37. Пробудившаяся решимость быть исправным должна определиться ясно как стремление со всем поступать сообразно с волею Божиею. Мир и радость рабов Божиих. Предупреждение от неполной решимости жить по Богу. Ни теплый ни холодный будет отвержен Богом

I don’t hear whether you have begun to fast and whether you are fasting. Well, when you start fasting, everything written to you about fasting will come in handy. Meanwhile, I will also add a word or two to explain some points. This subject is such that it cannot be depicted in a few lines. So, let’s assume that you, having inserted yourself into the fastening frame, or the external fastening order, will, meanwhile, begin to disassemble yourself strictly according to the instructions given, so that, having examined all the faults, you will then decide to be in good order in everything. This word: “to be in good order” must be well defined. This is the essence of the matter, without knowing which, one can make a big mistake, believing, meanwhile, that the matter is being done right. Put it in good order. Now why are we bad? Why is our behavior bad? I think you, too, have experienced that when you start confession, you don’t know what to say: you can’t see what you’ve sinned about. Why would you think this? From not understanding what our life should be, and whether all our deeds and thoughts are directed towards this. As it is not clear, then, looking at our life in general and seeing that, like everyone else, it does not represent anything bad or conspicuous, we remain calm within ourselves, saying or only secretly feeling: what else can we want? So that this does not affect you, everything hitherto written is written to disgust him. And if you act as indicated, then your tongue will no longer dare to say: what else do you want? I will keep your attention on this even longer. The point, as has been mentioned more than once, is this. Our whole life, in all its particulars and fractions, must be dedicated to God. The general law is this: whatever you do, do it in accordance with the will of God and to please God, for the glory of His most holy name 5 . So it is necessary to examine every work that presents itself, whether it is in accordance with the will of God, and do it no other way than by making sure that it is exactly in accordance with it, and do it as it pleases God for it to be done. Whoever always acts with such prudence and with such a clear consciousness of the deeds he does being pleasing to God, at the same time cannot help but realize that his life is going correctly, that although his deeds are not brilliant and not perfect, nothing was deliberately allowed in them that would offend God and would not be pleasing to Him. This consciousness fills his heart with quiet peace from a calm conscience and that spiritual joy that is born from the feeling that he is not a stranger to God and that although he is not great, not famous and not visible, he is His servant, trying in every possible way to please Him and directing all his efforts towards this and believing that God Himself sees him as such. Our moral life should be like this for everyone. Meanwhile, in reality, what happens most of the time? We live as we live. This conscious and self-active direction of all one’s affairs - both large and small - to please God is not in thought and intention. Things are going on haphazardly in our country, and what is being done is done mostly according to established procedures, because everyone does it too - without confidence in their suitability for the main goal of life. Recently I reminded you about the spirit of life, that it can be either God-fearing, or self-loving, or peace-loving. And I forgot to add a fourth here: neither this nor that, although I mentioned this somewhere in passing 6 . Isn’t this the spirit that most people breathe? They don’t seem to have anything against God, but they also don’t have the deliberate goal of pleasing God. For example, I had to go to church - I went, but no - and no grief. And at home, when they pray, bow or two - and that’s the end. And happy. So it is in everything Divine. It’s not that they are noticeable egoists, but in order to protect their interests, in order to prevent themselves from making any self-sacrifice, they will always find a reason to evade. They are not overly outstanding peace lovers, but they are not averse to amusing themselves with the world in the affairs of the world. These kinds of people are all over the place. These are indifferent to the matter of pleasing God and salvation, neither warm nor cold. God turns away from them and rejects them. Didn't you belong to this category before? I think not really. However, most of what you did was done because everyone in your circle did it. But let's leave what you were. I assure you that if you conscientiously carry out everything prescribed for you, you will no longer be in the least similar to those, and will begin to do things that are selectively good and very good. It’s not that there will be some peculiarity, but the same things will take on a special flavor, a different appearance, a different decorum and decorum. Bless, Lord! I wish this for you with all my heart. Having laid down all the news according to the will of God and begun to lead in this way, you will certainly be overshadowed by inner peace, you will have peace of mind, clear, warm, joyful, in which there is spiritual paradise. But for this to happen, you must have the determination to live such a life; for determination to come, you need to feel the unkindness of a life that is inattentive to the main thing (neither this nor that), and the delightful dignity of an attentive life. And this is not enough. We must lament that although a little time has still been lived, there is still a part of it that has been lived in vain. Contrition of the heart over one’s shortcomings before God forms the basis of one’s determination to be correct before Him in the future. Take care of all this now. Help you, Lord! The Lord, who arranges the salvation of all those who are saved through the message of fate, teach you how to adjust yourself so that your life is not in vain - neither this nor that, but is pleasing to God, brings you salvation and serves as a path to receiving the Kingdom of Heaven! This is revealed in detail in the brochure of Bishop Theophan “Seven words per week, preparatory to fasting”, M. 1902. Letter “Continued on zeal and determination to live by grace. Internal centrality. Enlightenment of the soul shell. Different degrees of this enlightenment" (at the end) You might be interested in: