8/20/2023
St. Stephan of Fileika
If you want to enter into the joy of the Lord and live eternally with Him, be zealous to emulate the Apostle Paul who says: But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection (1 Cor. 9:27).
Now let us try to find a way to deliver ourselves from the captivity of sin, to overcome the evil lust hiding within us. Who hasn’t noticed within himself the struggle of the spirit with the flesh, the enmity between good and evil?
The lust of the flesh is very seductive: It easily snares the unwary and makes the soul a prisoner of the devil. According to the word of the Lord, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Mt. 5:28). That means you can defile yourself without touching anyone, through the eyes, through the imagination and the desires of the heart.
The Christian life in the world and the raising of children in faith and piety is one of the ways to serve God. The Lord also shows another path—a more direct path, accompanied by greater self-denial and asceticism, greater zeal; a path thanks to which those who truly traverse it offer fruit to God a hundredfold.
