What is the difference between desire and thought? ( Elder Ephraim of Vatopaidi )

  Desire is the mood we have to do something, to ask for something is a movement of the heart, while thought moves in the area of the intellect.

First we desire and after this desire it is expressed internally through thoughts. Desire is the beginning, the root. By cutting off sinful desires we are essentially freeing ourselves from sinful thoughts.

This is why our Lord emphasized: "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). He wanted to cut off the root of the passions.

Saint Gregory Palamas says that the intellect of the believer who struggles in prayer is easily purified of thoughts, just like the heart of a person (which is the power that produces thoughts), cannot be purified unless all the other powers of the soul, the appetitive and spirited, are purified.

Elder Ephraim of Vatopaidi

Desire , is it good or bad.....( Elder Macarius )

Is our desire for a good life a sin? 

How can it be evil when we desire to do good and strive with all our energy to bring it about. Such desire cannot be evil. It only turns to evil when we do it out of our self-gratification, to boost our own self-image at the detriment to others.


Elder Macarius says,

It is nonsense to say that all desire is sinful, that we should never ask God to fulfill our wishes, that we should feebly abandon ourselves to what comes along. Surely to act in this manner would be contrary to reason, to human nature, and to Holy Scripture. Desire is not a sin; only the desire of evil is wrong. How could man belong to the kingdom of the Word, be reasonable creature and free––if all desires were wrong?... You are not a log or a stone; nor were you ever intended to be...

Reference: Russian Letter of Spiritual Direction, p 38