Excerpt from a Homily on Fasting and Prayer
​"This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."   (Mark 9:29)

St. Nikolai Velimirovic

​.. As long as a man only philosophizes about God, he is weak and completely helpless against an evil spirit.  The evil spirit ridicules the feeble sophistry of the world.  But as soon as a man begins to fast and to pray to God, the evil spirit becomes filled with indescribable fear. In no way can the evil spirit tolerate the fragrance of prayer and fasting.  The sweet-smelling fragrance chokes him and weakens him to utter exhaustion.  In a man who only philosophizes about faith, there is spacious room in him for the demons.  But in a man who sincerely begins to pray to God and to fast with patience and hope, it becomes narrow and constricted for the demon, so the demon must flee from such a man. ...​

​from The Prologue of Ohrid, February 21st - St Nikolai Velimirovi