Глава XVI. О письмах старца о. Макария

Repeatedly above it was necessary to cite excerpts from the letters of our great elder Father Fr. Macaria. Let's say a few words about them here. It is known that soon after his transition from the Ploshchanskaya hermitage to the Optina monastery, by the will of the highest spiritual authorities, he was appointed confessor of the entire Optina brotherhood; then, a little later, he was entrusted with the duty of the monastery commander; and after the death of the elder Fr. He was Leo and the main elder in the monastery. Among the arduous tasks of all these duties, Elder Macarius received many letters in each mail from those who turned to him for spiritual advice and solutions to their perplexities, in addition to those sent from different places in considerable quantities with the opportunity 111. And from 1834 to 1841 he wrote answers on behalf of his spiritual father and fellow elder Fr. Leonida; and then, when Elder Leonid died in 1841, over the next 19 years of his life he continued to write on his own behalf or dictated answers suitable for each questioner to strengthen and console him in sorrow. The elder wrote most of the answers to questions that required spiritual reasoning himself. His students helped him only in letters whose content required unimportant and brief answers; as well as in responses to letters of non-spiritual content - congratulatory ones or those simply demanding to thank someone for their love and diligence. This was done like this: first, the elder read the letters he received, putting aside those that, due to the importance of their content, were subject to his personal response; and he gave others to the student who helped him in writing, immediately saying briefly that he needed to answer each letter. As was seen above, the elder did not have a specific time for letters. They were almost always written, so to speak, in fits and starts, because visitors who often came to him kept interrupting him from his writing. Only twice a week, on the very days when the mail left in the morning, the elder stopped receiving outside visitors for several hours and, before sending letters, intensified his activity: he wrote himself, read what he had written to the students who helped him, corrected it, signed it, gave the addresses, and sealed it himself. During the last 19 years of the elder’s life, they helped him in his written works at different times, alternately from the monastery brethren: Hieromonk Ambrose - later the elder, hieroschemamonk; Hieromonk Gabriel - later hieromonk, with the blessing of Kaluga Bishop Gregory, established order in the newly established Belokopyt women's community, and died there; ryassophore monks - John, Leo and Paul - later Juvenaly, Leonidas and Plato, whom were mentioned above; and, finally, novice Andrei Ivanovich Glushkov - later Hierodeacon Anthony, also mentioned above. The significance of the letters of Elder Macarius is very great. They contain complete instructions for the journey along the path of salvation, consolation in sorrows and solutions to perplexities on a wide variety of spiritual questions of monastics and lay people of all classes, both sexes and different ages, while at the same time they are all imbued with the deep humility of the writer himself. Thus, this is a dear treasury of spiritual advice, clearly testifying to the spiritual gifts of the elder who died in God, explaining his inner life. It can be affirmatively said that with these letters alone Elder Macarius left an eternal memory. After the publication of the first two volumes of Elder Macarius’ letters, when Fr. Hegumen Anthony Bochkov 112 received a copy of them from Optina Pustyn as a gift; he, in writing expressing gratitude to the Optina residents for the gift he received, wrote the following review about them: "Letters about. Macarius can hardly appreciate the world at its true worth: “The world cannot receive the Spirit of truth” (John 48). The firm teaching, based on the adamant of the fatherly rules, is what is especially striking in the letters, filled with the deepest humility. His letters can be called clocks, according to which, in the morning, at noon, and at night, the life of every monk and nun for whom they are assigned can be verified. Both young, mature, and old can resort at any time to this signpost, which itself walked steadily along the path of the Sun of Truth. The deepest caution in advice with firmness and simplicity given not for a short time, but often for many years, the application of advice to the age of those asking, to their structure, to the time and their circumstances, knowledge of monastic life and the human heart - all this, the treasure of wisdom and experience hidden from the world, is striking to the eyes, accustomed to distinguishing the radiance of real expensive stones from the false shine You do not see at all in Father Macarius an ascetic scholastic: he rarely presents himself as a teacher, but only as a good adviser, who, however, knows the full value of his advice, inspired by many years of experience and tested more than once on many people. He does not hesitate to show respect for the word of truth where it is due, and to lean firmly on it. And how many sacrifices were made to his neighbors in this correspondence, which culminated in his suffering death! Thank you very much for this precious gift. I will say one more thing about the humility of the blessed elder: he always rejected and rejected the praises and caresses of those who studied with him. And this intoxicating smoke made many teachers dizzy. Between the fathers of our time, Fr. Leonid and Fr. Macarius reached their possible height not through exploits and fasts, but through the science of obedience and love for mankind. Forgive me that with my unskillful praises I bring little to the memory of this reverend father. His precious lines are probably still shed in tears by many who studied with him. January 19, 1864" 113. In confirmation of such a flattering review of Fr. Abbot Anthony about the letters of Elder Macarius, we present here several excerpts from the latter’s letters. With this in mind, we have in mind to write down some of the elder’s advice and instructions, which true zealots of piety, who care about the salvation of their souls, often needed and now need. So, for example, a humble elder wrote to one person seeking salvation: “You want to learn from me spiritual life, so that you can have written lines on how to go through the rank of residence, and be instructed by them. Your good desire and intention to seek salvation. But, for my part, it is not difficult to write; but it is dangerous to give an answer to teach people, while doing no good to yourself. Our mentor and teacher is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He gave us saving and life-giving commandments, leading us into eternal life; And he said to the young man who asked Him: What will I do that I may inherit eternal life? [Mark 10:17] – Keep the commandments: do these things and inherit an eternal life. And the holy fathers, who received salvation, received it by fulfilling the commandments of God; and they left us an example of their residence. Moved by the Holy Spirit, they presented their teaching for the benefit of us, the listeners and the readers. And what exactly commandments must be fulfilled by those who want to be saved? The main two are: love for God and love for neighbor. To this two commandment hang the whole law and the prophets [Matthew 22:40], said the Lord. These commandments are explained in detail and especially in the Holy Gospel, and most of them in the 5th, 6th and 7th chapters of the Evangelist Matthew. When fulfilling the commandments of God, one must also have humility, which is also commanded: If ye do all that is commanded, say, For we are servants without thorns; And in another place the Lord commands: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). This is the mercy of God towards us! By doing His commandments we receive peace. And what great wisdom of God! For every passion that is in us, there is a commandment that not only prohibits its action, but also completely eradicates it. So, study in the word of God; listen and try to fulfill it, asking for God’s help. For He said: Without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5). Read also the words of the fathers: St. John Climacus, St. Abba Dorotheus, as the most decent for us. They teach us: why we leave the world and come to the monastery and how we must learn to fight against passions, defeat them and eradicate them; when defeated by passions, how to rebel and bring repentance, and most of all they teach humility. It is unfallen and destructive of all passions. Just as pride is the forerunner of falls and casts those who have it into the depths of hell; so, on the contrary, humility restores and raises from the depths of sin and elevates the one who has this treasure. And the other holy fathers teach us, each according to the enlightenment of the mind given to him by the Holy Spirit. Having themselves experienced the spiritual life, they teach about denial of oneself and one’s will, about the fear of God, about obedience, about patience, about abstinence, about humility, about love, about repentance. And in general, we will find the whole face of beautiful virtues in their holy teaching, and how to strive to acquire them. St. Isaac the Syrian writes about humility that humility alone saves, except deeds (46th word). St. John Climacus writes in the 5th degree about repentance, on the first page of this degree: what repentance is and what it consists of. This is appropriate for your question about this; and by the end of the book he combines repentance with humility. St. Isaac the Syrian in the 7th word wisely leads us away from despair and leads us to repentance. From many I have collected little things for you for memory and guidance in your life. When you follow the path of truth, you will find and understand more than this. You will also meet sorrows; but they are inevitable on the path of salvation. Seek abundance and consolation in them in humility. But you can’t learn with words alone, you have to work through it; and then you recognize your weakness, you humble yourself; and in our humility the Lord will remember us and deliver us from our enemies and save us. What I earnestly wish for you and pray to the Lord for this. You are asking about the rank of residence. Word of St. Simeon the New Theologian clearly shows this; and St. Isaac the Syrian in the 9th word 114. And here is a letter from the ever-memorable Elder Macarius to another person, which talks about the struggle of true Christians with the spirits of evil, and about the indestructible weapon against them - humility, and about how to achieve it: “You mentioned in your writing that God does not require more from a person than to fulfill the duties of the title in which he was born, which, according to your understanding, you try to fulfill without reproach of conscience. Since this point is important, it is necessary to think about it better. This duty consists of fulfilling the commandments of God according to the vow we made in baptism, no matter what rank one may hold. But in fulfilling these, we are faced with resistance from the enemy of the human race - the devil, as the holy apostles write about. St. Peter: Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks around looking for someone to devour. Resist him in the firmament by faith (1 Peter 5:8,9). St. Paul: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). See what an invisible war we have! He always tries to fight the Christian race by opposing actions to the commandments of God through our passions. To this end his main weapons are passions: love of fame, voluptuousness and love of money. Having been defeated by these or one of them, we give other passions free entry to act in our hearts. From your understanding it is clear that you have an imperfect understanding of this battle, or resistance, and not so much caution; but only your effort, without reproach of conscience, to fulfill your duty. But they did not penetrate into this, as they should, into what it consists of. If you fulfilled all your duty without a reproach of conscience, or better yet, without humility, then there would be no benefit. Our opponent has two means by which he brings people to the wrath of God: first, to plunge them into vices; and the second - when he does not have time to do this, then - into pride, that is, into the opinion of ourselves that we are doing the will of God, and this is approached very subtly - it does not suddenly blind us with pride; “but convinces them to believe that they are doing virtue, and plants the seed of a joyful opinion in their hearts; from him, having matured, an inner Pharisee is brought up, who, multiplying and growing day by day, betrays such people to complete pride and delusion, for which God allows them to be betrayed into the power of Satan.” This is the reasoning of one inspired man and great elder of Moldova 115. Saint John Climacus also writes that sometimes all vices leave a person, leaving one - pride, which is able to replace and complement the others (Degree 26, chapter 62). In such and such a battle, or spiritual war, you certainly need a weapon that the power of the enemy cannot resist. What kind of weapon is this? Holy humility. How to achieve it? There are different ways to acquire it. The first is the fulfillment of God’s commandments, among which is this: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for of them is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:3). Whenever you have done all that is commanded to you, say, as we are unworthy servants: as we ought to do, both by and by (Luke 17:10). And: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). The second is the knowledge of your weaknesses. Writes St. Isaac the Syrian in the 61st word: “Blessed is the man who knows his weakness, for this knowledge becomes for him the foundation and the root and the beginning of all goodness. However, no one can feel his own weakness unless he is allowed to be tempted to be tired of body and soul. And the righteous man, do not recognize his weakness on the razor’s edge to have things (that is, he is in danger), and in no way retreated from the fall, below from the corrupting lion, I say the demon of pride.” And again: “Those who do not recognize their weakness become impoverished from humility; he who becomes poor because of this is also poor because of perfection: and he who becomes impoverished because of this is always afraid (is in fear).” In the 58th word: “Although in some cases of sin creeping in, obviously there are natural infirmities, God has already allowed the soul to be susceptible to the existence of passions for the benefit: I see that I will not set it above these before the second rebirth (resurrection). To be attentive to the existence of these passions (that is, to be overcome by passions) is useful to mortify (to reproach) the conscience: and to remain in these (passions) is shameless and shameless (disgusting, hateful).” Third, the memory of our past sins crushes the heart and humbles the soul. Fourth – “Humility is born from obedience,” writes St. John Climacus in the 4th degree; from humility comes reasoning, from reasoning comes consideration, from this comes insight.” And Saint Cassian in his word to Leontin the Abbot: “True reasoning does not come unless from true humility, which is acquired, not just what we do, but also what we think, we reveal to our father, and let us believe in nothing of our own thoughts, but let us follow in all the words of the elder, and let us believe in the good that they tempt.” (A word on reasoning. Slavic Philokalia. Part 4). Fifth - careful permission from God's Providence to fall into passions, in order to more deeply feel one's vileness, to humble oneself and to have in mind that one is the worst of all creatures. What is St. Gregory of Sinaite writes in the 117th chapter: “Unless a person is abandoned and defeated, and does not receive help from works at all, neither from God nor from anyone else, as if it is not enough for one who is tempted in all to come to despair: he cannot be contrite and be the least of all, and the last and the slave of all, and the most invincible of the demons, as if he were tormented and overcome. And this is Providence’s watchful, punitive humility, through which even the highest is given from God.” Constant self-reproach also serves to acquire humility. You see from this reasoning that it is very dangerous to walk the path of virtues without humility and arrogance. There are many examples, both ancient and modern, who fell into delusion from this. From which may the Lord deliver us with his mercy. And with my meager understanding, the more we consider your mental structure, the more the pride that is there is revealed - which is confirmed by your own consciousness. How destructive and dazzling it is, you have many proofs from the writings of St. fathers and from their experience. But how do you admit that you are possessed by this ailment, and although the blindness is so great that instead of a useful medicine you take harmful and more upsetting ulcers, plasters: nevertheless, your good will gives hope that with the help of God you will receive healing for this ailment; which is something we shouldn’t despair of. I consider these actions harmful to you: testing the reason of the Scriptures, hidden and unknown to us. For knowing them ahead of time harms us; and before doing the first, it is not useful to know the second; and through labor and fulfillment of the commandments that we understand clearly, God will reveal other things that we do not understand. And if you learn the whole mind of the Scriptures ahead of time, then, having become proud, the mind will neglect the action and lose everything. What is quickly and easily acquired is quickly lost and lost. Not wanting to be convinced that it is necessary for us to struggle with passions, and also to consider this as oppression of humanity - obvious pride and fight against God - we dare to pass judgment on God Himself. When passions do not fight us, then we comfortably become proud, not seeing any vices behind us. And the desire to quickly conquer passions is madness that comes from pride. The demand for reward based on duty, for one’s merits and for the struggle with passions, and not the expectation of God’s mercy, is more vile than Pharisaic pride. Exploits against passions are only painful when we proudly and arrogantly go through them; and when humbly, calling on God’s help and ascribing corrections to it, then they become bearable. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Matthew 11:30), said the Lord. As we go through spiritual life and are overcome by passions, we should not become faint-hearted, but become more strengthened in faith. A warrior in war is then skilled, that is, he comes to the knowledge of military science when he makes mistakes many times and is wounded; but the first admonishes him, and for the second he receives rewards. However, he can learn military science more than once. Moreover, spiritual life requires learning and a lot of time. In the same way, someone who wants to learn art does not suddenly become an artist, but repeatedly spoils the thing he is doing, and again corrects it, and requires instruction. Do we want to learn spiritual art in an instant, and even self-righteously and arbitrarily? This is impossible! When our very attempts confuse us and bring us to cowardice, then this is a sign of pride. Yes, they are the essence of punishment for pride. Solitude is the most detrimental remedy for your well-being. It brings guilt to pride and destroys the unskilled. St. John Climacus writes: “Those who are ill with opinion and wickedness below, let them see the trace of silence.” But since you yourself have now recognized the harm of the above-described actions, I am sure that you will turn away from them in every possible way and not allow them to enter your heart; and their place will be taken by everything that destroys pride and brings humility. Moreover, the humble consciousness of one’s weaknesses before God involuntarily arouses a request for His help and a lack of reliance on oneself - and you will be convinced of what you could not be convinced of... Consider this writing of mine more carefully, consider your structure and feelings. I wanted, with God’s help, to offer you something decent and necessary for your current situation. Delve into the Divine Scriptures and the teachings of St. father, asking God’s help for all your affairs and undertakings, may He give you true reason, faith and humility, and strengthen you in the path of virtue and in spiritual warfare, and enable you to find the real path leading to salvation, and to rest on it” 116. Warning against thinking about oneself during prayer or against pride, which causes people to fall into the delusion of the enemy, Elder Macarius wrote to another person: “What message are you looking for about the hope of salvation? Given your setup, this is impertinent. Perhaps you will receive an imaginary notification from the enemy’s charms and then you will go crazy. The great saints of God were honored with this (notice) before their death or shortly before their exodus. But who were they and what deep humility did they have?! St. Theognostus writes: “Ask to be notified, but not before death: it is most humbly possible.” But we have no humility. If we had been given notice, we would have exalted ourselves and fallen deeply. We must have faith, humility and hope in God’s mercy and not despair to the end, but always remain in repentance, heartache and humility; to avoid two extremes - excessive hope and despair, and to have yourself under all creation. For your other faults, always bring repentance and ask God to give you help. That is why we fall because we do not have humility. For, according to the word of St. John Climacus, where the fall took place, was preceded by pride. We must understand about fall of all kinds: in thoughts, words, negligence and laziness.” More about prayer and delusion to the same person: “You mention that when raising the mind to God, you feel an inappropriate movement. And this is because you, full of passions, dare to raise your mind to God. It would not have happened as happened with the one who entered the bridal chamber in dirty clothes and was cast out from there. It is more akin and fitting for us to have a contrite and humble heart, which God will not destroy, and to follow the publican’s repentance.” More about prayer to another person: “You mention that you do not have pure prayer, but floating thoughts. It is not our business to give the price to our prayer, but to the One who searches the hearts and wombs and the Giver of prayer to the one who prays. Pray, but humbly; which is what the soaring of thoughts involuntarily forces us to do. You need to force yourself to more than one prayer, according to the word of St. Macarius, but also to all virtue. You find in yourself a sin leading to death, laziness; But aren’t anger and rage in the same category?” We will offer here further other advice from the ever-memorable Elder Macarius on some frequently occurring cases. Thus, he wrote about sorrows or troubles that come from others: “I do not advise you to refuse obedience, but to endure the troubles that occur with self-reproach and humility. Those who seem to be hostile to you are your benefactors. With the help of God they show you your inner structure so that you can be healed of your passions. And try not to have a pledge of unworldliness towards them. But when it appears in you, immediately purge it through self-reproach and repentance and pray for them 117. But if you leave everything, thinking that solitude will heal you, then you are mistaken. It will only increase your conceit. Try to keep yourself in the community from idle talk and vanity, but if you do, quickly look at yourself, repent and humble yourself.” Again: “Many are the sorrows of the righteous, and many are the wounds of the sinner,” the Holy Spirit speaks from the mouth of David. Who among us is without sorrow? From the beggar to the one wearing a diadem, you will not find complete peace and tranquility here. And the Lord sends all of this to everyone in due time and according to his need, in order to lead us to the Kingdom of Heaven along this sorrowful path. Through tribulations sins are cleansed, (people) are prevented from sins, and our faith is tested. Who can boast of not having sin? And therefore we are debtors to God. People who insult us do not do it on their own, but by God’s permission; and therefore they are an instrument of God... What you write about the actions of the sisters against you who want to denigrate you - let it be true: they are doing a lie; and yet their untruth makes God's righteousness in us. Do you understand this? And David did not order to kill Shimei, who blasphemed him, but said: “Leave Shimei to the curse of David; God told him to curse David.” “And you do this, saying to yourself: “God told them to insult me ​​in order to forgive my sins.” You say that you are in a bleak state of mind. But if you do as St. teach. fathers: then you will receive consolation. And try to see yourself as worse than everyone else. This alphabet is very necessary and useful for us. Let me briefly say: when we blame ourselves, we get rid of sorrow; and if we blame others, they multiply and continue.” “You write that like a light cloud, unbelief about God and the future comes over you. This thought is attributed to St. Demetrius to blasphemous thoughts. For in them our will does not agree, but only the enemy suggests thoughts of unbelief. The person does not want this and is not to blame; but he thinks that he is guilty, he is embarrassed, and this amuses the enemy more and gives him a reason to attack. And when you despise it and do not consider it a sin, then he too will be ashamed and go away. In this, the condemnation of others also gives him a reason. Niphon's temptation was of a different kind to his crown; but this is different.” Proof of the truth of the Orthodox faith: “We see proof of our right faith in many things and actions: after confession we receive peace of conscience - why is this? And without confessing - a feeling of torment - why? We see the relics of St. saints and the miracles that happen from them. Who is responsible for the miracle-working icons? Who produces this? All this is done by God, who gave us His Word to know Him in the Incarnation and the redemption of us from error. Who made reading enjoyable for you when you read St. Barsanuphius book? God ! The whole world is full of God's miracles. Wonderful are your deeds, Lord! “Thou hast created all things with wisdom (Ps. 103:24).” About peace of mind and confusion: “You see for yourself; wherever we do anything with submission to the will of God, there we feel peace; and where the world is, there is God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you (John 14:27). This is whose world! And what you wrote at the beginning of the letter, you yourself realize that you wrote the nonsense of an upset soul, that is, an embarrassed one, and where there is confusion, there is an action of the enemy. This should be a lesson to you in the future - not to indulge yourself in such confusing thoughts, which is Babylon, where the enemy takes the soul captive by him, like Nebuchadnezzar, who led the Jewish people from Jerusalem to Babylon and oppressed them there with various kinds of enslavement.” About repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ: “You want to talk and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ without condemnation. The most necessary preparation for this is to forgive your neighbors their sins, according to the word of the Lord: “If you forgive your neighbors their sins, your Heavenly Father will forgive you your sins; If you do not forgive them their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will not forgive you your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14,15); and have publican humility. This is how true repentance happens! And in our humility the Lord will remember us and send His help in our affairs, with our good will. To your question about confession, I will say in detail: the holy fathers do not advise explaining the sins of sensuality in detail, so as not to defile the feelings with the memory of the details; but to say simply an image of sin. And other sins that bring shame to self-love should be clarified in more detail, blaming oneself. When you receive peace of conscience after confession, you should see in this the mercy of God, looking upon your repentance. And the devil, who hates good, causes confusion, that he “said the wrong thing,” and so on. Reflect it with hope in God’s mercy. During confession, you need to explain all your sins, except perhaps when you forget, and not speak superficially; for sin that is not confessed is not absolved; unless you can’t explain it out of oblivion. After confession, you need to guard yourself from sinful actions. But if you happen to be offended by someone or become jealous of someone: in this, reconciling with the one who offended, be calm; and for contempt - to be contemptuous and to reproach yourself, so as not to disturb the elder. And if an opportunity arises to see him, then, according to the sin and the feeling of conscience, you can tell him about it briefly. You can write your sins in accordance with our confession; for in the course of time, after confession, we sin a lot and forget. The main thing in confession is to have a contrite and humble heart, which God will not despise. And every day we need to test ourselves and reproach ourselves; for what we have done, to bring repentance before God - which is what we read in the third prayer for those who are coming to bed. You ask to give you penance, but you were swayed by my silence. What kind of penance will I give you? It must be the opposite of sins. You talk idle talk, condemn, and want punishment for that person. Here is your penance: leave these actions of yours; turn away from evil and do good. As for cases, it is not our business to enter the court. Whoever sows will also reap. We must wish everyone to repent and come to true reason” 118. The elder also wrote about confessing to another person: “You say, there is no such sin, but I didn’t commit it. This word is completely indecent. There are many sins that you did not commit: you did not steal the church, did not set it on fire, did not commit riots, did not commit murder... and there are many such sins that you did not commit. Why slander yourself so much? There is no benefit; but we must grieve in our hearts for those that we have done, although we repented; but you must still consider yourself a sinner and have a contrite heart. But God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19). And even now we must see our sins, according to the words of Peter of Damascus: “like the sand of the sea; and this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health; and in short, the soul is contrite and the heart is humble, and least of all considers itself to be true, and does not dare to humiliate or condemn anyone.” About the communion of the Holy Mysteries with one nun, the elder wrote: “When you approach the Divine Meal and feel tenderness and tears, then, of course, this is a visit from God. That is why one must approach with fear, faith and love and be wary of accepting thoughts of vanity, and reject the fear that there will be a passionate movement at this time. From this very fear it can happen. However, even for this there is repentance with humility. When we have a guarantee of self-awareness and humility, then we cannot suffer anything like that, but when with observation (Luke 17:20) we look for something high, comforting in ourselves and are carried away by vanity, then consolation and tenderness are taken away, but sanctification is not taken away. For we walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). You yourself understand that for vanity and arrogance of mind and pride, in any case, we are deprived of spiritual consolation. But even this is not always useful to us; and in its place comes temptation and the spiritual cross, curbing our opinion. Read from St. Isaac's 78th and 79th words." When evaluating the letters of Elder Macarius, it was not intended to make a detailed review of them, but only wanted to show how rich, edifying and, moreover, imbued with deep humility, these writings of the great elder were. And six volumes of such letters were published, containing more than 2000 spiritual writings filled with wisdom, excluding three appendices at the end of the book to the monks. Despite all this, there are still many handwritten letters from Elder Macarius, unprinted, stored in the skete library. Such are, for example, letters to Konstantin Karlovich Zederholm (later the skete hieromonk Clement). The best assessment of the letters of Elder Macarius is given by the famous saint, the Vyshensky Recluse, the late Bishop Theophan. So he wrote to one person: “You write that you read all the letters of the Optina elder Macarius. Blessed are his books! A deep spirit of humility emanates from them and inspires it on everyone who reads it. Re-read often. It doesn’t hurt to make extracts so that, in case of need, you can warm up the spirit of humility, which is the most self-needing of all spirits” 119. All the unanswered letters in the elder's dying illness, according to his will, were burned in his presence. Former rector of the Cheremenets Monastery of the Petrograd Diocese, who laid the foundation for monastic life in Optina Pustyn under the elders Leonid and Macarius, From the Kaluga Diocesan Gazette, 1864 No. 2. Letters from Elder Macarius to the nuns. Part I. Letter 105 See the Life of Elder Paisius Velichkovsky. Ed. Optina Pustyn, village. 134. Letters from Elder Macarius to the nuns. Part 4. Letter 1. According to the instructions of the Venerable Abba Dorotheos, we should pray for those who hate and offend us like this: Save, Lord, and have mercy on Your servant, my brother or sister - (name), and for the sake of the holy prayers, have mercy on him or her, and have mercy on me, a sinner or a sinner. Excerpts taken from the 1st part of the letters of Elder Macarius to the nuns. Collection of letters from Bishop Theophan. Issue 4. M., 1899, p. 211