Correspondence with friends and acquaintances

Contents Stepan Dmitrievich Nechaev Correspondence of Saint Ignatius with S. D. Nechaev #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 # 32 No. 33 No. 34 No. 35 No. 36 No. 37 No. 38 No. 39 Correspondence of Saint Ignatius with Count D. N. Sheremetev #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 # 32 No. 33 No. 34 No. 35 No. 36 No. 37 No. 38 No. 39 No. 40 Letters from Saint Ignatius to Fyodor Petrovich Opochinin No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 6 No. 7 Correspondence of Saint Ignatius with Count Pavel Matveevich Tolstoy-Golenishchev-Kutuzov letters to his mother and sisters Letter from Saint Ignatius to P. P. Yakovlev Letter from P. P. Yakovlev to St. Ignatius Letter from Saint Ignatius to Alexei Alexandrovich Volotsky Letters of Saint Ignatius to the Pleshcheevs I. To Alexander Alexandrovich Pleshcheev II. To Anna Pavlovna Pleshcheeva, wife of A. A. Pleshcheev No. 5 No. 6 No. 7 No. 8 No. 9 No. 10 No. 11 No. 12 No. 13 No. 14 III. To the daughter of A.P. and A.A. Pleshcheev Lydia Letters of Saint Ignatius to Sofia Pavlovna Titova No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 6 No. 7 No. 8 No. 9 No. 10 No. 11 No. 12 Letter from S. P. Titova to St. Ignatius Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina Letter from Saint Ignatius to Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina Letters from Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina to St. Ignatius Letters from St. Ignatius to a lady friend of T. B. Potemkina Letters from Saint Ignatius to Pavel Vasilyevich and Sofya Grigorievna Engelhardt Letter from Saint Ignatius to State Lady Paraskeva Ivanovna Myatleva Letter from Saint Ignatius to Nikolai Nikolaevich Annensky Letter from Saint Ignatius to A. A. Kavelin Letter from St. Ignatius to A. M. Gorchakov Letter from St. Ignatius to N.V. Golousheva Letter from Saint Ignatius to K.V.G. Letter from St. Ignatius to D. A. Melnikov Letter from Saint Ignatius to N. N. Khemshiev Letters of Saint Ignatius to Ivan Ilyich Glazunov Letters of Saint Ignatius to K. S. Serbinovich Letter from K. S. Serbinovich to St. Ignatius Letter from St. Ignatius to D. A. Milyutin Draft answer by D. A. Milyutin Letter from Saint Ignatius to Prince M. D. Volkonsky Letter from N. D. Zubov to St. Ignatius Letter from St. Ignatius to N. D. Zubov Letter from St. Ignatius to V. I. Annenkova Letter from Saint Ignatius to Staff Captain S. I. Feodorov Letter from St. Ignatius to D. V. Bryuzgin Letter from Saint Ignatius to the maiden Anna Dementievna Letters of Saint Ignatius in response to those tempted by the “Word of Death” Letters of St. Ignatius without specifying the addressee I. Letters from the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 # 32 No. 33 No. 34 No. 35 No. 36 No. 37 No. 38 No. 39 No. 40 No. 41 No. 42 No. 43 No. 44 No. 45 No. 46 No. 47 No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 6 No. 7 No. 8 No. 9 No. 10 No. 11 No. 12 No. 13 No. 14 No. 15 No. 16 No. 17 No. 18 Letters from various persons to Saint Ignatius Letter from tradesman M.I. Paramonov Alexander Nakhimov. Two letters Letter from Saint Ignatius to Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov Answer of P. S. Nakhimov to Saint Ignatius We haven’t seen each other for a long time, we don’t talk face to face, we don’t write to each other often, but we’re getting closer and closer. Stepan Dmitrievich Nechaev (1792–1860) can rightfully also be included among the remarkable personalities who were on friendly terms with St. Ignatius. He came from a wealthy noble family, in his youth he was fond of poetry, published many poems for the occasion, madrigals, romances; was familiar with A.S. Pushkin and other writers; in 1820 he was elected a full member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. In addition to poetry, he was seriously involved in history and archeology - among his articles the most famous are “Description of things found on the Kulikovo Field” and “Some remarks about the site of the Mamaev Massacre.” In 1812, unable to participate in hostilities due to illness, he organized militias in Vladimir and Arzamas. Later he joined the circle of the Decembrists, was a member of the Union of Welfare, but did not agree with them on political convictions. In 1827 he was assigned to His Imperial Majesty’s own chancellery, in 1828 he was assigned to the Synod at the chief prosecutor’s desk and in 1833. - Appointed Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod. In the same year, Stepan Dmitrievich Nechaev met Abbot Ignatius Brianchaninov, who arrived in St. Petersburg by order of the Highest. The “Biography of St. Ignatius” tells that, having arrived in St. Petersburg, Abbot Ignatius stayed with Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow at the Trinity Metochion. On the appointed day and hour, he introduced himself to Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich, who summoned the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, S. D. Nechaev, and announced to him his decision to transfer the hermitage to Father Ignatius Sergius. The Chief Prosecutor brought the Highest Will to the attention of the Holy Synod, and on January 1, 1834, Abbot Ignatius was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. It was probably for a conversation about the upcoming event that S.D. Nechaev invited Abbot Ignatius to his place with a note dated December 22, 1833, with which their correspondence began 1 . During the period of S.D. Nechaev’s service as Chief Prosecutor, he and Archimandrite Sergius Hermitage, of course, often communicated personally on official matters and could get to know each other well. Their correspondence was limited to short notes on various occasions. The only exception is the letter of Archimandrite Ignatius dated May 30, 1835, in which he communicates his opinion about the “spiritual principles” of V. F. Yan. Vasily Fedorovich Yan, at that time a collegiate assessor, archivist of the Commission of Theological Schools. He probably told S. D. Nechaev about his desire to publish “The Spiritual Granary, or the Fruits of the Cross” - a collection of selected articles from the magazine “Christian Reading”, and Nechaev directed him to Archimandrite Ignatius, since Ian had “a special need for the spiritual attention of experienced people.” When V.F. Yan departed back to St. Petersburg, Archimandrite Ignatius sent with him “The Life of St. Vladimir,” which he had written. He also mentioned this “Life” in letters to his other correspondents. The history of the creation of this “Life” is known: S. D. Nechaev, presenting a copy of the “Christian Reading” to the Tsar in March 1835, brought to his attention that the Holy Synod intends to publish “for the benefit of the common people, among whom literacy is increasing year by year, individual lives of saints, borrowing them from the Menaion-Chetya, since for these people such narratives are more beloved, more understandable, and more useful any other kind of writing. The Emperor recognized this idea as useful.” The Holy Synod entrusted the compilation of lives to Archimandrite Ignatius, and “The Life of St. Vladimir” was his first experience 2 . However, perhaps due to the resignation of S. D. Nechaev from the post of Chief Prosecutor, this publication remained unfulfilled. In February 1836, S. D. Nechaev, having taken a four-month vacation, went to the Crimea to see his terminally ill wife, but did not find her alive. In June of this year, he received the rank of Privy Councilor and was appointed senator. He never returned to St. Petersburg. The correspondence shows that his leave due to illness lasted for four years. In 1839 he moved to Moscow and became involved in charity work. Until the end of his days, he remained the President of the Moscow Committee for the Analysis and Charity of Those Begging for Alms, was a member of the Council of a Humane Society, took an active part in the work of the Moscow Board of Trustees of Public Charity Institutions, and was one of the founding members of the Moscow Council of Orphanages. His activities were recognized: since 1856 he was an active Privy Councilor and was awarded a number of orders. From the same 1839, correspondence between Stepan Dmitrievich and Archimandrite Ignatius resumed, and, judging by the contents of the letters, their relations became more and more friendly. In a letter dated April 29, 1840, Archimandrite Ignatius mentions the Maltsevs. There is no doubt that the Saint was introduced to this family by S. D. Nechaev, who was married to Sofya Sergeevna Maltseva. Archimandrite Ignatius became close friends with members of this family. In 1847, when he spent some time in Moscow on his way to Babayki, he stayed with the Maltsevs. “I arrived in Moscow on Wednesday evening,” he wrote to his governor on July 21, “I stayed at Maltsev’s house, where I was received cordially and reassured.” Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow visited Archimandrite Ignatius in the Maltsevs’ house. It can be added to the characterization of S. D. Nechaev that he raised his children in the spirit of mercy and kindness. His son, Yuri Stepanovich Nechaev-Maltsev, inherited on his mother’s side the Maltsevs, owners of large industrial centers of metallurgy, mechanical engineering, glass and textile production, a million-dollar fortune. As a philanthropist, he left his mark in Moscow by building, in memory of his father, a picturesque three-story building, reminiscent of a fairy-tale tower (located near the Shabolovskaya metro station) for an almshouse, which accepted elderly, disabled nobles. He also helped a lot to the almshouses founded by his father. Yuri Stepanovich Nechaev-Maltsev made a huge contribution to Russian culture with his active participation in the construction and equipping of the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (now the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts), spending about two and a half million on this. In just ten years (from 1839 to 1849 - the date of the last letter of St. Ignatius - December 22, 1849), twenty-five letters and notes of St. Ignatius and S. D. Nechaev - fourteen were preserved. The letters are lengthy and informative, as they discussed issues of the history of Christianity and the origin of monasticism in connection with the publication by the Moscow Charity Committee of begging books for the benefit of the poor. In a letter dated April 11, 1841, Archimandrite Ignatius wrote: “I spend my time as usual: I study the monastic books of the Holy Fathers, of which God helped to complete the translation from Latin of the book of Saint Isaiah the Hermit.” He wrote about this translation to others. From subsequent letters it is clear that he was not able to publish this work at that time, and thus it was first published only in 1870 as part of the “Fatherland” he created. “Through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,” Archimandrite Ignatius began his letter dated January 19, 1846, upon learning of Stepan Dmitrievich’s serious illness. It is possible that S. D. Nechaev’s increasing illness and withdrawal from active social activities were the reason why their correspondence gradually ceased. Correspondence of Saint Ignatius with S. D. Nechaev 3 I need to see your reverence. Would you allow me to send my carriage for you now? – If your health has not yet completely recovered, then I will be happy to come to you myself, at about eleven o’clock, before the meeting of the Holy Synod. Your Excellency, Most Gracious Sovereign Yesterday I really wanted to be with you in order to say goodbye to you and your family; but the fever, quite stubborn, does not allow me to leave the room. Do me a favor, notify me when you intend to leave St. Petersburg and when I can come to you without interfering with your preparations and without increasing the fussiness that is inseparable from preparations. My most humble servant and pilgrim If I receive permission from the Sovereign on Monday, then we will probably go on Tuesday. Your visit, most venerable Father Archimandrite, will not be a hindrance, but a help in our preparations, for with such an undertaking it is more necessary to gather in spirit than anything else. Today you complain about your ill health. Tomorrow you will have many guests. So would you please bless us on our way to Monday? We will prepare a quick monastic meal and will expect you at four o'clock. Welcome. Your Reverence's most devoted servant We were waiting for you in the capital - we received unpleasant news about your illness. This is the custom of the Supreme King of Kings: He loves them, punishes them, beats every son, and accepts him 4. Cramped within the limits of human judgment, I thought that you were very needed here; but different is the judgment of God and different of man. I would like to see you again in your house, surrounded by your family, joyful, contented, but the Lord, who confirms our love for Him through misadventures, allowed you to scatter in different directions, like grains of wheat. Remember, my most venerable benefactor, that our Lawmaker endured the cross, and foretold to His followers and servants: you will be sorrowful in the world! - Why are they sad? Because the world will hate you, and My Father Himself will cut off every vine that produces fruit, so that it may bear abundant fruit. So, be content in the midst of excitement, surrender yourself to the will of God, endure illness with joy and gratitude, knowing that the soul is healed by bodily illnesses. Repeat this prayer often: Lord, Thy will be done! It is short, but contains a broad meaning and has a very strong effect on calming a person who is in sadness. I learned this partly from my own experience. But why am I referring to an insignificant experience, when the Savior of the world Himself pronounced this sacred prayer in Vertograd, and with this prayer blocked the petitions that were torn out by the weakness of humanity. I can’t boast about my health either. Before your departure I fell ill, after leaving I became very ill, I was ill throughout the whole summer, and now I am sick. I hope for God’s mercy, I look forward to that pleasant hour in which I will see you face to face. May the Lord restore you to good health, so that, abounding in both bodily strength and all contentment, you may abound in every good work in Christ Jesus our Lord, both for the Church in general, and in particular for Her true members. With sincere respect and devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and worshiper Most Reverend Father Archimandrite I sincerely grieve over your ongoing suffering, which, of course, is not a loss for your soul, but it deprives me of special consolation - to talk with you in my current loss. The Lord was pleased to put an end to my mother’s earthly life. Now I could arrange an overnight stay for you more convenient than before, but in order to actually meet with me, I ask you not to undertake travel, for your condition is unsafe. Tomorrow I will send a letter to His Eminence Stefan about the Vologda monk. I hope that there will be no refusal without substantially legitimate reasons. With complete respect and devotion, I have the honor to be Your Reverence's most devoted servant My wife asks for your blessing for herself and her children. Thanks to God, she is better. Most venerable and most kind Father Archimandrite! Please accept with Christian love my good friend Vasily Fedorovich Yan, who has a special need for the spiritual attention of experienced people. If it is not burdensome for you, give him shelter in your monastery for a few days and part of the fraternal meal. This person deserves special attention and care. I think you already know that Metropolitan Philaret has been in St. Petersburg for a long time. With the sincere wish for you to always have joy in the Lord, and for myself to always have sorrow for my sins, I ask you to bless me in absentia and accept from my wife feelings of respectful friendship and diligent respect. I most earnestly ask Your Eminence to welcome you to the consecration of the Church in the new Synod building. It will be accomplished on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the 27th of this May; will start at half past ten o'clock. If the Lord pleases and I live, I will try to appear to you on the 27th. On Monday I no longer dared to disturb you, assuming that you were quite tired from the work you had done in the morning. Vasily Fedorovich Yan is visiting me - but we don’t quite agree with him in our thoughts. It is clear from everything that he is engaged in internal prayer. This prayer is the highest, most difficult and most sorrowful feat, requiring complete selflessness and correct thoughts. Otherwise, the father of lies, taking on the appearance of a bright angel, approaches the heart with feigned delight, which, having felt, and honoring it as divine grace, is confirmed in his charm and begins to show its fruits with some signs of madness. For such a thing, says Saint John Climacus, God’s help is urgently needed: for such a thing cannot be cured by men. And truly, will he who thinks (even if he does not say so) agree to accept spiritual advice from his neighbor that grace is his teacher? Is it natural for someone who thinks that he sees everything clearly and sensibly and in his soul to feel heavenly consolation to admit ignorance and delusion? I find the position of Mr. Yana is extremely dangerous, for he is already reaping the fruits of his wrong feat: thoughtfulness is visible in him and often rubs his ribs with a painful expression on his face. Those parts that the enemy touches when a person attracts him to himself are the ribs; the beneficial effect is felt in the mountainous parts of the persea. Mr. John's reading consists of Thomas a à Kempis and Arnt (for whom he stands with great pride), but he has no idea at all about the saintly writers. In order to help him, it is imperative to transfer him from the first wells to the second. I see that my efforts will be unsuccessful; He is very opposed, and finds my condition very dangerous, which is true based on my sinful life, and not on thoughts borrowed from the Holy Fathers. Your disposition towards him may have a stronger effect: for he is convinced by experience that you are looking for his benefit. And it’s better for me not to enter into any judgments with him, which I entered into solely because of my commitment to you. It is enough, it is enough if I look at my sins, strive for repentance and crying, and drive out the flock entrusted to me to this saving field with the rod of example and teaching. This is my vision, this is my pleasure - the inheritance of my forefather Adam, who sought pleasure in crying after the loss of the sweets of heaven. If our destiny in this life is to be sick about ourselves, and to be consoled even more, the greater the extent of this illness, then there is hardly any time left to sympathize. And it would not have remained, says Saint Macarius, if the merciful God had not led us out of our inner cage for the benefit of our neighbor. Forgive me for writing poorly: the eyes are very weak. I wish you all the best from the hand of the Creator and blessings to your entire family. With sincere devotion and respect, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and worshiper Everything that you have done for Mr. Yan, most venerable Father Archimandrite, I accept as if you had done it for me. Having known his exemplary life for a long time, I cannot help but take a close part in it. Let him go in peace. Perhaps the Lord will arrange his path differently, not wishing destruction for anyone, but salvation for everyone. If it is not burdensome, do not refuse Mr. Yan the means to return here: I mean here some kind of crew, because there is nothing to hire from you. S. D. Nechaev, sending with V. F. Yan “The Life of St. Vladimir": ...When making it, I had in mind only to make it for your purpose. Others suggested something different to me. Why am I asking you to look at it. I will come for your answer, God willing, personally, and if you approve the order and manner of compilation, then I will not hesitate to provide other prepared biographies in the same form. Vasily Fedorovich seemed to like living in a monastery. Your sincere love and Christian care can convince him so that he bows some of his ideas, elevated to the Mind of Christ, before that incomprehensible Mind. As for external matters, I found his conversation very pleasant: it is clear that he led a very attentive life and accumulated a lot of experience. But our spiritual principles are completely different. This difference could not produce a spirit of unity, unity of lips, unity of heart, but it did not prevent me from loving him very much as a meek and prudent person. ... When I was with you, we talked a lot about the Cross of the Lord, which truly is a good yoke and a light burden. Arriving at the monastery, I received a gift: on the 14th, before Matins, I had a dream: as if I wanted to give alms to the poor, and for this I took a wallet out of my pocket, from which a brightly glowing golden cross suddenly jumped out into my palm. That same day I fell ill, and on the 16th I went to bed; a fever occurred; did not take any food for seven days; Now, although he is better, he is very weak. Since the time I was in St. Petersburg, I have not spent my days with such pleasure as these days of illness. Just as the Cross of the Lord is a good yoke and a light burden, and with Jesus there is heaven on Calvary. I presented the life of Grand Duke Vladimir. Was it in the Synod? Is it approved? Is it possible to imagine some other lives that have already been prepared according to this model? - Take the trouble to tell me your instructions on this subject through Fr. Mikhail. Sorry! May God grant you all the best. To S. D. Nechaev - in connection with his preparations for vacation to Moscow: ...One of my visiting relatives gave me two bottles of homemade vodka, very good. I remembered my traveler, who on the road, in wet weather, could find them very useful. Why, sending them to you, I earnestly ask you to eat for your health and remember the one who sent them. Most Reverend Father Archimandrite, Gracious Sovereign! From the servant of the Altar, the Lord was pleased to lead me to serve those whom He Himself deigned to call His least brethren. Congratulate me, most respected friend, on this promotion and pray out of your Christian love that the Father of mercy and generosity will grant me the dignity to undertake a new, most difficult mission. It is so humiliating that one cannot pass through it without putting down one’s arrogance. A direct school of humility, the sweetness of which you have known through experience. I have not forgotten this edifying example. I remember not only your conversations, but also your voice and features. I would like to cordially see and listen to you again; but I have no hope for such consolation. Give me at least something else - if it doesn’t bother you: send me at least a small image of your appearance, which is so dear to me. It will silently talk to me about many things useful for my soul, which is unflatteringly devoted to you. In any case, forgive for God’s sake such a request, perhaps very immodest, but very natural for absent friends. May the Lord always be among us! Your Reverence's most devoted servant Moscow September 20, 1839 Your Excellency, Most Gracious Sovereign! What living, at the same time quiet, spiritual consolation poured into my heart when I accepted in my hands the package with your handwritten inscription, especially when I began to read the words breathing love. Exactly - love no longer disappears. Here! You are a trustee of the poor, often rich in faith and passing from the pit to the bosom of Abraham. In the person of this lesser brethren of Christ, Christ Himself accepts your care and your service, just as He would accept in the person of church ministers. The appearance is not so brilliant, the essence is the same. ABOUT! how many glorious ministries there are, luring ambition, occupying and igniting the imagination: but the end crowns the work. Death comes, calls for a life without ghosts; No one can refuse this invitation, no matter how bitter it may be. The kings are coming without having completed the enormous proposed plans, from the implementation of which millions of people could prosper; geniuses go, leaving what they started to surprise posterity; legislators are coming without completing the legislative codes; in an instant, insignia and loud titles are laid aside, the acquisition of which took a whole life. Those rich in faith, on the contrary, become even richer: for by death they come into substantial possession of what they had before death only by faith. I wish you, as well as myself, the most respected Stefan Dmitrievich, to become rich in God. Do you want to have my portrait? I have your portrait, having received it from your hands; I have a portrait of your soul in my memory, in my heart. My sinful face is not worthy to be depicted by an artist's brush. Instead of this brush, let the grave worm sharpen the eyes defiled by passionate vision; let him sharpen the lips that are opened for words with which God is angry; let him sharpen all the members that were instruments of crime. If, despite my unworthiness, by some chance my portrait is depicted, then I will try to fulfill your desire, inspired by love. Christ is among us and always will be. Your Excellency Your Most Obedient Servant and Devotee Here! again I am a petitioner before you; It's not difficult for me. Your constant participation in me and my circumstances was a constant and reliable refuge for my requests. Sergius Pustyn received up to 200 acres of land near its fence on the basis of that Highest will, which, you remember, why and how took place. The monastery drained, cleared this land, which consisted solely of swamps, and established a farmstead with arable land and cattle breeding. The income of this farm, if everything continues to be covered by the same blessing as it is now, can be estimated at up to thirty thousand a year. We sell a thousand, sometimes two, thousand milk a month. With such an increase in the monastic income in an innocent way, the monastery itself should come to a prosperous position. So, the land constitutes a significant asset of the monastery. Plans for it are currently in the Moscow Land Survey Office. I humbly ask you not to leave me and the monastery by your gracious intercession - put in a word according to the note attached with this. With a feeling of heartfelt affection for an unforgettable friend, with whose heart my heart often merged into one feeling, I am forever Your Excellency’s most humble servant and worshiper When I am alone, you often introduce yourself to me vividly, always with the most pleasant smile. Then your heart gives the message to my heart. Do you remember, Reverend Father Archimandrite, how you and I were engaged in the publication of individual Lives of the Saints of the Russian Church. I don’t know why this publication, which was well received by the public, subsequently stopped. Meanwhile, one of my present collaborators, with the sole intention of maintaining a public disposition towards charity, began to publish articles drawn from the same inexhaustible treasury. Your Reverence will not mind looking at this experience. It is in this hope that I am sending his first book. I take this opportunity to bring you, most respected friend, sincere gratitude for your edifying writing, filled with that deep humility that the high in the true sense of the word should acquire for you, and in which the false, earthly high will not be able to put obstacles in your faithful procession. I hope, however, that my heartfelt affection will someday overcome him, and I will see, at least in slight outlines, that most pleasant face for me, which I have no hope of seeing in person. In any case, forgive my boredom for the sake of the One who has always been the comforting subject of our conversations, who in love alone set the seal of his discipleship, whose gracious spirit always dwells among us. Your Reverence's most zealous servant and undoubted admirer Most Reverend Father Archimandrite! You couldn’t possibly find an attorney in Moscow more diligent than your old friend V Mezhevoy. The offices gave me their word to immediately finish the work of your monastery; - and now plans for her land should already be in the St. Petersburg Provincial Board. Please note that you wrote to me at the very time when I was writing to you. Apparently, our hearts really respond to each other even at great distances. I thank the Lord for this, who comforts me with love that is not based on any external relationships. I rejoice that He blesses your monastery with abundance. It usually happens as a consequence of order, which you primarily love, having first taken care to establish it internally, in yourself. May your beautiful desert abound with the gifts of true piety: everything else will inevitably follow. On the contrary, due to my sins, due to the current crop failure, I am suffering not only a decline in income, but I also have to spend a lot of money on feeding the peasants with their livestock and on sowing their fields. This concern was not enough: all my children suffered for a long time from dangerous whooping cough; the eldest daughter even reaches a hopeless state. Four years gave me some rest. Now they are sending me back to work. Not to mention a word about the troubles of addressing all the poverty of such a crowded city. Pray for us, most respected friend, to the Risen Savior, and be unshakably confident that no one has wished and does not wish you as much good as your most devoted servant: P.S. I humbly ask Your Eminence to read the attached notebook and deign to give me your feedback on its contents. Matter is well known to you, for you have not only studied its teaching theoretically, but have attended a practical school of deep humility and real renunciation of the world. Instead of a red egg, I am sending you something written about alms in [nrzb. ] by our well-known well-intentioned writer Sturdza 5. I first sent you examples of Christian charity, writing on the envelope: to St. Petersburg; It seems that I’m doing better now, writing: to Strelna. Truly Christ is Risen! Your Excellency, Most Gracious Sovereign Stefan Dmitrievich! I am writing to you, quietly talking with you, as if with someone present, and I receive your letter in which you note that we wrote to each other at the same time. I thank you most earnestly for the assistance provided to our monastery. I read with pleasure Sturdza's letter and selected stories about mercy from the lives of the Holy Fathers 6 . This is a strong means of maintaining and improving the pious and kind Russian people by nature, with a strong inclination to help others. Are you asking why the publication of individual lives that began under you, which was received so favorably by the public, has now been stopped? What should you answer to this? This is caused by human passions. Letter about monasticism 7 is very practical, I’m leaving it with me for a week so that I have time to make some notes and forward them to you. Didn’t you have in your hands a book of letters from the Zadonsk recluse Georgy? Here is a spiritual writer who is far removed from all the spiritual writers of our time. A nobleman, a warrior, he laid down his material weapons in order to enter the field of spiritual warfare, spent seventeen years in seclusion and died in the 36th year, being 47 years old, having replaced many years with spiritual success. He wrote letters to many persons favored by him, which after his death were collected, as many as could be collected, and printed. Streams of grace flow from his pen, and the lack of external education is replaced by abundant spiritual dignity. This book has become one of my desk books. You can get it in Moscow. You will drink the cup of consolation that you now need. Saint John the Theologian, when he saw paradise filled with holy Belorizians, and asked who these Belorizians were, he was told: these are those who came, having endured great sorrows; They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. This is the custom of the King of Heaven: whomever he loves he punishes, he beats every son in whom he is pleased (Heb. 12:6). I am writing to you from nature; If you don’t know yet, then, of course, you will learn from the Maltsovs. You can see my heart: it is sinful and not pure, but it loves unselfishly. Experience itself has confirmed to me that you wished and wish me well. Desire incorruptible good, not temporary, but true, which the Lord Himself will bring to me, giving to those who love Him the cup of suffering in this short earthly life. – Forever Your Most Obedient Servant and Worshiper 1840 April 29th Dear Sovereign Stefan Dmitrievich! I am forwarding with this a letter about monasticism, which I have read several times with pleasure and about which I had the honor in a previous letter, out of your love for me and mine for you, to say my not heavy decision: it is very practical. Out of the same feeling, at your request and my promise, I do not stop to notice, not for criticism, but with the desire to provide a service within my power: 1. In my opinion, the origin of monasticism is not quite correctly stated. It is not the fruit of persecution, although some certainly fled into the desert from persecution. A few particular cases do not allow one to draw conclusions about the whole. This is explained especially by the fact that the deserts began to be filled with monks after the end of the persecution, during which there were very few desert dwellers. Here is external proof; There is also an internal, stronger one: almost all the ancient monks entered into obvious temptations from demons, after which temptations from humans are not terrible. Is this the way to be afraid of tormentors? Anthony the Great, when he heard about the beginning of the persecution in Alexandria, came there, declared himself a Christian, wanted to suffer, but no one dared to lay hands on him: for monasticism is a long-term torment. Where did monasticism come from? In the first three centuries, the Church of Christ was persecuted by the government. To accept Christianity meant to lose all rights of citizenship, all property, life itself. The adoption of Christianity could not be anything other than the result of a strong conviction. Christians lived as if they were sentenced to death, not knowing at what hour the Bridegroom would come - they prepared for death, wasting their perishable property to the poor, remaining incessantly in prayer and living with their hearts more in heaven than on earth. Quite a lot of people led a virginal life, an ascetic life - everything. There was no thought about fun, luxury, acquisitions, self-will. We can say that everyone was monks: ascetics were perfect monks, not having monastic clothes, just as the clergy did not differ in clothes during persecution from society. When the persecution stopped, the life of Christians in the middle of the cities changed and weakened. The Christian Faith was accepted not always by conviction alone, but very often by custom; Many rotten souls entered the Church, which during persecution would have immediately been revealed by falling away; Christian society in the midst of the cities has changed. The woman - the Church, whose first-born fruit, the face of a martyr, was caught up to God into heaven, was given two wings of a great eagle - to flee into the desert: the face of a monk appeared. 2. The difference between a layman and a monk, so obvious from the Savior’s words to the young man, is not sufficiently explained: if you want to be saved, keep the commandments: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, etc. This is the activity of a layman whose goal is salvation. To the young man’s question that I have not finished, the Lord teaches that there is perfection in Christian living; whoever wants to achieve it must first leave everything earthly and then, naked from everything, accept the work of achieving perfection. This is also depicted by the Gospel parable, in which the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a merchant who learned that a treasure was hidden in a certain village, and sold all his property to buy that village, mind you, and not the treasure. Saint Macarius of Egypt says that the one who squandered his property left everything pleasant earthly, retired into the desert - has not done anything yet, only exposed himself to enter the field - it is unknown whether he will achieve his goal. Christian perfection consists in purity of heart, which is God, who reveals His presence in the heart with the many different gifts of the Holy Spirit. He who has achieved this perfection is a lamp, not through physical service, but through the service of the Spirit, fulfilling the commandment of love for one’s neighbor, guiding those who are being saved, raising them from falls, healing their spiritual wounds. The monastic face provided the Church of Christ with shepherds who shepherded and strengthened the Church not with the transcendent words of human wisdom, but with the words of the Spirit, furthering the teaching with miracles. This is why the Church, at the end of the torment, is represented as fleeing into the desert. Church perfection, the source of church light, the main strength of the militant Church fled there. Who were Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Epiphanius, Alexy and Philip, metropolitans - in a word, all the holy shepherds? But not in the rank of bishop, but in the simple monastic rank there are many lamps from Anthony the Great, John of Damascus to Sergius of Radonezh and St. George the Recluse. The faith was affirmed, heresies were exposed and trampled underfoot. Without monks, Christianity among the laity would disappear. This is how necessary perfection is in the Church of Christ, without which salvation with faith itself can easily be lost, and will certainly be lost: for feelings, trained over a long time, are needed to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5:14). This perfection was achieved in the primal Church by ascetics and martyrs, and then by monks. Celibacy, non-covetousness, fasting, work, vigil, active love - these are tools, means to achieve perfection, but not perfection itself. It seems that the letter says this in a dark way, which is why the difference and the necessity of monasticism are not shown in full force. It would be good for the writer to read the conversations of Macarius of Egypt, and strengthen the word with spiritual concepts. They will say: what a proud review of monasticism, exposing the pride of the heart. We answer: in a dark room, significant uncleanliness is not noticeable; in the bright rays of the sun, the fine dust is very noticeable and bothers the owner. The Holy Spirit is the teacher of humility; having settled in the heart, it sighs with unutterable sighs and shows a person the insignificance of his righteousness, as Isaiah says: all our righteousness is like the port of a harlot’s wife. Real devilish pride is to reject the Gift of God that exists, as if it does not exist. Forever your most devoted The Apostle says: and all who want to live godly will be persecuted. Please note, most venerable Father Archimandrite, that only those who want to live piously are mentioned here. What should those who have really begun to spend their lives this way, speak and act this way, expect? Here is a short response to Your Reverence to one of your kind writings. Regarding something else, I will also say briefly that all your comments about monasticism are appreciated in a worthy manner. Their justice is obvious. Its true beginning should not be attributed to persecution. We see examples of it even before the coming of the Savior in the holy Prophets. According to the testimony of Josephus, there was still in Judea a fellowship similar to monasticism, namely the fellowship of the Jesses. And it is very remarkable that the New Testament, which denounces the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, does not say a word about the contemporary teaching of the Jesses. Weren't they the ones who really looked for the Savior, weren't they the first to surround him when He appeared among people? Weren't they the first to become His followers? And their name appears to be from Father David. There is something mysterious here, worthy of important reflection. In conclusion, I sincerely thank you, most respected friend, for pointing out to me the letters of the Recluse George. I heard about them, but until now I was not curious to read them. Now, having become acquainted with his writings, I heartily confess that they are very worthy of becoming a reference book for every good Christian. It's comforting to see how [nrzb. ] the author was familiar with the lofty subject he was writing about. What do all the eloquent sermons and messages of vain and arrogant theory mean in comparison with his unskillful simplicity? I humbly ask you to take a look at the attached little books, which I am sending solely as an excuse for not answering you for so long. There is a lot of hassle, but the strength and abilities are no longer the same. In addition to other people's worries, they added their own serious ones from the complete crop failure among the peasants and from illnesses among the children. But now God’s mercy, apparently, corrects both. My heart is freer - and it hastens to pour out before you constant feelings of respect and affection, with which it is so pleasant for me to be called not by custom, but by the very truth of Your Reverence, your most devoted servant Again before my eyes is the handwriting of your hand, which always announced to me the most pleasant sensations that should fill my soul. Now it is enough to look, or better yet, to look at this handwriting in order to open the door to the heart for many sweet impressions. I thank you for the books you sent - the narrators of your useful works: in the First Experiments of the Committee, having reached the reading of § 9, I triumphed spiritually, seeing that food for the flesh is combined with food for the soul: especially - edifying reading during work is news in Russia in our time, the resurrection of the ancient custom of the most comfortable monasteries; by driving away idleness from the body, this mother of vices is also driven away from the mind - this is excellent! – Thank you for your gracious word about the plans for the land belonging to the Sergius Hermitage, which are now in our hands. Finally! Woe we have hearts filled with thanksgiving! Glory to the merciful God, who heals the illness of your children and comforts your household with the hope of the harvest. Let us repeat the song of the youths in the cave of Babylon: we have sinned, we have been lawless... And all the great things you have done for us, and all the great things you have brought upon us, you have created true judgment... let us be accepted with a contrite soul and a humble spirit (Dan. 3:29, 31:39). This is true spiritual feeling! The righteous, having been subjected to temptation, do not see their righteousness, the vision of their mind is directed towards the perfections of God, illuminated by this light, they see the impurity of their righteousness - and the heart is filled with feelings of deep humility, the mind begins to pronounce confession and praise of Divine justice. Here is incense favorable to heaven; Here is the censer, the smoke of which pours out on the high altar of the King of kings. The information about the Essenes by Josephus and Philo’s information about the Therapetae is not satisfactory; Both of these writers, being Jews, did not convey to us anything about the feeling with which they greeted the Christian faith. It is clear that the sect of the Essenes in Palestine and the Therapeutes in the vicinity of Alexandria strictly preserved the customs of Judaism and did not accept Christianity. This is what St. Neil of Sinai, a monastic writer of the 4th century, says about the first: many Greeks tried to philosophize, and not a few of the Jews... From the Jews, those who chose this residence are the sons of Johanadab... always live in booths, abstain from wine and from everything that leads to voluptuousness, have simple food, satisfy the needs of the body with moderation, are very diligent in the formation of morals and remain most in contemplation. Hence they are called Essenes: for this name denotes their type of residence. But what is the benefit to them from exploits and from being in labor when they killed the Hero of Christ. The reward of their labors perishes: for they have rejected the Dispenser of reward and the Source of true life. So, they sinned in the goal of wisdom: philosophy is the improvement of morals, combined with the true knowledge of God, in which both Jews and Greeks sinned, rejecting the Wisdom that came from heaven, and attempting to philosophize outside of Christ. This is the opinion of the Monk Nilus, disciple of John Chrysostom; This is the opinion of other ancient church teachers about the Essenes. Their feat was more external, the best observers of church antiquities find that they went into the petty refinement of rituals more than other Jews, which is why, while filtering out mosquitoes, they forgot to take care of the camels. For this reason, their sect was close in spirit to the Pharisees. Doesn't the Gospel condemn their fasting, their almsgiving, their prayer, alien humility, along with those of the Pharisees? – It is useful for Christian monks to look back at the Essenes and see in them that physical feat, without love and a contrite heart, is a cymbal clanking with vanity, and brass ringing with its emptiness. I turn to the beginning of your dear letter, breathing with kindness. On February 1, 1840, when I was required to listen to the verdict 8, which consisted of what and for what - I did not know, I felt a special peace of mind: the parting word was heard in the church by the apostle, who on that day belonged to the church circle of this year (Petrov's 1st Epistle, Chapter IV began with verse 12 and ended with the first verses of the next chapter). Beloved! The fiery temptation sent to you to test you, do not shy away from it as a strange adventure for you... It’s time for judgment to begin from the house of God... So, let those who suffer according to the will of God surrender their souls to Him, as a faithful Creator, doing good. Could there be anything more comforting and edifying? Especially the words “time for judgment to begin from the house of God” plunge my mind into deep thought. They tell us the sublime spiritual thought that the work and feat of a Christian, no matter how sufficient in themselves, according to human judgment, is far from perfect according to God’s judgment and requires purification and addition from temptations. Then the building of the church of God is considered complete when the Cross of Christ sparkles on its top. Good health to you and your dear children. May the Lord protect you and strengthen you for the benefit of humanity and for the benefit of the civil society. With true respect and heartfelt devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and worshiper And I read the beautiful translation of the life of John the Merciful with pleasure, and I look lovingly at the familiar hand with which the envelope is written, I look for a short note, I want to know whether the feeder of the poor is healthy and prosperous in the Christ-loving capital - I search in vain, in vain I am curious with such care. From now on, put a small piece of paper in such envelopes with this two-word statement: I am healthy. The time you use usefully leaves you little time, and I do not need long letters from you: I have a long letter in my heart; it begins from the beginning of our acquaintance, its end... Oh, I want it to be endless, so that its continuation goes beyond the grave and becomes eternal in Christ. What a pleasure love is. I am writing to you, and I feel some special sweetness on my tongue. - This is the sweetness of the tree of paradise. The books you send tell me: make a small contribution to that treasury into which the rich contribute thousands of pieces of silver. I will not disobey this voice. With a grateful heart I kiss the kind lines with which you, most venerable Father Archimandrite, consoled my constant affection for you. Such communication is not based on earthly transient species. Is it any wonder that I also feel in it a kind of soothing oil, poured with love on the wounds of my heart, inflicted by sin and the consequence of sin - many sorrows. Your conversation has long had such a comforting, healing effect on me. That's why I so often excite you to her in one way or another. Poor in spiritual gifts, more than my new friends are poor in perishable gifts, I never stop pushing at the door, from where I can probably expect the alms I need, a response of friendship, prayer, advice, a saving reminder. Last time, upon returning from the village, I found a lot to do here, I did not have time to write to you, but wanted, however, to give news at least that I still live in this world and always remember you. I am glad that our small publications are approved by you. Here is another new notebook for you, as some proof that we, distributing food for the outer man, would like to tell our needy brethren something to strengthen the inner man, who is often hungry, hungry and languishing even more than the first. Recently, an unexpected incident introduced me to Hieromonk Arseny Troepolsky, who lived in your monastery and maintains sincere commitment and respect for you. I sometimes invite him to serve in the house church of the Workhouse, where up to a thousand beggars of all ages and all ranks are now looked after. Please tell me your opinion about this kind man - I call him kind because that’s how he seemed to me; In short, there was still no way to find out about him. Here are a few words about my health. It is not the most flourishing, but not the most miserable either. The Lord leads and has always led me along the path of mediocrity. Extremes are not suitable for people so weak. Thanks be to Him for His merciful providence for the unworthy instrument of many good things. My children are growing up; only the youngest son remains in infancy. But even the elders are still infancy with a kindness of heart, bearing in their character many similarities with the deceased mother, whose grave they can always see from their cradle, without seeing her herself. Sorry, dear friend! I wish you progress in the renewal of your spirit, and your old feelings throughout the new year. P.S. Thank you for the promised benefit to our poverty. The high cost continues due to a new crop failure, and our funds are becoming scarce due to the consequences of the previous one. Dearest and most honorable Stefan Dmitrievich! I owe you a lot by not answering your letter, filled with friendship and sincerity, for so long. It never left my desk; I re-read it often, each time with new consolation. Saint Isaac of Syria rightly says: there is no object in the world more precious than the love of our neighbor, through which we enter into the love of God. Either I burdened myself with unnecessary writing, or temptations acted on my weak physique, or my chronic illness - tapeworm, or all together brought me in the middle of winter into such a painful situation that I stopped eating, felt severe pain in my chest, and during Lent I was so weak that I could barely sign my name on my forehead; I have been getting better since Holy Week, and, it seems, I got rid of the tapeworm, due to the special arrangement of one respectable lady - Princess Yusupova, who brought me a doctor who deals solely or mainly with the treatment of this disease with a herbal remedy and therefore completely harmless. I spend my time as usual: I study the monastic books of the Holy Fathers, of which God helped me complete the translation from Latin of the book of Saint Isaiah the Hermit. From the first edition of this, I assign two hundred copies for the monastics of the Sergius Hermitage, and a thousand at the disposal of the feeder of the Moscow beggars. The book does not have an external order in presentation, which is required of a writer educated in the schools of this world, but has deep thoughts, has a system for the heart and mind, which can be expected from a student of the silent desert. I hope that you will read it with spiritual benefit and pleasure, for you are familiar with the taste of deep feelings born of a humble examination of the inner man. – Thus, I will be a private participant in your classes and you in mine! This thought comforts me. Have you met Fr. Arseny Troepolsky! Exactly, he is a good man: I found his concept of monasticism more learned than experienced, more satisfactory for the mind than for the heart; I don’t know what situation he’s in now. May God grant everyone to be saved from the serpents - our passions, which are helped by other snakes - demons. If you were to look now at the brotherhood of the Sergius Hermitage, you would be greatly consoled: for your hand was in the establishment of this spiritual garden and many vines were replanted with your help. Almost all the previous inhabitants of the monastery left; Now the first persons are those novices who entered the monastery together or after me. They are already hieromonks, and the chief of them, Viceroy Apollos 9, seems to be rightly called an exemplary monk of our time. I don’t know if I’ll get around to visiting Moscow at the end of the summer. And it would be very necessary for health - it seems that it would be necessary for the soul too. What a joyful meeting awaits me there and lures me there! I still encounter obstacles in the idea that it is dangerous to leave the monastery under the present circumstances of the Nevsky clergy; by your absence you can plunge the Sergius brotherhood into plunder. Will you come to the northern capital? Doesn't this upcoming need call on you to place your eldest son in the Corps of Pages or a guards school? “He must be about fourteen years old?” I was very glad to hear that the Emperor again turned his attention to your merits. Earthly honor in itself is insignificant, but for a person who has dedicated his life to the service of the Tsar and the Fatherland, the Royal mercy is gratifying. It remains for me to portray the constant, diligent, and prayerful desire of my heart for all the best to you and your entire family. May God bless you to nourish and grow in your soul the feeling of Christian love for the sinful Ignatius! Your most zealous and devoted servant and worshiper April 11th day 1841 Most Reverend Father Archimandrite, It was very comforting for me to hear from you that your health has received a radical improvement. The new illness that has been depressing you and which is so common on the Finnish shores has a strong influence on your mental disposition. You could overcome it with spiritual healing alone. With joy and gratitude I will see the fruit of such healing, which your friendship for me and love for your neighbor intended to bestow on us. The work of some is to provide perishable food, the work of others is to provide the bread of Heaven. All is well in the name of the Lord Jesus, who has set us an example in both; but there is no doubt that the latter is higher, and blessed is he who is called to such a feat and fulfills his calling in a worthy manner. I rejoice that similar companions are being prepared under your supervision. No matter how you interpret it, monks are not allowed to lock themselves in their cells. The lamp is lit so that it shines throughout the entire church. And when taking monastic vows, isn’t it said: “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Monastic life can only contribute to the achievement of Christian perfection; but does not exempt one from general Christian responsibilities - to serve humanity in whatever way is possible and convenient. Exercise in works of mercy could be especially useful for simple people, who are often cold towards prayers and other spiritual endeavors, not being sufficiently prepared for this. However, it seems that I was out of my depth, ranting about a subject that I know only from the outside. Being myself buried in appearance, I am assigned to the external service of our brethren. In the attached book you will see how diligently my colleagues, the most pious Russian merchants, help me. The other day, in their meeting, Russian singers gave a concert in favor of the tables they had established, and a Russian poet wrote a cantata for this occasion, which I also tell you. The new attention to these works on the part of my August benefactor was all the more pleasant for me because the order chosen to reward me was dedicated to the memory of the great Equal-to-the-Apostles Man, who brought indescribable benefits to our fatherland, and was dedicated to the Queen, whose heart was filled with love for humanity. The very colors of his ribbon are very significant. These are the colors of blood and death. Doesn’t such decoration mean that one should not spare the first for one’s neighbor and not be afraid of the last? How sorry I will be if you come here at the end of the summer. Due to my household affairs, I must leave for the Ryazan village on the 10th half of July and cannot return before September 29. However, here and there, separately or together, I will always remain devoted to you Nechaev with the same affection and respect. I received your most respected letter dated June 11th to my special pleasure, which is so usual for me when receiving your letters. The Committee's report for 1840 shows the extraordinary success of this beneficent institution, managed by your wise management. At the end of May, a beneficent person, Princess Tatiana Vasilievna Yusupova, who gave many benefits, often in very large sums, died in St. Petersburg; Some time before her death, she met me briefly, intensified her charity and intended to resolutely give herself up to it, as by the inscrutable destinies of God she was suddenly demanded into eternity. Among her unfulfilled intentions is the publication of the book of Saint Isaiah the Hermit, which she wanted to print at her own expense, and the printed copies, with the exception of a small amount needed for the distribution of non-monetary money to revered and pious people, to be placed at your disposal. After the destruction of this plan by the death of Prince. Yusupova, can my work be useful for the brethren who need material bread? I myself do not have anything to print for the sole purpose of donating; I also do not mean a person who would bear the costs of printing. But if you, most respected Stefan Dmitrievich, find it profitable to print at the expense of the Committee, then with love I sacrifice my work. The book, in addition to the preface, table of contents and other things, itself has 332 pages, which, having compared with the pages of your report, I find the ratio between them to be four to three, that is, the book of Isaiah can have 250 such printed pages. For the converter of the book, which is directly monastic, but also extremely useful for every attentive Christian, I am enclosing some excerpts. Please notify me of your order, by which I can send you the manuscript, which remains to be corrected and supplemented with the alphabet. All my material self-interest will be limited to the most humble request for the delivery of one hundred copies to me for cashless distribution at a price that will cost the Committee; The second request is that my name not be found anywhere. My treasurer went to Kyiv, he often saw you, and I instructed him to be with you and bring me detailed information about you. Just as your home circumstances require you to go to Ryazan, so, on the contrary, Sergiev’s circumstances will not allow me to go to Moscow. We have never had such a noisy summer. The Peterhof road is dotted with carriages. - Be healthy! Forever yours Saint Isaiah from Homily VIII. – If you have lent something to your neighbor and do not ask for it back, then you are imitating the property of Jesus; if you ask, then you imitate the property of Adam; if you demand interest, then this is lower than Adam’s properties. If someone reproaches you for something, whether you have done or not done, and you remain silent, then you will be like Jesus if you answer, objecting: what have I done? - then you are no longer like Him; If you repay equals for equals, then you are completely different. If you offer your sacrifice with humility, as if you are unworthy, then it will be favorable to God. If you are lifted up in your heart and remember others who are asleep or careless, then your work is vanity. Humility does not even have the tongue to say about someone that he is careless or disdainful; – does not have eyes to see other people’s errors; – has no ears to hear what cannot benefit the soul; finally, it has no worries except worries about its sins. He tends to maintain peace with everyone, not because of friendship, but for the sake of God’s commandment. Word XVII. – He who tramples on his conscience drives virtues out of his heart. He who fears God is diligent, but he who does not fear Him indulges in negligence. He who guards his lips and is silent wisely raises his thoughts to God. From verbosity comes laziness and rage. He who subordinates his will to his neighbor reveals the diligence of his soul in acquiring virtues; on the contrary, he who is partial to his will reveals his ignorance. The fear of God and secret teaching keep the soul from passions. Worldly conversations plunge the heart into darkness and turn it away from virtues. – The mind and heart are indignant at the love of earthly things, contempt for them brings silence and tranquility... Rust eats up iron; In the same way, the human heart is sharpened by ambition. The ivy, entwined around the vine, spoils its fruit; in the same way vanity overthrows a person's labors. Humility leads the virtues, and gluttony leads the passions. The end of the virtues is love, and the end of the passions is the esteem of oneself as righteous. Conclusion XVII Words. - Brothers! Let us try, while we are in the body, to fill our vessels with oil, so that our lamp will shine when we enter the kingdom. The bright and shining lamp is the holy soul. For a soul shining with good deeds will enter the kingdom, but a soul defiled by malice will descend into darkness. Watch therefore, brethren, and be diligent to good works: for the time is drawing near. Blessed is he who behaves strictly. The ears of corn have already ripened and the harvest is coming. Blessed is he who preserves his fruit; the angels will come and put it into the eternal granary. Woe to those who are discouraged, for their fire remains. The inheritances of this world are gold and silver, and houses, and clothes: all of them provide a reason for sin, and for all that, when we go there, we must leave them. The inheritance of God is immeasurable, it is not seen by the eye, nor heard by the ear, nor entered into the human heart (1 Cor. 2:9). It is given to those who in this short time obey the commandments of the Lord. It is given for bread, for water, for clothes that we give to the poor, for philanthropy; for purity of body, for purity of heart and for other virtues... 11. I waited a long time for your treasurer to respond to your friendly letter of June 24th. But apparently he arrived while I was in the village. I don’t hope to see him anymore and I can no longer deny myself the pleasure of talking with you. The passages communicated to me from your translation pleased me. I would like to see the entire essay in print. If the rich heirs of K. Yusupova do not agree to fulfill her pious intentions, I may find a way to publish it here at the expense of the same charitable people. I will bow to some paper manufacturer, go on a pleading visit to one of the owners of the Printing Houses - with the help of God, the book can be published without expenses from my poor committee. The condition of the venerable Translator will be fulfilled sacredly. Let him only bother to put his work through the censorship ordeals and deliver this manuscript to me with the necessary approval. I agree with you, most respected Father, that it is time for my eldest son, who is 12 years old, to be placed in some St. Petersburg institution. But I still don’t dare to separate him from my parents’ womb, fearing both for his fragile health and for the purity of his morality. I'm afraid of your climate and for the whole family. I myself have a lame leg that is asking for complete retirement. It becomes more necessary to improve the quality of the air and the tranquility of a solitary life. – As for the tapeworm, which bothered me on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, it seems that it remained there after my last fever. It's been seven years now that he hasn't shown up and hasn't even shown any signs of his existence. How glad I am that you got rid of the same internal enemy, and I would like, just in case, to have a prescription for the medicine that he could not bear. Until now, medicine does not know the right remedy against this scourge, but what does it really know? He heals alone and alone: ​​may He be blessed in our healings and sufferings! Meanwhile, our separation has already continued for six years. If only I could see on paper the features of your face that are so dear to me! – From childhood I loved monasticism. Many of the monastics honored me with their friendship; and I have not harmonized with anyone as much as I have with Father Sergius, the Superior, in rules and feelings. May the Lord establish forever these relationships of the spirit, begun and continued in His name. Due to mutual affection, you fell in love with the actions of my Moscow Committee. Consequently, it is not without pleasure that you will see one rather thorough judgment about him by a wonderful Writer. I am sending it to you specifically for the sake of the first page. You already know the rest, I’m also including a simple Moscow gift. Sorry that I can’t imagine anything better this time. I did not answer your most respected and friendly letter for a long time. He became so ill at this time that they feared inflammation in his chest. Bloodletting is performed, leeches are applied, and the bloodletting is sentenced to repeat. I keep a large diet from writing and write only in extreme cases: this is caused by great weakness in the chest with pain and loss of voice. This is how we are melted in this life, and, God forbid, that it is not useless! Your service in the spiritual department gave you the opportunity to use the word ordeal to name those long and varied examinations to which we subject books that are essentially useful, and from which books of moderate use, especially empty and even harmful ones, are so free. I smiled when I read this word and now I often smile, seeing the revival of his deeds. The book of Saint Isaiah was with the Eminence of Kyiv 12 for three months; he read it and approved it for publication, pleasing the spiritual writer with the greatest and due praise. Now, of course, it will go to Moskovsky for consideration 13. Yusupova’s heirs did not inherit her generosity, or perhaps they did, but without the disposition towards me that the deceased had. Here, such a donor does not open up easily: most donations are looking for newspaper coverage and favors, not a secret heartfelt reward. If my work can serve with any benefit for the needy brethren, then, upon complete approval of the manuscript for publication, I will not fail to present it to you. Be a distributor of bread, both material and spiritual! There are many of those and other beggars. Your fears regarding climate and morality are very fair: no eye can replace a parent’s, not to mention the heart. And among educational institutions, at present, almost the first place should be occupied by institutions that prepare for civil service, and of these, universities in general. We are flighty: the amount of knowledge that increases with the age of the world, we have more than our ancestors; This very knowledge makes us superficial, and we are inferior to our ancestors in the quality of knowledge, in the essence of knowledge. And frivolity comes from the desire for empty fun. Have you mentioned privacy? When this thought comes, you need to ask it: is it too early? Although you shouldn't be late. Exactly: the world does not amuse people who reflect, but it, feeding us with sorrows, repels our love for it and directs it to God, the world wounds our heart and thereby heals illnesses - earthly addictions. Untimely solitude destroys this work of the heart, which, having found peace, often again makes peace with the world and becomes colder towards God. These are not my thoughts, but I borrowed them from the ascetic fathers of the Church, and when I see experiences, they constantly confirm me in this way of thinking. With great pleasure I would send you the recipe for the medicine with which I got rid of the tapeworm, but that visiting doctor who treats this disease offers our government to buy the recipe for 5,000 rubles of an annual lifelong pension, and until then he does not reveal his method, which includes only plant substances. Whoever he used here was successful. Finally, I bow down to the portrait of my sinful face and consider it my duty to send you a copy so that you can also see the image of the one to whom you did a lot of good. My thoughts and feelings, which are not directly mine, but borrowed from the true spirit of Christ’s Church, have always found shelter in your heart. This results in mutual love! Love is that peace, that home into which God instills those who are like-minded in Christ, as the psalmist sings. Thank you for sending brochures 14. It's very nice to see that there are people who think thoroughly. By the way, I’m also looking closely at the print, which would be more decent to the book of St. Isaiah; Bigger seems to be better; otherwise, for old and weak eyes, fashionable trifles are extremely difficult. I liked the print: Beggars in Moscow, for its clarity. Be healthy! I congratulate you on the New Year, I call upon you and your entire honorable family your blessing from God and the prayers of St. Sergius. And with a feeling of heartfelt devotion, I have the honor to forever be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and worshiper 1842, January 17th day My treasurer, while in Moscow, inquired about you, but he was told, as indeed it was, that you were away. I myself want to breathe in the beneficial air of inner Russia, but circumstances still do not lend a hand. Another new proof, most venerable Father Archimandrite, that apparently there is some kind of invisible mediator between us, for whom time and distance do not seem to exist. Just now I wanted to write to you about whether your lucky doctor might visit us, when I received detailed information about this possibility from your friendly solicitude... But I was not just amazed by such an obligatory advance, but at the same time I was comforted and filled with sincere gratitude for the work that I so willingly accepted. Now, bypassing the slow Strelinsky correspondence, I will turn with further information about my celiac infirmity and other circumstances to our kind old man, who hovers closer to the St. Petersburg Post Office on Mokhovaya. Under the previous French kings, a Swiss appeared at court with a secret - to drive out the tapeworm. This secret was bought by the government - I remember - for 40 thousand francs and published. His remedy consisted of fern root. I've used it twice before - without success. The other day I repeated the same experience - and also without the desired consequences. Now I take carrot juice. The head has become fresher, there is no frequent urge to eat, and nausea does not bother me. Maybe these drugs weakened the intestinal snake. Maybe it’s not in me at all. For more than six years he did not appear in fragments of different sizes, as happened in 1834 and 1835. The Lord knows when and how this riddle will be resolved. My job is to humbly submit my suffering and relief to His providential will; my duty is to have heartfelt gratitude to people who, despite my countless, caustic and disgusting shortcomings, take part in me, covering everything with Christian love. An ordinary person loves sin and hates the sinner. Whoever seeks ways of revival, imitating God, begins to hate sin and loves the sinner. How you pleased me with the news that I would finally have your amiable features. Please do not delay the fulfillment of your good intentions. I am afraid that again other thoughts, inspired by perhaps excessive modesty, will shake your determination. I am also waiting for your manuscript, not understanding how the writings of such a man as you have chosen need special and lengthy examination. A simple mystery revealed to infants would be more capable of evaluating such works than the refined universal learning. I, says the Lord in the Revelation of John the Theologian, I love them, I punish them. These words are performed on you. And your heart has long been prepared by an incomprehensible, mysterious feeling to wear the cross! And you have long been accustomed to wearing a cross! Your happy life, in which I found you, was like a beneficial summer, bringing abundant fertility to the fields: in it, clear days gave way to cloudy days. Having read your letter, every word of which resonated in my heart, I was transported by the memory of the experience of your poems, which you once read to me during one of our most pleasant conversations. The subject of your delight was Calvary, the cross, the crown of thorns, nails. And exactly! From the time the God-Man subjected Himself to suffering and through it healed our suffering, the foot of Golgotha ​​became for the disciple of Jesus a place of mournful and at the same time comforting, sweet thoughts. He who sits at this foot looks with indifferent and calm wisdom at the fickle lucky ones of this fickle world. He does not envy them, he prefers the knowledge of the cross of Christ, which opens the gates to blissful eternity, to that short-term rapture in which he holds his victim’s earthly happiness in order to betray it to eternal disaster. Woe to you who are now full, woe to you who are laughing now! – These are not false words of the Son of God. While I often had the opportunity to enjoy seeing you, my eyes found a special feature in your character: it clearly showed up for me with all the lordship of your mind: this is simplicity of heart, expressed in trust in people, in the kindness of their hearts, in the straightforwardness of conscience and rules. Such simplicity is one of the signs of love. Lyuba does not think evil, and therefore has faith in everything 15. Love is the seal of a soul capable of heaven. So, in your soul is the reason why a person is a crusader; The Heavenly Father cuts off every vine that bears fruit, so that it may bear abundant fruit 16. So your eyes have weakened. I understand how burdensome this illness is for a person whose main occupation is reading and writing. And your handwriting says that your eyes are not the same. I have been suffering from an eye disease for seven years now, and I spend long winter evenings in my room without candles; I write and read only in daylight; however, even this without eye pain only since this winter, after I began to tie chopped or, better yet, finely crushed beets in a cambric scarf to my eyes at night, for half an hour or an hour, after first wetting my head with rum, preferably white, and wiping my face with it. All the previous medicines, all the famous drops, both foreign and local, did not bring me any benefit; on the contrary, they weakened and dulled their vision even more. The last remedy, being not at all dangerous, helps me a lot; You must ensure that both beet juice and rum do not get into your eyes. For you, who holds so many public positions, during the performance of which you do not like not to look closely, weakening of your eyesight is a great loss, a great deprivation. A monk should feel less the burden of this deprivation, because he can, sitting in his cell, alien to any external activity, open the book of his soul and read the most edifying truths in this book. Your dear children, your beautiful children, who so comfortingly babbled prayer and praise to the Savior of the world, who performs His praise from the lips of babes and living things! They have reached adolescence; they feel they are carrying the yoke of the cross! May the Lord strengthen them and have mercy on them! May their parent be granted patience similar to the patience of Job, sending temptations similar to the temptations of this righteous man. You have been wounded in your possessions, in your family, and in your body. Do not touch his soul, the Lord commands the devil, handing over the outer man for testing. The devil does not touch the soul of a suffering person when the person is in self-reproach and in gratitude, when he erases the adversary with a multitude of glory. Let us accept what is worthy of our deeds - these are the words befitting those crucified at the right hand of the Lord. Such will be remembered in His Kingdom. Thank you for sending the books. Both are so simple and clear that one can pleasantly see in them a desire to please not only the earth, but also the sky. Father Sergius’s word is very sweet: it combines wonderful feelings with a relaxed, pleasant style. And his word did not return to him fruitless, it was sown in the hearts of his listeners and brought forth fruit pleasing to God - compassion for the poor, immediately expressed in deeds! Having owed you an unpayable debt, a debt of love, I owe you a special debt! And the reason for this is my eyes. The book of Isaiah awaits its final transportation, which I cannot undertake before clear spring days. Judging by the way the public now accepts such books, I believe that copies of Isaiah will not lie around, especially when they are at the active disposal of the Chairman of the Poor Committee. Now the letters of the Zadonsk recluse are being published again in three volumes: many people liked this book extremely. What should I tell you about myself? My days flow uniformly among mental and physical infirmities. The Sergius Hermitage blooms more than year after year, but year after year I grow frail, weaker, and in the winter I hardly leave my rooms. Sometimes the thought of traveling to Voronezh or Kyiv, a trip so necessary for my health, flashes through my mind, and is again suppressed by countless obstacles that do not allow me to leave the monastery for a long time, especially in the summer. But at the time when this thought occupies me, I am in Moscow, I enter a house located near the Maiden Field, I see the owner with the same smile of love on his lips with which I always saw him in St. Petersburg, and his blue eyes laugh at me warmly, his whole face is depicted in my imagination with an absolutely perfect resemblance. The heart harmonizes fantasy with tender delight and trembling. Sorry, sorry! United with me by bonds of sincere friendship and removed by earthly distance, Stefan Dmitrievich! Someday fate will bring you to see you, and what change I will see in you, impressed by eight joyless years. You would see gray hair and gray hair on me! I invoke God’s blessing and the prayers of St. Sergius on you, I entrust myself to your Christian love and with a feeling of heartfelt devotion and respect I have the honor to forever be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and pilgrim. December 13th, 1843. Your letter traveled for a long time, Most Honorable and Kind Stefan Dmitrievich, until it came to me. It set off on August 20 from Storozhevo (of course, this is the name of your estate), and arrived in Sergius Hermitage on September 25. From the stamp of the St. Petersburg post office it is clear that it was received there on September 21. And the inscription on it: due to failure to be forwarded, despite the fact that your address was completed with all accuracy and correctness, shows that there were some misunderstandings, and the letter traveled somewhere else before traveling to Strelna. In response to your first page, I will say: according to your kind feelings towards me, my meager word to you seems to you to be good and bearing anointing. But whatever it is, it is the word of the heart. I admit, there have been moments in my life, either during difficult times, or after a long silence, moments in which a word appeared in my heart. This word was not mine. It consoled me, instructed me, filled me with imperishable life and joy - then it went away. I searched for it within myself, tried to make this voice of peace and tranquility resound within me - in vain! It happened to write down the thoughts that shone so brightly in these blissful moments. – I read after, – I read something that is not my own, I read words that descended from some higher sphere and remain instructions. Ordinary life, even monastic life, coupled with much entertainment, cannot always keep these heavenly visitors with us. Revealing myself in this way before you, most venerable and dearest Stefan Dmitrievich, I myself prove to you that my unworthy soul, by the goodness of God, feels closeness to your soul, despite material space and the long time that separates us: because this closeness takes place in the Lord and for the sake of the Lord. Send your Finnish 17 here. Despite the fact that our monastery is packed, I hope to find a corner for him. Perhaps knowledge of agriculture will give him something pleasant and familiar to him, and useful for the monastery. If, beyond my expectations, for some reason, he does not correspond to the local place or it to him, then I hope to place him in one of the monasteries under my jurisdiction. But I wish that this second assumption turns out to be completely unnecessary. About two or three weeks ago, a novice of the Borodino Monastery 18 who once lived with Elizaveta Mikhailovna Kologrivova visited me: she told me in some detail about you, about your dear children, that the finger of God visits them too. Dear children! God, sending you sighs early, prepares you for churches to Himself. Do not envy those who enjoy complete health, on whom the world smiles and whom it invites into its pool. The lips of the Lord who was crucified for us proclaimed sorrow to those who laugh now, and bliss to those who weep and sigh. Participating in you with my heart, your most devoted I received two letters from you almost on the same day, Dearest and Priceless to my heart, Stefan Dmitrievich: one with a printed report, the other with a living report - Wallenström. You say less in your printed report than a living person says: in the first, your mind, your management are visible; the second one talks more, almost exclusively, about your heart... I liked Wallenström, and so did the brethren; as much as you can see and how he speaks, he also liked our monastery. According to his economic information, he can be useful to the monastery: therefore, you have given us a significant gift. Morally, we will not burden it with unnecessary, sophisticated demands, knowing that the old structure can only collapse from a significant change. Thank you for your participation in the sorrow that befell me. But this is my path: one sorrow passes me on to another, and when the calm lasts a little, then I feel orphaned. Seeing the lifeless body, I sobbed over it without any thought, just from the bitter feeling of my heart. What kind of thought, what kind of reflection can there be when a fate that exceeds thoughts acts? Be the will of God, be the will of God! In these words I found the solution to this case; These words brought peace into my soul - an indispensable consequence of devotion to the will of God. Often standing before the gates of eternity, frequently feeling it and thinking about it, not forced and not artificial, but appearing and acting in the soul as if independently and naturally, I become more and more cold towards the pleasant and unpleasant things that happen to me, betraying everything temporary to the will of God and asking God for the only prosperous eternity. The great holidays of the Church of Christ and the New Year are approaching. Congratulations to you and your dear children; I wish you and them all true blessings on earth and in heaven. During your stay in St. Petersburg, when I was accepted under your blessed shelter, your children were so small that, of course, they either don’t remember me at all, or remember very little; but I vividly retain them in my memory; it depicted their sweet images with features that time could not erase. The feeling of love for their parent naturally embraces their children as well. Be healthy, dearest Stefan Dmitrievich! May the peace of God, which surpasses human understanding, absorbs all understanding, given by the Gospel, given by Christ, flowing abundantly from His wounds into the hearts of believers and those who endure sorrow here on earth, dwell in you richly and fill you with sweet, gracious consolation - the joy of the inhabitants of heaven! From the heart and soul, most devoted to you What a sweet, spiritual, lofty fruit is reaped by those who immerse their minds and hearts in the Word of God, who trust the experiences of their earthly wanderings according to the words of this Heavenly wisdom! Such achieve what the apostle desired from believers in Christ when he wrote to them: I pray you, brethren, that you may be established in the same understanding and in the same thought. I felt the event of these words in myself, Most Honorable and Dearest Stefan Dmitrievich, reading your lines, which were poured out by a heart pierced by many wounds and finding solace in the wounds of Jesus, seeing more clearly the future, seeing more clearly the Providence of God, the true purpose of man, the insignificance and rapid disappearance of everything temporary and vain. Reading your lines, I seemed to be thinking to myself; in response, I could send your letter to you, adopting it for myself and signing my name under it. We haven’t seen each other for a long time, we don’t talk face to face, we don’t write to each other often, but we are getting closer and closer! This is the fruit of Christ's teaching! Your letter told me that you often resort to the Word of God and prayer, which enlighten people. By the thoughts born in the soul, you can find out what impressions affect it! Accept my words with simplicity of heart, because I also speak from the sincerity of my heart. There is nothing flattering in my words; Flatterers flatter in order to catch, laugh, damage. No! I don't have this goal! I speak for truth and love. Their language, of course, you can distinguish from the language spoken by deceitful people-pleasing people. I liked your reflection on simple-heartedness and deceit, drawn from the experiences of a Christian and attentive life, so much that I blessed my sincere disciples to copy your letter into their written books, into which especially noteworthy modern things are included for the purpose of spiritual benefit. What is the condition for Christian simplicity? Following God's law. The virtuous and well-intentioned do not need to present themselves as such; On the contrary, the one who loves sin, whose will is in sin, needs a mask. Faith gives birth to simplicity. A believer walks the path of life, trusting in his Provider, as Scripture says: walk simply, walk in hope. An unbeliever does not see Providence, thinks that his fate depends on the tricks of his mind, and places all good in earthly things; striving for it, he deceives in word and deed. The more we delve into the Word of God, the more we grow in spiritual age, the more we will be convinced that it is not possible to approach God except through simplicity, in which faith, purity of conscience, and way of thinking are created by the commandments of the Most High. Only the simple-hearted are able to succeed spiritually, as Scripture says: Wisdom will not enter the soul of an evil-doer. The simple-hearted suffer, but not without reason. The Heavenly Vertigrader cuts off His vines: He sees their ability to bear fruit. A barren branch does not attract His attention and concern until the time comes to cut it off and throw it out of the garden; then the poor lands pick it up for their fuel. By the name beggars I mean here demons deprived of all good, who care that their eternal furnace burns hotter. The words you quoted are significant: if you create, do it quickly! The silence of Christ before the judges, who judged in order to accuse, has the same broad meaning, in order to find some pretext, in the form of a righteous accusation, for the fulfillment of a plan conceived in a criminal and evil heart. In the midst of this divine silence, the words of the Savior to Pilate thundered for our instruction, words quiet in appearance, but terrible as thunder and lightning in meaning: Do not have any power over Me, unless it were given from above! 19 What a deep and extensive instruction for those who suffer for Christ, teaching them to look at their Pilates, as if at the soulless weapon of Providence, giving to their beloved the cup of Christ, a guarantee of eternal bliss with Christ. Here the wheat is already separated from the tares and God’s judgment is carried out on them. The follower of Christ suffers in generous silence, recognizing Christ through the cross; and Pilate coldly and casually asks about the Truth; does not think and does not want to know about it, because he does not even want to listen, wait for an answer; Meanwhile, he faces the Truth of Christ in humility and speaks about himself in sublime silence. Your mind is amazed at Me 20, Saint David prayerfully cried out to God; A Christian who reads it with faith and purity of conscience will be surprised by the Gospel and its deep teaching, the teaching of the Divine, with insight from above: those living a life borrowed from the old Adam according to the law of childbearing are in a state of fall; They prove this state by constant self-delusion, venerating the earth, the place of their exile, as a place of endless pleasures. The new Adam, Christ, saves the fallen by the cross: the life of the fall is killed by the taking away of earthly pleasures, and from the depths of this death life arises in Christ, finding pleasure in deprivation. From here a person moves with thoughts, desires, and hopes to heaven and awaits with informed faith the promises from above, renewal of the Spirit. We must journey with Christ, suffer with Him, suffer crucifixion, taste death, be buried, be resurrected and ascend. I wish this for you and for myself; why am I saying with you this consoling prayer, filled with spiritual intelligence: Lord! Do Your will over us, and grant us to think, feel, and act according to Your will. We ask this one thing from You, in this one thing we conclude all our desires and prayers. While pouring out your soul, you forgot to tell me about your body, about the health of your dear family. May the Lord, who heals your soul, add this to you too! Thank you for sending me this story about your concerns and serving the least of Christ’s brethren. How soon will I fulfill my vow and repay you with something similar! My health is getting weaker and weaker, and with this, the world here begins to seem alien. No wonder when relocation is before your eyes! Your most devoted Ignatius. Through many sorrows we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. This word of God is performed upon you, Most Honorable and Dearest to my soul, Stefan Dmitrievich. Ivan Ioakimovich Maltsov informed me about a new type of illness, a serious illness, that has opened up in you. May God grant you to endure suffering while maintaining your mental and physical strength and receive relief. The hand of Providence leads you along the thorny path! But such is the fate of those beloved by God: as soon as Paul is called a chosen vessel, he is already destined for many sufferings. The cross is the banner of the flock of Christ, it is the sign of the sheep of Christ. May the Lord send down in your moments of grave sorrow a good thought of thanksgiving to God, praise and blessing of His right hand. From thanksgiving and praise a living faith is born; from living faith - quiet but powerful patience in Christ. And where Christ is felt, there will be consolation! This consolation is not of this world, which cannot otherwise console in sorrow except by taking away sorrow. Christ acts differently: He does not remove the crown of thorns from His beloved, because this is how kings of the heavenly Kingdom are crowned, but sends into the soul a gracious sweetness, a guarantee of anticipation of eternal bliss - and in the face of this sweetness, temporary sorrows disappear - at least their edge is greatly dulled. Committing you to the Lord, I remain forever your most devoted 1846, January 19th day Finally, I have information about you, Dearest to my soul, Stefan Dmitrievich, from a person who personally saw you, from a person clothed in a monastic image; This information is especially precious to me because the gaze of attentive monks penetrates deeper into the soul visited by the visitation of the Lord. He understood that the Lord, visiting you with sorrows, at the same time grants help for enduring them, as the Monk Isaac of Syria says: “Our generous Father, when He deigns to grant His true sons an escape from their temptations, He does not take away their temptations from them, but gives them patience in their temptations, and they accept all the benefits to the perfection of their souls with the hand of patience.” The doors of mysterious Christian contemplation open before the mind: he sees Christ crucified for the sins of the world, calling His sheep to Himself and saying: He who will not take up his cross and comes after Me, is not worthy of Me. He sees the members of the triumphant Church and hears about them from the narrator of the heavenly mysteries: These are those who came from great tribulation and asked for their vestments in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His church, and the one sitting on the throne will dwell in them. They will not hunger for it, they will thirst, the sun will not fall on them, and all heat will not fall on them. Like the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, I will shepherd and guide them toward the springs of animal waters, and God will take away every tear from their eyes (Rev. 7:14–17). This same seer announces which of the members of the militant Church will become members of the triumphant Church, to whom complete bliss has not yet been given, to whom it is said that they will rest for a short time, until their minions and their brethren, who have suffered beatings, will die, just as they did (Rev. 6:11). So, suffering is the earthly property of both the chosen and those preparing to be chosen. Suffering is the cup of Christ. I will accept the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord: for through the multitude of my illnesses, Thy consolations have made my heart glad. Taste and see that the Lord is good even at the very time when he sends us sorrows, with which he makes us partakers of the cup of Christ from now to eternity. It happens here, too, to see mourners - and only those seeking consolation in faith find it. Recently I happened to see in grief one intelligent and learned man, who was much engaged in philosophy invented by the fallen and darkened human mind from the fall. How did the philosopher turn out in the face of grief? The weak, the exhausted, those who hate the Providence of God, those who do not know the cross of Christ, those who seek human truth on earth and cannot find the truth of Christ in humility and patience. An instructive spectacle that we are allowed to look at not in order to condemn our neighbor, but in order to see our deadness when we are without Christ. And during the illness itself, in which we usually remember less material things, you took care to send me wonderful tea, so that I would remember you not only during spiritual exercises, but also over a cup of tea! I thank you: every sign of your love brings pleasure to my soul. And I continue to get sick: my illnesses are associated not so much with severe pain, but with exhaustion and fever; During this winter I hardly leave my rooms, and from mid-January until now I absolutely have not left. Be the will of God! Can poor vessels reason what is necessary and useful for them? May the merciful Lord, who has allowed you to suffer a difficult trial and given you coolness at the springs of the holy and humble faith, grant you a speedy exit from sorrow, so that you may have all the comfort of health and abound in every good deed in the Lord. With unchanging feelings of heartfelt, sincere devotion, I remain forever Your most humble servant and unworthy pilgrim Sergiev Pustyn March 19th day 1846 O Lord, dearest to my heart Stefan Dmitrievich! Having thanked God, I must tell you directly and simply: God’s special mercy is upon you; God chooses you and brings you closer to Himself. The feeling of wandering is not a fantasy, is not a consequence of reflection, is not speculation, it is an involuntary feeling of the heart, moving on its own, regardless of our will. This is the voice of grace imparted to us by holy Baptism. When the body was refined by illness, and the soul was somewhat purified, this mysterious, but strong voice was heard. As an instrument, it is usually made of dry, thin wood, without which the strings stretched on it cannot produce the proper sounds; Thus, it is necessary to refine and dry the body with abstinence, and cleanse the soul with constant repentance. So that in our God-created church the broadcasts of the Spirit can be heard. You can see that your feeling is familiar to me. That I talk about him as if he were my own. I believe that your affection towards me is increasing; and it will increase even more if we direct our steps towards God. Natural love can soon become satiated and satiated; one who is satiated with it ceases to love and can conveniently turn to hatred: for even excess food can produce nausea and a burdened stomach often vomits it out. But love, of which God is the beginning, has neither saturation nor end: because it is nourished by the infinite God. – When I read your letter and saw that movements of the future century began in you, which this world cannot accommodate or understand, then the thought appeared in me that, over time, you will need solitude, as conducive to the development of feelings and spiritual thoughts. The preparatory activity for solitude should be holy repentance, healing the eyes of the soul. This is the healing polluria for the eyes that the Lord orders us to buy from ourselves: for poverty of spirit is the spirit of God, acquired by a person through comparing his heart with the Gospel. This polluria drives away from the eyes of the soul, which is our mind, clears from them all arrogance, every high concept about oneself, every recognition of any virtue in oneself. Tell me, please, in what clothes is it most appropriate to stand before the Creator for man, this fallen creature? I think that he dresses decently who in his prayers is fully dressed in repentance. I sincerely wish this for you, as I wish for myself; then I wish you preparation for eternity in solitude. May God see these desires and do with us not according to our desires, but according to His holy will. O Lord, most devoted to you, unworthy October 27th day 1846 Accept, most priceless Stefan Dmitrievich, my most ardent congratulations on the upcoming New Year, which I wish you and your children to enjoy in long-awaited health and perfect well-being. – Thank you for your friendly letter and for the attached report of your works, useful to humanity, pleasing to God. I sincerely regret that when I was in Moscow I saw you only in the mirror - in your daughters. Has your health improved from traveling to foreign lands? And I am still being treated for an old cold with slow, but already significant success. All foreign medicines either did not help at all or did not help very much; The simplest remedies worked with excellent benefit: a bath with salt and rubbing with clean tar. Now I know from experience that compared to domestic tar, overseas opiates mean nothing - not just some kind of volatile ointment. This is the second year that my treatment has been going on - and I admit that the condition of someone being treated for a chronic illness is more difficult than the condition of someone who is sick: it takes up all the time, the effect of medications puts the body in an unnatural position, takes away physical and mental abilities, takes away the possibility of mental activities, keeps me in a state of incessant fatigue, some kind of numbness and sleepiness. Man is like grass! Some foreign moisture will enter his body, occupy a place on the blood paths, disrupt its circulation - and the whole person has changed not only in body, but also in soul, in mind! “In my abundance I will not move forever.” With these words, the Prophet depicted the strength of man, his strength in the health of the body, in the health of the soul, studying day and night in the law of God. “Thou didst turn away thy face, and was troubled.” These words will soon follow the above - and how true! Not to mention spiritual temptations, the mere impoverishment of bodily strength is a temptation, and when the body is exhausted, the soul involuntarily becomes exhausted. Here, most priceless Stefan Dmitrievich, is a detailed description of my own condition; external circumstances remain the same as they were before: the pleasant is replaced by the sorrowful, the sorrowful is again replaced by the pleasant. May the merciful God grant His servant to meet both with the same feeling of distrust and coldness. Earthly sorrow and joy only lead to the vain movement of the blood: the Word of God can stop this movement by saying to the blood: “Not only flesh, but also blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Calling upon you and your family the blessing of God, your most humble servant and worshiper I received a package that once every year aroused in me a special feeling of joy, I open it in the expectation that my mendicant soul will be richly nourished with the words of love with which your letters are always full. That didn't happen! I only saw one printed report; there was not a single line I desired. Apparently, I thought, Stefan Dmitrievich, with his many affairs, forgot to put a precious letter in the package. Therefore, I don’t know anything about you from you. Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the Nativity of Christ and the upcoming New Year. May the blessing of God overshadow you and your children, and may the grace of God protect your souls and bodies. About myself, I will tell you that, by the great grace of God, I feel better and better: I am already beginning to strengthen myself and see in myself the restoration of my ability to work. The new Metropolitan 21 is kind and just, quite merciful to me; why am I resting now? Allow me to present you with this meager report from my mendicant soul, which has collected little spiritual alms on the path and market of earthly life. Many mourners wanted to have a copy of the “Chalice of Christ” in order to draw consolation for their souls from this reading, this made me print the “Chalice”; in general, I am afraid to publish my own, seeing my spiritual immaturity. With feelings of unchanging devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and worshiper December 22nd day 1849 Correspondence of Saint Ignatius with Count D. N. Sheremetev 22 Count Dimitry Nikolaevich! Let me offer you my sincere gratitude for your diligence in the monastery of St. Sergius. May the rewards of those who love the splendor of the church of the Lord, the blessings and prayers of the Pleasant of God, rest over you and over your home. With true respect, I have the honor to be The most humble servant and Bogomolet of the Gracious Sovereign Knowing your deep respect and special faith in the saint of God, St. Sergius, I ask you to welcome us to our monastery this July 5th for the Divine Liturgy, which His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony intends to celebrate. Do not refuse to share our modest meal with us! We are already accustomed to seeing you this day in our monastery; We hope that even now you will not deprive us of this true pleasure! With feelings of perfect respect and devotion most humble servant and Bogomolet Every year on the day of memory of St. Sergius (this July 5th) I had the heartfelt pleasure of seeing Your Excellency in our Sergius Hermitage. I hope that even now you will give us this pleasure; therefore, I considered myself entitled to recall this day on which our Church celebrates the Great Saint and glorifies God, marvelous in all His saints and saints, marvelous in St. Sergius. Countess Anna Sergeevna has special respect for the saint of our monastery and, of course, will attend our holiday, to which your most pious disposition and love for St. Sergius invites you. The Divine Liturgy will be celebrated by the Most Reverend Vicar. At least that's what it's supposed to be. With feelings of sincere devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to be Your Lordship I offer Your Excellency my sincere gratitude for visiting our monastery on the day of its Feast. Moreover, you touched me and consoled me because your illness itself could not stop you. By this you showed the abundance of your Christian love! May the merciful Lord grant you a speedy recovery! Invoking upon you the blessing of Heaven and the resident of Heaven, St. Sergius, with feelings of perfect respect and devotion, I have the honor to be September 26 days, Sergius Hermitage Most Gracious Sovereign, Count Dimitri Nikolaevich! I am extremely ashamed to bother Your Excellency with these lines of mine, with which I decide to ask you. But I am forced to do this by absolute necessity and the confidence that I am turning to that person who, in the noble feelings of his heart, will find more reasons to be attentive to my request than in my words, and will generously forgive me if he finds my request inappropriate. Having entered the Sergius Hermitage as Abbot, I found her in the most upset state. Without a brotherhood, without premises, without a sacristy, without solid sources of support - with the process by which the land belonging to the monastery, its only property, was disputed. During my thirteen years as abbot, I tried as much as I could to restore the monastery. My friend, Mikhail Chikhachev, known to you, sold his estate for 40 thousand in banknotes, and with this benefit the process was completed partly in favor of the monastery, that is, half of the disputed land was given to the monastery; with this benefit, the means were provided to many people to come from distant monasteries to the Sergius Hermitage, and to others, the most orphans who were in extreme extremity, the means were provided to receive dismissal and prosper for the glory of the Church and for the pious consolation of those flowing into our Church. The monk of our monastery, Moses, from the Makarov family of merchants, donated to the monastery a decoration for the icon of St. Sergius and contributed up to 25 thousand in banknotes for the construction of fraternal wooden cells; and these cells numbered 50 thousand. Monastery, in addition to the government salary, consisting of 600 rubles for the abbot and 20 rubles each. for monks per year, had up to 500 at my accession, and now has more than 1,500 assignats per year from his estates. Other income comes from pilgrims and funerals, which is why it is extremely fickle and often diminished by the fact that we are forced to borrow bread. Such a renewal of the monastery, with extreme shortage of funds, was the reason that the monastery currently owes more than 10 thousand silver rubles. I answer for such a duty with my honor, not to mention - my peace of mind is disturbed by this one circumstance, from which I have no means of my own to escape. Pious and Christ-loving Soul! Ransom me! I have no benefactors; become my benefactor. I have nothing to repay you with; The Savior of the world, who promised not to forget the cup of ice water, will reward you in the next century. I ask you for the sake of the name of Christ, as one from his poor brethren. Sorry! I can’t continue further!.. I’m not asking for money, but if you deign to pay off the monastery’s debts and order them to be paid not suddenly, but spread out over time, it will be a perfect blessing for me. However, as you wish! In any case, I humbly ask Your Excellency to keep this letter of mine secret. For the debt of this monastery is not known to any of the authorities, and if it becomes public, I could be exposed to all sorts of troubles. Invoking upon you the blessing of St. Sergius, with feelings of sincere devotion and trust, which you inspired in me with your constant goodwill towards me, a wanderer, a wanderer abandoned by everyone, I am forever most humble servant and Bogomolets Please accept my sincere, most ardent congratulations on the Great Feast of the Nativity of Christ and the upcoming New Year. This congratulation is brought to you by the heart in which you have kindled the flame of love for you, for your entire blessed family. I look at your disposition towards me as a gift from Heaven; my soul enjoys this gift and praises for it the Giver of every good - God. God is definitely the Giver of all good things; He poured out a multitude of them on His creatures; but His treasuries do not fail, and His mercy is equal to unfading wealth. For this mercy, unsparing from any good deeds, for this wealth, which cannot suffer any damage despite the unspeakable extravagance of gifts, may He, our Creator and Redeemer, multiply His blessing over you and your family! May prosperity pour into your very heart, into the heart of your God-loving wife, into the heart of your baby son, who now already demonstrates the piety of his Parents! May the Lord protect you and your family with His help and protection in all your entrances and exits, in all cases of life, physical and mental, visible and invisible! May He grant you prosperity, long life, peace and His favor for many years, forever and ever. With feelings of sincere, heartfelt devotion and respect, I have the honor to be forever P.S. You can guess with what heartfelt pleasure I would personally bring congratulations to you, my much-respected and much-loved Count; but my illness is such that I will not be able to leave my rooms for a long time. Would you choose a free day for you and, out of your love for holy monasteries and solitude, would you come to us in Sergiev for the Divine Liturgy, and after it would you like to dine with me and spend several hours in a spiritual conversation, in which I can imagine to you - at least, a heart full of sincerity and gratitude. I cannot remember you without special spiritual consolation; because throughout my entire stay in the Sergius Hermitage you showed constant goodwill towards me, and finally took an active part in my situation, you alone took this part! May the Lord bless you! God bless you! – If you deign to come to me, then I would be very pleased to know about your arrival one day in advance, in order to exclude any other visit that could bother you. I have the intention of telling you some of my cell works, that is, writings that bear the stamp of solitude, in which the thought sees differently, the soul strives differently towards God, in which the heart feels that inexpressible, delightful peace that the world cannot contain. Your visit will bring me the greatest consolation! Sorry for my frankness and verbosity! My heart, deeply imbued with the most comforting feelings, pours out in gratitude before God, Who gave you such a humane heart, and before you, before your humane heart! Through acts of mercy, you sacrifice to God those gifts that He has deigned to bestow on you. May God bless you with abundant blessings from Above! May He tell your heart His good and perfect will, which is the guarantee of earthly and heavenly happiness! May this blessing be reflected throughout your entire family, like the bright rays of the sun in clean, deep, quiet, transparent waters! I received from the merchant Makarov seven thousand silver rubles, which Your Excellency was pleased to assign to me to get me out of my difficult circumstances, in which an incomprehensible fate had placed me. In 1833, when the Sovereign Emperor was pleased to tell me that he was appointing me to the Sergius Hermitage, I, out of a strange premonition, dared to ask His Majesty to cancel this appointment, as putting me in tricky relationships. But the will of the Sovereign was decisive; All that remained was to obey her. Little by little my premonitions began to come true. As soon as the Sergius Hermitage began to emerge from the ruins, as soon as sources for its maintenance began to form, envy arose along with it, slander began to hiss, and I found myself in a more false position than I had foreseen. In addition, illnesses came and, keeping me for several months without leaving in rooms and constantly in weakness, they deprived me of the opportunity to personally and properly exercise the position of abbot. If now I manage somehow, and the business is still flowing, then I owe this to two people loyal to me with noble feelings and rules: my Viceroy and Pavel Petrovich. My illness and my position indicate to me the need to leave the place I occupy. The mood of my soul, in accordance with these circumstances, draws me to solitude, which I will accept as a gift from Heaven. And the merciful Lord gives me this gift through the beneficent hand of Your Lordship! At the same time, you are strengthening the well-being of the Sergius Hermitage, which now has renovated churches, decent cells, abbot’s and fraternal, a sufficient sacristy and church utensils, a significant source of maintenance, in addition to church income - cultivated land. The arrangement of all this involved me in a real difficult situation, which, of course, would not have been such if my hands had not been tied and numerous obstacles to success had not been placed in front of me by my illnesses and circumstances. Forgive me for my verbosity! But with your participation you have opened my heart, and it cannot bear not to pour out before you those feelings and thoughts with which it is so filled. From the very moment I entered the Sergius Hermitage, how pleased I was to see in you your disposition towards a quiet, modest life, the churches of God, the Sergius Hermitage, your attention to its unworthy abbot. When you visited my cell, you always brought with you to my heart a feeling of calm and some incomprehensible, special trust. Often in solitude I considered the direction of your soul, not captivated by the delights and noisy pleasures of the world, which found pleasure in the silence and modesty of home life: this contemplation brought me unspeakable pleasure. I found in my soul that you had chosen for yourself the purest path of life, the most appropriate for you, the most joyful for humanity. When God brought me to know your God-loving wife, I was amazed to see that the direction of her soul converged so closely with yours; I saw the same disposition towards a modest, homely life, the same pure simplicity of an unpretentious heart, which is so accessible to humanity. I consider myself lucky that I received a benefit from you! You opened the way for my heart to reach your soul. It will belong to you for the rest of my life! I want to be your debtor outside the grave; and my debt will be repaid to you with a hundredfold increase by my God, who said with His all-holy lips: whatever you do to the least of these my brothers, do to Me. I will repay, says the Lord 23. If God, in His ineffable mercy, leads me to the refuge of solitude that I long for; If inspiration that loves the inhabitants of solitude visits me there, then my pen, dedicated to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbor, will especially belong to you, your wife, your son - I will proclaim to you the word of God, the holy will of God, in which lies the guarantee of bliss on earth and in heaven. May the merciful God hear my desires and grant them actual fulfillment! If only my health would allow me to travel; then I would certainly be with you to see your face, to personally pour out my gratitude to you! But I don't leave the rooms! And so let yourself be seen; visit our monastery, which in winter is so quiet, so deserted, so peaceful and calm! With feelings of heartfelt, eternal gratitude, devotion, respect, I have the honor to be a most humble servant, a zealous, although not worthy, Bogomolet Your visit and sincere conversation left a most pleasant impression on my soul. When I thought about you, the words spoken by the Angel to Blessed Cornelius and preserved for us in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles involuntarily came to mind. “Your prayers and your alms,” says the Angel, “have ascended to heaven!” What gift did they bring from heaven to Cornelius? This gift was the word of salvation. “He speaks to you,” the Angel continued, telling Cornelius about the Holy Apostle Peter, “in these words you and your whole house will be saved.” Exactly - a soul prepared by prayer and alms becomes capable of hearing and accepting the Word of God, which proclaims to it the all-holy and all-good will of God. Knowledge of this will of God brings into the soul indescribable calm, lightness, joy, and consolation. And how not to rejoice, how not to be comforted! With the knowledge of God's will, the soul acquires and clearly sees in itself the guarantee of bliss, heavenly, eternal bliss! These are the most pleasant thoughts that occupied me upon your departure from the Sergius Hermitage. I could not refuse my heartfelt desire - I tell you my thoughts! I hope that you will visit our monastery, where your heart finds an echo, finds harmony with your feelings and desires. When people's relationships are built on a solid foundation, on God; then from these relationships both abundant benefit and true, varied spiritual consolation emanate, surpassing all earthly pleasures, as if emanating from itself the fragrance of eternity. With feelings of heartfelt, sincere devotion and complete respect, I have the honor to be most humble servant and most zealous Bogomolet God is not subject to the influence of time, as humans are subject to it. Before Him, in the books of His destinies, the future is like the present! So! – On the day you were born, the name of the Saint that your future wife was to bear was celebrated. The day of your birth was connected with the day of her Angel as a sign that she should be an Angel of consolation for you throughout your life. Those who see chance in everything see incorrectly; those who see in all the circumstances of our life the all-wise and beneficent Hand of God, reason thoroughly, piously, Divinely! In this connection of the day of your birth with the day of the Angel Anna Sergeevna, the mind, floating in Divine objects, involuntarily encounters a most heavenly, most pleasant contemplation. The name Anna signifies grace. So! As soon as you were born, God, who poured out so many other gifts on you, already prepares for you a most special gift, assigning Grace as your inheritance. Please accept my sincere, most ardent congratulations! May the merciful Lord increase the years of your life in the longed-for health and prosperity, may He tell your heart His holy will, may He make you a confidant of Grace in time and in eternity! Sorry that I dared to put a letter to you and the Countess in one package: I did this because fate itself combined the memory of your birth and the celebration of Her Angel on one day. Holy Scripture says: “If God joins together, let not man separate.” Please take the trouble to convey my lines to her Excellency. With feelings of perfect, sincere devotion and respect, I have the honor to be for the rest of my life When you are alone, remember the Sergius Hermitage. Please go there and bring the fragrant censer of prayer to the Lord. And so that the fragrance of prayer fills your soul longer, stay for a day in a secluded monastery. The lighted candle soon goes out in the wind, and the incense is soon carried away by the wind. In a similar way, entertainment acts on the comforting feelings brought to the human heart by pious meditation and prayer. To keep them in yourself longer, you need quiet solitude. So, I'm waiting for you! With feelings of heartfelt, sincere devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to forever be Your Lordship’s most humble servant and Bogomolet Arch Ignatius. 8 February [1847] Seeing that throughout Lent you have not yet visited the Sergius Hermitage, I miss you. Next Wednesday, and then next Sunday, we are supposed to be tonsured into the mantle. Perhaps you will be pleased to see the tonsure; but I can assure you that your visit will give me true, heartfelt consolation! Invoking the blessing of Heaven upon you, with feelings of sincere devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to be How happy I would be if on this joyful and bright Holiday I could hug you and greet you with a holy greeting: Christ is Risen! Wonderful greeting! What true, blessed news it contains! – When I hear that an extraordinary event took place, the Resurrection of Christ, that this event definitely happened, it is true, completely undeniable; then heavenly hope pours into my soul! Her gentle and at the same time powerful voice tells me: you too will be resurrected by the power of the risen Christ. The Resurrection of Christ contains the seed of the resurrection of all believers in Christ, all true Christians. Here on earth they begin the glorious resurrection with their souls who have accepted the life-giving teaching of Christ; and at the coming of the eternal day of the future life, the glory of the Resurrection will spill onto the very bodies of Christ’s servants. And these eagles will fly there, inspired by the incorruptibility of the resurrection, where Christ is present, attracting them to himself, who initiated and granted the resurrection to people. They will fly to heaven and rest in heaven forever and ever! Remote from you in body, but always close in heart, I extend the embrace of my soul to you; and instead of the sounding word in my mouth, read the word inscribed in these lines, the word of all-joyful greeting and congratulations on the greatest Christian holiday: Christ is Risen! May Christ, who lived as God, - Christ, who died as a man in order to snatch men from the jaws of death, - grant you a taste of life and eternal bliss, which is taught and delivered by the word of God. The Word of God, communicating this sweet taste to man, rejects him from the pleasure of sin and leads him to heaven. Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God 24 the Holy Scripture speaks. I call on you, on your God-loving Spouse, on your blessed Son, the Mercy of God, abundant, eternal, on earth and in heaven! May St. Sergius intercede for you before the High Throne of the Almighty with his strong prayers! With feelings of heartfelt, sincere devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to forever be Your Lordship’s most humble servant and Bogomolet Please take the trouble to present my congratulations to the Countess to Her Ladyship. I am sending you part of the artos from our monastery. May God's blessing rest upon your entire house! Your Excellency's most humble servant and Bogomolets I have the honor to forward to Your Excellency a book - the manuscript Monument to the Sergius Hermitage. I wish that reading it will dissolve some minutes of your life with spiritual, useful pleasure. I did not stop to add two articles to this manuscript concerning myself, which I entrust to very few, my most sincere friends. The first of them is entitled: A remarkable dream, seen by one of my most sincere acquaintances during some grief, which affected me with particular burden; countries 38th. The second, called My Cry, contains a description of my life, the life of my soul; countries 372nd. I entrust them to your love and modesty, asking you to keep them secret until the time of my departure from this life. At the beginning of this week, I submitted a letter to the Sovereign Emperor and a request to His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony to retire me from the Kostroma Diocese to the Babayevsky Monastery. “There, if God had given and renewed my strength, and this is what the doctors promise, my soul could pour out its impressions more freely, without entertainment.” By the way, this also attracts me to solitude. All the information that I receive from the Babaevsky monastery about the location of this monastery, about the healthy air, about solitude, greatly consoles me. In my imagination I formed a plan for my life there: I want everything to be extremely simple, like in a pilgrim’s tent. We are truly strangers on earth! And often, looking too much at the terrain through which we wander, we forget about the subject of our wandering - about the sky! Invoking God's blessing upon you with feelings of sincere, heartfelt devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to be In the present age, being obligated to anyone is generally burdensome. But I see my heart more and more free when you impose new and new bonds on it! – Accept, Your Excellency, my sincere gratitude for your petition to provide a place for my brother, who serves in Control. He was given a place that he couldn’t wish for better at the present time, in a Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, of which the Director and especially the Vice-Director are my good friends. Serving with them, my brother will be, as it were, under the wing of his relatives and therefore can expect everything pleasant. The ancient Israeli Kings had a special court rank - called the Reminder. Wise institution! Given the multitude of Royal occupations, the most useful enterprise, the fate of the suffering, the need of the needy, the merit not rewarded can easily be erased into oblivion from the memory of the Supreme Ruler. In such cases, the Reminder helped him. In the present circumstance, Your Excellency’s Reminder was Varvara Sergeevna. Please take the trouble to convey to her my sincere gratitude! She performed with excellent consistency and fulfilled the purpose of her rank with excellent success! About myself, I will tell you that until now I am neither one nor the other; but by the grace of God he is cheerful, although he is sick. Invoking God's blessing upon you, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be forever Perhaps my letter will find Your Excellency still in Moscow! I really wish it arrived! On July 5, the day of the Angel of Your Son, I got used to seeing you in the Sergius Hermitage at the solemn Divine service and at a modest monastic meal. Not hoping to see you face to face this year, I strive for you with thoughts, memories, and heartfelt love. Congratulations on your son's Angel Day! May the Supreme Pleasant of God, Reverend Sergius, protect his days! May he instruct him in every good deed to the true consolation of his Parent! Soon after July 5th I am thinking of setting off; without rushing, without tiring yourself, spend a day in Novgorod, others in Tver; Thus, I will probably get to Moscow, no earlier than the 15th. I’m very sorry that I won’t find you there, as you told me on our last date! I am writing congratulations to the countess on Sergei Dmitrievich’s Angel Day - via this same mail. Sorry that this time I write so little to both you and the Countess: the reason for this is absent-mindedness, inseparable from preparations and from the many people currently visiting the Sergius Hermitage. I hope that, having reached my solitude and plunged there in freedom into spiritual reflection, I will share with you abundant spiritual benefits. Invoking upon you the blessing of the Pleasant of God, St. Sergius, with feelings of heartfelt devotion and sincere respect, I have the honor to be forever most humble servant and Bogomolet. I sincerely regret that I am depriving myself of the true heartfelt pleasure of seeing Your Excellency before my departure: I am leaving tomorrow at first light to be in time for dinner at the St. Sergius Lavra. What to do! Accept in these lines my most earnest wish for you of all temporal and eternal blessings. May the merciful Lord bless you and your whole house; and I will remain forever with unchanging feelings of spiritual respect, devotion, gratitude The merciful Lord led me to the God-saved monastery of St. Nicholas of Christ. A lovely, secluded abode! It is on the very bank of the Volga, with beautiful groves and meadows. The picturesque surroundings are visible in the distance. I wouldn’t wish for a better, different place for my earthly journey! What silence here, what simplicity! If I stayed here forever, I would certainly invite you to visit the beautiful Babaevskaya monastery. I'm sure you would like it very much. I sincerely thank you, dear Count, for the true, friendly participation that you take in me, for the Christian love that you have constantly shown me from the very beginning of our acquaintance. You have planted in my heart trust in you, gratitude for you. I invoke God's blessing on you! May it rest over your God-loving wife, over your dear son, in whom the piety of His Parents is clearly visible. How similar he is to you, Count! Especially when he prays, it is a living portrait of you. With feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be forever Please accept my sincere congratulations on the upcoming day of your Angel! May the holy angel, the peaceful angel keep your precious days in unshakable peace, in perfect well-being, - may he tell you the good and perfect will of God, which those who do here have associates here on earth - the Angels, and in the future they will be numbered with the Angels, they will taste eternal bliss with them. What are my wishes for you, dear Count; earthly goods alone cannot satisfy a person; Our soul, which, according to the expression of the Holy Fathers, has the firstfruits of the Spirit, seeks and thirsts for spiritual, heavenly pleasures, the source of which is God. In my solitude, in my hopeless solitude—the anti-cold medications I take require this—it is convenient to reflect on the true purpose of man, on his relationship to time, to eternity, to God. How pleasant it would be for me to spend my life like this until the very pier of the grave, where the journey of every earthly wanderer, every swimmer on the waves of the sea of ​​\u200b\u200blife ends! And in solitude you can be useful to human society with a useful word, the word of God. Coming from solitude, it has a special power, delivered by purity, and especially affects the hearts of neighbors. “I would like to spend the whole winter here.” And there, what God will give! Of course, you will soon move from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Don’t forget the orphaned brothers of the Sergius Hermitage there, comfort them with your visit. This will bring them true joy. And in the spring, perhaps, their Rector will meet you somewhere: in Moscow or, perhaps, he will find you in St. Petersburg. Calling on you, on your family, on your whole house, the blessing of God, with feelings of sincere devotion, gratitude, perfect respect, I have the honor to be Please accept my most sincere congratulations on the birthday of your dear Angel, Count Sergius. May the Lord protect him, may he guide him on the path of his holy desires, may he grant him blessings from Above. I’ll tell you about myself: I take great comfort in my solitude. It's so quiet here, so peaceful! Once free, I began my treatment, from which I became significantly relaxed; but it seems that my old rheumatisms have moved out of their nests. From the first days of September I never set foot outside the doors of my cell. Absolutely no one comes to see me. O Abbot visits once every two weeks - for half an hour, and every time I do not forget to thank him for the fact that no one comes to see me. I like this life: I haven’t felt any boredom yet. I wish you, too, in the midst of a noisy world, to avoid everything unpleasant, but on the contrary, may your heart continually rejoice with the pure and true joy that comes from a pious and virtuous life, which is so far from the noisy and fickle joy that comes from the pleasures of the world. The source of human happiness is the heart. “From the heart,” says Scripture, “it proceeds from the belly.” It is necessary, so to speak, to sweeten this very source, and it will flow out living water, cool and delightful water. What delights him is the word of God and good deeds. I call on you, on your whole house, the blessing of Heaven! With feelings of unwavering devotion and complete respect, I have the honor to be Please accept my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming Holidays and the upcoming New Year, which I wish you to meet and see off in perfect well-being, in the desired health, in peace and spiritual consolation. How long have you been in Moscow now! The brothers informed me in their last letter that you have not yet returned to St. Petersburg. But now I already imagine you in the northern capital; That’s why I’m addressing my letter there. I hope that in my absence, you, kind Count, will not refuse to do a good deed - visit the Sergius Hermitage. Your visit will bring true consolation to the entire brotherhood, which is accustomed to sincerely respect and love you. I hope that I will often hear from my Vicar Pavel Petrovich about you, and about myself I will tell you that, by the grace of God, it seems that I am being cured radically; but after the diaphoretics, with my pores open, I just can’t decide on the return trip to the Sergius Hermitage in winter, and I find it necessary to wait for the first summer journey. There is extraordinary silence here! Invoking the blessing of Heaven on you, invoking this sacred blessing on your Spouse and on your Son, on your entire house, with feelings of perfect reverence and sincere, heartfelt devotion, I have the honor to be I bring Your Excellency my most ardent congratulations on the great Feast of Holidays, I wish you to celebrate it in the desired health and perfect well-being, in spiritual joy. May God grant you to meet many such Holidays! May the joy and pleasure felt on the days of Holy Easter be for you a foretaste of that endless and boundless bliss that will become the lot of the eternal Holiday awaiting in Heaven for people who please God on earth. I received two of your most pleasant letters, one from Moscow, the other from St. Petersburg. How long will you stay in St. Petersburg? Would you like to spend the whole summer there, on dear Ulyanka, who is already quite orphaned and bored without you? I have seen many good places in Russia, beautiful places, luxuriously decorated with nature, but I have never seen a place similar to the Peterhof Road. It has its own separate character, its own cuteness, which you will not find in other areas of St. Petersburg. This is a long-lasting English garden, in which every place is decorated by a human hand. I have never seen such an incessant hand of man anywhere: everywhere the hand of nature is more visible. Here nature gave one swamp; This place, rejected by nature, was loved by people and cultivated, carefully and gracefully cultivated. Will I see you in these places? I'm thinking of going there at the end of May. I was treated all winter, I am still being treated: I feel that most of the illness has left me, but there is still a lot of it left. Now - this place is in its spring beauty: the Volga has cleared itself of ice, emerged from its banks, spilled over the surrounding meadows - and often the sun looks into its mirror-like waters in calm weather, and at night - a pale moon. There is a desert here, a secluded desert, but many wonderful thoughts and sensations are brought to the soul. I call on you, on your family, on your whole house, the blessing of God! May it pour upon you abundantly both in temporary matters and in matters for eternity and Heaven. I commend myself to your gracious disposition, and with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion I have the honor to be forever 1848, April 11th day Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery Let me bring Your Excellency my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming New Year, which I wish you to enjoy in the desired health and perfect well-being. May God's blessings pour out abundantly on you, on your family and on your whole house! May the grace of God speak mysteriously to your mind and heart, may it guide you during your short earthly journey along the holy path of the commandments of Christ, may it prepare for you bliss in eternity! May your life be decorated with all the virtues - this sure guarantee of true happiness in time and perfect well-being in eternity. Accept, Count, these feelings from a heart filled with devotion and gratitude to you. With feelings of complete respect, I have the honor to be forever Archimandrite Ignatius. 1849, January 4 days Most Gracious Sovereign! Count Dimitry Nikolaevich! Let me bring Your Excellency my most earnest congratulations on your birthday. The Lord, who on this day made you worthy to see the sensory light of the transitory world, who shed the light of virtue in your heart, may he preserve all the days of your life in spiritual light. May these days be crowned by the light of joy that accompanies and illuminates those people who devote their lives and activities to virtue. Let all sorrows be far from you, and if they ever come closer to you, then let spiritual consolation, consolation born from faith in God, permeate them. With feelings of complete respect, devotion and gratitude, I have the honor to be forever I am very sorry to you for not writing to you until now; For your letters, where your well-wishes are expressed to me, I offer you my sincere gratitude, as well as for the drawing you sent me - the monastery of the saint of God, St. Sergius. Committing myself to your prayers, with true respect and devotion, I have the honor to be I bring Your Excellency my most ardent congratulations on the upcoming great Feast of Holidays - the Resurrection of Christ, joyfully greeting you with the spiritual Christian greeting: “Christ is Risen!” I had the honor of receiving your most pleasant letter: it was brought to me in church during Holy Week, on Great Friday, during Matins. In these sacred and solemn moments, I remembered you with a feeling of deep heartfelt pleasure and consolation. With the special mercy of God, I feel a significant improvement in my health: I’m younger! although my hair has turned grey. Will you be coming to St. Petersburg soon, Count? Come, comfort with your arrival all those who love you and long to see you. The merchant Makarov, known to you, proposes to build a stone hotel of significant size at the monastery, so that the monastery will grant him [the right] to trade in this hotel for several years. Prince Kochubey takes upon himself the construction of a significant part of the new fence, which should go from the chapels along the high road, cover the newly built church by the Prince and end at the north-eastern and north-western towers that currently exist. I am very happy about both: because the Monastery really needs both a fence and a hotel. Invoking God's blessing upon you and your family, with feelings of perfect respect, devotion and gratitude, I have the honor to be Your Lordship I bring Your Excellency my most ardent congratulations on Your Angel’s Day! With this congratulation I combine my heartfelt desire that the Holy Angel, your Guardian, preserve your earthly life in peace and prosperity, guiding you along this path to blissful eternity. Exactly: our earthly life is a path, only this path is measured not by distances, but by time. Just as objects change on an ordinary path - one is constantly replaced by another, so on the path of earthly life events replace each other. And no one knows what event awaits him on each new day! In 1847, I considered my health to be irretrievably damaged, and considered myself very close to death. Then Countess Anna Sergeevna came to console me - I paid her for her participation by communicating all the spiritual information that I happened to learn during my life filled with sorrows. I thought that she would hear the news of my death, but instead I suddenly had to hear the news of her imminent departure from this world. I heard this difficult news at a time when, according to the inscrutable destinies of God, I had just begun to rise from the dead, to emerge from the mortal region of painful inaction into some vital activity: this is my present position. – God, who allows sorrow to man, also sends consolation among them. I am sure that this consolation is brought to your heart by the Holy Angel, your Guardian: because true consolation can come from God alone. Earthly entertainments only drown out sorrow, do not destroy it: they are silent - and again there is sorrow; rested and, as it were, strengthened by rest, she begins to act with greater strength. On the contrary, consolation from God destroys the sadness of the heart at its root - in the dark thoughts of hopelessness. It brings to a person good and humble thoughts of obedience to the decrees of God, thoughts full of living faith and meek, sweet hope. An immeasurable eternity opens before the eyes of the mind, and earthly life begins to seem like a short journey, its happiness and unhappiness begin to seem unimportant, insignificant, because all the unevenness of earthly life is smoothed out and equalized by the contemplation of eternity. Praying to the Lord for your temporary health and eternal salvation, for the health and salvation of your son, with feelings of heartfelt respect and devotion that you instilled in me with constant merciful disposition, expressed by you especially in the time of my sorrow and distress, I have the honor to be forever Please accept my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming great Feast of the Nativity of Christ and the upcoming New Year, which I wish Your Excellency to meet and see through in the desired health and prosperity, in spiritual consolation delivered by holy faith and good deeds. May the blessing of God be poured abundantly on you and on your Son, who may be a joy to you both in the days of his childhood and in the days of his mature courage, and may you see with your eyes his sons and daughters! With feelings of true high esteem, perfect devotion and unforgettable gratitude, I have the honor to be Allow me to bring Your Lordship the most ardent congratulations on the upcoming day of Your Angel. May the Holy Angel of God, your Guardian, keep your days and the days of your son in longed-for health and perfect well-being, to the true consolation of all those who love and honor you. Graph! You have completely forgotten and stopped loving St. Petersburg. Your magnificent palace and picturesque dacha are becoming orphans without you. The Sergius Hermitage has long been deprived of the consolation of seeing you in its depths. Many of the residents of St. Petersburg, coming to our monastery and knowing your disposition towards it, ask: will Count Sheremetev come here soon? Come, Count, come! It’s time to console your St. Petersburg friends: you have sufficiently tested their patience. Invoking the blessing of Heaven on you and your Son, with unchanging feelings of respect, devotion and gratitude, I have the honor to be 1850, September 18th day I had the honor of receiving your letter and remain completely grateful to you for congratulating me on my Angel’s Day and for wishing me and my son health; I ask Your Reverence not to deprive me of your favor towards me in the future, which I have enjoyed until now. Entrusting myself and my son to your Archpastoral prayers, with true respect and devotion I have the honor to be Allow me to bring Your Lordship the most sincere congratulations on the upcoming day of Your Angel and wish you the abundant blessing of God, which may overshadow you and your son all the days of your and His life. Fate would have it that during the time for which you came to St. Petersburg, I had to leave St. Petersburg on behalf of the authorities, and thus was almost deprived of the happiness of seeing you. I console myself with the hope that you will again want to visit the Northern Capital and allow a person deeply devoted and grateful to you to look at you. Repeating my heartfelt wish for Your Lordship of all true blessings, and again calling upon you the abundant blessing of Heaven, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be 1851, September 21st day Most gracious Sovereign, Dimitri Nikolaevich! To the previous benefactions that Your Excellency generously poured out on the Sergius Hermitage, you have now added a new one: you deigned to grant three thousand silver rubles to the establishment of the newly built church of St. Sergius, which I received this July 17th with a letter from Your Excellency. The Lord, who was pleased to promise people a hundredfold reward for their virtue, especially for their alms, may He fulfill His holy promise over you and your son, Count Sergius, and may the saint of God, Rev. Sergius, intercede unstintingly before the Throne of the Almighty for the temporary and eternal well-being of you and your Son. In the Holy Monastery - the Sergius Hermitage, in the newly built Church, a fervent prayer will be offered daily - as it is already being offered now - for the Creators and Benefactors of the Church and the Monastery, among whom you occupy one of the first places. As the rector of the Sergius Hermitage, I am obliged to fulfill a sacred duty before Your Excellency: to bring you, on behalf of the entire monastery, the deepest gratitude for your new charity, with which you met the extreme need of the monastery during the construction of the church, which was built solely on the alms of willing donors. Invoking upon Your Excellency and the young Count Sergius the abundant blessing of Heaven, with feelings of great respect and heartfelt devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence Vladyka, Having received your letter dated March 5th of this year, I sincerely thank you for congratulating me on the holiday of the Bright Resurrection of Christ and for your good wishes. I was very pleased to read the description of your whereabouts and to learn that your health is improving. My wife and son testify to you their sincere respect. Wishing you all the best from the Lord God and, entrusting myself, my wife and son to your Archpastoral prayers, I humbly ask you to accept the assurance of my true respect and perfect devotion, with whom I have the honor to be April 12, 1858 Please accept my most ardent congratulations on the upcoming Great Feast of Feasts - the Resurrection of Christ. May the risen Lord fill you with all true blessings, may he overshadow you and your family with mercy from Above. About myself I will tell you that I am very pleased with my current location, which has a salutary effect on my health, which was extremely upset in St. Petersburg. I lost a lot of weight, but at the same time my breathing became much freer, wider, and my strength became significantly stronger. Stavropol is a very elevated, picturesque place; all in gardens, with excellent spring waters. Although the Bishop's House is located in the middle of the city, it is very secluded and removed from all noise, because it stands among a large orchard, surrounded by a stone fence. The Bishop's house is wooden, very modest and sweet, reminiscent of the abbot's cells of Optina Skete and other secluded monasteries; near the house itself, in connection with it, there is a stone, three-altar church. The main chapel is in the name of the erection of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross; one of the chapels is in the name of St. Ignatius the God-Bearer. The service is celebrated daily by the monastics living at the house. Thus, the Stavropol Bishops' House is nothing more than a small monastery, adapted to house the Bishop. Society in Stavropol is large: most of it consists of the military; this society received me very warmly. Calling on you, on your wife, on your son, on your whole house, the abundant blessing of God, with feelings of indelible gratitude, with feelings of excellent respect and perfect devotion, I have the honor to be Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea. Please accept my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming Feast of the Nativity of Christ and the New Year, with the sincere wishes to Your Excellency, the Countess - your wife, the Count - your son, all true and perfect blessings. Constantly remembering you, I pray to the Merciful God to reward you with a hundredfold reward for all the good you have done to me. With feelings of great respect and perfect devotion, I have the honor to be Your Lordship's most humble servant I bring to Your Eminence my heartfelt gratitude for congratulating me, my wife and my son on the Nativity of Christ and the New Year, as well as for the sincere wishes you expressed. [Nrzb. ] Committing myself and my family to your Archpastoral prayers, with perfect respect and devotion, I have the honor to be Your Eminence your humble servant With the greatest pleasure I remember on this day your Excellency and, transporting my thoughts to you, I bring you heartfelt congratulations on the day of your Angel, I sincerely wish you long life and prosperity and all the perfect blessings, earthly and heavenly. Notify me about yourself and your family: with such notification you will greatly console me. My health, with the help of the Caucasian waters, has improved somewhat; I live alone and calmly. Calling upon you and your family the abundant blessing of God, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be I had the pleasure of receiving Your Eminence’s letter dated September 21st, and I offer you my sincere gratitude for your congratulations on my Angel’s Day and for your good wishes to me and my family; I always remember with heartfelt consolation the time when you performed divine services in the holy monastery of the Pleasant of God, our Reverend Father Sergius, and also about the time when you performed divine services in the Church of St. Peter the Metropolitan on the day of my Angel. – On September 25, I was in the Sergius Hermitage, where the consecration of a new church, built through your care, took place. This church with its splendor and beauty pleases all zealous pilgrims who flock to worship St. Sergius. I was very pleased to learn from your letter that your health is improving. Having wished you from my sincere heart all the best from the Lord God, and entrusting myself and my family to your Archpastoral prayers, with perfect respect and devotion I have the honor to be Your Eminence, most humble servant I have the honor to present to the favorable attention of Your Lordship my work - a book in two volumes, entitled “Ascetic Experiences”, in memory of me and as a sign of my constant remembrance of you. The book consists of articles written by me in the rank of archimandrite. Calling upon you, Countess Alexandra Grigorievna and your children the abundant blessing of God, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Lordship's most humble servant Having received your letter dated February 20 of this year and the book of your essay “Ascetic Experiences,” I bring you my sincere gratitude for your attention and for your good wishes to me and my family. Entrusting myself, my wife and children to your prayers, I ask you to accept the assurance of my true respect for you and complete devotion, with whom I have the honor to be Dmitry Nikolaevich Sheremetev (1803–1871) is the son of Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev (1751–1809) and Countess Praskovya Ivanovna Sheremeteva (1768–1803, former serf actress of the Kovaleva-Zhemchugova Theater). Dmitry Nikolaevich belonged to the honored Sheremetev family. His great-grandfather, Field Marshal Boris Petrovich (1652–1719), was granted the first count title in Russia by Peter I. The next Sheremetev is Pyotr Borisovich (1713–1788), senator (1762), one of the richest people in Russia, owner of the Fountain House (34 Fontanka River embankment) and the famous Kuskovo estate near Moscow. His son, Count Nikolai Petrovich, is the creator of the Ostankino Theater-Palace. In memory of his wife Praskovya Ivanovna, he founded the Hospice House in Moscow. The little count, Dmitry Nikolaevich, was left an orphan at less than 6 years old. After the death of Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, as a sign of his former friendship with Paul I, takes Dmitry under her special protection. Guardians and educators for the heir to a huge fortune were selected only with the approval of the empress. Dmitry Nikolaevich was educated at home. In 1820 he was promoted to chamber-page, and in 1823 he entered service as a cornet in the Cavalry Regiment. From 1827 - lieutenant, from 1830 - staff captain, in 1831 promoted to adjutant wing. He took part in the campaign against the Polish rebels and was with the regiment during the capture of Warsaw. Awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree with bow. In 1843 he was promoted to captain. In 1838 he transferred to the civil service and was promoted to collegiate adviser in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, chamberlain. Since 1856 - Chamberlain of the Highest Court. In 1824–1871 Dmitry Nikolaevich was a trustee of the Hospice House founded by his father, donating huge sums in addition to the funds agreed upon at the opening of the institution. During his activities, the saying “live on Sheremetev’s account” took root. In the middle of the 19th century. His donations supported the existence of Moscow churches, monasteries, gymnasiums, orphanages, and partly the University of St. Petersburg. In the 1840s. Dmitry Nikolaevich served as Honorary Trustee of St. Petersburg gymnasiums, and in 1843 he was awarded the title of honorary member of St. Petersburg University. The count's help played a decisive role in the renovation of the Lazarus Church in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Dmitry Nikolaevich Sheremetev was an expert and connoisseur of music; he organized a church choir. At that time, the choir was led by composer and conductor Gavriil Ioakimovich Lomakin (1812–1885), an outstanding expert and teacher of Russian church singing. As a teacher of court singers, Lomakin made a four-voice arrangement of the entire annual cycle of church singing. For half a century, D.N. Sheremetev maintained a choir chapel in his St. Petersburg Fountain House. Services were held in the house church of St. Great Martyr Barbara, one of the first in St. Petersburg. Dmitry Nikolaevich took care of people of art, providing financial assistance to artists, singers, and musicians. The spacious halls of the Fountain House were often turned into a workshop for both famous and unknown painters. So, in 1827, Orest Kiprensky painted a portrait of Pushkin against the backdrop of a suite of state rooms. Since 1838, D. N. Sheremetev was married to Anna Sergeevna Sheremeteva (1810–1849), maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, daughter of his distant relative Sergei Vasilyevich Sheremetev. Children from his first marriage: Nikolai, Sergei. In 1857 he married a second time to Alexandra Grigorievna Melnikova (1825–1874). Children: Alexander, Ekaterina. Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev (1844–1918), historian and genealogist, public figure, Chief Jägermeister (1904), honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1890), entered history. Colonel Lieutenant-Guards Cavalry Regiment (1874–1884), director of the Court Singing Chapel (1883–1894), member of the State Council (1900), chairman of the Archaeographic Commission (1900–1917). One of the organizers (1877) and chairman (1888) of the Society of Lovers of Ancient Literature, the Society of Devotees of Russian History and Spiritual Enlightenment in Memory of Emperor Alexander III (1896), the Russian Genealogical Society (1898), author of memoirs (the latest edition is “Memoirs of Count S. D. Sheremetev.” M., 2001). The letters of Archimandrite Ignatius to Count Dmitry Nikolaevich Sheremetev will be of exceptional interest to readers. The aristocrat Sheremetev at that time was a chamberlain and served on the staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Count, together with his wife, maid of honor Anna Sergeevna (died June 11, 1849), visited Sergius Hermitage for many years and prayed there. And when a critical moment came for the Abbot, associated with a lack of money to urgently pay the debts of the monastery, Count D.N. Sheremetev immediately came to the rescue, and the debts were repaid. Subsequently, Saint Ignatius thanked the count for his pious attention to the monastery with a great gift - he sent D.N. Sheremetev his famous spiritual treatise “Ascetic Experiences”, which had just been published. The published letters are preserved in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts. All texts are given while preserving the peculiarities of writing official titles and in compliance with the rules of written etiquette. In a letter to his governor in Sergius Pustyn dated March 24, 1848, Saint Ignatius wrote: “I have always recognized Fyodor Petrovich Opochinin as a person who was disposed towards me both in mind and heart, and also towards our monastery: he wrote me several letters here [in Babayki].” The Opochinins belonged to one of the most ancient families, registered in the books of the nobility of the Yaroslavl, Tver and Smolensk provinces. Their representatives served the state for centuries, holding high military and administrative positions. Fyodor Petrovich Opochinin (1778–1852) “began his career in military service, then moving into civilian service; in 1816 he was already a master of the horse, and then quickly moved up the ladder of ranks and died in December 1852 as an active privy councilor, member of the State Council and chief chamberlain” 25. He was married to the daughter of Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov-Smolensky, Daria Mikhailovna (1788–1854). In terms of his intelligence and moral qualities, Fyodor Petrovich enjoyed universal respect. Foreign sources noted that he “is one of the most amiable and educated people at court, lives in the Marble Palace, owned by Grand Duke Constantine” 26. Close friendly relations between Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich (1779–1831) and Fyodor Petrovich Opochinin arose from the time the latter joined the guard. The Grand Duke gained confidence in Fyodor Petrovich “for his zeal in service, for his abilities and liveliness.” These relations continued even when the Grand Duke was the ruler of Poland (1816–1830), and F. P. Opochinin finally settled in St. Petersburg. Since 1816, Fyodor Petrovich became the main confidant of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich in the capital and carried out his various instructions. This, in particular, is evidenced by their correspondence, published in 1873 by Fyodor Petrovich’s grandson, Fyodor Konstantinovich Opochinin. In the famous year of 1825, F.P. Opochinin persuaded Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich to accept the crown. Despite this, he enjoyed great confidence from Tsar Nicholas I, who ascended the throne, under whom he reached the highest positions. Fyodor Petrovich probably met Saint Ignatius during his studies in the Engineering Corps, and after his appointment as Archimandrite of the Sergius Monastery he became one of its most faithful parishioners. His friendly, even cordial relations with Father Archimandrite can be judged by the letters published below, written by the latter in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. Alas! After enthusiastically describing his impressions of the “homeland” of Fyodor Petrovich, the Saint, already in a letter dated February 4, 1848, shared with him “strong, extraordinary grief” caused by the unexpected death of his son, Konstantin Fedorovich Opochinin. Saint Ignatius wrote to his vicar then: “I heartily participate in the sorrow that has befallen the pious family of the Opochinins! I sent a letter to Fyodor Petrovich at the same post office. God, apparently, wants this man, who has so much good in him, to come closer to Him.” Konstantin Fedorovich Opochinin (1808–1848), according to St. Ignatius, “who promised so much for the fatherland,” at the time of his death he was an aide-de-camp and colonel of the regiment’s Life Guards. He was buried in the Sergius Hermitage, where in a short time both his father, Fyodor Petrovich, and his mother, Daria Mikhailovna, would rest. It should be noted that the genetic qualities of the Opochinins were passed on to the grandson of Fyodor Petrovich, Fyodor Konstantinovich Opochinin (1846–1881), a famous archaeographer and bibliophile. Fyodor Konstantinovich left a special memory for himself as the founder of the “Opochininskaya Library” in the city of Myshkin, for which he spent significant funds. His wife, Natalya Fedorovna (nee Naryshkina), donated the furniture with which the library reading room was furnished. And two years before his death, Fyodor Konstantinovich drew up a will, in which he bequeathed all the Russian books in his library to the Myshkin Library. Letters of Saint Ignatius to Fyodor Petrovich Opochinin 27 Your Excellency! Be, as usual, merciful to this letter-bearer, who has upset his health and wants to receive help in the hospital under the management of Your Excellency. I’m not saying that you will do me a new favor; because during my many years of stay here, I could not help but see with heartfelt consolation your direction, constant direction, to do everything good, useful, pleasant for me. Wishing you to see off the Holy Pentecost in longed-for health and in joy to meet the great day of Easter, with sincere devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to be Your Excellency Dear Sovereign Fyodor Petrovich! Your Excellency's homeland is beautiful. No matter how many places I saw on my way to Yaroslavl from St. Petersburg through Moscow, no area amazes or captivates the eye as much as the banks of the Volga. What a vast horizon, what luxury! The banks of the Volga are a country with a very special, separate character. Everything is smiling here. The very streams of the Volga, somehow gentle and kind, correspond to the purpose of the river, the purpose of the state, the purpose: to feed, enrich, do good. You bear the character of your homeland. When you look at you, your physiognomy says: this man was born to pour out charity on his neighbors with a kind deed and a friendly, wise word. Your brow is bright! Shines with good intentions! It can also be formidable, your voice can make thunderous sounds, but this is only out of necessity and outwardly. The heart remains kind and well-intentioned; but it is necessary to look like a dark cloud and burst out like crumbling thunder in order to illuminate stagnant souls, given over to slumber, to arouse them to movement, to cleanse them of malignant gases. I haven’t seen you like this, but I’m fantasizing and, it seems, unmistakably. And I allow myself to fantasize with such freedom and, perhaps, probability, because I love, I know, I am convinced that you love me: therefore, I hasten to inform you that I dragged myself to the Babaevsky Monastery on August 9, having gotten quite ill on the way, and in my free time from illness I visited the most wonderful shrines that were on my way. I am very pleased with the Babaevsky Monastery. The area is picturesque and luxurious. The air and water are wonderful! I spend time almost completely alone - with priceless interlocutors - books, who speak when I want, fall silent when I want, and again begin their modest, silent conversation. This solitude gives me the rest necessary for my nervous disorder, in which entertainment is a burden. Invoking God's blessing upon you, committing myself to your memory, with a feeling of perfect reverence and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be I was pleased to hear that you visited the monastery of St. Sergius on the day of his feast day. You also entered my rooms with others who were disposed towards me for the sake of the name of Christ! Please accept my sincere gratitude! And I was here with my heart. What should I tell you? – The Savior of the world commanded those who want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven to be like children, simple, gentle, incurious, believing, learning, and quickly repenting of their wrongdoings. Follow this advice of the Lord - in due time you will feel a blissful renewal and strengthening of your soul. It will happen gradually, imperceptibly... Suddenly a person will see himself changed - and glorify the all-good, omnipotent God. Do not complain about the brevity of my letter, do not measure it by the number of lines. Look at your heart: if it is comforted, satisfied, the measure is full. Most Gracious Sovereign! Feodor Petrovich! I bring to Your Excellency my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming New Year, I wish you to see it through in the desired health and perfect well-being. May God's blessing protect and overshadow you and your entire family. Wherever you turn your gaze, let only one pleasant thing, one comforting thing meet you: because you know how to bring both pleasure and consolation to your neighbors. “Measure accordingly, and it will be measured to you!” In your blessed homeland, where both nature and people greeted me favorably, they show me so much loving attention that they involuntarily touch the sensitive heart of the wanderer - I feel good in your homeland. My health is slowly improving as the cold leaves my body; it feels strengthened and renewed. I used diaphoretics and had not yet completed my treatment, for this last reason and because of the open pores, also because of the weakness that the treatment produced, I sent a petition to my Superiors so that they would allow me to return to St. Petersburg on the first summer route. Meanwhile, I will take advantage of the beneficial influence of your blessed, hospitable homeland on me. Take the trouble to convey my most sincere bow, Happy New Year greetings and wishes of all the best to the Most Gracious Empress Daria Mikhailovna, Konstantin Fedorovich and Vera Ivanovna, Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna. And again - calling upon you God's blessing, repeating the wish for all true blessings for you, with a feeling of perfect respect and sincere spiritual devotion and gratitude, I have the honor to be forever From your first glance at me, from the look with which you looked at the cadet - you look at me the same, look like an Angel - God will save you for this! What unexpected news this mail brought me! Konstantin Fedorovich, in the prime of his years of mature courage, who promised so much for the fatherland, for his parents and family, priceless for everyone who knew him, suddenly left the field of earthly life - and his ashes are already covered with earth! - rests in the Sergius Desert! There he will rest for a long time!... the trumpet of the general resurrection of men will awaken and revive him!... And his soul!... may it find peace in the blessed, quiet and bright abodes of heaven! May her own piety and the piety of her parents pave her way there! May the prayers of the Holy Church, the prayers of his father, the prayers of his mother, the prayers of his orphaned wife, and the orphanhood of his children, who are almost mute and do not understand the orphanhood of their babies, pave the way for her! A strong, extraordinary sorrow has befallen you, but it corresponds to the strength of your soul! You must put on the full armor of living faith, which breathes into your heart firmness, courage, humility, and obedience to the decrees of God. You must impart the strength of your soul to Daria Mikhailovna, who is weak in her physical constitution, although not weak in her trust in God—she is a mother! You are asked to replace the deceased in his family - to take on the responsibilities of a father who cares about raising children. An unexpected and heavy cross fell on your shoulders! but he was sent by God... He came unnoticed, he approached, - suddenly, with all his weight, he lay down on his shoulders, - and blessed are those shoulders who were honored to feel the cross of the Lord on themselves! Blessed is the soul who with generosity accepts and bears the cross of the Lord. The cross is a sign of God’s election, the seal of Christ. With this seal Christ seals His own! this sign is depicted on God's beloved by the angels of God Almighty! “If you see someone,” said the Monk Mark the Ascetic, “living a sorrowless life, in constant prosperity, know: an unmerciful judgment awaits him after death.” All the saints recognized it as an immutable truth that the one who leads a sorrowless life is forgotten by God. Do not look, says one of them, for Christian perfection in human virtues: it is not here; it is mysteriously kept in the cross of Christ! Whatever virtues were performed by the saints, they considered them incomplete and insufficient if they were not crowned by the cross of Christ, sealed, not witnessed by the seal of Christ. Those who will only walk the path guarded by the cherubim will have with them handwritings sealed with the seal of Christ. God's mercy has been shown to you throughout your entire life, both in blessing you with family happiness and in blessing your service to the Tsar and the Fatherland. The same mercy of God appears in the cross sent to you. God's punishment is not human punishment!.. God's wrath is not human wrath! The Lord punishes - and loves! He calls you to the closest knowledge of him. A short acquaintance with the greats of the earth brings temporary honors and imaginary wealth; detailed knowledge of God brings eternal blessings, vision of the glory of God, participation in this glory. I have always looked at you with the eye of my heart - with a deep heartfelt feeling that is difficult to comprehend, the existence of which is not even suspected by those who lead an absent-minded life. I think: God sent me this feeling so that I would have at least a small contribution, with which in the hour of need I could bring you a weak reward for your abundant love. I look at you from here, from the distant desert: I see the same thing! distance does not prevent you from looking and seeing with your heart. I constantly felt in you, in your soul, some kind of moral problem that did not have a complete solution. All that remained was to decide! The will of God for us is now visible more clearly: He is pleased that your soul should bear spiritual fruit for the eternal granary, corresponding to the means and forces planted in this soul. For this reason, He brought you to the feat. It pleases Him that you draw closer to Him and know Him more. Konstantin Feodorovich - almost the same age as me, a little younger than me. A whole quarter of a century has passed since we met; then he was in the uniform of a page, and I was in the uniform of a cadet. The first thought that flashed through me when reading the news of his death, flying straight into my heart, was: “and he went to the monastery.” Now you are an impartial judge: is it all the same to go to the monastery a few years earlier or a few years later? The monk is the same dead man with a living word! ... His word is from another world! ... from the world where the soul of the deceased is. I, the living dead, have acquired a new roommate in the Sergius monastery - your son, a dead man, who has closed his lips forever. May God grant me to pronounce for you and for myself a “word” from the other world - a word of consolation, a word of salvation! I burst into tears - the pen cannot be held in my trembling hand. Christ is with you! May He strengthen you and your entire family! unworthy Archimandrite Ignatius. Christ is risen, and risen indeed! Most amiable, most priceless Fyodor Petrovich! Having received your letter, I talked with him for a long time: to this day it always lies on the table near my bed. I spend most of my time on it; I have one activity - lying down; such is the lot of the patient. I often re-read the deep letter - this confession of your soul, and my thoughts were transported to you. And so - the other day - as usual, I’m alone in my cell, as usual I’m lying down: suddenly and vividly I imagined that I was at the grave of Konstantin Fedorovich - together with you, with your entire family... It was as if the voice of Konstantin Fedorovich was heard! A wonderful, unexpected inspiration took possession of my soul: I jumped out of bed, rushing to write down on paper the thoughts that presented themselves to me in a numerous, charming assortment. When I translated them onto paper, my hand barely had time to depict, first in letters, then with some signs and hints, thoughts boiling in the spring, mixed with even more wonderful sensations, quietly and delightfully exciting the soul. Then I re-read the scribbled piece of paper, and I see: this is not my property. The joyful, comforting inspiration that came to me was not for me alone: ​​it belongs to you more than to me. I am sending it to you instead of a red egg. You will receive and read it on the days of Holy Easter. Let others celebrate the holiday with noisy entertainment: the “Word from Eternity” will serve as a delight for you. This is the conversation of a voice that I heard mysteriously. “My father! my mother! my wife! my sisters! my family and friends! you all flocked to my lonely grave - in silence, with drooping heads, you surrounded it. Silently, with only thoughts and feelings, you talk with the silent inhabitant of the tomb. Your hearts are vials of incurable sorrow. Streams of tears flow from your eyes; from the streams of tears that have been shed, new tear streams are born: sadness - there is no bottom, there is no end to tears. Babies are my children! and you are here at the gravestone, at the tombstone. And tears welled up in your eyes, but your heart almost doesn’t know what your eyes are crying about, imitating the eyes of your mother, the eyes of my father, the eyes of my mother. You admire the tombstone, the luminous stone, the snow-white marble; you admire the inscription made of golden letters; and they - this marble and this inscription - are the harbingers of your early orphanhood. My father! my mother! my wife! my family and friends! Why do you stand for so long over my grave, over the cold stone, coldly standing guard over the grave? My lifeless body has long since grown cold; it returns, by the authority of the Creator, to its land, crumbles into dust... What heavy thoughts surround you, keep you on my grave? ... The altar servants brought to her a prayer for my repose, proclaiming to me eternal memory in God, who saves and rests me. They walked away from the grave silent; go, you too: you need peace after the exploits of body and soul, tormented by grief. Are you not coming? ... you are here ... you seem to be chained to the place of my burial! ... In unbreakable silence - with a thought for which there is no explanation - and a heart in which the certainty of feeling is absorbed by the abundance of accumulated feelings, you do not retreat from the wet grave, from the stone - an insensitive monument... What do you need? You, from under the stone, from the depths of the grave, seem to be waiting for my voice. This voice is not there: I speak through silence alone. Indestructible silence is the lot of the cemetery. The ashes of the dead speak without words: through corruption accomplished, they proclaim a loud sermon, a convincing exhortation to the living, restless, rustling seekers of corruption on the earth’s surface. And I still have a voice! and I'm talking to you! and I answer your inexplicable thoughts, your unspoken and unspoken questions. Listen to me! distinguish my voice in the general, single voice with which eternity speaks to time. The verb of eternity is one, unchangeable, immutable. There is no changeability in it: in it there is one day, one heart, one thought. The one who unites everything into one is Christ. There is only one voice from there. In this single voice in which eternity speaks, distinguish my voice! Don't you, my dear ones, recognize my voice? My voice in the general voice of eternity has its own separate sound, like the voice of a string in the general chord of a multi-stringed, thundering piano. The voice of eternity spoke to you, it spoke from the time of baptism, as to other Christians, when you were still unable to listen to it. Voice of Eternity! alas, they pay little attention to you in a noisy earthly hotel! Our infancy prevents us from listening to you; then the worries and distractions of everyday life prevent you from listening. And you do not stop talking: you speak, you speak, and, finally, through your messenger - death - you demand both an attentive and inattentive listener to account for their attention to the holy words of eternity, the holy words of God. So that the voice of eternity has a special echo for you, capable of piercing your heart and attracting all your attention to the words of salvation, God counted me among those speaking from eternity. My voice merged with the common voice of the celestials; for the other inhabitants of the earth I am dead, voiceless, like other dead people. But for you I am alive, and, dead, I speak the word of salvation better than I would have said it, living among you and chasing with you the ghosts of blessings with which corruption deceives and destroys the wanderers of the earth. God is infinitely merciful. Oh! If it were necessary and useful, suddenly from under a heavy stone, from the darkness of the grave, I would respond to you! ...But Heaven recognized a private voice from eternity as unnecessary. And what voice from eternity is no longer superfluous, when God deigned that not only Moses and the Prophets, but His only begotten Son Himself would proclaim His will to the earth, proclaim to it the statutes of a holy, blessed eternity? Moses and the prophets have: let them listen to them, - the answer was from Heaven to him who asked for the voice of the dead for a saving sermon to those living on earth in a carnal life, perishing in spiritual, eternal death. Unless Moses and the prophets listen, and unless someone rises from the dead, they do not have faith (Luke 16:29–31). And you, my comrade, are a dead man, but still with a living word in your mouth? ... here is my father, my mother, my wife, my relatives... I cannot speak to them except in the general word of eternity. In this word they hear the sound of my voice... yes! they hear it! But I don’t have a separate, private word... My comrade! From our common treasures of eternity, tell them for me a simple, most necessary word for them: “Earthly life is an instantaneous, deceptive dream. Eternity is inevitable... There is also a disastrous eternity! ... Acquire a blessed eternity by attention, obedience to the all-holy words and commandments of the all-holy God ... and come to me on the bright eternal holiday, each in his own, incomprehensibly appointed time by God himself and the only one” 28 . I have the honor to present to Your Excellency the Holy Icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which, for its delivery to you, was sent to my name by His Eminence Archbishop Gregory 29, who constantly maintains love and respect for you and your family. I would sincerely wish to personally present this Holy Icon to you and at the same time bring my most earnest congratulations on the upcoming Feast of the Nativity of Christ and the upcoming New Year, but I caught a cold and must spend these solemn days at home. In these lines, please accept my most ardent congratulations and wishes of all the best to you and Her Excellency Daria Mikhailovna and your entire family. Committing myself to your merciful disposition and calling upon you the blessing of Heaven, with a feeling of perfect reverence and devotion, I have the honor to be Correspondence of Saint Ignatius with Count Pavel Matveevich Tolstoy-Golenishchev-Kutuzov letters to his mother and sisters 30 Most Venerable Father Archimandrite. Thank you very much for your dear letter. I was always sure that you would not change your good disposition. Having become accustomed to seeing me quite often, you saw my feelings for you, which are limitless, and although I am now far from you, I often talk with you in my thoughts. My health has indeed improved, but I don’t know what the Lord God will give in advance and how soon I can take advantage of the Tsar’s mercy by appointing me to the court, although I am thinking of being with you in the middle of summer, but for a short time, because my wife still needs to spend the winter in the southern climate. She is still recovering poorly, and besides, the other day she caught a bad cold, so she lay in bed for two weeks and now she still does not leave the room, which saddens me very much, apparently, the Lord God wants to test me in patience, and so, although sad, I submit to His Will. Do not leave us in your Prayers. Baby Paul is growing and healthy, thank God. I am very glad that your meal on the day of the holiday was blessed by the presence of the Metropolitan of Kyiv 31 and also the Prosecutor of the Holy Synod 32, this is proof of peaceful relations. But I am even more pleased to know that the Emperor promised to visit the desert. God grant that all this may strengthen you in the good feelings of our Monarch towards you. I still have not been able to fulfill your order, although since I have been here, not three days have passed without me repeating to several people whom I instructed to find me the book The Life of a Holy Saint in Greek or Latin, but they still cannot have it, but they promise, and therefore I have not yet lost the hope of bringing it to you. Thank you very much again, Most Revered Father Archimandrite, for your love for me. Believe me, I really appreciate it and I will remain with these feelings to the grave, Your humble servant It's hot here even in the sun. The windows are open and the almond trees are in bloom. Most gracious Empress Paraskeva Mikhailovna! ...Our whole life is in various sorrows, as everything ends in death. How many saving lessons these sorrows teach us: they do not allow us to become attached to the earth; raised to heaven; remember God to us. And you, who are so familiar with Christ’s teaching about patience, who actually had to endure so much, remain patient to the end. I am writing this to you in order to bring beneficial consolation to your soul. I don’t write much because I hope to see you soon and because you yourself are very familiar with the Word of God. May the Lord, who delights the sorrows of those who mourn, sweeten your illness and strengthen you for further exploits. Peace be with you! Your most humble servant and worshiper Most gracious Empress Ekaterina Matveevna! I have news of the death, or, more correctly, of the dormition of your Pious Mother, and I pray for her repose with the brethren of my monastery in the very church where Paraskovya Mikhailovna so often brought her fervent prayers to the Lord, from where her petitions ascended to heaven and did not return empty, but fulfilled and satisfied. You sent your letter to my room, where you often visited with your late Mother, at a time when almost your entire family gathered in this room. There were Pavel Matveevich and Ivan Matveevich, and Feofil and Grigory Matveevich, Anna Mikhailovna, Fyodor Petrovich, Alexandra Fedorovna, the wife of Nikolai Matveevich - there was a memory of the deceased, here tears of love flowed and these tears were not bitter: they were delighted by an incomprehensible feeling, a feeling of confidence that the fate of the deceased was a blessed one and joyful. But the tears flowed as a tribute to love. When I went out with the brethren for the first time to a memorial service - this was in the St. Sergius Church, I imagined Paraskovya Mikhailovna standing with us and praying - so we are accustomed to seeing her in this church, especially during the prayers of Holy Week and the first week of Great Lent. Weep and do not grumble, weep and pray, weep and prepare for the fact that your blessed Mother would joyfully come to meet you when your soul leaves your body, lead you safely to the gates of heaven, lead you into them, present you to Christ, present you to the faces of the saints, saying with joy: Behold, I am my child, whom God has given me not only for earth, but also for heaven. Now her vision of new objects occupies her, now she attracts her to herself, embraces all the love of God, and if there is an earthly desire in her, then it is that her children, the fruits of her illnesses, would inherit heavenly bliss, before which all earthly happiness is dust and decay. Know that Paraskovya Mikhailovna has prepared for herself an abode in Paradise. Not only should you be calm about her future, but you can be sure that her prayers for you are strong and valid before the throne of God, that her prayers will help you throughout your entire life, if only your life is in accordance with the will of God, especially depicted in the Gospel. Be sure of this! To prove the truth of my words, which I pronounce from the confirmation of experience, I will tell you the following circumstance. When Anna Matveevna was sick in the spring, very sick, of course, you remember this, then Paraskovya Mikhailovna, using the help of doctors, most resorted to prayer. Anna Matveevna felt better, the danger was completely over, and Paraskovya Mikhailovna went to her beloved guests - to the Sergius Hermitage. Then we were already serving in the cathedral, she enters the church, and with what words does the church of God greet her? In the words of the Savior: “O woman! May your great faith be as you wish, and will it be healed from that hour.” With these final words of the Gospel of that day, which Father Mark proclaimed, Paraskovya Mikhailovna arose after an incessant and painful feat of prayer for Anna Matveevna’s recovery. This amazed me extremely. An involuntary and irrefutable confirmation rose within me that these words of the Gospel relate to the faith and prayers of Paraskovya Mikhailovna! Then I told this to one Pavel Matveevich, taking his word not to tell this to Paraskovya Mikhailovna, so as not to cause her any mental harm; because we cannot bear praise harmlessly during our earthly journey. But now that she is out of danger from the attack of sin, I am pleased to reveal my secret to you, for the consolation of your soul. If during her life Paraskovya Mikhailovna could ask the Lord for deliverance from a mortal illness for her daughter, especially after death, for which she had prepared and purified herself through severe suffering, she would pray for her children, it remains for you to promote her prayers with your prayers and piety; Then you will know from experience how powerful the prayer of the Righteous One is when it is promoted. An attentive and God-fearing life seems terrible only for those who have not tasted it, but for those who have tasted it on the scales of the heart, it outweighs all temporary pleasures. I sincerely wish you to follow the example of your blessed mother. And days after days will pass, and the years will quickly fly by in their own order, and a moment will come for you, inevitable for all people, in which your soul must leave its earthly church and enter into eternity, either blissful or sorrowful. Remember this moment, and if you prepare for it as you should, then you will forever be united with your blessed parent for endless joys and pleasures, which I wish for you from the bottom of my heart. What I tell you, I also tell Anna Matveevna. I'll tell you a few words about myself. When I was in the circle of your entire family (it was yesterday) and at the same time received your letter from Grigory Matveyevich, I felt that in my heart my love for all of you had doubled - and this was done by the late Righteous One. Surrounded by her sons and other close relatives, I spoke to them in almost silence. When they left, I sobbed and sobbed - and in the evening I could take several meals, so my soul was filled with various feelings. The image of the Deceased all day seemed to be walking in the air before my eyes, and her appearance both yesterday and today before me was joyful. And tears of joy and consolation flow. And a sincere word involuntarily pours out of the heart and, depicted on paper, hastens to pour into your soul in order to shed spiritual consolation and joy into it. Peace be with you I really liked your letter; I really liked your actions, inspired by love for your neighbor; I really liked your advice, which I am implementing, as you can see from the attached letter to Paris. Finally – I really liked you; in your letter you are so peaceful, so calm. I don’t like earthly pilgrims to be insanely cheerful: this is not suitable for wanderers, exiles, who face death, judgment, a double eternity, blissful or sorrowful. I love them to be calm: calm is a sign that a wanderer has blessed hope in his heart. I live alone and am undergoing treatment; The effect of the medicine is life-saving, but at the same time it is strong, which is why I lie in bed for whole days. From my windows there is a beautiful view of the Volga, which I praise, but which I rarely look at, rarely, in passing. As I remember from childhood, my bodily feelings were not receptive; the material world had a weak effect on me through them. I was incurious, cold towards everything. But I could never look at a person indifferently! I was created to love human souls, to admire human souls! That’s why they are before me - what angels! - appear to the eyes of my heart so captivatingly, so comfortingly! Here is a spectacle, a picture that I look at, stare at, look at again, can’t get enough of. And strange! I immediately forget the face, the shape, the features, but I remember the soul. There are many souls, beautiful souls, in my picture, which was painted by love, which faithful memory keeps intact, in the vividness of color. This coloring from solitude becomes even clearer, even brighter. In my picture you and your brother are also in it. I look at you often! My soul is filled with good desires for you. Whether in a magnificent outfit, or in a simple dress - what matters? – Let us complete our earthly journey, carrying the lamp of right faith, living faith. This lamp will lead us into the eternal Kingdom of God, before entering where both rags and magnificent attire are removed equally. And the most magnificent outfit in comparison with the light spiritual clothing is nothing more than despicable rags. In your patience gain your souls 34, it is said to the strangers of the earth, because our path is narrow and sorrowful, and we are weak. The power of God is made perfect in weakness 35, Scripture again comfortingly instructs us. Thank you brother for the added lines! If my letter had eyes, then I would command them to look at your brother intently, for a long time and so friendly that this constant sufferer would involuntarily smile pleasantly. You are in Paris! The waves of the sea of ​​\u200b\u200blife carried us in different directions. I am hovering on the secluded bank of the Volga: you are thrown into Paris, the capital of fashion, the capital of the educated world and, one might say, the capital of darkness and sin. In the capital of darkness and sin, protect yourself from darkness, protect yourself from sin. Where there is more danger, more caution is needed. If necessary circumstances force you to be in cities where plague or other infectious disease is raging, then you must try to finish your business there as soon as possible and leave as soon as possible. All the more so should this be done in relation to the city - the capital of sin. Who knows - whether the all-evil sin will cause some kind of wound? Who knows what kind of wound he will inflict? Can he inflict a mortal wound that cannot be healed? Come back quickly, having finished your business. An important matter awaits you here. You must carefully attend to your soul. Don't waste it. But this can be done - and as many do! Remember that you also need to exit this life through the door of the tomb, to stand before the Lord for judgment, a terrible judgment both for His saints and for those who have spent their whole lives pleasing Him. There, not only the sins, but also the righteousnesses of men will be judged; there many of their righteousnesses will be judged by the All-Perfect righteousness. This was witnessed by the Savior Himself. Unless your righteousness, He said, is greater than the righteousness of the scribe and Pharisee, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven 36. ABOUT! If only the merciful Lord would grant me to rejoice in the salvation of yours and mine in this and the next century. Today is the day of your Angel: may the Holy Angel, your guardian, keep you in perfect well-being. Are you making your earthly journey safely? It happens to a person during this wandering that he gazes at the objects that appear before his eyes. It seems to him that his march through eternity has stopped. This is a deception of the eyes of the soul. We walk and walk and don’t stop for a minute. A spiritual song is sung to the earthly wanderer on his difficult path, so that he does not get lost. Its content: “The will of God, the most holy commandments and commandments of God.” Peta bahhu for me Your justification in the place of my coming 37, said the inspired David. So in these parts, when someone gets lost in the forest, the neighboring villages ring the church bell, and at the sound of the bell, the lost one comes out of the dark forest. And what? A vast, crowded city is in some respects similar to a vast forest: in it, as in the forest, you can get lost... Let my voice from my solitude be like the beneficent ringing of a church bell. He always echoed in our soul, always found shelter in it. And now let your soul hear it! Having heard, may you be filled with true consolation! I think: a person cannot truly be consoled by anything other than the memory of God. I remembered God, says Saint David, and rejoiced 38. How true it is that we must all die! that this life in comparison with eternity is an insignificant moment! None of the people remained immortal on earth. And yet we live as if immortal; the thought of death and eternity eludes us and becomes completely alien to us. This is clear evidence that the human race is in decline; our souls are bound by some kind of darkness, by some insoluble bonds of self-delusion, with which the world and time keep us captive and enslaved. It takes effort, constant effort, struggle with oneself to swim out of the terrible dark abyss; it takes patience to generously endure all invisible spiritual storms. Temptation in the mind and heart is more terrible than all external temptations. No one is as dangerous to us as ourselves. Watch and pray, said the Lord, so that you do not fall into misfortune. You can only watch over yourself in the light of the New Testament. The light in which spiritual vigil takes place is poured out from the writings of the Holy Fathers. Divine Scripture and the fathers constantly remind us of God, His blessings, our destiny, an eternally blessed and eternally unhappy future, they expose the treachery of the world, its intrigues, and show the means of how to avoid these intrigues and enter the haven of salvation. Stay in the service of God for a short time in your earthly life - and you will inherit an eternity full of joys and continuous spiritual pleasure. We must explore eternity!.. Don’t be discouraged by stumbling, infallibility is a pipe dream! Stumblings are common to all people who, due to this very tendency to fall, are led: Through your patience gain your souls. He who endures to the end will be saved. May God's blessing rest upon you! Counts Tolstoy were related to the Opochinins: Matvey Fedorovich Tolstoy was married to Paraskeva Mikhailovna Golenishcheva-Kutuzova, daughter of M.I. Kutuzov and sister of Daria Mikhailovna Opochinina. Paraskeva Mikhailovna’s maiden name was added to her husband’s surname: Tolstoy-Golenishchev-Kutuzov. Paraskeva Mikhailovna died in January 1844. In a letter from Archimandrite Ignatius, written in connection with her death to her daughter, Ekaterina Matveevna, all the orphaned members of their family were named. Sons: Pavel, Ivan, Theophilus, Grigory, Nikolai Matveevich - all occupied high government positions. From Pavel Matveevich's letter dated February 19, 1842, it is clear that he received an appointment at court. Letter from St. Ignatius to P. P. Yakovlev 39 I have already sent a letter to Paraskeva Mikhailovna to Pavel Matveevich; In addition to it, I am sending prosphora. In the letter, since I learned yesterday from Pavel Matveevich about the dangerous state of Paraskeva Mikhailovna’s health, everything is written with caution. And in the last letter, about which she answered me in her own hand on October 22, I myself was amazed at what was written. Apparently, God wants it this way. My deepest bow to Daria Mikhailovna, as well as to their entire honorable family 40. Letter from P. P. Yakovlev to St. Ignatius 41 Pavel Matveyevich could not be with us on Tuesday because he had been ill since Friday of Holy Week; but now he has recovered and plans to be with you tomorrow. Meanwhile, he gave me 300 rubles in silver as part of the next amount for the grave, which amount I enclose with this, with a humble request: would it be possible to do me the favor of leaving you from among this money 100 or 150 rubles in banknotes for the Architect for the drawings and estimates with an explanatory note of our chapels, as well as for the drawing of the chalice. For the poor brethren, on the occasion of the Holiday, 75 or 100 banknotes are also needed. V.N. thanks you extremely for Artos; They are both in extreme grief because they lost their eldest 5-year-old daughter, who died on Wednesday of Holy Week. V.N. kindly asks you to come to them for consolation if you are in St. Petersburg before May 25th. Mishenka is very pleased with the egg, but grieves over the loss of Sister. Letter from Saint Ignatius to Alexey Alexandrovich Volotsky 42 On March 20, the Supreme Manifesto was read in the Cathedral of the city of Stavropol, announcing to the state a great feat and a great deed accomplished by the Sovereign Emperor - the transition of serfs to the state of free rural inhabitants. I am writing to you under the fresh influence of the Manifesto; my letter will probably be of interest to you, since the matter began while you were managing the province. The manifesto is great! He was listened to with the greatest attention and reverence, and made the most favorable, saving impression on all classes. Public opinion about the case was distorted by the Kolokol magazine, which penetrated all layers of society, and various printed articles in the direction of Kolokol. On this basis, many expected a Manifesto, if not exactly in the same direction, then at least in a similar or somewhat close way. Is the Manifesto! His high direction, the greatness and correctness of his thoughts, the greatness of his tone, the extraordinary clarity of his view of the matter, the directness and nobility of expression, the accurate depiction of the incompatibility and untimeliness of the outdated form of serfdom and at the same time the public justification of the nobility (which his vile envious people tried to humiliate, slander, trample and even destroy with the help of sophisms about the peasant question), the preaching of the Manifesto about the true freedom with the elimination of self-will and violence, which by ignorance and malicious intent are mixed with the idea of ​​freedom - all this gave the Manifesto extraordinary moral strength. False concepts, which appeared and multiplied due to stupid and evil disclosures, dissipated and fell. The state of bewilderment that gripped the minds was replaced by a state of clear understanding, calm, trust and deep respect for the actions of the Government. The manifesto decisively separated itself in its character from all the small writings on the peasant question and eclipsed them with its light: just as the stars disappear when the sun appears. They are not destroyed, they continue to exist and be present in the sky, but they are no longer visible. The Manifesto, serving as a reasonable image of our Government, cannot but pour out true consolation into the hearts of all well-meaning and well-intentioned people, in fact proving that the Russian Government is moving along the most correct, most reliable path. I was very pleased to see that my two proposals, given to the Caucasian Consistory, while you were in Stavropol, to teach the clergy of the Caucasian diocese the proper direction in the peasant question, are decisively similar in spirit and in thought to the Manifesto, having warned it for two years. There were various arguments against the proposals here, especially after the appearance of an abusive article against me in Kolokol. These nasty rumors, in which the main role was played by unscrupulous slander, involuntarily forced the clergy to pay special attention to the proposals, as they received special interest due to the polemics that arose as a result of them. The proposals were examined in detail, and therefore studied, and the Manifesto, having appeared, found the clergy already prepared for it. While all the people bless the Sovereign Emperor for his deeply reasonable Manifesto, one must assume that the publisher of the Bell, with a small number of like-minded brethren, will go berserk and sound his vulgar alarm bell. In the Manifesto, precisely, those words of St. Apostle Paul to the Romans, about which the frantic Iskander said that the Apostle Paul, having uttered them, did more evil than Judas Iscariot by betraying Christ. Do you have a copy of my proposals? In the second of them, dated May 7, 1859, you will see the development of concepts about the Question, exactly the same as those developed in the Manifesto (pp. 4, 5, 13:20). From the first word to the last, the Manifesto expresses the monarchical principle - the guarantee of public order and prosperity of Russia. On the eve of the publication of the Manifesto, I read in the St. Petersburg Gazette a letter from Falkovsky and the Sovereign’s Rescript to Prince Gorchakov regarding this letter. What a calm tone in the Rescript! What a majestic, open statement of the Tsar’s good intentions in relation to the people’s progress and the Tsar’s firmness in relation to the preservation of order among the people. Before the Rescript, as before a giant, Falkovsky’s letter takes on the character of such a trifle, such trifles! The Rescript and the Manifesto are full of moral force: before them, opinions contrary to them fall and are destroyed by themselves. Here, my dear, are the lines that, I hope, will bring you true joy on the eve of the joy that the All-Holy Easter will bring. Glory and praise to God, who protects Russia! God's preservation of Russia is clear to anyone capable of seeing from the Manifesto. Dearest friend Alexander Alexandrovich! May the Lord comfort you and your family in the sorrow that has befallen you. Consider God’s goodness to you, His wonderful Providence for you, and with this quench the sorrow of your heart, bring it to feelings of gratitude. Your elder, in the last days of his life (I also call years by days), devoted himself to God, and managed to prepare himself more for eternity than is usually the case now in the world. The invisible hand of God led him to this, and this shows God’s special mercy towards him. Let us tear away from the earth our thought, which has clung to the earth, let us think, let us believe that there is an eternity, before which our earthly wandering is shorter than a minute compared to a century! Let us consider that this life here is given to us solely as preparation for eternity! We recognize that the human race is in a state of decline from the very thing that we do not want to even think about eternity. We live on earth, as if we are eternal on it. Let us turn our eyes to Christ, our Savior! What will appear then in our mind's eye? The extraordinary goodness of God to your home, which is led by the strange paths of Providence to the knowledge of God and the worship of God, little known to us in the world. With what meek humility your Elder followed the common aspiration of the family. His humility is all the more surprising because he was not the