Saving yourself and others. Venerable Seraphim and our time

Contents I. T. Moskvina. “He taught us to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit” II. Priest Nikolai Bulgakov. “There is no way for us to lose heart!..” Twenty years on the edge of the sword Unexpected joy of December 1990 “The time of glorification has come...” Holy find All-Russian religious procession People's holiday “All Russia returns to itself...” Invisible warfare “We must work, even if there were only the last hours left until the very end” “The Mother of God visits Diveevo every day” “Without faith we are slaves” In the Far desert “There is grace, but we need to work here” “And he listens to the harp of Seraphim...” Groove to Heaven The Great Diveyevo Mystery Our Wealth August 19, 1991 “Let us call on the name of the Lord - and we will be saved” III. THEM. Kontsevich. Definition of the concept of old age IV. I. M. Kontsevich. Venerable Seraphim of Sarov V. Instructions of St. Seraphim of Sarov About God About faith in God About love for God Against excessive care About caring for the soul What should the soul be provided with? About maintaining spiritual peace About thoughts and carnal movements About guarding the heart About recognizing the actions of the heart About repentance About the fear of God About the active and contemplative life About fasting About exploits About vigilance against temptations About sadness About despair About illnesses About duties and love for neighbors About non-judgment of your neighbor About forgiveness of offenses About patience and humility About alms I. T. Moskvina. “He taught us to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit” St. Seraphim of Sarov is one of the most revered saints of the Russian land, whose memory days are celebrated in our country with truly national celebration. In 2003, the whole country celebrated the 100th anniversary of the canonization of the Reverend, in 2004 - the 250th anniversary of his birth, and on August 1, 2011 - 20 years since the second discovery of the relics of Father Seraphim. In the 20th century, the holy relics of the saint of God were hidden from public worship for more than sixty years. They were in the Sarov Monastery until 1927, when the Soviet authorities decided to close the Sarov Monastery and remove the relics of St. Seraphim, initially allegedly to transfer them to the Moscow museum, but immediately after Sarov, traces of their whereabouts are lost. And only in November 1990, during an inventory of church property in the storerooms of the Leningrad Museum of the History of Religion, located at that time within the walls of the Kazan Cathedral, the relics of St. Seraphim were unexpectedly discovered, which was a real discovery, since there were no documents indicating the possibility of finding holy relics there. At the beginning of 1991, after the necessary examination and confirmation of authenticity, the holy relics were officially transferred to the Church, which publicly announced their discovery. First they were in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow in the Epiphany Cathedral of Yelokhov, and on August 1, 1991, on the day of remembrance of the Reverend, the cancer with his holy relics, accompanied by Patriarch Alexy II, many bishops, clergy and pilgrims, was solemnly installed in the Trinity Cathedral of Seraphim-Diveevsky monastery In each of the cities on the route to Diveevo, the newfound shrine was solemnly greeted with a huge crowd of people, religious processions were held, prayer services were held, and people prayed on their knees 1 . It would not be an exaggeration to say that this event shook all of Russia. It seems deeply providential that it was precisely at the beginning of the 90s, with the widespread conversion of the Russian people to faith and the Church, with the beginning of the widespread restoration of churches, monasteries and the resumption of divine services in them, that it was at this time that the holy relics of one of the brightest lamps of the Russian land - St. Seraphim of Sarov - were unexpectedly discovered. Hidden from human eyes during the reign of godless power and anti-religious ideology, they, like a treasure kept hidden until time, were again revealed by the Lord to the Russian people on the path of their return to their spiritual origins. “The event in which we were participants,” said Patriarch Alexy II after the Liturgy at the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery on August 1, 1991, “is the most significant for the spiritual and moral renewal of our Fatherland. The joy of rediscovering the relics of the great saint of God, St. Seraphim of Sarov, was given to us so that we would repent, but at the same time to give us spiritual joy, to call us to spiritual renewal. The time when the Monk Seraphim lived is not far off: he comes to us not as an ascetic of the first centuries of Christianity, but as our dear ascetic of the Russian land, who walked here, prayed here, here the Most Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him, here he received those who came to him, received them with joy and his inherent love. He taught us to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, which sanctifies, saves and strengthens everyone who turns to God with faith and hope” 2. The spiritual image of St. Seraphim of Sarov is close to each of us, perhaps also because everyone finds in him something especially important and instructive for himself personally, for his individual inner aspirations. The height of his ascetic deeds remains a living, inspiring example for all those who strive in monasticism, and the extraordinary simplicity, love and mercy in his treatment of others, the gifts of healing and insight attracted and continue to attract to him a huge number of lay people who sincerely believe in the quick help and intercession before God of the saint of God. In the words of the holy Apostle Paul, St. Seraphim became everything to everyone... in order to save (1 Cor. 9:22), and his concern for the good of his neighbor truly knew no bounds. So, after the Rev. left the retreat and with the beginning of receiving pilgrims, for which the great elder (already at the end of his ascetic journey, eight years before his death) was blessed by the Mother of God, the number of his daily visitors sometimes reached two thousand, and on holidays - up to five thousand people, whom he received either in the monastery cell, or in his so-called “near hermitage”, approximately three kilometers from the Sarov Monastery. According to the ascetic of piety of our time, the famous elder, Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), “the almost thirty-year withdrawal of the Monk Seraphim from people before he entered the path of public service” was that “superhuman feat” by which “the great elder, according to the Providence of God and under the constant protection of the Mother of God, was prepared for the highest form of Christian virtue - eldership, which was truly complete co-crucifixion Christ" 3. Based on his own spiritual experience, Father John (Krestyankin) speaks of the eldership of St. Seraphim as his most important, difficult and insufficiently appreciated feat: “The exorbitant feat of daily contact with the very depths of various human hearts, often mired in the most terrible vices, the constant rejection of the usual sweetness of contemplative spiritual life, a feat that is absolutely impossible without constant, incessant help. Divine grace - this feat, astonishingly, remains insufficiently appreciated from a purely subjective side as a work that truly surpasses the exorbitant labors of pillar mongering, silence and seclusion" 4 . The memory of these deeds of St. Seraphim, which surpass human understanding, the crown of which was the eldership, the reading of his God-inspired, soul-warming covenants and instructions and, finally, the gracious joy sent to us by the Lord of worshiping his celibate relics, which were considered lost 20 years ago, may also move us to a thirst for spiritual work, help kindle in our souls the fire of zeal for God and a godly life, the fire of love and compassion for others, which burned so brightly in the soul of the great elder and without which a Christian cannot be called a Christian. “Do not forget us, our Joy, Father Seraphim, who praise and honor your holy memory” 5 II. Priest Nikolai Bulgakov. “There is no way for us to be discouraged!..” Twenty years at the edge of the sword Re-reading today, twenty years later, the notes that were started right there, in Diveyevo, during the celebration of the second discovery of the holy relics of St. Seraphim, you remember the special feeling with which we went to the celebrations and lived there. We were ready for the fact that any miracle could happen before our eyes. What if Father Seraphim resurrects, as he predicted? After all, his predictions came true... And a miraculous conversion of the whole world to Orthodoxy will take place. And then, maybe, the end of everything?.. Yes, this visible thing has not happened yet. But the feeling was correct. It was a heavenly event - when St. Seraphim entered our earthly life with his holy relics and called us to deep prayer, to repentance, to the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of peace. Our earthly life is truly a heavenly miracle. Heaven lives with us who walk the earth all the time, trying to prepare our souls for eternal joy with the Risen Christ. And invisible miracles are no less important than visible ones. 1991 is an important year in our history. The year is ambiguous - however, like all life always is. On the one hand, there was a spiritual revival. Liberation from the monopoly of communist, godless ideology, which was unconditionally considered the only acceptable for the state and for the people for three quarters of a century. As they said then, the Second Baptism of Russia was taking place: the priests baptized children and adults tirelessly... People began to come to the church. On the other hand, the country was disintegrating. The collapse of the army, the collapse of the economy, science, and social foundations. Moral, food, historical and cultural, informational, occult, educational, psychological, drug war against the people. Again, a sacrifice was needed to free oneself from spiritual captivity - just like seventy years ago, in 1941? The pay is the highest. But there is nothing higher than spiritual liberation. Just as a person’s soul is always more important than his body. Therefore, we must value spiritual freedom above all else. And above all, the Orthodox faith. And one more thing. You read it and are surprised: it’s as if it was written today. Nothing, essentially, has changed in our lives during this time - like days stretched out over two decades? But we lived in anticipation of great changes, a great renewal of our entire life... Or maybe they were really extended, added - for the sake of the task that the Lord set for us. And we have not yet fulfilled it. And the Lord, thank God, endures, helps, hopes for us... And this, perhaps, is the main miracle, the great mercy of God towards us. After all, everything could have been completely different in 1991, and in 1993, and in any year and day of these twenty years. This is, perhaps, a lot, much more than we know, we see - that the Lord is still waiting, has not yet given up on us, accepts what has been done over the years, as if turning a blind eye to what has not been done, or even spoiled by us. Clearly someone is asking him for this... Of course, the Mother of God. Of course, Russians and all the saints. He hears, of course, our small prayers. How many prayer books have been added in Rus' - and more and more! Including thanks to those sorrows that do not leave us. That miracle given to us twenty years ago from Heaven, that special grace - it was for the whole people. But among the people, people stood and stand at different distances from the church. And the Lord still hesitates, still waits: let someone else come in, let someone else be baptized, repent, get married, come to life in soul... How many people entered the church during this time! And he enters and comes to life... How many Liturgies were served, how many religious processions took place across the Russian land, how many churches were built and decorated on it to glorify His holy name, how many crosses ascended above them into our heavens, how many new crosses were put on by old and newborns who were washed during this time in the baptismal font... How many came for the first time to Confession, to Communion, got married - already with gray hair... How many good books have been printed, read... This miracle is our ordinary life all these two decades. “At the edge of the sword” - this is how Hieroschemamonk Moses, a resident of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, called the state of the country twenty years ago (Bogolyubov; † 1992). Is it possible to live on the edge of a sword? And two more decades? Humanly speaking, it’s impossible. We live by miracle. By the power of God, by the grace of God. This is the peculiarity of Russia, the House of the Most Holy Theotokos. The miracle of God is our daily life. We live, as another Lavra elder, Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov, in the schema of Panteleimon; † 2000), said, in added time. Yes, such a massive coming of people to the Church, which was dreamed of, alas, did not happen. And, apparently, it could not have happened so quickly - after the era of godlessness. A person’s too rapid spiritual ascent may be fragile; the restructuring of the soul to the Gospel system is a matter of many, long works. The Monk Seraphim also gave us an example of tireless spiritual work. “He here in Sarov,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said recently, “has shown the great strength of the spirit of man, who acquires the likeness of God, who directs all his strength to living in God and with God...” The enemy of the human race also did not sleep all these years, resisted with all his might the spiritual enlightenment of the people, the Christian upbringing of children, opposing it with his temptations and his ideology. Today, thank God, people bring their children to church to be baptized, but often you never see them here again. Despite all the current opportunities, it often turns out that they have never opened the Gospel, are far from spiritual life, and the main question that is asked before the great Sacrament is: is it possible to take photographs? But the Lord still hesitates, keeps calling us to Himself... His weapon is patience. And this is the miracle of His love. The Lord knows everything, sees everything. Without losing sight of anything, He creates His merciful saving will. What about evil? And how much evil there was during this time... The Lord knows about this too. But only for Him the main thing is good. As you know, for the sake of ten righteous people he is ready to have mercy on the city. And he has mercy... We then expected miracles from God: now He will turn our life around, transform it, shake off all its husks, all the lies, the country will return to its traditional historical path... And God wanted us to work too—even then we were churchgoers. This is God's trust in us. The Lord wants, as always, what is best for us - and not faster and easier. He wants us to come to Him - and not just He to us. Gives us the opportunity to become better. This is what happens to brides and grooms when the Lord suddenly brings a miracle of love into their lives (as he brought the miracle of faith into our lives) - gives them this happiness, without their labor. And then - sooner or later, more or less - it retreats. It’s as if he’s saying: “Now work on your own.” They have a long family feat ahead of them... A sea of ​​patience, humility, great prayerful, repentant work... Preparing souls for the Kingdom of Heaven. This is how children are taught to walk. At first they support them, and then they begin to let them go: so that they get stronger, get on their feet, and go on their own - albeit under the loving parental gaze. We were all brides and grooms back then! And small children... The Lord can do anything, but He expects us to move towards Him. This is exactly what he has been waiting for these twenty years. And He will not be slow to respond - He responds! - for every step we take, even for our intention to go. And in these great twenty years he gave us - yes, great, unprecedented in Russian history, which is primarily spiritual - so much as perhaps never happened before - who measured it?.. It turned out that we had a long way to go. And not easy. And apparently there is more to come... After all, we have not arrived yet, we are only moving towards the fact that great things are happening within: the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). That is why, perhaps, the Lord did not give us the external results that we would like to see. The Lord did not and does not give us a sovereign revival, because we will not put the spiritual in first place in life - and this is, apparently, the Divine task for Russia for these years. Isn’t this what St. Seraphim called us to: “My joy, acquire a peaceful spirit - and thousands around you will be saved”? Isn’t this the essence of the Heavenly event that we look at today from a distance of twenty years? 1991 is the year of the second discovery of the holy relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the wonderworker of all Russia. The divine poetry of Russian history, in which there is nothing accidental, meaningless, or useless, is now being revealed before our eyes, in the sorrows and joys of today. Obviously, in the Heavenly, Triumphant Church, St. Seraphim has a special word in determining the final Providence of God about the fate of Russia, and therefore the whole world. It is not for nothing that the first and second discovery of his holy relics are associated with two most important turning points in the history of the Fatherland. Unexpected joy December 1990 The unexpected discovery of the holy relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, which occurred at the end of 1990 in St. Petersburg, was a joy, and it was also a warning. Every Orthodox person knows that the confessor of the Russian land predicted: before the end of time he will rise in the flesh and begin preaching universal repentance. We need repentance, first of all, for the fact that we have ceased to believe in the main event of human history - the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the general resurrection from the dead. The Resurrection of Christ granted to all those who believe in Him and strive to live according to His commandments the opportunity of eternal life. Thanks to the fact that the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the God-man Jesus Christ willingly ascended to the Cross, was crucified for our sins and was resurrected, all of us, unworthy of eternal life, were given the opportunity after death by the love of God, His ineffable Feat, not to go into eternal darkness, but to be saved for eternal bliss with God. Without this faith, we cannot hope for the mercy of God on the day of His Second Coming and the Last Judgment, for co-resurrection with Him. Without this faith, we do not truly perceive ourselves or the world, and our whole life is distorted. The fact that we live in special, apocalyptic times, that the words of the Gospel are nearby, at our doors (Mark 13:29) relate to us like no other person who has lived on earth, even non-believers have begun to feel this - they have already been counting for years how much forest, fuel, water, air we have left for life... Believers, even more so, see all the signs of the last times, the clergy speaks about this, the elders say. But at the same time, we see a revival, opening churches, monasteries, of which we have about one hundred and twenty operating in Russia... The revival is also predicted - for the last times. Obviously, we are given a great, all-merciful opportunity for salvation - to enter the open doors of the church now, at the last hour, for the Lord, according to the parable of the Gospel, at the eleventh hour will accept those who turn to Him with all their hearts - along with those who have been with Him all the time relentlessly (cf. Matthew 20:6-16). “We who live on earth,” said St. Seraphim, “have lost a lot from the path of salvation; We anger the Lord by not keeping holy fasts; Nowadays Christians allow meat both on Holy Pentecost and during every Lent; Wednesdays and Fridays are not saved; and the Church has a rule: those who do not keep holy fasts and Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the summer sin a lot. But the Lord will not be completely angry, but will still have mercy. We have the Orthodox faith, a Church without any blemish. For the sake of these virtues, Russia will always be glorious, and terrible and insurmountable to its enemies, having faith and piety in the shield and armor of truth: the gates of hell will not prevail against these.” The monk predicted: “Before the birth of the Antichrist, there will be a great long war and a terrible revolution in Russia, exceeding any human imagination, for the bloodshed will be terrible: the riots of Razin, Pugachev, the French revolution are nothing in comparison with what will happen to Russia. There will be the death of many people faithful to the Fatherland, the plunder of church property and monasteries; desecration of the Lord's churches; destruction and plunder of the wealth of good people, rivers of Russian blood will be shed. But the Lord will have mercy on Russia and lead it through suffering to great glory...” Now we can say how important it was for the fate of our Motherland and the world to find the relics of St. Seraphim and venerate them in the city of the Holy Apostle Peter (the city soon returned his name), in Moscow, along the entire route of their procession to Diveevo and finally in the Fourth Lot of the Mother of God itself. For our wounded Motherland, Mother Russia, those summer days were perhaps the most healing in its entire recent history. Not in feuds, disputes, elections with their intense pre-election struggle that splits society, with noisy promises, not in imaginary victories of one over the other - but in the veneration of the truly high, holy, dear, the soul of the people comes to life, its warm unity is created, new spiritual strength is gathered in it. The struggle of godless forces (communist, democratic, etc.) with each other and the victory of one of them is not as important as the return of faith to our people, the revival of Holy Rus'. Nothing can be done here either with tanks or demonstrations; this revival can only happen in our soul. What is needed is spiritual work, turning to God, to church, to prayer, to reading the word of God and the Holy Fathers. Then Russia will truly be reborn. And in this we have powerful support: the Lord Himself, the Mother of God, the Venerable Seraphim, the entire Heavenly triumphant Church of Christ. The significance of what happened in those days cannot be grasped by our everyday mind. But we, by the grace of God, saw this completely extraordinary movement of the people. Back in Moscow we saw this endless line of people who walked and walked to the Epiphany Patriarchal Cathedral in Yelokhov. The flow of people to the shrine with the relics of the great elder did not stop day or night. People, one might say, lived in the cathedral, reminiscent of Rus' during the Tatar and other invasions, when our compatriots found refuge and salvation in churches and icons. Reminiscent of Russia, all trampled by pilgrims striving for its shrines, which it kept within itself, which sanctified it and made it Holy Russia. “The time has come for glorification...” The first discovery of the relics and the nationwide glorification of St. Seraphim took place on the same summer days in 1903. “In the presence of the Sovereign and the Royal Family, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as many other Members of the Imperial Family, with the participation of numerous clergy and with a huge gathering of pilgrims,” wrote E. E. Alferyev in the book “Emperor Nicholas II as a Man of Strong Will” (Jordanville, 1980), “to the Sarov desert, located among the dense forests of the Tambov province, a hundred miles from the nearest railway, no less than three hundred thousand people gathered from all over Russia, mainly peasants, who loudly greeted the Tsar. The transfer of the relics of St. Seraphim from the Zosimo-Savvatievskaya Church to the Assumption Cathedral took place on July 18, on the second day of the glorification celebrations. The coffin was carried by the Sovereign, Grand Dukes and bishops. It was already evening; on both sides of the procession there were dense rows of worshipers with lit candles..." This event, like many others, was predicted long ago by the great elder. "And what a joy it will be, but we won’t live long enough, and I won’t live long enough, to see our five-domed cathedral!.. - he said to one of the Diveyevo sisters. - In the middle of the summer they will sing Easter, my joy. The Tsar and the whole Family will come to us!.. And when the Royal Family comes to you, mother, then go out through the Holy Gates, and open them wide, wide, yes bow low, low to the ground, and say: we humbly ask you to welcome, we humbly ask...” - and Father himself bowed low to the ground three times.” “The Sarov celebrations strengthened the Emperor’s faith in his people. He saw around him, very close, countless crowds, overwhelmed by the same feelings as he, touchingly expressing their devotion to him. He saw the peasantry, the clergy, and the nobility, and it could not help but seem to him that the turmoil that had worried him over the past year was just an superficial, external, purely urban phenomenon, while the heart of Russia was still healthy and beating at the same time as the heart of its Sovereign. The Sarov days made an even stronger impression on the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She had never seen anything like this, had never witnessed such an ardent, fiery faith, had never participated in such grandiose public church celebrations, had never experienced such a high spiritual upsurge. Here the unforgettable words and arguments that she heard from the Tsarevich shortly before her engagement were confirmed - words and arguments that eliminated all her hesitations on the issue of changing religion and joining Holy Orthodoxy and transformed her entire spiritual world. In the days of the glorification of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, the Tsar and Queen became convinced with their own eyes that they formed one inextricable whole with the thickness of the great Russian people and that if obstacles were encountered along the path of their common aspirations for close cooperation in organizing state life, they were caused by an artificially created mediastinum consisting of alien elements. In the Sarov desert, a picture of true Holy Russia, marvelous in its spiritual beauty, unfolded before them.” In 1926, Prince V.M. Volkonsky recalled: “It was good - very good! How bad it is when Mordovians, Tatars, ministers, women, court uniforms, the dirtiest zipuns, the most elegant ladies, cliques who have almost lost their human appearance, a torn torn bag and the latest “model” of Lamonova - all this was together, and you did not feel awkward, did not notice the difference - it simply did not exist; There were different bindings, but the contents were the same... The Emperor walked freely everywhere: the people were touching towards him... Everything that the Emperor had to see and feel in Sarov remained with him as a deep and good memory; he loved to talk about him; I heard him say: “When you remember Sarov, it’s somehow exciting here,” and he pointed to his throat.” The most important role in the glorification of the miracle worker who had long been revered throughout Russia was played by our wonderful compatriot, about whom, unfortunately, we know too little, but whose portrait could be seen these days in Diveevo, in the Trinity Cathedral, with candles and flowers in front of him - Metropolitan Seraphim of Leningrad, executed in 1937, author of the wonderful “Chronicle of Seraphim-Diveevo monastery" of nearly nine hundred pages and an akathist to St. Seraphim, which is constantly read today. Vladyka Seraphim, while still artillery colonel Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov, became a close spiritual child of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, to whom he was in spiritual obedience for almost thirty years. He came from a famous noble family: the great-grandson of Admiral V. Ya. Chichagov, one of the first explorers of the Arctic Ocean, the grandson of P. V. Chichagov, the Minister of Navy of Russia, a prominent participant in the Patriotic War of 1812. Leonid Mikhailovich received an award from General Skobelev for his bravery during the capture of Plevna in the Russian-Turkish war. His medical experience was so great (over two thousand patients) that he wrote a two-volume work “Medical Conversations” (in his treatment he relied on popular experience). Having become a priest, he cared for soldiers in Moscow. (What our army today lacks like air.) One day an incident happened to him, which he himself spoke about: “When, after quite a long period of public service, I became a priest in a small church behind the Rumyantsev Museum, I wanted to go to the Sarov Hermitage, the place of the exploits of St. Seraphim, who was not yet glorified at that time, and when summer came, I went there. The Sarov Desert made a strong impression on me. I spent several days there in prayer and visited all the places where the Monk Seraphim labored. From there I moved to the Diveyevo monastery, where I really liked it and it reminded me a lot of the Diveyevo sisters. The abbess received me very warmly, talked to me a lot and, among other things, said that there were three people living in the monastery who remembered the Reverend: two old nuns and nun Pelageya (in the world Paraskeva, Pasha). Pasha remembers him especially well, who enjoyed the love of the Reverend and was in constant communication with him. I expressed a desire to visit her in order to hear something about the Reverend from her lips. I was taken to the house where Pasha lived. As soon as I entered her, Pasha, who was lying in bed (she was very old and sick), exclaimed: “It’s good that you came, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time: St. Seraphim ordered me to tell you to report to the Emperor that the time has come for the discovery of his relics and glorification.” I answered Pasha that, due to my own position, I could not be received by the Emperor and convey to him what she entrusted to me. I will be considered crazy if I try to be accepted by the Emperor. I can't do what she asks me to do. To this Pasha said: “I don’t know anything, I only conveyed what the Reverend commanded me.” Confused, I left the old lady’s cell... Soon I left the Diveyevo Monastery and, returning to Moscow, involuntarily thought about Pasha’s words. In Moscow, they came to my mind again, and suddenly one day I was struck by the thought that it was possible to write down everything that the nuns who remembered him said about St. Seraphim, to find other people from the Monk’s contemporaries and ask them about him, to get acquainted with the archives of the Sarov Hermitage and the Diveyevo Monastery and to borrow from there everything that relates to the life of the Monk and the period following his death. Bring all this material into a system and chronological order, then print this work, based not only on memories, but also on factual data and documents that give a complete picture of the life and exploits of St. Seraphim and its significance for the religious life of the people, and present it to the Emperor, which will fulfill the will of the Reverend, conveyed to me in categorical form by Pasha. This decision was further supported by the consideration that the Royal Family, as it was known, when gathering for evening tea, read aloud books of theological content, and I hoped that my book would also be read... When the chronicle was finished, I was looking through the last proofs, it was late in the evening, and suddenly I saw St. Seraphim to my left, sitting in a chair. I somehow instinctively reached out to him, falling to my chest, and my soul was filled with inexplicable bliss. When I raised my head, there was no one there. Whether it was a short-term dream or whether the Reverend really appeared to me, I do not presume to judge, but I understood it in such a way that the Reverend thanked me for fulfilling his command given to me by Pasha. The rest is known. I took my labor to the Emperor, which undoubtedly influenced the decision to glorify St. Seraphim. Soon I was widowed and became a monk with the name Seraphim, choosing him as my heavenly patron.” Almost the entire Synod was against the discovery of the relics of Elder Seraphim. However, the Emperor, with the support of a few like-minded people, was decisive. “The sisters said that the Reverend himself appeared to the Emperor, after which he, with his own authority, insisted on the opening of the relics,” recalled nun Seraphima (Bulgakova). Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov) was entrusted with preparations for the celebrations of glorification of the saint, at the end of which the Emperor personally awarded him a precious miter. The holy relics of St. Seraphim were venerated by pilgrims in the Sarov desert. In 1920, the godless authorities performed their autopsy. The relics were placed in a glass reliquary, sealed and put on public display. In 1927, after the monastery was closed, they were taken to an unknown direction. As it has now become clear, the relics were eventually delivered to the Kazan Cathedral in Leningrad, to the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. Apparently, immediately after arriving at the museum, they were covered by someone’s pious hands, because they were not listed in any inventories or lists. All these years, the Orthodox believed that somewhere the relics of St. Seraphim existed and would sooner or later be revealed. “There will be a day when the Sarov Cathedral bell will ring over the forest again,” Prince Volkonsky wrote in the same memoirs of 1926, “again, in a free wave, pilgrims will flow to the Elder, and something will awaken in everyone’s soul that when they meet, everyone will want to tell about their “joy,” and there will be a common joy, and everyone will sing, without fear of anyone, throughout all of Russia: “Holy Father Seraphim, pray to God for us." 1991 was approaching. From the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism of the city on the Neva, the relics of the Holy Right-Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky, the Venerables Zosima, Savvaty and Herman of Solovetsky have already been transferred to our Church... Bishop Arseny (Epifanov) 6 of Istra spoke about further events in the newspaper “Moscow Church Bulletin” (1991, No. 14 (59)): “When handing over the holy remains of the Solovetsky monks, the director officially announced that there were no more relics in the museum’s collections, except for particles in icons that were supposed to be returned to the churches. But the miracle of God happened where we did not expect it. Unexpectedly, S.A. Kuchinsky (director of the museum) called. We agreed to meet, and he came to me. Stanislav Alekseevich reported that after the decision to return the Church of the Kazan Cathedral, which housed the museum, the liberation of storerooms began. They began to donate icons, Gospels, and various liturgical objects to the churches. And in one of the storerooms, among the tapestries, the remains of apparently some saint were found wrapped in matting. They were not listed in the inventory. When they unrolled the matting, they saw the relics with mittens on their hands. On one was embroidered: “Reverend Father Seraphim,” on the other, “Pray to God for us.” What the director of the museum said was amazing, but this did not yet give grounds to claim that the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov had been found. I informed the Patriarch about the find, and Kuchinsky repeated his story to him. Patriarch Alexy II gave his blessing, first of all, to find in the archives documents related to the relics of St. Seraphim, keeping everything secret until there was confidence that these were the relics of the real St. Seraphim. It took some time to find the documents. Finally, copies of documents and acts related to the opening of the relics of St. Seraphim after the revolution were obtained from the Russian Central Archive. With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, Archbishop Eugene 7 and I went to the city of St. Peter and arrived there on the eve of the feast day of St. Spyridon of Trimifunt (December 12/25). I remember I mentally prayed to St. Spyridon, asking for his help in what we had to do. Finally, we arrived at the Kazan Cathedral, we were led into a room where they brought a long bed covered with thick blue paper, under which, in some kind of cloth and cotton wool, were the remains of the saint. When the paper was removed, we saw that the holy relics were assembled into a skeleton, at full height. The first thing that caught my eye was that the relics were wearing a copper cross on a chain, and mittens with the prayer “Reverend Father Seraphim, pray to God for us” embroidered on them. I don’t know what Bishop Eugene 8 experienced at that moment, but I was overcome with awe; I was in a state where you don’t know what to do next. But a moment of stupor passed, I prepared the acts, and Bishop Eugene began to examine the holy relics, which we began to compare with documents detailing the remains of St. Seraphim of Sarov. I must say that from the very beginning we were amazed at how exactly everything coincided with the act of opening the relics in 1920. The description began with the Reverend lying on a green pillow. Indeed, on the bed there is a green moire cushion on which the head of the Reverend rests. It was further noted that one of the jaws contained a single tooth; followed by a mention of mittens; the number of vertebrae was given and it was indicated that some of them were destroyed; femurs were described; it was clarified that one foot seemed to be sewn or attached, like a sandal, and the second was missing. That is, when comparing the relics found in the museum with the act of opening the holy relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, it was obvious that everything completely coincides and there are no differences. The only thing is that the bones were not located in the order described in the document. But this is not surprising, since the relics were kept in matting. Taking a closer look at the cross that was on the relics, we saw that it was indeed copper, with a somewhat damaged enamel coating. When they took off the doll that was placed on the head, I was very struck by the light, even white spot on the frontal part. It was significantly different from the yellowish-brown color of the relics. There was a hole in the doll, apparently previously framed with gold or silver trim, now torn off. All that remained were the threads that attached it. Apparently, this part of the relics was open and available for veneration by believers who reverently revered St. Seraphim. On the inside back of the doll, many yellowish-gray hairs of the Reverend have been preserved. The gold-embroidered glazed armbands listed in the inventory were also intact. They are still on the relics. The only thing missing was the stole. Later, a new one was sewn to clothe the relics. It is difficult to convey the feeling that I felt then: a special reverence and at the same time an indescribable internal tension from the consciousness that there was an extraordinary, great treasure nearby. When the examination was over, the holy relics were again covered with paper, transferred to a special room and sealed. We immediately went to the diocesan administration, from where we called the Patriarch, reported that these were undoubtedly the relics of St. Seraphim, and congratulated His Holiness with great joy. Now the question of the solemn transfer of the relics of St. Seraphim had to be resolved. It was necessary to announce their acquisition and clarify the date of the official transfer. From December 25 (the day of examination of the holy relics) to January 10, all documents were drawn up, permission was received from the Ministry of Culture, which is in charge of the Museum of the History of Religion, a shrine was made and a new vestment was sewn for the relics of St. Seraphim. This determined the date of the official transfer of the holy relics - January 11, 1991. On the eve of this day, Bishop Eugene, I and the clergy of the Holy Trinity Cathedral vested and placed the holy relics in the shrine. First, new vestments and shrines were consecrated, and, after praying, we began to remove the relics of the Rev. My subdeacon read the akathist, and we wiped the bones with holy water, and then with the blessed oil from the Holy Sepulcher. Moreover, when they washed the head of St. Seraphim, attention was again drawn to a white spot that stood out noticeably against the general background - a trace of reverent worship of the holy relics. The next morning the Patriarch arrived in the city of St. Peter. In the afternoon, at four o’clock, Bishop Eugene and I arrived at the Kazan Cathedral, where preparations were underway for the transfer of the holy relics. Upon the arrival of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II and all the bishops who took part in the celebration at the cathedral, his holy relics were transferred to the central part of the cathedral under the quiet singing of glorification of the Reverend. A prayer service to St. Seraphim immediately began, after which His Holiness the Patriarch and the director of the museum signed the act of transferring the relics of the Russian Orthodox Church. S. A. Kuchinsky presented the Holy Patriarch with the image of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Later, having examined the icon, we saw that it was very unusual. The image is written as if in the form of a shroud: the Monk Seraphim is depicted with his eyes closed and his hands folded on his chest. The board on which the image was written had recesses covered with mica glass. Having rubbed them, we saw that in the upper part of the icon, above the halo, there were the hair of the Reverend; in the middle, in the chest, there is a particle of relics; in the lower part, under the feet, there is a particle of either a shoe or a coffin (I didn’t look at it exactly); on the left side of the icon, where the mantle is depicted, there is a piece of St. Seraphim’s clothing. After the act of transfer was completed, the holy relics were taken in a car carpeted and decorated with flowers to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where the clergy and many people had already gathered. Having sung the troparion and kontakion to St. Seraphim, everyone sang: “We bless you, Reverend Father Seraphim...” The Patriarch blessed the city of St. Peter on four sides with an icon donated by the director of the museum. Following this, to the ringing of the Lavra bells and the prayerful singing of the people, with general spiritual rejoicing, the holy relics of St. Seraphim were brought into the Trinity Cathedral. And immediately, involuntarily, a thanksgiving prayer for the return of the shrine began. It was so unusual to see the Patriarch pronounce the litany, and the clergy sing with the people. This great spiritual joy united and brought everyone closer, so that all those present in the cathedral “with one mouth and one heart” 9 sang thanksgiving to the Lord. In the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the holy relics were supposed to remain until the day of memory of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg (January 24/February 6). And all this time the cathedral was filled with people from morning to evening: people walked and walked to the Reverend. An extraordinary spiritual uplift was felt, and it became obvious how strong the love of believers for St. Seraphim was. The transfer of the holy relics to the Moskovsky railway station for transportation to Moscow was scheduled for February 6. In the evening of this day, many clergy gathered in the altar of the Trinity Cathedral. In the cathedral, filled to capacity with people, there was a pre-holiday roar - this happens on Easter night, when people come to church in advance. His Holiness the Patriarch has arrived. He addressed a farewell speech to the believers, thanking them for their zeal for the Reverend. At ten o'clock in the evening, a huge religious procession headed to the Moscow station, where a special carriage was supposed to arrive at 23:10. We walked for about an hour. But for some reason the carriage arrived only at a quarter to twelve. And all this time the station platforms were filled with people. The singing did not stop: “We bless you, Rev. Father Seraphim.” Many lit candles, the flames of which flickered in the winter twilight. When the train started moving, from the window of the last carriage one could see how people knelt down and bowed towards the retreating train, taking away the great shrine... On the train itself, in the carriage where the shrine with the relics stood, the bishops and clergy gathered without any agreement. The reading of the akathist to St. Seraphim began and continued all night until the train arrived in Moscow. First, His Holiness the Patriarch read, and everyone present sang. Then, in turn, bishops and priests..." The next morning, February 7, 1991, huge crowds of people greeted the shrine with holy relics in Moscow. It was the day of the icon of the Mother of God “Quiet my sorrows,” the day of remembrance of all victims of persecution of the Church of Christ, established in 1918 by the Local Council chaired by St. Tikhon and only now renewed. Even then, a grandiose procession from the square of three stations, filled with greeters, along Novoryazanskaya Street to the Yelokhovsky Cathedral, with tricolor flags that had not yet been seen in our lives, with portraits of the Tsar, with chants, indicated that something unprecedented was happening in our lives. But that was just the beginning... All-Russian religious procession From winter until mid-summer, the relics of St. Seraphim stood in the Elokhov Cathedral for veneration. And so on July 23, to the sound of bells, accompanied by the Patriarch, bishops and priests, the crayfish with holy relics is carried out of the cathedral, circles around it and rushes towards the center. Behind her is an avalanche of people filling the entire street, singing the prayers “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ”, “I Believe”, “Our Father”, with icons of the saint, with burning candles. Here we heard for the first time a song that was sung, gathered in a circle, with icons of the Reverend in their hands, by pilgrims who had come from the depths of our Motherland - a song that the people preserved about their favorite, who labored in the Sarov forest: There under the pine tree along the path He stood with his free will This is the historical fork in the road, this is the essence of the division that has occurred in our people - in the understanding of what free will can be directed to. Some, by their will, remained faithful to Christ, Who said that true freedom is given only by freedom from sin, the overcoming of our passions. And others began to see their lack of freedom in anything and anyone, just not in themselves (it is easier to fight with others than with yourself). And this path, godless, revolutionary-democratic, could only lead into the hands of the devil, to even greater unfreedom. The reliquary with the holy relics of the Saint was installed in a minibus with large windows. Her path is to Diveevo, through Bogorodsk, Orekhovo-Zuevo, Vladimir, Bogolyubovo, Nizhny Novgorod, through forests and fields... An icon rode ahead on the roof of a car, and the Sarov elder, standing at his full height, blessed thousands of people who came out to him everywhere he passed, blessed all of our new, emerging, reviving Rus'. All along the way, the reliquary with holy relics was accompanied by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. For two nights she stayed with the relics in local cathedrals, and at night and during the day people came and went to them, prayers and liturgies were performed, the Orthodox anointed themselves with consecrated oil before the relics, confessed and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The Monk Seraphim commanded not to “miss the opportunity to use the grace bestowed by communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ as often as possible. Trying, if possible, to concentrate in the humble consciousness of one’s complete sinfulness, with hope and firm faith in God’s ineffable mercy, one should proceed to the Holy Sacrament, which redeems everything and everyone... Whoever partakes will be saved everywhere; and whoever does not partake, I don’t remember,” said the elder. “To partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ,” he said to Archpriest Vasily Sadovsky, who was caring for the Diveyevo sisters, “I command them, father, on all four fasts and twelve holidays, even on major holidays; the more often, the better... You, their spiritual father, do not forbid - I tell you, because the grace given to us by communion is so great that no matter how unworthy and no matter how sinful a person is, if only in the humble consciousness of his all-sinfulness, he approaches the Lord, who redeems us all, even if covered from head to toe with the sores of sins, and he will be cleansed, father, by grace Christ, become more and more bright, will be completely enlightened and saved!” When I arrived in this cozy Russian city - six and a half hours from Moscow by train from the Kazan station - rejoicing: there is no current Moscow noisy, perishable cooperative spirit here - the holy relics of St. Seraphim were already standing in the huge Resurrection Cathedral, built in honor of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 (inside it resembles a triumphal arch). Cathedral Square was full of people. Both here and then in Diveyevo there was an unprecedented fair of Russian Orthodox literature, newspapers, icons, they were sold directly from the buses on which booksellers and pilgrims arrived. - To Father Seraphim! – with these words they asked to hand over the candles at the Liturgy, which the Patriarch served, and this was unusual. Usually we say: "Reverend". But here one could feel the memory of Father Seraphim, who had been in this city and was close to him. “Reverend Seraphim is almost a contemporary of us, dear and close to us in our earthly fatherland, in language and in all customs,” wrote Archpriest Sergius Bulgakov in 1933, on the centenary of the repose of the Sarov wonderworker. “It is wonderful and significant that in our time his appearance turned out to be possible,” as he himself always edified, warning against the delusion that only in ancient, distant times could the saints of God rise up. Not only by word, but by himself, he convinces that God at all times reveals His grace to those who want to accept it through deeds of faith and love, through the effort of the heart and will... Before the onset of great, never before experienced tests for faith, the Lord sent his prophet to our Motherland to teach people faith and prayer by example, to show them the living God in heaven.” After the Liturgy, right in front of the cathedral, we sit down on the grass to have breakfast, what God sent us. The locals come up and treat me - some with eggs, some with cucumbers, some with bread. Holy Rus'! In Rus', wanderers have always been honored, who in the spring took a knapsack with the Gospel, with crackers, and on the road - to St. Sergius in Posad, to Kyiv (the language will take you to Kyiv!), and even to Athos or even to Jerusalem. Then they came to their village and told: what they saw, how they were received, how they pray there, how they serve, what kind of monks there are, and they brought the shrines of those places: some an icon of a saint consecrated on his relics, some a bottle of precious myrrh, some water from a holy spring, some earth... Strangers were always and everywhere received and fed, for all this was God’s common work. Next to me are Mikhail and Anna, a peasant couple from a Mordovian village, Lydia from Sukhumi, children speaking clear Ukrainian... In the evening, Mikhail and I approached the cathedral, where Anna was waiting for us, to take our things and go for the night to the dormitory of the agricultural technical school - familiar Muscovite pilgrims were accommodated there - and saw an amazing picture. It was already dark, but a river of lights floated towards the cathedral - up the steps to the snow-white cathedral shining against the dark blue sky: people, mostly young people, walked to the Reverend with lighted candles. And we haven't left yet. We lit our candles, once again venerated the relics together with everyone else, and went to sleep right in the cathedral, on the wooden floor. As in Moscow, in Elokhovskoye, many people spent the night on the floor here. The legless man, who had found food here, unfastened his gurney, crawled off it, lay down on his side and, saying good night with a smile, fell asleep next to him. All night the priests, not knowing fatigue, read an akathist to the saint, and people stood in front of the shrine... You open your eyes and you can’t resist, you get up, you come up again: after all, one step and you’re at prayer in the church! Yes to what!.. The old hieromonk Evstratiy, having finished the akathist in the middle of the night, told us a word in the silence of the cathedral - that we are Christians only in name, because there is anger in us. If we have anger, hostility towards people, if we have little love, then we need to turn to St. Seraphim for help. He had a great gift of love for every person, greeting everyone with the words: “My joy.” But the Lord gave him the spiritual gift of seeing the soul of every person with all its infirmities. But love covers everything, heals everything. What we miss most in our lives is love. That is why Elder Seraphim came to us - to teach us to love each other, to rejoice in each other. And for this we need to acquire the gift of the Holy Spirit - this is precisely what he saw as the main goal of a Christian’s life, this is what all our deeds and exploits serve, for this we pray and turn to the Sacraments of the Church. “My joy, I pray you, gain a peaceful spirit!” - said Fr. Seraphim to the monk,” we read in the “Chronicles...” - And then he began to explain what it means to acquire a peaceful spirit. This means putting ourselves in such a state that our spirit is not disturbed by anything. One must be like a dead person, or completely deaf, or blind, in the face of all the sorrows, slander, reproaches and persecutions that inevitably come to everyone who wants to follow the saving paths of Christ. For through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). Thus all the righteous were saved and inherited the Kingdom of Heaven; and before him all the glory of this world is like nothing; all worldly pleasures and shadows do not have what is prepared for those who love God in the heavenly abodes; there is eternal joy and triumph. In order to give our spirit freedom to ascend there and be nourished by the sweetest conversation with the Lord, we need to humble ourselves by constant vigil, prayer and remembrance of the Lord. “Here I am, poor Seraphim,” the elder said to the monk, “for this I go through the Gospel every day: on Monday I read from Matthew, from beginning to end; on Tuesday from Mark; on Wednesday from Luke, on Thursday from John; in the last days I divide the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles; and I don’t miss a single day without reading the Gospel and the Apostle to the Holy One. Through this, not only my soul, but also my body itself is delighted and enlivened, because I converse with the Lord, I keep in my memory His life and sufferings, and day and night I glorify, praise and thank my Redeemer for all His mercies poured out to the human race and to me, the unworthy... Ah, if you knew what joy, what sweetness awaits the soul of the righteous in heaven, then you would decide in your temporary life to endure all kinds of sorrows, persecution and slander with thanksgiving. If this very cell of ours (at the same time he pointed to his cell) was full of worms, and if these worms ate our flesh throughout our entire temporary life, then we would have to agree to this with every desire, so as not to lose that heavenly joy that God has prepared for those who love Him.” Here, in Arzamas, at a press conference, Patriarch Alexy II said in his speech about the Reverend: “He had a special love for people. And he drew love from the joy of the Resurrection of Christ. The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our faith. St. Seraphim was the bearer of this Easter joy throughout his entire life. He taught: "There is no way for us to lose heart. Christ has conquered everything." I am convinced that the second discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov in our days, when we have intolerance, confrontation, and bitterness, is more important than ever. Thousands of people greeted the procession of the holy relics of the Saint. With faith in his prayer, with faith in his intercession, in the fact that he will pacify our lives... The most important task today is to rid our people of the destructive itch. A lot has been destroyed in this century. Now it seems that we must continue to destroy - this time what led to the destruction. But the only real opposite of destruction is construction. We need to revive the Russian village. And one of the forms of its revival is the revival of monasteries, where there was a high level of agriculture. We allowed destruction - we must restore. And hoping that an overseas uncle will come and restore it is not entirely fair. You need to learn how to work yourself. I think if we learn to work, we will solve our problems." The monasteries achieved amazing success in agronomy and land reclamation - after all, everything was done with prayer, with love, with God's help, and the Lord admonished them and revealed the best methods. It is clear that only if our people turn to God again will our earthly economy be established. For the main goal of the Lord is the salvation of our souls for eternal life. This is precisely the meaning of all His lessons - so that we unite with Him in faith. Without this, our life could not work out and, of course, it won’t work out. We woke up in the Resurrection Cathedral early in the morning - it was already filled with people. The service was broadcast throughout the entire square and echoed through the old streets of this good city. And again there was a line out into the street to see the holy relics of St. Seraphim. And it grew and grew, filling the square with a zigzag, and people patiently walked and walked... It was felt that this event was for all the townspeople. And this was clearly felt as a miracle: the fact that everyone—even those who, perhaps, don’t go to church at all—came. They came not just to look, but to venerate the relics. Something happened... Something besides all the latest words and events. Something mysterious, in the very soul of the people. This was not ordinary interest in an event, even the most extraordinary one. And how much larger it was than usual could only be a miracle. There was a sense of something nationwide, all-Russian. The people gathered for another, unprecedented purpose. They stopped being divided into believers and non-believers, they again became Russian people - and that says it all. What we almost lost. What we need most. The people here seemed to be silent in front of the shrine. There could no longer be any talk of some empty, casually thrown word towards her. The people apparently felt that they had nothing more, nothing - no one to rely on. Those people who just seemed to be the masters of life, who determined its meaning and morality, turned out to be very unsteady in the main issues, and not a support at all. No one else will protect - only God. What wealth is this abandonment of all worldly things! What a mercy of God to us - this newfound truth! Life comes to life. It is being built anew, everything is its way, its spirit. A new page of our history begins, healing begins, the people unite around the only true core, which collected, preserved, and raised Rus' - around the Orthodox faith. Only our faith has always saved Russia in all trials. This, one might say, is the fundamental law of Russian history, immutable for our day. Well, and the fact that the enemy of the human race is taking revenge on us with all sorts of sorrows for this understanding that is returning with difficulty - well, nothing else could be expected. If this were not the case, it would be suspicious: are we really experiencing genuine spiritual recovery? A miracle happened to many of us. Could we have thought ten or twelve years ago that we would go to church, be baptized, bow to the ground, and venerate the relics? They wouldn't believe it! But we were led by an unyielding force - the mercy of God. We know how we, madmen, resisted her, the all-good one - and she patiently led us: through sorrows, illnesses, joys, falls... Like the whole country. Early in the morning, a beaming grandmother led her grandson, about eight years old, across the square: “I kissed him in the evening, and he did it now.” Grandmothers, our dear grandmothers, who tirelessly woke us up, pulled us by the hand, no matter how much we resisted, kept our faith, kept everything... In the afternoon before the service, the riot police, whom the authorities placed here to maintain order, happily took pictures in front of the cathedral with their Cossack peers (oh, and the Cossacks’ uniform is beautiful! - with their blue caps behind their backs). When this Cossack detachment rose decorously up the steps and entered the cathedral, they did so only by stopping two by two with their heads uncovered, crossing themselves, and bowing. So the woman standing next to me in the crowd said, “Eh! There are tears in my throat." But the rage of the opposing force is great. On June 4, 1988, here in Arzamas, an explosion occurred on the railway, which, by the grace of God, did not become a greater disaster. All houses around the crater were swept away. We saw this emptiness, on which there is only a monument to 91 people from the twisted remains of cars with the dial of a stopped clock. The next day, the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia began. “All of Russia is returning to itself...” We went to the Diveyevo celebrations with a special feeling: that perhaps we would become witnesses to the greatest miracle that the Reverend predicted: his resurrection. We know that in this life - entirely, in its very essence, always wonderful, amazing - it may be that what seemed completely incredible to us yesterday will suddenly become completely real today. We are accustomed to the sun and grass, to the singing of birds and the birth of children - but all this is a miracle, this was all created by the Creator. After all, we admire masterpieces of art, standing in long lines just to look at a tiny canvas. How we need to admire the greatest untold masterpiece of “the Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible” 10! Admire every person. Rejoice at him, as St. Seraphim rejoiced... This feeling of the bottomlessness of life, the impossibility of grasping it with our minds, in big and even small things, always, is the basis of faith. Vera knows that the world goes into infinity. Yes, the resurrection from the dead is a great miracle. We Orthodox Christians confess every day in the Creed: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead...” Not only do I believe in it, but I also desire it. Father Seraphim considered this member of the Creed to be very important. It was with this aspiration that we went. We were taken to Diveevo by an ordinary route “groove”, one of those that run all over Russia, following a convoy with holy relics at its head. Buses run here quite often, but this flight was, of course, more crowded than ever. It was crowded, temptations began - strife, resentment. But we all went to one place, began to sing prayers, glorification of the Reverend - and by the end of the journey we all asked each other for forgiveness (we are all sinners, but the significant difference is that the Church taught some to repent, and others, alas, did not). And now - the evening of July 31st. A shrine with the holy relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov approaches the freshly whitewashed Trinity Cathedral in Diveevo. The entire area around is filled with people. Raka stops in front of the open doors of the cathedral for a short prayer... I thought: “Now not only the relics of St. Seraphim - all of Russia is returning to itself...” For an unspiritual, inattentive look, with which, unfortunately, we usually look at life around us, everything in it is just a heap of accidents. But sometimes the Lord opens our eyes (he who has eyes, let him see), and then life appears before us in its amazing beauty and grandeur, as one, whole, where everything is wisely governed by the all-good Divine Providence. That is why we, the blind, also need humility, to which Orthodoxy attaches the most important importance, so as not to continually tear the thin webs lovingly stretched by Providence between the phenomena of life, built for our salvation. Some of us are inclined to see political motives in events in spiritual life (“Gorbachev allowed it, it was beneficial for him, and churches were opened”). Christ the Savior said to Pilate: Have no power upon Me, except it be given from above (John 19:11). Political events, like all life, have a spiritual basis, first and foremost. Its essence is the constant struggle between light and darkness. The events of history testify to this. 1775 The year of the Pugachev rebellion. And in the same year, 16th Prokhor Moshnin, with the blessing of his mother, leaves his native Kursk to become a monk - the future Elder Seraphim. When the holy apostles cast lots in which direction each of them should go to preach the Gospel, the Mother of God, who led their community, got Iveria (present-day Georgia) and Athos. Her third Destiny was Kyiv (where the first monk was St. Anthony, who came from Athos). And Her Fourth Destiny is the unknown Russian village of Diveevo, where the first female monastic community was founded at the command of the Mother of God by Mother Alexandra (Melgunova; † 1789), who became a monk in Kyiv. On November 25, 1825, the Queen of Heaven appeared on the banks of the Sarovka River to St. Seraphim (who also came to Sarov from Kyiv, where he was shown the place of his feat). This was one of Her twelve appearances to him - more than to any other saint (“My beloved!” She called him). And the Mother of God commanded: “I will show you another place, also in the village of Diveevo: and on it build this monastery promised by Me...” “As I myself am a virgin,” said the Monk Seraphim, “the Queen of Heaven blessed that there would be only girls in my monastery!” He instructed those who came to him: “For the sake of future bliss, acquire chastity, preserve virginity. The virgin who preserves her virginity for the sake of the love of Christ, to have honor with the angels, is the bride of Christ: Christ is her Bridegroom, leading her into His heavenly palace. Every human soul is a virgin; the soul that remains in sins is a careless widow who died alive in voluptuousness.” The Mother of God Herself promised to be the ever-present Abbess of Her new monastery, She Herself called the girls for her by name, She Herself gave her a new charter, which had never been in any monastery before, and promised to pour out on her all Her mercies and All the graces of God, blessings from all Her three former Lots: Iberia, Athos and Kyiv. She called this monastery Her Fourth Universal Lot on earth. She promised to give Her greater blessing to the waters of the spring, which boiled from the earth from the blow of Her rod, than the waters of Bethesda of Jerusalem once had, about which we read in the Gospel (see: John 5:2). A few days after this appearance of the Mother of God, the Decembrist revolt occurred, which became an important stage in the revolutionary democratic movement in Russia, which aimed to destroy its Orthodox-monarchical structure, which ultimately led to the disaster of 1917. On July 17/30, 1903, celebrations began in Sarov to glorify St. Seraphim. On the same day, the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party opened in Brussels, which adopted the program of this party on the socialist revolution in Russia and the establishment of the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, marking the beginning of Bolshevism. On July 17/30, 1991, a religious procession with the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov ended in Diveyevo, and the celebrations of their second discovery began. During these same days, the following happened: on July 20, 1991, the Decree of the President of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin “On the cessation of the activities of organizational structures of political parties and mass social movements in state bodies, institutions and organizations of the RSFSR” (on departization) was issued, and the Communist Party itself, at the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee on July 25, admitted the inconsistency of its program, which set as its main goal “building communism.” Two discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim. Between them is an era in the history of the country, in the history of mankind, allowed by the inscrutable Providence of God for our admonition and salvation. “But let’s return to the Fourth Destiny of the Mother of God,” writes Archpriest Vasily Shvets. – What does Diveevo mean? After all, Russia has become completely different than during the times of Kievan and Muscovite Rus', and for a long time many did not understand the words of the Mother of God and St. Seraphim - how is Diveevo and why? But after the events of February 1917 and the collapse of the autocracy, it became immutably clear what Diveevo was. This is New Russia, Russia without autocracy, a country ruled by the Mother of God Herself, our Intercessor... At the same time, the restoration of the patriarchate in Rus' took place - the prophecy of St. Seraphim of Sarov came true. The Most Pure One herself showed by this restoration and the appearance of the “Sovereign” icon that even in the most cruel and difficult times She is with us, She is our Diligent Intercessor, Representative before God, and still Her Throne and Her House are in Russia, and special love and favor are with the Russian people.” Five years ago I heard from a Moscow priest about the prediction of Archpriest John of Kronstadt (then his name was hardly mentioned, but now he has been canonized by our Church). Holy Righteous John (†1908) predicted that the godless government would be on our land for 74 years. At that time—perestroika had just begun—Soviet power seemed quite unshakable. But now it is clearly visible that the prediction came true exactly. And this is another confirmation that everything is in the hands of God, and satanic forces act outrageously only within the limits that are assigned to them by God, His inscrutable and saving Providence. If you move a little further from our current material shortages and deprivations, it will become clear what kind of grace is coming to us now. Human history has never known such a bright triumph of God’s truth, such a clear disgrace of all human wisdom. The reliquary with the relics of St. Seraphim is installed under the vestibule - a large tent on four pillars, reminiscent of the crown of a church, with sparkling gold crosses. At the top, on the front side, is an image of the Sarov elder praying on a stone, and the words of the prayer with which he performed this thousand-day, thousand-night feat: God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13). On the right is the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands and the apostolic words: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). “Shortly before the death of Fr. Seraphim, seeing his truly ascetic life, we read in the Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, one brother, as an edification to himself, asked him: “Why, father, do we not have such a strict life as the ancient ascetics of piety led?” “Because,” answered the elder, “we do not have the determination to do so. If we had the determination, we would live like the fathers who shone of old with exploits and piety: because the grace and help of God to the faithful and those who seek the Lord with all their hearts is now the same as it was before: for, according to the word of God, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.” This deep and holy truth, which Fr. Seraphim understood from the experience of his own life, was, so to speak, the final word of his lips and the seal of his exploits.” On the left side in the entryway are the words of the Psalter: Honorable before the Lord is the death of His saints (Ps. 115:6) and the image of the elder in the cell before the image of the Mother of God “Tenderness” - ““Joy of all joys,” as he always called it, before which he knelt during prayer and walked away, as if he had not died,” said one of the Diveyevo sisters. Before the arrival of the holy relics in Diveevo, there was rainy, cold weather. And by the time they arrived, the sun was shining; there was almost not a cloud in the sky all these days. And a rainbow shone over the cathedral. It was the same in Moscow: the days were surprisingly warm, but as soon as we carried out the shrine with the relics, it immediately began to rain and bad weather set in. Lydia Broditskaya arrived in Diveevo with other pilgrims even before the arrival of the holy relics. As she wrote in “Russian Bulletin” (1991. No. 19), at this time “the last, fifth cross was installed at the Trinity Cathedral. Believers gathered below at the back wall of the cathedral to accompany the work of the steeplejacks with prayerful singing. Fifty people, without any direction, harmoniously sang the troparion to the Cross, the Symbol of Faith. Suddenly someone shouted: “Look, a rainbow!” A seven-color rainbow actually shone in the sky, stretching towards the church. She then shrank, then grew, without disappearing for a second. People knelt down, many cried. Those were tears of joy, because the rainbow is a sign of reconciliation between God and man. In any case, we were all sure that our prayer had been heard. And while the cross was being strengthened on the dome, and singing was heard from the ground, the sign continued. Local residents said that every time a cross was placed on the church, a rainbow appeared in the sky. Another day, when our group of several people decided to read an akathist to St. Seraphim in the open air in the vicinity of Diveevo before sunset, a multi-colored arc appeared above us again... On the eve of the arrival of the shrine in Diveevo, during the all-night vigil, at about six o'clock in the evening, pilgrims gathered in front of the Trinity Cathedral observed another phenomenon: the solar disk appeared to be dimmed by a matte filter (the weather was cloudless). You could look at him without looking away, with your eyes wide open. At the same time, the sun “played” - the disk was in motion all the time, shifting now to the left, now to the right. It was amazing! Local residents said that this is how the sun “played” here on Easter, on the celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, and also on all these days.” Now do You let Thy servant go in peace, according to Thy word... - the choir sang on July 31 at the solemn all-night vigil. And these words were felt in their special meaning today, at this moment. This is exactly how we perceived what was happening in our entire lives. We saw the salvation prepared for us by the Lord after godless captivity. The holy relics here revealed their authenticity, their holiness - unbearable for the dark forces, they began to reveal themselves. Already at the all-night vigil, one could hear barking, apparently coming from people, or an angry cry to the entire cathedral: “I will judge everyone!” Then at the shrine with the relics this happened every now and then. Then a guttural scream is heard - I turn around, look at the woman from whom these sounds come: the external impression is that she is silent. Only from her exhausted face, from the way she stubbornly places the sign of the cross on herself, is it clear that a struggle is going on. Pilgrims spent the night in the cathedral, in the choir, and they were eyewitnesses of how the hermit elder, who came for the holiday, cast out demons from the possessed. One of the pilgrims, a parishioner of our church, told how the elder spoke directly with the demons who settled in unfortunate people, outwardly the same as the rest of us, but before the relics everything manifests itself. He said: “I won’t go out,” the demon answered in an impudent voice (familiar cheeky thieves intonations) - and he can speak from a woman in a man’s voice. - Get out! - the old man repeated, continuously making the sign of the cross he held in his hands over the unfortunate woman. - I don’t want to go anywhere! I feel good here too. “Then you will go into the abyss.” - No, I will live here forever! At this time, the elder prayed continuously and asked everyone present in the cathedral to pray. Sweat poured from him, he was shaking, vomiting, in a word, everything as described in the Gospel. My friend said that it was a painful sight, that she cried all that sleepless night. It is so difficult to drive out evil spirits from us - which supposedly do not exist in our lives! “It’s just” that all kinds of demons come from somewhere: drunkenness, drug addiction, smoking, foul language, fornication, suicide, murder, including one’s own children in the womb, all kinds of atheism: communist, democratic, whatever, any false Christian heresies, non-Christian “religions” that supposedly do not contradict Christianity in the main - the enemy of the human race is completely indifferent to where we deviate from the saving Orthodox path of Christ, if only the soul perishes. And how carelessly we invite this terrible force to ourselves: through psychics, fortune telling, horoscopes, rock music, non-participation in the Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, non-wearing of the cross, all kinds of sin. St. Seraphim, by the grace of God, helps us from the very first days with what we need most today: strengthens our faith. It gives us another opportunity to be convinced that the churches of God, prayer, confession, communion, the sign of the cross are not just “traditions”, decorations of our lives, some symbols, they are the front line of the invisible battle of light and darkness. That there is no “neutrality” in the spiritual world: either angels or demons are in the invisible space around us, and every minute of our life and peace is a victory of divine forces over the forces of darkness. The Reverend was once asked: “Father! Have you seen evil spirits? The elder answered with a smile: “They are vile... Just as it is impossible for a sinner to look at the light of an Angel, so it is terrible to see demons: because they are vile.” “The elder defeated all visions, temptations and attacks of the enemy with the power of the sign of the cross and prayer. After them, for a long time he remained peacefully in his desert, thanking the Lord for this peace and tranquility,” we read about him. Sometimes Orthodox Christians hear: – Why do you think that your faith is true? And others think that this is their faith - the true one. “It’s not just us who think, it’s the demons who think too,” one can answer this. “They already know which faith annoys them the most, which saves the souls they seek to destroy, and which is only an adornment to earthly life.” That is why Russian patriotism is so unbearable for the prince of this century, that is why he sentenced our people to death (as our whole history speaks of). That is why he is trying so hard to prove that the suffering and sorrow that our people bear is not a special cross that befalls those who are called to keep the true faith on earth (If Me is cast out, you will be cast out, - John 15:20), and not retribution for renouncing this cross (To everyone, much will be given, much will be required of him... - Luke 12:48), but supposedly something another, our special inferiority is certain. So that the most terrible thing for the Antichrist force does not happen: so that the Russian people do not see what really is the cause of their sorrows, so that they do not repent of the sin of apostasy, so that they do not turn with all their hearts to Orthodoxy, thereby saving themselves and others. St. Seraphim spoke about the Orthodox Church: “She is in all the glory and power of God! Like a ship with many riggings, sails and a great helm, she is guided by the Holy Spirit. Its good helmsmen are the teachers of the Church, the archpastors are the successors of the Apostles... Our life is the sea, our Holy Orthodox Church is the ship, and the Pilot is the Savior Himself.” Orthodox people from all over came to the celebration: from Siberia and Moldova, from Georgia and Bulgaria... Writers, artists, filmmakers, workers, military men, elders famous throughout Russia... “After all, we have grief and grief,” said the pilgrims from Ukraine. - And who will help if not the holy saints of God? “Our parents told us,” we heard from those who came from Mariupol, “how they went to Sarov... Pilgrim Arkady is a programmer from Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. A wooden church had just opened there, and he said he met five people from their parish here. There is a sea of ​​conversations! What you won’t hear, who you won’t see! The people around the cathedral are visible and invisible: they sit on boards, right on the grass, eat, pray, read... The ground here is most like a construction site: bulldozers, concrete slabs, pipes... Concrete paths were hastily made for the holiday, a glass dining room was installed in which you can spend the night - everything is just beginning. “We must work, even if there are only the last hours left until the very end.” During Great Lent 1990, March 31, Saturday of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos, on the eve of the feast of the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness,” the altar of the cathedral in Diveyevo was consecrated in the name of the Most Holy Trinity. And on July 21, 1991, on the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the Holy Synod decided to renew the convent in Diveyevo. A church was dedicated here to the Kazan icon, built by the founder of the Diveyevo community, Mother Alexandra, and consecrated in 1772. “The unofficial community has existed for a very long time,” says Hieromonk Kirill (Pokrovsky) 11 . - There is no abbess yet - we are waiting, she should be appointed soon. Three priests and a protodeacon serve. A year ago, even more, Metropolitan Nicholas gave his blessing to accept petitions from those wishing to enter the monastery and give them obedience. The rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Igor Pokrovsky, has such powers. These are mostly young girls, they come from a variety of places, but how, with what destinies is always a mystery. There are many from Sergiev Posad, there is a strong clergy there. There are now about forty sisters in total. Choir of novices. There is a barnyard, seven cows, a hundred chickens, small vegetable gardens...” Now there is an antenna on the bell tower instead of a cross, and it is used for relaying. She was also wearing a watch, but the atheists took it off. As a local peasant said, who went with a three-liter jar to the Kazan spring for water, the one who took off this watch only lived for two days after that (there were many similar cases in Rus': God cannot be mocked. - Gal. 6:7). “Many came here when there was no monastery here yet to venerate this place,” says Father Kirill. “Yes,” I say, “my mother, Galina, may the Kingdom of Heaven be upon her...” In 1975, she put her party card on the table: “If my religious views do not allow...” The fact that in 1991 we would have more than a hundred operating monasteries was then even impossible to imagine: there are miracles in the world, but this?!.. What can we know about what lies ahead? None of our imagination is enough. And what despondency can there be if in an instant the Lord changes everything: “...he does as he wills” 12! Mother Euphrosyne, one of the former Diveyevo sisters, still lives here, thank God, so a thread of spiritual continuity has been preserved. The Mother of God revealed to her that this cell and this area would raise the entire Universe. – How do you feel this burden? – I ask Father Kirill. – It’s like a burden of great unworthiness to serve here, in the Fourth Domain of the Mother of God, to serve at the relics of St. Seraphim. Now, as one priest said, we have received a fire that can kindle many extinct souls, but can also burn the unworthy... We accept all pilgrims, we do not refuse anyone, although we do not yet have conditions. A hotel with five hundred beds is just being built... His Holiness said that we must work, do everything for Russia, even if there were only the last hours left until the very end. God’s desire is for all the people of Russia and the whole world to turn to God through Orthodoxy. They converted not only with their minds, not only with the awareness of the need to believe in God, honor traditions, go to church and so on - but with their whole being, with their whole lives, they accepted Orthodoxy. Not in words, but in deeds they became Orthodox people - this is the only way to know God. Only by accepting the words of St. Seraphim about peace in the soul, about love, about prayer, and by fulfilling some of these teachings in our lives, can we truly understand the Reverend, his feat, his love, and truly become close to him. Later, on November 17, 1991, Mother Sergia was elevated to the rank of abbess of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery. This day became the opening day of the new monastery. A remarkable day. Exactly four years earlier, on November 17, 1987, the USSR Government decided to consecrate the Holy Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage. And a year later, on this day, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, holy relics and the icon of St. Ambrose of Optina began to flow there. “The Mother of God visits Diveevo every day” As the Holy Fathers teach, every good deed is associated with temptations. And so and so... At a sermon in the cathedral, Father Kirill spoke with great pain about the people in Diveyevo who were hostile to the monastery. About the great difficulties that accompanied the restoration of the cathedral and monastery - both material and moral. Both in Arzamas and here I heard from local residents: - They told us something! Stock up on water, take your children away, there may be epidemics, robberies... Everything was, thank God, calm. Outside the Diveyevo outskirts, two huge tent camps were set up for a thousand and half a thousand large army tents. The spectacle is impressive: rows of peaked tents extending almost to the horizon. – Who paid you for this, the Nizhny Novgorod diocese or the Patriarchate? - they asked the army colonel in command here. “Nobody,” he answered. – It was just a personal request from His Holiness, and the army responded. Naturally, there were no special amenities here: tents and bunks. And all this was, of course, not accidental. One pilgrim hit the nail on the head: - The monk prayed on a stone for a thousand nights, and we won’t spend the night for two nights? Viktor from Kaluga and Andrey from St. Petersburg, I hauled some hay, buried ourselves in it - and although we had to shiver in the morning, before our eyes, in the distance, there was a picture reminiscent of the view of the Moscow Kremlin from the river: a high bell tower and two shining cathedrals. This is how all of Russia was in this metropolitan beauty - when all its monasteries were functioning and in the most diverse, seemingly provincial corners it was decorated and consecrated. “Happy is everyone who spends 24 hours with poor Seraphim in Diveevo, from morning to morning, for the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven, visits Diveevo every day! - said the Reverend. “The land below us is all holy, and everyone living on it and in the surrounding area will all be saved, and whoever remembers my name, I will not leave in my prayers...” When the camp was being closed, that colonel said: “The impression is very great... This event is very important for our spiritual uplift. “It was felt that he was pleased that he had worked hard for this matter. “Many people thanked us and promised to pray. I said before: let a person believe as he wants. We used to work on it... I baptized my children, but I myself am an unbeliever. But I understand that anything can happen..." In total, about five thousand people spent the night here. Some of those who arrived were accepted by local residents, and almost no one took any money. The army placed in the large cathedral, behind Trinity, a huge number of soldiers’ beds, standing almost end to end, with the dark blue blankets familiar from the “rises” and “falls down”. Only children, old people, and the sick spent the night here. This cathedral was built by 1917, it was supposed to be dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” and St. Seraphim, but it was never consecrated. Its large windows are covered with polyethylene. There is no iconostasis - only a string, and a note is attached to it: “Women are not allowed to enter the altar.” I bend under her and enter. A dark red blanket is spread in place of the Throne (do not step on it). Behind, along all the chipped walls of the altar, there is a huge number of small, simple, often paper icons, and in front of them, just like that, a lot of homemade lamps with lids from tin cans are burning. People are already praying in the cathedral. The altar already lives, already sanctifies our lives. At the festival one could meet Cossacks everywhere - their red, white, black bright clothes, dashing hats flashed here and there. I admit, I admired them here too. They added a lot to this holiday. From the outside, it might seem to someone that they are just his external decoration. But why then is the crowd of local peasants so attentive, surrounding two Cossacks with a large red letter M on their shoulder straps (St. Archangel Michael is their patron) on the main street of Diveevo? An elderly, but very brave man, with a large mustache, and a young man with a simple, freckled face, who tells them calmly and seriously, gravely placing his hand on the handle of the checker: – Without faith we are nothing. Whoever wants can turn us wherever he wants, and we are slaves. The elder speaks even more clearly: – The communists had to erase religion from people so that they could rule them like cattle. “Only a third of man remains,” added the younger man, probably meaning that man was created in the image and likeness of God, that is, the Holy Trinity: spirit, soul and body. -What is your title? - the men ask. – If you take it in the Soviet Army, what is your rank? “The police don’t allow us to have weapons...” they complain. “We’re all on our own, going home,” says the captain, “we’re worried about our well-being—so what?” And we still have nothing. Our children grow up and spit on their parents. No, let me lay down my head for a just cause - but my son and grandson will come to my grave a hundred times and bow to me. And they will continue my work. In the empty hall of the Diveyevo dining room, where the Cossacks gather for a meal, two Cossack boys in satin shirts, belted with uniform straps, set the tables for everyone. No, this is not a masquerade... After lunch, the Cossacks stand around on the steps, singing their daring song. The ataman comes out: - Gentlemen Cossacks! Order of the chief ataman of the Union of Cossacks of Russia. His Holiness blessed us to ensure order during the service in the church. Therefore, at three o’clock - formation of all the Cossacks in front of the Holy Gates. Shine your boots, get yourself in order. Lubo, Cossacks? How could one not bless them here for the most honorable service, when they were akin in spirit to the entire celebration! Only the riot police (although, of course, we must give them credit for their efforts) and the sculptural white “leader” in the square, standing with his back to the monastery, enthusiastically and confidently looking somewhere into the void, were something different in spirit, archaic, from the past, and not the new world. True, even here I saw the joyful eyes of a riot policeman boy, already out of formation, in a free moment, together with two colleagues, approaching the cathedral and reaching out to its open doors: St. Seraphim loves everyone... Every single one! “Seeing the image of God in every person, with spiritual joy about him, the wondrous old man met him with heavenly greetings: my joy, rejoicing over him,” wrote Father Sergius Bulgakov. - These bright, touching, heavenly words - they conceal within themselves a whole teaching about man, they reveal the love of God and the joy of God about creation. Man is a wolf to man, says demonic wisdom; Man is joy to man, says Christian wisdom. On the eve of the greatest desecration of the image of God in man and the greatest violence and mockery of the human person, the Reverend glorified the man, he enriched him with the rays of his love and, as it were, blessed him for future suffering. And he himself became our joy for the Russian people, for the heart lights up with joy at the thought of the white old man, “poor Seraphim,” in white clothes, with a cross on his chest and his right hand pressed to his heart...” “The special characteristics of his behavior and conversations were love and humility,” says the “Chronicle...” “Whoever came to him, whether a poor man in rags or a rich man in light clothes, no matter what needs anyone came with, no matter what sinful state his conscience was in, he kissed everyone with love, bowed to the ground to everyone and, blessing, he himself kissed the hands of even the uninitiated people. He did not strike anyone with cruel reproaches or severe reprimands; He did not place a heavy burden on anyone, bearing the cross of Christ himself with all its sorrows. He also spoke reproaches to others, but meekly, dissolving his word with humility and love. He tried to arouse the voice of conscience with advice, pointed out the ways of salvation, and often in such a way that his listener at first did not understand that it was about his soul. Afterwards, the power of the word, salted with grace, certainly produced its effect. Neither the rich, nor the poor, nor the simple, nor the learned, nor the nobles, nor the common people, left him without real instruction; For everyone, the living water flowing from the lips of the former silent, humble and wretched old man was enough. Thousands of people flocked to him every day, especially in the last ten years of his life. Every day, with a large gathering of newcomers in Sarov, he had about 2,000 people or more in his cell. He was not burdened and found time to talk with everyone for the benefit of his soul. In brief words, he explained to everyone what exactly was beneficial, often revealing the most secret thoughts of those who turned to him. Everyone felt his benevolent, truly kindred love and its strength, and streams of tears sometimes burst out from people who had a hard and petrified heart. One day, Honored Lieutenant General JI came to Sarov. The purpose of his visit was curiosity. And so, having looked at the monastery buildings, he already wanted to say goodbye to the monastery, having not received any spiritual gift for his soul, but unexpectedly he met the landowner Alexei Neofitovich Prokudin here and got into conversation with him. The interlocutor suggested that the general go to the reclusive elder Seraphim, but the general only with difficulty yielded to Prokudin’s convictions. As soon as they entered the cell, Elder Seraphim, walking towards them, bowed at the general’s feet. Such humility struck the pride of L. Prokudin, noticing that he should not stay in his cell, went out into the hallway, and the general, decorated with orders, talked with the recluse for about half an hour. A few minutes later, crying was heard from the elder’s cell: the general was crying, like a little child. Half an hour later the door opened and Fr. Seraphim led the general out by the arms; he continued to cry, covering his face with his hands. His orders and cap were forgotten by Fr. Seraphim. Tradition says that the orders fell from him during the conversation by themselves. ABOUT. Seraphim took it all out and put the medals on his cap. Subsequently, this general said that he had walked all over Europe, knew many people of all kinds, but for the first time in his life he saw such humility with which the Sarov recluse greeted him, and had never yet known about the insight by which the elder revealed his whole life to him down to the secret details. By the way, when the crosses fell from him, Fr. Seraphim said: “This is because you received them undeservedly.” On one of these amazing days we went to the Seraphim spring in the forest, to its Far Hermitage. - We go to a holy place, the Jesus Prayer - and not a word! - declared Mother Seraphima, a Greek woman with a Ukrainian accent from a Georgian monastery, our leader, when we got off the bus. Nature is a wonderful wonder! The air, the pine trees – everything is special. Bird cherry trees, raspberries near the source - visible and invisible. – We are from Crimea. “Everyone is coming to us, and this is the second time we’ve been here in three months,” the pilgrims said as they collected bird cherry “And this is snitka grass, the Reverend ate it for more than two years,” Arkady from Akademgorodok plucks it and gives us a try - right here, on the banks of Sarovka, where the great old man walked, who, in his own words, “poured hot water on this grass and ate it.” On the steep bank near the spring there is a large wooden cross. Near him, an akathist to the Reverend is continuously read, people drink the purest water, take it with them, douse themselves, and bathe. – Is it very cold? - one young Bulgarian priest asks the others, entering the river. We later met these priests and their young Orthodox Bulgarian companions, who came to the holiday, in a carriage on the way to Moscow, and until late at night our Orthodox people kept torturing them about Orthodox life in Bulgaria: “You and I have the same service, word for word,” Hieromonk Seraphim answered them, “only the tunes are different.” - Sing to the Mother of God! – our lively grannies asked one of the guys. And he sang. “Okay...” they liked it. Father serves in a monastery near Sofia. They came here on their own, not as a delegation. “Reverend Seraphim is my heavenly patron,” he said. When we walked to the source, from the mountain in the distance we saw Sarov: the bell tower, the dome of the cathedral and many modern block and brick houses around, and below, in the field, a fence with barbed wire that fenced off this now closed city, Arzamas-16 - the place where the atomic shield of the Fatherland was created. We pray and bow to Sarov from afar... “There is grace there, but we need to work here” August 1 (July 19, old style) became a day three times significant for the memory of St. Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov. This is his birthday in 1759. This is the day of the discovery of his holy relics and solemn glorification in 1903. This is the day of celebration of the second discovery of his relics and their return to Diveevo in 1991. “May God rise again and let His enemies be scattered!” - the Easter chant thundered here on this day. In the Trinity Cathedral, Divine Liturgies were served continuously, one after another: at midnight, at three o'clock in the morning, at six and nine o'clock in the morning. Thousands of Christians confessed and received the Holy Mysteries. Moscow Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov said at dawn before confession: “We have no love for God and neighbor. This can be seen very clearly by how horribly we behave in church. We don't love God. And we don’t notice our neighbor at all. Animals in this regard are superior to us - they still always pay attention to an individual similar to them. But for us, a person is like a pillar, we simply do not see in him a living person, with his own soul. Forgive us, Lord! Reverend Father Seraphim, pray to God for us! By nine in the morning the Holy See was taken out into the street, and on the square in front of the cathedral, in the open air, Patriarch Alexy II with many bishops performed the main Liturgy of the day of St. Seraphim, a religious procession with a shrine around the cathedral with the singing of the stichera of Easter. “Christ is Risen!” – exclaims the Patriarch, ending the holiday. - “Truly he is risen!” - the square answers. - “Christ is risen!” – with these words the Sarov elder greeted those who came to him at any time of the year. At the end of the celebrations, the Patriarch read B. N. Yeltsin’s telegram of greetings in front of all the people. The answer was complete silence of the people. After the service, everyone went to one of the tent camps, where field kitchens were smoking and everyone was fed buckwheat porridge and given tea. Walking next to me was a retired officer in an ordinary uniform untucked faded green shirt - he came here for the holiday from Tashkent, he had just received Holy Communion: “Well, what, should we find out from the newspapers what happened here? Journalists will write more... No, I went myself.” The grace in Diveevo was great, and we felt it all the time, all life here was like a single living whole: everything was amazingly coherent, harmonious - down to the smallest detail. The strength was miraculous. Another time, can you stand this – coming to the cathedral at two o’clock in the morning, standing until two o’clock in the afternoon? Don't sleep, don't eat for almost days. And all these days there was a feeling that everything that was happening to us was not random. The feeling of God's Providence, continuously acting over our entire life, was palpable almost to the touch. A group of people gathered near the cathedral. A mother from Kiev says, amazed that she ended up here: “I didn’t even intend to go here - why, I think, I’ll go, I venerated the relics in Moscow, then all the people will leave, it will be calm, then I’ll go.” And suddenly I got a phone call. I never go up to him, why would I idly talk, but here I run. I pick up the phone and they tell me: “Get ready for Diveevo.” How is it in Diveevo? I have no ticket, no money. And then one woman comes and says: “I have an extra ticket to Diveevo, I took it for my son, but he never agreed to go.” I say: “I don’t have money.” She says: “Nothing.” And so I ended up here. And so - in everything. Oh, I think I didn’t give my phone number to Mother Seraphim from Tbilisi (that’s how the Mother of God gathered envoys from all Her Destinations here!), she wanted to come to Moscow so that I could meet her and show her all the Moscow shrines. I’ll ask Andrey if he will see her? - I thought in the cathedral. “No,” says Andrey, “maybe I won’t see it.” “I shouldn’t have asked, I understand.” If the Lord wills, it will bring us together. Why is there too much to say, especially in the cathedral? I’m going to Satis to see one person - as I heard, he may have some historical material about the Diveyevo Monastery. But I didn’t get anything, and at the bus stop they wave to me from a bus that is going in the opposite direction, and Mother Seraphim is on it! And instead of standing in the heat and waiting for this same bus when it goes back, I go with them to another source with the purest healing water, eat some bread that good people treated me to, and thank the Lord and Father Seraphim: it turns out that’s why I went to Satis... And I think: we, sinners, are always waiting in the heat for a bus instead of a healing spring - we live our own, in short, awkward life. And all because our life is graceless: there is little faith, prayer is therefore unreal, there is not a penny of humility, we always put our will ahead of God’s, which is manifested, naturally, in everything that happens to us - we always think that we will do more good for ourselves. Poor people! Forgive us, Lord! And then, as soon as we left Diveyevo completely, we immediately felt that we had lost our strength - illnesses and infirmities immediately took their toll. When I arrived, I told Father Valerian Krechetov what a celebration it was, what grace, and he: “Yes, there is grace there, but we have to work here.” “And he listens to the harp of Seraphim...” We don’t think: why, for example, did such an amazing phenomenon of world culture become possible - the rise of great Russian literature of the 19th century, which happened suddenly and dazzlingly, like a salute? Great writers, each of whom would be the glory and pride of any nation, were contemporaries, communicated with each other: Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Griboyedov... What kind of time is this? This is the time when St. Seraphim prayed for all of Russia, for all Orthodox Christians, day and night, in fasting and silence. Almost the entire life of Pushkin fits into the spiritual feat of the great elder (born five years after the Reverend retired to a deserted cell in the forest). The beginning of Gogol's literary fame and the beginning of Lermontov's creativity date back to this time. Dostoevsky's childhood and adolescence. And how many other great names there were! At the same time, there was great Russian music, painting... And not some individual stars in the sky, but a single, common one - like a well-coordinated orchestra. And it is impossible not to notice: the rise of Pushkin, Gogol - the rise of the contemporaries of St. Seraphim, the founders of great Russian literature - is especially dazzling in its grace and talent and - it is clear to everyone - humanly unattainable. And I dare say that this concern for the grace of literature is close precisely to the great Elder of Sarov, for whom the most important thing was the inherently Orthodox desire to bless all human life - and, of course, its literature, since it goes to people, speaks to their soul. And he himself opened the shutter at the command of the Queen of Heaven, which was Her mercy towards the human race with its infirmities. “Pray to the Mother of God! – said the elder of our days, Archpriest Tikhon Pelikh. “She herself is in heaven, and Her eyes are on earth!” The love of God, poured out throughout life, to the last grain, all filled with it, is the main essence of what is happening in the world. Everything that lives and breathes is the fruit of God’s love, and everything is called to be transformed by love. Everyone should rejoice in the Lord and carry this joy within themselves - so that Easter can be celebrated with every breath (cf. Ps. 150:6) all year round. Life is always a miracle, life is always joy! She is all of God! The love of God is always in her! She - all - was created by her! This is the main truth of this world. Here is the joy of Seraphim... The highest poetry and the most clear prose in unity are the main feature of the highest achievements of Pushkin-Gogol Heavenly-Earthly - inseparably - literature. The poet is in holy horror... “In our country, before in any other land, the Holy Resurrection of Christ will be celebrated” (the most important words of Gogol). Right on the square in front of the cathedral, a black-eyed girl, looking at the sky, asks: “Father Seraphim! Save all people! Every now and then an akathist to the Reverend is heard - everyone has these little books in their hands. We go from the “forgiven” (as one local grandmother said), the Kazan spring (the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God appeared in it) - and on the bank of the river, right in the grass, two girls are kneeling, directed in prayer to the cathedral that is whitening in the distance. I have never seen anyone praying like this - with tears, with tenderness - the meek Father Seraphim, who helped so many of us, touches our souls. Here is one case - my wife told me about this at work in Moscow. One woman had a grave grief; her husband, a musician, drank bitterly, was kicked out of the orchestra, and completely deteriorated. One day, in the middle of the night, he came drunk, and with a drinking companion, and he said to his wife: “Make the bed for us, and go yourself.” She went, not knowing where to go, what to do... She came to her friend. She told her: “Let’s pray to St. Seraphim.” They prayed fervently together at home, then they went to church and prayed there... And her husband not only stopped drinking, but a gift was discovered in him: he began to paint icons. I saw them: real, good icons. Behind the cathedrals, a densely trodden narrow path is clearly visible - the famous ditch, which the Queen of Heaven Herself pointed out to the Reverend. “I confess to you and bear witness to God,” he said to Archpriest Vasily Sadovsky, “that I did not place a single stone with them of my own free will, I did not say a single word of myself to them, and I did not accept a single one of them at my own request, against the will of the Queen of Heaven!” In 1829, three acres of land were donated to the community. "ABOUT. Seraphim, we read in the Chronicle..., was in such admiration and such joy that it is impossible to say. He gave Mikhail Vasilyevich Manturov, who was then in Sarov, a tub of honey and ordered all the sisters to gather, and when they walked around this land, they would eat honey with soft bread. When they begin to walk around this land, then, in view of the deep snow, stock up on pebbles and place them between the pegs placed by the surveyor. O. Seraphim said that when the snow melts, the pegs will fall and some will get lost, or the water will carry them to another place, but the pebbles will remain in their place... In the spring about. Seraphim ordered to plow this land with a plow, one furrow three times... The land was plowed using pebbles placed along the boundary, since many pegs were actually lost or ended up in other places. When the earth was completely dry, then Fr. Seraphim ordered to dig a ditch three arshins deep and throw the removed earth inside the monastery to form a shaft also three arshins deep. To strengthen the shaft, he ordered gooseberries to be planted on it. “When you do this,” the priest said, “no one will jump over this ditch.” “This very place where there is now a ditch,” said Elder Anna Alekseevna, one of the first sisters of the monastery, “it was a flat and good place, and it was on it that the priest ordered to dig a ditch, so that the path through which the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven, took Diveevo as Her inheritance, would be unforgettable for all ages! Look, the sisters listened to all this, but they still put off fulfilling the priest’s order and did not fill up the ditch. One day one of us, the next one, named Maria, while cleaning up at night, came out of her cell for some reason and saw that Father Seraphim in his white robe himself began to dig a ditch. In fear, and at the same time joy, without remembering herself, she runs into her cell and tells us all this. All of us, who were wearing anything, rushed to that place in indescribable joy and, seeing the priest, fell straight at his feet, but when we got up, we did not find him, only a shovel and a hoe lay in front of us on the dug up ground. It was already dug the size of an arshin in that very place; That’s why this is called the beginning of the ditch, so the priest himself, seeing our negligence and negligence in fulfilling his commandments, began and buried it. Here everyone had already made an effort, and since the priest was in a great hurry with this matter, even in the fierce winter, chopping the earth with axes, all with their own hands, as he ordered, the sisters dug out this holy ditch commanded to us; and as soon as they finished, our dear father died immediately, as if he had been waiting for this.” ""Here the feet of the Queen of Heaven have passed! The feet of the Queen of Heaven, mother!" - the nun Capitolina conveyed the words of the Reverend. - Yes, it happened, and the whole body would tremble, as they say. "She, the Mother of God, has walked around this whole place, mother! When you dig, don’t throw the earth and don’t give it to anyone, but put it in your monastery, in the ditch! And I’ll tell you, mother, whoever goes through the ditch with prayer and reads one and a half hundred Mother of Gods, everything is here: Athos, Jerusalem, and Kyiv!” “When the century ends,” the Reverend said to one of the Diveyevo sisters, “the Antichrist will begin to remove crosses from churches and destroy monasteries, and will destroy all the monasteries! But he’ll come up to yours, he’ll come up, and the groove will be from the ground to the sky, he can’t come up to you, the groove won’t allow him anywhere, so he’ll go away!” “This groove,” he said, “the Queen of Heaven Herself measured with Her belt.” We went to the groove with a young modern wanderer Andrey (he travels to all the holy places from Riga to Vladivostok). “Here they kiss the cathedral,” one servant of God showed us to the altar ledge of the unconsecrated cathedral, “and they go further, deeply inward, as slowly as possible, and read the Mother of God.” Virgin Mary, Rejoice, O Blessed Mary, the Lord is with You; Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb, for the Savior gave birth to the ecu of our souls... - we read to ourselves and slowly walk along the path along which the Most Pure One Herself walked... Other pilgrims walk ahead and behind us. We pass by a wide larch tree with very fragrant resin. It was planted by nuns in honor of the birth of Tsarevich Alexy in 1904... Nun Serafima (Bulgakova) recalled about the arrival of the Tsar and his Family a year before and about their meetings with blessed Praskovya Ivanovna: “At that time there were already four daughters in the Royal Family, but there was no boy heir. We went to the Reverend to pray for the gift of an heir. Praskovya Ivanovna had the custom of showing everything on dolls, and here she prepared a boy doll in advance, covered it softly and high with scarves and laid it down: “Hush, hush, he’s sleeping...” She led them to show it: “This is yours.” The great princes, in delight, lifted the blessed one into their arms and began to rock her, but she just laughed. From Praskovya Ivanovna we went to Elena Ivanovna Motovilova. The Emperor knew that she kept a letter given to her by N.A. Motovilov, written by the Monk Seraphim and addressed to the Emperor Nicholas II. The Monk Seraphim wrote this letter, sealed it with soft bread, and handed it to Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov with the words: “You won’t live long enough, but your wife will live long enough, when the entire Royal Family comes to Diveevo, and the Tsar comes to her.” Let her give it to him. Natalya Leonidovna Chichagova (the Vladyka’s daughter) told me that when the Emperor accepted the letter, he reverently put it in his chest pocket, saying that he would read the letter after... When the Emperor read the letter, having already returned to the abbot’s building, he wept bitterly. The courtiers consoled him, saying that although Father Seraphim was a saint, he could be wrong, but the Emperor cried inconsolably. The contents of the letter remained unknown to anyone. On the same day, July 20, in the evening everyone left Diveevo. After this, the Emperor turned to Praskovya Ivanovna with all serious questions, sending the Grand Dukes to her. Evdokia Ivanovna said that before one had time to leave, the other arrived. After the death of cell attendant Praskovya Ivanovna, Mother Seraphima asked everything through Evdokia Ivanovna. She reported that Praskovya Ivanovna said: - Sovereign, come down from the throne yourself! The blessed one died in August 1915. Before her death, she kept bowing to the ground in front of the portrait of the Emperor. When she was no longer able to do so, the cell attendants lowered her and raised her. - Why are you, Mama, praying to the Emperor like that? - Fools, he will be taller than all the kings... Shortly before her death, Praskovya Ivanovna took down the portrait of the Emperor and kissed his feet with the words: “Darling is already at the end.” In a conversation with N.A. Motovilov, who was miraculously healed by him, the Monk Seraphim said: “I, Your Love of God, poor Seraphim, have been destined by the Lord God to live much more than a hundred years. But since by that time the Russian bishops will be so wicked that they will surpass the Greek bishops in their wickedness during the time of Theodosius the Younger, so that they will not even believe in the most important dogma of the Christian Faith - the Resurrection of Christ and the General Resurrection - then therefore the Lord God is pleased until the time of me, poor Seraphim, from this time take life and then, in confirmation of the dogma of the Resurrection, resurrect me, and my resurrection will be like the resurrection of the seven youths in the Okhlonskaya cave during the time of Theodosius the Younger.” “The life of the soul is its union with God, just as the life of the body is its union with the soul,” wrote St. Gregory Palamas. – The soul, having been separated from God by the transgression of the commandment, died; but by obedience to the commandment he is again united with God and revived by this union... Just as spiritual death, that is, crime and sin, was in due time followed by bodily death - the union of the body with the earth and its turning into dust, and bodily death was followed by the placement of the rejected soul in hell, so the resurrection of the soul, which consists in the return of the soul to God, through obedience to the Divine commandments, in due time must be accomplished the resurrection of the body by uniting it with the soul, and this resurrection must be followed by incorruption and forever abiding with God for those worthy of this abiding, those who have become spiritual from the flesh, capable, like the Angels of God, to live in heaven. And we... will be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17).” Seven sleeping youths hid in a cave during the persecution of Christians. The persecuting emperor ordered to close the entrance to this cave with a large stone. One hundred and eighty years later, when the persecution ceased, but the heresy denying the general Resurrection had spread, the cave was accidentally opened and the holy confessors were resurrected, as if they had awakened from a long sleep, which was an image of the future resurrection of all people from the dead. “Having revealed to me,” writes Motovilov, “this great terrible secret, the great Elder told me that after his resurrection he would move from Sarov to Diveevo and there he would preach a sermon of universal repentance. For that sermon, and especially for the miracle of the resurrection, a great crowd will gather from all over the earth; Diveev will become a Lavra, Vertyanovo - a city, and Arzamas - a province. And preaching repentance in Diveyevo, Father Seraphim will open four relics in it and, after opening them, he himself will lie between them. And then soon the end of everything will come.” In the Appendix to the “Great Diveyevo Mystery” Motovilov wrote in 1867: “There will be a time when all the words of the Lord’s prophecies spoken to the Great Elder Seraphim about the fate of the Fourth Lot in the universe of the Mother of God will fully come true. For according to the promise of the Lord, the Great Elder Seraphim will resurrect for some time and rise from the grave and walk on foot from the Sarov desert to the village of Diveevo - and with a host of the Highest family, the Grand Duke, the Tsar, the Imperial, and Russians and foreign countless people, assuring everyone with his resurrection of the immutability and all people at the end of centuries of the universal The Resurrection, until then, finally, there again rests eternally until the time of death, and then, after this second Assumption of Father Father Seraphim, the village of Diveevo, having become a universal House, will be enlightened more than all, not only Russians, but also all the cities in the world - for the light of the faith of Christ through this resurrection from the dead of the Great Elder Seraphim will be confirmed by the entire universe. Then with what greed everyone will turn to all Orthodox sources to learn about the beginning and course of this marvel of history and this Fourth lot of the universal Mother of God, the new light of the Athos female Diveyevo Mountain, this place of salvation of the whole world in the time of the Antichrist.” After the Diveyevo celebrations, Hieromonk Kirill said: “I believe that the event that just happened here is perhaps the last one, which, if we are worthy of it, if we can perceive it correctly, can resurrect and revive Russia. If we do not make our efforts on our part in the fight against sin, against iniquities, against unbelief, then this is the greatest event, which is, perhaps, the last mercy of God towards us, it...” But let there not be this “if”! Shouldn't we work - with the great help that is given to us! We talked a lot about the losses we suffered from godlessness, beautifully called by the foreign word “atheism”, just as rebellion was dressed up and called “revolution”, robbery – “expropriation”, fornication – “sex”, infanticide – “abortion” - and it seems that the essence is no longer the same, the foreign word deprives the phenomenon of its spiritual assessment (that is why it is so important for us to preserve the purity of the Russian language: this means preserving both our spiritual and national freedom). But now everything has turned around and we see how much we have! No, we not only have weaknesses and shortages, we have the greatest treasures, which are not found in any other region, incomparable, spiritual treasures. We have Holy Orthodoxy, we have the intercession of the Mother of God, we have Diveevo - Her Fourth Destiny! We have St. Seraphim, we have the holiness of our great ascetics, their invaluable spiritual experience, whose heirs and followers we are called to be. They, too, lived in illness and sorrow - but their souls were enlightened by the light of the evening! In any circumstances, no matter how difficult they may be, you can resort to prayer with the confidence that help will come. If only the prayer was with faith, with hope, with humility - Thy will be done (Matthew 6:10). “When I’m gone,” Father Seraphim said to the Diveyevo sisters, “come, mothers, to my grave. Walk as you have time. And the more often, the better. Whatever is in your soul, whatever you grieve over, whatever happens to you all, come to my grave. Yes, crouch to the ground, as if alive, and tell me. And I will hear you, and your sorrow will pass; Talk to me as if you were alive. And I will always live for you..." “There is no way for us to lose heart,” said the Reverend, “because Christ has conquered everything. He raised Adam, he freed Eve, he put death to death.” Remember, in the spring of last year (1990 - Ed.) there was talk about a special, rare combination of Easter and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1991 - Kyriopascha, the Lord's Easter, as it is called? There were rumors that it was forbidden to paint eggs and holy Easter cakes, that Kyriopascha was a terrible omen. The explanation on this matter, which hung in the St. Daniel Monastery, said that in the history of our country, Kiriopascha was not associated with any special events, except for the Battle of Kulikovo... Leaving Diveyevo with a feeling of great spiritual events taking place in our country, we did not yet know, of course, that in just a few days we would see the most important social events in it. Soon after the Diveyevo celebrations, on August 16, Patriarch Alexy II consecrated the ancient St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and its bell (and during the consecration of the Throne, a rainbow appeared above the domes on a cloudless, dry day). Then he and the bishops, clergy, and laity made a religious procession to the monument to the 1000th anniversary of Russia, where a prayer service was served. And immediately after this, the Patriarch in Moscow consecrated the Donskoy Monastery, where on August 18 the first service in many years took place in the Great Cathedral in honor of the Don Icon of the Mother of God. This icon brought victory to the Russian soldiers on the Kulikovo field on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - a victory that marked the beginning of the liberation of our people from political and spiritual bondage. The Donskoy Monastery was founded on the site where in 1591 there was a camp church with the Don Icon of the Mother of God, when the Tatars approached Moscow and, after a short battle, frightened by an invisible force, retreated. The day of Easter in 1991 coincided with both the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and the day of remembrance of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia († 1925), whose holy relics rest in the Donskoy Monastery, where the saint, willy-nilly, spent the last years of his highest ministry, defending the spiritual freedom of the Russian people, preserving the main thing on which it is based, like its national freedom, on the Holy Orthodox Church. Nowadays Saint Tikhon, canonized in 1989, is a prayer book for the Church and the country to deliver us from unbelief and heresies, from internecine warfare. By the providence of God, at the service in the Donskoy Monastery, as well as the next day, on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, our fellow countrymen who came from abroad to the Congress of Compatriots prayed with us in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. As it happens, then, after the events that our country faced on August 19, 1991, it was revealed how vitally important for Russia, for its destiny, was everything that happened in its spiritual life in all the previous days, all this time. It became clear that every prayer at the holy relics of St. Seraphim, every reverent touch of the lips to his shrine, every pilgrimage to the Fourth Domain of the Mother of God, every prostration before the holy relics of St. Joasaph of Belgorod, which stood these days in the Patriarchal Cathedral, every open monastery and church, every Baptism and Wedding, every born baby, every grain of goodness, every a candle, every repentant tear, every warm prayer - all this was infinitely important for our destinies, for the fate of Russia, this is what decided it, this is what it is made of. In this way, something was gathered that would later help save our people from those victims who, one must think, were prepared for them in these explosive days. Whatever the background of those events, whatever goals their organizers and participants set for themselves, one thing is clear: the dark force wanted to see as tragic a confrontation as possible in the country. But the Lord, through the intercession of the Queen of Heaven and all the saints, gave us this mercy, this miracle - deliverance from bloodshed, and even the disappearance from state life, in the most unimaginable ways for us, of the Communist Party, godless views, which until recently were obligatory for everyone. Let's look back: not a word of Orthodoxy in society, the name of God in print is only with a small letter, people were afraid to be baptized and baptize their children: they would report to work, they were afraid to put crosses on children in kindergartens, schools, they were torn off there. At my daughter’s school, when the children were asked: “What big event happened on April 22?” - and one boy answered: “Easter” - there was a commotion, they urgently gathered all the children of the junior classes in the assembly hall, and gave a godless lecture. This was quite recently. But how quickly we forget what the Lord has given us - it seems like it should be so. Yes, but behind the current spiritual enlightenment is the feat of thousands of holy new martyrs who suffered from atheists in this century, constantly praying for the forgiveness of us, the unworthy. And now, from a distance, it seems that nothing so special could have happened in those August days of the short-lived and strange government of the GKChP (State Committee for the State of Emergency). But then it was clearly felt that an invisible great struggle was going on... A powerful armored armada was brought into the streets and squares of Moscow. They say that a stick shoots once a year, but here... In our Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God, where I happened to be at the altar the night before, for the first time I had a very special feeling: that the words of the litany from this small altar go far beyond its walls, that we are really asking now for our entire God-protected country, for all our brethren in Christ, we are asking for the peace of the whole world, that here, now, the most important work is being done. And somehow the additional petitions of the litany, introduced recently, sounded particularly weighty - for deliverance from strife and disorder in our Fatherland. On the evening of August 19, when it had already become known how important these hours were in the fate of the Motherland, I was riding a tram from the Elokhovsky Cathedral and, when it went down to Samotechny Boulevard, I saw: above the pentagram of the Soviet Army Theater - a crimson-bloody sunset in the entire sky... Not a single word, especially one spoken in the church of God, collectively, with faith and love, remains just a word - all of them, of course, are heard by God, all of them mysteriously change the world - immediately or gradually. This is difficult for us to understand. We are used to hearing words and turning them deaf ears. Hear a request and not fulfill it. We, alas, are capable of not appreciating someone’s love for us (primarily the love of our parents), and responding to goodness with indifference, or even evil. We may not believe the words because we do not know the soul of the speaker. God hears everything. He knows everything. And He cannot help but respond to every pure word, to love - because He Himself is Love, perfect and true. He said: Shall God not take vengeance on His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night, and be patient for them? I tell you that he will take their vengeance soon: if the Son of Man has come, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:7–8). We do not know exactly what troubles the Lord and the Mother of God delivered us from in those August days. But we know that Russia prayed in those days. I remember how then, in the Moscow Church of John the Baptist in Kudrin, a certain woman approached the candle box and said that she was not baptized, but asked to pray. For the country. “Yes, we tried all these days...” was her quiet answer. And Orthodox Russia fasted. These were the days of the Dormition Lent, equal in severity to Great Lent preceding Easter. On August 20, in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in which one could hear about the possibility of special events that summer back in the spring, in the cell of the elder hieromonk Philadelph (in the schema - Moses) there was such a conversation. “The landing decides everything,” said his visitor, a man with good military experience. – The Most Pure One decides everything! - objected the hieromonk. On the evening of August 20, a festive All-Night Vigil in honor of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God began at the Tolga Monastery, one of the holy places in Russia. Here, nine miles from Yaroslavl, on the same night of 1314, in a dense forest, Saint Tryphon of Rostov saw the image of the Mother of God with the Eternal Child in her arms in a pillar of fire five cubits high. And in the morning, at the site of the wonderful vision, they found an icon of the revealed Mother of God. And Saint Tryphon ordered the monastic monastery to be at the confluence of the Tolga and the Volga. Here, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, after a prayer service before the miraculous icon, received healing from a leg disease; the main cathedral of the monastery, Vvedensky, was built with his donations. In troubled times, the enemy destroyed the monastery, its monks and novices accepted the crown of martyrdom. In 1913, Tsar Nicholas II visited here and was received by the then Yaroslavl Archbishop, later Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Tikhon. And now, in our troubled times, on the night of the appearance of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God, when intensified prayers were going on in the monastery, as well as throughout Russia and beyond, trouble again retreated from our land. On the morning of August 21, I was at the St. Nicholas-Khamovnichesky Church in Moscow. The church, where the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Helper of Sinners” located here is especially revered. In the middle of the church, on a lectern, lay the Tolga Icon of the All-Pure Virgin... During the Liturgy, the church was suddenly shaken by a terrible roar. It seemed stronger than his walls. It became clear that tanks were moving past along the avenue. But where? When we went outside, it turned out that they were leaving Moscow. I remember when we were at the Tolga Monastery two years ago, we arrived on two large buses. Young men, leaving their families and city pleasures, boarded buses in Moscow on Friday evening and went to the monastery, where they arrived in the middle of the night, slept on the floor, and got down to business in the morning. They were received as if they were family, already well known here. The diocesan monastery, a poor one, is a women’s monastery, and here there are strong male hands, and there are welders, and an excavator operator, and carpenters... They lifted expanded clay into the attic of a two-story building to insulate the cells. They hauled, as they said, 30 tons. During services they entered the church. And they left. That's it. But only God knows, only the Mother of God knows from what threads, with whose hands the dawn is woven over our long-suffering and such a happy Motherland... “Let us call on the name of the Lord and we will be saved” There are many gloomy forecasts today for the future: about a hungry, cold time, about a fratricidal war, there are already reports about cholera... But here, as in everything, everything is possible for the believer (Mark 9:23). And prayer did not save us from such troubles: from wars, from earthquakes, and from illnesses. “Father Seraphim said that there would never be cholera in the monastery, which was justified over time, because when this epidemic was everywhere in the area, even in the village of Vertyanov and the village. Diveyevo, she was not in the monastery, so even one of the worldly people fell ill and was brought to the monastery, he recovered and nursed, and whoever left the monastery without a blessing went out into the world, even the sisters, on the contrary, fell ill and died... - we read in the “Chronicle...”. – On the occasion of this deadly ulcer, many turned to Fr. Seraphim with letters, others personally came to ask for his prayers and instructions on how to protect themselves from danger. The elder gave the following instruction: "Let us call on the name of the Lord and we will be saved. When we have the name of God on our lips, we will be saved. Open your way to the Lord and trust in Him, and He will do. He will bring down your righteousness like light and your destiny like noon (Ps. 36:5-6), just obey the Lord and beg Him." To continue this path, he advised keeping the prayer rule that he had previously drawn up for commoners and people who often do not have sufficient leisure for prayer. "Whoever continues this way," he said, "will not lose God's mercy. Prayer is the way to the Lord. He who reverently partakes of the Holy Mysteries, and more than once a year, will be saved, prosperous and long-lived on earth itself. Remember the words of the apostles: Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in everything (1 Thess. 5:6-18). With such a blissful and peaceful state of soul I believe that according to the great goodness of God, grace will be marked in the generation of the one who receives communion. He who does His will is alone before the Lord—more than the darkness of the wicked.” Some people urge us to follow the West in everything. But they themselves, who were born here and lived their whole lives, speaking the local Russian language, were never able to perceive the spirit of the Russian people, their customs, their faith, their worldview. How will we adopt the lifestyle of the West, where most of us have never been? Yes, of course, we have the ability to sensitively grasp the characteristics of other peoples, to live with them in a single state, which world history has never known. But this feature, as Gogol and Dostoevsky, who knew the West well, wrote, is our, national, Russian feature, associated with the Christian, Orthodox humility adopted by our generations, which only an unspiritual, proud vision can mistake for slavery - humility is the highest freedom, the Cross. Faith! We need faith like air. The main shortage of our time. That’s why the Lord sends us all other shortages - how else can we be shaken up if we don’t feel spiritual shortages as much as we do material ones? How else can we make it clear that something is wrong in our life - not in the economy, but at its core, that is, in our attitude towards God, towards the matter of saving the soul? Today you can hear: how to have children, in this situation - what to feed them? Is it possible that the Lord, Who gives a great miracle: a person, will not give him what to feed him and what to clothe him in? Maybe the logic here is reversed? The reason we have nothing to eat is that we kill thousands of our children every day, who could inherit eternal life. Until we observe fasting days, we will not have enough food. Until we think first of all about Heavenly things, we will not have earthly things. This is what the immutable word of the Holy Gospel teaches. “One external improvement in the material conditions of life without a preliminary moral improvement of the people themselves,” wrote Archpriest Boris Molchanov in the book “Antichrist” (Jordanville, 1970), “would be a complete triumph of evil, since such well-fed well-being would consolidate the hopeless carnal state of its participants, paralyzing any possibility of moral correction and spiritual improvement. Therefore, Christ answered Satan: Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). In this answer of the Lord, the bodily needs of people are not ignored, but are placed in second place after spiritual needs... When only material good becomes the only value for a person, then he will certainly become a complete slave of the one who will give him this good.” Only prayer can truly unite a people and strengthen its strength. To pacify our life. To deliver us from the coming worship of the Antichrist - from the worst thing that can happen to us, worse than famine and pestilence. Maybe our earthly difficulties are a special mercy of God and the Queen of Heaven towards us? So that we wake up from spiritual sleep, so that we stock up on spiritual strength while there is such an opportunity. “We need to fight the approaching kingdom of darkness now, when the opportunity to fight has not yet been taken away from us,” Archpriest Boris Molchanov wrote there. “Any evasion from the fight now, any even the most insignificant compromise with evil in the name of coexistence with it, made today, will only further increase the difficulty of fighting it tomorrow. It is fitting to do the work... while the day is still here, the night will come when no one can do it (John 9:4).” Why is our country so unhappy? Why is she destined for this path? Are we worse than others? These questions are devoid of any tragedy for a Christian. For the Savior said: The last will be first, and the first will be last (Matthew 20:16), the inconvenient rich man will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:23), - almost every chapter of the Gospel gives an answer to these questions. In the Epistle to the Romans of the Holy Apostle Paul there are words that, perhaps, are also the key to some solution to the inscrutable, of course, and completely incomprehensible Providence of God over Russia. In chapters 9–11 we are talking about the fate of another people chosen by God, and also before the time (as it is said there) who fell away from God - Israel. The Orthodox people are called, as is known, New Israel. The Apostle Paul says to the Romans: Just as you were once disobedient to God, but now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too are now disobedient so that you may have mercy, so that they themselves may also receive mercy. For God imprisoned everyone in disobedience in order to have mercy on everyone. Oh, the depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His destinies and unsearchable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who was His adviser? Or who gave Him in advance that He should repay? For all things are from Him, by Him and to Him. To him be glory forever, amen. (Rom.11:30-36). Isn’t this one of the deepest meanings of our fall in the 20th century? If the Russian people, the guardian of the Orthodox faith on earth, in which great spiritual gifts were revealed, whose country the Mother of God Herself chose as Her Home, where most of Her miraculous icons were revealed, - if even such a people for the most part fell away from the true faith, then how can we then condemn the whole world for this falling away? And if we have mercy on the whole world, then how can we not also forgive the Russian people, who, by God’s permission, fell from the faith for a time, but through whose suffering other peoples can also be forgiven? But for this, our people need repentance for the sin of apostasy. Then the great mercy of God will be revealed to him and to the whole world. This is the main meaning of Orthodox prophecies about the essence of our time. For this - in order to strengthen our faith, in order to preach to us and accept our repentance - the confessor of the Russian land, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, came to us. Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is approaching (Matthew 3:2) - with these words a new era began, the era of Christ on earth. “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver!” 14 III. THEM. Kontsevich. Definition of the concept of old age Pursue love, be zealous for spiritual gifts, especially to prophesy... And he who prophesies speaks to people for edification, admonition and comfort (1 Cor. 14:1:3) The Apostle Paul, regardless of hierarchy, lists three ministries in the Church: apostolic, prophetic and teaching. Directly behind the apostles are the prophets (see: Eph.4:11; 1Cor.12:28). Their ministry consists mainly of edification, exhortation and consolation. For this very purpose, as well as for guidance or warning, prophets predict future events. Through the prophet the will of God is revealed. Prophetic ministry is a special gift of grace, the gift of the Holy Spirit (charisma). The prophet has a special spiritual vision - perspicacity. For him, the boundaries of space and time seem to be expanding; with his spiritual gaze, he sees not only ongoing events, but also future ones, sees their spiritual meaning, sees the soul of a person, his past and future. Such a high calling cannot but be associated with a high moral level, purity of heart, and personal holiness. Holiness of life was required of a prophet from the first times of Christianity: “He must have the “character of the Lord.” A false prophet and a (true) prophet can be known by character,” says the most ancient monument of the 2nd century, “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (Didache) 15. The ministries listed by the Apostle Paul have been preserved in the Church at all times. The apostolic, prophetic and teaching ministries, being independent, can be combined with the rank of bishop or presbyter. The prophetic ministry, associated with personal holiness, flourished with the rise of the life of the Church and declined in periods of decline. It manifests itself most clearly in the monastic eldership. The influence of the elders extended far beyond the walls of the monastery. The elders cared for not only the monks, but also the laity. Possessing the gift of clairvoyance, they edified, exhorted and consoled everyone, and healed them from spiritual and physical illnesses. They warned against dangers, pointed out the path of life, revealing the will of God. Representing a direct continuation of prophetic ministry, eldership with this name and in this form appears only in the 4th century, along with the emergence of monasticism, as its guiding principle. The grace-filled eldership is one of the highest achievements of the spiritual life of the Church - it is its flower, it is the crown of spiritual exploits, the fruit of silence and contemplation of God. It is organically connected with monastic inner feat, which has the goal of achieving dispassion, and therefore arises simultaneously with monasticism at the dawn of Christianity. But in the course of time, eldership flourishes in places, reaching the apogee of its development, then weakens, declines and is even completely forgotten, in order, perhaps, to be reborn again, like a wavy curve, now rising, now falling and rising again. So it was forgotten in Russia by the time of Paisius Velichkovsky. He revived the eldership, which began to flourish in many places. And although this was a revival of the ancient tradition of the same Russia, for most it seemed like an obscure innovation. Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov, who wrote about the elders, says that in our pre-revolutionary past, Russian monastic elders were little studied and insufficiently appreciated by Russian society. The latter had a vague idea of ​​eldership 16. Even our young theological science did not have time to develop this question. “The issue of eldership in ancient Russian monasteries is not touched upon at all in the scientific literature. Judging by the lives, it was widespread,” says Professor N.I. Serebryansky 17 . Also, the church hierarchy often became perplexed by this phenomenon. Hence the frequent persecution to which the elders were subjected: St. Seraphim of Sarov, Fr. Barnabas of Gethsemane, Optina: Fr. Leonid, Fr. Ambrose, and in our memory Fr. Barsanuphius. Of course, not all hierarchs persecuted the elders. So, for example, at one time he was patronized by such outstanding saints as Metropolitan Gabriel or both Philaret - Moscow and Kiev - who themselves were ascetics and ascetics. But if misunderstanding of the elders caused their persecution, then this misunderstanding was also the reason for the opposite phenomenon, when all sorts of rogues, impostors or self-deluded people who pretended to be elders, but had nothing in common with them, were trustingly accepted. Such ignorance and frivolity of society was harmful not only because it undermined faith and respect for this name, but it was also disastrous, since it was the cause of spiritual unrest and even decay in the political life of the country. Let us note one more phenomenon of pseudo-eldership, which we can observe in modern reality: modern clergy, as we will soon see, was born from the ancient monastic eldership and is its secondary form. Thanks to the similarity of these two phenomena, clergy and eldership, inexperienced priests, familiar with ascetic literature only theoretically, can always be tempted to “exceed power” - to cross the line of clergy in order to become an elder - while they have no idea what the essence of true eldership is. This “young age” (to use one apt expression) brings discord into the life around us. It carries the danger of causing irreparable harm to the soul of the person being protected. There are even cases of suicide as a result of such damage. From the monastic disciples, complete obedience to the elders-teachers was required: “If someone has faith in another and gives himself up to be subordinate to him, he has no need to heed the commandments of God, but must betray his will to his father, and will not remain guilty before God” 18. Those who have surrendered themselves entirely to the guidance of a true elder experience a special feeling of joy and freedom in the Lord. The writer of these lines personally experienced this. The elder is a direct conductor of the will of God. Communication with God is always associated with a feeling of spiritual freedom, joy and indescribable peace in the soul. On the contrary, the false elder obscures God with himself, putting his own will in place of God’s will, which is associated with a feeling of slavery, oppression and - almost always - despondency. Moreover, the student’s complete admiration for the false elder corrodes his personality, buries his will, distorts his sense of justice and truth, and thus weanes his consciousness from responsibility for his actions. About false eldership, His Eminence Ignatius (Brianchaninov) says this: “It is a terrible thing to accept, out of conceit and willfully, duties (elderhood), which can only be fulfilled at the command of the Holy Spirit and by the action of the Spirit; it is a terrible thing to imagine oneself as a vessel of the Holy Spirit, while communion with Satan has not yet been broken, and the vessel does not cease to be desecrated by the actions of Satan (i.e. that is, dispassion has not yet been achieved). Such hypocrisy and hypocrisy is terrible! It is disastrous for oneself and for one’s neighbor, it is criminal before God, blasphemous” 19. False old age causes hypnosis of ideas. And since it is based on a false idea, this idea causes spiritual blindness. When a false idea obscures reality, then no arguments are accepted anymore, as they stumble upon an idee fixe, which is considered an unshakable axiom. The man moves forward like a somnambulist until his forehead hits the wall. He breaks his own head and often those who are associated with him. A similar catastrophe befalls adherents of false old age. That is why cases of suicide and all kinds of despair are so common among them. Despair is the first symptom that a person is sick with a spiritual disease, which we call hypnosis of ideas. Despair is the inevitable result of the collapse of those structures that were created on a false foundation. Despair is tangible proof that a person has fallen into a vicious circle, created by himself, thanks to incorrect, false premises. The father of lies is the devil (cf. John 8:44). Such a tragedy befalls the followers of the false elder. Therefore, false eldership is an anti-Christian phenomenon, leading to the destruction of souls. When true elders, one might say, are absent, people, eager to find spiritual support for themselves, choose some clergyman who for some reason appeals to them, and say: “I treat him like an elder.” If the confessor turns out to be sober, spiritually honest, he will sharply remove such an attitude. But there are so many of them who willingly fall into the nets they set. For this “acting,” in the words of Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov), leads the self-proclaimed elder to spiritual death. He himself loses ground under his feet and follows crooked paths, losing everything that he collected and acquired over his entire past life. The true relationship of an elder to a disciple is called a spiritual sacrament in asceticism; it is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. All kinds of forgeries and falsifications are the essence of phenomena on the left side. If the first leads to life, then the second, if a person does not come to his senses in time, will plunge him into a complete disorder of spiritual life, which ends in all kinds of catastrophes. Another thing that has recently been observed in monasteries cannot be attributed to eldership: this is the establishment of the so-called monastic elders, who are entrusted with purely external leadership of the original ones and teaching them monastic customs and obediences. But this does not imply instruction about internal warfare or gracious guidance for the brethren. In the work of Professor V.N. Malinin “Elder Philotheus” 20 we find a number of examples of the use of the word “elder” in various meanings according to written monuments of the 15th and 16th centuries. Thus, the word “elder” meant: 1) in general, an elderly monk, regardless of his hierarchical position among the brotherhood of the monastery, as opposed to a worldly person (a charter from Archbishop Theodosius to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery of 1543, as well as in acts); 2) sometimes an elder means a monk who does not have any degree of priesthood, and in this case the elder is opposed to the abbot, priest and deacon (charter of Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich of 1533); 3) in some populous monasteries, over time, cathedral elders were allocated, who took part in managing the affairs of the monastery together with the abbot, cellarer and treasurer (statutory charter of the Solovetsky Monastery of 1548, etc.); 4) an elder is the one who is entrusted with the spiritual leadership of a new or fallen monk (letter of Archbishop Theodosius of 1543); 5) these elders-leaders were usually chosen from among persons of high moral life, and were sometimes called spiritual elders. They enjoyed great honor and were considered candidates not only for monastic positions, but even for metropolitan positions. Of course, the monk’s previous social position in the world also mattered. Defending the monastic real estate, the Monk Joseph of Volotsky wrote: “If there are no villages near the monasteries, how can an honest and prudent person take tonsure, and if there are no honest elders, how can one take a metropolitanate, or an archbishop, or a bishop. And if there are no honest elders and nobles, then there will be a wavering of faith”; 6) in the meaning of a mentor, a leader, the abbot of the monastery is also an elder. Here, for example, is the ancient Triodion of the Volokolamsk Monastery with the inscription: “The Lenten Triodion, a letter from our father himself, the venerable elder Joseph the Wonderworker.” Finally, let us add from ourselves that the word “elder”, both before and now, can be applied to every monk. Every monk as such is a καλοῦγεpας, that is, an “elder.” The Slavs used this name either literally: “kaluger”, or translated it: “elder” 21. But all these concepts included in the word “elder” do not correspond to the concept of a charismatic elder, which is the subject of our study. Also, Elder Philotheus himself does not belong to the latter type - he is an ordinary teaching elder, not gifted with special charisma. From its very origins, monasticism set itself the goal of achieving dispassion. All ascetic literature talks about the psychological laws according to which the life of the soul flows, indicates ways of purification from passions, develops methods for achieving dispassion, talks about it and the silence and contemplation of God associated with it. A whole science of the soul is created, and a whole hesychastic theology arises. A novice monk is not able to understand all this enormous material on his own. On the path to dispassion there must be a leader, an elder teacher, who himself has gone through this school and has already achieved dispassion. Let us now turn to the historical study of the origins of modern clergy and its connection with the ancient monastic elders, which is carried out by Professor S.I. Smirnov in his work “Ancient Russian confessor” 22. This work helps us, on the one hand, to reveal the concept of eldership, and on the other, to understand the current state of clergy, its origin, as well as the relationship and boundaries of these two institutions of the Church. Professor Smirnov in his master’s thesis “The Spiritual Father in the Ancient Eastern Church” 23 points out that the charismatic phenomena of the first centuries of Christianity were repeated among ancient monasticism, that the elders were the bearers of these charismas - special gifts of the Holy Spirit, given to a person directly from God on personal merit. Spiritual writers set an extremely high point of view on monasticism. The ascetic, ideally, is a God-bearing, spirit-bearing being, a god. As such, he receives the spiritual gifts whose outpourings distinguished the first times of Christianity. The gifts of prophecy, casting out demons, healing diseases, and raising the dead are not exclusive. They reveal only the normal degree of spiritual age of the monk. Secret confession and spiritual healing were also considered as the grace-filled gift of spiritual discernment (1 Cor. 12:10). He was not associated with the hierarchical degree of bishop and presbyter, but was acquired by tonsure into the schema 24. “The right to knit and decide,” or “the power of keys,” they interpreted as the perfection of talents 25 . In the ancient monasteries of the East, confession and repentance form an independent system, different from the contemporary church penitential discipline. Let us consider what this monastic practice is. “Spiritual Father” – “πνευματικός πατήp” 26 – does not mean a priest, not the executor of a bishop’s commission; this is “a simple monastery elder, the obligatory mentor of a monk, independently appointed in the monastery and freely chosen by the student, for the most part did not have a holy rank... He took the souls of the students onto his soul, guided them in every step of spiritual life, and therefore, accepting the confession of their thoughts and deeds, encouraged and punished” 27. The moral and everyday relations between the elder and the disciple - the spiritual father and the spiritual son - very quickly and early developed externally and internally into a strong and harmonious system, strengthened into a monastic everyday form. The ancient elder, like a later confessor, made confession and accepted repentance. The elder usually accepted the monk's confession for all sins, starting with a fleeting thought that slightly disturbed the monastic conscience, ending with mortal sin. The spread of the influence of eldership in the worldly environment begins very early, probably from the very first years of established monasticism. Lay people go to confession to the elders, bypassing their pastors. For another canonical sin, the Ancient Church subjected the guilty person first to excommunication and then to public repentance. The elder, having accepted confession, immediately reconciled his conscience, “decided and knitted.” Over time, the monastery elders - spiritual fathers - turn into confessors. In what way was the transition of eldership into clergy accomplished, that is, the transformation of the monastic institution into a general church one and the rapprochement of elder confession with sacramental confession? We can discern the beginning of this phenomenon in the Byzantine Church only from the time of the persecution of Leo the Armenian (813–820) against icon venerators, when the monastery elders were officially recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople Nicephorus the Confessor as legitimate celebrants of the Sacrament of Repentance along with bishops and presbyters. The measure was prompted by the needs of the time: Orthodoxy was in danger, and it relied on the assistance of the most zealous defenders of icon veneration - monks, mainly Studites. Being local, this measure paved the way for the ousting of the white hierarchy from penitential practice throughout the Orthodox East and for a long time, which happened after the era of the Ecumenical Councils. During the 10th–12th centuries, secret confession finally gained a dominant position, displacing public confession and canonical repentance. So, the institution of a “spiritual father” first appears in the form of monastic eldership. The term “spiritual father” has long been used to designate a monastic elder. Then this church-everyday form was completely repeated in later clergy. The monastic-everyday form turned into a church-everyday form and in this form existed in the East almost unchanged for a number of centuries 28 . With the emergence of Christianity in Russia, the clergy who came from Greece and Bulgaria brought with them the almost ready-made discipline of repentance and the institution of clergy in those everyday features in which they originated and developed in the East during the period of the Ecumenical Councils. In our country, the discipline existed almost untouched until the beginning of the 18th century, since the ancient Russian church authorities, living by tradition and antiquity, showed very little creativity in this area. The penitential disciplines of the Greek and Slavic Churches differed somewhat from each other. Apparently, the South Slavs allowed one important feature - the participation of the white clergy in clergy, which the Greek Church of that time did not know. It is possible that the remnants of ancient Christian public discipline have not been preserved to the same extent. Although we received penitential discipline from Greece and Bulgaria, in our country, unlike them, due to the vast expanse of our territory, a separate class of confessors very quickly ceased to exist, and every white priest began to receive the right to make confession upon his ordination. Another feature of the Russian Church was the fact that the confessor thus certainly became a bearer of the priesthood. Let us now consider what this discipline was. According to the custom of that time, everyone was free to choose their confessor at will, but once chosen they had no right to leave. The attitude towards the latter is characterized by unconditional, selfless and unquestioning obedience to him, constancy and fidelity until the end of life. The confessor, for his part, accepts full responsibility for the sins of his spiritual son and takes his sins upon his soul. Let us give an example of such a transfer of sins: after listening to confession and reading prayers over a kneeling, repentant son, the confessor lifts him from the ground and places his right hand on his neck with the words: “Your sins are mine, child, and may Christ God not suffer for these when He comes in His glory to the Last Judgment.” The confessor is “not exactly a witness” of the repentance of a spiritual son before God, but is, as it were, responsible for his sins. The son’s sin, reported to the confessor in confession, became their common sin; they were, as it were, accomplices in the crime. Being the “guarantor of the flock”, the ancient Russian confessor became its leader, leading him to the highest Jerusalem, had to open the Kingdom of God to him and lead him to the Throne of God in order to say: Behold, I and the children whom I have given (cf. Is. 8:18). The spiritual father was the unconditional and unlimited leader of his spiritual children, like an abbot or an elder in a monastery, and the penance imposed by him was the same as the commandments of God, and what the confessor tied, only he could untie. The works of Professor S.I. Smirnov are valuable to us because they reveal the genesis of eldership and modern clergy. They illuminate these phenomena from the historical and everyday side. It becomes clear that life and church discipline from the very beginning of the emergence of Christianity in Rus' were favorable to the elders. And we will see later that it flourished on this soil and existed throughout Russian history. From the previous, we already know that the elder is the leader of his disciple in difficult and extremely complex spiritual warfare, the goal of which is to achieve dispassion. To lead others, the elder himself must be in this state. “Whoever has been honored to be in this dispensation (i.e., dispassion), says Bishop Theophan of Vyshensky, “is still here, clothed in mortal flesh, becoming the church of the Living God, who guides and instructs him in all words, deeds and thoughts, and he, due to internal enlightenment, knows the will of the Lord, as if hearing a certain voice. And here, finally, is Communion with God and Divine Dwelling, the final goal of searching for the human spirit, when it is in God, and God is in it. Finally, the good will of the Lord and His prayer are fulfilled, that as He is in the Father, and the Father in Him, so every believer may be one with Him (see: John 17:21)... These are the church of God (1 Cor. 3:6), and the Spirit of God lives in them (Rom. 8:9). Those who have achieved this are the mysteries of God, and their state is the same as the state of the apostles. The Epiphany is the source of many other grace-filled gifts, and first of all - fiery love, by which they boldly confirm: Who will separate us from God? (cf. Rom.8:35). And love is the giver of prophecy, the cause of miracles, the abyss of enlightenment, the source of the Divine fire. Since such a state is the fruit of silence, when one goes through it with reason, not all speechless people are left in silence forever. Those who achieve dispassion through silence and through this are rewarded with sincere communion with God and the Inhabitation of God are brought from there to serve those seeking salvation, enlightening, guiding, working miracles. And Anthony the Great, like John in the desert, had a voice in silence, leading him to the work of guiding others along the path of salvation, and everyone knows the fruits of his labors. The same thing happened with many others." 29 – And then the Recluse Vyshensky continues: “Those who have achieved perfection hear the voice of God clearly in their souls. The word of the Lord begins to come true on them: When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13). And the Apostle John also writes: The anointing (of the Spirit) abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; but just as this very anointing teaches you everything, and it is true and not false, whatever it has taught you, abide in (cf. 1 John 2:27)” 30. Let us now consider the question of eldership based on the materials we find in Professor S.I. Smirnov in his work “Confession and Repentance in the Ancient Monasteries of the East” 31. According to ancient monastic ideas, an elder is a being chosen and gifted by God. Every elder certainly has some kind of spiritual gifts. First of all, the gift of discernment of spirits (χάρισμα διακρίσεως τῶν πνευμάτων), which the Apostle Paul speaks about (see: 1 Cor. 12:10). The gift of discerning spirits is necessary for a monk. Anthony the Great also instructs us to pray to receive the gift of discernment of spirits, so as not to believe every spirit (cf. 1 John 4:1). The gift of discernment is obtained through labor and with the help of elder prayers. Barsanuphius the Great declares: “Without heart disease, no one receives the gift of discerning thoughts. I pray to God to grant you this, but let your heart ache a little, and God will give you this gift... When God, through the prayers of the saints and for the pain of your heart, gives you this gift, you will always be able to discern thoughts through His Spirit” 32. It is not so easy to distinguish between the suggestions in the human soul from the Holy Spirit and Angels and from the spirits of evil, because they are not different, like light and darkness. The action of grace is revealed in peace and joy, in a blissful mood, but sin is also sweet, and the sweet illness of passion, especially spiritual passion, is not difficult to confuse with spiritual bliss. “Sin is transformed into a bright angel and becomes almost like grace,” 33 says Macarius the Great and points out the signs of both. Suggestions in the human soul are revealed in the form of subtle and sometimes complex thoughts (λογισμός), “born in the heart” or “creeping into the mind”, rushing “from somewhere outside” 34 . In order to incline towards a good suggestion and carry it out, in order to stop a bad thought and make it powerless, you need to discover the source of each suggestion or thought. But only a person who has reached the highest level of spiritual age, whose inner eye has been purified, is able to do this. “If a person has not reached this measure, then he cannot discern (these thoughts), but will be mocked by demons and fall into deception by believing them: because they change things as they want, especially for those who do not know their machinations” 35. The manifestation of the extraordinary gift of discernment of spirits in monasticism has been found since its earliest times. St. Athanasius reports about St. Anthony the Great that he “had the gift of discerning spirits” (χάρισμα διακρίσεως πνευμάτων ἔχων) 36 St. Evagrius, a famous ascetic writer, among other grace-filled gifts possessed the gift of discerning spirits and purifying thoughts (gratia discemendorum spirituum et purgandarum... congitationum). None of the brethren rose to such a degree of spiritual relations. He acquired this gift from life, from his own spiritual experience and, most importantly, with the help of the grace of God (per gratiam Dei) 37. It is told about Abba Serida: “And he prayed to God to grant him the gift of reasoning, having acquired which he could, with the help of heavenly grace, guide the soul to life, heal the offended, teach healing medicine, the word flowing from the Spirit” (χάρισμα) 38. “We find it difficult to say,” says Professor S.I. Smirnov further, “in what relation to the gift of discernment of spirits stands the gift of clairvoyance, which, among other things, is expressed in the ability to penetrate directly into the moral state of another person, to read in the souls of other people. Whether clairvoyance is an independent spiritual gift or a special type of prophetic gift to discern spirits, more specifically, to sense the presence of spirits of evil or Angels, we do not know. Only this gift is more rare than discernment of spirits. However, examples of the possession of this gift also come from the first times of monasticism. Pachomius the Great and Theodore the Sanctified had the gift of clairvoyance. Each one recognized the sins of the brethren either by the Spirit of God, “Which was upon him,” or by revelation from an Angel. Ascetics use this gift in the interests of correcting people. The Monk Helen settled in one monastery, “to some he revealed the secret thoughts and counsels of his heart: one was carried away by the spirit of adultery, another by the spirit of anger... in others he saw meekness, righteousness, patience... And those whom he denounced themselves had to admit that he seemed to be reading in their souls, and they were contrite in heart." 39. The Monk John "was revealed to the behavior of each brother in the neighboring monasteries, and he wrote to the fathers, informing them that such and such were indulged in negligence and did not fulfill the established rule in the fear of God, while others succeeded in faith and spiritual perfection; He also wrote to the brethren themselves... Acts and the very reasons for them, exploits, as well as negligence, he portrayed in absentia in such a way that the monks, realizing the truth of what was written about them, came to a conscience." 40. The Monk Stefan Savvait also possessed this gift in abundance - he knew how to “see with the spirit." He himself said: “I have been awarded from God the gift of clairvoyance and understand by one look and vision thoughts and secret passions of the soul from everything that we see, or what we are asked about, or who comes to us, I recognize spiritual and spiritual needs”” 41. We find one of the living examples of elder service in the life of St. Seraphim. This clearly appears in the story of how the Vladimir merchant and the future governor of the Sergius Lavra, then Abbot Anthony, the builder of the Vysokogorskaya Hermitage, came to him at the same time. Father Anthony Fr. Seraphim asked to sit down and wait, and began to talk to the merchant. “All your shortcomings and sorrows,” he said, “are the consequences of your passionate life.” Leave her, mend your ways. And then, meekly and affectionately, he began to denounce him for his vices, but with such warmth of heart that both listeners burst into tears. In conclusion, he ordered the merchant to make his confession in Sarov, encouraging him that in case of sincere repentance, the Lord would not take His grace and mercy away from him. The merchant bowed at his feet with emotion, promising to carry out all his advice, and left him in tears, but with a relieved soul. Surprised by the elder’s foresight, Fr. Anthony then said: - Father! The human soul is open before you, like a face in a mirror in my eyes: without listening to the spiritual needs and sorrows of the former pilgrim, you expressed everything to him. Father Seraphim did not say a word. The builder continued: “Now I see: your mind is so pure that nothing is hidden from it in the heart of your neighbor.” Father Seraphim put his right hand on the lips of his interlocutor and said: “That’s not what you’re saying, my joy.” The human heart is open to one Lord, and one God is the knower of the heart; and the man will come, and the heart will be deep (Ps. 63:7). For this he told how some reproached St. Gregory the Theologian for bringing Maxim the Cynic closer to himself. But the saint said: “God alone reveals the secrets of the human heart; and I saw in him a convert from paganism to Christianity, which is great for me.” - How come, Father, you didn’t ask a single word from the merchant and said everything he needed? Father Seraphim, opening his mouth and spreading the word, began to explain: “He came to me, like others, just as you walked, like a servant of God.” I, a sinful Seraphim, think that I am a sinful servant of God: what the Lord commands me, I convey to those who require something useful. The first thought that appears in my soul, I consider it an indication from God and I speak, not knowing what is in my interlocutor’s soul; but I only believe that the will of God is showing me this for his benefit. And there are times when some circumstance is expressed to me, and I, not believing it in the will of God, subordinate it to my mind, thinking that it is possible, without resorting to God, deciding with my mind: in such cases, mistakes are always made 42 . From this incident it is clear that St. Seraphim prepared Fr. Anthony for his future ministry and revealed spiritual laws to him. The Elder concluded this very edifying and multi-explanatory conversation as follows: “As I forge iron, so I have handed over myself and my will to the Lord God: as He pleases, so I act; I do not have my own will, but what God pleases, I hand over.”43. From this it is clear that the Almighty Lord Himself spoke through the mouth of St. Seraphim. Therefore, without hesitation, he immediately answered with complete certainty and even said what did not even occur to his interlocutor, but what was revealed by the Holy Spirit. The Optina elder Fr. said exactly the same thing. Barsanuphius to his spiritual son Vasily Shustin 44: “You will serve mass, receive communion and then go to receive the people. They express their needs to you. You will go to your cell, think it over, settle on some decision, and when you come to say this decision, you will say something completely different from what you thought. And this is the real answer and advice, which if the questioner does not follow, he will incur worse misfortune. This is God’s invisible grace, which is especially clearly manifested in the elders after communion of the Holy Mysteries” 45. In other words, this is advice given not through the human mind, but through inspiration from Above, the so-called heartfelt notification in asceticism. This happens in relation to outsiders, but also between an elder and his disciple, when the relationship is more intimate, much more is revealed to the elder about the disciple. The same o. Barsanuphius reveals this secret to his beloved spiritual son: "Here he became thoughtful, apparently feeling the imminent approach of death... And he began to talk about the grace of old age... “We are called seers, indicating that we can see the future; yes, great grace is given to old age - this is the gift of reasoning. This is the greatest gift given by God to man. In addition to physical eyes, we also have spiritual eyes, before which the human soul opens; before a person thinks, before a thought arises in him, we see it with spiritual eyes, we even see the reason for the emergence of such a thought. And nothing is hidden from us. You live in St. Petersburg and think that I don’t see you. When I want, I will see everything that you do and think. For us there is no space and time...” 46. “The intimate connection between the elder and the disciple extends to the point that the elder takes upon himself his sins after confession, which is possible thanks to the gracious gifts of the elder that we have just examined. “The monk, troubled by the demon of blasphemy, struggled in vain with temptation for 20 years, finally wrote down his weakness on the charter and went to confession to the elder. Having given him his scripture, the monk threw himself to the ground. The elder, as soon as he read it, smiled and, raising his brother, said to him: “Put your hand, child, on my neck.” And when the monk did this, the great elder said: “For how many years this sin has not acted and will not act in you, and after this, do not regard it as anything.” And this monk confirmed that before he left the elder’s cell, his weakness ceased” 47. Another, and moreover, more obligatory, means of forgiveness of sins was prayerful intercession before God for the sinner on the part of the person who accepted his confession. Abraham, a disciple of the Monk Sisoes, was once tempted by a demon. The elder, seeing his fall, stood up, stretched out his hands to heaven and said: “God, whether it pleases You or displeases me to heal, I will not leave You until You heal him...” And the disciple was immediately healed 48 . When the elder accepted the confession of a monk who had renounced the faith and his holy monastic vows, he imposed penance on the fallen man and added: “And I will beg God for you.” The elder worked for his brother and prayed to God: “Lord, I ask You, grant me this soul and accept its repentance.” And God heard his prayer 49 . Here is a similar story from “Lavsaik”. Abba Apollos told the leader of the band of robbers: “If you, friend, listen to me, then I will beg the Lord to forgive your sins” 50. The prayers of the elder to a greater extent aroused God's mercy towards the sinner and brought him forgiveness than his own deeds of repentance. According to the reasoning of the Monk Barsanuphius, a sinner, “being himself insufficient to pay his debts, brings little, but the prayers of the saints (i.e., elders) bring a lot.” But this does not free the student from personal achievement: “It is a sign of great ignorance, not to say madness, to seek salvation through the prayers of saints for one who delights in harmful deeds in his heart... 51 Prayer in such cases is fruitless. The connection between the elder and the disciple is not broken even by death. The elder’s prayers for the novice invariably accompanied him on the path of life, both this and the future, both on earth and beyond the grave. The monk asks the ascetic: "How should I pray to my fathers for the forgiveness of my sins? Should I say: forgive me, or: ask for my forgiveness? When I pray to the Lord Himself, how should I say?" The answer is given as follows: "When we pray to the fathers who have gone to God, we should say: forgive me, but when those who are still with us, then: pray for us in order to receive forgiveness for us. And when you pray to the Master Himself, say this: have mercy on me, Master, for the sake of your holy martyrs and for the sake of the holy fathers, and through their prayers forgive me my sins" 52 . One brother, sensing the approach of death, asked the Monk Barsanuphius for forgiveness. The elder answered him: “Do not grieve, brother: death without sins is not death... Our Great King God tells you: all your sins are forgiven you, especially for the prayers and supplications of the saints (i.e., the elders) and for the sake of your faith in Him” 53 » 54 . The highest gifts of grace are inextricably linked with the deepest humility. Father Ambrose of Optina was asked: “Is it possible to desire improvement in spiritual life?” The elder’s answer: “It is not only possible, but also must try to improve in humility, that is, in considering oneself in the feeling of the heart worse and lower than all people and every creature” 55 The elders never extolled themselves with their spiritual gifts and did not at all place themselves above the spiritual hierarchy. This is what the ascetic and elder St. writes in the 4th century. Theodore the Sanctified on humility: “Great is the gift of visions, like the gift of the Holy Spirit, but great caution must also be exercised in this regard. Let such a person not think much about himself, being himself nothing, and let him not be carried away by the desire to possess the gift of visions, so that all his piety and faith do not turn into smoke and shadow, which has happened to many. I say this not only to those who have not reached the highest degree of perfection, but also to those who stand on it, so that we all think humbly about ourselves and our deeds and pray to avoid eternal torment. The most saints also prayed about this - doesn’t David say: Preserve my soul and deliver me (Ps. 24:20). Doesn’t St. Paul also say: And I was delivered from the mouth of lions (cf. 2 Tim. 4:17). Truly, we are dealing with a subtle and cunning enemy, who often covers up error and lies with the guise of truth, so that, not having a special gift of discernment, we are always in danger of being deceived. But he will not be deceived who obeys God and his servants in everything without exception. Observing this, brethren, let everyone keep the measure of grace given to him (from God), whether he is a shepherd or a sheep. But let us all pray so that we may be among the sheep. For there is only one true Shepherd - this is the One who said about Himself: I am the good Shepherd (John 10:14). But after the Lord God appeared, after the Word of God took on the image and likeness of man and, by special mercy, through the knowledge of true faith, put us on the path of salvation, then, ascending into heaven, appointed the apostles as successors to Himself, we now have a need for shepherds to feed in the Lord.” Despite all the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit, St. Theodore humbles himself before the bishop: “We know that the bishops succeeded the apostles in the dignity of their fathers. Those who hear the voice of Jesus Christ in their voice are truly sons of God, even if they were not from the clergy.” Professor Kazansky in his book “The History of Orthodox Monasticism in the East,” from which the words of St. Theodora, comments on them as follows: “Thus, this holy man, whose experience in the grace of visions and revelations could not be greater, teaches us to judge them only in accordance with the decisions of the Church, and prefers the judgment of the bishops appointed for instruction to all private revelations” 56 . According to St. Athanasius, and St. Anthony the Great expressed humility similar to this: “No matter how glorious Anthony was, glory never overshadowed his humility: he humbly bowed his head before the bishops and presbyters. He edified the deacons who came to him for instructions with words and together asked them to pray for themselves.”57 This case dates back to antiquity, but we see exactly the same attitude in the contemporary Optina elder. In the biography of the elder Fr. Barsanuphius, we present below the case when he forbade S. A. Nilus to rebel against the bishop who allowed the barbaric restoration of the miraculous Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. “Just don’t go to war against the episcopacy,” the elder concluded his speech, “or else the Queen of Heaven Herself will punish you” 58 . Let us now give an example of the ideal relationship of one of the greatest bishops, Athanasius the Great, to one of the greatest elders, the mentor of tens of thousands of monks, Theodore the Sanctified. The latter “took with him those who were more respected in the brotherhood and those who had the best voice in singing and went to meet St. Athanasius, who, taking advantage of the peace of the Church, visited Egypt and at that time sailed along the Nile to Thebaid. He met him above the Ermipol district. On both banks of the river there were countless people, among whom were bishops, a great number of clergy and many monks, who flocked there from all neighboring places. Saint Athanasius, seeing Theodore with the monks, said in the words of the prophet: Are cues like clouds flying, and like doves from chicks coming to me? (Isa.60:8). He greeted Theodore with love and with fatherly sympathy asked about the state of his monasteries. Saint Athanasius, going ashore, sat on a donkey, which Saint Theodore, taking by the bridle, led through the crowd of people walking with burning torches, while the monks sang psalms and sacred songs. Athanasius, seeing Theodore's humility and the joy with which he carried out his work, said to those around him words testifying to the humility of both Theodore and Athanasius himself: "Look with what zeal this leader of many monks walks ahead of us. These are the true fathers, more deserving to bear this name than we are, in their humility and submission for the sake of the love of God. How blessed and worthy of respect they are." those who constantly wear the cross of their Savior place their glory in humiliation, peace in work until they receive the crown from the hands of their Master...” 59. In the person of these two saints - the elder and the bishop - we see an example of an ideal relationship. The elder humbles himself before the bishop, as if Christ Himself were before him, and the bishop before the elder, since through him the will of God is directly revealed. In this cooperation, in this synergy of episcopal, sacramental-administrative, ministry and elder, leadership-prophetic, in their harmonious combination-symphony lies the guarantee of the flourishing of the spiritual life of the Church. We find a striking example of this in the collaboration of Metropolitan Gabriel (Petrov) with Archimandrite Theophan of Novoezersk, which created an entire era of flourishing monasticism and theological school 60 . His unlimited power also follows from the properties of the elder. Regarding the power of the elder, Professor Smirnov says: “It is not known exactly from what point in time, but, apparently, very early, in monasteries both abbots and elders’ penances began to be given greater importance than simple disciplinary punishment. Penance was recognized as insoluble by any authority other than the one that imposed it. This arose from the idea of ​​absolute abbot and elder power, and also from the fact that in the penances of the elders they began to see a manifestation of the binding and decisive power given by the Lord to the apostles, although most of the abbots and elders did not have a hierarchical rank" 61 . No one except him can cancel the penance imposed by the elder. In confirmation of this, Theodore the Studite cites the story: “One elder more than once ordered his disciple to carry out some task, but he kept putting it off. Dissatisfied with this, the elder indignantly imposed a ban on the student not to eat bread until he had completed the assigned task. When the disciple went to fulfill the assigned command, the elder died. After his death, the student wished to obtain permission from the ban imposed on him. But there was no one in the desert area who would dare to resolve this bewilderment. Finally, the student made a request to Patriarch Herman of Constantinople, who gathered other bishops to consider this matter. But neither the Patriarch nor the Council 62 found it possible to allow the penance of the elder, about whom it is not even known whether he had the degree of priesthood. Therefore, until death, the student was forced to eat food from only vegetables” 63. Another case is placed in the Prologue on October 15th. Let us present this extraordinary story in its entirety, which vividly depicts the full power of the elder’s power to “knit and solve.” “In the Skete there lived a monk who for many years was obedient to his father. Finally, out of demonic envy, he fell away from obedience and, without any blessed reason, left the elder, despising the prohibition (penance) for disobedience. Arriving in Alexandria, he was captured and forced by the local prince to renounce Christ, but he remained steadfast in his firm confession of faith and for this he was tortured and put to death. The Christians of that city took the body of the new martyr, placed it in a shrine and placed it in the holy church. But at each Liturgy, when the deacon exclaimed: “The catechumens, come forth,” the shrine with the body of the martyr, to the surprise of everyone, was carried out to the porch by an invisible force, and at the end of the Liturgy it was placed again in the church by itself. One Alexandrian nobleman prayed for a solution to this perplexity. And it was revealed to him in a vision that the tortured monk was a disciple of such and such an elder and was bound by the elder’s prohibition for disobedience. As a martyr, he received the crown of martyrdom, and as bound by the penance of an elder, he cannot remain during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy until the one who bound him releases him. At the same time, an old man was found who came to Alexandria and freed the bound man from the ban. Since that time, the cancer has not moved from its place.” Referring to this story, Professor Smirnov draws the following conclusions. “From this story it turns out,” he says, “that senile penance has full canonical force. It is a manifestation of the apostolic right to “bind and loosen,” and no personal exploits of the bound, even martyrdom for Christ, free one from its bonds” 64 . We find such a view of the power of an elder not only in ancient times. It has not changed in our time. Here is the 30-year-old novice Vasily (the future elder hieromonk Varnava, who died in 1906) in the Gethsemane monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is under the obedience of elder Gregory. “Once, during Elder Gregory’s dying illness, Vasily went to visit the sick man and remained at his bedside for a long time, for the last time quenching his thirst for spiritual life with the elder’s wise instructions. At this time, the feat of eldership was entrusted to him, which he took upon himself after the death of his mentors. Giving Vasily a covenant to lovingly accept everyone who comes and not refuse advice and instructions to anyone, Elder Gregory gave Vasily two prosphoras and said: “With this feed the hungry - with words and bread, as God wants.” At the end of everything, he added, revealing to him the will of God, that they should set up a women’s monastery in a remote area and completely infected with schism... At the same time, the elder, looking at his disciple with love and pity, did not hide from him that he would have to endure a lot and endure sorrows and troubles.” In 1865, novice Vasily lost another elder, Daniel, “who, dying, confirmed to his disciple the previous covenant - to accept and continue after him the feat of eldership. When Vasily asked with tears to free him from this burden, blood flowed from the lips of Elder Daniel... and he quietly died in the arms of his beloved student... Vasily’s entry into the path of public mentoring happened naturally. Even during the life of Elder Daniel, the novice Vasily... on the instructions of the elder and on his behalf, gave visitors answers and advice to their various requests” 65 . Thus, Fr. Vasily began to serve as an elder and soon began to create the Iversky-Vyksa convent. He did not escape sorrows either. It got to the point that the innocent old man was tried at the Lavra Council. “Then our schema-monk Fr. stood up for him before the Council. Alexander. He spoke a wise word, and everyone fell silent after that. “If anyone can,” said Father Alexander, “take away from him the old man’s covenant—to establish a monastery and take care of it—then he too... will stand aside; and if no one can take away from him this obedience bequeathed by the elder, then he cannot be forbidden to carry it out.” The elders silently listened to the wise word of the schema-monk, respected by all, and also silently left the meeting, which then put an end to all their complaints about the priest.”66 The will of the elder was binding not only for his spiritual children, but also for the entire monastery. These are the sad consequences that violations of their bequeathed traditions led to. “There was a rumor that someone from Optina was advising Fr. the archimandrite to cut down the centuries-old pines for the sawmill, which are between the Skete and the monastery: anyway, they will rot at the roots from old age. Our skete friend Fr. came today. Nectarius (the last Optina elder) 67. “This,” Fr. exclaimed with liveliness. Nectarius, - not to happen, for our great elders made a covenant not to touch the forest between the Skete and the monastery forever; It is not allowed to cut down bushes, let alone centuries-old trees. And then he told me the following: – When the elder Fr. Lev then ordered the Skete to commemorate the day of his death with the consolation of the brethren and to bake pancakes for them on this day. After his death, our elders - fathers Moses and Macarius - decided to hold a memorial service for him on the same day. So this commandment was observed for a long time, until the days of Abbot Isaac and the hermitage leader Hilarion. Such a temptation arose in their presence. Comes on the eve of the day of remembrance of Fr. Sexton Theodosius goes to the abbot and says: – It is not customary for us to rule the cathedral tomorrow. And what happened after that? Theodosius sees in a dream: Father Lev grabbed him from the back of his head by the hair, lifted him up the bell tower onto the cross and threatened him three times: And at that time he showed him a terrible abyss under the bell tower. When Theodosius woke up, he felt pain between his shoulders. Then a carbuncle formed. I was sick for more than a month, I even despaired of life. Since then they have shaken themselves up, otherwise they wanted to stop ruling conciliarly. And in the Skete on the same day, cell attendant Fr. Hilarion, Neil, began to convince him to cancel the pancakes. - Father! - speaks. - How much grit does it take, they have to be baked in the work kitchen, the worker has to be taken away from work, and the workers also have to be fed: where can we get flour? And Nile persuaded the monastery leader - they canceled the pancakes. Then something more serious happened than Theodosius’s carbuncle: from that day Fr. fell ill. Hilarion could no longer perform Divine service until the end of his life; and Neil was struck by leprosy, from which he died, having become so weak during his life that a worker carried him in a chair to the church of God. Moreover, on the same night when this ill-fated cancellation of consolation took place, a worker got burned in the work kitchen in the Skete and died. There was so much fuss with the police! And there, the lovers of God stopped donating semolina flour to the Skete... “Do you see what disobeying the elder’s commandment means for us?” – added Fr. Nectarius concluded his story with these words: “As long as the eldership still holds on in Optina, its behests will be fulfilled. When the old people's huts are sealed, locks are hung on the doors of their cells, well - then... everything will be possible to expect, but now the time has not come (John 7:6). Father was silent for a while, then smiled his bright, good-natured smile and said: – In the meantime, let our beautiful pine trees show off in their places. Indeed, they are beauties” 68. “The time has not come,” said the elder in 1909... but, alas! – “the time has come.”. 69 So, the gracious elder, who through personal experience has gone through the school of sobriety and smart-hearted prayer and, thanks to this, has perfectly studied spiritual-psychic laws and personally achieved dispassion, from now on becomes able to guide the novice monk in his “invisible warfare” on the path to dispassion. He must penetrate to the very depths of the human soul, see the very origin of evil, the causes of this origin, establish an accurate diagnosis of the disease and indicate the exact method of treatment. The elder is a skilled spiritual doctor. He must clearly see the structure of his student, the character of his soul and the degree of his spiritual development. He must certainly have the gift of reasoning and discernment of spirits, since he always has to deal with evil, striving to be transformed into an Angel of light (see: 2 Cor. 11:14). But, as someone who has achieved dispassion, the elder usually possesses other spiritual gifts: clairvoyance, miracles, and prophecy. The eldership at its highest levels, such as the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, receives complete freedom in its manifestations and actions, not limited by any framework, since it is no longer he who lives, but Christ lives in him (see: Gal. 2:20), and all his actions are in the Holy Spirit, and therefore always in harmony with the Church and its institutions. Eldership is not a hierarchical degree in the Church - it is a special kind of holiness, and therefore can be inherent in everyone. An elder could be a monk without any spiritual degrees, as Father Barnabas of Gethsemane was at first. An elder can also be a bishop: for example, Ignatius (Brianchaninov) or Anthony of Voronezh - a great contemporary of St. Seraphim. Among the priests we will name St. John of Kronstadt, Fr. Egor Chekryakovsky. Finally, a woman can also serve as an elder, such as the perspicacious blessed Praskovya Ivanovna in Christ, the holy fool of Diveyevo, without whose advice nothing was done in the monastery. True eldership is a special gift of grace - charisma - direct guidance by the Holy Spirit, a special type of holiness. While all members of the Church are required to obey ecclesiastical authority, elder authority is not compulsory for anyone. The elder never imposes himself on anyone, submission to him is always voluntary, but having found a true, gracious elder and having submitted to him, the student must unquestioningly obey the elder in everything, since through the latter the will of God is directly revealed 70 . The same thing, it is not obligatory for anyone to ask an elder, but having asked for advice or direction, one must certainly follow it, because any deviation from God’s clear instructions through the elder entails punishment. IV. I. M. Kontsevich. Venerable Seraphim of Sarov Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833) was the most prominent representative of the ascetic school of internal work. Although the school of smart doing was forgotten almost everywhere by that time, the living stream, which began in ancient times, did not completely dry up. Information about spiritual work was passed on in the form of teachings from generation to generation. In many monasteries, ancient manuscripts of paternal works should have survived. The example of the Kyiv elder Dositheus and the spiritual pillars of Sarov Fr. Nazariya and Fr. Pachomius shows that such experienced ascetics existed even then. According to legend, Fr. Dositheus gives young Prokhor instructions on the creation of unceasing mental-heart prayer. When the appearance of the Mother of God to the Monk Seraphim and the nun Eupraxia followed, she was told that she had been awarded this vision for the prayers of Fathers Seraphim, Mark, Nazarius and Pachomius, who represented a single spiritual family. Both ascetics - St. Seraphim and Fr. Nazariy - at the same time they live as a hermit in the Sarov Forest. The Monk Seraphim returned to the monastery in 1810, that is, the next year after the death of Fr. Nazariya. They stayed in the forest for eight years at the same time. Knowing touch o. Nazarius to the matter of printing the Philokalia, it is safe to say that it was not without his participation that this book became known to St. Seraphim. Whether he brought it to Sarov in 1801, or whether he sent it earlier - one can only guess about this. Only one thing can be affirmed: that in the person of St. Seraphim this book found good, prepared soil. St. Seraphim is completely imbued with the spirit of the Philokalia, and many of his instructions and advice are taken from there. He carries out in practice the entire path of smart work and in his achievements surpasses many saints. “This is from our generation,” says the Mother of God about him. St. Seraphim is a living revelation of the perfection to which an earth-born can come. And his path is the same as that of the ancient fathers, and that of our domestic ascetics, who were engaged in smart work. Here is what he himself says about the ascetic path: “The path of active life (πρᾶξις): fasting, abstinence, vigil, kneeling, prayer and other bodily labors that make up a difficult and sorrowful path, which, according to the word of God, leads to an eternal life (Matthew 7:14). The path of contemplative life (θεωρία) consists in raising the mind to the Lord in heartfelt attention, mental prayer and contemplation through such exercises of spiritual things - and then follows the most valuable ascetic advice. “One should not abandon the active life even when a person has succeeded in it and has already come to the contemplative life: for it contributes to the contemplative life and elevates it...” 71 This is how St. Seraphim interpreted the ascetic life. But he himself was the spiritual heir of Fr. Pachomius, and Fr. Nazariya, who were not typical representatives of the Sarov spirit. They must be attributed to those rare units who understood and practiced inner work, which has been preserved in the depths of monasticism since ancient times. The majestic Sarov embodied that harsh school of ascetic external work that prevailed before Paisius (Velichkovsky): strict statutory service and cruel life, but without a true understanding of internal work. Seraphim of Sarov was, perhaps, the brightest and most perfect representative, as we just said, of newly revived inner activity; so bright that it even seems to hide the greatest ascetic feats undertaken by him, such as standing on a stone for 1000 days and nights, incredible fasting and other feats. (All types of exploits of the ancient desert fathers). We see the most typical and characteristic clash of these two currents, old and new, in that misunderstanding and non-recognition of St. Seraphim by the brethren of the monastery and its abbots, which, despite all the paradoxes, continued not only during the life of the Rev., but also after his death. The Diveyevo Chronicle repeatedly mentions the distrustful and hostile attitude towards the Reverend on the part of the monastery authorities 72 . They invade him at night and search him. The same searches befall the Diveyevo sisters who come to him. A typical case (after the death of the Reverend) is when Father Seraphim appears in a vision to the nun Magdalene, who was healed by him, and who came to Sarov on a pilgrimage. In the vision he tells her: - Why should I go there, there is nothing to do there. But Father repeated the order several times to go to Diveevo and added: “Everything is mine there, and I myself am constantly and most of all there. When Mother Magdalene woke up, she conveyed all this to the Sarov cave dweller, Fr. Parthenia, asking her to write down all the healing that happened. He resolutely refused, saying: - Go to Diveyevo, they will definitely sign up there; go, go to Diveyevo, this is a great grace for you and Fr. Seraphim pointed this out. They will write it down there, because that is where he is most revered. And God knows what else will come from us and from Diveevo. We’ve seen burning candles on his grave three times, and even then we don’t believe it until something clearly happens at his grave 73 . The reader will involuntarily ask us: how is it so - the dominant school puts external ascetic deeds, rules, and life at the forefront; but St. Seraphim surpasses them all in his exploits? Yes, that's all true. But none of the representatives of the prevailing way of life at that time had yet matured to understand the speculative feat. Therefore, everything concerning St. Seraphim remains a mystery to them and arouses in them only suspicion and complete distrust. The very view of the feat of the old and new movements does not coincide. The revived school is not against exploits, but just does not overestimate them: this is not a goal, but a means; in themselves they are nothing. If applied incorrectly and set as a goal, they can only cause harm, becoming the cause of spiritual delusion. But, in addition, on the ladder of spiritual ascent the ascetic may encounter the greatest trials. This is a fight against the spirit of evil, which is usually not even suspected by people who are not ascetics. Then the ascetic resorts to the greatest feats in proportion to the strength of the struggle. Here we can cite an incident from the life of Schema nun Platonida (born in 1802 in Stavropol) from the words of her confessor: “Drought or dryness of heart is the most difficult situation in ascetic life. But this test did not take Platonida by surprise: she greeted him complacently. When she felt a dry heart and some disorder in her spiritual life, she did not give up and did not fall into despondency. On the contrary, she decided in her soul to fast and pray until the Lord again touched her heart with His grace and arranged her spiritual life as before. The feat of this deliberate fasting (non-eating) and prayer began... Day after day, it was repeated 10 times. The old woman fasts and prays, but her soul is still like waterless land (Ps. 142:6)... Her tongue and larynx were dry, her chest was strained from groans and sighs, but there was still not a tear in her eyes. There lies on her heart like some kind of stone, and in it there is bitterness and fear: has not the Lord really cast her away from His face and rejected her forever?.. So the enemy mocks her, openly says to her: This went on until the 14th night, but then the test ended. Not allowing temptations beyond our strength, the Lord showed His servant a sign of His favor and the pleasingness of her exploits to Him. When, at midnight, in her torn heart, she uttered the words: - Do you hear me, Lord, do you hear my groans and the suffering of my heart? At that moment, she felt a certain warmth in her heart and throughout her whole being. At that same moment, her spiritual eyes were opened. She saw two Angels, one of whom stood on her right and the other on her left. They both wrote, each in their own book. “Look,” said one of them, pointing to the books, “we recorded your every breath, every groan and your word.” Behind me I saw a crowd of demons. The one standing closest to her was wearing torn clothes. When those standing at a distance wanted to come to his aid, he shouted: - Where are you going? Look how torn I am. The angels became invisible, the demons fled. From then until her death, blessed Platonida no longer knew temptation and always enjoyed an undisturbed peace of soul, rejoicing in the Lord.” 74 Seraphim's standing on a stone - the pillars - is infinitely superior in severity and duration to the just described feat of Platonida (70 times longer in time). This feat exceeds human understanding. Regarding him, we can only note that some biographers misunderstand and interpret this struggle in their own way: they either believe that there was a struggle with the flesh, or with thoughts of ambition, etc. But such fortune-telling does not fit with the spiritual height of St. Seraphim, which he was already at at that time (1804–1807). Here only there could be a place for a struggle not against flesh and blood, but directly with the spirits of evil in heaven. From a conversation with Motovilov, this secret becomes clear: “Once in a conversation with the Monk Seraphim we touched upon a conversation about enemy attacks on a person. The secularly educated Motovilov, of course, did not fail to doubt the reality of the phenomena of this misanthropic force. Then the Reverend told him about his terrible struggle for 1001 nights and 1001 days with demons and with the power of his word, the authority of his holiness, in which there could not be a shadow of a lie or exaggeration, he convinced Motovilov of the existence of demons not in ghosts or dreams, but in the very real bitter reality” 75. Having emerged victorious from this terrible struggle, the Monk Seraphim ascended to the heights of the greatest ancient ascetics. So, we see that that spring of living water, which has been preserved in the depths of monasticism since ancient times and has almost completely dried up, in St. Seraphim merges with the external waters of the teaching of the holy fathers revived by Paisius Velichkovsky on internal work and turns in his person into such a powerful and strong stream that amazes the entire spiritual world with its greatness and sovereignty to this day. Professor Archpriest Fr. Georgy Florovsky, in a few words, captures the entire immeasurable depth of the meaning of St. Seraphim: “The beginning of the last century in the destinies of the Russian Church was marked and marked by some kind of internal and mysterious shift. This is evidenced by the prophetic image of St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833), his feat, his joy, his teaching. The image of the newly revealed holiness remained unsolved for a long time. In this image, feats and joy, the burden of prayerful warfare and already heavenly lightness, the transfiguration of an already unearthly light, are so wonderfully combined. The elder... with unexpected boldness testifies to the mysteries of the Spirit... The Monk Seraphim is even more reminiscent of the ancient seers, the Monk Simeon more than others, with his bold call to seek the gifts of the Spirit. St. Seraphim was well-read among the fathers... In his experience, the primordial tradition of seeking the Spirit is renewed... “The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God”... Everything else should be only a means. By oil, which the foolish virgins of the Gospel parable lacked, St. Seraphim did not mean good deeds, but precisely the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. “While practicing virtues, these virgins, out of their spiritual foolishness, believed that this was only a Christian matter... and whether they received the grace of the Spirit of God, whether they achieved it, they did not care” 76 . Thus, with power, spirituality is opposed to moralism... The spirit is given, but it is also sought. It requires feat and acquisition. And the grace given is revealed in a certain ineffable light (cf. Motovilov’s description in his famous note about St. Seraphim)... St. Seraphim internally belongs to the Byzantine tradition. And in it she becomes completely alive again” 77. In his study “Spiritual Ancestors of St. Gregory Palamas,” Professor Archimandrite Cyprian also speaks of the continuous continuity of Orthodox mysticism: “The path of Orthodox mysticism and its goal is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, and not the imitation of the suffering Christ and not sacrificial self-torture. In this, a personal meeting with the Paraclete is made for him and his personal covenant with the Holy Spirit is concluded, which is why the expectation of the third Testament and the third Revelation to all humanity is alien to him. This revelation takes place on his personal path, through personal acquisition of grace. This tradition of our mysticism comes from the most ancient spirit seers of the East, this line stretches from pseudo-Dionysius through Maximus the Confessor, Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas to the ascetics and mystics of our days, when it once again blossoms in the person of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov and experimentally reveals in his conversation with Motovilov what was a precious treasure in the mystical sacristy of the East; a vision of the deified fullness of the human being" 78 . V. Instructions of St. Seraphim of Sarov The “spiritual instructions” of St. Seraphim were collected, recorded and published for the first time by the tonsured priest of the Sarov Hermitage, Fr. Sergius, who later was hieromonk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and archimandrite of the Serpukhov Vysotsky Monastery. The same author also wrote the first biography of Fr. Seraphim, compiled in 1837. The ever-memorable Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret, who always deeply revered the great Sarov elder and ascetic, himself revised and corrected the works of Fr. Sergius in order to remove possible obstacles to their publication. On August 2, 1838, he wrote to his viceroy, Archimandrite Anthony: “I am sending you, Fr. Viceroy, the teachings or spiritual instructions I have viewed from Fr. Seraphim. I allowed myself to change or supplement some expressions, partly so that the language would be more correct, and partly so that thoughts that were not quite fully and not quite ordinarily expressed would be protected from incorrect understanding or from contradiction. Look and tell me if you can think that I haven’t changed or damaged anywhere the elder’s thoughts.” In 1839 The “Spiritual Instructions” of St. Seraphim appeared, but not together with the life of the holy elder, but in the book “A brief outline of the life of the elder of the Sarov Hermitage, schemamonk and hermit Mark.” God is a fire that warms and ignites hearts and bellies. So, if we feel coldness in our hearts, which is from the devil, for the devil is cold, then we will call on the Lord, and He will come and warm our hearts with perfect love not only for Him, but also for our neighbor. And from the face of warmth the coldness of a good-hater will be driven away. The fathers wrote when they were asked: seek the Lord, but do not test where he lives; Where there is God, there is no evil. Everything that comes from God is peaceful and beneficial and leads a person to humility and self-condemnation. God shows us His love for mankind not only when we do good, but also when we offend and anger Him. How patiently He bears our iniquities! And when he punishes, how compassionately he punishes! Do not call God just, says St. Isaac, for His justice is not visible in your deeds. If David called Him just and upright, His Son showed us that He is more good and merciful. Where is His justice? We were sinners, and Christ died for us (Isaac the Syrian. Homily 90). To the extent that a person perfects himself before God, to the extent that he follows Him; in the true age, God reveals His face to him. For the righteous, as they enter into contemplation of Him, see the image as in a mirror, and there they see the manifestation of truth. If you do not know God, then it is impossible for love for Him to be aroused in you; and you cannot love God unless you see Him. The vision of God comes from knowing Him: for the contemplation of Him does not precede the knowledge of Him. One should not talk about the works of God after the belly is full, for in a full belly there is no vision of the mysteries of God. First of all, one must believe in God as He is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Heb. 11:6). Faith, according to the teachings of the Monk Antiochus, is the beginning of our union with God: a true believer is the stone of the church of God, prepared for the building of God the Father, raised to heights by the power of Jesus Christ, that is, the cross, with the help of the rope, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26); and the works of faith are: love, peace, long-suffering, mercy, humility, bearing the cross and living in the spirit. Only such faith is imputed to the truth. True faith cannot be without works: whoever truly believes certainly has works. He who has acquired perfect love for God exists in this life as if he did not exist. For he considers himself a stranger to the visible, waiting patiently for the invisible. He completely changed into love for God and forgot all other love. He who loves himself cannot love God. And whoever does not love himself for the sake of loving God, loves God. He who truly loves God considers himself a stranger and stranger on this earth; for with his soul and mind, in his striving for God, he contemplates Him alone. A soul filled with the love of God, during its departure from the body, will not fear the prince of the air, but will fly with the angels, as if from a foreign country to its homeland. Against excessive care Excessive concern for the things of life is characteristic of an unbeliever and cowardly person. And woe to us if we, caring for ourselves, do not establish our hope in God, who cares for us! If we do not attribute the visible benefits that we enjoy in the present age to Him, then how can we expect from Him those benefits that are promised in the future? Let us not be so lacking in faith, but rather let us seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to us, according to the word of the Savior (Matthew 6:33). It is better for us to despise what is not ours, that is, temporary and transitory, and to desire what is ours, that is, incorruptibility and immortality. For when we are incorruptible and immortal, then we will be worthy of visible contemplation of God, like the apostles at the Most Divine Transfiguration, and we will partake of a higher mental unity with God, like heavenly minds. For we will be like angels and sons of God, being the resurrection of sons (Luke 20:36). A person's body is like a lit candle. The candle must burn out and the man must die. But the soul is immortal, therefore our care should be more about the soul than about the body: What good does it do to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul (Mark 8:36; Matt. 16:26), for which, as we know, nothing in the world can be a ransom? If one soul in itself is more precious than the whole world and the kingdom of this world, then the Kingdom of Heaven is incomparably more precious. We honor the soul most preciously for the reason, as Macarius the Great says, that God did not deign to communicate with anything and unite with his spiritual nature, not with any visible creature, but with one person, whom he loved more than all His creatures (Macarius the Great. A Word on Freedom of Mind. Ch. 32). Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose of Milan and others were virgins from their youth to the end of their lives; their whole life was devoted to caring for the soul, and not for the body. So we too should make every effort about the soul; to strengthen the body only so that it contributes to the strengthening of the spirit. What should the soul be supplied with? The soul must be supplied with the word of God: for the word of God, as Gregory the Theologian says, is the bread of angels, with which souls who hunger for God are fed. Most of all, one should practice reading the New Testament and the Psalter, which should be done while standing. From this comes enlightenment in the mind, which is changed by the Divine change. You need to train yourself in such a way that your mind seems to float in the law of the Lord, guided by which you must organize your life. It is very beneficial to engage in reading the word of God in solitude and to read the entire Bible intelligently. For one such exercise, in addition to other good deeds, the Lord will not leave a person with His mercy, but will fill him with the gift of understanding. When a person supplies his soul with the word of God, then he is filled with the understanding of what is good and what is evil. Reading the word of God must be done in solitude so that the entire mind of the reader is deepened in the truths of Holy Scripture and receives warmth from God, which in solitude produces tears; from them a person warms up completely and is filled with spiritual gifts that delight the mind and heart more than any word. Bodily labor and exercise in the Divine Scriptures, teaches St. Isaac the Syrian, protect purity. Until he receives the Comforter, a person needs the Divine Scriptures, so that the memory of good things will be imprinted on his mind and, from constant reading, the desire for good will be renewed in him and protect his soul from the subtle ways of sin (Isaac the Syrian, Homily 58). One should also equip the soul with knowledge about the Church, how it has been preserved from the beginning and until now, what it has endured at one time or another - to know this not in order to want to control people, but in case of questions that may arise, also for the conviction and consolation of one’s spirit. Most of all, one must do this for oneself in order to gain peace of mind, according to the teaching of the psalmist: There is peace for many who love Thy law, O Lord (Ps. 119:165). About maintaining spiritual peace One must try by all means to maintain peace of mind and not be indignant at insults from others; For this purpose, one must try in every possible way to restrain anger and, through attention, keep the mind and heart from indecent movements. Such an exercise can bring silence to the human heart and make it an abode for God Himself. We see an example of such lack of anger in Gregory the Wonderworker, from whom, in a public place, the wife of a certain harlot asked for a bribe, allegedly for a sin committed with her; and he, not at all angry with her, meekly said to a certain friend of his: “Give her the price she demands soon. The wife, having just accepted an unrighteous bribe, was attacked by a demon; The saint drove the demon away from her with prayer” (Cheti Menaion, November 17). If it is impossible not to be indignant, then at least one must try to hold the tongue, according to the verb of the psalmist: Confused and speechless (Ps. 77:5). In this case, we can take St. Spyridon of Trimifunt and St. Ephraim the Syrian as a model. The first (Cheti Menaion, December 12) suffered the insult in this way: when, at the request of the Greek king, he entered the palace, one of the servants in the royal chamber, considering him a beggar, laughed at him, did not let him into the chamber, and then hit him on the cheek; St. Spyridon, being kind, according to the word of the Lord, converted the other one to him (see: Matt. 5:39). The Monk Ephraim (Cheti Menaion, January 28), fasting in the desert, was deprived of food by a disciple in this way: the disciple, bringing him food, reluctantly broke a vessel on the way. The monk, seeing the sad disciple, said to him: “Do not grieve, brother, if you don’t want food to come to us, then we will go to her.” And he went and sat down by the broken vessel and, gathering food, ate it: so he was without anger. And how to overcome anger, this can be seen from the life of the great Paisius (Cheti Menaion, June 19), who asked the Lord Jesus Christ who appeared to him to free him from anger; and Christ said to him: “If you want to overcome anger and rage, covet nothing, hate anyone, or disdain him.” In order to maintain peace of mind, one must distance oneself from despondency and try to have a joyful spirit, not a sad one, according to the word of Sirach: Sorrow kills many, and there is no profit in it (Sir.30:25). When a person has a great lack of things necessary for the body, it is difficult to overcome despondency. But this, of course, should apply to weak souls. To maintain peace of mind, one must also avoid judging others in every possible way. Through non-judgment and silence, spiritual peace is preserved: when a person is in such a dispensation, he receives Divine revelations. To preserve mental peace, you need to enter into yourself more often and ask: where am I? At the same time, one must ensure that the bodily senses, especially vision, serve the inner man and do not entertain the soul with sensory objects: for grace-filled gifts are received only by those who have internal activity and watch over their souls. About thoughts and carnal movements We must be clean from unclean thoughts, especially when we offer prayer to God, for there is no agreement between stench and fragrance. Where there are thoughts, there is addition to them. So, we must repel the first attack of sinful thoughts and dispel them from the earth of our hearts. While the children of Babylon, that is, evil thoughts, are still infants, they must be broken and crushed against the stone, which is Christ; especially the three main passions: gluttony, love of money and vanity, with which the devil tried to tempt even our Lord Himself at the end of His exploit in the desert. The devil, like a lion, hiding in his fence (Ps. 9:30), secretly lays out nets for us of unclean and ungodly thoughts. So, immediately, as soon as we see, we must dissolve them through pious reflection and prayer. It requires feat and great vigilance so that during psalmody our mind is in harmony with our hearts and lips, so that in our prayer no stench is mixed with the incense. For the Lord abhors the heart with unclean thoughts. Let us continually, day and night, with tears cast ourselves before the face of God’s goodness, may He cleanse our hearts from every evil thought, so that we may worthily walk the path of our calling and with clean hands bring Him the gifts of our service. If we do not agree with the evil thoughts implanted by the devil, then we do good. The unclean spirit only has a strong influence on the passionate; but he attacks those who have been cleansed of passions only from the outside, or outwardly. Is it possible for a young person not to be indignant at carnal thoughts? But we must pray to the Lord God that the spark of vicious passions will go out at the very beginning. Then the flame of passions will not intensify in a person. We must vigilantly guard our hearts from obscene thoughts and impressions, according to the words of the monk: Guard your heart with all guarding: from these comes life (Proverbs 4:23). From vigilant guarding of the heart, purity is born in it, for which the vision of the Lord is available, according to the assurance of the eternal Truth: Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8). What is best has flowed into the heart, we should not pour it out unnecessarily; for then only what is collected can be safe from visible and invisible enemies, when it is kept, like a treasure, in the interior of the heart. The heart only boils then, being kindled by the Divine fire, when there is living water in it; when it all pours out, it gets cold, and the person freezes. On recognizing the actions of the heart When a person receives something divine, his heart rejoices; and when it is diabolical, he is embarrassed. The Christian heart, having accepted something divine, does not require anything else from the side of conviction as to whether it is truly from the Lord; but by this very action it is convinced that it is heavenly: for it feels spiritual fruits in itself: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22). On the contrary, even if the devil was transformed into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) or imagined plausible thoughts, the heart still feels some kind of vagueness and agitation in thoughts. Explaining that, St. Macarius of Egypt says: “Even if (Satan) imagined bright visions, the tax would by no means be able to achieve any good effect: through which a certain sign of his deeds occurs” (Homily 4. Chapter 13). Anyone who wants to be saved must always have a repentant and contrite heart, according to the psalmist: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart God will not despise (Ps. 50:19). In such contrition of spirit, a person can comfortably pass through the cunning machinations of the proud devil, whose whole effort is to disturb the human spirit and sow his tares in indignation, according to the words of the Gospel: Lord, did you not sow good seed in your village? Where did the tares come from? He says: The enemy of men has done this (Matthew 13:27–28). When a person tries to have a humble heart and an undisturbed, but peaceful thought, then all the machinations of the enemy are ineffective, for where there is peace of thoughts, there the Lord God Himself rests - His place is in the world (Ps. 75:3). The beginning of repentance comes from the fear of God and attention, as the martyr Bonifatius says (Cheti Menaion, December 19): the fear of God is the father of attention, and attention is the mother of inner peace, for it awakens the conscience that does this, and the soul, like in some clean and undisturbed water, sees its own ugliness, and thus the beginnings and root of repentance are born. Throughout our lives, through our sins, we offend the majesty of God, and therefore we must always humble ourselves before Him, asking for forgiveness of our debts. Is it possible for a person blessed with grace to rise through repentance after the fall? It is possible, according to the psalmist: I turned to feed, and the Lord accepted me (Ps. 118:13), for when Nathan the prophet convicted David of his sin, he, having repented, immediately received forgiveness (see: 2 Sam. 12:13). An example of this is one hermit who, having gone to fetch water, fell into sin at a spring with his wife, and, returning to his cell, realizing his sin, he again began to lead an ascetic life, as before, without heeding the advice of the enemy, who presented him with the burden of sin and led him away from the ascetic life. God revealed this incident to a certain father and ordered his brother, who had fallen into sin, to please him for his victory over the devil. When we sincerely repent of our sins and turn to our Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts, He rejoices in us, institutes a holiday and convenes the forces dear to Him, showing them the drachma that He again acquired, that is, His royal image and likeness. Placing the lost sheep on his shoulder, He leads it to His Father. In the dwellings of all those who rejoice, God places the soul of the repentant along with those who did not run away from Him. So, let us not be hesitant to turn to our gracious Master quickly and let us not give in to carelessness and despair for the sake of our grave and countless sins. Despair is the most perfect joy for the devil. It is sin unto death, as Scripture says (see: 1 John 5:16). Repentance for sin, by the way, consists in not doing it again. Just as there is a cure for every illness, so there is repentance for every sin. So, undoubtedly, approach repentance, and it will intercede for you before God. Fear God, says the wise one, and keep His commandments (Eccl. 12:13). And by keeping the commandments, you will be strong in everything you do, and your work will always be good. For, fearing God, you will do everything well out of love for Him. But do not be afraid of the devil; He who fears God will overcome the devil: for him the devil is powerless. Two types of fear: if you do not want to do evil, then fear the Lord and do not do it; and if you want to do good, then fear the Lord and do it. But no one can acquire the fear of God until he is freed from all the worries of life. When the mind is careless, then it is moved by the fear of God and drawn to the love of God’s goodness. About active and speculative life A person consists of body and soul, and therefore his path of life must consist of bodily and mental actions - of action and contemplation. The path of active life consists of: fasting, abstinence, vigil, kneeling, prayer and other bodily labors, which make up a narrow and sorrowful path, which, according to the word of God, leads into the eternal belly (Matthew 7:14). The path of contemplative life consists in raising the mind to the Lord God, in heartfelt attention, mental prayer and contemplation through such exercises of spiritual things. Anyone who wants to experience spiritual life must begin from the active life, and then come to the contemplative life: for without an active life it is impossible to come to the contemplative life. An active life serves to cleanse us from sinful passions and raises us to the level of active perfection; and thereby paves the way for us to a contemplative life. For only those who have been cleansed of passions and perfected can begin this life, as this can be seen from the words of Holy Scripture: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8), and from the words of St. Gregory the Theologian: “Only those who are most experienced in their experience can safely begin contemplation” (Word for Holy Pascha). One must approach the speculative life with fear and trembling, with contrition of heart and humility, with many tests of the Holy Scriptures and, if one can find it, under the guidance of some skilled elder, and not with insolence and self-indulgence: “For the bold and perspicacious,” in the words of Gregory the Sinaite, “having sought his dignity with arrogance, he is forced to achieve it ahead of time. And again: if anyone dreams of high achievements with his opinion, a desire of Satan, and not having acquired the truth, the devil catches this with his snares, like his servant” (On delusion and many other pretexts. Philokalia. Part 1). If it is not possible to find a mentor who can guide the contemplative life, then in this case we must be guided by the Holy Scriptures, for the Lord Himself commands us to learn from the Holy Scriptures, saying: Try the Scriptures, because you think that you have eternal life in them (John 5:39). One should also make an effort to read the fatherly writings and try, as much as possible, to carry out according to one’s strength what they teach, and thus, little by little, ascend from the active life to the perfection of the contemplative. For, according to St. Gregory the Theologian, the best thing is when we each achieve perfection on our own and offer a living, holy and always sanctified sacrifice to God who calls us (Word for Holy Pascha). One should not abandon the active life even when a person has succeeded in it and has already come to the contemplative life: for it contributes to the contemplative life and elevates it. While walking the path of the inner and contemplative life, we should not weaken and leave it because people, clinging to appearance and sensuality, amaze us with the opposition of their opinions to the very feeling of our hearts and try in every possible way to distract us from passing the inner path, putting various obstacles for us on it: for, according to church teachers, the contemplation of spiritual things is preferable to the knowledge of sensual things (Blessed Theodoret. Interpretation on Song of Songs). And therefore, we should not hesitate in following this path by any oppositions, in this case being affirmed in the word of God: But we will not be afraid of their fear, nor will we be troubled: for God is with us. Let us sanctify the Lord our God in the heartfelt memory of His Divine name and the fulfillment of His will, and He will be our fear (Is. 8:12–13). The hero and Savior our Lord Jesus Christ strengthened Himself before setting out on the feat of redemption of the human race long fasting. And all the ascetics, beginning to work for the Lord, armed themselves with fasting and entered upon the path of the cross in no other way than through the feat of fasting. They measured their greatest successes in asceticism by successes in fasting. Fasting consists not only of eating rarely, but of eating little; and not in eating once, but in not eating much. The fasting person is unreasonable who waits for a certain hour, and at the hour of the meal, he completely indulges in insatiable eating, both in body and mind. In discussing food, one must also be careful not to distinguish between tasty and tasteless foods. This thing, characteristic of animals, is not worthy of praise in a reasonable person. We refuse pleasant food in order to pacify the warring members of the flesh and give freedom to the actions of the spirit. True fasting consists not only in exhaustion of the flesh, but also in giving that part of the bread that you yourself would like to eat to the hungry. The holy people did not suddenly begin strict fasting, but gradually and little by little became able to be content with the merest food. The Monk Dorotheos, accustoming his disciple Dositheus to fasting, gradually took him away from the table little by little, so that from four pounds the measure of his daily food was finally reduced to eight lots of bread. Despite all this, the holy fasters, to the surprise of others, did not know relaxation, but were always cheerful, strong and ready for action. Illnesses between them were rare, and their lives were extremely long. To the extent that the fasting person’s flesh becomes thin and light, spiritual life comes to perfection and reveals itself with wonderful phenomena. Then the spirit performs its actions as if in a disembodied body. The external senses seem to close, and the mind, renouncing the earth, ascends to heaven and is completely immersed in contemplation of the spiritual world. However, in order to impose on oneself a strict rule of abstinence in everything or to deprive oneself of everything that can serve to alleviate infirmities, not everyone can accommodate this. He who is able to contain, let him contain (Matthew 19:12). One should eat enough food every day so that the body, strengthened, is a friend and assistant to the soul in the accomplishment of virtue; Otherwise, it may be that, as the body becomes weak, the soul becomes weaker. On Fridays and Wednesdays, especially during the four fasts, eat food, following the example of the fathers, once a day, and the angel of the Lord will cleave to you. We should not undertake feats beyond measure, but try to ensure that our friend - our flesh - is faithful and capable of creating virtues. It is necessary to follow the middle path, not deviating either on the right hand or on the other hand (Proverbs 4:27); to give spiritual things to the spirit, and to the body bodily things necessary to maintain temporary life. Nor should public life deny what it rightfully demands from us, according to the words of Scripture: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto the Gods the things that are God's (Matthew 22:21). We must also condescend to our soul in its weaknesses and imperfections and tolerate our shortcomings, just as we tolerate the shortcomings of our neighbors, but not become lazy and constantly motivate ourselves to improve. Whether you have eaten a lot of food or done something else that is akin to human weakness, do not be indignant at this, do not add harm to harm; but, having courageously moved yourself to correction, try to maintain peace of mind, according to the word of the Apostle: Blessed is he who condemneth not himself, for whom he is tempted (Rom. 14:22). The body, exhausted by exploits or illnesses, should be strengthened with moderate sleep, food and drink, without even observing the time. Jesus Christ, upon resurrecting Jairus's daughter from death, immediately commanded the date of her eating (Luke 8:55). If we arbitrarily exhaust our body to the point that our spirit is exhausted, then such exhaustion will be unreasonable, even if this was done to gain virtue. Until the age of thirty-five, that is, until the end of earthly life, a great feat is achieved for man in preserving himself, and many in these years do not tire of virtue, but are seduced from the right path to their own desires, as about this St. Basil the Great testifies: “Many collected a lot in their youth, but in the middle of their lives, when temptations from the spirits of wickedness rose upon them, they could not endure the excitement and lost everything” (Conversation at the beginning of the parable. P. 305). And therefore, in order not to experience such a transformation, one must put oneself, as it were, on the standard of testing and careful observation of oneself, according to the teachings of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Like a standard, it is fitting for someone to mark out his life” (Sermon 40). We must attribute every success in anything to the Lord and say with the prophet: Not to us, Lord, not to us but to Your name give glory (Ps. 113:9). About being awake against temptations We must always be alert to the attacks of the devil; for can we hope that he would leave us without temptation, when he did not leave our Hero and the Author of our faith and the Perfecter of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? The Lord Himself said to the Apostle Peter: Simone! Simone! Behold, Satan asks you to sow like wheat (Luke 22:31). So, we must always humbly call on the Lord and pray that He will not allow temptations beyond our strength to be upon us, but that He will deliver us from the evil one. For when the Lord leaves a person to himself, then the devil is ready to grind him off, like a millstone grinding a grain of wheat. When the evil spirit of sadness takes possession of the soul, then, filling it with grief and unpleasantness, it does not allow it to pray with due diligence, prevents it from reading the Scriptures with due attention, deprives it of meekness and complacency in dealing with its brothers and gives rise to aversion from any conversation. For a soul filled with sadness, becoming as if mad and frenzied, cannot calmly either accept good advice or meekly answer the questions asked. She runs away from people as the culprits of her confusion, and does not understand that the cause of the disease is inside her. Sadness is the worm of the heart, gnawing at the mother who gives birth to it. He who conquered passions also conquered sadness. And he who is overcome by passions will not escape the shackles of sadness. Just as a sick person is visible by his complexion, so one who has passion is revealed by his sadness. He who loves the world cannot help but be sad. And a world that despises is always cheerful. Just as fire purifies gold, so sorrow for God purifies a sinful heart (Antiochus, Homily 25). Just as the Lord cares about our salvation, so the murderer-devil tries to lead a person to despair. Despair, according to the teachings of St. John Climacus, is born either from the consciousness of many sins, despair of conscience and unbearable sadness, when the soul, covered with many ulcers, from their unbearable pain plunges into the depths of despair, or from pride and arrogance, when someone considers himself undeserving of the sin into which he has fallen. The first kind of despair draws a person into all vices indiscriminately, and with the second kind of despair a person still clings to his feat, which, according to St. John Climacus, and not together with reason. The first is cured by abstinence and good hope, and the second by humility and non-judgment of one’s neighbor (Ladder. Degree 26). A high and strong soul does not despair in the face of misfortunes, no matter what. Judas the traitor was cowardly and not skilled in warfare, and therefore the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to hang himself; but Peter, a solid stone, when he fell into great sin, as skillful in battle, did not despair and did not lose spirit, but shed bitter tears from a warm heart, and the enemy, seeing them, as if burning in his eyes with fire, ran far away from him with a painful cry. So, brothers, teaches the Monk Antiochus, when despair attacks us, we will not submit to it, but, strengthened and protected by the light of faith, with great courage we will say to the evil spirit: what is it to us and to you, alienated from God, a fugitive from heaven and an evil servant? You don't dare do anything to us. Christ, the Son of God, has power over us and over everything. By Him we have sinned, and by Him we will be justified. And you, pernicious one, get away from us. Strengthened by His honorable cross, we trample under foot your serpentine head (Antiochus, Homily 27). The body is the slave of the soul, the soul is the queen, and therefore this is the mercy of the Lord when the body is exhausted by illness; for from this passions weaken, and a person comes to his senses; and physical illness itself is sometimes born from passions. Take away sin, and there will be no disease; for they are in us from sin, as St. Basil the Great: “Where do illnesses come from? Where did the bodily injuries come from? The Lord created the body, not the disease; soul, not sin. What is most useful and necessary? Connection with God and communication with Him through love. By losing this love, we fall away from Him, and by falling away, we are subject to various and varied ailments (the Word that God is not the cause of evil). Whoever endures an illness with patience and gratitude is credited with it instead of a feat or even more. One elder, suffering from watery sickness, said to the brothers who came to him with a desire to treat him: “Fathers, pray that my inner man will not be subjected to a similar disease; and as for the real illness, I ask God that He will not suddenly free me from it, for as much as our outer man decays, the inner man is renewed” (2 Cor. 4:16). If the Lord God wills for a person to experience illness, He will also give him the strength of patience. So, let illnesses not come from ourselves, but from God. About duties and love for neighbors One must treat one's neighbors kindly, without even any kind of insult. When we turn away from a person or insult him, then it is as if a stone rests on our hearts. You should try to cheer up the spirit of a confused or despondent person with a word of love. If my brother sins, cover him, as the saint advises. Isaac the Syrian: “Stretch out your robe over the one who sins and cover him (Word 89). We all demand God's mercy, as the Church sings: if not the Lord were in us, whoever is content is saved from the enemy, and even from murderers. In relation to our neighbors, we must be, both in word and in thought, pure and equal to everyone; otherwise we will make our life useless. We must love our neighbor no less than ourselves, according to the commandment of the Lord: ...Love... your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). But it is not so that love for our neighbors, going beyond the boundaries of moderation, distracts us from fulfilling the first and main commandment, that is, the love of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches about this: Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves a son or daughter more than Me is worthy of Me (Matthew 10:37). Saint Demetrius of Rostov discusses this subject very well: “There one can see untruthful love for God in a Christian person, where the creature is compared with the Creator, or the creature is revered more than the Creator; and there one can see true love, where the Creator alone is loved and preferred above all creation (Part 2, lesson 2). One should not judge anyone, even if one has seen with one’s own eyes someone sinning or obsessing over the transgression of God’s commandments, according to the word of God: Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1), and again: Who are you to judge a strange servant? His Lord stands or falls. It will become, for God is strong to establish it (Rom. 14:4). It is much better to always bring to mind these apostolic words: Be determined to stand and be careful, lest you fall (1 Cor. 10:12). For it is unknown how long we can remain in virtue, as the prophet says, having learned this through experience: Rekh in my abundance: I will not move forever. I turned away Your face and was confused (Ps. 29:7-8). Why do we condemn our brothers? Because we do not try to know ourselves. He who is busy knowing himself has no time to notice others. Judge yourself and stop judging others. We must consider ourselves the most sinful of all and forgive our neighbor every bad deed, and hate only the devil who deceived him. It happens that it seems to us that another is doing something bad, but in fact, according to the good intention of the person doing it, it is good. Moreover, the door of repentance is open to everyone, and it is unknown who will enter it first - you, the condemner, or the one condemned by you. Condemn a bad deed, but do not condemn the doer himself. If you condemn your neighbor, teaches the Monk Antiochus, then together with him you are condemned in the same thing for which you condemn him. It is not for us to judge or condemn, but for the one God and the great Judge, who leads our hearts and the hidden passions of our nature (Antiochus, Homily 49). To get rid of condemnation, you must pay attention to yourself, not accept extraneous thoughts from anyone and be dead to everything So, beloved, let us not observe the sins of others and condemn others, lest we hear: Sons of mankind, the teeth of their weapons are arrows, and their tongue is a sharp sword (Ps. 56:5). For an offense, no matter what it is, not only must one not take revenge, but, on the contrary, one must also forgive the offender from the heart, even if it resists it, and persuade him with the conviction of the word of God: If you do not forgive a person their sins, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your sins (Matthew 6:15), and again: ...Pray for those who harm you (Matthew 5:44). One should not harbor malice or hatred in one’s heart towards one who is at war, but one should love him and, as much as possible, do good to him, following the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Matthew 5:44). When someone humiliates or takes away your honor, then try by all means to forgive him, according to the word of the Gospel: Do not torture from him who takes yours (Luke 6:30). God commanded us to enmity only against the serpent, that is, against the one who initially deceived man and drove him out of paradise - against the murderer the devil. We are commanded to be hostile also against the Midianites, that is, against the unclean spirits of fornication and the cold of clothing, which sow unclean and nasty thoughts in the heart. Let us be jealous of God’s beloved: let us be jealous of the meekness of David, about whom the most good and kind Lord said: “I have found a man after my heart, who will fulfill all my desires” (Acts 13:22). This is what He says about David, who is unforgiving and kind to his enemies. And we will not do anything to take revenge on our brother, so that, as St. Antiochus says, there will be no stopping during prayer. God testified about Job as a gentle man (see: Job 2:3); Joseph did not take revenge on the brothers who intended evil against him; Abel, in simplicity and without suspicion, went with his brother Cain. According to the testimony of the word of God, the saints all lived in kindness. Jeremiah, talking with God, speaks of Israel who persecuted him: Is evil food repaid for good? Remember those who stand before You, and say good things for them (Jer. 18:20) (Antiochus, Homily 52). So, if we try to do all this as best we can, then we can hope that the Divine light will shine in our hearts, illuminating our path to the heavenly Jerusalem. We must always endure everything, no matter what happens, for God’s sake, with gratitude. Our life is one minute compared to eternity; and therefore, according to the apostle, we are unworthy of the passions of this present time for the glory that desires to appear in us (Rom. 8:18). We must endure insults from others with indifference and become accustomed to such a state of mind, as if their insults concern others rather than us. Bear in silence when the enemy insults you and then open your heart to the only Lord. When people revile us, we should consider ourselves unworthy of praise. If we were worthy, everyone would bow to us. We must always humiliate ourselves before everyone, following the teachings of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Humble yourself and you will see the glory of God in yourself” (Homily 57). I don’t dry the light, everything is gloomy: so without humility there is nothing in a person but only darkness. Therefore, let us love humility and see the glory of God; Where humility flows out, the glory of God flows out. Just as wax that is not heated and softened cannot accept the seal placed on it, so a soul that is not tempted by labors and weaknesses cannot accept the seal of God’s virtue. When the devil left the Lord, then the angels came and served Him (see: Matthew 4:11). So, if during temptations the angels of God depart somewhat from us, then not far and soon they come and serve us with Divine thoughts, tenderness, delight, and patience. The soul, having worked hard, acquires other perfections. Why St. The prophet Isaiah says: Those who endure the Lord will change their strength, they will take wings like eagles, they will flow and not be weary, they will walk and not hunger (Is. 40:31). This is how the meekest David endured: for when Shimei reviled him and threw stones at him, saying: Be gone, you wicked man, he was not angry; and when Abishai was indignant at this, he said to him: Why does this dead dog curse my Lord the King? - he forbade him, saying: Leave him and so let him curse me, for the Lord will see and reward me with what is good (2 Samuel 16:7-12). Why then he sang: I have endured the Lord, and heard me, and heard my prayer (Ps. 39:2). Like a child-loving father, when he sees that his son is living disorderly, he punishes him; and when he sees that he is cowardly and endures his punishment with difficulty, then he consoles: this is what our good Lord and Father does to us, using everything for our benefit, both consolation and punishment, according to His love for mankind. And therefore, when we are in sorrow, like well-behaved children, we must thank God. For if we begin to thank Him only in prosperity, then we will be like the ungrateful Jews who, having had their fill of a wonderful meal in the desert, said that Christ is truly a prophet, wanted to take Him and make him a king, and when He said to them: Do not the cruel thing that perishes, but the cruel thing that abides in eternal life, then they said to Him: Why are you doing a sign? Our fathers ate manna in the desert (John 6:27–31). The word falls directly on such people: ... He will confess to You whenever You have done him good, and such one will not even see the light until the end (Ps. 49:19-20). Therefore, the Apostle James teaches us: Have all joy, my brethren, whenever you fall into various temptations, knowing that the temptation of your faith works perseverance: but patience is a perfect work to have, - and adds: blessed is the man who endures temptation: having been skilled, he will receive the crown of life (James 1:2–4:12). One must be merciful to the wretched and strange; The great lamps and fathers of the Church cared a lot about this. In relation to this virtue, we must try by all means to fulfill the following commandment of God: Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36), and also: ... I want mercy, not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13). The wise heed these saving words, but the foolish do not heed; that is why the reward is not the same, as it is said: ...Those who sow with poverty will also reap with poverty; Those who sow for blessing will also reap blessing (2 Cor. 9:6). The example of Peter the Baker (Cheti Menaion, September 22), who, for a piece of bread given to a beggar, received forgiveness of all his sins, as was shown to him in a vision, may encourage us to be merciful to our neighbors: for even small alms contribute greatly to obtaining the Kingdom of Heaven. We must give alms with spiritual disposition, according to the teachings of St. Isaac the Syrian: “If you give anything to someone who needs it, let the joy of your face precede your deed and comfort his sorrow with good words” (Homily 89). See: Stepashkin V. St. Seraphim of Sarov: legends and facts. Sarov, 2002. pp. 97–98, 101–105. And John (Krestyankin), archimandrite. Venerable Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov, and his significance for Russian religious and moral life of that time. Holy Dormition Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, 2008. P. 41. Stichera at the litia, tone 1, from the sequence of vespers, service to St. Seraphim of Sarov. Now Archbishop of Istrinsky, vicar of the Moscow diocese. Archbishop Evgeny of Tambov and Michurinsky, in 2001–2002 also of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas (Zhdan; †2002). Archbishop Eugene recalled: “When we removed the adhesive tape that attached the paper to the table, the air was filled with a fragrance similar to that which I felt when opening and examining the relics of St. Pitirim of Tambov.” From the rite of the Divine Liturgy. – Approx. ed. Symbol of faith. 1st member: I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. – Approx. ed. Now the Bishop of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk. The Great Canon of Our Venerable Father Andrew of Crete and Jerusalem. (Theotokos, 4th Canto). – Approx. ed. M.V. Manturov is a landowner who was miraculously healed through the prayers of St. Seraphim. He took upon himself the feat of voluntary poverty, donating his fortune to the Diveyevo monastery. Troparion of repentance for Great Lent. – Approx. ed. Popov K. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Kyiv, 1884. pp. 21, 36. Professor K. Popov, who wrote a special study about this monument, dates it to the end of the 1st century. Consequently, the Apostle John the Theologian was still alive then, and perhaps other apostles as well. Thanks to this monument, we learn a lot about the life of the early Christian Church. For five years I have been searching for how to formalize the concept of eldership, since it is not found in our modern theological literature. And so I found the answer to my search, although under a different name - not under the name of eldership - in the most ancient Christian monument, “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.” See: Chetverikov S., prot. From the history of Russian elders // Path. 1927. No. 1. P. 74. Serebryansky N.I. Essays on the history of monastic life in the Pskov land. (Quoted from: Smirnov S.I. Old Russian confessor. M., 1913. P. 26, footnote 5.) Smirnov S.I. Ancient clergy and its origin // Theological Bulletin. 1906. No. 2. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), set. Essays. St. Petersburg, 1867. T. 4. P. 94. Malinin V.N. Elder of the Eleazar Monastery Philotheus and his messages. Kyiv, 1901. See: Vasmer M.R. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. M., 2003. T. 2. P. 170. Smirnov S.I. Old Russian confessor. M., 1913. Smirnov S.I. Spiritual father in the ancient Eastern Church. Sergiev Posad, 1906. See: Smirnov S.I. Ancient clergy and its origin // Theological Bulletin. 1906. No. 2. P. 377–378. Right there. In ancient times, there was no view of sacramental confession as the only and inevitable means for the forgiveness of sins committed by a person after baptism. Confession and repentance seemed to be only one of many ways to cleanse oneself from sins. St. John Chrysostom, for example, indicates five such methods: 1) public confession; 2) the path of crying about sins; 3) humility; 4) almsgiving is the queen of virtues; 5) prayer. The elder usually accepted the monk’s confession of all his sins. This term appears already from the 4th century and exists until the half of the 9th century. Smirnov S.I. Ancient clergy and its origin // Theological Bulletin. 1906. No. 2. P. 377–378. See: Smirnov. S.I. Old Russian confessor. M., 1913. Here is a direct indication that when taking on the feat of elder service, a special call from God is required either directly, as was the case with particularly great saints (Rev. Seraphim), or for obedience to another elder, as we see in the biography of Elder Barnabas or the blind Elder Agapit of Valaam and the personally known to us, recently deceased elder, Archpriest. Nikolai Zagorovsky (in the secret tonsure of Seraphim), who received the blessing of eldership from the Optina elder Father Anatoly. The same “obedience to God’s command” is required when taking on the feat of foolishness. Just as in the past many false holy fools appeared, the same disaster befell the contemporary Russian emigration in the person of the false elders. Quote by: Veniamin (Fedchenkov), archbishop. World lamp. Paris, 1932. P. 81. Refers to Theophan the Recluse, The Ladder, Isaac the Syrian and The Philokalia. See: Smirnov S.I. Confession and repentance in ancient monasteries of the East // Theological Bulletin. 1905. No. 2–4. Barsanuphius the Great, John, St. A guide to spiritual life in answers to questions from students. M., 1892. P. 200 (Answer 262). Macarius of Egypt, St. Spiritual conversations... Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1904. P. 65 (Conversation 7, question 3). Quote by: Popov K.D. Blessed Diadochos (5th century), Bishop of Photiki of Ancient Epirus, and his creations. Kiev, 1903. pp. 68–84. Barsanuphius the Great, John, St. A guide to spiritual life in answers to questions from students. M., 1892. P. 44 (Question 59). Athanasius the Great, set. Creations... Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1903. Part 3, pp. 214–245. Rufinus, presbyter. The life of the desert fathers (Ch. 27. About Elder Evagrius). Barsanuphius the Great, John, St. A guide to spiritual life in answers to questions from students. M., 1892. P. 360 (The Tale of Abba Serida. Answer 572). Rufinus, presbyter. The life of desert fathers. (Chapter 11. About Helen). Right there. (Chapter 15. About Apellius and John). Vita St. Steph. Iulii, 522–538. See: Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. St. Petersburg, 1903. P. 370. Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. St. Petersburg, 1903. P. 371. Prot. Vasily Vasilyevich Shustin (1886–1968), spiritual son of St. right John of Kronstadt, after his death he was cared for by the Optina elders, St. Barsanuphius and Nektaria; took holy orders in exile. Shustin V., prot. From personal memories. White Church, 1929. P. 19. Compare: John Climacus, St. Ladder, in Russian translation... Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1898. P. 157 (Word 23, section 54). This story formed the basis of confession in Ancient Russia, as we saw above. Apoph. // Migne. PG. T 25. Col. 3961. Ancient Patericon, set out in chapters. M., 1899. P. 108–109 (Chapter 5, §41). Palladium, ep. Elenopolsky. "Lavsaik" ... Holy Trinity Novo-Golutvin Monastery, 1992. P. 121 (Chapter 47. About Abba Apollos). Wed: Barsanuphius the Great, John, St. A guide to spiritual life in answers to questions from students. M., 1892. P. 403 (Answer 622). Right there. pp. 439–440 (Q. 713 and answer). Right there. P. 101 (Answer 144). Smirnov S.I. Confession and repentance in the ancient monasteries of the East // Theological Bulletin. 1905. No. 3. P. 475–478; No. 4. pp. 733–774. Biography in Bose of the late Optina Elder Hieroschemamonk Ambrose. M., 1900. Part 1. P. 99. Kazansky P. S. History of Orthodox monasticism in the East. M., 1854. P. 215. Kazansky P. S. History of Orthodox monasticism in the East. M., 1854. P. 221. Smirnov S.I. Confession and repentance in ancient monasteries of the East // Theological Bulletin. 1905. No. 4. P. 743. It is clear that we are talking here about the so-called “Εύνοδας ἐνδυμοῦτα”; this is a council of bishops who happen to be in the capital on business at the moment, convened by the Patriarch in case of need. Theodore the Studite, St. Catechetical teachings and testament. M., 1872 (Lemon 33). This example is given by Professor Smirnov in his article “Confession and Repentance in the Ancient Monasteries of the East.” Our work was carried out independently of this research by Professor Smirnov. Despite this, the fundamental views and conclusions coincide. Smirnov S.I. Confession and repentance in the ancient monasteries of the East // Theological Bulletin. 1905. No. 4. P. 744. Biography in Bose of the deceased elder-comforter Fr. Barnabas... Sergiev Posad, 1907. pp. 20–23. The last of the conciliarly elected (1912) Elders of Optina, Nektary (Tikhonov; 1853–1928), Venerable, Hieroschema. See chap. about him. XVII century ed. Nilus S.A. On the banks of God's River. M.; St. Petersburg, 1999. T. 2. P. 49–51 (recorded July 25, 1909). But here is what a modern eyewitness reports: “I want to tell you one episode of the desecration of Optina shrines. After the monastery was closed, my mother and I, on the way to visit Father (elder Father Nektary) in Kholmishchi, often went to Optina Pustyn, which was transformed into a sawmill, and Skit into a rest house. The magnificent pines of the Optina forest were being mercilessly cut down, the saws were screeching, the workers were heard cursing, not a single monk was there. It was sad and difficult to see the present, remembering the spiritual flowering of Optina in the past. Having bowed to the graves of the elders that still existed at that time, my mother and I went to the Skete to visit the blessed hut of the Elder. Approaching the holy gates of the Skete, we stopped and silently thought about Father, remembering how the Elder taught the holy blessing in the hut. You remember that women were not allowed to enter the Skete, and you can imagine our horror when we saw a fat brunette, with a curly head, in shorts, his fat wife in a bathing suit and their naked offspring coming out of the Skete through the holy gates of John the Baptist... it’s hard to write and talk about it.” Bishop Ignatius calls such monastic obedience, in the form or character in which it took place among ancient monasticism, a “high spiritual sacrament.” Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. St. Petersburg, 1903. pp. 146–147. Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. St. Petersburg, 1903, pp. 581–582. Nikodim (Kononov), archimandrite. Biographies of Russian ascetics of piety in the 18th and 19th centuries. M., 1910. December. pp. 342–343. Nilus S. A. Servant of the Mother of God and Seraphim // God's Pleasant Seraphim. M., 1993. T. 2. P. 45. The interpretation of the parable of the ten virgins was taken by the Venerable Seraphim from the Venerable Macarius of Egypt, who analyzes this parable twice and by oil means the grace of the Holy Spirit (see: Macarius of Egypt, St. Spiritual conversations, message and words... Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 1904. P. 25:405). Florovsky G., prot. Paths of Russian theology. Paris, 1937. P. 391. Cyprian (Kern), archimandrite. Spiritual ancestors of St. Gregory Palamas: (The Experience of Mystical Genealogy) // Theological Thought. Paris. 1942. P. 130.