On Hostile Insults

Elder Philotheos Zervakos of Paros (+1980)

 

As many times as the enemy (the devil) insults you—whether through some passion or through melancholy, through negligence, through despair—immediately seize the weapon of prayer, and you will see how quickly he disappears and not even a trace of his presence remains.

When the enemy wages war against you, ask for the help of the Most Holy Theotokos, of the Guardian Angel of your soul, and of all the Angels and Saints.

Together with your prayer, tell your difficulty to a spiritual Priest, but also ask for the prayers and counsel of your other brethren, for a brother who is helped by another brother becomes strong like a fortified city. For all these things, it is necessary to exert force upon yourself, to act swiftly and with courage.

Make use of four weapons, irresistible, against temptations.

Satan is the enemy who hates all good, the most deceitful and utterly evil one, who day and night, every hour and moment, wages war against us, distresses us, and tempts us. And at another time, as your spiritual father, I had advised you how to avoid his intricate traps and to guard yourself from his fiery arrows.

Now I advise you to make use of four irresistible weapons. With these weapons—if indeed you use them with great attentiveness, skill, eagerness, and courage—not only will you remain invulnerable and unharmed by the arrows and traps of the devil, but you will also defeat him and annihilate him.

The first weapon against the enemy is the sense of the presence of God. “I saw the Lord always before me, that temptation might not shake me” (Psalm 15:8; Acts 2:25). He who thinks and deeply considers that God is everywhere present and always before him—day and night, in every circumstance—cannot sin. For, since he is afraid to sin in the presence of a lowly man or woman, or even in front of a small child, how will he dare to sin in the presence of Almighty God, whom the Cherubim and Seraphim, and all breathing creatures, tremble before, and who, with one motion of His will, causes the whole earth to quake?

The second weapon is to become accustomed to saying unceasingly the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Begin saying this prayer as soon as you rise from your bed in the morning.

Say it also when you walk on the road, when you enter the car, the train, the ship, the airplane; and while you are working, eating, drinking, and in every hour and circumstance. But say it with your heart, with faith, reverence, love, longing, and force. Not with your mouth saying, “Lord Jesus Christ,” while your mind and heart are saying other things—especially wicked and contrary things.

The third weapon against the devil is humility—that is, not to be haughty, but for your disposition to be humble. To have the awareness that whatever you possess is not your own, but God's. That is to say, your body and soul, your health and strength, your wisdom, wealth, and whatever else you have—even the virtues, the good works, the prayers, the fasts, the almsgiving—all, all are gifts of the Grace of God, without whom we can do nothing good.

Therefore, when you have a humble disposition, God will cover you and protect you. For God is moved by the humble and watches over him, as the Holy Spirit says in the book of Proverbs. When the Holy Spirit rests in the hearts of humble people, how is it possible for the devil to approach?

Finally, the fourth weapon against the snares and temptations of the devil is love—pure, true, wholehearted love. Whoever possesses this love has God with him, who is love: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). When a person has God with him as protector and helper, whom shall he fear? Where there is light, darkness flees; where there is truth, falsehood is driven away; where God is, the devil flees like lightning.

Therefore, make use of these four weapons and beg God to help and strengthen you. And if, as a man, you are wounded by the devil, run immediately to the physician—to the spiritual father, to repentance and confession. Ask for healing, and you shall receive it.

Perfect love and humility burn up carnal temptation.

The sight becomes defiled when it looks upon the bodies of women and men—especially women—who dress immodestly. Therefore, you do well to restrain your eyes and your mind, so that you do not see the vanities and the filth of shameless and unclean women, who are directed by demons. However, the safest and most certain thing of all is to acquire perfect love, which sets a person free from fear and never fails.

For perfect love, like a mighty flame, burns up every shameful and evil desire. You must also acquire true humility, which Satan fears and does not approach. Therefore, let us always ask the Lord, with fervent faith and tears, to grant us humility and love, so that we may avoid the snares of the utterly evil enemy and safely reach the calm and peaceful harbor of eternal life and rest.

 

Greek source: Διδαχές Πατρικές και Θαυμαστά Γεγονότα Γέροντος Φιλοθέου Ζερβάκου, Orthodox Kypseli, 2006.

Online: https://katanixi.gr/echthrikes-prosvoles-patros-filotheoy-zervakoy/