Letter 899

To Aquilinus. If the demons, the enemies of our life, never grow weary nor cease harassing us, and tempting us, and lying in wait, and setting ambushers against us, then neither ought we to shrink back, and fall into listlessness [acedia, the monk's spiritual sloth], and grow weary, and cease from calling upon, for our help, the precious name of Christ, and by this means to torment and to crush those who afflict us. For the prayer of the faithful is a great torment, and a crushing affliction, and a terror to the evil spirits.

Εἰ οἱ ἐχθροὶ τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν δαίμονες οὐκ ἀποκάμνουσι ποτε, οὐδὲ παύονται παρενοχλοῦντες, καὶ πειράζοντες, ἐνεδρεύοντές τε, καὶ ἐφέδρους ποιούμενοι, οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς ὀφείλομεν ὀκνεῖν, καὶ ἀκηδιᾷν, καὶ ἀποκάμνειν, καὶ παύεσθαι τοῦ ἐπικαλέσθαι πρὸς βοήθειαν ἡμῶν τὸ τίμιον Χριστοῦ ὄνομα, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο βασανίζειν, καὶ ἐκθλίβειν τοὺς θλίβοντας. Μεγάλη γὰρ βάσανος, καὶ ἐκθλίψις, καὶ φόβος τοῖς πονηροῖς πνεύμασιν ἡ προσευχὴ τῶν πιστῶν.