If we desire to
acquire faith -- the foundation of all blessings, the door to God's
mysteries, unflagging defeat of our enemies, the most necessary of all
the virtues, the wings of prayer and the dwelling of God within our soul
-- we must endure every trial imposed by our enemies and by our many
and various thoughts. Only the inventor of evil, the devil, can perceive
these thoughts or uncover and describe them. But we should take
courage; because if we forcibly triumph over the trials and temptations
that befall us, and keep control over our intellect so that it does not
give in to the thoughts that spring up in our heart, we will once and
for all overcome all the passions; for it will not be we who are
victorious, but Christ, who is present in us through faith.
It was with regard to this that Christ said, "If you have faith no
bigger than a mustard-seed... " (Luke 17:6). Yet even if our thought,
in a moment of weakness, should succumb, we should not be afraid or
despair, or ascribe to our own soul what is said to us by the devil. On
the contrary, we should patiently and diligently, to the limit of our
strength, practice the virtues and keep the commandments, in stillness
and devotion to God, freeing ourselves from all thoughts subject to our
volition.
source:The Desert Fathers: Monks and Monasteries of the Egyptian Desert -Mystagogy
+Metropolitan Seraphim
