Come to love our Lord Jesus Christ more deeply, and practice
the labor of virtues. Sustaining this work with patience
chases out despondency.
Dear beloved, strive to make the inner person a monastic,
not just the outer one.
Love stillness. One who is not attached to the vanities of this world
is strengthened in soul by stillness. Abstinence and silence,
prayer and reading cleanse the mind.
Theodora said:
If you think upon that which is good, you will be disposed to it.
Human thought is not hidden from God. For this reason
your thoughts must always be clean of all evil.
Syncletica said:
If in any fall you say with humility: Forgive me, then it will
be forgiven you.
Mother Syncleticas Advice on Pridefulness and Judgment
The more that people in the world acquire, the more they hide it and say they are poor.
But we, as soon as we have some little success in good deeds, instantly exalt ourselves,
make a display of it and boast about it. For this reason, the little spark of goodness that we
thought was ours is stolen away by the enemy. So, we do well not to say anything to anyone
when we do good. Those who do the contrary suffer a greater loss because even what they
seem to have will be taken away. (Lk 8:18)
Like wax melts by the fire, so the soul melts from praise and loses its firmness. But if heat
melts wax, coldness makes it firm. And, if praise takes away strength of soul, mortification
and stillness bring more strength to her virtues.
We must preserve the tongue and the earin other words, by not speaking idle or judging
words, nor passionately listening to them. Do not listen to idle words and you will not be a
receptacle for the sins of others. If you receive into yourself the stinking filth of idle
conversations, by this, thoughts will defile your prayer, just as after listening to merciless
slanderers, you too will look down upon others with suspicion.
If you acquire some virtues, by the grace of Christ, do not exalt yourself in the heart. Even
if you have achieved them, pray this: We are unworthy servants; we have only done that
which was our duty. (Lk 17:10)
We must strive to renew the soulnot in that which is external and deceptivebut by paying
special attention to that which is internal. We have cut our hair at the time of our tonsure, let us
cut away also from the head the husk. Our hair was our worldly adornment: it represented honor,
glory, property, sweet foods, and other pleasures. The husk represents evil thoughts, bad
feelings, and judgmental dispositions. The head is our own soul. So let us remove the husk
from it so that it will be orderly and beautiful.
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