Holiness

I sometimes worry that this blog makes me look like a much better person than I am. I know any intelligent person knows better, but, still, I worry about it. But more than that I worry about the state of my own soul. Darkness. Darkness. Darkness. Much work to be done. And the temptation there is to despair, saying, "I can never attain holiness." Then, on Leah's blog (She must have an amazing library. I am constantly amazed by the far-ranging breadth of her quotations. I am thankful to her for bringing them to us.) I see the words of Archimandrite Athanasios Mitilinaios and am refreshed and relieved of worry as the lie of the enemy is exposed:

"Let us never think that holiness means infallibility, the perfect man is nonexistent. Holiness is in the area of struggle, not perfection. No one is perfect. Perfection does not exist for us in this life. What exists is the struggling man, the one who keeps striving. We must understand this. I say this because at times we may think that holiness, which is our calling by the way, is so far out of our grasp that it is unattainable. This is not so. It is a delusion and the work of the devil, to tell us that holiness is unrealistic and we cannot reach it. The devil wants to destroy us. No, my friends do not listen to this. Holiness is in the struggle!"