I received your letter, my child, and I saw your anxiety. But don’t be sad, my child. Don’t worry so much. Even though you have fallen again, get up again. You have been called to a heavenly road. It is not surprising for someone running to stumble. It just takes patience and repentance at every moment.
Therefore, always do a metanoia when you are wrong and don’t lose time, because the longer you wait to seek forgiveness, the more you allow the evil one to spread his roots within you. Don’t let him make roots to your detriment.
Therefore, don’t despair when you fall, but get up eagerly and do a
metanoia saying, “Forgive me, my dear Christ. I am human and weak.” The
Lord has not abandoned you. But since you still have a great deal of
worldly pride, a great deal of vainglory, our Christ lets you make
mistakes and fall, so that you perceive and come to know your weakness
every day, so that you become patient with others who make mistakes, and
so that you do not judge the brethren when they make mistakes, but
rather put up with them.
So every time you fall, get up again and at once seek forgiveness.
Don’t hide sorrow in your heart, because sorrow and despondency are the
joy of the evil one. They fill one’s soul with bitterness and give birth
to many evils. Whereas the frame of mind of someone who repents says,
“I have sinned! Forgive me Father!” and he expels the sorrow. He says,
“Am I not a weak human? So what do I expect?” Truly, my child this is
how it is. So take courage.
Only when the grace of God comes does a person stand on his feet.
Otherwise, without grace, he always changes and always falls. So be a
man and don’t be afraid at all.
Do you see how that brother you wrote about endured the temptation? You, too, should do likewise. Acquire a brave spirit against the temptations that come. In any case, they will come. Forget about what your despondency and indolence tell you. Don’t be afraid of them. Just as the previous temptations passed by the grace of God, these, too, will pass once they do their job.
Do you see how that brother you wrote about endured the temptation? You, too, should do likewise. Acquire a brave spirit against the temptations that come. In any case, they will come. Forget about what your despondency and indolence tell you. Don’t be afraid of them. Just as the previous temptations passed by the grace of God, these, too, will pass once they do their job.
Temptations are medicines and healing herbs that heal our visible
passions and our invisible wounds. So have patience in order to profit
every day, to store up wages, rest, and joy in the heavenly kingdom. For
the night of death is coming when no one will be able to work anymore.
Therefore, hurry. Time is short.
You should know this too: a victorious life lasting only one day with
trophies and crowns is better than a negligent life lasting many years.
Because one man’s struggle, with knowledge and spiritual perception
that lasts one day, has the same value as another man’s struggle, who
struggles negligently without knowledge for fifty years.
Without a struggle and shedding your blood, don’t expect freedom from
the passions. Our earth produces thorns and thistles after the Fall. We
have been ordered to clean it, but only with much pain, bloody hands,
and many sighs are the thorns and thistles uprooted. So weep, shed
streams of tears, and soften the earth of your heart. Once the ground is
wet, you can easily uproot the thorns.
– Elder Joseph the Hesychast
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