first in this endeavor, but only a follower, which is especially difficult for elders. When he departs into the future, one should rejoice rather than indulge in sorrow: for it is obvious that God chose him and now accepts him into eternal bliss. I wrote this to console you; May the grace of God speak a word of consolation in your hearts, with which you mutually console each other, looking at the path that lies ahead of us all, and turn carnal tears into spiritual ones, in which there is sadness and joy together. Dearest Alexander Alexandrovich! Having heard about the seizures that were happening to you, I was very worried about this. I ask you, out of your friendship, to welcome me to the monastery around 9 o’clock. We will ask our doctor, and if you need to bleed, he will bleed you. I have never met a doctor or a paramedic who would bleed with such clarity as B. Listen to me, a sinner; I hope that you will not repent of your obedience. M Gry, Alexander Alexandrovich with his wife and with all your God-saved family! Hello! May God's blessing rest upon you. I remember you very often with the love of my heart in the Lord. I have nothing special to tell you: by the grace of God, the path of salvation is known to you in sufficient detail. And if you live in the commandments of the Lord, you will learn even more. I traveled quite a distance, saw pious people in the middle of the world and in monasteries. These people are now extremely rare, and some with very little knowledge, and others with mixed concepts, but because they add tar to the honey, that is, they read the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, but do not leave behind the counterfeit saints of the dark West. And the Russian proverb comes true: a barrel of honey, but a fly in the ointment. Throw it all away! True spiritual knowledge and spiritual guides have become scarce. Others believe in something no worse than our brother, but some kind of uneducated teaching, everyone walks around, but doesn’t get into the door - it’s like they’re playing blind man’s buff. The place I live in is nice: our society would like to live in such a place. The hotel is two-story, stone. Here you can combine the amenities of a hostel with the comforts of privacy. I am undergoing treatment and therefore do not leave the room and receive almost no one. Sorry for writing little and poorly. There is nothing to write, but I wrote it only so that you would not grieve for me. Most beloved in the Lord, Alexander Alexandrovich! Divine Wisdom, says Scripture, created for itself a house 43, that is, the Holy Church: in this house everything breathes with the Divine Wisdom that created it. This wisdom also shines in the fact that every series of Church petitions, or litanies, is concluded with these words: “Let us commit ourselves, each other, and our whole life to Christ our God.” Wise and holy conclusion of petitions! Now you have to actually fulfill it and fulfill it with living faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is strong as it is professed by Christ; faith in something false is full of meager fruits! Faith in Christ gives Christ to the believer; and you can entrust everything to Christ with thanksgiving and joy: both yourself and your neighbors. May such reflection comfort you in the last minutes of your earthly life. Turning random glances to your family, entrust them to Christ. He arranged it so that you were the support of your family: now He is calling you to Himself. You were His instrument: putting aside one instrument, He can take another instrument into His almighty right hand. You are separated from your loved ones, you are separated for a short time! You can draw the correct conclusion about earthly human life! You can calculate how fleeting it is! Soon the life that passed by passed by! Soon their future earthly life will pass for those who are still destined to live on earth. Go to heaven, to eternity, where Christ is calling you. “Blessed is he who comes” into eternity “in the name of the Lord.” Go to heaven for the endless and most joyful holiday of Christ. You were called there by Christ, you accepted the call there by living faith in Christ and with it you entered into the Book of Life. Your loved ones will soon come there to unite with you forever. Here on earth they shared sorrows with you, were consoled by faith: it is worthy and righteous for them to share with you the joys of heaven, prepared and delivered by faith and earthly sorrows in faith in Christ. In Heaven, in eternal joy, at the bright feast of Christ, remember those who spoke the Word of God to you, so that they may find mercy at the judgment of Christ, at which the deeds, words and thoughts of men will be judged as they were before God, not before people looking only at appearances 44 . Whomever the Lord loves and whom he desires to choose for a blessed eternity, he sends unceasing sorrows, especially when the soul being chosen is infected with a love of peace. The effect produced by sorrows is similar to the effect produced by poison. Just as a body that has taken poison dies from its natural life, so a soul that tastes sorrow dies to the world, to carnal life, which was born from the fall and constitutes true death. Therefore, whoever refuses sorrows refuses salvation: for the Lord Himself said that “he who does not follow Him with his cross is not worthy of Him,” that “whoever wants to save his soul in this age will destroy it for eternity.” The words of Christ are immutable and will come true in every possible way, which is why we must be crucified according to His word, or more clearly, on the cross of His words, although the flesh cries out against the crucifixion. To endure sorrows complacently and courageously, we must have faith, that is, believe that all sorrow comes to us not without God’s permission. If the hair of our head does not fall without the will of the Heavenly Father, much less without His will anything more important cannot happen to us than a hair falling from our head. Further, complacency is born in sorrows, when we surrender to the will of God and ask that it always be done to us. Thanksgiving also consoles us in sorrows, when we give thanks for everything that happens to us. On the contrary, grumbling, complaints, carnal disposition, that is, according to the elements of the world, only multiply grief and make it unbearable. Saint Isaac said that “that patient who resists the operator during an operation only multiplies his torment,” why, let us submit to God not in word alone, but also in thought, heart, and deed. Let us despise the world and its opinion, because the Savior told us: “Whoever is ashamed of My words in this sinful and adulterous generation, of him I will also be ashamed before My Father and His Angels.” From pleasing the world, boldness towards God is lost, and from contempt for the world, a Christian becomes his own to God and with much boldness turns to His house, believing His word as the Word of God, and not with double-mindedness, from which the effect of the Word of God is weakened for the unbelief associated with double-mindedness. Those who have fallen asleep in the sleep of despondency - arise! You who have weakened yourselves with double-mindedness, strengthen yourselves with faith! Soften your hardened hearts with fervent prayer and tears. Approach the Lord with humility, and His Word and His grace will be contained within you, and will resurrect your dead souls! If a word is judged and condemned, then it remains useless; if it is accepted with humility, then although its appearance is harsh, the fruit is spiritual consolation, born from the knowledge and acceptance of the Truth, in which lies salvation. The Holy Fathers said: “When you see a drowning person, stretch out the end of your staff to him and do everything you can to save him; but don’t give him your hand, so that he doesn’t drag you into the abyss with him.” May God grant you wisdom to act on this advice. He who approaches God must approach with faith in His omnipotence, and not with double-mindedness, and then he will receive help from above. Evil, wanting to keep a person in chains, always frightens him; One should not be afraid of these threats: the mighty God will deliver those who approach Him from all attacks of sin. I wrote something to you in French, but having written it, I saw that the image of my speech did not suit you. since it is written for you, then you will have a path. On behalf of Father Ignatius, the little one, I am answering you, dearest Anna Pavlovna, in his place. Have peace in your thoughts and hearts; drive away embarrassment with complacency. Tell yourself when various thoughts begin to confuse you: “I surrender to God with all my weaknesses and my circumstances. The way He does His holy will over me.” God's providence arranged it in such a way that His people, upon their exodus from Egypt, received their reward for the work done in Egypt. You went to Revel for the benefit of Lydia Alexandrovna and be peaceful; do with care what you went for and guard your soul, which you must preserve at the judgment of Christ. When you can’t stay away from noisy society, then try to keep yourself away from verbosity and unnecessary jokes, and when you can’t keep away from this, then wash yourself in repentance. Keep peace within yourself! Know that if there is embarrassment in you, then this is a sign that some false thought has crept into you. In you, like in me, there is no faith, no humility! By surrendering to the will of God, you will enter into both and find peace in your heart. Peace be with you! Peace to Sofia Pavlovna! Peace to Lydia and Alexander Alexandrovich. Peace to everyone and to me, a sinner. Amen. Most gracious Empress Anna Pavlovna! Accept obedience from me, a sinner. Take the trouble to arrange for a description of G. Ilyinskaya’s vision to be compiled in all detail, writing on half a sheet of paper so that I can correct it. The sign given by God should not be ignored: for it was given so that we, cold and unfaithful, would turn our attention from the delights of the world to the salvation of our souls, which are being lost due to our negligence. We dare to reason as follows: since this soul accepted torture from unclean spirits while still in the body, its salvation is beyond doubt. Don’t worry, but in peace of mind surrender to the will of God. God knows what He creates, and whatever He does, He creates according to His great goodness, according to His wisest and unsearchable destinies. Say to yourself more often: “God’s will be done.” Let your mind and heart be immersed in this soothing and sacred thought. May they be satisfied with it. May God bless you and give you the mind of truth and submission to His holy will, which is why spiritual peace vegetates. Your most devoted in the Lord I offer my sincere gratitude for your memory of me and invoke God’s blessing on you and your family. Your sorrows are a sign of God’s election. Blessed be the mercy of God, imprinting you with the seal of election. Every sigh of those who suffer for the Lord is heard in heaven and written into the book of God for reward a hundredfold. May the grace of God cover the holy Abode where you have taken refuge, may it cover your family, may it cover everyone and everything. Thank you sincerely for your letter of April 18th. May God's blessing rest upon you and your home. May He guide you to blissful eternity. We are all filled with infirmities; but those of us who want to please the Lord, the Lord heals from infirmities with His law and His destinies. Everything I hear about the Sergius Desert consoles me very much. In the appointment of Father Ignatius as rector of this Monastery, I see God’s mercy towards the Monastery and towards me. I hope that in the future the Lord will not abandon us all with His mercy. And again calling upon you God’s blessing, with feelings of sincere respect and devotion, I have the honor to be your most humble servant Most gracious Empress Anna Pavlovna! Please accept my sincere gratitude for your remembrance of me before the day of remembrance by the Holy Church of the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer. May the merciful Lord remember you and your children in His Kingdom, which is due to be inherited by many earthly sorrows. The Lord sent you sorrows as a guarantee of the Kingdom. I entrust myself to your love in the Lord and remain forever your most devoted servant I bring you my sincere gratitude for your memory of me! I congratulate you and your entire pious family on the upcoming New Year, and I sincerely wish you to pursue its career under the canopy of God’s mercy. Blessed are those who, far from worldly noise and worldly worries, can devote all their time to serving God, to preparing themselves for eternity. The Lord called this position of man a good part. May this good part not be taken away from you all the days of your earthly life! May she remain your constant asset and a sure guarantee of eternal joy. Invoking God's blessing upon you and your family, Your most humble servant I sincerely thank you for your memory of me. You rightly say that God’s Providence for me is worthy of surprise and praise. My situation was settled as satisfactorily as I dared not wish for. Forgive me too for writing to you rarely. Even in Stavropol, I greatly reduced my correspondence, and now it is necessary to reduce it further, limiting myself to the essentials. Save yourself! May the Lord bless you and your family and guide you on the path of salvation. Your most humble servant No one lives in us, said the Apostle, and no one dies in us 45. Having remained to live on earth, live not for yourself, but for the Lord: he who lives to fulfill His will lives for the Lord; He lives for himself who lives to fulfill his wishes. The latter, although it seems to the sensual eyes to be moving and living, is dead in soul to the Lord, is considered by God as non-existent, and is not inscribed in the book of Life; his name is included in other books. The first one does not die and cannot die: it passes through death only into the great development of life. Take care not to come to life for yourself! Mortify your life in the Lord for yourself, and thereby preserve yourself in eternal life. What can I tell you about the suffering to which medical necessity exposes you? Don't give up on this suffering! They may be rewarded with the pleasantness of recovery. In addition to this benefit, there is another benefit in them, incomparably the most important: this is the renewal of your soul. You can become able to thank God and draw closer to Him. For this there is no other means than the cross, that is, generous patience with all the suffering sent down by Providence. Those who throw off the cross become obscene for God. The power of God can fully support you, despite your youth. Those inspired by this power can overcome all fear and all torment. When your thought becomes quiet, and some kind of calm sadness, like a rain cloud, comes over your soul, then you become clear and joyful, then know that this is the effect of spiritual crying that has appeared in you because of your suffering and because you are trying to resort to God in it. Be attentive and reverent, because spiritual sensations are subtle and disappear from the inattentive and irreverent. If you are attentive, the clouds will become thicker from time to time, and will finally burst into tears and produce tears such as you have never cried. Enjoying these tears will be the greatest consolation and reinforcement in your illness. You will feel wonderful peace and quiet! But remain faithful to God! Amen. The Pleshcheevs were good friends of Fr. Ignatius the Little (Malyshev), at whose request Archimandrite Ignatius began correspondence with them, which subsequently led to friendly relations (see, for example, in the letter of the Saint to his sister Elizaveta Alexandrovna No. 16 - p. 537). P. A. Brianchaninov wrote that “there were many letters of this kind, indicating invariably friendly relations.” P. P. Yakovlev wrote down that in the letter to him, written by Saint Ignatius five days before his death, a letter from A. P. Pleshcheeva was included. Letters of Saint Ignatius to Sofia Pavlovna Titova 46 Here, at your request, I answer you. May the merciful Lord open my mouth and your ears for His Word. A Christian should never be embarrassed by anything, for God’s Providence carries him in its arms. Our care should be that we remain faithful to the Lord. If the tempter dared to approach the Lord Himself made man, then we should not be surprised that he approaches us, even if it was after we had accepted the Lord into our vessel. The larger the treasure, the more the thieves try to steal it. The greater the treasure, the more vigilant one must be about keeping it. After communion of the Holy Mysteries, after fervent prayer, after any deed that is especially beneficial for the soul, we need, according to the experienced instruction of the fathers, special observation of ourselves, for then the enemy is especially inflamed against us with envy and malice; seeing earth and ashes ascend into heaven, from whence he was cast down. The spiritual paradise, which, according to the teachings of the Savior, is within us, must be cultivated and preserved, as it was commanded by God at creation itself, in the person of Adam, to all people. As usual, I assumed that after the embarrassment, you must have felt the consolation that the Lord sends to His lawfully struggling servants as reinforcement, to increase faith, hope and love. Do you understand that you are indebted to the Lord more than you were before, as those who received a pledge and an announcement of the promise! “To him more has been given, and from him more will be required,” says Scripture. Having realized this, be careful how you walk dangerously, that is, live with caution and attention. Now I want to scold you. You write to me decisively: “I’m leaving on Wednesday.” At least you added: “If God commands.” Read in the conciliar letter of James the words of the Spirit about such human words, which dishonor the Providence of God, in which there is no faith and humility. If you ask for forgiveness, then may the merciful Lord, through me, His indecent and sinful priest, forgive you and may He instruct you to please Him with deeds, words and thoughts, as He commanded in His Holy Gospel, which commands not to destroy even the small commandments (Matthew 5:19). The saints said: “Whoever keeps the commandments in small things keeps them in big things.” Peace be with you! When you are far away and cannot bring your aching heart to me, then I come to you and bring a word of consolation. Our days are days of sorrow, and our consolation is the Cross of the Savior. When the sons of Zebedee asked the Lord for the thrones of glory, then He promised them the cup of sorrows, without which it is impossible to receive the thrones of eternal glory, which is the Holy Spirit. So, pray to the Lord to grant you patience in sorrows, so that you constantly see God’s Providence above you, so that your faith and fidelity to God increases from this; and then let sorrows pierce you, cleanse you from earthly things and prepare you for heavenly things. Do not be surprised at human weaknesses and sins. The Righteous Lord looks at them and has mercy on sinners, expecting their repentance; and who are we to become angry with the brethren who are sick with sin, while we ourselves are unclean before the All-Seeing and Most Pure One? Let us leave everything that does not depend on us to the will of God, and what depends on us, we will conform to the will of God either by fulfillment or by repentance for non-fulfillment. “Through your patience gain your souls,” the Lord bequeathed to us in the Gospel. May the peace of God rest upon you. I come to you not in body, but in spirit; bringing to you a sincere word from my heart in response to your letter dated January 19, which I received on February 14. Rely your external circumstances on the Providence of God, and as they work out, so let them work out; and you be peaceful and calm, worrying only about your soul, which you promised to present to Christ purified by repentance. The knowledge of one's weaknesses is an essential knowledge for a Christian. It leads to humility, and this leads to spiritual intelligence. To whom the Lord deigns to bestow His understanding, He especially reveals his infirmities. They are revealed to you according to the state of your soul; and their full discovery, if there is one, you cannot yet bear. There is great attachment in you according to the laws of the flesh; this is because you have known little of Christ. Carnal fire is extinguished by spiritual fire; when the second is kindled, the first will certainly be extinguished, according to the teaching of the spirit-bearing Fathers and partly according to experience itself. You write that many find that your trip to your sister is a pleasant sacrifice to God, but you do not dare to attach your heart to this thought, which, however, you call comforting. The Lord commanded His disciples, when they had fulfilled all the commandments, to call themselves unbreakable slaves and consider themselves debtors to the commandments. I don’t see any sacrifice in your action - only the desire of the soul to fulfill the commandment of love, a desire in which it is desirable for the Lord to find something pure and beneficial for himself. The great saint of God Agathon, completely immersed in the love of God from love for the image of God - his neighbor, when before his death he looked at himself and sat in silence for a long time, his disciples asked him: “Or are you, father, afraid?” He answered: “I tried to fulfill the commandments to the best of my ability, but how can I know, being a man, whether my doing is pleasing to God: for the judgment of God is different and the judgment of man is different.” Moreover, we, who are insufficient in everything, should fear and tremble at the laudable conclusion about our actions, fearing that the imaginary comforting feeling is not only a subtle satisfaction of vanity. The Prophet said: “All our truths are impurities.” And another Prophet: “The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart, God will not despise.” You wrote about insurance and consolation during prayer, but what they were and what exactly they consisted of, you did not write; and this is also necessary if you want to hear my judgment about them according to God. During your journey, you were in danger twice, and the hand of God saved you. Such experiences cultivate faith in a person and have happened to many to whom the Lord wanted to bestow the great wealth of faith. In the name of the Lord, I bless you to walk five rosaries a day, no more. You should pray for them while sitting, listening to the language with your mind, pronouncing the prayer with your tongue so that only you hear. Due to your residence in the middle of the world and due to the recentness and news on this path, you do not need to go much into prayer, which requires either greater spiritual experience or the proximity of a leader; and in the latter case, people new to pious deeds are more forced to humility, which is the foundation in the building of virtues. In your free time, do whatever handicraft you find more convenient. May the Lord forgive you for the past and strengthen you in good things for the future. Peace be with you! What should I say to you in response to your letter? The fact that our life is a chain of sorrows ending in death, this greatest sorrow for people, especially for those who forget their true purpose in eternity. This chain must be passed through with patience, link by link, in order to end with good hope. Patience is begged from the Lord through prayer. The soul enters the house of patience when it says to God: Thy will be done. Amen. I am answering your letter by letter. Some consolation that you feel is not a charm, but an ordinary consequence of your path, or more correctly, the path of God. The beginning of enlightenment of the soul is the sight of one’s sins and one’s insignificance. since this is the fruit of the grace given to us at baptism, it is accompanied by sweetness, consolation, tears in which sadness is mixed with joy, tears completely different from the tears of the people of this age. Taste and see that the Lord is good. This eating opens the eyes and gives birth to a living, clairvoyant faith, completely opposite to that which the blind call blind, which in truth is blind and dead, existing only at the edge of the tongue. Immerse yourself in humility and love for your neighbor, denying yourself. In this way you will find the Lord. Amen. If you want to learn true wisdom, that is, to acquire Christ, God's power and God's wisdom, let it happen, in the words of the Apostle. Try to maintain the violence that you have and acquire more, without delving into a multi-varied mind, which is evidence of spiritual emptiness. When your sister enters into a conversation with you, proposing questions, as she proposed here to Ignatius the Little about the perplexed, then it is not useful to answer these questions by solving the question, but should lead her to simplicity and repentance, resolutely saying that he who is engaged in thinking about lofty subjects cannot avoid delusion and, pursuing, in his opinion, a spiritual life, will be far from the path of salvation. It is less useful to know heaven and earth in detail than to know your shortcomings and sins. This last knowledge is so useful, at the same time so high, that it is a gift of grace sent by God and requested through prayer. A person cannot enter into this knowledge through his own efforts. One’s own effort is needed as evidence of the sincerity of the desire to receive knowledge from God. Witness this to your sister, proving the truth of your words especially with the first four chapters of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians. The downside to privacy is don't get bored. Circumstances, or, more correctly, God’s Providence, leads you to practice serving and comforting your neighbors. And work in this field in which you are assigned, without indulging in, on the one hand, entertainment, and on the other, reckless zeal, in which the thought certainly creeps in that you provide consolation, and not God provides you with consolation to others, but for you to be a consolation for others. The sweetness of solitude stems from the fulfillment of Christ's commandments, perfected in community. Finally – you are sick. It is fitting for one who wants to get closer to God to go through many sorrows and illnesses with soul and body. Say to your illnesses: “Come, sent by God, torment the sinful body, burn it, torment it for the iniquities of which it was the dwelling!” As a rule, do not be excessively tired during illness: in return, offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Peace be with you. There is illness and there is the opinion of illness. Finally, it happens that a person is definitely sick, and the enemy convinces him that he is not sick, but only thinks that he is sick. The last one with you. Leave bows for a while: they were replaced by illness; but do not leave prayers with contrition of heart. When a vicious thought or a vicious feeling comes to you, reject it and reproach yourself. You should not think about yourself that any vice in you has diminished; on the contrary, think that you are the repository of all vices. You should not be embarrassed when mental and physical weaknesses are revealed in you; on the contrary, bear your infirmities with patience and generosity. There is a hidden pride in you: you do not firmly remember that you are a sinner; If you remembered this as you should, then, seeing weaknesses in yourself, you would not be embarrassed, but would say to yourself: “A sinner like me must have such shortcomings.” May the Lord teach you humility, from which all calm flows and peace and silence pour into your heart. God bless you. Our whole life must consist of repentance: for we are still outside the truth, until we are completely in Christ, which we can expect only after death. The more we plunge into repentance, the more we find that we need it. The more we purify ourselves, the more we find that we are far from the Most Holy and Most Pure. He who is completely blackened does not see a single spot on himself. Regarding the feelings that you had before and after communion, I will tell you: we must always consider ourselves unworthy of Christ and approach Him, the Physician of our souls and bodies, among the lepers, the blind, the demoniac, because we are like that at heart. But we must watch that heartfelt contrition does not turn into hopelessness, which comes from relying on oneself, and not on the generosity of Christ. Take a closer look! Before confession, between good thoughts, you had a thought of petty calculation, you wanted to say everything in confession, you wanted to pay off Christ, you wanted to no longer owe Him! And they left, carrying an unsatisfactory feeling, and the evil thought, which turned into petty calculations, began to confuse, saying: “You didn’t say everything in confession.” Believe me! We say in confession that we see in ourselves, but we do not see an incomparably greater number of sins, which is why we cast many of our known and unknown sins into the sea of ​​Christ’s bounty, and after the sacrament of Confession we feel a satisfying sense of peace, not because of our deeds, but because of Christ’s bounty, and we remain indebted to Him as an unpaid debt. Regarding your rule, what do you say? It was given to you when your mind was dead and when physical labor with short and uniform prayer contributed to the revival of the mind by killing daydreaming. Now, if this work is too burdensome for the body, it can be shortened by allowing the mind, freed from daydreaming, to float in the words of the Spirit, in psalms, chants and spiritual songs, singing not only with lips and thoughts, but also in the heart of the Lord. On the path of pious life, the leader is God. No one can come to Me, says the Savior, unless My Heavenly Father attracts him 47 . On this path lies the experimental recognition that man is a fallen being, damaged in mind, heart, and body. We could not have obtained this experimental knowledge if we had not seen that sinful thoughts arise in our minds against our will, feelings in our hearts, and movements in our bodies. Such a state, according to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, must be endured with patience, humbled before the Lord and complacently awaiting healing from the one Physician of our souls and bodies. I wish you to delve into the 3rd chapter of the 1st Epistle of St. Apostle. Paul to the Corinthians. Completely neglect me as a vile sinner, and belong only to God, then your path will be right. So, I use the words Ap. Paul: Let no one boast about men, lest you be left without Christ. When Ap. Peter thought about the human, not the Divine, although this human, apparently, was good, then the Lord called him Satan. Truth outside the Cross is not acceptable. You must win the dead in order to receive life; you must destroy your soul in order to gain it. Look where you got carried away and try to improve. A godly life requires sobriety and it is impossible to do without invisible falls. Having treasured from them humility and experience, let us not lose heart, but rising from our fall, we will move on. No matter how the end of our short-term earthly life comes to us, it must come in every possible way. The servant of Christ surrenders both his soul and body to the will of Christ. Where to put the sins? Where should we put our countless infirmities? And we will hand them over to the almighty Christ, who bore the infirmities and sins of the whole world. If we are given a cup of suffering, let us accept it as a cup of salvation, as a guarantee of eternal joy. Let us say with the thief: “We will accept our worthy deed, remember us, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.” The heart will respond to us with calmness, the anticipation of eternal peace. Peace be with you. We cast the countless infirmities of our souls and bodies into the abyss of God’s mercy. All our hope is in God’s mercy, and not in our righteousness. Physical illnesses can be very complex, and mental illnesses are even more complex. Speaking about them, St. The Prophet likened them not to some private wound, but to a whole scab that covered the entire soul. And we plunge such and such a soul into the abyss of God’s mercy! After immersion in it, the soul comes out completely clean and healed. Such immersion always occurs when the soul, through repentance and confession of its sins, and especially during the sacrament of confession, turns to God. Therefore, your condition should not embarrass you. There is undoubtedly a physical illness, and with illness there is also pretense, as often happens with the sick. One should not be embarrassed and despondent from this; on the contrary, one should expose one’s scabs, pretense and one’s parents, one’s vanity and voluptuousness before the All-Powerful and All-Good. However, asking Him for healing and bearing the cross of our passions with patience until the Lord himself takes it from us. Bear Nebuchadnezzar's yoke! The Prophet exhorted the Israelis mysteriously. This is the way of salvation; go to them. Peace to you from the Lord! Most gracious Madam Sofia Pavlovna! May the blessing of God rest upon you and may the grace of God guide you in the short field of earthly life to salvation in eternity. I am heartily consoled that the spiritual family, gathered by the finger of God in the Monastery and around the Monastery of St. Sergius, is preserved by the same finger of God. In her circle you can find satisfaction of your spiritual needs. For this you must constantly thank God, for very few have this blessing. I entrust myself to your prayerful remembrance. Letter from S. P. Titova to St. Ignatius 48 Your Reverence, Most Honorable Father Archimandrite Forgive me, for God's sake, that I am writing again. Being unwell, I need your permission and ask for your blessing. I am very confused about the rules of prayer. Although you told me not to bother myself when I am sick, I am embarrassed by the fear of taking charge of this. Having constantly in mind my previous habit of exaggerating illness in order to excite participation, I do not believe my illnesses at all now, believing that for someone else my illnesses would be insignificant. I don’t know and don’t understand whether the desire to participate has been extinguished in me. It bothers me when they worry about me; I would rather have a greater illness than an insignificant illness. Now it seems like it’s definitely difficult for me to breathe and bend over; I didn’t leave the rules for a long time. I have been feeling upset for a long time, but since the day I last spoke to you, with your blessing, as you said, returning home my soul was relieved - but my body was exhausted. With your permission - when I lived with my sister, who was two years old - I followed my rules in front of her. Today she told me a lot about how bad it is for me. I answered her that I don’t, but she wanted to talk to you about it, which I asked her not to do and, I repent before God, I was indignant at her. However, out of weakness I definitely don’t bow. Any ill health that happens to me confuses me. It will begin to seem to me that in my imagination I am sick - that my illness is so insignificant that no one else would even notice it - and it seems that if my illness intensified, I would be glad to endure, but that now I am only angering the Lord. My prayer during times of ill health is without consolation and the thought of the burden of my sins does not leave me in prayer, not for a minute. I apologize - I believe that you will understand from what past or current sins of mine such embarrassment occurs. It was very difficult for me to put these thoughts to rest; I felt fear from this sin. Do not leave the sinner - I ask for your blessings and holy prayers. I have the honor to be submissive to you State Lady Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina, née Princess Golitsyna (1797–1869), was at one time well known in St. Petersburg, not only in high society, but in all levels of society. She gained worldwide fame thanks to her outstanding charitable activities. Distinguished by her deep religiosity, she made generous donations to churches and monasteries. A particular impression on her contemporaries was made by her restoration of the ancient Svyatogorsk Assumption Monastery on her estate on the Donets River, which was abolished in 1787. To restore it, the Potemkin couple immediately donated 10 thousand rubles in 1844 and donated 70 acres of land. Significant monetary donations continued in subsequent years, so the construction of churches in the monastery continued until the death of the benefactor. In general, she was very interested in church affairs, patronized missionary activities, was a trustee of prisons for thirty years, and often visited hospitals and almshouses, military hospitals. She was married to Alexander Mikhailovich Potemkin, with whom she lived for 55 years. Alexander Mikhailovich was a man of exceptional kindness; he did not interfere in his wife’s activities, giving her complete freedom. Their house in St. Petersburg was known as Noah’s Ark in terms of the number of people it held. Those who took advantage of her hospitality said and wrote that she loved her neighbor as herself, was very affectionate and friendly, “due to this virtue, she received everyone who decided to visit her without partiality with Christian love and for the benefit of her soul. I didn’t tolerate gossip” 49. Not everyone, however, had the same opinion about her house: “Whoever has been in this house; who was not given shelter in the countless rooms and nooks of this labyrinth; They did a lot of things in this house, both with and without the knowledge of the owner, the all-powerful Tatyana Borisovna. Under the guise of kindness and humility, many things were done that did not always have good consequences. It was necessary to penetrate this house at least once in order to understand all the features of this shelter, this combination of holiness with gossip, squabbles and intrigues, underground adventures and dark affairs of all kinds. External patriarchy hid internal discord..." 50 Tatyana Borisovna visited the Sergeev Hermitage very often, donating a lot of things and money there - for the memory of her mother, God's servant Anna. She was also well acquainted with the Abbot of the Desert: “I knew Brianchaninov as an officer in the corps of engineers,” she recalled. “He was the Tsar’s favorite.” ...All attempts by the Sovereign and Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich to dissuade Brianchaninov from entering monasticism were unsuccessful: he abandoned his brilliant official career and went to the Svirsky Monastery to join Elder Leonid. They later said that some saw Brianchaninov as Fr. Leonid, who came to the capital for some reason. After that, nothing was heard about him for a long time. I remember once, when I was in the chambers of the late Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the late Emperor came to her with a cheerful look and said: “Brianchaninov has been found: I received good news about him from the Metropolitan of Moscow. Having been a good officer, he became a good monk: I want to make him abbot of the Sergius Hermitage.” Soon everyone in the capital was talking about the new abbot of Sergievsky, the Emperor’s favorite, very experienced in spiritual life. It was with difficulty that I recognized the former Brianchaninov in the person of Fr. Ignatius - this is how he changed in monasticism. Subsequently, he visited us quite often. He was a spiritual man; he knew how to behave in any society, but at the same time he also knew how to make every conversation beneficial to the soul. Briefly familiar with the teachings of the patrists, he imparted to his conversations and judgments the spirit of this teaching. Many people were surprised at that time. Ignatius: how he, an ascetic and man of prayer, did not shy away from society, was a pleasant conversationalist with secular people, knew how to arouse their trust in him and act on them for the good of their souls. Seeing in him not so much a spiritual person, but a good friend, equal in intelligence and education, many people, very averse to monasticism, loved to visit him in the monastery and see him in their homes, which imperceptibly inclined them to piety. Piety was the goal and basis of all conversations about. Ignatius, and he always tried to reduce the most secular conversation to the edification of his listeners, often making the most carefree think. But a lot of slander fell to Fr. Ignatius in the capital: something was not said about him in vain, and one only had to be surprised at the calmness with which he endured people's gossip. He was a doer of the Jesus Prayer, and this gave some reason to claim that he was in spiritual delusion, while with his experience in spiritual deeds he helped others to avoid delusion. So one of my acquaintances indulged in pious exercises beyond reason, which is why she was close to insanity, and only the advice of Fr. Ignatius set her on the path of truth in good time. Father Isaiah Nikifirovsky 51 often used to say that Fr. Ignatius was more knowledgeable than him in ascetic science, and treated his advice with special respect, calling them true and completely alien to any delusion. “He teaches repentance,” said the elder, “what delight can there be in repentance?” Slander about Fr. Ignatius was often approached by the late Emperor, but he did not listen to them and always defended his favorite, saying that he knew Brianchaninov better than anyone. One incident, however, brought Fr. Ignatius was displeased with the Sovereign, which was partly my fault. At that time Barant was our French envoy; his wife was a very pious and pious woman. She really liked our Orthodox worship, our churches and monasteries. I was very friendly with her; We met Ms. Barant with Fr. Ignatius, and then she was with me in the Sergius Hermitage. She asked me then to tell Fr. Ignatius invited her to visit the French embassy, ​​which I complied with. In the Barantov house, Fr. Ignatius met with a learned Catholic, with whom he had a very lively conversation about the superiority of religions. The reason for it was the French essay by Catherine Emeric about the suffering of the Savior, which Fr. Ignatius directly called it harmful to the soul, without a shadow of truth, which his opponent refuted, citing the authority of his church. It must be said that at this time our relations with France were very strained: at court they were very cold with Barant, why did our acquaintance with Fr. Ignatius and the French envoy were very unpleasant for the Emperor. He forbade him from going to the capital for some time. Not only o. Ignatius, but also other members of the black clergy of the capital were then forbidden to visit their secular acquaintances; This is very memorable to me because for about two weeks I could not see my confessor. However, the Emperor’s anger at Fr. Ignatius did not last long; Soon the Emperor visited the Sergiev Hermitage and treated its rector very mercifully, after which Fr. Ignatius again began to visit his friends in the capital. My participation in the fact that Fr. Ignatius was in the house of the French envoy; The Emperor kept telling me then that it was wrong for the Orthodox to be too friendly with Catholics.”52 Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina was buried in the Sergius Hermitage. Please accept my sincerest congratulations on the upcoming New Year and on the approaching day of your Angel. May the Lord bless your whole life, may He tell your heart His holy will, good and perfect. Prosper, prosper in works of mercy! Life here is like a field dotted with various crops of bread and vegetables, planted with numerous, heterogeneous fruitful trees and shrubs; people are definitely doers; one is capable of tending vines, another of vegetables, another of sowing grain, another of plowing the earth, another of only uprooting thorns. Let everyone work in that area of ​​virtues for which he is capable, for which he is called by God, who reveals His calling to a rational creature with the spiritual abilities and means that He has bestowed on this creature. A beautiful plot, a field of material mercy; the one who does it labors and enjoys together. Have mercy on the poor, Scripture comfortingly instructs us: He gives in return to God, and according to his giving he is repaid 53 . Prosper in your field: sow alms, reap consolation, clear your wheat from the tares, prepare a clean sacrifice, so that the King of Kings, looking at it with His searching and all-seeing eye, recognizes it all as worthy of the Heavenly granary. Forge unskilled silver, teaches the God-wise, and everything will be cleansed, pure: kill the wicked from the presence of the Tsar, and His throne will be straightened in righteousness. The throne of the King of God is the human soul: and the wicked, whom it is commanded to kill here, are thoughts and feelings of vanity, man-pleasing, hostile and maliciously attempting to take away a person’s heavenly reward through flattery, the dream of an earthly, human reward. They, these invisible enemies, the accusers of our salvation, are exposed before the face of the King - by the Revealed Law of God, the Gospel - and the true servant of the Kings can kill the wicked, enlightened and encouraged by the bright face of the King of Heaven. On this day I will not stop to bring before you a pleasant memory of the late Princess Tatyana Vasilievna 54. The memory of her remains to live in my heart. And often, with such memories, I sadly discussed the fate of her soul. During my current journey, I meet in the Borodino monastery a blind old woman, stricken with a severe cold, living there with two daughters 55 . Madame Abbess, having introduced me to them, said privately: “They live dependent on K. Yu., who gave them an annual pension.” You cannot imagine what consolation poured into my soul at these words! I have hope that the Princess in heaven will participate in the lot of the righteous! I know some of her good deeds; I didn’t know this: having recognized him, it was as if I had acquired a rich acquisition! The holy prophet David once spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who was threatened with punishment from God: King, may my advice be pleasing to you and atone for your sins with alms, and atone for your iniquities with the bounties of the poor: God will not be patient with your sin 56. I believe that the late Princess redeemed her soul! I believe that God is merciful to her. Letters from Tatyana Borisovna Potemkina to St. Ignatius 57 I cannot say how much I am saddened by the impossibility of fulfilling my heart’s desire to come and spend the morning in your Desert. All life in St. Petersburg is so connected with uselessness, with loss of time and so tiresome that a trip to you would be a vacation and a very precious activity for the soul. But since this consolation has not yet been given to me, I must submit without complaint and remember that obedience is better than prayer. I ask you to give me a day next week. Friday... would be a good day for me, since I stay alone on this day and do not move from the house. My soul thirsts for spiritual food, my life is a struggle between the comforts of life, frivolity and the search for actions for salvation, which I am so far from fulfilling. Your book edifies me - I am not worthy to read it, since I am far from these states, but it absorbs me as if I understand it. You strengthen me against myself and against false friends who want me to have fun at any cost and do not want to believe in the happiness and peace of a soul accustomed to deprivation. Farewell; I say no more; I’m sure that you already know everything that’s going on in my soul! My husband's father is thinking of coming with me to you. He is the most secular person I know, with a kind heart, but completely hostile to many things related to the church. God grant that the conversation with you will benefit him. Father, my heart and eyes are full of tears. Your letter was read with faith and deep emotion. I ask the Lord to be His servant and wish to accept His will in everything. I don’t dare tell you what’s going on in my soul! But God knows it! Thank you, thank you a thousand times! Your novice Father, we were going to come to pray with you and bow to the grave of my mother, but my husband is afraid for me because of the bad weather and the bad road. “That’s why we postponed our arrival to you until the first clear frosty day, so as not to be delayed by the roads.” Going to mass with you and relaxing for several hours in your Hermitage is the real need of my soul since yesterday. When will you visit us in the city, if you are there? For God's sake, do not forget me and think about the benefits that your visits bring me. I waited for your monk and his sisters all day; – I find it so touching this sweet young man searching for his sisters to no avail. It's completely monastic; - this proves how unfamiliar Petersburg is to him. I can imagine the situation of the sisters and father, but in the end, one must hope that they will find him and therefore be more pleased to see each other. I will accept them from your hand, as from the Lord Himself. Pray to God and the Blessed Virgin that They will guide me in the choice of their upbringing and in the good that I wish to do for them. Your most humble and faithful I received your letter - and my sinful heart was informed to respond to it immediately. Nothing extraordinary happened to you. No one humbles a mentor as much as those he mentors! This is a common fate. Therefore, you have nothing to be surprised by what happened, nor to be embarrassed by it. So, you are with spiritual benefit! And your letter today is somehow combed, like a peasant’s head after a bath - so humble! I was scared by your last letter. So smart! so thoughtful, high, magnificent! - It’s as if a whole guards corps was parading on Tsarina’s meadow! “And I didn’t dare answer.” No matter how I read it, I’m horrified and won’t answer. Stepan forced and forced me, like a plowman in the arable land forces a skinny nag to drag a plow - he repeated, did not give me peace: “Why don’t you answer N.!” - No, no way! No answer! And nags, apparently, have their own tempers. I didn’t want to write to you about the next thing... but I’ve already started writing, there’s nothing to do, I’ll write at the same time. The repentance that, as you described in your last letter, you were privileged to touch was only a self-seductive dream. They thought, they thought, they heard enough, they were smart, but they were not humble: in their little head they dreamed, and a magic castle was built in it. And I am the cause of all the trouble: I read something beyond your power and thereby confused you. By their fruit you will know them, 58 said the Lord. What was the fruit of this state, which the soul created for itself, with which it flattered itself? This fruit was pompousness, just empty, empty pompousness in every sense of the word, which brought you out of your ordinary state! You wrote to the great elder; and he, as one who lives in heaven, did not understand what you were writing about a fool, answered you about Ivan, affirmed you to remain in your dreamy repentance, believing that the vision of repentance was working in you, as in him - that vision of the wondrous grace of God, bestowed on monks who had already succeeded in silence. Christians living in the middle of the world should not be concerned with sublime monastic activities, especially silent ones. And the Lord commanded: do not pour new wine into old wineskins 59 . New wine breaks old wineskins, spills itself and destroys the skins; monastic works, when the laity take up them, themselves disappear and bring spiritual destruction to their workers. Rumors have reached our remote, quiet places from noisy and bright St. Petersburg: some very intelligent and distinguished lady wrote a beautifully eloquent letter to some monk about the immense number of her sins that she saw in herself, and as if that monk, apparently not an academician, answered her: “Mother! looking at your sins so subtly is not with your nose." This lady should write down such advice on the wall and hold on to it firmly.” Repentance, befitting a pious Christian living in the middle of the world: to reckon with his conscience every evening. What came to you (sorry for the rustic expressions: they are good, they hit the target accurately!) was only nonsense, naked nonsense! I know it, I am constantly in it, and therefore I warn you. You shouldn’t go too crazy about teaching advice, but humbly refuse it. When forced, then say something lightly, leaving the matter to God. You are very holy: just a man to be crucified! And you don’t know how to crucify: you just torture in vain. You want to take everything with your mind and by yourself, but you need to take it by faith and God. I congratulate you and your entire God-loving family on the upcoming holidays and the new year, I wish you true blessings, the search for which the Lord inspired in your hearts. Blessed have you chosen and accepted, Lord 60. Glory to God, who granted a happy death to your old lady! May He grant us all a successful exit from this life filled with disasters, may He accept us into the bright and joyful eternal abodes prepared for His true servants. Until that time, we must endure various misfortunes from various causes, and most of all from the sin living in us, from the damage of the fall living in us. In comparison with misfortunes of the last kind, other misfortunes are insignificant. In your letter you wrote slander against me. You are good St. Petersburg. You are already trying to get at the “resident of the nameless desert” with slander! You write: “I’m very glad that they ordered me not to talk to anyone about religion and so on.” Not true! This is what was written to you, word by word: “You shouldn’t indulge too much in teaching “advice,” but humbly refuse it. When they are forced, then say something lightly, leaving the matter to God, etc.” Talking about religion and teaching advice is a big difference, understand! And I did not forbid you to do the latter, but only told you to do it with the fear of God, with extreme caution and moderation. It’s not a problem if you don’t place the burden on your neighbor; if you shift it, your neighbor can conveniently be damaged beyond repair and become incapable of anything for the rest of his life. I tell you this with heartfelt tears, from seeing and experiencing many bitter experiences! And God forbid that I advise you, in these lean times, to hide from your neighbors that small, but surpassing the treasures of the whole world, knowledge of God, which you received not without deeds and suffering, by the special grace of God. Nowadays there is a lot of heterogeneous knowledge, only the knowledge of the truth has left people. – The Russian proverb “under-salting on the table, but over-salting on the back” is wonderful. So, do not be angry, soul, because in my last letter your back received several blows from the rod - the word. It was over-salted! I simply kiss you all, hug you, and press you to my heart. Christ is with you! God's blessing is upon you! Please accept my sincere congratulations on the upcoming holidays and the new year. May the Lord grant you to spend this coming year and other years of your life in pleasing God, in thoughts of eternity, in deeds for eternity. The shadows of the earth are already passing! It’s time to stop chasing them, like a boy chasing a golden-winged moth, running through a meadow dotted with flowers! Time to think, think thoroughly about the essential, the eternal! And he deals with eternity as he should, who constantly practices reading the New Testament and the writings of the Holy Fathers, who teach to correctly understand the Gospel of Christ, who, thus recognizing the will of God, good and perfect, straightens his way of thinking, his spiritual movements according to it, and heals errors and hobbies with repentance. A Christian living in the middle of the world should not read the holy fathers who wrote for monastics. What is the use of reading those virtues that cannot be fulfilled by actual practice? There can be no benefit, but there may be harm, consisting in the fact that a dreaminess of a spiritual state will be aroused in a person, which does not suit him in any way. This dreaminess will at times flatteringly delight the imagination of high virtues, at times it will bring despondency and despair to the soul when we see that we cannot fulfill these virtues; always and constantly distract us from good deeds that are right for us, thus making our life empty and fruitless. A Christian, whose lot is to live and end his life among the world, should read the holy fathers who wrote for all Christians in general. These are the writers whose works were written in Russian or translated into it: Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Demetrius of Rostov, Saint Tikhon of Voronezh, Nikephoros of Astrakhan, George the Recluse. Plenty of reading space. Abundant spiritual pasture on which the verbal sheep of Christ can feed until they are full and fat! I rejoice and rejoice with you, seeing from your last letter that your son’s health is improving. The Lord loves and accepts whomever he loves, beats and punishes, and then delivers from sorrow. Without temptation it is impossible to draw closer to God. Unsophisticated virtue, the holy fathers said, is not virtue! If you see someone called virtuous by Orthodox people, but he lives without any temptations, succeeds in worldly matters, you know that his virtue, his Orthodoxy are not accepted by God. In them God sees uncleanness, which He hates. He looks condescendingly at human uncleanness and heals it with various means; in whomever he sees demonic uncleanness, he turns away from him. Loving you and your son, bringing you closer to Himself, He allowed you sorrow. You will be convinced of this from the fact that after the tribulation, both for him and for you, “the path of God became clearer, closer.” I see this from myself: before I spoke to you much more superficially, more easily; and now something compels me to speak deeper, to offer stronger spiritual food that would give you more strength and movement. And you, seeing God’s mercy towards yourself, try to accept and preserve it as it should. Calling upon you God's blessing Babayki, 1848 January 2 days I heartily share in the sorrow that has befallen you! May the merciful God Himself comfort you! May you be comforted by the thought that the innocent young man, pure as an angel, who had not had time to be defiled by any earthly impurities, left and was carried away to a safe haven, to heaven. There, nothing and no one will slander his well-being! Quietly and happily flowing, not flowing away, not diminishing, eternity was transformed into one day for the heirs of blissful eternity. There is unchanging joy, there is an unceasing holiday, there is a feast prepared from time to time and forever by the King of Kings - God. The young man hastily flew there, called by the Great Founder of the feast, the Creator of men. Who can resist the almighty calling of the Almighty? Only a creature hears the command of its Creator - it immediately rushes to fulfill it slavishly. With the eyes of faith, let us look at the sweet young man walking through the airy spaces towards the sky! With the eyes of faith we will look at the pure young man who is installed in heaven and, from his joys, forgets about everything earthly! We spend it with fervent prayer and hot tears! Let us bring prayers and tears to his memory! The earth is a land of tears; heaven is a land of joy. Heavenly joy grows from seeds ripened on earth. These seeds are prayer and tears. Accept my tears as a participant in your tears, and you will partake of the spiritual consolation that I send you in these lines. We are all short-term wanderers on earth! We all have to leave here! And the hour at which God will claim us from our inn is unknown. Let us use our earthly life to prepare ourselves for eternity; Let's prepare for ourselves a blissful eternity. Our eternal destiny is in our hands: because God rewards everyone according to his deeds. Are you confident in the love and devotion that you have implanted in your heart? Your unworthy Bogomolets. It is destined for unknown fates that when 1848 approaches, I write to you not so much a word of greeting as a word of consolation. God calls you to know Him, and through this knowledge to eternal bliss! Now he calls you more clearly, louder, more decisively. At first, the calling of God appeared mysteriously in the incomprehensible attraction of your soul to the servants of God, to hearing the Word of God. And the servant of the Word spoke to you a word alien to flattery, alien to man-pleasing! “Now this calling has been marked by the sudden taking from the earth of one of the members of your family. Your son became the forerunner of the other members of the family. Eternity has appropriated all people to itself; - awaits everyone in its vast depths! I’m not telling you “don’t cry”! No! I'm not saying that! Give freedom to your tears, shed them abundantly, so much so that your heart is full of them, and your holy faith, meek submission to Providence, and courageous self-sacrifice are not extinguished. Crying, dissolved in hope in God, is useful: it consoles the soul, softens the heart, opens it to all holy, spiritual impressions. Sorrow, not combined with hope, is alien to good fruits, but with evil, murderous fruit! It gives birth to despondency, despair, physical death and spiritual death! - No! you will not fall into this sadness! You are invisibly held by the strong right hand of God! She led you into the days of mourning, so that during these days you would become more immersed in yourself, wash yourself with a holy bath - with tears, so that many sighs would be born in your chest, rush to heaven, and clear the path to heaven for your soul. God's punishment has befallen you, a punishment dissolved in mercy, a punishment with which God punishes those whom He wants to bring closer to Himself, and not with the way He punishes and crushes His enemies. The punishment of God, dissolved by mercy, has befallen you! Look - how from the midst of the darkness of the sadness sent to you, God’s mercy shines brightly and beneficially! Death is an indispensable tribute to mortals; it must be paid by every person; - To whom from your family did God send her? - To the meekest, most immaculate young man. For him, death is relocation to true bliss! – The young angel is now in heaven: there, to his blissful home, he will attract your gaze, and these gazes, purified by tears, will begin to look with hope, to look joyfully, to look often at the pure, holy Heaven. Calling upon you blessings and consolation from God. Engelhardt Pavel Vasilyevich (d. 1849; brother of Princess Tatiana Vasilievna Yusupova) - retired colonel of the Guards since 1832; Sofya Grigorievna (1805–1875) – his wife; Vasily Pavlovich (1828–1915) is their son, a friend of M.I. Glinka, who did a lot to perpetuate his memory. The above letters speak of their youngest son, Grigory Pavlovich, who died in October 1847. See also about them in the correspondence of the Saint with P.P. Yakovlev, vol. 7, p. 632 et seq. Letter from Saint Ignatius to State Lady Paraskeva Ivanovna Myatleva 61 Last year, on October 14th, I was in your house, together with my brothers I served the Divine Liturgy in your home church. You were present at the sacred service with your blessed daughters, with your blessed offspring. Through prayer we united everything together. This unity is beyond earthly sensations; there is something heavenly here; here is a anticipation of a future life in which people will be united by spirit. Here on earth, what connects them most is the earth. Earth is our flesh and blood. This is what God called them: you are earth, He said to fallen man, and to earth you will go 62. After the liturgy, I had the true, heartfelt pleasure to bring you my congratulations on the day of your Angel, to wish you all the blessings that the merciful Lord in time and in eternity bestows on a person pleasing to Him and loved by Him. Now from my distant desert I come to you in thought, memory, heart, and finally, with these lines. I greet you on the day of your Angel, I greet you with the same spiritual pleasure, filled with the same sincere and good desires for you. God bless you! May your youth be renewed like an eagle! 63 But a person is renewed and becomes young through piety. If we compare human life on earth with eternity, then we are all equally young and equally old. It seems to me, in the color and beauty of youth, that only the pious truly live. He gives off the spiritual stench of immortality; one can hear God living in him and reviving his soul. Thus, the soul is clearly perceptible to everyone in the actions of the body, which it uses as its instrument; The absence of a soul is also noticeable, which everyone sees in the inaction and stench of a cold corpse. With true, deep, spiritual consolation, I witnessed how your heart came to life for God; witnessed this most pleasant sight and thanked God. There is no greater happiness on earth than to know God and cleave to Him with all your soul. This is a union - from now to eternity! In this union is the condition for true bliss, eternal bliss, the anticipation of which already begins here on earth. No matter how much I remember you, the psalm verse comes to my mind inseparably from this memory: May your youth be renewed like an eagle. And my heart sends it to you on the wings of strong desire! I am forwarding my letter through my governor for the purpose: he will write to me that he has handed you the letter. It is, as you see, completely unceremonious; everything is from the heart. Don’t bother yourself with answering it: I have a letter from you, which I always read and re-read with new spiritual pleasure, with thanksgiving to God. This letter is your soul; God wants it to be open to me for the common benefit: mine and yours. He who speaks the word of God and he who hears the word of God benefit together, and it is God who benefits. He unites people here on earth, in the vale of sorrows and tears, into unanimity with His all-holy, all-powerful word. At the end of their earthly journey, He settles like-minded people into an eternal home, where the spiritual holiday never ceases. May He grant us here the unanimity and unanimity that is pleasing to Him, as a guarantee; and there - in heaven, in eternity, may he bestow indescribable bliss, like the fulfillment of a pledge... What a thought just came to me! I won't hide it! The merciful Lord would grant me to see you with all your children and grandchildren in an eternal village, full of light and joy, full of praise to God, as I saw you all last year on October 14th, gathered in His holy church. You have created a shelter for God in your house, create it in your soul too; - He will build you a home, a magnificent abode in His holy city, in Heavenly Jerusalem. He will arrange it, because He promised to reward everyone according to his deeds. Paraskeva Ivanovna Myatleva (1772–1858; nee Saltykova) - wife of the Privy Councilor, Chamberlain Pyotr Vasilyevich Myatlev. The Biography of Archimandrite Ignatius (Malyshev) says: “Inspiring special respect and trust in himself, Fr. Ignatius was received in many aristocratic houses as a friend and mentor. State lady Praskovya Ivanovna Myatleva chose him as her spiritual father. Strict with himself, zealous in fulfilling the commandments of God, Fr. Ignatius, despite his love for his spiritual children, did not cut them any slack in any way and even knew how to instill some fear in himself. It was touching to see how the venerable old woman obeyed her spiritual father, sometimes overcoming the habits of secular life, and retained this obedience until her death” (St. Petersburg, 2000, p. 30). Letter from St. Ignatius to Nikolai Nikolaevich Annensky 64 At no time has my soul been so full of sympathy for you as it is now... I look with pity at you, at a wanderer who has suffered shipwreck in the sea of ​​life, thrown by a fierce wave onto the seaside shore... On this shore is a quiet abode of monks - a pier from the storms of the sea of ​​life. I come up to you... I see: this wanderer, watered by a cold wave, is my old acquaintance! - and the first thought, the first feeling: to shelter, warm a wanderer, comfort a friend, and, if there is a means of help in my hand, put this means in his hands, bring it to his feet!.. Such sensations were born in my soul when reading your letter! Let the banner of Christ flutter over my word... And you have stood under this banner! The leader of the crusaders says: My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. – You have been called to this Banner for a long time! - now you are thrown out into its shadow by force, by an angry wave. God was watching this wave! Blessed is your deed: you have not turned aside either to the right or to the left; - in the hour of your sorrow you rushed to God, to His church, to the holy monastery. And God accepted you... Not for games - a man on earth! not for games... It is important that God created man in His image and likeness! It is important that the Son of God redeemed fallen man with His blood!.. We must give value to these bounties of God! we must give the price of the all-holy blood of the God-man!... No! those who pay superficial, passing attention to faith do not appreciate them worthily, and exhaust all the attention of their souls on playing with vain, temporary, perishable things. And those who dedicated their entire lives to God did nothing, did not bring anything worthy in comparison with the blessings of God! – One, one is worthy to stand before God: a spirit filled with contrition and humility. This human dignity alone was recognized by God Himself as dignity. And our spirit may become in such a mood - when it avoids all games. I do not advise you to leave the outer circle in which we are placed by the Providence of God. Your bonds are sacred bonds. They have a sacred seal placed on them by the blessing of God, called upon by the sacrament of the church and the prayers accompanying it. By your solitude - may your soul be mortified for the world; may your soul be your holy abode, may it be the abode of all the gospel virtues. Let the games be replaced by the essential, and the shadows by the truth. There is no way to approach God except through the thorns of sorrows. Admitted to God, he began to enter the treasury of all blessings, temporal and eternal. God, whomever he wants to bring closer to himself, allows him sorrow. The wave with which you are thrown into the land of the cross was sent to you by God, who loves and chooses you - sent, just as the storm and the whale were sent to the prophet Jonah. If the merciful Lord returns me to the seaside monastery of St. Sergius, I hope to see you there, to see you, to strengthen and console me with consolation and strength from the Lord. Long ago your soul chose my soul in the harbor of sincerity, - even now it does not leave this harbor, half-broken by the waves, pushed far away by constant and long-standing angry storms... And may the word of the incarnate God be fulfilled over you, Who said: Where there are two or three congregations in My name, I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). Letter from St. Ignatius to A. A. Kavelin 65 May God comfort you in the sorrow that has befallen you. The hair of our head does not fall without His will! The world views adventures with people differently, and God looks differently. We see that St. Niphon Bishop suffered from insanity for four years, St. Isaac and Nikita (who was later the Saint of Novgorod) suffered from insanity for a long time. A certain Holy Desert-dweller - Sulpicius, a writer of the 4th century, mentions this event in the story of Pustominian, who traveled through the monasteries of the East - who performed many signs and noticed the pride arising in himself from this, prayed to God that, in order to destroy the glory of man, he would be allowed mental damage and obvious demonic possession, which the Lord allowed to his humble servant. We believe that without the will of God no sorrow can approach us; We accept all sorrow, as coming from the hand of God, with reverent submission to the will of God, with thanksgiving. The praise of the all-good God, incomprehensible in His ways, marvelous in all His deeds. St. Petersburg Governor-General A. A. Kavelin was married to a relative of M. V. Chikhachev 66, and was on friendly terms with Archimandrite Ignatius of the Sergius Hermitage. In 1840–1843 he contributed greatly to the resolution of the conflict related to the case of the French envoy Barant and the prohibition of Archimandrite Ignatius from leaving the Sergius Hermitage without special permission from the Consistory 67. The friendly relations were also evidenced by the letter the Saint sent from Babayki on November 13, 1847 to his governor in Sergius Hermitage: “From A. A. Kavelin I received the sweetest letter, written from the heart - lo! This kind of love comforts me. He writes that you were with him.” Kavelin at this time had a serious nervous illness, which Saint Ignatius recalled in 1856 in a letter to a nun who needed reassurance: “When Kavelin lived near us in a state of insanity and for some time his relatives were still allowed to come to him, after each visit he became worse, because they all wanted to reason with him and soften him. A doctor from a mental hospital who was here told me about the actions of my relatives: “Strange people! They want to reason with the patient, while his illness lies in the fact that he is devoid of common sense.” Kavelin grabbed the knife, intending to stab his wife and himself with it, expressing the greatest displeasure against her, while in his healthy state he had the greatest affection for her.” He recalled this in a letter to his sister E. A. Parensova dated January 5, 1867: “When the St. Petersburg military governor-general Kavelin was sick with insanity, and his relatives came and tried to reason with him, which led to greater frustration, then the doctor who was with him once told me: “This is the disease of our time.” Most Gracious Sovereign, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich! When you were an envoy in Wirtemberg, and I was the rector in the Sergius Hermitage, then, after the death of your wife, you visited the monastery I mentioned and honored my cells with your visit. I had the honor to receive Your Excellency on the balcony. We were talking about the work of Thomas a à Kempis: I told you my opinion about his book “Imitation”. But the spiritual cage is of immeasurable depth! The meeting was too brief, and my opinion, based on a long-term study of the Fathers of the Orthodox Church, could not be expressed satisfactorily. I make up for the lack of what I have said by presenting to you the book “Ascetic Experiences”. In them you will read the teaching of our Fathers about internal spiritual achievement. This teaching differs from the teaching of the Western writer in that the Fathers lead their writer to repentance and weeping for himself, while the Western writer leads him to enjoyment and self-satisfaction. Every earthly position passes away; a person imperceptibly approaches and approaches the gates of eternity. If true love desires true blessings for one’s neighbor, then this desire must be classified as eternal blessings. Accept this wish from me! Looking at the book, you will find on every page this desire, expressed without flattery to fallen man. With feelings of complete respect and devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency's most humble servant and Bogomolets Gorchakov Alexander Mikhailovich (1798–1883) – His Serene Highness Prince, famous diplomat, chancellor, statesman. He was buried in the Sergius Hermitage. The great-nephew of Saint Ignatius, Alexander Nikolaevich Brianchaninov, was married to the granddaughter of A. M. Gorchakov, His Serene Highness Princess Maria Konstantinovna Gorchakova. Most Gracious Madam N.V. I bring you and S.F. my sincere gratitude for remembering me on the New Year and on the day of my Angel. May God's blessing rest upon you and your child! In any business, the initial condition for success is the correct view of the matter; so in the matter of salvation, in order to obtain the desired salvation, a correct view of oneself and of salvation is necessary. Due to the damage to our nature by sin, good and evil are mixed in us and our heartland does not cease to produce evil, and does not allow good to grow alone, whole, but always with an admixture of evil. This process is natural to us, not because we were created this way, but because we arbitrarily introduced into our nature the poison of sin, which we can no longer separate from our nature through our own efforts. The Redeemer makes this separation for us, seeking from us and our own efforts to destroy the evil in ourselves, as active evidence of the true acceptance of salvation given by God to Tuna. So, let us not be discouraged; seeing various evils arising in oneself, one must constantly resist it and purge it from oneself. Labor and feat are lifelong! In due time, when little by little evil begins to wear out, spiritual peace will begin to appear, a sign of the health of the soul. But there is no complete peace in the country of war and struggle. He appears, then disappears again: a place of permanent peace in heaven and in eternity. We need to know all this so as not to demand from ourselves what is not natural to us, and again in order not to lose heart in our lifelong struggle, courageously fighting the evil that rises against us both inside and outside of us. When by such a feat we prove our faithfulness to God, then the gift of God's grace - salvation, mysteriously invested in us by baptism and consisting in the union of human nature with God's nature and in the healing of the former by touching the latter, will begin to more clearly reveal its presence in us, giving us a more decisive victory over evil, producing deep peace in us and consoling us with the hope of a blessed eternity. I wish you to strive correctly according to the guidance of the Word of God and be crowned with the crown of salvation by the ineffable mercy of God. With feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be your most humble servant The Holy Fathers, praising the rule of prayer and confessing the necessity of it, not only instruct for its benefits to have it in moderation, commensurate with one’s strength, with the state of spiritual prosperity and with the circumstances in which a person is placed by God’s Providence. The essence of fulfilling the prayer rule is that it is fulfilled with attention. From attention our spirit comes into humility; from humility comes repentance. In order to make a rule slowly, the rule must be moderate. The Holy Fathers, highly praising the moderate rule, advise us to fulfill it without neglect. The following rule may be useful for you and at first satisfactory: Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee; Heavenly King, Trisagion, Our Father, Lord have mercy 12; Come, let us worship, Psalm 50, Creed, Mother of God, Virgin, rejoice three times. After this, 20 prayers: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”; bow to the ground at every prayer. Then another 20 prayers, and with each one a bow from the waist: It is worthy to eat, as truly; Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us. This prayer rule should be performed in the morning and evening. Bows should be made very slowly, with a feeling of repentance, as if standing before the Lord Himself, falling at His feet and believing His presence and the fact that He looks at you and sees you. You have written instructions on prayer: try to borrow from it the direction for your spirit during prayer. Of the other prayers, the akathist to the Lord Jesus is most useful for the novice. Read it once a week, standing or sitting, whichever is more convenient for you, but certainly with attention and slowly. Also, do not allow yourself to read the Gospel and other holy books superficially and fluently: read them slowly and with attention. When reading, observe moderation. Moderation maintains a constant desire to read, and satiety with reading produces aversion from it. The book of letters from the Zadonsk recluse George can be very useful for you. It is of the same spirit and direction as the writings of St. Tikhon of Voronezh. I allow myself to say that it is of the same spirit as my sinful writings, which you can read all of, because they explain what is good for a beginner and what is good for someone who has succeeded. Do not forget to constantly surrender yourself to the will of God and thank God for all His blessings done to you. We all must be sure that we do not deserve the blessings of God that we have, that we deserve incomparably greater troubles than those that we encounter. With such a view of himself, a Christian remains peaceful because of his submission to God and thanks God for everything that happens to him. Most Gracious Sovereign, Dimitri Alekseevich! I cannot pay for your visit to Stavropol by visiting you personally. I come with my book. Accept it with love, and in moments of freedom look into it. This book is a book of self-reflection. The book proclaims Christianity not from the outside - from man’s exploration of himself. All earthly situations are urgent. Our earthly life is a school in which we must prepare for eternity. Lack of practice in any science is the cause of ignorance of it, and eternity close to us becomes an endless distance, clothed in deep darkness for those who do not consider it. In the study of any science it is required that the study be correct; Without this, we come to empty or false results: in the same way, in the study of Christianity, correctness is necessary; without it, a person will certainly deviate into a variety of errors; where truth reigns, there is no place for those sealed with lies. While I wish you temporal blessings, I wish you even more eternal blessings. With feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion Your Excellency's most humble servant and Bogomolets The fact that we are all, dear prince, short-term wanderers on earth is a tangible truth. The fact that we pay so little attention to eternity, that we forget it, is a sure sign of our fall, a fall not only in the body, but even more in the mind, in the heart. Looking at ourselves, we will see in ourselves that we need salvation, we need a Savior. Knowing the Savior, and through this obtaining a blessed eternity, is the first happiness on earth, is the only treasure of man. God brought Ekaterina Pavlovna to receive this treasure; then, cleansed by suffering, he called into eternity and blessed eternity. Her death leaves in those truly disposed towards her a memory in which a calm feeling, a true feeling is combined with an ordinary feeling of sadness about the one who has passed away. At least that's how I feel! And this feeling is not new for me: it was left to me by some who departed from here after a life (on earth) pious in the Lord. It consoles me that the merciful Lord led me to serve Ekaterina Pavlovna with a soul-saving word, although it was very insufficient. Seeing that God inspires many to resort to my meager word, I cannot help but admit that God assigns to me the service of my neighbor with the word of God. Why do I wish for you to carry out this service to your neighbors and proclaim to you the Word of God, how much in my negligence and weakness I could learn it from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers. May the merciful Lord comfort you and strengthen you! Time will quickly, quickly fly by and the hour of relocation to eternity will come for you. Use your earthly days to prepare for it. You saw in your wife how good it is to prepare for eternity. This preparation dissolves even the sorrows here with consolation and thereby proves that this preparation is a preparation for bliss. O Lord, most devoted to you God was pleased to instill in you the disposition to join my wretched work through the publication of “Ascetic Experiences” compiled by me. This book in the proper sense does not belong to me: it is entirely borrowed from the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church. My work consists in the fact that throughout my entire life I have been studying the Fatherly Scriptures and have made such an extract from them that can only be done through a long-term study of these Scriptures. The teachings belonging to the Holy Fathers should be of significant benefit to modern Christians who want to lead a pious and godly life, but who do not have the opportunity to thoroughly and thoroughly study the Scriptures of the Fathers. What I say is proven by experience: many who read the manuscript instructions on repentance, prayer, and the shortness of earthly life, found in my book, felt the strong effect of reading, which contributed to their spiritual success. That's how it should be! “Ascetic Experiences” is a practical book. It is unique because since the introduction of education in Russia, no one has yet written of this kind. The Holy Fathers said that alms given to the soul is as much higher than alms given to the body as the soul is higher than the body. I recognized the book “Ascetic Experiences” as such alms. By the providence of God it was given to me, for the salvation of my soul, to prepare the salvation of your soul, to convey this spiritual alms to Christians who need it. The work of God, I I h, must be done with care, so that the work given for salvation is not damaged by negligence and does not serve as condemnation. To the best of my ability, I tried to give the book as much clarity and correctness as possible, preparing it since 1840, revising, correcting, supplementing it, so that the teaching of the Fathers set forth in it would have satisfactory clarity and completeness: so you also take care that the book is published correctly and in due time. Many pious souls thirst for this spiritual food and wish to have the book to guide their lives precisely for the reason that it is a collection of the teachings of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church on the main Christian virtues and spiritual achievement. Invoking God's abundant blessing on you and your family, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be your most humble novice All good deeds are cursed with sorrows, yet Holy Scripture says that he who begins a good deed, let him complete it. In our time, rejected spirits especially oppose the spread of the teachings of the Holy Fathers, introducing various thoughts of carnal wisdom and raising up people guided by carnal wisdom. Why would I believe that you need to adhere with firmness to the good intention you have accepted, and accept the thoughts and suggestions of people that come as a sign that your work is pleasing to God and useful to Christianity, precisely because obstacles and sorrows are always erected against such actions, according to the Holy Fathers. Such cases are evidenced by obstacles. On the contrary, deeds done in the spirit of this world flow like clockwork to the detriment and condemnation of one’s own soul and the souls of others. This is closest to you to see: you see how quickly books are distributed, destroying both faith and morality, what expenses are made to print them, with what zeal some try to distribute them, while others buy them. What do you think it is like in the sight of God? And what should one expect for this at God’s judgment?.. Unbelievers shout that there is no God, and there is no judgment of God. Because of such a cry, with which depravity intensifies only to drown out the ideas of conscience, God did not cease to exist. He exists and certainly rewards every person according to his deeds. The apostasy itself is predicted with all clarity by Holy Scripture and serves as evidence of how true and true everything said in Scripture is. With these lines I fulfilled my duty to you and to me; however, God left each person free to do good or not to do it during his earthly life. You yourself see what a need there is now for the teaching of the Holy Fathers for a Christian society overwhelmed by various ungodly teachings. Having done my job, that is, having given you my twenty years of work free of charge for publication, I otherwise rely on the will of God and wish to remain in peace of mind, on the basis of submission to the will of God. The letter to I. I. Glazunov was written as a result of his intention to postpone the publication of the Bishop’s works at his expense and the demand to print them at the expense of the Bishop and his brother, contrary to the previously given promise to print all the works at his, Glazunov’s, expense. All typographical work on the unfinished Volume II was left in these forms. Upon receipt of the letter, the second volume of “Experiments” was completed in print, but the other two remained unprinted. – Note. P. A. Brianchaninova. Letters of St. Ignatius to K. S. Serbinovich 68 Having received today from His Excellency Count Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy three copies of extracts from the Report, I thought: is this not your twentieth work? Almost like this: if not the twentieth, then probably the nineteenth. Having arrived here, I immediately took care that the reports from the Caucasian Consistory for 1854 were presented to the Holy Synod in as good order as possible, in accordance with what you deigned to tell me during your farewell conversation. We did what could be done. It turns out that private actions were not agreed upon by the circulars; each place delivered information at its own discretion. This can be corrected, but I sincerely would like to hear Your Excellency’s comments, so that in the future the Caucasian Diocese can provide completely satisfactory materials for your work. On your advice, I became quite close to the former Secretary Vasiliev, and he provided me with a lot of useful information; For my part, I tried as much as I could and knew how to dissolve the cup of his sorrows with consolation. Indeed, one should wish that the local clergy were better; but the correction of morality in the whole class does not take place quickly. This takes time and time. False principles must be replaced with correct principles, malicious intent with good intentions. Punishment cannot be the only instrument of correction. Invoking God's blessing on you and your dear son, with feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus. Please accept my most ardent congratulations on the Royal Grace, which marked your long-term service to the Tsar and the Fatherland. I sincerely wish Your Excellency many years in the desired health, perfect success in your labors and all consolations in the field of service. With feelings of perfect respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency's most humble servant The Main Directorate of the Viceroy of the Caucasus notified me by letter dated September 25, 34 No. 3702 that, as a result of my petition, Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky 69 informed Mr. [-] Chairman of the Caucasian Committee about the request of the Highest Sovereign Emperor for permission to allocate and annual leave from the treasury to the Caucasian House of Bishops, in addition to what it currently receives maintenance and in return for those lands with which he cannot be allocated, three thousand eight hundred silver rubles. Having the honor to notify Your Excellency about this, at the same time I consider it my most pleasant duty to humbly ask for your gracious assistance in delivering to the Caucasian House of Bishops the indicated amount, which should ensure the maintenance of the House and provide the Bishop of the Caucasus with the opportunity to carry out the activities required of him by the news and the transitional state of the Region. Invoking upon you the abundant blessing of Heaven, with feelings of great respect and perfect devotion, I have the honor to be Ignatius, Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea. Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the upcoming holiday. Christmas and New Year. Both for this New Year and for the rest of your life, I earnestly wish you all the true blessings. With feelings of complete respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Letter from K. S. Serbinovich to St. Ignatius 70 Most Reverend Father Archimandrite, I have the honor to forward to this Your Reverence a copy of the Biography of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk, published by me, with an image of the cross she built. With utmost respect, I have the honor to be Archimandrite of the Sergius Hermitage Most gracious Sovereign Dmitry Alekseevich! I cannot pay for your visit to Stavropol by visiting you personally. I come with my book. Accept it with love and in moments of freedom look into it. This book is a book of self-reflection. The book proclaims Christianity not from the outside - from man’s exploration of himself. All earthly situations are urgent. Our earthly life is a school in which we must prepare for eternity. Lack of practice in any science is the reason for ignorance of it: and eternity, which is close to us, becomes an endless distance, clothed in deep darkness for those who do not consider it. In the study of any science, it is required that the study be correct, without this we come to empty or false results; In the same way, in the study of Christianity, correctness is necessary; without it, a person will certainly deviate into a variety of errors. Where truth reigns, there is no place for those sealed with lies. While I wish you temporal blessings, I wish you even more eternal blessings. With the utmost respect and sincere devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency my most humble servant, Bishop Ignatius. I express my sincere gratitude for the sign of attention you showed me by sending [nrzb. ] of your works. If I was somewhat slow in responding to Your Eminence’s most respected letter, the reason for this was the desire, before answering, to become acquainted with the contents of the book sent to me; but to my extreme regret, time was running out, new worries and responsibilities appeared every day, leaving absolutely not a single minute for [nrzb. ] to the need to express gratitude to you without delay any longer, without even reading your book... Letter from Saint Ignatius to Prince M. D. Volkonsky 71 I received both letters from Your Excellency (dated March 30 and April 12) only on April 23. On April 21, it was only in the evening that it became possible to send it to the post office; Until that time, the Monastery was cut off from all cities by the Volga. I bring you my most sincere gratitude for your congratulations on the Feast of Holidays, on which, mutually congratulating you, I greet you with an all-joyful greeting: Christ is Risen! Regarding the Altai Mission, the service of Martha is commendable, but the service of Mary is preferred by the Lord. When, according to the usual view of the world, Martha called on Mary to take part in the physical service, leaving the spiritual, the Lord expressed his disagreement with this. It is impossible to combine service with ministry, although both have their price. Regarding the translation of History made by you, I spoke and wrote to you frankly. This or a similar outcome should have been expected. Your work was not lost on you: through it you became more familiar with the destinies of the Church, and it became clear to you which studies in spiritual literature could be more useful. Remember in your prayers Your most humble servant Letter from N. D. Zubov to St. Ignatius 72 Having spiritual sorrow and therefore poor health, I cannot now be in the Sergius Monastery, therefore I turn to you with my most humble request: the body of my wife Countess Alexandra Gavrilovna Zubova, née Countess of Moden, which is now in our family church, built in the Sergius Monastery; I proposed to bury him under the said church in the crypt there on the 25th of this October, that is, on the coming Wednesday after mass, which on that day to serve and the funeral service over the body, I humbly ask Your Reverence with the rest of the clergy of the Sergius Monastery. I flatter myself with the hope that you will not refuse me this request. Committing myself to your holy prayers, with true respect I have the honor to be Letter from St. Ignatius to N. D. Zubov 73 The bearer of this letter is the collegiate assessor Konstantin Platonovich Platonov, treasurer of the Holy Synod. He wishes to take the place of the late Vasily Yakovlevich Atkinson at the Invalid Home in Sergius Hermitage; Knowing him very well, knowing that nowadays it is extremely difficult to find a person with such moral rules, I consider it a special pleasure for me to recommend him to Your Excellency. I think that I am bringing you a significant service in other respects: this person can be very useful to you in all those cases when you need to take care of any matter in court. In these cases, it will be invaluable to you; for he combines excellent knowledge of the matter with the honesty of this century. I don’t like to recommend anyone, but in this case I’m deviating from my rule; I hope the consequences will justify me! Invoking the blessing of Heaven upon you and your family, with feelings of great respect and perfect devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency's most humble servant and Bogomolet The letter talks about filling the position of Caretaker of the Invalid Home. A nursing home for 30 crippled soldiers, as well as a martyr’s church. Valerian was built in 1809 by the Zubov brothers in memory of Valerian Zubov, who died from wounds received in the Persian campaign. Most Gracious Empress! Vera Ivanovna! ...Outward happiness cannot completely nourish a person; the source of true happiness must be in his heart, and these holy, pure waters are given to a Christian by Faith... You will bring this bliss to your children. Dear Stefan Ivanovich! Your letter made me incredibly happy. Thank God that you moved from Georgia to Kyiv - this gives me hope that in time you will make another move, that is, from Kyiv to St. Petersburg, from which you can conveniently visit an old friend who has not yet been forgotten by you. But how will you find it! Not the same as before; not full of liveliness, but exhausted by illnesses and labors, which, although small in themselves, were great relative to my strength. With all this, I thank the Lord - I am quite happy, very happy, happy not because of my sins. The first condition for this is that I am a Christian and a monk, albeit an insufficient one. Secondly, there are people around me whom I can look at with the most sincere love. Our desert is near the sea - both sensual and everyday. I look at both and am glad that I live on the shore in the middle of the monastery walls. …Wishing you good health and prosperity, I have the honor to be your zealous servant and Bogomolet I had the honor to receive your letter! I sincerely regret the grief that has befallen you, and for this reason I allow myself to advise you so that you do not indulge in unnecessary sadness, which will not help the trouble, but will upset you. Remember, every person is born to die; - and none of us can escape this common cup. Why should we always remember and think about death often? Such reflection will motivate us to good deeds, necessary for eternal bliss, and will avert us from those evil deeds that we would decide to do in forgetfulness of death. We should grieve all the less for your deceased wife, since she spent her life in Christian rules and virtues and at her death was honored with the proper parting words. When sadness comes to you, then resort to prayer, like St. The Apostle James in his Catholic Epistle advises: Is anyone suffering in you? Yes, he does prayer 74. – When praying, ask the Lord for the forgiveness of your sins and for the repose of the soul of your deceased wife. Then your sadness for God will be dissolved by hope and the consolation that flows from hope; Such sadness, as guilty of salvation, is boasted by the Spiritual Law. Carnal sadness, consisting only of lamentation, without prayer and trust in God, causes disorder in the soul and body and is condemned by the Lord. May the Lord himself pour comforting feelings into your heart! I wish you good health and all the best, with true respect and devotion I have the honor of your humble servant and Bogomolet. Dear Lord, maiden Anna Dementievna! Your intention is good and laudable, for all imaginary carnal consolations will soon pass by; and therefore it is very crazy to spend our life in vanity, given by God to prepare ourselves for the future life. If you wish, I would like to give you my advice: first, pray to the Lord to bless your intention and Himself to give you the opportunity to fulfill it: for our Dearest Savior said: Without Me you cannot do anything. And the Holy Fathers, like the stars in the church sky, who shone with various virtues and through experience itself, that is, by the very fulfillment of His commandments, who recognized the power of His Holy and Divine words, say: “Every work, although good, but begun without prayer and asking for God’s help, is not perfect.” And you, therefore, begin by praying and asking for God’s help. Secondly, every girl who wants to enter a monastery, according to the custom of our monasteries, must know some kind of needlework in order to support herself with it; and upon entering the monastery itself, she must build or buy a cell for herself - this costs three hundred rubles. Try to prepare all this, and once you have prepared it, please contact me in writing or, better yet, in person. Having seen you in person and, using the power of my meager reason, having examined your properties, with God’s help, perhaps, I will give you advice on which monastery to enter. I would earnestly wish to help you with money, but I cannot help many: for many who have nothing come to my monastery, and while supporting them in their needs, I myself remain in need. May God's blessing be upon you. Your zealous pilgrim Most gracious Sovereign Grigory Ivanovich! I sincerely thank you for your letter! I would not have bothered you with my answer if you had not mentioned the temptation of some regarding the “Word on Death,” and if we did not have the teaching of the Holy Fathers regarding this kind of temptation. I recognize this teaching as my duty to inform you. It is set out in the 54th Word of Saint Isaac of Syria, recognized by the Church as one of the first teachers of Christian asceticism. “Blessed Paul,” says this Father, “wrote: the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18). So what of this? Should Paul have been silent and stopped preaching for the reason that the word of the cross was imputed to foolishness by those who did not feel the power of this word? The teaching of the cross continues to this day as a stumbling block for Jews and Greeks. So, should we remain silent about the truth, so that such people are not offended? Paul not only did not remain silent, but also cried out, saying: Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). The praise of the cross was told to the Saints not in order to seduce others, but so that the great power of the Cross could be preached. Accordingly, you too, O holy one! Carry out your life with the purpose that you have set for yourself before God, so that your conscience does not condemn you, and consider your life according to the Divine Scripture and according to the Tradition that you received from the Holy Fathers. If you are not condemned by them (Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition), then do not be afraid of the temptation to which some will be exposed. No one can satisfy everyone equally or please everyone and at the same time please God and his conscience.” “The Lay of Death” was written by me in the Sergius Hermitage at the request of some friends. I had neither the intention nor the hope of publishing it. I can say this about my other works. Special circumstances allowed for their publication, and, as I understand it, not without the Providence of God. Several people wrote to me about this, who devoted themselves in the monastery and outside the monastery entirely to the theoretical and practical study of Christianity; They expressed their sincere gratitude to me for presenting the teachings of the Holy Orthodox Church, which they greatly needed, and on such a subject, which is essential for every person. Even the priest Matveevsky, who wrote a review in The Wanderer, admits (28 pages) that “not a single eschatology, or part of theology that considers recent events concerning the world and man, has ever been included in such a detailed solution to these issues as was done in the “Tale of Death.” The review itself has nothing reprehensible; on the contrary, it was very useful, suggesting questions that were difficult for the reviewer and, of course, not only him. Their resolution was supposed to bring general benefit. It would be desirable if the proposal of questions in a spiritual journal did not smack of Herzen’s antics. Our theology is gradually taking on a more and more definite, Orthodox-Eastern character. This immediately becomes clear when comparing the Theology compiled by Ternovsky with the Theology of the Eminences Anthony and Macarius. Naturally, as the Fathers of the Eastern Church are translated into Russian, the tradition of this church is indicated more clearly. In general, we are not yet quite familiar with the tradition of our Church and have inconspicuously internalized some Western opinions that are alien to it. For this reason, the “Sermon on Death” was at first received unfavorably by many, but the most thorough persons from the clergy are on his side, and in the Academies, where the libraries are very satisfactory, they will probably begin to carefully process this part of theology and present it in the usual system. St. Petersburg is very convenient for a solitary life: I experienced this myself in secular life; on the contrary, it is very inconvenient for monastics. However, no matter where anyone lives, if he lives according to the commandments of God and is guided by the Word of God, then he lives on the threshold of eternal bliss. May the merciful Lord grant this bliss to me and to you and to your entire blessed family. The Wanderer's article is very weak. “A Look at the Teachings of the West” was greatly enriched by me. It will be published in the second volume of Ascetic Experiences and can serve as a very satisfactory answer to the article of the Wanderer. In the “Christian Reading” (a book for December) of the year 1864 there was a very important article entitled: “New publications on the schism of I. Nilsky.” It sets out the accusations of the Old Believers who have Austrian bishops over the Great Russian Church. These accusations, although not fully approved with some evasiveness in general terms, are not essentially rejected. On page 486 it says: “Under Alexander I, the bishops became Freemasons and published and read thousands of Masonic and godless books; they published spiritual magazines, such as: “The Zion Messenger”, “The Threats of the Lights”, the most heretical books; even the “Christian Reading” does not contain any heresies."... "Who in the Russian Church should talk about dogmas, about faith? According to the apostolic example, one should reason in a conciliar manner, and in the All-Russian Church what kind of councils? The Synod deals only with external affairs, but does not discuss dogmas, therefore every scientist writes according to his own model. Either they lived without tradition according to Luther’s meaning, then they turned to the traditions of the Holy Fathers and added this teaching to the Catechism, denouncing that they had previously deviated from the Orthodox faith, but changed it in their own way, showing that they do not think the same way with the Eastern Patriarchs.” Having counted other inconsistencies, it is said (p. 487): “And all because they teach not according to the Holy Fathers, but according to Latin and Lutheran books.” You can hear from everywhere that the schism - on the one hand, and godlessness - on the other, are growing unusually. This cannot be the case. How can the above-mentioned voice of the priests have no significance and power? In the November book of “The Wanderer” the book was published: “26 Moscow False Prophets” and so on. – So? In the first two articles, especially the first about Ivan Yakovlevich, the participant exposed their face, an object of general respect, and turned it into an object of ridicule. Again: how can this brochure not have its effect on the frivolous! New philosophical books confuse scientists. It would be necessary to take timely measures, but they are not taken and then it turns into a flood. I. Letters from the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery 75 In quiet solitude, on the banks of the majestic Volga, I often remember you, wonderful, blessed couple! and you are on the shore of vast waters, on the shore of the sea, which at times is quiet, is clear as a mirror, and at times, disturbed by a storm, is covered with muddy waves of gray foam. This is our life! in it silence and storm replace one another; and time is running out, running away, tending to plunge into the abyss of eternity. Blessed is that swimmer of the sea of ​​life who often turns his gaze to heaven. He guides his path according to the heavenly bodies, does not lose heart during storms, and does not trust the silence of the sea: it is so changeable! The gaze for which the sky is accessible is faith; by it we see the spiritual heaven: the teaching of Christ. In this sky the Gospel shines like the sun, the Old Testament like the moon, the writings of the Holy Fathers like the stars. I am writing to you straight from my heart, I am writing what he was inspired to tell you. My heart is with the same sweet simplicity towards you as yours is towards me. Such relationships are a true treasure. Love for one's neighbor is the greatest pleasure! And what consoles me, especially in my friendly relationships, is that the reason for these relationships is God. He, as the Scripture says, is holy and sanctifying of all things; He is the source of all true good, all true, pure pleasure. He will keep me in your memory, and you in mine. He will allow you to enhance the talent of friendship received from Him. This is what I wish: I wish that upon entering eternity we would be honored in the host of good and faithful servants to appear before the Lord, to say to Him: “You have given us the wonderful talent of friendship, we bring to You another talent acquired for it - the precious talent of salvation.” Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery I am writing to you from a secluded desert, where I have finally arrived after long journeys and where I am beginning to receive treatment. I made the journey with great fatigue; My St. Petersburg illness returned to me twice, that is, my legs were taken away. Now they are sweating heavily and I feel some relief. I’ll tell you about the Babaevsky Monastery that I like it extremely in every way. The location is great. What air! What waters, what crystal, spring waters! they beat, boil from the mountain and in such quantities that there would be enough of them, I think, for the whole of St. Petersburg. What groves with oaks! with centuries-old oak trees! what glades! what a Volga! what silence! what simplicity! I open the book of the ascetic writer, read it - I see that here you can actually implement its advice, whereas in St. Petersburg you can fulfill them only in your imagination and desire. In a word: for my earthly wandering, at this moment, I would not wish for another, better shelter. With heartfelt pleasure I remember my friends from St. Petersburg; I remember them with gratitude, I invoke God’s blessing on them. God gave me friends: I accepted this reward from His All-Holy Right Hand for the thought of self-sacrifice, which I followed from the days of my youth. Experience itself convinces us of the gospel truth, which commands us to leave everything in order to inherit everything. The gospel deprives a man of what he mispossesses. From a quiet refuge, from a distant desert, I repeat the same thing that I used to say from a nearby desert: “Do not get carried away by the noisy, stormy stream of the world!” May the ears of your hearts be attentive to the voice of my prayer!.. 76 From my solitude, from the picturesque banks of the Volga, the majestic and magnificent Volga, I congratulate you on the successful completion of the work begun in your family, which is both so joyful and so difficult for a parent’s heart. May God's blessing fall on the newlyweds! an abundant blessing, such that you can clearly see it, be comforted, and thank God for it. He sends sorrows to those he loves, and after the sorrows, consolation. The fact that sorrows are replaced by consolations, and consolations by sorrows, gives rise to faith in God and deadness to the world. Faith, taking a person by the hand, places him before God. – Such a person rises above the world: under his feet is a dark chaos of doubts, unbelief, delusions, pompous and at the same time vain reasoning. So under the feet of one who has climbed to the top of a high mountain: clouds, cliffs, abysses, rustling waterfalls jumping over the rocks. Life on earth is a journey that never stops for an hour. Let's go, let's go; suddenly the gates of eternity open, and we are lost in its unimaginable space. As Saint David beautifully says: I am a stranger on earth: do not hide Thy commandments from Me! 77 Exactly: The Law of Christ is the thread along which we get out of the dark labyrinth of earthly life into blissful eternity. Be healthy and prosperous! In the midst of the deep, gloomy night, the sonorous responses of the sentries drag on sadly, interrupting its sacred silence. The voice of his comrade encourages and consoles the sentry: that thought, that feeling that there is a person in the same share with him, in the same fate, has a beneficial effect on his soul. Comforting and reassuring for a Christian is the voice of his brother in this darkness and the shadow of death, in which we complete our earthly journey, marching towards heaven. What can I tell you from my distant guard? What comforting thought will my sounds bring to you? – Hear what brings me particular benefit; Hear the words of the Savior, offered by Him for general information, edification, and strengthening of all the pilgrims of the earth: In your patience gain your souls (Luke 21:19). Oh! We need to remember this instruction of the Savior, we need to cling to it constantly, like a blind man clings to the hand of a guide; because sorrows continually pass us on from one another, like waves to waves; They resell us to one another, just as a cruel master sells a slave to another master, equally or more cruel. And when the soul and body are already weakened by sorrows, become weak, insignificant like a cobweb, the coffin receives us!.. To overcome other types of grief requires courage; for the coming from another - wisdom; to get rid of the third - humility. But in all sorrows, with all other virtues, patience is certainly needed. No virtue can take place without patience; virtue, in order to remain virtue, needs patience. Whoever wavers in virtue and does not endure in it to the end, loses his virtue. The Lord said about those who please Him that they produce fruit through patience (Luke 8:15), commanded them to gain their souls through patience (Luke 21:19), and declared that only those who endure to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13). This is my response to your call from my solitude! May it penetrate into the inner church of your heart, may it resound within it, may it shed gentle consolation in it, the consolation that the heavenly word and heavenly hope give. This is the voice of one crying out of the wilderness, silent in the wilderness!.. And again I plunge into my silence, into my distance, into my unknown, dark, inspired, like deep night. So the sentry is silent, drawing out his appointed, mournful response! 1847 September 11 days With God's help I am answering your letter. The Lord said: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him (John 6:44). So, although the instrument of vocation is man, the vocation is God’s; calling God. Having sensed this calling, which has become audible to you after you have already traveled a long way on your earthly journey, do not harden your heart. But it is hardened by sinful flattery, as the holy Apostle Paul said. Take heed, brethren,” he says, “let there never be a deceitful heart of you, full of unbelief, who will depart from God (Heb. 3:12). I would not advise you to enter into a detailed and subtle examination of your sins and sinful qualities. Gather them all into one vessel of repentance and cast them into the abyss of God’s mercy. A subtle examination of one’s sins is not suitable for a person leading a secular life: it will only plunge him into despondency, bewilderment, and embarrassment. God knows our sins, and if we constantly resort to Him in repentance, He will gradually heal our very sinfulness, that is, sinful habits, qualities of the heart. Sins committed in word, deed, or composition of thoughts must be told in confession to the spiritual father; and, I repeat, a secular person should not indulge in the subtle examination of sinful qualities: this is a trap set by the catcher of our souls. It is recognized by the confusion and despondency it produces in us, although outwardly it is clothed in the appearance of goodness. This black veil is needed for monks to cover with them the rays of grace shining from their minds and hearts; This black veil is needed for the already successful monks, whom the sight of their sinfulness cannot lead to hopelessness, but only leads to humility. This is how Moses, the Seer of God, once wore a veil over his radiant face. We must admit - and this recognition will be completely fair - we must admit that all of us, humans, are more or less in self-delusion, we are all deceived, we all carry deception within ourselves. This is a consequence of our fall, which took place through accepting lies as truth; This is how we always fall even now. That is why we are so changeable! In the morning I am like this, by noon I am different, in the afternoon I am still different, and so on. Both worlds act on me, I am subordinate to both of them, in captivity of both of them. The world of spirits acts through thoughts and heartfelt sensations; the material world - through bodily feelings. Both beckon to taste the forbidden fruit. To the bodily senses, sight, hearing, and touch, this fruit appears beautiful; a thought, the word of an invisible being, inspires, repeats: “Taste, find out!” Allures with curiosity, incites with vanity. The voice of the seducer is heard in our soul, the voice that our first parents heard in paradise; a voice is heard: you will be like a god. It rings out and seduces; seduces and kills. That is why a new virtue was given to people: “humility”; a new inner activity was given: “repentance”. Both action and virtue are truly strange! They are radically opposed to what we have fallen through. Repentance kills the harmful influence of bodily feelings; and humility destroys arrogance, vanity, worldly pride, in a word, everything that, simply put, drives a person crazy. How can it be! – One should not be embarrassed by changes that occur as if they were something unusual; one should not indulge in the subtle examination of sins, but should spend life in constant repentance, recognizing oneself as a sinner in all respects and believing that the merciful Lord accepts everyone who only admits their sinfulness into the arms of His mercy, into the bosom of salvation. This, of course, is not about mortal sins, repentance for which is accepted by God only when a person leaves mortal sin. Doing housework and housework is very useful: it removes you from idleness and eases the mind’s invisible struggle. Struggle during idleness elevates it to a strong feat, permissible only to those who are forced to it by circumstances or brought by God. Prudence requires not to go into a fight that exceeds one’s strength; on the contrary, to make it as easy as possible for oneself. Believe in Almighty God, trust in Him, live patiently and constantly, live in simplicity, in repentance and humility, surrender to the Will of God, when you happen to stray from the right path - go back to it - and you will be saved. Holy truth is communicated to the heart through silence, calmness, clarity, peace, a disposition toward repentance, toward deepening into oneself, toward hopelessness in oneself, toward consoling hope in God. A lie, even if clothed in the guise of good, is recognized by the confusion, darkness, uncertainty, changeability, entertainment, and dreaminess it produces; or she only seduces the heart - flatteringly brings him contentment, self-nourishment, some kind of vague, muddy pleasure. And this pleasure of a seduced heart is similar to the feigned silence that covers the surface of a deep, dark pool - the dwelling of monsters. Among other deceptive, pernicious zephyrs that bring this terrible silence to the heart, this disastrous, disastrous pleasure, they are also brought to him by reading the famous book by Thomas a à Kempis, a Western monk who was in demonic delusion, the book “Imitation.” Seductive pleasure feeds on conceit, which is born from subtle vanity that blinds the mind and heart; it loves to express itself, it allows itself to deviate from exact obedience to the Holy Church - smarter than her, it, like all the charms, the machinations of the devil, like the devil himself and his child - sin, do not tolerate the fragrance for them of the deadly, murderous fragrance that repentance and its fruit - humility emit. The Savior of the world said: “Blessed are you who are poor in spirit, blessed are you who are hungry now, blessed are you who weep now, and - woe to you - are you filled now.” The human mind is not able to distinguish good from evil; disguised evil easily, almost always, deceives him. And this is very natural: the human mind is young, and those who fight it with evil thoughts have more than seven thousand years of experience in struggle, in deceit, in catching human souls. Distinguishing good from evil belongs to the heart - its business. But again time is needed, it is necessary to practice the commandments of the Gospel so that the heart acquires the subtlety of taste for the difference between whole wine and counterfeit wine. That it is the work of the heart to distinguish good from evil, and that the heart does not suddenly acquire the ability to do the work that belongs to it, the Apostle testified to both: But those who are perfect have solid food, he said, those who have senses are trained by long teaching in the judgment of good and evil (Heb. 5:14). That is why, until the heart acquires the skill of distinguishing good from evil, the experienced advice of a neighbor - a student of the Eastern Church, the only saint, the only true - who seeks and finds blessed freedom in obedience to it, is very useful. From obedience, said Saint John Climacus, true humility is born; from humility - true spiritual reasoning, or reason. So, outside of unwavering obedience to the Church there is neither true humility nor true spiritual intelligence; there is a vast area, a dark kingdom of lies and the self-delusion it produces. Good is distinguished from evil by many signs that are learned as one progresses spiritually. At the beginning of my letter, I named those signs that are closer to your state of mind. And they are very sufficient signs! Learn little by little to distinguish between good and disguised evil. Christ is with you! Be brave, fight courageously, steadfastly, persistently. Out of laziness, do not betray victory to the enemy. After defeat, don’t be discouraged; again for the sword and - to battle! Ulcers received in battle are the goals of repentance. Here is a regulation for invisible mental warfare. To whom the Lord wants to grant spiritual success, He will confuse them with battle. Mental temptation crushes and pacifies a person, like a horse racing on a line. The winner is allowed entry to the supper of grace. And he enters and eats and enjoys the supper of his Lord, like a warrior at the king’s feast, a warrior who has proven his devotion to the king by constancy, courage, even the most ulcers, and victory. Christ is with you. May He strengthen you. Why do you say that you are unworthy of my affection, and even condescension? I am nothing more than an indecent sinner who has an extreme need of God’s mercy, without which my sure destiny is hell. My God says to me: When you measure, it will be measured to you, and with the same judgment you judge, you will be judged. Needing the mercy of my God, needing it fully, I have one mercy for my neighbor. Listening to my conscience, when it weighs and appreciates my dignity, I wish that it places me lower than all criminals. Condemned by my conscience, I cannot judge my neighbor, much less condemn anyone. It is good to be at the feet of your neighbors with the way you think: then the Gospel of Christ becomes accessible to man! These are my feelings for you! Your letter touched me, and this is the reason why I am responding to you in foreign lands, perhaps I am already overtaking you. You are in sorrow because in the struggle, in the struggle because the law of Christ is spiritual, it requires crucifixion. You will find consolation in the fact that humanity has never approached crucifixion without a struggle. The proof is the God-Man Himself. He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, so that the cup passed from Him and His sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood. If you see that weakness overcomes you, then know that the Lord is able to give strength to His people, as St. David says. Those people are his own to God, He gives strength to those His people who remain faithful to Him in their will, while their weakness produces a violation of fidelity in deeds. Remember that Christ came to call sinners, not the righteous, to repentance. Stand in the ranks of sinners, fall in humility at the feet of Christ, surrendering to His will, entrusting your present and future to His will. And He will shed peace and tranquility into your soul, thereby showing that He is near you, that His Providence is watching over you. A certain Holy Father said: “Blessed is the man who knows his weakness: for the righteous man who does not know his weakness is on a very dangerous path.” Another says: “If Christ did not come for the righteous, then I reject my truth, as a sin separating me from Christ, and in the fact that I am a sinner, I find my truth, the heavenly truth, which provides me with the means to approach Christ and be with Him.” I am writing all this to you as a consolation, so that you, seeing that you are in debt to Christ, would not fall into hopelessness and sorrow, but into humility, and be content because of your trust in Christ, which will not put you to shame. - He is omnipotent. I remember with heartfelt pleasure how you visited the Sergius Hermitage on November 00 last year. There, in the church of God, with prayers and hymns of worship, you met the day of your Angel, thanked God for the past, prayed to Him for the future - you thanked your Guardian Angel for the past preservation, asked him to preserve you for the future time of earthly life, and until the end of this life, and until the very entrance into eternal bliss - before the face of God. After the Divine Liturgy, you came to my cells; there we were comforted by mutual love for the Lord, by conversation about the Lord. Consolation on earth! - to see a person who fears God, sacrificing to Him the life and abilities received from Him. Unfortunately, most people act differently: they sacrifice the gifts of God to Satan. I thank the merciful Lord, who brought me to rest in solitude from the rumors of the capital. The feelings that visit a person in solitude are no longer unfamiliar to me. That is why the secluded desert lured me so conveniently from the noisy Sergius Hermitage. Solitude strengthens the soul, breathes into it some kind of courage, some kind of contempt for the world, which is impossible to feel in contact with the world. When the soul tramples down corruption by renouncing corruption, then everything corruptible, without exception, becomes corruptible, and spiritual contemplation descends on the scales of the heart, which cannot be content with anything. It makes a resident of a silent cell a resident, one might say, of paradise - it introduces him to a new world, before which the local world is very small, insignificant. In the silence of silence, the soul floats, as if in some immense space, looks at the past, at the present, at the earth, at the sky, at time, at eternity. So in clear weather an eagle walks at an unattainable height, in a transparent azure abyss. The larger the space occupied by the landscape, the more magnificent the spectacle. Good are the beauties that a person can express and describe in words, but incomparably higher are those that exceed words, delight the heart, and seem to deprive the mind of the ability to act. They say that in Switzerland, from one extraordinary, rocky height, a most picturesque, delightful landscape appears to the eye; Some travelers, having climbed to this terrible height, were so amazed by the splendor of the spectacle that they could not stand on their feet from amazement, fell from the height, and were broken. This is exactly how spiritual contemplation works! - Whoever suddenly sees him is thrown into this abyss from amazement, dies for the world! – The above-mentioned travelers did not come to life: black, wooden crosses over the ashes of these sons of Britain stand at the foot of the Swiss cliff; I would say: he who is killed by a spiritual vision for the world will no longer come to life for the world. Alas! I would say unfairly; and therefore I can’t say! Alas! Man comes to life even for death! Solomon came to life for death! Judas came alive for her! Many came to life for her!.. Alas! how weak we are, how fickle!.. I look at our weakness, I look with tears!.. My eyes seek joy, consolation - and suddenly they turn to the desert, to solitude!.. There, there it is safest!.. Strive there - my soul!.. Run!.. If your legs are not enough for the fast flow, take wings! Rush!.. fly!.. Save yourself from the jaws of the beast: the world! Be like the blessed woman who ran and flew into the desert - that woman whom the spectator of spiritual mysteries saw - John. Feet - a sound mind in the Lord; wings - faith: flaps them, mighty wings, is carried through the wilds, waters, steppes, mountains - the one to whom Christ gave them. Let us ask Him for faith; The Apostles showed us an example; they said and prayed: Lord, add faith to us 78. May the Lord grant us, on the wings of faith, to fly across the sea of ​​life and fly into the blessed haven: Heaven. Me?.. I don’t need anything! “What I need, what I need for my wretched life, that’s what I asked: I asked to be sent into solitude. And I will give you a small report about solitude. This is a quiet, peaceful death before death, which is the indispensable lot of every person, which is cruel for sinners, for slaves of the world. In solitude, the impressions inscribed on it by the objects of the world are gradually smoothed out from the human mind - and the mind gradually loses its communication with the world. He looks at the world as if from the afterlife, as if from the other world. To explain this to yourself, think about China, then look at yourself, see what the relationship of your mind and heart is to this country. You will see in your soul only dark concepts, from one legend - concepts alien to the life that is given to them by looking at objects, communicating with them, close sympathy for everything. You will see that your heart for this country is also dead, as if for a country that does not exist at all or exists only in fables. This is how the world seems to a hermit, to an inhabitant of the desert, distant and deep. Everyone living in the world appears to him not as permanent residents, but only as travelers. And exactly! we live: we travel. Some walk modestly on foot, others ride on horses, others rush in fast chariots; the end is the same for everyone... But little does the inhabitant of solitude look at the world with these eyes, just as little does the inhabitant of St. Petersburg think or care about China. What occupies him more, essentially, and only is the world into which he has moved: this world is eternity. Its gates opened wide before the astonished eyes of the soul, and the eyes of the soul greedily rushed into these boundless spaces, drowning in them, looking at the newly opened, hitherto unfamiliar, hitherto completely unknown spectacle; chained to him, they can’t tear themselves away... For eternity!.. All the times that preceded us flowed there; in this abyss all the millions of people who took turns on the face of the earth disappeared; before her, before her eyes, the world was born, humanity multiplied, tribes, peoples, kingdoms were formed, before her eyes many flourishing kingdoms had already turned into deserts, many great cities were leveled with the earth, grew into the earth, were covered with it; before her eyes, deserted deserts, dense forests, impenetrable swamps became the flourishing dwellings of human society, numerous, educated, noisy... She looked at all this, looks indifferently, with cold severity - for eternity. Nothing satisfies her and nothing will satisfy her. Everything in her must disappear: everything is her victim; she looks at everything like the hot spring sun at the fragile, weak spring snow... And the hermit looks at eternity, gazes in silence, in the silence of her solitude. Instructed by this spectacle, he recognizes and calls everything temporary, as the Holy Scripture teaches us to call it, vanity; he is convinced that man’s purpose is not for earth, but for heaven. And Heaven revealed to us, in the Gospel, what the inhabitants of heaven should be like. His true servant copes with this law of the Most High God every hour; - inquires whether the mind and heart have deviated somewhere to the side, whether they are fulfilling some other will, a dark will, an evil will, a corruptible will... With such a life, heaven descends to earth, and with it descends into this vale of darkness, sorrow, crying - consolation, heavenly bliss. Calm down! The earthly life of a Christian is dissolved in consolations and temptations. This is how God's Providence arranged it! Consolations support you on the path of God, and temptations make you wise. Society and conversation with pious people bring significant benefits. But for advice, for leadership, it is not enough to be pious; one must have spiritual experience, and most of all spiritual anointing. This is the teaching of Scripture and the Fathers on this subject. A pious but inexperienced advisor is more likely to confuse than to be useful. Not only from among the laity, but from among the monastics it is extremely difficult to find an adviser who, so to speak, would measure and hang the soul consulting with him, and from it, from its property, would give it advice. Nowadays, advisors and leaders teach advice more from themselves and from a book. And the first kind of advice is especially useful and valid; he is very close to the soul seeking shelter under the canopy of advice - his own; This is what she feels. Saint Isaac said: “There is nothing more useful to everyone than his own advice.” And alien advice, although apparently consisting of good, reasonable words, brings only torment and frustration to the soul. She feels his incongruity, feels that he is alien to her. The point, says the Scripture, is that with words they wound like swords: but the nations of the wise heal 79 . Resort to reading the Holy Fathers more, let them guide you, remind you of virtue, and guide you on the path of God. This way of living belongs to our times: it was commanded, handed down to us by the Holy Fathers of later centuries. Complaining about the extreme lack of God-enlightened mentors and advisers, they command the zealot of piety to be guided in his life by the Scriptures of the Fathers. The counsel of the saints is understanding (Prov. 9:10). Try not to get carried away by absent-mindedness. If you happen to get carried away by it - due to the weakness that is common to all of us, humans - do not give in to despondency. Unyieldingness is not characteristic of man on earth - lower than the inhabitant of the deepest desert and solitude. Changeability and passion inevitably operate in every person - even in the strictest hermit. Moreover, it is impossible for someone living in the middle of the world, in the midst of all temptations, not to get carried away. Do not wish the impossible from yourself, do not demand from your soul what it cannot give. Heal your hobbies with repentance, and make up for the lack of your work with contrition of spirit. Fast-flying time has already approached the edge of 1847. Soon it will fly over this line, and the year we are living through will become one of the years gone by, irrevocable. Of its countless events, some will be recorded on the tablets of history as a lasting memory for humanity, some will remain in memory for a century, half a century, some will remain for an even shorter time; - the majority will plunge into the abyss of oblivion - they will drown in it, be buried, disappear. The year 1947 quickly flew by; the 48th will rush by just as soon; Many years will soon pass, devouring each other, replacing each other. And we will unnoticed fly through the space of life on the wings of time, unnoticed we will fly to the very gates of eternity!.. As I get older, it seems to me that time has become faster! He's in a hurry, he's in a hurry!.. Stop! Let us look into ourselves and learn more about the Will of God, prepare ourselves for eternity, as for eternity! – The inexorable does not heed! It's flying!.. People! God has commanded you: watch out! God told you about the times: the days are evil. Before entering the field of the 48th year, I bring to you my most sincere, heartfelt desire for all possible blessings, especially those true and spiritual blessings delivered by the faith of Christ, which God inspired you to seek. Acquire them, acquire them with all deeds of piety! The basis of all affairs must be truth; This is how a solid cornerstone is placed at the foundation of a building! The God-given, God-revealed human holy truth is preserved in the Holy and Holy Scriptures. The building of virtues, when not based on this foundation, is completely fragile and indecent. I am very glad that you like it so much in Moscow, especially because of the Shrines with which this ancient Christian city is rich. But even in such a beautiful place we must watch our hearts, in the light that the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers emit, and not at all in our own light, damaged by the fall, infected by delusion, or in some other false light. You write: “You cannot know what is happening in my soul. It seems to me that a person himself, if he wants to examine his soul and delve into its movements with conscience, can recognize himself better than anyone else.” To the first, I agree: due to my sinfulness and the blindness of mind that comes from sinfulness, I do not see myself - much less do I see others. Therefore, I try to delve into and delve into the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, accepting it in the sense in which the Holy Fathers explain it, in which the Holy Church accepts it, and not in the sense in which demons and their followers give it. And demons interpret Scripture to the destruction and deception of those who listen to them! Perhaps in the light, in the true light that the Gospel and the Holy Church emit from themselves, I will somehow see myself, I will see my darkness, I will see my blindness! My heart goes astray, and iniquity overwhelms me, my soul stands in question, says the holy Prophet who saw himself (Is. 21:4). Seeing oneself appears in poverty of spirit, and not in complacency and arrogance. The second half of your words above scared me! There's something dangerous about her! I will not stop writing to you the words of the Monk Dorotheus, which have now come to my mind: “The enemy hates the voice of affirmation: because he always wants our destruction. See why he loves those who are his own: because they help the devil by creating slander for themselves. I don’t know the monk’s fall, but I have to believe it in my own heart. The Nezians say: this is how a man falls, or this. But, as if I had died, it is impossible for anyone to fall, except for this reason. Have you seen anyone fallen? convince yourself as if you were your own follower. Nothing of this is more painful, nothing more destructive, and so on. Would you like to know the whole article? Read it in the book of Abba Dorotheus, under the title: “Don’t make up your mind about the hedgehog.” May the Lord protect you from all the invisible snares of the ruler of the world, and may he save you for the glory of His Holy Name. The Holy Church, in her grace-filled, God-inspired hymns, calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter, and calls the Son of God the Comforter; - The Comforter is also the Father, incomprehensibly giving birth to the Son and incomprehensibly releasing the Holy Spirit. Comforter - Spirit; Comforter - Son; The Comforter is the Father. If the rays are light and fire, then the sun from which they flow is light and fire. Holy Trinity - God - glory to You! Glory to You, God, who has given us existence, who has granted us salvation, who has granted to us, sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, the knowledge of the truth and the consolation that flows from the breathing upon us of Your Holy Spirit, promoting Your Holy Truth, which is Your Word. Those who have come to know and accept the Holy Truth have come under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit; they are part of the Lord, his lot. At the head of other knowledge and impressions that are not headed by the Truth is Satan. And his angels will follow Satan: they are part of this; their lot is with him. Let them eat the earth all the days of their bellies, and let them walk on their breasts. This definition came down to them from the Judge of all - God. Their destiny is the carnal mind; vestments - Adam's old age. The Holy Truth, the Word of God says: through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the Kingdom of God. Sorrow is especially the lot of our time, which is given neither the feat of martyrdom nor the feat of monasticism. Our area, Christians of the last time, is an area of ​​sorrows, apparently petty, insignificant. God's scales! Before Him, on His scales, every sorrow is insignificant, every sorrow is of little importance, no matter how great it may be: because the overshadowing of His power and grace can turn the greatest sorrow into the greatest pleasure. So a little sorrow has all its value before Him, no less than a great sorrow. Everything depends on His grace, and He mercifully accepts all sorrow from man, accepted with thanksgiving, with humility, with glorification. Unwittingly make the illness that has befallen you, through thanksgiving, a voluntary sacrifice, and may God accept it as a censer filled with the most fragrant spiritual incense. Incense - thanksgiving. The Holy Orthodox Church recognizes that there is no human sin that cannot be washed away by the blood of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ. No matter how many times human sin is repeated, the blood of the God-Man can wash it away. The sins of the whole world mean nothing before the all-holy blood of the Lord incarnate, shed for us. He was ulcerated for our sins, and tormented for our iniquities, the punishment of our peace was upon Him, by His ulcer we humans were healed 80 . Only the one who himself rejects the healing and salvation granted to him and all people remains unhealed. The mercy of God has been poured out on us so abundantly that the most grave sin, repeated by a person a thousand times, can be blotted out by a person’s repentance 81 . Repentance is faith, repentance is recognition of redemption and the Redeemer! repentance is the assimilation of the merits of the Redeemer by faith in the Redeemer! repentance is self-sacrifice! repentance is an acknowledgment of the fall and destruction that has engulfed the entire human race! repentance is renunciation of all human virtue! Repentance places all hope in the Redeemer! The merits of the Redeemer alone have a whole price, an immense price! without price, without the slightest price, human virtues! They borrow value from faith in the Redeemer when they are an expression of that faith—doing the will of the Redeemer! Repentance makes up for the lack of human virtues and assigns to man the virtues of the Redeemer! God gave us repentance to help our weakness. Oh, how varied and great is our weakness! Another person hates his sin, but is so accustomed to sin, so powerless to fight against it, that he does not cease to fall into hated, vile sin, carried away by the violence of his prevailing habit. Repentance is a refuge for the unfortunate slave of sin! No matter how many times he happens to be subjected to moral disaster, he can enter this refuge and repair the broken boat of his soul in it. Church history has preserved the following conversation between a certain monk who suffered from sin and one of the greatest saints of God, who was abundant in spiritual gifts, and because of this abundance received the name Great: a brother asked Sisoes the Great: “Father! what should I do? I have fallen." The elder answered: “Rise up.” The brother told him: “I rose and fell again.” - The elder answered: “Rise again.” - The brother said: “How long will I rise and fall?” - The Great One answered: “until you are taken from this life.” – You will find this story in the book “Memorable Tales of the Ascetic Asceticism of the Holy and Blessed Fathers”; it is also placed in the Four Menaions, in the life of St. Sisoes the Great, July 6. It must be assumed that the saint of God gave such an answer to a person who had an unfortunate habit of sin, a skill that seemed insurmountable. There are people who have been exposed to this disaster. The word “fell” depicts that the brother’s sin was grave, mortal. However, we must know that God gave repentance solely to help our weakness - not at all to indulge sin. The gift of God should not be used for evil; it should be treated with great reverence, prudence, and caution. “Whoever, in the hope of repentance, repeats “his own sins,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “behaves deceitfully towards God, and such an unexpected death befalls him” (Homily 90). One must be careful to guard against falling into all sins, great and small, as an expression of enmity against God. The most serious sin is despair. This sin humiliates the all-holy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, rejects His omnipotence, rejects the salvation He bestowed - shows that arrogance and pride previously dominated in this soul, that faith and humility were alien to it. More than from all other sins, one must be guarded, as from a deadly poison, as from a wild beast, from despair. I repeat: despair is the worst sin among all sins. Mature despair is usually expressed by suicide or actions identical to suicide. Suicide is the gravest sin! The one who committed it deprived himself of repentance and all hope of salvation. The Holy Church does not make any commemoration of him, does not honor him with a funeral service and deprives him of burial in a Christian cemetery. Suicide is followed in severity by mortal sins, such as murder, adultery, heresy and others like them. These sins, although less harmful than suicide and despair leading to suicide, although the one who committed them remains the possibility of repentance and salvation, are called mortal. The one who dwells in them is recognized as dead in soul, and the one who dwells in them is not allowed by the rules of the Holy Church to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ or to participate in divine services. If death befalls him without repenting of these sins, then his eternal destruction is certain. The repentance of a person who is in mortal sin can only be recognized as true when he forsakes his mortal sin. Then only he can be admitted to union with Christ through the communion of the Holy Mysteries! And therefore, after the main sin - despair and suicide, one must be especially careful to guard against mortal sins, with a firm and decisive intention in the soul - not to fall into them. If you have the misfortune of falling into some mortal sin, then you must leave it immediately, be healed by repentance and be careful in every possible way so as not to fall into it again. If, by some unfortunate coincidence, we happen to fall into mortal sin again, we should not give in to despair - we must again resort to God-given spiritual healing, repentance, which retains all its power and reality until the very end of our life. There are sins that are not mortal: some of them are grave, others are lighter. We must first unlearn heavy sins, and then unlearn light ones. For example: immortal sin - gluttony; also immortal sin is a delicacy. Binge eating is grosser and is associated with more harmful consequences than delicacy, and therefore one must first wean oneself from overeating, and then from indulgence. However, even unmortal sins, such as: gluttony, delicacy, luxury, idle talk, ridicule and others, having grown and manifested themselves in a person, can come very close to mortal sins. Sin that has taken possession of a person is called passion. Passion is subject to eternal torment, said the fathers (Reverend Nilus of Sora. Homily 1). And therefore, one should not neglect immortal sins; one should especially watch so that some sin does not grow and a passion for it does not develop in the habit. To cleanse oneself from such sins and for better self-observation, the Holy Church has ordered every Orthodox Christian to resort to the holy sacrament of confession at least four times a year (at least once a year). Holy confession brings two benefits: it brings forgiveness from God for sins committed and protects from falling into sins again. “The soul,” says Saint John Climacus, “has the custom of confessing its sins, is restrained from falling into them again by the memory of confession, as if by a bridle. Unconfessed sins are conveniently repeated, as if committed in darkness” (Ladder. Word 4). There are sins committed by words. They should not be considered unimportant! From a comic word to a criminal word - the shortest distance! You will be justified by your words, and you will be condemned by your words (Matthew 12:37), said the Savior. The tongue has committed great crimes: it has uttered renunciations of God, blasphemies, false oaths, and slander against one’s neighbor. Denial of Christ and blasphemy are ranked among the gravest mortal sins. There are sins committed by thoughts, feelings of the heart, and movements of the body. All of them are not small, they are all enmity against God! But when the thought and heart delight in sin, they love, as it were, to carry it out with a dream speckled, decorated and prolonged - such a secret spiritual sin is close to the sin committed by the deed itself. A person must avoid with all care all sins in general. For the same sins into which, due to weakness, one falls in deed, word, thought and all feelings, one must repent daily before God - which is best done after completing the rule, going to sleep. Moreover, he must annually cleanse his conscience four times with the holy sacrament of confession. If you happen to fall into mortal sin, you must immediately confess it before your spiritual father. May the Lord save you from the great spiritual calamity - mortal sin, and may He grant you the strength to avoid other sins, large and small. Amen. A sight worthy of bitter sobbing: Christians who do not know what Christianity consists of! And this sight greets the eye almost incessantly; Rarely are they consoled by the opposite, as if by a comforting spectacle! Rarely can they, in a large crowd of people who call themselves Christians, stop at being a Christian, both in name and in deed. The question you suggested is now asked in a row. “Why can’t pagans, Mohammedans and so-called heretics be saved,” you write? There are good people among them. To destroy these kindest people would be contrary to the mercy of God!.. Yes! This is disgusting even to common human reason! – And heretics are the same Christians. To consider oneself saved, and members of other faiths lost, is both insane and extremely proud!” I will try to answer you in as few words as possible, so that the verbosity does not in any way damage the clarity of the presentation. - Christians! You talk about salvation, but you don’t know what salvation is, why people need it, and finally, not knowing Christ, is the only means of our salvation! – This is the true teaching on this subject, the teaching of the Holy, Universal Church: salvation lies in the return of communion with God. This communication was lost by the entire human race through the fall of our forefathers. The entire human race is a category of lost beings. Destruction is the lot of all people, both virtuous and evildoers. We are conceived in lawlessness, born in sin. Coming down to my son, lamenting to hell, the holy Patriarch Jacob speaks about himself and his holy son Joseph, chaste and beautiful! Not only sinners, but also the righteous of the Old Testament descended into hell at the end of their earthly journey. Such is the power of human good deeds. Such is the price of the virtues of our fallen nature! To restore man's fellowship with God, otherwise salvation, atonement was necessary. The redemption of the human race was accomplished not by an Angel, not by an Archangel, not by any other higher, but by limited and created beings—it was accomplished by the infinite God Himself. Executions are the lot of the human race, replaced by His execution; the lack of human merit is replaced by His infinite dignity. All the weak good deeds of man that descended into hell were replaced by one powerful good deed: faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. They asked the Lord of the Jews: What shall we do and do the works of God? The Lord answered them: This is the work of God, that you may believe in Him, He is His ambassador (John 6:29). We need one good deed for salvation: faith; - but faith is a matter. By faith, by faith alone, we can enter into communion with God through the sacraments He has given. It is in vain and mistaken that you think and say that good people among the pagans and Mohammedans will be saved, that is, they will enter into communion with God! It’s in vain that you look at the opposite thought as if it were a novelty, as if it were an intruding delusion! No! This is the constant teaching of the true Church, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Church has always recognized that there is one means of salvation: the Redeemer! she recognized that the greatest virtues of fallen nature descend to hell. If the righteous of the true Church, the lamps from which the Holy Spirit shone, the prophets and wonderworkers, who believed in the coming Redeemer, but whose death preceded the coming of the Redeemer, descended into hell, then how do you want the pagans and Mohammedans, because they seem good to you, who did not know and did not believe in the Redeemer, to receive salvation, delivered by one, one, I repeat to you, means - by faith in the Redeemer? - Christians! know Christ! - Understand that you do not know Him, that you denied Him, recognizing salvation as possible without Him for some good deeds! He who recognizes the possibility of salvation without faith in Christ denies Christ and, perhaps unknowingly, falls into the grave sin of blasphemy. Let us therefore think, says the holy Apostle Paul, that by faith a man may be justified without the works of the law. The truth of God through the faith of Jesus Christ is in all and on all who believe: there is no difference. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God: we are justified by His grace, by the deliverance that is in Christ Jesus 82. You will object: “The Holy Apostle James absolutely demands good deeds; he does not teach that faith without works is dead.” Consider what the holy Apostle James demands. You will see that he demands, like all the divinely inspired writers of the Holy Scriptures, works of faith, and not good works of our fallen nature! it requires living faith, confirmed by the deeds of the new man, and not the good deeds of a fallen nature, contrary to faith. He cites the act of the patriarch Abraham, the deed from which the faith of the righteous man emerged: this deed consisted in sacrificing his only begotten son to God. To sacrifice one’s son is not at all a good deed by human nature: it is a good deed as the fulfillment of God’s command, as a deed of faith. Take a closer look at the New Testament and in general at all of Holy Scripture: you will find that it requires the fulfillment of God’s commandments, that this fulfillment is called works, that from this fulfillment of God’s commandments faith in God becomes living, as active; without him she is dead, as if deprived of all movement. And on the contrary, you will find that good deeds of fallen nature, from feelings, from blood, from impulses and tender sensations of the heart - are forbidden, rejected! And it’s these good deeds that you like about pagans and Mohammedans! For them, even if it was with the rejection of Christ, you want to give them salvation. Your judgment about common sense is strange! Why, by what right, do you find and recognize it in yourself? If you are a Christian, then you should have a Christian concept about this subject, and not some other one, unauthorized or seized from somewhere! The Gospel teaches us that through our fall we acquired a false reason, that the reason of our fallen nature, no matter what its natural dignity, no matter how sophisticated the learning of the world, retains the dignity given to it by the fall, remains a false reason. It is necessary to reject it, to surrender to the guidance of faith: with this guidance, in due time, after significant deeds in piety, God grants His faithful servant the mind of Truth, or the mind of Spirituality. This reason can and should be recognized as sound reason: it is the communicated faith, so excellently described by the holy Apostle Paul in the 11th chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews. The basis of spiritual reasoning is God. It rests on this solid stone, and therefore does not waver or fall. What we Christians call sound reason, we recognize as a reason so sick, so darkened and lost, that its healing cannot be accomplished otherwise than by cutting off all the knowledge that composes it, by the sword of faith and by rejecting it. If we recognize him as sound, recognize him on some basis that is unknown, shaky, uncertain, constantly changing, then he, as sound, will certainly reject Christ. This has been proven by experiments. – What does your common sense tell us? that admitting the destruction of good people who do not believe in Christ is contrary to your common sense! - not only that! Such destruction of the virtuous is contrary to the mercy of such an all-good Being as God. – Of course, did you have a revelation from above about this subject, about what is and is not contrary to the mercy of God? - No! but common sense shows this. - A! Your sound mind!.. However, with your sound mind, where did you get the idea that it is possible for you to comprehend with your own limited human mind what is and what is not contrary to the mercy of God? - Let me tell you our thoughts. - The Gospel, otherwise the Teaching of Christ, otherwise the Holy Scripture, - even otherwise, the Holy Ecumenical Church revealed to us everything that a person can know about the mercy of God, which exceeds all speculation, all human comprehension, inaccessible to them. Vain is the vacillation of the human mind when it seeks to define the infinite God!.. when it seeks to explain the inexplicable, to subordinate to its own considerations... who?.. God! Such an undertaking is a satanic undertaking!.. One who calls himself a Christian and does not know the teachings of Christ! If you have not learned from this blessed, heavenly teaching the incomprehensibility of God, go to school and listen to what children are learning! Mathematics teachers explain to them in the theory of the infinite that it, as an indefinite quantity, does not obey the laws to which definite quantities - numbers - are subject, that its results can be completely opposite to the results of numbers. And you want to define the laws for the action of God’s mercy, you say: this is in accordance with him, - this is disgusting to him! – It agrees or disagrees with your common sense, with your concepts and sensations! – Does it follow from the fact that God is obliged to understand and feel as you understand and feel? And this is what you demand from God! This is a most reckless and quite proud undertaking! - do not blame the judgment of the Church for a lack of common sense and humility: this is your shortcoming! She, the holy Church, only unswervingly follows the teaching of God about the actions of God, revealed by God Himself! Her true children obediently follow her, enlightened by faith, trampling on the arrogant mind that rebels against God! We believe that we can only know about God what God has been pleased to reveal to us! If there had been another path to the knowledge of God, a path that we could pave for our minds through our own efforts, Revelation would not have been given to us. It is given because we need it. – Vain and deceitful are one’s own self-reflections and the wanderings of the human mind! You say: “heretics are the same as Christians.” Where did you get this from? Does anyone who calls himself a Christian and knows nothing about Christ, out of his extreme ignorance, decide to recognize himself as the same Christian as the heretics, and the holy Christian faith cannot be distinguished from the child of the oath - blasphemous heresies! This is not how true Christians talk about this! Numerous hosts of saints accepted the crown of martyrdom, preferring the most severe and prolonged torment, prison, exile, rather than agree to participate with heretics in their blasphemous teaching. The Universal Church has always recognized heresy as a mortal sin, has always recognized that a person infected with the terrible disease of heresy is dead in soul, alien to grace and salvation, in communion with the devil and his destruction. Heresy is a sin of the mind. Heresy is more a sin of the devil than of man; she is the daughter of the devil, his invention is wickedness, close to idolatry. The Fathers usually call idolatry wickedness, and heresy wickedness. In idolatry, the devil accepted divine honor from blinded people, and in heresy he makes blind people participants in his main sin - blasphemy. Whoever reads the “acts of the councils” with attention will easily be convinced that the character of the heretics is completely satanic. He will see their terrible hypocrisy, exorbitant pride - he will see behavior composed of continuous lies, he will see that they are devoted to various low passions, he will see that, when they have the opportunity, they decide to commit all the most terrible crimes and atrocities. What is especially remarkable is their irreconcilable hatred of the children of the true Church and their thirst for blood! heresy is associated with hardening of the heart, with terrible darkness and damage to the mind - it persists in the soul infected by it - and it is difficult for a person to recover from this illness! Every heresy contains blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: it either blasphemes the dogma of the Holy Spirit, or the action of the Holy Spirit, but it certainly blasphemes the Holy Spirit. The essence of all heresy is blasphemy. Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, who sealed with his blood the confession of the true faith, pronounced the determination of the local Council of Constantinople on the heresiarch Eutyches in the following words: “Eutichios, hitherto a priest, archimandrite, is completely convicted both by his past actions and his present explanations of the errors of Valentinus and Apollinaris, in his stubborn adherence to their blasphemy, the more Moreover, he did not even heed our advice and instructions to embrace sound doctrine. Therefore, weeping and sighing over his final destruction, we declare on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ that he has fallen into blasphemy, that he is deprived of all priestly rank, our communication and the management of his monastery, letting everyone who will henceforth talk with him or visit him know that they themselves will be subject to excommunication.” This definition is an example of the general opinion of the Universal Church about heretics; this definition is recognized by the entire Church and confirmed by the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. The heresy of Eutyches consisted in the fact that he did not confess in Christ the incarnation of two natures, as the Church confesses - he admitted one nature - the Divine. – You will say: only!.. Funny in its lack of true knowledge and bitterly pitiful in its nature and consequences is the answer of a certain person invested with the power of this world to Saint Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria about the Arian heresy. This person advises the patriarch to maintain peace, not to start quarrels, so contrary to the spirit of Christianity, because of certain words; writes that he does not find anything reprehensible in the teachings of Arius - some difference in the turns of words - only! These turns of phrase, notes the historian Fleury, in which there is nothing reprehensible, deny the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ - only! They overthrow, therefore, the entire Christian faith - only! It is remarkable: all the ancient heresies, under various changing guises, strived for one goal: they rejected the Divinity of the Word and distorted the dogma of the incarnation. The newest ones are most eager to reject the actions of the Holy Spirit: with terrible blasphemies they rejected the Divine Liturgy, all the sacraments, everything, everything where the Universal Church has always recognized the action of the Holy Spirit. They called it human institutions - more boldly: superstition, delusion! Of course, in heresy you see neither robbery nor theft! Maybe that’s the only reason you don’t consider it a sin? Here the Son of God is rejected, here the Holy Spirit is rejected and blasphemed - that’s all! he who accepts and contains blasphemous teachings, utters blasphemy, does not commit robbery, does not steal, even does good deeds of a fallen nature - he is a wonderful person! How can God deny him salvation!.. The whole reason for your latest bewilderment, as well as for everyone else, is a deep ignorance of Christianity! Do not think that such ignorance is an unimportant flaw! No! its consequences can be disastrous, especially now, when countless little books with Christian titles and Satanic teachings are circulating in society. If you do not know the true Christian teaching, you can just accept a false, blasphemous thought as true. To assimilate it to oneself, and with it to assimilate eternal destruction. The blasphemer will not be saved! And those bewilderments that you depicted in your letter are already terrible accusers of your salvation. Their essence is denial of Christ! – Don’t play with your salvation, don’t play! otherwise you will cry forever. – Start reading the New Testament and the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church (not Teresa, not Francis and other Western crazy people whom their heretical Church presents as saints!); study in the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church how to correctly understand Scripture, what kind of life, what thoughts and feelings befit a Christian. From Scripture and living faith, study Christ and Christianity. Before the terrible hour comes, in which you will have to appear in judgment before God, gain the justification given by God to all people through Christianity. Do you doubt the existence of hell and eternal torment? - you repeat the current fashionable objection: “this is incompatible with the mercy of such a good being as God.” Ah, my friend! Can such a weak, limited being as man judge by himself about God, the infinite Being who surpasses all comprehension and judgment, and draw positive conclusions about God from looking into himself? Leave your own judgment and believe with all your heart everything the Gospel teaches us. The Savior Himself said: And these go into eternal torment (Matthew 25:46), in another place he said: He lifted up his eyes to hell (Luke 16:23). The Savior said that there is hell, there is eternal torment; – why your objection! If you give room to this objection, it means that you doubt the truth of the Savior’s words and reject them. Whoever rejects even one dogma from the teachings of Christ denies Christ. Think carefully: your doubt is not such a light sin. If you internalize it and implement it with words, you will fall into mortal sin. One word of faith can save, and one word of unbelief can destroy a soul. The thief, at the hour of death, already on the cross, confessed Christ - and opened the doors to heaven for himself; The Pharisees, rejecting the Truth, blasphemed the Holy Spirit - and died. You will be justified by your words, and you will be condemned by your words (Matthew 12:37), declared the Savior. – If you allow your mind to object to the teachings of Christ, it will find thousands of thousands of them: it is inexhaustible - when we allow it to become infected with hostility towards Christ. Little by little he will reject all Christian dogmas! This is not news - this is the fruit of unbridled, arbitrary judgment; how many atheists and blasphemers came from him into the world! Outwardly, to inexperienced eyes, they seemed to be brilliant minds that broke chains, went free, discovered the truth, and showed it to other people. But the consequences showed that their imaginary truth is the most terrible, most destructive delusion. False thoughts are washed with streams of blood, and the thought is not cleansed by this bath! It is terrible to stain a thought with a lie: human blood is not able to wash away these fierce stains. For such a washing, humanity needed the blood of the God-man. It received this blood, washed itself in it, cleansed itself! held by the hand of faith, came into the light of true knowledge of God and self-knowledge - came out there from the deep, dark abyss of the carnal, false mind. This mind calls man back into the abyss - and man heeds the murderous call! What's so wonderful? Man retained his character: in paradise, filled with the fragrance and pleasure of the Divine, he did not stop entrusting his attention to the flattering words of the devil. My friend! you are a Christian, a member of the Orthodox Eastern Church; remain faithful to the spiritual body of which you are a member - maintain union with the holy Church to which you belong - preserve your spiritual dignity as a priceless treasure. Because of your weakness, do not go into judgment about dogmas: this is a deep abyss, a dangerous sea: many inexperienced and arrogant swimmers have drowned in it. Safely, with the hope of abundant spiritual gain, only those who have been fed by the mind in the right hand of the Spirit can swim and rush on the wonderful waves of theology. According to the advice of the holy Apostle Paul, cast down every thought that is placed on the mind of Christ 83 . Do not enter into an argument or reasoning with doubts and objections generated by false reason; cut off the heads of these snakes with the sword of faith, as soon as they put these heads out of their lair! This is a straightforward matter, the right thing! A deed worthy of one who has once been united to Christ forever. Before the union, reasoning takes place; Once the union is concluded, it is already a crime. Nothing, nothing violates or shakes your loyalty! Oh! It is more tolerable to have not entered into an alliance than to be a traitor. With humility, bow to the good yoke; lead a pious life; go to church more often, read the New Testament and the writings of the Holy Fathers; do good to your neighbors: in due time, the Divine teaching of Christ, from which holiness and truth breathes, will be assimilated to your soul. Then no doubts will come to her. Christ's teaching is above natural, as Divine; it is approachable to the human mind through faith alone. It is a crazy undertaking to explain the supernatural by human reasoning, which obviously cannot leave the general, ordinary, natural circle. The consequences of a crazy undertaking: inconsistency, countless objections, rejection of the unnatural, even if this unnatural was Divine. People in their actions mostly contradict themselves! They take care of their eyes so that they do not become clogged, but they do not think about protecting their mind - this eye of the soul - they litter it with all sorts of rubbish. The Lord commanded to keep the mind, because it is the leader of man. If the mind goes astray from the true path, a person’s whole life becomes a delusion. In order for the mind to stray from the true path, it only takes a little: one false thought. When your eye is simple, says the Savior, your whole body will be light; when you are evil, your body is dark. Always keep the light where there is darkness in you (Luke 11:34:35). But we do not observe this all-holy testament at all; We don’t watch so that our light, that is, our mind, does not become darkness, we throw all sorts of things into it; it becomes decisive darkness and pours darkness over all our behavior, throughout our entire lives. Why should thoughts be born in your soul that are hostile to God—thoughts of destructive unbelief and superstition? You have certainly read various empty foreign books, listened to a lot of various unfounded judgments about religion, with which our time is so rich, so poor in true religious knowledge. “Nothing directs a person to blasphemy more than reading heretical books,” said the Monk Isaac of Syria. Give up this disorderly reading, which fills the mind with confused and perverse concepts, depriving it of firmness, independence, correct view, leading to a state of skeptical hesitation. Engage in a thorough study of the Eastern Church according to its Tradition, contained in the writings of the Holy Fathers. Do you belong to this Church? it is your duty to know her properly. Look how firmly the heterodox people of the West know their religion! – True, it is less difficult for them to learn their faith in detail. A papist - he just believed in the pope as in God, he did everything: he is a papist to perfection! He can be crazy as much as he wants! A Protestant - he only doubts the entire Tradition, protests against the entire teaching of Christ, although retaining the name of a Christian - has done everything: he is completely Protestant. Having achieved such perfection, both the Roman and the Protestant write multi-volume works; their creations are loaded onto ships and sent to Russia to find readers. Don’t read what these people wrote without understanding what they write. You know so little, according to the general current fashion, of the Christian religion that you can very easily adopt some false thought and damage your soul with it. There is hell, and there is eternal torment: through a pious life, make them non-existent for yourself! I consider my answer complete. And what I will say next is a tribute to friendship. No! - not a tribute; it should be called differently. This is idle talk, which, however, leads to sincerity and friendship. I have often heard the thought of doubt, now expressed by you and supported precisely by the argument that you brought, that the existence of hell and eternal torment is incompatible with the mercy of God. Once, after such a conversation, when the visitor who was talking to me left me, I involuntarily, without noticing it, plunged into thoughtfulness. My heart was sad. However, no special thought occupied me. This was the impression the visitor left me. And how could I not be left with a sad impression when I heard a Christian who dared to directly contradict Christ, who dared to recognize the words of Self-Truth - God as a lie, a fiction of superstition! How could I not be left with a sad impression when I saw that the mercy of God was being rejected - which one right confession of the dogmas of the Christian faith, which God Himself gives, is capable of accepting and preserving, and the vain human speculation about the mercy of God is given as an excuse for such rejection! “Suddenly a thought appears to me suggesting a trip around the world. The thought was so bright and gave me such a pleasant feeling that I didn’t think about it at all. I wholeheartedly agree. Guided by her, I fly as if in a balloon. I see all the countries, nothing stops me on my way, I rush past the sky-high mountains, I move quickly across rivers, across lakes, across seas. In the shortest possible time I looked around the entire universe, while sitting calmly in my chairs. What did I see during my journey? The suffering of humanity. Yes! I saw suffering, both physical and moral, - I did not meet a single person who did not suffer. I have seen suffering in palaces and on thrones; I saw him among the overflowing abundance. Where the body was healthy and nourished, there the heart was smooth, painful - not enduring the severe illness, it uttered incessant groans. I saw prisoners buried for life in stuffy and gloomy dungeons; I saw those digging in the abysses of the earth, where the light of the sun does not reach, where, with the sound of chains and the blows of hammers and axes, gold is mined - a means to the pleasures of some through the constant misfortune of those who mine. In the most educated states I have seen entire families dying of hunger; saw most of the population in distress from poverty and lack of morality. I saw humanity humiliated by crimes! I saw humanity distorted by delusions! I saw humanity disfigured by barbarism! I saw humanity reduced to the likeness of dumb beasts and beasts of prey! People are caught there, as if they were animals; there they are traded as soulless goods, like cattle - and in this marketplace a person is a low-value commodity, his price is less than the price of livestock. There man lives almost like a dumb animal; and there he lives like a fierce beast, finding pleasure in shedding blood, devouring his own kind with mad, frenzied joy. Oh! It would be better not to exist than to exist so violently, so horribly. This is a picture of ordinary human life on earth. We must also remember the disasters that humanity is subjected to from time to time and in places: about earthquakes, pestilences, civil strife, about the sword of the conquerors, which sheds blood so abundantly when it is in the hand of Batu or Tamerlane. And now, for several thousand years now, one generation has been replaced on earth by another, replaced solely for the sake of suffering. However, God, the Creator and Lord of everything, omnipotent and all-good, looks at all this. This most terrible evil in which the human race suffers on earth does not prevent God from being all-good. No matter how much we add numbers to the infinite, no matter how much we subtract them from it, it will not change, it remains infinite!.. But if you look at the earth in this way, on which so many generations suffered in turn, on which so many generations died out by death, more or less cruelly, the thought of hell and eternal torment ceases to be strange!.. The human race is the category of fallen creatures. Earth is the threshold of hell with initial executions for criminals. The Savior made it the threshold of heaven. I greet you in writing - in response to your friendly letter and Christian greeting - before the personal greeting, which, I hope, the Lord will soon grant me. I am heartily consoled by the fact that you spent Holy Week, according to your custom, in the monastery of St. Sergius - in the temporary earthly refuge that God was pleased to give me with my like-minded brothers - my spiritual family. In the next century, may the ineffable goodness of the Lord grant us an eternal abode, in which may there be shelter for you, not for an urgent visit, but for a permanent stay. I received your letter in December: I was very weak then. The effect of a strong and useful medicine kept me in bed most of the time, and made my head so stupefied that I became incapable of any mental activity. Therefore, both before you and before many others, I was guilty of the same guilt: silence. When I heard about the events that were changing the face of the earth, I did not feel any surprise, lower than the interest that happens when hearing about something new. When I heard about these incidents, it was as if I heard about the death of a man who had long, long ago suffered and been exhausted by an incurable illness, killed alive by this illness before being killed by death. This is how educated Europe, or the so-called enlightened world, has always seemed to me. My lack of surprise seemed strange to myself. While I was thinking about my coldness, I suddenly remembered the words of the Savior: When you hear abuse, and hear abuse, do not be horrified: it is fitting to be, but it is not the end. For language will rise against tongue, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be cowards in place, and there will be famines and riots: this is the beginning of disease (Mark 13:7-8). What is especially remarkable here is that - and I have always dwelled on this word of the Gospel - that the last sign of the initial illnesses that must precede the final illness - the Antichrist - Scripture presents rebellions. Rationalism with its decrees cannot stop in its movement, as it is based on the constantly changing human mind. We must expect greater and greater development of the disease. It began to shake the peace of peoples from the end of the last century: the further it went, the more extensive and destructive its effect. From the final, worldwide action of this disease, a “lawless man”, a genius of geniuses, must emerge, just as his pre-image was born from the French Revolution - the colossal genius, Napoleon. – What amazed me more than the current circumstances? I was amazed by the reasons for these circumstances: the general desire of everyone exclusively for one material thing, as if it were eternal, - oblivion of the eternal, as if non-existent, - ridicule and abuse of Christianity, - a subtle and fierce persecution of the Church, persecution of her life, of the Holy Spirit - the replacement of the Spirit and His statutes with false reason and statutes emanating from the ruler of the world - a general, worldwide rumor, as if pandemonium, - the widespread construction of railways - work similar to pandemonium. It should be noted that God, as Scripture says, for this purpose mixed languages ​​and divided the people into nations, in order to deprive people of the opportunity to carry out all sinful undertakings with the common forces of all united humanity; steam locomotives return this opportunity to people. Then, during the pandemonium, God descended, says Scripture, to look at human affairs and stopped the crazy undertaking by confusing languages; Now the hour is approaching in which God will again come down to look at human affairs and put an end to them, no longer by confusion of languages, but by replacing the world, matured and decayed in iniquities, with a new and immaculate world. During my wanderings, I had the opportunity to take a rather detailed look at the land of Israel - at the Church. What can I say about her? The words of the Prophet must be said about it about the land brought down by the sword, gathered from the tongues of many into the land of Israel. Being very empty 84 . This is what the inspired Prophet says when he saw in the distance of time the last time, the fate of the Church, and a powerful kingdom emerging in the north. By the incomprehensible mercy of God, we have been given the greatest blessing of God: “the knowledge of Christ, the Orthodox faith in Christ.” The people, and in particular the human soul, are impregnable to godless rationalism and its consequences, as long as they are protected by holy faith. We must watch and pray according to the will of the Lord in order to avoid visible and invisible misfortunes. When on the path running across a vast plain there is a branchy tree casting a luxurious shadow, with what joy do travelers rush towards it; They enjoy relaxation and friendly conversation under the coolness of thick and wide shade. Such shelter, such consolation, is provided by the holy cross of Christ for those who are going through earthly life. The blessed tree on which the fruit of life blossomed: God incarnate - Life and Giver of life. It’s a pleasure to talk with you under the shade of the cross. Listen to the following sacred story: “A certain brother came to the holy, great Pimen and complained that he saw an admixture of sin in his good deeds. The elder told him the following parable: Two farmers lived in the same place. One of them sowed some grain, although unclean; and the other, giving in to laziness, did not sow anything. When the harvest came, the first one collected enough bread, although unclean, but the second one did not collect anything. Which of the two farmers will have food? The brother answered: the one who sowed and gathered some bread, although unclean. The elder answered: “Let us also sow little by little, even if it is unclean, so as not to die of hunger.” God granted you a faithful look at your heart when, looking at it, you saw in it a mixture of the spiritual and the spiritual. The above story can already comfort you enough: you see why it is given. For greater consolation, hear the following: God alone can bestow holy purity of heart on those who believe in Him and resort to Him through repentance. He does not require from us, who are just beginning the procession to Him, this high purity, alien to all stains. Purity is preceded by sight and awareness of one's impurity. And this is already a gift of God, for the receipt of which we pray with kneeling: “Lord, grant me to see my sins!” But he who sees his uncleanness must mourn it and ask the all-powerful and all-good Doctor for healing. The Holy Spirit is the true mentor of Christians. His organs were the prophets, apostles and other saints of God: He spoke with them. May He be your guide and guide you into all truth. You will come under this blessed guidance when you draw instructions for your life solely from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church, the only true one. “My soul has come a long way!” May the merciful Lord, who gives His servants everything at the time known to Him, grant me a wandering shelter of repentance. May He grant me this precious gift! and I will share the treasures brought by repentance with my friends in the Lord. The gift of repentance is the guarantee of eternal bliss. Whitened by repentance, let me enter into paradise, where those whose vestments are not whitened by repentance will not be admitted. May I see there those who love me in the Lord, may I fall with them at the feet of the Lord, who did not hide from us the village of repentance, on which the precious bead of salvation is hidden. But a merchant who wants to buy this village must sell all his property in order to buy the village of repentance. Let me be this merchant! May I be the owner of this spiritual gift for the salvation of mine and my neighbors! My soul sighs, longs for deep, unbreakable silence, outside of which it is impossible to find abundant, complete repentance. I surrender to the will of God! May the will of God be done over me and over all of us. My heart, orphaned on earth, heard an echo in your soul, striving to know God as God, and to worship God as God. If He humbled Himself for us, taking on the form of a servant out of inexpressible love for us, then we have no right to forget ourselves before Him. We must approach Him, like servants to the Lord, like creatures to the Creator, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, 85 according to the will of the Apostle. His immense greatness naturally inspires awe in everyone, including those closest to Him, in everyone, and those closest to Him. The holy prophet David said: God is terrible to all those around him, 86 the glorious Seraphim and fiery Cherubim, who, impatient to see the glory that surpasses the powers of creatures, cover their faces with fiery wings, and, in a ceaseless, eternal frenzy, cry out: Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts!.. How can a gloomy sinner appear before the face of his great God? Unless covered from head to toe with the robe of repentance. Without this clothing, for him, struck from head to toe by the stinking ulcer of sin, it is more natural, more righteous to be in darkness, in the fire of hell, than before the all-holy God. Hell!.. this is a place suitable for sinners. Let us deign ourselves to hell, so that God may deign us to heaven. Boredom happens to me for two reasons. After I fall into some sinful deed, word, or thought, and when I do not engage in repentance for a long time, even if at that time I was busy with useful activities. Then the soul feels lack, deprivation: from the feeling of lack - sadness. This sadness is cured by repentance and prayer. God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. We remembered God and rejoiced. Consider yourself. In the above-mentioned causes of grief, will you not find the reason for your grief? Use healing: prayer, dissolved in repentance. Do not hide Your commandments from Me, for I am a stranger on earth!... Saint David prayed to God with tears. The king of a vast kingdom and the owner of great wealth. This is exactly what is needed, as the Lord said. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her 87. And all other earthly blessings will be taken away - at death and after death. I offer you a story sacred from ancient times: “Three monks, zealous for a virtuous life, proposed the following pious activities for themselves: the first is to reconcile those who quarreled among themselves. The word of the Gospel led him to this activity: blessed are the peacemakers 88. The second decided to spend his whole life serving the sick; he was attracted to this activity by the words of the Lord: if you are sick, visit Me 89 . The third retreated into silence into the desert. The one who reconciled those at war with each other had very little success. Tired, he came to his brother, who had devoted himself to serving the sick; but he also found him weakened, unable to continue his ministry any longer. Then both agreed to see the hermit. Having come to him, they told him their grief and begged him to tell them what he had acquired in silence? The hermit, after being silent for a while, took some water and, pouring it into a cup, said to them: Look into the water. They looked but saw nothing because the water was cloudy. After a little time, the hermit again said to them: the water has settled - now look. When they looked into the water, they saw their faces in it, as in a mirror. He said to them: the man who lives in the midst does not see his sins, being outraged by the entertainment of the world; when he comes to silence, especially in the desert, then he begins to see sin living within himself.” You must first discern your sin, then wash it with repentance and acquire purity of heart, without which it is impossible to perform a single virtue purely, completely, with the knowledge of your conscience. Seeing one's sins is not as easy as it may seem at first, superficial glance. To acquire this vision, you need a lot of preliminary information. A detailed knowledge of the law of God is needed, without which it is impossible to know positively which deeds, words, thoughts, sensations belong to truth, and which belong to sin. Sin often takes the form of truth! – You need to know in detail the properties of a person in order to know what the sinful ulcers of the mind are, what the ulcers of the heart are, what the ulcers of the body are. You need to know - what is the fall of man? You need to know what properties the descendants of the new Adam should have in order to see what and what our shortcomings are. So much preliminary information is required, important information, to obtain detailed information and a clear view of one’s sins! True silence leads to such vision. It provides the soul with a dispensation similar to pure mirror waters: in them a person sees his own condition and, in proportion to his success, the condition of his neighbors. My solitude is interrupted by frequent internal and external rumors; My water is mostly cloudy! rarely, rarely does it receive some specularity - and then only for a moment! In this brief moment, a most attractive sight appears before the eyes of my mind. I see God’s endless mercy towards me, I see a chain of God’s incessant blessings. Why did they pour out on me? – I’m perplexed. How did I pay the Benefactor for them? - continuous sins. I look at my sins and am horrified - as if I were looking into a terrible deep abyss, from just looking into which my head begins to spin. But what if we measure this abyss?.. And I begin to measure its sorrow, measure it with sighs and sobs!.. I still sob - suddenly the sadness in my heart changes to delightful joy: as if someone is telling my heart: “The incomprehensible benefactor God is dissatisfied with His benefits; He still wants to bring you into heaven, to make you a partaker of eternal pleasure.” I believe this: every good deed, no matter how great, can be expected from the immeasurable goodness of God. I believe, and my whole being is immersed in quiet, delightful joy. I spend my time in idleness, which is due to the method of treatment I use. It brings tangible benefits, but takes up all the time. Unpleasant worries about the body, which, despite all the cares about it, must certainly return to its dust, to its land, from which it was borrowed by the Creator. I delve into myself, I find that I was formed by illness and circumstances for solitude; My heart is cold and dead towards external services. I would like to break my connection with society at once, with one blow! And I would do this not for myself, not for people, but so that my intention and enterprise would be pure before God, who said: No one lays his hand on his head and in vain turns back, he is ruled in the Kingdom of God 90. However, the judgment of God and the judgment of man are very different: this is how a certain great reverend father, especially abundant in the gift of spiritual reasoning, put it. I don’t know what God has intended for me; and I, looking at myself, find myself incapable of public positions, [but] more capable of solitude, to which I became accustomed, having spent many years, due to my illness, almost hopelessly in my cell. In solitude I can freely indulge in wandering in the regions of the spiritual world where my thought and heart have migrated from earth. I am unable to return them to earth! And their migration from the land took place without my knowledge. I didn’t think about this resettlement, I didn’t know at all that it was possible - I unexpectedly saw them resettled. They are already looking at the earth like strangers looking at a foreign land. Having been in the wonderful region of the indestructible, in the region of blessed blessed peace and light, they turned away from the land of darkness, from the land of strife, quarrels, constant confusion, from the land where all good is mixed with evil! Dark country - earth! it is a country of exile for criminals who desecrated paradise with sin, those guilty of disobedience to God, those who despised communion with Him, and exchanged this communion for communion with the devil. On earth, everything is hostile to man, and he himself is in a constant struggle with himself. The earth is the vale of exile, the vale of initial suffering with which eternal suffering begins - a just punishment for insulting the Infinitely Good. The earth is our exile, that is why the Redeemer came here: he atoned for an immeasurable sin at an immeasurable price - with His blood. The earth is our exile: that is why the Redeemer raises those who accepted His redemption from earth to heaven. Heaven is the true fatherland of man: the procession there must be made within oneself. You have to see the rulers of the world in yourself! It is necessary to settle accounts with them by returning to them what belongs to them, which a person borrowed from them. We borrowed from them the poison of sin, sin in all its petty forms, in all its varied forms. Having separated from ourselves everything that is alien to our nature, we will remain with ourselves, with our own immaculate nature. This cleansing is carried out in us by the “Word of God,” which reveals to us both the properties of the new Adam and the plagues of the old. The all-good Holy Spirit, seeing our whiteness, will descend into us, overshadow us with His peace and light, change, seal, place us in the blessed race of the chosen, in the descendants of the second man, who is the Lord from heaven. Sealed by the Spirit, we will no longer be afraid of the dark and evil rulers of the world, we will pass through their dark and dense hordes, to the light of truth, we will find in its bosom a foretaste of future bliss. Whoever has made this journey on earth in the inner man, who has freed himself from the captivity of sin and received the betrothal of the Spirit, his soul will pass through its separation from the body, unhindered and unharmed by the ordeal of the airy torturers. All this and much more, inexplicable by earthly words, is studied by man in silence. The Holy Spirit approaches the silent one correctly, is present with him, proclaims the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, so that the silent one himself is richly saturated with knowledge and spiritual sensations and feeds his hungry and thirsty brethren with them. The Teaching of the Spirit is a living teaching; light shines from it, life breathes from it. Human teaching, from fallen human nature, from the knowledge inherent in this state of fall, is gloomy, dead, has a false light, flatters the ears and heartfelt feelings, preserves in the listeners, multiplies darkness in them, strengthens the dominion of death. A wondrous miracle occurs during the teaching of the Spirit, when the Spirit - the teacher - who pronounces the word of God and who listens to it, shares the teaching of life among themselves. All glory belongs to the mysterious Teacher; the one who pronounces the word feels that he is not pronouncing his own word, but the word of God; the one who listens feels that he is hearing the word of God: all his attention is drawn to the spiritual power that animates him; towards the human word, in which the word of God is clothed, his heart remains cold. In the spiritual church the idol of “I” has been overturned and thrown out of it; in this church, cleansed from the filth of desolation, the fragrance of the Holy Spirit spreads, and the broadcasts of the Holy Spirit are heard. What do you think is the feeling that surrounds a person who speaks the words of the Spirit and feels the action of the Spirit within himself? – A feeling that is characteristic of a creature before its Creator. Then a person clearly feels and sees that he is nothing. It is not from a book, not from people, not from natural genius abilities that a person is made a student, a listener and an organ of the Spirit! - through faith in Christ, through the revival of Christ in oneself by transferring into oneself the properties of Christ, which Christ revealed to people in the sacred sayings of the Gospel. Where Christ is, there is His Spirit, there is His Mind - His incomprehensible Father. What lightness, what well-being, what blissful purity, when a person does not stop feelings of affection for his neighbors, but only serves as their guide to the holy, pure sky! when he says to God about his beloved: “God! they are Your property, Your creations! What's yours is yours, but what's mine? a short-term wanderer on earth, suddenly appearing on it and suddenly disappearing from it.” Whoever in this way purifies love from self-love and partiality finds in himself pure love, love in God. To acquire this love, self-sacrifice is commanded to us; this is the meaning of the words of the Lord: Whoever loses his soul for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:25). In these words the command is connected with the promise. On the contrary, the one who decides to find his soul in an age filled with seduction, that is, wants to fulfill his unclean desires, will destroy it. There is salvation in selflessness. Submit your mind to Christ! When the mind submits to Christ, it will not justify either itself or the heart. When excuses become scarce in the heart, it comes into a state of humility and tenderness. God will not despise a contrite and humble heart; and excuses are a terrible sinful death. Saint David prayed like this and teaches us to pray like this: Do not turn my heart into words of wickedness, do not forgive the guilt of sins 91. “Not to feel guilty about sins” means to make excuses, to justify one’s sins. The thoughts and words in which this justification is portrayed are called words of deceit. The sinner is craftily trying to deceive himself and people! the sinner slyly tries to hide his sin from himself and from people! He is craftily trying to present himself as righteous before himself and before people! Sometimes the very necessity, the benefit of our neighbor, who could be tempted by our sin, forces us to justify ourselves before people, to hide our sin before them. Justifying oneself before oneself, deceiving oneself, drowning one’s conscience is always lawless, always disastrous; internalized words of wickedness turn a person into a bitter Pharisee, capable of any crime. Justification for sins, which does not require fiction and verbosity, justification always accepted by God is repentance. All sin flees from the face of repentance; no sin can withstand almighty repentance. Repentance is an evangelical virtue, a priceless gift of God, purchased for us at the price of the blood of the Son of God, this price that redeems every sin we have committed. Decide first, albeit in your mind, to renounce yourself for the sake of Christ, deprive your mind of harmful, stupid autocracy, subordinate it to the commandments of Christ, subordinate it to the Gospel. The beginning of self-denial is in the mind, having submitted to Christ, it will gradually lead both heart and body to this blissful submission. Self-sacrifice is scary at the first, superficial glance at it. But as soon as a person decides on it, he will feel extraordinary lightness and freedom in his soul: lightness, freedom are witnesses of the truth. I feel like I’m separated from everything! my thought incessantly cries out to God so that He will arrange for me a path to Him, a path of repentance. The gates of eternity opened wide before me. I look there, into this endless distance, into this boundless space, into these immeasurable dimensions. Time has shrunk before me - it flies incomparably faster to flow, like a stream into the sea, into eternity. I look into eternity: the temporary is uninteresting, petty, vain, insignificant. I love solitude: from it you can look more closely into eternity, - see what is needed there, - prepare this necessary thing in advance, before the soul leaves the body. I'm interested in the Gospel. My gaze is struck by the features of the image of God and the shades of the likeness of God depicted in the Gospel! Be like me, God says to people. So that they could comfortably grasp this wonderful similarity, God became human. What unspeakable beauty is in the new Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ! What a disgrace I am, what a disorder! How many spots I have! This is how I see myself when I look in the mirror of the Gospel. I need to attend to both the face of my soul and its clothes; I need that when I enter eternity, there will be no resemblance or affinity in me with the enemies of God, with dark demons; I need the Son of God to recognize me as similar to Him, as all the blessed inhabitants of heaven are similar to Him. Man's likeness to God, recognized by God, will give man a blessed eternity; the loss of this likeness entails expulsion from the face of God into dark hell, into its fiery abyss, to eternal suffering. The peace of Christ, surpassing every mind, uniting together a person cut by sin - the peace of Christ, filling our entire being with incomprehensible power and heavenly sweetness, begins to descend into the soul when it is cleansed of passions by keeping the commandments of Christ and pious deeds. In order to preserve the peace of Christ within oneself, in order to taste it abundantly, in order to be changed by it from the old into the new man, solitude is necessary. A treasure thrown down at a crossroads must certainly be plundered and stolen. Powerful is the peace that flows from the action of the Holy Spirit. Who can resist his attraction? Passions flee from his face; from action his mind and heart move to heaven. Man is reconciled to everything in God. He begins, as it were, to float in the immeasurable space of the spiritual world, and learns that the commandment of God is wide and very wide. The peace of Christ has accomplished martyrs and saints: it brings the Christian out from under the power of flesh and blood, removes the poison of sin from the soul and body, destroys the violent influence of demons on the soul and body, introduces into the Christian the properties of Christ, meekness, humility, goodness. The soul, having felt these properties, begins to taste wonderful peace - the guarantee and beginning of the eternal peace of the righteous in the villages of eternal bliss. Our God is fire 92, - the Scripture teaches, but from the action of this fire it gradually fades away, finally the sinful fire, the fire of the flesh and the soul, completely goes out. Divine fire is pure, subtle, bright - it imparts truth to the mind, and wonderful calmness to the heart, wonderful coolness towards everything earthly, an abundance of meekness, humility, and goodness. Make no mistake! Do not consider human fervor to be the action of Divine fire. Many made mistakes and fell into harmful self-delusion. From this inflamed state, countless delusions arose and filled the earth with false teaching. Behind these dark clouds the sun of truth is hidden from the world. By their fruit you will know them,” the Savior said about false teaching and false teachers. Where there is heat, there is no truth, nothing good, nothing useful can happen from there: here the blood boils, here the false mind fumes and builds castles in the air. Meekness and humility, the action of which is accompanied by some subtle coolness, but then appears in countless good fruits, are witnesses of genuine, true, divine goodness. The teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church is correct: it is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. I beg you: stick to this teaching! it will guide you to a blissful eternity. A brilliant lamp has been lit in the Holy Church of Christ - the teaching of the Holy Spirit: do not direct your gaze to other lamps shining on different paths. One path of holy truth leads to salvation; other paths all lead to destruction. Many work, many suffer, many strive, but only those who struggle legally will be crowned. True, legal feat in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, in the fence of the Holy Eastern Church. Now I am reading a book that I have in Slavic, Russian and other languages, which contains “a collection of sayings of the holy desert dwellers of Egypt.” These sayings are priceless pearls! A diver descends into the deep sea to get an expensive pearl, and the Holy Fathers retired into the deep deserts, there they delved deeply into themselves, found various priceless, spiritual pearls: Christimitable humility, childlike simplicity and gentleness, angelic dispassion, spiritual reasoning and wisdom - in a word, they found the Gospel. Today I read that saying of the Great Sisoy, which I have always especially liked, which has always been especially close to my heart. A certain monk told him: “I am in constant remembrance of God.” The Monk Sisoes answered him: “This is not great; It will be great when you consider yourself worse than all creation.” A high occupation is the constant remembrance of God! but this height is very dangerous when the ladder to it is not based on the solid stone of humility. Look how Scripture agrees with the Fathers! Scripture says: You do not favor burnt offerings... the sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. Human sacrifices and burnt offerings themselves must be based on a feeling of spiritual poverty, on a feeling of repentance. Without this they are rejected by God. I also really like the saying of the Great Pimen: “If we always blame ourselves for everything,” he said, “then we will find peace everywhere.” Another Father said: “We have left the easy burden of blaming ourselves and taken up the heavy burden of blaming others.” Such sayings are worth entire books! No one, it seems, has delved into the Gospel as much as the holy desert dwellers delved into it; they tried to implement the Gospel with their very lives, with their very thoughts and feelings. Their distinguishing feature was their deepest humility; the fall of man was a constant subject of their meditation; Their constant occupation was crying about their sins. The ascetics of the Western Church and its writers on asceticism have received a different direction since the separation of this Church from the Eastern and its fall into the disastrous darkness of heresy. Venerable Benedict and Holy Pope Gregory the Dvoeslov still agree with the ascetic mentors of the East; but Bernard already differs from them in a sharp way; the later ones deviated even more. They are immediately attracted and draw their readers to heights inaccessible to the beginner, they are carried and carried. Heated, often frenzied daydreaming replaces for them everything spiritual, about which they have no idea. This dreaminess is recognized by them as grace. By their fruit you will know them,” said the Savior. Everyone knows with what crimes, with what streams of blood, with what behavior, decidedly anti-Christian, Western fanatics expressed their ugly way of thinking, their ugly feeling of heart. The Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church do not lead their reader into the embrace of love, not to the heights of visions; they lead him to consider his sin, his fall, to confess the Redeemer, to cry for himself before the mercy of the Creator. They first teach us to curb the impure aspirations of our body, to make it light and capable of spiritual activity; then they turn to the mind, straighten its way of thinking, its mind, clearing it of the thoughts that we acquired after our fall, replacing them with thoughts of the renewed human nature, vividly depicted in the Gospel. With the correction of the mind, the Holy Fathers take care of the correction of the heart, of changing its habits and sensations. It is more difficult to cleanse the heart than to cleanse the mind: the mind, having become convinced of the validity of a new thought, easily discards the old one and easily assimilates a new one; but to replace a skill with a skill, a property with a property, a feeling with another feeling, an opposite feeling, this is work, this is hard, long work, this is an incredible struggle. The Fathers express the ferocity of this struggle this way: “give blood and receive spirit.” This means: we must mortify all sinful desires of flesh and blood, all movements of the mind and heart that depend on flesh and blood. It is necessary to bring the body, the mind, and the heart into the control of the spirit. Blood and nerves are set in motion by many passions: anger, love of money, lust, and vanity. The last two extremely warm the blood of ascetics who labor illegally and turn them into frenzied fanatics. Vanity strives prematurely for spiritual states for which a person is still incapable due to his impurity, due to failure to achieve the truth - he invents dreams for himself. And voluptuousness, adding its action to the action of vanity, produces in the heart seductive, false consolations, pleasures and raptures. This state is a state of self-delusion. Everyone who works illegally is in this state. It develops in them more or less, depending on how much they enhance their exploits. Many books have been written from this state by Western writers. They are greedily attacked, they are preached primarily as saints and spiritualists, worthy to stand near the Holy Scriptures, by the blind and proud world, which recognizes itself as enlightened to the highest degree and therefore does not need to adhere relentlessly to the traditions of the Eastern Church. The heated state of blood is by no means visible in the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church. They never come into the enthusiasm which, being the birth of blood, often in the West sought the shedding of blood. From their writings breathes true selflessness, breathes the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, deadening passions. The sons of the world flee from this fragrance, just as wasps fly away from smoking incense. The world loves its own, said the Lord. The works of Western writers who wrote from a state of self-delusion find numerous readers, are translated into Russian more than once, published, and reprinted; Loud praises are spoken, written and printed for them; that which is full of deadly poison is approved and approved. The writings of the Holy Fathers have been forgotten! The fact that they have been accepted by the Holy Church since ancient times, recognized as the only correct guide in ascetic life, is not at all accepted with respect. Their works are criticized and inconsistencies are found in them; contradiction to Holy Scripture. The reason for all this is that the Holy Fathers were instructed by the Holy Spirit, that they rejected the wisdom of the world in order to acquire the wisdom of the Spirit. Vain are the attempts of those who, contrary to the teaching of the Apostle, contrary to the teaching of the Church, attempt to enter into the wisdom of the Spirit through the wisdom of the world. And the wise stumble in their deceit (1 Cor. 3:19); they stumble and fall into a terrible fall. They wanted to explain the “spiritual” with a dark spiritual mind, and this “spiritual” in the writings of the Holy Fathers seemed strange to them, contradicting the Holy Scriptures. Spiritual with spiritual judgment, said the holy Apostle Paul. A spiritual person does not even accept the Spirit of God: for he has foolishness and cannot understand without being spiritual (1 Cor. 2:13-14). The last words in the Russian translation of the New Testament read like this: because this (the spiritual) must be judged spiritually. You ask, what is my opinion about human sciences? – After the fall, people began to cultivate the land, began to need clothing and other numerous needs that accompany our earthly wanderings; in a word, they began to need material development, the desire for which is a distinctive feature of our century. Sciences are the fruit of our fall, the product of a damaged, fallen mind. Learning is the acquisition and storage of impressions and knowledge accumulated by people during the life of the fallen world. Learning is the lamp of the old man, a lamp by which the darkness of darkness is kept forever. The Redeemer returned to people the Lamp that was given to them at creation by the Creator, which they lost during their fall. This Lamp is the Holy Spirit, He is the Spirit of Truth, instructs in all truth, tests the depths of God, reveals and explains mysteries, and bestows material knowledge when it is needed for the spiritual benefit of man. The apostle bequeaths the scientist who wants to learn spiritual wisdom: If anyone thinks he is wise in you in this world, let him be, for he will be wise (1 Cor. 3:18). Exactly! learning is not wisdom itself, but only the opinion of wisdom. The knowledge of the Truth, which is revealed to people by the Lord, to which access is only by faith, which is inaccessible to the fallen human mind, is replaced in scholarship by fortune-telling and assumptions. The wisdom of this world, in which many pagans and atheists occupy an honorable place, is directly opposite, in its very beginnings, to spiritual, divine wisdom. You cannot be a follower of both at the same time: one must certainly be renounced. Fallen man is a “lie,” and from his reasonings a “false mind” was formed, that is, a way of thinking, a collection of false concepts and knowledge, which has only the appearance of reason, but in its essence is vacillation, delirium, the frenzy of the mind, struck by the mortal wound of sin and fall. This illness of the mind is especially fully revealed in the philosophical sciences. Try to read the books of the Holy Fathers that correspond to your lifestyle, so that you can not only admire and enjoy reading the Fathers’ writings, but so that you can apply them to the work itself. A Christian living in the middle of the world must read the works of the great saints who wrote for the people, teaching Christian virtues for those who spend their lives among material pursuits. Another reading is for cenobitic monks: they should read the Holy Fathers who wrote instructions for this kind of life. And another reading for the silent and hermit! The study of virtues that do not correspond to the way of life produces daydreaming and leads a person into a false state. Practicing virtues that do not correspond to the way of life makes life fruitless. And life is exhausted in vain, and virtues disappear: the soul cannot keep them with itself for long, it must soon leave them, because they are beyond its power. Such exercise in sublime virtues, which exceeds strength and ability, often damages the soul beyond healing, upsets it for a long time, sometimes for the rest of its life, and makes it incapable of deeds of piety. The Lord commanded that new wine, that is, sublime virtues and deeds, be poured into new wineskins, that is, presented to ascetics who had already matured in pious deeds, renewed and enlightened by grace. He forbade pouring new wine into old wineskins, and mending an old robe with a new patch. Do not think that a sublime feat for which your soul is not yet ripe will help you! No! He will upset you more: you will have to leave him, and despondency, hopelessness, gloom, and bitterness will appear in your soul. In such a disposition, you will allow yourself to make greater mistakes, greater violations of the Law of God than you fell into before. “They don’t put a new patch on an old robe, because this will only make the hole bigger.” And for all monks in general and for Christians living in the middle of the world, the most useful reading is the New Testament, especially the Gospel. But it must be read with humility, not allowing oneself to make one’s own interpretations, but being guided by the interpretation of the Church. Abide in the haven of truth. The enemy of human salvation is trying to lure our thoughts from the haven of truth with various ghosts of truth. He knows the powers of this network. This network seems insignificant to the untrained eye; the mind is lured to it by curiosity, by the magnificent, holy name, which usually covers up destruction. So the gullible nightingale, a particularly curious bird, is lured by food scattered under the net - and ends up forever in boring captivity. A false thought is destructive: it introduces darkness and self-delusion into the soul, making it a captive of the ruler of the world. The truth will set you free 93, said the Savior; It is obvious that a lie deprives one of freedom and subjugates the realm of the prince of this age. I wish that you were free, that the vision of your soul was pure and bright, that your mind was imbued with the light of truth and shed grace-filled light on your entire life, on all your deeds. If your eye is bright, said the Lord, then your whole body will be bright 94. We must keep our minds! He must constantly remain in the truth. I wish you this from my sincere heart! I wish you this from my aching heart! That is why it is painful because in modern times it is rare, very rare, who remain faithful to the truth - they have bowed their minds and hearts to its good yoke and its light burden - they have submitted with all simplicity and submission to Christ and His Holy Church. Save yourself, says the holy Apostle Peter, from this obstinate generation! 95 Turn away from the broad path along which almost everyone walks! Choose for yourself the narrow and sorrowful path that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven! love the sorrows sent to you by the Providence of God! love the narrows along which the wise Providence, the Providence of God that saves you, has paved the path for your earthly wandering! Make your sorrows, your hardships, and the thorny path of earthly life pleasant and sweet for yourself. How to do this? Surrendering to the Will of God, glorifying the Providence of God, recognizing this Will and this Providence in everything that happens to you, thanking God for everything that happens to you, both sorrowful and joyful. The time is to begin living a true Christian life, coupled with the crucifixion of all sensations, desires, thoughts on the cross of the commandments and teachings of Christ. Soon, soon earthly life will fly by! - an eternal reward is already ready for every person for his short life, for his deeds, for his way of thinking, for his feelings. The Venerable Abba Dorotheos, speaking about love for one's neighbor, likens the ascetics of Christ to lines running from the circumference of a circle to its center. For clarity, here is the drawing! <…> The closer the lines come to the center, the closer they become to each other. And the ascetics of Christ, the closer they come to God, the closer they become to each other through true love. Every path of the mind and heart, when its goal is God, is endless. The fear of God is pure, endures forever and ever 96; advancement in the wisdom of God is endless; success in love for one's neighbor, when it is in God, is endless. Earthly life is not enough to complete this spiritual path! It is impossible to get enough of love for one’s neighbor in God! On the contrary, you can quickly complete the journey, you can quickly be satisfied and satiated with love for your neighbor, when the object of love is only a person. The fire of love requires a lot of food in order to be constant and multiply. When God feeds him, he constantly strengthens, there is no limit to him; but when it is left to a person to feed it with himself, the food for the fire will soon become scarce - the fire will dim and go out. Love must be nourished by the infinite God: there is little food for it in the limited properties of human beings, even if they are beautiful. The heart can only enjoy blessed peace when it abides in the Gospel commandments, when it abides in them with selflessness. When some other truth ascends into it, it loses its peace. The great and all-holy book is the Gospel! It depicts a new, god-like man; and what the properties of the new man should be - these are revealed by Christ’s commandments. In them, Christ revealed to us His properties, His way of thinking and acting. Peering into the Gospel, looking at ourselves in this mirror, we can little by little recognize our shortcomings, little by little throw out the concepts and properties of our old age, replace them with the thoughts and properties of the Gospel, Christ. This is the task, the lesson that a Christian must solve and fulfill during his earthly life. It is necessary to depict a portrait of Christ on the soul, to convey to it the resemblance to its prototype. Portraits devoid of resemblance will be rejected at the same general exhibition, at which each person will be tested to what extent he has preserved and renewed in himself the image and likeness of his Creator and God. Images in which all the features and colors are so distorted that all resemblance, all similarity is lost, will hear: We don’t know you! They won't be recognized! The Lord will refuse them! Let's begin spiritual painting! Let us pay attention to the image of God, thrown down, covered with dirt, scratches and dust, inscribed on us and entrusted to us by God! The painter is Christ; His brush is the Holy Spirit. Let us prepare the soul for this painting so that the soul, like a clean, new canvas, is capable of taking on everything - the finest features, the most delicate colors and shades. For such preparation, one needs to cleanse oneself with repentance and wash oneself with tears. And in order to arouse in oneself a feeling of repentance, saving sadness and crying, one must, while abstaining from all passions, often read the Gospel, compare one’s life with its most holy commandments, force oneself to fulfill these commandments, contrary to the aspirations and impulses of the sin-loving will. A certain holy father said: “By fulfilling Christ’s commandments a person learns his weakness.” Exactly: then it will be revealed to us how weak we are, how much we have been damaged by the fall, when we begin to force ourselves to fulfill the Gospel commandments. From the sight of one’s weakness, one’s damage, crying is naturally born. Crying is a heartfelt feeling of repentance! Crying is “a contrite and humble spirit,” so dear to God. When the Lord sees a soul purifying itself through repentance, then He begins, little by little, in accordance with its purity, to renew on it with the Holy Spirit the features of His image, the shades and colors of His likeness. First of all, he imprints her with meekness and humility. Learn from Me,” He says, “for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Only then can one find sacred peace when the mind and heart are immersed in the humility of Christ and His meekness, having learned them from the Gospel. These two virtues put in order the features of an image upset by the confusion that persistently cohabits with every person who serves the passions. The sign of order is sacred peace. Then, according to the corrected features, holy colors are put in place, comforting the spiritual gaze: goodness, mercy, purity of mind, heart and body, living faith, not neglecting all vanities, teaching a person to follow Christ completely, patience, carried above all temporary sorrows, loving sorrows as participation in the sufferings of Christ - love for God and neighbor, striving to fulfill all the duties of a person to to its Creator and to creatures similar to themselves, which must be one in their Creator. Deny yourself and follow the Gospel! Man is like grass, and how much does it take to mow him down? One minute can decisively destroy his health and plunge his body either into the grave or onto the bed of a painful and prolonged illness. The Gospel teaches us that no sorrow can befall us without the Will of God - it teaches us to thank God for all the sorrows that come to us at His behest. From your sick bed, bring thanks to God, just as Job, covered in stinking scabs, brought it from a heap of pus. Thanks to gratitude the severity of illness is dulled! Thanksgiving brings spiritual comfort to the sick! A heart instructed and delighted by thanksgiving is renewed by the power of living faith. Suddenly illuminated by the light of faith, the mind begins to contemplate the wondrous Providence of God, vigilantly vigilant over all creation. Such contemplation leads to spiritual delight; the soul begins to thank abundantly, glorify God, begins to praise His Holy Providence, and surrender itself to His holy Will. The sickbed is often a place of knowledge of God and self-knowledge. The suffering of the body is often the cause of spiritual pleasures, and the bed of illness is watered with tears of repentance and tears of joy in God. During illness, you first need to force yourself to thank God, and when the soul tastes the sweetness and peace brought by thanksgiving, it itself hurries to it, as if to a refuge. She hurries there from the heavy waves of murmur, cowardice, and sadness. Through many sorrows we must enter into the Kingdom of God. Whomever the Lord loves, he sends sorrows, and they mortify the heart of God’s chosen one towards the world, accustoming him to hover near God. In all sorrows, including illness, the following medicines bring spiritual benefit and joy: devotion to the Will of God, thanksgiving to God, reproaching oneself and recognizing oneself as worthy of God’s punishment, remembering that all saints have walked the path of earthly life in constant and fierce suffering, that sorrow is the cup of Christ. One who does not partake of this cup is not able to inherit eternal bliss. Strange thoughts come in solitude! “The ear of the silent will hear marvelous things,” said a certain holy desert dweller. And in my insignificant solitude I encounter thoughts that strongly influence the mind with living truth. Recently I was thinking about the brevity of human life on earth. Suddenly life seemed so short to me that the rest of my earthly life seemed to me to have already passed. I will still live - and what will I see new on earth? - Nothing: the same virtues and the same passions that have hitherto appeared before me in various costumes and actions will continue to appear; in the same way, virtue will quietly make its way among people, unnoticed, persecuted by them; in the same way, vice, hiding behind countless guises, will deceive people and dominate among them. A two-year life and a hundred-year life are equally small, insignificant before eternity. Usually people only think of the future as continuous; the past seems to them so short, instantaneous, like a dream from last night. Solitude, combined with delving into oneself, makes the future tense short. Short past, short future! What about earthly life? – The path to eternity, which must be used, but on which one does not need to look to the side. This path must be completed with the mind and heart, not in the number of days and years. The mind, illuminated by the teaching of truth, can preserve the heart in peace, meekness, goodness, patience, in short, in the properties of a new person. This is what the desert, and silence, and monasteries are for! This is what a soul-edifying conversation and spiritual advice are for! This is why reading the Holy Fathers! for this prayer. All Christians are obliged to live this way, although very few live this way. If you cannot live completely this way, live partly this way; shortcomings can be healed by self-condemnation and repentance. Seeing shortcomings in yourself, you should not be discouraged; on the contrary, one must work in humility. The Monk Isaiah the Hermit said beautifully: “The glory of the saints is like the radiance of stars, of which one shines very brightly, another is dimmer, another is barely noticeable; but these stars are all in the same sky.” How many generations has the earth on its surface changed! – and it was as if they had never been there. How long have we heard of many big names? - and now they are forgotten. How long ago has our generation entered the field of civil life? and now a new generation is entering this field and is pushing us out of the vast circle of activity into the modest corner of the aged, outdated. Generations of men on earth are like leaves on a tree! now alone, soon others! heat and frost destroy them, and it’s time, the wind carries them away, trampled by travelers. I look from my solitude at the noisy and restless world, I say to myself and my friends: one activity can be recognized as a truly useful activity during a short earthly life - while our turn to turn green is the knowledge of Christ, Who is both the giver of eternal, blessed life, and the path to this life. Christ is present in the Gospel, the Gospel is the heliport in which Mary, a faithful soul in repentance... outside the city, outside of love for the world, can find Christ. There is the tomb of Christ! there His loved ones cry - they cry before Him and for themselves. I often talk with you about the Truth. I want you to understand how important it is to monitor your way of thinking, your mind. A person is certainly led by his way of thinking: this is our light. We must watch with great care over our light, so that it does not become darkness, a false light, showing objects not in their places, not in their form, one instead of another. Look, food is light, and there is darkness in you (Luke 11:35). It is necessary that our way of thinking be imbued with the Truth. I don’t understand and don’t know any other Truth besides Christ. And aren’t they blind, no matter who they are, who, at the time when Christ stands before them in the terrible greatness of humility, ask: what is Truth? Delve deeply into my words! please, I beg you! I beg you for your own salvation. Usually people consider thought to be something of little importance: therefore they are very little picky when accepting thoughts. But from accepted correct thoughts all good things are born, and from accepted false thoughts all evil things are born. A thought is like a ship’s rudder: the direction and, for the most part, the fate of the entire huge machine depends on a small rudder, on this insignificant plank trailing behind the ship. The venerable thought will keep you 97, says Scripture; it teaches that the very “beginning of our words” should be “truth.” What is this “beginning of words” if not a way of thinking? The truth is witnessed on earth by the Holy Spirit. This is what the apostles said to the Jews. The Witness of Christ the Truth is the Holy Spirit. Where there is no testimony from the Spirit, there is no evidence of Truth. Anyone who wants to follow the Truth infallibly must remain in the teaching, sealed and witnessed by the Holy Spirit. This is the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church, the only holy, the only Orthodox and true. Any other teaching is alien to the Truth - Christ, the Truth that came down from heaven, through the inexpressible mercy of God, revealed to people sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, 98 mired in the dark and deep abyss of self-delusion, ignorance, fall, and destruction. “He believes in the truth in his heart,” said the apostle, “but he confesses with his lips for salvation.” We need to confess the truth with our lips and, when possible, with our deeds. Truth, confessed in words and deeds, is, as it were, realized and becomes a person’s property. And because it is essential, it is a sure guarantee of salvation. You are convinced that the only infallible path to salvation is unswerving adherence to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, while decisively deviating from any outside teaching, from your very understandings, until the mind is healed of its illness and becomes spiritual from the carnal and spiritual. Having recognized this truth with your mind and heart, confess it with your lips: make a vow to God that you will be guided by the teaching of the Holy Fathers, deviating from any teaching that is not attested by the Holy Spirit and not accepted by the holy Eastern Church. Having confessed the truth of God with your lips, confess it with your deeds: having made a vow, fulfill it. Do not be afraid of this vow! Every Orthodox son of the Church must give it, and his spiritual father must request it from every son of the Orthodox Church when performing the sacrament of confession. Among the questions that the confessor is supposed to do, the first place is occupied by the following: 1) “What are my words, my child: if you believe, as the Catholic, Apostolic Church, planted and raised in the East, and scattered from the East throughout the entire universe, and in the East hitherto motionless and certainly abiding, did you betray and teach? – 2) Have you ever doubted any legend? – 3) Rtsy, child, were you not a heretic and an apostate? - 4) Didn’t you stay with them, visiting their churches, listening to their teachings, or reading their books?” Reading heretical books and paying attention to their teachings is a grave sin against faith, a sin of a mind that is sick with pride and therefore overthrows the yoke of obedience to the Church, seeking insane, sinful freedom. And now this sin is no longer considered a sin! Nowadays they allow themselves to read indiscriminately all kinds of heretical writers. The Church thundered anathema against them! but blinded sinners do not heed the thunder of the church, or they heed it, but only in order to laugh at the voice of the Church warning against destruction, so that it makes no sense to call its judgment and determination superstition and barbarism. Many heretical books have been translated into Russian, and one of them, besides all the Fatherly writings of the Universal Church, is given first place after the books of the Holy Scriptures. Exorbitant and incredible impudence! it is expressed in print. True Christians of all times have been guarded with all possible care from the deadly poison of heresy and other false teachings. They relentlessly adhered to the dogmatic and moral Tradition of the Church. Not only did they believe Orthodoxy in the Holy Trinity, but they also directed their lives, their deeds, and their morals according to the Tradition of the Church. A distinctive feature of all the Holy Fathers was the unwavering guidance of the moral tradition of the Church, and they commanded that only such a spiritual mentor be considered true, who follows in everything the teaching of the Fathers of the Eastern Church and with their writings testifies and imprints his teaching. Whoever thinks to lead his neighbors from the principles of earthly wisdom, from the principles of fallen reason, no matter how brilliant he may be, is himself in self-delusion and leads his followers to self-delusion. The Holy Fathers decreed that an indispensable rule for those who wish to be saved is to follow the moral tradition of the Church. To do this, they command those who wish to live piously and pleasingly to follow the instructions of a true teacher or to follow the scriptures of the fathers, which correspond to the way of life of everyone. After eight centuries after the Nativity of Christ, Church holy writers begin to complain about the impoverishment of spiritual mentors and the appearance of many false teachers. They command, due to the lack of mentors, to turn to reading the Fatherly Scriptures, and to avoid reading books written outside the bosom of the Orthodox Church. The further times deviated from the appearance of Divine Light on earth, the greater the shortage of true holy mentors, the greater the abundance of false teachers; Since the discovery of book printing, they have flooded the earth like a flood, like bitter apocalyptic waters, from which many people died a spiritual death. “Many false prophets will arise,” the Lord foretold, “and will deceive many: and because iniquity will increase, the love of many will dry up 100.” This prophecy has come true: its fulfillment is before our eyes. And there is another prediction of the Lord about the nature of the time in which His second, terrible coming to earth will take place. The Son of Man, said the Lord, pointing to the future fate of faith, when he comes, will he find faith on earth? 101 Then false reason, human wisdom, hostile to faith and God, will dominate it. What does monastic virtue mean - obedience? It is the recognition of human reason as fallen and therefore its rejection by the violence of faith. From faith comes obedience, from obedience comes humility, from humility comes spiritual intelligence, which is communicated faith. Monastic obedience flourished with an abundance of spiritual mentors. With the depletion of mentors, the great feat of obedience, which soon led ascetics to holiness, also became impoverished: faith, which constituted the essence of this feat, requires that its object be true and spiritual: then it leads to God. Faith in a person leads to frenzied fanaticism. The guidance of the writings of the Holy Fathers is much slower, weaker; There are many more stumbling blocks on this path: a book written on paper cannot replace a living book of a person. A wonderful book - a mind and heart written with the Holy Spirit! life breathes out of her! This is how this life is communicated to those who listen with faith. But guidance from the scriptures of the fathers has become the only guide to salvation due to the final impoverishment of mentors. Whoever submits to this guidance can be recognized as already saved; whoever is led by his own understanding, or by the teachings of false teachers, must be considered lost. As a sample of how the Holy Fathers discuss this subject, I copy out the following from the writings of Saints Callistus and Ignatius: “What was the cause of contrition and death for you, while we were not first created such? What again was the cause of renewal and immortality? We find that the cause of the first, that is, corruption, was the arrogance, self-indulgence and disobedience of the first Adam, which led him to rejection and transgression of the Divine commandment; the reason for the second, that is, incorruption, is the obedience of the second Adam, our God and Savior Jesus Christ to the Father, one will with the Father, from which is the observance of the Father’s commandments. “I,” says the Savior, “said not of Himself: but the Father sent Me, He gave Me the commandment that I should speak and that I should speak: and we know that His commandment is eternal life. As I speak, as the Father speaks to me, so I say 102. Just as in the forefather and his tribe the root and substance of all sorrows was exaltation, so in the new man, the God-man Jesus Christ and in those who want to live like Him, the beginning, the source of all good things is humility. We see that such a position and order is observed by the sacred hierarchy of God-like Angels above us: like them, our earthly Church preserves them. On the contrary, we secretly learn and believe that those who deviate from such a law and boldly attempt to live their lives in self-will and disobedience are cut off and excommunicated from God, from the heavenly bright inheritance, from the catholic apostolic Church, and are sent into darkness and the fire of hell. We affirm that, according to the teaching of God-inspired words, the crafty and evil workers of the devil, slanderous heretics, who, due to self-indulgence and pride, were deprived of Divine glory and pleasure, were cast out from the sacred assembly.” The article from which I am borrowing an extract is concluded by the saints like this: “We say this, establishing ourselves on the sayings of the Fathers, on the sayings of the Spirit, as on unshakable pillars” (Philokalia. Part 2. Callista and Ignatius on silence and prayer, chapter 15). Having learned the path to salvation, do not stop taking it. Make a blessed covenant, a union with the holy Truth; resolve in your soul to remain faithful to the Truth all your life. From this good intention alone, lightness, joy, and strength will flow into your heart - witnesses of the accepted holy Truth. He believes in the truth with his heart, because it is true, and confesses with his lips for salvation. Your desire is excellent - to be in complete obedience to an experienced mentor. But this feat is not given to our time. He is not only absent among the Christian world, he is not even present in monasteries. Mortification of the mind and will cannot be carried out by a spiritual person, even a kind and pious one. For this, a spirit-bearing father is necessary: ​​only before a spirit-bearer can the disciple’s soul be revealed; only he can discern where and where the spiritual movements of the one he is teaching are directed. For the purity of his conscience, a student must confess his thoughts with accuracy and detail; but the mentor should not be guided by this confession in judging the student’s mental state; he must penetrate with spiritual sensation, measure it, and tell him the state of his soul invisible to him. This is how Pachomius the Great, Theodore the Sanctified and other holy mentors of monks acted. The disciples said to Theodore the Sanctified: “Father! rebuke me!” - and he, moved by the Holy Spirit, revealed to everyone the spiritual ailments hidden within him. These great Fathers recognized “monastic obedience” as a special gift of the Holy Spirit: this is what a contemporary writer, the Monk Cassian, tells us. Obedience is the “miracle of faith”! Only God can accomplish it. And it was done by those people who were given this gift from above by God. But when people want to achieve through their own efforts what is given only by God, then their labors are vain and in vain; then they are like the pillar builders mentioned in the Gospel, who begin the building without the means to complete it. All those passing by, that is, demons and passions, laugh at them: because outwardly they seem to be performing virtue, but in essence they are in bitter deception, in blindness and self-delusion, subordinate to their passions, fulfilling the will of demons. And many thought about undergoing obedience! but in fact it turned out that they were fulfilling their whims, they were carried away by the excitement. Happy is the one who, in his old age, manages to shed a tear of repentance for the hobbies of his youth. The Lord said about blind leaders and about those led by them: But if a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit (Matthew 15:14). Our time has been given another feat, fraught with many difficulties and stumbling blocks. We had to make the journey - not during the day, not in the clear light of the sun, but at night, in the pale light of the moon and stars. We have been given the Holy Scriptures for our guidance: the Holy Fathers of later times say this directly. When guided by Scripture, the advice of neighbors is also useful, namely those who themselves are guided by the writings of the Fathers. Do not think that our feat will be devoid of sorrows and crowns: no! it involves martyrdom. This martyrdom is similar to the languor of Lot in Sodom: the soul of the righteous languished at the sight of incessant and unbridled fornication. And we are languishing, surrounded everywhere by minds that have violated fidelity to the truth, entered into an adulterous relationship with lies, infected with hatred against the scriptures inspired by God, armed against them with blasphemy, slander and hellish mockery. Our feat has a price before God; our weakness, our means, our circumstances, and time itself are weighed on His scales. A certain great Father had the following vision: before him, the earthly life of people was depicted as a sea. He saw that the ascetics of the first times of monasticism were given wings of fire, and they were carried like lightning through the sea of ​​passions. The ascetics of recent times were not given wings: they began to cry on the seashore. Then they were given wings, but not fiery, but rather weak ones: they flew across the sea. On their way, due to the weakness of their wings, they often plunged into the sea; with difficulty rising from it, they began their journey again and finally, after many efforts and disasters, flew across the sea. Let's not be discouraged! Let us not recklessly strive for brilliant feats that exceed our strength: let us accept with reverence a humble feat, very much in keeping with our weakness, given as if visibly by the hand of God. Let us accomplish this feat with fidelity to the Holy Truth - and in the midst of the world, a noisy, countless crowd, striving along a wide, spacious path following self-willed rationalism, we will go to God along the narrow path of obedience to the Church and the Holy Fathers. Not many people follow this path? - What about that! The Savior said: Fear not, little flock: for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Enter through the narrow gates: like a wide gate and a wide path you lead into destruction, and many are those who enter through it. What a narrow gate and a strait path, enter into the belly, and there are few of them, those who find it 103. Are you asking why reading the Holy Fathers is necessary? Wouldn't it be enough to be guided by Holy Scripture alone - the pure Word of God, in which there is no admixture of human words? I answer: when reading Scripture, it is absolutely necessary to read the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church. This is what the holy Apostle Peter says about the Holy Scriptures: Every prophecy is not written according to its own telling (Russian translation: no prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by oneself). It was not by the will of man that prophecy came into being, but by the Holy Spirit the holy words of God were enlightened by men (2 Pet. 1:20–21). How do you want to arbitrarily understand the spiritual word, which was not pronounced arbitrarily, but according to the inspiration of the Spirit, and itself prohibits arbitrary interpretation of itself. The Spirit spoke the Scriptures, and only the Spirit can interpret them. Inspired men, prophets and apostles wrote it; men inspired by God, the Holy Fathers, interpreted it. Therefore, anyone who wants to acquire true knowledge of the Holy Scriptures needs to read the Holy Fathers. If you limit yourself to reading one Holy Scripture, then, of necessity, you must understand and explain it arbitrarily. Due to the same necessity, it will be impossible for you to avoid errors; because a natural man does not accept the Spirit of God, and cannot understand, he strives beyond the spiritual (Russian translation: a natural man does not accept what is from the Spirit of God, and cannot understand, because it must be judged spiritually (1 Cor. 2:14). No one knows the message of God, but the Spirit of God 104. The heretics of all times especially hate the writings of the Fathers: the writings of the Fathers reveal the direct meaning of the Holy Scriptures, which the enemies of the Truth would like to distort to confirm their false ideas. The heresiarch Eutyches expressed his dislike of the Fathers at the local Council of Constantinople. “The Holy Scriptures,” he said slyly, “should be respected more than the Fathers,” and he said because then the writings of the holy patriarchs of Alexandria Athanasius the Great and the recently deceased Cyril clearly exposed his blasphemous error. The Universal Church, on the contrary, has always had special respect for the patristic writings: these writings preserved church unity, for which a universally accepted, true, grace-filled explanation of Scripture is necessary. Ecumenical councils always began with the reading of those patristic writings in which dogma or tradition were set out in particular detail, the consideration of which was the subject of the council’s meetings. And relying on the Scriptures of the Fathers, the Council denounced heresy and pronounced Orthodox teaching and confession. In the same way, in private life, holy ascetics were initially educated by the writings of their fathers, only then did they move on to reading mainly the Holy Scriptures, when they had already achieved special spiritual success. “The sea of ​​Scripture is deep,” said St. John Climacus, “and the mind of a silent person does not rush through it safely: it is dangerous to swim in clothes, and to touch strange theology” (Homily 27. On Silence). This danger, this disaster obviously lies in arbitrary interpretation, in a false concept of Scripture, which is why many monks have fallen into disastrous error. In vain do the heretics display their imaginary respect for the Holy Scriptures, insidiously hinting that the Orthodox Church has little respect for it, overly respecting the Holy Fathers, whom they reject, whom they shower with shameless and unscrupulous slander and abuse. The respect of heretics for the Holy Scriptures is false, hypocritical; What kind of respect is there for the Word of God when it is left to everyone, no matter how vicious he may be, to understand and interpret it arbitrarily? The Holy Church, accepting the gracious interpretation of the Holy Scriptures by the Holy Fathers, thereby proves its deep respect for the Holy Scriptures: it honors it, as the word of God should be honored. She teaches her children not to be impudent in relation to the word of God, to keep them from proud self-will and lawlessness, commands them to be brought up by reading the Holy Fathers and, with their guidance, to penetrate into the wonderful light of the Word of God, striking with blindness those who dare to look at it without proper preparation, with an unclean mind and a sin-loving heart. One has only to pay attention to the worship of the Eastern Church to be convinced of its deep reverence for the Holy Scriptures. The Gospel - the all-holy book containing the words spoken to people by God Himself incarnate - is always present on the holy throne, vividly depicting Christ Himself. Only sacred persons are allowed to read it publicly; when it is read, everyone listens to it, as if it were Christ speaking; when it is taken out of the altar, lighted candles precede it. It is taken out and placed on the lectern in the middle of the church: then all the Orthodox Christians present reverently kneel before it, as before the word of God, kissing it with fear and love. And at this time the heretic, who had just boasted of his respect for the Holy Scriptures, is seduced by the reverence of the children of the Holy Church for the Gospel, mockingly calling their worship of the word of God idolatry, the worship of paper, ink, binding; poor blind man! he sees in this book only paper, ink, binding - he does not see the Gospel of Christ. The public reading of the Apostolic Epistles is performed by deacons and readers; the reading of other Holy Scriptures is performed by the readers in the middle of the church. Church hymns, composed by the Holy Fathers, contain a full course of dogmatic and moral theology. Glory to God, who has preserved His Church in purity and holiness! Glory to the holy Eastern Church, the only holy and true! All traditions, all its customs are holy, fragrant with spiritual anointing! Let all who oppose her, all who separate themselves from union with her, be ashamed. Have reverence for the Holy Scriptures, the reverence due to a true son of the true Church; have due trust and reverence for the writings of the Fathers. The same Spirit of God that acted in the prophets and apostles acted in the holy teachers and pastors of the church: the witness of this dogma is the holy Apostle: God forbid, he says, in the Church the apostles are first, the prophets second, the teachers third 105. In accordance with the words of the Apostle, the words of the Holy Scriptures and the instructions of the Church, the first place in your pious reading should be occupied by the writings of the apostles. Among the writings of the apostles, the Gospel occupies first place. To correctly understand the New Testament, read the holy teachers of the church, read the Psalter and other books of the Old Testament. Purify yourself with the Gospel commandments and pious deeds. According to the purity of the soul, God appears to it, God’s Word is revealed to it, for carnal eyes covered with an impenetrable veil of human words. Let your heart belong to the only Lord, and in the Lord also to your neighbor. Without this condition, belonging to a person is scary. “Do not be a slave,” said the apostle. The words of Saint John the Baptist, spoken by him regarding the Lord and himself, preserved for us in the Gospel of John, have always touched me to the depths of my heart: “If you have a bride,” says the holy Baptist, “there is a groom: and the friend of the grooms, standing and listening to him, rejoices for the voice of the grooms: this is my joy being fulfilled. It is fitting for him to grow, but for me to grow small. Every spiritual mentor should only be a servant of the Heavenly Bridegroom, should lead souls to Him, and not to himself, should proclaim to them about the infinite, ineffable beauty of Christ, about His immeasurable goodness and power: let them love Christ, as if worthy of love. And let the mentor, like the great and humble Baptist, stand aside, recognize himself as nothing, rejoice in his humiliation before his disciples, humiliation, which serves as a sign of their spiritual success. As long as the carnal sense prevails in the disciples, their mentor is great in their sight; but when a spiritual feeling appears in them and Christ is magnified in them, they see in their mentor only the beneficent weapon of God. Protect yourself from becoming attached to your mentor. Many were not careful and fell, together with their mentors, into the snare of the devil. Counsel and obedience are pure and pleasing to God only as long as they are not polluted by partiality. Addiction makes a loved one an idol: God turns away with anger from the sacrifices made to this idol. And life is lost in vain, good deeds perish, like fragrant incense carried by a strong whirlwind or drowned out by a stinking stench. Do not give any idol a place in your heart. And you, mentor, guard yourself from sinful endeavors! Do not replace God with yourself for the soul that has come running to you. Follow the example of the holy Forerunner: seek only for Christ to be magnified in your disciples. When He is magnified, you will decrease: seeing yourself diminished because of the increased Christ, be filled with joy. From such behavior, a wonderful peace will be brought to your heart: you will see in yourself the fulfillment of the words of Christ: humble yourself, you will be exalted. Blessed are those who selflessly follow the true Gospel teaching, who have renounced satisfying the lusts of the body and the lusts of the soul! The lusts of the fallen body are sinful: the lusts of the fallen soul are also sinful. She seeks everywhere to realize her self, to become some kind of separate, independent, superior being, for which everything else must exist. The Gospel demands that such a life be put to death, so that man recognizes God as God, and he himself takes his place: in the rank of creatures. By killing the crazy, dreamy, actually non-existent life, true life can appear, with an abundant sense of existence - life in God. The Gospel commands love for enemies; the Holy Fathers praise love that is equal to everyone. – Should love for one’s neighbor really be alien to any difference? This is what I’m thinking about talking to you about now. I would like to tell you about this subject not my word, but God’s: may the merciful God grant me this word. I understand only that love that acts according to the sacred commands of the Gospel, in its light, which itself is light. I don’t understand any other love, I don’t recognize it, I don’t accept it. Love, extolled by the world, recognized by people as their property, sealed by the fall, is not worthy to be called love: it is a distortion of love. That is why it is so hostile to holy, true love. True, holy love for God and neighbor is clearly depicted in the Gospel commandments; its correct, immaculate action is in the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. “Whoever loves me,” said the Lord, “will keep my commandments 106.” In such love there can be neither daydreaming nor carnal fervor, because the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments is carried out by beginners with violence against themselves, with such violence that it is called crucifixion, and by those who have succeeded and felt the blessed overshadowing - with an abundant feeling of the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ is a certain subtle spiritual coolness: when it spills into the soul, it remains in sublime silence, in sacred deadness. I have not come, says the Lawgiver of holy and true love, says Love itself - God: I have not come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword. For you have come to separate a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law: and strike a man against his household (Matthew 10:34-36). And all our actions towards our neighbor, both good and evil, the Lord will judge, as if they were done in relation to Himself (Matthew 25). The Lord concentrated the entire law in two commandments: love for God and love for neighbor. Love is a union of perfection 107, said the apostle. If so, then what is the sword for, what is the enmity and separation for? Because God rejects carnal love, the love that Adam recognized after the fall, and accepts only one spiritual love, which was shown to the world by the New Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. We must love as He loves: the love of the fallen old Adam is the fruit forbidden in the paradise of the New Testament. She is full of impulses, dreaminess, changeable, partial, loves a creature outside of God. God is completely removed from the relationship of this love, sin and Satan are called to participate in it. Spiritual love is constant, impartial and dispassionate, everything is in God, embraces all neighbors, loves everyone equally, but also with great difference. Love your enemies, says the Gospel, bless those who swear, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who attack you and drive you out (Matthew 5:44). Here it is clearly and definitively depicted what love for enemies should consist of: in forgiveness of the insults inflicted by them, in prayer for them, in blessing them, that is, in good words about them and in thanking God for the misfortunes they inflict, in doing good to them according to their strength and spiritual success, in doing good, which can extend to tasting bodily death to save the enemy. The Savior showed an example of such love for enemies. But the same Gospel commands us to be careful with our enemies, not to trust ourselves to them. “Behold, I am sending you,” the Lord said to His disciples, “like sheep in the midst of wolves.” Be wise as a serpent and your goals as doves. Hear also from men: for you will be betrayed to the hosts, and in their assemblies they will beat you... You will be hated by everyone for My name's sake 108. And so the Gospel itself prescribes caution in dealing with enemies and, if possible, treating them wisely. Enmity is produced by the spirit of the world: it often takes the place of carnal love. But even the most carnal love is very similar to enmity. One descendant of the old Adam is capable of carnal love and enmity: the more alive the old age is in him, the stronger the effects of the ailments with which the fall struck love, enmity, envy, jealousy, carnal love. A servant of Christ cannot be anyone's enemy. You see - the Gospel prescribes for us love for our enemies, not blind, not reckless, but sanctified by spiritual reasoning. Love is light, blind love is not love. Something similar should be said about love for friends. The Gospel commands that this love be about Christ, that Christ be loved in the neighbor, and the neighbor be loved as God’s creation. Because of this love in God and for the sake of God, the holy saints of God had equal love for everyone, and especially loved those who led a pious life, as Saint David said: I would have been more honest with your friends, Lord 109. The disciples felt more affection for those mentors in whom they saw a special abundance of spiritual intelligence and other spiritual gifts, soul-edifying and soul-saving. The mentors loved more those of their spiritual children in whom they saw special care for virtue and a special effect of God's favor. Such love, which gives due value to people according to the degree of their piety, is at the same time equal to everyone, because it is in Christ and loves Christ in everyone. Some vessels contain more of this spiritual treasure, others less. Treasure - one! Where Christ is, there is no envy or zeal. Lyuba thinks no evil! - there is calm, there are good thoughts, there is constancy, there is holy peace. Love accompanied by zeal is earthly, carnal, unclean. The eyes of holy love are like those of an eagle, like those of a fiery Cherub: even the slightest sinful movement cannot hide from them. But love itself is unapproachable to sin, which always creeps on the earth; she lives in heaven - there she transfers to live the mind and heart, which have become partakers of Divine love. There is one type of service to my neighbor that I like, I like - serving with a word pleasing to God and useful, guiding to salvation. Therefore, desert and solitude are desired by me. With their help, I would like to purify my mind and heart, purify them so that they become living tablets of the living Word of God, so that it is depicted on them clearly, brightly, so that abundant salvation flows from the living Word of God, pours into my soul and into the souls of my beloved in the Lord. The greatest, only good for man is the knowledge of God. Other goods in comparison with this good are not worthy of being called goods. It is a sure guarantee of eternal bliss - and in our very earthly journey it delivers the highest and most abundant consolation. In the greatest disasters and sorrows, when all other consolations become insufficient and powerless, it retains all its strength. It is God's greatest gift. The most blessed, highest service on earth is to attract this gift of God into oneself through repentance and fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, and to communicate it to one’s neighbors. Happy is he who is entrusted with such service, no matter how insignificant he may be in appearance. Earthly concerns are incompatible with this service. It demands that the minister be simple and innocent, like babies, and be as alien to sympathy for the whole desirable and sweet world as his babies are alien to him. It is necessary to lose the very concept of evil, as if it did not exist at all, otherwise the concept of good cannot be complete, pure, perfect. Love, which is the essence of perfection, is not the thought of evil,” said the Apostle. The pure in heart see everyone as pure. One must succeed so much in goodness that one must immediately, with a heartfelt spiritual sensation, recognize the approaching evil, no matter how hidden and disguised it may be, immediately, with courageous determination, reject it - and remain invariably good, good in the all-good Lord, who bestows His goodness on man. To do this, you need to leave earthly cares and the very responsibilities associated with worries and harmful entertainment. Nowadays, in many ways, people have dared to introduce their own regulations into the regulations of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the heavenly institutions became earthly, the spiritual institutions became carnal, the holy institutions became sinful, and the wise became foolish. They see the incongruity, they see the destruction flowing from it; but they do not see the beginning from which disasters flow: because they look in the light of their own fallen mind, and not in the light of God. The beginning of disasters lies in the impermissible and proud contempt of the commands of the Holy Spirit, in replacing them with one’s own statutes. This is the reason for the general disorder, the reason for the fall of Christianity, the moral decline, which always precedes civil disorder and foreshadows this disorder. There are Christians in particular, but the common, identical knowledge of the Truth has been lost, by which everyone would be united into one spiritual body, with one way of thinking, in one spirit, under one common head - Christ. Nowadays, everyone has more or less his own way of thinking, his own religion, his own path, adopted arbitrarily or accidentally, recognized as correct, or only justified. This countless flock, having lost connection and unity in truth and spirit, presents to the spiritual observer the appearance of the greatest disorder: each sheep wanders in its own direction, not knowing where it is going; no one stops her, no one cares about her; people no longer hear - their hearing is so heavy - the saving voice of the true Shepherd, heard from His Holy Church, who still loudly denounces their untruth, announces to them the right path, shows it. They were deafened by the noise of earthly, cruel cares, the noise of sensual amusements, the noise of earthly prosperity. Their soul 110 clings to the earth, incapable of perceiving spiritual impressions. But some chosen ones still hear the voice of the true Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. They follow this voice, making their way with the greatest effort and difficulty, through the dense crowd, incoherently rustling, surrounding them. Until now, these chosen ones give justice on earth to heavenly truth. There are very few of them! but the Lord encourages them: “Do not be afraid,” He says, “little flock, for the Father has deigned to give you the Kingdom 111.” What is the sign of these sheep by which they could be immediately recognized? This sign is exact obedience to the holy Church, fidelity to the holy Truth and the Holy Spirit. Guided by true humility, they renounce the understandings of their fallen natural mind and all human understandings, no matter how sublime and attractive they may seem in appearance. To remain faithful to God, they are not ashamed that the world calls them crazy. Not only do they generously endure persecution from the world, but they also subject themselves to various hardships, and thereby retain within themselves “the deadness of Jesus and His life.” This means: “to lose your soul in this age in order to win it for eternity through quickening by the Spirit.” Let us remain faithful to the Holy Spirit. He is Most Holy and Most Pure - He rests among the pure and holy, He loves the humble, who prove their humility not by anything outward, but by obedience of mind to the Gospel and the Church. He turns away from the self-righteous, who separate themselves from the unity of the Church for some thought that flatters the mind and heart. He moves away from them - and the dark spirit of delusion approaches them. “One false thought,” said a certain Holy Father, “can bring you down to hell.” The darkened sons of this world think more easily about thoughts about God; in their opinion, thinking about God one way or another is not a big problem. Unhappy ones! they do not know how important thoughts about God are, how important the Truth is in them and the Spirit that is always co-present and co-operating with it. From their mutual action is the revival of man into salvation, which consists in the communion of human nature with the Divine nature. On the contrary, false thoughts are always accompanied and assisted by the dark and crafty spirit of seduction. The father of lies is the devil 112 - this is what the Gospel says; lying is a devilish property. He who has adopted false thoughts has adopted the properties of the devil, has entered into kinship with rejected angels, and has made union with God unnatural and unnatural. A stranger to God is a stranger to salvation and spiritual life. Let us protect ourselves from false thoughts and the heartfelt sensations that flow from them. From such false thoughts and sensations, the so-called “delusion” or self-delusion is formed, which has countless different types, according to the degree, according to the type of false thoughts and feelings accepted by a person as true. Let us acquire true knowledge of God, alien to error and speculation; it shines from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, like light from the sun shining brightly at midday from the azure cloudless sky. The all-perfect God looks down on all of us humans. Before His infinite goodness, human goodness disappears, which is so imperfect that, according to a very just verdict of some holy Father, it can rather be called a distortion of the Law of God. And the most virtuous Abraham is praised for his virtues before men, but not before God. Before God, faith in God, who makes up for human shortcomings, is considered a virtue. Then only God accepts our virtues when they are witnesses of faith; in themselves they are unworthy of God. “All righteousness is ours,” said the holy prophet Isaiah, “like the port of a harlot’s wife 113.” For this reason, God, looking at our hearts, favors only the humble hearts, filled with the consciousness of their sinfulness, filled with repentance, confessing the insignificance of their natural good, the damage of its fall, bringing him the desire for spiritual good. A person can perform spiritual virtues with his own strength; and spiritual virtues in a person are a gift from a merciful God, who bestows this gift on the poor in spirit, hungry and thirsty for the truth of Christ. Blessed are you who have known the difference between spiritual and spiritual virtues, between the virtues characteristic of the New Adam alone and the virtues of which the Old Adam is capable, between the gospel virtues and the virtues of our fallen nature, virtues that are not alien to idolaters, Mohammedans and all other people who have deviated from following the holy Truth. Are you saying that the desire for spiritual good in you is still shaky? - In whom is it not shaky? - with what ease the heart betrays goodness! what forgetfulness, blindness, what hobbies and falls are accompanied by these changes! what kind of work is needed, what kind of struggle with oneself is needed in order to return to goodness! and again labor is needed, and again a stubborn bloody struggle is needed in order to remain faithful to goodness! The ancient tempter, the experienced tempter, constantly offers to eat the fruit of the forbidden. To defeat evil, we need God's help. When this all-powerful help assists us, we win; when it moves away from us, we are defeated. In my abundance,” said Saint David, “I will not move forever; You turned away Your face, and I was confused 114. When prompted, we feel our weakness so much that the state of victors seems alien and impossible to us; in case of victories, if previous experiences had not assured us, we would not have believed that victory was so close to us - and such an insignificant, disgusting enemy as sin. The wise Providence arranged it so that the ascetics of God were not always in a state of joy, triumph and victory. Such an incessant state could give rise to fierce pride in them: having never seen their own victory and weakness in experience, they would imagine that the state of incessant triumph over sin belongs to themselves, and not the gift of God. That is why God dissolved for them, as St. Isaac of Syria says, “consolation and invasions, light and darkness, battles and intercessions, in short, oppression and space. And this is a sign that a person is prospering with the help of God” (Homily 78). From such a dissolution of victories and defeats, from transitions from one to another, a person becomes more and more aware of his weakness - God is gradually exalted before him, and finally everything is done for him, the object of all his love, hope and faith. This path, which God Himself leads man, in which man is kept in constant contrition of spirit, in spiritual poverty, in the sight of his sins, in crying about them, is called the path of repentance. All the saints followed it from sin to God. This path is illuminated by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, shining from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. On the path of repentance you will not find satisfaction with yourself. Looking within yourself, you will not find anything that flatters your self-esteem: on the contrary, you will find much worthy of lamentation and sighing, worthy of bitter and prolonged tears. You will be consoled by your crying and your tears; Your consolation will be ease and freedom of conscience: they will be brought, your crying, your sighs, your tears will gradually intensify and develop. Some humble, some poor in spirit will find their peace, both temporary and eternal. This is the lot and destiny set apart by God for those whom He has chosen to spiritually, truly serve Himself. During their earthly life, they must remain in repentance, alien to pleasures and perishable amusements - and this constant repentance in repentance distinguishes the chosen ones of God from the sons of the world. Only through repentance can one move from a mental state to a spiritual state. Saint Isaac of Syria says: “If we are all sinners and not one of us has risen above any temptation, then not a single virtue can be higher than repentance (that is, all virtues, and the highest ones, must be dissolved by repentance). The feat of repentance can never be completed: it always befits all sinners and righteous people who want to receive salvation. There is no limit that would indicate its perfect fulfillment, because the perfection of even the most perfect is truly imperfect. Why repentance cannot be determined either by time or by the number of deeds even to death” (Sermon 71). In another word this great mentor says: “Repentance is the door of God’s mercy for those who carefully practice it. Through this door we enter into Divine mercy: we cannot enter into this mercy except through this door” (Homily 85). Feats are vain, fruitless, often harmful to the soul, and the most sublime ones are when they are not dissolved by a feeling of repentance. Repentance is alien to self-delusion and is inaccessible to it. The fact that God opened the path of repentance to you shows God’s special mercy towards you, God’s special providence for you. Separate yourself from the earth with your mind and heart! Begin your journey to God along the path that has opened before you. By the will of God, all circumstances, even seemingly opposite ones, will help you. In your patience, gain your soul, looking with magnanimous condescension at its weaknesses, at its involuntary hobbies. Demanding from oneself immutability and infallibility is an impossible demand in this transitory age! Immutability and infallibility are characteristic of man in the next century; and here we must generously endure the weaknesses of our neighbors and our own weaknesses. Avoid all sins as much as possible; and endure your inevitable weaknesses, into which your thoughts and hearts involuntarily fall, courageously. Acquire, because of your weaknesses, a deep and constant feeling of spiritual poverty, so favorable to God - not despondency and cowardice! And complete the path of earthly life, walking before the Lord in contrition of spirit. Nothing perishable or transitory can satisfy a person. If it seems satisfying, don’t believe it: it only flatters. He will not flatter for long: he will deceive, slip away, disappear, and leave a person in all the horrors of poverty and disaster. God’s – positive, eternal. At the beginning, like the slightest grain, it appears in the heart in the form of the slightest good inclination, desire; then it will begin to grow little by little, embrace all thoughts, all feelings, embrace both soul and body; He will become like a tree, great and branchy. The birds of heaven, that is, angelic thoughts and contemplations, will come to soar on its branches. This must happen to a Christian during his earthly life. Over whom it is accomplished, upon entering eternity, he will see himself possessing spiritual treasures - the guarantees of never-ending bliss. Such a state is already here on earth eternal bliss, before the obvious entry into eternity through the death of the body. Such a life is now eternal life. Holy faith, at which the rationalists laughed and still laugh, calling it blind, is so subtle and sublime that it can be comprehended and taught only by the spiritual mind. The mind of the world is disgusted with her, rejects her. When, due to some material necessity, he finds it necessary or tolerable; then he understands it falsely and explains it falsely: because the blindness he attributes to faith is his inalienable property. Then only faith is holy and true when it is faith in holy Truth, when it is faith brought to earth by the Divine Truth incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ. Any other faith other than faith in the holy Truth is superstition. The fruits of superstition are destruction. Such a faith is condemned by God: it is believed by idolaters in their idols, Muslims in the false prophet Mohammed and the Koran, heretics in their blasphemous dogmas and in their heresiarchs, rationalists in the fallen human mind. This is how his followers will believe in the Antichrist. Due to [nrzb. ] your letter, everything will be fulfilled with due accuracy. May hope in the Lord and devotion to His Holy will console you in your present sadness! We are all short-term guests in this world: our fatherland is heaven. He moves into this fatherland with grace, who, during his stay on earth, believed in the Savior with all his heart, aligned his actions with the Divine Law, was the joy and support of the family, and a useful member of civil society. Praying to the Lord that from His throne on high He will look upon your sorrow and console your heart with Heavenly consolation, placing your deceased son among the host of the righteous, in unceasing pleasure and uninterrupted by any sorrow, I have the honor to be with complete high reverence May God, who sent you grief, grant you strength to endure grief courageously and generously. Blessed are those who leave blameless from this world filled with sinful temptations. And temptations are constantly increasing, multiplying in the world, making salvation more and more difficult. The Holy Church conveys deceased babies from this world to the eternal world not with lamentable songs, but with joyful songs. She recognizes their bliss as true: her prayers at the burial of infants do not speak about the unknown fate of a person after death, as they talk about it touchingly and mournfully at the burial of adults. These prayers ask God for repose of the deceased baby (because no human purity, in itself, can be worthy of heavenly bliss: it is a gift from God), and recognize that repose has been given - the deceased baby is already called blessed. During their short stay on earth, infants avoid everything that deprives them of blissful eternity and manage to fulfill everything that brings blissful eternity; washed from ancestral sin and united with Christ through baptism, united with Him into one by communion with His body and blood and His Divinity united with them. Without having time to desecrate either the sacred ablution or the most blissful union with God, they leave this vain world, going naturally to where they belong. We, the elderly, do not have this happiness: the white robe of the soul, in which we are clothed at baptism, is speckled with countless spots during our earthly life; We break the union with God by adulterous union with sin. Mature age and experience should have made us perfect, but we lose those virtues that we had as babies. Our mental state becomes so wrong, false, fabricated that the Gospel, calling us to correction, calls this correction a conversion, as if from paganism or Mohammedanism. It commands us to turn and come to the state in which we were children. I say Amen to you, it testifies: unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven 115. These thoughts can console you, mother, weeping for your daughter’s blessed baby who has gone from here to eternity. Submit your mind and heart to the will of God, the wise and all-good: in this devotion you will find peace and joy for your soul. God took your beloved child to heaven, and together with him he took your mind and heart there. It's good there. “No one in us,” said the Apostle, “lives for himself, and no one dies for himself.” If we live, we live by the Lord; if we die, we die by the Lord. Even if we live, even if we die, we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:7:8). Having remained to live on earth, live not for yourself, but for the Lord: he who lives to fulfill his will lives for the Lord; He lives for himself who lives to fulfill his wishes. Although the latter seems alive to those who look with sensual eyes alone, he is dead in soul, imputed as if he does not exist for the Lord, is not inscribed in the book of life, his name is included in other books, the Lord seems to be non-existent for him. There is no God for those who do not believe with living faith in God! (Eph. 2:12.) The first does not die: through bodily death he only passes into a greater development of life. Dishes! so as not to come to life for yourself! By living in the Lord, mortify your life, sinful, carnal and spiritual, and thereby preserve yourself in eternal life. Be careful how you walk dangerously, for the days are evil,” said the Apostle. If in his time this instruction was needed for those who were being saved, the more necessary it is in our time. Exactly! We need greater caution, greater prudence, greater prudence: examples of holiness, the means to achieve holiness have decreased, - tempting examples, the means to upset oneself with sin have increased. Trouble is in the deserts, trouble is also in the cities! But there are still those who are being saved, and it is still possible to be saved by the ineffable grace of God. Guided by the advice of the Gospel (Luke 14:28), consider your strengths, both mental and physical, and choose your place of residence accordingly. The same God who saves in the desert also saves in the city. The same sin that destroys in the city also destroys in the desert. Whether you choose a city or a desert monastery as your place of residence, according to your strengths, remember God, stay close to Him, move away from sin, from all reasons for sin, and God will be with you. Start reading the holy fathers of the Eastern Church: they will teach you to follow the path of monastic life without sin. Avoid unnecessary acquaintances outside and inside the monastery, and from everything that leads to entertainment: entertainment, like frost, destroys all the youthful vegetation of monastic virtues. Entertainment is the beginning of all evil for a monk: that’s what the Holy Fathers called him. Limit yourself to the acquaintance necessary for your needs, mental and physical. Do not tire yourself in vain by searching for mentors: our time, rich in false teachers, is extremely poor in spiritual instructions. They are replaced for the ascetic by the scriptures of the fathers. These are: The Ladder, the works of Ephraim of Sira and Abba Dorotheus, the letters of the Great Barsanuphius, the Patericon of Scete, the Philokalia, and others. Train yourself by reading them and praying in contrition of spirit. Try to find a good, conscientious confessor. If you find him, be pleased; conscientious confessors are a great rarity these days. Many place heavy burdens on their neighbors, but there are few who have taught and helped bear the burdens. - Beware of the snare of the devil, who unnoticedly inspires a person to take up life and deeds that exceed his strength: the devil does this with the intention of prematurely depleting a person’s strength and making him incapable of any spiritually beneficial activity. Christ is with you. I entrust myself to your holy prayers. 1848 August 18th day Without God's help and grace, none of the people is strong enough to resist the invisible struggles that arise in his heart and produce a spiritual storm. Prayer and reading the word of God help in spiritual storms, but even with this help, it will not soon be possible for a person to cope with himself, not soon to ascend into the haven of indestructible calm, therefore, it is not soon that divine thoughts and sensations are assimilated to our fallen nature, it is not soon that faith becomes living, as if seeing God with the eyes. From living faith in God is born complete submission to God, peace of thoughts and tranquility of the heart. You need to instill in your heart faith in God, submission to God; Having tasted them, you will taste with them spiritual consolation in sorrow and peace. The fight against thoughts that bring sorrow, no matter how complex, intricate and clever these thoughts may be, should be very simple, just as the whole Christian faith is simple, accessible to every person in its simplicity, and satisfying to every person in its strength. Fight against thoughts and feelings of sadness with short words: “Lord! Thy will be done! Blessed and holy is God in all His works!” Say these words with your mind, and when you are alone, say a few out loud; say slowly, with great attention and reverence; repeat these short words until the thoughts and feelings of sadness subside. When they rise again, and you again use the same weapons against them. Experience the power of this weapon; its appearance, at first glance, is so insignificant. And it is impossible to get out of a state of struggle into a state of calm except through victory. Submitting to sadness is extremely dangerous: when it intensifies in a person, it dominates him and can kill both body and soul. Do not rush to die: the longest life in comparison with eternity is a moment. Surrender yourself during your earthly journey to the will of God; and you will use this period to prepare yourself as best as possible for eternity, in order to do as much good as possible for your Parent. Do not be surprised that you are weak in spiritual achievement: the reason for this weakness is your news. Time will enrich you with both experience and strength. I look with sympathy at your state of mind: you are melting in fierce sorrow, as if in fire. Endure the burden of this state, after it has passed, you will feel yourself reborn, you will see yourself enriched with spiritual treasures, the existence of which people have no idea, whose earthly life was strewn with nothing but pleasures. Then you will know that the Lord is good even in the very sorrows He sends, because temporary sorrows lead to eternal blessings for those who accept these sorrows as they should. I bring you my deepest congratulations on your Angel’s Day! With this congratulation I unite my heartfelt desire that your holy Guardian Angel preserve your earthly life in peace and prosperity, guiding you along this path to blissful eternity. Our earthly life is just a path. Only this path is measured not by distance, but by time. Just as on an ordinary path objects change and are constantly replaced by one another, so on the path of earthly life events replace each other. And it is unknown to man what event awaits him on each new day. God, who allows sorrow to man, also sends consolation among them. I am sure that this consolation is brought to your heart from the throne of God by your holy guardian angel, because true consolation from God destroys the sadness of the heart at its root, in the dark thoughts of hopelessness. He brings to man good and humble thoughts of submission to God, thoughts full of living faith and meek, sweet hope. An immeasurable eternity opens before the eyes of the mind, and earthly life begins to seem like a short journey, its happiness and unhappiness begin to seem unimportant and insignificant, because all the unevenness of earthly life is smoothed out and equalized by the contemplation of eternity. “Thanks be to the merciful God,” said one holy father, “when the words of one person benefit another person; they both should thank God.” I thank God, who chose me as an instrument to comfort and nourish your soul. With your letter you greatly approved of me: I hoped to see in you further success on the spiritual path leading to all good things. Do not be afraid of that darkness, that desert into which you have now ascended with your mind and heart: between Egypt and the Promised Land there is darkness and desert. And soon the faithful and courageous Israelite will see the promised land, soon he will enjoy its blessings. The name Egypt means worldly life, filled with vain worries and entertainment; under the name of the promised land - spiritual life, filled with Divine consolations; the space that makes up the transition from one life to another is the desert. A faithful Israelite is a person who has decided to offer his life in the service of God. I regret V.: little by little they print it out and read it. This is the fate of everyone who wears masks: you can’t always be wearing a mask! From time to time the mask is removed or falls off, the naked face of the soul appears to the gaze - and woe if it is ugly and only deceived by the beauty of the mask. With this, I am enclosing the article: “Glory to God.” The “Chalice” has not yet been finally printed. I hasten to present to you a weak experience of the rule, which I called “The Order of Hearing Oneself in the Middle of the World.” It was suggested to me to make it as general as possible, so that it would not embarrass you at all. It seemed all the more convenient to me that I personally conveyed to you how to read, according to the custom of those who are attentive, the morning and evening prayers and the akathist to Sweetest Jesus, that is, not hastily, very slowly, even protractedly, not trying to read the entire akathist at one time, or a collection of evening and morning prayers, but taking care that the well-known section of these prayers that you read was read with attention, as into the ears of the Lord God, and not into the air. Guide for an active life - Gospel commandments. Be guided by them in your palace, as Saint David was guided by them in his palace. This king spoke prayerfully to God about His commandments: Thy law is the light of my paths; I was guided by all Your commandments; I hated every way of unrighteousness; leave the path of unrighteousness from Me and have mercy on me by Your law; I have loved Your commandments more than gold and topaz; live for me in Your commandments (Ps. 118). The greatest Holy Fathers command that the rule for a Christian be as simple and uncomplicated as possible. The great Barsanuphius says that the gates to the kingdom of heaven are narrow and that there is no need to give broad rules for entering them; a broad rule can even prevent us from entering them, because by chasing the little things we can miss the most important things. In response to your letter, I will tell you the word of God, which should strengthen and comfort you in the sorrows that have befallen you. “I love them,” says the Lord, “I reprove and punish them. All those who drew near and became assimilated to the Lord achieved this through many sorrows, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle Paul preached among the dogmas that “through many tribulations it is fitting for us to enter into the Kingdom of God.” On the contrary, those who are alien to sorrows are recognized as forgotten by God. So, do not lose heart in your sorrows, but thank God for them as for a great blessing, and rely on His holy will and His holy Providence. Read the Gospel so that you can learn from it that one who does not bear his cross cannot be a disciple of Christ! What would happen to you if God did not teach you through sorrows? You would sacrifice all your time and all your abilities to vanity and enter eternity unworthy of any reward; on the contrary, worthy of complete punishment for neglecting Christ the Savior of the world, the Son of God, who sacrificed himself for you so that you would sacrifice yourself, for your own good, as a spiritual sacrifice to Him. It is not enough to be good by nature, you must be good according to the Gospel. Natural good often contradicts the good of the Gospel, because our nature is not in the primitive purity given to it at creation, but in a state of decline, in which good is mixed in us with evil. And therefore this good, if it is not straightened out and cleansed by the Gospel, is in itself indecent and unworthy of God! Christ is with you! May He strengthen both your soul and body! May He arrange both your temporary and eternal relationships for good. Devotion to the will of God in the very permissions of God is necessary. It is obvious that Christianity - this mysterious spiritual gift of God to people - is being removed in an inconspicuous way (for those who do not pay attention to their salvation) from human society that has neglected this gift. One must see this so as not to be deceived by actors and the performance of piety; Having seen, we must turn our gaze away from the sad sight of not being subjected to the vice of condemnation of our neighbors, we must turn our gaze to ourselves, take care of our own salvation, since the mercy of God still grants the opportunity to be saved to those who choose to be saved. It is impossible not to respond to your letter. God has opened your heart to the scriptures about repentance. All the Saints of the Orthodox Church throughout their lives relentlessly held to repentance, holding on to it even when the grace of God clearly acted on them. Nowadays, when engaging in religion, they are more likely to seek either cold knowledge by letter or seductive pleasure. Both belong to this world, and not to Christ. For obedience, I pray for you and your children. May the merciful Lord restore the health of your wife. Out of true Christian love, which seeks not to please, but to provide significant benefit to one’s neighbor, try to instill in your wife, for her salvation, that Western beliefs have only the letter and self-delusion left, but in the Orthodox Church, despite our extreme exhaustion, Truth and the Holy Spirit still act in vessels adapted to this by correct, as far as humanly possible, Christian living. It is necessary to enter into communication with the Spirit of God through the Truth; it is necessary to do this during earthly life: without this there is no salvation. For the sincerity of your word, accept the sincerity of my word as sacred retribution - and may God bless you! The Apostle instructs a faithful husband to take care of delivering the priceless treasure of true faith to his wife (1 Cor. 7:12–16) when she does not have it. Oh, what happiness it is to bring bliss to your neighbor in eternity! I sincerely wish that you become like the pious sisters, Martha and Mary, mentioned in the Gospel, who were honored to receive the Lord into their home and please Him by paying attention to His word and diligently serving Him. The Lord said: Where two or three are gathered in My name, that is, they live together with a true Christian goal, I am in their midst. May this happen to you! He who calls upon you the blessing of God is your most humble servant. May God's will be done on us! Recently I was working on a book that contains the works of various Saints, among other things, Anthony the Great. Among other sayings of the Father, it is stated that he saw the descent of the Holy Spirit on Abba Athanasius and Abba Pachomius, while the first was given the gift of patriarchate, and the second - abbot of cenobitic monasteries. The Gospel also says that the Lord commanded the Apostles to remain in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from Above, that is, until the Holy Spirit descended on them. Already endowed with power from Above, not before, they went out to preach and sowed the true knowledge of God in the universe. The Holy Spirit was the founder and educator of Christianity! The Holy Spirit founded the Church! The Holy Spirit supported the Church through chosen men who served the Spirit only as instruments! People rejected this supernatural Power, which they considered foolishness, unworthy of them, and want to act with the forces and means of their fallen nature. But fallen nature is infected with enmity towards God: how can it act in favor of the cause of God? This is unnatural for him! This is impossible for him! The decisive impossibility is proven by experience on the most extensive scale. It turned out that people who decided to act on their own in favor of the cause of God became the main enemies of this cause, its destroyers. Life is simpler - or rather. Trying to fulfill the will of God and relying on God in everything is the best thing. February 5th is my birthday. On this day, I was given a gift that was inexplicably pleasant. On this day, an article was published in the Moskovsky Vestnik, in which the main idea was that a lie has only momentary triumphs, that nothing can be taken firmly by a lie, that it does not strengthen, but weakens and damages the cause it serves. This is a great truth of the greatest importance! It must be inscribed in letters of gold! It must be known and understood by anyone who wants to govern themselves correctly, especially who wants to correctly manage people and public affairs. What does it turn out to be? In “Ascetic Experiences” this idea is developed in all its clarity and detail: it is expressed in the article “Conversation on the Jesus Prayer” (p. 121), at the beginning of the article on the monastery (p. 437) and in many other places. Why does it sometimes happen that people get into a false position and act to the detriment of themselves and everyone? From accepting and assimilating false thoughts and concepts, from acting in the realm of homicidal lies. The entire history of mankind proves this with the most amazing facts. Oh, when would we in Russia develop a majestic and beneficial for the temporary and eternal life of people, a correct concept of the holy Truth! If only all activity, both private and public, would flow from this Divine source! A lie does not strengthen, but undermines the cause it serves! How true! This is especially true in matters of religion. By the way, proof of this is the book of 26 Moscow false prophets recently published in Moscow. The book was published in the magazine “Wanderer”, and in the book a shadow is cast on the holiness of an unnamed person, but I guessed. The course of affairs is such that exposure on a large scale is inevitable. Wolves clothed in sheep's skin appear and are known by their deeds and fruits. It is difficult to see who is entrusted or who has fallen into the hands of the sheep of Christ, who is given their guidance and salvation. But this is God’s permission. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. The earth itself produces various weeds (tares). No one plants them: they grow on their own. The reason for this is the perverted property of the earth. It is foolish to desire from the land what is unusual for it, that is, so that the land does not produce tares. Knowing this property of the earth, farmers carefully and patiently pull out the tares from the ground as they appear; otherwise the tares will choke and destroy the useful growths. The same should be done with the manifestation of passions when they arise from the heart. – It is common for our fallen heart to give birth to various sinful desires. One should not become despondent from this: one should heal passionate manifestations and hobbies with repentance and self-correction. It was an unexpected, most pleasant consolation for me to receive your lines, my Angel!.. Who taught you to be such a sweet, kind Angel? – This is the second time you treat me like an Angel. The first time he did this was when, meeting me on the road, he came to look at me on purpose, to get to know me, the second time - now. My heart is sensitive, noticeable, and mindful. You recorded memories of you on it twice. It was not I who preceded you with my greeting; You prefaced this in my eyes with your price, with the full price. Remember me, Angel!.. Remember me, Angels!.. I don’t know how to be friendly superficially for the sake of secular decency; friendly for Christ's sake. Christ is eternal and most holy: He keeps the love that is for His sake in holiness, in immutability, in zeal, in peace, in constancy. There is a physical feat, there is a mental and spiritual feat. There is a feat of faith. Physical feats and mental feats alone are not only not useful in themselves, they are harmful. It is in vain that we use them to resist sin: we only become more and more entangled in its nets, plunging into its abysses. Acquire the feat of faith! - with it you will crush all your enemies. The feat of faith mortifies the human Self, revives God for man - and the living God performs signs in the land of Egypt, leads Israel into the Promised Land, beats foreigners from his face with rain of stones and thunder from heaven, builds the walls of Jerusalem. Acquire the feat of faith - and you will be omnipotent, you will always be a winner. Then whether you want to use a physical feat, or a spiritual feat, you will see them come to life, able to do so in the Lord. If you want to do without them, I will shave my jaw with humility, and you will amaze the foreigners. Magnify God in yourself by faith, and He will magnify you with dispassion and spiritual intelligence. In religious terms, our time is very difficult: various apostasies from the Orthodox faith have assumed extensive proportions and began to act with extraordinary energy and freedom. This was predicted by the Word of God and even among us, it has been happening for a long time. The Providence of Almighty God is vigilantly vigilant over the destinies of the world and every person, and everything that happens is accomplished either by the will or by the permission of God. We must turn our minds to ourselves and beg the Lord to keep us faithful to the Orthodox Church, to reveal to us His all-holy will and the stumbling-free path to Himself, the source of true life and salvation. The salvation of men is God’s gift to men, and is by no means their own invention and acquisition: and therefore it cannot be worked out otherwise than under the guidance of God - His mercy and grace. This mercy of God delivered you from visions, leaving you with the most soul-helping, safe vision: the vision of your sins. The mercy of God is evidenced by the calmness of the heart. Accept, Father Archimandrite, the most humble request with which I trouble you: the giver of this monastery servant is the daughter, married to my former equerry, for whom I built a house. I, in fact, ask for your protection and protection for them in case of any oppression from the townsfolk. And everything that will be done on your part for them, I will consider it a special favor to myself. Having finished this, I wish you to be healthy, pray for the late Photius 119. And accept the assurances of my special respect for you and the respect with which I have the honor to be, Father Archimandrite, Your Reverence’s most humble servant Through the prayers of the saints, our Father, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen Gracious Father and Benefactor! How insufficient I am in expressing the devotion of my most humble heart, before you, my highest benefactors, that I cannot even find words to express it. Upon receipt of your heavenly message, and upon the demand from me, poor in reason, for the speedy fulfillment of it; I, although sincerely recognizing that it was the protective Divine Providence that touched my sinfulness; but my conscience seemed to forbid me to begin it at that very moment; Since I was tonsured before this November 12th day into duckweed, I intended, to the best of my ability, to bring at least the slightest gratitude to the one who had done me good. Now, having more and more strengthened the desire to reach that place that I observed with particular pleasure during the voyage on the frigate, and especially you, the most merciful providents of my well-being, I pray, falling down, do not reject my wretched petition, and be intercessors to the merciful Master. Let my hope not be put to shame, I place my hope in God, who commanded me to resort to your most merciful person. A bowed forehead to the ground and a grateful heart will always unite with humility to thank your parental attention for such creatures as I am. I do not dare to dare to ask for the blessing of His Most Reverend Father Archimandrite, be a mediator to His Eminence, do not deprive me of the benefits of your servant, please forgive me for such a bold handwriting of this letter, attribute it to my ignorance. O Benefactor! Don't leave! In the same way the tree desires for the springs of water, my soul desires the plant in the holy bosom of your holy monastery. The lowest rank among the novices is the lowest servant If you deign to appear to me at your monastery, then bless me to stop by a relative in Tver in order to provide myself with what I need for the trip, since I don’t have it with me. Your Reverence Father Archimandrite Ignatius, According to your letter, with particular pleasure I accepted Kira Mikhailov’s assistance regarding his dismissal to enter monasticism, but since he has not yet been assigned anywhere, the society of Mr. Kadnikov, accepting, agrees on expulsion, but with a contribution of 200 rubles after the payment of taxes. “Cyrus’s father is poor and refused such a sum, and therefore, informing Your Reverence, I can assure you that if there is any opportunity to do what pleases you, I will make it a special honor for myself to arrange everything for a good cause.” Then asking for your blessing with true reverence and perfect devotion, I have the honor to be The most humble and obedient Pavel Sokolov. Your Reverence, Gracious Sovereign! The tradesman of the city of Kadnikov, Kir Mikhailov, known to you, has already received a public sentence to dismiss him to enter a monastery, I have a part to inform you about this; I am very glad that with my assistance I could fulfill your desire, adding that the aforementioned Mikhailov was with me the other day and asked me to remind you of your promised benefit, then he will have the opportunity to introduce himself under your blessing, and I am also enclosing his letter to you. With true respect and complete devotion, I have the honor to be Your Most Reverend Gracious Sovereign, most humble servant Your Reverence, Gracious Sovereign! Having received permission from my society to place me in a monastery, why am I ready to go to your monastery, but I do not have the means to go and therefore I dare to resort to Your Eminence and most humbly ask for your beneficence to send me money for the necessary travel expenses and payment of the debt, for in the course of three months I owed more than 20 rubles. Your Reverence, do not leave me with your kindness and take me under your protection - if, by your condescension, you send money to me, would you like to address it to the name of His Highness Pavel Apollonovich Sokolov, then, resorting under your kindness with unlimited devotion, I have the honor to be Dear Sir, Father Ignatius! I ask you a thousand apologies for the fact that I cannot call you according to the dignity of your rank, but I am sure that you, as an educated person, will not be offended by my ignorance, and as you are spiritually illuminated from above by the holy grace of the Wisdom of God, do not doubt the feelings of my deep respect, as evidenced by the power of attorney with which I address you, Gracious Sovereign. I am the mother of six children and the widow of a military man; honest people do not get rich in military service, so my husband left me nothing, except for young children. My husband’s hereditary estate, although small, remained in the hands of his brother, with whom starting a lawsuit would mean killing time. For my husband’s service, they gave me and my children a boarding house of three hundred rubles in banknotes according to the old salary. Under such circumstances, I refused everything that a person of not only a decent circle enjoys, but which even constitutes the necessity of a beggar begging for alms during the day, and resting in sleep at night, strengthening his strength, but I could not satisfy the holy law of nature, burdening myself with work below my rank and above my strength, I am forced to perform during the night, hiding it as a crime from the eyes of people who would willingly forgive me the most reprehensible behavior if they met me in in a shiny carriage and in a dress sewn from the latest magazine, but having found her half-naked by the washbasin, in which the water was often stained with the blood from my torn hands while washing clothes, they would have said fi! it’s a shame to know her, and if someone else had whispered to them how at night, when the lights are out everywhere, I sneak into the barn, where, without human help, I drag a roller loaded with stones, listening with trepidation to see if my children, for whom my actions are a mystery, have woken up, is the janitor or someone’s girl missing? The thought of being noticed chills the blood, and the exorbitant work drenches my face in bloody sweat. ABOUT! then my first friend would hasten with the news to her motley Areopagus, where she would loudly say ... 123, our mutual friend has gone crazy, goes to the barn alone at night and rolls something like linen, others would express their opinions and not one of these soulless dolls would understand that I am forced to be so extravagant, because drawings, silk and canvas do not provide me with the means to exist with children, and running from house to house with a piece of paper in your hands is the worst thing for me! But now I have long passed 50 years, sorrows, incredible labors have completely destroyed my health, I suffer unbearable pain throughout my body, therefore, I do not have the strength to work anymore, but I need to work for another year to give my son the opportunity to finish his course at the University, after which he will follow the path that the Lord will show him, forming a link in the chain of civil or spiritual society. But if, due to the impossibility of supporting him, he is forced to leave the university, then the work and efforts of so many years will be lost! and what will happen to me? But until now I have carried my cross without complaint! If the circumstances described here do not convince you, Gracious Sovereign, to help me throughout the year, then my request, my prayers, of course, will not accomplish anything. And I will only have the comforting thought that you will never recognize the unfortunate mother who decided for the first time in her life to ask, and ask only from you, for alms for her children! But if the Lord God has chosen you as an instrument of His mercy, then honor me with one line, addressed to the name of my daughters’ friend, Feoktista Ivanovna Shvikovskaya, who lives in St. Petersburg on Ofitserskaya Street near the Blue Bridge in the house of the merchant Siebert, apartment no. 23, then I myself will appear to you with full faith in my soul that there, before the throne of the Almighty, I will hear the voice of the common Judges, how did you hear mine? He will turn to you and say: “You did more than give drink to the thirsty, feed the hungry, you saved the soul of a suffering mother, she did not complain under the burden of poverty, the young man did not fall into despair and did not distort My image and likeness, accept the reward that belongs to you!!!” - In anticipation of this, I will remain with a feeling of deepest respect for you, Gracious Sovereign, Letter from tradesman M.I. Paramonov 124 Imitator of the holy life of the saints of Christ Blessed in the Kingdom of Heaven, Holy Archimandrite Merciful Father Ignatius! I do not have enough wisdom to adequately thank your divine face for all your highest mercies, they will be unforgettable in my soul until the end of my life, they! written by an Angel in the book of life, at the throne of the Creator of heaven and earth, and everything visible to us. Therefore, I make it my duty to not only thank your philanthropy, but also to notify Your Reverence about myself. We set off from your holy desert monastery straight to Bezhetsk. In February, I wrote a letter of gratitude to Your Eminence from Bezhetsk, but my letter may not have been delivered, because I did not receive any response to it. In the month of May, my son Ivan and I set off to wander, and our first journey was to your comrade and friend, in the Southern Hermitage, and we were received with indescribable philanthropy by your friend, the most honorable Father the Builder Bartholomew 125! Who so kindly accepted us, which we are truly unworthy of, and rewarded us with a significant amount of money and gave us the blessing to travel to Kyiv, and we set off through Yaroslavl, Rostov and the Sergius Lavra, and Moscow, Tula, and Orel, to the Kyiv Lavra! And where were you honored to see, not the earth! And the very HEAVEN! Then we were in Lubny, in Kharkov and in Voronezh, and in many other holy places, having passed 3070 miles, and 46 cities and 43 holy monasteries, and on the 13th of this September we returned to the city of Bezhetsk. My second son Mikhail was abandoned at this time in the Bezhetsk almshouse, and we are now in great need, and in poverty, without clothes, and food, and we need to have passports and give capitation money, therefore, we pray to your kindness, and in absentia we bow our knees before your most merciful leading divine person, to be our earthly God, do not forsake for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, send at least a little money for our bloody need, do not refuse for the sake of the Lord God, may our only hope and the first hope in God be the grace, peace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and with all your holy brethren, forever and ever Your Reverence Lowest slave, refugee tradesman, Mikhailo Ilyin Paramonov, with children we bow to everyone 1843 September 18 days Father Archimandrite Ignatius! It is my duty to express my sensitive gratitude to Your Reverence for your letter, which was so comforting and sensitive for me, which I had the pleasure of receiving on September 14th of this 25th; It is very flattering for me, as well as for my entire family, to know that you accepted our true zeal in the way we appreciated your visit, which will forever remain in the memory of me and my children. You comforted me inexplicably by writing to me that we are so happy that we have been honored with your sacred prayers before the saint of God Sergius the Wonderworker, I hope that Your Reverence will not leave me with them in the future. Asking for your archpastoral blessing, also for my family I have the honor to remain with true respect and reverence for Your Most Reverend Submissiveness at your services I consider it my duty to bring you my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming day of your Angel, I sincerely wish your Reverence to meet it in spiritual joy, to see it through safely and to achieve many future ones in perfect health. With this wish, with my deepest veneration and spiritual devotion, I have the honor to remain forever Selection of letters and comments by O. I. Shafranova. Having Sevastopol, we will have a fleet, and without Sevastopol it is impossible to have a fleet on the Black Sea. “You should come to me to read Nakhimov’s answer, edifying in its humility and piety,” wrote Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov to his spiritual daughter Sofia Ivanovna Snessoreva 128 March 27, 1854. The great Russian naval commander Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov (July 23, 1802 – June 30, 1855) was brought up in the naval cadet corps and, being one of the best students, was promoted to officer at the age of 16. In 1822, he was sent on the frigate “Cruiser”, commanded by M.P. Lazarev 129, on a circumnavigation of the world and has since visited all seas. During his 38-year service, he participated in thirty-two naval campaigns and took part in enormous battles that decided the fate of nations, including the famous Battle of Navarino. In 1845 he was rear admiral, and from October 2, 1852 - vice admiral. Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov acquired universal love and respect after the Battle of Sinop. On September 22, 1853, Türkiye declared war on Russia. England came out in support of Turkey, fearing the strengthening of Russia in the Middle East. From the very first days of the war, the Anglo-Turkish command was preparing a major offensive in the Caucasian theater of war. A 20,000-strong Turkish army was stationed in the Batumi area. A Turkish squadron was heading from Constantinople to the exit to the Black Sea, the goal of which was to land troops in Sukhumi, cut off the Russian army and destroy it. The Russian command sent P. S. Nakhimov to monitor the actions of the enemy squadron. As soon as he learned that the squadron was in Sinop Bay, he decided to attack it. At his disposal, together with the approaching ships led by Rear Admiral F. M. Novosilsky, were two frigates and six battleships. On November 18, at noon, Russian ships rushed into the Sinop roadstead in two columns and, despite the fire from coastal batteries, lined up in battle formation. A fierce battle ensued. Three hours later it was all over: seven Turkish frigates, three corvettes, a military steamer and several transport ships with their crews and troops - up to four thousand people - were destroyed, coastal batteries and fortifications of Sinop were destroyed, the commander of the Turkish squadron and two ship commanders were captured. Our loss was 37 killed and 229 wounded, the flagship suffering the heaviest casualties. History has never known such an outstanding victory achieved in such a short time. The name of Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov became known to every Russian person - it became popular. Words of gratitude and support flew to him from all sides. The war, however, continued, and the new glory of P.S. Nakhimov was still ahead, on the bastions of Sevastopol. On September 1, 1854, the Anglo-French fleet appeared on the horizon and the very next day the enemy began to land on the shores of the Crimea. The Russian command decided to sink several ships in order to block enemy ships from entering the bay, and to strengthen the garrison with sailors. The line of defense was quickly strengthened. On October 5, the bombing began, tens of thousands of shells rained down on the city, but Russian artillery silenced the enemy guns. However, the losses were enormous: up to a thousand sailors were killed and wounded, Vice Admiral V. A. Kornilov died 130. But the enemies also suffered significant damage, and most importantly, they realized that the hope of quickly capturing Sevastopol had failed. For another eleven months the heroic defenders defended the city. After the death of Kornilov, Nakhimov became the head of the defense of Sevastopol. Every day he drove around the defensive line twice, appeared in the most dangerous places several times a day, personally led counterattacks of the units and achieved victory. He managed to make the troops so close to himself that it seemed that without Nakhimov the very defense of Sevastopol would be impossible. Sacrificing his own life for the good of the Fatherland, he cared about preserving the lives of others and more than once was forced to moderate the unparalleled courage of his sailors. In February 1855, P. S. Nakhimov was appointed military governor of Sevastopol and commander of the Sevastopol port; March 27 – promoted to admiral. On June 28, a strong cannonade began on the third bastion. Pavel Stepanovich went there, then moved to the Malakhov Kurgan, where he climbed the rampart with a telescope. A bullet whistled and he fell, mortally wounded. Without regaining consciousness, he died on June 30. “Nakhimov was killed,” wrote S.I. Snessoreva. “I was with Sergius, there, together with Russia, I mourned the noble warrior, and the priest served for the repose of his soul, and they prayed for him for a long time...” The letter to Nakhimov from Archimandrite Sergius Hermitage Ignatius Bryanchaninov and the response to it were known from the story of S.I. Snessoreva: “Good, merciful Father Vladyka, he ordered the image of St. Mitrofan and sent me to read the letter he wrote to Nakhimov. Everything was so short and so clear here: sympathy, prayer, and gratitude. After a while, Nakhimov sent a response full of humility and gratitude” 131. However, these letters themselves remained unknown until now. But in 2003, military sailors and patriots of Russia celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Sinop, and it was by this time that the letters were discovered (Nakhimov’s letter in draft) in the Russian State Archive of the Navy 132. Dear Sovereign Pavel Stepanovich! Your feat, which you and your companions strive for Russia with high selflessness, turned the hearts of all Russians to you. Everyone's eyes are fixed on you; everyone is filled with hope that Fate itself has chosen you to accomplish great deeds, necessary for the Fatherland, saving for the Orthodox, suffering East. Don’t think it strange that a Russian is writing to you, who does not have the honor of knowing you personally. Please accept my lines kindly; accept the icon of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh, the newly-minted miracle worker, sent with them for blessing to you from the monastery of St. Sergius. Before this icon, the brotherhood of the local monastery served a prayer service to the Pleasant of God, and with it they send you their fervent prayers so that Saint Mitrofan will assist you in defeating your enemies. You may ask: why is the icon of St. Mitrofan from the monastery of St. Sergius? When the Black Sea Fleet was first built in Voronezh by order of Peter the Great - I dare to include the founding of this fleet here - Saint Mitrofan assisted the brilliant Tsar with his treasury in the construction of ships. “Every son of the fatherland,” said the Saint, “must devote the remainder of his expenses to the needs of the State: accept, Sovereign, this remaining money from my expenses and use it against the infidels.” At the same time, the Bishop of Voronezh presented the Tsar with six thousand rubles in silver kopecks. Now Saint Mitrophan became richer and more powerful, as if clothed from above with the grace of miracles. May he come down to the aid of that fleet, for the founding of which he joined his efforts to the great labors of the Sovereign! may he go down to battle against those infidels against whom he incited the Orthodox Tsar, and against their proud helpers. Once upon a time, the Angel of the Lord descended into the army of Pharaoh, who dared to set off along the bottom of the parted sea after the Israelites, darkened the gaze of the Egyptians, bound their chariots with invisible force, drowned the enemies of the people of God with the waters that returned to their bed, so now may Saint Mitrophan descend with the face of the other Saints of the Russian land, who have always been distinguished by their love for the fatherland, and will descend upon the fleets of foreigners, may he bind and numb the machines in which they rely, may he darken their minds, may he weaken their legs and arms, and may he grant you victory, which the universe will be forced to proclaim as a miracle. The Black Sea, the sea that boiled under the boats of our ancestors when they, being idolaters, attempted to fight against the Orthodox Constantinople, now raise equally justly angry waves, direct them against the colossal machines of Europe that have accumulated on your waters to maintain the heavy yoke under which the Orthodoxy of Constantinople groans, enslaved by the followers of Mohammed. God is with us! understand the pagans and submit. You hope for the abundance of your perishable wisdom, and therefore learn in vain, you begin an unrealizable undertaking. Our King and we trust in the Lord, and by the power of our faith we will remain unshakable. Help will be sent to us from the Holy One and intercession from Zion. He who lives in Heaven will laugh at the tricks of our enemies, the Lord will mock them. He will speak with wrath against them, and will sweep them away with His wrath. They will fall, and we will triumph. God! save the Russian Tsar and his army, and hear all of Russia, prayerfully crying out to You for them and calling upon Your terrible and invincible power against their wicked enemies. Your Excellency's most humble servant and pilgrim Sergius Hermitage, near St. Petersburg. I cannot find words to express my deep gratitude for the attention you showed to me personally and to my comrades in the service with your letter dated February 1, and for your prayers for us, and for the blessing from your monastery with the icon of St. Mitrophan the Wonderworker of Voronezh. The intercession of the Church before the Lord God for the success of the weapons of our Orthodox Tsar strengthens our spirit and hope in the all-powerful holy help of the Lord in the defense of Orthodoxy. Your comforting words penetrated our souls all the more deeply because they were received during our preparation for receiving the Holy Sacraments. And having fulfilled this sacred duty of a Christian, each of us with new strength is ready to meet the enemy of our precious Fatherland. The Icon of the Saint, sent by you with your blessing, will be our shield. This image of the Holy Face will always be my companion at sea, prayers before it will be my consolation in the hour of sorrow. But forgive me that even after such attention to us, I dare, by the general desire of my colleagues, to still bother you with the most humble request - to pray to the Lord God for the repose of the soul of the former chief and benefactor of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. We owe to his tireless labors and care the present warlike state of our ships and good spirits, which, with the help of God, helped us to fulfill the command of our King. His truly selfless selflessness still guides us in our professional and [nrzb. ] life. May the Lord rest the soul of the unforgettable boss and comrade. ... [nrzb. ]. Committing yourself to your holy prayers... [nrzb. ] Saint Ignatius addressed “Stephan Dmitrievich” in his letters to S. D. Nechaev. Although it can be concluded from the correspondence that this “Life” was published, it was not possible to find it among the published works of St. Ignatius. The letters of St. Ignatius were first published (some in abridged form) in Christian Reading, 1895, issue No. 3, then reprinted in other publications, but did not appear in the collections of St. Ignatius’s works. This edition is based on their first publication in Christian Reading. S. D. Nechaev’s letters have not been published before; they were recently discovered in the archives of the RSL OR. F. 425. K. 4. No. 6. These letters made it possible to clarify the dates of some of the letters of St. Ignatius. Alexander Skarlatovich Sturdza (d. 1854) – Privy Councilor; author of the book “On the Offices of the Holy Order” and other spiritual books. The brochure was published in favor of the Alms Committee. Also compiled by A. S. Sturdza. See: Complete biography of St. Ignatius of Caucasus. M., 2002. pp. 149–151. Father Apollos was the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery until 1846, and from 1846 he was the abbot of the Old Ladoga Nikolaev Monastery; from 1860 - archimandrite, in 1863 - retired; see also about him in 7 vols., p. 290–292. S. D. Nechaev had an estate in the Dankovsky district of the Ryazan province - Storozhevaya Sloboda, or Storozhovo. Wed. This edition, vol. 6, p. 118–212. Metropolitan Filaret (Amphiteatrov). Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov). Published in favor of the Committee on Beggars. Love... thinks no evil... believes everything (1 Cor. 13:4, 5:7). ...every [branch] that bears fruit he cleanses, so that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2). Wallenström. About him, see letter No. 33. Kikilia, in the world Marfa Popova. Your knowledge is wonderful to me (Ps. 139:6). Your Eminence Nikanor. Letters No. 1 to No. 40 – RGIA. F. 1088. D. 532. Published for the first time (A. N. Strizhev). Tsarevich Konstantin Pavlovich. Correspondence with F. P. Opochinin. St. Petersburg, 1873. P. 3. RSL OR. F. 41. K. 169. No. 46. Letter No. 1 – RNB RO. F. 545. Unit. hr. 13 – publication by A. M. Lyubomudrov; letters No. 2, 4, 6, 7 – RSL OR. F. 425. K. 3. No. 9 – publication by O. I. Shafranova; letters No. 3 and 5 were published in volume 4 of the Collected Works of St. Ignatius. M., 1993. In another edition, “The Word from Eternity” is published in this edition, vol. 1. p. 171–173. Archbishop Gregory (Postnikov) is the future Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg. RSL OR. F. 425. K. 4. No. 23. Metropolitan Philaret (Amphitheaters) - about him, see This edition, vol. 7, p. 32–34. (Further – vol. 7). ...Prosecutor of the Holy Synod... - Count N. A. Protasov. RSL OR. F. 425. K 3. No. 19. The letter is published for the first time (O. Shafranova). With your patience save your souls (Luke 21:19). Wed: For, I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:20). Your statutes were my songs in the place of my wanderings (Ps. 119:54). I remember God and tremble (Ps. 77:4). RSL OR. F. 425. K. 1. No. 11. RSL OR. F. 425. K. 4. No. 29. L. A. Sokolov. Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. His life, personality and moral and ascetic views. Kyiv, 1915. Part 1. pp. 286–288. Volotskoy Alexey Alexandrovich (1806–1875) – lieutenant general, until August 1859 – governor of the Stavropol Territory; I have been on friendly terms with Saint Ignatius since childhood. According to the testimony of P. A. Brianchaninov, this letter “was, as it were, a parting word to A. A. Pleshcheev, written to him a month before his death, when no one had yet spoken or thought about the proximity of his hour of death. The late Pleshcheev called this letter his road to eternity, and kept it under his pillow during all his last days; illness prevented Archimandrite Ignatius from coming to his dying friend himself.” For none of us lives to ourselves, and none of us dies to ourselves (Rom. 14:7). Sofia Pavlovna Titova - sister of Anna Pavlovna Pleshcheeva - see p. 110, letter No. 7. RSL OR. F. 425. K 4. No. 21. Published for the first time; the saint's answer in letter No. 7 (O. Shafranov). Archpriest Luka Efremov. Biography of T. B. Potemkina. M., 1870. Count Sergius Sheremetev. Homemade antique. M., 1900. P. 108. About him, see vol. 7, p. 199–200. Soulful reading. M., 1870. Parts 1–4. pp. 1–8. He who does good to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for his good deed (Prov. 19:17). Princess Tatyana Vasilievna Yusupova (1767–1841) is the daughter of Colonel Vasily Andreevich Engelhardt and Marfa Alexandrovna, née Potemkina (sister of Prince G. A. Potemkin). In her first marriage she was married to her maternal grand-uncle, Mikhail Sergeevich Potemkin (died in 1791); in the second - for Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov (1751–1831). In 1781 she was promoted to maid of honor. She was buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. See about her in the letter of the Saint to S. D. Nechaev No. 27, p. 30. For the letter of St. Ignatius to this old woman, see vol. 7, p. 208–209. ...king, may my advice be pleasing to you: atone for your sins with righteousness and your iniquities with mercy towards the poor; This is how your peace can last (Dan. 4:24). The funeral service follows. On Alleluia verse 1. See the letter of Saint Ignatius to the governor of the Sergius Hermitage, Fr. Ignatius (Vasiliev) No. 16, vol. 7, p. 358. ...you are dust and to dust you will return (Gen. 3:19). On February 4, 1848, Saint Ignatius wrote to his governor in Sergius Hermitage: “I wrote a letter to Nikolai Nikolaevich Annensky, consoling him, and I advise you not to leave your family out of a fit of grief. You did a very good job reporting to the Eminence about his stay in the monastery.” RNB RO. F. 1927. No. 288. P. 273–274. Complete biography of St. Ignatius of the Caucasus. P. 152. RGIA. F. 1661. D. 1098. F. 472. D. 62. Konstantin Stepanovich Serbinovich (1795–1874) – Privy Councilor, member of the Commission for Accepting Petitions; see also note about him. This edition, vol. 5, p. 517. Baryatinsky A.I. (1815–1879) - prince, from 1856 to 1861 governor of the Caucasus. RSL OP. F. 425. K. 3. No. 19. RSL OR. F. 425. K. 3. No. 11. RGIA. F. 942. Op. 1. D. 559. Publication, preparation of the text by A. M. Lyubomudrov. Published for the first time. If any of you suffers, let him pray (James 5:13). These letters were written by Saint Ignatius in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, when he was there on an 11-month leave for treatment. Copies of them were made by the cell attendant of St. Stephen (in monasticism Simeon). Later, Saint Ignatius, at the request of his disciples, edited them and prepared them for printing. They were first published by Archimandrite Ignatius (Malyshev) in 1881 as an appendix to the “Biography of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov”, and from 1886 they were placed in the Collected Works of the Saint in the 4th volume. (During the preparation of this edition, of the 61 letters placed in the 4th volume, the addressees of 14 were identified). …increase our faith (Luke 17:5). Some idle talkers wound as with a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals (Proverbs 12:18). He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace [was] upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed (Isa. 53:5). Life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt. Chet'i-Minei, April 1. For we acknowledge that a person is justified by faith, apart from the works of the law. …The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is in all and on all who believe, for there is no distinction, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:28, 22–24). Wed: ... we overthrow ... every high thing that rises up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:4:5). ...delivered from the sword, gathered from many nations, onto the mountains of Israel, which were in constant desolation (Ezek. 38:8). work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). ... terrible ... for everyone around Him (Ps. 89:8). ... no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). do not let my heart turn aside to evil words to excuse sinful deeds (Ps. 141:4). Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29 . the truth will set you free (John 8:32). ...understanding will guard you (Prov. 2:11). ...believing with the heart leads to righteousness, and confessing with the mouth leads to salvation (Rom. 10:10). ...many false prophets will arise and deceive many; and, due to the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:11:12). ...I did not speak from Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what to say and what to say. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. So, what I say, I say, as the Father told me (John 12:49:50). Fear not, little flock! for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom. Enter in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it (Luke 12:32; Matt. 7:13:14). ...No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11). ...God appointed in the Church, firstly, apostles, secondly, prophets, thirdly, teachers (1 Cor. 12:28). Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves: therefore be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. Beware of people: for they will hand you over to the courts, and in their synagogues they will beat you... and you will be hated by everyone because of My name (Matt. 10:16–17:22). And your friends are very honorable to me, O God (Ps. 139:17). RNB PO. F. 1927. D. 288. pp. 275–276. See about him, vol. 7, p. 181–184. Imagine, madam. See about him, vol. 7, p. 114–116. RSL OR. F. 425. K. 4. No. 3. About her, see this edition, vol. 5, p. 487–510. Lazarev Mikhail Petrovich (1788–1851) - an outstanding figure in the Russian fleet and naval commander, scientific researcher of the Antarctic, admiral. In 1827, he distinguished himself in the Battle of Navarino, in which P. S. Nakhimov, V. A. Kornilov, V. I. Istomin took part under his command. Since 1832 he was the chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet, and since 1833 he was the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet and the Black Sea ports. He created a special school in the navy for training and educating sailors - patriots of the Motherland. Kornilov Vladimir Alekseevich (1806–1854) - an outstanding Russian naval figure, closest comrade-in-arms and student of M. P. Lazarev. One of the main organizers of the Sevastopol defense. In 1848 - rear admiral, from 1852 - vice admiral. For the full story, see this edition, vol. 5, p. 519–520. F. 1166. Op. 1. D. 4. L. 171–173.