Answers of the Great Masters of the Spiritual Life to the Questions of Their Disciples.

          The Principal Vices That Influence All Our Thoughts

                    2nd Vice: Fornication

                    3rd Vice: Love of Money

Disciple: What is the second vice that affects our thoughts?

Master:  Fornication.

Disciple: Is it bad to desire marriage?

Master:  No, this is good because it is God-given. Fornication is when you go over and above what is proper.

Disciple: The vice of fornication leads to what then?

Master:  To adultery which makes married people desire what is  forbidden but this attacks more insidiously those who abstain even from what is proper, like monks.

Disciple: How does this vice attack the religious?

Master:  By making them think that abstention is of no profit to their souls.

Disciple: And this thought pollutes the soul?

Master:  Yes. It urges the soul towards actions, words and images as though the act is before their eyes.

Disciple: Why do people love money?

Master:  The thought of growing old, the inability to work, illnesses, the hardships of want and the humiliation of depending on others. . .these make us desire to have money. 

Abba Evagrius

(04-09-03)