Abba Isaac said that if man humbles himself from the bottom of his heart, he is surrounded by God’s grace.

You are in search for the peace of mind and heart and you don’t seem to find it? God Himself taught us where and how we should seek for this peace, which is always a great reward and gift to those that follow Him: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29).

But nobody can find peace and spiritual serenity without fighting temptation and patiently enduring sorrow. The truth is that God did the same before He died on the Cross. He was mocked, humiliated and tortured. He built very carefully a model for us to follow. He created an image of His life on earth that we should struggle to follow.

Read the ascetical words of Abba Isaac. From them you will learn what the use of temptation is and that they should be endured in order to become stronger in the fight of evil and to achieve spiritual experience. In the fragments that I mentioned, Abba Isaac deals mostly with the temptations of spirit, but his teaching may be applied for bodily temptations as well.

As warriors used to win medals and awards when they proved courage and spirit of sacrifice, in a similar way, we as spiritual strugglers will win the fruits of our endeavour, after a heroic fight of many years. The harshest fight will be with pride, in all of its forms and manifestations: anger, vainglory, envy… When we manage to defeat these ones, we will gain the best award that there is: the peace of the soul.

(Traslated from Sfântul Macarie de la Optina, Povețe duhovnicești, Editura Egumenița, pp.106-107)