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(1) About abstinence and patience in doing the virtues required by the time of fasting, and about silence, and about how truly ascetic should spend the entire time of fasting. 1. Being weak in both soul and body from my evil and careless will, I would like to remain silent and listen only to myself, thinking about my own condition, until I overcome the will of the flesh and subordinate it to my soul, and receive perfect peace in the Holy Spirit, having been freed by Him from the burden of earthly and material wisdom and led into the haven of blessed rest. But since I have been chosen by you to be the head of your holy body, that is, your abbot, then I need to move you to every good, comforted by the hope that you, working for your own salvation, with your prayers and the prayers of my spiritual father, and your father, will preserve and save me, weak in soul. Why, not having the strength to open my mouth, through force I wrote my real word as a kind of reminder to your brotherhood, asking and begging you, as true servants of Christ and sincere brotherly lovers, to pray for me, poor, that I too may be saved with you and, walking the path of God’s commandments, may I remain with you, my beloved brothers. Therefore, I beseech you in Christ Jesus, take heed to yourselves, and let each of you be wise in chastity, and let him not be wise more than he ought to be wise (Rom. 12:3). Do not look at my careless life, but keep the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom, as a righteous and not false Judge, we have to give an account of everything that we do. Give me, I ask, such praise, that I may boast that I alone, having fallen through my negligence into the depths of hell, cried out with a great voice and freed you from the snares of the devil. Although I should mourn my own negligence, I seek the pleasure of seeing you soaring high, above all the enemy’s nets. Keep all the commandments of Christ without fail, beloved, so that you may be saved like a roe from a snare, and like a bird from a snare (Proverbs 6:5). The first commandment is to love God and each other with all our souls, just as God loved the world. True love for God and neighbor is recognized when someone has the following qualities: he is not proud, does not envy his brother, but imitates the good that he sees in another, doing the same himself; does not look for beautiful clothes, but only those that are necessary; does not grumble, does not joke or laugh, and does not argue about anything, neither big nor small; he is not satisfied not only with food and sweets, but even with water, especially on the real holy days of fasting, on which the repentant sincerely and with heartache receives from God forgiveness of sins committed throughout the year. You know how the warmth of repentance and the fervor of these tears, coming from the very depths of the heart, evaporate and burn like fire, all sinful defilement and the soul defiled by it, making it completely pure; and not only this, but at the same time the soul also receives a rich illumination of divine light, and with the grace of the Holy Spirit it is filled with the mercy of God and good fruits. Let us try to maintain this fast, my beloved brethren, both in the present fifth week of Holy Pentecost, and in the following days of Great Week, applying daily zeal to zeal, diligence to diligence, until we reach the Lord's day of Holy Pascha, sanctified in soul and body. We have almost already passed this fifth week complacently and with warm zeal, for I am sure that you did not forget a single good deed inherent in fasting, but that you performed all-night hymns with all attention, and observed abstinence comprehensively, maintaining it with great patience and complacency and being content with only vegetables and potions (herbs, herbs. - Ed.) offered at meal. I know that some of you sit among us at a meal with a contrite and humble heart, and do not even taste these meager dishes of the meal, but condemn yourself as unworthy of such food, and then constantly pay attention to yourself and your handicraft, showing timid boldness with silence, while in your soul you are filled with tenderness, tears, prayers, supplications and spiritual labors, as a result whereby, with frequent genuflections, they changed with a good change and acquired an ascetic beautiful vision (vid. - Ed.). Now, since we soon have to leave the feat of fasting in the approaching days of Easter, we sweat, I ask, and in the remaining days, especially in Holy Holy Week, to strictly observe the law of the good fast, maintaining the same feat at this time as in the past days. We need great attention and great diligence so as not to spend the days of our life as some careless people spend them. And you yourself know that others, as soon as the first week has passed, think that the entire Pentecost has already passed - and they clearly shout about this both among themselves and in front of others. But in relation to us there is fear, and great fear, if we had not thought the same thing, we would not have begun to say to each other the same things that they say, and thus they would not appear to us as despisers and violators of their vow. For we, who have renounced the world and died to it, and who have devoted ourselves entirely to Christ, have been given the law of strict abstinence, not only for the present time of fasting, but also for the entire time of our life, during which we must always maintain abstinence. And how can we not realize that we have a duty of abstinence throughout our lives, when we promised to hunger, and to thirst, and to be hungry, and to suffer in every way - and to endure all this with great joy - especially now, during the Holy Pentecost? If we don’t want to spend all the time of our lives in this way, but always want to eat and drink plenty, laugh, joke, idle talk, argue, then what difference will we have from the infidels and pagans? Truly none, even we will be worse than them. We are like the pagans when we carefully seek bread, wine, and clothing; Who do we become like when we do the things said, which are much more shameful and worse than this? Then what the Prophet David says will certainly be fulfilled on us: be like the foolish cattle and become like them (Ps. 48:13). Let us listen, my brethren, to God, who teaches us in the Holy Gospel: Do not worry, saying: What are we drinking, or what are we drinking, or what are we wearing?.. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:31, 33). And lest anyone say: what if God is late in giving me what I need and I have nothing to eat, what should I do then? He added: Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And then he said: Don’t you eat them better? (Matthew 6:26). And again, so that we do not become faint-hearted and grumble because of food and drink, He proclaims to everyone: blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied (Luke 6:21). So, if you believe in Christ and confess that He is true and false, you will never hunger or thirst. If you have nothing to eat or drink, and you ask the cellarer for bread, or wine, or something else edible, and he will not give you, being perhaps busy with some work, then remember the words of the Lord and say: I hunger and thirst, but by being patient, I will bear with the Lord, and He will work according to my weakness and will not forsake me - and be patient, my brother, and you will have a great reward from God. And in all other temptations that happen to you, act in the same way - and you will be great in this life and in the future you will be numbered among the holy martyrs. How many poor Christians are there, my brothers, who lie in some corner and sometimes wish for a little cold water, but do not have it - and yet they thank God, and are not indignant, and do not utter any blasphemy! And we, by the grace of God, have everything the body needs in abundance, and even in excess. If now the one who, having nothing, murmurs, is condemned for not having patience; then when, having everything in abundance, another, in order not to suffer a small deprivation of anything, argues, scolds and speaks blasphemous words - will such a person be worthy of any forgiveness? I know that by saying this, I condemn myself and my words will reproach me; however, I ask that this be a kind of reminder for you too. So, just as you spent the past days of fasting with all zeal and diligence, so, I ask, try to spend the entire Holy Pentecost, remembering your good lifestyle, and your good behavior, and reverence, and humility, and silence, and zeal for worship and handicrafts. Yes, I ask you, do not forget the passionate fasting and cleansing abstinence, and do not allow yourself, my brothers, to become careless about them, even the slightest. But although it happens that on another day the food will change and you will have the opportunity to receive some kind of consolation, you do not change your intention and keep your rule of abstinence unshakable and immutable. When you eat more than usual, then try to work harder in the work of God, so that this food, instead of thanksgiving and benefit, does not become a cause of neglect and great harm for you. Pay attention and fast, my brothers, as I told you, and for the next week, like the last, conduct yourself with the fear of God, do not abandon obedience and your handicraft, and do not wander here and there, submitting to the demon of despondency. If any of you, passing from somewhere, finds another brother standing or sitting idly, let him quickly pass by, making the usual bow to him. Perhaps this will make the idle man come to his senses, repent, be ashamed, and of his own accord go about his business. By doing this, you yourself will avoid condemnation of idleness and idle talk. Have you not heard that Blessed Zosima, who wrote the story of the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt, speaks of the holy fathers of that monastery to which he was led by a special indication of the Providence of God? How did they leave the monastery and spend the entire Lent in the desert, never meeting each other, and when by chance someone noticed someone from afar, they immediately ran away from him? They had no desire to meet any of their own in the desert, and, returning to the monastery, they did not ask each other what anyone had seen or what they had done in the desert, and in general they behaved in relation to each other as if they were strangers and strangers and people of a different language. And I think that they did this for no other reason than because they were careful that no idle word should come out of their mouths. So, if those fathers spent so many days and so many years without starting conversations with each other, then what can we say about us, who even on the few days of Holy Pentecost we cannot protect ourselves from conversations and idle talk? And what am I saying – days? We cannot stop ourselves from doing this even for one hour. And what will happen to us, my good brethren, if, when we are in such a pitiful state, God, the Judge of all, suddenly appears, Who on the day of judgment will demand an account of every idle word? If we don’t even know how to control our tongue, then how can we overcome other passions? What other passion, tell me, is easier than this? The flesh has a natural lust and burning, and often rebels against the soul and fights it very strongly. The belly naturally desires to be filled with food, because that is what it was created for. The same cannot be said about language. So, if we cannot stop the evil habit of tongue-lashing (talkiness - Ed.), which is very convenient and easy for us, then how can we overcome other passions, stronger and more persistent, which rely on our nature and are in alliance with lust and sinful pleasures? Let us, my brethren, from now on, by common consent, make it a law for ourselves, that if two people are found standing idly with nothing to do and having useless and vain conversations, then on that day they should not be given anything to eat except dry bread with salt and water, which they should eat, standing at the last place in the meal. Having such a law - urgent - you will be protected from idle talk and jokes, and through this you will please God, for His sake putting a guard on your lips and a guardrail over your lips - and you will give me, your unworthy father, great consolation, filling my soul with joy, and bring great benefit to your own souls, accustoming yourself, for the love of God, to such a good way of life and such a wondrous custom, then you will be worthy glorified and praised by all people, and God will be glorified through you, that in this present generation you turned out to be imitators of the ancient holy fathers; which, I think, is not easy to find in our times, and in these places where we are now, and among the monks, and in the monasteries that we see and hear about. Why do I beg you, my holy fathers and servants of Christ, do not listen to the words of your unworthy father, considering them empty words, for, although I am weak and full of countless sins, you yourself see that I do not advise you anything that is not required by the commandments of God and that is not prescribed by Divine Scripture. Make a good beginning, by which you will give me some kind of revival, when with your holy prayers I too awaken from sleep, wipe my eyes, wash my face and drive away the deep sleep of laziness. And instead of this good that you will do for me, your insignificant servant, I will give you reward, although not as it should be, but as much as I can, with soul-saving words that the grace of God will put into the hole of my unclean lips. Here, my brothers, I beg you, do not despise my request, but just as you gave me permission to keep my word before you - to me, half dead and almost speechless, so give me your will, so that by cutting off your will you will demonstrate the feat of the martyrs and passion-bearers of Christ, and from now on I have accepted a greater readiness to betray both my soul and body to a free death for you. That may it come true for me, may I be worthy to suffer and die for my brothers, and with such parting words may I depart into another life, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory and power with the beginningless Father and the All-Holy Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: