Letters of Spiritual Direction to a Young Soul - Letter Sixty-One Part II, Letter Sixty-Two Part I

St. Theophan continues to nourish the young Anastasia with solid food. He guides her deeper and deeper into the spiritual life and warfare. 

We began this evening with Letter 61 where Theophan teaches Anastasia about guarding the senses of hearing and sight. Often the present generation neglects the constant state of receptivity that we find ourselves in as human beings; the intense amount stimuli that the mind and the heart have to engage. We must learn to discriminate between those things that are destructive to our relationship with God or those things that help to elevate it. 

In Letter 62 Theophan begins to make a distinction between active warfare with the passions and spiritual warfare. The spiritual warfare is everything that he has been speaking to her about; guarding the thoughts, feelings, and the desires that give rise to the Passions.  To progress in this arena is the larger part of the spiritual life and leads to holiness. However, active warfare with the passions consist in the deliberate undertaking and carrying out of actions that are directly opposed to the Passions. This, to combat pride a person might embrace a humble occupation or to combat carousing one might stay at home more frequently. When the inner spiritual warfare is tied to this active combat, the passions will soon be defeated. This makes Theophan‘s counsel priceless.

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Text of chat during the group:

01:08:33 Eric Williams: Tiny homes would be wonderful blessings for the homeless, if only so many cities didn’t ban them for violating building codes (for minimum square footage). :(   01:17:48 Natalia Wohar: Watch the movie “1917”   01:17:57 Eric Williams: You’re a Theophan…fan ;)   01:18:40 Rachel: Thank you.