the fallen cherub, with his spinning fiery weapon, irreconcilably fighting with man, trying to draw him into violation of God’s commandment and into a more serious death than that by which our ancestors perished. Unfortunately, success emboldens the enemy more and more. The rotating flaming weapon in the hands of the air prince, as explained by the greatest holy fathers, 43 is the power of demons to rotate the mind and heart of a person, shaking and inflaming them with various passions. The apostle calls the enemy's weapons flaming arrows (see Eph. 6:16), and the prophet likens the action of these weapons in the soul to the action of “fire among thorns” (Ps. 117:12). The Spirit of God, commanding through the mouth of David complete hatred of invisible spiritual enemies, teaching us to resort to prayer to God for their contrition and destruction, at the same time demands from us love for our enemies - humans, demands forgiveness of the insults inflicted on us from our neighbors, demands this with the invocation: “Lord, my God!” - the psalmist prays, - “If I have done anything, if there is injustice in my hands, if I have taken revenge on those who repay me evil, then may I fall exhausted from my enemies, may the enemy pursue my soul and overtake and trample my life into the ground, and may he place my glory in the dust” (Ps. 7: 4-6). Here are two sides who do evil: neighbors, people, and devils. The Holy Spirit teaches us that by taking vengeance, repaying one's neighbor evil for evil - with words, or deeds, or thoughts - a person invites upon himself the battle of an invisible enemy, victory, overthrow by him, loss of grace. Glory is the grace of the Spirit. “He who prays for people who cause offense,” said St. Mark the Ascetic, “crushes demons, and he who argues with the first is crushed by the second.” Venerable Macarius of Egypt. Spiritual conversations, message and words. Conversation 37. Ch. 5. Venerable Mark the Ascetic. Word 6. You might be interested in: