An Excerpt From St. Hesychios on the Struggle Against the Passions

On mental warfare in general, everything has now been said to you. The passions are many, but however many they may be, all of them approach in the manner shown, and all are driven away and overcome as has been said. Each passion, of course, has its own peculiarities by which it is aroused; there is also a great variety of contingencies in the manner of their appearance. But this does not change the general methods of warfare against them. Do as has been said, and you will successfully drive away every passion, no matter with what force it may arise in you.

So that you may better be able to remember all of this and be convinced that one must act in this way and not otherwise, I am making an extract from the Venerable Hesychius, Priest of Jerusalem, whose little book I believe I once sent you.

Here is what he says:

“One who strives interiorly must at every moment possess the following four things: humility, extreme attention, contradiction (of thoughts), and prayer. Humility—because his opponents in the warfare are the proud demons—so as to hold Christ’s help in the hand of the heart, for the Lord hates the proud. Attention—so as not to permit the heart to entertain any thought, even if it seems good. Contradiction—so that as soon as one perceives a thought that has come, one may with anger repel the evil one. Prayer—so that after the contradiction one may immediately cry out to Christ with unspeakable groanings. And then this warrior will see the enemy bound or put to flight by the venerable name of Jesus, vanishing like dust before the wind or like smoke dissipating together with his imaginings” (section 20).

And here is another passage to the same effect:

“In the mental struggle one must act as one acts in ordinary warfare. First, attention is required; second, when we notice that the enemy has brought a thought near, we must strike it with a curse, with anger in the heart; third, we must pray against it, calling upon Jesus Christ in the heart, so that the demonic phantom may immediately vanish, and the mind not follow after the fantasy like a child enticed by some illusionist (juggler, mountebank)” (paragraph 105).

“If you always conduct yourself in your heart with humility, with remembrance of death, with self-condemnation, with contradiction of thoughts, and with invocation of the name of Jesus Christ, and with these weapons you continue daily to walk with sobriety the narrow, joy-giving, and pleasant mental path, then you will enter into the holy contemplations of the saints and will be illumined with deep mysteries by Christ, ”in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” in Whom ”dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:3, 9). For you will perceive within Jesus that the Holy Spirit has descended upon your soul, Who illumines the mind so that it may behold with an unveiled face. ”No one,” says the Apostle, ”can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). Surely by this he establishes mystically the one who seeks” (paragraph 29).

In these and other similar passages the venerable Hesychius speaks in general of the course of the mental struggle. His little book, however, speaks more extensively in individual sections about each of the methods of combat shown, and particularly about attentiveness to the heart, abiding there, and turning from there mentally to the Lord in prayer. Please look through that entire little book now. And I will copy out a few points on this subject for you.

“The great lawgiver Moses—or rather, the Holy Spirit speaking through his lips—says: ’Take heed to yourself: let there not be a hidden word of lawlessness in your heart’ (Deut. 15:9). By ‘hidden word’ he means the mere mental representation of something bad (passionate) and hateful to God—what the fathers also call a suggestion, cast by the devil upon the heart; as soon as it presents itself to the mind, our thoughts rush after it and join with it in a passionate manner” (paragraph 2).

“Attention is the unceasing stillness of the heart from every thought, in which the soul breathes and calls upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God, always, without interruption and without ceasing, by Him alone; courageously arrays itself with Him against the enemies; confesses to Him who has the power to forgive sins; and often encompasses Christ, the sole Knower of hearts, with secret invocation” (paragraph 5).

“Sobriety is the firm planting of the thought and its standing at the doors of the heart, so that it sees the thoughts that are creeping up and discerns what image the demons are attempting to form and imprint upon the mind, in order to seduce it through the imagination” (paragraph 6).

“The thought that stands (in the heart) and calls Christ against the enemies and takes refuge in Him is like a certain beast surrounded by a multitude of dogs and defending itself in a stronghold. It discerns from afar, mentally, the mental ambushes of the invisible enemies, and by ceaselessly praying against them to Jesus, the Peacemaker, it remains unharmed by them” (paragraph 8).

“He who does not have prayer pure from thoughts has no weapon for the struggle. By prayer I mean that which is carried on unceasingly in the interior of the soul, so that the enemy who fights in secret may be struck and consumed by the invocation of Christ. For you must also look with the sharp and strained eye of the mind, so as to recognize those that enter; and having recognized them, immediately crush the head of the serpent by contradiction, and at the same time cry out to Christ with groaning—then you will learn by experience God’s invisible help, and then you will clearly see the righteous state of the heart” (paragraphs 21 and 22).

“Therefore, let the soul take courage in Christ, let it call upon Him, and let it not fear in the least: it does not war alone, but together with the awesome King, Jesus Christ, the Creator of all that exists, both bodily and incorporeal, visible and invisible” (paragraph 40).

I will limit myself to these excerpts, because to copy out everything relevant would require transcribing half the little book. I made these excerpts so as to refresh your memory of what I have long been telling you about the remembrance of God and the inner struggle with the passions. Know that in this lies the whole essence of the labor of working out salvation.

Having read this, do not say to yourself: “But what am I—a desert-dweller—to observe such rules?” Not you alone, but very many people say this—only not those who have taken up the labor of working out salvation as they ought. Those who have undertaken this labor cannot say such a thing. So you, too, if you wish to live in the spirit (which is what working out one’s salvation consists in), must without delay act as has been set forth. But if you wish to live carelessly, then of course none of this applies to you. I began writing about this because I believed that your decision to belong to the Lord was sincere. For whoever has made such a decision sincerely cannot avoid the path described. He may labor greatly and take many detours, but until he finds this narrow track, nothing will come of it. I am pointing it out to you directly so that you will not wander off to the sides. Take hold of it more earnestly—and you will soon see progress. Everything requires effort; nothing comes without effort.

Do not allow yourself such foolish thinking. Whether one lives in the desert or in a monastery, or works out one’s salvation in the world—for everyone the inescapable law is to cleanse the heart of the passions; and one cannot cleanse it except by the method described. So do not refuse and do not dig in your heels.

The Lord bless you!