On Preparing for the Battle With the Enemies in the Hour of Death

Although our entire life on earth is a ceaseless warfare and we are called to wage it to the very end, the greatest and most decisive battle awaits us in the hour of death. And whoever falls in that moment will not rise again. Do not wonder at this. For if the enemy dared to approach the sinless Lord at the end of his earthly days, as the Lord himself declared: ”For the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me” (John 14:30), then what could restrain him from attacking us sinners at the end of our lives? St. Basil the Great says in his commentary on Psalm 7, at the words ”lest he tear my soul like a lion, when there is none to rescue or save me” (Ps. 7:2), that the most tireless combatants, who have struggled without fail against demons throughout their whole lives and have escaped their snares and withstood their attacks, are subjected at the end of life to a scrutiny by the prince of this world, to see whether there is anything sinful in them; and those in whom wounds or stains and marks of sin are found are retained in his power, while those in whom nothing of the sort is found pass by him freely and find rest in Christ.

If such is the case, one cannot fail to bear this in mind and to prepare in advance to meet that hour, so as to pass through it successfully. All of life must serve as preparation for this. You will prove to be well prepared for that hour if throughout the whole of your allotted temporal life you have courageously struggled against the enemies of your salvation. Having acquired during your lifetime a good habit of defeating the enemies well, you will also easily win the crown of victory in the hour of death.

Also, think about death attentively and frequently, bringing to mind everything that will happen at that time. If you do this, that hour will not take you by surprise, and for this reason it will not—or will not greatly—terrify you; and your soul, not weakened by fear, will prove more firm and strong for undertaking the battle and overcoming the enemy. Worldly people flee the thought and memory of death so as not to interrupt their sensual pleasures and delights, which are incompatible with the remembrance of death. As a result, their attachment to the goods of the world grows ever stronger and more deeply rooted, meeting nothing to oppose it. Therefore, when the time comes to part from life and from all the beloved things and pleasures, they are overcome with immeasurable agitation, torment, and horror.

In order for such reflection on death to bear all its fruit, you must in the course of this exercise mentally place yourself in the state of a dying person, in the anguish and affliction preceding death, and vividly call to mind the enemy’s temptations that may then assail you, along with the thoughts and feelings that are powerful enough to repel them. I will set out for you below what specific attacks of the enemy are possible at that time and how to repel them, so that while you are still alive you may practice them mentally, and when the hour of death comes, you may put them to use in deed. For that battle and that combat, which must occur only once, must be well known and practiced by him who cannot avoid it, lest he make an error and suffer a loss that can no longer be repaired.