The worldly joys are material joys.
The pious Paisios of the Holy Mountain
“Father, the secular people say they feel an emptiness in their soul, even if they have all the goodies in the world.”
“The true, pure joy can be found only near Christ.” “If you unite yourself with Him through prayer, you will see your soul is rewarded.” “The secular people seek joy in entertainments.” “The spiritual people seek it in theological discussions, in preaches, etc.” “But when all these are over they find themselves in an emptiness and wonder what they will do further on.”
“If their activities are sinful or neutral, it’s just the same.” “Why don’t they better go to sleep, so that they would be more prepared for the work of the next day?”
“What you gain by fulfilling the worldly desires of the heart is only stress, not spiritual joy.” “The worldly joy brings stress even to the spiritual people.” “The worldly joy is not permanent, it’s not a real joy, it’s a temporary one, of that moment.”
“And this is a material joy, not a spiritual one.” “And the worldly joys don’t fill the human soul, they rather fill it with ballast.” “When we experience spiritual joy we don’t want any material joy anymore.” “I will be satiated when Your glory is manifested.” “The worldly joy doesn’t bring any peace to the spiritual man, but weariness.” “Let a spiritual man stay in a worldly house and you will see that he doesn’t rest.” “Even if the worldly man thinks that he rests, it’s not like this at all, he only suffers.” “He seems to be glad, but inside himself he is not content, but tormented.”
