Letters to Priest Demetrius

Letter one * Letter two First letter to Priest Demetrius An imitator of Abraham's deeds, a diligent worker of God's commandments, my dearest friend, Mr. Father Demetrius the Priest - rejoice in the Lord! About the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (after all, it is fitting, as St. John Climacus said, to begin a word from God to God’s saint), I thought of you, my dearest friend, true servant of Christ, calling on His Divine grace to help the weakness of my mind - after all, without Him, according to His false word, “you can do nothing” (John 15:5), - at least write something small in my shortest words in a word about common life and blessed obedience, which for common life, or better yet, for all monasticism is the root and foundation; I believe that such a letter of mine to you will be most favorable for your all-loving and all-sacred soul, which even to this day has within itself an unquenchable fire of love for monastic life, cast by God, and preserves it in a God-pleasing manner. Know, my all-beloved friend, that the Holy Spirit, through the holy fathers, determined and established that all monastic life is divided into three orders: solitary solitary sojourn, cohabitation with one or two brothers, and common life. Hermit life is like this: someone far from people in the desert remains alone and in everything that concerns his soul, as well as food, clothing and other bodily needs, he has hope in God alone, in his battles and infirmities of soul and body, having Him alone as an assistant and consolation, alienating and avoiding all consolation of this world for the sake of the love of God. Living with one or two consists of the following: an elder, skilled in the Holy Scriptures, remains in silence and has one disciple or two living with him in obedience and obedience to him in soul and body. The common life, which, according to Saint Basil the Great, begins (following the example of the life of the Lord with the disciples) with no less than twelve brothers and then, as far as God helps, grows and becomes a crowded meeting consisting of people of one or, more often, many nations, is as follows: all the brothers gathered together in the name of Christ have one soul, one heart, one thought and one will to serve Christ by doing His Divine commandments and friends bear each other's burdens, obeying each other in the love of God, for this they have as their father and mentor the abbot of the monastery, skilled in the understanding of Divine Scripture, instructing in word and deed, and in everything they obey him, as the Lord Himself, with extreme and complete cutting off and mortification of their will and reasoning, that is, his commandments and teaching, if they agree with the commandments of God and teaching fathers, not resisting at all, but diligently trying to fulfill what was commanded to them with the fear of God, faith and love. Having everything in common to satisfy bodily needs, they should not have their own property, movable and immovable, in any form (cf. Acts 2:44, 4:32). In all these three orders, as established by the Holy Spirit, many of the holy fathers perfectly pleased God and shone with spiritual gifts like the sun. And about all these three orders and dispensations of monastic life, the holy fathers give evidence from Divine Scripture. About the first rite, that is, about solitary life, they, on the one hand, discussing the height of such a life, which befits only those who are perfect and dispassionate and those who are miraculously called by God’s vision to such a life, on the other hand, considering the weakness inherent in us, beginners and passionate ones, and the manifold deceptions of the enemy that follow an unauthorized life, they cite evidence from Scripture: “Woe to one! If he falls into despondency, or sleep, or laziness, or despair, there is no one among the people who would raise him up” (Eccl. 4:10). The holy fathers praise living with one or two, calling it a highly praised angelic stay and a royal path, and cite the testimony of the Lord from Scripture: “For where there are two or three gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). About common life they cite evidence from Holy Scripture: “Behold, whatever is good, or whatever is good, but let the brethren live together” (Ps. 133:1). Since monastic life is divided into three orders, St. John Climacus gives advice to those coming out of the world into monasticism not to deviate either to the right or to the left, but to follow the royal path (see Numbers 20:17), that is, not to go into the desert, since the solitary desert life requires angelic strength. And the novice, and especially those overcome by such spiritual passions as anger, rage, vanity, envy, conceit and others, even a trace of such a deserted life, said John Climacus, should not dare to see, lest he suffer from a frenzy of mind, and let him not dare to enter the community - not because it is unhelpful (for what is more useful than such a life, praising which, Saint Basil The Great One says that his words lack the power to praise the height and greatness of such a life), but because it requires great patience. The saint advises to walk the royal path, that is, to live with one or two, since such a life is most convenient for many, as it does not require such great patience as is needed in a community, and as a life a little more enjoyable. After all, obeying your father alone or your brother still living with him in everything is not so surprising and requires less patience. In community with numerous brethren, not only to your father, but also to all your brothers, and to the very last, and to endure from them annoyance, dishonor, reproach and every kind of temptation, and to be dust and ashes under the feet of everyone, and, like a bought slave, to serve everyone with humility and fear of God, and to endure with reason the constant extreme poverty inherent in common life, and the scarcity of food and clothing required for the body is a matter of great, extreme and suffering patience; and those who endure to the end in such a God-pleasing community are honored with such a great reward in future bliss from the Ascetic Christ our God that it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend and express it in words. And therefore, according to the reasoning of the holy fathers, these two orders of monastic life, that is, staying with one or two and living in common, are offered to those coming out of the world into monasticism to choose in which one, having renounced the world, serve Christ: in the first, as the most joyful according to what has been said, or in the second, passion-bearing community, so that a special crown, according to the word Ladder, to receive reward from God on the day of righteousness according to deeds. The third rite, that is, the desert, is not at all commanded or advised by the Holy Fathers to be chosen for living by newcomers coming out of the world for the reason that they liken the desert life to Christ’s crucifixion on the Cross, and the common life to the passion of Christ, which He endured for our salvation before the Cross. After all, just as Christ, our Savior and the Hero of our salvation, Who in everything with Himself, His most pure life in the world presented the image and mark for us to please Him, not first endured the crucifixion on the Cross, and then His most pure Passion, but first the Passion, and then the Cross, so one who wants to please God in monasticism must, as the Holy Fathers command, follow the example of the Lord to begin one’s life from a common life, which corresponds to the passions of Christ, and to suffer in it together with Christ with the complete cutting off of one’s will and reasoning; to endure dishonor, reproach, reproach and every kind of temptation with great and inexpressible joy until he becomes blameless in humility. Namely, he must endure all these temptations with great and inexpressible joy and, like a heavenly drink, desire them at every hour, and he must honor those who tempt him as his great benefactors and intercessors of his salvation, having himself under the feet of everyone, like dust and ashes, with all his soul considering himself unworthy to live with them and look at anyone’s face. And from such a long-term and deep humility of his, which in his common life he acquired with the help of the queen of virtues - blessed obedience, the flame of God's ineffable love kindles in his blessed soul, and he can no longer, according to Saint Arsenius, be with God and with people; and such, on the advice of the fathers, can go into the desert, which corresponds to the crucifixion of Christ on the Cross, in order to completely kill himself for this world, and be crucified with Christ. It is precisely such a skillful true warrior of Christ, who first learned among the multitude of Christ’s warriors to skillfully fight with invisible enemies with his spiritual weapons, and then went out into single combat, that God helps to win a glorious victory over his enemies; and He crowns such a one with His ineffable Divine gifts, as His perfect saint and sufferer, duly struggling. And for such a person, the desert is an increase in Divine love, since he is vouchsafed to be entirely in God and God is in him. After all this has been so wonderfully established and arranged by the Holy Spirit through the Holy Fathers, if anyone, having left the world for monasticism and despising such a law of the Holy Spirit, instead of giving himself up in community life to holy and blessed, according to the word, that is, according to reason, the Scriptures, obedience (through which he could, by the grace of Christ, acquire true humility, and through it get rid of his passions, especially those of the soul), out of arrogant zeal, he will rush into the desert, being passionate and weak in soul and unskilled in spiritual exploits, and will choose for himself a silent and solitary life, wanting, instead of imitating the passions of Christ in the community, to immediately, ahead of time, ascend to the Cross of Christ by removing himself into the desert, to such a person the wrath of God comes for his contempt, and he, as unskilled a warrior who has not learned in the community the art of mental warfare and who does not yet even know how to hold a spiritual weapon in his hands, but who dares to leave the camp of the skilled warriors of Christ for single combat in order to fight his enemies - demons - alone, instead of winning, by God's permission for his contempt, he is defeated, falls before his enemies and is soon killed by them. For, the fathers say, this is the work of the strong and perfect - to fight alone with demons “and to draw the sword... which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17) against them. The impudent and disdainful one, who rushes prematurely into the desert, will reap thorns instead of wheat and will find destruction instead of salvation. Why? Because he becomes a despiser and destroyer of such a God-given rite, which, as was said before, Christ our God established for us by His immaculate and most pure life in the flesh; and instead of suffering with Christ in the community, he dared in his pride to ascend to His Cross, choosing the desert for himself before the community. And such a person is not a hermit, but an autocrat, and the life of such a person is not a desert and a solitary silent stay, but an autocrat. And such an unauthorized life usually will not be followed by any good, but only one deception of the devil, and from such an arbitrary and disorderly life and stay, both in ancient times and in the present, many monks perished, being seduced by the devil, losing their minds and killing themselves in various and terrible ways. May Christ our Savior deliver us all from such delusion with His grace. What will I say and what will I proclaim about the earthly heaven - the common life - and about the tree of life planted in it by God - the blessed obedience to which the weak and beginners resort, not daring to fight their enemies alone ahead of time, and, eating from the immortal fruit of this tree, by the extreme and passion-bearing cutting off of their will and reasoning, they avoid death and all delights diabolical, who persecute self-inflicted people. The fence and cover for such living is the Holy Spirit; and such a life is a quiet and storm-free haven for everyone who wants to get rid of the worries of this vain world. It is a ship, well-governed by the Holy Spirit, safely transporting those who entered it and no doubt obey such good governance, to the pier of the Kingdom of Heaven through the salty sea of ​​this life, not afraid of the mental flood of passions. It is a general medicine and true healing for all those possessed by mental and physical passions and truly wanting to be cured of them. It is a legitimate training in mental warfare against a mental enemy for the soldiers of Christ who want to win a glorious and soul-saving victory over him, and for them the invincible weapon against him is the Most Holy and Worshiped Spirit Himself. Christ our Savior Himself, by His example, established a common life and the holy obedience in it on earth for people and offered it as an example of the most perfect pleasing to God, spending life in a common life with His disciples and apostles, who obeyed His Divine commandments in everything. For He, having first planted in heaven among the angels and in paradise among people the root and foundation of common life - divine obedience, as the most important of all virtues and His most beloved virtue, then, destroyed by the devil's envy and our weakness, out of His extreme and ineffable love for mankind and compassion, He Himself renewed and restored it, “being obedient to His Father even to death” (Phil. 2:8), and, having healed our disobedience by His obedience, opened the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven to all who truly believe in Him and obey His Divine commandments. Following this example of Christ, in the primal Church eight thousand Christians lived communally, having nothing of their own, but having everything in common, and thanks to such a life they were honored to acquire one heart and soul (Acts 4:32). In such a community, the ancient reverend fathers throughout the universe, in Lavras and monasteries, spent their lives, having accepted the law 1, which was written down by the mouth of Christ - Saint Basil the Great, and they shone more than the sun. For no other life brings prosperity to a person as much as does living together with blessed obedience, carried out with reason, quickly freeing him from all mental and physical passions for the sake of humility, which is born from blessed obedience; it also leads to a primitive state - so that man would truly be in the image and likeness of God, as he was created from the beginning; and the gift of God, received in divine Baptism, allows it to shine in a person more than other spiritual gifts, of which, for the sake of the grace of God, a true novice is honored to be a partaker through his true humility, as he himself can many times mentally feel with his spiritual sense. Such a common residence of all the brothers gathered in it in the name of Christ, even if they were from different peoples and countries, binds them with such great love that they all become one body, and members of each other (1 Cor. 12:27); all together have one head - Christ, all burn with love for God, for their God-father and for each other, all unanimously and unanimously have a single intention - to diligently fulfill and keep God's commandments, they encourage each other to do this, they obey each other with such a thought, they bear each other's burdens, they are each other's masters and each other's slaves. And for such their true, spiritual and like-minded love, they become imitators of the life of the Lord, the apostles and angels, with faith and love obeying in everything their father according to God and mentor, as God Himself, they confess all the secrets of their hearts to him, they never hide anything, they accept the word and commandment from him, as from the mouth of God, with confidence; their will and reasoning, contrary to their father, like bad clothes, spitting and cursing, they throw away from themselves, avoiding it as the charms of the devil, fearing it as if it were fiery hell, and they constantly pray to God to get rid of such a burden by His grace. And they make every effort to cleave to their father, as a child cleaves to its mother, and to follow him, as sheep follow their shepherd, and, as a tool obeys its master, and as cattle obeys its master, so to obey their father in everything, without any reasoning of their own that is contrary to him. For this divine obedience, being the root and foundation of common life and all monasticism, is as connected and united with common life as if the soul were with the body, and one does not exist without the other. Here is the shortest staircase to heaven, which has only one step of cutting off the will; by stepping on it, the novice quickly ascends to heaven. Obedience is also a ready-made path that leads to God; whoever follows it until the end of his life, rightly and without deviation, is honored to become a son of God by grace, an heir of God and a joint heir of Christ in His Heavenly Kingdom. After all, common life is heaven, and holy obedience is the heaven of heavens. Therefore, if anyone falls away from obedience, he is rejected from God and heaven, as determined by the God-bearing fathers, according to the words of the great Gregory of Sinai. The mentors of such a common life and all-blessed obedience in ancient times were the great God-bearing fathers, who themselves, for the sake of the purity of their souls and perfect pleasing in the commandments of God, were honored to become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and, thanks to Him, like the sun shining with spiritual gifts, they came to extreme dispassion and perfect love of God, guided by the Holy Spirit; and by word, and deed, and by the example of their godly life, they showed the true path to salvation to their God-gathered flock, directing them to vigilantly keep the commandments of God. Therefore, their disciples, as if at an animated pillar and a luminous sun, looked at their holy mentors, and they themselves were instructed and enlightened in all virtues by the light of their teachings and good deeds, and came to the highest pleasing to God, and many, countless and countless, many of them were saved. In these fierce times, when the number of such mentors has become extremely scarce - which is worthy of much crying and sobbing - if any zealous monks wanted to please God in such a communal life, then their teacher and mentor is God Himself and the word of those reverend fathers, communal mentors, intended for reading, has been preserved even to this day by God's Providence. Looking at this readable word, as at those fathers themselves, those who read with the fear of God and reasoning can, in part, with God’s help and the very godly life of those fathers, be imitators, being guided and admonished by their father, who gathered them in the name of Christ or who was chosen by them with one mind - one who is not from himself, but from the Holy Scripture and from the same teaching of the holy fathers of his spiritual children teaches. Indeed, in ancient times, many of the holy fathers, being themselves illiterate, taught their disciples from enlightenment by the grace of God. In modern times, the holy fathers do not at all command anyone to teach the brethren on their own behalf, but only from the Holy Scripture and from the teaching of the venerable fathers, who, by the Holy Spirit, having learned the mysteries and power of the Holy Scripture and by the grace of the Spirit, foreknowledge of the considerable scarcity of sound teaching and true mentors among the monks in these last times, being prompted by the same Holy Spirit, wrote their holy and soulful teaching for our eternal benefit and edification, for confirmation and guidance on the path of salvation. And in modern times, the mentors of monks and their disciples themselves, adhering to this teaching with humility and fear of God, will not sin in relation to their salvation, nor will those who listen to them. So, after all these three rites and orders of monastic life, their properties and the benefit that comes from them are presented to your love for God in my shortest and meager word, I, knowing your strong love for me according to God and faithful friendship, I want to inform you about myself and about our poor life, at least in my shortest word, even if you know about it. May your love for God know that when I left the world with indescribable zeal - which you yourself are well aware of - in order to diligently serve God in monasticism (God knows, Father, I am not lying), then in my youth and at the beginning of my monasticism I was not vouchsafed even a trace of anyone’s sound and right reasoning, advice and teaching, in agreement with the teaching of the holy fathers, about how How should I, a beginner and inexperienced, begin my poor monasticism and with what way of thinking. For when I first entered a deserted monastery, where I was worthy to receive the beginning of the monastic form through the ineffable benevolence of God, I was not honored to see or understand any trace of anyone’s sound instruction about what obedience is, and in what strength and with what intelligence it is accomplished, and what hidden benefit it has in itself and brings to the novice. Because neither the abbot himself, nor my successor and the elder gave me any instruction about this, for they tonsured me without any test appropriate for beginners, which consists in cutting off their will and reasoning, and left me to live without any spiritual guidance. For my adopted father, after my tonsure, lived only one week in the monastery and left it (where is unknown to me to this day), telling me only the following: “Brother, you are literate, live as God teaches you.” So, left unguided by anyone, like a sheep without a shepherd, I began to wander everywhere, looking for where to find benefit, peace and guidance for my soul, and I did not find it until I reached the quiet and calm haven of the Holy Mountain in the hope of at least getting some kind of consolation for my soul there. But even there, when I arrived there, there were few brothers from our Russian people who, moreover, knew the Holy Scriptures, that is, literate. So, not being able to receive the desired guidance for my soul, I sat in one cell in imaginary solitude for some time and, relying on God’s Providence for my poor soul, I began to read little by little the books of my fathers, taking them from my Godly benefactors, in the Serbian and Bulgarian monasteries, and read them carefully. Then, since the Lord enlightened me, a blind man, I saw, as if in a mirror, how and in what manner it would be fitting for me to begin my poor monasticism, and I realized how great the grace of God I had lost through my ignorance, not having surrendered myself soul and body to some skilled father in obedience, and not having been worthy to receive instructions from anyone for such a holy work. And I realized that my poor imaginary silence was not my measure, but living alone is the work of the perfect and dispassionate, and then I was at a loss about where I could surrender myself to obedience, about which many times, like a child for a dead mother, I sighed and cried. But not finding, for many blessed reasons, where to live in obedience, I decided to go through my life in the royal way with one like-minded and unanimous brother: instead of my father, we should have God and the teaching of the holy fathers as our mentor, obey and serve each other, have one soul and one heart, have everything in common to support our life, knowing that this path of monasticism is attested by the holy fathers on the basis of Holy Scripture. And since God helped my good intention, a brother who was of one mind with me in everything, the first in our community, who even to this day, by the grace of Christ, remains alive, came to the Holy Mountain, and began to live with me in one accord. And thus, by the grace of Christ, my soul partly found a certain consolation and much-desired peace, since I, the accursed one, was honored to see at least some trace of benefit from the holy obedience that we had to each other through the cutting off of our will, instead of a father and mentor, having the teaching of our holy fathers and obeying each other in the love of God. But I did not enjoy such a life for long, because other brothers who came from the world into monasticism, seeing such a loving life together with my brother, became jealous with jealousy to join the same life and began to persistently beg me with their zealous prayer to accept them into cohabitation and discipleship. I refused for a long time, fearing and trembling, to accept anyone into discipleship, considering this to be the work of the perfect and dispassionate, but being weak and passionate myself, I did not accept them - one for four years, another for three, another for two, and for others for a certain long time. However, after, convinced, on the one hand, by the great anxiety that they caused me with their prayers, on the other hand, by the tearful prayer of the brother living with me, who was very brotherly, I began to reluctantly accept one by one into my cohabitation, revealing to each of them, according to my strength, on the basis of Holy Scripture and the teachings of the holy fathers, the power of holy obedience. And seeing that they had ineffable faith and love for the Holy Scripture and for me, the unworthy, and with each other - peace and like-mindedness, I greatly rejoiced at their good will and glorified God, relying on the ineffable Providence of God for their spiritual and physical care, and accepted one by one those who surrendered themselves with all the zeal of soul and body into blessed obedience. And thus, from the royal path, that is, from cohabitation with one or two brothers, by the grace of Christ, our common life was formed, since the number of brothers increased significantly. This life on the Holy Mount Athos was not facilitated by the very place itself, which is extremely harsh and presents difficulties, where even two or three, living together, can hardly, with bloody sweat, I will say, with difficulty satisfy their bodily needs, much less so many. We were also afraid of the Turkish authorities, lest they impose tributes on our wretched society, similar to those paid by other Svyatogorsk monasteries, and this, as I have already heard from many, was what was supposed to happen. For these and many other reasons, about which I have already written to your shrine, we were afraid that the extreme and final, much crying and worthy sobbing, the ruin of this life, compiled with considerable sweat and labor, would happen. Therefore, trusting in God, who is omnipresent and fulfills everything and is blessed in every place by His dominion, we all moved together from the Holy Mountain to the Orthodox Moldova land, where in the monastery of Dragomirna, given to us by the pious ruler and His Eminence Metropolitan, even better than in the Holy Mountain, this our residence was established by the grace of Christ, until the time the Lord wants it, since this land is partly suitable for such residence promotes. And there were already gathered in our hostel the brothers who, unanimously in holy obedience to the Lord, wished to serve, about a hundred monks, in addition to lay novices; they all have one common good desire - to serve God by diligently observing His Divine commandments. Firstly, the brothers do not have any property of their own, even down to the smallest thing, for this, according to Saint Basil the Great, is the first condition of common life, which is very carefully observed in our community, and so much so that it cannot even come to the mind of any of the brethren to acquire anything for themselves in the community, since they know that this is the way of Judas the traitor. For everyone, when he is accepted into our common residence, his property, if it happened to anyone to have anything, and things, even the smallest little thing, laying everything before my feet and the brethren, he commits it to the Lord, and at the same time he commits himself, soul and body, into holy obedience until death; Otherwise, it is impossible for anyone to be accepted into our society. Secondly, they force themselves not even to have their own will and reasoning, but to strictly observe prudent obedience. For this is the second condition of common life, its root and foundation, as has already been said many times; and this condition, by the grace of God, as far as is possible for our human weakness at this time, is strictly observed in our community. After all, it is even impossible for anyone to be accepted into our society if he does not have the intention of soul and body and with all his will to surrender himself into the holy and blessed obedience certified by Holy Scripture, so that henceforth he will no longer do his own will, adhere to his own reasoning and not guide himself, but be guided and guided by the teaching of our reverend fathers. This teaching for our life according to God is the helmsman, mentor and guide to salvation, I offer it to everyone together and to each individual through my sinful lips, I dare to condemn my accursed soul on the day of judgment, for I speak and offer soul-helping advice to the brethren, but I myself do not do a single good deed. Since our life has such a foundation, namely non-covetousness and obedience, then all other communal rules, about which there is no time to write to you in detail now, in our community by the grace of Christ are observed as far as possible, and the brothers force themselves to acquire the true and unfeigned love of God for each other. For they, firstly, having loved the Lord and for the sake of love for Him, considering everything beautiful and sweet in this world to be unclean, they left it all and followed their Lord, taking up their cross, and went; They also force themselves to bear each other’s burdens, to have one heart and soul, encouraging each other to good deeds, trying to surpass each other with faith and love for me, the unworthy, as children of God; and I, seeing them laboring in this way, rejoice in my soul and glorify God with tears for the fact that the Lord has vouchsafed me to see such His servants, and to live with them, and to be comforted by the sight of them. After all, I, like the angels of God, seeing brothers forcing themselves to holy obedience, consider myself unworthy to even follow their trail, seeing myself deprived of such God's grace, that is, holy obedience. Not everyone in our community has achieved the same level of success, but this is also impossible. Some of the brothers - which are the majority - have completely killed their will and reasoning, obeying me and the brethren in everything, and, as if to the Lord Himself, they show obedience to the brethren in the fear of God and with much humility, endure dishonor, reproach, reproach and every kind of temptation with such great joy as anyone experiences who has been honored with some great grace of God, and this 2 always insatiably desires, They always and incessantly reproach themselves before God in the secret of their hearts and consider themselves the least and the least of all. Others - again, not a small number - falling and rising, sinning and repenting, enduring reproach and temptation, although with difficulty, still force themselves with all their souls to become equal to the first and earnestly pray to God for this with tears. Others - few in number - are weak and infirm, like babies, cannot yet take solid food, that is, endure reproaches and temptations; they still need to be fed the milk of mercy, love for mankind and condescension to their weaknesses until they reach the spiritual age of patience; They make up for their poverty with good will and constant self-reproach alone. Repeatedly and beyond their strength, to the point of bleeding, they force themselves to endure dishonor and abandon their will, that is, they perform great work, as if they were pouring out blood before God, praying with tears to God to help them. And such, although they are the weakest, will nevertheless be considered “needs” (Matthew 11:12) of the Kingdom of Heaven before God. All of them, although not to the same extent, as has been said, nevertheless all together force themselves to keep God’s and the Patristic commandments and, being bound to each other by the indestructible union of God’s love, for the sake of God’s love and their salvation, they endure constant poverty in bodily needs with generosity and unceasing thanksgiving to God, pinning their hope on God alone both for their salvation and for the satisfaction of bodily needs, to support life’s necessary needs. Having presented in this letter to you the much-desired, as I think, news about the three dispensations of monastic life, and together about our many-poor and wretched community of life, which, although it is separated from the common life that existed in the days of our holy fathers, like earth from heaven, however, as far as possible, especially in these poor times, it was formed and maintained with the help of the grace of God, I also inform you about myself. By the generosity of God, although I am in bodily weakness, I am still in this life. I have constant grief and mental illness about the face with which I will appear before the terrible Judge at His terrible and impartial judgment seat and what kind of account I will give about so many souls of the brothers who have given themselves up to me in obedience, because I cannot even give an answer about one of my damned souls, seeing my spiritual weakness and infirmity in everything, and I cannot set an example for the brethren in any good deed, which is what my position in this residence requires. After God and the Mother of God, only on the prayers of the brothers living with me do I place undoubted hope for my salvation, although I am unworthy, and I do not despair that God’s ineffable and incomprehensible mercy will be poured out on my sinful soul; if not, but by the righteous justice of God I will be condemned for my evil deeds to eternal torment, blessed be God, for I am worthy of this for my negligence about His Divine commandments. Only for this I always pray to His mercy, that He, by His mercy, for the smallest labor of mine that I have ever had or am having about this community, gathered in His Most Holy Name, would at least deign me with His mercy, so that I would be worthy to see in His Heavenly Kingdom - as that rich man saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom - that my spiritual children are true slaves and sufferers Those of Christ, for their present short-term suffering, in obedience, are satisfied with the angels and saints, who in obedience pleased Him, with the divine sight of Him. And this would be enough for me instead of any reward; however, through their holy prayers I, the accursed one, hope to be saved, for which I beseech your sanctuary to pray to God for me, I humbly remain your sincere friend who desires salvation for you. I sincerely wish you the greatest contemplation. Unfailing friend, in the name of Christ, the unworthy primate of the assembled brotherhood, Hieromonk Paisius. May 16, 1766, Moldovlakhian hostel monastery Dragomirna. This letter was sent with Fathers Gabriel and Spyridon. Second letter to Priest Demetrius To my all-beloved friend, zealous worker of Christ’s commandments, Father Demetrius, the most reverent among the priests, rejoice in the Lord! I thank Christ God for the fact that the spark of the Divine fire, even in your youth He cast into your blessed heart, you, by diligently doing His soul-saving commandments, kept unquenchable and want to kindle it into the flame of perfect love for Him by receiving, if the Lord wants, an angelic image. But you have a great obstacle to this, my favorite, for the one who gets married, according to the Climacus, has become like one who has his hands and feet tied, and even if he wants to go into monasticism, he cannot. Secondly, you have committed yourself to shepherding the flock of Christ’s verbal sheep, which is not safe to be left just as it happens. Thirdly, a habit acquired in worldly life over such a long time and turned almost into nature, and also an ingrained natural love for one’s wife and children, as well as an attachment to the world and the things existing in the world, is very difficult to leave behind. Being in such a position, how can you free yourself from these intractable bonds and overcome these obstacles? Firstly, beloved, you should have spiritual advice about this with the helper God has given you, doing this with her permission. Secondly, one must arrange one’s children legally and according to God. Thirdly, and most importantly, you need to ask His Eminence the Archpastor, if the Holy Spirit inspired consent to this in his holy heart: for you - a blessing for such a holy work, and for your flock - after you - a skilled shepherd. “When you sow a blessing, you will also reap a blessing” (2 Cor. 9:6). And since you begin to do your work according to the order, your desire for monasticism according to God will be strong and unshakable, praiseworthy before God and people. But if you were easily granted these above-described means 3 by God’s grace and got rid of every obstacle, then you would also have to count your spiritual possessions with great consideration and thus begin to build the pillar of monasticism, so that your work, because of the reckless start of construction and its incompleteness, would not be a laughing stock and a reproach, according to the Gospel (Luke 14:28–29); May this cup with tears, and the bread of monasticism with bitterness, not be condemned to us on the Day of Judgment because of folly. For no one, says Climacus, will enter the palace of heaven with a crown unless he makes the first, second and third renunciation. The first is renunciation of the world and what is in the world; second - renunciation of one's will and reasoning; third - renunciation of vanity, which follows obedience. Of these, the first is the most convenient, but for lovers of God. The second requires heroism and bloody labor to death. The third is achieved by constantly reproaching oneself. All of them are accompanied by God's invisible help, without which it is impossible for any of them to be fulfilled. Therefore, all-desired, if you, with the assistance of God’s grace helping you, hope that you can, having freed yourself from the previously mentioned obstacles, truly renounce the world and everything in the world, also renounce your will and reasoning, and surrender yourself to true obedience according to God and God’s commandments until death, and not have any of your property, even the smallest thing, and consider yourself the least and the last of all and to endure generously the mental abuse constantly inflicted on the servants of God by the invisible enemy of our souls, if you still have the will to death of love for the sake of God with sweetness to endure hunger and thirst and poverty in the necessities of the body, reproach and dishonor and all the oppression and sorrow that characterize monastic life - rejoice and be glad, glorify God and undoubtedly believe that God, through His wondrous destinies, will transform your godly intention into action. And may you, even in the eleventh hour of your life, be worthy to serve God in angelic form, but do not doubt, for equal with the first, who served God in monasticism from your youth to old age, from the all-generous right hand of God you will receive a reward in Heaven - the ineffable blessings prepared for the lovers of God, which you, in Christ Jesus our Lord, wish to be worthy of. I appear to the sight of your honored face, a sincere wisher and unfailing friend, in the name of Christ, the unworthy primate of the assembled brotherhood, Hieromonk Paisius. March 18, 1772, Moldovlachia monastery of Dragomirna. Sent with Father Spiridon. This refers to the charter of St. Basil for cenobitic monasteries. That is, dishonor and desecration. You might be interested in: