Letters to monastics of various monasteries and monastics to the saint

Contents Letters from St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) to monastics of different monasteries No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 6 No. 7 No. 8 No. 9 No. 10. To the Athos monk Seraphim Sayings of Bishop Ignatius, extracted from his letters to monks Letters from monastics of different monasteries to St. Ignatius Letter from the hieromonk Gabriel Letter from the Builder of the Cheremenets Monastery, Hieromonk Seraphim Letter from Hieromonk Nicodemus Letters from Hieromonk Arseny of the Vologda Prilutsky Monastery No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 Letters from the Optina monk Ioannikis to St. Ignatius No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 Letters of Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) to monastics of different monasteries I admit that I am unworthy of the trust that you give me. When a person, during his grief, turns his gaze to someone, stretches out his hands to him with confidence, asks for help: this means that he assumes spiritual strength in him. I have no spiritual strength. I am bound by the chains of passions, I am enslaved by them, I see in myself only weakness. But having spent my entire life in suffering, I consider compassion for the suffering to be my sacred duty. It is only from this motive that I am writing to you; Only in this regard, consider my letter worthy of your attention: accept it as a response from the soul participating in you. Alone, in grief and insignificant participation is pleasant. Under current circumstances, human paths to helping you are blocked. This is the opinion not only of mine, but also of those who know and remember you, with whom I considered it useful to consult. You cannot deviate either to the right or to the left: you must, of necessity, follow the narrow and regrettable path that suddenly opened before you due to the inscrutable destinies of God. This situation is not unfamiliar to me. More than once I have seen the complete impoverishment of human help; more than once he was betrayed by the cruelty of difficult circumstances; More than once I was in the power of my enemies. And don’t think that the difficult situation will last for any short time. No! Thus the years passed; Physical health was lost, mental strength was exhausted under the weight of the sorrowful burden, and the burden of sorrows was not lightened. As soon as one sorrow passed, as soon as my situation began to become clearer for me, an unexpected, new cloud swooped in from the other side - and the new sorrow fell heavily on the soul, on the soul, already exhausted and thinned like a cobweb by previous sorrows. Now I consider myself to have spent half the days of my life. The opposite shore is already visible! Already intensified weakness, more frequent illnesses herald the proximity of resettlement! I don’t know what storms are still ahead of me, but I look back and feel involuntary joy in my heart. Seeing the many waves through which my soul sailed, seeing the dangerous places through which my boat was transported, I involuntarily rejoice. Strong winds rushed towards her; many pitfalls lay in wait and foreshadowed her salvation - and I have not yet perished. According to human considerations, he should have died long ago. “I am sure that the incomprehensible providence of God led me along strange and difficult paths; I am confident that He is watching over me and, as it were, holding me by the hand with His almighty right hand. I surrender to him! Let him lead me wherever he wants; let him lead me, as he wishes, to a quiet refuge “where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no sighing.” I see many who are called happy - and their lot is without price for my heart. The dead lie in marble and wooden coffins with the same insensibility: they are equally insensitive both to the magnificent monument erected by vanity and ignorance of Christianity, and to the humble wooden cross, which was erected by faith and poverty. They are equally victims of corruption. The earthly lucky ones are very similar to the dead, dead to eternity and to everything spiritual. The Gospel called them dead. Let us proclaim the glory of God in the land and society of the living! The journey to the true knowledge of God certainly requires help from sorrows: the mortification of the heart for the world through sorrows is certainly necessary, so that it can strive entirely to seek God. God, whom He separates for His immediate service, into a vessel of spiritual gifts, sends sorrows to him 1 . As soon as he revealed himself to Paul, he already assigned him suffering and announced it. “I will tell him how much it is fitting for him to suffer in My name,” said the Lord about the newly elected Apostle! People who cause sorrow and sorrowful circumstances are only instruments in the almighty right hand of God. The hair of our heads is counted by God; not one of the dumb birds falls without the will of its Creator: could temptation really come close to you without this will? - No! It came closer to you by God's permission. The watchful Eye of Providence constantly watches over you; His all-powerful right hand protects you and controls your destiny. By the permission or beck of God, sorrows have come to you, like tormentors to a martyr. – Your gold has been thrown into the crucible of temptation: it will come out purer and more valuable. People commit crimes in their blindness, but you become a partaker of the Son of God on earth and in heaven. The Son of God says to His: I have drunk the cup that I have drunk 3. Do not indulge in sadness, cowardice, and hopelessness! Tell me, Most Honest Father, to your despondent thoughts, tell your heart pierced by sorrow: “The cup that the Father gives me, shall I not drink from it?” Caiaphas does not serve this cup, Judas and the Pharisees do not prepare it: the Father does everything! People who arbitrarily follow the suggestions of their hearts, acting autocratically, do not cease to be instruments, blind instruments of Divine Providence, according to the infinite wisdom and omnipotence of this Providence. Let's leave people aside: for sure - they are strangers! Let us turn our gaze to God, let us cast down our rising and restless thoughts at His feet, and say with reverent submission: “Thy will be done!” This is not enough! Let us kiss the Cross as a sign of Christ, guiding the disciple of Christ into the Kingdom of Heaven. The robber mentioned in the Gospel was hanged on the cross; was hanged as a robber, and moved from the cross to heaven as a confessor. People stoned Stephen as a Blasphemer, and according to the judgment of God, heaven was opened to him as a living temple of the Holy Spirit. Saint Tikhon of Voronezh, accused of hot temper, was forced to move from the episcopal throne to the walls of a quiet monastery - and the monastery, the stay in which the Holy Shepherd had the appearance of exile, inspired him to devote himself to prayer and other monastic deeds. His holy exploits brought him the incorruptible and indestructible treasure of righteousness in Christ, glory from Christ in heaven and on earth. The fate of St. Tikhon has always amazed me; his example always sent out consoling and instructive rays into my heart, when my heart was surrounded by darkness produced by the accumulating clouds of sorrows. I am convinced that monastic studies alone can firmly console a person who is in the crucible of temptation. I recommend to you the works of St. Mark the Ascetic, found in the 1st part of the Philokalia: they provide spiritual consolation in sorrows; and for the prayer lesson - Hesychius, Philotheus and Theoliptus, placed in the 2nd part of the same book. Forgive me for allowing myself to advise you! Take this as a sign of participation, as a sign of sincerity, drawn from my soul by compassion for you. Otherwise, I would not have entrusted to you the secrets that I hide and which must be hidden in the depths of my soul, so that the precious spiritual beads would not be trampled upon by those who love and value dearly only their swamp. I was nourished and supported by the thoughts expressed in this letter and others similar to them, drawn from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers. Without support, so strong, could I have resisted the face of the sorrows that the all-good Providence allowed me, with which it cut me off from love for the world and called me into love for Himself. My sorrows in relation to my weak strength were considerable, not uncommon in modern times. The fact that they could not suddenly break me only intensified and continued the torment: instead of breaking me in a few days or a few hours, they broke me for many years. In these sorrows I see God’s goodness towards me; I confess a gift from above, for which I must thank God more than for any earthly, imaginary happiness I see in others. And this imaginary happiness, no matter how low (it is carnal!), could be even enviable if it were durable and eternal. But it is wrong, it is instantaneous - and how they are tormented by its betrayals, by the loss of it, spoiled by it. It must certainly be destroyed, taken away by an inexorable and inevitable death: the disaster with which the pupils of imaginary, earthly happiness suddenly meet at the gates of eternity is incomparable to anything! Saint Isaac of Syria rightly said: “The world is a harlot: with its beauty it attracts those who are disposed to love it. Caught in the love of the world and entangled in it, he will not be able to escape from its hands until he loses his life. The world, when it completely exposes a person, drives him out of his home (that is, from his body) on the day of death. Then a person will know that the world is a flatterer and a deceiver.” Give us your hand: let us follow Christ, each carrying his own cross and working through it for his salvation. Wherever I am, whether in solitude or in human society, light and consolation pour into my soul from the cross of Christ. Sin, which possesses my entire being, never ceases to tell me: “come down from the cross.” Alas! I leave it, thinking to find truth outside the cross, and I fall into spiritual distress: waves of confusion consume me. Having come down from the cross, I find myself without Christ How to help a disaster? I pray to Christ to take me to the cross again. While praying, I myself try to be crucified, as taught by experience itself that those who are not crucified are not Christ’s. Faith leads to the cross; brings down from him a false mind full of unbelief. As I do myself, I advise my brothers to do the same! What else should I add? I will add: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation.” “Having been tempted, he can help those who are tempted.” I wish that these words of Holy Scripture come true for you. And you - be comforted! Do not be faint-hearted because you have been overcome by warfare: this leads to spiritual testing, or experience, and to humility. Peace be with you! I will also say the common path of ascetics - through patience between people to heal the weakness of feelings, to see God’s Providence and to enter into mental prayer. Another, according to the special vision of God, entered differently; – we must follow a common path. Read about this the 55th Word of St. Isaac to St. Simeon the Wonderworker. Others find that solitude is the closest means to spiritual success; and others say what leads to spiritual success is love for one’s neighbor. My heart prefers the latter; because love for one's neighbor is an indispensable duty for everyone; and few are capable of silence. Having lowered the wing of thoughts and feelings, I stand reverently before you. This reverence is taught to me by the Angels, who reverently look, according to Scripture, at the earthly suffering of Christ’s servants. And indeed, it is a wonderful sight, forcing one to revere: flesh and blood are trampled under foot. I ask for your holy prayers: because the Lord is near the brokenhearted and His ears are at their prayers. The monk Moses of the monastery once saw the Holy Spirit descending on the young monk Zechariah and, recognizing that Zechariah’s tongue had become the reed of the scribe-cursive Spirit, asked him: “Tell me, how should I behave?” - Zechariah took the kamilavka from his head, put it under his feet, trampled it down, crushed it with his feet and said: “So if a person does not erase himself, he cannot be a monk.” Whoever has death and eternity before his eyes - the indispensable, inevitable lot of every person - laughs at both the sorrows and sweets of earthly life. Whoever the enemy steals the memory of death and eternity - before his eyes, temporary life grows into eternity, sorrows grow into immeasurable, invincible giants. As soon as the monk remembered death, the giants fell to dust; the curtain that closed eternity from him was pulled back: before him are earthly events - like activities, fun, punishments of children! To eternity! To eternity! - Let's go, rushing along the path of life! Everything, both sweet and bitter, remains with us. The former is as if it had never happened. One eternal thing is not subject to time, is not subject to change, must be recognized as essential, worthy of all attention, all concerns: because it remains forever. The devil tries to entertain our eyes so that eternity slips from our eyes. She slipped away - and the man struggles, suffers in the catcher’s net. Spiritual intelligence, which is humility, cuts through these networks. “Remember your last and you will never sin” neither by murmuring against the blessed yoke of Christ, nor by exhaustion in the desired and glorious monastic feat. He who endures to the end will be saved. Whoever hesitates, says God, My soul has no pleasure in him 4. And again I ask for your holy prayers. Love the sincere as you love yourself (Matthew 22:39), the Word of God commands us. In fulfillment of this commandment of the Gospel, I offer you medicine, which has always benefited my soul when my soul has resorted to it. When my soul forgot about this medicine, sought to alleviate its illness with human excuses, thought to solve the problem of human suffering on earth otherwise than by the cross of Christ; then she just worked in vain! Then her torment only multiplied and intensified! The remedy I'm talking about is "blaming yourself." Saint Pimen the Great said many beautiful sayings about blaming oneself. Read them in the book that you have: “The Memorable Legend of the Ascetics of the Holy and Blessed Fathers.” A monk who blames himself will survive all adversities! What sorrow can crush one who has recognized himself as worthy of all sorrow? - the one who meets every coming sorrow with the words of the blessed thief: I accept what is worthy according to my deeds; remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom! What sorrow will he be afraid of who believes that the eye of God is steadily looking at him, that no sorrow can touch him without the permission or wave of God? - Protect your soul with the sign of the cross, and with faith plunge into the sea of ​​monastic sorrows! Let a prosperous fair wind blow your sails, and quickly carry the boat of your soul to the haven of dispassion and holiness. This wind, always blowing beneficially, always constantly, in one direction of God's Spirit and Truth: the teaching of the Gospel, the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, one of these Fathers, St. John Climacus, said: “whoever rejected reproof, rightly or wrongly, rejected his salvation.” Learn to bear the infirmities of your neighbors, to please them for the sake of God, and not yourself! learn to lay down your life for your neighbors! Learn to endure reprimands and spitting! Hold on to blaming yourself, like someone who has fallen into the water holds on to a rope thrown towards him, and you will be saved from drowning in confusion and sadness! A certain great monk, the mentor of a large congregation of monastics in Mount Nitria, said: “The most necessary spiritual activity of a monk is to constantly blame yourself.” – The new man described, depicted in the Gospel, may little by little descend from the Gospel into your soul, may he be depicted in your soul. May the features of the old man be erased from her, the features that we receive hereditarily at birth, which suddenly appeared on the soul of our Forefather, who sinned - and both distorted this soul - the hitherto perfect image of the Perfect God. From this disorder comes all our confusion and torment, temporary and eternal! - How ugly is the soul when it is confused! How beautiful she is when she is calm! - it is even more beautiful when the blessed peace from the Lord is instilled in her. This calmness, this very holy peace, comes into the soul that blames itself - and this is the reason for this: “the soul that will blame itself,” said the great Pimen, “the Lord will love.” Only one who dies for people can blame himself. Whoever allows himself the slightest partiality towards a person will not be able to remain in self-condemnation, and therefore in the world. We must give all people to God. The Church teaches us this, she says: “Let us give ourselves, each other and our whole life to Christ our God.” He who surrenders himself and everyone to God can remain dead to everyone; Without this deadness, spiritual revival cannot take place in the soul. If you remain faithful to God and maintain mortification towards people, then in due time an incorruptible spiritual treasure will appear in your soul, you will see the resurrection of your soul through the action of the Spirit. Carnal people cannot form any idea about this. When, in due time, a person sees himself changed and recreated, he is surprised, as if he had been created again, considers the land of the spirit into which God unexpectedly introduced him, and wonders why such a mercy of God would be poured out on an insignificant creature - man. Don't be discouraged when changes happen. It is not typical for any person to constantly, without any humiliation, remain in goodness: this is even less typical for a beginner! “Repay your debt to passions!” - said a certain Holy Mentor of the monastics. Heal victories with repentance! The struggle of the new man with the old will make you skilled in invisible battles, firm, and courageous. Do not wish for a state of calm prematurely! During war, a warrior enriches himself with self-interest. May the Lord give you complete and glorious victory over sin, may He grant you a state of indestructible peace in its rightful time. There is a time for everything! The untimely plucked fruit, albeit from an excellent tree, is sour, bitter, lifeless. Timeless peace is a loss, not a gain! – deprives you of precious experiences, spiritual success and enlightenment. Commit your grieving brother to God; God will arrange everything for his good and remove his soul from sorrow. – He maintains holy love for his neighbor who has fellowship with him for the sake of God; This holy love is also preserved by those who, for the sake of God, withdraw from such communication. Our nature is damaged by the fall: our natural love is also damaged by it. Therefore, in order to fulfill the conditions of holy love, one must be guided not by heartfelt feelings and desires, but by the dictates of the Gospel, the all-holy commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of these commandments says: if your right hand causes you to sin, turn away from you! 6, that is, if some person, so necessary and close to you as your right hand, brings you spiritual harm, break off communication with him. This is what the Lawgiver’s commandment of perfect love tells us to do. And the dreams and feelings of our fallen heart can easily drag us into the abyss!.. Christ is with you! May the Lord bless your intention and may He tell you the way to go. Having torn the earth of your heart with sorrows, crushing and crushing it with temptations from men, may He sow it with the seeds of His holy Truth and may He comfort you with spiritual fruit. Work with patient constancy in the lot of blessed Martha, who was honored to prepare and supply food for the Savior, expect with faith a reward from the Lord. He will say to those who served the brethren at His Last Judgment: Amen, I say to you, since you have made one of these least of my brethren, you have created for Me 7 . And the Lord will lead the brethren who diligently served into eternal peace and pleasure of paradise. Remember that a cup of cold water will not lose its reward in Heaven, and do not miss opportunities to increase your reward. Have the thought that you serve not men, but Angels, and your service will delight you. Show love and service to your neighbors for the sake of God, and not out of heartfelt feeling, attraction, election, much less partiality, and your service will be cleansed of impurity and will be a sacrifice acceptable to God. Based on your disposition and trust in me, a sinner, I tell you: your true obedience especially contributes to your salvation according to your natural properties. Succeed, take courage in this ministry, believe in finding salvation for your soul through it. Beware of hurting your neighbor! The Monk Anthony the Great said: “Our life and death come from our neighbors: if we give rest to our brother, we give rest to God. And if we offend our brother, we sin against Christ himself.” So, be afraid to offend the brethren! Both the service and the insult done to his neighbor are accepted by Christ, as if they were done to Him - the Lord. When you must refuse something to your brother, refuse with quietness and at the same time firmness, explaining the impossibility of fulfilling his desire. If you get carried away and sin in some way due to the weakness inherent in all people, do not give in to despondency. On the contrary, immediately run with repentance to the Lord, pray to Him to forgive you, and you will be forgiven. Christ is with you. Pray for me, who loves you much in the Lord. The path of our life is like sailing across a vast sea. This sea is sometimes calm, sometimes there is a fair wind; but most often there is a storm on it. Seeing the onset of a storm, seeing the storm itself, one should not be embarrassed, become despondent and despair; must resist the waves and the opposite wind. Otherwise, the spiritual ship may be crushed, even sunk. If during a storm something happens to break or get damaged in the spiritual ship, you should not be discouraged again, you should not be embarrassed. We must look for a reliable pier, enter it, repair and correct what is damaged, then continue sailing in the hope of Almighty God. Almighty God will not abandon those who trust in Him! The very storms will serve in favor of the faithful servant of Christ: they will make him a skilled swimmer. Marinas in which the ship of the soul is repaired: prayer in contrition of spirit, reading the Holy Scriptures and the books of the Fathers, advice from a neighbor, if this neighbor is able to give advice about the Lord. Calm down: blessed is the man, says Scripture, who endures temptation. On the contrary: everyone is unskilled, unskilled. Let the past storm serve as a preliminary, experimental teaching for you to endure future storms. Consider in advance what your behavior should be in front of them - prepare in advance, study it. And storms will certainly follow! The Wise Lord has established it so that through many sorrows we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which we have lost, we are losing through an untimely and unlawful desire for pleasure. All of us, like our Forefather, are inclined to stretch out our bold hand to the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, we are inclined to material consolation, we are soon seduced by the deceptive ghost of spiritual reasoning and virtue, under the guise of which the evil that kills us hides. Sorrow acts opposite to pleasure, and therefore counteracts our fall and promotes our uprising. Due to these properties, grief is necessary for our salvation. Because of its necessity, the Savior led His holy flock along the path of sorrows to the land of eternal bliss. To the one who refuses sorrows, He declares decisively: He who does not take up his cross and comes after Me is not worthy of Me. Christ is with you. I hope to see you and tell you what God will give to confirm your soul, which has come out of the world to seek the Lord. I think that I will meet winter in the Babaevsky Monastery; I would like to see spring there too. However, as God wills. Pray for me. Thank you for your letter and for your congratulations on my Angel’s Day. I was already greatly comforted by the fact that I saw your hand. I don’t say: out of my love for you (I have not yet achieved love), but because of my habit towards you, just seeing your hand, your handwriting comforted me greatly. I did not grieve you for your silence: I excused it by your illness, occupation of a troublesome position, thoughts that say to the sick and busy: “Until the next post!” This next post has arrived; I have your letter. And you forgive me the same way I forgive you. All this time I wrote to almost no one or wrote incorrectly and not as much as I should have; and I wrote, believe me, to the point of exhaustion, to the point of pain. Anyone who understands how illness twists and binds a person will forgive my silence. And you're still sick! What will you do? The patient cannot be fully counted among the living, because he lives a half-life, some kind of shadow of life. His very spiritual faculties become numb and do not act as they should. Nowadays Christians do not suffer from chains and swords; Let us suffer torment from illness and other sorrows. Every time is given its own kind of suffering; Our time is given petty suffering. Let's endure them. God's scales and rewards. Why should you be bitter? Mercy and Truth met, Truth and Peace greeted 8, says Scripture. This means that where there is no “mercy”, where there is “hardness”, there is no “Truth”; where there is no “peace”, there is no “truth”. And a state of the soul that is alien to Divine Truth and Truth cannot be recognized as a “state from God.” You must rid your soul of such a state, and introduce into it the state bestowed by Divine Truth and Righteousness, the state of “Peace and Alms.” You will succeed in this if you say to yourself: “It is not without the Providence of God that what happens to me happens. May the name of God be blessed from now to eternity.” - Don’t look too closely at the circumstances of life: they don’t stand still - they go, they rush quickly, they are replaced by one another. And we ourselves are rushing to the limit of eternity! And whoever looks at the circumstances and sees them as not moving conveniently falls into despondency. Whoever sees that everything is flying, and he himself is flying, his heart is light and cheerful. Christ is with you. Pray for me. Most Honest Father Hegumen Varlaam! No! I do not disdain prisoners, as you write in your letter, knowing that I too am in the bonds of sin. And such an arrest, that is, a sinful one, is the most blasphemous - it is only such an arrest that a monk can and should grieve and care about, since his shame and his torment are eternal, unless a person breaks the bonds of sin in advance by repentance. Moreover, you are not under arrest in Optina, but among the brotherhood. The Lord, who fed you on Valaam, also feeds you here, and my beloved brother Ioannikios told me that you are not deprived of both tea and other needs, and Abbot Moses, due to his characteristic wisdom, is not at all burdened by you. The only thing left for you is to leave all earthly cares and prepare your soul for the exodus from the bodily church to the heavenly dwelling. Please write in your letter: I would like to know - were you sent to Optina Pustyn temporarily or forever? I answer: the Synod Decree does not say anything about time, but it is certain that wherever we are on earth, whether on Valaam or Optina, there will be guests everywhere, strangers everywhere, strangers everywhere, everywhere for a while. It always awaits us in eternity: there is everlasting joy or everlasting torment. The most experienced elders advising you very sensibly advise you to leave earthly troubles and litigations, in which when Satan sees a fallen monk, he rejoices greatly over him, as about the despiser of the Commandments of Christ the Savior, who through His Apostle cries out: it is no longer a shame for you, for you have litigation among yourself, since you are no more offended by nature, There is almost nothing worse than deprivation 10. And that advice is the wisest, that you were sent to Optina by the highest authorities against your will, and therefore it is good and useful for you to break your will, and, having surrendered to the will of God, to endure your small temptation with gratitude, if only it deserves the name of temptation. Do you really think that a human hand, somehow hidden from God’s Providence, could do anything to you? God forbid from such blasphemous and wicked thoughts! For this reason, St. Peter of Damascus calls those who resist temptations found against their will “God-fighters,” from which may the Lord save us. If any sensible person asks: From whom did the authorities get the idea to move you to Optina? Answer: from God. The most experienced elders in Russia are now living with you and can give you edifying advice and abundant consolation. Therefore, who else but the Lord himself could place you at the source of salvation? But alas! Great is our blindness! We do not see the providence of God, and we argue with people, and we waste the precious time for repentance given to us in vain; For this reason, the world and the vegetating spiritual gifts from it are removed from our hearts. And the hour of death is near us! - an impartial judgment awaits us, in which our truths will be judged. The saints always see their work as insufficient, and, as one of them said, they consider themselves not performers, but desecrators of the most holy commandments of the Lord; For this reason, when temptation comes, they rejoice as involuntary sorrow replenishes the insufficiency of their deeds, and their vestments are whitened for shameless entry into marriage through the spiritual door of death. We have cared enough, enough about earthly things, we have lost enough time - we will use this day, the eleventh hour, to prepare for eternity; Let us change our murmuring and troublesome voices into voices of thanksgiving and praise, as through unknown destinies the Lord works out our salvation, and with small sorrows, below the name of sorrow, he humbles our neck, and for the single refraction of our blind will and submission to His all-wise Providence wants to crown us. Remembering, beloved Father Varlaam in the Lord, your love and simplicity, how you stayed with us in the Sergius Hermitage, I wrote these meager lines for you as a consolation, and for myself as a reproof; I say and do not do. Please accept from me a small gift as a keepsake, which I am sending to you through O Ioannikios. I ask for your holy prayers and remain forever lovingly devoted the sinful Archimandrite Ignatius No. 10. To the Athonite monk Seraphim 11 Most beloved Father Seraphim in the Lord! I sincerely thank you that on the holy Mount Athos you remembered the monks living near the noisy capital, in the monastery, which is vainly called the Desert. I heard about the sorrows that befell you partly from Father Archimandrite John, Inspector of the local Theological Academy. And who among those who swim through the sea of ​​life is not watered by its waves? Especially if the swimmer is an unrequited monk. When you were in St. Petersburg, I sincerely wished to see you alone: ​​because in private I hoped to talk with you about the depths of monastic life, which probably still has worthy workers on Mount Athos, despite the general weakening to which monasticism has undergone everything and everywhere. But I was not worthy of this: you were accompanied by a society of such a mood in which, according to the instructions of some great Father, you should hide the mysterious monastic treasure. You were silent, looking down like an Israelite on the rivers of Babylon, and the one who spoke, although he said little, saw the consequence that he said unnecessary and inappropriate. For this reason, although I had the happiness of seeing you face to face, I know you only from your wonderful book, and for as long as you wanted to show yourself to the entire reading public. Such an unsatisfactory rapprochement with you upset me; but I consoled myself with the thought that God’s Providence often does not allow our desires, which outwardly seem good, to be fulfilled. At the end of this long preface, I must say a self-evident truth, known to all even attentive monks: the reason for frankness about spiritual matters is trust in the instructing person, and trust in the person is inspired by accurate knowledge of the person. God! To whom we go, - says Saint Peter to the Savior, - the verbs of the eternal life are imashi, and we by faith and knowledge, for you are the Christ, the Son of the living God (John 6:68-69). On the contrary: “Whoever does not know the heart, do not open it,” says the great mentor of monks, the Venerable Pimen, the Egyptian Hermit. Judge for yourself: knowing you so little, what degree of trust can I have in you? So, my first illness, which I must expose to you, is my lack of faith - lack of faith not in the most intelligent prayer, no! This mysterious sky, into which only the pure in heart go to see God, is seen by the eyes of my mind, although it remains invisible to them: it is hidden from them by its wonderful, transparent, incomprehensible blueness, in which they imagine to see it. I suffer from lack of faith in you. Heal me from this illness. Such healing is possible. Many people of little faith were converted into zealous believers: the almighty truth accomplished their conversion. And don’t be offended by my confession of lack of faith in you! The Climacus says in the 4th degree: “If we have to bow our necks in the Lord with reason, so that we can entrust our salvation in the word of humility and the news of our salvation to another, before we emerge, for if we have any guile and reason, we will torture and test the helmsman, and for this reason we will tempt the river: let it not be against a shipman, as against the helmsman, and the sick as if he were a doctor, and the one who is in pain as if he were dispassionate, and the abyss as if he had attacked a refuge, ready to find himself drowned.” If this is allowed and advised by the Holy Fathers for those newly entering the monastery, then all the more is it permissible and even necessary for someone who has spent a significant amount of time in monasticism, which, unfortunately, is extremely unfruitful. An insufficient mentor is dangerous when teaching a novice good morals and the first rules of monastic life: all the more dangerous is it for those who dare to hear the teaching about the great sacrament of mental prayer, leading the Christian to a hidden, at the same time essential and completely tangible union with God. Do you, most beloved Father, have in mind an experienced Elder in the abodes of the Holy Mountain, on whose spiritual intelligence you could rely? I did not use the word spiritual here lightly, as it is used by the newest writers, but in the sense as it was used by the Holy Apostle Paul, and after him by all the ascetic writers of our Church, of whom St. Gregory of Sinaite says: “For not everyone can be instructed, but to them was given Divine reasoning, according to the Apostle, the reasoning of spirits, separating the worse from the better by the sword of the word. Everyone has their own mind and reasoning naturally, or actively, or artistically, and not in everything spiritual” (See articles on beauty, ideas and many other subjects). Although we are extremely darkened due to our weak lifestyle, we recognize and confess that neither natural, nor active, nor artistic reasoning can raise above the rank of spiritual reason, no matter how strong and brilliant they are, even well-intentioned and pious. (See St. Isaac of Syria (Words 26, 27, 28)). So, do you mean the spiritual Elder? This is the question that, by your gracious permission, I present to you with my questions, I consider the initial and first of all questions. And the Holy Fathers recognize this question as such. “Above all,” they say, “choose for yourself with the perfect, - according to the sacred secret teaching, renunciation and obedience unfeigned and perfect, that is, trying to find a mentor and teacher is not charming.” (Callistus and Ignatius, ch. 14). Almost all ascetic Orthodox teachers say the same thing; but most of them complain about the scarcity of true mentors. In the 15th century, when our Venerable Nilus of Sora lived, who visited Mount Athos and found there a hotbed of intelligent workers, planted by the Venerable Gregory of Sinaite, then, even then, the true teacher of mental prayer was recognized as an important rarity, what can we say about our time? The hearts of all are attracted, as you find and of which you saw an example in our Desert, to external beauty; inner spiritual beauty, and therefore philokalia, which contains the doctrine of acquiring this beauty, remain on the sidelines. However, some monastics here in Russia engage in mental prayer, and not without success. I happened to see such people and talk with them. I happened to see - alas! - those who are seduced and seduced, drawn away from the straight and true path by mental and physical passions. Although I must recognize myself as deceived, convinced of such a disastrous state by many active passions in me, which are obvious to my conscience, I work openly with deeds and words, implicitly with thoughts and feelings; However, I recognize that the fear of falling, and even worse, spontaneously falling into great delusion, is fair. It is common for someone who is afflicted with many diseases to fear falling into a grave illness! It is typical for someone who is neck-deep in a swamp to strive [to get out] so as not to go headlong into it! Then - having offered you my first question and forced by the very end of the sheet to finish the letter, I ask for your holy prayers to strengthen my many infirmities, and - I will wait for your edifying lines, which you will not deprive of your most humble novice. 1851, June 10th day Sayings of Bishop Ignatius, extracted from his letters to the monks 12 1. I rejoice that you have found a quiet refuge, and in this refuge of a person - in Christ, one of the same minds, who can help you in the matter of salvation. At the present time, this is a great gift of God, given to a very rare one. 2. Pay all your attention to the Gospel commandments, and with them offer yourself as a living sacrifice, pleasing to God. In external actions that have no influence on the soul, such as changing clothes and the like, be absolutely free. 3. Mortify yourself for everyone in order to come to life for Christ: without such mortification it is impossible to acquire within yourself life in God, which is Christ. 4. Do not rush through life and do not get excited by temporary impulses, but live moderately and constantly, making a cry, “which, as the Great Pimen said, does and preserves” - one can add: and heals the stumbling blocks that occur on the path of life. 5. Endure the sorrows of solitude! One of the temptations of solitude is sleep: drowsiness is overcome by patience. 6. Do not look at your temptations: they are fleeting and will not remain forever. And whoever looks at it, his head will go spinning, and he can very easily fall - of course, into despondency or exhaustion. 7. Elder Seraphim of Sarov, a great ascetic, said: “We must endure our shortcomings in the same way as we tolerate the shortcomings of others and be forgiving of our soul in its weaknesses and imperfections. At the same time, one should not indulge in negligence: one should take diligent care to correct and improve oneself.” 8. God is the savior of men: may he save those who are perishing... and most of all me who is perishing. 9 . Peace of mind and external calm are disturbed only by the excitement of one’s own passions. 10. You need to look at battles more calmly, as if they were happening in someone else, and not in you. Such a view of one’s struggles is done when a person casts concern for himself - on God. Coolness in commanders is praised: it gives them the opportunity to give proper orders during battle; for the same reason it is necessary for the mind, practicing in invisible warfare. 11. The state of warfare is necessary: ​​it provides the mind with precious experience and leads to true deep repentance. 12. Without my own questioning of a person, I would not dare to give him any advice: this is forbidden by the Holy Fathers. 13. It is impossible for someone who has given some course to his passions not to suffer grief when taming them: they have received the right to self-will, through the indulgence allowed, they are not suddenly tamed, they do not suddenly part with the freedom they have received; on the contrary, they try to keep a person in their enslavement and therefore confuse him in every possible way. We must patiently wait for the time of confusion until it passes, wait in hope of God’s mercy and help; This is how farmers wait for bad weather to interfere with their work in the hope that the bad weather will be replaced by a bucket. 14. It is too early for you to expect abundant peace: your blood is still very much alive and that is why the imagination has a strong effect, by which the soul is brought out of a calm dispensation. We must endure this time: it will pass. 15. If you feel benefit from my words, give glory to God, who puts words of salvation into the mouth of a sinner, according to the faith of those who listen, and stop pleasing me, because praise spoils me and takes away hope in God’s mercy. He said that those who accept their bribe here - human praise - have no hope for future reward. 16. Speak about your needs simply, not pompously. 17. Look at your neighbor’s struggle with coldness, as if it were a matter foreign to you. Maintain reverence for his struggle itself and leave everything to God. Such struggles are needed for testing and strengthening. 18. For those living in solitude, a living memory of death comes naturally: it is sent by a merciful God to help souls who purify themselves through repentance. However, such sensations and thoughts are transitory, although true: beginners do not need to pay attention to them, but must steadily follow the path of repentance, in which they experience a wonderful vision: a vision of their sins and passions. 19. Christ is with you. Be peaceful. The Lord protects you: there is no one and nothing for you to fear, and because of your obedience and fidelity you received reproach from carnal people, this is for you an acquisition and evidence of the true path, slandered and blasphemed by the enemy. 20. As for the conscience of our neighbor, God and she herself are the judge, and not I, who must look at my sins. 21. May God bless you and grant you strength, with your mortal and weak body, with the assistance, and especially with the action of faith, to overcome internal and external disturbances. Read one kathisma, lying down and sitting, or standing, but not necessarily being forced to stand because of your weakness. Read simply, slowly, do not look for mysterious meaning and do not get carried away by it if it presents itself. 22. Repentance is a general act, higher than private acts; and if you chase after private activities, then repentance can easily slip from your mind and from your heart. 23. It is because of silence and solitude that you are suffused with consolation, and not because of purity. 24. Temptations, changes and cooling, according to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, happened to all ascetics: there is no need to be surprised by them, but we must try to get out of them through repentance and prayer: prayer is fire, and the one praying cannot help but warm up, and cooling is evidence of the absence or diminishment of fire, which conveniently flares up again from the action of repentance. 25. “Cheti-Minei”, with all the undeniable dignity of this work, is not punctually accurate with the originals in the biographies themselves, but is very shortened, added with reasoning that often cannot express what a cold and bare historical narrative is. 26. May the grace of God guide you to follow the path of salvation, narrow and sorrowful, but which has its joys: the vision of the holy Truth and the notification of salvation by It. 27. May God help you to endure with good hope those illnesses that accompany the transition from old age to the newness of Christ. Nowadays you are still working in the outer man, and therefore, understanding your condition, be prudent. With some dilapidation of disrepair, love for relatives cools down, and they become in the category of all people in general, in which spiritual kinship has all the power. “However, what you did before out of your heartfelt feelings, do now for God’s sake: calm down your parent, and take this above all other exploits.” Note: The mentioned parent, without taking monasticism, lived inseparably with his monk son in the monastery. 28. Nothing else, like a detailed study of the Ecumenical Councils, shows so clearly the burden of the mortal sin of heresy: the study of them greatly strengthens Orthodoxy. 29. Gain your soul, not being afraid of the many sorrows that arise against it, surrender to the will of God. If it pleases this holy will to send you death, accept it: the Lord knows what he is doing. He accepts will, as if fulfillment itself. If He wants to prolong your life in the midst of sorrows, then accept this continuation of life - this is everyday mortification. 30. God has sent you many spiritual blessings, in this age so meager in spiritual gifts, due to the inability of the world, given over to vanity, for them: bring thanks to God for this, as Saint David brought it, and the chains of passions and the remains of sorrows will seem easier to you. May the grace of God guide you on the invisible path to God, which has its downfalls, on which you must endure much burden and grief, especially from your own passions and decay, on which there are times of consolation and weakness; full reward awaits the ascetic of Christ after the separation of his body. 31. May God bless you and grant you strength to endure the temptations in which a person is melted. In which our old age or, in other words, our flesh and blood is burned. Be strengthened by hope. – Do not be discouraged by the sight of your infirmities, because a single touch of Divine grace can heal all our infirmities in a single moment. Your condition is transitional: bear with it. 32. Peace be with you! Don't be embarrassed at all! The enemy confuses you with hopelessness, seeing God’s mercy towards you. Your condition is transitional. – It is necessary that the mind of the world be withdrawn with illness: then the mind will become capable of spiritual understanding. 33. The tendency to addictions is cleared by a will according to God, that is, when a person who feels an involuntarily acting addiction within himself points to it in his prayers to God, exposes it to God, like a wound before a doctor, and asks for healing. 34. There is no need to distance yourself from your neighbor, from whom you feel benefit, because of the perceived admixture of vanity and blood addiction; but this impurity must be purified by consciousness of it before God and prayer. And you yourself need to distract your heart from addiction to a fallen feeling, and raise it to feeling in Christ. 35. You cannot demand perfect purity from yourself, although you should strive for it through prayer and crying and compelling your heart to fulfill the commandments of Christ; perfect purity is a gift from God, bestowed upon one who sees his own uncleanness and mourns it. Christ is with you! - I have endured the Lord and heeded me. 36. In everything, rely on the will and mercy of God. – Nowadays the world is cruelly agitated by false intelligence. All the customs of the world, previously based on the law of Christ, are now based on the violation of this law. Previously, under our forefathers, chastity was a common property of both girls and boys. The latest education has deprived young men, almost completely deprived them of chastity, but still leaves chastity of the body to girls, content with the depravity of their minds and hearts. With such a terrible moral fluctuation in the world, blessed are those who managed not to drown, and although on a plank, and not without wounds and bruises, swam to the shore. 37. May God forgive you your sin and make scarlet white as wool. With thunder and lightning He showed that He does not want the sinner to die, but patiently awaits his repentance and accepts this repentance. – It is much more soul-saving to endure monastic warfare in one place. You yourself notice that the transitional state has not yet ended, and that the animals are still wandering and looking for food for themselves. Stay in one place, and no matter how cruel my advice may seem, you will actually see its benefits. I suspected K.’s actions that he, carried away and guided by the blood movements of kindness, intends to do good to one beggar, plunging other beggars into disaster. - Decisively refuse him. 38. Let such alms perish, said Saint Isaac of Syria, which deprives the silent of comfort and the opportunity to remain silent. 39. You and I are not meant to save, but only to be saved. And this is a great thing. - Your vision, although it seemed to you inside you, was lovely, from blood and imagination. 40. It is fitting for us to enter into the kingdom of God through many sorrows, and God distributes which ones exactly to someone. What should you do with your Parent? Just one thing: be patient with him. We must remember that he who endures to the end will be saved, and endure everything that comes our way, whether we are the cause of it or the cause is not from us. Christ is with you. Conquer all sorrows and battles with patience and trust in God. Amen. 41. The Holy Fathers in their Divinely inspired writings depict the Lord’s punishment either as medicine preceding an illness, or as following an illness to heal it; but they never recognized this punishment as vengeance or retribution. Perhaps only in the stubborn enemies of God, who no longer sin through weakness against the commanded unceasing repentance, but who reject it out of willfulness and false reason. Saint Mark the Ascetic said: “When temptation comes, do not seek why or for what purpose it came, but seek to endure it with patience and gratitude.” I advise you to adhere to this saving simplicity, without delving into opinions and the confusion associated with them. 42. Every novice must first be taught how to practice the commandments of Christ, performed in the body; and when, over a considerable period of time, he turns out to be faithful in this work, then teach him mindfulness, but only very simply and moderately. That one should not accept sinful thoughts - this must be said from the very beginning. – Everything in the garden of Christ is accomplished with great patience and waiting: the seeds of other plants sprout in the second and third year. We are commanded to gain our own soul and the souls of our neighbors through patience. 43. I am very sorry about the illness that befell M. A.: Apparently God wants our mortal body to be melted down and give more space to the spirit. 44. We must endure, endure, and endure, and endure again, and endure again: because only those who endure to the end will be saved. Impatience makes temptations worse. – Stop the bleeding and know that God’s Providence controls everything. Faith, said the great Pimen, consists in remaining in humility. 45. What to do! Now the time is such that not only your monastery is in chaos due to the loss of the true concept of humility and piety to God. If God tolerates such disorders; then we must endure all the more. And the sorrows that come to us from these disorders will serve us instead of true work: because the monks of the last times were commanded to be saved by sorrows. 46. Monks of the last times are destined to be saved by sorrows. There are no skilled elders. Divinely inspired monastic rules and life are shocked by the institutions of the carnal human mind; the spiritual success of any exceptional person is dangerous; because it certainly draws the one who has it to exaltation and humiliation of his neighbor. For these reasons, it remains to work out salvation through the cross alone. This is the lot of those who are now being saved, and among them is yours. 47. From the fall we have become so complex that we must certainly observe our will in everything - is it not deceitful? And doesn’t he secretly join his enemies, betraying his spiritual voice into their power? It is not for nothing that the Holy Fathers said that without great attention it is impossible to be saved. 48. If possible, do not give way to your nerves, but try to control them. 49. “Everyone who wants to live piously will be persecuted,” said the Apostle, and commanded them to endure to the end. With this, take comfort and be strengthened in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Who resurrects His faithful disciples by pouring out His Holy Spirit on them even during their earthly journey, and in due time He will resurrect them for eternal glory and bliss, where no one who now resists Christ and His blessed path will be allowed. 50. The opinion that you are abandoned as a man may still exist: for every man is a lie; but the opinion of abandonment by God is not only wrong, but also associated with blasphemy. If we do not see, then this exposes not the non-existence of God’s Providence, but the dullness of our vision. Because of this dullness of vision, we call that saving learning through sorrows, which is allowed to us by Divine Providence, abandonment. It seems that because of the sorrows and various difficulties you are allowed, you should rejoice and be comforted: for the sorrows you are allowed are evidence not only of the calling, but also of the election of God. Read the words of Saint Isaac the Syrian 46th and 47th. 51. The faithful witness of true prayer is attention (that is, when the mind is completely enclosed in the words of prayer, not accepting not only any daydreaming, but lower opinions, that is, thoughts belonging to the old mind), reconciliation towards everyone, love and, at the same time, deadness towards everyone. Having tasted life, be careful not to die again. After accepting the gift, expect temptation; and when it comes, do not be embarrassed. 52. In our time, the abuse is not so much cruel as it is subtle. The fighter became unusually experienced, like some kind of homeopath, and seeing that pins and needles are deadly when handled deftly, but do not make any noise due to their inconspicuousness, he left the swords and spears that had produced martyrs alone. But although for most people the burden of the current battles is inconspicuous, it is obvious to the all-wise God, who, in His great goodness, has prepared crowns for the current victors. Amen. May 24, 1852 53. George the Recluse said beautifully: “I’m not looking to see if they love me, I’m looking to see if I love others?” And the Holy Fathers do not order to seek from one’s neighbor the fulfillment of the commandment: because this only violates the peace. May God grant us to endure the temptations that befall us with patience and devotion to the will of God. We are all strangers and strangers on earth, and we are all destined, after completing a course in an earthly school, to depart to the judgment seat of Christ, in the abode of eternity. 54. I return Roman’s letter and advise him to write that since he believes in the truth in his heart, he must confess it with his lips for salvation, renouncing errors and joining the Truth. 55. Beginners who have somewhat tasted prayer tend to feel more war and be more exposed to bodily infirmities, because the body cannot withstand the touch of the spiritual and, so to speak, is shaken and melts from it, and the soul, having tasted God’s sweetness, becomes more sensitive to the bitterness of passions. Nevertheless, this is allowed by the all-wise Providence, so that humility, which is so inconsistent with the spirit of the age and alien to modern people, will take root in us. Only on the basis of humility can a person safely erect the edifice of spiritual work. Without humility, doing leads only to arrogance. 56. It is necessary to distinguish between actions in the body from illness and actions in the body from monastic feat. Only the first ones are told to the material doctor. – By repentance, in its full sense, the heart is broken, and therefore the body. 57. During storms, sailors throw an anchor and hold on to it from the pressure of the waves: the Holy Fathers call an anchor - self-reproach; By self-reproach, keep your soul from drowning in confusion. I must say to myself: I do not deserve a better position than the one I am in; and God put me in the position in which I am, according to His great wisdom and mercy, according to my ailments. If the medicines are palpable to me, and I cry out from the pain they cause, then it means that they were chosen correctly. – A person who has worthy of the position, even the difficult and bitter one, in which he is placed, finds peace; and the world is a witness to the Truth. Although our will that is not fulfilled seems to us to be supremely holy; but if it were exactly like that, then wouldn’t the all-good God fulfill it? He does the will of those who fear Him. And why doesn’t He create it, when everything, big and small, is equally possible for Him! – In the cutting off of our will, with the eye of faith we see that our will, due to its imperfection, is unworthy of being fulfilled. Why should we renounce it before God and submit to Him, so as not to fall into the ranks of those who are making an attempt against the enemy? 58. May the Lord protect both you and me from reckless actions that occur in the heat of the moment. Heat signifies that life, the mortification of which God requires of us. 59. Glory to the Almighty Physician, who revealed in us, through the cutting of our will, our illness! Let’s also take a soothing ointment after cutting: it is humility. – Living faith gives birth to humility, and humility reconciles the soul that accepts it with heaven and earth. Peace be with you. Oct 25 1852 60. Answer to the question about mental warfare: You do not have a vision of demonic warfare, but only the opinion of this vision. Such an opinion is more dangerous than abuse itself. It is better not to see the battle from attention to it and from attention to prayer, than leaving attention to prayer and prayer, go into the consideration of the battle, which exceeds our strength, and from this imaginary consideration come to arrogance, which is inseparable from opinion. It is enough for you to be convinced that fallen man is the treasury of all sins; Some sins are revealed by their action, while others live as if not acting, and thus mislead the ascetic about their non-existence. Be before God as one whole ulcer and pray for healing and salvation, not paying much attention to the battles and not being surprised at their coming, as if taking place out of order. 61. The opinion about the impoverishment of human help is a type of temptation that God allows to His friends, so that they die from trusting in people and come to life through trusting in God. Read the end of the 78th Word of Saint Isaac of Syria - and you will be comforted. Let us not be afraid of temptations, “For God is with us,” allowing them to us and teaching us through them. 13 Nov 1852 62. What is the use of building up your neighbor’s church and simultaneously destroying your own? Novices should not get carried away in the edification of their neighbors, due to the ardor of their temperament, due to their new beginnings, due to their bloody action. The blood, sometimes very excited, sometimes tired and tired from the excitement itself, transmits the soul alternately into two opposite states: into excitement and despondency. Stay away from the snares placed outside and inside a person. And covered in every possible way with the semblance of truth, but cognizable by the world they take away from the soul. 63. The Venerable Nile of Sora, referring to the Venerable Nile of Sinai, says that “mental prayer is a paradise that must not only be cultivated, but also preserved. Having prayed as you should, expect what you shouldn’t. In particular, the enemy, after prayer, fights with two passions: anger, which is directly opposed to prayer, and fornication, as its carnal and satanic likeness in action, therefore destroying its action. The Apostle said: “If you cleave to the Lord, there will be one spirit with the Lord, but if you cleave to a harlot, even if only in thoughts, there will be one flesh with the harlot.” May God grant you to overcome battles with patience and to go through prayer, if possible, without any material benefits. Amen. 64. Thrown into the Babylonian furnace, the three Youths, despite the fact that an Angel watered them and the hot furnace did not produce any influence on them, sang: “We have sinned, we have sinned, we have sinned in all... Everything that you have done to us, and everything that you have brought upon us, you have created true judgment.” It should be noted that in this song, in which the Holy Youths recognize themselves as worthy of everything brought upon them, they recognize the tormentor – Nebuchadnezzar – “more wicked than all the earth”... So, although Nebuchadnezzar was more wicked than all the earth, his state of mind did not prevent the Youths from having holy humility. Truth and humility do not disagree with each other: for both come from Christ. 65. The curses that are showered on me with all possible impudence also resonate with my students. But is the voice really in vain: Blessed are they who always revile you and say all kinds of evil against you, lying, for my sake 13. Are we not immortal? Is the eternal life so short that it does not deserve some small patience in this life? 66. Self-reproach alone is not enough, says Barsanuphius the Great; human humiliation is also needed to bring humility to a person. Against humility and patience, the enemy brings blasphemy against God Himself, allegedly abandoning those who serve Him: but let his blasphemy descend on his head [the enemy] through praise, thanksgiving and confession brought to God by His servants, following the example of the holy three Youths. 1853 Nov. 10. 67. You have to be very careful with your enemies: a very stupid person can do more evil than an evil but smart person can do. Peace in hope and faith. “The bitter cup of the present time is not taught without the special permission of God, lest His vessels be tempted into fire.” 1854 Jan 21 68. The embarrassment that came to you obviously came from the fact that you, with all your soul and with all your thoughts, with all your strength, took up the election of the Abbot, contrary to my warning. Heal your ulcer with repentance, and in the future know that what is possible for your elder is completely inaccessible for you. 69. There is actually no need to leave the monastery for battle, but it is necessary to defeat it, according to the will of the Fathers, in the monastery (see Dobrotoll. 4th part of Cassian: On despondency). On the contrary: by spoiling yourself in battles you can spoil yourself. 70. Prepare for the meeting of the new abbot with attention and humility. Maybe God will arrange it so that he will warm up to you. 71. If you have many who hate you, then know that the mercy of the Lord is upon you, Whom blind men hated while His flesh was on earth. Do not fear the fear of those who hate you and threaten you: sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. – May God’s blessing rest upon you! Do not be surprised at your incomprehensible ailments. This is the fate of all those who are refined in smart work. Their illnesses and their healings proceed in a completely different order than those of other people. 72. May God strengthen His sick servant in the feat of thanksgiving and patience. For whatever you wish to pray for, pray with all possible moderation, leaving everything to the will of God. Due to my extreme sinfulness, I fear that a person, having entered into unity with me in spirit, will not be deprived of his virtues and will not share my weaknesses. 73. Retain insolence even before well-intentioned authorities: for insolence towards authorities, even the most kind ones, is the only condition for lasting peace with them. 74. May God grant His sick servant to endure the illness that has befallen him with complacency and gratitude. I believe that in case of a serious illness, it is not superfluous to take the blessing of oil. The Apostle directly advises resorting to this remedy during illness. 75. For you to live is Christ, and if you die there is gain. The Apostle said this about himself because of his perfection, and I apply his words to you because of the openness and directness of your character, with which it is inconvenient to live in the middle of this world, which requires special wisdom to live in it, which neither you nor I have. And therefore, if God wants you to finish your earthly course, accept His determination with humility; if God wants you to live, live, begging Him to give you wisdom to preserve your soul. And you will preserve it by dying for people, whoever they are, and for circumstances, by killing the blood flow towards them through faith and obedience to God. 76. Surrender yourself to the will of God, trying to be pleasing to God: for no matter how long our earthly journey may be, the transition is near. Do what is within your power, and God will do His. 77. I thank God, who has given you like-mindedness in your cell! Don’t look for this unanimity outside of it. Remember that the Savior ordered Peter to follow Him, and when Peter asked and cared about another, he heard: what have you to do with anyone else, follow Me. By caring prematurely and incorrectly for others, we often forget or weaken caring for ourselves. 78. Since you confessed your sins before your confessor, and received forgiveness from him, I did not at all dare to stretch out my hands boldly and touch to add anything to the great sacrament of Confession, in which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself forgives through His servant. What is permitted by God is permitted and does not require desecration by human permission. – Remain in faith and trust in God. 79. Visions are often sent to seriously ill people to change their heartfelt feelings, from mental to spiritual, and to maintain in them a spiritual feeling of repentance and prayer, and one should not bother explaining the vision, which often remains very poorly explained. 80. The great mercy of God is constantly being performed on you through the servant of God living with you, who is being fought by a common enemy. With the help of his warfare, you can make the transition from bloody love, of which you are very capable, to love for the Lord, bearing the infirmities of your neighbor, and compassionate warfare. Saint Isaac the Syrian said that a monk must immerse his heart in mercy until he feels the mercy that God has for the world. Without this, it is impossible to experience the true and abundant effect of prayer. – Renounce blood and follow Christ. Know that the enemy, arming himself with war against his brother, indirectly places arrows at you, so that you transgress the commandment of love for Christ, for the sake of your blood. Always speak to him very softly and lovingly in order to win him, and constantly refuse to listen to his scoldings. This is not your measure yet. Let him convey his abuse to the elder. 81. Salvation and spiritual success are in the commandments of Christ. 82. The Lord, who wants to transfer someone from a blood or mental sensation to a spiritual sensation, sends him from time to time - as St. Maximus the Confessor says - to taste this sensation experimentally. Such a taste is like a spy on the promised land. 83. Humility from the midst of sorrows finds a reason for thanksgiving to God, and pride and blood, surrounded by the obvious benefits of God, find a sufficient reason for grumbling and displeasure. In the latter case, self-reproach is needed. Cover your neighbors with your goodness, not only your equals, but also your superiors: for everyone has their own weaknesses. 84. “If you do not have mercy on yourself, then God will have mercy on you,” said the Great Anthony. You were very mistaken in calling your elder’s condition “darkness”; this darkness is brighter than your light. What seems more important to you: maintaining peace and love or taking the antidor a minute earlier, a minute later? – Do not seek satisfaction from the elder for your desires, neither physical nor, especially, spiritual. Self-indulgence and your own mind do battle with you; reject them with self-reproach - and you will calm down. 85. Read in the 1st part of the Philokalia, in the active and theological chapters of Simeon the New Theologian, chapters 66 and 67 and knowingly know what the Holy Fathers said: “give blood and receive the Spirit.” 86. Regarding dreams 14, it is appropriate to remember the words of the Savior: Do you think that these Galileans are the most sinful, more than all the Galileans, because they suffered? Neither, I say to you: but unless you repent, you will all perish the same way. Or they are on the rise and so on. I tell you nothing, but unless you repent, you will all perish the same way 15. I believe that this dream was sent to you to awaken your heart from insensibility, and to give you a taste of the fear of eternal torment and the memory of death. Apply these goals to your soul suffering from passion. 87. I advise you, if possible, to become accustomed to silence and to open your mouth to speak only in the most necessary cases. 88. The mind cannot be dispassionate. According to the Great Maxim, “if his many and varied visions do not accept him.” Understanding the goal (of the feat of the repentant), one must leave the means without special attention. 89. We must restrain our aggressions. Whoever you love, you will love, and whoever you don’t love, you won’t love. Meanwhile, the commandment of Christ commands precisely love to differ from the pagans. What will happen from our monasticism when we cannot bear a single word against us? Someday we need a rein against our blood! Are we the only ones who can’t take advantage of the words of the thief spoken from the cross: She who is worthy for her deeds is accepted, and so on. All the Saints used them. 90. You should not grieve over the temptation that has occurred, but surrender to the will of God, which saves all those who are being saved through many different sorrows. 91. You should not grieve for those who have spoken unfavorable words about you. This is due to ignorance and the allowance of God’s providence, which apparently sees that you need humility and purification through human dishonor. Have love and peace with everyone, and with those who insult you, without which it is impossible to have spiritual success. Give thanks to God for everything that happened and surrender yourself to the will of God. 92. The path of Christians, the Holy Fathers said, is an everyday cross. They said this, guided by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who commanded those who desire perfection to take up their cross and follow him - the Lord. – The cross is a readiness to complacently accept any sorrow allowed by the Providence of God. Therefore, it is known that a person is under the special Providence of God when this person is constantly allowed sorrow, said Saint Isaac. “Drink reproach every hour like living water,” says Saint John Climacus; and whoever rejected a correct or incorrect reprimand rejected his own salvation. The Lord remembered you and sent you temptation for your purification and mortification of the world, and therefore for your prosperity. I, a damned sinner, am pleased with the temptation that befell you. Your Guardian Angel of Christ takes pleasure in him, seeing in him the guarantee of your salvation. Remember me, a sinner, in your prayers! Saint Isaac the Syrian says that “before entering into temptation, a person prays to God as a stranger to Him, and having been subjected to temptations for His sake, he prays to Him as one of his own, and as if having Him - God - in his debt.” Pray to God for me, servant of God! For in my life I have not had the opportunity to endure a single temptation, and what happened that was contrary to my proud heart was trifle, trifle, trifle... not worthy of any attention, and if I decided to talk about my temptations, I would fall into nothing but idle talk... 93. You shouldn't let insurance take over you. Whoever succumbs to this passion will prevail over him, and he will be frightened by all sorts of trifles. Read the article “about insurance” in the Holy Ladder. No incantatory prayers are needed: they are read over each of us at Holy Baptism. You need to surrender to the will of God and recognize yourself as worthy of all human and demonic guidance: then the insurance will go away by itself. It is destroyed for no reason other than through deep heartfelt contrition. 94. Do not abandon the Jesus Prayer: a monk, as part of his vows during tonsure, promises to practice this prayer day and night. 95. We must defeat battles in their place, and not by leaving space, which only makes the battles stronger. 96. Ascend into yourself, try to see the multitude of your sins, and the sins of your neighbor will diminish in your eyes. Take advantage of the solitude and comforts for an attentive life, given to you by God's mercy to cry over your sins. Remember in your prayers those who have offended you, so that you may be healed of the serious illness of enmity towards your neighbor. 97. The vine that produces the fruit is also sprinkled with manure by the Vertogradar, so that it will bear abundant fruit. You will not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 98. Remember in your prayers your sick brother, who was handed over to Satan by God’s judgment, so that his spirit may be saved. He contributed a lot to your peace of mind, and in the last case, to humility and prosperity. In a spiritual sense, such punishment from God does not at all serve as a bad testimony about man: - many great saints of God were subjected to such a tradition to Satan. The Monk Cassian describes about the Monk Moses of Skete, with whom he talked “about reasoning,” that Moses fell into madness and demonic possession for some contradiction with his elder Macarius the Great of Egypt. In the sacred tradition of the 4th century, it is described that a certain Egyptian elder, due to his holy and pure life, was unusually abundant in the gift of miracles: his fame spread far and wide. Noticing the beginnings of pride in himself, the elder began to pray to God to send him a demon, which the Lord fulfilled. The elder spent a whole 8 months in a terrible situation, even using his own eruptions for writing. His worldly admirers, seeing him in such a position, as they should be, were tempted, and changed the good reputation about him for bad; and the elder, having in due time got rid of the demon, worked for the Lord in obscurity and peace, and came to even greater prosperity. “Being possessed is much less important than accepting any evil enemy thought.” “You shouldn’t pay any attention to the words and actions of crazy people, and you can’t compare such patients with drunk people, from whom only prudence is taken away, not reason.” A drunk person expresses his secret thoughts and feelings, and a crazy person or a raving person talks about game that is alien to him. 99. Believe that it was not without the providence of God that temptation befell you, so that you may die to the world, and to its glory, and to its justification. Pray for all those who bring you sorrow, so that your heart may be completely healed of malice and become capable of receiving Divine grace. As soon as a memory of someone who has offended you comes to your mind, immediately pray for it. Beyond God's permission, no power or human power can touch you. 100. What a person sows during earthly life, he reaps at death. At present, Hieromonk Stefan, who formerly was Hieromonk Simeon, is ending in the Sergius Hermitage. – The custom of confessing and heeding oneself according to the Gospel commandments gives him the most peaceful death. It is impossible to demand such a spiritual disposition from a person who only came to the monastery in the evening of his days with formed (strengthened) skills and his way of thinking. The irritation of your sick parent comes from a material cause - illness. Prepare him for his departure with mercy towards him. Admonish him with the Holy Mysteries: they will transport his thoughts into eternity. May God's mercy overshadow him. God's will be done. 21 Jan 1856. 101. Blessed be God, who revealed to you that your jealousy is completely bloody and unreasonable. It comes from the intoxication of vanity and arrogance, which you intoxicated from the praise of writers and which led you to a state of self-delusion and conceit. May you be granted to see them and, for the sake of this vision, plunge into repentance, which covers all the shortcomings of your neighbors. 102. Humble yourself before the Abbot in your soul. Humble yourself before the Providence of God, which has allowed the present circumstances, and kiss your lot, which is left for: - an exercise in repentance. 103. Keep your mind unimaginable and dreamless, and meekly reject what happened to you as very doubtful. 104. Do not make your cell known with condemnation, gossip and murmuring; announce it with thanksgiving and glorification, and with the voices of groaning for sins, and with the voices of your prayers. 105. Love silence. For you, as a theorist and visionary (dreamer), verbosity is dangerous: with it you can destroy yourself and destroy your neighbors, placing unbearable burdens on them. Shut up and shut up! Make friends with repentance, which cannot take place without silence. 106. Your dreams are dreams that lead into delusion for those who do not guard against them. We must guard the mind and keep it formless and dreamless. Don’t believe in any dreams, and may God’s mercy cover you. 107. Silence alone can reveal to you your blood action and the charm contained in this action. 108. According to the Holy Fathers, there is no price for a moderate and constant rule. And therefore, in your life, maintain prudent proportionality, without binding yourself by quantity. 109. Show the abbot, whenever possible and with possible compulsion, obedience, which kills the old man in us. Refuse with humility from obediences that exceed your strength. 110. To us, who are in a transitional state, various tears come according to it: bitter, as if characteristic of us, and at times also comforting, by the special mercy of God. May the Lord forgive us all all our sins and grant us, in due time, known to Him, the strength not to fall into sins and resist the attacks of the enemy. 111. One’s own will leads a person to temptation, although its suggestions apparently seem good, but we cannot see what consequences its fulfillment will lead to. 112. When a person renounces his will, then only he can be a participant in true prayer, which is the union of a person with God. This union cannot be achieved without renouncing your will, your truth, your mind. 113. The Holy Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, conveys to them that the tradition emanating from God himself is prayerful, unceasing thanksgiving for everything that happens. In everything give thanks,” he says, “for this is the will of God for Christ Jesus in you (1 Thessalonians 5:18). If there is not a single case that would be hidden from God, then for everything that happens we must praise God. Blessed be the providential God! Blessed is the God who allows! Nothing can happen outside His will. 114. The Lord sends many trials to those who believe in Him, so that through these trials they will be more confirmed in their faith and in how close the Lord is to all those who call on Him. Protect yourself from imputing yourself into something. Letters from monastics of various monasteries to St. Ignatius Letter of Hieromonk Gabriel 16 Most honorable and all-loving father to me in Christ By the goodness of God, this duty, and the truest case in particular, prompted me to express to Your Eminence my most humble veneration for you, with my humble worship and with this remembrance I am most humble forever obliged. From the pledge of our Christian love to you, I testify to my most zealous heartfelt goodwill and all-true gratitude for your fatherly merciful remembrances shown to me, which I, the most humble, did not imagine in letters to hear your most God-loving greeting. And all this alone does a lot to revive and benefit my most careless soul. May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace in the Lord, who strengthens you and blesses you in the field of your reign, longevity and prosperity, and all pleasing success. My most sincere wish and mutual prostration at your feet. I ask for your fatherly holy prayers and the blessings of Your Reverence. A man of prayer and a great sinner in monasticism is Hieromonk Gabriel. To my most honorable colleagues, I am diligent in expressing to those who are in your holy monastery Father Michael, the student of the church succession, Father Seraphim of Valaam, Father Irinarch Evangel, Father Barsanuphius. I bow to everyone humbly. Letter from the Builder of the Cheremenets Monastery, Hieromonk Seraphim 17 Your Reverence, Most Venerable Father and Benefactor Father Archimandrite Bless! I hasten, firstly, to render the most sensitive Gratitude to Your Reverence for your fatherly favor and love towards me, which I, a sinner, have hitherto enjoyed. On this occasion, I have the honor to congratulate you on the all-joyful and highly solemn holiday of the Resurrection of Christ, and I sincerely wish you to see it off in joy. I am very sorry that I did not have the good fortune to see you off personally at the Valaam Monastery, and also to meet you; your return was unknown, I did not dare to wait long, I hurried to the monastery. Thank God I found everything safely and in good order, the brothers were very happy about my arrival. On Palm Sunday it served as a cathedral, and to this day some of the landowners fast with us. However, may the goodness of the Almighty count Your Eminence with its grace, under the cover of which, being under the cover, do not leave in the Holy prayers the brethren who abides to you and to all your brethren in Christ with special respect and sincere goodwill Most Humble Servant Sinful Builder Hieromonk Seraphim is the builder of the Cheremenets St. John the Theological Monastery, which is part of the deanery of St. Ignatius; in 1838–1839 he was his assistant in the investigation of the unrest taking place in the Valaam Monastery (see this edition, vol. 3, p. 422). Letter of Hieromonk Nicodemus 18 Receive November day 1839 Most venerable Father Archimandrite Ignatius! After my departure from your monastery, feeling my disposition and ultimate efforts to respond to your request, I found people corresponding to the life of the monastic rank and the voices of your monastery. And how I know your compassionate heart about the unfortunate who are oppressed due to special circumstances, which you yourself are well aware of happening in monastic movements, for how these people, according to the decrees of the Holy Synod, expressed their consent to the requirement to serve in the Black Sea Fleet: hieromonks Nathanael, Theodosius and Pimen of the Yaroslavl province. The first in 1833, and the last two in 1836, who, due to the weakness of their health, diligently wish, bypassing all naval awards, to rid themselves of living on the Crimean side and move to Russian places. And since they cannot find a way to move or get rid of the residence of the Crimean island, I know your mercy, then I humbly ask Your Eminence to deliver these unfortunate people, for which they will always be grateful to you. And just as they do not have enough cash to travel to St. Petersburg, then in this case I also hope that you will not leave your mercy for travel expenses for their travel. If it pleases Your Reverence to take them under your protection, then order someone to notify me about it; and I hope that these people can deserve you: the first of them has a bass voice, and the two have tenor voices, and know the partes note. My present position, having placed all my destiny in the hands of the Most High Creator, should apparently be reliable; According to the Highest Decree of May 22 of this year, it was ordered to replace the white clergy with monastics in the fortifications along the eastern shore of the Black Sea for Divine services. Then, by the force of this decree, three were elected with good behavior and morality from the Moscow Stavropegial monasteries, and two from the diocesan monasteries; That's why I was sent according to the sample. Now there are seven of us, five from Moscow, and the rest from Orel and Kursk, and we are all staying until required in the fortress in the St. George Balaklava Monastery, near the city of Sevastopol. Each person receives a salary of one thousand rubles. For this reason, having entrusted myself to your holy prayers, I have the honor to remain forever My gracious father and patron Most humble servant Hieromonk Nikodim. P.S. Your Reverence! Although we personally do not know your honor, but we have heard a lot about your excessive mercy, falling at your merciful feet, we dare to ask for your help to deliver us from the shores of the Black Sea, and to accept us under your protection, which for your such mercy we ourselves can earn for you. The Black Sea Fleet of the St. George Balaklava Monastery, your most humble servants: Hieromonk Nathanael, Hieromonk Pimen. Letters of Hieromonk Arseny 19 of the Vologda Prilutsky Monastery Most Reverend Father, Holy Archimandrite Ignatius! I was very pleased with the arrival of your clerk Pavel Petrovich and the news that he brought me about your health and well-being - I only regret that I could not accompany him to Pokrovskoye - the place of my long-term peace - due to official circumstances I did not dare to bother Vladyka about the vacation. Excuse me generously, - I come to you again with my most humble request. – With this mail, a proposal on awards for the white clergy was sent from the local Diocesan authorities. Among the presented archpriests and priests is my brother-in-law, that is, the brother of my late wife, Dean of the Velsk district Nikolai Belotserkovsky; Is it possible, Your Reverence, to do a favor - to put in a word in his favor with those persons on whom the sorting and approval of the presentation depends? To her! He is worthy. I still can’t say anything better about myself; I still don’t have a permanent job. I regret about my son Paul that his place is far away and in that country in which - I don’t know if anything good can happen? - Over time, I will bother you about him again, so that he can be left somewhere closer to the capital or his native land - in the bowels of Mother Russia. Forgive me, Most Reverend Father! And for God’s sake, do not leave in need your patronage and protection forever, your most devoted, most humble servant and unworthy pilgrim Most Reverend Father Archimandrite Ignatius! Hoping for your goodwill and as an indispensable duty, I dare to congratulate you on the holiday of the Bright Resurrection of Christ, and I wish to cordially convey it to you in joy and spiritual joy, for the good of your neighbors and the glorification of the Risen Savior. Hieromonk Seraphim, who left your monastery, was here recently, but no more than six hours; for the abbot of our monastery did not accept him and did not even allow him to spend the night, knowing his previous life; Was he running away from you? He told me the news about my Pavel that he was healthy - this made me happy; but I am saddened that he will soon retire to the regiment. “I wrote to him that in Vologda our medical place is empty, there is no obstetrician, and that he should ask for a placement in it, it would be better if there is no need to ask for a place: but no - he doesn’t answer me a word. Being upset by this, I come running to you with a humble request - to persuade him to want to move here, if this is possible during the course of his service, and - for God's sake, try in this case to help him with your intercession. If he, without listening to me, goes to such a distance; then my unfortunate heart must be tormented. Isn't this where doctors live? They live much better than the master. If he (son Paul) will be with you today; Don’t put yourself at the burden of conveying to him my thoughts and desires. I don’t write to him now, because he didn’t answer my previous letter either. “However, for God’s sake, forgive me for disturbing you a lot; I have no one else to turn to in these difficult circumstances for me.” I remain with the deepest respect for your person Your most humble servant Spasoprilutsky Monastery. Most Venerable Archimandrite Ignatius! It is my duty to congratulate you on the upcoming holiday of the Nativity of Christ our Savior, and on the coming New Year. I sincerely wish that with him your health will always be in a better position, and that what you wrote in your last letter to me, something mysterious for me, will be resolved by a most pleasant event for you, which will also serve me for the good: Oh, if only someday, under a clear sky, Ignatius to see at the Pastoral Department! I received a letter from my son Pavel from Warsaw, and in response to it I scolded him for his silence before his Benefactor. “He got there safely and healthy.” – He entered the regiment (he just doesn’t say which one), near Warsaw, then located in a camp called the Powanzenawa Barracks on August 16 and accepted the position of regimental doctor. - And there the Lord God led him to a good man, a fellow Vologda resident, with whom he lives side by side and often shares time with pleasure. – This is a fellow soldier, battalion and training team commander, Lieutenant Colonel Iosif Grigorievich Garyainov, a Gryazovets nobleman, a relative of our former neighbor Ilarion Fedorovich Garyainov. Most Reverend Father! Looking forward to the New Year with joyful anticipation, and with it the resolution of a question that is mysterious to me regarding you, I remain in full confidence that you will not refuse my previous request, and what new and favorable circumstances may occur in your life, you will not inform me about this for your great work. With true high reverence and the same devotion, I am and will forever be Your Most Humble servant and worshiper, unworthy hieromonk Arseny. Received February 2, 1844 Father Archimandrite Ignatius! In my last letter I wrote to you that perhaps around the 25th of this January I will leave from here to your monastery; but this prediction could not be fulfilled, and I am still here. I submitted a petition for a passport on the 22nd of this month, Vladyka put forward a resolution: to consider the Consistory, in which the journal has already been written and this day the Secretary promised to take it to the Vladyka, on Friday, that is, on the 28th, maybe I will get what I want. Little by little I’m also working on getting a cart, but there are no riders until Tuesday of the first week of fasting, at this time the wipers promise quite a lot of them. And therefore, then I hope to probably hit the road. Great Father and Benefactor! Do not be angry, I ask you for this - be kind enough to provide me with some finances to send me from here; Believe me, I have become so poor now that I borrowed 5 rubles for a passport and paper. ac. If your mercy is there, then I can still receive it on Clean Monday, which will happen at the present time. Forgive me generously for such daring; therefore I have the honor to stay Letters of the Optina monk Ioannikis to Saint Ignatius 20 Most Reverend Father Archimandrite Ignatius Upon my departure from St. Petersburg on April 15, I arrived with my companion Spiridon at our monastery on May 8 and, thanks to God, I found everything safe, Father Leonid lives calmly and peacefully in the monastery, thanks you for the duckweed, and even more so for your love and memory for him. Father the Builder bows to you and thanks you for your writing to him, he writes to you especially; and together with them, Spiridon and I fully feel your bread, salt, peace and all consolation flowing from you, and we wish you to receive from the Lord God peace, joy and everything you ask for your Salvation and prosperity. And finally, we ask your Holy prayers and blessings remain Your humble servant is a great sinner This most faithful opportunity and benefit rendered by your Reverence is not according to my dignity; forced my despondency, to express my most sensitive gratitude, so that our all-merciful Lord Jesus Christ Himself will honor with His grace and mercy for your such good deeds and remembrance of my indecency, your Most Reverend all-merciful father and benefactor, the most unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinful hieroschemamonk Leonid, I humbly bow in absentia. (Attached to this letter is a separate sheet with the following text) A report from the Moscow Censorship Committee to the Holy Synod with a manuscript attached: brief information about the life of the Zadonsk Mother of God Monastery of the Recluse George, sent last October 19, 1838. The contents of this report are as follows: “Philosophy professor Archpriest Theodore Golubinsky presented the following opinion about the manuscript to the censorship committee: “Brief News” (and so on). “This news about the Life of the Recluse does not contain anything inconsistent with either the pure Christian teaching, or with the spirit and rules of ascetic life, outlined in the writings and lives of the Holy Fathers, and can serve as a means to arouse in believers zeal and deeds of piety and to reinforce their hope for success, with the help of God: for the example of the virtues of the ascetic, close to us in time, with special power affects the heart." “In other words, this news contains legends about the gift of clairvoyance given to the recluse George from above (pp. 61, 62, 64–67, 69, 70–78), about supernatural cases (pp. 69:72), about visions of demons (44–48), about the special glory of the Recluse (74), about healings through his prayers (75:76): then the censorship committee did not have the right on its own to give a decisive judgment about these special gifts of God’s grace; it must ask the permission and blessing of the Holy Synod to approve these stories for publication. The Censorship Committee, agreeing with the opinion of the Censor, decides to approve this manuscript for publication; but without putting this conclusion into effect, he makes it his duty to ask for the blessing of the Holy Synod for this.” Most Reverend Father Archimandrite. Last year, although I was at this time in St. Petersburg, but due to my ignorance I did not fulfill my duty, I did not personally congratulate your Reverence on the day of your angel, for which my fault, after which I was honored to receive forgiveness from you, but wanting to make amends for this mistake of mine, remembering the approaching festival of the holy martyr Ignatius the God-Bearer, whose name you deign to bear on yourself, as an obligation to yourself I submit to congratulate you on this, and wish you many years to come, celebrate this day in health and mental peace and tranquility; which may the most merciful Lord send upon you. The services you provided to me when I was with my companion Fr. Spiridon, in your holy monastery, I strive to keep hospitality and love unforgettable in my memory, and to feel my heartfelt gratitude; and when my prayers to God are weak, pray for your health and salvation. - In the hope of your goodwill, I dare to humbly ask for your blessing, and committing myself to your holy prayers, I have the honor to remain with the high reverence due to you: Your Reverence, most humble novice the sinful monk Ioannikis. December 9, 1836 At the same time, I, the most insignificant, have the honor to congratulate you, your Reverence, on the coming day of your Angel, and may the most merciful Lord grant you to meet him and see him off in the desired health and prosperity, your unworthy prayer book, the much-sinful Hieroschemamonk Leonid. Most Reverend Father Archimandrite! To my bad lines, you honored me with a personal answer during all your activities, and you devoted time to me last; Feeling such your mercy, I have long been prompted to offer you my most humble gratitude, but refrained from doing so, so as not to distract from the most important subjects with my insignificant lines, but now I dare to dare to do this, on the occasion of the approach of the highly solemn feast of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; and I consider it my indispensable duty to congratulate you on this all-joyful holiday; Accept my heartfelt desire, may the most merciful Lord comfort you, in the days of this triumph, with his incorruptible consolation, and grant you peace and tranquility of soul, with perfect physical health. Allow me, most respected father, to remind you of the past year; This time will remain for me an everlasting memory of how my brother Father Spiridon and I triumphed in your monastery and enjoyed your fatherly love. I am unable to express my feelings of gratitude, but with my weak prayers I must pray to the most merciful Lord for your health and salvation. I dare to entrust myself to your holy prayers, and with my deepest respect and earthly worship I have the honor to come April 10, 1837 Most Reverend Father Upon our arrival at our monastery on the 5th of this January, I dare to inform your Reverence about this. Your good deeds and mercy, expressed both to me personally, and our intercession, which gave us a means of gaining benefit for the monastery, remain impressed in my heart, and with happiness I decree that at the first of my poor inscription to you, I express my most humble and sensitive gratitude. Fulfilling obedience, being in the excitement of the world, we found a quiet refuge in your holy monastery; and your fatherly love and affectionate treatment served us as consolation; In your monastery, we forgot the work we had endured and completely calmed down, but without your intercession, even starting to fulfill our obedience would have been very difficult. Also, your love for Father Leonid and compassion for his situation touched me to the depths of my heart; Feeling all this, I could not pass in silence, not express my feelings, before your Reverence. Let me bring you my most sincere congratulations on the coming new year, and I wish you new strength, and new happiness, and both during this year and in many future years, I wish you bodily health and mental peace and all tranquility, and may the generous Lord bestow his blessing on you and on your entire monastery. I fall at your fatherly feet, I ask for your holy prayers and blessings, and with my deepest veneration and devotion to you, I have the honor to remain Your Most Reverend Disciple January 24th 1838 Optina Monastery of St. John the Baptist Skete At the same time, I, indecent Leonid, you, the most venerable Father Archimandrite, have the honor to greet you with my congratulations on the coming New Year and wish you health, salvation, and prosperity and for the acceptance of our closest brother, Father Ioannikis, we lack the strength and feelings of your love to express gratitude and in the hope of your goodwill, we have the honor of your unworthy prayer companions. Allow me, Your Reverence, too, bringing congratulations on the upcoming New Year, to wish you peace, health and salvation; With my highest regards, I have the honor to remain And I will show him how much he must suffer for My name (Acts 9:16) ...the cup that I drink you will drink (Mark 10:39) ...if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you (Matthew 5:30) ...truly I say to you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me (Matthew 25:40) RSL OR. F. 214. No. 446. L. 39–40 ...then... it is already very humiliating for you that you have litigation among yourself. Why would you rather not remain offended? Why would you rather not endure hardship? (1 Cor. 6:7) Published from a manuscript found by Hieromonk Ignatius Sadkovsky in the papers of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, inherited from the Sergius Hermitage. Blessed are you when they revile you... and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake (Matthew 5:11) The monk saw in a dream a certain familiar face who died in hellish torment ...do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the Galileans, that they suffered so much? No, I tell you, but if you do not repent, you will all perish in the same way. Or do you think that those eighteen people on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them were more guilty than all those living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all also perish (Luke 13:2, 3, 4:5) RSL OR. F. 425. K. 4. No. 18. RSL OR. F. 213; addition to the material included in this edition, vol. 6, p. 535–658.