Мысли о разных предметах веры

Self-examination and knowledge of sinfulness Everyone, go inside yourself and begin, first of all, to examine your life and everything that was faulty in it. Of course, everyone says about himself that he is a sinner, and not only says, but often feels like such; but this sinfulness of ours appears to us in a vague and indefinite form. This is not enough. True repentance and proper confession require definitely clarifying to ourselves what exactly is unclean and sinful in us and to what extent - recognizing our sins clearly and separately, as if numerically. To do this, this is what they advise you to do: put, on the one hand, the law of God, and on the other, your own life, and see in what ways they are similar and in what ways they are not similar. Take your own affairs and bring them under the law of God to see whether they are legal; or take the law and see if it is fulfilled as it should in your life. For example: you were insulted - and took revenge; Is this what Christian law says? You see the mistakes of others and condemn them; Is this so according to the commandments of the Lord? If you do something good, you stand tall or blow a trumpet before you; Is it permissible for a Christian to do this? Or: the law commands to go to church without laziness and to stand reverently in church - in attention and prayer; are you doing this? The law commands not to lust, not to be angry, not to envy, not to appropriate someone else’s property, etc.; has all this been accomplished? In order not to miss anything in this important matter of self-testing, it is good to maintain some kind of order in it. For example: imagine as clearly as possible all your responsibilities - in relation to God, your neighbors and yourself; and then review your life as accurately and in detail as possible - in all these relationships. Or: go through the commandments of the Decalogue one by one, with all the private instructions contained in them, and see if you have fulfilled everything they require? Read also or remember the Savior’s Discourse on the Mount, where He explains the law, filling it with the Christian spirit, or the Apostolic Epistles, where deeds and dispositions obligatory for Christians are set forth, for example: Romans - from the 12th chapter, Ephesians - from the 4th, James, John the Theologian and others. Look at all this as if in a mirror, and you will see where in you there is what stain and what ugliness. As a result of such a review of life, it will be revealed - among our deeds, words, feelings, thoughts, desires - many that are either directly opposite to the law, or semi-legal, that is, those whose intentions are impure, even though they are outwardly consistent with the law; or omitted ones, which should have been, but we did not want to fulfill them; a great many of all this will gather, and - perhaps - the whole life will turn out to be made up of only bad deeds, like an unbroken chain, or a continuous series, of ugly and disgusting products. External things are done in repentance. But it shouldn't stop there. We must go further along the path of recognizing our sinfulness - going deeper into our sinful heart. Under deeds and words, under private thoughts, desires and feelings, there lie permanent dispositions of the heart that serve as their source. The totality of these dispositions constitutes a person’s “personality” and determines his character. That is why they especially need to be defined; there is not much work here: our conscientiousness before ourselves will not allow us to hide what our heart is clothed with and what rulers live in it; or else you can tangibly point out a witness about this, namely: what bad deeds are often repeated by us and break out with such force that we cannot control ourselves?.. This means that they have a root in the heart; there must be hidden their constant producer, that is, their corresponding inclination or passion. What particular passion dominates me, preventing my repentance and keeping me in the shackles of sin? This can be recognized by the following signs: everything that is most difficult for us to part with, what our heart is most accustomed to comforting, what we most dream about both in reality and in dreams, what we especially try to hide not only from others, but also from ourselves, what is most difficult to admit to our spiritual father, what we especially do not want to announce in confession - all this obviously dominates us and holds us captive; In all this, there is an inner serpent hiding, which poisons us with its poison. It is precisely against this mental illness that all efforts and all spiritual vigilance should be directed. He who does not conquer his dominant passion will never correct himself and be free from sins. With every impulse to ascend to the mountain, the dominant passion attracts and throws down. So, what is my dominant passion? It is known that the root of all evil is self-love. From self-love come pride, selfishness and passion for pleasure, and from them come all other passions. Everyone who sins has them all, but not everyone has them to the same degree. For one, pride predominates, for another, self-interest, and for the third, passion for pleasure. And the proud is not alien to selfish views and pleasures, but easily sacrifices them when they can humiliate him. And the selfish is ready to amuse himself if it costs him nothing, and so on. So in everyone one passion dominates, while others stand, as it were, in the shadow. It is this dominant passion that must be seen and defined, so that one can then act on it more decisively. One holy father says: “The Lord demands from you the restoration of chastity, and you give out alms and build almshouses and chapels - first correct the first, and the second will be pleasant.” It is easy to recognize the private vices that someone suffers from. If, for example, someone, pointing at another, in one case says: “Look what he’s doing!”, in another repeats with annoyance: “What an incongruity!”, Or shows a mocking face, and generally speaks more willingly and more about the actions of others, and from an unfavorable side, it is not difficult for him to guess that he suffers from the ungodly vice of condemnation, etc. And we must go even further in knowing ourselves. After all, we need to determine the general spirit of our life, or one distinctive feature of it. Who do we serve: the Lord or ourselves and sin? What do we mean – ourselves or the Lord – His glory, pleasing Him? For whom do we always stand – for the name of God or for ourselves? But only our conscience can say this, in secret, before the face of the Lord. Ask her. Deeds, even good ones, are not proof that we serve the Lord, for we can do them for our own sake. This trait determines what we are and what we should therefore expect. Self-knowledge is headed, or completed, by the knowledge of this trait. So, finally, the whole picture of our sinfulness and the whole history of our sinful life will be imagined: deeds, feelings, dispositions and the main spirit of life. To those troubled by unclean thoughts Stopping, that is, not allowing yourself to do shameful things anymore, is the same as mowing down the weeds. The grass is mown, but the roots remain. As soon as circumstances are favorable, the weeds will grow again. So it is with us, if we only stop things without blocking their source, then as soon as chance arises, things will appear again. – These are all our confessions, and not without the intention to stop sinning, but not accompanied by stopping the source of sin. One cannot remain in this position; the further it goes, the worse it will become, and finally the desire for proper functioning will cease. This will not be a state of despair, but of hopelessness... When the feelings of repentance are sincere and the desire to improve is genuine, then it is very convenient to correct the matter with these feelings and dispositions. After all, you can’t move mountains. There are two or three things that need to be put into action immediately and continued... and everything will work out like clockwork. You need to roughly imagine your inner self from that side exclusively from which sins come. The holy fathers very well depict the course of carnal sins: admonition, attention, sympathy, desire, consent, decision and deed... I will focus especially on the beginning. I define it this way: a feeling of lustful sweetness. The stimulation of lustful movement comes from juices or collected semen, from sensory impressions, especially through sight and hearing, and from enemies. Wherever it comes from, it is accompanied by lustful sweetness. This sweetness is the root of all evil. Meanwhile, little attention is paid to her, and she, like a splinter, passes further and further and fills everything inside. The Holy Fathers say about the hypogastric movements: having begun there, they ascend upward, rise to the heart, fill it, then the head and the whole body. The whole body then becomes full of lust, let’s call it steam, or lustful smoke. Then it passes, as if this steam or smoke is driven away by the wind... But then it begins again, when the reasons shown above produce a lustful movement; only this time the upward movement is faster, since the road has already been passed, but it remains in the body longer. The third time - even faster and even longer. Frequent repetition of this finally causes this lust to remain in the body forever, that is, it fills it completely and does not leave. After this, everything in the body is done lustfully: the eye looks lustfully, the ear hears lustfully, and both of these feelings only seek to see and hear what can feed lustfulness; and all feelings become the same, and all members of the body. Then every movement and every touch responds with lust... like a sponge filled with water, it contains it in every hole and, just touching it, releases it - such is a body filled with lust... The body must be cooled and sobered, rinsed, squeezed out, beaten out, like soiled linen. How? - Acting in reverse of how lust filled him. A lustful movement rose from under the womb upward... repeatedly... and took over the whole body. “Now we need to act like this: as soon as it appears under the belly, press it down and prevent it from moving every time.” Press down with what? - By muscle tension, by a will that has fallen out of love with lust and has now begun to pursue it as an enemy. Why is the lustful movement strong? - The sweetness of lust. This sweetness gives rise to the lustful movement. If you immediately stop the sweetness, or beat it off, the movement will immediately stop. It is impossible not to feel this sweetness, like the sweetness of sugar, having tasted it. But it is possible not to love, to be disgusted, to hate her. This is not a matter of the body, but of the soul. The soul must realize that this sweetness is poison for it and its enemy, destroying it mercilessly. When the soul reaches a feeling of enmity towards sweetness, from the consciousness of its hostility, then as soon as this feeling is set in motion, sweetness will lose its sweetness, lose the power to give rise to lustful movement - the movement will stop. This will be the suppression of the movement... This suppression will be accomplished by itself when sweetness is recognized (recognized) by the enemy and is met with hatred. It’s clear now what’s important. One must hate lustful sweetness and meet it with this hatred every time it appears. A person must generate this hatred within himself, and it will be for him a guard with a sword in his hand, ready to strike this enemy. We need to inflate this feeling through reflection, prayer and some actions directed here. Reflection will reveal the bad consequences of sweetness and bring it to the senses... this sweetness is harmful for the soul and body, for obligatory deeds and relationships with others, especially in relation to God, for nothing is so disgusting to God as the pleasure of this passion... from this, all boldness before God is then taken away from the soul... and finally, in the future, it plunges into hell. Prayer will tear the heart away from the carnal, and sweetness will fall by itself... and will call for help from above... So with Hesychius... after the movement of hatred - prayer... The Jesus Prayer is an all-conquering weapon here. Hatred of pleasure is aroused by long reasoning only for the first time, and then it instantly manifests itself as soon as it evokes it... Prayer is all in the Jesus Prayer; so to suppress lust there are two main acts: stir up hatred and stand in the Jesus Prayer. Some doings. – Muscle tension there, towards the hypogastrium. This is at the moment of excitement of sweetness; and then constantly keep your body in line, like a soldier, and always be, as it were, in the presence of a big person... otherwise it means not to loosen your limbs, not to fall apart and not to take liberties. So sitting, and walking, and even lying down... This simple remedy is very sobering... Once you put your body in line, you can’t deviate from it. To this soldier’s bearing we must add a little derogation in food, a little in sleep... especially not to fall apart in your sleep and, upon waking up, get up quickly - and a little in overexertion... Solitude and strict discipline of the senses go here... Meanwhile, the main thing in the soul is the fear of God and reverence... This should be expressed especially in not doing anything negligibly... carelessly, somehow, no matter what the task is, everything, both big and small... especially prayer... In church, in the dining room, at home - everywhere there is reverence, like walking before God. With these techniques, sweetness can always be beaten off and extinguished. But once it is extinguished, its further movement is stopped. He will come again and drive him away again. So day after day. The further you go, the less and less often it will appear... The fruit will be noticed in a week... if you don’t give in to the sweetness at all... the sweetness will finally be completely weakened; just don’t let it go... finally it will completely stop appearing - and the uprisings will rise without passion... If at the same time the prayer grows stronger and rises... then a sober purity will shine in the whole body, instead of the former lust. Just don't give in to the sweets. If sweetness dies, lust dies, lust ceases; the deeds will cease as soon as the battle with pleasure begins, for they are its children and are done for its sake... In the word of God about the sinner it is generally said that he, more and more “prospering in worse things” (2 Tim. 3:13), finally comes “into the depths of evil” (Proverbs 18:3); The degrees of descent into this depth are also indicated, for example: “he hurts with unrighteousness, conceives disease and gives birth to iniquity” (Ps. 7:15), or, more clearly, in contrast to the husband blessed in the first psalm, he goes “to the advice of the wicked,” stops “in the path of sinners” and, finally, sits “on the seat of the destroyers” (Ps. 1:1). The latter expressions can be taken as characteristic features of the sinful ages. There are also three of them: infant, youth, man. In the first, the sinner just went into sin, in the second he stopped in it, in the third he became a manager in his area. Infancy. This is a period of emerging spiritual life, not established in its forms, fluctuating, a time of struggle between the remnants of inner good and light with the incoming evil and darkness. Here the person indulgent in sin still thinks of leaving it behind: a little, a little, he tells himself, and I’ll give it up. Sin still seems to him like a joke, or he deals with it like a child playing with a toy; he just seemed distracted and reckless. But in this child, in this state of whirling, the foundations for the future terrible state of the sinner are invisibly laid. Its first features, its first lines are placed at the first moment of separation from God. When this light, this life and power are hidden from a person, or a person hides himself from him, then the mind begins to go blind, the will to relax and become negligent, the heart to become callous and imbued with insensibility, which all makes a person often say to himself: “No; I’ll stop.” But time passes and evil grows. Someone steals truths from the mind, one after another; he no longer understands much even of what he previously clearly understood; There’s a lot he can’t keep in his head due to the heaviness and incapacity of it at the present time; finally he becomes completely blind: he does not see God and Divine things, he does not understand the real order of things, nor his true relationships, nor his state, nor what he was, nor what he has now become and what will happen to him, he enters darkness and walks in darkness. The will, prompted by conscience, still sometimes cares and accepts concerns about the salvation of a person; sometimes he strains, rebels, refrains from one thing or another in the hope of completely recovering, but he falls again, and the more he falls, the weaker he becomes. Previous stops and refusals to do things, real ones, turn into only fruitless intentions, and from intentions - into cold thoughts about correction, and finally this disappears. The sinner seemed to wave his hand: “So be it, let it go, maybe it will stop somehow!” And he begins to live as he lives, indulging in vicious desires, refraining from obvious deeds when necessary, not worrying about threats or promises, not even worrying about the obvious corruption of soul and body. Sin is a disease and a plague; it greatly torments the soul after the first experience, but time smooths everything out; the second experience is more bearable, the third even more bearable, and so on. Finally, the soul becomes numb, just as a part of the body becomes numb from frequent friction against it. There were fears and horrors, and thunder was ready to burst from the sky, and people seemed to want to pursue the criminal, shame gave no rest and did not allow him to show himself in the light - and then, finally, everything - nothing. A person boldly and fearlessly continues to sin, not being able to understand why he had such worries before. When, in this way, blindness, negligence and insensibility were formed, it is obvious that the sinner man stopped on the path of sinners. All good revolts have subsided; he calmly, without embarrassment and anxiety, remains in sin... Here he enters the period of youth. Age of adolescence. This is a period of remaining in sin, or standing on the path of sinners, in blindness, insensibility and negligence. The highest powers of the human spirit are struck by lethargic sleep, and the forces of sin have prevailed over them and seem to enjoy peace. At first this is, as it were, a point of indifference, but from this point the subjugation of the human face to sin begins. His powers, one after another, are brought to the foot of sin and worship him, accept, or recognize, his royal power over themselves and become his agents. The mind worships and accepts the principles of unbelief; the will worships and falls into depravity, the heart worships and is filled with timidity and fear of sin and the sinful principle. The sinner does not always sleep; sometimes he wakes up. At this time I would like to leave everything, but I am afraid to start this matter, due to some incomprehensible timidity, for which it is impossible to give an account. Man is so intimidated by the tyranny of sin that he does not even dare to think about indignation against it! Here is evidence of how the strength of the spirit falls deeply through sin and how blasphemous slavery to it degrades the noble face of a person. At first the mind just does not see, or loses, everything that is true, but as time goes on, instead of truth, lies enter into it. Here it all begins with doubt, or simple questions: why is this? Isn't it better this way or that way? At first these questions are passed without attention, only a certain shadow, like a cobweb, is cast on the heart, but, coming closer to it, they become akin to it and turn into feeling; the feeling of doubt is the seed of unbelief. They begin to speak freely, then stitch together witticisms, and finally despise and reject everything Divine and holy - this is unbelief. And the will sleeps in carelessness, acting on evil principles, without noticing how good principles are crowded out by them. She can remain calm, without sharply expressing her inner corruption, but where they begin to disturb her, where they want to force her to act according to other principles, there she expresses all the obstinacy of her character, not respecting either the evidence of her convictions or even extremes; she goes against everything, making herself the main rule for everything. Whether the law of conscience will instill this in her or positive laws, she says: “Move away, I don’t want to know such paths!” - and this is for nothing other than corruption of character. Thus, the sinner, fearful of timidity to rebel against sin, having accepted the principles of lies through unbelief, having adopted depraved rules by will, proves himself to be sufficiently reliable to be elevated to some government positions in the sinful kingdom. Such a one is seated on the seat of the destroyers. He entered the age of a husband to manage part of the affairs of the sinful kingdom. Male age. This is a period of independent, persistent action in favor of sin, against everything good, from which a person comes to the brink of destruction. The degrees of his decline are determined by the degrees of resistance to light and good. For even when he lives like this, his conscience never ceases to bother him. But, having accepted other principles, he does not listen and goes opposite. Sometimes he just does not heed this voice, in a state of unrepentance; sometimes rejects and takes up arms against him, in a state of bitterness; sometimes he deliberately betrays himself to destruction, in a state of despair. This is the end where the sinner’s beloved sin brings him!.. Memories of the Last Judgment (Contemplation) Last Judgment! – The Judge is coming to the clouds, surrounded by a myriad of ethereal Heavenly Forces. Trumpets sound to all ends of the earth and raise the dead. The rebel regiments flow in streams to a certain place, to the throne of the Judge, already anticipating in advance what kind of verdict will sound in their ears. For the deeds of each will be written on the forehead of their nature, and their very appearance will correspond to their deeds and morals. The separation of the gums and the lips will take place by itself. Finally everything has been decided... There was deep silence. Another moment - and the decisive sentence of the Judge is heard - to some: “Come”, to others: “Go away”... Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us! May Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us! - but then it will be too late to cry like that... Now we must take care to wash away from our nature the signs written on it that are unfavorable for us. Then we would be ready to shed rivers of tears in order to wash ourselves, but this would serve no purpose. Let us cry now, if not with rivers of tears, then at least with streams; if not streams, then at least raindrops; If we don’t find this either, we will repent in our hearts and, having confessed our sins to the Lord, we will beg Him to forgive us them, vowing not to offend Him again by violating His commandments and then being jealous to faithfully fulfill such a vow. The main feeling of our heart is sadness (From Letters on the Christian Life) What does it mean that after the most complete joy the soul plunges into sadness, forgetting about all the joys that it previously did not remember? Is it not that from the depths of our being the soul is given to know how insignificant all these amusements are in comparison with the bliss that is lost with the loss of paradise? We are ready to rejoice with those who rejoice, but no matter how varied and great the objects of human joy are, they do not leave a deep mark on them and are soon forgotten. But if we see a mother crying over her dead son, her only support, or a wife sobbing over the grave of her beloved husband, grief deeply cuts through our soul and the word and image of those who mourn remain indelible in our memory. Doesn't this mean that sorrow is closer and more akin to us than joy? You listen to singing or music; Of course, cheerful tones also resonate pleasantly in the soul, but they glide only on its surface, leaving no noticeable trace in it, while sad tones immerse the soul within itself and remain memorable to it for a long time. Ask a traveler, and he will tell you that out of the many things he has seen, the ones that stand out in his head are mainly those objects and places that plunged him into sad reverie. These examples are enough, it seems, to explain the idea that the main feeling of our heart is sadness. This means that our nature cries for a lost paradise, and no matter how we try to drown out this cry, it is heard in the depths of the heart, in spite of all the stupefying gaiety, and clearly tells a person: stop having fun in self-forgetfulness; you, fallen one, have lost a lot; Better look to see if there is a way to get back what you lost... One pagan overheard this cry of the human soul and this is what allegory he clothed his thought about it with! Some old sage was walking in a secluded place, immersed in thoughts about the fate of mankind. He was brought out of this reverie by the question: “You probably saw him? Tell me where you went; I will rush after him and perhaps overtake him.” – Turning around, the sage saw the girl. She was wearing the clothes of the king's daughters, but they were worn and torn. Her face was gloomy and tanned, but its features showed the former high beauty. After examining the wanderer, the sage asked her: “What do you need?” She repeated again: “You probably know him, tell me where and how I can find him?” - “But what are you talking about?” - said the sage. - “Don’t you know about this? - answered the maiden. “And I think that there is no person who does not know about my grief.” The sage asked her with sympathy: “Tell me what your grief is, and maybe I’ll figure out how to help you.” “Think and help,” she answered. - I'll tell you what. I was in a land filled with joy. I felt good there, so good! Marriage was being prepared... My fiancé, I don’t remember his facial features, was of indescribable beauty... I’ve almost forgotten everything... but I remember that everything was already ready for marriage... when someone came and spoke to me such sweet words... Then he gave me something to drink. I drank and immediately fell into unconsciousness or fell asleep. Waking up - ah, it would be better for me never to wake up! – I woke up and found myself on this earth, gloomy and stuffy. Where did that bright home of mine go? I didn’t know where my fiancé and his joyful eyes were. At first, I just ran back and forth in unconsciousness, tearing out my hair and beating myself in the chest from the intense torment that tormented my soul. Having calmed down a little, I decided to look for what was lost... And for how long I have been walking the earth and have not found that “whom my soul has loved” (Song. 3:2). During the day I ask the sun, and at night the moon and stars: every day, walking around the earth, have you seen where the one my soul is looking for? - And they don’t give me an answer... Are there mountains where my voice is not heard? Are there forests where my cry would not be heard? Are there any valleys that my foot will not trample? But I’ve been wandering around for so long now, looking for what I’ve lost, and I can’t find it. But tell me: don’t you know and haven’t heard where is what my soul is so sad about?” “The sage thought a little and said: “If you told me the name of your groom and the name of his kingdom and the country where your bright home was, I would show you the way there, and since you speak vaguely, no one can guide you! Will not your fiancé take pity on you and send someone to show you the way to the blessed home you have lost, or will he not come for you? Having said this, the sage turned away, and the maiden went further, again looking for the unobtainable. It’s clear what this allegory means! It depicts a soul lamenting the loss of paradise and communion with God, looking for it and not finding it. Such is every soul, such are our souls by nature! What's the difference? - The fact is that the pagan soul only searched and searched, but did not find what it was looking for, and the pagan could not go further! The mind encounters clear signs - indicators of the fall and loss of paradise, but does not know how to find a way to restore the fallen and return the lost. We are not the sons of night and darkness, but the sons of light and day. We cannot have any confusion about this. We know that the Lord and Savior Himself comes to earth “to seek and save the lost” (Matthew 18:11); He Himself calls everyone to Himself: “come to Me... and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). You have lost the kingdom... Now it has come near. Repent and believe in the Gospel, and I will take you to Me, and you will be with Me in paradise, in the abodes of My Father have fun and supper. So, brothers, marriage is prepared again. The Lord Himself offers Himself as the Bridegroom to the repentant soul, for which purpose He sent narrators into the world, first the Apostles, and then their successors, so that they would betroth to Him the souls of men who were lamenting the loss of close communion with Him, presenting them to Him through the sanctifying actions of the Church as pure, without filth or vice, or anything from such. A Brief Statement of the Saving Faith of Christ 1. Every Christian needs to know the holy Christian faith in order to live holy by faith. Just as a carpenter is called a carpenter because he knows what carpentry consists of and knows how to do carpentry, so anyone who is called a Christian must know what Christianity consists of and be able to live like a Christian. 2. The essence of the Christian faith lies in the salvation of sinners, in the restoration of the fallen human race. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and established the Holy Church on earth, to which he entrusted all Divine means for salvation. 3. What the Holy Church teaches and what it commands to do is the immutable will of God. Do this and you will be saved. He who does not listen to the Church is the same as a pagan. 4. Thank the Lord that you belong to the Holy Church of Christ and have in your hands the surest means of cleansing yourself from sins and pleasing God. Give thanks and take advantage of this great mercy of God towards you. 5. The Lord now mercifully calls on everyone: “come to Me... and I will give you rest.” And when he comes to judge the living and the dead, then with impartial truth he will turn to the disobedient and say to them: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41). Remember this often and be afraid of being a violator of the faith and commandments of Christ. 6. Do not listen to the crooked talk of people corrupted in mind and heart, whose speeches will lead you astray from the straight path and will induce you to either believe wrongly or live unholy. 7. There is no salvation for the Molokans, Subbotniks, Doukhobors, Khlysty, schismatics and all renegades from the Holy Church. Those who do not listen to the Church do not listen to God. What salvation is there for a disobedient person? 8. The true holy faith came to us from the Lord Himself through the holy Apostles and Holy Fathers, who shone with wisdom and holiness, and is maintained by all Orthodox Christians everywhere. She leads her true admirers directly to God, and God glorifies them as His saints. 9. Whoever says: “Believe as you want, just live well,” is telling a lie, for “without right faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Likewise, someone who lives badly and hopes to be saved only because he believes rightly is in error, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). One must both believe rightly and live holy in order to please. God and be saved. 10. Nowadays many superstitious people have appeared who have rejected Christ and will not follow His holy teaching, although they are called Christians. These are people who died. Some of these, not content with their destruction, want to destroy others, and preach their lies, corrupted by both word and scripture. Take care that your mind does not decay from simplicity. Do not be blown away (do not be carried away) by every wind of doctrine. 11. Superstitious people claim that they are educators. Do not believe and do not follow them, one Light is Christ. He who is not with Christ walks in darkness, and the darkness has blinded his eyes. If you follow a blind man, you will fall into a hole with him and die. 12. These are not educators, but those regarding whom we have received the commandment from the Lord: “Take heed from lying prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15); from which the Apostle also warns, saying: “We know... for after my departure heavy wolves will enter into you, not sparing the flock. And men will arise from you, speaking of corruption, and the disciples will turn away after themselves. For this reason watch” (Acts 20:29-30). 13. If you want to recognize them, listen to what Saint John the Theologian says: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but tempt the spirits if they are from God: for many false prophets have gone out into the world. In this regard, be aware of the Spirit of God and the spirit of desire. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh is not from God, and this one is the Antichrist, which you heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:1-3)... “Now there have been many Antichrists... who have come from us, but are not driven away from us. Even if they were from us, they would have remained with us; but let it be revealed that they are not all from us... Who is a liar, then, cast aside, as Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, reject the Father and the Son. Everyone rejects the Son, neither having the Father” (there is an atheist) (1 John 2, 18-19, 22-23). 14. And the holy Apostle Paul, in his letter to Timothy, having prophesied about these, “always learning and never able to come into the understanding of the truth,” people corrupted in mind and unskilled in the faith, whose foolishness will be revealed to everyone, adds: “But abide in them, you have been taught and the essence has been entrusted to you, knowing from whom you learned, and as from childhood you knew the sacred scripture, which is able to make you wise for salvation” (2 Tim. 3:7, 14–15). 15. If the Lord had not come and taught us the truth, unbelievers and superstitious people would perhaps not have had sin. Now, when it is known that after the prophets raised up by God, the Son of God Himself brought the truth to earth, through the holy Apostles spread it throughout the earth and preserves it with the Holy Spirit in the Holy Church (Heb. 1:1-2), what excuse can the unbelievers, the worldly and all those who are carried away by their vain flattery have? 16. In the Prophetic and Apostolic Scriptures and in the Holy Church of God, which preserves them and explains them through the mouth of the God-wise fathers, and contains every other truth revealed by God, all Divine wisdom is found, and there is no other place on earth where you could find it. 17. “Learn from these, abide in these, understand in these: that your progress may be manifested in all” (1 Tim. 4:15). “Deny from unpunished contempts” (2 Tim. 2:23). “Beware that no one deceives you with philosophy and vain flattery, according to human tradition, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8). “Let no one flatter you with vain words” (Eph. 5:6) “and no one else in any other way” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). “Do not be attached to strange and varied teachings” (Heb. 13:9). “Do not wander in every wind of doctrine, in the lies of men, in the deceit of the wiles of flattery” ((Eph. 4, 9). 14). Diseases of the soul. Passions – heart diseases: anger, sadness, joy, envy, suspiciousness. Inclinations and addictions are diseases of the will. Carnal - drunkenness, fornication, drowsiness; spiritual - self-interest, pride and others. False principles, or prejudices, are diseases of the mind. These principles are imprinted with age from thoughts circulating everywhere during education at school, in life - by its character. No one is free from them except God's people. There are diseases of the spirit: forgetfulness of God, lack of conscience, aversion from the Divine - loss of spiritual taste. All these illnesses are healed by one grace that comes - to the one who, realizing his illness, calls on God for help. Homemade cures are a ghost. It will stain the outside, but the inside is all sick. Those who do not recognize the spirit in us. What does it mean that a person grows in knowledge - and is dissatisfied, dissatisfied with all practice, with all the ways of enjoying life. – All these things are not sensual, carnal. Everyone calls them the noblest, highest pursuits. Therefore, they are of a spiritual nature. The question arises: why is there dissatisfaction? If the soul is nourished with what is akin to it, it is natural for it to be content. Who is dissatisfied when the soul is content? – It must be said that the spirit is dissatisfied, for which spiritual food is inferior. He is from God and wants to live in God and by God. Again, a person who has tasted God rises above the spiritual and does not want him. For him this is a stuffy room after being refreshed by the morning cool. Meanwhile, (the spirit) acts in this circle - according to the duty of earthly life, remaining, moreover, in another area, ruling from there and controlling spiritual activity, like a king. Consequently, there is power in us - the mistress of the soul. This is spirit. He is in his present state being restored by the Spirit of God. Entry into the inner life consists of attention, or memory, or standing in the ranks of the invisible world, vigilance and sobriety. All ascetic deeds - mental and physical - are preparations for them, and therefore do not have all their value without them. But these themselves are only an external fence, or a vestibule... The innermost work must be conceived and seen even more deeply. Exit from the inner life is oblivion, disintegration and captivity. The holy fathers noticed and said this, and not alone. According to the degrees of perfection, passions are transformed and pass from the coarsest to the subtlest, and always go hand in hand with the new inner man, and are presented to the mind in the hour of temptation - in the form of an angel of light. Why did the holy fathers, ascetics, not write systems, but sayings? “They spoke at times, on demand, they said what the mind matured at that hour. The mind is introduced into the mystery of the spiritual world - not suddenly into everything, but as if led from room to room, as Macarius the Great says. However, these visions of the mind sometimes embraced the entire spiritual life in a different way - at the beginning, middle and end - briefly, and clearly, and completely. Because brother, from experience - from deeds. It is not actions that confuse, but how someone does them that causes confusion. If fear and vision of the will of God precedes and accompanies all possible attention and sobriety, there should be no room for confusion. Captivity will come from inattention, and confusion, darkness, and grief will come through care. People who are established in the Lord do things and are with the Lord in complete detachment and freedom. – Above all, this is grace to the workers. Contemplatives cannot do this. Through prayer, a person enters into the rank of the seraphim and all the disembodied and all the celestial beings, always standing before God in silence and illuminated by a single light. What vigor, attention and vision should he have?! What is terra incognita? – Spiritual life is for people who live according to the spirit of the world, even if they are very learned. They don’t go there, they don’t know the doors. What food for the spirit? – Prayer, contemplation of God, good deeds, interviews with fathers and intelligent reading. However, they are not the ones who feed. They are only means - there is only food... Bread that came down from heaven... You must certainly separate your mental structure from external service. And then keep firmly unshakable from this. This is eternal, this is for a while, for this transitory life. Whoever stands in this, all service is equal to him - honest and holy. Consequently, the beginning of social life is in the spirit. That is why he should be placed at the head... in the entire structure of society. Tolerance is not indifference to faith. He who is indifferent to faith has no faith. He who has religious tolerance, with full love for his faith, according to its spirit, welcomes those of other faiths, as weak members of humanity, in matters, however, external. What is a walk for a doer? - Preparation for great work. But guard your inner self, so that you don’t end up in captivity and cry over the loss or restriction of freedom. Bdi. There is spiritual life, in which there is spiritual nourishment, and mental labor, and spiritual reinforcement. It is always connected with the carnal, for the carnal is the support of the spiritual. Anyone living in this area lives like a fish in water... gloomy and cold. To questions about faith. As we believe, so did all the holy fathers who accepted and handed down this faith to us in purity. And they said that all negative thoughts are from the evil one, who in various ways confuses and ruins the world of the soul. Those who believe in their own minds suffer most from them. The fallen mind is in a conspiracy with the evil one against God, God’s things and order. He who sincerely seeks the Lord and wants to please Him is always guided by Him, invisibly, onto the right path. This happened with Saint Gerasim, another great Egyptian ascetic, and with many. Inquisitiveness and contentiousness about faith are from the evil one. It is no small task for a person to become convinced that prayer is a work, and the highest work, to which there is nothing equal on earth... For the most part they say: there is no time to pray... For this and that, time is needed... But there is a commandment - to pray unceasingly. The ancient ascetics had their livelihood from the labor of their hands; today, for monastics, their contents are mostly ready. Let no one be embarrassed by the thought that this is a departure from the ancient rank. And even more so he thanks the Lord that now monastics have the means to remain in complete carelessness, which is the basis of spiritual progress. Society does well by providing this peace and participating in the prayerful labors of monks, according to Chrysostom. But the duty of monks is now to show the highest fruits of the spirit. And the ancients worked only as much as was necessary for maintenance, and work was their last priority. Almost all of their time was spent on prayer and mental work, so that they were reluctant to begin this material work... Consequently, those who strive and all who know how great and beneficial this work of prayer is should rejoice at this safety in keeping monks, for the sake of giving them scope for their spiritual labors. Let the monks delve deeper into the other world from this material thing. Prayer: petition, thanksgiving, praise. Simi depicts the path of the ascent of the mind to God in prayer. He who praises has tasted that the Lord is good. He who gives thanks has escaped from the snares and entered the boundaries of peace and light... He who asks has begun and fights in hope. What is the most famous thing that no one remembers? – Death, torture (test), – and judgment. The seed, if it does not resolve and does not decay, will not bear fruit; so is the soul: if it does not resolve itself through repentance and contrition, it remains barren. Saint Isaac the Syrian has a path: after renunciation of everything, repentance through fear in memory of the latter; then labor and sweat - mentally and physically - until cleansing. Then grace comes: spiritual activity begins outside of feeling - the rest - Saturday, the threshold of the eternal. They say: Revelation is dark and incomprehensible, therefore - what is it for? and is it really Revelation? – To this we must ask back: what are you looking for from Revelation? - one answer: admonition on how to save the soul. If now this is very clear to everyone - both the wise and the unwise, then from the darkness of Scripture one should not say: what is the purpose of Revelation? The path of salvation is clearly indicated, therefore, remain silent. If you don't understand, leave it. Not suddenly. I haven't grown up yet. Sin, as can be seen from the experiences of those who are internally tempted and confused, acts as a force, in some way independent, persistent. This depends on the fact that at that time Satan is acting through him, targeting the inner. – If this is not accepted, then it is incomprehensible how the manifestation of the soul in the soul acts independently and in spite of it. To the question: are passions completely destroyed or only conquered? - you can answer this way... Now passions have mixed with nature and rule over it like despots. Rise up against them, overthrow their yoke, drive them out of your possessions - outside, so that they stand in you against you - and then fight with them, fight, shoot arrows and receive arrows... Afterwards you will see in practice whether you can destroy them or only defeat and defeat... and be defeated at the same time... Some of the ascetics - even then, having passed all the ordeals and gone beyond the line of the air authorities, into the region light, - he said to the spirit who spoke to him: you defeated me... now you have defeated... Physical, mental and spiritual activity in its order is good. The environment between the physical and the mental, the mental and the spiritual is very dangerous. In the first there is some kind of turbulence of the imagination, sensual wishes and sensual sweets. In the second - not so violently, but everything is like shadows. This is conjecture, conjecture - self-made contemplation of the ideal in the sensual; deceptive direction, or dreamy, of good activity - spiritual, pride, self-interest or self-appropriation, and spiritual sweets. The spiritual side itself is the image of knowledge created by the Spirit of God, God-given activity according to the will of God and inner peace. This is collected from Scripture, then in prayer, through the action of grace, it is imprinted on the heart and illuminates the mind. “Then this one sees everything created—spiritually.” The feeling of dependence on God is the beginning of a true ascent to God, not false in the spirit. The one who starts out for no reason follows an inert path - and it is unknown whether he will arrive where he intends. This feeling gives the fear of God; fear forces one to work in the affairs of God, at first slavishly, and then, with aspiration, when the conscience is reconciled from the wealth of deeds, with other necessary corrections, it turns into filial love. And the slave, and the mercenary, and the son - all depend on the Householder, although in different ways. So it is in spiritual life. – One who does not depend on God, that is, who does not feel like that, is not in the kingdom of God. The fear of God is a beautiful heavenly plant. To plant it in the land of the heart, one must prepare this field with virtues. Cleanse yourself by renunciation of everything - and look (plow) with the memory of death, judgment and retribution, which gives birth to contrition. But the feeling of the danger of one’s position precedes everything, and must precede everything all the time. From him is born a quick and living resort to God. This is a start for beginners too. When the spirit rests in God and tastes this sweetness, then it is no longer danger that compels it to be with God, but love and peace of spirit, found in the one God... The work of God in man is like how someone, having bought himself a field overgrown with indecent plants, fences it off on all sides so that animals, winds and people do not interfere with his work, then pulls out indecent herbs and thereby plows and well prepares clean land for receiving the seed; then he sows and waters in good time until it grows and bears fruit. Finally, he collects the fruit, processes it at home and then distributes it to everyone in need. And everyone partakes of the sweetness, praising God and the good worker. Thoughts about a godly life Why does the soul, existing in sin, not stand, but is still restless? Because he is losing his foothold. The fulcrum is given to her by the fear of God and a calm conscience. When the conscience is calm and the attitude towards God is peaceful, then the soul remains in itself and behaves sedately. When the conscience is disturbed and God is offended, then it is hard for the soul to be within itself, as in a fumes-fuelled room - and it runs away and looks outside itself for something to satisfy its inner yearning, running from object to object without intervals, so as not to remain with itself even for a minute. Only when, like an angel, the thought of reconciliation with God and conscience descends into her, does she return to herself, like a runaway slave, with a guilty head, and from that time on she settles down again. What is the whole point of those who are concerned about the salvation of the soul? It is to have God as your God and to recognize yourself as God’s. Having God as your God is one aspect of the matter, which cannot receive a lasting education unless there is a second one, that is, the consciousness of oneself as God, or the confirmation that just as you have God as yours, so God has you as His. This is the essence of union with God and the whole mystery of religion. Who has God as his own and himself as God? He who, having learned definitely and clearly the will of God, fulfills it conscientiously, so that neither in the secret thoughts of his heart, nor in the innermost movements of his conscience does he hear himself convicted not only of violating it, but also of any negligence in fulfilling it. This is the true nature of zeal for worship, which cannot leave a person alone while consciousness says that something has been allowed in words, deeds and thoughts that can be considered displeasing to God in any respect. In the latter case, she hastens to destroy this division between herself and God in a God-established way and again harbors the reassuring conviction that God is her God. The more deeds are in agreement with the will of God, and the more firmness and constancy in them, the stronger and deeper this conviction becomes. This is on the part of man, and, as his own business, it is understandable and accessible. But how can you be sure that God also has you as His? At the very time when a person actively begins to have God as his own, the confirmation comes to him in his conscience that God also has him as his own. God is omnipresent and looks favorably on souls that zealously please Him. This benevolent view of God, reflected in the soul, lets it know that it has been accepted and adopted by God and has become His own. From this, as we work with God and the first side grows, this second also grows, not as a consequence of it, however, but as an equal, interacting force, although it is certain that it does not enter the soul without the first. They are joint and are born at one moment and, when born, indicate the birth of the inner hidden man. Why is this so? - Because zeal for God cannot receive an active beginning without the influence and help of God. The soul knows this and, knowing it, believes that zeal for God is accepted and protected by God as His own. This is the seed of spiritual life! But since it is based on such lofty convictions, then, when it matures, it does not become arrogant, but deepens more and more in humility, to the point of decisive self-abasement, or complete consciousness that man in himself is nothing. This is the secret of true life in God. Everyone is looking. Look around, and you will make sure that this is the case: the Apostle himself says about himself: “I pursue, I hasten, I strive, I seek.” Without repentance, life is not life. Why is this so? - From the poverty of our nature, or its minute-by-minute impoverishment. Feeling depleted, you involuntarily look for something to replenish what is depleted. This feeling is the causative agent of search. What you are looking for is always something with which you hope to fill your emptiness; it constitutes the goal. The aspiration that it is truly capable of greatly satisfying, or giving what is desired from it, supports the search and work in inventing means and bringing them to fruition. This is the general form of life of all living on earth. Both the one who has hidden himself in the deep desert and the one living in the complete bustle of the world have the same cycle of life. The difference is in the content: in the stimulus, in the kind of felt scarcity; in the means by which they hope to achieve what they want; in the latter goal, that is, in what they hope to replenish the perceived poverty. Various kinds of seekers are before our eyes. The question arises: who got on the straight road? – There must be someone who feels that he is making up for his poverty by his way of seeking, and as a result of this he calms down, has peace in the seeking itself. Who exactly this is, everyone can guess. But the wonder is that even those who do not cease to feel the poverty consuming them, despite all their intensified quests, do not change their unsuccessful quest, despite its tangible unsatisfactoryness, they think: maybe in the future it will become better and give what is expected. And since everything ahead runs away like tomorrow, they search tirelessly and never find it. And you can’t explain this to them. Such grief! How many years have we been hearing the Gospel, and its comforting words float over our heads! Finally, God will give another the moment when it is heard in his heart. Then, having entered inside, it carries out its wondrous, destructive and creative work there, the essence of which is true life. Until then what? “Until now we only pretend that we are alive, but meanwhile we are dead and dead.” Isn't it strict? - Come in and see. Look around and consider what all the people are doing, why are they fussing so much, who are they working for? – Every single one of them works for the stomach, and all the trouble is about satisfying its demands: give me something to eat, give me something to drink. What great good is promised in the future by the mere promise of the abolition of this tyrant of ours! Now stand at this point and decide: where will the tireless thirst for activity that belongs to this century be directed in another century, when there will be no need to worry about the stomach, and as a result, about everyday things in general? We need to solve this now in order to prepare for what awaits us in the endless future. There is a test of the Scriptures that is worthless - this is the fruitless inquisitiveness of the mind. How can you find out? “But here’s how: if you see that all the thoughts that are born in you, like soap bubbles, although red in appearance, are empty and soon burst from the light touch of the air of sound reasoning, then know that they are the work of idle inquisitiveness. And if you find that such thoughts sit on the heart, and are pressed into it, and crush it, crushing it, or expand it, delighting it with unearthly hopes, then they are not a matter of idle inquisitiveness, but a truth discovered by experience. For others, testing the Scriptures can be a great temptation. You will be surprised, but this is how it is. Abba Serid once beat Dosifei because he began to unnecessarily inquire what it meant, why it was written this way and not otherwise. Here is another example: in Philippi there was a young woman who had a spirit of inquisitiveness, and the Apostle Paul drove her out. In the Philokalia of Philotheus and Diadochos it is considered an unkind thing when attention and prayer are distracted by the desire, or urge, to theologize; and in other places there is much similar advice regarding the testing of the Scriptures. How did the heretics come about? – Every single one of them is from the torture of the Scriptures. It turns out that this is a double-edged sword and, therefore, must be handled with caution. An Orthodox Christian reads the word of God, and the truths directly contained in it are imprinted on the heart, without moving his thoughts beyond the contents and without dominatingly and arbitrarily elevating his mind above it, but humbly subordinating it. If he encounters something incomprehensible, he seeks a solution not in his own mind, not in his guesses, but in the common guardian of all truth - the Church, that is, he seeks a ready-made solution, recognized by all and offered to all by the Holy Church. For example, the Gospel says: “You are Peter, and on this rock” (Matthew 16:18) and so on... It is not clear how the Church can be founded on Peter, when its foundation is our Lord Jesus Christ, and, moreover, such that there can be no other foundation. Without further ado in resolving this perplexity, turn to the Church, and she will tell you that here the word “Peter” (stone) does not mean the person of the Apostle Peter, but a firm confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This firmness turned every martyr into a stone: they beat and beat, but they will not break. But the Catholics began to look for solutions in their own heads, and ended up with the Pope. If any passage of Scripture stirs a thought, and this thought, in turn, begins to draw conclusions that are irresistibly crowding into the head - nothing, an Orthodox Christian is not averse to this, but only treats these conclusions, his creations, not as with his own children, but as with his stepchildren: he subjects them to the test, inserting them into the entire body of truths of the holy faith contained in the Orthodox Catechism, and looks at whether they fit in with them, and if they don’t fit in or contradict them, he drives them out of his head, like illegitimate children. If he cannot make this comparison himself, then he turns to either living or former teachers and questions them. The non-Orthodox does not act this way. Any thoughts will appear in his head - good or bad, he doesn’t need them, as long as they like them - he begins to rummage through Scripture and look for confirmation of them. In such a mood, of course, every line and even sayings that slightly indicate the dreams of the seeker are taken as evidence. In this way, several texts are collected, arbitrary interpretations are attached to them, and then a conclusion is drawn, that is, the thought that was born in the head before reading Scripture, and finally the exclamation: “This is what all Scripture teaches!” This is how all heresies were formed, like Protestantism, like the papacy, with the only difference from the former that the latter still rummage through the holy fathers and rape them. Thoughts on Various Objects of Faith There were (and perhaps there still are) wise men who imagined that the torment would not last forever, but there was not yet, it seems, a single one who completely rejected torment beyond the grave. A sense of truth exists in the most desperate sinners and prevents them from thinking so; even those invisible beings who give their revelations to spiritualists do not reject punishment in the future, but only manage to smooth out their fear in every possible way, although nothing can be more dubious than their advice. Well, okay: even if the torment, in your opinion, is not eternal, how long will it last? Even if it’s a thousand thousand years, it still has to end,” you say. But what benefit does this bring to us, sinners? After all, the torment there will be unbearable, such as we cannot even imagine here on earth. If here too there is sometimes such suffering that a day seems like a year, what is there? Every minute will turn into hundreds of years. The prophet David says that with God a thousand years are like one day, therefore, and vice versa: one day is like a thousand years. If we accept this account, then from one of our years there will be 365 thousand years; and out of ten - more than three and a half million, and out of a hundred... and you’ll lose count. So it was a bad idea. Better figure out that there will be no torment at all, and not just on paper, not just for your own reasons, but bring us a certificate of this from the one who holds the keys of hell; then it will be to our advantage, sinners: sin for yourself as much as you want and how you want! And the way you argue... thank you for your compassion for us! Besides, everything is somehow vague with you. You forget that there will be eternity there, not time; therefore, everything there will be forever, and not temporary. You count the torment as hundreds, thousands and millions of years, but then the first minute will begin, and there will be no end to it, for there will be an eternal minute. The score won’t go any further, but will be in the first minute, and it will stay that way. Of course, when you hear or read somewhere the wisdom of clever humanists, your sin-loving heart will seem to become more cheerful, and then, as you begin to think, all your fears return again, and you still come to the same conclusion: it’s better to give up sin and repent, otherwise you can get shortchanged, and in such a way that nothing can improve the matter. And the matter is decisive; it is impossible to reason about it somehow, but we must reason with caution, and if we believe, then believe with the same confidence that we have about what really exists or does not exist. Spiritualists explain a lot of things! Even though their mentors have visible bones, they all listen to them and don’t see that the demons don’t want to be the only ones in hell, that’s why they are busy trying to recruit more people! “No, they say, there is great torment, but it’s a little boring and embarrassing; then you will be born again, forget everything and live and live.” In this way they take away all the support from a weak person. He struggles a little with passion, and then he says: “Well, that’s right, there’s nothing to do; you have to give in. I’ll be born another time, then I’ll overcome.” Thus, he emerged as a lifelong slave to passion, an unrepentant sinner, and that’s all the spiritualist mentors need. We will not wait for the second birth, but the first was spent on the work of passions - and the Christian regiment has left, and the demonic has arrived. Which mind is Orthodox and which is Protestant? The Orthodox mind does not become clever, but only studies and assimilates the ready-made truth given to it by the Holy Church, accepting it with complete humility and reverence, fearing to add or subtract one iota from the already outlined image of the confession of faith. The Protestant mind only gets clever; he has no standard of faith, and he is still looking for it; He does not undertake to study faith, but to invent and build; and even having built it, he does not calm down once and for all, but still searches, still searches, not being satisfied with what he has found. Just as a fighter’s hands itch, and a talker’s tongue itch, so a Protestant’s brain itches and gives him no rest. The spirit of novelty and constant renewal constitutes the essence of the Protestant mind. The Orthodox mind, having studied and assimilated the truth, rests in it and delights in the contemplation of its divine face. How do you know which scriptures have a Protestant mind and which ones have an Orthodox mind? As soon as where a theory or view is built and then passages of Scripture are adjusted to fit them (we are not talking about the patristic ones), then here there is a Protestant manner, a readiness to subordinate the Divine to the human. Further, where there is no simplicity of thought and word, but some sophisticated interweaving of sayings and concepts, so that you can’t put your mind to what it’s all about, then know that there is a Protestant mentality here, which does not bode well. Orthodox truth is simple, clear, understandable even for children. He who understands it and accepts it with his heart always speaks simply, without mental or verbal intricacies. The Protestant mentality and words are hooked, dark, and confusing. From the outside looking in, the Protestant mind seems to be deepening, but in fact it is wandering around the tops and outskirts, without touching the very essence of truth. The Orthodox mind recognizes the truth in its essence and without any circumstance. Why then do they flock to Protestants? Why not stay with your Orthodoxy? You see, you’re bored: everything is the same, stagnation; You’ll want to get some air yourself and let others in on the breeze. Is it really a joke - this Orthodoxy has stood motionless for a thousand years in Russia alone, and among the Greeks it has remained the same for even longer! Moreover, it is so difficult to lift in the form of research, so unbearable in the order of life it proposes! In the Orthodox way, you can’t write a single article without rummaging through tomes, but in the Protestant way, if only you had pen and ink, sit down and write. The bolder the better; and where there is not enough sense, type wiser words and crumple them somehow, so that in the end it seems: “what was required to be proven.” Is it safe to do Protestant theology? – No, you’ll soon fall under the oaths imposed on self-witted people by the Councils. Rule 19 of the Sixth Council states that Divine Revelation must be explained only according to the exposition of the teachers of the Church, and one must be content with them rather than compiling one’s own interpretations, for fear of deviating from the truth. Consequently, if anyone brings his personal wisdom into the realm of Divine truth, he is subject to an oath generally pronounced against those who do not comply with the council’s definitions. The cross is the basis of the world. About the Lord our Savior, who saved us by His death on the cross, it is said that He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Consequently, when the world was put together, death on the cross was meant, or, in other words, the world was put together according to the idea of ​​the cross. If the subsequent history of the world, and especially of man, is the fulfillment of the plan that underlay the formation of the world, then it must be said that the cross of the Lord was the goal for the history that preceded it and is the starting point for the history that follows it. He is the driving force behind all world events; he will also put an end to the flow of temporary events. When the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven, then immediately there will be judgment, a decision on the fate of earthly beings and the beginning of a new life. World renewal. The Lord, after His resurrection, appeared to the Apostles, and said that “all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him” (Matthew 28:18). This means that Christian principles entered into the control of the world, or the restorative Divine forces, on behalf of the God-man, began their action in the entire totality of creatures that required restoration. The creature felt this, foresaw its freedom from vanity to develop from this, and began to sigh about how the divinely inspired Apostle heard (Rom. 8:22). This restoration is invisible to our weak eyesight, it may even seem different to us; but God’s work does not proceed according to our guesses, but according to His plan. The time will come, and a renewed creation will appear when no one expects it. “The kingdom of God does not come by discretion” (Luke 17:20). Destiny of the World. In the Apocalypse, the book of destinies is presented, sealed with seven seals, and a voice was heard: “Who is worthy to open the book and loose its seals?” (Rev. 5:2). The answer was: “The Lamb of God, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified on the cross” (Rev. 5:9). The Lamb opens seal after seal, and each opening of the seal is accompanied by a new series of phenomena. This is a figurative representation of the word of the Lord: “All power has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). Events flow at the behest of the Lord and, therefore, everything is in the form of the Kingdom founded and preserved by Him. How these or other events relate to this goal, we cannot understand, perhaps something small, and even that is guesswork; but it is certain that everyone is directed there. We are not given the opportunity to understand this because ruling the world is not our business. Our business is salvation in the way that has been revealed to us by the Lord God: this is where all our concern should be directed. Just as the visible world is a mystery, so the history of events is a mystery; both are sealed from us. Look, be amazed and magnify the incomprehensible mind of God, and make your decisions and build theories - isn’t it better to stop? There will be more reason in this than in constructing arbitrary theories. The Incomprehensible in the Renewal of the World. The Apostle has an idea that the Lord reigns until all His enemies submit under His feet. When they all submit, “then the Son Himself will submit all things to Him who submitted all things, so that God may have all things in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). Here we speak of the Lord as the God-man, the Restorer of the fallen and the Savior of the lost; a certain feature of the world that is about to be renewed is indicated, but what its essence is is incomprehensible. It is incomprehensible what this subjugation of the Son will consist of, Who even now does everything according to the will of the Father and, being of one essence with Him, cannot do otherwise. It is also incomprehensible what it means: “God will be all in all.” This, without a doubt, presupposes the all-encompassing grace of the well-being of all creatures. A delightfully gratifying thought! But what about hell? What about the unclean forces and the poor, condemned sinners? – Saint Chrysostom says that they will be on the outskirts of the world, beyond the boundaries of that world in which “God will be all things in all.” And God will be there, but only with power and truth, and here with blessing. Some smart people want to think differently. They think that the conquest of all enemies means that, finally, the demons will stop fighting God, admit themselves defeated and repent. If, they say, the demons repent, then the sooner the sinners will repent; sin and all evil will disappear, only goodness will reign, and this will be “God is all in all.” There will be torment, but it will not last forever. Thousands of thousands, millions of millions of years will pass, but still the moment will come when the torment will end. Everyone will be cleansed, and heavenly, universal joy will ensue. What is overlooked here is that the subjugation of enemies under one’s feet does not mean voluntary recognition of the power of the Conqueror over oneself, as is required by the feeling of repentance and conversion, but only the suppression of the possibility of resisting them, the binding of them. They would still be ready to fight, and would gnash their teeth, but they would not have the strength to do anything. Demons cannot go directly against God; they oppose Him by involving people who should be God’s in sins. Thus, as long as there are persons through whom they can show their resistance to God, as long as they will still be a belligerent and struggling party; but when there are no such persons, then their opposition will cease; then there will be two areas: persons who have given themselves up to God in everything in the Lord Jesus Christ, and demons - fighters against God, with people who have become possessed by the action of demons; then the end of the world. The righteous will go to eternal belly, and the maddened sinners will go to eternal torment, in company with demons. Will this torment end? If satanism and demonization ends, then the torment may end. Will Satanism and Satanism end? Let's look and see then... Until then, let us believe that just as the eternal belly, where the righteous will go, has no end, so the eternal torment that threatens sinners will have no end. No fortune telling proves the possibility of ending Satanism. What Satan did not see after his fall! How many powers of God have been revealed! How amazed he himself was by the power of the cross of the Lord! How hitherto all his cunning and malice are amazed by this power! And everything bothers him, everything goes against him; and the further he goes, the more he persists. No, there is no hope for him to improve! And if there is no hope for him, then there is no hope for the people who are maddened by his actions. This means that it is impossible not to be in hell with eternal torment. Joy of life. Joy of life!.. How gratifying to meet you in someone! This is a heavenly guest on a sorrowful earth. And, however, the Apostle prescribed something like a commandment: “rejoice always” (1 Thess. 5:16). True, this commandment is obligatory only for those who have received the guarantee of joy in the Holy Spirit; but which of the sons and daughters of the Church is alien to the grace of the Holy Spirit? Therefore, everyone has a source of joy. Why isn't everyone happy? - That’s right, because they do not listen to another commandment of the same Apostle: “Do not quench the spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). The spirit is extinguished - the source of joy is also closed, and the oppressive burden has gone. Three burdens fall on such a person and crush him: the thought of what will happen, the sorrowful memory of conscience about what was, and worries about what is - and the person walks with his head hanging. What can we do here? - Repent, take up the work of doing good, cast your sorrow on the Lord, and again you will raise your head and look at life more cheerfully. Then the source of joy – the grace of God – will return to you. Why do we all have heavy thoughts? – Because we take full care of ourselves. And here everything is torn, there is no reliable strength in anything. So a person wonders how to strengthen and strengthen everything. How many thousands of years has he been guessing and still hasn’t gained anything! I would say to him: “Your material is not strong, change,” but what can one word do when thousands of years of experience do not enlighten? So, is this how it will be? Yes, it will be so as long as a person remains like this. Even in paradise, it seemed to him that God did not properly arrange man’s life and that he would arrange everything smarter and better. The first unsuccessful experience of this kind was very intelligible, but the first flattery was also fascinating. She attracts, despite admonition. God prescribed in paradise how things should be; the man responded to this: “no, not like that, but here’s how!” This “not like this, but here’s how” has become the motto of man’s suspicious thoughts. God gave Revelation to show us how to look at everything; a person says: “no, not like that, but here’s how,” and builds his own worldview. The Savior came and arranged salvation; a person listens to the gospel about this and says: “not this way, but this is how,” and makes his plans. The Lord founded the Church on earth, like a pillar of cloud, to indicate the path to unceasing prosperity; and to this the person says: “not this way, but this is how,” and lays out his own paths and paths. Thus, as long as this thirst to correct God’s orders continues to be present in a person, so long will he continue to think heavy thoughts and still not come up with anything. This will end only when, tired, a person lays down all his thoughts at the foot of the providential throne of God and calls out: “Beholden by fate, save!” But this is only for man in particular; the community of humanity will continue to grind on as before, and this is where the answer to the well-known expression is: “vanity of vanities, all sorts of vanity!” (Eccl. 1:2). Tradition. In the dogmas of faith, Christians must be guided not only by Holy Scripture, but also by church tradition. “Keep the tradition,” wrote the holy Apostle Paul to Timothy, “avoiding the vile talk and contradictions of a false mind” (1 Tim. 6:20). That church tradition must be in agreement with Holy Scripture is certain, otherwise incorrect and non-divine teaching can be mistaken for correct and divine tradition; but it is also true that the Holy Scriptures must be consistent with tradition, otherwise incorrect opinions and heresies may arise. How could the heresy of Arius have arisen if the teaching of the Church, contained in tradition, had then been more firmly held? How could the heresy of iconoclasm have arisen if the voice of the Church in tradition had been respected? “Only the word of God is the basis of faith,” some Christians still say today, “and therefore traditions are not needed!” How is this so? Isn’t the Creed a legend? How could we believe without him, each in his own way? There are many places in the word of God that require clarification and agreement, which is what the Holy Church did. There is no need for tradition... But how will we serve God? How to perform and receive the sacraments? How and on what days to celebrate holidays? How will we celebrate Sunday, and why today, and not yesterday, not tomorrow? All this, without a doubt, we know from tradition. The primitive Church established itself on tradition and was guided by tradition. Holy Scripture, as evidence of the truth and the eternal guardian of the faith, appeared and was accepted by the Church later. Order following. The Holy Apostles, at their council, abolished all Old Testament rites and freed Christians from the yoke that weighed on their fathers and forefathers. In this regard, some wise men ask the question: why do we have such diverse and complex sequences of rites? And, not being able to resolve this, they come to the bold conclusion that this is a return to Judaism. But when the Apostles established that law, they had in mind only the Old Testament ministry, and not any service at all; and when they wrote a letter to the Church of Antioch, they only remembered that they did not impose on its members the yoke of the law that lay on the Jews, and not that they forbade the establishment of rites in the spirit of the new faith. Just as thought requires words, and intention requires deeds, so the spirit of faith requires external order. This rite began to be established from the very first days after the descent of the Holy Spirit, which laid the foundation of the Church of God. In its main and essential features it was established by the Apostles themselves: from them the image of the performance of the sacraments; from them the prayer meetings and their orders; from them the church ranks; from them is an instruction to set aside places and times for serving God; from them fasting and home prayers; from them are feats of comprehensive abstinence and various types of pious Christian customs. Anyone who wishes can find an indication of all this in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles. The conclusion from here is this: the holy Apostles abolished one order and introduced another. How can we see Judaism in this? Faith cannot be left naked. This is contrary to our nature and the nature of faith itself. Will anyone complain - isn’t our spiritual faith too burdened with external orders? Take a closer look and you'll see that it's not too much. After all, you need at least one rank, just in case? That's how it is with us. Every rite, on the one hand, satisfies the needs of the believing heart, and on the other, it is in complete harmony with the spirit of faith. If you look at our church rites in their totality, there will seem to be a lot of them, but arrange them according to the diverse needs of believers, and you will see that there are very few of them, and they are all very simple. Perhaps they will also say: “Why are they enclosed in a motionless form? In the apostolic age, much was done impromptu: the spirit was found and a prayer, or a song, or a word of edification was born, but now everything is ready and ready.” Isn't it all one? Then the spirit found itself and gave a prayer, but now listen as you should to the prayer that has already been composed, and you will ascend into the same spirit. It's a matter of spirit. If anyone stops at just the words of prayer and external actions, he will depart from the apostolic rite, and whoever, every time, with the external rite, enters into the spirit, he will begin to do the same thing that was done under the Apostles. It is unlikely that anyone would consider it reasonable to leave the entire external order to the arbitrary movements of the spirit of famous persons or every believer. Isn’t it better to submit to the existing order, praying to the Lord to arrange everything in His Church as His holy will pleases? The purpose of the church rite is the creation of the spirit, and how many saints were created among our splendid rite! Therefore, rank does not detract from the goal, but contributes to achieving it. Have reason and everything will be fine. The Invisible Struggle. If our intelligent eyes were opened, what would we see around us? – On the one hand – the bright world of God, Angels and saints; on the other, hordes of dark forces and dead sinners carried away by them. Among them are living people, one part of whom is inclined to the light side, the other to the dark side; the middle zone seems to be left for a struggle in which some win, others are defeated. Some demons drag, already beaten, into their dark region; others stand and fight, accept and give defeat: blood from wounds and wounds after wounds, but everyone stands. They bow down to the ground from the force of the blows and the exhaustion of their strength, but they straighten up again and again shoot arrows at their enemies. Who sees their work? - There is only one God. The Guardian Angels are constantly with them; above them is a descending ray of blessed light from above. Any help to the struggling person is ready, but it must be accepted willingly. The inclination of the will is a condition of its strength. Since a person stands on the side of good with consciousness and freedom, then the light of grace and the Angels are with him. But, as soon as his autocracy leans toward the side of sin, the ray of grace departs from him, and the Angel retreats. Then the person is surrounded by dark forces - and the fall is ready. They bind him with captives (chains) of darkness and take him to a dark region. Will he be saved, and who will save him? - He will be saved, and the same Angel of God and the same grace will save him. The sinner will sigh, and they will begin and “teach his fingers to fight” with the darkness (Ps. 143:1). If he strikes, he will get up and again begin to strike the enemies who have been driven away and already throwing arrows from afar. If he is careless, he will fall again; if he will be cheerful, he will be restored again. How long? - Until death comes and finds him either in the fall or in the uprising. Feeling of faith. The Lord, who contains everything in His right hand, also holds every soul. How does the soul respond to this? - An irresistible confession of the fact that there is a God, on whom, like everything, so she depends, both in being, and in action, and in final fate. This confession lies deep in the heart as a feeling or instinct. It does not belong to the mind; on the contrary, when the mind, accepting this confession from the heart, begins by itself to reach its final foundations, it loses, and often drowns it out in the heart, for a while. Here the same thing happens that happened with psychologists who are partial to tactility. They began to search for the soul in order to touch it, and they lost their soul. So it is in the matter of faith. We need to look not for tactile evidence, but only to develop that feeling. In this, reason can be an assistant and can contribute to the development of religious feelings through reflection. For this purpose, from time immemorial he was given the well-known four proofs of the existence of God. They show the trace of God, and not even just a trace, but, as it were, some outline of the face of God. When the mind understands all these indications properly, it is like a mirror that points to the intuition hidden in the heart. Having seen oneself in this mirror, it is combined with that face and becomes a certain confession, or reasonable faith. So in the natural order. But there are still many gaps left. They are supplemented by Divine Revelation and, on top of that, adds something else that is not an appendage for embellishment, but is the most essential thing, without which everything previous is nothing. Here belongs the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, the incarnation of God the Word and the entire economy of our salvation. The latter are like a head on their body. This is the whole building of faith. The basis is the feeling of the Divine; Next comes natural knowledge of God; then Divine Revelation, which on one side completes only natural knowledge, and on the other, the most essential, gives something new, from which everything takes on its present form. Those who limit themselves only to believing in the existence of God, in providence, future life and reward, are like a building without a dome, like a body without a head. What about the atheists? These have already emerged from the natural rank: they belong to the same class as the freaks and the insane. Contemplation and action. Every business has a visible and invisible side, active and contemplative. A true godly deed, according to the teachings of Saint Isaac the Syrian, is a combination of contemplation and action. Contemplation consists of thoughts that excite and guide activity; an action is a deed done as a result of it. For example, giving alms is an act, and seeing the Lord in a beggar is contemplation; patience with insults and wrongdoing is a visible act, and the thought that inspires patience is contemplation; standing in church or at home in front of icons, bowing with the sign of the cross, reading and listening to prayers is the visible side of prayer, and the mental presence of God in the heart, with fear and trembling, is the contemplative side. In the penitential canon of St. Andrew of Crete, this is called action and reason, and their meaning is indicated in the example of Leah and Rachel. And to others it seems as if contemplation is the work of only deep hermits; meanwhile, it is a matter obligatory for everyone and for every action. Action, without corresponding contemplation, is a body without a soul, or a lifeless idol, having the likeness of a living creature, but not having life. Contemplation is also valuable; for example, someone who does not have anything to give to a needy person, but is sincerely pained by his need, as well as someone who is armless and legless, who cannot stand in prayer, but who constantly falls to God with his mind, complete the work of God, which is obligatory for them in their circumstances. From here the question is resolved by itself: how those who went into the forests and hid in caves were saved without good deeds. They had all the virtues in their hearts, and therefore possessed the essential side of doing good—contemplation. True freedom. We are all looking for freedom, isn’t it because we feel that we are slaves? - Yes, slaves; but not by the definition of the Creator, but through our own fault. The Lord appointed us to rule over everything, but we forgot ourselves and fell into bonds of slavery and constraint on all sides. External lack of freedom is not yet a great loss; the essential loss is that we are internally connected, that we have lost control over ourselves, that we have no control over ourselves. Someone else rules in a person and over a person, but the person does not have a word to say in defiance and obediently fulfills everything that is so persistently suggested to him. And the main thing is that grief does not feel its slavery: it is so downtrodden! Recognize your nobility and claim your rights. Start this with a feeling of slavery, a feeling of repentance and contrition. If tears appear, then this is best: they are fire, burning the bonds of passions, and there are also blows of the sword from outside, with which this or that link in the chain of sin is cut off. Just as a bird, having escaped from its snares, joyfully takes off and soars in the unconstrained space of air, so the soul, having broken free from the bonds of sin and passions, begins to joyfully act in the boundless realm of God’s will. The Prophet experienced this himself when he said: “I walk in breadth, because I have sought Your commandments” (Ps. 119:45). You might be interested in: