Из переводов с греческого

The teaching of the holy fathers about the tripartite, or three powers of the soul (Extracts from the Philokalia) The soul is tripartite and is contemplated in three forces: “mental, irritable and desirable” 1. We must give the three forces of the soul the correct movement, in accordance with their nature and in accordance with the intention of the God who created them. Namely: the irritable force must be moved against our external man and against the serpent - Satan. “Be angry,” it is said, “and do not sin” (Ps. 4:5). This means: be angry at sin, that is, at yourself and at the devil, so as not to sin against God. The desirable force must be directed towards God and virtue, and let us place the mental force as mistress over both of them, so that with wisdom and prudence it can order them, admonish, punish and rule over them, as a king rules over his subjects. And then the mind that exists in us according to God will govern them (that is, when it will dominate over them, and not obey them). Although passions rebel against reason, we do not cease to command that reason rule over them 2 . The rational soul acts in accordance with its nature, when the desirable part of it strives for virtue, the irritable part strives for it, and the thinking part is devoted to the contemplation of things. The soul is tripartite, according to our wise teacher Saint Gregory of Nyssa. When virtue is in the mental part, then it is called prudence, sharpness and wisdom; when it happens in the desirable part, then it is called chastity, love and abstinence; when it happens in the irritable part, then it is called courage and patience. The point of prudence is to fight against forces that oppose us, to protect virtues and to drive away vices. The work of discernment is everything that contributes to our goal of arranging it properly, and the work of wisdom is to contemplate corporeal and incorporeal creatures in all respects. The business of chastity is to look dispassionately at things that usually arouse in us unreasonable dreams and desires; the work of love is almost to show itself in such a way in relation to every person bearing the image of God, as it is to the Prototype, even though the demons try to humiliate others before us; The point of abstinence is to joyfully reject everything that delights the larynx. It is a matter of patience and courage to not be afraid of enemies and willingly endure all sorts of troubles 3 . The Fathers said: “Contain the irritable part of the soul with love, the desirable part with abstinence, the rational part with prayer, and the light of the mind will never be darkened in you. The bridle of anger is timely silence; for unreasonable wishes - moderate food; uncontrollable thoughts - like-minded prayer” 4. All Divine commandments lay down laws for the threefold nature of the soul and make it healthy through what they command. Whoever strictly follows them, this tripartite becomes truly sound. But against this same tripartite soul the devil wages war day and night. If Satan wages war against tripartiteness, it is clear that through this he fights against the commandments of Christ, for Christ, through the commandments, imposes a law on the tripartiteness of the soul, that is, the irritable, willing and thinking powers of the soul. And look: the threat that “he who is angry with his brother in vain is guilty of judgment” (Matthew 5:22) and His subsequent commandments - this is the healing of the irritable part. The enemy is trying to subvert this commandment and others laid down along with it internally through thoughts of covetousness (a tendency to quarrel with words, argumentativeness), rancor and envy. This opponent (ours and God’s) knows that the ruler of the irritable part is mental power. Why does it first shoot arrows at it through thoughts, suspicion, envy, bickering, quarrelsomeness, deceit, vanity and inclines the mental power to relinquish its inherent power and, giving the reins to irritation itself, leave it without any control. Then irritation, throwing away its ruler, without restraint wears out through the lips in words everything that was previously invested in the heart, that was previously hoarded in it through enemy thoughts, with the negligence of the mind. Then a similar description of the battle in the wishful and mental part of the soul is made and in conclusion it is said: “The well-controlled tripartite keeps the feelings from everything that is placeless. And then the mind, remaining in silence, with other forces controlled by God and in their obedience, conveniently gains the upper hand in mental warfare. When, through inattention, he allows other forces to become confused, then, being overcome by the excuses of the evil one, he transgresses the Divine commandments. The transgression of the commandments is followed in every possible way by either corresponding repentance or torment in the next century” 5 . Reading or listening to soul-helping books is necessary for salvation (Excerpt from the preface of the begun translation of an unknown Greek book) My beloved reader! Do you want me to show you something that is more honest than gold and silver, valuable beads and precious stones? You cannot find and buy the Kingdom of Heaven, future joys and eternal peace with anything other than with this thing. This is reading in private and listening with attention and diligence to the word of God, the writings of the fathers and other spiritual books. No one can be saved unless he reads or listens to the holy soul-saving writings. Just as a bird without wings cannot fly to a height, so a mind without holy books cannot figure out how to be saved. Reading in private and listening with attention and diligence to holy books is the parent of all virtues and the teacher of every good deed. Reading in private and listening with attention and diligence to holy books, giving rise to all virtue and increasing good dispositions of the heart, drives away from us all evil sinful passion and all lust, desire and demonic action. Reading in private and listening with attention and diligence to the holy books over all studies and labors that those who are zealous for salvation undertake, the holy fathers appoint as an elder and a king. It arouses and guides man to all virtues and places him at the right hand of God. But whoever does not read and listen with attention and diligence to the holy books, for the sake of this he falls into all sorts of passions, into sinful misfortunes, into demonic networks and into all kinds of evil. He forgets his death, and the coming of Christ, and evil torment, and the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven and the blessed paradise. The vain and flattering short-lived life of this age is kind to such a person. He moves away from God through negligence and inattention, and the demons, like darkness, cover the mental memory, darken the mental brightness, make one forget about virtues, and constantly remind the mind of evil and renew evil thoughts in it. Divine Scripture and soul-saving books show us the beginning, middle and end of the saving path - the entire staircase to the Kingdom of Heaven. Why should we diligently adhere to these books and to this Divine Scripture. Where they practice reading holy books, from there all demonic activity, all soul-destroying passions and sinful lusts are driven away; The commandments of the Lord and the virtues of the fathers receive all kinds of correction there. Why is it well established by the holy fathers that at morning services teachings from the holy books should be read many times, and that those who know how to read should also engage in such reading in their cells, to protect themselves from invisible spiritual thieves and robbers, thereby arranging, as it were, a guard around themselves of some saving truths, against the intrigues, cunning and plans of fierce demons, against the oblivion and darkness caused by them. Why should we carefully read the holy books every day in order to draw from them soul-saving instructions suitable for correcting our life? They expose the conscience, reveal passions and arouse hostility towards them, expose demonic networks, teach virtues, affirm the endurance of sorrows, remind of the end of death, announce the coming of Christ, depict the joys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the horrors of endless torment. Depicting to us all truth and all good, they present it to our eyes, as if they had scattered pure gold and silver and precious stones on a platter. What an experienced leader is to an army, what a skilled helmsman is to a ship, what a guide is to those walking along a confused road, the holy books are for Christians fighting in the army, for those sailing through the troubled sea of ​​this life into the calm haven of the Kingdom of Heaven, for those marching to their Heavenly Fatherland along the obstinate paths of this vain and much seductive life. The crafty demons have a lot of slyness and malice, intrigues and snares with which they trap us, the poor, into various passions, into sinful falls and spiritual destruction. The humane God, sparing our race, gave us holy books, written by His holy saints, in which we are offered the true science of how to avoid the snares of demons, sinful passions and the delights of this age. The holy fathers were taught spiritual wisdom by many sorrowful and many painful experiences of life and, having completed their path safely, left us the fruit of the labors of their righteous ones - the word of the book, their holy scriptures, like a bright lamp illuminating the path of salvation for those who were jealous to enter it. The eyes are like a lamp to the body; so the lamp of the soul is the mind; The mirror of the mind is the holy books. Preface to the letter of Antiochus, monk of the Lavra of Saint Sava, to Eustathius, abbot of the Attala monastery of the city of Ancyra in Galatia You wrote to me, honest Father Eustathius, that you are suffering great sorrow there, moving from place to place and from country to country, driven by the fear of attack by the Chaldeans, and that, moreover, you are languishing with greed and thirst, not for bread and water, but, as it is said nowhere, for hearing the word of the Lord, having neither the opportunity to carry heavy books with you, nor the convenience of finding them where you have to wander. For this reason, you entrusted my short-mindedness with obedience - to combine in a small book all the Divine Scripture of the Old and New Testaments, so that it would not be difficult to carry, and it would not lack anything that is necessary for the edification and salvation of the soul. I immediately eagerly took up the task of fulfilling your instructions and presented everything you were looking for from the Divine Scripture in one hundred and thirty chapters, closely related to each other in content, but also differing from each other so much that the reader will not tolerate confusion and confusion of concepts. I send this collection to your love for God, which, having received, we sang due praise and thanksgiving to God, who perfects His strength in weakness; Reward us with your favorable prayers, so that we can finish the rest of our life pleasing God. If, as is to be expected, you find anything unsatisfactory, I beg your pardon, taking into account both my inability and the required haste of the matter. But as you also asked, honest father, to write to you about the holy fathers of our Lavra, whether it is true what, as you say, you heard from some about their lives and their beatings and what seemed incredible to you and even inconceivable to hear, then I considered it necessary to write briefly to you about this in advance, and then attach chapters from the Divine Scripture. As for the glorious life of our fathers, now is not the time, and it is not for my tongue to tell about it. I will only say that they were truly Divine people (if we should call them people, and not angels), from youth to old age, who lived in asceticism, silence and works of piety, sacred elders, whitened not by hair alone, but even more so by wisdom, kind, humble, respectable, chaste, lovers of truth, immaculate, righteous, God-fearing, avoiding every evil deed, lacking no good quality, filled with Divine love. Some of them lived for more than fifty and sixty years without leaving the Lavra at all; some did not even go to church, and not only did not see the city since they retired, adorning themselves with all kinds of virtues - earthly angels and heavenly people. For this reason they were honored with such an end, for which, of course, they will be adorned with a victorious crown. One week before the capture of the holy city by the Persians, the Ishmaelites attacked our monastery and plundered all the sacred vessels of the church. Most of the fathers left in advance, but the more courageous servants of Christ remained in the monastery, not wanting to leave the place. The barbarians, having seized them, tortured them without mercy for many days, thinking to find money from those who had nothing of the blessings of this age; but then, realizing the futility of such hope, they went berserk and cut everyone to pieces. The blessed fathers with joy and gratitude gave up their souls to the Lord, since they had long had the desire to “be resolved to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). Their bodies, scattered here and there, remained without burial for many days, until we returned from the mountains where we had taken refuge. At the same time, Abba Nicodemus, seeing the sad sight of the beaten fathers, fell unconscious, and they lifted him up and carried him out almost dead. Already the most reverend Modest, having approached, collected the remains of the saints in one place, washed them with many tears and, having hidden them according to custom, placed these holy and martyr’s relics in the monastery tomb, then, having performed the prescribed prayer over them, he spoke the word of Isaiah about them: “righteous men will take flight, and no one understands; from the face of unrighteousness the righteous has come forth; His burial will be in peace” (Isaiah 57:1-2). And: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will touch them. It was impossible for them to die in the eyes of the foolish... they are in the world... and the hope of their immortality is fulfilled: and in the smallest punishment the former great blessings will be. For God has tempted them, and found them worthy of Himself... and for the fruitfulness of the sacrifice I have accepted, and when I visit them they will shine” (Wis. 3:1-7). Having said this about the holy fathers, he asked all of us not to leave our place, but to endure temptations courageously, remembering the words of the Lord that “narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads into the belly” (Matthew 7:14), and the word of the Apostle that “through many tribulations one must... enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Acts 14:22). Bowing to his admonitions, we stayed in the Lavra for up to two months. But then again there was a rumor about a barbarian raid, and we, fearing this, moved to the monastery of Abba Anastasius, which was not far from the holy city, about twenty stages, in which at that time there was no one. We lived here for almost two years, when the said Most Reverend Modest began again to convince us to return to our place and live there. Having listened to his good advice, several of us immediately went to the Lavra, others did it later, fearing the Saracens wandering in our neighborhood, and some remained completely in that monastery, under the abbess of the Most Reverend Justin, a monk of the Lavra, who lived in it for many years and shone with many virtues, so that he was honored with the priesthood. This most God-fearing Justin, by the grace of Christ, gathered a large brotherhood in that monastery, maintaining in everything the charter and order of our holy Lavra, so that in all Palestine you will not find such a deanery in any monastery. That monastery blossoms and multiplies more and more, and we rejoice, thinking how throughout our entire country, like the stars, the seed of our holy father Savva shines everywhere. We, humbled by the grace of God and the care of the previously mentioned Most Reverend Modest, live even more calmly than in previous years, thanking and glorifying God, who kills and creates life, who alone performs great miracles. His grace has had mercy on us, and He glorifies our place more and more, for the sake of His holy servants who previously diligently worked for Him. His grace gave us a father and shepherd, the most reverend Thomas, a man of great knowledge and adorned with all sorts of virtues, who from a young age has been leading a serene ascetic life here, meek, brotherly, compassionate, humble in heart, a zealous guardian of the prayer order and the entire monastic rule. Why, under his abbess, God multiplied the new plantings of our monastery. Forty-four holy fathers were beaten. Their memory is celebrated on the fifteenth day of May. By the grace of Christ and the care of the above-mentioned father of our most reverend Modest, many monks live in other deserted monasteries. Here, honest Father Eustathius, I wrote briefly to your love for God about the holy fathers and about our Lavra. I will tell you other good news that can bring joy to your soul and the soul of every Christian who reads this. The aforementioned Most Reverend Modest cares not only about the desert monasteries, but also about the city itself, and about our entire region, and God helps him in everything. He, like our truly new Bezaleel or Zerubbabel, filled with the Spirit, restored the all-honorable churches burned by the enemies: our Savior, Jesus Christ - Calvary, the Holy Resurrection, the Honest Cross, the Holy Ascension and others; so from this we have good hopes for the future, especially for the sake of those who come from other countries to worship the holy places, so that God may be glorified by all, to whom is due all glory, honor and worship, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Monk Antioch's word on faith Promoting the Lord and confirming the word, we begin our words with a word about faith, and then in order we will move on to other subjects. Firstly, one must believe in God, “as He is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). Faith will stand forever, and “the righteous will live by faith” (Heb. 10:38). But the truly righteous by faith has faith that is effective, faith that is fruitful, faith that does not waver in the least, faith that shines through good works, so that the Father of all may be glorified. He who is perfect in faith is the stone of the church of God, prepared into a building by the good will of God the Father, lifted to heights by the lever of Jesus Christ, that is, by the cross, through the rope of the Spirit. A person’s faith is the driver, and love is the path that leads to God. Whoever is like this (that is, unites love with faith), he becomes a God-bearer, a Christ-bearer, a church of God, adorned with all kinds of goodness through fidelity to the commandments of Jesus Christ. The chapter of life is life in faith and love; nothing can compare with this. But I mean active faith, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20, 26). The works of faith are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, humility, praise in the Lord, confidence in God, crucifixion of the flesh, reverence from all works, as God rested from His, taking up one’s cross and following Christ, life by the Spirit, improvement of the Spirit. Such are the works of faith, such faith will be counted as truth! Walking with faith along the path of the commandments here, below, delights the highest Jerusalem. If, having received faith, we continue in faith and stand firm in it, then we truly dwell in the Lord. The Lord says through the prophet: “My eyes are on the faithful of the land, so that I may plant them with Me” (Ps. 100:6). Jeremiah is similar to this: “Lord, Thy eyes (see) to faith” (Jer. 5:3). Saint Peter says: “Give virtue to your faith... love” (2 Pet. 1:5-7). In another place: having established yourself on the basis of faith, “be sober, be vigilant, in the zone your adversary the devil, like a lion, roars, looking for someone to devour; whom ye resist in the firmament by faith” (1 Pet. 5:8-9). Likewise, Saint Paul: “in Him who believed, he was marked with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). And again: “Take the shield of faith over everyone, in which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16). In another place: “there is faith, a message to those who hope... In this testimony the ancients were... By faith these all died” (Heb. 11, 1-2, 13). And again: “the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ is in all and on all who believe” (Rom. 3:22). Also: “let us receive the promise of the Spirit by faith” (Gal. 3:14). In another place he says again: “Abraham believed in God, and it was imputed to him as righteousness... To him who does not do, but believes in the justifier of the wicked, his faith is imputed to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3,5). And he instructs: “for this reason, from faith, and by grace, that the promise was known to all the seed, not exactly that which is of the law, but also that which is of the faith of Abraham... But it was not written for that one, even as it was imputed to him; but also for us, who wants to be imputed to those who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ... Having now been justified by faith, the world of the imams is to God by our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4, 16, 23–24, 5:1). He writes to Timothy: “hold fast to righteousness, faith, love, peace, with all who call on the Lord” (2 Tim. 2:22). And in another place he says: “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Saint John also writes: “This is His commandment, that we may believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23), and may the imams have an eternal life of faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, says: “Believe in Me... rivers from his belly will flow out living waters. This is speaking about the Spirit, which the believer wants to receive in His name” (John 7:38-39). And again: “who is a faithful servant and wise” (Matthew 24:45). Also: “Your faith will save you: go in peace” (Luke 7:50). He says to Martha: “Believe in Me, even if you die, you will live” (John 11:25). And to the disciples: “Amen, I say to you: believe in Me, the works that I do, he will do the same, and greater works than these will he do” (John 14:12). Again: “believe in Me to have eternal life” (John 6:47). And again: “believe in God and believe in Me” (John 14:1). Enough, I think, we have offered evidence from the Divine Scriptures about faith. I mean faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the Consubstantial and Life-Giving Trinity, in Which we believe. It is now necessary to bring about this the sayings and testimonies of Divine Scripture for the enlightenment of the readers. In theological reasoning, as we see everywhere, the sacred Godhead is glorified, both as unity and unity, due to the simplicity and unity of the supernatural infinity, and as the Trinity, due to the trinitarian nature of the persons of the pre-existent Divinity. Theologians relate all Divine names to the consubstantiality of the pre-existent Trinity, such as: God, Lord, Holy, Good, Light, Life, Truth, Almighty, Almighty, Lord of Hosts, that is, the Lord of the armies of Heaven, and others cited by theologians, how you can learn from the Godhead Himself when It speaks about Itself. So the Savior says: “What good do you say? No one is good except one God” (Luke 18:19). He (in the person of the householder) said to those working in the vineyard: “Even if your eye is evil, for I am seven good things” (Matthew 20:15). The Prophet David sings: “Your good Spirit will guide me to the right land” (Ps. 142:10). It was said to Moses: “I am this” (Ex. 3:14). Saint John says: “from the very beginning” (that is, the word animal) (1 John 1:1). Also: “I am Alpha and Omega... says the Lord, who is, and who is, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Apoc. 1:8). “The Lord is His name” (Ps. 67:5). Also: “The Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, bears witness of Me” (John 15:26). The Lord said to Thomas: “I am... the truth and the life” (John 14:6). And again to all the disciples: “Sanctify them in Thy truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Also: “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26). Then: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth... He will glorify Me, because He will receive from Mine and proclaim it to you. All that the Father has is My essence; For this reason he decided that he will receive from Mine and tell you” (John 16:13-15). Again: “just as the Father raises the dead and lives, so the Son also lives what he wants” (John 5:21). In other places he says: “There is a Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63). “The Lord is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17). “Everything is from God” (2 Cor. 5:18). “Everything was created in Him” (Col. 1:16). “All this happened” (John 1:3). “Thou shalt follow Thy Spirit, and they shall be created” (Ps. 103:30). “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of His mouth was all their strength” (Ps. 33:6). And, to put it briefly, the Divine Word Himself declared: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). And: “all that is mine is thine, and thine is mine” (John 17:10). Further, everything that is characteristic of the Father and the Son, the Son of God Himself refers to the Divine Spirit, that is, the greatness of the Divinity, and the fact that He is common and united with them, the source and inexhaustible Cause of everything, when he says: “Going and teaching all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). From all of the above it is clear that in the Divinity some things are united, others are separate; and neither that which is united should be divided, nor that which is divided should be merged into one. The united belongs to the entire Divinity, namely, that it is most good, pre-divine, pre-existent, pre-vital, wise, that from Him is all good, goodness, being, life, wisdom and all the variety of magnificent gifts. Separate is the essential name and title (or meaning) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (with their personal properties), in which no mutual exchange or communication is allowed. So, having received such knowledge about God through faith, let us recognize the grace given to us, for which the Lord Himself truly suffered. The Lord received myrrh on His head (Matthew 26:7) in order to bestow incorruption into His Church as a fragrance. Let no one smear himself with the stench of the unbelief of the prince of this age; Let us not deviate from the right path, so that we may be worthy to receive the hope of eternal blessings and endless life in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Monk Antioch's word on eating The Pritochnik says about dining: “If you sit down to sup at the meal of the mighty, understand wisely what is offered to you, and lay on your hand, knowing, as it should be prepared for you; If you are the most insatiable, do not desire to throw him away” (Proverbs 23:1-3). Another says the same thing: “If you sat down at a great meal, do not open your throat at it... Remember that evil is the evil eye... Where you see it, do not stretch out your hands and do not bend with it in salt. Reason about the essence of your neighbor from yourself, and reflect on all things. Eat like the man that is set before you, and do not be satiated, lest you be hated. Be the first to stop for the sake of punishment and do not be satiated, lest you stumble. And if you sit in the midst of many, do not stretch out your hand before them. If not much is enough for a person who has been punished!” (Sir. 31, 13–21). Saint Moses commands: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, take heed... lest you forget the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:11–12). The Apostle Paul teaches: “Whether you eat or drink, or do anything else, do everything for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). In another place: “For he who is weak believes to eat everything, but he who is weak eats a potion and eats.” Let the poisonous man not rebuke the poisonous; and let him who is not poisonous condemn him who eats...Who art thou, a judge of a strange servant? His Lord stands or falls” (Rom. 14:2-4). And further: “he who is poisonous eats the Lord and gives thanks to God, and he who is not poisonous does not eat the Lord” (Rom. 14:6). And below: “Don’t ruin God’s work for the sake of waste. Everything is pure, but evil is a stumbling block for anyone who eats... Blessed is he who does not condemn himself, for whom he is tempted. But if you doubt, if you eat, you are condemned, not from faith” (Rom. 14:20-23). “But evil does not place us in the presence of God: we are abundant if we are not in a pit; we are deprived if we are not in a pit” (1 Cor. 8:8). The influent again says: do not be enticed by the fullness of the belly. “The soul, in the satiety of existence, swears at the honeycomb; but souls are poorer and bitter is sweeter” (Proverbs 27:7). Likewise, the Apostle, recognizing every type of food as pure, also inspires: “What God has created for the faithful and those who know the truth to eat with thanksgiving, do not defile it. Because every creature of God is good and nothing is taken into account and accepted with thanksgiving. It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:3–5). And: “all things are pure pure” (Titus 1:15). The law also decrees: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless the Lord your God” (Deut. 8:10). David said with thanksgiving: “Thou hast given gladness to my heart from the fruit of wheat, wine and oil” (Ps. 4:8). And again: “You have satisfied the empty soul, and filled the hungry soul with good things” (Ps. 106:9). And the good Lord, wanting to teach us modesty, says: “When you are called to marriage, do not sit in the first place, someone who is more honest than you will be invited, and the one who called you and he comes and says to you: give this a place; and then you will start holding the last place with cold. But whenever you are called, you go and sit in the last place, and when the one who called you comes, he says to you: friend, sit higher; Then will you be glory before those who are called with you. For everyone who exalts himself will humble himself; Humble yourself, and he will be exalted” (Luke 14:8-14). And this is enough for teaching and edification. But it’s also good to remember the words of Job, who says: “Even though my bread was only wasted, and I did not give it to the orphan, since from my youth I have been fed like a father” (Job 31, 17, 18). And the Lord says again: “Whenever you make a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your relatives, nor the neighbor of the rich, when they call you in the same way, and you will be rewarded. But whenever you hold a feast, call the poor, the weak, the lame, the blind; and blessed will you be, because they have no recompense, but He will reward you for the resurrection of the righteous” from God (Luke 14:12-14). To him be glory forever. Amen. The word of the monk Antiochus about gluttony Everyone needs to force himself to hold his belly in due measure; especially to those who wished to work for God. The moderate has become good, but the one who is filled without measure is like a ship loaded with more than he can lift. The body has a need for food, and not for pleasures, for eating in abundance, and not for satiety. For the first brings benefits to both body and soul, supporting health, strength and joy of life; and the second brings harm to both of them, not only upsetting their health, but also causing extremely serious illnesses. A clear proof of this is that ascetics who are content with little eating are more healthy, chaste and sane than those who spend their lives in all contentment. And not only this, but the one who bridles the belly diminishes the passions, and the one who is conquered and carried away by food breeds carnal desires. For just as the multiplication of wood kindles a larger flame, so the abundance of food arouses the strongest lust. The delicacy of the dishes delights the larynx, but feeds the worm of never-ending voluptuousness. Just as neglected land is overgrown with thorns, so the mind of a glutton breeds shameful thoughts. The gluttonous monk is a tributary of the womb and does nothing but count the memory of the deliberate saints, while the abstinent one imitates their lives. A glutton admires nothing more than a spacious and capacious belly, although it is nothing more than a repository for the time being of unclean excesses. And the Holy Spirit, who dwelt in the gluttonous man, is offended by his gluttony and, not tolerating the stench, moves away from him. Just as smoke drives away bees, so gluttony is the grace of the Holy Spirit. So, it is better for us to abandon gluttonous foods and satisfy the needs of the body with simple food, so as not to become like the gluttonous people in the desert. For it is said about him: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose to play” (Ex. 32:6). Having eaten and drunk beyond measure, they forgot the commandment of God and strayed into idolatry. Why does the Apostle Paul write well about their imitators: “Whose belly is God, and whose glory is in their cold, they who are on earth are wise” (Phil. 3:19). And again: “The belly is waste, and the belly is waste; God will abolish both this and that” (1 Cor. 6:13). Also: “If your brother grieves for the sake of waste, you no longer walk out of love: do not destroy him with your waste, for Christ died for nothing” (Rom. 14:15). And he leads: “For such people do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly: those who deceive the hearts of the gentle with good words and blessings” (Rom. 16:18). In another place: “the wisdom of the flesh is death; and spiritual wisdom is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). And: “It is good to strengthen hearts by grace and not waste” (Heb. 13:9). And again: “The Kingdom of Heaven is not food and drink, but truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). It is not a delight for the flesh and a luxury for the table; this, as it is said, is the food of worms; just as Saint James wrote in reproach to the slaves of the womb, saying: “Rejoice on earth, and enjoy yourself; Your hearts are fattened, like the day of slaughter” (James 5:5). And the Lord says to the unbelieving Jews: “Amen, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw a sign, but because you ate the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26). And he directs: “Do not do the evil that perishes, but do the evil which abides in the eternal life which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Monk Antioch's word on drunkenness Drunkenness is a sin more serious than overeating, and is completely prohibited by Divine Scripture. It is not at all appropriate for us to please them, as other worldly wise people have the custom of boasting about being drunk. This intoxication brings nothing else but mental frenzy and poverty. And it makes the body exhausted and relaxed. It is good and reproachful to drink a little wine for the sake of bodily weakness. For just as the earth, watered by moderate rain, abundantly produces the pure seed entrusted to it, and overflowing with abundant rain (intoxicated), brings only thorns and thistles, so the earth of our heart, with moderate consumption of wine, produces its natural seeds pure, but being all soaked in wine from drinking too much, brings only thorns of unclean thoughts. This intoxication also makes the foolish laugh at the drunkard, and the sensible cry for him. So God's Scripture says that Noah, a righteous man, drank wine and, drunk, lay naked, and this is not because he was a wine drinker, but because he did not yet know the power of wine. Seeing him, the foolish Ham ridiculed him, and the reasonable children covered him up. So, let us, brethren, flee from the demon of drunkenness, so as not to be ridiculed by him, but more than that, let us establish ourselves in sobriety, so that man may be safe with his sovereign (that is, mind), as the Pritochnik commands, saying: “Do not wake up a wine drinker... for every drunkard... will become poor” (Proverbs 23:20-21). And again: “Who cares? who's the word? who's ship? Who cares about sorrows and quarrels? Who needs contrition in vain? who has blue eyes? Are they not in wine? and do they not watch where the feasts are?” (Prov. 23:29–30). And he directs: “Do not get drunk with wine, but talk to a righteous man” (Proverbs 23:31). Another says: “Do not take courage in wine, for the wine will destroy many” (Sir. 31:29). And again the Pritotnik: “Whoever enjoys wine will leave dishonor in his strongholds” (Proverbs 12:11). Also: do not be a wine drinker, for “the fool does not benefit from sweetness” (Proverbs 19:10). And one more thing: drunkenness is foolish and “reproachful: and if anyone continues in it, he will not be wise” (Proverbs 20:1). The Prophet Hosea speaks of the ancient people (in reproach to them): “Wine and drunkenness are the heart of my people” (Hos. 4:11). And Isaiah, condemning those who spend time drinking wine, says: “Woe to those who rise in the morning, and to those who pursue strong drink, who wait for the evening; for I will burn the wine” (Is. 5:11). And again: “the essence of deception is wine... the priest and the prophet are out of their minds from strong drink... deceived” (Is. 28:7). Likewise, Joel cries out: “Be sober from your wine and weep; “All you who drink wine will weep until you are drunk” (Joel 1:5). Wine drinkers are commanded to weep and weep. And truly, drunkenness is the work of the most despised and erring people, as Job, pronouncing his judgment on someone, says: “Let them go astray, like a drunken man” (Job 12:25). Those who want to lead their lives piously walk the straight and unforgettable path, obeying the word of the Apostle, who says: “Do not get drunk with wine, for there is fornication in it” (Eph. 5:18). Also: “drunkards... will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:10). And again: “But the one who eats freely (the widow who sneers) died alive” (1 Tim. 5:6). And he directs: “Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of God is” (Eph. 5:17). All shameful passions are fueled by drunkenness. Just as David says: “the night is enlightenment in my sweetness” (Ps. 139:11); that is, the night was around me, poor man, but I did not know it, considering sweetness to be light, whereas it is night. Gloom and darkness are the time of drunkards, according to the Apostle (1 Thessalonians 5:7). I will gladly go through the story of Lot's daughters in silence. But the Lord, confirming the proposed truth, commands everyone, saying: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness” (Luke 21:34). To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Monk Antioch's word on abstinence Abstinence is appropriate for everyone, but especially for those who desire to please God. Abstinence, of course, not only in relation to food, but in general - in everything, that is, removal from everything forbidden. So, one who has taken the feat of abstinence must abstain from everything, according to the Apostle (1 Cor. 9:25). Just as when any member is taken away from a person, the whole appearance of the body becomes unsightly, so the lack of any one part of continence destroys all its beauty. Why should we diligently cultivate not only bodily virtues, but also those that can purify our inner man? For the point of abstinence is to avoid all unreasonable indulgences and do nothing not according to the instructions of God’s commandments. Abstinence is a bridle that restrains the desire of the lustful part of the soul for food, acquisitions and glory. And there is no possibility for anything else to be born in us without patience and all-round abstinence. “By your patience gain your souls,” the Lord inspires (Luke 21:19). Anyone who wants to properly conduct the work of abstinence must often pray. The Apostle even says: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer and abstinence distance the mind from worldly pleasures and free them from all their evil influence. By flesh and blood the Apostle meant carnal passions that captivate the mind to carnal wisdom when he said that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). This flesh is the food of demons. Why does one who exhausts the flesh with abstinence causes demons to starve and takes away from them the power to successfully wage war against themselves. As has been said, one must abstain with all the senses: sight, hearing, smell, tongue, stomach, touch and everything else. He must equally be above all shameful pleasure and lust. Those who love abstinence are obviously strong in body, sound in judgment, and always filled with the joy of God in their souls; and their mind, renouncing earthly things, rushes with lust to heavenly things. Having become alien to all voluptuousness, they remain passion-haters and lovers of God. Their prayer to the Lord is pure, and they always sacredly stand before God with the Angels. And the Scripture says: “Do not follow your lusts, and refrain from your lusts... Do not rejoice in the abundance of sweets” (Sir. 18, 30, 32). “Do not be filled with all kinds of sweetness, and do not overflow into (various) foodstuffs. For in many places there will be illness... Hearken, and he will add life” (Sir. 37, 32-34). Blessed David, showing the perfection of abstinence, says: “I was wounded like grass, and my heart failed, as if I forgot to take my bread. Because of the voice of my groaning my bone cleaves to my flesh. ...ashes are poisonous like bread, and my drink is dissolved with weeping” (Ps. 101:5-6,10). And the holy Apostle Paul commands: “put to death your evils that are on the earth” (Col. 3:5). And again: “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, creating holiness in the passion of God” (2 Cor. 7:1), so that we may be a church of the living God. Peter is similar: “Give your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, and to self-control patience” (2 Pet. 1:5-6). So, we must always be sober and watchful, seek the things on high, meditate on things above, according to the commandment of the Lord, who says: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and you are like a man who waits for his Lord when he returns from marriage, so that when he comes and pushes, it will be opened to him. Blessed are the servants, He commands from here, for whom the Lord will find those who are vigilant. Amen, I tell you, he will gird himself and make them sit down and come and serve them” (Luke 12:35-37). To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. About the eight main passions of our holy father John of Damascus 1) Know, brother, that there are eight thoughts that fight with a monk, as the holy fathers say. The first is gluttony; the second - evil and shameful lust; the third - love of money; fourth - sadness; fifth - anger; sixth - despondency; the seventh is vanity, and pride is the eighth. 2) So, you must know, monk, and pay careful attention to what passion we are disturbing you and disturbing from our enemies, the spirits of evil, and to what passionate thoughts your mind is inclined. 3) If you see that you are troubled by gluttony and lust, then oppress your belly, determining your food and drink by weight and measure; have an unceasing memory of the departure of the soul, also of the future judgment and terrible Gehenna, at the same time kindling the desire for the Kingdom of Heaven. In this way you will be able to defeat gluttonous lust and develop disgust towards it. 4) If you are seized by the spirit of shameful and evil lust, then embrace the feat of bodily abstinence and spiritual contrition, as well as vigil and diligent prayer; besides, behave insolently (not boldly in front of everyone), do not condemn or slander anyone, and do not have disgust for anyone; still remember death and love thirst; Above all, do not allow yourself to see women or have conversations with them; even better, do not look at their faces at all. Do this and you will get rid of this passion. 5) If you want to overcome the love of money, love non-covetousness and poverty in everything; Remember also the fate of Judas, for the sake of this passion he betrayed the Lord to lawless judges, and also the fact that every lover of money is called an idolater in the Divine Scripture (Col. 3:5) - and that it separates us from trust in God - and that the pleasure provided by silver is temporary, and the punishment for money lovers has no end. By thinking about this and not looking for anything other than what is necessary to satisfy your needs, you will overcome this passion. 6) If you are indignant and tormented by worldly sadness, you should pray more often, place all your trust in God, diligently study in the Divine Scriptures, associate with reverent and God-fearing monks, despise everything present as if it does not exist, and think about the joys of heaven and the consolations of the righteous. If someone kills you, or dishonors you, or persecutes you, do not be sad, but rather rejoice. Then only be sad when you sin before God. This way you can get rid of the spirit of passions. 7) If you are troubled by anger and acute bile, accept compassion, serve the brethren and, if possible, wash their feet often with humility, ask forgiveness from every person, often visit the sick and move your tongue to psalmody. By acting this way, you will finally find peace from this passion. 8) If you want to overcome despondency (or laziness), engage in some small handicraft, diligently read, pray more often with the faithful hope of good things; Think also about what happens during the last breath, what need and languor sinners experience then and how mercilessly they are tormented and tormented - and in this way you will calm down from this passion. 9) If you are tyrannized by vanity or the search for human praise, you should not do anything for show before people, but do everything you do secretly, so that no one sees it except God alone; do not love human praise, honor, good clothes, preference, or pre-eminence, rather than love, so that people revile you, condemn you and dishonor you, lying; and consider yourself to be more sinful than any sinner. 10) If you see yourself struggling from the demonic passion of evil pride, you should not revile, condemn or humiliate anyone, but consider yourself the rabble of all and constantly keep in mind that “unless the Lord builds a house, those who build will labor in vain” (Ps. 126:1), and always feel like a debtor and humiliate yourself before the face of God and everyone people. Also, do not hope for anything and do not rely on anything until you hear the last decision about yourself, seeing how someone, after reclining in the bridal chamber, bound hand and foot, was cast out into utter darkness; But whether you fast, keep a vigil, sleep on the bare ground, sing psalms, stand patiently, or bow in abundance, or do anything else, do not say that this was accomplished by your strength and your zeal, but by God’s help and intercession, and not by your diligence. Try, brother, to always be simple and immaculate; never have one thing in your heart and another on your tongue, because this is deceitful; and pray unceasingly with tears. By acting this way, you will get rid of this harmful and evil fall. Of the passions, some are physical, and others are spiritual. We call gluttony, fornication, drunkenness, and lasciviousness bodily; and spiritually - hatred of one’s neighbor, zeal (obstinacy, quarrelsomeness), vanity, pride. All of them act in our soul when love and self-control are absent in it. The former are overcome by fasting and vigil, and the latter by love and humility; nevertheless - by the grace of God with our zeal. When they are defeated, then the mind accepts the light characteristic of it and sees God without hindrance. The whole horde of passions can be resisted if a person constantly thinks about God, the spectator of his deeds, about the Guardian Angel, about the superiority of virtue, about the instantaneity of pleasure, about the filthiness of sin, the unreliability of life, about the obscurity of the hour of death, about eternal joys and pains, about the world of a clear conscience, about the dignity of man, about God's benefits to us, and most of all about life and suffering. and the death of Christ the Lord. What is and what is our life like? As soon as a person leaves one coffin (the womb of his mother), he hurries back to another, so that he can then be buried in the eternal flame of Gehenna. Let us love God and keep His commandments, so that when this poor life fades away, we may be honored to happily enter into the joy of eternal bliss. Amen. A soul-helping word about the virtues and passions of the soul and body 1) It should be known that a person, being dual, consisting of soul and body, has dual feelings and corresponding virtues and passions. These five senses are mental and five bodily. The spiritual feelings, which the sages also call powers, are the following: mind, reason, meaning, imagination, feeling; the bodily ones are sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. From them we have twofold virtues and twofold sinful passions; and every person needs to know which virtues and passions are spiritual and which are physical. 2) The spiritual virtues are, firstly, the four most important: courage, wisdom, chastity and truth; then the virtues born from them, which are: faith, hope, love, prayer, humility, meekness, generosity, kindness, goodness, lack of anger, divine reasonableness, quietness, simplicity, serenity, unpretentiousness, arrogance, pridelessness, innocence, artlessness, non-covetousness, compassion, almsgiving, generosity, fearlessness, carelessness, consciousness, modesty, reverence, seeking heavenly blessings, striving for the Kingdom of God, desire for sonship. 3) And the bodily virtues, or, better, the instrument of the virtues, which with reason and according to God, being maintained without any pretense and man-pleasing, lead every person to success in humility and dispassion, are: abstinence, fasting, thirst, vigil, all-night standing, frequent kneeling, denying oneself in baths, contentment with one’s clothes, dry eating, late eating food, fast eating, drinking only water, sleeping on bare ground, poverty in everything, lack of anything superfluous, neglect of external good looks and dapperness, lack of self-pity, solitude, silence, homesteadiness, contentment with little, silence, hardworking handicraft, all suffering (arbitrary bodily deprivation) and all bodily asceticism. All this is extremely necessary and very useful when the body is healthy and subject to strong attacks of bodily passions; when the body is painful and, by God’s grace, is not burdened by its inherent passions, then it is not so much necessary, because in this case holy humility and prayer complete everything. 4) It should now be said about the spiritual and physical passions of sin. The passions of the soul are the following: oblivion, negligence, ignorance of what passions the eye of the soul, that is, the mind, being darkened, falls under the power of all other passions, which are: wickedness, evil, that is, all heresy, blasphemy, anger, rage, bitterness, irascibility, hatred of man, rancor, slander, condemnation, unreasonable sadness, fear, timidity, zeal, envy, envy, vanity, pride, pretense, deceit, infidelity, covetousness, love of things, addiction, inclination to earthly things, despondency, cowardice, ingratitude, grumbling, arrogance, conceit, rudeness, conceit, lust, man-pleasing, guile, shamelessness, insensibility, caresses, suspicion, mockery, double-mindedness, coping with sins, partly inspired by passion, and frequent thinking about them, wandering of thoughts, pride, the parent of all passions, and the root of all evil - love of money, ill-will and evil cunning. 5) The bodily passions are: gluttony, laryngeal madness, sweetness, drunkenness, secret eating, addiction to sensual pleasures, fornication, adultery, depravity, uncleanness, incest, child molestation, bestiality, evil lusts and all unnatural shameful passions, theft, sacrilege, robbery, murder, rest of the body to everyone's satisfaction and satisfaction carnal desires, especially with a healthy body, fortune-telling, witchcraft, conspiracies, prophecies, faith in fate, passion for jewelry, foppishness, effeminacy, rubbing faces, condemnable idleness, empty entertainment, gambling, passionate abuse of worldly pleasures, body-loving life, which, having become satiated with it, the mind becomes earthly and bestial and never again has the desire to ascend to God or desire work virtues. 6) The roots of all passions and, as someone else would say, the original causes are: voluptuousness, love of fame, love of money, from which all evil is born. But a person will not sin any sin if the following omnipotent giants do not first enter into it and take possession of it, as Mark, the wisest of ascetics, says: oblivion, negligence and ignorance; which themselves are generated by voluptuousness and peace of the flesh, love of human glory and addiction to entertainment. The primary cause of all of them and, as it were, the most evil mother, as has already been said, is self-indulgence, or unreasonable love and passionate addiction to the body. I will also add that dissipation and licentiousness of mind, with table gaiety and swearing, cause a lot of evil and many downfalls, as does insolence at everything and laughter. 7) With all this, it is still necessary to know how different and varied passionate lust is and how many pleasures seduce the soul if it, being sober before God, is not imbued with the fear of God and, zealous for the fulfillment of the commandments, is not flaming with love for Christ. Thousands of pleasant things float before the eyes of the soul, attracting them to themselves - faces, silver and gold, sweets and pleasures, fame, riotous joy, power, possessions of everything in abundance, and in seduction they seem to have a brilliant and exalted appearance; so that in fact they are strong to captivate those who are amazed by them, especially if they do not love virtue very much and do not willingly endure difficulties along its paths. And every earthly habit, and every addiction to something sensual, gives pleasure and delight to the addicted, showing that the desired part of his soul with addiction is disposed towards it unreasonably and to his own detriment, for for this reason, in the event of deprivation of the desired thing, the one defeated by the addiction is exposed to anger, sadness and rancor. If, with addiction, habit also takes on power, although not much, then, through this passion hidden in it, it holds the captive with all its power unhealed until the end of life. For lustful pleasure, as has been said, is manifold and is not only enjoyed by fornication and other bodily pleasures, but by all passions in general; just as, on the contrary, to be chaste means not only to abstain from fornication and other sensual pleasures, but also to keep oneself away from any sensual sweetness in general. Why is it that anyone who loves silver and gold, and in general many things, is a lover of voluptuousness, because just as he loves carnal lusts, so this one loves to delight in many things. Even this one is more voluptuous, since he is not so strongly subjected to forced stimulation by nature. And a coachman, for example, is considered ignorant in his business, not the one who cannot cope with a wild and uncontrollable horse, but the one who cannot control a meek and submissive horse. From everything you can see how unnatural the lust for silver and gold is when it receives its stimulation not from nature, but from evil will. Why does one sin unapologetically who spontaneously succumbs to it? Thus, we should undoubtedly agree that voluptuousness is not limited to bodily pleasures and pleasures alone, but takes place in everything to which, in satisfaction of some passion, the soul is arbitrarily addicted with love. 8) To make the difference in sinful passions even clearer, let us distribute them into three parts, or powers, of the soul; For this reason, we enclose the following brief review of them in this regard. The soul is divided into three parts, or forces: thinking, irritable and concupiscible. In the mental system there are the following sins: unbelief, heresy, unreason, blasphemy, ingratitude and association with bodily sins that come from the concupiscible part. To heal and heal these passions, undoubted faith in God, true Orthodox dogmas of faith, free from error, diligent teaching in the words of the Spirit, pure and unceasing prayer and thanksgiving to God serve. The sins of the irritable part are: unmercifulness, hatred, lack of compassion, rancor, envy, murder and incessant plans about all this. Healing and medicine against them are philanthropy, love, benevolence. Sins of the lustful part: gluttony, larynx, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, uncleanness, debauchery, covetousness, vanity, sensual pleasures. Their healing and healing: fasting, abstinence, suffering (arbitrary bodily deprivation), non-covetousness, dependence of property on the poor, desire for eternal future benefits, desire for the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven and the desire for sonship. From the life of Saint Andrew, Christ for the Fool's sake (compiled by Nicephorus, priest of the Sophia Church of Constantinople, eyewitness) 1) Saint Andrew saw such a dream vision at the beginning of his feat. I see myself, said the blessed one, in the royal chambers, and the king, seeing me, called me to him and said: Do you want to serve me with all your soul? And I will make you a nobleman at my court. I answered him: who refuses goodness, my Lord. I wish this very much. The king said to me: do you want it? “Taste and feel the power of my kingdom.” And with this word he ordered to give me some food, white as snow. I tasted it - the sweetness of the food surpassed all intelligence and emitted an inexplicable fragrance. Then the king ordered to give me other food, saying: take it, eat it. I tasted it, and the bitterness of the food was more bitter than any bitterness, so that my whole constitution shuddered and I forgot the sweetness of the first food. Then the king said to me: now I have made you feel the power of the service performed to me! Do you see how bitter it is? - but this is a narrow and regrettable path that leads into the stomach, there is no other. I answered: bitter and painful, Vladyka. Who can serve you with such food? The king said to me: have you known bitterness and forgotten sweetness? Didn't I give you the sweet first and then the bitter? Thus, I give to all those who serve me to first feel all the sweetness of serving me, and then I experience and lead it through sorrow. I told him: but, my Lord, you showed the way of serving You only in one bitter food! The king says to me: no, not with bitterness alone, but with bitterness and sweetness there is service to me. On my path I alternately encounter the bitterness of exploits and labors and the sweetness of heartfelt peace from the dew of my grace. Not everything is bitter and not everything is sweet: but sometimes one, sometimes the other. At this word I awakened, and this vision served me as consolation and strengthening throughout my life. 2) Listen, my son, to my advice. Satan is bold and vehement against those who strive for glory for the sake of the name of God. Most powerfully and most successfully, he tempts them by inciting lust through evil thoughts. So, I beg you, pay attention to yourself and be sober in everything and always, so as not to fall into his evil snares. You are young and tender, and for that he is even more angry with you. For he envies your meekness, purity, zeal for God and love for knowing the truth and walking in it. Walk His path in devotion to God, clothe yourself with humility with fear and intense attention; protect yourself with fervent and unceasing prayer; guard strictly all the feelings of your body, for the evil enemy will not cease to intensify his efforts to desecrate your heart through them. Cling to the Lord with all your heart, and His help will overshadow you in all your ways. Be bold and do not let your heart be afraid, for the Lord is with you. Use abundant tears to cleanse your soul and body; apply labor and feat to acquire purity of heart. Be compassionate and patient; do not be angry, do not judge, do not offend, do not be arrogant, may the Lord exalt you. Acquire strong and unceasing prayer and devote yourself, without self-pity, to doing God’s commandments. The Lord, by His grace, will cover you from all evil and lead you to the calm haven of His Kingdom. 3) When one young man, who was pestering Saint Andrew, left him and returned to his work, Epiphanius asked Saint Andrew: I ask you, servant of God, tell me why this young man is so given over to temptations? The Monk Andrew said to him in response: The Lord left him in anger for no other reason than because he was wayward, impudent and proud. Although he has other unclean passions, it is not so much this that destroys him. However, the Lord is merciful: He will humble him with the fire of sorrows and illnesses. And if he understands the finger of God and repents, he will be saved. If he does not understand and repent, he will be like Pharaoh. If food is not boiled well, it has no pleasantness: so we sinners, if we are not boiled down by sorrows and temptations, are not fit for the Kingdom of God. 4) Another young man, John, was sitting with Epiphanius and, carried away by a passing woman, said: May God punish her for disturbing my heart. Epiphanius says: “It’s good if she only confused her and didn’t lead her to lust, for “everyone, having looked at a woman and lusted after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). But if you want to avoid this sin, why do you look with pleasure at your wife? John said: it was not the devil who created the woman, but, of course, God. That’s why He determined that “such a thing” should be done. If He had not wanted this, He would not have given birth to a wife. Epiphanius says: it’s clear that you speak without thinking. Judge for yourself: God gave us a knife not so that we could cut and kill each other, but so that it would serve us for our needs; also a rope, not to choke, but to use it for what it should. So God created the wife not for lust, but for the spread of the human race. And anyone who wants to have a wife must take her according to the laws determined by God, and not according to a capricious whim. Everyone in his youth must decide what to do in this matter. If he can be a virgin, thank God, but if he cannot, let him, with the blessing of his parents, choose a wife who is honest and virtuous. And then neither he nor she has the power over themselves to bark 6 here and there. For a married young man who falls into criminal fornication, unquenchable fire and pitch darkness await. So, if you cannot remain in virgin purity, take a wife, according to the law of God, so that you can live honestly here and not fall under condemnation in the next century. He says to him: blessed are your lips, Epiphanius, who speak such truths. But God has not made everyone as wise as He has made you. And I would like to be like you, but I can’t. I would like to fast all day and pray all night, but I can’t. I would like to help the poor, but I don’t have anything. I would like not to be angry, not to condemn and not to do anything bad at all, but I am always almost, although unwillingly, carried away to the opposite, sometimes from nature, sometimes from a demon, sometimes from willfulness and evil habit. Epiphanius tells him: all these are excuses and excuses, my brother. Can't you really be alone like me? Can’t visit the churches of God, read the Divine Scripture, have love and peace with everyone? Can't fast? But the Lord does not force everyone to do this. All he requires is not to indulge in gluttony and not to get drunk on wine. You said: I want to pray, but I can’t. Why can't you? You are young, like a beautiful tree, boasting greenery. What kind of justification will you bring at the trial, where some weak old woman will shame you and put you to shame? For the Lord will then say to you: look at this elderly woman, how whole-heartedly she was zealous to please God, despite her old age and weakness of strength. And you, young and strong, spent your life in negligence and laziness? No, brother, no apology will help us then, for we have free will and help is always ready from the Lord. If you love me, listen to my advice: avoid fornication, avoid gluttony and drunkenness, pray unceasingly and guard all your senses from the movements of the wrong, so that you may receive grace and mercy from the Lord and be saved. Know that nothing will help us on the day of judgment except the mercy of God and our faith and good deeds, done for the glory of God with zeal and readiness. 5) The Monk Andrew said: the devil, as a rule, first drives away the grace of God from a person through sin, and then enters into him unhindered and does what he wants in him. However, grace does not retreat from a person because he fears the devil, but because he cannot bear the stench of sin accepted by the heart. Also, the devil does not forcibly entice a person to sin, but the person himself voluntarily leans towards him, although through temptation from the devil. It only stirs up thoughts and bad memories, and a person is free to accept them or not. He who courageously rejects them also rejects the devil; whoever, not having the courage to resist thoughts and zeal to indulge in labors and exploits, accepts them and sins, he also accepts the devil. 6) Epiphanius, being tempted by the demon of fornication, began a feat against him: he fasted, prayed, and ate three pieces of bread. The passion subsided a little, but completely stopped fighting him, already according to some vision in a dream. Seeing Saint Andrew after this, he complained to him about the tyranny of demons and asked him to reason with him and explain why people were allowed to be in such a difficult situation. Saint Andrew told him: how else would a courageous warrior end up if not in war and not in the fight against the enemy? How will God know your love for Him if He does not see you in constant battle with the devil? How can you earn approval and reward if you do not endure sorrows, temptations and demonic slander? Those who sincerely and piously strive for the Kingdom for the sake of the Heavenly Kingdom inevitably suffer troubles and temptations, “deprivation, sorrow, embitterment” (Heb. 11:37). Those who are not tempted, do not endure sorrows, and live in contentment and peace are dead, according to the inner man, and barren. Not remembering God and their last hour, they live for the flesh, and not for Christ. But what grief awaits them beyond the grave! You, my son, know for sure that the violence that we endure here will be a sweetness for us when everyone is rewarded according to their deeds. So, do not be faint-hearted, but be patient. Today or tomorrow the world will pass away for you and all its beauties will disappear like smoke. Or have you not read that the tribulations of the righteous are many, and that sorrows and needs have come upon me: Thy commandments are my teaching? Or don’t you know that God has appointed the days of our life for the struggle, so that we fight with demons, and let us stay awake day and night, praying and striving to fulfill His commandments? An honest and chaste man is a fragrant incense to the Lord God, but a misogynistic fornicator is a foul-smelling stench all the days of his life, unless he washes away his sins with confession and tears. Do not be ashamed that the devil tempts you; but rejoice even more and be glad about this, knowing that if we are not well baked by temptations, we cannot be bread pleasing to God. 7) Epiphanius asked blessed Andrew: I ask you, father, tell me, what is the human soul? The blessed one told him: the human soul embraces everything, and it, in fact, makes up a person. She is life and strength for our earthy flesh. God gave her the power to form, give life and govern our body, which without her is dust and dust. Epiphanius asked: what is the essence of the soul? What is her appearance and how will she be seen upon leaving the body? Also, what is a sinful soul and what is the divine sign of a righteous soul? The blessed one told him: in essence, the soul is a spirit that is intelligent, light, wise, subtle, quiet, meek than words, beautiful, splendid, equal to the angels. At first, the soul of all people shines more than the sun, but over the years it becomes the way we spend our lives. If we spend it in divine deeds and labors, it becomes even brighter and purer, but if we sin, then we make it dark and ugly. However, not all souls of virtuous people have the same lordship, but it is commensurate with deeds and labors in virtue and pleasing God. In some her face is brighter than the sun, in others it is like the sun, in others it is like the moon, in others it is like an elector, in others it is like the shine of lightning or pure gold. For the more one strives, the more one endures sorrows and labors for the sake of the Lord, the more he approaches God; As he approaches God, his soul brightens more and more and, as it were, is adored, by grace, by the communion of the All-Holy Spirit. Just as iron, black and cold, when placed in fire, brightens and everything becomes fiery, so it happens with people. Fire is the Holy Spirit, and black iron is us. The more we remain in fasting, vigil and prayer, in silence and attention, in labors and exploits, the more we are purified, enlightened, and illumined. The opposite of this happens to those who darken their souls with sins. At the beginning, God, who created man, “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7) - pure and shining with wondrous light. The same, although not fully due to the fall, is the soul during the conception of a person, carrying in the womb, birth and even his childhood. But when he grows and turns to sin with his free will, then it begins to darken, and the more he descends into the depths of sin, the more impenetrable darkness his soul becomes covered. Therefore, after leaving the body, some souls are seen as if they were covered in wounds, others - as if in mud and feces, others - as if in leprosy, those - gloomy, black, like Ethiopians, these - black, like burnt coal. The souls of vindictive people have the appearance of demons, of vain people - of deep darkness, and of lustful people - even worse. Understand all this, my son, accept it wisely in your heart and keep it for the admonition and strengthening of your soul. 8) Epiphanius asked Saint Andrew: what do the words of the Lord mean: do not talk too much in your prayers? (Matthew 6:7). The blessed one answered: He speaks a lot, my son, who, standing in prayer, does not say: Lord, I have sinned - forgive and have mercy, but: Lord, give me food and drink, wealth, honor and power. This is where verbosity lies. God does not want us to pray like this, but wants us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness - and all this will be added to us. 9) The Monk Andrew said: the words “God, in Thy name save me, and in Thy power judge me” (Ps. 53:3), mean: God, in Christ Jesus save me, and through Thy Holy Spirit grant me reasoning. For reasoning shows a person every good path and does not allow him to deviate onto the evil path. It takes precedence over all virtues: for from it is born love, from love alms and all kindness, then kindness, highly creative humility, peace and meekness. Reasoning is the mind of the Holy Spirit and, when it enters the mind of a person, controls all his mental feelings; it weighs every thought and, which it finds healthy, allows the mind to perceive and create, and which is harmful, it drives away from the mind and, like a bow, throws it far away. 10) Epiphanius was embarrassed by the prodigal movement. When he revealed himself to Saint Andrew, the blessed one said to him: my son Epiphanius! The thought of exaltation and pride came upon us, and therefore temptations rose up against us. Which, however, is for the best. For how would we recognize our weakness and the fact that without God’s help we are not at all strong against invisible demons. All our goodness comes from the goodness of God, courage in the fight against passions and victory over them is the gift of God, as the Lord Himself said: “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Therefore, when a person forgets about this and ascends, God leaves him to himself, so that, having experienced the attack of thoughts and passions, he remembers where he received strength from before. Thoughts and sayings of holy ascetics from various paterical collections of the Monastery of St. Sava the Consecrated When you see or hear something that is not useful or edifying, be as deaf, blind, and speechless. Do not condemn the fornicator, although you yourself are chaste, but avoid the deed, without reproaching the one who does it. For he who said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, also said, Thou shalt not condemn. Therefore, even if you do not commit adultery yourself, you condemn the fornicator, you will be condemned along with him, for like him you are breaking the law. He who condemns another must remember that although he does not have the sins that he sees in his brother, he has others, perhaps greater and more shameful; therefore, he himself must expect the condemnation of the Lord: “You hypocrite, first remove the log from your hair, then you will see to take away the speck from your brother’s hair” (Matthew 7:5). Not only is there a fast to eat late, but also to eat little; and not only was it a feat to take food every two days, but also to not have a variety of dishes. The ascetic's meal must consist of only food, and he must abhor refinement in dishes, as if it were something blasphemous. Just as fasting benefits those who approach it wisely, so it harms those who go through it without reasoning. Do not think of acquiring the virtue of purity without first working for it, even to the point of bleeding. For the sin of fornication must be resisted even until the hour of death. Nothing destroys virtue so much as jokes, idle talk and fun, and nothing contributes so much to the renewal of the soul and its approach to God as the fear of God, unceasing prayer and teaching in the words of the Lord. One good word brought a thief into paradise, and one wrong word deprived Saint Moses of the land of promise. So, one should not think that linguistic pain is a minor disease, for slanderers and jokers close the door of the Kingdom of Heaven to themselves. So, one wise man said well that it is better to fall from a height onto a stone floor than to fall from the tongue; and the Apostle James: “Let every man be quick to hear and slow to speak... If anyone sins not in word, this is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body” (James 1:19, 3:2). Speak to God a lot, but to people little; You will correct both by teaching in the law. From the Good everything came to be good, and there is nothing evil in existence, for it is essentially impossible for anything evil to come from the Good. Good in essence is actually existing, and always existing and equally existing (immutably), which is the beginningless beginning of everything, the ineffable unit, Trinitarian unity, the eternal Father without origin, the Parent of the Son and essentially the source of the Holy Spirit. Everything that happened came from nothing, having come into being by the will of the Being. It has God as its beginning and end, but He has neither beginning nor end, Himself being the causal end of everything. Those who are of the same passion do not have unity, but those who practice the same virtue with zeal are in deep peace with each other. If an angry person lives with an angry person, or a selfish person with someone who is subject to the same passion, or a glutton with another infected with the same evil, then each of them will always have fights and displeasure with his partner, because pride will always encourage one to surpass the other in acquiring the things to which he is partial, which causes damage to one from the other and breaks the good unity. And those who undergo the same virtues, by the very goods to which they both strive, are brought to a peace that surpasses all understanding. What kind of displeasure or what kind of fight will the abstinent have with the abstinent, the chaste with the chaste, the disinterested with the disinterested, the meek with the meek, and, in short, everyone adorned with any kind of virtues with his equal, when every good is his friend, and every evil is his enemy? Humility is the awareness of the mind of its poverty and weakness, contemplating insufficiency and poverty in its being. For having received existence from non-existents by the will of Existence, it is not content to exist on its own. By the will of the Creator, accepted into ever-being and well-being, he righteously draws this from communication with the Being. All created things are not self-satisfied, and what is not self-satisfied has a need for the help of the Self-satisfied One. One of these is the human mind, which is therefore not self-satisfied and has a need for God’s help, without which it cannot produce anything good. Therefore, the one who does good, attributing the accomplishment of it to the Giver of strength, must say: He will “give strength to do strength” (Deut. 8:18); and: “The Lord is my strength and my song, and it will be my salvation” (Is. 12:2); and: it was not I who did this and that good, but the grace of God that was with me. Christ, reproaching through Paul for appropriating to himself the cause of good deeds and exalting himself before the brethren as careless, cries out: “Why did you accept the same thing? And if you have received it, that you boasted, as though it were not received? (1 Cor. 4:7). “Behold, your house is left empty” of My intercession (cf. Matt. 23:38). The meek and humble are the sacred chamber of God. For He says: In whom will I rest, if not in the meek, humble, silent, and trembling at My words? (cf.: Is. 66:2). When the fear implanted in us is turned towards the Self-Existent, then reverence is born; when the mind is servile to that which exists out of nothing, then wickedness grows. The reason for the ascent to the better is the confidence and memory of death and the inexorable truth of the future judgment; and the descent into the worst is the love of the body and jewelry and the angry disposition that arises from it. God is essential life, the beginning and end of rational creatures brought into being by life, in order to return to life again when death, which accidentally came, is destroyed. For it did not receive existence from the Existent, so that it could remain forever. “For God did not create death; he rejoices at the destruction of the living” (Wis. 1:12–13). The fear of God is the parent of intelligence; and from rationality, the non-lazy fulfillment of the commandments that occurs, attracts knowledge, because together with dispassion, wisdom is infused into the soul, which is the knowledge of Divine and human things and their causes. He who reveres the One will not fear many, but many will fear him for the sake of the One. For he says: “If you fear the Lord your God and listen to His voice, no one will stand against your face, but your fear and trembling will be on all nations” (see: Deut. 11:25). The acceptance of wisdom is usually granted through the fulfillment of the commandments, for God will not give it before the wealth of good deeds, as one of the wise in piety said: “Having desired wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will give it to you” (Sir. 1:26). God will not be inclined to give it to the one who wants to spend the wealth of wisdom in the sweetness of vanity, even if he makes tons of prayer offerings, for God does not deign to be inclined to give alms to those who ask evil, as James, the disciple of Christ, says: “Ask and do not receive; When the power of desire, pierced by the fear of God, moves towards love for the better, then the power of reason is admonished against the detours of evil and, having discovered the traces of the crafty atrocities of demons, betrays them to the power of irritability (furious), so that, having incited it to anger in a timely manner, it can drive them far away with the strongest threats. Why does David incite her to this, saying: “Be angry and do not sin” (Eph. 4:26). The soul then defiles its irritable power when, having fallen into worldly pleasures, it encourages it to fight because of them, because in this case displeasure and rancor incessantly enter into it (the soul) and involuntarily force it to refine its anger against its peers, without considering that its irritable power, being defiled by unnatural movement, loses its natural strength, which it received from The Creator against demons and passions. If the devil is called in the Gospel a tempter, then it is obvious that he does not know our thoughts before the temptation. For the mind, says one of the wise fathers, is known to the only God who created us. And truly, what is in our mind cannot be known to the devil and his servants, because they are not essential minds and are far removed from the One who is such (that is, God). If the meaning of created things is hidden in the treasures of Wisdom, then it is unknown to those who are not involved in the Essential Wisdom. That is why the Hellenic philosophers lied, boasting of their knowledge of the essences of things. He who tries to imitate a fool, and does not at the same time condemn him, forgets that he is doing no better than the person being condemned. Do not condemn the fornicator, although you are chaste, but run the matter without disdaining the one who does it. For he who said, “Do not commit fornication,” also said, “Do not condemn.” Therefore, if, without committing fornication, you condemn a fornicator, you will be condemned along with him, because like him you are breaking the law. He who strives for true humility, being an everlasting examiner of his own deeds, reverently stands before God and the Judge and asks Him for mercy, giving Him alone the power and authority to judge everyone, for, being of the nature of those condemned, he is afraid to sit with the Judge by nature, as an unreasonable judge of the same. When your thoughts lift you up to judge and condemn your neighbor, then, turning to yourself, begin to carefully examine your affairs, so that you do not hide that you yourself are burdened, perhaps, with the gravest sins, while you condemn the slightest falls of your neighbor, and so that you do not suffer something like the Pharisee, who, looking with the stern eye of his mind at the falls of the publican, overlooked his own sins and had the condemned as his condemner, because God condemned him through his closeness with the tax collector. And in general, exaltation is judged by humility. Anyone who speaks evil of someone who has said or done something evil to him equally falls into sin and turns out to be, like him, cowardly and unreasonable. For he takes revenge with evil for evil and, having done evil to the one who has done evil, together with him he becomes a transgressor of the law, which says: do not repay evil for evil or reproach for reproach. If faith, according to James, without works is dead, and what is dead is not what exists, then he who imagines to have faith devoid of virtues is deceived, mistaking what does not exist for what exists. And if so, then a faithful person who lives badly is an infidel, although he preaches that he has faith in God. The righteous is godly, said Job, because through his activity he corrected his piety towards God, for he who only honors God in word, but who rejects His commandments in deed, is an unrighteous worshiper of God, who will hear: “Why do you say to Me: Lord, Lord! and you do not do what I want.” Faith is the inner heartfelt conviction of the believer in the believer; or in other words, faith is the inquisitive conviction of the believer in the believer, the highest of evidence. The faithful is a prudent, unapproachable guardian of the laws entrusted by God. If you truly strive against passions and for good, then in order to quickly complete this course, you need not to accept a bad thought against your neighbor. Although what he says or does in relation to you or another has some kind of evil, you, yourself justifying it, be your own defender before yourself. Thus, you will never allow thoughts of false suspicion, condemnation and pride, as well as rancor, anger and insult (against him). By dispersing the swarm of evils shown with kindness, you will thereby prepare an unhindered path for your soul (from here). Whoever is possessed by the world is not redeemed by time, and whoever is not possessed by the world is not enslaved by time. This manifested itself most clearly in the elders’ relation to blessed Susanna and in young Joseph. Those in old age were caught by youthful passion, but this one in youth showed a gray-haired disposition of chastity. I think there are three main reasons why one suffers from covetousness: the first is a certain hidden pride, which, portraying insufficiency as humiliating, (that is,) in times of need, to ask or receive from another what is necessary, encourages, beyond need, to have and collect gold; the second is some vain pleasure in the very acquisition of substance; the third is the weakness of faith, which depletes the soul and inspires - not to have a treasury of necessary needs, trust in God, but to collect and have, as if for need, not as much, however, as need requires, but as covetousness inspires. This is why Paul called it idolatry, because it replaces trust in God and confidence in His help. For he says: “And any desire that is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). A covetous person is one who acquires beyond need and with his unsociable disposition offends the poor. He is economical and not covetous who, although he has beyond his own needs, does so for the sake of helping others, and not out of a passion for acquisition; for although it seems that he has more than his own need, in truth he has no more, because he considers his own need to be alleviation of the lot of others. The one who wants to gain more than his brother and surpass him in something, rejecting equality by right, is not righteous. He who pretends to be poor, like a thief who robs the merciful, is an unrighteous thief, for what the truly poor should have received, he secretly stole through his pretense. “There is a time,” he says, “to weep and a time to rejoice” (Eccl. 3:4). The one who weeps is the one who punishes himself with crushing convictions of conscience, and the one who rejoices is the one who shows the image of Divine words by deeds. He who wishes to keep his irritable power undisturbed and free from anger must first discipline the (lustful) concupiscible power, so that it does not become prone to carnal pleasures, for when this is not healthy, the irritable power related to it is also not healthy. Therefore, the work of the one who imposes on himself the law of freedom from anger is vain, without first curbing the creeping aspirations of lust, from which, as from sources, indignation flows into irritable force. He is self-controlled who remains adamant against every unreasonable desire. He is dispassionate who, through extreme abstinence, has turned into a habit of confrontation (passionate thoughts), with which he is qualified, he is not disturbed by any pleasure. The strength of abstinence is the fear of God, and the strength of dispassion is sincere love for the sacred Unit. The matter of abstinence is to refrain from any unreasonable indulgence and not to do any evil to one’s neighbor contrary to the commandments, and the matter of love is to provide all kindness to others and dispassionately endure their displeasure and insults. God, by goodness, brought us from non-existence into being, and after creation he rules the court of truth, dissolving, however, by grace the truth, for there is goodness in essence. The Word of God in Holy Scripture is called the hand of God, for it says: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established” (Ps. 33:6); and: “With My hand I have established the heavens” (Isa. 45:12). And the Holy Spirit is called the mercy of God: “I will pour out,” he says, “my Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28); and: the mercy of the Lord on all flesh. So, having created us with goodness, He draws us, separated from Him, to Himself by the judgment of His righteousness, and receives us with mercy. For the All-Holy Son-creating Spirit is the oil of gladness, justified by the effects of righteousness. represents rational creatures as favorable to the Father in righteousness. A perfect righteous person has in himself all the virtues of equal strength, without being more meek than chaste, nor more chaste than wise, since an imperfect righteous person cannot be, for righteousness is an equivalent confession of all types of virtue. If in the Holy Scriptures other righteous people are especially glorified for one particular virtue, like Joseph for chastity, Job for patience and courage, Daniel for rationality, the parents of blessed Susanna for truth, it is not because they lacked other virtues, but because the malice of their enemies gave them a reason to be glorious in these qualities. So Joseph, who repelled the arrow shot at him by the demon of fornication through an Egyptian woman with the shield of chastity, also with the firmness of courage showed complete kindness towards his brothers, and again, with the virtue of rationality, predicted the fate of the dreamers, he ruled Egypt with truth, doing what was due with each virtue according to the time. You will find the same thing if you examine the lives of other saints. Just as by adding hemp and oil and some other flammable substance, we keep the fire as if bound, but if we deprive it of such substances, then the fire goes away, in some way as if allowed by us; Thus, when God wants to release a soul that is bound by a body, he causes damage to something that supports the life of the body, and thus, through a disorder of harmony, the soul is resolved by the will of God. It is impossible to say how the rational soul is held together by the bonds of the body. All that can be said is that the incorporeal is held together by the body by the power of the ineffable will of God. As it becomes addicted to matter, a rational creature retreats from God, but it can again, as if along some path, return to the One from whom it retreated if it enters the path of His commandments. For in the Holy Scriptures commandments, justifications and testimonies are called ways, as: “The way of Your commandments is the way; I have enjoyed the path of Your meetings; Guide me in the path of Your justifications” (see: Ps. 118). The signs and miles of this path are dogmas that our mothers-in-law encourage us to follow the path shown and through which we can find out how far we are from the end of this good current. One should eat according to necessity, maintaining the life of the body, and not delight the flesh with passionate eating, with lust for the food that is presented. It’s not too late to just eat—there’s fasting, but there’s also little to eat; Not eating only after two days is a feat, but also not eating various dishes. It is unreasonable to fast if one endures until the legal time, but at the hour of food one unbridledly strives for the table and binds the flesh and mind to the sweetness of the dishes presented. The Apostle called flesh and blood carnal passions and the disposition that rivets the mind to them when he said: “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). Such flesh is the food of demons: “For those who are angry will come close to me and destroy my flesh” (Ps. 26:2). Therefore, the one who exhausts the shown flesh through virtues starves the demons and makes them weaker to fight against him. He who has died a sinful death in this life and considers life according to the flesh to be true life rightly fears permission from the flesh, because it takes his life out of his hands. But the righteous, even before being freed from the flesh, has renounced the flesh and considers life according to the flesh to be death, as Blessed Paul says: “I am a damned man! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24) - as if approaching life, he considers sensory death desirable, because it introduces him to true life. There everyone willingly wants to be, where the acquisition is to which his lust is attached. So, whose desired acquisition is in heaven, he, as if returning to his fatherland, joyfully greets the departure from the body, and whoever is poor in this best (acquisition), he turns away from the outcome, because it deprives him of everything that he had and that he considered good. The evil union of lust and irritability gives rise to displeasure, anger, envy, unrighteous hatred, rancor, and the like; when the mind, with the best thought, separates these two forces from one another and arms irritability to protect and preserve the blessings that Divine fear teaches, then it curbs the unreasonable aspirations of lust, arousing irritability to blessed anger, so that, that is, lust does not sin by deviating towards evil. And this means: “be angry and do not sin.” The good works of active power are like seeds, and their impeccable correction reflects knowledge. For it is said: sow for yourself the fruit of life; enlighten yourself - the light of knowledge. From sensory seeds, each, as it is by nature, produces something similar to itself according to its kind, as is the case: a grain of wheat produces wheat, a grain of a bean or other seeds produces the same. But in relation to the seeds of virtue, it happens differently. For here often the same thing, sown by two, or three, or a greater number, through activity, produces one fruit for one, and another for another, so that one becomes a servant of God, another a friend, and another a son. Such a difference in the fruits born from the same seed depends on the wisdom (feelings and dispositions) by which the actions that throw the seeds are aroused. Good, sown through the wisdom of the fear of God, produces a servant of God, (good) from initial love produces a friend of God, and good from perfect love makes a son of God. When we understand how we have made ourselves through our evil deeds, then we will also understand how God created us by nature. Temperance is a bridle that restrains the desire of lust for food, or wealth, or fame. Three feats meet the soul in doing and keeping good: the first is resisting warfare from those who are offensive, when one strives to do something good; the second feat is to preserve the good done unstolen - against the thought that seeks external praise; the third feat is against complacency and conceit. If the Lord is merciful and righteous, then it is obvious that, having created us with goodness, he punishes those who have retreated with righteousness and accepts them with mercy. When you run away from imitating the evil, run away from their condemnation, for condemnation rejects love and despises fear. Obedience is unthinking faith, carelessly soaring towards the fulfillment of orders; or in other words: obedience is all-perfect submission, devoid of its own will and, at the behest of the superior alone, unabashedly moving towards action. Whoever works for God out of fear of future torment, his firmness is unreliable in the face of temptations that threaten the loss of worldly blessings: for in this case, present fear drives out future fear. And whoever does virtue out of love for God will not be greatly diverted from virtue done by the will of the Beloved. No one fought by the demon would be defeated if first, having divided himself against himself, he was not defeated by the passionate desires of the flesh, indulging in their unreasonable aspirations, and the devil, using them as tools, reigns and strengthens the passions against the soul and makes them invincible. Without complete abstinence, it is impossible for the ascetic to become a Christian and achieve the proposed goal. The Apostle says: “strive to abstain from all” (1 Cor. 9:25), where the word all means to abstain always and from all kinds of unreasonable thoughts and deeds. For in whatever part the power of abstinence weakens, in that part the power of sin also increases, and thus the devil is prepared for victory over the soul. Sensual abstinence is a deviation from all unreasonable deeds done through the flesh, and mental abstinence is a deviation of the mind from the sweetness of passionate thoughts. The first cannot be corrected unless the second is preserved and always remains inseparable in the soul. Since we allow God to act through faith, then let us run away from double-thinking and bewilderment about how things will happen, for nothing is impassable and unattainable to the omnipotent will of God who is above all. A good life is lived primarily in two activities: abstinence and patience. The doer of what is in us is self-control, and what is not in us is patience. The first is strengthened by fear, and the second borrows strength from love. For “love,” he says, “covers all, endures all, trusts all, love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:4-8). If, according to John, “God is loving” (1 John 4:8), then he who loves in God abides and God in him, and he who hates his neighbor, who is homogeneous, is removed from God. The one who truly repents of his evil deeds reproaches himself and patiently endures the reproaches of others, but the one who feigns repentance, not remembering his own failures, argues and, quarreling, indignantly says: May God reward him according to what he deserves, but about himself he insolently says: what have I done? Reproaching such a person, God says through Jeremiah the prophet: “If a man repents, he says out of his malice, “What have I done?” A sign of true humility is not to pour out reproaches on yourself, but to patiently endure when others reproach you. Whoever, rejecting human glory, degrades himself, and is offended when others revile him, is seduced by imaginary humility, degrading himself more out of man-pleasing than out of virtue. Whoever, in order to receive something from God, strives for the labors of virtue, and not for God Himself, obviously does not work in virtues with perfect intention. First one must avenge Christ in oneself, and then in others. So Moses, who had previously shown meekness and kindness towards those who sinned against him, was blessedly and naturally angry at those who sinned against God, moved not by rancor and passion, but by the glory of God and love for those against whom he apparently rebelled. Whoever bears a grudge against someone who has insulted, or offended, or generally caused him some kind of trouble, insults the mercy of God towards him, not by the measure with which the Lord measured him when measuring out to his fellow servant. How will zeal for God be favorable to God, when in another he is zealous to take revenge on God, but in himself he despises Him and insults Him? One who sincerely desires to acquire any spiritual good is not stopped by obstacles to achieving what he wants, but with zeal he undertakes and does everything that contributes to this. Thus, one who wants to acquire firm chastity does not seek luxurious food and drink, nor beautiful and soft clothes, nor eloquent words that dispel reverence, nor joy and cheerful conversations with young men and maidens, and nothing else like that, but tries to strive in the opposite way, that is, in abstinence and unadornment, sedateness and reverence, in silence and humility - this concealer of all virtues, with which the Lord, delighted, will give the desired good and the strength to preserve it. It is impossible to acquire anything good without patience and complete abstinence. For he says: “In your patience gain your souls” (Luke 21:19), and: “Strive and abstain from everything” (1 Cor. 9:25). But abstinence cannot be corrected without frequent prayer, for “pray continually,” he says, “(1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer cannot be beneficial without humility, for “look,” he says, “to the prayer of the humble, and do not despise their prayers” (Ps. 101:18). So, if we want to acquire virtues, let us strive for abstinence, patience, humility, and especially frequent prayer, and we will conveniently achieve what we are looking for. Just as it is impossible to build a house or a ship without art and skill, without tools and materials, so it is impossible to achieve the end of a virtuous life without abstinence, patience, humility and prayer. For abstinence detaches the mind from worldly pleasures and places it above all suffering; patience teaches him to patiently endure labors and temptations that come from outside against abstinence; humility inspires one's communicant to strive for self-knowledge, to be a judge more of himself and not of others, giving due power to judge to the one Lord, who truly knows all the good and bad deeds of everyone - and through this it leads him to meekness and a peaceful state, encourages him to seek perfect silence, so as to always be in himself and through this - in God, and frequent undistracted prayer, through conversation, to God, takes the mind away from worldly wisdom and presents it to God; and through such an approach to God fills him with reverence and blissful silence and spiritual warmth. Nothing of the good we do makes the mind as terrible for demons as frequent prayer, for it, making it worthy of the closeness of God, says, “The Lord is near... to those who call on Him” (Ps. 144:18), destroys all attempts against it by enemies. Just as the heat of fire makes iron inviolable, so frequent and fervent prayers make the mind fearsome in strength. Therefore, demons try in every possible way to instill in us laziness to sit down in prayer, knowing that it is their accuser, and a strong warrior for the mind. We know from Divine Scripture that prayer is the virtue of virtues, for it, standing before God for all virtues, begs Him to help them during the attack of passions and demons. May Moses, who through prayer strengthened the warriors of Israel and with the lifting of his hands turned back Amalek, convince you of this. Teaching in the words of the All-Holy Spirit destroys the substance of evil thoughts, kindling mental fire, according to what is written: “in my teaching the mind will be kindled.” This fire, warming the mind, tunes it to strong prayer and makes it capable of intelligently communicating one’s petitions to God. He who labors over the teaching in the Divine Scriptures for the sake of mere empty verbiage himself opens the entrance to the thought of vanity, and he who reverently labors over the study of sacred words in order to learn and do the will of God, receives within himself the power of the All-Holy Spirit, which gives him the strength to carry out the learned words by deed, and, moreover, imparts to him the knowledge of unwritten words and the most Divine mysteries. Then the sincerity of the teaching in Divine words is revealed when someone, in the hour of temptation, draws the learned words from the quiver of memory, like arrows, shoots them against demons and passions and, through contradiction, sends away without action the evil thoughts they inhale. Just as the diligence of warriors in learning the art of shooting during peace is revealed by their dexterity during battle, so the feat of monks in teaching in the Divine Scripture for the sake of pleasing God is evidenced by their failure to fall during temptations. Teaching with contrition and prayer gives rise to the fear of God in us, for you will say, he says, in them, that is, in the words of God, sitting in the house, and walking the path, and reclining, and dozing, and let them remain motionless before your eyes, “that you may learn to fear the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:7-8, 14:23). What power the sayings of the Divine Scripture have against the demons who are trying to tempt us was shown by our Lord who became man when the devil began to tempt Him as a man, showing all his intricacies of words weak and insignificant, through the utterance of His Holy Scripture, and it was our Savior who then showed weak all three of the devil’s main thoughts against us, that is, gluttony, greed and vanity. Let the angels and demons know your warmth and indolence in prayer services, so that they may be with you rejoicing, and these, amazed, will run away. It is not this that shows a Christian not to offend, not to scold, not to beat, but to patiently endure when others do this to him, which reveals a true disciple of Christ: for, he says, “it was said” to the ancients: “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” “I say to you: do not resist evil, but if someone hits you on the right side of the cheek, give him the other one too,” and so on. (Matthew 5:38–39). Christianity is the dogma of our Savior Christ, which idolizes those who adhere to His commandments, for they elevate them to the state of being in the image and likeness of God. To him be glory forever. Amen. Among the virtues, virtue is prayer, as we know from Scripture. Do not at all seek to perceive any image, face or vision during prayer, do not want to see Angels or Christ Himself sensually, lest you otherwise accept a wolf instead of a shepherd and bow to your demonic enemies. The beginning of delusion is the vanity of the mind, which, driven by it, attempts to describe the Divine in images and faces. I say, as I always told the youngest: blessed is the mind that has acquired complete ugliness during prayer. Beware of the enemy’s snares, for it happens that when you pray purely and unabashedly, some image, alien and alien, suddenly appears, so that, mistaking it for the divine, you fall into conceit. The Deity is innumerable and ugly, and is revealed mysteriously, spiritually, without any appearance. May angels and demons see your warmth and zeal in prayer services, so that they may rejoice, and these may run away as if scourged. Don’t want things to happen to you as you want, but as God pleases, and you will have peace. Do not pray that your will be done, for it almost never agrees with the will of God. But pray as taught: Thy will be done, Lord, on me, for the Lord alone knows and always wants to give you what is good and useful, and this, of course, is what you are looking for. Remembering your deeds, do not be lazy to beat your chest, so that with such blows you can break (like masons) your petrified heart and find there the metal of publican gold. Then you will rejoice with great joy over the wealth hidden there. At the same time, as you say: I have sinned, Lord! - you will be given an answer from the Lord: your sins are forgiven you, for “I am one who wipes out your iniquity... and I will not remember it” (Is. 43:25). Just as a kindled iron becomes inviolable, so through frequent prayers an inflamed mind becomes inaccessible to the slander of the enemy. First of all, pray for the gift of tears, so that by crying you can soften the rudeness living in your soul and, having confessed your iniquity to the Lord, receive forgiveness from Him. Use your tears to receive every request, for your Master rejoices greatly when you pray with tears. However, know that many of those who cry, having forgotten the purpose of crying, have lost their meaning. If, while admonishing someone, you are moved to anger, then you are satisfying your passion. Be careful that, while saving another, you do not destroy yourself. It happens that a mentor indulges in dishonor, suffering temptations from those whom he used spiritually. Do not please the mighty of the earth, for the mighty will be tormented more severely, that is, they will be subjected to the strictest judgment. When you receive the power to rule others, maintain your rank and do not remain silent about what is due because there are contradictions. Do not condemn the fornicator, although you yourself are chaste, but avoid the deed, without reproaching the one who does it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not condemn.” Therefore, even if you do not commit adultery yourself, you condemn the fornicator, you will be condemned along with him, for like him you are breaking the law. He who condemns another must remember that although he does not have those sins that he sees in his brother, he has others, perhaps greater and more shameful, therefore he himself must expect the condemnation of the Lord: “You hypocrite, first remove the brim from your own hair, then see to it that you take away the speck from your brother’s hair” (Matthew 7:5). Not only is there a fast to eat late, but also to eat little; and not only was it a feat to take food every two days, but also to not have a variety of dishes. The ascetic's meal must consist of only food, and he must abhor refinement in dishes as prophetic diarrhea. Nothing destroys virtue more than jokes, idle talk and fun; and nothing contributes so much to the renewal of the soul and its approach to God as the fear of God, unceasing prayer and teaching in the words of the Lord. So, one wise man said well that it is better to fall from a height onto a stone floor than to fall from the tongue; and the Apostle James: “Let every man be quick to hear and to speak obediently... If anyone sins not in word, this is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body” (James 1:19, 3:2). “A person who is a heretic is denied the first and second punishment, knowing that he has become corrupted and sins and is self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11). In a word, he who honors God, but in deeds rejects His commandments, is an unrighteous reader of God, who will hear: “What do you say to Me: Lord, Lord! and you do not do what I want.” Obey your superiors and submit to them, for they are watching over your souls. But who will say: if the abbot is angry, is it really possible to obey him? - In what respect is he angry? If in relation to faith, renounce and run from him, not only when he is a man, but even if he was an Angel who descended from heaven. Every person who has received from God the gift of discerning things will be punished if he follows an unskillful shepherd, accepting false rumors as truth. “For what fellowship is there between light and darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14). Do not be deceived, my brothers! If anyone, cutting off something from the truth, follows a lie, then he will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Just as the offering (the Holy Mysteries) of a righteous person will not bring benefit to those who approach unworthily, so the offering of a sinner will not deprive those who approach with a pure and believing heart of benefit. For everyone will be condemned or justified by his own deeds (Matthew 12:37). Just as Judas, immediately upon receiving bread from the Lord, was abandoned and dominated by Satan, so all those who tempt the Lord and unworthily approach holy communion are abandoned by Him, for “he who eats and drinks unworthily, judges himself by eating and drinking,” according to the word of blessed Paul, “without discerning the body of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:29). The fear of God drives away all evil; but when laziness drives away the fear of God, captivity (of passion) drives away all virtues. Silence, observance of God's commandments, humility and self-oppression - these are four strong virtues. Four virtues preserve the soul: mercy to all, freedom from anger, long-suffering and guarding oneself from oblivion. For every hour, the mind has a need for the following four virtues: frequent prayer, anger at passions, awareness of oneself as a sinner and non-judgment. With them, the thought only becomes silent. Four virtues help a young monk: teaching every hour, vigil, laziness in obedience and immensity in any matter. The soul is defiled by four things: going to the city and not keeping one’s eyes, dating a wife and making friends with nobles, and loving carnal conversations and idle talk. The mind is darkened by four things: hatred of another, humiliation of him, envy and contempt. Anger is aroused by four things: giving and receiving, creating one's own will, and considering oneself reasonable. Four virtues protect the soul and calm it from the embarrassment of the enemy: almsgiving, lack of anger, long-suffering and the rejection of every incoming seed of sin. Three virtues always spread light in the mind: not seeing evil in a person, doing good to those who do evil, and unabashedly enduring all troubles from one’s neighbor. And these virtues give birth to three other virtues, greater than them: not seeing evil in a person gives birth to love, doing good to those who do evil gives birth to peace, unabashedly enduring troubles brings meekness. Three virtues are difficult for a person to acquire: incessant crying, attention to one’s sins, and remembrance of death. The end of everything - whatever you hear, say: I don’t care about that, I’m a sinner, and don’t argue. For the dead do not care about anything except their sins. And God will strengthen him. To him be glory forever and ever, amen. Spiritual thoughts that lead a person away from the corruptible and cling to the imperishable Do not be cowardly in the practice of virtues, for such are added to useless labor upon labor. Strive for patience even before need, so that you may find in it even in time of need a ready weapon. Fight against evil thoughts and speak against them what is written in the law. With all care, turn your eye away from worldly things, for through it evil smoke enters the vault of the soul. If you have any evil habit, cut it off little by little, and without much difficulty you will clear the thorns of your soul. Love the pure God purely and consider everything secondary before Him, Who is above everything. Do not consider anything equal in dignity to virtue, for it is the face of God and the co-throne of His Kingdom. If you want to be the church of God, offer Him day and night prayer as a constant sacrifice. Do not take someone who lives carelessly as an adviser, for someone who rejoices in evil hates good and will not agree to advise, lest it show you to be glorious in life. Be zealous for a pure life, so that you have the boldness to convert those who sin. Do not reproach anyone in vain, so that you are not condemned as being arrogant. Do not laugh at the fall of another, so as not to fall into ridicule against your will. Keep these admonitions, and they will bring you a crown of glory; Be a keeper of these commandments, and they will make you glorious before people and pleasing to God, for with this the Divinity is comforted and God is pleased with such deeds. Try always to excel in virtues. The path of virtue, good and short, is a distance from everyday things. He who seeks the imperishable must regard the perishable as nothing. If you truly desire life, always pay attention to human death. Do not love real life, for you see how its wheel turns unsteadily. Do not become addicted to goods, the use of which passes away and the acquisition perishes. Laugh at happiness and have compassion for misfortune: this deserves a reward, otherwise it teaches wisdom. Strive for patience, in which we see exercise in the martyrs, for the testimony of a clear conscience is required from us too. Prefer your soul to everything, and the path of virtue will not be difficult for you. Everything in the world is perishable, but the soul is imperishable; therefore it is lawful to prefer the imperishable to the perishable. Be prepared for sad circumstances, and you will gain more. Do not ask God for something pleasant, but ask for one thing that is useful to you, for when they ask Him for the first thing, He does not give it, and even if you receive it, it decays. Do not disparage poverty, for it makes the fighter of the law undistracted. Do not rejoice in wealth, for those who care about it, for the most part, depart from God and against human expectations. The end is near: let the careless prepare for wounds. The harvest is not far: let us clear the field of the soul from thorns. Nothing is hidden from the Judge, although we often attempt to sin secretly. Be ashamed of the Angels more than people, for there are many of them and they are always with us, and avoid every bad deed. Think with care about the scales of the Judge and reject all worldly charms. Consider idleness and peace a loss and hasten to do what is required of us at the trial. Always think about the unfaithfulness of life, and nothing in life will be able to carry you away. Do not delight in temporary things, for they are bait for the soul, catching it like a fish. Avoid temptations; if you fall into them, show good courage. Do not despise the tears of the poor, so that the tears of your prayer will not be despised. Philosophy is an excellent acquisition for people, containing such things that only one who has acquired it can know. Virtue is the robe of God; sew it, and you will become the clother of Him who clothed himself in creation. Everything earthly is stolen; do what is heavenly, for the hands of robbers will not reach it. Refuse from pleasures, for they lead to deeds that cause groaning with contrition. One must be disgusted with carnal thoughts, for they corrupt the body and defile the soul. And earthly blessings are not obtained without labor, so how can we want to receive heavenly ones without labor? If you want to easily practice virtues, instill the conviction in your heart that labor is temporary, but the reward is eternal. Let those who cling to sweets think about the brevity of pleasure and the infinity of torment. To the extent that life is unclean, the soul is bestial, therefore those who have destroyed rationality should cry. Consider everything perishable, and virtue incorruptible. Neglect everything that makes a person bestial, and do what can make you heavenly. Be diligent in virtue, for through philosophy it will show you a new Adam. While you bridle your belly, bridle your tongue, so as not to be either a pitiful slave or an unreasonable freeman. Love God and do not cleave to your own more than Him, so that, according to His word, you do not turn out to be unworthy of Him. Endure sorrows, for the crown is ready for the fighters in them. It is blessed to suffer from evil, but to create it is disastrous, for the one who suffers is the heir of Christ, and the one who creates is a joint heir of the Antichrists and the devil. The fruit of fasting is good, for it is free from the brew of sweets. The altar of prayer is holy, for it attracts the Holy of Holies. Do not think that truth is the end of virtue, for without it all work is unclean. If you sow to the poor, sow yours, for what belongs to others is more bitter than thistles. The merciful is blind if he is not righteous, for he sows a field from which he cannot reap anything. Always expect, but do not fear, death, for this is the character of true philosophy. Show yourself to be virtuous, but not to deceive, but to take advantage of those who see. He who lives poorly should at least speak well, and perhaps, being ashamed of his words, he will begin to practice virtue. Do not covet wealth out of love for the poor, for the righteous God has ordained the giving of alms from those who exist. If a cup of cold water does not lose its reward, then what reward will he receive who squandered all his property to the poor? The mothers of virtues are purity and compassion; and so it is impossible to join Christ without both. Do not neglect compassion, for it brought down the good Lord from heaven. Do not despise purity, for its instrument introduced the Creator Himself to incarnate people. Do not seek pleasures, wealth, glory, for they are the aphids of life; we were not created to decay. Weep for the sinner, and not for the poor, for for this there is a crown, and for that there is torment. Laugh at the wheel of life, which rotates ficklely, but keep the rut in which it turns the slumbering. Prayerful tears are a good bath for the soul, but when you pray, remember why you cried. Do not please the strong, for the strong will be severely tortured and will face the strictest judgment. The sons of Adam cannot help but suffer, but by suffering here, we treasure our reward there. Sorrows are inevitable for the heirs of Eve, but when we endure them with thanksgiving, then the oath turns into a blessing for us. In all matters, use the lamp of conscience, for with it you must determine which deeds are good and which are bad. Let us condemn ourselves, and the Judge will change towards us, for, as the Good One, He rejoices when he sees that the sinner exhausts his burden. If anything unclean has stuck to us, let us wash it away with repentance, for we must present to God His image clean. Let us heal the wounds of the soul before we are exposed, and with healing we will abolish the torment. Just as one who is tied cannot walk, so one who is intertwined with the mother-in-law of everyday life cannot walk the path of virtue. One must hate sin, for this makes it easier to free oneself from its snares, even if caught in them. Weep for your neighbor who has sinned so that you can weep for yourself, for we are all guilty of sin. Remember the sinner’s fear of the Judge, and you will heal your wound, for this is a general remedy against sin. When you wish to say or do something, think about the answer that you must give soon, and thus you will discipline yourself and others in every word and deed. Fear execution for sin and flee its shame, for both will be unbearable. Future blessings and beauty, and multitude, and greatness are limitless, but the present ones are shadow, smoke, dust. Do not do this evil, for the harvest is near, and the fire will consume the thorn cultivator. The flowers of life are glorious, rich, luxurious, but be patient a little, and you will see them trampled underfoot like the last grass. Every evil deed arms the devil, and when he is armed, he becomes difficult for those who are armed. If you want to weaken the enemy, cut off sin, and, deprived of wings, he will be scolded like a bird. Woe to the blasphemer, for his tongue will be tied, and he will not know what to answer to the Judge. Woe to the wicked, for when all are enlightened, he alone will be covered in darkness. Woe to the wicked, for he must appear before a righteous and strict Judge. Woe to the covetous man, for wealth will leave him and fire will consume him. Woe to the negligent, for he will seek the time that he has waited for in evil, and will not find it. Woe to the proud man, for when he approaches the tomb, then he will understand who he is. Woe to the fornicator, for he has desecrated the wedding garment and will be cast out from the royal marriage. Woe to the depraved, woe to the defiled, woe to the unclean, for even before the judgment there they are filled with all shame and shame, because not only their soul and body are defiled, but also their mind and conscience. Woe to the scolder and the drunkard, for they will be committed with murderers and tormented with fornicators. Woe to the base sensualist, for a little more and he will be led like an ox to the slaughter. Woe to the flatterer and hypocrite, for the Shepherd will reject him and drive him away like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Blessed is he who walks the narrow and sorrowful path, for, wearing a crown, he will enter heaven. Blessed is he who tramples the pleasures of this life, for demons tremble at him. Blessed is he who is pure in virtue and unhypocritical in soul, for he has to judge the world, and not himself to be judged by the world. Blessed is he who has a high life and humble wisdom, for he imitates Christ and neighbors with Him. Blessed is he from whose mouth the law does not depart, for God does not depart from such a tabernacle. Blessed is he who does good to many, for he will find many intercessors during the judgment. Blessed is he who does not counterfeit virtue, for the rod of the Judge does not mock. Blessed is he who fertilizes his virtues before the fire is kindled, in which everything is tested. Blessed is he who hastens towards eternal life, for the present gives way to decay and leads to death. Blessed is he who wastes what he has foolishly collected, for he too is present to the pure. The head of the words is: do not neglect your soul, for you will soon be freed from under the yoke. Blessed is he who listens and keeps these instructions: for blessed is it to fear the Lord and to be anxious for that day on which all that is hidden will be revealed. And what will those who are negligent do when repentance is no longer useful to them? Remember firmly what has been said, and it will make you brilliant in life. Keep these admonitions, and it will give you a crown of glory. Be a keeper of these commandments, and they will make you glorious among people and pleasing to God, for with such deeds God is pleased. I beg everyone, listen to what is written! – Glory to You, God! Ponder, O pious soul, the shortness and misfortunes of earthly life, and arouse in yourself a desire for a heavenly inheritance. We do not live long on earth; death comes to us as soon as we begin to know ourselves as we should, and often even before this necessary self-knowledge. We live here as if in someone else’s house, and the earth serves as a hotel and at the same time a grave for us. The beginning of this life is the first step towards death. Just as a navigator, sailing on a ship, whether he stands, sits, or lies, little by little comes closer to the pier or to the intended place, so we, while sailing on the sea of ​​\u200b\u200blife, sleep or are awake, willingly or unwillingly, with every minute we move further and further from the beginning and come closer to the end. Our life is more like death, because every day a certain part of its flow is taken away from it, then it is filled with regret about the past, work in the present, anxiety and fear for the future. The entrance into this life is accompanied by a cry; the child begins his life with tears, as if anticipating that many illnesses, sorrows and misfortunes await him in the future; the way out of real life is terrible, for not only do we personally come out of it, but our deeds also come out, appearing with us at the Last Judgment of God. We are conceived in sins, we are born in diseases, we live in suffering, we die in fear. Before birth we burden our poor mother; when we are born, we become aliens; while living, we become guests and wanderers, and when we die, we set off on a long journey. We spend the first part of our lives in complete ignorance, the second in labors and sorrows, the last in indignation at our feeble old age. Our present life is impermanent for us, the past is insignificant, the future is unknown. Our birth is poor, our life is miserable, our death is hard and painful. Our life is a spiritual struggle: the devil, the enemy of our salvation, seeks our destruction; the world is arming itself against us; our own body rebels against our spirit. If there is no constant, unchanging happiness on earth, then is it possible to find unchanging joys on it? If perishable, earthly goods threaten us with temporary and eternal deprivation, then what is the use for us to seek pleasure in them for ourselves? A long life often provides an opportunity only to sin more, endure more evil and respond more strictly at the Last Judgment of God. What is a person? – A slave of death, a wandering wanderer, “a vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears” (James 4:14), fragile glass, a fickle wind that disappears like a shadow and is unfaithful like a dream. What is our life? - Waiting for death, a sea of ​​various sufferings and a meager vessel of blood that spoils from any pain. The path of our life is some kind of labyrinth, which we enter from the womb of our mother and from which we exit through the gates of death. The human body without the spiritual treasure that animates it is earth and ashes. Our life is weak, like glass, fleeting, like fast water. Near the countries of Sodom, apples will be born that are very beautiful in appearance, but turn to dust at the first touch; Likewise, the happiness of real life captivates a person by its appearance, but if you examine it with due attention, it will seem like dust and smoke. Beloved soul! Do not cling your thoughts to temporary blessings, but rather think more often about eternal blessings. Our life, no matter how long it may be, will not amount to even one minute in comparison with the eternity that awaits us: do not sacrifice eternal life for this instantaneous life. No matter how short temporary life is, it is given to us to prepare for eternal life: during it we either acquire or lose the rights to eternal bliss. If you want a blissful eternity, then try to anticipate the blessings of heaven in this life: use the world, but do not cleave to it; carry out your deeds in this life in accordance with the will of God and always direct your thoughts towards eternity; live in the world, but do not love the world. In heaven is our fatherland, and here is a hotel; Don’t like one-day hotels, because you will stop striving for the Heavenly Fatherland. Temporary life is the sea, and eternal life is the pier; Do not be seduced by the short-term sea weather, so as not to stop striving for the pier of eternal peace. This life is deceiving; she often runs away when they think of enjoying her, and therefore she should not be trusted. We cannot promise ourselves safety here even for one hour, because even in one hour our life could end. The safest thing is to expect death at every hour and prepare for it with true repentance. This world with its blessings is deceiving. “Do not love the world, nor anyone else in the world,” teaches the holy Apostle and Evangelist John: “If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love is not in him. For everything in the world, carnal lust and desire and worldly pride, is not from the Father, but is from this world. And the world passes away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17). Lord Jesus Christ! turn our hearts away from love for the world and arouse in us the desire for the Heavenly Kingdom. “A man is like the grass of his days, like the flower of the field, so he will blossom” (Ps. 102:15). Faithful soul! Expect death every hour, for every hour it guards you. When you get up in the morning, think that this is the last day of your earthly life; When you go to bed in the evening, think that this night will be your last. Whatever you do, whatever you start, always think, would you do it if you had to die at that very hour and appear at the judgment of God? Don't you dream that if you don't think about death, then it won't come closer to you? Don't you imagine that, thinking about her, you are calling her to you? Be sure that whether you think about her or don’t think, whether you speak or remain silent, she follows you everywhere and seems to hang over your head. Life is not your property; it was given to you only for a while: you entered the world in order to leave it; naked you entered, naked you will come out. Life is a journey: even if it is long, sooner or later you need to return to your fatherland. You are a poor man and a temporary tenant in the world, and not its eternal master. Every hour, think about what you are getting closer to with every hour. We do not die when we give up our last breath; on the contrary, we die every day, every hour, even every minute, and as much time is added to life, the same amount is lost from it. We are not suddenly exposed to death, but we are approaching it every minute. Our life is a path along which we must walk every day. Death and life seem completely different from one another, but there is nothing closer to each other than death and life. Death is always close to us: whether we eat, drink, or sleep, we continually come closer to the hour of death. Only those who have long prepared for it face death with joy. If you die to yourself during your life, then during your death you can live for God. Before you die, let your sins and iniquities die in you: let the old Adam die in you during your life, so that the new Adam, Christ, may live in you; During your life, let the outer man in you always die, so that the inner man may always be renewed. Death immediately transfers us to immortality, therefore we need to think carefully and constantly about it. Time flies, but immeasurable eternity remains: prepare for it in advance! It will be easier for you to despise the pleasures of the world when you remember that sooner or later you must be separated from them through death. Let death always be in your thoughts, for it always lies in wait for you. We always carry death within ourselves, for we always carry sin within ourselves, and sin follows death. Faith unites us with Christ; in whom Christ abides, “even if he dies, he will live”, for Jesus Christ is “the life” (John 11:25): “Be joined to the Lord; you are one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). So the believer never dies, for God is his life. The union of Jesus Christ with true believers is so firm that even death cannot be dissolved; even in the very shadow of death, the light of God’s grace illuminates them. The bodies of holy people are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). The Word of God is an incorruptible seed (1 Pet. 1:23), which does not disappear through death, but, having been planted in the souls of the pious, in due time bears life-giving fruit. A person does not know the end of his days, and therefore must devote several hours every day to preparing for entry into eternity. Patericon (Translation of the handwritten Greek Patericon from the monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified) Preface about the life and asceticism of the blessed holy fathers The Eternally Existing God, God the Word, who in his great goodness wisely created the world out of nothing, spread the sky over everything visible and established the lights on it so that they would illuminate all creation and assist people in their deeds. This Only Begotten Son and Word of the Father, in the last years, for the sake of our salvation, was born through the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary and through incarnation became like us in everything except sin, created for us another heaven, invisible, incomparably redder than this visible one. For this visible sky, being itself sensuous, serves primarily sensual purposes; and that which is invisible, as spiritual, the spirit leads to God. The visible sky has both moving and stationary stars, as those who practice it say, but the invisible sky has all stationary, ever-bright and unchanging. This will roll up like a scroll, according to Divine definition, and the stars on it will fall like leaves on the last day, otherwise it will not only hold its stars on itself, but will also show them brighter than the sun. One of the hosts of this pure and life-giving firmament - the Divine host of ascetics wounded by Divine love, about whom the word is presented to us, having complacently and supernaturally accomplished every kind of virtue, now in heaven shines with a non-evening light and the people living on earth are constantly giving light in a secret way. The luminaries and teachers of the Church, having described their deeds, teachings and rules of life for our edification, thus showed the Divine Paradise, feeding with all the beauties of the virtues the souls of those who read them with faith. And what virtue has not been restored in this Divine paradise by Christ, our true God? – Here we see blissful silence, strict abstinence in everything with chastity, and inspiring non-covetousness. There we see exemplary patience and courage, secret good deeds known to the One God, saving non-judgment, bright prudence, sober and unceasing prayer, gracious hospitality, Christ-like patience, high humility, gifts of miracles and examples of all virtuous living. For all these virtues, the model, rule, guide and mentor is Christ Himself, our true God. The Gospel testifies to silence in this way: after His baptism, He “was in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan,” did not eat anything there, and “was with the beasts” (Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2). And again: “having seen the nations, he went up the mountain; and I sat down with Him, and His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth against them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit; for these are the kingdom of heaven" and so on (Matthew 5:1-3). Also: "having sent the nations away, I went up to the mountain alone to pray. But later I was there alone" (Matthew 14:23). And again: The Lord Himself did not depart into the desert, "and prayed that prayer" (Mark 1:35; Luke 4:42). Likewise, John the Baptist, “was in the deserts until the day of his appearing to Israel” (Luke 1:80). And the Apostle says: “I pray, first of all, to make prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgivings for all people: for the king, and for everyone who is in power; let us live a quiet and quiet life in all godliness and purity” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). And again: “we pray you, brethren, to be all the more abundant, and to be kindly diligent, keeping silent and doing your own work, and doing it with your own hands” (1 Thessalonians 4:10-11). Also: “we rebuke such people and pray in our Lord Jesus Christ, that those who work silently may eat their own bread” (2 Thess. 3, 12). Also: “come out from among them and be separated” (2 Cor. 6:17); and: “Seek the things on high... philosophize on things above, not on earth” (Col. 3:1–2). The Lord said about abstinence: “Enter through the narrow gate... enter the narrow gate and the strait path into the belly” (Matthew 7:13,14). The twelve Apostles in the desert had only “five loaves and two fish” (Matt. 14:17); and at another time the Apostles “didn’t take one loaf of bread with them into the ships” (Mk. 8:14). And at another time: “the Apostles “clasped with delight, and washed away with their hands” (Luke 6:1). He also says The Apostle: “everyone strives, he will abstain from everyone” (1 Cor. 9:25); and again: “until this present hour we hunger, and thirst, and are hungry” (1 Cor. 4:11); again: “we are not put before God by evil” (1 Cor. 8:8). the essence, but I will not be possessed from what. The meat of the belly, and the belly of meat, God will destroy both this and this” (1 Cor. 6, 12-13). to be abundant in everything and in all habits: and to be filled and hungry, and to be abundant and lacking” (Phil. 4:12). “For those who do not drink water, but have taken a little wine, for the sake of you and your frequent illnesses” (1 Tim. 5:23). About chastity, the Lord said: “They are eunuchs, who have corrupted the kingdom for themselves for the sake of heaven” (Matthew 19:12). Also: “I say to you: everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). The harlot, the thief and the publican, who had fallen into unchastity and repented, He again accepted. He also says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, 9 and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you” and so on. (Matthew 11:28–29). And the Apostle says: “flee fornication” (1 Cor. 6:18). Also: “Have peace and holiness with everyone, and no one else will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Also: “put to death your evils that are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust” (Col. 3:5). And again: “Don’t you know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone corrupts God’s church, God will corrupt him” (1 Cor. 3:16-17). In another place: “Let no one be a fornicator or a defiler like Esau” (Heb. 12:16); “Do not flatter yourselves, neither fornicators... nor adulterers... “neither the wicked... will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). “Flee the lusts of the young” (2 Tim. 2:22). “Pray the young men to be chaste” (Titus 2:6). “The saving grace of God has appeared to all man, chastening us, so that, having rejected ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live chastely and righteously and godly” (Titus 2:11-12); “And fornication and all uncleanness... let it be named among you” (Eph. 5:3). The same Apostle again mercifully accepts the one who committed astray in Corinth and then repented, according to his tradition to Satan, writing: “I pray you, strengthen your love for him... May he not be consumed by much sorrow” (2 Cor. 2:7-8). And again: “I’m afraid that when the food comes, I don’t want it, but I will find you... and I will mourn for many who have sinned before and did not repent for uncleanness, and fornication, fornication, even those that I have committed” (2 Cor. 12:20-21). The Lord said about non-covetousness: “Do not worry about your soul, what you eat or what you drink, nor about your body, what you put on” (Matthew 6:25); and: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). “Do not acquire gold, nor silver... nor two robe” (Matthew 10:9-10). “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor... and come and follow Me, let us take up the cross” (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21). “Foxes have wounds, and birds of heaven have nests; But the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). “John the Baptist took away his robe from his hair, and the girdle was cut off from his waist” (Matthew 3:4). And the Apostle teaches: “We have brought nothing into this world, as if below we can wear out what we can. Having food and clothing, we will be satisfied with these. But whoever wants to get rich falls into misfortunes and snares, and into many lusts.” (1 Tim. 6:7-9) He says about all the Apostles that they are “as if they were poor, but they had many things; The Lord said about patience and courage: “Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning; and you are like a man who waits on his Lord” (Luke 12:35–36). Also: “through your patience gain your souls” (Luke 21:19). Again: “he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). And again: “no one lays his hand on the forehead, and in vain turns back, he is ruled in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). Finally: “You have been with Me in My adversities. And I bequeath to you, as My Father bequeathed to Me, a kingdom. May you eat and drink at My table in My kingdom” (Luke 22:28-30). And the Apostle says: “Gird up your loins with truth... and put on your shoes for the preparation of the gospel of peace... for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and authorities... for this sake take up all the armor of God...”. (Eph. 6:12–15). Also: “Be firm and impassable” (1 Cor. 15:58). Also: “the passions of this present time are unworthy of the glory that desires to appear in us” (Rom. 8:18). Again: “Who will separate us from the love of God? whether sorrow or distress...” (Rom. 8:35). And in other places: “what was ordained was written for our punishment, and through the patience and consolation of the scriptures, the hope of the imams” (Rom. 15:4); “No one who has been a warrior is obligated to buy money for this life, so that it may please the commander” (2 Tim. 2:4); “no one is married unless he is martyred lawfully” (2 Tim. 2:5); “Tribulation makes patience; patience is an art, and art is hope; but hope will not be put to shame” (Rom. 5:3-5); “In everything I imagine myself as God’s servant, in patience, in sorrow, in troubles” (2 Cor. 6:4); “I take pleasure in weaknesses and in troubles” (2 Cor. 12:10). About the fact that you should not do anything for show, the Lord said: “Take heed and do not do your alms before men, so that you will be seen by them... But I do alms for you, so that your fools do not know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:1,3). Also: “Whenever you pray, go into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you in reality” (Matthew 6:6). The Lord Himself, after healing the (38-year-old) sick man, turned away, “to the people who are in the place” (John 5:13). And again he said to the leper: “See and tell no one” (Matthew 8:4). He also said to the Apostles after the transfiguration: “Show no one a vision until the Son of Man rises from the dead” (Matthew 17:9). He said to the Jews: “How can you believe that you can accept glory from one another?” (John 5:44). And the Apostle says: “Do nothing out of zeal or vanity” (Phil. 2:3). Also: “If we live in the spirit, let us walk in the spirit. Let us not be vain, irritate one another, or envy one another” (Gal. 5:25-26). For envy is born from vanity, and those who do things for show are “workers of flattery, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. 11:13). About what should not be judged, the Lord said: “Judge not, lest ye be judged. By whom you judge, you will be judged; and if you measure accordingly, it will be measured back to you” (Matthew 7:1–2); “Do not condemn, lest you be condemned; let go, and they will let you go” (Luke 6:37). Also: “if you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14). And again: “Our Father, who art in heaven... forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:9, 12). Again: “Why do you see the bitch that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t you sense the log that is in your eye? O hypocrite, first remove the thorn from your hair, and then you will see to take away the knot from your brother’s hair” (Matthew 7:3,5). And the Apostle says: “Why do you condemn your brother? Or are you humiliating your brother? Let us all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Moreover, each one of us will give a word about himself to God. We condemn one another to no one” (Rom. 14:10, 12–13). “Everyone will bear his own burden” (Gal. 6:5). Also: “It is not too much for me to eat, lest I be coveted from you, or from mankind... the Lord is the one who covets me. Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes” (1 Cor. 4:3-5). The Lord said about prudence: “Take heed from lying prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:15–16). Also: “not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but do the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Again: “no one can work for two masters” (Matthew 6:24). And again: “do not do what is worthless that perishes, but what is worthless remains in eternal life” (John 6:27). And the Apostle says: “Because I flow in this way, not as if I were unknown, in this way I strive, not as if I were beating the air. But I mortify my body and enslave it, so that, not preaching to others, I myself will not be enslaved... so teach me that you will understand” (1 Cor. 9:24-27); “Beware how dangerously you walk” (Eph. 5:15); “Be on your guard from dogs, be on your guard from evil workers” (Phil. 3:2). Also: “If anyone eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, he will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let a man tempt himself, and so let him eat from the bread and drink from the cup” (1 Cor. 11:27-28). we will be condemned” (1 Cor. 11:31–32). Again: “sadness, as according to God, brings unrepentant repentance to salvation; but the sorrow of this world brings death” (2 Cor. 7:10). Also: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind, as you may be tempted, that this is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2); “to purposefully flow, to the honor of the highest calling” (Phil. 3:14). And one more thing: “temper in time and without season” (2 Tim. 4:2). And again: “Take heed to yourself and to all the flock” (Acts 20:28). And again: “Hold back everything that tempts” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The Lord said about sober and unceasing prayer: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness and the sorrows of this life” (Luke 21:34). “Be vigilant at all times when you pray” (Luke 21:36). “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune” (Matthew 26:41). Also: “And as I say to you, I say to all: watch” (Mark 13:37). “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; push, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives it, and everyone who seeks finds it, and it will be opened to the one who asks” (Matthew 7:7-8). The Lord also told a parable about “how it is appropriate to always pray and not be cold: there is a certain judge,” and so on. (Luke 18:1–6). Also: “Be prepared, for at this hour do not forget, the Son of Man will come” (Matthew 24:44). And the apostle says: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18); “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). Also: “I make constant remembrance of you... always praying in my prayers” (Rom. 1:9-10). Also: “In all things, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made to God” (Phil. 4:6). Again: “at midnight Paul and Silas prayed at the waist of God” (Acts 16:25). And again: “Be sober, be on the alert, the devil is your adversary, like a roaring lion he walks about, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). The Lord said about love of hospitableness: “Whoever accepts you will also accept Me... and even if he gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water to drink... he will not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:40, 42). And again: “Come, blessed ones of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Get hungry." (Matthew 25, 34, 35). Also: “whenever you make a dinner or supper, do not call your friends, nor your brethren... but... call the poor, the weak, the lame, the blind: and blessed shall you be...”. (Luke 14:12–14). Again: “Have two garments, and give to those who do not have; and if he has food, let him do likewise” (Luke 3:11). And again: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). The Apostle also says: “Do not forget charity and fellowship: for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:16). And again: “give in simplicity... have mercy with good intentions” (Rom. 12:8). And again: “sow with poverty, and with poverty you will also reap; but sow for a blessing, and you will reap a blessing. To have every will in your heart, not out of sorrow or need; God loves a good giver” (2 Cor. 9:6-7). “If diligence is due, it is good for someone to eat according to what he has, and not according to what he has” (2 Cor. 8:12). “Let your good be not just according to need, but according to your will” (Phil. 1:14). Our Lord Jesus Christ said about obedience: “I came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38). Also: “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). Again: “if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” (John 14:23). Also: “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and I remain in His love” (John 15:10). And again: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother... also his own soul, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). The Lord also said to Peter and Andrew, James and John, Matthew and Philip: “follow Me,” and they immediately, leaving everything, followed Him (Matthew 4:18, 21, 9:9; John 1:43). “Another of His disciples said to Him: Lord, command me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said to him: come after Me, and leave the dead to bury their dead” (Matthew 8:21-22). And the apostle says: “Paul is the servant of Jesus Christ, he is called an Apostle” (Rom. 1:1). Also: “Even if I preach the good news, I have no praise... Woe is it for me if I do not preach the good news” (1 Cor. 9:16). Again: “For let this be understood in you, even in Christ Jesus, who is in the image of God, not to be equal to God through admiration. But I humbled myself and took on the form of a servant,” and so on. (Phil. 2:5–7). Also: “You followed my teaching, life, greetings, faith, long-suffering” (2 Tim. 3:10). And again: “Capturing every mind into the obedience of Christ. And those who have property are ready to take revenge on all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Cor. 10:5-6). Our Lord said about humility: “When you have done all that is commanded you, say, as we are servants without keys” (Luke 17:10). Also: “For what is high among men is an abomination to God” (Luke 16:15). Again: “Whoever exalts himself will humble himself; he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). Also: “I am in your midst, as you serve” (Luke 22:27). Again: “Whoever wants to be in you, let him be your servant. And whoever wants to be first in you, be your servant” (Matthew 20:26-27). Also: “When Simon Peter saw him, he fell at the knee of Jesus, saying: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord” (Luke 5:8). John The Forerunner said to the Pharisees: “since you baptized with water... a mighty one comes after me, He is not worthy, bow down, to loosen the strap of His boots” (Mark 1:7-8). The disciple began to wash his feet, and to wipe them with lentils” (John 13:4-5). The Apostle also says: “For I am an apostle, and am not worthy to be called an Apostle; for I have persecuted the Church of God” (1 Cor. 15:9). And again: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first” (1 Tim. 1:15). Again: “I pray for you, as a prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthy of your calling, in the speed of your calling, with all humility and meekness, with long-suffering” (Eph. 4:1-2). And again: “Do not praise yourself for this skillful man, but God praises him” (2 Cor. 10:18). And again: “Put on yourselves, as you are holy and beloved by God’s election, in the womb of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness” (Col. 3:12). And one more thing: “If only he had pleased people. Christ’s servant would never have been” (Gal. 1:10). The Lord said about kindness: “love your enemies, bless those who slander you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who attack you and drive you out... if someone hits your cheek on the right hand, turn the other one to him. And whoever wants to sue you and take your robe, let him and the swearer go” (Matthew 5:44, 39–40). Again: “Father, let them go; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Also, when, during the betrayal of Judah, in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of the disciples “strike the bishop’s servant and cut his right hand,” the Lord said: “Leave it until now. And touching his ear, heal him” (Luke 22:50-51). And the Apostle says: “We rebuke, we bless; persecute, endure; blasphemers, let us be comforted” (1 Cor. 4:12,13). Again: “Bless you who persecute; bless and do not curse” (Rom. 12:14). Also: “If it is possible from you, have peace with all people... do not take revenge on yourself” (Rom. 12:18-19). The Lord Himself “reproaches, but does not reproach; suffering will not cease; but he is handed over to him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23). As for the standard-bearing fathers, he who does not believe them, or does not accept what was said or done by them, does not believe in Jesus Christ Himself and His Apostles more than in them. For just as our Lord Jesus Christ restored sight to the blind with clay, cast out demons, raised the dead, turned water into wine, fed five thousand people with five loaves, and performed other countless and unsearchable miracles, which the world cannot contain, so He gave them the power to heal every disease and every disease in people, just as He Himself, our true God, said: “Believe in Me, the works that I have done.” I create, and he will do the same, and he will do greater things than these” (John 14:12). For where God is present, supernatural deeds are also performed. But why talk too much about this? Thus, all of God’s writings of the Old and New Testaments everywhere exude life-giving and God-bearing instructions, which the blessed ascetics carried out in deed and word, having established on an unshakable foundation the Apostle and Prophet, the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself, our Lord, in Whom they were confirmed in prayer (which is the whole mystery of Christian life), they drew their souls from the depths of sin and, having raised them into the image and likeness of God, even here they entered spiritually into a blissful paradise - the beginning of future endless bliss. What can we do but cry bitterly, sigh from the depths of our souls and lament about our negligence and our carelessness?! Let us at least humble ourselves, for this will also bring us considerable benefit, as the Lord showed in the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, and at the same time, although little, we will force ourselves to soften the stony insensibility of the soul by contemplating the virtues of the holy fathers, these truly enforcers of our nature, the Kingdom for the sake of the Heavenly Kingdom, which, according to the word of the Lord, “only the needy women delight” (Matt. 11, 12). Come, brethren, let us partake of this spiritual, soul-saving fragrance of Christ and, having despised everything earthly and human, as disciples of Christ, meek and humble in heart, and His holy Apostles, let us patiently follow the commandments of the Lord, in a narrow and sorrowful way, in repentance, confession and humility, so that we may reach the city of God - Heavenly Jerusalem, from where all sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled, where there is a dwelling place for all who rejoice and the unceasing voice of pure joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, with the Originless Father and the Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Instructions from the Holy Fathers on how to achieve perfection in Christian living Someone asked Abba Anthony. “What must I observe in order to please God?” “The elder said to him in response: “Keep what I command you: wherever you go, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, have the testimony of the Holy Scriptures; and in whatever place you settle, do not change it quickly. Follow these three (rules) and you will be saved.” Abba Pamva asked Abba Anthony: “What should I do?” - The elder told him: “Do not believe in your righteousness, do not regret the past (renunciation of the world) and be restrained in your tongue and belly.” Abba Anthony said: “The ancient fathers went into the desert, there they healed themselves and became capable doctors of their souls, then, returning from there, they healed others. And we, as soon as we leave the world, before healing ourselves, we want to heal others. Therefore, the disease is again poisoned in us, and “there are the last... a handful of the first” (Matthew 12:45); and we hear the word of the Lord: “Physician, heal yourself first” (Luke 4:23). Abba Andrew said: “The following three virtues are appropriate for a monk: wandering (feeling like a stranger to everyone and everything), poverty and silence with patience.” Abba Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, said: “Some of you often say: where is the persecution now to bring about martyrdom? But suffer in conscience, die to sin, put to death the souls that are on earth, and you will become a martyr by choice. They opposed kings and rulers: you also have the adversary of the devil - the prince of sin and the lords of demons. To those then were offered the altar and the sacrifice and the abomination of idolatry. Even now, mentally in the soul, there is an altar and a sacrifice and a vile idol: the altar is an insatiable belly; sacrifice – sensual pleasures; idol – spirit of lust. He who is enslaved to fornication and given over to sensual pleasures has rejected Christ and worships an idol, for he has in himself the idol of Aphrodite - the foul lust of the flesh. Also, he who is enslaved to anger and rage and does not stop the madness of this passion rejects Christ and has Ares as his god, who is the idol of rage. Another, again, a lover of money and a sensualist, who seals his womb for his brother and is merciless to his neighbor, rejecting Christ, serves idols, for he has Hermas in himself as an idol; and also he serves the creature more than the Creator: “For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10). So, if you abstain and save yourself from violent passions, then you will trample on idols, reject idolatry and become a martyr, having confessed a good confession.” Abba Vissarion said: “When you happen to be in peace and not have war, then humble yourself, so that evil, alien joy (complacency) does not take root, so that we do not dream about ourselves and are not given over to war, for God often, for the sake of our weaknesses, does not allow us to be devoted to it, lest we perish.” A brother who lived with other brethren asked Abba Vissarion: “What should I do?” - The elder tells him: “Be silent and do not measure yourself” (do not measure yourself with them, that is, do not equal yourself to them, or do not notice what your measure is, or do not measure your works). Abba Benjamin, dying, said to his (spiritual) children: “This is what you do and you will be able to be saved: always rejoice, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Someone asked Abba Viare: “What should I do to be saved?” “And he says to him: “Go, make your belly small and your handicraft small; Don’t worry in your cell, and you will be saved.” Abba Gregory said: “God requires the following three (virtues) from every person who has received baptism: right faith from the soul, truth from the tongue and chastity from the body.” Abba Dioscorus said: “If we put on our heavenly attire, we will not appear naked; If we do not find ourselves wearing such a robe, then what should we do, brothers? For we too have heard this voice saying: “Cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). It’s a shame for us, who have been wearing the schema for so long, to find ourselves without the wedding garment in our hour of need! Oh, what repentance will strike us then! What shame will cover us in the face of our fathers and brothers when they see how we will be tormented by the angels of execution! What sorrow will come upon Abba Anthony, and Abba Ammon of Nitria, and Abba Paul of Photius, and Abba Ammon of Arabia of Egypt, and Abba Mius of Thebaid, and Abba Macarius of Alexandria, and Abba Paphnutius of Sidon, and Abba Ursarius of Fichuia, and Abba Ammonius of Heneuritus, and all the righteous at the time when they will be be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven, and cast us out into utter darkness.” Blessed Epiphanius said: “If Melchizedek - the image of Christ - blessed Abraham, the root of the Jews, then much more will the Truth Himself - Christ - bless and sanctify all who believe in Him.” He also said that it is necessary to purchase Christian books, as long as one has wealth. For the mere sight of these books, in itself, makes us lazier to sin and makes us more zealous for righteousness. Again he said: “Reading the scriptures gives great firmness not to sin.” He also said: “Ignorance of the scriptures is a great rapids (precipice) and a deep abyss.” He also said: “Not knowing any of the divine laws is a great betrayal of salvation.” He said: “The sins of the righteous are near the lips (that is, on the outskirts of the composition), and the sins of the wicked are from the whole body (that is, the whole composition is full of sin). Why does David sing: “O Lord, set a guard over my mouth, and a door of protection over my mouth” (Ps. 140:3); and again: “Reh: I will keep my ways, so that I do not sin with my tongue” (Ps. 38:2). He said: “God gives away the real amount of debt to sinners if they repent, like the harlot and the publican, but He also demands interest from the righteous. And this means that He said to the Apostles: “Unless your righteousness comes out any more than the scribe and the Pharisee, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Abba Euprepius said: “Knowing that God is faithful and strong in Himself, believe in Him and you will partake of His blessings. If you are faint-hearted, then you do not believe. We all believe that God is strong; We also believe that for Him all things are possible; but believe in Him also in your deeds, that (that is) He works signs in you.” The brother asked the same elder: “How does the fear of God come into the soul?” “And the elder said: “When a person acquires humility and non-covetousness, then the fear of God comes to him.” He said: “Let fear, humility, poverty of food and crying always remain” (with you). The same Abba Euprepius (at the beginning of his asceticism) came to a certain elder and said to him: “Abba! tell me how to be saved.” - The elder told him: “If you want to be saved, then wherever you go, do not preemptively speak until you are asked.” Touched by this word, Abba Euprepius bowed to the elder and said: “Truly, I have read many books, but I have not yet known such a useful (rule)” and walked away, having received great benefit. Mother Eugenia said: “We must pray fervently and remain with Jesus alone, for everyone who abides with Jesus is rich, even if they are physically poor. He who prefers the earthly to the spiritual will lose both; whoever seeks heavenly things will, of course, be rewarded with earthly blessings.” Abba Irenaeus said to the brethren: “Let us strive and stand firm when we are in battle, for we are warriors of Christ, the King of Heaven. Just as the warriors of the king of the earth have a copper helmet, so our army has its own helmet - good virtues; those have chain-linked armor, and we have spiritual armor, forged by faith; Those have a shield, we have hope in God; Those have a spear, we have prayer. They have a sword, we have God. They shed blood in battle, but we will bring willfulness. Our Heavenly King allowed the demons to fight against us so that we would not forget His benefits, for in a state of rest many people often do not pray at all, or although they pray, they do not pray. When their thoughts wander during prayer, they are the same as those who do not pray, although they stand in prayer: for, speaking with their lips to God, but in their hearts speaking in peace, how will they be heard? When we are in sorrow, then we pray soberly and, often without singing with our lips, we pray with our hearts, sending up the word of our hearts to God and conversing with Him through lamentations. So, brothers, let us also imitate the warriors of the mortal king and fight with zeal; Moreover, let us imitate the three youths (of Babylon): we will trample the furnace of passions with purity, we will quench the coals of temptation with prayer and we will shame the mental Nebuchadnezzar - the devil; Let us present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, and as a fat burnt offering let us offer Him pious wisdom.” Abba Zeno, a disciple of Blessed Silouan, said: “Do not settle in a glorious place, do not live with a person who has a great name, and never build a cell for yourself.” Abba Macarius asked Abba Zechariah: “Tell me, what does it mean to be a monk?” - He says to him: “Are you asking me, father?” - Abba Macarius says: “I believe in you, my son Zachary, for there is someone who forces me to ask you.” - Zachariah tells him: “For me, father, he is a real monk who forces himself to do everything.” They said about Abba Isaiah that one day, taking a cane, he went to the threshing floor and said to the owner of the land: “Give me some wheat.” - This one says to him: “And you reaped, Abba?” - He says: “No.” “Then the owner of the land says to him: “How do you want to get wheat without reaping?” - The elder says to him: “Doesn’t he who does not reap receive a reward?” “No,” says the landowner. And the old man left. The brothers who saw what he did, bowing to him, asked him to explain to them why he did it. The elder tells them: “I did this as an example that if someone does not work, he will not receive a reward from God.” Abba Isaiah, a presbyter, said: “One of the fathers said that a person should most of all try to acquire faith in God, unceasing striving towards God with all desires, gentleness, non-retribution of evil for evil, ill-suffering, humility, purity, mercy, love for everyone, humility, meekness, generosity, patience, holy desire for God, frequent, with heart disease and true love, a prayer to God not to look back, attention to everything that comes upon him, disbelief in his good deeds or service, a constant invocation of God’s help in everything that he is exposed to, that comes upon him every day.” The brother asked Abba Isaiah for words (edification), and the elder said to him: “If you want to follow our Lord Jesus, keep His words; and if you want your old man to be crucified with Him, until your death you must cut off from yourself those who bring you down from the cross; You must also prepare yourself to endure all humiliation, to calm the hearts of those who do evil to you, to humble yourself before those who want to rule over you; keep your lips silent and condemn no one in your heart.” He also said: “Bodily labor, poverty, wandering, courage and silence give rise to humility; humility removes many sins. Whoever does not keep this, his renunciation of the world is in vain.” Again he said: “Hate everything in the world, including bodily peace, for this has made you an enemy of God. Just as a person who has an enemy fights with him, so we must fight with the body so as not to let it rest.” The brother asked Abba Isaiah what the words of the gospel prayer mean: “Hallowed be thy name”? - And he answered him: “This is characteristic of the perfect; for in us, overcome by passions, it is impossible to sanctify the name of God.” Abba Isaiah told us: “As I once sat with Abba Macarius, seven brothers from Alexandria came to him and, tempting him, said: “Tell us, father, how to be saved?” I took a roll of paper, sat aside and wrote down what came out of his mouth. The elder sighed and, opening his enlightened lips, said: “O brothers! Each of you knows how to be saved, but the grief is that we have no desire to be saved.” “They told him: “We really want to be saved, but evil thoughts do not leave us. So what should we do? “The elder said: “If you are monks, then why do you hang around with the laity, or approach where there is a layman? Those who, having renounced the world and put on the image of an angel, live among the laity, deceive themselves, lead astray: all their labor is in vain. For what will they gain from the laity except carnal consolation? And where there is carnal consolation, the fear of God cannot dwell there, especially in a monk. Why is a monk called a monk? - Because he alone talks with the one God day and night. But a monk who sometimes spends a day, and usually two, among the laity, then, because it is impossible to live without bodily needs, sells his handicrafts and buys what he needs, and then, returning, sincerely repents and regrets those two days spent in the city to sell his handicrafts, will not receive any benefit (from his monasticism). These are the virtues acquired by a monk living among the laity. When he first enters monasticism, at first he is usually abstinent, fasting and humble, until it becomes known and the fame of him spreads that such and such a monk is truly a servant of God. Satan immediately inspires the laity to bring him all sorts of needs: wine, oil, money and all sorts of things, saying: holy, holy! Hearing “holy,” the humble monk puffs up and, as usual with vanity, begins to go and sit with them, eats, drinks and is consoled; when he begins to sing psalms, he raises his voice, and the laity begin to speak about him with praise, that such and such a monk sings psalms and performs vigils. This makes him even more overcome by vanity, he puffs himself up and stands tall; humility completely departs from him, and if anyone says an unkind word to him, he responds with an even worse one. Further, since he sees the laity day and night, the devil wounds him with the beauty of their wives and children, and he is in great confusion and great danger, for our Lord Jesus Christ said in the Gospel: “Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). He will not count this word as anything, hearing what else says the Lord: “heaven and earth pass by: but my words do not pass by” (Matthew 24:35). Then the worries of life come, and he begins to provide for bodily needs for the year, having collected them, he doubles them, and finally begins to collect gold and silver, with which the demons cast him down, finally, to the very root of the love of money. After this, if anyone brings to him anything small, he rejects it. saying: “I don’t accept this because I don’t take anything.” If someone brings gold and silver, or clothing, or anything else suitable for him, he immediately accepts it with joy and, having set the table, begins to console himself with it. But the poor man, or better yet, Christ, pushes from outside and at the door, and no one heeds, no one hears. To such people our Lord Jesus Christ said: “It is more convenient for me to pass through the ears of a needle, before a rich man can enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). But perhaps you will say that you are not rich, or that, being rich, I have no need for anything and do not bother anyone, or what I have, I have from handicraft and from what God sends, I do not offend anyone. – Tell me, fathers: Do the angels in heaven care about the collection of gold and silver or about the glory of God? Why did we, brothers, accept this image? To collect wealth and perishable matter or to be like Angels? Or don’t you know that the (angelic) rank that fell from heaven is filled from monks? Why, brothers, having renounced the world, again, in negligence, do we turn away from the path of humility? Or don’t you know that wine, wives, gold, carnal rest and wandering among the laity - all this removes us from God? “For the love of money is the root of all evil things” (1 Tim. 6:10). As far as heaven is from earth, so far is a money-loving monk from the glory of God. And truly, there is no evil greater than the evil to which a money-loving monk is subjected. A monk who loves worldly conversations requires many prayers from the holy fathers. Or we don’t hear what Blessed John says: “Do not love the world, neither those who are in the world; If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love is not in him” (1 John 2:15)? Likewise, the Apostle James says: “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Let us flee, brothers, from the world, just as someone flees from the serpent. Whoever is wounded by the serpent is barely healed. Likewise, if we want to be monks, let us run away from the world. It is better, my brothers, to have one battle than many and without number. Tell me, fathers and brothers, where did our fathers acquire virtues - in the world or in the desert? How do we want to acquire virtue while living in the world? If we don’t covet, if we don’t thirst, if we don’t bear filth, if we don’t live with animals, if we don’t die in the body, then how will we live in the soul? How do we want to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven while living among the laity? Or how can we even lift our eyes to Him, whirling in vanity? Doesn’t a warrior who, having fled from war, indulge in the purchases of life, lose his dignity? Isn’t it even more so if, living with the laity, we only eat and drink, we will lose the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven? Let the devil not instill in you evil thoughts - to say: “I collect in order (through alms) to earn a reward as well,” because whoever does not want to do alms from a condrant will not do even from a thousand denarii. No, my brothers! This is the work of the laity. God does not want us monks to have gold or silver, robes and other things. The Lord commanded, saying: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26). A monk who has gold, silver and other things does not believe that God can nourish him; but if He cannot give us our daily bread, then He cannot give us His Kingdom. This is what I know for sure, that if I have what I need and someone else, especially a layman, brings me something on his own, then this happens through the action of the devil. If I don’t have it and I pray once and twice, then God will send me, as Daniel once did in the lion’s den, knowing that I am in need. And if I not only do not need anything, but also have gold, silver and other things, yet I do not want to spend it on maintaining myself, but expect another to bring me what I need, then I am an accomplice of Judas Iscariot, who, having abandoned the grace given to him, rushed to the lust of the love of money. Knowing this, the blessed Apostle called the love of money not only the root of all evil, but also idolatry (Eph. 5:5). So, you see into what evil this disease carries a monk, when it even plunges him into idolatry: for the lover of money departs from the glory of God and worships a carved human idol, that is, gold. Oh, love of money! You remove the monk from the glory of God. Oh, love of money, bitter and deplorable! You are excommunicating a monk from the rank of angel! O love of money, the root of all evil! You plunge the monk into greater and greater worries until you reach the point where he, leaving the glory of heaven, cleaves to the rulers of the darkness of this age. Oh, love of money, round dance of all evil, you sharpen the monk’s tongue into abuse, quarrels and unrest, until you bring him to trial, like the laity! Woe to the monk who gives free access to the demon of the love of money! Woe to the money-loving monk for abandoning the commandment of the Savior, who said: “Do not acquire gold or silver” (Matthew 10:9). The devil often instills in him the following thought: “Get up and keep a vigil, and tomorrow call the brethren and institute a meal of love.” Then the demon goes to those invited and says: “Take your supplies with you.” Often such a (monk) also says within himself: “I do not break my rules: I fulfill the third, sixth, and ninth hours,” not knowing that “not everyone says: Lord, Lord! will enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 7:21). And: “How will silver, gold and other things harm me?”, not knowing that where there is gold, silver and things, there is free access for demons and destruction of soul and body, there is grief forever. How will contrition enter into a money-loving monk when, having abandoned the will of the One who created him and Called him to eternal life, he honors and kisses gold? How will contrition enter such a person? - However, the devil often arouses tears and sighs in him and makes him beat his chest, saying: “Behold, God has given you gold and silver and contrition,” so that it would never even occur to him to throw out the root of the love of money. O my beloved brothers! How we, monks, have gold and silver, robes and all sorts of things, and never cease to collect more and more, and yet the poor, especially Christ, is weak and greedy, suffers from thirst and filth, and we do not want to do anything for Him. What justification will we, brethren, present to the Lord Christ, that, having renounced the world, we seek it again; We are troubled under the schema, and we make this angelic image worldly, turning it into providence for the sake of gold, from which we either do not give at all (to those in need), or, if we give, then in front of others, so that we can be praised. No, my beloved brothers, let us flee from the world. We need to be saved in the desert, but we truly cannot be saved among the laity, for the Lord says that if anyone does not renounce the world and the things in the world, and also his soul, “and take up his cross and follow Me, he is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). “As I live,” says the Lord, “come out from among them and separate yourself” (2 Cor. 6:17). Look, my beloved brothers, how useful it is to communicate with the people of everyday life. This is useful for them and for us. Their entire conversation is about trades, gatherings, wives, children, livestock, but does such conversation not remove thoughts from God? If one conversation with them removes the thought from God, then what harm should there be from eating and drinking with him. I am not saying this because they are unclean - let it not be so. But they eat all kinds of food and meat twice a day, while we abstain from meat and various foods and always eat once a day. Now, if they see that we are eating enough, they immediately condemn us and say: “So the monks eat to their fullness,” not remembering that we are also covered with flesh, like them. Again, if they see that we are abstinent in food, they also condemn us, saying: “Behold, people-pleasers!” And thus they destroy their souls because of us. Also, if they see that we eat with unwashed hands or hold our clothes untidy, they say: “This is ignorance.” And again, if they see that we are eating with our washing hands, they say: “So the monks clean themselves.” And they destroy themselves because of us, and we are participants and the perpetrators of their destruction. As we run, let us run through their meals; and we will seek their reproach more than their praise, for it is not their praise that brings crowns. “What good will it do me if I please men and anger the Lord my God?” The Apostle Paul says: “If only he had pleased men. Christ’s servant would never have been” (Gal. 1:10). Do we not pray before the Lord, saying: “Jesus our God! Deliver and free us from their reproach and praise”? Let us not do anything to please them. For, just as their praise cannot lead us into the Kingdom of Heaven, so any reproach from them cannot imply eternal life for us. Let us know, my beloved and blessed brethren, that we will give an account of every idle word to the Lord our God.” The brother came to Abba Elijah, the silent one, in the cinnamonium of the cave of Abba Sava, and said to him: “Abba, tell me a word (of edification).” The elder tells him: “In the days of our fathers, the following three virtues were loved: non-covetousness, meekness and abstinence; Nowadays, covetousness, gluttony and anger rule among the monks - do what you want.” They said about Abba Theodore of Ferme that he surpassed many in the following three virtues: non-covetousness, asceticism and running around people. Mother Theodora asked Pope Theophilus about one saying of the Apostle, namely, what it means: “time redeems” (Eph. 5:16). And he tells her: “The name indicates profit. Precisely: do you have a time of reproach ahead of you? - Buy this time of reproach with humility and long-suffering, and take this profit for yourself. Time for dishonor? – With kindness, buy and turn this time into a profit for yourself. Thus, everything that is contrary, if we want, will be to our advantage.” Again Mother Theodora said: “Strive to open the narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13). For just as trees, unless exposed to frost and rain, cannot bear fruit, so in relation to us, this age is winter; and unless we are tested by many sorrows and temptations, we cannot become heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.” She (Theodora’s mother) again said that the teacher should be a stranger to covetousness, not involved in vanity and far from pride; should neither be a plaything of flattery, nor be blinded by gifts, nor be enslaved by the belly, nor be carried away by anger; but he must be generous, affable, with all his might, humble in wisdom, reasonable, tolerant, caring and soul-loving.” Abba John (Kolov) said: “I want a person to gradually taste all the virtues. So, every day, getting up in the morning, lay the beginning of every virtue and commandment of God, with the greatest patience, with fear and long-suffering; the love of God, with all readiness of soul and body, and with much humility; patience with sorrows and guarding the heart and one prayer and supplication with sighing; cleanliness of the tongue and guarding of the eyes; so as not to get angry when they dishonor; to be at peace with everyone, not to repay evil for evil, not to watch the failures of others and to be lower than every creature; renunciation of all things and everything carnal, acceptance of the cross, asceticism, spiritual poverty, fasting, repentance and crying, spiritual warfare, reasoning, purity of the soul, silent handicraft, night vigils, hunger and thirst, hunger, nakedness, labor. Close your coffin as if you had already died, so as to keep in mind that your death is close to you every hour.” Abba John said: “Just as it is impossible to remain children all your life and not grow in experience and knowledge with the increase of years, so in monastic life everyone, with the continuation of time in it, must ascend more and more to the heights of virtues.” Abba Cassnan told about a certain Abba John the Cenobionarch, an elder of high life, that when he ended and went to God with joy and desire, his brothers surrounded him and asked him to leave them, instead of an inheritance, some short but saving word, through whose guidance they could achieve perfection in Christ. And he, sighing, told them: “I have never done my own will and never taught anyone anything that I had not done myself before.” Blessed John Chrysostom said: “When you sit down to read the Divine Scripture and other sacred books, first call on God, may He open the eyes of your heart not only to an accurate understanding of what is written, but also to the fulfillment so that the knowledge of life and the teaching of the saints does not turn into condemnation for us.” Abba John the Cilician, abbot of Raifa, said to the brethren: “Children! Just as we have fled from the world, so let us also flee from the lusts of the flesh.” Again he said: “Let us imitate our fathers: with what deprivation and with what silence they lived here!” He also said: “Children! Let us not desecrate this place, which our fathers cleansed from demons.” He also said: “This place is a place of ascetics, not of traders.” We ascended from Gethsemane to the Mount of Olives, where the monastery of Abba Abraham is. In this monastery there was an abbot, Abba John the Cilician. We once asked him: “How can anyone acquire virtue?” “And the elder told us in response: “Whoever wants to acquire virtue cannot acquire it except by hating the evil that is opposite to it. So, if you want to always have crying, hate laughter; if you want to have humility, hate pride; if you want to be abstinent, hate satiety; if you want to be chaste, hate voluptuousness; If you want to be non-covetous, hate the love of money. He who wants to live in the desert hates cities because of the temptations in them; he who desires silence hates frequent visits; those who want to be a stranger to everyone and everything hate ostentation; He who desires to be temperate in anger hates dealing with many; He who wants to be unforgiving hates slander; he who wishes to be undistracted remains in solitude; he who wishes to bridle his tongue, let him block his ears, so as not to hear too much; Let him who always desires to have the fear of God hate bodily rest and love sorrow and oppression.” The brother asked Abba Joseph: “When persecution occurs, is it better to flee to the desert or to the cities and villages?” And the elder told him: “Where you hear that there are Orthodox Christians, go there, closer to them.” He said: “Do not have friendship with the boy at all and do not live with him; if you can live alone in your cell, then that’s good; cultivate your own vegetables instead of going to someone to ask.” His brother asked him: “I want to live with someone on this condition: I would be silent alone in my cell and earn as much as I need to support myself through handicrafts, and he would take care of me.” The elder told him: “Our fathers did not want this.” They said about Abba Isaac that when he ended, the elders came to him and said: “What should we do after you, father?” - He said: “Have you seen how I walked before your face? If you also follow the commandments of the Lord and keep them, then He will send His grace and preserve this place; if he does not preserve it, then you will not remain in this place. And we, when our fathers died, were sad, but, keeping the commandments of the Lord and their testaments, we stood, as if they themselves were with us. Do this and you will be saved.” The brother asked Abba Hierax: “Tell me the word, how to be saved?” – The elder tells him: “Sit in your cell; if you are greedy, eat, if you are thirsty, drink, just don’t slander anyone, and you will be saved.” Abba Isidore Pelusiot says: “Life without glory usually brings more benefits than glory without life. For life edifies even silently, but glory without life, despite all the shouts, serves only as a burden. If glory and life are united, then they constitute the beauty of all philosophy.” He says: “Treasure virtue; don't worry about happiness. Virtue is an immortal treasure, but happiness soon disappears.” Hierax also said: “Many people strive for virtue, but are slow to follow the path leading to it. Others don’t even think about what virtue is. Therefore, the first must be convinced to abandon their laziness, and others must be taught that virtue truly is virtue.” He also said: “Evil has removed people from God and divided them among themselves, therefore we must in every possible way flee from evil and strive for virtue, which leads to God and unites one with another. The goal of virtue and chastity is simplicity with wisdom.” Abba Joseph of Thebes said: “The following three things are honest before the Lord: first, when new temptations are presented to someone who is sick, and he accepts them with thanksgiving; second - when someone does all his deeds in such a way that they are pure before the face of God and have nothing human; the third is when someone lives in perfect obedience to the spiritual father and renounces all his own desires. This last one has one more crown. I would choose illness." Abba Macarius said: “Do not spend the night in the cell of a brother who has a bad reputation.” The brother asked Abba Macarius the Great about how to achieve perfection, and the elder told him in response: “If a person does not acquire great humility in heart and body, and not to measure himself in any matter, but to put himself in humility below every creature, also not to condemn anyone but himself alone; to endure reproach, to tear away all malice from the heart and force oneself to be long-suffering, quiet, brotherly, chaste, self-controlled, as it is written: “The kingdom of God is in need, and the needy delights it” (Matthew 11:12); also the right to look with the eyes, guard the tongue and turn away the ear from all vain and soul-sucking hearing, keep a purity of heart before God and integrity of the body; to also have death before your eyes every day, to extinguish anger and malice, to renounce substance and carnal lusts, to renounce the devil and all his works and firmly adhere to the king God and all His commandments, to pray unceasingly, and at all times, in every thing and in every deed to be established in God - then you cannot be perfect.” Abba Mark said: “The Law of Freedom teaches all truth, and although many read it, few understand it in relation to the fulfillment of the commandments. Do not look for his perfection in human virtues, for there is no perfection in them. Its perfection is hidden in the cross of Christ.” The brother came to the monastery to Abba Moses and asked him for guidance. The elder tells him: “Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” Abba Moses said: “Whoever has Jesus near him and constantly converses with Him, does well without bringing a person into his cell.” Again he said: “It is impossible to acquire Jesus except through labor, humility and unceasing prayer.” Abba Moses said: “Three elders came to Abba Paphnutius, whose name was Kephalos, and asked him for guidance. The elder said to them: “What do you want me to tell you: spiritual or carnal?” “They tell him: “Spiritual.” - The elder says to them: “Go, love sorrow, sorrow rather than consolation, dishonor rather than glory, and giving rather than receiving.” The brother asked the elder: “What good deed should I do so that I can live through it (be saved)?” “And the elder said: “God alone knows what is good.” But I heard that one of the fathers asked Abba Nisferoi the Great, a friend of Abba Anthony, about this, and he said to him: “Are not all things equal? Scripture says that Abraham was hospitable, and God was with him. Elijah loved silence, and God was with him. David was humble and God was with him. So, whatever you see your soul disposed to do according to God, do it, and guard your heart.” Abba Nilus said: “A slave who does not care about the affairs of his master must be ready to be blown.” Abba Pimen says about Abba Nisferoi that “like the copper serpent made by Moses to heal the people, so this old man, having every virtue, healed everyone in silence.” When Abba Pimen asked this Abba Nisferoy where he acquired such virtue that no matter what sorrow happened to him in the monastery, he did not say anything or complain, he answered: “Forgive me, Abba. At the very beginning, when I entered this monastery, I said to my thoughts: you and the donkey are one and the same. Like a donkey, when beaten, does not speak, and when scolded, does not answer anything: so be you, as the psalm says: “You will have cattle; and I will take it out with You." (Ps. 73:22–23). The Sinai Fathers told about Abba Orestes that one Sunday he came to church wearing his robe inside out. So he stood among the others, and some of the officials came and said to him: “Why, father, did you enter the church like that, dressed inside out? The strangers will laugh at us." “The elder said to them in response: “You have corrupted Sinai, and no one makes any comments to you, but I dressed inside out, and this is unpleasant for you. Correct yourself what you have distorted, and I will correct what I have overturned.” Abba Pimen said that prudence, attention to oneself and prudence - these three virtues are the guides of the soul. The brother asked Abba Pimen: “How should a person live?” “The elder tells him: “Let’s look at Daniel. There was no other charge found against him except that he served the Lord his God.” Again he said: “Poverty, sickness, sorrow, self-oppression and fasting - these are the working tools of the monk. For it is written: “If these three men be: Noah, and Daniel, and Job... as I live, Asia... will be saved in their righteousness, says the Lord Adonai” (Ezek. 14:14, 20). Noah portrays non-covetousness, Job – pain, Daniel – prudence. So, if any person has these three virtues, then the Lord dwells in him.” (Pimen) also said: “If a monk conquers two things, then he can be free from the world.” The brother asked: “Which ones?” “Carnal knowledge and vanity,” answered the elder. The brother asked Abba Pimen: “Tell me a word of edification.” “The elder told him: “Our fathers began every work by crying.” - The brother said: “Tell me another word.” “The elder answered: “Work as much as you can on your handicrafts so that you can give alms from them, for it is written: alms and faith cleanse sins” (Proverbs 15:27). - The brother asked: “What is faith?” “The elder said in response: “To believe means to live in humility and give alms.” He also said: “Whom your heart is not inclined to believe, do not listen to him with your heart.” The brother asked Abba Pimen: “What should I do with my useless friendships?” “The elder answered: “Is there a person who, approaching death, would still think about the friendships of this world? Do not approach them or touch them, and they will move away from you on their own.” He said again: “When a person intends to build a house, he collects a large amount of money in order to be able to build the house, and prepares various kinds of materials. So we will take little by little from all the virtues.” He said: “David wrote to Joab: start a war, and you will take possession of the city and destroy it” (2 Sam. 11:25). He said: “Joab said: Take courage and be sons of strength, and let us fight for the people of God” (2 Samuel 10:12). This is us. Abba Pimen said: “If you see visions and hear voices, do not tell your neighbor about it, for this is a turn of battle” (on your side). Again he said: “Run for the first time; in the second run, and in the third be a sword” (about the fight against thoughts). Abba Pimen said to Abba Isaac: “Throw off some of your righteousness, and in a few days you will gain peace.” Abba Vitimius asked Abba Pimen: “If someone has displeasure against me and I repent to him, but he does not reconcile due to lack of sincerity, what should I do?” “The elder says to him: “Take the other two brothers with you, and repent to him, if he is not yet reconciled, take the other five, if he is still not reconciled, take a priest; If in this way he does not reconcile and does not believe your sincerity, then finally pray unabashedly to God, so that He Himself will add faith to him - and be at peace.” The brother, leaving for the marketplace, asked Abba Pimen: “What do you advise me to do?” - The elder tells him: “Be a friend of the one who forces you (that is, imitate) and calmly sell your things.” Again he said: “Do not entrust your conscience to a person whom your heart does not want to trust.” He also said: “This is the rule of life God gave the Israelites: to abstain from what is unnatural, that is, anger, rage, envy, hatred, slandering a brother and other things characteristic of the old man.” He also said: “Use all possible efforts not to do harm to anyone, and keep your heart pure in relation to every person.” The head of the country came to Abba Palladius, wanting to see him, for he had heard enough about his affairs, and, taking a shorthand writer, ordered him: “I will go to the Abba, you write down everything, with all accuracy, that he will tell me.” So the chief entered and said to the elder: “Pray for me, Abba, for I have many sins.” “The Elder says: “Jesus Christ alone is sinless.” The Chief asked: “Do we have to give an account to God about every sin, Abba?” - The elder answered: “It is written: “He will reward everyone according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:6). “Explain this word to me,” said the chief. “It explains itself,” answered the elder. - However, listen in detail. If you have insulted your neighbor, you will take what is due. Whether you stole something from your inferiors, beat the poor, or showed partiality in court, or dishonored, slandered, slandered, slandered, plotted against other people’s marriages, broke an oath, transgressed the boundaries of your fathers, entered into the property of orphans, offended widows, preferred real sweetness to promised blessings - you will receive a worthy retribution for everything, for “he who sows.” man will also reap the same” (Gal. 6:7). In the same way, even if you have done something good, you will receive multiple rewards for it, for it is said: “He will reward anyone according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:6). Remember this reward throughout your life, and you will avoid many sins.” - The boss says: “What should I do, Abba?” – The elder says: “Think about the eternal, endless and unchanging blessings of heaven, where there is no night and no sleep - this image of death, where there are no food and drink - these servants of our weakness, no sorrows, no illnesses, no healing, no courts, no trades, no wealth - this is the beginning of evils, the subject of wars and the root of enmity; where is the land of the living—those who have not died in sin, but who live the true life in Christ Jesus.” Then the chief sighed and said: “Truly, Abba, it is as you said.” And, having received great edification, he went home, thanking God. They told about Abba Pamva that, at the very hour of the exodus, he said to the upcoming holy men: “Since I came to this deserted place and, having built myself a cell, moved into it, I don’t remember eating any other bread except what I got with my own hands, I didn’t repent of anything even until this hour, and I go to God as if I had not yet begun to worship God.” This is how Abba Pamva differed from many! When they asked him about any word of Scripture or about spiritual objects, he did not answer immediately, but said that he did not know this, and so for a month or more he did not give an answer. Abba Pamva said: “If you have a (pure) heart, you can be saved.” They said about the fathers - Abba Pamva, Abba Vissarion, Abba Isaiah and Abba Paisius - that they were very strong. One day they were talking with Abba Afre, and the presbyter of Mount Nitria asked them: “How should the brethren behave?” - They said: “In great asceticism and keeping your conscience from your neighbor.” The brother asked Abba Pamva: “Why do evil spirits prevent me from doing good to my neighbor?” “The elder tells him: “Don’t say that, because in this way you are calling God a liar. But it’s better to say: I don’t want to do good deeds. For before, God said: “Behold, I give you power to tread on the serpent and the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). Abba Pitirion, a student of Abba Anthony, said that whoever wants to cast out demons must first overcome passions, for the one who overcomes the passion drives out the demon. So, he says, his demon enters, following his anger; if you tame your anger, then his demon will be cast out; the same applies to every passion. Abba Sisoes said: “Be self-deprecating, turn back your will, don’t be overly concerned, and you will have peace.” He said: “There are people who spend their days in negligence, and seek salvation in word and thought only, but do not care about it in deed; they read the lives of the saints, but do not imitate their humility and non-covetousness, prayer and vigil, abstinence and silence, sleeping on the ground and kneeling, and they slander the lives of the fathers, saying: it is impossible to endure all this without thinking that where God dwells through the grace of Divine baptism and the fulfillment of the commandments, there are works beyond nature.” They said about Abba Khom that, when he finished, he said to his children: “Do not live with heretics, do not communicate with the authorities, let your hands be stretched out not to gather, but rather to distribute.” The elder said: “Draw your sword” (that is, fight, do not give in). - My brother said: “Passion does not allow me.” - The elder says: “Didn’t the Lord say: “Call Me in the day of your sorrow, and wear you out, and glorify Me” (Ps. 49:15)? So, call on Him, and He will deliver you from every temptation.” The elders said that the kukuli is a sign of kindness, the analav is a sign of the cross, and the belt is a sign of courage. So, let us live according to our attire, doing everything with zeal, so that it does not turn out that we are wearing an image that is alien to us. The brother asked the elder: “How does it happen that someone fights for the Lord’s sake?” “The elder tells him: “In one monastery there was a boy who was given to the good old man to watch over him and teach him the fear of God. This elder told him: “When someone curses you, bless him; when you sit down to a meal, eat what is tasteless and leave what is tasty; When you have to choose clothes for you, leave the good ones and take the bad ones. - The boy says to him: “By me, why are you advising me to do this?” “The elder says: “That’s why I advise you to do this, so that you may be strong for the Lord’s sake, and may the Lord make you wise for that.” And so the elder showed us who and what deeds act for the Lord’s sake.” The elder said: “Let's stand on the stone! And let the river rush, do not be afraid, and let it not overthrow you; sing in silence, saying: “he who trusts in the Lord is like Mount Zion: he will not move in the living age in Jerusalem” (Ps. 125:1). Again he said: “Christ was born for you, O man! The Son of God came for your salvation; was a man, being God; was a reader when, taking a book in the synagogue, he read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for the sake of My anointing” (Luke 4:18); was a subdeacon when, “having created a scourge from the ropes, he drove everyone out of the temple, as well as the sheep and oxen” and so on (John 2:15); was a deacon when, having girded himself with lantern, he washed the feet of his disciples, commanding them to wash the feet of the brethren (John 13:14); he was a presbyter when, sitting among the elders, he taught the people; was a bishop when he “took the bread and blessed it and gave it to his disciples” (Matthew 26:26). He was beaten with whips for your sake, but you cannot bear even one reproach for His sake; was buried and resurrected like God, and did everything for us to save us. So, let us be sober, watchful, remain in prayer and do what is pleasing to Him.” This is what one elder said about evil thoughts: “I beg you, brothers, just as we have fallen behind in affairs, so we will fall behind in memories.” The elder said: “If there is a sorrowful word between you and another, and he denies, saying: “I did not say such a word,” do not argue with him; otherwise he will turn around and say: “Yes, he said it, so what?” The elder said: “Do not approve every word and do not agree with everyone. Believe slower, tell the truth sooner” (tell the truth). One of the elders said: “At first, coming together to each other, we talked about saving objects, formed ourselves, as it were, into a spiritual choir and ascended to heaven; now, coming together, we turn to gossip and cast each other down into the mud.” One of the elders said: “If our inner man is sober, then he is strong to guard the outer one; if not, then we will guard the language as much as we have.” He said: “It is necessary to have spiritual matters, since that is what we came for; for it is great work to teach with the mouth when we do not do the work with the body.” The elder said: “It is written: beware of the second and third sin, but I will not turn away from the fourth. The first three are: remembering the bad, agreeing to it with your thoughts and uttering it with your tongue, and the fourth is doing the deed. The wrath of God will not turn away from this last thing.” The elder said: “The devil usually attacks the weak side of a monk in the hope that the habit, strengthened by longevity, receives the strength of nature, especially among those who are rather careless. Do not give yourself fatty (fatty) food, especially when you are healthy, and do not eat anything for which you have lust; When you taste what God sends to you, thank Him every hour. We sought temporary benefits for the sake of monasticism, and, however, we have not yet become monks. Take courage, brother, so as not to otherwise wear someone else’s image, and keep the seal of Christ, that is, humility.” The elders said that a monk must fight the demon of despondency and cowardice until his death, especially during church meetings. When, with the help of God, you succeed in this, then beware of the thought of self-satisfaction and unreasonable self-exaltation, and say to this thought: “Unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labor in vain” (Ps. 126:1); I am nothing more than “earth and ashes” (Gen. 18:27). Remember that “The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). The elder said: “Whether you are sleeping, or awake, or whatever you are doing, if God is before your eyes, then the enemy cannot frighten you in any way. For if your mind remains in God, then the power of God will also abide in you.” The elder said: “A monk should not be eager to listen to stories about others and judge, and should not be tempted.” The brother asked the elder: “Tell me how to be saved?” - And the elder answered: “Let us try to work little by little, and we will be saved.” The elders said: “This is what God requires of Christians: to obey the Holy Scriptures, to practice what they read and to believe in the abbots and spiritual fathers.” The brother asked the elder: “What should I do with the thoughts that surround me and draw me out of my cell under the pretext of going to the elders?” “The elder told him: “If you see that your thoughts want to take you out of your cell because of oppression of the flesh, then make yourself a little consolation in your cell, and you will not want to leave. If, for the sake of spiritual edification, the desire to go somewhere comes, then test your thoughts and go out. I heard about one old man that when his thoughts inspired him to go to someone, he got up, took his mantle and went out; then, having walked around the cell, he returned again and consoled himself, like a wanderer; By doing this, he calmed down.” The elders said that “children, more than wives, are the devil’s snare for monks.” They also said: “Where there is wine and children, Satan is not needed there.” One zealous brother, living alone in his cell, hearing about the virtues of the saints, was inflamed with a desire to imitate them and began to think about how to succeed in them without much labor and feat. He went and revealed this to one great old man, and the old man said to him: “If you want success, then go and be like a child taking lessons from a teacher. As it learns one after another, so do you: give yourself a lesson for this year - to fight with your belly, and fight until you get used to not satiating your belly; further, work to defeat vanity until you hate it as an enemy; when you achieve this, strive to give up everything material and entrust God with the care of yourself. Then take heart, for if a person succeeds in these three virtues, he will meet Jesus with joy when He comes.” One of the elders said: “If you do not hate first, then you cannot love: hate sin and do righteousness, as it is written: “Turn away from evil and do good” (Ps. 33:15). However, the main thing that is required everywhere is good will. Adam, being in paradise, transgressed the commandment, and Job, sitting on a dunghill, remained abstinent. God requires only good will from man and that he always fear Him.” One tempted brother came to the elder and revealed to him the temptations he was enduring. The elder said to him: “Do not let the temptations that befall you frighten you, for the enemies, as soon as they see that the soul ascends more and more and cleaves to God, become furious, consumed by envy; but it is impossible that during temptations God and His Angels should not be present to you, just do not forget to call on Him with all humility. So, when something like this happens to you, think about the omnipotence of our Helper, about our weakness and the ferocity of our enemy, and you will receive God’s help.” The elder said: “Just as a hotelier does not have the power to bring a stranger into a house without receiving permission from the owner of the house, so the enemy will not enter unless he is accepted.” He said: “When you pray, say this: how much I gain You, Lord, You weigh; I am brutish and worthless. You brought me into this saving rank, save me. I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid. God! Save me as you wish!” The elder said: “It is impossible to acquire Jesus except through labor, humility and unceasing prayer.” One of the fathers said that a monk, when with the brethren, should always look down at the ground and not at all look at the face of a person, especially a young one; when he is alone, then grief must constantly ripen, for demons are greatly offended and afraid when we see grief - to God. The elder said: “God still tolerates the sins of the world, but does not tolerate the sins of the desert. Know, my brother, that one who has withdrawn from the world is not tortured like a layman, for this one has many pretexts for justification, but what can we imagine to justify ourselves? Truly terrible fire and the greatest torment await those who, having known the will of God, despise it and follow their own. Such people, living in pleasure and enjoying the vain and temporary, often say: “I collect money and other things for bodily needs, just to provide for my life.” Well, this word contains part of the truth, if they are strictly concerned only with what is necessary; but, having said that I care only about what is necessary for the body, one should no longer get carried away when money or good food is brought to the monk, and calmly limit oneself only to what is needed for the body. Meanwhile, they not only accept money and things, but also again look for others and, having tasted such dishes, desire even better ones. Or work and don’t accept money anymore; or, if you accept, don’t work, so as not to get frustrated; but we want both. So we have suggested to you what is the cause of passions for which a seeming monk is judged more severely than the laity, for while many of the laity live honestly, this one does not have mercy on his brother, but lives luxuriously, and makes the house of God a buying house or, better, a tavern shop. At the same time, let us say in part about what draws us into vanity, so that, knowing, we can avoid it and thus be saved. Many of us imagine that simply by putting on the schema, by saying “Lord, Lord,” and by hearing “monk-monk”—that’s all this title consists of. Truly, my brethren, if we do not pay attention to ourselves, we will fall into a ditch worse than the laity, so that we will no longer be able to cry out to God. So, true fear and humility are needed. Many of our brethren, who seem humble and behave like monks, seek the fulfillment of their own will, but do not submit to the will of God. But, caught up in their desires, they, in vain worries, entertainment and worries, waste the time given to them for repentance, which, after a little time, they will strongly desire and seek, but will not find.” The elder said: “Try carefully not to sin, so as not to offend God who dwells with you and drive Him out of your soul.” The elder said: “Let us be sober, watchful and remain in prayer, so that we may be saved by doing what is pleasing to God. A warrior, having entered into battle, cares only about his soul, just like the trapper. Let's imitate them. Whoever lives according to God, God also lives with him: “I will dwell in them and be like them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16). A brother living in a cell came to one of the fathers and told him his thought, namely the thought of sorrow. The elder tells him: “You have cast down the great weapon, that is, the fear of God, and taken for yourself a staff of reeds, that is, evil thoughts. It’s better to take fire for yourself, which is the fear of God, and when the enemy approaches you, he will burn from this fire like a reed, for the evil one is not strong against the one who has the fear of God.” The elder said: “Do not teach ahead of time, otherwise you will be diminished in your understanding all your life.” The brother asked the elder: “Father! Tell me, what should I do to fulfill the will of God?” “The elder said: “If you wish, my son, to fulfill the will of God, refrain from all untruth, covetousness, and love of money; do not repay evil for evil, slander for slander, blow for blow, oath for oath; remember what the Lord said: “Judge not, lest ye be judged” (Matt. 7:1), “let go, and they will let you go,” have mercy, and ye be shown mercy (Lk. 6:37). Knowing for certain that “the eyes of the Lord, in darkness more than the brightest of the sun,” look upon the sons of men (Sir. 23:27-28), and nothing is hidden from Him - neither thoughts, nor thoughts, nor any secrets of the heart, and that in every possible way must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may accept according to his deeds; Let us work for Him with fear and trembling and with all reverence, as He Himself commanded and as the apostles taught, so that we are sober in prayer and remain in fasting and prayer and supplication, asking the all-seeing God not to lead “us into temptation” (Luke 11:4). He said that he who teaches others salvation must first taste the fruit of the teaching himself, for he who has not yet become chaste himself, how can he make another chaste? And the one who is squeezed by the love of money and persecuted by his demon, how can he teach others to give alms? Also, whoever is busy only with giving and taking, buying and selling, fussing and wasting his days and years in earthly cares, how can he teach others the doctrine of future blessings? For if the teacher himself, leaving the heavenly, indulges in the temporary and transitory, it is obvious that those who look at him and are taught by him will learn to despise the eternal, yet pay attention only to real life. To him God says: “Will you tell my justifications and accept my covenant with your lips? But you hated punishment and you rejected My words back” (Ps. 49:16-17). And again: “Woe, by them My name is blasphemed” (Is. 52:5). Teaching is a good thing if the one who teaches and creates, so that, while teaching, he does and silently admonishes, for blessed is not the one who teaches, but who “does and teaches” (Matthew 5:19).” The brother asked the elder: “How is it that lay people, everyday people, do not fall, do not say: they have sinned, and do not excommunicate themselves from communion, while they despise fasting, neglect prayer, run away from vigils, are seduced by everyone, do everything according to their lusts, give each other food in giving and receiving (in transactions), spend most of the day in deities and oaths. We, monks, despite all the fact that we strictly fast, hold vigils, sleep on bare ground and are content with dry eating, cry with tears, we say: we are lost, we have lost the Kingdom, we are guilty of hell.” The elder sighed and said: “You said well, brother, that the laity do not fall, for, having once fallen through a disastrous and disastrous fall, they cannot rise and have no place to fall from. And what does the devil care about fighting against those who always lie down and never get up? The monks sometimes win, sometimes they are defeated; sometimes they fall, sometimes they rise; sometimes they hurt, sometimes they are vulnerable; sometimes they attack, sometimes they are attacked, they resist the devil; and the laity, due to great foolishness, remain in the first fall and, not realizing that they have fallen, do not care at all about rising from such a fall; Know, moreover, my son, that not only you and I, who seem to be monks and are far removed from monastic life, have a need for constant crying and tears, but also the great fathers, that is, ascetics and hermits, need tears. Listen to me wisely and understand: “a lie from the devil” (John 8:44), said the Lord; looking at a wife “to lust” He counted her for fornication (Matthew 5:28); He compared anger at one's neighbor to murder (Matthew 5:21–22) and declared that we would give an account of every idle word. Who is there and where can you find such a person who would not be involved in lies, and is innocent of lust from sight, and has never been angry with his neighbor in vain, and has not been guilty of an idle word - so that he has no need for repentance? Know, my son, that he who has not completely lifted himself up to the cross, in humility and self-abasement, and has not given himself up to be trampled upon by everyone, to unjustification and derision, in the determination to endure all this for the sake of God, with thanksgiving and joy, and not to seek anything human at all, that is, neither glory, nor honor, nor praise, nor consolation in food, drink and clothing, cannot be a true Christian.” The elder said: “Try to learn by experience the good life and do not be afraid of this as impossible.” The elder said: “If you have renounced your relatives for the sake of God, then, sitting in your cell, do not allow yourself to have carnal regret for your father, mother and brother, or the tender affection of your sons and daughters, or the love of your wife: for you have left everything for the sake of God. Better remember the hour of death, when none of them can help you.” The elder said: “Just as a fighter acts in disgrace, so a monk should act in the fight against thoughts, stretching out his hands crosswise to the sky and calling on God for help. The wrestler stands naked in disgrace and enters the fight naked, without everything, anointed with oil and taught by his patron how to fight. The opponent comes from the opposite side, throwing up sand or dust, so that in this way it is more convenient to grab it. Apply all this to yourself, monk! The Patron is God, who gives us victory; the fighters are us; the opponent is our enemy; sand - the things of this world. Do you see the enemy's cunning? So, remain silent, and you will win; for when the mind is burdened with matter, it does not accept immaterial words.” The elder said: “There was one very rich farmer who, wanting to win over his sons to farming, said to them: children, do you see how rich I have become? You will be rich too if you listen to me. They told him: “We beg you, father, tell us, how is it?” And he, in order to ward them off from laziness, used such a trick, telling them: “There is one day in the year on which, if anyone works, he will certainly get rich; but which one, I forgot from old age. So, do not leave a single day without work, so as not to miss this blessed day and not make the work of a whole year in vain.” So too, if we continually do this, we will find the path of the belly.” The brother asked the elder: “Why is it that when I go to work, I neglect my soul?” “The elder said to him: “Because you do not want to fulfill the words of Scripture, which says: “I will bless the Lord at all times; I will make His praise in my mouth” (Ps. 33:2). So, whether you are in your cell, or outside it, or you go somewhere, do not stop blessing God. Glorify your Master not only in word, but also in deed and thought. For the Divinity is not described by place, but, being everywhere, embraces everything with His Divine power.” One brother said: “I asked the elder, what should I do with my negligence? “And the elder told me: if you don’t eradicate this little weed, that is, negligence, then a big straw will grow out of it.” The elder said: “When you tell someone instructions on how to live, then tell the listener with contrition and tears. Moreover, if you want to save others, do not speak in foreign words (salvation, or strangers), so that otherwise you will not remain fruitless until your death.” The elder said: “Wherever you go, pay constant attention to yourself, for it is written: “herod’s dwelling leads them” (Ps. 103:17), that is, wherever the monk goes, there is his dwelling. So, everywhere try to fulfill your rule and hours and evening prayers, and also do not neglect your thoughts, and always have sorrow before your eyes. Nevertheless, this cannot be carried out without difficulty.” Again he said: “Be like a camel: bear your sins and, like one tied, follow the one who knows the path of God.” One of the elders said: “We fall into greater evil because we neglect the lesser. Pay attention to this word - for example, someone who will laugh untimely will laugh; another will condemn him; he, having forgotten all fear, will already say: “Yes, this is nothing, for what does it mean to laugh?” From this, finally, blasphemy is born, and hence - bad deeds and lawlessness. Thus, through what seems small, the evil one leads into greater sin, and from great sin it is not far from despair; despair is ungodly and destructive. It is not sin that destroys so much as despair. For he who repents corrects his sin, but he who despairs perishes. Great sin is despair. So, let's not neglect the little things. The enemy cunningly instills it in us because if he began the battle openly, the fight would be easy and victory would be easy, especially if we stay awake. It is truly easy for us, for God has given us all the armor. Wishing that we do not neglect the little things, listen to what He commands: “he who said to his brother, ‘You freak,’ is guilty of fiery hell” (Matthew 5:22); He who looks with lustful eyes is a fornicator (Matt. 5:28); “To those who laugh” he condemns “woe” (Luke 6:25) and threatens to answer for every idle word. Therefore, Job also purified the thoughts of his children with sacrifices (Job 1:5). Knowing this, we will stand firmly against excuses and will never fall.” One of the saints said: “It is impossible for a person to taste the sweetness of God while he still finds sweetness in the sweets of this world; also, when someone tastes the sweetness of God, he will hate all the blessings of this age, as it is written in the Gospel: “no one can work for two masters” (Matthew 6:24). And while we desire connections with people and consolation for the body, we still cannot achieve the taste of God’s sweetness. But here’s what I say: if anyone currently sits in his cell, remains in the feat of silence and prayer, and does his work from the soul, then he can be saved.” The elder said: “Do not serve the meal ahead of time when you are alone; do not speak before they ask you, and when they ask, speak what is due with understanding.” The elder said: “You see that the devil dealt the first blow to Job through his property; and, seeing that he did not depart from God, he applied another one to his body. But even in this way, this courageous fighter did not sin with the word of his mouth, for he had the blessings of God within and always (tasted them) remained in them.” The elder said: “Just as he who enters the world pan, although he does not buy anything, still partakes of the fragrance, so he who comes to the fathers; for if he wants to be a worker, then they show him the path of humility, and this becomes a wall for him during an attack by demons.” The brother asked the elder: “Why is it that I do everything I should in my cell, but do not find consolation from God?” - The elder tells him: “This happens to you because you spend your days without difficulty and fulfill only your will.” The brother says to the elder: “So, what do you advise me to do, father?” - The elder says: “Come, cleave to a person who fears God, humble yourself before him and give him your will, and then you will find consolation from God.” The brother asked the elder: “Tell me a word of edification.” - And he said to him: “Do not live with a heretic, hold your tongue and belly, and wherever you live, say more often: I am strange.” The blessed one often said: “We people don’t know how to make ourselves loved and respected, but we have lost our minds. If few people tolerate their brother when he is angry or grieves with him, then he will soon come to his senses and, having learned how he suffered with him, he will lay down his very soul for him. At the same time, I remembered such a blessed incident. One brother had a very meek Abba, whom the whole country revered as an Angel of God for his great virtue and the miracles he performed. One day, due to the action of the enemy, this brother approached the elder and began to slander him extremely in front of everyone. The elder stood and looked only at his lips, then said: “The grace of God is in your mouth, my brother!” He began to rage even more and said: “I know, stupid parasite, you are saying this in order to appear meek.” But the elder said to this: “Truly, my brother, what you say is fair.” After this, someone asked the elder: “Aren’t you embarrassed, Elder of God?” He answered: “No, but I felt in my soul that it was, as it were, covered by Christ.” And truly we must thank and honor such people: for those who are passionate, they are doctors who heal the wounds of his soul; and to the one who is dispassionate - benefactors who bring him the Kingdom of Heaven.” The blessed one said again: “When I was still in the Tire monastery, before I left there, one virtuous elder came to us, and we began to read memorable stories about the holy elders (for the blessed one loved to read them and almost breathed in them, which is why he gathered from them the fruit of all virtue). When we reached the old man, to whom the robbers came and said: “We have decided to take everything that is in your cell.” The elder told them: “Take whatever you find, children.” They took everything and left, leaving one bag. The elder took it, chased after them and shouted: “Children! take from me what you forgot in our cell.” Then, surprised by the elder’s kindness, they returned everything to him in his cell and, repenting, said to each other: “Truly, this is a man of God.” When we read this, the elder told me: “You know, Abba, this legend has brought me a lot of benefit. I tell him: “How, father?” He answered: “During my stay in the places adjacent to the Jordan, I once read this place, marveled at the elder and said: Lord! make me worthy to follow in the footsteps of those whose image You have made me worthy to take. This feeling of competition did not leave me, and then, two days later, robbers attacked. When they knocked on the door, I learned that they were robbers, and I said to myself: “Thanks be to God! Now is the time to show the fruit of competition. Having opened (the door), I received them kindly and, having lit the lamp, began to show them things, saying: do not fuss, I will not hide anything from you. They say to me: “Do you have any gold?” - “Yes! - I said. “There are three coins,” and he opened the vessel in front of them. So they took it and went in peace. “I,” the blessed one says with a smile, “asked him: “Did they return like those who were with that old man?” - “God forbid! - he answered quickly. “Is that what I wanted, for them to return?!” This is what his competitiveness and readiness for anything brought to the old man: not only did he not grieve, but he was also glad that he had received such a blessing. In a previous conversation, says the blessed one, I told you that if we tolerate our angry brother a little, we will gain his soul. Now I’ll tell you one story about this, which I heard from Blessed Sergius, Abbot of Pediada. That's what he told me. “Once upon a time we were walking with a holy elder and lost our way; not knowing where to go, we ended up in a sowing field and trampled some greenery. Noticing this, the farmer who happened to be there at work then began to strongly scold us and say with anger: “You monks! Are you afraid of God? If you had the fear of God in your eyes, you would not have done this.” At that moment that holy elder told us: “For the sake of the Lord, do not say anything,” and answer him with meekness: “You spoke the truth, child: if we had the fear of God, we would not have done this.” He again scolded us with anger. And the elder said again: “You say the truth, if we were monks, we would not do this. But, for the sake of the Lord, forgive us, we have sinned.” Then, in amazement, he threw himself at the elder’s feet and said: “Forgive me, for God’s sake, and take me with you.” This is what, said blessed Sergius, with God’s help the meekness and kindness of this saint could do. To save the soul created in the image of God, which is desired by God more than ten thousand worlds with their riches.” “Once,” said Blessed Zosima, “I was with him (Sergius), he said to me: read to us something from Scripture. I began to read parables and, when I came to the place where it says: “A fire kindles in a multitude of wood, but where there is no wrath, battle is silent” (Proverbs 26:20), I asked him: what does this saying mean, father? - he said to me in response: “Just as wood is the cause of a fiery flame, and if you don’t add enough of it, the fire goes out, so there are reasons for passions, and if someone cuts off these reasons, passions do not act. Namely: the causes of fornication, as Abba Moses said, are eating and drinking to the point of satiety, sleeping in contentment, idleness, fun, idle talk and panache. If someone cuts off all this, then the passion of fornication will be powerless.” Again, the reasons for anger, as he said, are: to give and take, to do one’s will, to love to teach and to consider oneself reasonable. If anyone cuts this off, then the passion of anger will have no power in him. And this is what the words of Abba Siso mean, which he said when his brother asked him: “Why do passions not depart from me?” “Their vessels,” he says, “that is, the causes, are inside you. Give them their pledge, and they will depart.” A man of two wrath, in whom the swearing never ceases, is the one who is not content with the first irritation, but inflames himself to a second wrath. Namely: if someone, inflamed with anger, immediately comes to his senses and condemns himself, even if he repents before the brother with whom he was angry, he is not called double-wrathed. The abuse within him will cease as soon as he condemns himself and restores peace with his brother; in this there is no place for abuse, as I said before. But whoever, having become angry, does not come to his senses, but irritates himself more and more with anger, and repents not that he was angry, but that he did not say more than he said in his irritation, he is called two-wrathful. The abuse in him does not cease, for after anger, rancor, enmity and malice take him into their power. But may the Lord Jesus Christ deliver us from some of these, and may he grant us some of those who are meek and humble.” He often said that great sobriety and considerable wisdom are needed against the tricks of the devil. For it happens that he irritates others because of nothing; It also happens that he presents a blessed pretext so that it seems to others that he is justifiably angry. But all this is completely out of character for someone who truly desires to walk the path of the saints, as Saint Macarius says: monks do not tend to be angry. And again: it is not typical to insult your neighbor. At the same time, he told us the following: “Once I ordered some books to be written by a skilled scribe. After finishing the writing, he sends to tell me: “Now I have finished the books, come as much as you like and take them.” One brother, having heard about this, came on my behalf to this scribe and, having given a certain fee, took the books. Meanwhile, I, without knowing it, sent our brother with a letter and payment to take them. The scribe, having learned that he had been ridiculed, was greatly indignant and said: “I will certainly go and take revenge on him for two reasons: both because he laughed at me, and because he took something that was not his.” Having heard about this, I sent to tell him: “You know, my brother, that we acquire books in order to learn from them love, humility, meekness; if the acquisition of books at the very beginning leads to quarrels, then I do not want to have them, so as not to quarrel, for “it is not fitting for a servant of God to be boiled” (2 Tim. 2:24). Thus, by refusing books, I did something so that my brother was not completely overcome by anger.” One day, sitting with us and talking about soul-saving things, the blessed one began to quote the sayings of the holy elders and, having reached the saying said by Abba Pimen, that he who condemns himself finds peace everywhere, and to the one that one Abba of Mount Nitria said in response, when he was asked: what have you found most of all on this path, father? - “To blame and reproach,” he answered, “always,” - and when the questioner added: and there is no other way but this? - said: “What power do the words of the saints have! And truly, whatever they said, they spoke from experience and truth, as the divine Anthony teaches. That is why they (words) are powerful, because they are spoken by doers, as one of the wise says: “Let your life confirm your words.” At the same time, he told us the following incident: “During my short stay in the Lavra of Abba Gerasim, I once sat with my beloved brother and talked about spiritual subjects. I remembered these words of Abba Pimen and that other elder. The brother said to me: “I learned by experience the truth of these words and tasted the peace brought by their fulfillment. There was once a deacon in this Lavra, with whom I lived in sincere friendship. I don’t know why, he became suspicious of me in one matter, was offended by it and began to look at me gloomily. Noticing this gloom, I asked him to explain to me the reason, and he said: you did such and such a thing. Not being completely aware of myself that I would do such a thing, I began to assure him of my innocence, but he told me: forgive me - I’m not sure. Retiring to my cell, I began to test my heart to see if I had ever done such a thing, but I could not find it. Then, when I saw him take the chalice and hand it over, I swore to him that I had not done that, but again he was not convinced. Then, again coming to my senses, I remembered these words of the holy fathers and, in full faith in their truth, I turned my thoughts to myself and said: this deacon, sincere to me, loves me and, driven by this love, revealed to me what his heart was for me, so that I would be sober and beware of doing this in the future. But, you poor soul, why do you say that you didn’t do such a thing? A thousand evil deeds have been done by you, and you have forgotten about them. Where is what you did yesterday, or in ten days? Do you remember that? So, haven’t you done this too, as you (did) and forgot, as (forgot) the former? Thus, I decided in my heart that I had truly done this, but just as I forgot what had gone before, I forgot this too, and began to thank God and the deacon, that through him the Lord had vouchsafed me to recognize my sin and repent of it. Then he stood up with such thoughts and went to confess before the deacon and thank him. But as soon as I knocked on the door, he opened the door and was the first to bow and say: forgive me, I have been mocked by the demons, having suspected you of this matter, for God truly assured me that you were not guilty of it, and did not allow me to certify him any more, saying: there is no longer any need for this. After this, the blessed one said: “This is how sincere humility disposed the heart of this brother, that not only was he not tempted by the deacon and was not offended by him, firstly because he suspected him; secondly, that, being certified by him, he did not accept the certificate, but also attributed the sin to himself, and what’s more, he thanked him!” Then he added: “Do you see what this virtue does? To what degrees of prosperity does she elevate those who love her! For if he wanted, he would have had thousands of reasons through the deacon to become a demon; but as he aspired to virtue, he not only was not offended by him, but also thanked him. Thus virtue took possession of his heart.” So, if we first plant the seeds of meekness and humility in our hearts, then there will be no room for the enemy to sow evil seeds in it. For he only fills us with his evil when he finds us empty - not having any good thoughts, or even more irritating ourselves with malice and thereby giving him a reason for this. Just as, on the contrary, with virtue, when the Lord sees that the soul thirsts for salvation and cultivates good seeds within itself, then for the sake of its good disposition, He fills it with His gifts.” Once, remembering the elder who was being robbed by the brother who lived next door to him and who, knowing this, never denounced him, but worked even more, saying: maybe the brother has a need, he marveled at the mercy of the saints and related the following incident: “During my stay in Pediada, this is what one of the abbots told me. Near our village there lived an old man of a very good soul. His brother lived next to him. In the absence of the elder, this brother, tempted, unlocked his cell and, entering, took his things and books. When the elder returned and, having opened his cell, did not find his things, he came to that brother to tell him about this and found his things in the middle of the cell, because the brother did not have time to hide them. Not wanting to shame his brother and expose him, the elder pretended to grab his stomach, and, going out, stayed in the yard for quite some time, as if out of necessity, while his brother tidied up his things. After this, returning, the elder began to talk to him about something else and did not denounce his brother. A few days later the elders’ things were recognized; They took that brother and put him in custody, while the elder did not know about it. Having heard later that my brother was in prison, I don’t know for what reason, he came to me, says the abbot, for he was frequenting us and asking: “Do me a favor, give me a few eggs and some clean bread.” I tell him: “That’s right, who do you have now?” He answered: “Yes!” Meanwhile, the elder took it in order to go to prison and console his brother. As soon as he entered there, his brother fell at his feet and said: “I am here for you, Abba, because I stole your things. But so-and-so has your book, so-and-so has your clothes.” The elder tells him: “Let your heart be convinced, my son, that I did not come here for this and did not even know at all that you were here for me, but when I heard that you were here, I was saddened and came to console you, look - eggs and clean bread. Calm down, now I’ll do everything to get you out of prison.” He went and begged some of the great ones whom he knew for the sake of his virtue, and they sent to release his brother from prison.” They also told about the same old man that one day he went to the market to buy clothes for himself. I bought and gave one gold piece. All that remained was for him to pay a few coins. He took the clothes and put them under him; but, while he was counting out the change onto the tablet, someone came up and tried to pull out the clothes. Feeling this, the elder understood and, having an extremely merciful heart, rose up little by little, as if for a trifle, until he pulled out his clothes and left, and the elder denounced him. What were his clothes worth, the blessed one said, or the things he lost? But the location is great. For he showed that, having them, he was as such in his soul as if he had nothing. I didn’t pay attention when they were kidnapped, and remained unchanged, didn’t grieve, didn’t get irritated, because, as I always tell you, it’s not only harmful to have, but to have with passion. This one, even if he had the whole world, would remain as if he had nothing. For by what he did, he showed himself free from everything. Saint Gregory Palamas. Venerable Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem. About sobriety and prayer. Abba Evagrius. Chapters about active life. Callista and Ignatia Ksanfopoulov. Advice to the silent. Venerable Philotheus of Sinai. 40 chapters about sobriety. Ongia is a measure of weight equal to 1 12th pound or 8 spools, i.e. 34 gr., three ongii - about 100 gr. Amalgam of gold and silver. that is, lusts and sins You might be interested in: