St Macarius of Optina Letters. Letters to laity. Letter 445
Highly esteemed in the Lord N.N.,
I have received your letter, which was sent in March of this year, and I am astonished, indeed, that not knowing me at all you should choose to describe to me your strange experiences, and ask my advice about all your doubts. I, knowing myself being both physically and spiritually weak, should prefer to refuse to talk about things so difficult and high for me. I was going to refuse to answer your questions; but considering your faith with which you seek advice and feeling sorry about your condition in the past and in the present, which you described, I dared to write you (after having taken counsel with our fathers since God is known to have placed the right word of guidance even in the mouth of dumb beasts). I will try to give you some relevant passages of the teaching of the Holy Fathers, and will try to represent actions of the enemy’s deception in order to warn you not to follow it although it may falsely look like the truth.
By the way, you yourself once had mentioned your suspicions of having strayed into the enemy’s nets. In the light of knowledge of the Holy Fathers you would see that more clear and embrace this truth, then, leaving the lies, follow cautiously the doctrine of the Holy Fathers. Here are some passages I have prepared for you.
The spiritual deception, according to Gregory of Sinai (Philokalia, part 132; in the Russian Philokalia Vol.5, P.233) has two reasons from the men’s side: pride and sinful life, for this reasons a man is made a laughing stock for spiritual enemies. God permits this temptation in order that man should come to his senses, do penance and change his ways if he wants.
