Spiritual Struggle through Prayer and Asceticism

Protopresbyter Dionysios Tatsis | October 2, 2026 | Orthodoxos Typos

 

 

The person who strives according to God must know how to deal effectively with his mind and body. This is a difficult task, which, nevertheless, he must not abandon. The mind is a spiritual workshop that ceaselessly produces products, that is, thoughts of various kinds, which often become desires and actions. Great care is needed in dealing with them. Sinful thoughts must not linger in the mind, but should be disregarded and rejected, without leaving impressions behind, so that they do not become associated with earlier sinful experiences. Of course, thoughts are unceasing, but they must depart quickly and be forgotten. In their place should come and remain thoughts pleasing to God, which calm the mind and nourish the heart, so that a person may also make corresponding decisions.

In dealing with sinful thoughts and in cultivating thoughts pleasing to God, prayer is of great help. At first, prayer may be accompanied by a certain agitation, but afterward calmness comes, the waves subside, sinful pursuits are forgotten, purity prevails in the mind, and deeds pleasing to God are planned. This inner work presupposes absolute trust in the providence of God. By himself, a person cannot become firmly established in what is good. Only by the grace of God can he succeed in carrying out good deeds and acquiring the virtues, through which he will secure favorable conditions for a fruitful spiritual struggle. His virtues will decisively drive away every negative incitement to sin, and the mind will no longer be disorderly and disturbed, nor will it be dominated by fears and unjustified anxieties. At the same time, it will remain unaffected by what is happening in the world.

The spiritual struggler continually keeps his passions under control. He does not admit external provocations, and the allurements of sin do not impress him. It is inconceivable for anyone to believe that he will make spiritual progress while at the same time gratifying his sinful passions. A person needs to be self-controlled, rational, content with little, and trusting in the providence of God. He should be characterized by asceticism, fasting, self-restraint, and the avoidance of satiety, which leads one into the repetition of many sins. What happens around him, and even farther away, through people who have no faith in God and in whose lives moral values are absent, leaves him unaffected. Nevertheless, he is concerned about their low spiritual state and is grieved because he cannot offer substantial help toward their improvement. He tolerates with patience and endures, to some extent, the inevitable influences.

Saint Justin Popovich makes a useful observation: “The man of God will never identify sin with the sinner, nor the crime with the criminal. He will always know how to distinguish sin from the sinner, to condemn the sin and have compassion on the sinner.” He also gives this counsel: “By prayer, wither the passions of your mind; by fasting, the passions of your body. For through these two virtues all the others are brought into action.”

 

Greek source:

https://orthodoxostypos.gr/%cf%80%ce%bd%ce%b5%cf%85%ce%bc%ce%b1%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%ba%cf%8c%cf%82-%e1%bc%80%ce%b3%cf%8e%ce%bd-%ce%bc%ce%ad-%cf%80%cf%81%ce%bf%cf%83%ce%b5%cf%85%cf%87%ce%ae%ce%bd-%ce%ba%ce%b1%ce%af-%e1%bc%84%cf%83/