Avoiding Spiritual Delusion

Fresco from Holy Great Monastery of Vatopedi

I was able to continuing reading Unseen Warfare last night and specifically I read a chapter titled “How to train one’s will to have but one ultimate aim in all things, both external and internal—to please God.” As Christians this is our ultimate aim, to re-align our will with the will of God and this is what the Church teaches us is pleasing to God. It is also perhaps the hardest thing will ever try to achieve in our lives.

As descendents of Adam we all are subject to our passions. These passions, these desires of our will have become what drives almost all of us; the fulfillment of them have become for the majority of the world the chief end of life:

For our nature is so accustomed to please itself, that it seeks its own comfort and pleasure in all its doings, even the most righteous and spiritual, and secretly and lustfully feeds on it as though it were food.

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The Time of the Battle…

… the warriors who take part in this unseen war are all who are Christians; and their commander is our Lord Jesus Christ, surrounded and accompanied by His marshals and generals, that is, by all the heirarchies of angels and saints. The arena, the field of battle, the site where the fight actually takes place is our own heart and all our inner man. The time of the battle is our whole life.

These words, written by St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain in the forward to his rendering of Unseen Warfare*, sum up in a graphic way the life of the Christian. Christ himself states in Matthew: “Do not think  that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” That is, the message of Christ does not mean that we can sit back and enjoy peace, rather it is a call to arms.

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Christian Warriors

I came across this very direct and very insightful bit of information while continuing my reading of Unseen Warfare. It is the very first paragraph of Chapter 16 which is titled “How a warrior of Christ should prepare for battle in the moring:”

As soon as you wake up in the morning, pray for a while saying: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me.’ Then your first work should be to shut yourself in your own heart, as if taking up position in the arena. Having established yourself there, bring yourself to the consciousness and feeling that your enemy and the passionate urge agaisnt which you struggle at the moment is already there, on your left, ready for immediate attack; therefore rouse against them a firm resolve to conquer or die, but never submit. Realise also that on your right there stands, invisibly present, your Commander, our Lord Jesus Christ, with His Holy Mother and a host of holy Angels, with the Archangel Michael at their head, ready to come to your aid. So take heart and be of good cheer.

What a brilliant visual of the warfare we are all involved in and what hearting one as well! I try to say a set of morning prayers each morning (the usual Glory Be… O Heavenly King… Most Holy Trinity… Come let us worship and bow down… etc.) though sadly the days I don’t do it outnumber the days that I do. However, I can definately tell a difference throughout the day from when I do say my morning prayers and when I do not.

The Fathers teach us that prayer is the single most effective weapon against our enemeis–both internal and external. I don’t know about you, but I find it very comforting to know that as I’m praying, as I’m waging a holy war against my passions and the demons who delight in them, I have the mighty Commander, our Champion Defender, and the Heavenly Army fighting with me. Glory be to God!

IC | XC

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NI | KA