Through prayer and faith, we cast from our life the work of the enemy
Let us not be shacked by temptations and neither be amazed of the courage of the cursed, but dwelling in faith and fervent prayer and receiving help from above, cast the work of the enemy from our life.
Great is the man that grows in the inner part and advances in virtues! This great being is frightened by the sin, as much as the elephant is by the mouse, ‘so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize’ (1 Corinthians 9:27).
The devil won’t speak only at the end of age words against the Most High, as the Lord says, but also now it happens that sometimes, it sends through our thoughts bad words in the sky and insults the Most High, His creatures and the holy Mysteries of Christ. But we, because we are sitting on the rock of knowledge, we are not shacked by this and neither we are amazed of the courage of the cursed, but dwelling in faith and fervent prayer and receiving help from above, we cast the enemy.
(Translated from Sfântul Ioan Carpatiul, Capete de mângâiere, în Filocalia IV, traducere din greceşte, introducere şi note de Pr. Prof. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2000, p. 131)
