“We should never talk aloud or at length with others about something we really want to happen or to achieve. Satan overhears and puts obstacles in the way. Only God knows your secret thoughts; the evil one knows only what we tell him.”

—Hieromonk Chrysostomos Stavronikitianos


Whatever you say out loud, the devil is listening. It’s not just God that hears you, the devil hears you too—he’s got demons everywhere. So when he hears that you like something, he will mimic it and do it as well to either push you towards something wrong, or to push you in all directions just to make you so confused, so tired and exhausted, that you give up in despair.

—Fr. Antony Paul, Discerning God’s Will