Tuesday, July 1, 2025

The Lies of the Mind: Suspicions – Assumptions

Metropolitan Cyprian II of Oropos and Phyle | June 1, 2025 (O.S.)


Did you know that, apart from words, one can also lie with the mind?

And yet, it is something that can happen to us very often, if we are not careful!

Has it happened to you to pass by some people talking and to think, “they’re talking about me”?

Or for someone to speak to you and for you to try to figure out with your mind why they are saying what they’re saying and what their purpose is?

Or to think that they act the way they do because they want to gain something from you?
All of these are suspicions.

***

One of the Fathers of our Church, who knew deeply the soul of man, Abba Dorotheos, tells us:

Whoever accepts suspicions is lying with the mind.

Suspicions are false and greatly harm our soul.

● They remain within us for a long time and begin to convince us that they are real things, even though they neither exist nor have happened.

● They undermine love and damage our relationships with others.

● They create anxiety and fears.

● They bring turmoil and sorrow. They do not allow the soul to find its peace.

● They make us live the lie in our mind.

***

Very often the tempter creates situations so that people may form suspicions about one another.

“Some days ago, someone came to me and said: ‘Why did so-and-so used to speak to me before and now doesn’t? I once made a remark to him—could it be because of that?’ I said to him, ‘Look, maybe he saw you and didn’t notice you, or maybe he had someone sick and had on his mind to look for a doctor or to find foreign currency to go abroad, etc.’ And indeed, the other person did have a sick family member, he had a heap of worries, and this man expected him to stop and talk to him, and was forming all sorts of thoughts.”

Attention! Let us never accept the suspicions that the tempter sows within our soul, who wants to bring discord among people.

“Of what you see, believe half, and of what you hear, believe none,” says the wise folk saying.

Let us have a good thought for everything. Let us excuse everything.

Let us watch our mind, that it may always be on the side of truth!

Because with falsehood, however we may express it—whether with words or with our mind—it separates us from God, who is the Truth, and brings us closer to the devil, who is the father of lies.

 

Greek source: https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2025/06/14/20250614aPsemata-nou.pdf

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The Lies of the Mind: Suspicions – Assumptions

Metropolitan Cyprian II of Oropos and Phyle | June 1, 2025 (O.S.) Did you know that, apart from words, one can also lie with the mind? ...