darkened heart can fail in the truth, for it cannot always bear the strength of the light of truth, and is not always capable of containing its purity, but only it is being or has been purified from its sins, as the first cause of spiritual darkness. The proof of this you may find in yourself. When the light of faith or God's truth dwells in your heart, only then is it tranquil, firm, strong, and living; but I notice how God, the mental Sun, enters and shines in my soul, for then I feel happy, warm, and bright; but when He goes away He leaves the soul in darkness and suffering. As in material nature the darkness is caused by the departure or setting of the sun, so likewise in the spiritual nature the darkness is caused by the departure of the mental Sun from the soul, and by its being covered with the darkness of the accursed one. As in material nature there is always some remainder of light after sunset, by reason of the incomparable size of the sun, so also in the soul there is some remainder of light, even after the departure of the mental Sun, by reason of His omnipresence and by reason of the comparative weakness of the prince of darkness, who, without God's permission, is unable to completely darken the soul. But we must beware also, as the Lord has said, "lest darkness come upon us" completely.
St John of Kronstadt

“The Devil also manifests his presence in our hearts by unusually violent irritation. We sometimes become so sick with our own self-love that we cannot even endure the slightest contradiction, any spiritual or material obstacles; cannot bear a single, rough, harsh word. But then is the very time for endurance when the waters of malice and impatience reach the depths of our souls.”
St. John of Kronstadt
Saint Paul lists patience virtue as one of the “fruits of the Spirit” (Gal 5.22). we can’t attain it with ourselves. It is God’s grace. And it is not something given as it is. “It must be renewed daily through fasting, prayer and communion with God in the Church. It is found when one trains oneself to remember God, to abide in Christ and to see all things in the light of the Kingdom of God.”

🌟☦️ St Seraphim of Sarov: "Judas the betrayer was fainthearted and unskilled in battle, and so the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to hang himself, but Peter, a firm rock, when he fell into great sin, like one skilled in battle did not despair nor lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a burning heart, and the enemy, seeing these tears, his eyes scorched as by fire, fled far form him wailing in pain. And so brothers, St. Antioch teaches, when despair attacks us let us not yield to it, but being strengthened and protected by the light of faith, with great courage let us say to the evil spirit: “What are you to us, estranged from God, a fugitive from heaven and evil servant? You dare do nothing to us. Christ, the Son of God, has authority both over us and over everything. It is against Him that we have sinned, and before Him that we will be justified. And you, destroyer, leave us. Strengthen by His venerable Cross, we trample under foot your serpent’s head”."

🙏 Do the saints, whom we call upon, pray for us? They certainly pray for us. If I, a sinful man, a cold-hearted, sometimes wicked and

malevolently disposed man, praying for others who have instructed or have not instructed me to pray for them and do not doubt, do not weary of saying their names during prayer, although sometimes not heartily, then will not God's saints — those lamps and torches, burning in God and before God, full of love to their earthly brethren — pray for me and for us when we call upon them with faith, hope, and love, according to our strength? They, our speedy helpers, pray also for our souls, as our Divinely-enlightened mother, the Holy Church, assures us. Pray, therefore, undoubtingly to God's saints, asking their intercession before God on your behalf. They hear you in the Holy Spirit; only pray in the Holy Spirit, from your soul for when you thus sincerely pray..
St John of Kronstadt
Photo: Monastery of the great defender of Orthodoxy, St. Job of Pochaev, he lived in the time of assault on the true Faith, like one happening in the same territory today.

☦️ Prayer must be image-less. Any images during prayer must be wiped out.

God asks only this of us, that our heart be purified through watchfulness. As St Paul says, if the root is holy, so also will the branches and the fruit be holy (Rom 11:16). But if without following the sequence of which we have spoken you raise eyes and intellect to heaven in the hope of envisaging noetic realities you will see fantasies rather than the truth. Because our heart is still unpurified...
St Symeon the New Theologian

"A Christian receives divine wisdom in three ways: by the commandments, teachings, and faith. The commandments free the mind from passions. Teachings lead it to true knowledge of nature. Faith leads to the contemplation of the Holy Trinity."
St. Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love

I wish to be simple, trustful, but cunning and doubt already gnaw at my heart; I wish to be grave, concentrated, and reverent in my service to the Almighty, but light-mindedness and inattention of the heart prevent my becoming so; I wish to detach myself from earthly things, to be abstinent in food and drink, but when I see pleasant food and drink and sit down to table, I, like a slave, am taken a willing

captive by my belly, I easily allow myself to eat and drink more than my nature requires, greediness and intemperance again prevent and get the better of my desire to be indifferent to food and drink, thus I am like that impotent man who lay for thirty-eight years upon his bed, and came many times to the pool of Bethesda, which made whole whosoever first stepped in after the troubling of the water by an Angel, "but always another stepped down before him." And when I, having become impotent through my sins, make an effort and come to myself, with the intention of immersing myself in God and of changing for the better, another steppeth into my heart before me, sin and the Devil forestall me in my own house, in my own pool of Bethesda, and do not allow me to reach the Source of living waters, the Lord — do not allow me to immerse myself in the cleansing pool of faith, humility, heart-felt contrition and tears. Who will heal me then? Jesus Christ alone. When He sees my sincere and firm desire to be healed of my spiritual infirmity, when He hears my fervent prayer, then He will say to me: " Take up thy bed and walk," and I shall rise from the bed of spiritual infirmity and walk; that is, by His grace I shall easily vanquish all my passions and fulfill every virtue.
St John of Kronstadt

===Golden principles on the path to salvation===
A certain monk asked St. Anthony the Great, "What must I do to be saved?" The elder answered him, "Don't trust in your own righteousness, don't worry about what's past, and constrain your tongue and your stomach."
(Ancient Patericon, 1.2)
Another brother asked Abba Macarius, "How can I be saved?" The elder answered him, "Be like one dead: do not think about insults from people, nor of glory, and you will be saved."
(Ancient Patericon, 10.45)

Authentic icons of Archangel Michael give right idea about who he is: a formidable leader of the heavenly hosts. The Orthodox iconography is very different from heterodox/RC one in this aspect.

It's extremely important to realize the deadness, fallenness of our present state. Daily Orthodox reading is very helpful in this aspect. Without firm knowledge of that it's hard to walk spiritual life. Misfortunes, accidents and other frustrating things will shake the soul. But those who developed the right view, are neither surprised nor get shaken too much by strikes of the present life.

☦️ Archrpriest Michael Pomazansky on daily prayer, toll-houses and afterlife
We are made glad by the special closeness to us of our Guardian Angels. They are meek, they rejoice over us, and they also grieve over our falls. We are filled with hope in them, in the state we will be in when our soul is separated from the body, when we must enter into a new life: will it be light or in darkness, in joy or in sorrow? Therefore, every day we pray to our angels for the present day: "Deliver us from every cunning of the opposing enemy." In special canons of repentance we entreat them not to depart from us now nor after our death: "I see thee with my spiritual gaze, thou who remainest with me, my fellow converser, Holy Angel, watching over, accompanying and remaining with me and ever offering to me what is for salvation." "When my humble soul shall be loosed from my body, may thou cover it, O my instructor, with thy bright and most sacred wings."

☦️🌟 From the Life of St Seraphim 🌟☦️
... The Sarov Hermitage was well known in Kursk, where several residents of the city had lived as monks, such as Hieromonk Pakhomiy, known as Boris Leonov, who became abbot in Sarov a year before Prokhor's arrival there, and who had known Prokhor's parents, Isidore and Agathia, since childhood. Inclined to enter Sarov, young Prokhor desired divine confirmation of his choice and, to this end, traveled to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, revered, especially in those difficult times for monasticism,

as undoubtedly our most sacred spiritual site. Prokhor was accompanied by his friends from Kursk merchants; all six traveled on foot, and the distance from Kursk to Kiev was approximately 500 miles.
Having reached Kiev, the pilgrims began to visit all the holy sites of the ancient Lavra. In the so-called Kitaev Monastery lived the recluse Dositheus, who had the gift of clairvoyance. Prokhor went to him, asking for his guidance. This is what the recluse answered to the young son of Agathia: “Come, child of God, and abide there (that is, in the Sarov poustyn). This place will be for your salvation, with the help of the Lord. Here you will also end your earthly journey. Only strive to acquire unceasing remembrance of God through the unceasing invocation of the name of God, (praying) thus: Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner! Let all your attention and training be on this: walking and sitting, doing (working) and standing in church, everywhere, in every place, entering and leaving, let this unceasing cry be both on your lips and in your heart; "With him you will find peace, acquire spiritual and physical purity, and the Holy Spirit, the source of all blessings, will dwell within you and guide your life in holiness... In Sarov, the abbot, Pachomius, leads a God-pleasing life; he is a follower of our Anthony and Theodosius!"
This response, recorded in the biography of Elder Seraphim, published by Diveyevo Monastery in 1874, clearly reveals the spiritual unity of the Orthodox monastic tradition, which Prokhor soon became involved in, and also seems to have already outlined his entire life's path, including its highest achievement: and the Holy Spirit will dwell within you... Having accepted the words of the holy recluse Dositheus3 by faith and without doubt, Prokhor returned to Kursk, where he remained for about a year and a half. Tradition says he still frequented his brother's shop, but no longer engaged in trade. Instead, he told those who came to him about the holy places of Kiev and read spiritual books to them. As peacefully as St. Sergius of Radonezh had once done, young Prokhor prepared to leave his home.
St. Seraphim of Sarov, the Life and Spiritual Instructions