Abba Elias said, “I fear three things: when my soul is about to leave my body, when I am about to meet God, and when the sentence is about to be issued against me.”
The elders in Egypt said to Abba Elias about Abba Agathon, “He is a good abba.” The elder said to them, “He is good for his generation.” They said to him, “And compared with the ancients?” He answered, “I told you that he is good for his generation. But compared with the ancients, I saw a man in Scetis who could make the sun stand still in heaven, like Joshua son of Nun.” When they heard this, they were astonished and glorified God.
Abba Elias, the one in charge of the ministry, said, “What power does sin have where there is repentance? And what good is love where there is pride?”
Abba Elias said, “I saw someone carrying a small gourd of wine under his arm. To put the demons to shame, because it was an apparition, I said to the brother, ‘Please, lift your cloak.’ When he lifted his cloak, he was found to be carrying nothing. I say this so that even if you see something with your eyes or hear something, do not accept it. Much more, watch your reasonings, reflections, and notions, knowing that the demons put these things in so as to defile the soul by making it think about what is not fitting, and to distract the mind from its own sins and from God.”
He also said, “People have their mind either on their sins, or on Jesus, or on other people.”
He also said, “If the mind does not chant psalms together with the body, the labor is in vain. For if someone loves affliction, afterward it becomes joy and rest for him.”
He also said, “An elder was living in a temple. The demons came and said to him, ‘Leave our place.’ The elder said, ‘You have no place.’ They began scattering his palm leaves one by one, but the elder kept gathering them. Later a demon seized his hand and dragged him outside. When the elder reached the door, he held on to it with his other hand and cried, ‘Jesus, help me!’ Immediately the demon fled, and the elder began to weep. The Lord said to him, ‘Why are you weeping?’ The elder said, ‘Because they dare to seize a person and treat him like this.’ The Lord said to him, ‘You were negligent. When you sought Me, you saw how I was found by you.’ I say these things because much labor is needed. Unless there is labor, no one can have his God, for He Himself was crucified for us.”
A brother visited Abba Elias the hesychast at the cenobium of the cave of Abba Saba and said to him, “Abba, tell me a word.” The elder said to the brother, “In the days of our Fathers, these three virtues were loved: non-possession, gentleness, and self-control. But now among monks greed, gluttony, and presumption prevail. Keep whichever you choose.”