IMPEDIMENTS TO PRAYER…
At the same time, the elder believed that in this life, too, the just God grants spiritual and even material gifts to people who consciously endear injustices, according to the situation.He counseled one monk who was bickering with his fellow disciple as follows,
“Tell him he’s right. Do you know how many people have gone to hell for being ‘right’? Fairness is wrong for a monk.”
That is to say a monk is injured spiritually when he seeks to justify himself.
Elder Paisios
~Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos
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~Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos
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“When you’re eager in your obedience during the day and at the same time your lips continuously whisper a prayer, then you feel rested and joy inside you. So much so that you don’t even consider the toil of the day. With all this warming up during the day, the vigil is easy at night: it does not tire you but rather you feel it is a feast. However, if during the day we have been disobedient, are involved in idle chatter, back talking, part we have had thoughts of pride, jealousy, condemnation and so on, unceasing prayer stops and also the vigil at night passes with toil and pain. But sometimes, this can happen without us having given the right for it to happen.”
Elder Arsenios
~Elder Arsenios the Cave-Dweller