For Neglect of Monastic Life, the Hierodeacon Was Punished with Paralysis

Hegumen Mark (Lozinsky). "The patericon of the preacher."

In the early 1870s, someone from the “white” deacons, father Joasaph entered the monastery of St. Sergius. His daughter was a nun in the Khotkovo convent. Once, father Joasaph served in the church of the Great Martyr Barbara by the Lavra Hospital. Having performed the litany before the Cherubic Hymn, he entered the altar and managed to take only a few steps to the holy table, when with indescribable anxiety on his face fell without feelings. He was transferred to the hospital, where he lay unconscious for three days. When he came to his senses, he told his spiritual father the following: “As soon as I entered the altar, I saw an angel standing by the holy table in a sticharion, girdled by an orarion under the breast, and with a sword in his hand. He quickly approached me, removed the sticharion and the orarion from me and, hitting my arms and legs with a fire sword, said: “I would quicker take your soul out of your body for your neglect of monastic life, but look who is interceding for you before God” - and pointed a finger to the altar. There I saw Venerable Sergius kneeling to the table of oblation and praying fervently. Hierodeacon Joasaph, paralyzed, lay motionless for about a year. Throughout this time, he shed tears of repentance to God, asking Him to forgive his sins. Father Joasaph, apparently, was forewarned about the day of his death. One morning, he asked his daughter, who kept vigil over him, to get him funeral clothes and put on him. Being in full memory, he received the Holy Mysteries and, addressing some invisible visitors, said with a sense of gladness: “You have come,” and he died immediately. (Trinity Lavra flowers from the spiritual meadow. P. 19.)

The Elder was Attacked by Demons due to Sloth

From Patericon

An elder lived in an idol's temple.

The demons came to him, saying:

- Get out of our place. The elder answered:

“You have no place.”

Demons began to scatter his branches. The elder patiently gathered them. After that, one demon, taking his hand, pulled him from the temple. When he dragged the old man to the door, the man bumped up against the door with his other hand and exclaimed:

- Jesus! Help me!

The demon immediately ran away, and the elder began to cry. The Lord asked him what he was crying about. The elder answered:

“I cry that demons dare to possess a man and do this to him.”

The Lord said to him:

“You were negligent. When you sought Me, you see how soon I appeared to you.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/what-is-spiritual-delusion/817-the-elder-was-attacked-by-demons-due-to-sloth

Many Misfortunes May Be Permitted by God Due to Sloth

Venerable Isaac the Syrian. "Ascetical Homilies".

217. Therefore, the Lord leaves the reasons for humility and contrition of the heart in intensified prayer to His Saints, so that those who love Him will come closer to Him through humility. And often frightens them with the passions of their nature and the creeps of shameful and unclean thoughts, and often with reproaches, insults and slaps from people, sometimes with bodily illnesses and ailments, at other times, with poverty and lack of necessary things, then with excruciating strong fear, abandonment, obvious attacks of the devil, and various terrible incidents. And all this in order for them to have reasons for humility and not to fall into the sleep of sloth.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/what-is-spiritual-delusion/815-many-misfortunes-may-be-permitted-by-god-due-to-sloth

How Archimandrite Parthenius Got Healed of Sloth

Priest Sergiy Tishkun. Ilya Kabanov. “People of the Greek Church”.

Hieromonk Ephimius (Jafarov) tells the story:

Our elder [Archimandrite Parthenius Murelatos] told such a story. As a young monk, he had the obedience of a forester, lived in the forest. There is a church, there are cells, and he watched the forest, who cuts it down, what is taken out. And there he fell into a kind of strange despondency and negligence, completely stopped praying and reading his monastic prayer rule. In this state, he spent a whole year.

He once walked and wandered through the woods, returned to his cell and lay down on the bed disheartened. His eyes fell on the icon of the Mother of God ... And suddenly it dawned on him, and he prayed with tears: "Mother of God, help me, I can’t do anything! Help me to overcome this condition." As soon as he said this, he immediately felt warmth in his heart and felt a surge of spiritual strength. He said: "I jumped up and made four hundred bows to the ground at once without concealing anything. I began to pray, and everything went away at once. The state of sloth - everything disappeared."

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/what-is-spiritual-delusion/814-how-archimandrite-parthenius-got-healed-of-sloth

Bishop Pankratios about Delusion

From an interview with Bishop Pankratios (Zherdev) of Troitsk, hegumen of Valaam monastery.

Bishop Pankratios (Zherdev)

Does life in a skete promote the gift of prayer?

You know, brethren often seek for life in a skete or even solitary. In some cases, this corresponds to the Providence of God about these people, and then it is really good and saving for them to be there. But sometimes this desire is due to the fact that in the sketes, especially those with few people, there is more freedom, more opportunities to live according to your own will. In the monastery, of course, life is not easy: you have to get up at a certain time, to come to the church, you must perform obedience, to endure grief, resentment, injustice ... But all that is necessary. Why is that? Some of the Fathers cited the example of pebbles on the beach. When they rub against each other, the angles are erased and the pebbles become round. You may have noticed that even the bottle fragments have the sharp edges erased. The same occurs in our case, if a monk complacently undergoes grief and resentment that are inevitable in a cenobitic monastery, he develops humility and ability for a deep heartfelt prayer. Otherwise, you can fall into delusion, because pride is still very strong. As it is said: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble". When there is no grace, a man easily succumbs to the tricks of the enemy. Such things have happened here, we saw the state of delusion when a brother began intensified prayer on his own, neglecting obedience.

No One Who Lives Carelessly Can Enter Heaven

John Moschus. "Spiritual meadow". 130. The teachings of Athanasius and his wonderful vision

Abba said: "Our fathers practised continence and poverty and detachment from all things up to the time of their death. But we have stuffed our stomachs and moneybags full."

He also said: "Our fathers made it their business to avoid distractions to the soul. But in our days we have them aplenty, as well as our manual work"

Abba Athanasius also told us this about himself:

"I was wondering once about what was worth striving for and what was not. And I went into an ecstasy, and someone came to me and told me to follow him. He led me into a place full of light and glory and set me in front of a doorway, the like of which it is beyond my power to describe, for we could hear inside a countless multitude praising God. We knocked on the door and someone inside heard us and called out:

"'What do you want?'

"'We want to come in,' said my guide.

"'No one who lives carelessly can enter here. But if you want to come in, go back and strive to be able to count all the vanities of the earth as nothing worth.'"

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/what-is-spiritual-delusion/612-no-one-who-lives-carelessly-can-enter-heaven