Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Traitor Within

One of the startsi said to his disciple, 'Watch, lest you harbour a traitor in yourself.' 'Who is the traitor?' asked the disciple. 'Self-gratification,' answered the staretz. And this is indeed so. Self-gratification is the cause of all evils. If you examine all the bad things that you have done, you will see that in each case they originated from pandering yourself.
Theophan the Recluse, The Art of Prayer, an Orthodox Anthology

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