To the words: “Lord, place a guard over my mouth, and a door of protection over my mouth.”

We, my brothers, always need to be ready for prayer, because prayer is a very great thing; it even reaches God. When prayer ascends with love to God in order to converse with Him, then the heavenly gates are open for it, and no one will prevent it from entering them. The Angels will not detain her, the Fiery Ones will not stop her, as soon as she wishes to enter and receive from God the fulfillment of what she asks. Therefore, everyone should love prayer and practice it vigilantly, day and night. Let us pray unceasingly. Prayer brought Jonah out of the sea when he was swallowed up by a whale. Prayer saved Daniel from the beasts in the den, and Ananias and the youths who were with him from the fire; and whenever it was lifted up, it always brought victory. She receives the fulfillment of her requests from the God who gives, and He gives and communicates His gifts to those who love to remain in prayer. The Lord rejoices at her desires, is pleased with her offerings; and as soon as he asks for something with hope, he fulfills it with joy. Look how the prophet’s prayer comes before God, with hope he begins to speak, unashamedly says: “Keep me, O Lord, like the apple of your eye, in the blood of Your wing, so that I may be delivered from misfortunes” (Ps. 16:8). I beg You, Lord of height and depth and all ends, protect me as the apple of my eye. Protect, O Lord, and everyone who trusts in You, cover him with Your protection, like the apple of his eye. The Creator gave the eye two eyelashes to protect it, so that nothing harmful would enter it, because the eye illuminates the whole body. He placed two doors to the apple, hiding in the eye. Behind them hides this modest maiden, like a beloved in her mansion. The Creator placed two doors so that they would open and close - they would open to let in light, but they would close to prevent anything harmful. He covered and protected the eye with eyelids, so that when something falls and is ready to enter the eye, it is stopped and prevented by them, and the clarity of the eye cannot be clouded. That is why the prophet prays with contrition and cries out: “Save me, O Lord, like the apple of your eye.” Be the guardian of the eye so that it does not look like a thief. Be a guardian of the ear, so that it does not hear anything unlawful. Be a guardian of your lips and tongue, so that my heart does not deviate into deceit, and I do not do unrighteous deeds. The eye commits adultery if it looks unchastely. The ear commits adultery if it listens to evil. When the eye looks at what does not belong to a person and lusts after it, then it commits adultery before God and behaves indecently, according to its own lusts. The eye is designed in the body to contemplate God’s works, to be filled with wonder and to transmit it to the region of the heart. And the ear, if it listens to humorous songs and speeches, also commits adultery, because the jokes that enter it defile it. The Creator designed him to listen to God’s word, to be filled with edification and to transmit the saving teaching to his heart. Continue in prayer without ceasing and do not become weak in your prayers. Ask the Guardians to be the guardians of the open doors in your members. Carefully guard the seven open doors, because robbers invade them to plunder the decoration of your soul. Let not death lie in wait at your windows, let not enter into your churches; otherwise it will settle in you and damage in you the features of the image so dear to God. The seal of the Holy Spirit seals the entrances on your head; all your members are sealed with the seal of the anointing. The king wrote on you, as it were, His letter and attached fiery seals to it, so that strangers would not read it and damage what was written. Do not break the royal seal, lest robbers enter into you. Do not remove the seal so that the murderers do not completely destroy you. John in his Revelation saw a great and wonderful book; it was written by God Himself, and there were seven seals on it (Rev. 5:1). Neither on earth nor in heaven, no one could read it except the Son of God alone, because He wrote and sealed it. This book is a soul written in the Kingdom; except the One who wrote it, no one knows what it is. No eye can see, no ear can hear, and no heart can imagine what is written in the soul. The Kingdom is written in the soul and placed in it as a dowry, so that when the Heir of the Kingdom comes, He will bring it with Him into the bridal chamber. When the King comes in His glory, and the hosts of earthly beings gather, then the wise virgins, to whom He became engaged and wrote a book for them as a dowry, will prepare and come out to meet Him. They go with joy to meet the King when He comes to celebrate their marriage. since they have kept their vows, they enter with Him into the bridal chamber. And those who have lost their virginity go into complete darkness. The groom takes from them the dowry, which he wrote to them and about which he spoke, teaching that the Kingdom is within us: “The Kingdom of God is within you,” He said (Luke 17:21). since the Son of God is in you, His kingdom is also in you. Behold, the wealth of heaven is in you, if you want it. Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you, sinner. Go within yourself, search harder, and you will find it without difficulty. Get away from the crossroads of fun, from the harmful path of lust, from the jungle of greed and harmful associations. Enter into yourself, live within yourself, in the beautiful cell of your spirit, and there seek the Kingdom, as our Savior taught. If it is not yet in you, then cry out, as Christ taught us: “Our Father... let your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2); and it will come when you call. The kingdom is in you; and outside of you is Gehenna. Outside you is death, and the door to it is sin. And evil deeds and torment for them are far from you. Do not go out to what is outside of you, lest you also perish along with it. Do not go to what is foreign to you, so that the murderers do not destroy you. Do not open the doors of your body, lest robbers invade you, imprison you, and cast you into darkness. Lock the doors of your members, so that the kidnappers do not take you captive and carry you away from the Kingdom, and so that you do not go with them to Gehenna. Enter into yourself, remain in your heart, for there is God. He does not leave you, but you leave Him. With great contrition, with sighs, prayerfully ask God to guard the doors of your flesh. Ask yourself for a Guardian of your eye, so that it does not look at what incites to lust and does not transmit lust to the heart, and so that the heart does not be separated from the Kingdom. Ask yourself for a Guardian of your ear, so that it does not listen to evil, does not open and does not allow into itself that which can disturb and turn your heart away from the Lord. Ask for a Guardian for the mouth and tongue, so that they do not turn aside “to the words of wickedness” (Ps. 140:4) and do not commit iniquities. Ask for Guardians to be the guardians of your heart and your members, so that evil does not enter into them and drive out good. As long as the heart remains in goodness, God remains in it, so long it serves as a source of life, because goodness comes from it. But as soon as it deviates from God and commits iniquities, it becomes a source of death, because evil comes from it. The heart is God’s abode, therefore it needs to be protected so that evil does not enter it, and God does not withdraw from it. This is wonderful, my brethren, very wonderful, my beloved; incomprehensible to those above and ineffable to those below. Inaccessible to every mind, he enters the heart and dwells in it; Hidden from the Fiery Ones is found in the heart. The earth cannot bear His groans, but a pure heart carries Him within itself. The sky is too small for His inch, but the heart is His abode. He embraces the sky with His handful, and one inch of space is His dwelling. If it spreads out, all creation will not enclose Him within its borders; but if the heart seeks, then even a small heart can accommodate Him. He chooses a small place in man for His dwelling; and man becomes the church of God, in which God dwells and abides. The soul is His church, and the heart is the holy altar on which praise, glorification and sacrifices are offered; the priest is the Spirit who stands and performs sacred acts there. Therefore, do not give access to stinking sin, so that the Holy Spirit does not withdraw from you. You have been made the church of God: should obscene movements be aroused in you? Your heart is a holy altar: can unclean lust dwell in you? The Holy Spirit acts sacredly in you: should sins have a place in you and should the fragrance replace the stench of unclean lust? Let not lewdness enter into you to corrupt the church of God. Let not the unclean lust of desecration of the holy altar take root in you. Let sin not enter into you, removing the Holy Spirit from you. Paul, in whom Christ spoke, said with sorrow and tears: “Do you not know, my brethren, that this is the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives and abides in you. If anyone corrupts God’s church (that is, his soul), God will corrupt him” (1 Cor. 3:16-17) because he has corrupted the church of his soul. Guard your soul carefully, because it is God's church. Keep your heart holy, for it is a holy altar. Look for Guardians for yourself, so that they will be guardians of the living church of God, so that no unclean lust will enter into it, and the Holy Spirit will not be offended by it. Behold, you have a treasure in your heart. Find yourself a guard who will constantly be at your door, so that robbers do not rob you, evil people do not plunder you. since you do not care about your soul, you do not look for Guardians for it, then unclean spirits and robbers will invade it and completely ruin it. Property that is not your property, you guard with care; but you don’t protect your soul, your property, your heritage. You place guards at the vineyards, at the olive orchards, at the sown fields, but you leave God’s property without guards to guard it. Everyone takes care of their temporary property with forethought, but the soul, God’s most precious possession, is plundered and robbed by demons, and no one will feel pain or grieve about it. You shake out the expensive clothes you have to protect them from moths; but sin, this moth that wears away the soul, can never be shaken off. In your robe and tunic you look for vile insects, but your heart is full of vices, and you cannot drive out a single one. You extract other insects from the hair on your head, and robbers freely enter and exit through the seven doors that are in your head. When the walls of your house fall, you build new ones, you let them down, you prop them up, but your soul is all in cracks, and you can’t block a single one. When you have a gap in your house, you plug it so that no insect can enter; but your soul is completely worn out by sinful moths, and you don’t even bother to support it. The evil one walks in us and upsets our sense and reason; That’s why everyone, against his will, goes into the wilds and wanders there. One thinks about how to protect his flock, his ox and his donkey, and does not even think about how to protect his spirit from evil. He carefully guards his house so that thieves do not enter it; but robbers have invaded his soul, and he does not know it. Deceivers and kidnappers take his life and separate his soul from God, its Creator. Another takes care of his clothes and protects them so that moths do not wear them out; and meanwhile, he indulges in vile deeds that wear him down worse than moths. Others bury and hide their gold so that no one steals it; and meanwhile, lust steals his reason, and he becomes the playground of prodigal wives. Another wipes and cleanses the phlegm under his nose, but hides every vice in himself, and does not cleanse himself of a single one. Another does not allow a speck of dust to fall on his clothes, but his soul is the same as a pig that has just emerged from a fetid pit. Others wash and clean their bodies in order to give beauty to their members, but in their souls there are piles of pus, and there is no desire to cut it off. Some anoint their flesh with ointments in order to surprise others with its fragrance, and their sins stink worse than corpses abandoned on the ground. The soul in another is stinking, like a dead man in a tomb, so he invents various anointings to add fragrance to his clothes. If a person did not emit a stench, he would not collect incense. But since sin has made us stink, it tries to anoint itself with something fragrant. Grant us understanding, O our Lord, and add knowledge to us. Grant us, our Lord, to smell before You more than incense and aromas. Grant us, our Lord, to love You and hate the whole world. Grant us, our Lord, to acquire You instead of passing possessions. Grant us, our Lord, to offer You tears as a deliberate sacrifice. Grant us, our Lord, to preserve for You three fragrant censers. Grant us, our Lord, to light for You three brightly burning lamps, spirit, soul and body - three lamps for the One Trinity. Let us consecrate the Spirit to the Father, the soul to the Son, and the body to the Holy Spirit, who will resurrect him from the dust. Father! Sanctify our spirit! Son! Sanctify our soul! Holy soul! Sanctify our body, weak from defilements. Let us, our Lord, rejoice in You! May You also rejoice over us on the last day. Praise to You from spirit, soul and body, and to us Your bounties! You might be interested in: