Elder St. Porphyrios on the Need for Vigilance
“Be mindful always of God. That is how our mind will acquire agility. Agility of mind comes from vigilance. Vigilance is passionate love for God. It is always having your heart and mind focused on Christ, even if you are engaged in other tasks. Vigilance requires love and yearning for Christ. You will acquire remembrance of God through the prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ…through the prayers of the Church, through the hymns and through bringing to mind the acts of God and recalling passages from Holy Scripture and from other spiritual books. This, of course, all requires good intention. It can’t be done by force and comes about primarily through divine grace. But divine grace requires in turn its preconditions: love and humility. If you live in the embrace of divine grace, evil will not harm you. If you do not live with divinity, evil will encircle you and you will be overtaken by indolence and you will be afflicted.”
– ‘Wounded by Love’