Geronda, every time I get a thought against someone this always means that I condemn that ?
`Don`t you realize it in that moment ?`
`Sometimes I don`t realize it immediately.`
`Try to realize your fall as soon as possible and ask for forgiveness both from the nun you condemned and from God as this becomes an obstacle to prayer. Condemnation drives away the Grace of God and brings coldness in your communication with God. How to pray afterwards? The heart turns into ice, into marble.
Condemnation and slander are the greatest sins which drive away the Grace of God more than any other sin. Saint John the Ladder says `As the water puts out fire, the condemnation puts out the Grace of God.`[1]
`Geronda, I am very sleepy at the Matins.`
`Didn`t you condemn a nun? You see things in their exterior appearance and condemn that is why you are sleepy during the holy service. In the moment someone condemns and doesn`t face the things in a spiritual way he becomes cold spiritually and his powers are weakened. Then he is either sleepy or has insomnia.
`Geronda, I am often greedy when eating.`
`Listen the thing you should pay attention to is condemnation. If you don`t cut condemnation, you can`t get rid of gluttony either.`
The man who condemns, because he drives away the Grace of God, remains helpless and can`t correct his shortcomings. If he doesn`t realize his mistake, to be humble, he will always have falls. But if he understands and asks for the help of God, then the Grace of God will come back.
[1] see Saint John the Ladder, The Ladder, Word X, paragraph. 8.
Excerpt from Passions and virtues – Pious Paisios The Athonite, Evanghelismos Publishing.
