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er and prostrations she could not fast at all and even could not read morning and evening prayers 51 another case occurred with archimandrite parthenios hegumen of st paul monastery at mount athos when he was young he fell into negligence and stopped reading the monastic rule this went on for a whole year in the end he suddenly cried out mother of god help me i can not do anything make it so that i overcome this state and the state of negligence suddenly disappeared he immediately made 400 prostrations 52 orthodox saints who suffered from prelest and recovered edit saint iakovos worshiped a demon who appeared as lord jesus and who disappeared after iakovos made the sign of the cross 53 saint nicetas of the kiev caves attempted an excessive feat of seclusion without sufficient experience he was deluded by an angel who helped him and gave him a false gift of clairvoyance when the holy fathers of the monastery unraveled the demon tricks and cast the angel away st nicetas lost his supernatural abilities and even could not read at all later following the way of humility st nicetas became the bishop of novgorod and received the gift of miracleworking 32 saint theodore and basil of the kiev caves suffered heavily from the demon tricks st theodore was deluded by a vision of angel and false appearance of a demon in the form of st basil and was listening to them later st basil brought st theodore to reason and convinced that it was a delusion 54 saint silouan the athonite was in delusion 2 times as written in the book of elder sofronii once st silouan accepted a vision and nobody whom he asked about it told him that this was a false vision but i was beguiled by vanity and began to see devils again then i knew that i had been deceived and i made full disclosure to my confessor and asked him for his prayers and because of his prayers i am now saved and ever beseech the lord to grant me the spirit of humility 55 the term prelest in the liturgical texts of the eastern orthodox church edit the notion of prelest is used in some of the liturgical texts of the eastern orthodox church in the great canon of st andrew of crete 56 i lie naked and ashamed for the beauty of the tree which i saw in the middle of the garden deceived me monday ode 2 o god trinity yet one save us from delusion temptations and misfortune monday ode 3 but you my hopeless soul have rather imitated esau surrendering to the crafty evil the beauty you inherited from god in two ways works and wisdom have you been deceived and now is the time for you to change your ways tuesday ode 4 in the holy anaphora of the liturgy of st basil the great 57 and was led astray by the deception of the serpent releasing us from the delusions of idolatry prelest and jesus prayer edit many orthodox holy fathers and modern ascetics wrote about the dangers of wrong practice of the jesus prayer and prayer in general saint symeon the new theologian saint ignatius brianchaninov saint theophan the recluse saint ambrosius of optina saint macarius of optina elder joseph the hesychast valaam elder john alexeev and others 58 professor of the moscow theological academy a i osipov analyzes 7 59 the teaching on the prayer by st ignatius brianchaninov and points out that the prayer should have three properties attention reverence repentance also humility should be the basis of the prayer as st ignatius says today i read the declaration of st sisoes the great which i always particularly liked a monk said to him i am in constant memory of god st sisoes responded to him that is not great it will be great when you consider yourself to be worse than any creature st sisoes continues constant memory of god is a very elevated activity however this height is very dangerous when the ladder to it is not founded on the solid rock of humility 59 holy fathers use the words memory of god as a synonym for the jesus prayer 60 also metropolitan ierotheos vlachos in the book a night in the desert of the holy mountain speaks of the following errors in the prayer 61 the idea that grace and vision of the uncreated light can be gained quickly in reality for most people it takes years therefore a person may become disappointed if he does not quickly acquire it great importance is attributed to psychotechnical methods paying attention to inhalation exhalation heartbeat etc while they do not act magically but are only auxiliary means of reducing distraction jumps skipping stages during the development of the prayer some go directly to noetic prayer or want to connect the nous and the heart right away through breathing skipping oral prayer disappointment if there are no tears or vice versa a person told someone about his tears and they disappeared because of that a strong desire to see the uncreated light then demons can demonstrate for the ascetic their own uncreated light the very thought that i am worthy to see the uncreated light is a dangerous state violation of obedience the thought not to ask the director originates from the enemy attention during prayer edit three ways of attention and prayer edit st symeon the new theologian 20 st theophan the recluse 62 and st silouan the athonite 63 say that there are three ways of prayer prayer with imagination prayer with attention in the mind union of the mind with the heart magicism and automatic view of prayer edit one of the kinds of false attitude to prayer originates from a widespread view on god prayer and spiritual life implying that god can be forced to execute the petition that is asked in the prayer i e as if the prayer acts by itself solely by pronouncing the words with no regard to the spiritual condition of the person who prays this automatic view can apply to any relationship with god to any action of divine grace including the prayer and sacraments orthodox theologian fr valery dukhanin writes that such view has nothing to do with orthodox faith and rather belongs to magic the main property of magic correct ritual that is a drastic difference with the sacraments of the church which cannot help without man s personal relation to god 64 unconditional action of prayer assumes that free will does exist neither in man nor in god and that god can do something harmful and with no regard to the inner determination of all involved persons st hilarion of optina writes that though we should pray about each other the view on prayer that every petition is necessarily executed originates from pride and leads to delusion 65 the valaam elder schema hegumen john alekseev writes about jesus prayer why do we read the jesus prayer so that constantly remembering the lord and repenting of sins come to spiritual peace inner silence and love for our neighbor and righteousness then we live in god who is love but there are people who look at this prayer as a kind of magic that will give them reading of minds insight the gift of miracles and healings etc this approach to prayer is extremely sinful those who act so are deceived by demons who give them some kind of power to destroy them altogether forever 58 professor a i osipov writes that an awareness of magic is deeply present in our old man for very many people orthodoxy consists in placing candles venerating donating something leaving prayer requests ordering liturgies molebens and pannikhidas joining in the cross processions visiting holy shrines confessing and receiving communion the most important part of salvation life according the commandments and repentance remains undone however without spiritual transformation in greek the word for repentance is μετάνοια metanoia which means to change one s way of thinking all of these external activities are at the least useless and at the worst harmful for they can cause one to feel self righteous and raise his self opinion over sinners 66 also some holy fathers wrote about such automatic attitude to the sacraments i e without faith and willingness to fight with passions st john chrysostom 67 st mark the ascetic 68 st cyril of jerusalem 69 such false automatic attitude to the action of holy sacraments is named by a i osipov as one of the reasons of degeneration of christian faith and backsliding into paganism delusions of antichrist edit apostles paul and john say in their epistles that antichrist will come right before the end of times 2 thess 2 1 john 2 18 his coming will be accompanied by false miracles and signs father nikita grigoriev in his book faith and delusion writes about antichrist that in appearance he will be kind gentle patient and merciful he will attract everyone by his love and will amaze everyone with his miracles but this love will be false just as the miracles will likewise be false moreover this love will not be salvific for the people but destructive because it will not call people to genuine repentance to take up one s cross to spiritual rebirth through the holy spirit in the church of christ no the anti christ s love will condone human passions from the very beginning in paradise when man fell he did not want to hear about his sin he did not wish to repent and be forgiven he wanted to remain in his sin and justify it the anti christ will not rebuke passions and call people to genuine contrition of heart in order to forgive and heal them but on the contrary will justify them just as they are it will make people feel good about themselves as they are 70 eastern orthodox views on the lives of certain e orthodox elders and saints edit professor of the moscow theological academy a i osipov in his lecture course on basic theology speaks in one of the lectures 71 as well as in the textbook for this course 72 and some other public lectures about false way of prayer and false spirituality he says that some books containing errors appeared recently eastern orthodox views on the lives of certain catholic saints edit see also hesychasm theoria jesus prayer and the way of a pilgrim the ecstasy of st theresa gianlorenzo bernini 1652 st ignatius brianchaninov provides examples of visions and other mystical experiences of st francis of assisi st ignatius of loyola thomas à kempis and compares them with experience of orthodox saints of the first centuries professor a i osipov analyzes teachings on this subject by st ignatius and points at a significant difference in orthodox and roman catholic view on spirituality repentance and humility he writes in a book which is a textbook for the basic theology course in the moscow theological academy that there are many phrases attributed to st francis that reveal his true degree of humility 59 73 saint francis s very life s goal i have labored and want to labor because this brings honor i want to suffer for others and redeem the sins of others shows his fall which he himself does not see it shows his own sins at the end of his life he said i am not aware of any sin i have committed which i have not redeemed through confession and repentance 74 his dying words were i have fulfilled what i should have fulfilled 75 by comparison we shall cite the last moments of saint sisoes the great fifth century surrounded by the brothers at the moment of his death he was as if talking with invisible beings the brothers asked him father tell us with whom are you speaking he answered with angels who have come to take me but i am begging them to leave me for a short time in order to repent the brothers knew that sisoes was perfect in the virtues and protested you have no need to repent father sisoes answered truly i do not know if i have even begun to repent sisoes deep understanding of his own imperfection is the main outstanding trait of all true saints and is the most important sign that their revelations were true however it is worth noting that the words of st francis i have fulfilled what i should have fulfilled in this quote taken from the referenced book of prof a i osipov in english were taken by a i osipov from another book in russian which in turn took it from another book for comparison the life of st francis by st bonaventure contains it in the following from i have done what was mine to do p 150 76 the interpretation of such words and relation to humility is explained in particular in the book by mitrofan lodyzhensky light invisible adapted in the shorter article by father george macris 77 even then while not well known in orthodox circles it is well known in catholic ones that this biography of saint francis is considered mostly fictional written in contrast to the earlier and more historically accurate thomas of celano s vita prima 78 father george macris writes that in his farewell address to the franciscans st francis said now god is calling me and i forgive all my brethren both those present and those absent their offenses and their errors and remit their sins as far as it is in my power fr macris believes these words mean francis felt himself to be powerful enough to remit sins like the pope however that in roman catholicism religious superiors have the power to remit sins against the rule of the community and it is likely that this commentator is simply not aware of this ancient practice in the west 79 prof a i osipov also says that there are 3 main manifestations of delusions of catholic mystics 71 compassion of christ that reaches its ultimate degree e g st francis of assisi matrimony with god flirting with god romance with god etc e g st teresa of ávila although it is worth noting that contrary to osipov s use of the term flirting is not accepted term or practice in the teresan tradition dreaminess of imagination e g st ignatius of loyola again in osipov s own understanding of the tradition it is worth noting however that in roman catholicism the practice of spiritual discernment is significant and saints who experience visions are quite acute in their discernment and while discerning the good fruits vs bad fruits of miraculous occurrences the western tradition unconditionally emphasizes the focus on the giver and not the gifts 80 manuals for the discernment of spiritual gifts are foundational in any training for spiritual direction with humility being the foundational virtue for all 81 saints are also well known for actively guarding against satanic delusion st padre pio for example was known for asking the virgin mary to show her foot stomping on the serpent s head as the devil is too proud to show such images as demonic delusions 82 russian philosopher a f losev 1893 1988 analyzes western spirituality and in particular visions of st angela of foligno that is not a prayer and conversation with god these are very strong hallucinations on the basis of hysteria i e prelest orthodox prayer dwells in the upper part of the heart not below through prayer and ascetic experience it has been learned in the east that nurturing the prayer in some other place in the body is always the result of a delusional state catholic erotomania is connected apparently with violent excitement and fever at the bottom of the heart 83 another russian philosopher ...