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As we see, there is bodily peace, and there is mental peace. The body calms down when it rests after a journey or work. So the soul calms down when it rests in a pure and immaculate conscience, and is not disturbed by anything. This is sweet peace of mind. The body calms down sweetly when it rests after labors, and the soul is in sweet peace when its conscience is pure and immaculate. The body has its own anxiety, and so does the soul. The body is deprived of peace when it is in labor, the soul is deprived of peace when its evil conscience troubles it. Peace of mind is taken away by: 1) all sin and iniquity. A fornicator, an adulterer, and anyone who loves uncleanness cannot have peace of mind. An evil person, an avenger and a murderer cannot have peace of mind. A thief, a predator, a robber and a bribe-taking judge cannot have peace of mind. A slanderer, a scolder and a slanderer cannot have peace of mind. A lying and deceiver cannot have peace of mind. In a word, every sinner who destroys the law of God cannot have peace of mind, for, destroying the law of God, he destroys the peace of conscience and irritates the conscience, which convicts and torments the soul that has sinned. What God's law says, conscience says, and what God's law convicts a person of, conscience convicts. If a person sins against the law of God, he also sins against his conscience and irritates it. If something is done against conscience, it is done against the law of God. Hence it happens that when a God-fearing person tries to keep his conscience clear and tries to sin and commit an offense, his conscience will immediately strike him and his soul will be disturbed and disturbed until he cleanses the sin through repentance, sighing and contrition of the heart, and so peace of mind returns again. And although even among people who live lawlessly, the conscience is silent for a time and seems to be sleeping, but when it awakens and sees the sins and iniquities committed in it, then it will rise up strongly against them, and will begin to torment and torment them, and confuse them so much that some are inclined to despair, and often kill themselves, unable to endure the torment of conscience, as happened with Judas, the traitor of the Lord. “And throwing away the pieces of silver in the church, he went out, went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5). Therefore, lawless people, in order to have peace of mind, must turn to God from their sins, and cleanse their conscience, soiled by sins, with repentance and pacify it, irritated. And so peace and quiet of soul will return to them. Without this peace they will never be able to have peace, no matter how much they console their conscience. And it is dangerous that from this temporary anxiety one may not come to eternal anxiety, where the conscience of the soul that has sinned will always imagine sins and torment and torment it with the memory of them. This is the fruit of sin. Sin is sweet to people, but its fruit is bitter: “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). 2) Satan tries to take away the peace of mind from pious people with all sorts of different temptations and evil thoughts, when he tries to lead them into sin and thus irritate and disturb their conscience. O beloved! Beware of this evil whisperer - so as not to lose your peace of mind. How many times do you feel some evil thought rising in your heart, know for sure that then the enemy has come to your soul and is giving it his evil advice, like a serpent to Eve. The spirit is known by smell. The evil spirit is evil and emits a smell. If you feel an evil smell, you know for sure that there is an evil spirit here, which spews out its vile and foul smell. Drive away this evil smell from yourself - and you will drive away the evil spirit. “Submit yourselves therefore to God; Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Do not allow your soul to listen to his whisperings for a long time, lest he deceive you like the serpent deceives Eve. But immediately, as soon as you hear his evil advice, turn away from him and turn to the Almighty Jesus, your Intercessor and Savior, and pray to Him to help you in your feat. This feat is boring and difficult, but a glorious victory will follow. We fight and do not yield to the enemy, but Jesus Christ, the Conqueror of death and hell, helps us and conquers in us. To him be thanksgiving and glory. “Bless the Lord, my soul!” (Ps. 102:1). “Helper and Patron, he was my salvation. He is my God, and I will glorify Him” (Ex. 15:2). How many times do we resist our enemy and repel his evil advice, so many times do we defeat and put him to shame. How many times we defeat him, so many times we rejoice the holy angels and glorify our God and Father, Who is in heaven. If an evil enemy approaches you, and you hear his evil advice, immediately take heart and become like a warrior of Christ, remember that God sees everything, and looks at you, and expects your deed, and wants to help you. And how many times do you undertake a feat against your enemy and defeat him, so many times does the hero Jesus crown you and His holy angels rejoice over you. “There is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). For this feat, a feat against the devil and sin, is necessary for true repentance. The truly repentant fights against all sin and its inventor, the devil. Therefore, stand firm in your struggle, and do not give in to your enemy - let him not laugh at you, but even put him to shame. Christ the Lord from the Throne of His glory looks at your feat, and prepares for you a crown of eternal glory. The holy angels also look at you and rejoice over your feat. Christ the Lord says to you: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). 3) The same evil adversary tries to take away peace of mind when a pious person who cares about his salvation is embarrassed by the fear and horror of eternal death and hell and the despair of God’s mercy. Such thoughts are kindled arrows of the evil one, which he shoots and hurls at the faithful soul and thereby greatly outrages it. Our faith and hope are tempted by such anxiety: does a person stand firmly in faith and hope, does he relentlessly await the mercy of God, which He promised to His faithful? Thus, a troubled and troubled soul must, with God’s help, be strengthened in faith and hope, looking at God’s true promise and firmly and unswervingly holding on to this, that He who promised to save those who believe in Him will certainly save; and that “hope does not disappoint” (Rom. 5:5). “I believe that I will see the blessings of the Lord in the land of the living. Trust in the Lord, be of good courage, and let your heart be strong, and trust in the Lord” * (Ps. 26:13-14). The believer must both endure and wait. “For He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23). “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Rom 8:31–32)? 4) The same enemy troubles the godly soul through evil people. Hence it happens that a pious soul endures all hatred, bitterness, persecution, reproach, slander and other evil suffering. And these are the machinations of the evil spirit. First, He Himself tempts and confuses the pious soul. But if he fails to fulfill his evil desire and seduce her, then another invents a way to embitter her, sends evil people to her who do his evil will. Then a storm of persecution, slander, slander and bitterness rises up against a person, from here and there. A pious soul in such a disastrous state should not become discouraged and worried, but resort to the quiet refuge of patience. Patience is a truly quiet and safe refuge for the soul, worried and distressed on the sea of ​​this world. And the soul should remember God’s comforting words: “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). “If the master of the house was called Beelzebub, how much more of his household?” (Matthew 10:25) “Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). About which a voice was heard from heaven, testifying about the saved: “These are they who came out of great tribulation” (Rev. 7:14) and so on. “For the Lord punishes whomever he loves; he beats every son whom he receives. If you suffer punishment, then God treats you as sons. For is there any son whom his father does not punish?” (Heb. 12:6-7) Thus pious souls are made conformable to the Only Begotten Son of God Jesus Christ, Who was dishonored, mocked, embittered and killed by the death of the cross by the evil world. Tell me, please, is it not comforting for man to be conformed to the Lord of glory, and to follow Him as the Lamb of God? Compatible here in this world, in suffering, but in eternal life - in glory? “We suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom. 8:17). Truly there can be no greater consolation for a Christ-loving soul. Truly the soul will rejoice and rejoice in all suffering when it understands this. Consider, beloved, who you are and who Christ is, to whom you are becoming conformed. You are earth and ashes, and also a sinner. Christ is the Lord of glory, the Only Begotten Son of God, the Eternal King, and the eternal King's Son, the Great and Mighty God, your Creator, who loved you, your Redeemer, your Savior, who loved you so much that He gave Himself for you, and suffered and died for your soul, and thus delivered you from death and hell. He did this for your sake, because He could not see you in destruction. “Praise, O my soul, the Lord...who loved you and gave Himself for you” (Ps. 145:1; Eph. 5:2). Christian! To the Lord of glory, you are earth and dust, you are made conformable. Oh, truly a great honor, great glory, great bliss, great praise, great consolation, joy and gladness, to be conformed to the Only Begotten Son of God both here and in His eternal kingdom! O Jesus, the joy and sweetness of the holy angels! Draw me along with You. Let's run... “Myrrh, and scarlet, and cassia from Your garments” (Ps. 44:9). The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The spirit desires, but the flesh turns away. The spirit strives, but the flesh is restless. The spirit delights, but the flesh burdens. The spirit runs, but the flesh holds back. So, draw the weak one, the Mighty One, and like a strong giant draw the weak youth, draw me. Let's run... How? Along your beautiful and saving path, which you walked from birth to death, for the sake of poor me. “Your procession was visible, O God” (Ps. 67:25). Where? To Your eternal and glorious kingdom. Let us run there, so that I may be consistent with You both here and there. Amen. “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there will my servant also be. And whoever serves Me, My Father will honor him” (John 12:26). “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him with firm faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). Translation by P. Yungerov – Editorial office of “The ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: