Evagrius said, "While you sit in your cell, recall your attention, and remember the day of your death and you will see that your body is decaying. Think about the loss. Feel the pain. Shrink from the vanity of the world outside. Be retiring, and be careful to keep your vow of quiet, and you will not weaken.Remember the souls in hell. Meditate on their condition, the bitter silence and the moaning, the fear and the strife, the waiting and the pain without relief, the tears that cannot cease to flow.
Remember, too, the day of resurrection, imagine God's terrible and awful judgment. Bring into your sight the confusion of sinners before God and His Christ, before angels and archangels and powers, and all the human race, punishment, everlasting fire, the worm that never dies, the darkness of Tartarus ~ and above them all the sound of gnashing teeth, dread and torments.
Bring before your eyes the good laid up for the righteous, their confidence before God the Father and Christ His Son, before angels and archangels and the powers, and all the people in the kingdom of heaven and its gifts, joy and peace. Remember all this.
Weep and lament for the judgment of sinners, keep alert to the grief they suffer; be afraid that you are hurrying towards the same condemnation. Rejoice and exult at the good laid up for the righteous. Aim at enjoying the one, and being far from the other.
Do not forget this whether you are in your cell our outside it. Keep these memories in your mind and so cast out of it the sordid thoughts that harm you."
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