Слово 9

(1) The greatest sin is to pray without the fear of God, without reverence and attention. Those who allow it do not know God, as they should. – (2) In order to know God, divine light is required. – (3) Every person sins in mind, word and deed. To protect yourself from sins, you must first heal your mind. 1. There is no greater sin than to pray without the fear of God, without attention and reverence. Anyone who prays or sings psalms simply at random, with carelessness and contempt, clearly does not know what God is, does not know and is careless. Why does God, from Whom comes the remission of sins and every good thing, would like to have mercy on him too, but he cannot, and is even more angry. It’s better not to pray like that at all than to pray like that, that is, only with your lips. It is not in the nature of the soul to pray with the lips, but with the mind, and the one who sings psalms and says prayers, but his mind does not enclose himself in the prayer that he says, does something incongruous, which is why he incites the wrath of God to whom he prays. Just as the mind sees and the mind hears, so it is necessary for the mind to pray through the lips. He who does not pray at all does not fulfill his duty and remains a debtor to God, but someday he will come to his senses and can ask for forgiveness of his debt from God, to whom he owes. The one who prays haphazardly, with carelessness, provokes the wrath of God, the debt solver Himself, to Whom he prays, for such a person prays to God with his lips, but his mind carries on a conversation with demons. From whom can he expect mercy after this? So, you need to pray to God with verbal prayer and with your mind. But since it is impossible for one to pray with the lips and the mind, if he does not first receive the enlightenment and influence of the Holy Spirit, then first of all else one must take care to receive the enlightenment and grace of the Holy Spirit, so as not to pray with the lips only and through this not to be in danger of falling into His wrath instead of receiving mercy from God. For there is no other sin that angers God so much as when someone makes prayers to Him with his lips, but with his mind he thinks inappropriate and shameful things. Such a mind has not yet been dominated by Christ and does not want to be possessed by Him, and because it does not want God to reign over it, it is the enemy of the King Christ (Luke 19:14). 2. So, it is not proper to pray to God without fear and reverence. He who does not have fear and reverence, let him first of all ask for the light of the fear of God, so that he knows before what a terrible God he stands and prays in order to be worthy to receive what he asks for. For whoever knows that God is terrible will be filled with the fear of God, and the fear of God will teach him how to pray. Whoever does not know this is in darkness and does not know how to pray as he should. While the sun has not yet risen and darkness covers the earth, who can see things well? And the one who has gone through grammar, rhetoric and philosophy and has been enriched with the knowledge of all things cannot read books containing such teachings without light, but a beginner who has just begun such a teaching, what can he see without light or what can he learn? Nothing. In the same way, every soul needs the hidden light of divine knowledge, so that it can see, know and comprehend the power and meaning of the divine words of the psalms. For this hidden light of divine knowledge is a certain mental force - powerful, which surrounds and gathers the mobile mind, which usually runs back and forth while listening or reading these divine words, and keeps it within itself, and listens to what it reads or listens to. If this divine light does not enter someone, then he will say or read a prayer with his lips, and listen with his ears, but his mind will remain sterile; and not only this, but he will not stand on one thing, but will spin here and there and think about what is not appropriate, moreover, holding the thought that he urgently needs to think about what he is thinking about, and take care of what he is seduced by, not realizing that at this time he is a slave of the mental tyrant the devil, and he is mentally dragged here and there. This is why this disease is disastrous and destructive, because while my enemy drags my own mind here and there, I think that all these whirlings of my mind, all these worries and cares are my own and are urgently necessary for me. This is the first and greatest of all mental illnesses, for the healing of which, as the first, worst and strongest of any other mental illness, we must struggle to the point of shedding blood. For it prevents us from praying as we should and does not allow our prayer to ascend directly to God; it is a large and strong wall that prevents our mind from approaching God, Who is everywhere and fulfills everything. This darkening of the soul is the beginning of the pitch darkness of hell, and if Christ does not disperse it in everyone who strives for his salvation, then no one will see the Lord. Why does David say: Through my God I will cross the wall (Ps. 17:30). And Christ the Lord, driving away this darkness, proclaims: I am the light of the world (John 8:12). If this darkness is not dispelled and expelled from the soul before any other evil, then the faith of every such Christian is in vain, he is called in vain by the name of a believer, his fasts and vigils are in vain, he labors in vain, crying out in his psalmody. 3. If stones attack any narrow channel or pipe and block them, then you cannot remove the stone that is at the very bottom, nor the one in the middle, nor even the one that is close to the first, unless you first take out this first one, and then the others in order. The same thing happens with people. People sin in three ways: in mind, in word and in deed. The first sin, sin of the mind, is the cause of all those sins in which one sins in word and deed, for it is not the mind that ends the sin, but the word and deed that the mind invents. So, of these three, which first and most of all needs to be healed by Christ? Obviously, the first, that is, the mind. For when the mind is healed and sanctified, when it comes to a good state and will not tolerate anything displeasing to God being said or done, then the soul will be protected from any other sin. So, as much strength as we have, we must strive, so that our minds may be sanctified by Christ, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit. For this alone Christ, being God, became man, for this he was crucified, died and was resurrected. This, that is, the sanctification of the mind, is the resurrection of the soul in the present life, as a result of which one can be worthy of the future resurrection of the body to glory and bliss. Let us first of all strive to correct our mind, so that it stands (soberly within itself) when we pray or read and study the Divine Scriptures. For if we do not correct our mind, everything else is in vain, and our soul will not accept any success. Many who call themselves Christians and do not truly exist as such, not knowing that they carry this great and terrible disease in their souls, fall into vanity and conceit, think that they are higher than other brothers, are proud and exalted above those of their own kind and despise them, when this disease makes them equal with everyone, for it is common to the entire human race, just as corruption and death are common to all. This disease is often more likely to be cured in the simplest and unscientific than in the learned and wise in science. If these simplest ones are healed sooner, then, obviously, they are better than the wise and closer to God, by Whom they are first known and enlightened, and then they themselves know Him. However, as each person’s mind is corrected, he is given a measure of knowledge or knowledge of both himself and God, that is, as each person’s mind is corrected, sanctified and enlightened, the extent to which he comes to know himself and God, to Whom be glory forever. Amen. You might be interested in: