Overcoming Demons

Evil begets suffering.  The saints realized this.  St. John Cassian spent his life in spiritual combat.  Spending time amongst the monks of Egypt who followed in the footsteps of St. Antony the Great, St. John Cassian wrote down his conversations with them, recording their spiritual wisdom and spreading it evangelically amongst the Latin West (these writings are known as the Conferences). In addition, he wrote a treatise on the monastic life known as the Institutes. 

In this treatise, St. John Cassian outlines with a kind of battle-hardened wisdom the eight chief vices that cause us to fall into sin. 

Here is his remedy:

Gluttony - "To eat moderately and reasonably is to keep the body in health, not to deprive it of holiness."

Unchastity - "We should therefore try to achieve not only bodily control, but also contrition of heart with frequent prayers of repentance, so that with the dew of the Holy Spirit we may extinguish the furnace of the flesh, kindled daily by the king of Babylon with the bellows of desire. In addition, a great weapon has been given us in the form of sacred vigils; for just as the watch we keep over our thoughts by day brings us holiness at night, so vigil at night brings purity to the soul by day."

Avarice - Cassian here speaks of renouncing the world and becoming a monk, admonishing monks to not slip back into desiring what they "already renounced". He also recommends that we "remember the hour of our death, so that our Lord does not come unexpectedly and, finding our conscience soiled with avarice, say to us what God says to the rich man in the Gospel: 'You fool, this night your soul will be required of you: who then will be the owner of what you have stored up?' (Luke 12:20)"

Anger - "Self-reform and peace are not achieved through the patience which others show us, but through our long-suffering towards our neighbour."

Dejection - "The only form of dejection we should cultivate is the sorrow which goes with repentance for sin and is accompanied by hope in God."

Listlessness - "'...patience, prayer, and manual labor.'"

Self-Esteem - "The person who wants to engage fully in spiritual combat... should not do anything with a view to being praised by other people,but who should seek God's reward only."

Pride - "...perfection in holiness can only be achieved through humility. Humility, in received turn, can be achieved only through faith, fear of God, gentleness, and the shedding of all possessions."