Words from the Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain

"Our goal should be to take all that comes our way and make the best out of it for the sake of the spiritual struggle in which we are engaged.  We must strive to acquire the inner tranquility, and to this end even noise can become a good thing if it is met with the right thought.  What matters the most is handling a problem in the right way. We must face up to everything using good thoughts.  When, in very midst of noise, you manage to reach inner tranquility, you have achieved something of great value.  If you cannot find tranquility in the midst of disturbance, you will not be able to be tranquil even in the midst of tranquility.  When inner tranquility comes to a man, everything inside him will be tranquil, and he will not be disturbed by anything.  But if he requires external tranquility in order to find inner tranquility, then, when he does find himself in such a place, he will want a cane to chase away cicadas by day and jackal by night, so they will not bother him!  In other words, he will be chasing away what in fact the devil is gathering.  What do you think the devil's job is after all?  His job is to create difficulties and to obstruct our efforts, until he has completely turned us upside down."

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"The reason this external unrest makes them comfortable is because they feel unrest inside.  There is noise everywhere....  

They have not left any place on the earth in peace...  Not even on Mt Athos.

One day some monks came to me to my Kalyvi and started speaking very loudly.  I said to one of them, "Speak more softly; they can hear us over there." He continued to speak loudly. "Lower your voice," I repeated. "Bless me Father," he said finally. "We have a generator in the Monastery and we have become accustomed to speaking loudly to hear each other."  Can you believe that? Instead of saying the Jesus Prayer and speaking in a low voice, they shout because they got used to  having a generator..."

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"We need to be careful in our spiritual life.  When spiritual people are affected by vainglory, they feel very little satisfaction, and they are left with a sense of emptiness in their heart.  There is no fulfillment, no rejoicing of the heart, and as their vanity increases, the emptiness inside makes them suffer even more.  Where there is anxiety and despair, there is a demonic spiritual life.  You should not feel anxiety over anything at all. Anxiety comes from the devil.  Wherever you see anxiety, you must know that the devil has been at work.  The devil will not go against the current.  If there is a predisposition, he will push in that direction in order to cause us trouble and deceive us.

When in the course of our spiritual struggle we feel anxiety we must know that we are not moving within the realm of God...

In other words, one should not strive with an unhealthy fastidiousness... Christ is full of love, kindness and consolation and He never stifles, but gives abundant oxygen and divine consolation.

Never do a job without putting your trust in God with great humility, because otherwise you will agonize and you will tire your mind and soul. It is a lack of faith that hides behind anxiety, but pride can cause anxiety also."

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 "Parents who have retarded children, must not feel sad for them, because their souls are already saved.  On the contrary, they must be happy, because their children, without making any efforts, have earned paradise.  What else can parents wish for their children?  If they face their child's defect in a spiritual way, they are also benefited and rewarded by God."

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"Of all the things you just witnessed, some were by God's concession, others were for education, and others had providential reasons.  He who lost the coins was the neighbor of the one who found them.  The latter had an orchard worth 100 gold coins.  Being greedy, the rich man forced him to sell it for only 50 coins.  The disadvantaged man turned to God in prayer and asked for God to take care of this injustice. Therefore his discovery of the purse with the 100 gold coins was God's providence which had responded to his prayer to give him his money back two fold."

"The poor man who was murdered unjustly also committed murder once in his life.  He had repented and afterwards lived a God pleasing life.  He constantly asked God to forgive him for the murder and to give him a death just like the one he had inflicted."

"Naturally, the Lord forgave him based on his repentance.  God was moved by his sincerity and his efforts to live a life according to His commandments and his desire to pay for his crime.  Thus the Lord granted him his wish and allowed  him to die a violent death and then took him into His bosom.

Finally, the greedy man who lost all his gold coins and then committed the murder would have a disastrous end due to his greed and love of money. God therefore allowed him to fall into the sin of murder so that his soul would be severely pained and he would seek to repent. The result was that this person did repent and abandoned all worldly pleasures and become a monk.

"Now in which of these cases did you find God to be unjust or cruel or insensitive?"

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"When someone is in the beginning of his spiritual life, he should not study a lot, but instead watch himself and observe his thoughts."

 

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