Abba Orsisius said, "It is my opinion that you must carefully watch your heart. If you do not, you will absent-mindedly become careless with your speech. A lamp produces light when it has oil and a trimmed wick. One may light the wick without a supply of oil, but it will burn away and shadows will gradually come. If a mouse attempts to eat the wick while it is still smoldering, the heat of the dying flame will turn it away. When it knows fire is no longer in the wick, it knocks the lamp to the floor. An earthenware lamp will be shattered, but a brass lamp you may repair.
"If a soul is careless, the Holy Spirit will gradually depart, until it grow cold. Then the enemy chews on the soul, and wickedness breaks it apart. If a good person who truly loves God stumbles into brief carelessness, our merciful God will caution him to watch more carefully in the future."
from By Way of the Desert
compiled and modernized
by Bernard Bangley
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