Κεφ. ΚΓ'
Guarding the Mind from Passion
The author warns that dwelling on anger and lust defiles the mind, hinders prayer, and leaves the soul vulnerable to the ravages of listlessness.
Do not surrender yourself to the thought of anger by mentally fighting with the person who upset you. Do not surrender to the thought of sexual immorality by dwelling at length on its pleasure. The first darkens the soul, while the second invites it toward the passion's burning heat; both defile your mind. Then, during prayer, you picture these images and fail to offer God a pure prayer, and you immediately fall prey to the demon of listlessness. He attacks such states above all and, like a dog tearing apart a fawn, ravages the soul.1
Read the original Latin
Μή δῷς σεαυτὸν τῷ τῆς ὀργῆς λογισμῷ κατὰ διάνοιαν τῷ λελυπηκότι μαχόμενος· μηδ' αὖ πάλιν τῷ τῆς πορνείας ἐπὶ πλεῖστον τὴν ἡδονὴν φανταζόμενος· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἐπισκοτεῖ τῇ ψυχῇ, τὸ δὲ πρὸς τὴν πύρωσιν τοῦ πάθους αὐτὴν προσκαλεῖται· ἑκάτερα δὲ τὸν νοῦν σου ῥυπῶντα ποιεῖ· καὶ παρὰ τὸν καιρὸν τῆς προσευχῆς τὰ εἴδωλα φανταζόμενος καὶ καθαρὰν τῷ Θεῷ τὴν εὐχὴν μὴ προσφέρων εὐθὺς τῷ τῆς ἀκηδίας δαίμονι περιπίπτεις· ὅστις μάλιστα ταῖς τοιαύταις ἐφάλλεται καταστάσεσι καὶ δίκην κυνὸς καθάπερ νεβρὸν τὴν ψυχὴν διαρπάζει.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Greek term ἀκηδία denotes acedia: a spiritually debilitating listlessness or aversion, especially associated with prayer and ascetic discipline.
The Praktikos companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
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