To what extent is it helpful to identify the particular vice attacking us?

In Cassian’s Conferences, Abba Sarapion says, “Wherefore we must enter the lists against these faults in such a way that every one should discover his besetting sin, and direct his main attack against it, directing all his care and watchfulness of mind to guard against its assault, directing against it daily the weapons of fasting, and at all times hurling against it the constant darts of sighs and groanings from the heart, and employing against it the labours of vigils and the meditation of the heart, and further pouring forth to God constant tears and prayers and continually and expressly praying to be delivered from its attack … as is generally the case with those who are wont to face all kinds of wild beasts in the presence of the kings of this world, out of consideration for the rewards—a kind of spectacle which is generally called pancarpus .⁸³² Such men, I say, direct their first assault against whatever beasts they see to be the strongest and fiercest, and when they have despatched these, then they can more easily lay low the remaining ones, which are not so terrible and powerful … Nor need we imagine that if any one grapples with one fault in particular, and seems too careless about guarding against the attacks of others, he will be easily wounded by a sudden assault, for this cannot possibly happen⁸³³ … For the giver of the law himself teaches us that we ought to follow this plan in our conflicts and not to trust in our own power; as he says: ‘You shall not fear them because the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a God mighty and terrible: He will consume these nations in your sight by little and little and by degrees. You will not be able to destroy them altogether: lest perhaps the beasts of the earth should increase upon you. But the Lord your God shall deliver them in your sight; and shall slay them until they be utterly destroyed” (Deut. 7:21–23).”⁸³⁴

830 St. John Cassian, The Conferences 5.10 (NPNF II/11:343).

831 St. John Cassian, The Conferences 5.13 (NPNF II/11:345).

832 Pancarpus (πάγκαρπος). The word originally applied to an offering of all kinds of fruit. 833

He speaks here of greed and anger which can be so easily overcome that thousands left their possessions and dwelt the wilderness; and also of sadness and listlessness, which can appear in the absence of any external influence, and as such, often attack hermits.

834 St. John Cassian, The Conferences 5.14 (NPNF II/11:345) amended.