The Deception of the Demon of Fornication

Something else is the love that is according to God, and something else is the beastly and irrational love of the world and of the flesh. The baseness shown by the cunning and utterly impure demon is evident to me, the demon who lies in ambush, hastening to settle himself in the souls that are virtuous and love God. The spirit of fornication, which young people usually call eros, openly and suddenly draws into the abyss of debauchery those who are inclined toward pleasure, who disregard the future judgments and the final tribunal valid for all mankind, and he does this without effort. But for those who care for their salvation and fight against the beasts of pleasure and bodily delight, he uses certain baits, tricks, and deceits. At first, it seems that nothing is harmful, and that it is merely natural love and affection toward a person, known or unknown, male or female, a love that does not require special attention. After this, the devil urges them to converse, to live together, to travel together, to become friends, to go on vacations together, to share necessary things and celebrate together, to court one another and to eat together, without necessarily having thoughts of fornication. Yet all these become grounds, foundations, beginnings, and roots of sin. With the passing of time, after the evil habit becomes difficult to remove, the demon, approaching unexpectedly the genital parts, suddenly kindles fire upon the body and boils its members like brass in a cauldron, and he goads him, shooting his heart with the fiery arrows of unlawful pleasure, toward the wicked deed, burning him just as fiercely as the fiery furnace of Babylon once burned. Therefore, many times the soul, when exhausted, grows numb and weak in its spiritual powers because of bodily ticklings, and needs to cry out with the words of Scripture: “They surrounded me, and they were inflamed like a fire among thorns” (Ps. 117:11–12). For through the burning of the body and through unseemly movements, the evil demons lavishly pour the venom of the unclean serpent upon my inner parts, and thus we must say with the psalmist: “My loins are filled with mockings” (Ps. 37:7). For behold, the power of the evil one has worked upon my middle: “I was afflicted and greatly humbled” (Ps. 37:8), surrounded all around with the wall of shame. And how can I, then, pass over this wall? “The demons prepared a snare for my feet, and they pressed down my soul” (Ps. 56:8). Darkness is in my eyes, because I wished not to see. Harmful blindness, therefore, is fornication, and, to speak briefly, all knowledge and desire that belongs to the flesh. I am caught like a lion going to slaughter, and I am brought like a dog in its chain and like a bird fallen into a trap, and I suffer the great burning of impurity. Who, then, will pray for me to the Master and Lover of mankind, God, to come and help me, to take me by the hand, just as He once touched Peter’s mother‑in‑law, so that the temptation may depart from me and the passionate, frightening, and shameless love may leave me, that I may rise again to the temperate life and serve the Lord with discernment? Guard yourself and flee, as much as you can, from this flattering and cunning demon, and do not let yourself be overcome; do not look at him, lest through your gates (Jer. 9:21), that is, through your eyes, as the prophet says, the death of sin be kindled in your soul. Instead, looking down toward the earth, answer him with a fierce gaze and a harsh face, and do not accept to laugh. For we must conquer the strongholds of the evil one and perceive the schemes of the unclean serpent before we are caught by his many baits and the snares of desire. And because the foundation of the bodily deed is the soul’s disposition that loves the flesh, before it goes outward and the evil sprouts and makes branches, remove it from the root, so that you may not be forced to use the mattock and fire, needing much help to destroy the tree of fornication. For many times the root that remained in one place has torn down even a very well‑built wall, or has split the hard stone. Flee, then, from the deceitful bait of corruption and free yourself from the snares of the devil, crushing his traps and arming yourself all around with fasting, with frequent prayer, with the bending of knees, with bodily toil, with the practices of righteousness, and with many other testimonies and helpful deeds. Then chant together with blessed David to our most‑high Savior and Benefactor, Christ, saying: “Protect me from the snare they have set for me and from the stumbling blocks of those who work lawlessness” (Ps. 140:9). Remember also the commandments of the Gospel: “Let your loins be girded with all wisdom, and let the lamps of your mind be burning, and be like men who wait for their Lord when He will come from heaven, and He will find watching those who truly honor and love Him, to make them shine like the sun in His heavenly Kingdom” (Lk. 12:35–36). Know also this: the enemy does not tempt someone only through those who are pleasing in appearance, but he also breathes into the soul a blind love even toward the faces of the ugly and unpleasant, women and men. For this demon, friend of impurity, is a searcher of evils and reveals himself in many forms, and often tries, in various ways, to catch us in the snare through unlawful and shameless desire. Flee, therefore, from companionship with impure youths, both with those who are attractive and with those who are unpleasant in appearance. But when, with time, you feel and understand that you are troubled by this corrupt passion of fornication, which drags your soul toward darkness and impurity, think that your mind is King Saul, who was possessed by the wicked spirit of passionate love, and bringing before you the book of David, charm your heart that is seized by the devil, calming it with the words of the Holy Spirit, and lift up to the Lord a song of psalms: “Protect me from the snare they have set for me, from the stumbling blocks of those who work lawlessness” (Ps. 140:9), and “Deliver me from the hand of my enemies who persecute me” (Ps. 30:15). And the demon, frightened and disgusted by the divine words and by the very beneficial chanting of the psalms, will depart from you in shame; and you will rise from the pit of misery through divine grace and will feel how an unknown air of purity and an unpassionate and clean state, unmixed and very joyful, like a clear and starry sky, will suddenly appear from the foggy and dark night, as if saying to you: “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 117:24). “Open to me, therefore, you angels of God, the gates of righteousness” (Ps. 117:19), that I may enter through them. “I will confess to You, for You have heard me and have become my salvation. Blessed is God, Who has not rejected my prayer, nor has He turned His mercy away from me” (Ps. 65:19).