What are our thoughts, such is our life - Archimandrite Thaddeus Vitovnitsky (Strbulovich)

As are our thoughts, such is our life

1. Spiritual life is an intelligent life, elevated above all desires and all the feelings of this world.

2. The most important thing in spiritual life is to keep your heart in peace.

3. The Lord looks into the depths of the heart, what it desires and what it strives for.

4. We need to remove earthly plans and desires from our hearts, only then can we and the Lord sincerely love our neighbor.

5. Communion with God is a normal state of mind.

6. The first step to communion with God is complete surrender of oneself to God.

7. We can do everything with God’s help, we can do everything when we turn to the Lord from the heart.

8. A soul that has surrendered itself to the will of God is not afraid of anything and is not embarrassed by anything. About everything that happens, she says: God wants it this way.

9. Peace and joy are the highest riches of this and that world.

10. Love is the most powerful weapon that exists; There is no force or weapon that can fight against love: it overcomes them all.

11. Love, joy and peace are gifts of God, properties of God. Separately, love, peace and joy work miracles, but united together they can fulfill all the commandments.

12. The mind, will and heart in enlightened people were united, but in an [unenlightened] person they are most often divided, hence the numerous human troubles in life.

13. The pure heart will see God, but the unclean will forever be ashamed of itself.

14. The Lord looks into our hearts, and when we turn from our hearts [to Him], the Lord will immediately comfort us.

15. Along with keeping peace in your heart, practice standing before the Lord. This means: constantly keep in mind that the Lord is looking at us.

16. There is no unforgivable sin except unrepentant sin.

17. An accurate sign that a sin is forgiven is if it does not recur and if the person is peaceful in his soul.

18. Whatever thoughts we indulge in, such is our life.

19. We need to learn to control our thoughts in order to bring order to them.

20. For our own benefit, we need to indulge in good thoughts and desires, and then harmony will come among us, among our relatives and more widely, for, wherever we find ourselves, we will emit from ourselves quiet and peaceful thoughts, full of kindness.

21. Even the smallest thought that is not based on love ruins the world.

22. He who receives an evil thought receives the enemy himself into [his] body. Spirits are invisible, we give them a body to become visible.

23. Our thoughts are the cause not only of wars and earthquakes, but also of environmental pollution, which is surpassed by the much more dangerous spiritual pollution.

24. Try to have good thoughts and good desires for both friends and enemies, and you will see what good fruit you and everyone around you will receive.

25. Stop thinking evil about your boss or work colleague, change evil thoughts to good ones, and see how the behavior of your former “enemies” will change.

26. In the morning, when you get up, do not leave the house without praying, and in the evening thank God for this wonderful day.

27. [Even] a very small speck [getting into the eye] prevents you from looking, just as a small worry [about something extraneous] prevents you from praying.

28. If we pray without attention, then we are not praying in spirit or in truth.

29. Everyone needs to practice the Jesus Prayer, which says: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

30. Prayer is drawing energy from the Source of life.

31. Prayer requires attention. It should go ahead of prayer, so that we know what we are looking for, what we are praying for.

32. Humility is the perfection of Christian life.

33. Humility is a Divine property. Where humility reigns: whether in the family or in society, it always exudes God’s peace and joy.

34. A humble person is a person who [with his life] gives people an example in everything. An example is the best proof of truth.

35. A humble [man] is completely satisfied with everything that God has given him and is happy in his heart. Such a person feels sorry for anyone who does not want or does not know how to improve their life.

36. A humble person is not malicious; he does not wish or do harm to anyone, even to those who do him harm.

37. A humble person looks at everyone as someone who is higher than him.

38. Humility is achieved by fasting, prayer, and especially obedience.

39. Fasting is needed to humble the body, for when the body is humbled, the soul will also be humbled.

40. God is pleased with the humble and meek in soul. They don't get angry when you offend them, they are full of kindness and peace.

41. Here on earth, many troubles and hardships often happen to us, and all because we have not humbled ourselves.

42. If a person demands a lot, then he tortures himself [with this].

43. A person who thinks he knows everything is disobedient, and no one can lead a disobedient person.

44. A disobedient person will not be able to move into the Kingdom of God, for he always wants to do his own will, and not God’s.

45. When we are completely humble, then everything around us will be humble.

46. Only the humble and meek will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

47. We cannot be saved without fighting the devil. One must endure many heartbreaks before the soul is freed.

48. Anger is overcome by denying desires and one’s will.

49. If we stop placing ourselves in relation to people as judges and as something worthy, then there will be no anger.

50. If someone says or does something that we don’t like, and we, without discerning whether this person is right or wrong, feel offended, we are in the grip of pride.

51. Envy destroys inner peace and peace of mind.

52. The Lord sometimes reveals to us in our thoughts the answer to various questions and mysteries, and sometimes remains silent so that we turn to [other] people for advice and thus humble ourselves.

53. You can find something instructive in everyone’s life. And the greatest robber has something good.

54. Life here on earth is a constant physical and mental struggle.

55. Man is only an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

56. It’s better to sing than to lament. Sing. People say: he who sings does not think about evil.

57. Divine love does not tolerate selfishness.

58. As long as we pay attention to the negative aspects of individuals who approach us, we cannot have peace and repentance. As long as we keep in ourselves the thought of the insult that our enemies, friends, relatives and friends have caused us, we have no peace and quiet and live in a hellish state.

59. When you find a kindred spirit, stay with her, for there is great joy in being friends with like-minded people.

60. The entire civilization is now aimed at turning the attention of a person, especially a young person, away from himself, from looking inward, into his heart.

61. [Non-believers] people live like this, engaged in philosophy, reflection and achievements, but all this is short-lived joy, and melancholy and loneliness set in again.

62. Evil is the abuse of good on the part of rational beings who have fallen into low wisdom and now, with their thoughts and desires, create chaos in themselves and around them.

63. The world is increasingly mired in sin and evil and confuses love and passions, and love and passions have nothing in common. Love is God, and passions are what comes from the spirits of evil.

64. We scold our politicians who are in power, but they are our children. We were wrong before, not them, because we did not give them a life example that they could follow.

65. There are no atheists! Does not exist. And the enemy believes and trembles, but does not do good.

66. 50 years of communism caused [us] much more evil than 500 years under the Turks. It [communism] alienated the people from God.

67. We suffer because our thoughts and desires are evil. We ourselves are the cause of our suffering, because our people have no repentance. There is no repentance among believers, much less among non-believers.

68. Magic is performed where there is no prayer and strong hope in God.

69. Only love and kindness save both a person and the whole world. Nothing can ever be achieved through violence. Force can only cause resistance and hatred.

70. Every knowledge that a person discovers through science is a gift from God to people and proclaims the presence of God in this world.

71. Not a single knowledge that human science has reached has been given by God for harm, but everything has been given exclusively for good.

72. Grace is Divine power that acts everywhere, but especially in the souls of those whose hearts seek the source of life - they seek the Lord.

73. We cannot maintain inner peace as long as our conscience accuses us of something. You need to [first] pacify your conscience.

74. It is better if we condemn ourselves than if the Lord condemns us. If we condemn ourselves, then He knows that we have repented and do not want to sin anymore.

75. Repentance is a change in life, leaving the old man with all his evil habits and turning to God and the truth, so that we may be peaceful, quiet, good and meek.

76. If your parents are atheists, and you are a believer, do not reproach or tease your parents with your faith, but pray for them and be kind to them.

77. We must learn to unload ourselves from what we are burdened with, [for which] let us immediately turn to the Lord and surrender to Him both our concerns and the concerns of our neighbors.

78. It is necessary to help a person to know his faith.

79. One should preach not from the mind, but from the heart. Only what is said from the heart will reach another heart.

80. It is much better to teach with life than with words.

81. It is dangerous to be strict with others.

82. Those who are strict with their neighbors reach [in spiritual life] only to a certain extent and remain at [the level of] bodily achievement.

83. What is our attitude towards our neighbor, such is our attitude towards God.

84. Our neighbor is the one who seeks our help.

85. One must have an equal attitude towards one's neighbors. You can’t divide people: this one is sympathetic to me, and this one is antipathetic.

86. As long as we pay attention to the negative characteristics of individual people who turn to us, we cannot have peace and tranquility.

87. Everything is good that is done for the sake of God, and not for the sake of glory.

88. Those who work poorly cannot expect good pay.

89. Only he is rich who is with the Lord and who is informed of his salvation.

90. The fear of God is not the animal fear of this world. That is a hellish property. Our life is constantly in fear: what will happen tomorrow, in the future? The fear of God [is similar to that] when you love someone from your heart, then make sure that with your whole being, not only in words and deeds, but also in your thoughts, you do not offend or upset him.

91. No creature is perfect. We can be perfect with God, but without him we cannot.

92. Caring for the soul is more precious than all the gifts of this world.

93. A godly family must be filled with love, nobility, meekness, humility, piety and prayer.

94. If a parent hits a child in anger, he will achieve nothing by doing so.

95. If in a family where almost all the members are happy, one is dissatisfied and begins to think that he is being treated unfairly and not being treated well, then everyone in that family becomes dissatisfied and does not know why.

96. All those who entered into marriage without blessing or were forced into marriage have no peace and their love is useless to them.

97. When a child is born, he cries because he does not know what sins await him. And when a person dies, he is happy because he is going to eternal life. Then everyone around is crying that they are staying here.

98. There is no need to grieve for the dead; it is better to pray to the Lord to give them gospel villages. Sadness disrupts everything. It disturbs the peace they have received from the Lord.

99. It is not Christian to grieve about your [dead] relatives. This is the lot of those who do not know God. We must pray to the Lord to forgive their sins and do good deeds for their remembrance.

100. Here on earth there is no one who will give us inner peace. For neither wealth, nor fame, nor honor, nor position, nor relatives, nor neighbors can give us inner peace that will be unshakable. There is only one giver of life, peace and joy - God.

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On April 14, 2003, the famous Serbian ascetic and confessor, Archimandrite Thaddeus Vitovnitsky (Strbulović, 1914–2003), reposed. We offer our readers a selection of instructions and teachings from the elder’s conversations.

What are our thoughts, such is our life. If our thoughts are calm, quiet, noble and gentle, so will our lives. But when we mentally turn to the circumstances around us, we enter this circle of thoughts - we have neither peace nor peace.

***

People loved evil more than good. Fallen nature! It is easier for them to think about evil than about good, but a person has neither peace nor rest from evil thoughts. How great is our fall! Marvelous! Scary! We cannot come to our senses, we cannot do anything for ourselves, we do not even realize how much we are terrorized by fallen spirits. It seems to us that these are our thoughts. We are tormented by envy, anger, hatred. This is the tyranny of tyrannies! The soul does not want this, but cannot free itself. From small nails she got used to it. Evil takes deep roots in the soul, and it is necessary to pull them out of it. It is necessary to transform into love, to be peaceful and calm, but it is not easy; see how terrible the fall of man is!

***

We do not understand the meaning of our own life and the fact that every business here on earth and throughout the entire universe is the work of God. But we work with lukewarmness, without a soul, and no one would tolerate this, not only God. We know that the universe belongs to God, that the planet belongs to God; and no matter what work is entrusted to us, everything belongs to Him.

We should not pay attention to who gives us the task, we should know that every task here on earth, in the universe, is the work of the Lord, and we must carry it out with all our hearts, without reserve. When we work like this, we free ourselves from internal resistance.

***

With our thoughts we attract or repel both friends and foes, family and friends. People pay little attention to their thoughts, and because of this there is a lot of suffering.

***

It all starts with a thought - both good and evil

It all starts with a thought - both good and evil. Our thoughts materialize. To this day we see that everything that is created and everything that exists on the globe and in the universe is Divine thought materialized in time and space, and we are created in the image of God. A great reward has been given to the human race, but we do not understand this and do not understand how our thoughts affect others. We can bring great good or great evil, it all depends on our desires and our thoughts.

If our thoughts are peaceful and quiet, kind and generous, then this affects not only our own state, but we also exude this peace everywhere around us: in the family, in the country, and everywhere. This means that then we are workers in God’s field, we create Heavenly harmony, Divine harmony, silence and peace spread everywhere.

***

We always have the wrong starting point. Instead of starting with ourselves, we want to correct others and leave ourselves for later. Everyone start with themselves - so we will have peace everywhere! Saint John Chrysostom says: “If a person does not harm himself, no one can harm him!”

***

You have received grace, and it will be with you until you become attached in thought to some worldly concern. If this happens, then first you will stop hearing prayer in your heart, and then you will gradually lose peace and joy. Then you will again begin to be tormented by the heavy thoughts of this world, which is controlled by demonic forces. If you want to preserve this grace, you must constantly pray in order to reflect difficult and sorrowful thoughts with prayer, and in this way you can maintain peace and joy.

***

We ourselves are to blame for everything and reap the fruits of our thoughts and desires

After all, we suffer because we have evil thoughts and evil desires. We ourselves are the cause of our suffering, because there is no repentance among our people. There is no repentance either among believers, much less among non-believers. Our bad thoughts and evil desires have ruined the beauty of the world, they simply broke it and brought evil and dangerous fruits. But we ourselves are to blame for everything and reap the fruits of our thoughts and desires...

Monastery in Vitovnica. Serbia

We must be reborn through repentance. But this is not only confession to a priest, although this is also necessary to free a person from bad thoughts. This is a turn to Absolute Good, that is, a turn to God, because God is Absolute Good. For our own good, we must keep good thoughts and good desires. But we don’t do this and that’s why we suffer. We hold a lot of evil inside us; it manifests itself in the family, at work, and throughout society, and the result is terrible suffering. You see where we have come... But it’s bad not only for us, but for the whole world.

***

As soon as we are overcome by evil thoughts, we ourselves become evil. We Christians must not allow evil even in thoughts, much less in practice, otherwise this will mean that we do not have the strength to resist it. Meanwhile, there is Divine Power, Divine energy, Divine life in us, and when we answer at the Last Judgment, we will have to answer for how we disposed of the Divine power and life that were given to us. What did we create in the universe – harmony or chaos? Our thoughts affect not only us, the animal and plant world - they influence eternity. The first people died in the flood because of their black thoughts and evil desires, and now we are so bogged down in evil that we cannot free ourselves from it, and that time is approaching us again. The only salvation, the only way out, with God’s help, is in internal change, in a change of heart.

***

We ourselves are to blame for everything and reap the fruits of our thoughts and desires

Let's turn to goodness so that there is goodness around us. Let’s keep good, Divine thoughts, keep our spiritual peace, and it will shine in us and around us - that’s where the change will come. Anyone who is not included in evil, in his earthly ambitions, which deprive a person of peace and burden the soul, will feel this peace. Every person, no matter where he is, can contribute to this. This is especially important for the head of the family; he should try to fix his thoughts on silence and peace and cast all his cares and troubles on the Lord. The Lord took upon Himself all our burdens and said that He Himself would take care of what we should eat and drink, and what to wear, but we frantically hold on to our worries and create confusion for ourselves, our family and everyone around us.

When I am burdened with worries and bear all the monastic economic chores myself, without placing them on the Lord, then troubles begin for both me and the brethren, and then the easiest thing is difficult to do. And when I surrender all my worries, both myself and my brothers, to God, the hardest work is not a burden. And when there is no concern, then there is harmony and peace between the brethren. You see what a great power is in our thoughts - the power that destroys or gives the world. And if we know about this, then we will work to create peace in our home, in our family, in our state, because the state is one big family.

***

Peace must be established in our souls, then there will be peace around us. Until we do this, there will be no peace. There is no peace in a family where the owner is restless with thoughts. Therefore, we must entrust ourselves and our loved ones to the Lord.

The Lord is everywhere, and without His providence, without His permission, nothing happens on earth. When we root this thought in ourselves, then everything is easy for us; and if the Lord allowed us to do everything we want and how we want, a catastrophe would occur. Unprecedented chaos would ensue in space.

***

The most important thing for spiritual life is keeping peace in the heart. Do not allow anxiety into your heart at all costs. Peace, silence, silence should reign in it. Mental chaos is the state of fallen spirits. Our mind must be collected, attentive, focused. Only in such a mind can God dwell.

With the Lord we must rise and lie down, work, eat and walk

Along with keeping peace in your heart, practice standing before the Lord - this means you need to constantly keep in mind that the Lord is looking at us. With Him we must rise and lie down, work, eat and walk. The Lord is everywhere and in everything.

***

A person who has acquired the Kingdom of God radiates holy thoughts, God’s thoughts. The role of a Christian in the world is to cleanse the universe from evil and spread the Kingdom of God.

This world must be conquered by keeping Heaven in our own soul, because if we lose the Kingdom of God within ourselves, we will not help others and will not be saved ourselves. He who carries the Kingdom of God within himself imperceptibly transfers it to others. People are attracted to our warmth, our peace, and, wanting to be close to us, they will absorb the atmosphere of Heaven. And it is not at all necessary to talk about it - Heaven will shine in us, even when we are silent or when we talk about the most ordinary things; it shines within us, even if we are not aware of it.

***

The Kingdom of Heaven, heaven, just like hell, is a state of the soul. We are either in hell or in heaven. When we are in a bad mood, it is hell, we have neither peace nor rest, but when there is joy in our hearts, we feel like we are in heaven. Therefore, we must continually work on prayer. There are few on earth who receive free grace.

A soul caught in a circle of chaotic thoughts experiences hellish torment

A soul caught in a circle of chaotic thoughts experiences hellish torment. For example, we leaf through newspapers or walk along the streets of the city and after that we suddenly feel that something has broken inside us, in our soul, we feel emptiness and sadness. This happens because while reading about various subjects, we lost our concentration of mind, it became distracted, and the atmosphere of hell penetrated into it.

***

We must defeat evil with peace and heartfelt silence, peaceful and quiet thoughts. Otherwise, troubles and sorrows will continue to happen to us. If we ourselves do not humble ourselves, the Lord will not cease to humble us. The same misfortune, which brings us a lot of suffering and pain, will be repeated constantly until we learn to overcome it with peace, silence and humility and not attach importance to it. Therefore, one who strives for God goes through many trials. It happens that the people closest to us despise and reject us, and we must peacefully, with understanding, accept this and not judge anyone. Because we are all fighting, all our relatives, near and far, are all in the fight! Let's imagine that in their place we could have done much worse, and accept it.

***

If sorrows visit you, it means the Lord loves you. By the difficult trials and sorrows that the Lord sends us, we learn that He loves us. The Holy Fathers said that if your inner world is not indignant, then you have chosen the wrong path. This means that you are doing something at the will of the enemy, and he does not touch you, because you are in his power. Everything is fine with you, there are no special temptations, which means he is holding you, and you do not notice that you are in his power.

***

When a person is in the power of a demon, a false peace can reign in his heart for a long time, the demon does not touch him, and he has no temptations. In our country, peace and silence are replaced by battle. This is God’s permission for us to become real warriors of Christ and know how to defeat evil. We need time to eradicate the bad qualities in ourselves that have been strengthened in us since childhood and often make themselves felt; we must gain spiritual experience to become free from them. We need the help of experienced people who have themselves gone through these stages of spiritual growth, so that they can explain to us how we can overcome the bad in ourselves, how we can maintain (or return) peace of mind.

Maintain peace of mind with all your might

Saint Isaac the Syrian tells us: “Keep peace of mind with all your might. Don't give it up for anything in the world! Make peace with yourself. And both earth and Heaven will make peace with you!”

***

Our life depends on our thoughts - if they are full of peace and goodness, then our life is like that, if thoughts are destructive, we will have neither peace nor rest. As soon as someone says a word against us, we explode. From this we can determine what state we are in. You see how weak we are, how carelessly we keep the world. We need to learn to keep peace in our hearts.

***

Here we must learn Heavenly life, to be obedient and completely devoted to the will of God; no matter what happens to us, accept everything as if from the hand of God, without doubt. What about the circumstances? He knows what we can bear and what we cannot. He knows what temptations we can overcome, that we can overcome peacefully, so that if something like this happens again later, it will no longer touch our heart, because the soul will not participate in it.

Events take their course, and we interfere with them, destroy our spiritual world, interfere where we don’t need to. Events that the Lord has allowed go their own way, and if we have acquired peace of heart, they will pass us by and not harm us, but if we get involved in them, we suffer.

***

Our heart flares up so much, and the flame in it is the stronger, the greater the concentration of our mental forces in God. And then you will see how circumstances gradually begin to change, everything around us begins to change, because we begin to radiate love and peace. The thoughts of those around us change too! If someone rebelled against us, we responded in kind, but now we have stopped the war. We want peace. And the other side has no one to fight with. One of the warring parties must give in, and that is us! The Lord commanded us to love our enemies and pray for them.

***

It's not others who interfere with us, we interfere with ourselves.

It is not others who interfere with us, we interfere with ourselves. We are our own greatest obstacle. We think about the evil that is around us and circling everywhere; but if evil did not exist in ourselves, it would not affect us. Evil is in our soul, and we are to blame for accepting it and not preserving it, destroying the world. Someone there is threatening us, slandering us - let him, he has free will. Let him do what he wants, but we have our own business - to preserve our spiritual peace.

***

The cause of illness is mental decline. Illness comes from thought. Usually we all have both good and bad thoughts. As are thoughts, so is life. The spirit feeds on thoughts, just as the body feeds on bodily food.

***

Thoughts are instilled in us from all sides. We live, as it were, among mental radio waves. If we could physically see them, we would understand what a dangerous network this is. Each of us carries a “radio receiver” within us, but the human “receiver” is much more accurate than any radio station or television, only its (mental) functions are damaged. How perfect man is, how exalted! But he doesn’t know how to appreciate this, he doesn’t know how to connect to the Source of life in order to feel the joy of life, and the enemy constantly inspires him with different thoughts.

***

Let us pray to the Lord with all our hearts. You just need to ask from your heart, like a child of your parents: “Help, Lord, every soul and don’t forget me, Lord! Help everyone find peace, and help them to love You just as the angels love You. And give me strength to love You as Your Most Holy Mother loves You. Give me such strength too, Lord!”

Because the struggle is powerless against love, no one can fight it. Love is an invincible force, for God is Love.