Ascetic instructions

1. The fear of God is the beginning of virtue; it is a product of faith and is sown in the heart when the mind is removed from worldly distraction, so that its thoughts, whirling from soaring, can be collected in reflection on the future restoration. 2. In order to lay the foundation of virtue, it is best for a person to keep himself away from the affairs of life and to abide in the law, illuminating the right and holy paths, as indicated by the Holy Spirit through the Psalmist (Ps. 23:3, 119:35). 3. The beginning of the path of life is to always learn with your mind from the Words of God and spend your life in poverty. Drinking oneself in one way promotes improvement in another. If you hydrate yourself with studying the Words of God, it will help you to thrive in poverty; and success in non-covetousness gives you the leisure to succeed in studying the Words of God. The assistance of both contributes to the rapid construction of a whole edifice of virtues. 4. Without moving away from the world, no one can approach God. By removal I do not call relocation by the body, but removal from worldly affairs. The virtue of withdrawing from the world is not to occupy your mind with the world. 5. When grace multiplies in a person, then the fear of death becomes insignificant for him, on the path to the desired righteousness (or in the face of obstacles on this path) - and he finds many reasons in his soul for which, for the sake of the fear of God, he is ready to endure sorrows as something due; then everything that is unpleasant to the body and can cause it suffering is considered nothing in its eyes in comparison with what it hopes for in the future. But when the impoverishment of grace increases in a person, then what happens in him and with him is the opposite of what was said: then knowledge, due to research (which can be based only on the tangible), becomes more faith in him, there is not trust in God in every deed, and God’s Providence for man is understood differently. Such a person is constantly exposed to fears, whose machinations lie in wait in the darkness to shoot him with their arrows (Ps. 10:2). 6. Doubt of the heart brings fear into the soul; and faith can make the will firm even when members are cut off. To the extent that love for the flesh prevails in you, you cannot be bold and fearless in the face of the many confrontations surrounding what you love. 7. He is not chaste in whom, during struggle, labor and achievement, shameful thoughts cease, but he who, with the truth of his heart, chastifies the vision of his mind, not allowing it to stretch to obscene thoughts. - And while the honesty of his conscience with the gaze of his eyes testifies to his fidelity (to the law of purity), shame, like a veil, hangs in the hidden receptacle of his thoughts, and his purity, like a chaste virgin, is observed by Christ by faith. 8. To avert the soul's preoccupied dispositions towards lewdness, nothing is as helpful as immersing oneself in the love of studying the Divine Scripture and comprehending the depth of its thoughts. When thoughts are immersed in the pleasure of comprehending the wisdom hidden in words; then a person, to the extent that he gains enlightenment from them, leaves the world behind him and forgets everything that is in the world. – But even when the mind floats only on the surface of the waters of the sea of ​​Divine Scriptures, and cannot penetrate the thoughts of Scripture to the very depths; and then the very fact that he is busy with zeal for the understanding of Scripture is enough for him to firmly bind his thoughts with a single thought about the wonderful, and prevent them from striving for the material and carnal. 9. In everything that you encounter in Scripture, seek the purpose of the word, so that you can penetrate into the depths of the thoughts of the Saints and understand them with greater accuracy. Those who are guided in their lives to enlightenment by divine grace always feel that some intelligent ray passes through the verses of what is written, and distinguishes bare words to the mind from what is said to spiritual knowledge with great thought. 10. If a person reads meaningful verses without delving into them, then his heart remains poor (tastes nothing), and the holy power fades away in him, which, with the wonderful understanding of the soul, gives the heart the sweetest taste. 11. Every thing usually strives for what is akin to it. And the soul, which has within itself the portion of the spirit, when it hears a speech containing hidden spiritual power, ardently draws to itself the content of this speech. Not every person is awakened to surprise by what is said spiritually and has hidden great spiritual power. The word about virtue requires a heart not occupied with the earth; in a person whose mind is burdened with concern for what is transitory, virtue does not awaken thoughts to love it and seek its possession. 12. Detachment from matter by its being precedes union with God, although often, according to the economy of grace, in others the latter turns out to precede the former. The rank common to the economy is different from the rank common to people. - You maintain the general rank. If grace precedes you, that is her work; and if it does not precede, then in the way of all people, ascend to the height of the spiritual pillar. 13. The insatiability of the soul in acquiring virtue turns to its advantage part of the visible (sensual) desires of the body associated with it. Every thing is beautiful in measure. Without measure, even what is considered beautiful turns into harm. 14. Do you want to be in communion with God with your mind? - Serve alms. There is no other path to spiritual love, which imprints the invisible image (of God in oneself), unless a person first begins to be generous to the same extent as our heavenly Father is perfect, as the Lord said (Luke 6:36). 15. That an artist who paints water on the walls, however, cannot quench his thirst with that water; the same is true for words not justified by activity. Whoever speaks about virtue that he himself has experienced in practice, conveys this to the one who listens to him, just as someone gives to another the money earned by their labor. And whoever, out of his own acquisition, sows teaching into the ears of those who listen to him, he opens his mouth with boldness, speaking to his spiritual children, as the aged Jacob said to the chaste Joseph: “I will give you one portion above your brethren, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and with my bow” (Gen. 48:22). 16. Someone said beautifully that the fear of death saddens a man who is condemned by his conscience; and whoever has a good testimony in himself desires death as much as life. 17. If something has been deeply connected with your soul, then consider it your acquisition not only for this century, but believe that it will go with you into the next century. And if this is anything good, rejoice and thank God in your mind; if it is something bad, then be sad and sigh and try to free yourself from it while you are in the body. 18. Always keep in your mind the gravest sorrows of the grieving and embittered, so that you yourself can give due thanks for the small and insignificant sorrows that happen to you, and be able to endure them with joy. 19. During times of cooling and laziness, imagine in your heart the previous time of your diligence, how you cared about everything, even down to the smallest thing; what a feat he showed, with what zeal he resisted those who wanted to put an obstacle to your progress. With such a memory, your soul will awaken again, as if from a deep sleep, will again be clothed with the flame of jealousy, as if rising from the dead, and with ardent opposition to the devil and sin will return to its former rank. 20. The activity of the cross is twofold: one consists of enduring carnal sorrows (bodily deprivations inevitable in the fight against passions), and is called activity proper; and the other consists in the subtle work of the mind, in Divine meditation, and in being in prayer, etc., and is called contemplation. The first cleanses the passionate part of the soul, and the other enlightens the intellectual part of the soul. Every person who, before perfect training in the first part, moves on to this second, attracted by its sweetness, not to mention his laziness, experiences wrath for not having first killed his own fish on earth (Col. 3:5) - i.e. Having not healed the weakness of his thoughts by the patient exercise of making the reproach of the cross, he dared to dream in his mind about the glory of the cross. This is what was said by the ancient Saints, that if the mind intends to ascend to the cross before its senses, having been healed of weakness, come to serenity, then God’s wrath will befall it. Whose mind is defiled by shameful passions, and who is quick to fill his mind with dreamy thoughts, his lips are blocked with a prohibition because, without first purifying his mind with sorrows, and without subduing carnal lusts, but relying on what the ear heard and what was written in ink, he rushed straight forward, to walk a path full of darkness, when his eyes were blind. 21. Imagine that virtue is the body, contemplation is the soul, and both are one perfect person, united by a spirit of two parts, the sensual and the rational. And just as it is impossible for the soul to come into a state of manifesting its existence without completing the formation of the body with its members, so it is impossible for the soul to come into contemplation without performing the work of virtue. 22. Hearing that you must withdraw from the world, leave the world, cleanse yourself of everything that is in the world, you must first understand and find out, using concepts not common people, but purely rational, what the name itself means - world, from what differences this name is made up, and you will be able to find out about your soul, how far it is from the world, and what is mixed with it from the world. - peace is a collective name that embraces what is called passions. When we want to name passions collectively, we call them peace; and when we want to distinguish them by the difference in their names, we call them passions. 23. When you find out what the world is, then from the distinction of everything that is meant by it, you will find out both what you are connected with the world and how you have renounced it. And I will say briefly: the world is carnal living and the wisdom of the flesh. By the very fact that a person has extricated himself from this, it is known that he has left the world. 24. Fear for the body can be so strong in people that, as a result, they often remain unable to do anything honorable or honorable. But when fear for the body is overshadowed by fear for the soul, then bodily fear faints before spiritual fear, like wax from the power of a burning fire. 25. The soul is dispassionate by nature. Passions are something additional, and the soul itself is guilty of them. – If at one time the nature of the soul was light and pure, due to its reception of the Divine Light, and like this it turns out to be the same when it returns to the primitive rank; then there is no doubt that the soul is outside its nature as soon as it comes into passionate movement, as the disciples of the Church assert. 26. The natural state of the soul is the knowledge of God’s creatures, both sensory and mental. Its supernatural state is the movement (or action and state) of contemplation of the all-essential Divinity. Its unnatural state is the movement of the soul or its mood and life such as happens in passionate people who work for passions. So it becomes clear that the passions of the soul are not spiritual by nature. 27. If you want to know human secrets and have not yet reached the point of knowing them by spirit, you will find out by the speeches, lifestyle, and dispositions of each one. He who is pure in soul and blameless in his way of life always pronounces the words of the Spirit with chastity, and, in accordance with the measure of his understanding, speaks both about the Divine and about what is in himself. And whose heart is filled with passions, his image also sets his tongue in motion. If he begins to talk about spiritual things, he will reason under the influence of passion. The wise notice such a person at the first meeting, and the pure smell his stench. 28. The deeds of a monk are the following: freedom from the body, physical labor in prayer, and unceasing heartfelt remembrance of God. 29. Prayer is another thing, and contemplation in prayer is another, although prayer and contemplation borrow their origin from each other. Prayer is sowing, contemplation is a gathering of handles, during which the reaper is amazed by an unspeakable vision, how from the small and bare grains he sown, such beautiful fields suddenly grew before him. 30. The Savior began the work of arranging our salvation by fasting. Likewise, all those who follow the Savior on this basis affirm the beginning of their feat, because fasting is a weapon prepared by God. - And who, if he neglects him, will not be reproached for this? – If the Lawgiver Himself fasts, then how can anyone who is obligated to keep the law not fast? That is why, before fasting, the human race did not know victory, and the devil never experienced his defeat from our nature: but from this weapon he actually became exhausted. And our Lord was the leader and firstborn of this victory, in order to place the first victorious crown on the head of our nature. And as soon as the devil sees this weapon on one of the people, this enemy and tormentor immediately comes into fear, thinking and remembering his defeat in the desert by the Savior - and his strength is immediately crushed, and the sight of the weapon given to us by our Leader burns him. - He who is clothed in the weapon of fasting is at all times inflamed with jealousy. – Whoever abides in it has an unshakable mind and is ready to meet and repel all fierce passions. 31. Deeds and labors then bring dispassion to the soul, mortify the pains of the earth, and grant peace of thoughts, when we partake of silence, when the confusion in the soul produced by impressions from external senses ceases. Otherwise there can be no success in this. For if a tree is watered daily, will its roots ever dry up? Does water ever decrease in a vessel into which it is added daily? – When a person comes into silence, then the soul conveniently discerns the passions, and the inner man, aroused to spiritual work, overcomes them, and day by day raises the soul to purity. 32. When can one say that someone has achieved purity? – When someone sees all people as good and no one seems unclean and defiled to him, then he is truly pure in heart. 33. What is typical for an ascetic who remains silent in his cell to do? – Does a person who is zealous and sober in soul really need to ask how he should behave when he is alone with himself? – What other activity does a monk have in his cell other than crying? And what other activity is better than this? The very stay of the monk and his loneliness, like being in a tomb, far from human joy, teach him that his activity is lamentation. And all the Saints moved from this life in tears. “Let us pray to the Lord to grant us weeping.” For if we receive this grace, which is better and more excellent than other gifts, then with its help we will achieve purity. And as soon as we achieve it, it will not be taken away from us until our very departure from this life. 34. Blessed are the pure in heart, because there is no time when they do not enjoy the sweetness of tears, in which they always see the Lord. While there are still tears in their eyes, they are granted the vision of His revelations at the height of their prayer, and they have no prayer without tears. This is what the Lord said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). For when a monk has been vouchsafed, with the help of tears, to cross the realm of passions and enter the plain of spiritual purity, then he receives the consolation that God gives to those who cry for their purity. Shedding tears and crying is the gift of the dispassionate. And if the tears of someone who weeps and laments can temporarily not only lead him to dispassion, but also completely cleanse and free his mind from the remembrance of passions, what can we say about those who practice this activity with knowledge day and night? 35. One of the Saints said that a body that is afraid of temptations becomes a friend of sin, so that it does not go to extremes and lose its life. Therefore, the Holy Spirit forces him to die (inspires the ascetic to condemn himself to death). For he knows that if he does not die, he will not overcome sin. If someone wants the Lord to dwell in him, then he forces his body to serve the Lord, to work in the commandments of the Spirit, written by the Apostle, and to keep his soul from the deeds of the flesh, described by the Apostle (Gal. 5:19). The body, having partaken of sin, rests in carnal deeds, and the Spirit of God does not rest in its fruits. For when the body becomes weak in fasting and humility, then the soul is strengthened by prayer. 36. The body, when it is much oppressed by the sorrows of silence, suffers deprivations and shortcomings and is close to losing its life, usually begs you and says: “Give me a little freedom to live decently; Now I walk in the right way, because I have been tested by all kinds of suffering.” And how soon, out of compassion, will you calm him from his sorrows and give him some rest; little by little it will begin to whisper to you with caresses (and its caresses are very strong): “we can live well near the world, according to the same rules by which we live now; because they have been tested in many ways. Just tempt me, and if I am not what you want, we can return. The desert will not escape from us.” “Don’t believe him, although he will beg you a lot and make a lot of promises.” It won't do what it says. When you bow to his request, he will plunge you into great falls, from which you will not be able to rise and come out. 37. When you become despondent from temptations and are fed up with them, say to yourself: “again you desire an unclean and shameful life.” – And if the body tells you: “It is a great sin to kill yourself,” then answer it: “I kill myself, because I cannot live uncleanly.” I will die here so as not to see the true death of my soul - death for God. It is better for me to die here for the sake of integrity and not live a bad life in the world. I arbitrarily chose this death for my sins. I put myself to death because I have sinned against the Lord; I will no longer anger Him. What is there for me in a life that is far from God? I will endure this bitterness, so as not to be alienated from heavenly hope. What does God have to do with my life in this world if I live in it badly and anger God.” 38. It is harmful for a monk to see the world and worldly things. And what a change occurs in the mind of someone who, having been silent with himself for a long time, suddenly falls again into the whirlpool of the world, sees and hears what is unusual for him! “Let us not be deceived by those who claim that there is no harm for us from what we hear and see, that we are the same in our thoughts both in solitude and in the world, as if our modesty is not disturbed both in the cell and outside it, no bad change occurs to it, and when we meet people and things we do not feel the anxiety of passions. Only those who are strong in spirit can affirm this, and even if they accept wounds, they do not feel it. But we have not yet achieved such health, we still have stinking wounds on us that will boil with worms if they are not taken care of for even one day, and they remain unbandaged, not covered with a plaster and tied with bandages. 39. The soul, having once surrendered itself to God with faith and experienced His assistance through repeated experience, no longer cares about itself, but is bound by amazement and silence, and does not have the opportunity to return again to the methods of its knowledge and use them in action, so as not to otherwise lose God’s Providence, which in secret vigilantly watches over the soul, cares about it, and incessantly watches over it - not she will lose it because in this case she will turn out to be arrogantly dreaming that she herself can provide enough for herself, according to the power of her knowledge. 40. Those in whom the light of faith shines no longer reach such shamelessness that they again ask God in prayers: “Give us this,” or: “Take that from us,” and do not care the least about themselves; because with the spiritual eyes of faith they hourly see the Fatherly Providence with which that true Father overshadows them, Who with His immeasurably great love surpasses all fatherly love, more than anyone else can and has the power to assist us to an excess of greater extent than we ask, think and imagine. 41. Whoever was worthy to taste the sweetness of faith and again turned to spiritual knowledge is likened to someone who found a valuable pearl and exchanged it for a copper ox; and also - who left absolute freedom and returned to a state of poverty, filled with fear and slavery. 42. There are three mental ways by which knowledge ascends and descends. These methods are: body, soul, spirit. Knowledge is God’s gift to the nature of rational creatures, given at the beginning during their creation - and by its nature it is simple and indivisible, like sunlight, but in accordance with its doing it acquires changes and divisions. - Listen, what is the order of this doing. 43. First degree of knowledge. When knowledge follows carnal lust, then it brings together the following methods: wealth, vanity, decoration, bodily peace, zeal for verbal wisdom, suitable for ruling in this world and exuding renewal in inventions, arts, and sciences, and everything else that crowns the body in this visible world. – And due to these distinctive features, knowledge becomes contrary to faith. – And it is called naked knowledge; because it excludes all Divine care, and due to the predominance of the body, it introduces unreasonable powerlessness into the mind and all its care is completely about this world only. Here is the concept of this knowledge about itself: as if it is a mental force that secretly rules a person, a divine guardianship that oversees him and takes complete care of him. Therefore, it does not attribute to the Providence of God the government of the world, but everything good in man, his salvation from what is harmful to him, and his natural caution from difficulties and from many opposites, secretly and openly accompanying our nature, seem to him to be a consequence of his own zeal and his own methods. This is the self-concept of mocking knowledge. It dreams that everything happens according to its industry; and in this we agree with those who claim that there is no government in this world. However, it cannot remain without constant care and without fear for the body, and therefore it is overcome by cowardice, sadness, despair, fear from demons, fear from people, rumors of robbers, rumors of deaths, care in illness, care in poverty and lack of necessities, fear of death, fear of suffering and evil animals, and everything else similar to this - making knowledge look like the sea, in which every hour day and night the waves ripple and rush towards the swimmers. Since this knowledge does not know how to cast its care for itself on God in the hope of faith in Him, it is constantly busy with tricks and inventing means regarding everything that concerns itself. When the methods of its invention turn out to be invalid in one particular case, and it does not see the mysterious Providence in this, then it argues with people who interfere and resist it. In this regard, in this knowledge, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is planted, uprooting love. - He has the quality of arrogance and pride. “It boasts, and yet walks in darkness, and values ​​its wealth in comparison with what is on earth, and does not know that there is something better than it.” 44. Second degree of knowledge. When a person, having left the first degree, is busy with spiritual thoughts and wishes; then, in the light of the nature of the soul, he performs the following excellent deeds: fasting, prayer, almsgiving, reading the Divine Scriptures, a virtuous life, struggle with passions, and so on. For all the good deeds, all the wonderful differences discerned in the soul, and the wonderful ways used for service in the court of Christ, in this second degree of knowledge, in the work of its power, are accomplished by the Holy Spirit. And it shows the heart the paths that lead us to faith, and it collects parting words for the true age. After repentance, works of good deeds and asceticism, in the form of cleansing the heart, with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. But even here, leading is still physical and complex. It contains only the path that leads and carries us to faith. There is also a higher degree of knowledge. And if anyone succeeds, he will find the opportunity, with the help of Christ, to be elevated to it, when he lays the foundation of his work in silent distance from people, in reading the Scriptures, in prayer, and in other good deeds, by which everything related to the second knowledge is accomplished. And it is through him that everything beautiful is accomplished; it is called conducting business; because by sensual deeds, through the mediation of bodily senses, he accomplishes his work on the external level. 45. The third degree of knowledge is the degree of perfection. Listen now to how a person becomes refined, acquires spirituality, and becomes likened in life to invisible forces, who carry out their service not through sensually performed deeds, but through thoughtfulness of the mind. When knowledge ascends above the earthly and above the cares of doing earthly things, and begins to test its thoughts in what is hidden from the eyes within, and grief spreads and follows faith in the care of the future age, and in the desire for what is promised to us, and in the search for hidden secrets; then faith itself absorbs this knowledge, and turns, and gives birth to it again, so that it becomes entirely spirit. Then it can soar on wings in the realm of the incorporeal, touch the depths of the intangible sea, imagining in the mind the Divine and wonderful actions of government in the natures of mental and sensory beings, and seeks out spiritual secrets comprehended by the simple and subtle mind. Then the inner feelings awaken for spiritual activity according to the order that will be in this life of immortality and incorruptibility; because even here, as if in secret, the mental resurrection took place as a true testimony of the general resurrection. 46. ​​Here are three ways of leading. – From the time a person begins to distinguish evil from good, and until he leaves this world, the knowledge of his soul remains in these three measures. And the fullness of all untruth and wickedness, and the fullness of truth, and in order to touch the depth of all the mysteries of the spirit, produces a single knowledge in the three said measures, and in it is contained every movement of the mind, when it ascends or descends, in good or in evil, or in the middle between good and evil. These measures are called by the Fathers: natural, unnatural and supernatural. And these are the three directions along which the remembrance of the rational soul rises and falls when, according to what has been said, either by nature one does the truth, or above nature admires its remembrance, in the contemplation of God outside of nature, or goes out to graze pigs, as one who has squandered the wealth of his prudence, working with many demons. 47. The first degree of knowledge cools the soul for the work of walking in God. The second warms the soul for a rapid flow to that which is at the level of faith. The third is peace from doing, enjoying the mysteries of the future in a single exercise of the mind. But since our nature cannot yet completely rise above the state of mortification and the burden of the flesh, then while a person lives in the flesh, he remains in a transitional state from one to another. Just like a poor beggar, his soul begins to perform service in the second, middle degree of virtue; then, like those who have received the spirit of sonhood, in the sacrament of freedom, they enjoy spiritual grace, according to the dignity of the One who gives it; and again returns to the humility of his deeds, performed with the help of the body. For in an imperfect age there is no perfect freedom. 48. The matter of knowledge in the second degree consists of doing and continuous exercise; His work, on the third degree, is the work of faith, which is not accomplished by works, but is fulfilled by spiritual ideas, in purely spiritual work; and it is beyond feelings. – We do not mean the faith that a person has in reasoning about the difference between the venerable Divine Hypostases and the wonderful economy in the incarnation by the perception of our nature, although this faith is extremely high; - but faith, shining in the soul from the light of grace, strengthening the heart with mental testimony, so that it does not waver in the certainty of hope, far from any doubt. And this faith is revealed not in the increased hearing of the ears, but in spiritual eyes that see the mysteries hidden in the soul, the invisible Divine wealth hidden from the eyes of the sons of the flesh, and revealed by the Spirit to those who are fed from the table of Christ, in the teaching of the law of Christ, as the Lord said: “If you keep My commandments, I will send you the Comforter of the Spirit, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, and He will teach you all the truth” (John 14, 17, 26). 49. Another difference in knowledge. Knowledge that deals with the visible, or accepts through the senses what is transmitted from the visible, is called natural. Knowledge, which deals with the power of the mind and within itself with the natures of incorporeal beings, is called spiritual; because the sensation is accepted by the spirit, and not by the feelings. And due to these two births (sensation of visible and spiritual things), both knowledge occurs in the soul from the outside. And the knowledge given by Divine power is called supernatural; and it is even more unknown, and above knowledge. And the soul does not receive contemplation of this knowledge from a substance that is outside it, as in the first two knowledges; but inside it itself, immaterially, tuna, soon and beyond expectation it is revealed and revealed from the very inside; because, according to the word of Christ, “The kingdom of heaven is within you” (Luke 17:21), it does not nourish hope by prototype, it does not come with observance, but within the image imprinted in the innermost mind, it is revealed by itself, without thinking about it. The first knowledge is the result of incessant study and diligence in learning; the second is a consequence of good living and reasonable faith; and the third is given as a lot to faith alone, by which knowledge is abolished and deeds come to an end. 50. Do not doubt the power of the prayers of our poetry, when during prayers, or hourly reading, they are not followed by strong excitement and incessant contrition. 51. The word spoken from experience must be accepted, although the one who spoke it is not a bookish person; because even though the royal treasures are greater than anyone else on earth, they do not neglect to accept in addition an ox taken from a beggar; and from small streams the rivers overflow and become great in their course. 52. The memory of good and the memory of evil, as if by a finger, point us either to the shamefulness of our thoughts, or to the height of our life, and each, according to its kind, strengthens our thoughts and movements, either in our souls or in our ears. We are busy with them in the secret of our mind; but in this mental activity the lot of our life is depicted, and in it we can see ourselves. 53. There is love like a small lamp fed by oil, with the depletion of which the lamp goes out, or a rain stream, the flow of which ceases with the depletion of its constituent rainwater. But there is love, like a spring gushing out of the earth that never runs dry. The first is human love; and the second is Divine, having God as its culprit. 54. Do you want to enjoy poetry during your service and comprehend the meaning of the words of the Spirit spoken by you? - Put aside the number of poems completely, do not take into account the knowledge of measure in poetry, leave the usual thunder; but delve your mind deeper into the study of the words of the Spirit until your soul is aroused to high understandings, and through this is moved toward glorification or useful sorrow. – In slavish work (in reading only what is required) there is no peace of mind; and confusion usually takes away taste from meaning and understanding and plunders thoughts. It is appropriate to call confusion the chariot of the devil, because Satan has the custom, like a rider, to sit on the mind, take with him a bunch of passions, enter with them into the unfortunate soul, and plunge it into confusion. 55. Do not contradict the thoughts planted in you by the enemy, but it is better to interrupt the conversation with them through a prayer to God. We do not always have the strength to rebuke opposing thoughts in such a way as to stop them; on the contrary, in this case, we often get an ulcer from them, which cannot be healed for a long time. Despite all your wisdom and all your prudence, your enemies will have time to defeat you. But when you defeat them; and then the impurity of thoughts will defile your mind, and the stench of their stench will remain in your sense of smell for a long time. Having used the first method, you will be free from all this and from fear; because there is no other help but God. 56. When, during your stay in cell silence, you turn to handicrafts; Do not turn your father’s commandment into a veil for your love of money. To avoid despondency, let you have a small task that does not disturb your mind; but do not forget that prayer in your rank is above all. 57. Be sure that your Guardian is always with you - and that, together with other creatures, you stand under a single Lord, Who with a single wave sets everything in motion and arranges everything. Stand courageously and be complacent. Neither demons, nor destructive beasts, nor vicious people can fulfill their will to harm you and destroy you, unless the will of the Ruler allows this, and does not give this place to a certain extent. Therefore say to your soul: “I have a Guardian who protects me; and not one of the creatures can appear before me, unless there is a command from above. If it is the will of my Lord that the evil ones should prevail over creation, then I accept this without being upset, as I do not want the will of my Lord to remain unfulfilled.” Thus, in your temptations you will be filled with joy, as one who knows and understands exactly that the Master’s command controls and disposes of you. So strengthen your heart with trust in the Lord. 58. Keeping the tongue not only makes the mind rise up to God, but also open deeds done with the help of the body secretly provides great strength for their accomplishment, and also enlightens in secret work, as the fathers used to say, because guarding the mouth makes the conscience rise up to God, if only one observes silence with knowledge. 59. Every thought of good desire will be followed by jealousy, its ardor likened to fiery coals; and she usually protects this thought, and does not allow any resistance, obstacle or barrier to approach it. This is virtue, without which good things cannot be produced. Someone clothed in Christ called this zeal a dog and a guardian of the law of God. This power of jealousy is awakened in two ways, strengthened and ignited, for the preservation of the home (soul) - and also in two ways it is reduced to exhaustion, drowsiness and laziness. Its awakening and ignition occurs (in the first place) when some kind of fear occurs to a person, causing him to fear for the good that he has acquired, or intends to acquire, so that it is not stolen or destroyed. When this fear is aroused, then jealousy flares up day and night like a blazing furnace - and, like the Cherubim, it constantly listens to what is around and diligently guards its own good, from all enemy temptations from within and without. And there is another way of igniting this jealousy - when the desire for virtue increases most in the soul. And to the extent that this lust grows in the soul, to the same extent zeal for virtue is inflamed. The first reason for its cooling is when the desire for good in the soul decreases or ceases; and the second reason is when some thought of confidence and courage enters the soul and establishes itself in it, and a person begins to hope, think and adhere to the thought that there is no reason for him to be afraid of being harmed by any force; Therefore, he lays down the weapon of jealousy, and the house becomes without a guard, the dog falls asleep, and leaves the guard for a long time. Both happen because some subtle thought of pride has entered the soul and nestled there; or the person began to indulge more in the care of the transient, or in the frequent seductive communication with the world for him. Or does this happen from the womb, this mistress of all evil. Every time an ascetic enters into communication with the world, his soul immediately becomes exhausted. The same thing happens when he comes into contact with many who, through vanity, inevitably crush his soul. The mind of an ascetic who enters into communication with the world is likened to a helmsman who calmly walks on the sea, and suddenly falls into the midst of reefs and is wrecked. 60. To prefer a good will is the work of the one who wishes; to complete the choice of good will is God’s work. For this, man needs God's help. Let us make sure that the good desire that appears in us is followed by frequent prayers, asking not only to help us, but also to show whether this desire is pleasing to the will of God or not. For not every good desire enters the heart from God, but only that which is useful. 61. Sometimes a person wishes good, but God does not help him; because sometimes such a desire comes from the devil, not to our benefit, but to our detriment, - or because the thing we desire is beyond our ability, since we have not yet achieved a life corresponding to it, - or because it is alien to the image we have adopted for ourselves, - or because the time has not yet come when it is possible to fulfill it, or to begin its fulfillment, - or because we have neither the knowledge nor the bodily strength sufficient for it, - or because the circumstances of the time are not conducive us in that. The devil, meanwhile, contrives in every possible way to embellish such a matter with plausibility, so that by inducing it to upset the peace of mind, or cause harm to the body. Therefore, good desires should also be carefully discussed. It’s better to do everything with advice. 62. Virtue is the mother of sorrow; from sadness comes humility; grace is given to humility. And then the reward is no longer for virtue, and not for work for its sake, but for the humility that is born from them. If it is lost, then the first will be in vain. 63. The Lord requires not only the doing of the commandments, but more than the correction of the soul, for which he legitimized the commandments. – The body acts equally in both the gums and the skin; At the same time, the mind is right or wrong, judging by its mood. 64. Gift without temptation is destruction for those who accept it. If you do good before God, and He gives you a gift; beg Him to give you the ability to humble yourself, as much as is appropriate for you, or to assign a guard to you over the gift, or to take it from you, so that it will not be the cause of death for you. For it is not beneficial for everyone to keep wealth. 65. Virtues are associated with sorrows. He who departs from sorrows will undoubtedly be separated from virtue. If you desire virtue, then surrender yourself to all sorrow. For sorrows give birth to humility. Until we achieve true knowledge, we will approach humility through temptations. He who abides in his virtue without sorrow, the door of pride is open to him. 66. When a person remains in pride, then the providential Angel, who is near him and arouses in him concern for righteousness, moves away from him. When a person offends this Angel and he moves away from him, then a stranger (the spirit of darkness) approaches him - and from that time he no longer has any concern for righteousness. 67. God often allows the virtuous to be tempted by something - allows temptations to rise up against them from everywhere, strikes them in their body, like Job, plunges them into poverty, causes humanity to retreat from them, defeats them in what they have acquired; only no harm comes to their souls. – And it is impossible that, when we follow the path of truth, we will not encounter sadness, the body will not become exhausted in illness and labor, and remain unchanged, if only we love to live in virtue. – When a person makes his procession according to God, and something similar comes across him; then it is not proper for him to deviate from his path, but he must joyfully, without inquisitiveness, accept this and thank God for sending him this grace, and for God’s sake he was deemed worthy to fall into temptation and become an accomplice in suffering with the Prophets, Apostles and other Saints, who endured sorrows for the sake of this path. Whether temptations come to him from people, from demons, or from the body, let this be a reason for thanksgiving for him. For it is impossible for God to show favor to the one who desired to remain with Him, and not by sending temptations to him for the sake of the truth; how can a person become worthy of being granted this greatness - i.e. to enter into temptation and rejoice is impossible without the grace of Christ. This matter is so great that St. Paul clearly calls it a gift when a person is deemed worthy to suffer for the sake of hope in God, saying to the Philippians: “It has been given to you from God not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him” (Phil. 1:29). Also St. Peter wrote in his epistle: “When you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed” (1 Peter 3:14), because you have become partakers of the passions of Christ. It is not right for you to rejoice while you live in abundance, but to lower your face in sorrows and consider them alien to the path of God. For from eternity and from birth his path has been paved by the cross and death. Where did you get this idea (it’s cool to follow God’s path)? - Find out from this that you are outside the path of God and moving away from it, you do not want to follow in the footsteps of the Saints, or you intend to arrange for yourself a different special path, and walk along it without suffering. The way of God is a daily cross. No one ascended to heaven living a cool life. - As for the cool path, we know where it ends. 68. True righteous people always think to themselves that they are unworthy of God - and the very fact that they are true righteous people is evident from the fact that they recognize themselves as damned and unworthy of God’s care, and confess this secretly and openly, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to remain in labor and hardship while they are in this life. God kept a time of rest for them in the next century. And having the living Lord within them, therefore they themselves do not want to be at peace and free from sorrow, although at times they are given mysterious consolation in the spiritual. 69. Such is the will of the Spirit that His beloved should remain in labor. The Spirit of God does not dwell in those who are at rest. This is what distinguishes the sons of God from others, that they live in sorrows; and the world is proud of luxury and peace. God did not deign that His beloved should rest while they were in the body, but rather He wanted them, while in the world, to remain in sorrow, in hardship, in labor, in poverty, in nakedness, in need, in humiliation, in insults, in a weary body, in sad thoughts, so that what was said to them would be fulfilled: “in a world of sorrow you will be” (John 16:33). The Lord knows that it is impossible for those who live in peace to remain in His love, and therefore denies them peace and enjoyment thereof. 70. Because of the love that the Saints showed for God, suffering for His Name, their hearts acquire the boldness to look at God with an uncovered face and ask Him with hope. – Great is the power of bold prayer. Therefore, God allows His Saints to be tempted by all kinds of sorrow, and also experience His help and how much God provides for them. As a result of temptations, they acquire wisdom, and from experience they draw knowledge about everything, so as not to suffer ridicule from demons. If God trained them in one good thing, then they would lack training in another part, and in battles they would be blind. 71. If a person is not first tempted by the test of evil, then he does not have a taste for good, so that when he encounters good in evil, he can use it with knowledge as his property. How pleasant is the knowledge that is actually borrowed from experience and from exercise, and what strength does it give to those who have acquired it in themselves through long-term experience - this is recognized by those who have experienced the assistance of this knowledge, as well as the weakness of nature and the help of Divine power - and are convinced of it. For only then will they know this when God, having first withheld His power from assisting them, brings them into consciousness of the weakness of nature, the difficulty of temptations, the cunning of the enemy, and the one with whom they are fighting, with what nature they are endowed, and how they were protected by Divine power, how many journeys they have made, how much God’s power has elevated them, and how weak they are in the fight against any passion, if they move away this God’s power comes from them, so that from all this they acquire humility, draw closer to God, begin to expect His help and remain in prayer. And how would they know all this if they had not gained experience about many bad things, having fallen into this bad thing by God’s permission, as the Apostle says: “Because of the many revelations, let me not be exalted, since I have become a vile of the flesh, an angel of Satan” (2 Cor. 12:7)? But in temptations, repeatedly experiencing God’s help, a person also acquires firm faith; from which one becomes fearless and acquires complacency in temptations. 72. Temptation is useful for every person. Ascetics are tempted to add something to their wealth; relaxed, to protect themselves from harm; immersed in sleep in order to prepare for their awakening; standing far away in order to bring them closer to God; theirs to God, so that they may rejoice with boldness. “Every untrained son receives wealth from his Father’s house to no advantage to himself. That is why God first tempts and torments, and then shows the gift. 73. A person, while in negligence, fears the hour of death; and when he approaches God, he is afraid of facing judgment, but when he enters completely into the foreground, then both fears are absorbed by love. - Why is this? - Because as long as a person remains in the knowledge and living of the body, he is horrified by death. When he is in spiritual knowledge and living a good life, then his mind is occupied every hour with the remembrance of the future judgment; since he stands right by his nature, moves in spiritual rank, is engaged in his knowledge and life, and is well-ordered in order to draw closer to God. But when he reaches this knowledge of the truth, after the knowledge of the mysteries of God is aroused in him and after the hope of the future is confirmed; then both the physical man, like an animal who fears slaughter, and the rational man, who fears the judgment of God, are consumed by love; the one who has become a son is adorned with love, and not frightened, he is admonished with a rod, saying: “And I also will serve the house of my father to the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). 74. Blessed is he who is always thinking about God, and who is alone with Him in the conversation of his knowledge. The joy of God is stronger than life here; and whoever has found it will not only not look at suffering, but will not even look at his life. Love is sweeter than life, and understanding according to God, from which love is born, is even sweeter than honey and honeycomb. It is not sadness for love to accept a hard death for those who love. Love is a product of knowledge; and knowledge is a product of mental health, and mental health is strength that comes from prolonged patience. 75. Eternal life is consolation in God; and whoever has found consolation in God considers worldly consolation unnecessary. Whether someone has received wisdom from the Spirit, he knows from wisdom itself, which in his innermost being and in his feelings teaches him humble morals. Whether someone has achieved humility, he will know from this if he finds it disgusting to please the world with his communication with it, or with his word; and if in his eyes the glory of this world is hateful. 76. Passions (in action) are impulses that, being produced by the things of this world, entice, under the pretext of necessity, to satisfy the needs of life; and these battles do not cease as long as this world stands. But a person who has been honored with Divine grace, has tasted and felt something higher than this, does not allow these attacks to enter his heart; because instead of them, another, their best, desire has prevailed in him - and neither these battles themselves, nor what they generate, come close to his heart, but they remain externally ineffective - not because there are no longer passionate battles, but because the heart that receives them is dead to them and lives by something else; not because the person has calmed down as a result of maintaining prudence and deeds, but because there is no anxiety in his mind from anything, his consciousness is saturated, having enjoyed something else. 77. If we keep the law of sobriety and the matter of prudence in our knowledge, then the fight against passionate battles will not come any closer to the mind. They are forbidden to enter the heart due not to struggle, but to the satiety of consciousness and knowledge with which the soul is filled, and the desire for wonderful contemplations found in the soul. While a person lives, he needs sobriety, guardianship and vigilance in order to guard his treasure. But if he leaves the limit (fast) assigned to him, he will become weak and will be robbed. You should not work until you see the fruit; but we must strive until the very end. For often a ripe fruit is suddenly destroyed by hail. 78. If we train ourselves to think well (teaching in the heart); then we will be ashamed of passions as soon as we meet them. But we will be ashamed of approaching passions because of their guilt. 79. When, out of love for God, you want to accomplish some deed, set death as the limit of this desire; and in this way, in fact, you will be worthy to ascend to the level of martyrdom in the fight against every passion, and you will not suffer any harm from what meets you within this limit, if you endure to the end and do not relax. The thoughts of a weak mind make the power of patience weak; but a strong mind imparts strength to those who follow its thoughts, which nature does not have. 80. The life of this world is like tracing letters on tables; and when anyone wants and wishes, he adds and subtracts to them, and makes a change in the letters. And the future life is like manuscripts inscribed on blank scrolls, sealed with the royal seal, in which neither addition nor subtraction is allowed. Therefore, while we are in the midst of change, let us be attentive to ourselves and while we have power over the handwriting of our life, which we write with our own hands, we will try to make additions to it with a good life, and to erase in it the shortcomings of the previous life. For while we are in this world, God does not put a seal on either good or bad, until the very hour of our departure from this life. 81. Prayer needs exercise so that the mind can remain in it for a long time. Prayer is preceded by hermitage (solitude, distraction of thoughts from everything extraneous). Hermitage is necessary for the sake of prayer, and prayer is necessary in order to acquire God’s love for us; because as a result of prayer, reasons are found to love God. 82. We must know that every conversation with God, carried out in secret, 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 into one - whether you mean various readings, or the voice of the mouth in praise to God, or caring sorrow for the Lord, or bodily prostrations, or psalmody, or all other things that make up the entire order of genuine prayer, from which the love of God is born; because love comes from prayer, and prayer comes from being in solitude; We need solitude so that we can more conveniently talk with God. 83. Keep yourself from conceit during good changes in you. Diligently reveal your weakness and ignorance in considering the subtleties of this conceit to the Lord in prayer, so that you will not be abandoned and not be tempted in anything shameful; because pride follows fornication, and conceit follows deception. 84. When you put all other ascetic deeds on one side, and silence on the other, you will find that it outweighs on the scales. People have a lot of advice; but when someone becomes close to silence, the work of keeping them will become unnecessary for him, and the previous works will turn out to be unnecessary, and he himself will turn out to have surpassed these works; because it is close to perfection. 85. May alms always prevail over you. Let our mercy be a mirror so that we can see in ourselves that likeness, and that true image that exists in God’s nature and in the essence of God. A cruel and unmerciful heart will never be cleansed. A merciful person is the doctor of his soul; because, as if with a strong wind, he disperses the darkness of passions from his insides. This, according to the Gospel word of life, is a good debt given by us as a loan to God. 86. When you approach your bed, tell her: “This night, perhaps, you will be my coffin, my bed; and I don’t know if this night, instead of a temporary sleep, an eternal future dream will come to me.” Therefore, while you have legs, follow the doing, before you are bound by bonds that cannot be resolved. As long as you have fingers; crucify yourself in prayer before death comes. As long as you have eyes; fill them with tears before they are covered with dust. Like a rose, as soon as the wind blows on it, it fades; so if within you you breathe on one of the elements that make up your composition, you will die. Place it in your heart, man, that you are about to depart immediately, and constantly say to yourself: “There is a messenger already at the door who has come for me. Why am I sitting here? - My migration is eternal; there will be no return." 87. He who loves conversation with Christ loves to be alone. And whoever loves to stay with many is a friend of this world. If you love repentance, love silence. For without silence, repentance does not reach perfection. If you love silence - the mother of repentance, then love with pleasure the slightest bodily harm, and the reproaches and insults that will be poured on you for silence. Commitment to silence is a constant expectation of death. Whoever enters into silence without this thought cannot bear what is inevitably associated with this way of life. 88. Let us love silence until peace is killed in our hearts. Let us always remember death, and in this thought draw closer to God with our hearts, and worldly pleasures will become despicable for us. 89. One of the silent people said: “I strive in silence so that the verses may be enjoyed for me when reading and praying. And when my tongue becomes silent from pleasure at understanding them; then, as if in some kind of dream, I come to a state of compression of my feelings and thoughts. And then, when, during the duration of this silence, my heart calms down from the rebellion of memories, then waves of joy are constantly sent to me by inner thoughts, which, beyond expectation, suddenly come to the delight of my heart.” 90. Another said: “Silence cuts off the pretexts and reasons for new thoughts, and inside its walls it brings the memories of what we have done before to decay and fade. And when the old substances in thought become dilapidated, then the mind, correcting them, returns to its rank.” 91. Another also says: “Choose for yourself a delightful work - unceasing vigil at night, during which all the fathers put off the old man, and were deemed worthy of renewal of mind. In these hours the soul feels this immortal life, and by the sensation of it it takes off the garments of darkness and receives the Holy Spirit into itself.” 92. And one more thing: “these feelings” (external) cannot be subordinated to the power of the soul without silence and alienation from people; because the rational soul, being essentially connected and associated with these feelings, them and its own, under the impression of them, is involuntarily carried away by thoughts if a person is not awake in secret prayer.” 93. Just as from the seed of the sweat of fasting the ear of chastity grows, so from satiety - a lustful burning sensation, and from satiety - uncleanness. With a hungry and humble belly, shameful thoughts cannot penetrate into the soul. 94. How your beauty and chastity are illuminated by reclining on the bare ground, by the labor of hunger that takes away sleep, by the suffering of the flesh, which, when abstaining from food, between the ribs and belly becomes like a deep ditch! Every food that we accept internally and every resting place for the flesh forms in us shameful ideas and ugly dreams; and they, when generated, irritate us to a secret inclination to shameful deeds. But the emptiness of our belly and our thoughts makes us a deserted country, not disturbed by thoughts, and silent from all rebellious thoughts. 95. Some necessary instructions to the silent: If, during various services, you are, as far as possible, from soaring your mind, and suddenly the verse on your tongue is stopped, and the shackles of silence are imposed on your soul, without the participation of your freedom, and this follows a long stay in silence; then know that you are stretching forward in your silence, and that meekness has begun to deepen in you. For simple silence is truly worthy of condemnation. If you notice in your soul that with every thought that arises in it, with every remembrance, and during contemplations that happen in your silence, your eyes fill with tears, and tears flow freely down your cheeks; then know that an opening has begun to appear before you as a barrier to the destruction of those who resist. If you find in yourself that from time to time your thought, without prior thought, outside the usual order, plunges inside you, and remains in this state for about an hour, or for some time, and then you notice that peace reigns in your thoughts - and the same thing is always repeated with you; then know that a cloud has begun to overshadow your tabernacle. If, when you enter into this matter, you do not find peace from the passions that trouble you; then don't be surprised. If the depths of the world, after the sun's rays move away from it, remain dark for a long time, the smell of medicine and the aroma of peace, spreading in the air, remain for a considerable time before they dissipate and disappear; then even more so passions, like dogs accustomed to licking blood in a butcher's shop, when they are not given ordinary food, stand and bark until the strength of their former skill is crushed. When you stretch forward, you will find the following clear signs close to your soul: you will be strengthened in everything by hope and enriched by prayer, - the things that serve for your benefit will never become scarce in your mind whenever you meet people and feel the weakness of human nature (each such case will protect you from pride), - the shortcomings of your neighbor will become unworthy of attention in your eyes - you will desire You will leave this body with the same desire with which you would remain in the next century - about every sorrowful adventure that encounters you openly and secretly, you will find that all this has come to you in justice and judgment, and you will bring thanks to God for that. 96. Passions are set in motion either by some images, or by feeling without images, and by memory at first without passionate movements and thoughts, which then produces irritation. 97. Constant vigil with reading, and after it frequent bowing, will not slow down the zealous ones to give a peaceful dispensation of the heart. And whoever found it, found it precisely by these means. Those who wish to acquire it again need to remain in silence, and at the same time in doing what has been said; First of all, they need not to become attached to anything other than their soul with their thoughts, but to practice in internal work, and even in the reasoning of the affairs themselves, to practice in those in which we especially find close to ourselves a certain feeling that confirms us in a good mood. 98. In every rational nature there are changes without number, and with every person changes occur hourly. A sensible person can gain wisdom in understanding this by testing himself; If he stays sober and watches himself in his mind, he will easily find out what change his thoughts take and how suddenly from a peaceful state he comes into confusion and for what reasons. About this and St. Macarius wrote as an instruction to the brethren, so that, during a change to the contrary, they would not fall into despair; because even with those who stand at the level of purity, like cooling with air, a fall from a better to a worse state always happens, while there is no negligence or indulgence in themselves; on the contrary, even when they observe their rite, similar falls happen to them, contrary to the intention of their own will. The blessed one asserts the same thing. Mark, saying: “Changes in everyone happen like in the air.” In everyone, that is, not only in the lowest and worst, but also in the perfect. Just as in nature there is cold and soon then heat, there is also hail and not much later a bucket: so it happens in our exercise, then scolding, then help from grace; sometimes the soul is overwhelmed and cruel waves rise up against it - and again a change occurs, because grace visits and fills a person’s heart with joy and peace from God, with chaste and peaceful thoughts. 99. So, when you are overwhelmed, do not despair, and when you are overshadowed by peace, do not become arrogant. On the contrary, consider better the unclean thoughts in yourself and those indecent images that have become established in your mind during the overwhelm, in the hour of confusion and disorder of thoughts; - think about how quickly you deviated into passion and talked with them in a clouded mind; and know that all this, to our humility, was brought upon us by God’s Providence, which provides for each of us and arranges what is useful to whom. 100. Humility makes many sins forgivable even without heroic deeds; without humility, exploits are useless, and they even prepare a lot of bad things for us. What salt is to all food, humility is to all virtue. To acquire it, one must constantly grieve in thought with humiliation and rational pain. And if we acquire it, it will make us sons of God. 101. Our Lord indicated the support of our weakness in prayer, saying: “Wake up, watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune” (Matthew 26:41). Pray and be not lazy, being watchful and praying at all times (Col. 4:2-3). Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; press and it will be opened to you. “Everyone who asks receives it, and he who seeks finds it, and it will be opened to the one who interprets” (Matthew 7:7-8). He especially confirmed this word of His, and moved us to greater diligence with the parable of a friend who came to his friend at midnight and asked him for bread. The Lord says: “Amen, I say to you, if he does not give it to him, he is not his friend, but because of his recklessness, when he arises, he will give it to him, as much as he demands” (Luke 11:8). And you pray, and do not be careless. What an unspeakable encouragement to boldness! 102. The Lord knows that before death He will not take away from us the opportunity to deviate, that this change is very close to us, namely, the transition from virtue to vice, that man and his nature accept the opposite; why he commanded us to be careful and strive in constant prayer. And not only for the sake of protecting ourselves from obvious change did He command us to pray; but also because of the subtlety and incomprehensibility of what always meets us and is not comprehended by the knowledge of our mind in those states in which we often find ourselves not voluntarily. For, although thoughts are very firm and clinging to good; however, His Providence repeatedly leaves us in the midst of temptations, and plunges us into them, as Blessed Paul said: “I have been given a sinner of the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7-9). 103. This world is a competition and a field for competition. This time is a time of struggle. But during a struggle, and during a competition, there is no law, i.e. The king does not set a limit for his warriors until the competition is over, and every person is brought to the door of the King of Kings and there he is tested to see whether he has won the competition or turned his spine. There is only one law - to stay awake and resist. - Let us not neglect prayer, and let us not be lazy to ask for help from the Lord, without Whom we cannot do anything that pleases Him. – Let us firmly keep in mind that while we are in this world and left in the flesh, even if we ascend to the vault of heaven, we cannot remain without deeds and labor, and be without care. 104. The perfection of this field lies in the following: in repentance, purity and self-improvement. (The repentant enters into a struggle with passions - and fights until the heart is cleansed of them; cleansing the heart is the limit of the struggle, and the door to the realm of perfection). 105. Someone was asked: “What is repentance?” And he answered: “leaving the past and sorrow for it”; also: “a contrite and humble heart.” 106. And it was also asked: “How can a person acquire humility?” And he said: “by constant remembrance of one’s sins and the proximity of death, by poor attire, by choosing at all times the last place, and in any case willingly taking upon oneself the most inferior and humiliated affairs, by not being disobedient, by remaining silent, by not liking going to meetings, by wishing to remain unknown and not chosen for anything, by not keeping any thing at one’s complete disposal, by hating conversation with many faces, - not to love profits, and above this, with your mind, to be above that, no matter how you blame and blame every person, and above envy, - not to be the kind of person whose hands would be on everyone, and on whom everyone would have their hands, but to go about his business alone in solitude, and not to take care of anything in the world except himself. In short: a wandering life, poverty and solitude - this is what gives birth to humility and purifies the heart.” 107. The sign of those who have achieved perfection is this: “if they are handed over to be burned ten times a day for love for their neighbors, they will not be satisfied with this, as Moses showed” (Ex. 32:32), and Blessed. Paul (Rom. 9:3), and other Apostles. – God gave His Son up to death on the cross, out of love for creation. And if He had something more precious, He would have given it to us in order to thereby acquire our race for Himself. – Imitating this, all the Saints, striving for perfection, strive to become like God by the perfection of love for their neighbor. 108. No one can ascend to the level of this love if he does not secretly feel his hope. Those who love this world cannot acquire love for people. When someone acquires love, together with love he puts on God Himself. And the one who has acquired God must not only not agree to acquire anything else with Him, but also put off his body. If anyone puts on love for the world in this world and in this life; then he will not put on God until he leaves this. For God Himself testified to this, saying: “Unless anyone forsakes this and hates his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). You should not only leave it, but also hate it. 109. Why is hope so sweet, and with it all things are easy? - Because at this hour a natural desire (for well-being) awakens in the souls of the Saints, but hope allows them to drink this in the monastery from its cup, and makes them drunk. That is why they no longer feel labor, but become insensitive to labor, to sorrows, and throughout their procession they think that their procession is taking place as if through the air, and that they are not walking with human feet; because the difficulty of the path is invisible to them, there are no hills or streams before them, and the sharp paths are smooth for them (Isa. 40:4). Their attention is turned to the bosom of their Father, and hope itself, as if with a finger, at every moment points out to them the distant and invisible, visible however with the hidden eye of faith, and the desire for this distant, as if with fire, kindles all parts of the soul. All the aspiration of their thoughts extends there, and there they always hasten to reach. - So hope kindles them like fire, and they cannot give themselves rest in the rapid and incessant flow, which is accomplished with joy. 110. Dispassion consists not only in not feeling passions, but also in not accepting them into oneself. Due to the many and various virtues, obvious and hidden, acquired by the Saints, the passions have become weak in them, and cannot easily rise up in the soul and their mind does not need to constantly be attentive in their reasoning; because at all times he is filled with thoughts that are consciously aroused in the mind by thinking and talking about the most excellent morals. And as soon as passions begin to be aroused, the mind is suddenly delighted by the approach to them by some kind of understanding that has penetrated the mind; and passions, as the blessed one said. Mark, remain in them, as if idle. 111. The mind, by the grace of God, performing virtuous deeds and approaching knowledge, feels little of what constitutes the bad and unreasonable part of the soul. For knowledge delights him in height, and alienates him from everything in the world. And because of the integrity of the Saints, and the subtlety, flexibility, and sharpness of their minds, and also because of their feat, their mind is purified and turns out to be enlightened, according to the dryness of their flesh. And, as a result of teaching them silence and a long stay in it, each inner contemplation is easily and quickly given, and leads them to amazement at the contemplated. At the same time, they usually abound in contemplations, and their minds never lack objects of understanding, and they are never without something that produces the fruit of the spirit in them. Long-term practice erases the memories in their hearts, which arouse passions in the heart, and weakens the power of the devil's power. For when the soul does not make friends with the passions by thinking about them, then, since it is incessantly occupied with other concerns, the power of the passions cannot hold its spiritual feelings in its claws. 112. Just as conceit carries the soul away and gives it freedom to soar in the clouds of its thoughts and circle throughout creation, so humility gathers the soul into one in silence - and it concentrates in itself. Just as the soul inside the body is hidden from sight and from communication with all people, so a truly humble person not only does not want to be seen and known by people, but even this is his will - to plunge from himself into himself, to become nothing, as if not existing, not yet come into being. – And while such a person is hidden, enclosed in himself and separated from the world, he remains entirely with his Master. 113. The humble man never stops to look at meetings, crowds, excitement, noise, revelry - he does not pay attention to words, conversations, cliques and dispersion of feelings - he wants not only to have a lot and to be in constant business, but to be free at all times, not to have worries, so that his thoughts do not come from outside him. For he is sure that if he gives himself up to many things, he will not be able to remain without confusion of thoughts; because with many things there are many worries and a collection of complex thoughts; and through this the door to passions is opened, the silence of prudence is removed, and the door of peace is closed. Therefore, the humble man protects himself from many things; and through this at all times one is in silence, in peace, in peace, in modesty, in reverence. 114. In a humble person there is never haste, haste, confusion, hot or light thoughts, but at all times he remains at peace. There is nothing that could amaze, confuse, or terrify him; because neither in sorrows is he horrified and does not change, nor in joy is he surprised and does not expand. But all his joy and joy is about what pleases his Master. 115. The humble person does not dare to pray to God or ask for anything, and does not know what to pray for; but he is only silent with all his feelings, waiting for one mercy and the will that will come for him from the face of the venerable Majesty - when he bows his face to the ground, and the inner vision of his heart is raised to the gates of the Holy of Holies, where He, whose dwelling is darkness, before whom the eyes of the Seraphim are drawn together, - and dares only to speak and pray: “according to Thy will, O Lord, be it with me.” 116. Walk before God in simplicity, and not in mental philosophies. Faith follows simplicity; and behind the sophistication and resourcefulness of wisdom there is conceit; conceit means moving away from God. 117. When you come before God in prayer, become in your thoughts like a speechless baby. Do not say anything from knowledge before God, but draw closer to Him with your childish thoughts, and walk before Him, so that you may be worthy of that paternal providence that fathers have for their infant children. It is said: “The Lord protect the infants” (Ps. 114:5), not only those little in body, but also those wise in the world who, having abandoned their knowledge, by their own will became like infants, and began to learn that all-sufficient Wisdom, which is not achieved through the labors of learning (bookish). Ask God to let you come to the measure of this faith. Don’t pray for this lazily, ask for this with fervor, beg for this with great zeal until you receive it. You will be worthy of this if you first, with faith, force yourself to cast your care on God, and replace your care with His providence. And when God sees this will in you, that with all your pure thought you have trusted in God Himself more than in yourself, and forced yourself to trust in God more than in your soul: then this unknown power will dwell in you, and you will tangibly feel that with you there is undoubtedly strength - that power that, having felt in themselves, many go into the fire and are not afraid, and walking on the waters, do not waver in thought their fear that they will drown. 118. Don’t you think that in every possible way this spiritual knowledge can be accepted by another as spiritual knowledge? – Not only is it impossible to accept this spiritual knowledge with this spiritual knowledge, but it is not even possible for any of those who zealously practice spiritual knowledge to sense it. And if any of them want to approach another spiritual knowledge, then until they renounce this spiritual knowledge, and all the twists and turns of its subtleties, and its complex methods, and without putting themselves in an infantile way of thinking, they will not be able to approach, however little, spiritual knowledge. On the contrary, the skill and concepts of spiritual knowledge are a great obstacle for them until they erase this little by little. This spiritual knowledge is simple and does not shine through in the thoughts of the soul. Until the mind frees itself from the thoughts of many and comes to the single simplicity of purity, it will not be able to feel spiritual knowledge. 119. If you have once entrusted yourself to the Lord, who is all-sufficient to protect you and look after you, then do not worry about anything like that again, but tell your soul: “For me every task is sufficient for Him to whom I once committed my soul. I'm not here; He knows it." “Then you will actually see the miracles of God - you will see how at all times God is close to deliver those who fear Him, and how His Providence surrounds us, although invisible. But because the Guardian who is with you is invisible with your bodily eyes, you should not doubt Him, as if He does not exist; for He often reveals Himself to the eyes of the body, so that He may be pleased with you. 120. How soon a person will reject from himself all visible help and human hope, and with faith and a pure heart will follow God; Grace will immediately follow him and reveal its power to him in various aids. First, he opens it - in this visible way that touches the body, and helps him with providence for it, so that in this he can most of all feel the power of God's Providence for him. By understanding help in the obvious, he is assured of help in the hidden, - in the reasoning of which grace reveals to him the intricacy of difficult thoughts and thoughts, as a result of which a person easily discovers their meaning, their mutual connection, and their charm, and how they are born one from the other - and destroy the soul. At the same time, grace puts to shame in his eyes all the malice of the demons, and, as if with a finger, shows him what he would have suffered if he had not known this. Then the thought is born in him that he should ask for every thing, small and great, in prayer from his Creator. 121. When the grace of God confirms his thoughts so that in all this he trusts in God, then little by little he begins to enter into temptation. And grace allows temptations to be sent to him, corresponding to his extent, in order to inflict their power on a person. And in these temptations, help is tangibly approaching him, so that he may be in good spirits until he gradually learns and acquires wisdom, and in trusting in God begins to despise his enemies. For it is impossible for a person to become wise in spiritual battles, to know his Provider, to feel his God and to be intimately confirmed in faith in Him, except by the strength of the test he has passed. 122. Grace, as soon as it sees that a little conceit has begun to appear in a person’s thoughts, and he has begun to think highly of himself, immediately allows temptations to become stronger and stronger against him, until he recognizes his weakness and again in humility clings to God. 123. Do not be surprised that when you approach virtue, cruel and strong sorrows pour out on you from everywhere; because even that which is not accompanied by difficulty is not considered a virtue. That's why St. John (Kolov or Prophet) said: “virtue usually encounters difficulties; it is worthy of blame when it is tied to peace.” And blessed Mark says: “every perfect virtue is called a cross when it fulfills the commandment of the Spirit.” This is the Apostolic teaching that all who want to live in the fear of the Lord and in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). The Lord says: “Only whoever loses his soul for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). For this reason, at first He offers you the cross, so that you would first determine yourself to the cross, and then send your soul to follow Him. 124. Nothing is as strong as despair. It does not know that anyone has defeated it with its gums or with its hands. When a person in his thoughts deprives his life of hope, then there is nothing more impudent than him. None of the enemies can resist him, and there is no sorrow, the hearing of which would lead to exhaustion of his wisdom; because every sorrow that happens is easier than death, and he bowed his head to take death upon himself. 125. The hope of peace has at all times made people forget what is great, good and virtue. And before us and to this day, not because of anything else, but because of this very thing, people are exhausted, and not only do not gain victory, but are even deprived of the best. Therefore, let us say briefly that if a person neglects the Kingdom of Heaven, it is only because of the hope of little consolation here. Who doesn't know that birds approach the net with peace in mind? 126. When the mind becomes jealous of virtue, then the external feelings do not yield to victory over themselves to any difficulties. When the heart becomes jealous in spirit, then the body does not grieve over sorrows, does not become afraid and does not shrink from fear; for then the mind, like adamant, with its firmness resists all temptations. Let us become jealous, and the negligence that gives rise to laziness will flee from us. Jealousy gives rise to courage and gives the soul victorious strength. What power of demons can withstand when the soul stirs up its natural jealousy against them? 127. Our ancient fathers, knowing that our mind is not always able to stand on one thing and guard its guard, but at other times cannot even discern what harms it, clothed itself in non-covetousness, like a weapon, and went into the desert, where there are no everyday activities that serve as the cause of passions, so as not to have reasons for irritation, desires, and rancor. Against all this and the like, they strengthened and protected themselves with it, like an insurmountable pillar. 128. When a person is in non-covetousness, the thought of migration from this life incessantly comes to his mind - and he always takes care to prepare for that - he flees all peace, the thought of neglecting the world is vibrant in his mind, he acquires a strong heart to face dangers without fear, he is not afraid of death, because he every hour fixes his gaze on it, sorrows, if they occur, he accepts with joy and joy, knowing that they deliver crowns. If he happens to acquire something transitory, then at that very hour love for the body begins to awaken in his soul, thoughts arise about carnal peace, and about ways to get everything that serves to achieve it; from this, the firmness of heart that he had when in his non-covetousness was above the world is further taken away from him, and his soul begins to be overwhelmed by thoughts that make him fear for life, therefore his strong hope in God leaves him. 129. Various sayings. “Just as it is impossible for someone whose head is in the water to inhale the thin air, so it is impossible for someone who immerses his thoughts in the worries of this world to inhale the sensations of this new world. Just as a deadly stench upsets the body, so does an obscene spectacle upset the world of the mind. Just as glass cannot remain intact when colliding with a nearby stone, so a Saint, when he stays together for a long time and talks with his wife, cannot remain in his purity and not become defiled. Just as trees are uprooted by a strong and constant influx of water, so the love for the world is uprooted in the heart by the influx of temptations directed at the body. Just as bitter medicines destroy the impurity of bad juices in the body, so the cruelty of sorrows cleanses the heart from evil passions. Just as it is impossible for someone who spares his enemy on the battlefield to remain unharmed, so it is impossible for an ascetic to save his soul from destruction if he spares his body. Just as a young virgin, struck by the sight of something terrible, runs to her parents, grabs their clothes and cries out for help, so the soul, to the extent that it is oppressed and crushed by the fear of temptation, rushes to cleave to God, calling on Him in unceasing prayer. And while temptations continue to attack her one after another, she multiplies her prayer; and as soon as he receives liberation, he indulges in soaring thoughts. Just as another, having brought a great gift to the King, is rewarded by him with a tender gaze, so to the one who has tears in his prayer, the great King of the ages, God, forgives every measure of sin, and rewards him with a benevolent gaze. Just as a person who has a precious pearl with him, walking along a path where there are robbers, is in constant fear that he will be attacked and robbed, so the one who carries the pearls of chastity and walks in the world - this path full of enemies - cannot be free from the fear of these robbers until he comes to the abode of the tomb, i.e. to the land of rest. Just as a person who drinks wine on the day of mourning, having drunk, forgets all sadness about his difficult situation, so, intoxicated with the love of God, in this world, that is, in the house of mourning, forgets all his labors and sorrows, and because of his intoxication becomes insensitive to all sinful passions, his heart is strengthened by hope in God, his soul is light as a feathered bird, his mind every hour rises from the earth, above He soars with his thoughts of everything human and enjoys immortality with the Almighty. 130. Humility is the robe of the Divine. The Word made man clothed itself in it, and through it He spoke to us in our body, covering the valor of His greatness and His glory with this humility, so that the creation would not be deceived by looking at Him. The creature could not have looked at Him if He had not received parts of it, and thus began to talk with it. Therefore, everyone who puts on this robe of humility puts on Christ Himself; because in the likeness in which Christ was seen and lived with His creation, and He wished to be clothed according to His inner man. 131. Humility is a certain mysterious power, which, after the completion of all life, the perfect Saints will receive. This power is given only by those who are perfect in virtue through the power of grace, because this virtue contains everything. 132. Not everyone who is modest, silent, meek has already reached the degree of humility. And we will not call the one who is humble when remembering the falls, lamenting over them, humble, although this is commendable; because he does not yet possess humility, but cunningly brings it closer to himself - he only desires humility, but he does not yet have humility. A completely humble-wise person does not need to invent reasons for humility through his wisdom, but demonstrates humility in everything without labor or self-compulsion. 133. If anyone asks how to acquire humility, we will answer him: “It is sufficient for a disciple to become like his teacher, a servant like his master” (Matthew 10:25). Look how the One who commanded it and bestows this gift showed humility - imitate Him and you will acquire it. 134. We must in every possible way avoid everything that irritates evil passions in us, especially cutting off in ourselves the causes of passions and the things by which passions, even the smallest ones, are brought into action; when, in spite of this, passions begin to move, we must resist them and fight them. For both, the best thing is to immerse yourself in your inner man and remain there in solitude, constantly cultivating the vineyard of your heart. When our mind dwells there alone and as a hermit, then it is no longer the mind that wages war with the passions, but grace. 135. The purpose of the coming of the Savior, when He gave us His life-giving commandments, as cleansing medicines in our passionate state, was to cleanse the soul from the damage caused by the first crime and restore it to its primitive state. What medicine is for a sick body, so are commandments for a passionate soul. And it is clear that the commandments were established contrary to passions, for the healing of a criminal soul. 136. Damage came to us from the transgression of the commandments. From this it is already clear that health is restored again by keeping them. And without doing the commandments; Until we first of all follow this path leading to spiritual purity, we should not desire or hope for spiritual purification. And don’t say that God, even without doing the commandments, can by grace grant us spiritual cleansing. These are the Lord's judgments, and the Church does not command us to ask for anything like that. The Jews, during their return from Babylon to Jerusalem, followed the natural path; but Ezekiel arrived supernaturally in Jerusalem and, in Divine revelation, became a spectator of the future renewal. A similar thing happens in the discussion of spiritual purity. Others, through the trodden path, through keeping the commandments in a difficult life, with their own blood come to spiritual purity; while others are rewarded with it by the gift of grace. And the wonderful thing is that it is not allowed to ask in prayer for the purity given to us by grace, and to renounce the life of keeping the commandments. For to the rich man, who asked the Lord that, having created eternal life, I would inherit, the Lord clearly said: “Keep the commandments” (Luke 10:25). When the rich man wanted to know even more, then he said: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and take up your cross and follow after Me” (Matthew 19:21). And this means: die to everything that you have, then live in Me; leave the old world of passions, and then enter the new world of the spirit. For the Lord, having said: “Take up your cross” (Matthew 16:24), taught man to die for everything in the world. And when he killed the old man, or passions, within himself, then he said to him: follow Me. It is impossible for the old man to walk in the way of Christ. 137. Blessed Basil the Great, and blessed Gregory, who were lovers of the desert and praised silence, came to silence not because they did not practice doing the commandments, but lived first in the world, and kept the commandments that those living in society were supposed to keep, and then came to spiritual purity, and were honored with spiritual contemplation. And after this they hurried and went out into the desert silence; and from that time on they remained with their inner man; Therefore, they became speculative and remained in spiritual contemplation until they were called by grace to become shepherds of the Church of Christ. 138. The desert lulls passions. But what is required of a person is not just this - to lull his passions, but also to eradicate them, i.e. overcome when they persist against us. Passions that have been put to sleep awaken as soon as a reason for them to come into reality is encountered. Let us desire the desert not only because it lulls the passions, but let us wish that, in the absence of the sensual and in the distance from everyone, we may be wise in it, and so that the inner, spiritual man in Christ will be renewed in us; so that at every hour we can be observers of ourselves, and so that our mind becomes alert and guards itself every hour and the remembrance of its hope is not stolen from it. 139. Our Lord, in order to make us like the greatness of the Heavenly Father, appointed us mercy, but monks prefer silence to mercy. How is this reconciled? The Lord appointed mercy to make us like the Heavenly Father, because it brings the merciful closer to God. And we, monks, honor silence, not excluding mercy, but trying as much as possible to distance ourselves from vain care and rebellion; – we do not intend to resist duty (regarding our neighbors), but we care about silence in order (or rather to fulfill another higher duty) to remain in God-thought, through which we can most of all restore our purity and draw closer to God. If, for a certain time, there is a need for us among the brethren, we should not neglect it. Therefore, let us constantly force ourselves, at all times, to be inwardly merciful to every rational nature. For this is how the teaching of the Lord inspires us, and it is in this, and not in anything empty, that the difference between our silence lies. And we must not only preserve this inner mercy of ours, but, when circumstances call, we must not neglect to prove our love openly. 140. The Giver of Life concluded the fullness of the commandments in two commandments, which embrace all the others - in love for God, and in similar love for the image of God. And the first satisfies the goals of spiritual contemplation; and the second to contemplation and activity. For the nature of God is simple, invisible, and naturally has no need for anything, and consciousness, when deepening itself, naturally has no need in relation to God, in bodily activity, its activity is simple, and is found in a single part of the mind, in accordance with the simplicity of the venerable Guilt, which is above carnal feeling. And the second commandment, i.e. love for mankind, due to the duality of nature, requires that we, what we perform invisibly in consciousness, similarly want to fulfill physically. Since activity everywhere precedes contemplation, it is impossible for anyone to rise to the realm of this highest unless he first fulfills the lower by deed. And not a single person dares to say regarding love for his neighbor that he succeeds in it with his soul, if he has left that part which, to the best of his ability, in accordance with the time and place, is fulfilled physically. For only with this fulfillment does it become certain that there is perfect love in a person. And when we are, as far as possible, faithful and true in this, then the soul is given the strength to reach in simple and incomparable concepts to the great region of lofty and Divine contemplation. And where it is not possible to fulfill love for our neighbor in visible, bodily deeds, there it is sufficient before God for our love for our neighbors, accomplished only with the soul. 141. He who wishes to love God must above all take care of the purity of his soul; purity of the soul is acquired by conquering and exterminating passions. Passions are a door closed in the face of purity. If someone does not open this closed door, he will not enter the immaculate and pure region of the heart. And without this, the soul cannot have boldness at the hour of prayer; for this boldness is the fruit of purity and labor to acquire it. This is the order in which all this is accomplished: patience, by forcing itself, fights passions for purity; if the soul overcomes passions, it acquires purity; and true purity causes the mind to acquire boldness in the hour of prayer. 142. Let us renounce asking God for anything high; but most of all, let us acquire patience for everything that happens to us - and in great humility and contrition for what is in us and for our thoughts, we will ask for the remission of our sins and spiritual peace. One of the Fathers wrote: “whoever does not consider himself a sinner, his prayer is not accepted by the Lord.” It is written that the Kingdom of God will not come with observance” (i.e. in a noticeable manner) - (Luke 17:20). We, for our part, will try in every possible way to bring the area of ​​​​our heart into order by deeds of repentance and a life pleasing to God; The Lord’s will come by itself if the place in the heart is clean and not defiled. What we seek with observance, I mean the high gifts of God, is not approved by the Church of God; and those who accepted this acquired pride and downfall. And this is not a sign that a person loves God, but mental illness. And how can we strive for the high gifts of God, when Paul boasts of his sorrows, and considers fellowship in the sufferings of Christ to be a high gift of God? 143. While the soul is sick with passions, it does not sense the spiritual with its feelings, and does not know how to desire it; it desires it only according to the hearing of the ears and according to the scriptures. The secret doing of the commandments, with communion with Christ’s passions, heals spiritual strength from these diseases. Initially, our nature in the incarnation of Christ received renewal, participated in Christ’s suffering and death; and then, after renewal, through the outpouring of blood, it was sanctified and became capable of accepting new and perfect commandments. And if these commandments were given to people before the shedding of blood, before the renewal and sanctification of our nature; then, perhaps, the newest commandments, like the ancient commandments, would cut off only vice in the soul, but could not destroy the very root of vices in the soul. Nowadays it is not so: but the hidden work and new and spiritual commandments, which the soul keeps, having the fear of God, renew and sanctify the soul, and secretly heal all its members. For it is obvious to everyone what passion each commandment silently heals in the soul, and their effectiveness is felt by both the healer and the healed, as was the case with the bleeding woman. 144. Healing of the passionate part of the soul can also be accomplished by grace, as was the case with the blessed Apostles. But this is a matter of God’s special election; Usually the soul acquires health through legal means. Namely: whoever, by doing the commandments and the difficult deeds of true life, has overcome the passions, has acquired spiritual health in a legal, common way, and has been milked with milk outside the materialization of this world, and has cut off his former disposition in himself and was reborn, as originally, in the spiritual, and by grace, as having acquired the concepts of the inner man, he became visible in the realm of the spirit, and through it he accepted into himself a new, uncomplicated world. 145. When the mind is renewed and the heart is sanctified; then all the concepts that arise in him are excited in accordance with the nature of the world into which he enters. First, love for the Divine is aroused in him, and he desires communication with Angels and the revelation of the secrets of spiritual knowledge; his mind is purified by the spiritual knowledge of creatures, and the contemplation of the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, as well as the mysteries of the economy venerated for our sake, shines in him; and then completely enters into unity with the knowledge of the hope of the future. 146. If the soul, when confined in the region of passions, could truly comprehend the spiritual, then it would not have the need to ask and inquire about the mysteries of the spiritual world. But it is clear that training and knowledge of the passions are not beneficial, and are not sufficient to open the door that is closed in the face of purity. When passions are taken away from the soul, then the mind is enlightened and placed in a pure place of nature, and has no need for questions; because he clearly sees the benefits found in his place. For just as the external senses, not as a result of training, sense the natures and things that come into contact with them, but each sense naturally senses the thing it encounters: so, in a similar way, imagine spiritual contemplation. For the mind that looks into the innermost mysteries of the spirit, if it is in its natural health, fully contemplates the glory of Christ, and does not question or study, but enjoys the mysteries of the new world, above free will, in proportion to the ardor of faith and hope in Christ. 147. If you want your heart to become the abode of the mysteries of the new world, then first enrich yourself with bodily deeds, fasting, vigil, service, asceticism, patience, laying down your thoughts, and so on. Bound your mind by reading the Scriptures and delving into them, write the commandments before your eyes, and through constant prayer and self-absorption in prayer, eradicate in your heart every image and every likeness that you have previously perceived. Accustom your mind to always delve into the secrets of the Savior’s economy; stop asking yourself for knowledge and contemplation, which in their place and time exceed verbal description, and continue doing the commandments and labors in acquiring purity, and ask the Lord for yourself to be worthy of intelligent living. The beginning, middle and end of this life is the following: cutting off everything by union with Christ. If you desire to contemplate the mysteries, cultivate the commandments within yourself by deed itself, and not by mere desire to know them. Spiritual contemplation acts in us in the realm of purity. 148. Contemplation among the sons of the sacrament of faith is associated with faith, and grazes in the meadows of Scripture. Words that are incomprehensible to knowledge are made understandable to us with the help of faith, and we receive knowledge about them through contemplation, which occurs after purification. For spiritual mysteries, which are beyond knowledge, and which are not felt by either the bodily senses or the rational power of the mind, God gave us faith, by which we only know that these mysteries exist. And from this faith is born in us hope about them (that is, hope to understand them). By faith we confess that God is Lord, Master, Creator and Organizer of all things. From this, then, compelled by our conscience, we decide that we must keep His commandments, and understand that the old commandments are kept by fear, but the life-giving commandments of Christ are kept by love, as the Lord says: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter” (John 14, 15, 16). The coming of the Comforter calls the gift of revelation of spiritual secrets; Therefore, in receiving the Spirit, which the Apostles received, there is all the perfection of spiritual knowledge. And the Lord promised, begging His Father, to give them a Comforter, so that when they did the commandments and cleansed themselves, He would remain with them forever. You see that for keeping the commandments the mind is awarded the grace of mysterious contemplation and revelations of spiritual knowledge. 149. Keeping the commandments shows such power when it is done out of love for the One who gave them, and not out of fear. Therefore, the lawful door leading into contemplation is love. At all ascents of revelations of knowledge and mysterious contemplations, Divine love introduces and brings down those who acquire it. Therefore, first one must acquire love; and after that contemplation of the spiritual will be natural for us. And understand the wisdom of blessed Paul, how he abandoned all the gifts imparted by grace, and asked for the most essential - that by which gifts are received and preserved, i.e. love (1 Cor. ch. 13). She is a place of revelation; and in this place contemplation shows itself to us by itself. Just as, as the soul grows naturally, it accepts new and new knowledge about what exists in the world, and day by day it learns this more and more, so in the spiritual, a person accepts spiritual contemplation and Divine sensation, and learns this to the extent that the mind grows in rational living. When he comes to the region of love, then he contemplates the spiritual in its place. 150. While a person makes an effort for the spiritual to descend upon him, it does not submit. And if he boldly dreams, and raises his gaze to the spiritual, and reaches it with his understanding at the wrong time, then his vision soon becomes dull, and instead of the real, he sees ghosts and images. As soon as you comprehend this with your rational mind, you will not strive for contemplation at the wrong time. If it seems to you that even now (before entering the region of purity and love) you see contemplation, then this contemplation is the shadow of a ghost, and not contemplation; because everything mental has a likeness and a dreamy image, and there is also true contemplation. And in the natural order, sometimes the real is seen, and sometimes the opposite; the eye sees a shadow instead of reality, sees water where there is no water, sees buildings hanging in the air while they stand on the ground. Based on this physical phenomenon, imagine the same about the mental. 151. If the vision of the mind is not purified by doing the commandments, by the deeds of silent living, if it does not acquire the perfection of the light of love, and if it does not advance in the renewal of Christ with age, then it will not be possible to become a true spectator of Divine contemplation. Nevertheless, those similarities of the spiritual that the mind thinks to form for itself are called a ghost, and not reality. And this, that the mind sees one thing instead of the other, comes from the fact that it has not been purified. This also happened with external philosophers, who considered spiritual that which they did not accept the true teaching from God - and talked about it in inappropriate conceit, divided the one God in polytheism, spoke and agreed among themselves in the mockery of thoughts, and this dream of the madness of their thoughts was called speculation of natures. 152. True contemplation of the sensual and supersensible natures and the Holy Trinity itself is given in the Revelation of Christ. Christ taught him and showed him to people, when initially through His Hypostasis he renewed human nature, returned and gave him the first freedom, and Himself paved the way for us to ascend to the Truth with His life-giving commandments. And our nature is only then capable of becoming a spectator of true, and not dreamy, contemplation, when a person initially, through suffering, work and sorrow, puts off the old passionate man, just as a newborn baby puts off the clothes taken out of his mother’s womb. Then the mind, having been reborn spiritually, becomes capable of accepting the contemplation of its fatherland. 153. And this contemplation becomes food for the mind until it comes to the state of accepting contemplation higher than the first contemplation; because one contemplation transmits a person to another contemplation until the mind is brought into the region of perfect love. Love is the abode of the spiritual, and settles in the purity of the soul. When the mind becomes in the area of ​​love, then grace acts, the mind accepts spiritual contemplation, and becomes a spectator of the unseen. 154. In two ways, as I have already said, the gift of revelations of mental contemplation is given. Sometimes it is given by grace for ardent faith; and sometimes for doing the commandments and for purity. By grace, like the blessed Apostles, who purified their minds not by doing the commandments, but by ardent faith; because in simplicity they believed in Christ, and undoubtedly with an inflamed heart, they followed Him. And when Christ completed His venerable economy, He sent them the Spirit of the Comforter, Who cleansed and perfected their minds, and effectively put to death within them the old passionate man, and effectively revived in them the new spiritual man. – So Blessed Paul was renewed mysteriously, and then accepted the contemplation of the revelation of the mysteries. It is not written what Jesus talked to him about explicitly, but it is written that Ananias said to him: “Brother Saul, our Lord Jesus Christ, appear on the way, sending me to you so that your eyes may see and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17). - And when he baptized him, he was filled with the Holy Spirit; and felt the hidden secrets of revelations, as this happened with St. The Apostles, to whom the Lord Jesus said: “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now: but when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth, and He will tell you what is to come” (John 16:12.13). 155. And blessed Paul then, just as he received the Holy Spirit and was renewed by Him, was granted the mysteries of revelation, began to contemplate with the spirit of revelations, and enjoyed contemplation, heard ineffable verbs, saw the contemplation of the highest nature, was delighted with the contemplation of heavenly powers, and enjoyed the spiritual. And let it not be what the heretics (Euctites) claim in their madness, as if he achieved this ascent of his own free will! The mind cannot go there at all. On the contrary, Paul was delighted with the spirit of revelations, as he himself wrote in his letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 12:2.4), despite these vain people who likened themselves to St. The apostles also called the dreams of their thoughts spiritual contemplations. 156. In the reasoning of people who are filled with passions and enter into research about the laws of the corporeal and incorporeal, and therefore do not differ from the sick who teach the rules about maintaining health, one of the Saints wrote: “Blessed. Paul, when he learned about the disciples who neglected the commandments and did not conquer the passions, but lusted after the bliss in the contemplation of the mysteries, which is possible only after cleansing from them, said to them: first put off the old man of passions, and then desire to put on the new man, renewed by the knowledge of the mysteries in the likeness of the Creator, and do not covet my and the other Apostles’ bliss, effectually perfected by grace; because God wills and has mercy on him: “and he who wills will harden him” (Rom. 9:18). For who can resist His face, or resist His will? – God sometimes grants tuna; sometimes it requires works and purification, and then sends the gift, and sometimes even after works and purification it does not give here, but stores it in order to bestow contemplation in its place.” 157. We find that He does this also in consideration of a gift that is lesser in comparison with this, I mean forgiveness of sins. For baptism bestows tuna, and requires absolutely nothing except faith; when repenting of sins after baptism, he does not simply forgive, but demands work, sorrows, sorrows, contrition, tears, long-term crying - and then forgives. Tune forgave the robber for one confession with a word on the cross, and promised him the kingdom; and he also demanded faith and tears from the sinner. 158. The soul that loves God finds peace in God and in Him alone. First allow every external union within yourself, and then you will be able to be in union with God with your heart; because union with God is preceded by detachment from matter. Bread is given to a baby as food after he has been fed with milk: and a person who intends to succeed in the Divine desires first to remove himself from the world, like a baby from his mother’s embraces and suckles. Bodily work precedes spiritual work, just as dust preceded the soul blown into Adam. He who has not achieved physical activity cannot have mental activity; because the latter is born from the first, like a hair from a naked grain of wheat. And whoever does not have spiritual activity is deprived of spiritual gifts. 159. Just as sowing in tears is followed by the handles of joy, so suffering for the sake of God will be followed by joy. The bread produced by sweat seems sweet to the farmer: sweet is the doing of righteousness to the heart that has accepted the knowledge of Christ. With good will, endure both humiliation and humility, so that you may have boldness before God. A man with knowledge who endures every cruel word, when he himself has not first done untruth to the one who spoke it, although he places a crown of thorns on his head, is nevertheless blessed, because he is crowned incorruptibly, although he himself does not know it. 160. He who with knowledge flees from vain glory has sensed in his soul the future age. He who runs from peace in this present life, has a mind that has already looked ahead to the future age. And whoever is bound by covetousness is a slave of passions. Do not think that the mere acquisition of gold and silver is covetousness; it is the acquisition of anything - something to which your will is attached. Do not praise someone who suffers physically, but at the same time gives free rein to his senses, I mean hearing, gaping and uncontrollable lips, and wandering eyes. 161. Know that forgiving the sins of debtors is an act of righteousness. Then you will see silence and lightness everywhere in your mind. If a merciful person is not above his own truth, then he is not merciful - that is, a truly merciful person not only gives alms to people from his own, but also joyfully tolerates untruth from others and shows mercy to them. He who lays down his life for his brother is merciful, but not the one who only shows mercy to his brother through alms. And he is merciful who, if strangled by his brother, will not be so shameless as to answer and sadden his heart. 162. Love the practice of vigil, so that you may find consolation close to your soul. Engage in reading in silence, so that your mind is always raised to the wonders of God. Love poverty with patience, so that you can gather your mind into one from soaring. Hate the spacious life in order to keep your thoughts serene. Refrain from many things, and take care of one soul of yours in order to save it from the waste of inner silence. 163. Love chastity, so as not to be ashamed during your prayer before God. Acquire purity in your deeds, so that your soul is illuminated in prayer, and the remembrance of death kindles joy in your mind. Do not be lazy in your work, so as not to be ashamed when you become among your friends. Do not bind your freedom to what serves for pleasure, lest you become a slave of slaves. In your attire, love poor clothes, so as to disdain the thoughts that are born in you, that is, the arrogance of the heart. He who loves brilliance cannot acquire free thoughts; because the heart is internally tuned in the likeness of external images. 164. Humility is followed by abstinence and limitation in everything. Humility, due to constant self-restraint, comes into contemplation and adorns the soul with chastity; and vanity, due to constant rebellion and confusion of its thoughts, collects unclean treasures from everything it encounters and defiles the heart. It looks at the nature of things with an obscene gaze, and occupies the mind with shameful ideas, but humility spiritually improves itself through contemplation, and excites the one who acquires it to praise. 165. It is better for you to free yourself from the bonds of sin than to free slaves from slavery. It is better for you to make peace with your soul in the unanimity of the threefold composition within you, i.e. body, soul and spirit, rather than to pacify those who disagree with their teachings. Gregory says: “It is good to theologize for the sake of God, but it is better for a person to make himself pure for God.” It is more useful for you to take care to restore what has fallen in your soul from passions by exciting your thoughts to the Divine, than to resurrect the dead. 166. All the days of your life, wherever you go, consider yourself a wanderer, so that you can be able to get rid of the harm caused by freedom in circulation. Always bless with your mouth, and they will not slander you, because from slander comes slander, and from blessing comes blessing. In every matter, consider yourself poor enough to teach, and throughout your life you will prove wise. Do not tell others what you yourself have not experienced, so that you do not feel ashamed of yourself, and when your life is compared, your lies are not revealed. 167. Beware of reading heretical teachings, because this most often can arm the spirit of blasphemy against you. Often, even without being satisfied, read in the books of teachers about the Providence of God, because they guide the mind to discern order in the creatures and affairs of God, strengthen it with themselves, with their subtlety prepare it for the acquisition of luminous thoughts, and ensure that it goes in purity to the understanding of God’s creatures. Read the Gospel, bequeathed by God for the knowledge of the whole universe, so that your mind is immersed in the wonders of God. Let your reading be in undisturbed silence, and be free from preoccupation with the body and from everyday rebellion, so that in your soul, with sweet understanding, you can feel the sweetest taste, surpassing all sensation, and so that your soul feels this while it is in it. 168. Purify your soul, cast off concern for what is outside your nature, hang the veil of chastity and humility over your concepts and movements, and through this you will find what is inside your nature, because the revelation of mysteries is given to the humble. 169. If you intend to devote your soul to the work of prayer, which purifies the mind, and to staying awake at night in order to acquire a bright mind, then move away from the sight of the world, stop meeting with people, do not accept friends into your cell, as is customary, even under the guise of benefit, except those who are of the same mind, like-minded with you and your fellow soldiers; fear the embarrassment of spiritual conversation, and after cutting off external conversation, pair alms with your prayer, and your soul will see the light of truth. For to the extent that the heart ceases to be disturbed by external objects, to the same extent the mind can go from understanding the thoughts and deeds of the Divine to comprehension and amazement. For the soul will usually soon replace one conversation with another if we try to show little diligence. 170. To replace one interview with another (vain, soul-saving), read the Scriptures and the lives of the Saints. And when you begin to pray and practice your rule, then instead of thinking about what you have seen and heard in the world, you will find in yourself thinking about the Divine Scriptures that you have read, and by this reflection you will be led into oblivion that you were mindful of worldly things; and in this way the mind comes to purity. And this means what is written - that reading helps the soul when it comes to prayer; and also: the soul is enlightened by prayer in reading. And reading again, instead of external admixture, provides food for different types of prayer, and therefore by reading the soul is enlightened in order to always pray without laziness and without embarrassment. 171. It is no more proper for carnalists and gluttons to enter into the study of spiritual objects, just as it is not proper for a harlot to talk about chastity. An extremely sick body does not tolerate the fat in food: and the mind, occupied with worldly things, cannot approach the study of the Divine. Fire does not ignite in damp wood: and Divine ardor does not kindle in a heart that loves peace. Just as someone who does not see the sun with his own eyes cannot attribute its light to someone else just by hearing, he does not even feel this light: so he has not tasted with his soul the sweetness of spiritual affairs. 172. If you have anything extra for your daily needs, give it to the poor, and go boldly to offer your prayers, i.e. talk with God like a son with the Father. Nothing can bring the heart closer to God like almsgiving; and nothing produces such silence in the soul as arbitrary poverty. When you give, give with generosity, with kindness on your face, and provide more than what is asked. Do not try to distinguish the worthy from the unworthy; let all people be equal to you for good deeds. For in this way you can also attract the unworthy to goodness, because the soul through the physical is soon drawn into the fear of God. 173. Cleanse your cell from excesses, because this will lead you to abstinence, even if you don’t want to. Poverty in everything teaches a person abstinence. Those who have won the victory in the external battle - I mean the battle raised against the soul by the senses - hearing, sight, etc. - may not be afraid of the internal battle. When a person closes the city gates, i.e. feelings; then he fights within, and is not afraid of those who plot evil outside the city. Blessed is the one who, knowing this, does not bother himself with many things, but devotes all his bodily activity to prayerful work. 174. While God inwardly brings your heart to tenderness, constantly bow and genuflect. Do not allow your heart to worry about anything, if at this time the demons begin to convince you to do other things, and then watch and wonder what will happen to you from this. Nothing else in ascetic struggles is so important and difficult, and does not arouse such envy in demons, as if someone casts himself before the cross of Christ, praying day and night, and it is as if his hands were tied behind him. If you want not to cool down in your ardor and not become impoverished with tears, do this, and blessed are you if you take care of what is said to you day and night, and do not bother to ask for anything else. If you do not strive, you will not gain it, and if you do not strike the doors with ardor and constantly remain vigilant at them, then you will not be heard. 175. Until the outer man dies to everything worldly, not only to sin, but also to every activity, and also the inner man to evil thoughts, and the natural movement of the body is incapable of being aroused in the heart by sinful sweetness, until then the sweetness of the Spirit of God is aroused in man, his members will not accept purity in this life, Divine thoughts will not enter his soul and remain imperceptible and invisible. - And until a person in his heart brings into inaction the care of everyday things, except for the necessary needs of nature, and does not leave it to God to take care of this; Until then, spiritual rapture will not be aroused in him. 176. He who, with conviction and feeling, holds in his mind to what equality the common end of all leads, has no need for another Teacher to renounce the things of life. He who does not voluntarily withdraw from the causes of passions is involuntarily drawn into sin. The causes of sin are the following: wine, women, wealth, bodily health; however, not because these are sins by nature itself, but because nature conveniently inclines into sinful passions, and therefore a person must carefully guard against this. People are disgusted by poverty, but God is much more disgusted by an arrogant soul and a soaring mind. Wealth is an honor among people; but with God the humble soul is worthy. 177. If you want to start a good deed; First prepare yourself for the temptations that befall you. For it is the enemy’s custom, when he sees that someone has begun a good life with ardent faith, to meet him with various terrible temptations, so that, coming from this into fear, he cools down in his good will, and no longer has the ardor to approach God-pleasing work. Therefore, prepare to courageously face the temptations that are sent to the virtues, and then begin to practice them. 178. The commandments of God are higher than all the treasures of the world. Whoever acquires them finds God within himself. He who always rests in God's care has found God as his steward. Whoever desires to fulfill the will of God will have heavenly Angels as guides. He who is afraid of sins will make a terrible procession without stumbling, and during the darkness he will find light before him and within himself. The feet of one who fears sins are protected by the Lord, and during the creeping, the mercy of God precedes him. Whoever considers his sins to be small falls into the worst of his past and suffers sevenfold punishment. 179. Sow alms in humility, and you will reap mercy in judgment. When you have destroyed something good, acquire it again. You have destroyed chastity; God will not accept alms from you if you are in fornication; because he wants the holy body from you. And every ailment is cured with its own medicines. You are overcome by envy; Why are you intensifying your fight against sleep (and not against envy)? 180. While the offense is still small and not ripe, destroy it before it spreads its branches and begins to ripen. Do not indulge in negligence while the deficiency seems small to you; because later you will find in him an inhuman ruler and you will run before him like a slave or a prisoner. And whoever resists passion at the beginning soon dominates it. 181. He who can joyfully endure an insult, even having in his hands the means to repel it, has received consolation from God through faith in Him. And whoever with humility endures the accusations brought against him has achieved perfection, and the Holy Angels are amazed at him. For no other virtue will be so high and difficult to fulfill. 182. Do not trust yourself to be strong until you are tempted, and you will find yourself unchanged. Do not rely on your strength, lest you be allowed to fall through weakness; and then by your own fall you will recognize your weakness. Do not trust your knowledge, lest the enemy, entering the middle, catch you with his cunning. Never boast in your speech about your deeds, lest you be put to shame. In everything a person boasts about. God allows him to change so that he can be humiliated and learn humility. 183. Constantly raise your eye to God; because the Cover and Providence of God embraces all people, but He is invisible, and is revealed only to those who have cleansed themselves of sins, and to those who always think about God, and, moreover, about Him alone. Mostly, the Providence of God is revealed to them when, for the sake of God, they enter into temptation. For then they feel the Providence of God, as if seeing Him with their bodily eyes, in accordance with the measure and cause of the temptation that befalls each of them, in order to arouse these ascetics to courage, as was the case with James, Joshua, the three youths, Peter and other Saints, to whom Providence appeared in some human form, encouraging and confirming them in piety. 184. Is it necessary to say something about ascetics who are alien to the world and about hermits? They turned the desert into a city and turned it into a village and abode of Angels. Angels always came to them to improve their lives, and as warriors of the one Lord, from time to time they allied with each other. All the days of their lives they loved the desert, and out of love for God they had their homes in the mountains, dens and abysses of the earth. Just as they, having left the earthly, loved the heavenly, and became imitators of the Angels, the most holy Angels, in justice, did not hide their appearance from them for this, and fulfilled their every desire, and showed them every help in everything. 185. He who has once devoted himself to God forever spends his life in peace of mind. Without non-acquisitiveness, the soul cannot free itself from the rebellion of thoughts, and without bringing the feelings into silence, it will not feel peace in thought. Without entering into temptation, no one will acquire spiritual wisdom. Without diligent reading, you will not recognize the subtlety of thoughts. Without silence of thoughts, the mind will not move into the innermost secrets. Without trust in faith, the soul cannot boldly venture into temptation. Without experiencing the clear protection of God, the heart is unable to hope in God. If the soul with knowledge does not taste the sufferings of Christ, then it will not have fellowship with Christ. 186. He who has mercy on the poor has God as his guardian, and he who becomes poor for God’s sake will find endless treasures. God has no need for anything, but rejoices when he sees that a person gives rest to His image, and honors it for His sake. When someone asks you for what you have, do not say in your heart: “I will leave this for my soul to rest in, and God will give this one from another place what he needs.” Such thoughts are befitting of people who are unrighteous and do not know God. A just and kind person will not give his honor to another, and will not allow the time of grace to pass without action. A poor and needy person is supplied by God, because the Lord does not leave anyone; but you, having sent the poor one away from you, have deviated from the honor given to you by God and removed His grace from yourself. Therefore, when you give, rejoice and say: “Glory to You, God, that you have made me worthy to find someone to put to rest.” If there is nothing to give you, rejoice and, thanking God, say: “I thank You, my God, that You have given me this grace and honor to become poor for the sake of Your name, and have made me worthy to taste the sorrow laid on the path of Your commandments, in sickness and poverty, as Your Saints who walked this path tasted.” 187. Our nature has become easily receptive to passions; there are many temptations in the real world, evil is not far from you, it flows inside you and is under your feet. Just as the eyelids are close to each other, so temptations are close to people, and God has wisely arranged this for your benefit, so that you constantly strike at His doors, so that the fear of sorrow will instill the remembrance of Him in your mind, so that you draw closer to Him in prayer and your heart is sanctified by the constant remembrance of Him. God did not make you inaccessible to the deplorable, so that you, having desired to be God, would not inherit the same thing that was inherited by the one who was originally a star, and who later became Satan for his exaltation; and also did not create you steadfast and motionless, so as not to make you similar to the nature of inanimate creatures. 188. Continuously purify yourself before God, having the remembrance of Him in your heart, so that after remaining for a long time without remembering Him, you do not find yourself lacking boldness when you come to Him. For boldness before God comes from frequent conversation with Him and much prayer. Communication with people occurs through the body, and communication with God through spiritual remembrance of Him, attention to Him in prayers and complete surrender to Him. By maintaining the remembrance of God for a long time, the soul is at times brought into amazement and amazement. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord, you condemned ones, and be strengthened in hope; seek His face with repentance (Ps. 104:3.4) - and be sanctified by the sanctity of His face and cleansed from your sins. 189. When temptation comes upon the unrighteous, he has no hope to call on God and expect salvation from Him; because in the days of his repose he moved away from the will of God. Before sorrow comes upon you, pray to God; and in times of trouble you will find Him, and He will hear you. Noah's Ark was prepared during the time of peace; and its trees were dressed for a hundred years, and during the wrath the unrighteous perished, but it became a covering for the righteous. 190. In whom the world is dead, they endure insults with joy; and in whom the world is alive, they cannot tolerate insults, but, driven by vanity, they become angry, and from an unreasonable movement they become confused, or are overcome with sadness. Whoever wants to succeed in the virtues of patience with insults and generosity must move away from his relatives and become a wanderer; because in one’s own country it is impossible to succeed in this virtue. It is common for the great and strong to endure such suffering among their relatives - and only those in whom this world has died can do this; because they no longer expect any consolation in the present age. 191. Just as grace is close to humility, so painful adventures are close to pride. The eyes of the Lord are on the humble, to make them glad; the face of the Lord is against the proud, to humble them. Be easy to despise in your greatness, and not magnified in your smallness. He who strives for honor runs forward from him; and whoever runs away from honor is pursued from behind. Whoever hungers and thirsts for God's sake, God will intoxicate him with His blessings. He who endures nakedness for the sake of God is clothed by Him with the robe of incorruptibility and glory. He who becomes poor for God's sake is comforted by His true riches. Throughout your life, acknowledge yourself as a sinner, so that throughout your entire life you may be justified. Treat those who have humility, and you will learn their morals. Let it always be in your character to be friendly and respectful to everyone. 192. For the benefit of the soul, God allowed it to be accessible to the passions, but did not see it useful to place it above the passions before the second stage of existence. – And the soul being accessible to passions is useful for wounding the conscience; to be in passions is brazen and shameless. Just as rebellion of thoughts is born from gluttony, so from verbosity and disorderly conversations - meaninglessness and the departure of the mind from its rank. Concern about the things of life confuses the soul, and confusion over them confuses and deprives the mind of silence. A monk who has devoted himself to heavenly work should always be outside of all worldly concerns, so that, immersed in himself, he will not find anything that belongs to the present age. Having become abolished from all such things, he can no longer study in the law of the Lord day and night without entertainment. 193. Bodily labor without purity of mind is the same as a barren womb and withered breasts; because they cannot approach the knowledge of God. They tire the body but do not bother to eradicate passions in the mind; and therefore they reap nothing. Just as he who sows among thorns cannot reap anything, so he who destroys himself through rancor and covetousness cannot succeed in anything, but groans on his bed from insomnia because of the oppressive worry about business. 194. If the soul has shone with remembrance of God and vigilant vigil day and night, then the Lord arranges a cloud there (inside) to enclose it, overshadowing it during the day and illuminating its night with fiery light; in its darkness a light will shine. 195. Just as a cloud covers the light of the moon, so the vapors of a filled womb expel God’s Wisdom from the soul. As the flame of fire is in dry wood, so is the body when the belly is full. Just as one combustible substance applied to another increases the fiery flame, so the variety of brushes increases the lustful movement in the body. The knowledge of God does not dwell in a voluptuous body; and whoever loves his body will not benefit from God’s grace. Just as in the illnesses of birth a fetus is born that brings joy to the one who gave birth, so with the languor of the larynx, the fruit of knowledge of the mysteries of God is born in the soul. Just as a father cares for his children, so Christ cares for the body that suffers for His sake - and is always near His lips. 196. That wanderer who, with his thoughts, has become outside of everything worldly. The monk who is outside the world and always prays to God to grant him future benefits. The wealth of a monk is the consolation found in crying, and the joy of faith shining in the recesses of the mind. He is a virgin who has not only preserved his body undefiled by carnal intercourse, but is ashamed of even the slightest reminder of it. If you love chastity, drive away shameful thoughts by reading and prolonged prayer; and then you will have a weapon against natural impulses; and without this it is impossible to see purity in the soul. 197. If you are truly merciful, then when your property is taken away from you unjustly, do not grieve internally, and do not tell about the damage to outsiders. Let the damage caused by those who have offended you be absorbed by your mercy, just as the astringency of wine is absorbed by plenty of water. Prove the abundance of your mercy by the benefits that you repay to those who have offended you, just as blessed Elisha did with his enemies who intended to take him captive (2 Kings 6:13-23). 198. He who is truly humble and wise, when he is unjustified, does not become indignant, and does not say anything in his defense about what he is unjustified about, but accepts slander as the truth, and does not try to assure people that he has been slandered, but asks for forgiveness. Others voluntarily brought upon themselves the name of obscene, without being such; others endured the name of adulterers, being far from adultery, and testified with tears that they bore the fruit of sin, which they did not do, and with tears they asked those who offended them for forgiveness for the iniquity that they did not commit, when their soul was crowned with all purity and immaculateness. Others, so that they would not be glorified for the excellent rules of life that they observed in secret, were presented in the image of holy fools, having been dissolved with Divine salt, I was unshakable in my silence, so that at the height of their perfection the Holy Angels were heralds of their virtues. 199. The Savior called the many abodes of the Father the different measures of the mind of those placed in that country, that is, the differences and diversity of spiritual gifts that are enjoyed according to the measure of the mind. For he called the monasteries many not according to the variety of places, but according to the degree of talent. Just as everyone enjoys the sensual sun, in accordance with the purity and acceptability of the power of vision, and just as from one lamp in one house the illumination can be different, although the light is not divided into many illuminations, so in the next century all the righteous are inseparably settled in one country, but each is illuminated in its own measure by one mental Sun, and according to its dignity attracts to itself, joy and gladness, as if from one air, from one place, throne, spectacle and image. - And no one sees the measure of his friend, both higher and lower, so that if he sees the superior grace of a friend and his own deprivation, this would not be a cause of sadness and sorrow for him. There everyone, according to the grace given to him, rejoices internally in his own measure. Outside of all there is one spectacle and a country - and besides these two degrees, I mean one mountain country, the other a low country, and in the midst of them there is diversity in the difference in rewards. 200. When the devil wants to defile the mind with prodigal memories, then he first tests their patience with the love of vanity, and the origin of this thought does not seem to be passion. This is what he usually does with those who guard their minds and in whom it is impossible to quickly implant any indecent thoughts. When he pulls a person out of his stronghold and he begins to converse with his first thought and move away from his stronghold, then he confronts him with something reminiscent of fornication, and seduces his mind into indecent objects. The mind is first confused by their sudden attack, and then reconciles itself with them, and then from thoughts it comes to action. But if the mind steps back and prevents the first attack of thoughts, then, with the help of God, passion can be easily overcome. 201. It is better to avert passions by remembering virtues than by resistance, because passions, when they emerge from their domain and are raised up for battle, impress their images and likenesses on the mind. This warfare acquires great power over the mind, greatly disturbing and confusing thoughts. And if you act according to the first rule we said, then there will not be a trace of passions in the mind after driving them away. 202. Until a person accepts the Comforter, he needs the Divine Scriptures so that the remembrance of good is imprinted in his thoughts, and by constant reading the striving for good is renewed in him, and protects his soul from the subtlety of sinful ways: because he has not yet acquired the power of the Spirit, which removes delusion and takes captive soul-beneficial remembrances. When the power of the Spirit descends into the spiritual force operating in a person, then instead of the law of the Scriptures, the commandments of the Spirit take root in the heart, and then he secretly learns from the Spirit, and has no need for the aid of sensory substance; because while the heart learns from substance, error and oblivion immediately follow the teaching; and when the doctrine is taught by the Spirit, then remembrance is preserved unharmed. 203. The fledgling bird is that mind which, through repentance, has recently emerged from the shackles of passions, and during prayer strives to rise above the earthly, but cannot, and on the contrary, still creeps along the face of the earth, not having the strength to fly. However, with the help of reading, doing, fear and caring for many virtues, he collects his thoughts into one; because he is incapable of knowing anything other than this. And this keeps the mind undefiled for a short time; but later memories come and disturb and defile the heart; because man has not yet felt that calm air of freedom into which, over a long period of time, he leads the mind into oblivion about earthly things, for he has acquired only bodily wings, that is, virtues that are performed externally, but has not yet seen the contemplative virtues, and has not been granted the sensation of them; and they are those wings of the mind on which a person approaches the heavenly and moves away from the earthly. 204. As long as a person serves the Lord with something sensual, the images of this sensual are imprinted in his thoughts, and he represents the Divine in bodily images. When he receives a sense of the inner, then, as he senses it, the mind, from time to time, will rise above the images of things. 205. When your soul approaches to emerge from darkness, then this will be a sign for you: your heart is burning and like fire it burns day and night; and therefore you regard the whole world as waste and ashes, you do not even desire food, from the sweetness of new, flaming thoughts that are constantly aroused in your soul. Suddenly a source of tears is given to you, like a stream flowing without compulsion, and mingling with everything you do, that is, during your reading, your prayer and your meditation, when you take food and drink, and in everything you do. And when you see this in your soul, be confident, because you have swum the sea; and be so diligent in your deeds, so carefully maintain your guard, so that grace multiplies in you from day to day. Until you meet this in yourself, you have not yet completed your journey and have not entered the mountain of God. If, even after you have found and accepted the grace of tears, they stop, and your ardor cools down without changing in anything else, i.e. without bodily infirmity; then woe to you! What have you ruined by falling either into conceit, or into negligence, or into laziness?! “But what follows the tears, we’ll write about later.” 206. If you have no business, do not talk about virtues. More precious than any prayer and sacrifice before God are sorrow for Him and for His sake; and more than all fragrances is the stench of their sweat. Consider any virtue accomplished without bodily labor to be a premature and inanimate fruit of the womb. The offerings of the righteous are the tears of their eyes, and a sacrifice pleasing to God is their sighs during vigils. The righteous and those oppressed by the weight of their bodies will call to the Lord, and in illness they will send prayers to God, and in response to the cry of their voices the Holy Orders will come to their aid to encourage and console them with hope; because the Holy Angels, due to their proximity to the Holy Men, have fellowship in their sufferings and sorrows. 207. Wine warms the body, and the Word of God warms the mind. Those who are inflamed with ardor are delighted by thinking about what they hope for and prepare their thoughts for the future age. Those drunk with wine do not see obstacles before them: so those drunk with hope know neither sorrow nor anything worldly. Blessed are those who, for the sea of ​​sorrows, for the love of God, have girded their loins with simplicity and an inquisitive disposition, and do not turn their backs. Those who set out on the stubborn path with hope do not go back and do not stop to enter into research about this. But when they cross the sea, then, looking at the difficulty of the path, they give thanks to God, who delivered them from cramped conditions, rapids and such roughness of the path - although they did not know it. Hope, setting sail, swims with the first ardor, without taking the slightest care of the body, and without reasoning with itself whether or not there will be any success from the work begun. When you want to begin God’s work, first make a will, as a person who can no longer live in this world, as one who is preparing for death, and despairing of this life, as one who has reached the time of his term. Begin every good deed with courage, and do not approach such deeds with double-mindedness, do not waver in your heart in trusting in God, so that your work does not become useless, and your work does not become burdensome. 208. The actions of those who live according to God are the following: One hits the ground with his head all day long, and does this instead of performing a service, i.e. hours. Others combine the number of prayers with constant and prolonged kneeling. Another replaces God's services for himself with his multitude of tears and is content with that. Others try to understand the meaning of what they are reading and add a certain rule to it. Another torments his soul with hunger, so that he is unable to perform God’s services. Another, being in ardent teaching in the Psalms, makes his service continuous. Another spends time reading and his heart warms. Another is given into captivity, contemplating the Divine meaning in the Divine Scriptures. Another, amazed by the miracles that amaze him in verse, is refrained from ordinary reading and is mastered by silence. The other, having tasted all this and was satisfied, returned back and became inactive. Another, having tasted only a small something, and became arrogant, fell into error. Others were prevented from maintaining their rule by serious illness and impotence; and to the other - the predominance of some habit, or some desire, or lust, or vanity, or covetousness, or addiction to collecting material things. Another stumbled, but stood up, and did not turn his back until he received a pearl of great price. 209. The beginning of everything is a good intention before God (the determination to please God). This is followed by withdrawal from the affairs of life: hunger, reading, all-night vigil and sober vigil - according to each person’s strength - and many bows, which are useful to perform during the daytime, and often at night. Let the smallest measure be for you to make thirty bows, then bow to the honorable cross and finish with that. But there are also those who, to the best of their ability, increase the number of bows. Others spend three hours in a single prayer, having a sober mind, and throwing their face to the ground without compulsion and soaring thoughts (i.e., some pray often, but little by little; while others stand in prayer once, but stand for a long time). 210. Our rival the devil has an ancient custom of cunningly diversifying his struggle with those entering into a feat. Using different weapons against them, and taking into account the intention of the person, he changes the method of warfare. The first technique of enemy warfare. “Those who are lazy in will and weak in thoughts are strongly attacked from the very beginning, raising strong temptations against them, so that from the first exploit they are overcome by fear, their path would seem to them cruel and inconvenient,” and they said: “If the beginning of the path is so difficult and difficult, then can anyone withstand the many struggles that lie ahead in it until the very end?” And the devil does not fight with them for long, but soon puts them to flight. This is because they entered into the Lord’s feat with doubt and coldness. And God commands us to enter into this feat with the readiness to die for the sake of pleasing Him, promising to crown the faithful worker with the honor of martyrdom. Just as they did not dare to give themselves up to death at the beginning, that is why they turn out to be so weak. Therefore, in all battles they are no longer stable, being self-loving, and most of all sparing their body. And the enemy drives them away like a storm, not seeing in them the spiritual strength that is usually seen in the Saints. It is a person’s will to strive for God, and God assists, helps, and shows him His providence for him. And the devil cannot approach a person, or bring temptations upon him, unless the person is remiss, or God does not allow him. 211. Second reception. - Those, as the devil sees, are courageous, regard death as nothing and go to work with great zeal; The devil does not suddenly come out to meet such people, and at their first attempt he does not enter into battle with them, knowing that zealous warriors are not easily defeated. Therefore, while he sees them as such, he does not even dare to touch them until he sees that they have cooled in their jealousy, and which weapons they have prepared for themselves in their thoughts, they have laid aside by changing the Divine words and remembrances that promote and assist them. How soon will they begin to evade their first thoughts, and on their own will begin to invent something that serves to overcome them, in themselves with the exhausting caresses of their wisdom, and on their own will they begin to dig a ditch of destruction for their souls from laziness with the resulting soaring of thoughts, from which coldness reigns in their thoughts and hearts - then it mercilessly rushes towards them. The devil is still holding back from attacking them because a certain force surrounds those who strive for God with fiery zeal, hope in Him and believe in Him. For this reason, God reflects from them the ferocity of the devil's malice, and it does not approach them. The enemy is curbed by seeing the Guardian always protecting them. For until they reject from themselves the reasons for help, prayers, works of humility, until then the Intercessor and Helper never moves away from them. 212. Remember, you who follow God, at every time of your struggle, the beginning and first zeal when you entered this path, and those fiery thoughts with which you first left your home and joined the military ranks. Test yourself every day so that the fervor of your soul does not cool in any of the weapons that you have donned, or in the jealousy that burned in you at the beginning of your feat. And constantly raise your voice among the military camp, encouraging and encouraging the children of the right hand of the country to courage, and show the enemy side that you are sober. At the same time, call upon God reliably, weep before His goodness, shed tears and work until He sends you a Helper. And then you will no longer be defeated. 213. Third technique of enemy warfare. – When the enemy sees the power that a person receives from God for his zeal and calling on Him with faith, then he tries to find some way - to alienate the Angel who is helping him from him - namely, he tries to arouse in him thoughts of pride, so that he thinks to himself that all his strength depends on his own strength, and he himself, by his own strength, protects himself from his opponent and the murderer. Whoever believes such thoughts inspired by the enemy, God’s help departs from him, and he falls into the hands of the enemy. And who does not succumb to these suggestions, but firmly holds the memory of the One who assists him, and the eye of his heart does not cease to direct towards heaven; Against this, the enemy invents new methods of warfare. 214. The fourth method of enemy warfare is that he begins to oppress a person with his natural needs (especially the need of a wife, and the need to have something to live with). (Regarding the wife). Although he cannot force a person to do anything like this, because a person is protected by silence, and his home is far from reasons and reasons for sin, he nevertheless tries to make the minds of ascetics see this in a ghost, and tries to form false dreams in them under the guise of truth. At the same time, so that they come to lust for what they dream, it tickles them and encourages them to dwell on shameful thoughts, agree to them, and become guilty of them. For the enemy knows that the ascetic’s victory and overcoming is carried out by his thought and is accomplished in a short moment - as soon as the thought moves from its place and from its height descends to the earth, and by will for one moment shows its consent - as happened with many during the dreamy presentation of female beauty. If they approached the world by one or two fields, then the enemy often resorted to actually bringing women to them. With this and similar things, the enemy sometimes won victory over the careless and weak-hearted. But others turned out to be stronger than these temptations, and, assisted by the grace of God, they defeated the enemy and his dreams. (Regarding the second need). Often the enemy also did that they dreamily saw gold, precious things and other treasures, and sometimes he actually showed them this in the hope that, perhaps, with such dreams he would manage to stop one of them in its course, and trap one of them in one of his nets and among his own. This is allowed in order to find out whether, while removing these things in hermitage, in their deprivation and poverty, they are God-loving, and when encountering these things, they try, out of love for God, to neglect them, and being deceived by them, they do not yield to them victory over themselves, counting them as nothing in comparison with the love of God. True ascetics do not give in, and after testing they are purified, like gold in a furnace; and those who are careless and weak, and with little need, in case of a deficiency, are overcome and return back, renouncing the feat. 215. As soon as someone realizes his weakness and really feels it; He immediately raises his soul from relaxation and reserves caution. But no one can feel his weakness unless even a small temptation, whether physical or mental, is allowed to strike him, and deliverance from it is not granted to him. For then he will clearly see the futility of his own efforts and measures - he will see that his caution, abstinence and protection of the soul, in which he hoped to find safety, did not bring any benefit, and that deliverance came in addition to all this. From here they get the confirmation that he himself is nothing, and that only God’s help saves. Whoever knows that he needs God’s help makes many prayers. And to the extent that he multiplies them, to that extent his heart is humbled. For everyone who prays and asks cannot help but humble himself. But God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19). No matter how quickly a person humbles himself, mercy immediately surrounds him. And then the heart feels Divine help, and acquires a certain power of confidence (in God) awakening in it. And when a person feels that God’s help will really help him, then his heart is truly filled with faith. From this he understands that prayer is a refuge for those seeking help, a source of salvation, a treasure of hope, a haven that saves from anxiety, a support for the weak, a cover during temptations, a shield of deliverance in battle, an arrow sharpened against enemies - and it is revealed to him that the whole multitude of spiritual benefits is made available to him through prayer. From now on he begins to enjoy the prayer of faith; He no longer prays with difficulty and fatigue, but with heartfelt joy and surprise, constantly exuding grateful movements, with countless genuflections. 216. Out of great desire for God’s help, a person approaches God, being in prayer. But to the extent that he approaches God with his intention, God approaches him with His gifts, and does not take away grace from him for his great humility. Sometimes, however, the generously loving God withholds gifts of grace from him, so that this serves as an incentive for him to draw closer to God, and so that for the sake of his needs, a person constantly remains before God, ready to pour out what serves for the benefit. God fulfills some requests quickly, namely those without which no one can be saved, while others are slow to fulfill. In other circumstances, he repels and dispels the scorching power of the enemy, and in others he allows him to fall into temptation, so that this test serves as a reason for him to draw closer to God - and so that he learns experience in temptation, and, having before his eyes the confirmation of his weakness, becomes more and more established in humility. A righteous man who has not recognized his weakness has his deeds as if on a razor's edge - and he is not far from falling and from the corrupting lion of pride. He who does not know his weakness lacks humility; and whoever lacks it has not yet achieved perfection; those who have not achieved it always remain in fear; because its city was not built on pillars of iron and on pragues of brass, i.e. on humility. Without humility, a person’s (sought after) work cannot be accomplished, and the seal of the Spirit has not yet been attached to the handwriting of his freedom - until now he is still a slave, and his work is not free from fear. 217. Therefore, the Lord leaves His Saints reasons for humility and contrition of heart in intense prayer, so that those who love Him will draw closer to Him through humility. And he often frightens them with the passions of their nature and the inclinations of shameful and unclean thoughts, and often with reproaches, insults and slander from people, sometimes with illnesses and bodily ailments, at other times with poverty and the scarcity of necessary needs, then with the torment of strong fear, abandonment, obvious abuse of the devil, and various terrible incidents. And all this so that they have reasons for humility and so as not to fall into the sleep of negligence. 218. When it happens that your soul is internally filled with darkness, and just as the sun’s rays are obscured on earth by the darkness of clouds, your soul is deprived of spiritual consolation for some time, and the light of grace within dims, due to the cloud of passions overshadowing the soul, and because the somewhat joyful power in you is diminished, and an unusual darkness has overshadowed your mind; Don’t be embarrassed by the thought, but be patient, read the books of teachers, force yourself to pray, and wait for help. She will come soon, and you won’t know it. For just as the face of the earth is revealed by the rays of the sun from the airy darkness that envelops the earth, so prayer can destroy and dispel the clouds of passions in the soul, and illuminate the mind with the light of joy and consolation. 219. Until you reach the region of tears, your hitherto hidden things still serve the world, i.e. You still lead a worldly life, and you are still doing God’s work with an external person, but your internal person is barren; because its fruit begins in tears. When you reach the region of tears, then know that your mind has come out of the prison of this world, put its foot on the path of the new age, and began to smell the stench of the wonderful new air. Tears begin to flow because the birth of the spiritual baby is near. The common mother of all, grace, desires to mysteriously produce the Divine image into the light of the next century. But this order of tears is not the same as occurs at intervals among those who are silent (sometimes during contemplation, sometimes during reading, sometimes during prayer). I’m not talking about this type of tears, but about the kind that happens continuously day and night. The eyes of one who has reached this level become like a spring of water until he is two years old or more, and then he comes to the pacification of his thoughts. And by pacifying one’s thoughts, as much as one’s nature can partly accommodate, one enters into that peace about which St. Paul (Heb. 4:3). And in this peaceful repose the mind begins to contemplate mysteries. Then the Holy Spirit begins to reveal heavenly things to him, and God dwells in him and resurrects the fruit of the Spirit in him. But listen again: when you enter the area of ​​pacification of thoughts, then many tears are taken away from you - and tears come to you in moderation, and at the appropriate time. 220. There are three ranks in which a person excels: the rank of beginners, the average rank and the perfect rank. He who is in the first rank, although his way of thinking is inclined towards good, nevertheless the movement of the mind is in passions. The second rank is something between the state of passion and dispassion, and the mental and spiritual thoughts are aroused in a person equally, and he does not cease to exude both light and darkness. At the same time, if he stops for a short time the frequent reading of the Divine Scriptures and the imagination in the mind of Divine mental ideas, with caution in the external, from which internal preservation is born, then the person is carried away in passion. If he nourishes his ardor for the spiritual in the above-mentioned manner - seeking, striving, reading the Scriptures, nurturing good thoughts and keeping them from wandering off into the land, lovingly preserving his soul, and clinging to God with patience in tireless prayer, then God will finally open His door to him, especially for his humility; because the revelation of secrets happens to be humble (and this is the third rank). 221. Hope in God is preceded by work for God and sweat shed in the work. If you believe in God, then you do well. But faith requires works, and hope in God is revealed in suffering for the sake of virtue. Do you believe that God thinks about His creatures and is omnipotent? May your faith be accompanied by decent work; and then God will hear you. Do not try to hold back the wind in your handful, i.e. faith without works. Often, someone, without knowing, walks a path where there are wild animals, or murderers, or something similar; and so the general Providence of God saves him from harm, either by slowing down the traveler’s procession in some way until the wild beast moves aside, or by forcing him to deviate from the path by some encounter. Sometimes the evil serpent lies in the way and is invisible; but God, not wanting to give man over to that temptation, makes the serpent suddenly begin to hiss - he moves away and crawls ahead of the traveler, who, seeing him, takes precautions and is saved. It often happens that a house, or a wall, or a stone falls, and someone is sitting there, and God kindly commands the Angel to hold what is falling until those sitting there move away or are recalled; and as soon as they leave, they immediately let go of the mouth that was falling. All this and the like are the work of God’s Providence, general and everywhere; the righteous person has a special, inseparable providence over him. God commanded other people to manage their affairs judiciously, and in God’s providence to use their knowledge, but instead of knowledge, the righteous man acquired faith, by which he fears nothing, but walks like a lion in confidence (Proverbs 28:1). And just as his constant care is dedicated to God, so God says about him: “I am with him in his sorrow, I will destroy him and glorify him; I will fill him with long days and show him My salvation” (Ps. 90:15-16). He who is relaxed and lazy in his work cannot have such hope. But whoever abides with God in everything, approaches Him through the kindness of his deeds, and constantly directs the eyes of his heart towards His grace; he can say about himself what the Divine David said: “My eyes have disappeared from my hope in my God” (Ps. 68:4). 222. When we seek escape from the world, then nothing separates us from it, mortifies our passions, and revives us for the spiritual, like crying and heartache with reasoning. But also, nothing makes us so much accomplices of the world and removes us so much from the treasures of Wisdom and the knowledge of the mysteries of God, like laughter, and, with freedom in circulation, soaring thoughts. - And this is the work of the prodigal demon. I beg you, with love, to beware of the malice of the enemy, so that you do not cool down in your soul the ardor of love for Christ, who for your sake tasted the gall on the tree of the cross, and so that the enemy, instead of this sweet exercise and boldness before God, does not fill your soul with many dreams during your wakefulness, and during your sleep captivate it with absurd dreams, the stench of which the Angels cannot tolerate. Force yourself to imitate the humility of Christ, so that the fire that He put into you will quickly ignite, by which all the movements of the world that kill the new man and desecrate the courts of the Holy and Almighty Lord are eradicated. For I dare say with St. Paul that we are the Church of God (1 Cor. 3:16). Therefore, as God Himself is pure, let us cleanse His church, so that He will desire to dwell in it. And since He Himself is Holy, let us also sanctify His church; let us decorate it with all sorts of good and honest deeds, we will perfume it with the fragrance of the peace of God’s will, with pure and heartfelt prayer. Then the cloud of His glory will overshadow the soul, and the light of His greatness will shine within the heart. 223. A man of many cares cannot be silent; because many things waste his silence and silence, even if he didn’t want to. A monk must place himself before the face of God and always raise his eye to God if he truly wants to guard his mind, reject alien movements creeping into him, and in the silence of thoughts distinguish between what comes in and what goes out. Without liberation from worries, do not look for light in your soul, nor for silence and silence in the licentiousness of your feelings. Without unceasing prayer it is impossible to get closer to God. After the labor of prayer, placing new care on the mind produces a waste of thoughts. Tears, beating oneself on the chest during prayer and fiery zeal to continue prayer, awaken in the heart the fervor of the sweetness of tears, and the heart soars to God with laudable enthusiasm, crying out: “my soul thirsts for You, the mighty and living God: when I come and appear before Your face” (Ps. 41:3). “Whoever drank from this wine and then lost it, he alone knows in what pitiful state he was left, and what was taken away from him due to his relaxation. 224. How harmful is meeting people and talking with them for those living in silence! – Just like strong hail, suddenly falling on the fruits of a tree, overwhelms and destroys them, so meetings with people, even if short-lived, overwhelm the flowers of virtues, which have just blossomed and luxuriously crowned the stem of the soul, planted at the outflow of the waters of repentance (Ps. 1:3). Just as strong frost, covering the greenery that has barely emerged from the ground, burns it, so a meeting with people burns the root of the mind, which has begun to produce the seed of virtues. Just as a noble and respectable person, when he gets drunk, forgets his nobility and is ridiculed for alien thoughts that come from wine, so the chastity of the soul is outraged by the sight of people and conversation with them: - a person forgets his caution, the intention of his will is erased from his thoughts, and the basis for a laudable structure of life is eradicated. 225. Do not think, man, that in all monastic life there is any activity more important than the night vigil. Through him, if the ascetic is not entertained by bodily affairs and concern for temporary things, his mind will in a short time soar through grief, as if on wings, and will rise to the delight of God. If a monk remains vigilant with prudence, then you will see in him, as it were, not a flesh-bearer. It is impossible for those who spend their entire lives in this occupation to be abandoned by God without any gifts for their sobriety, vigor of heart and caring aspiration of their thoughts towards Him. The soul that labors to remain in vigil will have Cherubic eyes to continually lift up its gaze and contemplate the heavenly spectacle. 226. He who has chosen this Divine work must protect himself in every possible way during the day from the rebellion of the gatherings and from worrying about business: otherwise he will endure the labor of abstaining from sleep, but will not receive any fruit from it; because in this case it will be impossible for the mind to properly participate in psalmody and prayer. But when, instead of worrying during the day, someone practices reading the Divine Scriptures, which strengthens the mind, especially serves to irrigate prayer, and helps vigil, closely connected with prayer; then in this reading he finds a leader on the right path, he finds that in which the seed of everything that nourishes prayerful contemplation, that keeps thoughts from soaring, that constantly sows in the soul the remembrance of God. 227. Constant silence together with reading, moderate eating of food and vigil soon excite the mind to amazement, unless there is some reason that breaks the silence. Thoughts aroused in the silent ones, of themselves, without deliberate effort, make both eyes, with tears flowing from them, washing their cheeks with their abundance, become like a baptismal font. 228. Until someone truly hates the causes of sin from the heart, he is not freed from the pleasure produced by the effectiveness of sin. This is the most cruel struggle (with the accompaniment of sin), not inferior to a person even to blood. In him his freedom is tempted in the unity (in his exclusive) love for virtue. In this struggle is the power of sin, with which the enemy usually confuses the souls of the chaste; forcing them to experience something that they never accepted at all. And this is a time of invisible feat, which is extremely difficult, when this battle, from acquired skill, acquires great power over those who betrayed themselves to defeat by deigning to act on their own thoughts. 229. Beware of idleness; because certain death is hidden in it, and without it it is impossible to fall into the hands of those who seek to capture us. On that day God will judge us not about the psalms, not for our abandonment of prayer, but for the fact that by omitting this we give entrance to demons. And when, having found a place for themselves, they enter and close the doors of our eyes, then they painfully carry out on us what subjects us to God’s condemnation and the most severe punishment. The performance of this (the rite of psalmody and prayers) inside the cell was established by the wise, according to the spirit of revelation, to protect our lives, but among the unwise, omission of this is considered unimportant. since these latter do not take into account the harm that occurs from that, then both the beginning and the middle of their path is ignorant freedom, which is the mother of passions. 230. We cannot make sure that we do not have reasons for passions; therefore we are tempted even though we do not want to. We don’t want sins for ourselves, but it happens that we accept the reasons that lead us to them with pleasure; and then these latter become the fault of the effectiveness of the former. He who loves reasons for passions unwittingly becomes enslaved to passions. He who hates his sins will cease to sin: and he who confesses them will receive remission. It is impossible for a person to abandon a sinful habit if he does not first acquire hostility towards sin, and it is impossible to receive remission before confessing his sins. 231. As long as a person carries within himself the poison of intoxication with his sins, everything he does seems decent to him. And as soon as nature leaves its order, it does not matter whether it is intoxicated with wine or with lusts: because both of them lead out of the present state, and both produce the same burning in the body; although the methods are different, the dissolution is the same. 232. If you are alone in your cell, and have not yet acquired the power of true contemplation, then always occupy yourself with reading troparions and kathismas, remembering death and hoping for the future. All this collects the mind into one, and does not allow it to spin until true contemplation comes; because the strength of the spirit is more powerful than passions. In the hope of the future, occupy yourself with remembrance of God, try to understand well the meaning of the troparia, and beware of everything external that prompts you to lust; and at the same time, be careful in the small things that you do in your cell. Examine your thoughts and pray so that in every activity you may have eyes for you: from this joy will begin to flow to you; and then you will find sorrows that are sweeter than honey. 233. No one can overcome passions, except through visible and tangible virtues; and no one can overcome the soaring of the mind, except by studying spiritual knowledge. Our mind is light, and if it is not bound by any reflection, it does not stop floating. And without improvement in the above-mentioned virtues, it is impossible to acquire this preservation; because if someone does not defeat his enemies, there cannot be peace. Passions serve as an obstacle to the innermost virtues of the soul; and if they are not first overthrown by obvious virtues, then internal virtues will not be visible behind them. 234. Love for God is naturally ardent, and when it attacks someone without measure, it makes that soul enthusiastic. In the one who has felt this love, an extraordinary change is seen: his face becomes fiery and joyful, and his body warms up, fear and shame recede from him; considers terrible death to be joy; contemplation of his mind does not allow any suppression in thoughts about heavenly things; he does not feel the movement excited by objects, because although he does something, he does not feel it at all - since his mind floats in contemplation, and his thought always seems to be talking with someone. The Apostles and martyrs once reveled in this spiritual rapture. And some went around the world, toiling and enduring reproach, while others, in terrible suffering, were not faint-hearted, but endured them valiantly. - Others wandered in deserts, mountains and dens - and in troubles they were the most comfortable; they were considered foolish, but they were wise from the wise. 235. Asceticism is the mother of shrines; from him comes the first experience of the sensation of the mysteries of Christ, which is called the first degree of spiritual knowledge. A defiled soul does not enter the pure kingdom and is not combined with the spirits of the Saints. Conceal the kindness of your chastity with tears, fasting and solitary silence. A little sorrow for the sake of God is better than a great deed done without sorrow. What happens without difficulty, i.e. the truth is that of worldly people who give alms from externals, but do not acquire anything in themselves. But strive within yourself and suffer for Christ, so that you may be worthy to taste the glory of Christ. The mind will not be glorified with Jesus if the body does not suffer for Christ. 236. There are two ways to ascend to the cross: one is the crucifixion of the body, and the other is the ascent into contemplation; the first is a consequence of liberation from passions, and the second is a consequence of the effectiveness of the deeds of the spirit. The mind does not submit unless the body submits to it. The kingdom of the mind is the crucifixion of the body: and the mind will not be punished by God if freedom is not subjugated to the mind. Whoever submits himself to God is close to having everything submit to him. 237. The foundation of all good things, the return of the soul from enemy captivity, the path leading to light and life - all this is contained in the following two methods: gathering oneself into one and always fasting, i.e. It is wise and prudent to set yourself the rule of abstinence, continuous stay in one place, and unceasing engagement with the thoughts of God. Hence the obedience of feelings, sobriety of mind, taming of fierce passions aroused in the body, bright movements of thought, diligence in acts of virtue, tears and mortal memory, pure chastity, far from any dreams that tempt thought, in short, hence the freedom of a true person, spiritual joy and resurrection with Christ in the Kingdom. Whoever neglects these two methods, let him know that he will not only harm himself in everything that has been said before, but will shake the very foundation of all virtues - and will come to the next two, opposite vices, I mean - bodily wandering and dishonest gluttony. This is the essence of the beginning of the opposite of what has been said - and they give place in the soul to all passions. 238. The enemy, knowing the times of our natural needs that prompt nature to satisfy itself, knowing that from the wandering of the eyes and the rest of the belly, the mind comes into a whirl, tries at precisely such times to encourage us to increase our natural needs, and to sow in us images of evil thoughts, so that passions in an intensified struggle take over nature, and man is mired in the fall. Therefore, just as the enemy observes such times, so we must, in these especially times, be wise and not allow ourselves to rashly carry out the will of inspired thoughts, not to give in to victory over ourselves to greed, and especially not to move from the place of our silence and not to go where it conveniently happens to us, so as not to thereby prepare pretexts for completely leaving the desert. 239. The enemy stands before our eyes day and night, notices, waits and looks out for which open entrance of our feelings he can enter. And when we commit negligence in one thing, then this cunning and shameless dog shoots his arrows at us. Sometimes nature itself begins to love peace, freedom, laughter, soaring thoughts, laziness - and becomes a source of passions and an abyss of rebellion; and sometimes the enemy instills this in the soul. Be careful to indulge yourself in small things, so as not to end up with indulgences in big things and to great falls. And a little negligence, as someone said, often leads to great dangers. And in small and insignificant things, to always be sober - that is wisdom. 240. Don’t be discouraged when it comes to bringing you life, and don’t be lazy to die for it; because cowardice is a sign of despondency, and negligence is the mother of both. A fearful person makes it known that he suffers from two ailments, i.e. love of life and lack of faith. Love of life is a sign of unbelief. But whoever neglects this confirms to himself that he believes in God with all his soul and looks forward to the future. Cheerfulness of the heart and disregard for dangers occur for one of the following two reasons, either due to great faith in God, or due to hardness of heart. Hardness of heart is followed by pride, and faith is followed by humility of heart. 241. A person cannot acquire hope in God if he has not first, according to his own measure, fulfilled His will. For hope in God and courage of the heart are born from the testimony of conscience, and only with the true testimony of our mind do we have hope in God. The evidence of the mind is that a person’s conscience does not condemn him at all, as if he had neglected something to which he is obliged to the best of his ability. If our heart does not condemn us, the boldness of the imams will turn to God (1 John 3:21). Therefore, boldness is a consequence of success in virtues and a good conscience. 242. A person always remains silent and maintains silence for the following three reasons: either for the sake of human glory, or out of ardent zeal for virtue, or because a person has a certain Divine conversation within himself, and his mind is drawn to it. Virtue is not the manifestation of many and various deeds performed bodily, but the heart itself most wise in hope; because the right goal binds him to God. The mind without bodily deeds can do good; and a body without heart wisdom, even if it does something, cannot benefit from it. However, the man of God, when he finds it convenient to do a good deed, will not resist, so as not to prove his love for God by the work of his doing. 243. In the fight against the movements of carnal lust, consider for yourself a strong weapon - withdrawal from the sight of women; because the enemy cannot produce in us what nature is able to do by its own power. Do not think that nature forgets what was naturally planted into it by God for the birth of children and for the testing of those who are in this feat. But moving away from objects of desire mortifies lust in the members, produces oblivion about it and destroys it. Objects, when not seen, produce a slight and barely perceptible movement; and objects, when they are seen, excite passions by proximity, feed them, just as oil feeds the burning of a lamp - and passion, already dead and extinguished, is ignited again. Natural movement, without the addition of anything from the outside, cannot disturb the purity of will and disturb chastity; because God did not give nature the strength to overcome good will and rush to Him. If, however, we sometimes become voluntarily carried away by the sensual, and indulge in either eating and drinking in quantities that exceed our measure, or getting close to women, looking at them and talking about them, then the fire of lust ignites and quickly spreads in the body; At the same time, we change the naturally gentle movement in the body into a fierce and indomitable one - with these additions to nature according to the promptings of our will. Whatever God created, He created everything beautifully and proportionately. And as long as the measure of conformity to nature is correctly preserved in us, natural movements cannot force us to deviate from the path: but only harmonious movements are excited in the body, which only let us know that there is a natural passion in us, without however producing tickling and confusion strong to interfere with chastity. 244. Sometimes there is movement in the members and by God’s permission for our conceit. We know about this battle that when we have been attentive to ourselves for a long time and have worked hard, even considering ourselves somewhat successful, we are allowed to endure it in order to learn humility. Other battles arise from our corruption, and excessive resting of the flesh, through the abandonment of everything that is regrettable and difficult in the order of our life - especially the constant stay in the cell, and the hardships of bodily labor. The sorrow, difficulty and cramped conditions of life bind and kill voluptuousness; and benefits, contentment and peace of the flesh untie, nourish and grow it. God and His Angels rejoice when we are in need, and the devil and his workers rejoice when we are at peace. Sorrow and hardship expand and facilitate the doing of the commandments; but peace gives place to passions, and through this it constrains and stops the doing of the commandments. In an oppressed body, thoughts cannot indulge in dangerous soaring. When someone joyfully bears labors and sorrows, then he can easily curb his thoughts, because through labor they are rendered inactive. When a person, remembering his previous sins, punishes himself, then God looks favorably on him. God rejoices that, for deviating from His path, he himself imposed punishment on himself, which serves as a sign of repentance. And the more he puts pressure on his soul, the more God’s favor towards him increases. Any joy, the cause of which is not virtue, immediately arouses lustful movements in the one who has acquired it. 245. Virtues are successive to one another, so that the path of virtue is not difficult and difficult, so that one can succeed in them in order, and find relief in this for oneself, and so that in this way the very difficulties endured for the sake of virtue become pleasant, like something good. Thus, no one can acquire real non-covetousness unless he prepares himself to joyfully endure temptations. And no one can endure temptations except those who are convinced that for the sorrows for which they have prepared themselves, they can accept something that surpasses bodily peace. He who deprives himself of material things, but has not deprived himself of the reality of his senses - I mean sight and hearing - has prepared for himself extreme sorrow, and will be in extreme misery and sorrow. For if mental representations of things without the things themselves produce a painful feeling in a person, what shall we say when the things themselves are with us and close to us? – In this case, from the sensations produced by these things, a person suffers the same thing that he previously suffered when doing the deed; because remembering the habit of them does not leave his mind. How wonderful is hermitage in this regard! Only thoughts remain tempters in him; but it also contributes greatly and greatly to the taming of thoughts. 246. Do not try to take advice from a person who does not lead the same way of life as you, although he is extremely wise. It is better to entrust your thoughts to an unlearned person who has experienced the matter experimentally, than to a learned philosopher who argues based on his research without having experienced it in practice. To gain experience does not mean only for a person to approach certain things and look at them without accepting knowledge about them, but through long-term handling of them to clearly experience their benefits and harms. Often a thing outwardly seems harmful, but inside it everything turns out to be full of benefit; and vice versa - often a thing seems to have benefit, but is internally full of harm. Therefore, use an adviser who, having experienced everything himself, knows how to patiently discuss what requires consideration in your case - and can correctly point out what is truly useful to you. 247. When you find unchanging peace on your path, be afraid; because you are far from the straight path trodden by the weary feet of the Saints. While you are still on the way to the city of the kingdom, let the following be a sign of your approach to the city of God: you will encounter strong temptations; - and the more you approach and succeed, the more the temptations facing you multiply. Therefore, if on your way you feel the greatest and most powerful temptations in your soul; know that at this time your soul has actually secretly entered a new, higher level, and that grace has been increased for it in the state in which it is placed; because according to the greatness of grace, in the same measure God leads the soul into the sorrow of temptation. If the soul is weak and does not have sufficient strength for great temptations, and therefore asks not to enter into them, and God will listen to it; then know for sure that to the extent that the soul does not have sufficient strength for great temptations, it is also insufficient for great talents; and just as access to her is forbidden to great temptations, so great gifts are also forbidden to her. Because God does not give a great gift without great temptation; In proportion to temptations, gifts are determined by God, according to His wisdom, which those created by Him do not comprehend. 248. Temptations when entering into a good life and when it grows differ from temptations allowed to admonish the pride of the heart. The temptations that come to the soul from the spiritual rod to its prosperity and growth, and by which it is trained, tested and introduced into feat, are the following: laziness, heaviness in the body, relaxation of the limbs, despondency, confusion of thoughts, suspiciousness from exhaustion of the body, temporary suppression of hope, darkening of thoughts, lack of human help, poverty of what the body needs, and the like. From these temptations, the soul experiences a feeling of loneliness and defenselessness, darkening of the heart and humility. The Provider, however, balances temptations with the strengths and needs of those who receive them. In them, both consolation and defeat, light and darkness, battles and help, in short, cramped space and space, co-dissolve. And this serves as a sign that a person is prospering with God’s help. 249. Temptations that happen, by God's permission, to people who exalt themselves before the goodness of God and offend God with their pride are the following: taking away the power of wisdom that people have, a restless feeling within themselves of a lewd thought that is allowed in them to humble their exaltation, quick irritability, the desire to put everything according to their own will, bickering in words, giving reprimands, a heart that disdains everyone, complete delusion of the mind, blasphemy against the name of God, foolish thoughts worthy of laughter, as if people neglect them, their honor turns into nothing, and secretly and openly, in various ways, shame and reproach from demons are inflicted on them, finally, the desire to be in communication and dealing with the world, to constantly talk and recklessly talk idle talk, to always look for news and even false prophecies, to promise much beyond one’s strength. And this is the essence of spiritual temptation. Temptations of the body include: painful, complex, prolonged, intractable seizures, constant encounters with bad and godless people, falling into the hands of offenders, accidental stumbling and dangerous falls, devastating incidents for them and their families. All this that we have outlined belongs to the temptations of pride. The beginning of these appears in a person when he begins to seem wise to himself in his own eyes. And he goes through all these disasters as he assimilates such thoughts of pride: as much as you have them, the same amount of pride penetrates you. 250. There is another kind of temptation - cowardice due to lack of patience. Every difficult circumstance and every sorrow, if there is no patience with them, serves as a source of deep torment; because patience in a person reflects adversity, and cowardice is the mother of torment. Patience is the mother of consolation, and a certain strength, usually generated by the breadth of the heart. It is difficult for a person to find such strength in his sorrows without the Divine gift, acquired through persistent prayer and the outpouring of tears. When it pleases God to subject a person to great sorrows, He allows cowardice to fall into his hands. And it gives rise to the power of despondency that overcomes him, in which he feels the suppression of the soul - and this is a taste of Gehenna; because thousands of temptations emanate from here: embarrassment, irritation, blasphemy, complaints about fate, evil thoughts, relocation from one country to another, and the like. The reason for all this is your negligence. You yourself did not bother to seek a cure for this. The only cure for all this is humility of heart. Without him, no one can destroy the barrier of these evils. In proportion to humility of mind, patience in adversity is given; With patience, the severity of sorrows is eased, and consolation is accepted; as consolation increases, love for God increases; and as love increases, joy in the Holy Spirit increases. God does not take away temptations from His servants, but gives them patience in temptations, for their faith and surrender to His will. 251. Bodily living according to God consists of bodily deeds—physical exploits to cleanse the body of passions in virtuous activity. Living intelligently is a matter of the heart, relentlessly continued with a caring thought about judgment, also unceasing prayer of the heart, thinking about the Providence and care of God, both private and general, seen in the whole world, and protecting oneself from secret passions, so that nothing passionate is encountered in the hidden and spiritual realm. 252. As grace upon grace, repentance was given to people after baptism; because repentance is the second regeneration from God. Repentance is the door of mercy; through this door we enter into God's mercy, and apart from this entrance you will not find mercy. Repentance is the second grace, and is born from faith and fear; fear is a fatherly rod that controls us until we reach the spiritual paradise of blessings: after which it departs from us. Paradise is the love of God, in which there is the enjoyment of all bliss. The tree of life is the love of God from which Adam fell away; and since then I have not met his joy; but he worked and labored in the land of thorns. Those deprived of the love of God, if they walk in righteousness, eat that bread of sweat in their deeds, which the first-created was commanded to eat after its fall. He who lives in love bears fruit in life from God, and in this still world he smells the air of resurrection. Love is the kingdom; The Lord mysteriously promised the Apostles about her that they would taste her in His kingdom. For what is said: “Let you eat and drink at the table of My kingdom” (Luke 22:30), what else does it mean if not love? – This is wine that gladdens the heart of man (Ps. 103:15). Blessed is he who drinks this wine! 253. Just as it is impossible to cross a large sea without a ship and a boat, so no one can achieve love without fear. We can cross the stinking sea between us and the mental paradise only on the boat of repentance, on which there are oarsmen of fear. But if the oarsmen of fear do not steer the ship of repentance, on which we come to God across the sea of ​​this world, then we will drown in this stinking sea. Repentance is a ship, and fear is its helmsman, but love is the Divine pier. Fear takes us into the ship of repentance, transports us across the stinking sea of ​​life, and guides us to the Divine pier, which is love. All who work and are burdened with repentance come to this pier. And when we achieve love, then we have reached God, and our path is complete, and we have come to the island of the other world, where the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are. 254. There is knowledge that precedes faith, and there is knowledge generated by faith. The knowledge that precedes faith is natural knowledge, and the knowledge generated by faith is spiritual knowledge. Natural knowledge distinguishes good from evil, and it is called natural prudence, by which we naturally, without science, recognize good from evil. God put this prudence into rational nature; with the help of science it receives growth and replenishment. There is no person who does not have it. This is the power of natural knowledge in the rational soul, which (the power) is constantly brought into action in it (the soul). The honor of rational nature is prudence, distinguishing good from evil, and the Prophet rightly likened those who have lost it to senseless cattle (Ps. 48:13). 255. Natural knowledge, which precedes faith, is the path to faith and to God. Having been put into our nature by God, it itself convinces us that we must believe in God, who brought everything into being. This faith produces fear in us, and fear compels us to repentance and action (i.e., for action), a person is given spiritual knowledge, or a sense of mysteries, which gives rise to the faith of true contemplation. It is not simply from naked faith that spiritual knowledge is born; but faith gives birth to the fear of God, and with the fear of God, when we begin to act in it, from the action of this fear spiritual knowledge is born, as St. Zlatoust: “When someone acquires a will corresponding to the fear of God and the correct way of thinking, then he will soon accept the revelation of the hidden.” He calls spiritual knowledge the revelation of the hidden. 256. But it is not the fear of God that gives birth to this spiritual knowledge; and this knowledge is given as a gift to the practice of the fear of God. The work of the fear of God is repentance; repentance, having gone through its entire course and completed, leads to where spiritual knowledge is given. Spiritual knowledge is a sense of the unseen. And when someone senses this invisible, then in his sensation another faith is born, not contrary to the first faith, but confirming that faith. They call it contemplative faith. Until then there was hearing, but now there is contemplation, and contemplation is more certain than hearing. 257. All this is born from this natural knowledge, distinguishing between good and evil. It is the good seed of virtue. This natural knowledge in a person will be followed by - an everlasting wounding of conscience, - an incessant remembrance of death and a certain painful concern that continues until its very end - and after this sadness, despondency, fear of God, natural bashfulness - sadness about one’s previous sins, proper diligence, remembrance of the common path, concern for guiding oneself towards it - a tearful request from God good entry into this gate, through which every nature must pass, is contempt for the world and a strong struggle for virtue. All this is acquired through natural knowledge, and let everyone compare his deeds with this. When it turns out that a person has acquired this, then it means that he is following the natural path; and when he surpasses this and enters into love, then he becomes higher than nature, and for him the struggle, fear, labor and fatigue in everything end. These are the consequences of doing what is natural. – And we find this in ourselves when we do not darken this knowledge with our own voluptuous will. – And we remain at this level until we come to love, which frees us from all this. Let everyone, on the basis of everything we have said, compare and test himself where his progress is: in what is unnatural, or in what is natural, or in what is supernatural. 258. A good thought enters the heart only from Divine grace; the evil thought approaches a person only for temptation and testing. A person who has reached the point of knowing the extent of his weakness has achieved the perfection of humility. The gifts of God attract the heart, excited to unceasing thanksgiving. The Lord bears with all sorts of human infirmities, but does not tolerate a person who always grumbles and does not leave him without admonition. Humility precedes grace; and conceit precedes punishment. The proud one is allowed to fall into blasphemy, the one who exalts himself in active virtue is allowed to fall into fornication, and the one who exalts himself in his wisdom is allowed to fall into the dark nets of ignorance. 259. Whoever, while remembering God, honors every person, he, by the will of God in secret, receives help from every person. He who defends the offended finds God as his champion; whoever stretches out his hand to help his neighbor receives God’s arm to help himself. Whoever accuses his brother of his vice finds an accuser in God. He who corrects his brother in his cage heals his own vice; and whoever accuses someone before the assembly increases the soreness of his own ulcers. A friend who reproaches in secret is a wise physician, but one who heals in the eyes of many is a scolder. 260. God admonishes with love, and does not take revenge (let him not)! He seeks only to heal His image, and does not harbor anger. He who does good for the sake of reward soon changes. No matter how much a person improves in this life in his striving for God, everything goes behind Him; in the next century, God will show him His face—not that He exists. The righteous here, no matter how much they enter into the contemplation of God, contemplate only the image as in a mirror, and there they behold the manifestation of truth. 261. A fire ignited in dry wood is hardly extinguished: and if God’s warmth disappears from the world in the heart of one who has renounced, then its ignition is not extinguished, and it is faster than fire. When the power of wine enters the limbs, the mind forgets severity in everything: and the remembrance of God, when it takes possession of the pasture in the soul, destroys in the heart the remembrance of everything visible. The feeling of the future century in this world is the same as a small island in the sea; and the one who approaches him is no longer bothered by the waves of visions of this age. The monk, while he sees the need for time to work more, grieves over separation from the body; and when he feels in his soul that he has redeemed the time and received his pledge, he longs for the future age. While the merchant is at sea, fear is in his limbs, lest the waves rise against him, and the hope of his work does not drown; while the monk is in the world, fear takes possession of his life, lest a storm awaken in him, and his work, on which he worked from youth to old age, does not perish. 262. The sailor, while sailing in the middle of the sea, looks at the stars, and corrects the ship according to the stars until he reaches the pier: and the monk looks at prayer, because it corrects him, and directs his procession to the pier to which his life is directed in hourly prayer. A swimmer without clothes dives into the sea to find a pearl; and the monk, having stripped himself of everything, goes through his life in order to find within himself the pearls - Jesus Christ - and when he finds Him, he no longer looks for anything that exists with Him. 263. It is harmful for a virgin to be in public gatherings and in the presence of crowds, and for a monk’s mind to be in conversation with many. The bird, wherever it is, strives to its nest, to raise its children there: and the prudent monk hastens to his place, to create in himself the fruit of life. The clouds cover the sun; and verbosity darkens the soul, which has begun to be enlightened by prayerful contemplation. They say about a bird called a siren that everyone, hearing the sweet sound of its voice, is so captivated that, following it through the desert, from the sweetness of its singing, he forgets his very life, falls and dies. This is similar to what happens to the soul. When heavenly sweetness flows into her, then from the sweet sound of God’s words, imprinted with feeling in her mind, she rushes all after him, so that she forgets her bodily life; and the body is deprived of its desires, and the soul ascends from this life to God. 264. A tree, if it does not first throw off its former leaves, does not grow new branches; and a monk, until he erases from his heart the remembrance of his former deeds, does not bear new fruits and branches of Christ Jesus. In the shell in which the pearl is born, as they say, some semblance of a spark is produced by lightning, and from the air it receives matter into itself, and until then remains simple flesh: and the heart of a monk, until it accepts the heavenly substance into itself with the understanding, his work is something ordinary, and in its shells does not contain the fruit of consolation. A dog that licks its nostrils drinks its own blood, and, because of the sweetness of its blood, does not feel its harm: and a monk, who is inclined to revel in vanity, drinks his life, and from the sweetness felt for an hour, does not realize his harm. 265. Do not approach the words of the sacraments contained in the Divine Scripture without prayer and asking for help from God, but say: “Grant me, Lord, to receive the feeling of the power contained in them.” Consider prayer as the key to the true meaning of what is said in the Divine Scriptures. When you want to draw closer to God with your heart, first prove to Him your love through bodily labors. They are the beginning of life. “And the Lord laid them as the foundation of perfection.” Consider idleness to be the beginning of the darkening of the soul, and as darkening upon darkening it is a gathering place for conversations. If useful speeches, when there is no measure for them, produce darkness, then how much more so are vain speeches. The soul becomes insignificant from many long conversations. 266. Measure and a well-known rule in life enlighten the mind and prevent confusion. Confusion of the mind from disorder (from the lack of constant rules) produces darkness in the soul, and darkness again produces confusion. Peace (spiritual) is a consequence of good order, and from peace comes light; from light and peace, pure air shines in the mind. 267. A selfish soul will be deprived of wisdom, but a merciful soul will be made wise by the Spirit. The key to the heart to Divine gifts is given by love for one's neighbor, and, as the heart renounces the bonds of the body, the door of knowledge also opens before it. How beautiful and praiseworthy is love for one’s neighbor, if only its concern does not distract us from the love of God! 268. How pleasant is conversation with our spiritual brethren, if only it is possible to maintain a conversation with God during it! It is also good to take care of interviews with spiritual brothers, as long as proportionality is observed in this, i.e. as long as under this pretext one can not lose one’s secret work and life, and unceasing conversation with God. This latter becomes confused at the very beginning of the first; for the mind is not sufficient to conduct two interviews. Excessive conversation with spiritual brothers can also be harmful; and it is harmful to look at worldly people only from afar; even without vision, the mere sounds of their voices disturb the peace of their hearts. 269. Just as the soul is by nature better than the body, so the spiritual body is better than the physical. But just as the original creation of the body preceded the inspiration of life into it, so physical deeds precede spiritual deeds. And it is not a high life, invariably continued, that is a great strength. A weak drop, constantly dripping, breaks through the hard stone. When the time approaches for the spiritual man to rise within you, then joy warms up in your soul, and your thoughts are contained within you with the sweetness that is in your heart. And while the world is trying to rise again in you, then the soaring of thoughts in you multiplies. I call the world the passions that are generated from the soaring of the mind. When they are born and reach maturity, they become sins and kill a person. Just as children are not born without a mother, so passions are not born without the soaring of thought, and the commission of sin does not happen without an interview with the passions. 270. If patience increases in our souls, this is a sign that we have secretly received the grace of consolation. When the soul is intoxicated with the joy of its hope and the joy of God, then the body does not feel sorrows, although it is weak. Then it is able to lift a severe burden without showing a lack of strength. This happens when the soul enters into this spiritual joy. If you preserve your tongue, then from God you will be given the grace of heartfelt tenderness, so that you can see your soul in it, and thereby enter into spiritual joy. To the extent that someone has entered into a feat for the sake of God, to such extent does his heart accept boldness in his prayer; and to the extent that a person is entertained by many things, to that extent he is deprived of God’s help. 271. The first thought, which, through God’s love for mankind, enters a person and guides the soul to life, is the thought that sinks into the heart about the outcome of this nature. This thought is naturally followed by disdain for the world; and with this every good movement begins in a person, leading him to life. This is also what the Divine power that accompanies man sets as the foundation when it wants to discover life in him. - And if a person does not extinguish this thought that we have said in himself with everyday worries and vanity, but grows it in silence, and dwells on it in contemplation, and occupies himself with it; then she will lead him to deep contemplation, which no one is able to describe in words. Satan hates this thought, and attacks with all his might to destroy it in man. And if it were possible, I would give him the kingdom of the whole world, just to erase such a thought in a person’s mind with entertainment. For the insidious one knows that if this thought remains in a person, then his mind is no longer in this land of deception, and his machinations do not approach the person. 272. There is another activity after this, when a person goes through a good life well, and approaches the taste of contemplation and doing it, when he receives from above the grace to taste the sweetness of spiritual knowledge. The beginning of this work is as follows: a person first becomes convinced of God’s providence for man, is enlightened by his love for the Creator, and is amazed at the structure of rational beings and God’s great care for them. This is where Divine sweetness begins in him and the ignition of love for God, kindling in the heart and burning spiritual and physical passions. This love, with strong diligence and a good conscience, then suddenly begins to ignite - and a person becomes drunk with it like wine, and his heart is taken captive to God. The extent to which a person strives to live a good life, to preserve himself, to spend time in reading and in prayer, to the same extent this power is confirmed and strengthened in him. 273. Let us not be embarrassed when we are in darkness. I mean that special darkness in which at other times the soul languishes, and it happens, as if among waves; and whether a person reads the Scripture or performs a service, in whatever work he undertakes, he has darkness after darkness. Such a person leaves the matter, and is often not allowed to even approach it. This hour is filled with despair and fear; hope in God and the consolation of faith in Him are completely rejected by the soul - and it is completely filled with doubt and fear. But God does not leave the soul in this state for a long time, but soon creates abundance (1 Cor. 10:13). And I will notice to you and give advice: if you do not have the strength to control yourself and fall on your face in prayer; then cover your head with a robe and sleep until this hour of darkness passes for you, but do not leave your cell. Those who wish to lead a mental life, and those who seek the consolation of faith in their journey, are especially exposed to this temptation. Therefore, this hour torments and tires them most of all with the wavering of the mind; This is often followed by blasphemy, and sometimes doubt about the resurrection comes to a person, and something else that should not be told to us. Those engaged in bodily affairs are completely free from these temptations. A different despondency comes upon them, known to everyone, which in its mode of action is different from these and similar temptations. Blessed is he who endures this without leaving the door. However, this struggle does not end in one hour; and grace does not suddenly come again and settle in the soul, but gradually. And one thing gives way to another, a time of temptation, and a time of consolation. 274. A person who is zealous not according to reason never comes to the world of the mind; and he who is alien to peace is alien to joy. If peace of mind is called perfect health, and jealousy not according to reason is contrary to peace, then it already means that those who have evil jealousy suffer from a serious illness. The heart, filled with sadness about weakness and powerlessness in obvious bodily affairs, replaces all these bodily affairs. Physical deeds without the sadness of the mind are the same as an inanimate body. He who grieves at heart and gives freedom to his feelings is like a man who suffers physically, and whose mouth is open to any food harmful to him, or one who has an only begotten son, and who little by little kills him with his own hands. 275. Chastity and conversation with a woman are the same as a lioness and a sheep in the same house. Deeds without mercy before God are the same as a man who kills his son in the presence of his father. Like a handful of sand thrown into the sea, the same is the fall of all flesh in comparison with God's Providence and God's mercy. And just as a source of abundant water is not blocked by a handful of dust, so the mercy of the Creator is not overcome by the vices of creatures. To be vindictive and to pray is the same as to sow on the sea and wait for the harvest. Just as the flame of fire cannot help but rise upward, so the prayers of the merciful must rise to heaven. What is the flow of water in a sloping place, such is the power of irritability when it finds access to our heart. 276. There is humility out of the fear of God, there is out of love for God, and there is out of joy. He who is humble through the fear of God is accompanied at all times by modesty in all his members, orderly feelings and a contrite heart. The assembly of the humble is loved by God, like the assembly of the Seraphim. A chaste body is more precious before God than a pure sacrifice. These two virtues - humility and chastity - prepare a betrothal pledge in the soul for the Holy Trinity. 277. Observe the belly, but not as sight; because domestic abuse is, without a doubt, easier than external one. Do not believe, brother, that internal thoughts can be stopped without bringing the body into a good and orderly state. Fear your habits more than your enemies. He who feeds a habit is the same as a person who feeds fire. If a habit demands something once, and its demand is not fulfilled, then another time you will find it weak. And if once you fulfill her will, then the second time you will find her attacking you with much greater force. 278. Whoever loves laughter and loves to show off himself to people, do not be his friend; otherwise he will teach you the habit of indulging in relaxation. When someone begins to argue with his brother in front of you, lower your face. As soon as you do this, you will find yourself cautious before God and before him. If you give something to someone in need, let the cheerfulness of your face precede your giving and comfort his sorrow with a kind word. When you do this, then your kindness will be more valuable in his mind than your giving, which would exceed even his needs. May bodily chastity and purity of conscience precede you in all your deeds; for without them every work is vanity before God. 279. Let them persecute you, do not persecute you; let them crucify you, do not crucify; let them offend you, do not offend; let them slander you, do not slander you. Judging is not the business of Christian life; there is not even a hint of this in the teachings of Christ. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep; for this is a sign of purity. Be sick with the sick; shed tears with sinners; Rejoice with those who repent. Be friendly with all people, but remain alone in your thoughts. 280. Do not reprove or vilify anyone, even those who are extremely bad in your life. Spread your clothing over the falling one and cover him. Know that this is why we need not to leave the doors of our cells, so as not to know the evil deeds of men; and then, in the ignorance of our minds, we will see holy and good people in everyone. If you cannot work with your body, at least grieve in your mind. If you cannot fast for two days, fast at least until the evening; if you cannot until evening, then beware of satiety. If you are not a peacemaker, then at least do not be a lover of rebellion. If you are not able to stop the mouth of someone who condemns your friend, then at least beware of entering into communication with him. 281. Know that if fire comes out from you and burns others, then God will seek from your hand the souls burned by your fire. And if you do not cast fire, but agree with the caster and delight in it, then at the trial you will be among his accomplices. In all the paths that people walk in the world, they do not find peace; until they come closer to hope in God. The heart is not pacified by labor and stumbling until hope comes into it, pacifies it, and sheds joy into it. It was about her that the venerable lips spoke: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The light of the mind gives birth to faith; faith produces the consolation of hope; hope strengthens the heart. 282. The Son of God endured the cross; Therefore, we sinners boldly rely on repentance. Sorrow of the mind is enough to replace all bodily activity. St. Gregory says: “he is a church of grace who is in unity with God - and is always preoccupied with the thought of His judgment.” Blessed Basil said: “unceasing prayer produces in the soul a clear thought about God; and our instilling in ourselves the remembrance of God is the instillation of God in us.” Thus we become the church of God. A contrite heart serves as a preparation for rest in God. 283. What we acquire during our negligence is what puts us to shame during our prayer. Sobriety helps a person more than business; and permission (dissolution of thoughts) harms him more than peace (bodily). From peace, domestic battles arise and disturb a person, but he has the opportunity to stop them. For as soon as a person leaves peace and returns to the place of business, these battles are taken away from him and removed. But what is generated by resolution is not the same as what is generated by peace. While a person remains in the realm of his freedom during rest, he can return again and govern himself by establishing his own rule; because he is still in the realm of his freedom. But giving yourself permission (to think with pleasure) leaves the area of ​​your freedom. If a person had not completely rejected observation of himself, he would not have been violently and involuntarily forced to submit to what does not give him peace. 284. Do not give, man, freedom to whom either from your feelings, so as not to reach the point of impossibility of returning to freedom again. Peace harms only the young, but permission harms both the old and the perfect. As a result of peace, those who reach evil thoughts can again return to observing themselves and establish themselves in their high life. But those who, out of hope for work, neglected to monitor themselves, were led away captives from a high life into a dissolute life. 285. We will not only grieve when we creep in something, but especially when we become rigid in the same thing; because inclination often happens to the perfect, and to become rigid in the same is a complete defilement. The sadness that we feel at our attempts is imputed to us by grace instead of pure work. Whoever, in the hope of repentance, deliberately creeps a second time, deals with God deceitfully; death unexpectedly attacks him, and he does not reach the time in which he hoped to fulfill the deeds of virtue. 286. Everyone who has given free rein to his feelings has also given free rein to his heart: for the work of the heart serves as a bond for external feelings. If someone engages in this activity with prudence, then this is obvious from the following three phenomena in it, namely: he is not bound by bodily benefits, does not like gluttony, and does not allow irritability at all. Where do these three take place? there is no real order inside, even if the outside was impeccable. A judicious disregard for the physical gives rise to disconnection, a disregard for peace and human commitment. If someone willingly, rejoicing, accepts damage for the sake of God, then he is pure internally. He who does not look with pleasure at the one who has honored him, and is not indignant at the one who dishonors him, has become dead to the world in this life. 287. Do not hate the sinner; because we are all responsible. If you rebel against him for God’s sake, then cry for him. And why do you hate him? Hate his sin and pray for it in order to become like Christ, Who was not angry with sinners, but prayed for them. Be a preacher of God's goodness; because God rules you unworthy; because you owe Him a lot, but His exaction is not visible on you, and for the small deeds you have done, He rewards you with great ones. 288. Fear God out of love for Him, and not because of the terrible name given to Him. Love Him as you must love Him, not for what He will give you in the future, but for what we have received in the present, and for this one world that He created for us. Who convinced Him to bring us into being in the first place? Who pleads with Him for us when we do not remember Him? When we did not yet exist, who brought this body of ours to life? Where does the thought of knowledge fall into the dust? What immeasurable goodness our nature in us sinners again leads to re-creation! Come, you thoughtful ones, and be amazed. Who, having a wise and wonderful mind, will worthily marvel at the mercy of our Creator? 289. To the extent that a person neglects this world and is zealous for the fear of God, to that extent the Providence of God approaches him - and in secret a person feels the assistance of Providence, and pure thoughts are given to him to understand it. If someone voluntarily deprives himself of worldly goods, then to the extent that he is deprived of them, to the same extent God’s mercy accompanies him and supports God’s love for mankind. The souls of those who are not strong enough to acquire true life for themselves by voluntary renunciation of everything, He leads through involuntary sorrows to virtue, as we see in the case of the beggar Lazarus. God is close to the grieving heart of those who cry out to Him in sorrow. Even if it sometimes exposes you to physical deprivation and other sorrows; but the Lord shows great love for mankind towards the soul of the mourner, commensurate with the cruelty of suffering in his grief. 290. When the desire for the love of Christ does not prevail in you to the point that, out of joy in Christ, you become dispassionate in all your sorrow; then know that the world lives in you more than Christ. When illness, poverty, exhaustion of the body, fear of what is harmful to the body outrages your thoughts to the point that it tears you away from the joy of your hope and from caring about pleasing the Lord; then know that it is the body that lives in you, and not Christ. Just to say, what your commitment to prevails over everything, that’s what lives in you. If you have no shortage of what you need, and your body is healthy, and you are not afraid of anything that is contrary to you, and you say that with this you can walk purely towards Christ; then know that you are sick in mind and deprived of tasting the glory of God. 291. Lest you say that there was no person whose mind would completely rise above weakness, when the body suffered destruction in temptations and sorrows, and whose love for Christ would overcome the sadness of the mind, I will bring to your memory the martyrs, and see how their patience, supported by the power of Christ’s love, overcame great sorrow and bodily illness. And they weren’t the only ones who showed such firmness; there were philosophers, pagans who did not know the true God, who showed the amazing power of courage. One of them made it a law to remain silent - and did not deviate from this decision, despite the obvious danger of death. Others have completely trampled natural lust; others easily endured slander; others endured severe illnesses without sorrow; and others showed their patience in tribulations and great disasters. If they endured it for the sake of empty glory and hope; then shouldn’t we, monks, who are called to communion with God, endure much more? 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