Category: TEMPTATION & LUST & VIRGINITY

  • “At a time of affliction, expect a provocation to sensual pleasure; for because it relieves the affliction it is readily welcomed.”

    —St. Mark the Ascetic

  • “Many of us feel remorse for our sins, yet we gladly accept their causes.”

    —St. Mark the Ascetic

  • “Involuntary thoughts arise from previous sin; voluntary ones from our free will. Thus the latter are the cause of the former.”

    —St. Mark the Ascetic

  • If the Lord delays granting you full victory over your enemies and puts it off to the last day of your life, you must know that He does this for your own good; so long as you do not retreat or cease to struggle wholeheartedly. Even if you are wounded in battle, do not lay down your arms and turn to flight. Keep only one thing in your mind and intention—to fight with all courage and ardour, since it is unavoidable. No man can escape this warfare, either in life or in death. And he who does not fight to overcome his passions and his enemies will inevitably be taken prisoner, either here or yonder, and delivered to death.

    Unseen Warfare
    Lorenzo Scupoli

  • “Guard your mind and you will not be harassed by temptations. But if you fail to guard it, accept patiently whatever trial comes.”

    —St Hesychios the Priest

  • “Run away the first time; run away the second time; the third time, become a sword.”

    —Abba Poemen

  • The holy fathers of Scete predicted concerning the last generation, saying: “What have we accomplished?” In reply one of them, great in life and name, Abba Ischyrion, said: “We have carried out the commandments of God.”  In reply the elders said: “But those who come after us, what will they accomplish?” He said: “They are going to attain the half of what we have done.” They said: “And what of those after them?” and he said: “Those of that generation will do no work at all. Temptation is going to come upon them and those who are found to be tried and tested in that age will be found greater both than us and than our fathers.”

    Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

  • Just as crimes, even if they have not been detected when they were committed, do not allow anxiety to end with them; so with guilty pleasures, regret remains even after the pleasures are over.

    —Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

  • Our life is children’s play, only not innocent, but sinful, because, with a strong mind, and with the knowledge of the purpose of our life, we neglect this purpose and occupy ourselves with frivolous, purposeless matters. And thus our life is childish, unpardonable play. We amuse ourselves with food and drink, gratifying ourselves by them, instead of only using them for the necessary nourishment of our body and the support of our bodily life. We amuse ourselves with dress, instead of only decently covering our body and protecting it from the injurious action of the elements. We amuse ourselves with silver and gold, admiring them in treasuries, or using them for objects of luxury and pleasure, instead of using them only for our real needs, and sharing our superfluity with those in want. We amuse ourselves with our houses and the variety of furniture in them, decorating them richly and exquisitely, instead of merely having a secure and decent roof to protect us from the injurious action of the elements, and things necessary and suitable for domestic use. We amuse ourselves with our mental gifts, with our intellect, imagination, using them only to serve sin and the vanity of this world—that is, only to serve earthly and corruptible things—instead of using them before all and above all to serve God, to learn to know Him, the all-wise Creator of every creature, for prayer, supplication, petitions, thanksgiving and praise to Him, and to show mutual love and respect, and only partly to serve this world, which will some day entirely pass away. We amuse ourselves with our knowledge of worldly vanity, and to acquire this knowledge we waste most precious time, which was given to us for our preparation for eternity. We frequently amuse ourselves with our affairs and business, with our duties, fulfilling them heedlessly, carelessly, and wrongfully, and using them for our own covetous, earthly purposes. We amuse ourselves with beautiful human faces, or the fair, weaker sex, and often use them for the sport of our passions. We amuse ourselves with time, which ought to be wisely utilised for redeeming eternity, and not for games and various pleasures. Finally, we amuse ourselves with our own selves, making idols out of ourselves, before which we bow down, and before which we expect others to bow down. Who can sufficiently describe and deplore our accursedness, our great, enormous vanity, the great misery into which we voluntarily throw ourselves?

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • “Don’t let the temporary moment steal eternity from you.” 

    —St. Anthony