Κεφ. ΟΒ'
The Reciprocity of Spiritual Struggle
The struggle against demonic forces is a reciprocal engagement where the believer, through divine strength, overcomes the pressure exerted by the enemy.
If wrestling means pressing your opponent while being pressed in return, and the demons wrestle with us, then even as they press us, we press them back. For he says, “I will crush them, and they will not be able to stand.” And again: “Those who pressed me hard—my enemies themselves—grew weak and fell.”
Read the original Latin
Εἰ οἱ παλαίοντες ἐν τῷ θλίβεσθαι καὶ ἀντιθλίβειν εἰσί, παλαίουσι δὲ ἡμῖν οἱ δαίμονες, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἄρα θλίβοντες ἡμᾶς ὑφ’ ἡμῶν ἀντιθλίβονται. Ἐκθλίψω γὰρ αὐτούς, φησί, καὶ οὐ μὴ δύνωνται στῆναι. Καὶ πάλιν· οἱ θλίβοντές με καὶ οἱ ἐχθροί μου αὐτοὶ ἠσθένησαν καὶ ἔπεσον.
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