Слово 39. О том, почему люди душевные прозирают ведением в нечто духовное, соразмерно с телесною дебелостью, как ум может возноситься над оною; какая причина тому, что не освобождается от нее, когда и в какой мере можно уму пребывать без мечтания в час моления

Blessed is the honor of the Lord, who opens the door before us, so that we have no other request than the desire to rush to Him. For in this case we leave everything, and the soul rushes after His One, so that it has no care that would prevent it from contemplating the Lord. To the extent, beloved, the mind abandons the care of this visible and is preoccupied with the hope of the future, in accordance with its elevation above the care of the body and above the thought of this care, to the same extent it becomes refined and enlightened in prayer. And to the extent that the body is freed from material bonds, the mind is also freed. And to the extent that the mind is freed from the bonds of care, to that extent it becomes enlightened; and in the one in which he becomes enlightened, in the same he becomes more refined and rises above the concepts of this age, which bears the images of profanity. And then the mind learns to contemplate in God, according to Him, 232 and not as we see. If a person does not first become worthy of revelation, he cannot see it. And if he does not achieve purity, his concepts cannot become enlightened in order for him to see what is hidden. And until he is freed from everything visible, seen in the visible creation, he will not be freed from concepts about the visible and will not become pure from darkened thoughts. And where there is darkness and confusion of thoughts, there are passions. If a person does not free himself, as we said, from this and from the reasons for that, then the mind will not gain insight into the unseen. Therefore, the Lord first of all commanded to take up non-covetousness, to move away from worldly rebellion and to renounce the care common to all people, saying: “Whoever does not deny” all humanity and all that is his own and does not deny himself, “cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26,33). So that the mind does not suffer harm from everything, from sight, from hearing, from caring about things, from their destruction, from their multiplication, from man, and in order to bind it with a single hope in God, the Lord rejected from us all the care of wisdom by renouncing everything, so that as a result of this we would desire a conversation with God. But prayer still needs exercise so that the mind can remain in it for a long time. After non-acquisitiveness, which frees our thoughts from bonds, prayer requires staying in it, because with the passage of time the mind acquires the habit of exercise, learns how to reflect thoughts from itself, and through long experience teaches what it cannot borrow from another source. For every present life 233 borrows growth from the life of the previous one, and the previous one is required to gain the subsequent one. Prayer is preceded by hermitage, and hermitage itself is necessary for the sake of prayer, and prayer itself is necessary in order to acquire the love of God for us, because as a result of prayer, reasons are found for us to love God. We must also know, beloved, that every conversation carried out in secret 234, every care of a good mind about God, every meditation on the spiritual is established by prayer and is called the name of prayer, and under this name is brought together, whether you mean various readings, or the voice of the mouth in praise to God, or caring sorrow for the Lord, or bodily bowing, or psalmody in poetry, or everything else from which the entire teaching of pure prayer is made up, from which the love of God is born; because love comes from prayer, and prayer comes from being a hermit. We need solitude so that we have the opportunity to talk privately with God. But hermitage is preceded by renunciation of the world. For if a person does not first renounce the world and does not get tired of everything worldly, then he cannot be alone. And thus, renunciation of the world is again preceded by patience, and patience by hatred of the world, and hatred of the world by fear and love. For if the fear of Gehenna does not frighten the heart and love does not lead to the desire for bliss, then hatred of this world will not be aroused in the heart. And if he does not hate the world, he will not tolerate being outside its peace. And if patience is not preceded in the mind, then a person will not be able to choose a place full of severity and not inhabited by anyone. If he does not choose a hermit’s life, he will not be able to remain in prayer. If he does not constantly talk with God, does not remain in these thoughts combined with prayer and in all types of prayer teachings that we have said, then he will not feel love. So, love for God comes from conversation with Him, and prayerful meditation and teaching is achieved by silence, silence by non-covetousness, non-covetousness by patience, patience by hatred of lusts, and hatred of lusts by fear of Gehenna and the hope of bliss. He hates lusts who knows their fruit, and what they have in store for man, and what bliss he is not allowed to achieve for the sake of lusts. Thus, every life is connected with the previous one, and from it it borrows an increase and passes into another, higher one. And if one life becomes impoverished, then the next one cannot appear and be visible, because everything is destroyed and perishes. What is beyond this is the measure of the word 235. To our God be glory and glory forever! Amen. To think about God is godly. The point, apparently, is that more could be said about this, but there is a limit to words. You might be interested in: