Слово 7. О прелести сонных мечтаний

It is in vain that you, oh, the worst destroyer and enemy of human souls, the inventor of all lawlessness, constantly confuse me with nightly dreams - sometimes sorrowful, sometimes joyful again! Or do you think with them to deceive my soul and force it to listen to them, as if they were fair? Disappear, nasty one, disappear from me along with your tricks! Christ is my Savior. For me he is light and joy, praise and glory, and irresistible help and the hardest wall against you. You will never subject me - I say this, hoping in Christ - to listen to your dreams, as if they were true. From the very beginning, I recognized you that you are the envier of my life, a destructive adviser and a malicious serpent, and that everything you have is nothing more than delusion, separating you from God and leading you to hell, even if sometimes you showed something just. After all, you do not show this for the benefit of your soul and sometimes show something just in a dream; but just as a fisherman throws a fishing rod lined with bait for a reason, so you little by little try to attract the soul to greater charm and subordinate it to your destructive leadership, in order to thus elevate it with a wave of arrogance and plunge it into your beloved abyss of pride. Or, by showing her the Christ-killers with Moses in the light, and Christ with His disciples in deep darkness, convince her to join the Christ-killers, as you sometimes convinced such a vision of a certain monk to deviate from the right faith and embrace the godless Jewish unbelief. Therefore, blessed is he who has hated all your intentions, not only the obviously evil ones, but also the supposedly good ones. For you, O godless one, contain the seed of all iniquity, which, being generated by you, always retains its properties. All your diligence and your best work is to seduce human souls in every way - sometimes through the stars, sometimes through various lawless sorcery: bird flight, observation of clouds, witchcraft through barley, flour, beans, movement of the eye and examination of the palm. With all this, villain, you flatter maliciously and plunge the insane into the flames of underground torment. But you are not at all strong enough to outrage even the thoughts of those who, with firm and immaculate faith, serve Christ, the King of all and God. For they stand firmly on the solid stone of His sacred commandments and His divine love, by which all your seductions are completely destroyed. Disappear along with all your soul-destroying demonic seductions. With these charms of yours, outrage others, the godless Chaldeans who are ignorant of your malice, the proud Italians and Germans, who obey your inventions in everything. Do not deceive me by referring to Daniel and Joseph, who, because of their perfect virtue, received wisdom from above to interpret dreams seen by rulers according to divine providence. And I am unworthy of the shadow of these holy men, due to my countless grave falls into sin. They were like disembodied Angels, and I only differ in my external image and thought from dumb beasts, and in everything else I am similar to them in my passions and lusts. You might be interested in: