In the same way, in order to break your heart and arouse feelings of repentance, you can also think about the mystery of the terrible hour of death, about the tremendous day of Judgment, about various kinds of eternal torment, such as: about the oceans of unquenchable fire, about the gloomy locks in hell, about gloomy Tartars, about worms that never sleep, about cohabitation with demons; think also about the repose and ineffable joys of the righteous, about the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal glory and unceasing bliss, about the voice of those who celebrate, about the most complete unity there with God, about the eternal coexistence and cohabitation with the angels and all the saints.

If you, brother, draw such thoughts and ideas on the charter of your imagination, then you will not only get rid of obscene memories and evil thoughts, but you will also gain great praise on that day of Judgment for such a feat, as St. Basil the Great foretells you in his sermon on virginity, saying that "Every person who lives in this body is like a painter who draws some image in a hidden place. As this painter, when he finishes a picture and brings it out of secrecy to an exhibition, is praised by the audience if he has chosen a good object for it and painted it well, and, on the contrary, is blamed if he has chosen a bad object and painted it badly, so every person, when he comes before the judgment of God after death, has to be praised and blessed by God, angels and saints, if he has adorned his mind and his imagination with bright, divine and spiritual images and ideas, and, on the contrary, has to be shamed and condemned if he has filled his imagination with passionate, shameful and base pictures." And St. Gregory of Thessalonica expresses amazement at how, through the influence of sensual things, either the intellectual light, the provider of eternally blessed life, or the mental darkness leading to hellish darkness (Greek, Philokalia, p. 969) is established in the soul.

Know, however, that I do not mean to tell you that you should always be occupied with these thoughts alone, no, but use them only occasionally, until your mind, tired of keeping itself in the straits of the heart, rests. When he rests, return him again to your heart and force him to keep himself without dreams and images in the heart's memory of God. For just as all shelled and cranioderm animals find peace for themselves nowhere but in their shells, in which they take refuge, as in the house, so the mind, naturally, nowhere rests so much as in the temple of the heart and in the inner man, where, taking refuge as in a fortress, he successfully wages war with thoughts, enemies and passions, where he hides within, Although most people do not know this.

That passions and thoughts are hidden within us, in the heart, and from there they come and fight us, this is not my thought. Listen to what the Lord says: out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, blasphemy. This is the defilement of man (Matt. 15:19-20). And the fact that our enemies, demons, take refuge near the heart is not my invention. This is what the Holy Fathers teach. Of these, St. Diadochos explains this with greater certainty, saying that before Holy Baptism, Divine grace moves a person to do good outwardly, and Satan is hidden in the depths of the soul and heart; after a person receives Holy Baptism, the demon hovers outside the heart, and grace dwells inside (Philokalia, Part 4, Ch. 76). However, even after Baptism, he says further (ibid., ch. 82), our enemies are allowed to be in the depths of our body, as if on the surface of the heart, in order to test our willfulness, and from here they smoke on their minds with the phlegm of carnal sweets. St. Gregory the Theologian teaches in agreement with this, interpreting that what the Lord said about how an unclean spirit proceeds from a person and returns to him again for the greatest evil (cf. Matt. 12:43-45) happens to the baptized when they neglect to abide in the heart. "Expelled by Baptism, the unclean spirit, he says, not liking to be homeless, seeks peace, wandering here and there, and, not finding it, returns to the house from which he came, because he is shameless. If he finds that Christ, held by the attention and love of the baptized, has settled and remains in the place from which he was expelled, i.e. in the heart, then, again reflected, he departs without success. But if he finds his former place in someone empty, unoccupied by anyone, because of the lack of attention to the Lord and the remembrance of Him, then he hurriedly enters, with greater malice against the former. And for that man the last is more bitter than the first" (Verse 40). I have deliberately dwelt on this in order to dispose you more strongly to abide within your heart with the remembrance of the Lord the Savior and prayer to Him, if you wish always to be victorious in the confusion of thoughts and passionate movements that are brought upon your heart. When you are there with the Lord, the enemy will not dare to approach.

Over all this, I tell you, watch over yourself and do not allow your imagination and memory to remember what you have previously seen, heard, eaten, tasted, and touched, especially what was shameful and useless in it. This is what our warfare consists primarily in, and it is more difficult and unrelenting than the battle with feelings or the use of them. Each of those who struggle knows this from experience. In order not to perceive something seductive by some feeling, it is easy to cope with it; but it is very difficult to control the imagination and memory of this by perception. For example, to see or not to see a face, or to look at it passionately or impassively, is not so difficult and does not represent a great battle; but after you have seen and looked at him passionately, it is no longer easy, but it takes a great battle and no small feat to banish the imagination of this person from your memory. And the enemy can play with your soul like a ball, throwing attention from one memory to another and stirring desires and passions under them, thus keeping you in a passionate mood. Wherefore I say unto thee, Watch, and above all watch thy imagination and memory.

A soldier of Christ must do everything possible

avoid anxieties and turmoil of the heart,

Just as it is an urgent duty for every Christian, when he loses the peace of the heart, to do everything in his power that can contribute to its restoration, so it is no less obligatory for him not to allow any accidents of the current life to disturb this world: I mean illnesses, wounds, the death of relatives, wars, fires, sudden joys, fears and sorrows, memories of past misdeeds and mistakes – in a word, everything with which the heart is usually agitated and troubled. It is necessary to avoid anxiety and agitation in such cases, because, having succumbed to them, a person loses self-control and is deprived of the opportunity to clearly understand events and correctly see the proper way of acting, and both give the enemy access to agitate him still more and direct him to some step that is difficult to correct or completely irreparable.

I do not mean to say: do not allow sorrow, because it is not in our power, but this: do not allow sorrow to prevail in your heart and agitate it, keep it outside, outside the heart and hasten to soften and tame it so that it does not interfere with your sound reasoning and the right to act. This, with God's help, is in our power, if we have strong moral and religious feelings and dispositions.

Of the sorrows, each has its own peculiarities, and against each there are its own methods; but I speak of them in general, understanding their common property – to disturb and disturb the soul, and having in general against this having in mind to offer you a remedy. This means is faith in a good Providence, which arranges the course of our life with all its accidents for the personal good of each of us, and good-natured submission to the will of God, expressed in our situation, according to which in the depths of our souls we would cry out: God's will be done! As the Lord willed, so it was and was for our good.

This good is recognized and felt differently in different persons. Some realize: it is the goodness of God that leads me to repentance; another feels: the Lord sent me this sin for my sake, in order to cleanse me from them, I bear the penance of God; a third thinks: the Lord is testing me, whether I serve Him sincerely. From the outside, those who look at the one who is subjected to sorrows may also think: this is for him – let the works of God be manifested upon him. In the soul of a grieving person, only the first three feelings are appropriate. And they are all of such a nature and strength that no matter which of them arises in the heart, each greatly calms the rising storm of sorrow and establishes peaceful complacency in the heart.

And here is a common means for you to pacify your heart, when sorrows attempt to disturb it: having revived faith in God's good Providence for you and having revived in your soul God-given obedience to the will of God, bring to your heart the thoughts mentioned above and compel it to feel that by a present sorrowful accident the Lord is either testing you, or imposing a purifying penance on you, or it moves one to repentance either in general, or privately about some forgotten deed that is defective. As soon as the heart senses any of these things, the sorrow will immediately subside, and will give it the opportunity to take in the other two feelings; yet together they will soon establish in you such peace and good humor that you will not be able not to cry out: Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever! As oil is to the waves of the sea, so are these feelings to a sorrowful heart: the waves settle down, and there is great silence.

Thus pacify the heart when it is disturbed in any degree. But if you, through long labor and spiritual feats, implant in your heart the feelings spoken of in such a way that they will fill it unceasingly, then no sorrow will disturb you, because such a mood will be for you the most effective means of protection against it. It is not that sorrowful feelings do not come up; they will approach, but at once they will retreat, like the waves of the sea from a strong cliff.

What to do when we are wounded in battleWhen you are wounded, having fallen into some sin because of your weakness or because of your bad temper (there are venial sins: an undue word has failed, you have to get angry, a bad thought flashes by, an undue desire rises, and the like), do not be faint-hearted and do not rush in vain. The first thing you need is not to dwell on yourself, do not say: how did I tolerate this and allow it?! This is the cry of proud conceit. Humble yourself, on the contrary, and, looking up to the Lord, say and feel: "What else could have been expected of me, O Lord, so weak and ill-tempered." And immediately thank Him that the matter only stopped there, confessing: "If it were not for Thy immeasurable goodness, O Lord, I would not have stopped there, but would certainly have fallen into even worse things."