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Do not be surprised when you see constant change in yourself, do not hope to get rid of it before death, or better yet, do not be deceived by this hope; otherwise, worries will always take you by surprise and therefore have an incomparably stronger effect on you, even overthrow you. Marvel and worship the Truth, Which heals the constant changeability of man with the commandment of unceasing repentance. 6.165 Do not be disturbed by rebellious passions, try, if possible, to resist them; Man, as long as he is on earth and clothed in a mortal body, is still subject to change; sometimes he feels peace and tranquility of the heart, not disturbed by any passion, sometimes he is overwhelmed by passions. Such changeability teaches us self-knowledge, humility, teaches us to constantly resort to God’s help, which as soon as it leaves us, even for one minute, then we fearlessly commit lawlessness. 6.466 Do not be embarrassed that at times you feel bitterness, coldness and the action of passions. These periods of emotional distress must be endured with patience. St. Macarius the Great said: “In each of us there are changes, like in the air: sometimes the weather is clear, sometimes it rains, the wind rustles and there is bad weather...” Another saint, Rev. Isaac, citing and explaining these words to St. Macarius, says: “Notice the word: in each it is not placed without a purpose, but is used for the purpose of showing that all people, without exception, not only sinners, but also saints, are at times overwhelmed by passions. There is no permanent infallibility and permanent state of mind on earth. Immutability is the property of the future century.” Therefore, one must look at one’s spiritual changes with prudence, as if showing and revealing to God one’s sinfulness and, at the same time, surrendering to His Holy will and asking for His mercy and help. 6.697 Try not to get carried away by absent-mindedness. If you happen to become carried away by it, due to the weakness common to all of us humans, do not give in to despondency. Non-fallibility is unusual for a person on earth - inferior to an inhabitant of the deepest desert and solitude. Changeability and passion inevitably operate in every person - even in the strictest hermit. Moreover, it is impossible for someone living in the middle of the world, in the midst of all temptations, not to get carried away. Do not wish the impossible from yourself, do not demand from your soul what it cannot give. Cure your hobbies with repentance, and make up for the lack of your work with contrition of spirit. 6.369 (See Cooling, Impermanence). The icon painter must firmly know the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and lead a deeply pious life, because the purpose of the icon is to instruct the people with images. Therefore, icons must convey true concepts, reverent feelings, and indeed pious ones. Otherwise, the icon will act as if a preacher, infected with false teaching or with only literary knowledge without theological knowledge, would act from the pulpit. 6.561 How much must the heart, the very eyes of a true son of the Orthodox Eastern Church suffer, when he sees in places belonging to holy icons - only pictures, often of a beautiful brush, but almost always alien to theological knowledge and feeling. 6. 562–563 (See Heresy, Prayer, Prayer of the Jesus Icon). The correct concept of material property is delivered by the Gospel, but when it is delivered, then the human mind involuntarily realizes all its correctness. Earthly property is not our property, as those who have never thought about this subject mistakenly think: otherwise it would always be and would forever remain ours. It passes from hand to hand, and thereby testifies to itself that it is given only for holding. Property belongs to God; man is only an immediate administrator of property. A faithful steward accurately fulfills the will of the one who has entrusted him with the order. And we, managing the material property entrusted for a period of time, strive to manage it according to the will of God. Let us not use it as a means of satisfying our whims and passions, as a means of our eternal destruction; Let us use it for the benefit of humanity, which needs so much, suffers so much, let us use it as a means of our salvation. Those who desire Christian perfection completely abandon earthly acquisitions; those who wish to be saved must give alms within their means and refrain from abusing acquisitions. 1.89 Those who have learned Christ's teaching consider all earthly acquisitions to be losses, as distracting from what is only needed. 6.210 (See Jesus Prayer in the Name of God). “Child,” says the Scripture, “if you have begun to work for the Lord God, prepare your soul for temptation: guide your heart and be patient. Whatever is dealt to you, accept it, and be patient when your heart changes” (Sir. 2:1-2:4). From the beginning of the century, tribulations have been a sign of God’s election. They were a sign of God's pleasure for the Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and saints. All the saints walked the narrow path of temptation and sorrow, and through their patience they offered themselves as a favorable sacrifice to God. And now, according to the will of God, holy souls are allowed various misfortunes, so that their love for God is revealed in all clarity. Nothing happens to a person without the permission and permission of God. A Christian who wants to be a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ and to become by grace a son of God, born of the Spirit, must first of all make it a rule, make it an indispensable duty for himself to endure complacent patience with all sorrows: bodily suffering, and insults from people, and slander from demons, and the very rebellion of his own passions. A Christian who wants to please God most of all needs patience and firm trust in God. He must constantly hold this weapon in his mental right hand, because our