Hey everyone i found a great article by HH God bless and pray 4 me
[glow=red,2,300]Purity of Thoughts[/glow]His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark
A chaste and pure person should be pure in body and soul, in his thoughts, senses, feelings, and even in his dreams and imaginations. A man should give careful attention to the purity of his thoughts as his thoughts also belong to God. As we take care of the purity of our hearts in order that God may dwell in them, so we must take care of our minds too. In the Holy Bible the Divine Inspiration says, "...Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your strength..." (Luke 10:27).
A person who lets his heart be occupied with sin, gives a proof that God does not live in his heart, as thoughts arise from the inside of the heart.
The Holy Bible says a good man produces well from the store of good within himself; and an evil man from evil within produces evil.
The law does not take your thoughts into account but God judges you according to your thoughts. Hence conscience is stronger and deeper than the law, for the person who takes care not to commit a sin by thought will find it difficult to do wrong in deed and action. Thus the purity of thought becomes a means for the purity of the human being as a whole.
If you wish to have a pure mind, keep far away from the means that cause the corruption of thought. Keep away from all things that bring to your mind a sinful thought. Such thoughts may come as a result of faulty readings, of wicked things that are heard, or due to a sinful environment, bad company, or wicked friendship. An evil thought may arise from another evil thought. Keep away from this so as to keep your thoughts pure.
Evil thoughts may arise from desires or bad lusts inside the heart. In fact, desires and thoughts co-operate; each of the two may be a cause and a result. An evil thought may bring about a wicked lust, and a wicked lust may give birth to a wicked thought. On many occasions your thoughts may be expressive of your desires. Try to clear out your heart from evil desires; then your thoughts will consequently be purified.
Thoughts and lusts may give rise to dreams or imaginations, as you dream of the thing that you think of, or that you long for. In this way, a man may sometimes be responsible for his dreams; and inasmuch as the man's heart and thoughts are purified, so will his dreams be purified. If you dream of something against your thoughts and desires, you may be disturbed and wake up quickly, and you will not be able to continue your dream for a long period.
On some occasions evil thoughts may merely be a fight on the part of the devil against you, to disturb the quiet of your heart and destroy your inner peace. But not all evil thoughts are wars from the devils; there is a great difference between the war of thoughts and falling by thought. In case of an evil thought that is merely a fight from the devil, your heart will revolt against this thought and you will try with all your determination to drive it away and get rid of it and not accept it at all. But in case of falling by thought a man will be contented with the wicked thought or will be enjoying it; he may even try to keep harboring this thought for a long time, and he may be annoyed if something occurs to break it up.
When these thoughts come to your mind, do you sincerely oppose them, or do you become satisfied with them? Here is the measure and here is the test of the substance of your purity.
My advice to you is to oppose wicked thoughts and escape from them. If an evil thought attacks you, try to occupy your mind with something else or run away from it. You may think of something else that is deeper so as to divert the course of your thinking.
You may occupy yourself with the reading of something interesting so that your thoughts may be diverted from that wicked question to the topic of reading. You may pray in secret and raise your heart to God to keep away the evil thought from you; and if all these methods are not effective you may occupy yourself with some manual work or talk with anybody to drive away the thought.
Be cautious not to yield to the wicked thought as this is treachery on your part against God and association with enemies. Your escape from the thought as soon as it comes to your mind is much easier than your attempt to run away from it, after you have kept it for a certain period of time, because as long as the thought continues in your mind, it will exercise its mastery over you, and will subject your will to its attraction, until you become a slave to it and fulfill its desire.
If the thought continues with you, it may be changed into an emotion or a desire or a lust; it may develop into an attempt at fulfillment, and thus you may be degraded from a sin by thought to sin by act.
An evil thought may come as a result of idleness according to the saying, "The mind of an idle person is a convenient place of work for the devil." A busy person controls his thoughts, as he directs them according to the kind of occupation in which he works. A hard working student directs his thoughts in the way of his studies; a scientist is occupied with science, an athlete with physical exercises, a monastic with worship; but a person who spends his time in idleness will have his mind exposed to evil thoughts; he does not control his thoughts but the thoughts direct him.
My advice to you is to take the first step; you should orient your thoughts and not let thoughts take advantage of you and direct you. Thoughts can be a weapon in your hand and it can be a weapon against you; let it be your friend and not your enemy. You should know that the greatest and most useful projects were originally an idea, and all great humanitarian deeds began as an idea.
We may need experts whom we invite from distant or nearby countries to obtain ideas from them. Let your ideas be a treasure for yourself and othersLet your thoughts be a blessing for the society in which you live. If you cannot make your thoughts a source of benefit for yourself and for others, at least do not let them be a cause for the loss of your eternity and the purity of your heart.
Do not wait until the evil thought comes to your mind and then you find it difficult to resist it, but you should take the initiative and occupy your mind with righteous subjects. Try to possess a treasure of Holy meditations and Divine thoughts, a treasure of feelings of love towards God, so that your mind may be ashamed of those thoughts and feelings if the devil wishes to defile it or let it fall.
Be always occupied with what is beneficial and keep in mind that God reads and examines your thoughts. Therefore you should be ashamed of yourself whenever you give way to sinful thinking. And if you fall in evil thought, do not despair and keep up that thought, but you should rise quickly and redress your thoughts.
May God be with you and grant you purity of thought as a Holy gift.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark
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[glow=red,2,300]Modesty[/glow]
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, Amen.
Modesty is the first virtue in spiritual life. It is the vanguard that protects virtues and talents. Every virtue that is not accompanied by modesty is likely to be snatched by the devil of vain glory and destroyed by conceit, boastfulness and self-admiration.
Therefore if God has granted you any talent, pray to God to give you modesty with it or take it away from you, lest you should fall into pride because of it and perish.
Modesty is the basis upon which all virtues are built. It is not a separate virtue that stands alone, but it is interwoven in all virtues like the thread that culminates into a garment.
God gives His gifts to those who are modest because He knows that those gifts will not be harmful to them. The Holy Bible states that God reveals His secrets to modest people who become more humble inasmuch as God gives them glory. Therefore God summons us to be modest, and modesty and meekness were among the prominent characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ that made Him beloved by all people. The Holy Gospel described Him by saying that He was "meek and humble in Spirit."
The saints have perfected modesty in a curious manner. They were not modest only before God and people but they were modest even before devils, and they defeated devils with this modesty.
When the devils used to fight violently against the great saint, Abba Anthony, he used to answer them humbly saying, "You, who are mighty, what do you, want of me, the weak person, while I am incapable of fighting against the weakest one among you?"
He used to pray to God saying, "Save me, O God form those who think that I am something of value, while I am dust and ashes." When the devils used to hear this prayer that was full of modesty, they disappeared like smoke.
Once the devil appeared to the ascetic monk, St. Macarius the Great, and said to him, "Woe to us from you, O Macarius, what things do you do that we do not perform? You fast and we do not eat, you keep awake at night and we do not sleep, you live in wildernesses and barren places and we do the same, but you defeat us with one thing." St. Macarius asked him, "And what is that thing?" The devil answered, "With your modesty you defeat us."
Another time St. Abba Anthony saw the traps that were laid down by the devils so he threw himself on the ground before God and cried out saying, "O Lord who can be saved from these traps?" Then he heard a voice saying, "Modest people shall be saved from them."
If modesty has such power as to defeat devils, what is modesty then?
Modesty is to be aware of your weakness and to know your fallings and sins and to treat yourself according to this assumption.
Modesty is not that you should feel that you are great and try to appear to be small, or to hide your greatness, since the mere feeling that you are great implies a kind of pride and your feeling that you hide your greatness includes a feeling of greatness that is obvious to you.
Real modesty is modesty before yourself first of all, a genuine feeling that is not counterfeit in your inner soul that you are weak and sinful; even in the height of your strength you feel that this strength does not originate from yourself but that it is a heavenly gift from God to you. As for you your nature is something different.
My brother, you should know what you are as this knowledge leads you to modesty. You are form the dust of the earth, nay, but the dust is older than you; it was found before you existed; God created it first then He created you from dust.
You may remember the following lines of poetry: "O dusts of the earth my grandfather and the grandfather of all people. You are my origin, you are older than Adam. You are my fate in the sepulcher when I lie in a sepulcher."
My brother, if you contemplate the matter with modesty you will find that this dust has not angered God as you have done through your sins. Therefore I tell you about an important fact that is: "God alone is modest."
God is great and He condescends to talk to us who are small. He is Holy and He condescends to deal with us who are sinners. As for us modesty on our part is not to be considered as condescension but it is merely perception of ourselves.
If you are aware of this fact then you should treat yourself in a way that is consistent with this knowledge and do not claim dignity or glory from other people. If you are tempted in connection with this matter you may answer yourself saying, "I do not deserve anything because of my sins and if God through the abundance of His mercy has concealed my sins from people yet I know about my sins very well and I do not forget them lest I should become proud in vain."
Be careful not to forget your sins lest you should become arrogant and have false imaginations about yourself. Try to remember what was said by one of the saints, "If we forget our sins, God will remember them for us and if we remember our sins God will forget them for us."
Confess your sins before yourself, before God, and if you can let this be before people as well; and if you cannot do that at least do not praise yourself before other people and do not accept their praise for you and if you hear that praise with your ears let your heart and mind refuse it.
Do not attempt to obtain dignity for yourself before God or people and remember what St. Isaac said, "He who runs after dignity will find that dignity runs away from him and he who escapes from it on purpose will find that it runs after him."
Let not your modesty be for show or only by word but let it be genuine modesty from the depth of the heart and with inner faith. Let it be modesty in spirit.
If you live in modesty you will always live a life of gratitude. You will thank God for everything and under all circumstances, being conscious that God always gives you more than you deserve.
As for the person who is not modest, on many occasions he murmurs and complains feeling that he has not attained what he deserves, that he deserves much and that he is oppressed by people and by God.
A modest person lives with peace with all people. He does not get angry with anybody and he does not cause anybody to be angry. He does not get angry with anybody because he always blames himself and does not anger anybody because he demands the blessing and prayer of everybody.
Let us all be modest so that we may deserve the work of God in us, God the Infinite Who has condescended and taken care of us.
To God be the glory for endless ages...Amen.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark
http://suscopts.org/resources/literature/210/purity-of-thoughts/
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God Bless
Please pray for my weakness