Κεφ. ΜΒ'
Disarming Temptation
Using righteous indignation to clear the mind of intrusive thoughts before entering into prayer.
When you are under temptation, do not begin to pray until you have spoken a few angry words against the one who is troubling you. For when your soul has been shaped by these thoughts, your prayer cannot be pure; but if you speak angrily against them, you throw the adversaries’ ideas into confusion and make them disappear. After all, anger naturally does the same thing even to better thoughts.
Read the original Latin
Οὐ πρότερον προσεύξῃ πειραζόμενος, πρὶν εἰπεῖν τινα ῥήματα μετ’ ὀργῆς πρὸς τὸν θλίβοντα· τῆς γὰρ ψυχῆς σου πεποιωμένης τοῖς λογισμοῖς, συμβαίνει μηδὲ καθαρὰν γενέσθαι τὴν προσευχήν· ἐὰν δὲ μετ’ ὀργῆς εἴπῃς τι πρὸς αὐτούς, συγχεῖς τε καὶ ἐξαφανίζεις τῶν ἀντικειμένων τὰ νοήματα. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ ὀργὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν κρειττόνων νοημάτων ἐργάζεσθαι πέφυκεν.
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
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent