After Guidance on the Interior Struggle Against the Passions, Instruction on the Active Struggle Against Them. The Most Suitable Outward Manner of Life for the Struggle Against the Passions. Conclusion of the Discourse on the Struggle Against the Passions

May the mercy of God be with you!

As a guide to the cleansing of the passions, when they are in you to some small degree, what has been said is sufficient. But since the topic has come up, I will add something more that may prove useful to you not in the future, but right now.

The struggle with the passions described above is a mental one. And it is effective, because by not allowing the passions to feed on anything, it thereby starves them out. But there is also an active struggle with them, consisting in deliberately undertaking and performing deeds directly opposite to them. For example, to suppress miserliness one must begin practicing generosity; against pride one must choose humbling occupations; against the passion for merrymaking—staying at home, and the like. It is true that this manner of acting alone does not directly lead to the goal, because while being constrained from without, a passion can still break through inwardly—either itself, or by yielding place to another. But when this active struggle is combined with the inner, mental one, together they quickly defeat whatever passion they are directed against.

And here is the advice I add for you. Make the effort to discover your chief passion and direct against it not only a mental but also an active struggle. I cannot determine what it is in your case. It may not yet have defined itself clearly, but in any case, if you watch the movements of your heart more strictly, it will make itself known to your attention. Then, if you are willing to confide in me, we will together decide how to deal most quickly with your chief infirmity.

I will also remind you that there are drastic methods of this active struggle with the passions. The one most common among us is the world-renouncing life in its detached form, when, having decisively left everything and placed all hope in the Lord, one enters a monastery to live in unmurmuring obedience, in strict fasting, in diligent prayer, and in vigilant sobriety. There, the lack of possessions, the cutting off of one’s own will, and the sparing of oneself not at all quickly thresh out of the soul everything passionate. Thereafter, the peaceful ordering of the heart and purity of heart are established—the ultimate goal of the world-renouncing life. I am not driving you out of the world. You will be saved in it too, if you hold yourself in relation to it as though you were not in it. I only mention this as an order of life best suited to the work of cleansing the heart from the passions.

I will add further that one of the laws of God’s Divine Providence over us is to arrange the life of each person and the course of circumstances in it, so that by using them wisely he may cleanse himself from the passions most quickly and conveniently. I remind you of this because at some point you asked why the fates of people are varied, and why they are changeable—and it seems I did not answer you. So here is my answer as to why. It is because in the way the Lord arranges things, it is easier for people to cleanse themselves from the passions—or because by this means He desires to grind to dust our hardened selfhood, our stubborn egoism, upon which rest the passions that destroy a person.

And I will add one more thing. Strike at the passions both from within and from without, and at the same time cultivate your good qualities, giving them room and exercise. The chief thing here is prayer. There has already been talk about this. Next comes the labor of doing good works. There was also talk about this when you were contemplating some broad life-goals. And along with this must go soul-saving reading and conversation, the fulfillment of the church’s ordinances, and the ascetic practices of self-mortification: denying yourself, when need be, a little food, a little sleep, pleasures and all manner of self-indulgent comforts, and keeping yourself in constant self-resistance and self-compulsion. There was talk about this as well.

There is the whole course of cleansing oneself from the passions. All of this is already underway for you. May the Lord prosper you in it.