Letters on Spiritual Life

Contents of the Letters of St. Theophan the Recluse on prayer and spiritual life 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Commentary by St. Theophan the Recluse on the letters of Count M.M. Speransky to F. Zeyer Archpriest Pavel Khondzinsky Letters from Speransky to F.I. Tseyer (original) Letters to St. Theophan the Recluse on prayer and spiritual life The proposed Letters on Spiritual Life were compiled in relation to the letters of Count M. M. Speransky, published in the “Russian Archive” for 1870, in the January book. It was my intention to present a picture of spiritual life in its various shades. Speransky's letters served only as a reason for this. The only desire was to provide those who are zealous about spiritual life, partly with some necessary instructions, and partly to give them the opportunity to take up the same subjects themselves and think about them more applicable to themselves. You would like to know my opinion about Count Speransky’s letters about spiritual life. I will gladly fulfill your wish. But arm yourself with patience, because I have come to want not to limit myself to short notes, but to conduct a lengthy conversation about the subjects touched upon in the mentioned letters. That these items are worth it, there is nothing to say about that. But the letters are also so complex that they involuntarily provoke thought. So you see, Count Speransky is going through a spiritual life. A statesman, almost constantly busy, either with administrative institutions or with improving the order of state life, found it possible to intelligently and heartily abide in God, the all-ruling, omnipresent, all-seeing. This brings to mind the usual excuse with which secular people cover up their reluctance to work as they should on the work of God, the work of their salvation: “Where can we be!” Speransky actually denounces them, and he is not the only one, but many others as well. I remember that Elder Vasily denounced the same excuse in his prefaces to the articles of the Philokalia about smart work or prayer, placed in the biography of Elder Paisius of Nyametsky. “Look,” he says, “what a high life people lived, busy with external affairs out of duty,” and he lists them. Such was the noble steward mentioned by Simeon, the new theologian, in his word on faith placed in the Philokalia; such was Patriarch Photius, who was familiar with this matter before the patriarchate, during the works of the Secretary of State; such were the other patriarchs, who had in their hands the management of church affairs, mostly external, which was quite troublesome. Elder Vasily, by presenting these spiritual figures among external obligatory affairs, had in mind to dispose the zealots of piety to the same kind of life, in due time. Will you and I not be able to motivate someone to similar experiences by presenting them with a picture of spiritual life, as Speransky paints it in his letters, of course, from his own experience. That Speransky’s thoughts are based on his own experience, that he is talking about what he himself was doing, is clear from his very speeches. He portrays the matter of spiritual life in a real form and very sensibly. Having quickly skimmed through these letters for the first time, I thought about exposing their wrongness; but, having later delved deeper into everything expressed in them, he abandoned this unjust attempt. Here only some terms and phrases borrowed not from our books are incorrect. One has only to give these expressions the real meaning that they should have in the course of thought, and there will be no room left for criticism. And in general it is very inconvenient to criticize thoughts about spiritual subjects. Spiritual states are similar to walking through rooms full of various objects that are seen differently from different points of view. A person passing by sees one thing, but does not see another, because it is obscured by something; and what he sees, he sees from the side facing him, which may have features that are not similar to the features of the opposite side, visible to another viewer. And even the general overview may not be the same depending on the location from which you look; and here light and shadows, their own power of vision, and the mutual relationship of objects influence the viewer’s concepts. All this applies to those who write about spiritual subjects. When a writer writes from his own experience, one must accept how he testifies. It is unfair to suspect him of insincerity and measure him by one’s own standards. Only theorists, who rarely reach the truth in their speculations, are subject to judgment - and the trial not of speculation, but of experience. With all this, I find it completely fair to distinguish in Speransky’s letters hints about his spiritual states, Speransky’s own view of these states, and his own language about that. The last two belong personally to Speransky, the first are common property. I believe that you could think differently and speak differently about your conditions. And if you see any difference in my speeches with the speeches of Count Speransky, it will concern precisely this necessary distinction. My speeches will run parallel to Speransky’s speeches. These will be two paintings, one against the other. The whole difference, perhaps, will be that in one there will be light and shadows, and in the other there will be only general outlines. It occurred to me whether it would be better to collect into one everything that Count Speransky said about spiritual life, in order to more fully characterize him from this side, as he is characterized from the side of social activity. But this would lead us to long and distant work, and meanwhile, perhaps, we would not have to get everything related to this. Therefore, abandoning this idea, which is not uninteresting, I will hasten to satisfy your desire, limiting my speech to the circle of concepts expressed in the following letters. The compiler of the preface to Count Speransky’s letters says that they expressed the contemplative quietism of the great worker. I dwell on this phrase in order to say that one cannot indiscriminately use this word, which expresses the wrong direction of inner life, as well as mysticism, whenever one happens to come across someone talking about spiritual life: after all, the true Christian life is a life that brings deep peace, intimate and mysterious. Speransky was neither a quietist nor a mystic, although he speaks in the words of mystics, and even calls his speeches mystical theology. He was a man who had developed a full Christian life in himself, and, having been confirmed in spirit in God and the Lord Jesus Christ, he turned all other powers of soul and body to serving God, fulfilling His commandments in all circumstances of his life, to the glory of God and the salvation of himself and his brothers in the Lord. This is the norm of Christian perfection, and he approached it as far as it is possible for a person in family life, and in the administrative and civil fields. A clear justification for him from criticism of quietism and mysticism is represented by his prayerful appeal to the Mother of God, to the Guardian Angel, his fasting, confession and communion, reading the word of God and its simple understanding, and even more so reading the lives of saints. All these are activities and actions that the worst mystic and quietist would never agree to. That the language is similar to the language of Western mystics is probably because he wrote to a person familiar only with Western writings about the inner life, and that he himself, rereading these writings, together with that person and, perhaps, only for him, involuntarily picked up the turns of their speech. His own language, of course, was the language of the Orthodox Church, the language of St. fathers and the Philokalia, which he himself speaks of in his letters. That is why Count Speransky avoided deviations from the truth, because he knew in advance from these reliable sources the exact description of the life hidden in Christ, and despite the fact that he read the writings of Westerners full of errors, he maintained sobriety of thought. as the same compiler of the preface writes, that is, a sound view of the inner life in Christ, and knew how to draw the right line between it, as it is, and between how the false mystics portray it. Mysticism and quietism are the morbid products of misguided religiosity. They appeared and were possible only in the west, in those who had fallen away from the St. Churches in Christian communities, and mainly during the ferment of minds produced by Protestantism and the Reformation. They were looking for a good deed, living communication with God, but they were looking in the wrong way; and most importantly, they hoped through their own efforts and, as it were, by right to take possession of what was to be expected from the mercy of God, and what was to be accepted as a gift of this mercy. In the tension of this self-confident initiative, the imagination flared up and gave rise to dreamy expectations, which, as ardently desired, soon seemed and were considered fulfilled, and the goal of the work was achieved. All this was painted in the most attractive colors, and was presented in charming images, in dreamy, transcendental contemplations. The Scriptures entice them, because they talk about subjects dear to their hearts, but they only attract and give nothing. This is the hallmark of all of them. True life in Christ is a hidden, mysterious (mystical) life. The Apostle Paul calls it “the life hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3); Apostle Peter - “the hidden man of the heart” (1 Peter 3:4); The Savior Himself is “the kingdom of God within” us (Luke 17:21). But in its appearance it is very simple. It is unknown how the Spirit comes and excites us to repentance. Having accomplished this internal revolution, He then equips the believing heart for the difficult struggle with passions, guides and helps in it. Everyone has this struggle, more or less long and painful; it leads to purity of heart, for the sake of which the believing worker is rewarded with the clearest comprehension of the truths of God and the sweetest sensation - both in such features as are precisely defined in the Gospel and the Apostolic writings. This last appears at the end of long labors and many trials, like a crown of reward. The mystics, directly or predominantly, grasp at this highest point of perfection, and they paint it as it is depicted in the dreams of their imagination, always in false colors. The truth can only be told by experience, by experiencing only spiritual blessings in action; and mystics block the real road there for themselves with their very dreams. On the contrary, the patristic writings speak least of all about these higher states, and everything about the works of repentance, struggle with passions, and various cases. Such is the Philokalia, from which Speransky drew sound concepts about the hidden life in Christ. Let's start reviewing the letters. The first letter is rather dark, not in meaning, but in terms taken from outside. In it, Speransky speaks of the manifestation of true inner life in him, calling this act or constant state an opening into the kingdom of God, a state of grace, as in this letter, and a state of tangible communion with God, as in the next one. In order to understand properly what kind of state this is, let us reproduce a true outline of the course of spiritual life, which there was no need to place here either for the one who wrote the letter, or for those who had to read it, because it was clear to them already, from previous letters or personal conversations. There are a lot of moral states on the good and bad paths, and they are very diverse, so that it would be in vain for anyone to try to clearly outline or retell them all. I take the largest phenomena. All of us, Orthodox Christians, receive the grace of rebirth in the sacrament of St. baptism, and the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation. This is the seed of grace-filled spiritual life in Christ Jesus. During the period of education, it should be developed along with the development of the natural forces of human nature, just as St. Timothy had to, according to the commandment of St. Apostle Paul, to kindle (2 Tim. 1:6) within himself the gift he received with the laying on of the hands of the priesthood (1 Tim. 4:14): otherwise this seed will die out under the yoke of evil movements and movements of our life, as often happens, if not most of the time. Take the last case: the seed of grace-filled spiritual life is suppressed, and you will get in a person who has matured or is entering life a person without the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The negligence of parents and educators to reveal in him the beginning and rules and requirements of this life, and even more unkind examples at home and outside in elders and peers, leave full scope for the disclosure in him of all the natural shortcomings of our damaged nature. But as soon as he opens up, he then begins to live and act under the influence of all passionate inclinations and bad habits, especially his own specific ones, for not everyone has everything. He is angry, self-interested, voluptuous, proud, envious, lustful, self-willed, etc. It’s not that these and similar passions operate in him every minute, but as soon as the opportunity arises. It’s also not that he has a shameful life: no, outwardly he is good, and will not allow himself to be disgraced in front of others by bad character; living for show is his mainspring. It’s not that there is nothing good in it: the Creator placed a lot of good in our nature, and we, with all our depravity, cannot completely destroy it, so it peeks through and peeps through. It is a mixture of good and evil, and the predominance of one or the other depends on chance. Today he is angry, tomorrow he will bear the insult; today he offended someone, tomorrow he will do a favor; now he abstains, tomorrow he indulges in all the excitement of a comfortable life, etc. He acts as his character and the interweaving of external circumstances of life dictate, he acts according to the movement of mental and physical changes and the flow of surrounding events, allowing himself self-government to the extent that his pride gives him the strength to do so. His inseparable companion is alienation from everything Divine and spiritual, from the Church, from persons with a Christian character, from St. books and conversations about the sacred, even if by chance sometimes he ends up in a place where, although - reluctantly, he comes into contact with all this. Concern for his salvation and his afterlife fate never concerns or disturbs him. For all that, he is a pleasant member of society, a fascinating conversationalist, and enjoys general attention, respect and fame. Only there is nothing in it that is part of the life of Christ Jesus. Take another case. They pay attention to Christian education, but do not complete it, or ignore the most essential and difficult aspects of Christian life, focusing on the easiest, most visible, external ones. This incomplete or not properly directed education is given to persons who carefully observe all the established orders of pious life, but pay little or no attention to the inner movements of the heart and the true progress of the inner spiritual life. This is not like hypocrites who deliberately behave this way for their own special purposes: no, they do everything with all zeal and love, and limit themselves to this alone, or mainly to this, out of ignorance of the best, out of not feeling the insufficiency of their way of life. They are alien to mortal sins, but they do not watch the movements of the thoughts of the heart. That is why sometimes they judge, and become vain, and become proud, and become angry in the sense of the rightness of their cause, sometimes they get carried away by beauty and pleasures, sometimes they even offend in fits of displeasure, they are lazy to pray, and in prayer they are squandered in vain thoughts, and so on - and nothing to them. These movements are of little significance to them. They went to church, or prayed at home, gave alms according to the usual procedure, corrected their usual affairs - and were completely happy and at peace. And what happens in the heart is of little concern to them; meanwhile, it can forge evil and thereby take away all the value from their regular pious life. These are two classes of people - Christians only in name, and incomplete Christians who have stood halfway. I dare not determine what part of the Christian society they constitute. Look around and you will see. But one cannot help but wish that the first would come to their senses and begin to live like a Christian; and the latter supplemented what was missing and became zealous to become full Christians. Now take this third case: the one who was careless about salvation and eternal life came to his senses: the one who accomplished the work of salvation incompletely came to a sense of this incompleteness, saw the infidelity of his path and the unreliability of his work. What the first one does and should do is depicted in detail in the article “On Repentance.” Let's not touch him. Based on the content of the letters being analyzed, we need the second one more. Thus, someone turns from external piety to internal. He is led to this either by reading books about spiritual life, or by talking with those who know what the essence of Christian life is, or by dissatisfaction with his work, by a feeling that something is missing, and that everything seems to be going wrong. Despite all its serviceability, it has no inner peace; It does not contain what is promised to true Christians - peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). When this restless thought arises in him, then a conversation with those who know, or books, explain to him what the matter is, and point out a significant flaw in the structure of his life, a lack of attention to internal movements and self-government. He understands that the essence of Christian life consists in becoming the mind in the heart before God in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and from there, controlling all internal movements and all external actions, turning everything in oneself, both small and great, into the service of the Trinitarian God, surrendering to Him entirely with consciousness and freedom. Having realized this, he loves, and, having loved, begins to be jealous of reproducing in himself such a structure of inner life. Oh, if only desire and jealousy were enough for this! I thought about it - and everything would appear. But in reality, there is a long and tedious work to be done on oneself in order to organize everything within oneself according to what is written. So what happens? The goal seems bright, the desire to achieve is strong, the work for this is carried on tirelessly, and, however, nothing is accomplished. Everything seems to fall out of hand, and when you think that something that is so desirable is about to happen, it turns out to be not what is desired, like a mirage of water to a thirsty person in the desert. Whether it happens for a long time or for a short time depends on the grace of God: some years, some tens of years, he spends working until he manages to become in his heart and receive what he is looking for, because, with all the work and searching, that system is not achieved through our efforts alone. The Lord gives it, but does not give it without searching and effort. He sees the diligent search, and the painful work, and the languor of the thirsty heart - he takes pity and gives the desired good. Why He does this, He alone knows: only without this painful quest no one reaches that normal system. This is the secret of spiritual life... You cannot enter into the treasury of God without experiencing the fidelity of the person being introduced. Notice this period of painful searching: it distinguishes the genuine from the counterfeit. Speransky outlines it well in his second letter. Finally he passes; the happy seeker receives what he is looking for, finds his heart and is established in it with his mind before the Lord, and stands before Him without retreating, like a loyal subject before the King, and from Him receives the power and strength to rule over all of his own, both internal and external, pleasing to Him. This is the moment when the kingdom of God comes in and begins to manifest itself in its inherent power. What's next, we won't touch on that now. Speransky speaks about this blissful moment in his first letter, and in almost all of them, but he does not speak in detail, and in a language that he did not use in the writings of his Church. Now you know what Speransky is talking about in his first letter. He does not suddenly begin to talk about his subject, but precedes it with a few words about the circumstances that preceded it. “Before the time of our separation,” he writes to a friend, “our state in essence was only a state of reflection and mental prayer. All of our spirituality came down to theosophy itself. It also includes the works of Boehm, S. Martin, Swedenborg, etc. This is just the ABC. I spent ten years studying it, and when I thought that I had mastered everything, I worked only on the rudiments. This was the threshold of the kingdom of God.” Speransky was a straightforward Christian, who lived regularly according to all the rules of Christian life, despite his difficult studies. But as he confesses (in the 2nd letter), he had little concern for his inner life, and when he later took it, he did not suddenly master what he was looking for. For ten years he studied the first fruits, standing on the threshold of the kingdom of God. What made him turn to his inner self? The most direct way to say it would be the spirit of that time. In the highest circles of our society, in his time, this was almost a common activity. As an observant person, he could not help but notice the movement taking place around him, and as a person who had received a real Christian education, he immediately realized that this movement had its own true side, which he set out to reveal in himself by law. There was definitely a true side to that movement: for to seek inner, living communion with God should be the last goal of every Christian. But it turned out to be of little success and soon ceased, or was abandoned, because the engines went the wrong way and the wrong leaders were chosen. They followed in the footsteps of Western mystics and theosophists, into the void and dreams of fantasy. A good thing beckoned them; but it was overshadowed by dreams, and they were left to wander in the darkness, groping. In the Church of God, the inner Christian life has always been in force, and the most complete and error-free guidance to it has always been and is being offered. It would be a completely different matter if the movement were directed according to this leadership. Speransky himself provides proof of this. For ten years he sits studying the writings on the inner life belonging to Western mystics, and gets nothing, but only languishes in anticipation, as he depicts himself in the second letter. But as soon as he came across the true guide to a sober inner life, offered in the Philokalia, he immediately took the straight path and saw the light of God, which dispelled the fog that surrounded his heart. One must be surprised how such a smart person could spend so much time delving into the voids of Bem and company! I would like to believe that he did this to please his friend, who did not belong to our Church, whose writings, perhaps, were not in his spirit; I dealt with them with him in order to note the smallness of the wheat grains of truth in these heaps of chaff, and thereby prevent him from deviating into crossroads. For his own sake, he could not complain about the lack of paternal writings. Although there were not so many of them in use in his time, they were quite sufficient to explain the matter and the production of inner life. Moreover, he could read them in the originals. I believe he was familiar with them; and that he delved into the books of heterodox people to the point that his language assimilated them, he did this correctly, either for the reason indicated, or because he was prompted to do so by the environment and paid tribute to the spirit of the times. The words: “hitherto our state in essence was only a state of reflection and mental prayer, and all of our spirituality was reduced to theosophy,” relate to the question of the state of seeking, before the emergence of inner life in God. Various spiritual exercises or exploits belong to this time, among which the first place, after prayer, which was possible then, belongs to the thought of God, that is, reflection on God, and His Divine properties and actions, wisdom, goodness, omnipresence, omniscience, justice, providence and especially redemption. It is accomplished both personally and with the help of reading the Divine and Fatherly Scriptures; It is also appropriate during hours of prayer, especially church prayer. There is nothing else that in the mouth of Speransky can mean theosophy, or, in fact, godly wisdom; and not what theosophists mean by this, that is, dreamy ideas about God’s relationship to the world in general, and to various creatures in particular, invented by them themselves, in addition to what we know from Revelation, and often in spite of it. This definitely happens on the threshold of inner life, but it does not stop after its inception, only then it takes on a different form, becoming more precise and lively, and, most importantly, turning into the vision of Divine things from multi-thought research. But this entire transition state is not embraced by this one thing, but is only primarily characterized by it. He who seeks the inner kingdom of God, or living communion with God, naturally thinks everything about God, with effort turning his mind to Him; he only wants to read about Him, and talk about Him. But these lessons alone, without others, which I will talk about later, will not lead to what you are looking for. For mystics, this activity alone is exposed because they are theorists, not practitioners. There is some excess on this subject in the Catholic manuals to spiritual life; and this is not safe. It teaches ease: for it is easier to think than, for example, to pray or listen to oneself; disposes to conceit, like the work of the mind, which is so akin to boasting, and can completely cool down in practice, and, therefore, stop lasting success, flattering with success in this mental business. Therefore, sensible teachers warn against this, and advise not to go too far into this activity, to the detriment of others. This is the teaching of Bishop Diadochos. Here are his words: “long exercise in prayer is harmful for the mind, for the sake of tightness and concentration required by prayer; He plunges into theology with joy, for the sake of the space and freedom provided to him in this area. He should not be allowed to embark on this path, or, more than anything else, to burst into joy on it.” The next section gives wonderful thoughts about some phenomena of spiritual life that precede the revelation of the Kingdom of God inward, as harbingers of its imminent appearance. But terminology and phrases make it difficult to suddenly see what is being said. “The Kingdom of God, which lies within us (in other words: the inner word, or contemplative prayer, or pure love), is revealed only when all reflections, all reasoning about heavenly objects become dry, boring, tasteless, and when, however, in the depths of your soul you feel a more or less strong attraction to the pursuits of the Divine. Then one should abandon mental prayer (thoughts, reflections, reasoning about God) and constantly get used to being in communion with God, in addition to all images, all thinking, and all tangible movements of thought. Then everything seems silent; don't think about anything; the mind and memory fade and do not represent anything definite; the will alone meekly clings to the idea of ​​God, an idea that seems indefinite because it is unconditional and is not based on anything in particular.” But Speransky talks about the revelation of the kingdom of God inward in the next section: what is this about? About the involuntary, deep and uncontrollable attractions to God that manifest themselves from time to time in the soul, which self-strengthly and laboriously seeks God. It will be clearer if we say: about what happens to the soul, and how we need to behave when we strongly want to pray, or when we are drawn to prayer. Everyone experiences this to a greater or lesser extent, both during the transition from self-difficult quest to living communication with God, and upon achieving it. This state is similar to the one a person is in when he thinks about something. A person who is thoughtful goes inside himself and concentrates in his soul, not paying attention to his external environment, to faces, things and events. The same here: only there it is a matter of the mind, and here it is a matter of the heart. Finds an attraction to God, the soul gathers itself and stands before the face of God, and either pours out its hopes and heartaches before Him, like Anna, the mother of Samuel, or glorifies Him, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, or stands before Him in amazement, as St. often stood. Apostle Paul. Here all personal actions - thoughts, intentions - cease, and everything external moves away from attention. The soul itself does not want to do anything extraneous. This happens in church, and at home during the prayer rule, or when reading and thinking; maybe even during some external activities, and among society. But in all cases it does not depend on arbitrariness. Once someone who has experienced this attraction can remember it, want to repeat it, strain towards it; but he himself will not attract it with his own effort: it finds it. There is only one thing left for arbitrariness: when it finds it, do not allow yourself to upset it, but try, as much as you have the strength, to give it room to stay in you as much as possible. We can call these manifestations of a real prayerful spirit, or sensations of the approach of God, which in the hands of grace, guiding a zealot for salvation, are educational techniques. They indicate what to look for and strive for; and at the same time it is evidenced that the labors of search, hitherto undertaken, are not in vain, and thus zeal for the tireless search is kindled. This says to the soul: “You see that there is something to work for, then work!” And as this usually happens after drastic acts of self-sacrifice, expressed in special voluntary deprivations, or in deeds of charity, or activities of piety, accompanied internally by acts of placing oneself in the hands of God, or surrendering oneself to God’s care and God’s guidance, then one is encouraged to collect more such acts, and the work of seeking will come to an end faster. The end of the search is for this temporary state to become permanent, not in the same form, of course, but in the same essence of the matter. When this comes, then the revelation of the kingdom of God will take place in the soul, which Speransky talks about in the next section, and to which we will move on immediately, making only a few explanatory notes about the phrases. This is how all Christians live, and all, therefore, carry the kingdom of God within themselves, that is, they submit to God as the King, and are ruled by God as the King. When speaking about the kingdom of God in us, we must always add: in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the seal of the Christian Kingdom of God in us. God is King over all, as Creator and Provider; but He truly reigns in souls, and in souls He is truly confessed as King only after the restoration of the union of souls with Him, interrupted by the fall; and this is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Remember now the parable of the Lord about kvass hidden in three satehs of flour. Kvass does not suddenly become noticeable, but remains hidden for some time, then exhibits noticeable effects and, finally, penetrates the entire dough. So the kingdom is first hidden in us, then it is revealed, and finally it is revealed, or appears in force. It is revealed by involuntary inclinations shown inward before God. Here the soul is not autocratic, but is subject to outside influence. Someone takes her and takes her inside. This is God, the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Savior: no matter how you say it, the power of the word is the same. God shows by this that he accepts the soul and wants to rule over it, and at the same time accustoms it to his rule, showing what it is like. Until these inclinations appear - and they do not appear suddenly - a person, apparently, acts more on his own, with the hidden help of grace. He strains with attention and good intentions to be within himself, to remember God, to drive away idle thoughts and bad thoughts, and to do every work pleasing to God, he strains and works to the point of fatigue, but he never manages to succeed in this: his thoughts are plundered, and passionate movements overcome him, and in his affairs there are disorganizations and mistakes; all this is because God has not yet revealed His power over the soul. And as soon as this appears (and it appears with the above-mentioned impulses), immediately everything inside comes into order - a sign that the Tsar is here. Let everyone remember what happens in his soul when he is drawn inside, or when he wants to pray on his own, without a prayer book. This is what we are talking about. What is meant here is not some kind of extraordinary state, but one that is common to everyone and that happens to everyone who is not careless about salvation. Only it happens in different degrees of strength and duration, but in essence it is the same, starting with light movements that quickly pass, to unperturbed inner presences of God, sometimes lasting for whole hours. God says here: “This is what you are looking for!” Whoever understands the calling and seeks it, those desires will become more frequent and last longer until they reach a permanent and unchangeable establishment in the heart. At St. Ascetics regarding this are everywhere prescribed one law: not to ignore this state, and not to upset it not only with anything external, but even with internal reflection, or any undertakings, even if they are good. When this happens during prayer, they are ordered to stop and stand before God like this, offering only small and large bows. He will feel this way in his soul and move away. Then the wandering of thoughts and the attack of passionate movements will begin again. The soul descends from heaven again to earth, from light to darkness, from light peace to difficult work. Be patient and wait until this discovery of the kingdom of God in your heart comes again. This will be so as long as it pleases God to consolidate this deepened abiding forever, and make it permanent and unchangeable. The search for this latter is actually the search for the kingdom of God; his appearance is the opening of the kingdom. This is what Speransky’s words mean: “the kingdom of God is revealed.” Based on this concept, we cannot help but notice some inaccuracy in the phrases and in the speeches that follow. Having said that “the kingdom of God is revealed,” Speransky continues: “then when all reflections, all reasoning about heavenly objects become dry, boring, tasteless”... No, not like that: that attraction is not a consequence of this tastelessness, but tastelessness is a consequence of that attraction. It must be said this way: when that attraction is revealed, then all personal activity ceases, whether with the mind or other forces, and there is no desire for it; unless the enemy can come up and point you towards something, suggesting that you need to do something or think about it in order to develop the incipient good state. In Speransky this is expressed too strongly: “dry, boring, tasteless,” whereas it would be enough to say: everything stops and is abandoned. If these words of Speransky are understood as they sound, then they will indicate stops in spiritual life due to dryness, tastelessness and boringness. These are attacks of the spirit of despondency, the tormentor of ascetics. But then there are no grace-filled attractions; on the contrary, their absence is the cause of despondency. There is only room for silent patience. (Something similar to this also happens when someone reads for a long time with attention and ponders deeply about what he is reading; the soul is then satiated and no longer wants to read, and demands rest in prayer for its tired attention.) It goes without saying that here the attraction is not at all what is being discussed: here is the usual need for rest, revealed by a tired soul, just as it is revealed by a tired body. The intercalary words equally require explanation: the inner word, or contemplative prayer, or pure love, as synonyms for the kingdom of God in us. They can distort the idea if you do not understand them properly. Speransky’s inner word is not our inner ranting to ourselves and with ourselves, but the word, in the sense of St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. This phrase is taken from the mystics, according to whom Christ is born in every Christian, Who is the beginningless Word, incarnate for our sake. In letters to his daughter on Christmas Day, Speransky always wished that Christ would be born in her. And this, in his opinion, is our inner word. Obviously, this cannot be accepted in its own sense. Christ is not born in us, but we are reborn in the image of Christ; for our “regeneration” in the font of baptism is renewal in the image of the Creator (Col. 3:10), or putting on Christ (Gal. 3:27). The true life of man, lost in the fall, is restored and revealed, in its most perfect form, in the person of Jesus Christ, God the Word incarnate. It is in Him in such completeness that all believers will draw true life from Him. That is why He calls Himself the vine, and all believers - branches on the vine, taking life juices from the vine. A true Christian has one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). So close is the union! Meanwhile, a Christian is in himself; he does not disappear in Christ the Lord, but, remaining a separate individual, arranges himself in the image of Christ. This is accomplished by the grace of the Holy Spirit, sent down to earth after the ascension of Christ the Savior into heaven and His sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and from that time on continuously abiding in the Church and acting in it through the Holy Spirit. sacraments for the sanctification of all humanity. This is our spiritual life according to the source! When they say: Christ is born in us, this gives the idea that this is done in us, apart from us, mechanically; and yet the actions of grace addressed to a rationally free creature cannot be such. By them we must always understand morally free changes in the mind and heart in a person. These changes are indicated before this, when explaining that there is the kingdom of God in us. When applied to the beginning of life, this will be the imagination of Christ in oneself, or the transformation of one’s moods according to the properties of Christ, so that in us there will be in us the self-sacrifice of Christ, the patience of Christ, the obedience to God of Christ, the mind of Christ, in a word - everything of Christ. Contemplative prayer and pure love are mentioned early. Those inward attractions before God are the threshold of contemplative prayer, but not contemplative prayer itself. Prayer has different degrees. At first it is only prayerful prayer; but the prayer of the mind of the heart must go along with it, be warmed up and supported by it. Mental-heart prayer then receives independence and is either active, strained by one’s own efforts, or self-motivated, finding. In the latter form, it is the same as the shown drives: it is contemporary with them, and develops from them. When later the state in which the soul is during these impulses becomes constant, then mental-heart prayer becomes incessantly active. At the same time, the former temporary inclinations are reborn into states of contemplation, in which and from which contemplative prayer is then revealed. Contemplation is the captivity of the mind and all contemplation by some spiritual object so strong that everything external is forgotten, leaves consciousness: the mind and consciousness go into the object being contemplated, so that it is as if they are no longer in us. Here is an example: the elder was talking with his disciples, and stopped, as if he had forgotten himself. When he later came to his senses, the disciples asked him: where was he? “I was,” he said, “on Golgotha, before the crucified Lord, where Mary Magdalene was at His feet.” – But this contemplation was only mental. Contemplative prayer is like this, by forgetting everything and being captured into the invisible world. Another example: the elder prepared himself a meal at the usual hour and began to pray; but he was caught up in contemplative prayer and stood in it until the next day, when he came to his senses. The distinctive feature of contemplative prayer of St. Isaac the Syrian delivers precisely the falling out of consciousness of everything around him and captivity in the heavenly world. According to his testimony, the mind still controls itself, but when it enters into contemplation or contemplative prayer, then it no longer has any power over itself. In this they differ from the shown inward drives that are being discussed, and in which a person, although he does not pay attention to everything around him, does not completely forget it; it does not leave his consciousness, and although it is subject to higher action, it controls itself, and as much as it can help prolong that state, it can also upset him. Therefore, I think that the words “or contemplative prayer” should not have been included here. The same should be noted about pure love. Love for God is akin to our nature. I believe that it does not completely fade away even in sinners, but acts in them, calling them to repentance until they become hardened and despair. But love itself begins from the moment when, as a result of repentance, the determination to work for the Lord is born, not sparing one’s life. The works of pleasing God that begin thereafter develop it stronger and stronger, until it turns into flame and embraces his entire nature. There are so many shades of these degrees of love that it is impossible to list them. Another loves God because he has received much good from Him; another loves God because he expects some good from Him; another loves God because he expects all good from Him; another loves God because He is God. Love is revealed by action in such a way that another does only a part for God, leaving a part for himself; another does everything for God; and another sacrifices himself and everything to God unconditionally. Loving God as God, with complete self-sacrifice, without any pretenses, is pure love. Climacus says about himself that even if God sent him to hell, he will also invariably love Him there with all his soul. It is obvious that pure love is the crown of perfection in pleasing God, and is in force only at the end of the labors along this path. At the beginning, at the first manifestations of the kingdom of God in us, it cannot be demanded: it may be in purpose, but not in reality; it reigns when God already absorbs everything that is ours. The thoughts that followed should also be expressed in other words. Speransky says: “Then you need to abandon mental prayer,” and immediately explains what exactly needs to be abandoned, namely: “thoughts, reflections, reasoning about God,” as if these are the same words as mental prayer. On the contrary, these pious activities, actually mental ones, constitute thought of God, an activity separate from prayer, which, however, can accompany it, or precede and follow it. Mental prayer consists of standing before God with the mind in the heart, either simply or with an expression of petition, thanksgiving and praise. This is not the time to engage in reasoning: everything has its turn, then that inward attraction comes, then mental prayer appears in force and in its present form: and until this moment it is only what is sought; there is something to do here. Therefore, thoughts, reflections and reasoning, as well as all other self-actions, indeed, must be abandoned and suppressed, if they arose during the manifestation of an inward drive, but not mental prayer. She should not only not be abandoned, but should be supported in every possible way so that that state, good and useful, lasts as long as possible. And then, when that state passes, strain your mind in every possible way not to deviate from God, retaining the memory of Him even during ordinary activities; in other words: try to walk in the presence of God. Speransky speaks about this, following the words cited about abandoning mental prayer, as follows: “constantly get used to being in communion with God, apart from all images, all reflection, and all tangible movements of thought.” These are real expressions. This is precisely the essence of mental prayer, or standing before God with the mind in the heart. Mental prayer comes in two states: it is either laborious, when a person himself strains at it, or self-propelled, when it stands and acts by itself. The latter happens during the mentioned attraction, and the former should be our constant work. Although it is not successful in itself, because thoughts are all plundered, but, testifying to our desire and effort to have constant prayer, it attracts the mercy of the Lord - and God for this work gives, from time to time, that attraction within, in which mental prayer appears in its true form. And only at this time does she own what Speransky further writes about: “then it seems that everything in the soul is silent; don't think about anything; the mind and memory fade and do not represent anything definite; only the will clings tightly to the idea of ​​God.” These words are accurate; and what follows is not precise: “a representation that seems indefinite because it is unconditional, and that it does not rely on anything in particular.” In mental presence before God, laborious and self-motivated, one must be in the conviction that God, omnipresent, is also in us, sees us and listens to us. This conviction, once established, makes it possible to eliminate imagery while mentally presenting oneself to God. But we need to infuse ourselves with this conviction, clearing it in every possible way from the images to which our thoughts are so susceptible, no matter what it is occupied with. This is what it should be! The words: “idea of ​​God” do not fit here, because there is no idea without an image; instead of it we must put: standing before God, in the conviction that He is invisibly present in us and listens to us. “The idea,” says Speransky, “of God seems indefinite,” no, not like that: when we acquire clear concepts of God through the knowledge of His Divine properties and actions revealed to us, then the thought of God can never be indefinite, then God is always contemplated by us under some definitely known to us property of Him. And this is a sign of a true relationship with God, and is different from a dreamy aspiration towards Him. In this phrase there is a small piece of foggy mysticism, suffering from uncertainty. “Then,” writes Speransky, “we enter the darkness of faith. Then you know nothing more, and you wait for any light directly from above, and if you persist in this expectation, then this light descends, and the kingdom of God is revealed.” The light descends... the kingdom of God is revealed - this is the same as for the sailors: the shore! shore! But this kingdom does not come with discretion; It’s impossible to calculate - I’ll do this and that, I’ll position myself this way and that, and the light will come and the kingdom of God will open. On our part, perhaps, this is so: fulfilling all the conditions included in the preparatory work for the manifestation of the kingdom in us, persist in waiting for it, or, better said, with humble, constant, hopeful and supplicating patience, wait until, finally, it will please the man-loving Lord to show His mercy to us. The Lord does not give suddenly, but why - He alone knows. Wait with hope, for the promise is not false: we will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). But let your wait not be idle. The Lord is waiting until, having exhausted all your efforts, not seeing success, in the depths of your heart you say: “Save by your destinies, Lord!” But in order to exhaust efforts, you need to intensify, or work with effort. This is how it should be, and according to the spirit of a jealous person this is required. Having decided to please the Lord, he, without sparing himself, throws himself into the work of pleasing God, and does not know fatigue, and there is no work for which he would not be ready immediately: he wants to repay him for the time spent in negligence. (I believe that grace itself brings order and a spirit of action to this. But this is only at the beginning... At the beginning, it is impossible to notice whether there is fruit from one’s labors; over time, when one acquires the habit of the order of a godly life, and this side no longer requires effort, the spirit of jealousy from the outside moves inward, from deeds to thoughts, feelings and intentions. For some, the Lord Himself guides this by His grace; for others, a good interlocutor suggests or The leader turns inwards, and what do you think he finds here? - incessant fermentation of thoughts, incessant passionate battles, whiteness and coldness of heart, stubbornness and immobility in obedience, the desire to do everything in his own way, in a word - he finds everything inside himself again in a very bad state. Jealousy flares up again, and one’s efforts turn to one’s inner life, to the thoughts and dispositions of the heart. In the guides to inner spiritual life, he will find that one must pay attention to oneself, one must observe the movements of the heart in order to prevent anything unkind, one must remember God, and so on. Work and efforts in this direction begin. But you cannot hold back your thoughts, like moving air, you cannot help but miss bad feelings and movements, like the bad smell from a rotting corpse, and the mind does not rise to the remembrance of God, like a wet and frozen bird. What to do? They say: be patient and work hard. There is patience and work, but inside everything is the same. Finally, someone who knows the matter comes across and explains: because everything is discordant inside you, because this is the quality of the disintegration of forces; the mind goes its own way, and the heart goes its own way. It is necessary to connect the mind with the heart; then the fermentation of thoughts will stop, and you will receive a rudder to control the ship of the soul, a lever with which you will begin to set in motion your entire inner world.” How is this possible? Get used to praying with your mind in your heart: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” and this prayer, when you learn to perform it properly, or better, when it is grafted into your heart, will lead you to the desired end: it combines your mind with your heart, it will calm the fermentation of thoughts and give you the strength to rule the movements of your soul. The one who expresses the request is given instructions on how to perform this prayer. The work of exercising in it should immediately begin: but first you have to overcome your unbelief. No one else, whoever this matter concerned, immediately believed that such a simple means could lead to such important goals, especially in connection with some of the techniques that determine the order of production of this prayer. But finally, something needs to be done. And so, although - not even though, with half-faith and half-unbelief, the work of becoming accustomed to this saving work begins. The first fruits revive faith, faith strengthens labor and multiplies fruits; the matter will be done. In the continuation of this particular work of becoming accustomed to mental prayer to the Lord, by the grace of God, those inward attractions to God, which have already been discussed, become more frequent. And then it comes that this involvement inside is strengthened forever, and being inside before God becomes unceasing. This is the establishment of the kingdom of God within us. But, let us add, this is at the same time the beginning for a new circle of changes in the inner life, which it is proper to call the spiritualization of soul and body. If it turns out to be necessary, we’ll talk about this later. I deliberately described at length this entire order of movement of inner life in order to show that in the course of this life there is a spacious field for persistence in waiting. The poor soul toils and toils, searching and not finding. Expecting something from your efforts doesn’t even cross your mind. All self-confidence has long since disappeared, and in the depths of one’s soul one can only hear: “Beholden by fate, save.” Placing ourselves in the hands of God, and expecting everything from His sole mercy, is the final limit of preparation, readiness and suitability for the establishment of the kingdom of God within us, which, however, always comes not with discretion (Luke 17:20). This state of humble expectation, without any pretensions, is the darkness of faith (the phrase of the mystics), which is gloomy only because of the unknown time of receiving what is desired and sought, while the object and basis of the expectation are completely clear. I believe that the question is already on your mind: what kind of kingdom of God is this? Speransky answers this further: “no one can either describe it to you or give an idea about it; you feel it, but it is incommunicable. Jesus Christ himself describes the kingdom of God only in parables and similitudes.” Let us add: only everyone knows that this is an incomparable precious treasure, not expected, but actually received and possessed. The Savior explains this with a parable about a man who, having found a treasure in a field, rejoiced, and, in joy, without telling anyone, he sold everything he had and bought that field; and another - about a merchant who, having learned that there was a pearl of great price somewhere, went, sold everything he had, and bought that pearl (Matthew 13:44-46). It is possible, however, to satisfy your curiosity to some extent, for what is indefinable from the sense of feeling can be determined in the features of its manifestation. From this side, I have already outlined the kingdom of God before, borrowing descriptive features from the writings of fathers and elders. I repeat here, as I wrote, so as not to invent new words: the kingdom of God is in us when God reigns over us, when the soul in its depths confesses God as its Master and submits to Him with all its might, and God sovereignly acts in it both in its will and in its deeds (Phil. 2:13). From a mental point of view, the following should be said about the kingdom of God: the kingdom of God arises in us when the mind is combined with the heart, having itself merged with the memory of God. The person then gives over to the Lord, as a sacrifice pleasing to Him, his consciousness and freedom; and from Him he receives power over himself, and with the power he receives from Him, he rules over all of himself, internal and external, as if from His face. When I get around to it, I will collect the features of this state from the writings of the fathers and tell you. Now I will say a few words from memory. I think that you also remember how in the answers of the elders Barsanuphius and John they often spoke of a certain fire that they wanted with all their desire to kindle in the souls of their disciples. They talk about the emergence of inner life, or the revelation of the kingdom of God in us. At the same time, all the forces of human life are concentrated into one, as if in focus, and this is reflected by the burning of the spirit, or spiritual warmth; at the same time, not only the mind dissolves with the memory of God and is imbued with it, but our entire spiritual being enters into living communion with God: God... fire... is (Heb. 12:29). And so the warmth and burning of the spirit takes root in us from the moment the kingdom of God is revealed in us. This feature is the most tangible of all, more accessible to the concept, and provides greater convenience in explaining the manifestations of spiritual life. It is known that when a person is in a feeling, then he is completely constrained by that feeling, and is ready and strong to unquestioningly do everything that that feeling prompts. Feeling is like a lever and steering wheel in controlling your inner self. This is what is sought and given. What worries the seeker most of all is the internal disorder in thoughts and desires; all his jealousy is directed at how to eliminate this disorder. There is no other way to achieve this than to obtain this spiritual feeling or this warmth of heart, in the memory of God. As soon as this warmth arises, thoughts will subside, the inner atmosphere will become clear, all the origins of good and bad movements of the soul will become visible, and the power to drive away the latter will be obtained. And this inner light diverges to the external, and there it makes it possible to distinguish what is proper from what is not proper, imparting the strength to establish oneself in the former, in spite of any obstacles; in a word, then true, effective, spiritual life begins, which until now was only in search, and if it manifested itself, it was in fits and starts. And with the drives we were talking about, there is warmth, but it stops with the cessation of the drive. Here, warmth, having arisen in the heart, remains non-waste, and keeps the attention of the mind to itself. When the mind is in the heart, this is the combination of the mind and the heart, representing the integrity of our spiritual organism. In relation to this sign - warmth and burning spirit - it is easier to understand why certain methods are used to achieve this state, or to prepare for it. I will now write to you about ways to kindle a constant fire or warmth in the heart. Remember how heat is excited in the physical world: rubbing wood against wood produces heat and even fire; keep a thing in the sun, and it warms up, and if you concentrate more rays, it lights up. The method for generating spiritual warmth is similar to this. Friction is the work of asceticism; holding in the sun is a mental prayer to God. The labors of asceticism are the entire order of a godly life. I'll retell it briefly. After repentance has established a firm intention to work for the Lord and not offend Him with sins, for success in this and for further movement through the degrees of perfection of Christian life, it is necessary to change the external way of life and external relationships as required by this vow; to bind the body with rules in all its needs, especially those that provide more support to the passions - prudent abstinence, feasible vigil and labor, and the removal of irritation of the senses; It is unmissable to occupy all the forces of the soul, according to the spirit of the life begun - the mind with soul-saving reading, conversation and contemplation of God, the will - with good deeds and undertakings in fulfilling the commandments of God, and the heart - with every kind of prayer, church and home, to excite and strengthen in it holy feelings and sympathy for heavenly things; diligently keep the spirit in the fear of God, in detachment from earthly goods, and most of all, in peace from the side of conscience. Thus, the spirit, the soul, and the body will be in constant friction, in all forces and functions, and through them the heart is the focus of them all. From this, it will naturally warm up more and more, just as someone walking naturally warms up from movement and exertion of strength. Through the labors of asceticism a fire can be ignited in the heart, but not soon if they are left alone: ​​this path is full of obstacles. That is why, from ancient times, zealots of salvation, experienced in spiritual life, without departing from these works, by God’s inspiration, discovered and gave to everyone for use another method for warming the heart, and, moreover, the simplest and easiest in appearance, but no less difficult to perform, only more quickly leading to the goal: this is the expedient performance of mental prayer to the Lord Savior. It consists of the following: become with your mind and attention in your heart, and having established the conviction that the Lord is near and listening, cry out to Him tenderly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner or a sinner” - and do this constantly, both in church, and at home, and on the way, and at work, and at the table, and in bed, in a word - from the minute you open your eyes until the moment you How do you close them? This will exactly correspond to holding a thing in the sun, because here there is holding oneself before the face of the Lord, Who is the sun of the intelligent world. You should know that the fruit of this prayer begins when it is grafted onto the heart and goes deep into it; and for this you need to work on the skill of doing it; To do this, you need to devote a certain part of your time exclusively to it, morning and evening. When you go through all this with diligence, without laziness and without laziness, - the Lord is merciful, - a light will ignite in your heart, which will testify to the birth of inner spiritual life in the center of our nature, or to the reign of the Lord in us. In short, we can express it all this way: patiently go through the whole order of a godly life, - pray a lot, both at home and in church, especially with mental prayer, - correct all the affairs that lie with you in good faith, so that your conscience is always clear before God, people and things - do not be attached to anything and do not rely on anything, neither on your talents, nor on your dignity, nor on your external position; but, having considered all this in your mind, you place your affirmation in one God. Having settled in this way, wait patiently until what you want, seek, and expect comes. That's all... I deliberately touched on these methods and paths in detail, because Speransky, in the last section of his first letter, touches on ways to achieve that state, which he above called the revelation of the kingdom of God in us. But he speaks about them in this place not completely, not in detail. “What should we do,” he writes, “to achieve this state (that is, the revelation of the kingdom of God)? You should: 1) admit yourself to be the greatest sinner and ignoramus; 2) try to gradually renounce all property: a) material property (we add: this means that even if it was, have it as someone else’s); b) from mental property, that is, one should never allow oneself to reason about celestial objects (probably he means dreamy drawing of these objects in the imagination, as mystics do, or inquisitiveness, critical research, questioning, and not reverent reflection); c) from the property of memory, expelling from it every image of heavenly objects (this is true, during the presence of God, and not in general).” If we generalize all this, then there will be one remedy: do not rely on anything, impute both yourself and everything that is yours. Speransky touched upon the upper condition, which is fulfilled at the very threshold of the kingdom. When such a mood is formed in the soul, the kingdom will soon come within; Only it is formed after a long, personal work, when the soul has already experienced everything sincerely, and in its depths it begins to bear the cry: “Beholden by fate, save me.” But then the all-action of God will immediately appear: for where nothing remains of his own, there the action of God is attracted, who usually creates everything out of nothing. It is this last condition that Speransky denotes here. Other conditions are touched upon in other places: he speaks about asceticism in the second letter, discussing fasting, which is shortened and intensified asceticism; he mentions mental prayer in the third. Thus, we have already looked through almost the entire first letter. It remains to say a word or two about the penultimate two sections of this letter, in which praise is expressed for the state of manifestation within the kingdom of God. In the first, third from the end, it is written like this: “In this state the inner word begins to be heard; This state is actually called the state of grace; This state is the outcome of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and only this state He came to announce and prepare for us. Everything that precedes this state (which I call the alphabet) constitutes the domain of John the Baptist, who prepares the way, but is not the way.” Everything is true here; only some phrases are inaccurate. “The inner word begins to be heard,” it would be better to say this: senses appear, trained... in the judgment of good and evil (Heb. 5:14). In all cases, the determination of what should be done comes from the heart. No other meaning should be given to this phrase; otherwise we will enter the path of the Quakers, the Illuminati and all mystics, for whom the inner word replaces the external revelation of God, which they almost completely abandon. It does not tell them anything practical, but always reveals the secrets of the spiritual world. Since in an unrefined soul it is difficult to discern the actual word of God within, for there are many words in it, as if languages ​​were confused at the Tower of Babel, it is not safe to determine yourself to follow it unconditionally—you will end up with dreamy theories, plans and destructive enterprises. The state of grace begins with baptism, and for those who have fallen after baptism, with repentance. But it appears in two forms: at first it is hidden, this is during the whole period of asceticism, and then it is obvious, this is after the purification of the heart and the opening of the kingdom of God within. Here we are talking about the latter, which he later called the state of tangible communication with God. The outcome of the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ was: “repent,” and the end is what we are talking about here: we will come to him and make an abode with him, the Lord promised (John 14:23) and prayed that all would be one in Him and the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as They are one (John 17:21–23). The entire economy of salvation, everything accomplished by the Lord and the Holy One, is directed toward this. The Apostles, and performed by St. Church. All the preparatory feats that we talked about are indeed similar to the work of John the Baptist, and not only him, but the entire Old Testament dispensation; and yet, they are also necessary, just as the Old Testament and John the Baptist were necessary. The second - penultimate - says: “This state is called mystical theology proper. This is not book teaching. The teacher in him is God Himself, and He communicates His teaching to the soul directly, without words, in a way that cannot be explained in words. This theology is mystical not because it contains secrets hidden from the crowd, but because the feelings it arouses in the soul and the truths it reveals are completely incommunicable, and there are no words to explain them. This is an apocalyptic letter that can only be read by the one who receives it.” This is where the phrases and thoughts are almost all wrong. None of the fathers and teachers of the Church called this state mystical theology. The mystics invented this name, and they invented it indecently, for it was not appropriate to call the state of the entire spiritual life that way, since theology is a matter of one mental side. However, that would be nothing; but the speeches that follow push us into the dangerous realm of dreamy, flattering expectations of something extraordinary, some kind of revelation. Revelations are a disease of mystics. They are all concerned about the mental side, and all their expectations revolve around comprehending the innermost secrets of the world; whereas the essence of the matter in spiritual life is hard work on oneself, in the form of cleansing the heart from passions. And even when this is achieved, what is promised is not the revelation of the mysteries, but a blessed vision of God (Matthew 5:8). In the revelation of God, we have been given quite enough about God, the Divine order of things and everything necessary for our salvation. No other revelations should be expected; they are not given. Meanwhile, however, this speech by Speransky is not entirely unfair. The only thing that is false in it is that it reports some extraordinary revelations, inexplicable and incommunicable truths. After the revelation of the kingdom in us, something exactly like revelation happens, only not something new, but the same thing that has already been revealed, and what was already known to us from the mind, and not from experience. Here one is given the heart to feel all the Divine truths, both theoretical and practical, that make up the essence of Christianity, or our communion with God in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And before they were known, but not at all like that, so that those who did not know them now think that they are receiving something new. It is similar to how, when reading a travelogue, you strain to imagine everything from the description, and think that you know everything; and when you have to look at everything with your own eyes, you find everything completely new, as if you had never imagined anything about it before. Let's take one main idea. Christianity, that is, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and communication with Him, is salvation or deliverance of us from decisive evils that are inevitable in no other way. Everyone confesses this, but only this confession for the time being is a mental belief; when someone enters the state in question, then he begins to carry within himself a feeling of salvation and deliverance. He not only believes to be saved, but feels himself saved: it’s all the same as if someone drowned and was taken onto a life-saving boat. When this feeling comes, then the very truth of salvation will appear in a new light and in new power. As this truth passes into feeling, so do all the others, both large and small, all enter the heart and turn into the being of our mind and spirit. And every such perception of truth by the heart resonates in the consciousness with a new revelation, as if it were the only thing recognized here. Remember how abbot Parthenius, before his conversion from the schism, read a hundred times, as he himself says, in a book on faith that the Greek Church, even under the Turkish yoke, preserved the purity of the faith - and still could not guess what kind of truth this was. But one day she entered his heart, illuminated everything, and instantly produced an internal revolution in him. I think, and everyone has experienced, how sometimes some thing lies before the eyes, and everything is not visible; and then suddenly it seems to enter your eye - you look and wonder where it came from. The same thing happens in spiritual life: today one, tomorrow another truth of the economy of our salvation is introduced into the heart and begins to be felt in its true form, but no new revelations happen. This is precisely what the ancient promise means, that “they will all be taught by God” (Is. 54:13, John 6:45). Speransky said well: “this theology is mystical not because it contains secrets hidden from the crowd.” But what follows after this speaks about the revelation of incommunicable truths can only be true in relation to extraordinary admirations, such as, for example, the Apostle Paul. To say that this is typical of the ordinary course of spiritual life and of everyone in general is both inappropriate and dangerous. I considered it necessary to stipulate this against the mystics who live in the realm of dreamy and deceptive expectations. In this mood, they inflame their imagination to the point that sometimes it seems to them that revelations are being given to them; True, sometimes they see visions, but these visions are only a ghost, and not the real thing. With this we will end the analysis of the first letter, which dragged on a little because it concerned the most important subject, and that we ourselves had to more definitely express those concepts that we consider true. In the second letter, Speransky shows what the new state of revealing the kingdom of grace in him brought him, and offers his friend the easiest way - how he can quickly achieve the same benefit, briefly hinting in the first and subsequent lines - and about what happened before. Speransky begins this way: “doubt and external religion are two paths to piety.” You say: how can this be? Doubt prevents you from going; external religion, while it is only external, does not move, but stands in one place, or walks around. Meanwhile, there is truth in these words. Remember how our life usually goes. Having been born naturally, almost immediately we are born with grace in the baptismal font and become members of the Church. We are only taken to church, given communion, and are not kept away from home when any sacred rites and prayers are performed. Then, having found our feet, we grow in the order of religious Christian life, and learn everything that all Christians usually do, at the request of the Church. We may enter into the spirit of all this and not enter, or we may be introduced and not enter; but, entering life, or coming of age, we always find that all the paths of our life are clothed and protected by the religious orders that make up the charter of the Church. So much for external religion, if we assume that you do all this, although without resistance in your heart, but also without any special thoughts, and only because it is the way it is, and that everyone does it. While things are going on like this, you don't see how beneficial all these skills are. You will feel this and thank God that everything around you is like this when you are guided, or you yourself will attack the conviction that you need to bow to God in spirit and truth, and not just this external rite - thank you because as soon as you take up this kind of life in action, you will find in the external rites of the Church everything you need, you will find not only the interpretation of that inner spiritual life, but also all the ways to kindle it and maintenance. You now begin to use everything wisely, grow and become stronger in spirit until you grow to a complete spiritual formation. And so external religion has become for you the path to true piety. In it your spiritual life was born, in it it was nurtured and matured. She, too, is for you what a mother’s womb is for a developing child, or the womb of nature is for a seed. A conceived child, or an awakened sprout, finds in the seed around itself all the elements necessary for its development and education. And you found everything you needed for your spiritual life in the structure of the Church, seemingly external, but imbued with spiritual elements and forces - and you grew spiritually. The child, having formed, comes into the world; Having matured, you will in due time move to another world, in relation to which your current state is the same as being a child in the womb. I deliberately dwelled on this subject for a little longer in order to show how those who do not favor the external ranks of the Church sin, and what murderous plans for the spirit are harbored by those who plan to change these ranks according to their own tastes. Just as in nature everything is arranged in such a way that the emerging new generations around them find everything they need to continue their existence, so if anything in this order is changed, then the emerging newcomers, not finding anything to support their lives, will freeze and put an end to the continued existence of their genera and species; so in the religious field, new generations of people, in the external order of religion, find all the elements necessary for life by faith, and are formed in this spirit, and to change this external order, or to cancel something in it, for their own reasons, means to deprive spiritual life of support and kill it in the bud. In our Church, the essence of the external rank consists of St. the sacraments that give grace and the varied teaching of the word of God, which enlightens everyone, are two essential stimulants and originators of spiritual life; other sacred rites and prayers fan the spark of spiritual life that they provide; yet in totality it is imbued with the truths of faith and the spirit of life about Christ Jesus our Lord. Just enter this inner space and you will see how much light and life there is. Speransky came in, opened it, and, what’s more gratifying, he rejoiced, as he says below. See how external religion is the path to true godliness. But how does doubt lead to the same thing, a product of the weakness of the human mind and heart, which can kill every embryo of the spirit of life? Speransky thereby reminds us of the moral state that preceded the moment when the determination to work for God in the spirit was formed in him, and precisely of his own state; For another it may have a different form, or for everyone it may have its own. The fact is that, as I believe, no one has ever entered into such determination without going through deep moral anxieties - at least, no one does this as sincerely as someone who has experienced such anxieties. But these anxieties are not of just one kind. Speransky was troubled by doubts about his mental character; others are tormented by anxieties of conscience; other anxieties of the heart - and all this in different forms and shades. Painful anxieties force one to look for ways to drive them away and regain indignant peace. The leadership is always ready for this, in the words of Speransky, in external religion, or, more precisely, in the structure of the Church. He who sincerely submits to this guidance immediately finds what he is looking for and enters into the saving path of life leading to communion with the Lord, Who promised to all those burdened with anxiety: come to Me... and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). After this, it is self-evident what Speransky says next: “Having the good fortune to walk these paths, you are, or, more precisely, consider yourself inside the church - you realize that there is an internal religion, a purer reverence for God, and you rejoice at this discovery.” “Let’s dwell a little,” Speransky continues, “on the assessment of this state, let’s see what kind of light it gives us, what feelings it arouses and what influence it has on our actions.” Let’s stop with him, and before we touch on his speech, we’ll say a few of our thoughts about the same thing. A distinctive feature of the state when the kingdom of God is revealed inward, or, what is the same, when a non-waste spiritual fire is kindled in the heart from a relationship with God, is inward abiding. Consciousness is all concentrated in the heart and stands before the face of the Lord, pouring out your feelings before Him, most of all painfully falling to Him in humble feelings of repentance, with an inherent readiness to devote your entire life to serving Him alone. Such a system is established every day, from the moment of awakening from sleep, lasts all day, with all work and activities, and does not go away until sleep closes the eyes. Along with the formation of such a system, all the disorder that existed inside up to this moment ceases, during the period of quest, in this transitional state of languor, as Speransky calls it below, in the same letter. The uncontrollable fermentation of thoughts stops; the atmosphere of the soul becomes pure and cloudless: there is only one thought and memory of the Lord. Hence the lightness in everything internal. Everything is clear there; every movement is noticed and worthily assessed, with the intelligent light emanating from the face of the Lord being contemplated. As a result of this, every unkind thought and unkind feeling that comes to the heart meets resistance at the very beginning and is driven away. Here what Philotheus of Sinai advises is fulfilled: “in the morning, stand at the entrance of the heart, and in the name of Jesus defeat the approaching enemies.” This driving away of evil can be instantaneous, but it can last hours, days, months and years; Meanwhile, the essence of the matter is always the same, namely, that nothing unkind is allowed into the heart, but meets with a decisive rebuff from the moment of awareness of its unkindness, and its persecution does not turn until the heart is completely abolished from it. Following this, whatever is thought, whatever is felt, whatever is desired, whatever is said or done, is thought, felt, desired, said and done, out of the exact consciousness that all this does not offend the relentlessly contemplated Lord, it is pleasing to Him and in accordance with His will. If, against the will, something contrary slips in, one immediately humbly confesses to the Lord and is cleansed by internal repentance or external confession, so that the conscience is always kept pure before the Lord. The reward for all such internal work is boldness to God in prayer, which incessantly warms in the heart. The warmth of unceasing prayer is the spirit of this life, so that with the cessation of this warmth, the movement of spiritual life also ceases, just as with the cessation of breathing, bodily life ceases. These few words say everything that brings with it the entry into the kingdom, or, in other words, the blessed fire that finally kindles in the heart; This also determines the essence of true spiritual life, or its essential functions. Not suddenly, of course, all this appears in its inherent strength - there are deviations, mistakes, and weakenings; but this is exactly what is meant, from then on, the mind is combined with the heart, and, having established itself inside, it begins to serve before the face of the Lord. This is what Speransky wanted to talk about; but he did not speak out properly, limiting himself to a few hints and describing more of the disorder inherent in the previous state. Speransky did this because, as I believe, such speeches were more understandable to his friend, who had not yet reached the point to which Speransky had already reached. Having decided to consider his new state from the mental, heart and activity side, here is what Speransky says in the first respect: “Considering with some rigor the sum of information that you possess in this state, you find that they all boil down to one truth, namely, that Jesus Christ is in us - a truth of course great, but which can remain fruitless if it does not turn into a prevailing feeling and remains uncultivated.” He hinted at how the mind stands in the heart before the Lord, in the conviction or feeling that He is here, sees, hears and listens. This is cultivated by a prayerful appeal to the Lord, intelligent in the heart, until this becomes the predominant feeling; and it becomes such along with the emergence of the state in question. At the same time, the inner fog dissipates, and there everything becomes light from the Lord contemplated, Who is light. This is what he hinted at; and what follows next refers to the previous state of seeking and yearning. “In this case (that is, until this mental vision of the Lord has been cultivated in the heart), everything is limited to readings that reproduce before us the same truth from different points of view, that is, you constantly turn in the same circle of thoughts, true in essence, but fruitless in their application. Having realized what the essence of Christian life is, and not finding it in itself, the mind begins to work to achieve this, reads, reflects, talks. At the same time, the truth that life depends on union with the Lord is presented in different forms and discussed, but still remains far from the heart and is not yet felt; That’s why it doesn’t bear fruit. Thoughts wander uncontrollably and often shake the very foundations of life. The main thing that is tormenting and disturbing in this state is that all the truths of faith, being contained only on the cognitive side, are subject to the attack of misunderstandings, doubts and unbelief. Only when the predominant feeling becomes the feeling of salvation in the Lord (which happens contemporary with the birth of the state in question), the truth of St. faiths will begin, one after another, to pass into the heart, and, turning into juice and blood, they will remove in advance any possibility of perplexity and doubt. After this, you can hear thousands of objections - your heart will not be shaken; for it feels that everything truly is as it is confessed. Until that time, this is what happens, as Speransky further describes well. “You convince yourself that you are constantly moving forward, and, by natural delusion, from the variety of points of view you conclude that you are expanding and multiplying your information; Meanwhile, the great questions about the incarnation, about the suffering, about death, about the resurrection of Jesus Christ remain insoluble, or you try to reconcile them through allegorical interpretations and systems, more or less witty, and if in the end you are not yet immersed in doubts, you assure yourself that you are walking in the twilight of faith: this great word, poorly understood and even worse applied, answers everything, and reassures about everything.” More or less, but everyone experiences this, especially those who are engaged in the sciences, and, therefore, develop a more cognitive side in themselves. Pathetic are all the methods for calming the mind, invented by those who enter the realm of faith, without humble submission to faith, with arrogant confidence to understand and understand everything! Perplexity after perplexity swarms in the mind, and he himself is in a hurry to eliminate them in his own ways: but no matter what he comes up with, he does not meet with satisfaction. And it will always be this way until the heart experiences the truth of all the truths of St. faith. Then all hesitation and perplexity will end; then the soul calms down in the bosom of faith, and the light of God firmly illuminates everything inside. However, this has already been mentioned. The same applies to Speransky in relation to feeling: he only hinted at what happens in this state, but speaks more about it as it happens in the previous state. In this state, prayer glows in the heart and gives strength to repel all vain attacks. And in the previous state there was prayer (labor), but the heart was almost always cold, and only when it moved towards warm and fervent prayer. Now, on the contrary, the warmth of prayer does not go away, but only occasionally a cooling sets in, which is soon driven away by patient stay in routines and activities that excite the feeling. There is a big difference in the attitude of the heart towards vain and passionate struggles - who is free from them! - but in the previous state they entered the heart, co-admired it, and as if by force took sympathy from it, even though there were no sinful deeds there, the heart rarely remained free from defilement by sinful co-delight. And now the same attacks are coming; but at the entrance of the heart a guard constantly stands - attention, and in the name of the Lord Jesus repels these enemies. And only sometime when the enemy manages to steal such sweetness, which, however, is immediately noticed, erupted and cleansed by repentance until not a trace of it remains. This is the usual structure of the heart in the state in question. Let's now see what Speransky says next. “Prayer becomes gentler or hotter, or more independent, that is, it turns from verbal to mental.” Yes, that's true. It turns not only into the smart one, but also into the heart one, and becomes smart-hearted or heart-smart. The heart prays and the mind keeps attention and prayer. But what is said before this: “attentive diligence in pious reading naturally produces a change in prayer,” that is, as if a change in prayer occurs from attentive reading, this does not apply here. Pious reading in the previous state predisposes to prayer, or provides material for it: but in this state, prayer maintains itself, starting from the entire internal structure and holding on to it. Here she holds everything and gives movement and life to everything - both reading, and reasoning of thoughts, and all kindness and good will, for it becomes the breath of spiritual life. Likewise, what is said after that is said in such a way that it goes more quickly to the previous state than to this one. Precisely, it says: “Soon cooling, evasion and absent-mindedness sets in, and therefore anxiety; you know that these are internal crosses, and you try to carry them to the best of your ability; but you cannot hide your poverty from yourself with grace, and all you can do is not leave the path you are walking on. Pride, perhaps more than any other motive, keeps us there. Coolings also occur during this period of persistent warmth of the heart from being inside before the face of the Lord, but do not characterize it. They are random here: whereas in the previous state, in the transitional period of quest, these plunderings of the mind, wandering of thoughts, coldness or whiteness of the heart are constant. Only in moments of grace-filled attraction within do the waves of thoughts subside and the heart soften a little; but as soon as this ends, the same thing begins again. And this is until real inner life arises, the first benefit of which is the ongoing warmth of the heart and the pacification of thoughts. It’s painful to experience this, but you still don’t have the strength to control yourself; and there is nothing left to do but, working on yourself to the best of your ability, patiently wait for the Lord to come. The hope of receiving from the merciful Lord what is sought for keeps us on the path we have begun, but certainly not pride. Pride drives away the grace of God and causes the retreat of help from above, which can be accompanied by disastrous consequences. Pride can still keep external behavior in order; but never let her be inclined to work to achieve inner perfection! On the contrary, at the first step inside, you will have to arm yourself with it. And if this does not happen, then there will be no success, because pride is the denial of all help from above; and without it all our efforts are nothing. “With all the inner conviction, it is said further, in the duty of humility, in reality you stumble at every step, and the most cautious spends his life more likely in being aware of his falls than in avoiding them. You value everything, but at the same time you feel that you should renounce everything. Thus, regarding all the feelings that are most essential for piety (I’m talking about prayer, humility and renunciation), you live in almost constant contradiction.” Both of these traits - conceit and valuing everything are qualities in the previous state - and not they alone, but all other unkind feelings and passions live in the heart, are hidden there and come out of it when they tempt. This is the reason for the contradiction or constant discord with oneself; the mind and consciousness demand one thing, but the heart holds its own. In a state of grace or tangible communion with God, everything passionate and wrong is erupted from the heart: the fire of grace takes possession there and begins to burn out our entire nature from its center. Bad thoughts and passions no longer come from the heart, but attack from the outside and tempt, trying to get inside again, but are always repelled. As for the feelings indicated here, it is precisely on their complete extinction that a truly spiritual, inner life is created. Only when all arrogance and self-confidence, these children of pride, all valuing anything and all hope for anything other than God irrevocably departs, only then is access to God’s all-action open to us, kindling in the heart the fire of life in the Lord. Here is what is finally said about actions: “Behavior, in general, becomes more correct, conscience more sensitive; weaknesses are represented as vices, vices as crimes.” This is absolutely true. Constantly standing with his mind in his heart before the face of the Lord, a person discusses all his business, both internal and external, with all its connections, so that it would be completely pleasing to the visible Lord. The fear of God is the presiding judge in this court; reasoning of thoughts - clerk; conscience is the judge who makes the final decision. This internal council meets continuously. That is why, for such a person, all deeds are accomplished only in accordance with the true consciousness of God’s will for them - whether they are great or small. Nothing is done haphazardly; within there is a sober and prudent self-government. The Lord, having prevailed over the heart, gives strength to man. And he is strong not only to resist external circumstances but also to the flow of internal changes and movements. The property of the kingdom of God is such that a person who has taken God as his King becomes king over himself and his entire life, and turns everything into a way of pleasing God. And before that, what happens? “You don’t go deep,” Speransky further writes, “it’s enough in the heart; you recognize yourself as a great sinner, but at the same time you say to yourself: “such is man,” and, thus generalizing your depravity, you belittle it with the cunning twists of your pride, hide it from yourself, and the life-giving fire of repentance only slides over the ulcer. This is the most deplorable delusion!” But how could this be otherwise? It’s not established inside, so you can’t see what’s going on there and how it’s going on. There everything flows by itself, without restraint or autocratic direction, and after that, outside it happens as circumstances dictate. Because of such a mechanism of life, wrongs are not noticed, unless they are sharp and large, like a log; and not being noticed, they do not cause repentance and concern for correction - and a person lives as he lives. Although he intended to live as he should, he does not have the strength to control himself. Having explained what influence a state of grace has on all functions of inner life, Speransky now draws a general conclusion from this. But just as his explanation itself deviated more towards the previous state of search, so the same state characterizes the general conclusion. “Let us summarize,” he says, “the results: little light, constant contradiction in feelings, a lot of impurity in actions: this is the state that I call the state of languor. Longing is its true name, because you feel unable to retreat, too weak to move forward, and yet unhappy while remaining in place. Sitting near the font, you spend years exclaiming: “a man is not an imam.” Oh, when the salvation of Israel will come to throw us into this life-giving font! How does He, received by us into Himself, allow us to languish in this way? He is within us; but we ourselves are not there. So, we need to return there. It’s enough to read, you need to act; It’s enough to watch others walk—you have to walk yourself.” There is nothing to add to these wonderful thoughts and suggestions. If you want inner life, go inside. But how to enter, we will talk about this in the next letter. How to get inside has already been discussed. One could only add: arrange yourself this way and stick to this system patiently, waiting for God’s visit. God is merciful, you will undoubtedly receive it, only at an hour when you do not expect it, for it does not come with discretion. But our attention should focus on what Speransky says about this. Remember that he already touched on this subject in his first letter, but did not fully express himself. There he mentioned the last condition for receiving this gift, and here he talks about the image of the first entry into the path leading to that - such an image by which one can measure the steps forward on this path. It is he who speaks about withdrawing from the world from time to time in order to take deeper care of oneself, about confession and communion. Although he calls these three actions three steps, in the practice of our Church this is one thing - fasting. In other words: give up everything for a while, reconsider your whole life, turn away from everything bad, mourn what should be mourned, and, having set the intention to walk according to the commandments blamelessly, cleanse yourself with repentance; then accept the cup of salvation in order to sincerely unite with the Lord. Having been renewed in this way, you will again enter into the order of your life with new strength, to work for salvation, according to the degree of your spiritual progress. Not everyone takes away one thing from this rite of worship: some take out the determination to live properly, others – zeal for the inner life, others – the fire of this life, or maintaining and strengthening it. Speransky speaks about fasting in general, without limiting it to any special state of spirit, although in the course of his speech it is clear that he expects from this for his friend the birth of an inward presence before the Lord. All the actions that make up the preparation are so well defined by Speransky that we can only rewrite them here, only adding a few explanatory words here and there. Removal from the world. To be alone in the world is an attribute of perfect beings, to which we should not have any claim. Periodic removals are necessary. Dedicate one, two weeks to removal, I want to say to the strictest solitude. Strangeness, decency - all this is nonsense compared to salvation. Use this time solely to consider yourself, without any admixture of theoretical reflections. You've been thinking long and hard: it's time for you to discuss yourself. Carry out an investigation on yourself from three main points: civil, moral and religious. It is not enough to condemn oneself in general terms (the great mistake of ordinary confessions)! – you need to go down to the smallest details; you need to have the courage to face all the ugly forms of your lawlessness. I rely too much on the goodness of our Savior, and on the grace already abiding in us, so as not to hope that your gaze will not be averted by the twists of pride, and that you will have enough strength to see yourself as you are. Do not leave this crucible until you are convinced that the villain, dragged into prison and tormented by public execution, is a kind of saint in comparison with us, people of goodness and inner piety, who have claims to grace and to communion with Jesus Christ (you will easily be imbued with this truth, both bitter and saving). In this analysis, one should beware of one stumbling block: when judging oneself, one should not judge others - one should stick to one’s own personality and leave all comparisons to the One who knows the hearts. Repentance. When you feel penetrated, torn apart in the consciousness of your lawlessness, then you understand for the first time what repentance is. A broken heart is not a metaphorical expression: it is a true and positive feeling; you feel how it is crushed, erased into dust. Don't be afraid to squish it; on the contrary, break it completely, testifying, so to speak, publicly about this inner repentance - I want to say, confessing in the church, that is, to the priest, who, in a way, is the representative, authorized by all our believing brethren, known and unknown, visible and invisible, living and dead, constituting in the mystical and true sense, the body of Jesus Christ. I am not afraid to assert that inner repentance, no matter how ardent it may be, will always be incomplete without this formal confession (unless there are insurmountable obstacles). You know too well that meekness and ardor of feeling are not always a sure guarantee of an increase in grace: on the contrary, it acts more powerfully during internal torment and crosses.” Having outlined the entire procedure for fasting, Speransky gives his friend several lessons in relation to this. These lessons are of the kind that can apply to any of us: they are worth studying. “Return, oh, return, dear friend, to these three exercises, and I dare to assure you in the name of Him whose joy lies in life and communication with people, that He will not hesitate to appear. He will come to shed His light on your mind, to purify your feelings, to guide your actions. You will feel powers within you that were hitherto unknown to you. Your yearnings will dissipate; for He will come not in the form of a thought, an abstract concept, as you have experienced before, but as truly, as physically, as the rising sun today. For once the spectacle of the spiritual world opens before us, it is impossible not to feel the sun that rules it. But I ask you: what is more real - the spiritual or the material world? I'm not saying that everything is done as soon as you reach this state of tangible communication. Oh, no, much remains to be done to achieve another communication, which is already imperceptible, but transcendentally detached not only from every image, but also from every thought - a communication almost inexplicable in words, although very real. When you are once firmly established in it, then you will either no longer need my advice (for He will lead you Himself), or, if He still wants to act through me, then He will give me ways and strength to do so. Oh, what great things He will reveal to you! Your insides will then literally tremble with joy. Believe me, during our separation, you and I ate only milk. The bread of the strong has a completely different taste, although it is composed of the same principles. I now know quite accurately your way of life in the world, and I do not hide from myself all the difficulties that you will have to struggle with in order to indulge in these exercises with consistency. But consider, 1) that you have already received significant inclinations from the Holy Spirit, and that such apostasies, when persistent, are not forgiven; 2) that everything that now seems to you an obligation, a debt of gratitude, pleasure, decency, in two or three months will seem almost ridiculous. 3) Don’t sacrifices are needed on this path, like on any other? And how long will we remain neither cold nor warm? 4) There are always ways to deal with the light and evade it slowly and without breaking. During your retreat from the light, in order to prevent distraction of thoughts, choose simple reading, for example, “Imitation,” and (or) make translations, in a word, take on an exercise that would occupy your mind without prompting it to research. But most importantly, indulge in prayer and careful consideration of your past life. At other times, I will advise you to study the Bible in detail, not because the true light flows from the letter - no, but through this medium it usually pours out. So, you need to stock up on this material for the duration of its effect. Establish yourself in the literal sense, and the Teacher in due time will reveal to you the true meaning... Start with the Old Testament: this is the step necessary to rise to the New. But once again, no one should be flattered by the thought that he sees clearly until the light from above illuminates him...” This concludes our consideration of Speransky’s second letter. We looked through the first two letters rather at length, because they set out the main ideas. The following letters explain in more detail the same thing that was said in the first in general essays. The third letter aphoristically offers various instructions on spiritual life, related, however, mainly to prayer. “I will tell you,” says Speransky, “a few individual thoughts as they are given to me,” and he reports. These thoughts are worth reading and thinking about. Grace, which excites so many theoretical disputes, is a simple thing for feelings. She is precisely this presence of our Lord within us. Without Me... you can do nothing (John 15:5): this is the principle of grace. In this sense, too, the Apostles and the first Christians called Jesus Christ simply Lord. The most brilliant proof of mathematical truth can be compared in obviousness with the actions of grace when the heart is opened to it by repentance. Before the emergence of inner life, or the manifestation of the tangible effect of grace and communion with God, a person often does something else himself, and strains his strength to do so. But, exhausted and unsuccessful in his efforts. he finally gives up his amateur activities and wholeheartedly surrenders himself to the all-effects of grace. Then the Lord visits him with His mercy and kindles in him the fire of inner spiritual life. That his efforts meant nothing in this great revolution, he knows from experience. Afterwards, through more or less frequent retreats, the grace of God impresses upon him the experienced confirmation that maintaining this fire of life is not a matter of his own efforts. Moreover, the frequent discovery of good thoughts and undertakings, the frequent overshadowing of the spirit of prayer, which is found unknown how and from where, also makes him experimentally convinced that all good things are possible for him only through the action of God’s grace, always inherent in him, by the grace of the Lord, who saves all those who are saved. He surrenders himself to the Lord, and the Lord works in him. Again he shows that only then does everything go successfully for him when he is filled with this self-surrender. He does not retreat from it, and watches in every possible way. Theorists are much interested in the question of the relationship of grace to freedom. For the bearer of grace, this question is resolved by deed itself. The bearer of grace surrenders himself to the full effect of grace, and grace acts in him. This truth is not only more obvious to him than any mathematical truth, but also any external experience, for he has already ceased to live outside, and is entirely concentrated inside. He now has only one concern - to be always faithful to the grace inherent in him. Infidelity offends her, and she either retreats or reduces her action. A person testifies to his fidelity to grace or to the Lord by the fact that neither in thoughts, nor in feelings, nor in deeds, nor in words does he allow anything that he perceives to be contrary to the Lord, and, on the contrary, he does not let any work or undertaking pass without completing it, as long as he realizes that this is the will of God, judging by the course of his circumstances and by the indication of internal attractions and movements. This sometimes requires a lot of work, painful self-constraint and self-resistance; but he is joyful in sacrificing everything to the Lord, for, after every such sacrifice, he receives an internal reward: peace, joy and special boldness in prayer. It is through these acts of faithfulness to grace that the gift of grace is rekindled, in connection with prayer, which was no longer absent at that time. When a fire is lit, air movement is needed to fan it; in the same way, when the fire of grace kindles in the heart, prayer is needed, which is a kind of movement of spiritual air in the heart. What is this prayer? Continuous turning of the mind to the Lord in the heart, or unceasing standing before the Lord with the mind in the heart, with or without appeals to Him, with only feelings of devotion and a contrite fall to Him in the heart. This action, or rather mood, is the main means of maintaining inner warmth and all internal order, of driving away bad and empty thoughts, of strengthening good thoughts and undertakings. Good thoughts and undertakings come, he goes deeper into prayer, and depending on whether they are strengthened in prayer or disappear, he finds out whether they are pleasing or displeasing to God. Bad thoughts come or something begins to disturb the soul - he again goes deep into prayer, not paying attention to what is happening in him - and everything disappears. Prayer is the first thing in moral and religious life. The root of this life is a consciously free attitude towards God, which then governs everything. The field where this relationship is revealed and manifested in action is prayer, as mutual communication - there is a field where our moral relations towards our fellow men are revealed, and asceticism is a field where the moral attitude towards ourselves is revealed. What is our attitude towards God, such is our prayer; and what is prayer, such is our attitude towards God. And since these relationships are not the same, the image of prayer is not the same. One who is careless about salvation has a different attitude towards God; otherwise, one who has abandoned sin and is zealous for virtue, but has not yet entered within himself and works for the Lord externally; otherwise, finally, the one who has entered inside and carries the Lord within himself and stands before Him. The first, just as he neglects life, also neglects prayer, and performs it in church, at home, according to established custom, without attention or feeling. The second one reads a lot of prayers and often goes to church, trying at the same time to pay attention and have feelings in accordance with the prayers he reads, although he very rarely succeeds. The third, concentrating entirely inward, mentally stands before the Lord and prays to Him undistractedly in his heart, without long prayers, even though he stands for long periods of time in prayer, at home and in church. Take away the prayer book from the second, and you will take away all prayer from him; impose prayer on a third person, and you will extinguish the prayer in him with the wind of verbosity. Every rank of people, or every degree of closeness to God, has its own prayer and its own rules for it. How valuable is experienced guidance, and how much damage can be caused by unauthorized command! As soon as someone turns from sin to virtue, he will immediately begin to be jealous of getting closer to God. And his conversion was brought about by the fear of God, and he was converted in order to please God with a good life, to appropriate Him and appropriate Him for himself. Works in this spirit are his steps on the path of approaching God. The field in which this ascent to God is revealed, as already said, is prayer. The one who has repented and decided not to indulge in more bad habits, but to adhere to good morals, immediately leans on it! You can’t say to someone like that the first time: “pray yourself.” He will not be able to do this, just as, for example, someone who has not studied French will not be able to speak French. And one must learn to pray, one must acquire the skill of prayerful turns of thought and movements of feelings, from the prayers of others, just as one learns foreign languages ​​from printed conversations. For this purpose, we have prayer books for home use, and prayer rites are performed in church services. “Through them we must first get used to prayer. The law here is this: listen to the prayers, both read and sung, and strain to feel as expressed in those prayers. It is necessary, however, to choose prayers with prudence. Regarding church prayers, the choice is inappropriate: there is everything for everyone - and you will do well if you start going to church as often as possible, and every day and at all services - even better. For home prayer, the choice is both appropriate and meaningful. Here is the rule: do not choose many prayers, akathists and canons; take a small rule, it is best to be content with the well-known morning and evening prayers; just look at them thoroughly in freedom, think and feel them - and then do them, slowly, with full attention, reproducing the reverent thoughts and feelings expressed in them, putting at the same time, both at the beginning, and in the intervals, and at the end, more bows, both to the ground and from the waist. As you begin to get used to praying properly, according to the prayers of others, you will begin to develop your own prayerful appeals and appeals to God. Never ignore these ascents to God that manifest themselves in your soul; but every time they become agitated, stop and pray your prayer. Do not think that by praying like this you are doing damage to prayer - no: this is where you pray as you should, and this prayer is more accessible to God. That is why there is a rule taught by everyone: whether in church or at home, your soul itself wants to pray in its own word, and not in someone else’s word - give it freedom, let it pray, even if it prays itself throughout the service, but at home it will lag behind the rule of prayer and will not have time to complete it. Both forms of prayer, according to the prayer books, with attention and corresponding reverent thoughts and feelings, or without them, in your own words, are pleasing to God. He only finds it unpleasant when someone reads prayers at home, or in church stands at a service without paying attention: the tongue reads or the ear listens, but thoughts wander one does not know where. There is no prayer at all here. But prayer is not nutritious, but personal prayer, closer to the essence of the matter and more fruitful. Therefore, it is advised not to always wait until you want to pray yourself, but to force yourself to pray like this, and not only during church services and home prayer, but at all times. To gain skill in this self-forced prayer work, experienced prayer workers chose one prayer to the Lord the Savior, and established rules for how to perform it, in order to develop personal prayer with its help. We talked about this before. The point is simple: stand with your mind in your heart before the Lord and pray to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” So at home before prayer, during the intervals of prayer, and at the end, and in church, and throughout the day, so that all moments of the day are filled with prayer. This saving prayer is usually laborious and practical at first. But if someone is not too lazy to work on it, it will become self-propelled, it will create itself, like a stream babbling in the heart. This is a great benefit, and it is worth working hard to achieve it. Workers who have succeeded in prayer indicate for this a little work, or a slightly difficult prayer exercise, namely: before or after the prayer rule, morning or evening, or even during the day, set aside some time to perform this one prayer, and do it like this: sit down, or better yet, stand prayerfully, concentrate your attention in your heart before the Lord, raising the conviction that He is here and listening to you, and cry out to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” and make bows, if you want, from the waist and the ground. Do this for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, more or less, as is more convenient for you. The harder you work, the sooner this prayer will take root in your heart. It is better to take up the task more zealously and not to retreat until you achieve what you want, or until this prayer itself begins to move in the heart; after that just support. That warmth of heart, or burning of spirit, which was previously spoken about, comes precisely this way. The more the Jesus Prayer takes root in the heart, the more the heart warms up, and the more self-moving the prayer becomes, so that the fire of spiritual life in the heart kindles, and its burning becomes unceasing, at the same time as the Jesus Prayer will occupy the whole heart and become incessantly moving. Because of this, those who have received the birth of a perfect inner life almost exclusively pray with this prayer, defining their prayer rule with it. Success in this matter depends on the faith with which one undertakes this exercise, on the degree of diligence in continuing and the correctness of its implementation. All the rules related here and the cases that occur are defined in the writings of the fathers, collected in the Philokalia. Anyone who wants guidance should go there. Speransky’s third letter brought me to these thoughts about prayer, where he talks almost entirely about prayer. Here are Speransky’s aphoristic sayings about prayer. I will present them not in the same order as his, but as it seems to me better, according to the flow of thoughts. “Prayer is verbal, when we follow the words of others with our thoughts; she is smart when we mentally follow our own words. The word is always there, because one cannot think without words. In the first case they are given to us, in the second they are invented by us ourselves. The difference is very small." “In purely contemplative prayer, the word, like the thoughts themselves, disappears, but not because you want it, but because it happens by itself.” “Here is a wonderful means for driving away bad thoughts, preventing absent-mindedness, maintaining oneself constantly in the presence of our Lord, and even in order to prepare from afar for the gift of contemplation - a means to which the best of the ancient ascetics, ascetic workers, resorted, and has been preserved in our Greek Church - this is to accustom oneself, whenever you are not engaged in mental work, or correct prayer (on a walk, for example, in society, etc.) to repeating through clenched teeth the words: “Lord have mercy,” but repeating them non-stop and continuously. This habit is acquired quite quickly. This reception is truly amazing, I would say magical, if such a word were appropriate here. This is better than all speculation regarding the highest truths of faith, unless these speculations are given to us without any effort on our part, but as if by inspiration; for then, and only then, should one indulge in them. It is especially useful to fall asleep with this little exercise on your lips and in your thoughts.” “It is a mistake to think,” says Teresa, “that prayer, even purely verbal, if only it is sincere, is not sufficient to bring us to great perfection.” “Different types of prayer are not provided for our choice. These are different outflows of the same grace.” This kind of prayer is only self-propelled prayer when the spirit of prayer finds itself. But they are also of two types: in one person the power to obey him or not, to assist him or to frustrate him; and in the other, he has no power to do anything, but is enraptured in prayer and kept in it by another force, not having the freedom to act in any other way. Consequently, the expressed thought can only relate to the latter. In relation to all other types of prayer, the choice is appropriate. “He does not know what the Son is who does not turn to His Mother in his prayers. He also does not know what the One Holy One is who does not worship Him in His holy places.” A very appropriate suggestion for a Lutheran! And in all their deviations from the truth, rules and regulations of the true Church, the Lutherans are exposed as lacking logic. In the Orthodox Church there are always inseparable prayers to the Lord Jesus, to the Most Holy Lady Theotokos and to the Saints. The same order applies to the collection of prayers in prayer books. Prayer also takes on the same movement when it is done on one’s own. “Obey your spiritual father exactly, especially regarding communion. How happy you are that you can receive communion every month!” The wise instruction is to obey your spiritual father! For someone who is zealous to keep his conscience clear, there are many cases that outrage her with bewilderment as to how best to act. Do as your spiritual father says and be at peace. For one who practices prayer, the path to success in it is shorter, as long as it is done according to the instructions and instructions of a knowledgeable father. There are no restrictions regarding communion in our Church. Take communion at least every week, at least every day. But, of course, the heat of zeal in this regard must be tempered by the wise advice of the spiritual father, for one can fall into conceit, and then into its harmful consequences. That's all that can be said about the third letter. Let’s skip the fourth, because it talks about something completely different - about the sacred union of sovereigns, with some side thoughts. Only the last section of this letter concerns the same subject that has occupied us hitherto. Here it is: “You have filled my soul with joy with your few words of unceasing prayer. There is nothing more valid than this sacrament of conception. May the grace of our Lord be with you, and may He deign to unite in you with Himself through St. Communion". In my last letter, I mentioned that instilling the Jesus Prayer into the heart so that it murmurs there itself is accompanied by warmth of the heart and is then supported by it. When this warmth becomes incessant, then the prayer does not cease. This is contemporary with the emergence of inner spiritual life, which has been spoken about so many times. Speransky speaks here about this mystery of conception. Speransky’s friend has taken a big step, having now entered the direct path of life in the Lord, something one cannot help but rejoice at. A year has passed since the previously taught rules. It is true that the work of searching for what was prescribed was begun zealously and continued tirelessly. Here's the reward! I will no longer stand on this letter. I will only mention the last phrase about the union in us in St. communion of the Lord with Himself. Mystic phrase! The Lord unites not with Himself, but with that which is in us in the image of God, and that which is restored in us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, through faith in the Lord the Savior, Who is the image of the Hypostasis of the Father. We will not dwell on the fifth letter, which mentions only two books: “The Lives of the Saints,” which Speransky returned after reading to his friend’s sister, and about the Philokalia, which finally fell into the hands of this zealot for spiritual life, and found in him a worthy assessment. I can’t resist posting here his review of this great book. “Everything that I have ever read about the heights of the most sublime contemplation, both in Latin and in French, I recently found all this extensively set out and explained in an ascetic book, translated from Greek into Slavic, and published by the Synod in 1793, under the title of the Philokalia, at the request and efforts of the abbot of the Valaam monastery. This book is sold and circulated everywhere. How true it is that the Lord will never lack workers! And while the world seems to us almost mired in the abyss of iniquity, His garden is being cultivated, growing and prospering, and His kingdom is slowly but surely approaching. This idea of ​​humble and unknown workers, but faithful, active, gifted with all the powers of wisdom and grace, has something so attractive to me that I never dwell on it without drawing great consolations from it. This book, however, in essence is nothing more than a clear and very detailed presentation of the origin and great fruits of the prayer: “Lord have mercy,” which is called the prayer of the spirit, prayer without images, mystical prayer, etc. This prayer is not called mystical; but there are such definitions of it: “hidden work in Christ, secret teaching of the heart.” As for the book of the Philokalia in general, it explains everything related to the ascetic life, repentance, struggle with passions, sobriety and prayer. – depicts the entire path of approaching God from beginning to end. There is no person who, having started to read this book, would not find in it exactly what he needed. In the sixth letter, Speransky talks about the occasional deviations in the matter of inner spiritual life that his friend experienced. Speransky warns him and convinces him to stop these wrongs before they become stronger - he convinces him with a general discussion about our power over the manifestations of the spirit, and with the instructions of the elders on ways to warm life in the spirit, and with his own experience. We are talking about visions in the body that occur during deepening in heartfelt prayer among those who do not follow the established rules of prudence. About visions briefly: “Remember that Teresa and other saints prayed for deliverance from visions. No matter how detached they are from the earthly, no matter how spiritual they are, some forms are always mixed in with them.” In a rare one of St. You will not find any warnings about these visions or apparitions among ascetics who wrote about spiritual life. Not everyone experiences them. Others never have them; others have a special predisposition to them. But it is not nature that is to blame, but the wrongness of the actions of the persons subjected to them. In the natural order, or structure of our forces, at the transition from outside to inside, imagination stands. We must safely pass it in order to safely get to the real place inside. By carelessness, you can get stuck on it, and, staying there, be sure that you have entered inside, whereas this is only the outer vestibule, the “courtyard of tongues.” Yes, that would be nothing; but this state is almost always accompanied by self-delusion, and from it visionaryism develops, with its disastrous consequences. I will outline this state for you from the words of Simeon the New Theologian, in his articles on three types of prayer. It is known that all the concern of zealots for spiritual life is directed towards this; to put ourselves in proper relation to God. This is accomplished and revealed in prayer. It is the path of ascent to God, and its degrees are the degrees of approach of our spirit to God. The simplest law for prayer is not to imagine anything, but, having gathered your mind in your heart, become convinced that God is near, sees and listens, and in this conviction fall to Him, terrible in greatness and close in benevolence to us. Meanwhile, others do this during prayer: “As they stand in prayer, they raise their eyes and mind to heaven, and imagine in their minds Divine advice, heavenly blessings, the ranks of St. Angels and the abodes of saints, in a word - everything that is said in Scripture about these objects, especially figuratively, recall them from memory and go over them with the imagination during prayer, trying to shake their feelings with the strikingness of these ideas and imaginations, in which they sometimes succeed - they soften their hearts to the desire of the Divine, they are touched and cry. There is nothing bad or dangerous in representing Divine objects under the images as they are presented in Scripture: we cannot reason about them otherwise than by clothing concepts in images, but we should never think that in reality this is how these images appear, and especially not dwell on these images during prayer. During pious reflections, or during contemplation of God, this is appropriate; but during prayer - no. Images keep attention outward, no matter how sacred they may be, but during prayer attention must be inward, in the heart; concentration of attention in the heart is the starting point of proper prayer. And since prayer is the path of ascension to God, then deviation of attention from the heart is deviation from this path. This means that those who use the designated, imaginary image of holding themselves during prayer, at the very first stages, create obstacles for themselves in the work they have taken on with such zeal. But in this wrongness of the beginning there is only the beginning of trouble, which leads to something worse and more dangerous. Since this soaring or flying of the mind in the heavenly regions is easy, and, due to the connection of the heart with the imagination, immediately leaves a trace of its influence in the relaxation of the senses, the one who does this immediately begins to dream about the success of his work and his perfection. “This one,” says St. Simeon, little by little, my heart becomes proud; for he imagines that what he does and what happens in him comes from Divine grace to his consolation. That’s why he prays to God to let him always be in this state; and it is not a good state, but charm. Thus, his path to success is cut off at the very beginning, because what he is looking for is considered achieved while its achievement has not yet begun. Therefore, such a person “can never come to reason and achieve virtue or dispassion.” Further, conceit inflames the imagination even more, and it quickly draws new pictures, inserting into its dreams the personality of the dreamer and always presenting it in an attractive form, in closeness to God, angels and saints. The more he dreams like this, the more rooted in him is the conviction that he is definitely already a friend of heaven and the celestials, worthy of a tactile rapprochement with them and special revelations. At this level, visionary behavior begins, both as a natural mental illness, and moreover, as the work of an enemy who does not sleep. “In this way, many were deceived, seeing light and radiance with their bodily eyes, smelling fragrance with their sense of smell, hearing voices with their ears, etc. Some of them were damaged in their minds, and moved from place to place like madmen. Others, having accepted the demon, who appeared to them in the form of a bright angel, became so entrenched in delusion that they remained incorrigible to the end and did not accept advice from any brother; others, under the inspiration of the demons, killed themselves, were thrown into rapids, and were strangled. And who can count all the deceptions into which the enemy plunged them! If not every one of those who adhere to this way of prayer suffers harm, then it is only those who live in monasteries with other brethren. But still they spend their lives without any success.” This is what kind of deviation from the straight path in the work of prayer Speransky points to when he warns his friend against being carried away by visions! Visions are also true. Experienced people know how to distinguish them from the creations of their imagination and demonic ghosts; but since in reality there are more inexperienced people than experienced ones, and besides, the enemy is too cunning, it is generally established by law not to accept any visions and not to trust them. Pay close attention to yourself, steward of God’s work,” writes another mentor in spiritual life, “and do your work wisely. If you see light or fire, outside or inside yourself, or some image - of Christ, for example, or an angel, or someone else - do not accept it, so as not to suffer harm. And don’t allow your mind to construct such images in you: this is an external matter and leads to delusion. And if you notice that someone seems to be pulling your mind towards such external imaginations, do not give in, holding on inside and doing the work of paying attention to God, without any rituals. Another warning from Speransky to his friend concerns some unusual changes in the body during prayer. These changes or movements are varied, and not so much dangerous as bizarre. Someone, for example, sighs heavily, or screams, or makes gestures, raises his hands and eyes quickly to the sky, or falls on his face quickly, or contorts his facial features, etc. These movements are not good in home prayer, and even more so when someone is standing in church. They may not begin on purpose, from the movement of internal feelings; but then, little by little, you can get used to them, and produce them without internal feelings, sometimes in order to see if this will help the inner feelings to renew, and sometimes in order to show that these feelings do not stop with us. If you don’t stop this habit, buffoonery may develop; and even without that the matter is discordant. These oddities, however, are of a more external nature. But there may be more internal irritations in the body, namely, during mental activity or attention to oneself in the heart. During the skill of praying to the Lord intelligently in the heart, along with gathering attention in the heart, it is advised to slightly restrict breathing and reduce muscle tension to the chest, considering this not an essential necessity, but an adaptation of the body to mental activity. And in itself, due to the connection of the soul with the body, mental tension should affect the heart, and even more so with the said adaptation. It soon appears in the blood, and from the blood it spreads to the nerves. The irritation that occurs in this case is pleasant, and for inexperienced people, as almost all beginners are, it can and is considered a consequence that necessarily follows the action of grace in the heart. This opinion is enough not only not to reject, but also to aggravate the said irritation. There is nothing bad or dangerous here yet, except for the wrong opinion that this is an act of grace. But what happens next? For the strong-bodied, everything is limited to this, and subsequent experiences convince them that this matter is simple and natural, and there is no reason to attribute it to a higher origin. But there are weak-bodied, nervous people, in whom the mentioned irritation enters deeper into the nerves and begins to be reflected in the muscles; slight movements occur, also pleasant, which, intensifying, turn into noticeable shaking. If you do not stop this at first, shaking will begin to accompany every deepening of mental prayer in the heart; and having strengthened and deepened, in some individuals it will begin to turn into convulsions, falls, like fainting, with foam at the mouth and gnashing of teeth, And here are the shaking and convulsive worshipers! In the West there were and are entire societies of such worshipers. In this case, the prayer goes on as usual, or can go on and be very deep, and shaking, convulsions and even falls also take their course. Where they come to this out of ignorance and simplicity, there, perhaps, it is impeccably moral, unless one holds the opinion that a special action of grace is manifested here. But others are prone to whimsicality, are carried away only by imitation, and accustom themselves to self-shaking and without prayerful deepening; These are victims of human stupidity and an empty desire to entertain idle spectators. I believe, however, that in our country all such phenomena, even excusable ones, are extremely rare, and they should not be mentioned when speaking about mental prayer, so as not to cool zeal for this prayer, arousing fears. It had to be said, and is reported only for information. Such and such changes in the body must have begun to appear in Speransky’s friend during prayer. He writes to him, urging him to stop this at the very beginning, so that it does not turn into an unkind habit. Speransky first convinces him that this is completely in his power. “You should never, he writes, allow yourself to become too deeply immersed in contemplation when you are in front of people, even in church. In particular, one should not allow the inner feeling to spread to the body and influence it. Through this you acquire bad spiritual habits, the consequences of which are often dangerous. And don’t think of telling me that you cannot abstain from this, or that this would mean resisting the action of the Holy Spirit.” “Firstly, you can always abstain from this, for you can always descend from the heights of contemplation, gradually transferring your attention to mental prayer, or focusing it on the meaning of the prayers of the Church. This deviation in no way impedes the action of the Holy Spirit, and does not limit It in the least; it only changes the direction of this action.” Having premised this general position, Speransky proves it with rules, which St. Paul gave the Corinthian church, regarding the use of grace-filled gifts, namely the gift of tongues. This case clearly proves that a person can and should control his inner movements, even grace-filled ones, and Speransky’s goal has been achieved. But his view of the event in the Corinthian church and the words of the Apostle Paul is incorrect. It cannot be ignored. "Teaching of St. Pavel, writes Speransky, is positive on this score. Read carefully the 14th chapter of First Corinthians. Here we are talking about a certain form of action of the Holy Spirit, which the believers of this church achieved preferentially over all others; it consisted in speaking in foreign languages ​​(this is a kind of frenzy or ecstasy, actually revealed by the use of languages ​​unknown to those who speak them). So what? He forbids this gift, although he himself classifies it among the true gifts of the Holy Spirit, and forbids it solely because of the inconvenience of using it in the church, in which it can cause confusion. He advises them to reserve this gift for their solitary exercises, and in the church to use only the gift of prophecy. Moreover, he even forbids them to prophesy otherwise than by observing the order of the line, and prevents all the objections that you could make to me, uttering the great word that the very spirits of prophecy are subject to the prophets.” You see that this speech strongly proves that a person can rule himself, even at a time when he is under the influence of grace. But together it is not difficult to notice that there are provisions here that cannot be agreed with. Firstly, it is not true that those who spoke in foreign languages ​​were at that time in a frenzy or ecstasy, and spoke without themselves understanding their speech. In a frenzy, consciousness of both oneself and everything around is lost; but when the gift of tongues was discovered, this was not the case. Those who spoke them were aware of who they were talking to and what they were talking about. The mistake was that they were carried away by the movement of this gift, and spoke, knowing that those to whom they spoke did not understand them. When St. writes Paul rules for those who speak in tongues, which means he considers them capable of ruling themselves during the movement of this gift; in a frenzy or ecstasy you cannot control yourself. Moreover, throughout this entire chapter the gift of tongues is placed alongside the gift of prophecy: prophecy, in the form in which it manifested itself in the primal Church, did not put those who prophesied into a frenzy; therefore, the gift of tongues did not do this either. And it is not true that the languages ​​remained unknown to those who spoke them; otherwise they wouldn't understand what they were saying. For St. Paul writes that he who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself (1 Cor. 14:4): how could he edify himself if he did not understand the language? Finally, it is also incorrect that the Apostle forbids the gift because of the inconvenience of using it in church, and advises saving it for solitary exercises, using only the gift of prophecy in church. St. Paul commands something completely opposite: be zealous, he says, to prophesy, but do not forbid speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 14:39); if only what was said could be explained in an understandable language (1 Cor. 14:27–28). It is clear that St. Paul did not consider any use of this gift inconvenient in the church, but only its use without interpretation. As for saving this gift for solitary exercises, there is no mention of that. The second conviction for his friend is to stop dishonest changes in the body, Speransky takes from the example of St. elders-ascetics. He writes: “Following this great authority come all the examples, all the practice of the contemplative saints. Their constant teaching on this subject is that in public one should never allow one's inner feelings to be expressed outwardly. You will find this in Mulaval’s treatise, as I find it in a hundred places in my Philokalia. Not only in essence, but also in form, it is useful, worthy of true humility, to follow the good practice and sound tradition of our true spiritual fathers. I remember saying something about this in conversations; I’ll remind you of this form in a few words.” And this is convincing. During meetings in church, it was the law not to stand out in any way from others: as everyone stands and behaves, so stand and behave yourself. Arseny the Great once sighed in church, not noticing that another was standing close to him. He bowed to him and said: “Forgive me, brother; I haven’t started being a monk yet.” - But, after this, Speransky depicts how the great elders soberly performed their mental prayer, alone, in their cells. And in this depiction he deviated far from how things actually went. This forces me to make extracts from the Philokalia about how the ascetics of God aroused the spirit of prayer in themselves and were strengthened in prayer. Then it will be obvious at what points Speransky departed from the truth. How did our ascetics, fathers and teachers kindle the spirit of prayer within themselves and strengthen themselves in prayer? The main thing they were looking for was for their hearts to burn unceasingly towards the one Lord. God requires the heart because life comes from it. Where the heart is, there is consciousness, attention and mind, there is the whole soul. When the heart is in God, then the whole soul is in God, and man stands in unceasing worship of Him in spirit and in truth. Others got this main thing quickly and easily. God's mercy! How deeply the fear of God shocked them, how quickly their conscience came to life in all its strength, how quickly zeal was kindled to keep themselves pure and immaculate before the Lord, how quickly the work of pleasing God fanned this flame and turned it into a flame! These are seraphim souls, fiery, fast-moving, multi-active. But for others everything is going sluggishly. Whether their natural structure is such, or God’s other intentions about them, only their heart does not quickly warm up. It would seem that they have become accustomed to all deeds of piety, and their lives are going righteously; but no, everything in the heart is not what it should be. This happens not only with the laity, but also with those living in monasteries, and even with hermits. God enlightened us and the workers of sobriety established a special way of instilling in the heart an inexhaustible prayer to the Lord that warms the heart. We have mentioned this more than once. Experience justified this method as a success, and it has become almost everywhere, and everyone who goes through it properly succeeds. I am now making extracts from the Philokalia. In the first place I will put the experience of warming the heart, described by Simeon, the New Theologian, in his Word about faith. “There was a young man in Constantinople about twenty years old, handsome in body, but even more handsome in soul and heart. He met a certain holy man, a monk of one of the Constantinople monasteries, and, revealing to him all the secrets of his heart, he said that he earnestly wanted to be saved, and had a great desire to leave the world and become a monk. The honest elder approved of this intention, gave him the necessary instructions, and gave him to read the book of the words of St. Ascetic stamp. The young man accepted this book as if from the hands of God, in full confidence that he would receive great benefit from it, and, having arrived home, immediately began to read it with reverent attention; I read the whole thing three and four times, and after that I still didn’t let it out of my hands. He was fed from it with spiritual food, and still wanted to eat. However, from everything contained in that book, he chose only three chapters for his guidance, which he decided to carry out with all attention, without fail. First: if you want healing for your soul, keep your conscience clear by all precautions, so that it does not convict you of anything, and no matter what deeds it inspires you to do, do them without burden, and you will benefit. Second: he who seeks and expects to receive the action of the Holy Spirit, before fulfilling the commandments of God, is like a bought slave who asks his master for freedom, at the very hour when he is still paying for him. Third: whoever prays only with his lips, and has not yet acquired spiritual intelligence, and does not know how to pray intelligently, is like the blind man who cried out: Son of David! have mercy on me (Mark 10:48). Whoever has acquired spiritual intelligence and prays intelligently is like the same blind man, but already healed of blindness, when he, having received the enlightenment of his eyes, saw the Lord, and no longer called Him the Son of David, but confessed him to be the Son of God and worshiped Him as was fitting. These three chapters were to the soul of that young man, and he received the message in his heart that he would undoubtedly receive great benefit if he listened to his conscience, that he would enjoy the gifts of the Holy Spirit and receive strength from Him if he kept the commandments, and that, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, he would be worthy of having his eyes opened and he would see the Lord. The hope of seeing the indescribable beauty of the Lord stung his heart with love for her, and he had a great desire to see her. And yet, he did not do anything special, but only every evening, going to bed, he did not lie down on his bed before praying and bowing, as that elder commanded him. Some time passed like this. One evening, when he was fulfilling the elder’s prayer rule, his conscience told him: make another similar prayer and other bows, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” as many times as you can. He willingly listened to his conscience and diligently carried out what it inspired in him, believing that God Himself spoke to him through his conscience. From that time on, he never lay down on his bed until he had fulfilled everything that his conscience told him that he could do. This was the only thing he could do, for he was in charge of managing the house of a nobleman, and during the day he had no free time for prayer; Only in the evening did he always pray as much as his conscience forced him to. Little by little, the young man’s heart began to warm up, and his eyes began to shed tears of tenderness; he performed frequent genuflections; He also sent prayers to the Mother of God, with sighs and heartache. Considering what lies before the Lord; He mentally fell at His most pure feet, and with tears of tenderness begged Him to have mercy on him, as on a blind man, and give light to his intelligent eyes. Day by day his prayer grew and brightened, and deepening, sometimes lasted until midnight. He stood motionless then, like a pillar, and did not turn his eyes this way and that to see anything, but stood with great fear and trembling, not dozing, not weighed down, not despondent. One evening, when he was praying according to custom, he said in his mind: God! be merciful to me, a sinner! - the intelligent Divine light suddenly dawned on him. Captivated by such a vision, the young man forgot himself and did not understand whether he was on earth or in the air; the whole world disappeared before him, and he himself completely changed, being imbued with that Divine action, and filled with tears and inexpressible joy, which did not leave him even when he came to his senses. He did not sleep all that night; sleep did not even come to his mind because of the spiritual sweetness that filled his heart. After this, the sweetness of tenderness no longer left his heart, and drove away from him every worldly and carnal thought; he became so insensitive to all things that sleep and food did not come to his mind, and he spent many days in fasting and vigils. It is amazing and praiseworthy that a twenty-year-old youth, preoccupied with everyday and worldly affairs, and, besides them, not thinking about anything higher, but only hearing something small from the elder, and having learned those three words from a soul-saving book, with that small feat that he carried out with sincere faith and hope, in a short time achieved such spiritual perfection that he was captivated in a mental vision, and was honored Divine enlightenment and tasted spiritual sweetness, which made his entire subsequent path of life easier! So, youth does no harm when it is filled with fear and lust for the Divine, and life in the midst of the world in the noisiest city will not prevent us from doing the commandments of God and succeeding in spiritual life, if only we have zeal.” It is impossible to express how much edification this experience exudes! And here is another, who was with the monk, but imitable for everyone. Gregory of Sinaite asked Abba Maxim Kavsokalivit (this is on Athos): does he keep mental prayer? He answered: “I will not hide from you, honest father, the mercy shown to me by the Mother of God. From my youth I had great faith in my Lady Theotokos, and I prayed to Her with tears that she would give me the grace of this mental prayer. One day, having come to the church according to custom, with great zeal and with copious tears, I prayed to Her about this - and when I then began to venerate the icon depicting Her Divine face with fear, I suddenly felt a warmth that fell into my breasts and into my heart, which did not scorch, but delighted and watered, and moved my soul to tenderness. From that moment my mind began to constantly study in prayer, and my heart to delight in the memory of my Lord Jesus and the Mother of God; and this prayer has never failed in my heart. I then desired silence and went into deserted places in order to be rewarded with the most manifest and richest fruit of prayer - the rapture of the mind to the Lord. Blessed Gregory asked: what happens to the soul when this rapture comes? - The elder answered: “When the grace of the Holy Spirit comes in prayer and captivates the mind, then prayer ceases, because the mind is then possessed by the coming of the Holy Spirit, and cannot stretch out its strength, but is idle, and submits only to the Holy Spirit, which, as it pleases, leads it either into the immaterial air of the Divine, or into another expressive vision, or Divine conversation. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, gives consolation to everyone according to their dignity, as and to what extent he wants; He does not show him anything ordinary, but secretly teaches him what he has never seen before and never imagined.” This experience seems to point to the most reliable way of acquiring warm prayer - prayer itself. He says: pray for prayer, and He who gives prayer to the one who prays will also give you the prayer you ask. I would like to cite here how this fact was powerfully expressed in moralizing words in the conversations of Macarius the Great, but I am afraid of becoming boring. I will only say this father’s general thought about this, which he repeated more than once to his disciples: “Force yourself to pray, and the Lord, seeing the zeal with which you seek prayer, will give you prayer.” But I cannot resist giving here an example of a prayer book that represents St. Isaac the Syrian in his 10th word. “One day,” he writes, I came to one brother’s cell, and, due to my illness, lay down with him so that he would look after me, for God’s sake, since I had no one there. And I saw how this brother performed his prayer. He sang poetry for quite some time (read the Psalter in chant) and suddenly abandoned the rule, fell on his face, and up to a hundred or more times, with the fervor that grace kindled in his heart, struck his head into the ground. After this, he stood up, kissed the Lord’s cross, and again threw himself on his face. And he observed this custom all his life, so that it is impossible to count his many genuflections. Twenty times with fear and ardor, with love dissolved in reverence, he kissed the cross, and again began poetry; and sometimes, from the great ignition of thoughts that inflamed him with their fervor, when he was unable to bear the kindling of that flame, overcome by joy, he cried out, unable to restrain himself. In the morning, after the first hour, when he sat down to read, he became like a captive man, and, during each chapter he read, he more than once fell on his face and in many verses raised his hands to heaven and praised God.” From the above experiments one can draw a very correct conclusion that whoever has the zeal to pray has nothing to teach but how to improve in prayer. The very work of prayer, continued with patience, will bring him to the highest levels of prayer. But what should the weak, the sluggish, and especially those who, before reaching an understanding of what prayer should be, have time to harden in external formality and have cooled in the habit of the rules of statutory prayer, do? They still have refuge - the artistic practice of mental prayer, prayer to the Lord. And isn’t it primarily for them that this artistic activity was invented, or, in other words, the artificial instillation of the mental Jesus Prayer into the heart? Be that as it may, I will depict this art in all its detail, leaving nothing that concerns before in the teachings of St. fathers of ascetics. I'll start this again with Simeon the New Theologian. The “art” mentioned in my previous letter, Simeon the New Theologian, describes in his Word about three images of prayer. The first image of prayer is incorrect, I have already indicated it: it is a dreamy prayer. The second, also incorrect or incomplete, I will give here as a transition to the third, which is a real image of prayer. Let me explain a little where this gradation comes from. The first wrong way of prayer depends on the fact that others act in it mainly with imagination and fantasy. These forces constitute the first instance in the movement from outside to inside, which should have been bypassed, but instead stop there. The second instance on the path inside is represented by reason, reason, mind, in general - reasoning and thinking power. One must also pass it by and descend into the heart with it. When they dwell on it, then a second incorrect form of prayer occurs, the distinctive feature of which is that the mind, remaining in the head, itself wants to settle everything in the soul and manage everything: but nothing comes of its labors. He chases after everything, but cannot overcome anything, and only suffers defeats. This state of the poor mind is very fully depicted by the New Theologian. “The second type of attention and prayer, he says, is when someone collects his mind in himself, distracting it from everything sensory and preserves his feelings (especially vision and hearing, secluded as much as possible, and withdrawing from cases that irritate them) and collects his thoughts so that they do not wander around the vain things of this world (and they are all theirs: you return them, and they will run away; you return them again, they will run away again, and so on without end) and sometimes tortures his thoughts (discusses critically, according to the principles of Christian morality), sometimes he listens to the words of the prayer (during the time free from prayer, he chases his thoughts, but on a rule he listens to the words of the prayer; but this is also unsuccessful), which he reads - (And meanwhile, as this fermentation occurs in the head, the heart goes on as usual; no one watches it, and worries and passionate movements come over it. Then and the mind forgets itself, and runs away to the objects of worries and passions; and perhaps when it comes to its senses), it gathers back to itself all the thoughts that were captured by the devil and turned into fussy and sinful ones. But other times, with great difficulty and self-compulsion, he comes to himself - this is when he is captivated and carried away by some passion. Having such a feat and such a struggle in himself, he can never be peaceful, and although he does not have a moment free from work, he does not receive the crown of righteousness. Such a one is like a man fighting with his enemies in the darkness of the night; he hears the voices of his enemies and suffers wounds from them, but he does not see them themselves and does not know who they are, where they came from, how and why they are fighting him. In this pitiful position he is kept by the darkness that dominates his mind and the storm that agitates his thoughts. And he can never free himself from his mental enemies, nor prevent them from striking him; and what’s even more amazing, he remains confident that he pays attention to himself as he should” (that is, that he is a member of the rank of real teetotalers). “That is why he is robbed by vanity, and often in pride he condemns and despises others; but, out of conceit, he considers himself worthy to be a shepherd of the sheep and to guide them, in fact becoming like a blind man trying to lead other blind people.” “Here is the second image of prayer!” (It is proper to call him smart-headed, as opposed to the third - smart-hearted, or heart-smart). “Everyone seeking salvation needs to understand and discern it, so as not to dwell on it out of ignorance and not suffer the harm that it causes. However, this second image is better than the first, just as a moonlit night is better than a moonless and gloomy night.” I will add to this a few words from the preface to the writings of Gregory the Sinaite, Elder Vasily Schemamonk, fast-monk and friend of Paisius of Nyametsk. Having copied the passage we cited from Symeon the New Theologian, he adds: “How is it possible, by the mere protection of external senses, to keep the mind unravaged, when its thoughts spread by themselves and soar towards sensual things? If it is not possible, then the need will force the mind, at the hour of prayer, to run inward to the heart and stand there deaf and dumb to all thoughts. He who outwardly only withdraws from seeing, hearing and speaking receives little benefit. Shut your mind in the inner cage of your heart, and then you will enjoy peace from evil thoughts, and taste the spiritual joy brought by mental prayer and heartfelt attention. St. Hesychius says: “Our mind cannot overcome the demonic dream by itself alone. And let him never hope for this. Therefore, be careful that you do not exalt yourself following the example of ancient Israel, and you too will be betrayed to your mental enemies. He, having been delivered by the God of all things from the Egyptians as an assistant, decided to have an idol of earth. By the idol of earth we mean our weak mind, which, while praying to Jesus Christ against the evil spirits, conveniently drives them away; and when he senselessly relies on himself, he falls in a wondrous fall and is broken.” These words already sufficiently indicate what exactly the third type of attention and prayer consists of. Now Simeon the New Theologian continues again: “The third type of attention and prayer is a truly glorious and inexplicable thing, even incredible, until someone experiences it in action. And in our times you won’t find it in very many people. There is no need to occupy your mind with imaginations of heavenly things, or, keeping your mind only in your head, chasing thoughts unsuccessfully, leaving your heart to be amazed when and how necessary. What is this? “The preparation for this form of prayer is perfect obedience to one’s spiritual father, accompanied by carelessness, and keeping one’s conscience pure before God, before one’s spiritual father, before all people and in relation to all things. Keeping your conscience clear before God means not doing anything that you know is unpleasant and displeasing to God: keeping your conscience clear before your spiritual father means not doing anything - no more, no less - against what is commanded by him; towards other people, keeping your conscience clear means not doing anything to them that you don’t want them to do to you; To keep a clear conscience towards things means to beware of abuse, but to use everything properly - food, drink, clothing, etc. Briefly: you must do everything as before the face of God, so that your conscience does not convict you of anything, that you did not do this or that well. Having settled in this way, begin to go through the third type of attention and prayer, which consists of the following: during prayer, let the mind remain inextricably inside the heart, and from there, that is, from the depths of the heart, let it send prayers to God.” (This is the essence of the matter!). When he then tastes from the midst of his heart that the Lord is good, and delights in this, then he will no longer proceed from the place of his heart, saying, as the Apostle Peter once did: it is good for us to be here (Luke 9:33); but it will always look inside the heart and remain there, inventing some image (managing) to drive away all the thoughts planted there by the enemy. To those who have not yet experienced this saving work, it seems very difficult and embarrassing; those who have tasted its sweetness and enjoy it in the depths of their hearts cry with the Apostle Paul: who will separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35)? "St. Our fathers, hearing the word of the Lord that evil thoughts come from the heart - murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy, and defile a person - hearing also His commandment to cleanse the inside of glass, so that the outside may also be clean, abandoned every other work, and turned all their zeal, all their deeds to guarding the heart, probably knowing that by doing this it would be convenient to acquire and every other virtue; and without him they won’t succeed in any of them. Some of the fathers called this work silence of the heart, others - attention, others - sobriety, others - guarding the mind. They all practiced it and left detailed instructions about it. Whoever wants to know about this, let him read the words of Mark the Ascetic, John Climacus, St. Hesychius, Philotheus of Sinai, Abba Isaiah, Barsanuphius and others.” “This is how you need to go through these activities! But do not forget about acquiring in advance the preparatory instructions that I mentioned to you. There are three of them: first, carelessness about every thing, blessed and unblessed; second, a clear conscience in everything, so that it does not convict you of anything; and third, perfect impartiality, so that your heart is not attached to anything worldly. Having established these preparatory dispositions in your heart in advance, proceed to the task as I will show you, namely: having closed the doors of the cell, sit in a silent place, in the corner, clinging to your breasts, and squeeze your breath a little; then, having distracted the mind from every temporary and vain thing, bring it down to the heart, turning your sensual eyes there too, and listening to it, keep your mind there: where your heart is, there let your mind be perfect. At first you will meet darkness and harshness there; but then, if you continue the work of such attention day and night, you will find unceasing joy. The mind, struggling in this, will find a place in the heart, and then it will soon see there what it has never seen or known - it will see itself as bright, full of prudence and reasoning, and from then on, no matter where any thought arises or appears, before it enters the heart and is depicted in it, it will drive it away from there and destroy it in the name of Jesus, saying: “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” The rest of what usually happens in this case, you will learn later, with the help of God, yourself, through your own experience, through the attention of your mind, holding Jesus in your heart, that is, the indicated prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” “At the same time, do not forget the following wise instruction of St. Climacus. He depicts the path of our ascent to God under the guise of a ladder with four steps. Some, he says, tame passions; others sing, that is, pray with their lips; still others practice mental prayer; the fourth finally ascend into visions. Those who want to ascend these four steps cannot start from the top, but must start from the bottom - and, having stepped on the first step, from it they already ascend to another, then to the third, and after all to the fourth. This way anyone can ascend to heaven. First, one must strive to tame and diminish passions; then, practice psalmody, that is, get used to praying orally; further, pray intelligently and, finally, gain the opportunity to ascend into visions. The first is the work of beginners, the second is of those who grow in prosperity, the third is of those who have reached the end of prosperity, and the fourth is of those who are perfect.” I have now extracted everything from Simeon the New Theologian about the artistic development of mental prayer. You see that bodily positions and techniques are not the main thing: they are nothing more than devices. I will also specifically designate them here: sit in a secluded place, bow your head to your chest, slightly restrict your breathing, and also turn your bodily eyes inward to the place of your heart, and in this position, having gathered your mind in your heart, say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” I go further along the Philokalia (Slavic). For St. Gregory the Sinaite follows Simeon the New Theologian in this book. – An abbreviated extract from it will form the content of the next letter. “We should,” writes St. Gregory of Sinai, who received the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, with pure prayer in the heart, cherubically converse with the Lord; but we, not understanding the greatness, honor and glory of the grace of rebirth, and not caring about growing spiritually through the fulfillment of the commandments, rising to a state of mental contemplation, indulge in negligence, through which we fall into passionate habits, and thus are cast into the abyss of insensibility and darkness. It also happens that we even barely remember whether there is a God; and what we should be like as children of God by grace, we often don’t know at all. We believe, but with an ineffective faith, and, after being renewed by the spirit in baptism, we do not cease to live carnally. If sometimes, having repented, we begin to fulfill the commandments, then we fulfill them only externally, and not spiritually, and we become so unaccustomed to spiritual life that its manifestations in others seem to us to be wrongs and delusions. Thus, until death, we remain dead in spirit, living and acting not about Christ, and not corresponding to the definition that what is born of the Spirit must be spiritual. Meanwhile, what we received about Christ Jesus in holy baptism is not destroyed, but is only buried, like some kind of treasure, in the ground. Both prudence and gratitude require care to open it and make it explicit. The following methods lead to this: firstly, this gift is revealed by the arduous fulfillment of the commandments, so that as we fulfill the commandments, to the extent this gift reveals its lordship and its brilliance; secondly, he comes into manifestation and is revealed by the incessant calling of the Lord Jesus. Or, what is the same, the unceasing memory of God. And the first means is powerful, but the second is more powerful, so that the first also receives its full strength from it. Therefore, if we sincerely want to reveal the seed of grace hidden in us, then let us hasten to quickly get used to this last heart exercise, and always have this one act of prayer in our hearts, sightless and unimaginable, until it warms our heart and inflames it to ineffable love for the Lord.” “The effect of this prayer in the heart is twofold: sometimes the mind precedes it, clinging to the Lord in the heart with unceasing memory; sometimes the action of prayer, itself first moved by the fire of joy, attracts the mind to the heart and binds it to the invocation of the Lord Jesus and reverent standing before Him” (The first prayer is laborious, the second self-motivated). In the first case, the effect of prayer begins to be revealed, after the diminishment of passions by the fulfillment of the commandments, with warmth of the heart, as a result of the intensified invocation of the Lord Jesus; in the second, the Spirit attracts the mind to the heart and places it there in the depths, keeping it from its usual wandering. And then he is no longer like a captive taken from Jerusalem to the Assyrians, but, on the contrary, makes the resettlement from Babylon to Zion, crying out with the Prophet: To You, O God, belongs the praise in Zion, and to You the vow will be rendered in Jerusalem (Ps. 65:2). From these two types of prayer, the mind becomes either active or contemplative; by action, with the help of God, he overcomes passions, and by contemplation of God he sees how much is possible for man. “Active mental-heart prayer is performed like this: sit on a seat of one inch, bring your mind down from your head to your heart, and hold it there; then, bowing painfully, and pain in your toes, shoulders and neck (from muscle tension), cry out with your mind and heart: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” Hold your breath at the same time, do not breathe impudently, because this can scatter your thoughts. If you see thoughts arising, do not listen to them, even if they are simple and good, and not just vain and unclean. By holding your breath as long as you can, keeping your mind in your heart and calling on the Lord Jesus often and patiently, you will soon crush and destroy them, striking them invisibly with the Divine name. St. Climacus says: In the name of Jesus, beat the warriors: there is no stronger weapon than this, neither in heaven nor on earth.” “When the mind becomes exhausted in such work, the body and heart become sick from the intense uplifting of the frequent invocation of the Lord Jesus, so that this work ceases to warm and cheer, which supports the zeal and patience of the ascetics in this work: then get up and sing, alone or with your disciple, or practice meditating on some passage of Scripture, or in the memory of death, or take up reading, or handicrafts, or anything else, to work your body.” This is written for the speechless. Others should be told, in relation to this, this: then get up and take on your usual affairs with the fear of God and attention to yourself, without, however, skipping the usual spiritual exercises - reading and meditation. “When you take up this matter, then it is fitting for you to read only those books that set out the teaching about the inner life, sobriety and prayer, namely: the Ladder, the words of Isaac the Syrian, the ascetic writings of Maximus the confessor of Simeon the New Theologian, Hesychius, Philotheus of Sinai and other similar writings. Leave all other kinds of scriptures for a time, not because they are not good, but because it is not the right time for you to study them, given your present mood and aspiration: they can distract your mind from prayer. Read not a lot, but with deepening and assimilation. By this the mind, strengthened, is filled with the strength to pray soberly and cheerfully. Reading a lot (and even more so reading extraneous books) relaxes and darkens the mind, and makes it powerless and absent-minded in prayer. “As for your deeds, be attentive to yourself and constantly monitor your intentions and goals, determining exactly where they are heading - whether for the sake of God, for the good of yourself, and for spiritual salvation, you do everything that you do, so as not to be robbed from you without knowledge, and not to turn out to be only a god-pleaser in your soul, but a people-pleaser. The enemy tries to steal every work, so that it is not done according to God. But let him advocate unflaggingly and advance shamelessly—keep your sincere intention of pleasing God firm and unchanging, and you will not be robbed. Although sometimes the thought involuntarily soars to other goals, when attention weakens, it is apologized and forgiven for the sake of that one main intention and aspiration of the heart, which the Almighty sees. You need to know that a sure sign of the goodness of a feat and at the same time a condition for success through it is pain. The one who walks painlessly will not receive fruit. Heart disease and physical labor bring into manifestation the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to every believer in the Holy Spirit. baptism, which by our negligence about fulfilling the commandments is buried in passions, but by the ineffable mercy of God is resurrected again in repentance. Do not give up on your labors because they are painful, so as not to be condemned for infertility and hear: take the talent from him. Any feat, physical or mental, that is not accompanied by pain and does not require labor, does not bear fruit: the kingdom of God is in need... and the needy women delight it (Matthew 11:12). Many have worked and continue to work painlessly for many years, but for the sake of this painlessness they were alien to purity and not involved in the Holy Spirit, as those who rejected the severity of disease. Those who do it in negligence and relaxation seem to work hard, but do not reap any fruit, due to painlessness. If, according to the Prophet, our loins do not break down, exhausted from the labors of fasting, and if we do not implant painful feelings of contrition in our hearts, and do not become sick like a woman giving birth, then we will not be able to give birth to the spirit of salvation on the earth of our hearts. “Sometimes say the very words of the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” - sometimes half: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!” The latter is more convenient for a beginner, due to the infancy of his mind. Say them either in your mind only, or with the sound of your voice. “No one can hold the mind, if not the Spirit. Having crawled in the fall, the mind has moved away from God, and is found everywhere like a captive. He cannot be established again if he does not submit to God, and if, having united with Him again, he is not held by Him in prayer. When the action of prayer comes, then it will hold him with joy, and will not allow him to be taken captive for plunder. When thoughts attack and distract you from prayer, do not fight them with your own weapons; but, instead of any weapon, call on the Lord Jesus, often and patiently, and they will run away. Not tolerating the warmth of the heart that comes from prayer, they will scatter as if scorched by fire. Our God is fire, consuming malice. Quick to help, He will immediately take vengeance on those who earnestly cry out to Him day and night. If this inner discipline alone is not enough, stand up and, imitating Moses, raise your hands and eyes to heaven, and God will defeat your enemies. This action of calling God to thoughts is depicted by John Kolov in the following comparison: “I,” he says, “are like a man who sits under a large tree and sees that many animals and snakes are approaching him. If he cannot stand against them, he climbs a tree and escapes. So I am: I am sitting in my cell and I see evil thoughts rising up against me; when I don’t have enough strength against them, I resort to God through prayer and save myself from the enemy.” “Don’t give up praying either. In relation to it, not everyone acts in the same way: some keep a great prayer rule, others completely abandon the prayer book, praying to the Lord with one mental prayer. You choose the middle: do not collect a lot of prayers, for this leads to confusion, but do not leave them at all, in case of weakness and relaxation. If you see that prayer is active in you and does not stop moving in your heart, do not leave it and do not pick up your prayer book. This would mean leaving God inside, coming out from there, and extending conversation to Him from the outside. Those who do not yet have the effect of prayer need to say a lot of prayer, and even without measure, in order to constantly be in this much prayer and variety of prayers, until the painful work of prayer warms the heart and the action of prayer begins in it. Whoever finally tastes this grace must say prayers in moderation, and remain more in mental prayer, as the fathers commanded. In case of relaxation, you need to say a prayer or read the paternal writings. The matter of prayer, as you see, is explained in more detail by St. Gregory in some parts. But as for the position of the body, nothing special has been added to it. I now move on to the next teacher, namely, Nikifor the monk. His teachings on prayer are set out in an article on sobriety and guarding the heart. You, writes Nikifor the monk in the Philokalia, who wish to perceive the heavenly fire heartily, in feeling, and to experience experimentally that there is a kingdom of heaven existing within you, come, I will tell you the science of heavenly living, or, better yet, the art that without difficulty leads its worker into the haven of dispassion. Through the fall we went outside, but let us return to ourselves, turning away from the external. Reconciliation and kinship with God is impossible for us if we do not first return to ourselves and enter inside from the outside. That is why to tear ourselves away from the bonds of vain, worldly concerns, and to establish and preserve the existing kingdom within us is a wonderful thing. So, imitating our fathers, let us seek the treasure hidden within our hearts and, having found it, let us hold it tightly, doing and keeping it. “I will now cite the testimony of St. our fathers and teachers that a truly Christian life is an internal life, and not an external one. “The brother asked Abba Agathon: “Which is more correct, bodily labor, or guarding the heart?” To this the elder replied: “Man is like a tree: bodily labor is the leaves, and keeping the heart is the fruit. since, according to Scripture, every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire; then it is obvious that we must direct all our care to the fruit, that is, to the preservation of the heart. However, we also need leafy clothing and decoration, that is, bodily labor.” "St. John Climacus says: “Shut the door of the cell from the body, the door of the tongue from broadcasting, and the inner door from evil spirits. Sitting on high (that is, having established your attention above your heart), watch, if you are skillful, and see how, when, what kind and in what number the thieves approach to enter the vineyard of your heart and steal the grapes. Having become tired, the overseer (that is, the one who listens to the heart), gets up, prays, then sits down again and courageously takes up the same task (that is, watching over the heart).” "St. Macarius the Great teaches: “The main task of the ascetic is to enter into his heart, make war with Satan, hate him and, opposing his thoughts, fight against him.” "St. Isaac the Syrian writes: “Strive to enter your inner treasury and you will see heavenly treasure. The ladder to this kingdom is hidden inside you, that is, in your heart. So, wash yourself from sin, and gather yourself in your heart: there you will find degrees by which you can ascend (to heaven and to perfection in the spirit).” “Here is the saying of Carpathias (that’s right, John of Carpathia). “Many feats and labor are required in prayers in order to find an undisturbed state of thoughts - another kind of heaven of the heart, where Christ lives, as the Apostle says: or do you not know that... Christ lives in you, unless you are unskillful by nature (2 Cor. 13:5).” “Here are the words of Simeon the New Theologian: “since man was expelled from paradise and separated from God, the devil and demons received freedom day and night to invisibly shake the mental power of every person. The mind can be protected from this only by constant remembrance of God. Whoever impresses the memory of God in his heart can keep his mental strength from fermenting.” “You see that in addition to external feats, there is also internal work, which consists of paying attention to the mind and guarding the heart. I will now explain what this doing consists of and how to get used to it. “Everyone almost learns this greatest of great deeds from others through learning. Very rare people unscientifically receive it directly from God, warmth for the sake of their faith. So, you need to look for a mentor who knows the business. If there is no such mentor, then, calling on God for help, in contrition of heart and tears, do what I tell you. “It is known that the breath we breathe carries air through the lungs to the heart. So, sit down and, having collected your mind, bring it inside through this way of breathing, force it, along with this inhaled air, to descend into the very heart, and keep it there, not giving it freedom to go out, as it would like. Keeping him there, do not leave him idle, but give him these sacred verbs: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” and let him repeat them continually day and night. Take care to get used to this inward stay and take care that your mind does not quickly leave there: for at the beginning it will be very depressed from being confined inside and being cramped. Because when he gets used to it, he will no longer rush around external things: it will be fun and joyful for him to be there. Just as a man returning to his home from a foreign country does not remember himself with joy when he sees his wife and children again, so the mind, when united with the heart, is filled with indescribable joy and joy. If you manage to enter your heart along the path that I showed you, give thanks to God, glorify Him, and stick to this practice always: it will teach you what you never thought about. If, after working a lot, you are not able to enter the lands of the heart in the way that I showed you, then do what I tell you again, and, with God’s help, you will find what you are looking for. It is known that the literature of every person (the inner word, the word with which we converse with ourselves) is in his chest: for there, inside the chest, when the lips are silent, we speak with ourselves and consult, there we make prayers (when we read them from memory) and psalmody, there we conduct every other conversation with ourselves. Take away every thought from this literature and let it be said incessantly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” And force yourself, instead of any other speech, to always scream this one thing inside. Continue patiently in this activity for only a few moments, and through this the entrance to your heart will be revealed to you, without any doubt, as we ourselves have learned through experience. Along with this much-desired and joyful attention, the whole face of virtues will come to you: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, meekness, etc.. Here is Elder Nicephorus, taking a different path, but still coming to the same thing - to concentrating the mind in the heart, and incessantly crying out to the Lord there. Regarding how to hold the body, once one has become accustomed to this activity, we find that it teaches one to find the heart through breathing. With this he seems to answer the question of the ignorant, where is the heart. Breathe into yourself, as he says, and where the breath stops, there the heart stops, there stand with attention and mind. Another feature is that he advises those who would find it difficult to act in the previous way to intelligently say a prayer where the organ of speech is, at the beginning of the larynx, or at the entrance to the chest cavity. But this does not definitively determine the place of attention and prayer, but only indicates it as a transition point. Let us imagine one more final outline of the work that occupies us, according to the teachings of Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Ignatius his co-secretary. Instructions on prayer by Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Ignatius, his guardian. The beginning of life according to God is zeal and diligent effort to live according to the saving commandments of Christ; the end is the manifestation in perfection of that which was imagined in us by Divine grace in baptism, or, what is the same, putting off the old man with his deeds and lusts, putting on the new, spiritual, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Divine Paul says: “My children, in the image of whom I am sick, until Christ is imagined in you” (Gal. 4:19). “When we are baptized, says St. Chrysostom, then our soul shines more than the sun, purified by the Holy Spirit. Just as pure silver, lying opposite the rays of the sun, itself emits rays, not by its nature, but because of its illumination by the sun: so the soul, purified in baptism, receives rays from the glory of the Spirit, and is itself internally glorious. But, alas! This glory, ineffable and terrible, abides in us for one or two days, and then we extinguish it, causing a storm of everyday worries and passionate affairs. “In the Divine womb, that is, in the sacred font, tuna, we receive perfect Divine grace. If after that we hide it under the darkness of worldly cares and passions; then we can again restore and cleanse it by repentance and fulfillment of God’s commandments, and see its prenatural lordship. This happens according to the measure of each person’s faith and the warmth of his zeal to live according to faith, especially according to the good will of the Lord Jesus Christ. St. Mark says: Christ, the perfect God, bestowed upon those who were baptized the perfect grace of the Holy Spirit, which does not require any application from us; it opens in us and becomes manifest as we fulfill the commandments, until we reach the age of fulfillment of Christ. “So, since the beginning and root of the saving action is to live according to the commandments of the Lord, and finally the fruit, to restore the perfect grace of the Spirit, first given to us by baptism, which is in us (for the gifts of God are unrepentant), but buried by the passions, and is again revealed by the fulfillment of God’s commandments: then it is fitting for us to be zealous for the fulfillment of these commandments, in order to purify and purify the gift of the Spirit that exists in us. see more clearly. The Lord's confidant, John, says that he who keeps the Lord's commandments abides with the Lord, and the Lord with him. The Lord Himself expounds this even more fully: if you have My commandments, He says, and keep them, then you love Me; but if you love Me, you will be loved by My Father; and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself... If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him (John 14:21–23). “This exact fulfillment of saving commandments is impossible for us without the Lord Jesus Christ, as He Himself says: without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5), and as the Apostle confessed that there is salvation for no one else (Acts 4:11): He is for us the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). Therefore, our glorious mentors and teachers, with the All-Holy Spirit living in them, wisely teach us, before any other work, to pray to the Lord, and from Him without a doubt to ask for mercy, and to constantly have and always carry His all-holy and sweet name in the heart, and in the mind, and in the lips, to constantly live with it, and sleep, and stay awake, and walk, and eat, and drink. For just as at a time when there is no such calling in us, everything bad and destructive flows down on us; so while it is in us, everything that is opposed is driven away, nothing good becomes scarce, and nothing happens that we cannot fulfill, as the Lord Himself said: He who is in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit (John 15:5). “So, having realized your weakness, and having placed all your trust in the Lord, having loved the commandments to the point of being ready to lay down your life rather than break any of them, turn all your efforts to become accustomed to and strengthen yourself in this unceasing calling on the saving name of the Lord, destructive of all evil and creative of all good. To facilitate this work, St. the fathers indicated a certain kind of special activity, calling it art, and even the art of arts. I will offer here the wonderful Nikifor’s natural art about entering the heart through breathing, which greatly contributes to the collection of thoughts. “His rule is as follows: sit in a solitary place and, having collected your mind, bring it into your heart by breathing, and stopping there with your attention, cry incessantly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Do this until this calling is grafted into your heart and becomes continuous.” “And all St. the fathers taught so. St. Chrysostom teaches: “I pray you, brothers, never cease to fulfill the rule of this prayer.” In another place: “everyone must, whether he eats, drinks, sits, serves, walks the path, or whatever he does, constantly cry out: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” so that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, descending into the depths of the heart, will humble the destructive serpent, and save and revive the soul. Continue continually in calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart may swallow the Lord Jesus, and the Lord the heart, and the two may become one.” And again: “Do not separate your heart from God, but always keep in it the memory of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the name of the Lord is established inside the heart, and do not think about anything else except that Christ may be magnified in you.” St. Climacus also teaches: “Let the memory of Jesus be united with your breath.” And St. Hesychius writes: “if you want to cover your thoughts with shame and be sober in your heart without hindrance, let the prayer to the Lord Jesus cling to your breath, and in a few days you will see your desire fulfilled. “Let it be known that if we teach our mind, together with our breath, to descend into the heart, we will also notice that, descending there, it is alone and naked, holding on to the memory and invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ; on the contrary, proceeding from there and extending to external objects, and although it is divided into many ideas and memories. To preserve this simplicity and singularity of mind, it was commanded by the fathers experienced in this matter that anyone who was jealous of acquiring the skill of sober mind in the heart should sit in a silent and dim place, and especially at the beginning of this good feat. For the vision of external objects is naturally the cause of scattering of thoughts; when the silent and dark church hides the external from us, thought ceases to have fun and gathers more comfortably into itself, as St. Basil the Great says: “the mind, unforgivable by feelings towards the world, returns to itself.” “Notice carefully that the essence of this feat consists in a like-minded, heartfelt, pure and unwavering invocation with faith of our Lord Christ, and not in this one descent to the heart by breathing and sitting in a silent and dark place. All this and the like were invented by the fathers for no other reason than the fact that they saw in this a kind of aid in collecting thoughts and returning them to themselves from ordinary soaring. From the skill of being collected and listening to oneself, the skill of praying purely and unconditionally with the mind in the heart is born.” “Know also that all these adaptive positions of the body are prescribed, determined by detailed rules and are considered necessary until we have yet acquired pure and ethereal prayer in the heart. When, by the good will and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, you achieve this, then, leaving behind many and various activities, you will remain united with the one Lord more than the word in pure and unparalleled prayer of the heart (without needing much of those devices). Rare, however, and barely one in a thousand are worthy to achieve the grace of Christ in this dispensation; and in order to go even further and be worthy of spiritual prayer and anticipate the secrets of the future century, as soon as there is someone worthy of it in Rodech and Rodech. So, if you really want to be worthy of living in Christ Jesus, strive to achieve this so that, at every time and every hour and in every matter, you can pray to the Lord purely and earnestly in your heart, so that in this way, from the age of an infant, you will be able to mature into a perfect husband, according to the age of the fulfillment of Christ. Do not forget at the same time that when from time to time self-willed, pure prayer comes to you, you should under no circumstances ruin it with your prayer rules. This is how Philemon teaches: “whether at night or during the day the Lord grants you pure and unvaping prayer, then leave your rules and, as much as you can, stretch to cleave to the Lord God and He will enlighten your heart in spiritual work. When you are worthy of the persistent presence of prayer in your heart, as Isaac the Syrian says, then you have reached the end of all virtues and become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit; then prayer will not cease, whether you sit or walk, eat or drink, or whatever else you do; even in deep sleep, prayerful incense will rise from the heart without difficulty: even if she becomes silent in this, she will always secretly perform sacred acts inside, without ceasing.” This is where we will limit our extracts from the Philokalia. Almost all the articles in this book talk about intelligently standing before the Lord. I took only those teachers who remember bodily techniques for this, or some artificial adaptation of themselves to it. This is what these four are the only ones talking about. They all consider this bodily adaptation useful and necessary for the time being, but they do not believe that the essence of the matter lies in it. All their attention is directed to giving guidance to the most successful skill in doing mental prayer, or to this most intelligent presence in the heart of the Lord, in which the essence of the matter. It will not be alien to the meaning of their instructions to say: behave as you want, just have time to acquire this last thing. We offer you body positions that we ourselves have held and from which we have benefited. There are, however, among these bodily activities also those that seem to grow together with mental prayer and never depart from it. It is necessary to pay attention to the heart, it is necessary to keep the whole body in vigorous tension of the muscles and not allow your attention to succumb and be carried away by external impressions of the senses. These conditions, in whatever form you want and can, fulfill them in that form. A dark and secluded place is considered necessary for the removal of external impressions: but if you can distract yourself from these impressions and among a multitude of them, stay where you want. Sitting on a small stool, constricting your breathing, hurting your ramen, neck, breasts, is recommended in order to put the body in an invigorated direction; but if you can do it in some other way, or do it with just internal muscle tension, do it as you find more convenient, just don’t loosen your body members. Bringing the mind to the heart through breathing is indicated in the event that you do not know where to stop your attention or where the heart is; and if you already know how to find the heart, do as you know, just settle in the heart. It is indicated to call on the Lord with these words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” but you can also shorten and change these words, or replace them with others, even without words, intelligently stand before the Lord; for power does not lie in words, but in the mood of the mind and heart. Knowing, however, this is all, you should not neglect the said position of the body. In every possible way the body must be given some position; but if experience has shown that such and such body positions are very suitable for doing mental prayer and success in it, then what is the need to deviate from them, or invent new ones? Moreover, after gaining success in prayer, they will naturally withdraw in some respects, just as the stage is removed when a house is rebuilt. After all the extracts made, a discussion of what Speransky says about this exercise of St. ascetics, will not hinder us. Let us first repeat the words of Speransky that we have already written out: “Not only in essence, but also in form, it is useful, worthy of true humility, to follow the good practice and sound tradition of our true spiritual fathers. I remember telling you something about this in conversations; I’ll remind you of this form in a few words.” This is followed by the promised image of the form. To what extent it deviates from the truth, everyone can see for themselves, with the help of the extracts we have made from the Philokalia.” Here's what Speransky says: “1) In order to enter into contemplation, they seek solitude, that is, the most remote corner of their room.” That's fair. But it is necessary to insert this action into a number of their other actions in order to understand its meaning. This is the order of life for the silent, according to Callistus and Ignatius, after sunset, calling on the beloved and all-powerful Lord for help, sit on a chair in your silent and dim cell, and, having collected your mind from the usual wandering outside, enter by breathing into your heart, holding the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” – combining the words of this prayer in some way with breathing inside. With prayer, have the memory of death, judgment and retribution, and considering yourself more sinful than all people, force yourself to come to tenderness, weeping and tears, in which you will remain until they pass. Sit in this manner, praying and listening to the spoken objects for an hour. Then, getting up, sing Little Compline with attention, and sitting down, again keep up the prayer, pure and unparalleled, without any thoughts or dreams, with much sobriety - for half an hour. Finally, having marked yourself and your bed with the sign of the honorable cross, sit on it, thinking about the transience of real life, about the vanity of earthly blessings, about the sudden debt of death, and about how you spent this day; Having then asked for forgiveness of all sins, he lay down on the bed, holding a prayer, according to the commandment of the elders: let the memory of Jesus sleep with you, and sleep for five or six hours. Rising from sleep, glorify God and, calling on His intercession, begin the first task, that is, pray in your heart, as shown, purely and immaculately, until one hour: then sing the Midnight Office. If you have not yet established yourself well in silence, or if something else is stopping you, first sing the Midnight Office with attention and reason, and then sit down and pray purely and unwaveringly in your heart, as it is said, for one hour, or as the Giver of good things will help you. Then, insert and sing intelligently the sixth psalm, the 50th psalm and the canon, whichever you want. After this, sit down again cheerfully and pray for half an hour; getting up, singing praises, doxologies, the first hour and dismissal. From morning to lunch, placing all of yourself on God, as much strength as you have, force yourself to remain in prayer, pure, heartfelt and unwavering, and in reading. Read what is written in the Psalter, the Apostle, the Gospel and the scriptures of the Fathers. Then, after singing the usual hours, start eating. After dinner, read for quite a long time the fatherly writings about sobriety; Afterwards, sleep for one hour, and, getting up, do your handicrafts, holding a prayer. And sitting down again, pray purely and without steam until evening comes; when evening comes, sing the usual Vespers.” From this sketch of the day-night activities of the silent man, it is clear that sitting on a chair in the corner of his cell, with mental prayer to the Lord, was part of their prayer rule, and was not intended at all in order to ascend through this to contemplation, but in order to collect thoughts, go deeper into oneself, warm the heart and acquire the skill of pure and unwavering prayer. As for contemplation, we do not find in any of the fathers that it is possible to enter into it ourselves, and, therefore, to do anything on our part to enter into it. Contemplation, according to them, was given precisely to those who had already managed to completely cleanse their hearts and were deeply united with the Lord. Out of a thousand, one manages to acquire pure prayer; and spiritual prayer, or, what is the same thing, contemplative prayer, in rodech and rodech hardly one turns out to have one. “There,” Speransky continues, they take the most comfortable position, that is, they simply sit down, cross their arms under their chests, and direct their gaze to any part of their body, namely, to the navel (this is where one of the names given to them comes from). Experience showed them all the benefits of such a position, protecting them at the same time from sleep and from being entertained by outside light; but they are careful not to close their eyes; they remain motionless." Where did all this come from? I extracted everything that St. fathers about the position of the body during mental prayer. Everyone can see that there is one thing and another here. We do not find any indication about the position of the hands. Regarding the eyes, we find only in Simeon the New Theologian that they must be turned, also following the mind, to the heart; but this is an internal act, accomplished only by tension. The eyes either close, or, open, remain unseeing; for attention is distracted from the outside in, and does not follow what is visible or heard. We also don’t see the navel being taken into account in any way. True, the newest mentors, as, for example, in the prefaces of Elder Vasily, the fast-monger Paisius Velichkovsky, to the paternal writings on sobriety, mention that part of the body, but in a completely different sense. It is there that those who, not knowing where the heart is, in which attention is commanded to be established, are reproached, reduce the mind to this part of the body or to the loins. Here are his words: “It is proper at the very beginning to train the mind at the hour of prayer to stand on top of the heart and look into its depth, and not half at the side, or at the bottom end... Some, out of extreme foolishness, or better yet, not knowing what is the top, or the environment of the heart, and what is half and what is the end of it, begin to act prayer from below at the end of the heart, at the loins. Others, afflicted with the last sense of unreason and rudeness, do not know lower than that very place of the heart, under the left breast and side of existence, but imagining it in the middle of the navel of the womb, they dare, alas. their charms! - there is a prayer to act with the mind. It is appropriate, as it has been said, to create attention and prayer with the mind in the middle of the heart from above the breast, and not halfway from the chest, and not from below the loins.” Where did Speransky get his idea from? Or from Latin and French books, or, more likely, from current speeches. In his time, some part of high society was jealous of spiritual life: another laughed at it, and invented various fables about their activities. Among them is navel-gazing, and hence its derogatory name. “They,” Speransky further writes, begin with “Lord have mercy,” but with them, like with us, this soon stops. A fire, once lit, burns by itself, and no one knows what it feeds on. This is the secret. You find again “Lord have mercy!” in your thoughts only at the moment when you come to your senses.” The words of this prayer are: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. have mercy on me!” or: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!” The fire that is mentioned does not ignite quickly, but after noticeable work, when a warmth ignites in the heart, constantly intensifying and igniting during mental prayer. In-depth prayer to the Lord arouses warmth. Experienced fathers strictly distinguish between physical warmth, simple, which occurs as a result of concentrating forces on the heart through attention and tension - bodily warmth, lustful, sometimes immediately instilled and supported by the enemy, and spiritual warmth, sober, pure. It is of two kinds: natural, due to the union of the mind with the heart, and gracious. Experience teaches us to distinguish between each of them. This warmth is sweet, and it is desirable to maintain it, both for the sake of this sweetness itself, and for the sake of the fact that it conveys good mood to everything internal. But whoever strives to maintain and strengthen this warmth through one sweetness will develop spiritual voluptuousness in himself. Therefore, teetotalers strain, bypassing this sweetness, to establish themselves in one presence before the Lord, with complete devotion to Him, as if placing themselves in His hands; they do not rely on the sweetness that arises from the warmth and do not draw attention to it. But it is possible to cling to it with attention, and rest in it, as in warm peace or clothing, and support it alone, without stretching your thoughts higher. The mystics did not go further than this; among them this state was considered the highest; there was complete thoughtlessness, immersed in some kind of emptiness. This is the state of contemplation of mystics. It has nothing in common with the state of contemplation that existed among the great teetotaler fathers. Speransky says: “you come to your senses and find “Lord have mercy.” They come to their senses both after thinking deeply and after the aforementioned immersion in meaninglessness; but they also come to their senses after prayerful admiration into true contemplation, in which they do not control themselves. And since these latter states are rare and given to few; then we can reasonably believe that Speransky does not understand it, and did not experience it with his friend. “They (the silent ones), writes Speransky, remain in this state not as long as they want, but as long as it lasts. Its duration varies; There were cases when it lasted more than two days in a row, without food or drink.” These traits lead to a state of captivity in contemplation. To some extent, something similar is possible among spiritual sensualists and mystics plunging into emptiness. However, I do not know of any experience of two-day duration of prayerful contemplation. Experiences of how it lasted from evening to morning are recorded by the fathers. “Here they sometimes see what they call the light of Tabor (a technical term dedicated to the only visions of this kind). I don’t know what it is, but I know positively that this vision is much purer, much more spiritual than our ordinary visions. It is completely inexpressible in words; ours are more or less defined; Consequently, the degree, although true, is much lower than this vision, differing, perhaps, by only one step from the actual so-called vision of God.” There is no mention of the Favorite world in the Philokalia. A dispute about it arose under Gregory Palamas; but it is difficult to determine what the essence of the matter was. Regarding visions of light or any face, all the fathers whose writings were included in the Philokalia have one law: do not accept. What kind of visions does Speransky mention? There are visions born of a heated imagination; There are enemy ghost visions, and there are visions given by God. Only the latter are true, and they all have one dignity - the Divine. To those who have achieved perfection in man, the Lord gives them the heart to feel and the mind to foresee the ineffable blessings hoped for in the next century. We definitely don’t have words to express them. As for the sight of God, in the future the sight of Christ the Savior, God incarnate, is promised. The vision of the Trinitarian God is not available to creatures in His person or nature, but only in appearances and revelations that are pleasing to Him and bearable for creatures. “I don’t dare describe to you as reliably the way they behave (how they behave) in church; but from their teaching I have reason to conclude that they limit themselves to mental prayer, allowing themselves to plunge into the abyss of contemplation only so much as to, so to speak, stand with one foot in communion with all believers, who are not all contemplatives. It is true that they never allowed themselves either shocks or ecstasies - things, I tell you, of a lower order that we can and should suppress; and if they got the better of us, then we should urgently pray to the Lord for their cessation, for imagine that if there were many contemplatives in the church, excited in this way, what would it be if not a meeting of shakers (truly raging)? This is the question of St. Paul in the above chapter. There were many similar phenomena in the West. The Orthodox Church of God has at all times presented examples of great saints and high prayer books; but it did not and does not contain these ugly products of self-made heated blood. There were manifestations of extraordinary actions of grace in God's chosen ones, but they were always peaceful, and, overshadowing those who experienced these actions with peace, they spread peace around them. That is why those who follow the right path of intelligent doing have nothing to fear from any sudden excitement or movements in the body. The grace that overshadows and guides them will not allow this to happen. You can tell them: “whether you are in a church meeting or praying at home, go deeper into prayer, as much as it depends on you.” There are indications of how sober prayer books behaved in church. One of the fathers says: “When you find where the heart is and get used to gathering in it, then you will perform prayer there, and contemplation of God, and reading, and any other spiritual exercise.” From another we read: “If you sing with a student, then let him read the psalms, and you, listening to your heart and praying, take care of yourself, and with the power of prayer, drive away all thoughts coming from your heart, both material and mental.” Judging by this, one can guess that during church services they, together with others, prayed to the Lord without distraction and, listening to the songs, stood before the Lord intelligently. Again it is mentioned about contemplation that one cannot indulge in it; again it is clear that for Speransky it means an amateur deepening into mental prayer, or, rather, into the emptiness of thoughtlessness (as with the mystics), which can extend to self-forgetfulness. “Will I,” continues Speransky, tell you about my own pitiful experience, next to these great examples? It's so insignificant. In Perm I experienced for some time something similar to what you are experiencing, but it did not last long. Since then, the form of my contemplation (one must understand - self-absorption in mental prayer) has always been a great emptiness, the absence of any image and any thought. I think this is the same as yours. But the fruits of this state are simply a great calmness during the day, a kind of sweetness, constant, although not strong. This is about feelings; As for the enlightenment of the mind, one notices some ease in understanding well-known passages of the Gospel, and an unexpected understanding of certain features in the life of our Lord; in the Church, reverence is sometimes significant, more often a state of contemplation, less deep, less silent than when I am alone, which completely allows me to follow the service and strictly observe all our customs. Do not think that I want to narrow all the actions of the Holy Spirit and reduce them to this one form - oh, no; I am convinced that His actions are countless both in their degrees and in material applications (is it not in visible manifestations?); then I ask, I beg you not to indulge in the tangible spilling of the spirit throughout your body, especially in church. The body must be in it as a deaf-mute servant: it is not worthy to take any part here, unless it were completely impossible for you to hold back the flow of grace. So, for example, with this healing, which I consider absolutely miraculous, and for which, together with you, I thank the Lord.” Everything that Speransky said about himself contains the most ordinary signs that accompany the introduction of mental prayer to the Lord in the heart, self-made, laborious. Anyone who happens to pray fervently experiences a pleasant warmth in their heart. Those who are accustomed to mental prayer and perceive it with a feeling of the heart experience it constantly. For all saints, this warmth is considered the first fruit of instilling mental prayer to the Lord in the heart. It is necessary, however, to know that manifestations of this warmth are not all of the same dignity. Elder Vasily, a fast-monger of Paisius, writes about this from the words of Patriarch Callistus, the following: “first comes the warmth from the kidneys, as if encircling you, and that seems to be a charm: but this is not a charm, but a matter of nature, as a direct consequence of that feat. But if anyone begins to consider this a matter of grace, and not of nature, then this will be delusion. This, whatever it may be, the ascetic should not love, but reflect. Another warmth also comes from the heart, and if at the same time the mind descends into lustful thoughts, delusion is truly: but if the body is all warmed up from the heart, the mind remains pure and dispassionate. and as if attached to the inner depths of the heart, this is truly an action of grace, and not delusion.” From this it is clear that not every spilling of the spirit throughout the body should be treated unfavorably. When prayer goes deep into the heart and overpowers it with warmth, then the mind is always collected and present in itself, and therefore is quick to understand and quick-witted. From this time on, all the truths of revelation begin to enter the heart, each in its own time, as if suddenly, in the form of insight. Only one feature expressed by Speransky seems untrue, or untruely expressed. The form, he says, of my contemplation has always been emptiness, the absence of any image and any thought.” Such complete thoughtlessness is alien to St. fathers. They inspired me to leave everything, but in order to be united with the Lord. They stood during mental prayer and advised everyone to stand in the conviction that the Lord is near and is listening, that is, to stand intelligently before the Lord and cry out to Him: I will seek my face for You, as the Prophet sings, I will seek Your face, O Lord (Ps. 26:8). When they say that it is necessary to drive away every thought, they always add: drive away every extraneous thought. With this we conclude the revision of the sixth letter, which has occupied us quite a bit. Let us now move on to the seventh letter. It is short and does not contain anything new. Its entire content consists of the following point: “The main thing is to walk in the darkness of faith, that is, in the complete absence of any thought, and not to become too attached to visions and revelations, no matter how spiritual they may seem, but to accept them, however, with gratitude and reverence.” We have already spoken about the darkness of faith. This is a phrase of the mystics and means something vague, like everything else with them. If one can give any good meaning to this expression, then it must be understood as devotion to the will of God. Walking in the darkness of faith will mean walking in devotion to the will of God. Faith, according to Patriarchy Callistus, is twofold: one is theoretical, which believes in dogmas; the other is active, which consists in confidence in God - in the fact that God will not leave those who cling to Him, but will keep them unharmed, and through the destinies will bring them into His eternal kingdom. But this is the essence of devotion to the will of God and humble submission to His orders regarding our fate. Patriarch Callistus expresses it this way: we mean faith that, by the testimony of the mind, confirms the heart to be undoubted in the communication of hope, which is distant from any opinion (hesitation). We also talked about visions. We have seen that Speransky’s idea of ​​visions does not agree with the teachings of his fathers. The Fathers say not to accept visions at all, but Speransky says: “not to cleave, but to accept them with gratitude,” and gives the following reason: “This is the Spirit of God; but the Spirit passing through the substance is not yet sufficiently purified. That is why the imprint it leaves is not yet clear enough.” One cannot speak so decisively and without restrictions about visions. We must not forget that there are visions - the fruit of a heated imagination, and there are visions - the charm of demons. Visions of grace are very rare and are arranged by the Spirit of God, in the form of spiritual education. Thus, there are visions from the Spirit of God; but we must be very careful in distinguishing them, for not far from us we have a dark master who knows how to take the form of a bright angel. And how many careless people died from indiscriminate trust in visions!... Letter eight deals with a very important subject - the origin of false mysticism, with instructions on how to avoid it. First let me say a few words. The true Christian life is a life hidden with Christ in God. It is mysterious both in its origin, and in the ways of maturation, and in its perfection. Therefore, not all mysticism is false. False mysticism comes from deviation from the right path of ascension to communion with God. The beginning of this path is repentance. The one who repents corrects all the paths of his life, and imposes rules on his soul and body, in all their powers and functions, the fulfillment of which kills and erases the evil that has been grafted onto them, and the good that is akin to them is nurtured and strengthened. All this together constitutes the order of a godly life. The regulator of everything is prudence, with the advice of experienced people. They establish all the rules in accordance with the character of the person and his external position. Walking in these routines constitutes an active life. Deviation from the right ascent of prayer to perfection is at the same time a deviation into false mysticism. It is not difficult to notice the place of this deviation, or the first point of departure into deviation: this is the transition from verbal prayer, according to ready-made prayers, to personal prayer, in other words, the transition from external prayer to internal, mental. To remove delusion from this point will mean to remove the deviation into false mysticism. The deviation into false mysticism among the sober ascetic fathers is called deviation into delusion. We have seen these deviations from rightness, on the path of movement from the outside to the inside... Some get stuck on the imagination, others stop on the mental doing. The true step is taken by those who, bypassing these stations, go to the heart and take refuge in it. But even here, error is still possible, because part of mental-heart prayer is self-made, laborious: and where we are, there is always the possibility of falling into delusion, just like into sin. Security begins when pure and unsweetened prayer is established in the heart, which is a sign of the overshadowing of the heart with tangible grace, for here feelings are formed that are trained in the judgment of good and evil. So, from the very beginning of the movement from outside to inside until this blissful moment, deviation into false mysticism is possible. How to avoid this misfortune? The fathers indicate one way for this: do not be left alone, find an experienced adviser and leader. If he is not there, get together, two or three, and be guided mutually in the light of the fatherly writings. I don’t know of any other way to avoid the errors of mysticism, except perhaps for the special grace-filled guidance that God’s chosen few were granted. But these are specifics: and we are talking about ways of life that are common to everyone. Now let's see what Speransky says about this. “Where do the delusions of false mysticism come from? From zeal for faith, uncleaned from pride. What is the means for this purification? Fasting, strict observation of your thoughts, battle with feelings, life of repentance. But all this is the activity of my own mind and heart, which must be put to death, and although the activity is, without a doubt, commendable, it is still an exercise, everything is the development of spiritual strength, everything is an opportunity and a reason for the same pride and self-love. Consequently, without rejecting active paths, it remains to conclude that prayer and mental prayer are the only completely safe path. Visions, deep and, apparently, inspired thoughts, are all thoughts, all exercises of the mind, and not its clinging, not its numbness in the one God.” Its main mistake is that a person is left alone on this gloomy and secretive path of inner life, especially when taking the first steps along it. For all the fathers who wrote guides to spiritual life, the first point in the rules for those entering the inner life is: to have a spiritual father-guide and to obey him. I will give here one or two of their speeches. The words of Simeon the New Theologian and Nicephorus the Monk about this have already been given, but here is what Gregory of Sinaite says: “Without a teacher, it is impossible to succeed in smart doing. What you do on your own, and not on the advice of those who have succeeded, gives rise to dangerous conceit. If the Son of God did not create anything about Himself, but as the Father taught Him, He did so, and the Holy Spirit did not speak about Himself, then who is this among us who has reached such a height of perfection that he no longer requires anyone else to guide him? This is pride, not virtue! Such a person is already in delusion, that is, he has entered on the false path of evasion into error.” And here are the words of Patriarch Callistus: “First of all, take care to find yourself a mentor and teacher who is not charming, and, having found him, completely surrender to him, like a loving son to your own father, walking steadily according to his commands and looking at him as at Christ Himself. Whoever wants to live on his own, that is, independently, without a mentor, according to the words of the Climacus, easily deviates into error and perishes, even if he has exhausted all the wisdom of this world. Those who do not walk with advice walk as if in a sleepy reverie; they sow much, but reap very little, and instead of wheat, alas! they gather up the tares." And in active life, rarely does anyone manage without stumbling, remaining with only their prudence. But here, at least, the harm is not so great: one thing done wrong, if necessary, and it’s easy to redo it or do it right another time. In smart doing, deviation from the right path gives its direction to everything internal, which cannot suddenly be changed. Some of these, as we have seen, become entangled in the networks of imagination, others stop at mental activity, or, according to Simeon the New Theologian, at the first and second degrees of attention and prayer or mental activity. And when they are entrenched in this system, the most experienced and most diligent mentor will hardly be able, if only he can, to knock them out or lure them out of these slums in which they imprison themselves, finding them extremely delightful. The rest of the eighth letter is of no importance to us. We leave it and move on to the others. The ninth letter contains good thoughts about reading St. Scriptures; but there are also provisions that cannot be ignored. “The study of Scripture,” writes Speransky, in the way you do it, that is, the development of its meanings not by the effort of the mind, but by prayerful reflection alone, is, in my opinion, after pure contemplation, the most holy and most useful exercise. It must be replaced with this: the development of various applications of the considered passages of Scripture for one’s edification. “If we, continues Speransky, were free to choose between various gifts of grace, I would stop at this and prefer it to all visions, even the gift of prophecy itself, for it gives less room to self-love, and therefore is less dangerous and more consistent with Christian humility. You constantly feel on a leash, more suffering, more subordinate to a given and established authority. The Church is here to correct errors as we fall into them. But, while indulging in this exercise, one must be very careful not to become attached to distant interpretations.” Great rules! God willing, all smart and educated people would follow them! But what follows must be specified. Doesn’t the meaning of Scripture change with the spiritual age of the reader? It is not the meaning that changes, but its application, or, with its assistance, insight into the spiritual realm. The stronger in spirit extracts the best thoughts for his edification from a certain place, or further gains insight and is more likely to survey the circle of spiritual objects with his help than the weaker; the meaning of the place is all the same. “Scripture,” says Speransky, is a book for the instruction of everyone, adapted to all spiritual states. As these states change, its meaning changes, and although the essence is always the same, the applications vary indefinitely. This is why we notice that St. the fathers gave different explanations to the same place, depending on the times and degrees of their spiritual life, and depending on the development of their learning.” The Holy Fathers did not give different explanations to one and the same passage, but made various applications to them for the edification of those being taught; the meaning of places was recognized as uniform and unchanging. Under this only condition of unity of understanding of the revealed Scripture, they are the fathers and teachers of the Church. “So, do not find it strange if, during your labors, you happen to have different views regarding the same facts, and always accept your daily bread with gratitude, without being attached to one form in preference to another. You need to maintain this form as long as it holds on its own; but if another, clearer one presents itself, we should not stubbornly reject it, because the only reason is that we have already accepted another form. Systematic consistency, a strict order of thoughts, so praised in human sciences, have no place here; for it’s all a matter of feeling, or, better, spiritual growth.” “Among many things,” Speransky concludes, that are truly beautiful, two considerations in particular struck me: the explanation of the population census prescribed by Augustus, and the history of the massacre of infants. There is no doubt that these facts contradict everything that the most reliable history has left us. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to look for an allegorical meaning here.” Said too soon and too strongly. I was too lazy to think and rushed into an allegory. This is what mystics always do. On the contrary, both ancient and modern interpreters of Scripture, persons of solid education, do not find these events to contradict historical data, and the misunderstandings that arise are resolved very satisfactorily for the unprejudiced. Allegory in these and similar cases, if recognized as the only way of explanation, weakens the meaning of Scripture and undermines faith in its immutable truth. That Speransky’s friend came up with something cunning is not surprising: it is in the spirit of the Lutherans, and especially the Germans. But how Speransky agreed with this is amazing! We are born in a state of damage; in the baptismal font we are reborn by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ for a new, spiritual life. The damage consists in the fact that the spirit, having fallen away from God, fell under the dominion of the soul, and the soul under the dominion of the body. In rebirth, the strength of the spirit is restored and dominion over the soul returns to it, and through the soul over the body. The life of the regenerate must take place in the transformation of soul and body according to the requirements of the spirit, or in their spiritualization. “The mystery of our redemption consists in the transformation of the spiritual into the spiritual, or, as some St. the fathers call it, in the transfiguration, and St. Paul is even more expressive: in leading everyone in Christ; and this leadership or transformation begins in this very life, in this very dead body of ours, and is accomplished.” The essence of life in Christ Jesus, spiritual life, consists in the transformation of the soul-body into spirituality, or in the spiritualization of soul and body. The moment from which this spiritualization begins is the birth in the heart of a persistent warm prayer to the Lord - a sign of its combination with the Lord. The heart is the root of life and all its manifestations. When it is dominated by the spirit, then through it the spirit naturally begins to penetrate the entire composition of our nature and spiritualize it; then the mind begins to be saturated with Divine truth, completely imbued with it, in all its volume; the will - with holy moods and dispositions, all the virtues; the heart - with holy feelings; at the same time, the body becomes self-controlled, hardworking, lively, cheerful, chaste. Where all this is there, the fallen one is completely restored. “The existence of this world is an episode in the great work of creation - a necessary episode, but not the goal and not the end of the poem. It is necessary because spirituality, freedom and the possibility of falling are one and the same thing.” The current way of being of the world is definitely an episode. It would not have existed if there had not been a fall. But it is not necessary, just as the fall is not necessary. Created freedom presupposes not just the possibility of a fall, but also the possibility of non-fall; otherwise it would not be freedom. Therefore, it denies the necessity of the fall, and at the same time the necessity of the present way of being of the world. What would have happened if there had not been a fall, we cannot guess, but everything would not be as it is. For now everything is adapted to the sub-punishment state of a person who bears penance for his fall. And then everything would be in accordance with the state of inviolable fidelity to the will of God. “Turning to spiritual prayer, I will also talk with you about its properties. As we practice and get used to it, it becomes clear that it seems to stop the flow of our mental strength - and to the question of what we were thinking about when we prayed in this way, we do not find an answer in ourselves, for indeed at this time we do not think about anything, do not imagine anything and do not remember anything: for remembering, imagining and thinking is a matter of the soul, not the spirit.” “Eastern fathers call this state silence, and Western fathers call it suspension des facultes de Fame. And that is why this prayer is called spiritual. It is prayer in spirit and truth; and not what some, however pious people, mean by this. Briefly, it consists in the absence of everything that is called any concept, everything that is not the spirit of Christ: for the spirit has neither concepts nor words.” Silence among the Eastern Fathers is one of the types of monastic life - hermitism, when someone lives alone; or sometimes together. They call the state of mental-heart prayer sobriety, attention, work hidden in Christ, etc. Again there is talk about the retreat of everything, or about emptiness. Speransky thinks that during mental prayer consciousness rests on nothing or emptiness, so that nothing can be discerned inside. Not at all like that: at this time, ordinary mental movements stop, but not spiritual actions. Here the spirit is in power, but in itself it is not empty and stands before God, Who is everything. Having deepened in the presence of God, the mind contemplates God, worships Him and confesses His Godly properties and actions. Even in a state of captivity or admiration of the mind into contemplation, this captivity is always accomplished under the influence of a certain spiritual object. The Apostle Paul was caught up, but not into emptiness, but saw and heard there, but could not express it, or found it inappropriate. “The immovable traces of this prayer are hidden in almost all religions, excluding those that the spirit of this world has completely distorted and disfigured. They pray to it in India and here in the Sarov desert: for in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, but a new creation (Gal. 3:28, 6:15). If he begins to zealously live according to the spirit of his faith, he can only reach that point of perfection to which his own natural gifts and the methods that his religion offers can bring him. In Christianity, Divine grace is attracted to natural man, which remakes him entirely in the image of the Creator, and makes his life hidden with Christ in God. No other religion can give this. The spiritual prayer in question is the fruit of Divine grace in us; therefore, it is possible only among Christians. You won’t find it among the Indians, although perhaps you will find something similar to it. And kukul looks like wheat, but is not wheat. It is true that there is neither Jew nor Greek... in Christ Jesus (Gal.3:28); but only when they believe in the Lord, and through St. baptism will become members of the Church of Christ, then they will become equal with all those who have joined the Lord; and without this, a Jew is a Jew, and a Greek is a Hellenic. This passage only says that no faith in the world prevents anyone from becoming a Christian and being worthy of all the benefits bestowed upon believers in Christ Jesus our Lord. Letters from Speransky to F.I. Zeier Russian archive. Historical and literary collection. 1870. We have been thinking together for so long that it is still impossible for me, dear friend, to give up this habit. Until the time of our separation, our state was essentially only a state of reflection and mental prayer. All of our spirituality actually boiled down to theosophy. It also includes the works of Boehm, S. Martin, Swedenborg, etc. It's just the alphabet. I spent ten years studying it, and when I thought I had mastered everything, I worked only on the rudiments. This was the threshold of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, which is within us (in other words, the inner Word or contemplative prayer, or pure love), is revealed only when all reflections, all reasoning about heavenly objects become dry, boring, tasteless, and when, however, in the depths of your soul you feel a more or less strong attraction to the pursuit of the divine. Then you should give up mental prayer (thinking, reflecting, reasoning about God) and gradually get used to being in communication with God apart from all images, all reflection, and all tangible movements of thought. Then it seems that everything is silent in the soul: you don’t think about anything; the mind and memory fade and do not represent anything definite; the will alone meekly clings to the idea of ​​God, an idea which seems indefinite because it is unconditional and because it does not rest on anything in particular. Then you enter the darkness of faith. Then you know nothing more and wait for any light directly from above, and if you persist in this expectation, then this light descends and the Kingdom of God is revealed. But what is the Kingdom of God, what does it consist of? No one can describe it to you or give you an idea about it. You feel it, but it is incommunicable. Jesus Christ himself describes the Kingdom of God only in parables and similitudes. In this state, the inner word begins to be heard; This state is actually called the state of grace. This state is the outcome of the teaching of Jesus Christ; and only this state He came to announce and prepare for us. Everything that precedes this state (what I call the alphabet) constitutes the domain of John the Baptist, who prepares the path, but is not the path. This same state is called mystical theology proper. This is not book teaching. The teacher in him is God Himself, and He communicates His teaching to the soul directly, without words and in a way that cannot be explained in words. This theology is mystical not because it contains secrets hidden from the crowd, but because the feelings it arouses in the soul and the truths it reveals are completely incommunicable, and there are no words to explain them. This is an apocalyptic letter that can only be read by the one who receives it. What to do in order to achieve this state? One should 1) recognize oneself as the greatest sinner and the greatest ignoramus; 2) one should try to gradually renounce all property: a) from material property; b) from mental property, i.e., one should never allow oneself to reason about celestial objects; c) from the property of memory, expelling from it every image of celestial objects. December 22, 1814. (Velkopolye) Doubt and external religion are two paths to piety. Having the good fortune to go through these paths, you find yourself, or, more precisely, consider yourself inside the church, you realize that there is an internal religion, a purer worship of God, and you rejoice at this discovery. Let us dwell a little on the assessment of this condition; Let's see what kind of light it gives us, what feelings it arouses in us and what influence it has on our actions. Light . Considering with some rigor the sum of information that you possess in this state, you find that they all boil down to one truth, namely, that Jesus Christ is in us, a truth of course great, but which can remain fruitless if it does not turn into a prevailing feeling and remains uncultivated. In this case, everything is limited to readings that reproduce before us the same truth from different points of view, that is, you constantly turn in the same circle of thoughts that are true in essence, but fruitless in their application. Meanwhile, you convince yourself that you are moving forward and, by natural error, from the variety of points of view you conclude that you are expanding and multiplying your information. Meanwhile, all questions about the Incarnation, about the suffering, about death, about the resurrection of Jesus Christ remain unresolved, or you try to reconcile them through allegorical interpretations and systems, more or less witty and, if in the end you are still immersed in doubts, you assure yourself that you are walking in the darkness of faith: this great word, poorly understood and even worse applied, answers everything and reassures about everything. Feelings. Careful diligence in devotional reading naturally produces a change in prayer. She becomes meeker, or hotter, or more independent, that is, she turns from verbal to intelligent. There is no doubt that she has improved; but soon cooling, evasion and absent-mindedness set in, and therefore anxiety: you know that these are internal crosses and you try to bear them to the best of your ability; but you cannot hide your poverty from yourself with grace, and all you can do is not leave the path you are following. Pride, perhaps more than any other motive, keeps us there. Actions. Behavior generally becomes more correct, conscience more sensitive; weaknesses are represented as vices, vices as crimes; but you don’t go deep enough into your heart; you recognize yourself as a great sinner, but at the same time you say to yourself: such is man; and, thus generalizing your depravity, you remove it with a cunning twist of your pride, hide it from yourself, and the life-giving fire of repentance only slides over the ulcer. This is the most deplorable misconception. Let's summarize: little light, constant contradiction in feelings, a lot of impurity in actions: this is the state that I call the state of languor. Longing is its true name, because you feel unable to retreat, too weak to go forward and yet unhappy, remaining in place. Sitting near the font, you spend years exclaiming: “No man is an imam!” Oh, when the salvation of Israel will come to throw us into this life-giving font! How does He, received by us into Himself, allow us to languish in this way? He is within us: but we ourselves are not there. And so, we need to return there. Enough reading, need to act; It’s enough to watch others walk: you need to walk yourself. The first step is to enter into oneself, the second step is repentance, the third is Communion. This time, I will talk to you only about these three exercises. Removal from the world. To be alone in the world is a property of perfect beings, to which we should not have claims. Periodic removals are necessary. Dedicate one, two weeks to removal - I want to say to the strictest solitude. Strangeness, decency - all this is nonsense in comparison with salvation. Use this time solely to consider yourself, without any admixture of theoretical reflections. You have been thinking long and hard: it’s time for us to discuss ourselves. Carry out an investigation on yourself from three main points of view - civil, moral and religious. It is not enough to condemn oneself in general terms - the great mistake of ordinary confessions - one must go down to the smallest details. You need to have the courage to face all the ugly forms of your lawlessness. I rely too much on the goodness of Our Savior and on the grace already abiding in us, not to hope that your gaze will not be averted by the twists of pride, and that you will have enough strength to see yourself as you are. Do not leave this crucible until you are convinced that the villain, dragged into prison, tormented by public execution, is a kind of saint in comparison with all of us, people of goodness and inner piety, who have claims to grace and to communion with Jesus Christ (you will easily be imbued with this truth, both bitter and saving). In this analysis, one should beware of one stumbling block: when judging oneself, one should not judge others - one should stick to one’s own personality and leave all comparisons to the One who knows the hearts. Repentance. When you feel penetrated, torn apart in the consciousness of your lawlessness, then you understand for the first time what true repentance is. A broken heart is not a metaphorical expression, it is a true and positive feeling: you feel how it is crushed, erased into dust. Don't be afraid to squish it too much; on the contrary, break it completely, testifying publicly, so to speak, to this inner repentance: I want to say, confessing to the church, that is, to the priest, who in some way is the representative, authorized by all our believing brethren, known and unknown, visible and invisible, living and dead, constituting in the mystical and true sense, the body of Jesus Christ. I am not afraid to assert that inner repentance, no matter how ardent it may be, will always be incomplete without this formal confession (unless there are insurmountable obstacles). Communion. In communion, Jesus Christ truly unites with us. He is always in us and this presence is called grace; This is the true meaning of this expression, so little known to the scribes of our age, although we do not feel It; but we must feel Him within ourselves, and in order to excite or revive this feeling, Holy Communion was established. Those who claim that, due to constant and continuous communication, they can do without this special combination, are deeply mistaken. For, firstly, constant communication presupposes a high degree of holiness, and who would be bold enough to ascribe it to himself? Further, even assuming that this continuous communication exists, this other, deliberate and symbolic communication will only revive and strengthen it. So, in any case, it is extremely useful and necessary. Add to these arguments that your church provides such great conveniences to this exercise that it is unforgivable not to use them. It would be unnecessary to warn you about another danger - dryness of the heart. I'm not saying that everything is done as soon as you reach this state of tangible communication. Oh, no, much remains to be done to achieve another communication, which is no longer perceptible, but transcendental, detached not only from every image, but from every thought - a communication almost inexplicable in words, although very real. But to get there, you need to go through tangible communication. When you are once firmly established in it, then you will either no longer need my advice (for He will lead you Himself) or, if He still wants to act, through me, then He will give me ways to do so. Oh, what great things He will reveal to you! Your insides will then literally tremble with joy. Believe me, during our separation, you and I ate only milk. The bread of the strong has a completely different taste, although it is composed of the same principles. May the grace of Our Lord be with you, my friend. This time I will tell you only a few individual thoughts as they are given to me. Grace, which excites so many theoretical disputes, is a very simple thing for feelings. She is precisely this presence of Our Lord within us. Without Me you can do nothing: this is the principle of grace. In this sense, too, the Apostles and the first Christians called Jesus Christ simply Lord. Can the most brilliant proof of mathematical truth compare in obviousness with the effects of grace when the heart is opened to it by repentance? As far as I can tell, everything is going well in your development. As for me, an old, worn-out wineskin, unworthy to contain the new wine poured into it, I am always ready to pour into your soul everything that will be given to me for you. Obey your confessor exactly, especially regarding Communion. How happy you are that you can receive communion every month! He does not know what the Son is who does not turn to His Mother in his prayers 2. He also does not know what the One Holy One is who does not worship Him in all His saints. Different types of prayer are not provided for our choice. These are different outflows of the same grace. It is a mistake to think, says St. Teresa, that prayer, even purely verbal, if only it is sincere and submissive, is not sufficient to bring us to great perfection. Verbal prayer is when we follow the words of others with our thoughts; she is smart when we mentally follow our own words. There are always words here, because one cannot think without words. In the first case, they are given to us, and in the second, they are invented by us ourselves. So, the difference is not very big. In purely contemplative prayer, words, like thoughts themselves, disappear: but not because you want it, but because it happens by itself. But the great secret of perfection lies in remaining faithful to one’s grace in all these states, says St. Francis, your patron. Here is a marvelous means for driving away bad thoughts, preventing absent-mindedness, maintaining oneself constantly in the presence of Our Lord, and even for preparing from afar for the gift of contemplation, a means to which the best of the ancient ascetics (nawafids, ascetic workers) resorted and has been preserved in our Greek Church - this is to accustom oneself, whenever you do not engage in mental work or correct prayer (on walks, for example, in society, etc.) to repeating mentally or through clenched teeth the words Lord have mercy, but repeating them non-stop and continuously. This habit is acquired quite quickly. This technique is truly amazing, I would say magical, if such a word were appropriate here. This is better than all speculation regarding the highest truths of faith, unless these speculations are given to us without any effort on our part, but as if by inspiration: for then, and only then, should we indulge in them. It is especially useful to fall asleep with this little exercise on your lips or in your thoughts. Now, knowing where to find us, I will gradually note everything that will be suggested to me for you. Do not fail to inform me from time to time about your inner state, and especially about your heart dryness, for this, on the path to the cross, is the most essential. May the grace of Our Lord be with you. R.S. Basnage would be better. All Joseph entered into him. But Prideaux is also good. In the New Testament, study the letters of St. Pavel. They constitute a kind of introduction to the Gospel, which is incomparably higher and more difficult. Wielkopolye, 22 Jan. 1816 3. Your remarks are very correct: people who claim that the spirit of the Kingdom of God is incompatible with the principles of political societies are mistaken. Isn't power a kind of priesthood? What is the anointing of the Sovereigns? And if people so often desecrated it and mocked it, does it follow that this institution was not Divine? Did not Saul himself receive the gift of prophecy after this action? Is it possible to doubt the reality of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the anointed person, if only they are capable of receiving it? And, having received this outpouring, can, should the Sovereign limit its action to his private behavior and allow himself, when governing the state, other, often opposite, beginnings of activity? Essentially the question comes down to whether we recognize the reality of inspiration and sanctification. For, once we have recognized this reality, we must recognize that this inspiration should be the surest guide in all vocations. In my opinion, the essence of the Holy Union of Sovereigns lies in the obligation and in the firm intention to sanctify oneself and to act only in accordance with this sanctification. If they associate other thoughts with it, or if over time they distort its meaning: then this act will turn into nothing, will even become disastrous for their peoples and even more so for themselves. He will open the door to all abuses of arbitrary power. But why tarnish an institution so sacred with such terrible assumptions! Are they not sufficiently refuted by the moral character of the Sovereigns? No, I am firmly convinced that the final apostasy, that the great final appearance of the Man of Lawlessness, will be preceded (and this at a considerable distance) by a great outpouring of the spirit of grace. We are not allowed to determine either the manner or the time of this outpouring; but as for time, we are of course allowed to expect it every minute, to collect omens, to perceive the slightest signs. These signs may deceive us; but it is enough that our lamps are lit, and that we are ready to go to meet the Bridegroom. The small humiliation of a mistake will also work to our advantage. As for the methods, who can doubt that the strong impression made on the minds of the government could be a very effective method? I do not know a single state issue that could not be reduced to the spirit of the Gospel. Everything, down to the tariff itself, can be considered and processed in this spirit, and under his guidance. Jimenez, St. Bernard, St. Louis. Didn't the Alfreds draw abundantly from this source? Did they create for themselves other principles for governing states? It is true that the expressions of the Union Act are not sufficiently precise; for example, Jesus Christ cannot be called the head of all, even of infected members; for He is the head of one body, which is His Church; the kingdom is not the Church of the truly faithful; but why be attached to the form, contrary to the spirit and general direction of this act? I would gladly send you a copy of my letter 4, but in truth, it’s almost not worth it; besides, it’s a day to rewrite. But for no reason in the world would I want to tell it to either the author (?) or even my friend S. The word profanation is most appropriate here. Speaking of S., I warn you that he was offended by your restraint. Please try to calm him down. This cooling can go further than you and I could wish for. Although he falls and is indignant, I do not despair of him. However, all those who are dissatisfied will now become bitter against religion. They will attribute all their disappointments, all their personal shortcomings to her. The Prince of Darkness is too skillful to miss such a wonderful opportunity to inflame passions and turn vanity into apostasy. You filled my soul with joy with your few words about unceasing prayer. There is nothing more valid than this sacrament of conception. May the grace of Our Lord be with you, and may He deign to unite in you with Himself through Holy Communion. Wielkopolye, March 9, 1816. Finally, after so many delays, I am sending you these Lives of the Saints. I have a habit of making notes when reading books of this kind, and my laziness in writing prevents me from finishing reading quickly. I ask you to thank your good sister on my behalf for this truly edifying reading. I can’t think about her without somehow regretting the flock that scattered after the defeat of the shepherd. But the Lord will provide for this. Everything that I have ever read about the heights of the most sublime contemplation, both in Latin and in French, I recently found all of this extensively set out and explained in an ascetic book, translated from Greek into Slavic, and published by the Synod in 1793 under the title On Philokalia, through the intercession and efforts of the abbot of the Valaam monastery. This book is sold and circulated everywhere. This is how true it is that the Lord will never lack workers, and while the world seems to us almost mired in the abyss of iniquity, His garden is cultivated, growing and prospering, and His kingdom is slowly but surely approaching. This idea of ​​humble and unknown workers, but faithful, active, gifted with all the powers of wisdom and grace, has something so attractive to me that I never dwell on it without drawing great consolations from it. This book, however, in essence is nothing more than a presentation, other and very detailed, of the origin and great fruits of the prayer Lord have mercy, which is called the prayer of the spirit, prayer without images, mystical prayer, etc. Until then, may the Lord confirm you in this path, and may His grace be with you forever. Penza. 11th September 1817. I hasten, dear friend, to tell you my opinion about what you write to me in your last letter about the circumstances of your spiritual life. Since you honor me with the title of your spiritual father, although I do not deserve this, please accept my comments in the same spirit of love and simplicity in which I make them. I will speak to you without communication and only in the face of your Lord. First of all, I join you in thanking the Lord for the mercies with which He is pleased to shower you, for this is truly mercy. Remember, however, that St. Theresa and other saints prayed for deliverance from the visions. No matter how detached they are from the earthly, no matter how spiritual they are, some forms are always mixed in with them. You should never allow yourself to become too deeply contemplative when you are in front of people, even in church. In particular, one should never allow the inner feeling to spread to the body and influence it. No one is obliged to do the impossible; but first of all you must prove this impossibility to yourself. Through this you acquire bad spiritual habits, the consequences of which are often dangerous. And don’t even think about telling me that you cannot abstain from this, or that this would mean resisting the action of the Holy Spirit. Firstly, you can abstain from this, for you can always descend from the heights of contemplation, gradually transferring your attention to mental prayer or focusing it on the meaning of the prayers of the church. This deviation in no way impedes the action of the Holy Spirit and does not limit it in the least: only the direction of this action changes. The teaching of St. Paul is positive about this. Read carefully chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. Here we are talking about the well-known Form of action of St. The Spirit, which the believers of this church sought preferentially over all others; it consisted in speaking in foreign languages ​​(this is a kind of insanity or ecstasy, actually revealed by the use of languages ​​unknown to those who speak them). So what? He forbids them this gift, although he himself ranks it among the true gifts of the Holy Spirit, and forbids him solely because of the inconvenience of using it in the church, in which he can cause confusion. He advises them to reserve this gift for their solitary exercises, and in the church to use only the gift of prophecy. Moreover, he even forbids them to prophesy otherwise than by observing the order of the order, and prevents all objections similar to those that you could make when uttering the great word that the very spirits of prophecy are subject to the prophets. Following this great authority come all the examples, all the practice of the contemplative Saints. Their constant teaching on this subject is that in public one should never allow one's inner feelings to spill outward. You will find this in Mulaval’s treatise, as I find it in a hundred places in my Philokalia. Not only in essence, but also in form, it is useful, worthy of true humility, to follow the good practice and sound tradition of our true spiritual fathers. I remember that I told you something about this in conversations; I will remind you here of this Form in a few words. 1) In order to enter into contemplation, they seek solitude, that is, the most remote corner of their room. 2) There they take the most comfortable position, that is, they simply sit down, cross their arms under their chests, and direct their gaze to some part of their body, namely the navel (this is where one of the names given to them comes from). Experience has shown them all the benefits of this position, which protects them at the same time from sleep and from being entertained by outside light, but they are careful not to close their eyes - they remain motionless. 3) They start with “Lord have mercy,” but for them, like you, this soon stops. Fire, once lit, burns by itself, and no one knows what it feeds on. This is the secret. You find “Lord have mercy” again in your thoughts only at the moment when you come to your senses. 4) They remain in this state not as long as they want, but as long as it lasts. Its duration varies greatly; There were cases when it lasted more than two days in a row, without food or drink. 5) Here they sometimes see what they call the light of Tabor (a technical term dedicated to the only visions of this kind). I don’t know what it is; but I know positively that this vision is much purer, much more spiritual than our ordinary visions. It is completely inexpressible in words, but ours are more or less defined; consequently, the degree, although true, is much lower than this vision, differing, perhaps, by only one step from the actual so-called vision of God. 6) I will not be able to describe to you as reliably the way they behave in the church; but from their teaching I have reason to conclude that they limit themselves to mental prayer, allowing themselves to plunge into the abyss of contemplation only so much as to, so to speak, stand with one foot in communion with all believers, who are not all contemplatives. It is true that they never allowed themselves either tremors or ecstasies, things, I tell you, of a lower order, which we can and must suppress, and if they got the better of them, we should urgently pray to the Lord for their cessation. For imagine that there were many contemplatives in the church, excited in this way: what would it be if not a meeting of shakers (true demoniacs)? This is the question of St. Paul in the above chapter. Shall I tell you about my own miserable experience, next to these great examples? It's so insignificant. In Perm, for some time I experienced something similar to what you are experiencing, but it did not last long. Since then, the form of my contemplation has always been a great emptiness, the absence of any image and any thought. This, I believe, is the same as yours. But the fruits of this state simply amount to great calm during the day, to a kind of sweetness, constant, although not strong. This is about feelings; As for the enlightenment of the mind, there is some ease in understanding well-known passages of the Gospel, and an unexpected understanding of certain features in the life of Our Lord; in church the reverence is sometimes significant, more often a state of contemplation, less deep, less silent than when I am alone, which completely allows me to follow the service and strictly observe all our customs. Do not think that I want to narrow down all the actions of the Holy Spirit and reduce them to this single form. Oh no! I am convinced that His actions are countless both in their degrees and in material applications; but I ask, I beg you not to give in to the tangible spilling of the spirit throughout your body, especially in church. The body must be in it as a deaf-mute servant; it is unworthy to take any part here, unless it were completely impossible for you to hold back the flows of grace. So, for example, with this healing, which I consider absolutely miraculous, and for which, together with you, I thank the Lord. May His grace be with you forever. A few words, dear friend, about the phenomena of your spiritual life. I rejoice every time I read your notes. The last one in particular brought me great comfort. The main thing is to walk in the darkness of faith, that is, in the complete absence of any thought, and not to become too attached to visions and revelations, no matter how spiritual they may seem, but to accept them with gratitude and reverence. Your own experience has already shown you that the true meaning of these visions is subject to different interpretations; therefore, we are not yet enlightened enough to be guided by them. This is the Spirit of God; but the Spirit passing through a substance that has not yet been sufficiently purified. That is why the imprint it leaves is not yet clear enough. What you say about the difference between prophetic visions is absolutely true. Farewell, may He, whose wisdom is the wisdom of children, be with you forever. Penza. 26th June 1818 I resume, my dear Franz Ivanovich, the reflections interrupted yesterday. Where do all the delusions of false mysticism come from? - From jealousy in faith, uncleaned from pride. What is the means for this purification? – Fasting, strict observation of one’s thoughts, battle with feelings, a life of repentance. But all this is the activity of my own mind and heart, which must mortify, and although the activity is undoubtedly commendable, all exercise, all the development of mental strength, everything is an accident and a reason for the same pride and self-love. Consequently, without rejecting active paths, it remains to conclude that prayer and mental prayer are the only completely safe path. Vision, deep and apparently inspired thoughts, are all thoughts, all an exercise of the mind, and not its clinging, not its numbness in the one God. If Mr. Labzin had known and preached this prayer: then, firstly, he would not have written even a tenth of what he wrote, and secondly, he would sooner have come and lead others to the truth. He would never have dreamed that he was sent from God to build a new spiritual church: for he would then know that this church was founded and created, and perfected without us, by our only Lord I. Christ. With all this, I repeat that I do not believe even the slightest part of the story that was brought up on him, I do not believe either the initiations or the sacraments supposedly established by him: but I believe that in his conversations with the monk he really could shake the weakness of his brain. May the Lord protect us from these meteors; that's what St. Paul calls them. Farewell, my dear. I kiss you with a holy kiss, in Our Lord alone. I read with pleasure and with true edification your exercises on Sacred History. I will first tell you a few words about these studies in general and then about the variety of meanings of Scripture. Studying the Scriptures in the way you do it, that is, developing its meanings not through the efforts of the mind, but through prayerful reflection alone, is, in my opinion, after pure contemplation, the most holy and most useful exercise. If we were free to choose between the various gifts of grace, I would stop at this, and prefer it to all visions, even to the gift of prophecy itself: for it gives less scope to self-love and is therefore less dangerous and more consistent with Christian humility. You constantly feel on a leash, more suffering, more subordinate to a given and established authority. The Church is here to correct errors as we fall into them. But when indulging in this exercise, one must be very careful not to become attached to interpretations that are too distant. I explain: Scripture is a book for the instruction of everyone, adapted to all spiritual states. As these states change, its meaning changes, and although the essence is always the same, the applications vary indefinitely. That is why we notice that the Holy Fathers gave different explanations to the same place, depending on the times and degrees of their spiritual life and depending on the development of their disciples. So, do not find it strange if during your labors you happen to have different views regarding the same facts, and always accept your daily bread with gratitude, without being attached to one form in preference to another. We must preserve this form as long as it holds on its own; but if another, clearer one presents itself, we should not stubbornly reject it, because the only reason is that we have already accepted another. Systematic consistency, a strict order of thoughts, so praised in human sciences, have no place here. For it’s all a matter of feeling or, more precisely, spiritual growth. Let me return to the essence of your exercises. Among many things that were truly beautiful, two considerations particularly struck me: the explanation of the population registration prescribed by Augustus, and the history of the massacre of the infants. There is no doubt that these facts contradict everything that history has left us with the most reliable history. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to look for an allegorical meaning here, and the one that was suggested to you seems excellent to me. This designation was made by the hand of F.N. Tseyer. F.I. Tseyer was of Lutheran confession. Sl. R. Arch. 1867, 444–454. That is, to Sovereign Alexander Pavlovich about the Holy Alliance, already published by Baron M. A. Korf in the Russian Archive 1867. You might be interested in: