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

                    4th Vice: Fornication

Disciple: What is the fourth vice?

Master:  Discontent.

Disciple: Isn't this natural and God-given too?

Master:  Yes, if our discontent is directed towards our defects, faults and imperfections.

Disciple: When is discontent a vice?

Master:  When you feel bad because you cannot get what you want or you feel bad because you lost what you liked.

Disciple: Who are the most common victims of vice?

Master:  Monks, religious and nuns who have given up much. The thought of what they gave up, homes, relatives, old way of life comes back to mind.

Disciple: Then?

Master:  Their souls do not oppose these thoughts, then enjoy them. Then discontent creeps in because the object of their desire is absent and their way of life forbids it.

Disciple: And the more he recalls the things he left. . .?

Master:  The more discontented he becomes. That's why Christ urged those who put their hands on the plow never to look back. 

Abba Evagrius

(04-09-03)