Глава V. Жизнь в затворе

“What is the shutter? That is when the mind, enclosed in the heart, stands before God in reverence, and does not want to leave the heart or do anything else.” “Whoever has begun to experience involuntary inward attractions and admiration for God, and especially who has begun to experience perfect surrender to God and unceasing prayer, is ready and able to enter into silence. Only he is strong enough to endure this feat and complete it with fruit. It is impossible to keep such a person in a hostel and cohabitation with others. What drove Arseny the Great away from people? This is an inward pull before God. “I love you,” he says, “but I cannot be with God and with people.” Reasons for removal to the shutter Starting to present the most important period of the life of Rev. Theophan, first of all, it is necessary to establish with possible accuracy and clarity the question of what was the true immediate reason, what exactly persuaded him to leave the world and exchange the bishop's see for the secluded cell of a recluse. From an ordinary human point of view, it was surprising and even strange to hear that a relatively young (52 years old), healthy and richly gifted spiritually archpastor was seeking to retire, when he could usefully serve the Church for many more years and whose service she so needed. The Vladimir flock and numerous admirers of the saint were perplexed and at a loss. It was suggested that the reason should be sought in the fact that some diocesan affairs, which had recently ascended to the Holy Synod, were decided not according to the wishes of the Right Reverend and caused him grief. There is no doubt that the troubles regarding diocesan administration indicated in the previous chapter worried the saint a lot and were important in resolving the present issue, but they were not the main reason, for which of our bishops, with a mass of the most diverse and complex affairs, does not have these troubles and they do not leave their sees. In this case, such circumstances only accelerated the implementation of a matter that had already matured on a different, very special kind of soil. And it was a surprise for the Holy Synod when the paper of the Most Rev. Feofan with a request to retire him. Finally, the future recluse himself clarifies the question in the following words of his letter to the then Metropolitan of St. Petersburg Isidore: “I am looking for peace, so that I can more calmly indulge in the pursuits I desire (spiritual writing), but not for the sake of amateurism, but with the indispensable intention that there will be a fruit of labor - not useless and unnecessary for the Church of God. I have in mind to serve the Church of God, but to serve in a different way” 48. That is, Rev. Theophan sought a retreat, first of all, in order to freely indulge in spiritual and literary works for the benefit of the Church. But undoubtedly there was another, hidden and extraordinary reason, which could not be discussed with a stranger. From the days of his youth, the saint strove for solitude and prayerful communication with God. “From my young days I have been looking for this and asking,” he says, “so that no one would interfere with me being constantly with God” 49 . We have already seen that even in the most flourishing time of his young life, while still at the professor’s chair, his soul was burdened by worldly vanity and found true joy and consolation only in the church of God, in public prayer. And now his cherished desire to give his whole life to serving the Lord was fulfilled. He wanted nothing to disturb his dear and perfect communion with God. And he left the world to be alone with God. In the consciousness of the saint, the concept of seclusion inseparably merged and was identified with the thought of unceasing feat of prayer. “For what is a shutter? - he writes. “That is when the mind, enclosed in the heart, stands before God in reverence, and does not want to leave the heart or do anything else” 50. External situation of the shutter The external environment of the retreat fully corresponded to the spiritual needs of the ascetic. The Vyshenskaya hermitage lies far from large and noisy centers of urban life, located among beautiful forest nature, at the confluence of two rivers - the Tsna and the Vysha, of which the first is quite significant and navigable. In the summer, the surrounding air is saturated with the fragrance of resin and is always full of the mysterious noise of the mighty, centuries-old boron. The inner life of the monks flows according to the rules of ancient desert life, with all-day standing in the church, with pillar singing and psalmodic reading. The monastery is strictly communal and not a single resident has a penny of property. Its glory and treasure is the miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God, deeply revered and annually, at the request and desire of believers, carried throughout the Tambov diocese for veneration. The Russian people love deserts and flock here in large numbers in the summer. No wonder, while still serving in Tambov, Rev. Feofan noticed, fell in love with her and, according to his expression, “there is nothing more beautiful in the world than Vysha.” Having settled in the monastery and becoming closely acquainted with its internal routines, he writes: “I feel very good here. The order here is truly monastic. Among the brethren there are fierce ascetics... An example - an 80-year-old man - will never sit in church and grumbles at others for this. We will have services for about ten hours. Starts at 3 am. The last one is at 7 pm. Sarov singing (pillar singing)" 51. The structure of the monastic life of each monastery, according to the conviction of the saint, is primarily maintained by its abbot; in particular and especially he said this about the then and (present) Vyshensky Archimandrite Fr. Arcadia. “It’s so quiet in our monastery that one should be amazed. This is our Abba's business. He is very prayerful... and seems to have accepted the gift of unceasing prayer. Save him, Lord, and multiply the days of his life” 52. A two-story outbuilding is visible near the monastery fence. The lower stone one houses the monastery prosphora and two monastic cells. In the upper wooden one there are rooms-cells of the recluse. This is their more than modest interior furnishings. The walls are wooden, without wallpaper, somewhat darkened with age. The furniture is made of the simplest wood and quite second-hand, each copy of which, when inventoried after the death of the ruler, was valued at one or several rubles. Pine cabinet with square - 1 rub., chest of drawers - 2 rub., iron folding bed - 1 rub. etc. The largest room in the outbuilding is the living room, and part of it is occupied by the house church. And here is amazing simplicity! The altar of the shrine, instead of the iconostasis, is separated by a simple curtain made of inexpensive material. Here is a workroom with tools for physical labor and exercise - two boxes with tools - turning, carpentry, bookbinding, a workbench, a machine for sawing wood. The tools necessary for scientific work and painting are also visible here - a telescope, a microscope, a palette with paints and brushes, a photographic device. A clearly noticeable feature of the rooms is the abundance of large and small icons everywhere. But books dominate everything, with which not only the study and library, but also other free rooms are overflowing. What a huge collection and what a variety of them! Books on all branches of human knowledge and in all languages ​​- Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, French, English. How extensive and versatile the saint's library was can be judged by the fact that it contained a complete collection of the works of Sts. Fathers, theological encyclopedia in French in 150 volumes, history - Solovyov, Schlosser; works of philosophers - Hegel, Fichte, Ulrici; natural scientists - Humboldt, Darwin, Vogt, etc. The Vyshenskaya hermitage, which deeply revered the great Christian ascetic who hid within its walls, of course, could have furnished his premises much better, but the latter absolutely did not want that. One of the Tambov bishops suggested that the saint allow him to make an order to improve the situation, but he did not agree, saying that everything was arranged according to his personal desire. In the midst of such a situation, Rev. Theophan spent 28 years, of which during the first six he attended church services in monastery churches, received visitors, and in the last 22 years he completely retired, ceasing all communications with the outside world except written ones. How was the life of an ascetic in the depths of his retreat? It is impossible to answer such a question with the desired completeness and certainty, for who can penetrate into the deepest recesses of the human spirit? But from some of the news that has reached us, and most of all from the writings of the recluse himself, it is possible to form a fairly clear idea of ​​this. Rev. Feofan is one of the deeply sincere, heartfelt writers whose written word is always in complete agreement with their real life. His works are always demonstrative and remarkably convincing because they are the fruit of the author’s life exploits, experienced and copied from him. In the writings of the saint, as in a pure mirror, the bright spiritual image of their creator is reproduced. A detailed summary of the contents of the essay “The Path to Salvation,” which serves as the key to understanding the author’s life in seclusion Life in seclusion is reflected most clearly in the wonderful work “The Path to Salvation,” which is why the latter is the true key to understanding it. The book depicts with strong and vivid features the ideal of a true Christian life and the path leading to its achievement; and since this path was undoubtedly traversed by the writer, a deep interest naturally arises in the study of the work, especially since the author himself considered it the best of his creations, the sum and, as it were, a table of contents of all his literary works. The most important and more essential subjects of its content are the following: The highest, final goal of human life is communication with God. The path to it is faith and walking according to the commandments of the Lord. A Christian is saved by the grace of the Holy Spirit, given to him by the redemptive merits of the God-Man, under the leadership of the Church; but for the initial acquisition and gradual development and warming of the gift of grace, he is morally obliged to undergo the feat of life - performing external good deeds and internal cleansing of his heart from vicious thoughts and desires, through a persistent struggle with “passions and lusts” until he reaches “a perfect man, according to the age of the fulfillment of Christ.” This path is long and thorny. Anyone who decides to embark on it inevitably goes through three steps and experiences the following three most important moments: 1) how Christian life begins in us; 2) how it improves - it matures and grows stronger, and 3) what it is in its full perfection. Each of these steps, according to the property and nature of the feats inherent in it, can be called: the first - turning to God, the second - purification and the third - sanctification. On the first, a person turns from the darkness of sin to the light of Christian truth and virtue, on the second, he cleanses his heart from all internal impurities in order to prepare and worthily accept the Lord coming to him; on the third - the Lord Himself comes, inhabits the heart and dwells with it. The final state of blessed communion with God is the goal of all aspirations and the crown of the labors of the ascetic. Christian life begins from the moment of spiritual birth in the sacrament of baptism, develops and strengthens through good upbringing in a Christian family under the influence of the Church and churchliness. Correct primary education has important moral significance. It determines to a large extent, and often the entire future fate of a person completely depends on it. But life observations show that in rare, exceptional cases, people retain the grace of baptism for their entire lives. Most people completely forget about it and live in a state of sin. The life of a sinner is like a spiritual sleep and is characterized by comprehensive concern for worldly interests and everyday affairs, but complete indifference and carelessness about spiritual life. Cases of awakening from this spiritual sleep are very rare and occur only under the influence of the grace of God, which appears either in extraordinary, miraculous signs and suddenly shakes a person, such as. Ap. Paul or Mary of Egypt, or it is acquired and warmed up gradually and slowly through the usual pious Christian life. In the ordinary order of conversions, the gift of stimulating grace is first revealed in the form of one good thought to change one’s life and become better in one’s deeds and inner dispositions. But for the most part this thought remains unfulfilled and the person puts it aside. Procrastination is a common affliction and the number one cause of failure. Everyone says, “I still have time,” and remains in the old order of the usual unkind life. You should never miss this important moment and start a new life without any delay. The means that truly help this are internal concentration and solitude, prayer, reading the word of God, fasting, work, almsgiving and other ordinary exercises of a godly life. Here is a lesson about some of them. “a) First of all, take hold of the body. Deny him pleasures and pleasures, restrict the satisfaction of his most natural needs; extend the hour of vigil, reduce the usual amount of food, add new labor to the work. The main thing is, as you want and as you can, lighten the flesh, refine its plumpness. In this way the soul will be freed from the coherence of matter, it will become more mobile, lighter, and more receptive to good impressions. The material body, dominating the soul, imparts to it its immobility and coldness. Physical exploits weaken these bonds and eliminate their consequences.” “b) The body burdens the soul from the outside; worries and plundering thoughts torment her inside. Let us assume that the flesh has already been humbled - this has taken the first step; but two more barriers separate the soul from itself.” “Worries do not leave time to take care of yourself. With them, there is one thing in your hands, and dozens in your head. That’s why they drive a person forward and forward, not giving him the opportunity to look around and look at himself. So, put aside your worries for a while, all without exception, put them off only for a while: after that you will take up your usual affairs again, only now stop them, throw them out of your hands, throw them out of your thoughts.” “But even then, when caring matters are stopped, confusion remains in the head for a long time: thought after thought, now in agreement, now one in defiance of the other; the soul is scattered, the mind staggers in different directions, and thereby does not allow anything permanent and solid to be established within itself. Gather your scattered children into one, like a shepherd gathers a flock, or scattered rays like glass, and turn them towards yourself.” “The desire to go deeper into oneself and take care of oneself, stopping the scattering of thoughts and care, will, of course, require, as an inevitable means, on the one hand, solitude, on the other, the cessation of ordinary activities, both everyday and official; first, the indicated humility of the flesh will require a change in the order of satisfying natural needs. Judging by this, the most convenient time to arrange a change in your life should be considered the time of some kind of fasting, especially a great one. Here everything is preset for this - at home, in church, and even in society. Everyone looks at this time as preparation for repentance. However, it does not follow from this that when a good thought has come about changing one’s life, its implementation should be postponed until the onset of fasting. Everything required for this can be fulfilled at any other time, except for fasting. But, of course, when the holy fast has come, it is a sin to miss it without taking care of the salvation of the soul, just as other times are missed. Anyone who receives a saving thought about changing his life not during fasting, and who finds any obstacles in his life to carrying it out, it is best for him to retire to some monastery for a while. It’s easier to control yourself there” 53. The manifestation of stimulating grace is characterized, on the one hand, by the restoration of the sense of one’s dependence and guilt before God, darkened by sin, by the consciousness of all the ugliness of sin and disgust for it, and on the other hand, by the feeling and anticipation of a different, new, higher order of life. In its essence, this phenomenon represents an impulse of the enslaved spirit into the area of ​​domination in moral life that belongs to it, and for the most part it suddenly and instantly affects a person. “Like the brilliance of lightning, everything in a person and around him is illuminated, with blessed excitement. He is now introduced by the heart, for one moment, into that order from which he was expelled by sin, he is inserted into the chains of creation into that connection from which he was willfully torn out by sin. That is why this action of grace is almost always indicated by fear and instant shock, just as someone walking quickly and thoughtfully is shocked by the suddenly heard “stop”! If you look at this state in psychological terms, then it is nothing more than the awakening of the spirit. Actually, it is characteristic of our spirit to recognize the Divinity and some higher world, or order of things, to elevate a person above everything sensory and carry him into a purely spiritual realm. But in a sinful state, our spirit loses its strength and dissolves with soulfulness, and through it with sensuality, to the point that it seems to disappear into them. Now, by grace, it is removed from there, placed, as on a candlestick in our inner church, and shines on everything that exists there and is visible from there” 54 . The mood of the soul, excited by grace, is most clearly defined by its contrast with the sinful state: “1) Sin separates between God and man. A person, turning away from God to sin, does not feel his dependence on Him, lives as if he is not God and God is not his, like a self-willed slave who has fled from his master. Now this mediastinum is being destroyed. The feeling of dependence on God returns. Man is vividly aware of his complete subordination to God and complete responsibility before Him. Previously, the sky was copper for him and seemed to stretch over his head like a thick cover, but now some ray passes through this gloomy cover and shows him God, the Lord and at the same time the Judge. The feeling of the Divine, with all His perfections, is strongly aroused in him, and stands irresistibly in the soul, filling it all. Here is the foundation and possibility of a future grace-filled spiritual life.” 2) “Sin previously shrouded man in blindness, insensibility, and carelessness. At the moment of the influence of grace, these three-layer petrified scales fall off the bound soul. A person now clearly sees all his ugliness inside and not only sees, but also feels. At the same time, he realizes the danger of his position, begins to be timid for himself and worry about his fate. And not only timidity sinks into the soul, but, with a sense of responsibility before God, fear, languor, annoyance, shame begin to greatly affect his heart. His conscience gnaws at him." 3) “But immediately he is given some feeling of the sweetness of life according to God. Feeling all the indecency of a sinful life and disgusted with it, like a sea of ​​​​evil, he at the same time foretells that in the area of ​​​​good that has now opened for his spiritual eye, joy and consolation are hidden. They contemplate it as the promised land, as the most blissful and safest place from all worries. This premonition is primarily a phenomenon in the sinful soul that a person cannot produce on his own. God Himself introduces the spirit of man into His treasury and gives it a taste of its blessings" 55 . All this internal movement is mainly concentrated in feeling and is revealed in the dispositions of the heart, then already ready to perceive a new life. But in order for vague and transitory moods to turn into acts of sustainable real activity, the will must be persuaded to do the same. At this critical moment of rising to the determination to leave a sinful life, a Christian experiences a difficult moral struggle with sin, with his old habits and ingrained inclinations. “Now, finally, a person has bowed to the side of good, is ready to enter this holy path, is ready to walk in good deeds to please God; but at this moment the entire abyss of evil hidden in the heart is thrown up like dust and strives to cover the entire soul again. At the moment of excitement and inclination, sin is silent, as if what is happening in a person has nothing to do with it; but now, when they want to trample on him, he, the thousand-headed one, as the saint calls him. The Ladder lets out thousands of screams at the person who is planning this. Just as someone who has awakened is still thinking about getting up - everything in his body is calm, but as soon as he actually gets up and tenses his muscles a little - all the pains in the body that have not bothered you before now make themselves known and raise complaints. So, for one who has bowed down to the call of grace, sinful pains are silent until he reaches this inclination; but as soon as he gets down to business, all these infirmities raise an alarm - strong and confusing. Thought after thought, movement after movement, strikes the poor man and draws him back; attacking without any order, they engulf the soul from all sides and immerse it in their excitement. Everything good in a person hangs on, as it were, by a thread, and he himself is constantly ready to break away from what he is holding on to and again plunge into the same environment from which he wanted to leave. One thing saves him - that sweetness, benefit and joy that he was honored to taste at the moment of excitement, and that strength that he felt when he said in his heart: “So, I’ll begin now.” Anyone who has seen how a small spark rushes back and forth in the smoke, but still seems to stand on its own, or how a small particle of wood rushes in an agitated stream, now up, now down, now to the right, now to the left - he has in this image what happens at this moment with the good desire of a person. Not only is there confusion in the soul, but the whole blood is agitated, there is even ringing in the ears and fog in the eyes. We talk about ghosts - both scary and charming, which are encountered by the miners of some flower to find treasures - this psychological myth best depicts all the efforts of the devil to distract a person from the good intention of buying valuable beads, or getting a treasure hidden in the village. Here a person is faced with a strong struggle with himself, as if a general battle with sin” 56. This struggle is extremely difficult; it would be beyond the strength of a weak person if the grace of God did not come to the rescue. But the ascetic himself should not indulge in carelessness, but must endure long, persistent work of self-correction. To ensure better, lasting success in the struggle, it is first of all necessary to discover the sources and main producers of sin, which, after careful research, will inevitably turn out to be the following phenomena of our inner world observed everywhere and in everyone: self-pity, according to which we treat ourselves like a compassionate and sensitive mother with a spoiled and pampered child. We don’t want to deny ourselves anything, even small things. The future virtuous life seems to us to be too hard work, full of bitter sorrows and deprivations. Sensuality, expressed in a strong attachment to material objects and pleasures, in a lack of interest in everything spiritual and invisible. For the sensual, a new life, detached from attachment to everything material, is nothing more than a dry, abstract and lifeless feat. People-pleasing, according to which a Christian values ​​too much his established relationships with others, attaches too much importance to what others think and say about him. Such weakness sometimes enslaves a person so much that he does not have enough courage even in those cases when he has to bend his soul to save his relationship with the world. Finally, excessive attachment to real, earthly life (earthliness) also occupies a prominent place among the most important producers of sin in a sin-loving heart. Under the influence of the latter mood, we live and act as if human existence ends in this world; there is often no thought of the afterlife. As soon as a person rushes onto the path of a new life, the whole host of inclinations and attachments dear to sinful nature raises such a terrible cry in its defense and against future orders that it goes to the depths of the soul, outrages and shakes our inner world at its foundation. This is the most dangerous, critical moment. But one should not be embarrassed and lose heart, but must begin to act energetically without any delay. Having invoked God’s gracious help in fervent prayer, first of all you need to, with a special intense effort of will, mentally expel from your soul all the mentioned producers of sin. Here, the more persistent and decisive you act, the better. Next, one should bring to the face the consciousness of each individual enemy and, having previously depicted the beauty and sweetness of the future righteous life, one must clearly define all the moral ugliness, and on the other hand, all the harm and serious danger they pose to the new life. Such an image should be so strong and prominent that in the end there will be obvious disgust and hatred in the enemies. When this happens, then it will be easier to turn the heart onto a new path, opposite to the previous system. In these heart changes lies the essence of the entire present moment of spiritual activity, which has as its ultimate goal a turning point in the will for a new life. You should work especially hard on their education. It is necessary, through persistent and tireless internal work, to bring the heart into such a state that in its striving and desire for something new, better, it reaches the final limits, which is clearly indicated by the appearance in it of counter-feelings to previous sinful excitations, dispositions completely opposite to the fundamental demands of sin. You need to work hard on yourself until, instead of self-pity, complete ruthlessness towards yourself appears, to the point of thirst for suffering; instead of people-pleasing - dooming oneself to all untruths and human reproaches; instead of addiction to matter, aversion to it and the desire for something spiritual, pure; finally, instead of attachment to everything earthly, there is a feeling of wandering on earth and a desire for the heavenly fatherland. With the formation of such counterfeelings, we can already consider a change in will to have taken place, as a result of which everything in us must accept a new system and order. The final success and complete victory here depends to a large extent on the intense desire to complete the matter, at all costs, until all traces of the enemy are completely expelled. Otherwise, an insidious tempter, lurking in some hidden corner of our inner world, in the form, for example, of a seductive thought that there is no need to rush into things, we can wait another day to cross the border of a new life, is capable of ruining and destroying all the fruits of the intense labors of the previous feat and forcing us to start working again. “Act against sin in general, but especially against its root pathogens. When everything is troubled in the soul, and thoughts, like ghosts, stand and envelop it, shooting arrows from all sides into the very heart, it is not difficult to notice the main, so to speak, instigators of evil. Behind the multitude of private warriors stand there, at the very back, the main warriors, giving orders, in charge of all orders, the entire course of the war. These are the root causes of sin. We must direct all our attention to them, directly arm ourselves against them, overcome and destroy them. When they are defeated, the small warriors will disperse on their own.” “Which are the main causative agents of sin and the main warriors in its defense, the Savior indicated this when He called to follow Himself (Mark 8:34–38). Whoever wants to follow Me, He said, must deny himself - turn away from himself, consider himself as a stranger to himself, not worthy of attention and sympathy, for whom he is not worth standing. This presupposes that in a sin-loving heart the opposite disposition, self-pity, constantly lives and is present, as it really is. A sinner treats himself like a mother treats her dearly beloved child: it is a pity to deny himself something, to cross something; cannot overcome himself in order to raise his hand in anything. Further, the Savior obliges us to renounce everything in the world in order to save the soul: what good does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? The world is a collection of things outside of us, visible, tangible, sensory. Consequently, the above obligation presupposes in a person’s heart an inclination towards the material, a penchant for the tangible, a certain passion to feed oneself and delight only with the visible, the sensual. And indeed, a sin-lover is characterized by sensuality: he has no taste for the invisible and spiritual, but everything sensual is so well known and so re-experienced... Then the Lord inspires us not to be ashamed of Him in this adulterous and sinful generation. This makes us assume that in a sin-loving heart there is shame on people, to the detriment of goodness and truth. That's how it is. A person usually lives by the inviolability of the established order or established relationships around him, which is why he is timid to shake them and, in order to maintain them, is ready to bend his soul rather than do something contrary to someone, disrespect him, or get into trouble. This is people-pleasing: “what will they say and what to do if they have to break ties”? This must be the most sensitive bond of sin, if in order to break it, he is threatened for this shame with shame at the universal judgment: If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. This final appeal to the future century indicates in a sin-loving heart the absence of a feeling for a future life, forces one to assume that there is no such life for him, but that it is all immersed in the present life. That's how it is. A person usually lives on earth as if he would live here forever, but forgets about the future; He knows only earthly happiness, and all his goals converge on one thing: how to live well here, but what will happen in the future, there is no thought about that. So, self-pity, sensuality, people-pleasing and worldliness (which is the only thing in life on earth) are the characteristic features of a sin-loving heart, and therefore the root causative agents of sin and the main warriors for it.” “So these roots of sins are the causative agents of all the thoughts that rise up against a person when he is ready to make a movement from the area of ​​sin to the side of good - they raise a whole swarm of tempting thoughts, confusing, terrifying, and blocking the path. Self-pity screams: what kind of life is this? What lies ahead is only work, hardships, sorrows, deprivations, to which there is no end in sight, walk, as if walking among thorns on thorns with your bare feet - minute-by-minute stings! Sensitivity speaks out: “leave this thing and the other, and stop doing that and the other - in a word, everything in which I found taste - and do only spiritual things! It’s abstract, dry, unnutritious, lifeless.” “What will they say? - They will consider it strange and will become alienated; meanwhile, it is necessary to break both this and that connection - what to do after that? But on this side you can still expect hostility.” This is a cry of humanity. But here is the cry of earthiness: “The future, of course, will exist,” who can argue against this, “but it’s still far away, and how can we live here? Others lived... We know what is earthly, but what is there? This is in your hands, otherwise where is it?” “Yes, a man will begin to work for the Lord, and all this will cry out against him. And it would be good if these were some light thoughts, but otherwise they are not: they go to the depths of the soul, amaze and draw to one’s side as if someone had hooked a fish hook onto a living body and pulled it towards oneself. “What’s a man to do here?” “Help is near... Just use effort and you will overcome, but use your efforts expediently. Having prayerfully confirmed himself in self-abasing surrender to the will of God and the all-effectiveness of grace, - a) “Hurry to drive all these thoughts out of the soul, drive them out of consciousness with a special tension of self-activity, push them back into the secret place from which they came and return peace to the heart, because until the heart calms down, nothing can be done further. For this, for the first time, do not engage with them at all and do not engage in conversation, even if it is not peaceful. A crowd of uneducated people will soon scatter if you treat them harshly the first time; if you say a condescending word to one, another, a third, they gain courage and become more persistent in their demands. Likewise, a crowd of tempting thoughts becomes more persistent if you allow them to slow down in the soul for some time, and even more so if you also enter into negotiations with them. But if you push them away the first time through strong exertion of will, rejection and turning to God, then they will immediately withdraw and leave the atmosphere of the soul pure.” b) “But let this gloomy horde of evil thoughts be driven away, let the heart be calm again and the soul become light, we must remember that nothing has actually been done here for our cause. These enemies are still alive. They were only pushed out of attention and, perhaps, deliberately disappeared, so that in an accidental attack at a favorable time, the more surely they could regain victory. No, you shouldn’t stop there, otherwise there will be neither peace nor success. They must be killed, lured out and sacrificed on the altar of selflessness.” “So, having once again established yourself in prayerful surrender to God and His grace, call out each of the agents of sin and try to turn your heart away from them and turn it to the opposite - by this they will be cut off from the heart and will have to freeze. For this, give freedom to sound reasoning, and lead your heart in its wake. Enlightened by truth and assisted by secretly active grace, your reasoning: a) let it first imagine all the ugliness of these, one might say, incarnations of hell; You force your heart to feel disgust for them; b) then let him more vividly depict the danger into which they plunge him, let him point out the most evil enemies in them; Move your heart to hate them; c) then let him more fully depict before you all the beauty and sweetness of life, which they prevent you from entering, all the charm of freedom from these tyrants; But you, having already developed disgust and hatred towards them, strain your heart to rush from these to those, like a tree to springs of water. This will achieve what is required. The program is short, but the job will be done, maybe not so soon. Here only the sides are indicated to which the reasoning should turn, but the thread of the reasoning itself must be led and brought to the goal by everyone; personal reasoning reveals an effective and strong thought in one respect or another. However, you need to know that reasoning is a lever; after all, it’s all about the turns of the heart. We can say that as soon as the indicated turns occur in the heart, then we are at the goal.” c) “This work is the most essential in the matter of changing the will. It is necessary to carry it out energetically and not retreat until the heart reaches, in its turns, to its final limits; The last limits are the counter-feeling to sinful excitations - dispositions opposite to the fundamental demands of sin. Thus, everyone must work on oneself until, instead of self-pity, ruthlessness towards oneself and no mercy are revived, the thirst for suffering is felt, the desire to torment oneself, to exhaust both one’s body and soul; until, instead of people-pleasing, there is formed, on the one hand, an aversion from all unkind customs and connections, some hostile, with irritation, opposition to them, and on the other hand, dooming oneself to all untruths and all human reproaches; until, instead of taste in only one material, sensual, visible, tastelessness and disgust will come to them and the search and thirst for one thing spiritual, pure, divine will begin; until, instead of earthliness, the limitation of life and happiness only by earth fills the heart with a feeling of wandering on earth, with the only desire for the heavenly fatherland.” “When such dispositions are formed, then all the supports of sin will be undermined. He will lose his tenacity and determining power, which now passes to the man himself. Sin was cast out, it became out. From now on, it will be tempting and not determining. And each time you just have to set in motion the now accumulated counterfeelings to him in order to drive him away. From this it is clear what great importance the work now described is: it creates a new face within us, with a decisive aversion from evil and a direction towards good - a change in will is made, as a result of which everything in us must take on a new order.” “Here is a man already standing on the very edge of the sinful region; nothing separates him from the land of light, freedom and bliss. The bonds fell asleep, the soul felt light and joyful; she is ready to soar to God. But the enemy’s cunning has not yet been exhausted. He also has an arrow, which he saved for the last minute. As soon as the soul strains its strength to take the last step out of the realm of self-indulgent sin, its attention is struck by the plaintive cry “one more day, and that’s enough, tomorrow you will cross this border.” Is it because in the previous struggle the soul becomes tired and requires rest, or because such is the law of sin, only this voice is heard. There is no resistance to good here, but only a request to somewhat ease the acquired tension. This is the most seductive cry: the enemy seems to stand for us, begging us to take pity on ourselves, but bend just a little to this cry, to this suggestion, and you will lose everything you have gained. In some secret way, those driven away inciters of sin will creep into the heart, without our knowledge they will commit adultery with it - and they will relax and upset everything that was intended, so that, having come to their senses, a person sees himself on the old line, as if he had not attempted to do anything about himself. Coldness, debility and immobility again overcome him - at least start over everything that seemed to have already been passed. Therefore, do not despise this seemingly small demand: it is small and insignificant in appearance, but in reality it is a reduction of all evil, there is a charming presentation of slavery in the form of freedom, a flattering friendship hiding an irreconcilable enemy. Hate him with all your hatred and, as soon as you notice him - and he flies by quickly, like lightning - hasten to erase his trace so that no sign of him remains. Put yourself again in the same state in which you were before, and in the same tension, internal and external, decide to hold yourself forever. Having defeated this enemy, you will remain a decisive winner, having taken control of yourself, you will become a complete ruler yourself.”57 The ascetic firmly decided to leave sin and begin a new spiritual life; but this, however, is not yet enough to immediately begin activity. It is essential to dedicate it to God. Otherwise, morality will only be natural, pagan. A Christian must do good not only because it is good, because the moral dignity of a person requires it, but mainly in the conviction that it is a sacrifice pleasing to God. The purpose of the creation of a rational being on earth is not in himself, but in the service and glorification of the name of God. The Lord endowed man with moral freedom and in it, as it were, gave him some part of His Divine power, but so that man himself voluntarily sacrificed freedom to God, as the highest and most perfect offering. In order to have hope of being accepted into a new life, you first need to confess and repent of the wrongness of the previous order, you need to cleanse yourself and receive forgiveness of previous sins, and in order to enter into it and begin to act, you must first reunite with God and stock up on spiritual strength to bear it. The first is given in the sacrament of repentance, and the second in communion. Repentance is essential for those who decide to follow the path of virtue, especially in the form of calming their conscience, which was then still anxious and unstable. If the property of our conscience is such, even in ordinary circumstances, that we do not dare to appear before the person we have offended until we are confident that we have been forgiven by him; then this is all the more necessary to say regarding turning to God. Although the believer, having made a vow to leave sin, has already received some hope of being accepted into a new life, this is only his personal, timid thought and assumption, not confirmed by anything or anyone. For complete conviction and, at the same time, stability of his inner mood, he needs the testimony of a third-party authoritative person, which in the sacrament of repentance is fully the servant of the altar of the Lord, resolving sins on behalf of God Himself. Then the repentant is crossed out in heaven from the list of the condemned, which is also necessary for him before entering the new world. Without this there can be no access and influx of saving grace. The true Christian life consists of fellowship with Christ. Those who wish to enter into it must be reunited with the Lord, which is possible only in the sacrament of communion, where, under the guise of bread and wine, the Lord Himself enters inside the believer and dwells in him. Every life, for its maintenance and development, needs appropriate nutrition, especially at first. Such real spiritual food for the believer is the body and blood of the Savior, Who Himself said: My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly beer. Just as the initial physical food imparts the character of our bodily nature and becomes its constant need, so the first worthy communion of the body and blood of the Lord will lay the foundation and become an invariable accessory to all subsequent moral progress of the ascetic. Therefore, he must hasten to take advantage of this inexhaustible, fertile source of spiritual life. “It would seem that everything has already been done if the decision is made to leave sin and all that remains is to act. And sure enough, you can act; but what kind of activity will it be and what kind of spirit is in it? The man stopped only at himself. If he begins to act starting from this point, he will act from himself and for himself, albeit in a moral order. This will be egoistic, pagan morality. There are people who say that they do good as good - they do it because the dignity of a person requires it, or because to act otherwise would be ignoble, unreasonable. All such workers denounce that the formation of the inner, moral person in them has not been completed to the end: they returned to themselves, but did not move from themselves to God and did not sacrifice themselves to Him - they stopped, that is, halfway. The purpose of human freedom is not in itself and not in man, but in God. In freedom, God gave up to man, as it were, a certain part of His Divine power, but so that he himself would voluntarily sacrifice it to God, as the most perfect offering. And therefore, if you have gained control of yourself, go and now give yourself to God. When you sinned, you not only lost yourself, but by losing yourself, you also moved away from God. Now, returning from sinful captivity, after you have gained control of yourself, return yourself to God.” “It would also seem that turning from oneself to God should not be difficult or complicated, such as turning from West to East. But, after all, a sinner who approaches God is not a person independent of Him and does not approach Him in such a way that there is nothing behind him. No, he is the same as a runaway slave returning to his master, as a guilty person appearing before the king-judge. Therefore, we must proceed in such a way as to be accepted. In human orders, the master accepts the slave and the king returns mercy to the guilty person when, approaching them, each of them recognizes his guilt, repents of it and makes a sincere promise to be completely correct in the future. The same applies to the sinner’s return to God. He will be accepted by God if a) he acknowledges his sins, b) he repents of them, and c) he vows not to sin. These are necessary acts in heartfelt reunification with God, on which firmness in the new life, perfection in it and reliability of constant action according to its requirements depend. The prodigal son, returning to his father, said to the river: those who have sinned - the consciousness of sin; not worthy - self-damnation; accept, as one from mercenaries, the vow to work.” “What makes the sacrament of repentance especially necessary is, on the one hand, the property of sin, and on the other, the property of our conscience. When we sin, we think that not only outside of us, but also within ourselves there are no traces of sin. Meanwhile, he leaves deep traces both in us and outside of us - on everything that surrounds us, and especially in heaven, in the definitions of divine justice. At the hour of sin, it is decided there what the sinner has become: in the book of the belly he is included in the list of those condemned - and he has become bound in heaven. Divine grace will not descend on him until he is erased from the list of those condemned in heaven, until he receives permission there. But God was pleased to make heavenly permission - to make heavenly erasing from the list of the condemned dependent on the permission of those bound by sins on earth. So, accept the sacrament of repentance in order to be worthy of All-round permission and open the entrance to the spirit of grace. Conscience, now cleared, returning tenderness and instinct to moral order, will not give peace until we are decisively convinced of forgiveness. This is how it is in the ordinary course of our lives; She does not allow us to even show ourselves to the one who was insulted until we are sure that he has forgiven us. In relation to God, she is even more selective. Although at the time when a person rises to a decisive vow, some assurance descends on him that he is no longer disgusted with God; but this confidence is personal and cannot be strong; it will soon be shaken by doubt: “is it so, but isn’t this self-delusion”; and doubt will bring anxiety inside, and from anxiety - relaxation. In this case, life will have neither firmness nor harmony. So, a person needs to hear all-forgiveness from the face of God, so that, having finally calmed down with confidence in God’s mercy, he can then act more decisively and firmly in this confidence. Go, confess, and you will receive an announcement of forgiveness from God.” “In the parable of the prodigal son, the father, having received his son returning to him with repentance, after falling on his neck and kissing him as a sign of forgiveness, ordered him to be clothed and to prepare a bright and joyful supper. The parent's heart was not satisfied with forgiveness - it more decisively wants to assure the son of its reconciliation with him and more strongly express the joy of meeting with him after such a sad parting. Fatherly love gives what filial hope did not expect. What sinner could expect anything more after receiving forgiveness? And so, however, he is also invited to the Lord’s Supper, where the Lord Himself gives him His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. This is the crown of generosity towards the converted sinner, and yet it is not an excess, but an essential necessity for reunification with the Lord.” “The Christian life is life in the Lord Jesus Christ. He who believes puts on Christ and lives by Him. The fallen after baptism loses this grace; rising from the fall and returning to the Lord, he must again be vouchsafed it, and he is vouchsafed in St. communion. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him, says the Lord (John 6:56). Here in the repentant is the beginning of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord said that He is the vine, and those who believe in Him are the branches (John 15:4–6). A branch does not live unless it is on the vine; so believers do not live if not in the Lord. There is no true life anywhere except in this vine. What's not on it is dead. Therefore, whoever wants to live truly must be grafted into it, receive vital juices from it and live, feeding on them. Grafting takes place in St. Communion - here the Christian becomes one with the Lord. When the Lord led only a sinner to complete repentance, he only pushed at the door of the heart; when they open with contrition and repentance, He enters inside and sups with the communicant.” “Now man is born again. His life begins in a completely new way. Life cannot continue without food, and, moreover, food that is akin to oneself. And this kind of food is the body and blood of the Lord. He Himself said: My flesh is truly meat, and My blood is truly beer (John 6:55). Those who have begun a new life should nourish this life with them. Moreover, it is necessary to taste this poverty at first, during the first, so to speak, movements of your new life. They say that the first food has an influence on the nature of bodily life and then constitutes a constant need for the body. What should be the character of life for a repentant person? – Life about Christ Jesus our Lord. What should constitute his constant need? – The need to communicate with the Lord. Let him hasten in the first movements of this life to taste the body and blood of Christ in order to lay, so to speak, the foundation of a life consistent with Christ and to generate a living need for constant communion with Him through this tasting. The one who tastes it, having felt the sweetness of this heavenly manna, can no longer help but hunger and thirst for more and more of this tasting” 58 . A Christian enters a new life with one good and zealous desire to serve God. In order to put this desire into practice and achieve the ultimate goal - living communion with God, he must inevitably undergo a long, sweaty labor of feats of external good deeds and internal purification. Success here largely depends on the degree and strength of initial zeal, which the aspirant must first of all strengthen. Anyone who wants to maintain unquenchable zeal must: 1) remain within, 2) contemplate the new world, and 3) stand in the feelings and thoughts that led to a new life. Before starting any important task, a person usually concentrates all his forces on it and takes into account all the means that he may have to accomplish it. In relation to spiritual achievement, such preparation is given in the act of so-called inward abiding. The latter is the conclusion of consciousness in the heart. When a person in his heart awakens from a sinful sleep, then the restored spirit penetrates there with its consciousness and begins to collect and attract to the heart all mental and physical forces. This inward abiding is not the same as deepening during reflection or thought, although it is much like it. The latter consists only of straining the mind and is kept in the head, leaving other forces unoccupied; and the first is concentrated in the heart, the source and center of all our internal movements, below and deeper than everything that happens in us, so that everything that happens happens on top of it, before its eyes, with one thing approved and another prohibited. This inner composure is a true indicator of spiritual power and the first condition for the ascetic’s mastery over himself. The gathered one is always strong, like an army brought into battle order or a bunch of twigs, weak alone and strong in a bundle. He who is not collected is always weak and either does nothing good or, having begun to do it, soon falls. Here we observe a phenomenon similar to how the owner of a city is considered to be the one who occupies a fortress. Any spiritual undertaking must inevitably begin with internal concentration. Whatever the aspirant undertakes, first of all he must go inside himself and begin to act from there. This deeply vital truth is clearly indicated in the Gospel when the Savior says: “The kingdom of God is within you” and to begin any spiritual work he commanded: “go into your closet (heart) and shut the door.” He who has entered within himself stands on the threshold of a new life, before the doors of a new spiritual world. “Try to enter the church that is inside you, and you will see the heavenly church,” says one of the saints. fathers. In order to support and kindle the spirit of zeal for walking in a new life, it is necessary, on the one hand, to imprint the entire structure of the spiritual world so vividly in our consciousness that it is always vividly represented to us, and on the other hand, it is necessary to perceive it with feeling, enter deeply and merge with it. The entire structure of the spiritual world can be briefly expressed as follows: “The one God, worshiped in the Trinity, who created all things and contains all things, raises up, or according to the Apostle, heads all things in our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10) through the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Spirit. The active Church, which, after the perfection of believers, transfers them to another world, which will continue until the time of the fulfillment of all, or the end of the age, when, after the resurrection and judgment, everyone will be rewarded according to their deeds: some will fall into hell, others will live in paradise, and God will be all things in all." “This is the all-encompassing frame of all truly existing, existing and having to be. Here is an abbreviation of the entire content of divine revelation. Everything possible and real enters here and is here. This is also the content of the creed. The main subjects here are: the sovereignty of God, the economy of salvation and the last four - death, judgment, heaven and hell. It is these very objects that Saint Tikhon of Christ commands all Christians to constantly remember, from infancy to the grave.” In order to firmly establish yourself in the phenomena of the new world, you must force yourself to “look at these objects as often as possible, with the desire to see them continuously. From the first minute of awakening to consciousness, go inside and with all possible tension insert yourself into this system and order. First, it is better to fix your gaze on one object and contemplate it until it is imprinted, and then move on to others. When everyone gets over, then the whole system can be recognized in an instant. Some distribute this work over days, others into parts of the day: for example, about death, after dinner, as someone finds it convenient, or for what he feels his spirit is most active. Only one law must be adhered to, and not changed often, for this takes away all the fruit from doing.” “As a guide to the most successful completion of this work and perfection in it, you can take the place of St. Scripture relating to one or another subject, and repeat it continuously for a day or more, for example: where will I go? - we must die alone, then judgment... You store up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath... There is no other name by which we must be saved, and so on; have a picture of death, the cross or a terrible judgment and place it in such a place that it hits the eyes as often and involuntarily as possible; choose books and articles that sharply depict these subjects, and conversations, if they happen with like-minded people, conduct more about the same thing; remember more often the invisible and unexpected judgments of God, mortal cases, deceased relatives and their condition, see yourself on your deathbed, watch funerals. All this has a sharper effect on a person’s spirit if he stands in these objects during prayer. With God's help, in this manner the impression is made very quickly. You just need to not throw away the object imprinted in prayer later, but walk with it as long as you can, at least for a few days, trying to maintain the impression by writing, reading, talking, or in other ways.” “Such vision of another world is capable of containing and kindling the spirit of jealousy by providing a true field for action for the jealous spirit. “You are not from here,” says Chrysostom, “but from another world; therefore, one must act as if in that world, and for this purpose one must contemplate it.” On the other hand, whoever sees it will always have before his eyes some kind of norm and example, reminding him not to deviate, not to do something crookedly. This is also good when someone has only grasped these objects with their minds. If someone comes to the point of perceiving them in feeling even just a little, they instantly raise his jealousy to great tension. And whatever of this is accepted by feeling, it will not allow the one who accepted it to sin. Remember the teachings of Sirach, your last, and you will never sin. I foresaw, the prophet David testifies, the Lord, let me not move. Macarius the Great was dried up, as he himself says, by the memory of the fire of hell; others cried incessantly from the memory of death. And there are many sayings by St. fathers regarding these subjects and regarding how much they strain a person’s spirit and kindle jealousy. Having come to their senses, he sees himself in great cramped conditions, and in extremes, it is known how intense the tension can be." 59 Anyone who has embarked on the path of a new life must first of all arrange his external environment in accordance with its spirit and begin deeds of virtue. Everything related to the new external order can be called withdrawal from the world; but the latter means primarily not to flee human society, but to abandon morals, habits and demands that are contrary to the spirit of Christ. Leaving the world is nothing more than cleaning out your entire life, eliminating everything passionate from it, replacing it with something pure that does not interfere with the development of spiritual principles, but helps it. The best and most perfect field for this is the path of monasticism. Good deeds begin with external deeds and end with internal cleansing of the heart. It is not difficult to indicate the necessary pious exercises; you just have to re-read several lives of Christian ascetics. Fasting, work, vigil, solitude, prayer with reading the word of God and St. fathers, fasting with confession and communion, works of physical and spiritual mercy - all this together, and sometimes mainly in some parts, can be found in almost every life of St. saints of God. The ascetic also practiced all such virtues at the previous stages of his spiritual progress, but here they receive the highest and most perfect form, they have the character of true achievement. Prayer is often unceasing, in the form of constant standing and walking before the face of God; fasting extends to complete non-eating for a long time, fasting with confession and communion - to the extent of continuous, daily, etc. Rev. Feofan indicates in detail the subjects and content of feats for both the body and the soul, even separately for the mind, heart and will, and no less thoroughly sets out the guiding rules for their life application. With special love, he focuses on creating good moods of the heart. We have already seen the saint’s thoughts about the education of the human heart under the influence and influence of Christian worship in the midst of an ordinary, worldly environment. Now let’s listen to what the writer, a great ascetic himself, says about the same subject for the edification and guidance of those seeking spiritual perfection. “To educate the heart means to cultivate in it a taste for holy, divine, spiritual things, so that, turning among them, it feels as if in its element, finds sweetness and bliss in it, but is indifferent to everything else, has no taste, and even more - has an aversion to it. All spiritual activity of a person converges on the heart: truths are imprinted on it, good dispositions are implanted in it; but most importantly, his own business is the taste we showed. When the mind sees the entire structure of the spiritual world and its various objects, or various good undertakings are sung in the will, the heart underneath them should feel sweetness in all this and emit warmth. This accompaniment to the spiritual is the first sign of the revival of a dead soul from sin. Therefore, its education is a very important point, even in the beginning.” “The work directed towards it is our entire sacred service in all its forms - both general and private, home and church, and mainly the spirit of prayer moving in it.” “The priestly service, that is, all the daily services, with the entire structure of the church, icons, candles, incense, singing, reading, acting, as well as services for various needs, then home service, also with church things - consecrated icons, oil, candles, holy water, cross, incense - all this totality of sacred things, affecting all senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste are the essence of the wipers of feelings from a dead soul, strong and the only true ones. The soul has become deadened by the spirit of the world, which possesses it through the sin living in it. The entire structure of our church service, both in its structure, and meaning, and the power of faith, and especially the grace hidden in it, has an irresistible power to ward off the spirit of the world and, freeing the soul from its oppressive influence, makes it possible to breathe freely and taste the sweetness of this spiritual freedom. Anyone who enters the church enters a completely different world, is influenced by it and changes accordingly. The same thing happens to those who surround themselves with sacred things. The frequency of the spiritual impression penetrates inside more quickly and quickly completes the transformation of the heart. So: 1) It is necessary to establish as frequent a presence in churches as possible during church services and usually at Matins, Liturgy, and Vespers. Have a desire for this and, at the first opportunity, be there every day and at least once, and if possible, even hopelessly. Our church is heaven on earth or heaven. Hurry to the church in faith that it is the place of God’s settlement, where He Himself promised to hear sooner; While staying in the church, be in fear and reverence as before God, which you express by patient standing, bowing, and paying attention to listening in general, without plundering your thoughts, weakening, or carelessness. 2) We should not forget other sacred services, private, whether performed in church or in the home, as well as our home prayer with the entire church structure. It must be remembered that this is only a supplement to a certain church service, and not a replacement for it. The Apostle, commanding not to deprive oneself of meetings, made it known that all the power of service belongs to the service of the general. 3) One should perform all church celebrations, rites and customs, in general the entire charter, and impose it on oneself in all matters, so as to constantly remain, as it were, in some special atmosphere. It's easy to do. This is the structure of our Church. Accept it only with faith.” “But the main thing that gives strength to church service is the spirit of prayer. Prayer is both a comprehensive duty and an all-effective means. By it the truths of faith are imprinted on the mind, and good morals on the will; but mainly the heart is revived in its feelings. Then only the first two go quickly when there is this one thing. Therefore, the formation of prayer must be started first of all and continued constantly, tirelessly, until the Lord gives prayer to the one praying” 60. Works of good deeds require continuous intense effort. The ascetic often weakens and needs stimulation and renewal of spiritual life, nourishment and reinforcement of his moral strength. The best means for this is the establishment of fasting with all its accessories, with confession and communion of the body and blood of the Lord, and true ascetics do not miss the opportunity to use it, often ascending to continuous fasting. For those who are zealous for the constant cleansing of their conscience and spiritual renewal through the saving sacraments, repentance and communion are necessary: 1) “Every sin that weighs on the conscience hastens to be cleansed by repentance, without waiting for a specific time of fasting. It is good not to keep it on your soul for even one day, and even better not for an hour, for sin drives away grace, deprives one of boldness and prayer, and hardens and cools the more the longer it persists. The one who is cast out through repentance leaves a touching dew of tears. 2) Every day, when going to sleep, make a private confession to the Lord, in which everything sinful - in thoughts, desires, passionate movements, and equally everything unclean in righteous deeds is revealed to God, in a feeling of repentance, as something that, although it is supposedly happening against the will, nevertheless is in us and makes us unclean and indecent before God and our own sense of purity and perfection. When you go to bed, you seem to go to the next world; Confession prepares for this. During sleep, what we have acquired during the day turns into our nature; we must cleanse it and reject the obscene with contrition; everything then happens cleanly. 3) Make a confession every minute, that is, every thought, every desire, feeling and movement that is vicious and unclean, immediately confess it to the all-seeing God, with contrition of spirit, and ask for forgiveness and strength to avoid it in the future; as well as to be cleansed at this moment from filth. This doing is very saving. It is the same as rubbing your eyes while walking against dust; it requires the strict attention of the heart. The one who is gathered is always zealous and zealous. On the contrary, leaving thoughts and wishes not cast out with contrition and repentance leaves a wound in the heart. And how many unnoticed wounds there are, how many battles there are! It is no wonder, after this, cooling and fall. Thought to thought will more easily give birth to desire, desire to desire - agreement, and then there will be internal adultery and fall. The one who repents continually cleanses himself and clears the way for himself. 4) To have revelation, that is, to reveal any bewilderment, confusion or new understanding to another like-minded person, or to one’s spiritual father, so that he can decide and determine dignity and pronounce judgment. 5) Attend the Liturgy as often as possible and, during its celebration, stand in strong and bright faith in the sacrifice of God being performed then. The sacrament of body and blood is divine food for Christians and is a sacrifice. Not everyone and not always receives communion at the liturgy, but sacrifice is made from everyone and for everyone. That's why everyone should participate in it. They participate by faith, by painful contrition for sins, by self-abasement falling before the Lord, who devours Himself like a lamb for the belly of the world. Just the living contemplation of this sacrament greatly enlivens and excites the spirit. Faith and contrition always bring cleansing of sins, and often the hidden touch of the Lord on the heart of a Christian, delighting him and reviving him, as if communion in the spirit. 6) If you cannot be in church, then do not miss the hour of the sacred and divine sacrifice without sighing and turning to God; If possible, stand for prayer and make several bows. Something terrible in nature makes the whole creature tremble: thunder, for example, an earthquake, a storm. At the moment of divine sacrifice, the most terrible deed, the greatest on earth and in heaven, is performed in the church; but it takes place invisibly, spiritually, in the face of the infinite Triune God, St. angels, the entire host of the heavenly Church, before the eye of faith of all who strive and live on earth - invisibly, nevertheless, nevertheless, really. That is why a believer should not let these minutes pass without attention. But when they are remembered, then by this very remembrance the spirit warms up and admires God, which is what attracts grace.” “From the very beginning of Christianity, true zealots of piety have set frequent communion as the first good. Under the apostles it is everywhere: Christians all remain in prayer and breaking bread, that is, they receive communion. Basil the Great, in his letter to Caesarea, says that it is saving to receive communion of body and blood every day, and about his life he writes: “we receive communion four times a week.” And this is the general opinion of all saints, that there is no salvation without communion, and there is no prosperity in life without frequent communion” 61. However, one cannot limit oneself to one positive activity on the path to complete moral perfection. In close and inextricable connection with it, intense negative work always takes place, aimed at expelling internal evil, expressed in the struggle “with passions and lusts.” The very skill and stability in exploits is achieved through this struggle and warfare, acquired only after the victory of temptations and temptations. Now the ascetic goes through the most difficult and highest moment - the innermost self-purification from internal enemies in the depths of his spirit. We have already seen how numerous and strong these enemies are and the strongest among them are passions. They bind a person as a captive, sometimes they enslave him so much that he loses the image and likeness of God and descends to the level of an animal. One who is subject to passions cannot even begin a spiritual life, for passions kill every seed and sprout of it. Therefore, it is necessary to arm ourselves with all our might for a stubborn fight against these most dangerous enemies. You can specify the following rules of internal warfare: “Having noticed the approach of an enemy - the beginning of excitement or thought, or passion, or inclination, first of all hasten to recognize that these are enemies. Consciousness in a passionate enemy does not require much puzzling work. It is enough to restore the conviction that God does not favor everything passionate. It is a great mistake, and a universal mistake, to consider everything that arises in us as blood property, which we must stand for as ourselves. Everything sinful has come to us; therefore, we must always separate him from ourselves, otherwise we will have a traitor within ourselves. Whoever wants to fight with himself must divide himself into himself and the enemy hidden within him. Having separated from yourself a certain vicious movement and recognized it as an enemy, then convey this consciousness and feeling, revive hostility towards it in your heart. This is the most salutary means of driving away sin. Every sinful movement is retained in the soul through a feeling of some pleasantness from it; therefore, when hostility towards him is aroused, it, deprived of all support, disappears by itself. And this is where anger is permissible and useful. Everyone has St. I find that anger was given to fathers for this reason, so that they could arm themselves against the passionate, sinful movements of the heart and drive them away. However, this is not always easy and not always possible: it is easy to attack thoughts with anger, more difficult to attack desires, but even more difficult to attack passions, for they themselves are movements of the heart. When this does not help and the enemy does not concede victory without fighting in this way, enter the fight courageously, but without self-aggrandizement and arrogance. The battle has begun - guard your heart first: do not let the emerging movements reach your feelings, meet them at the very entrance to the soul and try to hit them here. And for this purpose, hasten to restore in your soul convictions opposite to those on which the disturbing thought rests. Such counter-beliefs are not only a shield in mental warfare, but also arrows - they protect your heart and strike the enemy to the very heart. From then on, the battle will consist of the fact that the sin that has arisen will be constantly reflected by thoughts and ideas that are contrary. The duration of its continuation depends on many different circumstances, which are completely impossible to determine. One must not only weaken and in any way, even in thought, lean towards the side of the enemy. The enemy must be pursued until no trace of him remains; otherwise, even a simple thought, left in the heart, like an evil seed, will bear fruit, inconspicuously inclining the soul towards itself” 62. However, the ascetic cannot always count on success in this internal war. It is usually carried out with varying happiness. Sometimes you have to go through such difficult, critical moments when a person is completely exhausted, loses ground and is ready to fall into despair. Then he clearly realizes the inadequacy of his own strength and the need for outside help. And this help comes to him from the same saving grace that previously awakened him from his sinful sleep and showed him a new path of life. Our spirit then is only a field and an organ of warfare, but the grace of God is a victorious and destructive force. He who struggles with a cry casts himself upon the Lord, complaining about his enemies and hating them, and divine grace in him and through him strikes and drives them out. “The fight is over. Thank the Lord for deliverance from defeat, but do not indulge too much in the joy of salvation, do not allow carelessness, do not weaken your jealousy - the enemy often only pretends to be defeated, so that when you indulge in a sense of security, an unexpected attack will hit you all the more easily. Therefore, do not take off your swearing weapons and do not forget the safety rules. Always be a cheerful and vigilant warrior. Better sit down and count the spoils; examine the entire course of the battle - its beginning, its continuation and, finally, what gave rise to it, what especially intensified it and what put an end to it. This will be a kind of tribute from the vanquished, which will greatly facilitate future victories over them; This is how spiritual wisdom and ascetic experience are finally acquired. Don't tell anyone about your victory. Vanity, which cannot be avoided, will open the doors of spiritual strengthening and after defeating one enemy you will have to fight with a whole crowd of them. If you are struck, lament, but do not run from God, do not persist; hasten to soften your heart and bring it to repentance. You can't help but fall; but you can and should, having fallen, rise up. A person running in a hurry, even if he stumbles over something, quickly gets up and again rushes along the path to the goal - imitate him. Our Lord is like a mother who leads her child by the hand and does not leave him, no matter how often he stumbles and falls. It is better, instead of inactive despondency, be encouraged to new exploits, having learned from a real fall a lesson in humility and prudence, so as not to walk where it is slippery and where it is impossible not to fall. If you do not blot out your sin with sincere repentance, then, having gained some strength in you, it will inevitably drag you down to the bottom of the sinful sea. Sin will prevail over you and you will again need to start from the first battle; but God knows whether it will be possible. Perhaps, having now given yourself over to sin, you will cross the line of conversion, perhaps after that there will no longer be a single truth that could strike your heart: perhaps even you will not be given grace. Then, even here, you will belong to the number of those condemned to eternal torment” 63. For his intense spiritual labors, the ascetic is awarded the highest reward possible for a person on earth - the feeling of the closeness of the Divine and the sweetness of a godly life, and then he enters on the true path of ascension to living communion with God. The last, decisive step in this direction, the very threshold of it, is the putting aside of all everyday concerns about oneself and the world and complete surrender to the will of God. Then the grace of God sanctifies a person’s entire being and the Lord dwells in him, a living and real communion with God begins with the complete merging of the divine and human principles of life, when the ascetic can rightly say about himself along with the apostle: “I live not for this purpose, but Christ lives in me.” The true sphere and field of this unearthly state is unceasing mental prayer. “Striving for God is the goal. But at first it is only in intention, sought after. It must make it real, alive, like natural gravity, sweet, willing, uncontrollable. Only this kind of gravity shows that we are in our rank, that God will accept us, that we are going to Him. When iron is drawn to a magnet, it means that a magnetic force is touching it; the same is true in the spiritual sense: then it is only clear that God touches us when this is a living aspiration - when the spirit, bypassing everything, rushes to God and admires. At first this does not happen - a jealous person is completely focused on himself, even for God; but this view of God is only mental. The Lord still does not allow Him to be tasted, and man is unable to do so because he is unclean. He serves God, so to speak, tastelessly. Then, as the heart is cleansed and corrected, it begins to feel the sweetness of a godly life, to walk in it with love and desire - it becomes its delightful element. The soul begins to break away from everything, as if from the cold, and gravitates toward God, who warms it. The beginnings of this attraction are laid in a spirit zealous for divine grace. It is with her inspirations and guidance that it matures in the midst of the indicated order, which it feeds on even without the knowledge of the actor himself. The sign of this birth is: willing, quiet, not tense inside - being before God, accompanied by a feeling of reverence, fear, joy, etc. Previously, the spirit forced itself inside itself, but now it is established there and stands without origin. He is happy to be there alone with God, away from others, or without attention to everything external. He finds within himself the kingdom of God, which is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Such immersion within, or immersion in God, is called mental silence or admiration for God. It may be temporary, but it must be made permanent, because that is the goal. God is in us when our spirit is truly in God, for this is not mental communication, but living, silent, alienated from everything, immersion in God. Just as a ray of sun carries away a drop of dew, so the Lord delights the spirit by touching it. The spirit has taken me, says the prophet. Many of the saints were constantly in admiration for God, while others were attacked by the spirit temporarily, but often. This is how such attraction, or entry into God, begins, and matures, and is perfected, by divine grace in one who seeks God sincerely, conscientiously, diligently.” “An essential condition for this is the purification of the heart for the acceptance of the attracting God: those who are pure in heart will see God.” “The decisive step in ascent to God, the very threshold of communion with God, is the complete surrender of oneself to Him, after which He is already an agent, and not a man. What is all the power, or what are we looking for? - Communion with God, that is, so that God would dwell in us and begin to walk in us, clothe himself, as it were, in our spirit, rule over our mind, and will, and feeling, so that whatever we want and do in us would be His work, so that He would be active in everything, and we would become His instruments, or acted from Him, in thoughts, and desires, and feelings, and words, and affairs. This is what the Lord, the ruler of all, seeks, for He alone does everything in creatures through creatures. The spirit that has understood itself should seek the same.” “The condition for this indwelling of God in us and enthronement, or acceptance of all-action, is the renunciation of one’s freedom. A free creature, by its consciousness and definition, acts on its own; but it doesn't have to be like that. In the kingdom of God there should not be anyone acting on his own, but for God to act in everything; and this will not happen as long as freedom itself stands - it denies and rejects the power of God. And only then will this control against the power of God cease, when our freedom, or independent and personal activity, falls before Him, when a decisive petition is pronounced in a person: “You, Lord, do in me what you want, but I am blind and weak.” “At this moment, the power of God enters the human spirit and begins its all-effect. So, the condition for the indwelling of God in us is a decisive surrender to Him.” The complete surrender of a person to the Divine will is an invisible, inner and most secret act, but it is often revealed in external activity. Distributing all one's property, abandoning oneself to general reproach (in foolishness), seclusion, desert life - these are the most frequently observed manifestations of it. These are such turns of life, after which there is nowhere else to turn but to the Lord. Thus, those who strive directly throw themselves into the hands of God and are accepted by Him. “He who has given himself up to God, or who has been worthy of this gift, begins to be acted by God and to abide in Him. Man casts himself upon God, and God takes him up and works in him, or by his powers. This is the true, divine life of our spirit. He who casts himself into the hands of God is accepted by God and acts by what he accepts. This is a living union, life in God, affirmation in Him with the whole being: thought, heart, will. The field of communication with God, the area in which it is formed and acts, is mental, spiritual prayer... The one who prays abides in God and, therefore, is very ready and capable for God to begin to abide in him” 64. Living communion with God takes place in a state of silence, leading and ending with the highest Christian virtue - dispassion. “Whoever has begun to experience these involuntary inward attractions and these admirations for God, and especially who has begun to experience perfect surrender to God and unceasing prayer, is ready and able to enter into silence. Only he is strong enough to endure this feat and complete it with fruit. It is impossible to keep such a person in a hostel and cohabitation with others. What drove Arseny the Great away from people? This is an inward pull before God. “I love you,” he said, “but I cannot be with God and with people.” “The true silent person,” says John Climacus, “not wanting to lose the sweetness of God, moves away from all people, without hatred towards them, just as others diligently draw closer to him.” “We write out the words “Ladders” that are necessary for the concept of silence from 27.” “There is external silence when someone, separated from everyone, lives alone; and there is inner silence, when someone in spirit is alone with God, not tensely, but freely, as the chest breathes freely and the eye sees. They are joint, but the former cannot exist without the latter. Therefore, in fact, a silent person is one who is an incorporeal being who strives to keep his soul within the confines of his corporeal home. Let the cell of the silent man contain his body, and let this latter contain the church of the mind.” “He who has not yet tasted the sweetness of God will not be drawn to silence; But those who have not yet conquered passions will not taste this sweetness. He who is sick with spiritual passion and who is attempting to remain silent is like someone who has jumped from a ship into the abyss and is thinking of safely reaching the shore on a board.” “He who has tasted the sweetness of God strives for silence in order to be insatiably satisfied with it, without any obstacles, and to constantly generate in himself fire with fire, zeal with zeal and lust with lust. Therefore, the silent one is the earthly image of an angel; on the charter of lust, with the handwriting of diligence, he freed his prayer from laziness and negligence... The silent one is the one who cries out with spiritual movement: my heart is ready, O God! The silent one is the one who says: I am sleeping, but my heart is watching.” “Thus, the whole occupation of the silent man is to be with the One Lord, with Whom he converses face to face, as the king’s favorites speak in his ear.” “Those who love blissful silence undergo the development of mental powers and imitate their way of life. They will not be satisfied forever and ever, praising the Creator: so the one who ascended to the sky of silence will not be satisfied, praising the Creator.” “But neither lazy prayer nor the guarding of an unstealthy heart can be achieved if complete carelessness has not been established in the heart in advance. One cannot go through the first two with intelligence if one has not acquired the last, just as one cannot read without learning the letters. “A little hair troubles the eye, and a little care destroys silence.” “Whoever wants to present a pure mind to God and confuses himself with cares is like someone who has tightly fettered his feet and is trying to walk quickly. Therefore, true silence begins by surrendering oneself to God and deep faith in the heart in His care for us.” “The burning of the spirit from God’s touch finally cleanses a person and elevates him to a state of dispassion. In this fire our nature is melted, like unrefined metal in a furnace, and is radiant with heavenly purity, making it a dwelling ready for God.” “Dispassion is the resurrection of the soul before the resurrection of the body.” “The resurrection of the soul should be called the coming out of oldness, namely, when a new man comes into being, in whom there is nothing of the old man, according to what was said: and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezek. 36:26). “Impassionate towards all objects that excite and feed passions, he has become insensitive so that they do not produce any effect on him, although they are before his eyes. This is because he is completely united with God. He comes to a whoredom - and not only does he not feel the movements of passion, but he also leads the harlot to a pure and ascetic life.” “Whoever was worthy to be in the seven dispensation is still here, covered with mortal flesh, and becomes the church of the living God, who guides and instructs him in all words, deeds and thoughts; and he, due to internal enlightenment, knows the will of the Lord, as if he heard a certain voice, and, being above all human teaching, says: when I come and appear to the face of God, - for I can no longer endure the actions of his lust, but I seek that immortal kindness that You gave me before I fell into corruption. He who is dispassionate does not live for himself, but Christ lives in him (Gal. 2:20), as he said, having fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the Orthodox faith.” “Dispassion is the heavenly chamber of the heavenly King. Such are the church of God" (1 Cor. 3:16), and the spirit of God lives in them" (Rom. 8:9). “Those who have achieved this are the mysteries of God, and their state is the same as the state of the apostles, because they also know the will of God in everything, hearing, as it were, a certain voice, and they, having completely united their feelings with God, secretly learn from Him His words. This state is marked by the flame of love, by which they boldly affirm: who will separate us?” “Such a state is the fruit of silence when one goes through it with reason, but not all those who are silent are left by God in silence forever. Those who achieve dispassion through silence and through this are rewarded with sincere communion with God and the infusion of God are brought from there to serve those seeking salvation and serve them, enlightening, guiding, working miracles. And Anthony the Great, like John in the desert, had a voice in his silence, leading him to the work of leading others on the path of salvation - and everyone knows the fruits of his labors. It was the same with many others.” “We do not know a higher apostolic position on earth than this” 65. The works and exploits of a recluse. His prayer This is the ideal of a truly Christian life according to the teachings of the Most Reverend. Feofan. Let us take a closer look at the writer’s personality from the point of view of the ideal he depicted. We have already said that the path of moral perfection depicted in book theory was in fact traversed by the ascetic himself, especially in his desert labors and exploits. This is clearly evidenced, on the one hand, by the very content of “The Path to Salvation,” and on the other hand, by all the information that has reached us about the life of the saint in seclusion. The whole book bears clear traces of the richly gifted and deeply original personality of the author. Behind every phrase lies the spiritual experience of the writer. The internal phenomena depicted from someone else's life and from other people's words cannot be indicated or explained in any way. They are so subjective that they are even difficult to convey by outside speech. To have a true idea of ​​the great value of the book, it is necessary to re-read and experience it for yourself. Everything described here is deeply convincing precisely because it is the fruit of inner experience. And this is the invariable impression of every reader. Also, all the testimonies known to us about the life of the saint in seclusion unanimously say that it was truly ascetic. Prayer and contemplation of God were the constant, dominant mood of the hermit’s spirit; intense mental work in the form of writing spiritual works and physical exercises in the form of handicrafts alternated with each other throughout the day. In the retreat, other great virtues of the ascetic shone brightly - complete non-covetousness, boundless love and mercy for others, perfect fasting and, at the same time, the deepest, truly evangelical humility. Having settled in the Vyshenskaya Hermitage, Rev. At the beginning, Theophanes did not have any thoughts about seclusion and a complete cessation of relations with the outside world. On the contrary, at first he intended to live the full life of the monastery. For some time he participated in the management of the monastery, for six years he visited the monastery churches and performed divine services on holidays, received visitors, etc. The saint shared the life of the monastery all the more willingly because he found in it excellent orders that corresponded to his ascetic inclinations. The amenities and monastic silence had a very beneficial effect on the spiritual state of the ascetic, and he completely calmed down from the worries of life inevitably associated with the service of the diocesan bishop. There were moments of leisure, even boredom appeared. Of course, at first it was difficult to completely renounce the world and there were strong temptations to return to it. It was then that the idea arose to take up the department again. But these were only temporary, transitory states, an inevitable tribute to the usual weakness of human nature before complete victory over it. The ideal aspirations of duty soon prevailed and hesitation was replaced by moods of a completely different kind. When in 1875 an offer was made from Kyiv to the saint to return to diocesan service, the response letter already contained a firm tone of determination not to leave his peace: “Is writing a service to the Church or not? If the service is at hand, but at the same time necessary for the Church; then why look for or desire another? No matter how little time the Rev. devoted. Feofan to communicate with the outside world and in particular to receive visitors, but still this distracted him from the main business for which he came to Vysha. He clearly saw that both were incompatible. And then the thought of a complete shutdown appeared, which, however, did not suddenly come true. It was impossible to undertake such a great feat without proper preparation and preliminary experiments, and the latter were done. At first the saint spent St. Pentecost and the experience was successful. Then he retired for a longer time - for a whole year and after that he received a visiting monk. The latter turned out to be completely inconvenient; and then the issue of a full shutdown was already irrevocably resolved. In 1872, after the feast of St. The Easter ascetic, having distributed all his property to the poor, finally broke off all relations with the outside world, with the exception of written ones. Apart from the cell servant, only the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite, had access to him. Arkady, who is currently the only witness of this unique phenomenon in the history of the Russian Church in recent times. The time of retreat is the most important period, one might say, the center of the life of the Reverend. Theophan, for then his great labors and exploits, and above all his feat of prayer, appeared in full force. In the consciousness of the saint, as has already been noted, the very concept of seclusion inextricably merged with the thought of unceasing prayerful communication with God. And indeed, the ascetic is a great Christian man of prayer. Prayer was the most essential need of his spirit, the true breath of life. The feat of prayer was visibly expressed in the steady daily fulfillment of the rules of both private, cell prayer and church prayer. In the first six years of his stay at the Higher Place, the Right Reverend attended all the services in the monastery church, and after the final retreat he celebrated them in his home church. For the last 11 years, each day began with the Divine Liturgy, which was performed silently according to the missal alone, “in the concelebration of angels,” and sometimes sang. During the day, at one time or another, he read other services from church books, and when he could not perform this, he replaced them with the short Jesus Prayer. The performance of the divine service and even the very standing of the saint in the church was truly instructive and edifying. When he performed the sacred service himself, his reverence inspired deep reverence in both those serving and those present at the service. “Hardly any of us, the Vyshinsky monks,” says one of them, “have ever heard in St. at the altar, what extraneous word from the lips of St. Theophan, other than the sequence of the liturgical service. And he did not speak any teachings, but his very service before the throne of God was a living teaching for everyone. The Right Reverend was the personification of reverence, fear of God, and complete composure. His face, as he approached the main moments of the priestly service, became brighter and scarlet from the inner taste of the grace of the Lord. After communion of St. Mystery, he was completely imbued with the inner peace of Christ, clothed with meekness and humility, communicating this inner mood to all not only those who served with him and the other monks of the monastery, but also to outside pilgrims. It used to be that among the believing common people all that could be heard were heartfelt sighs of tenderness and exclamations: “Lord, have mercy!” 67. Likewise, when he did not serve himself, but only attended services in the church of the monastery, and then his prayer was extremely instructive. The saint closed his eyes for the sake of composure of his mind and heart and gave himself entirely to sweet conversation with God. Deeply immersed in prayer, he seemed to be completely detached from the outside world and saw nothing of his surroundings. It often happened that the monk who brought him the prosphora at the end of the liturgy stood for some time waiting for the great man of prayer to descend in spirit into our lower world and notice him.” This was also the prayer of the ascetic in his home church. One of the relatives, who had the good fortune to pray with the Right Reverend in his cell shrine, writes: “On the eve (of Resurrection), an all-night vigil was celebrated in the church by an old hieromonk, several singers sang. The Bishop himself stood in the middle of the church with a missal in his hands; we stood somewhat to the side, but in such a way that the face of the praying saint was visible. His gaze was directed at the icons, but it was noticeable that he was contemplating something higher, spiritual; the color that appears during spiritual enlightenment appeared on my face. It is clear from everything that the saint performed a mental-heartfelt prayer, sometimes accompanied by bows. He stood like that throughout the service, without sitting down, although there was a chair next to where he put the service book.”68 Outwardly, the ascetic stood for prayer at a certain time, but internally and spiritually he prayed unceasingly, constantly, as it were, standing and walking before the face of God. Here is how he himself depicts this unearthly state, obviously having experienced it in his personal experience: “There is also prayer (besides the usual one), which is called standing before God, when the one praying, fully concentrating inside the heart, mentally contemplates God inherent in himself and in himself with the corresponding feelings - either fear of God and reverent amazement at His greatness in everything, then faith and hope, then love and devotion to His will, then contrition. and readiness for all kinds of sacrifices. This state comes when someone deepens in ordinary prayer with words, mind and heart. Whoever prays for a long time and properly, such states will be repeated more and more often, and finally such a state can become permanent, and then it is called walking before God and is unceasing prayer. This is spiritual prayer, moved by the Holy Spirit in the heart; the one who prays is aware of it, but does not create it, but it itself is created in him. Such prayer is the property of the perfect. St. was in this state. David, testifying about himself: I have foreshadowed the Lord before me, as he is on my right hand, so that I will not move” 69 (Ps. 15:8). In order to have as complete and clear an idea as possible about the highest Christian prayer, and at the same time about the height of the prayerful feat of the Most Reverend. Theophan, it is necessary to cite his teaching about walking before God itself, which constitutes the essence of spiritual prayer: “God is everywhere, sees everything and fulfills everything: walk with God. When the king looks around him from the height of his throne, then each of those present behaves as carefully as if the king were looking at him alone - as if only he and the king were there, forgetting everything else. The King of the moral world, God, not only sees everything, but also fulfills everything with His being - He is everywhere and sees not only the external, but also the internal, and, moreover, more fully and more perfectly than how the one whom He sees sees himself. Every rational creature is obliged both to remember this omnipresence and omniscience of God, and to arrange his affairs, both internal and external, with the feeling of it, standing as if before the eyes of God, under His gaze, so that everything else comes out of thought and attention, and there is only him - the one acting - and God, who sees him and his work, or, what is the same, to walk before God, for the mood of the spirit - to act as before the eyes of God is walking before God. It is obligatory for everyone... Whether you remember or not, God sees everything, and all your deeds are open to Him, or are performed before His face. So why hide the truth and turn it into a lie? That this thought should be accompanied by a God-befitting arrangement of affairs, this is required by the veneration of God. When a son in front of his father, or a subject in front of a king, acts forgetting about their dignity, they insult them. Therefore, those who love God and fear Him will foresee Him before them, that is, they turn this into their character and, no matter what they do, they realize that the eye of God is turned to them. The fruits of this walk are countless; but, most importantly, from him the purity and purity of words, thoughts, desires, and deeds naturally passes into our life. St. David saw the Lord before him, but did not move, that is, so as not to allow any wrong movement (Ps. 15:8). There is no need to add here: “when you see God, flee from unrighteousness,” for sight itself will turn away from it... Therefore, one can say, the commandment to walk before God is the same as the commandment to please God. Another fruit from this is a certain warmth of spirit. God's vision cannot be cold if it is true. As you improve in your vision of God, your warmth also increases. Afterwards they merge and both vision and warmth turn into a single, continuous action of the spirit. This mood of spirit is the best preparation for the future, all-blessed vision of God. Whoever has established himself in it is already standing on the threshold of paradise, he is ripe for it” 70. What has been said about spiritual prayer undoubtedly applies to the personal feat of the saint. The latter did not leave us in the dark about this most important work of his life - and for our edification he gave the following teaching about his own prayer work. Rev. Theophan recognized as true only purely spiritual prayer, completely detached from all external images, expressed in the living feeling of the omnipresence of God by those praying, which he sought to develop and implement in his life. According to his teaching, God, as the purest Spirit, cannot be depicted by any external features or similarities. Any image will be infinitely far from the truth and will not be able to give an idea of ​​the essence. Imagination, as the ability to form images, belongs to a completely different, lower area of ​​our inner world than prayer. The first refers to the so-called spiritual phenomena, living together and acting under the influence of the bodily nature of man, and the latter is the discovery of spiritual, highest and most perfect principles, independent and decisively independent of everything material. The imagination, with its contents, cannot penetrate this mysterious and inaccessible sphere. Only one face of the God-Man can be represented in external images in all those circumstances of His earthly life that are narrated in the Gospel. But this will be only a historical image - only the properties and phenomena of the Savior’s human nature. His divine essence is completely inaccessible to any type of image. Spiritual prayer is the destiny of the perfect. But even ordinary mortals can achieve it through constant intensified feats and exercises in ordinary prayer, of which the most accessible and closest to the goal seems to be the correct use of the short mental Jesus Prayer. The latter must be so learned and so firmly introduced into our consciousness that it becomes a constant companion of all circumstances and phenomena of our life. The living performance of this prayer, coming from the depths of the heart, will be a constant reminder and together with our incessant thought about the omnipresence of God, or what is the same as spiritual prayer. “How do I pray? – writes Rev. Feofan asking about his personal prayer. – I read from the fathers that when praying one should expel all images from one’s head. I try in every possible way during the hour of prayer to be in the conviction that God is omnipresent even here, where my consciousness is, and that He sees and hears not only the word - spoken or not - but also every movement of thought, and especially feeling. I avoid any image, no matter how difficult it is. When prayer comes with feeling, then there is no difficulty in keeping the ugliness in prayer. This makes it clear that ugliness in prayer is a real thing, and that in order to achieve this one must strive for prayer from the heart, and it began to descend from the head into the heart.” “The best initial means of learning heartfelt prayer is the expedient performance of mental prayer to the Lord Savior. The point is simple; Become your mind and attention in your heart before the Lord and pray to Him: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. And do this constantly, both in church, and at home, and on the road, and at work, and at the table, and in bed, in a word - from the minute you open your eyes until the minute you close them. This will exactly correspond to holding a thing in the sun, the rays of which, striking it, penetrate it and heat it. Here there is self-control before the face of the Lord, Who is the sun of the intelligent world. This saving prayer is usually difficult and practical at first. But if someone is not too lazy to work on it, it will become self-propelled, it will create itself, like a stream babbling in the heart. This is a great benefit, and it is worth working hard to achieve it. Workers who have succeeded in prayer indicate for this a little work, or a slightly difficult prayer exercise, namely: before or after the prayer rule, morning or evening, or even during the day, set aside some time to perform this one prayer, and do it like this: sit down, or better yet, stand prayerfully, concentrate your attention in your heart before the Lord, raising the conviction that He is here and listening to you, and cry out to Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” and bow, if you wish, from the waist and to the ground. Do this for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, more or less, as is more convenient for you. The harder you work, the sooner this prayer will take root in your heart. It’s better to take on the task more earnestly and not back down until you achieve what you want, or until this prayer begins to move in your heart on its own; after that, just support it. Warmth of heart, or burning of spirit, comes precisely this way. The more the Jesus Prayer takes root in the heart, the more the heart warms up, the more self-moving the prayer becomes, so that the fire of spiritual life in the heart ignites, and its burning becomes unceasing, at the same time as the Jesus Prayer will occupy the whole heart and become incessantly moving. Because of this, those who have received the birth of a perfect inner life almost exclusively pray with this prayer, defining their prayer rule with it.” “God has no form and is invisible. God the Son is seen in human nature, since He took on this nature in His Person... Therefore, He can be imagined in the form of a man, in all cases that are described in the Holy Gospel... This will be a historical imagination... His divine nature is invisible and has no image. The Holy Trinity exists outside of creation, and how it exists is unthinkable for us. When praying to God, it is better not to imagine Him in any way, but only to believe that He is nearby... and sees and hears everything.” “Also, you don’t need to imagine with your soul either the Mother of God, or saints, or angels. And they should pray with the conviction that they hear.” “Suppose there is such a difference... that images are needed for mental work; they are in the scriptures about God himself and all divine things. And imagination is a mental ability—a knowledgeable one. Imagination - the ability to form and retain images - is a laboring ability... the lowest! Therefore, he should not be allowed to appear with his images in the highest region, which is prayer... Contemplative activity is high... and spiritual activity, manifested in prayer, is even higher... Where can the imagination go there... That's where it is decent: friend, how did you enter this?!! When you pray, drive away all images. If you allow images, then there is a danger of starting to pray to a dream. Can you say that the image you hold in your mind expresses the truth? So you can’t... therefore, you need to get used to ugliness... but there is only one way - heartfelt prayer... There can hardly be a mind without images.” “I remember one legend about an old man who figuratively represented God in everything. When it was explained to him that this shouldn’t be the case, he said: “You took God away from me... But it wasn’t God that was taken away from him, but his dream” 71 . Spiritual Writing and Crafts All free time from prayer, Rev. Feofan devoted himself to work, mainly literary, and partly physical. The saint was truly a great worker of God. A whole library of creations sufficiently testifies to his amazing hard work and endurance. He had a strict order in his studies and not a single minute was wasted. In the evening, the cell attendant prepared wine, prosphora and vestments for the service. The day began with the offering of a bloodless sacrifice, and at the end of the liturgy, a light knock signaled the time for morning tea. At two o'clock there was lunch, at which on fasting days food was served according to the fasting regulations, and on fasting days in recent years the saint ate only one egg and a glass of milk. Tea at four o'clock. There was no dinner. The morning time was devoted to the most serious work - the compilation of spiritual works; After dinner, instead of rest, there were handicrafts, and the evening was devoted to writing letters and reading books and magazines. And this has been unchanged for more than twenty years. The ascetic himself, with all his modesty, in one letter writes allegorically about his toiling life: “I know one person who is always alone - he does not go out anywhere, and does not accept others to himself. They ask him: aren’t you bored? He answers: I have no time, there is so much to do that as soon as I open my eyes, I do and do, and I don’t have time to redo them before I close them.”... The spiritual works of the saint will be discussed in detail below, in their place; Now let us note a few words about bodily exercises. Short intervals between prayer and mental studies Rev. Feofan filled it with physical labor in the form of some handicrafts. The latter, being a rest from mental stress, at the same time strengthened his bodily strength, and most importantly, expelled from his life any thought of idleness. “There should not be a moment of idleness,” the Right Reverend wrote repeatedly. “Otherwise there will be sinful idleness.” You can’t do everything spiritually; you have to have some kind of non-troublesome handicraft. You just need to take it up when your soul is tired and is unable to read, think, or pray to God.” Following the example of some ancient ascetics, the saint was engaged in painting, woodcarving, turning, carpentry, and bookbinding, for which in his workroom, as we have already seen, there were several boxes with the necessary tools. It is remarkable that both these physical labors and material resources served to satisfy “the only thing needed.” All works of such activities were of a religious nature and were dedicated to God. The hermit especially loved the sacred art of icon painting and was himself a good artist. Carrying in his soul images of another, higher world, he apparently wanted to surround himself on earth with their holy images. After the death of the saint, many icons and paintings of the sacred content of his writing were found in the cell - “The Crucifixion”, “The Resurrection of Christ”, “The Descent from the Cross” - on canvas; a full-length image of the Savior and the Mother of God on boards, a portrait of the Sarov elder Seraphim, etc. The artist’s thought especially often returned to two subjects - to the image of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and Epiphany. And this is no coincidence! Life of St. Tikhon was an ideal for a recluse, and the idea of ​​Epiphany shone even in his name - Theophanes - from Greek - the appearance of God. Other fruits of handicraft are of the same nature - a wooden carved panagia, with a wooden chain, a wooden carved cross to wear on the chest, etc. It is remarkable that, having achieved good results in his works, the saint, always true to himself, spoke about them with his characteristic complacency and modesty. Thus, sending his work in his own binding to a relative in Moscow, he writes at the end of the letter: “We have no one to bind it. I myself am a bookbinder, and a very bad one, not fit for Moscow.” 72 His intensified mental labors, Rev. Theophan bore completely disinterestedly, for he was distinguished by complete Christian non-covetousness. Not only did he not have an addiction to acquisitions, but his soul was not in all the ways of acquiring them, for example, farming. Not only did he not acquire anything for himself, but he gave away everything he had. Even during his lifetime, the saint’s works were a success; some of them went through several editions and could have provided significant funds, but he received nothing from them. The author did not take any remuneration for his literary works, except for a certain number of copies intended for free distribution. He cared only that the price of his works should not be burdensome for buyers and would reward the labors and expenses of publishers. It is known that the owners and complete masters of the creations of Rev. Theophanes are currently the monks of the Russian Panteleimonov monastery on Mount Athos. In response to a request for conditions for the assignment of one of his works, the saint writes: “They (the monks) give me two hundred copies, but they want to send me money, they don’t want to. This is not included in my calculation. I concede this to them for prayers for the sake of my many sins, and not for the sake of profit” 73. Having finally transferred the right to publish his literary works to the people of Athos, the author resolutely did not want any personal remuneration for himself, he only offered to assign a certain amount in favor of his nephew and his family. Many admirers of the ascetic expressed a desire to send him donations of goods and money, but he completely refused to accept them. Rare exceptions were allowed only for the closest acquaintances, so as not to upset or offend them, but with the indispensable condition that the donated be used for charitable purposes. One Tambov landowner, Kurdyumova, in her spiritual will, assigned a large sum, in the amount of 25,000 rubles, for the publication of the works of Rev. Feofan. The latter was greatly embarrassed by such a generous gift and returned it to the relatives of his admirer. And these tens of thousands were refused by a person who often did not have a penny to purchase the necessary things. Having distributed everything to the needy, the saint sometimes remained without any funds for several months. So, in July 1875, he wrote to one of his close friends in St. Petersburg: “I thank you for the money. I didn't have a penny. I squandered all my money and have nothing until Christmas (the time I receive my pension)” 74 . The works of mercy of the recluse and his teaching on Christian almsgiving Zealously serving God, Rev. Feofan could not help but serve his neighbor. Hence the saint’s great love for works of Christian mercy both for body and soul. And in this regard, he fully fulfilled his word in his life. The ascetic attached great importance to Christian charity, especially in view of its constant and everywhere application among human society. In his works we find a detailed teaching on this subject, in which, on the one hand, the true view of virtue is established, and on the other, all those numerous false grounds and imaginary reasons that human stinginess and indifference to the fate of one’s neighbor have come up with in detail are examined and appreciated in order to justify themselves and lull the conscience in relation to the requirements of one of the most important commandments of the Gospel. According to the teachings of Rev. Theophan, the essence of Christian alms is to help not only those in dire need, but also not to refuse everyone who asks, and the giver not only does not boast and does not demand that the poor resort to him as a benefactor, but he himself hurries to find and visit their habitats. Our material wealth is a gift from God, in which we are nothing more than temporary servants, obliged to give an account of everything to God and bring worthy fruits in due time. Those in need are the least of Christ’s brethren, and the Lord takes our concerns about providing for them in His name. Almsgiving, as the most striking manifestation of Christian love, is the greatest virtue. Jesus Christ himself, when depicting the Last Judgment, indicated it alone as the true guarantee and real means of justification for sinful humanity. This is not because other virtues are not required, but because almsgiving is the main, fundamental one. Those who have it already have others. The Lord was pleased to accept all the good that people did for the benefit of the poor as a sacrifice to Himself. What is given to the poor through their hands ascends directly to the throne of God. Thus, those who are in need according to the dispensation of God are the instruments of creating our salvation. This is exactly how the greatest righteous people of the Old Testament and New Testament Church looked at the essence of mercy. Abraham, Job, Philaret the Merciful and others, possessing significant wealth, did not become impoverished in them because they did not live for themselves alone. Is a similar phenomenon observed in modern Christian life? It seems that there is no virtue that we practice with greater negligence than the holy and obligatory work of helping the poor. To justify our stinginess and indifferent attitude towards our neighbors, we have invented a whole series of supposedly solid reasons and false reasons. Either we accuse the petitioners of an unfounded and illegal request, then we point out our material shortcomings, and often, finally, we blame the case on other people and circumstances. The most common motive for refusal is the suspicion that the requests are false, that the poor are asking in vain, maybe they don’t need it, they could work, etc. Before refusing on such grounds, it is necessary to first investigate the circumstances and, moreover, in the most thorough manner. It may turn out that many of those asking are not able, for example, to work - one because of illness, old age, another because he does not have a job, the earnings of a third are so insignificant that they cannot provide for him and his family, and so on. If we don’t do such research, then we don’t have the right to refuse based on suspicion alone. The last thing we do is insult the moral dignity of a person. It may happen that someone who stretches out his hand for help withdraws it only because he reads an offensive suspicion in our eyes, and thus falls into extreme poverty that is disastrous for him. With timely help, perhaps we would have saved the unfortunate man. Give to everyone who asks you, commands the Lord. This is one of the very first commandments in Christianity. Both the Lord and the holy apostles often remind us of it, and in order to incite us to fulfill it more zealously, they protect it with the most touching motives and the most amazing threats. Everyone knows this and everyone, in conscience, considers it their duty to help all those in need according to their strength. Meanwhile, if we reconsider our affairs more strictly, we will not find, perhaps, a single task that we would perform with less attention, as it is obligatory for us to help those in need. We help somehow, just to get rid of the annoying petitioner, and sometimes we refuse completely, isn’t it mostly the latter? And despite all this, our conscience remains calm, silent and does not accuse us of not helping, or not helping as much as we should. - Yes, after all, it happens! “The question is, what would be the reason for this?” “The reason, I believe, is that our sinful soul assimilates prejudicial concepts about poverty and the poor, which come to mind when it is necessary to provide help, and upset our good intentions to the point that not only does our conscience not accuse us of refusal or weak assistance, on the contrary, we think that we did better, nothing, or so easily, getting rid of the applicant.” “What did stinginess and self-interest not come up with to justify their coldness and cruelty towards those in need! - The falsity of petitions, the idleness of petitioners, their own shortcomings, difficult times, the need to stock up for a rainy day, and so on. All these thoughts circulate among those who are not attentive to their duty in speeches and sayings, and also among those who are attentive, and they are often led astray from the right path of action. Do you want to give freedom and scope to compassion and not allow it to be clouded by lies, let’s destroy these prejudiced thoughts and restore sound Christian understandings about giving to the needy.” “It comes to mind, at the same time, how to help, first of all: is the person asking in need - who knows? – he’s used to it and asks; but perhaps he has no need. The following thought comes: we believe it, and we refuse or help weakly. But is it fair to do this? It happens, of course, just as we imagine. But do we know for sure that the person before us definitely belongs to this class of pretending beggars? And if we don’t know, why suspect and, especially, refuse based on suspicion alone? In fact, this may be a mother who left her hungry children at home, or a father of a family whose wife is sick and whose children are undressed, or the eldest of homeless and helpless orphans, and the like. – Of course, you won’t refuse such people. Look at everyone this way the first time, and do not offend unknown people with suspicion. What if someone in need, whose heart is already heavy, reads our suspicion in our eyes? This, of course, will increase his sorrow and burden, and instead of consolation, he will leave us with greater sorrow. Is this good? the fact that his eyes are not yet clouded, his face is not distorted, his gait is firm, and his clothes are not in patches - these are the last remnants of both his patience and prosperity. Do you want to be the reason for him to go to the last extreme, which will begin, perhaps, immediately after your refusal? And does the Savior’s commandment only want to cover those who have nowhere to go, who have neither shelter, nor food, nor clothing, nor strength? No. There is no need for a special commandment to help this kind of people. He says: Give to everyone who asks you. You will give, just make it a law for yourself not to suspect the person asking, not to paint behind him pictures of supposed contentment, but rather a picture of extreme need and sorrow that really oppresses him. Then your heart itself will not give you peace until you alleviate its fate. Nowadays there is a lot of suspicion being spread towards the poor. But for all these presentations one can make one decision: make sure who exactly is asking not out of need, or not for need, and do not give it to him; To refuse everyone simply because there are false applicants is a sin. Saint John the Merciful did not do this. He did not refuse even those about whom it was known that they were not poor, and when they warned him about this, he answered: “It is true that at this time he is in extreme need.” “Sometimes we turn to ourselves from a petitioner and say: where can I get it? - It’s barely enough for our needs. We're having a hard time making ends meet! – When there is nothing to give from, who obliges? One must give from excess, just as the apostle explains the law of giving, saying: If diligence is due, since if one has, it is good to eat, and not to have too much. It may not be joy for others, but sorrow for you. But is it true that we have nothing left to satisfy our needs? Moreover, have we reasonably defined what we should consider our needs? Need is something that can be reduced and expanded. Eliminate spending on what is considered necessary by habit, whim, vanity, the empty demands of the world and all passions: how much will be left for the benefit of those in need?! Even if these unnecessary needs do not exist; Once you want, and from the most essential need - from food and clothing, and other needs, prudence will always be able to separate a part of Christ - as indeed it can: for needs dissuade them from giving alms only to the almost stingy and wasteful peace-loving people. “They also sometimes say: Why are they wandering around idly? - they would work and get their daily bread. The most fair demand! “And the apostle commands us to work, working with our own hands, so that we not only satisfy our own needs, but also have something to give to those who need it. But, dissuading ourselves from giving alms with this pretext, are we convinced that the person asking can work? Where should the old, the small and the weak work? But even if someone else can work, does he have a job? Some people would be ready to work, but there is nothing to put their hands to. In the parable of the laborers, one part of them had no work until the 11th hour, that is, almost until nightfall, because no one was hiring. But even if someone has a job, is it such that it will provide for all needs? How often does a person work day and night, and everyone is languishing with needs, especially when one works for many! And so the point is to say - work, - and who will agree to feed on idleness? But arrange in advance so that the one asking with labor feeds himself and others whom he is obliged to feed, and then refuse him, and without that, refusing means the same as leaving him to die of hunger.” “What else don’t they say to apologize for their inflexibility and hardness of heart?! One says: hard times; where to think about others, at least to feed yourself. Other: you need it; you need to save money for a rainy day. Third: Am I alone? there is more than me, they will serve it. Fourth: I give whatever falls into the hands of anyone who asks, and so on. But think carefully about how much truth there is in all this?! These are difficult times, he says, and he refuses. But if they are heavy enough for those; How much more difficult are they for the poor?! Therefore, on this pretext, alms should not be stopped, but rather increased. It is necessary, he says, to save for a rainy day. Let it be; but surely there should be a measure for this? Otherwise, our imagined future needs will never allow us to help the poor in their real, present needs. Moreover, does the future depend on our foresight, or on the arrangement of God’s providence? Of course, from fishing. So attract the mercy of God to yourself by your mercy towards those in need and you will have a sure guarantee of prosperity in the future. It seems that we will not find an example of any house going bankrupt from generosity to the poor, and empty extravagance has sent many around the world. “Another one, he says, will give it,” and sends the requester away. Will someone else give it to me? And if he also says: another will give, and then a third, and a fourth, etc.; it would be the same as leaving the poor to their fate. No. The Lord sent you this poor man, you help him. Don't miss an opportunity that may not happen again. After all, I serve, he says that he will get caught, and who will have to. It's good at least that. – But does this mean filing across the entire breadth of the debt and to the fullest extent possible? Does this mean turning all your attention and zeal to this holy cause? And isn’t it this negligence that causes alms to fall into the wrong hands and not be used properly?! You give it to whoever has to. Those who will help, whom shame keeps at home and who in silence, perhaps, endure more than the need that is crying out about itself? No - truly Christian compassion cannot be satisfied with this. It itself hurries to places of poverty in order to touch its wounds with its own hands and immediately apply the necessary healing plaster.” “This is how many evil thoughts the enemy has come up with to distract good people from giving alms. We admit that, to a greater or lesser extent, we have all been carried away by them at times. But let us all put it in our hearts not to succumb to them anymore. For if they are so weak in the face of our simple reasoning, how can we resist the judgment of God’s truth, which sees everything - both in deeds and in the feelings of the heart, to its last secrets. This is not how the Christian sense and the Christian heart should look at poverty and the poor. True Christians accept the mind of Christ to judge everything and carry the law of their God in their hearts as a guide for their actions. The poor and all those in need - for them it is the lesser brethren of Christ, or Christ himself, who approaches us through them and appropriates to himself everything shown to them - these are the mercy and blessing of God who walk among us!.. By making them participants in our property with a small alms, we sanctify through this everything else and retain for ourselves the title worthy of God's intention of possessing it. The Lord is the Master of us and of all ours. Blessing us with wealth, He gives it to us, like the grapes to the laborers in the parable - with the condition that we deliver its fruits to him in due time. The poor are the servants of the Lord - the householders whom he sends to us to receive the fruits of our property. What is given through their hands ascends to the Lord; but in such a way that, according to the law of His mercy, it will be returned to us again, in the form of eternal rest, created from it by the truth of God. The poor, therefore, are the workers of the monastery for us in heaven - our trustees, who are trusted to establish everything there in such completeness that it would be enough for all eternity! “Of course, it is difficult for us to become familiar with the thought, and even more so to reach the heartfelt conviction that in giving alms, we, by expending, multiply and, by spending, we gain; but it is so, if not always in relation to the temporal, then always in relation to the eternal. The Lord, condescending to our weakness, repeatedly demonstrated this by deed itself, in the lives of various benefactors. Remember the life of St. righteous Philaret the Merciful. How diligently, generously and with what patience he sowed alms! And what abundant fruit did his sowing bear when his granddaughter Mary became the king’s wife. It was as if the words of the Apostle were still fulfilled here: sow for blessing, and for blessing you will reap. Monastery of St. Theodosius of Palestine, during times of famine and drought, fed all the surrounding residents and all those who came, and the granaries were always full, even when they did not expect to find grain in them. What multiplied a handful of flour and a swagger of oil from the widow who received the prophet Elijah? Her Grace. Why did the wealth of Abraham, Job, and Tobiah not deplete, but grow? Because they were gracious. Why are there families today that have not stopped since time immemorial and live in contentment, passing it on from generation to generation? Because they do not live for themselves alone, but consider it their duty to always share their surplus with all those in need.” “Alms are the greatest virtue, the most valuable to God and closest to His throne. St. Gregory the Theologian, listing many virtues and highly appreciating each one, adds that the highest of them all is love, and of the works of love, the highest of all is active compassion and help to those in need. Why, in the description of the Last Judgment, the Lord remembers the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of this one virtue, not so that others have no value, but because as soon as it is there, then all the others are there, and as soon as it is not there, it is difficult for other virtues to have a place in the heart. She is the queen of all, the true vicegerent and representative of the Divine on earth. And that is why every kindness is responded to in heaven so quickly, that the Lord was pleased to appropriate all alms for himself, as if it went straight into His hands. Because, he says, you have created one and the same for these lesser brothers of mine, that is, the poor, you have created for me (Matthew 25:40). You fed the hungry, and the Lord says that it was you who fed Him; You clothed the naked, but the Lord says that it was you who clothed Him; you visited a sick person, and the Lord says that it was you who visited Him; and the Lord considers every benefit to those in need to be a benefit to Himself. This is how He certifies with His Divine word, and this is how He will declare it before the whole world at His judgment! Blessed are the merciful!” 75 This is what the ascetic taught. And this is how he lived. The Right Reverend sent his bishop's pension and some donations from benefactors for the commemoration of themselves and their relatives in his home church to those in need in different parts of Russia immediately upon receipt, as if fearing to miss the opportunity to do the possible good and to keep for himself, even for a short time, what he did not consider to belong to himself. “I never keep money,” writes the saint, “and I unwind everything. What to keep them when it happened” 76. Before the great Christian holidays of Easter and the Nativity of Christ, especially a lot of charity was done. Money envelopes of 10 or more then had to be handed over to the post office on his behalf to widows, orphans and other unfortunate people, especially those in need of help and consolation on holidays. And the nature of this charity was truly evangelical, according to the commandment of the Savior, the shuitza did not know what the right hand was doing. Rev. Feofan never questioned those in need or checked what made them turn to him and where his funds would go, he did not even know many of them, but he gave for the sake of God. And all this was done with great love for one's neighbor. “Rare mail passes,” he told one monk, “so that the poor do not write and ask. I’m glad to help and help whenever possible.” The works of spiritual mercy were even more extensive, especially according to their fruits. This kind of charity was primarily valued by the hermit himself and bequeathed to others to preserve. “And not only the body,” he said, “serve the soul of another, enlighten, give advice, point out a good book, comfort, strengthen. And the word is a powerful means of helping. In him the soul comes out and, combined with another, gives him strength” 77. And the whole life of Rev. Feofana is a continuous and tireless feat in the field of this spiritual charity. An entire library of divinely-wise writings with solutions to the most important issues of Christian life, extensive correspondence explaining confusion and indicating practical guidance for it, intensive free distribution of his edifying books, and, finally, unceasing prayer combined with constant worries and sorrows for our sinful world - these are clear evidence of the saint’s charitable works in order to serve the most important cause of Christian life - the cause of creating the salvation of everyone believer! These are feats of Christian charity that have indisputable significance not only for the benefactor’s contemporaries, but also for distant posterity. The attitude of the recluse to the abandoned world and responses to modernity Deeds of mercy of the latter kind - thoughts about the spiritual good of the world, concerns about protecting it from all negative influences and, finally, grief over moral ailments inevitably lead us to the idea of ​​​​the need to clarify the question of the recluse's attitude to the world he left behind. This side of life is so important in itself and occupies such a prominent place among the exploits of the hermit that we consider it necessary to give a separate place to review its phenomena. Having closed himself off from the outside world physically, Rev. Feofan did not stop his spiritual communication with him. On the contrary, he vigilantly followed and responded cordially to all the most important phenomena of our social life, not only church, but also civil. Not only such state events as the last Turkish War, the martyrdom of Emperor Alexander II, etc., but also private major phenomena of modern life such as the death of the steamship "Rusalka" and its crew found a lively response and true assessment from the saint. He deeply sympathized with our liberation war for the Slavs, closely followed its progress, rejoiced at the successes and had a hard time with the conclusion of the war in the form of the Berlin Congress. When the rector of the monastery, Fr. Arkady had to visit the recluse at this time, the conversation always mainly revolved around the war. The Eminence unfolded atlases and maps, indicated the current position of our troops, made assumptions about what should be undertaken and conquered in the near future, and expressed complete confidence in the victory of the Russians. To the rector’s objection that in reality it is not as easy to wage war as one might assume from the maps, that there could be all sorts of unfortunate accidents, the saint passionately noted that Fr. The archimandrite knows little about the heroic spirit of our troops, that they, inspired by brotherly love for our fellow Slavs, are capable of defeating an enemy not so weak and insignificant as the Turks. And the Lord will not allow the Orthodox Slavs to continue to tolerate the atrocities of Muslim fanatics. Regarding the Berlin Congress, Rev. Feofan wrote sadly: “I read what the congress came up with. - It’s hard, extremely hard! - This is for us; and what about the Sovereign!? May the Lord comfort him! But it is true that it cannot be otherwise; It’s true that they feared a coalition against us, not without reason. Start a new fight and everything could be lost. And now at least part of it has been retained. Congress, apparently, was not concerned about the benefits of the liberated peoples; and directed everything towards humiliating Russia. And on all points, without any need, he made cuts. What was the need to cut down what was spoken for Montenegro and Serbia, or what we had said in Asia? - None. And he divided Bulgaria for no reason other than so that it could serve as a reason for war... But the Lord knows what he is building! Surely it’s better this way, and blessed be His will” 78. But most of all, the ascetic naturally occupied himself with moral, religious and church issues. Here even insignificant objects did not escape careful observation. Solemn celebration of the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Rus', translation by St. Scriptures in Russian, projects for the reform of the church court and monasticism, the reduction of parishes and the number of churches, the machinations of papism and, finally, the widespread dissemination in society of anti-religious and anti-church ideas - all this was noticed in a timely manner and an authoritative interpretation was given to everything. The phenomenon of the latter kind primarily attracted the attention of the saint, and he truly stood guard over the church, focusing his activities on the fight against false teaching and the defense of Christianity. When, in the second half of the last century, a whole stream of materialistic ideas poured into our fatherland from the west, shtunda developed widely among the rural population in the south of Russia, and the educated classes became carried away by Pashkovism, Tolstoyism, etc. Rev. Theophanes was horrified and bitterly mourned the fate of Orthodoxy. “I don’t stop crying,” he wrote in 1891, to Kyiv about the shtunda, “seeing how Christian souls perish, struck by false teaching.” In another place, he remarks with deep sorrow about the direction of our intelligentsia: “It is bitter what is happening among our thinking people. Everyone has lost their mind. Philosophical views are not in use; they are guided by the wind, blown by principles. Holy faith is relegated to the background. And even theologians have lost the real foundations of Orthodox theology. And the Lord, it seems, has turned His eyes away from us and does not send workers.” “The source of this is the spread of the doctrine of the self-education of the world, according to which there is no need for God, and there is no soul - all atoms, and all chemistry, nothing else. This is preached in pulpits and in literature. Anyone who dies of this child inevitably becomes confused, loses meaning and faith” 79 . But the ascetic was far from limiting himself to passive sadness. No, he himself energetically rushed to fight evil and persistently aroused others. He thoroughly studies the works of representatives of materialism - Buchner, Vocht, Darwin; not seeing a statement of Pashkov’s doctrine in print, he hurries his St. Petersburg friends so that they sneak into a meeting of the heretic’s followers and, having found out everything, report to him about the results of their observations; gets acquainted in detail with the latest anti-Christian works of L. Tolstoy - all this with the aim of, having stocked up with the necessary material, to begin the fight against false teaching, and begins the matter with Pashkovism. He writes a whole series of well-known letters to “one person” in St. Petersburg, in which, with remarkable breadth and thoroughness, Pashkov’s false teaching is analyzed and exposed as one of the branches of Protestantism. These letters subsequently became the main stronghold of Orthodoxy in the fight against all our Protestant sects. The Holy Synod highly appreciated them and, having published them in large numbers, distributed them widely, especially through free distribution. After that, Rev. Feofan began literary work to denounce the shtunda. But it happened that a certain Ushinsky, quite unexpectedly, sent him his essay on the same subject for review. The saint fully approves of the work; Having aroused the author to continue his work on the fight against the stunda and made the necessary guidance, he transfers this important matter to him, and he himself proceeds to other work that cannot be delayed. He writes an extensive study on icon veneration to denounce the Molokans and our other rationalists. General information on this issue had already been prepared when the writer learned that one of the Oryol priests, Ostromyslensky, had compiled a good book on the same subject. He calms down, leaves work and moves on to something else. In the last years of his life, Rev. Theophanes was very busy with the thought of fighting the ideas of Tolstoy, whom he considered the most evil of modern heretics, both in the direction of his teaching and in the degree of its spread. He was deeply amazed and completely unable to understand how Russian Orthodox society could be carried away by the ideas of a person who completely denied Christianity. In particular, he found it strange the extreme gullibility of educated people who admired works in which the main provisions are mostly arbitrary and completely unsubstantiated, the very speech of which is often full of internal contradictions, “now one thing is said, then something completely different about the same thing.” The saint's letters regarding Tolstoyanism are full of deep indignation, truly breathing with the fiery enthusiasm of the ancient zealots of piety. “You mentioned,” he writes in response to one letter, “that many convert to another faith after reading the works of L. Tolstoy. Wonder! This Leo has no faith. He has no God, no soul, no future life, and the Lord Jesus Christ is a simple man. In his writings there is blasphemy against God, against Christ the Lord, against St. Church and its sacraments. He is the destroyer of the kingdom of truth, the enemy of God, the servant of Satan, as St. himself wrote. the apostle Paul to the sorcerer Ellim, who opposed his preaching on the island of Cyprus (Acts 13:8–10). This son of demons dared to write a new gospel, which is a distortion of the true gospel. The Apostle Saint Paul wrote: “Whoever preaches the new Gospel, let him be accursed and anathema” (Gal. 1:8). And so that everyone would confirm this as good, he confirmed it another time... (v. 9). In the gospel of this blasphemer, the quotations are similar to ours, for example: John. Ch. 1st, art. 1st, but the text itself is different. Distorted translations of some passages are inserted between the true texts, and in others completely original translations are inserted.” “Therefore he is a most dishonest forger, a liar, a deceiver. The content of the Gospel is such that, after reading it, I had to decide: this is white fever nonsense” 80. Rev. Theophan recognized Tolstoy’s false wisdom as not only destroying the teachings of the Church, but also undermining the foundations of state life (courts and the army are not needed, the oath is criminal, etc.), and therefore considered literary polemics with him insufficient, but demanded the intervention of administrative authorities. In a letter, he asks one of his influential St. Petersburg acquaintances to inquire about what they intend to do in the highest spheres of the capital against the spread of evil and, after meeting with the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, to convince him to resort to administrative measures. Not receiving an answer for a long time, the saint impatiently sent another letter, which clearly shows how warmly he took to heart and how hard he experienced the sad news about the successes of Tolstoyism. “What is going on with you and me?!” - You went to the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, and settled there... Where are you now, God knows. I kept trying to write, but the time for mail will come, I’ll think: they’ll bring a letter... but it’s still not there, and it’s not there. Well, did you manage to report to His Excellency what you wanted? – And if you succeeded, what did you hear? – I was going to write myself... I can’t sit still. They wrote from Moscow, as if the writings of this Leo - from the abyss - were being read in great demand. How many godless absurdities he has - every line of it, judge how much evil he does. - And all in secret. “Moreover, they say, he opened his house and gives everyone access to him - and enlightens everyone.” It would be better for me not to know anything about this” 81. Rev. Theophanes clearly saw how insufficient the strength of one person was in such a complex struggle against social evil and sought to arouse others to the same effect. He knew that the church authorities were taking measures of struggle, even creating entire societies, but he considered them to be little achieving the goal, since the majority of the work was carried out in a dead and formal manner; there were no living figures animated by ardent zeal for the defense of Orthodoxy. “Faith is weakening,” he notes, “in some places, not jokingly, they are starting to set it on fire... Something has been built for this purpose in Saratov... It is starting in Vladimir too. But there are no active persons, just like no... They will collect some money, buy books and begin to give them away for free, or sell them at a cheap price. That's it. Dead. There are no living actors. And societies will not bring the expected benefits. Arsonists must burn themselves. Grief, walk everywhere - and in oral conversation set fire to hearts... That's what is needed" 82! The saint, first of all, counted on and called upon the capital's clergy to fight, as the most educated, from which a true spiritual army could be formed. One of the letters to St. Petersburg says: “I don’t hear anything, what orders do you have in St. Petersburg to counteract the Pashkovites, Irvingians, (spiritualists), Tolstoyans?! These ulcers are destroying many in St. Petersburg and everywhere. And it would be necessary to oppose them with spiritual warfare. In St. Petersburg there are many excellent priests among the clergy, both in education and in character... Make them trumpeters, and the walls of Jericho would fall, to the consolation of the faithful sons of Israel and to the glory of God” 83. In another letter to Kyiv, Rev. Theophan rouses one archpriest known to him to defend the Church. He invites the latter to form a society of zealots of Orthodoxy, who would start compiling small popular articles and leaflets on issues of Christian faith and morality, which would be distributed throughout the city and distributed to villages. The ascetic saw a serious danger for Orthodoxy from the propaganda and machinations of papism, but did not find in spiritual literature works with an authoritative and at the same time popular presentation and analysis of the main points of the teaching of Catholicism, which could serve as a guide for every Orthodox Christian. And so in 1891 he wrote to the editor of the Church Gazette, asking him to “persuade someone to extract from everything written about Catholicism the most striking, easy to read and victorious” 84. Meanwhile, the one who persuaded him did not miss an opportunity to say his weighty word in denouncing Catholicism. To one correspondent, perplexed on this subject, the Right Reverend writes: “In appearance, we have many similarities with Roman Catholics: the dogmas are the same, except for the new ones they invented about the origin of the Holy Spirit and - the recent one - about the non-communion of the Mother of God with original sin. They also have the dogma of the primacy of the pope. The sacraments are the same, but they are almost all changed in form and differ in this not only from the Eastern Church, but also from their ancient orders. They have Vespers, Matins, Liturgy and other church prayer services, just like ours. But if you consider how soulless and even meaningless everything is! When you trace the details, it is obvious to everyone how far they are from the truth. Crafty propagandists confuse with a general overview, hiding differences. The same differences that stand out too much, they soften with misinterpretation. For example, in Gagarin... “You,” he says, “have not decided by council how to believe about the origin of the Holy One. Spirit; therefore for you the belief about the procession is Holy. The Spirit and from the Son is a private opinion, which anyone accepting is in no way subject to the judgment of his Church.” Do you see the sophistry? But isn’t the Church’s constant belief that He does not come from the Son the voice of the Church? When their dogma is not accepted, has not the whole Church said that it should not believe it? And the council, which was under Patriarch Photius and Pope John VIII, did not anathematize those accepting the procession of the Holy Ones. Spirit and from the Son? Then all the theological writings in the East, all the catechisms, what do they mean if not an expression of the teachings of the Orthodox Church? In all this, to believe that the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father is an obligatory dogma, but to believe in Latin that it also comes from the Son is a deviation from the Church, a heresy.” “They also say: “What prevents you from believing the origin of St. Spirit and from the Son? This does not destroy your dogma, but adds a new truth to it, and knowing five truths is, of course, better than knowing four.” What tricks! It is good to add truth to truth, but if they add falsehood, they distort it. Bitterness added to honey destroys honey. The judgment is written strictly for those who will add.” “The spirit of Catholicism is earthly. They have a church, and in their opinion there is a political corporation, supported by human forces and means, such as: the Inquisition, indulgences, with a visible head. The Orthodox Church is the spiritual union of all in Jesus Christ and through Him mutually. The Church is invisibly ruled by the Lord and heading towards its end. Their dad is taking her, and where” 85? In addition to the active struggle against anti-Christian false teachings, Rev. Theophan devoted a lot of time and labor to discussing and providing guided explanations of many other phenomena in the church life of our fatherland. When in the seventies of the last century we began to translate the Old Testament Bible from Hebrew into Russian, the saint became keenly interested in this issue. He did not share the then prevailing opinion in theological science about the preference of the Hebrew original to the text of the LXX interpreters and the need to make a Russian translation exclusively from it, since, in his opinion, it was difficult to prove the integrity and integrity of the ancient Hebrew copies from which it was necessary to translate. He considered it best to use the LXX text as a basis, as sanctified by the example of its continued use in the ancient universal Church, and to resort to the Hebrew original only in doubtful and perplexing cases. According to the saint, it would be useful to have a translation from Hebrew for scientific research, but for general use it would be necessary to translate according to the text of the LXX. Rev. Feofan was objected to by professors of theological academies and specialists in the biblical text (Yakimov and Gorsky), who defended the advantages of the Jewish original, and a lively debate arose between them, which was waged for a long time on the pages of the then spiritual journals (“Orthodox Review” 1875, “Church Bulletin” 1876). The Rev. worried a lot. Feofan's project for a new spiritual court, proposed in the same seventies to the Holy Synod by the then chief prosecutor Count. D. Tolstoy, according to which it was supposed to subordinate spiritual matters to the jurisdiction and competence of ordinary secular legal proceedings. The saint saw great evil in the implementation of the project. The Holy Synod, having accepted it, “would have moved from its foundation.” Rev. Theophan allowed the possibility of the participation of a secular court in spiritual matters only under the condition of the primacy of the diocesan bishop in it. In 1888, Russia solemnly celebrated the nine-hundredth anniversary of its Christian birth under Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir. The spiritual authorities were supposed to commemorate the holiday by compiling a life and an akathist for the hero of the occasion - St. To the prince-enlightener. Rev. Feofan found such a monument too insignificant and not corresponding to the size of the historical event; for his part, he proposed to mark it with a new translation from the Greek original, with an explanation, of our liturgical books. He heard many complaints about the darkness and inaccessibility of the church liturgical text to the understanding of the unprepared, he fully shared them and considered translation and updating it to be the only way to improve matters. He allowed for the possibility of changing the text of church books, pointed out and approved the example of the Greek Church, where the latter were often updated in relation to the spiritual development and needs of modern Christian society 86. Desert exploits and godly writings glorified the name of the ascetic. He became a great teacher of Christian life. Many sought his guidance, many wanted to receive at least a few lines from his hand for their edification. He expressed remarkably deep, truly evangelical humility in response to such requests and aspirations. He was truly a meek man, a humble disciple of Christ. For all his virtues and high merits, he seemed to consider himself lower than everyone else. There is a lot of evidence of this, especially in letters. Rev. Theophan considered it his sacred duty to satisfy, to the best of his ability, every spiritual need addressed to him and never refused to answer questions on this subject. Having been the de facto leader of the spiritual life of many people, he humbly did not recognize this great dignity and always resolutely refused when the question arose. “You invite me,” the saint writes to one admirer, “to take you under my leadership. I cannot and do not understand this matter. That's why I never undertake to lead. Please excuse my refusal. It is done for your benefit; for, without knowing the matter, I could lead you I don’t know where. I wish you to find yourself an elder” 87. One venerable archimandrite asks for instructions regarding the management of the monastery, and the ascetic answers him: “Why are you asking me? I am a very narrow-minded person in the spiritual discernment of things, and I can very easily call black white, and white black. Therefore, do not look at what I write as a good decision” 88. Another clergyman, through the monk Vyshensky, asked for instructions on how to teach his parishioners. “Well, who am I to give instructions to others,” said the saint. - Let St. take it. Tikhon reads the work in church, and that’s enough for him.” Receiving personally from the Right Reverend his edifying books on spiritual life, the same monk once remarked: “Holy Master! As well as reading your creations and patristics; I don’t see anything in myself similar to what God’s saints did. I have nothing good.” “What should we do? - was the answer, - I compose and write books, but I have nothing. Everything is from the grace of God! We must humble ourselves” 89. Many strove to the Highest - to see the recluse, to listen to advice and instructions, to accept a blessing from him, to receive some object as a gift, but the culprit of such high human attention resolutely shied away from accepting any expression of it. Attributing everything to the kindness of the hearts of his admirers and considering himself unworthy, he was even amazed, as if not understanding the very source of such aspirations. “I was surprised by your desire to have any of my clothes.” “There is no need to go to the Highest... You really want to see my shrine. Alas! how shameful and disgusting my shrine is, and it is much better for you never to see it and not to bother to see it” 90... The higher the ascetic ascended along the path of moral perfection, the more he approached the moral ideal, the more clearly he realized the extreme insufficiency of weak human forces alone to achieve it, the more he felt his personal unworthiness. For the great Christian ascetic, more than for anyone else, it was obvious that the fulfillment of the highest Gospel law, which requires from people the same perfection as the Heavenly Father is perfect, is impossible without the help of saving grace. Attributing all the good things of his life exclusively to the tuna of God's mercy, the ascetic considered himself to be nothing, considering himself the last of sinful and mortal slaves. “I’m a big sinner, and I’m lazy to pray.” “Pray for me, the great sinner and all-damned one,” - this is how the saint often expressed his spiritual mood in letters of the last period. Summing up and summarizing everything that has been said about the life of Rev. Theophan in retreat, we must involuntarily come to the conviction that this life is an extraordinary and amazing phenomenon, completely impossible for the natural forces of man alone. The desert exploits of the saint gave Orthodox Russia the great chosen one of God, who achieved the full moral perfection possible for a person on earth. That highest moment of manifestation of the human spirit - the state of communion with God, which the saint considered the ultimate goal of the aspiration of man's earthly life and about which he dreamed with delight in book theory, now became a real act of his own spiritual life. He could rightly say with the apostle: “I live not for this purpose, but Christ lives in me.” That greatest virtue - dispassion, which the ascetic placed at the top of the ladder of perfections possible for a person, has now become a distinctive, characteristic feature of his moral state. And this is not just a phrase or one shaky assumption. Being a great Christian faster and mortifying his flesh, the saint was, as it were, completely imbued with spirituality and nourished his body to the extent and only so that it would help the spirit to live easily and freely. Gradually improving, he reached such a state that he lived exclusively by spiritual interests; nevertheless, the worldly, vain things not only did not interest him, but also extremely confused him. The following story of one Vyshensky monk is very characteristic in this regard. One day the latter, out of spiritual need, came to Rev. Theophan and, seeing him especially affectionate and cheerful, dared to tell one innocent piece of news from the life of the monastic brethren of the monastery. The saint suddenly closed his eyes, sat as if immersed in prayer, and did not utter a word in response to the news. Several minutes passed, the monk came to his senses that he had sinned. Then the bishop opened his eyes and began a conversation, but according to custom, about the only thing needed, about the salvation of the soul, about our infirmities, how to live and please God, etc. 91 At the end of his retreat, the Most Reverend. Theophan completely renounced everything earthly and perishable, completely left and truly dwelt in spirit in the heavenly world. The life of the ascetic apparently bore the clear stamp of God’s grace. This is what a person who was deeply interested in the life of the saint, who knew him better than others, testified with such love and skill in the memoirs of his personal and close relatives of the ascetic: “In recent years, the saint has improved so much in his virtuous life that the grace of God apparently dwelt in him, and everything he did, he did according to the Spirit of God dwelling in his soul. The Lord became childishly innocent. Sometimes the monks who had access to him noticed special joy, peace and love in him” 92. Such highest and exceptional manifestations of the human spirit in the earthly shell inevitably require corresponding external life expression. Then such a great feat as a shutter becomes insufficient. It remains to take the last step on the path of the most perfect Christian life - to experience the state of so-called schema-mongering, when a person is truly an angel in the flesh on earth. And Rev. Theophanes was already preparing to accept the schema, he even sewed the necessary clothes with his own hands, but the sudden onset of death deprived him of the opportunity to carry out his last extraordinary intention. "Collection of Letters". Vol. V, page 11. Rev. Feofan. "Letters to various persons on various subjects of faith and life." Page 298. "Collection of Letters". Vol. VII, p. 28. "Collection of Letters". Vol. V, page 153. "The Path to Salvation." Page 195–205. “Tambov Diocesan Gazette”, 1895, No. 39 and 1894, No. 6. I. Krutikov. Page 121–122. Brochure “Four words about prayer” by Bishop Theophan. Rev. Feofan. Ed. Panteleimon Monastery. Page 76. "Collected Letters", vol. 7, p. 24; issue 3, pp. 179 and Letters on the Spiritual Life, pp. 129–130. “Soulful Reading”, 1894, No. 4. "Collected Letters", vol. 7, p. 83. "Collected Letters", vol. 1, p.89. Rev. Feofan. "Words to the Vladimir flock." Page 35–41, 25–28. "Letters", vol. 7, p.83. “Thoughts for every day of the year according to church readings.” Page 245. "Collected Letters of St. Theophan." Publication of the Athos Russian Panteleimon Monastery. Moscow, 1899, issue. 7, p. 112. "Collected Letters", vol. 2, p. 42. "Collected Letters", vol. 7, p. 187. "Collected Letters", vol. 2, pp. 19–20. "Letters", vol. 4, p. 56. "Letters", vol. 7, p. 255. "Letters on the Christian Life." Rev. Feofan. Page 36–38. "Collected Letters", vol. 7, pp. 181–182. "Letters", vol. 3, p. 167. "Letters", vol. 3, p. 184. Memoirs of the Vyshensky monk. “Tambov Diocesan Gazette”, 1894, No. 6. "Letters", vol. 2, p. 187. Memoirs of the Vyshensky monk. I. Krutikov. "Reverend Theophan", page 134.