ABSTRACT. Speaking of sin and virtue, of pleasure and pain the spiritual Fathers of Orthodoxy show that the mirage of sin and the attraction of evil are manifested also by the fact that first they promise us they will lead us on the heights of happiness. However, during committing it and by becoming addicted to it, the soul experiences the sense of nakedness and senselessness. Beyond leading it to the peaks of happiness, sin casts it into the desert of despair, of lack of horizon and sense, of futility and sadness. Unlike this, the Christian virtues seem hard to do at first, with a lot of effort and renunciation to ourselves in favour of God and others. But, paradoxically, if at the onset they leave the impression that they are hard to practice and follow, as the soul advances in their fulfilment, it feels unspeakable joys and has high and pure experiences and feelings. It experiences the joy of the spiritual victory in front of biological conditioning and the spirit of this world, a materialistic and hedonistic one that rather urges and leads to sins than to an elevated and pure spiritual life. pp. 3–22

Keywords: philosophy; disease; spiritual nobility; moral dignity; disorder; life