Глава IX. Общий взгляд на великое значение старца Макария как старца. Об откровении старцам (в женских монастырях – старицам) помыслов. Взаимные духовные отношения старца Макария и оптинских братий, как скитских, так и монастырских, во главе с о. настоятелем, и благие их последствия

All external improvements to the monastery, with the diligent assistance of the blessed memory of Elder Macarius, of course, have their price, are commendable, and even necessary. For monks are not disembodied Angels; and therefore, while actively caring for the salvation of their souls, they also need external modest comforts befitting the monastic rank. By the way, they do not deny themselves care and better external amenities, if they have the opportunity, especially with the help of God-loving benefactors, who have not all been transferred to Orthodox Russia. And this, mainly, in all monastic monasteries relates to the decoration of the churches of God. What kind of decoration is desirable and undertaken by the monks not so much for themselves, but for the sake of visitors, on whose souls church decoration has a beneficial effect. And this is also what all Orthodox Christians should remember and never forget: to whom should we dedicate the treasures of nature if not to their Creator and Lord? With all this, as we know, no brilliant external environment is sufficient to eradicate passions from a heart infected by them and to improve a person in spiritual life. And just as a sick body needs a doctor and physical healing, so a soul suffering from sinful habits needs a doctor and spiritual healing. Or in other words: we need a leader in spiritual life, wise with life experience, who can apply grace-filled healing to sinful wounds and heal them. Elder Macarius fit this high calling perfectly. This is what his contemporary, the wanderer, hieromonk Fr. Leonid Kavelin 57: “Where can I find the words to describe the influence of the elder on each individual person - his ability to lead everyone to the same goal in different ways, depending on the difference in character, abilities and spiritual dispensation, his pastoral and fatherly love for everyone in general and for everyone in particular, condescension towards the weak and repentant, severity towards those who are arbitrary and controversial, the ability to console with a single word, to please with a glance or a blessing, to encourage a small but precious (because it was given on time) attention, to encourage the worker to greater work, cutting off harmful vanity, to restore the lazy to work without reproach and anger, to support the despondent, to keep the ardent from jealousy not according to reason, from seeking spiritual gifts before cleansing from passions, vision before action, mental prayer before active on passions and thoughts? Who among those who treated the elder did not experience for himself that, according to the Apostle, he knew how to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15), knew how to be all things, that he might save some (1 Cor. 9:22), leading to Christ the Chief Shepherd? About him, without hesitation, we can say the same thing that was said about the great ascetic of the same name, Abba Macarius of Egypt: “He, like God, covers everyone with love” 58. As a result of these God-loving qualities of Elder Macarius, all his spiritual children, and above all the skits closest to him at their place of residence, had complete faith and deep filial devotion to him. The aforementioned contemporary of Elder Macarius testifies to this as follows: “The power of his love attracted everyone’s hearts to him so much that we were ready not to leave his side in order to enjoy his bright sight and the sweet conversation of his kind lips.” And all this disposed each brother to sincerely, according to the legend of St. fathers, the revelation of conscience to him, consisting in frequent and, if possible, even daily and at the same time pure confession to the elder not only of all deeds and actions, but also of the subtlest thoughts and mental attacks, receiving from him advice and instructions on how to resist that restless internal battle waged by invisible enemies with the soldiers of Christ. For, according to the Scripture, 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 the spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). Due to this attitude of Elder Macarius towards his closest disciples, the doors of his cell were open to them at all times. Each of them could freely enter to see him without the report of his cell attendants, without fear of arriving at the wrong time or disturbing the elder with his arrival. His cell attendant, who lived with Elder Macarius for 20 years, once said that he had never seen the elder express displeasure at any of the brethren for untimely arrival, not even excluding the hour that he, tired from his work, used for a short afternoon rest. As a child-loving father, he was only worried about one thing - if for a long time he did not see one of those who constantly treated him. Opening the door, everyone who came, according to the generally accepted custom in the monasteries, had to say the Jesus Prayer. The door leading from the corridor to the old man's hallway, when it opened, creaked on its rusty hinges. It was only by this creaking that the elder learned about the arrival of a visitor and immediately went out to him, leaving his cell work. But one day the cell attendants, bored with the creaking of the door, decided to grease the creaking door with oil in the absence of the elder. The next day, the elder, not hearing the usual creaking, became alarmed: “Who ruined my door?” – he asked the cell attendants. They admitted that they did it intentionally. “Fix it! Fix it now! Let it be the same." There was nothing to be done, I had to remove the door from its hinges. They carefully wiped off the oil, and the door again began to creak as before, announcing to the old man that those were coming and thereby replacing the speakers. Having touched upon the revelation of thoughts, it would not be out of place to say how Elder Macarius looked at this very important matter 59 . Namely: a) how to reveal thoughts to an elder (or in nunneries to elders) for spiritual benefit? So he wrote to one nun: “If the sister about whom you are writing agrees to accept your thoughts, then I advise you to explain it to her, but not with a simple story, but in the form of repentance. And the Lord is able to prosper you.” In another place: “Having arranged, with the help of God, for herself to reveal her thoughts to her mother G., she must observe this with faith and humility and the fear of God, speaking not in simple conversation, but with shame and self-consciousness. And God, according to your faith, will give a word that will serve to strengthen you and liberate you from passions and calm your conscience.” b) What fruit is sought through the proper revelation of thoughts? And what is a useless revelation? “Your revelation, written to me, is as it should be. But I asked you, are you getting any benefit? Do you have contrition of heart, pain about it, and do you come to humility? Do you also feel the silence from these storms? This is the essential benefit of revelation; as it is written in the word St. Cassian to Leontin the abbot: “The very thing that shows and reveals evil thoughts to the father, they wither and the weakest creates.” This is what we have learned from many experiments. It is possible to open it uselessly, if it is equal, painless and instead of a simple story, which does not bring shame or benefit, but can still harm another passionate woman. That’s why I asked you about the benefits, whether you feel them” 60. c) “But which thoughts to reveal and which to keep silent about? – Elder Macarius wrote to another person. – In the discourse on the revelation of thoughts that one should reveal to one’s fathers, they teach that one should reveal all sorts of chilling thoughts, but those that pass by and are insignificant should not be spoken about and time should be wasted in vain. Yes, this is already cowardice. And you won’t have time for anything, but only talk about your thoughts. This is also a network of enemy. Don't obey her. Time of battle, experience and instruction will show you what you should do in such a case.” d) With all this, neither a solitary life, nor the very revelation of thoughts without other aids is strong enough to save a person from the passions of dishonor. The elder wrote to the same person: “You think you will find peace in your cell; but you are deceived. Read John’s answer to question 313 in the book of Barsanuphius, p. 292. Do you want to find peace without sorrow? Passions will not give you peace. And you still have no idea how to fight and resist them. You just think that you will write to me about all your thoughts and thereby calm down. No, that's not enough. And it is necessary, in the event of a rebellion of passions, to have a closer means of healing. And your main passion is spiritual pride. It’s from her that all the trouble comes—both the confusion and the charm.” d) What kind of medicine are these? “Try to live with the cutting off of your will and reason, as the saints teach us. fathers: St. John Climacus (degree 1 and 4), Saint Abba Dorotheos, St. Simeon the New Theologian, St. Theodore of Edessa and others. Accepting their teaching in your mind, try to implement it in action. But even here, beware of the opinion about yourself that you are already doing as you should. This is sowing, and the fruit sought is humility. From obedience comes humility, writes St. John Climacus. However, we must know that the enemies of our salvation hate those who are in obedience and try to turn them away from it. They try either to destroy the fruit of obedience with their opinion of themselves, or to completely turn them away from it. And if you feel these within yourself, do not become stubborn in revealing and exposing the machinations of the enemy. Convicted, they run away, writes St. Cassian to Abbot Leontin." f) When cutting off one’s will and reason, the elder offers other remedies against pride: “Monastic life,” he writes, “requires temptation in order for us to know our weakness and our structure. We are shown the way by the Savior Himself - a good yoke and a light burden - rejection of one’s will and mind, (but in your opinion), these leaders are not good! You are crying that your sister is being assigned to N. and will not live with you; and yet you and her do not agree on anything in morals and actions. And you, in my opinion, need to renounce your will and reason to overcome your passions... I’m not saying that in front of M., but even in front of my sister, that’s good. And you think to be content only with the revelation of the Mother Superior. This alone is not enough. If you open your wounds, you need medicine for them: reproach, annoyance, reproach, ridicule and other troubles for self-love and pride - medicine that you will not have, but will delude yourself that you live with revelation.” g) To cleanse oneself from passions, the Jesus Prayer is also needed, but only verbally, and at the direction of experienced ones, for with an opinion about oneself, prayer itself cannot have the proper direction without the direction of an elder. The words of the elder to the same person: “You ask for blessings to pray more often. I do not forbid anyone to pray: prayer brings us many benefits. But I am afraid to betray high prayer, so as not to fall into delusion, but to call upon the Name of Jesus verbally, and during the deepening of passions one must pray to the Lord. And with the opinion that the enemy puts into the minds of the inexperienced, the thought says that you prayed little, so humble yourself. And when you pray a lot, he will tell you that you are doing well. You ask about the end of prayer and cite the words of John Climacus that night prayer sanctifies our daytime activities. Is it going to suit you? And to whom is this said? As in everything, so in this, ask Mother M. to instruct you: she sees your structure and will tell you what is useful. You will pray at night, but you will judge her for not getting up to pray and you will make yourself feel better about her.” h) The elder still talks about the inadequacy of prayer and reading books (of course, the patristic books) in the matter of spiritual improvement and again reduces his thought to the need to endure sorrows: “You keep getting carried away with your prayer corrections, but what benefit have you found? I read a lot, and then my mind became dark, but I need to divide my time between everything. We are made up of spirit and flesh, and we must each give our own work. And you do nothing; That’s why you fall into such a confused state. You definitely need to do something, that is, handicrafts and some kind of obedience, so that you can get some push from the outside to recognize your weakness and to humility. A good rule is fasting and studying in the scriptures; but this is cultivating the land and sowing; and when will there be the fruit of patience, humility, love, etc.? And how will you acquire them without communicating with anyone?” The soul of an inexperienced ascetic is blind. And therefore the elder writes to his disciple explanations on certain subjects relating to spiritual life. Since these explanations are very useful and interesting for those striving for salvation, it seems that it would not be inappropriate to acquaint readers with them. So he wrote to the same person: “You ask how to purify passions? And what is passion? And how should you look more often into the depths of your heart? What kind of passions will you purify when you don’t even know what passion is? And how to enter into the depths of your heart? This is a tall question! There are many passions in us, but there are three main ones: love of fame, love of voluptuousness and love of money; and from these there are five more, about which St. writes in detail. Cassian and Nil Sora, and how to resist them. Also at St. Much has been written about the passions of Isaac by other fathers. How do you want to enter the depths of your heart when it is littered with logs, stones, brushwood, rubbish, cobwebs and dust? To enter into the depths of the heart means that there will not be a speck of dust. First, throw away the large things: logs, stones, brushwood, and then remove the cobwebs, and then you will also sweep away the dust 61. And you, having read that you need to go into the depths of your heart, already go there. The Holy Fathers write: “There is a fierce betrayal of the novice.” I’ll also tell you a simpler example: our heart is the earth; and the thorns are the passions with which it is overgrown. So you need to pluck up thorns every day, although little by little you try to cleanse the land; and then sow good seeds. They will also bear fruit. Otherwise the thorns will crush them and they will perish. Also St. The prophet David teaches: “Turn away from evil and do good.” And without avoiding evil, it is clear that he will not take advantage of good. You start by rejecting your will and mind, and you will find the true path. You want spiritual work; and it consists in the rejection of will and reason. You say: I have no reasoning. However, you soon decided to acquire such a high talent. Read in the 7th degree of Cassian, in the letter to Leontin the abbot, how it is acquired: “True reasoning does not come unless it comes from true humility.” You have no humility; but with pride you want to have reasoning. You write about your doubt about eating a meal once and not eating in the evening, and you think by this refinement of the flesh your thoughts will be refined and that you will have more attention to your salvation. And if you are wrong, what happens? You keep climbing to heights, but do not condescend to humility. If you eat a small meal in the evening, your mind will not be darkened, but will be more humble. And in this, surrender to the will of the old woman, who sees your dispensation. You want to suddenly ascend to heaven; and the elders say: “If you see a young woman flowing into heaven, stop his foot.” You are not young in years, but in mind. Read from St. John Climacus in the 4th degree, chapter 118 about those untimely seeking great corrections - what he writes. Yes, read this entire degree more carefully and you will find the benefits of obedience. To your question about the bathhouse, you don’t go to the bathhouse. Little virtue. But if you are arrogant and judge others, then there is no benefit. Beware of dreaming about your chastity. Remember that even the virgins did not enter the Palace of Heaven without oil in their lamps. Passions possess you to the fullest extent, and even more so the passion of pride. You lived in the world, based your salvation on one fulfillment of the rule and on fasting; but you didn’t think at all about morality, and the passions in you slept; and when you went out on a quest, they became excited and rebelled against you. Although the right way of fighting passions and winning over them helps you - rejection of your will and mind and true obedience; but the enemy, on the contrary, arms you against these saving actions, as it is written by St. Theodore of Edessa in chapter 40 and further, about which I have written to you many times and personally suggested. You, having accepted his evil advice, see the opposite in M.; and when you resisted (this evil advice), you write that you received peace. From this you must henceforth be experienced” 62. Speaking about the proper revelation of thoughts, Elder Macarius, as we see, tried in every possible way to incline his disciple to humility. Let us note at the same time that correct revelation should naturally lead a person who follows this path to self-knowledge, or a correct view of his great sinfulness and worthlessness, and through this to humility. In fact, with careful attention to himself, a person sees that his entire previous life was spent in sins, that yesterday he sinned before the Lord in this and that, and now again the same and the same, and tomorrow nothing better can be expected, and so on, and so on. Involuntarily, he must come to a humble opinion about himself, expressed in the 4th sacramental prayer: “I am the abyss of sin and am not worthy, I am content to look and see the heights of heaven from the multitude of my sins, they are innumerable.” This is why Elder Macarius tried to guide all his spiritual children, citing in his letters, no doubt, and in personal interviews, the words of St. Peter of Damascus: “Then the soul is contrite and sees its sins like the sand of the sea; and this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health” 63. From all of the above, one can see that the relationship of the spiritual children to Elder Macarius, as well as his to them, was correct, in agreement with the teachings of the saint. fathers. It was precisely because of the God-loving qualities of his soul that all his conscientious spiritual children had complete faith in him, which forced them to be true to him in words, deeds and the revelation of thoughts, or to express them purely and without concealment. And the elder, for his part, taught them to cut off their will and reason, and naturally all contradiction and contentiousness should be rejected. Nevertheless, this was directed towards one saving goal - the acquisition of spiritual fruits: patience, humility, etc. There were also those who, having entrusted themselves to the spiritual guidance of the elder, at the same time wanted to live and act according to their own will and often contradicted him. The elder left such people to walk according to the will of his heart, so that their very apostasy would punish them (Jer. 2:19). To a novice who asked the elder about something slyly, with the desire to fulfill his will, the latter answered: “As you wish.” And they repeated this with patience in response to all the subsequent excuses of the culprit until the culprit sincerely recognized his guilt and, repenting, asked the elder sincerely: “What do you advise me, father? I leave it to your will: as God commands you to say, so I will try to fulfill it with the help of your holy prayers.” Then the elder taught the necessary advice. Using the gift of foresight given to him by God, he sometimes warned unauthorized people against the dangers that threatened them. “Do as you know,” he said to another, “but just watch that so and so happens to you.” And the elder’s words were always justified in practice. In general, in relation to all those who temporarily deviated from the path of revelation due to the action of the enemy, the long-suffering elder wisely waited until any temptation, external or internal, befell one of them. Then, having listened, he admonished and consoled the one who came to him, saying: “Behold, this has befallen you because you turned aside on the way. Ah, brother, brother! Judge, do I need your revelation? The enemy does not like this path, as it is the correct and shortest path to salvation. According to the testimony of St. fathers - Abba Dorotheus, Theodore of Edessa and many others - he not only does not like the revelation of thoughts, but he even cannot stand the very voice with which it is pronounced. That is why he is trying in every possible way to distract you from this. Although I am sinful, foolish and weak mentally and physically; but I do not deny to those who seek with faith consolation (in sorrows) and spiritual benefit, to say what God will give to my darkened mind for their benefit, and to be in this an instrument of His merciful Fatherly Providence, even though I am unworthy. If you seek and accept my words with faith, then you will receive benefit through the sinner. And if - without faith or with doubt and testing, analysis of words and actions: then, even if he was righteous, there can be no benefit. You know this from the writings of your fathers, and have experienced it in practice. I say this not reproaching you, but affirming what was before” 64. With these and similar words, the elder would console and encourage the guilty person, so that he would leave his cell, not remembering himself with joy, thanking God that he had returned to the right path and at the same time reproaching himself and repenting that he had temporarily departed from this path, having listened to the enemy’s treachery. However, Elder Macarius did not always treat the brethren so quietly and meekly. There were cases when he acted not only strictly, but also threateningly with some of them. And this was especially true when he noticed in someone close to him and who sincerely treated him that he was argumentative, disobedient, and generally proud, even in a subtle form; and sometimes for testing. Examples of this will follow. And now let us mention that the gracious old man Fr. Macarius not only cared about satisfying the spiritual needs of the brothers who cohabited with him, but also tried, if possible, to alleviate their external predicament. The skete novice Ilya Silaev (later the rector of Optina Pustyn, Archimandrite Dosifei), who was contemporary to the elder, told about himself about himself: “Coming from a peasant rank and entering the monastery at a young age, I soon had to leave the monastery to serve the terrible military service in those old days. Having learned about my hopeless situation, the elder asked: “Do you want to leave the monastery?” With great sorrow, I answered him: “It would be better, father, for me to agree to die than to leave the monastery.” Then the elder took care of finding benefactors who donated a sufficient amount of money in order to pay off the soldiery.” The elder provided the same help to other novices if he saw in them a sincere desire for monastic life. As the monastery leader, Elder Macarius strictly observed both himself and the brotherhood entrusted to him with the power of his influence and supported the observance of the monastery rules. He himself was always present in the church of God during church services and went to meals with the brethren. In order not to be separated in any way from the other brethren and not to show special feats and his superiority over them, Elder Macarius, together with the brethren, went to the bathhouse to wash. But how did he wash? As soon as he enters, he rinses himself with water and is already on his way out. They will say to him: “Father, father! Why are you coming so soon?” “Enough, enough,” he will answer. Then he will spit on his body, for example on his hand, and rub it with the other. “Nothing, nothing,” he will say, “okay, that’s enough.” That was the end of his ablution. Thus, by the very act of the elder, he instructed his disciples to despise their own flesh, but it will pass away. With the skill acquired by long-term experience, the elder himself distributed private obediences among the brethren and assigned cell classes to each according to his strength, abilities and spiritual disposition. He himself went into all the details of each case; resolved the perplexities, unpleasant clashes and embarrassments that arose during the passage of this or that obedience; admonished, instructed, encouraged, helping each brother both in word and deed. Each brother therefore saw and felt with his own eyes that the burden of his labors and sorrows was compassionately shared with him by his loving father and wise mentor. Because of this, difficult obedience seemed easy to those undergoing it. The elder himself often visited the cells of his disciples and, as they noted, he always came at the right time, with a spiritual goal in mind - to console one, encourage another, support the discouraged, enlighten the foolish. Therefore, these visits shed peace and spiritual joy into the souls of those visited. After the departure of such a longed-for guest, it seemed that the brother’s very cell was filled with the fragrance of humility, which imprinted all the deeds and words of this truly wondrous man. As a spiritual mentor, Elder Macarius charged each of those related to him with the essential duty of explaining and confirming the spiritual advice received from him to engage in the reading of patristic books in his cell in his free time from obedience, and he himself assigned to each brother what to read, in accordance with the measure of his spiritual age, by no means allowing him to take up reading books on his own, according to everyone’s own choice. The novices who were new or newly entered the monastery were first and foremost assigned to read the book of teachings of the Venerable Abba Dorotheos, calling it “the monastic alphabet”; since without mastering the rules contained in it, it is impossible to lay a solid foundation for monastic life. Then the elder taught and observed that none of his disciples was ever idle. And for this, he inspired them to do some kind of handicraft, which St. fathers is usually called “sharing,” pointing to the fatherly word that a monk busy with work fights only one demon, and an idle one fights many. Therefore, he brought into the monastery and supported various handicrafts with personal participation and encouragement: turning, bookbinding, case-making and spoon-making. Of these, the elder himself knew the first three. Those skilled in red writing were engaged in copying the patristic books according to the rules, in which the elder, as stated above, was also skilled. The elder supplied those who wanted to do handicrafts with materials; and the workers mutually brought him their products. Meanwhile, Father Fr. Macarius here, as elsewhere, had a spiritual goal, for through such a turn the love of material things was imperceptibly cut off among the brethren and carelessness was implanted. Those who brought their work to the elder received from him the so-called “consolation” in the monastic way as encouragement - some an eighth or four of tea and a pound or two of sugar, some sometimes a handkerchief, a rosary, a book or something else. To understand the meaning of the word “consolation”, attached to such apparently unimportant things, one had to see how highly these gifts from the beloved and loving old man were valued even by gray-haired old men, as a sign of his fatherly love and merciful attention. Meanwhile, through these small consolations, the brethren imperceptibly got used to being content with little and became accustomed to self-restraint, which is of great importance in spiritual life. The elder usually gave the products brought by the brethren to the benefactors of the monastery, and sometimes he presented them to honorable persons who visited Optina Pustyn, both secular and spiritual. The attitude of the elder Fr. Macarius to the monastery, as well as to the monastery, was determined mainly by the arduous duty of a confessor and mentor. This responsibility was assigned to him, as mentioned above, in 1836, during the life of the elder Fr. Leonid, a husband of ever-memorable fame for his spiritual gifts, experience and spiritual intelligence. As a result, Elder Fr. Macarius received from the Gospel all those who took monastic vows. abbot of the brethren, both skete and monastery. The elder accepted the tonsure in Optina Pustyn from 1839 to 1860, at the end of which he reposed in the Lord, sixty people 65. Gifted by the Lord with spiritual intelligence, the elder instructed all his disciples with the words of Holy Scripture and fatherly teachings, deeply rooted in his pure mind and heart. Until his very blessed death, he tried mainly to maintain the brotherhood established by his predecessor, the elder Fr. Leonid, the revelation of thoughts, from which stems the preservation of conscience, rightly recognizing this activity, as said above, as the basis of internal improvement and order, and, consequently, the prosperity of the monastery 66. The humble rector of Optina, Fr. Archimandrite Moses himself was the first to set an example in this for the entire brotherhood. He treated Elder Macarius with deep respect and sincere love, being in unconditional spontaneous obedience to him, considering his every word as a law for himself, being at the same time deeply revered and loved by the elder. Father Fr. also observed. Macarius, so that outward reverence and decency are preserved in the brotherhood, especially so that younger brothers pay due respect to their elders, in fulfillment of the Lord’s commandment to honor parents, by which we should mean all our elder neighbors in general, fathers and brothers, since the internal disposition of the soul is consistent with the external actions of those who have not cleansed their hearts of passions. Thus entering into all the circumstances of all the brothers, not excluding Fr. abbot, the elder tried his best to maintain peace, love and unanimity in all of them. When the opportunity arises, following the example of his predecessor, Elder Fr. Leonidas, he reminded everyone in general and each individually of the words of the Savior: Of this all understand, as you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). Of course, Father Fr. Macarius meant here pure, spiritual love. For he pursued every passionate movement in his disciples and female disciples in every possible way, as we will see below from the stories of some of the nuns who treated him. So he wrote to one of his nieces: “We are obliged to love everyone, but with the purest love, which calms us and does not cause embarrassment. Otherwise, it will be that we love the creature more than the Creator; whereas we must love our neighbor for the sake of God’s love. And you were carried away by partial, and not true love, which St. Simeon the New Theologian prohibits in the 125th chapter, and other fathers. Ask God to grant you to have access to them... equal love; and the difference and partiality from the enemy, which cannot hide, bothers you and them. Pray to God and give Him your heart; be filled with love for Him; and with M.P. have peace. The Lord is able to protect you from the wiles of the enemy. Be peaceful and calm" 67. Teaching his disciples to observe all the commandments of the Lord set forth in the Holy Gospel, Elder Macarius especially instructed them to take care of acquiring self-reproach and humility, to bear the infirmities of their neighbors and to lay down their souls for their brothers, to valiantly endure the temptations that happen, that is, insults, reproaches, reproaches, annoyances; and also courageously endure with thanksgiving the various temptations of the body: ailments, illnesses, cruel and bitter temporary sufferings for the sake of the eternal salvation of their souls. As a result of such mutual relations between the elder and the brethren, the time of Father Fr. Macarius in Optina Pustyn, especially towards the end of his life (1854–1860), according to the stories of the aforementioned Fr. Abbot Mark, was truly a blessed time, a golden age for the monastery due to the established internal order among the brotherhood through the senile and precisely paternal influence of the elder on the external and internal life of the brethren, despite their apparent disunity in their rank and condition. All this God-gathered brotherhood truly represented one like-minded family, rising from strength to strength in relation to monastic perfection. If any of those entering the monastery began to deviate from the rules established by the elders, about which it has just been said: he could no longer get along among the Optina unanimous brotherhood and moved to another monastery according to his taste. Remembering this blessed time, Elder Macarius’s successor, Elder Ambrose, during a personal meeting with Abbot Mark, repeatedly said: “We should consider it fortunate that we lived under such great elders as: Fr. Archimandrite Moses, his brother Fr. Abbot Anthony and Elder Fr. Macarius." About the future and significance of eldership in Optina Pustyn, Father Fr. Macarius put it this way: “The eldership in Optina Pustyn will be more or less supported until the powers are revealed in it.” But whose relics are known only to the One Lord. Subsequently, archimandrite, abbot of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, who died on October 22, 1894. This panegyric is quite befitting of the predecessor of Elder Macarius, Elder Fr. Leo, and his successor, the elder Fr. Ambrose. Actually, the attitude towards the spiritual leader, consisting of unquestioning obedience to him according to the teachings of St. ascetic fathers, must have the following qualities: it is fitting for a true novice to have: a) faith in his leader to such an extent that he looks at him as Christ Himself and obeys him as Christ, driving away all unbelief and doubt; b) truth, that is, to be true in deed and word and in the exact confession of thoughts; c) do not do your own will; for for a novice to do his own will is a great loss and great harm; d) do not contradict or argue at all; for contradiction and contentiousness come from conceit - the cohabitant of unbelief and arrogance; finally, e) adhere to a perfect and pure confession of the secrets of the heart (thoughts and desires). For the ulcers declared will not come to a worse state, but will be healed, says Climacus (Russian Philokalia T.V. Callistus and Ignatius, chapters 15 and 14). Letters of the Optina Elder Hieroschemamonk Macarius to the nuns. Volume 4. Letters 134 and 135. See Rev. Fathers Barsanuphius the Great and John for guidance on spiritual life. Answer to question 378. 23 letters of the Optina Elder Fr. Macaria to Mrs. S.I.N. – Soulful reading, 1908, March, April, May In the Slavic Philokalia, St. Peter of Damascus about the seven acts. True words of Elder Macarius. Of these, humans also died before 1860. Of those who remained alive in 1860, they were in Optina Pustyn - 27 people in the monastery, 11 in the monastery, and 11 people who moved due to circumstances to other monasteries. The revelation of thoughts to the elders was conveyed at one time by the aforementioned Fr. Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin, is the pillar and foundation of the Athos monastery and monasteries. During my time, he said, on the holy Mount Athos in 1859, in response to the question I asked one of the lamps of the Athonite monasticism: “What will I do to be saved?” – he asked me: “What monastery do you live in? And do you have elders and revelation of thoughts? “I answered that I live in a communal monastery, in which, by the grace of God, there are elders experienced in spiritual life, and that those who pay attention to themselves go to them for the revelation of their thoughts. “So, go in peace and continue this right path and saving work,” he said, remembering that for those who are in obedience to the elders, they answer to God, and the novice has no other fall than, having surrendered to obedience to the elder, to do his own will. And our brother,” he added, “whoever is saved is saved only through eldership; for there is no other shortest path to salvation than this. From obedience, humility is born, and this makes us sons of God.” This is how eldership is understood, in accordance with the teachings of St. fathers, modern Athonite ascetics. And there not a single monastery will accept a monk who has voluntarily left his elder without his permission. Recently there was the following incident, which shows the common view of the eldership of the entire Mount Athos. The protate of Athos appointed a certain monk as the abbot of one of the Athos monasteries, without first asking his elder for consent. This latter protested against this appointment in the name of his spiritual rights over his adopted son, saying: “I do not recognize him as capable of taking this place.” And the protat, without demanding any further explanations from the elder about this, immediately canceled his order. Letters to nuns. T.3. Letter 197.