FOR AVVA OLIMPIE
1. Avva Olimpie said: once, a priest of the Helenics came down to the Skete, and he came to my cell, and he slept. And seeing the life of the monks, said to me: as you live this way, you see nothing from your God? And I said to him: no. And the priest said to me: but when we serve our god, he hides nothing from us, but discovers to us all his misteries. And doing so many ascetic deeds, wakes, quietness, and hardship, you say that you do not see anything. Surely then, if you do not see anything, you have evil thoughts in you hearts, which separate you from God, and because of that He does not reveal to you the misteries. And I went and I let the elders know his words, and they were amazed, saying that it is so, that the unknown thoughts separate God from the man.
2. Avva Olimpie, the one of the cells, was being battled towards fornication, and his thought told him: go, get woman! And getting up, he stomped clay, and made a woman. The he said to himself: there is your woman! Yet you have to work a lot to feed her. And he was working, tireing himself a lot. And after a day, again stomping clay, he also made himself a daughter, and he was saying to his thought: your woman has given birth. You have more need to work, to be able to feed and to cover your child. And doing so, he melted himself, and he said to his thought: if you are not able to bear tiredness anymore, do not search for a woman, either. God, seeing his tiredness, lifted up the battle from him, and he rested himself.
FOR AVVA ORSISIE
1. Avva Orsisie said: the un-burnt brick being put at the base, next to the rive, will not bear one day, while the burnt one remains like a rock. It is in this way also with the man who has bodily reasoning, and did not get burnt like Iosif, with the fear of God: it is wasted after it has been raised to leadership. For many are the temptations of some like these, because they are in the middle of the people. So, it is good that somebody, as they are, will know his own measures, to run from the weight of leadership, for the ones strong in faith are un-movable. If someone will want to talk even about Saint Iosif himself, it says that he was not earthly. With how many was he tempted, and in what sort of country, where there was at that time no praise to God? But the God of his parents was with him, and pulled him out of all the grief, and now he is with his parents in the Kingdom of Heaven. And we, knowing our own measures, let us force ourselves, for this way we will be able to be saved from God’s judgement.
2. He also said: I reckon that if a man will not guard his heart well, he forgives all that he had heard, and he is getting lazy. And thus, the enemy, finding place in him, is befalling him, because as a candle is ending and it is lighting, if it will be neglected to be filled with oil, slowly, slowly, it is extinguishing, and then the dark is hardening over it. And not only this, but it is possible, when the mouse comes next to it, and looks to eat the wick, before it is extinguished, it cannot eat because of the oil, yet if it will see that not only it does not have light, but also no warmt from the fire, then having to pull the wick, it will befall the candle, and if it will be made of clay, it will break, and if it will be made of brass, the owner of the house will make a mockery of it. Thus, when the soul is getting lazy, slowly, slowly, the Holy Spirit withdraws itself, until its heat will be thoroughly extinguished, and then the enemy, consuming the effort of the soul, the body is destroyed by evilness. Yet if that one will be good in its sitting towards God, it will only be abducted towards laziness. God, as a merciful One, putting in him His fear, and the rememberance of the torments, will make him to wake up, and to guard hiself from now on, with lot of strengthening, until its judgement.