Useful spiritual sayings from Avva Pimen[1]
About repentance
- A brother asked Abba Pimen, saying: I have committed a great sin and I want to repent for three years. The old man said to him: it is a lot. And the brother said: but up to a year? And the old man said again: there is a lot. And those who were present said: Forty days? And again he said: there is much. And he added: I say that if man repents wholeheartedly and does not continue to sin, in three days God receives him.
The gluttony causes the fall of the mind
- Abba Pimen said again: if Navuzardan, the great cook, had not come, the church of the Lord would not have burned (cf. Isaiah 10:15). That is, if the gluttony had not come into the soul, the mind would not have fallen into the enemy's war.
The need to restrain the thoughts
- Abba Isaiah asked Abba Pimen about the defiled thoughts. And he said to Abba Pimen: like a box full of clothes, if someone leaves them, in time they rot, so do the thoughts, if we do not do them with the body, in time they perish and rot.
The usefulness of temptation
- And he said: the temptation is good because it makes man lucid.
True silence
- And again he said: there is a man that seems to be silent, but his heart condemns others. One like this always chats. And there is another who speaks from morning to evening and keeps silent, that is, he speaks nothing uselessly.
Fighting thoughts
- A brother came to Abba Pimen and said to him: Abba, I have many thoughts and I am in danger because of them. And the old man took him out under the clear sky and said to him: Stretch out your arm and hold the wind. And he said, I cannot do this. And the old man said to him: if you can't do that, you can't stop the thoughts from coming. But it is another thing to stand against them.
The power of Holy Communion
- He said again: it is written - in what way the deer wants the springs of water, so my soul desires you, God (Psalm 40, 1). Because the deer in the desert swallow many crawling reptiles, and when their poison burns, they want to come to the waters, and after drinking they cool off from the reptile poison. So do the monks, sitting in the wilderness, they are burn by the poison of the deceitful devils, and desire on Saturday and Sunday to come to the springs of water, that is, to the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, to cleanse themselves from the bitterness of the cunning.
The power of silence
- He said again: all the trouble that will come to you is overcome by silence.
The root of evil
- He said again: the dissipation is the beginning of evil.
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[1] Paterikon (4th ed.) Alba-Iulia: Reîntregirea 2004