crafty enemy, the devil, for his part, will use all means to plunge us into despondency during sorrow and rob us of our hope in the Lord. God never allows His true slaves to be tempted by temptations that exceed their strength. “God is faithful,” says the holy Apostle Paul, “who will not leave you to be tempted more than you can, but will create with temptation also an abundance (deliverance), so that you can bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). The devil, being a creature and servant of God, embitters the soul not as much as he wants, but as much as is permitted by God. If people know what kind of weight different beasts of burden can carry, then all the more does God’s infinite Wisdom know what degree of temptation is appropriate for each soul. The skudelnik knows how long earthenware vessels should be kept on fire; all the more, God knows what strength and degree the fire of temptation is needed for the verbal vessels of God - Christians, so that they become capable of inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven. The youth is incapable of performing ministries in the world: he is incapable of managing a house, cultivating the land and other everyday activities. So often souls, being already partakers of Divine grace, but not tempted by sorrows inflicted by evil spirits, not witnessed by these sorrows, are still in infancy and, so to speak, incapable of the Kingdom of Heaven. “Even if you are without punishment,” says the apostle, “you are also partakers of the Lord: for you are naturally adulterers, and not sons” (Heb. 12:8). Temptations and sorrows are sent down to a person for his benefit: the soul formed by them becomes strong and honest before its Lord. If she endures everything to the end in trust in God, then it is impossible for her to lose the benefits promised by the Holy Spirit and complete liberation from passions. Souls, being betrayed to various sorrows: obvious, inflicted by people, or secret, from the uprising of obscene thoughts in the mind, or bodily illnesses, if they endure all this to the end, then they are awarded the same crowns with the martyrs and the same boldness with them. 1. 348–349 “Shouldn’t God take vengeance,” the Son of God testifies, “on His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night, and endure long-suffering for them? I tell you that he will take their vengeance soon (Luke 18:7-8). Here, the word long-suffering should mean God’s permission to be tempted by man, for his own good, for a certain time, by the sin living inside a person and by the spirits of evil. “The prince of this age,” says Saint Macarius the Great, “for infants in spirit is a rod that punishes (admonishes) and a scourge that gives wounds; but he, as said above, thereby prepares great glory and great honor, embittering and tempting them... Through him some great work of salvation is accomplished, as it is said nowhere: evil, having evil as its goal, promotes good. For good souls who have a good will, even the most apparently sorrowful things finally turn into good, as the apostle himself testifies: “All things work together for good for those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). This rod of punishment is allowed to act for the purpose that, through its mediation, the vessels will be tested, as in a hot furnace, and the good ones will become stronger, and the unworthy ones will be exposed by their ability to crush, unable to withstand the power of fire. He, i.e. The devil, being a creation and servant of God, does not tempt as much as he decides, does not embitter him to the extent that he would like, but as much as God allows and allows him. God, knowing exactly the condition of everyone and how much strength everyone has, allows everyone to be tempted. “God is faithful,” says the apostle, “who will not leave you to be tempted more than you can, but will create with temptation an abundance, so that you are able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). The reason for God's permission for an ascetic to be tempted by the spirits of malice and sin lies in the need for a person to know the exact details of his fall, without which the Redeemer cannot be known and accepted by him as he should. It is necessary to know one’s fallen nature, its inclinations, and its characteristic activity, so that later, having accepted the grace of the Holy Spirit delivered by the Redeemer, one does not use it to harm oneself, one does not attribute its actions to oneself, but be a worthy vessel and instrument of it. Saint Gregory of Sinaite says: “If a person is not abandoned and defeated and possessed, enslaved to every passion and thought, and conquered in spirit, not finding any help either from works, or from God, or from anyone else, which is why he comes almost to despair, being tempted from everywhere, then he cannot come into contrition of spirit, consider himself the least of all, the last slave of all, the most insignificant of himself. demons, as if he were tormented and overcome by them. This is carefully allowed by Providence and punitive humility, after which God grants the second, lofty one, which is Divine power, acting by God and accomplishing everything through Him; a person sees it in himself as an instrument and with this instrument he performs God’s miracles.” This explains the wondrous sight that the saints of God represent: they, being vessels of the Holy Spirit, together saw, recognized, confessed themselves to be the greatest sinners, worthy of temporal and eternal executions. They thoroughly knew and studied their fallen nature, in which there is nothing undefiled, and therefore all the good that was accomplished through them by the Divine grace infused into them, they attributed to Her with full conviction and constantly trembled so that no thought or feeling would arise from their fallen nature that would be offensive to the Holy Spirit. A rapid transition from a state of struggle to a state of spiritual freedom is not beneficial for a person. Saint Macarius the Great notes that “often souls, being already partakers of Divine grace, being filled with heavenly sweetness and enjoying peace of mind, but not witnessed, not tempted by the sorrows inflicted by evil spirits, remain in infancy and, so to speak, incapable of the Kingdom of Heaven. “If you are without punishment,” says the Divine Apostle, “all are partakers of him: for you are naturally adulterers, and not sons” (Heb. 12:8). Therefore, temptations and sorrows are sent to a person for his benefit, so that the soul tested by them becomes stronger and more honest before its Lord. If she endures to the end with hope in the Lord, then it is impossible for her not to receive the benefits promised by the Holy Spirit and complete liberation from the malice of the passions.” 2. 372–374 Do not pay special attention to your temptation that has come now, and to those that may come in the future, but be careful to endure the temptation with patience and thanksgiving, praying for those who have offended and calling on their prayers. We should not be afraid of temptations, for the God who allows them to us is the one who keeps us in them. One must have a disposition and ardor for temptations; for with them the Cross of Christ is depicted on our souls, with them we are protected from vices, with them we are preserved in virtue and with them only grace is given. 6. 210–211 The holy fathers argue that those who believe in God’s control of the destinies of each person will accept every temptation as their own, for God’s control can be neither erroneous nor unjust. 6.237 Do not look at your temptations: they are fleeting and will not remain forever. And whoever looks at it, his head will go spinning, and he can very easily fall - of course, into despondency or exhaustion. 6.822 We must endure, endure, and endure, and endure again, and endure again: because only those who endure to the end will be saved. Impatience makes temptations worse... Know that God’s Providence controls everything. Faith, said the great Pimen, consists of remaining in humility. 6.829 You yourself know: no matter where you live on earth, you must endure temptations. Apparently people are tempting us, but without the beck of the Provider they could not even touch us. So, in our sorrows, let us surrender ourselves to the will of our Creator and consider ourselves worthy of sorrows - and rest. Departure from temptation is not a change of place, but surrender to the will of God and self-reproach, and from these - patience. “When we become very despondent from temptations and murmur at them, then the danger lies ahead, so as not to become God-fighters,” said one saint. father, - as clearly armed against the allowances of God’s Providence, for our great benefit and healing, allowing us to be tempted.” 6.69 Be generous: all temptations are only scarecrows, lifeless scarecrows, terrible for only unbelievers, for those who look with only carnal eyes. 6. 141 The life of a Christian on earth is a chain of suffering. You must fight with your body, with passions, with spirits of evil. In this fight is our hope. Our salvation is our God. Having placed one's trust in God, one must endure the burden of struggle with patience. Temptations seem to trample a person, turning grain into flour. They are allowed to us according to the Providence of God, for our great spiritual benefit; from them we receive a contrite and humble heart – which God will not despise. 6.555 The Monk Mark the Ascetic said: “When temptation comes, do not look for how and from whom it came, but look for how to endure it with thanksgiving.” Forbidden St. According to Mark, the trial only confuses the soul and helps to sow in it the seeds of hatred and remembrance of one’s neighbors, and thanksgiving to God for the temptation sent brings the soul into the haven of faith, makes peace with one’s neighbors and serves as the cause of spiritual joy. 6. 706–707 Temptations arise from the following four sources: from our fallen nature, from the world, from people and from demons. Actually, there is only one source of temptation - our fallen nature. If nature were not in a state of decline, then evil would not arise in ourselves, the temptations of the world would not have any influence on us, people would not rebel against each other, fallen spirits would not have the reason and right to approach us. That is why Scripture says: “Everyone is tempted from his own lust by attraction and deception” (James 1:14). The infinite goodness and wisdom of God has arranged for those who are being saved in such a way that all temptations, whatever they may be, bring the greatest benefit to the true servants and servants of God and will powerfully assist them in the matter of salvation and spiritual success. Evil does not have a good goal, it has one evil goal. But God so wonderfully arranged the work of our salvation that evil, having an evil goal and acting with the intention of harming the servant of God in time and eternity, thereby contributes to his salvation. Salvation, as a spiritual sacrament that makes a person a participant in Divine good, is incomprehensible to evil, which is blind to Divine good, as completely alien to it, and understands only its own, i.e. either one-sided evil, or the good of fallen nature, mixed with evil and poisoned by evil. The Monk Macarius the Great says: “Evil promotes good with evil intentions” (Homily 6, chapter 6). And the Apostle Paul said: “All things work together for good to those who love God” (1 Cor. 10:13). Fallen nature, spewing out sin from itself in various forms - here, of course, sin is not active, but in thoughts, in the sensations of the heart and body - and arguing with the Gospel, provides, in the light of the Gospel, to the ascetic an experienced and detailed concept of the fall, both his own and common to all humanity, provides experimental knowledge of the need for a Redeemer, provides experimental knowledge that the Gospel heals and revives the soul, provides a broken spirit and humble, who is installed in the ascetic because of his vision of countless ulcers and infirmities inflicted on man and the human race by the fall. The poison of sin, cast into every person by the fall and found in every person, acts, according to the Providence of God, in those who are saved to their essential and greatest benefit. The world, tempting the ascetic, gives him experimental knowledge of how earthly life is perverse and deceptive, that everything sweet, desirable and great ends in emptiness and sorrow; From this experimental knowledge, the ascetic acquires coolness towards earthly life, towards his hotel - the earth, towards everything that is recognized on it as desirable for the sons of the world, turns the gaze of his mind and heart to eternity and begins to intercede with the most fervent prayers before God for his afterlife. People, tempting the ascetic, give him the opportunity to become a fulfiller of the most sublime Commandments of the Gospel, commandments about love for enemies. Love for enemies is the highest degree of love for one’s neighbor legitimized by the Gospel. He who has achieved love for his enemies has achieved perfection in love for his neighbor, and the gates of love for God have automatically opened for him. The ascetic could not have achieved this if he had not been subjected to various temptations from people and, because of the temptations, had not cast out from himself, as if from the action of a cleansing medicine, all the malice and pride that had infected the fallen nature. Temptations from evil spirits are usually allowed after training in temptations from fallen nature, from the world and from people. Evil spirits first support the fallen nature in the fight against the gospel teaching or take part in the temptations inflicted on the ascetic by the temptations of the world and people; subsequently, in due time, by the special permission of God, they personally, by themselves, open the war against the servant of Christ, elevating him to a great feat. The winner in this battle is crowned with special gifts, as can be seen from the lives of St. Anthony the Great, St. John the Long-Suffering and other holy monks. Without entering into battle with spirits and without enduring it as it should, the ascetic cannot completely break off communication with them and therefore cannot achieve complete freedom from enslavement by them in this and the next century. Those who leave earthly life in such a state cannot help but be tortured by demons in aerial ordeals. The Monk Macarius the Great says: “Souls, not tempted by sorrows inflicted by evil spirits, remain in adolescence and, I bet, are incapable of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Evil is the cause of all sorrows and temptations. But the wisdom and omnipotence of God serve as the reason that temptations and sorrows have a soul-saving effect on God’s servants, giving them the opportunity to fulfill the most sublime Gospel Commandments, follow Christ, take up their cross, and become the closest disciples of the Lord. On the contrary, sorrows and temptations act disastrously on the sons of perdition! Evil overthrows them; They do not know how to defeat him and are making up for their previous crimes with new crimes. Thus, one of the thieves crucified near the Lord on the cross supplemented his atrocities with blasphemy (Luke 23:39). The omnipotence and wisdom of God serve as the reason that evil, acting with the intention and purpose that is the only evil one, fulfills, without knowing it, the plans of God’s Providence. Thus, the Jewish clergy, driven by envy and hatred of the God-Man, persecuted Him throughout His earthly life and gave Him a shameful death penalty; but this clergy, according to the infinite wisdom of God and His omnipotence, was a blind instrument of God’s Predestination, which consisted in the fact that the all-holy Christ, having suffered for guilty humanity, would redeem guilty humanity with His sufferings and pave the way of the cross for all who wish to be saved, leading those who walk along it to heaven (Acts 3:18). In the same way, evil is used by God against all the servants of God, without gaining anything from it for oneself; evil, cooperating at the behest of God in its ignorance with good, does not cease to remain for itself and for those who commit it what it is - evil. Servants of God! Know for sure that the sorrows that happen to you do not come by themselves, but by God’s permission, and make every effort possible to endure them with patience and long-suffering, bringing praise and thanksgiving to God for them! Know that he who resists sorrows and seeks to divert the sorrowful path from himself acts against his salvation, strives in his blindness to destroy the order and method of salvation established by God for all His servants. 5. 144–147 (See Disgraces, Tribulations, Lord's Prayer). Confession of the mouth is essential in matters of faith: the great legislator of the Israelites, Moses the Seer of God, had just uttered, in a matter of faith, a word with some sign of doubt, when he was deprived of entry into the Promised Land (Num. 20:10-12). A disciple of a certain Egyptian desert dweller, in a conversation with a Jew, barely uttered, in his simplicity, an ambiguous word about the Christian faith, and the grace of Baptism immediately departed from him. (Life of St. Paisius the Great, Chetya-Minea, June 19). Church history tells that in the first times of Christianity, during times of persecution, some pagans feignedly, in jest and ridicule, uttered an oral confession of Christ, and suddenly the grace of God overshadowed them: they were instantly transformed from inveterate pagans into zealous Christians and sealed with blood the confession that was first pronounced as blasphemy. (The Suffering of St. Martyr Philemon. Chetiy-Minea, December 14). 1.502 He believes in the truth in his heart, - the apostle said everything correctly, - but he confesses with his lips for salvation. We need to confess the truth with our lips and, when possible, with our deeds. Truth, confessed in words and deeds, is, as it were, realized and becomes a person’s property. And because it is essential, it is a sure guarantee of salvation. 6.436–437 The Holy Orthodox Church recognizes that there is no human sin that cannot be washed away by the Blood of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ. No matter how many times human sin is repeated, the Blood of the God-Man can wash it away. The sins of the whole world mean nothing before the all-holy Blood of the Lord incarnate, shed for us. “The same plague was quickly for our sins and tormented for our iniquities, the punishment of our peace was on Him, by His plague we were healed” (Is. 53:5). Only the one who himself rejects the healing and salvation given to him and all people remains unhealed. The mercy of God has been poured out on us so abundantly that the most grave sin, repeated by a person a thousand times, can be blotted out by a person’s repentance. 6.383 Due to the severity of the sorrows imposed on the present generation, the Lord forgives its sins with special goodness. 6.518 “A soul that knows that it is obliged to confess its sins,” says the Holy Father (St. John Climacus), “is restrained by this very thought, as if by a bridle, from repeating previous sins; on the contrary, unconfessed sins, as if committed in darkness, are conveniently repeated.” By confessing sins, friendship with sins is dissolved. Hatred of sins is a sign of true repentance and determination to lead a virtuous life. If you have acquired the habit of sins, then confess them more often - and soon you will be freed from the captivity of sin, you will easily and joyfully follow the Lord Jesus Christ. He who constantly betrays his friends, his friends become enemies, moving away from him as from a traitor seeking their certain death; whoever confesses his sins, they retreat from him, because sins are based and strengthened on the pride of a fallen nature, and do not tolerate reproof and shame. Anyone who, in the hope of repentance, allows himself to sin arbitrarily and intentionally, acts treacherously in relation to God. A person who sins arbitrarily and intentionally, in the hope of repentance, is suddenly struck by death, and he is not given the time that he expected to devote to virtue. The Sacrament of Confession decisively cleanses all sins committed in word, deed, or thought. In order to erase from the heart the sinful habits that have been ingrained in it for a long time, it takes time, you need to constantly remain in repentance. Constant repentance consists in constant contrition of the spirit, in the struggle with thoughts and sensations with which the sinful passion hidden in the heart reveals itself, in curbing the bodily feelings and belly, in humble prayer, and in frequent confession. 1.99–100 With a decisive revelation of sins in deeds, words and thoughts, one can succeed more in one year than through other feats, the most difficult ones, over ten years. That is why the enemy fights so strongly against this saving work. 6.242 I would not advise you to enter into a detailed and subtle examination of your sins and sinful qualities. Gather them all into one vessel of repentance and cast them into the abyss of God’s mercy. A subtle examination of one’s sins does not suit a person leading a secular life; it will only plunge him into despondency, bewilderment, and embarrassment. God knows our sins, and if we constantly resort to Him in repentance, He will gradually heal our very sinfulness, i.e. sinful habits, qualities of the heart. Sins committed in word, deed, or composition of thoughts must be told in confession to the spiritual father; and I repeat, a secular person should not indulge in the subtle examination of spiritual qualities; This is a trap set by the catcher of our souls. It is recognized by the production of confusion and despondency in us, although outwardly it is revealed as a plausible goodness. 6.352 God gave us repentance to help our weakness. Oh, how varied and great is our weakness! Another person hates his sin, but is so accustomed to sin, so powerless to fight against it, that he does not cease to fall into hated, vile sin, carried away by the violence of his prevailing habit. For the unfortunate slave of sin, the refuge is repentance. No matter how many times he happens to be subjected to moral disaster, he can go to this refuge and repair the broken boat of his soul in it. Church history has preserved the following conversation between a certain monk who suffered from sin and one of the greatest saints of God, abundant in spiritual gifts, who, because of this abundance, received the name Great. The brother asked the Monk Sisoes the Great: “Father! What should I do? I have fallen." The elder answered: “Rise up.” The brother told him: “I rose and fell again.” The elder answered: “Arise again.” The brother said: “How long will I rise and fall?” Sisoes the Great answered: “Until you are taken from this life.” It must be assumed that the saint of God gave such an answer to a person who had an unfortunate habit of sin, a skill that seemed insurmountable. There are people who have been exposed to this disaster. The word “fell” depicts that the brother’s sin was grave, mortal. However, you need to know that God gave repentance solely to help our weakness - not at all to indulge sin. The gift of God should not be used for evil; it should be treated with great reverence, prudence, and caution. “Whoever, in the hope of repentance, repeats his sins,” said St. Isaac of Syria, who behaves deceitfully towards God, suffers an unexpected death.” One must be careful to guard against falling into all sins, great and small, as an expression of enmity against God. 6. 383–385 Before confession, between good thoughts, you had a thought of petty calculation, you wanted to say everything in confession, you wanted to pay Christ, you wanted to no longer owe Him! And they left, carrying within themselves not a satisfactory feeling, but a crafty thought that led to petty calculations, which began to confuse them, saying: “You didn’t say everything in confession.” Believe me. We say in confession that we see in ourselves, but we do not see an incomparably greater number of sins, which is why we cast many of our known and unknown sins into the sea of ​​Christ’s bounty, and after the Sacrament of Confession we feel a satisfying sense of peace, not because of our deeds, but because of Christ’s bounty, and we remain indebted to Him as an unpaid debt. 6.586–587 When they sweep a room, they don’t look at the rubbish, but just throw it all in a heap, and that’s it. Do the same. Confess your sins to your confessor, and that’s all, but don’t go into examining them. The Holy Fathers strongly forbid this to those who cannot examine themselves correctly: such examination confuses, leads to relaxation and frustration. Beware of sins, those committed out of weakness and passion - repent, not allowing yourself to become bewildered and despondent when repenting, and do not expect sinlessness from yourself. 6.755 Sinful descendant of Adam, take heart! A light has shone in your prison: God has descended into the distant land of your exile to lead you to your lost mountainous fatherland. You wanted to know good and evil - He leaves you this knowledge. You wanted to become like God, and from this you became like the devil in your soul, like cattle and beasts in your body; God, uniting you with Himself, makes you a god by grace. He forgives your sins. This is not enough! He removes the root of evil from your soul, the very infection of sin, the poison cast into your soul by the devil, and gives you healing for the entire path of your earthly life, for healing from sin, no matter how many times you become infected with it, due to your weakness. This healing is the confession of sins. Do you want to put off the old Adam, you, who through holy baptism have already been clothed in the New Adam, but through your own iniquities managed to revive old age and death in yourself, to choke life, to make it half-dead? Do you want, enslaved to sin, drawn to it by the violence of habit, to regain your freedom and righteousness? - Immerse yourself in humility! Conquer vain shame, which teaches you to hypocritically and craftily pretend to be righteous, and thereby preserve and strengthen spiritual death within yourself. Cast out sin, enter into hostility with sin by sincere confession of sin. This healing must precede all others; without it, healing through prayer, tears, fasting and all other means will be insufficient, unsatisfactory, fragile. Go, proud one, to your spiritual father, at his feet to find the mercy of the Heavenly Father! One, one sincere and frequent confession can free one from sinful habits, make repentance fruitful, and correction lasting and true. 1. 169–170 Repentance is omnipotent, as an institution of Almighty God. There is no sin that can withstand the face of repentance. It is a gift given to fallen human nature; it is a remnant of our primitive innocence, as the consciousness of this innocence and lamentation about the loss of it; it is the proclamation of baptism; it is the connection between earth and heaven, a ladder to heaven. Through it all sin is cleansed and blotted out. Even if you were burdened with the gravest sins, do not stop at all from beginning to repent. The immeasurable ocean equally absorbs the waters of a wide river that has flowed majestically through many countries, and the modest streams of a barely noticeable stream; Thus, in the abyss of God’s goodness, grave sins disappear along with the slightest, most insignificant errors. May five hundred and fifty denarii, equally forgiven, assure you of this: the lender is infinitely rich, and the debtors are all bankrupt (Luke 7:41-42). And a small sin remains unerased if the sinner neglected to repent of it, as if it were insignificant, in his opinion; and great sin is completely erased through repentance by the unlimited goodness and omnipotence of God. Remember Saint David, who fell into fornication and murder. Negligence crept into the soul of the righteous in an inconspicuous way, from negligence was born non-guarding of bodily feelings, the gaze freed from storage unexpectedly met the object of temptation, the object of temptation aroused in the sanctified soul a criminal desire, the desire was followed by criminal fulfillment, the commission of adultery was followed by vainglorious shame. The shame with which human pride was ashamed of sin gave birth to a new criminal desire, the desire to hide sin, the desire to maintain the guise of righteousness before people. This is why murder was committed. David remained for a long time in bitterness, insensibility, as if not guilty of any sin. What was needed was reproof from God himself. The prophet Nathan, at the command of God, exposed the sinner, and as soon as David said: “We have sinned against the Lord,” when an answer came from the Lord. The Lord has taken away your sin (2 Samuel 12:13). Almighty repentance saved entire cities and kingdoms, and canceled the sentences already pronounced by God. So the populous city of Nineveh, doomed by the prophet of God to destruction, turned it away with sincere repentance - and in vain the Prophet not far from Nineveh awaited its destruction, the fulfillment of his prophecy! Thus, the wicked Israeli king Ahab, a worshiper of idols, a persecutor and murderer of worshipers of the true God, was already scheduled for execution, already announced by the great Elijah, but Ahab was moved and shed tears, remaining, however, in wickedness. This short-term tenderness, these small tears did not remain without their effect. “Ahab was moved at my presence,” the Lord said to the prophet Elijah, “for this reason I will not bring evil in his days, but in the days of his son I will bring evil to his house” (1 Kings 21:29). All Holy Scripture, all Church History are filled with countless examples that prove the powerful power of repentance. “A certain robber,” says Palladius in Lavsaik, “was caught in the act of crime and brought to Arsenait, a city of Thebaid. After many tortures, they sentenced him to cut off his head. When he went with the soldiers outside the city to the place of the atrocity he had committed, which was six miles away from the city, an unknown monk followed him, wanting to watch his execution. The robber, seeing the monk following him, said to him: “Abba! Don’t you have a cell and handicrafts?” The monk answered: “I have.” The robber said to this: “Why don’t you sit in your cell and cry about your sins?” The monk answered: “Brother! I am very lazy, my soul has no tenderness, why did I come to see you die. Maybe with the help of this spectacle I will be moved.” Then the robber said to him: “Abba! Sit, for God’s sake, in your cell, bless and praise the Savior Christ. From the time He became man and died for us sinners, man no longer dies." Here is another, equally touching and instructive story. “Near a certain city there lived a recluse who had the gift of clairvoyance from God. In that city there was a harlot known to all the inhabitants. One day, a recluse sees a bright path stretching from a convent in the city to heaven, along which the soul walks in great joy, guided by the Angels, and approaches the gates of heaven. He sent a disciple to the nunnery to find out who had died there. The disciple returned and brought the news that no one died in the monastery, but that a famous harlot died suddenly in front of the monastery gates, having come there from the city. Confused, the recluse began to pray to God so that God would explain the vision to him. “Exactly,” was God’s answer to the holy elder, “you saw the soul of a wife, a former harlot, ascending to heaven. She made a firm intention to repent and improve and went to the monastery with the determination to join it. That she died before the gates of the monastery, without having time to fulfill her intentions, was by God’s decree. But God accepted her intention as the deed itself." In these two stories we experience the fulfillment of the promises of the Gospel. And the Gospel itself presents so many such experiences! The publican, burdened with sins, came to the church of God, and for his humility and repentance he left the church justified. Another publican, Zacchaeus, had barely set out to reform when he was called the son of Abraham: a sentence came out about him from God: this day salvation will come to this house (Luke 19:9). The harlot, who fell at the feet of the Savior and changed her love for sin to love for God, heard: Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much (Luke 7:47). The robber, crucified at the right hand of the God-man, received salvation in the last minutes of his stormy life. As soon as he humbled himself, as soon as he recognized himself as worthy of condemnation, his spiritual eyes were opened, and he recognized the God-Man crucified near him; having known, he confessed; He just confessed how he received the promise of eternal bliss. An event that fully corresponds to the teachings of the Gospel! “Believe in Me,” said the Lord, “even if he dies, he will live” (John 11:26). He openly and clearly announced about Himself: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). Do not think that those sinners who lived during the Savior’s stay on earth were especially happy; happy were those who resorted to confession of sins and repentance; on the contrary, those who rejected the almighty medicine of repentance remained in sins, perished from their unrepentance, from their bitterness. Nothing and no one prevents us from now taking advantage of the happiness of repentant sinners before the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He said about Himself to those who believe in Him: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). When you appear before your spiritual father, he will confirm to you the truth we have proclaimed: “Behold, child,” he will say, “Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession.” (Following confession.) Standing before Christ himself, ask Him, and receive from Him great and good mercy - forgiveness of sins. 4.49–52 Repentance is necessary for everyone! Let everyone take advantage of the precious time given by the mercy of the Lord! Let everyone plunge into blissful repentance! Let us often open the book of conscience; Let us look closely at our sinful stains, let us prepare them for washing through confession. Have no mercy on your sins! Do not consider any offense unimportant or excusable; do not recognize as innocent any skills or exercises condemned by Scripture. Blame yourself in order to receive abundant justification from God. Decide to openly expose your wounds to your spiritual father! Do not leave secret friendship, a secret connection with sin in your heart, hiding it, postponing its discovery until the future! Otherwise, your repentance will be untrue, hypocritical - a deposit will remain in your soul, a reason for continuing a sinful life. Unconfessed sins are conveniently repeated, as if committed in impenetrable darkness. Hate sin with determination! Treason him by discovering him, and he will run away from you; expose him as an enemy - and you will receive the power from above to resist him, to defeat him. Set within yourself a firm intention to lead a life pleasing to God and immediately repent of those attempts that happen to you either due to weakness, or due to the cunning of the enemy, or due to a coincidence. “Not falling is characteristic only of Angels; It is human nature to fall and rise; Having fallen, it is characteristic of only devils to remain in the fall” (St. John Climacus). Decide to be a faithful servant of Christ all the days of your life! A faithful servant faithfully fulfills the will of his master; when he sins in any way, he immediately repents, becomes sad, asks for forgiveness, and makes amends for the offense by correction. Disdain the deeds, life and properties of a traitor! Do not make friends with the enemies of your God, your Creator, your Redeemer! Do not betray Him to silver, nor to ambition, nor to gluttony, nor to lust! 4. 60–61 ...You are preparing for an important Sacrament - for one of the seven main Sacraments of the Church - for Holy Confession! With the second baptism you intend to be baptized according to the secret teachings of Christianity! When you come to a spiritual clinic, do not leave unhealed. You are facing a wonderful and extraordinary trial: at it your sins will be weighed and assessed, and instead of the executions you deserve, you will be given justification, purity, and holiness. Come, let us be exhausted,” says the Lord, calling for this judgment, “and even though your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow, and even if they are like scarlet, I will make them white (Is. 1:18). God incarnate carried your punishments on Himself and gives you, out of His infinite goodness, His shrine, demanding from you only consciousness of your sins: it is impossible to forgive someone who is unconscious, who expresses through ignorance that he does not admit he is guilty, does not need forgiveness, and rejects him. Immerse yourself in reverent and pious contemplation of the sacrament, a truly great and amazing sacrament! Immerse yourself in the contemplation of God’s endless love for the fallen human race! God creates His love in us, because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more has we now been justified by His blood; we will be saved from wrath by Him (Rom. 5:8-9). And we will be saved from anger by repentance, which corrects all our misdeeds, supports us throughout our earthly wanderings, and removes us from every sinful abyss, no matter how deep it may be. The power and effect of repentance remain inexhaustible until the end of our lives. Even if someone fell every day, even if he committed all the untruths and all the iniquities - repentance accepts him into its arms in order to cleanse, heal, make him righteous, holy. Only then does it remain invalid when its almighty help is rejected with reckless persistence and desperate blindness. And be surprised at this in this sacrament, that its minister was not an immaculate Angel, terrible with his very holiness, but a man subservient to us, burdened with the common infirmities of our race, no less in need of repentance than you, serving as a visible instrument of grace in the washing away of your sins and having the necessary need for the service of another in the washing away of his own sins. While you fall on your face before the sacred image of Christ in order to confess your sins to your confessor, he will humbly tell you, according to the will of the Holy Church: “I am a witness, and I testify before the Lord with all that you have spoken to me.” (Following confession.) The goodness of God snatches you from everywhere for salvation, furnishes you from everywhere, surrounds you with conveniences to approach and draw closer to God. 4. 65–66 If... you approach the Sacrament of Repentance with negligence, with guile, secrecy, then you will commit a satanic undertaking, you will offend the Almighty and All-Seeing God, Who created you and recreated you, gave you the grace of repentance, so that with its help you would remain in refuge and a state of recreation, Who will finally judge you and consider how you used His ineffable gifts. The Holy Church, following confession, puts into the mouth of the confessor, for the precaution of the repentant, the following significant words: “Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, receiving your confession: do not be ashamed, fear not, and do not hide anything from Me; but without hesitation, you have done everything, so that you may receive forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ. If you hide anything from Me, it’s a complete sin.” (Following confession.) Do not agree with the thought of the evil one, who will inspire you: “How can I tell my spiritual father a sin, both vile and base? Now hide it, and tell it at the next confession, when enough time has passed and you will be less ashamed to talk about your sin, as if it were long past and barely remembered.” Recognize the voice of the ancient serpent, coming in the form of a thief, may he steal your good thoughts, may he kill you with evil advice, and may he destroy you (John 10:10) by taking away the salvation offered to you by the Lord (Rom. 3:24) in repentance. The sound of this voice is similar to the one that once penetrated paradise and brought our forefathers out of there. Son of Adam! Now he is trying to penetrate your soul so as not to let you into heaven. Turn away from him, do not listen to him, do not taste the poison that is deadly to your soul. Filled with meek faith, courageous self-sacrifice, humble simplicity and sincerity, approach the holy Sacrament of Confession. Believe that for the Almighty Physician - the Lord - all ulcers, both small and great, are equally insignificant and equally healable. The Almighty Word heals, resurrects, leads into heaven with a single word. The creator's work is unnecessary. He speaks His will - and every creature, visible and invisible, rushes to slavishly fulfill the Creative command! This will is spoken - and our sins, inscribed by us and our enemies on the eternal manuscripts, are erased. With faith, self-sacrifice is not difficult! Reject false, harmful shame, reject this keeper of sins; reject his mother - pride; Blame yourself, condemn yourself! Bow your head in contrition of spirit, in tears and weeping, tell your sins to God in detail before your spiritual father - and, through the servants of the mystery of God, the grace of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you, bringing into the house of your soul the remission of sins and, in their place, the truth from God with eternal salvation... 4. 66–68 (See Confession of Thoughts, Salvation and Perfection). You might be interested in: