Sharing another of St. Philotheos' wise instructions from his Forty Texts on Watchfulness [nepsis], much if not all can be applicable to any Catholic hermit.
[Note: "noetic" is from the Greek noesis/ noetikos, meaning inner wisdom, direct knowing, or subjecting understanding. As defined by the philosopher William James (1902), noetic refers to "states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain, and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority..."]
"2. When engaged in noetic warfare, we should therefore do all we can to choose some spiritual practice from divine Scripture and apply it to our intellect like a healing ointment. From dawn we should stand bravely and unflinchingly at the gate of the heart, with true remembrance of God and unceasing prayer of Jesus Christ in the soul; and, keeping watch with the intellect, we should slaughter all the sinners of the land (Ps 101:8).
"Given over in the intensity of our ecstasy to the constant remembrance of God, we should for the Lord's sake cut off the heads of the tyrants (Hab 3:14), that is to say, should destroy hostile thoughts at their first appearance. For in noetic warfare, too, there is a certain divine practice and order. Thus we should force ourselves to act in this way until it is time for eating.
"After this, having thanked the Lord who solely by virtue of His compassion provides us with both spiritual and bodily food, we should devote ourselves to the remembrance of death and to meditation on it. The following morning we should courageously resume the same sequence of tasks. Even if we act daily in this manner we will only just manage, with the Lord's help, to escape from the meshes of the noetic enemy.
"When this pattern of spiritual practice if firmly established in us, it gives birth to the triad: faith, hope, and love. Faith disposes us truly to fear God. Hope, transcending servile fear, binds us to the love of God, since 'hope does not disappoint' (Matt. 22:40). And 'love never fails' (1 Cor. 13:8), once it has become to him who shares in it the motive for fulfilling the divine law both in the present life and in the life to be."
The habitual practice of training our minds, our intellects, by the training of the will to choose some aspect of Holy Scripture and apply it to our minds will bring a healing, as the saint mentions. Plus, the remembrance of God and with the attitude of unceasing prayer (not necessarily the mentally conscious prayer so much as subconscious love of Christ in form of prayer in the soul) will help keep watch over our intellects, our thoughts.
Destroying "hostile thoughts at their first appearance" is a training of the mind and will. Through daily practice of remembering God and the prayer of Jesus [the saint likely means the Jesus Prayer: Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner], we will develop a strength of mind and heart that is ordered and freed from "the meshes of the noetic enemy."
St. Philotheos points out that when we have this spiritual practice established in our daily lives, we will live out faith, hope, and love to a degree of union in the divine law of God's love: Union with God.
I will try to practice more a pattern of spiritual practice that forms my intellect and will based on a Scripture selection or verse, and to pray the Jesus Prayer in its essence if not striving in praying it specifically as much as possible with the conscious, and then asking my angel to help me hold the intent in my subconscious.
While physical pain or other tasks do distract the conscious mind, surely with asking His Real Presence, the Virgin Mary, and our angels to help in spiritual practice, we can find ourselves more in tune with faith, hope, and love and in approaching union with God in increasing measure and holy effect. Worth trying and putting into practice, what will be helpful to whatever extent: Spiritual progress!
God bless His Real Presence in us!
[I admit that the pain level has been so high lately, that I'm having to offer the pain instead of much focused spiritual efforts in training the will and keeping watch on the intellect. However, today in doing quite a bit of standing in an act of charity, of thoughtfulness of other, I did consider my vow of consecration of suffering and how indeed I did offer many aspects if not all, of suffering. Also, I need to practice reacting in love to calumny and indignities I find myself suffering. So I did that--tried to patiently pray and react with loving attitude within my mind and heart; and the situation did somewhat turn from what it had been to much better. But the Good Lord is allowing me pain that has me feeling at times as if in another reality! Suffering seems long, sometimes....]
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