Поучение 64. В среду шестой недели. Об окончании поста и поучение пред отверзением монастыря.

Brothers and Fathers! Now, with God’s help, we have reached the very end of the holy fast. The Holy Pentecost, as you see, is ending. From the God-loving narratives we know that now our holy fathers were going to Jerusalem, coming from the desert where they labored. They, as having reached a high level of virtues, brought equally great spiritual gifts to the all-generous God and our ruler; however, your love has now brought good and honorable gifts to God; and I rejoice in the good deeds of your honesty as if they were my own; for filial honor passes to the father. One of you brought the first and queen of virtues, love; another God-radiant humility; another Christ-like obedience; another is courage and patience in vigil and standing in prayer and singing, and another is patient persistence in handicrafts and fraternal obedience. I also praise and greatly extol abstinence in laughter, guarding the eyes, decorum in gait, wisdom and humility in words and answers, hatred of insolence, abstinence from overeating, elimination of excessive sleep, reading psalms, and in conclusion, let’s name the basis of virtues - the blessed and martyr’s cutting off of one’s will and self-indulgence, which is what God seeks from us as an Apostolic and true sacrifice. The philanthropic Lord accepts each of these virtues as a good gift; and I hope in God that there is none of you who would appear before God empty-handed, that is, with nothing, but with these honest gifts. Through me, the humble, you have erected, on the basis of your asceticism, “gold, silver, honest stone, - that is, deeds of virtue that will not burn when tempted by eternal fire, as on the contrary, evil deeds - wood, hay, reeds” (1 Cor. 3:12), deeds of sin and malice. But since, with the help of God, in these few days we have acquired these commendable and spiritually beneficial deeds, we will now have precautions to observe them when the days change, so that nothing of our labors perishes, and our labors do not remain in vain. But let the times and days change according to the command of God: “But you,” as the Lord says to the Apostles, “abide in My love” (John 15:10). Let us not be changeable, but let us be established in the best: from a spark of small virtue we will be transformed into a light and shining lamp, and from a star, having transformed ourselves, we will become the sun. Oh, so that we may never stop on the path of virtue, and not be carried away by what is desirable for the world, what delights for a short time, but endlessly scorches and torments, what is intended to test the will of man, and before the reverent and God-fearing it turns out to be despised, but before gluttons and carnalists it is great and amazing. Oh, that God would grant me the word to express the desire of my humble soul, to succeed in your love and with warm zeal to stretch forward in virtues according to God. However, you yourself are wise and reasonable, and you can teach good things to yourself and others. And my word, although it has deviated somewhat, we will return again to our subject and conclude the word. According to the rite that we observed in previous days and to this day, we will perform the pre-festive celebration of Vai; We will open the monastery, receive the incoming laity, greet them, and talk with them as befits and as God pleases. Let everything happen to the glory of God, so that those who see us may say that truly God dwells with such fathers. If there is a need to leave the monastery for any reason, we will have the same attentiveness and caution. If we do this, then we will celebrate the great and sacred Easter in a God-pleasing manner, and we will share in the passion of Christ, and we will be enlightened by the light of the resurrection, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs glory and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: