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Self-love is perverted self-love. This love is crazy and destructive. A self-loving person, partial to the vain and transitory, to sinful pleasures, is his own enemy. He is a suicide: thinking to love himself and please himself, he hates and destroys himself, kills himself with eternal death. 1.86 It is obvious: in order to love your neighbor as yourself, you first need to love yourself correctly. Do we love ourselves? Despite the strangeness of this question - new and interesting only as if because of the excess in it - it must be said that it is very rare among people to love themselves. Most people hate themselves and try to do as much harm to themselves as possible. If you measure the evil done to a person in his life, you will find that the fiercest enemy did not do as much evil to him as the person did to himself. Each of us, looking impartially into our conscience, will find this remark fair. What would be the reason for this? What is the reason that we almost constantly do harm to ourselves, while we constantly and insatiably wish ourselves good? The reason is that we have replaced correct love for ourselves with pride, which inspires us to strive for the indiscriminate fulfillment of our desires, our fallen will, guided by a false reason and an evil conscience. We are carried away by greed, and ambition, and revenge, and resentment, and all sinful whims! We flatter ourselves and deceive ourselves, thinking to satisfy self-love, while we satisfy only our unsatisfied self-love. In an effort to satisfy our pride, we harm ourselves and destroy ourselves. Correct love for oneself lies in fulfilling the life-giving commandments of Christ: this is love, that we may walk according to His commandments, said Saint John the Theologian (2 John 1:6). 4. 262–263 The invisible feat against self-love and man-pleasing is initially associated with labor and intense struggle: our hearts, like the hearts of our father and forefather, from the time of the fall of our ancestor into the sinful region, constantly resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). They do not admit to their fall, they fiercely defend their disastrous state, as if a state of complete contentment, perfect triumph. But for every victory over pride and people-pleasing, the heart is rewarded with spiritual consolation; Having tasted this consolation, it enters into the struggle more courageously and more easily wins victories over itself, over the fall it has learned. Frequent victories attract frequent visits and the consolation of grace: then a person with zeal begins to trample on self-indulgence and self-will, striving along the path of the commandments to gospel perfection, confessing and mysteriously singing to the Lord: The path of Your commandments flowed when You enlarged my heart (Ps. 119:32). 4. 265–266 Pride and conceit, having advocated the fall and destruction of humanity, do not see and do not recognize the fall in human nature: they see in it only virtues, only perfection and grace; The very illnesses of the soul, the very passions are considered virtues. Such a view of humanity makes the thought of a Redeemer completely unnecessary and alien. The vision of the proud is terrible blindness; and the blindness of the humble is the ability to see the Truth. This is what the Lord’s words refer to: I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind. 4. 173 (See Humility, Love of God). It is difficult to get out of self-delusion. There are guards at the door; the doors are locked with heavy, strong locks and bolts; the seal of the hellish abyss is attached to them. Locks and shutters are the pride of the self-deluded, deeply hidden in the heart, their vanity, which constitutes the initial reason for their activity, hypocrisy and deceit, with which they hide pride and vanity, with which they clothe themselves in the guise of good intentions, humility, and holiness. The indestructible seal is the recognition of actions of self-deception as actions of grace. 1.104 Blessed is the soul that has recognized itself as completely unworthy of God, that has condemned itself as damned and sinful! She is on the path of salvation; there is no self-delusion in her. The feeling of crying and repentance is the only thing needed by a soul that has come to the Lord with the intention of receiving forgiveness of its sins from Him. This is the good part! if you have chosen her, then may she not be taken away from you! Do not exchange this treasure for empty, false, violent, supposedly blessed feelings, do not destroy yourself with self-flattery. “If some of the fathers,” says the Monk Isaac of Syria, “wrote about what there is purity of the soul, what is its health, what is dispassion, what is vision, then they did not write so that we would look for them prematurely and with expectation. The Scripture says: the Kingdom of God will not come with observance (Luke 17:20). Those in whom expectation lives have acquired pride and fall... The quest with the expectation of high Divine gifts is rejected by the Church of God. This is not a sign of love for God; this is a disease of the soul.” All the saints recognized themselves as unworthy of God: by this they showed their dignity, which consisted in humility. All the self-deluded considered themselves worthy of God: this revealed the pride and demonic delusion that had invaded their souls. Some of them accepted the demons who appeared to them in the form of Angels and followed them; To others, demons appeared in their own form and appeared to be defeated by their prayer, which led them into arrogance; others aroused their imagination, heated their blood, produced nervous movements in themselves, mistook this for blessed pleasure, and fell into self-delusion, into complete darkness, and in their spirit were numbered among the rejected spirits. If you need to talk to yourself, bring yourself not flattery, but self-reproach. Bitter medicines are useful to us in our state of decline. Those who flatter themselves have already received their reward here on earth - their self-delusion, praise and love of a world hostile to God: they have nothing to expect from eternity except condemnation. 2. 123–126 (See Prayer, Vanity). The Venerable Abba Dorotheos, at the beginning of his teaching on humility, places, as if the cornerstone of the foundation of the building, the following saying of one of the holy elders: “First of all, we need humility, and we must be ready to say forgive me against every word we hear, because humility crushes all the arrows of the enemy and opponent.” In rejecting justification, in blaming oneself and asking for forgiveness in all those cases in which in ordinary worldly life one resorts to justifications and multiplies them, lies the great mysterious purchase of holy humility. All the holy fathers adhered to it and bequeathed it. This doing is strange when looking at it superficially; but experience itself will not be slow to prove that it is full of spiritual benefit and flows from the Self-Truth, Christ. Our Lord rejected excuses, not using them before people, although He could reveal His Divine truth before them in all its greatness. “Justification by words does not belong to Christian living,” said Saint Isaac of Syria. The Monk Pimen the Great used to say: “We fall into many temptations because we do not maintain the rank befitting our name. Do we not see that the Canaanite woman accepted the name given to her, and the Savior consoled her? Abigail also said to David: “My iniquity is in me” (1 Samuel 25:24), and David, hearing this, loved her. Abigail is the image of the soul, and David is the image of God: if the soul accuses itself before the Lord, the Lord will love it.” The Great Pimen was asked: what does high mean? (Luke 16:15). He answered: “Excuses. Don’t make excuses for yourself and you will find peace.” He who does not justify himself is guided by humility, but he who justifies himself by arrogance. 1. 310–311 (See Self-reproach, Justification). The new commandment says: Whoever wants to gain his life must lose it. What does the destruction of the soul mean? Rejecting actions based on one’s own feelings and forcing oneself to act according to the Gospel Commandments. The Gospel communicates to the one who acts in this way his mind and his sensations, which belong to the nature of the new man, renewed in the likeness of our Creator and Redeemer. This is the coercion and self-rape prescribed by the Gospel. This means the advice so often repeated by the holy fathers: “Give blood and receive the Spirit.” Cut off from yourself the properties of the fallen nature and instill in yourself the properties of the nature renewed by Christ. 6.254 Alas! I am looking for self-sacrifice in myself and do not find it! I am looking for a person who would decide to reject his own will and, naked of all will, wholly wanted to follow Christ, to fulfill His will, and I do not meet such a person! My eyes yearn between the multitude, as if in a deserted desert, - they do not find the sight on which they stopped with consolation!... We have all loved our empty and stupid desires, we have loved the corruptible, temporary, the flesh and blood that lives in them - eternal death!... The narrow path is the path of self-sacrifice; cramped and on the wide path - self-indulgence! We are crowded, we are in a hurry, we are pushing each other into the already full, already satiated abyss of hell! There are still ascetics today, but they do not have crowns of victory, crowns of Christ. The crown of Christ is the Holy Spirit. Christ crowns His victorious warriors with the Holy Spirit. Now the Spirit does not descend because the ascetics labor unlawfully. “Even if someone strives,” said the apostle, “he will not get married unless he strives lawfully.” “No one who has been a warrior,” he proclaims, “obliges himself with the purchases of life, so that he may be pleasing to the governor (2 Tim. 2:4). Everything that hinders self-sacrifice and introduces rumors into the heart is a worldly purchase. God looks at her angrily - he turns away from the warrior who has pledged himself to the purchase of life! Therefore, the holy apostle convinces his disciple to true spiritual feat: You will therefore suffer evil, for you are a good warrior Jesus Christ. 6.291–292 Decide first, at least mentally, to renounce yourself for the sake of Christ, deprive your mind of harmful, stupid autocracy, subordinate it to the commandments of Christ, subordinate it to the Gospel. The beginning of self-denial is in the mind: having submitted to Christ, he will gradually lead both heart and body to this blessed submission. Self-sacrifice is scary at the first, superficial glance at it. But as soon as a person decides on it, he will feel extraordinary lightness and freedom in his soul: lightness, freedom are witnesses of the truth. 6.418 (See Faith, Spiritual Feat, Obedience). (See Selflessness, Demon Warfare, Gospel, Monastic Vows). Blessed are those who selflessly follow the true teaching of the Gospel, who have renounced satisfying the lusts of the body and the lusts of the soul! The lusts of the fallen body are sinful, and so are the lusts of the fallen soul. She seeks everywhere to realize her “I”, to become some kind of separate, independent, superior being, for which everything else must exist. The Gospel demands that such a life be put to death, that man recognize God as God, and that he himself take his place: in the rank of creatures. By killing the crazy, dreamy, actually non-existent life, true life can appear, with an abundant sense of existence, life about God. 6.449 ...Your very success will teach you humility and lead you to it. This is the characteristic of spiritual success! On the contrary, the one who does not deny himself, does not destroy his soul, acts according to the attraction of the feelings of the heart, from the movement of the blood, he certainly realizes his “I”, sees good in his movements, revives himself in his actions, little by little acquires a high opinion of himself. Such a person, thinking to succeed spiritually, succeeds only in a severe fall. A dark charm takes possession of his soul; alien to spiritual life and reason, he plunges deeper and deeper into the false mind and dark delusion. Prelest is the just reward of the one who loved and revered his fallen self, did not want to piously kill himself, did not want the state that St. Apostle: No one lives for me, but Christ lives in me. 6. 182–183 The type of humility that prepares one for the endurance of sorrows before their arrival and contributes to the complacent endurance of sorrows after their arrival is called self-reproach by the holy fathers. Self-reproach is accusing oneself of sinfulness, common to all people and one’s own in particular. At the same time, it is useful to remember and count your violations of the Law of God, except for fornication and stumbling, the detailed recollection of which was prohibited by the fathers, as renewing in a person the feeling of sin and the pleasure of it. Self-reproach is... an act that contrasts and counteracts the painful property of fallen nature, according to which all people, even the most obvious sinners, try to show themselves as righteous and prove their righteousness with the help of all kinds of tricks. Self-reproach is violence to fallen nature, just as prayer and other... exploits with which the Kingdom of Heaven is required and with which the needy delight them (Matthew 11, 12). At the beginning of the exercise, self-reproach has the character of an unconscious mechanism, i.e. pronounced with the tongue without much heartfelt sympathy, even contrary to heartfelt feeling; then little by little the heart will begin to sympathize with the words of self-reproach; finally, self-reproach will be pronounced with all the soul, with an abundant feeling of crying, will diminish before us and hide from us the shortcomings and sins of our neighbors, reconcile to all people and circumstances, gather thoughts scattered throughout the world into the work of repentance, bring attentive prayer filled with tenderness, inspire and arm us with the irresistible power of patience. Self-reproach, having reached its fullness, completely eradicates malice from the heart, completely eradicating from it guile and hypocrisy, which never cease to live in the heart until self-justification takes a place in it. 1. 318–319 Exercise in self-reproach introduces the habit of reproaching oneself. When someone who has acquired this skill experiences any sorrow, the effect of the skill immediately appears in him, and the sorrow is accepted as deserved. “The main reason for all confusion,” says the Monk Abba Dorotheos, “if we carefully examine, is that we do not reproach ourselves. This is where every disorder comes from; for this reason we sometimes do not find peace. And it is not surprising that we hear from all the saints: there is no other way but this. We do not see that any of the saints, walking any other way, found peace! But we want to have it and stay on the right path, never wanting to reproach ourselves. Truly, if a person accomplishes dozens of virtues, but does not adhere to this path, he will never cease to be offended and insulted, thereby ruining all his works. On the contrary: he who reproaches himself is always in joy, always in peace. He who reproaches himself, wherever he goes, as Abba Pimen said, no matter what happens to him, be it harm, or dishonor, or any sorrow, already first considers himself worthy of everything unpleasant and is never embarrassed. Could there be anything calmer than this state? But someone will say: if my brother insults me, and I, having examined myself, find that I did not give him any reason for this, then how can I reproach myself? Truly, if anyone examines himself with the fear of God, he will find that he has given the occasion in every possible way, either by deed, or by word, or in any way. If he sees, as he says, that at the present time he has not given any reason, then at some time before he offended him or another brother in this matter or in some other and had to suffer for this or for some other sin, which often happens. So! If anyone examines himself, as I said, with the fear of God, and examines his conscience, he will find himself guilty in every possible way.” Wonderful thing! Beginning to reproach ourselves mechanically, forcibly, we finally achieve such self-reproach that convinces us and acts on us that with its help we endure not only ordinary sorrows, but also the greatest disasters. Temptations no longer have such power over those who succeed, but as they succeed, they become easier, even if they themselves were heavier. As you succeed, your soul becomes stronger and gains the strength to patiently endure what happens. 1. 321–322 He who blames himself will withstand all adversities! What sorrow can crush one who has recognized himself as worthy of all sorrow? - The one who meets every coming sorrow with the words of the blessed thief: I accept what is worthy according to my deeds; remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom! 6.328 St. John Climacus said, “Whoever has rejected reproof, right or wrong, has denied his own salvation.” Learn to bear the infirmities of your neighbors, please them for the sake of God, and not yourself, learn to lay down your soul for your neighbors! Learn to endure reprimands and spitting! Hold on to blaming yourself, like someone who has fallen into the water holds on to a rope thrown towards him, and you will be saved from drowning in confusion and sadness! 6.328 I really like the saying of the Great Pimen: “If we always blame ourselves for everything,” he said, “then we will find peace everywhere.” Another father said, “We have left the easy burden of blaming ourselves and taken up the heavy burden of blaming others.” Such sayings are worth entire books! 6.422 Judging yourself is useful: it leads to humility. Judging yourself is harmful: it plunges you into despondency and relaxation. 6.762 Divine and false light (See Visions, Demons sensual vision, Demons spiritual vision, Prelest). Pay all your attention to the Gospel Commandments, and with them offer yourself as a living sacrifice, pleasing to God. In external actions that have no influence on the soul, such as changing clothes and the like, be absolutely free. 6.822 [The setting sun vividly represents the state of Christianity in our times. The same Sun of Truth Christ shines, He emits the same rays; but they no longer shed either that radiance or that warmth as in the times that preceded us. This is because the rays do not fall directly on us, but flow towards us only in an indirect, sliding direction. Rays of the Sun of Truth, Christ? Holy Spirit: “Light and giver of Light to men, by whom the Father is known and the Son is glorified and known from all” (Stichera at Vespers of Holy Pentecost). Among the first Christians, the Holy Spirit found many living vessels, animated churches worthy of their indwelling and habitation. Such were the apostles; such was the first martyr Stephen; such were almost all the members of the Church established by the apostles; such were the saints of all times. The Holy Spirit, finding a Christian faithful to Christ, descended on him, recreated him in the likeness of the New Adam, introducing into his soul and body the incorruptible holiness from God, filling His church with spiritual gifts. Spirit-bearing men abundantly spread the teaching of Christ by the power of the spiritual word, confirmed by the power of the gifts of the Spirit, brought quick and elevating prosperity to their brothers, chastening, says the apostle, every man, and teaching all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28). ] Now, when those rich in sciences, arts, and everything material have multiplied, now the venerable one is poor (Ps. 11:1). The Holy Spirit, looking at the sons of men, looking for a worthy vessel in this host of those who call themselves educated, enlightened, Orthodox, pronounces a sad sentence about them: They have not understood, and they have not sought God. All have deviated, together with the indecency of Bysh: do not do goodness, not even to one. The grave was opened with their throats, their tongues with their tongues: the poison of asps is under their lips. whose lips are full of oaths and sorrow. Their feet are quick to shed blood: contrition and bitterness are on their paths, and they have not known the path of peace. There is no fear of God before their eyes (Rom. 3:11-18). These are the reasons why the Spirit of God is alien to us, while He is the true property of true Christians, acquired for all new Israelites by their all-holy Ancestor. The Spirit of God is Holy and rests only in the saints, who crucified themselves to the world, who crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24). Even in the Old Testament it was declared about Him: My Spirit shall not abide in these men forever, for they are flesh (Gen. 6:3). And that All-Good Spirit, Who in the primacy of the Church descended on Cornelius, who was announced only by the word of the cross, filled him with various spiritual gifts, is alien to us, already washed by baptism, who imagine to be believers and Orthodox; He is aloof, although He, like God, has no respect for persons; is alienated so as not to make us more sinful by adding to our other sins a grave sin - an insult by which the Holy Spirit is offended and forced to withdraw. [The rays of the Sun of Truth do not now fall directly on people! Due to the intensification of material, carnal life, it is rare, rare that a vessel of the Holy Spirit is found on earth. The hearts of men have become incapable, due to their impurity, of directly accepting and wearing His inscriptions; a lifeless substance, at least undefiled by sin, has become more capable of this than hearts, tablets not made by hands. Where do the words of the Spirit now rest? In the books of the Holy Scriptures and the holy saints of God, in books written by inspiration and under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit imparted to His chosen ones various spiritual gifts and assigned them various ministries. He anointed some for prophecy, others for apostleship, others for shepherding and teaching, others for martyrdom for Christ, others for purifying themselves to Christ through monastic deeds. The talents are different, the ministries are different; but the beginning, the source? one: the Holy Spirit, endowing each with a gift, assigning to each a ministry according to His will and power, like God. And the books of the saints of God were written under different gifts of the Spirit by vessels of the Spirit who had different ministries,? Everything was written either by inspiration or under the influence of the Holy Spirit. From here the Holy Spirit already reveals the degree of glory of his living churches, shining brighter in others, shining more moderately in others. Just as the stars of the visible, heavenly firmament differ (1 Cor. 12:42) from one another in glory, so is the spiritual success of the saints of God, shining in the Church sky, varied. The light that the books they wrote emit from themselves is also consistent with their spiritual success: but all of them? in heaven, they all emit light, the fragrance of the Holy Spirit. And these books? the light of the rays of the setting Sun of Truth, appointed by the all-good God to illuminate the last hours of the Christian day.] 1. 404–406 Taught by the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, we believe and confess that Divine grace acts both before and now in the Orthodox Church, despite the fact that it finds few vessels worthy of it. She overshadows those ascetics of God whom she is pleased to overshadow. Those who claim that it is now impossible for a Christian to become a partaker of the Holy Spirit contradict Holy Scripture and cause the greatest harm to their souls, as the Monk Macarius the Great beautifully argues about this. They, not envisioning any particularly high goal in Christianity, not knowing about it, do not try, and do not even think at all about achieving it: being content with the outward fulfillment of some virtues, they deprive themselves of Christian perfection. What’s worse is that, being satisfied with their condition and recognizing themselves, because of their outward behavior, as having ascended to the heights of spiritual life, they not only cannot have humility, spiritual poverty and heartfelt contrition, but also fall into conceit, into exaltation, into self-delusion, into delusion, and no longer care at all about true success. On the contrary, those who believe in the existence of Christian perfection strive towards it with all diligence, embarking on a relentless feat to achieve it. The concept of Christian perfection protects them from pride: in bewilderment, crying, they stand before the imprisoned entrance to this spiritual chamber in prayer. Introduced by the Gospel into correct self-view, they humbly and humbly think about themselves: they recognize themselves as indecent slaves, who have not fulfilled the purpose acquired and destined by the Redeemer for the people He redeemed. 1. 278–279 What does Christian perfection mean? This is a tangible and obvious renewal of a Christian by the Holy Spirit, which can only be accomplished over one who died to sin and to the world on the Cross of Christ. A person renewed by the Spirit becomes a God-bearer, becomes a Church of God and a priest, officiating in this Church, worshiping God in Spirit and Truth. The apostles and all other saints of God were vouchsafed such perfection in varying degrees (Col. 1:28; Phil. 3:15). 4.337 (See Human purpose, Communion with God, Union, Perfection, Salvation and perfection). We see that many of the sinners who repented achieved the highest degree of Christian perfection. They have restored in themselves the Gift of Baptism not only to the extent that it is given, but also to the extent to which it subsequently develops from living according to the Gospel Commandments. 2.403 The venerable Isaiah the hermit said beautifully: “The glory of the saints is like the radiance of stars, of which one shines very brightly, another is dimmer, another is barely noticeable; but these stars are all in the same sky.” 6.434 (See Lord's Prayer, Self-Deception, Temptations). The weakness of a priest as a person does not at all prevent the performance of the Sacraments, which are performed because of the grace of the priesthood with which a person is endowed, and not because of his own merits, although it is pleasant to see in one person the combination of one’s own merits with the gifts of grace. 6.102 When a person is renewed by repentance, then the sins of his youth do not prevent him from caring for the souls of his neighbors. This is how the Church understood it from ancient times, and Saint Niphon, Bishop of Caesarea of ​​Cyprus, by the revelation of God, took upon himself the duties of a shepherd, although in his youth he was subjected to grave stumbling. His life on December 23rd. 6.339 The Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine was so softened by the gracious oil of mercy, with which, more than all virtues, true Christians become like God, that he used to say: “If I saw a presbyter or monk sinning, I would take off the imperial purple and cover the sinner with it. Honor or dishonor shown to a servant goes back to the Served.” 6.610 The bishop constitutes the beginning of the church hierarchy; he is the successor of the apostles, the representative on earth of the Lord. He ordains the presbyter and deacon, he consecrates the church or the most essential part of the church - the antimension, he consecrates the holy chrism; this cannot be accomplished by thousands of elders gathered together. He is the beginning and source of all Christian sacraments and Divine service itself; The Christian Church cannot exist without him. The Apostles, preaching the Gospel throughout the universe, appointed bishops in all cities and regions, and the bishops ordained presbyters (priests) to fully satisfy the needs of Christians. In the ecclesiastical sense, priests are the bishop’s tools: these tools act as long as the bishop acts with them; when he ceases to act with them, then they are deprived of all their power, for their powers and reality are not their own, but borrowed. 14. 45–46 Ordination is a great sacrament: through it, a person is suddenly reborn from a verbal sheep into a shepherd. 14.46 Whomever the Lord loves and whom he desires to choose for a blessed eternity, he sends unceasing sorrows, especially when the chosen soul is infected with a love of peace. The effect produced by sorrows is similar to the effect produced by poison. Just as a body that has taken poison dies from its natural life, so a soul that tastes sorrow dies to the world, to carnal life, which was born from the fall and constitutes true death. Therefore, whoever refuses sorrows refuses salvation, for the Lord Himself said that those who do not follow Him with their cross are not worthy of Him, that whoever wants to save his soul in this age will destroy it for eternity. The words of Christ are immutable and will come true in every possible way, which is why we must be crucified according to His word, or more clearly, His words on the cross, although the flesh cries out against the crucifixion. To endure sorrows complacently and courageously, one must have faith, i.e. to believe that all sorrow comes to us not without God’s permission. If the hair of our head does not fall without the will of the Heavenly Father, much less without His will anything more important cannot happen to us than a hair falling from our head. Further, complacency is born in sorrows, when we surrender to the will of God and ask that it always be done to us. Thanksgiving also consoles us in sorrows, when we give thanks for everything that happens to us. 6.594 I had a short acquaintance, a monk, who was constantly subjected to various sorrows, with which, as he said, it was pleasing for God to replace the spiritual elder. 1.314 Why were we not subjected to such and such grief when we served the world and worldly concerns? Why, now that we have begun to serve God, are we subjected to various calamities? Know: for Christ’s sake sorrows rain down on us like arrows. Our enemy, the devil, releases them on us in order to take revenge on us for the eternal blessings that we hope and try to obtain - together, to weaken our souls with sadness, despondency, laziness, and thereby deprive us of the bliss we expect. 1.350 Over the dark, deep abyss of sorrow that has suddenly opened before you, be carried on the wings of faith! Do not test the waves with the distrustful foot of human thought, walk boldly along them with courageous steps of faith - and under your feet the soft, wet waves will turn into solid marble or granite slabs. All the more, timidity and doubt will not come to you when you see the sea of ​​sorrows, when you see the strong wind, because the one who calls you to walk on the sea of ​​sorrows, who separates you from the rest of your brethren for such a walk, is the Lord Himself. This calling is together with the blessed election! Christ marks “His” with the seal of suffering! He found your soul useful to Himself and therefore seals it with His seal! And the small flock, part of Christ, stands separately from the multitude of other people; Those of Christ hold in their hands the sign of their election by Christ - the Cup of Christ; on their shoulders is the banner of the Cross of Christ. Far, far away did the sons of the world recoil from them! In a countless crowd, with noise, in a strange rapture, they pursue temporary cares and pleasures. Time in their eyes was transformed into eternity! They lead a sorrowless life, succeed in corruptible things, are forgotten by God, do not provoke the devil against themselves: they are pleasing to the devil - they are part of him. The cup of Christ opens the entrance to the land of the spiritual mind, the spiritual state; whoever enters there and partakes of a meal of spiritual consolation becomes dead to the world, insensitive to temporary sorrows and hardships, and begins to make his earthly journey, as if flying through the air above all else - on the wings of faith. The shackles of the mind draw us to the earth - the land of torment; Being on earth, we are involuntarily subjected to torment: applying the mind will apply illness, says Scripture. Faith lifts you from the earth, frees you from shackles, removes you from the midst of torment, lifts you to heaven, and brings you into spiritual peace. ...For sure success in the invisible battle with the princes of the air, with the spirits of evil, the dark rulers of the world, you need to take up the weapons supplied by faith, supplied by the violence of the preaching of Christ. There is a wiser man than God. And the weak things of God are stronger than man (1 Cor. 1:25). The path and teaching of faith seem strange and terrible to the carnal mind; but as soon as a person sees through experience, sees with an inner spiritual sensation the power of faith, he immediately and joyfully surrenders to its guidance, as if he has unexpectedly found an invaluable mentor, he contemptuously pushes away from himself human wisdom, rejected by God. These are the weapons that the holy violence of Christ’s preaching hands over to the servant of Christ to fight the sons of Anakim - dark thoughts and feelings of sadness that appear to the soul in the form of terrible giants, ready to erase it, devour it: 1st – words: “Thank God for everything.” 2nd – words: “Lord! I surrender to Your holy will! Thy will be with me." 3rd – words: “Lord! I thank You for everything that You have been pleased to send to me.” 4th – words: “I accept what is worthy according to my deeds; remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.” These short words, borrowed, as you see, from Scripture, were used by the venerable monks with excellent success against thoughts of sadness. The fathers did not enter into any reasoning with the thoughts that appeared; but as soon as a foreigner appeared before them, they grabbed the wonderful weapon, and they were right in the face, in the jaws of the foreigner! That is why they were so strong, they trampled all their enemies, became confidants of faith, and through faith - confidants of grace, with the muscle of grace they accomplished supernatural feats. When a sad thought or melancholy appears in your heart, begin with all your soul, with all your strength, to pronounce one of the above sentences; pronounce it quietly, slowly, without getting excited, with attention, in the hearing of you alone - say it until the foreigner leaves completely, until your heart is notified of the coming of God’s gracious help. She appears to the soul in the taste of comforting, sweet peace, peace in the Lord, and not for any other reason. In time, the foreigner will again begin to approach you, but you are again at your weapon, and, as the brilliant commander Caesar bequeathed to his soldiers, aim straight at the enemy’s face: no blows to any part of the body are so severe or unbearable as to the face. Do not marvel at the strangeness, the apparent insignificance of David’s weapons! Put them to work and you will see a sign! These weapons - a club, a stone - will accomplish more work than all the collected, thoughtful judgments and research of theologians - theorists, tellers of letters - German, Spanish, English, American! The use of these weapons will gradually transfer you from the path of reason to the path of faith and this path will lead you into the vast, wondrous land of the spiritual. There is a meal of hidden manna; According to the testimony of Scripture, Christ allows only winners to it. You have been brought into an invisible war in order to have the opportunity to become a winner and, with the dignity of a winner, to inherit spiritual treasures. Yet this is brought to you by Christ, who loved you, clearly distinguishing you among “His.” And so, - already from the very shore, looking at the dark, deep sea of ​​sorrows, at the distance where the blue of the waters merges with the blue of the skies, at this boundless distance, frightening faith, listening to the angry talk of the waves, to their monotonous and insensitive splashing - do not indulge in despondency, do not let the sea of ​​sad thoughts into your soul. There are much more dangers here! It is much more convenient to drown in this sea than in the sea of ​​external sorrows. Rejoice! And again the river: rejoice! You are on the shore of the sea of ​​sorrows in order to swim across to the land of joys: the distance of the sea has an opposite shore, although invisible to the eyes of the human mind. This shore is a mental paradise, filled with spiritual pleasures. Those who reach this blissful shore forget, in the rapture of pleasure, all the sorrows they endured at sea. Become your fearless foot in the light boat of faith, rush like a winged one over the wet hillocks! Rather than you imagine, rather than you can imagine, you will be transported across the sea, transported to paradise. But between the spiritual paradise and the carnal, spiritual, ordinary life that all people live in general, the cross and crucifix are placed as a boundary, like a vast sea. There is no other way to heaven! Whoever God wants to elevate to paradise, he first begins to lead him on the path to it - to the cross. “It is a sign of God’s election,” said some holy ascetic writer, “when incessant sorrows are sent to man.” Let us endure the mortification of the world through sorrows in order to become capable of receiving essential revival for God through the clear, completely tangible action of the Spirit. Let us sacrifice corruption for the Spirit! - Surrender yourself completely to God! Throw yourself into the saving abyss of faith, as if into the sea - from a cliff! 6. 196–202 Grief must be endured in the hope of God's mercy and God's help. Placing all his trust in the Lord God, the ascetic of Christ must himself try to destroy the causes of sorrow, if it depends on him. 6.245 The Lord loves and accepts whomever he loves, beats and punishes, and then delivers from sorrow. Without temptation it is impossible to draw closer to God. Unsophisticated virtue, the holy fathers said, is not virtue! If you see someone called virtuous by Orthodox people, but he lives without any temptations, succeeds in worldly matters, know: his virtue, his Orthodoxy are not accepted by God. 6.376 Christ, who through His death trampled the death of men and through His resurrection granted resurrection to all who believe in Him, has already won victory over all your sorrows, and with Christ you have also won this victory. Gently endure the furious waves, generously endure the pressure of the fierce winds, endure with the power of faith - and Christ will lead you in His time to His peace. 6.465 The Lord, visiting you with sorrows, also grants you help to endure them, as the Monk Isaac of Syria says: “Our generous Father, when He deigns to grant His true sons escape from their temptations, He does not take away their temptations from them, but gives them patience in their temptations, and they accept all the benefits to the perfection of their souls with the hand of patience.” 6.505 Your sorrows are a sign of God’s election. Blessed be the mercy of God, which seals you with the seal of election. Every sigh of those who suffer for the Lord is heard in Heaven and written into the book of God for reward a hundredfold. 6.598 Sorrows have always been the property of those who are being saved, but they are especially characteristic of the present time, when people have weakened in the practice of virtues. 6.634 We, by the nature of our fallen nature, are most concerned about the arrangement of our earthly position, and God arranges our eternal position, which we would forget about if our earthly position were not shaken by sorrows, if the sorrows sent from time to time by the Providence of God did not remind us that everything temporary and earthly is passing away and that our main concerns should be about the eternal. Scripture says: The Lord loves him and punishes him. Admonishing sorrows are sent from God to those whom He wants to have mercy on, and to the rejected, crushing and decisive sorrows are sent, especially at the very end of life, such as sudden death, or loss of reason, and the like. 6. 681–682 Let us commit ourselves, each other and our entire life to Christ God, for He alone knows what is good for us, and arranges our destinies for our eternal benefits, allowing us to grieve in this temporary and shortest life, according to our strength, so that our souls do not cling to the earth, but are constantly torn away from it by various sorrows and turn, oppressed from everywhere, to the Lord our God. 6.698 Now, if there are no sorrows, there is nothing to save yourself. There are no exploits, no true monasticism, no leaders: only sorrows replace everything. The feat is associated with vanity: vanity is difficult to notice in oneself, much less to cleanse oneself of it; grief is alien to vanity and therefore provides a person with a godly involuntary feat, which is sent by our Provider in accordance with his will. 6.786 Two of His beloved disciples asked the Lord for thrones of glory - He gave them His Cup (Matthew 20:23). The cup of Christ is suffering. The cup of Christ grants to its participants on earth participation in the grace-filled kingdom of Christ, prepares for them thrones of eternal glory in Heaven. We are all irresponsible before the Chalice of Christ; no one can complain about it, refuse it, because He who commanded its consumption Himself drank it first of all. ...The Cup is accepted when a Christian endures earthly sorrows with humility borrowed from the Gospel. Saint Peter rushed with a drawn sword to defend the God-man, surrounded by villains, but the meek Lord Jesus said to Peter: “Plunge the knife into the scissors: the cup that the Father gave me, shall not the imam drink it?” (John 18:11). And you, when adversity surrounds you, say for the consolation and strengthening of your soul: “The cup that the Father gave me, shall not the imam drink it?” Bitter Chalice; with one glance at her, all human considerations are lost. Replace considerations with faith, and drink courageously the bitter Cup: the All-Good and All-Wise Father gives it to you. ...The Heavenly Father is omnipotent, all-seeing: He sees your sorrows, and if he found it necessary and useful to turn the Cup away from you, he would certainly do it. ...When the Cup appears before you, do not look at the people who are giving it to you; lift your eyes to Heaven and say: The cup that the Father gave me, shall I not drink it? ...The cup of Christ is a gift from God. “You have been given,” wrote the great Paul to the Filipinos, “not only to believe in Christ, but to suffer for Him (Phil. 1:29). You accept the Cup apparently from human hands. What do you care whether these people act righteously or wickedly? Your job is to act righteously, according to the duty of a follower of Jesus: with thanksgiving to God, with living faith, accept the Cup and courageously drink it to the dregs. ...It is sinful to grumble against our neighbors when they are instruments of our suffering; the more sinful he is when the Cup descends to us directly from Heaven, from the right hand of God. He who drinks the Cup with thanksgiving to God, with the blessing of his neighbors, has reached sacred peace, the blessed peace of Christ, and henceforth already enjoys in the spiritual paradise of God. Temporary suffering in itself does not mean anything: we give it meaning by our attachment to the earth and everything perishable, by our coldness towards Christ and eternity. ...If the Cup seems unbearable and deadly to you, by this it convicts you: although you are called Christ’s, you are not Christ’s. For true followers of Christ, the Cup of Christ is a cup of joy. So the holy apostles, after they were beaten before the assembly of the elders of the Jews, went, rejoicing, on behalf of the council, as if for the name of the Lord Jesus they were willing to accept dishonor (Acts 5:41). Righteous Job heard the bitter news. Message after message came to strike his hard heart. The last of the news was the most difficult: the battle of all his sons and all his daughters with a violent, sudden, cruel death. Out of intense sadness, righteous Job tore his vestments, sprinkled ashes on his head, - from the action of the submissive faith that lived in him, he fell to the ground, bowed to the Lord and said: Naked I expired from my mother’s womb, naked I will go there: the Lord is given, the Lord is taken away. As the Lord willed, so it was: blessed be the name of the Lord forever! (Job 1:21). Trust in the simplicity of your heart to the One with whom the hair of your head is numbered: He knows what size the healing Cup should be given to you. Look often at Jesus: He is before His murderers, like a dumb lamb before its shearers; He is put to death like an unresponsive sheep to the slaughter. Don’t take your eyes off Him - and your suffering will dissolve with heavenly, spiritual sweetness; By the stripes of Jesus the wounds of your heart will be healed. ...In times of adversity, do not seek human help; do not waste precious time, do not exhaust the strength of your soul searching for this powerless help. Expect help from God: by His wave, in due time, people will come and help you. The Lord was silent before Pilate and Herod and did not utter any justification. And you imitate this holy and wise silence when you see that your enemies are judging you with the intention of condemning you without fail, judging you only in order to cover up their malicious intent with the guise of judgment. Whether preceded and preceded by gradually accumulating clouds, or suddenly, carried by a fierce whirlwind, the Cup appears before you, speak to God about it: “Thy will be done.” ...On the path of temporary suffering, all His chosen ones passed into blissful eternity following the Lord. It is impossible for us, while being in carnal pleasures, to remain in a spiritual state. That is why the Lord continually gives His cup to His beloved, with it He maintains in them deadness to the world and the ability to live the life of the Spirit. The Monk Isaac of Syria said: “A person for whom God especially cares is known by the sorrows that are constantly sent to him.” Pray to God to turn away from you every attack, every temptation. One should not boldly rush into the abyss of sorrows: this is prideful arrogance. But when sorrows come by themselves, do not be afraid of them, do not think that they came by chance, by coincidence. No, they were allowed by the incomprehensible Providence of God. Full of faith and the courage and generosity it engenders, sail fearlessly through the darkness and howling storm to the quiet haven of eternity: you are invisibly guided by Jesus Himself. With pious, deep meditation, study the prayer of the Lord, which He offered to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane during the difficult hours that preceded His suffering and death on the cross. Meet and overcome all sorrow with this prayer. “My Father,” the Savior prayed, “if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me: not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Pray to God to remove adversity from you and together renounce your will as a sinful will, a blind will; surrender yourself, your soul and body, your circumstances, both present and future, surrender those close to your hearts to the will of God, the all-holy and wise. “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). When sorrow surrounds you, you need to increase your prayers in order to attract the special grace of God to yourself. Only with the help of special grace can we trample upon all temporary disasters. ...The holy martyrs sang a joyful song in the midst of a kindled furnace, walking on nails, on the edges of swords, sitting in cauldrons of boiling water or oil. So your heart, having attracted grace-filled consolation to itself through prayer, keeping it close to itself with vigilance over itself, will sing, amid misfortunes and severe misfortunes, a joyful song of praise and thanksgiving to God. 1. 542–549 “He who suffers according to the will of God,” says the Apostle Peter, “so that I will return to the Creator, that they may give their souls to do good” (1 Pet. 4:19). The builder of our souls is the Lord: He builds the souls of those who believe in Him through sorrows. Let us surrender to His will and Providence, just as the poor man silently surrenders to the will of the poor man, and we ourselves will make every effort to fulfill the Gospel Commandments. When a Christian surrenders himself to the will of God, places all his cares on God with selflessness, thanks and glorifies Him for the cross - then the extraordinary spiritual power of faith unexpectedly appears in the heart, then ineffable spiritual consolation unexpectedly appears in the heart. Jesus seals the disciple who has accepted the election with the Spirit - and earthly sorrows become a source of pleasure for the servant of God. On the contrary, a person’s sorrowless earthly life serves as a sure sign that the Lord has turned His gaze away from him, that he is displeasing to the Lord, even if he seems reverent and virtuous in appearance. 5. 129–130 The holy prophet David sang: “Many are the sorrows of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver me from them all” (Ps. 33:20). How true this is! All who truly serve the Lord, righteous by the truth of the Redeemer, and not by their own fallen and false truth, are allowed many sorrows; but all these sorrows disintegrate by themselves; not one of them can crush the servant of God: they educate, purify, perfect him. The prophet did not say a word about the sorrows of sinners living on earth for earthly pleasures and for earthly prosperity. Sorrows are not allowed to them. Why should they mourn? They will not bear them with thanksgiving, but only with grumbling, despondency, blasphemy against God, and multiplying their sins with despair. The Lord allows them to enjoy earthly blessings until their death, so that they come to their senses, at least because of their prosperity. He sends sorrow only to those sinners in whom he foresees conversion, who in the book of life, according to the foreknowledge of God, are already included among the righteous, justified by the truth of the Redeemer. The Lord does not recognize intentional and arbitrary sinners, in whom there is no guarantee for correction and repentance, as worthy of sorrow, as those who did not accept the teachings of Christ, who did not show any zeal to follow Christ, who entered on the path of untruth not out of passion or ignorance. Sorrows for Christ are the greatest gift of Christ (Phil. 1:29), bestowed on those who have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the service of Christ. Saint David, having mentioned the many sorrows to which the righteous are subjected, did not mention anything about the sorrows of sinners: they, being adulteresses and not sons, do not attract the punishment of the Lord. David only says about their death that it is cruel (Ps. 33:22). Exactly: the death of sinners is cruel, forgotten, unexplored by them: it suddenly takes them from the midst of abundant pleasures into the abyss of eternal torment. 5.130 Every sorrow reveals the hidden passions in the heart, setting them in motion. Before grief, a person seems calm and peaceful to himself; but when grief comes, then unknown passions arise and are revealed, especially anger, sadness, despondency, pride, and unbelief. It is essential and useful for the ascetic to expose the sin that nests in him in secret. Moreover, sorrows, accepted and endured as they should, strengthen faith; they show a person his weakness and bring humility, overthrowing self-conceit. 5. 131–132 Our sorrows are for the most part very subtle, so that at a superficial glance they cannot be recognized as sorrows. But this is only the cunning of our enemy, who in the fight against a weak person acquired extraordinary experience and art from long-term exercise in the fight. The fallen spirit saw that obvious, rude and cruel temptations arouse in people fiery jealousy and courage to endure them; he saw this and replaced the gross temptations with weak ones, but subtle ones and very powerful ones. They do not arouse jealousy from the heart, do not elevate it to a feat, but keep it in some kind of unresolved situation, and the mind is perplexed; they languish, gradually deplete a person’s spiritual strength, plunge him into despondency, into inaction and destroy him, making him a home of passions due to relaxation, despondency, inaction. Both the evil cunning of Satan and the severity of the attacks he brings upon modern monasticism are clear before God. God will crown the newest fighters no less than the ancients, although the feat of the former is less obvious than the feat of the latter. We should not indulge in relaxation, despondency and inaction; on the contrary, let us direct all our attention and all our efforts to fulfilling the Gospel Commandments. This execution will reveal to us the countless machinations of the enemy, the cunning deliberation with which they are arranged and placed. We will see that modern, apparently weak, sorrows and misfortunes, like ancient strong sorrows and misfortunes, strive to distract a person from Christ, to destroy true Christianity on earth, leaving only a shell for the most convenient deception. We will see that weak temptations, but invented and executed with hellish cunning, act much more successfully in the form of Satan than severe temptations, but obvious and direct. 5. 137–138 The person whom God chooses to serve Him is sent various sorrows. During sorrows we must thank and glorify God, praying to Him to grant us obedience and patience. Saint Isaac of Syria said very well, exhorting us to submit to God: “You are not smarter than God.” Simple and true. 6.554 (See Diseases, Healing of diseases). God controls man's destiny; His enemies can do to him only what God allows, and everything that God allows serves for the benefit of the soul and eternal salvation. 6.681 The journey to the true knowledge of God certainly requires help from sorrows: the mortification of the heart for the world through sorrows is certainly necessary, so that it can strive entirely to seek God. God, whomever He separates into His immediate service, into a vessel of spiritual gifts, sends sorrows to him. As soon as he revealed himself to Paul, he already assigned him suffering and announced it. “I will tell him how much it is fitting for him to suffer in My name” (Acts 9:16), says the Lord about the newly chosen apostle! People who cause sorrow and sorrowful circumstances are only instruments in the almighty right hand of God. The hair of our heads is counted by God; not one of the dumb birds falls without the will of its Creator: could temptation really come close to you without this will? No! It came closer to you by God's permission. The watchful Eye of Providence constantly watches over you; His all-powerful right hand protects you and controls your destiny. By the permission or beck of God, sorrows have come to you, like tormentors to a martyr. Your gold has been thrown into the crucible of temptation: it will come out purer and more valuable. People commit evil in their blindness, but you are made a partaker of the Son of God on earth and in heaven. The Son of God says to His: You will drink from the cup that I have drunk. Do not indulge in sadness, cowardice, and hopelessness! Tell me, most honest father, to your despondent thoughts, tell your heart pierced by grief: The cup that the Father gives me, shouldn’t the Imam drink from it? Caiaphas does not serve this cup, Judas and the Pharisees do not prepare it: the Father does everything! People who arbitrarily follow the suggestions of their hearts, acting autocratically, do not cease to be instruments, blind instruments of Divine Providence, according to the infinite wisdom and omnipotence of this Providence. Let's leave people aside: for sure - they are strangers! Turning our gaze to God, let us cast down our rising and restless thoughts at His feet, and say with reverent submission: Thy will be done! This is not enough! Let us kiss the Cross as a sign of Christ, guiding the disciple of Christ into the Kingdom of Heaven. The robber mentioned in the Gospel was hanged on the cross: he was hanged as a robber, and from the cross he moved to heaven as a confessor. People stoned Stephen as a blasphemer; and according to the judgment of God, heaven was opened to him, as to a living temple of the Holy Spirit. Saint Tikhon of Voronezh, accused of hot temper, was forced to move from the episcopal throne to the walls of a quiet monastery - the monastery, the stay in which the holy shepherd had the appearance of exile, inspired him to devote himself to prayer and other monastic deeds. His holy exploits brought him the incorruptible and indestructible treasure of righteousness in Christ, glory from Christ in heaven and on earth. 6.148 Do not refuse the cup of Christ, both in this case and in all. Say to yourself: “They did this to Christ, why not do this to me?” Our earthly life is short - like a deception: its sorrows, by the very thing, mean nothing - they have as much meaning as we give it to them. Humility will bring peace, prayer, silence into your heart. 6.295 (See Love for enemies, Prayer for enemies). Saint Isaac of Syria said: “There is hardly a person who could bear honor, and perhaps there is none at all: this comes from the ability to quickly undergo changes.” The ability to quickly change, proven by experience, serves as the reason that God, who has prepared for His servants eternal, unchanging honor and glory in heaven, does not deign that in this fickle and perverse world they should be constantly honored with vain and temporary veneration. 5.290 God bless! Powerful words! During sorrowful circumstances, when the heart is surrounded by thoughts of doubt, cowardice, displeasure, and murmuring, one must force oneself to frequent, unhurried, attentive repetition of the words: thank God! Whoever, with simplicity of heart, believes the advice offered here and, when a need arises, tests it in action, he will see the wonderful power of the praise of God; he will rejoice at the acquisition of such useful, new knowledge, he will rejoice at the acquisition of weapons against mental enemies, so strong and convenient. From one sound of these words, uttered with the accumulation of dark thoughts of sadness and despondency, from one sound of these words, pronounced with compulsion, as if with the lips alone, as if only in the air, the princes of the air shudder and take flight; flutter like... dust from a strong wind, all thoughts are gloomy; heaviness and boredom recede from the soul; they come to her and ease, calm, peace, consolation, joy settle in her. God bless! God bless! Solemn words! Words are a declaration of victory! The words are joy for all the faithful servants of God, fear and defeat for all His enemies, destruction of their weapons. This weapon is sin; this weapon is the carnal mind, fallen human wisdom. It arose from the fall, has sin as its initial cause, is rejected by God, is constantly at enmity with God, is constantly rejected by God. To one wounded by sorrow, all the wise of the earth will gather in vain; in vain they will heal him with the medicines of eloquence and philosophy; The work of the most ill person is in vain if he wants to unravel the multi-braided network of grief through the efforts of his own mind. Very often, almost always, the mind is completely lost in this multi-braided network! He often sees himself entangled, imprisoned on all sides! Often deliverance, even consolation, seem impossible! And many perish under the unbearable burden of fierce sadness, perish from a mortal ulcer, a sorrowful ulcer, having not found on earth any remedy strong enough to heal this ulcer. Earthly wisdom appeared with all its means: everyone turned out to be powerless and insignificant. Despise, beloved brother, the one rejected by God! Put aside all the weapons of your mind! Accept the weapon that is given to you by the violence of Christ’s preaching. Human wisdom will smile mockingly when it sees the weapon offered by faith; the fallen mind, due to its property of enmity against God, will not be slow to present the most intelligent objections, full of educated skepticism and irony. Do not pay any attention to them, to those rejected by God, to the enemies of God. In your sorrow, begin to pronounce from your heart, repeat - without any thought - the words: glory to God! You will see a sign, you will see a miracle: these words will drive away sorrow, call consolation into the heart, do what the mind of the prudent and the wisdom of the wise of the earth could not accomplish. This reason, this wisdom will be put to shame, this wisdom will be put to shame, and you, delivered, healed, believing by living faith, proven to you in yourself, will give glory to God! God bless! Many of God's saints loved to repeat these words often: they tasted the power hidden in them. Saint John Chrysostom, when he talked with spiritual friends and brethren about some circumstances, especially sorrowful ones, always put the words: for all glory to God! According to his habit, preserved by Church history for later posterity, he, striking the outstretched palm of his left hand with the second finger of his right hand, always began his speech with the words: for everything, glory to God! Brethren! Let us also become accustomed to frequently praising God; Let us resort to this weapon in our sorrows. By constantly praising God, let us reflect and erase our invisible adversaries, especially those of them who are trying to overthrow us with sadness, cowardice, murmuring, and despair. Let us purify ourselves with tears, prayer, reading the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the fathers, in order to become spectators of the Providence of God, which sees everything, owns everything, controls everything, directs everything according to His unsearchable destinies to goals known to the One God. Having become spectators of Divine government, we will be amazed at the greatness of the incomprehensible God in reverence, indestructible peace of heart, in complete submission and firm faith, and send glory to Him now and forever. 1. 385–389 (See Thanksgiving, Diseases, Your Cross). Spiritual and false sweetness (See Vanity, Virginity, Peace of God, Repentance, Prelest, Sweetness of Jesus Prayer). Tears, as a property of fallen nature, are infected with the disease of the fall, like all other properties. Some people are especially prone to tears by nature and shed tears at every opportunity: such tears are called natural. There are also sinful tears. Sinful tears are tears shed out of sinful beliefs. Such tears are shed in abundance and with particular ease by people devoted to voluptuousness; Tears similar to the tears of voluptuous people are shed by those in self-delusion and delusion; Tears flow abundantly from vanity, hypocrisy, pretense, and man-pleasing. Finally, their anger sheds: when it is deprived of the opportunity to commit an atrocity, to shed human blood, then it sheds tears. These were the tears of Nero, in whom modern Christians, due to his cruelty and hatred of Christianity, thought to see the Antichrist. Natural tears include tears of grief; when grief has a sinful character, then the tears of grief become tears of sin. Both natural and sinful tears, immediately upon their appearance, are commanded by the holy fathers to transform them into those pleasing to God, i.e. change the motivation for tears: bring to mind our sins, inevitable and unknown death, the judgment of God - and cry for these reasons. 1. 192 Tears, as a gift of God, serve as a sign of God’s mercy: “Tears in prayer,” says Saint Isaac of Syria, “are a sign of God’s mercy, which the soul has received through its repentance, and that it has been accepted and has begun to enter the field of purity through tears.” 1. 193 Tears shed for sins are at first bitter, shed during illness and languor of the spirit, which the spirit communicates to the body. Little by little, a consolation begins to be combined with tears, consisting of a special calmness, a feeling of meekness and humility; at the same time, the tears, in proportion and in accordance with the consolation provided, themselves change, lose much of their bitterness, and flow out painlessly or with less illness. At first they are scarce and come rarely; then little by little they begin to come more often and become more plentiful. When the gift of tears is strengthened in us by God's mercy, then the internal struggle is tamed, thoughts subside, mental prayer or prayer of the spirit begins to operate in a special development, saturating and delighting the inner man. Then the veil of passions is removed from the mind and the mysterious teaching of Christ is revealed to it. Then the tears turn from bitter to sweet. Then spiritual consolation vegetates in the heart, which has nothing like it among earthly joys and which is known only to those who practice prayerful crying and have the gift of tears. Then the Lord’s promise comes true: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). 1. 196–197 The essence of repentance lies in humility and contrition of our spirit, when the spirit mourns because of humility. Crying of the spirit, with a lack of bodily strength to express through bodily deeds and actions the repentance acting in the soul, replaces all bodily deeds and actions, and between them, tears. 1.202 Crying is the pious sadness of a faithful soul looking into the mirror of the Gospel, seeing in this mirror its countless sinful stains. Such a soul washes its stains with holy water - with tears; erases stains with holy sadness. Unspeakable consolation, unspeakable lightness are shed in the heart after the shedding of saving tears about sins, about the fall - tears that appear due to a feeling of spiritual poverty. 1.519 When your thought becomes quiet, and some kind of calm sadness, like a rain cloud, comes over your soul, then it becomes clear and joyful within you, then know that this is the effect of spiritual crying that has appeared in you because of your suffering and because you are trying to resort to God in it. Be attentive and reverent, because spiritual sensations are subtle and disappear from the inattentive and irreverent. If you are attentive, the clouds will become thicker from time to time, and will finally burst into tears and produce tears such as you have never cried. Enjoying these tears will be the greatest consolation... Wonderful silence and tranquility will reign in you! 6.592–593 Do not hit yourself on the chest or on the head to bring out tears: such tears are from shock of the nerves, bloody, do not enlighten the mind, do not soften the heart. Wait with humility for tears from God. Some holy invisible finger, some subtle thought of humility will touch the heart - and a quiet tear will come, a pure tear, will change the soul, will not change the face; it will not make your eyes redden - a gentle calm will pour into your facial expression, making it Angel-like. 6.286 Hunger and thirst for God's truth are witnesses of poverty of spirit; crying is an expression of humility, his voice. The absence of crying, satiation with oneself and enjoyment of one’s supposed spiritual state exposes the pride of the heart. 1.535 There is no blind chance! God rules the world, and everything that happens in heaven and under heaven is done according to the judgment of the All-Wise and Almighty God, incomprehensible in His wisdom and omnipotence, incomprehensible in His governance. God rules the world: let His rational creatures submit to Him, and let His servants contemplate reverently, and praise in wonder and bewilderment His majestic government that surpasses their understanding! God rules the world. Blind sinners do not see this management. They have invented a case alien to reason: they are not aware of the lack of correctness in their gaze, the dullness of their gaze, the darkened gaze, the perverted gaze; they attribute to the government of God a lack of correctness and meaning; They blaspheme God’s government and recognize wise action and call it foolish action. 2.77 Death is a great mystery. She is the birth of a person from earthly temporary life into eternity. When performing the mortal sacrament, we lay aside our gross shell - the body and as a spiritual being, subtle, ethereal, we pass into another world, into the abode of creatures similar to the soul. This world is inaccessible to the gross organs of the body, through which, during our stay on earth, feelings operate, which, however, belong to the soul itself. The soul that leaves the body is invisible and inaccessible to us, like other objects of the invisible world. We see only when performing mortal mysteries the breathlessness, the sudden lifelessness of the body; then it begins to decompose, and we hasten to hide it in the ground; there it becomes a victim of decay, worms, oblivion. So countless generations of people died out and were forgotten. ...Death is the separation of the soul from the body, united by the will of God and again separated by the will of God. Death is the separation of the soul from the body as a result of our fall, from which the body ceased to be incorruptible, as it was originally created by the Creator. Death is the execution of an immortal man, with which he is struck for disobedience to God. By death, a person is painfully cut and torn into two parts, his components, and after death there is no longer a person: his soul exists separately and his body exists separately. And the body continues to exist, although we see that it is destroyed and turns into the earth from which it was taken, it continues to exist in its very corruption, it continues to exist in corruption, like a seed in the earth, awaiting a secondary union with the soul, after which it will become inviolable for this visible death. The bodies of God’s special chosen ones resist corruption, being abundantly imbued with the grace of God, and in the very shadow of death they reveal the beginnings of their glorious resurrection. Instead of a stench, they emit a fragrance; instead of spreading deadly infection around, they spread healing for all ailments, they spread life. Such bodies are both dead and alive: dead by human nature, alive by the presence of the Holy Spirit in them. They testify in what greatness and holiness man was created by God and that this greatness, this holiness was returned through redemption. While the body has fallen asleep in mortal sleep, what happens to the soul? The Word of God reveals to us that our souls, after being separated from their bodies, join - according to the good or evil qualities they have acquired in earthly life - to the Angels of light or to the fallen angels... The souls of the righteous, separated from their bodies, enjoy bliss in heaven awaiting the resurrection of their bodies, as the seer John the Theologian tells (Rev. 6:10-11); in hell, in terrible torment, sinners await him (Rev. 20:13). When the trumpet of resurrection sounds, then paradise will present the inhabitants of heaven for a glorious union with their bodies, which will come to life from the voice of the Son of God (John 5:25), as the four-day-old and already stinking Lazarus heard this voice and came to life; hell will present its dead for the Last Judgment and final sentence. After the pronouncement of the sentence and after its fulfillment, the bliss of the righteous will increase - sinners will return to their hell for greater torment (Ps. 9:18). The Lord announced the state of the righteous after the resurrection that they are like Angels of God in heaven, equal to each other as an Angel (Matthew 20:30; Luke 20:36). Announcing His second coming and the Last Judgment, the Lord said that then He would speak to the righteous standing at His right hand: Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; and to the standing sinners he says: Depart from Me, the curse, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel (Matthew 25:34-41). And it is certain that the reward of both the righteous and sinners is very different. God's justice will reward each person according to his deeds (Rev. 22:12). Not only are there countless heavenly abodes, according to the testimony of the Savior, but hell also has many different prisons and various kinds of torment: he who sins in knowledge will suffer many punishments, he who sins in ignorance will receive few punishments (Luke 12:47-48). Christians, only Orthodox Christians, and moreover, those who spent their earthly life piously or who cleansed themselves of sins through sincere repentance, confession to their spiritual father and self-correction, inherit eternal bliss together with the bright Angels. On the contrary, the wicked, i.e. non-believers in Christ, wicked, i.e. heretics, and those Orthodox Christians who spent their lives in sins or fell into some mortal sin and did not heal themselves through repentance, will inherit eternal torment along with the fallen angels. The Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church in their message say: “The souls of people who fell into mortal sins and did not despair at death, but even before separation from real life repented, but did not have time to bear any fruits of repentance, such as: prayers, tears, kneeling during prayer vigils, heartfelt contrition, consolation of the poor and expression through deeds of love for God and neighbors, which the Catholic Church recognizes from the very beginning pleasing to God and beneficial - the souls of such people descend to hell and suffer punishment for the sins they have committed, without, however, losing the hope of relief from them. They receive relief through infinite goodness, through the prayers of priests and charity performed for the dead, and especially by the power of the Bloodless Sacrifice, which in particular is offered by the priest for every Christian for his relatives, and in general, the Catholic and Apostolic Church offers for everyone every day.” “The death of sinners is cruel” (Ps. 33:22), says Scripture, and for the pious and saints it is a transition from prayers and everyday turmoil to indestructible peace, from continuous suffering to continuous and never-ending bliss, a transition from earth to heaven and union with a countless host of holy Angels and a countless host of holy men. In the insatiable contemplation of God and in the unceasing burning of love for Him lies the highest and essential pleasure of the inhabitants of heaven. The Monk Macarius the Great discusses this subject as follows: “When the human soul leaves the body, then some great sacrament is performed. If she is guilty of sin, then hordes of demons and opposing angels and dark forces will approach her and kidnap the soul into their region. And we shouldn’t be surprised by this, as if it’s extraordinary. If a person, while still living in this age, submitted to them, and obeyed, and became their slave, all the more so when he comes from the world, he is captivated and enslaved by them. Also, on the contrary, in relation to a better state, it should be understood: the holy servants of God are still preceded by Angels, and the holy spirits preserve and surround them. And when they leave the body, the angelic faces, having received their soul, take them to their country, to the world of shrines, and bring them to the Lord.” 3. 69–73 We must remember death, frighten ourselves with the unknown of its hour and the terrible torture that awaits every person after it. But even then you need to know that, according to St. fathers, sudden death does not happen to people who want to cleanse themselves by repentance, even if at times they are overcome by their infirmities; but the Just and Merciful God gives them an end in accordance with their intentions. 6. 698–699 If during his earthly journey a person does not break off communication with spirits, then even after death he will remain in communication with them, more or less belonging to them, depending on the degree of communication. Unbroken communication with fallen spirits exposes you to eternal destruction, and insufficiently broken communication exposes you to severe torture on the way to heaven. 5.329 Old people used to say: God grant that you suffer well before death. Niphon, the great among saints, dying of fever, said to the Great Athanasius, who was present at his death, that just as gold is purified by fire, so the dying man is refined by illness. 6.679 The destiny of all people on earth, the inevitable destiny for anyone, is death. We fear it as a fierce enemy, we bitterly mourn those abducted by it, and we spend our lives as if death did not exist at all, as if we were eternal on earth. Sin has taken and is taking away from me the knowledge and feeling of all truth: it steals from me, erases from my thoughts the memory of death, of this event, so important and tactilely certain to me. To remember death, one must lead a life in accordance with the commandments of Christ. The commandments of Christ cleanse the mind and heart, mortify them for the world, and revive them for Christ: the mind, detached from earthly attachments, often begins to turn its gaze to its mysterious transition to eternity - to death; the purified heart begins to anticipate it. The mind and heart, detached from the world, strive for eternity. Having loved Christ, they have an insatiable thirst to appear before Him, although they tremble at the hour of death, contemplating the greatness of God and their own insignificance and sinfulness. Death seems to them both a terrible feat and a longed-for deliverance from earthly captivity. 1.380 Thanksgiving in sorrows brings comfort and strength to endure and endure long. One should not wish for death. God does not send it because we have not prepared for it as we should. As much as you endure here with thanksgiving, you will enjoy spiritual consolation in your future life. 6.624 The death of sinners is fierce not because of the severity of the bodily pain that accompanies it, but because of its suddenness, unexpectedness, because of the transition from earthly prosperity to terrible, unimaginable eternal torment that, after death, awaits the unrepentant sinner. It's amazing how the world deceives and blinds people. It is a truth that does not require proof that we will all die. But few people show knowledge of this truth in their lives; most of them behave as if they would never die. It is a great thing to remember death and understand its meaning. From this remembrance and understanding, a person’s life can completely change and become pleasing to God. 6.674 Sudden death befalls only those who are careless about their salvation: this was announced by the Lord Himself (Luke 12:46). “God,” said the Monk Barsanuphius the Great to his brother, who was afraid of an unexpected and premature death, “will not take his soul (an ascetic struggling with passions) until he brings him into a high measure, into a perfect husband.” 3.182 Humility is a guarantee in the heart, a holy, nameless heart quality, a Divine skill, born in an inconspicuous way in the soul from the fulfillment of the Gospel Commandments. 1.536 Abandoning humility in order to preserve one’s dignity in relation to one’s neighbor will take away tenderness from the heart, harden the heart, kill prayer, depriving it of its essential properties, attention and tenderness. 1. 277–278 The Holy Fathers note that, in contrast to vanity, which scatters a person’s thoughts throughout the universe, humility concentrates them in the soul: from fruitless and frivolous contemplation of the whole world it moves to abundant and deep self-contemplation, to mental silence, to a state that is required for true prayer and which is produced by attentive prayer. Finally, the grace-filled action of humility and the grace-filled action of prayer are one and the same action. 1.317 Humility lifted the Lord to the cross, and humility lifts the disciples of Christ to the cross, which is holy patience, incomprehensible to carnal minds, just as the silence of Jesus was incomprehensible to Herod, Pontic Pilate and the Jewish bishops. 1.330 Grace-filled humility is invisible, just as its Giver, God, is invisible. It is closed with silence, simplicity, sincerity, ease, freedom. False humility always has an artificial appearance: it publishes itself with it. ...Do you want to acquire humility? Fulfill the Gospel Commandments: together with them, holy humility will be infused into your heart, i.e. properties of our Lord Jesus Christ. The beginning of humility is poverty of spirit; the middle of success in it is the world of Christ, which surpasses all understanding and comprehension; the end and perfection is the love of Christ. Humility never gets angry, does not please people, does not indulge in sadness, and is not afraid of anything. A humble person is incapable of having malice and hatred: he has no enemies. If one of the people offends him, he sees in this person an instrument of justice or the Providence of God. The humble surrenders himself entirely to the will of God. The humble does not live his own life, but God's. The humble person is free from arrogance, and therefore he constantly seeks God’s help and constantly remains in prayer. 1. 536–538 “What does it mean to believe?” - they asked one great saint of God (St. Pimen the Great). He answered: “To believe means to be in humility and mercy.” Humility relies on God - not on itself and not on people: and therefore in its behavior it is simple, direct, firm, majestic. The blind sons of the world call it pride. Humility does not give any value to earthly goods; in his eyes, God is great, the Gospel is great. It strives for them, not deigning decay and vanity with either attention or gaze. The sons of corruption, the servants of vanity, call holy coldness towards corruption and vanity pride. 1.539 Saint Isaac of Syria to the question: “What are the distinctive signs of humility?” answered: “Just as the elevation of the soul is its waste, forcing it to soar (through the dreaming it produces) and not preventing it from being lifted up by the clouds of its thoughts, on which it flows around the whole creation, so (in contrast to elevation) humility gathers the soul into silence; through humility the soul concentrates within itself.” 2.227 Humility does not even have the tongue to say about someone that he is careless or disdainful; does not have eyes to see other people's errors; has no ears to hear what cannot benefit the soul; finally, it has no worries except worries about its sins. He tends to maintain peace with everyone, not because of friendship, but for the sake of God’s commandment. 6.490 Holy, God-loving simplicity requires that we not compare ourselves with any of our neighbors, but live simply - for God and our salvation in Him. With such simplicity, all our neighbors will begin to seem better than us; and this is what is needed - this is humility, this leads to love for one’s neighbors. The Holy Fathers said that humility is a heartfelt feeling that begins imperceptibly in the soul from doing the commandments of Christ. 6. 643–644 ...Devotion to the will of God and gratitude to God for everything that happens delights every situation and teaches one to derive spiritual benefit from it. Humility goes almost side by side with feat, i.e. it brings almost the same success as that achieved by feat. Humility alone, in itself, is useful; and feat without humility not only does not bring any fruit, on the contrary, it does harm, leading to a high opinion of oneself and condemnation of one’s neighbors. Humility consists, among other things, in recognizing ourselves as worthy of the position in which we find ourselves, and insufficiently in the position of the best and highest, even in spiritual terms, and humbly surrendering ourselves to the will of God. This mood of thoughts is evidenced in its truth by the peace brought to the heart, and instructs a person on the path of the eternal life. In our time, God grants salvation more through humility than through feat: now, with increased weaknesses, feat is especially dangerous, as it is strongly denounced by condemnation, moreover, requiring an experienced leader; and humility is always unfallen. The very weaknesses and sins, when we confess them and repent, contribute to humility. Thus, in the all-powerful right hand of the All-Wise God, even evil promotes good with evil intentions, according to the expression of some great father. 6. 666–667 Let the will of the Lord our God be over all of us, who knows much more than we do what is good for us. Let us surrender ourselves to Him with faith. Such faith is humility, as one saint said. father, because humility is complete devotion to God with complete distrust of oneself. 6.697 (See Virtues, Prodigal passion, Attitude to passions, Self-justification, Peace of God, Absorption, Wisdom, Temptations, Jesus Prayer, Humility and Prayer). Humility is a way of thinking borrowed entirely from the Gospel, from Christ. Humility is a feeling of the heart, it is a pledge of the heart corresponding to humility. First one must learn humility; As you practice humility, the soul acquires humility, because the state of the heart always depends on the thoughts that have become internalized in the mind. When a person’s work is overshadowed by Divine grace, then humility and humility in abundance will begin to give birth to and aggravate each other with the haste of the companion of prayer—crying. 1.314 Just as the soul is unknown and invisible with the eyes of the body, so the humble person is not known when he is among people. Just as the soul is hidden inside the body from being seen by people and from communicating with them, so the truly humble person not only does not want to be seen and understood by people because of his distance and renunciation of everything, but even he would like to plunge into himself, to live and remain in silence, completely forgetting his previous thoughts and feelings, to become somehow non-existent and not beginning to exist, even unknown to his very soul. Such as he is hidden, hidden and separated from the world, so completely is he in his Lord. 2.227–228 (See Prayer Requests). “A humble person should not show his humility by speaking humbly: but it is enough for him to say forgive me or pray for me. One should also not be called upon to perform low deeds: this, like the first (i.e., humility), leads to vanity, hinders success and does more harm than good; but when they command something, they do not contradict it, but fulfill it with obedience, this leads to prosperity” (St. John the Prophet). The world's approval of humility already serves as a condemnation of it. The Lord commanded to perform all virtues in secret, and humility is the manifestation of humility to show people. It is pretense, deception, firstly of oneself, then of others: because concealment of one’s virtues is one of the properties of humility, and through humility and humility this concealment is destroyed. “When you are among your brethren,” says Saint John Climacus, “watch yourself so that you do not show anything more righteous than them. Otherwise, you will do double evil: you will offend your brothers with your hypocrisy and pretense, but you will certainly produce arrogance in yourself. Be careful in your soul, without showing it in any way physically, neither by appearance, nor by word, nor by hint.” As much as it is useful to reproach yourself and accuse yourself of sin before God, of the secret of the spiritual cage, it is so harmful to do this in front of people. Otherwise, we will arouse in ourselves the seductive opinion that we are humble, and teach such a concept about ourselves to blind laymen. 1. 311–313 The cause of heart confusion is unbelief; The reason for peace of mind, heartfelt peace of grace is faith. With the abundant action of faith, a person’s entire being is immersed in the most comforting spiritual pleasure of the sacred world of Christ, as if it is saturated and overflowing with this feeling. Intoxicated with it, it becomes insensitive to the arrows of confusion. The fathers rightly said that “faith is humility”, that “to believe means to be in humility and goodness.” 1.315 Keep peace within yourself. Know that if you are embarrassed, then this is a sign that some false thought has crept into you. 6.596 The action of the peace of Christ in a person is a sign of his remaining in the commandments of Christ, outside of error and self-deception: on the contrary, confusion, the most subtle, no matter what excuses it may be covered up, serves as a sure sign of deviation from the narrow path of Christ onto the broad path leading to destruction. 2.223 (See Good, Correct attitude towards passions, Faith, Thoughts, Blasphemous thoughts, Rule, Self-reproach). Your dreams are dreams that lead into delusion for those who do not guard against them. We must guard the mind and keep it formless and dreamless. Don’t believe in any dreams, and may God’s mercy cover you. 6.840 Demons use dreams to disturb and damage human souls; also, inexperienced monks themselves, by paying attention to their dreams, harm themselves: for this reason, it is necessary to make here a definition of the meaning of dreams in a person whose nature has not yet been renewed by the Holy Spirit. During human sleep, the state of the sleeping person is arranged by God in such a way that the whole person is in complete rest. This rest is so complete that during it a person loses consciousness of his existence and comes into self-forgetfulness. During sleep, all activity associated with labor and performed voluntarily under the control of the mind and will ceases; that activity which is necessary for existence and cannot be separated from it remains. In the body, the blood continues its movement, the stomach cooks food, the lungs send out breath, the skin allows perspiration; thoughts, dreams and feelings continue to multiply in the soul, but not depending on reason and arbitrariness, but according to the unconscious action of nature. From such dreams, accompanied by characteristic thinking and sensations, a dream is composed. It is often strange, as not belonging to the system of voluntary and intentional dreams and thoughts of a person, but being spontaneous and self-righteous according to the law and requirement of nature. Sometimes a dream bears the incoherent imprint of arbitrary thoughts and dreams, and sometimes it is a consequence of a moral mood. Thus, a dream in itself cannot and should not have any meaning. It is ridiculous and completely illogical that some people want to see in the ravings of their dreams a prediction of their own future, or the future of others, or some other meaning. What about something that has no reason to exist? Demons, having access to our souls while we are awake, also have it during our sleep. And during sleep they tempt us with sin, mixing their dreams into our dreams. Also, having seen in us attention to dreams, they try to make our dreams entertaining, and to arouse in us greater attention to these nonsense, to introduce us little by little into confidence in them. Such trust is always associated with conceit, and conceit makes our mental view of ourselves false, which is why all our activities are deprived of correctness: this is what the demons need. To those who have succeeded in conceit, demons begin to appear in the form of Angels of Light, in the form of martyrs and saints, even in the form of the Mother of God and Christ Himself, they bless their lives, promise them heavenly crowns, and thereby elevate them to the heights of conceit and pride. Such a height is also a disastrous abyss. We need to know and know that in our state, which has not yet been renewed by grace, we are unable to see dreams other than those formed by the delirium of the soul and the slander of demons. Just as during a state of vigor thoughts and dreams constantly and incessantly arise in us from fallen nature or are brought by demons, so during sleep we see only dreams based on the action of fallen nature and the action of demons. Just as our consolation during our wakefulness consists of tenderness born from the consciousness of our sins, from the memory of death and the judgment of God - only these thoughts arise in us from the grace of God living in us, implanted in holy baptism, and are brought to us by the Angels of God, in accordance with our state of penitents - so in a dream, very rarely, in extreme need, the Angels of God represent to us either our death, or hellish torment, or a terrible near-death and afterlife judgment. From such dreams we come to the fear of God, to tenderness, to crying for ourselves. But such dreams are given very rarely to an ascetic or even to an obvious fierce sinner, according to the special unknown vision of God; are given very rarely, not because of the stinginess of Divine grace towards us - no! - for the reason that everything that happens to us outside the general order leads us to conceit and shakes in us the humility that is so necessary for our salvation. The will of God, the fulfillment of which consists in the salvation of man, is depicted in the Holy Scriptures so clearly, so strongly, in such detail that promoting the salvation of people by violating the general order becomes most unnecessary and unnecessary. To the one who asked for the resurrection of the dead and his message to the brethren to exhort them to cross from the wide path to the narrow one, it was said: Moses and the prophets have their hands: let them listen to them. When the one who asked objected: neither!.. but if anyone comes to them from the dead, they will repent, he received the answer: if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, and if anyone rises from the dead, they do not have faith (Luke 16:27-31). Experience has shown that many who were granted visions of ordeals, the Last Judgment and other afterlife horrors in their dreams were shocked by the vision for a short time, then scattered, forgot about what they had seen and led a carefree life; on the contrary, those who did not have any visions, but who carefully studied the law of God, gradually came to the fear of God, achieved spiritual success and, in the joy born of the announcement of salvation, moved from the earthly vale of sorrows to blissful eternity. Saint John Climacus discusses the participation of demons in monastic dreams in the following way: “When we, having left home and household for the sake of the Lord, give ourselves up to wandering for the love of God, then the demons, taking revenge for this, attempt to disturb us with dreams, presenting to us our relatives either weeping, or dying, or being kept in prison and exposed to misfortune for us. A believer in dreams is like one chasing his shadow and trying to catch it. The demons of vanity become prophets in dreams, foretelling the future with their cunning and foreshadowing it to us, so that when it is fulfilled, we become bewildered and, as we are already close to the gift of foreknowledge, are elevated in thought. For those who believe the demon, he is often a prophet, and for those who humiliate him, he is always a liar. Being a spirit, he sees what is happening in the air and, realizing that someone is dying, announces this in a dream to the frivolous. Demons do not know anything about the future by foreknowledge: otherwise, even sorcerers could predict our death. Demons transform into Angels of Light, often take on the image of martyrs and in dreams show us our communication with them, and those who awaken are immersed in joy and exaltation. Let this be a sign of delusion (demonic seduction) for you. The Holy Angels show torment, judgment, death, which is why, when we wake up, we are filled with trembling and lamentation. If we begin to submit to demons in our dreams, they will begin to mock us in our waking state. He who believes in dreams is completely unskilled, but he who does not believe in any dream is truly wise. Trust only those dreams that announce to you torment and judgment; If, because of them, despair begins to disturb you, then such dreams are from demons.” The Monk Cassian the Roman tells about a certain monk, a native of Mesopotamia, that he led the most solitary and fasting life, but died from the seduction of demonic dreams. The demons, seeing that the monk paid little attention to his spiritual development, but directed all his attention to the physical feat and gave it, and therefore himself, a price, began to present him with dreams, which, through demonic cunning, actually came true. When the monk established confidence in his dreams and in himself, the devil presented to him in a magnificent dream Jews enjoying heavenly bliss, and Christians languishing in hellish torment. At the same time, the demon - of course, in the form of an angel or some Old Testament righteous man - advised the monk to accept Judaism in order to gain the opportunity to take part in the bliss of the Jews, which the monk did without the slightest delay. Enough has been said to explain to our beloved brethren how foolish it is to listen, much less trust, to dreams, and what terrible harm can arise from trusting them. Attention to dreams inevitably creeps into the soul to trust them, and therefore attention itself is strictly forbidden. The nature renewed by the Holy Spirit is governed by completely different laws than the nature that is fallen and stagnant in its fall. The ruler of the renewed man is the Holy Spirit. “The grace of the Divine Spirit shone upon them,” said St. Macarius the Great, “and settled in the depths of their minds: this is the Lord as the soul.” Both in wakefulness and in sleep they remain in the Lord, outside of sin, outside of earthly and carnal thoughts and dreams. Their thoughts and dreams, which during sleep are outside the control of the human mind and will, acting in other people unconsciously according to the demands of nature, act in them under the guidance of the Spirit, and the dreams of such people have spiritual significance. Thus, righteous Joseph was taught in a dream the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word; in a dream he was commanded to flee to Egypt and return from it (Matthew chapters 1 and 2). Dreams sent by God carry in themselves an irresistible conviction. This conviction is understandable to the saints of God and incomprehensible to those who are still struggling with passions. 5. 346–350 Lying down on the bed, one should remember death, the image of which is a temporary sleep, and, having renounced all thoughts and dreams, fall asleep with the Jesus Prayer. 6.516 (See Good temptation, Love for one's neighbor). (See Condemnation, Pharisaism, Slander). Everything that happens is accomplished under the watchful gaze of the All-Good and Almighty God, one by the will of God, the other by God’s permission. Woe to the world from temptations, said the Savior; “But temptations must come,” the Savior predicted. Allowance of temptations, as a logical consequence of people’s use of their freedom and will, and as punishment, which itself follows from the abuse of the will (since God has given freedom to the will, and at the same time given the law on how to use it), must be contemplated with reverence, humility, confession of one’s sinfulness and the justice of God. The prayer of the holy three youths in the cave of Babylon is very instructive. May God's will be done! May the merciful Lord grant salvation to the weak, from whom I am the first who have any will, even the weakest, to be saved. 6.112 The Monk Pimen the Great said: “It is good to run away from the causes of sin. A person who is close to the cause of sin is like standing on the edge of a deep abyss, and the enemy always, whenever he wants, conveniently plunges him into the abyss. But if we are removed in body from the reasons for sin, then we are like one who is far removed from the abyss; the enemy, even if he drags us into the abyss, but at the time when we are subjected to attraction, we can resist, God will help us.” The causes (guilt) of sin, reasons for it, temptations are the following: wine, wives, wealth, health (excessive) of the body, power and honors. “These,” says Saint Isaac of Syria, “are not actually sins, but because of them our nature conveniently inclines toward sin, which is why a person must be carefully guarded against them.” 5.40 We are extremely weak; The temptations around us have multiplied, intensified excessively: in their seductive variety and attractiveness they appear before the painful gaze of the mind and heart, attracting them to themselves, turning them away from God. We have submitted so much to the influence of temptations that even the guidance of the Word of God, the only means of salvation, has been abandoned by us. With it, it is necessary to lead the most attentive life, alien to absent-mindedness, and our damaged will requires the completely opposite. We strived for material prosperity, for the prosperity of the world! We need honors, we need abundance and luxury! We need distraction and participation in the pleasures of the world! To achieve this, we are exclusively concerned with the development of the fallen nature. The very concept of a renewed nature has been lost by us; the gospel commandments are neglected and forgotten; spiritual work is completely unknown to us, but we are so busy with physical work and for the purpose that we can appear reverent and holy before the world and receive its retribution from it. We have abandoned the narrow and sad path of salvation: we are following the broad and spacious path. Save me, Lord! as if the monk is in poverty. We, monks, are humbled above all others, and we are humble throughout the whole earth today for our sins. And at this time there is no prince, and a prophet, and a leader (Dan. 3:37-38) to lead in a battle invisible to sensory eyes, not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, and against the authorities, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). “Woe to the world because of temptation: for there is a need to come with temptation” (Matthew 18:7), the Lord foretold. And the coming of temptations is God’s permission, and moral disaster from temptations is God’s permission. By the end of the life of the world, temptations should intensify and multiply so much that, due to the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will dry up (Matthew 24:12), and the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8). The land of Israel, the Church, will be brought down from the sword - from the murderous violence of temptations - and will be completely empty (Ezek. 38:18). Living according to God will become very difficult. It will become this way because it is impossible for someone living in the midst and in the face of temptations not to be influenced by temptations. Just as ice, when exposed to heat, loses its hardness and turns into the softest water, so the heart, filled with good will, when subjected to the influence of temptations, especially constant ones, relaxes and changes. Living according to God will become very difficult due to the vastness and universality of the retreat. The multiplying apostates, calling themselves and presenting themselves as Christians in appearance, will be all the more convenient to persecute true Christians; the multiplied apostates will surround true Christians with countless intrigues and will oppose countless obstacles to their good intention of salvation and service to God, as Saint Tikhon of Voronezh and Zadonsk notes. They will act against the servants of God with the violence of power, and slander, and cunning intrigues, and various deceptions, and fierce persecution. 5. 140–141 Saint Isaac of Syria said: “He who does not remove himself from the causes of sin is arbitrarily drawn into sin against his will.” ...A person’s good will is strengthened away from temptations and receives extraordinary firmness and strength; on the contrary, being brought closer to temptations, it begins to weaken little by little and finally becomes completely perverted. So the ice gets stronger and stronger in the cold; but, when exposed to heat, it melts and disappears. 1.335 (See Condemnation, Changeability, Spiritual Love, The Path of Asceticism, The Jesus Prayer, Consolation). Christian perfection is a gift from God, and not the fruit of human labor and achievement; feat proves only the reality and sincerity of the desire to receive the gift; By means of a feat that curbs and tames passions, human nature is made capable and prepared to accept the gift. It is up to man to cleanse and decorate, and then with the help of God, the abode within himself for God; the coming of God to this monastery depends solely on God's favor (John 14:32). Non-acquisitiveness and renunciation of the world are a necessary condition for achieving perfection. The mind and heart must be entirely directed towards God; all obstacles, all reasons for entertainment must be removed; “Everyone from you,” said the Lord, “who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:33). Trust in perishable property must be replaced by trust in God, and the property itself must be replaced by the promise of God, who said: “Do not worry about the words: What pits, or what do we drink, or what do we wear? The pagans are looking for all of these: for your heavenly Father knows that you require all of these. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this will be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33). 2.344 [Reverend Macarius of Egypt, named Great by the Church for the excellence of his virtues, especially for his deep humility, a standard-bearing and spirit-bearing father, said in his sublime, holy, mysterious conversations that the purest and most perfect person has something proud in himself (Conversation 7, Chapter 4). This saint of God reached the highest degree of Christian perfection, lived in times abundant with saints, saw the greatest of the holy monks, Anthony the Great, and said that he had not seen a single person who could be called perfect in the exact sense of the word (Conversation 8, Chapter 5).] (See Holiness, Salvation and Perfection). Conscience is a feeling of the human spirit, subtle, bright, distinguishing good from evil. This feeling distinguishes good from evil more clearly than the mind. 1.367 Arbitrary sins darken, dull, muffle, and lull the conscience. Every sin that is not cleansed by repentance leaves a harmful impression on the conscience. Constant and arbitrary sinful life, as it were, kills it. 1.367 Just as the blade of a knife is sharpened by a stone, so the conscience is sharpened by Christ: it is enlightened by study and refined by the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. A conscience enlightened and sophisticated by the Gospel shows a person in detail and clearly his sins – even the smallest ones. 1.368 Keep your conscience towards God: fulfill all the commandments of God, both visible to everyone and invisible to no one, visible and known only to God and your conscience. Keep your conscience towards your neighbor: do not be content with the mere plausibility of your behavior towards your neighbors! Seek from yourself that your very conscience is satisfied with this behavior. It will then be satisfied when not only your deeds, but also your heart are placed in the relationship towards your neighbor commanded by the Gospel. Keep a conscience towards things, avoiding excesses, luxury, negligence, remember that all the things you use are God's creations, God's gifts to man. Keep your conscience towards yourself: do not forget that you are the image and likeness of God, that you are obliged to present this image in purity and holiness to God Himself. 1.369 “Have you seen anyone fallen? “Convince me as if I were my own successor,” says Abba Dorotheos. This saint said about himself that he would rather sin in some external matter, acting on the advice of his neighbor, than to act on his own. And in my small experiments, in the event of any failure, I have the consolation that flows from the fact that the deed was not done or undertaken on my own. 6.225 The Fathers forbid giving advice to your neighbor on your own impulse, without asking your neighbor; unauthorized giving of advice is a sign of consciousness of spiritual knowledge and dignity, which is obvious pride and self-delusion. This does not apply to superiors and leaders, who are obliged at all times, in every need encountered, and without being asked, to instruct the brotherhood entrusted to them (2 Tim. 4:2). But when visiting other monasteries, they should be guided by the advice of St. Macarius of Alexandria to St. Pachomius the Great. Pachomius asked Macarius about the instruction of the brethren and the trial of them. Abba Macarius answered: “Teach and judge your subordinates and do not judge any of the strangers.” This rule was and is observed by all abbots who want to please God. 5. 80–81 Receive those who come to you for advice with the fear of God and, whenever they come, pray to God that He will give you a useful word to say to your neighbor. By turning to God in prayer before every conversation with your neighbor, you will cleanse your conversations of vanity. Speak with caution, without going into verbosity. Do not ask empty, curious questions to those who come, and try to avoid talking about the affairs of the monastery and all the affairs of this world. If you get carried away and say something not according to your conscience, i.e. in violation of the rules written here, then mentally reproach yourself and repent before God. Thus, the coming of your neighbors will bring you significant benefit, revealing to you your weakness, which otherwise could have remained closed, which is very harmful to the soul. Although you are not sufficient to teach advice, just as I am not sufficient, but, due to the poverty of our time, we must share our meager knowledge with our neighbors. If you do this work with humility, not allowing your “I” to act, then even for this work, no matter how insufficient it may be, God’s mercy will overshadow you. 6.336 You shouldn’t go too crazy about teaching advice, but humbly refuse it. When forced, then say something lightly, leaving the matter to God. 6.368 It’s not a problem to underlay the burden on your neighbor; shift it - and your neighbor can conveniently be damaged beyond repair, and become incapable of anything for the rest of his life. 6.377 Without my own questioning of a person, I would not dare to give him any advice: this is forbidden by the holy fathers. 6.823 The great disaster is that mental dispensation and state in which a Christian, without being called or questioned, out of his own consciousness of his dignity, begins to teach, reprove, and reproach his neighbors! When asked, either refuse to give advice and say your opinion, as if you know nothing, or, in extreme need, speak with the greatest caution and modesty, so as not to hurt yourself with vanity and pride, and your neighbor with a harsh and reckless word. 5.278 Connecting mind, soul and body Mental, heartfelt, spiritual prayer is commanded to man by God in both the Old and New Testaments. Love the Lord your God, God commands, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is the first commandment (Mark 12:30; Deut. 6:5). It is obvious that the fulfillment of the greatest, most sublime commandment of all the commandments cannot be achieved otherwise than by mental, heartfelt and spiritual prayer, by which the one praying is separated from all creation, and his entire being, with his whole being, rushes to God. Being in this aspiration towards God, the person praying suddenly unites with himself and sees himself healed by the touch of the finger of God. The mind, heart, soul, body, hitherto cut by sin, are suddenly united together in the Lord. Since the union took place in the Lord, was produced by the Lord, it is both the union of man with himself and his union with the Lord. The union, or together with the union, will be followed by the manifestation of spiritual gifts. More correctly: connection is a gift of the Spirit. The first of the spiritual gifts, which produces a wonderful union, is the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ will be followed by the whole face of the gifts of Christ and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which the Apostle numbers as follows: love, joy, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23) 2. 220 The greatest teachers of monasticism testify to the blissful union of a person with himself through the action of the world of Christ. Saint John Climacus says: I cried with all my heart, i.e. body, soul and spirit: where these last two are united, there is God in their midst (Ps. 58:145; Matt. 18:20). Venerable Isaiah the Hermit: “If you, like the wise virgins, know that your vessel is full of oil, and you can enter the palace, and should not remain outside; if you felt that your spirit, soul and body were united immaculately and rose undefiled in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; if conscience does not convict and condemn you; if you became a baby according to the word of the Savior, who said: “Leave the children, and do not forbid them to come to Me: for such is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:14), then truly you have become the bride (of Christ); The Holy Spirit rests on you, although you are still in the body.” 2.224 It is necessary to explain and make somewhat understandable the connection of mind, soul and body for those who have not felt it, so that they will recognize it when, by the grace of God, it begins to manifest itself in them. This connection is quite clear, quite tangible, and not something dreamy or perceived by a seductive opinion. It can be somewhat explained from the opposite state in which we all usually find ourselves. The opposite state, the separation of mind, soul and body, their discordant action, often turning into opposition of one to the other, is a sad consequence of our fall in our forefathers. Who does not see this discordant action in themselves? Who does not feel the inner struggle and the torment it produces? Who does not recognize this struggle, this torment - often unbearable - as our illness, a sign, convincing proof of our fall? Our mind prays or is in meditation and pious intention, but in our heart and body various vicious desires, various passionate aspirations move, forcefully drag the mind away from its exercise, and for the most part carry us away! The very bodily senses, especially sight and hearing, counteract the mind: by delivering to it constant impressions of the material world, they lead it into distraction and distraction. When, by the ineffable mercy of God, the mind begins to unite in prayer with the heart and soul, then the soul, first little by little, and then the whole thing will begin to rush together with the mind into prayer. Finally, our most perishable body, created with the lust of God, and from the fall infected with bestial lust, will rush into prayer. Then the bodily senses remain inactive: the eyes look and do not look; ears hear, and yet do not hear. Then the whole person is enveloped in prayer: his very hands, feet and fingers, unspeakably, but quite clearly and tangibly, participate in prayer and are filled with power inexplicable in words. A person, being in a state of peace in Christ and prayer, is inaccessible to any sinful thoughts - the same person for whom previously every battle with sin was a sure victory. The soul feels that an adversary is approaching it; but the prayer power that fills it does not allow the enemy to approach and desecrate the church of God. 2. 228–229 Divine action is immaterial: not seen, not heard, not expected, unimaginable, inexplicable by any comparison borrowed from this century; comes, acts mysteriously. First, it shows a person his sin, grows his sin in a person’s eyes, constantly keeps terrible sin before his eyes, leads the soul into self-condemnation, reveals to it our fall, this terrible, dark, deep abyss of destruction into which our race fell through the sin of our forefather; then little by little he bestows intense attention and contrition of heart during prayer. Having prepared the vessel in this way, he suddenly, unexpectedly, insubstantially touches the dissected parts, and they are united together. 2.319–320 (See Peace of God, Communion with God, Jesus Union Prayer). I believe, according to the tradition of the Church and with the Church, that everyone who Orthodoxy believes in Christ and fulfills His commandments, and who cleanses the violation of the commandments by repentance, will be saved. This is what the Lord Himself said to the young man who asked the Lord how he could be saved. But there is also another goal of Christianity, for which monks are especially appointed - a goal that is achieved and unattainable: Christian perfection. The path to this perfection is purifying oneself with the commandments of the New Testament, the Gospel, guided by which, the son of the Old Adam can be adopted by the New Adam. 6.254 In any business, the initial condition for success is the correct view of the matter; so in the matter of salvation, in order to obtain the desired salvation, a correct view of oneself and of salvation is necessary. Due to the damage to our nature by sin, good and evil are mixed in us, and the earth of our heart does not cease to produce evil, and does not allow good to grow alone, whole, but always with an admixture of evil. This process is natural to us, not because we were created this way, but because we arbitrarily introduced into our nature the poison of sin, which we can no longer separate from our nature through our own efforts. This separation is made for us by the Redeemer, seeking from us and our own efforts to destroy the evil in ourselves, as active evidence of the true acceptance of the salvation given by God to Tuna. So, let us not be discouraged; seeing various evils arising in oneself, one must constantly resist it and purge it from oneself. Labor and feat are lifelong! In due time, when little by little evil begins to wear out, spiritual peace will begin to appear, a sign of the health of the soul. But there is no complete peace in the country of war and struggle. He either appears, then disappears again: the place of permanent peace is in heaven and in eternity. We need to know all this so as not to demand from ourselves what is not natural to us, and again in order not to lose heart in a lifelong feat, fighting courageously against the evil that rises against us both inside and outside of us. When by such a feat we prove our faithfulness to God, then the gift of God's grace - salvation, mysteriously invested in us by baptism and consisting in the union of human nature with God's nature and in the healing of the former by touching the latter, will begin to more clearly reveal its presence in us, giving us a more decisive victory over evil, producing deep peace in us and consoling us with the hope of a blessed eternity. 6. 600–601 Believe and don’t relax. In this case you will certainly be saved. For God does not in any way abandon the person who does not abandon God himself, despite the stumblings encountered due to weakness and damage to the nature by sin. God will certainly lead such a person to salvation. But telling God: save me this way and that is impossible. Because salvation, as a gift of God, is beyond human comprehension. Therefore, anyone who wants to be saved must ask for salvation from God, as the ineffable mercy of God, completely surrendering himself to the will of God. 6.704 The soul of every person who has given himself up to the service of God without any evil, earthly purpose, for the purpose of pleasing God and his salvation, is in the hand of God. No one and nothing can snatch such a soul from the hand of God. God grants such a soul a narrow path during its earthly journey, consisting of various sorrows and hardships, because it is impossible to come to God along the wide path. 6.523 Many talk about salvation, many want to be saved; but if you ask them what salvation consists of, the answer becomes very difficult for them. It wouldn’t matter if the matter ended with one difficulty in the answer! No: the harmful consequences resulting from this are very significant. Ignorance of what salvation consists of imparts uncertainty and irregularity to our actions in the field of virtue. Apparently we do a lot of good deeds; but in essence we do very little work for salvation. Why is this? The answer is very simple: because we do not know what our salvation consists of. To know what our salvation consists of, we must know in advance what our destruction consists of: because salvation is needed only for the lost. He who seeks salvation, thereby necessarily recognizes himself as lost: otherwise why would he seek salvation? Our destruction was accomplished through the destruction of our communication with God and through entering into communication with fallen and rejected spirits. Our salvation lies in breaking off fellowship with Satan and restoring fellowship with God. The entire human race is in perdition, in decline. We have lost communion with God at our very root and source in our forefathers, through their arbitrary sin. ...God, in His ineffable mercy, called the human race again into communion with Himself. He did this through the most wonderful, incomprehensible way. As one of His three Persons, the All-Holy Word, He accepted humanity, being conceived in the womb of the Most Holy Virgin by the action of the All-Holy Spirit... Having accepted all human sins upon Himself, He offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice to the justice of God for sinned humanity: He made atonement, for He could do it. Unlimitedly and infinitely, the Saint atoned with His suffering and death for numerous, but limited, human sins - and the Holy Scripture testifies to Him with all justice: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29)... Virtues, both public and private, flowing from fallen human nature, lost their meaning after the incarnation of God: they were replaced by the great work of God - faith in The one whom God sent (John 4:29). In this great work of God lies salvation, as the Savior Himself testified: This is eternal life (salvation), that they may know Thee, the only true God, and whom Thou didst send, Jesus Christ (John 17:3). The virtues of a Christian must flow from Christ, from the human nature renewed by Him, and not from the fallen nature. Since our fall does not consist in the destruction of good from our nature - this is a distinctive sign of the fall of the rejected angels - but in the mixing of our natural good with evil that is unnatural for us, then our fallen nature has good deeds and virtues characteristic of it. They are committed by pagans, Mohammedans and everyone alien to Christ. These good deeds and virtues, as defiled by an admixture of evil, are unworthy of God, interfere with communication with Him, and oppose our salvation. Let us reject this imaginary good, or more correctly, this is the greatest evil! Let us reject the activities of the fallen nature! Let us indulge in the activities commanded to us by faith in Christ! Let's stop living according to the instructions of our fallen mind, according to the desire of our fallen heart! Let us begin to conduct our residence according to the instructions of the Gospel Commandments, according to the requirements of the will of God. By living this way, we will be saved. Those who give the good deeds of fallen nature a high price they do not deserve fall into the greatest spiritual error. They fall, without realizing it, into humiliation and rejection of Christ. The question is often heard from them: “Why can’t pagans, Mohammedans, Lutherans and all the like, open and hidden enemies of Christianity, be saved? There are many of the most virtuous people among them.” It is obvious that the question and objection arise from complete ignorance of what lies in the destruction and salvation of men. It is obvious that with such a question and objection Christ is humiliated, the idea is expressed that the Atonement and the Redeemer were not a necessity for people, that people can satisfy their salvation through their own means. In short: Christianity is rejected by this question and objection. The virtues of fallen human nature had their price, like the decrees of the Old Testament, before the coming of Christ: they brought a person into a state capable of accepting the Savior... This is an accurate assessment of the goodness of fallen nature! Then this good has value when it leads to Christ. When, satisfied with itself, it separates from Christ, then it becomes the greatest evil, it takes away from us the salvation given by Christ, a salvation that it cannot give of itself. ...All our wealth and dignity are in the Redeemer. A person will be justified only by faith in Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:16). In order to be assimilated to the Redeemer by living faith, complete denial of one’s soul is required (Luke 14:26). All evangelists confirm this requirement, i.e. not only sinfulness, but also the righteousness of fallen nature. The desire to retain the truth of fallen nature defiled by sin is an active rejection of the Redeemer. If you have become estranged from Christ (you have become alienated from Christ), you will be justified by the law of Moses or by nature: you have fallen from grace, says the apostle (Gal. 5:4). “If the law were right, then Christ would die” (Gal. 2:21). This means: in a way of thinking (philosophies) that assumes the dignity of one’s own human truth before God after the appearance of Christianity, there certainly exists a blasphemous concept that colors this entire way of thinking, the concept of the non-necessity of Christ for salvation, a concept that is equivalent to the rejection of Christ... The works of salvation are the essence of the works of faith, the works of the New Testament. These deeds fulfill not human understanding, not human will, but the will of the All-Holy God, revealed to us in the Commandments of the Gospel. A Christian who wants to inherit salvation must do the following: 1) Believe in God as God commands to believe in Him, i.e. accept the teaching about God revealed by God, accept Christianity, preserved in all its purity and completeness in the depths of the Orthodox Church, planted by the God-man in the East, spreading from the East throughout the Universe, hitherto remaining intact only in the East and containing the God-given Christian Teaching uncorrupted, without changes and without admixture with human and demonic teachings... 2) The believer must repent of his previous arbitrarily sinful life and firmly decide to lead a life pleasing to God. “According to him who called you holy,” the holy Apostle Peter bequeaths to Christians, “you also will be holy in all your life, as children of obedience who are not transformed by the first in ignorance of your desires” (1 Pet. 1:15, 14). It is impossible to be assimilated to God, nor to remain in assimilation to God, while remaining and remaining arbitrarily in a sinful life. The New Testament proclaims repentance as the first condition of access to God to all who approach God... 3) those who believe in God, rejecting a sinful life in order to enter into communion with God, enter into this communion through the initial Christian sacrament - holy Baptism: Baptism is birth into Divine life. It is impossible to enter into natural existence without being born according to the law of nature; It is impossible to enter into communion with God, which is our true life or our salvation, without entering Christianity through holy Baptism. This is the Divine decree. Through baptism we enter into rebirth (Titus 3:5), i.e. into that holy existence that was given to Adam at his creation, lost by him at his fall, and returned to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. “Unless someone is born again,” said the Lord, “he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3,5)... Holy Baptism is sealed by another sacrament immediately following it, holy confirmation. This sacrament is rightly called a seal, since holy Baptism can rightly be called a condition, a covenant between God and man. The seal that seals this condition is holy confirmation. 4) Remaining in adoption to God, delivered through holy Baptism, is supported by life according to the Gospel Commandments; stay in adoption is lost by deviating from living according to the Gospel Commandments. The Lord Himself testified to both: “If you keep My commandments,” He said, “you will remain in My love. If anyone does not abide in Me, he will be cast out like a rod and dry up, and they will gather it up and put it into the fire and it will be burned up” (John 15:10:6). For salvation it is necessary that those baptized into Christ live according to the legislation of Christ. 5) The God-Man, having given birth to us for salvation through holy Baptism, brings us into the closest communion with Himself with another great, incomprehensible sacrament, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, through which we unite and mix our body and blood with the Body and Blood of the God-Man. “Eat My Flesh,” said the Lord, “and drink My Blood, you will have eternal life. If you do not consume the flesh of the Son of Man, you do not drink His blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:56, 54, 53). 6) To maintain our weakness, to heal the sinful ulcers we receive after Baptism, to maintain the shrine with which we are sealed by holy Baptism intact, God gave us the sacrament of confession. By this sacrament the state brought about by holy Baptism is renewed and restored. 2. 328–339 What does it mean to inherit salvation, to be saved? This means: to assimilate oneself to the Redeemer, to remain in this assimilation throughout one’s earthly life, and after death, due to such assimilation to the Redeemer, to be transferred with one’s soul to the villages of blessed spirits, to enjoy holy pleasure with them in anticipation of the general resurrection of the dead; then, at the resurrection of the dead, to unite with the body, which the Lord will revive and make incorruptible, and with the body to inherit deep, eternal bliss. 4.335 Those Orthodox Christians who acquired sinful passions and through them entered into communion with Satan, breaking off communion with God, are also deprived of the hope of salvation. Passions are sinful habits of the soul, which, from a long time and frequent exercise in sin, have turned into natural qualities, as it were. These are: gluttony, drunkenness, voluptuousness, absent-minded life coupled with forgetfulness of God, memory malice, cruelty, love of money, stinginess, despondency, laziness, hypocrisy, deceit, theft, vanity, pride and the like. Each of these passions, turning into a person’s character and, as it were, into the rule of his life, makes him incapable of spiritual pleasure on earth and in heaven, even if the person does not fall into mortal sin. “Do not flatter yourselves,” says the holy Apostle Paul, “neither harlots, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor defilers, nor wicked women, nor sodomites, nor covetous people, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). The essence of the deeds of the flesh has been revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, adultery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, zeal, envy, rage, incitement, strife, temptations, heresies, envy, murder, wanton cries, and the like: I will tell you what I have foretold; for those who create the Kingdom of God will not inherit. And those who are Christ's are the flesh crucified with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:19-24). Passion requires careful healing by repentance and timely eradication by the opposite virtue. Passion is not always expressed in action: it can secretly live in a person’s heart, possessing his feelings and thoughts. Passion is recognized when a person does not cease to imagine sin and enjoy its dreams, when, captivated by it, he is no longer able to resist the captivating power of sinful thoughts and images, which with their indecent sweetness absorb all his wisdom and strength. A passionate person does not stop committing sin in dreams and heartfelt feelings, through which he maintains his communication with dark spirits and his subordination to them, and therefore his eternal destruction. 3.165–166 The Savior of the world indicated two paths, two ways of life for those who believe in Him: a path or lifestyle that brings salvation, and a path or lifestyle that brings perfection. The Lord called the last path and residence following Himself, since they serve as the most accurate expression of the teaching taught by the Lord, and a feasible imitation of the kind of life that the Lord led during His earthly wanderings. The conditions of salvation consist in faith in Christ (John 3:36, 17:3), in living according to the commandments of God (Matthew 19:17; Mark 10:19) and in healing through repentance the shortcomings of fulfilling the commandments (Luke 13:3, 5); therefore, salvation is provided, and it is possible for everyone with duties and services in the middle of the world that are not contrary to the Law of God. Some were called by the Lord Himself to follow the Lord, like the apostles, but in general, following the Lord was left by the Lord to the will of everyone, which is clear from all the places in the Gospel where the Lord speaks about this subject. “If anyone wants to walk after Me” (Matthew 16:24), “if anyone wants to be perfect” (Matthew 19:21), “if anyone wants to come after Me” (Lk. 14:26), says the Lord at the beginning of the teaching about “following” and “Christian perfection.” 1. 464–466. Salvation is possible even in life in the midst of the world; To achieve perfection, preliminary renunciation from the world is required. Salvation is necessary for everyone; the attainment of perfection is left to those who choose. 2.342 Achieving... dispassion, sanctification, or, what is the same, Christian perfection, without acquiring mental prayer is impossible: all the fathers agree on this. 1. 207–208 (See Holiness, Perfection, Deification, Renunciation, Faith). Anyone who wants to be saved must surrender to the will of God and pray to God so that God will say, i.e. showed him the way of salvation. Man does not know what is intended for him by God's Providence. Especially in our time of general hesitation, every situation becomes unfaithful and unstable if God, with His all-powerful Hand, does not strengthen it and make it true. 6.708 A saint of God can follow a special path, according to a special election and calling of God, which happens very rarely. The people who take the most special path are either those who are in self-delusion, or those who are heading towards self-delusion. We must stay away and be careful from everyone who follows a special, mysterious path. 6.774 Serenity true and false (See: Peace of mind, Thoughts of sadness, Self-reproach, Insensibility, Spiritual warfare, Inconstancy). Those who want to get rich fall into misfortunes and snares that their very desire to get rich prepares for them. The first fruit of this striving is a multitude of cares and worries that divert the mind and heart from God. The soul, little, coldly, carelessly concerned with God, receives rudeness and falls into insensibility; the fear of God is blotted out in her; the memory of death recedes from her; the mind becomes darkened and ceases to see the Providence of God, as a result of which faith is lost; hope, instead of being established in God, turns to the idol, bringing love to its foot. Then a person dies to virtues, gives in to lies, deceit, cruelty, in a word, all vices, and falls into complete destruction, becoming a vessel of the devil. The root of all evil is the love of money, as containing within itself the cause and occasion for all sins (1 Tim. 4:9-10). And those who were not completely destroyed by the love of money, because they did not completely indulge in it, but only sought moderate enrichment, suffered many disasters. They entangled themselves with heavy worries, fell into various sorrows, were often forced to violate the integrity of their conscience, suffered great damage in spiritual success and saw in themselves a significant deviation from faith and spiritual reason. For a Christian, evangelical poverty is the desire for all the treasures of the world, as being guided by faith and its fruits. The more free the ascetic of Christ is from the world, the safer he is, and the more he has connected with the world, the more he has already been conquered. 2. 145–146 (See Wealth, Property, Passions). 1. Gluttony. Binge eating, drunkenness, non-keeping and allowing fasting, secret eating, delicacy, and generally violation of abstinence. Incorrect and excessive love of the flesh, its belly and rest, which constitutes self-love, which leads to failure to maintain fidelity to God, the Church, virtue and people. 2. Fornication. Prodigal incitement, prodigal sensations and desires of the body, prodigal sensations and desires of the soul and heart, acceptance of unclean thoughts, conversation with them, delight in them, consent to them, procrastination in them. Prodigal dreams and captivities. Desecration by suit. Failure to preserve the senses, especially the sense of touch, is the insolence that destroys all virtues. Foul language and reading voluptuous books. Natural prodigal sins: fornication and adultery. Sins of prodigal unnatural: malakia, sodomy, bestiality and the like. 3. Love of money. The love of money, in general the love of property, movable and immovable. The desire to get rich. Thinking about the means to get rich. Dreaming of wealth. Fear of old age, unexpected poverty, illness, exile. Stinginess. Selfishness. Disbelief in God, lack of trust in His Providence. Addictions or painful excessive love for various perishable objects, depriving the soul of freedom. Passion for vain concerns. Loving gifts. Appropriation of someone else's. Likhva. Cruelty towards the poor brethren and all those in need. Theft. Robbery. 4. Anger. Hot temper, acceptance of angry thoughts; dreams of anger and revenge, indignation of the heart with rage, darkening of the mind with it: obscene shouting, argument, swearing, cruel and caustic words, stress, pushing, murder. Malice, hatred, enmity, revenge, slander, condemnation, indignation and insult to one’s neighbor. 5. Sadness. Sadness, melancholy, cutting off hope in God, doubt in God’s promises, ingratitude to God for everything that happens, cowardice, impatience, lack of self-reproach, grief towards one’s neighbor, grumbling, renunciation of the cross, attempt to descend from it. 6. Dejection. Laziness towards every good deed, especially prayer. Abandonment of church and cell rules. Abandoning unceasing prayer and soul-helping reading. Inattention and haste in prayer. Neglect. Irreverence. Idleness. Excessive calming by sleeping, lying down and all kinds of bliss. Moving from place to place. Frequent exits from the cell, walks and visits with friends. Celebration. Jokes. Blasphemers. Abandonment of bows and other physical feats. Forgetting your sins. Forgetting the commandments of Christ. Negligence. Captivity. Deprivation of the fear of God. Bitterness. Insensibility. Despair. 7. Vanity. The search for human glory. Boasting. Desire and search for earthly honors. Love of beautiful clothes, carriages, servants and cell things. Attention to the beauty of your face, the pleasantness of your voice and other qualities of your body. A disposition towards the dying sciences and arts of this age, a desire to succeed in them in order to acquire temporary, earthly glory. Shame to confess your sins. Hiding them before people and the spiritual father. Craftiness. Verbal justification. Disclaimer. Making up your mind. Hypocrisy. Lie. Flattery. People-pleasing. Envy. Humiliation of one's neighbor. Changeability of character. Pretense. Unconscionability. The character and life are demonic. 8. Pride. Contempt for one's neighbor. Preferring yourself to everyone. Insolence. Darkness, dullness of the mind and heart. Nailing them to the earthly. Hula. Disbelief. Lovely. False mind. Disobedience to the Law of God and the Church. Following your carnal faith. Reading books that are heretical, depraved and vain. Disobedience to authorities. Caustic ridicule. Abandonment of Christ-like humility and silence. Loss of simplicity. Loss of love for God and neighbor. False philosophy. Heresy. Godlessness. Ignorance. Death of the soul. 1. 166–169 All passions and all fallen spirits are in close affinity and union with each other. This affinity, this union is a sin. If you have submitted to one passion, then through the submission of this one passion you have submitted to all other passions. If you allowed yourself to be captivated by one spirit of malice, by conversing with the thoughts it puts in and being carried away by these thoughts or dreams, then you have entered into slavery to all spirits. After your victory, they will hand you over to each other as a captive. The holy fathers teach this, experience itself teaches this. Pay attention to yourself, and you will see that, having allowed yourself to be defeated in something voluntarily, then in something completely different, in which you did not want to give up victory, you will be defeated involuntarily, until you restore your freedom through thorough repentance. 2.212–213 In the light of the Word of God, let us consider our attitude towards our passions and weaknesses in order to obtain a correct concept of ourselves and, on the basis of a correct concept of ourselves, to correctly govern ourselves. Man is conceived in iniquities, born in sins (Ps. 50:7): therefore, passions or sinful ailments of soul and body are characteristic of our fallen nature. Passions are unnatural to our immaculate nature, as it was created; are unnatural to passions and renewed nature; they are natural to fallen nature. So the properties of this disease are natural to any bodily illness; So illness and death are natural to our body, which has lost immortality and the properties of immortality. Before the fall, immortality was natural to our body; illness and death were unnatural. Passion is otherwise sin, in the broad sense of the word. The Apostle, when he speaks of sin living in man (Rom. 7:14, 17:20), means by the word “sin” the infection of all human nature with evil, he means passions. This state is also called the carnal state (Rom. 7:14, 8:8) and death (Rom. 7:24, 8:2). Before the redemption of our race by the Savior, man could not resist passions, even if he wanted to: they forcibly carried him away; they ruled over him against his will. A Christian, through holy Baptism, throws off the yoke of passions; he receives the strength and opportunity to resist passions, to trample on them (Reverend Abba Dorotheos, teaching 1, on the rejection of the world). But a redeemed person, renewed, placed in a spiritual paradise - in the Church - is given freedom: according to his will, he can either resist passions and overcome them in the Lord, or submit and enslave them. So in the sensual paradise it was left to the will of the primordial man to either obey the commandment of God or disobey it. Every resistance offered to the demands of passion weakens it; constant resistance brings her down. Each infatuation with passion strengthens it; constant infatuation with passion enslaves the passions of the one who is carried away by it. A Christian's resistance to passions must extend to the crucifixion of the flesh with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24); it must extend in the chosen spiritual fighters to the shedding of blood: “give the blood and receive the Spirit” (Abba Longinus). Only he who has suffered in the flesh is freed from sin (1 Pet. 6:1). This means: only one who suffers in the body, whether through voluntary or involuntary deeds, is able to resist the sinful desires of the flesh, suppress and drown them out in himself. The body, rested and cherished by various bliss and pleasures, is a container of passions. The God-Man, who suffered and was crucified for us, demands from His disciples and followers that they imitate His sufferings, that they sacrifice everything that is temporary for the eternal, that is corruptible for the incorruptible, that they become disciples and followers of the God-Man with their very lives. A feat is necessary for a Christian; but it is not feat that frees a Christian from the dominion of passions: it is the right hand of the Most High that frees him, the grace of the Holy Spirit frees him. ...The action of passions, which delights a carnal man, is painful and painful for a spiritual man - it arouses in him the strongest disgust. At the slightest appearance or arousal of passion, he flees from it, as from a predatory, fierce beast, as from a murderer, he runs under the cover of prayer, under the cover of the Gospel teaching, under the cover of God. ...The passions, abiding in a Christian, constantly forcing him to be on guard, constantly challenging him to fight, contribute to his spiritual success. Evil, according to the wise dispensation of Divine Providence, promotes good with evil intentions - said the Monk Macarius the Great. The cruel and heavy millstone grinds the grains of wheat into flour, and makes the wheat capable of making bread from it. A difficult struggle with passions erases a person’s heart, crushes his arrogant spirit, forces him to admit to a state of fall, experimentally discovering this state - forces him to admit the need for redemption, destroys hope in himself, transfers all hope to the Redeemer. We must believe that in original sin lies the seed of all passions, that we are born with an inclination towards all types of sin - and therefore we should not be surprised at the manifestation and rebellion of any passion, as if it were something unusual and strange. According to the properties of the soul and body, according to the influence of circumstances, in one person one passion acts and develops with special force, in another - another: in another a special inclination towards the love of money is noticeable, in another - gluttony; one is carried away by carnal lust, the other by the thirst for vain honors. Anyone who is not carried away by any passion should not think that this passion is not in him: only there was no opportunity to discover it. One must constantly be prepared to counteract all passions. In particular, one must be vigilant against the prevailing passion, which manifests itself more often than other passions, and which most disturbs a person. The passions inherent in fallen nature are distinguished by the greatest difference from the passions acquired arbitrarily by each person. The power of the latter is incomparably greater than the power of the former. But repentance, as an omnipotent medicine, taught by the Almighty Physician - God, heals the person who makes the legal use of this medicine, heals with all satisfaction from all sinful ailments. Some passions serve as the beginning and cause for other passions; such are gluttony, bliss, entertainment, luxury, love of money, love of fame, and unbelief. Their consequences: voluptuousness, sadness, anger, resentment, envy, pride, oblivion of God, abandonment of virtuous living. In a spiritual feat one must primarily arm oneself against the initial passions: their consequences will be destroyed by themselves. He who has renounced bodily pleasures, human glory, covetousness, and a distracted life will not indulge in anger and sadness, nor will he be overwhelmed by pride; he will unhinderedly walk along the path of God’s commandments to salvation, to the vast knowledge of God, accessible to only the pure in heart. The leader of all passions is unbelief. It opens the entrance to the soul to the love of money, and ambition, and bad lusts, and anger, and sadness, and the fulfillment of evils - despair. The leader and door of all true Christian virtues is faith. Passions live secretly in people who lead distracted, inattentive lives; for the most part they are satisfied with them, for the most part they are not noticed by them, for the most part they are justified - they are often recognized as the purest, most sublime virtues. One true Christian, constantly paying attention to himself, studying the law of the Lord day and night, trying to fulfill the Gospel Commandments with all care, can see his passions. The more he purifies and prospers, the more passions are revealed to him. Finally, before the eyes of a mind healed by the Gospel, the terrible abyss of human fall opens. A Christian sees in himself the fall of humanity because he sees his passions. Passion is a sign of a sinful, deadly disease that affects all of humanity. In what position does seeing his passions, his fall, bring a Christian? It leads you to cry for yourself, to cry bitterly and inconsolably. No earthly joy can stop or interrupt this crying. Divine grace alone stops it from time to time, teaching the weeping and torn heart the hope of salvation, spiritual peace and heavenly pleasure flowing from the world of Christ. In what position does the action of passions revealed in him bring a Christian? - It raises him to an intensified battle against passions. The ascetic of Christ intensifies his prayers, his fasting, his vigils, his genuflections and, mentally showing his misfortunes to God, intercedes with inexpressible contrition and heart disease for mercy. “I,” says the divine David, “when I was always cold, I clothed myself in sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned to my bosom. Weeping and lamenting, I humbled myself” (Ps. 34:13–14). How are passions revealed? Thoughts, dreams and sinful feelings. Thoughts and dreams sometimes suddenly appear to the mind, sometimes they sneak up on it in a mysterious way; similarly, sensations arise in the heart and body. Sinful thoughts, dreams and sensations lead to committing a sin in reality or, at least, to pleasure and captivity by sinful thoughts, dreams, sensations, to committing a sin in the imagination and feeling. The ascetic of Christ must renounce not only the commission of sin in deed, but also the commission of it in imagination and feeling. Each passion intensifies from the delight of it, from the fulfillment of lawless demands and representations of it by secret spiritual movements. Passion, fulfilled in reality or planted in the soul by long-term sympathy with it and its nourishment, receives dominion over a person. It takes a lot of time, it takes a bloody feat, it takes special God's mercy, special God's help to overthrow the yoke of passion, arbitrarily accepted, gaining power over a person either from the fall of a person into mortal sin, or from the criminal, arbitrary enjoyment of sin in the hidden spiritual palace dedicated to Christ. 1. 522–527 When passions take possession of a person, then the mind, deprived of its dominion, serves as an obsequious and inventive servant of the passions to satisfy their crafty, whimsical, criminal demands. 2. 19 Saint John Climacus called prayer the mother of virtues, and humility the destroyer of passions. 2.228 “The brother asked Abba Pimen: what should I do with the passions that confuse me? The elder answered: “We will weep before the goodness of God until God shows His mercy to us.” 6. 267 When one murderous passion prevails over a person, then other passions fall silent in him: the devil ceases to inflict abuse and temptation on him, keeping in him as his treasure, as a sure guarantee of his destruction, the deadly passion that has infected him. A person killed by sin in the secret of his heart, drawn by it to the very gates of hell, often appears to others as holy and edifying. 5.286 (See Salvation and Perfection, Jesus Prayer - Action). The right attitude towards passions Those who, being under the power of passions, demand dispassion from themselves act very wrongly. With such an incorrect demand from themselves, which stems from an incorrect concept of themselves, they come into extraordinary confusion when the sin living in them manifests itself in some way. They become despondent and hopeless. It seems to them, due to their incorrect view of themselves, that the manifestation of sin is something unusual, something happening out of order. Meanwhile, the manifestation of sin in thoughts, feelings, words and deeds (here we are not talking about mortal sins or voluntary sins, but about hobbies) is a logical, natural, necessary manifestation. “If passion disturbs us,” says the Monk Abba Dorotheos, “then we should not be embarrassed by it; to be embarrassed by the fact that passion disturbs us is a matter of unreason and pride, and comes from the fact that we do not know our state of mind and avoid work, as the fathers said. That is why we do not succeed because we do not know our limits and do not have patience in the affairs we begin, but we want to acquire virtue without difficulty. Why is a passionate person surprised when passion disturbs him? Why is he embarrassed? You have acquired it, you have it in yourself, and you are embarrassed! You have accepted her pledges, and you say: why is she bothering me? Better be patient, strive and pray to God.” 2.371 Stay in the Gospel Commandments, struggling with patience and long-suffering against the passions, without becoming despondent and hopeless when you are overcome by sinful thoughts and feelings; however, do not allow yourself to be arbitrarily defeated. If you fall, get up; Having fallen again, get up again until you learn to walk without stumbling. The cup of weakness has its own benefit: until a certain time, it is allowed by the Providence of God to the ascetic for cleansing from pride, anger, remembrance, condemnation, arrogance and vanity. 2.230 Our Russian ascetic, Elder Seraphim of Sarov, says: “We must condescend to our soul in its weaknesses and imperfections, and tolerate our shortcomings, as we tolerate others, but not become lazy, but encourage ourselves to do better. Whether you have eaten a lot of food, or have done something else similar to this, akin to human weakness, do not be indignant at this and do not add harm to harm, but courageously move yourself to correction, and meanwhile 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).” 2.871 It is not typical for any person to remain in goodness constantly, without any humiliation: this is even less typical for a beginner! “Repay your debt to passions!” - said a certain holy mentor of the monastics. Heal victories with repentance! The struggle of the new man with the old makes you skilled in invisible battles, firm, and courageous. Do not wish for a state of calm prematurely! During war, a warrior enriches himself with self-interest. May the Lord give you complete and glorious victory over sin, may He grant you a state of indestructible peace in its rightful time. There is a time for everything! The untimely plucked fruit, although from an excellent tree, is sour, bitter, and liquid. Timeless peace is a loss, not a gain! – deprives you of precious experiences, spiritual success and enlightenment. 6.331 Don't be discouraged by stumbling: infallibility is a pipe dream! Stumblings are characteristic of people who, due to this very tendency to fall, are commanded: “In your patience gain your souls. He who endures to the end will be saved.” 6.349 The earth itself produces various weeds (tares). No one plants them: they grow on their own. The reason for this is the perverted property of the earth. It is foolish to desire from the earth what is unusual for it, i.e. so that the earth does not produce tares. Knowing this property of the earth, farmers carefully and patiently pull out the tares from the ground as they appear; otherwise the weeds will choke and destroy the useful growths. The same should be done with the manifestation of passions when they arise from the heart. It is common for our fallen heart to give birth to various sinful desires. One should not become despondent from this: one should heal passionate manifestations and hobbies with repentance and self-correction. 6.548 It is impossible for someone who has given some course to his passions not to suffer grief when taming them: they have received the right to self-will by the indulgence allowed, they are not suddenly tamed, they do not suddenly part with the freedom they have received; on the contrary, they try to keep a person in their enslavement and therefore confuse him in every possible way. We must patiently wait for the time of confusion until it passes, wait in hope of God’s mercy and help; This is how farmers wait for bad weather to interfere with their work, in the hope that the bad weather will be replaced by a bucket. 6.823 “Do not be indignant, do not be perplexed,” said one holy father, “when you see the action of some passion in yourself. When passion arises, strive against it, try to curb and eradicate it through humility and prayer” (St. Abba Dorotheos). Confusion and bewilderment at the revealed action of passion serves as proof that a person does not know himself. ...It is impossible for the passions living inside a person not to be revealed in his thoughts, words and actions. These manifestations of passions, when accompanied by any kind of hobby, are called and recognized as falls in the field of true Christian asceticism, striving for perfection. They are cured by immediate repentance. Such falls are an integral part of the dilapidation of the old Adam: human nature, fallen and infected with sin. Especially a novice ascetic cannot help but be carried away by sinful thoughts, dreams and sensations; he cannot help but sin in word and in deed. These sins are cured by immediate repentance. It does not speak here about falling into mortal sins and about an arbitrarily sinful life, which is all a fall: here we are talking about light falls, from weakness, called venial sins, from which even the most righteous were not at all free. Scripture testifies: the righteous will fall sevenfold, and will rise by repentance (Proverbs 24:16). According to purification by repentance, passions decrease, but together they become more subtle, more inconspicuous, sometimes they seduce and deceive men filled with Divine grace (1 Chronicles 21:1). These hobbies protect us from arrogance, serve as a cause of humility, and keep us in the saving pasture of repentance. Looking at ourselves from such self-knowledge, we must maintain peace of mind, not be embarrassed or despondent, and not be bewildered when the action of passion is revealed in us. Sometimes this effect is mild, sometimes very strong. Let us courageously resist passions. They will not stop rising up and attacking us to the death! And we will prepare for lifelong resistance to them, in the firm conviction that we cannot be constant conquerors of passions, that by natural necessity we must be subject to involuntary victories, that these very victories contribute to success when they support and strengthen in us repentance and the humility born from it. Let us not trust our victories over passions, let us not admire these victories. Passions, like the demons who wield them, are crafty: they appear to be defeated so that we may become exalted and so that, because of our exaltation, victory over us will be more convenient and decisive. Let us prepare to look at our victories and victories in the same way: courageously, calmly, impartially. Whether you were carried away by sinful dreams, whether you delighted in sinful thoughts, whether you uttered an idle, reckless word, whether you consumed a lot of food or did something else similar to this - do not be indignant, do not be cowardly, do not add harm to harm. Repent immediately before God, who knows your heart, try to correct and improve, become convinced of the need for the strictest observation of yourself, and, maintaining a calm soul, continue your spiritual path with firmness and perseverance. Our salvation is our God, not our works. Works of faith, i.e. By fulfilling the Gospel Commandments, we prove the truth of our faith and our fidelity to God. Do not pay attention to the thoughts of false humility, which, due to your infatuation and fall, inspire you that you have irrevocably angered your God, that God has turned His face away from you, abandoned you, forgotten you. Know the source of these thoughts by their fruits. Their fruits: despondency, weakening in spiritual achievement, and often abandonment of it forever or for a long time. If people have access to the knowledge that every ascetic in a long and difficult field of spiritual achievement will certainly have victories and conquests, that it is impossible for our limitations, weaknesses, and sinfulness not to be expressed by manifestations - all the more does our Creator and Establisher of achievement - God - know this. He looks with mercy at the stumbling blocks of His ascetic, and for his generous constancy and fidelity He prepares for him a crown of truth, victory, and glory. ...The greatest difference is to sin intentionally, out of a disposition to sin, and to sin out of passion and weakness, with a disposition to please God. The greatest difference is to lead a sinful life, to spend life satisfying all your desires, all your passions, and to stumble due to weakness, limitation, due to sinful infection, while walking along the path of God. Premature dispassion is dangerous! It is dangerous to receive the pleasure of Divine grace prematurely. Supernatural gifts can destroy an ascetic who has not learned from his weaknesses through his falls, who is inexperienced in life, who is inexperienced in the fight against sinful thoughts, who is not acquainted in detail with the cunning and malice of demons, with the adaptability of human nature. Man is free to choose good and evil; even if this person were a vessel of Divine grace: he can abuse the very grace of God. Because of it, he can exalt himself above his neighbors; because of it, he may be subject to arrogance. The consequence of arrogance is usually negligence, weakening in the feat, abandonment of it. Following negligence, carnal lusts suddenly and furiously rise up in the soul and body of the sanctified, carrying them away like a stormy stream, casting them into the abyss of fornication, often into the very death of their soul. “God, the lover of mankind, who wants all people to be saved and to come into the understanding of truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), allowed His servants, allowed His beloved, for the entire time of their earthly wandering, to struggle with external and internal sorrows. The struggle with passions and the suffering that vegetates from this struggle are incomparably more painful than all temptations from the outside. The languor and feat into which a Christian is elevated by an invisible, internal struggle, goes back in its meaning to the feat of the martyrs. Give blood and receive the Spirit, we repeat the saying of the fathers who have experienced this struggle. The yoke of such a feat is borne only by careful fulfillers of the Commandments of the Gospel, only by true servants of Christ. “Fulfillment of the commandments teaches a person his weaknesses,” said the Monk Simeon. The entire edifice of salvation is based on the knowledge and awareness of weakness. A strange move for a superficial glance! “Keeping the commandments teaches a person his weaknesses.” But these are words of experience. Only by carefully fulfilling the commandments of Christ can a person see the multitude of his passions; Only by carefully fulfilling the commandments of Christ can a person be convinced of the complete powerlessness of the old Adam for the active new one, of the justice of the definition pronounced by the spiritual law, the definition that this law can be fulfilled only by the bounties of Christ. In the almighty right hand of Providence, sin itself, living inside a person, which has invaded his entire being, which has invaded all the members of his soul and body, contributes to his success, if this person is a true Christian. Spiritual poverty, the consciousness of one’s fall, the consciousness of the need for a Redeemer, the desire with the whole being to confess the Son of God and God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed us, are the fruits of the struggle with passions. These fruits are the key to eternal bliss. Spiritual poverty, the fall of humanity, the living confession of the Redeemer are unknown to the son of this age. He works for passions, recognizes the abundance of virtues in himself, sees virtues - and either expects nothing in heaven, never thinking about heaven, or expects rewards there as a duty, expects because of deep ignorance of the only virtue rewarded in heaven. This virtue is Christianity. The servant of God, fulfilling the Gospel Commandments, reveals passions in himself more and more, and while the grace of the Holy Spirit forms in him blissful spiritual states, poverty of spirit, crying, meekness, mercy, chastity, spiritual intelligence, he recognizes himself as a sinner among sinners, who has not done any good, guilty of countless sins, worthy of eternal torment in fiery hell for his constant violation God's commandments. The holy fathers, seeing the spiritual fruit in themselves vegetating from the struggle with passions, did not want this struggle to end; they wanted to endure in it valiantly, generously. Blessed ones! They sought no other perfection than perfection in humility; they did not seek to find the hope of salvation in anything of their own, they sought to find it in Christ. Where there is no humility, there are no Christian virtues, and where there is true humility, there are all the virtues in their entirety; there is Christ; there passions and the enemy the devil, who wields them, have nothing to do with the servant of Christ, and the son of iniquity, sin, will not embitter him (Ps. 88:23). Let us follow in the footsteps of our fathers and reach the haven of eternal bliss. 1. 521–532 (See your infirmities, Changeability, Sin). Anyone who wants to approach God to serve Him must surrender to the guidance of the fear of God. The feeling of sacred fear, the feeling of deepest reverence for God, is indicated to us, on the one hand, by the immense greatness of the Being of God, on the other – by our extreme limitations, our weakness, our state of sinfulness, fall. Fear is also prescribed to us by the Holy Scriptures, which began to replace the voice of conscience and natural law for us when they became darkened and began to make unclear, mostly false sounds - which completely replaced them when the Gospel appeared. “Work for the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling” (Ps. 2:11), the Holy Spirit teaches us; To those who are obedient to His command, He says: “Come, children, listen to Me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 33:12); proclaims the promise to bestow the fear of God on those who truly intend to become assimilated to God: “My fear will I put in their hearts, so that they will not depart from Me” (Jer. 32:40). The beginning of great science - active knowledge of God - is the fear of God. This science is called wisdom in the Holy Scriptures. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but understanding is good for all who do, and his praise endures for ever and ever” (Ps. 110:10; Proverbs 1:7). In vain, dreamers filled with conceit and self-delusion abhor the fear of God, as the property of despised slaves, when God calls us to fear, proclaims that He Himself will be our teacher of fear, that He will give us the spiritual gift of the fear of God. It is not low for a person, an insignificant creature, fallen, rejected, lost, who has internalized enmity towards God, to move from a state of enmity and destruction to a state of slavery and salvation. This slavery alone is a great acquisition! This slavery is already great freedom! Fear is legally assigned to us as an essential means, necessary for us. Fear purifies a person, prepares him for love: we become slaves in order to legally become children. As we cleanse ourselves through repentance, we begin to feel the presence of God; from the sensation of the presence of God comes a holy sensation of fear. 2. 60–61 The fear of God is a gift from God. As a gift, it is requested through prayer. The holy prophet David wanted to be worthy of this gift and therefore begged God: “Put Thy word in fear for Thy servant, nail Thy fear to my flesh” (Ps. 119:38, 102), i.e. my carnal wishes. The fear of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the holy prophet Isaiah lists as follows: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of the fear of God (Is. 11:2). 2.62 Explaining the commandment of the Lord: “Whoever does not accept his cross and comes after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38), the Monk Cassian reasons as follows: “Our cross is the fear of the Lord. Just as a crucified person can no longer convert or move his limbs according to the desire of his soul, so we must direct our wills and desires not in accordance with what pleases us and amuses us at the present time, but in accordance with the Law of the Lord, which it commands. Like someone nailed to the tree of the godfather, he no longer admires the present, does not think about his passions; he is not amused by worries and worries about tomorrow; there is no desire to acquire property in it; he is not inflamed by any pride, any quarrelsomeness; does not grieve over present dishonors, no longer remembers past ones; although he is still breathing in the body, he considers himself already dead in all respects, directing his heart’s gaze to where he has no doubt to move - so we should be crucified by the fear of the Lord to all this, i.e. we must be dead not only to carnal passions, but also to their very beginnings, to have the eyes of the soul directed to where we must hope for migration every minute. In this way we can acquire the mortification of all our lusts and carnal addictions.” One can easily see that the crucifixion on the cross of the fear of God described here by the Monk Cassian is the act called by Isaac of Syria, which, according to the apostle, consists in the crucifixion of the flesh with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24), constituting the first half of the spiritual path leading the Christian to his destined perfection. 2. 65–66 The Holy Scripture, which teaches us that the fear of the Lord is pure, abide forever (Ps. 18:10), also says that there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, as if fear is torment: fear not to be perfect in love (1 John 4:18). The holy fathers explain this disagreement, which appears at a superficial glance, as follows: “Two fears: one introductory, the other perfect; one is characteristic of beginners, so to speak, in piety, the other is the property of perfect saints who have achieved the measure of love. For example: whoever does the will of God out of fear of torment is, as we said, still a beginner: he does not yet do good for the sake of good itself, but out of fear of punishment. Another fulfills the will of God because of the very love of God, loving the will of God itself, fulfills it in order to please God. Such a one knows what is essential good! Such a one has learned what it means to be with God! Such a person has true love, which the saint calls perfect (1 John 4:18). This love brings him into complete fear: because he fears and remains faithful to the will of God, not out of fear of executions, not in order to avoid (eternal) torment, but because, as we said, having tasted the very sweetness of being with God, he is afraid of falling away, afraid of losing it. By this perfect fear, acting out of love, the introductory fear is driven out. That is why it is said: Perfect love casts out fear. However, it is impossible to achieve perfect fear other than through introductory fear” (St. Abba Dorotheos). The very greatness of God inspires holy, reverent fear in those rational creatures of God who, because of their purity and holiness, are worthy of the closest presence of God. We glorify God in the council of saints, great and terrible above all those around Him (Ps. 38). 2. 66–67 Do not be surprised that you heard a knock: this is the devil’s insurance, and one should not indulge in insurance, knowing that the devil is entirely in the power of God and can only do and does what God allows him for our benefit. Who, who is in battle, does not hear the trumpets of battle and the clatter of enemy weapons? Hearing them, the brave warrior rejoices, for he sees and concludes that the battle is near and the end is near. A certain girl, known to me, was walking along a secluded road not far from our monastery; crossing the bridge, suddenly a robber with a huge mustache jumps out from under the bridge and, putting a pistol to her chest, shouts: “I’ll kill you!” The girl bares her chest and answers, making the sign of the cross: “If it is the will of God, kill.” As soon as she uttered these words, the monster disappeared. I am writing this to you so that you may take courage and overcome the fear of demons through the fear of God. With us, to whom insurance happens, he comes and speaks, and insurance is destroyed by the grace of God, covering the humble, i.e. opening, for the humility of a beginner consists in when he willingly and freely reveals his thoughts. 6.207 You shouldn't let insurance take over you. Whoever succumbs to this passion, it will prevail over him and he will be afraid of all sorts of trifles. Read the article about insurance in the Holy Ladder. No incantatory prayers are needed: they are read over each of us at holy baptism. You need to surrender to the will of God and recognize yourself as worthy of all human and demonic guidance: then the insurance will go away by itself. It is not destroyed by anything more than by deep heartfelt contrition. 6.838 The fear that comes to you in the evenings must be reflected by faith. By reminding yourself that you are in the right hand of God and under His gaze, drive away fear that makes no sense. 6.532 It is a great thing: to recognize oneself as worthy of temptation and to submit to the will of God when temptation comes. This also helps a lot with insurance. Recognizing oneself as worthy of any punishment, even obviously demonic, leads to self-sacrifice and devotion to the will of God. Through self-sacrifice and devotion to the will of God, the fear induced by demonic temptation is destroyed. The devil cannot do anything without God's permission; it is constantly in the almighty hand of God and has no other meaning in this hand than the meaning of a scourge, which in itself is deprived of any possibility of action. 6.538–539 Brethren! We, the weak and sinners, need, need, frequent remembrance of the Second Coming and the Last Judgment of Christ: such remembrance is the most reliable preparation. Terrible is the judgment that awaits all people after the general resurrection. The judgment that awaits every person after his death is also terrible. The consequences of both judgments are either desirable or disastrous. If earthly courts, in which the matter concerns one thing perishable and temporary, excite our concern, all the more should the judgment of God concern us. For what other purpose did the Lord announce it to us so clearly, if not for the purpose of arousing in us a soul-saving fear that could protect us from a sinful, careless life, in which is the condition of our destruction? The Monk Elijah, an Egyptian monk who remained silent in the Thebaid desert, used to say: “Three times frighten me: the time of the departure of the soul from the body, the time of God’s judgment and the time of the saying that will follow about me from God.” 2.64 (See Image and Likeness, Gospel, Ordeal). This imaginary happiness, no matter how low (it is carnal!), could be even enviable if it were durable and eternal. But it is wrong, it is instantaneous - and how they are tormented by its betrayals, by the loss of it, spoiled by it. It must certainly be destroyed, taken away by an inexorable and inevitable death; The calamity that the pupils of imaginary, earthly happiness suddenly encounter at the gates of eternity is incomparable to anything! Saint Isaac of Syria rightly said: “The world is a harlot: with its beauty it attracts those who are disposed to love it. Caught by the love of the world and entangled by it, he will not be able to escape from its hands until he loses his belly. The world, when it completely exposes a person, drives him out of his home (i.e., out of his body) on the day of his death. Then a person will know that the world is a flatterer and a deceiver.” 6. 150 From the time the God-Man subjected Himself to suffering and through it healed our suffering, the foot of Golgotha ​​became for the disciple of Jesus a place of mournful and at the same time comforting, sweet thoughts. He who sits at this foot looks with indifferent and calm wisdom at the fickle lucky ones of this fickle world. He does not envy them, he prefers the knowledge of the Cross of Christ, which opens the gates to blissful eternity, to the short-term rapture in which he holds his victim’s earthly happiness in order to betray it to eternal disaster. Woe to you who are now saturated, woe to you who are now laughing! These are not false words of the Son of God. 6.494–495 You might be interested in: