`Father, I panic whenever I fail in my ascetic struggle.`
`Don`t be afraid. There is a struggle and we will have wounds. These are healed in confession. See the soldiers found in war when they are hurt in a battle run to the doctor to bandage their heart and they continue to fight with magnanimity. In time they gain experience from their wounds and they guard themselves better and better so that they won`t be hurt again. In the same way we when are hurt in our ascetic struggle must not lose our courage but run to our doctor, meaning to our confessor, show him our wound and heal ourselves spiritually and continue our good struggle.[1].
Bad is when we don`t try to find the frightening enemies of our souls which are our irrational passions and we don`t struggle to kill them.`
`Father, some people because of their nobleness don`t go to confess. `They say, I may commit the same mistake so why would I go to confess it? To ridicule my spiritual father?`
`This is not right. It is as if a soldier said when he is wounded `As the war is not over and I may be hurt again why would I bandage my wound?` But if he didn`t bandage it he will have hemorrhage and will die. It may be possible that he out of his nobleness won`t go to confess but doing like this in the end he will become worthless. The devil exploits even the charismas. If we don`t purify our souls by confession then we fall and get dirty thinking that we will fall again and we will get dirty again and we add mud over the old mud and afterwards it is difficult for us to purify ourselves.`
[1] I Tim. 6, 12.
Excerpt from Ascetic struggle– Pious Paisios the Athonite, Evanghelismos.
