There is within us a combat of the mind, harder than the combat of the senses. The worker of devotion must run and reach this goal1 in his mind: to guard perfectly, like a pearl or a precious stone2, the remembrance of God in his heart3. And one must renounce everything, including the body, and despise this present life itself, in order to possess God alone in one’s heart. For the divine Chrysostom has said that demonic spirits can destroy the vision of God in the mind4.
1 Cf. Phil 3:14.
2 Cf. Matt 13:44-46.
3 toû Theoû mnêmên en kardía.
4 HomJn 3.
Philotheus of Sinai, Forty Neptic Chapters, 1. In Filocalía de los padres népticos, vol. 2, Spanish trans. Juan María de la Torre, Ediciones Monte Cassino, 2017, p. 499.
We need to bear in mind that when Philotheus of Sinai tells us, for example, “one must renounce everything, including the body, and despise this present life itself, in order to possess God alone in one’s heart,” etc., he is not suggesting that we reject the body as evil or mistreat it, nor that we treat our fellow human beings badly or repudiate, in this present life, the good things there are in creation, but rather that we set them and order them in their proper place.
To renounce everything, including the body, means: do not give it command, do not give primacy to what the body demands of you; give first place to seeking God in the heart, to the remembrance of God in each of your activities and moments. To despise the present life we understand as not following the values that prevail in the world, in the present age.
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