Письмо 139
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Be firmly convinced that pride always precedes our attempts and embarrassment. You ask me to explain: why are you doing what you don’t want, but you can’t conquer yourself? All this comes from pride; for this deposit lies in the heart; read in the Ladder, you will see that anger is born from pride. It didn’t happen your way, and now rage is inflamed; you need to satisfy it and resist, reproach yourself and humble yourself, and not run away from cases that outrage rage; and through them, as through a medical remedy, to destroy it. St. Abba Dorotheos writes in his “teaching on the edification of virtues” about the active passions: that because of vanity you cannot bear the word from your neighbors, and what are the consequences: passions that are completely active are all under hell, there are both about passions resisting and about passions eradicating. Read that article there, as well as Zosima’s conversations; then you will know the reason, and you will try to uproot these roots, that is, passions, and the branches themselves will fall away. The sinful hieromonk Macarius. January 20, 1845.
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