The enemies of salvation are: people, our body and the devil.

People represent the voice of community, the mouth of the enemy, and many times the mouth of your family. People forgive you anything, any slip of your soul but do not forgive you for being better than them. The ones who want to overcome the first obstacle on the path of salvations have three assets on hand: patience, forgiveness and prayer. This is why, those who conquer the world are not some lazy people but are God’s soldiers. And their salvation will be according to their struggle.

Our body is deaf, blind and mute by nature, it can only be brought to reason only through labour and hunger. The soul of many people would wish that their body would live forever. This is how much they love this world. It’s as we hear the words of the rich “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” And then God said “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke 12:19).

The other obstacle is raised by the devil in our soul through the love of self – “the devil’s first offspring.” There are three tools against the devil: The name of God, the name of Theotokos and the Holy Cross.

(Translation from Părintele Arsenie Boca, Lupta duhovnicească cu lumea, trupul şi diavolul, ediție revizuită, Editura Agaton, Făgăraș, 2009, pp. 21-22)