As I expressed in the last issue of this article, Theophan believed that when a person neglects his desire for God and his own salvation, he is filled with anxiety and trouble about many things. Luke first expressed this idea in his Gospel (10:41).

The nuances and the   distinctive features of these troubles about many things depend upon the kind of emptiness which is formed in the soul. The emptiness of the mind – what has been forgotten about the One who is everything – gives birth to a concern for excessive knowledge. The second thing Theophan identifies is the emptiness of the will – which has deprived itself of the One who is everything – produces numerous desires: striving to possess many things or even all things, so that everything could be in one’s own power and according to one’s own will. This is the love of worldly possessions.

This describes our present society. It is also something that even good people have to constantly squelch in their own lives. The world is very seductive. It is easy to think that if we have all the things we want life will be better. This, of course, always proves to be untrue.

The third thing that Theopan identifies is called the emptiness of the heart – which has deprived itself of real delight in the One who is everything – generates a thirst for many and various false pleasures: the search for those things in which one hopes to find sensory pleasure, both inwardly and utwardly. So, a sinner persists incessantly in his troubles and anxieties, and in his search for excessive knowledge, many material possessions, and diverse pleasures. He is always delighting in outward things, constantly acquiring possessions, scrutinizing things and testing them. He whirls around in this circular process for his entire life.

Anyone can verify the truth of Theophan’s ideas by just putting the movements of his soul under his own observance for just a single day.