My children, if you are truly strugglers, men who pay heed to virtue and care for your souls, and you earnestly desire your mind to be limpidly pure before Christ and to do that which is pleasing to him, then it surely behooves you to accept for His sake every warfare kindled by our nature’s passions, the attractions of this world, the duration and persistence of the demons’ wickedness with which they are accustomed to confront you, and all their snares. Do not grow faint-hearted because of the continuing and obdurate fierceneness of the battle; do not become hesitant because of the long duration of your struggle; do not grow lax, neither be afraid of the hosts of your enemies, and if for a season you should perhaps stumble and sin, do not fall into the pit of despair. But if something should befall you in this great war and you should even be wounded upon your face, let this in no wise hinder you from attaining your goal. Rather, persevere in the pursuit that you have chosen, and you will achieve that thing most desirable and praiseworthy, to prove steadfast and unmoving in war, reddened by the blood of your wounds. Never cease, therefore, from wrestling with your adversaries. ...
Useless Knowledge
I have struggled with this one a lot, feeling its truth, not understaning why, being confused by messages from the world which taught the opposite. Just as it is necessary to guard the mind from ignorance, so is it equally necessary to protect it from the opposite, namely from too much knowledge and curiosity. For if we fill it with a quantity of information, ideas and thoughts, not excluding such as are vain, unsuitable and harmful, we deprive it of force, so that it is no longer able to understand clearly what is useful for our true self-correction and perfection. Therefore in relation to the knowledge of earthly things, which is not indispensable, even if it is permissible, your attitude should be as of one already dead. Always collect your mind within yourself, with all the concentration you can; and keep it free of thoughts about all worldly things. Let tales of the past and news of the present pass you by, and let all the changes in the world and its kingdoms be for you as thought they did not exist at all. If anyone brings you such news, disregard it and turn it away from your heart and imagination. Listen to what St. Basil says: ‘Let listening to worldly news be bitter food for you, and let the words of saintly men be as combs filled with honey.’ … All other enquiry and investigation is the offspring and food of self-love and pride. They are the nets and shackles of the devil; he sees the srength and firmness of will of those who pay attention to spiritual life, and strives to conquer their minds by means of such curiosity, in order to gain possession of their mind and will. ...