How to fight the fleshly, passionate will inside us. [THREAD]

Each time your will is pulled on two sides, the one being the mindless sensory will and the other the will of God, speaking in your conscience, you must, if you are truly seeking virtue, use fitting methods on your end to help God's will in conquering. These are:

If you honestly practice these three inner works, in your soul, they will never fail to overcome your evil desires. However this would only mean pushing the foes away.

If your desire is to strike right at their heart, then immediately do something exactly opposite to the proposal of the passionate movement and, if you can, commit yourself to do so always. This final exercise will finally liberate you from the constant attacks you encounter.

An example. Someone has offended you and this has caused you to be irritated, and has suggested that you strike back. Take heed to yourself and hurry to understand that these motions are set on bending you toward vice. So have the composure of a soldier on the defensive and:

(4) Once you have restored the peace in your soul, do to your foe something which would demonstrate your compassionate and peaceful character toward him.

Push the passion from your heart and exchange it for the corresponding opposite virtue, which is the goal of unseen war. This is how this works, in a way that is fitting for all occasions, in agreement with the teaching of the holy fathers.

Generally, with St. Maximus, we can summarize all these things with the following propositions: ornament your mind with being ever attentive to God in prayer and an understanding of heavenly truths; the will with complete self-renunciation; the sensory faculty with love.

If you do these things, then the light within your mind will never go dim and no evil thoughts will find a home in you.

If you are pro-active in forming such good thoughts and character in yourself, in the morning, evening and throughout the day, the unseen enemies will never draw near to you. Because then you will be like a general, who ever surveys his battalion and keeps them battle ready.

Regular use of virtuous habits will destroy the passionate habits.

Good habits must be practices regularly, even imperfectly, because bad habits will take root much more readily for they are helped by the sin abiding in us, which is, self-indulgence.

Stay vigilant and don't forget to wage war upon the small and weak passions as well.

We must also server passionate attachments to such things as taking walks, conversations, meals, sleep, etc. if they distract us from our main task of desiring to do good.

Understand that to go against urself is here an unchangeable ordinance, which forbids all gratifying of urself even in the spiritual life. If you choose only works which are pleasing, even if they're part of the correct spiritual order of things, you'll bring to ruin your labors.

You'll toil, but rather than real fruit, you'll yield a infertile flower, and you'll not be well established in any spiritual things. You'll appear to possess something spiritual, but that'll not be the case. Because all truly spiritual matters come from the grace of Holy Spirit.

This grace comes only to those who have crucified themselves with suffering and self-deprivations, with no self-pity, and so have become one with our Lord and Savior, Who was crucified for us.