And what is homing?

This first stage is also called “contact, contact”. It is the first image coming from the imagination, the first thought, the first impulse. So, for example, a miser sees unguarded money and attacks him: “Could I have …hide it.” In the same way, we can have of the flesh, the idea that I’m better than everybody …the impulse to quit your job, etc. In this case. We’re not deciding anything yet; we’re just finding that the opportunity to do evil presents itself to us, and evil presents itself to us in an attractive form. Newcomers to the spiritual life get scared and confess that they “had bad thoughts,” even in church and during prayer. It is said that the saint  Anthony led one of his pupils, who complained bitterly of his evil thoughts, to the terrace and ordered
him to catch the wind with his hands. And after a while, he said, “If you can’t see the wind with your bare hands, much less control your evil thoughts.

How to purify your heart?
And that there is no guilt in the first incitement and that we will not be able to get rid of it as long as we live. Similar to flies, which bother us the more we become impatient. And what does “conversation” mean? This stage is recalled in Genesis chapter 3 when Eve converses with the serpent. Not heeding the first prompting, she leaves as it comes. But man does not normally do that, but instead allows himself to be provoked and begins …to think. So the miser says to himself, “If I take this money, I will put it in the bank.” But then it occurs to him that this is not honest, and besides, it’s dangerous. What if someone finds out about it? And so he thinks it would be better to keep the whole thing a secret. But he can’t make up his mind, but the money has been on his mind all day. The same thing happens to someone angry with someone. For a long time, he dwells on who made him so angry. He imagines how he would have beaten him up, insulted him, and forgiven him magnanimously; then he thinks again what he could have done to him… he forgets it only after a while. What guilt is in these internal “conversations”? Who decided nothing could not have sinned. But how much time and how much
of life energy is wasted in these meaningless internal “conversations”!

Why is the struggle only in third place?
We are on the third step. After a long conversation with …the thought has taken root in my heart; it’s not quickly banished. A sensual man’s imagination is so soaked with impure …that he can’t get rid of them. He’s still free; he doesn’t have to agree. He can, and he has from this struggle of his… but it costs him a great deal of effort: he must fight. His will must stand firm; he must make himself repeat: “I feel the strong attraction of sin, and yet I don’t want to agree; I freely decide the opposite, and I am willing to resist.”

What is consent?
That is the fourth stage. He who has lost the battle decides …to do what he feels compelled to do at the first opportunity… a lousy idea gives his free consent to the temptation of badness. Sin occurs at this stage in the true and proper sense of the word. And though the sin does not take place outwardly, it remains inwardly. Morality calls this a “sin in thought.” Unfortunately, the uninformed and inexperienced confuse the concepts. They think it is sinful to think of sin. So, such people become scrupulous and confess in confession that  they cannot get rid of the “sins of thought.” How do we come out of this confusion? One must be able to stop and say to oneself.
How do I purify my heart?
Do I feel an attraction to sin? Do I like it? I’m very attracted to it, to do it? Do you know if I do it? No! No! No! No! I choose not to do it.” This last decision must comfort us. The moment we made it, we discovered our freedom. Man is what and not what his senses draw him to. At such times, when he gives free consent to evil, he also experiences sin.