1. If we compare our nature to copper, then copper in
conjunction with silver is still the same nature but one that is now
embellished in the Holy Baptism.
2. The Lord is on the Cross. Stand in front of Him in
your thoughts and ponder, how would the Lord meet you once He comes down from
the Cross? Keep thinking about this for some time, and your conscience will
clearly tell you the truth.
3. The heart is like a sponge that has absorbed various liquids. Squeeze it and the
liquid will come out. The pressures upon the heart are the life experiences and
circumstances of this world, which can produce either good or evil depending on
which part of the heart pressure is placed upon. Pay attention. Such thoughts
can lead to a good level of self realization.
4. Learn about the teachings of the Orthodox Christian
Church and hold onto them in your heart - and you will see the way to the
Kingdom of Heaven.
5. Knowing what is contained in the Holy Mysteries of
the church, be a communicant of the mysteries as often as possible, with faith
and with the Holy Tradition of the church. Then the Divine power of God, will
not weaken and direct to the the Kingdom of Heaven.
6. Make sure you live within the framework of the
church because then you will live in a spiritual atmosphere and you will be
fenced off from temptation, and your strength will never weaken in your path to
salvation, and no temptation will be able to leave you at difficult crossroads.
7. Be obedient to the leadership of the spiritual
fathers - and you will avoid the temptations and mistakes on the way to the
Kingdom of Heaven, but instead you will quickly and without troubles come to
the gates of Paradise
8. Nothing good is acquired for free. Instead it is
acquired later through tears and toil.
9. During the prayer, the enemy always will try to
bring into your mind things that may seem extremely important, and then removes
these thoughts and leads you further astray. It is vital to instill in your
hearts a strong conviction and decisiveness in order to be able to choose God
as opposed to anything else, at least during prayer.
10. Comprehension or the ability to see certain
spiritual things can happen during prayer. But the prayer that is simply read
will not give you this. You can only get this from a brief, personal prayer,
where you continuously keep God within yourself.
11. When you finished your prayer, don't not think
that it is all over. Act as if you are attending the liturgy. Always have a
sober mind and keep your thoughts chaste.
12. Pleasure is evidence of the wrong path, while
sorrow is evidence of the right path. Whenever you think about this, rejoice,
as crusaders of truth!
13. A person who has repented will first only see his
sins, but once the inner self begins to settle, a person can start seeing
passions that surround the soul. Someone who has said before: O Lord have mercy
on me a sinner, will now add the following: God, cleanse me a sinner or heal my
soul.
14. God arranges for us to meet certain people so that
we could pass on the good given to us by God and enriched each other souls. The
devil will try to do everything to make sure these meeting become useless and
even harmful. Keep this in mind!
15. It also happens that even though a person does not
do bad things, but the state of the heart is in bad shape. God rejects such
people because of their poor inner self. Check with yourself. Are you one of
those?
Prepared by The Catalog of Good Deeds
CONVERSATION