Letters of Abbot Nikon

Try to think about death as often as possible and about who will meet you there – angels , full of light, or dark and spiteful demons, one glance at which can drive one mad.

Our salvation consists precisely in that we should try to escape demons, get rid of them and enter into the Kingdom of God, into the ever-lasting reality of blissful joy incomprehensible here. All our efforts here are worth that destination. Demons are proud and they seize the proud, so we need to become humble. Demons are irate, so we need to acquire meekness not to come into their possession as those of their kind in spirit. Demons are unforgiving and merciless, so we need to hurry to forgive and make peace with those who offend us and be gracious to all. Such our behavior should always be.

We should suppress evil qualities of our soul and inculcate angelic characteristics described in the holy Gospel.

If after death, demonic features prevail in our soul, the demons will capture us. If here on earth we come to realization of possessing evil-spirit qualities and seek God’s forgiveness for them, and in our turn forgive other people, the Lord will forgive us and destroy all features of evil quality and will not give us over to the possession of demons. If we do not accuse anyone here, the Lord will not accuse us there either.

Let us live in peace, forgiving one another, always trying to make peace as soon as possible; let us confess all our sins to God and, while we still have time, beseech His mercy and beg Him to save us from demons and eternal torment. Let us not play with our fate in the eternity. May the lord grant you to be reasonable. Amen.

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