Demonic interference during reading

A holy priest, saying such things are worthy of being made public and to be cast into the ears of the unholy; if, he says, even one who sympathizes with the adulterer becomes responsible according to the law. But besides this, from such signs they recognize what is hidden in the heart, and they take occasions from these against us; for many times indeed we have rebuked certain ones having unloving feelings toward them, because of which we also fell into the demon of malice, and we immediately seized evil thoughts against them, which we previously knew had happened to us.

Therefore the Holy Spirit rightly accuses us: 'Sitting against your brother, you have spoken against, and against the son of your mother you have set a stumbling block' (Matt 18:7), and you opened a door to the thoughts of malice, and you disturbed the mind at the time of prayer, always fantasizing the face of your enemy and making this one a god; for whatever the mind praying sees, this also it confesses as worthy of God. But let us flee, beloved, from the sickness of slander, let us never remember anyone badly, nor let us turn our faces away because of the memory of a neighbor.

For all forms the evil demons work out, and they leave nothing against us unexamined: no turning away, no sitting, no standing, no word, no passing by, no glance; they work out all things, they move all things, they study against us all day long with guile, so that they might slander the humble mind at the time of prayer, and extinguish its blessed light. Do you see what the holy Paul says to Titus? 'In teaching, a word without fault, healthy, unperceivable, so that the one against us may be confounded, having nothing bad to say about us' (Titus 2:8); and the blessed David also prays saying: 'Save me from the slander of men' (Ps 124:7), naming men and the demons because of the rational nature of the thing; but also the Savior in the Gospels, speaking of an enemy, a man...

He sowed the seeds of evil for us. May we be uprooted from them by the grace of Christ our God, to whom honor and glory belong unto the ages. Amen.

There are certain unclean demons who always seat themselves beside those who are reading, and attempt to snatch away their minds, often even taking starting points from the divine Scriptures and leading into evil thoughts; and there is also when, contrary to habit, they force one to yawn, and impose a most heavy sleep, much different from the usual; as some of the brothers appeared to be, according to natural opposition, unspeakable; but I, having observed much, have learned: touching the eyelids and the whole head, and chilling this with the proper body; for the bodies of the demons are very cold, and similar to crystal; whence also we feel the head being pulled as if under fig trees with a shudder. They do this in order that, having wrapped themselves in the heat stored up in the skull, the eyelids, having been weakened by the remaining moisture and coldness, might overflow with the juices of the eyes. Often indeed, having felt, I perceived the eyelids having become hard like crystal, and the vision entirely deadened and shivering. Even though natural sleep is disposed to warm the bodies, and for those who are healthy it works the eyes to be bright, as it is also possible to learn from the experience itself; but for those which are by nature and arrangement weak, they make a yawning, thinning themselves, and touching the inside of the mouth. But this I had not understood until now, even though I have suffered it much; but of the holy Macarius I heard this being spoken to me, and bringing it as proof, of sealing the mouths that yawn, according to an ancient unspeakable tradition. And all these things we suffer because we do not attend soberly to our reading, nor remember that we are reading the holy words of a living God.