Freedom is not gained unless we free ourselves of tangles and passions. And this is what our Church does; this is our joy; this is everything for us. This is what hodiernal man is looking for. And he takes poisons and drugs so that he enters the world of joy, but this is a false joy. He feels something in that moment, but the next day he is broken.
One it consumes him, crushes him, burns him, while the other, the devotedness to Christ, it enlivens him, it gives him mirth, it makes him ejoy life, feel power and greatness.
It is a high craft to sanctify your soul. Man can sanctify himself anywhere. Even in Omonia he can sanctify himself, if he wants it. In your work, whatever that might be, you can become saints. By gentleness, patience, love. Make a good new start every day, by a new disposition, with enthusiasm and love, prayer and silence. Do not suffer from stress and make your chest feel pain, but work with watchfulness, simply, without torment, with mirth and jubilation, with good disposition. Only in this way the divine grace will come.
All the unpleasant things that lie in your soul and bring you stress, may become pretexts for worshipping God and would stop exhausting you. Trust in God. It is no need to coerce yourself exceedingly, let all your exertion be to look towards the light, to conquer light. And thus, instead of being subdued by sadness, which is not from the spirit of God, you better subdue yourself to the doxology of God. Sadness proves that we don’t entrust our life to Christ.
Communion with Christ, when is made simply, gently, without coercion, it chases the devil away. Satan does not leave with constraint and exertion, but with gentleness and prayer. He recedes when he sees that soul despises him and turns lovingly towards Christ. The devil cannot stand to be despised, because he is supercilious. When you insist, the evil spirit notices this and tantalizes you. Do not concern about the devil nor pray to see him leave, cause the more you pray to see him leave, the stronger he will grasp you. The devil must be despised. Do not fight him directly. When you fight grudgingly against the devil, then he attacks you like a tiger, like a beast. When you shoot bullets in him, he throws grenades at you. When you throw him a bomb, he throws you a missile. Do not look at the evil, look at God, throw yourself in His arms and move forward.
The humble one is aware of his inner state and no matter how bad that would be, he does not lose his temper, nor his composure. With the selfish one, who has feelings of inferiority, it happens quite the contrary. At the beginning he resembles the humble one, but when someone upsets him, he loses his peace immediately, gets annoyed and disturbed.
