St. Herman of Alaska: Repentance is warfare

 Sin, to one who loves God, is nothing other than an arrow from the enemy in battle. The true Christian is a warrior fighting his way through the regiments of an unseen enemy to his heavenly homeland. According to the word of the Apostle, our homeland is in heaven; and about the warrior he says: "our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, [against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spirits of  wickedness under heaven" (Eph. 6:12)].

+St. Herman of Alaska, from a letter dated June 20, 1820 in Little Russian Philokalia, Volume 3

Elder Cleopas (Ilie): Working to cast out the demons

 

Through humility, self-knowledge, self-deprecation, by enduring the troubles and miseries, and by doing all the good deeds in the name of God — this is how the demon of pride can be expelled; by doing good deeds in secret, by praying often and by self-reproaching, the demon of vainglory can be cast out; through labors, we can banish the demon of laziness and sloth; by thinking thoughtfully of death and Gehenna, through fasting and humility, we can expel the demon of gorging the belly; by loving God and thy neighbor, one can cast out and expel the demon of anger and wrath, and the demons love for pleasures; by praying for the one who wronged you, the demon of hatred and denigration can be cast out; by thinking of death, by fasting and praying, the demon of indifference and hardening of the heart can be expelled; by loving God, by being humble, abstinent, and by guarding the eyes and mind, we can chase away the demon of fornication; the same demon of fornication can be cast out by running away from women‘ friendship, by guarding ourselves against laziness, by fasting and praying, and by not judging anyone who fell into this passion or others; by fearing God, by keeping the mind awake, and by praying, we keep away the demon of forgetfulness; heading and paying attention, fearing God and keeping the mind awake help us help us cast out many different demons battling and warring against us, disturbing and wavering our minds during prayer; by enduring the troubles and miseries, and by thanking God for all the things that bring us sorrow and pain, we cast away the demons of blasphemy, slander, and discontent; by weeping and willful poverty, we cast out the wicked devil of love of silver; by maintaining a thoughtful and understanding silence, by weeping, and by thinking of death, the demons of defamation and vain words is expelled; through faith and great hope in God, mentioning the dead, and tasting the goods from above, we cast away the wealth love and vain wealth-gathering demon; by singing the psalms, by praying, by reading the holy books, and by talking with the skillful Fathers about the spiritual matters, we cast away and expel the demon of sorrow and grief; by being aware of our nothingness, by fearing our weaknesses and by repenting wholeheartedly, we expel the demon of self-trust and self-hope; through love and honest prayer for the one who wronged us, we expel the demon of hatred and calumny.

+Elder Cleopas (Ilie), from On Dreams and Visions: St. George Monastery (Elder Cleopa Book 8) Book 1: On Dreams

St. Macarius the Great: Three anecdotes from his life

 One day someone asked [St. Macarius] how to make progress on the path to salvation. The saint sent him to the cemetery, first to insult the dead then to praise them, and when he came back, he said: "Look, the corpses said not a word to you in reply. Similarly, if you want to be saved you too must become like a dead man, making as little of the contempt of men as of their praises."

...

He acquired expert knowledge of the different kinds of demon. He said that they can be divided into two main categories: one consisting of the spirits which arouse passions such as anger and covetousness; and the other, more dreadful, of the spirits which mislead men by spiritual illusion, blasphemy and heresies.

...

His exceeding charity led him to pray with tears even for the damned. One day as he was walking in the desert, he came upon the skull of a pagan priest, which addressed him, saying: "Each time that you have pity on those who are in torments - on us who are plunged into the fire with our faces pressed against the backs of the one's in front - we receive a measure of comfort in being able for a while to see the faces of our fellow sufferers."

+St. Macarius the Great of Egypt, from his life in The Synaxarion Volume 3, entry for January 19.

Evagrius Ponticus: On the Right and Wrong use of Anger

 Anger is given to us so that we might fight against the demons and strive against every pleasure. Now it happens that the angels suggest spiritual pleasure to us and the beatitude that is consequent upon it so as to encourage us to turn our anger against the demons. But these, for their part, draw our anger to worldly desires and constrain us - contrary to our nature - to fight against our fellow men to the end that, blinded in mind and falling away from knowledge, our spirit should become a traitor to virtue.

+Evagrius Ponticus, from The Praktikos, #24