312. Беседа в день памяти преподобного Сергия

(Spoken in the Trinity Lavra on September 25th; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1855 and in the collection of 1861) Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune (Matthew 26:41). This instruction was taught to His chosen disciples by Christ the Savior on the last night of His life before death on the cross. He watched and prayed: and also encouraged His disciples. “Let you not fall into misfortune,” He said. That is: you are in danger. The invisible enemy and visible enemies are approaching with desperate efforts to strike the head of the newly created Church and destroy its foundation. Your faith is about to be tested. You should see your Teacher in chains, in suffering, on the cross, and expect the same for yourself. If you strengthen your faith through vigil and prayer, you will pass through temptation unharmed. And if you doze off, and the prayer fades away in your drowsiness, the danger will turn into a real disaster. “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune.” Therefore, one can think that if Peter had carried out exactly the instructions of his Divine Teacher, and strengthened himself in vigil and prayer, then in times of danger he would have maintained calm steadfastness, and would not have passed from inappropriate boldness to cowardly timidity; He would not have made an unreasonable and useless attempt to stab the bishop’s servant with a knife, and would not have been driven by the idle talk of male and female slaves to the point of renouncing Christ. But he dozed off: and from this came consequences that he had to mourn bitterly. I may consider the reminder of the need for prayer unnecessary for many of those present here, who came here with prayer and for prayer. But are we thinking enough about vigil? Do we know it as a feat and virtue? Do we use spiritual energy for benefit? Each of us stays awake for many hours every day: but this is not the vigil that Christ the Savior teaches for our salvation. Each of us devotes several hours to sleep every day: but this is not a deprivation of vigil. The vigil of a Christian is taking away from natural sleep as much time as possible without disorder of health, and, both at this time and at all times, exciting the soul to the thought of God, to prayer, to observing the movements of the mind, will, heart, feelings, so that they are constantly directed towards the true and good, according to the will of God. Experience shows that an elevated degree of vigilance is of no small importance in natural life, in relation to its perfection or improvement. In sleep, the bright life of the soul is constrained and suppressed by the dark life of the body: in wakefulness, the life of the soul acts freely and dominantly over the life of the body. Accordingly, usually those who sleep a lot have little development of the abilities of the soul: and with the higher education of these abilities and the acquisition of deep knowledge, an increased measure of vigil is usually combined. If, in this way, increased vigilance is required for the elevation of natural life, which, according to the union of the soul with the body, is always necessarily divided between vigilance and sleep: then how much more beneficial should intensified vigilance be for the revelation and elevation in the strength and purity of spiritual and grace-filled life, striving for rapprochement and union with the life of the disembodied, who never sleep or doze, but are always awake? The Holy Church, which directs all its words and actions to faithfully and conveniently guide us to eternal salvation, clearly expressed the need for Christian vigil, and opened a common path to it for all, from ancient times establishing a special Divine service, known as the “all-night vigil.” Removing obstacles from external life, she did not take for this day the days about which it is said in the law: “Six days you shall do, and in them you shall do all your work” (Ex. 20:9). And in order to easily and pleasantly introduce one into asceticism, she chose for all-night vigils days of holidays, especially great ones, on which her children can especially freely sacrifice their time to God, as well as their thoughts, feelings and actions, and on which spiritual joy and other spiritual feelings effortlessly drive away the sleep of a lazy body. But how do we use this institution? Weakness, need, and, perhaps, other reasons that are not so excusable, have shortened the “all-night vigil” so that this name is already more a monument to ancient prayerful deeds than an image of our actual deeds. And aren’t the many hours of church vigil during which we have shortened the all-night vigil robbed from us, either by sleep or worldly pursuits that do not allow us to go to church at all, or by frivolity that untimely draws us away from the church, or in the church itself by the drowsiness of the body, enslaving a careless soul, and the drowsiness of the soul, inattentive to the divine service being performed? However, the most important thing is not to cut off more and more from sleep, which is a natural need of the body. This can be hampered by a special state of health, or legitimately demanding physical labor that requires more than a short sleep to renew exhausted strength. But it is primarily and essentially important that we, in the midst of the very vigil of the body, do not plunge into mental sleep. You strive to have an open eye of mind. “Lift up your eyes... to Him who dwells in heaven” (Ps. 122:1); whenever possible, you contemplate His perfections, and their manifestation in His quality as Creator, Provider and Savior: and, anticipating any other work, you stir up your heart to glorify Him: “Arise, my glory; ...I will rise early” (Ps. 107:3). You lower the eye of your mind on created beings: and, through them again seeing God’s wisdom, goodness and wondrous providence, you again excite your soul to the praise of God: “Bless my soul the Lord; Lord my God, you are greatly exalted” (Ps. 103:1). With the lamp of God's law you test your deeds, done and acceptable; and you watch over them, so that passion or whim does not rule them, so that iniquity does not creep into them, and so that their uncleanness is washed away with tears of repentance. In the light of the teachings of Christ, you penetrate with the eye of your mind into your insides: and you are awake here too, so that the secret darkness in your thoughts and desires can be revealed and cast out, and so as not to allow the invisible enemy to sow new chaff; without relying on your own discernment, you again turn to the one who searches the heart: “Test me, O God, and convince my heart: ... and see if there is a way of iniquity in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23–24). I rejoice in you, my brother; you are spiritually awake; such a vigil is good and saving. Such a vigil, having become daily, will also become an all-night vigil: because the mind, strengthened in the vigil and in the sleep of the body, will be “vigorous” and will not allow itself to be lulled to sleep by sensual dreams. But if, with our eyes open to the visible light, the eye of our mind is not open to the invisible light, to the light of the presence of God, to the light of God’s law, to the light of the teaching of Christ, to vigilant observation of the innocence and purity of our deeds, desires and thoughts; if we have a lot of movement in the outer man to pursue objects of sensual desires, to gain quickly disappearing benefits, and there is no living and excited movement in the inner man towards God-thinking, to prayer, to the exploits of virtue and love of mankind: then woe to us, brethren; our spirit is not awake; our soul sleeps in dreams; our inner man is immersed in a dangerous sleep, and mortal attack is not far from an invisible enemy, who, even if he roars like a lion at those who are awake, how much more easily creeps up on those who are sleeping, like a serpent, and wounds them. - O Christ, who can awaken not only from sleep, but also from death! “Enlighten my eyes, so that not when I sleep into death, and not when my enemy speaks, I will strengthen myself against him” (Ps. 12:4-5). In the life of our Venerable Father Sergius we see the wonderful fruits of pious vigil. During a nightly prayer vigil, he had a bright vision and a comforting promise of a multiplication of disciples worthy of this mentor. During the nightly prayer vigil, he was honored to see our Most Holy Lady Theotokos, and to receive from her the eternal blessing of his monastery. And the precaution against adversity, and the desire for salvation, and the hope of grace, may they unite in us, brethren, to continually motivate us to the active fulfillment of the word of Christ: “watch and pray.” Amen. You might be interested in: