Chapter 23

On Slothfulness and Self-Justification

^23.2.1 The mercy of God be with you!

^23.3.1 I can’t decide your question boldly—it’s about accepting money and things... There are rules for this. In your interior disposition, hold to what the Lord has given. Zealous keeping of this will dispose the Lord to multiply His gifts.

^23.4.1 Flee everything that distracts your attention and diminishes your warmth. Slothfulness and claiming rights to indulgences—these are the primary enemies, destroyers of everything spiritual.

^23.5.1 Read Holy Scripture more, especially the Gospel... There the Spirit of God moves and drives away spirits that are opposed to God and God-fighting.

^23.6.1 May the Lord bless you!

^23.7.1 Be saved!

^23.8.1 Your well-wisher, Bishop Theophan.

^23.9.1 P. S. You don’t need to constrain your breathing or put pressure on your heart; rather, say the prayer with a free mind.[1] Know that true spiritual prayer is grafted in us by grace.[2] Read in the Philokalia the account of the venerable Maximus of Kapsokalyvia (of Mount Athos) and imitate him. For two years he prayed from his heart to the Theotokos, using nothing special, and received what he sought in a single moment. (The grace-filled warmth fell into the heart when I drew near to the icon of the Theotokos.)

^23.10.1 Bishop Theophan.