Tag: Institutes
Struggle with the eight main passions: Avarice
“… a person of double heart cannot wage war for the Lord, for ‘a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.“(XV.2) Our third conflict is with avarice, which we can call the love of money. It attacks are from without and is not natural, and it does not have its source in the monk… Read More ›
Struggle with the eight main passions: Fornication
The second struggle that confronts us is that with the spirit of carnal lust — the most prolonged and perpetual one, and very few win in this battle. The passion of fornication in a person arises at a very early stage of puberty and does not stop until he conquers his other passions. Inasmuch as… Read More ›
Struggle with the eight main passions: Fasting
V.1. … a uniform rule concerning the manner of fasting cannot easily be kept because not all bodies have the same strength, nor is it, like the other virtues, achieved by firmness of mind alone… 2. Nonetheless there is one end of abstinence in all these instances — that no one, according to the measure… Read More ›
The Eight Demons of St. John Cassian
My life, along with many others (though I forget this often), has been a continual struggle with sin. I am not alone in this, and there is a kind of comfort in that. I found this out especially when I stumbled upon some writings of St. John Cassian in the Philokalia, arguably the most important spiritual… Read More ›