Слово в понедельник недели 1-й Великого поста, на часах

Among the means that are in your own hands, we have included prayer. By this very reason, brethren, you can see that we do not mean by it church prayers, in which you will constantly participate even without our reminder. We also do not understand your own ordinary prayers, with which you, as good Christians, begin and end every day: these prayers, always performed, can least of all be omitted now. No, we mean a special prayer, which surpasses all others in its importance, and yet is not at all known to many, and therefore requires special instructions. This is a prayer of repentance, with a heartfelt request that the Lord Himself give us the spirit of repentance and faith in the merits of our Savior, Himself create in us an unrepentant aversion to sin, forever free our hearts from the depths of love for the world and confirm us in the knowledge and fulfillment of His commandments. For we need to know, brothers, and know firmly that, without the almighty assistance of God’s grace, a sinner, no matter how much he desires and strengthens himself, cannot, on his own, forever leave the path of sin and become a virtuous person. No matter how much we decide to give up our evil habits, no matter how many means we use to do so, no matter how much we repent, sigh, or begin to change our behavior: until the Lord Himself breaks the bonds that bind us, we will all remain slaves of sin; We will only change one bad inclination for another, rough for subtle. Such is the fate of the sinner! Apparently, it is strange why I cannot stop sinning when I could previously sin and not sin; but in fact it is. The expression of this sad impossibility of correcting oneself completely, without help from above, can be seen even in the outer life of a person. Anyone, if he wants, can fall from any height and break into dust; but he cannot rise again to the heights, having fallen and been broken. Even your life can be taken away from you in an instant, but no one can return it to yourself. So is the sinner: through sin he takes life from his spirit, but only God can return it to him. That is why the Holy Church, at the very beginning of the field of repentance, began to proclaim in our ears: “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver!” - letting us know where we should look for our resurrection from the death of sin. In these days of repentance, brothers, you must internalize this prayer with all your might. For now your eternal destiny must be decided. To warm up your heart for this prayer, in order to pronounce it before the Heavenly Father with that “strong cry” that goes through the heavens; For this, brethren, imagine, on the one hand, the complete impossibility of freeing yourself from the evil that consumes you, on your own, and on the other hand, the promise of the Savior that everything that we pray to the Heavenly Father in His name will be heard. Take hold of this gracious promise with both hands, and stand with it before the face of the Lord; stand and ask for a change in your heart for the better. Ask without hesitation; ask without making any conditions; ask as a drowning son would ask for help when he saw his own father on the shore. To support your petition, you can say that you are ready to renounce all other earthly gifts, if only the gift of true repentance was sent down to you; that you agree to endure the most tangible hardships and sorrows for this, you agree to the loss of property, honor, health, temporary life itself, if only the mental health you destroyed would be returned to you, if only eternal life would be granted to you. First and most of all, point out to the Father the merits of His Only Begotten Son, say that you pray and ask in His name, on His behalf, in His power, that He sent you and promised you to hear. If any kind of prayer, then a similar one, may require that it be offered in the inner cage, after closing all the doors: however, it should be your first and last prayer in the church; all other prayers should only be either a preparation for it or its consequence. To encourage you in this holy work, we can and must tell you, brothers, and say not on our own behalf, not according to our own considerations, but on the behalf of our Lord and Savior, that this prayer of repentance, as long as it is offered from the heart and in the spirit of faith, cannot fail to be heard. Everything else may be denied to us, but our salvation will never, never!.. Amen. You might be interested in: