Spiritual Pearl

Contents Preface The first centurion The second centurion The third centurion The fourth centurion The fifth centurion The sixth centurion The seventh centurion The book contains selected passages from the works of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople. Saint John left us a tremendous theological legacy. In his explanation of the Holy Scriptures, he showed how the Bible can become a true teacher of a person. And today the words of the saint addressed to each of us breathe with the power of the Holy Spirit: “Sin is not in our nature; we are blessed with will and freedom. Are you a publican? You can become an evangelist. Are you a blasphemer? You can become an apostle. Are you a robber? You can buy heaven. There is no sin that cannot be erased by repentance.” The name of the Archbishop of Constantinople, who occupied the primary see of the Eastern Ecumenical Church - John Chrysostom (344/345-407), has long become a household name. His works, conversations, teachings, and letters are read with the same genuine interest as during the saint’s earthly life, and in the choice of theological topics, preaching, and methods of interpreting Scripture, he has been imitated for many centuries. The richness, strength, and ease of language in expressing thoughts and feelings earned the talented master of words recognition, enshrined in the honorary addition to his name - Chrysostom. The legacy of the ecumenical teacher, which was included in the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church, conveying the revealed truth, is very extensive, but the interpretations of the New Testament belong to the best among his creations, as was noted already in antiquity. Chrysostom always preached the Gospel as the law of life, for him the Good News of the Crucified and Risen Christ is not an object of curiosity, perceived by memory, but the living, active Word of God, which, according to the Apostle Paul, penetrates to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). Conversations on the Gospels of Matthew and John, together with other interpretations, constitute the fruit of his twelve years of preaching activity in Antioch, when twice a week, and sometimes every day, he addressed the people, shaking the hearts of his listeners. Most of Chrysostom’s works are edited notes from stenographers, so his words exude the indescribable freshness of a living conversation between a shepherd and his flock. As a representative of the Antiochian theological school, Saint John treated the Holy Scriptures as history. He always pointed to Scripture as the main and obligatory source of doctrine and moral edification. Saint John Chrysostom called on everyone to diligently listen and read the Bible, saying: “This is the food of the soul, this is its protection; on the contrary, not listening to Scripture is hunger and destruction for the soul.” 1. The Holy Scriptures were given for the correction of the soul. 2. The Scripture is the way, and whoever strays from the path wanders. 3. Whoever wants to learn any language: Hebrew, Latin, barbarian, turns to those who know, and whoever wants to understand the speech of the prophets must call on the God of the prophets. 4. The lips of the prophets are the lips of God, and not of the human mind. There is worse wine, and there is better wine; one from grapes, the other from the grace of Christ; one is poured out by the mind, the other by God. 5. David the prophet writes: My tongue is a scribbler’s reed (Ps. 44:2). This means: just as a reed writes what pleases the hand that moves it, so its tongue utters what the Holy Spirit inspires. 6. If the teaching of Plato, Zeno and other philosophers is child’s play, written at the suggestion of the devil, then the teaching of the apostles is the Truth itself. 7. From the time the Gospel was proclaimed, the teachings of Plato and Pythagoras fell silent, so that many do not even know their names, although Plato was famous and talked with kings, and Pythagoras, having studied various kinds of sorcery and sorcery, could talk with oxen and eagles. 8. He who abhors human food and eats thorns and grass with livestock is not a man, and he who does not love what is good for the soul, that is, the word of God, is not a man, for man will live by the word of God. 9. The rich man (Luke 16:19) considered the Scriptures of the prophets and the law of God to be fables and idle talk, but when he went to hell, he realized everything. 10. Because of their sins, people turn out to be unworthy to use one language, but so that different peoples would know philosophy 300 years before the birth of Christ, under King Ptolemy of Egypt, the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek and then into all languages. 11. The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon is called the treasury of all virtues. 12. In Psalm 97, the prophet calls the whole earth, that is, the entire human race, to rejoice, from the sound of forged trumpets (from the preaching of the evangelists) and the horn trumpet, proclaiming about Christ, the horn of our salvation. 13. In Psalm 90, “He who lives in the help of the Most High,” of course he who fulfills the law of God, who will live in the heavenly village with God. Wings - Gospel; Truth is Christ; the cross is His weapon; fear of the night - demonic passions; a person’s settlement is his body, where the soul dwells (Ps. 91:9–10). He who resorts to God becomes a son of God and is protected by Angels. God hears him and will fulfill him with the length of the day - Eternal Life and salvation: being with God, seeing God face to face. 14. Give my silver to the merchants (Matthew 25:27) - teach the doctrine of evangelical piety and teach faith. If you have a steelyard and scales - a God-loving mind, then weigh and examine every word - tempt everything, but only hold on to what is good. 15. When talking with a virtuous person, with a teacher or master of some field or philosophy, we often receive benefit and edification. They, our teachers, having a small particle of wisdom or natural experience and knowledge, should raise our minds to the source of all good - to God. 16. It is appropriate to guard our hearts with all caution, so as not to somehow lose the thought of God or desecrate the memory of His miracles with vain thoughts, but through constant and pure remembrance, to have the holy thought of God imprinted in our souls, as if an indelible seal of the love of adoption and the unity of the lover with the beloved God. 17. The state of our morality is determined by knowledge of the truth. The Pharisees saw good fruits - many miracles of the Son of Man - and recognized that the works (fruits) were good, but they did not recognize the tree bearing fruit (the Savior) as God. 18. If knowledge is not combined with love, then it gives rise to pride, which produces divisions. Love connects and leads to true knowledge. 19. Seek and you will find God, search with great difficulty, as one searches for gold. 20. Teaching the people the knowledge of God, Moses first performed many miracles in Egypt in order to expound the teaching and convince that God is the Creator of heaven and earth and the Lawgiver in power, strength, and glory. 21. Thus, in the Gospel, the Savior first performed divine works (in Cana of Galilee, the healing of a man born blind), and then began to teach. He revealed Himself as the light of the world, resurrection and life, and taught as a sovereign, one in power. 22. At the beginning of the gospel preaching there were many miracles, so that everyone who believed received the gift of speaking in many languages, and this for the sake of establishing faith, and when piety was established, the miracles stopped. 23. Saul, having gone blind, received his sight and followed Christ, and many, having seen even great miracles, returned to their former wickedness, like Judas, Nebuchadnezzar, Elymas the Magus, Simon, Ananias and Sapphira, the entire Jewish people. 24. When the soul is insensitive and corrupted and possessed by passions, it is not convinced by any miracle. 25. To convince the universe of faith and to make sinners and enemies of God saints, more power is needed than to create heaven and earth. 26. God wants us to voluntarily become good. It is more difficult to convince human freedom than to create nature. To awaken faith in souls is much more wonderful than to resurrect the dead - how many times have I wanted to gather your children, like a bird gathering its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to! (Luke 13:34), and God said: Lazarus, get out! (John 11:43) - and the dead man immediately obeyed. 27. There is faith that gives knowledge of God, and faith that contemplates a sign. 28. Everyone agrees that there is a God and does not argue, but if you say that there is a Christ, he goes berserk. Knowledge of the Scriptures is higher than the miracle of the resurrection, remember Abraham, Lazarus and the resurrection of Lazarus the Four Days. Unbelief has many evil tricks. 29. There is nothing beloved equal to prayer, there is nothing more powerful than faith. 30. We are called faithful not only because we believe, but also because God entrusted us with secrets that the Angels did not know before us. 31. Unbelief comes from a vicious life and vanity. 32. Our lives are vicious and our brutal morals keep others from converting. We need faith from works, so we will be punished for them too, for the name of God is blasphemed among the pagans (Rom. 2:24). 33. Some, rejecting the truth of God, are transgressors of the law; others who trample on the saving confession of the Master are criminals against God. The first still have the hope of salvation, having retained the root of the knowledge of God; the latter are completely deprived of salvation, rejecting the Author of salvation Himself. 34. A person who has suffered shipwreck remains naked and deprived of everything, likewise one who has fallen from the faith. 35. God wants us to be light, salt and leaven for everyone. 36. Leaven and dough of the same nature, but not of the same quality, but the small leaven - the twelve apostles - the large dough - the entire infidel universe - converted to faith in Christ. 37. There were twelve sheep sent to preach, and the whole universe was full of wolves. The twelve apostles - a small leaven - leavened the whole universe. 38. I will boast much more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me (2 Cor. 12:9). Let us marvel at the power of God, how His twelve disciples convinced the entire universe to abandon error and change their way of life to piety. 39. The apostles did not receive tablets of stone, like Moses, but the Holy Spirit into their souls, and if there was a noise and the appearance of tongues of fire, it was for the sake of the Jews present. 40. The soul of the Apostle Paul was a meadow of virtues and a spiritual paradise. The Apostle Paul was caught up into paradise, saw the third heaven, knew secrets from God that cannot be told to any other person, was like Angels, and looked at torment as if it were children’s toys. If Archangel Michael was entrusted with the Jewish people, then Paul was entrusted with land and sea, inhabited and uninhabited countries. 41. The Prophet Daniel (Dan. 10:12–13) tells that Angels were placed over the nations, and when the Archangels Gabriel and Michael asked God to release the Jews from Babylon, the Angel of the Persian Kingdom, on the contrary, asked to leave, for the Persians learned from the Jewish youths to worship God. 42. The Lord calls His disciples prophets, wise ones who will be persecuted. 43. Remembering past sins is a sufficient rein to pacify and make us chaste. 44. Before his baptism, the Apostle Paul was a blasphemer, a persecutor, a troublemaker, and although his sins were forgiven, he reproached himself, and this was out of humility. Humility in the Apostle Paul is manifested in the fact that, being the first of all the righteous, he called himself the first of all sinners. The Pharisee, proud, said: “I fast twice a week,” and Paul, enduring hunger, called himself a “monster.” 45. The dignity of a shepherd and teacher is not to try to gain honor and glory from his students, but to lead them to salvation. 46. ​​The shepherd tends sheep, not wolves. As long as we remain sheep, we will win, for the help of the Shepherd will not fail. 47. With all its speed and acuity of vision, the soul, in its knowledge of spiritual objects, needs a guide. 48. I do not allow my wife to teach (1 Tim. 2:12) - of course, teaching from the pulpit in a general meeting, but privately you can exhort and advise. 49. Under John Chrysostom, the church had a wall made of planks that separated men from women. 50. Sailors and helmsmen are in a hurry to cross the sea and reach the pier, but we try to constantly rush through the sea of ​​everyday passions and vices, and do not rush to the Church - the spiritual pier of the soul. 51. Noah’s Ark accepted foolish animals and kept them foolish, but the Church accepts foolish animals and changes them. 52. There are spectacles and horse races, here is praise to the celestials. There is a triumph of the devil, here there is praise of piety. Demons gallop there, and here Angels rejoice. There are harnesses and horses, and in the Church of the chariots of God there are darkness, thousands of thousands (Ps. 67:18) - God is on the Cherubim and in us. 53. Just as Eve came from the side of Adam, so we came from the side of Christ - His Flesh and from His bones, when blood and water came out on the cross, for the whole Church was made up of this Blood and water. It is said: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). Blood is called spirit. During Adam’s sleep, a wife was created; during the death of Christ, the Church was formed from His side. 54. Wisdom created for herself a house and led away seven pillars (Proverbs 9:1) - the Son of God, who became man, prepared for himself a house from the flesh of the Virgin; home - the Virgin, the Church, the soul of the faithful, the Kingdom of Christ: the seven pillars - the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments, the seven Councils. 55. Let us not be more ferocious than dumb animals, for they have everything in common: land, springs, pastures, mountains, and forests. O man, we have one common nature and a common sky, sun, moon, choir of stars, air, sea, fire, water, life, death, youth, old age, illness, health, the need for food and clothing, as well as common spiritual benefits: the sacred Table, the Body of the Lord, His Honest Blood, the promises of the Kingdom, the bath of rebirth, the cleansing of sins. 56. Rebirth, adoption to God is called the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), enlightenment (Heb. 10:32), baptism (Gal. 3:27), burial (Rom. 6:4), circumcision without hands (Col. 2:11), the cross (Rom. 6:6). 57. In the vision of the Apostle Peter, the shroud is the earth, the animals in it are pagans, and the threefold repetition is baptism. 58. Jewish cleansing - baptism - cleansed bodily impurities, but not sins of conscience. John's baptism is average, exhorting to move from vice to virtue - create fruits worthy of repentance (Luke 3:8), but did not communicate grace-filled forgiveness and gifts of the Spirit. Our baptism is apostolic baptism. 59. In baptism we were raised by the first resurrection through the remission of sins, and the second resurrection is the resurrection of the body. The first resurrection is much more important than the second, since it is more important to get rid of sins and live, and then wait for the resurrection of the body. 60. An angel descended into the pool of Siloam and troubled the water, and one was healed, and when the Lord of the Angels Himself descended into the Jordan and troubled the water, he healed the entire universe - he granted the first resurrection. The Sacrament of Baptism is one resurrection, where white clothes are given and old ones are taken off. 61. He clothed me with the garments of salvation (Isa. 61:10) - in Christ, in His glory for Eternal Life in heaven, as they say. All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). 62. I will sing Your mercies forever (of the present age - baptism, salvation), to generation and generation (that is, in the present age and the future) to proclaim Your truth (Ps. 88:2) - God the Savior. 63. The offering in the Eucharist, which Jesus taught to the disciples, and which the apostles Peter and Paul made, and which the priests make today, is the same, for the Holy Spirit performs sanctification. Everything is given by faith and grace. 64. Blood and water flowed out (John 19:34) for the sacrament of the faithful, for by water they are reborn, and feed on Blood and Flesh. 65. Just as the Son of God is of our nature, so we are His essence, and just as He has us in Himself, so we have Him in us. 66. Both those who crucified Jesus and those who unworthily partake of the Mysteries will suffer punishment. 67. Fear condemnation, for just as those who pierced the Lord did not pierce in order to drink, but to shed His blood, so also those who partook unworthily, for you should be more humble than all and become like the Angels, but you have become more hard-hearted, like Judas, who went to look for the crucifiers. 68. The believers, numbering three thousand, ate food at a common table and had everything in common in remembrance of that common meal that the Lord gave at the Last Supper. 69. The only time to begin the Mysteries is when your conscience is clear. 70. In ancient times, on Good Friday, divine services were performed outside the city in a cemetery, for the Cross and the descent into hell to the dead are remembered. 71. God gives gifts and grace, but the priest’s job is to perform only visible actions and open his mouth. What a distance there is between John and Jesus—whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie (Luke 3:16)—yet the Spirit descended at baptism. 72. Grace also acts through unworthy servants for the sake of the faithful and their salvation, God spoke through the donkey and the sorcerer, spoke to Cain for the sake of Abel, with the devil for the sake of Job, with Pharaoh for the sake of Joseph, with Nebuchadnezzar for the sake of Daniel, and Caiaphas the Christ-killer prophesied. 73. The Lord made the donkey speak and through the unclean tongue of the sorcerer Balaam sent spiritual blessings to the Jews, and now the priest only lends his tongue and stretches out his hand, and everything is arranged by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 74. Although the priest is wicked, God, seeing that out of reverence for Him you honor someone unworthy of honor, will Himself reward you. God spoke through the donkey and the wicked Balaam for the salvation of the people, especially through the priest. God also acted through Judas, who cast out evil spirits. Whoever reveres the priest will reverence God all the more. He is the Angel of God, for he speaks not his own, but Christ’s teaching; then do not listen to him when he speaks wrong teaching. 75. He who despises a priest will even go so far as to insult God. 76. Don’t condemn the priesthood. 77. Let the life of a priest be the most vicious, but those who approach the church sacraments with faith will not suffer harm. 78. Why do they kiss the hands of clergy? By the hands of the Savior, and the apostles, and priests, miracles were performed in memory of the event - then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17). Many sacraments are performed by the hands of priests. 79. The Trinity bestowed the priesthood on the sons of Adam. The priesthood is higher than royal power. 80. Enoch bore within himself the image of the Church in piety above the law, but was not circumcised, and Abraham accepted justification in uncircumcision; by faith he belongs not to the Jews, but to the Church (Rom. 4:3; Rom. 4:10). He is the father of the uncircumcised believers. 81. He who receives the righteous in the name of the righteous will receive the reward of the righteous (Matthew 10:41), so he who commemorates a martyr and saint in the Church receives their reward and blessing. 82. The stone that the builders rejected, the same one became the head of the corner (Luke 20:17) - the Jews, the teachers of the law, the Pharisees rejected the One who in the building connected two walls and one corner, into a union of two peoples - Jews and pagans, in the cause of piety, into the Church of Christ. 83. The disciples untied the donkey, the son of the one under the yoke (Matthew 21:5), and Christ sat on the colt, which typifies the Church, and the pagans, and the new people, who were once unclean. The donkey walks behind the colt, which walked quietly and calmly, expressing the submission of the pagans and the change in morals to piety. 84. What good would there be on earth if all people believed in the Gospel and lived in godliness - everyone would love each other and be loved, there would be no offense, there would be no murder, wars, theft and no evil, there would be neither slave nor free, nor superior nor subordinate, neither rich nor poor, neither small nor great. 85. Unanimity is not always good: even robbers agree. Christ wanted there to be unanimity in the matter of piety. 86. The unity of human nature impels us to unanimity. 87. There is nothing worse than discord and warfare, like tearing apart the Church and tearing into many pieces the tunic, which even the robbers did not dare to tear. 88. When entering a house, say: Peace to this house (Luke 10:5), for it is the mother of all blessings and the foundation of joy. And Christ says to the disciples: My peace I give to you (John 14:27). He paves the way for love. 89. If you beautifully grow your children in the fear of God, and those - yours, and these - theirs, then a series of better lives will go ahead, having received the beginning and root from you. If fathers raised children, then there would be no need for judgments, for the law does not lie in the piety of the righteous. 90. God resettled Enoch alive and not having tasted death, showing that the sentence over Adam could be canceled for piety, and if Adam had not sinned, he would have received even greater benefits from God. 91. Let us become a fruitful olive tree, let us prosper in deeds, fruits, and leaves. Leaves are our speech, fruits are our way of life. 92. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land (Isa. 1:19), says the Lord; seeking willing workers of piety. 93. When we say: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10), remember that in heaven there is not a single unfaithful, not a single sinner, so it must be on earth, and people must be like Angels. Stand with the Seraphim in piety and love for God, imitating your life. 94. What will we say when we are obliged to be Angels and sons of God, we are lower than the Old Testament people and the Hellenic sages, and do not even observe human duties. 95. The husband must instill piety in the family with deeds, words and everything, and the wife must see that the whole family works for the Kingdom of Heaven. 96. If your husband commands you to sacrifice and participate in his wickedness by right of marriage, then it is better to leave marriage than piety. 97. Parents are ordered to obey only that which is not contrary to piety. Honor your parents if it does not harm piety. 98. In order to accept dishonor and bonds for Christ, one must also be worthy of this. Sorrow is the teacher of wisdom and the mother of piety. 99. Just as those who want to be saved run out of a burning house, so from cities where lawlessness, untruth and debauchery flourish, lovers of Godly wisdom and piety flee into the desert, for there are many who are perishing, but those who are being saved are few. 100. After theology, the science of nature serves to establish piety. 1. Our God is Light, and His Word is Light, and the Holy and Consubstantial and Life-Giving Spirit is Light. Light, and Light, and Light, but one Light. 2. The Lord is the Creator of the universe and man, the great Lender for all of us, and we all owe to Him: heaven, earth, soul, body, breath, feelings, mind, movement given to us by God, and what will we repay the Lord for everything? 3. He has an abyss of wisdom! What benefits can we receive for the soul if we often talk with God! Prayer is a conversation with God, and it enlightens the inner man. 4. From the greatness and beauty of creatures and the universe, the Creator is known, and the more we consider the great beauty of creatures, the closer we come to the Creator. 5. The whole world consists of opposites, but great harmony is visible in it for the good of our lives. 6. The heavens will tell the glory of God (Ps. 19:2) by their appearance alone: ​​so we will proclaim the glory of God and in creation we contemplate the beauty, great benefit, rationality, expediency of the Creator, Artist, Provider, Preserver, so that neither the sea flooded the earth, nor the sun burned up invisible things, nor the sky was shaken, nor the limits of day and night were confused. 7. God placed His creation before people, which, through one contemplation of the beauty of the world - everything visible and invisible, taught the wise man, the uneducated, the Scythian, and the barbarian to ascend in thought to God. 8. About peacemaking it is said: And there was evening and there was morning: one day (Gen. 1:5). The Day of the Lord begins at the seventh hour of the night and continues until the sixth hour of the next night (this time after midnight begins with the early dawn in the east - 6 hours + 6 hours = 12 hours, midnight and the time after midnight - dawn). 9. On the first day, God created the substance of creation from non-existent things, and on subsequent days he gave form and order to creation. 10. Heaven, like a chamber, like a tabernacle, has a beginning and an end. And they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other (Matthew 24:31), and that which is established stands. 11. He gathered the waters of the sea like heaps (Ps. 32:7) into the clouds, and rain was sent (from the waters of the earth). 12. God placed some waters below, others above the vault of heaven. 13. God raised half the waters upward and the water became higher than the heavens (Ps. 149:4). The sky, condensed from the waters, was icy, and the water, which is above the heavens, and these seas of water protect the latter and resist the flame of the sun, fire and light, and the heavens do not burn, like a cauldron over fire, if there is water in the cauldron, the fire is held and the cauldron does not disintegrate, so the sky gives dew to the earth (there are no clouds, there is no water anywhere in the air). They say that on the Day of Judgment the upper waters will be removed, and the sky, having lost the stronghold of the waters, will be destroyed and the stars, having no way, will fall. And the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll of books (for that which burns is rolled up), and all their army will fall, as a leaf falls from a vine (Isa. 34:4). 14. The waters above the heavens not only preserve the sky, but also direct the light of the sun and moon down. If the sky were transparent, then all the light would rush upward, because fire by nature tends upward, and the earth would be left without light. Therefore, God covered the sky from above with a mass of water so that the light would be reflected and rush down. 15. The fruits of plants and the decorations of the earth appeared on the third day; when there were no lights yet, everything was illuminated by the light created on the first day of creation. Then, from the light that occurred on the first day, God created the sun, moon, and stars (just as coins are minted from an existing piece of gold). So, the existing and uniform light is divided into luminaries, which are established above, and by them are indicated the dates, times and changes of days. The moon that appeared on the fourth day was full, as on the fifteenth day, which has eleven extra days. The moon gives these eleven extra days, not by creation, but by light, to the sun, for the number of days resulting from the revolution of the moon each month is nine and a half, and the twelve months of the year give three hundred and fifty-four days (354 + 11 = 365). 16. On the seventh day God rested from all His works (Gen. 2:2), that is, he ceased to create from non-existence into being, and in the word My Father works until now and I work (John 5:17) - expresses Providence, the preservation of everything that exists. 17. When creating the first man, God breathed into his face the breath of life (Gen. 2:7), but man, through the fall, destroyed the gift of inspiration, and the Lord, restoring the former gift, breathed into the faces of the apostles, thereby returning the ancient vital force. 18. Adam and Eve lived like Angels. Adam was created immortal in body, and if he had kept the commandment, he would have remained alive. 19. Sin gave birth to death and sorrow. You will die death (Gen. 2:17), - it was said to Adam; You will give birth to children in pain (Gen. 3:16) - to Eve. 20. The tree is called the knowledge of good and evil, where obedience and love for God as the source of good were tested, and the crime of faith was revealed to the devil, the chief of evil. 21. Eve previously led a carefree and painless life. Living in contentment, like the Angels, she did not feel physicality from the excess of goods, now she was condemned to sadness and sighing, and childbirth, and suffering at the same time. Eve lost her equality and began to submit to her husband: Your desire is for your husband, and he will rule over you (Gen. 3:16) - after pregnancy, illness, she conceives again and endures. 22. Because of Adam’s sin in listening to his wife, the earth received a curse and did not produce fruit without sowing and cultivating, but only with great labor, effort and care. Adam lived without sorrows, labors and sorrows, now he accepted exhausting and painful work so that he recognized his nature as created by God from the earth. God did not want this state, but man himself died by breaking the commandment. 23. Cain introduced murder first, and as he acted with wickedness, like the serpent, the punishment is the same as the serpent, for it is said: Cursed are you above all cattle and above all the beasts of the field (Gen. 3:14); and now you are cursed from the earth (Gen. 4:11) - said to Cain. For his father Adam, God set labor on the cursed land (Gen. 3:17), that is, a curse was poured out on the land. For the evil use of bodily strength, Cain is punished with groaning and shaking - relaxation. After the sin of fratricide, illness entered Cain’s body - relaxation, shaking, for the body, having lost its strength, became weak, and all the members then, drooping, trembled and wavered. 24. The body before the Coming of Christ was a tomb, and we are dead men. 25. Preparing to call all pagans to salvation, the Lord in His genealogy deigned to be His relatives of vicious people and foreigners, like Tamar, the wife of Uri, Rahab, Ruth and the patriarchs born of slaves. Evangelist Matthew seems to want to shame the Jews and show that God does not disdain foreigners and that He is the God of everyone and everyone, the Kingdom of Heaven is revealed. 26. Evangelist Matthew calls his Gospel the book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, because the birth of Christ is the main thing in the entire Economy, it is the beginning and root of all the blessings given to us. 27. If God had not come, then there would be neither faith nor the pure life that we acquire from childhood. 28. The wife, deceived, found herself in a crime, but she will be saved through the childbearing of the Virgin Mary. She gave birth to the Savior from the Holy Spirit. 29. When the Jew says to you: “How did the Virgin give birth?” - say: “How the barren and old Sarah gave birth, Rachel, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Anna. There are two obstacles: advanced age and the inability of nature, and in Virgo - non-involvement in marriage.” 30. It was not easy to believe that a Virgin gave birth, but barren and elderly wives gave birth first. 31. If they ask: “How did the Virgin give birth without a husband?”, then ask them: “How did Adam give birth to Eve without a wife, how did Aaron’s rod grow, how did manna fall from heaven, how did barren Sarah give birth to Isaac?” 32. The Virgin Eve did not know joy, but the Virgin Mother of God “from now,” from that hour when it was said: Rejoice, full of grace (Luke 1:28), the Holy Spirit will come upon you (Luke 1:35), and you will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus (Luke 1:31); He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), - she said: All generations will bless Me (Luke 1:48). Until now, the humiliated female nature is pleased by all generations of people and Angels. 33. With the words “a book sealed will be given to a person who knows how to read the Scriptures” (Is. 29:11) the secret of the Most Pure Virgin betrothed to Joseph is revealed. 34. The Evangelist calls the Mother of God the Mother of Jacob. Mary the Virgin was considered the stepmother of the elder Jacob, born from Joseph's first wife, and was called Mary of Jacob. 35. Patriarch Jacob, turning his speech to Christ, says: From the growth of summer, My Son, art thou ascended (Gen. 49:9), calling the Virgin “the leaf of summer.” 36. The Son of God, out of meekness, chose for Himself and for us the Servant of the Lord as a Mother, who, according to the word of Scripture, will please all generations (Luke 1:48). 37. The angels call the mystery of the Incarnation good will - glory to God in the highest and peace on earth: good will toward men (Luke 2:14). 38. Now you sing together with the Seraphim: Holy, Holy, Holy - and this proclamation is both ours and the Seraphim’s, because Christ reconciled the heavenly and the earthly, and made both one (Eph. 2:14). 39. We see that the sun, the moon, and all the other stars go from east to west, and the star of Bethlehem flowed from the north at noon, not at night, but during the day, sometimes hiding, and sometimes appearing again, indicating the manger of the Child, and descended over the small hut. Apparently, an invisible intelligent force performed this movement and controlled the star. 40. Christ, having called the Magi, at the very beginning opens the door of faith to the pagans. 41. The Lord left 99 unlost sheep, that is, angelic forces in the mountains, in heaven, and came to the lost one, crying out: He has gone astray, like a lost sheep: seek Thy servant (Ps. 119:176), descended, bowing the heavens. 42. The Lord sends the Magi to Babylon, and He Himself goes to Egypt, showing that joys are replaced by sorrows: Joseph was embarrassed about the Virgin, an Angel consoles him, a Baby is born, and then Herod goes berserk, again the joy of the Magi, then fear from the king and flight to Egypt. 43. The Lord, covering His glory with flesh, appeared to people, hiding Himself. Christ previously spoke through the prophets, and having shown Himself in the flesh, He Himself proclaimed peace to everyone, reconciling us with God, with Himself and with our neighbors. 44. An unspeakable and wondrous glory came from Moses, and he put on the veil. So the Lord, covering His glory with flesh, appeared to people, hiding Himself. 45. Being the true Son of God, He became the Son of Man, in order to make the sons of men children of God. 46. ​​Jesus came to be baptized at the age of thirty in order to abolish the law, which He had exactly fulfilled before. 47. The Lord goes with the servants, the Judge goes with the guilty to be baptized, for He, being God, became Man. 48. Know that although you do not see a dove at Baptism, the Holy Spirit descends on the person being baptized. 49. Jesus descended into the Jordan like a fountain washed in a river, and like a hand immersed in water, for He sanctified the waters, as it is said: I, the fountain of living waters, has forsaken me (Jer. 2:13), the river of God is filled with waters. Hermon (Hermoniel) is a mountain in the Jordanian land, from where Elijah was ascended and Jesus was baptized near it in the Jordan, Jor and Dan, merging, form the Jordan. 50. After the descent of the Spirit at Baptism, Jesus was led up into the wilderness to be tempted; the devil was at a loss, knowing what was said about Jesus, he did not consider Him a simple Man, and seeing Him hungry, doubted that He was the Son of God. 51. The prophet calls Christ the right hand of God, and those who are punished with the heart in wisdom are the apostles of Christ, as having the mind of Christ. Christ - the corner stone (1 Pet. 2:6) - united the separated walls of pagans and Jews, angelic and human. 52. Christ gave us the New Testament and the grace of the Spirit. 53. In the Gospel, the Savior first performed divine works (in Cana of Galilee, the healing of a man born blind), and then began to teach. He revealed Himself as the Light of the world, the Resurrection, and the Life, and the Ruler of the world, and demons, and all creation, and taught as a sovereign, having power. 54. Powers are different from healings. One: Jesus walked on the sea, rebuking the storms of the winds; second: cleanse lepers and heal diseases. 55. In apostolic times, the pagans were rude, and they, as those of little faith, were given signs: speaking in tongues and other miracles, as a guarantee of faith, and this was to strengthen faith, and we, the faithful, do not need signs. 56. At the beginning of the gospel preaching there were many miracles, so that everyone who believed received the gift of speaking in many languages, and this for the sake of establishing faith, and when piety was established, the miracles stopped. 57. In those who believed, the root of good was well strengthened - reason and will, and those who saw miracles and did not believe showed their corrupted heart, obstinacy in evil and deliberate aversion from God. 58. First cleanse the inside (soul) of the cup and dish, so that their outside (body) may also be clean (Matthew 23:26), says Christ. 59. He who hates his own soul (John 12:25) does not listen to its wishes and lusts, as suggestions that are harmful to the soul. 60. A certain man - the primordial Adam - walked from Jerusalem - paradise - to Jericho - the world; he was caught by robbers - cruel, crafty demons - and they left him barely alive - everyday suffering: labor, childbearing. On occasion, a certain priest - the image of Moses' Old Testament ministry - was walking. A certain Samaritan - Lord Christ, the guardian of our souls, having taken on flesh - took pity, giving the New Testament, the sacraments of faith, and, putting him on his donkey - the body that He received from the Immaculate Virgin - accepted our infirmities and suffered illnesses - brought him to the hotel - the Holy Church. And leaving the next morning, that is, after the Holy Resurrection, he took out two denarii - the Old and New Testaments - and gave them to the innkeeper - the Apostle Paul, handing them over to the wounded pagan people. When I return, at the Second Coming, says the Lord, I will give you a reward for your labors (see Luke 10:30–35). 61. Forgiveness of sins is much more important (for these are diseases of the soul and only possible to God) than to heal the body. The remission of sins is a greater sign. 62. God increased the fear of the debtor of talents with a threat so that he would ask for mercy and therefore forgive him. God wants to reconcile with you, forgive you, and seeks your salvation. 63. If your right eye offends you or your hand (friends) offends you, cut it off and throw it away from you (Matthew 5:29-30) - reject the friendship of loved ones. 64. We will change the clothes of the soul. Come, beloved, let us glorify the Blessed One, so that we ourselves may receive a blessing from Him - the children on Vai Week glorified God, and the colt, as a testimony to the obedience of the new pagan people, carried the Creator. The praise of babies and those who piss prefigured the pagans, who were previously silent, and then proclaimed glory to God. 65. The lips of infants and infants (see Matt. 21:16) praised God, and this miracle was a type of the apostles, who, being infants and dumber than fish, captured the entire universe, demonstrating the power of God. 66. Hosanna in the highest (Mark 11:10) - above is salvation, and below is love for mankind - save You, Who are in the highest. 67. In the prophet Isaiah, the observer from the watchtower says: And he saw riders riding in pairs on horses, riders on donkeys, riders on camels (Is. 21:7). The rider on a donkey represents Christ as He entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey; the camel rider depicts the Antichrist coming into the world in the last days through the action of the devil. 68. I came in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; and if another comes in his own name, you will accept him (John 5:43) - it is said in condemnation of the Pharisees that they will accept the Antichrist. 69. The Antichrist will prevail only over those who are perishing, and the lips of those condemned to destruction will be stopped, for they will believe in him who commands nothing righteous, but only lawlessness. 70. If someone blasphemes the Divine law, then much more the human one, hence the disorder in our lives. 71. The purpose of the law is to make man righteous, and the Lord fulfilled it, for He did not create sin, but He grants us justification by faith, for the time has come for the highest commandments. 72. Truth is the fulfillment of commandments. 73. The commandment to love one’s neighbor has the following ascent: 1) do not begin; 2) do not retaliate for an insult, 3) remain calm while suffering an insult from another; 4) surrender oneself to suffering; 5) give more than he wants to take (and swear); 6) do not harbor hatred: 7) love even the offender; 8) do good to him; 9) pray to God for him. 74. Anger harms itself. 75. Many believe that Christ is God, but they do not love Him and do not act as those who love Him should. 76. God is glorified in the body if you do not indulge in fornication, do not become drunk, do not become satiated, and do not worry too much about external adornment. 77. Real life is a place of struggle against evil. God commanded you to beat your enemies, but you turn away from God who loves you. 78. Love is a sign of Christ’s disciples: to love and be loved. 79. Love is older than enmity. In love, as in searching for the high road, catch the beginning and it will lead you. 80. It is characteristic of a lover not to leave his beloved Christ, even if those who try to distract us from Him raise the dead. 81. God loves us more than our parents, and God’s love is as different from parental love as goodness is from wickedness. 82. Teaching us to turn to God in the prayer “Our Father,” the Savior teaches us to pray for all our brothers, for the entire human race. This introduces love, the mother of all good things. Neither the rich more than the poor, nor the master more than the slave, nor the boss more than the subordinate, nor the king more than the warrior, nor the philosopher more than the barbarian, nor the wise more than the ignorant, but the Heavenly Father gave to all one nobility, the unity of honor and love. 83. It is appropriate, through constant and pure remembrance, to have a holy thought about God in our souls, as if an indelible seal of the love of adoption and the unity of the lover with the beloved God. 84. The Apostle Paul cried: Neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39), but why do earthly things separate us? 85. If everyone loved and were loved, then no one would offend anyone, there would be no murders, no quarrels, no abuse, no indignation, no robberies, no covetousness, no evil, and the very name of vice would be unknown, and there would be no need for laws, or trials, or torture, or executions. 86. We cannot keep any commandment, as well as the very love of God and neighbor, if our thoughts wander from one to another. 87. It is commanded not to give holy things to dogs and not to cast pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6), because spiritual people have a veil over their hearts and do not understand the wisdom of God, which even from the powers above no one knew before. 88. Christ came to deliver from evil deeds not only the body, but even more so the soul, which he cleanses with grace, for the corrupted will is to blame for everything. If an eye or a hand corrupts you, remove yourself (Matthew 18:9); if you have a loved one who cannot save himself and is destroying you, or some kind of attachment, then separate from your friend, leave the vice, cut off passions - and you will avoid Gehenna. The Lord gives us a new commandment and, as a reward for virtue, gives us not Palestine, not a land flowing with milk and honey, but heaven itself. 89. There is the same difference between present and future glory as between a dream and reality. 90. There is not much distance between Angels and people if we want to establish ourselves in virtue. 91. Christianity requires both Orthodox teaching and a good life, and everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed (John 3:20) - he is afraid to turn to faith for the very reason that he does not want to show a good life. 92. No one would remain a pagan if we were Christians as we should be. 93. The Lord wants a Christian to be a teacher, leaven, light and salt for the universe, for all this benefits others. Teaching by deeds is more convincing and reliable than teaching by words: some look at it, others hear about it. And the power of virtue stops the lips of enemies. 94. For the Jews, Moses was the mediator, as a servant in the house of God, and they were promised earthly blessings - an earth boiling with honey and milk, but for Christians - the Son of God and promises us life in heaven - to leave the earthly, bodily, and accept the spiritual. 95. The body is God’s creation, and corruption and death are introduced by sin; if grace abolishes corruption and death, then a heavenly, eternal body is given to us. 96. Captivity captivated (Ps. 67:19) - the Lord recreated those enslaved to sin by grace and gave a guarantee of immortality. 97. Watch, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. But you know that if the owner of the house knew in what watch the thief (thief, death) would come (Matthew 24:42–43), then send all the treasures to the Heavenly Fatherland. 98. The greatest evil - death - introduced by the devil, the wisdom of God turned the martyrs into honor and glory, for with it paradise is opened. 99. You struggle on earth, but you will receive your reward in heaven, but be patient here. If you seek eternal glory, peace and joy, then endure dishonor, sorrow and reject the temporary. 100. Life on earth is temporary and the sorrows in it are temporary, but the future life is eternal and bliss. 1. “I recognize,” says the saint, “two people, one visible and the other hidden in the visible. We have an inner man, and what constitutes our perfection, we have in the rational soul, so that the body is only an instrument of the human soul, but what constitutes the soul is actually a man.” 2. Just as you take great care of your body, take care of your soul and clothe it. 3. In animals, all virtue consists in the good condition of the body, and in humans - in the nobility of the soul. 4. People have a rational soul, while animals have a feeling soul. 5. If you have reason, answer the sincere: if not, then let your hand be on your lips (Sir. 5:14). 6. God teaches the mind of man, teaching him to distinguish between good and evil, harmful and useful. 7. A person gifted with reason received the natural right of superiority and power in the world by the power of his mind, extensive ability of reasoning, and a free and immortal spirit. 8. He who calls the sun bright does not add light to it, and he who calls it warm does not diminish its essence, but reveals his own reason and foolishness, and so in spiritual bodies - one creates salvation, and the other rejects it. 9. Just as an unbridled horse, throwing off the bridle from its lips and throwing its rider from its ridge, rushes faster than any wind and becomes unapproachable to those it meets, so the soul, rejecting the fear of God that bridles it and throwing away the reason that controls it, runs through the countries of wickedness until, rushing into the abyss of destruction, it overthrows its own salvation into the abyss. 10. Judas did not benefit from being with Christ. But the devil did not harm Job, Judas was foolish, and Job was prudent. 11. God gave an innate law for reason, like a helmsman for a ship, like a rider for a horse. 12. The prophet calls: Sing a new song to the Lord (Ps. 149:1), for a new covenant has been given (Heb. 8:8), and in Christ there is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), and man puts on the new, which is renewed in the mind (Col. 3:9–10). 13. You can be stupid by nature, and you can be, even with intelligence, deviating into passion and error, for the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, and ignorance of God is stupidity, and this comes from pride. 14. Pride and insolence deprive a person of sound reason, and he places himself either above all people, or below and dumb. 15. Saturation brings one closer to old age, dulls the senses, darkens thought, blinds the discerning mind, fills the body with moisture, accumulates pus, causes many diseases and produces great heaviness and excessive obesity. 16. Reason is the ruler of passions. So, if you rule over the beasts, then rule over the inner beasts. Rule over your thoughts and know whom to accept and whom to drive away. 17. The human mind, burdened with thousands of worries, is not able to look clearly at the truth. 18. The mind, not scattered over external objects and not diffused through feelings throughout the world, gathers into itself, and through itself rises to the thought of God and, shining with this beauty, forgets even nature itself and is not carried away by either the care of food or the care of clothing, but free from earthly worries, directs all its efforts to the acquisition of eternal blessings, of which we all may be worthy in Christ Jesus the Lord. 19. During prayer, we talk with God, with the Angels and withdraw from communication with irrational beings. 20. He has an abyss of wisdom! What benefits can we receive for the soul if we often talk with God! 21. In prayer, a person ascends to immortal life and becomes above death and corruption. 22. A soul that does not force itself to prayer is dead, and unhappy, and stinking; prayer and service to God, as a sign of righteousness, clothes with spiritual and Divine clothing. 23. The parable of the unrighteous judge and the widow shows the power of prayer, for neither fear, nor threat, nor shame from trampling on justice brought the cruel, wicked and man-hating judge to compassion, but only humble prayer. What is the power of prayer and its fruits when we ask God, the Lover of Mankind! Many of the righteous managed to save cities, nations and the entire universe through prayers. You are the church of God, do not look for a place to pray, you only need a spiritual disposition; pray in the washbasin, on the road, in bed, and wherever you are - pray. Jeremiah prayed in a pit, Daniel in the lion's den, the three youths in the cave, the thief on the cross, Job in the dungeon, Moses by the sea, Jonah in the belly of the whale; and God listened to them. 24. So, I beg you, never abandon the rules of this prayer, but whether you eat, drink, travel, or whatever you do, constantly cry out: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us,” for the very memory of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ excites us to fight our enemies. This memory can humble the heart, it can expose the sin living in us, and this same memory can destroy it; this memory can shake all the power of the enemy in the heart. 25. If your heart is free from impure passions, then wherever you are - whether in the marketplace, at home, in court, at sea, in a hotel or in a workshop - you can pray to God everywhere. 26. It is also possible for a wife, sitting at a spinning wheel and engaged in weaving, to turn her mind to God and call upon God fervently; It is also possible for your husband, going out to the square or going about his business, to perform fervent prayers. For another, sitting in a workshop and sewing leather, one can lift one’s soul to the Lord. A servant can, while shopping, going up, going down, and working in the kitchen, perform sincere and fervent prayer. 27. Pray unceasingly without anger and reflection, because any reflection removes the mind from God to worldly concerns and pleasures. This is the battle of the soul: not to agree with unclean thoughts and not to pay attention to what the ancient painter - the devil - depicts in the heart, presenting images, sometimes appearance and color, and faces; and a deceived person, being in one place, thinks that he is in other places, and it seems to him that he sees, speaks with people and is engaged in deeds that are the devil’s deceptions. It is necessary to restrain and control the mind, bridle it, tame every thought and every suggestion of the evil one by invoking the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and where the body is, there let the mind be, so that between God and the heart there is no mediastinum that darkens the heart and removes it from God. If it ever happens that the devil captivates the mind, then one should not dwell on the thoughts for long, so that consent to the matter will not be counted as a sin before God on the Day of Judgment, when God will judge the secrets of people. 28. Therefore, continually keep in your heart the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the heart absorbs the Lord and the Lord the heart, and thus the two become one. This is not a matter of one or two days, but requires a long time of struggle and labor, until the enemy is driven out and Christ moves in, for our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, and against the authorities, and against the spiritual forces of malice (Eph. 6:12). 29. It is appropriate to guard your heart with all caution, so as not to somehow lose the thought of God or desecrate the memory of His miracles with vain thoughts. Rule over your thoughts and know whom to accept and whom to drive away. If any thought forcibly penetrates, you should strangle it inside and not allow it to reveal itself in deeds and words, for in evil thoughts the source of evil and wickedness. 30. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ, descending into the depths of the heart, humbles the dragon that controls thoughts, and saves and gives life to the soul. 31. What you sow, so shall you reap: Cain introduced murder - it is determined: there will be groaning and trembling on the earth (Gen. 4:12), Cornelius sowed alms and prayer - accepted the apostle and received the Spirit and salvation. 32. Therefore, give all your time to the Lord our God and remain with this until He has mercy on us, and do not seek anything else except mercy from the Lord of glory. 33. When seeking mercy, seek it with a humble and contrite heart and cry out from morning to evening and, if possible, all night: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us,” and compel your mind to this matter until death. Truly, this work requires a lot of effort, because you enter a narrow gate and a narrow path into the stomach (Matthew 7:14) and those who use effort enter it. 34. The Lord commanded to cry out: “Our Father,” so that we, having learned to have a common Father, would show brotherly affection and love to each other and seek the Heavenly Fatherland. 35. When praying, do not say unnecessary things and do not talk idle talk, do not ask for power, glory, victory over enemies, or a lot of wealth. Teaching us to turn to God in the prayer “Our Father,” the Savior, firstly, shows us the dignity of sonhood and the greatness of good deeds, teaches us to pray for all our brothers, for the entire human race. 36. We must pray that the earth will reveal other Angels, that error will be destroyed and truth and virtue will be planted. Pray, it is said, for those who bring evil upon us, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:44–45). 37. Holy to saints, for it is better to offer prayers with two or three who keep the law of God than to gather together the wrongdoers. 38. The Apostle in his Epistle to Timothy teaches us to pray for everyone, even for kings, who at that time were more wicked than the pagans, for this is not a matter of flattery, but of justice, so that we may live a quiet and silent life. 39. Pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, our God who am a stranger on earth, open my eyes and I will understand the wonders of Your law.” 40. When we have to go to the authorities, we put ourselves and our clothes in order and enter into conversation with respect and fear, and when we approach God, we yawn, scratch ourselves, turn around, and wander in our thoughts. A righteous person who has learned to talk with God becomes an Angel. 41. Let your petitions be made known to God with thanksgiving. Just as we demand nothing from the poor and those who have nothing except gratitude and gratitude, so everyone, thanking God, does not add anything to the One to whom praise and thanksgiving are offered, but reveals the disposition of the heart and the humility of the poor soul before the One who has mercy. 42. Prayer requires not so much a word as a thought; not so much the movement of the hands as the tension of the soul; not so much a certain position of the body as a state of mind. 43. There is nothing, beloved, equal to prayer, there is nothing more powerful than faith. 44. The grace of the Spirit has made us ourselves churches of God. 45. God listens to us and gives us what we ask for under the following conditions: 1) if we are worthy of receiving what we ask for; 2) if we pray in accordance with the laws of God; 3) if we pray unceasingly; 4) if we do not ask for worldly things; 5) if we ask for something useful: 6) if we do what is due on our part. 46. ​​The soul, singing a prayer song with a melody, easily endures boredom and work. Be filled with the Spirit, singing, in your hearts to the Lord with understanding, so that the soul does not wander somewhere on external objects, but so that the soul listens to what the tongue says. 47. Psalms can be sung without a voice, as long as the thought sounds inside, because we sing not to a person, but to God, and He hears the voice of the heart and penetrates into our innermost thoughts. 48. There are three forms of praise: in word, in contemplation, in life and in deeds. 49. Not by differences of nature, but by differences of will, some are sheep and others are kids (who did not produce milk, offspring, or wool due to immaturity of age). 50. Man has the power to be both God, and an Angel, and the son of God, for he is little less than the Angels, only by death, and then for a short time. 51. The same weapon is used by both a warrior, defending the fatherland, and a robber, attacking citizens, so the body can be a weapon for vice and for virtue - it all depends on the will. 52. There is a soul, there is a body - two essences. There is physical beauty, there is beauty of the soul. One is from nature, the other from arbitrariness, will. 53. And man became a living soul, that is, an active soul, which has members of the body as instruments of its actions, submissive to its will. 54. The essence of sin lies not in nature, but in the spiritual disposition. 55. Man has nothing except his own will. 56. And Judas became a traitor, but this is a shame not to the apostleship, but to his evil will. 57. We accept God according to our own free will and everyone freely, one chooses error, another perceives God, and God becomes our inheritance by choice. 58. This is the will of God - your holiness, remembering the two sides of virtue - avoiding evil and doing good. 59. The Lord seeks the pearl of faith, and goodness, and nobility of will in man. 60. It is in our power for God to have mercy on us. 61. God wants us to voluntarily become good. It is more difficult to convince human freedom than to create nature. 62. When a house burns, blame not the fire, but the arsonist, for fire is given for cooking food, for lighting and for many other needs. In the same way, blame neither your eyes, nor your ears, nor your tongue, nor your hands, nor your feet, nor your feelings, but your will. 63. If you have become merciful from a hard-hearted person and a thief, then you have healed a withered hand; if, leaving immodest spectacles, he went to church, then he corrected his lame leg; if he turned away his eyes from harlots, then he opened his blind eyes; if instead of satanic depraved songs you learned spiritual psalms, then, being mute, you began to speak, then signs and wonders and manifestations of God’s mercy happened to you. 64. If an ugly soul obeys God, it will correct its ugliness and become good-looking. 65. It is not a place, but a way of life and will that saves - Adam in paradise, as if in a pier, was shipwrecked, and Lot, living among the Sodomites, as if in the sea, was saved. 66. For a mother, giving birth to children is a matter of nature, and raising them in piety is a matter of the mother’s will, and the Maccabean woman sacrificed all seven sons to God. A wife is saved for the sake of childbearing if the children remain in faith, and love, and in holiness with chastity, for birth is a matter of nature, and education in good morals is a matter of free will 67. Slavery and freedom do not depend on us, nor does tall and short stature, old age and youth, but to be meek depends on our will. 68. Job showed such virtue when there was no Scripture, law, teaching, righteous people, and the darkness of wickedness was around. 69. The Sodomites, from young men to old men, demanded that the strangers be sent away. Lot offered two daughters, but you will not offend this husband (Gen. 19:8). What virtue is there in the righteous! 70. What does virtue mean and what does vice mean - the salvation of Lot in Zoar and the punishment of the Sodomites, and the barrenness of the earth from the wicked. 71. Do not seek to see one dead person risen, when we believe that all the dead will rise, but seek a virtuous life. 72. Just as food gives life to a person, so good deeds attract the Spirit, and if we have the Spirit, then we will have virtue. 73. Man, according to Scripture, is not the one who has arms, legs and mind, but the one who zealously exercises himself in piety and virtue, that is, true, blameless, righteous, pious (Job 1:1). 74. The Lord, by His teaching, destroys from the very roots anger, addiction to the flesh, to wealth, to fame and to real life, and raises it to heaven itself; for to endure being buffeted is higher than to be meek; giving one's shirt and clothes is higher than being merciful; to endure insults is a higher virtue than to be righteous; to endure beatings and not resist means more than to be a peacemaker; It is more important to bless the persecutor than to be persecuted. 75. Every day, Gehenna, the Kingdom of Heaven, reward, repentance are announced, and only a few decide to perform feats of virtue, while many cover up their own negligence with Divine Scripture, without delving into who it is said about, by whom, to whom, for what, when and how. 76. The scriptures and words of the saints reveal the image and beauty of the soul. 77. The rational soul is higher than the entire universe. 78. There is nothing more beautiful and kind than a kind soul - it adorns the whole person. 79. Beauty of the soul: chastity, modesty, mercy, love, friendliness, fear of God, truth. 80. Truth is your virtue, leading to heaven. Truth is the fulfillment of the commandments. 81. Christ introduced His laws not to overthrow the general order, but to better correct it and establish peace. 82. Without virtue there can be no peace. 83. In this world, everyone, as a traveler, uses the earth as an inn; his only wealth that he will take with him is piety and virtue. 84. The universal virtue is to be a stranger and a stranger in this world. 85. Before virtue, all the wealth of the universe is worse than dirt, less than a straw. 86. It is difficult to walk on a tightrope or, placing a pole on your face and placing a child on it, to perform exercises or play with balls on swords, but virtue and art are easier - to ascend to heaven if you wish, 87. The vice of pride does not allow any virtue to take root in a person’s soul and exert its saving effect. 88. Every good word is the fruit of love, such a doer is near God. 89. There are good deeds that apply to us: fasting, virginity, chastity, and they extend to our neighbors: alms, instruction, love. 90. Of the good deeds, those that serve the benefit of others are valued most highly. 91. During the ministry of St. John Chrysostom, the Church supported up to three thousand widows, virgins and others, in addition, prisoners in prison, those staying in an inn, strangers, cripples sitting at the church and others who came. 92. Christ, who fed five thousand people and a family of four thousand with five loaves, could not he have fed Himself and those with Him? But by this He shows that by accepting the service of others, He provides benefits to those who serve and are merciful. 93. And the virgins, who took care of themselves and buried their talent, are condemned for not serving their neighbors. 94. Harlots also have decoration of the body, for they dress in the most valuable and brilliant clothes, but only the virtuous have decoration of the soul. 95. “Like a golden ornament in the nostrils of a pig, so is the beauty of a wife more wicked.” It is said to look for true beauty in the soul and spirit of a person. 96. Make sure that your professional pursuits become a virtue and not a consequence of necessity. 97. A superior should surpass his subordinates not in honor, but in virtues. 98. Let us stock up on the oil of good deeds in abundance, and transfer everything to heaven, so that we can enjoy this spiritual wealth in due time. 99. He who takes proper care of the soul will, by preserving the soul, preserve the whole body. 100. Give all your time to the Lord our God and remain with this until He has mercy on us, and do not seek anything else except mercy from the Lord of glory. 1. Not poverty, not illness, not resentment, not slander, not dishonor, and not even death, but only sin, of all human evils, is real evil. 2. Just as the Lord punished Lot’s contemporaries, Noah, for their atrocities, so He will also punish us, who commit so much evil. 3. So, crime is evil, and not knowledge itself. After the crime, Adam learned murder, fornication, theft, and idolatry. 4. Oh, the evil conscience of a dirty soul, beating up innocent babies, reaching the point of murdering Christ. Isaiah was sawed to death, Jeremiah was killed, Zechariah was killed, while the beasts spared Daniel. 5. He who does evil does not know love and does not know God. 6. Not doing good shows laziness, and laziness is a reason for evil, an integral part of evil. 7. During Noah’s global flood, the leaven and the cause of evil, and the teacher of evil, were destroyed. 8. Real life is a place of struggle against evil. 9. How can you know that you have a human soul when you kick like a donkey, are vindictive like a camel, bite like a bear, predatory like a wolf, steal like a fox, cunning like a snake, shameless like a dog. 10. The depravity of water is bitterness, the depravity of the body is illness, the depravity of the soul is anger. 11. Christ wants to dwell with you, but you introduce evil thoughts into your soul. 12. Many, having a dead soul devoid of grace, bury it, as in a grave, in their body. The living are dead. 13. When someone close and loved by us dies, we grieve and cry, and when our soul dies because we are following the broad path, we laugh. 14. Just as the sun does not bring much benefit to a blind man, so the truth has no effect on a corrupt soul. 15. The doctor takes pity on the sick and the raving, although he causes offense; You too have pity on those who are angry, for they are sick at heart and unhappy, remember how the Lord prayed for such - let them go, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). 16. Passions do not come from nature, but from desires. 17. You tame a wild lion by nature and make it meek and tame, although it has no reason, but you do not tame yourself in anger and passions. 18. With effort, we tame elephants and wild horses, which means we can tame our passions; a person can become both an Angel and a beast. 19. Reason is the ruler of passions. So, if you rule over the beasts, then rule over the inner beasts. Rule over your thoughts and know whom to accept and whom to drive away. 20. Children consider grandmothers, balls, dolls, toys to be important things, and foolish sinners consider feasts, fornication and luxury. Man, be a man, for, living madly, you are an ox; stealing someone else's property, you are a wolf; indulging in fornication, you are a pig or a mad horse; living treacherously, you are a serpent and an asp; acting recklessly, you are an ass; when you are rebellious and insensitive, you are a stone. But the Lord said before your existence: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). 21. The soul, succumbing to the influence of stupid servants - the senses of hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch, is often corrupted. 22. We must take more care of our words and not trust everyone indiscriminately. The tongue, if you bridle it and learn to walk smoothly, it will be like a royal horse on which the king sits, and if you leave it unbridled, it will be a chariot of the devil and demons. 23. Just as we fear not so much a tied animal as an untethered one, so we are less afraid of vice and passions during grief. 24. Deny both disputes (2 Tim. 2:23), for they end in quarrel, enmity, insult, slander. If God is the God of peace, then how can a servant of the God of peace quarrel? 25. They are greatly embarrassed if they call people according to their deeds: you are an adulterer, a drunkard, a thief, a liar, although they willingly do what is unlawful. 26. Fornicators, thieves, and debauchees have a coffin body in which a dead soul lies, and the Master does not know such people and will say to them: we do not know you (Matthew 25:12). 27. An unclean man, wallowing among the bodies of women like a pig in the mud, greedy for money, set his way of life as a rule, and how he will come to Christ, to the truth, when a righteous life is the truth. 28. Man, with the same eyes you look at vile adultery and at the sacred meal, with the same ears you hear the foul-mouthed harlot and the prophet and apostle teaching you; hence - corruption, breakdown of marriages, strife, quarrels in families. 29. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah invented (together with the devil) a hitherto unknown lawlessness - they invented an unnatural mixture, and were so inclined towards evil and depravity and did not show the possibility of correction and healing that they had to be exterminated. 30. The Athenian people and their wise men were infected with wickedness, for mixing with harlots, although lawless, was natural, and sodomy was both illegal and unnatural. If there were no Gehenna, it would be worse than any punishment. Homosexuals are worse than murderers, for a murderer tears the soul from the body, but this one destroys the soul along with the body. Whatever sin you call, none will be equal to this lawlessness. The homosexual did not become a woman and ruined his existence as a man, and became a common traitor to both natures, and is worthy of expulsion from men and women and stoning, since he insulted both sexes and made himself an animal more despicable than a dog. 31. Sinners and drunkards loved wine and Dionysus was revered as the god of drunkenness, Venus as the goddess of fornication, and Hermes as the god of theft. A drunk is worse than a demoniac, for we pity the demoniac, but we turn away from the drunken one. Dumb animals drink as long as they feel thirsty, limit themselves to need, but drunkards are worse than demoniacs and do a lot of evil. 32. Just as a worm eats wood, rust eats iron, moth eats fabric, so vanity destroys the soul. 33. He who seeks the glory of the people becomes fearful, vile, a flatterer, a hypocrite. What's glory? The people are not God, who must answer for everything. 34. Human glory is like the flower of grass. 35. Compare the glory of Nero and the dishonor and labors of Paul. 36. Peter was allowed to fall because he contradicted and put himself above others, and attributed everything to himself. 37. Fiery Peter, accustomed to contradicting Christ, turning away from the suffering of the cross, when washing his feet, could have fallen into pride because of his ardor, so the Lord left him without help, and he denied in order to recognize his weakness. 38. There are unnatural passions, like the love of wealth. 39. If some robber runs along the roads, robs, attacks, kidnaps, buries gold and silver, and has great wealth, can you call him blessed, for he gets drunk, indulges in gluttony, drunkenness and joy. On the contrary, he is an unhappy person; he can be captured, brought to justice, or put in prison. He is unhappy and has an unhappy future ahead of him. Think the same way about rich people who are selfish. They are the same robbers, robbing their neighbors, hoarding wealth, and hard-hearted. A terrible trial, torture, and pitch darkness await them. Therefore, the blessed are not the rich, but the virtuous. So, let's leave covetousness, luxury and vanity. 40. God created everything common to everyone: air, sun, water, earth, sky, sea, light, stars - he divided it equally among everyone, as if between brothers and to all people he gave the same nature, body and soul, and if everyone is used as common, then there is no discord, but if someone takes something away and turns it into his own property, then discord and disunity arise, for nature itself is indignant at this. While God gathers us from everywhere, we try with special zeal to separate ourselves from each other, to separate ourselves from each other, forming a private possession, and we say cold words: “This is yours, and this is mine.” 41. Love God more than money. Love recognizes its property as belonging to everyone. 42. Serving God and mammon cannot be combined together; mammon commands us to admire what belongs to others, and God commands us to give away our own. 43. As a result of the love of money, the laws of nature were distorted, kinship alliances were shaken, and the morals of everyday life were destroyed. 44. Wealth and love of money are a monster that devours the soul, for not a single lover of money has ever been a lover of mankind, and whoever is not a lover of mankind does not love Christ. 45. The root of all evil is the love of money; it is closest to the rich. 46. ​​He who is partial to wealth cannot love not only his enemies, but also his neighbors. 47. Everyone is trying to acquire more on earth, but we are not worried about acquiring eternal blessings. 48. Enmity is either from love of money or from vanity. 49. The sin of harlots and tax collectors comes from rude love: for some - for the body, for others - for money. 50. Do not love bloodthirsty gold, do not prepare a large house of stones, but prepare a church not made by hands, endowed with reason, decorate it with virtue. 51. There are miserable people who decorate their houses with golden ceilings, and multi-colored stones, and picturesque paintings, and shiny pillars, but leave their souls full of dirt, smoke, a great stench, in sinful desolation. 52. He who loves luxury steals, abducts, commits violence; shows and games give rise to adultery, slander, intemperance, losses, disputes, and abuse. Many donkeys, horses, cows and other livestock died from gluttony. Like them, the rich man, who had reached the pinnacle of abundance and luxury, was cruel and inhuman and more savage than even the dogs who had compassion for the beggar Lazarus. 53. Rich man, is there anything that is yours? What you received from your parents, from your ancestors, belongs to God. 54. You give an account: did you spend your money on harlots or on the poor; on parasites or those in need; for debauchery or philanthropy; for pleasure, delicacy and drunkenness or for helping the unfortunate. 55. Let those who eat bread in vain and live in idleness be ashamed. 56. The poor need only food and clothing, but the rich need villages, houses, quitrents, honor, security, and glory. 57. If you still lock up wheat, raise its price and invent more ways to make a profit, then what hope do you have of salvation? You are commanded to give freely to the hungry, but you do not want to give even at a reasonable price. 58. Vanity of vanities - the acquisition of an abundance of gold, a crowd of servants, pride and vanity, arrogance and arrogance, for all this did not come from God and does not have a good purpose. 59. The rich need wars and slaves, but the poor do not even need the king himself. 60. Rich man, give your gold to the poor and you will not be afraid of robbers, as the proverb says: “Even a hundred men cannot rob the poor and the needy.” 61. Only by giving your wealth to the poor and needy will you acquire a good name. 62. Many things on earth are like children's games. Today judges are adorned with honors, ride in chariots, are invested with power, imprison others and punish, and tomorrow the defendants themselves are deprived of everything, everything disappears and they themselves die. 63. True wealth is known in virtue, and in shiny clothes how does a rich man differ from a workshop and hangers? The rich man, seeing the splendor of his body, his power, the helpfulness of parasites and flatterers, precious clothes and signs of power, forgets about his nature, about death, about the earth, about the graves of his ancestors, about the present and the future. 64. Like Nebuchadnezzar, we surprise others with clothes, houses, horses and other ridiculous glory, but not with philosophy, for the golden image and the tormenting power of mammon always stands before us. Service to God and mammon cannot be combined; Mammon orders to steal someone else's, and God commands to give away one's own: God commands to lead a chaste life, Mammon commands to live a prodigal life; God commands to bridle the stomach and not get drunk with wine, Mammon commands: “eat, drink, be merry”; God commands you to seek spiritual blessings, and mammon commands you to cleave to earthly pleasures, so that mammon and your womb will be your god, mistress, and tormentor. 65. Rich man, what are you boasting about? - horses, many servants, parasites and flatterers? 66. The reason for serving idols is feasts, drinking parties, flutes, timbrels, shameless speeches without any shame and even more shameful deeds, gluttony, drunkenness, shameful acts and rages. 67. The essence of the body, of beauty, is moisture, the juice of food eaten, through which the body receives fullness; also wealth, power and everything earthly is impermanent. 68. God commands us to ask for daily bread not for overeating, but for nutrition, not for luxurious dishes and wines, which burden the stomach and darken the mind. 69. He who boasts in worldly affairs is like one who rejoices in a dream. 70. Wealth is combined with pride. 71. The vice inherent in poverty is lying, and in the rich it is pride. 72. The Jews did not believe because of pride. 73. Nebuchadnezzar became proud and fell to the baseness of beasts. 74. From great pride comes madness and destruction. Pharaoh rejected God out of pride and said: We do not know the Lord (Ex. 5:2), and for this he became more despicable than mice, frogs and flies and drowned with his weapons and horses. 75. O man, akin to earth and ashes and fickle: rich today, poor tomorrow; today healthy, tomorrow sick; today he is happy, tomorrow he is sad; today in glory, tomorrow in dishonor; today young, tomorrow old; today on the seat, tomorrow in the coffin. Do not be arrogant, but curb your pride. 76. Why did we become slaves of people? Because before we became slaves of the belly, money, fame, we sold the freedom that Christ gave, and although there are many mansions in the Father’s house, the slave does not dwell in the Father’s house. 77. Be a servant of Christ, and not a slave of man. 78. Do not be a slave of what God has made you master. 79. For this reason, God gave us hands and feet, so that we would not need servants, since Adam was created without slaves, and slavery comes from sin and disobedience. 80. Ham, when the whole universe perished, showed intemperance in the ark and Canaan was born. Sin deprived Canaan Ham of his freedom and led him into slavery. This is where slavery began. 81. Only the one who has acquired inner freedom is free; he is equally a slave, although he is rich, who is in the grip of passions and vices. 82. A slave is free if he is freed from passions and lives chastely, like Joseph, who shone in slavery with his highest freedom. Slavery to sin is destructive, which, like a tyrant, forced the Egyptian woman to beg the captive and the slave to ridicule. 83. The house of the soul - the body - we dress with many ornaments, but the mistress - the soul - is naked, for she has no virtue. 84. The death of the soul is wickedness and lawless life, and separation from God, and the life of the soul is service to God and virtuous morals. 85. Our soul, like a maiden in some palace, calmly resides in the center of the heart. 86. From luxury, the best part - the soul - becomes a slave, and the lower part - the body - becomes a mistress. 87. The soul in the body is like a driver for a chariot, or a helmsman for a ship, or a musician for an instrument. 88. What a bridle is to a horse, so is work to our nature. 89. The great Apostle Paul, after many journeys and many miracles, when he was honored by angels and trembled by demons, lived in the workshop of a skin maker and sewed leather, showing us an example of humility and hard work. Abraham had 318 household members, but he himself, with his own hands, worked and received strangers. 90. God gave you hands not so that you could accept from others, but so that you could work and give to those in need. When we do not give to the needy, if we spend on fornication, drunkenness, satiety, rich clothes, then we are thieves, for what surrounds us is the property of God. 91. God said to Noah: And behold, I will destroy them and the land. Make yourself an ark of trees that do not rot (Gen. 6:13–14), for the universe needs cleansing and the flow of wickedness must be stopped. What kind of work Noah endured, for he created all the things that the Lord commanded him (Gen. 6:22) - he built a ship, brought in sons and animals, birds, creeping things, and a supply of food. 92. When we do good, we must do it with diligence. 93. When two of the disciples asked the Lord for primacy, He answered: My gift is not mine, but for them it has been prepared from My Father (Matthew 20:23) for faith, deeds and labors. This is similar to the fact that if the athletes demanded the championship award from the head of the lists before the competition, he would, in fairness and impartiality, say that he cannot violate the law of wrestling and the reward will be reserved for exploits. 94. Make sure that neither wealth, nor health, nor fame means anything, for there are people who could get rich, but do not acquire anything, exhaust their bodies and live not in glory, but in contempt and humility. 95. If you want to be humble, then do not be meek with one and impudent with another, but be meek with everyone, be it friend or foe, great or small. 96. The Lord takes pity on the sinner who does not pity himself. For I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29) - God is meek, but man is arrogant. The judge is meek, but the defendant is proud. 97. Christ washed the feet of the traitor, the blasphemer and the predator and made him a partaker of the meal - an image of this long-suffering and humility (Lenten Triodion). This teaches us to do good to people who do evil, even when they are incorrigible. 98. Just as we do not demand anything from the poor except gratitude, so everyone, thanking God, does not add anything to the One to whom praise and thanksgiving are offered, but reveals the disposition of the heart and the humility of the poor soul before the One who has mercy, and nourishes, and lives. 99. With faith, show courage and humility. Adam obeyed his wife, did not show love for God and fell from heaven of sweets, brought a curse on the earth and received death as his inheritance. Job, having not listened to his wife, received deliverance from the devil, the dung heap, received blessings and the Kingdom of Heaven. 1. The devil has been a murderer from time immemorial (John 8:44) and Christ showed this: when he allowed demons to enter the swine herd, the demons drowned the entire herd in the sea, so that you knew that they would have destroyed people if God had allowed them. 2. The devil sows lies. He deceived Eve and she promised Adam to be blessed and god, but became a navvy, and unfortunate, and mortal. 3. Adam, where are you? (Gen. 3:9). This means: you tasted and remained a man, and turned out to be a criminal, but wanted to become a god. 4. The devil promised people to be gods, but made them wanderers and mortals. The snake used to be able to walk and stand upright and was on friendly terms with people, but was punished by crawling and hostility towards him. The invisible demon is punished with the visible serpent (as the Gadarene pigs were drowned), and people are given repentance for their labors, sorrows and sorrows. 5. Adam was easily expelled by the devil from paradise, but Job could not be expelled from the dungeon. 6. Adam was in paradise, but since he angered God, paradise did not help him in any way, and the youths in the field of Deir, being in the oven, and the oven did not harm them. 7. Striking Job, the devil kept his wife for him as his weapon for temptation, but if in paradise he met Adam and Eve and deceived both, then here he found Eve, but did not find Adam, for Job, having listened to the words of the wife’s murmuring and blasphemy and looking at his wife and the devil nesting in her, said: For you alone spoke from foolish women; If good things are received from the hand of the Lord, will we not endure the evil ones? (Job 2:10). 8. Adam fell in paradise, and Job emerged victorious from the dungeon. 9. The devil constantly persecutes the people of God, and there is no place on earth where one can get rid of his persecution. Only the sky is inaccessible to the enemy. Strive for heaven, where Christ is (Col. 3:1), for our life is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), where there is no devil. 10. The Lord and Savior himself was tempted by the devil, and all people face temptation. Evil spirits, like executioners, carry out punishment on evil people, as the Apostle Paul writes: Those who fell away from the faith, whom they delivered to Satan, so that they would be punished, do not blaspheme (1 Tim. 1:19–20), and also the fornicator who committed this crime, deliver him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved (1 Cor. 5:3–5 ). 11. The Apostle Paul often used the devil as an executioner. And the executioners punish criminals as the judge orders. He who is clothed with a body disposes of the incorporeal, like an executioner. 12. Wounds are better than kisses, for distinguish between enemy and friend, hypocrisy and truth. The Apostle Paul handed over the incestuous man to Satan, Judas kissed the Savior. You will be like gods (Gen. 3:5), said Satan, and you are earth and you will go back to earth (ikos of the canon about repose), says the One who ascends to heaven. 13. Turn all your anger towards the devil; he is your only irreconcilable enemy, and man, no matter what he does, is always our friend and brother. 14. We ourselves are not trying so much for our salvation as the devil is for our destruction. 15. The devil, as the prince of this age, rules in this age, he has more servants than God, and people obey him more willingly than God. 16. I sowed you like wheat (Luke 22:31) - means to lead, lead, shake, move, shake, torment, as happens with substances sifted through a sieve. 17. If the devil did not dare to enter the herd of swine without God’s permission, then much less into human souls. This is allowed for punishment, or testing, or admonition. And Satan entered into Judas only when he was separated from the sacred flock. 18. By his sins, man himself calls on the devil and instills in himself, like Judas, like a thief. 19. He who does not harm himself will not be harmed by anyone. 20. Judas was called before Saul. There was a thief and suffered damage, like a house from the wind, for it was built on sand. 21. We are not so much watching the thieves as the thieves are watching us, so the devil keeps an eye on everyone, looking for someone to devour. 22. Although the devil defeats us, it is not by force, but we voluntarily submit to his suggestions. 23. If any thought penetrates by force, you should strangle it inside and not allow it to reveal itself in deeds and words. 24. The bird is high in the sky - it’s not easy to catch it. And the devil is like a bird catcher. Just as a bird caught in a net has no use for its wings, so you have no use for your mind, if you have fallen under the power of evil lust, you are in captivity. 25. There have been and will be heretics, for the devil always mixes lies with the truth. 26. The demon slanders the elements and torments those possessed by the course of the moon, but this does not mean that the moon is active - no; The demon himself resorts to such a trick. People call patients lunatics. 27. The dumb have a natural premonition: swallows have a presentiment of spring, cranes - autumn, ants - winter, and also predictions among doctors, advisers, helmsmen. There is general and folk knowledge of the future. The devil predicts in fortune telling. 28. If we are with God, then the devil in the fight against us is weak, like a child. Our nature, expelled from paradise, which was a subject of reproach for the devil, is today ascended to heaven, and the Angels and all the Heavenly Powers worship. 29. Our war, warfare with the devil, ends the war against God and establishes peace with God. 30. Comparing the life of the blessed and monks and the host of prodigal wives and young men at the spectacles, we will find the difference between the Angels - in the incessant praise of God, and between the dogs and pigs who squeal, rummaging in the dung. Christ speaks through the mouth of some, and the devil through the tongue of others. 31. Just as where there is dirt, pigs run, and where there are flowers and fragrances, bees gather, so where there are depraved songs, demons gather, and where there are spiritual songs, the grace of the Spirit descends there and sanctifies the lips and soul, and our house, and Christ comes. 32. The judgment will be terrible for the devil, for he killed the sinless Christ through his servants - the Pharisees. 33. The north is a cruel wind (Prov. 27:16) - the devil, in whose chariot there are black horses - hell and death, darkness and destruction. 34. Adam obeyed his wife, without showing love for God, and fell from heaven of sweetness, brought a curse on the earth and received death as his inheritance. 35. Adam was like the Angels and had no need for anything. After sin there is labor, exhaustion, shame, death, fear. 36. Adam and every person have a twofold death: the soul, when grace leaves the soul for sin, and the body, when the soul is separated from the body, but Christ has one death, and that not for sins, but out of love for us, for He had no sin and was not subject to death. Therefore, He was resurrected from only one death. 37. Cain was the first to reveal the terrible spectacle of death for everyone. 38. Physical beauty bears the stamp of purity and changeability - illness destroys beauty, old age deprives beauty, and death destroys all bodily beauty. 39. The beauty of the soul is of such a quality that even in old age it has many lovers, because it never fades and always blooms. 40. Let us observe equality in everything and remember that death separates you from the enjoyment of earthly blessings, and if you are a lover of mankind and have raised your alms as a memorial before God (Acts 10:4), then Christ will grant you unspeakable blessings; whom no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor has the heart of man sighed (1 Cor. 2:9). 41. If virtue is affirmed, then slavery disappears and sonship is granted, and death becomes a dream, a dormition. 42. The earth is both mother and parent for us, we get food from it, it is both homeland and grave. 43. He who is not born of water and the Spirit still wears the robe of death, the robe of curse, the robe of corruption; he is not yet his own, but a stranger. 44. Man is born mortal, and wisdom consists in fearing sins, and not death, sleep and our dormition. 45. Children are afraid of masks and are not afraid of fire, but we are afraid of death (mask), and not afraid of sin, which is like fire. 46. ​​Even if someone were righteous, even if he was a thousand times righteous and reached the very top, so that he renounced sins, he cannot be clean from filth, even if he were a thousand times righteous, he is still a man. 47. If we hear: Blessed are those who weep (Matthew 5:4), then this is said about sins, and not about the dead. If a wicked man dies, even if the whole city sees him off, he will not receive any fruit from him. 48. Christ, having said: child, these sins are forgiven (Matthew 9:2), showed that the source, and the root, and the mother of all diseases and evils are sins. To forgive sins is much more important (for this is due to illness of the soul and is possible only to God) than to heal the body. The remission of sins is a greater sign. 49. You cannot cast out a demon, cast out sin from your soul, but do not rejoice because souls obey you: rejoice because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). 50. Sin is self-willed madness, for the soul voluntarily accepts the devil. 51. Sin is a cruel ruler. He made Judas a thief, a blasphemer and a traitor and brought him to the noose. 52. Let us try to avoid sins, especially those that lead to general harm. 53. Sin occurs because people want to be wiser than the laws of God. 54. Sins after baptism are cleansed with great difficulty and effort. 55. Sin deprived of dominion over animals, gave rise to subordination and slavery. Sin made power necessary, and there is no power except from God (Rom. 13:1). 56. Nowadays, when someone sins against themselves, leaders become cruel and unforgiving, and whoever insults God and destroys his soul does not pay any attention to it. 57. By judging and not tolerating others, you do not allow the Lord to be lenient towards your sins. 58. Do not be embarrassed when you see that good people suffer misfortunes, while evil ones have everything in abundance, for he who lives in sins is no different from a stinking dead man. 59. Do not consider anyone unhappy except those who are in sin, for the essence of sin lies not in nature, but in spiritual disposition and free will. 60. Because people do not love their brothers, they envy, and from envy lust and heresies are born. 61. When you are reviled, do not become bitter, but weep for the sin that has subjected you to such dishonor. 62. We walk in the middle of nets: I saw a friend in a good robe - I was jealous, I saw a poor person - I was disgusted, I saw a rich person - I was envious, I saw someone who was being offended - I was upset, I saw a beautiful woman - I was captivated. 63. Just as they laughed at Noah, so they laugh at you, because you don’t go to the theater, don’t go to the inn, don’t play dice, and you cry about their corruption. The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, and the heart of fools is in a house of joy (Eccl. 7:5). 64. The Egyptian woman had a devilish love, and she did not love Joseph purely, nor herself; she seemed to say to Joseph: “Disgrace me, make me a harlot, insult my husband, upset the whole house, deprive me of grace.” There must be godliness in love. 65. One must hate the vicious life, and the morals, and the teaching of pagans and enemies, but not themselves. 66. The high priest Eli, the father of two sons, became a child killer. He only advised not to do evil to them, but did not take strong measures in relation to his frivolous children, not demanding from them reverence for God. Although his sons were stabbed to death by his enemies, the father became the culprit of the murder, depriving them of God’s help with his frivolity. Children died from enemies and he himself died. 67. The Jews gave themselves up to idolatry in Egypt, and God aroused the Egyptians to hate the Jews by assigning hard labor to them. The greatest evil was caused by the Egyptians not by forcing them to make clay and bricks, but by teaching the Jews to honor idols, which is why Egypt was punished for their error and for oppressing the Israelites. 68. Because the Egyptians drowned boys in the waters, they themselves drowned in the waters. 69. We should mourn not those who are punished and suffer, but those who sin with impunity. 70. It is impossible to escape the hand of God, no matter where you go, carrying sin with you; nature itself will rebel against the rebellious. 71. For sins, sorrows, worries, wars, illnesses, and suffering are sent. Do not allow pleasure to spill into sin, avoid prodigal songs, shameful speeches, and demonic rejoicing. 72. Hosts - the Lord of Angels, Archangels, Higher Powers, having punished the inhabitants of Gomorrah and Sodom, gave everyone warning that those who commit lawlessness will be punished either here or in the next century. 73. Just as the Lord punished Lot and Noah’s contemporaries for their atrocities, so he will punish us, who commit so much evil. 74. Some are punished here, others will be punished in the next century. Present punishment reduces and even saves us from future torment. Therefore, we must thank God for this. 75. Why the earthquake? For the wickedness of the rich, for sins, greed, for injustice, for pride, for lust, for lies. And only for the prayers, for the all-night vigils of the poor, the city was not razed to the ground and was established, and the wrath of God passed. 76. Elijah was like a prophet-farmer for a barren people, and for fighting God he asked God to punish the Jews with hunger out of his jealousy. God, together with the people, punishes the prophet. He feeds the prophet through a raven, who hates his children, for ravens do not feed chicks, showing that He has the same hatred for children, for Jews, as ravens. Merciless towards their chicks, the crows, having changed, feed the man in order to win the favor of the prophet. But the prophet was ready to go hungry, just not to cancel the punishment. He is sent to a pagan widow, whom the Jews abhorred. The prophet saw that the widow was suffering from hunger even more than he himself, and asked God for food for her house. God further leads Elijah to mercy by ordering the soul of the widow's son to be separated from his body, so that, while grieving for the deceased, he would remember the children of Israel, who were being killed by hunger, and begin to pray for rain. The prophet became more philanthropic and merciful, and then the Lord said to him: Go and show yourself to Ahab (1 Kings 18:1), so that he himself declares mercy - a prayer for rain, Elijah, both willingly and unwillingly, runs to proclaim the news of rain. 77. One must reprove with meekness, for sin makes a person shameless, and reproof can harden one. 78. If anything happens because of foolishness, and not because of corruption, then do not rebuke too much, but exhort. 79. The Jews did not tolerate prophecies about captivity, about punishments, about disasters, therefore they threw Jeremiah into a ditch, the first martyr Stephen, the Lord Himself, and the Apostle Paul were beaten for denunciation. 80. When under Julian, the apostate king, the Jews tried to restore the temple of Jerusalem, fire came out of the ground and burned everything, and Julian was punished for desecrating the holy vessels - he died, eaten by worms. 81. For lawlessness, a second flood was needed, but the Lord gave people another lesson of admonition and execution, so that we still see the barrenness of the earth and the deadness of nature. This is for subsequent generations so that they do not commit similar lawlessness and do not suffer the same execution. 82. Many things are being done now that happened during the flood, but there is no flood, because Gehenna and torment lie ahead. Many sin like the Sodomites, but the rain of fire does not fall on them, because a river of fire is prepared. 83. Some say that there will be no eternal torment and punishment, but God punished us many times to admonish us. Remember the flood under Noah over the entire universe; lightning and fire from heaven upon all the land of Sodom: destruction in the sea of ​​all the might of Egypt; death of 600 thousand Israelis; the host of Korah, Dathan, Abiron; defeat of 185 thousand Assyrian troops. 84. God threatens us with Gehenna so that we can avoid Gehenna. 85. Therefore, Christians, having received many blessings, will no longer be punished like Adam - to cultivate the land, but pitch darkness, worms and gnashing of teeth. 86. On the Day of Judgment, all the faithful will stand around Christ in the air - we will be caught up in the clouds (1 Thess. 4:17), and all the defendants will be below on earth. Believers at the Judgment will condemn unbelievers with their faith, because living together in the same world, they came to know God, but they did not want to. 87. Wherever there is a corpse, there the eagles will gather (Matthew 24:28), - it is said about Christ who died in Jerusalem, where the beginning of faith is and where the Judgment and glory of the disciples of Christ will be. 88. The greatest evil - death - introduced by the devil, the wisdom of God turned the martyrs into honor and glory, for with it paradise is opened. 89. Often we are not so much afraid of the One who will demand an answer in our affairs at the Judgment, as of those who will appear with us at the Judgment. 90. Whenever they say: peace and confirmation, then destruction will suddenly attack them, like sickness in the womb, and they will not be able to escape (1 Thess. 5:3) - neither in the field, nor in the bathhouse, nor anywhere. Having finished his prediction about Jerusalem, the Savior speaks about His Second Coming. Then (omitting the time from the destruction of Jerusalem in 67 by Titus and Vespasian, described by Josephus until the beginning of the end of the world) false Christs and false prophets will arise, do not have faith (Matthew 24:23-51). Just as Elijah will be the forerunner of the Second Coming, so John was the forerunner of the First. But the scribes, merging both, taught only about the Second Coming, that if this is Christ, then Elijah must come first. Christ called John Elijah according to his spirit and zeal of service. The prophet Malachi writes: I will send you Elijah the Tishbite, who will arrange the heart of a father towards his son, lest he come and destroy the earth to the end (Mal. 4:5–6). This means the terrible Second Coming of Christ and the appearance of Elijah in order to convince the Jews to believe in Christ, since the fathers of the apostles are Jews, it is said: to turn to the teaching of the sons, that is, the apostles, the hearts of the fathers, that is, the Jewish people. 91. Israel will be saved at the Second Coming, at the end of the world. 92. When the subject of speech is the kingdom, then the image of the beast is indicated: the lioness is luxury and ferocity, the bear is the image of slowness; lynx – speed, agility in wars. The image of the sea is the universe in turmoil, from where animals emerge. Eastern, northern, southern winds disturb the universe - the sea. The Little Horn is the Antichrist. 93. “The kingdom of Media was destroyed by the Babylonians; Babylonian - Persians; Persian - Macedonians; Macedonian - by the Romans, and this latter will be destroyed by the Antichrist, and he himself will be defeated by Christ,” says the prophet Daniel. 94. The harvest time of the field is approaching, and we have not yet pulled up the thorns, have not begun to plow the field, and have not sowed the good seed. 95. God created two centuries, one is the present, the other is the future; one is sensual, the other is spiritual: one is in experience, the other is in hopes; one is a field for us, the other is a place of reward; in one there should be in struggle, labor, feat, in the other crowns and rewards are given; one is made by the sea, the other by the pier. So that our hope, and faith, and love for eternal blessings would be confirmed, the Lord, having taken flesh, performed miracles and made the earth heaven. 96. Two kingdoms of God are known from Scripture: one was revealed by creation, the other is revealed by discretion. By creation He reigns over everyone: over pagans, Jews, demons, enemies, and by assimilation He reigns over believers who voluntarily accepted and followed His teaching. This kingdom of grace has a beginning: All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Mf. 28:18) and the end when the Son delivers the Kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24), that is, he will establish that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). Therefore, do not imagine two beginnings without beginning. 97. He who descended, He who also ascended, lifted man through space from hell to earth, also from earth to heaven, then from heaven to the upper heaven, the highest, and from this - to the Angels, to the Archangels, to the Royal Throne itself. 98. We will be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17) and His clouds will be lifted up before the disciples (Acts 1:9). This means that our body will be consistent with the body of Jesus Christ, and so will the transfiguration. 99. To inherit the Kingdom of God, it is not enough to free yourself from sin, but you also need to be established in virtues. 1. They ask why God tolerated the sins of Adam and many sinners? God foresaw that in addition to sinners there would be a large host of righteous people - Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, councils of monks, prosperity of the Churches. 2. To test Adam's obedience, no other prohibition could be given. Don't steal? Don't kill? Don't commit adultery? One thing - don’t eat it. There was no way of life that currently exists. 3. It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil not because Adam did not know good and evil before, for he received wisdom from God (he gave names to animals) and the gift of prophecy, but because the knowledge of sin and shame appeared. 4. Before Adam’s sin there was no fear, neither was he afraid of the serpent, but after sin both honor and power were taken away, and some animals instill fear and horror, and some (horses, oxen, sheep) were left in subjection to man. Adam and Eve lived like Angels. The animals felt the dominance of Adam. I gave them names. 5. While Adam and Eve revered God, as long as virginity, like a royal robe, adorned them, and when they became captives of the devil, they accepted mortal corruption, curse, sorrow and a difficult life, then marriage took place - this mortal and slave clothing. Think how high the dignity of virginity is. 6. The wife was equally honest, began to turn to her husband, seek protection, refuge in him and not teach, because she taught Adam poorly. 7. God punished Cain not so much for murder, but for unrepentance and shamelessness. 8. Roman laws spared a pregnant criminal woman for the sake of an innocent baby; God spares sinners, knowing that their descendants will include righteous people. 9. The righteous experience tribulations here for testing, because they are strangers and strangers and are in a foreign country. 10. The righteous are like stars in the dead of night, roses among thorns, sheep among many wolves; they took the opposite path to everyone else. And the righteous are kings of the earth. 11. The righteous are the kings of the earth. 12. Noah, out of a sense of reverence, had a sacrifice, and the smoke and stench from it were like a fragrant aroma (Judith. 16:16), then how can the sacrifice of the spirit and cherubic praise be pleasing to God? 13. Noah for 500 years curbed the impulses of the flesh and lived in chastity, but the debauchery and extreme wickedness of people threatened the universe with destruction, and God was pleased to leave the righteous Noah as the root, the leaven, and the firstfruits of future generations. And at 500 years old, he took a wife and begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 14. God allows the souls of people to be tempted by disasters until they become pure and bright. 15. God tested Abraham for 25 years when he was 100 years old, and Sarah was 90 years old, when people were raised from the stones - Isaac was born, from whom - the chosen people. 16. Job was rich and poor and was righteous. 17. Job, after illnesses and sorrows, rebelled and received double sheep, bulls, camels, and donkeys, but, having lost ten children, he did not receive twenty. Since the livestock and property perished completely for him, and the children, stolen by death, are alive for God and rise in resurrection, God does not give Job more than ten children, for He will find ten others, having himself passed on to eternal life. 18. The king sitting on the throne is not as glorious as Job, the pillar of patience, sitting on a pile of rot and blessing God. 19. He (Job), covered in worms and pus, sat on a dung heap, burying the worms and falling pieces of his body, and sat in the open air, so as not to suffocate from the stench, and blessed God. His dunghill was more precious than the royal throne, for here is the Kingdom of Heaven, and there is sin and death. 20. What is harmful to a person is that which harms his perfection and salvation—observance of the true teaching and virtuous life. The evil demon also knows about this, so he deprived Job of his property not in order to make him poor, but in order to force him to blaspheme, and he pierced his body not in order to make him sick, but to shake the virtue of his soul. From a rich man he became poor, from a man with many children he became childless, from a healthy man he became torn to pieces and devoured by worms. Job suffered no harm from all this. 21. A person who is like Job is blameless, righteous, true, moving away from all evil things (Job 1:1), and if a person is in honor and without understanding, then be like the foolish cattle and become like them (Ps. 49:13). 22. Eyes, nose, mouth, hands, feet show the appearance of a man, but these are only bodily members, and Noah is called a man because of his righteousness and intelligence. The wrongdoers are called earth, flesh, and beasts. 23. If you want not to be afraid of power, do good. The laws are above the rulers, but the righteous have no law. 24. Saints receive rewards for both the good they did and the evil they suffered in life. 25. Do not be embarrassed when you see that good people suffer misfortunes, while evil ones have everything in abundance, for he who lives in sins is no different from a stinking dead man. 26. Our Lord Himself was born in a manger, brought up in poverty, teaching us to love simplicity, to seek poverty, to avoid wealth. God is insulted, but He does not stop the sun and the moon, does not destroy the sky, but sends rain, gives fruits and food even to blasphemers; imitate man and you God. 27. The rivers will weave with their hands (Ps. 97:8), - David here depicts the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit, the mountains will rejoice, that is, the prophets, who have the height of contemplation, proclaim about Christ coming to judge the earth in His two Comings. 28. Gideon asked God for a sign (Judg. 6:37–40), and it was given to him: one night dew fell on the fur, and it was dry around, the second, the fur was dry, and dew was all over the earth. Fur is a prototype of the First and Second Coming of the Savior. 29. If we imagine not only the burden of virtue, but also its crown, then we will soon distract the soul from all evil. 30. It is not the invasion of temptations, but weakness of spirit that produces fear. 31. Often, when meeting people, we are ashamed, embarrassed, and blush, but knowing that the All-Seeing Eye sees our heart, we do not have the fear of God. 32. The reverent fear of God inspires us that God is present everywhere, hears everything, sees everything, not only deeds and words, but also everything that happens in the heart and in the depths of the soul. After all, we behave decently in front of the big boss, why do we laugh, steal, get angry, knowing that we are standing before God. 33. The fear of God belongs to the righteous, who are still being purified (with an average measure of love for God), and among the purified, perfect love casts out fear. And about involuntary sins, make a confession according to the prayer rule, so that during the exodus you do not feel fear. 34. Insults that we unjustly suffer from anyone, God imputes to us either as remission of sins or as reward. 35. Take offense as a benefit for yourself. 36. If you want eternal glory, peace and joy, then endure dishonor, sorrow and reject the temporary. 37. You are no better than Paul, no better than Peter, who never had peace, but spent their whole lives in hunger, thirst and nakedness. If you want to get what they get, then go the narrow way. 38. Christ wept, and they did not see Him laughing; and the Apostle Paul wept for three years, and he tells us that blessed are those who weep, and not those who laugh. 39. There should be no crying of despair; if Christ shed tears over Lazarus, then nature is revealed in this. Quiet, decent tears with the fear of God do not express disbelief in the resurrection, but the severity of separation. 40. Those who have a good conscience can constantly celebrate, for this is a manifestation of joy in the Holy Spirit. 41. Don’t you see that a few good children are better than many others - that’s why there are few in the Kingdom. 42. Will a warrior in military rank build a rich house and buy land if he goes to war tomorrow - he dug a hole and stuck a stake, but there is no need to build, and do this until you return to the highest city, and there the King has already arranged it. 43. In the first times, our race was in a state of infancy, and in subsequent times - in the position of youth and now - in the position of an old man in relaxation of strength. 44. Repentance paths: 1) condemnation of one’s sins (Isa. 43:26; Ps. 31:5); 2) non-judgment and forgiveness of others (Matthew 6:14); 3) fiery prayer; 4) alms; 5) humility and humility. 45. The Lord did not hand over the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to the sinless John and James, but to Peter, who always remembered the crowing of the rooster, so that he, remembering his fall, would be everyone’s helper in repentance and salvation. 46. ​​People have been given repentance for their labors, sorrows and sorrows. 47. We were created not just to eat, drink, and dress, but to avoid vice and adhere to virtue, guided by Divine wisdom. 48. There is a twofold meal: one is prepared by the hands of the cooks, the other by the mouth of the prophets; one is the growth of the earth, the other is the fruit of the Spirit; The meat of one meal is perishable, the other is incorruptible and satiates the soul for the future life. 49. John the Baptist ate grass locusts and wild honey; others consumed only bread and water throughout Lent. You can fast and abstain both before and after communion. Invite your brother to dinner and share with him your, or rather not yours, but the Lord’s blessings. The blessed hermits had the best food, not the meat of the dumb, but the word of God - sweeter than honey and honey (Ps. 18:11). 50. He who calls God Father confesses adoption and proclaims justification, illumination, redemption, remission of sins, and the gift of the Spirit. 51. The purpose of philosophy is to combine simplicity with wisdom, so that by free will we do what children do by nature and love. Philosophy consists of knowledge of divine and human affairs. 52. Man is born mortal and wisdom consists in fearing sins, and not death, sleep and our dormition. 53. It is difficult to be brought up in wisdom for those who were brought up in bliss, luxury, drunkenness, debauchery, intemperance, and did not inherit piety from their ancestors. 54. When you get irritated, shout, scold the smaller one, and he silently endures the scolding, then you are outrageous, and he is wise. 55. Philosophy is to thank God even in misfortune: firstly, you made God happy, secondly, you shamed the devil, thirdly, you showed that what happened to you is nothing. And it cannot be that a person who gives thanks in misfortune should suffer. The soul rejoices, like a martyr, when it receives a crown. 56. With what wisdom Joseph spoke to the cupbearer: Remember me to Pharaoh, as if I were stolen from the land of the Jews by a thief, and here I have done nothing evil, but cast me into this ditch (Gen. 40:14–15). He did not speak about the actions of his brothers, did not blaspheme those who offended him, and, being brighter than the sun, did not publicize the shamelessness of the Egyptian woman. 57. A slave is free if he is freed from passions and lives chastely, like Joseph, who shone in slavery with his highest freedom. Slavery to sin is destructive, which, like a tyrant, forced the Egyptian woman to beg the captive and the slave to ridicule. 58. It is not permissible for a wife to dress in a man’s dress, and for a husband to dress in a woman’s dress. The wife was told: yes it is covered, that is, it must be carefully covered on all sides. 59. Adorn your face not with pearls, but with chastity and modesty. 60. There are two kinds of eunuchs - some have cut off members of the body, and others have cut off the thoughts of debauchery from themselves and have established wisdom; so that the eunuch and the monastic alike do not communicate with a woman: one is by necessity, and the other by choice, therefore the reward for the latter is as vessels of honor (2 Tim. 2:20–21). 61. For the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord did not give commandments regarding eunuchs and left them to everyone’s will. Angels do not marry, do not encroach, the same goodness is planted on earth. 62. Others are the king, others are the gift of the king. If someone says that he has the Holy Spirit, but speaks from himself, and not from the Gospel, then do not believe him. 63. He offers Himself, Himself the sacrifice and Himself the priest. The sacrifice was flesh, and the priest was the Spirit, One and the same offered and was offered by the flesh. He offered Himself, and the altar was the Cross outside the church, outside the city and the walls, for the offering for the whole earth, for all people was counted with the wicked (Isa. 53:12). The Jews prayed in the church, but now the whole earth has been cleansed and you need to pray in every place. 64. He who freed Lazarus from the bonds of death is bound; He who has heaven as His Throne stands before Pilate; the Judge of the whole universe awaits judgment; people sat judging, but God stood and was silent, and people accused God: If this had not been an evildoer, they would not have delivered Him to you (John 18:30). 65. In the words: if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me (Matthew 26:39) The Lord shows by this His human nature; with the words: both, not as I want, but as You - shows His courage and firmness, teaching us to obey God, despite the opposition of nature. 66. Christ voluntarily gave Himself up to suffer. With His word whom are you seeking (John 18:4) He cast down the soldiers, the servant and Judas to the ground in order to admonish them, but they remained in anger, and although Peter rose up with the sword, the power and will of Christ kept the guard, and they did not take anyone, only the One who gave Himself up to death. 67. Tradition says that Adam died and was buried on the place of execution, and there the guilt of the Son of Man on the cross was written in three languages: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews (John 19:19). 68. Christ, bow your head, give up your spirit (John 19:30), that is, give up your breath. What usually happens is: first they give up the ghost, and then they bow their heads. 69. The Savior suffered during the very hours that Adam spent from the eating to the judgment - from the sixth hour to the ninth. Adam wanted deification, and the Lord becomes the God-man in order to exalt man. 70. On the cross, the Lord brought the thief into paradise, opened paradise, and gave the fatherland to the entire human race. The prudent thief becomes a teacher of righteousness: Peter denies, and the thief confesses the Tsar, and where - on the cross. 71. Grace revealed to the thief that the Crucified One is God and King. 72. Before the cross, the thieves walked one road, but at the cross their paths diverged. 73. How valued is the location of the heart! The harlot who kissed the Savior’s feet was pardoned, and Judas, kissing him with the words “Hail Rabbi,” died. 74. We are rejoiced by the creation of God, the beauty of the starry sky, the blessings of the earth, the gifts of the sea and our salvation, for Christ conquered with one horn - the cross, and the horn of every righteous man ascends in oil - in the gifts of the Spirit, like a phoenix, in an all-useful tree, white, tall, hiding the fruit to the end. 75. Our Passover was sacrificed for us by Christ (1 Cor. 5:7) on the cross, and where there is sacrifice, there is the destruction of sins, there is reconciliation with God. 76. Mary the Virgin, Mother of God, and Mary Magdalene were the first to visit the tomb and the first to see the resurrection. The Most Holy Theotokos, having become convinced, did not go to the tomb again. 77. Three days later, Isaac’s mother, Sarah, saw her son alive, after three days Jonah was freed from the womb of death - after three days the Church sees the Savior incorruptible. 78. Mary the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene were the first to see the resurrection. Then Mary Magdalene took Joanna and a certain Mary and other women and again went to the tomb. The angel reproached Mary Magdalene: Why are you looking for the living with the dead (Luke 24:5). It was already one day from the Sabbath (Luke 24:1) - a new day after the Sabbath. Then Peter went to the tomb and just looked there. The third time Mary Magdalene went and saw the stone rolled away from the tomb, and she went again to Peter and John, assuring them of the resurrection. The disciples went to the tomb and believed that the body of the Lord had been taken from the tomb. Mary remained and looked into the tomb and saw two Angels and then the Lord Himself, and it was said to her for unbelief: Do not touch Me (John 20:17). Now she goes again to the disciples and says that she took my Lord from the tomb (John 20:13), but she saw the Lord. For the fourth time, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, as the Evangelist Mark describes, at a later time, when the sun had risen (Mark 16:2), with the women who first went to the tomb, reasoning: Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb (Mark 16:3). She no longer doubted the resurrection, but accompanied them. 79. There were swaddling clothes in the tomb, and when the Pharisees spread the rumor that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus, it means that they carried away the naked body and spent a long time undressing, because myrrh sticks to the body and clothes like an adhesive substance. 80. The Lord promised resurrection: He resurrected during His lifetime, and He Himself rose again, and for forty days He revealed Himself to the disciples and talked with them. 81. Just as before the resurrection many miracles were needed in order for people to believe that Christ was the Son of God, so after that He rose again. 82. When the Lord gave bread to the Jews, performed a miracle and fed them, they called Him a prophet and wanted to make Him a king; and when He announced the resurrection, about spiritual food, about His Divinity, they grumbled and said that He was the Son of the Tectons. 83. According to the word of the Lord, Lazarus, being a four-day-old corpse, resurrected and stood rejoicing among the living in funeral attire. 84. The prince of this world is condemned by the resurrection of Christ. A woman rejoices when a man is born (see John 16:21) - with this Christ speaks of His resurrection and His birth into the Kingdom, about which He talked for forty days with His disciples. 85. Grace, as the guarantee of the Spirit, accomplishes resurrection, healing, expulsion of spirits, preserves the Church, where clergy are appointed, where baptism, repentance, communion, affirms in the general resurrection and renewal. 86. The obscurity of prophecy is like a veil. Destroy the church of God, and in three days build it up (Matthew 26:61) - this is about the resurrection of Christ. 87. What assurance of the resurrection of the body! The martyr Romanus († 303; November 18/December 1) had his tongue cut out, and God gave him the power to speak without a tongue in a euphonious manner, and this was when the sea of idolatry roared with blasphemy against the ship of piety, sea robbers surrounded the ship, wolves besieged the herd, thieves undermined the palace, prodigal songs resounded with the bride, the serpent destroyed the wall of paradise, the stone of the Church hesitated. 88. In the resurrection they neither marry nor commit violence, but as the angels of God are in heaven (Matthew 22:31). This state is affirmed by grace, just as in paradise we lived a virgin life. 89. Through the resurrection of Christ, fiery hell is extinguished, the never-sleeping worm dies; hell comes into confusion, the devil grieves, sin is killed, evil spirits are persecuted, those who originated from the earth run up to heaven, those in hell are freed from the bonds of the devil and, resorting to God, say to the devil: Death! where is your sting? hell! where is your victory? (1 Cor. 15:55) 90. The body is a creation of God, and corruption and death were introduced by sin; if grace abolishes corruption and death, then a heavenly, eternal body is given to us. 91. Thou hast taken captivity captive (Ps. 67:19) - the Lord recreated those enslaved to sin by grace, and gave a guarantee of immortality. 92. Before the resurrection, the Lord said: Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), renewing the fallen nature of man. 93. The power of the Spirit began to manifest itself in the mortal body: the mortal voice and tongue heals, commands demons, even the shadows of mortal bodies showed power - in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk (Acts 3:6). 94. So, the Lord says that I will send you the Holy Spirit, this means the gift of the Spirit, that is, the gift is sent, and not the Spirit Himself, as it is said: Sit in the city of Jerusalem, until you are endowed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). The other is the power that gives, and the other is the Spirit that gives. God poured out His Spirit (Joel 2:28), without separating Him from Himself and without dividing Himself with Him, that is, the gift of the Holy Spirit: Grace is poured out on Your lips (Ps. 44:3), it is grace that is poured out, not He who gives grace. 95. In 325, more than 300 fathers of the First Council of Nicea decided to celebrate Easter separately from the Jews. Our Passover was devoured for us by Christ (1 Cor. 5:7), and as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:26), that is, Passover - communion in the sacrament of the Eucharist. In the sacrament of the Eucharist we proclaim the Lord's death and celebrate Easter, which means we can always celebrate Easter. 96. Moses was from the tribe of Levi and had sons Gersham and Eliezer. Moses had a brother Aaron. Aaron had a son, Eliazar, from whom Phinehas the zealot was born. From the days of Joshua until the priest Ezra, the Passover was not celebrated because of the wickedness of the Jews. 97. Easter should always be celebrated after the vernal equinox, eight calendar days in April, on Friday, which falls on the 14th day of the moon. It is necessary that when calculating, the equinox, the 14th day of the moon and the three-day period - Friday, Saturday, the Lord's Day - are observed. The equinox is the beginning of the first time - at creation, day and night were equal. On the sixth day (Friday) God created man after the equinox (due to movement). The full moon was created after the equinox, on the fourth day, the Lord brings to renewal and resurrection together the equinox, and the 14th day after the equinox, and the sixth day. The time of creation is chosen as the time of renewal, namely: the equinox, the full moon and the sixth day of the creation of man. And when a certain time came, the Lord handed himself over for suffering, crying out: Father, the hour has come (John 17:1), - the week of suffering exactly coincided with the first week of creation - here is the head of time (darkness during suffering could not be the passage of the moon between the sun and the earth). 98. It is commanded: Do this in remembrance of Me (Luke 22:19), - to celebrate Easter every year, looking for the 14th day after it and from here counting Friday, Saturday and the Lord's Day - Sunday. 99. If the 14th day of the moon happens before the equinox, we leave it and look for another one, which should be after the equinox, and then an intercalary month appears. If the 14th day of the moon meets the Lord's day (Sunday), then we take the next Lord's day in remembrance that the 14th day is the day of suffering, coinciding with Friday at Calvary. For example, under St. John Chrysostom, two days before the equinox the 14th day of the moon fell; then they left this month and stopped at the next one after the equinox. But since this 14th day of the moon coincides with the 26th day of the seventh month and coincided with the Lord's Day, the Easter holiday was moved to the next Lord's day - on the 2nd day of the eighth month. 100. For us, the true Easter sacrifice is the beginning of eternal life. In fact, the year is a symbol of eternity, because, making a circle, it always revolves within itself and does not stop at any end. And the Father of the future age, Christ, the sacrifice made for us, making our entire previous life standing outside of time, gives through the font of rebirth the beginning of another life, in the likeness of his death and resurrection. Therefore, everyone, knowing the Passover sacrificed for him, should consider the beginning of his life to be the time from which Christ became a sacrifice for sin. And He becomes a sacrifice for him when he recognizes grace and understands the life that began through that sacrifice. And having learned this, he must strive to get the beginning of a new life and no longer return to the old one, the end of which he has reached. “We died,” it is said, “to sin: how can we live in it” (Rom. 6:2)? This is the symbolic meaning of the beginning of the year. 1. The saint distinguishes in the expression “God”, “Spirit” and the nature of God, and power, action, grace-filled gifts. 2. Names of the nature of God: Spirit of God; the Spirit which is from God; Spirit of the Lord; Spirit of the Father; Spirit of life; Spirit of truth. Then the gifts of grace: the spirit of power, the spirit of love, the spirit of revelation, the spirit of sonhood. 3. Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness and returned in the power of all grace-filled gifts, for in its human church the flesh had God, the Holy Spirit. But we have part of the spiritual gifts, but in Christ we have all the fullness of the Divinity. 4. Christ supplemented with Himself what was said by the Father in the law and through the mouth of the prophets. The Holy Spirit complemented the Gospel - what the Son proclaimed was not from Himself (John 16:13), but complements what is from the Son. 5. Only the Holy Spirit reveals everything clearly to His prophets. 6. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, resting on the Divine flesh of the Master, were indicated by the prophets in the form of seven lamps. 7. The people revered John above Christ, so the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father indicated the Son of God so that they would believe in Him. 8. The Baptist attributes two actions to Christ - to baptize with the Holy Spirit and to consign unbelievers to fire - he will burn the tares with unquenchable fire. 9. Just as a small spark thrown into the great abyss of the sea disappears, so every sorrow, even the greatest, having caught up with a good conscience, easily dissipates and immediately disappears. 10. In ancient times, the one who believed and was baptized began to speak in different languages: the language of the Persians, and the language of the Indians, and the language of the Scythians - and these are new tongues (Mark 16:17) - a sign that he was honored with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul writes that he thanks God more than all of you, speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 14:18), that is, in greater abundance than other believers. 11. The Holy Spirit changed Saul's name to Paul - this is a sign of authority. 12. The apostles received John’s baptism, and as those who do not yet have the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord says: Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), and adds: Sit in Jerusalem, until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). 13. When the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, it filled the whole house where they were sitting, so that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit as in water. 14. John the Theologian is not of the world (John 15:19), and in him the Holy Spirit speaks the words of precious beads, the wisdom of God, which through the Church is known even by the Authorities, Principalities, Cherubim (Eph. 3:10). What kind of piety do we need in order to receive spiritual grace and know the truth? 15. When a faithful person turns out to be worse in deeds than an unfaithful one, then God commands that the Holy Spirit be taken away from him, and then they will know that a person is like a pot with a crack, and therefore he is empty. 16. Just as food gives life to the body, so good deeds attract the Spirit, and if we have the Spirit, then we will also have virtues. 17. Those living in sins are no different from the dead. 18. But you, beloved, do not examine the works of God for human reasons. 19. Without prayer, our spiritual life hungers and thirsts and dies. 20. In ignorance there can be knowledge, and in knowledge there can be ignorance: From the majesty of the beauty of creatures, their Creator is known comparatively (Wis. 13:5) and the Lord gives wisdom, and from His presence knowledge and understanding (Prov. 2:6). 21. It is commanded not to give holy pearls to dogs (Matthew 7:6), because spiritual people have a veil over their hearts and do not understand the wisdom of God, which even from the powers above no one knew before. 22. Seek wisdom from the wicked and you will not find it. 23. Jesus himself is called a great angel of counsel (Isa. 9:6). The ranks of the first hierarchy standing before God - Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones - cry out: blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place (Ezek. 3:12), Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is filled with His glory (Is. 6:3). The middle hierarchy is Dominances, Powers, Authorities, and there are also Principalities, Archangels, Angels. 24. If the fact that God is (exists) is accepted by faith, and not comprehended by reason, then is it possible to comprehend by reason that He is? 25. Angels do not need the visible world, because they already existed before the creation of the world, and everything visible is so beautiful and great, so varied and rich, and useful for nutrition, and for maintaining the body, and for the wisdom of the soul, and for the knowledge of God, and all this is for man. 26. The entire mountain on which the prophet Elisha lived was shown, filled with fiery horses and chariots. And this was the angelic army. 27. The Heavenly Powers, more than people, fear and honor God. They have no stubbornness, disobedience, or disobedience. 28. For the virtuous life of Tobit, the Lord sent the Archangel Raphael, who, under the guise of the young man Azariah, served his son, cast out the demon Asmodeus and healed Tobit himself from blindness. An angel brought Habakkuk down into the lion's den and brought him back, leaving the seals placed on the entrance intact and unharmed (see Dan. 4:32). 29. The Lord Himself established angelic life on earth, and there will be no unbelievers at the Last Judgment. 30. John the Baptist was like an angel before God. 31. If great attention is paid to a famous wrestler, musician or sophist, then what attention and zeal should we show when a man wise from heaven speaks and utters a voice stronger than thunder, the son of thunder himself, the pillar of the Church, the beloved confidant. Angels and people who are like Angels and want to become like them listen to His euphony, but everyone else does not understand, because they are still small children. 32. The sharper our vision, the more we know how far we are from the sky. Likewise, the more we succeed in virtue, the more we learn to recognize how great the distance is between God and us. 33. Just as the house of Lot, although it was besieged in the midst of Sodom, did not suffer any harm, because the Angels were within it, so the martyrs among the corrupt people were preserved in piety and purity, because the Lord of the Angels dwelt in their souls. 34. After the temptation, Angels come and strengthen the person. 35. The demon darkens a person, but God enlightens and gives faith - the mother of miracles. 36. The devil, being an angel, became an adversary and like a lion. The beasts of the oak trees and the roaring tabernacles (Ps. 103:20–21) - of course, demons. 37. Often the judgments of heretics and pagans are based on faith in demons and people. They say Adam believed the serpent and died. But did the first man die because he believed God? Therefore, not the one who believes everything and everyone is a believer, but the one who truly believes in God. 38. The Athenians had many gods, or rather, many demons, because you were the tongue of demons (Ps. 96:5). 39. First honor God, and then worry about other things. 40. The devil must be defeated by kindness, long-suffering, and trust in the true God, for the devil often sins against God, daring to present himself as the prince of this world. 41. The purpose of the law is to make man righteous, and the Lord fulfilled it, for He did not create sin, but He grants us justification by faith, for the time has come for the highest commandments. 42. Christ is the Sun of righteousness, and the Light, and the law of God, and a lamp for the righteous; and the apostles are light, as partakers of Divine light and lightning. 43. Jesus came to be baptized at age 30 in order to abolish the law, which He had exactly fulfilled before. Christ introduced His laws not to overthrow the general civil order, but to better correct it and establish peace. 44. Starting from the law, the Lord led us to the heights of virtue and thereby corrected the universe. 45. If you want not to be afraid of power, do good. The laws are above the rulers, but the righteous have no law. 46. ​​Moses commanded that no innovations be introduced into the law or abolished, but the Pharisees introduced the traditions of the elders. For example, under the guise of piety, to despise parents: if one of the parents said to their son: “Give me this sheep that you have, or a calf, or something else,” then they were answered: “What you want to use from me, I give as a gift to God, and you cannot get it.” They didn’t bring it to God, and their parents were deprived of the gift. According to the Law of Moses there should be one high priest until death, but the Jews elected each year. 47. For infants it is law, but for perfect ones it is grace, for to be carried in arms at the first age is good, but after that it is harmful; feeding on chewed food in infancy is good, but after that it is indecent: feeding on milk alone and resorting to breastfeeding is necessary and life-saving at the beginning, but after that it is unnecessary. 48. What a drop is in comparison with the boundless abyss, so is present life in comparison with the future. 49. There is natural law, and written law, and grace. 50. Christ came to deliver from evil deeds not only the body, but even more so the soul, which He cleanses with grace. 51. God - the Lord - stretches out His hand to you: give Him yours! 52. Saul knew the prophets and their Scriptures well, but without grace he did not know Him about whom they prophesied. 53. Saint John, having from God the gift of teaching and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which was revealed to one monk named Hesychius, who saw in a vision an old man saying to Saint John Chrysostom: “Take this scroll from my hand! I am John, who reclined on the Lord’s chest during the Last Supper and received Divine revelations from Him. The Lord will also grant you knowledge of the entire depth of wisdom, so that you can feed people with the undying waste of the teachings of Christ and with your lips stop the mouths of heretics and Jews who utter blasphemies against God.” 54. Just as a rigged ship rushes here and there at the whim of a storm, so a soul, deprived of the grace of God, is constantly under the control of sin, which takes it not where it wants, but where the demon directs it. 55. Paradise lost, heaven given. 56. Heaven and paradise are higher, but the devil falls from there. Adam was in paradise, but did not retain grace in himself, and Job, on a dunghill, retained faith and grace, for for this the Lord raised up the poor from the earth and raised up the wretched from the rot (Ps. 113:7). 57. Faith comes from pure life; many having a dead soul, devoid of grace, bury it as if in a grave, in their body. The living are dead. 58. If you choose the cave of poverty, then the dew of grace will cover you; Lazarus and Job came out of this cave, and the rich man who worshiped the idol was condemned to torment. 59. Scripture often calls gifts and actions of grace the Spirit. The grace of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is called fire and water. 60. What does grace accomplish? He transforms people who have become beasts by nature into people. 61. The right faith does not bring any benefit in a vicious life. 62. You struggle on earth, but you will receive your reward in heaven, but be patient here. 63. Five receiving reward: 1) called from the first hour; 2) those called from the third hour; 3) those called from the sixth hour: 4) those called from the ninth hour, 5) those called from the eleventh hour, who became the first of the last, as those reborn by baptism at the coming of Christ. 64. If you have sins, they are easily caught and destroyed by sorrow. If you have virtue, sorrow will make it brighter and more brilliant. 65. And it cannot be that a person who gives thanks in misfortune suffers. The soul rejoices, like a martyr, when it receives a crown. 66. Insults that we unjustly suffer from anyone, God imputes to us either as remission of sins or as reward. 67. In order to accept dishonor and bonds for Christ, one must also be worthy of this. 68. The giving of the Spirit was the greatest of all miracles. 69. He who endures illness and gives thanks receives the crown of martyrdom. 70. Iron suffers damage from rust, wool from moths, flocks of sheep from wolves, bread from corruption and drought, grapes from locusts. Many people consider poverty, illness, loss of property, and death to be a great harm to themselves. But there is human dignity - perfection, kindness. 71. Just as poverty disposes one to do much evil, so does abundance, and those who are perfect both in poverty and in abundance create virtues. 72. To be close or far from God depends on the person himself, because God is everywhere. 73. The fear of God belongs to the righteous, who are still being purified (with an average measure of love for God), and among the purified, perfect love casts out fear. 74. The tree desires the springs of water out of thirst - this is from nature and from the fact that snakes devour and feed on their meat: you too devour the mental serpent, mortify sin and you will thirst for God with love. 75. We cannot keep the commandments, as well as the very love of God and neighbor, if our thoughts wander from one to another. 76. In virtue, the beginning is difficult, but the continuation is pleasant. 77. Not the gold of the whole world, not the whole world with everything in it, but God Himself was the price of our ransom. 78. Christ accepts Peter’s love, but cuts off the contradiction. 79. Everyone fled, only Peter and John followed to Anna’s courtyard. 80. Of the good deeds, those that serve the benefit of others are valued most highly. 81. Self-love detracts from love. 82. Because people do not love their brothers, they envy; lust for power and heresies are born from envy. 83. We, having the same faith, are often not united by love. 84. As we are towards our neighbor, so God will be towards us. 85. So, do not attack someone who is lying down, but take pity on him; if you fulfill the commandment of love for enemies, then you are with God, but if you leave it, then you are with the tax collectors. 86. Christ chose through faith, even before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in Him, so that the love of God and the virtues of the elect would be revealed. God has chosen those who deserve it through holiness of life and faith. 87. This is the will of God - your holiness, remembering the two sides of virtue - avoiding evil and doing good. 88. Why did Paul not believe, seeing the dead raised in the name of Jesus Christ, seeing the lame walking, demons being cast out, the paralytic being strengthened? Because he was not yet called: You did not choose Me, but I chose you (John 15:16). 89. If you despise everything worldly, you will be more precious than the whole world. 90. Adam became a debtor and guilty of death and was in the power of the devil; Christ was not a debtor and was not in his power, but came and paid with death for those in his power, in order to deliver man from the bonds of death. 91. God has made us righteous, and sons, and brothers, and friends, and heirs of the Kingdom. 92. In the parable of the prodigal son, the words child, you are always with me, and my whole essence is yours (Luke 15:31) are interpreted in the sense: the sky is yours, the firmament is yours, the sun is your torchbearer, the moon is your minion, the stars are your candles, the air is your nourisher, and everything visible and invisible, and the universe, and the Kingdom of Heaven is yours, for the Father has given it to you. 93. We are assigned to heaven, we live there. 94. The faithful are strangers on earth, but citizens of heaven. 95. Let us not seek peace here in order to find it there in heaven. 96. God is not so much irritated by the sins we have committed as by our unwillingness to change. 97. To inherit the Kingdom of God, it is not enough to free yourself from sin, but you also need to be established in virtues. 98. It is said: Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:5). 99. He who fulfills the law of God will live in the heavenly village with God. 100. Deprivation of goods (prepared for the righteous in the future life) will cause such torment, such sorrow and oppression that even if no execution awaited those who sin here, then it in itself can tear and revolt our souls stronger than the torments of Gehenna. You might be interested in: