Who has inside himself the peace of the Holy Spirit pours this peace upon the others and who has inside himself the evil spirit pours evil against the others.
Questions: How can a chief keep his peace when his subordinates are disobedient?
It is a hard and sad thing for a chief if his men don`t listen to him but for keeping his peace he must remember that if his subordinates are disobedient God loves them anyway and died in pains for their salvation. For this reason, he must pray from the heart for them and then the Lord will give prayer to the one who prays and he will know from his own experience that the mind which prays has love for God and hardihood before Him. Even if you are a sinner God will give you to taste the fruit of prayer and if you will make yourself a habit to pray for your subordinates then in your soul will reign a great peace and love.
Question: How can a subordinate keep his peace of soul when his boss is grumpy and bad?
The grumpy man endures a torment from the evil spirit. He endures that torment because of his pride. The subordinate no matter who he would be must know this and pray for the tormented soul of his boss and God seeing his patience will give to the subordinate the absolution of his sins and the ceaseless prayer. It is a great deed before God to pray for those who offend you and sadden you. For this reason God will give you His grace and you will know the Lord through the Holy Spirit and then you will endure joyfully all the griefs for him and God will give you to love the whole world and you will wish fervently the good of all the men and you will pray for all as for your soul.
The Lord commanded: „Love your enemies [Mt 5, 44], and who loves his enemies is like the Lord. But to love the enemies is possible only by the grace of the Holy Spirit and when someone upsets you pray for him to God and then you will keep the peace in your soul and the grace of God. But if you protest against your boss and curse him then you will become grumpy like him and the word of prophet David will become true for you:
To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. [Ps 17, 29].
Thus, it is difficult for a beginner to keep his peace if his starets has a bad character. To live with a starets like this is a heavy cross for a beginner. He must be able to pray for him and then he will keep his spiritual and physical peace.
But if you are a chief and you must judge someone for his bad deeds pray to God to give you a merciful heart which is loved by Him and then you will judge him right. But if you judge only after the deeds then you will be wrong and you will not please God.
You must judge the man to correct himself and you must have mercy for every soul, for every creature of God and keep in everything your conscience pure and then you will have a great peace in your soul and mind. We will live in peace and love and then God will listen to us and give us everything we asked from Him.
The Holy Spirit is Love. This is what the Gospel says and the experience proves it to be true.
It is impossible for the soul to have peace if we don`t ask from God with all our might to love all the people. God knew that if we don`t love our enemies, we won`t have peace in our souls and that is why He gave us this commandment:
`Love your enemies.`
If we don`t love our enemies then the soul will sometimes enjoy a certain kind of rest but if we love our enemies, peace will remain in our soul day and night.
Take care to keep in your soul the peace of the Holy Spirit. Do not lose it for trifles. If you offer peace to your brother, God will give you much more but if you sadden your brother, then sadness will affect your soul as well.
If a dirty thought comes to you, draw it away immediately and then you will keep the peace of your soul but if you receive it, your soul will lose the love of God and you won`t have any daring in your prayer.
If you cut our own will you defeat your enemy and win as reward the peace of your soul but if you follow your will you are already defeated by your enemy and ennui will torment your soul.
Who loves riches can`t love God and his neighbor. The mind and soul of a man like this are always concerned about riches and there is no spirit of remorse in him and no crushing of the heart for his sins and his soul can`t know the sweetness of Christ`s peace.
The soul which knew God wants to see Him always in his heart because he comes in the soul gently and gives the soul peace and offers reassurance about his salvation without words.
If the kings and rulers of the world knew God`s love they would never make wars again. The war is sent for sins and not for love. God created us out of His Love and commanded to us to live in love and to glorify Him.
I pray to you Most Merciful God to give to all the people from Adam and until the end of times to know that You are kind and merciful so that the peoples may delight of Your peace and see the Light of Your Face. Your gaze is peaceful and gentle and it attracts the soul.
Excerpt from Between the hell of despair and the hell of humbleness– Pious Silouan the Athonite, Deisis, 2001.
