Ц

Nothing shakes chastity more than the habit of insolence, of free circulation, rejecting the rules of modesty. 1.376 (See Purity, Virtues). Brethren! Let us tempt the signs of the times, according to the will of the Savior, for ignorance of which the Pharisees are convicted by the Lord (Matthew 16:3). Let us pay due attention to the instruction of the Savior, Who said to the Jews of His time: It is not yet a short time that there is light in you: walk, until you have light, so that the darkness does not have you: and you who walk in darkness do not know how it goes. Until you receive the light, believe in the light, so that you may be sons of light (John 12:35–36). With faith, let us practice reading books written by the holy saints of God, drawing from them enlightenment and life of the soul. Let us move away, as from deadly poison, from books written from a muddy and stinking source, from the false mind, this property of fallen human nature, which through its fall became related to the outcast angels. “Let us not be children,” the apostle exhorts us, “tossed about and tossed about by every wind of doctrine, in the lies of men, in the deceit of the wiles of flattery” (Eph. 4:14). They are coming, coming, more terrible than the waves of the universal flood that destroyed the entire human race, waves of lies and darkness are coming, surrounding on all sides, ready to engulf the universe, destroying faith in Christ, destroying His kingdom on earth, suppressing His teaching, damaging morals, dulling, destroying conscience, establishing the rule of the all-evil ruler of the world. Let us use the flight commanded by the Lord as a means of our salvation (Matthew 24:16). Where is that blessed ark, like the ark of Noah the righteous, where one could escape from the waves that surround everywhere, where one could find reliable salvation? The Ark is the Holy Church, rushing above the waves of the moral flood and in a dark, stormy, menacing night with complacency, firmly guided on its path by the heavenly lights: the writings of the holy saints of God. No darkness, no clouds can hide the radiance of these luminaries. The Ark will reach the haven of blissful eternity, bringing there safely everyone who has completed their salvation for it. Whoever neglects this ark will imagine, through blind pride and conceit, to sail across the terrible waves on the fragile boat of his own mind, who will neglect the humble obedience of the true Church, who will board other ships damaged by false teaching, pierced by the charm of the evil serpent, who will reject the guidance of the Holy Spirit or will only be guided by the Holy and Holy with coldness and double-mindedness By the Scripture, which contains only the teaching of the Spirit, he will perish. Dondezh imate the Light, believe in the Light, so that you will be sons of the Light. 1. 406–407 Let us protect the mind with humility, not allowing it to strive indiscriminately, recklessly to acquire knowledge, no matter how its news and the importance of its titles may attract our curiosity. Let us protect him from the test of false teachings, covered with the name and guise of Christian teaching. Let us humble him into obedience to the Church, casting down every thought that is placed on the mind of Christ (2 Cor. 5:5) on the mind of the Church. At first, the bodily path of obedience to the Church is deplorable for the mind; but it leads to the breadth and freedom of the spiritual mind, before which all the imaginary inconsistencies found by the carnal and spiritual mind in strict obedience to the Church disappear. We will not allow him to read about other spiritual things, except in books written by writers of the true Church, to which the Church itself has testified that they are organs of the Holy Spirit. He who reads the holy writers inconspicuously communes with the Holy Spirit who dwells in them and speaks through them; He who reads heretical writers, even if they are adorned with the title of saints with their heretical host, becomes familiar with the evil spirit of delusion: for disobedience to the Church, in which there is pride, he falls into the snare of the ruler of the world. 1.396 You might be interested in: