Amma Theodora asked Pope Theophilus about the Apostle’s saying, “redeeming the time.” He said to her, “The expression points to gain. For example, has a time of insult come upon you? Buy that time of insult with humility and patience, and draw profit from it. Is it a time of dishonor? Buy the time with forbearance and gain from it. In this way, if we are willing, all adversities become gains for us.”
Amma Theodora said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate. Trees cannot bear fruit unless they pass through winter storms and rains. So too for us, this present age is winter, and unless we pass through many afflictions and trials, we cannot become heirs of the kingdom of heaven.”
She also said, “It is good to practice stillness, for a wise person lives in stillness. It is truly a great thing for a virgin or a monk to practice stillness, especially for the young. But know that as soon as someone resolves to practice stillness, the evil one comes and weighs down the soul with acedia, faintheartedness, and thoughts. He also weighs down the body with illnesses, weakness, and looseness of the knees and all the limbs, and he dissolves the strength of soul and body, so that the person says, ‘I am sick and cannot perform the synaxis.’ But if we are watchful, all these things are dissolved. There was a monk who, whenever he was about to perform the synaxis, was seized by chills and fever and suffered pain in his head. He would say to himself, ‘Look, I am sick, and perhaps I am dying. I will get up before I die and perform the synaxis.’ By this thought he forced himself and performed the synaxis. When the synaxis ended, the fever also ended. Again and again the brother resisted by this thought, performed the synaxis, and conquered the thought.”
The same Amma Theodora also said, “Once a devout man was insulted by someone. He said to him, ‘I too could say such things to you, but the law of God closes my mouth.’” She also told this: “A Christian, discussing the body with a Manichaean, said, ‘Give the law to the body, and you will see that the body belongs to its Maker.’”
She also said, “A teacher must be a stranger to the love of authority, far from vainglory and pride, not mocked by flattery, not blinded by gifts, not conquered by the belly, and not ruled by anger. Rather, he must be patient, gentle, and as humble as possible; tested and approved, forbearing, caring, and a lover of souls.”
She also said, “Neither ascetic practice, nor vigil, nor any kind of labor saves without genuine humility. There was an anchorite who drove out demons, and he asked them, ‘What makes you go out? Fasting?’ They said, ‘We neither eat nor drink.’ ‘Vigil?’ They said, ‘We do not sleep.’ ‘Withdrawal?’ They said, ‘We live in the deserts.’ ‘Then what makes you go out?’ They answered, ‘Nothing defeats us except humility.’ Do you see that humility is victory over the demons?”
Amma Theodora also said, “There was a monk who, because of the multitude of temptations, said, ‘I am leaving this place.’ As he was putting on his sandals, he saw another man also putting on his sandals and saying to him, ‘Are you leaving because of me? Look, wherever you go, I am going ahead of you.’”