However, you should realize that as soon as you intend to live in peace, at once evil comes and weighs down your soul through accidie, faint heartedness, and evil thoughts. It also at tacks your body through sickness, debility, weakening of the knees, and all the members. It dissipates the strength of soul and body, so that one believes that one is ill and no longer able to pray.
Amma Theodora
